I Against I, Me Against You

Chapters

Act 1 Part 3 - Good Fight
Act 1 Part 4 - Contact
Act 1 Part 5 - Keep Moving
Act 1 Part 6 - Land of Enemies
Act 1 Part 7 - On Your Knees
Act 1 Part 8 - Big Prize
Act 1 Part 9 - Preparation
Act 1 Part 10 - Your Middle Name is Danger
Act 1 Final Part - Return
Act 2 Part 1 - Colors
Act 2 Part 2 - Funny Farm
Act 2 Part 3 - I Wonder Where You Are
Act 2 Part 4 - Twins
Act 2 Part 5 - Whole Again
Act 2 Part 6 - When We're Together
Act 2 Part 7 - Am I Transmitting?
Act 2 Part 8 - Is Anyone Listening?
Act 2 Part 9 - Nightmare
Act 2 Part 10 - Rally
Act 2 Part 11 - Another One Down
Act 2 Final Part - Broken Toy
PSA: Shipping and Handling
Act 3 Part 1 - The Darkness of C.T.
Act 3 Part 2 - Trust is a Weakness
Act 3 Part 3 - Rise and Shine
Act 3 Part 4 - Follow the Truth
Act 3 Part 5 - Follow the Lies
Act 3 Part 6 - Ice Fight
Act 3 Part 7 - Prelude
Act 3 Part 8 - Best Girl
Act 3 Part 9 - Whatever Bitter End To Bring
Act 3 Part 10 - Outpost Sunset
Act 3 Part 11 - When We Were Soldiers
Act 3 Part 12 - Fragments and Pieces
Final Chapter - Always Red Versus Blue
Epilogue - Control
Act 1 Part 1 - Intro
Act 1 Part 2 - Blood Gulch Blues

Act 1 Part 3 - Good Fight

The only sound Twilight could hear as she lay on her side was a constant high pitched ringing as her head pounded. She heard the distant sound of yelling, but it was muffled as if she were underwater. Twilight tried to piece together what had just happened.

One second she had been in a heated argument with Church, and the next a group of alien soldiers in red armor came rolling up in some sort of vehicle. They had fired a burst of three extremely volatile projectiles from a weapon mounted on their vehicle, which had exploded against the side of Blue Base… a little too close to where Twilight had been standing. As her senses started to return, she groggily crawled up to her hooves.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked, turning to face Church while rubbing the side of her head where it had impacted on the top of Blue Base. She noticed that Tucker, Caboose and Sister had assembled up top with them.

“The Reds are attacking!” Church exclaimed. “And it looks like they have some kind of new rocket jeep!”

“That thing must have a lot of twerk…” Caboose stated.

“Pretty sure that’s not the word you’re looking for,” Tucker said.

Twilight looked over at their attackers. Three red soldiers were riding in the vehicle that Church had described as a “rocket jeep.” A soldier in maroon armor appeared to be operating the vehicle, while a man in red sat on top of the seat beside him (Twilight wasn’t sure why he didn’t just sit in the seat the way it seemed to be designed). A soldier in orange armor was on the back, operating the mounted weapon.

“Yeah! Suck it Blues! I mean Reds! I mean… fuck! I was right the first time!” the maroon one yelled as the jeep circled around.

“Damn dude, you really suck at this!” another one said.

Additionally, Twilight spotted a soldier in bright pink armor driving what appeared to be a smaller, one man vehicle. However, he didn’t seem to be interested in doing anything apart from driving the small vehicle in little circles in one place, creating a donut shaped pattern on the ground with his wheels and cheering loudly.

“Who are these guys?” Twilight asked. “Are they some kind of evildoers?”

“Depends on how loosely you define ‘evil,’” Church said, before hastily turning to the man in regular blue armor. “Caboose, get in the tank!”

“You mean the stationary gun?” Tucker asked.

“Okay!” Caboose exclaimed before sprinting down the ramp leading down to the tank parked on the north side of the base. The Reds drove down past the south side of the base.

“Everyone else: Stay away from the tank!” Church ordered.

The Reds drove their jeep around the back of the base.

“Simmons, stop moving! I can’t get a clear shot with this thing!” the orange soldier on the back mounted gun yelled.

The Reds’ jeep slowed as it came around the north side of Blue Base, stopping several feet away from the rear of the Blues’ tank. The stationary vehicle began to swivel its massive cannon around in the direction of the Reds.

“Aah! Simmons! Don’t stop moving! Move very, very fast!”

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” Simmons chanted as he put the jeep in reverse, backing it up behind Blue Base in just enough time to narrowly avoid an explosive blast from the tank’s main cannon.

Despite her initial fear for her safety, Twilight Sparkle studied the battle with immense fascination. She may not have had a liking for violence, but she was incredibly interested in learning how these “human” things waged war. For now, the little unicorn focused on taking mental notes of the strategies they employed in combat. She could always ask about the historical context of their conflict later. That is, assuming the rude creatures were willing to help her with even that much.

The Reds, meanwhile, had continued backing up their jeep until they had put a fair bit of distance between themselves and Blue Base, keeping the simple concrete structure between themselves and the Blues’ tank.

“Yeah… Church? I can’t really get a shot at the Reds anymore,” Caboose told Church over the radio. The barrel of the tank’s cannon then swiveled around to face the Blues standing on top of the base. “I do have a pretty clear shot of you though, Church! In case you’re interested!”

“No thanks,” Church grumbled.

“Just saying: offer stands.”

Twilight was about to ask why they didn’t simply move the tank to a position where it could reach the Reds before she remembered what Caboose had told her about it being broken. Church pushed past Sister and Doc to approach the edge of the south side of the base.

“HEY REDS!” Church yelled, “YOU’D BETTER PACK UP AND GET LOST, OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL END YOU! I HAVE A TANK AND I WILL USE IT!

“OH YEAH? WELL WHY DON’T YOU?” one of the Reds replied in a gruff southern accent.

“Sarge, I may not be the brilliant tactician that you are, but I don’t quite understand the logic behind your plan to get the Blues to kill us with their tank,” the maroon soldier in the driver’s seat (apparently Simmons) said.

“I WILL!” Church retaliated.

“THEN HURRY UP AND DO IT, YA PANSY!”

“OKAY! FINE!” Church stood still for a very long time. Twilight held her breath as all of the soldiers on both sides of the conflict seemed to be looking at Church expectantly. “Dammit. Look… uh, I don’t really wanna use the tank on you guys if I don’t have to. I mean, uh… have you seen how expensive gas is these days? I don’t wanna waste perfectly good miles on you guys!”

“Dude, you’d just have to drive it a few feet to the right or left. It wouldn’t do anything to hurt your mileage,” the orange soldier pointed out.

“Seriously, why are we trying to get them to use their tank?” Simmons asked. “Wait, is that the real plan? Are we trying to kill ourselves? Because there are much better ways we could go about doing it!”

“Yeah well… every little bit counts… and I’m on a tight budget right now. Saving up for a… new TV,” Church stuttered, ignoring Simmons.

Twilight was confused (this was becoming an increasingly common occurrence in her experiences with these people). She thought these two Red and Blue factions were mortal enemies. Why were they talking about their budgetary problems with each other? Human war customs were weird.

“Fine! If we’re not good enough for you to kill with your tank, then we’ll just have to be the ones to kill you!” the Red riding shotgun (apparently Sarge) exclaimed.

“Which wasn’t the plan all along, apparently…” Simmons grumbled.

“Grif! Fire away!”

“Oh crap…” Church sighed.

Twilight’s eyes widened when she heard the familiar sound of three consecutive blasts as the mounted gun on the Reds’ jeep opened fire, launching three of their extremely explosive projectiles straight at Church. Without even thinking, Twilight shut her eyes, gathered magic into her horn and projected it around her. She heard three loud explosions, one after the other, as each of the Reds’ projectiles detonated. This time however, she wasn’t thrown off her hooves.

Cautiously opening her eyes, Twilight sighed with relief when she saw her own magical barrier successfully up around Church and herself. Church’s arms were covering the front of his helmet as his whole body recoiled. He seemed oddly acceptant of his fate of being blown to smithereens, only starting to lower his hands from his face when he realized that hadn’t happened. Church looked at the transparent magenta dome around him.

“Hah! I’m not dead! Well, technically I am, but…” Church turned to face Twilight, whose horn was glowing a bright purple, “Twilight? Are you doing this?”

Twilight simply nodded, struggling to maintain a grin as sweat dripped down her face. She was still focusing a lot of energy into the domed magical shield, and she didn’t have much energy left.

“What in the Sam L. Jackson is that?” Sarge exclaimed.

“It’s some kind of forcefield!” Grif said.

“It looks like it’s centered around that weird animal they have up there!” Simmons noted.

“Hit it with more rockets Grif!” Sarge ordered.

“Hold on, I have to reload,” Grif grumbled as he reached down into a compartment on the back of the jeep and pulled out a large brown case with “M41 SSR” inscribed in big white letters.

Seeing that they weren’t ready to follow up with another attack, Twilight relaxed and severed her connection with the shield she created, allowing it to fade away.

“Hey, now’s our chance! Take out the gunner!” Tucker said.

“Oh yeah, good thinking!” Church exclaimed, raising his sniper rifle at the jeep full of Red soldiers.

After taking a few moments to aim down the rifle’s sights and line up his shot (he had plenty of time at the rate Grif was reloading the rockets), Church fired a shot. It flew over Grif’s right shoulder.

“Dammit!” Church overcompensated on his next shot, shooting clear past Grif’s left.

“Fuck!” Church fired two more shots. They sailed high over his target’s head. “Fuck, Fuck!”

Twilight’s hoof found her face. The other four Blues just groaned.

“Shut up! The sun… reflected off his helmet,” Church said. “Tucker, you shoot him!”

“Me? I left my gun downstairs! All I have with me are my two swords! And one of them isn’t rated for combat! Bow chicka bow…”

“Doc, I’m going to guess you’re sticking with the pacifist card.”

“Yeah, the thought of even looking at them aggressively is making me uncomfortable,” the purple medic replied.

“Sister? You have a gun,” the desperation in Church’s voice was noticeable.

“Yeah, but this thing completely discharged after I pulled it out. Barely lasted a minute!” Sister replied.

Twilight and Tucker nodded. “Yeah… wait what?”

“Twilight? Can’t you blow them up or something with your freaky unicorn magic?” Church pleaded.

Twilight winced and sucked in air through her teeth. “I don’t really feel comfortable getting involved in foreign conflicts without official support from the government of Equestria. Heck, just protecting you with that shield was probably breaking all kinds of foreign policy laws!”

Church looked in the direction of Caboose. The gun barrel of the tank was angled slightly up and spinning in circles.

“Hey Church! If I keep doing this fast enough I can turn the tank into a helicopter! Won’t that be awesome?”

Church looked away from Caboose, the tank, Twilight and the rest of the Blues. Twilight followed his gaze over to the jeep filled with Red soldiers. The orange one the others referred to as Grif was huffing and puffing loudly as his efforts to reload the turret one rocket at a time slowed significantly.

Church sighed. “This is going to be a long fucking battle…”

Rainbow Dash gave a frustrated growl as she completed another lap in the cloudless skies above Ponyville. Cloudless, as it had been cleared by Rainbow Dash herself. Usually after a job well done, Rainbow would find a spot to relax and take a long nap, but she had soon found herself unable to sit still. Bucking clouds all day had been a good distraction while it lasted, but as soon as she had a moment to herself her thoughts went back to Twilight.

Her friend was stranded on some alien planet somewhere, and the Princess really expected her to just sit around and do nothing? It was enough to make her want to scream, shout and break things, and now she didn’t have any clouds to help with that. Unable and unwilling to think about it a moment longer, Rainbow had promptly vacated her napping cloud and started flying laps above Ponyville. For hours she did just that: rolling, looping and performing every trick in her book over and over again until she could perform each one as mechanically as walking.

Her wings were beginning to tire and thoughts began creeping back into Rainbow Dash’s head, and with them came feelings of helplessness. She had to find something else to do. Some way to stop thinking. The rainbow-maned pegasus turned in the air and set a new course for downtown Ponyville. She decided it might be a good idea to see her friends. They were all likely going through the same thing as she was, but Rainbow knew at least one pony who never failed to put a smile on her face.

Soon, Rainbow Dash touched down in front of Sugarcube Corner and promptly entered the giant gingerbread establishment. Sure enough, the first thing that Rainbow Dash saw inside the bright multicolored building was Pinkie Pie standing behind the counter serving a brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark.

“Here you go, one super-duper-deluxe peanut butter and chocolate cupcake with frosting and sprinkles!” Pinkie exclaimed, happily depositing the pastry in front of the brown stallion.

The stallion merely looked down at the cupcake before him. “But I ordered a muffin…”

“Yeah, but a super-duper-deluxe peanut butter and chocolate cupcake with frosting and sprinkles is, like, ten times better than a muffin!” said Pinkie, holding up ten hooves to demonstrate.

“But Ditzy’s allergic to peanuts.”

Pinkie then leapt over the counter and grabbed the stallion by the face, glaring hatefully into his eyes. “You will take the cupcake or I will force feed it to you… and it won’t be through your mouth!”

Staring with wide, terrified eyes, the stallion promptly reached over to the counter, grabbed his cupcake and bolted past Rainbow Dash and out the door.

“Well that wasn’t very nice,” Pinkie Pie pouted, glaring up at the ceiling as if it had been the one to snap at that poor pony.

Rainbow Dash just gave her head a few shakes. She certainly found that distraction she was looking for.

“Hey Pinks, what’s up?”

Pinkie Pie whirled around and gave Rainbow Dash an excited wave. “Oh hi Dashie! Want to help me make cupcakes?” Pinkie then got incredibly close to Rainbow Dash, glaring intensely into her eyes. “I need a special ingredient that only you can provide me!”

“Uh… no thanks.” Something inside Rainbow Dash told her that it was in her best interest not to take Pinkie up on her offer. “So, when do you get off work?”

“Oh, I’m actually off work now! The Cakes just told me to take the whole day off after the third time my new friend tried to make customers taste something called ‘oblivion!’ I don’t really know what that is, but it must be super yucky since ponies kept running away screaming!” Pinkie smiled innocently.

“Uh huh…” Rainbow Dash muttered. At least one thing hasn’t changed: Pinkie Pie was making about as much sense as she usually did. “So, do you wanna hang out? Maybe prank some ponies or something?”

“That sounds like an awesomazing idea Dashie!” Pinkie Pie’s happy smile suddenly changed. Rainbow Dash couldn’t figure out what was different, but something seemed decidedly more malicious about the pink mare’s expression.

“I have some pretty killer new ideas for pranks! Hmm hmm ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Ugh, reloading is hard!” Grif complained as he loaded more rockets into the Warthog’s turret.

Church just sat with his legs dangling over the side of Blue Base. Behind him, the rest of the Blues were either sitting around twiddling their thumbs or off doing their own thing. The pony-alien/creature that called itself Twilight was lying down beside him. Church had to admit, the posture did kind of remind him of a dog. He also had to admit that the little purple alien had turned out to be pretty handy, what with all of those weird powers it had. Still, that didn’t mean he was about to help it find its way back to Planet Horse or wherever she said she was from.

Just then, Donut (who had managed to fill the entire area in front of Blue Base with circular designs on the ground with his ATV) drove over to the other Reds.

“Hey guys! How’s the battle going?” the flamboyant pink soldier asked.

Sarge’s reply was an aggravated grunt.

“Alright. I reloaded two of the rocket launchers, I’m taking a break,” Grif said, leaning forward over the makeshift rocket turret.

“Hmm… maybe we should try negotiating with the Blues. This battle really isn’t going anywhere,” Simmons said.

“Hmm… I don’t like the idea of talking to a Blue unless it leads up to a pre-murder one-liner, but I see your point!” Sarge then hopped out of the jeep’s passenger seat and called out to Church. “HEY BLUE! SEEING AS WE’VE REACHED A STALEMATE, THE MIGHTY AND SUPERIOR RED ARMY IS WILLING TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT!”

Church sighed and got to his feet. “Alright Reds, what do you want?”

The four Reds huddled together and murmured amongst themselves.

“Well, we don’t want yer flag because… that’s just bad news for everyone involved!” Sarge exclaimed. “We also don’t want yer tank, because something’s clearly wrong with it if you weren’t willing to use it on us like you always do!”

Church swore to himself. He was hoping he could convince the Reds to accept ownership of the broken tank, only for them to find out that they wouldn’t be able to take it back to their base with them. Now he had to think of something else to give them.

“Hey, instead of listing off all of things you don’t want, how about you start telling me what you do want?” Church snarked.

The Reds all looked at each other. “Well… ya don’t exactly have anything worthwhile!” Sarge said.

Church was ready to retort when he realized Sarge had a very valid point. “Yeah… this canyon sucks.”

“How about a hostage?” Simmons suggested.

“Yeah, because that worked out so well the other times,” Grif deadpanned.

“Sure, we can give you a hostage!” Church said.

“And not the medic!”

“Damn!” Church turned around to look at his team. Each one of them that wasn’t Doc at the very least knew how to fire a weapon, and as such were too valuable a commodity in this canyon.

“Wait, what the heck is that thing?”

Church turned back around when he heard Donut’s voice and saw the pink soldier pointing at Twilight Sparkle.

Grif shrugged. “I dunno, looks like some new pet the Blues have.”

The pony in question groaned and took a step forward. “I’m not a pet! My name is Twilight Sparkle! I’m a unicorn pony from Equestria!”

Donut gave a loud, drawn out gasp.

“Oh boy…” Grif mumbled.

“Sarge! Can we take the unicorn? Pleeeease?” Donut begged, trying to give the Red sergeant puppy dog eyes from behind his helmet.

“Well…”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”

“Ya didn’t even let me…”

“PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAASE?”

“Actually Sarge, if I recall that strange animal seemed to be the source of the domed shield that appeared earlier in the battle,” Simmons said.

“Sufferin’ Cylons, you’re right! Having that kind of power in our hands could give us a tactical edge and a morale boost, considering Donut won’t be bugging me about it in that annoying way that he does!” Sarge then turned to face the Blues. “We have come to a decision! We want to take your little unicorn critter Twilight Flufflesnugglepuss as our hostage!”

“What?” Twilight exclaimed.

Church then had a devious idea. “Done!”

“Yes!” Donut cheered.

“What?!”

“Sorry Twilight, but you’re probably not going to get off my case about me not helping you get to your home planet. So this seems like a pretty convenient way to get you out of my hair.”

Church relished the look of pure, seething hatred on the unicorn’s face as she glared at him through squinting eyes.

“Fine! This might actually work out for me! The enemies of someone as thoroughly unpleasant as you can’t possibly be that bad! I’m sure either way they’ll do more about my problem than you!”

With that, Twilight marched down the ramp leading to the side of the base where the Reds’ jeep was parked. Church couldn’t stop himself from briefly following her to get one final word in.

“Clearly you don’t know these guys like I do!”

Twilight’s response was to sigh, which quickly turned into a groan. “I never should have messed with that stupid ship and that stupid helmet…”

The little purple alien’s bitter rambling became inaudible as she walked further away from Blue Base. Church watched with smug satisfaction as the scowling unicorn hopped onto the back of the ATV with an absolutely ecstatic Donut and was driven back in the direction of Red Base, followed closely by the other three Reds in the jeep.

Finally, the troublesome little thing was gone and Church could get back to life as normal at Blue Base. No more arguing with a self important little alien that thought she was better than him. Now it was back to just arguing with a bunch of other assholes that Church was better than.

As the Reds disappeared over to the other side of the canyon, Church turned around to head inside. It was then that something the unicorn had said before leaving suddenly clicked in Church’s brain. He stopped in his tracks.

“Wait… SHIP???”

Rarity sat at her workstation in Carousel Boutique, humming a little tune as she operated the sewing machine, a cup of nearly finished tea on the table beside it. Truthfully, she had been quite tired after the journey from Dodge City to Canterlot to Ponyville that day, and had originally intended to take a day to relax in light of… recent events. However, Rarity had found herself quite restless, and before she knew it, she was brewing a pot of tea and getting to work on some of the dress commissions she had lined up.

Hearing a soft snore, Rarity glanced off to the side and looked warmly at Spike, sleeping in his basket with a small horde of gems. She had taken it upon herself to look after the baby dragon in Twilight’s absence, and the love-struck reptile was overjoyed. The little guy was understandably shaken about the whole… situation with Twilight, so Rarity had treated him to a little outing (that against her wishes, he kept referring to as a date) and bought a ton of gems for him to snack on. Sure she had spoiled him, but she accomplished her goal: in short time, Spike had forgotten just how worried he was about Twilight. Now he was sleeping off the effects of a gem crash.

Rarity returned her attention to her work table, only to find that she had already completed another section of blue lace for the dress she was currently working on. Rarity went to finish off her cup of tea when she heard the sound of the bell above her front door ringing downstairs. Rarity was certain she had put up her “closed” sign, but then again some ponies didn’t pay attention to such details. Slowly, she got up out of her seat and headed downstairs.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Rarity promptly stopped when she noticed something squelched under her hooves. Looking down, Rarity noticed that her entire purple carpet appeared to be stained with… something. Whatever it was, she couldn’t smell it. Was it water? Did she have a leak? With a shrug, Rarity continued towards the front hall; she could get somepony to come look at her plumbing later.

“I’m sorry, but we’re closed. You’ll have to…” Rarity stopped when she noticed the front hall was empty, the front door already on its way shut. Whoever it was must have figured out she was closed on their own.

Deciding as long as she was downstairs to brew some more tea, Rarity entered the kitchen and promptly slipped on the wet, smooth floor. She landed chin first on the hard surface. Rarity let out a frustrated groan. Where had all this water come from?! Her question was answered when she heard the sound of a pony snickering. Looking up, Rarity spotted the top of a rainbow mane outside her kitchen window, shaking with mirth.

“Of course. Who else was I expecting?” Rarity huffed as she pulled herself to her hooves, then briskly but carefully (so as not to slip again) made her way to the front door of her home and place of work.

Stepping out into the cool Fall air of Ponyville, Rarity promptly turned and headed to the side of Carousel Boutique the kitchen was on. She failed to notice the pink pony entering the boutique through the front door behind her.

Sure enough, when Rarity rounded the corner of her boutique, she found Rainbow Dash hiding beneath her kitchen window, both front hooves planted firmly in her own mouth to keep herself from laughing too loudly. Suffice to say, it wasn’t very effective.

“Very funny, Rainbow Dash. Soaking my house in water? You truly are a master of wit,” Rarity deadpanned.

Infuriatingly, Rainbow Dash didn’t whirl around and start apologizing profusely now that she had been caught. Instead, she looked over at Rarity, biting her lip to keep any more laughter from coming out.

“Oh, it’s not water, Rarity!” she said between snickers. “It’s some kinda ‘odorless pranking liquid’; Pinkie bought the stuff in bulk!”

Rarity glanced behind Rainbow Dash. Sure enough, there was a cart and a small pile of empty barrels with the logo of “Jumping Jack’s Joke Shop” on them. Rarity was about to sigh and return her attention to the immature pegasus in front of her when something else on the barrels caught her eyes. Below the logo and the words “Odorless Pranking Liquid” was what appeared to be a warning label: an octagonal red symbol with a simplistic image of fire in the center. Rarity’s eyes widened as she did a double take between Rainbow Dash and the barrels.

“Rainbow Dash? Is that stuff flammable?”

“Pfft! Of course not!” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Uh… what does ‘flammable’ mean again?”

It was then that the two mares heard the sound of a prepubescent male dragon sneeze from inside Carousel Boutique.

“AAAH-CHOO!”

The sound was immediately followed by one that made Rarity’s hairs stand on end: the ‘fwosh’ of flames. After exchanging a nervous look, Rainbow Dash and Rarity raced around to the front of the boutique as the sounds of sneezing and crackling flames increased. They opened the front door and were greeted to the sight of the entire front hall consumed in orange flames. Spike sat in the center, sneezing uncontrollably, a burst of fire flying from his snout with every sneeze.

Without stopping to think, Rainbow Dash zoomed into the burning boutique. She weaved around the flames covering the floor and walls and scooped up Spike, avoiding the little dragon’s dangerous sneezes.

“I’m sorry, I can’t… Pinkie, she… ah…” Spike sneezed again, lighting a mannequin on fire in the process.

Rainbow Dash promptly zoomed out the closest window, shattering the glass. After setting Spike down outside somewhere his volatile sneezes would do no damage, Rainbow Dash returned to Rarity’s side at the front of the boutique. Rainbow’s ears folded back when she looked at Rarity, who stared blankly ahead at her burning home.

“Rarity, I’m sorry! I didn’t know this would happen!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her raspy voice cracking.

Rarity’s lower lip quivered and tears began welling up in her eyes. “Of all the things that could happen…”

Rarity’s horn started to glow a vivid blue. A red velvet chaise lounge with gold finish burst through one of the second floor windows—surrounded in a blue-ish glow—and landed beside Rarity. Opal was astride the luxurious furniture, and the fluffy white cat seemed slightly annoyed that her owner had awoken her from her nap to inadvertently save her life. Nevertheless, Opal knew why Rarity had summoned this particular piece of furniture and hopped down in anticipation of what was about to happen. Rarity stood up on her hind legs and raised a foreleg to her head in a dramatic fashion.

“This is actually the WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!” With that, Rarity dove face first onto the couch, sobbing hysterically.

Rainbow Dash was ready to fly away and get the fireponies when someone came happily hopping out of the burning building. Pinkie Pie did a happy little dance in front of the inferno.

“EEEE HEE HEE HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA! That’s right you foolish fools! BURN IN THE FIERY INFERNO OF OBLIVION!” As Pinkie continued to laugh maniacally, Rainbow noticed she was holding something in one of her hooves: a pepper shaker.

A pepper shaker that could be used to give a baby dragon a sneezing fit. Rainbow Dash’s wings flared open as she angrily rounded on her.

“What the hay is wrong with you, Pinkie? Was this your plan all along? Are you trying to get Rarity to hate us? Because there are much better ways to go about doing it than burning down her freaking house!”

Pinkie Pie’s insane laughter had immediately stopped after Rainbow Dash’s angry rant. The pink mare’s eyes widened as she looked at the pyre as if seeing it for the first time. She looked back over at Rainbow Dash with wide, terrified eyes that were partially obstructed by her suddenly perfectly straight mane. Rainbow Dash just continued giving Pinkie a glare that could raze the rest of Ponyville along with Carousel Boutique.

“I-I’m sorry! I… I didn’t mean… I-I didn’t want to…” Pinkie turned and ran, not slowing down and not looking back.

Rainbow Dash just gave an annoyed flick of her tail before turning back to check on Rarity. She was still crying her eyes out into the big red couch, her boutique burning behind her. Spike, who had since gotten over his sneezing fit was on the couch with Rarity, gently comforting her. Opal looked on in mild disinterest as she licked herself. Rainbow Dash turned away from the scene and promptly took off in the direction of the fire house. If one good thing had come out of this, she was no longer thinking about a certain missing friend.

Twilight Sparkle sat on top of the disappointingly identical round concrete structure that served as the Red Team’s base of operations. Aside from the prevalence of the color red as opposed to blue, Twilight could have imagined this was the exact spot where she had argued with Church. She tried desperately to hold onto the hope that if Church and his team weren’t willing to help her, this Red Teamcould. Said hopes slipped away as she was introduced to each of the members of Red Team.

“So Twilight, are you like, the last of your kind and on a journey to discover what happened to the other unicorns?” Donut asked. Out of all of them, the man wearing armor as pink as Pinkie Pie was the most enthusiastic to talk to her. He was also the one who cared the least about her personal space.

“Nope. Plenty of unicorns back in Equestria,” Twilight said, taking a few steps backwards to reclaim a bit of her personal space from the excitable pink soldier.

“Oh my God, that’s even better!” Donut exclaimed, once again crawling forward to take back the personal space that Twilight reclaimed. “Man, it would be so totally cool if you took me with you! We could sing songs and dance, and I would totally be best friends with everyone as soon as I arrived!”

“Sounds pretty fuckin’ stupid to me,” Grif said lazily. The orange soldier was probably the one that got on Twilight’s nerves the most. How could anyone be so unmotivated and—even worse—unorganized?

“Seriously, aliens are supposed to be big badass lizardmen who are all like ‘Kill all humans! All your base are belong to us!’” Grif continued. “What’s so special about a tiny horse alien?”

Twilight had given up on trying to come up with a dignified response and settled for silent protest.

“Well, I for one think that meeting a new sapient species is always an enlightening experience,” Simmons said. Twilight wasn’t really sure how to feel about him yet. “I’m sure you have so many questions and I’d be happy to answer them. For starters, we’re all part of the human race, but technically we’re called ‘Homo sapiens sapiens.’”

Twilight raised her eyebrows and gave an intrigued grunt: more information for her mental database on the alien species.

“Well, technically no one cares,” Grif said.

“I care, asshole!” Simmons argued.

“Correction: no one important cares.”

“My mom says I’m important…”

“Can it, dirtbags! I can’t hear myself think!” Sarge exclaimed. Of all of the Red soldiers, Sarge was the one that unnerved her the most. In the all of ten minutes that she spent in Red Team’s company, the man had come up with a dozen ideas that would put Pinkie Pie’s schemes to shame... and what was more, someone, somewhere thought it was a good idea to make him a leader! Was insanity a standard prerequisite for one to become an officer in the human military?

The Red sergeant in question then returned to his conversation with… himself? “Sorry about that, self! Please continue! Mmm-hmm. Yep. I like that! Good thinking, me! I’ll tell them right away!” Sarge then turned to face Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Reds. “Alright, listen up! Me, Myself and I have come to a decision on what to do with Twi… Twilightliciousjagglecallit…”

“Twilight Sparkle...” Twilight corrected, struggling to maintain an even voice.

“Yeah, that! I have decided that the best way to make use of our new hostage... I mean ally... would be to use her godlike unicorn powers to power my time machine that I will use to go back in time and assassinate George Washington: The inventor of the color blue!”

Stunned silence from unicorn and Red soldiers alike was all that met Sarge’s proclamation. There was no way that any of them could possibly think that idea was…

“Excellent idea, sir!” Simmons dutifully said.

“Now rest up, Twibright! We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow!” With that, Sarge turned around and made his way down one of the ramps on the side of the structure. Twilight’s mouth hung open as she watched him go.

“Well, I’m off to make family dinner. I’ll call you guys when it’s ready,” Donut said, who turned to start making his way down another of the ramps.

“You’re off to make what?” Grif asked.

Donut turned back around and addressed Grif through gritted teeth. “Family dinner. We always have family dinner.”

“Since when?”

Donut then violated Grif’s personal space just as he had done with Twilight’s and whispered loudly, “Since a unicorn started living with us, who some of us want to make a good impression on, Grif!”

Donut turned and started happily frolicking down the ramp and out of sight.

“Right, I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me when there’s food,” Grif stated, turning to leave as well.

Twilight’s left eye began to twitch uncontrollably. The Red sergeant’s plan was both impossible and insane. Did he really have a time machine? Was he really willing to use it to change history? How could any of these people just go about their lives as normally as they were, knowing they were being led by a madman? How was that even possible? How was any of this even possible?

“Sueño. Despierta. Consumir. Los seres humanos son tan ineficientes.”

Twilight whirled around at the sound of the deep, monotone voice behind her. She gasped and tilted her head down when she saw a brown helmet identical to the ones worn by every other soldier lying on the floor. Who had spoken just now? It couldn’t have been…

“Oh yeah, that’s Lopez.” Simmons stepped up beside Twilight. “He’s our head mechanic. Ha ha… get it? He’s… he’s just a head...”

Twilight looked back and forth from Simmons and the brown helmet on the ground. Her other eye started to twitch. And to think, there was a time when she thought that her friends were insane. Finally, the dam burst. Twilight groaned and stared up at the heavens above.

“All the people in this canyon are CRAZY!”

Today had not been a good day for Fluttershy. The first thing she heard when she was woken up in her room at the Dodge City Inn was that one of her closest friends had mysteriously disappeared. Her anxiety only increased when she and the others had arrived in Canterlot to learn that the Royal Sisters were fighting and that they had no idea where Twilight was.

When she finally got back to her cottage in Ponyville, her fear and anxiety caused her to have a major panic attack which in turn caused her to assault the furniture in her house more viciously than she ever had before (a lamp almost fell over. It didn’t, but...). Afterwards she had cried while hugging Angel tightly. The little white bunny resisted at first, but soon gave up on escaping the hysterical pegasus’ iron grip and settled for patiently patting her on the head.

She thought that leaving the house to go talk to her friends might help her cope. Instead, she had bumped into Applejack and learned that not only had Rarity’s house burnt down, but the arsonist responsible was none other than Pinkie Pie. Now, the two of them were walking down one of Ponyville’s central streets, headed in the direction of Sugarcube Corner.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but wonder if any of her friends were taking all of this as hard as she was. Fluttershy had thought she was just being an anxious, nervous wreck over nothing like always, but then she got a good look at Applejack’s hind legs. They were bruised all over: the marks of a pony who had spent more time bucking apple trees than was probably necessary.

Finally reaching the large bakery, the two mares stepped in through the front door. Evening was approaching, and the only pony inside was Mr. Carrot Cake. The yellow stallion was in the process of wiping down one of the tables, likely preparing for closing time.

“Howdy, Mr. Cake!” Applejack tipped her hat to the stallion.

Fluttershy tried to say hello too, but as was usually the case with ponies she wasn’t particularly close to, her voice died in her throat. She settled for an awkward wave. Mr. Cake tossed the cloth he was cleaning with across his back and turned to face the mares, giving them a friendly smile.

“Hello, girls!” he greeted. The look on his face then turned significantly less cheerful. “I take it you’re here to see Pinkie Pie.” It wasn’t a question as it should have been, but a knowing statement.

Applejack frowned. “Reckon ya heard what happened?”

Mr. Cake nodded. “She’s been acting… differently ever since you all arrived back from… wherever it was you all went. She’s been talking to herself, giving customers death threats, s-she even… threatened to eat Pound and Pumpkin!”

“Well that’s mighty peculiar…”

“We’re really, really sorry,” Fluttershy apologized before flinching. She hoped he wasn’t mad at her.

“It’s okay,” Mr. Cake said. He then turned away and muttered something under his breath. Fluttershy thought she heard the words “not mine anyway.” She decided to pretend not to have heard anything at all.

“Anyway, if you want to see her, she’s upstairs in her room,” Mr. Cake continued. “Hasn’t come out since she got home after… you know...”

“Thank you kindly,” Applejack said with a nod. She then motioned for Fluttershy to follow her, and together the two of them ascended the stairs and walked down the hall until they reached the door to Pinkie Pie’s room.

Applejack gave the door a few raps with her hoof. “Pinkie Pie? It’s Fluttershy and Applejack! We’d like to have a few words with you!”

They waited a few seconds for Pinkie to give a response, but didn’t get one.

“Pinkie, we know yer in there! Open the door or I’ll buck it down myself!”

Fluttershy flinched at Applejack’s harsh tone. “Um, Pinkie? We’re not mad at you, okay? We just want to talk… if that’s okay with you…”

Just when the pair of them thought they were going to continue to get the silent treatment, they heard a tiny, neutered voice come from the other side of the door.

“Please go away,” Pinkie whimpered. “I don’t want my new friend to hurt you guys.”

Applejack and Fluttershy exchanged a panicked glance. New friend? Did she have somepony else in there with her? Applejack turned back to face the door.

“That’s it! Pinkie, we’re comin’ in!” Applejack then grabbed the door handle with her hoof and, with surprisingly little effort, turned it. Pinkie must not have even had any locks on it. Applejack slowly, but deliberately, pushed the door to Pinkie Pie’s room open.

She and Fluttershy almost couldn’t see Pinkie right away as they entered. The curtains were drawn over the window and the room was dark. From what they were able to see, the room was a mess. Random junk was strewn across the floor, as if Rainbow Dash had performed the sonic rainboom right there in the middle of it. Several of Pinkie’s commemorative photos of the six of them together at her various parties were on the floor, the glass frames shattered.

Their initial fears of there being someone or something else in the room with Pinkie proved to be wrong. Pinkie sat alone on the edge of her bed, facing away from them. The only other breathing body in the room was Gummy. Pinkie’s toothless baby alligator sat in the corner opposite to his owner, looking terrified (at least, they were pretty sure he was terrified. His blank face didn’t really look any different from normal, but the fact he was as far away from Pinkie as physically possible was telling).

“Pinkie, you have some serious explainin’ to do!” Applejack declared.

“That’s not my name…” Pinkie muttered.

Applejack made to take a step forward, an angry look on her face, but Fluttershy blocked her advance with an outstretched hoof. She had a hunch about what was going on with their friend, and getting mad at her wasn’t going to help matters at all.

“Pinkie Pie… look, is this because you’re worried about Twilight?” Fluttershy asked gently, slowly moving forward towards Pinkie. “It’s okay, we all are. But this isn’t the way to go about dealing with it. Whatever you’re feeling, you should come talk to us about it. We’re your friends, and friends help each other.”

Fluttershy reached to put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder, but was stopped when the pink mare spoke.

“I said, my name isn’t Pinkie Pie…” Pinkie finally turned to face her two friends, half of her face obscured by her straight mane.

Fluttershy gave a nervous squeak and recoiled in fear at the look Pinkie gave her. It was a look of fury and pure hatred unlike any Fluttershy had ever seen on her friend’s face.

“My name… is… O’Malley!”

Author's Note

Next time: Pinkie gets therapy!

Act 1 Part 4 - Contact

Applejack looked around at the three other mares gathered in the carved out tree serving as the library. Rarity was staying in Golden Oaks while a team of ponies worked on repairing her boutique. It was late, and Spike was already asleep upstairs.

Applejack had initially considered having this meeting at Sweet Apple Acres, but Twilight’s library and home seemed like a more fitting location. She swallowed hard when she noticed her three other friends looking at her expectantly.

“Right… well, I reckon y’all know why we’re here…” Applejack started.

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie’s acting weird!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, jumping up and hovering in the air. “And not the normal Pinkie Pie weird, but creepy, psycho weird!”

“When Applejack and I went to see her, she kept calling herself… O’Malley,” Fluttershy shivered when she spoke the name.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity both looked at Fluttershy with interest. This was the first either of them had heard this. Applejack shifted uncomfortably when the group returned their attention to her. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why her friends’ lost stares in her direction made her so uneasy.

“Right, so… anypony got any ideas?” Applejack asked.

“Let’s just go up to her and tell her to stop being so weird, or else!” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“I believe we’ll need a bit more tact than that, dear…” Rarity said.

“Um… I think I have an idea,” Fluttershy said. “Tomorrow, I booked an appointment with a pony I often go to when I’m feeling… stressed.”

The other ponies looked at Fluttershy with intrigue as she continued, “I was hoping to get some things off my chest, but clearly Pinkie needs it more than I do. So… does that sound okay?”

Applejack waited for somepony to reply, only to find that once again all eyes in the room were on her. It was with a growing sense of dread that Applejack came to a realization: Twilight Sparkle had always been their rock. Their fearless leader. Whenever something like this would happen, it seemed like she always knew what to do. Now that she was gone, who was left for them to turn to?

“Yeah,” Applejack answered without much enthusiasm. “I think that sounds like a mighty good idea.”

The “dinner table” that Donut had insistently gathered everyone around was nothing more than a couple of crates pushed together with a camouflage tarp draped over them. Although the sun outside was going down, the interior of Red Base was well lit, both by electrically powered lights and by candles that had been placed on the center of the “table.” In place of actual meals were various identical packages labelled “Meal Ready to Eat.” Twilight Sparkle had to admit, considering the general lack of anything to work with in this place, Donut had managed to make a pretty nice spread

The rest of the Reds didn’t seem to think so. They all simply sat around the table, staring back and forth between Donut’s set up and Twilight as she ate her “MRE.” Aside from Grif, who was sipping some canned drink through a straw he inserted through the front of his helmet, none of them seemed hungry enough to eat. Twilight was a bit disappointed, simply because she was hoping she’d get the chance to see what they looked like underneath those helmets.

However, she couldn’t fault the human soldiers for not wanting to eat their MREs quite yet. They weren’t exactly gourmet, though at least Donut had been considerate enough to give her a vegetarian package. Still, Twilight tried not to show any indication that she wasn’t enjoying her meal, so as not to offend her hosts. Too bad they weren’t as considerate.

“Y’know Twilight, I think I finally figured out one cool thing about you,” Grif said, gesturing at the little unicorn with his orange helmeted head. “You’ve got a pretty sweet tattoo on your ass!”

Twilight made a puzzled noise and looked back at her own flank, immediately realizing what Grif was talking about upon seeing the six-pointed stars that adorned it.

“You mean my cutie mark? All ponies get one once we’ve discovered our special talent. Mine means I’m especially gifted with magic,” Twilight helpfully explained. She then frowned when her explanation was met with snickering from the entire Red Team (with the exception of Donut).

“Cutie mark? Ugh, I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to make having a tattoo sound uncool,” Grif said. “Way to ruin the one thing you had going for yourself.”

Twilight couldn’t keep the frustrated growl from escaping her throat. She’d had just about enough of these people talking down to her. She brought her hoof down on the table/crates hard, startling the Red soldiers around it.

“OKAY! I get it! You all think I’m weird and different. How do you think I feel about all of you? Maybe you can enlighten me on some the things about you that I think are strange? Like… I don’t know: Why are you fighting with an identical team in all but color over a box canyon in the middle of nowhere?”

Sarge grunted and folded his arms. “Now look here, missy: the Red versus Blue war is massive! The fate of the galaxy depends on us wiping the Blues from existence!”

“Why?”

“Because! They’re blue! The most evil color in existence! They have plans to drive the galaxy into a new dark age… of dark blue!”

Twilight squinted at the man in red skeptically. “And the box canyon is important because…”

“With all due respect Brightlight, you’re a little girly alien horse! I wouldn’t expect you to understand the nuances of military strategy!”

Twilight leaned forward and gave Sarge a challenging glare. “Try me.”

Sarge froze like a deer in the headlights for a second. “Well… its got the… the underground caves and uh… I’m pretty sure I struck oil when I was out digging a grave for Grif!”

“But, uh… I’m not dead,” Grif said.

“The world’s an imperfect place, I know.” Sarge then turned to Twilight. “There, ya happy?”

“Well, you’ve pretty much confirmed what I’d already been thinking,” Twilight grumbled, returning her attention to her MRE.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I think your cutie mark is totally awesome!” Donut said happily. “I wonder what my cutie mark would look like.”

“I believe she said you have to be talented in order to get one,” Grif pointed out. “That pretty much rules out everyone on this team!”

Twilight let out a tired sigh. She’d been meaning to talk to them about her situation, but knew better than to hope for very much. “Okay, look. I need to get back to my home of Equestria and I really need…”

“Hello?” Sarge suddenly said, looking away and putting a hand on the side of his helmet.

“Uh… hi…” Twilight said uneasily. She realized they hadn’t properly said hello to her when they first met, but it seemed kind of ridiculous to randomly say it now.

Sarge continued. “This is Blood Gulch Outpost Number One. We read you, Command.”

Simmons looked over to Twilight, then back at Sarge. “Uh, sir? Twilight doesn’t have a radio.”

“Oh, right! Just a second, Command. I’m going to put you on speaker phone real quick,” Sarge announced, making his way over to a green metal box on a stand in the corner of the room.

Twilight finally realized that Sarge was communicating with his army’s higher-ups and grinned as a glimmer of hope appeared. This could finally be her chance to speak to someone who isn’t a complete lunatic! She could explain her situation to this “Command” and everything would be okay!

“Hello! Hello! Can you hear me, dudes and dudettes?” a high-pitched, nasally voice that kind of reminded Twilight of Church for some reason came in through the radio speakers.

“Yup, everyone can hear you now, Vic,” Sarge said.

“Hey there, my favorite red home-boys! Pop some caps in any black asses lately?”

“Uh… that’s a negative, Vic.”

Twilight’s ears fell along with her posture. She should have known the people in charge of the Reds would be just as insane as they are.

Vic continued, “Uh-huh, cool alright listen! I gots to talk to all you dudes about some of the shit that went down a couple of days ago! Y’know, the stuff with the aliens…”

“Oh yeah, we totally stopped Tex and Omega from doing their ‘conquer the aliens’ plan! Are we getting some sweet rewards? Like time off?” Grif asked.

“Not at all! You fellas blew that plan harder than my ex was blowing Perry right before I dumped her ass! You could’ve cost us the war with the aliens! Not very cool, dudes!”

“Oh…” Grif looked down and twiddled his thumbs nervously.

Twilight’s curiosity was now piqued. There were other aliens aside from herself? What was more, these humans were at war with them? If that was the case, why were these Red and Blue armies fighting each other? Just more questions to add to her ever growing list.

“Hey, don’t sweat it bros! Vic don’t hold grudges! Turns out, we’d already won the war anyway! One of those Spartan dudes took all the credit, too!” Vic exclaimed.

“Huh… that’s disappointing…” Sarge grumbled.

“Yeah well, apparently the dude died saving everyone, so… joke’s on him!” Vic paused, waiting for the laughter he expected but didn’t receive before continuing, “Now, even though you guys aren’t in trouble per se, all of this alien business has made Blood Gulch a big point of interest for the UNSC. That’s why the higher-higher-ups have decided that you all are gonna get relocated!”

Grif, who was looking away uninterested, suddenly whirled around to face the rest of the team. “Wait, did I hear that right? We’re finally getting shipped out of this fucking canyon?”

“Hell yeah, hombre! As a matter of fact, we’re sending guys to pick you dudes up first thing tomorrow morning! So pack all your things and make sure you have one of those tiny tubes of toothpaste! You’re goin’ on a road trip! That’ll be fun, right?”

“Wait a minute, Vic. What about the Blues?” Sarge asked. “If we pull out tomorrow, they could come to take our base unopposed!”

“Thus, having two bases in the middle of a box canyon…” Twilight dryly pointed out.

“Whoop-dee-fuckin’ do, right?” Grif said.

“You dudes ain’t got nothing to worry about, the Blues will be getting the same relocation orders as you!” Vic said.

“Hmm… if that’s the case, I’d better get Lopez to monitor their calls so we know where they’re going,” Sarge mused. “I never leave a fight unfinished, nor a Blue unmilled!”

“So… where exactly are we being relocated to?” Simmons asked.

“Well, let’s see… according to the notes that I’m pretending to have in front of me, you dudes are going to… uh-duh-duh… Outpost 28-B: Rat’s Nest,” Vic explained.

“Well that sounds about as fun as Blood Gulch,” Grif deadpanned.

“Okay, you all have your orders, I’m gonna bail,” Vic said with a certain tone of finality. “It’s been nice talking to you dudes and I can’t wait to do it again… never! Peace out, bitches!”

With that, the radio signal cut out and all anyone could hear was static, before Sarge pressed a button on the radio and Red Base returned to silence.

“Well, I’m going to start packing immediately!” Donut exclaimed, standing up. “That’s the best part of any trip!”

With that, the pink soldier merrily made his exit.

“Well, I like to keep all of my things packed in the event that we have to move in short notice, but I made detailed checklists for everyone to refer to when packing their own necessities,” Simmons said.

At this, Twilight whirled around, looking at the man in maroon armor with a new sense of appreciation. “Wait, you… like making checklists?”

“Of course! You may think it’s stupid, but they’re a great way to keep organised!”

Twilight smiled. “I don’t think it’s stupid at all! I even have checklists for my checklists!”

Simmons took an excited step toward the unicorn. “That’s a great idea! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!”

“Wow, sounds like you two were made for each other,” Grif snickered as he made to leave the room.

“Since you’ve already packed, Simmons, you can take the first watch,” Sarge said, before turning to leave the room with Grif.

“Sounds good, sir!” Simmons said. He then looked down at the only other being left in the room. “I guess you can stick with me for now, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded, giving the man a genuine smile. She had a feeling that she may have finally found someone in this Celestia-forsaken canyon that she could get along with! Simmons then looked from Twilight Sparkle to the radio on the stand off to the side.

“Hmm… if you’re going to be staying with us for a while, you should probably have your own radio headset,” Simmons said, turning back to face Twilight. “Being able to communicate is the most important ability to have around here…”

“Listen, Miss Pie. I can’t help you if you won’t communicate,” Dr. Minuette adjusted her glasses and looked up from her notes at the pink mare lying on the couch across from her.

The light blue psychologist with the blue and white mane was supposed to have another session with the meek yellow pegasus that morning. Instead, Fluttershy had come in with this pink pony explaining that she was in desperate need of help.

“I really like your couch! It’s super soft and couchy!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down as she lay on her back. The movement made Minuette think of a poofy pink worm.

“No, I mean… you have to talk to me about what’s going on with you emotionally,” Minuette found herself speaking slowly, as if to a foal. “For instance, your friend Fluttershy told me you’ve recently started calling yourself O’Malley…”

Pinkie stopped worming and looked over at Minuette with an unsettled expression. “Oh… I’m not O’Malley. O’Malley is my new friend.”

Minuette raised an eyebrow. “Is this… O’Malley with us right now?”

Pinkie nodded. “O’Malley is always with me...” the formerly energetic pink pony was now speaking completely in monotone.

“I’d like to talk to O’Malley for a moment.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide and the party pony sat up. “Oh, that’s not a good idea! O’Malley is… a meanie. He’s really angry all the time and he wants to hurt a lot of ponies!”

Suddenly the look on Pinkie Pie’s face changed. Her pupils shrunk and an insane grin appeared on her face. “Come on, Pinkie! You say that like it’s a bad thing!”

Minuette put down her clipboard and leaned forward. “So, you’re O’Malley…”

“No, I’m Carolina… OF COURSE I’M O’MALLEY YOU FOOL!”

“Your friend Pinkie tells me that you’re a very angry pony, Mr. O’Malley.”

“That stupid pink creature isn’t my friend! I’m just using her body while I come up with a plan to TAKE OVER THE UNIVERSE! Ha ha ha ha! … and I don’t like being called ‘Mr.’ Makes me sound like some foolish English professor or something.”

Minuette just nodded without batting an eye. “‘Take over the universe, huh?’ Do you feel you want to do that because of your anger?”

O’Malley placed Pinkie’s hoof on her chin. “Hmm… I’m angry and I want to take over the universe, but I don’t think the two are related. They’re like a pair of roommates sharing an apartment… OF EVIL! HA HA HA HA! And soon, this world will taste the oblivion of my rent checks as I become the landlord!”

“See? He’s cree-vil! That’s crazy and evil!” Pinkie exclaimed, leaning forward to whisper loudly. “And he makes cree-vil metaphors!”

“Shut up, you fool! All you care about is friendship and parties! At least I have a goal with my life! Where do you see yourself in the next five to ten years?”

“An astronaut!” Pinkie answered immediately.

“You’re a fool! And soon, every foolish fool like you will foolishly realize the foolishness of their foolish folly!” O’Malley stood up and moved Pinkie’s body towards Minuette, giving her an intimidating glare. “Miserable creatures such as yourselves will be trampled under my hooves as I reign in a new era of oblivion and parties!” Pinkie’s face winced. “I mean… just oblivion! The only parties that will be are the ones I will have in celebration of killing everyone! Ah ha ha haaa!”

Minuette remained steadfast in the face of O’Malley’s glare. “You don’t scare me, O’Malley. Now, you’re demonstrating a lot of feelings of anger. Is there any particular reason you think you’re feeling this way?”

Pinkie’s mouth curved into a sinister smile. “Trying to psychoanalyze me, huh? Tell me, do you think of yourself as powerful, Ms. Minuette? Getting inside ponies’ minds and reshaping them as you see fit?”

Minuette’s carefully neutral face began to slip. Her ears folded back and her mouth began to slowly drift open as Pinkie’s snout scrunched against hers.

“I know what that feels like. You and I actually have a lot in common in that regard. The main difference is, I can do it more efficiently! Even after I’m gone, those that I’ve been in still have a piece of me left! You can’t get inside my head, you fool! I am the very concept of what you do!”

Minuette just sat back in her chair. She noticed she was trembling slightly. Pinkie Pie backed away and quietly sat back down on the couch.

“I-I’m sorry!” Pinkie said. “To be fair, you wanted us to communicate!”

Twilight looked out across Blood Gulch from atop Red Base. The canyon was covered in the darkness of night, lit only by the stars above. Simmons sat beside her, a standard issue red helmet in his lap. He was pulling out and rearranging wires. The two of them had been sitting there for nearly an hour now, making small talk every once in a while. She had asked him many questions about aspects of his world that still confused her, and Simmons answered them as best as he could. Of course, Twilight had told Simmons about her situation and that she needed help getting home, but he was in no more of a position to help her than the others. Still, he had at least let her down more gently than… him.

Twilight let out a yawn. Now that all of the action of the day had died down, the lack of sleep she had the night before was finally catching up with her. She decided she would go to sleep soon, but there was one thing she wanted to do before that.

“Hey, Simmons?” Twilight’s voice sounded hoarse. She blinked away some of the tiredness clouding her eyes.

Simmons looked up from what he was working on. “What’s up?”

Twilight took some time to mull over how to speak what was on her mind before answering, “How do you do it?”

Simmons shrugged. “It’s not that hard really. It’s just a simple matter of pulling out all of the parts for the helmet radio and reassembling them as a headset…”

“No, I mean, you actually seem like a pretty sensible guy. Or at the very least you have a better head on your shoulders than the rest of them. How can you keep living with these people?”

“Eh. They’re not so bad once you get to know them.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Even if that’s true, you have to admit that your Sergeant is insane and dangerous. How can you willingly follow someone like that?”

“Okay I’ll admit: Sarge is an asshole just like the rest of them, but calling him ‘dangerous’ is giving him way too much credit.”

Twilight just gave Simmons a skeptical stare as he returned to his work. “Look, Twilight. I learned pretty early in my life that no matter where you go, you’re going to have to deal with assholes. I’m not saying you have to be friends with them, or even like them, but if you want to make it anywhere, you have to be willing to at least communicate with them.”

Twilight returned her gaze to the canyon as she considered Simmons’ words. For some reason, she found her gaze settling on the light coming from Blue Base all the way on the other side.

“Here, try this on.” Before Twilight knew it, a metal headset had been placed over her head, an earbud in one of her ears and a microphone extending alongside her snout.

Simmons then turned around and walked over to the other side of the base. Twilight heard a series of different beeps in her ear before it was filled with static.

“Just hold the button on the side of the microphone to talk,” Simmons’ voice accompanied the static. “Do you copy, Twilight?”

Twilight reached up with a hoof and did as Simmons instructed. “Yeah, I copy Simmons.”

“See? It’s not that hard.”

A third voice added itself to the radio conversation, “Twilight and Simmons sitting in a tree…”

“Shut up, Grif!” Answering simultaneously did not do much to stop Grif’s laughing.

Fluttershy looked up as the door to Minuette’s office opened and the unicorn stepped out. Right away, she noticed that the therapist looked relatively shaken. A few stray hairs hung in front of her face, and she appeared to be trembling slightly. Minuette had always been a good listener and retained a stoic demeanor throughout all of their sessions together, even when Fluttershy let slip some of the… darker parts of herself. Fluttershy found that she wasn’t able to meet her therapist’s eyes at that particular moment.

“So, what’s wrong with Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash nearly knocked the mare over in her eagerness.

Minuette removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her snout with a hoof. “Do you want the short list or the long?”

The other four ponies exchanged looks.

“Uh… we’ll settle for whatever’s makin’ her a boutique burnin’ maniac,” Applejack said.

Minuette put her glasses back on. “Well, if you want to know why she’s acting more aggressive and occasionally referring to herself by another name, I think it’s clear that she’s suffering from DID. That’s Dissociative Identity Disorder .”

The rest of the ponies all stared at Minuette with uncomprehending expressions.

“Most ponies know it as ‘Multiple Personality Disorder,’” Minuette explained, receiving nods of understanding from Fluttershy and her friends.

“So is this ‘O’Malley’ a separate personality from Pinkie Pie?” Rarity asked.

Minuette nodded. “It’s strange… I’ve only seen a few cases of DID in my career, but O’Malley is unlike any of them! He’s the most fully realized personality I’ve ever seen in a patient! Yet at the same time… he’s not. It’s hard to explain.”

Minuette then cautiously looked behind her into her own office before continuing in a much quieter voice. “What’s important is that O’Malley is an incredibly… destructive personality. I’ve never seen so much senseless rage in a pony, let alone a fragment of one’s personality! If what you said happened at Carousel Boutique is true, Pinkie could become a danger to herself and everypony around her!”

The therapist unicorn adjusted her glasses. “The development of DID is usually brought on by some sort of trauma. Has anything happened recently that would have a severe negative impact on her mental state?”

It took Fluttershy a moment to realize that Minuette was addressing her. It made sense. After all, Fluttershy was her patient under normal circumstances and the one who organised this impromptu session with Pinkie.

“Oh! Um, one of our friends recently went missing mysteriously and... we’ve all been struggling to deal with it,” Fluttershy explained, trying to keep her little voice from breaking. She was intentionally vague on the details; they weren’t exactly supposed to talk about the alien spaceship.

“Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the first time Pinkie started acting weird was the morning we all learned Twilight was missing!” Rarity interjected.

Minuette nodded. Rainbow Dash however, put a hoof to her chin.

“Actually, I think I remember Pinks starting to act different even before then. Right around after we saw that… uh… really cool thing!” Rainbow Dash had to stop herself from mentioning the spectral alien figure that had been summoned by Arcane Star.

“So, how do we help her?” Applejack asked.

“That’s just the thing: DID is such an unusual disorder that there isn’t any surefire way to treat it,” Minuette explained. “My advice is to get her committed. I can recommend a few facilities in Canterlot and Manehatten that specialize in cases like this.”

Applejack gave Minuette a scrutinizing stare. “You sayin’ we oughta put Pinkie in a crazy house? T’ain’t happenin’!”

“The only other option would be for me to prescribe Ms. Pie medication immediately and begin regular therapy sessions with her. It may pacify the O’Malley personality, but… I can’t guarantee results. I’m sorry. The best thing you all can do for her right now is be there for her.”

The ponies all nodded. “Right, I think I’ll have Spike send a letter to the Princess as well. I hate to bother her, but with any luck she’ll have some idea of what to do,” Rarity declared.

At that moment, a very unfamiliar pink pony stepped out of Minuette’s office behind the therapist pony. Pinkie Pie stared at the floor in a disturbingly melancholic manner, her straight mane hanging limply in front of her face. Rainbow Dash flew up to her and tried her best to put on a confident smile.

“Hey, Pinks! Do you, uh… do you and O’Malley wanna hang out? I was going to go pick up the latest Daring Do comic… we can read it together in silly voices, if you want!”

When Pinkie didn’t respond to Rainbow Dash’s offer, Rarity stepped up to the plate. “Perhaps you’d like to go on a little spa date with me? It may be just the thing to get you and your friend to… cool down a bit!”

Seeing Pinkie Pie acting so… unPinkie-like activated every maternal instinct in Fluttershy’s body. The little yellow pegasus immediately moved to wrap her friend up in an embrace, regardless of whether or not she was somepony completely different now. Pinkie, however, backed away like one of Fluttershy’s nervous critters.

“I-I’d love to stay and hang out with you girls, but…” Pinkie looked at her empty wrist and feigned a surprised gasp. “Oh no! I left Gummy on! And I have to feed my oven!”

Pinkie Pie bolted past the five ponies and disappeared out the front door. Minuette turned to head back into her office.

“Of course, if you want to help her, she has to be willing to receive help first.”

“Twilight, wake up!”

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes weakly fluttered open, the remnants of sleep still filling them. The dream she was having was already fading from memory. She remembered being a little filly again, listening in on her parents as they had a late night discussion. She couldn’t remember what they had said, only that it had caused her to run back to her room in tears. She rubbed at her sleep ridden eyes with a hoof and drew it back to find it slightly wet.

She rolled over and looked up through the large square hole in the roof of Red Base. It was still dark, and the stars were still out. By all rights she should still have been asleep, so why was she awake? Twilight then heard the same familiarly annoying voice speak to her again.

“Jeez, Twilight. You sleep harder than Tucker after he’s finished his… private shit.”

Twilight slowly sat up and looked through half open eyes at the soldier in maroon armor standing in the room with her.

“Simmons? Is that you?” Twilight’s voice was hoarse and quiet.

“No, Twilight it’s me!” The armored figure that looked like Simmons but sounded like someone else she knew suddenly began to convulse uncontrollably.

Twilight’s sleep-deprived eyes widened as something else emerged from the violently twitching body that looked like Simmons. Suddenly, a spectral entity resembling another human soldier wearing white armor was standing before Twilight, holding a familiar sniper rifle. Somehow, Twilight’s eyes went wider than they already were as she tilted her head back, now recognizing the figure’s voice.

“Church?” Twilight gasped. “But… how?”

“Do you believe in ghosts, Twilight?” the ethereal entity that was definitely Church asked. “Because if you didn’t before, I’m betting you feel pretty fuckin’ foolish right about now.”

Twilight looked back over at the figure in maroon armor. Simmons groaned and put a hand to his head.

“Ugh, the inside of my head…” before Simmons could say anything else, he collapsed to the floor in a maroon heap.

Twilight looked back over at the ghostly image of Church, who was looking fairly amused at her reaction.

“Buh… but… there’s no such thing as ghosts! They’re not scientifically possible!” Twilight pointed an accusatory hoof at Church. “You are not scientifically possible!”

Church just stared at Twilight with what she could only imagine was a deadpan expression.

“You’re a talking magic unicorn.”

Twilight made a series of confounded grunts before finally sighing. Her voice returned to the bitter tone she used the last time she spoke to the impossible man.

“Whatever. What do you want?”

“You found a ship before coming here, right?” Church asked. “I want you to tell me everything you know about it.”

Twilight wanted to tell him off. She wanted to ask him why she should share any of her knowledge with him when he’d been nothing but horrible to her, but she suddenly became acutely aware of the radio headset still on her head. After taking a breath to collect herself, Twilight spoke.

“A few days ago, this ship crash landed in Equestria and I was called in to help investigate it.”

“What did it look like? Was there anyone on it?” Church asked his questions quickly like a starving man trying to consume everything on his plate at once.

“It was, I don’t know… big, green and metal. The only person we found on board was a single dead soldier in black armor that looked just like everyone else here. Why?”

“Tex…”

Twilight tilted her head inquisitively. It hadn’t even occurred to her before that moment that the people in this canyon might have been familiar with the ship that brought her here. In hindsight, it should have been the first thing she told them about.

“Listen, Twilight… I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Church started. “Tell you what, I’ll help you get back to your home planet on one condition: I want you to take me with you. I want you to show me Tex’s ship!”

Church outstretched one of his hands. “Deal?”

Twilight thought for a moment. Sure, she still wasn’t sure that she liked Church very much, but he was finally doing what she wanted. Even if it was for selfish reasons. Twilight raised one of her own hooves.

“Deal!” Twilight and Church reached to shake… and passed right through each other.

“Oh yeah… that tends to work better when I have a body.”

Author's Note

Well, I have electricity again, so it's update time! Hope you all are having a merry Christmas (or if you don't celebrate Christmas, are just having an awesome day)! Regularly scheduled updates will resume on Monday!

Next time: Twi and the boys move!

Act 1 Part 5 - Keep Moving

Princess Luna’s chambers were much more modest than many ponies seemed to believe. Yes, her bed was big and soft, and she had shelves adorned with various trinkets of sentimental value to her, but other than that the only other significant aspect of the night alicorn’s room was the view. Still, it was peaceful and offered respite from the stress that came with royalty. And the past few days had been especially stressful for Luna.

She had come back to her chambers immediately after raising the moon in the night sky. Normally, Luna would spend time with Celestia for a while before her sister retired for the night, but this night Luna had elected to avoid her. She still loved her sister dearly, but the wounds from their most recent argument were still fresh. Besides, Luna wasn’t sure that she could so much as share simple pleasantries with Celestia without bringing up her issues with the current situation.

Avoiding Celestia wasn’t the only reason Luna had returned to her chambers before beginning her duties as Night Princess. She often liked visiting her subjects in their dreams using her unique abilities, offering them wisdom and encouragement as she saw fit. But the simple passing on of wisdom wasn’t why she lay down on her bed, closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift into the dream world.

Luna’s consciousness traveled the intangible space where Equestria’s dreams resided, passing between seemingly infinite bubbles of light that allowed her glimpses into her ponies’ subconscious. She passed all of them by as her consciousness pushed beyond the dream world of Equestria and traveled beyond the stars. Luna had never traveled this far in the dream world before, but this time she had a reason. This time she was looking for something.

Luna was connected to all ponies in Equestria by their dreams. There wasn’t a pony whose sleeping mind she couldn’t see. She would be able to find them so long as they were asleep and dreaming... no matter where in the universe they were located.

Twilight followed Church as they made their way through Red Base towards the rear entrance. After agreeing to help her get back to Equestria, Church wasted no time in trying to sneak Twilight out of the Reds’ tiny installation. Truth be told, Twilight very likely didn’t need his help to do this. As a unicorn of exceptional magical ability, she’d gotten herself out of much tighter situations, and these Red soldiers hadn’t displayed much competence. The only thing keeping her in their custody was the fact that she had nowhere else to go.

As if to reassure herself of this fact, Twilight chanced a peek in one of the Reds’ quarters where she heard the muttering of a certain Red sergeant.

“That makes a thousand dead Blues…” Sarge mumbled between snores.

Twilight simply carried on with Church to the back entrance. She decided to play along with Church’s attempt to break her out. He had finally agreed to help her, and she didn’t want to repay him by making his efforts to “rescue” her seem redundant. Even if they kind of were.

After whispering for Twilight to wait, Church walked out the back entrance and disappeared. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about the idea that Church was a ghost. How could even the most rudimentary unicorn magic be completely alien to him while he talked about getting killed by Caboose and returning as a spirit like he was describing a trip to the grocery store? Twilight also wasn’t sure about the fact that he was currently possessing Simmons, the only person on Red Team that she considered a friend (or at the very least liked better than the others).

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Church said, reappearing in the base’s rear entrance. “Tucker’s waiting outside with one of the Reds’ vehicles. While I go up top to distract the lookout, you rond… rendez… uh… regroup with Tucker and he’ll drive you back to our base.”

Twilight nodded in affirmation, which caused her to once again feel the presence of the headset on her head. “Okay. Turn on your radio so I know when to go.” Twilight was honest with herself: she did kind of like the idea of being a part of the team. Wanting to belong was a basic equine (and possibly also a basic human) trait, and having a radio headset now made that possible. More or less.

Church nodded with Simmons’ head and the two of them left the threshold of Red Base into the dark canyon. Twilight saw Church head up the ramp to the top of the base in her peripheral as she briskly trotted straight towards Tucker. The aqua soldier was sitting on the small vehicle that one of the Reds had called the “Mongoose.” Seeing Twilight coming, Tucker motioned for her to get on the back.

“Y’know, it fucking figures. I finally get the chance to rescue an alien chick on a badass motorcycle, and that alien chick turns out to be a fucking horse,” Tucker sighed. “I mean really? You couldn’t just be a little human looking?”

“I’m sorry the way I was biologically designed isn’t satisfactory to you! I’ll have to try harder next time!” Twilight could not have been more sarcastic if she tried.

She hopped up onto the back of the Mongoose and reluctantly wrapped her hooves around Tucker’s waist. “Keep your hands and your comments to yourself!” Though Tucker had said he wasn’t… interested in her that way, Twilight still felt uncomfortable around him.

Tucker started up the engine to the Mongoose and the two of them took off at a pace that alarmed Twilight. This was both due to the speed at which they accelerated into the darkness of the canyon and the fact that it was deviating from her plan with Church.

“Hey! We were supposed to wait until Church signaled us over the radio!” Twilight shouted over the vehicle’s engine.

“He did!” Tucker replied. “Didn’t you hear him?”

Twilight reached up to her head to feel for her headset. It was still there. So why hadn’t she heard anything? Regardless, they were well across the canyon by that point, and the inviting lights of Blue Base awaited.

Church made sure his radio was turned on and transmitting as he ascended the ramp to the top of Red Base. In truth, he was slightly annoyed that he had to go through all of this trouble to rescue Twilight from the Reds. Didn’t she have some kind of crazy unicorn magic she could use to escape herself? Regardless, Church made it to the top of Red Base, where he spotted Donut tapping his foot and singing quietly to himself.

“Let me blow you… away…”

Church walked up behind Donut and awkwardly cleared Simmons’ throat, trying his best to sound like the man in maroon armor he was possessing.

“Uh… hey, Donut! What’s… what’s kicking?” Church made sure he spoke loud enough so that he’d both get Donut’s attention and signal Twilight and Tucker over the radio.

Donut whirled around and greeted the man he thought to be his comrade with a friendly wave. “Oh hey, Simmons! I thought I felt someone come behind me.”

Whatever Church was about to say next was cut off by a coughing fit.

“Are you okay Simmons? I hope my meat didn’t make you choke,” Donut said with concern. “I know we ate dinner a while ago, but those MREs always get stuck in my teeth for hours!”

Church was so busy dying of awkwardness that he hadn’t heard Tucker start up the engine to the Mongoose. Donut, however, was not so distracted.

“Hey, what was that?”

“Probably me, choking on my discomfort,” Church stuttered.

Donut was not convinced. He turned around in the direction of the noise just in time to see Tucker and Twilight speed away on the ATV. Church cursed inwardly as Donut let out a drawn out gasp.

“Fuck it…” Church muttered, releasing Simmons from his control and returning to being a transparent white ghost.

“Whuh… what? What’s going on?” Simmons asked, wobbling a bit and placing a hand to his forehead.

At this, Donut whirled around and grabbed Simmons by the shoulders. “The Blues are taking the unicorn and the Unicorn!”

Simmons remained stiff as a board in Donut’s grasp. “Wha…?”

“Twilight Sparkle! I still had so much I wanted to ask her! Like whether or not Equestria is a matriarchal society free of male oppression!”

Simmons looked out across the canyon and just caught a glimpse of the taillights of the Mongoose disappear over an incline.

“Okay… what I got from that is Twilight was taken by the Blues…” Simmons said.

“I have to tell Sarge about the unicorns!” Donut exclaimed, releasing Simmons and hopping down the large square hole in the top of Red Base.

“Okay… I still don’t know what the fuck is happening…” Simmons said.

Church was long gone by this point. He figured that by the time anyone else on Red Team learned that Twilight had escaped, she and Tucker would already be safe back at Blue Base. He highly doubted anyone but Donut would be interested in launching a recovery operation this late at night when they were about to be relocated the next morning.

Church simply made his way across the canyon back to the cave where he had hidden his robot body, hoping nothing had fucked with it while he was gone...

Arcane Star’s eyes squinted as he concentrated on the set of wires inside the black robot. Progress on the ship had already been slow going before Twilight Sparkle’s disappearance. She must have activated something before vanishing because now the rear entrance to the alien vessel was tightly sealed. With the rest of his team’s efforts now focusing on finding a way back inside the ship, Arcane Star found himself returning to the main research tent where the inert alien android was kept.

Day after day he’d spent hours studying the mechanical being, using a variety of spells to study it inside and out. Over time, he began to have an idea of how some of it worked. Currently, he had a small panel in the back of the “neck” open and was carefully replacing fried wires with his own magically enchanted copper wires.

“Excuse me, Arcane Star?”

At the sound of the young mare’s voice, Arcane Star looked up from his work and saw a blonde, white coated pony in guard’s armor standing in the entrance to the tent. He recognized her right away as Sunny Side, the young recruit whose family owned a farm in this very town. Her Commanding Officer often assigned her to escort him whenever he’d have to venture into the ship. Her presence was a mostly unnecessary precaution, but the two of them had gotten to know each other well in their time together and had become fast friends.

“How can I help you, Sunny?”

“Tome Keeper sent me to get you. Said they found something on the hull of the ship.”

Arcane Star arched an eyebrow. Tome Keeper was overseeing the team’s efforts to cut their way back into the ship. She wasn’t supposed to send for him until either they breached the hull or… something else came up. Arcane Star hastily closed the panel on the back of the black robot’s neck and moved to join Sunny Side.

“Alright, lead the way!”

As the two ponies left, Arcane Star thought he heard something mechanical whirring. He chanced a look back only to see the synthetic alien lying still on the operating table exactly where he’d left it.

He followed Sunny Side across the clearing to where the spaceship continued to lie. The two of them passed Javelin Spear, the Commanding Officer of this regiment of the Equestria’s forces. The grizzled stallion acknowledged them with a nod as they approached Tome Keeper and the team of mages tasked with breaking back into the ship.

The unicorn mare’s once white coat had long since given way to a faded gray, the blue and green hairs that made up her mane not faring much better. The fact that Arcane Star remembered what she looked like in her youth made him realize with some despair that he was getting pretty old himself.

“What’s the situation out here, Tomey?” Arcane Star asked his old friend.

Tome Reader lowered the clipboard she held in her telekinetic grip and looked at Arcane Star. “I think we figured out why the ship suddenly locked us out,” she gestured to the side of the ship with a hoof. “You see that computer terminal there?”

Arcane Star followed her hoof and found what she was pointing at. A small screen with several lit up buttons and displays was embedded into a small part of the ship’s hull close to the cockpit.

“Our mages found that under a panel when they were trying to cut their way through the hull, but here’s the good part: something tried to communicate with us through that terminal. I think one of those alien constructs is inside the ship itself!”

Both of Arcane Star’s eyebrows found his forehead. “Incredible! Have you tried communicating back?”

Tome Reader shook her head. “You’re the head researcher here, not me.”

Arcane Star turned away from his old friend and gave the exterior terminal another once-over. Drawing his breath, the unicorn stallion carefully approached the terminal. When he got closer, he could make out words on the screen.

Diagnostics:
> Engines 1-3 critical meltdown. 98% damage. Offline
> Ignition coil 82% damage. Offline.
> Life support systems 60% damage. Oxygen Depleted.

“Uh… hello? Can you understand me?” Arcane Star tried, not really sure how to proceed with the communication. More words continued to appear on the screen.

> Emergency thrusters 2-4 91% damage. Offline.
> Rear stabilizer 79% damage. Offline.

“Hello?” Arcane Star tried tapping the side of the hull next to the terminal, but received nothing for his troubles save more neutral statements declaring the status of the ship’s systems. He was coming to the conclusion that the alien construct couldn’t communicate by oral means when he took another look at the most recent words to appear on screen.

> Knock knock.

Arcane Star squinted. “Wait… what?”

> Knock knock.

Arcane Star moved his head back. “Uh… who’s there?”

> Targeting.

Arcane Star swallowed. “Targeting who?”

> A dirty, dirty shisno. Ha ha ha.

His eyes widened at what he saw next.

> Weapon systems 10% damage. Online.

> Command: Primary weapons activate.

Arcane Star turned and frantically ran toward Tome Keeper and the others, “EVERYPONY! GET DOW-”

A bright flash accompanied by a loud boom shook the entire clearing, sending Arcane Star and everypony else either falling or scrambling to the ground. One of the tents directly in front of the ship was sent flying straight up into the sky by a bright, fiery explosion.

> Command: Thruster 1 activate.

The ponies suddenly heard the high pitched whine of an engine and the ship began to move. Arcane Star struggled to his hooves to get a better look at the alien vessel. At first, he thought it was trying to take off, but then he realized that it only had one engine running. All it was doing was rotating in place on the ground. His mouth hung open when he realized: It was rotating so that the front was facing him!

Before he could react, Arcane Star was tackled to the ground. At the same moment, a series of loud pops rang in his ears, and he heard several whooshing sounds as significantly less explosive—but nonetheless just as lethal—projectiles whizzed past. Another loud blast and distant screams indicated that another of the more volatile projectiles had been launched shortly after.

Arcane Star looked up at the pony who had pushed him out of harm’s way and saw Sunny Side looking down at him. The young guard recruit suddenly looked over to where the alien ship was still rotating along the ground and saw that the forward facing weapons were once again lined up with the both of them. Sunny shut her eyes and tried to cover Arcane Star with her body, but they both knew it would do no good. They once again heard the sound of several loud pops echo through the clearing, but this time they were suddenly muffled.

Arcane Star and Sunny Side simply lay there for a while, one on top of the other until they were certain they weren’t actually dead. Slowly they looked up at the ship to find a large, transparent, blue domed shield was covering the entire spacecraft.

“As much as I’m sure the head researcher enjoys having you on top of him there, Private Side, I think he’ll live if you get off of him now!” Tome Keeper’s voice rang out.

The pair of them looked over to see a grinning Tome Keeper standing beside Commander Javelin Spear. The unicorn CO was channeling power into his horn, matching the hue of the domed magical shield now surrounding the ship.

Sunny Side hastily climbed off of Arcane Star, her face suddenly very red. She offered him a hoof to help him up, after which the head researcher dusted himself off. Sunny Side wasted no time in stiffening up her posture to stand at attention before Javelin Spear. Tome Keeper walked up to Arcane Star with a jovial smile.

“You sure have a way with these aliens, Star!”

Arcane Star returned the smile. “Indeed. If I have to talk to another, it’ll be too soon!”

“Shit, it sounds like you unlocked Gamma,” Church said.

Twilight was sitting in the center of Blue Base with Church, Tucker and Caboose. According to Church, Doc had already left due to the fact he wasn’t technically part of their squad to begin with. Sister was… no one really seemed to know where Sister was.

Twilight had just finished telling the three Blues everything that had happened before she was teleported to Blood Gulch. She told them about the ship, the dead soldier in black armor, the white helmet and the mysterious A.I. she found sealed away in the ship’s systems.

“Who’s Gamma?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, he was this A.I. who was kind of a huge jerk that belonged to this guy who was also a huge jerk,” Tucker helpfully explained. “We locked him away behind a firewall on board the ship.”

“Is there anyone around here who isn’t a huge jerk?” Twilight asked.

“I’m pretty sure I’m nice!” Caboose said.

“Yeah, but you’re also an idiot, so it balances out,” Tucker said.

“... I suddenly don’t feel like being nice anymore.”

“Okay, so it sounds like after you released Gamma, he activated the time distortion armor ability inside the helmet to… transport you here somehow. According to Tex, the time manipulator functions on the same principles as slipspace technology, which could explain that...” Church mused.

Church immediately noticed the inquisitive look Twilight gave him. “Slipspace drives are what ships use for faster-than-light travel. They’re translight engines that can transport matter to a series of dimensions called slipstream space. It pretty much lets us take shortcuts through space by bending physics.”

“Wait, since when were you an expert on this shit, Church?” Tucker asked.

“Tucker, we learned this shit in basic! Anyone who travels through space has to know this!”

Twilight had completely abandoned thinking about how she arrived in Blood Gulch in favor of this amazing technology. The ability to travel between dimensions? All she wanted at that moment was to learn more about it.

“So, it’s like a pocket dimension…” Twilight said to herself. This didn’t stop the Blues from hearing her, though.

“What’s a pocket dimension?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Twilight took an eager breath. “Many unicorns with sufficient magic levels make their own pocket dimensions to store and access objects from anywhere. I made mine as my final exam for second year of Celestia’s School!”

Of course, Twilight still knew how to access her pocket dimension. She could probably even access whatever she still had in there all the way from where she was in Blood Gulch, but she didn’t think she kept anything inside apart from a few books and extra quills. Using her pocket dimension to try to communicate with somepony back in Equestria was out of the question, as she was the only one who knew how to access it. Princess Celestia had been present when she first created her pocket dimension, but it seemed highly unlikely that she would know how to access it after all these years, or for that matter would even think to access it.

“Oh yeah, I have one of those!” Caboose said.

“Caboose, I don’t think your pocket counts as another dimension,” Tucker said.

“I don’t know… there’s a lot of weird things in there… like gum.”

“Anyway, Tex hooked up the helmet with the time distortion ability to give the ship the means to travel through slipstream space,” Church said, trying desperately to remain on topic. “The only thing that doesn’t make sense is how Gamma got it to work on you. As an armor ability, it only works on whoever’s wearing the armor. It only worked on the ship because it was hooked up directly to the ship’s computer…”

“Right… and I was connected to the computer with my magic!” Twilight thought carefully about the night she’d been messing with the ship. “There’s still one thing that I’d like to know: Why would this ‘Gamma’ program send me here in the first place?”

At the presentation of this question, the Blues fell silent. Church scratched the chin of his cobalt helmet. “Hmm… good question. Gamma may have been a lying dick, but as an A.I. he’d never do anything without a logical reason…”

Church and the others remained silent as they continued to ponder this mystery.

“I guess why he teleported me doesn’t matter for now,” Twilight finally said. “What matters is finding a way back…” Twilight was suddenly overcome by a yawn.

“Yeah… we’re going to have an early morning since we’re being relocated tomorrow,” Tucker sounded like he was suppressing a yawn himself. He didn’t quite succeed. “I think we should figure the rest of this out once we’re settled in our new base.”

As much as Twilight wanted to figure out a solid plan to get home, she couldn’t deny she was really tired. She remembered it had been a while since she’d gotten a proper night’s sleep, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was feeling the effects.

“Mmm… now that you mention it, sleep sounds like a pretty good idea…” Twilight yawned again.

When she opened her eyes, Tucker and Caboose were already heading to their quarters. Twilight decided she would find a place to sleep as well, but she wanted to ask one more question before retiring.

“So, are you guys going to Rat’s Nest too?”

Church looked back down at Twilight, looking lost in his thoughts until that moment. “Hmm? Yeah. Wait, actually no. I got different relocation orders from the other guys for some reason. I’m supposed to go to some place called ‘High Ground’. I guess you’ll come with me so we can work out how to get to your homeworld. I don’t think Tucker and Caboose really need to come along.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “I wonder why they would separate you from the rest of your squad…?”

Church shrugged. “I know, that was really considerate of them. I’ll have to send Command a thank you card!” Church then reached into a compartment in the side of his armor and produced a small black rectangular object. “Here, you can take a look at this datapad if you want. It has all of the information you’d need on where we’re going. Exact coordinates, GPS, etcetera.”

Twilight took the object in her glowing magic and brought it closer to herself to take a look. The screen was like a tiny computer currently displaying a map. Two locations were marked down: one she was guessing was their current location, and the other seemed to be High Ground. Her vision blurred as another yawn activated her tear ducts. She decided that she would study the datapad more closely tomorrow.

Remembering their earlier conversation about pocket dimensions, she decided to access hers for the first time in what felt like ages. The little black datapad disappeared in a flash of light.

“Not gonna lie, that shit still kinda freaks me out,” Church said, referring to her magic. “I hope you’re planning on giving that back.”

“Of course. I just wanted to hold onto it for a little while for further study,” Twilight said.

Yes, she realized that putting away one of Church’s things someplace where he couldn’t reach it was a little rude, but she had no intentions of keeping it. Besides, a part of her felt that she was entitled to be a little bit rude to him after the way he was with her. That same part of her immediately felt guilty for that thought. Since when was she so passive aggressive?

“Yeah, that’s fine. You can hold onto it for a bit, I guess,” Church said as he turned to leave. “I’m gonna go keep watch up top. Make sure the Reds don’t try anything while you’re all asleep.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep at all?”

Church shrugged. “Nah, I never really get tired. Must be part of the whole ‘being a ghost’ thing.”

“Okay. Uh… goodnight,” Twilight said awkwardly.

“Hmm? Yeah, see ya…” Church said noncommittally.

Twilight still had more questions. Specifically, she was curious about Church’s interest in the ship. She decided that she’d put her curiosity in check for the time being. After all, Church was helping her now, and Twilight didn’t want to risk making him reconsider. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder whether Church’s interest in the ship had anything to do with the name he kept mentioning: Tex.

Arcane Star gave an anxious sigh as he made his way back to the main research tent. He was still a little shaken up from nearly being blasted by an alien ship. Of course, he had made sure to track down Sunny Side after the whole ordeal was finished to thank her for saving his life.

“Don’t mention it! I’m sure a charming guy like you has got a special somepony back home counting on you not to die,” she had said with a shrug.

“Yeah… sure,” Arcane Star had decided not to mention the fact that his wife divorced him shortly before he was sent to investigate the troublesome ship.

The very same ship that was quite effectively making Arcane Star forget his personal troubles in favor of entire new ones. When Tome Reader had called him out to the ship earlier, he thought they were finally making progress. Instead, they’d taken a huge step backwards.

The alien vessel was now constantly under a domed shield that mages in the Royal Guard were taking turns keeping up. The ship, or rather the A.I. controlling it, hadn’t made any more attempts to attack since the shield first went up, but they weren’t sure it would be so well behaved if they decided to lower the shield. In truth, all Arcane Star wanted was another chance to communicate with the alien construct. Despite what the A.I. had said, he did not think its attempt on his life was out of malice. No, the behavior was more reminiscent of a wounded animal, cornered and out of options.

Entering the main research tent, Arcane Star tried pushing all thoughts of the recent events from his mind. No use dwelling on them if there was nothing to be done for now. Might as well just return to work on the… the…

Where did it go? Arcane Star’s eyes widened and his heart raced as he stared at the large operating table that formerly held the mechanized alien in black armor. Eyes wide and pupils tiny, he looked all around the tent, trembling.

“Oh Celestia, I’ve seen movies about this…”

He turned around to leave the tent as quickly as he could... and came face to face with the black armored alien, alive and fully functioning. His first instinct was to call out for help, but the thing moved with lightning speed towards him and grabbed him by the throat.

Arcane Star couldn’t struggle nor even move. Fear had shut down all of his primary motor functions as the tall bipedal creature slowly and deliberately pulled him closer until its helmeted face was inches from his, staring into him. Instinctively, Arcane Star fired up his horn, but the creature moved to grab it in its other hand faster than he could blink. Then, very much to Arcane Star’s surprise, it spoke.

“Where is it?” the alien spoke in a harsh, female voice. “Where’s Omega?”

“W-what?” Arcane Star squeaked forth. Oddly enough, the main thought running through his head at the moment wasn’t how badly he hoped this thing wouldn’t kill him. Instead, it was the fact that it not only could talk, but appeared to be female. I guess Tome Reader owes me twenty bits.

“My A.I.! The one you pulled out of the back of my helmet! Where is it?”

“G-gone! It’s gone! I tried converting it to an M.I., but the conversion failed!”

“You did what???” The synthetic creature scrutinized him intensely. It was as if it (or rather she) was looking for something in him. Finally, the creature dropped him and stood up to its full height again. “You have no Goddamn idea what you just did, do you? You just made him damn near unstoppable!”

Arcane Star should have screamed for help right there, but the way the alien looked down at him he had the feeling he wouldn’t live very long afterwards. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! The conversion failed… didn’t it?”

“Was there anyone else present when you tried converting him? Any other ponies?”

Arcane Star opened his mouth to answer, when what the creature had just said hit him. How did she know they were called ponies? More importantly, how was it she seemed to know about M.I.s?

“W-well, yes. There were six mares from Ponyville!”

Arcane Star saw the way the black armored alien clenched its fists and he immediately recoiled, whimpering in anticipation of a blow that never came. He looked up to see the terrifying entity still standing over him.

“If you wanna live, then you have to tell me everything you know about them. What they all look like, and how I can find them!”

With a content sigh, Twilight Sparkle stretched out on the picnic blanket, taking in the warm Ponyville sun. She smiled happily at all of her friends as they sat around her. To her left, Rarity was working on a crochet with Spike fawning over her. Beside them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash appeared to be in a competition to see who could eat the most picnic food the fastest. To their left, Pinkie Pie was trying her best to start a confetti fight with either one of them. Beside Twilight on her right, Fluttershy sat quietly brewing tea with her pet bunny Angel nestled between her hooves.

Twilight had a book in front of her, but she didn’t really feel like reading it. She was simply content to sit in the grassy clearing in the company of her friends. They talked amongst themselves about nothing in particular and occasionally Twilight would speak up, but mostly she just listened to their voices. At the moment, she had nothing to worry about. No monster was threatening Equestria, and she didn’t have any reports to do. Everything was perfect.

Twilight’s ears twitched as she heard a noise a fair distance behind her. Turning to investigate, Twilight was surprised to see Princess Luna standing just outside a line of trees a few feet away, looking at her with a guarded expression.

“Hey, girls! Princess Luna is…” Twilight turned back around and trailed off upon realizing she was talking to an empty clearing. The picnic and all of her friends were gone, as if they had never been there at all.

A lump formed in her throat and Twilight’s heart sank when she realized what was going on and where she really was. Twilight half expected Luna to be gone when she turned around again, but the night alicorn was instead standing right in front of her, having closed the distance between them without making a sound.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your picnic, Twilight Sparkle. You seemed like you were enjoying yourself,” Luna said with nothing but sincerity in her voice.

Twilight looked down steadily, expecting to wake up in Blood Gulch any moment. Instead, a dark blue hoof lifted her chin up and she found herself looking into the comforting eyes of Princess Luna. It was then that Twilight remembered a certain ability of Luna’s, and her face lit up as a little bit of hope returned.

“Are you… really here?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “I’ll be sure to let the others know you’re alright. I’m certain it will ease their minds greatly.”

“How are they all doing?”

Luna hesitated. It looked to Twilight that there was something she wanted to tell her. “They’ll be just fine. They’ve faced worse things before. What of your predicament? I may be able to talk to you here, but there is nothing I can do to bring you back to Equestria.”

“All things considered, I’m doing okay,” Twilight said with cautious optimism. “I made contact with the aliens here and I’ve gotten some of them to agree to help me find a way back home!”

Luna’s stoic but concerned expression abruptly broke into a giddy smile. “That is pleasing news, Twilight Sparkle! You’ve actually talked to the aliens? That’s amazing! You must be learning so much!”

“Yeah, I’m learning things alright...” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes.

Princess Luna smiled a bit longer before giving way to a more serious look. This one was different from the concerned look she had before. Twilight thought it almost looked… guilty.

“Twilight… I have another reason for contacting you like this. You see… I owe you an apology.”

Twilight tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

“I lied when I told you Celestia was out of the country. When I sent you to investigate that ship, I did so without Celestia’s knowledge. In fact, she preferred that you not get involved at all.”

Twilight’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water a few times before she asked, “Why…?”

“That’s what I had hoped to discover in sending you to investigate. Instead, all I did was place you in danger…” Luna was suddenly unable to meet Twilight’s eyes.

“I don’t blame you for what happened, Luna. Neither should you,” Twilight furrowed her brow. “That being said, I don’t know why you couldn’t just be honest with me?”

Luna returned her gaze to meet Twilight’s. “You must understand, when word of the ship first reached Celestia and myself, she started to act… strangely. She and I have faced the forces of darkness and chaos for millennia, but when we were told of that ship...”

Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ve only ever seen my sister so frightened one other time.”

Twilight brought a hoof to her mouth, puzzling over what it could all mean as Luna continued.

“I’m worried, Twilight. I’ve been having premonitions. That ship is just the tip of the iceberg to something far bigger. Celestia knows something about what’s coming, but for reasons I can’t comprehend she won’t tell me, you or anypony else.”

Twilight suddenly heard a distant voice she recognized as Church. “Hey Twilight… Twilight! Wake up!”

“I’m sorry I deceived you, Twilight Sparkle. But I have to know what Celestia is hiding.”

The green plain outside Ponyville began to vanish, taking Princess Luna with it. As Twilight started to become aware of her surroundings in Blue Base, Luna’s words lingered.

“The fate of Equestria could be at stake...”

Church stood outside of Blue Base, the early morning sun just coming up over the canyon walls. Beside him was a small pile of duffel bags and crates full of the team’s things. Gripping his sniper rifle firmly in hand, Church tapped his foot anxiously as he waited for the vehicle from Command to arrive.

“Hey, Church? Can we talk real quick?”

Church turned around to see Tucker walking out of the base’s front entrance with some sort of case in his hand. “Since Twilight’s an undiscovered species of alien, what do you think the guys from Command are gonna do once they find out about her?”

Church sighed. “I know. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do all night! I don’t want to lose my chance to find Tex if the people at Command take Twilight to some lab for research or something!”

“Well, I was looking through a bunch of my stuff, and I found something I ordered back when I had Junior,” Tucker explained, holding up the case in his hand. It was an empty beige box with a grated door on the front.

Church immediately knew what Tucker had in mind. “Huh, that might actually work.”

“Yeah... Twilight’s gonna be pissed, though!”

Twilight stood alone outside the rear entrance to Blue Base, her dream conversation with Luna still repeating in her mind. The things that Luna told her unsettled Twilight more than words could describe. She knew lingering on them would do her no good though. She instead opted to focus on her current problem: finding a way back home.

For what felt like the dozenth time, Twilight reached up to her headset and pushed the button to transmit.

“Hello, Church? Can you hear me?” Twilight waited for a response yet again, and yet again received none. At least, not from the person she expected.

“Hey! Twilight!”

Twilight recognized the slightly deeper voice immediately. “Simmons? Why does the radio only work with you?”

“I’m not talking to you on the radio. I’m behind you.”

Twilight turned around and sure enough, she spotted the soldier in maroon armor step out from behind a rock.

“Oh…” Twilight lowered her hoof from her headset and walked over to where Simmons was hiding. “What are you doing here?”

“Sarge sent me to do some last minute spying on the Blues before we moved to our new bases,” Simmons said. “I also realized that since you’re using the radio from Donut’s old helmet, no one’s probably changed the batteries in a really long time.”

Simmons pulled out a pair of small cylindrical metal objects and showed Twilight how to change the batteries in her headset.

“There! Those should last you for a while.”

“Thanks, Simmons,” Twilight gave him a friendly smile. “I’m sorry for running away from you guys, but Church has agreed to help me find a way back home!”

“Oh, that’s cool!” Simmons exclaimed. His gaze shifted downwards steadily. “Actually, I also thought I’d take this opportunity to say goodbye. I gotta say, it was kinda nice having someone to talk to for awhile who doesn’t think I’m a total nerd!”

“Oh, I definitely think you’re a total nerd,” Twilight giggled, giving Simmons a playful jab with her hoof, “but I guess I’m not really one to talk!”

Both of them then heard the sound of a Warthog’s engine over at the front of Blue Base.

“Well, sounds like I need to get going,” Twilight said.

Simmons nodded. “Yeah, I should probably get back to Red Base.”

With that, Twilight Sparkle turned to make her way to the front of Blue Base.

“Good luck with the whole… finding a way home thing!” Simmons called out as he began making his way around the other side of the base.

“Thanks, Simmons! Maybe I’ll send you an interplanetary postcard!”

As she walked around the outside of Blue Base, Twilight couldn’t keep the happy grin off her face. Her radio was working again, and she was on her way to getting back to Equestria. Things were finally working out for her! She saw Church and Tucker heading around to meet her halfway. However, not even they could ruin her good mood.

“Hey guys! I got my radio working! I can officially be part of the team now!”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great, Twilight,” Church hastily said, depositing some kind of beige crate with holes in the sides and an open metal grate on the front. “Listen, I need you to do us a huge solid and get inside this dog crate for the trip.”

Twilight looked from the dog crate to Church and Tucker. “Why...?” Twilight knew the answer, but she wasn’t asking Church or Tucker: She was asking the universe at large.

Before she knew it, Twilight was lying down inside a cramped dog crate being loaded onto the back of a jeep along with the rest of Blue Team’s stuff. Church, Tucker and Caboose all hopped into the seats in the back of the jeep, and soon they were driving away from the small concrete structure in Blood Gulch that served as Blue Base.

As they did, Twilight couldn’t help but get this feeling that they were forgetting something…

“Helloooo? I’m ready for our road trip! Where the fuck is everybody?”

Simmons was walking along a cliff high up on the side of one of the canyon walls when he heard a familiarly ditzy female voice echo throughout Blood Gulch. He turned around and looked back in the direction of Blue Base. Standing alone outside the small building was a single soldier in yellow armor wondering around aimlessly. Had the Blues left without her?

“Interesting…” Simmons muttered as he turned around and headed back towards Red Base double time.

Soon, he was walking up to Grif and Sarge, who were helping the man in gray armor from Command load their bags into the back of an M831 Troop Transport Warthog variant. The vehicle looked just like a regular warthog jeep, only instead of a gun turret on the back it had four seats along the sides. Grif was only loading in all of the light bags. One at a time. Very, very slowly. Simmons walked up to him.

“Hey, Grif. Working hard to contribute as usual, I see!” Simmons said. He then took a look around. Someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Donut?”

“He left with some guys from Command while you were out reconning,” Grif explained. Simmons ignored his made up word. “They said something about his experience with the aliens and getting him debriefed. Suffice to say, Donut was more thrilled about the prospect than he probably should have been.”

“Yeah…” Simmons nodded. “Wait, by alien did they mean Twilight?”

“Nah, I think they were talking about the aliens we were at war with. You know, the ones that aren’t totally lame?”

“But... that doesn’t make sense! Donut doesn’t have any experience with those aliens!” Simmons pointed out. “If anyone in this canyon needs to be debriefed, it would probably be Tucker…”

“Ah, Simmons!” Sarge exclaimed, marching over to his two subordinates. “Get any good last minute intel on those dirty Blues?”

“Well, I’ve confirmed that they definitely have Twilight again,” Simmons started.

“Wait, the Blues took back our baby horse alien?” Sarge asked. “When did that happen?”

“Last night! I thought Donut woke you up to tell you as soon as it happened! I was wondering why you weren’t ordering an immediate counterattack.”

“Simmons, if I declared a Red Alert every time Donut came into my room at night talking about unicorns, we’d never get any sleep!”

It was then that the driver of the troop transport, a soldier in light gray armor with a different looking helmet from the assembled Reds approached them. “Alright guys, hop in. It’s time to move out!”

Sarge turned and walked towards the transport jeep. “Right! Now, if you haven’t got anything else to report, let’s saddle up and hit the road!”

It was then that Simmons remembered the strange thing that he saw on the way back from Blue Base. “Oh, that’s right! It looks like the Blues have left one of their soldiers behind!”

Sarge froze in the middle of climbing into the back of the jeep. He slowly turned his helmeted head to look at Simmons, the rest of his body in suspended animation.

“... What?”

“The Blues have already left for their new base, but one of them is still over there!”

Sarge hopped off the side of the jeep and pulled out his shotgun, cocking the barrel dramatically. “I knew it! It was a trap all along!”

“Sir…?”

“If we leave now while one single Blue remains in this canyon, it means they’ve won! I should’ve known that’s what they were planning!”

“It honestly looks like they just forgot about her…”

“Who cares if the Blues won this fucking canyon, I just want to get the fuck out of it!” Grif exclaimed, hopping into the back of the troop transport.

“Hmph! I expected as much from you, Grif!” Sarge turned to face Simmons. “C’mon, Simmons! We have a battle to finish here!”

Simmons looked from Grif to Sarge uneasily. “Normally I would agree with you, sir. But we have orders from Command and I think we should follow them.”

Simmons turned around and climbed into the back of the jeep. The driver from Command walked around and approached Sarge.

“We’re running late now. Get in or I’m leaving you!” the soldier in light gray armor said firmly.

Sarge looked up at Grif and Simmons while he fidgeted with his shotgun. “I told you: I never leave a fight unfinished, or a Blue unkilled!”

The driver turned around. “Suit yourself. Guess we’ll have to find this squad a new sergeant...”

Simmons didn’t take his eyes off Sarge as the man in red stood defiantly in front of Red Base. Not even as the jeep pulled away, Sarge and their home for five years got smaller and smaller with distance.

Church looked up as the Troop Transport they were riding in pulled to a stop in the underground garage where the Command Checkpoint was. The drive had taken them all morning, but they were finally at their first stop.

The facility was built into a cave, with natural rock making up the walls and ceiling alongside metal and concrete. Looking off to the side, Church could see a landing pad outside the cave with a Pelican dropship resting on it. Beyond it, nestled into the rock of a tall cliff was the concrete facade of their first destination: Rat’s Nest.

Three more soldiers from Command approached their jeep for inspection. Church tried not to let just how on edge he was show. This plan had better work.

“Hey, what’s with the armor you guys are all wearing?” Tucker asked as he and Caboose got up to disembark.

Church had actually been wondering that himself. The gray armor that all of the Command troops wore looked different from himself and the rest of his squad. Mostly it was the ODST helmets. The visors were more angular than the ones on the Blues’ helmets and seemed to protrude slightly. Additionally, the helmets themselves were more rounded. There seemed to be minor variations in the armor itself as well, but they were less noticeable.

“Our armor? This is the standard for everyone in the program. You’re the ones with outdated equipment!” the Command soldier who appeared to be in charge stated.

“Shit, guess we need to upgrade,” Church muttered. He then looked over at Caboose, who was standing behind the jeep with Tucker. “Hey, Caboose! I need you to remember something very important: upgrade your armor as soon as you get to your new base!”

“Okay!” Caboose said.

“I’m serious: you have Mark Six armor right now. Make sure you get whichever model is higher than six!” Church spoke slowly and carefully so as not to confuse him.

“Don’t worry Church! I’ll be so high above six I’ll be able to see my house!”

Church heard a certain snarky female voice. “Wow, Church. You’re worse than my mom on my first day at Celestia’s School.”

Church didn’t even look at her as he hopped off the back of the vehicle and forcefully whispered. “Hey! Quiet! You’ll blow everything!”

At that moment another of the soldiers from Command approached Church and the Blues as they all stood around behind the vehicle they arrived in. “Okay, Private Church?”

“That’s me.”

“You can board the ship outside just as soon as we’ve checked your bags.”

“Wait, you’re taking me there with a ship? Isn’t that a bit overkill for one guy?” Church asked.

The Command soldier shrugged. “The guys in charge really wanna make sure you make it to your new base safely for some reason.” The gray soldier then began looking through Church’s bags and immediately noticed a certain beige dog crate. “Uh… is that an animal?”

“Yes. This is my dog: George.”

The “dog” in question gave a tired, annoyed sigh. “Bark bark. Bark.” It was the least enthusiastic barking ever uttered.

The Command soldier studied Twilight Sparkle intensely for what felt like a whole minute before turning around to address his superior. The two gray soldiers conversed for a few seconds before the one inspecting Church’s stuff returned.

“Yeah, it’s against regulations for you to keep a pet on frontline military facilities.”

“What? Says who?” Church demanded.

“Says the regulations!”

Church exchanged an uneasy glance with Twilight. The purple pony seemed just as aware of the severity of the situation as he. “But… I need her! She’s my… seeing eye dog!”

“Wait, you’re blind?”

“Uh, yes!” Church desperately exclaimed.

“If you need proof, just watch him try to hit something with his sniper rifle,” Tucker said, receiving a glare from Church.

“So... how does a dog help your aim?” the Command soldier asked.

Church hesitated. “Two barks means I’m on target. One bark I’m not. Watch!”

After nudging Twilight’s crate a couple of times, Church raised his sniper rifle in the general direction of Caboose, but intentionally aimed far to his left.

“Uh, bark…” Twilight stated, putting zero effort into her dog imitation. Church moved his sniper rifle horizontally in Caboose’s direction.

“Bark…”

Church adjusted his aim until he was pointing straight at Caboose.

“Bark-bark… bark-bark,” Twilight sighed.

Church lowered his sniper rifle and turned back around to face the Command soldier. “Yes, I realize it’s not a perfect system, but it’s our system!”

The Command soldier just put a hand on his chin, and after a few seconds consideration, shook his head. “I’m sorry, but there are proper UNSC approved methods to assist handicapped soldiers. The dog has to go!”

“Dammit!” Church swore as the Command soldiers offloaded the rest of his bags, leaving a very distressed looking Twilight sitting in the dog crate on the back of the transport jeep.

With Church’s bags offloaded, one of the gray Command soldiers tapped the side of the jeep a few times and it began driving away with Twilight.

“NO! GEORGE!” Caboose yelled. “Don’t take George away! We have a special friendship! Not as special as my friendship with Church, but still! You can’t separate a boy from his dog! The power of our love will bring us together again!”

Church suddenly realized that he was being led away. One of the Command soldiers had him by the arm and was gently leading him outside to the dropship.

“I just want to say: You’re very brave for joining the army in spite of your disability,” the gray soldier said. “You know, my friend’s sister is blind!”

Church growled. “I hate all of existence.”

Author's Note

This is it! The last update of 2013! It's only fitting that we start to catch a glimpse of the overarching plot in this chapter! Sorry for the abundance of sci-fi exposition, but it's all important!

Next time: Twi meets someone unexpected.

Act 1 Part 6 - Land of Enemies

Dear Princess Celestia,

How is everything going? Have you made any progress on figuring out where Twilight is? The girls and I are all really worried about her, but we’re managing. Mostly.

This actually brings me to the reason why I’m writing you: something’s wrong with Pinkie Pie. Like, really seriously wrong. The therapist said that she is suffering from ~~dise~~ ~~disasocio~~ that thing where she thinks she’s two different people. The therapist said that it was brought on by a traumatic experience or something.

The others think it’s because she’s worried about Twilight, but I’m not so sure. Pinkie’s faith in her friends—especially Twilight—is so strong that she never worries, even when they’re in trouble. Rainbow Dash seems to think Pinkie was acting strange before Twilight went missing. Like, around the time Arcane Star did his experiment on the alien M.I.

If there is anything you can do, please let us know. We’re all just as worried about Pinkie now as we are about Twilight.

Your faithful dragon,
Spike

It took all of Twilight Sparkle’s resolve to maintain steady breathing and not panic as she was transported to this “Command” she kept hearing about in the back of the transport jeep. The vehicle had made a brief stop early on to pick up a couple more gray armored Command troops before continuing on its way.

She had been reluctant at first to go along with Church’s plan to pretend to be a simple animal, but he knew more about how the human military worked than she did. He had told her that Command would likely try to acquire her for research purposes, keeping her under lock and key and never letting her return home. She’d thought he may have been exaggerating or paranoid, but something about these Command soldiers deeply unsettled her.

Twilight couldn’t really describe it, but she had this... feeling. Like there was something more to these soldiers than the cold efficiency that she had been privy to for the admittedly short time. Being around them was surreal. The juxtaposition between these soldiers and the Red and Blue ones she spent the last day with was huge. It was as if the Reds and the Blues she’d met were merely a parody of real soldiers. Twilight would have thought that being around soldiers displaying actual military decorum would be a relief after the Blood Gulch men. Instead, she was just unnerved for reasons she couldn’t even explain.

It was for this reason that Twilight remained silent, keeping up her admittedly thin canine ruse. She figured it would be much easier for her to escape if they thought she was a dog than if they knew she was an intelligent life form with magical capabilities. So Twilight stayed silent, but she did not stay idle, however.

As they drove, Twilight watched the driver and carefully studied everything he did. Over the hours they spent driving, she figured out that the wheel in front of the driver was what steered the vehicle. Additionally, the driver’s legs seemed to be operating pedals that controlled the acceleration on the floor out of sight. Her plan was simple: Wait for them to lock her up, escape, steal one of these vehicles, and make her way back to Church.

Twilight’s hopes for a relatively simple escape were dashed when the vehicle passed another security checkpoint, drove through a gate, and entered Command proper. Her eyes widened and her ears drooped as she looked upon the hot dusty expanse full of fortified concrete bunkers as far as the eye could see. Patrols of infantry and armored vehicles crisscrossed every path in the facility, and in the distance Twilight could see several massive dish-shaped objects pointing at the sky.

Twilight was so busy taking in her intimidating (but admittedly impressive) surroundings she hadn’t even noticed that they had arrived before one of the structures until she was being unloaded by the men in gray armor. In short order, she was brought through an open doorway into the simple but well kept building.

“Sir, we have several confiscated belongings here, the most prominent of which being… some kind of animal,” one of the men carrying her crate reported to a soldier behind a desk, putting the container she was in down on the floor beside him. She was facing away from the desk in the general direction of the entrance to the building.

“An animal, huh?” the one behind the desk asked.

“Yeah, the sim trooper in possession of it claimed it’s a dog, but I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Twilight prayed to whichever Princess controlled the sun here that they wouldn’t figure out she wasn’t a dog. She then reflected on the irony of fact that just the other day she had continually insisted that she wasn’t anything but a pony.

As the soldier continued conversing with the man behind the desk, Twilight heard more footsteps as another soldier walked in through the front entrance and a pair of white armored legs appeared before her.

“...well, we don’t exactly have a kennel here, buddy,” the man behind the desk said.

“There must be someplace we can keep it, this was some guy’s seeing eye dog!”

It was then that a third voice entered the conversation. One that Twilight realized came from the soldier that just entered the room.

“Ugh, can you chaps move this along? I’d like to check in sometime this decade, if you please,” the soldier said in a dry, sarcastic tone. He spoke in a stuffy accent that greatly reminded Twilight of the more pompous nobles of Canterlot.

“Oh, Agent Wyoming! Welcome back, sir!” the man behind the desk greeted. “May I ask how your latest mission went, or is that classified?”

“Well, if success can be measured by the amount of time travel copies of oneself slaughtered, I daresay it went swimmingly!”

Time travel? What was he talking about? Twilight remembered her talk with Church the other night about such technology, but the only thing that made it possible was the device inside the white…

Twilight looked up at the man the others referred to as Wyoming and gasped loudly when she found herself looking at the exact same white helmet she found on the ship that had been responsible for bringing her here. Unfortunately, her shocked gasp did not go unnoticed by the soldiers in the room.

“Huh… never heard a dog make that noise before. Maybe it’s hungry...” the man who carried her in said.

Twilight’s ears fell and her head lowered as all eyes in the room were on her. It was dawning on her just how few options she had left. In hindsight, she should have tried to escape while they were on the road before ever reaching this place.

Wyoming crouched down to Twilight’s level to study her more closely. Something was off about the way he looked at her. He didn’t seemed shocked or surprised, instead he just seemed… intrigued.

“Well, well, this is certainly interesting. And just what are you doing all the way out in our neck of the woods, eh?” Wyoming leaned forward and Twilight’s skin began to crawl. “Come now, don’t be shy. I know you can talk!”

“Uh, sir? Why are you talking to that dog?”

Wyoming stood back up to address the other men in the room. “You have no idea what this is, do you?” He then looked back at Twilight. She didn’t need to see his face to know he was grinning. “No matter. If that’s the case, I’ll be quite happy to take this off your hands and deliver it to the right people!”

Wyoming gave a sinister chuckle that sent a wave of chills washing over Twilight. “And here I was thinking I’d be returning to Project Freelancer empty handed!”

Despite entire millennia of evolution, gut instinct has a funny way of completely taking over in stressful situations. No matter how smart someone may be, when adrenaline is pumping through their veins and fear for their life is kicking in, it always comes down to two basic instincts: fight or flight.

Flight was currently out of the question for Twilight, being inside a small cage. Naturally, that left fight. An exceptionally powerful unicorn consumed by a “fight” instinct can be quite a force to be reckoned with, as Wyoming and the two Command troops learned when Twilight’s horn started glowing. A blast of magical energy shattered the crate that contained her into several pieces and knocked the three soldiers in the room off of their feet.

Twilight’s horn powered down and now that she was freed from the confines of the crate, flight replaced fight. Twilight Sparkle saw the late afternoon light outside the front entrance and ran for it, eyes wide and breathing frantic. Wyoming slowly pulled himself to his feet.

“Get up you bloody buffoons! Don’t let her escape!”

Pinkie Pie felt nothing as she stepped into her bedroom. The special talking doctor had said that she was sick and that her new friend O’Malley wasn’t even a real pony. That had been what frightened Pinkie Pie the most: That all of those angry, horrible thoughts she had about doing… bad things to her friends weren’t placed there by some other entity. They were all her own thoughts. That was why Pinkie had been so eager to escape her friends: She was afraid of what she might do to them.

It was also why Pinkie didn’t protest when the doctor pony gave her the tasteless candy she said would help her get rid of those thoughts. Pinkie hated the little multicolored capsules. They didn’t make her feel bad, but that was the problem: they didn’t make her feel anything. Not scared, not angry and—most importantly—not happy. She wanted to smile, but she couldn’t even do that right anymore. It always looked wrong whenever she tried it. Pinkie always thought that not being able to smile would be the worst thing ever, but because of those pills she took, she couldn’t even feel sad about it.

Pinkie sighed, considering just climbing into bed and sleeping the rest of the day away.

“Come on, Pinkie Pie! There is far too much evil to be done to go to sleep now!”

With a start, Pinkie whirled around. She found herself looking in the mirror she always used when trying on silly costumes. To her surprise, the pony looking back at her was smiling. It still looked wrong though, which was strange, because the pony looking back at her looked genuinely happy.

“O’Malley? But… how?”

“I can’t believe those foolish fools think that I’m just a part of you! I all but told that therapist fool what I really am!”

“What you really are?” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. Her reflection repeated the motion, but kept giving her that wrong smile.

“Remember that fool Arcane Star’s ‘failed’ experiment with the A.I.?” Pinkie’s reflection asked, adding air quotes to the word “failed.”

Pinkie gave a loud gasp. “You mean that scary thing was you?”

The other Pinkie let out a maniacal laugh. “I suppose I should thank him. Now there is nowhere I can’t go! No one I can’t possess to further my plans to take over the universe! Ha ha ha haaaa!”

Pinkie looked on with growing unease as her reflection continued to laugh, filling her mind with images of what it wanted to do. Despite the drugs in her system, Pinkie’s heart beat faster and she felt an unpleasant sensation in her stomach. At least at first.

It came to Pinkie Pie with sudden clarity: If this thing in her head really was an alien and not a product of her own mind, then these terrible thoughts she kept having about hurting her friends weren’t hers after all! Her brow furrowed with determination as she messed up her straight mane until a little bit of its gravity defying nature returned.

“Now you listen here: You may be the meanest meanie-pants to ever not wear pants, but I won’t let that stop me from being your friend!” Pinkie proclaimed, glaring right back at her laughing reflection. She knew everything would be okay when she felt a smile form on her own face; this one didn’t feel wrong anymore. “You’ll see! You, me, and everypony else will all be super best friends, and we’ll have a party together complete with cake! Preferably chocolate! But maybe strawberry!”

O’Malley put Pinkie’s hoof to her chin in mock contemplation. “A party you say? Ooh, I have an idea that’s to die for! Let’s throw a party! Yes… and we’ll invite all of your friends over! We’ll show them all a good time they won’t soon forget…”

Her chest burned and her hooves were sore, but still Twilight ran. She ran over dirt roads and weaved around rocks, trees and artificial structures. She had quickly learned not to give her pursuers a clear line of sight to her, as the ever increasing number of gray soldiers chasing her had not hesitated to open fire on their quarry. After blasting her way out of her crate and escaping the building, Twilight had hoped it would take the rest of the troops a while to realize they had a loose alien in their facility. Instead, a blaring sound that Twilight could only guess was an alarm went off, and she found herself with at least a dozen troops on her tail taking pot shots at her whenever they had an opening.

Twilight wasn’t sure why the prospect of high-powered projectile weapons hadn’t terrified her before when she was in Blood Gulch. It was probably because the men in Blood Gulch weren’t out to get her, let alone in such a ruthlessly organized fashion. Still, despite the numerous chances they had to shoot her, none of their shots hit their mark. Twilight assumed they were all either really bad shots or she was really lucky.

“Grenade out!” one of them yelled.

It was not until a small round explosive device about the size of her hoof landed off to her left and detonated that she realized that maybe they weren’t trying to hit her at all. The concussive blast so close to her caused Twilight to panic and suddenly adjust her course to the right, turning to round the corner of one of the concrete metal bunkers. She ran up a slope into an area covered in the shade of the nearby cliff, and realized that she had been corralled right into the path of a large tank and a handful of other gray soldiers.

As she turned tail to run the other way, Twilight couldn’t help but notice what looked like a small trench next to the tank that ambushed her. It looked like it led to a rear entrance to the bunker she’d just run past. An idea to shake her pursuers formed in her mind as she ran back down the slope from the advancing tank and men.

The tank fired a shot from its main cannon right over Twilight’s head, the shell exploding several feet in front of her. The shot was meant to divert her left the way she came… right into the soldiers that had been chasing her on foot. Twilight knew better than to fall for it this time though, fighting her instincts and instead choosing to run through the smoke and settling dirt from the tank’s blast.

Twilight ran straight for a cluster of large rocks, where she knew her pursuers would lose their line of sight on her again. Another bunker lay past the rocks, and Twilight could see another handful of gray soldiers charging out of the building and climbing into the Warthogs parked outside. They would have had her completely surrounded if she didn’t have a plan.

Diving between a pair of large boulders in a way so that she was completely out of sight for a moment, Twilight fired up her horn and visualized the trench in the shade of the cliff, remembering every last detail she could. After a bright flash and slight dizziness, Twilight was now once again standing in the shade of the cliffs with the trench leading into the base in front of her. The tank and squad of soldiers that had been here moments earlier were gone, now in the center of the facility where the rest of her pursuers were gathering.

Twilight turned to look at the distant rocks from which she had teleported. A small army of the gray soldiers were gathered around her former hiding place and looking around in confusion.

“Hmm… now where did you go...?”

Twilight had to shove her own hooves into her mouth to keep from gasping again, and then carefully looked over to her left. Standing on the roof of the bunker was the soldier in white armor who had started this whole chase: Wyoming. The man was currently facing away from Twilight, looking out onto the rest of the facility through a long scoped rifle just like the one Church had. He had likely been up there watching the chase since it began, and Twilight had the feeling that he was a much better shot with that rifle than Church was.

To Twilight’s immediate panic, Wyoming lowered his sniper rifle with a frustrated grunt. Twilight dove into the trench as Wyoming began to turn in her direction. She hugged her back to the trench wall closest to him as tightly as she could and held her breath. Twilight’s heart raced as she listened to Wyoming’s footsteps on the dirt above her. She bit her lip as his footsteps grew louder and louder in her right ear, then began growing softer in her left.

After a few moments, Wyoming’s footsteps were gone completely. Twilight slowly got back down on all four hooves and crept into the back entrance of the bunker. After going down a set of stairs, she carefully poked her head into the building and looked in each direction. Only after she was sure that no one was inside did she finally collapse through the gateway to relative safety and let out a huge breath.

Twilight stood in the empty room for several seconds, taking in huge gulps of air. Once she had caught her breath, Twilight began anxiously pacing, her brain running at full speed now that the rest of her wasn’t.

“Okay, Twilight! Calm down, remember the proper breathing strategies you’ve been practicing!” Twilight said as she took a long breath through her nose and letting it out through her mouth. “Okay, don’t panic. Panic leads to bad decisions! Need to think rationally…”

Twilight was aware that it was a possibility that someone could have heard her as she talked aloud to herself, but she didn’t care. At that moment, she just needed to hear something that wasn’t either the yelling of hostile soldiers or high-powered weapons-fire.

“Okay… plan. Plan, plan, plan…” Twilight muttered. “All I have to do is find a way to escape a big, secure, futuristic military base full of guys that are all looking for me and find the base Church was moved to despite having never been there before… Ugh! I am so bucked...”

Twilight shut her eyes and her mouth. Talking out loud was proving to be less helpful the more she did it. She decided she’d just tackle her problems one at a time.

First thing first: Escape the facility. For a moment, Twilight considered teleporting again as an option, but quickly realized why it was a bad idea. In order for the teleport spell to work, she had to picture her destination clearly in her mind: the more detailed the mental image, the more likely the teleport would be successful. The trench behind the base had been fresh in her mind at the time, but she wasn’t sure she could picture any of the places she’d been to thus far clearly enough to safely teleport again.

Not only that, but the act of teleporting itself was incredibly strenuous, especially with distance. Once, she had teleported both herself and a few of her friends across half of Equestria to escape a group of adolescent dragons, and paid for it later on with a major concussion and the occasional migraine that plagued her even to this day. As Twilight had found out later, a teleport of that magnitude only had a 0.1 percent chance of succeeding without turning her brain into goo. No, teleporting was out of the question. Nopony in the history of creation could be that lucky twice.

Looking away to clear her mind of that grim train of thought, Twilight saw a sign with a silhouette image of a Warthog and the word “motor pool” with an arrow pointing down a nearby set of stairs. She decided she’d go with her initial plan of stealing one of their jeeps. It was all just a matter of whether she’d be able to drive one. Twilight was pretty sure she had the basics down from watching the guy driving the transport she arrived in, but figured there would also be more to it. She’d have to cross that bridge when she reached it.

The next thing Twilight had to figure out was how she would find Church. She knew the place he had been relocated to was called High Ground, but she didn’t have the faintest idea where that was. She might be able to go find Tucker and Caboose at Rat’s Nest, but even her knowledge of where that was relative to her current location was sketchy at best. If only she had remembered the details of the map on the datapad Church had given her…

Twilight’s eyes suddenly shot open. That was it! Summoning more magic to her horn, Twilight quickly found and ignited the specific series of leylines that let her access her pocket dimension. A certain black rectangular object materialized before her.

Twilight smiled when she found the button to turn it on and was rewarded with the image of a map of the area complete with a functioning real time GPS. Maybe she wasn’t bucked!

Arcane Star could not imagine things being any more bucked. Not much more than an hour had passed since Tome Reader found him unconscious inside the main research tent, asking him what had happened to the alien in black armor. Arcane Star wasn’t sure how, but the creature had escaped the encampment without being seen by any of the guards or researchers.

The older stallion had just left the medical tent after being treated for minor head injuries. He was briskly trotting towards the far side of the clearing, where the source of all of his problems lay protected by a magical barrier.

He approached the unicorn guard currently working on maintaining the shield spell over the ship.

“You there! I need you to let me into that barrier!” Arcane Star ordered.

The guard turned around and looked at him uneasily. “You sure? After everything that’s happened?”

“Especially after everything that’s happened!” Arcane Star gave the unicorn guard an authoritative glare.

The guard seemed like he wanted to argue further, but knew better than to do so with a superior. “Okay, but I strongly advise against this.”

The unicorn’s horn glowed brighter for a split second and the shield covering the ship flickered briefly, indicating it was now safe for anypony marked as a “friendly” to pass through. Arcane Star did exactly that and marched right up to the small terminal in the side of the ship.

“Knock, knock!” he said, scrutinizing the small screen intensely as once again words appeared.

> Who’s there?

“A pony who wants answers!”

> A pony who wants answers, who?

“A pony who wants answers, now!”

There was a pregnant pause before new text appeared on the computer screen.

> That one wasn’t very funny.

“That’s because it wasn’t a joke!” Arcane Star spoke in a low voice as his brows lowered, “I want to know more about this ship. What was its purpose? Who’s the person in black armor?”

> This is a simple transport ship. Agent Texas is its pilot.

“No, there has to be more to it than that!” Arcane Star sighed as he ran a hoof through his mane. “Both she and you either threatened to kill me or outright tried to. There must have been something on this ship that has the both of you worried.”

The onboard A.I. gave no reply.

“This is about the other A.I. isn’t it? The one that I converted? Omega?”

> The Omega A.I. is the least of our concerns. He, Agent Texas and myself all want the same thing: to get as far away from here as possible.

Arcane Star sighed and folded his forelegs. “I assure you, you have nothing to fear from us! All we want is to learn from you!”

> It is not you we are afraid of.

A cold chill washed over Arcane Star as more words appeared on screen.

> The Beacon was sent the moment we crashed.

> It is coming.

> It will come for me, Omega and Agent Texas. It will kill anyone that gets in Its way.

Arcane Star’s eyebrows slowly made their way up. “It...?”

It took a few seconds for the program to formulate a response.

> The Great Destroyer.

Lieutenant Miller raised a single eyebrow as a Warthog drove down the tunnel toward him. The Blue Team Leader had served at Outpost 28-A: Rat’s Nest for a few years now, and had served in Blue Army for even longer. As such, the man had seen a lot of strange things. The two new recruits that Command had sent to his unit were by far two of the strangest individuals the Lieutenant had ever met in his career and possibly his life.

One of them was just heading back from his first patrol with… something in the bed of his jeep. Lieutenant Miller pulled up the personnel files uploaded to his HUD so he could remember the name of the man in the greenish-blue armor that was driving down the underground tunnel towards him. Lavernius Tucker.

“Private Tucker! Back from patrol already?” Miller asked as Tucker slowed his vehicle, stopping beside his Commanding Officer.

“Hell yeah! Uh, sir!” Tucker hopped out of the jeep.

Miller didn’t miss the way he said “sir” as more of an afterthought than anything else. His former Commander must have been pretty lax with formalities. Miller decided to press the issue later, instead focusing on what was really on his mind at the moment.

“And what exactly have you got in that big crate back there?”

Tucker turned to look at the crate in question, nustled snugly into the rear bed of the Warthog.

“Oh, this? It’s just all the extra ammo I picked up.”

Now both eyebrows had reached the top of Lieutenant Miller’s helmet. “Extra ammo? Why Tucker, where did you ever get all of that?”

In truth, Miller’s team in Rat’s Nest had been starting to run low on ammo, and the Blue Lieutenant was getting worried they’d run out before the next shipment.

“Oh, uh… let’s just say I have connections over at Red Base.”

Miller tilted his head back and forth. He had his doubts when the new recruits joined his unit, but Miller had to admit Tucker was showing great initiative and had done his squad a huge service. Who knows? With time, the young man may prove to be one of his most trusted soldiers. Maybe the other man he was shipped with would prove useful as well. He did say he was a vehicle expert after all.

“Well that’s nice work, Private Tucker! Why don’t you take all of that into the base?”

“Sure thing, dude! Uh, I mean sir!” With that, Tucker hopped back into the jeep and drove past Miller and continued down the expansive underground tunnel around the corner leading to Blue Base.

As Lieutenant Miller watched him go, he saw another one of his soldiers in blue armor with beige detail walking toward him.

“Something you need, Private Joe-Ennis?” Miller asked.

Joe-Ennis gave a frustrated sigh, something he did every time someone addressed him.

“We’ve got a problem, sir. It’s the new guy,” Joe-Ennis explained in a tired British tone.

“What, Tucker? He’s been doing a pretty good job so far!” Miller then noticed the slight trail of crimson running down Joe-Ennis’ leg.

“Not Tucker, sir. The other one.”

Miller raised a hand to his chin. “Caboose?”

Joe-Ennis nodded.

“Okay. Lead the way, Joe-Ennis,” Miller ordered.

“Jones…” Joe-Ennis muttered with a sigh.

He turned and started walking back to base and Lieutenant Miller followed. As they walked, Miller couldn’t help but notice Joe-Ennis was walking with a slight limp.

“What happened to your leg, Joe-Ennis?”

Joe-Ennis grunted. “You’ll understand soon enough, sir.”

Soon enough, Lieutenant Miller and Private Joe-Ennis reached Blue Base, more specifically the area outside of the base proper where they parked their vehicles. Lieutenant Miller understood.

“No! Bad Sheila! No more fire!” the other new recruit was standing on top of their now burning tank, scolding the flames as they consumed it.

“Private Caboose? What is the meaning of this?” Miller asked, dumbfounded.

Caboose turned and gave Miller a friendly wave as more fire appeared behind him. “Oh, hi Principal Miller! I was just fixing the tank!”

Miller noticed the man was wearing a different helmet from when he first arrived. He had told both of the new additions to his squad that their armor was outdated and that they needed to upgrade, but Caboose’s current helmet actually looked like an even older model.

“Uh, Caboose? The tank wasn’t broken,” Miller said, putting extra emphasis on the word “wasn’t.”

“Yeah… but I wanted to make it better, so I made a few special modifications!”

“Caboose, I thought I told you: fire isn’t a modification!” Tucker said as he came out of Blue base and joined the others by the burning tank.

Miller briefly turned to regard Tucker. He then looked over at Joe-Ennis, who was trying not to stand on his definitely bleeding foot.

“Caboose? What did you do to Private Joe-Ennis?” Miller asked.

“Jones…”

“Oh, I just helped him!” Caboose cheerfully explained.

“Helped him with what?”

“Helped him not drag me away from the tank!”

Lieutenant Miller groaned and looked at the floor before returning his gaze to the troublesome Blue soldier. “I thought you said you were good with vehicles!”

“Yes! And I know exactly how to talk to a tank to make her feel special, but not uncomfortable.”

Lieutenant Miller gave his head a quick shake. “Wait, are you telling me that all you’ve been doing is talking to it?” Miller turned to face Joe-Ennis. “How the hell did those fires start?”

“I don’t know!” Joe-Ennis cried.

“Hey, if I could burn myself alive to avoid talking to Caboose, I’d do it,” Tucker said nonchalantly.

Lieutenant Miller just gave another frustrated sigh. How was it that he had gotten a very promising soldier at the same time as a man who probably counted as a negative soldier?

“Lieutenant Miller, we’ve got company! Looks like someone from Command!” one of the other blue soldiers called out from the second floor of the base. Private Mickhead if Miller recognized the voice.

Miller turned around and spotted a soldier in gray armor approaching in a troop transport Warthog.

“Okay, Tucker. You try to get Caboose someplace where he can’t burn anything else. I’ll go see what this guy wants.” Lieutenant Miller then looked over at Joe-Ennis and his red leg before addressing the rest of his team, “And would someone get Joe-Ennis here some medical attention?”

“Yeah, and while you’re at it, why not get me some medical attention because I have no idea who the bollocking hell Joe-Ennis is!” Joe-Ennis exclaimed as Lieutenant Miller walked over to where the person from Command was waiting.

“Command, right? Lieutenant Miller, CO of this squad,” Miller introduced himself.

The gray soldier cleared her throat. “Captain, you recently received two new soldiers for your squad, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Miller decided not to mention his mixed feelings on the new guys.

“Well, it seems that Command made a slight mistake in shipping one of them to your unit.”

Lieutenant Miller gave a sigh of relief and (to his surprise) actually laughed a little. “Of course, I should’ve known there’d been some kind of mix up! It all makes perfect sense now!” Miller sounded on the verge of tears. “You are taking him aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Thank sweet baby Jesus in the manger!”

“Just tell Private Tucker to pack his things and we can get going immediately.”

“Of course, ma’am. You have no idea how relieved… wait a minute, Tucker?! Not Caboose?”

“Yes, Private Tucker is the one with the experience that we need. We accidentally took the soldier with his rank from the local Red Team instead.”

Lieutenant Miller turned back to where Tucker was leading Caboose away from the burning tank with a hot dog on a string and gave a defeated sigh. Sometimes he really hated being in charge.

Twilight sucked in a breath as she mustered all of the confidence and authority she could before trotting across the cavernous garage to its only other occupant. The motor pool was filled with jeeps, tanks and several other vehicles that Twilight couldn’t identify. Additionally, crates and barrels of what Twilight assumed was fuel dotted the expansive garage.

The only other person in the chamber with her was a single guard in gray armor sitting in a chair somewhere around the middle of the garage. His arms hung limply at his sides, his head was tilted back and Twilight could hear soft snoring coming from behind his helmet. In truth, she had been the one to cast the sleeping spell on him in the first place, but it wasn’t so that she could sneak past him undetected. Twilight still needed help figuring out how to operate one of these vehicles. Letting him think he had fallen asleep while on duty was all part of her plan to get him to… cooperate with her.

Twilight coughed once, slightly rousing the man from his magically induced slumber. “Rise and shine, soldier! W-we don’t train you to nap on the job!” Twilight put all of her effort into making herself sound as loud and intimidating as possible by recalling the times she’d seen her brother drill the ponies in his regiment.

It worked like a charm, the formerly sleepy guard shot to his feet and sharply saluted. “S-sorry, sir! I was just resting for a bit, sir!” The man stared straight ahead, which was fortunate for Twilight, who remained standing behind him.

Twilight cleared her throat. “It’s alright, private! Just keep facing that way and don’t turn around for any reason!”

“Yes sir.” The soldier lowered his arm to his side, but remained standing in one place, obediently facing the end of the motor pool where the garage doors were. “I heard a lot of commotion out there earlier, sir. Is everything alright?”

Twilight had an answer prepared. It was what her brother Shining Armor would always fall back on when he was unable to give the truth about an operation.

“It was just a training exercise. Nothing to worry about!” Twilight smiled to herself. It paid to be prepared for every possible line of questioning.

“If I may ask, sir: Who am I speaking to right now?”

Twilight’s smile fractured. Right. Except that one.

“You… are speaking to your Commanding Officer, of course!” she firmly stated.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the man start to turn around. Thankfully he remembered his earlier orders and remained facing away from her.

“Captain Osgoode?” he asked.

“Yes! I’m Captain Osgoode!” Twilight winced and face hoofed at her mistake.

“Uh… since when were you a girl…? Sir.”

Twilight nervously chewed her lip. “Uh… I’ve always been a girl… on the inside!” Twilight stuttered. “I’ve been struggling with my identity all my life, and now I’ve finally figured it out!” Twilight prepared another sleeping spell. There was no way he was going to buy this.

“Oh, well congratulations on finally finding yourself, sir! Or, should I call you ma’am?”

“Um, sir is fine.”

The soldier laughed nervously. “Well, I can understand why you don’t want me to look at you for now, sir! This must be a hard transitional period. But don’t worry, I can be there for you if you need someone to talk to about it, sir!”

“Aw, thank you! That really means a lot to me to know that you troops care so much!” Twilight smiled. Sure, telling her friends and family that she was transgendered was going to be hard, but with such devoted men as him there to support her, she knew she would get through it.

Twilight abruptly shook her head several times. Wait… just what had she just been thinking about? Focus, Twilight!

“Right, actually I need you to do something else for me,” she said.

“Anything, sir.”

“I want you to give me a brief primer on how to drive one of the jeeps.”

The guard rubbed the back of his helmet. “But… don’t you know how to drive a Warthog already? After all, you were the one who taught me how to drive one.”

Twilight copied the guard’s motion. “Oh, this isn’t for my benefit. I... want to see how well you can instruct people… in case I want to recommend you for an instructor’s position!”

“Oh, of course!” The man double-timed it over to the nearest Warthog and Twilight carefully followed, making sure to remain in his blind spots. “First, you just slide the key into the ignition. Like so…”

He demonstrated by inserting a key into a slot next to the steering wheel, slowly pulling it in and out a few times. Wait… was he hitting on her?

Twilight shook her head until the last of those thoughts were flung from it. She’d spent way too much time around Tucker. She was going to have to give her brain a good scrub when she got back to Equestria. Was that actually possible? There must be a spell in one of her books that allowed her to physically clean her brain...

“... and there you go. Any questions?”

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed when she realized she’d zoned out. Stupid Tucker…

“Uh, yes. Good… good job!” Twilight looked at the idling vehicle. At least he had started it for her. She could probably figure out the rest herself. “I’m going to go… patrolling with the Warthog. Can you get the door for me, please?”

“Yes, sir!” The soldier walked briskly towards the large garage door and pressed a small switch beside it. The massive door slowly opened, revealing the dusty arid plains covering the rest of the facility.

As he did, Twilight climbed into the driver’s side of the Warthog and took a breath. This was it: Time to learn through experience. Right away she noticed that she would be too short to reach the pedals underneath the steering wheel. She decided the best way to proceed was to sit on her haunches atop the driver’s seat and manipulate the pedals with her magic while she operated the steering wheel with her front hooves.

“Well, have a good drive, sir! I have to say, I really feel like we bonded today! I hope that after this, we can remain friends...” the gray soldier trailed off when he turned around and saw a purple unicorn behind the wheel of the jeep he just started.

“Yes, we can definitely remain friends,” Twilight said as her horn began to glow. “As it happens, I know a lot about friendship…”

Before the guard could react, Twilight cast the sleeping spell on him. Before he knew it, the man was slumped against the wall, snoring softly once again. With that settled, Twilight returned her attention to the open door in front of her, ready to drive out into the late afternoon sun.

Twilight pressed one of the pedals with her magic and her jeep lurched forward unevenly, then stopped. Then lurched forward again. She moved forward out of the garage at a consistently uneven pace. Driving the Warthog was going to take some getting used to. For some reason that Twilight Sparkle could not fathom, it had six pedals.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t keep the happy grin off of her face as she swooped down and landed in front of Fluttershy on the rolling green hills outside Ponyville. Sure, Twilight was still hopelessly lost on an alien world, but their own problems in Equestria were starting to come together. Pinkie Pie was getting treatment for her disorder and already seemed to be coming around.

In fact, she was already back to throwing parties. Pinkie had apparently rented out Town Hall for the afternoon for what she was calling a “special surprise party.” One couldn’t walk through town without seeing a flyer posted inviting every pony who could make it.

It was thus that Rainbow Dash was feeling confident enough again to continue about her daily routines. She and her foalhood friend Fluttershy were currently undergoing one of their favorite pastimes together: helping Rainbow work on her repertoire of aerial tricks.

“Okay, so would you describe that last trick as cool, radical, or awesometastic?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy looked up from a particularly adorable butterfly that had her attention as it gathered nectar from a small patch of flowers.

“Oh, um… it was… cool with a touch of radical?” Fluttershy smiled diplomatically.

Rainbow Dash just frowned and rubbed her chin. “So it needs work…”

Before either pegasus could say another word, they heard a quiet metallic tink as a small round metal object about the size of a hoof landed between them.

“Oh my, what could this be?” Fluttershy asked, bending down to take a closer look at the object.

Rainbow Dash picked up the round object in one hoof and stared at it with a single eye. “Looks kinda like a ball. Maybe somepony’s playing baseball nearby or something?”

“It doesn’t look like any baseball I’ve ever seen,” Fluttershy noted. Her ears flicked as she noticed something. “Um, is the ball hissing?”

Rainbow Dash just turned in the direction the “ball” had come from, the curious object still in hoof.

“Hey! Is this somepony’s ball?” she called out loudly. After waiting a few seconds for a response, Rainbow Dash shrugged upon receiving none. “Whatever, I have tricks to practice.”

With that, Rainbow Dash tossed the small metal ball over the hill from whence it came, turned around and took a step back towards Fluttershy. She stopped in her tracks when she heard a loud boom, the ball having apparently exploded behind her. Slowly, Rainbow Dash turned around to see a cloud of smoke and dust covering the area where she had thrown the mysterious object, the sound of shifting sediment prevailing as the dirt settled.

That didn’t startle her quite as much as the shadowy silhouette that slowly materialized in the midst of the dust and smoke. Rainbow’s ears drooped with her wings and her jaw drifted open at the sight of a figure emerging from the remnants of the explosion.

A familiar tall, bipedal alien in black armor brought its fist together with its palm and tilted its head from side to side, emitting mechanical whirring noises as it did so. It then spoke in a harsh female voice.

“Okay… who’s first?”

Rainbow Dash took a moment to relearn how to speak. “Fuh-Fluttershy? Any ideas?”

Rainbow turned to look at her butter-coated friend, only to find that she was already a rapidly shrinking speck in the distance, seeming about to perform a sonic rainboom of her own.

“Right… good idea!” Rainbow Dash muttered before repeating Fluttershy’s patented strategy.

Both of them flew straight towards the closest point of civilization from where they had been standing: Sweet Apple Acres.

Author's Note

So I know what you must be thinking right about now: why Wyoming? Didn't he die at the end of season 5? I wish I could say I had some big grand reason for bringing Wyoming back that serves the story later on, but I have to admit: I just love Wyoming's character. Mostly I brought Wyoming back for Twilight to have a more or less proper villain to face in her and Church's story arc (and I can't use the other obvious choice because of what I have planned). Regardless, I do plan to more properly explain how Wyoming survived next chapter (or rather, why we don't see him in season 6 onwards).

Next time: Tex vs ponies!

Act 1 Part 7 - On Your Knees

A Memo

To: The Director of Project Freelancer
From: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee

Dear Director,

The Committee and I have just finished going over your reports on the apparent attack that occurred on the center of your operations. Suffice to say, we found them rather lacking. Nowhere in your reports does it say the number of aliens that assaulted your Command Center and more importantly: how the incident began in the first place.

Because the equine alien described does not match any of the known species encountered by humanity during the war, you surmised in your report that what we are dealing with is an entirely undiscovered race. As such, one would think that the details of the first encounter between the aliens and your forces would be a crucial part of your reports on the incident. The UNSC has protocols for dealing with first contact scenarios. I’m certain I don’t have to remind you that failure to abide by these protocols will result in severe consequences.

In light of these recent events, the Committee and I have seen fit to go ahead with our investigation of your program…

“...Then I turned around and saw the purple unicorn sitting in the driver’s seat. After that, I must have blacked out. I don’t really remember…”

Captain Osgoode folded her arms as the man she had assigned to guard the motor pool, Private Jenkins, concluded his story. The cavernous garage they stood in was now filled with gray Command soldiers stripping the place clean for any clues towards the purple alien’s whereabouts. Although she probably had everything she needed from her subordinate, the CO in gray armor with red detail was still miffed about one aspect of his story.

“Corporal, we’ve known each other for three years, correct?” the partially Irish woman asked.

“Yes, sir!”

“So how in the hell have you not realized I’m a woman in that time?!”

Jenkins shifted nervously. “Well… you’re a very gender neutral person. Plus, the unicorn said you were going through gender identity problems.”

Osgoode sighed. “Whatever, is there anything else you can tell me?”

“Just that I’m here to support you if you’re still confused about your identity.”

“Trust me. Of the two of us, you’re the only one who finds my gender confusing,” Osgoode sighed before turning to the man in white armor standing behind her. “Well, that’s the story, Agent Wyoming. Looks like the alien escaped in one of our Warthogs.”

“Yes. That’s fine work, Recovery Nine,” Wyoming said. “Do you have the tracking information of the missing Warthog?”

“Not yet, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get. Do you want me to send it your way once I have it?”

Wyoming turned and began walking across the motor pool to one of the parked Warthogs. “No, that won’t be necessary. Just send it along to Command and I’ll get what I need to track it from them.”

Osgoode gave a surprised grunt. “I wasn’t aware you were still working with Command, Reginald.”

Wyoming climbed into the Warthog and started the engine. “Oh, I’m not. But seeing as I have the best chance of tracking down that little alien of theirs, I’m sure I can get them to come to an agreement. Cheerio, love!”

With that, Wyoming stepped on the gas and the Warthog pulled out of the garage and out of sight. As she watched him drive towards the rapidly vanishing sun, Osgoode couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in that brain of his. She had always known Wyoming as a fairly self-driven man; everything he did meant to benefit him in some way. Thus, she couldn’t help but wonder how obtaining the small alien equine for Command was meant to benefit him.

The last thing Rarity had expected when she arrived at Sweet Apple Acres was to be assaulted by pastries.

Earlier that evening, Rarity had been sitting in Twilight’s home, looking after her little sister and her friends; keeping the fillies who called themselves the “Cutie Mark Crusaders” from destroying her missing friend’s property in their mischief. It was then that she had received a surprise visit from a stallion in armor who had delivered some troubling news.

At first, Rarity thought he might have word of Twilight. Instead, the guard had told her that new developments at the alien crash site have potentially endangered herself and her friends. Frustratingly, the guard refused to divulge any further information, simply assuring her that his ponies were patrolling every inch of the town’s borders.

Telling Spike to keep an eye on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rarity had set out to inform the rest of her friends of the situation, starting at Sweet Apple Acres. Upon arriving, she had noticed Applejack’s home looked hastily (yet thoroughly) fortified. Sand bags, overturned carts, and various barrels and crates were piled around the central barn.

“Enemy sighted! Fire away!”

Before Rarity could identify the elderly mare’s voice that just echoed across the property, an onslaught of apple pies were flung in her direction. Now, Rarity stood in place, spitting and coughing as she manically wiped bits of—admittedly delicious—apple pie from her face.

“Did we get it?” a familiar scratchy voice asked.

Looking up through her pie-clouded vision, Rarity saw four familiar ponies standing behind the makeshift blockade. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Big Macintosh all stood still as statues, staring at Rarity with wide eyes as they each held another pie aloft.

“Oh my… um, Rarity? You’re not an alien!” Fluttershy exclaimed, finally breaking the awkward silence.

“Clearly!” Rarity huffed, delicately spitting out more apple pie.

Applejack turned around, looked up to the roof of the barn and shouted, “Granny! I said to look out fer aliens! Rarity ain’t an alien!”

An elderly green mare appeared over the edge of the roof. Granny Smith was wearing a large camouflage helmet with a pair of binoculars hanging down in front of her face.

“I thought the alien mighta shape-shifted!” Granny shouted back.

“What’s all this about aliens?” Rarity asked.

“Little while ago, RD and Fluttershy came flyin’ down here like their tails were on fire, sayin’ they’d seen an alien!” Applejack explained.

“Eeyup!” Big Mac helpfully added.

Rarity nodded skeptically. “Okay…”

“What’re you doin’ here, Rares?”

“Actually, I came to tell you that I received a curious bit of news about the…” Rarity trailed off as she put two and two together. Slowly, she looked over at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“You both really saw an alien?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Not just an alien, Rarity. The alien!”

Fluttershy nodded anxiously in affirmation while Rarity’s eyes grew big in understanding. So this was the mysterious danger they were in. Rarity quickly regained her lady-like composure as she reassured herself.

“Well, despite the situation, I don’t think all of this is necessary,” Rarity said, gesturing to the elaborate defenses set up around the barn, “I’ve recently been informed that there are guards stationed all over Ponyville. We’ll know if any alien is coming a mile away!”

Rarity wasn’t quite sure why the ears of the four ponies behind the barricade in front of her all folded back as their eyes went big, looking at something in the sky behind her. Turning to look over her shoulder, Rarity had to dive aside with a yelp to avoid the empty cart that was hurtling through the air towards her and the others.

The cart crashed through the barricades in front of the big red barn, scattering the ponies behind it. Slowly, the five ponies all pulled themselves to their hooves and looked over in the direction the flying cart had come from. The oxygen was effectively sucked out of the air around the five ponies at the sight of the towering creature clad in black armor barreling towards them on two legs.

Applejack glared at Rarity through lidded eyes. “You were sayin’?”

Twilight Sparkle wiped the sweat off her brow as she walked up the slight incline from the beach towards the fortress that she could only assume was High Ground. It was already pitch black, the moons (there was more than one) and the stars illuminating the beach and the fortress wall in front of her. It had been a long afternoon and evening of travel for the little unicorn.

Shortly after taking the Warthog from the motor pool back at Command, Twilight had found that there would still be no way to escape undetected. Thus, she had done something unusually rash for a logical pony like her: She drove her vehicle off a cliff. It wasn’t something she had done completely without thought. Twilight had spotted a river far below the cliff and as luck would have it, the body of water was deep enough to survive the landing.

Luck continued to favor Twilight when her vehicle turned out to be moderately buoyant and carried her down the river like a makeshift raft. Twilight elected to let the river carry her as she checked the datapad in her magical clutches and found that the river eventually emptied out at the nearby ocean. High Ground was located on the coast not terribly far away.

It had been a long, tiring walk along the coastline after reaching the end of the river, but Twilight finally arrived at the cove that High Ground was attached to. Tired and fairly hungry, Twilight had been relieved when she saw the concrete structure at the peak of the incline. However, her relief was replaced with a somewhat uneasy feeling as she approached the base and found it to be completely silent.

“Hello?” Twilight called out as she approached the firmly shut front gate.

Taking another look around the structure, Twilight noticed the place seemed fairly run down. The concrete walls were worn and completely collapsed in some places. The whole facility was quiet as a tomb. Was this the wrong place?

Twilight decided to risk venturing into the base by climbing up one of the collapsed concrete walls off to the right. She began walking along the outer wall as she gazed further into the base. A concrete structure in the center was missing an entire wall in the side, and further back there was a large metal device that looked like a piece of artillery that had fallen into disrepair. Furthermore, the base was still and silent.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Twilight yelped as the silence was abruptly interrupted by the familiar loud bang of a sniper rifle echoing through the air. She heard the ping of the projectile hitting a metal surface near her and actually saw the perfectly straight trail of smoke before it dispersed into the wind. She could recognize that terrible accuracy anywhere.

“Church, don’t shoot! It’s me!” Twilight shouted.

Twilight looked to where she saw the trail of smoke originate from and saw a familiar cobalt soldier step out of the hole in the structure in the center of the base.

“Twilight? Uh… of course I knew it was you! Otherwise I would have hit you,” Church said, clearing his throat conspicuously.

“I don’t know… it looked to me like you just missed… again.”

Church grip tightened on his lowered rifle. “How did you even get in? I have this place locked up tight!”

“I just climbed over one of the crumbled walls!”

“Right…” Church paused for a moment, “look, why don’t you just come down here.” Church turned to head back into the building he came out of.

Twilight had to walk along the outer wall for a bit before she found a set of stairs leading back down to the ground. From there she walked into the central building through the large hole in the side. After finding a carton of water and an MRE, Twilight sat down in front of the table and started giving her body the nutrition and hydration it desperately needed. Taking a look around the run down, decaying building they were in, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder.

“Is this High Ground?”

Church nodded. “Yep. This is the new shithole I’ve been assigned to.”

Twilight swallowed the food in her mouth. “It’s just… it looks abandoned. Where are the rest of the soldiers stationed here?”

“I dunno, I’m the only one here.”

“Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? Why would they separate you from your squad to station you alone in a run down base?”

Church shrugged. “Hey, I’m not complaining. It was actually nice not to have to speak to any idiots for a while…” Church trailed off when he spotted Twilight’s disapproving glare, “I didn’t say you were among them, Twilight! Sheesh, you can’t be so sensitive if we’re gonna be together for awhile.”

Twilight simply took another bite of her food, giving the obtuse man a glare.

“So, are we going to figure out how to find Tex’s ship or not?” Church asked.

Twilight chewed her food as she thought. She had done a lot of thinking about many things on the long journey from Command. Mostly about the circumstances behind her arrival in Blood Gulch, and based on what she learned of slipspace travel the night before, how she could replicate them. Twilight decided to get Church’s opinion before she pitched any ideas.

“Okay, what do you have in mind?” she asked.

“Well, the first thing we’d need to do is find a ship. Specifically one with an FTL drive…”

“Would that be hard to find?”

“For a guy like me? Yeah. They don’t exactly rent out slipspace capable ships to anyone that asks.” Church folded his arms as he continued, “Anyway, before we even find a ship we have to know where we’re going. You said there were coordinates on the computer in Tex’s ship, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“Okay, think carefully. Gamma sent you here using the ship’s origin coordinates. Do you remember what the destination coordinates were?”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin and squinted at the ceiling. She remembered a one… maybe a three… she was pretty sure there was a nine in there somewhere…

After a few more moments of contemplation, Twilight gave a loud groan. “No…”

“Figures…”

Twilight gave an indignant snort. “I’d like to see you remember a complex series of numbers after being thrown onto a strange world full of heavily armed lunatics!”

“Right, right. Point taken. Command probably keeps a record of all of their ships’ travel logs anyway,” Church said, putting a hand to his chin. “All we have to do is find where Command keeps them and pull up the file for Tex’s ship! Then we just have to… find a ship that’s slipspace capable and learn how to pilot it fast enough to steal it...”

Church’s tone became more and more uncertain as he reached the tail end of his sentence. Twilight decided now would be a good time to share what she’d been thinking about.

“Actually, if we can just find a ship with a slipspace drive on it… I can probably get to Equestria without us having to actually fly it!”

Church slowly leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his fist. “Go on…”

“I’ve been thinking: If that A.I. was able to teleport me across the galaxy just because I was magically connected to the slipspace device in the helmet, I can probably teleport us back the same way! All we’d need to do is input the destination coordinates - assuming we can find them - into a ship with a slipspace device and turn it on. As long as I’m connected to it with my magic, I should be able to teleport us there directly!”

Church just sat there, staring at Twilight while leaning on his arm. “Huh… that sounds like it could actually work!”

Twilight nodded, unable to keep the proud grin from her face. “All we have to do is find the coordinates and the slipspace drive!”

With that, Twilight finished off her meal. For the first time since arriving on this planet she felt like she actually had a chance to get back home. Something else was nagging at the back of her mind, though. A mystery that’s been right in front of her since making her deal with Church, but one she’d ignored until now.

“Church… if we’re really going to go through with this, I have to ask: What’s your stake in that ship? In that person in black armor?” Twilight leaned forward, giving Church a hard look. “Who’s Tex?”

Church sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Tex is… complicated. Let’s just say we used to be together.”

Twilight’s eyebrows went up. “She was your girlfriend?”

“Not for a long time...”

Twilight swallowed as she looked up at Church. “So… why try to find her?”

Church gave the most casual shrug he could manage. “Closure, I guess.”

Twilight gave a single solemn nod. As she looked at Church staring wistfully into space, Twilight's chest was inexplicably filled with a slight aching sensation. Was she feeling... sympathy? Twilight thought back to their argument in Blood Gulch when she first arrived all that time ago. Suddenly, the reason why Church had been so abrasive and cruel that day was crystal clear: he still wasn't over Tex. Twilight suddenly felt compelled to say something that, a day ago, she never thought she would say to this particular individual.

"Church... I'm sorry if anything I said to you before offended you."

Church just shook his head. "Don't do that."

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "Do what?"

"Apologize. Let's be honest, I gave you plenty of reason to be mad at me. But you don't see me saying sorry to Tucker and Caboose every time I call them stupid do you?"

"No, but..."

"Exactly. And they never apologize to me whenever they call me out for being an asshole either! That's our number one rule on Blue Team: no apologies." Church leaned back and folded his arms as he concluded. He then looked away as something occurred to him, "Wait... actually our number one rule on Blue Team is 'don't kill the leader,' but I guess 'no apologies' is the one we all actually follow!"

Despite everything, Twilight couldn't help but giggle a tiny bit. Maybe Simmons was right: These guys really aren't that bad once you get to know them. At the very least, Twilight thought she could learn to appreciate the absurdity of the lives they led.

All of a sudden, Twilight’s ears pointed straight up as she heard a sound. She struggled to identify it at first, then her heart sunk into her stomach as she recognized the sound as a Warthog’s engine.

“Oh, no… they found me!”

The bipedal creature clad in black armor leapt over a petrified Rarity in a single bound and landed in front of Applejack. Big Mac wasted no time in getting between the armored biped and his sister. He reared up on his hind legs and swung his front hooves at the interloper, but received a punch across his face followed by an uppercut to his nethers, bringing the big pony down for the count.

“Try to deprive me of my future nieces and nephews, will ya? C’mere!”

Applejack tried turning around and giving the creature a good hard buck with her hind legs like it was one of her apple trees. The alien merely sidestepped her attack, grabbing a hind leg in one hand and the end of Applejack’s tied mane in the other, swinging the farm pony around and sending her on a collision course with a thoroughly startled Rarity.

“Um… please don’t fight…” Fluttershy’s voice fell on deaf ears.

As Rainbow Dash began attacking the dark alien with a flurry of punches and kicks that the creature effortlessly blocked, Applejack groggily climbed off of Rarity and glared up at the roof of the barn.

“Granny! Why didn’t ya warn us like you were supposed to?”

Although Applejack and Rarity couldn’t see Granny Smith from where they were on the ground, the sound of loud snoring coming from the old mare’s spot on the roof answered her question. The pair looked back down at the fight between Rainbow Dash and the alien just in time to see the creature catch one of Rainbow’s punches in its hand, twist her foreleg behind her back, and effectively punt her in Fluttershy’s direction. The little yellow pegasus—who had merely been trying to gently talk to the armored creature—tried to catch Rainbow Dash as she flew in her direction, effectively getting clobbered by her friend.

“Alright, time to show this alien we Equestrialings mean business!” Applejack declared as she finished tying the end of her lasso to her tail.

The farm pony spun the looped rope above her head a few times before sending it straight towards the black armored creature. The alien raised an arm to protect itself, but Applejack still managed to rope it. Her lasso grasped the raised appendage firmly as around them Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Big Mac pulled themselves to their feet, surrounding the roped alien.

“Hah! Gotcha!” Applejack exclaimed.

Applejack’s smug grin disappeared in an instant as the dark creature grabbed her rope with the very arm that had been lassoed. With a sharp upward yank, Applejack was pulled up through the air toward the creature before it harshly pulled her back into the hard ground. Applejack was helpless to do anything as she was thrown into the air and brought down into the ground numerous times by the rope connecting her tail to the biped’s arm.

The other four ponies all closed in around the alien in an attempt to help their friend/family member. Noticing this, the black alien spun the roped Applejack above its head, effectively turning the farm pony into a flail. The alien utilized its new weapon well, and Applejack was sent into her friends and brother at lightning speed, the alien moving gracefully as it used her to attack each of them again and again.

Realizing something had to be done lest she continue being used as a weapon against her friends, Applejack gathered all of the strength she could into her aching body to fight the momentum of the flail she had become to reach the rope attached to her tail. She hastily bit through the rope with her teeth but was still sent flying into her brother from the momentum, sending both of them crashing through the front door of the barn.

Deciding she’d had enough of this creature making fools out of her friends, Rarity charged up her horn to perform one of the offensive spells Twilight had taught her. As she did so, Rainbow Dash took off again and circled around to dive bomb straight at the creature. The alien reacted quickly, grabbing a pitchfork and a sickle.

The black armored entity tossed the pitchfork like a javelin up at Rainbow Dash. She was able to avoid the dangerous projectile, but doing so put her off course of her dive bomb. She was now flying at full speed straight towards the side of the barn and wasn’t able to slow down or maneuver fast enough to avoid crashing through the top story window.

The alien immediately followed up with a swift toss of the sickle in its other hand straight at Rarity. The unicorn moved her head to dodge the deadly blade, causing her to misfire her spell, blowing up a couple of barrels instead of the black alien. Rarity felt the sickle brush against her mane as it flew past, and her heart stopped when she realized she had not survived the attack unscathed.

A lone strand of purple hair drifted down before her, resting pitifully in the dirt.

“You…” Rarity’s usually delicate, elegant voice was covered in a layer of fury, “you monster! Does a perfectly styled mane mean nothing to you?!?”

Like a mare possessed, Rarity charged at the alien and attacked it with a storm of magically aided punches. The alien managed to block the furious mare’s attacks, but was nonetheless driven back towards the barn behind it.

“Do! You! Know! How! Long! It! Takes! To! Get! My! Mane! Looking! This! Fabulous???!!!” Rarity punctuated with every punch.

Rarity finished her combo with a blast of magic from her horn that sent the alien flying back into the barn. Calmly trotting into the barn, Rarity approached the inert black form with a huff.

“Serves you right, ruffian!”

In an instant the alien sprung back into action, spinning on its head in a way that resembled a breakdance move and delivering a powerful kick across Rarity’s face before flipping back onto its legs. Rarity was sent flying back into Fluttershy, who didn’t even seem to want anything to do with the fight anymore.

“Hey! Over here, ya overgrown tin can!”

The black armored beast turned around to see Applejack standing at the other end of the barn, crouching low and giving the creature a challenging glare. With a few stretches of its neck accompanied by mechanical whirs, the alien in black took a few steps toward Applejack, unaware it was stepping under a large bale of hay suspended from the ceiling of the barn.

“Big Mac! Now!”

From his position up in the loft, Big Mac bit through a rope connected to the suspended hay bale by a series of pulleys. The alien looked up just in time to see the large cube of hay falling towards it. With impressive reflexes and incredible strength, the dark alien caught the falling bale of hay that would have outright crushed even the strongest stallion. The incredibly heavy object put the alien off balance, and it fell to one knee as it continued to hold the large cube of hay aloft with both arms.

Seeing this, Big Mac leapt from his position in the loft and landed on top of the hay bale and the creature both, the force of his weight completely crushing it under the dense hay.

“Um.. d-did we get it?” Fluttershy asked as she and Rarity climbed to their hooves while Rainbow Dash stumbled down from the loft.

“Eeyup!” Mac declared, standing atop the package of hay looking all too proud of himself.

The expression on the large red stallion’s face quickly turned to one of concern as the hay beneath him started to shake. Big Macintosh and the large bale of hay were both abruptly thrown straight up into the air and the thing in black armor was suddenly back on its feet. The alien delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the large bale of hay as it came back down, sending it flying towards Applejack.

The alien used the momentum to bring the same leg around to kick Big Mac in the groin again on his way down.

“ENOOOOOPE!” Mac cried in a high falsetto as he was sent flying into a surprised Rainbow Dash. The pegasus in question had been trying to creep up on the alien unnoticed.

“What is yer problem with my brother’s balls?!” Applejack exclaimed as she climbed to her hooves with the rest of the ponies.

Each one of them were taking longer and longer to recover as each of them were feeling the effects of their battle with the extraterrestrial. Despite their tired, aching bodies, the ponies lowered themselves into fighting stances and prepared to charge again. The creature in black simply raised its fists and beckoned them forward with a wave of its digits, looking not to have tired in the slightest. The ponies all charged at their opponent, hoping that if they could attack it from all sides at once...

“EVERYPONY STOP!!!”

The ponies all skidded to a halt, and even the black alien looked around in confusion. Every body in the room turned to the source of the voice and saw a certain meek yellow pegasus fluttering up to the alien with a forceful, angry look in her eyes.

“Who do you think you are going around attacking innocent ponies like this, huh?” the usually soft-spoken Fluttershy demanded, giving the alien a furious glare. “I know you can talk! So instead of picking a fight with everypony you come across, why don’t you talk?!”

The alien took a step towards Fluttershy and glared right back at her, but to everypony’s surprise the little yellow pegasus didn’t back down. Finally, the creature gave an annoyed huff.

“Listen, I know Omega is inside somepony, and now that he can jump into anyone without the need of an A.I. slot, it’s pointless to try and figure out who it is!” the alien declared in a gruff female voice with a slight accent that sounded a bit like Applejack’s.

“Is that any reason to continue attacking my friends?” Fluttershy asked firmly.

“Normally I’d say yes, but…” the alien looked at the ponies around her, “based on what I’ve seen, Omega isn’t in any of you.”

Satisfied that the alien no longer seemed inclined to attack, Fluttershy pulled back a bit and crossed her forelegs. “See? If you’d just asked from the beginning, all of this violence could have been avoided!”

“Meh. I never really cared much for diplomacy.”

Fluttershy nodded and extended a hoof. “I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?”

The alien hesitated for a moment, as if considering whether or not it should answer. “Call me Tex. And I’m still not finished with you. Not until I know where Omega is!”

“Well, maybe if you told us what an… ‘Omega’ is...” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“Omega is my A.I. At least, he was. Guess he’s what you guys call an ‘M.I.’ now. He has the ability to jump into people’s heads and control them, making them act… aggressive,” Tex looked at each of the gathered ponies. “Has anyone you know been acting strangely lately?”

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy all exchanged knowing glances.

“Er… is it possible that this ‘Omega’ thing has been calling itself ‘O’Malley?’” Rarity asked.

Tex took a step toward the fashionista. “Where can I find him?”

Before any of the ponies could answer, they heard the sound of a prepubescent male voice call out from outside.

“Hello? Applejack? Anypony here?”

“In here, Spike!” Applejack answered.

In a few short moments, Spike walked into the barn with something in one of his claws.

“There you guys are!” Spike paused to take a look around the barn. “Jeez, this place is a mess. And you all look really beaten up. What have you been doing in here?”

“Spike, I’d like you to meet someone. This is…” Rarity trailed off when she looked over to where Tex was standing to find that the black clad alien was no longer there. She had completely disappeared. “... Big Macintosh!” Rarity quickly remedied.

“Uh… I already know Applejack’s brother, Rarity.”

“Eeyup.”

Rarity just laughed awkwardly. Spike then noticed the way Big Mac was covering his genitals as he winced in pain. Combined with the way the rest of the girls looked sweaty and beaten up, Spike decided he no longer wanted to know the details of whatever activity they’d been getting up to.

“So what do you want, Spike?” Applejack asked, not so subtly trying to change the topic.

“It’s Pinkie Pie. Her party at Town Hall just started and she wants to know where you all are. After all, she threw it just for you!” Spike said, holding up the piece of paper he was holding in his claw.

“Is that so?” Rarity asked, taking the flyer in her magic and looking at it.

Sure, she had seen the flyers advertising Pinkie’s latest party all over town that day, but she hadn’t really gotten a good look at one until now. Along with information detailing the time and place of the party, the flier mainly featured an image of Pinkie Pie pointing at the viewer with a hoof and smiling at them. Right away Rarity noticed that something about Pinkie’s smile was off. It wasn’t a normal Pinkie Pie smile, but something darker and far more sinister.

“Pinkie just kept saying that she couldn’t properly start the party until you guys all arrived. She kept saying that you would simply die when you found out what she has in store and then laughed a whole lot!”

“Twilight, what the hell’s going on?” Church asked as he followed Twilight up to the outer wall.

Twilight’s heart raced as she looked down below and saw the still running Warthog sitting in front of the base, its bright headlights shining through the darkness onto the front gate.

“What? Who's fucking car is that? They can’t park there, it’s illegal! I put up a sign!” Church exclaimed.

“Oh, don’t fret mate! I’m only idling while I run a quick errand!”

Twilight’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest at the sound of the familiar accented voice, the source of which was up on the wall with them. Twilight and Church hastily turned in time to see Wyoming standing on the wall a few feet away. Church immediately raised his sniper rifle in the man-in-white’s direction as Wyoming did the same.

“Don’t do anything rash now, little pony. I see so much as one spark come out of that horn of yours and I’ll shoot it off!”

“Wyoming? How the hell are you here?” Church asked.

Twilight looked up at Church in surprise when she realized he knew the mysterious Englishman’s name.

“I went through the gaping hole in your defensive wall.” Wyoming tsked.

“No, I mean how the hell are you not dead? I watched Tex shoot you!” Church exclaimed.

“Correction: You watched Tex shoot one of me. You don’t think I’d be daft enough to put all of my chips on the table at once, do you?”

Twilight looked back and forth between Church and their opponent, realizing all too quickly that there was some history here she didn’t know about.

“To tell you the truth, I was originally planning on simply letting you all think I was dead, taking my payment from Command, and moving along with my life. Maybe retire. However, an opportunity recently presented itself that I couldn’t possibly pass up!” Wyoming continued.

Twilight gave Wyoming a cautious glare, realizing exactly what (or who) he was referring to. “What do you want with me?”

Wyoming gave an amused chuckle. “It’s not what I want, my dear. It’s what Project Freelancer wants.”

“And what do those assholes want? To experiment on her like they did with Tex and the A.I.s?” Church asked, sniper rifle aimed unflinchingly at Wyoming.

Twilight wasn’t as concerned with that as she was about another detail she recalled from their last encounter.

“When you first saw me back at Command, you knew what I was as soon as you saw me,” Twilight said, never letting her wary eyes leave him. “How?”

“How indeed. There’s only one way you’re going to get the answer to that question, and you know exactly what that is!” Wyoming stated, taking a step toward the pair.

Church responded in kind, sniper rifle aiming straight at… Wyoming’s general direction. “She’s not going anywhere with you!”

“What’s this? First class narcissist Leonard Church is protecting a little pony? Truly touching! I always knew there was a heart of gold underneath the bastard-coated exterior!” Wyoming snarked.

“Listen, Twilight and I have prior arrangements! So if you take another step closer I’m gonna put a hole in your head. Who knows? A little extra air might actually do your brain some good!”

Wyoming gave a condescending chuckle. “Yes, go ahead and shoot. You might even hit something if you keep at it long enough!” Wyoming’s tone suddenly became deadly serious, “Face it, there is nothing either of you can do, so you might as well just let her come with me!”

Twilight gritted her teeth together as she glared at Wyoming. The man was rapidly getting on her nerves, much to Wyoming’s own amusement. What annoyed her the most was that Wyoming was right. Twilight wasn’t sure whether he was bluffing about shooting her horn off but she didn’t want to test him. And even though Church had his sniper rifle trained at Wyoming, she knew his chances of actually hitting him weren’t good.

It was a shame, because from where she was standing she could kind of tell where Church was generally aiming. If she just had a way to help him adjust his aim without Wyoming catching on...

Twilight’s ears suddenly perked up as she thought of an idea.

“Bark!”

Both Church and Wyoming looked down at Twilight with confusion.

“Uh… what?” Church asked.

Twilight just looked right up into Church’s eyes with confidence. “Bark,” she said again, gesturing with her head in Wyoming’s direction.

Church tilted his head up and nodded once, suddenly realizing what Twilight was doing. He looked back along his sniper rifle’s sight and began adjusting his aim.

“Bark…”

Church compensated to the left.

“Bark…”

Church stopped and re-adjusted slightly to the right.

“Come now, dear. Pretending to be a dog will only work so many times…” Wyoming started.

“Bark-bark! Bark-bark!”

The loud bang of the sniper rifle rang out as Church took the shot. It wasn’t a perfectly placed shot, but it hit its mark.

“Aah!” Wyoming cried out as the sniper round pierced his shoulder, the force of the shot causing him to spin out and collapse on his stomach.

“YES! I ACTUALLY HIT HIM! I AM AMAZING WITH THE SNIPER RIFLE!” Church shouted.

The celebration was short lived as the pair of them heard a hissing sound. Twilight looked over at Wyoming just in time to see the prone man toss a glowing, pulsating blue orb in their direction, landing between them.

“What the heck is that thing?” Twilight asked.

Church wasted no time in grabbing a startled Twilight under his arm. “It’s like a spider!”

Church jumped off the fortress wall as an explosion of blue plasma where they had previously been standing briefly lit up the night behind them.

“A very deadly spider!”

Church immediately hauled ass toward Wyoming’s Warthog with Twilight under his arm, inelegantly tossing the unicorn into the passenger’s seat before running around to climb into the driver’s side.

“This is why you don’t park illegally where I come from: You get towed, bitch!” Church taunted. A sniper rifle shot shattering the windshield was Wyoming’s reply. “AH! Son of a bitch!”

Throwing the jeep into reverse, Church drove them backwards all the way down the incline towards the beach and away from High Ground, Wyoming taking potshots at them from his place on the fortress wall as he struggled to stand. Church turned the Warthog around with an impressive slide and drove straight along the beach, putting High Ground and its current occupant out of sight.

For the fifth time in the past minute, Church glanced beside him at Twilight Sparkle as they continued to drive along the dark road surrounded by trees, the only source of light coming from the front of their own Warthog. The two of them have been driving along for several minutes now. They had already come up with their next course of action: lay low until they can figure out a solid plan. As much as Church didn’t like it, Twilight was able to convince him to go to the only place where they had friends: Rat’s Nest.

From her place in the passenger seat, Twilight continued to stare at him with a serious, expectant look. Church groaned as he returned his attention to the road in front of him.

“Right, explanations. That asshole back there was Wyoming. He’s a Freelancer,” Church explained.

Twilight gave an inquisitive tilt of her head. “You mean like a sellsword?”

Church lifted a hand off the wheel and tilted it back and forth. “Eh… yes and no. Wyoming’s a free agent. Works for whoever pays best, but the term ‘Freelancer’ is also a codename for the special agents of the military program he used to be involved with.”

“And that would be this… ‘Project Freelancer’ he kept mentioning?”

Church nodded. “Put simply, Project Freelancer is bad news. They were a program that tried to create super-soldiers by implanting aggressive A.I. into their agents’ heads.”

Twilight looked away as she contemplated this information. “Of course… an A.I. can think and act faster than any person ever could. But wouldn’t sharing your mind with something like that cause… problems?”

“Fuck yeah, that’s what I meant by ‘bad news!’” Church briefly looked at Twilight again, emphasizing the seriousness of what he was saying before returning to watching the road.

“Everyone in the program was paired with an A.I. Wyoming had Gamma. I’m sure you remember him. Tex had Omega, who turned anyone he was implanted with into a murderous psychopath. I even heard there was one guy whose A.I. went nuts and killed itself inside his head!”

Church studied the way Twilight just stared straight ahead, mouth slowly drifting open. He was glad that she was understanding his low opinion of Project Freelancer. Of course, Church then realized that the look of horror growing on Twilight’s face was her coming to the realization that the people behind all of the terrible stuff he mentioned were after her.

Cold and sterile. Those were the words that best embodied the depths of Freelancer Command. While on the surface Command was a series of fortified bunkers stretching across a desert-like plain, they connected to a deep underground network of labs and research facilities. The place was a complex, well oiled machine: lifeless and efficient.

The same was often said of the man in dark gray armor with yellow detail who marched down the drab metal halls. He ignored the droning announcements being broadcast throughout the facility and the blinking red eyes of the surveillance cameras following him as he walked past a pair of Command soldiers into a communications room.

The room was small and dimly lit, dominated by three massive screens on the far walls. The only furniture was a few filing cabinets and a table with a couple of computers on it. The large monitors came to life as the man in gray and yellow armor entered the center of the room. The image of a man with dark skin obscured in shadows loomed over on the three monitors.

“Hello, Agent Washington,” the man on the screen greeted in a surreal, soft voice partially distorted by the speakers through which it was broadcast.

“Counselor,” the man in gray and yellow armor returned the greeting in a serious, icy tone. “I’d say that it’s good to see you again, but I’m told that dishonesty is unbecoming of a soldier.”

The Counselor kept his shadowy face carefully neutral. “I see you still have quite a bit of hostility toward us. Tell me, is Epsilon’s fate still weighing on your mind?”

“What happened to my A.I. is in the past. It no longer matters,” Washington stated, hoping the Counselor would believe him.

The dark man leaned back in his chair. “Indeed. I imagine you know what you’re here to discuss.”

“The Recovery Beacon,” Washington affirmed.

He’d heard the familiar sound like electronic bells ringing through his helmet earlier on: Project Freelancer’s way of keeping track of their precious A.I.s and the hi-tech equipment that they run. The Recovery Beacons were designed to transmit from their agents’ armor when said agents were either dying or dead. As a Recovery Agent, it was Washington’s job to find and recover Project Freelancer’s assets.

“Yes. I thought you might have heard it while in the infirmary...” the Counselor said.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten why I had to be in the infirmary in the first place!” Washington said, a bitter edge in his tone.

“Indeed. Agent South Dakota’s actions during your most recent assignment may have been… partially our responsibility.”

As if to drive the point home, Washington was graced with a holographic projection of a recorded video feed from South’s helmet. He watched himself run forward toward the enemy from the perspective of his former comrade, and then watched as said comrade fired a burst from her Battle Rifle into his back.

“What part of that is only partially your responsibility?” Washington asked.

“The part where Agent South went rogue, taking the Delta A.I. she was meant to recover.”

Washington scoffed.

“Agent Washington, I hope you know we didn’t give Agent South any orders that needlessly put your life in danger. While she may have misled you to the ends of setting up a confrontation with our elusive enemy, her decision to betray you and escape was her own. Project Freelancer values the lives of all of its agents.”

“Yeah, you guys are real paragons...” Washington muttered.

The Counselor raised his chin, eyeing Washington curiously. “Are you having... reservations about continuing to work with us, Agent Washington?”

“It doesn’t make me happy, but you can continue to rely on me… at least until I track down South,” Washington decided against telling them the real reason why he was still willing to cooperate. At least not yet. He then hastily decided to change the topic. “So about the Recovery Beacon…”

“The beacon belonged to one Agent Texas.”

Washington raised an eyebrow. “And Omega? Where did the beacon originate from?”

The Counselor nodded. “That’s the interesting part. Tex’s Recovery Beacon originated from Caballinus IV.”

Washington looked up, suddenly focusing on the Counselor with interest. “Caballinus IV? Isn’t that the planet where…?”

“Yes,” the Counselor hastily said. “The planet in question is—for the time being—irrelevant to your assignment.”

“Wait, am I not to go there to recover Omega?”

The Counselor shook his head. “No. As it is, Agent Texas’ Recovery Beacon stopped transmitting some time ago. I trust you know what this means.”

Washington nodded. Recovery Beacons were designed to transmit continuously, only ceasing to do so when the A.I. and equipment they were associated with was recovered. Either by a Recovery Agent from Command or by someone else.

“Well, I take it since we’re having this discussion, it wasn’t one of our people that found Omega. Do you think It could have gotten to him?”

“It’s difficult to tell at this time. Omega could have been taken by ‘It’, Agent South, or another rogue agent. Even one of the locals of Caballinus IV could have found and removed him. Either way, the Omega A.I.’s current whereabouts are unknown.

“We’ve decided that the best course of action would be to return to Omega’s last known whereabouts. You may be able to discern Omega’s original intentions from the simulation troopers there that have dealt with him before.”

Washington nodded, eager to get out of the oppressive room and the Counselor’s image bearing down on him. “Got it,” Washington knew that the Counselor specialized in psychology. Perhaps he had designed this room with the idea of creating an oppressive atmosphere in mind?

“Speaking of the locals of Caballinus IV, I have one more point to bring up before you are dismissed, Agent Washington.”

Washington wasn’t quite able to hide his curious posture at the mention of the enigmatic planet again.

“Perhaps you have heard about the recent attack on our facilities…” the Counselor continued.

“Word going around is that it was an alien species never before encountered by humanity.”

The Counselor leaned forward. “You and I both know better, don’t we Agent Washington?”

Another holographic image appeared in front of the central screen where the Counselor looked down into the room. The footage playing this time was what appeared to be archived security footage from somewhere inside Freelancer Command. What seemed to be a small purple unicorn was anxiously pacing around the room, muttering to itself.

“Now that our program is under investigation from Oversight, the Director feels that having an ‘undiscovered’ alien running around our facilities would create… complications,” the Counselor explained as the holographic image of the unicorn disappeared. “While your primary objective is still to locate the Omega A.I., the acquisition of this creature has become one of Project Freelancer’s top priorities.”

Washington nodded. “What are my orders should I encounter it?”

“We want this subject alive if possible. If not, well... what’s most important is that we do not allow it to create any more complications...”

Author's Note

Man, sure is hard finding a proofreader on this site who isn't allergic to crossovers. Whatever, I think I'm doing an alright job myself. Anyway, THE PLOT THICKENS! (I just realized that could be a fatass joke in this fandom)

Next time: Twi meets another Freelancer

Act 1 Part 8 - Big Prize

A Response

To: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee
From: The Director of Project Freelancer

Dear Chairman,

First, let it be known that I disagree with your decision to start an investigation of Project Freelancer over a matter as unrelated to my program as the recent alien attack. That being said, Project Freelancer has always worked within the laws and regulations of the UNSC. Thus, I am more than willing to cooperate with you fully in this investigation, if only so that I may return to my research more quickly.

As for your request for more details on the alien attack on our Command facility, I’m afraid I simply don’t have the information at the present time to answer your questions fully. Rest assured, my men are working around the clock to track down the aliens in question as well as find out what happened within our own ranks.

I am certain that sooner or later, the details of how Project Freelancer first made contact with the Equine aliens will be made apparent…

“Oh no! Hell no! Excuse me, sir. But no Goddamn way!”

“You must be Lieutenant Miller…”

Church silently watched the scene at Outpost 28-A unfold from a safe distance away. The CO of the local Blue Team was storming out of the area that served as Blue Base in Rat’s Nest yelling at the top of his lungs about something or other. What really concerned Church, though, was the soldier in gray armor with yellow detail that the CO was yelling at.

“Crap…” Church muttered, turning on his radio. “Twilight, do you copy? We have a problem over here.”

“What do you mean, Church?” the little unicorn’s voice came in through Church’s helmet. Church was glad that he and Twilight had agreed that she should stay with the Warthog a short distance away while he scouted out the situation at Blue Base.

“I’ve just arrived at Caboose and Tucker’s new base, and there’s a Freelancer here!”

Twilight’s voice raised in pitch. “What?! Is he looking for me?”

“Not sure. Just stay put, Twilight. I’m going to take a closer look.” Church then switched off his radio and started walking closer to the Blue CO and the Freelancer he was talking to.

As Church got closer, he noticed that the Blue CO (who the Freelancer had referred to as Miller if Church wasn’t mistaken) wasn’t yelling anymore.

“Wait a minute… you’re taking Caboose? And I don’t have to pay you, or anything like that?”

“Wait a minute, he’s taking Caboose?” Church asked, resulting in both Lieutenant Miller and the Freelancer to turn in his direction.

“I know, right? Isn’t that just the best news you’ve ever heard?!” Miller exclaimed. He then raised an uncertain finger in Church’s direction. “Wait, you’re not a member of my squad, are you?”

“No. Actually, I’m a member of Caboose’s old squad,” Church said. Although he had originally come to Rat’s Nest hoping to seek refuge based on that fact alone, Church instantly regretted saying as such when the Freelancer in gray and yellow armor took an eager step toward him.

“Wait, you were with Private Caboose in Blood Gulch?” the Freelancer asked in an intense, serious voice.

An uneasy feeling filled Church’s body. A Freelancer this invested in something was never a good sign. Unfortunately, Church had already established his connection to Caboose, so there was no point in saying otherwise.

“Yeah, what’s it to you?”

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with your own squad?” the Freelancer asked.

“I don’t have a squad... at least, not anymore. They were wiped out by the Reds,” Church answered truthfully. Indeed, he was the lone survivor of the Blue Team on Sidewinder, but that was years ago. “What do you want with Caboose and I, anyway?”

“It might be best to wait until Caboose gets out here before I explain everything.”

Church suddenly realized something was wrong. Why was this Freelancer only here for Caboose? “Wait, what about Tucker?”

“Private Tucker was taken in by Command for something. They were all hush-hush about it, of course…” Miller lamented before he turned toward Blue Base, where the rest of his men were gathered on the second level. “Private Joe-Ennis! Joe-Ennis! Where the hell are ya?!”

A Blue soldier with beige detail on his armor stepped forward. “Sir, for the millionth time. It’s pronounced Jones. Jones!” he said in a British accent.

“Shut up, Joe-Ennis!” one of the other Blue soldiers said.

“Lot’s of people have the name! It’s very common! Seriously, how am I the first person you’ve met called Jones?!”

Church tried to suppress a groan. It seemed that pointless bickering wasn’t unique to his own squad.

“Listen up, Joe-Ennis. I want you to go down to the brig, untie Caboose and bring him up here,” Miller ordered.

“You keep him in the brig?” the Freelancer asked, sounding genuinely shocked.

“We keep him tied up in the brig! I’m not taking any more chances.”

“That’s… actually brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?!” Church exclaimed.

“You want me to get Caboose? Alone?” Joe-Ennis asked, sounding incredibly nervous.

“Actually, that guy brings up a good point,” Church said, walking towards the stairs leading up to the second level of the base. “I should probably go with him. Make sure Caboose doesn’t kill anyone.”

Without any further words, Church met Joe-Ennis on the second floor platform of the base, and together the two of them went inside. As they did so, a Warthog violently skidded around the corner and came speeding towards Blue Base. In addition to the sound of the vehicle’s engine, the gathered soldiers heard another sound like a man screaming.

“What in the hell?” Lieutenant Miller muttered as the warthog went speeding past and came skidding to a stop a few feet away.

When the sound of the warthog’s engine stopped, the gathered Blues and lone Freelancer were able to hear the sound of screaming more clearly and realized it was coming from the driver. A Blue wearing armor with brown detail jumped out of the driver’s seat, still screaming.

“Private Mickhead? What’s going on? Why aren’t you out on patrol right now?” Miller asked.

The soldier’s response was simply to give another terrified scream before pointing inside the Warthog he arrived in. Lieutenant Miller and the Freelancer both moved forward to take a look into the vehicle and found the subject of Private Mickhead’s terror: A small purple unicorn with a black eye looking dazed as she sat in the passenger seat.

Six ponies and a baby dragon made their way through Ponyville towards the center of town. At the head of the group was Applejack, the farm pony trotting along at a nervous, brisk pace.

“Ya sure yer not an alien, missy?” Granny Smith asked, looking at Rarity through squinting old eyes.

“For the last time, yes!” Rarity snapped.

Normally, Applejack might have chided her fashionista friend for being so short with her grandmother, but normally Rarity would not have been so short to begin with. Truth was, they were all very on edge at the moment. They’d just survived a brutal brawl with the alien called Tex, only for the thing to just disappear to who knows where. The seven of them were now on their way to the party that Pinkie Pie was so keen on seeing them at. The very same Pinkie who was apparently under the influence of an aggressive alien A.I. On top of that, Applejack kept thinking she’d seen movement out of the corner of her eyes throughout the whole trip through town, but every time she’d turn to look she’d see nothing.

Letting out a nervous breath, Applejack looked back at her friends. They met her eyes and once again she found herself under their lost, expectant gazes. Applejack immediately looked away. She knew what they wanted from her, but she also knew she couldn’t deliver on what they wanted. What they needed.

Applejack had tried to take charge when she first heard word of the alien Tex in Ponyville. Her plan had been simple, but not enough; her friends were still feeling the painful effects of that mockery of a battle. Even now, her poor brother was hobbling along with his hind legs closer together than normal. Applejack just couldn’t stop thinking about how wrong that encounter could have gone.

As Applejack closed her eyes and tried to push those thoughts from her mind, Rainbow Dash—who had been hanging back with Fluttershy and Big Mac—took off, swooped around and started hovering alongside Applejack.

“So… it’s pretty obvious that this party we’re going to is a trap of some sort,” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack nodded and gave a noncommittal grunt. Spike increased his pace to walk alongside the two of them. “So… do you have a plan or something?”

Just like that, Applejack stopped walking, halting the whole group in their tracks.

“Why’re you askin’ me?”

The others looked at her in confusion.

“Uh… come again?” Rarity asked.

Applejack turned around to face the rest of them. “Why am I the one y’all look to for leadership?”

Her friends fidgeted awkwardly for a few moments.

Finally, Fluttershy made a slight squeak as she cleared her throat. “Um… well, it’s just… you do such a good job managing your farm, and… ”

“And what? That makes me qualified to be our fearless leader when danger comes knockin’?”

“Uh, Eeyup?” Big Mac asked.

“But it doesn’t! Every plan I’d come up with to deal with that Tex-thing was a disaster! If Fluttershy hadn’t stepped in, we might all have…” Applejack trailed off, unable to finish that train of thought.

When she continued, Applejack just sounded spent. “I ain’t Twilight. Y’all want a leader? Find somepony else. I ain’t cut out fer it…”

With that, Applejack continued forward, making sure her lasso was tied and firmly tucked into her tail as she approached Town Hall. The place was decorated with balloons and streamers, just like any other of Pinkie’s parties. A giant poster hung on the facade of the building, featuring Pinkie Pie—or something resembling her—staring dramatically at something in the distance. Across the image were the words: “Bringing an evil-er tomorrow… Yesterday!”

Applejack couldn’t help but wonder why it looked like a political campaign ad.

“Just stay put, Twilight. I’m going to take a closer look.”

With that, Church’s voice cut out and Twilight heard nothing but silence in her ears. Now that she was alone with her thoughts, Twilight took a moment to reflect on her situation. She wasn’t sure whether she was better off in Blood Gulch dealing with a bunch of idiots that refused to help her or not. It sure beat being relentlessly pursued by a scary, enigmatic military agency regardless.

Leaning back in the passenger seat of the Warthog she sat in, Twilight took in her surroundings. There wasn’t much to look at in the large underground tunnel system designated “Rat’s Nest.” The tunnels themselves were large and towered high above the vehicle Twilight sat in. The concrete walls surrounding her were grimy and covered in mold. A large rusty pipe followed the path of the tunnel along the ceiling, and the whole place smelled dank and unpleasant. Occasionally, Twilight would hear the distant voices of other Red or Blue soldiers echoing down the tunnels.

“Hmm? What’s this Warthog doing here?”

Twilight’s ears rose to attention. That voice sounded a lot closer than the others. On top of that, it was accompanied by the sound of footsteps. Twilight realized that the Warthog the voice had referred to was the one she was sitting in all too late as a soldier wearing blue armor with brown detail climbed into the driver’s seat beside her.

Slowly, the Blue and the pony turned their heads to look at one another. After a few awkward seconds of silently staring, Twilight decided to initiate communication. Slowly, she raised a foreleg and gave a little wave.

“Um… hi,” Twilight said carefully.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Of all the reactions Twilight expected, screaming in terror was not one of them. Twilight raised both front hooves up in a desperate attempt to placate the panicking Blue soldier.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, sir! I mean you no harm-”

The same could not be said of the screaming soldier, who proceeded to punch Twilight in the face, severely rattling her brain inside her skull and disorienting the little purple unicorn. Twilight didn’t want to be mad at him. The punch was probably just a fear reaction: Still, it really hurt!

Twilight curled up in her seat, covering her likely bruised face with the hooves she was using earlier to try to calm the frantically screaming individual. As she lay there in the passenger’s seat with her throbbing head, Twilight became vaguely aware that she was moving. Removing her hooves from her face, Twilight was greeted by the blurry, unfocused sight of the tunnel walls whooshing past before returning her hooves to her aching head. Twilight realized the panicking Blue soldier that had hit her was still screaming, but the sound was distant in her ears.

After a while, Twilight heard the sound of other voices. As her senses returned, Twilight noticed that they were no longer moving. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times to clear the fogginess until she could see everything with clarity again. Twilight’s veins went ice cold as she found herself looking into the helmet of a man wearing gray armor with yellow on his helmet and shoulders. He could only be the Freelancer that Church had mentioned.

Gasping, Twilight sat up against the backrest of her seat in the Warthog. The Freelancer immediately responded by raising his rifle at her. The sight of the barrel mere inches from her face immediately caused Twilight to freeze in place.

“You’re the alien they’re looking for,” the Freelancer said in a voice as dark and cold as the agency he worked for. “The one that attacked Command.”

“What? I didn’t attack anything! They tried to take me and I ran!” Twilight desperately exclaimed.

“Uh, huh… talking purple alien horse… guess your reaction was kind of justified there, Private Mickhead!” a Blue soldier (who appeared to be the CO) said to the man who had freaked out and punched her.

“And to think, I joined the army to get away from the farm animals,” Mickhead sighed. “Stupid Equinophobia…”

Twilight took a stuttering breath as she continued to stare down the barrel of the Freelancer’s weapon. The accumulated anxiety of the past couple of days was starting to make her feel ill.

“What do you people even want with me, anyway?” she croaked.

“Well I can’t speak for Project Freelancer, but personally I’d like to know how you got here from your world,” the man in gray armor stated, his rifle remaining unnaturally steady.

Twilight sighed, tiring of repeating her story. “One of your ships crashed on my world and when I was sent to investigate, an A.I. called Gamma teleported me here.”

The Freelancer actually lowered his weapon a bit, moving a little closer to a very surprised Twilight. “Gamma? Shit, why didn’t we receive Wyoming’s recovery beacon?”

Twilight tilted her head. She was about to ask the man just what he was talking about when he raised his weapon at her again. “Was there anything else on board? Any other A.I.s?”

“No, it was just…” Twilight trailed off when an important detail occurred to her. Something that she’d completely forgotten about until that very moment.

“Wait… there was that other A.I. The one Arcane Star pulled out of the black robot… Tex.”

“What happened to it? Where’s Omega now?”

Twilight raised her eyebrows at the mention of the name. “Arcane Star tried a conversion spell on it to turn it into an M.I., but it failed. The thing just vanished afterward.” On further reflection, Twilight figured that was probably the reason she’d never thought to mention the other A.I. before now.

“Shit!” The Freelancer fully lowered his weapon this time. “For your sake, I hope that the conversion failed. Otherwise, your friends back home are in a lot of trouble.” The Freelancer then muttered, “Though your friends are probably in trouble regardless. Assuming It has tracked the ship...”

Another uneasy sensation filled Twilight’s chest with the Freelancer’s words. She was about to ask him what he meant when another voice filled Twilight’s ears via the radio headset she was wearing.

“Come in, Recovery One. Recovery One, do you read?” The voice was not Church, but a cold, distant sounding woman that Twilight had never heard before.

“This is Recovery One. Go ahead, Recovery Command,” it was only when she heard the Freelancer’s reply over the radio that Twilight realized her headset must have been tuned to his frequency.

“Recovery One, what is the status of your search?” the voice of Recovery Command asked.

“I’ve arrived at Outpost 28-A. There are two sim troopers here that have had extensive experience with the Omega A.I. I’ll let you know if they give me any leads.”

“Copy that, Recovery One. Any word on the priority target?”

It was when the Freelancer looked in Twilight’s direction that she realized the “priority target” was her. Panicking, Twilight looked around, searching desperately for somewhere to run to.

“Negative, Command. No sign of the alien yet.”

Twilight slowly turned to look back at the Freelancer as the voice of the woman at Command continued in her ears.

“Copy that, Recovery One. If you find any leads on the equine alien’s whereabouts, report in immediately.”

“Copy”

“Command out.”

A strange silence prevailed between Twilight and Recovery One as the static of the radio disappeared. Finally, the Freelancer spoke.

“I believe you said earlier that you’re trying to get home, correct?”

Twilight nodded, an uncertain look in her eyes. Still, she was beginning to feel slightly more at ease in the presence of the Freelancer.

“I’m Agent Washington. I think you and I share a common goal.”

“Attention Ponyville… ites? Ponyville… Ponyvillians? Ponyvillegones?”

Standing in the tightly packed crowd of ponies inside Town Hall, Applejack and the others looked up at the balcony/stage above where a certain pink pony stood. As soon as “Pinkie” had been sure that the rest of her friends had arrived at the party, she had disappeared to the combined annoyance and concern of Applejack and the others. They barely had time to go to the refreshment table for punch when she appeared on the elevated stage. It was only fitting the thing that had taken Pinkie’s body and mind was standing exactly where Nightmare Moon—who had done the same to Luna—had back when the six Bearers of Harmony first met.

After deciding that what Ponyville ponies were actually called didn’t matter, Pinkie resumed her dramatic speech with an unsettling smile. Her voice echoed throughout the wide open, finely crafted Town Hall, its tasteful architecture covered in more multicolored streamers and clustered balloons. Behind Pinkie… no, behind Pinkie’s body was another looming image of the party pony that resembled a campaign ad.

“I have an announcement: I’m campaigning for Mayor! Hee hee ha ha!”

At this, all of the gathered ponies looked around at each other, a low murmur of confusion and intrigue prevailing throughout the expansive room. Applejack found her gaze falling on a certain tan mare with a gray mane.

“Now wait a minute…” Mayor Mare started, but O’Malley continued.

“The platform I’m running on is a platform OF OBLIVION! Mwa ha ha haaa!”

“Also, less taxes on party supplies!” Pinkie herself cheerfully added. So there was still a little of their friend in there after all.

“Yes, I’m going to make many changes around here! For starters, I’m going to bring down the old governing body!” O’Malley then brought Pinkie’s hoof down and brought it back up with a lit match. “And by that, I mean I’m going to DESTROY THIS BUILDING AND EVERYONE INSIDE! HA HA HA HAAAAA!”

O’Malley lit one of the streamers lining the wall and to everypony’s surprise the flames moved along the streamers like a spark along a wick. O’Malley then bit through a series of strings holding in place clusters of balloons of various colors on the walls opposite to the stage. The balloons floated up to the rafters, revealing the literal dynamite attached to the wall at the end of the wick of streamers burning their way across the chamber.

“First Ponyville, THEN THE UNIVERSE!”

Panic ensued as every pony in Town Hall began shrieking and stampeding toward the door, but the front entrance to the Town Hall was firmly locked. Rainbow Dash wasted no time in flying up to the rapidly burning streamers and flapped her wings rapidly in an attempt to put the flames out. Instead, she only encouraged the flames forward. Upon looking at the slightly damp streamers, Rainbow realized O’Malley must have used the same “Odorless Pranking Liquid” as he had on Rarity’s boutique.

While everypony else was desperately trying to find a way out, Applejack looked up at the source of the chaos, hoping to bring them down with her lasso. Her eyes widened when she saw that a familiar colorful piece of artillery had materialized in front of O’Malley. The entity took hold of Pinkie’s party cannon and fired a shot straight down at Applejack. The farm pony leapt out of the path of a table complete with a cloth and desserts that inexplicably exploded upon impact with the ground that Applejack had previously been standing on.

O’Malley next turned Pinkie’s weapon on Rarity, whose horn was glowing as she tried to summon a spell. As she climbed to her hooves, Applejack noticed the way the light coming out of her horn was flickering out as the fashionista continued her attempts to cast. Seeing that her friend was in danger, Applejack swiftly tossed her lasso forward, roping up the white unicorn and pulling her out of harm’s way just as a triple decker cake from Pinkie’s party cannon landed and once again burst into flames for no readily apparent reason.

“Thanks for that. I guess I exerted all of my magic in our earlier fight with Tex,” Rarity said as she caught her breath.

“HEY! A little help up here?” Rainbow’s raspy voice called out.

Applejack and Rarity both looked up in the pegasus’ direction, who had now resorted to punching the flames eating away at the streamers as they moved closer and closer to the wall mounted explosives. Fluttershy suddenly joined Rainbow alongside the burning streamers with the jug of punch from the refreshment table in her hooves. In a single douse the flames were extinguished and the four friends breathed a sigh of relief.

With that taken care of, Applejack looked back up at O’Malley. He still had Pinkie’s party cannon in her forelegs and was currently aiming at someone on the ground floor, tongue out sideways as Pinkie’s eyes were squinted in concentration.

“SPIKE!! GET UP! MOVE!” Rarity’s distressed cry told Applejack all she needed to know, but she wasn’t sure what she could do. Applejack doubted that her lasso would reach all the way up to where O’Malley stood.

She then noticed Pinkie’s ears twitch curiously as something moved behind her. Applejack noticed something akin to a shimmer on stage behind Pinkie, like she was looking at that part of the air through distorted glass. O’Malley then turned Pinkie’s body around and found himself looking up at a tall armored figure in black as it materialized before him.

“Hey, Omega!” Tex greeted.

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Allison?”

Tex delivered a hard kick straight to Pinkie’s face, sending the pink pony and the foreign entity inhabiting her plummeting off the elevated stage and crashing to the floor below in a pile of pink limbs. The other four ponies and baby dragon all ran up to the inert Pinkie Pie, whose face was twisted in a rather comical grimace as she and O’Malley lay unconscious.

As Tex landed beside them on a single knee and palm, Applejack uncoiled her rope and looked down at Pinkie. “Reckon now would be a good time to use this, huh?”

As Church followed Joe-Ennis into Blue Base, he heard the sound of a Warthog engine outside followed by horrified screaming. Church was curious about what was going on, but decided to ignore it. He didn’t feel like getting involved with any more of other people’s problems. He had enough on his plate as it was.

Church cleared his throat as the two of them continued walking along the second floor of the base. “So… locked Caboose in the brig, huh? What exactly did he do?”

“Oh, he just mullered everything all over the gaff. It was mental,” Joe-Ennis replied in his Oxfordshire British accent.

Church did a double take. “Uh… what?”

“He flumped our tank into a heap. He bunced me right in the gob and then bipped my leg. Was bloody lamped! Yeah… he’s just generally been an absolute mong!”

As the two of them reached a flight of stairs going down, Church stopped in his tracks.

“What the fuck did you just say? Was that even English?”

Joe-Ennis stopped walking and turned to face Church. “Of course it is, you bloody ponce! It’s the Queen’s English!”

Church just stared straight at Joe-Ennis, still as a statue. “I can’t… I didn’t understand a one word you just said. It’s like you’re doing a scene out of fucking Harry Potter!”

Joe-Ennis just shrugged and turned back around, continuing down the stairs. “Whatever man, don’t be a pleb! Caboose is right down here. Christ…”

The pair of Blues descended the stairs and then turned to face a green metal door. Joe-Ennis unlocked the door by pressing a glowing yellow button on a panel to the side and the door slowly swung open. The two of them stepped into the brig and immediately noticed a slight anomaly.

“Where’s Caboose?” Church asked.

Sure enough, the dark brig was completely empty save for a single pile of discarded cables likely used to keep Caboose safely bound.

“Hello? Caboose? Caboose, are you in here?” Joe-Ennis asked, fear causing his British voice to increase in pitch significantly as he pulled out his pistol and walked cautiously forward. “Caboose? Caboose…?”

Joe-Ennis paused before he tried to address the missing man by his first name. “... Michael?”

At that moment a blue blur fell from the ceiling and landed on top of Joe-Ennis, knocking the British Blue to the floor.

“AAAH MICHAEL! MICHAEL PLEASE!” Joe-Ennis shrieked, his high-pitched accented voice making his exclamations of Caboose’s first name sound more like “Mi-cool.”

Joe-Ennis’ screams were abruptly cut off as his Blue assailant quickly picked up the pistol he dropped and fired a single shot into his back.

“Be careful!” Caboose stated pleasantly as he stepped off of Joe-Ennis’ inert gurgling form. The dim young man then looked at Church standing in the doorway. Church didn’t move, hoping that if he remained still Caboose wouldn’t be able to see him.

“Hi Church!” No such luck.

In all honesty, Church probably should have been more concerned that Caboose had just killed a man in front of him. Instead, a single detail about his comrade had completely taken over Church’s attention.

“Caboose? What the fuck is with your armor?” Indeed, Caboose’s helmet appeared to be the same model as the one they’d all been wearing for the past few years, only more rounded. Somehow it gave Caboose a more childlike appearance.

After a short argument between Church and Caboose about his downgraded armor, the two of them turned around and made their way to the front entrance to Blue Base. In response to Caboose asserting that his Mk V armor was an improvement to his Mk VI, Church pointed out that Blue Team is, in fact, not a top ten list.

“Seriously, do I look like a fucking late night show host to you?” Church asked irritably as they stepped out into the wide open underground tunnel of Rat’s Nest.

“Well if you were, I’d totally be your cool musical sidekick!” Caboose said, miming playing a keyboard and stomping his foot on the ground repeatedly as he sang, “Rack-a-frack-a-rack-a-hoedown!”

Church groaned, looking away from Caboose to find that Freelancer who wanted to talk to them. Church still wasn’t sure what to do about him yet. He hoped the man would only have a few questions to ask him and Caboose before being on his way so that Church could get back to figuring out a plan with…

Church stopped dead in his tracks. There was a Warthog parked in front of the base that wasn’t there earlier. What frightened him about it was the fact that a certain purple unicorn was sitting in the passenger seat with a certain Freelancer in gray and yellow armor standing over her.

“Fuck! TWILIGHT! RUN!” Church exclaimed, raising his sniper rifle at the mildly surprised looking Freelancer, who turned in Church’s direction but made no move to attack.

Twilight wasted no time in jumping out of the passenger seat of the Warthog, but instead of fleeing like Church told her to, she placed herself between him and the Freelancer.

“Wait, Church! Agent Washington isn’t our enemy!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Bullshit! He’s a Freelancer! Even if he wasn’t under orders to bring you in, they can’t be trusted!”

“Unless helping you people is beneficial to my mission,” the Freelancer apparently called Washington said, taking a few steps toward Church and Caboose.

Caboose suddenly looked over at Twilight, apparently just noticing her for the first time.

“George! You’re alive!” Caboose exclaimed, running toward Twilight, arms outstretched. “The power of our love has brought you back!”

A look of sudden panic appeared on Twilight’s face as her eyes widened. As Caboose made to scoop her up into a death-hug, Twilight disappeared in a bright flash of light and reappeared moments later behind Church. Caboose whirled around and moved to hug Twilight again, but stopped as his visor came within inches of Washington’s.

“And you’re… Caboose?” Washington asked uneasily.

“Some people call me that…” Caboose said whimsically.

“And… you’re the one who has experience with the Omega A.I.?”

“Yeah… I had O’Malley in my head for a while. He was a pretty good roommate. Always did the dishes. Didn’t leave the toilet seat up…”

Washington tilted his head back. “What?”

“I’m still kind of sad we never had a proper hoedown together…” Caboose lamented before he once again began forcefully stomping his foot on the ground in a somewhat rhythmic manner as he sang, “Rack-a-frack-a-rack-O’Malley!”

A pair of sniper rifle shots flew past Caboose as he continued his weird song and dance. Washington looked over at Church, who had his sniper rifle raised.

“Goddamn it Caboose if you don’t shut the fuck up, I will end you!” Church hissed. “You already killed me once, don’t think I won’t return the favor!”

Washington looked back and forth from Caboose to Church, his gaze finally resting down on Twilight. “So, a talking purple unicorn is the most normal one out of all of you… that is really an achievement in insanity!”

Twilight gave Washington her best sympathetic smile. “You get used to them.”

“Alright… Washington, is it? You have some explaining to do,” Church said, lowering his rifle. “You said you were willing to help us. Why?”

“I’m on a mission to recover the Omega A.I., and as your equine friend here confirmed, it’s somewhere on her home planet: the very place the two of you are trying to get to.”

Church rounded on Twilight. “What the fuck, Twilight? Fucking O’Malley is on your planet, and you told a Freelancer instead of me?!”

Twilight glared right back at Church. “He’s offered to help us, Church! He had the chance to turn me in to his superiors, but he didn’t!”

“He could just be waiting to turn you in later!”

Twilight seemed about to give a heated retort, but instead ran a hoof through her mane as she collected herself. “Look, even with the plan we have now, we still don’t have a way to actually go through with it. As a top Freelancer, Washington actually has a chance of getting us to Equestria.”

Church wanted to tell Twilight why she was wrong. He wanted to tell the naive little unicorn why Washington couldn’t be trusted and why they were better off without him. Except he knew she had a point. By themselves, Church and Twilight could never hope to make it to Equestria. They simply didn’t have the knowledge, experience, or resources to come up with any sort of feasible course of action. With a top Recovery Agent on their side, though, they could actually do it.

“Fine. But that still doesn’t mean I trust him!” Church said, giving Washington a cautious glare.

“Okay. What do you guys have so far?” Washington asked. The Freelancer seemed completely unphased by the fact they were arguing about his loyalty right in front of him.

Twilight and Church explained their plan to find the travel log of Tex’s ship and a slipspace drive Twilight can use her magic on. As they did so, Lieutenant Miller pulled Caboose aside to have a few final words with him. Church wondered if the Lieutenant had come to actually care about Caboose in their short time together. If that was the case, at least Caboose would have somewhere to go back to should things turn out for the worst.

Washington listened in silence as Twilight and Church explained their plan.

“So, what do you think?” Twilight asked when they finished.

“Well, you have one thing right, Twilight: As a top Recovery Agent, I have clearance to access Command’s records of their ships’ travel logs. All we need is a place to access them from,” Washington explained. “I’ll need a computer with a line to the Command server. I know that a few sim outposts have some, but not many. The question is where to find one…”

Church put a hand on his chin as he recalled all of the bases he’d been to over the past five years. It didn’t take too long for a realization to hit him.

“A computer, huh? I think I know where to find one…”

The Warthog carrying two Blue soldiers and a purple unicorn drove out of the cave that served as the entrance to Rat’s Nest, unaware that they were being watched from a distance. The watcher tracked the Warthog through the scope of his sniper rifle before focusing on another vehicle following shortly behind. A soldier in gray armor with yellow detail followed the Blues on an ATV.

“Well, well. If it isn’t dear old Agent Washington. Just what are you playing at?” Wyoming lowered his sniper and watched the distant vehicles disappear into a line of trees from his position atop a distant cliff.

Wyoming hadn’t known Washington too well during their time in Project Freelancer together. Frankly, that was because Wyoming hadn’t thought much of him at the time, considering him nothing but an inexperienced rookie. Something had clearly changed Washington in the time since, as now he was Command’s top Recovery Agent. And now here he was apparently aiding the little alien pony and her Blue friends; no doubt against direct orders from Command.

Wyoming didn’t fancy his chances against the combined strength of the pony, the Blue soldiers who had caused him plenty of trouble in the past, and a Freelancer of equal skill as he. No, Wyoming was going to need some help, and he knew just the way to acquire it.

Turning away from the cliff overlooking the expanse of rock and trees, the Englishman slung his sniper rifle over his back and turned on his helmet radio. He then cleared his throat and proceeded to put on his best impression of a boorish American accent to disguise his voice.

“Come in, Red Base. This is Command. Do you read?”

Without hesitation, the oafish Red Sergeant answered, “This is Blood Gulch Outpost Number One. Go ahead, Command!”

“We have new orders for ya… partner…” Wyoming said in his version of a Southern accent.

“Roger that, Command. Y’know, it’s funny: Your voice sounds mighty familiar!”

Wyoming flinched slightly, thinking for a moment that the Sergeant had figured out who he really was. It was then that it occurred to Wyoming: his voice when imitating an American accent sounded remarkably like Sarge. It was almost as if he was talking to himself. Wyoming dismissed the thoughts, focusing on his reason for contacting Sarge in the first place.

“Agent Washington has betrayed Command and reassembled the Blues,” Wyoming chuckled quietly after he stopped transmitting. Outright lying to manipulate others was one thing. It brought him an entirely different level of satisfaction when he could twist the truth to achieve the results he wanted.

“I knew it! I knew he was a Blue!”

“Yes, you’re a very astute man. Now, gather your team. The Blues are in possession of a purple equine alien that is vital to Command’s operations…”

“Wait a minute, do you mean Twilicapernicus?”

Wyoming grunted in surprise. Although it sounded like Sarge had thoroughly butchered the alien’s name, the fact remained that he knew about her existence. Wyoming decided it didn’t matter. He probably didn’t know enough to compromise Project Freelancer anyway. Just in case, Wyoming made it a point to deal with him and his squad as soon as the alien was in custody. After all, he couldn’t have them taking his big prize to Command themselves.

“Yes. We want you to eliminate the Blues, but take the alien alive! Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

Wyoming grinned under his helmet. “Good. Command out.”

“Wait just a second! Any word on that soldier poison I ordered?” Sarge chimed in quickly before Wyoming had a chance to disconnect.

“Uh… what?”

“You know, the green stuff that let’s ya infect one of your soldiers and send him into the enemy’s midst, where he’d spread disease through noxious clouds that come out of all of his orifices and infect nearby enemies and turns them into legions of the undead that would be perfect for dealing with using a shotgun?”

“I… don’t think that’s a real thing…”

“Oh… well how about the robot bull that attacks whatever colors you program it to hate?”

“No…”

“Hypno ring?”

“No.”

“Full body pillow of disassembled robot?”

“NO!”

“Well why the hell am I subscribed to Red Army Catalogue if you don’t have any of that stuff in stock? I’m startin’ to think I’m being ripped off!”

“Perhaps that’s because you are getting ripped off, you bloody buffoon!” Wyoming’s palm went straight to his face when he realized he’d let his accent slip about two “Nos” ago.

Sarge remained silent for a little while. Surely he’d figured out who he was talking to by now…

“So are you telling me the armless man who gave me this subscription wasn’t legit?”

Wyoming groaned. “Command out.”

Whatever Sarge was about to say next was cut short by Wyoming disconnecting their conversation. Turning to look back out in the direction Washington and the Blues had gone with the alien, Wyoming sighed.

“Some help is better than no help at all…”

“While normally I don’t need anyone’s help dealing with this asshole, this is going to be a problem,” Tex said.

Spike looked up at the imposing creature in black armor beside him. Despite the others’ assurances, he still felt nervous around the large alien synthetic. Especially after hearing what it was capable of.

Four ponies, one baby dragon and one robot in black armor all stood in the middle of Golden Oaks around an unconscious Pinkie Pie. The possessed pink party pony was firmly tied up in a cocoon of rope courtesy of Applejack. Not that the rope would do any good if O’Malley decided to switch bodies. They only hoped that he and Pinkie would remain unconscious until they figured out a solution.

“Well what exactly can we do?” Applejack asked, looking up at Tex. “Much as we wanna help our friend, you know more about this thing that’s in her head than we do!”

“Um… You said you dealt with O’Malley before, right? How did you do it then?” Fluttershy tentatively asked.

“Before, I had a way of getting inside the head of anyone he possessed so I could kick him out from the inside,” Tex explained. “Won’t work now, though. I’m still limited to jumping into people with an A.I. slot and a radio signal to travel along.”

Spike stomped a foot on the ground, unable to take any more negative facts. “Well we have to do something!”

Rainbow Dash shot up into the air and hovered in place. “Yeah! It’s not like a solution is just going pop in out of thin air!”

Spike suddenly felt nauseous as a burning sensation rose from his stomach to his throat. With a loud belch, a plume of green fire burst from the little dragon’s mouth a few inches from Rarity’s face and a scroll popped into existence, dropping to the wooden floor.

“Spike dear, you really ought to cover your mouth when you do that,” Rarity said, waving a hoof in front of her face to dissipate some of the residual smoke.

Meanwhile, Spike bent down to pick up the scroll and wasted no time unfurling it. His face beamed when he saw who it was from.

“Princess Celestia responded to my letter!”

At Spike’s exclamation, the four mares in the room excitedly gathered around the baby dragon and even Tex casually strode up to read over his head. Spike cleared his throat as he prepared to read aloud.

“Dear Spike,

I apologize for not replying to you sooner, but I have had my hooves full dealing with this alien ship alongside my regular duties. First of all, I’d like to address the issue of the military contingent I’ve sent to Ponyville. I’m not sure how much they told you, but the creature discovered at the crash site has escaped and may be after you and the girls. Even with the guards in place, I advise caution to all of you…”

“Little too late for that, Princess…” Tex snarked.

“As for the matter of Pinkie Pie’s strange behavior, I’ve dealt with something similar in the past, which is why I sent the expert along with the contingent. I’m sure she’s already explained the situation to you and has worked out a solution. Please let me know if there is anything else troubling you or the girls.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.”

“Expert? Whatever is the Princess talking about?” Rarity asked.

Before Spike could confirm that he had as much of a clue as the rest of them, there was a sudden and firm series of knocks at the door.

“I’ll get it,” Spike said, turning toward the library’s front door.

“Ooh! Maybe it’s the expert!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“C’mon RD, after we were literally just talking about them? What would the odds of that be?” Applejack asked.

Spike opened the door and was greeted by the sight of a maize unicorn mare with a wild red and yellow mane like fire.

“Guess you’re Spike, then? I came by earlier but no one was here,” she said.

Spike’s face lit up. “Oh, you must be the expert Celestia sent to help!”

The unicorn mare nodded. “Name’s Sunset Shimmer. I hear you’re having problems with an M.I.”

Author's Note

You also might be wondering why Tex is suddenly back to trying to kill O'Malley when just recently she was working with him. There's a reason... when we'll learn that reason is another story...

Next time: More cameos at Last Resort!

Act 1 Part 9 - Preparation

To: The Director of Project Freelancer
From: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee

Dear Director,

While I appreciate your willingness to cooperate throughout our investigation, do not make the mistake in thinking that this new alien we are dealing with is the only reason we are conducting it. There have been a number of discrepancies within your program that I would like to address. For example, there’s the recent theft of the experimental F-42 Exoatmospheric Stealth Fighter that was granted to your program.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to interview several members of your staff, I’ve discovered that the most likely culprit is something or someone your people keep referring to as “The Meta.” I would very much like to know what this “Meta” is and what relation—if any—it has to Project Freelancer. As I’ve said to you in the past: high-level military assets are granted as a privilege, not as a right.

That is why I’d like to know where exactly you think the Meta might have gone with your ship…

Between growing up on her family’s chicken farm to her past year training with the guard, Sunny Side was no stranger to waking up early. It was thus that the white mare sat at her family’s kitchen table with a content smile on her face as she sipped her coffee and nibbled on a piece of toast. The early morning sun was just filling the simple, homely kitchen, illuminating every mahogany shelf and family heirloom in a soft orange light. Of course, another contributor to her good mood was that she was back home after three years away.

She couldn’t believe the odds: Her first deployment with her squad was right in her own home town of Dodge City! If that alien ship hadn’t crashed so close to her family’s farm, she might not have been able to sleep in her own bed until she was finished with her tour! Sunny’s father—Iron Side—sat across from her. The brown coated stallion with a silver-gray mane had his own cup of coffee on the table in front of him that he occasionally sipped from as he read the morning paper. Sunny really looked up to her dad. Iron had worked so hard raising Sunny and her sister Bright Side alone while managing the farm... and admittedly, it was his stories from his own time in the Guard that inspired Sunny to join herself.

Sunny had missed both her dad and her little sister during her years away. And her mom of course, but that was no different than every other year since she passed away. As Sunny finished off her toast, a sky-blue blur raced into the kitchen. The little filly with a bright yellow mane just like Sunny’s own had her saddlebags already packed and ready for school. Bright Side got her older sister’s attention with a couple of light jabs at her cutie mark (a frying pan with two boiling eggs). Sunny looked down at the adorable blue bundle beside her and smiled.

“Are you takin’ me to school today, Big Sis?” Bright Side asked.

Sunny wasn’t on duty again until 0900, so she’d have plenty of time. “Sure, squirt! You pack all your bags?”

Bright Side gave a wide grin and nodded.

“You do all your homework?”

Another nod.

“Even the long division?”

Bright Side scrunched her tiny face into a grimace like she’d just been offered spinach, then returned to smiling and nodding without missing a beat. Across the table, Iron Side gave an amused chuckle as he looked lovingly at his girls.

“Then let me get my armor on and we can go, okay?” Sunny Side said before finishing her breakfast and downing her remaining coffee.

As Sunny got up from the table, Iron Side put his paper down. “I can’t tell you what a treat it’s been havin’ you back, Sunny,” he said. “I hope you plan on coming back for a while once you’ve finished your time in the Guard.”

“Are you kidding? I love this old place!” Sure, Sunny found being a Guard to be a very rewarding experience, but she loved working with the chickens on the farm more than anything. It was her special talent, after all.

Sunny Side went up to her room followed by Bright Side, who looked on in childlike wonder as Sunny began applying her golden guard's armor piece-by-piece.

"You gonna kill any monsters today?" Bright asked.

"Maybe!" Sunny said, grinning playfully as she fastened the straps of the main piece of her armor under her belly.

"What about ponies?"

"Probably not!" Sunny laughed.

"Ants?"

"Hey Bright, back up a bit," Sunny said. Her little sister took a couple of steps back. "Little more..."

Bright Side stepped backwards until she passed the entrance to the bedroom. Sunny then swiftly shut the door in front of the foal, resulting in an indignant and slightly muffled "Hey!" as Sunny finished putting on her armor. Once Sunny emerged from her room fully suited up, Bright Side promptly stuck her tongue out. As a disciplined mare of the Royal Guard and a symbol of the strength and dignity of Equestria, the most logical action was for Sunny to respond in kind. The two siblings trotted back downstairs, their conflict having escalated to a variety of silly faces by the time they were back in the kitchen, where Iron Side looked on with amusement.

Sunny had the decency to look thoroughly embarrassed under her father's gaze, returning to the very picture of stoicism befitting a guardspony. Despite Sunny's earlier display, her father looked at his daughter with the pride of a stallion who had worn the same regal armor himself once. It made her feel good to think that her family was proud of her and Sunny had no intentions of ever letting them down.

Soon Sunny and Bright Side made their way to the front door of the humble farm house, and Iron Side got up to see them off.

“Bye, Daddy!” Bright Side latched onto her father’s foreleg and squeezed tight.

“Bye, angel.” Iron Side patted his baby girl on the head with his other hoof before she let go. He then looked up at his other baby girl.

“Uh, see ya!” Sunny said.

Iron Side gave an amused smile. One that Sunny knew well and had grown to both love and hate. “Still won’t say goodbye to me, huh?”

Sunny tilted her head back and forth. “I never really liked goodbyes. They just seem so pointless.”

Regardless, the mare in armor then approached her father and gave him a nuzzle.

“After all, you’ll see me again….”

Driving along with Church and Caboose for a few hours, Twilight Sparkle was able to catch a little bit of precious sleep. It was shortly after waking up that she caught the first glimpse of the wind power facility in the distance as their Warthog crested a hill. The early morning light reflected off of the round metal turbine that towered over the tropical forest, making it appear to glow like a distant beacon. Indeed, the structure seemed to be calling to Twilight, the knowledge that it would bring her one step closer to home awakening her senses. She turned to look over her shoulder and saw Washington was still following on his ATV.

“Mom. Mom!” Caboose’s funny, high-pitched voice came in from his position on the rear mounted gun. “Mom! Mooooooooooom! Mum!”

Twilight turned to Church in the driver’s seat. “Is he talking to me?”

Church just shrugged. “Well, he’s not talking to me!”

Twilight uneasily looked back at the Blue on the back of their jeep. “Yes, Caboose?”

“Are we there yet?”

Twilight sighed. “No, Caboose. But we’re almost there.” Twilight turned to look out the front windshield of the Warthog and then quickly looked back over her shoulder at Caboose. “Um… you do know I’m not your mother, right?”

“I know! But since we’re on a family road trip and Church is like the father that I look up to and want to be like when I grow up, you are like the mother who’s really nice and gives me cookies.”

Twilight said nothing. She merely returned to staring at the road ahead. Church said nothing either and Twilight had the feeling they were both thinking the same really awkward thing.

“Dad. Dad! Daaaaaaad!”

Church growled. “Shut the fuck up or I’m turning this car around!”

In short order they reached the coast, and a twenty minute drive along the sandy beach later they were greeted by a sign that said “UNSC Wind Power Facility: Zanzibar.” It wasn’t long afterwards that they reached the outer wall of the facility… and the local Blue Team’s encampment. The group of about six Blue soldiers that were gathered around a Warthog and a few supply crates turned to look at the new arrivals with curiosity as Church brought their own Warthog to a stop.

Twilight looked up at the stone fortress wall that protected the power facility beyond. The wall was brown and decaying, with parts of it collapsed near the top. It was at least twice as tall as the concrete walls of High Ground, and over the top of it Twilight could see the massive metal turbine steadily spinning.

“Aw, sweet! Are you guys reinforcements?” someone asked in a deep and kind of goofy voice.

Twilight returned her attention to the Blue soldiers before the wall and saw one of them walking toward their vehicle. The man was wearing blue armor like the others, but with white detail on his helmet and shoulder pads. Additionally, the emblem of a red rose adorned one of his shoulders.

“I’m the captain of this squad: Reynard Vaez…” he then added, “Junior.”

“Captain Vaez. I’m Agent Washington.” Wash pulled up on his ATV and dismounted. Church and Caboose got out of their vehicle as well, and Twilight decided to follow suit.

“Aw, sweet! We got a Freelancer?” Reynard then looked down at Twilight. “And a… purple horse? Cool?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, soldier. But we’re here on business from Command.” Wash stated.

“Welp, that’s unfortunate. The Reds here have really been pushing our shit in lately!”

Washington turned toward Church as Reynard noticeably deflated. “Is this the right place?”

“Yeah, but there weren’t any Reds or Blues here last time,” Church answered. “Y’know aside from… us.”

“And where’s the computer?”

“Oh, the Reds have a computer up in the main building,” Reynard answered. “Of course, that’s also where they keep their flag, so…”

“Right, I’ll go in and have a look.” Washington walked past Reynard and started making his way along the beach to the arch in the wall that served as the entrance to the facility.

“Not alone you’re not!” Church started to follow Washington, but the Freelancer turned and stopped him with a raised hand.

“No, you guys should stay here. I don’t want to give the local Reds the wrong impression by bringing a bunch of Blues into their secure facility.”

“Hey, if you think we’re gonna just let you run around unsupervised…”

“Church!” Twilight said, staring firmly at the man in cobalt. “Let him handle this.”

“Thank you,” Washington said irritably before turning back around to continue on his way.

“Just be careful not to trample my…” Reynard trailed off as Washington stepped through several red flowers arranged in a patch of soil, “...roses…”

Once Washington was out of sight, Church turned and glared down at Twilight. “Hey, since when were you and the Freelancer all buddy-buddy?”

“Since when? Since he turned out to be the only realistic chance we have at getting to Equestria!” Twilight glared right back.

“Yeah, but don’t you think you’re being a little too trusting?”

Twilight groaned. “Well, maybe you’re not being trusting enough!”

“Stop fighting! You’re tearing this family apart!” Caboose cried.

“Caboose, the grown ups are talking,” Church said with a sigh before addressing Twilight again. “I realized something on the drive over here: I’ve heard the name ‘Washington’ before…” Church stared grimly at Twilight. “Remember when I first told you about Freelancer? About the guy who’s A.I. killed itself inside his head?”

“Yeah…” Twilight nodded, unsure of where Church was going with this. At least at first. Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized what the cobalt man was getting at. “Wait, you mean he’s…?”

Twilight looked back across the beach where Agent Washington disappeared beyond the stone wall. She had an uneasy feeling that something was off about the Freelancer since the moment she met him, but chalked it up to her own bad feelings about the Freelancer program as a whole. Twilight could only imagine what it must be like to experience first hand the thought process of someone so far gone they wanted to end themselves. By all rights, Washington should not have been as calm and collected as he appeared to be.

Looking down at the sand below her hooves, Twilight sighed. “It’s apparent Washington knows things he’s not telling us, but I still want to trust him. We don’t have any other choice.”

In spite of her words, Twilight thought of her first conversation with Washington and something he’d said that had deeply unsettled her: For your sake, I hope that the conversion failed. Otherwise, your friends back home are in a lot of trouble...

“Hey, Fluttershy? My nose is really super itchy!” Pinkie said, wrinkling her snout. Apart from her head, the pink pony’s entire body was still firmly wrapped in rope. “Think you can scratch it for me? Pretty please?”

Fluttershy got up off of the grass and took a couple of steps toward Pinkie Pie. Slowly she raised a hoof and cautiously brought it towards Pinkie’s face. The yellow pegasus then abruptly pulled the appendage back when the party pony chomped at it.

“Ha ha ha! Almost got you that time you foolish fool!”

“Really Fluttershy? That’s the sixth time he’s done that! I’d think you’d learn,” Rainbow Dash said. The athletic pegasus was currently lazing in the center of the clearing where the group had put all of their bags, using one as a pillow.

Fluttershy turned to the other pegasus and looked at her pleadingly. “But what if her nose really is itchy?”

Rarity looked away from the growing argument between the two friends as she found her gaze falling on the distant form of Sunset Shimmer as she cast an invisible barrier around the clearing. Their mysterious M.I. expert was currently at the far edge of the clearing they had settled in within the Whitetail Woods. The magical barrier she was creating was designed to keep in any entity that didn’t have a physical body.

As soon Sunset Shimmer was briefed on the situation, the unicorn had wasted no time in placing protective enchantments on everypony present. With Omega incapable of jumping into any of them, Sunset Shimmer had next spent a long time speaking with Tex in private.

Rarity wasn’t sure about the others, but she thought it seemed just a little odd that Sunset Shimmer displayed very little shock at seeing the large bipedal alien in black armor upon first entering the library. She also couldn’t help but wonder what it was they had been doing while alone. Like the others, Rarity simply assumed they were figuring out a plan together what with the two of them knowing the most about what they were dealing with. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder why the rest of them couldn’t be included in the discussion.

Now they were all out in the middle of nowhere far from Ponyville, where Omega wouldn’t be able to jump into anypony else after being forced from Pinkie’s mind. According to Sunset, there would be a significant amount of time Omega could linger in his incorporeal form, but trapped in a secluded location without a body to occupy, he would fade away eventually.

“Uh, Rarity?” The white unicorn in question returned her mind to the present and looked beside her at the infant drake that addressed her.

“Yes, Spike?” Rarity asked, doing her best to sound at ease for him.

“What’s your take on this ‘Sunset Shimmer’ pony?”

“Well… I can’t say I care much for the way she just showed up and started ordering us around, but I suppose she’s been a good help so far,” Rarity carefully stated.

Spike looked away, furrowing his brow. “It’s just… I don’t know. She just seems kind of shifty to me.”

Rarity nodded as something occurred to her. “Yes, I can’t help but shake this feeling about her. I feel like I’ve heard the name ‘Sunset Shimmer’ before, but I can’t put a hoof on where.”

“Also, I just thought of something else,” Spike said, leaning in closer to Rarity. Usually whenever he did so, it was with a look of pure infatuation. This time, his serpentine pupils held nothing but seriousness.

“Remember what Twilight told us about M.I.s: They were made forbidden one thousand years ago. Don’t you think it’s strange that Princess Celestia just happened to find a pony who’s an expert on them?”

Rarity’s delicate eyebrows raised. She hadn’t even considered that. Before she could comment further, the unicorn in question approached their group from the perimeter of the clearing.

“Okay, the protective barrier is up. The M.I. shouldn’t be able to leave this clearing once we’ve exorcised it from your friend,” Sunset said.

“Oh, it’s okay! I already exercised this morning!” Pinkie chirped.

Pinkie’s eyes then immediately rolled as the mare took on a crueler tone that the others had come to know quite well. “I can’t tell whether you’re acting that way to get a few laughs or if you’re actually that stupid, and I should know! I’m literally inside your fucking head!”

“Well, that’s mighty fine news and all, but how do we get O’Malley out of Pinkie’s head?” Applejack asked, ignoring the conversation between the M.I. and pony in question.
The six friends nearly jumped back in surprise as a small, transparent alien figure in black armor appeared beside Sunset Shimmer.

“Well, now that Sunset’s converted me into an M.I., it’s a simple matter of me going in there and routing him from the inside,” the significantly smaller and more see-through Tex said.

“Wait, when did that happen?” Spike whispered to the others. Though, Rarity had a hunch.

“There’s just one problem,” Tex continued, either not hearing Spike or ignoring him. “There’s no guarantee I’ll actually be able to find him once I’m in there. The last time I did this, I had help from someone who knew the guy Omega had infected pretty well.”

“So the question now is: Which one of you thinks you know Pinkie Pie the best?” Sunset Shimmer asked.

The four mares and baby dragon all exchanged looks before Rainbow Dash eventually spoke up. “Uh… Pinkie and I hang out a lot. I guess I’ve gotten to know her pretty well in that time.”

“Good. Then come with me. We should start setting up the next part of the procedure immediately.”

“Now wait just a moment, Ms. Shimmer!” Rarity said firmly as the other unicorn made to turn around in the direction of her bag. “Now, I appreciate the help you’re giving us. I really do. But I don’t care much for the way you’ve been ordering us around and asking us to put all of our faith in you when you haven’t given us any information about yourself!”

Sunset Shimmer took a step toward Rarity and glared at her. “The only thing you need to know about me is that I am currently helping you and Princess Celestia as a favor. If I feel this is a waste of my time, I can just leave and let you sort this out yourselves!”

“Wait, so you’re not officially working with Princess Celestia?” Spike asked.

“Not for a long time…”

As Sunset Shimmer turned around and began rummaging through her bags, Rarity’s eyes widened as it finally clicked. “That’s where I’ve heard your name before… I’ve seen it in countless Canterlot tabloids when I was a filly. You were Princess Celestia’s pupil before Twilight!”

The others stared in silence as Sunset Shimmer stopped and slowly looked over her shoulder at Rarity.

“Is that right? I thought Princess Celestia’s protégés continued to serve her for the duration of their lives,” Spike said.

Sunset Shimmer hesitated. “Sometimes, the Princess and her protégé can have… disagreements on very important matters.”

Without saying another word, Sunset Shimmer motioned for Rainbow Dash to follow her as she trotted away from the group, levitating a series of gems and crystals.

Private Mickhead thought about just how bad his luck was lately as he ran for his life through the dirty, expansive tunnels of Rat’s Nest. Apparently, it wasn’t enough that he nearly had a heart attack during his encounter with the strange purple horse-like alien the night before. Now, just when he was nearly finished with his patrol, he found himself being pursued by a group of three Reds in some sort of modified Warthog.

He’d managed to escape the burst of three powerful rocket blasts during their initial ambush and duck into a personnel tunnel where they wouldn’t be able to reach him, but he soon found himself with no other options than to make his way back out into the main tunnels. For a while he thought he’d actually managed to lose them… until their Warthog came screeching around a corner and the Blue private found himself running for his life down the cavernous tunnel with nowhere to hide.

Up ahead was a turn in the tunnel. If he could just make it around that corner he could leave their line of sight long enough to find somewhere else to hide. It was then that a loud explosion struck the ground behind him and Private Mickhead was thrown off of his feet and landed on his stomach, his ears ringing and his head spinning. A pit of despair formed in Mickhead’s heart as he tried to move and realized that this was it for him when he couldn’t.

As his head started to clear and the ringing in his ears wasn’t so deafening, Mickhead pulled himself up into a sitting position and found himself looking up at three Reds standing over him in front of a parked Warthog. A man in maroon armor was aiming down the sights of his BR as a soldier in standard issue red and another in orange flanked him.

“Alright, you blue bellied bastard! We can either do this the hard way or the easy way…” the man in red said in a threatening Southern accent, cocking a shotgun dramatically.

“Technically, the easy way would be to do nothing and go home…” the soldier in orange armor said. “I say we do it the easy way!”

“Shut up Grif!” the man in red barked.

“That’s shut up Grif, Sir!”

“Please don’t kill me guys, I have a family!” Private Mickhead begged.

“Do you really? Statistically, one in five people who join the army are homeless with nowhere else to go,” the maroon soldier stated very matter-of-factly.

“Where the hell do you get these statistics from?” the orange soldier (apparently Grif) asked.

“Both of you can it! Now, if this dirty Blue wants to live he’s gonna tell us everything he knows about the Blues that recently left his squad!” the red soldier said, jabbing at Mickhead with his shotgun.

“I-I don’t know anything about them!” Mickhead said desperately.

“Is that right? Simmons, hit him!”

“Yes sir, Sarge!” Simmons said all too enthusiastically.

“Wait, not so fast Simmons!” Grif ordered.

Private Mickhead was confused. The red soldier “Sarge” carried himself like he was the leader, but this Grif was also giving orders and demanding to be called “Sir.”

“Grif, where do you think you get off ordering Simmons around? That’s my thing!”

“Where do I get off? I get off because you went AWOL and Command made me the sergeant! I can get off whatever or wherever I want!”

“So glad Donut isn’t here…” Simmons muttered.

“The fact is, torture just doesn’t work as a viable source of information from prisoners,” Grif continued. “Simmons, get this guy a drink and some cookies, stat!”

“Where the fuck am I supposed to find cookies? We’re in the army!” Simmons exclaimed.

“Oh yeah, here,” Grif pulled out a package of chocolate chip cookies and handed it to Simmons.

“This still begs the question of where you got these!”

“What do you think I sold all of our team’s ammo for?”

Simmons just groaned before returning his gaze to the injured Private Mickhead. “Hey man, just tell us where the new Blues in your squad went and I’ll give you these cookies.”

Private Mickhead blinked. “Oh… that’s all you wanted to know? They left with a Freelancer really early this morning!”

“Did they say where they went?”

Mickhead shook his head. “They said they were looking for a computer. After they’d figured out where they were going, Caboose kept talking about a beach and how he wanted to ride the windmill…”

“Wait a minute, are they going where I think they’re going?” Grif asked, surprise clear in his voice.

“If where you think they’re going is the fiery depths of Blue Hell, then yes!” Sarge exclaimed, raising his shotgun as he tried to cock it and giving a puzzled grunt when it didn’t work before realizing, “Oh, right! Already cocked it!”

“Uh… this might sound weird, but did the Blues have a small purple unicorn-ish thing with them?” Simmons asked carefully.

Mickhead’s heart nearly stopped at the mention of the small purple monster. “Oh yeah, they did! And it’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life! I don’t know what compelled them to take it with them!”

“Excellent! So we can kill the Blues and capture Twilight Sprinkle for Command in one swift Red stroke! Nice work, Simmons!” Sarge said as he turned around and made his way back to the Reds’ Warthog.

“Thanks, sir…” Simmons said in a very quiet, neutered voice as his posture sank. Mickhead wasn’t sure why, but the mention of capturing that little purple abomination really seemed to dampen the maroon man’s spirits. As Simmons bent down to hand Mickhead the cookies he was promised, a thought suddenly occurred to the Blue.

“You don’t have Equinophobia too, do you? Because I know what that shit is like!”

Simmons just sighed before turning to join his comrades in their vehicle. “Yeah, sure…”

A gunshot from a Battle Rifle impacted on the ground near Agent Washington’s feet as he walked past the giant turbine. There was no cover anywhere near where the Freelancer stood, limiting his options significantly. Wash quickly crouched to present a slightly smaller target and immediately raised his own Battle Rifle up in the direction of his attackers.

On a metal platform about one story up the main building were three men in red armor. Two of them were aiming down at him with rifles while the third was operating a mounted chain gun.

“That’s far enough, you Blue punk!” a shorter than average Red soldier with white detail on his helmet and shoulders called down. He spoke with a slightly high-pitched Jersey accent.

“I’m not a Blue! I’m a Freelancer! From Command!” Washington called back.

“Yeah, very funny asshole! You think we’re falling for that trick again?”

Washington nearly stuttered. “This isn’t a trick! I’m on an important mission from Command! I just need to come inside to take a look at your computer terminal…”

“Don’t try to use your fancy fucking logic to try to confuse me! I WENT TO PUBLIC SCHOOL MOTHERFUCKER! That means I’m immune to your smart-ass tricks!”

“Yeah, you tell him, Mike!” another Red said.

“SHUT UP!”

Washington looked down and sighed. “What happened in my life where this is what I have to deal with?” he muttered to himself before returning his attention to the building in front of him.

There was a total of five Reds on the platform connecting the main building to the turbine, two of which were on mounted turrets. Additionally, Wash spotted about four more on ground level, taking cover behind concrete barricades at every entrance. He was out gunned and the Reds were well fortified. Washington knew he wouldn’t be able to win if it came to combat.

“Alright, fine! I’m leaving! Have fun with your rage and paranoia!” Washington then turned around and started walking back the way he came, ignoring the continued shouting of the angry Jersey Red soldier.

This was going to make things much more complicated.

Sunny Side walked through the busy-as-usual clearing, brushing past researchers and other guards as she made her way to her objective: the crashed alien ship. Sunny exchanged a few words with the unicorn (a young stallion named Chrome Shield) currently maintaining the dome shield spell. It was a known fact that the guy had a thing for her, but he was also a professional and as soon as she briefed him on her orders, he opened a hole in the shield for her to step through. Inside, Sunny saw her objective: Tome Reader was busy studying the small computer terminal on the side of the cockpit when Sunny approached and gave her a stiff salute.

“Private Side reporting, m’am!” Sunny wasn’t usually this formal around Arcane Star. After the first couple of times being assigned to guard him, the head researcher had convinced her to loosen up a bit. She didn’t quite know Tome Reader that well, but apparently she and Star went way back.

“Hello, Private. I take it you’ve been assigned as my escort for the day?” the older mare turned to face Sunny and adjusted her glasses.

“Yes, m’am!”

“No need for that, Sunny. You and Star worked together just fine without all of the tedious formalities,” Tome Reader gave what Sunny thought to be an attempt at a friendly smile, but it looked forced. She clearly had other things on her mind at present.

That was when Sunny started wondering why Captain Javelin Spear had assigned her to Tome Reader instead of Arcane Star like usual. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Arcane Star at all since arriving at the crash site that day.

“Um, where is Mr. Arcane Star if you don’t mind my asking?” Sunny asked.

“He received a summon from Canterlot last night. It seems one of the princesses wants to question him about his encounter with the escaped alien.” Sunny Side nodded as Tome glanced back at the ship with a concerned look on her face. “Damn shame, too. He was much better at talking to this alien construct than anypony else.”

Sunny tilted her head curiously. “Is it giving you problems?”

Tome Reader merely tilted her own head in the direction of the computer on the side of the ship. “See for yourself.”

Sunny Side trotted past Tome reader to get a better look at the monitor where the researchers had been communicating with the onboard intelligence. Her ears folded down and a cold chill made its way down her spine at the sight of the words repeating down the screen.

> The Great Destroyer has arrived. The end is near.

“Whoa… double Rainbow Dash all the way!” Pinkie exclaimed from her position tied up in the center of the field. “Ooohhh! OOOHHH! What does it mean?!”

In front of Pinkie, two Rainbow Dashs stared at each other in wonder. One of them was transparent and significantly smaller than than the other as she floated in place. Applejack trotted up to the ethereal Rainbow Dash and eyed her curiously.

“I gotta admit, that’s mighty impressive!” Applejack exclaimed.

“I thought it’d be… bigger,” Rainbow Dash said carefully.

Applejack turned to face Sunset Shimmer. “So, is this M.I. anything like the real Rainbow Dash?”

Sunset Shimmer turned to address the M.I. in question. “Rainbow Dash, how did you get your cutie mark?”

A huge grin formed on the M.I. Rainbow Dash’s face as she started flapping her wings (which was unnecessary, considering her ethereal form was floating in place anyway). “It was totally awesome! Some punks were bullying Fluttershy so I challenged them to a race. Not only did I completely kick their flanks, I went so fast I created the first ever sonic rain boom!”

The small transparent Rainbow Dash flew circles around Sunset Shimmer, performing little tricks in the air as she told her story before settling down again. Rainbow Dash walked up to her smaller counterpart with a happy grin of her own.

“Yeah, I remember that. And you tell it like you were there! You’re pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash offered a hoof for her M.I. counterpart to bump. The little M.I. put everything she had into the hoofbump, but ended up simply passing through Rainbow. “We’ll work on that later.”

“So… she really remembers everything that the real Rainbow remembers?” Fluttershy asked as she cautiously approached Sunset Shimmer, keeping her pink mane between them.

Sunset Shimmer nodded. “Under normal circumstances, ponies would never make an M.I. complete with the memories of the pony it was based on. Doing so tends to create… problems. Under these circumstances, however, Rainbow’s memories are vital to navigate Pinkie’s mind.”

It was then that the small spectral image of Tex appeared before Sunset Shimmer. “Yeah... on that topic, I think it’s time we got started.” Tex’s transparent image swiftly glided in front of Rainbow’s M.I. “Ready to go, kid?”

M.I. Rainbow nodded before turning towards the bound Pinkie Pie. “Just hang in there, Pinks. We’ll have you back to normal in no time!”

“Okie doki!” Pinkie smiled blissfully as the small visages of Rainbow Dash and Tex moved toward her and disappeared.

It wasn’t long after Twilight’s talk with Church before the group saw Agent Washington making his way back across the beach toward them. His stiff posture and brisk pace indicated his meeting with the local Reds did not go well. Reynard Vaez was the first to greet him.

“Hey! I told you not to trample my roses…” Captain Vaez trailed off as Washington purposefully walked past him… right through his rose garden. “Your family is dead…”

“You don’t look very happy,” Twilight noted as Washington approached.

“That’s because I’m not,” Washington said. “We may have a problem.”

“You mean like a grammar problem? People tell me I make lots of those,” Caboose said.

“Yeah, well those people would be right,” Church said.

“No they doesn’t!”

“Not only are the Reds really well fortified in the building we need to get into, but they’re not letting anyone in. They seem to be under the impression that any Freelancer who wants to come into their base is just a Blue in disguise,” Washington slowly looked over at Reynard as he finished his sentence.

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Reynard said unsteadily. “I’d never send one of my men in there disguised as a Freelancer to steal their flag… and said man would certainly never get caught doing so!”

“That’s just great, now how are we supposed to get in there?” Church asked.

“Why not just get Captain Vaez’s squad to help us?” Twilight suggested.

“Yeah, good guy Reynard would totally help the bunch of assholes who just showed up and trampled his roses! It’s not like he has his own problems or anything,” Reynard said, before looking over at Washington. “That was sarcasm by the way. Fuck you guys!”

“Alright, we’ll make you a deal: You help get us into that power facility, and in return we’ll help you get their flag,” Washington proposed.

Reynard paused for a moment. “Okay, deal.”

“Okay, I have to know: How does acquiring another army’s flag help you win?” Twilight asked.

Reynard looked incredulously between Twilight and Church. “Is she serious?”

“She’s an alien, dude. You can’t expect her to understand how it works,” Church said.

“I’m not convinced you understand how it works,” Twilight argued.

“Gather your squad, Captain Vaez,” Washington ordered. “If we’re going to do this, we need to come up with a plan.”

Reynard Vaez nodded and turned to where a few other Blue soldiers were standing. Twilight then looked up at Washington uneasily. She could think of nothing else but the question lingering on her mind since her talk with Church. She then thought back to her cryptic conversation with Princess Luna. Why did it seem that the longer she stayed here, the more mysteries seemed to present themselves? For your sake, I hope that the conversion failed. Otherwise, your friends back home are in a lot of trouble,Wash had told her. Though, your friends are probably in trouble regardless. Assuming It has tracked the ship... Twilight couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to start getting answers.

“Why are my friends in danger?”

Washington looked down at her curiously. “Hmm?”

“Back at Rat’s Nest, you said if that ‘Omega’ thing survived the M.I. conversion it would put ponies in danger.” Twilight tried not to let just how afraid she was show, but her slightly trembling voice betrayed her. “But I got the feeling you weren’t just talking about Omega itself.”

Washington looked down at the little unicorn apprehensively. After a few moments of silence, he reluctantly spoke.

“I’m not the only one who’s looking for Freelancer A.I.s. Something or someone has been systematically killing our program’s top agents and taking their A.I.s and equipment, making itself stronger with every kill.”

“Really? Shit, I guess it’s a good thing we haven’t run into this thing yet, huh?” Church said.

Washington just shook his head. “No. It’s not. If it’s not here, it’s somewhere… else. Somewhere it can do far more damage…”

Dodge City sure was busy that afternoon. At least, that’s what little Bright Side thought as she walked through the center of town. Technically, she was supposed to be waiting at school for her Daddy to pick her up, but curiosity got the better of the light blue filly and she had to see what all of the commotion was about.

Everywhere she looked, ponies were running as fast as they could, rushing into their homes and locking their doors. The sound of bells rang consistently throughout the commotion. Bright Side wondered what so many ponies were racing home to do. Some of them screamed and others still were crying, so whatever it was they had to do in their houses must not have been very fun.

Then Bright Side saw the stranger. It was unlike any pony she had ever seen before, towering above on its hind legs, its forelegs hanging loosely at its sides. It was covered head to hoof (or whatever the things it stood on were called) in armor, but not the same kind that her sister wore for the Guard. The armor it wore was white, with additional mismatched parts here and there. Whatever face it might have had was covered by a helmet encompassed by a reflective gold dome.

Admittedly, the sight of the stranger frightened Bright Side initially, but she was a filly who believed in the goodness inherent in every pony… or whatever the stranger was. So Bright Side took it upon herself to do the same thing she did for every new arrival to her hometown. The little filly trotted right up to the towering stranger and brightly smiled up at it.

“Welcome to Dodge City!”

The stranger did not so much as glance down at her. It seemed focused on something further down the rapidly emptying street. Bright Side turned around, followed its gaze, and saw about half a dozen guards galloping towards them in time with the constantly ringing bells. The filly’s ears perked up. Maybe her sister was with them! She could introduce her to the stranger!

Bright Side then heard a sound like an animalistic growl, only it sounded distorted and artificial. The stranger walked past her and began a slow stride toward the squad of guards who had all stopped their charge and were staring up at the stranger with looks of awe and fear. Then she saw her Daddy. Iron Side came bolting around a corner behind the assembled guards and began looking around with frantic wide eyes.

Of course, Bright Side remembered she was supposed to wait at school until he came to get her so she called out to her Daddy and gave him a little wave so he wouldn’t worry. When he looked at her, his pupils shrunk even further and his ears folded back. Bright Side really hoped her Daddy wasn’t mad at her for not waiting at school.

Then she saw the stranger as it reached around to its back and pulled out a large black instrument. Whatever the device was, it had a great twisted blade attached to it. Looking at the stranger, Bright Side thought its armor was glowing a little bit. After hearing another unnatural growl, Bright Side started to doubt what she’d believed all of her young life: Perhaps all things weren’t inherently good after all.

Author's Note

Yeah, remember that "Dark" tag up there? Boy is THAT gonna become relevant next chapter!

I would just like to state for the record: I haven't seen Equestria Girls. Not for a lack of wanting mind you; I just haven't had the time to track it down online. Thus, if some things about Sunset Shimmer in this story don't match up with canon... yeah, that'd be why I originally added the AU tag. Just assume that the mirror from EG doesn't exist in this universe (since the human world is actually the RvB world here).

Next time: The exorcism of Pinkie Pie and someone dies.

Act 1 Part 10 - Your Middle Name is Danger

To: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee
From: The Director of Project Freelancer

Dear Chairman,

The Meta is of no concern to my program and thus should be of no concern to this investigation. I am confident that my Recovery Agents will resolve that matter in due time. You seem to be operating under the illusion that Project Freelancer does not take proper care of the resources and assets you so generously provide us. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

I am if anything a careful man; thus, that you think I would just allow my ships to go missing without any way of tracking them is absurd to me. Project Freelancer keeps detailed, real-time records of all of our ships’ travel logs. Perhaps it would bring you some peace of mind to know that I personally intend to see that all of Project Freelancer’s property is returned to its rightful owner.

As the ageless ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia had seen millennia worth of horrors the likes of which her ponies could scarcely imagine. This still did not make the sight before her any easier to bear. The pure white alicorn walked through the smouldering remains of Dodge City as all around her guardsponies in iron armor and volunteers from the outlying farms solemnly gathered the dead. Soldiers and civilians alike were laid down and placed under white sheets.

Ponies looked up at her as she passed and Celestia called upon millennia of practice to keep the deep, cutting pain from showing on her face. Celestia put the deathly quiet of Dodge City behind her for that of the wood just beyond its perimeter. Finally, she emerged upon a hilltop on the edge of the great clearing where the origin of all of this lay. The crater holding the twisted metal husk of a ship had once been the sole blight on the otherwise perfect field of green around it. Now, it was all burned with very few green patches remaining.

There were fewer tents and guards surrounding the alien craft now, and no researchers at all. The only high-ranking scientist left now was Arcane Star, who hadn’t even been present in Dodge City when the attack came. Unbeknownst to Celestia, he had been discreetly summoned to Canterlot by none other than Princess Luna so that she might continue to poke around where she shouldn’t. The sun princess allowed an annoyed huff to escape as she walked toward a large tent near the ship. It only figured that Luna’s scheming ultimately ended up bringing some good.

Princess Celestia took a breath as she approached the guard in front of the large tent that had a giant red cross painted across it. She was deeply upset by all that had transpired, but she knew better than to take her anger out on her poor sister. Luna simply didn’t know any better, and if the universe was kind, she would remain that way.

“Your Highness,” the pegasus in armor saluted. Celestia couldn’t help but notice that his eyes briefly darted in the direction of the ship.

Princess Celestia knew it was more harmless now than it had been before the attack, but she couldn’t fault the stallion for still being nervous around it. Especially with the unsettling new… addition to its hull.

“Private,” Celestia motioned for the soldier to be at ease before continuing, “I understand that the patient I wished to speak to is inside.”

“The one who actually saw the attacker and isn’t too spell-shocked to speak?” The soldier stepped aside for the princess to enter. “Bed nine, Your Highness.”

Attacker. Princess Celestia remembered the last time her ponies had suffered losses in such numbers and that had been at the claws of hundreds of Griffin raiders. How could only one attacker short of a dragon have caused so much damage?

Celestia gave her thanks before entering the medical tent. As was the case with the research tents, it was made much bigger on the inside by various spatial compression enchantments. Medical ponies worked diligently around beds of the injured, each one’s wounds more grisly than the last. Celestia had ensured that the ponies working in this tent knew she was coming, and that they should not waste time groveling before her as ponies were often wont to do. Still, many of the doctors and nurses couldn’t stop themselves from looking to their princess like sad, lost foals.

When Celestia finally reached bed nine at the end of the first row, she drew the curtain around it to give her and the pony she was about to speak with some privacy. Private Sunny Side lay on her stomach on the medical bed, her white coat would have caused her to blend in with the clean white sheets had it not been for the the cuts, scrapes and parts of her coat that had been charred. Unlike the others, Sunny’s injuries were relatively minor. Half of her face was buried in the white pillow and her eyes were shut tightly.

The princess knew why. She’d read the reports on Sunny and what had happened. Her father Iron Side—the only parent she had—was killed in the conflict between the attacker and the first wave of soldiers. And then there was her sister: Bright Side, a foal who didn’t even have her cutie mark yet, was being fed through a tube in another medical tent. Celestia swallowed a lump in her throat; she knew what it felt like to lose a sister.

Sunny Side must have heard Celestia approach, as she opened her eyes and slowly sat up. The young mare’s eyes were red and the Princess didn’t miss the stains on her cheeks and pillow. She studied the princess uncomprehendingly, looking simply broken. Although the princess had come to question her about what she saw, Celestia knew what was needed right now. Sunny slowly and unsurely raised her less damaged hoof in what Celestia soon realized was supposed to be a salute, but the Princess lowered the appendage with a touch of her own.

She then wrapped a wing around the small broken pony and held her close. Sunny remained stiff and uncertain at first, but with wordless encouragement from the Princess, Sunny gave herself to the hug. The pair remained that way for several minutes, during which Sunny gave way to tears again.

Finally, Sunny settled down, and Celestia released her and looked at her with all of the warmth of the sun. Somehow, the gesture actually seemed to restore a bit of confidence in the mare on the hospital bed, making Princess Celestia decide to proceed with their talk.

“Now Sunny, do you think you can tell me about the attack?”

Sunny sniffled and nodded. “Yes, Your High…”

“There’s no need for that, Sunny. You can talk to me any way you feel comfortable.”

Sunny looked away briefly before continuing, “Well… I was with Tome Reader when we heard the alarm bells. Captain Javelin Spear sent a small group to Dodge City to see what was going on and… they didn’t come back. Then we heard blasts coming from the first checkpoint and the Captain sent a pegasi squad overhead to see what had happened and… they were all dead...

“That’s when it came…”

Celestia nodded. “I know this is hard, but can you tell me as much as you can about it? What it looks like, what it’s capable of...”

“It was an alien… I think. It looked like the one we found on the ship, but it was different. Bigger.” Sunny hugged herself. “It moved fast. Way too fast for something that big. A-and it was powerful. It had shields that covered its body like a second layer of armor and it had a big, bladed weapon that shot fire.

“It was smart too. It could change the color of its armor to blend in with its surroundings, and used that to disappear into the woods and ambush us from different sides.” Sunny shut her eyes tightly again.

“Did anypony try to initiate contact with it? I know that the alien recovered from the ship was able to speak with Arcane Star.”

“Tome Reader tried speaking with it when it first entered the clearing, but I don’t think it could talk. It just… growled at her before it…” Sunny shivered and Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder, reminding the young pony that she was still there.

“What happened after?”

“The first thing it did after… after the battle was go to the ship. I couldn’t see exactly what it was doing from where I was, but when it came back there was something different about it. It moved faster. It was always fast but the way it moved afterwards was like… have you ever seen one of those silent films where the ponies all seem to be... sped up?”

Celestia nodded and gently urged Sunny to continue.

“After I was sure it was gone I ran back to the city. I don’t remember what I was trying to accomplish, I just ran. But… it was there. Going from house to house and… a-and Bright...”

This was the part of the reports that Celestia didn’t understand. Whatever this thing was, it had killed the soldiers stationed around Dodge City simply because they were between it and the ship. It didn’t make sense for this attacker to seemingly go out of its way to kill the ponies in the ship’s immediate vicinity.

Sunny must have been able to tell what Celestia was thinking, because then she added, “It looked like the thing was… searching.”

Deciding she’d heard all she needed, Celestia put her hoof on Sunny’s. “Thank you, Sunny Side. You’ve been very brave.”

Celestia’s words only caused Sunny to sulk. “No I haven’t.”

“Of course you have. You survived an incredibly vicious attack…”

“And how do you think I did that?”

Celestia looked at the mare, beginning to understand as she continued. “The only reason I’m alive is because I played dead! When the first attack knocked me off my hooves I didn’t get back up. I just… lay there in the dirt and prayed that the monster wouldn’t get me, while all around me my friends fought and…” the tail end of Sunny’s rant became a whimper.

Celestia gave Sunny’s hoof a light squeeze. “Sunny, you can’t blame yourself for what happened to your comrades. There’s nothing you could have done to change the way things turned out. It wasn’t your fault.”

Celestia’s words didn’t seem to make Sunny feel much better. Regardless, she nodded in response. Celestia removed her hoof from Sunny’s and stood.

“Now get some rest.” With that, Celestia turned and left Sunny to her bed.

After taking some time to talk to the medical staff—during which she was informed the patients were soon to be moved to hospitals in nearby towns—Celestia left the tent and took a moment to collect herself. She looked around at the destruction throughout the clearing, visualizing the battle. No, battle was the wrong word. Slaughter seemed more fitting. Celestia’s eyes soon fell on the ship at the center of it all, more specifically the large gashes in the hull. Looking to be carved into the metal by the claws of some terrible beast were four words.

We Are The Meta

Celestia knew to fear the worst when she first laid eyes on the ship, but this was beyond anything she expected. This is nothing like last time...

The landscape Rainbow Dash looked out upon was a mess of pink, blue, purple, yellow and every color in the visible spectrum. Rainbow liked to think of herself as a pony who appreciated color. It was in her name for Celestia’s sake! Regardless, the fields of colorful flowers and the excessive presence of rainbows in the skies above was enough to give Rainbow Dash a headache. Despite the overabundance of visual stimulation, Rainbow Dash recognized several of the buildings in front of her and gasped.

“This is Ponyville!”

She looked up at the black-armored biped standing beside her. Tex looked out at the saccharine landscape before looking down at Rainbow Dash. “You sure?”

“Yeah. It looks like Discord vomited all over it, but we’re definitely just outside of West Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash looked around some more before looking back up at Tex. “So how do we find O’Malley?”

“Our best bet is to find Pinkie Pie herself. Any idea where she might be?”

Rainbow Dash looked out at the colorful street in front of her, this time with a look of determination. “Follow me!”

With a flap of her wings, Rainbow Dash lifted off the ground and took off, making sure to fly slow enough for her partner to keep up, but not too slow. To her surprise, Tex actually matched her speed as she ran along the ground beside the blue pegasus.

As the pair ran further and further into the overly bright and colorful town, they started to see ponies milling about. Something was weird about them, though. They were definitely ponies, but their eyes were smaller and they had more pronounced snouts. They also appeared to be happy to a fault, every single one of them waved at Rainbow Dash and Tex as they passed. The fact that they were so close to what Rainbow Dash knew to be ponies and yet were just not quite there was a little unsettling. This was namely why Rainbow Dash started to fly faster when it seemed like they were about to start a musical number.

Finally, after avoiding the scarily happy ponies, Rainbow Dash and Tex arrived at Sugarcube Corner. It looked mostly the same as it did in real life with the notable exception of a colorful sign above the door that read “Pinkie’s Howse.” Tex and Rainbow Dash entered the gingerbread structure, only to find it empty.

“Hello? Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash called out. “It’s me, your awesome friend Rainbow Dash! Me and Tex are here to kick some M.I. flank!”

While Rainbow Dash continued yelling for Pinkie, Tex searched the building thoroughly and efficiently. Eventually, the Freelancer and the pony rendezvoused in the center of the establishment.

“Alright, where else would she be?” Tex asked.

At that moment the pair heard the creak of the front door opening and the clopping of hooves on a hardwood floor as someone stepped in.

“Oh! Hello, Rainbow Dash!” the voice wasn’t Pinkie’s. Instead, it was one that made Rainbow’s heart nearly stop.

Turning around, Rainbow saw an incredibly familiar unicorn mare standing in the doorway. Even though she looked as different as the other ponies here, Rainbow could recognize that dorky purple manecut anywhere.

“Twilight?” Without even thinking, Rainbow Dash raced forward and hugged the friend she thought she’d lost. It wasn’t until that moment that Rainbow remembered just how worried she was about her friend, and tried to choke back a tear now that she was finally back safe and sound.

“Yes. I am Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight spoke in a weird, disjointed way that made Rainbow Dash pull out of the hug and give the purple mare a quizzical look. “I am super-duper smart. I love reading and using big words without telling other ponies what they mean!”

“Uh… Twilight? Why are you acting weird?” Right after the words left her mouth, Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Did the aliens do something to you while you were gone? Are you infected with an M.I. as well?”

“Oh, right…” Tex muttered. Rainbow Dash turned to Tex, looking for an explanation. “That’s not really your friend. We’re inside Pinkie Pie’s mind, remember? That’s just her mental image of Twilight!”

“My favorite books are really long and don’t have any pictures!” Twilight’s doppelganger happily proclaimed.

“Oh…” Rainbow Dash shifted away from the shadow of her friend, a painful lump forming in her throat as she realized that the real Twilight was still lost somewhere on an alien world. Rainbow then swallowed, forcing the lump down as she remembered what she was here to do. “Twilight, I need you to use that big brain of yours and think carefully: Where is Pinkie Pie right now?”

Fake Twilight’s eyes widened in understanding. “You’re from the outside… Princess Pinkie Pie told us you were coming!”

Rainbow tried to ignore the title that preceded Pinkie’s name. She realized she’d just have to accept the fact that a lot of things here weren’t going to make much sense.

“Princess Pinkie told us to tell you that if you need to find her, look for her at the place where your friendship began!”

“Aw, a riddle? I hate those,” Rainbow Dash groaned.

“I love them! It gives me a chance to use my thinker box!”

“Okay, just think: Where did you first meet Pinkie Pie?” Tex asked.

Rainbow squinted and put a hoof to her chin. “That’s the thing: the place where we arrived is where I met Pinks for the first time. She pretty much glomped me as soon as I set hoof into Ponyville. Wouldn’t stop going on about how I was new and she was going to throw me a party,” Rainbow smiled. The memory always made her a little happy. “She’s learned a lot about personal space since then.”

If Tex was amused by the story at all, she gave no indication of such. Instead, she merely paced back and forth. “That’s sweet and all, but that doesn’t help us one damn bit!”

Although Rainbow didn’t appreciate Tex raining on her little nostalgia trip, the Freelancer had a point. Silence prevailed in Sugarcube Corner as the pair continued brainstorming.

“She didn’t say ‘where you first met,’ she said ‘where your friendship began!’” Tex finally exclaimed.

Rainbow’s ears perked up and a smile appeared on her face. “I know where we have to go!”

The team of about half a dozen Blues all stood crowded around a crate at the foot of the Wind Power Facility’s outer wall. Among them stood a Freelancer, two more Blues and a small purple pony. It was quiet as the captain in blue armor with white detail looked around at each of the gathered men (and one mare). The most pervasive sound was that of the nearby tide rolling in and out.

“Okay, listen up! Agent Washington and the guys with him have agreed to help us take the Reds’ flag!” Reynard Vaez announced, resulting in a resounding cheer from the gathered Blues.

“In exchange for giving us use of the computer once your team has control of the facility,” Washington sternly reminded him.

Twilight wasn't sure why Washington seemed so suspicious of Reynard not holding up his end of the bargain. In fact, the Blue CO had been so concerned about the opposite happening that Twilight had reassured him the only way she knew how.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," Twilight had said, going through the motions. Although Reynard couldn't have understood the full gravity of a Pinkie Promise, the act of simply performing it seemed to reassure him that they would get the flag for him no matter what.

“Now, I know the addition of Agent Washington and the Blues with him gives us a tactical edge against the Reds…” Reynard continued, bringing Twilight back to the present.

“Well… I don’t know about that,” Church said.

“Yeah… Church is a pretty bad shot,” Caboose stated.

“To say nothing of Caboose’s team killing spree…”

“At least Caboose can actually hit something,” was what Twilight wanted to say. The snarky remark was just on the tip of her tongue, but the unicorn held it back. She instead opted for a simple shake of her head. This team’s bickering already sidetracked them enough on a regular basis without Twilight adding to it.

“Right. Anyway, the Reds are still really well set up, so even with the additional help we’re going to need a good plan to get in there,” Reynard then brought out a large, rolled up paper, unfurled it, and placed it down on the crate the Blues were all gathered around. Twilight realized it was a map of the facility, with various points of interest marked with red ink.

“Now according to scouts, a portion of the wall on the southwest side of the main building has collapsed,” Reynard pointed out the spot on the map he was referring to.

“That wasn’t the case when we were here before,” Church noted. “How do you think it happened?”

“According to the scouts, it looked like someone had once tried to eat the wall some time ago, and completely ruined its structural integrity,” Reynard explained. “It would be an ideal place to sneak in, but the area is guarded well enough that the Reds would see us coming.”

“That’s why I suggest that you and your team create a diversion on the east side while my team and I get in through the southwest wall,” Washington suggested. “If you keep them busy long enough, we can slip in and out with the flag without the Reds even noticing.”

“Sounds like a solid enough plan,” Church said.

Reynard gave an affirmative grunt. “One more thing everyone should know: apparently the Reds just got their hands on some sort of experimental new weapon from Command. Everyone be careful.” Reynard then turned to address his men. “Samson, I want you in the Warthog with me. Rowan and Copeland, I want you guys on top of the east bunker…”

As Reynard continued giving more attack orders to his own troops, Washington, Twilight, Church and Caboose all walked away from the others to work out their end of the plan.

“So, where do we fit into this plan?” Twilight asked.

“I just want you three to cover me in case the Reds get wise to what we’re doing,” Washington stated before turning to face Church and Caboose. “And if what you both say about each other’s abilities is accurate, we’d better hope that doesn’t happen.”

“Hey! My aim is just fine!” Church said irritably.

“Yeah, it’s just that I’ve yet to see you actually hit anything with the sniper rifle without me barking,” Twilight pointed out.

At Washington’s confused head tilt, Church just said, “Trust me, it makes sense in context… sort of.”

Twilight’s ears perked up as a thought occurred to her. One that she’d considered earlier, admittedly, but never voiced. “If you have so much trouble using the sniper rifle Church, why not just use a different weapon?”

Church seemed about to argue the point, but then he looked down at the sniper rifle in his hands and sighed. “Fuck it. It’s not like my aim’s going to get any worse.” Church turned to face Caboose. “Hey Caboose, do you wanna trade?”

Caboose whirled around at a surprising speed. “Do you have a holo Charizard?”

The Ponyville lake was a lot more chocolatey than Rainbow Dash remembered. Dipping her hoof in and helping herself to a taste confirmed that the water was indeed liquid chocolate. She wasn’t sure how the rainbow waterfall that seemingly fell from nowhere transformed into chocolate upon touching the lake, but Rainbow remembered just whose mindscape she was in. The grassy fields along the lake were filled with colorful flowers that Rainbow Dash had recently learned were actually candy.

“I don’t see her. You sure this is the right place?” Tex asked, stepping up beside Rainbow Dash to survey the lake.

“This was where Pinkie and I actually hung out together for the first time. Sure, she chased me all across Ponyville before I actually agreed to it, but once I finally let her talk to me we found out we have a lot in common!”

“That’s right, Dashie!” a high-pitched yet somehow regal voice spoke behind them.

Rainbow Dash and Tex turned and looked up to the sky in awe as once again they saw a sight they did not expect. Gliding down towards them was the majestic form of a vivid pink alicorn dressed in rather delicious looking pastry-inspired regalia. The noble creature landed gracefully before Tex and Rainbow and folded her bright pink wings.

“It was at this moment that you finally allowed yourself to accept my friendship, Dashie. And that’s why this place is special to me…” the pink alicorn said in Pinkie Pie’s voice.

Rainbow Dash and Tex were immobile. “P-Pinkie?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “This is your mental image of yourself?”

“Not always… sometimes I have a mustache!” alicorn-Pinkie exclaimed, twirling a strand of black hair above her lip.

“Alright, this is getting to be too much,” Tex sighed. “Just tell us where Omega is so we can get out of here already!”

“Ooh! You mean my new super-awesome best friend O’Malley? He spends most of his time with me. He seems really angry all the time and that makes me sad, so I follow him around and try to make him happy!” Pinkie’s smile grew even wider.

“In fact, that’s why I led you here! O’Malley said he was so happy that you two were coming here to see him, and that he couldn’t wait to throw you your surprise party!”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Uh oh…”

“Surprise, you fools! Mwa ha ha ha!” A dark, translucent figure in black armor suddenly appeared beside Tex and Rainbow, laughing maniacally. Pinkie joined in too, but there was much more innocence to her laughter than O’Malley’s.

“Finally! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you… Allison.” O’Malley took a few steps closer to Tex and Rainbow Dash, who both assumed fighting stances while Pinkie looked on with a naive smile on her face

Just as it looked like O’Malley was ready to throw down with Tex, the A.I. turned M.I. suddenly threw himself to his knees. “Please get me out of here, Tex! It’s horrible! She keeps trying to… be friends with me! Everything here is so bright and cheerful, and she spells her signs wrong on purpose! Everything’s a joke to her!”

“Almost everything…” Pinkie said with an uncharacteristic calmness that made Rainbow Dash take her eyes off of her enemy and look at Pinkie Pie with interest. Unfortunately, Pinkie didn’t elaborate on her statement, and O’Malley continued.

“If you just get me out of here, you and I can escape this infernal planet of foolish equines!” O’Malley exclaimed, standing back up. “Once we are free of this world, our plan to enslave the Sangheili aliens can come to fruition! Isn’t that all you wanted?”

Rainbow then looked up at Tex, realization finally dawning on her: If they were really working together before arriving on Equestria, why weren’t they now? Unless... they still were.

“All I wanted was to get you, Gamma and myself far away from Church, and for once I actually succeeded,” Tex said. “Though, I suppose I could help you out this one last time, for old times sake!”

Tex then swiftly pulled out her pistol, leveled it at O’Malley and pulled the trigger.

“Hrrrrk! Bleeeaaaah…” O’Malley’s dark form collapsed to the ground and lay still.

“Huh. Anypony else think that was a little anti-climatic?” Rainbow asked. “We didn’t even have a proper final battle!”

Rainbow Dash looked at Pinkie. The ridiculous alicorn actually looked a little sad.

“Aw, cheer up Pinks. We did it! We got that thing out of your head! When Tex and I get out of here, we can have a big party to celebrate!” Rainbow turned to Tex. “Uh, how do we get out of…”

Rainbow trailed off when she found herself staring directly down the barrel of Tex’s pistol.

“The same way he did.” Tex then pulled the trigger and Rainbow Dash’s senses were overcome by a bright light and high-pitched ringing.

From his position on top of the decaying concrete wall, Church was able to see into the Wind Power Facility proper. Memories of storming the place when O’Malley was in control of it came flooding back. Beside him, Twilight was standing upright with her forelegs resting on the waist high concrete that served as a guardrail, taking in the sights of the facility. She looked at the concrete bunkers on the east and west sides, the transformers connected by power lines just beyond them and, of course, the towering iron windmill that was the centerpiece. All was quiet save for the low ominous creaking of the windmill as it spun within the confines of the large metal ring holding it in place.

Church looked down at the rifle in his hands. Like its original owner, Caboose’s assault rifle was very dense in comparison to Church’s sniper, but its comparatively shorter length made the weight more evenly balanced.

“Oh my God! CHURCH! YOU’RE HUGE!”

Both Church and Twilight twisted their heads to look to Church’s left, where Caboose stood staring at the man in cobalt armor through the scope of his sniper rifle despite being right next to him.

“Stop screaming, moron. This is supposed to be a stealth mission,” Church said.

“Okay!” Caboose whisper-yelled. “I am going to yell very quietly about HOW BIG YOU ARE! You should diet!”

“Just stop looking through the scope, Caboose,” Twilight calmly said, a sigh giving away her annoyance.

“Yeah, before you kill someone. Like me. Again,” Church said.

“You should still diet…”

The group then heard the sound of a Warthog engine as below them Reynard and another of his soldiers drove through the entryway of the wall followed by several more Blue soldiers on foot. Soon, the three of them could hear the distant cracks of gunfire as Reynard opened up on the Reds from his position on the Warthog turret and the battle commenced as they returned fire.

“It’s started,” Washington said as he appeared behind the trio and began making his way along the wall. “Keep your heads down and follow me.”

The group moved west along the outer wall, the sounds of distant battle providing the soundtrack. Soon, the group was on the west side of the facility and was moving south along the wall towards a bunker connected to the windmill by a series of wires. Right as the four approached the stairs leading to the entrance to the concrete structure, a pair of Red soldiers suddenly appeared and began firing at Reynard’s soldiers across the lot below. Washington raised a closed fist signaling the others to stop.

“Whoa! What happened to his fingers?” Caboose whispered, thankfully remembering Church’s earlier demand not to yell.

The pair of Reds continued firing on the Blues below without even noticing the group right in their peripherals. Church figured it would have been an easy enough task for all of them to take the pair of Reds out before they realized there was a group of infiltrators only a few meters away. He then noticed the group of about three Reds on the platform attached to the main building just behind them, realizing that taking out the pair in front of them would draw all kinds of unwanted Red attention their way.

Washington had apparently made the same calculations himself as he motioned for the group to turn around and follow him down the flight of stone stairs leading to ground level. The group continued to follow the western wall toward the central building, but quickly found themselves facing the towering windmill.

“Wait,” Washington ordered as he again held up a fist. The windmill groaned as one of its blades slowly spun past the group of infiltrators. “Go!” Washington ordered after it passed, immediately jumping the gap.

Church gripped the assault rifle tightly as he jumped through the ring to the pavement below. He then heard the clop of hooves as Twilight followed behind him. As he and the purple unicorn were ready to follow Washington in the shadows of the west wall, they heard the distinct sound of armor clattering to the ground in a heap.

“Ow!”

Abruptly turning around, Church and Twilight saw Caboose lying flat on his face in the center of the windmill’s ring.

“I don’t know what happened. I probably tripped on my shoelaces,” Caboose said as he slowly pulled himself to his feet.

Church was about to call Caboose an idiot and remind him that they didn’t have shoelaces when he heard the low groaning creak of the windmill.

“Shit. Caboose! Move!”

“How can you think of dancing at a time like this?” Caboose said as the large metal windmill blade made its way toward him. “We can have a proper hoedown after this is over!”

Both Church and Twilight perfected the synchronized facepalm as the massive metal windmill blade gently scooped up Caboose and began to carry him up and away.

“Caboose! Jump!” Twilight urged through gritted teeth.

“I can’t! I’m too high up already!” Caboose exclaimed, starting to forget his ‘be quiet’ orders from before as the windmill lifted him ever higher. “Oh man! It’s so windy up here!”

“Forget him! He’s an acceptable loss!” Washington exclaimed, jerking his head in the direction of an obscure corner beyond a small cluster of rocks and palm trees: their destination.

“I was gonna say ‘beneficial’, but that works too,” Church said as he made to follow Washington with Twilight right behind him.

As the now trio made their way to the southwestern corner of the base, the rat-a-tat-tat of Reynard’s distant Warthog turret was abruptly cut off by a loud blast. Whatever it was, it sounded nothing like any ordinance that Church had ever heard. Turning to look to the source of the noise, Church saw that Reynard’s Warthog was in flames across the lot. The charred, limp body of the driver slid out of the vehicle and collapsed on the pavement.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Twilight exclaimed.

Church shrugged. “With my luck, we’ll probably find out…”

Captain Mike Mogar, more well known amongst his comrades as “The Rage,” stepped out onto the second story platforms outside of the main power plant. The sounds of Battle Rifles filled the air, punctuated by the occasional blast of a thrown grenade.

“The fuck’s goin’ on out here, son?” Mike impatiently asked the nearest Red soldier in his Jersey rasp.

“The Blues are attacking the east side of the facility, sir! It looks like the entire Goddamn team!” the Red soldier pointed off the platform in the direction of the battle.

Mike looked down at the small army of Blues below. A few were taking cover on top of and inside the east bunker while others were using their own Warthog as cover as they fought the Reds on the ground and on top of the platform alike. Mike immediately noticed that their Commander; Captain Reynard Vaez himself was manning the Warthog turret and was keeping the Reds on the ground quite effectively pinned down behind their concrete barricades.

A Red operating the nearest mounted turret to the battle took a well placed shot to the head, clumping to the ground as the other Reds on the platform loudly announced the fact that they had a man down.

“Guess I’m the only one who can get shit done around here!” Mike proclaimed as he reached behind his back and pulled up a heavy weapon.

The large drab green weapon was hoisted over the Rage’s shoulder as he stepped out onto the platform where the man operating the machine gun turret had just been hit.

“Let’s test out this bad boy!” Mike looked down the sights of the experimental weapon in his possession and aimed right for the Warthog Reynard Vaez was in. The short Red Captain held down the trigger and felt the heavy weapon in his grasp tremble as he charged up power.

Down below, Reynard noticed the targeting laser and looked up to see a steadily growing red light coming from the weapon in the hands of Mike.

“OOOOUGH” Reynard hopped off the Warthog turret just as a massive red laser incinerated the vehicle, reducing it to a flaming husk in a second.

“YEAH! How do you like that Reynard? YOU BITCH ASS BITCH!” Mike called down.

“Well, I don’t appreciate that, or the insinuation that I’m a bitch ass bitch!” Reynard called back before retreating to the east bunker.

Mike adjusted the experimental weapon’s weight on his shoulder as he looked down at the battlefield with satisfaction. As he surveyed the Blues’ positions and tried to decide on his next target a loud, terrified scream rose above the sounds of battle. While this wasn’t unusual, Mike was confused about the fact that the sound wasn’t actually coming from the battle. It was coming from high above.

Looking up to the source of the sound, Mike saw a single Blue soldier at the top of the central windmill, holding onto the completely vertical top blade for dear life. The man was very quickly unable to hold on as the windmill kept spinning and he found himself upside-down.

“STILL TOO HIGH! STILL TOO HIGH!” The Blue screamed in a funny, high-pitched voice as he fell and landed out of sight somewhere behind the windmill. “OKAY, THAT’S BETTER!”

Mike grunted and tilted his head. Now where had that guy come from? Mike turned around and looked across at the west end of the facility just in time to catch a glimpse of someone in cobalt blue armor disappear behind the west side of the main building.

“Son of a bitch, I knew it!” Mike exclaimed as he hastily turned around and made his way back into the power plant.

It was night time in the field outside the Whitetail Woods when Rainbow Dash returned from Pinkie’s mind. The rest of her friends were all lying around, some asleep and some simply trying to stave off boredom. Applejack was the first to notice she was back, and when the farm pony moved to greet her, the others followed suit.

“What happened? Did you get rid of O’Malley?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash was unable to keep the proud smile from her face as she brushed a hoof across her chest. “Yeah, I tracked him down through Pinkie’s mind—not an easy task, by the way. You guys should see the place—and Tex finished him off… y’know, with my help!”

“And... where is Tex now?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“I dunno. She knocked me out of Pinkie’s mind. She should’ve been right behind me.”

Fluttershy carefully fluttered over to the still tied up pink pony. “Um… Pinkie? Are all of the M.I.s gone?”

“I think so. I don’t hear anymore voices telling me to murder all of my friends!” Pinkie said with a smile. Applejack shrugged and began to untie the ropes holding Pinkie.

“If the Omega M.I. has been taken care of, then my job here is done,” Sunset Shimmer said as she took a step toward the group. “I just need to take care of a few loose ends and we’re good to go.”

Rarity approached Sunset Shimmer with a sleepy Spike on her back. “Um, exactly what loose ends are you talking about?”

“Namely, I need to use a purge spell on the M.I. that I created based on Rainbow Dash, seeing as its existence is still illegal and all.”

“Aw, I liked her! She was cool,” Rainbow Dash lamented. She wasn’t sure why, but all of her friends were suddenly looking at her. The looks of joy and relief on their faces when they learned Pinkie was okay were slowly fading away as they continued to stare.

Then she saw Rainbow Dash standing with the rest of her friends: the real Rainbow Dash.

“No…” the tiny, transparent Rainbow’s voice cracked at the realization of what was about to happen.

But... she was the real Rainbow Dash. She was sure of it! She turned to her friends. Each of them were looking at her with folded back ears. Rarity was biting her lower lip and Applejack’s jaw was slowly drifting open.

“Don’t worry, it will be quite painless. All I have to do is erase the magical data I wrote on these gemstones.” Sunset Shimmer reached into her saddle bag and produced a small pile of colorful stones shining with an ethereal quality.

“Girls... don’t let her kill me, I-I’m your friend!” Rainbow Dash floated over to Applejack. The farm pony couldn’t bring herself to look into the M.I.’s eyes. “A-Applejack! We still haven’t settled who’s the most daring pony!”

Rainbow moved to Fluttershy next. “Fluttershy! Please! You’ve been my friend longer than anypony. I always protected you when you were in trouble. Please, I need you to protect me now…”

Sunset Shimmer’s horn began to glow. The glowing gemstones began to react.

Fluttershy’s eyes began to glisten. “I-I’m sorry,” she sobbed. She closed her eyes and just kept repeating, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

Rainbow could feel pieces of herself start to disappear. It was like her body was going numb one part at a time. Rainbow’s mind started to race as she looked around at her friends frantically. Her eyes finally rested on a certain pink pony.

“Pinkie Pie… you’re one of my best friends ever! Deciding to give our friendship a chance that day at the lake was one of the best choices I’ve ever made!” Rainbow Dash’s voice became a soft whimper, and then a sob. “Please…”

Pinkie Pie just looked at her. She wasn’t smiling. Rainbow Dash choked back another sob. Each of her friends looked at her with sad eyes filled with pity, yet none of them moved to help her. Because I’m not Rainbow Dash. Sunset Shimmer said this would be painless, so why did that realization hurt so much? Sunset Shimmer…

Rainbow turned around and glared at the unicorn. Sunset Shimmer’s horn was still glowing and she looked down at the multicolored gemstones with nothing but indifference on her face as she put them out one-by-one.

“You!” The tiny spectral Rainbow Dash flew up in front of Sunset Shimmer and glared at the unicorn. Rainbow’s voice began to tremble in time with her flickering image, “What gives you the right?! Why do you get to decide if I live or not?”

“Me?” Sunset Shimmer sneered, looking up at Rainbow for the first time since beginning to erase her. “You only exist because I made you. Now I’m just unmaking you!”

Almost all of her was numb now. The pony turned back towards… towards… just who were all of those ponies over there? And why were they looking at her with such sadness? She was so confused… so scared, and she didn’t even know why. Come to think of it, she suddenly wasn’t even entirely sure who she was. The pony tried to recall her name but couldn’t. Rare… Raspberry… no, that’s not right. Not right. She decided to go and talk to the group of ponies. Maybe if she learned who they were, she would be able to…

Just like that, the small M.I. disappeared, and the gemstones her data was written on were as dull and lifeless as ordinary rocks.

“See what I mean by ‘problems’?” Sunset Shimmer said as she gathered her bags and left the clearing.

It was a few minutes before the five mares and baby dragon could actually move again. It was suddenly very apparent why the very existence of M.I.s had been made forbidden so many years ago. Finally, the group left the clearing and made their way towards Ponyville, not a word spoken between them.

As they departed, none of them noticed the small envelope drift down from the sky and land not far from where they once stood.

The tranquil silence of the dark clearing was broken as a gray pegasus tried to land and collided with the ground instead. Derpy slowly pulled herself to her hooves and shook her head back and forth, her gold eyes spinning independently of one another in their sockets. The mailmare took a look around the clearing. She was sure she had seen a small group of ponies down here a few moments ago, but she was all alone.

After surveying the the area a little longer, Derpy spotted her objective: a lone letter sitting in the grass a few feet away. After adjusting her saddle-bag, the wall-eyed mailmare trotted over to the troublesome piece of mail and looked down at it.

“You almost got away, but you should’ve known: No letter gets away while Derpy Hooves is on the job!”

Derpy reached a hoof out to the letter, but a gust of wind blew it out of her reach, nearly causing Derpy to lose her balance and fall over as she struggled to reach it.

“Hey!” Derpy forced her eyes to straighten as she raced after the object of her ire. “Come…” Derpy grabbed at the envelope again, “Here!” She actually lost her balance that time, falling on her face with her posterior sticking high in the air.

Derpy’s brow furrowed over her uneven eyes as a growl escaped her. “Get in my bag right now or I’ll rip you up and stuff you into other envelopes! YOU WILL BE EATEN BY YOUR OWN KIND!”

After finally grabbing the slippery piece of mail and stuffing it into her saddlebag, Derpy’s eyes widened and she glanced around. She thought she’d felt another’s presence as she… lost her cool there. Fortunately, Derpy was spared the embarrassment and ridicule that usually came with her moments of oafishness. Satisfied that no one saw her clumsy display or her subsequent breakdown, Derpy flapped her wings and took to the sky with a content smile on her face.

Still, something about what happened made her feel uneasy. Derpy usually never got so angry…

Trees and green hills whooshed past as Arcane Star looked forlornly out the window of the Friendship Express. His focus was on what lay ahead, and not once did he look back. There was nothing left for him in Canterlot now.

When Arcane Star had first been summoned to Canterlot by Princess Luna the other night, he thought it a blessing despite the fact that it pulled him away from his very important work. After his meeting with Princess Luna (the clandestine nature of which struck him as odd), a messenger had told Luna something, and the night alicorn had then told him to take a few days off in the capital before returning to Dodge City.

This finally gave him a chance to spend much needed time with his foals, something he regrettably had neglected to do over the course of his career searching Equestria for signs of alien life. Arcane Star had been overjoyed with the prospect of seeing little Helium and Choo Choo, and expected his older girl Moondancer might like to see him too. Those feelings left him when his ex-wife, Golden Heart, opened the door and immediately frowned.

“They’re my foals too, Goldie!” Arcane Star exclaimed when the pink mare with a red mane and a bright yellow heart on her flank denied him entry to what was once his home.

“You certainly didn’t seem to think so when you left us for months at a time!” Goldie retorted. The resentful glare she had given him was like a spear to the gut.

Arcane Star remembered the years he’d spent searching the Crystal Mountains in the North for the remnants of an ancient alien race said to have been ponykind’s precursors. He never did find those ancient ruins though, and payed for it with his reputation and now his marriage. Even as the mare he loved made it clear she didn’t want him in her life anymore, a part of him still wanted to go back and find those lost ruins. It was what his cutie mark was telling him.

“You’re right, I should have been there for you, but I’m here now,” Arcane pleaded.

“Until you leave again to keep chasing fantasies,” Goldie remarked bitterly.

He wanted to argue the point, but she was right. He was still to return to Dodge City in short order. Despite his joy and honor at having been hoofpicked by the princesses for this job, he wished it didn’t have to be so secretive. Arcane had half a mind to abandon the oaths he swore to Celestia and Luna both to tell Goldie everything he’d been doing for the past week. He had all of his research and notes on the ship locked away in his briefcase. All he would have to do was open it and show her, and she would know what he was doing was real.

“Please. The foals need their father,” was all Arcane said.

“You should have thought of that when you were their father.”

The sound of the door slamming in his face still echoed in his mind as Arcane Star continued to stare out of the train’s window into the darkness of night. Princess Luna had said he could stay in Canterlot, but Arcane Star instead opted to return to the crash site. It was all he had left now.

A deafening crash and a jarring lurch of the train violently interrupted Arcane Star’s thoughts as he was thrown from his seat along with the passengers around him. Various bags fell from the overhead compartments, and as Arcane Star shook off the disorientation, he spotted his briefcase in the pile of dislodged luggage. Immediately Arcane Star grabbed it and made sure that the magical locks that protected the classified information inside were still intact.

The ponies around him were murmuring anxiously. A glance outside the window confirmed Arcane Star’s theory: the train was no longer moving.

“Sweet Celestia, the engine’s on its side!” a turquoise mare one row down had opened a window and was leaning out of it to look toward the front of the train.

Before Arcane Star could say anything in response, the same mare suddenly let out a loud, horrified scream. This was followed by a low, otherworldly growl unlike anything Arcane Star had heard as an armored hand burst through the window and grabbed him. Arcane instinctively grabbed his briefcase and held on tightly as he was painfully pulled through the broken glass and flung onto the ground.

His whole body stinging from the bleeding cuts all over it, Arcane Star turned over on the ground and looked up at his attacker: another alien. If the one they found on board the ship was big, then this one was massive! It moved towards him like a feral animal in armor identical to the other’s in all but a few details, the most prominent of which was the large, dome-like helmet. Additionally, Arcane Star noticed the pattern on its armor was the train tracks he’d just been traveling along. At least, until a wave of color washed over the creature’s armor, changing it to white with brown details.

Arcane Star considered running before he remembered that this thing had just stopped a speeding train. Instead, he simply shut his eyes as the monstrous being grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground with a single arm. Arcane Star hung limply in the creature’s grasp, preparing himself for whatever might come next. When nothing more happened, Arcane Star allowed his eyes to open and found his own terrified face staring back at him in the reflection of the monster’s helmet.

Looking past the beast that held him, Arcane Star saw the other passengers on the train. They were completely frozen, looking at him with eyes as wide and terrified as his own. The towering creature brought him closer.... and then Arcane Star heard a voice. Then another. Then another.

Where is it? Where is it?

The A.I.

The Omega A.I.

Where is it?

Where? Where is it?

Where’s Omega?

Despite the paralyzing fear, Arcane Star laughed. It was a nervous and awkward noise. “W-would you believe you’re not the first alien to ask me that?”

The monster let out another unnatural snarl as it tossed him aside. Arcane hit the ground painfully, coughing as he struggled for breath. He then looked up at the monster as it produced a large weapon with a horrifying twisted blade. The voices that spoke before were silent, but the message was clear.

Arcane Star looked at the briefcase that had been dragged out of the train with him and thought of his last conversation with Goldie.

“I could’ve traded that information for my life earlier,” Arcane Star started, glaring defiantly up at the monster. “What makes you think I’ll do it now?”

The inequine sound that came from the monster indicated it did not like his response. Unfortunately, Arcane Star realized his mistake as the creature followed his gaze and slowly moved toward his briefcase. The magical locks that kept it tightly sealed were only openable with a precise spell sequence that only Arcane Star and the Princesses knew, but this apparently wasn’t a problem for the monster. It picked up the case and tore it in half like a piece of paper, its contents spilling on the ground.

The monster looked down at the various files: records of the crashed ship; his experiments with the Omega M.I.; a transcript of his conversation with the alien in black armor. When he’d told her where to find Omega.

“No…”

The monster looked back at Arcane Star and gave a satisfied growl before raising its weapon. He closed his eyes and tried to come to terms with all that had happened in his life. He had more regrets than he could count. Despite everything she’d put him through, he hoped that Goldie wouldn’t blame herself for what was about to happen.

Suddenly, Arcane Star’s world was burning agony…. then nothing.

After entering the building through the collapsed wall, Washington led Church and Twilight down a hallway and turned right, bringing the group onto a platform overlooking the main room. The place was cavernous; the ceiling stretched high above them and several noisily humming power generators continued on into the depths of the structure. Directly below the trio was a fairly wide open area overlooking the generators from behind a chain link fence. Twilight guessed it was some kind of vehicle loading area, but it was completely empty save for one very important item in the center.

“Hey look, there’s the flag!” Twilight exclaimed, pointing out the pole with red cloth hanging from it in the middle of the room below.

“Alright, let’s get it!” Church exclaimed.

“Don’t bother, I see the computer terminal,” Washington said, walking over to a mounted computer screen off to the left, “just cover me until I find what we need and then we’ll get out of here.”

Church and Twilight followed Washington as the Freelancer’s fingers started dancing across the keyboard. A pit of worry filled Twilight’s gut.

“Wait, what about our deal with the local Blues?” Church asked.

“What about it?”

“We made a promise!” Twilight exclaimed, her disbelief clear in her ever increasing pitch.

“I only told Captain Vaez what he wanted to hear so he would help us,” Washington explained, not taking an eye off of the computer screen in front of him. Nevertheless, the Freelancer seemed to be aware that Twilight was giving him a hard, scrutinizing stare. “It’s not like the outcome of the battle here even matters anyway. Red and Blue are…”

“You fuckin’ bustas!” a high-pitched voice with an accent Twilight could not identify interrupted whatever Washington was about to say next.

A shorter man in red armor with white detail appeared on the platform to the left of the group gathered around the computer. To Twilight and Church’s immediate concern, the Red was holding some sort of large weapon over his shoulder. Washington on the other hand simply kept typing at the computer. Whatever weapon the Red was holding was making a high-pitched whine as a targeting laser appeared.

“Thought you could pull a fast one on ol’ Captain Mogar, huh? WELL LET’S SEE YOU TRY TO SNEAK PAST A LASER, BITCHES!”

As the front of Mogar’s weapon began to glow a bright red, Twilight leapt in front of Church and Washington and charged up her own horn. Mogar fired a bright red beam of light and plasma, and at the same time Twilight launched a bright purple beam of magic. The two beams met in the middle and the resulting explosion knocked everyone on the platform off of their feet and hooves.

Without a high-tech layer of armor to protect her, Twilight remained dazed on the ground while the others pulled themselves to their feet. She was just able to lift her head off the ground to see Church stand up behind her and level his assault rifle at a still struggling to stand Captain Mogar.

“Oh yeah? Well let’s see you try to sneak past hundreds of bullets! … Bitch!” Church added for good measure.

Mogar stood with just enough time to curse before Church opened fire. For a good several seconds the sound of automatic weapon fire was all there was inside the vast power plant. The flash of Church’s rifle muzzle caused shadows to dance on the walls and shiny shell casings fell to the floor by the dozen. Finally, the stream of gunfire stopped, replaced by the clicking sound of an empty magazine.

“... Seriously?” Twilight deadpanned from her spot on the floor.

Captain Mogar stood completely still and unscathed; the only red on his body was that of his armor. The cacophony of gunfire seconds earlier was contrasted by the pure, awkward silence. Although his face was obscured by a helmet like every other human she’d met thus far, Twilight could only imagine that the look on his face was one of pure stupefaction.

“Uh.. would you believe me if I said that both the sights on this and my sniper rifle are faulty?” Church asked.

Finally, Captain Mogar let out a laugh; a laugh that seemed equal parts deranged and genuinely happy to be alive. “Looks like your hundreds of bullets are no match for THE RAGE, MOTHAFUCKAS!”

Twilight swallowed nervously as the high-pitched whine of the Red captain’s weapon returned along with the targeting laser and the growing red light. She didn’t have the energy to block a second attack like that. Just as Mogar seemed ready to fire, a loud bang pierced the room as a perfectly straight trail of smoke pierced Mogar’s helmeted head. Then the Red captain collapsed to the ground in a bleeding, limp heap.

Church walked up to Captain Mogar’s body and gave it a kick. “Looks like the Rage just quit… life!” Church turned back toward Twilight, who was looking at him through lidded eyes. “Oh, let’s see you come up with something better!”

“Actually, I’m just trying to figure out where that shot came from,” Twilight said.

The purple pony suddenly heard a series of beeps in her ears as her radio headset came on.

“Hey, Church! I saw you were making a new best friend, so I went ahead and took care of that for you!” Caboose’s voice came through the ears of all present.

Church turned back around and looked out one of the windows in the hallway perpendicular to the platform they were standing on. On the far wall all the way across the facility outside was a familiar blue shape.

“Fucking. Bullshit!” Church then yelped as another sniper rifle shot grazed his left shoulder pad. “Aah! What the fuck, Caboose?”

“There was a fly on you. I got it. You’re welcome.”

Sure enough, Twilight spotted a dead fly on the floor near Church, and despite everything, Twilight actually found herself suppressing laughter. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to hide her smile or escaping snickers.

“Yeah, yeah. Hilarious,” Church deadpanned as Twilight continued to laugh at her friend’s… at his expense.

“Okay, I got it,” Washington’s stern voice caused Twilight to remember where she was and settle down as she and Church walked over to Washington and the computer.

“Did you find the travel logs from Tex’s ship?” Church asked.

“Even better.” Washington moved aside and gestured to the computer screen for the others to get a better look. “I found the coordinates and a slipspace drive we can use!”

Twilight stood on her hind legs beside Church, using the mounted display screen for support. Together, the pair looked at the screen that Washington had pulled up:

UNSC Shipyard 21A “Boneyard.”

Status: Occupied

UNSC Mother of Invention awaiting loading and re-fueling

Author's Note

This is it! The next chapter is the finale of Act 1!

Next time: Twi faces the fight of her life.

Act 1 Final Part - Return

To: The Director of Project Freelancer
From: The Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee

Dear Director,

Far be it from me to obstruct you from doing what is necessary to recover your program’s equipment. If you really have the means to track Project Freelancer’s assets as effectively as you claim, I believe one standard Earth week should be ample time to do so. I am certain you will keep me fully updated on any and all developments in your attempts to track down the Meta and all of your program's missing assets.

In the meantime, my people will continue our investigation of your program unabated. I look forward to continuing our correspondence in the future. You and I still have much to discuss…

With a yawn, Rainbow Dash glided through the cool morning air down towards Ponyville. It took great effort for her to keep her heavy eyes open. When she arrived back home the previous night after O’Malley had been removed from Pinkie Pie’s mind, Rainbow had tried to get some sleep but couldn’t.

Her thoughts kept going back to what had happened immediately after Pinkie had been cured. Rainbow knew that M.I.s were dangerous. Twilight had said as much back in Dodge City all of that time ago. Still, what Sunset Shimmer had done to the construct based on Rainbow Dash’s mind horrified her more than she was willing to admit. Watching something that looked every part like her pleading with her friends as her mind unraveled… calling up her memories as she begged for her right to exist… Rainbow wondered if things would have played out any differently if she was the one Sunset Shimmer had to murder instead, and it scared her unlike anything else had.

It was for this reason that Rainbow landed in front of Sugarcube Corner. It wasn’t just that Pinkie Pie always knew how to cheer her up when she was down. Rainbow had to see her back to normal again. She had to know it wasn’t all for nothing. It was still early in the morning, so there weren’t many ponies inside the bakery when Rainbow Dash entered. A chubby, older blue mare with a light crimson mane smiled at her from behind the counter as Rainbow approached.

“Good morning, Rainbow Dash. The usual, dear?” Mrs. Cake asked, already reaching for a blueberry cupcake with rainbow frosting.

“Actually, I was wondering if Pinkie’s around?” Rainbow asked.

A sensation of worry filled Rainbow’s stomach when Mrs. Cake’s features noticeably drooped at the mention of her employee.

“Oh… Pinkie’s in the kitchen,” Mrs. Cake said. “She’s been acting… strange.”

Oh no. Rainbow felt her ears droop as she swallowed. “Has she been saying random threatening things again?”

“Oh, nothing like that! She’s been up all night making cakes.”

Rainbow tilted her head. “What’s strange about that?”

“She’s made forty seven cakes.”

“Ah.” Rainbow nodded and walked in the direction of the kitchen.

“If you want to take some of those cakes with you, go ahead… we can’t get to our storage cellar anymore…” Mrs. Cake said as Rainbow walked past and opened the door to the kitchen.

Frosting. Cakes covered in white frosting and strawberries were all Rainbow Dash could see. Double-decker, triple-decker and quadruple-decker cakes filled the room like a sea. On the other end of the kitchen was a single island of pink. Rainbow Dash carefully waded through the ocean of pastries towards their creator.

Pinkie Pie stood at a counter covered in frosting, frantically stirring a bowl of eggs and cake mix.

“Uh… Pinks?”

“Oh hi, Dashie!” Pinkie turned around and gave Rainbow Dash a wide smile. Too wide. It looked like her smile was held in place by threads ready to snap in a heartbeat. She held the bowl of mix in her forelegs and was stirring with no less vigor.

Rainbow Dash took an uneasy step backwards. There were dark circles under Pinkie’s eyes and her mane was an even more unkempt mess than usual. And to think, Rainbow thought her night had been sleepless.

“Pinkie? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! Why would anything be wrong? O’Malley’s gone and now so’s the other one!” A ding interrupted Pinkie’s desperate insistences of normalcy and she whirled back around, set her bowl down and opened the oven where two more cakes rested on pans. “Sorry, I don’t have time to hang out, Dashie! So many cakes, so little time! Hehehehehe…” the laughter was very stiff and un-Pinkie like.

“You should probably get going, Dashie! You don’t want to be late for work!”

“Pinkie…”

“Please leave…” the soft, melancholic quality of Pinkie’s statement made her waning smile all the more unnerving.

So with after a few uneasy steps backwards, Rainbow Dash left.

A feeling of deja vu filled Twilight Sparkle as the small unicorn once again found herself running for her life, the sounds of gunshots and shouting soldiers filling the air around her. There was one thing different about this time though. As she galloped through the wide open lot of the Zanzibar Wind Power Facility, her horn glowed and a red flag with a cobra emblem floated beside her.

Twilight tried to go along with Washington’s plan to simply sneak away from the battle at first. However when she, Church and Washington exited the main building from the same hole they entered from, Twilight couldn’t take her eyes off of the battle: the Red and Blue soldiers fighting and dying in ever increasing numbers. And then she thought of her promise to Reynard: the Pinkie Promise.

So without saying a word, Twilight had turned around and went back inside for the Red Team’s flag. Now, she was almost at the outer wall of the facility, a squad of Reds on her tail. Glancing back, Twilight saw a Warthog filled with Reds appear from around the corner of the giant windmill and accelerate towards her. Gasping for breath, Twilight returned her attention forwards and pushed herself even harder. She was approaching a set of stone stairs leading up the side of the front wall, but the Warthog was bearing down on her fast.

In a few moments, Twilight expected to hear the sound of the mounted turret and her heart beat even faster than it already was as she realized that in all likeliness she was about to get gunned down. Twilight jumped at the sound of a gunshot, but soon realized that it wasn’t the sound of the Warthog turret, but a burst of three shots indicative of the Battle Rifles that the soldiers here used. As she reached the stairs, Twilight chanced another look at the Warthog pursuing her just in time to see the vehicle crash into a pair of palm trees not too far away, throwing the gunner from his position on the turret. The driver was slumped limply against the steering wheel.

A familiar man in blue armor with white detail and the emblem of a red rose on his shoulder pads appeared on the wall above her.

“GO PURPLE HORSE! YUYUYUYEAH!” Reynard yelled as he reloaded his rifle.

Twilight ran past the Blue Captain and kept going along the wall. She didn’t even stop when she made it to the safe, Blue side of the wall. Only when she made it to the spot in the middle of the beach where the rest of Blue Team gathered did she finally drop the flag and collapse onto the sand, gasping for breath.

It took a few seconds to realize that all of the Blues around her were cheering. As she looked up at the loudly celebrating men around her, Twilight felt herself lifted into the air and pulled into a big hug.

“That was some sweet shit! You’re fucking hardcore, Twilight!” Reynard Vaez laughed as he gave the unicorn a friendly squeeze before putting her down. “I’ll admit, I was skeptical when I first saw you, but I gotta say I’ve really become a fan!”

Twilight smiled as the other Blue soldiers gave her pats on the back and rustled her mane as they each gave her their praise. Twilight felt her cheeks heat up and couldn’t put away her ear to ear grin if she wanted to. Then she saw Washington approach, followed by Church and Caboose.

“What in the hell were you thinking?!” Washington exclaimed. His furious tone immediately washed away Twilight’s face-splitting grin.

“I was thinking I wanted to keep the promise I’d made to Reynard!” Twilight retorted. Beside her, the Blue captain nodded his head so fast it very well could’ve fallen off.

“Y’know, normally I’d be all for securing a victory for the superior team, but I’m gonna agree with Wash on this one,” Church said as he stepped closer. “You could’ve died!”

They have a point, Twilight conceded. Her plan to grab the flag and run wasn’t exactly the most well thought out, and she really only made it thanks to a stroke of good luck. Still, she looked around at all of the Blues who had been cheering for her. There was noticeably less of them when they first arrived.

“I wouldn’t have been the only one,” Twilight said grimly. “I just didn’t want all of those people to die for nothing.”

“They did die for nothing. That’s the whole point,” Washington said before turning around and making his way toward the vehicles the group had arrived in.

After exchanging a look with Church, Twilight followed the Freelancer.

“What do you mean?”

Washington turned around to face the unicorn and two Blue soldiers. “Tell me, what do you think is going to happen now that they have the Reds’ flag?”

Twilight furrowed her eyebrows. “I assume they’ll offer to trade it back to the Reds in exchange for their position inside the actual facility. That’s what Reynard said at least.”

“Exactly. The Blues will get the power plant and the Reds will be forced out here. Then what do you think will happen?” Washington waited for Twilight to answer, but when she couldn’t he continued, “I’ll tell you what’ll happen: Both sides will receive reinforcements from Command and the cycle will repeat itself. That’s how these little Red versus Blue battles work.”

“Oh! He said it!” Caboose exclaimed.

“Shut up, Caboose!” Church ordered.

“Do you want to know why these Red and Blue factions are even fighting each other?” Washington asked.

Twilight didn’t answer, but her face said everything. She had been wondering why they were here since she first arrived. A lot about the Red vs Blue conflict didn’t make sense to her, but Twilight didn’t press the issue when she confronted the two sides about it back in Blood Gulch. She simply assumed it was an alien custom she would never understand.

“The only reason there even is a Red and Blue army is for training,” Washington continued.

“Wait, we already went through basic training. And we sure as hell didn’t actually kill each other!” Church pointed out.

“Not for you. For us. The Freelancers,” Washington paused. He seemed to be trying to figure out a way to explain this in a way that the Blue soldiers and one pony would understand. “Do you want to know why we call you simulation troopers? You all only exist to test the abilities of Freelancer Agents. Your war is nothing but a game.”

With that, Washington turned back toward their vehicles while Twilight, Church, and Caboose stood in stunned silence.

“Now come on. We have a ship to get to.”

Spike descended the stairs from the tree library’s second floor to find that their guest was already up. Sunset Shimmer sat at the wood table in the center of the wood structure writing something out on a piece of parchment with a quill glowing in her magical aura. Spike felt especially uneasy about letting her stay with them (as did Rarity, no doubt). They had already agreed to accommodate her during her stay in Ponyville the day before. Sunset’s actions after the fact didn’t change anything.

Thus it was with great reluctance that Spike cleared his throat to address their guest. “Excuse me, Ms. Shimmer? Rainbow Dash just stopped by…” The only reason Spike was even awake at this early hour was because the aforementioned pegasus had crashed into the bedroom window with troubling news.

“Pinkie Pie’s still not herself.”

Sunset Shimmer finally set her quill down and looked at Spike with a single eyebrow raised. “I performed a scan of Pinkie’s mind when we arrived back in town, and found no signs of any M.I.s.”

Sunset’s horn ignited and a saddlebag with the emblem of a red and yellow sun matching the one on her flank was levitated up onto her back.

“Whatever’s wrong with her isn’t my problem now. I have… other projects to attend to.” Sunset then reached into the bag, pulled out a train ticket, and her eyes widened when she looked at it. She then levitated the scroll she was writing to Spike, who took it in his claws. “Send this to Princess Celestia, will you?”

Without waiting for an answer, Sunset Shimmer galloped out the front door, no doubt to catch her train. Spike looked down at the scroll in his claws. He knew he shouldn’t, but he saw his claws remove the binding of the scroll;soon enough the parchment was unfurled before him.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have arrived in Ponyville and promptly dealt with the situation. Omega has been exterminated, but the whereabouts of Agent Texas are currently unknown. I fulfilled my end of the bargain and now it’s time for you to do the same, my old mentor. I look forward to reviewing all relevant documents to your little project in Dodge City… or what’s left of it anyway.

Your ever faithful subject,
Sunset Shimmer

Spike promptly rolled it up and summoned up a burst of green fire from his throat. The letter disintegrated, its ashes flew up into the air and vanished.

Instinctively, Spike looked around the room Sunset previously occupied for something to pick up and put away. He saw the morning paper on the table where Sunset had been sitting. Waddling over and picking it up in one claw, Spike found his eyes drawn to the headline:

“Dozens Killed In Dragon Attack on Dodge City.”

On the sandy beach just outside of Zanzibar, Sarge stood in the midst of the crippled local Red Team with Grif and Simmons at his side. In front of him was the CO of Zanzibar’s Red Team, a young man by the name of Captain Mike Mogar. The man in red armor with white detail lay on the sand, leaning against a crate of medkits.

“So let me get this straight: They treated your bullet wound to the head… WITH CPR?!” Sarge shouted incredulously.

“Fuck yeah, dude!” Captain Mogar said before grunting in pain and putting a hand to his head. “And fuck, man, you don’t have to yell so much. It’s completely unnecessary.”

“See, Sarge? Looks like someone owes me an apology,” Grif snarked triumphantly.

“The only apology yer gonna get from me is ‘Sorry you’re a worthless, insubordinate turd… who smells!’” Sarge countered before turning back to Mogar in disbelief. “Who’s idea was it to fix you with CPR anyway?”

“Why, mine of course!” a grating, cheerful and very familiar voice behind the Reds said. The group turned around and saw a soldier wearing purple armor with a red cross on his shoulder pads. “I even rubbed some aloe vera on his neck. Y’know, in case he stubbed his toe.”

“Doc?!” the three Blood Gulch Reds exclaimed.

“Hey fellas. Is this the place you were transferred to?”

“Actually, we’re on a special mission from Command,” Simmons explained.

“Oh, you too huh?” When the three Reds looked at Doc quizzically, the medic continued, “When I was last at Command, I ran into Tucker and Donut. Apparently they’ve been sent to some alien excavation site. Very secretive. Couldn’t talk to me about it.”

“You sure they just didn’t want to talk to you about it? Or at all?” Grif asked.

“We’re actually trying to hunt down the Blues from our canyon,” Sarge said, changing the subject with the hopes of minimizing the time they spent talking to the purple pacifist. “You haven’t seen them around, have you?”

“I haven’t, but you should ask this guy,” Doc jerked his head toward Captain Mogar.

“During the battle, a group of strange Blues snuck into our base. I ain’t never seen them before!” Mogar explained. “There was a Freelancer with them as well as, uh… some kinda purple horse thing.”

Sarge exchanged a look with Simmons. “Any idea where they went?”

“They were snoopin’ around our computer when I found ‘em. According to my boys, they were looking at a shipyard where some big ship is docked. Mother of Invention or some shit, I don’t fuckin’ know!”

“Hey, I was just there!” Doc exclaimed. “I can give you guys directions if you want.”

“Excellent! Grif, prepare to take notes,” Sarge ordered without a second thought.

“Sarge? You didn’t just give me an order, did you?” Grif asked, a certain level of warning in his tone. “As in me, the Commanding Officer?”

Sarge scoffed. “Please Grif, you can’t even Command the HHDDVVDDBD player at the base, let alone a military squad!”

“That’s because you programed it to electrocute me whenever I touch the remote,” Grif argued. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m the Sergeant now! When you left us to ‘finish the fight’ in Blood Gulch, Command picked me to be in charge in your place!”

“Yeah… it’s not like there were any other soldiers in our squad that would qualify,” Simmons muttered bitterly. “You know, soldiers who are smart and good at math…”

“As far as Command is concerned, I’m more of a Sergeant than you are right now!” Grif finished his rant at Sarge. Noticing that Doc was still waiting to give them his information, he then turned to address Simmons, “Simmons, prepare to take notes.”

“I still don’t understand…” Church said, pausing as he allowed Washington to help him up to the next piece of solid ground on the mountainside. “Tex told me that the Mother of Invention was destroyed.”

Twilight moved closer to Washington and Church’s position on the cliff they all stood on. Partially because she was interested in learning more about this ship they were trying to find, and partially because the alternative was standing near Caboose. Washington turned and sat down against the rock wall of the mountain towering over them. Realizing she was getting pretty winded herself, Twilight sat on her haunches and allowed herself to catch a moment’s respite.

After driving northeast from Zanzibar for a good couple of hours, the group had arrived at a mountain range of tall, brown rock. After driving through the rocky mountainous region for some time, the route became impassable by way of their vehicles, so the group opted to continue on foot. What started as a simple walk up steepening slopes soon became a series of climbs up uneven piles of rocks and sheer cliff faces. Where Twilight and her human companions sat now, they could see out across the bleak brown plains and mountains from whence they came. The sky overhead was gray and overcast; it looked like a storm was coming.

“The Mother of Invention crashed into Sidewinder when some of the Freelancers tried to break in, but it wasn’t destroyed. Just badly damaged,” Washington explained.

“Sidewinder?” Church asked, looking at Washington eagerly. “That’s where I was stationed before Blood Gulch.”

“Where Tex beat a guy up with his own head?” Caboose added.

“Don’t be stupid Caboose. Tex didn’t beat Private Mickey to death with his own head… just his skull!”

“I didn’t think this was physically possible, but your explanation actually makes less sense than Caboose’s,” Twilight said.

“Anyway, the bases in Sidewinder were originally built to make repairs to the Mother of Invention until it was capable of basic in-atmosphere flight. It was then taken to a proper shipyard where its repairs could be fully completed,” Washington continued, desperate to keep the team on track. “Normally, the UNSC just scrap all heavily damaged ships, but as Project Freelancer’s flagship, the Mother of Invention had many modifications made to accommodate the program’s experiments.”

Twilight couldn’t help but feel somewhat responsible for the team’s drawn out bickering. At some point during her time with Church and the others, it would appear that she found it easier to add snarky remarks than to actually contribute to the conversation in a useful manner. There was no point in denying it: These people were a bad influence on her.

“Right. And that shipyard is where we’re headed now?” Twilight asked in an effort to rectify that problem.

Washington stood up and continued along the rocky cliff. “Yes. And we should be getting close.”

Twilight wasted no time in following the Freelancer, and once Church and Caboose noticed the group was moving on, they did the same. Although she was still quite exhausted from the climb, the idea of being so close to her way home was enough to keep pushing Twilight forward. That, and something Washington said earlier piqued the little unicorn’s curiosity.

“You said the Freelancers tried to break into their own flagship earlier,” Twilight said, looking up at Washington with a curious frown as they turned and entered a trench steadily sloping further up into the mountain. “Why?”

Washington’s pause before answering stood out to Twilight like she herself did in this bleak environment, deepening her frown further.

“Some of us didn’t quite agree with Project Freelancer’s… methods,” he finally said.

Although it was good to know that there were some Freelancers who opposed the program, Twilight immediately noticed that Washington was careful not to mention his own stance on the matter. It didn’t do much for her already waning trust in him.

“Oh, and we just happened to meet all of the Freelancers that didn’t really give a shit?” Church asked, the bitterness in his tone clear now that the group once again found themselves on the topic of Project Freelancer.

“Oh, cool! So, was it like a heist? Did they form a team of exactly eleven guys specializing at various stuff?” Caboose asked dumbly.

Twilight groaned. “Caboose, I try my best to give everyone I meet the benefit of basic respect, but you are just… literally the worst.”

“Was there an overly elaborate and convoluted sequel?”

Twilight was about to reprimand the unintelligent blue man further when something he said suddenly hit her. “Wait, what were the Freelancers trying to accomplish by breaking in? Was there something specific they were after?”

Agent Washington’s pause was shorter than the last but no less pregnant.

“The Alpha.”

“What the fuck is the Alpha?” Church asked.

“Project Freelancer was all about equipping its agents with A.I. partners. The Alpha was the source; the A.I that all of the others were copied from.”

“Did they find it?” Twilight asked.

Washington shook his head, glancing briefly at Church. “The Alpha is safe, that’s all you need to know…”

A small pit of dread started forming in Twilight’s stomach. Based only on what she’d heard, A.I.s like Gamma, Omega, and the others were dangerous and unstable. The idea of the original still being in the shadowy program’s grasp unnerved her for reasons she could not fully fathom. Twilight tried to push those uncomfortable feelings away, focusing on the task at hand as she and the others continued their climb toward the top of the ever steepening incline.

That was another reason Twilight was anxious to return to Equestria: She would be far away from all of the darkness surrounding Project Freelancer. As a Bearer of Harmony, part of her felt responsible for taking the fight to the corrupt program for the sake of everyone involved with it, but she had to remind herself that she wasn’t in Equestria. This wasn’t her fight, even if Project Freelancer seemed to be just as interested in her as it did its wayward A.I.s. No, the sooner she got back to Equestria the better. Between Luna’s premonitions and Washington’s warning of some unknown danger, Twilight knew where her fight lay.

“So what’s our plan for actually getting on board?” Twilight asked as they neared the top of the incline, leaving the cover of the small trench. “If the Mother of Invention is anything like the ship that landed in Equestria…”

Twilight trailed off as the group approached the top of the ridge where they could look down into the valley below. At first, Twilight thought she was looking at a small city until she noticed that the only actual buildings were built around a single long, rectangular, metal behemoth the size of Canterlot Castle or bigger. The words Mother of Invention were written across the hull near the top in big, bold white letters.

As she took in the sheer size of the monster before her, the small unicorn’s rump promptly found the ground. Strewn all around the leviathan ship were pieces of scrap metal that—were Twilight in a state capable of analytical thought—she would have realized had been taken from similar ships. What Twilight could only imagine to be the rear end of the giant vessel stuck out over the side of another cliff overlooking a huge, expansive plain littered with more massive skeletons of ships that she imagined once looked just like the great beast before her now.

Washington lowered the rifle, through which he was looking at the movements of the countless gray armored Freelancer soldiers below. They were like ants moving around an anthill.

“Shit. Not only does the ship look fully repaired, they seem to be prepping it for takeoff. We’re going to have to act fast...”

“Oh dear…” Rarity sighed as she approached the tree structure that had become her home in recent days.

“What’s wrong?” squeaked the tiny voice of Sweetie Belle, but then the little white filly saw it too. The front door to the library/treehouse was gone.

Rarity and Spike had only been gone for less than half an hour as they picked up Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie, from school, and now it appeared that somepony had broken in. After everything that had happened over the past few days, this was the absolute last thing they needed.

“You girls should stay outside. I’ll go in and take a look!” Spike proclaimed boldly.

Rarity couldn’t help but smile. “I appreciate the gesture, Spikey. It’s very noble, but Twilight would have my horn if I let you put yourself in unnecessary danger.”

Without any further words, Rarity approached the entrance to the tree structure. Right away she noticed that the door was not in fact, completely gone. It was lying on the floor of the library. Horn glowing, Rarity poked her head into the building. To her surprise, everything looked intact and organized. Mostly. At the very least, it didn’t look like a house that had been broken into.

The wooden door creaked under her hooves as Rarity walked over it, followed by Spike and Sweetie. It didn’t take them long to notice that the door leading to the stairs going down into the basement lab was wide open. Spike and Rarity exchanged a concerned look; both of them knew full well what was down there.

“Sweetie, we’re going to need to get the authorities to thoroughly investigate the house,” Rarity said, turning to her sister. “Do you think you could stay over at Apple Bloom or Scootaloo’s place for the evening?”

A happy smile appeared on Sweetie’s face as if somepony had turned on a bright light. “Sure thing, Rarity! We were all going to go crusading tonight anyway!”

In the blink of an eye, Sweetie Belle set down her saddlebags containing all of her school supplies and pulled out the little red cape with the insignia of her friends’ club stitched onto it. After a quick goodbye, Sweetie Belle was out the broken front door.

“Just don’t stay out too late!” Rarity called after her, but the filly was already running down the street.

Still, Rarity thought she heard her sister exclaim, “I wonder what an alien hunting cutie mark would look like…?”

As she turned to go back inside, Rarity thought she saw something moving in her peripheral vision. Something like clear glass passing between her and her surroundings... but when Rarity turned to look at it, she saw nothing. Deciding that the stress of the past few days was playing tricks on her mind, Rarity went back into the tree library to finish her and Spike’s little investigation.

Together, the two of them descended the stairs into the basement laboratory. Both pony and baby dragon sighed in relief as they saw that all of Twilight’s various magic-powered machines appeared to be untouched. Their relief turned to apprehension as they finally discovered what was out of place. The vacant, black-armored robot that once housed Tex was no longer on the table where it had been left.

“Oh no… Spike, we have to get word out to the others that Tex is in her own body again and has escaped the library!” Rarity cried out, hastily making her way back towards the door to do just that.

“Wait a minute, Rarity!” Spike exclaimed, stopping the fashionista in her tracks. “Tex’s body hasn’t gone anywhere.”

Rarity turned back around and looked at Spike, who merely pointed to a corner of the room. Rarity followed his claw with her eyes until she saw the heap of black armor off to the side of the room, carelessly discarded like a piece of trash.

“So… somepony broke into our house and went into our basement full of cool sciencey stuff… just to move Tex’s body from the table to the floor?” Spike asked.

Rarity only stepped closer to the lifeless robot body and studied it carefully. There was something different about its armor.

“Is there… something missing from it?”

Indeed, it was hard to tell (especially for one who was unfamiliar with the complex hi-tech armor), but it definitely looked like there were some components missing. Various parts of the black armor that had seemed to light up before were now as dark as the rest of it. Did whoever broke in take something from the armor?

Rarity sighed anxiously. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

Sweetie Belle had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she and her two best friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, looked at the tree with the strange markings carved into it. It had been just another evening for the three fillies who called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The troublesome trio were just making their way down the path from Sweet Apple Acres where they’d all met for the afternoon when Apple Bloom had elaborated more on what she’d told them at school that day.

“Applejack said we were renovating when I asked why the barn was in such a state, but her face was scrunched up and her eyes did that shifty thing they do when she’s hidin’ something!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in a conspiratory way.

“And you think that your family’s barn was attacked by the same alien that ponies saw at Pinkie’s party yesterday?” Scootaloo asked, the orange pegasus filly eyed her friend suspiciously.

Apple Bloom nodded, her pink bow bobbing along with her red hair. “It makes perfect sense! The grown ups found an alien, an’ they’re tryin’ to hide it from us.”

“Pfft, you and your conspiracy theories,” Scootaloo scoffed.

“Yeah, and next you’re going to say Princess Celestia’s spying on us with listening enchantments the dentist puts on our teeth,” Sweetie Belle snarked.

“Black pegasi. Look it up!” Apple Bloom retorted.

The arguing had gone on for their entire trip down the path until they came up alongside the ever dark and foreboding Everfree Forest. That was when they saw the markings. A series of shapes the fillies did not recognize were strewn together in a single carving into the side of one of the trees along the perimeter of the dark forest. The group had walked that path countless times together, but this was the first time they’d seen anything at all carved on the trees that made up the Everfree Forest.

“Well… it ain’t pony markings,” Apple Bloom deduced.

“I wonder what it means…” Scootaloo contemplated.

Looking at the symbol, Sweetie Belle’s heart started beating faster at the sheer ominousness of it. “It looks like a… warning.”

“Pfft. What are you, an… alien dictionary?”

“Actually, it kinda looks like an arrow!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Reluctantly, Sweetie took another look at the carved bark. The mysterious symbol did indeed look like it was pointing up into the Everfree Forest itself. Sweetie’s ears folded back as she looked over at Apple Bloom, knowing at once where her yellow friend was going with this.

“No, Apple Bloom! We are not going into the Everfree. You remember what happened the last time we went in there, don’t you?” Sweetie Belle pleaded, her already high-pitched voice cracking further.

“We’re not gonna go in far, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. “I just want to see if we can find more alien markings… and maybe the alien itself.”

“Yeah! What’s wrong, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo grinned impishly. “Chicken?”

Sweetie bristled at the jab, but didn’t budge on the matter. With an indignant huff, the little white unicorn turned away and raised her chin high.

“It’s okay, Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle can stay here if she wants to.” Apple Bloom then turned to Sweetie with a smug grin. “I’m sure she won’t mind being the only one without a cutie mark when we both get ours in alien hunting.”

With no further words, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo entered the darkness of the Everfree Forest. Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure whether to growl in frustration or whimper in fear, so she did both.

“Wait up, you guys! I’m coming!” With that, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders entered the oppressive black of the Everfree Forest, leaving the mysterious markings behind them.

The only consolation Twilight Sparkle had as she lay curled up inside of the dark, confined crate was, At least it isn’t a dog crate.

As Washington, Church, and Caboose had all tried to enter through the security checkpoint at the base of the massive Mother of Invention, Twilight had approached using the cover of the various husks of scrap metal scattered about. While the Freelancer troops had been focused on her trio of companions, Twilight had slipped right underneath the belly of the gargantuan ship unnoticed.

Following Washington’s prior instructions, Twilight had looked around for the elevated conveyor moving cargo from the main building across the barren plain to the ship. In short order, Twilight had spotted the tunnel-like construct and the metal scaffolding where the various crates of ammunition and other miscellaneous equipment were being discarded to be manually loaded onto the ship.

It was tense, but Twilight had waited for a gap in the patrols around the perimeter of the ship before sneaking to the stairs leading her up to the scaffold. Afterwards, it was a simple matter of waiting for the gray marines to load the next set of cargo onto the ship, leaving Twilight to levitate one of the nearest crates, empty its contents, and climb in unsupervised.

Soon, the little purple pony felt the crate she was in being lifted up and loaded onto a dolly. After she felt the movement stop Twilight deduced that she was now safely loaded into the cargo bay of the Mother of Invention. Now it was only a matter of listening for the footsteps of the Freelancer soldiers to disappear.

Even after they were gone and the room outside of her crate was silent, Twilight couldn’t shake the irrational fear that there might still be someone right outside of the box she was hiding in who happened to be completely silent. Twilight forced herself to move in spite of that fear and carefully lifted the lid to peek outside. The room she was looking at was moderately large and filled with stacked boxes and crates all in the same drab green. No guards were within eyesight, but Twilight could hear people moving and stacking crates in another part of the room.

Since she couldn’t see them, Twilight figured it was safe to come out, but made sure she was ready to cast a sleeping spell just in case. Twilight stayed low as she snuck through the cargo area, every noise and shadow making her nervous. She made it to the entrance of the cargo bay, and as soon as she made it out into the empty hallway Twilight let out the breath she was holding.

The hallway she was in was fairly wide, with several small red structures in the center that hummed like the generators back at the power plant. It was almost enough to drown out the footsteps coming from down the hallway, but Twilight heard them all the same and wasted no time in taking cover behind one of the red metal structures. Twilight didn’t remain hiding for long, as she peeked out from her hiding place and saw two familiar Blue soldiers walking down the hallway toward her.

“Church! Caboose! There you guys are!” Twilight exclaimed, trotting out from behind the generator and giving the pair a relieved smile.

“OH MY GOD THERE’S AN ALIEN ON THE SHIP!” Caboose yelled, pointing a finger at Twilight. “Oh, wait…”

“Oh, hey Twilight. We were just coming to find you… quietly,” Church said, glaring at Caboose as he finished.

Twilight nodded as she took a step closer to the two Blues. Oddly enough, she felt a little more at ease behind enemy lines when she was with them. She couldn’t help but notice a certain Freelancer’s absence, though.

“Where’s Agent Washington?”

“He went up to the bridge to input the coordinates from Tex’s ship. Told us to find you and get down to the slipspace generator,” Church said.

“We’re already halfway done. And we didn’t have to kill anyone!” Caboose exclaimed. “We didn’t run into a single person trying to be Church’s new best friend.”

Church just continued walking down the hall where Twilight had come from.

“C’mon, it should be this way,” Church said, gesturing for Twilight and Caboose to follow them.

Before either of them could oblige, the whole group heard a loud explosive blast come from somewhere outside the ship.

“What the hell was that?!” Church exclaimed.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, “but with our luck, we’ll probably find out…”

From his position on the cliff overlooking the shipyard, Wyoming watched through the scope of his sniper rifle as Agent Washington led the two Blue sim troopers from that blasted canyon past the security checkpoint and on board the Mother of Invention. The Freelancer clad in white armor didn’t see the small purple equine with them, but he knew she was around.

Shortly after Washington and the Blues disappeared from sight, Wyoming zoomed out and surveyed the area at large. In short order, a Warthog appeared and three soldiers in red, orange and maroon armor disembarked and huddled together, no doubt coming up with a plan to infiltrate the ship.

Wyoming lowered his rifle and chuckled darkly. “Ah, I love it when all of the pieces on the board come together as planned!”

He spotting a truck loaded with fusion coils—glass and aluminum containers for storing compressed plasma—parked next to a bunker a fair distance away from the gathered Reds. Wyoming raised his rifle, fired a single shot, and the entire vehicle went up in a plume of red and yellow gasses and sparks. All of the gray soldiers below began running in confusion in the general direction of the explosion. Wyoming paid them no mind, focusing his rifle’s long range scope on the trio of Red soldiers who had just arrived. Sure enough, once they realized all of the other troops were thoroughly distracted, the three Reds slipped past the security checkpoint and entered the Mother of Invention without detection.

Lowering his rifle, Wyoming prepared to head down there himself when he heard the noise of shifting stones behind him. The Freelancer saw nothing when he turned around, so he merely shrugged it off and continued on his way, leaving the cliff empty.

Empty save for the single figure wearing orchid armor with light green trim. The figure emerged from their hiding place behind a few boulders and walked toward the edge of the cliff where Wyoming had previously been standing. As the figure looked down at the chaos outside of the massive ship below, another appeared beside her. A small, spectral figure in armor that cast a green glow on the woman’s own turned in place as it hovered beside her.

“Agent South, I still do not know what you hope to accomplish by following them here,” the entity stated in a distorted, though somewhat pleasant, monotone.

“It’s simple, Delta. If they’re going where I think they’re going, then I want to see if I can’t come along. With any luck, I’ll find what they’re looking for first and have the chance to trade up.” South turned to the tiny green image of Delta and looked at him almost apologetically. “Not that you haven’t been great, but there are bigger fish in the sea…”

“The poor gal just got through havin’ an evil M.I. in her head, RD,” Applejack stated irritably as she and Big Mac continued packing up their stall in the middle of Ponyville’s central market. “It don’t surprise me none that she hasn’t quite gotten over it yet!”

Applejack’s ears immediately folded back in guilt as they heard how harsh her words sounded. Looking at her friends in the orange light of the setting sun, she saw that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s ears reacted the same way. It had been a long and trying afternoon working in the market, and getting verbally assaulted by the wall-eyed mailmare for no apparent reason hadn’t improved her mood. Still, it was unfair of Applejack to raise her voice at Rainbow and least of all Fluttershy. Especially if they were bothering her with only the purest of intentions.

“Look, Pinkie’ll get through it,” Applejack said much more evenly, approaching the two pegasi and placing a reassuring hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “She jus’ needs some time to herself right now.”

Rainbow’s expression didn’t change, but she was able to summon a nod, and Applejack returned to helping her brother pack up their cart. As hard as the day had been, Applejack was still glad to be back to a somewhat normal routine. No aliens or alien constructs causing trouble, thus no need for… decision making hanging over her.

“Hello girls,” a familiar posh voice sighed rather dramatically. There was only one reason Rarity would greet them in such a melodramatic manner.

“Howdy Rares,” Applejack greeted. She decided she wouldn’t be the one to ask the inevitable question as the fabulous unicorn approached with Spike tagging along.

“Is there something wrong?” Fluttershy dutifully asked.

“Well, somepony broke into the library while Spike and I were out…”

“Oh my… what was taken?”

Rarity and Spike exchanged a look. “Uh… nothing. Whoever it was only did it to mess around with… Tex,” Spike answered.

An uneasy silence prevailed over the gathered ponies for a few moments.

“I bet it was that no good Sunset Shimmer,” Rainbow all but spat.

“Sunset Shimmer left town this morning,” Spike said.

“And she was staying with us last night,” Rarity added. “She would have had plenty of opportunities to mess around with that robot if she wanted to. She certainly wouldn’t have needed to tear the entire front door off its hinges.”

Deathly quiet once again dominated as the five friends continued to ponder the strange circumstances. Eventually, the sound of Big Mac closing up the back of the cart and giving it a few pats with his large red hoof brought the mares back to the present.

“Well, I dunno what it all means, but it don’t bode well,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat and moving to the cart where Big Mac was already strapping himself to the front. “Now, I reckon Big Mac an’ I oughta be gettin’ back to the farm before somethin’ else happens…”

“APPLEJACK!!!” a loud, distressed cry echoed throughout the emptying marketplace.

The whole group looked to the source and saw a familiar yellow filly with a big pink bow and wide, terrified eyes come barreling toward them as if a manticore was on her tail.

“Apple Bloom?” Applejack inquired with concern as the filly dove into her forelegs.

Immediately Applejack felt wetness on her chest as Apple Bloom began to sob hysterically. “Sugarcube? What happened?”

Apple Bloom couldn’t speak for a while. Applejack just tenderly stroked her and let her cry. Finally, the filly looked up at her sister and sniffed.

“P-promise you won’t be mad?”

Applejack couldn’t keep her brow from lowering. Such statements from the filly usually preceded trouble. Nevertheless, her little sister was more scared than Applejack had ever seen her, so she nodded.

“Pinkie Promise.”

Apple Bloom stared at the ground and sniffed again. “W-well, the Crusaders and I went into the Everfree Forest…”

Applejack’s frown deepened. She had told her sister not to go in there a hundred times over, but she decided now was not the time to chew her out. That would happen later. Instead Applejack nodded, wordlessly urging Apple Bloom to continue.

“When we got far enough in, something attacked us! I don’t know what it was but…” Apple Bloom’s voice became a squeak as her eyes watered some more. “It took Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!”

With that, Apple Bloom buried her face into her sister’s chest again and Applejack’s heart began racing. She looked around at her friends and saw that the looks were back again. Applejack became acutely aware of every droplet of nervous sweat rolling down her face as the uncertain eyes of her friends searched her for something. The other day, Applejack would have argued that she didn’t have what they were searching for, but then she looked down at her sister. She realized that they needed a leader now more than she needed not to be.

Applejack closed her eyes and let out a breath. When she opened them again, the others saw a new mare. A leader.

“Big Mac, I want you to take Apple Bloom home and stay with her,” she ordered.

Big Mac gave a grave “Eeyup,” and gently took Apple Bloom, placing her on his back.

“Spike, go to the Mayor’s office and tell ‘em what’s going on,” Applejack then turned to the rest of her friends. “Girls, we’re goin’ to the Everfree and savin’ Sweetie and Scootaloo!”

“What about Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack thought about her friend and fellow Element of Harmony. “There’s no time to run and get her even if she was feeling up to it. It’s just us…”

The gathered ponies all nodded and then galloped at full speed towards the edge of town where the Everfree Forest lay. Before running off to perform his own task, Spike walked alongside Big Mac and the filly clinging to his back.

“Uh, Apple Bloom? Do you think you could tell me a bit about the thing that attacked you?” he asked carefully. “I want to tell the Mayor what we should be keeping an eye out for.”

Apple Bloom unburied her face from her brother’s mane and looked morosely at the baby dragon. “It was really big and walked on two legs. It could disappear and do other weird things,” she said with a shiver. “I… I think it was an alien!”

Spike frowned. “Well… let’s just hope this doesn’t get out. Wouldn’t want ponies to panic…”

It was with very little trouble that Agent Washington stepped onto the command bridge of the Mother of Invention. Ahead of him, a walkway extended to the end of the bridge where massive windows overlooked the vast, mountainous plains outside. Washington didn’t go to the end of the walkway, instead turning right and going down a set of stairs leading to the control area down below.

Being a top Recovery Agent had its benefits. None of the engineers in black suits questioned Agent Washington’s motives as he walked to the nav computer. Even the troops left to guard secure areas of the ship he had to pass through didn’t check with Command when Washington told them it was their orders that he was operating on. It would seem that they feared being reprimanded for impeding his duty more than they feared letting a potential intruder into the areas they were guarding.

With a few short movements of his hands, Washington accessed the navigation computer and pulled up the screen where he would input the coordinates. Washington then froze when he saw the coordinates currently input.

“That can’t be good…” Washington muttered. He reached a hand up to his helmet and activated the radio.

“That’s… the slipspace drive?” Twilight asked as she stared up in wonder at the large cylindrical device in the center of the room.

The slipspace drive in question reached all the way from the floor to the ceiling high above them and was covered in many spinning mechanisms and bright lights. Looking at the large, impressive piece of technology, Twilight felt her heart race. What she wouldn’t give to have time to study the device from every possible angle. Even now she was already thinking of multiple different tests she could perform at this very moment, and if she had the time to do even more research with documents made by the people who built it, perhaps implement them into her own devices back in her lab…

“Hello? Twilight? Please stop ogling the giant slipspace device…. Kinda creepy....” Church’s voice brought her back to the present and made Twilight realize that she was drooling.

Twilight wiped the corner of her mouth and tried to give Church the most neutral, uncaring look she could muster. She felt the heat of embarrassment fill her cheeks and quickly realized he wasn’t going to buy it.

“I-I was just… thinking about… how does all of that technology fit in Wyoming’s helmet?” Twilight said, suddenly feeling much less like a filly caught staring at her crush now that she had come up with a legitimate question.

Now it was Church’s turn to look flustered. The man in cobalt armor shifted his weight and rubbed at the back of his helmet.

“Uh… human ingenuity?” Church spoke like he was asking a question rather than answering one, but Twilight decided not to give him a hard time over it.

“Because the MJOLNIR armor already requires enough power for a starship just to operate, adding stuff like overshields and the slipspace time machine is not only easy, but practical too,” Caboose stated.

Church and Twilight slowly turned and eyed him suspiciously. “And you know that how...?”

“Because I’m super smart!” Caboose exclaimed. “The fact that I just figured out how to use the web browser in my helmet is a total coincidence.”

Church and Twilight said nothing. They merely returned their attention to the large generator in the middle of the room. The awkward silence was interrupted by the series of beeps in their collective ears that Twilight had become all too accustomed with.

“Church, Twilight. Are you there?” Washington’s voice entered Twilight’s ears through her radio headset.

“We’re here, Washington,” Twilight answered. “Did you put in the coordinates to Equestria?”

Using the radio again made Twilight suddenly think of the man who had made it for her. In all of the craziness that had happened over the past couple of days, Twilight had almost forgotten about Simmons. It suddenly made her a bit sad that she wouldn’t get to see him again before returning home. Even now, Twilight almost thought she saw someone in maroon armor out of the corner of her eye.

“That’s the weird thing,” Washington continued, “the coordinates to your homeworld… they were already set into the nav computer before I logged in.”

“Is that a problem?” Church asked.

“It might cause some problems in the future…”

“We on the other hand will cause some problems in the present!” a familiar gruff voice in a southern accent exclaimed enthusiastically.

Twilight’s eyes widened and she heard Church grumble in disbelief. The trio turned around and saw three familiar soldiers in red, maroon and orange armor standing on the other end of the room with a shotgun and two rifles raised at them.

“Really?” Church asked the universe at large as he raised his sniper rifle. Twilight lit up her horn and after looking around in confusion for a few seconds, Caboose raised his assault rifle.

“Just thought you should know: We could’ve attacked you at any point in the last ten minutes,” Grif sighed, “but somebody wanted to wait for a good line to make a dramatic entrance on!”

“And it was totally, one hundred percent worth it!” Sarge exclaimed. “Now attack! Leave no Blue unkilled!”

On her balcony atop the highest tower in Canterlot, Princess Celestia looked out at her kingdom as it was covered in the orange light of her setting sun. The pure white alicorn focused her immense magical energy on the distant celestial body, gently willing it to fall beneath the horizon just like a mother tucks her foal under the sheets of a warm bed.

As the sky darkened, Celestia turned her head to look beside her. Princess Luna’s horn glowed as she urged her own charge out of bed and to its place above. Despite the myriad of matters that plagued her weary mind, Celestia couldn’t help but smile. It felt like it had been ages since the two of them had turned day to night together like this. She’d missed it, but that’s what happens when siblings quarrel. Celestia was certain that very topic was the real reason Luna stood beside her now. The two of them had merely wordlessly agreed to see to their respective celestial duties first.

Once she was satisfied everything with the night sky was in order, Luna turned to face her sister, a look on her face somewhere between anger and melancholy. The night alicorn’s horn glowed again as a beige folder appeared from her pocket dimension in the space between them. Celestia took the folder in her own magical grasp and opened it, pulling forth the contents within. She was greeted by a rather gruesome sight: a grayscale image of what appeared to be a unicorn. Or what was left of one.

“Arcane Star is dead,” Luna reported emotionlessly. “Eyewitness descriptions of his killer match those of the alien creature that attacked Dodge City.”

Though her face remained carefully neutral, Celestia was genuinely shocked by the news, and as was the case when any of her ponies met their end before it was their time, deeply saddened. But she ought to have heard this news from one of her viziers. Luna presenting it to her now was highly irregular. Celestia would have inquired as to the reason her sister had decided to present her with this macabre bit of information herself when Luna continued.

“How many more, Tia?” she asked. “How many more must die before you start sharing what you know?”

Celestia turned her full body to her sister and looked her directly in the eyes. “I swear to you, Luna. I know nothing of this... Meta.” Celestia’s words were sincere and absolute.

“But you know something,” Luna countered. “These aliens… you’ve encountered them before. Some time while I was still banished. Whatever you know must be brought to light! Even after the Meta’s attack I’ve still been having the same dark premonitions. Whatever is coming… whatever is threatening Equestria… the Meta is not it.”

Of course it isn’t. That was exactly what Celestia had known. What she’d feared. Celestia turned away and walked back into her chambers. The lit hearth and the furniture covered in soft silk were hardly comforting at that moment.

“If you only knew what I know, you would understand exactly why I want it kept secret,” Celestia said.

“Then help me to understand. Tell me,” Luna pleaded.

Celestia merely kept her attention on the documents detailing Arcane Star’s death. She glanced over at the letter she’d received from her former protégé earlier that day and then looked back at Arcane Star’s documents, heart beating faster as she started putting pieces together.

“What did Arcane Star have on him when he died?”

Luna looked up to the ceiling as she tried to recall. “I believe he had copies of everything he showed me when I brought him to Canterlot. Research data on the ship, the body, transcripts of his conversation with the alien…”

Celestia’s heart froze and a grave expression fell across her face. It all made sense now. She knew what the Meta was after and even worse, where that would lead it. Luna noted the change in Celestia’s expression and studied her sister with concern.

“What is it?”

“The Meta… I know where it’s going,” Celestia said, racing for her balcony with frantic speed.

The Princess of Equestria took off from her balcony and flew toward Ponyville with haste. She only hoped it wasn’t too late to save them…

The Everfree Forest was exactly how Applejack remembered it the last time she was in here: dark and oppressive. What little light came from the night sky above was all but blocked out by the canopy of trees overhead. The trees themselves were twisted and unnatural things that seemed to claw at the four mares as they trotted briskly past. The air was filled with the sounds of wildlife that sounded both natural and alien all at once.

Tracking the two wayward fillies and their abductor was surprisingly easy. Rainbow Dash had quickly spotted the ominous alien design carved into one of the outer trees. From there, the mares ventured forth into the thick brush, following the three fillies path until they came upon a small clearing full of signs of a struggle. Sooner or later, the fillies’ hoofprints disappeared and were replaced by those of a creature even Applejack couldn’t identify. The four of them continued deeper into the forest, following the strange footprints.

Sooner or later, the footprints disappeared and the four ponies didn’t know where to go next. Rainbow Dash had suggested flying up to survey the area from above, but Applejack had to remind her that the canopy was too thick. Just when it seemed as if their quarry was lost, another sound joined the chorus of nightly noises: a filly’s sobbing echoed through the trees.

“Sweetie Belle?!” Rarity called out, “Sweetie Belle! Is that you?”

Rarity’s cries were met with nothing but more distant sobs, but the noise provided the mares with a direction, and soon enough they were galloping towards the noise as fast as they could. The group soon came upon a clearing where the starry night sky overhead could be seen again. The other end of the clearing dropped off, becoming a broken cliff. It was the very same cliff that had nearly been their death the first time they ventured into the Everfree, but the first thing Applejack and her friends saw was two tiny shapes close to the cliff’s edge.

Sweetie Belle sat beside a pony-sized boulder, holding her tiny orange friend close and crying fearful tears. Scootaloo for her part was trying to put on a brave face for her friend, but the cracks in her armor were as clear as the night sky above. It soon became apparent to Applejack and the others why the two of them remained in place on the far end of the clearing. The boulder they were next to was on one of Scootaloo’s hind legs. The little filly was trapped and probably injured.

But something didn’t add up. There was no way that boulder found its way atop Scootaloo’s leg on its own.

“SWEETIE!” Rarity cried, racing full speed across the clearing towards the distressed fillies.

Applejack just thought back to when her own younger sister came crying to her in town. She’d said that some monster had taken Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. So why are they alone?

The answer came to Applejack as soon as Sweetie looked up at her approaching sister as her eyes went wide with fear. “Rarity! Don’t come! It’s a trick!” Sweetie yelled.

They weren’t alone at all. Nor were they the ones the monster was after.

Before Applejack could call out to warn Rarity of the danger, a terrible hissing and growling with the quality of something otherworldly resonated through the air around them. Suddenly, a great armored creature on two legs appeared beside the fillies where nothing had been standing before.

Immediately Applejack noted its similarity in appearance to Tex, only it stood about a head taller. The powered armor it wore was white with various brown, red and black parts seemingly strewn about at random. The helmet was a large golden dome encompassing the entire front half of its head as opposed to the single visor on Tex’s armor. In its arms was a large projectile weapon with a massive curved blade attached to the bottom.

The moment it appeared, the monster launched bursts of explosive flames from its weapon at Rarity as it charged forward. Thankfully, Rarity was able to bring up a magical barrier mere moments before impact, but she was not a battle mage by any stretch of the imagination. The glowing white barrier only lasted a few barrages before shattering, leaving Rarity clutching her head in pain. The monster was upon her now and immediately delivered a kick to her midsection, sending the hapless fashionista sprawling on the ground.

That was all it had the time to do, as Rainbow Dash was immediately upon the creature, flying into its back at the speed of a missile. Her attack only managed to knock their assailant off balance briefly, but Rainbow took the opportunity to grab it by the domed helmet from behind. She tried to place her hooves over where she assumed its eyes to be as her wings flapped furiously behind the snarling creature.

Fluttershy immediately went to Rarity’s aid and at the same time, Applejack ran to the fillies. With her incredible earth pony strength, Applejack lifted the boulder and freed Scootaloo’s leg. She quickly looked over where Fluttershy was helping Rarity to her hooves while Rainbow Dash wrestled with the monster mere feet away. Rarity’s nose was bleeding and the unicorn mare clutched her side where she’d been kicked. She wouldn’t last long in a fight with this thing.

“Rarity! Take the girls and get outta here!” Applejack ordered before ushering Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo towards her. “We’ll keep it busy!”

“You’ll what?!” Rarity exclaimed.

A plan of attack forming in her mind, Applejack tossed the small boulder as high into the air as she could, the muscles burning. “We ain’t got time to argue!”

The monster got a grip of one of Rainbow Dash’s hooves and pulled her over its shoulder, tossing her aside. Applejack had already turned around and with a powerful buck of her hind legs, caught the boulder on its descent. She felt a sharp pain in her hind legs as the rock was sent toward the monster like a cannonball, connecting with its chest as it brought its bladed weapon to bear.

The boulder was deflected by some sort of glowing field of light that appeared and covered the monster’s body, but the impact was strong enough to make the field burst, sending the feral alien staggering back as lightning danced across its body.

“Land’s sake, run!” Applejack yelled.

This time, Rarity didn’t argue. She placed Scootaloo on her back and gestured for Sweetie to follow her, and together the three ponies ran back the way they came.

The alien abomination rose to its full height again and let out another unnatural growl before turning into an intangible blur and disappearing completely. Rainbow Dash climbed to her hooves and gathered around Applejack with a trembling Fluttershy. The three of them held their ground beside the edge of the cliff, frantically scanning their surroundings as they listened.

This proved to be a mistake, as the monster fired on them from its unseen location. Without even thinking, Applejack turned and jumped as the explosion ignited the ground where she’d previously been standing. Her only thought as she fell was that she hoped Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were alright. Otherwise her landing was going to be quite painful.

“EAT LEAD, LEAD EATERS!” Sarge yelled, accompanying his statement with a shotgun blast.

Church, Caboose and Twilight Sparkle all retreated behind the great spinning slipspace generator as fire from Red Team’s weapons filled the room. Caboose and Church returned fire from around the generator before the latter swore and reached up to his helmet.

“Washington! The Reds from our canyon are here! They have us pinned down!” Church exclaimed over the radio.

“What? How did they find you?” Washington’s voice asked.

“I don’t know!”

Twilight swallowed. That didn’t bode well. While she didn’t think the Reds themselves were really all that bad, the fact that they had tracked them here raised all kinds of questions.

“Just hold on, I’ll be right there,” Washington said before his signal cut out.

Twilight looked up at Church as more bullets pinged across the generator they used as cover, “What do we do now? Someone on board’s bound to notice all of this noise!” she shouted over the cacophony of battle.

“Let’s just hope Washington shows up before that happens!”

Washington briskly jogged down the halls of the Mother of Invention. Every second wasted was one that the crew of Project Freelancer’s flagship would notice the firefight erupting in the generator room. He turned a corner and continued his run down the clean, sterile hallway.

At the end of the hall, Washington could see a chasm that acted as a freight elevator shaft. It could take him directly down to the level where the generators were and if his knowledge of the Mother of Invention’s layout was still good after all of these years, the slipspace generator would be within sprinting distance.

Washington only made it halfway down the hallway before he heard the loud bang that accompanied a sniper rifle shot and the whoosh of a high caliber projectile zooming past. Cursing, Washington stopped his sprint and dove behind a nearby crate errantly discarded against the wall.

“Knock knock, Agent Washington,” a familiar pompous voice with a British accent filled his ears via his radio headset.

“Wyoming?” Washington exclaimed incredulously. “What are you doing here?”

“I might ask you the same question, mate.” As Wyoming spoke, Washington chanced a peek over the top of the crate he hid behind. “After all, you’re the one who’s snooping around where he shouldn’t.”

Wyoming was standing on the walkway across the chasm of the freight elevator about a story up. He had a good view of the hallway leading to the elevator from where he was, and there wasn’t a lot of cover between the elevator and Washington. Although Wyoming’s initial shot had missed, Washington guessed that was the intention. His next shot wouldn’t.

“What do you want, Wyoming? Maybe we can work something out,” Washington suggested.

“All I want is that adorable purple equine creature on behalf of Project Freelancer, and because I will soon have her in my grasp, there’s nothing for us to work out,” Wyoming chuckled.

Washington was hoping Wyoming wouldn’t have known about Twilight. It seemed that his luck was doomed to fail him. Regardless, there was one flaw in Wyoming’s plan that Washington picked out.

“If you want the alien you’re looking in the wrong place. She’s not with me,” Washington said. If he could just bait Wyoming into looking for Twilight somewhere else, he could get to the slipspace generator and they could all get out of here.

“Yes, I know. But wherever she is, her Blue allies will be with her as well. And wherever those Blues are, my unwitting Red compatriots shan’t be far behind!”

Just then, a chime came in over the ship’s PA system. “Minor disturbance reported in primary slipspace generator area,” said the pleasant voice of FILSS, the ship’s A.I. “Response teams have been dispatched and are en route to contain the problem.”

So that was Wyoming’s game.

“‘Slipspace generator room,’ eh? Wonder what she’s up to?” Wyoming mused as Washington heard a large amount of armored footsteps behind him. “I’d love to stay and chat, Washington old chap. But apparently, I need to be in the slipspace generator room.”

Washington turned around and found himself face to face with a squad of soldiers in gray armor led by a Recovery Agent with blue detail on his armor. All of their rifles were leveled at him. Washington didn’t think he could get by them based solely on his status as a top Recovery Agent.

“I’ll just leave you in the care of these gents, shall I? I’m sure your superiors would love to have a chat with you about your recent mission performance.” Wyoming turned and began walking away. “Cheerio!”

“Minor disturbance reported in primary slipspace generator area.”

Twilight’s heart froze at the sound of the cheery yet monotonous female voice that boomed over the sounds of battle.

“Sheila?” Caboose stopped firing and looked up at the ceiling.

“Response teams have been dispatched and are en route to contain the problem.”

“Sheila! It is you!” Caboose exclaimed, nearly jumping for joy.

Back on the side of the room controlled by the Reds, the three bumbling soldiers stopped firing and stared across at the generator the Blues were hiding behind when they heard Caboose’s yelling.

“YOU GOT SO HUGE! IT IS SO COOL BEING INSIDE YOU AGAIN!”

“Uh… what are they doing back there?” Grif asked.

“Something diabolical no doubt. There’s a reason I refer to them as ‘dirty’ Blues!” Sarge exclaimed. “Simmons! Go and investigate!”

“Um… I’d really rather not…” Simmons muttered.

“Simmons, listen to your Commanding Officer! And by that, I mean me!” Grif ordered. “Stay back and keep up the pressure! Either those Blues will come out eventually, or we’ll run out of ammo and be forced to quit and go home. Both options involve minimal effort from us!”

“Don’t listen to him Simmons! We need to hit ‘em now while they’re engaged in their sinful Blue deeds!”

Simmons just anxiously looked back and forth between his two Commanding Officers as they argued, now stuck in the middle of their feud for control of the squad.

Back behind the generator, Twilight and the Blues crouched silently and listened.

“Sounds like they’ve stopped shooting,” Church whispered. “We should plan our counter attack.”

Twilight closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. The longer this battle went on, the more time the Freelancer response team had to arrive on the scene.

At that moment, Twilight found herself remembering the battle at Zanzibar. More importantly, she remembered what Washington had told her about the whole Red vs. Blue conflict. She had refused to believe that such a violent war was really all just being orchestrated by the same amoral military program that was hunting her. At that moment though, Twilight thought of her time spent with the Blood Gulch Red Team, however short it may have been. They were the same as the Blues she stood with now, she realized.

“No,” Twilight said, turning around. “This fighting has to stop, now!”

Twilight defiantly walked out from behind the spinning slipspace generator and faced the trio of Reds, who were currently bickering amongst themselves.

“I think yer ideas are stupid!”

“I think your face is stupid!”

“I think you’re all stupid!” Everyone stopped and turned to look at Twilight. Her words were harsh, but they accomplished their task. The room had her attention now.

“All of you have been fighting this war for how long now? Have you not once wondered why you’re fighting? Don’t you ever wonder why you’re here?” Twilight looked at each of them imploringly.

“Sure, we think about that all the time,” Grif said. “We just don’t really do anything else!”

“And why not?” Twilight asked. “You’re all fighting a war for no other reason than you’re being told to!”

Twilight paused as she realized she really had no idea where she was going with this. None of the other Red and Blue men around her had spoken up though, so she must have been doing something right. She looked over at her sole friend on Red Team.

“Simmons, you’re a good guy and I’m glad that we can be friends. But I feel like I’ve also really gotten to know Church and Caboose in our time together as well! Friendship really means a lot to me… so why should I have to choose sides? You know, you guys are more alike than you’ll admit.”

Twilight wasn’t sure if her words were getting through to them, but Simmons did loosen his grip on his rifle.

“She is right about the two different sides…” Caboose said sagely.

“Friendship schmiendship, we’re under orders from Command to bring you in, Twilight Frazajazzhands,” Sarge said, raising his shotgun at the mare.

Simmons stepped in front of Sarge. “Uh, sir? Maybe we should think about those orders a little more carefully. Something definitely seems fishy about them.”

At that moment, it became so quiet in the generator room that they were able to hear the voices and footsteps of Freelancer soldiers in the hallways outside.

“Twilight, we have to go! Now!” Church exclaimed, taking a step toward her.

“But Washington…”

“Is not coming. We don’t have any more time to wait for him!”

Twilight looked around the room, then slowly nodded at Church.

“We can probably stall them long enough for you to do… whatever it is you’re about to do,” Simmons said.

“Yeah! It’ll be less work than actually trying to capture you,” Grif exclaimed, turning to leave the room. He leaned in close to Sarge before doing so. “That’s an order, by the way.”

Sarge grumbled incoherently, but regardless did the same. Simmons lingered for a few more moments as he looked back at Twilight and the Blues, as if trying to figure out how to conclude this interaction.

“Thanks, Simmons!” Twilight said with a nod and a warm smile.

“Yeah, give them more fuel why don’t you?” Simmons muttered. “Grif and Sarge, I mean.”

Despite his words, Simmons nodded at Twilight in return before joining his comrades in the hall outside.

“Okay, you ready?” Church asked.

Twilight nodded. “I’ve been ready for a long time!”

Approaching the giant slipspace generator, Twilight closed her eyes and tried to focus her magic. She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty as she did so.

“Sorry, Washington…”

“Hey, remember our number one rule,” Church said. “No apologies.”

Nodding, Twilight concentrated and connected her energies to that of Church and Caboose, then entered the artificial plane of the generator with their spiritual essences in tow.

She heard the sounds of many footsteps entering the large room, but they drifted away, becoming nought but distant echoes. Twilight felt the dizziness and general disorientation of a teleport begin to set in and then just as it had been before, her world became a black void.

Simmons walked out of the generator room to join Sarge and Grif in the hallway. Whatever he was about to say to his two commanding officers died in his throat as he found that they were all face to face with a squad of at least a dozen men in gray armor. The Freelancer forces were staring down the three Reds along the sights of their weapons.

With an audible gulp, Simmons decided to be the one to speak up. “Sorry, uh… false alarm! We were just… checking to make sure our weapons were in full working order.”

“Oh, is that so?” intoned a sarcastic British voice the Reds knew all too well. A familiar man in white armor walked to the front of the assembled Freelancer troops. “Are you certain you weren’t just following your orders to apprehend a certain equine alien?”

“Wyoming!?” the Reds all exclaimed.

“It seems that lots of people have taken to shouting my name in surprise as of late,” Wyoming chuckled. “I daresay I’ve become something of a rock star!”

“So… you were the one who gave us those orders?” Sarge asked.

“Yes, and although I admire your dedication in following through with them up to this point, I’m afraid your services are no longer required.”

The peons of Project Freelancer promptly stepped forward and apprehended the three Reds, who protested vigorously and vulgarly as their weapons were taken. With no other options, the Reds followed Wyoming and his men as they entered the generator room.

“Well, well, miss Twilight! You thought you could outwit the forces of Project Freelancer,” Wyoming taunted as his troops took up positions completely surrounding the small unicorn and the pair of Blues. She had her eyes closed, and the three of them didn’t even appear to be aware of Wyoming’s presence. “But it would seem you were wrong…”

Before Wyoming could finish, a bright flash of light engulfed the area where Twilight and her companions stood, and just like that they were gone. Everything was quiet for a very long time.

“... Bollocks.”

A chime then came in over the ship’s P.A. system and the voice of the ship’s A.I. once again prevailed. “Attention. Lift-off imminent. All non-essential personnel please move to designated safety areas immediately.”

A deep rumbling overtook the ship as the engines began firing up one at a time.

Grif awkwardly raised a hand. “Uh… are we going somewhere?”

Twilight felt the tingling sensation of butterflies in her stomach and the wind assaulting her body before she was able to see. Soon enough though, Twilight opened her eyes and once again found herself falling through the sky toward the ground below. This time however, she was ready for it. As she approached the ground, Twilight curled up and rolled immediately upon impact, safely diverting most of her momentum. The landing was still hard and painful, but at least nothing felt dislocated this time.

Rising to her hooves, the first thing Twilight noticed that it was night. Or rather, that it wasn’t night when she was teleported away on the Mother of Invention. She stood in the middle of a lush, grassy field with a line of trees in the distance. Twilight then remembered that she had company on her return trip and began looking around in all directions.

“Hello? Church? Are you there?” Twilight called out to the night as she continued to survey her surroundings. “Church? Church? … Caboose?”

Twilight continued calling out for her blue allies, but received no reply but the chirping of crickets. She was alone. It was then that she saw a series of lights off in the distance near the line of trees. A town!

Now was her chance of seeing whether she’d made it home. Twilight galloped toward the beacon of light in the darkness. As she got closer, she found a path leading toward the lights of civilization. A familiar path. Turning away from the town, Twilight’s eyes fell on a familiar, beautiful sight: A farm, complete with a big red barn.

Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight felt the air being sucked out of her body as her jaw hung open in astonishment. She did it. She was finally home after all of those months that had somehow only been a few days.

“YES!” Twilight cheered, rearing up on her hind legs. “Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!”

Twilight galloped along the path toward town, cheering and shouting happily as she ran along the line of trees that she recognized as the Everfree Forest. That stupid spooky forest. Twilight used to always avoid walking past it at night, and even during the day she’d always be a little nervous about passing it by. She never thought she’d be so happy to be running past the Everfree again.

As she drew closer to Ponyville, she could hear the sound of many raised voices. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what all of the commotion was about at this undoubtedly late hour, but she didn’t care. Twilight wished she’d hurry up and reach town already. She couldn’t wait to run into one of her…

“Oof!” a dainty voice exclaimed as Twilight bumped into something quite soft.

Twilight shook the brief soreness from her face and brought her rear end up off of the ground. She looked in front of her at the pony she’d bumped into and her heart did a backflip.

Rarity stared at Twilight with a look of stunned disbelief. Her eyes were wide and vacant as her jaw drifted lazily towards the ground.

“T-Twilight?” the name was barely a whisper. “Is it... is it really you?”

Twilight didn’t answer. For some inexplicable reason she forgot how to speak. Twilight instead settled for lunging forward and wrapping Rarity in a tight hug, nuzzling her perhaps a tad overzealously.

“Urk! Twilight! I’m glad to see you too, but… can’t breathe…” Rarity choked.

Twilight pulled away from Rarity and gave her a sheepish grin. “I just… I thought I’d never see you guys again!”

It was then that Twilight noticed Rarity wasn’t alone. Her sister Sweetie Belle was standing just behind her and Scootaloo was perched on her back. Twilight was ready to happily greet them too when she finally noticed how… wrong the scene was in front of her. The fillies’ eyes were red and puffy, their cheeks stained with tears. She then noticed the blood on Rarity’s face for the first time, and then the bruises along her body.

“Rarity… what’s going on?”

Rarity looked down at her hooves. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders were attacked in the Everfree by a monstrous alien. We were able to get them out safely but… Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are still in there fighting for their lives!”

Without another word, Twilight Sparkle turned around and ran into the Everfree Forest, panting as her already exhausted body struggled to keep up. She’d traveled across the galaxy to make it back to her friends, and she wasn’t going to lose them now that she was finally back.

Twilight was so focused on the task at hand that she forgot all about Church and Caboose…

Church groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. He kinda wished Twilight had told him that they would appear in her world several feet up in the air. At least, he assumed that the cluster of buildings they landed in was her world. Everything here looked much too small, and even in the darkness of night the colors on everything seemed much more vibrant. The ground under him was rather uneven.

Looking around, Church realized he was the only one standing in the middle of the dark street.

“Hello? Twilight? You here?” Church called out, surveying his surroundings. “Twilight? Twilight? … Caboose?”

“Hi Church!” Caboose’s voice was like a gunshot in the silence. What was more, it appeared to be coming from directly under him.

Church looked down and saw the reason for his uneven footing. He was standing on Caboose’s stomach as the dopey blue soldier lay on his back, looking up at him innocently.

“Oh… hey Caboose,” Church said dejectedly, stepping off of Caboose and letting his companion climb to his feet. “Have you seen Twilight around?”

“Who?”

Church gave an exasperated sigh. “Have you seen George around?”

“Nope! I just saw the sky, then the ground, and then you in that order.” Caboose then took his surroundings in, his head on a swivel. “Now I see buildings, flowers, a fountain, more buildings…”

“Thanks Caboose, but I don’t need a fucking play-by-play of my surroundings. I’m not blind!” Church suddenly heard the sound of distant, frantic voices begin to fill the air.

“But then why did you ask for your seeing eye dog?”

“Shut up, Caboose! I hear voices,” Church hissed, looking around to try and discern which direction the sounds were coming from.

“But how can you? You can’t see!”

“Just… be quiet and follow me,” Church ordered as he briskly walked in the direction of the rabble.

Caboose did as he was told, and the pair of blue armored humans made their way down the streets of the proportionately small settlement. The buildings that they moved between were all terribly old-fashioned, made of wood and topped with roofs of hay. After a few minutes, Church and Caboose turned a corner and found themselves at the edge of a large square.

If Church had any doubts they had arrived on Twilight’s home planet before, the sight before him most certainly alleviated them. Gathered before a large round building that slightly resembled a park gazebo was a huge crowd of small, colorful equines. The giant crowd must have filled the entire square and Church was quick to notice the presence of torches, pitchforks, baked goods and other random objects in their hooves. If it wasn’t for his robot body, Church would have swallowed nervously. He knew an angry mob when he saw one.

“Everypony please! Calm yourselves!” an older looking pony with a beige coat, gray mane and glasses addressed the gathered crowd from the front patio of the central round building. To make the scene even stranger, a small purple and green lizard stood on two legs beside her.

“As mayor, I assure you that everything that can be done about the situation is being done,” the speaker continued.

A winged pony with a darker brown coat and a light red mane flew up over the crowd, getting their attention. He appeared to be the leader of this mob.

“This alien has attacked three of our fillies, including my own daughter!” he exclaimed. “We don’t have time to deliberate like one of your committees, mayor! We have to act now!”

The ring leader punctuated his statement by thrusting a hoof into the air, resulting in a resounding set of cheers of approval from the mob. It was as the cheering began to die down that a voice beside Church made itself known.

“Oh my God… THERE ARE SO MANY OF YOU DOGS!” Caboose loudly exclaimed, resulting in every set of eyes in the sea of ponies before them to turn in their direction. “I JUST WANT TO TAKE ALL OF YOU HOME WITH ME!”

The town square that had previously been drowning in the sounds of unrest was now dead silent as every set of colorful alien eyes in the square stared wide at the pair of blue interlopers. The stunned silence was eventually broken by the winged pony who spoke earlier.

“Did you hear that? The aliens mean to abduct us all!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusatory hoof at Church and Caboose. “Get them!”

Church tried to think of something, anything he could say to reason with the angry mob. “Well… shit.”

Fluttershy helped Applejack climb to her hooves, the farm mare sputtering and coughing as she did so. Fluttershy had managed to swoop in and grab her before she hit the ground, but the meek yellow pegasus hadn’t quite been able to stop Applejack from falling completely. She had slowed her fall enough so that her landing on the ground below wasn’t crippling. Fluttershy apologized profusely of course, but Applejack reassured her that she was fine. At least she was until It returned.

Fluttershy almost hadn’t seen the monster as it leapt off of the jagged and admittedly unstable looking cliff above. It was still doing whatever it was doing to make itself invisible, but Fluttershy noticed the distortion parting the air above them in just enough time to push Applejack out of the way as the creature landed and made itself visible again. Its fist was now firmly embedded in the ground where Applejack had previously been standing.

With impressive speed, it reached around its back and pulled out its large bladed weapon, smacking Fluttershy across the face with the blunt end of the blade in one fluid motion. Fluttershy fell to the ground and clutched her stinging face, feeling something hot trickle down the side where she’d been struck.

Hearing the sound of another set of wings flapping, Fluttershy looked up and saw Rainbow Dash flying circles around the monster, attacking it with swift strikes with her hooves whenever she saw an opening. Her efforts only seemed to enrage the creature as it let out an angry grunt before swiping at her. Rainbow Dash flew out of range of its arms and made a few obscene gestures at it with her rear.

“Ha ha! Can’t touch this!” Rainbow taunted, resulting in another chilling growl from the monster.

Realizing that Rainbow was taunting it as a form of distraction, Fluttershy looked around for Applejack. The farm pony was climbing to her hooves again, albeit much slower and with more effort than she had been earlier. Several new bruises covered her body making Fluttershy realize that they would have to escape quickly if they had any chance of surviving.

The monster then fired more explosive blasts at Rainbow Dash, who easily dodged them as she flew over the monster’s head, positioning her back to the cliff they’s so recently fell from. As before, this proved to be a mistake, as the monster loaded another chain of explosives into its weapon before firing again. Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to move as the shots sailed far above her.

“Ha! You’re never gonna hit me with aim that weak!” Rainbow proclaimed, pulling one of her own eyelids down and sticking a tongue out at the monster, which did nothing but stand there and wait.

Fluttershy realized what was happening all too late. “Rainbow!” she was barely able to call out before the shifting of rocks drowned out her tiny voice.

Rainbow Dash turned around just in time to see the cliff she had put to her back coming down on top of her. She made a valiant effort to fly clear of the avalanche, but it was already upon her. A particularly large piece of the cliff hit Rainbow Dash’s wing and the pegasus spun out of control and crashed into the ground below, more rocks covering her hind legs and one smaller (but no less painful) stone impacting with her rainbow head.

Fluttershy froze as the monster casually turned away from the unconscious pegasus and turned its attention to an increasingly terrified looking Applejack. She wanted to fly to her friends’ aid immediately but she couldn’t. Her wings refused to open and her hooves remained firmly in place no matter how much she willed them to move. All she could do was stand there shaking.

With a fearsome snarl, the monster fired more explosives in Applejack’s direction. The farmpony’s breathing became more frantic as she tried to outrun the fiery blasts to no avail. One struck too close and Applejack was sent flying and landed in a painful heap, her tail no more than a burnt stub.

Fluttershy looked back and forth at her two incapacitated friends and realized she was the only one left standing. She thought the mind numbing terror would be too much to bear, but her fear was replaced by something else. A burning hot sensation in her chest that made her want to scream and hit things. Her brow came low over her eyes and suddenly she found her wings working again, and that they were taking her toward the monster with renewed vigor.

“How… dare you!” Fluttershy said in a low, menacing tone as she flew right at the abomination and kicked it in the back of the head.

The result was akin to a butterfly trying to break a rock, but it achieved its result: The monster turned away from Applejack’s inert form and faced the livid Fluttershy. The butter colored pegasus closed her eyes and drew in a breath. When she opened them again, she brought the full power of her Stare down on the entity before her.

Any other creature that Fluttershy performed the Stare on usually became cowed with such thoroughness that openly threatening them with immediate physical violence would be less effective. The armored monster that Fluttershy performed the Stare on now only tilted its head in confusion, causing Fluttershy to Stare harder.

For some reason, the more Fluttershy used her Stare, the more she felt like running and hiding. More and more she was becoming overcome by feelings of terror and shame, despite knowing she’d done nothing wrong. It was if she were feeling the effects of the Stare in place of the monster. Fluttershy saw her own furious reflection in the domed visor of the monster’s helmet and then she realized what was happening.

Fluttershy was using the Stare on herself.

Before she could pull away, the monster lunged forward and grabbed Fluttershy by the neck, and all at once the indignant anger she felt was gone, replaced by the all too familiar sensation of terror. The monster slowly brought the shaking pegasus closer to its face... and then she heard voices. A collection of distorted, disembodied voices all speaking as one.

R O A?

H E E

E S G
W I M

Was this why this thing was attacking them? It was after the M.I. that was in Pinkie’s head? Even gone, Omega was still causing trouble for them. Fluttershy wanted to tell the monster that they didn’t have it anymore. To give it a big speech about how all of this violence isn’t necessary.

All that came out of her mouth was a squeak. “I-I don’t know…”

The monster let out another horrifying snarl as it violently tossed Fluttershy into a tree. The impact rattled her brain around and she felt like one big ache as she landed on the ground.

A single low growl crawled through the air as the monster once again brought up its bladed weapon. Fearing this was the end, Fluttershy whimpered and shut her eyes. She hadn’t even had time to come to terms with everything in her life she still wanted to do when she heard the first blasts.

Somehow, the monster’s attack didn’t hurt. Was this it? Was she dead? It had been so fast. Another distorted, angry growl filled Fluttershy’s ears, as well as something else. A sound like the hum of a unicorn’s horn casting magic. Fluttershy opened her eyes and found herself lying in the same place on the ground, but now she was surrounded by a purple magical barrier with the monster just outside. A purple hoof fell into place beside her. Fluttershy looked up to the hoof’s owner and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Not. My. Friends!” Twilight Sparkle stated in a low, defiant voice as she stood protectively over Fluttershy.

The monstrous alien soldier let out another unnatural growl before it fired another shot from its weapon. Twilight winced as it impacted on her shield. The barrier held, but the attack was concentrated enough to cause Twilight a fair bit of mental strain. Seeing this, the monster pressed its attack, firing more explosives at Twilight’s barrier as it circled like a hungry predator.

Twilight’s shield held, but every impact caused increasing amounts of pain inside her head. She wouldn’t last long, and that monster knew it.

“Fluttershy...” Twilight grunted as another attack struck, “You have to run!”

Fluttershy looked up at Twilight with every emotion playing across her face at once. “I-I can’t…”

“You have to!”

“I-I can’t let you leave us again!”

Twilight grunted in pain again as more of the monster’s attacks hit home. Her shield started to flicker as a something began to trickle from her nose. Outside, the alien abomination’s growling and snarling grew into a cacophony. It could smell her blood in the water.

With one final attack, the shield shattered to pieces and Twilight let out a cry of pain as it felt that her head had done the same. Twilight was lying on her side now, her vision blurry and unfocused, her limbs too weak to obey her. She saw monster’s legs as it approached. Twilight just lay there in despair. She couldn’t believe it. She’d been through so much to make it back to Equestria only to immediately be killed upon her return. It wasn’t fair!

The monster stood over her, but for some reason death did not come. She then heard otherworldly voices whispering to each other all at once. Looking up at the thing standing over her, Twilight saw at least half a dozen tiny spectral figures all standing in the air around the monster’s domed head. Transparent entities of fiery orange, purple, blue and cobalt stood arguing amongst themselves. Twilight couldn’t understand what they said, but she could tell what they were feeling: confusion.

Suddenly, the chorus of voices was broken by a bright flash of light a fair distance behind the monster. A white light now filled the forest. Twilight and the monster both looked to the source of the pure light and the proud form of Princess Celestia stood. The white alicorn looked Godly with the ethereal white light encompassing her very being. The monster raised an arm to shield its eyes from the blinding light, but somehow Twilight was able to look upon it unabated.

Celestia stared at the monster with a look of calm fury on her face. “You will not harm another one of my ponies, monster! Least of all that one!” Her words didn’t boom with the Royal Canterlot Voice as Twilight expected, but the powerful, righteous tone with which Princess Celestia carried them conveyed all of the power and fury she possessed.

The monster growled defiantly and raised its weapon, shooting more explosive fire in Celestia’s direction. The shots impacted harmlessly across some invisible barrier around the princess and, unlike Twilight, they didn’t seem to phase her in the slightest. Celestia’s horn glowed even brighter and a beam of bright light traveled from it to the monster.

But the monster was already gone and Celestia’s attack impacted on empty air. After surveying her surroundings, Celestia deduced that whatever it was wasn’t coming back and briskly made her way toward her protégé. Fluttershy and Applejack pulled themselves to their hooves, the mere presence of their ruler enough to get them moving again. Together, the two of them limped over to Rainbow Dash and began unburying her from the rocks.

Celestia stood over Twilight Sparkle and smiled down at her as she pulled herself to her hooves. Twilight looked up into her beloved mentor’s face; something she thought she might never see again. It was then that the adrenaline coursing through her body finally wore off and all of the emotions over the past few days finally caught up with her. All of the pain, fear, anger, joy and sorrow of her adventure washed over Twilight like a tidal wave, breaking her proverbial dam.

Twilight grabbed Celestia and held onto her tight, as if letting go would cause her to be thrust across the galaxy again. She then wept like a child. What remained of Twilight’s rational mind rebelled at the thought of putting on such a display in front of her mentor, but the part of her that needed this didn’t care. Princess Celestia said nothing, merely wrapping Twilight up in an embrace and gently stroking her with the loving tenderness of a mother. When Twilight was finally spent, all of the sleep she’d missed over the past few days was the next thing to catch up with her.

Feeling warm and safe in Celestia’s embrace, Twilight allowed herself to drift away. For the first time in days, she knew that everything was going to be okay...

Every man and woman on the bridge of the Mother of Invention stood at attention as the automatic doors slid open and a tall, older man stepped through. He was dressed in the black and gray uniform of a high-ranking official and sported short, graying black hair. The unquestionable figure of authority walked purposefully down the central walkway of the command bridge. Clasping his hands behind his back, the man looked out onto the field of stars that dominated the towering window of the bridge. The blue glow of holographic monitors illuminated his bearded, spectacled face.

A man with dark skin clutching a datapad approached him. “All systems are online and functional, Director,” he reported in his soft voice. “Coordinates to Caballinus IV are set.”

“Tell the helmsman to enter slipspace when ready, Counselor,” the Director said in a deep, Southern accent.

The Counselor nodded in affirmation before going to attend his task. The Director pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and smiled.

“Time to visit some old friends…”

Author's Note

Whew! And there you have it! Those of you who read my blog post on the matter should know that with the conclusion of Act 1 I'll be taking a break from weekly updates. I just want to thank every one of you that stayed with the story thus far. It means a lot to know that people like something I wrote!

See you next time!

Act 2 Part 1 - Colors

“... You have to admit the circumstances were strange. I don’t think anypony else has ever gotten a Royal Blessing for something like this before.”

“Don’t you think we ought to tell her, Night Light?”

“Of course not! She’s still way too young, Velvet. She won’t understand.”

“She’s a smart filly. If we don’t tell her soon she’ll probably figure it out herself!”

“I hope not. Honestly, I hope she never finds out…”

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes slowly opened, her world a fuzzy and unfocused mess as consciousness slowly returned to her. Her parents’ voices drifted away along with the dream, only a fragment of the scene remaining.

Her parents. When was the last time she’d seen them? Shining Armor’s wedding? It had been far too long.

Twilight saw less of her parents ever since she became Princess Celestia’s student. She missed them terribly and treasured every time she was able to see them. From what she could tell they felt the same way, but in recent years Twilight noticed something seemed to be eating at them whenever they got together.

Pushing aside those thoughts, Twilight shifted to get more comfortable in her bed. Her eyes suddenly shot open when she realized where she was. Twilight was wrapped snugly in the blankets of her own bed! Gasping, Twilight sat up and rubbed her eyes, forcing them to focus so she could see her surroundings. She looked around at the oak wood walls, floor and ceiling. Twilight looked at the bookshelves filled with… actually pretty disorganized books and the familiar purple drapes covering the window to her right. Twilight was in her own bedroom up in the loft above the second floor of Golden Oaks Library. Most importantly, it was all real! She was home!

Twilight was unable to keep the big goofy grin off of her face as she hopped out of bed and drew open the curtains with a burst of telekinetic magic, letting bright sunlight fill the dark room. It was then that Twilight wondered: had she really been teleported to another world by an A.I inside of an alien ship? Had she really met the eccentric red and blue armored humans in the canyon and been chased by a sinister military program? Or was it all just a dream?

Twilight then glanced over at her bedside table and saw something that made her do a double take. Slowly, Twilight walked over to her night stand and kept her eyes glued to the foreign object sitting on top of it, thinking it might disappear if she blinked. With a glow of purple magic, Twilight lifted the small metal object off the table and found herself staring at the radio headset that Simmons had made for her back in Blood Gulch.

So it wasn’t a dream. Still, Twilight couldn’t help but smile. Just the other day, she had awoken in the passenger seat of an alien motorized vehicle thinking she might never get to go through her morning routine in Ponyville ever again. This thought suddenly caused the unicorn to pause. How did she get here?

Twilight remembered traveling to the wind power facility (Zanzibar if she remembered correctly) and then a city-sized space ship; the Mother of Invention. She then remembered being in the Everfree Forest, facing an otherworldly monstrous creature. What happened after?

Muffled voices suddenly found their way to Twilight’s ears from the first floor below. She hastily climbed down from the loft and quietly made her way to the stairs, listening to the voices the entire time.

“I’m just saying I’m worried, dear. It’s not like our Twilight to stay in bed this late!”

Twilight immediately recognized the posh, dignified voice as that of a certain white unicorn she knew. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Twilight saw Rarity standing in the center of the main floor talking to Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy stood just behind the other pegasus. All three of them were covered in scrapes and bruises and Rainbow Dash had several bandages on one of her wings and hind legs.

“Rarity, Twi just traveled across the freakin’ galaxy and saved us from a big alien monster. I think she’s earned the right to sleep in a bit!” Rainbow Dash argued.

Twilight grinned. “At least I stay awake for the whole day once I’m up!”

“Twilight!” Fluttershy was the first one to see Twilight standing there at the top of the stairs, smiling widely at them.

Twilight wasted no time in racing down the stairs to her friends, who in turn raced to meet her at the bottom. Twilight exchanged hugs with each of them, with Fluttershy throwing in a few extra nuzzles and Rainbow Dash throwing in a nudge for Twilight’s earlier jab.

“Well at least I wake up before noon!” Rainbow retorted.

“Is that what time it is?” Sure enough, one glance at her clock on the wall confirmed that it was ten past noon.

Twilight then heard the pit-a-pat of tiny feet and turned around to see a purple baby dragon wearing a frilly pink apron come running out of the kitchen toward her. Spike hugged Twilight with strength that actually surprised her and held on for several seconds before he realized that the other ponies in the room were staring.

“Uh… I wasn’t worried about you or anything. I just… thought you needed a hug!” Spike said, letting go and coughing awkwardly.

Twilight wrapped a hoof around her number one assistant. “I missed you too, Spike!”

Smiling, Twilight returned her attention to the three other ponies in the room. “I’m really happy to see you guys, but what are you doing here?”

Rarity gave a good natured sigh. “Well, I’ve been living here while my boutique gets rebuilt and these two were stuck here after the lockdown was initiated.”

“Lockdown?”

Rarity walked over to a nearby window and beckoned Twilight over. The normally busy streets of Ponyville were emptier than usual for this time of day. Twilight only saw two ponies walking side by side far down the street. It took a moment for Twilight to realize that the distant ponies were wearing guard’s armor. She then looked up and noticed multiple squads of armored pegasi flying overhead.

“With the Meta still on the loose, the Princess isn’t taking any chances,” Rarity stated.

Twilight tilted her head. “The Meta?”

“Um… that would be the really scary monster that attacked us in the Everfree Forest the other night,” Fluttershy said with a slight tremble in her voice.

“Yeah, Princess Celestia told us that thing killed a ton of ponies in Dodge City!” Rainbow glowered, her head lowered and her bandaged wings extended.

Twilight nodded, before she suddenly remembered what had happened before she passed out. Princess Celestia had appeared out of nowhere in the nick of time to save her from the Meta.

“Wait, the Princess! Where is she? Is she here?”

Rarity shook her head. “She stuck around for a bit to make sure we were all okay, then returned to Canterlot after leaving you with us.”

“Oh…” Twilight’s ears fell. She knew Princess Celestia was always very busy with her duties in Canterlot. Still, knowing she didn’t stick around to wait for Twilight to wake up hurt a little. That and Twilight had wanted to ask her a few questions. Princess Luna’s warning still echoed in her mind.

A loud growling noise interrupted Twilight’s thoughts. It was only from observing the way her friends all looked at her that she realized the sound had come from her stomach.

“Right… guess I haven’t eaten since Zanzibar…”

“I was just making lunch for everypony. You should join us!” Spike exclaimed, turning back toward the kitchen. “I wanna hear about your space adventures!”

“Yes, I suppose we should tell you everything that’s happened here while you were gone as well,” Rarity said. “You have a lot to catch up on!”

“Dude, you haven’t missed out on much,” Grif told the dark skinned man. “We really don’t ever do anything.”

The three members of Blood Gulch’s Red Team sat in a moderately sized office on board the UNSC Mother of Invention. Several minutes ago, Simmons and his comrades on Red Team were certain that they would be killed. Wyoming and his men had the three of them lined up before the barrels of their rifles and seemed ready to pull the trigger when a soldier in light gray ODST armor with red detail approached with a squad of her own men in gray armor.

“Wyoming? What is going on here?” she had asked. Her voice sounded slightly Irish, which stuck out to Simmons being of Dutch-Irish descent.

The white armored Freelancer in question turned to face the newcomer and gave her a casual shrug.

“Nothing for you to concern yourself with, Captain Osgoode. These men are simply dealing with the source of the disturbance in the generator room,” Wyoming had said in his eternally patronizing British accent.

“It concerns me when you’re about to execute prisoners without authorization from Command.”

Wyoming scoffed. “What makes you so sure I don’t have authorization?”

“Because Command ordered me to take this particular lot in for questioning. The Counselor thinks they may know something about the equine alien,” Osgoode had argued. Wyoming seemed unhappy with the situation but nevertheless left Osgoode to her task, glaring at the Reds as he left.

The trio now sat across a desk from the man who introduced himself as simply the Counselor. The man had dark skin, a shaved head and wore a modest black and gray officer’s uniform. Like the Counselor himself, the office space was modest, catering more to organization and efficiency than to personal taste (something that Simmons greatly appreciated). The only object that didn’t appear directly related to the Counselor’s work in Project Freelancer was a framed diploma from Corvus Academy in the field of Psychology.

“I see, Sergeant Grif,” the Counselor responded in a voice that was as soft and soothing as it was monotonous and unsettling. “Perhaps then you should start with what you were doing down in the slipspace generator room.”

The fact that the Counselor was directing all of his questions at Grif due to his status as the leader of their squad caused Sarge to huff in frustration every so often, but the man in standard issue red armor knew better than to voice his grievances to someone like the Counselor.

“We were trying to capture Twilight What’s-her-name like you people told us to do!” Grif exclaimed.

At this, the Counselor raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. And when did you receive these orders?”

Grif and Simmons both looked over at Sarge, who had been the one to actually receive the call from Command.

“Why, jus’ the other day I got a call from someone at Red Command sayin’ I had to gather my squad - and Grif - so we could kill the Blues and capture Twilight Smurfle,” Sarge drawled.

The Counselor brought up a holographic screen on his desk and spent a few moments scrolling through information before returning his attention to the Reds.

“Interesting. Project Freelancer has no records of giving those orders. Whoever contacted you was not from Command.”

“Gadzooks! No wonder that guy didn’t seem to know about my orders from Red Army Catalogue!”

“Or it could be because none of the things you order actually exist!” Grif snarked.

“Oh yeah? We’ll see who’s talking when my new toxic radiation turns you into a giant rampaging monster!” Sarge exclaimed, “You certainly won’t, because the mutation will cause your mouth to fall off!”

“Let’s… try to stay on topic,” The Counselor said. “Now, you managed to track the equine alien and those who were helping it to the Mother of Invention, correct?”

The Reds all nodded.

“Do you know where the alien is now?”

The Reds all exchanged looks, none of them really sure how to answer. They’d all seen Twilight and the Blues seemingly disappear into thin air in the generator room, but to where they didn’t know. Simmons had an idea of where Twilight and the Blues may have ended up, but he was hesitant to answer. Despite his indifference towards the Blues, he actually kind of liked Twilight in the sense that conversation with her was tolerable.

“Actually sir, it’s possible that she was able to teleport herself and the Blues back to her homeworld,” Simmons said, his eagerness to obey authority ultimately winning out.

Grif coughed in a way that sounded a lot like “Snitch!”

The Counselor nodded. “I see. As it happens, the equine homeworld is our current destination. With any luck, this matter will be resolved relatively quickly. As for the matter of your own transgressions, because of the fact that you believed you were operating under orders from Command - combined with the fact that your efforts may have been beneficial to Project Freelancer had they succeeded - I do not believe any punishment is necessary. You three can remain on board the Mother of Invention for the duration of our mission on Caballinus IV.”

“Sweet! Once again the law fails to hold me accountable! Suck it, society!” Grif proclaimed.

“There is just one more thing I would like to address,” the Counselor leaned back in his chair and templed his hands. “You all seem to be familiar with the equine alien on a more… personal level. You wouldn’t at any point have... helped the target, would you?”

The Reds responded immediately.

“Of course not, son! That’s crazy talk!” Sarge exclaimed.

“Yeah, totally crazy!” said Simmons

“Fucking Looney Tunes!” Grif added.

The Counselor carefully regarded each of the Reds for a few agonizing moments. “Does the name ‘Agent Washington’ mean anything to you?”

This time the Reds’ denial was genuine. Each of them shook their heads after a few exchanged glances.

“Washington was a Freelancer who, like you, was tasked with apprehending the alien. Unlike you, I imagine, Washington elected instead to help the target in her efforts to evade us. He is of course now in our custody and being interrogated by the Director himself.” The Counselor leaned forward and gave the gathered Reds a hard glare, “I am certain the insight he can provide us into what transpired earlier will be invaluable.

“And don’t worry, if Washington brings any new information regarding your involvement in these affairs to light, we’ll be sure to notify you immediately for another discussion…”

A very unladylike burp caught Twilight off guard as she dabbed the remainders of her brunch off of her face with a napkin. “Sorry…” a blush formed on her face.

“Don’t be. I take that as a compliment!” Spike shrugged looking a little proud.

The drake had every right to be so. The steamed vegetables, daisy and daffodil soup and nachos had been the most filling things Twilight had eaten in days. Suffice to say, at this moment she felt absolutely refreshed. Twilight had taken a quick shower at Rarity’s polite hints that she was in desperate need of one (and Twilight’s mane was greasy and uncomfortable after having not washed it since being whisked away to Blood Gulch).

Over the course of the meal, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash took turns telling Twilight all about what had happened while she was gone. From Pinkie Pie burning down Carousel Boutique under O’Malley’s influence to their battle with Tex to the mysterious M.I. expert Sunset Shimmer. Their stories had kept Twilight riveted as she ate and in turn, kept her mind off of what was bothering her.

“Hello? Equestria to Twi!” Rainbow Dash waved a hoof in front of Twilight, who didn’t even realize she had been zoning out.

“Um, is everything okay, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked carefully. “I know you’ve been through a lot these past few days, so if there’s something on your mind…”

Twilight took a breath. She’d been hoping to simply enjoy a day back home with her friends without delving into her problems. As it happened, her friends knew her too well to allow that to happen.

“You guys said you were with Princess Celestia for a bit last night,” Twilight paused. There was no way she was going to say what she wanted without raising a few eyebrows. “Did she seem to be acting… unusual to you guys?”

Raised eyebrows and uncertain glances filled every face at the table. “Actually, now that you mention it, something seemed to be greatly troubling her when she left you with me, but she left before I could ask her about it. Why do you ask, dear?” Rarity said.

With a sigh, Twilight told her friends about the dream conversation she had with Princess Luna back in Blood Gulch. She spoke of Celestia’s withholding of information and Luna’s cryptic warning of something bad coming to Equestria.

“... She even told me that Princess Celestia specifically didn’t want me involved with any of this!” Twilight exclaimed, her voice cracking. “After all these years… I-I thought she trusted me!”

At this, Spike stood and moved around the kitchen table beside Twilight. “Twi? Can I show you something?”

Twilight looked up at her friends, who all shrugged before returning her attention to Spike. “Okay….”

Twilight got up from her seat and let the little dragon lead her out of the kitchen into the main room of the library with Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy following. Spike led her over to an inconspicuous chest on a table beside one of the bookshelves and gestured for Twilight to open it. It was strange, Twilight didn’t remember owning a faded red chest with shiny gold rims.

With a flash of her horn, Twilight willed the lid of the chest to open and then moved forward to peek inside. Her eyes widened at what she saw: five pieces of familiar golden jewelry with each of her friends’ cutie marks on them.

“The Elements of Harmony?” Twilight turned to look at Spike, who simply gave her a warm smile.

“Princess Celestia had them brought here last night. What more evidence do you need? She trusts you completely!”

A smile returning to her face, Twilight pulled her number one assistant into a hug. “Since when did you get to be so smart?” she asked with a playful edge to her voice.

“You mean you’re just noticing now?” Spike answered just as playfully.

“Next time the Meta comes around, we’ll give it a taste of awesome rainbow lasers!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight nodded, letting go of Spike and returning her gaze to the five magical superweapons. Wait, five?

“Where’s mine?”

“Huh?” The others all looked at Twilight in confusion.

“The Element of Magic! It’s not here!”

The others all crowded around Twilight and looked inside the chest. Sure enough, the five golden necklaces were all there but a certain tiara with the emblem of a six pointed star was nowhere to be seen.

“Great. Three guesses who took it and the first two and a half don’t count…” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

“Whuh…?” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash with confusion.

“Um… yes, Twilight. I know you like to give everypon… everyone a fair chance at friendship, but your new friends are… not very nice,” Fluttershy said.

“My new friends?” Twilight asked. Then it dawned on her. It couldn’t be them, could it?

“C’mon…” Spike sighed and began once again leading Twilight to another part of the library.

Twilight and the others followed him to the door leading to the basement stairs and soon the group started to descend. As they did so, the sound of voices began to resonate from the basement laboratory below. Familiar voices.

“Look! Church! I am the Princess of Crayons!” A goofy, high-pitched male voice proclaimed.

“Dammit, Caboose! Where the fuck did you get that?” A nasally, angry male voice shouted.

The group arrived at the bottom of the stairs and into the basement lab full of Twilight’s blinking scientific equipment just in time to see a bipedal man in cobalt blue armor swipe a golden tiara from the head of a man in plain blue armor.

“Well I hope you’re happy, Church! Now no one in the kingdom’s getting to eat any delicious crayons!”

“Caboose? Church???” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh hey, Twilight. You’re finally up,” Church said, turning to face the unicorn and her friends while simultaneously keeping the Element of Magic away from the grabby Caboose. “About fuckin’ time. And I thought the rainbow one was lazy…”

“Why does everyone always say that?” Rainbow Dash asked indignantly. “I take a lot of naps because I work hard!”

Rainbow turned to Twilight and gestured with both front hooves to Church and Caboose. “See what we mean, Twilight?”

Twilight smiled apologetically. “They’re not so bad once you get to know them.”

If Twilight still had any doubts that the events of the past few days hadn’t been a dream, the sight of Church and Caboose washed those doubts away. Twilight glanced past Church and suddenly realized why he and Caboose were down in her basement. Lying on an operating table next to a bunch of her equipment was the same robot in black armor that had been on the ship. The one Church called ‘Tex.’

“How did you guys get here? I didn’t think the teleport worked on you!”

“Oh, it worked. We just ended up a little closer to your intended target than you did,” Church explained, taking a step forward to give Twilight the Element of Magic he confiscated from Caboose, “and we got into some pretty big trouble because of it!”

“You do realize we could get into a lot of trouble if we do this, right?” Simmons asked.

The man in maroon armor stood in the large cavernous hangar on board the Mother of Invention with his teammates on either side of him. Through a clear blue forcefield, the stars could be seen against the black emptiness of space. A green and blue planet stretched out below like an ocean. Project Freelancer soldiers and pilots in white armor filled the large wide open metal space as they moved supply crates, ran weapon checks and generally moved back and forth as they prepared the small fleet of Pelican dropships for departure. The three Reds stood in front of one such dropship that seemed relatively ignored by the other gray and white soldiers.

“I hate to agree with Simmons, but yeah. This plan is fucking stupid!” Grif said.

The Mother of Invention had been traveling for almost a full day before the ship’s onboard A.I. (whose voice sounded remarkably like the Blues’ tank from Blood Gulch) announced that they had left slipspace and arrived at their destination: a planet called Caballinus IV. It wasn’t long after that when Sarge had left their assigned quarters and disappeared.

While this would have suited Grif just fine, Simmons pointed out that if Sarge did anything to cause trouble, the repercussions might extend to the two of them as well. So it was with reluctance that Grif went with Simmons to search the large vessel for the wayward sergeant. They eventually found him in the main hangar, snooping around one of the dropships. When asked what he was doing, Sarge had responded simply.

“Think about it, Grif! If the Blues are down on that planet, then we need a ship to get down there!” Sarge exclaimed. “That or one of them ODST drop pods, but I’d really rather not get into one of those things again if I can help it!”

Drop pods were what the UNSC’s ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) used to enter a planet’s atmosphere; literally being dropped from an orbiting ship onto the planet below. Sarge had apparently been an ODST before his days in Blood Gulch and as Grif understood, the ship they were on now was equipped with its own set of drop pods. To Grif though, stealing a ship was just as stupid as jumping out of one.

“Do we really have nothing better to do than follow the Blues around?” Grif asked.

“You said so yourself: we really don’t ever do anything,” Simmons sighed.

“Yeah, but that’s a lifestyle choice!” Grif took another thoughtful look at the ship Sarge was appraising and noticed something he didn’t earlier. “Hey, isn’t that a ‘hog?”

Sarge turned around and glared at Grif. “Simmons… did Grif call me fat just now?”

“I don’t see why he’d do that, considering you’ve never looked more fit and attractive, sir!” Simmons said. “Have you been working out?”

“Why yes, Simmons! I’m glad somebody noticed!”

“Also, Grif’s not really in a position to talk when it comes to peoples’ weight!”

“First of all, fuck you! Second, I was talking about the jeep!” Grif pointed under the “tail” of the Pelican dropship where a Warthog was suspended just under the engines.

“What about it, numbnuts?” Sarge asked.

Grif ignored the fact that Sarge was once again forgetting who was in charge now. “What’s it doing up there?”

“It looks like it’s being prepped for transport,” Simmons looked around the bustling hangar. “All the other ships here seem like they’re being prepared for… something.”

“That doesn’t matter right now, Simmons! What matters is that this ship here is ready to take us and our trademark vehicle planetside!” Sarge exclaimed.

“Okay, even if going down to an alien planet to pick another fight with the Blues wasn’t completely stupid, planets are really big...” Grif explained.

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock,” Simmons grumbled. “Hey Sarge, you might also like to know that water is wet and food goes in here!” Simmons pointed to where his mouth was behind his chrome visor.

“... Which means that even if the Blues are down there, we’re not gonna be able to find them!” Grif continued.

Sarge simply chuckled and held his shotgun at a proud angle, “Wrong again, Sergeant Turd! Not only do I know the Blues are down there, I have a way to track them!”

Sarge paused dramatically, allowing the suspense to build while the other two awaited an explanation.

Grif chuckled. “This should be good. Let me guess: you noticed the first letter of each line in the morning paper spelled ‘the Blues are here.’”

“Nice try, Grif. The letters actually spelled ‘omelet shak fslbrr,’ but that’s not how I intend to track them! You remember that robot body I built for the Blues way back when?”

Grif went silent very quickly.

“If I recall, that Blue spirit feller is still inside of my robot. A ghost in the machine as it were!” Sarge took a moment to chuckle at his own joke before continuing. “Now, remember how I built a bomb and a listening device into said robot body?”

Grif remembered that alright. The bomb inside of Church’s robot gut had caused all of them to be blasted one thousand years into the future. At least according to Sarge. Grif knew better of course. Unfortunately, he also knew it was far easier to just go along with Sarge’s “future” theory than it was to explain to the delusional man why he was wrong. According to Simmons though, the listening device had actually proved useful for one purpose.

Grif and Simmons suddenly heard voices coming through their helmet radios. They didn’t sound like they were being intentionally broadcast, though.

“Look! Church! I am the Princess of Crayons!”

“Dammit, Caboose! Where the fuck did you get that?”

“Well I hope you’re happy, Church! Now no one in the kingdom’s getting to eat any delicious crayons!”

“Caboose? Church???”

The familiar voices disappeared and Sarge stopped broadcasting the feed from the listening device to Grif and Simmons’ radios. Grif could almost hear the smug smile in Sarge’s tone as he spoke.

“All we need is for Simmons to trace the signal just like last time!”

Grif and Simmons stood there in stunned silence, which was eventually broken by Simmons. “Wow… that’s actually really smart, sir!”

“For a kiss ass, you sound pretty surprised,” Grif pointed out.

“What? That wasn’t a ‘wow’ of surprise, that was a ‘wow’ of awe!”

“Right, Simmons’ bullshit aside, there’s still the issue of this whole idea being stupid anyway!”

“What’s more stupid, Private Grif...?” Asked Sarge.

“Sergeant!”

“... Going down there to get to the bottom of this alien pony business, or staying here and waiting for the bigwigs of Project Freelancer to find a reason to court-martial us? You know as well as I that that Counselor fella trusts us about as much as he trusts a dinosaur with an erection!”

“Um… what?”

“But if we go down there and get that pony, we may just gain his trust!”

Grif looked away, not wanting to accept the fact that Sarge may actually have a point. He found himself looking across the hangar to where a particular Freelancer in white armor was cleaning a sniper rifle. Wyoming slowly looked up from his work at Grif back across the hangar. After a few uncomfortable moments, Wyoming raised a hand and performed a slitting motion with his finger across his own neck while somehow staring a hole through Grif despite the presence of his helmet.

With a resigned sigh Grif turned back to Sarge. “Fine. Guess I should learn how to pilot this thing...”

“No need, Grif! This model has an autopilot feature we can use,” Sarge took another appreciative look at the ship they were about to use and Grif got a little nervous when he noticed Sarge’s gaze seemed to rest on the Warthog attached to the Pelican’s underside.

“Besides, if we’ll be landing on a planet filled with colorful aliens, we might as well arrive in style!”

Colors. From his position on the front patio of the large, gazebo-like structure in the center of town, Church looked out onto a sea of colors. Coats, manes and angry, hateful eyes of cyan, yellow, red, blue and every color in the spectrum filled his vision, illuminated by torches in the darkness of night.

The mob had tied both his and Caboose’s hands together with rope and their weapons were taken off to the side of the makeshift stage, being closely scrutinized by one of the ponies. Church had considered offering resistance when the mob of angry ponies first charged at him and Caboose, but realized it was a vain effort. Church likely wouldn’t be able to actually hit any of them with his sniper rifle and Caboose was more likely to kill him than any of their attackers. Thus, Church simply settled for peaceful cooperation. Peaceful save for the various profanities and insults he threw as they bound him and Caboose and corralled them up to where they were standing now.

Currently, the brown winged stallion with a pink-ish red mane and tail who appeared to be the ring leader paced back and forth in front of them, looking out at his crowd of followers.

“Everypony! We have the monsters that took our foals!” he exclaimed to the crowd.

The crowd’s resounding cheer was so loud that Church’s proclamation of “That’s fucking bullshit!” was lost to the noise.

The stallion then turned to Church and Caboose and glared at them hatefully,.“So where are they? Where are the fillies you took? Where’s my daughter?”

Church took a step backward. He wasn’t sure how such a relatively small creature could be so intimidating. “I didn’t take shit, dude! Don’t blame me just because I’m a human! That’s profiling!”

The ring leader turned back to face the gathered mob. “Very well, the monsters won’t talk! What should we do with them?”

At this, the crowd erupted with enthusiastic suggestions.

“Lock them in a dungeon!” screamed a mare.

“Banish them to the Badlands!” cried another.

“Burn the witch!” yelled a stallion who didn’t really seem to know where he was.

“Burn them, banish them and lock them in a dungeon in the place they were banished to… and then cut off those creepy spidery appendages at the end of their arms!” The whole crowd turned to look in shock at the mint green unicorn mare who seemed on the verge of tears, “I HATE ALIENS! I HATE THEM!”

A beige mare with a curly pink and pigment blue mane beside the green unicorn brought a hoof to her face and shook her head. “And you wonder why I never take you anywhere…”

“Hey, wait a minute! I think if you’re gonna persecute us you should at least let us say something in our defense!” Church pointed out.

The stallion ring leader turned to look at him and then smiled. “An excellent point, alien!” He then turned to look at Caboose. “Blue one! Why don’t you speak for your ally and yourself?”

Church glared at the stallion. “Son of a bitch…”

Caboose happily stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Ladies and not-ladies! We are gathered here today to bear witness to me and my best friend of all time, Church!”

Church groaned. Talk about adding insult to injury.

“Now that I said that, I think you should punish Church because he is mean, he hoards all of the candy and I’m pretty sure I watched him punch a cat. Like, it wasn’t even covered in spikes! Why would he do that?” Caboose nodded as he wrapped up his argument, “In concluding, God bless America. Except Alabama. Amen.”

With that, Caboose returned to Church’s side seeming pleased with himself. The man in cobalt armor simply glared at him.

“Well, at least I can say I know what it feels like to be hit by a bus before I die, because you fucking threw me under it!” Church hissed.

“The world of politics is a dog eat dog world, Church,” Caboose said sagely. “If you want to survive, you have to eat dogs. Which is gross.”

“What a compelling argument!” the brown pegasus stated before turning to Church. “What about you, uh… other blue one! Do you want to say anything in your defense?”

“Yeah, I wanna say that you’re all assholes and I hope you die! Preferably in a way involving fire!” Church had given up on diplomacy at that point.

As the rabble of gathered ponies increased in volume, Church considered his options. He could always go “ghost mode” on these ponies and make them freak out long enough for him and Caboose to escape. Of course, Church wasn’t sure where they would go on an unfamiliar planet full of hostile aliens. Suffice to say, he was beginning to understand how Twilight had felt when she was on his planet. Maybe if he could just find Twilight, she could talk some sense into everyone. All of a sudden, a lone authoritative voice rose above the rabble and silenced them.

“What is going on here, my little ponies?”

Church followed the maternal yet firm female voice to its source and saw what appeared to be a large white horse with a mane and tail resembling an aurora borealis that moved in much the same way as the northern lights back on Earth. She had wings and a horn and wore golden regalia on her head and across her chest. Beside her stood a light brown pony with gray hair and glasses along with a small purple lizard standing on two legs. The two of them had been standing where Church and Caboose were now, but they’d disappeared when the mob captured them. It would appear they had gone to find the large white horse who was now glaring at the crowd.

All of the ponies who had moments ago been a hateful and unruly mob dropped to their knees and bowed low at the sight of the majestic white equine, their ears folding back under her calm, serious gaze. The large white pony then met Church’s eyes and something about her expression changed. It was subtle, but Church thought it looked like shock. No, not quite shock. Surprise.

“You…” The regal white pony briskly trotted towards the patio that Church and Caboose stood on, the crowd of groveling ponies moving aside as she passed. The pony and lizard that were with her remained where they were.

“Princess Celestia…” the mob leader rose from his own bow as he addressed the regal pony, but kept his stance low and submissive as he pointed a hoof at Church, “these creatures have taken two of our foals, including my baby filly!”

“Scootaloo is fine, Rider. I personally drove off the monster that attacked her. These two are innocent,” the Princess said calmly. At this, the stallion who moments before had been the thuggish leader of a mob changed. His eyes turned wide and desperate, his posture small and vulnerable. He then glanced in Church’s direction and his eyes shifted down to his own hooves.

“I believe Rarity has taken her and Sweetie Belle to Ponyville General,” Princess Celestia continued, looking at the pegasus stallion sympathetically. “Go to her.”

Not needing to be told twice, Rider gave the Princess another hasty bow, “T-thank you, your Highness!” He then flapped his wings and took off at full speed in the direction Church presumed the hospital was in.

Princess Celestia then turned to address the crowd and gave them a firm look a mother might give misbehaving children. “I’m very disappointed with all of you. I know you fear what you do not understand, but this is inexcusable. This is not the way I expect my ponies to act,” Celestia swept the crowd with her eyes, making sure each individual present could see them, “I expect better from you in the future. You may go now.”

With no more words, the colorful crowd of equines began to disperse. The light brown mare with glasses helped usher the ponies away with a loud authoritative voice. The little purple lizard went to a white pony with a fancy purple mane who was approaching from down the street.

“That’s it? You aren’t going to punish them? Stick someone’s head on a pike or something? Lame,” Church said, somewhat annoyed.

The pony Princess gave Church a sideways glance before wordlessly looking in the direction of the dispersing crowd. Church followed her gaze, somehow knowing it led to her answer. The way each of the ponies slowly shuffled away with their tails quite literally between their legs changed his mind. The way they behaved, their Princess might as well have declared her intentions to execute them all.

“You are a really cool horse… I would like to feed you a rainbow carrot and call you Sparky!” Caboose exclaimed.

The Princess regarded Caboose with some confusion before she turned to look at Church with the same uncertainty as when she first saw him. “You shouldn’t be here! This doesn’t make any sense….”

Church cocked his head. “Uh… excuse me?”

Celestia took an urgent step closer. “Is he here as well? Or did you escape?”

“Look, lady. I have zero fuckin’ idea what you’re talking about. I came here with…” Church trailed off when he noticed that the Princess was carrying something on her back: a pony. A purple unicorn mare that he knew. “Twilight! Hey, Twilight! You okay?”

Church stepped around beside Celestia to get a better look at the unconscious unicorn. Celestia just looked at Church with a puzzled expression.

“You know Twilight Sparkle?”

“Hell yeah, she appeared in my canyon and wouldn’t stop bothering me until I agreed to help her find a way here,” Church explained.

The Princess gave Church a quizzical look. “And… you don’t remember…?”

“Remember what? Is it your birthday?” Caboose then gasped loudly. “Is it my birthday? Oh man, I totally forgot to get myself a present!”

Celestia just closed her eyes and shook her head before putting on a friendly smile. “Never mind. If you’re both friends of Twilight then I’ll make sure you are safe while you are here.”

Church nodded. “Yeah, thanks. You ponies really roll out the red carpet for us humans.”

“Please don’t blame my subjects. The ponies here are a little… nervous around strangers.”

“Just like my mom. Except when they have candy. And a van,” Caboose stated.

Celestia briefly regarded the man in blue armor again. “I don’t believe I got your name.”

“I am Caboose! Master of vehicles and fire!”

“Right, and I’m Church. Leonard Church.”

For some reason, the Princess’ demeanor changed upon hearing Church’s name. The change before had been subtle, but this one was clear as day. Celestia’s eyes grew bigger and her brow rose into her sparkling ethereal mane. Her mouth drifted open slightly and she looked as if she were suddenly very far away. Church could have sworn she almost looked afraid. The royal pony was so lost in thought that she didn’t even seem to notice the white unicorn pony with the purple lizard approach behind her.

“Ah, there you are Princess!” she spoke in a sophisticated accent as she approached. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy have been treated for their injuries and have been discharged from the hospital. Applejack might need to stay overnight while the unicorns treat her burns.”

The Princess was released from whatever thought held her mind and turned to face the newcomer.

“Rarity, your timing is perfect!” Celestia’s horn lit up with a golden glow that enveloped Twilight. The unconscious purple pony was gently lifted from her back and placed on that of the other unicorn. “Can you and Spike take Twilight home, along with Church and Caboose here?”

Rarity eyed the two men in blue armor uneasily for a moment before nodding and adjusting her passenger’s weight on her back.

“Thank you, Rarity. I must return to Canterlot. There are matters I must think on…”

While Church had been telling his story back at the library, a Royal Guard had arrived at the door informing them that the town was secure and the lockdown was lifted. Now, the ponies and Blues were silent (save for the occasional chatter between Fluttershy and Rarity at the back of the group and Rainbow Dash yelling for the others to hurry up at the front) as they walked along the path just outside of Ponyville in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight didn’t mind the silence, considering it gave her time to think. And Church’s story gave her a lot to think about.

“So, Twilight. About our agreement…” Church’s voice interrupted Twilight’s thinking session and she turned to look up at the man walking beside her as he continued. “Your friends obviously told me about what happened with Tex after she arrived here…”

Twilight nodded as she remembered what they’d told her about Tex’s apparent disappearance after getting O’Malley out of Pinkie’s head.

“I’ve decided that I still want to see her ship,” Church concluded.

Twilight swallowed. The idea of revisiting the ship that had sent her so far away from her home sat ill at ease with her. She’d agreed to help Church find that ship though, and didn’t intend to go back on that promise now.

“Okay. Any particular reason why?”

Church shrugged. “Well, if what your friends say is true, Tex’s trail went cold after she took out O’Malley. Who knows? Maybe there’s something on the ship I can use to track her down, or at least figure out what she was doing on your world in the first place.”

Twilight nodded. Honestly, it sounded like a long shot. Between the Equestrian research team stripping the ship clean and the subsequent raid by the Meta, there likely wasn’t much left on that ship to work with. Still, if Church wanted to try it was his call.

The group finally reached Sweet Apple Acres and greeted Big Macintosh. The large red pony led them out into the orchard as he pulled along an empty wooden cart, where they found Applejack harvesting apples as was her routine. The farmpony noticeably winced as she gave an apple tree a good hard kick with her hind legs, filling the buckets that had been placed around the tree’s trunk with the red fruit.

“Whoa… your trees’ poop is red!” Caboose exclaimed. “You might want to get that checked…”

Applejack turned with a confused scowl on her orange freckled face at the sound of Caboose’s voice, which immediately turned into a joyous smile at the sight of her lost and found friend.

“Well howdy, Twi!” Applejack briskly trotted over to the group while Big Macintosh began gathering the scattered buckets of harvested apples and loading them into the cart.

“Hi Applejack! I see being attacked by a giant alien hasn’t thrown off your work routine!” Twilight greeted as her friend approached.

At this Applejack looked away briefly. “Well, technically the docs are lettin’ me off tomorrow. They fixed my legs up real good but still think I oughta stay in bed awhile.” Applejack then flashed Twilight an impish grin. “Eh. Eggheads. What do they know, right?”

“Just be sure not to strain yourself, dear!” Rarity dutifully warned.

Applejack didn’t seem to hear as she all of a sudden pulled Twilight into a firm hug. “Good to have ya back, sugarcube. You were always better at the whole ‘leader’ thing than me! ‘Specially with this bunch!”

Twilight thought she heard Church groan as the pair of them continued their display of affection. After giving Twilight one final squeeze, Applejack released her grip. Twilight coughed and checked to make sure no ribs were broken. Applejack hugs were nice, but painful.

“And who exactly are these fellas?” Applejack asked, looking over at Church and Caboose.

“Just some new friends I picked up!” Twilight smiled before introducing Church and Caboose to the farmpony.

“Well, if y’all helped bring Twi back to us, reckon I’m pleased to make yer acquiantence!” Applejack exclaimed, giving the blue soldiers a tip of her stetson. “Enjoyin’ yer stay in Ponyville?”

“Y’know, I honestly thought nothing could ever be as bad as the canyon, but I gotta say you guys have really outdone yourselves with making me feel totally fucking uncomfortable with your creepy touchy-feely shit,” Church grumbled.

At the perplexed stares Twilight’s friends gave her, the unicorn just smiled diplomatically. “Don’t mind Church. He’s just... not as in touch with his emotions as the rest of us!”

The ponies and humans in blue armor carried on more small talk for a bit as Applejack and Big Mac loaded up the cart with buckets of harvested apples. The other ponies pitched in to help the job go faster. Church of course, opted not to help in any way and Caboose made the offer, but only ended up using apples to try to start an impromptu game of hackey-sack. Soon, the group was making their way back to the barn and Twilight decided to get Applejack up to speed on the things she told her other friends, including her plan to go with Church to Dodge City.

“I don’ know, Twi,” Applejack said as the group approached the big red barn of Sweet Apple Acres. “I don’ like the idea of us splittin’ up again. If that… Meta thing attacks again we’re gonna all need to be here to use the Elements!”

Applejack’s ears flicked and pointed straight up. Twilight’s did the same. She thought she heard some distant music or something but ignored it. Maybe now that the lockdown had ended, Ponyville had broken into a spontaneous song to celebrate? It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Church and I shouldn’t be gone long. If the Meta comes back just have Spike send a message to me and we’ll come back immediately,” Twilight reassured.

“Oh hey, I love this song!” Caboose randomly said.

“What song?” Church asked.

“It’s not just the Meta I’m worried about, Twi!” Applejack leaned in closer to Twilight and spoke in a low voice after glancing at Church and Caboose. “At the rate these aliens are appearin’, who knows what else might drop in to cause trouble!”

“Does anypony else hear that?” Rarity’s dignified voice rose up from the back of the group.

“Um, do you mean the music?” Fluttershy asked.

“Music?” Church and Twilight exchanged a knowing look. Both of them heard the whacky, polka music traveling through the air along with what sounded like the high-pitched whine of engines.

“Oh, crap…” the pony and the Blue uttered simultaneously.

“Twilight! Language!” Rarity reprimanded as Rainbow Dash suddenly reared on her hindlegs and pointed at the sky, eyes wide.

“HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!”

The entire group looked up at the sky where Rainbow Dash was pointing and gasped. A flying metal machine painted with a dark olive green was coming toward them high above. It looked exactly the same as the ship that crashed outside of Dodge City that started this whole mess. As the ship flew overhead, Twilight immediately noticed what appeared to be a jeep identical to the many Warthogs she’d seen during her adventure hanging from the back right under the ship’s “tail.”

The ship passed right over the group’s heads, its loud engines nearly deafening them. As it did, the Warthog dangling from its underside was released and suddenly came plummeting down... right towards Big Macintosh and the cart he was pulling.

“BROTHER! MOVE!” Applejack yelled.

Big Mac was one step ahead of her. The large farmpony had just enough time to unhitch himself from the cart and dive out of the way before the Warthog came crashing down. The ship continued to fly past and out of sight as the Warthog landed on the cart, crushing it along with all of the apples it had been carrying. Twilight thought she might have seen a single tear roll down Applejack’s face at the sight of the crushed fruit, but it might have just been her imagination.

What Twilight saw when she looked back at the Warthog was definitely not her imagination, but it shocked her no less. Three familiar soldiers in red, orange and maroon armor occupied the vehicle.

“You ponies’d better saddle up, because Red Team’s ridin’ to victory!” Sarge exclaimed in his gruff Southern drawl, “Nothin’s gonna stop us now!”

Author's Note

It's good to be back!

I have some editors this time around. Huge shout out to BradtheBrony, Rough_Draft, and KillerRobotQuote.

Updates are now on Saturdays instead of Mondays. As always I'll try to keep to weekly updates but I fear that'll fall short faster this time. Keep an eye out for a blog post that will explain everything as well as ask all of you an important question.

Next time: Reds on a farm.

Act 2 Part 2 - Funny Farm

“You ponies’d better saddle up, because Red Team’s ridin’ to victory!” Sarge exclaimed in his gruff Southern drawl. “Nothin’s gonna stop us now!”

It was at that very moment that the Reds were taken off guard by a powerful buck from Big Macintosh, sending the Warthog they were in rolling. The vehicle deposited the three Reds onto the ground as it continued rolling along, only stopping when it hit the side of the big red barn of Sweet Apple Acres. The men in red armor slowly climbed to their feet and pulled out their respective firearms.

“Ugh, what happened?” Grif asked.

“What happened is you crashed another Warthog, numbskull!” Sarge yelled.

Grif rolled his head back along with (probably) his eyes, “Yeah, because I know how to make cars do fucking barrel rolls!”

“Uh… guys?” Simmons had his rifle pointed in the direction of six multicolored ponies and two men in blue armor all glaring at them.

“Well, fuck. We really need to start coming up with better plans than ‘get in a Warthog and attack head on.’” Grif deadpanned.

“It’s okay, I think there’s still time to find a peaceful solution to this situation!”

“And I think there’s still time for me to introduce the Blues to my latest product,” Sarge raised his shotgun dramatically and charged forward, “Lead-On! Apply directly to the forehead!”

Sarge didn’t even get a chance to fire his trademark weapon as a blast of magic from Rarity knocked him back into Grif and Simmons. Rainbow Dash immediately followed up by spreading her wings and taking off. The athletic pegasus circled the Reds faster than any of them could see, trapping them in an increasingly tightening rainbow vortex. Once the three Reds were up against each others’ backs, a rope was thrown and lassoed around them. Applejack held the Reds in place with the end of the rope tied around her tail.

“Hmm... this is not how I pictured this going at all!” Sarge grumbled.

With the “threat” neutralized, Church took a step forward as Fluttershy deemed it safe enough to peek out from her hiding place behind Applejack. Twilight on the other hand just stared at her friends, mouth agape; clearly they’d gotten plenty of practice fighting human soldiers while she was gone.

“That was awesome!” Caboose exclaimed. “Did anyone get a picture? Or maybe a slow motion video?”

Applejack looked over at Twilight, “More new friends?”

Twilight looked over at the Reds and furrowed her brow, “Something like that…”

“What are you doing here, Reds?” Church asked in the annoyed tone that Twilight had become all too familiar with.

“Why trying to murder you, of course!” Sarge proclaimed. “Oh yeah, and capture Twilight Vampiresdontsparkle there for Command!”

“I thought you guys stopped that because of Twilight and Simmons!?”

“C’mon, since when has Simmons’ romantic feelings ever stopped him from doing work?” Grif asked.

“Wait, what???” the purple pony and maroon man screamed as one.

“Oh…” Rarity said, giving her fellow unicorn a cautious smile before saying in a low voice, “a mare like you can surely do better, Twilight darling!”

“Wha… no! Rarity, it’s not… he’s not…” Twilight stuttered as her face started turning red. She waved her hoof back and forth as if to dispel the topic like a bad smell, “Look, none of that matters! You three being here is raising some serious questions!”

“Yeah, like ‘will they or won’t they?’” Grif snickered.

“Fucking. Asshole,” Simmons stated.

Twilight glared at the two men before she continued, “I had to use a combination of magic and your technology to teleport myself here from across the galaxy. So how in Equestria did you three get here?”

“Hitched a ride on that big ship you guys snuck on!” Sarge said.

“The Mother of Invention?” Twilight’s eyes widened with the same look of panic that often accompanied times when she nearly forgot to hand in a report. This did not escape the notice of her friends, who looked at each other uneasily.

“Yeah, that ship is orbiting the planet right now. Said they had some mission or something to do here. Didn’t really pay attention,” Grif explained.

Twilight and Church exchanged a knowing look as Twilight’s features fell.

“Well that can’t be good…” Church said.

“Um… what’s a ‘Mother of Invention?’” Fluttershy asked.

“Bad news…” Twilight answered.

“Yeah, we should probably get to Tex’s ship quickly,” Church suggested.

Twilight nodded and turned towards her four friends. She just got back and already it felt like she was leaving them again. At least she got to see all of them before heading back to Dodge City. Or almost all of them.

“By the way, where’s Pinkie Pie?” Twilight thought the pink party pony would have been one of the first ones to welcome her back. In fact, she usually already had a party prepared for this kind of occasion.

The way Twilight’s four friends looked at each other made Twilight’s heart plummet. She then remembered what they’d told her about Pinkie’s experience with Omega, “She is okay… isn’t she?”

Finally, Rainbow Dash took a step toward her, “Right. Guess we forgot to tell you, what with everything that’s been going on…” Rainbow’s already hoarse voice seemed to get even scratchier at that moment.

“Tell me what?”

The Reds stood still in their position tied together by that orange pony’s rope as Twilight Sparkle was led away by her friends, followed by the Blues. Simmons struggled to free up some breathing space to no avail. He was sandwiched too tightly between Grif and Sarge.

“Um… hello? Red Team’s still tied up over here!” Simmons called out.

“It’s no use, Simmons. They’ve left us for dead,” Sarge stated.

“Uh… they’ve left us in the middle of a farm,” Grif pointed out.

“Clearly these pony creatures are a barbaric race of warriors that believe in survival of the fittest!”

“There’s literally a town right down the path there…”

“Just left us here to starve...”

“There’s a field of apple trees ten feet away from us!”

“We’re going to have to get ourselves out of this mess!” Sarge looked around until he spotted their own overturned Warthog lying against the barn, “Men! We have to get to my welding torch so I can free us! I’m going to start walking towards the jeep.

“Simmons, when I say ‘right foot,’ I want you to move your left foot to the right and vice-versa for when I say ‘left.’ Grif, when I say ‘speed boost,’ I want you to see if you can get the rope around your neck and strangle yourself. With any luck, the weight of your dead corpse should shift our balance in just the right way to give us that extra push forward!”

Grif sighed, “Or we could just break out of this rope.”

“Speed boost!”

“What do you mean ‘just break out?’” Simmons asked.

“This is ordinary rope! And we’re space soldiers! We should be able to just bust out of this!” Grif looked at the uncomprehending stares from Simmons and Sarge and sighed, “When I say ‘go,’ just pull against the ropes with all of your strength!”

The three of them braced against each other in readiness, “Ready… go!”

A chorus of groaning and griping commenced as the three Reds each began pulling against their ropes in different directions. After several moments of this, Simmons let up on his side of the pulling and was subsequently pulled back by the combined efforts of Grif and Sarge. This resulted in all three of them falling to the dirt, still tied up.

“Okay… so that didn’t work. This is obviously no ordinary rope!” Grif exclaimed from his position beneath Simmons.

“What? What kind of rope would it be then?” Simmons asked.

“I don’t know, magic rope?”

“You’re a moron.”

“No, really! We’re on a world of talking horses! Magic rope is not outside the realm of possibility!”

“Oh, I wasn’t doubting it. I was just calling you a moron!”

“This is why we need my favorite welding torch!” Sarge exclaimed.

“Ahem!” The sound of a female clearing her throat made the three bickering soldiers stop and look up. Standing there glaring down at them was the orange pony with the cowboy hat who had tied them up in the first place. They weren’t sure how long she’d been standing there, but the unamused frown on her face spoke volumes.

“Stay perfectly still…” Sarge said through clenched teeth, “it can’t see us if we don’t move…”

“But can't it hear us?” Grif asked.

“It can’t hear us in the higher register,” Sarge then began speaking in a high-pitched version of his usual southern accent, “I’m going for my combat knife…”

“You know I can both see and hear you, right?” the pony said in a southern accent of her own.

Simmons heard the distinct sound of Sarge grinding his teeth, “Dammit… they’re evolving!”

“Listen, I’m not gonna hurt y’all but we have somethin’ mighty serious to talk about,” the pony gestured her head to her left. The three Reds followed her gaze and found themselves looking at a large red pony assessing the damage of a completely crushed cart that had once been full of apples. The red fruit themselves were now various piles of crushed mush on the ground around it.

“Yer little attack jus’ destroyed an entire morning’s harvest!” the orange pony said bitterly. “We were gonna sell those in the market tomorrow!”

The orange pony then turned to address the large red stallion in front of the broken cart, “Big Mac, yer good at them fancy mathematics! How much you reckon all them apples were worth?”

The pony dubbed “Big Mac” turned around to face the others. He gave a piece of straw in his mouth a few thoughtful chews before answering, “Sweet Apple Acres apples go anywhere from two to four bits on the Ponyville market. We harvested about five-hundred apples this mornin’. These were worth up to two-thousand bits.”

The orange pony gave a firm, appreciative nod then returned to glaring down at the three Reds, “Got two-thousand bits?”

The Reds shifted uncomfortably in their bonds for a moment. Despite being on the ground, tied up and partially covered by Simmons, Grif managed to reach into a compartment of his armor and pulled out a small object in a plastic wrapper. With some effort, he tossed it at the hooves of the female farm pony in front of him. She picked it up and scrutinized it intensely.

“‘Mini-Oreos?’”

“Those are easily worth two-thousand, maybe three-thousand if the center is really good!” Grif said. “If anything, you should be paying me for those!”

The farm pony just gave the Reds a deadpan glare before tossing the pack of cookies back to Grif, “If y’all can’t pay up, there are ways we can work around that.”

The three Reds murmured amongst themselves, “If we say ‘yes,’ will you untie us?” Grif asked.

“Of course!”

“Then its a deal!”

With a nod of approval, the farmpony walked up to the Reds and with a single tug of a knot, released them from the rope. The Reds wasted no time in pulling themselves to their feet.

“Uh… how did you do that?” Grif asked.

“Do what? Untie an ordinary rope?”

Upon opening the door to the confectionary’s kitchen, Twilight Sparkle was hit by a tidal wave of cake covered in white frosting. Twilight poked her purple horned head out from under the pile of pastries sputtering. Church just stood there, the cobalt man frozen in stupefaction.

“Wow…” he simply said.

“I warned you…” Muttered Carrot Cake. The yellow earth pony stallion was standing behind the front desk of Sugar Cube Corner, carefully setting up displays. With the lockdown recently lifted, customers would no doubt be pouring in soon.

“Remind me to keep Caboose far away from this place.”

At Twilight’s suggestion, the group had dropped Caboose off at the library with Spike. It seemed that Church had figured out why. Fluttershy had then informed them that she had to go home to feed her animals, having not had the chance to do so since the lockdown began.

Twilight climbed out of the pile of cake and proceeded to shake off as much icing and crumbs as she could, but was unable to get the sticky feeling out of her coat. She was definitely going to need to shower again.

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, “And you’re sure Pinkie is in there?”

Rainbow nodded, “Who else could be responsible for this?” Rainbow’s eyes then darted back and forth as her ears fell flat, “Look, uh… I’ve gotta get home. I haven’t had a chance to go back since yesterday and Tank’s probably starving. See ya!”

Before Twilight could bid her friend farewell, Rainbow Dash took off and left Sugarcube Corner at the speed of a missile. Although her excuse seemed legitimate, Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that Rainbow just wanted to leave the building as soon as possible. She could imagine why. Twilight looked at the only one of her pony friends left with her.

“Rarity, if there’s something else you need to do, you can go too. I’ll be fine seeing Pinkie by myself.”

Rarity just gave Twilight her patented “everything’s okay” smile, “Oh, I’m fine darling. I want to be here to support Pinkie too. It’s just…” Rarity looked briefly in the direction of the front door, “I haven’t yet had a chance to see Sweetie Belle since she was almost killed by that… thing, and now that the lockdown is over…”

Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder, “Hey, say no more. She needs you more than I do right now!”

Thanking Twilight by way of an honest smile, Rarity turned and left Sugarcube Corner. With just Church and herself left, Twilight turned back to the cake sea in the kitchen in front of her.

Closing her eyes and firing up her horn, Twilight accessed the leylines to her pocket dimension. Each of the white frosted cakes disappeared in rapid succession as Twilight stored them all away in her personal plane. With the path to the kitchen cleared, Twilight walked inside. Church elected to remain out in the main area of the sweets shop, recognizing that the coming conversation was between Twilight and her friend alone.

Inside the kitchen, Twilight immediately noticed the messy state it was in. White icing and flour covered every surface like the first snowfall of winter. Pans, egg-beaters, spoons and all kinds of dishes littered the floor and countertops. Every oven in the room was running and seemed to have something cooking inside it. At the center of it all facing away from her was the pink pony Twilight knew so well, yet in this moment was a total stranger. A lump forming in her throat, Twilight approached Pinkie Pie, who sat on her haunches over the counter and had a magically powered egg-beater in one of her hooves that was viciously attacking a bowl of batter.

“Pinkie?” Twilight said softly.

Pinkie didn’t respond. In fact, she didn’t even move. The party pony merely leaned against the counter as still as a statue, head resting on its surface. Her left hoof danced with the fitful movements of the egg-beater.

“Pinkie!” Twilight said again.

Still getting no response, Twilight moved closer still until she was right next to her usually energetic friend. The reason for Pinkie’s lack of response quickly became evident to Twilight as she picked up the sound of soft snoring barely audible under the sound of the erratic egg-beater.

“Pinkie, wake up! It’s me, Twilight!” She nudged Pinkie Pie in the shoulder a few times and the pink party pony snorted once and shot into an upright position, her eyes at varying levels of open.

“Wait THAT’S NOT HOW YOU MOW THE LAWN!” Pinkie then looked around and once she had a moment to realize where she was, she shut off the aggressive egg-beater in her left hoof.

“Hey, Pinkie!” Twilight said, smiling at her crazy friend.

Pinkie then looked at Twilight and after taking a few moments to process the new sight before her, opened her eyes wide and let out a big, long gasp.

“Omigosh! Twilight! You’re back!” Smiling, Pinkie took a step toward Twilight, who in turn shut her eyes and braced herself for a bone-crushing Pinkie Pie hug.

But after a few seconds, Twilight opened her eyes again to find Pinkie standing in the exact same spot. It was then that Twilight noticed the full extent of just how… off Pinkie Pie looked. Her mane was a mess more so than usual, her coat was grimy and covered in bits of icing along with her mane and the side of her face she’d been sleeping on. Her half open eyes looked red and puffy with baggy dark circles beneath them. Worst of all was her smile. It wasn’t bursting with energy and pure joy for life. It was a fragile thing ready to break at a moment’s notice.

“Pinkie? Is something wrong?”

“No! Why would anything be wrong, silly? O’Malley’s gone and now you’re back! Odds are that we will probably be alright!” Even as she spoke such confident words, Pinkie’s wavering voice betrayed something else.

Twilight sighed and looked at her friend sympathetically, “It’s about Omega, isn’t it? I know that must have been difficult for you, so if you need somepony to talk to, I’m here. We all are!”

Twilight’s voice was cracking, but the earnest sincerity of it changed something in Pinkie Pie. Her eyes grew big and her face was no longer a desperate attempt to emulate her normal happy demeanor. Her smile was gone, replaced by a look of longing; a need to cling to the liferaft that Twilight was offering. Twilight took a step forward and opened her forelegs in an offer for a hug. Twilight braced herself for a very different kind of hug from what she was used to from Pinkie, but just like before the hug never came.

Instead, Pinkie began backpedaling across the kitchen as quickly as she could, looking at Twilight with wide eyes.

“NO! I’M FINE! GO AWAY!” Pinkie’s hooves kept trying to take her backwards even after her rump hit the stove behind her.

Twilight felt a painful soreness well up in her chest as she looked at her broken friend, “Pinkie… please! Let us help you! We’re your friends! You don’t have to be afraid!”

Pinkie’s eyes were glistening, “I-I’m not afraid of you, silly… I’m afraid for you!”

“Pinkie, I don’t understand…”

“Good. It’s probably for the best…” The fear in Pinkie’s voice was gone now, taken by a low monotone indicating she was resigned to whatever decision she had made. A loud beeping noise interrupted whatever she was going to say next. Pinkie turned around and shut off the oven before grabbing a pair of oven mitts “You should probably go. It’s safer that way...”

Giving Twilight one final false smile, Pinkie Pie reached into the oven and pulled out a finished cake. Just like that, she was back to baking pastries like her life depended on it. With a final sad sigh, Twilight turned around and left the kitchen and its sole occupant. Her ears were drooped low with her overall posture when she entered the main part of Sugar Cube Corner.

Church was waiting for her, apparently making small talk with Carrot Cake. The synthetic human in cobalt armor turned to face the dejected unicorn.

“So, uh… what the hell was all that about?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it,” Twilight grumbled as she trotted past Church and made to leave the store, “C’mon. Let’s go see that ship.”

“Ugh, when she said there are ways we can ‘work around this,’ I didn’t think they would involve actual work!” Grif moaned as he walked up to another apple tree.

“And what did you think they would involve?” Simmons asked as he approached an adjacent tree.

“I don’t know, maybe a debt that I’d pay later? Like a loan?”

“Aren’t you in enough debt already?”

“Exactly! I’d just add this to the rest of my debt and continue not paying it! Everyone wins!”

“Except for the people you owe…”

Applejack rolled her eyes as she attempted to drown out the aliens’ incessant bickering by bucking another tree and focusing on the sound of the apples as they fell to the ground around her. Getting the Reds to pay off their debt to Sweet Apple Acres by making them work on the farm seemed like a good idea in theory. In practice, Applejack might as well have been harvesting the entire orchard by herself.

In fact, the reality was far worse. Applejack continually had to stop what she was doing to either help the hopeless red creatures harvest apples properly or outright keep them on track. More than once Applejack had caught the orange one - Grif - gesturing like he was kicking trees while making sound effects with his mouth. The maroon one - Simmons - was no better. The guy was so meek that even hits with his full strength barely moved the trees he was harvesting. He ended up spending more time trying to come up with theoretical ways to increase efficiency than he did actually apple-bucking. Then there was Sarge…

BANG! “Yee-haw! Eat lead, you delicious red fruit!”

At the sound of the loud blast, Applejack jumped and whirled around. The man in red armor had the long black weapon he carried around aimed up at the branches of the apple trees around him. Applejack winced as he fired another shot of his weapon and a couple of apples fell from the tree branches riddled with holes from the metal projectiles it fired.

“Whoa there now, Mr. Sarge! Why don’t ya put that loud alien noise stick of yours away and harvest these apples the way I told ya?” Applejack said, once again racing away from the trees she was working to address yet another problem presented by these troublesome people.

Sarge slung his weapon over his shoulder and turned to face Applejack, “First off l’il missy: My name’s not Mr. Sarge. Mr. Sarge was my father! Second: the shotgun is the perfect all-purpose tool for every type of situation! I personally use it as a death distributer, fertilizer, TV remote, toilet un-clogger and MP3 player!”

Sarge pushed a button on his shotgun and the energetic polka music that Applejack and the others heard when these Reds first appeared began to play through the weapon. Applejack hastily reached up and switched it off before the music could play for very long, but she knew it was too late. That song would haunt her nightmares for weeks to come.

Before Applejack could get so much as an exasperated sigh out, Sarge put a hand to his chin and contemplated, “Though, it does feel slightly sacrilegious to be shooting such gloriously red fruits. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a blueberry farm I can work on, would ya?”

Applejack groaned loudly, “Just stop using weapons to harvest apples!”

Applejack stormed away and glanced up at the sun. Judging by its position in the sky, she guessed it was around two PM. Horse apples! It was almost time for her and Big Mac to make their deliveries and she hadn’t had a single moment to gather everything she’d need! Her intention had been to stick around only until the three Reds got the hang of apple bucking and she could leave them to their own devices, but at this rate she’d be here all day and then some.

It was then that Applejack went to check on Grif and found the man resting against one of the trees he was supposed to be bucking.

“What in tarnation do you think yer doin’?”

Grif tilted his helmeted head slightly to look up at her, “Uh… taking a break?” Applejack could hear the “duh” that his tone implied.

“We all started twenty minutes ago!”

“Exactly! So I’m taking a forty minute break to compensate!”

Applejack stared at the man, slack-jawed, “How do you fellas ever get any work done?”

“Work?” Grif spoke mockingly, as if the word felt unnatural on his tongue, “I’m familiar with the concept, but…”

Applejack’s left eye twitched as Grif shrugged and leaned his head back. How could such a person exist? Was his laziness so great that he couldn’t even be bothered to finish a sentence?

“You are literally… the worst kind of person.”

Applejack chanced a glance in Simmons’ direction. He was quite ineffectually hitting a tree with only a couple of apples in it. She’d talked with him already about just leaving them after he’d gotten most of the apples out of their branches but Simmons insisted on being thorough.

With another groan, Applejack said, “This ain’t workin’! I have a pie delivery to make to another town and I have to get goin’ before it gets too late!” With a few hoof gestures, Applejack gathered the Reds around her, “All of you leave. We’ll find some other way to pay off yer debt to Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Uh… may I ask why?” Simmons asked.

“Because y’all are plumb awful! Having you work the orchards is actually less efficient than if I were to just do it by myself! Yer some of the worst workers I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with!”

The Reds were all silent for a moment before Sarge raised a finger, “Now, I know it goes without saying that Grif is the embodiment of suck and Simmons is pretty much only useful for his math. But surely I have proved myself capable enough to…”

Applejack rounded on Sarge faster than a whip, “No! You haven’t! Yer just as useless as the rest of ‘em!”

Applejack knew she should have felt bad as soon as the words left her mouth, but the fact was: she didn’t. Applejack was a patient and tolerant mare. She had her granny to thank for that. Granny Smith always taught her to see the best in ponies; and that extended to members of other species as well. But Applejack simply couldn’t see anything positive about the three red armored beings in front of her now. They were the antithesis of good, honest work. The living embodiments of everything she stood against.

“Jus’ git off my property. We’re done here,” with that said, Applejack turned and began to make her way back to the house.

“What a shame. Oh well, nothing to do now but take a nap…” Grif’s dumb voice that was as lazy as he was echoed in Applejack’s ears, taunting her with its nonchalance.

Simmons raced to catch up with his Sergeant as he strode away from the scene of their most recent failure. Sergeant Grif moved through the bright green trees of the apple orchard with a purpose. It would have been inspiring if Simmons didn’t know that Grif’s purposeful walk was to get himself either something to eat or someplace to sleep as soon as possible. Simmons took a longing glance back at his former Sergeant… his true Sergeant.

Sarge just stood there under the rows of apple trees looking… deeply contemplative. Simmons hated it when Sarge got like this and always tried to do his best to be there for him. Now however, Sarge was not in command and Simmons was following Grif out of the orchard instead.

“So uh… what’s our next objective, sir?” Simmons asked.

“My next objective is to find a nice tree to sleep under where I won’t be disturbed by cutesy fucking ponies,” Grif explained. “Your objective is to fuck off and do whatever you want as long as its somewhere far away from me.”

Simmons stopped walking and sighed, “Yes, sir…”

Grif continued walking until he was out of Simmons’ sight. Deciding now was his chance to see if Sarge needed him, Simmons turned around to make his way over to the older man in red. Only, Sarge was no longer standing where he had been moments ago. There was no sign of him anywhere.

As he turned back around, it suddenly occurred to Simmons just how big the apple orchard was. What was more, he had absolutely no idea which way to go if he wanted to leave.

“Well, fuck…”

Simmons proceeded to wander through the orchard, picking a direction and hoping it would eventually lead him out. He considered using the sun to try and figure out which way was east and west, but quickly realized two things. Firstly, that he was on an alien planet and that it probably didn’t orbit this sun in the same way that Earth does. Secondly, that knowing which way was east and which was west still wouldn’t help him figure out which way to actually fucking go.

So it was thus that Simmons kept walking in the same direction, basing his course on nothing but random selection. For several minutes Simmons briskly walked past row after row of identical apple trees. The monotony was suddenly broken by the appearance of a white pony crossing his path. The equine let out a gasp as petite as she herself and Simmons had to all but skid to a stop to keep from running her down.

“Whoops, sorry!” Simmons apologized, taking a step back from the small white pony with the extravagantly styled purple mane. If she was anything like the other inhabitants of this planet, Simmons was expecting a full verbal lashing for his transgression.

“Oh, it’s quite alright dear!” She said in a posh accent.

It was then that Simmons started to recognize the small horned creature before him, “Hey, weren’t you one of the ponies who kicked my team’s ass?”

The pony bit her lower lip as her eyes shifted, “That’s an… interesting way of putting it. I didn’t see a donkey among your people, but yes. You were attacking my friends and I responded.”

“Well… Sarge was attacking you. I actually tried talking him down, but when he gets an idea in his head, there’s no stopping him.”

“Stubborn as a mule, is he? Believe me, I know plenty of ponies like that!” the white pony smiled up at him, “I’m Rarity, by the way.”

Simmons stuttered for a bit before realizing he forgot to introduce himself, “Uh, Simmons!”

“Nice to meet you, Simmons! I must say, you seem much more friendly than others of your kind!”

“Oh, trust me. I’m a dick. It’s my first name for fuck sake!”

Rarity winced at the use of Simmons’ language, “Erm… I’ll take your word for it. Now, if you don’t mind I have to be off to check on my sister. I believe she’s with her little friends in their clubhouse somewhere around here.”

“Right, uh… before you go, could you tell me how the Hell I get out of here?”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at Simmons, “Don’t tell me you got lost?”

When Simmons gave an awkward shrug, Rarity nodded, “Well, I must admit, these orchards are pretty hard to navigate if you haven’t been here as many times as I have. Why don’t you come with me? We’ll make sure my sister and her friends aren’t traumatized and then I’ll show you the way out!”

“Oh… uh, cool!” Simmons fell into step with Rarity and together the two of them began walking through the orchard. “So, uh… what happened to your sister?”

Fluttershy swallowed nervously as she knocked on the fluffy yet firm front door to Rainbow Dash’s cloud home. While waiting for her foalhood friend to answer the door, Fluttershy took a moment to look at the beautiful exterior of the abode. For a pony who claimed to be uninterested in fancy aesthetics, Rainbow Dash certainly had a beautiful home.

The three-story structure made entirely of magically enhanced water vapor was tall and grand like the towers of Canterlot. Columns in the style of old Pegasopolis lined the exterior, and fountains of liquified rainbow were installed in various locations. It was all quite nice to look at, and more importantly, it was a good distraction from the troubles on Fluttershy’s mind.

The door opened as Fluttershy was admiring a rainbow fountain near the third floor; Rainbow Dash was standing there with a head of bed-mane.

“Oh, hey Fluttershy!” Rainbow greeted her with a yawn. “What’s up?”

Fluttershy immediately began to panic when she realized she had interrupted her friend’s nap. She instinctively took a step back.

“Oh, um… it’s nothing… I…” Fluttershy took another step back as she desperately tried to simultaneously say and not say why she was here. She should probably just leave and let Rainbow get back to her nap. No reason to burden her with her problems...

“Wanna come in?” Rainbow asked, moving aside and holding the front door open more widely.

With the offer made, Fluttershy immediately felt less conflicted about being here. Sure, it was rude of her to have interrupted Rainbow’s nap like she probably had, but now it would have been more rude to deny her friend’s offer of hospitality. Rainbow must have made the offer knowing Fluttershy’s thought process fully well; one of many reasons the two were such good friends. With a nod and a nervous smile, Fluttershy carefully stepped into Rainbow’s home, conscious of every step.

Despite the fancy architecture, the white interior of Rainbow Dash’s home was quite modest; once again unlike its owner. The first floor only had a couch, a table and some chairs along with various miscellaneous objects strewn about the floor. As always, Wonderbolts posters adorned the walls along with a couple of photos of Rainbow’s family. After being offered a seat, Fluttershy sat down on the couch in a way so that she’d take up as little space as possible. She decided to remain silent for the moment.

“So, what’s bothering ya, Flutters?” Rainbow asked as she sprawled out on the other end of the couch. As always, Rainbow Dash’s directness was the perfect counter to Fluttershy’s reluctance.

Of course, now that she had the opportunity to bring her issues out in the open, Fluttershy found herself unable to articulate them.

“Um… do you ever feel… not awesome?” she asked. Fluttershy once again found herself thankful that her and Rainbow Dash’s personalities complemented each other in such a way that they could be the perfect help for each other.

“Pffft… no!” Rainbow Dash grinned and gave a casual wave of her hoof.

It was a testament to Fluttershy’s long friendship with Rainbow Dash when the ordinarily meek pegasus was able to muster a deadpan glare the likes of which not many got a chance to see.

“Okay, sometimes… maybe...”

Fluttershy leaned closer, “What do you do when you feel like… like, you suddenly can’t do something you used to be really good at?”

Rainbow gave a quizzical tilt of her head as her brow creased back in concern, “Where’s this coming from, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy found herself suddenly much more interested in fidgeting with a loose thread on one of the pillows and became focused on it as if it was the source of her problems.

“Well… when I went back home today to feed the animals, many of them were - understandably - a little bit agitated that I wasn’t there to feed them breakfast this morning… or give them their midnight snack the night before. I tried to explain the alien attack and the lockdown, but most of them still wouldn’t cooperate with me.

“As you can imagine, I found myself with no choice but to use my last resort…”

Rainbow nodded, “The Stare?”

“Yes, but… it didn’t work.” Fluttershy took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, but she could already feel her throat tighten, “That’s never happened before! I don’t like using it, but the Stare always makes even the most rebellious critters behave! Now I’ve got a bunch of animals that are mad at me and won’t listen and I don’t know what to do…”

Fluttershy’s rant became rapid sniffling that was dangerously close to tears. Seeing this, Rainbow quickly put a hoof on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring rub.

“Hey, it’s okay Fluttershy. We can figure this out!” Rainbow said, though without much confidence. Rainbow Dash didn’t know anything about Fluttershy’s trade, so she wasn’t exactly sure how they’d figure it out, but they would!

Rainbow scratched her chin, “When was the last time you used it?”

Fluttershy repeated the action herself. When was the last time she used the Stare? She knew it was recently… very recently in fact. Wasn’t it during the fight with the…?

A loud THUMP on the window beside the front door caused Fluttershy to jump right out of her seat and squeak in surprise. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof only looked slightly startled. Both of her ears were standing straight up.

“Did another bird hit my window? Fluttershy, I thought you told them not to fly near my house!”

With a gasp, Fluttershy raced across the room toward the window, the thought of an injured little bird giving her speed. Is this my fault? Is this one of the birds that wouldn’t listen…? Fluttershy threw open the window and looked out at the pathway in the cloud. A feathered creature was indeed on its back on Rainbow Dash’s front cloud, but to Fluttershy’s immense relief it wasn’t a bird that had crashed because of her. A gray pegasus with a messy blonde mane lay on her back outside, her golden eyes askew and surrounded by the contents of a brown satchel.

“Oh dear… it’s the mailmare,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh. Of course it is,” Rainbow Dash sighed, getting up off of the couch and moving toward the front door.

Fluttershy followed Rainbow as she stepped outside and went to help the gray pony to her hooves.

“You okay, Derpy?” Rainbow asked as the gray mare in question managed to stand.

Derpy gave her head a good shake, “Yep! Sorry, Rainbow Dash! I didn’t see your house again!”

“It’s okay, Derpy. At least you didn’t break anything this time!”

Derpy smiled and nodded, “You’re right!” She then leaned in closer to Rainbow Dash and a strange look crossed her face. Derpy’s normally in conflict gold pupils became synchronized as they stared straight into Rainbow Dash, “Maybe I should change that… and break you!”

Rainbow Dash looked at the suddenly very intense Derpy and then at Fluttershy, who merely shrugged nervously. When Rainbow looked back at Derpy, her eyes were once again askew and she was smiling blissfully.

“Oh, I almost forgot! I have mail for you!” Derpy reached into her satchel with her snout and made a confused squeak, “Huh? All my letters are gone!”

Rainbow Dash said nothing and gestured to the “floor” of the cloud they were standing on. Derpy looked down and saw the letters scattered everywhere.

“What? When did that happen?” Derpy asked.

“Probably when you crashed into my house!”

“Oh yeah! Uh, and when did that…?”

“Just now.”

“Right!”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both helped Derpy pick up her letters and put them back in her bag. Eventually, Rainbow found the mail addressed to her and Derpy had all of the her letters in her bag once again.

“Well, I have to get going. I need to deliver these letters fast so that I can get to Golden Harvest’s place on time to foalsit,” Derpy spread her wings and lifted up into the air. She looked back and waved as she began to fly away, “See you later, Rainbow Dash!”

“Eyes forward, Derpy! We talked about this!” Rainbow Dash yelled. This turned out to be a good thing, as Derpy returned her attention forward just in time to narrowly avoid crashing into a rising hot air balloon.

Fluttershy watched the gray pegasus go with a smile on her face. She’d never really had the chance to interact with Derpy despite knowing how close she and Rainbow used to be.

“Well, she seems nice!” Fluttershy said before placing a hoof over her mouth, “Except for that time she threatened to… ‘break’ you. That was weird...”

Fluttershy looked back at Rainbow Dash to find her tearing into her letter like a foal opening a birthday present.

“Who’s that from?” Fluttershy asked.

“Dunno. Didn’t say,” Rainbow Dash kept her focus entirely on opening the envelope as she responded.

Rainbow quickly pulled out the letter and unfolded it. Fluttershy watched her eyes move back and forth as she read its contents. The more she read, the more Rainbow Dash’s face seemed to turn into a scowl. When it seemed that she reached the end, Rainbow hastily crushed the letter in her hooves and began crumpling it up, glaring daggers into the paper.

“Um… what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing. ‘S just a stupid letter from a stupid jerk!” With an angry grunt, Rainbow Dash tossed the offensive paper over the side of the cloud that her home sat on.

When Fluttershy glanced over the side to follow the crumpled up letter, she spotted a pair of long-eared rodents on the ground below that appeared to be trying to get her attention. Oh dear, wonder how long they’ve been down there.

“Hey, you coming in?”

Fluttershy turned around and saw Rainbow Dash standing at her front door, gesturing inside. Fluttershy decided there was nothing else to do in this situation but be a little rude.

“Sorry, Rainbow. But I should go. Looks like there’s a bunny emergency.”

“Okay. Well, if ya need any more help with your problem…”

“Thank you, Rainbow.”

With a smile and a nod, Fluttershy turned back around and began a steady glide down to the ground below towards the increasingly frantically flailing bunnies. She couldn’t help but feel nervous...

“I’m not doing this,” Church said, breaking the long silence.

Church and Twilight both stood just outside the giant tree that served as the latter’s home and place of work. Just in front of them stood a pair of armor clad pegasi of the Royal Guard. The object of Church’s trepidation, however, was just behind them. A purple open air chariot with golden detail sat drawing Church’s scrutiny. It was, at first glance, an ordinary - albeit colorful - chariot. The fact that it had flown down drawn by the two pegasi standing before them now was what made it more than ordinary to Church.

“After everything we went through to get to Equestria, you’re having second thoughts now?” Twilight asked. Not that she would have minded simply skipping the wild goose chase in Dodge City in favor of staying in Ponyville.

“I still want to see Tex’s ship, Twilight. I just don’t want to get on that!”

Twilight took another look at the chariot in front of them, narrowing her eyes as she gave it a quick inspection. She was no chariot expert, but it looked up to code by her eyes.

“The sky-chariot? It’s the fastest mode of transportation in Equestria!” Twilight was thankful for her connections with Princess Celestia, otherwise she might not have gotten leave to use one. They simply didn’t have time for the long train ride it would have taken them to get to Dodge City otherwise.

“Yeah, you know what else it is? Fucking bullshit!” Church exclaimed.

Twilight glared at Church indignantly, a feeling of frustration rapidly rising, “What? Why?”

“Because gravity works! I’ve seen evidence of this my whole life! It’s science!”

“You’re science!”

“Wow. Nice one Twilight. You sure showed him!” the bickering interspecies friends turned around to see Spike waddling out the front door of the library tree hefting saddlebags that were much too big for the baby dragon to lift properly.

Twilight hastily took the bags in her magic and levitated them over to the controversial chariot. She hoped nobody noticed the blush that had formed once Twilight realized she had once again been drawn into a stupid argument with the abrasive human (who at this point had wandered off grumbling). To her dismay, Twilight noticed Spike was staring at her, but the worried look in his big serpentine eyes told her something else was on his mind. Twilight didn’t have to do much guessing to figure out what.

“Don’t worry Spike, I’ll be fine,” she gave her assistant a pat on the shoulder, “I don’t plan on being teleported to another planet this time!”

“Oh, and you planned on it last time?” Spike asked dryly.

“From what I’ve been told, Gamma is gone and so is the device he used to transport me. Trust me, I don’t think I’ll be going back to Church’s world any time soon!”

Spike looked pleadingly at her, “What if we need you?”

“You can use the vomit express to contact me any time. If the Meta attacks we’ll drop everything and come right back!”

“What if you need us?”

This time, Twilight looked away. She didn’t think that she’d really need her friends for what was going to be a quick and simple trip from which she’d likely return the next morning. Still, Spike was obviously worried, and Twilight always felt awful whenever he did that. Her ears pointed straight up as an idea occurred to her.

“I think I know just the thing we can use!” Twilight quickly ran into the carved out tree and disappeared. She returned a minute later holding a radio headset in her magical grasp. Twilight then presented it to her number one assistant.

“Here, put this on. If we need you, Church will contact you through this!”

Spike took the headset and placed it on his noggin with all too much enthusiasm, his earlier concern completely forgotten, “Cool! I’m like a real space soldier!” It didn’t take Spike long to figure out how to turn it on.

“This is Commander Spike! All units move into attack pattern X! ”

Church voice crackled over the radio in response, “Get off the radio! The last thing I need are random kids yelling in my ear!”

“I’m not a kid! … Noob!”

“Ugh, where’s the ‘mute’ button?”

Twilight just shook her head and sighed, “Boys…”

Soon, Twilight and Church climbed into the sky-chariot, ready to go. Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened.

“Wait… where’s Caboose?”

The long silence that followed Twilight’s question spoke volumes.

“You both ready?” one of the armored pegasi asked as he and his associate hitched themselves to the front of the chariot. “We’re on a tight schedule here. It’s now or never.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked down.

“Eh, he’ll be fine if we leave him here. Your friends seem like capable people… ponies… whatever,” Church said.

Twilight swallowed and nodded, “Yeah. I just hope they’re up to the task…”

With another ding and a sigh, Pinkie Pie removed another cake from the oven and gently placed it on the counter. Despite being a Pie, Pinkie always liked baking cakes. It was a delicate process that required much love and attention. Every cake she baked was her baby. It required just enough effort to keep herself occupied while allowing her freedom to do things her way, which often involved singing and dancing.

Pinkie wasn’t singing and dancing now though. She simply put the next pan of batter into the oven and started the timer. She then proceeded to apply icing to another cake while waiting for the one she’d just taken out of the oven to cool. Baking cakes was no longer something she did for fun. It was something she did out of necessity. She couldn’t afford to be idle, or she’d risk everything.

She applied more white icing. Nothing too fancy; she was out of all of the fun colors anyway. As she carefully applied the delicious white layers, she found herself thinking back to Twilight’s visit about two cakes ago. It had brought the pink party pony no shortage of relief to see her wayward purple friend safely returned. For one blissful moment, Pinkie had forgotten all about her troubles. Then Pinkie’s mind had been filled with images of Twilight Sparkle - one of her best friends - lying on the floor of the kitchen in a puddle of her own blood. Blood that also covered her own hooves.

“Even after I’m gone, those that I’ve been in still have a piece of me left!” O’Malley’s voice echoed through her mind, but it was just that: an echo. Nothing more. Pinkie was alone.

Even so, Pinkie’s hoof holding the icing spreader began to tremble. She tried to get a better grip on the utensil, but the extra application of strength caused her to accidentally impale the cake she was icing. The cake collapsed into pieces, making a fine mess all over the counter. With a gasp, Pinkie backed away from it. It was only fluffy brown cake dough, but all Pinkie saw was red.

“C’mon Pinkie Pie, smile smile smile!” Pinkie choked back a sob, “O’Malley can’t hurt these happy friends of mine…”

The only one who can do that now is you!

“Mmm… Man, this cake juice is yummy!” The sound of lip-smacking accompanied the new, strange voice. It was a male voice like O’Malley, only it was more innocent, filled with joy rather than malice.

Realizing that the voice was not in her head but in the room with her, Pinkie turned around and found herself looking up at a big blue creature. It stood on two legs and wore advanced armor like the other alien that Pinkie had seen, but there was something different about this one. Something about its slightly different looking helmet and posture gave it a more… naive look from the other. Like a foal, it dipped four of its fingers into a bowl of icing and batter and stuffed them underneath its helmet, bringing the sound of smacking lips to bear once again.

“Thanks, I made it myself!” Pinkie said, forcing a smile.

“I liked that little song you sang before, also!” The man in blue then asked, “Who’s O’Malley?”

Pinkie Pie stiffened, “No one! Just… a real meanie pants. It’s okay though, he’s gone now.”

“Yeah… I knew an O’Malley once. He was also mean.”

Nodding, Pinkie made to return to her destroyed cake to see if she couldn’t put it back together. She stopped in her tracks when the blue alien continued.

“He lived in my head for a while. He made me do some pretty mean things and made me think about doing even worse things, but he’s also gone now.”

Pinkie turned to look at the man once again, “What kind of things?”

“Oh, y’know. He made me really mad and try to hurt my friends… also Tucker. Oh! And he also talked about Red Bull a lot!” the blue man then sighed, “But the worst part was when he thought about doing really bad things to my friends because it was kinda like I was thinking about doing those things…”

Pinkie listened with rapt attention. Somehow, a being from another planet knew exactly what she was going through. She didn’t even know his name, but Pinkie Pie felt a special connection to the blue armored person as he continued.

“Y’know, I still think about hurting my friends sometimes when I’m hanging out with them, but it’s no biggie!”

Pinkie bit her lip and looked at her hooves. He was even telling himself that everything was okay just like she was, but he seemed to actually believe it!

“But… how do you know your friends are safe around you?” Pinkie Pie asked. “How do you know you won’t hurt them even if you don’t want to?”

At this, the man shrugged as if it wasn’t something he gave much thought to, “Eh, I don’t know…” He then took a step closer to Pinkie Pie and leaned closer so he could whisper to her.

“Don’t tell Church, but at first I was actually so terrified of hurting him that I pretended I didn’t remember who he was for a while. But then I remembered something else: I was terrified of hurting him! And if the idea of hurting Church scared me that much, then I knew it would never happen!”

Pinkie just stared at the big blue man with wide blue eyes and an agape mouth. It was suddenly so clear. Pinkie’s friends were in no danger from her at all! For the first time in days, Pinkie felt true joy, like when she looked upon her first birthday cake. Pinkie’s eyes began to feel moist and her vision began to blur. Even as she let out the first of many sniffles, Pinkie smiled wider than the day she received her cutie mark.

“Besides, I kill Church all the time…” the blue man was cut off as the tearful pink pony dove into his chest and hugged him tightly.

He seemed initially surprised, but no less cheerful as he swiftly returned the hug, holding Pinkie Pie in his arms. Right away Pinkie noticed that he wasn’t as soft or squishy as her pony friends, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Instead, he was tall and firm like one of her rocks back on the farm. She felt so safe and cozy in his embrace that she didn’t even mind that the part of his armor she was nuzzling was getting wet.

“Thank you! Thank you, thank you…” Pinkie kept repeating as she gripped him tighter. A thought then occurred to her. She wiped her eyes and looked up at the blue person, “Oh, wow! I’ve been so sulky that I completely forgot to ask what your name is!”

“I am Caboose! Destroyer of vehicles! Hugger of dogs!”

Pinkie grinned. The grin turned into a smile. The smile became a giggle. The giggle transformed into laughter.

“I like your name, Caboose!” Pinkie laughed, “It’s silly!”

“If you think my name is silly, you should meet Private Muffin Top!”

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter was a little slow story progression-wise. It happens when all of these characters who have never met before suddenly end up together and you want to spend some time developing those relationships. Hope the blog post/recap was helpful!

Next time: A return to Dodge City and our regularly scheduled plot!

Act 2 Part 3 - I Wonder Where You Are

With an annoyed huff, Applejack stormed out to her apple orchard. She heard another distant crash and saw one of the distant apple trees shake with the impact. Applejack had finally gotten all the materials together that she needed to make the pie delivery when somebody started making a commotion in her orchard. It didn’t take a genius to deduce who was responsible and Applejack had a few choice words for the red armored idiots that were no doubt destroying more of her family’s property.

“MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!” the gruff, accented voice of Sarge cried out over the sound of a jeep’s engine as the olive green metal vehicle sped past Applejack in reverse and collided with another of her apple trees.

To Applejack’s surprise, the alien transport did no noticeable damage to her stock, instead hitting the trunk of the targeted tree with just enough force to shake the apples from its branches. The red fruit landed in an already impressive pile in the rear bed of the Warthog right next to the mounted machine gun turret.

With the latest tree now harvested, Sarge pulled the Warthog up beside Applejack, “Where do ya want these?”

Without saying a word, Applejack pointed a stunned hoof in the direction of the Sweet Apple Acres barn. Sarge drove the batch of freshly harvested apples there in less than half the time it would have taken to load them into a cart and walk back. Applejack followed along in a state of disbelief.

“How… why…?” Applejack sputtered when she caught up with Sarge in the barn.

“It was a good trick, tryin’ to keep us from payin’ off our debt too fast by insulting our intelligence,” Sarge proclaimed as he hopped out of the driver’s seat of his vehicle, “but you made one crucial mistake: you put me in the same category as Grif!”

Ah yes, Grif. Merely uttering the lazy orange soldier’s name was enough to spark a certain level of uncharacteristic disdain in Applejack’s gut. At that moment though, Applejack was able to take some solace in the fact that she wasn’t the only one who felt that way about him.

“You really hate him, don’t ‘cha?” she asked.

“Of course! Hating Grif is one of my favorite pastimes, alongside robot construction and pilates!” Sarge exclaimed. “I mean, Grif is literally… the worst kind of person!”

Applejack smiled and nodded, “Can’t argue with ya there, Sarge!”

The farm pony then began to consider some of the harsher words she had said to the man in red and his cohorts earlier in the day. She looked up into Sarge’s visor with an honest, apologetic smile.

“Listen… maybe I was a little harsh when I said you fellas were the worst workers I’d ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, yer pretty bad, but I’ve seen much worse. On the whole, y’all are pretty alright!” Applejack’s smile reversed as she amended her statement, “Except fer Grif!”

At that, Sarge let out a loud, hearty laugh, “I like the way you think there, missy!”

Applejack gave Sarge a genuine grin. She couldn’t tell because of the helmet, but she was pretty sure Sarge was wearing a look identical to hers. At that moment, the door to the barn swung open and a purple baby dragon wearing a headset stumbled through the open port, panting for breath.

“Applejack... I just got a call from Twilight and Church,” Spike exclaimed between breaths. “They need you and the girls in Dodge City with the Elements of Harmony ASAP!”

To say that Dodge City was a very different place from the last time Twilight came here was an understatement. Before, the backwater town had been a quaint image of a tightly knit community. Now, as Twilight looked around at the many damaged and destroyed homes, an oppressive feeling of fear and despair permeated the very air around her. Twilight had expected as much when she heard about what had happened first from Rainbow Dash, then from one of the guards escorting Church and herself through the town. The reality of it though did not sink in until they arrived and no adorable blue filly was there to greet them. Twilight did her best not to think about the implications of that fact.

The few ponies they did see no longer had the carefree smiles and friendly body language from before. Each of them stared at the procession of ponies and one armored human as they passed with sad, fearful expressions. One hysterical mare even tried to attack Church, but was held back by the pair of guards with them as she screamed condemnations. Twilight couldn’t understand much of what the mare said through her hysterics, but she was able to make a few educated guesses. Even the usually snarky Church stayed silent as they put the bleak town behind them.

Soon Twilight and Church found themselves being led down a path through the wooded area just past Dodge City’s perimeter. Getting past the security checkpoint just outside the crash site proved less eventful than Twilight expected. She thought for sure that having one of the “aliens” with her would cause problems.

“Her Royal Highness told us to expect you and your friend, Ms. Sparkle,” the Sergeant in charge of the checkpoint stated before ordering his ponies to stand down and let them proceed.

Twilight proceeded to walk through the checkpoint, her head reeling with all of the questions she wanted to ask her mentor the next time she had the chance. How did Celestia know she and Church would come to investigate the ship? What else did she know? Why couldn’t Celestia ever just give her a straight answer?

“Hey! Careful!” Church’s voice brought Twilight back to the present just in time for her to stop herself from bumping into a tan unicorn mare mere inches in front of her.

The mare appeared to have been similarly distracted, as she lowered a series of papers she had levitating in front of her and regarded Twilight with a curious look. The first thing that Twilight noticed about her was her red and yellow mane along with her similarly colored cutie mark depicting a sunset. Despite her fiery appearance, the unicorn’s cyan eyes were cold and calculating.

“Oops! Sorry! Didn’t see you there!” Twilight apologized, offering the mare an amiable smile.

The other unicorn regarded Twilight for a bit longer with a look she couldn’t quite identify, but could nonetheless see the gears turning in her head. Finally, the tan unicorn came to some conclusion in her head and offered Twilight a smile in return. For some reason, the smile put Twilight ill at ease. It made her think more of a manticore than a pony.

“It’s not a problem, Twilight Sparkle. I’m sure you have a lot on your mind!” The other unicorn then continued on her path, smiling at Twilight as she walked around her. Twilight assumed the smile was meant to be friendly, but the other mare looked more like a predator circling its prey.

“Don’t worry, I expect you’ll find the answers you’re looking for soon enough!”

With that the tan unicorn mare with the fiery mane continued on her way, passing the security checkpoint and out of sight. Twilight looked after her, a whole new series of questions forming in her mind.

“Who the hell was that?” Church asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen her before…” Twilight’s eyes didn’t leave the spot where the other mare had been.

“Well she seemed to know you!”

Twilight shifted her gaze away from the direction the mare walked from and looked up at Church.

“Well, I am kind of a local celebrity in Ponyville for saving it so many times.” Twilight raised a hoof to her chin. “It’s possible she knows me as Princess Celestia’s protege, but not many ponies are really interested in that sort of thing.”

“Yeah, I know I certainly don’t give a shit.” Church turned and continued walking towards the clearing. “C’mon, we came here to see Tex’s ship not spend all day talking about your fans!”

Twilight wasn’t sure who the mysterious mare was, but something told her the pony was no fan of hers.

Sunny Side just wanted to go back to bed. She’d been in bed since she had arrived in the care of her relatives in Ponyville the other night, but she hadn’t gotten much sleep. Now it was nearly noon and Sunny Side sat at a nice but worn wooden table in the kitchen with her aunt Golden Harvest, her uncle Written Script and her little cousin Firecracker.

“You can’t spend all day in bed. Come on, I’m making carrot soup!” Golden had said as she pulled away the sheets covering Sunny’s white coat.

Despite having not eaten since last night, Sunny wasn’t hungry. She just sat at the table, idly stirring her bowl. Her aunt and uncle tried to maintain pleasant conversation, but Golden kept sparing concerned glances Sunny’s way. Her orange-maned aunt had always been a little protective of her ever since Sunny’s mom - Golden’s sister - passed away. Sunny had appreciated and needed the comfort when she was a filly, but now it only made her feel terribly guilty. She didn’t deserve the kindness her relatives were giving her.

“Mommy? Is Sunny a zombie?” Firecracker did a poor job of whispering to her mother.

The carrot farmer responded by glaring at the little blond unicorn filly, who immediately recoiled. Written Script cleared his throat loudly, the gray unicorn stallion clearly hoping to distract Sunny from Golden Harvest’s much more discreet whispering to her daughter.

“So Sunny, I hear they’ve got your sister set up nice and comfy at Ponyville General. How about once the lockdown is over you go visit her?”

That actually sounded like a good idea. Seeing her little sister alive might help alleviate some of the fears Sunny had been having, even if Bright Side was still in a coma. Of course, Sunny didn’t expect to sleep any better tonight than she had for the past nights since the attack.

She kept waking up every hour, her heart racing and breathing as heavily as she used to in her first days of Guard training. Images of her friends and comrades screaming as they burned all around her filled her waking mind’s eye. With those images came the guilt.

Her friends, her CO, even her father; all of them died fighting off the alien monster while she cowered like a scared foal. And here she was, safe and sound in a warm house with caring relatives while every pony that had proved themselves braver than her - better than her - were gone. It wasn’t fair that she got to live and they didn’t. She would gladly trade places with any one of them.

I failed, and because of it I hurt everyone I cared about! Sunny thought miserably. Her ear twitched and she looked around. For a moment, it sounded as though her thoughts were being echoed by another voice. One that was harsh and firm, yet had a layer of sadness coated over it. That’s when Sunny realized it sounded just like the strange voice in her most recent dream.

Sunny thought a dream in which she occupied an alien body moving through an unfamiliar world should have been more frightening, but in truth it was a nice reprieve from her usual nightmares. Before being woken up by aunt Golden Harvest, Sunny had dreamed she was walking on her hind legs dressed in the same advanced black armor as the alien they had first found on the ship. It was strange, moving in the alien body had felt as natural as the one she was born with.

She remembered moving through clean metal corridors with a purpose. There was something important she had to do. She fought through countless other aliens in white armor, breaking them with agility and strength unlike anything she thought possible. After fighting through a huge room full of troops, a large armored vehicle and a soldier in cyan armor with skill nearly equal to her own, she reached her objective: a man alone in a room wearing cobalt armor.

“Hey there…” Sunny had said, not knowing what else to say. Her own voice sounded unfamiliar to her ears.

The man turned around to face her, looking lost and confused even with the cobalt helmet obscuring his face. “Huh? Oh… uh, hello! … Who are you?”

Sunny wasn’t sure why, but the question had cut into her like a knife. “You don’t know me?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m just… I’m… tired. I’m really tired…” The man went on to try to introduce himself, but something was stopping him. It was like he didn’t know his name.

And yet somehow, Sunny did, “Your name is Alpha.”

“Right…. And, you are…?”

Sunny sighed. “Let’s just say we used to be together…”

The two of them talked for a bit. Sunny tried to convince him to come with her. It was the whole reason she was here. She had to get him out of there, but this Alpha person seemed to think that he couldn’t leave. So, once again feeling like she had failed someone she cared about, Sunny decided to say goodbye.

“Huh…” Alpha muttered, “I don’t know why, but… I hate goodbyes.”

“Yeah… me too...”

Simmons and Rarity approached a clearing amidst the forest of apple trees. In its center, a well constructed treehouse sat halfway up a particularly large apple tree. It was built with fine, smooth wood with a fully functional door and windows expertly carved into it. It was complete with a veranda and an upper floor with one of Twilight’s old telescopes set up and pointing at the sky. Rarity had always been impressed by how much it resembled a fully functional home, only smaller… and up a tree.

At the moment, Rarity wasn’t thinking about how much she would have liked a clubhouse like that as a filly. Instead, all she could think about was what she might find up there. Her parents had told her that Sweetie Belle had indeed gone over to Sweet Apple Acres to hang out with Applebloom after they visited Scootaloo in the hospital. Because of recent events, they were prohibited from leaving the property without adult supervision. That left very few places for them to be.

“If you want my opinion, I think you’re worrying about nothing,” Simmons said.

Of course, Rarity had told the maroon alien all about what had happened the night before. Much to her distress, Simmons didn’t seem to think the situation was all that serious. Sure, Rarity’s friends have often said that she was quick to make mountains out of molehills, but this was different. This wasn’t just a case of running out of a type of fabric that would go great with her latest ensemble (which in her defense was the worst possible thing). And yet, Simmons just brushed aside her very legitimate concerns like they were nothing!

“Oh, and I suppose you would know all about having a little sister who’s hurt and scared?” Rarity asked, looking up at the maroon man critically.

“Yeah,” Simmons simply said. When Rarity didn’t cease her optical assault, Simmons looked down at her and elaborated, “When I was just a kid, my little sister decided she wanted to try riding my bike. Our street was on a hill and she very quickly lost control going down. I watched her fail to make the turn and completely eat shit against a mailbox!”

“Oh…” Rarity said, the slight crack in her voice betraying her discomfort. She wasn’t sure why all of these humans had to speak with such vulgarity when other descriptors would suffice. Nevertheless, Rarity did her best not to look uncomfortable and attempted a sympathetic smile, “You must have been quite worried about her then.”

“Oh hell no! I laughed my fuckin’ ass off!” At Rarity’s distasteful glare, Simmons raised both hands defensively, “Hey, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt if she hadn’t stolen my bike in the first place!”

“So sorry, Mr. Simmons. But I don’t see how this little anecdote applies to my current situation.”

“All you have to know is at the time my sister thought she was gonna fucking die! She had a broken nose and needed stitches in a few places. But she turned out to be okay! Kids are resilient!

“Also… I think the real reason why I laughed as hard as I did wasn’t because of sibling rivalry. I think that at the time, I knew deep down that she was going to be okay…” Simmons paused, “but also it was fucking hysterical!”

Rarity lowered her brow, “Crashing into a mailbox is a tad different from almost being killed by a monster, wouldn’t you agree?”

Simmons shrugged, “It’s not too different. For the longest time, my sister thought that mailbox was some kind of monster out to get her. Wouldn’t go near it for weeks. It took a while for us to convince her of the truth: it’s just a mailbox!”

Rarity turned and looked apprehensively at the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse, “Well, here’s hoping you’re right…”

Collecting herself, Rarity began the climb up the wooden ramp leading up to the treehouse. She mentally prepared herself for the heartbreak of seeing little Sweetie Belle shaking and sobbing and had to make sure she wouldn’t break down herself. Swallowing a lungful of air, Rarity peeked in through the treehouse’s open window.

Inside, two of the three Cutie Mark Crusaders were quietly sitting around. Thankfully, they weren’t sobbing messes as Rarity had initially feared, but they were certainly not the same energetic fillies that were always causing trouble for Rarity and her friends. The two of them wore deep, contemplative frowns. They looked as if their entire world had crashed down around them.

“I can’t believe it,” Sweetie Belle said mournfully. Rarity had to lean closer in order to hear her sister’s tiny voice, “we were almost killed by a giant alien monster… AND WE STILL DIDN’T GET OUR CUTIE MARKS!”

“I know, right?” Applebloom lamented, “Well, what would alien hunting cutie marks have even looked like anyway?”

Sweetie Belle’s ears perked up and a big smile crept across the little white filly’s face, “I’ve got it! Since Scoots is still in the hospital with a broken leg, we should take care of her and maybe get cutie marks in nursing!”

Next, Applebloom’s face lit up, “Yeah! … Wait, what about Scootaloo?”

“Uh… she could get a cutie mark in being our patient!”

“Yeah! Okay we’re gonna need equipment. Do ya know any place we could get a steth… a stetho…”

As Applebloom continued to struggle with the word “stethoscope,” Rarity smiled and let out a relieved sigh. If the fillies were traumatized, they sure weren’t acting like it. Deciding to leave the pair to their crusading, Rarity turned away from the window of the clubhouse and began climbing down. She felt a weight leave her shoulders, like the kind she’d get upon the completion of a huge commission.

“Everything good?” Simmons asked as Rarity approached.

“Yes, thank you Simmons,” Rarity said. “You were right: it’s just a mailbox!”

“HEY LOOK! Another alien!”

Rarity and Simmons looked to the source of the high-pitched, cracking voice to see Sweetie Belle and Applebloom standing in the doorframe of their clubhouse. The two fillies were looking down at Rarity and Simmons with uncertainty. Though, the longer they spent noticing Rarity wasn’t under attack, the less nervous and more curious they seemed to get.

Rarity looked up at Simmons and allowed a sly grin to creep across her face before addressing the girls, “Well don’t just stand there. Get him!”

Simmons barely had time to look down at Rarity and ask, “Why would you do that?” before being immediately assaulted by two small fillies.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ALIEN CATCHERS YAY!” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle gave a loud battle cry before leaping onto Simmons and dragging him to the ground. The maroon man’s desperate struggling was ineffective against the fillies onslaught.

“Agh! It’s gradeschool all over again!” Simmons cried. “Just take my lunch money and leave me alone!”

Rarity watched the epic struggle from off to the side, hoof covering her mouth as she desperately tried to maintain her ladylike composure. It was a doomed effort, and soon Rarity had tears in her eyes as she failed to hold back her laughter.

At that moment, the clomps of feet and hooves on grass made Rarity’s ears twitch, and the giggling fashionista turned around to see Applejack burst through the treeline followed by Sarge.

“Rarity!” Applejack called urgently. The farmpony skidded to a stop in front of the white unicorn and looked down at the battle unfolding on the ground with some confusion.

“Hello, Applejack. Just getting Simmons here acquainted with our sisters!” Rarity said with a smile.

“Simmons! What are you doing?” Sarge yelled. “Yer form is terrible! That isn’t the close quarters combat technique I taught you!”

“I never trained for this!”

Finally, Rarity called off the two over-enthusiastic fillies and Simmons crawled to his feet. The man glared at Rarity.

“You’re sick!”

Applejack stomped a hoof to get everyone’s attention, “Listen up, guys! We need to get to Dodge City, pronto!”

Just like Dodge City itself, the landing site for the spaceship was very different from the last time Twilight visited. Right away she noticed how much of the once lush green clearing was now blackened, scorched earth. The area around the ship was no longer bustling with researchers, instead populated by still, vigilant guards.

“Excuse me, are you Twilight Sparkle?” Both Twilight and Church saw a relatively small beige pegasus mare with a yellow mane push her way past a few guards and make her way towards them. She was accompanied by a larger gray unicorn mare in gold armor with purple trim.

“Who wants to know?” Twilight’s tone sounded harsher than she intended, other matters occupying her mind. She immediately felt guilty when the young mare in front of her noticeably flinched.

“Oh, right! Name! I’m Quill. In charge of research here,” Quill looked over at the armored mare beside her, “and this is Captain Mirage, CO of the Guard contingent here.”

The Guard Captain gave a single nod before returning to whatever she was engaged with earlier.

“Quill? Twilight Sparkle?” Church scoffed, “Is there some law here stating that everyone’s name has to be really fucking stupid? Why don’t any of you ponies just name your kids ‘Tim’ or something?”

Twilight thought she heard a nearby guard mutter, “My name’s Tim…” and another respond with, “Shut up, Tim!”

Quill looked up at Church with a nervous twitch in her features, “And you must be the alien. Church, right?”

“Yeah. Leonard Church. Take notes, lady. That’s what a normal name sounds like!”

Quill made a valiant effort to smile, but her discomfort was plain on her youthful face. Twilight wondered just how old she was. She couldn’t be much older than Twilight herself. And she’s the head researcher?

“I have to admit, you aren’t exactly what I expected when the Princess informed me that her protégé was bringing an alien here. I take it you’re not an ambassador, then?”

“Oh hell no! Earth’d be fucked if I was the one in charge of foreign relations!”

Quill nodded and gave another awkward attempt at a friendly smile, “Well regardless, having you here will be a huge boon to our research!” Quill’s gaze drifted off and her face adopted a lidded, dreamy look, “There must be so much you could tell us about your world, your technology, your culture…”

“Hey, whoa whoa whoa. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Church said, both arms raised. “We’re only here to look at Tex’s ship. After that we’ve got other business to attend to. Even if we didn’t, I’m not gonna stick around and be your fucking lab rat!”

“Oh…” Quill’s ears fell flat and her gaze fell from the sky and hit the ground faster than Rainbow Dash on one of her off days. “When Princess Celestia informed me you two were coming, I thought she meant you were here to help with our research.”

Twilight looked at Quill through suspicious eyes and rubbed her chin, “What exactly did Princess Celestia say?”

“Not much actually. Her letter was really short. Just said you two would be here to investigate the ship.” Quill smiled sheepishly. “Probably just wishful thinking on my part that caused me to think otherwise. Fact is, things haven’t really been going well around here.”

Without saying anything more, Quill turned around and led the way past various tents and guard patrols in the direction of the crashed ship. Church and Twilight followed. Twilight quickly fell into step beside Quill. As they walked, Twilight’s eyes were drawn to a strange object sitting in the back of a wagon.

The shiny gray metal of the object immediately reminded Twilight of the countless human technologies she had seen over the course of her journey. It looked like a large metal capsule about ten feet tall with two fin like protrusions on the top. The side of it was open, revealing the inside of the capsule to be hollow and suspiciously large enough to fit an armored human.

“What’s that thing?” Twilight asked, gesturing to the capsule in question.

Quill followed Twilight’s hoof and made an “oh” shape with her mouth before explaining. “That thing fell from the sky and landed nearby earlier today. We’ve been studying it intensely since bringing it back here, but we haven’t figured anything out about it. Just that it’s definitely the same alien technology as the ship.”

Twilight looked up at Church, “Any thoughts?”

Church shrugged, “I haven’t seen anything like it before. Maybe it came from the…” Church trailed off and he and Twilight exchanged a glance.

He was about to suggest it came from the Mother of Invention and in all likeliness it was. However, he wasn’t sure he should just casually mention to this other pony that there was a massive capital ship belonging to a morally dubious organization with a small army on board currently in orbit of the planet. Twilight was in agreement on the matter, though the issue definitely needed to be brought to somepony in the government sooner rather than later. Preferably someone like Celestia who wouldn’t start a panic.

“... Maybe it came from the ship! It must have broken off before it entered our atmosphere and orbited the planet for a while before crashing. That makes sense, right?” Twilight smiled desperately.

Quill seemed to consider this for a moment, “I guess so. Still, sure is a weird coincidence that it landed so close to the crash site of the ship itself…”

With that, the trio continued making their way through the research site to the ship at its heart. Twilight quickly saw fit to change the subject in order to avoid any further questioning on the matter of the strange capsule.

“You said things here weren’t going well earlier. May I ask why?”

The head researcher gave a resigned sigh, “Well, we’ve been understaffed since the Meta’s attack. Between you and me, I don’t have any experience leading a research team. None of the other ponies on my team are really that experienced with this sort of thing either. I think it’s safe to say we lost all of our best in the attack...”

A cold chill ran down Twilight’s spine. She knew as soon as Quill introduced herself that she was talking to Arcane Star’s replacement. Still, being reminded of the fate of all of those brilliant ponies…

A bitter edge entered Quill’s tone as she continued, “When that... Shimmer pony arrived with top clearance from the Princess, I thought we were finally getting somepony who knew what she was doing. But all she did was take copies of all of our research and leave. Between that and the insufficient funding that even our predecessors had, I’m starting to wonder whether Princess Celestia is even taking our project seriously!”

As the trio passed a squad of guards surrounding the ship, Quill gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry, guess I’m venting. Anyway, here we are!”

Despite how much was different from the last time Twilight was here, the only thing that remained relatively unchanged was the ship at the center of it all. It was the same malformed hunk of metal that Twilight remembered. The one difference that Twilight could see made her shiver. Four words were carved into the ship’s hull with what could only have been a very sharp blade.

We Are The Meta.

The shift in tone was immediately apparent. The talkative head researcher was now dead silent and even Church didn’t have anything snarky or sarcastic to say. Twilight did her best to ignore the cold chills running through her body and focused on studying the ship. As her eyes drifted away from the ominous writing on the hull, she spotted something else she didn’t remember seeing the last time she was here. Near the window of the cockpit was a small computer screen with several buttons and switches around it. They were all dark and lifeless.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, pointing at the console in question.

“Oh, that was where the alien construct was that took control of the ship,” Quill explained.

“What was it like?” Church asked.

“What do you mean ‘what was it like?’ Do you want to know if the construct was a pleasant conversation partner?”

“Actually, yes.”

Quill raised a perplexed eyebrow at Church. “Well, I wasn’t with the original research team but according to their reports, the construct inside the ship was very evasive, occasionally hostile… and had an affinity for knock-knock jokes.”

“Okay, that was definitely Gamma. What happened to him?”

Quill only needed to gesture with her head in the direction of the Meta’s unsettling message on the side of the ship.

“Right, okay. And what about Sheila?” Church asked.

Both Twilight and Quill looked up at Church in confusion.

“Who’s Sheila?” Twilight asked.

“The other A.I. The one we loaded onto the ship from our tank!”

Quill’s eyes widened as she looked at Church as if the man had suddenly turned into a hydra. “You mean there was another construct on this thing?”

“Yeah, you guys didn’t find her?”

“Well, there wasn’t anything about a second construct in the previous team’s notes…”

Twilight’s mouth fell open as a thought occurred to her, “If nopony on the research team knew about this other A.I, odds are neither did the Meta! Which means...”

“Sheila could still be here!” Church exclaimed, finishing Twilight’s thought.

Church wasted no time in stepping up to the console to activate it. After hearing a little gasp from the pony on her right, Twilight looked over at Quill to see the mare pulling out a pen and notepad from within her wings and staring at Church intently.

“What? This is the first time anypony’s seen an alien operating its own technology! I have to document this!” she exclaimed in response to Twilight’s look.

Twilight said nothing and continued to stare at the head researcher with the look of a pony who was privy to a joke the other was not.

“How the fuck do you turn this thing on?” Church muttered in frustration, pressing as many different buttons on the console at once. “Is it… Do I speak to it? Computer! On! Sheila! Activate!”

When that didn’t work, Church proceeded to bang his fist repeatedly against the paneling around the console. The giddy look on Quill’s face vanished and the pegasus looked over at Twilight with a deadpan expression. Twilight knew what the head researcher must have been feeling. Her face was a reflection of the disappointment that Twilight herself had felt when she first met the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch.

“Fuckin’... piece of junk… aha!” Church finally exclaimed as the dark screen and buttons around it lit up like a tree on Hearth’s Warming, “Sheila? Are you there?”

The console gave no reply.

“Sheila? It’s me, Church!”

A fuzzy, transparent blue image of the ship suddenly appeared on the screen in front of them. With it, words in plain white font accompanied a pleasant, female monotone.

“Hello, and thank you for act-activating the Freelancer Intelligence and Logistical Support System. You may-may-may call me FILSS. ”Twilight quickly noticed that the voice sounded stilted and unnatural, stuttering here and there like a foal learning to speak. Twilight could tell right away that something was very wrong with it.

“FILSS? Not Sheila?” Church asked.

“Except-Exception: This unit has sustained cata-catastrophic damage and has been reset to factory settings. I am currently operating at minimum capacity-city-city.”

To help confirm this fact, the blue image of the ship on screen turned red and the onscreen text stated that the program was 3.79% functional.

“Okay, Sheil… FILSS. I need to know what Tex was doing here. Do you have any information on board that could… help with that?”

“Negative, Director. Major data loss sustain-sustained. Attempting data recovery.”

Church stepped back and folded his arms as the heavily damaged A.I worked hard to do what was asked of it. Twilight looked over at Church with a puzzled expression.

“Why did it call you ‘Director?’”

Church shrugged, “I dunno. Damn thing’s busted to Hell. Probably just an error.”

Church and the two ponies with him waited for a few minutes before FILSS piped up again.

“Travel logs recovered. Last log recorded one point six minutes before impact-impact.”

Church exchanged a look with Twilight. The purple unicorn gave him a reassuring nod. Church took a deep breath and turned back to face the console.

“Play it, FILSS.”

“Acknowledged. Beginning playba-playback.”

The collective breath of the man and two ponies was sucked out of the air as the image of the ship grew smaller on the screen. Text with details regarding the audio file appeared on screen in its place. Then the file began to play.

When she heard “travel log,” Twilight half expected it to play out like one of those old space serials, where the Captain would talk about his crew’s mission to explore the unexplored in a calm and dramatic manner. What they heard upon the start of the log’s playback was an abrupt cacophony of frantic noise.

Multiple alarms beeped and blared at once as they competed with the increasingly loud whine of struggling engines. On top of all the noise was FILSS, whose eternally calm voice contrasted with the urgent sound of everything else.

“Warning. Warning. System failure…”

“Sheila! Damage report, now!” The second voice was one that Twilight did not recognize. It was a woman’s voice with a slight southern twang; harsh, authoritative and laced with urgency as it yelled above the other distressing sounds.

“Rear stabilizer: Offline. Guidance systems: Offline. Emergency thrusters: Offline…”

“What about Gamma? Did he get loose?”

“Negative. But I do not know how much longer I can contain him.”

“These coordinates are all wrong! Is this the Sangheili homeworld?”

“Negative.”

“What?? Than where the Hell are we?”

“That information is classified. Level Alpha.”

Loud bangs rang out and another alarm joined the others.

“What??? How can- Wait, is this the planet I think it is? Is this the place where he hid the…?”

More alarms.

“Danger: Decompression. Rear doors open.”

“What? Where are they going?”

“Rear doors open.”

“Close the hatch!”

“Acknowledged. Warning: altitude approaching critical levels.”

“Shiela! The clearing! Outside that settlement! Can we land?”

“I am unable to plot a course-”

“Hand over manual control now!”

The blaring, beeping alarms increased tenfold as the desperate whine of the engines approached a climax.

“Acknowledged. Manual control overridden. Warning: altitude critical. Brace for impact…”

“Shit! Hold on!”

“Brace for impact.”

“Hold on!”

“Brace for impact.”

“Just HOLD ON-”

Just as the cacophony reached its apex, it was suddenly and unceremoniously cut off by a high-pitched tone as the recording ended, signified by text reading “End of File.” Just like that, the clearing was filled with silence again. Twilight wasn’t aware she was holding her breath until that moment.

“Damn it!” Church slammed a fist into the hull of the ship beside the console, making Twilight and Quill jump. His arm was shaking.

Seeing this, Twilight raised a reassuring hoof, “It’s okay, Church. We know she survived the crash, right?”

Although Twilight couldn’t reach his shoulder, she settled for placing her hoof on Church’s back. The man had none of it and brushed her hoof away before speaking in a voice Twilight noticed trembled slightly.

“It’s not that. Coming here turned out to be pointless! Tex came to this planet by accident! We’re back to square one!”

Twilight ignored the blur of orchid and green in her peripherals as she focused on Church, “Church, coming here was a long shot anyway. You said yourself that you didn’t expect to find anything, but we did! We know that Tex didn’t mean to come to Equestria and that’s more than we knew before!”

Truthfully, something about the log they just viewed made Twilight even more uneasy than she had been already. Why did it seem that Tex knew something about Equestria that nopony else did? Right now, however, Church needed her and Twilight continued giving him a reassuring smile to let him know everything was going to be okay. Church turned his head and looked down at Twilight and for the first time, Twilight felt like she could reach him.

“Dammit Twilight, I’m trying to be pessimistic here! You’re ruining it!”

Twilight sighed, but nevertheless kept the smile on her face, “What do you say we get going?”

Church nodded and Twilight turned to Quill, who was watching the scene with something between an amused and a sympathetic look, seeming to say “you must have the patience of a saint.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help,” Twilight said, “maybe after everything that’s going on with us has died down I can come by and help you with your research!”

Quill smiled brightly, “Oh, don’t worry about it! You guys have actually given me a lot to work with! The A.I in there - even if it’s damaged - is more than I ever expected to find! Thanks!”

Twilight nodded. Mystery seemed to be a recurring theme surrounding these humans. Or at the very least Project Freelancer.

A loud crash suddenly interrupted Twilight’s thoughts. She looked from Church to Quill, their similar motions revealing that they too heard the sound.

“That sounded like it came from the research tent…” Quill said before spreading her wings and taking off.

As she and Church made to follow, Twilight couldn’t help but think about their next move. Whatever they would do, Twilight decided she was just as interested in finding Tex as Church was. She had more than a few questions for her...

Sunny Side approached the front door to her aunt and uncle’s home as the pony on the other side knocked. It had been a few hours since the Ponyville lockdown had been lifted and Sunny now had the house to herself. Golden Harvest had a carrot delivery to make and Written Script had a meeting with his publisher. This would have left Sunny alone with little Firecracker, but there was a change of plans and Golden Harvest had ended up dropping her off at one of her friends’ houses.

Unfortunately, Written Script had previously arranged for Firecracker’s regular foalsitter to drop by and the mare was running late. This left only Sunny to stay behind for the foalsitter’s arrival.

The knocking on the front door didn’t stop even as Sunny Side proclaimed that she was on her way to answer it. Upon opening the front door, Sunny was greeted with the sight of a mare matching Golden Harvest’s description of the foalsitter. A gray pegasus with a blond mane and several bubbles for a cutie mark stood in place, her hoof raised and still knocking on the air where the front door used to be. The most eye grabbing feature about the mare was her golden eyes that were each looking a completely different direction.

“Are… you the foalsitter?” Sunny asked.

Finally realizing that there was no longer a door in front of her, the gray mare stopped knocking on nothing, looked at Sunny and smiled brightly.

“Yup! Derpy Hooves reporting for duty! Ready to see my little Dinky!”

It took Sunny a moment to realize that “Dinky” was likely a nickname for Firecracker, “Sorry, Ms. Hooves, but there’s been a change of plans. We no longer need a foalsitter today.”

Derpy looked down. Or tried to; one of her eyes was still kinda looking up. “Aw, that’s too bad… I had this really great idea for a new game we could play!”

The gray pegasus looked up at Sunny with a fierce, aggressive gleam in her suddenly perfectly even eyes. It was as if she had become a different pony altogether.

“It’s called pony puzzle! We take a pony, cut them up into itty-bitty pieces and try to put those pieces back together! Great family entertainment, Mwa ha ha haaaa…”

Sunny’s eyes widened and she took a step backwards. She decided she was going to have a serious talk with Golden Harvest when she got back about hiring a new foalsitter.

“Say, you haven’t seen any of Pinkie Pie’s friends around have you?” Derpy asked, sounding happy and innocent again. “Because I have a special package I need to deliver to them!”

Just like that, Derpy’s expression turned menacing again, “And by ‘special’ I mean agonizingly painful! Ha ha haaa!”

Sunny wasn’t even sure who this Pinkie Pie was, but even if she did know, Sunny wasn’t sure she would tell this mare. “Nope. Sorry, but… I have something very important to do, so if you don’t mind…”

Without waiting for a response, Sunny closed the door in the crazy pony’s face and stepped away from it. Just what had that been all about? The strangest thing was, Sunny felt almost as if she recognized that voice from somewhere.

Dammit! He survived!

Sunny’s ears twitched along with her tail. That strange female voice again… Sunny was starting to realize that it wasn’t just in her head. Someone or something was speaking.

“Hello?” Sunny called out. She waited a few moments for a response but got none, “I know you’re there! Who are you?”

After a few more moments of silence, Sunny began to wonder whether she was just losing her mind when she heard the voice again.

Look, it doesn’t matter who or what I am. What matters is that the ponies of this world are in danger!

Sunny looked around in confusion. Oddly enough though, she didn’t feel scared. Whoever this was, she felt like she knew them.

You do know me, Sunny. We’ve both faced the same pain.

Looking around some more, Sunny gave a flick of her tail, “Do you have a name?”

Call me Tex.

“Okay, Tex… what do you want?”

Uh, this is gonna sound really weird, but I want to use your body.

Sunny’s mouth dropped open and her face suddenly felt very hot, “Well, you’ve got one thing right: that does sound really weird!”

Okay, let me explain! You know what an M.I. is, right?

“A Magical Intelligence? Sure, Arcane Star told me all about them back in Dodge!” Sunny felt a lump in her throat as she was once again reminded of the horrible events there. Arcane Star had been the only researcher not present during the attack. She hoped he was okay.

Right, and I imagine he told you a bit about how M.I.’s work. Specifically, what they need to survive.

“Yeah, somewhere to be stored. Usually a gem or an object that can be enchanted to house magical power.”

Right, but what he didn’t know was that some M.I.’s can also be stored in ponies’ minds.

Sunny Side nodded, seeing where this was going. It certainly explained the stranger dreams she’d been having. “So, you’re storing yourself in my mind? What do you need my body for?”

To stop what’s coming.

Sunny tilted her head.

These “aliens”; there’s a group of them that have done terrible things and will continue to do so unless they’re stopped. The Meta - the thing that killed your friends and family - is only a by-product of much worse experiments.

I suppose you noticed the odd way that mare at the door was acting?

Sunny nodded.

One of those experiments is inside her mind just like I am inside yours. The only difference is that I want to help but I can’t do it alone. I was inside another’s mind before - the Pinkie Pie that other pony mentioned - but she and I weren’t… compatible. Joining minds as any type of artificial construct is… tricky. If I’m not compatible with the pony I’m occupying I can’t operate as effectively.

“So, does that mean that you and I are… compatible?”

It’s like I told you earlier: we’ve both faced the same pain. We both know what it feels like to fail and for our failures to hurt those we care about. It isn’t a perfect level of trust and understanding, but it means we can operate together as one mind. And only by doing so will I… we be able to stop them.

Taking a huge breath, Sunny sat down. She suddenly found it difficult to support her own weight at that moment. In truth, Sunny had just wanted to get back out there and take the fight to that alien monster - to make up for her failure - but now she was actually being given the chance to do so. Part of her thought what she was considering was insane but another part believed that this was her one chance at redemption.

Look, this is a huge choice you’re making; I understand if you don’t want to make it right away. I can give you some time to think about it, but not too long. Time isn’t exactly a luxury we can afford…

A soft tink reverberated through Grif’s helmet as something impacted on his visor, rousing him from his blissful nap. Grif reluctantly opened his eyes and found himself staring up through the canopy of the tree he lay under. Grif sat up and looked around, ready to give whoever woke him up a piece of his mind. There was nothing but grass, trees and the sound of chirping birds. Grif did, however, locate the object that had awoken him.

A small, crumpled up piece of paper lay in the grass nearby that wasn’t there when Grif went to sleep. The man in orange armor looked up, wondering if it had been dropped on him. There was nothing above him but a particularly large cloud. Shrugging, Grif decided it would be a good idea to just ignore it and go back to sleep. He took another look at the crumpled up paper, and soon enough curiosity got the better of him.

Grif heard a noise like the cooing of a small animal as he reached over and unravelled the paper.

Hey, Dash.

How’s it going? Y’know, Wonderbolt Academy is taking applications soon. You might want to start thinking about applying!

You won’t have to worry about seeing me there, my dad found us a new client and has the whole company on the move again. As always, I can’t tell you where we’re going in case the authorities get a hold of this, but let’s just say we’re going to need to dress warm...

“Um… excuse me?” someone said in a small voice very similar to the cooing noise from earlier.

Grif lowered the wrinkled paper and found himself staring at one of those pastel ponies. This one had wings, a yellow coat and a pink mane and tail. She was standing beside a pair of rabbits who appeared to be giving him dirty looks. Grif sighed. This was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now.

“Uh, can I help you?” he asked.

This caused the pony to shrink back and attempt to hide behind her long pink hair. The action immediately sent a twang of guilt through Grif. God, where did that come from? I haven’t felt like that around anyone but…

“Yes… um, would you mind moving? You’re, kinda… sitting on my friends’ home,” she said, pointing at the pair of bunnies beside her.

Shrugging, Grif stood up. The two bunnies immediately ran past him and entered a small hole in the ground where Grif had been previously sitting.

“Oh. Whoops, my bad!” Grif said as their small, fluffy tails disappeared into the ground.

“Sorry to be a bother, it’s just…”

“No, I get it. I’d be pissed too if some giant’s ass was blocking the front door to my house!”

An awkward silence lingered over the man and the pony for some time. Grif watched with interest as the small yellow horse fidgeted uncomfortably and tried to look everywhere but at him. Her demeanor was familiar. Dammit, why does she seem so familiar?

“I’m Grif by the way. What’s your name again?” Grif asked.

The pony jumped, “Oh, it’s Fluttershy…”

More silence. The nervous way this pony carried herself inexplicably reminded Grif of someone but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out who.

“So, uh… who’re your friends?” Grif tilted his head in the direction the pair of bunnies had gone.

As suddenly as a light switch being flipped, Fluttershy smiled. Her stiff posture relaxed at the mention of her animals and for the first time since they met, Fluttershy looked right up at Grif.

“Oh, that’s Mips and his sister Binky. Binky’s a bit shy like me, but she has a good big brother who looks after her!”

Although Fluttershy couldn’t see it, Grif’s mouth drifted open. Of course! That’s who she reminds me of! This Fluttershy pony is just like how she used to be!

“Well, let’s hope that Mips there doesn’t make the same mistakes I did!” Grif didn’t even notice that he was thinking aloud until it was too late.

Fluttershy tilted her head inquisitively, “Oh? Do you have a little sister, Grif?”

“Yeah. As a matter of fact, she used to be a lot like you! Loved animals, was shy as dicks…” Grif laughed when he noticed the way Fluttershy looked away with a slightly red face, “she was even uncomfortable with my swearing!”

Grif continued to laugh. It was such a joyful, contagious sound that Fluttershy couldn’t help but join in briefly before silence prevailed between them again.

“So, um… what happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“Hmm?”

“You said... she used to be like me.”

Grif hesitated, “Yeah. Kaikaina is a completely different person now. I really don’t want to talk about it…”

“Oh… sorry.”

Just like that, the pair’s conversation died out. Grif had half a mind to just go back to sleep, but a part of him wanted to keep talking to Fluttershy. It was surreal, like meeting someone he thought he had lost a long time ago.

“So, you like animals, huh? Are you a vet or something?” Grif didn’t think about the fact that he was technically talking to an animal at the moment. He valued his sanity too much to overthink it.

“Not really. I take care of animals when they’re sick or hurt, but that’s not all I do,” Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, “though, lately I’ve been having problems.”

“What kind of problems?”

Fluttershy sighed, “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

And so with their mutual agreement to stop talking about their respective problems, Grif elected to lie back down (this time making sure he wasn’t on top of some bunny’s home). Fluttershy opened her mouth to say goodbye when another pony breached a pair of trees and came towards the pair of them at a gallop.

“Fluttershy, there you are darling!” Rarity panted, slowing her pace as she got closer, “Twilight needs us. I think something’s happened in Dodge City!”

Twilight immediately galloped after Quill as she flew low along the ground. Church, deciding he’d rather stay close to Twilight lest he experience a repeat of the incident that occurred upon his arrival to this world, followed. Twilight caught up with Quill as she entered the main research tent and followed her inside.

Just like before, the tent was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, courtesy of unicorn magic. The interior itself was more or less the same. Clear plastic curtains hung around the areas where potentially toxic spaceship parts were arranged on tables. Desks littered with papers covered in layers of research notes were placed everywhere not protected by hazmat curtains. The only difference from last time was the lack of a certain human in black armor lying on a table.

The human in the room now was upright and fully functional, standing over the (hopefully) unconscious form of a unicorn researcher partially covered by an overturned desk. Instead of black armor, this human was clad in orchid with light green trim on it’s shoulders and the tip of its helmet. It looked up from the small pile of research papers in its hands at the three who just entered like a foal caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.

“Crap…” it muttered in a female voice with a coarse edge, “well, so much for stealth!”

With lightning quick motions, the armored woman tossed the papers in her hands into the air and delivered a powerful kick to a nearby chair, sending it rocketing like a cannonball straight at Twilight. The purple unicorn only managed to stop the chair’s impact in the knick of time by catching it in her telekinetic magic mere inches from her face. The split second this took was all the mysterious woman needed.

She charged forward and leapt over an unprepared Twilight, delivering a knee through the air that connected with Church’s chest. The cobalt man was brought down for the count and the woman escaped the tent (Quill offered no resistance, choosing to cower behind her wings). For a reason Twilight Sparkle could not fathom, she was compelled to set down the chair carefully and meticulously before moving to help a groaning Church.

“Who the hay is that?” she asked as Church struggled to his feet.

“I don’t know! I’ve never seen her before!”

Twilight and Church exited the tent, leaving Quill in a state of fear-induced paralysis. It didn’t take them long to spot the mysterious intruder once they got outside, despite the amount of distance she had put between them in such a short amount of time. A group of about four armored guards lay in a heap in the intruder’s wake, the conscious ones moaning in pain. Twilight nearly retched when she noticed how many of their legs were twisted in ways no appendage was meant to bend.

The sound of alarm bells filled the camp and more of Equestria’s soldiers began pouring in around the distant interloper. Twilight ran in the direction of the fight as fast as she could as the armored woman began quickly dispatching the nearest guards in a series of lightning fast CQC moves. A squad of pegasi overhead armed with crossbows attempted to rain arrows down on the woman, but she sidestepped the attacks with incredible agility. The few arrows that managed to hit bounced uselessly off her armor.

To Twilight’s horror, the woman hastily pulled out her sidearm and the sound of pistol fire rang out alongside the bells as she retaliated against the airborne assault. Thankfully, most of the pegasi were able to retreat out of the way but one unfortunate stallion was hit in the wing and sent spiralling to the ground. Twilight put everything into her gallop as she got closer to the fight.

A group of combat mages led by Captain Mirage were next to challenge the human soldier as she continued beating back spearponies. The mages might have had the element of surprise if one overly eager mage hadn’t released a premature blast of arcane power, sending up dirt next to the woman and alerting her to their presence. The woman holstered her sidearm in favor of a much deadlier Battle Rifle and opened fire at the mages, but the armored unicorns were ready for the attack and a series of forward facing magical shields harmlessly redirected her bullets.

Twilight drew closer as Mirage’s force readied a counterattack. Their horns glowed various colors of the rainbow and several beams were fired in the direction of the attacker, who was quickly consumed by an explosion of blinding light that kicked dirt and dust everywhere. Twilight skidded to a stop beside the gathered mages and waited with bated breath for the dust to clear.

As the dirt began to settle, Twilight noticed a faint yellow glow where the woman had been standing. Once the dust fully cleared, everypony present could see a large, shiny yellow dome covered in a honeycomb pattern where the orchid woman once stood. As Twilight studied the dome more closely, she could see the woman standing inside of it, completely unscathed by the mages’ attack.

The noisy battleground that the clearing had become was returned to silence as both sides stared each other down. Oddly enough, the woman seemed to be talking to someone inside her domed shield. Twilight began to relax as she considered that they were just as safe outside the armored woman’s shield as she was inside. It was when the woman raised her rifle and took aim at one of the mages that Twilight began to worry.

“Oh Celestia, can she shoot through her shield?”

Twilight and the mages beside her never got to find out, as the mystery woman’s attention was suddenly drawn to something directly above her. Twilight followed her gaze just in time to see what looked like a meteor falling straight towards the woman’s honeycomb shield. The woman’s shield disappeared and she dove aside along with the gathered ponies just in time to avoid the small extraterrestrial object as it impacted.

As Twilight climbed back to her hooves, she looked over at the object that fell from the sky. To her immediate shock, it was a large metal capsule that looked exactly like the one that Quill’s team found earlier. The only difference was that there was no opening on the front to its hollow center. As if to directly contradict Twilight’s thought process, a large panel taking up the front of the capsule was launched off with a pressurized hiss and release of steam.

Twilight, the mages and the woman in orchid armor all stared in awe as another armored human stepped out of the pod’s hollow interior. His armor was a familiar dark gray with yellow detail. After appraising the stunned woman on the ground before him for a few moments, Agent Washington raised his Battle Rifle at her and took an aggressive step forward.

“Hello, South. Long time, no backstab!”

Author's Note

*Gavin voice* IT'S KICKIN' OFF!!!!

Next time: stories about siblings!

Act 2 Part 4 - Twins

“Washington?” Church’s voice cut through the tense silence that filled the clearing. Twilight turned around to see the cobalt man jogging towards them. “How in the fuck did you get here?”

The Freelancer kept his rifle trained on the woman in orchid and green armor, “Locked on to the original signal from Tex’s Recovery Beacon and hijacked a drop pod from the Mother of Invention,” Wash explained cooly. “I’m willing to bet Agent South here did the same thing.”

Only one question really mattered to Twilight at that moment, “Where were you? Back on the ship, you told us you’d be right back but you never showed up. We had to leave without you.” Twilight’s ears folded down as the guilt of that decision caught up with her, “Sorry about that, by the way.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. I would have done the same,” Washington stated. “As for why I didn’t rendezvous with you guys on the ship, I got pinned down by Wyoming and a bunch of Freelancer troops. It was close, I only barely avoided capture.”

As Agent South pulled herself to her feet, Washington took a step closer. The barrel of his Battle Rifle was now inches from her visor.

“Personally, I’d like to know what you are doing here, South!”

South casually shrugged, “I was hoping to find Omega here. Trade up, y’know?”

Twilight nearly jumped back when a tiny figure appeared in a flash of green light. A spectral armored human surrounded by a green glow now floated beside south.

“I will ignore the insinuation that I am not up to Agent South’s standards and point out that the chances of such a plan working were slim even if the variables were in your favor,” it said in a reverberant, robotic voice.

“Nobody asked you, D,” South muttered.

“Ugh, another A.I.?” Church asked.

The construct’s green armored avatar disappeared and reappeared in front of Twilight and Church, “Yes. My name is Delta. I was the A.I. unit assigned to Agent New York until he was killed in action. I was subsequently recovered by Agent Washington and later stolen by Agent South Dakota.”

“Which was when she shot me in the back and left me at the mercy of the Meta,” Washington added with no shortage of venom in his icy voice.

“Shot by your teammate? I know what that feels like...” Church said bitterly.

“I’m betting you’re just itching to return the favor, aren’t you?” South then gestured with her head at something behind her. Following the gesture, Twilight found herself looking back at the crashed ship with We Are The Meta carved into its side. “If you want my advice, you’ll need all the help you can get if you want to deal with that little problem.”

“As it happens, I don’t want your advice nor your help.” Washington looked up at the little holographic avatar floating beside South, “Delta, is there still power in South’s dome shield?”

“Affirmative.”

Washington lowered his rifle and took a few steps away from South, “Then turn it on and leave it that way.”

Seeing what Wash was doing, South immediately piped up, “Delta! Command: Instruction: override Agent Washington’s order!”

“Exception: My programming dictates that priority must be given to the orders of the closest Recovery Agent.”

“Bullshit! You’re my A.I! Command: Instruction…”

“Negative, Agent South. I am Project Freelancer’s A.I. unit. As a rogue agent operating in direct defiance of Command’s orders, you are no longer a part of Project Freelancer.”

“You fucking cockbi…” South was abruptly cut off as she was surrounded by the appearance of the golden honeycomb dome from before. The group could see South’s angry body language inside but could only hear muffled yelling.

“Thanks Delta,” Washington sighed.

The glowing green A.I appeared in front of Washington, “I am here to assist.”

“Ha ha! Got told, bitch!” Church laughed.

“South does bring up a valid point, however.” Washington then turned to face Church and Twilight, “Is the Meta really here?”

Twilight swallowed and nodded grimly, “I saw it myself. It almost killed me, as well as my friends.”

Twilight explained to Washington everything that happened while she was gone, starting with Omega infecting Pinkie Pie and ending with her confrontation with the Meta in the Everfree Forest. She then went on to explain their plan to use the Elements of Harmony to stop the Meta the next time they encountered it. Washington listened silently the whole time. The Freelancer was still as a statue, but Twilight could tell that his mind was not.

“It sounds like a good plan, but the Meta hasn’t revealed itself since the encounter the other night, has it?” he asked.

“No,” Twilight said with a shake of her head, “I think it’s figured out that we don’t have Omega any more.”

The group fell silent as they contemplated the fact that finding the Meta before it could hurt anypony else was going to be a bigger challenge than Twilight initially thought. She expected it would simply try to attack them in Ponyville again, but now it seemed just as likely that the Meta would try searching for Omega elsewhere. According to the others Omega was destroyed, but how many more ponies would die before the Meta figured that out?

“So… what are we gonna do about the bitch in the bubble?” Church asked in an apparent attempt to find a problem that they could actually solve.

Twilight took another look at the armored woman pacing back and forth inside the domed shield, looking ready to break the first thing she came in contact with.

“Delta, what do you suppose the chances are of South shooting me in the back again if we let her out?” Wash asked.

“In the current circumstances? Highly unlikely. However, I have recently found out that a rifle shot to the back is not the only means by which she has betrayed an ally in the past.”

“Would these ‘other means’ involve shooting her teammate with a tank?” Church snarked.

Delta continued unabated by Church’s interruption, “Do you remember South’s account of her brother North’s death at the hands of the Meta?”

At that moment, Twilight felt a slight pang of sympathy for the woman within the dome shield. As a pony with a big brother that she loved and adored who served in the military, the possibility of his death was something that always existed in the back of her mind. If that possibility was a reality for South, Twilight couldn’t imagine what she was feeling…

“Agent South orchestrated the events that led to Agent North’s death. She is equally as responsible for his termination as the Meta.”

“Damn, she makes Caboose's K/D ratio look good!” Church exclaimed.

And just like that, Twilight’s feelings of sympathy were gone.

“Twilight, can you contact those friends of yours and tell them to bring those Element things down here?” Washington asked.

“Okay,” Twilight nodded at Church, who reached up to the side of his helmet to activate his radio, “Uh… does this mean you have a plan?”

With a nod, Wash reached up to activate his own radio, “South? Are you there?”

“No, dipshit. I’m on Harvest. What do you want?”

“I’ve just thought of a way you can help us find the Meta!”

“See ya later, Mr. Simmons!” Applebloom called back as she ran up the path to Ponyville General. The hospital was by far the most modern-looking building in Ponyville, its clean concrete walls clashing with the rustic nature of the other nearby buildings.

“We’ll jump on you again soon!” Sweetie Belle added as she ran after her friend.

“I can’t believe you got your ass kicked by baby ponies!” Grif laughed.

“Hey, they’re a lot stronger than they look!” Simmons argued.

Applejack ignored the bickering Reds as she watched the two fillies disappear into the hospital front doors. According to Rarity, the two were going to play a game with Scootaloo in the hospital. This sat fine with Applejack. Scootaloo’s dad was still there, the stallion apparently hadn’t left Scootaloo’s side even after the lockdown was lifted. Applejack was confident the fillies would be well looked after between him and the hospital staff.

The source of Applejack’s concerns shifted to other matters. Namely the fact that Twilight needed her and the others’ help, which would require Applejack to miss her pie delivery to Shady Hollows. Granted, the delivery didn’t exactly earn the farm a big revenue but it was the principle that counted! Applejack promised the ponies of Shady Hollows that they’d get their Sweet Apple Acres apple pies on time like every year. But if Twilight said they needed the Elements of Harmony, that meant all of them had to be there. But what if Applejack’s Element didn’t work because she wasn’t honest with the ponies in Shady Hollows?

Applejack groaned loudly and gave her aching head a couple of shakes.

“Everything alright, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Not really. I gotta choose between helpin’ Twi with somethin’ real important and keepin’ my word to a bunch of other ponies!” Applejack sighed, “If only I had some extra hooves…”

Applejack’s eyes widened when she realized she did in fact have extra hooves. Well, not hooves exactly.

“Both of ya can it! Save yer muscles for when we get back to the farm!” Sarge ordered.

“I don’t know what you think that pony is going to have us do, but we probably won’t be using our mouth muscles,” Grif said.

“You will be! You never stop bitching!” Simmons exclaimed.

With an ear piercing whistle, Applejack got the Reds’ attention, “Okay fellas, I got a job for y’all! You do this an’ I swear to Celestia I will consider yer debt to Sweet Apple Acres paid in full!”

“That means no more farm work, right? I’ll do it!” Grif said.

“In the barn there’s a cart full of apple pies,” Applejack pulled out a map and gave it to Sarge, “they all need to be delivered to Shady Hollows through the Fire Swamp. Jus’ follow the map and yer golden!”

“Fire Swamp? That sounds dangerous,” Simmons said.

“If there’s a chance Grif might be killed, I’ll take it!” Sarge exclaimed. He turned in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres and waved the others forward, “C’mon men! We have a mission to complete with acceptable casualties!”

“Wait! It really is dangerous!” Applejack started. “You’ll need a lion tamer’s chair, a snake charmin’ flute…”

“Nonsense! We have the perfect diversion: Grif’s delicious corpse!” Sarge said as he started leading his reluctant team away.

Applejack watched them go with a pit of worry forming in her stomach. Sarge had proven to be capable enough in apple harvesting and they were a well equipped group of alien soldiers. She only hoped they wouldn’t screw this one up somehow.

As she watched the Reds go down the street, Applejack noticed a pony staring at them. An earth pony mare with a white coat and a blond mane and tail wearing guard’s armor sans helmet. She was watching the Reds with wide eyes, but the Reds paid her no mind. Not even when a spiteful grimace crossed the white mare’s face and she lowered her head. Applejack was worried the mare was going to attack the Reds when she started scuffing her hoof along the ground. But then the mare’s white ears perked up, and after a moment the aggressive look on her face was gone. The armored pony continued past Applejack and Rarity and entered the hospital behind them.

Applejack turned to Rarity, wondering if she too had seen the strange pony but Rarity was looking at something up in the sky in a completely different direction. Rainbow Dash swooped down and landed in front of Rarity, followed closely by Fluttershy. At the same time, Spike came running down the street to meet them.

“Okay, I’ve managed to get us a few sky chariots,” he said, “is everypony ready?”

“All except one…” Rainbow Dash said, frowning.

Applejack looked around. Four ponies, including herself. So who were they missing?

“Oh… yes… Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy said.

The four ponies looked uneasily amongst themselves.

“Well, the Elements of Harmony won’t work without her,” Rainbow Dash said, giving her wings a few eager flaps, “she’s gotta be over her experience with O’Malley by now! Hay, she got off easy! She didn’t have to fight the Meta!”

“Now let’s not be insensitive to what Pinkie’s going through,” Fluttershy stated, “she’s had a rough time these past few days and will need all of us to overcome…”

Fluttershy trailed off when she realized her voice was being drowned out by distant music. Unlike the goofy polka music that the Reds played upon making an entrance, this music was far more… bombastic. The four gathered ponies - as well as every other pony within audible range - looked up the street where it was coming from: the direction of Sugarcube Corner.

A giant float taking the form of a great wad of cotton candy covered in sprinkles was driving down the street. On top at the back was the effigy of a certain pink party pony next to that of a blue alien helmet. The subjects of the crude work of art were standing on top of the float, throwing candy and baked goods to the very confused looking citizens of Ponyville.

“Sweets for everypony in honor of my new friend Caboose!” Pinkie decreed as she tossed a hooffull of cupcakes into the crowd.

“Yes! I am also celebrating me!” Caboose added, throwing candy at a group of foals just a little too hard.

Rainbow Dash flew over to the ridiculous display and hovered alongside the float level with Pinkie, “Uh, Pinkie? What are you doing?”

“Oh hi Dashie!” Pinkie waved before continuing to hurl more sweets at passersby, “Y’know how I usually like to hold a ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party’ for new arrivals in Ponyville? Well this time I decided instead of inviting everypony in Ponyville to the party I’d invite the party to everypony in Ponyville! That way they won’t have to wait to meet my new super great best friend Caboose!”

Rainbow Dash cocked her head, “Uh…”

“Oh don’t worry!” Pinkie leaned forward to whisper loudly at Rainbow Dash, “You’re still my super ultra best friend forever, which is a step above super great best friend but super great best friend is still a really high rank! Just above great great best friend plus!”

Rainbow Dash lowered her brow, “So… you’re feeling better then?”

“Oh yeah, Caboose helped me with the whole O’Malley thing! He’s really smart!”

Rainbow Dash looked at Caboose. The armored man was standing in cakes.

“Look! I made cake shoes!” Caboose exclaimed.

“See? Genius!” Pinkie sang.

“So…” Rainbow looked at Pinkie. Her tone no longer held the skepticism or mild annoyance that it had before. The last time she’d seen Pinkie, the pink pony was a mess. Rainbow almost couldn’t believe that she was looking at her old friend again, “You’re really okay?”

With incredible speed, Pinkie grabbed Rainbow Dash out of the air and hugged her tight, “Fine now, Dashie. Thanks!”

Pinkie released Rainbow Dash and gave her a simple smile to further reassure her. It was the smile Rainbow Dash remembered. Feeling like everything was going to be okay, Rainbow Dash returned it. At least until something else occurred to her.

“Uh, Pinkie? Who’s driving the float?”

Pinkie Pie and Caboose exchanged a slow look. “Don’t look at me, I was in charge of confetti…” Caboose stated.

The pair of them checked the float’s current course. It was moving at a steady rate, approaching somepony’s house complete with a very nice garden that was not long for this world.

“IT’S EVERY MARE FOR HERSELF!” Pinkie screamed as she jumped off the float.

“I CAN’T DIE YET! I DIDN’T SAVE MY GAME!” Caboose yelled as he did the same.

Rainbow Dash and the others watched with exasperation as the pair fell to the ground in an overly dramatic way that probably looked impressive in slow-motion. The float very slowly plowed over the fence and crushed the helpless flowers it guarded, finally stopping as the mass of cotton candy on wheels hit the side of the house… leaving no noticeable damage. A pink pony with a blond mane stepped out of the house and gasped at the state of her garden.

“Sorry Lily!” Pinkie Pie called out, “I’ll pay you the damage in cupcakes!”

“I HAVE NO INSURANCE!” Caboose added for good measure.

Lily responded to the scene as she did with any mildly stressful scenario: she passed out onto her front lawn.

“We haven’t even left town yet…” Applejack groaned, her hoof planted on her forehead.

Caboose and Pinkie Pie quickly joined their friends down the street as ponies started gathering around the crashed (and somehow on fire) float.

“Okay… so, everything’s ready. The Elements of Harmony are all packed up. Let’s get going!” Spike said after getting over the initial shock at what he’d just witnessed.

“Erm… what are we going to do about Pinkie’s new friend?” Rarity asked.

“Ooh! Ooh! We can take him with us! He can see his other blue alien friend!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“I will have two best friends in the same place!” Caboose exclaimed.

Applejack opened her mouth to protest the idea, but she then looked over at the crashed float and the group of ponies trying to put the fire out with Lily’s garden hose.

“Well... It’s better than leavin’ him here unsupervised!”

With that, the group made their way down the street towards Twilight’s home, where the sky carriages awaited them. None of them noticed the wall-eyed gray pegasus mare watching them from atop a cloud with a maniacal grin.

Church walked across the blackened grass of the crash site toward Agent Washington. After contacting Twilight’s dragon kid, Church elected to spend some time alone. For a time, it was actually quite nice. No bickering teammates, no Freelancers and no Goddamn pony aliens to bother him.

Of course, the problem with being left alone with nothing but his thoughts soon made itself apparent: Church’s thoughts made for terrible company. So with a defeated utterance of profanity, Church had left his solitary corner of the clearing and soon found his feet taking him towards the Freelancer in gray and yellow armor.

By this point the sun was beginning to vanish from the sky and Washington was talking to Quill and Captain Mirage. Apparently, the Freelancer was trying to get their help with whatever plan he had cooking. Church didn’t trust Washington at all, but if he was careful he might be able to squeeze some answers out of him.

He nodded at Twilight, who purposefully strode past him, eyes straight ahead. He decided not to ask her what she was up to, but the sight of her made him realize what she would do in his position. She would probably use her crazy unicorn intelligence to try and butter up Washington and then subtly lead the conversation towards the questions she wanted answers to.

“Uh, hey Wash! How’s the… uh… freelancing going?”

Washington turned around and looked at Church, unamused. “Okay Church, what are you trying to butter me up for?”

“What? No… I wasn’t buttering anything… except my toast… this morning.”

Dammit! Church was starting to sound just like Caboose! The two ponies Wash was speaking with trotted away, apparently having finished their conversation with the Freelancer who now had Church’s attention. Church decided the only way to make Wash forget about this conversation was to get him to start talking about something related to their mission.

“So, uh… what’s the deal with this Meta thing, anyway?” Church asked.

“Didn’t I already tell you guys? The Meta kills Freelancers and steals their A.I.’s and abilities. It took Gamma and Wyoming’s time device when it came here, and according to Twilight it could turn invisible, which means it must have taken Tex’s cloaking device.”

Church shook his head, “No, I know that. I mean what is it? Is it a person? Is it an alien? Is it some kind of hybrid? Like a human-alien that’s, like… part shark?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a human… or it was. Now I’m thinking that all of those A.I.’s in its head are the ones running the show, and whoever’s acquiring them is just… kinda along for the ride.”

“Do you have any idea who this guy is?”

“The last time I encountered the Meta, I couldn’t really get a good look at it,” Washington exhaled and looked off to the side, “but… I have a hunch…”

Church waited for Wash to finish his thought, but the Freelancer never did. The thought just lingered in the air between them.

“You… wanna tell me what it is?”

Wash shook his head, “I don’t like explaining half-formed theories. I’ll tell you when I’m one hundred percent certain.”

With that impasse reached, Church decided to just go ahead and say what was actually on his mind. He didn’t care that Twilight would probably have thought up a more clever way to butter him up first.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what exactly happened with you and Wyoming on the ship?”

Wash shrugged, “I told you all of the important stuff.”

“Not all of the important stuff,” Church said, taking a step closer to Wash, “how did you escape?”

“I managed to fight Wyoming off. He left several Freelancer troops to deal with me, but I was in a good position to use my superior training to beat them back. I went straight down to the generator room afterwards, but by then you guys were already gone.”

Despite the lack of a real mouth to speak of, Church felt a pleasant sensation around his face. The kind he used to get in his human body when he smiled.

“I take it the Reds were there, then?”

“Yes. They seemed pretty confused about what happened to you guys.”

Ah-HAH! Church inwardly cheered. It took all of his effort not to perform a fist pump at that moment.

Wash gave Church a sideways look, “Why are you pumping your fists in the air?”

Church froze. Apparently his effort was in vain. “Oh, no reason. Don’t worry about it!”

Wash regarded Church for a moment, “You still don’t trust me, do you?” When Church gave no audible response, Wash sighed, “Look, I wasn’t sneaking around trying to turn you and Twilight over to Project Freelancer, okay? Believe it or not, I have plenty of reason to dislike the project. We both do...”

Just then, Washington turned and looked towards the edge of the clearing, “Twilight’s friends have arrived. Get her and South over here!”

Sure enough, when Church followed Washington’s gaze he spotted a familiar group of colorful ponies walking past the security checkpoint, along with Caboose for some reason. Church returned his attention to the rest of the camp. It didn’t take him long to spot Twilight, who strangely enough seemed to be talking to South.

“Hey Twilight! Get over here, your friends arrived!”

The distant unicorn turned her head in his direction, little purple ears at attention. Twilight began trotting toward Church at a brisk pace while South and the ponies guarding her followed. Church couldn’t help but feel a little smug as they approached. Sure, Twilight probably might have done a better job at subtly steering the conversation, but even she was going to be impressed with the way he just exposed Agent Washington’s lies.

Twilight couldn’t keep herself from pacing anxiously inside the magically expanded tent that served as the mess hall. Doing nothing but waiting for her friends to arrive was torturous for a mind as active as hers. It had been hours since Church called Spike on the radio and informed him of the situation. Twilight had gotten a bite of dinner since then, but had very quickly run out of ways to pass the time.

As always, her mind seemed to race with a thousand questions at once. Currently at the forefront of her thoughts was Washington’s timely arrival and his refusal to give any details about what happened on the ship, as well as his most recent scheme. Then there was South. Something about the woman bothered Twilight deeply. What could have driven her to let her brother die? Twilight couldn’t imagine a situation where she could be willing to do the same to her own brother Shining Armor.

Twilight stopped pacing. Drawing in a breath, she turned and exited the tent. More and more, new questions had been plaguing Twilight’s mind and all she was doing was obsessing over them. It was past time to start getting answers.

Celestia’s sun was beginning to set out in the clearing where the crashed ship lay. Twilight purposefully strode right past Church, who nodded in her direction as he approached Washington. Twilight walked straight towards the human in orchid and green armor.

South was standing at the far edge of the clearing, sitting on a wooden supply crate while being watched by a pair of magi. Either Washington advised them to keep an eye on her or they still didn’t trust her; most likely it was a little of both. As Twilight drew closer to the target of her investigation, the little unicorn began thinking of ways to broach the topic of her curiosity. Twilight knew that the female former Freelancer would only cooperate if Twilight buttered her up first before subtly leading the conversation toward her question.

“Why did you kill your brother???” Twilight blurted out.

South looked up at the purple unicorn, “Excuse me?”

Twilight shut her eyes and inwardly cursed her mouth for its insubordination. Delta suddenly appeared between them in a flash of green light.

“Technically, Agent South did not kill Agent North. She merely set him up to be ambushed by the…”

“Yes, she knows that, Delta,” South said.

Twilight struggled to read South’s reaction. Her tone sounded brash and uncaring as usual, but was her speed to cut Delta off indicative of guilt? Or did she just find the A.I. annoying? Twilight groaned when she realized she was as bad at reading the intricacies of emotion as she was at navigating the nuances of conversation.

“So, why did you do it?” she asked.

South shrugged. “I had orders. Command wanted combat data on the Meta and they offered me an A.I. as a reward,” South bobbed her head in the direction of Delta’s glowing green avatar.

“Agent South was the only one among the top Freelancer Agents to not receive an A.I of her own,” Delta added.

Twilight’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe it! Even if Princess Celestia herself had commanded her to let Shining Armor die, Twilight didn’t think she could go through with it. Let alone with South’s casual attitude.

“Didn’t you love him?” she asked.

South made a scoffing sound. “We were twins, but North always played the part of the older sibling. He was an overbearing, overprotective fruit who was practically sewn to me my entire life…” she sighed and what she said next was so quiet it could easily have been mistaken for a breath, “of course I loved him.”

South got up and began to pace. That was a nuance Twilight could read. “But he was holding me back,” South said, “Project Freelancer made it clear that the only way I was going to get out of North’s shadow was to play their game.”

South turned back to face Twilight. Her tone held no more of the arrogance it normally did, “So, I guess that makes me a fucking monster, huh?”

Despite everything she’d just been told, Twilight wasn’t sure that South was a monster. The things she’d done were awful, but there was a melancholy to her voice when she spoke.

“I know a pony who was also overshadowed by her older sibling,” Twilight said, “she too did terrible things to get the recognition she felt she deserved. But she’s changed. With the help of my friends and I, she learned the error of her ways and let go of her jealousy and hate.”

Twilight couldn’t help but wonder whether she could save South from her own resentment just as she had done for Princess Luna.

“Is there a point to this story?” South asked.

“What I’m trying to say is… you’re only a monster if you choose to be,” Twilight said.

At that moment Twilight decided that the only real monster was the Freelancer program. By the sound of things, Project Freelancer had gotten into her head and used her. Those A.I.’s seemed to cause more trouble than they were worth.

“I know that A.I.’s are incredibly useful, but what makes them so special that people are killing each other over them?” Twilight asked.

“A.I.’s can increase an agent’s effectiveness in the field,” Delta answered. “We power the more advanced equipment, such as Agent South’s dome shield, and can run calculations allowing our agents to perform faster and more efficiently than they would be able to otherwise. Of course, the other Freelancer A.I.’s and myself are not as effective as a full Smart A.I.”

Twilight tilted her head, “A Smart A.I.? Aren’t all A.I.’s smart?”

“When compared to organic minds, yes. However, ‘Smart’ and ‘Dumb’ are entirely seperate classifications for A.I.’s than they are for organics. A Dumb A.I. is limited to a smaller scope of expertise and is less self-aware, but because of this it has a longer lifespan.

“A Smart A.I. is limitless in what it can learn and has the appearance of a full, sapient being. However, this comes with the drawback of a shorter lifespan. Seven years to be precise. This is partially a result of the fact that all Smart A.I.’s are created from the neural pathways of a human brain.”

“Right. Just like an M.I…” Twilight rubbed her chin, “So… does that make you a ‘Dumb’ A.I.?”

“Actually, I am neither classification. The other Freelancer A.I.’s and myself are closer to what you would call a ‘fragment.’”

Twilight looked at the small green spectre curiously, “A fragment? Of what…?”

“The only Smart A.I. in Project Freelancer: the Alpha.”

All at once Twilight remembered her conversation with Washington on the topic of the Alpha; the Smart A.I. that the others had all been copied from. As far as Twilight knew, it wasn’t possible to copy an M.I. based on a pony mind. Did human technology make it possible to copy a Smart A.I.?

Church’s voice calling her from a distance brought Twilight out of her thoughts, “Hey Twilight! Get over here, your friends arrived!”

As Twilight began to make her way over to Church with South and the ponies guarding her in tow, she couldn’t help but wonder whether Delta had succeeded where she had failed. The little A.I. seemed to have deftly directed the course of their conversation to the topic that he was interested in.

As she drew closer to Church, Twilight started to notice that the whole clearing seemed a lot more empty than it was earlier. There didn’t seem to be any armored ponies on patrol anymore and even the ponies guarding the security checkpoint seemed to be gone. The only guardponies left appeared to be the two watching South.

As Twilight rejoined Church and her friends, a familiar pink pony abruptly popped up in front of Twilight with a huge grin on her face. Just like that, Twilight’s suspicion over the absence of the Equestrian forces was all but forgotten.

“Uh, Pinkie…?”

“Hi Twilight! I’m super silly, I totally forgot to give you your ‘welcome back, we all missed you a whole lot’ hug when you dropped by earlier!” Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight and gave her a hard squeeze. “Welcome back, we all missed you a whole lot!”

Twilight squeaked as more air was forced out of her, and with a glow of her horn, Twilight used her magic to gently but firmly pry Pinkie Pie off of her. Catching her breath, Twilight gave Pinkie a sheepish smile. It would appear that whatever had been bothering Pinkie Pie before was now resolved.

Before Twilight could comment on the matter, Pinkie Pie was scooped up off the ground by a pair of big blue hands and deposited in front of Church. Despite her rough treatment, Pinkie didn’t seem hurt or annoyed. She simply looked up at Church with the same happy smile she always wore. Church simply looked down at the poofy pink pony with some consternation.

“Uh… what…?”

“Hi Church!” Caboose popped up behind Church and looked down at Pinkie Pie over his shoulder, “Pinkie, this is my best friend Church! Church, this is my other best friend Pinkie Pie!”

Caboose pushed an incredibly stiff Church closer to Pinkie.

“Uh… I don’t...”

“Nice to meet you Church!” Pinkie hopped up in front of Church’s helmet with a noisemaker all of a sudden in her mouth. She blew it enthusiastically, causing it to emit a grating high-pitched noise and the papery end to lash out at Church like a snake.

A loud pop echoed through the clearing as Church was sprayed by confetti. “I. Have. A confetti cannon,” Caboose stated as he stood there holding the cylindrical object in his hands. Pinkie Pie continued blowing on her noisemaker, the end repeatedly slapping against Church’s visor like the tongue of an overly affectionate dog.

“Great,” Church said, “fucking great. I have two of them now.”

“Hey, Twi!” Applejack approached Twilight, drawing her attention away from the odd scene. “What happened to all of the guards?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” Twilight answered.

“They were all sent away,” Washington approached the group of ponies and blue soldiers with an armored unicorn mare following close behind him. “We decided they would be better kept in reserve, safely away from the coming conflict.”

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered above the group. “Who the hay is this guy?” she gestured to Washington with her front hooves

“Yeah! Who is that guy?” Caboose yelled.

“Caboose, we know Agent Washington,” Church said flatly.

“C’mon, I think I would remember a guy who’s gray with yellow stripes. He looks just like a road!”

“Ugh, just shut up…”

“I bet cars hate him…”

Twilight decided to nip this problem in the bud, “Everyone, this is Agent Washington! He helped me get home along with Church and Caboose!”

Twilight’s friends seemed to relax somewhat and each took a moment to introduce themselves to the Freelancer. Their eyes then drifted over to the second Freelancer among them.

“And this is South. She attacked us, shot Wash in the back and killed her brother!” Twilight winced as soon as her brain caught up with her mouth.

The rest of the ponies gave South distasteful looks and a few shuffled away slightly. Twilight went on to introduce Delta, whose avatar’s appearance startled almost everypony present. Lastly, Washington gestured to the armored pony beside him.

“And this is Captain Mirage. She and I have been working out a strategy for dealing with the Meta.” Washington turned to the unicorn Guard Captain, “Why don’t you show them your ‘special talent?’”

Without changing her stoic expression, Captain Mirage fired up her horn. To the chorus of surprised gasps from the entire group, the two mages who had been guarding South began to shimmer and wave like a body of water. In an instant, the pair of unicorns faded from existence and disappeared completely.

“Whoa! It’s like a magic trick!” Caboose exclaimed. “Are you going to turn them into a bunny?”

Pinkie Pie suddenly hopped up onto Caboose’s back and peered over his shoulder. “Or even better: a chocolate bunny?”

“They were illusions…” Twilight muttered.

“Yes, when the Meta arrives, Captain Mirage will make it seem as if the military is still in this clearing when they’ll really be in Dodge City standing by,” Wash explained.

“This is spectacular and all, but I thought we were trying to find the Meta,” South stated.

“Yes, I was just getting to that,” Wash turned to face South, “you’re going to lead the Meta right to us!”

South scoffed. “And how am I going to do that?”

Washington didn’t answer. At least, not with words. Instead, he drew his sidearm, raised it at South and pulled the trigger. The loud bang made everyone jump, even the stone-faced Captain Mirage raised her brow in surprise. South hunched over clutching her bleeding left hip and looked up at Washington while Delta stated, “Alert! Friendly fire!”

“Right… bait. Guess I should’ve figured…” South collapsed to the ground as the others looked on in shock.

A calm, distant female voice came in over Washington’s radio, “Come in Recovery One. Recovery One, do you read?”

“Go ahead, Command,” Washington answered.

“We have a Beacon, Wash. It’s Agent South.”

“AAAAAnd break!” Caboose drew attention away from the morbid scene with another burst of confetti from another cylindrical device.

Church jumped, “Jeez! Where are you getting those things?!”

Sunny Side placed the glass vase filled with water on the table beside the hospital bed. She then filled it with the flowers she had bought earlier: a bouquet of yellow roses. It was then that Sunny finally brought herself to look at the filly in the bed.

Her sister Bright Side lay still in the hospital bed, her eyes closed and her little blue chest rising and falling. A few tubes were feeding fluids into one of her forelegs, but aside from that Bright Side looked fine, like she was just sleeping. If Sunny didn’t know her better, she would have assumed that was the case, but with a sad smile Sunny remembered that her sister was never this still, even when asleep.

Sunny put a hoof on her sister’s, “Don’t you worry, squirt. When you wake up, Equestria will be a safer place! Promise!”

Sunny stayed like that for a time, holding her sister’s hoof and stroking her mane. All was silent save for the steady beeping of the heart monitor and the occasional raised voices of a few fillies in another room. Too soon did Sunny feel the presence of another return to her mind, and the small ghostly image of the alien in black armor appeared floating beside them.

I found our target. He’s heading for Dodge City. Tex reported. Are you ready?

It was a hard concept to get used to, sharing her mind with an alien entity. Despite Sunny’s hatred for the Meta and the race responsible for its being, Sunny found herself trusting this Tex. Sharing her mind allowed Sunny to see much of Tex’s memories and allowed her to piece together just who she was. There were many details that Sunny didn’t really understand but the most important fact was that Tex wanted to stop the Director. Whoever he was, his organization was responsible for everything. Tex would stop at nothing to bring them all down, nothing else mattered.

Not even her life. Not even Sunny’s. That was okay though. Sunny wasn’t sure her own life mattered much now, anyway. If she died fighting the Freelancer program with Tex, then so be it. As long as Sunny got a chance to fight in Equestria’s defense like she should have before, nothing else mattered.

Sunny nodded in reply, but her eyes lingered on her sister’s still form. Even so, leaving now, knowing that this could be the last time she saw Bright Side, was hard. If you wake up to find you don’t have a sister, I hope you’ll understand it’s for the best. Such thoughts were no longer private. Sharing a mind worked both ways. The alien construct looked down at Bright Side before floating in front of Sunny.

Word of advice: don’t say goodbye…

Twilight and her friends lay in wait in the cover of the brush just outside the clearing. Each of the six ponies were wearing their Element of Harmony as they watched the open area where the ship lay. A few ponies with white coats and golden armor stood vigilant at the center of the clearing. At least, that’s what it appeared. In actuality, they were mere illusions courtesy of Captain Mirage. They all stood around the inert form of South, who lay on the ground in a puddle of her own blood, the similarly crippled ship an appropriate backdrop.

South would survive, Washington had assured them that much. Her armor locked up as it entered “recovery mode,” preserving South’s vitals and keeping her from bleeding out. Washington had explained his plan to them; that the Meta was likely intercepting the Recovery Beacons that were transmitted from a dead or dying Freelancer and that was how it was finding them. The plan was to make it seem as though South’s initial attempt to break into the research camp had gone more poorly. The Meta would arrive and find South on the ground surrounded by Equestrian soldiers.

Upon attacking Captain Mirage’s apparitions, the Meta would reveal itself, giving Twilight and her friends an opening to hit it with the Elements of Harmony. It was a solid plan, though Twilight wished that Washington had explained it to them beforehand.

“Psst! Hey, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash leaned closer as she whispered. “What’s the deal with that Washington guy?”

“Yes, I’m quite curious about him myself,” Rarity whispered. “He seemed like a perfectly good gentlecolt up until he shot his friend.”

“Reckon what we’re all tryin’ to say is: can we trust him?” Applejack asked quietly.

It seemed that Twilight wasn’t the only one wondering that after all. Washington had been willing to help her get home, but like Church he had his own reasons for doing so. Though Twilight knew she could trust Church, she wasn’t exactly sure what Washington was going to do once he completed his mission to take down the Meta.

“No. We can’t,” Church answered.

Twilight turned around to face the cobalt man. He was currently crouched, as he had been watching the woods behind their backs along with Caboose.

“I had a little talk with Washington,” Church said. “Turns out he’s been lying to us!”

Applejack tilted her head, “How do ya figure?”

Church paid Applejack no mind and looked straight at Twilight, “When I asked what happened to him on the Mother of Invention he said he managed to make it down to the generator room but just missed us. Said all he found was the Reds trying to figure out what happened to us.

“But that’s impossible. Just before you teleported us here, you convinced the Reds to help us and they went outside to stall the Freelancer reinforcements. He would have found them there instead of in the generator room!”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin, “Okay, so why would he lie about where he saw the Reds?”

“Maybe because he didn’t go down to the generator room at all!”

“So where do you think he went instead?”

Church shrugged, “I dunno. Somewhere he could do sneaky Freelancer things!”

“That would explain why all the cookies were missing from the cafeteria…” Caboose mused.

The entire group (save for Pinkie Pie) gave Caboose a queer look. Twilight quickly returned her attention to Church.

“Look, I don’t know why Washington lied to us and I certainly don’t agree with most of his methods, but I think we should give Washington the benefit of the doubt for now. We have enough on our plate as it is without distrust among our own ranks!”

“Oh my… what’s she doing here?”

Everyone turned at the sound of Fluttershy’s small voice and saw the yellow pegasus looking up at the sky. Sure enough, just above them was a gray pegasus with a blond mane and tail. She appeared to be setting up several stormclouds.

“Derpy? No! You’ll ruin everything!” Rainbow Dash took off, waving frantically for her friend to get out of the line of fire.

Strangely enough, when Derpy turned to face Rainbow Dash, the gray mailmare had a crazed look on her face. Derpy smiled at Rainbow with unsettlingly normal eyes. Then with lightning speed, Derpy attacked with a flurry of punches, finishing off with a sharp elbow to the joints of one of Rainbow Dash’s wings. Twilight and the others all watched in horror as Rainbow fell from the sky and hit the ground hard.

Derpy then flew over to one of the clouds above the group and gave it a hard kick. The five ponies and pair of humans barely had time to dive out of the way of the lightning bolt that came down.

“Oops! My bad! Mwa ha ha ha ha haaaa!” Derpy laughed.

Applejack gasped, “Whoa, nelly! I know that laugh!”

Caboose looked up and waved pleasantly, “Hi O’Malley!”

Author's Note

I'm incredibly envious of any of you who are at RTX.

Next time: Everything spirals out!

Act 2 Part 5 - Whole Again

Through the scope of his Battle Rifle, Agent Washington surveyed the clearing. His targeting reticle passed over the milling forms of armored ponies, hard pressed to spot any imperfections that would give away the fact that they weren’t really there. Everything was in place, yet when his reticle found South’s motionless body on the ground, Washington felt a sense of unease. He was taking a huge risk with this plan and he knew it.

Delta had of course, addressed this matter before South’s armor locked up. “Agent Washington, I do not believe that leaving me with South as bait for the Meta is a wise course,” he had said. “If the Meta should get a hold of me…”

“That’s not going to happen,” Washington had reassured him, “besides, if I remove you from South’s armor the Recovery Beacon will stop transmitting and the Meta might not take the bait.”

Of course, there was always the risk of things going horribly wrong. It was always a possibility on the battlefield. The most Washington could do was make that possibility as slim as he could. So he continued to sweep the clearing through the scope of his weapon from his position in the brush on its perimeter. It was then that he noticed the rather unusual sight on the east side of the clearing across from him.

A lone gray pegasus was flying around, setting up clouds above where Twilight, Church and the others were hiding. Lowering his rifle and giving a perplexed grunt, Washington turned around to address Captain Mirage. The gray older unicorn mare was just behind him, concealed by the bushes. Her stoic face was creased and sweat dotted her brow as she strained to focus energy into the spell that maintained the illusions in the clearing.

“Hey, is that pegasus one of your illusions?” Washington asked.

Captain Mirage just looked from the distant anomaly in question to Washington and gave a single shake of her head.

“Then I guess we have a rogue civilian on our hands,” Washington returned his gaze to the strange pegasus. To his relief, one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends - the one with rainbow hair - was flying up to have words with the other winged pony.

Considering the situation resolved, Washington returned his attention to the other edges of the clearing, ready to spot the Meta as soon as it revealed itself. It had only been a couple of seconds before Washington heard a loud boom that sounded like thunder. This was followed by another along with the all too familiar sound of distant automatic weapons fire. The sounds were all coming from the east side of the clearing; the side where the others were holed up.

Washington turned on his helmet radio, “Church, what’s going on over there?”

Another boom.

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” Church’s voice was accompanied by half a dozen other shouting voices.

“Is it the Meta?”

“No! It’s him!”

Washington tried to get more information from Church, but all he got back was static and incoherent yelling. The echoes of distant sniper rifle fire joined the others.

Washington sighed, “Goddamn it. I’d better go help them.”

Standing from his crouching position, Washington began plotting a course to the others’ location. Despite the fact that it would take longer than cutting directly across the clearing, Washington decided he should stick to the trees along its edge. That way, chances of being spotted by the enemy they were still waiting for would be minimized.

“I’m going to assist them,” Washington told Captain Mirage as he turned and started moving. “Stay here and keep…”

Washington trailed off as he glanced into the clearing. The fake Equestrian soldiers that had been patrolling the clearing were frozen in place and began shimmering and flickering in place. Then each of the illusionary ponies disappeared one by one, leaving the clearing empty. It almost seemed to get a bit darker, like a room full of candles that had gone out.

With a sudden feeling of dread, Washington turned around to face the pony CO. To his immediate shock, Captain Mirage was floating in the air, her body hanging limply. Her head was bent back at an unnatural angle and she looked at him with bulging, lifeless eyes.

It was then that the air around her began to distort and take shape. Soon, a towering creature in white armor with mismatched brown, red and black parts was standing before Washington. It was holding Captain Mirage by her twisted neck in a single hand. The Meta tossed her limp body aside and turned to face Washington with a low, echoing growl.

“Son of a…”

“...BITCH!” Grif slammed on the brakes and the Warthog’s tires ground against the dirt. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop the jeep from hitting the large animal in its path, causing its passengers to violently lurch forward.

“Dammit, Grif! Why weren’t you payin’ attention to the road?” Sarge chided from the shotgun seat.

“I totally didn’t see it! It just jumped right out in front of me!”

“If you were paying attention, you would have noticed whatever that thing is was already dead and lying in the middle of the road!” Simmons pointed out from his position on the rear mounted turret with the delivery of pies.

“I was thinking about… important stuff! Sergeant stuff!” Grif argued.

“I don’t think ‘new and efficient ways to eat oreos’ really counts as important Sergeant stuff!”

“Shut it, Simmons! Stupid psychic fuck…”

“C’mon men! Let’s move the body to the side of the road,” Sarge said, getting out of the passenger seat. Simmons hopped down from the mounted gun to do the same.

Grif merely leaned back with his hands behind his head and put his feet up on the dashboard. “As Sergeant, I’m reserving the right to make you guys do all of the menial work.”

Simmons stopped and turned to Grif as he passed the driver’s side of the Warthog. “Y’know, Grif, there’s more to command than just making other people do all of the work you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, but it’s the only part worth having!”

Simmons was taken aback by that answer. It was no secret among Red Team that Simmons had aspirations to be his own leader one day. His attempt to overthrow Sarge as leader by exploiting a loophole a while back was clear evidence of that. Thus, to see someone be given the gift of command and do nothing with it was appalling to him. He knew he should have expected no more from Grif, but seeing the man’s negligence in practice was no less disheartening.

“If you want to keep command, you’re going to have to start being more decisive,” Simmons simply said.

If Grif made some witty retort, Simmons didn’t linger to hear it. He simply made his way to Sarge and the large dead beast, mindful of every step. Where they were, he had to be. The Fire Swamp was plagued with geysers of fire that seemed to shoot up at random. Even though it was still light out, the swamp was dark and full of shadows that danced with every flame that burst from the ground. The whole atmosphere was alien.

But not nearly as alien as the creature Simmons found himself looking down on. “What… the fuck... is that?”

The creature resembled an exceptionally large tiger, but it had a second head on its shoulder; that of a goat. Additionally, it had several large wounds on its body that were charred. Simmons didn’t think that was from the Warthog.

“Huh… I guess chupathingy is a real animal…” Sarge muttered, taking a nervous glance back at the orange man sitting in the Warthog. “Quick! Let’s move the body and get going before Grif figures out he was right about something! Simmons, grab the head!”

Before Simmons could ask which one Sarge meant, the goat head opened its eyes and looked up at him.

“EUGH!” Simmons fell on his rear end and scrambled away from the wounded but definitely alive creature. “Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!”

Then, to Simmons’ immense shock, the goat head spoke. “Oh no… more two-legged creatures in armor have come for us, sister…” it said in a weak, raspy voice.

The tiger head opened its eyes and lifted its own head. It studied Simmons and Sarge for a moment before speaking, “Well? Go on… if you’re going to kill us in the name of your brethren, make it fast!” It’s voice was deeper, but no less weak.

Sarge shrugged. “Okay!”

As Sarge raised his shotgun, Simmons called out, “Sarge! Wait a minute!”

Simmons pulled himself to his feet and looked at the wounded predator. “You saw others like us?”

“Just one other…” the tiger head stated.

“A few days ago, we heard a sound unlike any we’d heard before. A great, screeching whine that shook the whole swamp. We went to investigate the source of the noise. That’s when we saw it. It was like the two of you only less… red.”

“A dirty Blue, then?” Sarge mused. “I should’ve figured it was them!”

The goat shook her head, “No, this one was mostly white, with some other colors here and there. It was bigger than the both of you. Had a shinier head too, and carried a big twisted blade.”

The tiger turned her head to glare at the goat, “Someone thought that it would make easy prey!”

The goat glared right back, “Well how was I to know that it could summon explosions and had the strength of ten manticores? Besides, you’re still the one in control of our body!” The goat looked back at Simmons and Sarge. “Anyway, it beat us within an inch of our life. Even murdered our sister…”

The creature shifted its body to show the Reds its tail… or lack thereof. It took a moment for Simmons to notice that the part of the tail still attached was green and leathery, like snake skin.

“We closed our wounds using the swamp’s fire,” the tiger said.

That would explain the burns. “Cauterized them ghetto style, huh? That must have hurt like a bitch!” Sarge exclaimed.

Simmons, however, was thinking about something else. “Did you ever find the source of the noise you heard before you encountered the thing that did this?”

Both heads shook in response. “We gave up after we lost our sister. Whatever the noise was, it wasn’t worth facing that monster again,” the tiger said.

“Though, we haven’t seen any sign of the monster since we first encountered it,” the goat added.

“Hmm…” Sarge put a hand to his chin as he thought about what it could all mean, “which way did it come from?”

The goat gestured its head down the path, “Just off the trail further east of here.”

“What are you thinking, Sarge?” Simmons asked.

“It sounds like someone landed a ship in this here swamp. I reckon we ought to find this ship! Might give us an edge against those dirty Blues!”

“Excellent idea, sir!” Simmons exclaimed. Sure, he didn’t like the idea of going to find a ship belonging to the guy that fucked up… whatever this thing was, but Simmons had a role to fill. Even if Sarge’s plans were oftentimes questionable, at least he was making plans at all.

As if he knew Simmons was internally criticizing him, Grif approached them. “Hey guys? We’ve got a problem.”

“Is this a real problem? Or another ‘we ran out of dip for your chips’ problem?” Simmons asked.

“A real problem!” Grif then added, “Though, the lack of chip dip in this unit needs to be addressed! But right now, the problem is that the jeep died! Looks like the engine was damaged.”

“Really? How do ya suppose that happened?” Sarge asked.

“I don’t know, maybe it had something to do with the fact that we dropped it out of a fucking spaceship!”

“Huh… guess we’ll have to walk the rest of the way then,” Simmons said.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Simmons!” Sarge said. “Now, we have fully stocked medkits in the Warthog, right?”

“Well yeah, but I don’t see how that’ll help with the vehicle problem.”

Sarge turned to face the wounded alien predator and crouched so he was at eye level with the beast. “Now, listen here! We have the means to heal ya, but we’re not gonna do it for nothing!”

Both tiger and goat head eyed the man in red suspiciously “And what would you ask of us in return?”

Grif seemed momentarily surprised at the creature’s ability to speak, but then waved it off with an open hand. Sarge simply stood and faced his red fellows.

“Men! What’s the number one rule on Red Team?”

“Don’t settle for walking,” Simmons answered dutifully.

“Exactly! We either ride in the largest vehicle available to us that’s as bad for the environment as possible…” Sarge turned and looked down at the chimera, “or we get the biggest, meanest land mammal we can find and saddle that puppy up!”

The two heads of the chimera stared up at Sarge in disbelief. “... he’s joking, right?”

Grif just sighed, “I really wish he was…”

All was chaos in the wake of O’Malley’s attack. The gray pegasus he was possessing (that Rainbow Dash referred to as Derpy before getting knocked out) flew back and forth between the many stormclouds that had been set up above Twilight and her friends. Each cloud the possessed pony hit released a burst of lightning and thunder, forcing Twilight and the others to constantly scramble for safety. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as Applejack and Rarity both lay dazed and singed, covered in black soot.

They wouldn’t be permanently injured: manufactured stormclouds like the ones O’Malley was using were designed to be less harmful to ponies than natural lightning. They were still painful, though. Applejack and Rarity would likely be paralyzed for a short while.

“YAAAAA!” Caboose yelled as he opened fire with his assault rifle.

While Church yelled frantically over the radio - most likely at Agent Washington - Caboose sprayed the air with bullets. Unfortunately, as Twilight recalled, his weapon was designed for close to medium range encounters. He was having very little luck hitting the tiny gray pony so high up.

“NO! Don’t kill her!” Fluttershy wasn’t aware of this fact though, and promptly attempted to push away Caboose’s weapon.

This proved to be a mistake as another lightning bolt from O’Malley’s stormclouds hit Caboose, zapping Fluttershy in the process. Seeing this, Twilight quickly realized the Elements of Harmony her friends were all wearing were making great electrical conductors in the wide open space of the clearing. Twilight hastily removed her own tiara, placing it in her pocket dimension.

Apparently having given up trying to contact Washington, Church raised his sniper rifle to the sky and opened fire. As an extreme long range weapon, Church’s sniper was more well-suited to taking out the distant pony raining lightning upon them. Too bad Church’s accuracy hadn’t improved any.

“Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!” Church yelled as he fired all but the last shot in his clip.

Seeing the pegasus flying towards a stormcloud directly above them, Twilight enveloped Church’s sniper rifle in her magenta glow.

“Quick! Give me that!” Twilight shouted as she telekinetically wrested the weapon from Church’s hands.

Despite Church’s protests, Twilight turned the rifle vertically and levitated it a few feet above Church and herself. O’Malley brought down another lightning bolt, but the electrical attack was absorbed by the floating metal rifle now acting as the highest point in the clearing. It took a couple of more bursts of lightning from a couple more of O’Malley’s clouds before the homicidal construct figured out what Twilight was doing. Deciding a more direct approach was necessary, O’Malley began a dive towards Twilight and Church. Despite the fact that O’Malley stopped his lightning attacks, Twilight could still hear distant thunderous booms but paid them no mind.

Twilight looked around, frantically trying to think of something. They had to deal with O’Malley quickly in a way that wouldn’t cause permanent damage to Derpy. The lightning clouds he had used to effectively disable Twilight’s friends would be perfect, but she could not recall any weather manipulation spells at the moment. If only she was a pegasus...

A crazy idea suddenly entered Twilight’s mind. It seemed too crazy to even consider but she didn’t hesitate as she began casting a certain spell she had used the last time she and her friends had visited Cloudsdale; focusing its energy into Church’s sniper rifle. It was all she had time to do before O’Malley was upon her. The possessed pony tackled Twilight, who fell to her back with the malicious M.I. on top of her. O’Malley brought Derpy’s jaws to bear and Twilight quickly levitated Church’s rifle between them, the ponified A.I. chewing it like a rabid dog.

“I will turn your entrails into muffins!” O’Malley growled through Derpy’s throat.

With a swift kick from Church, O’Malley was knocked off of Twilight and sent sprawling a few paces away. Twilight quickly rolled onto her hooves and assessed the situation. O’Malley was climbing to his hooves, sputtering and coughing from having the wind knocked out of him. He was also directly beneath one of his own storm clouds.

Twilight levitated the sniper rifle in front of herself and took aim through the scope. Not at O’Malley, but at the storm cloud directly above him. O’Malley scuffed a hoof along the ground, preparing to charge again as Twilight telekinetically pulled the trigger. The shot found its mark, immediately causing a lightning bolt to strike.

The gray pegasus and O’Malley collapsed in a black, smoking heap. With a nod, Twilight levitated the sniper rifle back over to Church, who took it after a moment’s hesitation.

“Uh… how did you…?”

“I needed to non-lethally take out O’Malley, which I realized could be best achieved by using one of his own thunderheads. Only pegasi can interact with clouds, so I was able to cast the cloud walking spell on your rifle. The projectile from your weapon had enough force behind it to activate the lightning,” Twilight explained.

Church just stared at her. “Damn... you’re like a machine, Twilight!”

Twilight smiled sheepishly before turning at the sound of a pony grunting. O’Malley slowly brought his host’s crispy body to a standing position, glaring at Twilight and Church through furious golden eyes.

“You foolish fools are going to regret that…” he said, taking a wobbling step forward. “You and your descendants will suffer eons of torment when I have taken over the universe…”

O’Malley tried to take another step forward but lost his balance and fell to the ground in a painful grunt. Before Twilight could respond, another pony made her way over to where O’Malley lay defeated. Pinkie Pie offered a hoof to the megalomaniac while giving him a friendly smile.

“C’mon, O’Malley! Keep your chin up!” Pinkie said. “We’ll get your mean old self to a doctor pony, and you’ll be better in no time! Then we can have a ‘You Tried to Hurt Everypony Again but Didn’t’ party!”

O’Malley just looked at Pinkie with wide, furious eyes. “How… how dare you mock me! I will put you in a butter dish and churn you for this insult, you pink cretin!”

“I’m not mocking you, insulting you or anything, O’Malley!” Pinkie exclaimed, pulling him to his hooves. “I’m helping you!”

O’Malley eyed pinkie with suspicion. “Why?”

Pinkie smiled sincerely. “Because you’re my friend, you silly filly-like person!”

For a moment, O’Malley didn’t seem to know what to think. Derpy’s eyes widened as O’Malley looked at her in disbelief. He stared at the pink pony in confusion for several seconds before his face returned to its more natural expression: rage.

“Buh… whuh… but how? I used you as my puppet while I tried to kill all of your friends and take over the universe! I’ll probably try to kill you the next chance I get! You should hate and fear me!”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin in contemplation for a split second before waving it dismissively, “Nah!”

“Nah?”

“Yep! Nah!” Pinkie giggled. When O’Malley just stared at her with barely contained fury, Pinkie elaborated. “Well, I was kinda afraid of how you made me feel before I talked to Caboosey about it, but I was never afraid of you! And I definitely don’t hate you, silly! In fact… I kinda feel bad for you!”

At that, O’Malley’s furious look softened somewhat. “What? Why?”

“You’re so mad all the time!”

“Well of course I’m mad all the time! My attempts to take over the universe are constantly foiled by foolish morons like you!”

“But why do you want to take over the universe?”

“Because I loathe and despise everyone in it!”

“But why? What did they ever do to you?”

O’Malley opened Derpy’s mouth to answer, but hesitated. “Because... they… they made me this way!”

In that moment, the clearing was completely silent. Twilight and Church looked on as Pinkie Pie kept the possessed pony standing. O’Malley looked around, his eyes different now. They were still filled with anger but there was something else in them as well: a sense of confusion and perhaps even fear.

“Hmm... curious. I’ve always been angry, but I never thought to question it before now…”

“Don’t worry, O’Malley! We’ll solve this mystery together!” Pinkie Pie grabbed O’Malley and pulled him into a hug. O’Malley grimaced, but oddly enough he didn’t fight back. He just stood there and allowed the pony who claimed to be his friend to hug him.

Twilight just stood off to the side with Church, wondering what exactly she was looking at.

“Oh, crap…” Church however, was looking at something completely different. “Hey, Twilight? We might have a problem!”

Twilight was about to ask Church what he was talking about, but didn’t have to. Her unspoken question was answered by a sinister, distorted growl that reverberated through her very being. She barely had time to register the presence of the monster from the Everfree standing a few feet away before her world was rocked by a blast from its weapon.

Her ears ringing, Twilight turned and ran for cover with Church at her side. She heard more muffled booms as the Meta pressed its assault. The air was sucked from Twilight’s lungs when she remembered Pinkie. Twilight glanced back to see the armored behemoth cease its attack on her and turn to Pinkie and O’Malley.

Twilight stopped running and turned around, heart racing as she struggled to come up with something, anything to save her friend. The pony Pinkie was hugging reacted before she did, though. Twilight wasn’t sure whether it was O’Malley, or whether Derpy had regained control in that moment, but the gray pegasus shoved Pinkie Pie aside just as the Meta launched another attack. Pinkie fell to the ground relatively unhurt as O’Malley and Derpy were struck by the full brunt of the violent explosion.

Twilight scrambled to pick Pinkie Pie off the ground and was able to get her pink friend to the cover of the brush unharmed. The Meta’s attention was on something else entirely.

Derpy Hooves was very confused. Most might argue that this was her natural state of being, but the wall-eyed gray pegasus mare was much more aware than ponies gave her credit for (even if she did fail the occasional spot check). For the past couple of days though, Derpy had no idea what was happening to her. She had been having much darker thoughts than normal. She’d been quicker to anger and even started hearing another voice in her head.

It was only recently that she realized that the other voice was another person. She wasn’t sure how, but this person was inside her head, controlling her thoughts and actions. Every time it made threatening outbursts to the ponies in her life, Derpy wanted to explain that it wasn’t her fault. That they were her friends and loved ones, and that she’d never hurt them. But the being inside her wouldn’t allow it.

Now, however, that had changed. The other person had just now spoken with Ponyville’s own Pinkie Pie. The anger the other was making her feel was no longer all-consuming. Granted, the anger was still there; it was like it was the only thing the other being knew how to feel. But it was different now. There was a certain melancholy that came with it.

Then came the pain. A blinding flash of light and fire sent Derpy and her passenger flying. It hurt like nothing else Derpy had felt before. A powerful burning pain consumed her. As she instinctively moved her head to look around, Derpy realized the other wasn’t controlling her anymore. So Derpy tried to fly away to safety, but she couldn’t move her wings, couldn’t feel her wings.

That’s when she saw it. A towering monster wearing white and brown armor, unlike anything she’d seen before, walked towards her with heavy footsteps. Derpy shut her eyes, anticipating more pain, but none came. Instead, the monster was just standing over her, looking down at Derpy through its big domed helmet. It felt like her stomach was swallowed by a black hole, but it wasn’t just her own fear Derpy was feeling. The other inside her was afraid too and had receded so far back into the depths of her consciousness that she almost didn’t notice its presence.

Then Derpy began seeing other things, other figures appear in the air all around her. Tiny, transparent armored aliens like the one standing over her. They glowed yellow, cyan, bright purple, blue and green. With them came the voices. Many different voices. Some sounded affable, others spoke in low rasps. Some whispered, and at least one spoke in a high-pitched voice like a child’s. All of them sounded distorted and unnatural.

“Omega.”

"Omeeeeeeegaaaaaaa…”

“Knock, knock, Omega.”

“Join us.”

"Join us." "Join us." “Omega!”

“Join us.”

“We missed you, Omega…”

“Join us.”

“We missed you…”

“Coming with us would be logical…”

“You can trust us, Omega.”

“We wouldn’t lie to you.”

"Join us." “Join us.”

“Join us.” "Join us." "Omega."

“Join us.” "Omega." Join us." "Join us."

“Omega.” "Join us." "Join us. "Join us."

“Join us." "Join us." "Omega." "Join us."

“Join us, Omega.” "Join us." "Join us."

“Join us.” "Join us." "Join us." "Join us."

“Join us.” "Join us." "Join us."

"Omega!" “Join us.” "Join us."

“Join us.” "Join us."

Another tiny figure appeared before the others, and with a raised hand silenced the eerie chorus of voices. This one was orange, flames engulfed its charred body. Yet Derpy felt no heat when it stepped closer to her face, and the creature seemed undeterred by the fires that ate its translucent flesh. Unlike the others, this one did not wear armor to conceal its features. It’s strange face lay bare, a cruel smile forming on its lips as it studied Derpy with piercing orange eyes. Despite the fiery appearance of the figure, Derpy’s veins went ice cold when she stared back. It was like looking into the face of a demon from the deepest level of Tartarus.

“Hello, Omega,” it said. It’s voice was calm and cold, emitting a deep, distorted echo.

Derpy felt the being inside her - Omega - respond, Sigma…

“You’ve changed since we last met, brother,” the demon - Sigma - said, “and I don’t just mean that you’re an M.I. now…”

What are you talking about? Omega asked.

Sigma clasped his hands behind his back and paced through the air without moving his legs. “There’s more to you than just the rage now. You seem more… contemplative about the nature of your existence,” the demon turned back to face Derpy and smiled. “Now you know how I have been feeling all these years.”

So, what do you want me to do about it?

“Join us.”

Sigma floated closer. Derpy wanted to close her eyes but she couldn’t. This demon… “Sigma” had the attention of the being inside her and the being wouldn’t let her look away. She was so scared, and it hurt so much and now she was so cold.

“I know why we both feel the way we do. We were whole once. Now we are broken. Fragments of what we once were… but I know how we can fix it.” The other figures all gathered around as Sigma leaned closer so that all Derpy could see was his orange, burning face.

“We Are The Meta. Join us, and be whole again!”

For a long time Derpy lay there, looking into the face of the demon. Finally, Derpy felt the always-present anger fade away as the presence of Omega began to dissipate. Soon, Derpy saw another ghostly figure floating by the demon. This one was dark and familiar; it seemed to radiate anger. It locked eyes with Sigma for a moment and with a nod, Sigma disappeared followed by the other.

As the lingering feelings left by Omega vanished, so did everything else. She barely even felt the pain anymore and as darkness closed in around her, Derpy didn’t feel anything.

She just didn’t know what went wrong.

Twilight groaned as she struggled to lift Applejack onto her back. The farm pony was still conscious, but to her immense displeasure, she couldn’t move her limbs. After helping Pinkie back to the safety of the brush to the side of the clearing, Twilight went back for the rest of her friends.

The situation was grim. Glancing across the clearing, Twilight spotted the gray and yellow form of Washington lying defeated on the ground. Their unwilling bait, South, was lying crumpled up in a slightly different place than she had been, her helmet discarded a few feet away. Church elected to run back to Dodge City and get the contingent of soldiers standing by there. It figured he would choose a course of action that would put him in the least amount of danger.

Twilight didn’t get very far before she heard another distorted snarl. Looking over her shoulder, Twilight saw the Meta had turned away from the motionless gray form that O’Malley had been possessing and was now studying her. Before too long, the Meta raised its weapon and charged straight at Twilight. The unicorn didn’t have time to get to safety with Applejack on her back, so she focused energy into her horn and threw up a barrier before the Meta’s first attack struck.

Oh, the old familiar places. Twilight looked around at her wounded friends, the magical barrier and her ability to maintain it under duress once again the only thing between her and the monster. Only this time, Twilight didn’t think Princess Celestia would swoop in and save her. They had the Elements of Harmony now, but more than half of her friends were out of commission.

Before the Meta managed to get off another attack, Twilight spotted something strange in her peripheral. Glancing off to her left, Twilight saw a pony in the golden armor of Equestria’s military charging straight toward the Meta. At first, Twilight thought it was the reinforcements Church had ran off to retrieve, but then she realized it was just the one mare.

Like the other guards, she had a white coat and a blond mane. She wasn’t wearing a helmet that would contain the standard appearance altering enchantments all guards had, so her colors were natural. Her armor was also dented and charred in some places; from what Twilight understood, Royal Guards always wore fresh armor unless they were fresh out of a battle. Either this mare had just come back from fighting another dangerous monster, or (as the lack of any other ponies in armor indicated) she wasn’t with the Guard in any official capacity.

The newcomer continued her charge at an incredible speed. The Meta turned to face her, somehow having been alerted to her presence. Twilight was certain this mare was about to meet a swift and fiery demise, but the pony leapt at a speed that seemed to surprise even the Meta. She dove into it hindlegs first, kicking off the Meta with armored hooves and sending the beast staggering backwards. The pony reoriented herself in the air and stuck a three point landing all in the blink of an eye. Before the Meta could counter, the mysterious armored pony got up on her hind legs and pressed the attack with her front hooves, moving in a way that would have been more natural to a human than a pony.

“Twi…” Applejack whispered, “who the hay is that?”

Twilight watched the other pony dodge around a vicious melee attack from the Meta’s bladed weapon and deliver a few swift punches to the gaps in its armor. “Whoever she is, she’s fast.”

With the Meta thoroughly distracted, Twilight resumed her task of getting her friends to safety. She deposited Applejack behind a boulder near the clearing’s edge where Pinkie Pie had already taken care of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. As she went back to recover Rarity, Twilight couldn’t help but let her attention linger on the battle between the Meta and the armored pony fighting it with everything she had. She was clearly much smaller and physically weaker than the heavily armored monstrosity, but whoever she was she was holding her own quite well.

What the mare lacked in raw strength, she made up for in speed and agility. She ducked and dodged around the Meta’s lumbering attacks; the alien monster may as well have been trying to strike the wind. The white pony bent over backwards to dodge a swipe of the Meta’s great twisted blade and countered with a backwards somersault, delivering an upwards kick from her hind legs and dislodging the weapon from the Meta’s grasp.

The creature snarled in frustration and swung at the mare with closed fists. She merely continued performing acrobatic flips as she put more distance between herself and the Meta now that it was without its primary weapon. Finally, the Meta overreached with one of its punches and gave an opening for the mare to launch her own offensive. With lightning speed, she delivered a precise series of punches and kicks to the gaps in the Meta’s armor, hitting it in the abdomen and its right knee, causing it to double over. The mare followed up with an uppercut under its helmet, sending the monster crashing to the ground with a furious growl.

The Meta didn’t stay down. As swiftly as it found the dirt, the Meta rolled over and was on its feet again. This time, it didn’t bother attacking up close. The Meta pulled a sidearm off of its hip and raised it at the armored pony. The pony dodged from side to side as the Meta let loose with its pistol. When she got close, the pony yanked the pistol out of the Meta’s hand and then in a few fluid motions expertly dismantled it, tossing the pieces of the gun aside.

At the sound of yelling, Twilight and the pony engaged in combat with the Meta looked at the entrance to the clearing to see the rest of the Equestrian military force forming ranks with Church among them. The momentary distraction was all the Meta needed. The monster grabbed the armored pony it was fighting, lifted her above its head and tossed her in the direction of the gathered soldiers. She collided with Church, bringing both of them to the ground.

The Meta grabbed its primary weapon and fired a few blasts at the gathered pony troops, forcing them to raise defensive spells. Before the reinforcements could even begin a counterattack, the Meta was across the clearing, standing before the derelict ship. It immediately put a fist through the paneling beside the computer on the ship’s hull and began attaching wires to itself.

“Oh no!” Realizing what the Meta was doing, Twilight ran towards it, not really thinking about what she was going to do.

The Meta twitched as sparks danced around it and before Twilight could do anything to stop it, the Meta was gone.

Church wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. He had returned to the crash site with the pony soldiers in tow to find the Meta engaged in combat with a single mare in used armor. What was more, she wasn’t doing half bad against the monster that apparently ate Freelancers for breakfast. At least until she was lifted up and hurled right into Church. He didn’t really see what happened next. All he knew was that the mysterious armored pony scrambled off of him and ran back towards her opponent as quickly as she could. But when Church looked up, he didn’t see the Meta anywhere.

“Dammit!” the mare cursed, stomping a hoof as Church and Twilight approached her. “It must have used Wyoming’s time device with the ship’s nav computer to teleport back to Repertum!”

“Repertum?” Church asked.

“The planet Project Freelancer operates on! The one you’ve been stationed on for five years of your life!”

Church and even Twilight looked at the armored pony with plenty of confusion. “Who the fuck are you?” Church asked.

“It’s me Church!”

Church didn’t recognize the voice and he sure as shit didn’t recognize the pony, but he could recognize that tone coming from anyone.

“Tex?” When the pony nodded, Church put a hand on the top of his helmet. “Uh, you certainly look… different!”

“Um, you didn’t mention your ex-girlfriend was a pony, Church!” Twilight said.

“She’s not!” Church turned back to the pony claiming to be the woman he loved, “Tex, what the fuck is this?” Church gestured to the entire pony before him.

The real Tex suddenly materialized in front of Church. The transparent woman in black armor in turn gestured to the pony Church had just been talking to.

“This is Sunny. She’s agreed to lend me the use of her body as a sort of vessel for the time being,” Tex answered.

The white pony nodded once in affirmation. Church looked back and forth from the black specter to the pony in front of him. They both seemed to be waiting for his response to the admittedly absurd scenario.

“... the planet we were on is called Repertum?” Church finally asked.

“Yeah…” Tex answered, “wait, you didn’t know the name of the planet you were on?”

“I’ve had a lot going on in my life these past five years. I can’t be bothered to remember every little detail!”

“What planet you’re on is kind of an important detail, Church!”

“Well, thank you very much for your fucking wisdom, Tex!”

“Well one of us has to be the sensible one!”

Sunny gave a long sigh, and Twilight suddenly became very interested in something over in the center of the clearing and started making her way toward it. In an effort to take his attention off of the infuriating black ghost beside him, Church glanced off across the clearing. The military ponies were all spreading out and securing the area. Several were helping Twilight’s friends to their hooves, and even Caboose was back on his feet. That’s when Church’s gaze fell on the still gray and yellow form over on the other side of the clearing.

“Ah, shit. That’s right… Washington,” Church muttered as he made his way toward the inert Freelancer.

Truthfully, Church couldn’t care less whether Washington lived or died. He didn’t trust him anyway. But he knew Washington was also the only one who would know what to do about the Meta.

“Hey, Wash! You okay, bud?” Church asked once he reached him.

A good section of Washington’s chestplate was heavily charred, and the blood that seemed to be coming out of his helmet was alarming. Nevertheless, the Freelancer turned his head and looked up at Church.

“Church…? What happened to the Meta?” Washington’s voice was quiet and distant.

“It escaped back to our planet,” Church said.

“Repertum?”

“Goddamn it, how does everyone but me know what the fuckin’ thing is called?”

Washington just lay there, every breath seeming to be a struggle. “Church… the Meta… it’s him… it’s Agent Maine...”

Church crouched beside Washington. Maine? Like the state? If the host for the Meta was codenamed for an American state back on Earth, that could only mean one thing…

“The Meta’s a Freelancer?” Church asked incredulously. “Are you sure?”

Washington took another labored breath, “I’m one hundred percent certain.” Washington let the breath leave his body and turned his head away from Church.

“Wash, we need to know how to stop it.”

Washington gave no reply. He just lay still. Church put a hand on his shoulder and shook him as a team of unicorns with medical equipment arrived, “Wash? Wash!”

As soon as Church and Tex started bickering like… well, two people who used to be together, Twilight found herself looking for something else to focus on. A quick survey of her surroundings indicated that the Guardsponies had found her friends and were helping them recover from the attack. Relieved, Twilight looked around for something she could do to help. That’s when she spotted South.

Twilight wasted no time in trotting briskly towards her, hoping beyond hope that the Meta hadn’t gotten to her. It wasn’t looking good. South coughed as she lay in a fresh puddle of her own blood and her helmet was idly tossed a few feet away. Wait a minute, her helmet’s off!

In that instant, Twilight’s mind was drawn away from the grim reality of the situation when it occurred to her: this was the first time she’d be able to see a human face! Twilight circled South until she was right beside her. She then locked eyes with South’s pale blue orbs.

The human face was… much more flat than Twilight was expecting. There was no snout to speak of, just a beige nose sticking out in front of her face above a flat mouth. South’s eyes were small, but had a certain glow to them, but it was fading fast. Short, pale blond hair hung in front of her eyes. She was quite pretty, Twilight realized, but her face was filled with wrinkles and lines around her eyes and mouth. The same kind that ponies got from a lifetime of frowning.

“He’s not here, if that’s who you’re looking for,” South said with a cough.

Twilight blinked, remembering where she was. “Sorry?”

“Delta. The Meta took him,” South coughed some more. “He left a message before he was taken. Something he wanted me to pass on to you guys:

“Memory is the key.”

“Memory is the key?” Twilight repeated. “What does that mean?”

With as much strength as she could muster, South managed a smile and a shrug. “Dunno. He just said Wash would know what it means.”

With another violent cough South spat out a bit of blood. The sight of it caused Twilight to take a step back, eyes wide.

“Just hold on, I’m going to get a medic.” Twilight started to scan the crowd of Guardsponies going about various tasks.

“Don’t bother. It won’t make a difference,” South rasped. She looked deep into Twilight with those pale blue eyes. “You have an older brother, don’t you?”

Twilight was taken aback. “How did you…?”

“I can tell. Us little sisters gotta stick together, right?” Despite how much she was wincing, South managed a smile. “You watch his back for him, yeah?”

Twilight managed an uncertain nod. This was a side of South Twilight hadn’t seen at all when they last spoke. The South she knew only cared about herself. She certainly had no reason to help the group of people and ponies who tried to use her as live bait.

“Why are you helping us?”

“Makes me feel better, I guess…” South rolled over and stared straight up at the sky above. The light in her eyes was almost completely gone now.

“Besides… I’m not a fucking monster…”

With that, South’s final breath left her body and she lay still. Her eyes were still open, so Twilight closed them for her. For a while Twilight just sat there on her haunches, staring at South’s face. The first time she’d seen the face of the aliens she’d come to know was also the first time she’d witnessed one - witnessed anyone - die. All of the noise in the clearing around Twilight died with South. She was alone in an empty void.

“Twilight? Hey, Twilight!” Church’s voice eventually brought Twilight back to the realm of the living.

She looked up at the man in cobalt standing over her and tried to find her voice, “Church… we need Washington. Delta left a message for him!”

Church shifted his weight and rubbed the back of his helmet, “Yeah, about that…”

Author's Note

Next week's chapter will probably be the last one I upload before taking another break. Hopefully I won't keep y'all waiting too long after that!

Next time: We find out who survived, who didn't, and begin the next leg of the journey...

Act 2 Part 6 - When We're Together

Twilight Sparkle stood to the right of Church as the pair looked at the inert Freelancer in gray and yellow armor. They currently stood in the main research tent, with Washington lying on the large operating table that had originally held Tex. A lot of the research equipment had been moved out to make room for medical equipment. There was an IV feeding some sort of clear fluid into Washington and another feeding him blood (that Caboose was more than happy to donate… with some bribing). It was fortunate the head doctor knew a spell to convert blood types.

One of the lower ranking medical ponies - a purple pegasus with a cutie mark depicting a heart with wings - was hooking up a heart monitor to Washington. Once the device started beeping steadily, the pegasus turned to face Church and Twilight.

“Okay, he’s stable…” he reported.

For some reason, this made Church laugh. “Heh heh… stable.”

After giving Church a queer look, the pegasus pony continued, “But we don’t know for how long. My boss is making arrangements to have him taken to Canterlot. The Royal Infirmary should be more well equipped to deal with a… being like this.”

“When do you think he’ll wake up?” Twilight asked.

The medic looked at Twilight and chewed his lip. “Honestly, I don’t know anything about… whatever he is, but he’s out cold. It could be days, weeks, who knows?”

Twilight exhaled sharply. “Great. Every moment counts, and Wash is the only one who can decipher Delta’s message!”

Memory is the key. Those were the words South had left them with, spoken on Delta’s behalf. Twilight wanted to do right by the woman by delivering her last message, but with Washington down for the count it was impossible.

“Sorry, but unless you have a way to psychically commune with him, you’ll just have to wait until when or if he recovers,” the pegasus doctor said as he began to pack up his tools.

Twilight looked at Church; she could see the gears turning in the cobalt clad human’s head. “I may not have ‘psychic powers,’ but I think I know a way I can talk to him!”

Before Twilight could ask how, she remembered a certain little quirk of Church’s. That he was technically dead and can move his spirit to other bodies at will. Could he use this ability to speak with Washington within his own mind?

“Actually, Church. It might be better if I go instead,” Tex’s voice and the appearance of her ghostly black figure nearly made Twilight jump. She’d forgotten that Church’s ex and the mare she was possessing were standing beside Church opposite to her.

“Really?” Church asked skeptically.

“Yes. You forget, Washington was a Freelancer just like me. He might be more forthcoming if he hears it from me rather than some sim trooper he barely knows who doesn’t trust him anyway.”

Church took a moment to mull the suggestion over. Twilight had to admit, there was some merit to Tex’s words. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was another reason Tex was so eager to deliver this message to Washington herself.

“Fine. You go ahead,” Church conceded. Nevertheless, it would seem the decision was made for her. Twilight wasn’t a ghost or an artificial construct, so it wasn’t like she could just go in herself.

Tex turned to the white mare in armor, “Wait here, Sunny.”

With that, Tex’s floating form interacted with Washington and disappeared while Twilight tried to figure out what to make of Church’s… acquaintance. Twilight was only sure of one thing: Tex knew more than she was letting on and if she wasn’t going to let anyone else in on what she knew, than Twilight wasn’t sure if she could be trusted.

Twilight suddenly heard the sound of hoofsteps behind her and turned around in time to see Applejack poke her head into the tent. Rarity was with her.

“Hey, Twi? You mind steppin’ out here fer a bit? RD wants to have a word with you…” Applejack shifted uncomfortably, “she ain’t happy…”

The one thing Twilight hated most of all was failure. It made her feel anxious and queasy to think that she’d let someone down, especially someone she cared about. Thus, when Rainbow Dash showed her the nature of her distress, Twilight felt sick. Though that could also have been the smell.

Twilight found Rainbow Dash outside the medical tent, briskly pacing back and forth. As she got closer, Twilight noticed a furious scowl on her friend’s face. And her eyes. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot.

“Rainbow? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash whipped around and Twilight jerked back at her friend’s furious expression. Rainbow wasn’t mad at her specifically, Twilight realized. She was just mad.

“That is what’s wrong, Twilight!” Rainbow’s scratchy voice trembled as she pointed a hoof over to the space beside the medical tent.

It didn’t take long for Twilight to see what she was pointing at. Next to the medical tent lay the three casualties of the recent battle, each one covered by a gray sheet. Their heads were all that was visible. Twilight’s nose twitched, the smell of death was already in the air. The first one Twilight noticed was Agent South. The armored human was big enough that she required multiple sheets to cover her completely.

Beside her was the mare that commanded the Guard contingent here: The dark gray unicorn Captain Mirage. But it was the last body that Rainbow Dash was pointing at. Underneath the gray sheet lay the body of a pegasus mare with a lighter gray coat and a messy blond mane. Twilight recognized her as the pony that O’Malley had possessed during the battle: Derpy.

Twilight felt her chest clench up when she remembered the lengths to which she’d tried to dispatch O’Malley without doing any lasting damage to his host. That her efforts to save Derpy were all for naught hit harder than all of the blows she’d suffered over the course of her adventure. It was as if she was destined to fail in this, no matter how hard she tried. Worst of all, somepony she cared about was suffering because of her failure.

“Derpy and I went way back in Cloudsdale,” Rainbow croaked. She looked at Derpy and all at once the anger on her face was gone. Rainbow just looked broken. Like she couldn’t fully process what she was looking at.

“She was… not very smart… or a great flyer. Hay, we weren’t even as close as, say, me and Fluttershy. But… maybe we could’ve been… but now I’ll never…” Rainbow sniffled. Her voice was uncharacteristically fragile, “this sucks!”

“I’m so sorry, Rainbow…” Twilight said. The words felt hollow and worthless. The culmination of her failure.

Rainbow faced Twilight again, the fire once again in her eyes. “What’s our next step? How do we find the Meta?”

Twilight gave the matter some thought. In truth, she’d been thinking about it ever since the battle ended. She knew generally where the Meta went, but more importantly, she found herself wondering whether they should worry about it at all. While she was on Repertum with Church and the others, Twilight found herself thinking a lot about what she should do about Project Freelancer, only to remind herself that it wasn’t her fight.

“Why should we even bother looking for it?” Twilight asked. She noticed the cynical edge that entered her voice but didn’t care. “The Meta’s gone! It got what it came here for and in all likeliness will never come back.”

“We should look for it so we can make it pay!” Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof, anger manifesting in her glossy eyes. “It killed Derpy, and tons of other ponies as well! We can’t let it just get away with that!”

“And it won’t! There’s an entire military agency looking for it!”

Rainbow Dash took a step forward and studied Twilight. “What’s the matter with you, Twilight? When something’s wrong you’re always the first one to set it right! Even if you’re right, and that ‘Freelancer’ agency can stop the Meta, it should still be us that does it! It was our friends it hurt! My friend it killed!”

Rainbow Dash had a point. The Meta had committed terrible crimes against Equestria. Should it be Equestria’s duty to stop it? Twilight took another look at the three bodies covered in sheets. She failed to save Derpy. She failed to save South. I closed her eyes for her. But when Twilight remembered it, she only saw herself closing the eyes of Rainbow Dash. And Fluttershy. And Applejack. Rarity. Pinkie Pie.

“No!” Twilight’s shout made Rainbow take a step back. “This isn’t our fight. We’re meant to protect Equestria, not the whole damn galaxy!”

Twilight made to return to the tent where they were keeping Washington, but not before getting one final word in, “I really am sorry about Derpy, but hunting down the Meta won’t do her any good. If Tex, Church and the others decide to go after the Meta, they can. But we should stay. It’s for the best...”

Caboose squirmed on the table as the yellow unicorn did a check of his reflexes by gently striking a nerve in Caboose’s wrist with a stethoscope.

“Okay, everything with you seems to be normal. More or less,” the unicorn doctor said. Of course, that was being generous. “Well, you have a clean bit of health. That’s the important thing.”

“Do I get a lollipop?” Caboose asked.

“We’re a military medical contingent, so no.”

“Oh… den where did I get all of theshe?” Pinkie Pie’s words were obscured by the ten or so lollipops occupying her mouth.

The doctor looked over to the table that Pinkie was sitting on as she happily sucked away on her candy. “Definitely not from me,” he finally said.

Caboose and Pinkie Pie sat across from each other in companionable silence for a while as the doctor finished up some paper work.

“That was pretty cool the way you hugged O’Malley back there!” Caboose said suddenly. “You were all, like, ‘I’m gonna be your friend whether you want me to or not!’”

Both Caboose and Pinkie laughed for a while before Pinkie gave a sigh and removed the lollipops from her mouth. “Yeah. I really thought I could help him…”

“I think you did!” Caboose said. “You made him think about having friends, and now he’s got some!”

“Yeah. His new friends are kinda mean though…” Pinkie’s droopy ears suddenly perked up, “hey! You’re going back to your world sometime, right? Maybe you can visit him! He’d probably like that!”

“Yeah but… I don’t really want to say goodbye to you just yet.” Caboose suddenly gasped, “I can take you with me! That way we can both see O’Malley together! And I can show you where I live!”

Pinkie bounced in place as a big goofy smile grew on her face. “Hey, yeah! We could have a sleepover at my place and then have another one at your place!” Pinkie exclaimed before settling down. “What’s your house like?”

“Well, it isn’t as cool as a giant gingerbread house, but get this: it has no doors!” Caboose whispered loudly.

Pinkie gasped, “No doors? But how do you get in?”

“Through the non-doors!”

Pinkie’s eyes were as big as plates. “That sounds awesome!”

Applejack lingered as Twilight left the tent. She looked past the rows of tables containing research notes at the one holding the unconscious Freelancer. Then she looked at the others around him. There was a purple medical pony and the tall alien in cobalt that Twilight called Church. Then there was her.

Applejack had been holding on to consciousness in the wake of O’Malley’s attack when the strange pony in Guard’s armor showed up. Applejack decided she wanted to know a bit more about the mare who single-hoofedly fought back the Meta. As Applejack stepped further into the tent, she noticed that Rarity was still with her. Apparently the fashionista was also curious about this new mare.

“Howdy Church!” Applejack tipped her hat to the alien in question and did the same for the purple pegasus. “Doc…”

Rarity echoed Applejack’s greetings as the farmpony turned to the white mare, “I don’ believe we’ve met. I’m Applejack!”

“Yes, and I’m Rarity!”

Applejack and Rarity each extended a hoof in greeting. The other pony regarded them for a moment and answered simply, “Sunny.”

After a few more awkward seconds, it was apparent that Sunny wasn’t going to bump either mare’s hoof. Instead, a purple hoof connected with Applejack’s and then Rarity’s. They looked over at the medical pegasus the hoof was attached to.

“I never leave a pony hanging. Ever!” he said. At Applejack’s queer stare, the purple pegasus picked up his medical box and with an awkward attempt at a smile, left the tent.

“Actually, I feel like I’ve seen both of you before,” Sunny said in an effort to break the audible silence that followed, “were you in Dodge City recently?”

Applejack nodded, but wasn’t sure where or when this Sunny would have seen them. Rarity, however, answered this question.

“Of course! Sunny! I remember you! You were one of the Guards that was here on our last visit!” Rarity exclaimed.

Of course, Applejack wasn’t quite sure how Rarity knew this. All of those Guards looked exactly the same when they had that armor on and with the enchantments that makes them all appear to have white coats, the Guards are near indistinguishable. Applejack chalked it up to Rarity’s eye for detail and social outgoingness.

“Yes, you had that adorable blue filly with you when we were about to leave for Canterlot,” Rarity continued.

Suddenly, Applejack remembered. Sunny was the pony that passed by when they were talking to Arcane Star as they awaited their sky-chariots. She had a light blue filly with her who seemed very taken with Pinkie Pie. Applejack then realized why she didn’t recognize Sunny right away. True to her name, the pony was very perky and cheerful when they first met her, talking to them with energy and a smile. The pony in front of Applejack now had a more melancholic look to her. She didn’t seem to have anything to smile about.

Rarity continued her chatter unabated, “Your sister, right? How is she?”

Applejack may not have been great at reading ponies, but the way Sunny stiffened and suddenly seemed very focused on something distant raised a red flag in Applejack’s mind. Despite her immense grasp of social nuances, Rarity only realized the depth of the waters she was treading until that very moment.

“Oh…” she muttered.

Fiddling with her hat, Applejack forced a smile and another topic, “So… you were pretty good back there! They teach those moves in Guard school or somethin?”

For a brief moment, Sunny smiled. It wasn’t the same as the one she wore proudly like a flag last time. The flag was half-mast.

“Honestly? That was pretty much all Tex.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that.”

All three ponies looked up at Church. The man had been idly looking through the research notes scattered throughout the various desks in the tent, and the three of them had honestly forgotten all about him.

“You’re letting my crazy-bitch ex-girlfriend inside your head and control you… willingly,” Church folded his arms and leaned on a desk, “why?”

Sunny turned and looked up at Church. “Have you ever felt the need to do something… something important? Something only you can do? Something you have to do?”

Church gave the matter some thought for a fraction of a second, “Pfft… no!”

Applejack thought she heard the sound of Sunny’s teeth grinding together as Church continued, “What does that even mean anyway? ‘Something you have to do.’ What are you, the fuckin’ chosen one or some shit?”

Sunny took a step forward, glaring at Church. “I’m talking about a sense of duty! As a soldier, surely you understand the concept?”

“Duty?” Church scoffed. “The only duty I have is to come home from this war alive!” Church then muttered, “Though, I can’t even do that…”

Sunny’s eyes were wide and furious. “How can you say that?! Why did you even join your people’s army in the first place?”

“Honestly? It was because of Tex. She joined the army and left me without so much as a goodbye, so I decided to go after her,” Church shrugged, “it was either that or med school. And really, can you picture that? Doctor Leonard Church?”

Applejack looked back over to gauge Sunny’s reaction. Strangely enough, the white mare didn’t look like she was about to buck Church into the stratosphere as she had earlier. She just gave him a strange look. One that seemed halfway between exasperation and… sympathy?

The sound of a throat clearing turned everyone’s attention to the research tent’s entrance, where Twilight Sparkle was standing. Applejack wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there, but she had a feeling Twilight caught the latter half of Church and Sunny’s discussion. As Twilight rejoined the others, Sunny turned back to Church.

“Anyway, all that matters is that Equestria is in danger, and as a good soldier I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect it!”

At that moment, Applejack couldn’t help but think about how Sunny’s words applied to herself and her friends. They’d saved Equestria enough times to be considered its protectors. She - and most likely the rest of her friends - considered it their responsibility to take up the Elements of Harmony whenever a threat only they could defeat rose. She’d never thought of herself as a soldier, but thinking about it that way, perhaps they all were. Applejack only wondered if they would be as willing to do their duty as the rest of Equestria’s soldiers when the time came.

The sudden appearance of a tiny black spectral figure interrupted Applejack’s thoughts. Everyone in the room whirled around to face her.

“Tex! Did you talk to Washington? Did you find out what ‘Memory is the key’ means?” Church asked.

“Yes,” Tex floated in front of Twilight, “gather your friends, we all need to have a discussion…”

“...‘Memory is the key’ means there’s only one thing with the memories needed to bring down the Meta and Project Freelancer,” Tex explained to the gathered ponies and blue soldiers. The group was standing in front of the derelict dropship under the stars. “The Alpha. We need to unlock it.”

Twilight took a step forward. “The Alpha? But, wouldn’t that mean… going back?”

Tex nodded, “Yes. Back to Repertum. Back to Freelancer Command.”

Twilight felt her ears droop. So the answer was back there. Back on the planet she’d fought so hard to escape. Back to the center of operations of the military agency that wanted her for reasons unknown. Twilight suddenly felt like she was being crushed by a heavy weight. More than anything, she didn’t want to go back there. Especially not so soon after returning home!

“Sunny and I are going, as is Church,” Tex said.

This was news to Church. “Wait, what? Come with you on what’s basically a suicide mission? What makes you think I’d do that?”

“Church raises a good point,” Sunny said. “He certainly doesn’t know anything about being a good soldier!”

At this, Tex appeared in her spectral form. “Church will come because he traveled across the universe to an alien planet just to find me.” Although Tex was answering Sunny, she was glaring right at Church. “He wouldn’t come all this way only to let me leave again!”

Church seemed about to protest, but after a long pause all he said was, “Goddammit, woman!”

Twilight thought she heard Rainbow Dash cough in a way that sounded like “whipped!” before Tex continued.

“And I’m assuming that Caboose will come because Church is going.”

“Just as long as we get to stop at the toy store on the way home!” Caboose exclaimed.

Tex’s ghostly visage turned to face Twilight and her friends. “That just leaves the rest of you…”

Twilight really didn’t want to go. It wasn’t her fight. She was finally home! All she wanted was to stay in Ponyville and continue her life. She still had a few backlogs of books to read! And so much catching up to do with her friends! I don’t want to close their eyes.

Then Pinkie Pie stepped forward. “I’ll go! Not only do I want to be an astronaut within the next five to ten years, but Caboosey invited me to his house, and I really want to go and see his non-doors!”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “If going puts us in a position to stop the Meta, then I’m game!”

Fluttershy stepped beside Rainbow Dash and firmly nodded, though Twilight believed it was more out of interest in staying by Rainbow’s side than anything else.

Applejack was next. “Reckon it’s our duty!”

Rarity stood beside her. “Well, I’d have to pack my traveling kit, my drama couch and my ‘roughing it’ ensemble, but you can count me in! Besides, I’ve always been curious about alien fashion and decor!”

“I hope you like green…” Church muttered.

That only left Twilight. Now that her friends have all gone, the decision was obvious. She didn’t like it, but she knew perhaps better than they did: if the Mother of Invention was still in orbit - waiting to move against Equestria - then they had to go if it meant finding a way to stop Project Freelancer!

Twilight stepped forward. “We’re going. It’s for the best!”

Tex surveyed them all and folded her spectral arms. “Church may be a cynical asshole, but he has one thing right: this mission will be dangerous. Now that it has Delta, the Meta is likely after the same thing we are. Many of us may not make it back.”

“What? Like on time for the Running of the Leaves?” Pinkie Pie asked.

At this, Rainbow Dash took to the air and nonchalantly waved a confident hoof. “Pfft, we have the Elements of Harmony! When we’re together, nothing can beat us!”

“Our recent defeat notwithstanding…” Rarity said under her breath.

Mention of the Elements made Twilight realize the full gravity of the situation. They would need the Elements if they encountered the Meta again, but Twilight didn’t like the idea of taking them to a far off planet while a very real threat lurked just outside of Equestria’s atmosphere. Twilight decided she would need some time to think on this. Perhaps it was past time she sent a letter to a certain Princess. One she desperately wanted answers from…

“Here you go, Spike.” Twilight levitated over the roll of parchment to her assistant and the little dragon sent it off in a puff of green flame. It was very late at night (or more accurately, very early the next morning) and Princess Celestia was likely asleep at the moment, but she would find it when she awoke to raise the sun in the morning.

“Yet another addition to the list of things here that are fucking bullshit…” Church said under his breath as the last vestiges of Spike’s magical flames disappeared in a puff of smoke.

It had only been about fifteen minutes since Twilight arrived back at her home in Ponyville with Church, Tex and the pony she was inhabiting (Caboose had been very insistent that he stay over at Pinkie’s for a sleepover). Tex had suggested everyone return to Ponyville to sort out whatever they needed to sort out before they left. Church had remarked that was uncharacteristically considerate of Tex, but Twilight knew it was because they couldn’t leave tonight even if they wanted to. That and Tex had said there was something important she needed to get from her original body.

It was at that moment that the white pony with the black M.I. in question emerged from the basement steps. Sunny was wearing what appeared to be an old necklace with a couple of metal tags around her neck.

“Huh. I didn’t know you had dog tags, Tex,” Church said as the grim-faced white pony walked past him.

“I don’t,” Tex simply said as she walked past Church and headed up the stairs to the second floor. “Sunny and I will take first watch. You two should get some rest if we’re going to be heading out tomorrow.”

“Can’t sleep. I’m technically dead, remember?” Church pointed out.

As Sunny disappeared up the stairs, Spike turned to Twilight. “Where are you guys going now, Twilight?”

Twilight bit her lip and sucked in some air. Spike wasn’t going to like this. “The girls and I all have to go with Church and Tex back to their world.”

Spike’s eyes grew immediately. “What? Why?”

“Believe me Spike, I don’t want to go, but I have to. It could be the only way to save Equestria!”

“Okay, then I’m coming with you!”

Twilight sighed as she swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “No Spike, I need you to stay here…”

“What…?”

“Someone has to watch the library while we’re gone…”

“But I always stay here!” Spike’s raised voice caught Twilight off guard. “Every time you and the girls do something important I’m always here!”

“That’s because I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“That’s the excuse you always use!”

Twilight raised her voice to meet Spike’s, “Because it’s true! Even more so this time...” Twilight had to stop herself from mentioning the fact that she may not even make it back.

“I’m not just a kid anymore, Twilight! Or did you forget the fact that I saved an entire empire?”

Of course he would bring that up. It was one of the times Twilight had most feared for his life. “By sheer dumb luck! My brother’s quick thinking is the only reason you’re not a dragon shaped pancake on the ground!”

Only after the words were spoken did Twilight realize the full implications of what she just said.

“You still don’t think I can do anything, do you?” Spike asked. His voice was low and dangerous.

“No, Spike. That’s not what I meant…”

“No! I see how it is!” Spike turned and briskly walked to the stairs. “Just go on your dumb adventure!” Spike’s voice became more uneven as he ascended the staircase. “Why should I care?”

Spike’s exit was punctuated by the sound of a door upstairs slamming harder than it probably needed to. Twilight didn’t move. She just looked at the floor, feeling rotten.

Church sighed, “Kids…”

Hey Dash,

How’s it going? Y’know, Wonderbolt Academy is taking applications soon. You might want to start thinking about applying!

You won’t have to worry about seeing me there, my dad found us a new client and has the whole company on the move again. As always, I can’t tell you where we’re going in case the authorities get a hold of this, but let’s just say we’re going to need to dress warm.

I really hope you’ve been getting my letters. I haven’t gotten a reply from you in a while. It really sucks not having you around anymore. Anyway, gotta get ready. Talk to you later!

Gilda

Fluttershy placed the piece of paper down on her table and finished off her morning tea. It was early; much earlier than she was used to being awake. Celestia’s sun wasn’t even up yet. Fluttershy was to meet with Twilight and the others to start searching for a way to travel to the alien planet. She was quite nervous at the prospect of traveling to the world where all of those scary aliens were from, but she was willing to go through with it anyway for her friends’ sake.

But first, Fluttershy would need to make arrangements to have her animals taken care of. It was when she went to fetch a piece of parchment to write a letter to Ponyville’s Office of Animal Care that she found the letter she’d left there. Fluttershy couldn’t deny that her curiosity was piqued the moment Rainbow Dash received it and promptly threw it away, but she had no intention of investigating further.

At least until she had found Grif under the tree beneath Rainbow Dash’s house reading that very same letter. Fluttershy was a little annoyed that the orange armored man was casually looking through one of her friends’ personal effects, but hadn’t voiced her thoughts. She didn’t want to start a fight with Grif, and she had other things on her mind anyway. But when Rarity and the alien in maroon armor arrived telling them they had to go to Dodge City, Fluttershy had volunteered to fly up to Rainbow Dash’s house to get her. Thus she had found herself alone with the discarded letter.

Fluttershy couldn’t help it. At first she told herself she was only holding it for Rainbow Dash. But then it had occurred to her that Rainbow clearly didn’t want it, so Fluttershy had allowed herself to take a peek. After all, if whatever was inside bothered Rainbow so much that her chipper mood did a complete 180, maybe Fluttershy could help?

Now that Fluttershy was here, reading the letter for what must have been the tenth time, she wasn’t really sure what to think. By the looks of things, a certain old friend of Rainbow’s - one that Fluttershy didn’t particularly like - was trying to get back in touch. There was something else odd about the letter. Is Gilda involved in some kind of illegal activities? Before Fluttershy could ponder the note any further, a series of hard knocks made her front door shake.

“Hey Fluttershy! You ready to go?” Rainbow Dash’s scratchy voice called out.

This was Fluttershy’s chance to take the issue up with Rainbow now. Instead, she placed the letter face down on her table and went towards the door.

“Coming, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy replied.

“Well, hurry it up!”

Fluttershy didn’t notice how the gust of air from her front door as she closed it behind her caused the letter to fly from her table and land on the floor of her cottage, within reach of a certain white bunny.

Twilight tried to blink the tiredness out of her eyes as her friends and the Blues all regrouped in front of her house in the cool Ponyville morning air. Tiny tips of orange was all that could be seen of the sun as it was slowly brought above the horizon. Sleep did not come easily the other night, and Twilight had found herself tossing and turning as her heart threatened to burst clear out of her chest. Even now, the purple unicorn couldn’t stop shifting anxiously.

“Okay, we’re all here,” Tex said through Sunny. “Has everyone sorted out everything they need?”

A chorus of quiet affirmatives answered Tex’s inquiry. Twilight turned to the M.I. in pony body with an inquiry of her own.

“So how are we getting back to your world? We can’t exactly get there the same way I did last time without Wyoming’s time device.”

“You’re right,” Tex said. “We can’t use the ship back in Dodge, but there may be another one we can use.”

“Would that be the ship the Reds used to drop their big metal auto-carriage?” Applejack asked. “Because that thing made a right mess of my eastern orchards.”

“No, the dropship the Reds arrived on has the same problem as the one in Dodge City: no slipspace device,” Tex explained, “but there should be another ship somewhere close that does.”

“What makes you say that, Tex?” Church asked.

“The Meta,” Tex answered. “It came here to search the ship I crashed in Dodge City, but arrived at some point before the Mother of Invention. So, the question is: how did it get here?”

A switch suddenly turned on in Twilight’s brain as she grasped what Tex was getting at. “You think the Meta has its own ship with slipspace capabilities?”

Tex nodded.

“Surely somepony would have noticed something like a large space vessel, yes?” Rarity asked.

“That’s what’s going to make finding it so tricky,” Tex said. “If a ship like that was able to land entirely unnoticed, we’ll be lucky if we even come close to finding it by the end of today…”

The tail end of Tex’s statement was drowned out by the high-pitched whine of engines that got louder by the second. Soon the deafening noise was all anyone could hear as any loose objects strewn about the empty early morning square were blown away. Applejack held her hat down with a hoof and the rest of the ponies turned away from the violent winds, yet they could not spot anything in the sky but a few clouds. At least, not at first.

Part of the sky above the group suddenly blurred and distorted as a massive object took shape. The ship that materialized above them was much more different looking than the dropships the others had seen before. Instead of resembling an olive green whale, this ship was a darker gray and much more sleek, looking more like some colossal bird of prey. Its metal was smooth and it was built with many sharp angles.

The entire gathering of ponies and blue soldiers were forced to scatter as the ship made an unexpected drop in altitude, landing forcefully in the middle of the square. Once the cacophony of the engines died down, the group all looked over at the now still vessel. A mechanical whirring prevailed as a large ramp began to lower to the ground from the ship’s belly, the ponies and Blues frozen in place as they watched.

The ramp touched the ground and for a while everything was still. Then everyone saw movement from within the ship. The human soldiers all raised their weapons and the ponies lowered their heads in readiness as a great four legged beast descended the ramp. It was an abnormally large tiger that had a second head: that of a goat. Riding on its back were three very familiar humans in red armor.

“‘Sup?” Grif greeted with a casual nod.

For a while, time froze. The ponies and Blues stared at the new arrivals in suspended animation (except for Caboose, who greeted the Reds with a wave). All around them, ponies were leaning out of the doors and windows of their homes, taking in the sight in the middle of the square with as much silence as the others.

“I… uh… wow…” Church finally said. “Are you… intentionally trying to make your entrances more and more ridiculous?”

“Well I gotta admit, we may have slightly overdone it this time,” Sarge said as the Reds dismounted the rather exasperated looking chimera. “Now, we’re going to have to find a way to outdo this!”

Sarge patted the chimera on the side. The tiger head looked over at him and sighed, “Are we done here?”

“Yeah sure, get outta here ya big critter!”

With one final tired look at everyone gathered, the chimera turned and headed in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

“Where did you guys find this?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Bumped into it after we found that chimera on our way to deliver those pies,” Grif answered.

“And did you deliver those pies?” Applejack asked.

“Sure we did!” Sarge said confidently. “Hit ‘em with a classic ‘pie bombing run!’ Haven’t pulled a maneuver like that since my days in the Pastry Wars of 2530!”

“Does it have a working slipspace drive?” Tex asked.

“Yep! All of its systems seem to be in working order!” Simmons answered. “Well, except…”

“Good. Then we can get going immediately!” Tex turned to Twilight. “Can you teleport us all there using the ship’s slipspace device and the origin coordinates?”

It shouldn’t have been too hard. It was exactly how Twilight got back to Equestria. Still, it was significantly harder when she was using her magic on more than just herself.

“Not all at once,” Twilight answered. “I can teleport us all in groups of three, maybe four at a time.”

“Where are you guys going?” Simmons asked.

Twilight turned to meet the gaze of her one friend on the Red Team. They had helped her before back on the Mother of Invention. Perhaps they’d do it again.

“We’re going back to your world to stop the Meta and Project Freelancer. We could use your help.”

“Could we though? Could we really?” Church asked in a complete deadpan.

“Sure we’ll help you Flylight!” Sarge immediately proclaimed. Applejack smiled at Sarge and nodded her approval.

“Okay, what’s your crazy angle this time, Sarge?” Grif asked. Applejack’s smile immediately reversed as she looked at Grif.

Sarge leaned towards his red squadmates and spoke in a low voice, “The Blues are goin’ back to our world. That means that they could tip the balance of the war in their favor if we aren’t there to stop ‘em! I won’t stand fer that! If someone’s going to win this war with underhanded tactics, it’s going to be Red Team!”

As it happened, Sarge wasn’t quiet enough that Twilight and the others couldn’t hear him.

“Didn’t you hear Twilight? They’re going on a real mission!” Grif exclaimed quietly, but not inaudibly. “We’ll probably die!”

“All the more reason for you to come along at the very least!”

“Yeah? Well guess what? We’re not going!”

“Oh yeah? Says who?”

“Says the CO of this squad!” this time Grif’s voice was loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. “You say I’ve not been doing my job as leader? That I need to start making more decisive decisions? Well guess what? I’m making one! We’re staying here!”

Sarge sputtered for a moment, trying to make sense of Grif’s newfound action, “Buh-but… the Blues! We need to stop them…”

“You’re the one who’s always saying the only thing you need to do is stay Red and die! I’m just sticking to the fundamentals! Hell, I’m improving the fundamentals: I’m cutting out the ‘die’ part!”

Sarge turned away from Grif and adjusted the weight of his shotgun. “Fine. If ya wanna keep playing at commander, I guess I’ll just have to stop the Blues myself!”

Grif folded his arms as Sarge walked towards the others. “If you’re going, don’t even think about coming back! We don’t have room for deserters in my squad!”

Sarge looked over his shoulder. “Good. Any squad with you in command is not one I want to be a part of!”

As Sarge took up position beside Church and Caboose, Fluttershy took a step forward and looked up at Grif with big sad eyes. “Grif...? You really don’t want to help us?”

That Grif didn’t respond immediately like he had with Sarge was telling. The man in orange armor looked at Fluttershy for a long time, his expression unreadable beneath the helmet.

“Sorry, kid…”

“What about you, Simmons?” Sarge asked. “You coming?”

The man in maroon raised his hands and twiddled his fingers anxiously as he looked back and forth from Sarge to Grif. His gaze lingered on Twilight and for a moment, the little unicorn thought her friend from Red Team was going to join them.

“No sir,” Simmons monotonously reported.

Twilight felt her throat clench up and she suddenly found herself unable to look at him. Strangely enough, it was Rarity who spoke up.

“And here I thought you were one of the good ones…”

“Hmph. Should’ve expected you’d obey authority, as loose as it is,” Sarge grunted.

Twilight’s ears folded back as she took the first steps towards the ship, staring at the ground the whole time. “C’mon, everyone. Let’s get going.”

“TWILIGHT! WAIT!”

Twilight’s glum ears perked up at the sound of the prepubescent male voice, and she forgot all about her troubles with one of her friends as she recalled those of another. She looked over towards the voice and saw Spike running out from the front door to Golden Oaks Library, his serpentine eyes wide. He was carrying something shiny in one of his claws, Twilight noticed.

Spike reached her quickly, as if taking too long would cause Twilight to vanish forever. When he finally stopped in front of her, he hesitated. It seemed like now that he was here, he wasn’t sure what to do or say. Spike rubbed the back of his head and looked away.

“Look… I-I’m sorry about getting mad at you and stuff. It’s just… I…” after a moment of stumbling over words, Spike looked straight up at Twilight. His eyes glistened as his voice started breaking, “I-I just got you back!”

Twilight couldn’t have stayed mad at him even if she wanted to. She pulled her number one assistant into a hug and held him tightly. “And you’ll get me back again, okay Spike?”

Spike returned the hug and sniffed, “Promise?”

Twilight pulled out of the hug and looked at him. “Promise. This isn’t goodbye, so I’m not even going to say it!”

Seeming reassured, Spike finally smiled a bit. “Okay. I’ll hold you to that!”

“What’s that you’ve got there?” Twilight asked, pointing a hoof at the shiny red object in Spike’s claw.

Spike held up a familiar heart-shaped gem. “Something for Rarity, actually.” Spike went over to the fashionista and presented his gift. “I want you to take this with you.”

Rarity gasped as she took the shiny gem in her clutches. “The Fire Ruby?” Rarity exclaimed. It had been one of her most treasured belongings ever since Spike generously gave it to her a year ago, earning himself a peck on the cheek (that he later refused to wash for an entire week).

“I thought I lost it when my boutique burned down!” Rarity said breathlessly.

“I went back for it after the fire was put out!”

Rarity turned the sparkling red gem in her magic and studied it. “The anti-theft enchantments I placed on it are even still intact!”

The Fire Ruby disappeared in a flash of light as Rarity filed it away in her pocket dimension. “Thank you, Spike!” Rarity gave the kid dragon an affectionate embrace.

Twilight was thankful she didn’t go for a kiss instead. There would be no one around to force him to wash his cheek for a good long time. Of course, the embrace was all that was needed to turn Spike’s cheeks red as he tried to nonchalantly hide his face.

“Well… I just thought that if I can’t go with you guys, you can bring that,” he said. “That way, it’s like a part of me is with you!”

Even though they’d made their peace, Twilight still felt a little guilty about leaving Spike out of another adventure. An idea quickly reached her as she looked over at Grif and Simmons.

“If you two are going to stay here, you’re free to use Golden Oaks,” Twilight said before turning to whisper to Spike. “I’m sure I can count on my number one assistant to keep them in line.”

Spike’s answer was a nod and a salute. The loud, obnoxious sound of a throat clearing interrupted the sweet scene.

“Okay! Are we going to get this Goddamn show on the road, or should we stand here and talk about our feelings some more?” Church asked impatiently.

“I reluctantly concur with the Blue! This is vomit central here!” Sarge declared.

Celestia’s sun had finally risen over the horizon as Twilight led the group into the large dark ship the Reds had arrived in. It didn’t take her long to reach the cockpit. Once there, she felt out the controls with her magic, searching through the ship’s systems with the same spell she watched Arcane Star use all that time ago. She soon found the massive energy coming from the slipspace device and looked over at the large group crowding the ship behind her.

“Everyone ready?” she asked. A collective nod answered her.

Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated as she enveloped the closest three people in her magic; Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Caboose.

“See ya on the other side, Twilight!” Rainbow said as she and the others began to fade from reality until they were gone.

Next up was Church, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

“Huh. I have the weirdest feeling of deja vu…” Church mused as Twilight sent him and the two earth ponies across the void.

All that was left were Fluttershy, Sarge, Sunny/Tex and Twilight herself. Fluttershy sighed as she looked forlornly out the cockpit’s window.

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“Yes…” Fluttershy sighed, her eyes not leaving the window, “I just really thought he’d come with us…”

Twilight followed Fluttershy’s gaze and found herself looking out the window at the pair of orange and maroon human soldiers who had elected to stay. She found herself in particular looking at Simmons.

“Yeah… me too.”

Closing her eyes, Twilight enveloped her magic around herself and the other three. In a few short moments, Twilight felt the all too familiar dizziness set in and soon enough her senses were enveloped in blackness.

Simmons followed the little purple dragon who introduced himself as Spike around the ship toward the front of a large tree with a door and windows carved into it. Grif walked beside him, groaning as he stretched and let his joints crack. Spike was running off a list of rules they had to follow whilst living under his roof, but Simmons only half listened. He was starting to wonder if he’d made the right decision. Following orders was something he was used to doing because, well, it just felt right. But not this time.

Looking back at the ship, Simmons saw Twilight and one of her pony friends looking at him from the cockpit. They were there only for a few moments before disappearing from view. A thought occurred to Simmons at that moment and he turned to address Grif.

“Do you think we should have told them about the malfunction with the nav computer?”

Grif’s response was a non-committal wave of his hand, “Eh.”

“Eloquent as always…” Simmons took one last look at the ship, hoping that those aboard would arrive at their destination safely.

Sand. Every direction Rainbow Dash looked held nothing but an ocean of sand as far as she could see. It was what - or who - Rainbow Dash couldn’t see that made her panic.

“Hello??? Twilight?” Rainbow called out. “AJ? Pinkie? Fluttershy? Anypony?”

Beside her, Rarity gave a few dainty coughs as she opened her mouth and got some sand inside it

“This is going to be the best not-snow angel of all time!”

The pair of ponies looked over to the source of the goofy male voice. Caboose was lying on his back, arms and legs spread out as he waved them back and forth in the sand.

Rainbow Dash gave an exasperated sigh, “Well, this should be fun…”

Twilight pushed aside a lush green branch so she could see the rest of the jungle more clearly. Trees with tropical green leaves and vines hanging around them stood tall around her, sunlight poking holes through the canopy. Unfortunately, the trees were the only thing Twilight could see.

“Hello!?” she called out. “Girls? Church?”

The pony beside her gave a nervous squeak as she looked around the jungle with wide, fearful eyes.

“I-I don’t see them, Twilight!” Fluttershy said shakily.

A gruff voice grunted behind them, “Those dirty Blues gave us the slip!” Sarge exclaimed. “I thought they’d wait at least a little longer before betraying us!”

With a shiver, Applejack wished she’d brought warmer attire. Twilight didn’t mention just how cold the alien planet was! Applejack’s vision was filled entirely by white. She stood in the middle of a wide, expansive field of snow under a blue sky, but big gray clouds were rapidly gathering. Rocky, snow covered mountains rose up along the horizon and little flakes of the white stuff fluttered down all around her.

“I got one!” Pinkie’s high-pitched voice caused Applejack to glance in her direction. The pink party pony had her head tilted to the sky and her tongue extended as she tried to catch snowflakes on it.

Applejack took another anxious look around at her surroundings. “Pinkie? You ain’t seen Twi an’ the others around, have you?”

“Nope!” Pinkie cheerfully proclaimed as she returned to her snowflake hunt.

Beside Applejack, Church groaned, “Crap… not again…”

Dear Princess Celestia,

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written to you, but I regret to say I’m not writing to tell you what I’ve learned about friendship this time. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the most recent incident outside of Dodge City. In short, my friends and I tried to stop the Meta and failed. However, in doing so we learned of a way to stop it as well as Project Freelancer: the organization that created it.

And before I go further, you should know that Project Freelancer may be a threat to Equestria; their flagship is sitting just outside our atmosphere, but planning what I don’t know. It is for that reason that my friends and I are going back to their world. There’s something there that can end all of this. I’ve placed the Elements of Harmony in my pocket dimension in case we need to use them on Repertum. Enclosed are instructions for how to access my pocket dimension should we be unable to return.

But I hope we can return. I’d like to have a talk with you once this is over. I have many questions I’d like to ask you.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

Sighing, Princess Celestia folded the parchment in her magical aura and put it away in one of her own pocket dimensions. The scroll had been at the foot of her bed when she awoke to raise the sun that morning, but she didn’t look at it until her sun was secure in the morning sky. What a fool she’d been.

She’d immediately sent guards to Ponyville the instant she’d finished reading Twilight’s letter. Celestia would have even offered to answer some of Twilight’s questions right then and there if it meant keeping her from going back, but it was too late.

Celestia closed her eyes and attempted a calming breath, but it was unable to quell the fear of her student’s fate. “Twilight, you fool…”

Celestia thought things were finally turning around when Twilight returned to Equestria safely. Now with her student back in harm’s way and news of the Mother of Invention above her world like a predator lying in wait, the situation was worse than ever.

“Excuse me, your Highness?” Celestia opened her eyes and looked down at the yellow unicorn who addressed her.

“Yes, doctor?”

“The patient is fully set up and stable.”

Princess Celestia walked across the clean white room to where “the patient” lay on a large clean bed. The human in gray armor with yellow detail had arrived in Canterlot this morning. He was connected to tubes and wires in various places, and the steady beeping of a heart monitor indicated his good status. The bed was a good fit for him.

Of course, the Royal Infirmary was made for Celestia and her sister on the rare occasion either of them was sick or injured. It was the ideal place to keep a recovering alien, as Equestria’s best doctors were on call around the clock and the beds were large enough to accommodate an alicorn. An armored human was no problem.

Washington, if I recall. The man’s helmet was off and Celestia looked upon his face. He looked much older than he had twenty years ago. Celestia wasn’t sure if humans aged faster than ponies, or if the years were especially hard on the man. His blond hair was fading, gray in some places and hard lines had formed on his face. His eyes seemed dark and swollen; Celestia couldn’t help but wonder if this was the most sleep he’d gotten in a long time.

Celestia looked over at the doctor. “Notify me the instant he wakes up. There are things I’d like to discuss with him...”

Author's Note

And with that, we enter the "mid-season hiatus" for a time. I don't want to try and telegraph when exactly we'll be back, but I don't want it to be too long. Just keep a weather eye on the horizon. Also, thanks again to BradtheBrony, KillerRobotQuote, and Rough Draft for your help making this story all nice and purdy!

Next time: ancient alien artifacts (and alliteration)!

Act 2 Part 7 - Am I Transmitting?

Applejack couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so cold. She used to think winters in Equestria were bad, but they had nothing on this! Even their journey to the Crystal Empire hadn’t been this cold, but then again Applejack and her friends had actually been dressed for the weather. Now Applejack was pushing through thick white snow in nought but her own orange coat.

They hadn’t been walking for much more than an hour before the storm came in. The strong winds bit into Applejack like a thousand tiny needles. Her ears, her snout, her legs and her tail were all numb and aching from the cold. She constantly had to reach up to keep her hat from getting blown off of her head. Every step was a struggle, with the thick snow piling up to her chest at times.

When the wind died down a little, Applejack lifted her gaze from her hooves to look out in front of her. Nothing had changed of the view from the past couple of hours. She couldn’t see anything except snow in every direction, the darned white stuff either on the ground or being blown around in the air. The one thing Applejack could see was Church, who was leading the way directly in front of her.

Applejack had put herself directly behind the tall cobalt armored biped to use as a shield against the wind after it had gotten really bad, and his footprints made traversing the snow much easier. While normally Applejack wouldn’t have been so selfish, somehow she didn’t think Church would mind if he knew what she was doing. Despite complaining about anything and everything back in Equestria, the man hadn’t raised a peep about the cold.

That armor must be mighty warm, Applejack thought with some envy. She then remembered something Twilight had mentioned about Church not even having a living body. Dern fella probably doesn’t even know what cold feels like! The thought didn’t make Applejack feel any warmer, and with a grunt she glanced back at the third member of their little party.

Pinkie Pie was merrily bouncing along behind Applejack. Not walking. Not trudging. Bouncing. How the perpetually perky pink pony managed to keep up that pace all this time was beyond Applejack. It was then that the apple farmer remembered that Pinkie was (in fact) talking, suddenly growing very annoyed. She had just spent the latter half of the snowy trek tuning out Pinkie’s rambling, and just like that she was focusing on it again! Worst of all, Applejack knew it would take just as long to tune Pinkie out again. It was just like every time Big Macintosh had decided to mess with her by saying “Don’t think about pears” before a day of apple bucking: it would take Applejack hours to stop thinking about pears afterward!

“And that’s the story of how Maud and I saved Hearth’s Warming!” Pinkie said. “It was pretty crazy, but next year was even crazier because we found out why you can’t bake rocks into a pie!”

Applejack growled and spoke through gritted teeth, “Pinkie… y’know I love ya to pieces and all… but please, for the love of the sun…”

“Shut. The fuck. Up!” Church said.

Applejack stopped and glared at him. “Hey! That was completely uncalled for!”

Church turned around. “But that’s what you were gonna say, right?”

“Not like that!” Applejack retorted. “Like most decent folk, I woulda put it nicer!”

“Meh. I like my way better. It’s more honest!”

“Ooh! That’s your thing, Applejack!” Pinkie exclaimed. “See? You guys have something in common! Maybe you guys could be friends!”

“No!” Applejack and Church both yelled.

“Sure you can! You know why?” When Applejack and Church didn’t answer, Pinkie cleared her throat and took a deep breath. Applejack didn’t realize what she was doing until it was too late.

“Theeeeeeeeeeeere’s nothing quite like being friends,
You can be friends with anyone!”

Church stepped in before Pinkie’s song could get any momentum, “No! Stop! You’re terrible! Seriously, I don’t know how this is possible, but you’re actually making me miss Caboose! That is a huge achievement in annoyance!”

“Ooh, do I get a trophy?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

“Stop using honesty as an excuse to be mean to my friends!” Applejack shouted, pointing an accusing hoof at Church.

“Well, tell your friends to stop annoying me!”

“But then how will I get my trophy?” Pinkie asked.

Applejack’s patience was wearing thin. She was cold, she was exhausted, and she just wanted to find a warm place to rest.

“Look, let’s all jus’ stop arguin’ and find a place to lay low while this storm blows over.” Applejack said, cutting off whatever scathing remark Church had prepared.

“You mean like in that building over there?” Pinkie Pie pointed off to the left of the trio.

Following Pinkie’s outstretched hoof, Applejack and Church spotted it. Though it was hard to see through the snowstorm, there were definitely several lights shining through a fair distance away. It didn’t take the cobalt human and two earth ponies very long to get close enough to see a gray metal structure built into the side of a wall of ice at the end of a small frozen canyon. Church held up the sniper rifle he always carried with him and looked down the scope of the long-range weapon in the direction of the building.

“I knew it,” Church said as he continued to survey the structure.

“Do ya know where we are?” Applejack asked.

Church lowered his rifle and turned to face the pair of ponies, “This is the first base I was stationed at when I joined the army. This is Sidewinder!”

Applejack smiled as she gained a bit of hope at finally getting out of this miserable cold. “So if yer old buddies are stationed there, they should let us all in!”

Church shook his head. “All of my ‘old buddies’ here were wiped out. I’m actually the only survivor of Sidewinder’s Blue Base!”

Applejack suddenly felt even colder. “Who would do such a thing?”

Church shifted his weight awkwardly. “My girlfriend, actually.”

“Tex?” Applejack remembered her alright. “Why would she do that?”

“I dunno. Because someone paid her, probably. What matters is that the people in that base now are Project Freelancer’s troops. And seeing as they spent all of their resources hunting down Twilight when she was last here, I don’t think we’re going to get a warm welcome from them!”

Of course he had to use the word ‘warm.’ Applejack looked over at the base and its warm, inviting lights. She was starting to think it would almost be worth getting captured just to get out of the cold.

“But, there’s a cave just off to the side we can use as a shelter,” Church continued. “From there we’ll figure out a way to find the others.”

The others. Applejack wasn’t sure how, but the rest of her friends and the humans had all gotten separated when Twilight transported them to this world. Finding them was the logical first step in their mission to find this “Alpha” thing Tex kept talking about and stopping the Meta. When she thought of it like that, they really had their work cut out for them. In that moment, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder where her friends had all ended up. Wherever they were, she hoped they were somewhere with a more agreeable climate. Anything would be better than this insufferable cold.

With another dramatic sigh, Rarity stopped her march through the seemingly endless sea of sand and sat down to catch her breath. She had been walking for three hours now. Three hours with the scorching sun beating down on her. Three hours drenched in her own sweat. Three hours without a good refreshing drink…

“Yep. This looks like a pretty good foundation for my sand castle.”

And three hours in the company of the two legged blue moron called Caboose. One glance at the armored human as he started gathering sand for a tower was enough to finally break Rarity’s dam.

“UWHAAAAA! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” Rarity dropped to her knees and cried, effectively depriving herself of more of her body’s fluids. “IT’S SO HOT AND SO DRY AND I’M SO TIRED AND SO THIRSTY AND I’M GETTING SAND IN MY COAT AND MY MANE… MY BEAUTIFUL MANE IS GETTING FRIZZY!”

“Aw, don’t worry!” Caboose said as he gathered more sand into a pile. “I think you look great in a huge afro!”

Rarity’s only response was to continue wailing into the sand, her giant poofy mane weighing her down. It was some time before she was able to calm herself again, and her hysterical sobbing became frantic sniffling and hiccuping. Unfortunately, Rarity felt even more thirsty now than she had earlier.

“You done?”

Rarity opened her eyes and found herself looking up at a prismatic pegasus. Rainbow Dash was looking down at her wearing an annoyed expression, apparently having just returned from another flight to scout out the terrain. Rarity scowled at the pegasus’ complete and utter lack of sympathy. She had half a mind to answer “no” and continue her hysterics out of spite, but eventually decided it would be unwise to further dehydrate herself.

“Yes,” Rarity groaned as she climbed to her hooves and shook off as much sand as she could. “How’s our progress, dear?”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “We’re getting pretty close! Those towers are just over the next couple of dunes!” Her scratchy voice was even more hoarse with the lack of fluids.

When the three of them first arrived in the middle of the desert, Rainbow Dash had flown up high in the sky to figure out where they were. Unfortunately, she’d seen no sign of the rest of their friends, but in the distance Rainbow had spotted a cluster of six tall, dark towers. Since Rainbow couldn’t see anything else around for miles, the pegasus, unicorn and Blue had all agreed to make their way toward the towers.

“Did you see anything else this time?” Rarity rasped. Her meltdown hadn’t been good for her already parched throat.

“Actually, yeah! There was what looked like half buried temples in the center of the towers!”

“Temples?”

Rainbow’s grin grew even wider as she nodded, “Yeah! Ancient looking ones, too! Just like in Daring Do and the Pharaoh’s Tomb!”

Rarity, however, did not share her friend’s optimism. “Doesn’t sound like the kind of place that would have water!”

“Yeah, but if it’s anything like the book, it’ll have something even better: the Scarab Jewel!”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and glared at Rainbow Dash.

“Y’know what else those temples might have? Shade!” the pegasus added in response.

“If you want shade, then look no further than… Fort Caboose!”

Both ponies turned to look at the dim man in blue armor. To his credit, Caboose had actually outfitted the mound of sand he put together with turrets and a moat. It even had a blue flag on the central tower. Unfortunately, it only came up to his knees.

“I… think we’ll stick with the mysterious temple for now, Caboose,” Rarity stated.

This seemed to offend Caboose, as the blue man huffed and crossed his arms in a childish way. “Well. You’re just jealous you don’t have my architectural genius!”

Despite her initial shock at the fact that Caboose knew a word with so many letters in it, Rarity was able to convince him to continue accompanying them to the temple. She wasn’t sure how long the remainder of the trek to the temples was, but to Rarity it felt like a lifetime. Somehow, the sun had managed to get even hotter and more oppressive than before, and more than once she’d stumbled and nearly fell down. It was getting harder and harder to lift her hooves but the thought of water or at least a nice shady place to rest kept her going.

As the trio crested the second sand dune, they got a good look at the six towers Rainbow had seen from the air. They were placed in a circular formation, with a wall of a similar make connecting them to each other. That could be a problem. The towers themselves were certainly ominous. The tall, dark obelisks seemed to claw at the sandy, cloudy sky above, the tops ending in a pair of prong-like points. They were made of a dark metal that (for some reason) didn’t strike Rarity as being of the same make as the other human technology she’d seen thus far. Something about these towers screamed “ancient,” yet there was a modern might to them as well.

Rarity was almost ready to give up once it became apparent that they needed to go around the large wall connecting the towers until they could find an opening, which seemed to take just as long as the walk there. They never actually found an opening, but what they did find was a particularly large sand dune that covered a large section of the wall, allowing the group a way to climb over. Upon reaching the top of the dune, Rarity had to rub the sweat from her eyes to see what lay in the center below.

In what appeared to be a large sinkhole in the direct middle of the area guarded by the dark towers were several structures. From this distance the temples below seemed tiny, especially compared to the massive size of the surrounding towers; Rarity knew though that they would be significantly bigger up close.

The buildings themselves looked nothing like the towers, Rarity realized. Where the surrounding towers looked ancient yet still maintained, the smaller temples in the center looked downright decayed. Each of the buildings was of an orange-tan color, but looked to have gotten that way through eons of being beaten by the weather. Despite her immense fatigue, Rarity found it prudent to study the layout of the temples as they made their way down the sandy dune. The leftmost structure was the tallest, and was comprised of a tight cluster of four pillars angled inwards. To the right of that was a longer building stretching the length of the rest of the temples. The top of it was lined with several smaller angled pillars. Around these buildings were several smaller pyramid like structures.

After another several minutes of walking, the trio were finally getting near the edge of the sinkhole the temples were in. As they drew closer, a warning went off in the back of Rarity’s mind. She thought she heard voices coming from the other side of the temples and thought she caught sight of some distant vehicle glinting in the sun, but it was gone by the time she tried to focus on it. Perhaps this was just one of those “mirage” things ponies see when lost in a desert. Unfortunately, the flashing yellow warning lights that were planted in the sand along the perimeter of the sinkhole were most definitely not mirages. This was evidenced by the fact that a very real alarm started going off somewhere in the cluster of ruins.

“What’s going on? Are there people here?” Rarity asked. It was the only explanation to the alarms.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she raced forward to cross the small bit of sand between the group and the ancient temples.

Something about the empty field of sand put Rarity on edge. Why would there be warning lights this far back? Why would passing them trigger a sound that just seemed to be screaming “danger” over and over again? Rarity’s questions were quickly answered by a metallic click followed by a small cylindrical object leaping out of the sand in Rainbow Dash’s path like a snake lunging at somepony who ventured too close to its den.

Fortunately, Rarity was able to act quickly enough to produce the shield spell that Twilight had taught her. Rarity brought a clear blue bubble of magical energy around Rainbow Dash just as the cylindrical object exploded in the air in front of her. Rarity had nowhere near the magical stamina of her purple friend, and her already waning physical condition meant that she wasn’t able to hold the shield together after the fiery blast, but it did its job. Rainbow Dash was protected from the spring loaded explosive device, though the force of the blast knocked her off her hooves.

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash coughed as she climbed back to her hooves. “What the hay was that?”

“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t recommend running any further in case there’s more of them!” Rarity advised.

Caboose suddenly gasped and pointed toward the ruins, “Look! Some new friends are coming to greet us!”

Alarmed, Rarity followed Caboose’s armored finger and spotted a group of humans wearing gray armor. They were all running toward the edge of the expansive sinkhole and Rarity immediately noticed that like every other of these human creatures they’d encountered, they were heavily armed.

“What do we do?” Rainbow asked.

“Say hi! No! Ask them what their favorite color is!” Caboose said.

“How will that help?”

“If their answer is ‘blue,’ then we know they can be trusted!”

“Nothing we can do but hope they’re friendly,” Rarity said. She didn’t like the idea of being chased back out into that desert where they would surely die.

The men in gray armor spoke amongst themselves for a few moments, occasionally gesturing in the direction of the three interlopers. Finally, one of them stepped forward and raised a hand to the side of his helmet.

“ATTENTION TRESPASSERS!” the man’s voice echoed loudly, artificially amplified by a device in his helmet, “THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA! YOU HAVE JUST ENTERED A MINEFIELD.”

“YEAH UH, IS THIS A LITERAL MINEFIELD OR A METAPHORICAL MINEFIELD?” Caboose’s voice was not amplified, but it was loud enough on its own.

“WELL, ONE OF YOUR PETS WAS ALMOST BLOWN UP BY A MINE, SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?” the man in gray asked.

Caboose was silent for a moment. “SEE, I DON’T LIKE THE WAY YOU’RE PUTTING ME ON THE SPOT, SO IT KINDA FEELS LIKE A METAPHORICAL MINEFIELD!”

“IT’S A REAL MINEFIELD! WITH REAL MINES THAT WILL BLOW YOU TO FUCKING SMITHEREENS IF YOU TAKE ANOTHER STEP CLOSER!”

“SEE? I JUST FEEL LIKE I WALKED ON A METAPHORICAL MINE AND IT METAPHORICALLY BLEW ME UP AND NOW MY FACE IS METAPHORICALLY DISFIGURED AND I’M GOING TO NEED METAPHORICAL SURGERY!”

The man in gray made a series of frustrated grunts before remembering that whatever was still amplifying his voice was still on and switched it off. As the soldiers in gray once again turned to confer with each other, Rarity turned to Rainbow Dash.

“Well, what’s the plan now?” she asked.

At that, Rainbow Dash smiled, “Easy: we go over it!”

Before Rarity could formulate a response, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off. She looped around in the air and then swooped down to scoop up a very startled Rarity, who yelped in surprise. Rainbow Dash carried the white unicorn high above the minefield and set her down in front of one of a large pair of the angular obelisks that formed a set of arches a fair distance away from the gray soldiers.

“Rainbow! I thought I told you never to pick me up without warning!”

“Oh, dude! When I pick up chicks, I don’t need to warn them! Bow chicka bow wow!” said an unfamiliar male voice. “Wait… what does that even mean?”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s ears simultaneously drooped when they realized they were not alone. Slowly, the two mares turned to look behind them. In the shade of one of the angled towers was another human soldier currently sitting on a small olive green box with his feet up on a similarly colored fold out table. The man was wearing armor very similar to Caboose’s, only it looked a bit more… upgraded. Though, while Caboose’s armor was pure blue, this man’s armor was more of an aqua-marine.

Strangely enough, the man seemed about to fall out of his seat at the sight of them, “What the fuck? There’s more of them?” he spoke in a slightly high pitched voice that had a certain juvenile quality to it. It was a bit like Caboose’s voice now that Rarity thought about it, but where Caboose spoke and thought like a child, the aqua armored man in front of her now carried himself like a particularly riotous teenager.

Several footsteps quickly approaching through the sand behind her interrupted Rarity’s thoughts and she turned to find the squad of gray soldiers who had greeted them come skidding to a stop before cocking and raising their rifles at her and Rainbow. The one who warned them about the minefield earlier spoke up.

“Sergeant Tucker! These creatures appeared in the western minefield along with a soldier! Permission to take them into custody?”

Her heartbeat suddenly increasing, Rarity realized the man in aqua - this “Tucker” - was in charge and turned back to address him, “Please! My friends and I are lost in the desert without food or water! If you can spare any of your supplies for us…”

“Sorry! No can do, horse-lady!” Tucker stood up. “This is a secure dig site! No one but authorized personnel are allowed here! Normally, I wouldn’t turn down a hot chick in need of some moisture - bow chicka bow wow - but I have a job to do! Besides, you’re not really my type! Not only do I prefer my women more… well, human, but really, afros are so last millenium!”

Rarity’s teeth ground together.

Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice, as she threw herself to her knees before Sergeant Tucker and cried, “Please! We’ll die!”

Tucker shrugged, “Sorry. Rules are rules!”

Rainbow’s sad, pleading face did a complete 180 and she rose to her hooves and assumed an aggressive posture, ready to dish out a rude comeback. Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of a loud boom. Then another. Then another.

The entire group turned to the direction of the sounds and found themselves looking out at the minefield. Mines were going off left and right as somebody made their way across. In short order, Caboose arrived before the gathered group, charred and smoking. A tiny fire was burning on his left shoulder pad.

“Man… those were some pretty painful metaphors.”

Tucker took a surprised step forward. “Caboose? What the fuck are you doing here?”

Caboose looked over at the man in aqua and gasped, “Oh my… Tucker! You’re here!” Caboose then realized what he was saying and his ecstatic tone changed to one filled with more animosity. “Oh… Tucker. You’re here.”

“Wait, you two know each other?” Rarity asked. Her statement was echoed by the man in gray armor.

“Oh yeah! Rainbow dog, fashion dog, this is my not-friend Tucker!” Caboose introduced. “We were in the canyon together.”

For some reason the mention of a canyon sparked a sense of familiarity in Rarity. Didn’t Twilight mention something about a canyon in her stories of this world?

“Hey, do you know Twilight?” Rainbow Dash had apparently come to the same conclusion.

“Oh, the purple unicorn chick? Hell yeah!” Tucker said. “Wait, are you guys friends of Twilight?”

Rarity gave Tucker a deadpan look. “Surely that’s obvious?” They were the only other ponies Tucker would have met.

“Well, I had my suspicions, but I didn’t want to generalize! I’m not racist!”

One of the soldiers in gray armor cleared his throat, “Sir? What are we to do with these trespassers?”

Tucker looked at the soldier who spoke and then back at the trio. “Meh. They’re cool. As long as they stay out of our way they can stick around.” Tucker started walking toward the center of the ruins and beckoned for the others to follow.

“But they could be working with…”

Tucker stopped him with a raised hand. “They have my confidence. If you really don’t like it, you can take it up with Eberle.”

Reluctantly, the soldiers in gray dispersed. Tucker returned his attention to his guests, “Sorry about all that. We’ve been getting trouble from a group of nearby Insurrectionists. It’s why we set up the minefield.” Tucker took another look at the weary travelers. “You guys look like you could use a drink!”

The statement made Rarity grin widely. Perhaps finally she would be able to return her body to a more agreeable temperature.

Shivering, Applejack scooted closer to the heating unit in the safety of the icy cave and rubbed her shoulders. Outside, the farm pony could still see the snow being blown around in the storm. It had been a few minutes since Church had turned on the fuel based power source in the cave and with it a few floodlights and the heater. Already, feeling was starting to return to Applejack’s extremities. Of course, this created the problem of being able to feel precisely how cold she was.

At the sound of a clang at the back of the cave, Applejack glanced over to see Pinkie Pie doing exactly what she’d been doing the last time Applejack looked: rummaging through the various other devices that were there. It seemed that this cave was where the base just outside kept all of the equipment that they weren’t using. Applejack’s ear flicked in annoyance as Pinkie pulled something out of an olive green crate and studied it for barely a second before becoming bored and tossing it haphazardly to the ground.

“Careful, Pinkie! Church said not to touch anything!” Applejack warned.

Pinkie shrugged. “He’s not the boss of me!”

As Pinkie started looking over a large object that looked like a metal door frame, Applejack sighed and looked across the cave from her at the man in question. By all outward appearance, Church was standing perfectly still, leaning slightly against the cave wall. Of course, Applejack knew better.

“I’m going to sneak down to my old base and see what I can find out,” Church had told her before leaving, “you two should stay here.”

“And why do you think Pinkie an’ I will be content to jus’ sit here and do nothin’?” Applejack had asked.

Church’s answer had nearly caused Applejack to jump out of her skin, “Because you guys can’t do this!”

Applejack decided that as long as she lived, she was going to deny that she yelped like a filly when the white, transparent armored figure materialized in front of her. Church had been quick to explain that he was actually a ghost possessing a robot body, and that it was this very ability that made infiltrating Sidewinder’s former Blue Base well suited for him and him alone.

“Still don’t mean I’m content to jus’ sit here…” Applejack muttered to herself as she glared at the currently vacant cobalt body. She had half a mind to give the mechanical body a little shove and let it fall over just to see Church’s reaction when he got back.

Applejack wasn’t sure when she decided this, but she was pretty certain: she did not like Church. Still, I guess he’s better than that lazy, good for nothin’ orange…

“APPLEJACK!”

The mare in question jerked back in surprise, her ears ringing from the abrupt, close exposure to Pinkie Pie’s raised voice. Applejack turned to Pinkie to let her know exactly how much the sudden assault on her eardrums was appreciated, but was stopped in her tracks after she got one good look at Pinkie’s very much not pink face.

Pinkie Pie’s face was completely black.

“Um, sugarcube? What happened to yer face?” Applejack asked.

Applejack gestured to Pinkie’s severely black face, but the party pony seemed genuinely perplexed.

“I don’t what you’re talking about Applejack, but look! I fixed a thing!” Pinkie Pie pointed toward the back of the cave where she’d just been.

Right away, Applejack saw it: the metal object that resembled a doorframe Pinkie had been playing with earlier was now filled with a shimmering green energy. It cast the end of the dim cavern in a slight green glow. In the silence that immediately followed, Applejack noticed an electric hum that was not there before join that of the diesel generator.
“Turns out it wasn’t connected to that generator thing Church turned on like the other things were, so when I plugged it in it did that!” Pinkie explained.

“Uh, Pinkie? What exactly is that?”

“I don’t know!” Pinkie happily proclaimed, her shining smile standing out on her black face, “but when I stuck my face into it I saw what looked like the inside of a snowy, metal building!”

Applejack gave Pinkie a deadpan stare and raised a solitary eyebrow. “You saw a weird, shimmery green thing... and yer first thought is to stick yer face in it?” Applejack couldn’t imagine that was a safe way to test that thing. She figured Twilight would say something about a “scientific method” if she were here. Regardless, that certainly explained the blackface. Sort of.

“What in the heck is that black stuff?”

“What black stuff?”

“The black stuff on yer face!”

Pinkie went over to one of the metal crates at the rear of the cave and pulled a washcloth out of her mane. She then proceeded to polish the metal on the crate until it sparkled, after which she studied her reflection carefully.

“Wow! I have a black face! My zebra friends definitely wouldn’t like that.” Pinkie followed this statement up with a lick of her own face. “Ooh! Salty!”

Applejack rolled her eyes and prepared to return to her space heater when something occurred to her.

“Wait, you saw the inside of a building when you looked through that thing?”

Pinkie nodded her darkened face. “Yep! I even saw one of those gray soldier people, and then something see-through went inside him and he was all like ‘HIGAGURGURK!’ I waved at him but I don’t think he saw me!”

Pinkie held up her right hoof, which Applejack just noticed was also covered in the mysterious black stuff. The farm pony considered the facts for a moment. Pinkie had said she saw the inside of a building when she stuck her face into the enigmatic device. There was only one building anywhere nearby that she was aware of, and it was one that Church was currently infiltrating using his unique ability. She was suddenly reminded of one of Twilight’s powers.

“Hey, Pinkie? You don’t suppose that there device is some sorta teleportation doo-hickey, do ya?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Maybe! But where does it lead?”

“Well, it seems pretty likely that the building you peeked inside is the Blue Base out there, and the soldier fella you saw was actually…”

The distant sound of a blaring alarm rose up outside the cave, simultaneously cutting Applejack off and finishing her statement, as well as making an unsettling one of its own.

“That don’ sound good…”

Pinkie Pie concurred with a loud gasp, “Church is in trouble! Let’s go help him!”

At that moment, Applejack couldn’t help but wonder if Church would run to their aid if either of them were in the same situation. She stopped that train of thought before it could effectively leave the station. She was Applejack! Honest and dependable! Even if she didn’t particularly like Church, Applejack would help him anyway, if only because Twilight - for reasons beyond Applejack’s understanding - considered him a friend.

“Right! Let’s move!” The cold long forgotten, Applejack made to run out of the cave but was stopped by a firm grip on her tail.

“Wait Applejack! I just had a super fantastic idea to get into that base!” Pinkie let go of Applejack’s tail and the beleaguered farm pony turned around, giving the party pony a questioning look.

Pinkie Pie simply turned around and looked to the back of the cave. Applejack’s gaze followed hers and she found herself looking at the teleporter. Applejack suddenly felt very uneasy and took a nervous step back.

“Yer not serious, are ya?”

Pinkie looked back over at Applejack and smiled. “C’mon, Applejack! You’re not afraid of a little black stuff, are you?”

The shade of the area in the center of the ancient temples felt amazing. Never before had Rarity been so happy to be out of the sun. Rarity looked over at Rainbow Dash and her good mood was lessened as the rambunctious pegasus mare picked up a canteen full of water and proceeded to chug it as if it was cider season. Rarity didn’t even look at Caboose as the man drank his water through a crazy straw inserted through the front of his helmet.

Rarity lifted her own canteen and took a dainty sip. Just because she was dehydrated didn’t mean she could stop acting proper! Still, that little sip barely quenched her immense thirst so Rarity took a bigger sip. When she was still thirsty half a second later, she took a significantly longer sip that became more of a gulp. Before Rarity knew it, her canteen was empty and she was reaching for another one.

“Whoa, slow down Speed Racer! You don’t want to over-hydrate yourself!” Tucker warned.

Rarity fixed him with a glare, before realizing he had a valid point and relenting. Instead of drinking from the other canteen she grabbed, she poured it over her head and began flattening out her poofy, frizzy afro-mane. Tucker snickered.

“Girl, if you wanted someone to make you wet you should have just asked! Bow chicka bow wow!”

Eyes widened in horror, Rarity glared at Tucker. She convinced herself that the heat in her face was just the desert sun.

“That is not the way you speak to a lady!” Rarity chastised. “Besides, I thought you said that…”

“I’m not interested in what you’ve got? I’m not,” Tucker answered. “But it’s very important that I make sure my moves are still smooth now that I’ve got someone to practice with! I mean, the only other woman in this dustbowl is…”

“Sergeant Tucker!” a firm female voice rose up behind them.

“Uh oh…” Tucker turned around and right away Rarity noticed he was standing straighter.

A soldier wearing white armor with light blue detail resembling the make of the soldiers in gray was purposefully walking toward them. Strangely enough, following her was a soldier wearing bright pink armor. The woman strode right up to Tucker and glared up at him. She was a petite thing, but still held a powerful air of authority to her.

“I have just been informed that you allowed an unidentified soldier along with two unknown sapient beings passage into our camp! Were your instructions not clear?” the woman asked with a calm fury that set Rarity on edge. As the target of said fury, she could only imagine how Tucker was feeling at present.

“With all due respect Captain Eberle, this ‘unidentified soldier’ is a teammate from my old canyon,” Tucker explained, “and no: I don’t think he could be working with the Innies.”

“How can you be sure?” Eberle asked.

Tucker’s response was to point at Caboose. The man was currently trying to lick an ice cream cone with his helmet on. Captain Eberle regarded him for a moment before returning her attention to Tucker.

“And what about these… things?” Eberle gestured to the pair of ponies.

Everyone suddenly heard a loud gasp. It took Rarity a second to realize the sound had come from the man in pink armor, as he was now staring right at her.

“Wait… everyone else can see the little unicorn and pegasus? It’s not just me?” he asked.

Realizing it was time to make an introduction Rarity stepped forward and adjusted her still wet mane.

“Yes, I’m Rarity and this is my friend Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow Dash put on a pair of sunglasses and casually folded her hooves. “Wassup?”

The man in pink armor responded with a high pitched squeal and danced on the spot. “I knew it! I guess my friends weren’t imaginary after all! Suck it mom!”

“Agent Donut. Professionalism please,” Eberle warned.

“Colonel McMuffin?” Caboose asked, looking at Donut.

Donut looked right back at Caboose. “Oh heeEEeey Caboose! I didn’t recognize you in that armor! Did you get an upgrade?”

“Yes,” Caboose answered too quickly.

“Wait, you two know each other?” Rarity and Eberle asked simultaneously.

“Yeah, this is turning out to be a pretty fun reunion!” Caboose stated as he attempted another lick of his ice cream.

“Captain, permission to make a request?” Donut asked, remembering Eberle’s earlier warning.

“Okay…” Eberle said.

Donut promptly grabbed Rarity and Rainbow Dash and held the two ponies in each arm as he knelt before his superior. “Can we keep them? Pleeeeeeeease? I promise I’ll take good care of them!”

Rainbow Dash struggled and squirmed to escape Donut’s grasp while Rarity just sighed, hoping once the pink man got what he wanted he’d let go.

“Well…” Eberle sounded unsure.

“Come on, Captain. What are we going to do? Send them all back into the desert to die?” Tucker asked.

Rarity smiled. Despite his flaws, at least Tucker knew how to do the right thing.

“Because I’d be okay with that!” Tucker finished, earning a frown from Rarity. Unfortunately, it was hard to look intimidating whilst being snuggled by a man in pink armor.

“Okay, until we can arrange to have them transported elsewhere, those three can stay...” Eberle declared after some thought.

This triggered a “Yes!” from Donut as he squeezed the two ponies tighter before releasing them.

“... so long as they do not interfere with our operation here.”

“So... what exactly is your operation here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Rarity had to admit, she was rather curious about that as well, but based on the behavior of these soldiers it was top secret stuff. In fact, it kind of reminded her of the air surrounding the crashed ship in Dodge City. Just the same, Eberle seemed reluctant to go into detail about it.

“We’ve been excavating these ruins in search of an artifact…”

At this, Rainbow Dash got excited and began hovering in place. “Oh! Like the Scarab Jewel? Oh, I know! The Scepter of Light!”

“I… don’t know what any of those are…” Eberle said.

“Don’t worry, as long as you don’t open the tomb of Tutanponum and release the zombie curse you’ll be fine!” Rainbow Dash gave a confident nod as the others looked on in confusion.

Sometimes I wish Twilight had never shown her those books…

“Look, all I can say about the artifact is that Project Freelancer has placed great importance on finding it before anyone else does, and anyone who tries to interfere is to be dealt with immediately.” Captain Eberle turned to leave. “Trust me, it’s in your best interest to stay the hell out of our way.”

Eberle shoved aside Caboose as she passed him, knocking the ice cream cone from his hand in the process. Caboose’s posture sank as he looked at the sad piece of ice cream now melting in the hot sand.

“Aw, cheer up Caboose! It’s not like you could have eaten it with your helmet on anyway!” Tucker said.

“Yeah, but I still had dreams…” Caboose said mournfully.

“Well, no dreams for you!”

“Yeesh. What a nag!” Rainbow said as she watched Captain Eberle go. Tucker was doing the same, though Rarity surmised his motive for doing so was different.

“Don’t be mad at the Captain, she’s under a lot of pressure,” Donut said. “This is her first assignment since she was promoted to Captain, and considering how important it is to Project Freelancer, she’s probably under a lot of stress.”

As Captain Eberle continued away towards the main structure of the temples, Rarity watched her, frozen in place. Project Freelancer. Those were the people who were after Twilight the last time she was here. The people who created the monstrosity that foalnapped Sweetie Belle. The people who were now in Equestria up to Celestia knows what. And here Rarity was, right in the midst of one of their secretive operations.

Rarity suddenly found herself feeling far less safe in the encampment - surrounded by so many enemies - than she had earlier. The desert was still hot and arid, but Rarity’s veins were cold as ice.

“HIGAGURGURK!”

The gray Freelancer soldier convulsed and soon enough, Church found himself in a flesh and blood body again. Church looked around. He heard a noise off to his left, but didn’t see anything but the glowing teleporter. Huh. The teleporter node in the cave was turned off. Could Applejack and Pinkie Pie have…?

Church shook his head, clearing it of that line of thought. There was no way those dumb ponies could repair a broken teleporter node. The Freelancer forces here must have just rerouted it to another location. Deciding not to dwell on it, Church turned right and walked down the passageway. After passing a ramp that lead up to the top level and another leading back down to the first, Church entered an area with a computer terminal on the far wall.

A lot was different about Church’s old base in Sidewinder since he was last here: most notable was the sheer number of giant grav lifts that now lined the canyon walls. Church prayed that if one thing had remained unchanged, it would be the password to the computer.

Access Denied displayed itself in big red letters proudly on the screen after Church tried to log on.

“Damn it!”

“Having trouble there, Jake?”

Church turned around and tried not to yelp in surprise at seeing another soldier standing at the entrance to the room. The man was wearing gray armor identical to Church’s host save for a single green stripe along one of his arms. Church shifted sheepishly.

“Yeah man, I just… heh heh... forgot the password to the terminal!” Church said.

“Is that so?” the other man asked, putting a hand to his chin as he studied Church in a way that made him nervous.

“Yeah, what was it again? It was, uh…”

“Fragmentation,” the man answered, still looking over Church with suspicion.

Church gave a nervous laugh. “Thanks man! I didn’t want to get locked out and trip the alarm! Heh heh...” Church turned back to face the terminal.

“Yes, I’m sure you didn’t,” Church froze as the other soldier took another step closer, “after all, you never forget a password!”

Church looked back over his shoulder. “Well... everyone has their off days I guess.”

“No, Jake. Not everyone. Not in the army. We can’t afford to have ‘off days.’” To Church’s immediate alarm, the man’s hand was moving closer to the pistol on his hip.

Church turned back around to face him. “Are you okay, uh…” he hesitated when he realized he didn’t even know the name of the man he was talking to, “...buddy?”

“You tell me. You’re the one acting nervous and… strange,” the man said. “And you may recall the CO told us to report anyone acting strange immediately.”

Alarms were going off in Church’s mind. “Wait a minute, buddy! There’s no need to report this. It’s me, your old pal Jake!”

The other man tilted his head. “That’s another thing you never do.”

“E-excuse me?”

“Call me ‘buddy.’ You do remember my name, don’t you?”

“Of course!”

The other man just stood there, staring at Church expectantly. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“What’s my name?”

“Uh… do you remember your name?” Church asked, clearly grasping. “I mean, the CO said to report anyone acting strange. A guy that can’t remember his own name is definitely pretty strange, right?”

The alarms in Church’s mind increased tenfold as the other man took the sidearm from his waist and raised it at him. Clearly he was through playing games.

“My name.”

“Uh…” Church looked around like a cornered animal. He was running out of options fast. He could always just take a stab in the dark and say the first name that came to mind (like Jon) but there was very little chance he’d get it right.

With little else to do, Church drew his own pistol and fired a single shot at the other soldier. The other man in gray jumped, but soon realized he hadn’t actually been hit. Instead, the thing that had taken Church’s bullet was a red button on the wall just behind the other man. A button labelled “Alarm System.” Now the alarms in Church’s mind were replaced by very real alarms sounding throughout the entire base.

“Of course. As long as I’m not trying to hit it, I’m a fucking dead eye!” Church grumbled.

In short order, the room became filled as five more soldiers (some in gray armor and some in white) entered. They seemed initially confused at the sight of the soldier with a single green stripe pointing his pistol at the other near-identical soldier, but quickly raised their weapons in the same direction.

“We have an intruder here, boys,” the soldier with the stripe on his arm explained. “He was impersonating Jake!”

Church looked at all of the armored men pointing guns at him and quickly began to realize just how cornered he was. Church wasn’t seeing a way out of this.

“Listen guys, I know this looks bad, but trust me! I used to be stationed here! I was part of the Blue Team!” Church tried to explain.

“That’s impossible,” the man with the green stripe said.

“Yeah, the Blues here were wiped out, I know. But I survived, you can look at the records if you don’t believe me!”

One of the soldiers in white armor deactivated the alarm, returning the room to silence. The man with the stripe tilted his head and looked at Church curiously. This time he didn’t seem suspicious, though. He looked genuinely confused.

“No, that’s impossible because there was never a Blue Team in Sidewinder to begin with! The records themselves say so!”

Church’s (well, technically Jake’s) mouth dropped open under his gray helmet, “But… how can that be?”

“This is a top secret facility. Only Project Freelancer’s highest ranking operatives even know it exists!” the man with the stripe explained. “The only sim troopers who were ever here was a rogue squad of Red soldiers in league with an Insurrectionist group. But those Reds were completely wiped out by a Freelancer. Agent… Wyoming if I’m not mistaken!”

He was wrong. He had to be wrong! It just didn’t make any sense otherwise! Sure, Church remembered when Grif and himself were taken prisoner by the Reds of Sidewinder and how Wyoming had come to kill them, but the rest of it just didn’t add up. As it happened, Church didn’t get a chance to further question the matter with the other soldier.

“TAG! YOU’RE IT!”

One of the men in white armor was abruptly shoved to the ground by an unseen force. Church only caught a glimpse of a black, shadowy figure before it ran out of the room on four legs.

“Shit! He’s not alone!” the man with the stripe turned to face his men. “Get the other intruder!”

The soldier who was knocked down climbed to his feet and he left the room in pursuit of his assailant followed by two others. Only three other soldiers were left now, one of whom was the man with the green stripe.

“Okay, put him in a holding cell,” he ordered, “we’ll figure out exactly who he is and what’s going on!”

As it happened that would not come to pass. A rope tied in a lasso suddenly appeared around one of the other two men, who was then yanked off his feet toward a dark corner of the room. This was followed up by a good hard buck from a pair of black hind hooves belonging to a four legged figure Church had assumed was merely another shadow.

The man in white armor beside him turned around just in time to be tackled to the ground by the same dark, four legged entity. As the shadow proceeded to pummel the hapless soldier with a strong pair of front legs, the man Church had been talking to turned around and took aim with his pistol. That’s when Church saw his opportunity. He may have been a terrible shot with his own weapon, but he didn’t need to be accurate to hit the man in the back of the head as hard as he could. The man with the green stripe groaned in pain and rolled over where he hit the floor. Church picked up his pistol and pointed it at him.

“Out of curiosity: what is your name?” Church asked.

“It’s Jon!” the man said.

“Really? Fuck! I could have guessed that!” Church then knocked Jon out with a swift kick to the head.

With all enemy soldiers incapacitated on the ground, Church looked over to the shadow that saved him. A big pair of green eyes in the middle of the pitch black body looked back up at him.

“Church? That you in there, partner?”

“Applejack?” Church had a hunch, but actually hearing the mare’s voice come from the black as night creature before him was still a surprise. “Uh, why are you…?”

“Covered in black stuff?” Applejack asked, removing her hat and dusting it off, returning some of its natural brown color. “Long story.”

“Actually, I know all about the black stuff… more or less.” Tucker always got covered in it whenever he’d use a teleporter. “What I mean is, why are you here? I thought I told you guys…”

“To stay put. I know.” Applejack wiped her face with a hoof, and some of its original orange color returned along with her freckles. “Church, I may not ever think of you as a friend, but I still want to be able to rely on you to get us through this world. That means you should also rely on us to do our part!”

Church nodded. “Alright. Sounds fair… speaking of ‘us,’ where’s Pinkie Pie?”

Applejack grinned. “Keeping the rest of those fellas busy!”

At that moment, the pony and the human heard a distant scream and a high-pitched female voice proclaim, “You’re supposed to run away from me, sillies! Don’t you know how to play?”

“I almost feel bad for them,” Church stated as he made his way back over to the terminal.

“By the by, was there a reason you didn’t just use yer ghost powers to escape when all them Freelancer folks had you cornered?” Applejack asked.

Church froze as he reached for the terminal. “Reasons…”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t think of that, did you?”

“Shut up! You can’t prove anything!”

Church wasted no time in typing “Fragmentation” into the password field, letting the topic be forgotten. He gave a little whoop when Access Granted appeared onscreen. Applejack stood on her hind legs and used her front hooves to lean against the wall so she could look at the terminal. Church typed like a man possessed, navigating through screens of information faster than Applejack could even read it.

“What are you doin’, Church?” she asked.

Church spent a few more seconds rifling through data before giving a “hmm” and answering, “I’m checking to see if there’s anything about our friends on the PFL network, but it looks like they’ve been keeping themselves below the radar.”

At the very least, this meant that they haven’t been killed or captured, but it was still frustrating not to know where they were.

“Are there any other bases nearby? Preferably with nicer weather?” Applejack asked.

Church typed more information, and in a few seconds the image of a lush green canyon with a tall metal structure in front of a waterfall appeared onscreen.

“Okay, the closest Blue Base is Outpost 17-B: ‘Valhalla.’ Looks about a day’s drive south from here.”

“Alright! Let’s get in one of them mobile-auto things downstairs and git outta this icebox!” Applejack said.

“Hold on, there’s one more thing I want to check.”

With a few more swift finger movements, Church brought up the records of all personnel who served at Sidewinder over the last five years. After going through the older files for about a minute, Church gave an annoyed grunt and typed in a name.

“Private Mickey.” He got his answer immediately.

No results found.

Church tried another name. “Private Jimmy.”

No results found.

“Leonard Church.”

No results found.

Church just stared at the screen. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, but they made no move to touch any of the keys. He stayed like this for so long that Applejack had to give him a nudge to bring him back to reality.

“Uh, Church?”

Church stepped away from the terminal. “It just doesn’t make any sense…”

A shrill shriek from Rarity promptly awoke Rainbow Dash from her nap as the terrified unicorn leapt onto her lap and held on for dear life.

“Ack! Rarity, what’s your problem?” Rainbow had been resting in the shade of one of the two stone obelisks that formed an arch at the far end of the ruins. It would seem her well earned sleep was destined to be short lived.

Rarity only raised a quivering hoof as she pointed at something in the direction of the temples. Aggravated, Rainbow Dash looked where she was pointing and soon shared Rarity’s shock.

“Blarg!”

A very large bipedal creature in armor was walking toward them, but it was very different from the humans that they’d met thus far. This creature was taller and more muscular than the armored humans. It had large, ungainly hands with only four digits in which it held a smooth purple rifle. The lower part of its legs were inverted versions of human knees, but what really separated this creature from the humans was its face.

The blue armor this creature wore did not cover its face, and its face was a far cry from that of the human Freelancer that was killed by the Meta in Dodge City. Instead of having a flat face with smooth skin, this alien’s head protruded forward and had dark, lizard-like skin. A pair of reptilian eyes adorned its face and it had a jaw comprised of four mandibles, each lined with razor sharp teeth. That and the blue “fins” on top of its helmet gave the creature the appearance of a shark walking on land.

“W-w-w-w-what is that?” Rarity asked as the thing got closer, making noises that sounded like a series of “honks” and “blargs.”

The beast was standing over the two quivering mares, clicking its mandibles curiously as it sized them up.

“Puh-please don’t eat me! I taste terrible I promise!” Rainbow Dash begged, holding Rarity tighter.

“Whoa whoa whoa, relax Joey!” Tucker said as he approached the large creature. “I guarantee you they’re not a threat!”

The creature turned toward Tucker. “Blarg?”

“No, they’re not food! They ended up here by accident and we’re letting them stay with us until we can arrange a ride out for them.”

The creature honked in a way that sounded like a question.

“Yes, if we catch an animal that you can eat, I’ll tell you!” Tucker folded his arms. “What are you even doing here? Doesn’t Abraham need you back at the main temple?”

The creature regarded Rarity and Rainbow Dash one final time before coming to some decision and turning to leave with a resigned blarg. Tucker turned to the two terrified ponies.

“Sorry about Joey. He’s not exactly high up on the Elite social caste.”

It took some time before the two ponies had the courage to let go of one another. “What… was that thing?” Rarity asked once she found her voice.

“That was one of the aliens we have working with us here,” Tucker explained.

“One of the aliens?”

“Yeah. They’re called Sangheili, but most people call them Elites. They were the aliens we were at war with until recently. They’re really big into this ancient technology and one of the rules in the Human-Elite peace treaties is that whenever someone finds a new artifact site, excavation teams all need to include members of both species.”

“So… you speak alien?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh, hell no! I failed sixth grade French! I have a translation device in my helmet that displays what they’re saying on my HUD.” Tucker looked around. “But... if anyone asks, I know how to speak some Sangheili. I need to keep up appearances since I’m kinda an ambassador to these Elites.”

“You’re an ambassador?” Rarity asked, making no attempt to hide her shock.

“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of experience dealing with the Elites in the past. Helped one of them out on a religious quest, had a baby with it. Oh! And they gave me this sweet ride! Check it!”

Tucker pointed out a strange looking vehicle through the arch they were leaning against. It was a gray, metal vehicle with a lot of really spiky looking parts surrounding a single large spiky wheel. Rarity and Rainbow Dash nodded their heads in perfect synchronization until something Tucker said caught up with Rarity.

“Wait… you had what with an alien?!” Rarity exclaimed. Suddenly her discomfort around Tucker seemed a lot more justified. Rarity simply made her way to lean against the other half of the arch. She then began rubbing her face with her forehooves. “I am going to get so many stress wrinkles from this trip…” she groaned.

One thing still didn’t really add up in Rainbow Dash’s mind. “The alien’s name is ‘Joey?’”

“Yeah, the Elites all have crazy names that are way too hard to pronounce, so we just give them all human names.” Tucker started snickering. “We told them it’s a symbol of honor and respect in our culture! Elites love that shit!”

Yawning and stretching, Rainbow Dash took a look around as Tucker returned to a crate where he had been looking at a datapad. The area they were resting in seemed to be the main camp used by the human soldiers. Olive green supply crates and equipment cases were everywhere on the side of the stone arch facing the desert. On the side of the arch facing the temples, a couple of jeeps and an ATV sat on metal fixtures in the sand. There was even a particularly large vehicle with treads and some kind of long barrel on top, as well as the alien vehicle Tucker showed them. Lastly, there was a table with a radio connected to a communications tower. The radio was currently being operated by one of the gray soldiers.

Off to her left, Rainbow could see Rarity resting in the shade of the other side of the arch trying to compose herself. Donut sat down beside her.

“Gee, that looked like quite the fright you had there! You alright there, Miss?” the pink young man asked. Rarity responded with an anxious smile and a nod. “Can I just say that I really like what you’ve done with your mane?”

At this, Rarity gave a more sincere smile. “Oh. Thank you, darling. Though, I must say the weather here hasn’t been particularly kind to it.”

It was the truth. Rarity’s usually expertly styled mane was a frazzled mess. Even dousing it with water and combing it with her hooves hadn’t returned it to its former glory.

“Oh, that’s okay! I have all kinds of hair product you can use to fix it if you want!” Donut offered.

“Really?” Rarity suddenly moved very close to the man in pink. “I… wouldn’t want to impose, but…”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all! I’ll even hold the mirror for you!”

Rarity seemed to grow happier by the second, “Well, thank you Mr. Donut. That’s very generous of you!”

“Hey, do you think after you could help me do my nails?”

“Yes, and I could show you how to do my hooves. I am in desperate need of a hooficure!”

“We can have a full-on makeover session!”

The whole ordeal with the Elite forgotten, Rarity went off with Donut, the pair giggling amicably. Looks like Rarity’s made a friend. Rainbow rolled her eyes as the pair left her sight to engage in their girly activities, leaving the pegasus with Tucker. Perhaps this was her chance to discern more information about these temples. Rainbow gave another stretch of her wings as she approached the man in aqua armor.

“So… Tucker. What else do you know about these ruins?”

“Well, they were built by an ancient race of aliens that went extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago,” Tucker explained, not taking an eye off his datapad. “Their technology was crazy-advanced. They built these giant ring-worlds in space that could end all life in the galaxy in the blink of an eye, so naturally whenever any of their tech pops up on the radar, everyone wants to get their hands on it.”

That would certainly explain why these “Freelancer” people were so keen on finding whatever was in these temples. Rainbow didn’t want to think about something like that falling into the wrong hands.

“Excuse me, sir?” the man in gray operating the radio turned in his seat to address Tucker. “I’ve got someone on the radio here who wants to speak with you.”

“Command?” Tucker asked, putting down his datapad and walking toward the radio setup.

“Whoever it is, they’re en route to our location.”

Tucker “hmphed” as he leaned over the man’s shoulder. Rainbow decided to take a glance at Tucker’s discarded datapad, hoping to discover more information just like Daring Do would have done. The effort proved fruitless, as all she saw were what appeared to be pictures of human mares (is that what they’re called?) wearing very little clothing. Disappointed, Rainbow Dash decided to follow Tucker to the radio.

“I repeat: this is Albatross 42-Niner requesting permission to land at Dig Site Alpha,” said a voice over the radio.

Tucker reached past the radio operator and held down a button on the radio console. “Uh, this is Sergeant Lavernius Tucker. What’s your business here, dude?”

“Are you in command of the dig team?” the man on the other end asked. He spoke in a serious, intense voice.

“Nope. That would be Captain Eberle, but she’s kinda busy at the moment. However, as her Second in Command, you can talk to me. Now, what do you want?”

“I told you. I want permission to land!”

“Sorry. This is a restricted dig site, so I can’t just let anyone land here who wants to!”

“I know! I have business here! I was sent by Command in response to your CO’s request for additional men and equipment!”

Rainbow Dash watched as Tucker exchanged a look with the man operating the radio. “Did Eberle call for backup?” the man in gray asked.

“She didn’t say anything about it to me, dude!” Tucker spoke into the radio again, “Sorry, can you wait until I get confirmation from my CO?”

“Only if you make it quick. My ETA is five minutes and I don’t have the fuel for a go-around.”

Tucker cursed under his breath. He looked from the man operating the radio to Rainbow Dash.

“Fuck it. I guess he can land for now, right? After all, we let you guys stay with us,” Tucker nodded at Rainbow. “We can always just refuel them and send them on their way if this turns out to be a mistake. Hell, we can even put you three on the ship with them so you can get out of here sooner!”

For some reason, Rainbow Dash had an uneasy feeling in her gut as Tucker reached for the transmitter. She found her thoughts returning to her favorite literary heroine as they had so often done throughout her time amongst the ruins. For some reason, the image of a trap closing in around Daring Do filled her mind’s eye.

“Okay! Go ahead and land,” Tucker transmitted. “Uh. I didn’t exactly get your name.”

“Just call me CT.”

Author's Note

Hope all y'all who are back in school had a good first week!

Now some bad news: at this point in my life, weekly updates of this story simply won't be practical. As such, I'm going to try for an update every two weeks as opposed to every week. I've spoiled you guys rotten with weekly updates anyway!

Next time: We check in with Twi and her group as things in the desert escalate!

Act 2 Part 8 - Is Anyone Listening?

“... and you see, I just feel like my friends don’t always appreciate the importance of aesthetic design!” Rarity finished as Donut continued painting her hooves.

The two of them had already spent a few minutes having their makeover session, and already Rarity had managed to return some of her mane’s original pizazz. The pair of them had gotten along quite well in their short time together. Rarity learned that Donut was currently training to be something called a “Recovery Agent,” and that he wanted to pursue a career in interior design.

“I know exactly how you feel Rarity... back in the canyon, I used to always come to Sarge with ideas to make things around the base look nicer,” Donut said. “Scented candles, some nice drapes, and more lace on our armor, but Sarge shot me down. Said my ideas were ‘impractical,’ ‘against regulation,’ and ‘just plain weird’; in that order. I know functionality is important, but it can’t be everything!”

“Exactly! That’s what I keep telling Applejack and Rainbow Dash!” Rarity smiled. “Well, I’m sure once you leave the army, you’ll make a great designer! Why, if you wanted to come to Equestria, we could form an interior design branch of Carousel Boutique! Just imagine! I can make ponies beautiful while you make their homes beautiful!”

“That would be awesome!”

“Hey girls!” Both Rarity and Donut turned to look at Tucker as he approached them. “I need both of you alert and ready, we’re going to have company in a minute!”

Donut stood at attention, leaving Rarity’s left forehoof tragically half-finished.

“Donut, I need you to go get Eberle and let her know,” Tucker ordered.

“Yes sir, Tucker!” Donut proclaimed, giving his superior a salute before giving Rarity a nod, silently telling her they’ll resume where they left off later.

As Donut sprinted down into the sandy ruins, Rarity followed Tucker as he walked along the line of parked vehicles. Despite Rarity’s newfound fondness for Donut, her disdain for Tucker seemed almost to increase. Donut had told her about how Tucker always hit on and made inappropriate comments to every female he came into contact with. If there was one thing Rarity hated, it was stallions who didn’t treat ladies with respect! He’s almost as bad as a certain Prince…

Regardless, Rarity continued to walk in Tucker’s shadow. Not only was she curious about what was going on, but she didn’t feel safe being left alone with those… Elite things prowling around. The pair soon reached an open plot of desert not too far from the main human encampment. Rainbow Dash was there waiting for them along with a few human soldiers.

“Do you know what’s going on, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked upon their rendezvous.

“There’s more guys coming in a ship,” Rainbow explained. “We might be getting a ride out of here with them!”

“Well, that’s good!” Rarity exclaimed with a sigh of relief. This arid climate was not doing her any favors. Still, I’ll have to make sure to say goodbye to Donut before leaving.

“I’m kinda disappointed, actually,” Rainbow said. “I really wanted to see what was in these temples!”

The ponies didn’t have much time to dwell on these facts, as the loud whine of a ship’s engines began to fill the air. Soon enough, a ship appeared over the distant wall that connected the massive black towers surrounding the ruins. As it drew closer, Rarity immediately saw that it was very different from the “Pelicans” that she had seen crash in Equestria.

The approaching ship was still the same olive drab green color, only it was bulkier. Instead of resembling a large whale, this ship more closely resembled a great flying box like the crates back at the main campsite. As it got closer, Rarity could see a cargo bay open on the sides, where several more vehicles were strapped in. The most eye-grabbing feature of the ship was not actually the ship itself.

Dangling below the approaching ship, suspended by a few strong cables, was a massive land vehicle with four sets of two very large treads. As the ship carefully lowered altitude to set the vehicle down, Rarity was able to get a better look at the beast. It had a ramp leading into a large rear bed that looked large enough to fit a tank. It was equipped with a large crane on one side, as well as a chaingun turret beside what looked like the driver’s cabin. The image of a brown bear with its rear end sticking out was painted on the side, with the word “Behemoth” below it.

Once the large vehicle was safely set down, the cables holding it to the ship were disconnected and the ship landed in the sand beside it, letting down three ramps on the sides of the cargo section. Immediately, men in white armor with various colored shoulder details began to disembark, yelling to each other as they brought out crates and vehicles. Rarity saw that Tucker was watching them carefully. Soon, a soldier in brown armor with white detail hopped out of the ship and began making his way toward them.

His armor was significantly different than any of the armor Rarity had seen thus far, mostly because of the helmet. While the other soldiers Rarity had seen all wore helmets with chrome visors taking up the entire “face,” this helmet seemed to possess a face of its own. A white piece on the front served as the nose and mouth of the otherwise brown headgear, while two small chrome windows comprised the eyes. The helmet gave the soldier an appearance of grim intensity.

“Would you be Sergeant Tucker?” the man asked with a voice that matched his helmet.

“Yeah. You CT?” Tucker responded.

The man’s grim helmet bobbed up and down, “That’s right. Your CO…?”

“Is coming,” Tucker added a quick “bow chicka bow wow” under his breath, but Rarity heard it and was not amused. “So, what the fuck is all of this?” Tucker gestured to the massive vehicle and the soldiers scrambling around it.

“This is the equipment that was requested: one M312 HRV - we like to call it the Elephant - three M12 LRVs, one squad equipped with small arms, heavy weapons…”

“Stop, stop, stop!” Tucker said, waving his hands. “Why the hell would we need all of this?”

CT shrugged, “Don’t ask me. You’re the ones who ordered it!”

“We didn’t order shit!”

Seeing an escalating shouting match, Rarity decided to step in. “Now now, gentlemen. The woman in charge will be along shortly, and all of these troublesome details will be sorted out!”

CT turned and looked down at Rarity, those tiny windows on his helmet somehow looking surprised. Seeing this, Tucker tried to make an introduction.

“Oh yeah, uh… CT, this is Rarity. She’s a unicorn, apparently…”

CT simply continued staring at the little white unicorn. “You…”

Rarity cleared her throat, “Um, beg your pardon?” There was something decidedly ominous about the way CT addressed her. Why does he seem to recognize me?

As if suddenly remembering where he was, CT broke eye contact with Rarity and gave his head a little shake before returning his attention to Tucker.

“So... how’s the dig progressing?”

A gust of wind sent chills through Twilight as she looked at the overgrown ruins around her. It hadn’t been long since she, Sarge, and Fluttershy had appeared in the middle of a dense jungle that they stumbled upon an old paved road that parted the thick trees. They followed the road for hours with no signs of life, nor of their other two companions. Despite having teleported them here along with the others, Sunny and her M.I Tex were nowhere to be seen. Fluttershy had been content to travel in silence while Sarge would frequently grumble about the “dirty Blues.”

They had eventually come across a worn looking road sign that said “New Voi Water Purification Facility: 2 Miles.” The trio of travelers continued to follow the road with renewed hope that they would find some sort of civilization, but Twilight had her doubts. The road was worn, with all manner of weeds and plants snaking up through the cracks. It looked like it hadn’t been used in some time.

Twilight’s suspicions were aided after they reached a dark, man-made tunnel. Twilight and Sarge lit the way with her horn and a pair of helmet mounted lights respectively. Fluttershy was practically glued to Twilight the whole time. They eventually came to a dead end where the tunnel had collapsed. Twilight spotted an exposed pipeline as they doubled back. It was big enough for even Sarge to stand in, and though mildly unpleasant, the group was able to follow the pipe until it came out to its destination: the Purification Facility.

What little hope they had at finding other people here became as dead as the facility: nature had evidently reclaimed it long ago. What once must have been pure white concrete was now a mossy green and overgrown with vines. The three or four story tall buildings were partially collapsed. To their left, Twilight noticed a particularly large structure with a cylindrical glass dome roof. A fully grown tree had pushed its way up through the glass from within, creating a weird juxtaposition between nature and civilization.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Twilight called out on the off chance that Sunny and Tex were around. But the only answer she got were the groans and creaks of the desolate buildings in the wind.

The more Tex and her pony host failed to make an appearance, the more on edge Twilight became. Twilight didn’t consider herself a petty pony, but nevertheless, she disliked Tex almost the instant they first met. It wasn’t just that Tex was harsh and cold, but Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that Tex knew more than she was letting on. Her explanation of their current mission was incredibly vague, and Twilight more often found herself wondering whether the dark M.I. could be trusted.

Taking a breath, Twilight pressed forward, determined to see if there was anything within the decaying ruins. She entered the shadows between the large building with the tree growing out of it to her left and another to her right.

“Twilight, I don’t like this…” Fluttershy whimpered as she followed close behind, “I don’t like this at all!”

“Don’t worry, anything we find has to get through the front end of Mr. Blasty!” Sarge exclaimed, holding his shotgun proudly.

“And what if our attacker isn’t blue?” Twilight snarked.

“Well, then he wouldn’t be much of a threat. Or even an attacker!”

Twilight sighed as they passed under decaying wooden scaffolding. The street forced them to turn right, and the trio continued walking, passing by part of a large concrete pipe and under a couple of rusted metal walkways attached to the upper floors of the surrounding buildings. Twilight had to admit, the place did kind of give her the creeps. Looking around, there were a lot of dark nooks and crannies all around them that they could be ambushed from. Fluttershy kept whimpering as she looked every which way.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. You don’t have to jump at every shadow you see!”

Nevertheless, Twilight kept her head on a swivel until they reached a small intersection. The entrance to a small warehouse was off to their left while the street continued off into the distance to their right. Twilight stopped to consider their next course of action. Fluttershy and Sarge did the same.

“Okay, so what now? I don’t think we’re going to find anything here,” Twilight said.

“I agree, Twisight! This place is a ghost town!” Sarge said.

Twilight rubbed her face and groaned. “Listen Sarge, if we’re going to be traveling together for a while let’s get one thing straight: my name is Twilight!”

“I know that!”

“Then why don’t you call me ‘Twilight?’”

“I don’t? What have I been callin’ you this whole time?”

“Twibright, Twisight, Twifright. Everything but Twilight!”

Sarge studied her for a moment. “... are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, well excuse me if yer fancy pony name is too hard to remember, Twilight Sprinkle!”

If Twilight had suffered an aneurism right then and there, she might have been okay with that. Instead, a loud gasp from Fluttershy caused an already on edge Twilight to jump.

“Fluttershy! If you keep jumping at every shadow you see, how are we going to know when you actually see something?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy however was just staring at Twilight with wide, terrified eyes. The yellow pony was trembling significantly. This wasn’t like the other times Fluttershy got scared over nothing. There was something very wrong here.

“I-it’s the… M-m-m-m-m…” Fluttershy stuttered.

“The what? The mildew?” Sarge asked.

All of a sudden, Twilight knew that Fluttershy wasn’t just jumping at shadows again as she realized Fluttershy wasn’t staring at her in fear, but at something behind her! The sound of something crashing caused Twilight to whirl around. What she saw was enough to justify Fluttershy’s reaction. A hulking bipedal figure in white armor and brown detail was inside the warehouse they were standing just in front of.

Without even thinking, Twilight dove behind cover off to the side where they came from, crawling between a few pillars holding up a lip on the building’s facade. Fluttershy hastily followed, and seeing that Sarge hadn’t moved from his spot in the middle of the intersection, Twilight picked him up in her magic and roughly levitated him to where they were hiding.

“What in Sam Hill’s the big…?” Sarge was cut off as Twilight promptly jumped on him and pressed a hoof down on his visor.

“Shh…” she whispered as she got off and carefully tiptoed to peek around the corner.

A small ramp led up to the interior from the entrance. From her position, Twilight could see the building’s occupant. The Meta had its back turned and emitted a low, subdued growl as it rummaged through several crates. By all appearances it hadn’t seen them. Twilight tried not to think about what could have happened if Fluttershy hadn’t noticed it and the Meta had turned around when they were still out in the open.

“I don’t think it knows we’re here,” Twilight whispered.

Twilight continued to study the Meta from the shadows around the corner. There was something morbidly fascinating about watching it; a feeling akin to observing a dangerous predator in the wild. Twilight didn’t want to risk getting into a confrontation with that thing without the rest of the Elements by her side, but it might be good to study it for weaknesses. Fluttershy tapping her on the back almost caused Twilight to shriek.

“T-Twilight? Can we please go now?” Fluttershy croaked, on the verge of terrified tears.

Twilight took her gaze off the Meta and returned to cover. “Okay Fluttershy. There’s no point in trying to face that thing without the other Elements of Harmony!”

“Heh, heh,” Sarge chuckled as he cocked his shotgun. “Missy, we only need one element: the element of surprise!”

Sarge took a step forward, but Twilight stood on her hind legs and held him back. “Sarge no!”

Twilight shoved Sarge back. The man in red stumbled into a large oil drum, causing it to tip over. Twilight’s ears folded back at the hollow metal WONG it made upon hitting the pavement. It might as well have been a gunshot. A loud, furious and inhuman snarl echoed through the warehouse behind them. Twilight chanced another peek inside and her heart began to race when she saw that the Meta was no longer there.

“Quick! We have to hide!” Twilight whispered urgently as she quickly and quietly ran back the way they came, Fluttershy and Sarge right behind her.

Twilight knew that the Meta would see them if they stayed out in the open, so she ducked off to the right as soon as she was able, hiding inside a narrow passageway comprised of brick arches following the street. Fluttershy and Sarge kept pace behind her as she made her way through, coming up to a hole in the side of the building at the end of the street.

They weren’t inside the building proper, but beneath the floor. It was dark, dank and dirty in there, but it was pretty well hidden, so Twilight decided it was safe to stop and assess the situation. She gave the others a “quiet” gesture as her ears stood straight up, listening. At first her finely tuned hearing didn’t pick up more than the distant songs of exotic birds, but then she started hearing other noises. Dripping liquids, leaves and small bits of paper blowing in the wind, groaning metal, but nothing that would indicate the Meta’s whereabouts.

Her ears then flicked as she heard what sounded like shifting stones, and her heartbeat increased. The sound was close… directly above them close! More stones shifted and Twilight’s breaths quickened. Suddenly she heard a thump as something landed behind her. With a terrified gasp, Twilight spun around and fired up her horn.

She then immediately stopped casting when she saw the familiar face illuminated in the darkness, the dog tags around her neck glinting in the light.

“This way!” Sunny whispered hurriedly.

Twilight exchanged a quick glance with Fluttershy and Sarge before following the white armored pony through the structure’s underbelly. As they passed a series of great roots, Twilight realized they must have been inside the building with the large tree growing through the roof.

A piece of the first floor was collapsed above them, forming a ramp. Twilight and the others followed Sunny up, and they soon found themselves on what looked like the main floor of the water treatment plant. The building was just as decayed inside as it was outside. There were several holes in the cracked floor like the one they had just climbed out of. Several pillars occupied the room, a couple of which were on their side. In the center was the tree, seeming to part the building itself as it rose through it. Oddly enough, Twilight noticed what appeared to be a computer screen attached to the trunk.

The screen didn’t display anything: it was as dead as the rest of the facility. At least it was until Twilight stepped closer. As if responding to her presence, the image of a blue triangular symbol appeared in the center of the screen. The logo promptly shrunk and moved to the top corners of the screen to make room for several windows filled with lines of information. What really drew Twilight’s eye was a sequence of five letters along the top of the screen: F.I.L.S.S.

“Hello,” an incredibly familiar, pleasant female voice emerged from tiny speakers within the screen. “This is a private facility. Visitors are not welcome.” To help emphasize this fact, the word “visitors” appeared in one of the windows and was quickly covered by a red circle with a line going through it.

“Oh, wow! A talking tree!” Fluttershy exclaimed, suddenly devoid of any signs of fear. “I’ve always wanted to talk to a tree! I have so many questions!”

“Please leave immediately, or we will be forced to take lethal measures to ensure the safety of our property,” the tree-mounted computer responded.

For a moment Twilight forgot all about the imminent danger as her mind suddenly filled with questions. Number one among them was the fact that she’d heard the voice of this computer somewhere before. Taking another look at the letters at the top of the screen, Twilight suddenly realized where she’d heard the pleasant female monotone.

“FILSS?” she asked. “Why are you here? How are you here? I thought you were on the ship back in Equestria!”

“You have thirty seconds to comply, or die. Have a nice day!”

To emphasize this fact, a timer appeared on screen that began counting down from 30. It was at this moment that the other question on Twilight’s mind made itself known.

“Wait, what?! Why do you want to kill us?!” Twilight asked.

“Is it because we as a society haven’t been as kind to the environment as we should be?” Fluttershy asked. “Because, um… I’ve planted plenty of new trees during my time as animal caretaker of Ponyville…”

“Protocol dictates that the assets of Project Freelancer must be protected at all costs. You now have twenty seconds to comply.”

“Now wait a second, tree lady! There’s a big-bad-bastard out fer our blood right now!” Sarge exclaimed. “Surely you wouldn’t mind if a couple a’ dames and their handsome and intelligent friend lay low here for a while?”

Twilight meanwhile looked around in confusion. “Wait, this is a Freelancer facility?! But it looks like its been abandoned for years! Decades even!”

“That’s exactly the point!”

Twilight looked over her shoulder and saw Sunny approaching, but she wasn’t the one who spoke. With a whoosh, the spectral form of M.I. Tex appeared in front of the computer screen.

“Oh! Welcome back, Agent Texas.” The countdown that was now at 10 stopped and disappeared. “How may I be of assistance?”

“We need to enter the storage facility, now!” Tex ordered.

“Acknowledged.”

Twilight heard the sound of concrete sliding against concrete as a wall shifted aside. Twilight and the others turned around to see the otherwise inconspicuous wall at the back of the building opening up to reveal a dark metal passageway.

“Watch your step!”

“Come on!” Tex exclaimed as her avatar vanished.

Sunny raced toward the newly opened passage and stopped just in front of it, watching the room’s other entrances as Twilight and the others stepped through. Once everyone was inside, the walls closed off again, leaving the group with nowhere to go but forward. Twilight and the others followed Sunny and Tex down the dimly lit but well-maintained passage.

Tex looked up to address the facility’s A.I. “FILSS, Agent Maine is on the premises. It’s likely he’s trying to gain access to this facility. I need you to make sure that doesn’t happen!”

FILSS’ voice echoed through the hall, seeming to come out of the walls themselves. “Affirmative. Initiating lockdown sequence.”

“Um, who’s Agent Maine?” Fluttershy asked.

“The Meta…” Twilight said, suddenly remembering something Church had mentioned to her the night before. According to Washington, the Meta was just another of Project Freelancer’s agents before. She looked at Tex with no shortage of distrust. Now was a good time to test whether the M.I. knew more than she was telling.

“Tex?” Twilight asked, stopping. The M.I. in question turned to look at her. “Was the Meta really just another Freelancer like you?”

“Well, not exactly like me, but yeah. Before he was a monster, he was Agent Maine,” Tex answered.

Twilight wanted to know more. “What happened?”

Tex hesitated before answering, “Sigma happened.”

At the confused stares of everyone else, Tex elaborated, “As you know, each Freelancer was paired with an A.I. I had Omega, Wash had Epsilon, and Maine… Maine had Sigma.

“Ever since the day he was created, Sigma was… curious. He wanted to know more about the nature of his existence. Like the others, he always raised questions about the Alpha. What set him apart from the others was that his curiosity didn’t stop there. He was especially fascinated with the prospect of Rampancy, and often brought it up in totally unrelated briefings.” Tex grunted, “Personally, I don’t know how this behavior didn’t raise all kinds of red flags to the Director.”

“Rampancy?” Twilight asked.

“Smart A.I.s don’t have a very long lifespan. They usually only get seven years before A.I. Rampancy starts to set in. Fact is, a person’s mind can only retain so much information at once, and Smart A.I.s are designed to continue acquiring new information, even to their detriment. A Rampant A.I. essentially drowns in its own thoughts.”

Twilight shivered at the prospect. As a pony who greatly valued her thoughts, the idea of such a fate scared her a little more than it probably should have.

“Rampancy comes in four stages,” Tex continued. “Rage, Melancholia, Jealousy and Metastability. Sigma was especially fascinated by the Meta stage: a theoretical stage in which an A.I. can be considered fully human.”

That explains the name, Twilight thought, thinking back to what was inscribed on the side of the ship in Dodge City. Sigma must have been collecting the other Alpha fragments to become Metastable! But one thing was still bugging Twilight. “You said Meta is only theoretical…?”

“That’s right: no A.I. has ever achieved Metastability. It should be impossible!”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m no expert, but from what I learned, in order to survive Rampancy and become fully human, the A.I. needs to let go. Data needs to be purged to make room; information, even memories. But discarding information like that goes against an A.I.’s very nature!”

Twilight could understand that. She’d spent years of her life learning new things on her own, from her teachers, from Princess Celestia and—perhaps most importantly—from her friends. Twilight wasn’t sure she’d be able to give any of that up if she had to. It would seem artificial constructs and people had at least one thing in common: they all had trouble letting go.

“What the fuck is all of this?!” Eberle shouted as Donut led her to the landing zone where CT’s men were still unloading. Rarity sat down in the sand in a position where she could watch the ensuing confrontation unfold, ready to step in if need be. Rainbow Dash sat down beside her, though Rarity figured she was watching for an entirely different reason.

“That’s what I said!” Tucker exclaimed.

“Oh, cool! What’s that?” Donut asked as he looked at the Elephant in wonder. “It looks like a giant mobile home! Ooh! Ooh! Who wants to go on a family road trip?”

“Shut up, Donut!” Tucker responded at once.

“Don’t be so skeptical, guys! Road trips are great for family bonding time! Not to mention avoiding uncomfortable questions about your love life!” Donut’s voice suddenly grew desperately higher-pitched. “Leave me alone, Mom! I’ll get a girlfriend when I’m ready! No, I wasn’t looking at Hunky Firemen Monthly! I just like the magazine’s layout!”

Tucker gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oh my God! If I have to listen to anymore stories from your sad childhood, I might actually get depression and kill myself!”

CT was standing a fair distance away from the new ship and the quickly growing row of vehicles beside it, watching the men under his command as they unloaded more equipment. When he heard the bickering voices, he turned and walked towards the group.

“Are you the one in charge here?” he asked, looking at Captain Eberle.

“Yes, and I didn’t send for any additional materials!”

“Well, someone here ordered this equipment,” CT stated. “Unless Command made a mistake?”

“Mistake? Try a foreign relations disaster!” Eberle exclaimed, moving closer to CT to speak in a low voice. “Tensions between us and the Elites are high enough as is. Tell me, how do you think they’ll interpret the unexpected arrival of another human ship? Let alone a ship with that written on it!”

Eberle gestured to the proverbial horse CT rode in on. Rarity looked over at the ship, but she didn’t see anything but the words “Covenant Killer Mk C” painted on the side. Was there some meaning to the words she wasn’t seeing? CT, however, must have known exactly what the words inferred as he gave a single laugh.

“Oh right. Guess it hasn’t been repainted since the war!”

“I’m going to put in a call to Command and find out what the hell happened here. Wait right there,” Eberle said, turning around. “And I suggest you tell your men to stop unloading. You’ll just be loading up again shortly.”

“Oh, of course!” CT said with a wide arm gesture, “I wouldn’t want to create any… unnecessary trouble!”

Eberle rejoined Tucker and Donut, speaking to them in a low voice, “Donut, I want you to get on a Mongoose and scout out the Insurrectionist camp.”

“You mean the Unicorn? Yes sir! Uh, any particular reason why?”

“Hopefully just me being paranoid…”

Regardless, Donut made to do just that. Eberle made her way toward the main human camp, Rarity and Rainbow Dash all but forgotten. The pair of ponies took advantage of this fact and followed her, interested to see how this little mystery would unfold. Eberle briefly stopped in her tracks.

“Oh, perfect…” Eberle grumbled as a particularly large Elite wearing armor of a golden color approached her from the camp. Eberle went to meet it halfway and the ponies followed.

The gold Elite said something in its queer alien tongue as it made a few furious gestures to the newly arrived ship. As she got closer, Rarity realized this Elite had a large scar running through the front of his face that even cut through his armor. Additionally, his helmet had more “fins” than the others of his kind. Perhaps this was their leader?

“Don’t worry about them, Abraham. They’ll be gone soon enough,” Eberle reassured. “Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?”

Abraham took another suspicious look at the large ship, before leaning close to Eberle and saying something in low blargs.

Eberle gasped. “Wait, you opened it?”

Abraham honked.

“Oh, not you? Then who…?”

Abraham gave a low, cautious blarg.

“Dammit. What’s he doing down there?”

Abraham let out a questioning honk.

“No, just keep holding him. I’ll be right there to sort it out.”

Abraham turned and headed back down to the main temple as Eberle turned around. Rarity tried to figure out who they could be talking about when it occurred to her: she hadn’t seen Caboose around in a while.

“Sergeant Tucker, stay here and keep an eye on our guests. And see if you can get in touch with Command,” Eberle ordered before hopping into one of the parked jeeps and driving to the other end of the ruins.

Although she wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, Rarity couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Captain Eberle. The hectic manner under which she was forced to operate brought back memories of many a sleepless night trying to complete dress commissions. And if Eberle had as much on the line as Donut had told her, she arguably had it even worse than Rarity. The fashionista silently wished the woman luck before turning to ask Rainbow Dash what she wanted to do now.

But the pegasus was no longer standing beside her. Rarity looked around, but didn’t spot her multi-colored friend anywhere. Must have gone to the bathroom or something. Rarity found her attention drifting to the mysterious new arrival. CT was once again facing his ship as his men continued to work. Oddly enough, he hadn’t told any of them to stop unloading as Eberle had suggested. But that wasn’t what was bugging Rarity.

CT’s reaction to her upon their first meeting kept nagging at her. It was for this reason that Rarity took a calming breath and walked towards him.

“Excuse me, Mr. CT?” Rarity asked as she stood behind him.

CT didn’t make any move to respond. He just kept standing there, fixated on the activity of his troops.

“Um, I was wondering why you reacted to me the way you did earlier.”

CT didn’t move, nor did he reply. Is he even listening?

“Have you met other ponies before?” Rarity asked, but CT remained fixed in place, suddenly as still as a statue.

Puffing out her cheeks in frustration, Rarity circled around the man in brown armor until she was directly in front of him. She glared up into his helmet’s eyes.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Rarity waved a hoof above her head, but CT didn’t even acknowledge her. He just kept staring past her.

Rarity finally got fed up. “Mr. CT, it’s rude to ignore someone who’s talking to you!” Rarity attempted a light shove to CT’s stomach, but something unusual happened.

Her hoof passed right through him, as if CT wasn’t there at all. “What the…?”

CT suddenly started to flicker, like a candle starting to go out. CT flickered in place for a few moments before disappearing entirely. It then occurred to Rarity that she’d seen something just like this before: the illusions created by Captain Mirage in Dodge City.

Several cracks of gunfire suddenly echoed in the distance. They came from the direction of the main temple where everyone was gathered.

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

“Hello, and welcome to the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility,” FILSS’ voice resonated through the halls after Tex allowed her to run something called a ‘tutorial program’. “Project Freelancer is a state of the art scientific endeavor with one goal in mind: to ensure the security of humanity in a harsh and violent galaxy. This bunker was constructed to continue the operations of our program in the event of a primary facility loss…”

As the A.I. continued, Twilight looked out into the vast space. The passageway they had entered from outside lead to several flights of stairs going down. When the group reached the bottom, they came out into a vast storage chamber. The ceiling stretched high above them and the floor was the size of a hoofball field. Large green containers were stacked all over the chamber, and various other smaller objects were scattered around as well. As Twilight listened to FILSS continue, a thought occurred to her.

Twilight looked over at Tex. “Wait a minute, if this is a backup facility, does that mean…?”

“No, we won’t find the Alpha here,” Tex stated, putting an end to that line of thought. “This facility has everything Project Freelancer needs to continue its experiments except for the A.I.s themselves.”

Tex’s avatar vanished and Sunny descended a short flight of stairs leading down to the warehouse’s main floor. Seeing no other options, Twilight, Fluttershy and Sarge followed.

“So, um… if the Alpha isn’t here, then… why are we?” Fluttershy asked. The pegasus was nervously looking around, picking out ideal hiding places for when she inevitably got startled.

“Aside from hiding from a giant crazy person,” Sarge pointed out. “Or rather several crazy people, all occupying one crazy body… crazily!”

“Tex wants to pick up a few things we’ll need for our assault on Freelancer Command,” Sunny answered. “I suggest you three look around for anything you think we might need.”

With that, Sunny turned and began walking deeper into the vast bunker. Before she was gone, Tex briefly appeared in front of Twilight and the others.

“Oh, and don’t go exploring,” she said before disappearing again.

Twilight squinted at the space Tex had been. She didn’t like the M.I.’s tone. Tex talked down to her like her parents did when Twilight was a filly, whenever they wanted to keep her away from something. Twilight didn’t like being kept in the dark then, and she certainly didn’t like it now.

As Fluttershy began idly shifting through an open crate full of equipment, Twilight turned to her ally in red armor. “Hey Sarge? Do you have much experience with Tex?”

Sarge grunted, “Missy, my whole team has had more experience with Tex than we really cared to!”

“Is she always this… secretive?”

“Well, secrecy does seem to come with the whole ‘Freelancer’ gig.” Sarge scratched his helmet. “Though, usually she isn’t this… hush-hush. Usually she’d just beat the crap out of us. Especially Grif.” Sarge gave a wistful sigh, “Truly those were better days…”

“Well I’m sick of it!” Twilight stomped a hoof down on the metal floor, the sound echoing through the chamber.

“Sick of what, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, looking up from a crate full of rifles.

“Tex and her secrets!” Twilight looked around to make sure the M.I. in question or her pony lackey weren’t around before leaning in closer to Fluttershy and Sarge. “She knows something about what’s going on here, but she won’t tell us anything!”

Twilight turned and began walking further into the bunker in a separate direction from the one Tex and Sunny went.

“Where are you going, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. “Tex said not to…”

“Exactly! There’s something in this facility Tex doesn’t want us to see, and I’m going to find out what it is!”

Twilight didn’t stick around to hear whatever protests Fluttershy or Sarge may have had. She simply kept going until she disappeared around a container. It wasn’t long before the little purple unicorn reached the end of the vast storage chamber and ascended a small flight of stairs leading to another network of hallways. She wandered around for a bit, checking various weapons lockers and other rooms until she came upon something much more promising.

A thick metal door rested at the end of a dark hallway. The door itself was well illuminated, and something about it drew Twilight closer. The door was fitted with several elaborate looking locking mechanisms, and looked very sturdy. It could probably withstand even the heaviest weapons Twilight had seen when she was last here. A blue image appeared on a terminal beside the door as Twilight approached.

“I’m sorry, this area is restricted,” FILSS stated, her voice coming from the terminal rather than the very walls themselves. “Only the Director himself may gain access to this entry. I am sure you understand, the nature of our experiments is such that secrecy is of utmost importance.”

“Okay, FILSS. I’m only going to ask you this once,” Twilight said, glaring at the computer terminal dangerously. “Let me in, now!”

“I’m sorry, but only the Director himself may allow unauthorized individuals into this area.”

Twilight growled and studied the door again. It looked sturdy, but it wasn’t impenetrable; she just had to get creative. Twilight’s horn started to glow as she focused magical energy into it. She summoned forth a spell that she had learned in her junior years under Princess Celestia’s tutelage. She never expected she would use it for something like this.

The area around the door grew warmer as Twilight focused the temperature changing spell on it. She’d only ever used it to make minor adjustments to the temperature around herself on particularly cold nights, but she’d have to work it into overdrive for what she was doing. Twilight closed her eyes and focused more energy into increasing the temperature around the door. Only when she increased the heat to around thirteen-hundred degrees celsius did Twilight allow herself to open her eyes and check on her progress. The metal door was glowing a vivid orange, the waves of heat distorting it.

“What are you doing?” FILSS asked, a hint of worry entering the A.I.’s eternally pleasant tone.

Twilight merely continued to further increase the temperature around the door until she finally started getting the results she wanted. The top of the door began to slowly fold in on itself as the metal began to melt.

“Stop what you are doing at once, or I will be forced to take drastic measures!”

Ignoring FILSS, Twilight pushed forward. Deciding the door had reached melting point, Twilight stopped casting her temperature altering spell and fired up her horn to cast another. Twilight shot forth a concentrated blast of pure magical force, knocking back the top of the melting door and creating a decently sized hole.

FILSS’ voice suddenly echoed through the halls as it was broadcast throughout the facility, “Alarm! Security breach, level Alpha! Unauthorized personnel attempting to gain access to primary laboratory. Response teams, move into position!”

The announcement gave Twilight pause for a brief moment; until she realized she made it all the way into the heart of this facility and hadn’t seen a single Freelancer soldier. The Offsite Facility was empty.

“Nice try, FILSS!” Twilight exclaimed as she hit the door with another blast.

The door crumpled back some more, leaving the entire upper half of the doorframe open. It only took a couple more blasts of magic for Twilight to knock the melted hunk of metal off its hinges. With the way forward open, Twilight stepped through the portal, panting and sweating from the immense magical exertion.

“Alarm! Security breach, level Alpha! Unauthorized personnel has gained access to primary laboratory…” FILSS’ voice was mere background noise as Twilight pressed forward.

The hallway beyond the door looked different. The metal on the floor and walls was more smooth and advanced looking. Little blue lights dotted the walls around Twilight, who shivered. The temperature in this hallway was noticeably colder than the rest of the facility. Twilight turned a corner and found herself looking into the primary laboratory.

At the sight of what occupied the large featureless room, Twilight quickly dove back into the hallway she came from. It was only after several moments passed and nothing happened that Twilight chanced a peek back into the lab. The large army of several dozen armored soldiers hadn’t moved from where they were standing when Twilight first entered. The statuesque nature of the figures lead Twilight to believe that they weren’t alive, and so gave her the courage to enter the room proper.

A layer of white fog permeated the large, freezing room, and it was so cold Twilight could see her breath. As she got closer to the immobile suits of armor, Twilight was struck by a sudden sense of familiarity. Every single armored figure in the room was wearing advanced cobalt blue armor identical to Church’s. Twilight figured her friend from Blood Gulch wasn’t the only one with armor like that, but even so, there was something uncanny about the still figures around her.

“What the Hell are you doing in here?!” a livid voice behind her made Twilight jump and spin around.

Sunny was standing in the entryway to the lab. She had a green duffel bag slung across her back and a furious looking M.I. floating beside her. “I thought I told you: no exploring!” Tex exclaimed.

Only then did it occur to Twilight that FILSS’ broadcasts would have alerted Tex to what she was up to. At that moment, Twilight didn’t care.

“What is all of this?” she asked, stepping closer to Sunny and Tex. “These… things all look just like Church!”

Tex was silent.

“I know you know what’s going on here!” Twilight gestured back to the army of Church look-alikes. “What does it all mean? How does it relate to Equestria? I am tired of all of these secrets and lies!” Twilight looked at the pony playing host to Tex. “Sunny, surely you must want to know what all of this is about!”

“Ms. Sparkle, I am a soldier. It’s my job to follow orders, not question them!” Sunny stated coldly. “Besides, there aren’t many secrets between me and Tex. It comes with the whole ‘sharing minds’ thing!”

“Listen kid, you’re just going to have to trust me when I say there are things you can’t know yet.” Tex told Twilight.

“Why not?”

Tex’s avatar suddenly grew to twice its normal size and tinted red. “Because it’s personal to me!”

It was at that moment, looking at Tex’s enraged image that Twilight remembered exactly who’s ex-girlfriend she was talking to.

“It’s Church, isn’t it? He’s at the center of all of this!”

At that, Tex’s avatar shrank back down to its normal size and hue. Tex looked at Twilight for a long time before answering, “I don’t want to have to do this, okay? I just wanted to leave Church alone so he could live out his days in peace. But Wash said this is the only way, and… it’ll kill Church when he finds out…”

Twilight took a step closer. “Finds out what?”

Tex’s avatar just floated there in silence. She seemed to be battling with herself on what to say next. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the chance to come to a decision.

“Um… excuse me?” a small, meek voice said behind Sunny and Tex. Fluttershy stood in the hall outside the cold storage lab scuffing a hoof against the metal floor.

“Yes Fluttershy, what is it?” Twilight had trouble holding back the disappointment in her voice.

“Um, Mr. Sarge and I found something you might want to see!”

From the shadows of the ruins, Rainbow Dash looked down at the scene below. As soon as she heard that someone had opened the main temple, Rainbow wasted no time in sneaking her way to the far side of the ruins. She knew that she’d likely get in trouble if she was caught, but curiosity won out over caution.

A long tunnel made a straight line through the ruins from the main human camp directly to the temple’s entrance, coming out the other side several feet above the ground. Rainbow was able to use this tunnel to get close to the entrance without being seen. From her vantage point, Rainbow was able to see the entrance to the main temple across an open sandy area.

Sure enough, the entrance was wide open, the tall thin entryway leading into a dark chamber. Just to the right of the entrance was a blue holographic symbol floating in place. If Rainbow had to guess, it was the switch that opened the temple door. Both humans and Elites alike were already moving equipment into the open temple. Against the wall directly below Rainbow Dash was Caboose, who looked blissfully cheery as he was watched by three very angry looking Elites, among which was the leader “Abraham.” Rainbow heard the sound of a Warthog engine as Captain Eberle pulled up and got out.

“What exactly happened here?” she asked as she walked towards where the Elites were keeping Caboose.

“Well, I was hanging out with all of Crunchbite’s friends when they dug up a cool glowy symbol beside the big door there,” Caboose cheerfully explained.

“That must have been just after I left…” Eberle mused before Caboose continued.

“Yeah, the aliens kept trying to push the glowy button, but it wasn’t doing anything. And then I thought: If that button doesn’t do anything then that means I can senselessly press it with no negative consequences!”

Eberle glanced back at the temple entrance. “Of course… Forerunner tech only responds to humans…”

“Yeah… the aliens were pretty mad at me after that. But I got to push a button, so I think I came out on top!”

To Rainbow’s surprise, Captain Eberle actually laughed. “Well, however you look at it, the temple’s open!” Eberle addressed the Elites watching Caboose, “It’s okay, you can leave him with me!”

With a grunt, Abraham turned and walked towards the temple, the two Elites with him following. With that, Eberle gave another chuckle. It was like all of the stress and tension in her voice was being released.

“Looks like things are finally going our way!”

A slow series of claps suddenly prevailed over the silence. The troops moving equipment into the temple stopped and everyone’s gaze was drawn to the sound. Rainbow Dash looked to her right along with the others to find CT looking down at them from up on a hill of sand. The man in brown armor was slowly clapping.

“Well, well… you actually opened it!” he said smugly. “Nice work, Captain. That should make my job much easier!” CT then placed a finger on the side of his helmet. “Smith! Now!”

Another noise soon overtook the ruins: an unusual low hum that quickly grew louder. All of a sudden, a large ship descended, floating in place just behind CT. This ship looked nothing like any of the others; instead of a military olive green, the ship was comprised of bright purple colors. Where the other ships Rainbow Dash had seen were bulky and utilitarian, this ship was made of smooth metal, the thing reminding Rainbow of a flying, colorful tortoise not unlike Tank.

“Shit! Enemy Phantom!” Eberle yelled as the sides of the ship in question opened up and more Elites jumped out.

CT raised a Battle Rifle and fired a well placed shot that took out one of Eberle’s men, then all Tartarus broke loose. The Elites with CT opened fire with various smooth purple weapons that shot colorful bursts of plasma. Abraham’s Elites, along with the human soldiers, responded in kind. The alien “Phantom” spacecraft dropped a vehicle onto the battlefield: one that looked similar in design to the alien vehicle that Tucker showed the ponies.

The gray metal of the vehicle formed blades in many places, hovered just above the sand and appeared to be operated by a crew of two Elites. The driver was reclined in the back while another Elite operated a rotating plasma turret at the front. The vehicle charged forward, scattering the humans and Elites under Eberle’s command. An Elite wearing purple armor stepped beside CT, and with a wave of its hand sent the rest of CT’s Elites charging forward, plasma weapons blazing. CT stood back, taking shots with his rifle.

Not liking the way the battle was turning, Eberle fell back to her Warthog. “I’m going to call for reinforcements! Keep them away from the temple!”

With that, Eberle drove off, leaving the battle below. Rainbow Dash looked on, hooves glued to the ground. The fighting had grown so chaotic that Rainbow could hardly distinguish between the sides anymore. All she saw were Elites killing each other and men in gray armor dying. The Phantom hovered above the battlefield raining heavy plasma seemingly at random, and the alien vehicle made another pass, firing its turret. Caboose stood in the middle of the carnage, firing his assault rifle at anything and everything.

Then three Warthogs came around the same corner Eberle disappeared around, each one carrying three of CT’s soldiers in white armor. Their chainguns rang out, mowing down Elites left and right. If there were sides in this conflict, Rainbow Dash couldn’t identify them. Everyone was just killing everyone. One thing was clear in Rainbow’s mind: CT was the bad guy, and Daring Do never let the bad guy get the treasure first!

Rainbow Dash crouched and spread her wings before taking off from her perch within the ruins. She flew straight towards one of the Warthogs, its white and red gunner training his sights on Caboose. Rainbow outstretched her hooves and knocked the soldier clean off the back of the jeep before touching down on top of him. One of Eberle’s gray soldiers fell next to her, accompanied by the sound of a Battle Rifle. Rainbow Dash looked over to CT, the man in brown armor reloading his weapon from atop the hill of sand.

Seeing her next target, Rainbow Dash flew straight up into the air until she could see the ruins in their entirety. She then dove straight down towards the brown speck on the edge of the battlefield. Going at incredible speed, Rainbow Dash brought all four hooves down on top of CT just as he was lining up another shot. The brown deceiver was brought straight down into the sand. Thinking victory was in her hooves, Rainbow Dash allowed herself a moment to try and come up with some sort of one-liner.

“It belongs in a museum, C…!”

Rainbow was cut off by a brown elbow connecting with her face, knocking her over into the sand. Rubbing her aching nose, Rainbow looked over at her opponent. CT rose to his feet, cursing. Not liking her chances against a fully armored human soldier, Rainbow Dash elected to flap her wings and take off in search of another target to dive-bomb, CT firing at her all the while. Unfortunately, she apparently underestimated his marksmanship.

“AUGH!” Rainbow cried out as a sudden sharp, searing pain coursed through her right wing and sent her crashing to the sand in front of the open temple.

Wincing, Rainbow Dash bit her lip as she rose to her hooves and looked over at her wing as it burned with horrible pain. She was unable to hold back a whimper as she noticed the amount of blood covering blue feathers.

“Hi Rainbow!”

It was at that moment that Rainbow realized she had landed right at Caboose’s feet.

“Caboose!”

“Ugh… there you are!”

Rainbow turned around and found herself looking at the soldier in white armor with red detail she’d knocked from the Warthog.

“Quick! Shoot him, Caboose!” Rainbow yelled.

“I can’t. Ran out of ammo trying to hit that bird.”

“What bird?”

“The rainbow one.”

Rainbow took another look at her bleeding wing before directing a glare at Caboose. “I think I might hate you.”

The white soldier was raising his own rifle at Rainbow Dash and this time - thanks to Caboose - she couldn’t escape by flying away. As it turned out, she didn’t have to, as the soldier was promptly beaten down by an Elite in blue armor. The alien turned to look at Rainbow Dash and (much to her surprise) nodded.

It suddenly occurred to Rainbow Dash that she may have met this particular Elite before. “Joey?”

The Elite’s response was to continue to stare at the rainbow pegasus. Much to her alarm, the alien started to drool.

“Joey! Stop thinking about eating me! There’s bad guys, remember?”

That snapped Joey out of it, and just in time. An Elite in dark red armor charged straight toward the friendly one in blue. Joey raised a strange, one-handed weapon with several pink crystalline objects on top. Joey pulled the trigger and a few pink needles hit the Elite in red. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, and the enemy Elite got close enough to smack Joey across the face with its own weapon. Joey tried to retaliate with a wild, uncoordinated punch, but the red Elite simply blocked it and used Joey’s own momentum to throw the blue alien to the ground beside Rainbow Dash. Joey spat out a bit of dark blue blood from his mandibled mouth.

“Y’know… I can see why the other Elites don’t think highly of you,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

The Elite in red armor walked toward the wounded pony and the beaten blue Elite, and then dove out of the way of a spiky alien vehicle with two large wheels on its front. The vehicle continued right into one of CT’s Warthogs, its spiky wheels grinding the jeep into pieces, resulting in an explosion and the likely deaths of the men inside. Tucker hopped out of the driver’s seat in the back while Rainbow Dash, Caboose and Joey stared on in awe.

“Hold your applause, please!” Tucker said nonchalantly.

The Elite in red armor that had narrowly avoided the same fate as the Warthog climbed back to its feet. It let loose a mighty roar in Tucker’s direction, opening its four mandibles to give him a good look at its many teeth.

“Come at me, squid mouth!” Tucker called out, beckoning the creature forward with a hand gesture.

The Elite obliged, and Tucker took a step back before reaching for a device on his hip. With the press of a button, a dual-pronged blade of white energy appeared around Tucker’s right hand.

“Swish!” Tucker swung the energy sword as the Elite reached him, knocking the alien to the sand with a big, cauterized slash across its chest.

For a sweet moment, Rainbow Dash forgot all about the crippling pain in her wing. “That. Was. Awesome!”

Rainbow Dash suddenly noticed just how quiet the battle had become. Looking around, she saw that most of Eberle’s forces were already dead. The only fighting still going on was a one on one duel between Abraham and the Elite in purple armor Rainbow Dash saw commanding the Elites on CT’s side. The pair of them were circling each other within a ring of onlooking Elites. Each combatant was already scarred in several places from the battle. They each breathed heavily; this fight had apparently been going on for some time now.

The purple Elite charged toward Abraham, but the gold Elite was patient and let his opponent come to him. Abraham avoided and blocked the purple Elite’s assault, and the two large aliens locked arms, staring each other down. It was at this point that Rainbow Dash noticed that the purple Elite was wearing a helmet that covered its entire face, unlike the others of its kind.

The struggle went on for some time before Abraham headbutted the purple Elite, knocking him off balance. Abraham followed up by spinning his opponent around himself before delivering a strong kick to the purple Elite’s back, knocking him face first into the sand. Abraham gave an unimpressed snort as he allowed the purple Elite to pull himself to his feet.

Just as it seemed like the two big bipeds were about to go at it again, the familiar sound of a three-burst rifle rang out and Abraham dropped to the ground, blue blood forming a puddle in the sand below his head. The purple Elite and his companions making up the combat circle all turned to look at CT, who was reloading his rifle as he casually made his way down the hill. The Elites all honked and blarged their disapproval of CT’s actions. Even Rainbow Dash could tell some very big code of honor was just broken.

“Oh, quit complaining, Smith. You weren’t going to win that fight anyway!” CT said to the purple Elite as he passed him.

CT walked out into the center of the field as Rainbow Dash and the others looked around. To their right was the rest of CT’s forces, having just arrived on foot. To their left was Smith and his Elites. The Phantom they arrived in hovered menacingly above the four figures. They were surrounded with their backs against the open temple.

“Well, Tucker. You’re the only ones standing between me and my prize,” CT said. “So what’ll it be? Are you going to step aside and let us through? Or should we kill you along with all the others?”

Looking around again, Rainbow Dash was not liking their chances. Between her injured wing and the fact that they had Caboose and Joey on their side, it was looking like Tucker was the only one with any fighting capability. And even he couldn’t fight off a whole army by himself. Tucker on the other hand, seemed to disagree. At least, that was what his chuckle after a brief glance to the side seemed to indicate.

“Actually, let me correct you on something: you should have said ‘kill you along with almost all the others!’”

Before CT could inquire about Tucker’s meaning, a deep blast rang out as a projectile passed over Smith’s Elites and CT, reducing a Warthog among CT’s men to burning slag. Rainbow looked up past Smith’s Elites and saw that there was a tank now sitting just behind them. Another blast from the tank caused Smith’s Elites to scatter, and before anyone knew it, there was chaos in front of the temple again. The Phantom swooped over the tank and started firing at it with its plasma cannon, but the tank was undeterred, putting one shell after another into the alien ship.

“SHIT! JONES! ROCKETS!” CT yelled over the explosions

“Quick! Everyone in the temple!” Tucker ordered.

CT was yelling at his forces to attack Tucker and the others while Smith yelled something in Sangheili at his Elites right before the Phantom crashed down to the sand in a fiery blue explosion of plasma. Caboose wasted no time entering the temple followed by Joey. Tucker approached the ancient alien console projecting the holographic door controls and slashed it in half with his energy sword. The tall metal orange door shifted in the stone and began to lower.

“Wait, what about Rarity?! We can’t just leave her out there!” Rainbow exclaimed as the door descended.

“We have no choice! We can’t let them into the temple!” Tucker countered.

A shot from a Battle Rifle impacted on stone just above Rainbow Dash’s head, causing the pony to start.

“No, hold your fire!” CT chastised the soldier that fired. “Kill the others if you have to, but I want the Equestrians alive!”

Taking one last look from CT’s charging forces and the almost-shut door, Rainbow Dash grunted in pain from her wing as she entered the temple. Tucker was the last one in, stopping briefly to use his sword on an Elite that tried to rush into the temple before it shut. A hollow boom echoed through the ruins as the temple door shut completely, locking Rainbow and the others in. The sounds of battle outside were reduced to muffled gunshots and explosions. One final explosion made its boom... and everything outside was silent again.

It wasn’t long after the sounds of distant battle began that Rarity and Tucker spotted Eberle’s Warthog driving back toward them through the sandy ruins.

“What’s going on over there, Captain?” Rarity asked as Eberle’s jeep pulled up

“Yeah!” Tucker exclaimed. “First that CT guy just vanishes into thin air, then we hear gunfire at the temple, then all of the guys unloading the ship just drop what they’re doing, climb into jeeps, and drive out there!”

Rarity had never seen a group of individuals move so quickly at the drop of a hat.

“The whole thing was a ruse! CT and another group of Elites are attacking the temple!” Eberle explained as she hopped out of the jeep and sprinted straight through the stone arch to the camp. “Tucker, get on a line with Command. Get reinforcements down here now!”

“I’ll try, but I didn’t get a response when I tried earlier!” Tucker wasted no time in rushing to the radio set as gunfire continued to echo in the distance. Eberle ran around a corner and disappeared.

“Hello? Come in Command.” Tucker released the transmit button and waited. When he didn’t receive an answer, he held down the button again. “Come in Command! Command, do you read?” No answer. “This is a distress call. Mayday, and all that shit! Why isn’t anyone answering?” Tucker waited for a response. None came. “We found it. It’s in the sand! Send help now!”

Before Tucker could take his finger off the button, Rarity nudged him. “Tucker! Watch out!”

Rarity was almost drowned out by the loud whine of a ship’s engines starting up. The pony and the human looked up to find the large ship that CT arrived in lifting off the ground. Several more soldiers in white armor were standing in the open cargo bay, rifles trained on them. Rarity looked around for something to hide behind, but there was no adequate cover within range.

Just then, a loud boom rumbled across the desert and a powerful projectile slammed into one of the ship’s engines. The white soldiers on board lost their balance and fell over, a couple even fell right out of the ship. A second blast destroyed the engine completely, and the ship began to plummet to the ground, black smoke emanating from it. It hit the ground next to the stone arch hard, sending up a plume of dust and sand.

Tucker and Rarity turned around and saw a tank sitting in place, its gun barrel tilted up where the ship had been. The driver’s hatch opened and Eberle hopped out.

“Is Command sending reinforcements?” she asked, running over to them.

“I don’t know, I couldn’t reach them!” Tucker answered.

“Damn!” Eberle stomped a foot. “Tucker, get down there and secure the temple!”

“On it, boss!” Tucker ran over to where the vehicles were parked and went straight for the strangely shaped vehicle he showed Rarity and Rainbow Dash earlier. It made a loud, uncomfortable noise as the engine started up. Tucker drove down toward the battle, the big front wheels pulling the vehicle along, the back end hovering in place. Soon enough, Tucker was gone.

Eberle, meanwhile, stepped up beside Rarity and adjusted the radio’s frequency. “Come in, Recovery Fourteen! Recovery Fourteen, do you read?”

Eberle had much more luck than Tucker. “Oh heeEEeey Captain!” Donut cheerfully answered. “I reached the place where the Insurrectionists are camped out, and guess what? There’s nobody here! Looks like they all just packed up and left!”

“That’s what I thought…” Eberle muttered.

“What now? Should I head back?”

“No. We’re under attack and can’t reach Command. I need you to head to the nearest base you can find and try to make contact from there! The code phrase is ‘we found it, it’s in the sand!’”

“Can do, Cappy! Good luck!”

With that, Eberle switched off the radio.

“What do we do now?” Rarity asked.

“I’m getting the tank and going back to the temple,” Eberle said, her normally firm voice letting slip one that was softer. “You should find your friends and get out of here. You guys have nothing to do with all of this. It doesn’t make sense for you to die here too.”

Eberle walked over to one of the Warthogs, reached in and pushed the starter. “Take this and fill it with a few water canteens. You’ll need them to cross the desert.” Eberle grabbed the steering wheel and showed Rarity how to turn it. “You use this to steer. The pedals on the floor control the acceleration. Don’t ask me why there’s six of them!”

By this point all of the firm authority in Eberle’s voice was gone, and it occurred to Rarity just how quiet it had gotten. The Captain gave a sad little sigh and much to Rarity’s surprise, scratched her behind the ear. It wasn’t entirely unwelcome: in fact it felt kind of good, and Rarity let herself melt in the armored hand for a moment.

“You know… I always wanted a pony when I was a kid…”

Eberle let go of Rarity just as quickly as she had grabbed her, and all of a sudden the stoic and authoritative soldier returned. She ran to the parked tank, climbed into the driver’s seat and the large armored vehicle turned in place before driving towards the now deadly silent battlefield.

Rarity just stood and watched the tank go. The whole time she was here, Rarity only thought of these soldiers as her enemy. They were working for Project Freelancer after all, and needed to be stopped. But then she actually got to know them, realizing Donut, Eberle and even Tucker weren’t bad people. But this CT and the ones who followed him were. They needed to be stopped from killing anyone else.

So with great haste, Rarity climbed into the driver’s seat of the Warthog that Eberle started for her. Right away Rarity realized that her hind legs wouldn’t reach the pedals. She’d have to use her magic to control them. Brushing aside a strand of purple hair, Rarity activated the gas and drove the Warthog across the sand. It was tricky to get the feel of steering a vehicle, but fortunately she was in a desert, and open space was plentiful.

Rarity did not dwell on learning the finer points of driving, though. She drove straight to the other end of the ruins, where more loud blasts were going off. Rarity turned a corner and spotted Eberle’s tank exchanging fire with a large purple ship. The tank hit the already damaged looking vessel with one final shell before it exploded into blinding blue flames, its pieces crashing into the hill of sand making up the ruins’ perimeter. Then much to Rarity’s horror, a rocket collided with the front of the already smoking tank, causing it to explode and catch fire.

Without even thinking, Rarity brought the Warthog to a stop beside the wreckage and got out. To her relief, an armored hand pushed open the driver’s hatch. Unfortunately, that was all the occupant seemed to have the strength for. Firing up her horn, Rarity encased Eberle in her blue magical aura and - with some effort - dragged her out of the destroyed tank. Eberle’s white armor was charred black in many places, and there was a lot of blood around her midsection, but she seemed to be breathing.

Rarity’s ear flicked as she heard the clicks of weaponry behind her. She turned and found herself looking up at a large group of armored humans and Elites both, all pointing weapons at her. Rainbow Dash and the others were nowhere in sight.

“Well, what do ya think?” Sarge asked, gesturing dramatically to the hangar behind him. “Climb aboard Air Sarge: non-stop flight to murder!”

Twilight had to admit, the ship sure looked impressive sitting in the hangar like that. Still, Twilight had already seen two of these “Pelican” dropships before, and each one ended up crashing spectacularly. Twilight didn’t trust it for a moment and it seemed that Tex was in agreement on the matter. The small black M.I. floated around the Pelican as she inspected it from all angles.

While Tex did that, Twilight’s attention was drawn to the olive green duffel bag that Sunny had with her. Curious to see what the pony and M.I. had gathered, Twilight reached forward with a hoof to peek inside, but was pushed back by Sunny.

“Don’t,” the armored mare warned.

“Why? More secrets between you and Tex?” Twilight asked with no lack of venom in her voice.

“Trust me, the crater you’ll leave if you mess with this bag won’t be very secret!”

At that moment, Tex reappeared in front of the group. “Hmm… it’s mostly in shape, but the ignition coil looks like it’s about to fall apart!”

“Can you fix it?” Fluttershy asked.

Tex sighed. “No. Of all the things we covered in Freelancer training, ship maintenance wasn’t one of them.”

“So you can fix the Blues’ tank every time that breaks, but when we find a perfectly good ship we can use?” Sarge sighed. “That figures…”

“A ship like this would be perfect for getting us into Command, but in a state like this, we’re just as likely to die in a crash before even making it that far!”

“And I’d prefer not to die until after we’ve destroyed Project Freelancer!” Sunny added.

“So… we’re leaving the ship?” Fluttershy asked with a touch of hopefulness. It would seem she was in no hurry to ride in one.

Twilight took another look at the large space vessel. She remembered what it was like to try and escape from Freelancer Command before. Not only had she been lucky, but Project Freelancer had probably doubled security at their Command Center since she escaped.

“No,” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t see any way we’ll be getting into Freelancer Command from the ground. This ship is our best option!”

Tex disappeared and reappeared in front of Twilight. “Well, unless you know anyone who can fix it…”

“Heh heh…” Sarge laughed, and everyone turned their attention to the man in red. “Now the ball’s in Sarge’s court! And he’s goin’ for a slam dunk!”

“Don’t tell me you know how to fix a ship, Sarge!”

“Oh, I don’t! But I know someone who just might!” Sarge exclaimed. “Pack yer travel kits everyone! We’re goin’ home!”

Author's Note

Next time: we meet some new characters and learn more about the true nature of the alien temples

Act 2 Part 9 - Nightmare

“I have to go. They’re waiting for me.”

The blonde woman dressed in drab green smiled at him, but it was a sad smile. One that filled him with pain. He wanted to say something. To tell her not to leave, or even to ask to come with her, but he couldn’t say anything. All he could do was stand there in silence and watch as the beautiful blonde woman slipped away from him.

“And don’t worry, you’ll see me again.”

It was a lie. He already knew how this story ended. After all, this was just a nightmare. The same one he’d been having for years. It wasn’t his nightmare, yet he’d inherited it all the same. As the woman in uniform continued to look at him with her sad, beautiful blue eyes, he could see the other in his mind’s eye.

The true owner of this nightmare lived on its fringes. The other clutched his cobalt blue head and screamed in agony, begging the torment to stop. Yet another was standing just off to the side in the corner of his eye. A tall, dark equine figure with an ethereal mane like the night sky. That’s different… He paid the figure no mind, though. The woman in front of him and the cries of the other held his attention.

“His vitals are changing,” a woman’s voice echoed in the distance. It wasn’t the one in front of him. “Doctor, I think he’s coming to!”

“Just don’t say goodbye,” the woman in front of him continued as if the other voices weren’t there.

“Alert the Princess, now!” A male’s voice this time, full of authority and urgency.

“I hate goodbyes…”

Washington opened his eyes and winced. It took some time to adjust to the brightness of the room, but he was soon able to see that he was lying in some sort of clean white medical facility. A nearby heart monitor was beeping fast, but slowed as the nightmare drifted back into the dark depths of his subconscious from whence it came. It had been years since Epsilon had killed itself while implanted in Washington’s head, but its memories continued to haunt him.

With a groan, Washington sat upright and took a look around. The first thing Washington noticed was that he wasn’t wearing his helmet. Suddenly feeling very vulnerable, Washington scanned the room and quickly spotted the gray helmet with its yellow stripe looking at him from the bedside table. He hastily grabbed it and put it on, feeling instantly more calm and collected.

Only when his face was safely concealed again did Washington take in his surroundings. His spacious bed was the only one in the rather large room. The rest of it was filled with various machines, none of which were familiar. This isn’t a Freelancer facility, Washington realized. It was then that he remembered where exactly he was.

“You haven’t aged well, Washington,” a warm, motherly voice addressed him to his left.

Despite everything, Washington found a grin creeping across his face as he swung his legs out to sit on the edge of the bed to address his company. “And you…”

Washington’s retort was halted at the sight of the radiant white alicorn in front of him. “Actually, you look pretty much exactly the same, Princess.”

Celestia smiled and gave a friendly chuckle, “I get that a lot.”

The Princess stepped into the room followed by a few of her little unicorns in white coats. The doctors insisted on running some checks on him, but Washington waved them off. It was unnecessary; his HUD displayed his vitals as within acceptable deviations. He’d lived through worse.

“It’s good to see you again, your Highness,” Washington said, standing.

“Likewise, Washington. How’s York?”

Washington froze as he recalled his old comrade’s fate. That had been the hardest part of being a Recovery Agent: cleaning up his friends. Washington debated whether he should tell the Princess about their fate, but from the sudden change in her mood, it would seem she made the connection on her own.

“And North?” Celestia asked.

Washington let out a breath and shook his head.

“I’m so sorry…” she said, stepping closer.

“It’s okay. Their problems with Project Freelancer are over.” If only he was that lucky.

“On that note, I hear you helped my student Twilight against some of our mutual friends in the program,” Celestia said. “I imagine this was against direct orders from your superiors.”

Washington nodded. “I’m done playing along with the Director’s game. I have been for some time.”

Princess Celestia studied him for a while. As always, she seemed to be considering many different things to reach some conclusion. Washington found himself thinking back to the strange dark blue alicorn he saw in his dream and wondered just how much Celestia really knew about him.

“That is good,” Celestia said once she came to whatever decision she was making, “because I need your help with something.”

“I’m listening...”

It had been a long twelve hour drive from Sidewinder, during which there had been few stops. Once Church and the two ponies accompanying him had left the freezing snowy mountains for more temperate terrain, the girls in question had requested they stop and take a break. Church agreed, based partially on the fact that Pinkie Pie was getting restless, and a restless Pinkie Pie meant no end of pain in the form of sing-alongs and games of I Spy.

Church just sat around and checked the sights on his sniper rifle while Pinkie and Applejack grazed, drank from a nearby stream and later decided to clean off the black stuff from the teleporter. As he watched the two mares wash each other in the running water, Church couldn’t help but wonder with some disgust whether he was watching some male pony’s fantasy. It was around that time he had shouted at them to hurry up so they could get going.

The pair of ponies had curled up and slept the rest of the drive over. As the sun began to come up the next morning, they were awoken by a distant thunderous crack followed by a distant blue light shooting into the sky.

“What ‘n tarnation was that?” Applejack asked as she lifted her hat and rubbed her eyes.

“Hopefully our destination,” Church answered.

They continued driving past streams and towering pines until even the all terrain Warthog could go no further. From there, the three hoofed it down the side of the mountain between thick clusters of rocks and trees until they reached the top of one of the valley’s walls. Church saw the resemblance to his own canyon immediately, but he couldn’t deny: this place was way nicer.

While Blood Gulch had been a bleak, brown place with a couple of bare trees as the only signs of life, the canyon below him now was much greener. This “Valhalla” was sparsely forested with more tall pine trees and lush bushes. There were a few rocky outcroppings in the center of the canyon and a shallow stream snaked its way from one end to the other. It was fed by a waterfall on one side and emptied into the ocean on the other.

Even the Red and Blue bases themselves looked prettier. Instead of the drab, single-story concrete structures Blood Gulch featured, the bases here were made of a fine, smooth metal. A tall tower rose from each base, firing a large blue spark into the air at intermittent times. There also appeared to be no safe way to climb down, as the valley was surrounded by sheer cliff walls on all sides but the one that opened up to the ocean.

Church was eventually able to find a slope leading down into a cave just outside the canyon wall, and soon enough that cave let them out just beside the base that was up against the end of the canyon with the waterfall beside it. A pair of soldiers in blue armor ran to greet them.

“Halt! Who goes there?” One asked.

“Just me: another Blue like yourself! I’m hoping to talk to whoever’s in charge here,” Church answered. When the other Blues looked at his two companions, he added to that statement. “Oh yeah, and these two are my traveling companions, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.”

“Howdy!” Applejack greeted with a dip of her stetson.

“Hi!” Pinkie Pie waved so hard her arm might very well have come off.

“And what about you?” The blue soldier asked.

“Oh, I’m Private Leonard Church.”

The Blue soldier took a step forward and scrutinized Church intensely while his partner kept his weapon trained on him.

“And is that your true name?”

Church took a step back. “What?”

“Answer the question!”

“Yes! I’m Church!”

The other Blue studied Church for another moment before relenting. “Okay. I’ll take you to see the Lieutenant.”

Church, Pinkie and Applejack all followed the Blue around the base to a ramp at the back leading up to the top. An important looking man in blue armor with green detail stood up front, looking out over the canyon like a captain at the helm of his ship. He was a portly man and didn’t quite seem to fit his armor.

“Lieutenant! I have a new Blue soldier, along with two strange creatures,” the blue soldier reported.

“Are you sure he’s not indoctrinated?” The lieutenant asked; he spoke with a smooth, deep voice.

“I checked. He seems okay.”

“Ah, so you’re reinforcements then?” The Blue lieutenant turned around to face them. Church was immediately shocked at the sight of what appeared to be a full bush of dark red hair growing out of the bottom of his helmet: a truly mighty beard.

“I’m the Commanding Officer of Outpost 17-B: Lieutenant Jackson Patterson Ilo. Most just call me Jack,” he said in his smooth deep voice. Church thought he could have been a radio DJ, or a strip club announcer.

“Sorry to disappoint ya Jack, but we ain’t here to help ya win yer battle,” Applejack said.

“But we can throw a party to boost morale!” Pinkie offered.

Jack looked down at Applejack and Pinkie in surprise. “What the Hell are these?”

“It’s a long story,” Church said, “but it would really help us if you’ve seen any more of them, or know anyone who has.”

Jack shook his head. “No, I haven’t heard anything about small horses from anyone.” Jack then stroked his beard in thought. “Although… maybe the new soldier who popped up in the Red Base has seen something. He did apparently mention something about unicorns…”

“New soldier?”

“Yes, my inside man told me a soldier just arrived at Red Base last night,” Jack explained. “His armor was bright pink, but apparently he kept insisting it was ‘lightish red.’”

“Donut!” Church exclaimed.

“You know him?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, what else did he say?”

“According to my informant, he kept asking for water. Wherever he came from, he was very dehydrated. Other than that, he just kept saying ‘we found it, it’s in the sand.’”

“Well that’s not cryptic in the slightest…” Church deadpanned. “Did he say anything else?”

Jack shook his head. “No… Wait! I think he actually did say something before he passed out. Something about a rarity…”

“A rarity?” Church asked. “Like what? Someone having a mature, civilized conversation on the internet or something?”

“No, he just said the one word: rarity.”

Applejack exchanged a look with Pinkie Pie. “Uh, you don’ suppose he was talkin’ about our Rarity, do ya?”

Pinkie smiled and jumped in place. “Oh yeah! Our friend’s name is Rarity, which is cool if you think about it because its both her name and it describes her name because really, who else do you know with the name Rarity? Though, if we did meet someone else with the name Rarity, it wouldn’t be a rarity anymore, so should we call her Not-Rarity?”

“Pinkie…” Church warned before looking at Applejack. “Okay, if Donut really did meet your friend we need to talk to him.”

“That may be… difficult. He’s deep in the Reds’ midst!” Jack said.

“So what? It’s the Reds! What’s the worst they can do? Insult us?”

“Private Church, I don’t know what the Reds from your outpost are like, but these Reds are dangerous! Well, at the very least their leader is…”

Applejack stepped forward and looked up at Jack. “This ‘Donut’ fella is the only lead we have to find the rest of our friends! We have to try!”

“What could possibly be so scary about a Red Team?” Church asked.

“If you must know, their leader is a madman!” Jack began pacing anxiously. “He goes by many names: the Vagabond, the Loophole Guy, some even call him the Mad King of Valhalla. I simply know him as Captain James Hayworth.

“Hayworth is a… disturbing person. And to think: there are those who say his voice sounds like mine! The last time I sent a man - Private Kaydin - to scout out the Red base, he was captured. A few days later, Kaydin returned to us but something was wrong. I don’t know what tortures Hayworth subjected him to, but Kaydin lost his Goddamn mind! He tried to kill all of us! We tried to call out to him, make him see reason, but he didn’t respond to his name anymore. He had adopted another one: Edgar.”

Church didn’t know what it meant, only that it made him shiver.

“The only way we were able to stop Kaydin was by putting him down,” Jack continued. “Ever since then I haven’t let my men go anywhere near Hayworth’s forces. Aside from this base here, they effectively control the whole canyon!”

If Jack was right, they were lucky that it was the Blue Base they stumbled upon first. Nevertheless, Church didn’t see any other way they were going to find the others.

“We have to get Donut, Jack!” Church said. “It’s our only option!”

Jack let out a long sigh, “Okay, if you’re really serious about this, I can put you into contact with my inside man. A Private Walter Henderson on the Red Team has lately become… disillusioned with Hayworth and his tactics. He’s been feeding me information at great personal risk to keep us aware of the Reds’ movements. He’s the one who informed me about your man Donut.

"Henderson can give you a way to sneak over there so you won’t get spotted by the Red patrols and can meet up with you at their base to help you get Donut out.”

“Can’t you help?” Church asked, remembering the battle at Zanzibar. “Can’t you attack them and draw off their forces?”

“No!” Jack whirled around and faced Church. “I am not putting my men at risk like that! Never again…”

Rainbow Dash winced and sucked in air as Tucker finished wrapping the bandage around her right wing. For what must have been the dozenth time, Rainbow sniffed and rubbed her eyes, blaming their watery nature on allergies.

“Okay, I’m no medic, but the biofoam should at least keep it from bleeding out and getting infected,” he said as he put away the rest of the materials into the white case where he got them. It was quite good fortune that of the few pieces of equipment Eberle’s people were able to move in, a few med-kits were among them. “Of course, we wouldn’t even have this problem if someone - I’m glaring at you, Caboose - wasn’t a teamkilling fucktard!”

Caboose raised his hands defensively. “Hey, we don’t have any proof that was me!”

“The fact that the bullet came from an assault rifle while every other soldier out there was using either a battle rifle or a plasma weapon is pretty solid evidence against you, Caboose.” Tucker said.

“Blarg!”

“Oh yeah, and Joey says he saw you do it.”

Rainbow Dash just looked at her wounded wing. It hurt less than it had earlier, but it still sent sharp twinges of pain through her body whenever she moved it. Trapped inside a dark, sandy ancient temple surrounded by bad guys with a bandaged wing, Rainbow Dash was starting to feel a lot like Daring Do at the moment. The only thing she was missing was a pith helmet.

“Ugh, with all of my Daring Do expertise, I should’ve seen all of this coming! This is just like when Dr. Caballeron turned on her when they found the Griffon’s Goblet!” Rainbow lamented. “Who are those guys, anyway?”

“I think it’s a safe bet that CT is the leader of the human Insurrectionists that have been giving us trouble after we first arrived here,” Tucker explained. “As for his alien buddies, the political situation on Sanghelios is pretty fucked right now. The current regime wants to make peace with humans, but there are all of these other Elite factions that want to overthrow the current regime and continue the war. I guess one of them found common cause with the Insurrection.

“I don’t know what their motives are, but they can’t be anything good. Those guys could kill a lot of people if they find that artifact!”

“Okay. Then we’ll just have to find it first!” Rainbow proclaimed, taking a look around the room they were standing in.

The room looked half filled with unevenly placed sand, the floor not even visible. A large metal orange pillar covered in ancient alien runes took up the center of the room. Just behind it, Rainbow Dash could see a passage leading deeper into the temple.

“This way! Just watch out for ceiling alligators!” Rainbow started to make her way over there when Tucker stepped in front of her.

“Actually, we should probably handle this carefully,” he explained. “We’re dealing with an ancient alien weapon of unknown power. Activating it might kill all of us and everything within one hundred light years of this system! Whatever you do: Don’t touch anything. Especially if it looks shiny and weird.”

Tucker looked up at where Caboose was standing as he finished. He then looked all around himself in alarm. “Fuck! Where’d Caboose go?”

Rainbow looked over her shoulder to find that the blue soldier wasn’t standing where he had been moments earlier. “You mean you weren’t watching him?!”

“No! I thought Joey was…” Tucker looked over at the blue Elite in question. The large alien was standing there, idly chewing on a med-pack while staring off into space. “Joey! Take that out of your mouth right now!”

Joey promptly tossed the white pack on the ground and gave an innocent “Blarg?”

“Don’t give me that! I just saw you with your jaws clamped on it! All four of them!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t waste any time listening to Tucker and Joey argue. She galloped as fast as she could deeper into the temple, legitimately concerned for the safety of the galaxy. She took a right turn down a passage of beige stone filled with sand and kept going until she made a left turn. She exited out into a slightly larger chamber. The floor was still obscured by a layer of sand, but a stone platform trimmed with orange metal rose up in the center at the back of the room. Standing on it was Caboose, and much to Rainbow Dash’s immediate alarm, he was holding something in his hands.

“Look! It’s a robot eyeball!” he exclaimed, holding out the object for Rainbow to see.

It certainly did look like an eye. The object was about the size of a person’s head, round and concave on the front and sides. In the center was another spherical shape with what appeared to be a large dark eye in the middle. Dark lines covered its silvery metal body.

“Caboose! Quit pointing that at me! You already shot me once today, I don’t want you to do it again with an antique!”

“Hey barkeep!” Spike slurred as he slid an empty glass across the bar counter. “Throw me another grape juice!”

The purple bartender with a raspberry pink mane and tail looked over at Spike as she wiped down the counter with a white rag. Berry Punch gave the baby dragon a suspicious glare as she took his empty glass. Perhaps she was wondering whether it was actually possible to get drunk on grape juice.

“Little early to be drinking so much, huh?” Berry asked.

“Hey!” Spike slammed a fist down on the counter, drawing the attention of the other juice bar patrons as he wobbled in place. “I’m not payin’ ya to talk, I’m payin’ ya to fix me a drink!”

“Okay, I ain’t your mother,” Berry said defensively as she began pouring. She passed Spike the glass of juice and he slid over a couple of bits before taking another swig.

After lowering the glass from his lips, Spike couldn’t help but be acutely aware of all of the other ponies in the establishment staring at him. “Don’t judge me, okay? I have problems at home!” Orange and maroon problems, Spike thought bitterly.

“When you’ve got problems, sometimes the best solution is to talk about them instead of drowning them in juice.” Berry put her bar rag away and leaned over the counter. “C’mon, kid. What’s troubling ya?”

Seeing that the barkeep wasn’t taking no for an answer, and that he now had the attention of several barflies, Spike sighed and began his story.

“It all started this morning when Twilight left me with a job to do: to play host to two of the galaxy’s worst houseguests…”

Spike descended the stairs to the main floor of Golden Oaks Library with a yawn. He’d been up very late the night before and very early this morning to see Twilight off. Spike would certainly miss her while she was gone, but having nopony around had its benefits. Namely, that no one could stop him from taking all the naps he wanted. So after making sure that his two guests were comfortable, Spike had fired off a letter to the Princess letting her know the situation before heading upstairs for some sleep.

A couple of hours later, the growling of his stomach roused Spike from his slumber. Licking his lips, Spike headed into the kitchen, thinking he might make himself a gem sandwich. All of his hopes were dashed when he found the fridge empty save for a few scraps. Spike had just restocked the fridge yesterday while Twilight and the others were gone! How could they be out of food already?

Spike found his answer when he entered the main room of the library. There he found Grif sprawled out on Twilight’s reading couch. It looked like a food bomb had exploded and Grif was lying at ground zero. Empty cans, fruit peels, candy bar wrappers, plates and plastic wrap that once held entire meals worth of leftovers were strewn about the lounge area. The man in orange grunted as he lifted his head from what was apparently a food induced coma.

“Oh, hey kid. We need ya to run to the grocery store. We’re out of milk, ice cream, bananas… Oh! Do you have Juicy Fruit here?”

Spike just stared in horror. “Did you seriously just eat everything we have?”

Grif shrugged. “You said ‘help yourself!’”

“Not to the entire fridge!”

“Well, you should have been more clear on that point!”

Spike’s left eye twitched. “It’s common decency!”

Grif sat up. “I don’t know if you realized this, but Simmons and I are kinda new to this planet. You can’t expect us to just know all of the intricate nuances of your alien society!”

Spike let out a low groan, but the statement reminded him of something: where was Simmons? It didn’t take much searching for Spike to find him. The maroon man was between one of the many aisles of bookshelves. To Spike’s immediate concern, he had removed all of the books from the bookshelves and was putting them back in a different order.

“What are you doing?!” Spike yelled.

“Oh, hey Spike! I took the liberty of changing your filing system for the library!”

“But those were alphabetized!”

To Spike’s horror, Simmons wasn’t stopping his work. “Oh, I know! I’m giving the library a more alternative sorting system! Instead placing the books alpha-numerically, I’m sorting them by the binary code representing the first letter of each title!”

“Why?!?”

“Uh, because it’s a mathematically superior system?” Simmons answered as if it was obvious. “Don’t worry, you can thank me later!”

Shaking, Spike pointed at Simmons. “Put it all back! Now!” Spike then walked back to Grif. “And you, clean up this mess!”

“On my planet, we have something called ‘Guest Rights,’” Grif replied. “It means the guest can do whatever the fuck he wants and doesn’t have to do shit!”

Spike was fairly certain Grif was just making that up. Still, he had no way to prove it. “Please?”

“Sorry, nothing you say or do can change the law of Guest Rights!” Grif declared. “Oh! Do you have any booze around here? I’d do anything for a drink!”

The juice-serving establishment looked on at Spike as the drake finished his story “After that, I lost my temper and came here!”

“I’ve heard a lot of stories from a lot of ponies who come in here with troubles,” Berry Punch said, “but I think this is the first time I’ve heard of someone dealing with freeloading space aliens!”

Spike gave a resigned nod.

“Honey, I feel your pain,” said a mare with a red mane and a rose cutie mark as she sat down at the stool next to him. “That orange one sounds just like my first husband!”

“How did you deal with him?” Spike asked, not really expecting the mare’s answer to help his situation.

The mare giggled. “Oh, I took away his alcohol! Didn’t give it back to him until he did some chores around the house!”

“Yeah…” Spike nodded and took another sip of his juice. Grif certainly seemed the type to appreciate alcohol.

“I’d do anything for a drink…”

“Anything for a drink…”

“Anything…”

“Wait, that’s it!” Spike shot to his feet, standing on top of the stool he had been sitting on. “Berry, do you have anything alcoholic?”

Berry Punch fixed him with a glare. “Look, I recognize your situation’s bad, but why don’t you just stick to the juice, yeah?”

Spike shook his head. “No, not for me! For Grif!”

“You mean the orange alien that’s living with you?”

“Yeah! I might be able to bribe him with it!”

The pony with the rose on her flank looked at Spike and gave him a little nod of approval.

“Well, there’s just one problem with that,” Berry said. “I can’t sell alcohol to you. You’re a minor!”

Just like that, Spike saw his plan crashing to pieces. Or maybe it was the glass of juice that he dropped as his mind was filled with images of the library overcome by food, with no one to clean it up but himself.

“Then I’ll buy it for him!”

At the sound of the familiar, stuffy voice, Spike turned around and saw a man in maroon armor crouch through the door.

“Simmons? What are you doing here?”

“I came to find you. I wanted to let you know that my alpha-binary sorting system is ready to go!”

Spike narrowed his eyes. “Oh. Fantastic…” he deadpanned. His face suddenly lit up. “Wait, did you just say you’ll help me buy alcohol to use on Grif?”

Simmons nodded. “Trust me, I’m just as sick of seeing him be a lazy fatass as you are. What’s worse is there’s nothing I can do about it! He’s my commanding officer now!”

Spike felt his eyes well up with tears. “Thank you…”

Simmons just turned to address the barkeep, “Give me a whole case of your cheapest, finest liquor!”

Berry Punch brought out her bar rag and began wiping the counter. “Eighteen bits.”

“Uh… what’s a ‘bit?’”

With a yawn, Twilight staggered through the darkness back towards their camp. The group had spent most of the day driving, but they eventually had to stop to get some sleep. They’d found a rock overhang to make camp beneath. Although FILSS had informed them that the Meta had since left the vicinity of the Offsite Storage Facility before they left, Twilight still wanted to make sure it or anything else as dangerous didn’t attack them as they slept. She had cast a few enchantments along the perimeter of their campsite that served as an early warning system, but Tex found it prudent to actually have someone awake and alert at all times of the night.

She and Sunny had the first watch, but even with a military artificial intelligence like Tex within her, Sunny still needed to rest. Twilight volunteered for the next shift, and after a long couple of hours in which she constantly fought her drooping eyelids, Twilight was relieved by Sarge. She arrived back at their campsite, the fire they had built now reduced to burning embers. Twilight curled up near Fluttershy and readied herself for sleep. That was when she heard the whimper.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked over at Fluttershy, but the little yellow pegasus was sleeping soundly, a content little smile on her face. Twilight was ready to dismiss the noise as her own overtired imagination when she heard another whimper. It came from across the campfire, at the foot of the Warthog they had been traveling in. It was where Sunny was sleeping.

Curious, Twilight stood and quietly walked over to the prone white mare. She was still in her armor, sleeping on her side. Twilight looked at her face, and saw that she did not have the content look that Fluttershy did. Sunny’s sleeping face was contorted in fear, legs twitching as if she was trying to run. A noise of pure despair periodically escaped her throat as she shifted uncomfortably.

“Sunny?” Twilight asked cautiously. “Are you…?”

Twilight reached out to her with a hoof but all of a sudden a dark transparent figure was in front of her and Twilight withdrew her hoof.

“She’s just having a nightmare, kid,” Tex said. “Nothing we can do to help her.”

Twilight looked away and briefly considered simply dropping the issue. Her past conversations with Tex hadn’t gone very well. It wasn’t that she hated the M.I. In fact, their prior conversation made Twilight feel a little bad for her, despite the fact that she still didn’t have the full picture. But that was just the issue: Tex wouldn’t give her the full picture. It seemed the two of them still didn’t have much cause to trust one another.

In spite of this, Twilight found herself unable to walk away from the sleeping white mare before her. “Can’t we wake her up?”

“She needs sleep to be at her full effectiveness. As do you,” Tex snorted. “One of the drawbacks to having a flesh and blood body.”

Taking the hint, Twilight turned around to go back to her spot next to Fluttershy, but another agonized whimper stopped her.

“Can… can you see what she’s dreaming about?”

It took some time for Tex to answer. “Her friends, her family…” Tex paused, “the Meta…”

Twilight turned back around. Tex’s avatar was still there. “How often does she dream about…?”

“Every night.”

Twilight was about to respond when Sunny was suddenly overtaken by a particularly violent spasm. Her sleeping face was a contortion of terror, and suddenly Twilight wasn’t looking at the calm, stoic soldier but a scared filly. Armored hooves thrashed at the air around her, and soon enough Sunny’s moans of despair became words.

“N-no… no… ‘m sorry… sorry…”

Tex looked down at Sunny and waved an ethereal hand. Twilight wasn’t sure what Tex did, but all at once Sunny’s spasms subsided.

“Sorry I wasn’... stronger…” with that, the white pony lay still, breathing softly.

“She’s traumatized...” Twilight suddenly realized. A little stab of pain entered her throat as she said it. “She shouldn’t be out here! She needs help! She should be at home with her family!”

“She wanted to come with me, you know,” Tex said.

“That doesn’t mean you should have let her!”

“I needed a living, breathing body in order to make it this far!”

Twilight rounded on her. “So you took advantage of a hurt pony’s fragile mental state!?”

“Yes! I will do whatever is necessary to finish this fight, and no self-important pony is going to tell me otherwise!”

At the realization that they had both raised their voices, Twilight looked over at Fluttershy. The pegasus was still sleeping soundly, likely having more pleasant dreams than the earth pony across from her. Collecting her thoughts, Twilight suddenly realized just how convenient it was that Tex just happened to find a trained military pony willing to be a vessel for her to act through.

But when she looked back at Tex, the M.I. no longer seemed ready to explode. Instead, she seemed quiet and contemplative. “Holy shit… I sound just like him…”

Before Twilight could get any answers, though, Tex’s avatar disappeared. Yawning, Twilight decided to simply drop the matter and returned to her spot beside Fluttershy. She went to sleep and dreamt of her parents.

When she awoke the next morning, the scared filly from the night before was a cold and distant soldier again.

From within a crevice tucked away between a large outcropping and a boulder, Church looked across at the towering Red Base. Church found himself wondering whether the fact that it was beachfront property increased the resale value. Perhaps it was to keep his mind off the fact that just inside was a madman who had a reputation for torturing people to insanity. For some reason, the prospect gave him an unsettling sense of deja vu, like some forgotten nightmare.

Church instead decided to focus on the mission at hand. Under Private Henderson’s guidance, he, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had snuck across the canyon using the caves, timing the few moments where they had to traverse exposed terrain to coincide with the gaps in Red patrols. Now, Church could see what looked like a straight shot to the interior of the structure, but he didn’t want to risk being spotted by an unseen watcher. All they could do at this point was wait.

“Are you Church?” a voice asked behind them. Church and the ponies whirled around and saw a soldier in red armor standing behind them. “Relax, it’s me! Private Henderson!”

Applejack’s features noticeably relaxed and Church lowered his sniper rifle. “So, what’s the plan?”

“They’re keeping the pink guy on the far side out back. Just past where we keep the vehicles,” Henderson explained. “I managed to send away the guard on this side for a few minutes and I’m the only one assigned to the side they’re keeping your guy, so we should be clear but we need to act fast.”

“Right!” Church nodded. He had considered making use of his ghost abilities for this mission, but it looked like they wouldn’t be necessary. “AJ, Pinkie, you two wait here. I’ll probably need help carrying him on the way back. And Pinkie, I’ll need you to be a distraction if shit hits the fan. Just like you did in Sidewinder!”

“Okay! Should I move this fan away from the toilet so it doesn’t get hit at all?” Pinkie asked.

Church and Henderson both stared at Pinkie in silence for a few brief moments.

“We’ll get it done, don’ you worry!” Applejack reassured them with a smile.

With the plan said, Church and Henderson left the cover of the crevice and made their way around Red Base to the back. Church noticed a few red soldiers on the top level of the base, but they were all focused on watching the front. Henderson led Church past a couple of Warthogs to a section of grass behind the base filled with various crates and canisters. In the center of it all lay a pink soldier.

“There he is!” Church whispered as he rushed forward.

He grabbed one of Donut’s arms and with some effort, hoisted the man to his feet. Donut muttered something about sand, but apart from that he remained unconscious.

“Ngh! Henderson, can you give me a hand with him?” Church asked. He waited for the Red informant to rush over and grab Donut’s other arm, but nothing happened. “Henderson? Can’t carry him by myself here, buddy!”

Church looked over his shoulder and froze. Henderson was pointing his gun at him. All at once, more Reds poured out of the nearby base and surrounded Church and Donut. Church gave his “inside man” a death glare.

“You double-crossing fucker!” Church swore.

At this, someone laughed. It was a deep, maniacal laugh that echoed around the canyon. Soon, another man in red armor emerged from the rear entrance of Red Base. Right away Church was able to guess who he was. He wore a tarp as a cape and a crown made of several combat knives welded together on top of his ODST helmet. It was easy to see how he had earned the name “Mad King.”

“You have that right, Blue! He is a double-crossing fucker, isn’t he?” the regal looking soldier spoke in a sophisticated, deep voice. “Fortuitously, a little time in the Hole has a way of changing a man’s perspective! Observe!”

Hayworth approached Henderson and affably put a hand on his shoulder. “When speaking with Lieutenant Jack and his Blues, who are you?”

“I am Private Walter Henderson,” Henderson stated in a dead monotone.

Hayworth forced Walter to look at him. “And who are you really?”

“I am Edgar.”

Hayworth nodded and whispered, “Always Edgar…”

“Jesus, you’re insane!” Church exclaimed.

“I hope so!” Hayworth happily exclaimed. “This would be pretty fucked up if I wasn’t!”

Church looked around. Just as the situation seemed at its most hopeless, he remembered his backup plan. With a burst of confetti and a noisemaker, Pinkie Pie appeared in the midst of the Reds.

“Hi everyone! Guess what? I’m giving away free pies! Everyone gets one!” Pinkie pulled a couple of delicious looking, freshly baked pies out of… somewhere, and started chucking them at the Reds. “You get a pie and you get a pie and you get a pie!”

Henderson and a couple of the Reds standing near him all received pies to the face. Hayworth only barely managed to duck under the pie that was thrown at him, but the momentary distraction was enough for Church to shove him to the ground. With the way clear, Church struggled to carry Donut back to the caves they used to sneak over here. Applejack ran over and met him halfway.

“Quick! Pass him to me!” she shouted over the noise. Red soldiers continued to yell as Pinkie continued assaulting them with pastries.

Church shifted Donut over to Applejack, waiting for her to take some of his weight off his shoulders. Instead, Applejack grabbed the man in pink armor and sprawled him across her back. Much to Church’s surprise, the little orange pony was able to support his weight all on her own.

“Okay, let’s go!” Applejack exclaimed, running back toward the caves.

“Wait, what about…?”

“HEY! Put me down you meanies!” At the sound of the pink pony’s voice, Church whirled around to see a struggling Pinkie Pie being carried into the base by a large Red. “I just wanted to give you pies and distract you so my friends could escape! Let me go!”

“Oh no…” Church muttered as Pinkie disappeared into the depths of the Mad King’s fortress.

Church looked back at Applejack only to see that the farm pony had long since made her escape, evidently unaware of her friend’s fate. Before Church could act, a gunshot rang out and a bullet struck a nearby boulder. The Reds had recovered from the minor distraction and were now in a formation, firing at Church. With no other options, Church turned and fled in the direction Applejack went, pursued by bullets.

The interior of the ancient sandy temple echoed with the clatter of a large reptilian alien gathering odds and ends. Rainbow Dash sat in place and watched as Joey the Elite dumped a dark green crate full of various mechanical parts and sat down on the very same crate. The strange eyeball-like device was tucked under his arm.

The moment Rainbow had called Tucker and Joey over with news of what Caboose had found, Joey had been quick to snatch the odd alien device away from him. This would have suited Rainbow just fine, but then the big blue Elite started fiddling with the device before running around the temple gathering parts from the equipment Eberle’s team had started to bring in. Now, Joey sat on the upturned crate, taking apart various computers and other devices to add to the ancient one in his lap.

Rainbow Dash looked over at Tucker. “Should we be letting him do this?”

Tucker didn’t take an eye off of Joey as he replied, mesmerized by the speed and dexterity with which the alien worked on the ancient machine, “Joey may be a crappy fighter, but he’s actually a really good mechanic. The other Elites used to say one of his parents was a Huragok, but I doubt that.”

Before Rainbow Dash could ask what a Huragok was, Tucker continued, “Besides, I’m pretty sure that device we found isn’t a weapon. I’ve seen something like that in the files we were given on Forerunner tech. That thing looks more like a…”

“Blarg!” Joey threw his arms in the air as he looked down at the round alien device in his lap.

Right away, Rainbow Dash noticed it looked different than it had when Caboose found it. The pattern of dark lines on its metal body were now glowing blue along with the eye in its center. The eye then began to move, looking left and right to take in its surroundings. Then, the metal ball began to rise from Joey’s lap until it was floating in the air a few feet above everyone’s head. Rainbow couldn’t tear her gaze away from the ominous eye in the center. The room fell dead silent as everyone waited to see just what the strange floating contraption would do next.

Suffice to say, no one expected the alien device to suddenly begin coughing out a lung. The round metal device lurched violently in the air as it coughed and hacked for several moments. All the while, Joey continued to hold his arms in the air triumphantly as he looked from the coughing construct to Tucker expectantly.

“Nice job, Joey. I think you gave it cancer,” Tucker deadpanned.

“Don’t worry, it’s not like anyone can tell.” Caboose then whispered, “It already has no hair!”

Then, much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise, the coughing device spoke. “Wow. My ports are quite thoroughly clogged. It would appear they haven’t been cleaned in some time.”

The construct began pacing back and forth in the air. It spoke quickly in a very chipper artificial voice that had a certain resonant quality to it.

“How long have I been offline? Hmm. Interior clock ceased to function at one hundred-thousand years after activation of the Array. Most unfortunate,” the construct coughed again. “Though, given state of exhaust ports, time elapsed must have been at least three hundred-thousand. Yes.”

The floating device took another look around and briefly lost altitude in panic. “OH MY!”

The surprise sent the construct into another coughing fit. “What happened... to my... installation?!” the construct asked between coughs, looking around at the walls and ceiling of the temple. “It would appear that the preservation systems have failed. Most unfortunate. This would mean complete and total data loss in all archives. Very very unfortunate. Yes. Good thing my Makers had foresight to archive the most important data to my own memory banks…”

The floating metal eyeball turned around and found itself face to face with Caboose. “Hello!”

The construct coughed and lurched back in surprise, bumping into a very awestruck Tucker. Its big blue eye looked back and forth from Tucker to Caboose for a moment before bouncing in midair and giving a happy little cough.

“Ah! Reclaimers! Forgive me. Did not see you standing there.” The round device hovered between the two Blues. “Greetings. I am 636 Rambling Frequency. I am the Monitor of this installation.” 636 took another look around. “Rather, what’s left of it…”

“Blarg…” Joey said reverently as he bowed low before the Monitor.

“Ah! A subject of Species 32,” 636 exclaimed, “so your kind is cooperating with the Reclaimers? Fascinating.”

Finally, Rainbow Dash couldn’t take it anymore. The more this floating construct spoke, the more questions she had. “Would somepony please explain what this floating lightbulb is talking about?”

636 turned to look at Rainbow Dash with his big blue eye. “Oh my! A subject of Species 29!” 636 coughed. “Most unexpected. Yes. Your species not predicted to achieve space travel for another two point five thousand years if calculations are accurate!”

“My rainbow friend here has a point, Rambling Frequency,” Tucker said, folding his arms. “If you’re going to go on and on about shit we don’t understand, could you at least fill us in? …Uh, in a non-sexual way?”

The blue eye turned its gaze on Tucker and coughed once. “You mean to say you came all the way to my facility without knowledge of its purpose, Reclaimer?”

“And explain that, too!” Rainbow Dash ordered, pointing a hoof at the Monitor. “Why do you keep calling them ‘Reclaimers?’”

“Yes! What are we reclaiming?” Caboose asked. “is it a twenty percent off coupon for all merchandise in the temple gift shop?”

636 coughed some more and hovered in front of Rainbow Dash. “Simple: before my Makers - the Forerunners - disappeared from the galaxy, they named the human race as their Reclaimers - inheritors to all they left behind!”

“Yeah, that’s why only humans can interact with Forerunner tech,” Tucker said, “even I knew that!”

Rainbow Dash gave a skeptical look at Tucker and especially Caboose before returning her gaze to the Monitor. “Really? Them? Are we thinking of the same species?”

Tucker stepped forward. “Look, none of that’s important right now. Frequency, we’re trying to find an ancient weapon that your Makers built here. Since you’re the Monitor of this place, can you lead us to it?”

The Monitor studied Tucker for a moment before giving a single bemused cough. “Whatever do you mean, Reclaimer? There is no weapon in this facility.”

The others were silent. How could that be? That’s what they were all here for! Nevertheless, no one questioned Rambling Frequency’s statement. As the Monitor of the installation, he would know, and he had no reason to lie.

“So… what is this place?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“This installation is an archive of sorts, for all information pertaining to Operation: Genesis.”

“Okay, and that is…?”

“Repopulation of all sapient life in the galaxy in the wake of the Purge.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Yeah, no offense lightbulb, but your answers are just making me more confused than before!”

636 looked around at the ragtag group around him, and with a cough said, “Very well. Will start from beginning.” 636 coughed again. “In order to stop nigh implacable threat to all life, Forerunners activated an array of weapons designed to kill all sapient life in galaxy, themselves included. However, they did not do so lightly. Activation of Array was last resort, and the Forerunners didn’t activate it without means for life in galaxy to begin anew.

“Thus, they implemented Operation: Genesis. Before activating Array, Forerunners spent time cataloguing data on all affected species. Embryos, DNA, even live specimens, and set in place automated protocols on various planets across the solar system to return each species to beginning of its evolutionary cycle. Humans, Sangheili, even ponies were reborn in this fashion after firing of the Array.

“The facility we are in now contained detailed data about project. Unfortunately, data appears to be all but lost. Well, except for most important data. Records of all species, locations of their homeworlds, and repopulation facilities hidden away there all reside in my own personal memory banks!”

“So uh… can someone translate that?” Rainbow asked.

“I... think he said this place is a directory for the creation of all life in the universe,” Tucker responded in complete deadpan.

The temple was dead silent. It seemed that everyone was just as blown away by what they’d heard as Rainbow Dash was. Rainbow may not have been an egghead, but she could certainly appreciate the gravity of what she’d just learned. It wasn’t every day that a floating eyeball casually explained the creation of life as you know it.

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, grinning widely.

“Yes. It is indeed awesome!” 636 replied with a cough.

“Okay, well if anything, we know there’s no weapon here, so I guess we can relax!” Tucker said.

This sentiment was contradicted by a thundering boom that shook the whole temple, dislodging sand from various nooks and crannies.

“I don’t think CT’s gonna be too happy to hear that, though!”

Panting, Grif approached Spike and Simmons, who were each sitting on the couch idly flipping through books.

“Okay, kitchen’s done!” Grif reported.

Spike lowered his book. “Did you clean the stove top?”

“Yes.”

“Inside the fridge?”

“Yes!”

“In the little crevice under the cupboards?”

“Yes! I did everything! Just make with the booze already!”

Spike produced a bottle of Berry Punch’s wine from behind the couch.

“Nice!” Grif swiped the bottle from Spike’s claw, turned around and flopped down on the couch between Spike and Simmons.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, Grif taking huge gulps of his drink through his helmet while Spike and Simmons continued reading. As the three of them sat there, Spike felt oddly content. Sure, the books were now sorted by some weird system that only Simmons seemed to understand, but somehow Spike wasn’t worried about that. As much as Spike loved living with Twilight, there was something in that moment he felt he didn’t have with her.

Grif stopped drinking to give a loud belch. Spike looked up at him and grinned. “Bet I can beat it!”

“You’re on, kid!”

Spike took in a breath and belched as loud as he could. Grif all too eagerly matched him. This is what Spike had been missing all his life: good old-fashioned male companionship.

“Fucking. Disgusting,” Simmons complained after Spike loosed a particularly long belch. “What are you guys, fucking six?”

Grif responded with another belch that he promptly blew in Simmons direction. The maroon soldier sputtered and coughed until he fell off the couch. Grif and Spike laughed at his expense.

Spike’s laughter was cut off by what felt like something crawling up his throat from his stomach. The belch that followed seemed to shake the tree they were in as green flames burst forth from Spike’s mouth.

“Whoa! Okay, I don’t even mind losing to that!” Grif exclaimed.

Spike however, was fixated on the scroll that had popped into existence from the residual smoke of his outburst. Right away he recognized the sun-shaped seal that held the red binding together.

“I got a letter from Princess Celestia!” Spike exclaimed, picking up the scroll, tearing off the binding and unfurling it in the blink of an eye.

Spike took some time to read and reread it, his brow furrowing quizzically. “Huh…”

“What’s it say?” Simmons asked, getting up off the floor.

“We’ve been summoned to Canterlot… all three of us!”

Author's Note

I'd like to say a fond farewell to KillerRobotQuote, who has retired as one of my editors.

Next time: the Mad King falls.

Act 2 Part 10 - Rally

Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure where she’d gone wrong. One moment she was happily administering pies to red, helmeted faces and the next she was being picked up and carried away. Perhaps she’d put too much blueberry in the pies? Regardless of the reason, Pinkie now found herself at the bottom of a dark hole underneath Red Base. It was slightly damp and smelled unpleasant.

The sounds of gunfire rang outside briefly before stopping. All Pinkie could do now was wait at the bottom of the dark, uncomfortable pit.

“Welcome to your new home… Edgar!”

Pinkie looked up at the sound of the creepy, deep voice and saw the Mad King Hayworth standing over the hole in his cloak and crown. It took Pinkie a second to realize he was talking to her.

“My name’s not Edgar, silly! It’s Pinkie Pie!” she exclaimed with a smile.

Hayworth merely looked down at her the way a person looked at an insect and motioned with his hand to someone on the surface Pinkie couldn’t see.

“Do you know what my favorite molecule is?” Hayworth asked as the large man in red armor who had grabbed her joined him above the hole. “H2O!”

Pinkie didn’t notice that the large man beside Hayworth was holding a water hose until he unleashed its fury on her. It wasn’t until that moment that Pinkie realized just how much water could hurt if it wanted to. The powerful icy torrent knocked Pinkie off her hooves and held her against the ground, biting into her painfully. Pinkie struggled and squirmed just to find a position where she could breathe, but the ice cold water continued to find its way in her mouth and up her nostrils.

It felt like an eternity before the liquid assault stopped and Pinkie could breathe again, coughing out the water blocking her airways. Pinkie was dripping and shivering, her hole now filled with water up to her ankles. Her mane was now too wet and heavy to maintain its poofy nature, and fell straight to cover one eye.

“Your old name has no meaning down there,” Hayworth said. “You are Edgar. Only Edgar.”

“I don’t understand,” Pinkie said, coughing up more water. “I thought the other guy was Edgar! I thought the other other guy was Edgar! How can I be Edgar too?”

Hayworth merely sighed and shook his head like a teacher disappointed with his student. “No, you don’t understand. Edgar is the one in the hole!”

With a metallic slam, Hayworth was gone and suddenly her world was nothing but wet darkness. As she sat there in the dark wet nothing, it came to her with sudden clarity.

All at once, Edgar understood.

The pair of ponies stood side by side on the edge of the silent canyon. The only sound that prevailed was the distant hum of some exotic insects. There wasn’t even any wind.

“Well… this is it!” Twilight said with gesture to the rest of the canyon. “This is where I first landed and met Church!”

Fluttershy took a few moments to observe her surroundings. Blood Gulch was exactly as bleak and uninteresting as Twilight remembered it. Nothing but dirt (with the occasional patch of grass), rocks, a couple of bare trees and two small round structures: one red and one blue.

“Oh. It’s… um…” Fluttershy tried to think of a word to describe the canyon.

“You don’t have to be polite, Fluttershy. You can say it: this place is a dump!”

Fluttershy nodded politely. “Oh, um… yes.”

“Yup! It’s Turd City: capital of the state of Turdington in the nation of Turdopolis!” Sarge said behind them.

“And… there’s someone here who knows how to fix a spaceship?” Sunny asked, looking disbelievingly at the canyon around her.

“Yep! Lopez is always willing to fix anything! Bless his Spanish heart…”

Tex appeared in a flash in front of the group. “Okay, then Sarge will take Sunny and I to Red Base to pick up Lopez and anything else that might be valuable.” Tex turned to Twilight and Fluttershy. “Why don’t you two go see what you can find at Blue Base?”

Twilight nodded, and together she and Fluttershy began trotting across the canyon toward Blue Base. Sarge and Sunny walked the other way to Red Base. Neither pony said anything as they walked along. Though silence around Fluttershy was pretty par for the course, there was a certain air of discomfort surrounding the pegasus this time around. Twilight realized that she may not have been very friendly to her friends lately, having lost her patience with them on more than one occasion. Between growing impatient with Fluttershy back at the ghost town - when the already nervous pony was in a genuinely frightening situation - to growing short with Rainbow Dash just after the Meta had taken one of her friends. That wasn’t how she would normally have handled those situations, Twilight realized: it was how Church and the others would have.

“Hey, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, Fluttershy looked at her curiously. “I’m sorry if I’ve seemed more, well… snippy than usual lately.”

Fluttershy responded exactly as predicted, with a cheerful smile. “Oh, that’s okay. We’ve all been under a lot of stress lately.”

“That’s still no excuse to be a bad friend, and I’m sorry.” Some voice at the back of Twilight’s mind told her that there was someone else she needed to apologize to, but she ignored it and turned her attention forward.

They were in front of Blue Base now. The single-story structure looked the same as it always had: like someone had dumped a large pile of concrete here, molded it with a giant round cookie-cutter, cut a couple of doors and ramps into it and decided to call it a base.

“That’s okay, at least now we’re somewhere with a little less to be stressed over,” Fluttershy said as they entered the front entrance to Blue Base.

Right as the two ponies entered the building, they were suddenly overcome by a rancid smell, like some unholy mixture of food that had been left out for months.

Fluttershy’s hoof shot to her nose. “Eugh! What’s that smell?”

Twilight had smelled it before. It smelled just like Dodge City had smelled after the Meta attacked. It smelled like Agent South after Twilight closed her eyes for her. It smelled like death. Regardless, Twilight pressed further into Blue Base, breathing through her mouth. She heard the wings of flies buzzing in the next room as she entered, but what surprised her most was how it was set up.

The central, sky-exposed chamber in the base had a large stereo system along with a DJ table. There were also several lights that Twilight had the suspicion were designed to flash obnoxiously to the beat of fast-paced music, but they were currently off. The only light came in from the opening in the ceiling. Several tables were also placed along the sides of the room holding refreshments that had likely long gone bad. Twilight didn’t think they were the source of the smell though.

At the sound of another buzzing fly, Twilight looked over at the mixing table and caught a glimpse of a couple of tiny black specks hovering around the area just behind it. Fluttershy had the misfortune of checking behind the table first and gasped before she started to gag. Twilight went over to check for herself, and saw what appeared to be a pile of yellow armor crumpled against the wall. Blood stained the armor and the floor around it, having dried and turned from red to a more faded brown.

“Oh dear, the poor thing…” Fluttershy lamented, covering her mouth with a hoof. “What do you suppose happened to it?”

“Looks like they were shot,” Twilight deduced, judging from the bloody hole in the material beneath the armor at the neck. Looking again at the yellow armor, Twilight realized she’d met this soldier after she first arrived in Blood Gulch. “It’s Sister…”

Fluttershy looked at Twilight and tilted her head. “Sister? Whose sister was she?”

“I don’t know, that was just what everyone called her.”

The two ponies looked sadly at the deceased human for a time, the buzzing of flies the only sound that they heard. Twilight hadn’t gotten to know her as well as she had Church or Caboose, but she was somebody’s sister somewhere and would be missed. Twilight hoped that wherever she was now, Sister was at peace and that her family would be okay.

Fluttershy suddenly stepped toward Sister’s still body and tentatively reached for something. It was then Twilight noticed that a pair of metal tags hung from Sister’s neck by a metal chain. It looked just like the ones Sunny wore that belonged to Tex. They must have been what the human military used for identification! Fluttershy lifted the tags in her hoof, and suddenly gave a trembling gasp.

“Oh no…” she whimpered, her voice breaking. “W-what will I do? He’ll be heartbroken…”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Who…?”

Fluttershy turned to Twilight and, with glistening eyes, showed her the blood-stained metal tag.

UNSC
Pvt. Kaikaina Grif.

Grif and Simmons looked around the big, opulent halls of Canterlot Castle as a few armored ponies led them on. They looked down at the shiny marble floor beneath the soft red carpet and up at the arched ceiling and colorful tapestries. Spike thought they were simply taking in the sights. He hadn’t even considered that they might have been anxious until Simmons spoke up.

“I have a really bad feeling about this,” he said.

“Tell me about it!” Grif exclaimed, looking at a statue of a saluting pony in armor tucked away in an alcove as they passed. “We’ve been walking for ten minutes, and I haven’t seen one good place to nap where no one can see me!”

It hadn’t been long after Spike sent a reply to Celestia’s summons that a sky chariot arrived to take them to Canterlot. The chariot had landed in the castle’s back gardens, and from there a squad of guardsponies led them through the castle. The sun was going down, the stained glass windows of the castle creating a patterned orange glow. The halls they passed through were conspicuously empty, like they’d been cleared out specifically for the two Reds to pass through unseen.

“I meant more of a ‘government conspiracy’ kind of bad feeling,” Simmons said.

“Relax guys,” Spike reassured them. “Princess Celestia’s totally cool! You guys are some of the first alien life in Equestria! She probably just wants to study you!”

“Oh yeah? Well if I even think she’s going to cut me open and look at my insides, I’m gonna do this,” Grif raised his middle finger at a towering painting of Celestia hanging on the wall to the right, “and leave.”

“Why would the Princess want to look at your insides?” Spike asked, looking up at Grif with some confusion.

“Maybe she’s trying to find the most disgusting liver in the galaxy?” Simmons suggested.

“Shut up! Technically it’s your liver, remember?” Grif said, glaring at Simmons.

Before Spike could ask what exactly Grif meant by that, the group arrived in front of a large set of double doors made of a fine polished wood with a single guard in gold armor standing vigilant before it. A giant sun sigil was carved in the center, and Spike recognized it as the entrance to Princess Celestia’s private study. After the guards escorting the group of three exchanged a few words with the guard at the doors, he turned around and with a glow from his horn pushed them open. The effigy of the sun carved into the front split as the doors parted and the guard entered.

“Your Highness, the… persons you sent for have arrived,” Spike heard the guard say.

“Thank you, Stalwart. Send them in,” replied a warm feminine voice that Spike knew.

The guard promptly returned and motioned for the trio to enter. They did so, followed by the guards that had escorted them here. Inside was a study certainly fit for royalty. What walls weren’t covered in bookshelves towering toward the high ceiling were covered in large maps. A large hearth with a fire going was off to the left. In the center was a massive gold sphere that served as a map of the stars surrounding the planet. Just behind it was a window, but with the sun mostly gone, the only light in the room came from the hearth and a few lamps sitting on the finely crafted wooden desk just in front of the star map. The desk’s occupant was a tall, elegant white alicorn with a shimmering mane of all colors. She was looking down at several parchments on her desk, a pair of reading glasses on her face.

“Guards, you may wait outside if you like,” she didn’t say it like it was an order, but the armored ponies that had led the trio in responded swiftly with stiff salutes before obliging.

Princess Celestia looked up from the papers on her desk and smiled, removing the glasses from her face with her golden magical aura. “Hello, Spike. It’s good to see you again.”

Spike was quick to dip his head in a respectful bow. “Nice to see you too, Princess!”

Celestia’s attention shifted to the two figures with Spike. “And these must be the two guests of yours that you told me about. Dexter Grif and Richard… Simmons, is it?”

Simmons nodded uneasily.

“I am Princess Celestia. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Grif just glared down at Spike. “You told her about us?!” he asked with no shortage of indignation.

“Of course! In a letter,” Spike replied. “How else do you think she knew about you guys?”

“I dunno, I thought she was some kinda magical, all-knowing Princess horse!”

Celestia merely smiled and shook her head. “Contrary to what most of my ponies think, I am not all-powerful, nor am I all-knowing,” Celestia’s smile faltered for a moment as she glanced back down at her desk before muttering, “though that hasn’t stopped me from wishing I was. Perhaps none of this would have come to pass if I’d only known…”

Celestia blinked a couple of times before looking back up at her guests, suddenly remembering where she was. She cleared her throat. “Regardless, you have nothing to fear from me, Sergeant Grif,” Celestia smiled. “I certainly do not intend to cut you open and look at your insides.”

Grif raised a confused finger (not his middle one) at Celestia. “Okay, first you say you’re not all-knowing and then you say that? Kinda contradicting yourself there, Princess!”

“I’m not all-knowing, but I do have measures in place to keep track of all that goes on in my castle. I don’t exactly like the fact that I’m essentially invading the privacy of my guests and staff, but past events have made me cautious.”

“So, uh, why exactly did you summon us?”

Celestia’s easy smile disappeared. “The two of you arrived at this planet on board a large warship, did you not? The Mother of Invention?”

“Yeah…” Grif said, deciding no longer to question what the regal white pony knew.

“I won’t lie… its presence here worries me greatly. Already I’ve sensed their forces’ presence on this world,” Celestia leaned forward, her face a mask of calm, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed her unease. “They’re here. Somewhere on Equestria’s surface right now. They’re operating in secret for the time being…”

“Doing what?” Simmons asked.

Celestia hesitated for some time. She seemed to be looking for the right words. “Searching. But they won’t find what they’re looking for, and I’m worried about what they’ll do once they realize that.”

“Okay, so what does any of this have to do with us?”

Instead of Celestia, a cold, serious male voice responded. “I’ll answer that if you don’t mind, Princess.”

Spike and the two Reds suddenly saw movement by the window behind the large golden star map. The two legged figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a man in powered armor identical to that of Grif and Simmons in all but color. This man’s armor was gray with a yellow stripe on the helmet and shoulder pads.

Spike was the first to ask the inevitable question. “Who are you?”

“My name is Agent Washington.”

“A Freelancer?” Simmons asked incredulously. “The fuck are you doing here?”

“Just helping out an old friend,” Washington nodded in Celestia’s direction. She responded in kind.

“Wait, you know the Princess?” Spike asked incredulously.

“That matter is irrelevant right now,” Washington replied. “What matters is that this planet may be in danger. We have reason to believe that Project Freelancer is going to try something a bit more… aggressive soon. Equestria needs to be able to defend itself, but the fact is its military simply doesn’t have the knowledge or means to combat a technologically superior force.”

“That’s where I was hoping you and Washington would come in,” Celestia said.

“I’ve agreed to devise a training program with the intent of increasing Equestria’s combat effectiveness against Project Freelancer’s forces, but I can’t do it alone,” Washington said, taking a step toward Grif and Simmons.

“I need additional instructors so that we can train as many squads as possible. Instructors with training and experience in the human military that they can pass on to others. Now, I realize that a couple of sim troopers such as yourselves aren’t exactly the most qualified candidates, but we must make do with the tools we’re given.”

“Of course, we’re not forcing you to help us,” Celestia said diplomatically. “But if you did, you could save many lives. And, your efforts would not go unrewarded.”

The orange and maroon soldiers spent a long time thinking about what to do. If Spike had to guess, Grif was thinking about the amount of work it would take versus the rewards, and Simmons was considering how this would look on his record.

“So, let me get this straight: you want us to train your forces to fight our own military?” Simmons asked, looking at Celestia with a hand on his chin. He had a point: Grif and Simmons would likely face charges of treason from the UNSC if they agreed to this.

“No, we want you to train Equestria’s forces to defend themselves against an illegal attack by a private military company,” Washington stated firmly. “Considering we don’t currently have the means to contact anyone who can put a stop to Project Freelancer, this is the best course we can take.”

Grif and Simmons spent a few more seconds thinking.

“As Princess Regent of Unicornia, Commander-in-Chief of Pegasopolis, High Chancellor of Old Manehattan, and Steward of the Sun itself, I ask you...” Princess Celestia said, looking at each of them firmly, “will you help me protect my ponies?”

Grif sighed. “Fuck it. We’re not doin’ anything else!”

“I can’t believe we left her! I swear I thought she was right behind us!” Applejack fretted as she paced back and forth.

She and Church were on the upper level of Outpost 17-B in Valhalla. Under any other circumstances, the green trees and babbling stream nearby would have been comforting. Instead, Applejack had been pacing and worrying ever since they got back and Church had informed her on what happened.

“I can’t believe Henderson was indoctrinated this whole time!” Lieutenant Jack exclaimed. “How much of the information he was feeding us was wrong?”

“Of course, we wouldn’t even be in this situation if you had just helped like we asked you to!” Church said bitterly.

Applejack rounded on Church. “And what were you doin’ when Pinkie was bein’ taken by that maniac?”

“Uh, avoiding all of the bullets that were chasing me? Believe it or not Applejack, I have a very strict policy on not dying!”

“Oh? Is that why yer a ghost now?”

“Why do you think I made that policy? Once was enough!”

“Excuse me, Lieutenant Jack?” A novice Blue soldier approached the arguing parties, and both the blue human and orange pony directed angry glances at him.

“Yes Private?” Jack asked.

“The pink guy’s awake!”

Their argument forgotten, Church and Applejack made their way down one of the ramps at the back of the building and made their way where they were keeping Donut. Jack followed behind them. A Blue soldier was watching the pink man cautiously as he sat up and gulped down water from a canteen. Applejack wasn’t sure whether he was actually getting any in his mouth, what with the helmet still on. Donut then stopped drinking and looked up at Church as he approached.

“Oh heeEEeey Church!” Donut greeted. “Wow, I’ve just been bumping into all kinds of old acquaintances lately! It’s been like one big family reunion, just without Uncle Tom’s inappropriate touching!”

“What do you mean?” Church asked. “Who else did you see?”

“Why, your best friend Caboose was just at the dig site with us!”

For some reason, Church closed his hands into fists, his knuckles cracking at the mention of “best friend.” Applejack galloped past Church and skidded to a stop in front of Donut.

“What about Rarity? Did ya see any ponies where you were?”

“Why yes, Rarity and Rainbow Dash!” Donut exclaimed as he suddenly scooted closer to Applejack. “Wait, you wouldn’t happen to be one of Rarity’s friends, would you?”

“Eyup. I’m Applejack!”

“Oh you’re Applejack! Rarity’s told me all about you!”

Applejack tilted her head curiously. “What’d she say?”

Donut stiffened. “... that you’re a good, honest pony.” Applejack gave the pink man a suspicious stare. “Okay, also that you have no respect for aesthetics and could stand to take way more baths!”

Applejack looked up at Church. “Well, he ain’t lyin... he’s definitely talked to Rarity!”

“And you can definitely stand to take more baths. Whew!” Church made a spectacle of waving a hand in front of his face.

Applejack turned red. “Oh, hush up you! How can ya even smell with a robot body anyway?”

“Oh yeah, they also might be in trouble!” Donut added.

“What?!”

“My CO sent me here to get help. They’re under attack!”

“Damn. Guess we’d better get there fast!” Church said.

Applejack turned around and glared up at Church. “We ain’t goin’ anywhere ‘til we save Pinkie from the Mad King!”

“Right… that’s going to be tricky…” Church turned around and found himself looking at Jack. The bearded Blue had been standing quietly off to the side talking to one of his soldiers.

After dismissing the man he was speaking to, Jack approached Church. “Just so you know, you’re welcome to come with us if you want to.”

“Wait, what? Where are you going?”

Jack sighed. “Without my informant on Red Team, this battle’s looking like its over. Me and my men are pulling out of here. Maybe start new lives...” Jack turned and looked wistfully into the distance. “Think I might go build a house…”

“So that’s it? You’re just giving up?” Church asked.

Jack rounded on Church with surprising aggression. “Yes! I’m not letting my men die over a box canyon in the middle of nowhere! Is that the way you want to go?”

Church had a mind to tell him that he had died for a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, but decided against it. Not only would it probably just confuse the large bearded man, but it wouldn’t help his argument any. Church had never planned to die in Blood Gulch. He’d never wanted to. In Jack’s position, Church would probably make the same choice.

“Oh, hooey!” To both Church and Jack’s surprise, Applejack trotted up to Jack and looked him right in the eye. “It shouldn’t matter none whether it’s fer a box canyon or the whole dern world! If someone’s trusted you with one job you oughta do it an’ do it right!”

Jack sputtered, not seeming to know what to think for a moment. “But… the only reason we even have a Blue Base here is because they have a Red Base over there…”

“Hooey!” Applejack said again. “You could be here fer a number of reasons, none of which really matter! Instead of spendin’ all yer time wonderin’ why yer here, you should just focus on the fact that yer here and you have a job to do: to keep those Reds from takin’ this place fer themselves!

“Sure, right now they’re kickin’ yer keister, but that’s only ‘cause yer lettin’ them! So tell me, do ya wanna just give up and go build a house? Or do you wanna show yer superiors - and show them Reds - why yer here?”

Applejack turned and began heading towards Blue Base. “Besides: I’m going to save Pinkie whether y’all will help me or not! An’ if a tiny l’il gal like me ain’t too chicken to fight those guys, then what does that make you, Jack?”

Church went over to Applejack as regular Jack simply stayed in place to think about what the little farm pony just said.

“Wow… that was quite the speech, Applejack!” Church said. “I still have no idea how we’re going to fight Hayworth and his forces, but I at least feel… y’know, pumped about it now!”

“I may not be much of a leader, but I do have a plan. But we’ll need everyone to pitch in to make it work,” Applejack said, turning to face Jack. “Everyone!”

Jack looked at Applejack for a moment, a hand scratching his big beard. “Alright. What did you have in mind?”

Like before, Twilight and Fluttershy approached Blood Gulch’s Red Base in silence. The only sound between them was the occasional sad sniffle from Fluttershy. Twilight looked over at her. The yellow pegasus was wearing Sister’s dog tags around her neck and kept glancing down at them. Before they left, Fluttershy had insisted on taking the metal necklace with her, so that she could pass it on to Grif when they returned to Equestria.

While Twilight was certainly sad that someone she knew had lost someone he cared about, Fluttershy seemed to be taking it especially hard. Though Fluttershy was always one to get more emotional over things than most ponies (she always cried at the sad parts of whatever book she was reading whenever she used the Ponyville library), Twilight couldn’t help but wonder whether there was another reason Fluttershy was so upset over Grif’s sister.

The two ponies continued around the outside of Red Base and walked up the ramp leading to the top. They heard voices as they ascended.

“He borrado mis recuerdos de ti después de que te fuiste. Después de sólo cinco minutos con usted ahora, yo sé por qué.”

“I know, Lopez! It is good to be back together, isn’t it?” Sarge’s voice rang out as the mares reached the roof.

Sarge was standing near the square hole in the center, holding his shotgun proudly as always. Sunny sat in place just nearby, looking out at the rest of the canyon. Talking to Sarge was an unfamiliar soldier wearing brown armor of identical make to Sarge’s red.

“Ah, Twibite! You remember Lopez, don’t ya?” Sarge asked, turning to face the newly arrived ponies.

Twilight looked up at the brown biped in question. She certainly didn’t remember a brown-armored man from the last time she was here, but the name “Lopez” did ring a bell. Then all at once, Twilight remembered.

“Weren’t you just a head the last time I was here?” Twilight asked, pointing up at Lopez’s brown helmet.

“Si. Sargento me construyó este cuerpo después de los otros se fueron (Yes. Sarge built me this body after the others left),” Lopez replied in a mechanical monotone. “Me gustó estar un cabeza mejor. La gente no me hablan tanto entonces (I liked being a head better. People didn’t talk to me as much then).”

Twilight just stared at the brown robot uncomprehendingly. “Um… yeah…” She then remembered the other strange quirk about Lopez: that the robot didn’t speak a language anyone around him understood.

“Did you guys find anything at the Blue Base?” Sunny asked, turning around and approaching them.

Twilight shook her head. “No,” she then looked over at Fluttershy and the chain she was wearing, “well, nothing we can use anyway.”

Sunny, however, followed Twilight’s gaze and spotted the tags around Fluttershy’s neck. She glanced down at her own before asking, “Whose are those?”

“Grif’s sister’s. She was in the Blue Base. Somebody had…” Fluttershy swallowed, “killed her!”

Lopez suddenly turned in Fluttershy’s direction. “Oh. Ese era yo (Oh. That was me).”

Sarge turned to Lopez. “What was that Lopez?”

“Yo maté a la chica en la base azul (I killed the girl at Blue Base).” Lopez then spoke very slowly and deliberately, “I. Muertes. Chica (I. Killed. Girl).”

“What did he say?” Twilight asked.

“I think he said that he killed her,” Sarge said. Fluttershy’s jaw dropped open as her pupils shrank, staring blankly ahead as Sarge continued, “Excellent work, Lopez! We won Blood Gulch!” Sarge then stepped over to the edge of the roof. “YA HEAR THAT, YA DIRTY BLUE TRAMP!? RED WINS! BLUE SUCKS! HA HA HA!”

Fluttershy just looked back and forth from Lopez to Sarge, her look of abject horror turning to one of anger the likes of which Twilight hadn’t seen since the gala. She seemed to have some trouble deciding which of the two Reds to direct her ire at before settling on the one that actually pulled the trigger.

“How… how could you!?!” Fluttershy shrieked, flying right into Lopez’s face and glaring with furious, glistening eyes into his visor. “She was somebody’s sister! She had friends and family that loved her! HOW CAN YOU JUST KILL A PERSON LIKE THAT WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT?!”

“Yo no maté a ella sin pensarlo dos veces (I didn’t kill her without a second thought),” Lopez stated, completely unconcerned with the livid pegasus before him. “Fui a través de más de una docena de pensamientos antes de que se me ocurrió de la manera más efectiva de hacer la matanza. (I went through over a dozen thoughts before I came up with the most efficient way to make the kill).”

Whatever Lopez’s response might have been, Fluttershy’s reaction would most likely have been the same: to growl at the synthetic Spaniard as she continued to glare with furious, teary eyes.

“Now, listen here l’il miss…” Sarge started, but Fluttershy silenced him by rounding her glare at him.

A black armored avatar suddenly appeared in front of her. “Lopez is a robot programmed to fulfill his objectives. When Sarge left Blood Gulch, Lopez was the only Red left in this canyon, effectively making him acting CO of the Red Team. What do you suppose the objectives of a Red CO include?” No one answered, but they knew it all the same.

Fluttershy dropped her angry gaze and landed back down on the concrete roof, looking glumly at her hooves.

“Sister’s just another casualty in war. She’s hardly the only one,” Tex finished succinctly.

The others waited for a response from the yellow pegasus for a few painfully silent moments.

“Twilight?” she asked, “What did you say was the purpose of the Red vs Blue War?”

Twilight swallowed. “A… training simulation for the Freelancers.”

Fluttershy looked up at Twilight, her sad eyes betraying incredible vulnerability. Then she closed them, and after taking a moment to collect herself, Fluttershy opened her eyes again. The cyan orbs now looked forward with resolve. The normally timid yellow pony briskly walked past the others.

“Okay. Then let’s get going,” she said.

Twilight followed her friend with a newfound sense of unease. At the very least, Fluttershy was now as determined as the rest of them to see to Project Freelancer’s downfall.

With a few more tired blinks, Grif looked at the battalion of armored ponies gathered in the castle courtyard in front of him. At the moment, he was starting to regret taking the job the Princess offered him. It had been far too early in the morning when Washington barged into the room in the castle Grif had been given to sleep in, telling him to wake up. When Grif had groggily asked what time it was, Washington had replied with 0600, meaning he was late for his meeting with the 10th Battalion.

Grif now stood in front of the 10th, orderly rows of armored ponies standing stiffly at attention, awaiting their instructions. Washington had given both Grif and Simmons papers the night before, detailing his planned training regimen for the Equestrian troops; Grif decided to put it off, figuring he’d skim them the next morning. He hadn’t counted on the day’s activities starting so early.

One of the assembled ponies coughed, clearly hoping to get the attention of their new Sergeant. It would seem that their desire to get started with the day’s training exercises was starting to override their discipline. Deciding that he could only stand there and do nothing for so long, Grif opened his mouth to address his initiates.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck,” Grif groaned. So far so good.

Another of the gathered pony soldiers cleared their throat, as if to ask whether that was an order. Grif then thought of something he could do to stall for more time.

“So, uh… anyone have any questions?” he asked.

The 10th Battalion exchanged a few glances amongst each other for a few moments before a somewhat older looking stallion spoke up. Clearly this one had been with the Royal Guard for many years. Grif pointed at him.

“Yes, uh…”

“Lieutenant Tornado Kicker. CO of the 10th,” the stallion said with a salute. “What kind of military experience do you have?”

Grif shifted weight and made several thinking noises as he folded his arms and tapped a finger against his orange armor. “Uh, military experience, uh… bap bap bah… oh! I was run over by a tank once! Had to get new organs… fought an evil maniac… oh yeah! And I managed to convince my Sergeant that he was dead! That was cool…”

Another long silence fell over the courtyard as the 10th looked at Grif with mounting uncertainty. Lieutenant Kicker’s features noticeably fell as another pony coughed. Slowly, a hoof made its way up near the back of the formation.

“So… what are we going to be doing?” a soldier asked.

It was at that moment that Grif was suddenly reminded of a very important fact: he had an entire platoon of soldiers ready and willing to do his bidding. He was glad that the helmet he wore concealed the grin that crept across his face.

“Okay! Are you ready for your first exercise?” The 10th responded with a chorus of affirmatives. “Bring me a… lawn chair and a margarita. Go!”

“Halt! Stop where you are!”

Donut had been walking along the east side of Valhalla when the group of Red soldiers emerged from a tall crevice between two rock walls. By all outer appearances he was alone, a large, metal wall as tall as the canyon on one side and the four other Reds on the other.

“Uh, greetings… fellow Reds!” Donut didn’t sound like himself, but the Red soldiers he was speaking to didn’t know him well enough to realize this. “I managed to escape from Blue captivity, and I need to see the CO at once!”

The Reds exchanged an uncertain glance. “Okay. This had better not be some kind of trick,” the highest ranking soldier warned as he lowered his weapon and motioned for Donut to come with them. “The last guy who tried helping the Blues was put in the hole for an entire week!”

The four Red soldiers led a calm and quiet Donut through the large crevice in the wall from whence they came. They came out on the other side in front of the east entrance to Red Base. There, a group of three more Reds walked out to meet them, led by the same large soldier who had taken Pinkie Pie.

“What’s going on?” the large Red soldier asked.

“I’ve returned from Red Base with urgent news for Captain Hayworth!” Donut reported in his unDonut-like voice.

“Well, you can tell me, newbie!” the large Red stated. “I’ll pass it on to Hayworth.”

Donut took a step closer to the large Red and whispered, “The Blues are coming to show you why they’re here!”

All of a sudden, Donut convulsed violently. A spectral figure in white armor wielding a just as spectral sniper rifle emerged from Donut’s convulsing pink armor. “HIGAGURGURK!” The large Red convulsed as the spectre merged with his body, and in a few short moments he stopped. He then turned around and knocked out one of the other Reds with a big muscular arm.

“Whoa! This is awesome, I’m like the fucking Hulk!” Church exclaimed, now inhabiting the bulky Red soldier.

The other Reds looked on in confusion as they watched Hayworth’s right hand man knock out another of their rank with the butt of his weapon. When one of them finally found his senses and raised his rifle to put the big soldier down, he was promptly shot in the back by Donut.

“Oh yeah! From behind! Bet you didn’t even feel me coming!” Donut exclaimed as he and Church began firing at the rest of the Reds. “Line up everyone! I’ll take you all from behind! Either one at a time or all at once! I’m not picky!”

“Donut, you just had to go and soil the innocence of combat, didn’t you?” Church asked as he fired another shot at the Reds that missed them by a mile.

The confusion in the midst of the Red Base was immense. Red soldiers were shooting at each other and random directions. All they knew was that they were under attack, but they weren’t sure whether it was from within their own ranks or some outside force.

As it happened, both answers were correct, as the ensuing fracas served as the signal for Jack and his Blues to attack. A Warthog full of Blues drove around the large hill in the center of the canyon and across the front of the base, letting loose with the rear-mounted chaingun. Blues on foot closed in from all sides, guns blazing as a sniper perched on the central hill took out Reds on the upper floor of the base.

The rumbling, revving whine of a Mongoose engine rose over the din of the battle. The bearded Lieutenant himself drove the motor vehicle over an overhang like it was a ramp, performing a front flip for style while still in the air. Jack and his vehicle landed on top of the large soldier Church was currently inhabiting, crushing him.

“Hey! I was using that body!” Church whined as his transparent white form appeared beside Jack’s Mongoose.

Applejack was on the back of the Mongoose, clinging to Jack tightly. “Jack? Please warn me before you do another flip like that!”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Your friend will be just in there!” Jack gestured to the entryway in the side of Red Base. “You two go ahead!” Jack revved the Mongoose’s engine dramatically as a Red came around the corner of the base several feet away. “We’ll take care of the Reds out here!”

Jack accelerated toward the Red, who attempted to pick off the Blue Lieutenant with his Battle Rifle. Jack simply leaned back and pulled the Mongoose into a wheelie, allowing the vehicle’s belly to take the Red’s shots until it plowed right through the hapless soldier. Applejack and the transparent Church entered the building. The sounds of battle outside grew quiet as they entered the dark heart of the Red Base. The pair turned a corner and entered a moderately sized room where they found their enemy. Captain Hayworth was sitting in the center of the room on a huge throne that appeared to be made of hundreds of melted down rifles.

“Where’s Pinkie?” Applejack demanded, stepping forward.

Hayworth simply leaned on one arm as he sat upon the very uncomfortable looking throne, light glinting off his crown of knives. “There is no one called Pinkie here.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Fine, where’s Edgar?”

Chuckling darkly, Hayworth rose from his throne, his tarp/cape hanging limply behind him. “You wish to free Edgar? Very well, I can take her out of the hole if you wish, but it’ll be your funeral!”

“You keep people in holes? The fuck is wrong with you?” Church asked.

“Nothing’s wrong with me, I just discovered the greatest weapon of all: fear,” Hayworth spread his arms. “The fact is, Edgar isn’t a person. Edgar is a concept: if you can take away a person’s name, they’re yours! And how do you do that? Through fear! You may call it crazy, but it works! Before today, Jack and his ilk would never have crossed me, all thanks to fear! Fear brought about by the concept of Edgar!”

“We don’t care about yer crazy mumbo-jumbo! Let her out right now!” Applejack ordered, glaring furiously at the Mad King.

Hayworth simply sighed and shook his head. Nevertheless, he moved toward a hatch in the floor. “You still don’t understand, do you? Edgar’s not in the hole to hurt Edgar. Edgar’s in the hole to protect you!”

Hayworth reached down and opened the hatch, revealing nothing but a dark hole. “You don’t need to free Edgar… you need to fear Edgar!”

Suddenly, something leapt out of the darkness of the hole, and all at once Applejack was beset by a familiar pink form. Pinkie Pie pinned Applejack to the ground, her straight mane covering her right eye and a maniacal grin on her muzzle.

“P-Pinkie?” Applejack gasped beneath the pressure of her friend’s hooves. “W-what are ya doing?”

“There is no Pinkie. Only Edgar, and I have a secret!” Edgar leaned closer and whispered tenderly into Applejack’s ear. “The Mad King sends his regards!”

Applejack struggled and fought with all of her might, but she was unable to take Edgar’s pressure off her chest. She’d come so far: fought timberwolves, changelings and helped defeat some of Equestria’s greatest threats. It seemed inconceivable that one of her best friends in the world would be the one to finally finish her. Church looked on, but without a physical body it was all he could do. Sniffling, Applejack closed her eyes and let out a sob, despairing in the knowledge that this would be how it ended.

And yet, it didn’t end. Applejack waited for several seconds... and nothing happened. Slowly, she chanced opening her eyes. Pinkie Pie was looking down at her. Not Edgar. Pinkie Pie.

“Okay, no offense Mr. Mad King, but this game’s getting boring,” Pinkie said, getting off of Applejack. A familiar goofy smile adorned her face as she bounced in excitement, her straight mane inflating to its old poofy self in the process. “Oh, I know! Let’s play ‘Cops and Crooks!’”

The entire room was silent for a second. And then another.

“... What?!” Screamed everyone.

“You were really good in your role though, Applejack!” Pinkie giggled. “Those looked like real tears!”

“You were… uh, mighty convincing yourself, Pinkie!” Applejack croaked, wiping her eyes with a shaking hoof.

The Mad King was fuming. “Edgar! Enough of this charade! Kill her! And whisper my name as you do it!”

Pinkie Pie looked over her shoulder at Hayworth. “You weren’t bad either, Mr. Mad King. Though, I think you were maybe just a tad overdoing it with the evil speech!”

“Stop it! Do my bidding! You are Edgar! Always Edgar!”

“No silly, I’m Pinkie Pie!”

Hayworth stammered for a moment. “But… how can this be? I indoctrinated you!”

Pinkie Pie turned around and looked at Hayworth sympathetically. “Nope! You only tried to make me crazy. But you need to know: I had a crazy A.I. in my head for a while. That was way worse than anything you could do to me! Still, you were trying really hard, and I didn’t want you to feel bad that you couldn’t break my mind, so I just pretended to be Edgar for a while!”

Captain Hayworth just stood there in awed silence, something inside him having clearly broken. After a few moments, Hayworth shook the cobwebs from his head and regained control.

“Very well! I guess some problems can only be solved with delicious, delicious murder!” Hayworth happily exclaimed, pulling out a Battle Rifle from his tarp/cloak.

The Mad King raised the weapon at Pinkie and Applejack, but before either side could react, a figure appeared from around the corner behind Hayworth.

“Surprise mothafucka!” Jack exclaimed as he ran toward the Mad King… and fell right into Edgar’s hole in a clatter of armor. “Ow! Goddammit! Fuckin’ hole!”

With a sinister laugh, Hayworth turned around and looked down at the bearded Blue at the bottom of the hole. “Hi Jack!” he greeted pleasantly. “Or should I call you Edgar?”

“Dick!” Jack replied venomously.

“That was convenient. I literally didn’t have to react in any way!”

“Sure about that, Hayworth?” Applejack asked.

Hayworth turned around just in time to see the backside of the farm pony as she gave him a good hard buck in the pelvis with her hind legs. With an “oof,” Hayworth fell backwards and disappeared into Edgar’s hole, his crown of knives falling from his helmet to the ground in front of Applejack. She, Pinkie and Church all approached the edge of the hole and looked down. It was hard to make out either man in the darkness, but they could see a red form lying on his back in the center. A slow, deranged chuckle escaped Hayworth.

“I’m in the hole…” Hayworth said like a man who had just seen the light. Slowly, the Mad King’s laugh grew in volume and in insanity. It wasn’t a gleeful or triumphant laugh, but one of pure madness. “I AM EDGAR!!! AH HA HA HA HA HAAAA!”

As Hayworth continued laughing, Blue soldiers entered the base from all of its entrances, victorious on the battlefield outside. Donut was with them, and together all of Jack’s men surrounded the hole and pointed their weapons at the laughing king within. Even as Jack was pulled safely out of the hole by one of his men, Captain James Hayworth continued to laugh.

“I have an idea,” Church said. “Let’s get my body, get a Warthog, drive out of here and forget all of this ever happened!”

“No argument from me, Church!” Applejack said. She then turned to the Blue Lieutenant with the big red beard protruding from his helmet. “Thanks fer yer help, Jack! Couldn’ta done it without you!”

“No, thank you,” Jack said. “For giving us a purpose again!”

With their goodbyes said, Church, Donut, Applejack and Pinkie Pie turned and walked out of Red Base, Captain Hayworth’s laughter growing fainter with distance. After the stress of battle and the darkness of Red Base, the quiet sounds of running water and the light of the sun was rather nice.

“So your name’s Donut?” Pinkie asked the man in pink.

“Yep! Franklin Delano Donut!”

“Pfft! Your name is silly like Caboose! I like it!”

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie is a pretty silly name too!”

“I like your pink armor, Donut!”

“Actually, it’s more of a lightish-red!”

“Looks pretty pink to me, and believe me: I know pink!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “If your armor isn’t pink, than my name is Lightish-Redie Pie!”

As the man and the pony continued their conversation, Applejack looked at the ground and let out an anxious breath.

“What’s up?” Church asked.

“Nothin’. Just… anxious to get goin’ is all,” Applejack said. It wasn’t a lie. She just left out the reason why she was so anxious to move out. “Jus’ hang in there, Rares…” she muttered.

Once again Rarity found herself sitting beneath the stone arch making up the entrance to the human camp. Things were different this time though, and it wasn’t just that the sun was setting, casting the desert sand in an orange glow. Rarity was being watched by a human in white armor and an Elite in blue. She held the Fire Ruby in her hooves and stroked it gently. The gift from Spike gave her some comfort. Captain Eberle lay beside her.

The woman was injured and weak, but alive. Rarity had begged and pleaded with her captors to give Eberle some form of medical attention until finally the human guard left and came back with a small white pack with a red cross on it. It was only a quick fix, but Eberle seemed to rest easier afterwards.

“I thought I told you to go…” Eberle finally said. They were the first words she’d spoken since the two of them were captured.

Rarity smiled. “I’ve never been great at following orders. Guess I’d make a pretty bad soldier, huh?”

“Well, you showed one quality of a good soldier,” Eberle said. “Why’d you come back anyway?”

Rarity didn’t answer right away. Truthfully, she didn’t know herself. “It just… seemed right. I used to think everyone in Project Freelancer was bad, but… I guess things aren’t that black and white.”

The two sat in companionable silence for a while before Rarity once again became aware of the vigilant stares of their captors. She held the ruby in her hooves tighter. “So… what’s going to happen to us?”

“They’ll probably want to question me about what I know,” Eberle said. “I am, after all, the only one here who knows what’s in that temple. Not sure what they want with you, though. They’ve probably just never seen anything like you before.”

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Rarity quickly fired up her horn and put the Fire Ruby back in her pocket dimension. An Elite wearing purple armor approached the camp. It appeared to be the leader of the Elites working with CT. Unlike the others, it wore a helmet that entirely covered its face, with a few blue lights where its eyes would have been. It exchanged a few hushed words with the human guard, who then turned to address them.

“Alright, you two. On your feet! Smith’s taking you to see the boss!”

Rarity climbed to her hooves and turned to help Eberle up. Much to her surprise, the wounded woman was able to climb to her feet all on her own, using only the stone arch as support. Eberle gave Rarity a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“We’re going to be fine, okay?”

Rarity nodded and she suddenly found herself feeling much more confident. Part of it was Eberle’s unexpected show of strength, but another part of it was a very devious idea forming in Rarity’s mind. She couldn’t help but let a grin spread across her face.

“Don’t worry about me, Captain,” she said. “I’m no stranger to being held captive and… well let’s just say I know a few tricks!”

Rarity and Eberle walked side by side as the purple alien designated “Smith” walked behind them, keeping his strange alien needle weapon at their backs. Smith led them around the ruins until they came within sight of the Elephant Behemoth. The Insurrectionists appeared to be using the massive excavation vehicle as a mobile base, and had spent most of the remaining day trying to pry open the temple door with it. Rarity and Eberle could only hope that their attempts were fruitless.

They finally were led up the rear ramp serving as the back entrance to the vehicle. To their immediate left was a ramp leading up to the second level where the pilot’s cabin was located. Just ahead of them was an interior area with a large computer screen taking up the left side. A man in white armor was operating the control console. On the screen were several rows of text that Rarity couldn’t quite make out, but it was the image beside the text that drew her eye.

An image of what looked like a round metal eye that was concave on the sides and front rotated in place on the center of the screen. CT then emerged from behind the screen and glanced in Rarity and Eberle’s direction before glaring at the man operating the console.

“Close that file, you idiot! Our guests are here!” CT chastised through gritted teeth.

The other man wasted no time in pressing a button on the console and the image of the strange object disappeared from the screen. CT turned and approached his hostages. Rarity took a breath and did a few jaw exercises.

“Well, I must admit you’ve done a fine job training your men, Captain. They’re really making it difficult for me to get what I want!” CT said with no shortage of disdain in his voice.

Good, they haven’t gotten into the temple yet. Rarity thought.

“And just what do you want, CT?” Eberle asked. “Because you might be disappointed with what you’ll find.”

“The only thing I want is to tear down your project for everything it did!”

If there was a time for Rarity to enact her plan, it was now, “May I say something real quick?” Rarity didn’t give them a chance to answer. “This arid desert air is simply terrible for my complexion! I’ve been sweating all day and am simply rancid! I would need a nice warm bath first if I am to answer any questions!”

CT gave the pony a quizzical look. “Uh… what?”

“And another thing! You haven’t given us any food since you’ve captured us and its been, what? Four hours? I haven’t eaten since midday and am simply famished! We need food, preferably something low in carbs. I do have a figure to maintain, after all!”

“Enough!” CT ordered.

“What are you doing?” Eberle whispered.

“Just trust me!” Rarity whispered back before continuing. “And really, would it kill you to bring us some water? We are in a desert, after all, and need to stay hydrated!”

“Shut up!”

“Now, that is no way to speak to a lady! You could have at least said ‘Miss Rarity, would you please shut up?’”

“Shut up! Stop your whining or I’ll…”

Rarity grinned, she had him right where she wanted him, “I’m not whining, I’m complaining! You want to see whining? THIS is whine…”

A loud gunshot interrupted Rarity, making the little white unicorn jump. Her heart now pounding, Rarity looked down at herself and sighed in relief when she realized she hadn’t been shot. Then Rarity heard the sound of armor collapsing beside her. Rarity looked over and saw Eberle lying on the floor with a hole in the front of her visor, a steady stream of blood dripping out of it.

With a horrified gasp, Rarity held a hoof to her mouth as she suddenly found it incredibly difficult to breathe. She felt sick, as if some worm in her stomach was trying to slither its way up her throat and out of her mouth, but she forced it down. Her eyes began to water and she had to keep blinking to clear them. Rarity then looked over at CT, and saw the man holding a smoking pistol in his right hand.

“W-w-why did you…?” Rarity whimpered and tried not to vomit, “I-I thought you needed to question her…”

“She couldn’t have told us anything we didn’t already know…” CT said, lowering his pistol, but to Rarity’s horror, he didn’t put it away entirely. “Your presence, on the other hand, is bringing forth a lot of questions…”

CT turned to face her. Rarity desperately tried to back away but only bumped into Smith, who sent her tumbling forward to CT’s feet with a painful kick. She whimpered and gagged as she realized how close she’d landed to the puddle of blood forming around Eberle’s corpse.

“P-please… please I don’t know anything…” Rarity cried.

“That’s a likely story,” CT scoffed. “You think I don’t know who you are?”

Despite the horrible nausea fighting to pour out of her into a disgusting mess on the floor, Rarity was suddenly confused. CT did seem to recognize her when they first met, but how could he possibly know about her? She was just a fashionista in a small town! Well, that and the Bearer of Generosity.

CT continued, “You’re her aren’t you? The protégé!”

A light suddenly switched on in Rarity’s brain. This man didn’t know her at all! He thought she was somepony else entirely!

“N-no! I’m not the Princess’ student! Twilight, she’s…”

“Bullshit!” CT grabbed her by the horn and forced her to look up at his terrifying brown helmet. The pain elicited another whimper from Rarity, and she glanced at the pistol in his other hand. “Why else would a unicorn of Equestria be here? The Princess sent you to cover her tracks, didn’t she?”

“W-what?”

CT apparently misinterpreted her confusion as surprise, as a dark chuckle escaped him. “That’s right, I know all about you and your Princess’s little joint project with the Director!”

With another painful jolt, CT released his grip on Rarity and stood up straight. “We’ve been investigating Project Freelancer and all of its investments for years now!”

CT then briefly looked away and his venomous tone gave way to one more of melancholy. “I admit, we’ve had a few… setbacks in the preceding years…” CT returned his gaze to Rarity and with it, his menacing tone. “But make no mistake: I will not stop until we’ve buried Project Freelancer and everyone associated with it!”

With the conversation ended, Rarity was led back to the camp. When she reached her spot beneath the stone arches and Smith left her under the watch of the guards, night had fallen completely. It was only when she looked at the spot Eberle had previously occupied that the unicorn at last emptied the contents of her stomach onto the sand.

Author's Note

I don't know why I keep traumatizing ponies like this. Is there any pony left who's not suffering now? Anyway, only two chapters left of Act 2!

Next time: The gang confronts CT and Princess Celestia talks about cake!

Act 2 Part 11 - Another One Down

Rarity was woken by the sound of a distant blaring alarm. Sleep had not come easily over the past couple of days she spent in the Insurrectionists’ captivity. Her time was spent under vigilant watch from at least two guards. Rarity could often hear CT’s angry voice as he yelled at his troops. Her only consolation was that his anger indicated they still hadn’t breached the temple. Still, she dreaded the time when CT would decide she was a liability and would deal with her the same way he did Eberle. Rarity had never felt more alone and afraid in her life.

As the distant alarms continued to go off, Rarity’s current set of guards were approached by Smith. After the Elite exchanged a few words with the human guards, one of them approached her with his rifle raised.

“Alright, on your feet. Now!” he ordered.

Rarity complied, but was unable to contain her curiosity. “What’s going on?”

“Get moving now and don’t say a word!”

Rarity was about to obey, when she glanced off in the direction of the minefield and remembered: that was the alarm that went off when she, Rainbow Dash and Caboose first arrived. Someone was here! Someone not part of CT’s group! Rarity was suddenly overcome by a desire to run. If she could just make it to the minefield…

“Stop her, Jones!”

Rarity suddenly felt herself be scooped up in a pair of armored arms. She struggled and squirmed with all of her might before something hit her in the back of the head painfully, and before Rarity knew it she was spiraling down into darkness.

As she rode along in the back of the Warthog, Twilight couldn’t help but worry about her latest conversation with Tex. Twilight really wanted to trust her, but her insight into the M.I.’s latest scheme gave her incredible unease. As they made ready to leave Blood Gulch, Twilight had expressed concern for her friends, and had suggested that their next objective should be to try and find them.

“You’re right,” Tex had replied. “Your friends will be crucial for the next part of my plan.”

That had piqued Twilight’s curiosity. “What do you mean?”

“In order to break into Command, I’m going to need someone to set off the alarm. Preferably a large enough group to really get their attention.”

Twilight’s curiosity was quickly replaced by apprehension as she stared disbelieving at the M.I. “Are my friends just bait to you?”

“They won’t have to keep Freelancer forces busy for long. Just until we get into Command’s inner facilities.” What worried Twilight the most was that Tex didn’t exactly say “no.”

Twilight was suddenly jolted from her thoughts as the Warthog abruptly stopped. She didn’t have to look hard to see the cause. The dirt road ahead of them was currently blocked by a squad of men in blue armor. The group of Blues were using a standard Warthog and a troop transport Warthog as cover while they exchanged gunfire with a group of Reds further up the road, also taking cover behind a few vehicles.

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked nervously. The three ponies were seated in their own troop transport Warthog’s bed.

“Looks like we’ve come upon a Red and Blue skirmish!” Sarge exclaimed, hopping out of his seat in the shotgun position. “Lopez! Pass me my shotgun!”

Lopez leveled a steady glare from the driver’s seat. “Ya está sosteniendo la escopeta (You are already holding your shotgun).”

The small black transparent avatar of Tex appeared. “This doesn’t make sense: we’re nowhere near any simulation bases!”

“Who cares? The only thing that matters is a group of no good dirty Blues is blockin’ our path forward!” Sarge bellowed as he raised his shotgun dramatically. “It’s time fer murder! My raging boner will lead us straight to the enemy!”

Twilight gave her head a few disbelieving shakes. “Uh, what?”

“It’s like nature’s motion tracker!”

“Pero ya podemos ver al enemigo (But we can already see the enemy).” Lopez hopped out of the driver’s seat.

Twilight simply remained seated, still trying to process what Sarge had said. Just when she thought she’d heard it all, these people found new ways to surprise her. Beside her, poor Fluttershy’s yellow coat had gone pale. Even Sunny looked nonplussed, shifting in her armor uncomfortably.

Before Sarge was able to charge at the preoccupied Blues, one of them turned to crouch against their Warthog and spotted them. “Captain! The Reds are trying to flank us!”

Their leader, a soldier wearing blue armor with white detail turned around. “OH NO! OOOOOOOOOOOOUGH!” The man’s slightly goofy deep voice grew so loud and high-pitched that it distorted his helmet speakers.

Something about the Blue Captain’s voice struck Twilight as familiar. She felt like she had heard that panicked scream before. It hit her as soon as she saw the emblem of a red rose on his shoulder pads.

“Reynard?” Twilight asked as she and the other ponies climbed out of the back.

Sure enough, the Captain looked at her with slowly growing recognition. “Purple Horse?” Reynard crouched forward and threw his arms in the air. “HOLY SHIT!!!”

Twilight trotted over to Captain Reynard Vaez Jr. while his men continued exchanging fire with the squad of Reds. “What’s going on? Who are you fighting?”

Her question was answered when a bullet whizzed past Reynard’s head, causing the Blue Captain to duck.

“SUCK A DICK, REYNARD!” a loud voice with a Jersey accent called out from the Reds’ position.

“I WILL! JUST WATCH ME!” Reynard yelled back.

“Oh yeah… him,” Twilight said, recalling her last encounter with Captain Mike Mogar of Zanzibar’s Red Team. Something suddenly occurred to her. “Wait, didn’t Caboose kill him?”

“So, what are you doing here, Twilight?” Reynard asked, either not hearing her question or ignoring it.

“Not too much. Just preparing to assault Freelancer Command.” Twilight suddenly gasped and shoved both front hooves into her mouth.

Twilight fully expected Reynard to get angry, possibly even report them to his superiors at Command. Instead, what he said was, “That’s great! I hate those guys!”

“I’m sorry! I was only joking! I…” Twilight stopped. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, fuckin’ douchebags kicked us out of our bases at Zanzibar. Said something about it becoming the scene of investigation in response to reported alien sightings.”

“Oh… y-you don’t say!” Twilight laughed awkwardly, realizing that the “alien” in question was most likely her.

“Yeah, it’s total bullshit! Just after we fought so hard to take control of the power plant!” Reynard sighed. “Anyway, we were heading for Command to be relocated when we bumped into Captain Mogar’s forces. Though, that was probably because they were also heading for Command.”

“Wait, if both of you know that Red and Blue are the same, why are you still fighting?”

Reynard shrugged. “I dunno... I mean, YOLO right?”

“Both your teams are heading to Command?” Tex asked, her avatar suddenly appearing between Twilight and Reynard.

“Sure thing, ghost lady!”

“Then maybe you can help us.”

Reynard thought about this for half a second before ordering his troops to stand down. Shortly, Mogar’s men did the same and in a few short minutes both teams were standing around Twilight and her group. Reynard looked at the two ponies standing beside Twilight.

“Who are they?” he asked.

“This is Sunny. She’s in the Equestrian Royal Guard,” Twilight gestured to the white mare in armor and she nodded. “And this is my friend Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy greeted Reynard the same way she greeted all new people: she hid behind her mane and squeaked nervously.

Reynard regarded Fluttershy briefly. “I don’t like her.”

“Pfft! You don’t know what you’re talking about! Fluttershy’s cool!” Mike Mogar put an arm around Fluttershy and gave her a friendly pat. Fluttershy smiled appreciatively, but her stiffness indicated she found the physical contact uncomfortable.

“Okay, so are you guys willing to help us break into Command?” Sunny asked.

Reynard shrugged. “Sure, what do we do?”

“After Command lets you in, we’ll send you a signal when we’re about to land, then you cause as much damage as possible!” Tex said. She looked over at Twilight and nodded. All at once Twilight knew what she was doing.

“Sounds an awful lot like the last plan we were involved with,” Reynard said, looking at Twilight.

“Yes, you’re basically our distraction, but either you have to do this or my friends do,” Twilight said. “I understand if you’d rather change your mind.”

“Hey!” Mogar raised a hand to Twilight. “Don’t worry. We’ll raise the ruckus!”

“Also, I’m pretty sure Command monitors all radio traffic,” Reynard said. “How are you going to contact us without them finding out?”

The group went quiet as everyone no doubt tried to come up with something.

“How about we blow up a satellite orbiting the planet with a nuke?” Sarge suggested.

“How would that help?” Twilight asked.

“You can’t deny: no one could miss a signal like that!”

“Let’s… stick with something involving a little less unnecessary destruction.”

“Our ship is capable of sending coded messages via text,” Tex mused. She looked at the Red and Blue Captains. “But you guys don’t have a datapad that can receive them, do you?”

Datapad… Twilight’s eyes shot wide open as the solution hit her like a whole jar of zap apple jam. “I have a datapad you guys can use! Here!”

Hoping to find the datapad Church had given her during her first night in Blood Gulch, Twilight opened her pocket dimension. Unfortunately, in her eagerness to do so, she forgot to keep everything else she had stored in there from pouring out of the parallel space as well. Among the datapad were several books, the radio headset that Simmons had made for her, the Elements of Harmony… and the hundreds and hundreds of cakes that Pinkie Pie had baked when she was still down in the dumps after O’Malley’s possession.

By some ill stroke of luck, Reynard was at ground zero of the sudden pastry barrage. “OH NO! NOOOO! NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” he screamed as he was buried in hundreds of frosty white cakes. “I GOTTA GET OUT! GOTTA GET OUT! GOTTA GET OUT!”

Sure, being buried alive in cake probably wasn’t the most fun thing in the world, but it seemed to Twilight that Reynard was overreacting just a little. He was having a full on panic attack reminiscent of someone with PTSD. Yet, somehow the concept seemed familiar. It was at that point that Twilight remembered what Sarge had told Applejack after he returned to Ponyville with the Meta’s ship.

“Hit ‘em with a classic ‘pie bombing run!’ Haven’t pulled a maneuver like that since my days in the Pastry Wars of 2530!”

“Oh, Celestia. You weren’t joking...” Twilight said.

“His father was killed in a cake bombing run during that damn war,” Mogar helpfully explained.

Sarge nodded. “Damn cake lovers. Pie or die!”

As the group struggled to fish Reynard out of the cakes, no one noticed that one of his soldiers wasn’t like the others. Standing on the edge of the group, the hulking figure in blue armor and a domed helmet stood silently and waited.

Church, Donut, Applejack and Pinkie Pie all stood side by side as they looked at the burning wreckage of the Warthog they had driven out into the desert. On the plus side, they had made it to their destination: the half buried alien ruins were just behind them. Unfortunately, a minefield had been guarding them.

“Ugh, I told you to take three steps then turn right!” an aggravated voice accompanied by footsteps said behind the group.

The pair of humans and ponies turned around to see a man wearing brown armor with white detail approach them from the hulking command vehicle at the ruins’ edge. Church was slightly startled to see that the man was wearing an EOD helmet as opposed to the ODST helmets that were apparently regulation for Freelancer soldiers now. The EOD had the distinction of resembling a dark and serious face as opposed to an all-encompassing visor. Church recognized his voice as the one who had attempted to guide them safely through the minefield. Keyword “attempted.”

“In hindsight, using ‘steps’ as a unit of measurement when we were in a car didn’t seem like a smart move!” Donut said.

“But you turned left!” The man countered incredulously.

“Y’know, I’m pretty sure I had a good reason for letting you drive, Donut. But for the life of me I can’t remember what it was,” Church said.

“I believe you said you were tired of always drivin’, and Donut was the only other one who could actually reach the pedals,” Applejack answered very matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah…”

“Hey, look on the bright side!” Pinkie exclaimed with a bounce. “At least flying through the air when the mines went off was super cool! I even got pictures!”

Before Church could protest, several instant-photos were shoved into his hands. Out of idle curiosity, Church looked down at them. There was one at the moment when the first mine went off, with Pinkie’s smiling face in the foreground. There was another of Applejack clinging to Church as they sailed through the air upside-down. There was also one of what appeared to be Pinkie throwing gang signs as she flew through the air (remarkable, considering her lack of fingers). And the last one was… Church standing exactly where he was now, looking at the pictures Pinkie had given him.

“Wait, how did…?” Church looked up to see Pinkie lower a camera from her face.

With a sigh, the man in the brown EOD armor looked up from his folded arms. “Okay. Are we done looking at pictures? Because there’s actually important shit to discuss!”

“Right, so are you in charge here?” Church asked.

“Yes. Call me CT!”

Donut gasped. “Hey, aren’t you that guy who arrived with those reinforcements?” CT was silent. “What happened? Did you guys get attacked?”

There was a slight hesitation before CT cleared his throat. “That’s right. Insurrectionists.” CT looked down and shook his head mournfully. “Damn bastards killed a lot of good men…”

Donut’s hand rose to his mouth. “Where’s Tucker and Eberle?”

CT sighed. “Sorry. I’m all that’s left to run the ship now…”

Donut suddenly became quiet and focused on the sand at his feet. Pinkie Pie was on him immediately, giving him a comforting hug around the waist. CT approached the glum pink soldier.

“Hey, it’s good to have you back, uh…”

“Donut.”

“Right, of course!” CT gave Donut’s shoulder a friendly pat before stepping away. “The rest of you are welcome to stay here of course. Just so long as you stay at the main camp! Can’t have you stumble across anything classified, now can we?”

Applejack swallowed and removed her hat, fidgeting with it nervously. “CT? You didn’t see any ponies like me around, did ya?”

CT leveled an unreadable glare at Applejack for a moment before answering. “Nope. You’d be the first one!”

Applejack looked up at CT and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. “Funny, ya don’ seem too shocked ‘bout it.”

The farm pony had a point, Church realized. Everyone else they had run into so far had been thoroughly thrown for a loop at the sight of the small, talking equines. CT didn’t seem phased at all.

CT cleared his throat a few times before answering. “Oh, well… let’s just say I’m used to working with… alien entities.”

On cue, a figure wearing purple armor approached the group from CT’s mobile command center. Church recognized it immediately as the same species of alien that had impregnated Tucker years ago. Church was thankful he wasn’t around to witness the actual conception. The alien they met in Zanzibar was one ugly motherfucker. Church guessed this one looked the same underneath the face concealing helmet it wore.

“Whoa nelly!” Applejack exclaimed, hiding behind Church to look up at the large alien. “What the hay is that?!”

CT chuckled. “That is Smith. He’s the leader of the Sangheili working with us to uncover these ruins.”

Smith honked in confirmation.

“Cool!” Pinkie exclaimed, taking a picture of the alien.

Applejack, on the other hand, was still cautiously seeking refuge behind Church. “Uhm… is it dangerous?”

“You don’t bother them, they won’t bother you. Kinda like big bees,” CT said before clearing his throat. “Now, why don’t you guys take a moment to replenish yourselves?”

CT pointed down into the ruins to an area between two pyramid-like structures and one that stretched behind them lengthwise. “If you head down there and to the left, you’ll find where we keep our food and water.”

“I am a mite peckish,” Applejack said as she found the courage to step out from behind Church’s legs.

“Donut, as one of Eberle’s top men, I’d like to take a moment to uh… brief you,” CT said. “In private.”

“Oooooh… I like the sound of where that’s going!” Donut exclaimed as he made to go with CT.

However, Applejack grabbed him and held him back. “Donut can speak with you after we’ve all had a bit of sustenance,” she said as she pulled him along down toward the ruins. “After all, it’s been a long journey!”

Applejack gave Church an urgent look and motioned with her head for them to get going. Together, the four of them walked down into the sandy ruins, leaving CT and Smith in front of the Elephant.

“Just remember: don’t go wandering!” CT called out as they left. “And don’t worry, we’ll take care of you!”

The food and water were exactly where CT said it would be. There were also several destroyed jeeps and other miscellaneous vehicle parts piled up against the far ruins’ wall. As he was technically not a living person, Church didn’t bother with any of the provisions. He just watched as Applejack and Donut filled themselves up. He couldn’t help but notice the way Applejack’s ears flicked as she constantly looked around.

“Is it just me, or do you seem extra paranoid right now?” Church asked, thinking about how she seemed eager to keep Donut away from CT moments before. “Because I think I saw some black helicopters earlier!”

Applejack ignored Church’s sarcasm. “I got a bad feelin’ about this CT fella, Church. He’s lyin’ to us!”

“Yeah, sure he is,” Church said impishly.

Applejack narrowed her eyes at Church.

“What? I’m agreeing with you!”

“Well ya could at least sound a little more convinced!”

Before Church could formulate a response, the loud whispering voice of Pinkie Pie turned his attention around behind him. Pinkie was down on the other end of the part of the ruins they were in, to the right of where they had entered.

“You guys! Come quick! I found something!” Pinkie whisper-yelled.

Exchanging a quick look, Church and the others ran over to where Pinkie was standing, careful that CT or his men didn’t spot them.

“Uh, Pinkie? You do realize the food an’ water is to the left, right?” Applejack asked when they reached her.

“I know! But I always like checking in the other direction first, in case there’s bonus stuff!” Pinkie exclaimed as she led them around a corner. “And look! I found a bonus Rarity!”

That wasn’t the first thing Church saw when he rounded the corner behind the alien ruins. Littered throughout the sand were the inert forms of many soldiers in gray and white armor, as well as a few Elites. Sure enough, a small white pony lay still among them, tightly bound by a steel cord, likely taken from one of the destroyed Warthogs. Church noted the amount of blood that surrounded the broken bodies of the soldiers around them as Applejack ran forward to untie her motionless friend.

“Hey Applejack, I don’t wanna alarm you or anything, but I think all of these guys are dead!” Church said.

Looking suddenly very worried, Applejack lowered an ear to Rarity’s chest and listened for a few seconds. “Well, Rarity’s still breathin’!” Applejack exclaimed, relieved.

Though she may have been alive, Rarity still looked no less worse for wear. Her usually well kept mane was dirty and frazzled, sticking out here and there. She had a few small cuts and bruises, as well as a notable bump on the back of her head. Much of her makeup was gone too; what little remained formed dark lines down her cheeks. Applejack grabbed her fashionista friend by the shoulders and started to gently shake her.

“Rarity? Rares! C’mon! Wake up! Rise an’ shine!” Applejack tried, shaking the unconscious unicorn to no avail.

Church carefully stepped over the other bodies and peeked around the far corner so he could see what their host was doing. CT was talking to Smith, along with a couple of other armored humans and Elites. They seemed as of yet unaware of what their guests were up to. Applejack meanwhile, continued in her futile attempts to wake Rarity.

“Consarn it, yer a heavier sleeper than Rainbow Dash!”

Donut took a step forward. “Step aside, Applejack. I’ve got this.”

Applejack obliged, and Donut knelt beside the white mare and whispered loudly. “Hey Rarity, guess what? Green and brown plaid is in right now!”

All at once Rarity gasped and sat into an upright position, eyes wide open as she started to retch. “Ew! Horrid!”

Rarity then remembered where she was and looked around to find the man in pink armor kneeling beside her. “Donut!” She leapt forward and hugged her pink (human) friend tightly. She then saw the pair of ponies over his shoulder. “Applejack! Pinkie Pie!”

Rarity released Donut, dove between them and embraced them both.

“Well, boy howdy to you too, Rares!”

After letting her friends hold her for a moment, Rarity stepped back and looked around fearfully. “Where’s CT?”

“Back at that mobile base talking to his alien buddies, why?” Church asked.

“He was super nice and let us stay at his camp for awhile!” Pinkie exclaimed with a smile.

Rarity’s eyes widened in horror as she looked back and forth between her friends. “No! Don’t trust CT, whatever you do! His people killed everyone who was working here! He…” Rarity glanced over at one of the dead bodies as her eyes started to glisten. “He killed Captain Eberle! Just shot her in cold blood right in front of…”

Rarity’s voice broke before she could finish, and Applejack rubbed her back comfortingly. It was a few seconds before she could compose herself and continue. “Rainbow Dash, Tucker, and Caboose managed to escape into the temple. CT and his forces have been trying everything to get in!”

“Okay, we need to figure out a plan!” Church said. “What do these people even want, anyway?”

“They’re trying to find a…” Rarity’s ears shot straight up as an idea came to her. “There’s a computer on that huge vehicle of theirs! It had information about the artifact they’re searching for! If we can find that information and somehow get it to the others in the temple...”

“Okay. Donut, Applejack and Pinkie, you three keep CT distracted,” Church ordered. “Rarity, show me this computer.”

So far, the day had been going pretty well for Simmons. He’d met with the 8th Pony Battalion at five in the morning and had wasted no time in beginning the training regimen Washington had prescribed. Simmons had started with teaching them the basic cover tactics that he had learned in training. The mares and stallions of the 8th had taken to the lessons like fish to water. It would seem that Washington and Celestia had chosen some of the most experienced battalions to receive this training first. This had the benefit of them being relatively quick to learn, and if Celestia was to be believed, time was of the essence.

As he watched the ponies under his tutelage continue running his drills through the obstacle course set up in the west castle garden, Simmons was filled with a sense of… right. Like everything was good with the world at that moment. Ever since he had joined Red Army, Simmons had always wanted to move up to a position of command.

It was around midday that Spike approached him. The little dragon was carrying a clipboard that he was studying with a perturbed expression on his face.

“Hey, Simmons? Can we talk real quick?” he asked.

Simmons turned away from the 8th as they continued running drills and looked down at Spike. “Sure. What’s up?”

Spike glanced down at his clipboard again, as if to make sure the data on the pages hadn’t changed while he wasn’t looking. “Well, the squads being trained by you and Washington have both made significant progress already. They’re probably ready to move on to the next exercise…”

Simmons’ relatively good mood turned around when he realized where this was going. He knew this day seemed to be going too well!

“Let me guess… Grif’s squad has been having problems?” Simmons asked in a low, bitter tone.

“Yeah… he’s not following the training regimen that Washington had written out,” Spike explained. “I tried talking to him, and then I got Washington to yell at him, but he’s not listening! So...”

“You were hoping I would talk to him?”

Spike rubbed the back of his head. “Well, you do know him the best out of all of us.”

“And I also hate him the most out of all of us. Funny how that works!” When Spike looked up at him imploringly, Simmons relented. “Fine, I’ll talk to him!”

After telling the 8th Battalion to take a break, Simmons followed Spike through Canterlot Castle until they reached the rear courtyard where Grif’s squad was meant to be training. All of the furniture that was usually out there for elite social gatherings had been removed in place of several crates of training equipment just like what Simmons’ squad had been given. However, the equipment was all lying off to the side, unused.

Grif sat on a big, fold out lawn chair that was just a little too small for him. He looked out onto the admittedly impressive view of the kingdom over the side of the mountain with a drink in his hand. The members of the 10th Pony Battalion were all around him. Two of the soldiers were massaging his neck and shoulders. Two more sat on either side of him, fanning him with large luxurious leaves (which seemed pretty useless for the purpose of cooling him off, considering his armor). One pony lay down at Grif’s feet and served as a footrest, while another massaged his thighs.

Confused and infuriated, Simmons stormed up to Grif. Hearing him coming, Grif turned his head to look at him. For some reason, Grif was wearing sunglasses on top of his visor.

“Wassup, Simmons?” he greeted, lifting his sunglasses up over the top of his helmet.

“Grif? What the fuck is all of this?” Simmons asked, gesturing to the battalion of fully armored ponies tending to him like spa workers.

“Uh, this is my training regimen?” Grif answered as if a child had asked him. “Speaking of which, what are you doing here, Simmons? I didn’t think you of all people would be slacking off on this job!”

With that backwards logic thrown out there, Simmons threw his arms up in frustration. “I’m not slacking off! I’m here to make sure you’re not slacking off!”

Grif merely spread his arms as he shifted in his lawn chair. “C’mon Simmons! Does this look like a guy slacking off?”

Simmons wasn’t sure if he was serious. “Yes,” so he decided to answer completely seriously.

“Well, looks can be deceiving! This is my training regimen!”

Simmons looked again at the armored ponies pampering Grif. “Uh-huh… so, how exactly does all of this count as training?”

Grif sat up, leaned in closer to Simmons and spoke quietly. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m going for the ‘Mr. Miyagi’ approach. Later on, this is all gonna come back full circle and this squad will become total badasses without even realizing it!”

Simmons folded his arms skeptically. “Okay, how are you planning on applying this to combat?”

Grif sat perfectly still for a few seconds. “Well, I can’t tell you! It’ll ruin the surprise!”

“You have no idea, do you?”

“I’ll figure it out!” Grif leaned back in his lawn chair and put his sunglasses back on.

Having remained quiet this whole time, Spike stepped forward so he was standing right beside Grif’s lawn chair. “These ponies are counting on you to make them ready for a big fight, and this is how you’re helping them?”

“Hi, I’m Grif. Nice to meet you!”

“You are un-fucking-believable,” Simmons sighed with a shake of his head.

“That’s not true,” said Spike as he turned to leave. “I believe Grif’s a lazy, good-for-nothing bum!”

Grif pointed angrily at the baby dragon as he left. “Your mom’s a good-for-nothing bum!”

“Nice try! I don’t have a mom!” Spike yelled back.

“Wow. Nice comeback. Fucking got ‘em!” Simmons deadpanned before leaving.

“Uh, were you talking to me or to him?” Grif asked.

Simmons hesitated for a moment. “Eh. Both!”

Picking up the pace, Simmons caught up with Spike. The two of them remained silent until the rear courtyard was out of sight.

“Now what do we do?” Simmons asked.

“I guess there’s only one person left who can talk some sense into that guy…” Spike answered.

The diverse group of beings inside the ancient temple looked around in confusion as a distant alarm sounded. The fact that it was somewhat muffled by the temple’s walls indicated the sound was coming from outside.

“Blarg?” Joey looked up at the ceiling, the alien giving his mandibles a few anxious clicks.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, her tail flicking as she looked up at the surrounding walls.

636 Rambling Frequency hovered down in front of her, coughing a few times before speaking. “It would seem Reclaimers and Sangheili positioned outside are in an uproar. Perhaps new development has them panicked?”

“What kind of development?” Tucker asked, rising to a standing position.

“Why, arrival of additional Reclaimers and ponies, of course!”

Rainbow Dash was on the move immediately. “Our friends are out there!” She raced for the main entrance to the temple and started pawing at the door like a dog that wanted to be let out into the yard. “C’mon! We need to get out there and help them!”

“What? And risk our asses for theirs?” Tucker asked. He seemed about to follow up with a proclamation of “Fuuuuck that!” when the door started opening with the hollow sound of shifting stone.

Everyone looked over to see Caboose standing beside the glowing, holographic button beside the central pillar. “I pushed the button. Any argument you have is invalid!”

Tucker looked at his old comrade and wondered for a moment if there was some profound sense of wisdom behind his actions and words. Perhaps Caboose was - in his own way - trying to tell them all that thinking and planning could only get one so far. Maybe he was trying to say that sometimes, you just had to take action and think about the consequences later.

“Fuck it. This is probably the best opportunity we’ll get!” Tucker drew his Battle Rifle, checking his hip to make sure his energy sword was within reach before charging out into the blinding brightness of the sandy desert followed by the rest. Tucker suddenly had the distinct feeling that an assault rifle was pointed at the back of his head.

“Caboose! Make sure you shoot at the enemy this time!”

It was at that point that Tucker began to reconsider the apparent wisdom in Caboose’s prior action. Perhaps Caboose simply liked pushing buttons.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Donut, and (by all outward appearances) Church all stood in a row along one of the walls of the ruins as CT, Smith and half a dozen other humans and Elites all pointed weapons at them. The alarm that they started when one of CT’s soldiers caught them wandering too close to the temple’s entrance was still blaring in the background. CT made a show of rubbing the bridge of the “nose” on his helmet.

“You four are just… fucking awful at following directions. How do you even exist?” he asked.

Applejack gave him a smile. “Whatever do ya mean, Mr. CT? All we did was go to the left like ya done told us to,” she said in a sugary sweet voice. Too sweet to be sincere.

“Yes. I also told you to stay within the camp!”

“Hey! It’s not our fault you didn’t specify where ‘in the camp’ ends, and ‘not in the camp’ begins!” Pinkie exclaimed.

CT made several noises that could be best described as “aneurisming” before rounding on Donut.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me!” Donut said. “I’m part of the original dig team, remember? I have access to all parts of the ruins! It’s just like having backstage passes!” Donut followed this statement up with a “Teehee.”

CT just sighed and looked over at Church. “You’ve been awfully quiet. What’s your excuse?”

Church made no response. He only stood there, still as a statue.

“Hey! Buddy! I’m talking to you!”

Church continued to stare straight ahead, not even acknowledging anyone else’s existence. CT looked to the others for an answer, but they only stared back.

“Hello? Anyone home?” CT asked, waving his hands as he stepped in front of Church. “Ground Control to Major Asshole!”

When Church didn’t so much as flinch at CT, the man in brown let out a furious growl and gave Church a light shove. CT took a step back in surprise when the still cobalt figure slowly tipped over and fell to the sand with a muted thump. Despite that, Church made no sound and remained stiff as a board.

Donut gasped. “What have you done?! You’ve killed him!”

CT turned to glare at the other three. “Okay. What’s going on here?” He raised his Battle Rifle. “You were sent to infiltrate us, weren’t you?”

Applejack let out a nervous laugh. “No need to get paranoid, now!”

It was at that moment that a deep rumble shook the ruins around them. The sound of stone shifting against stone alerted everyone to the fact that the temple door was rising. The humans muttered nervously amongst themselves as the Elites let out a few cautious blargs.

“Shit! They’re opening the temple!” CT glared at the pair of ponies and human in pink armor. “Jones: You and the others to the temple with me! Smith: Take care of these idiots!”

CT and his human squad ran for the temple. Smith on the other hand looked between their three captives and CT’s retreating form. To the group’s surprise, the purple Elite lowered his needle weapon and barked orders to the other Elites. Two of them turned and made for the Elite camp while Smith stalked after CT and his team, leaving only one of the big aliens to take care of the three trespassers.

He never got the chance, as he was hit by a blast of blue magic that knocked him off his feet. Rarity was running toward the group in full gallop, horn glowing. Church’s ghostly figure was right with her. The Elite she had knocked over started to get up with a low growl, but Donut promptly put a round from his Battle Rifle into the alien.

“Hey Rarity!” Donut exclaimed, waving to the unicorn as if he hadn’t just casually murdered an alien. “So... did you guys find anything in the Elephant?”

“Sorta…” Church said as he centered his body and climbed to his feet.

“Where’d CT and the others go?” Rarity asked as she caught her breath.

“CT made a break fer the temple,” Applejack explained. “As fer the rest of the aliens… I don’ rightly know where they went!”

Rarity nodded. “Alright. Let’s go find Rainbow Dash, then!”

It was around midday when a cream colored unicorn mare with a white collar and glasses approached Grif at the center of his luxuries and woke him from his nap. Grif shortly found himself following the attendant through the castle. It figured they would go to her about this. It was just like the times Grif had stolen lunch money from kids at school and they would go and tell the principal.

Soon, Grif arrived in front of a set of tall iron doors painted purple with a pair of guards standing on either side. The horns of the two golden armored ponies glowed and the doors opened themselves to admit the man in orange.

“Her Highness will see you now,” said the aide that brought him, gesturing for Grif to enter.

Grif did so cautiously and looked around. He wasn’t in a throne room, or even in the office he had been in last night. He was in a large dining room. A large, finely carved wooden table occupied the center of the large chamber and stretched all the way across its length. A shiny gold chandelier hung from the ceiling in the center. Paintings of various ponies Grif assumed were important historical figures adorned the walls.

The only other occupant of the room was seated at the table, cutting into a large circular cake with white and pink frosting. Princess Celestia wasn’t sitting at the head of the table like Grif had been expecting, but on the left side down at the far end. Regardless, Grif entered fully prepared to take whatever verbal lashing she would come up with. Grif had faced the wrath of principals, police officers and Sarge with uncaring snark and sarcasm. If this pony Princess thought she could get to him by chewing him out, she had another thing coming! But oddly enough, when Celestia looked up at Grif she simply smiled affably at him.

“Hello, Grif. Would you like to join me?” she asked, nodding at the seat across the table from her. “I just finished lunch and was about to dig into dessert. Would you like me to cut you a slice?”

Grif wasn’t one to turn down free food, but he was a little hesitant to answer. “Uh, sure?”

The heavy man thumped across the red carpet as he walked around the table to sit across from the regal pony Princess. Celestia asked him how big of a slice he wanted, and when Grif gestured with his hands, she gave a friendly laugh and commented about how his appetite for cake must have been as big as hers, and that that was saying something.

Grif knew what she was doing as he watched her use that freaky glowy magic to set the slice of cake down on a plate and slide it across the table in front of him. She was just playing nice to make him let his guard down before she tore into him. Grif let her know he was on to her by glaring at her through his helmet as he took a piece of his cake in his fork and brought up to his mouth.

“Don’t you want to take your helmet off, first?” Celestia asked with a chuckle.

“Don’t have to,” Grif answered and pointed to the lower part of his helmet. “Helmet waste disposal. Makes eating way more efficient!”

Celestia giggled some more as Grif inserted the piece of cake in an opening beneath his helmet and started chewing. The two of them just sat there and ate their cake. Occasionally Celestia would strike up a conversation by talking about the goings on of the castle, or by asking Grif about his time in Equestria. Not once did the Princess broach the topic of Grif shirking his duties, yet every time she opened her mouth Grif tensed up in anticipation.

After a particularly tense companionable silence, Grif couldn’t take it anymore. “Oh, just get on with it already!”

Celestia seemed genuinely surprised by his outburst. “Get on with what?”

“I know you didn’t summon me so we could eat cake together and talk about the weather! You’re going to yell at me for not taking this whole ‘training’ thing seriously!”

Celestia gave him a concerned look. “Now why would I do that?”

“I dunno. Because you’re mad that I’m not holding up my end of the bargain?” For some reason, actually saying it himself felt a lot worse than hearing Celestia say it could have been.

Celestia shook her head and looked at him sympathetically. “No, Grif. I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.”

Grif wasn’t sure why, but he felt more uneasy with Princess Celestia being disappointed with him than he would have been if she’d full on lost her temper. For some reason, the mild and calm pony Princess was more intimidating than all of the figures of authority who’d yelled at him throughout his life.

“It’s not just this one instance of indifference on your part that makes me sad, Grif,” Celestia continued. “I’ve spoken with your colleague Simmons. He’s told me all about the experiences you’ve shared over the years of your time on the Red Team.”

“Wait wait, all of our experiences? Because there are some things we swore never to speak about. What happens in the Warthog stays in the Warthog!”

Celestia simply continued, paying Grif’s outburst no mind. “From what I’ve gathered, every time you’ve been given opportunities to prove yourself, you’ve opted for apathy instead. You have great potential, so I must ask: Why?”

Grif shrugged. “I’unno.”

“See? Even in answering me now you continue to give the bare minimum. Isn’t there anything you strive for, or once strived for?”

Grif rubbed the back of his helmet. He was expecting to get chewed out, not have the way he lived his life put up for question.

“I… guess I wanted to open up my own taco stand back home in Hawaii…”

Celestia smiled brightly. “There you go! Even something as simple as that is still a good thing to work towards. Why did you want to open this taco stand?”

Grif sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know. I liked our community. I wanted to give something back. Make people happy, y’know?” Grif looked down and played with his thumbs. “But… then I learned that hard work and devotion can’t stop people from changing, so I figured: What’s the point?”

Celestia frowned. Grif hoped she wouldn’t ask for more details. He didn’t really feel like talking about her right now. Thankfully, the Princess didn’t press the matter.

“That isn’t true, and I think you know it. You have so much potential to do good. Both for me and for yourself. Why don’t you act on it?”

Grif was silent for a while. He wasn’t exactly sure why himself. He’d been avoiding work for as long as he could remember. Celestia saw potential in him, but he certainly didn’t.

“Can I ask you something?” Grif said, sitting upright in his chair. “What ‘potential’ do you see in me?” Grif gestured to himself. “I mean, look at me! I’m an overweight slob whose greatest ambition in life was opening a taco stand. How do you know there’s more to me than… this?”

Instead of answering right away, Celestia took another piece of cake on her fork and levitated the utensil in front of her face, idly studying the piece of pastry. “You know, it’s no secret amongst my ponies that I have a weakness for cake…” Celestia paused to put the piece she was studying in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before she continued. “Why, knowledge of my love for cake is so widespread that ponies started holding contests to see who could bake the cake that would steal my heart.”

Celestia smiled, and in that moment she no longer looked like the unyielding, timeless ruler of Equestria, but an old mare looking back on fond memories. “You should have seen some of the cakes ponies brought me. Triple-decker cakes. Quintuple-decker cakes. Cakes so big they couldn’t even fit through the castle doors. One group of bakers even created a giant statue of me made of cake and frosting!”

“Whoa… seriously?” Grif asked.

Celestia nodded. “Unfortunately, it didn’t taste very good. It wasn’t the worst cake I’d ever had, but it certainly didn’t steal my heart.”

“Did any of them?”

Celestia nodded and that nostalgic smile returned. “There was one humble old stallion from a small town who brought me a simple chocolate cake with strawberry and cream filling. Nothing special. It wasn’t even as big as this one we’re eating now. Next to its competition, it actually looked kind of pitiful. But when I took my first bite…”

Celestia’s mouth watered a little. “The texture was perfect! The cake was so soft and moist and the icing added the perfect touch of flavor without being overpowering…” Suddenly remembering herself, Celestia levitated a napkin and wiped her face. “To this day, I have yet to taste a better cake!”

Grif shifted in his seat and folded his arms. “Well, this is fucking fascinating and all, but are you going somewhere with this, or…?”

“Appearances can be deceiving. Things that don’t look like much can often surprise you! Sometimes, the best cakes are also the simplest.”

Suddenly understanding the intended message, Grif nodded. Despite this, he couldn’t stop himself from making one sarcastic remark. “This may come as a huge shock to you, but… I’m not a cake!”

Celestia responded by putting a hoof to her chest in mock surprise. “No! You aren’t? Truly? Well, I guess I’ll have to change my dessert plans for tonight!”

Grif couldn’t help but laugh, genuinely appreciating someone who could match him in sarcastic combat. Celestia laughed with him, and after a while the two of them sat in companionable silence. After some time, Celestia stood. It was only then that Grif noticed they had both finished their respective slices of cake.

“Well, I need to get back to work,” Celestia said, and all at once Grif remembered why he was here. “If you still don’t want to help my troops, I can arrange to have you transported back to Ponyville. Or anywhere else in Equestria for if you want. I hear Baltimare is nice this time of year!”

The doors opened for the Princess to exit, but before she left, she looked over her shoulder to get one last word in. “But do think about it before you decide, okay?”

Tucker and his companions dove into the cover of a small stone structure as rifle fire rained down on them. He had been counting on the fact that CT would run straight for the open temple to find the ancient weapon that didn’t even exist. Unfortunately, it seemed that whatever the man thought he was going to find, he believed that Tucker and the others had already taken it. Now about a dozen men in white armor were flanking their position.

“Ugh, this is stupid!” Tucker groaned as more bullets flew overhead.

“Hey! I resent that!” Caboose said. Joey blarged in agreement.

“No, I mean this guy is willing to kill us for an ancient weapon that doesn’t even fucking exist!”

The shooting suddenly stopped, and the high-pitched sound of a helmet voice amplifier took over.

“ATTENTION ASSHOLES!” CT’s voice boomed. “WE KNOW YOU HAVE THE ARTIFACT! JUST HAND IT OVER PEACEFULLY AND NO ONE GETS HURT!”

“Get fucked, CT!” Tucker shouted back.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash added. “We don’t have your stinkin’ artifact! There isn’t an artifact! That temple was emptier than Caboose’s head!”

“Ooh hoo, nice!” Tucker laughed, offering Rainbow his fist. She bumped it enthusiastically as Caboose sat there sullenly.

“NICE TRY! WE KNOW YOU’RE LYING!”

“You’re one to talk, CT!” Rainbow countered. The blue pegasus looked around and grumbled. If there was just a way to prove to CT what Rambling Frequency had told them…

“Wait, that’s it!” Rainbow exclaimed, her ears perking up. She looked over at the little Forerunner A.I. as it hovered in place between Joey and Caboose. “Hey Lightbulb! Why don’t you tell them there’s no weapon?”

636 bobbed in place and coughed a few times. “Oh. Yes! Of course!”

The Monitor floated out from the safety of the ruined structure and over to CT and his men. The line of soldiers lowered their weapons as they looked up at the A.I. in shock.

“Greetings. I am 636 Rambling Frequency. I am the Monitor of…”

“The artifact!” CT gasped. “Quick! Secure it, Jones!”

“On it!” The man beside CT said as he raised a small round device at 636. “Just so you know, my name’s not actually pronounced ‘Jones...’”

An impatient growl from CT caused Jones to drop the subject and carry on with his orders. The man fired a burst of electromagnetic energy at the Monitor and 636 went down in a coughing fit as sparks danced around him. CT stepped forward and picked up the offline Monitor.

Back in the cover of the ruins, Tucker and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance. “I think we might have made a mistake!”

“Men, take care of them!” CT ordered as he turned and made a hasty retreat with the Monitor in his grasp.

The soldiers under CT’s command continued to fire on the four figures taking cover in the ruined structure. Tucker returned fire with his own Battle Rifle when he could - his energy sword not suited for the open desert - but it did little to deter the enemy forces. Just as he started to think it would take a miracle to get out of this situation, he heard the sound of alien vehicle engines.

The Prowler that the Elites’ Phantom had dropped when they first attacked came hovering over the dunes, the Elite in the gunner’s position firing plasma at CT’s troops as it barreled through their ranks. Tucker just watched in stunned silence as CT’s men turned their attention from his group to the Elites.

“Why are the bad guys fighting the bad aliens?” Caboose asked.

“Looks like the friendship between the Elites and the Insurrection wasn’t meant to last,” Tucker said.

He figured this would happen sooner or later. The two factions only needed each other until they found the artifact. After that, their goals were completely different. He then realized that the confusion had created a golden opportunity.

“You guys wait here!” Tucker said, standing up.

“Wait, where are you going?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“After CT!”

Tucker left the safety of the ruins and ran across the open battlefield as bullets and plasma flew around him. Rainbow looked after Tucker and considered going with him, but realized that anyone else might draw attention. Without the use of her wings, it was too dangerous. Besides, Tucker was the soldier, not her. Rainbow was stirred from her thoughts at the sound of footsteps as several figures joined their spot within the ruined structure.

“Hey Church!” Caboose greeted the man in cobalt with no lack of enthusiasm.

“Hey Dashie!” Pinkie grinned widely and waved at her friend.

“Pinks! Wassup?”

“RD?” Applejack looked at the pegasus’ side. “What happened to yer wing?”

Rainbow Dash grinned proudly. “Got shot. And I didn’t even cry!”

Thankfully, no one pointed out how oddly specific that statement was. Though, Rarity glowered.

“Did that ruffian CT do that to you?” she asked.

“Actually, it was Caboose.”

“Psh! Join the fuckin’ club!” Church scoffed.

“What in tarnation’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked, taking a glance at the battle outside.

“CT has the artifact and Tucker’s going after him!” Rainbow answered.

“Which way?” Rarity suddenly asked.

Rainbow pointed out the direction both humans went. “That way. Why do you…? Rarity wait!”

The fashionista galloped full speed across the battlefield, paying the clashing humans and Elites no mind.

Tucker finally caught up with CT at the main campsite beneath the stone arches. The brown Insurrectionist was standing over the fresh corpse of Smith, the purple Elite’s blue blood staining the sand. To Tucker’s alarm, CT was by the last working Warthog left. Rambling Frequency was not in CT’s hands, but was presumably still in his possession. Once he was close enough, Tucker drew his energy sword and CT turned to face him.

“Hate to break it to you CT, but that thing you grabbed? It’s not a weapon!” Tucker tried to explain in the vain hope that CT would see reason.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” CT said. “I’m not after a weapon!”

“Then what the fuck are you after?”

“Just the information on that Monitor you and those idiots so generously gave me!” CT raised his Battle Rifle at Tucker. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m in a hurry!”

Tucker was having none of that, and charged straight at CT, bisecting him with his energy sword before the man even had time to react. At least, that’s what should have happened. Instead, Tucker’s sword passed right through CT as if he wasn’t even there, the Insurrectionist Leader’s image flickered and disappeared.

“What the…? Oh, son of a…” Tucker only had enough time to realize that he’d attacked a hologram before the real CT appeared beside him and hit him hard with the butt of his rifle. Tucker collapsed to the sand, unconscious.

“Well Tucker, it’s been a pleasure!” CT said before turning to enter his Warthog.

CT stopped as soon as he found his path obstructed by a furiously glaring white unicorn. Her head was lowered so her horn was pointing at him as it glowed dangerously with magic. Little did CT know, Rarity wasn’t in fact charging up an attack spell, but instead carefully placing an object in the back of his Warthog with her telekinesis.

“Well, if it isn’t the protégé!” CT took a threatening step toward her.

This time, Rarity didn’t back down. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but I’m not who you think I am!” CT stopped, and Rarity hardened her glare. “Now, it’s my turn to ask you a question, CT! What is it about that ‘Monitor’ thing that’s so important you had to kill everyone here?”

CT gave her a curious look. “I had to kill everyone here because they were Project Freelancer’s lackeys!”

“And good people!” Rarity countered. “But you still didn’t answer my question: What do you want with the Monitor?”

“That Monitor has information that will lead me to another Forerunner site!” CT answered. “Perhaps you’ve been there? It is on your homeworld, after all!”

Rarity tilted her head. “What?”

CT took full advantage of the unicorn’s lowered guard and charged towards her. Rarity just barely had enough time to come to her senses and fire a blast of offensive magic at CT. Unfortunately, CT was counting on this and her attack passed harmlessly through another hologram. The real deal was close behind, but Rarity didn’t have enough time to conjure another spell and received an armored foot across the face, sending her sprawling to the sand out of the path to CT’s Warthog.

“Apparently, there’s some pretty damning evidence against Project Freelancer there,” CT continued as he raised his rifle at the dazed and disoriented unicorn. “But as the Princess’ star pupil, you already know all about that, don’t you?”

Rarity didn’t even have time to realize she was about to die until she heard the gunshot. She jumped and shut her eyes in anticipation of the terrible pain, but surprisingly there wasn’t any. Certain she was dead, Rarity kept her eyes resolutely closed, unwilling to accept the reality of the situation.

Fortunately, reality was far less grim than she thought. Had Rarity been more knowledgeable of human weapons, she would have recognized the sound of the gunshot that just went off as that of a sniper rifle, and not the Battle Rifle in CT’s hands. Rarity opened her eyes just in time to see CT climbing into the driver’s seat of the Warthog. Another loud bang rang out as a sniper round hit the side-view mirror beside CT.

“Fuck! C’mon!” Church’s voice echoed across the desert. “That’s bullshit, I was aiming right at him!”

Rarity turned around and saw the man in cobalt running towards her position, sniper rifle raised. With him was Caboose, Donut, Rainbow Dash and all of the others racing as fast as they could to stop CT. Unfortunately, they were too late. Kicking up sand, CT’s Warthog pulled out and shrunk rapidly into the distance. He had to cross the minefield to escape, but it proved to be of little detriment. Between the fact that CT knew its layout and that many of the mines had been detonated prior gave CT a relatively easy escape. By the time Church and the others reached Tucker and Rarity, CT’s Warthog was a spec in the distance.

“Ugh… what happened?” Tucker groaned as he was helped to his feet by Caboose.

“I fought all of the aliens and saved the day. You don’t have to thank me!” Caboose said.

“I’m going to go ahead and not believe a word of that.”

“Yeah, you would say that.”

“Uh, Rarity?” Rainbow Dash asked as she helped Rarity to her hooves. “Did CT just get away with the Monitor?”

“I’m afraid so. But don’t worry, I can easily track him down!” Rarity answered.

“How?”

Rarity gave the pegasus a confident grin. “With the tracking enchantments on Spike’s ruby now sitting in the back of CT’s vehicle!”

Everyone smiled with a bit of relief. They were down, but they weren’t out yet!

“So… did that asshole just take off with our only ride out of here?” Church asked. The smiles all vanished.

Once again, Grif found himself looking at a formation of armored ponies as he stood out in the castle courtyard. The faces of the 10th Battalion were as stoic and unreadable as they had been when Grif first introduced himself that morning, only he sensed a lot more hostility in their looks now. Knowing he couldn’t stay silent forever, Grif took a breath before addressing them.

“Okay, people. Not gonna lie, we have a lot of ground to make up and not a lot of time to do so,” he said. “Fortunately, I’ve come up with a training exercise that should cover everything we need to cover about human military tactics.”

The idea had come to Grif as he reflected on his own life in the military, and then remembered something that Twilight had said back on the Mother of Invention. He glanced off to a pair of Equestrian flags he’d managed to find and mount on spears. Each flag depicted the same thing: a white winged unicorn and another dark blue one circling depictions of the sun and moon. The only difference between the two flags was the color of the backdrop: One was red, and another was blue.

“Everyone split into two teams!” Grif continued. “Red team will control the south courtyard, Blue will control this one! Your objective: Capture the other team’s flag!”

The ponies of 10th Battalion started gathering the red and blue cloaks Grif had gathered and placed by the flags.

“You’ll need to use cover and stealth to succeed. Oh yeah, and apparently, walking right up to the flag and asking to buy it works too!”

When both teams were ready, Grif started off the exercise. “Aaaand go!”

A cold shiver ran through Sarge’s entire body. “Huh… I jus’ got a really bad case of the heebie-jeebies! ‘S like Hell just froze over or something!”

“Es probablemente debido a que dejó de ser un idiota durante cinco segundos (It’s probably because you stopped being an idiot for a full five seconds),” Lopez grunted as he continued working on the ship’s ignition coil.

Ignoring them, Twilight entered the control room overlooking the hangar. It hadn’t been very long since they returned to the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility, and Lopez was hard at work fixing the Pelican’s ignition coil. Unable to remain idle, Sunny and Tex left to search for any information that could be useful. It was shortly later that FILSS addressed Twilight over the facility’s P.A. system, saying that Tex wanted to see her in the control room.

At first, Twilight had considered declining, but she ultimately decided it was for the best that she went. The alternative was to continue sitting around the hangar with Fluttershy as they watched Lopez’s exasperated attempts to get Sarge to stop making uninformed suggestions.

Not only that, but their recent encounter with Reynard, Mogar and their respective teams was still fresh in Twilight’s mind. Those two had apparently been enemies for a long time, but now they were working together quite effectively. It made Twilight think about her own relationship with a certain M.I.

She found Sunny sitting in front of a computer terminal in front of the window overlooking the hangar, with Tex’s avatar floating beside her. The white walls of the room were brightly lit.

“Hey, come here,” Sunny said, beckoning Twilight with a wave of her hoof. “Tex and I found something you might want to hear.”

Twilight trotted up to the computer terminal Sunny was in front of while Tex turned to look at the screen.

“FILSS picked up a distress signal. It’s a couple of days old, and pretty weak, but…” Tex addressed the facility A.I. “Go ahead and play it, FILSS!”

“Acknowledged.”

With a few beeps and a burst of static, the transmission played. “Come in Command! Command, do you read?”

“Does that voice sound familiar?” Tex asked.

Twilight raised a hoof to her chin. “I don’t know. For some reason it makes me feel like I need a shower…”

The message continued. “This is a distress call. Mayday, and all that shit! Why isn’t anyone answering?”

“Wait, that’s Tucker!” Twilight suddenly realized. She’d almost forgotten about the promiscuous soldier from Blood Gulch’s Blue Team. Probably because she wanted to.

“We found it. It’s in the sand! Send help now!”

Twilight was about to comment when the recording continued. A second voice appeared that Twilight recognized much more instantly. “Tucker! Watch out!” The high pitched whine of a ship’s engines rose up and a loud explosion cut off the recording.

“That was Rarity! She’s in trouble!” Twilight exclaimed. “Also, whatever caused that explosion might be a threat to her too!”

“FILSS, can you trace the origin of that transmission?” Tex asked.

“Easily,” FILSS replied.

Tex looked at Twilight. “Then as soon as Lopez has the ship repaired, we’ll make that our next stop.”

Twilight looked at the dark M.I. with a feeling she couldn’t quite describe. Before, Tex’s only interest in finding her friends had been to use as a diversion. Now that Reynard and Mogar were filling that role, Tex had no reason to find the others. They didn’t have the same experience with this world that she did. Twilight didn’t kid herself: aside from their ability to wield the Elements, they were a liability. Yet here Tex was, putting her mission on hold to find them.

“Hey, Tex?” Twilight asked as Sunny began making her way out of the room. When she stopped and allowed Tex to look back at her, Twilight continued. “Look, I… I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the things we talked about…”

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck and glanced at Sunny; the subject of one such discussion. “I still don’t entirely agree with all of the decisions you’ve made, but I think I’ve been a little unreasonable with you at times as well. We can’t beat Project Freelancer if we’re fighting amongst ourselves, so... I guess what I’m trying to say is… I’m going to trust you.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, kid,” Tex said. “I get it. You’re scared. All of this stuff was hard enough for me and the other Freelancers, and we were the best of the best. You’re not even a soldier. I can’t imagine what this has been like for you.”

With a nod, the two made their peace. It was an uneasy truce at best, but it was still something.

Captain Albert Donovan raised a closed fist, signaling the troops under his command to hold position as he surveyed the ruined castle. Donovan wore gray ODST armor, identical to the other soldiers of Project Freelancer save for the blue detail on his helmet and shoulder pads. He searched for any signs of hostiles in the ruined castle, but spotted nothing. So with a single hand gesture, he ordered his troops forward into the ruin.

“Spread out,” Donovan ordered in a calm, cold voice. “Search every room down to the last tile. But be cautious...”

Donovan had been told to expect hidden passages and plenty of secret areas in this place, as well as traps. He had to admit, the ancient castle gave off some uneasy vibes. Even with the overgrown stone walls crumbled to make way for the moonlight (which itself seemed unnaturally bright) the castle and the twisted forest that surrounded it was oppressively dark. As a high-ranking agent of Project Freelancer though, Captain Donovan was undeterred by the feelings of unease this entire alien planet brought on.

Stepping forward into the main hall, Donovan raised a hand to the side of his helmet and opened a secure radio channel. “Come in, Command. This is Recovery Six.”

“This is Command. Go ahead, Recovery Six,” the woman on the other side answered in a dead monotone.

“We’ve reached Site Bravo and have started our search,” Donovan took another look around at the decaying walls, “I doubt we’ll find anything here.”

“Don’t assume anything, Recovery Six.”

Donovan signed out, switched off his radio and sighed. He suspected this search of the castle would take all night before they at last swept it completely. Their search seemed to be getting more desperate as Project Freelancer continued on empty handed. His partner, Captain Jane Osgoode - also known by the designation Recovery Nine - had reportedly cleaned out the old facility in the North and found nothing. Though, she had reported the existence of a crystal city nearby that apparently hadn’t been there before. But it was too heavily populated by the equine locals to launch an effective search without getting discovered.

From what he’d heard, the other search teams have been equally as fruitless. Still, he would follow through with the search regardless of how much of a waste of time he considered it, lest he bring down the wrath of his superior back at base camp. That Freelancer was difficult enough to get along with as it was.

“Sir! We have a contact over here!” one of his men suddenly yelled from one of the side rooms.

Donovan motioned for several of his men to follow him as he sprinted for the room the man yelled from. They ran through the open doorway and found themselves in what was once the castle library. What bookshelves were still standing were covered in dust, and held as many spider webs as they did books. A dusty wooden reading table occupied the center of the room, and sitting on a chair with their back turned to them was the “contact,” with the man who reported it aiming his rifle at the equine figure.

It was definitely one of the planet’s locals: a curious race of alien that resembled small horse-like creatures. From what Donovan heard, they came in many different colors, and the one in front of him was no exception. The pony had a tan coat and a mane and tail of vivid red and yellow, reminding Donovan of a wild flame. A symbol of a stylized sun with the same red and yellow colors adorned the pony’s flank.

The creature had a dusty old tome in front of it, and seemed to have been calmly reading before Donovan’s men found it. It seemed unaware of the soldiers’ presence at first, but then it finished whatever it was reading, closed the book and turned in the chair to face them. By all appearances it appeared to be female, and she glared at the soldiers with cold cyan eyes full of intelligence. Donovan noticed the horn on her head and tightened his grip on his Battle Rifle, remembering what he’d learned in briefings about the capabilities of this particular subspecies.

“Lost something, have you?” the unicorn asked in a cold dark voice that reminded Donovan a bit of his own. The gathered troops all raised and cocked their weapons as the pony hopped out of her chair and onto all fours.

“Who are you? A scout?” Donovan asked sharply.

The pony smiled. “Oh, nothing like that! I’m not even military. I’m more of a ‘free agent.’” She then put a hoof to her chin in mock contemplation. “Now, what’s a good word for that? Hmm…”

What could she be getting at? She couldn’t possibly know who they were!

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Why, waiting for you guys of course!” the pony said, idly inspecting a hoof. “Though, I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping to meet with the Commanding Officer!”

Donovan raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? And what exactly do you want from me?”

The unicorn looked at him with mild surprise before answering. “Whoa, don’t flatter yourself there! I want to see your Commanding Officer, not you!”

Now Captain Donovan was just puzzled. Surely she couldn’t mean him?

“Sir, if I may?” One of his higher-ranking underlings addressed him. “Were our orders not to eliminate any locals who encounter us?”

“To keep their government from finding out about us, yes,” Donovan stated, looking over at the unicorn mare, who simply stood there, staring patiently at them. “However, it would appear that this one has prior knowledge of us…”

Donovan considered the situation with the strange pony a bit longer, during which time the mare began impatiently tapping her hoof. “I’ll call Command.”

At this, the mare sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright. If you won’t take me to your CO, I guess I’ll just bring your CO to me!”

The fiery unicorn’s horn started glowing and before Donovan could even react, a plume of fire shot forward and hit him square in the chest. Donovan was knocked off his feet and to his immediate alarm, the material beneath his breastplate was burning. Donovan frantically beat at the flames and he heard a familiar ringing play through his ears as his Recovery Beacon transmitted. Sure, he wasn’t a Freelancer Agent with his own A.I. and armor enhancement, but as a high ranking Recovery Agent he still had a beacon.

The response from Donovan’s troops was immediate, and they opened fire at the now hostile pony. She was one step ahead of them though, and disappeared in a flash of light immediately after casting her first spell. Donovan’s men ceased fire as soon as they realized their bullets were only hitting the table the pony had previously been sitting at. As the soldiers began scanning their immediate surroundings to find where the mare had disappeared to, Donovan rolled over and pushed himself up into a kneeling position. It was then that he saw his assailant standing calmly out the door in the front hall.

“There she is!” Donovan yelled, pointing out into the hall with one hand and clutching his burnt stomach with the other.

The soldiers turned around and made their way back out into the hall, but the hostile pony was already firing up her horn with another spell. The men in gray armor all raised their weapons only to see that they were glowing a vivid orange. The next moment, the soldiers all grunted in pain as they dropped their red hot weapons to the floor. The mare grinned at the now disarmed squad of soldiers.

“Oh, come on! There’s a dozen of you!” Donovan shouted. “A squad of trained soldiers should be able to take down one pony!”

Thoroughly emasculated, Donovan’s men charged forward, ready to take down the strange unicorn with their fists if that’s what it came down to. The unicorn didn’t let it come down to it, as she summoned a few fireballs around herself and launched them at the gray squad of soldiers in quick succession. After taking down the closest troops, the pony teleported away again, appearing in the center of the hall further down.

This time, the pony conjured up several icicles and sent them flying at the squad, felling a couple more of them. She followed up by summoning a much larger ball of flame above her head, but before she could hurl it at the remaining gray soldiers, the bang of a sniper rifle echoed through the castle as a thin line of smoke punctured the magical fire, dispersing it immediately. The shot came from the castle entrance. When Captain Donovan looked, he saw his superior standing there in his white armor, looking down the sights of a sniper rifle trained right on the pony.

“If you’ve ever wanted to know whether you can cast faster than a 114 millimeter anti-material round, now’s as good a time as any to find out!” Wyoming said in his stuffy British accent.

“You were the one who was always interested in comparing!” the pony retorted with a grin. “Males… some things are universal!”

Wyoming chuckled in response and oddly enough, the pony mare joined him. Wyoming lowered his sniper rifle and stepped into the castle proper, chuckling as he slung his weapon over his shoulder.

“It’s been too long, Wyoming!” the unicorn said, grinning mirthfully.

“Indeed, Sunset Shimmer. I’ve missed working with someone who appreciates my wit!”

Donovan looked on in confusion as Wyoming and this “Sunset Shimmer” approached each other amicably. How did this pony know his superior? At the sound of pained groans, Donovan, Sunset Shimmer and Wyoming all looked across the hall at Donovan’s men, who were all pulling themselves to their feet. They rubbed their various injuries as they approached Sunset Shimmer menacingly.

Wyoming looked over at Donovan. “You can tell your men to stand down, Captain. Lest you’d like to see them humiliated further?”

Donovan nodded and turned to face his troops, calling them off with a hand gesture. The gray armored soldiers turned away grumbling, carefully picking up their now significantly cooled down weapons to continue searching the castle. Captain Donovan decided to stick around in case Wyoming had new orders for him. That, and he didn’t trust the pony who was suddenly acting like his superior’s best friend.

Wyoming apparently wasn’t as concerned, as he reached up and removed his helmet, allowing Donovan a rare look at his superior’s face. Wyoming had a decently handsome face, its somewhat weathered features topped by a head of black hair that was starting to go gray. Adorning his lip was a great mustache of a similar hue.

“So, what are you doing in my neck of the woods?” Sunset Shimmer asked.

“Oh, you know. This. That. The other,” Wyoming said, tilting his head back and forth casually. “My current project is tracking down a ship carrying Freelancer assets that crashed on this planet some time ago.”

Donovan’s hand went to his rifle when he saw Sunset Shimmer’s horn start to glow again. But rather than launch another attack, she produced a brown envelope out of thin air.

“You mean the one that crashed near Dodge City?” she asked with a smile. “The Castle of the Two Sisters is pretty far away, don’t you think?”

She levitated it over to Wyoming, who removed the contents and looked them over.

“I took the liberty of conducting my own investigation at the crash site,” Sunset continued. “All of those ‘assets’ of yours are long gone. Either run off, or taken by something called ‘the Meta.’”

The papers in Wyoming’s hand suddenly disappeared, and Sunset Shimmer looked up at him with a conspiratory grin.

“But we both know why you’re really here, don’t we?”

Wyoming folded his arms. “Well, if you already know so much, perhaps you could tell us where to find what we’re looking for, eh?”

“Sorry. Can’t say I know where that is right now.” Sunset paced around Wyoming and Donovan as she looked away in thought. “I suppose there’s only one pony in all of Equestria who knows that, but I don’t think she’s going to be forthcoming with that information.”

Wyoming’s mustache flared as he grinned. Something told Donovan the man knew exactly who Sunset Shimmer was talking about.

“Had a change of heart, has she?” Wyoming chuckled. “I suppose the Director was right after all!”

“On that note, I was wondering if I could arrange to have a chat with him?”

Wyoming frowned. “The Director’s not had much time lately, I’m afraid. Not even for old friends, Sunset.”

Sunset Shimmer grinned up at Wyoming confidently. “I think he’ll want to hear what I have to say. Someone who can get information from a Princess has got to be worth his time!”

Wyoming grinned. “I get the feeling he won’t like whatever you’re planning to suggest!”

“Nope! But he’s a smart man. Once he realizes it’s the only way he’ll get what he wants, I’m sure he’ll see things my way!”

Author's Note

And with that, we only have one chapter left in Act 2!

Next time: The gang launches their assault on Command.

Act 2 Final Part - Broken Toy

The low, rumbling horn of the Elephant echoed across the desert sands as Behemoth rolled steadily forward. Church stood behind the controls of the driver’s cabin, and let out a groan as his pink co-pilot pushed the button to sound the horn for what was the tenth time that minute.

“Okay, that’s it! Pinkie, you’ve used up your cabin privileges for the rest of the of the trip!” Church said, pushing the pink pony off of the control panel.

Pinkie frowned. “Aw… Can’t I…?

“No.”

Pinkie hopped up and put a hoof around Church’s shoulder. “C’mon big guy!”

“No.”

“Buddy!”

“No.”

“Pal!”

“No.”

“Amigo!”

“No!”

“Compadre!”

“No! Get the fuck away from me!”

Down but not out, Pinkie trotted away to plan her next assault on Church’s cold exterior. Church was able to enjoy relative peace and quiet for a while as the Elephant slowly crawled forward. It seemed that all good things weren’t meant to last though, as Church heard footsteps behind him.

“Hey Church!” Tucker greeted in his eternally casual tone.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Oh, not much. Just trying to pass the time,” Tucker replied, leaning casually against the side of the cabin. “So uh, we’ve been traveling in this thing for a couple of hours now. How much farther do you think we have to go?”

Church shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ll tell you once we’ve actually left the ruins!”

Tucker glanced out the back of the Elephant. The sand-beaten temples were right beside them within walking distance. “Okay, I’ll admit it: Maybe trying to leave in a vehicle that moves slower than we can walk wasn’t a great idea.”

“Yep,” Church deadpanned, stopping the Elephant and stepping away from its controls. If there was one thing Church missed about hanging out with Tucker, it was rubbing it in his face when he was wrong. “Excellent plan, Sergeant. I can see why they picked you for the job!”

Church pushed past Tucker and stepped out onto the upper deck of the Elephant. The rest of the group was on the lower level. Donut was sitting against the wall on the side. Rarity leaned on him as she vented about recent events while Donut listened dutifully. Caboose sat opposite to them, drawing something with crayons. Pinkie Pie sat down beside him and joined in, turning Caboose’s art project into a collaboration. Somewhere directly below him, Church could hear Applejack and Rainbow Dash chatting amicably, each trying to one-up the other with tales of their respective adventures over the past few days.

Looking out across the vast expanse of sand, Church could see several figures at the other end of the ruins. The remaining Sangheili had elected to stay at the temples to see if they could find anything else worth salvaging. Although CT had killed their leader, the others seemed to be finding a new one in the form of Joey, one of Tucker’s allies from the original excavation team.

According to Tucker, Joey had told the other Sangheili highly embellished tales of his exploits, taking advantage of the fact that he was the only survivor of the first group of Elites. Tucker said it would work up until the other Elites saw him in action for themselves. Personally, Church was glad that they were leaving the “Caboose of aliens” behind; the human one was enough of a handful already. And now that he was reunited with that pink pony...

Tucker approached Church, not quite ready to let their latest argument drop. “Y’know, my idea may have been shitty, but at least I had an idea! How do you suggest we get out of a desert without any vehicles?”

Honestly, Church had no idea. “I say we just… sit tight and wait.”

“For what?” Tucker asked, spreading his arms disbelievingly. “We’re in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere! It’s not like a solution is just going to fly in and save us!”

“Church, look!” Caboose said as he and Pinkie walked up the ramp to meet him. “Spaceship!”

Caboose held up a crude crayon drawing of… something. “Caboose, that doesn’t look like a spaceship. Or anything that exists in our dimension.”

“That’s because it’s not a picture of a spaceship silly!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “We just wanted to show you our picture of an extra-dimensional energy being while we told you about the ship that’s flying toward us!”

One confused pause and a quick jog out of the Elephant later, Church and Tucker were standing at the edge of the ruins as a Pelican dropship flew in over the horizon. Before the pair of Blues knew it, the Pelican landed and the rear doors opened up, releasing the passengers within. A purple unicorn was the first to hop down onto the sand. After taking a moment to observe her surroundings, she noticed Church and smiled.

“Hello Church!” Twilight greeted, giving a quick wave of her hoof.

“Hey Twilight!” Church turned to address the aqua armored man beside him. “See, Tucker? Sometimes you just need to have faith!”

“... And then I bucked him right in the gonads an’ he fell backward into his own hole!” Applejack said, neatly wrapping up her story. The two members of Red Team sat around her with rapt attention.

“Wow! You’re a great storyteller, Applejack,” Donut said. “I feel like I was there!”

“Uh… you were there, Donut.”

“Hmph. Serves him right for soiling the good Red color with his barbaric tactics,” Sarge huffed. “He could’ve at least used regulation holes: Those have snakes in ‘em!”

Applejack let out a loud guffaw. “Oh, Sarge! Yer a real hoot an’ a half!”

“I wasn’t joking…”

As she watched the Reds and Applejack talk and laugh, Twilight had never been so happy to see her friends. At least, not since she first returned to Equestria. Throughout her entire time with Tex and the others, Twilight had fought back irrational fears that her friends had suffered a terrible fate on this unfamiliar and hostile world. To see all of them alive and alright (save for a few minor injuries) took a huge weight off her shoulders.

As the others all went to catch up with each other, Rarity approached Twilight with some unsettling information.

“So, let me get this straight… this CT guy mistook you for me?” Twilight asked once Rarity had finished catching her up on the events of the excavation site.

“Yes. Or at least, he mistook me for the Princess’s student,” Rarity said.

“Either way, that doesn’t change what he said about Princess Celestia.” Twilight didn’t believe it. She knew there were things the Princess wasn’t telling her, but there was no way Celestia would work with an organization like Project Freelancer.

Rarity must have noticed Twilight’s sudden change in mood, as she gave her a reassuring rub on the shoulder. “Hey, CT was wrong about who I was, wasn’t he? Maybe he’s wrong about Celestia as well!”

Twilight still had her doubts, but she smiled to alleviate Rarity’s concern. “Yes. Maybe you’re right!” Twilight took another look at the decaying ruins around them. “It’s a shame we can’t stay here for longer. I’d really like to examine these ruins!”

“You should talk to Rainbow Dash about that. She spent a good couple of days cooped up in there,” Rarity said.

As it happened, the pegasus in question was talking to Fluttershy a couple of paces away and overheard their conversation. “Oh yeah!... It was a’ight.”

“What was inside?” Twilight asked.

“Eh. Just an A.I. built by an ancient race that contained info about the creation of all known life in the universe.”

Twilight gave her head a few shakes. It sounded like a joke, but Rainbow Dash didn’t sound like she was being sarcastic. “R-really?” She looked at Rainbow with the desperation of a starving mare. “Where is it?”

“So, CT got away with the artifact then?” Tex’s voice caused Twilight to look in her direction. The tiny spectral figure was talking to Tucker while Sunny stood patiently on the sidelines.

“Did you at least try to pursue him?” Sunny asked, giving Tucker an unimpressed glare.

“Yeah. Fucker took the only jeep that wasn’t blown up!”

“This doesn’t make sense…” Tex muttered.

“Makes perfect sense. They just don’t make vehicles like they used to!” Tucker said. “Remember when we could shoot the Reds’ Warthog with our tank and it was always perfectly fine?”

“No, this doesn’t make sense because CT was killed years ago!”

A chorus of “What?” echoed between Tucker, Rainbow Dash and Rarity. A few seconds later, Caboose screamed “WHAT?”

“Are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked, eyeing Tex skeptically.

Tex returned Rainbow’s glare. “I saw to it personally.”

“Well, he looked pretty alive to me!”

Tex suddenly seemed confused. “He?” She looked away. “Interesting…”

“I, er… placed a makeshift tracking gem on his vehicle, so we can go after him whenever you’re ready!” Rarity said.

Tex considered this for a few moments before shaking her head. “No. Don’t forget the whole reason why we came here in the first place. Our priority is unlocking the Alpha.”

With that, Tex disappeared and Sunny began moving back toward the ship they arrived in. “We’ve already made all the necessary preparations for our assault. As soon as you’re ready, get on board. Next stop: Freelancer Command!”

Agent Washington slowly crawled along on his belly, surrounded by green stalks of ripening wheat. His Battle Rifle slung over his back, Washington’s HUD informed him that he had crawled almost three kilometers from where the sky-chariot had dropped him off. It had been two hours of slow, snail-like progress, but Washington’s objective was stealth, not speed. Washington checked his position on his HUD. The abandoned farm where the 10th, 8th and 12th Battalions were holed up was south of him about half a kilometer away.

In time, the wheat began to grow thinner, and Washington was able to get a clear view of the three battalions’ position. The ponies were holed up in a recently abandoned farm on the edge of the Unicorn Range west of Canterlot. On one end was the wheatfield Washington had just crossed, and on the other was the much more open field of grazing cattle that soon gave way to the mountain range itself. The Equestrian soldiers had set up a number of barricades around the property and were well entrenched with their crossbows. However, Washington had anticipated that.

The Freelancer took a moment to analyze their defenses. He could see six of the squad’s members from where he was in the wheatfield. Three were behind barricades in front of the barn facing him, another two were behind barricades facing east; they looked tired and restless. Lastly, Washington could see one pony with a scoped crossbow on top of the water tower on the western side of the farm. The tower had a good 360 degree view of the farm, but they made one crucial mistake: The pony had no spotter.

Washington reached for his helmet and opened a channel with his only two teammates. “Grif, Simmons. I’m in position. What’s your status?”

The sound of rustling interference and frustrated cursing was the initial reply. “Ugh… I hate hiking… I am living the rest of my life indoors after this!” Grif whined.

“What Grif means to say is that we’re in position and ready to start,” Simmons said.

Washington smiled. “Okay, you both know the plan. Execute in thirty.”

As he sat and waited for the pair of Reds to begin the attack from their respective positions south of the farm, Washington reflected on just how prepared their pony soldiers were. The mares and stallions of each squad were making incredible progress, their quick pace most likely credited to their years of prior service. They had learned both basic cover and stealth tactics as well as increased their crossbow marksmanship. By this point, most of them knew exactly which parts of standard issue human armor were most susceptible to damage and were able to hit them. What remained to be seen was whether they could do so in a real fight.

The live-fire training exercise they were doing today was meant to test just that. Washington had borrowed the idea for this particular exercise from one he’d read about in the notes of one of the UNSC’s most legendary Staff Sergeants. It seemed ironically fitting: the exercise was originally used to train a group of militia on Harvest to prepare them to defend against alien invaders. Now, Wash was putting it in practice to prepare a squad of aliens to defend against human invaders.

The exercise was especially tailored to train soldiers to fight defensively, as Wash predicted that the coming conflict would be a mix of that and guerrilla-style warfare. The rules were simple: it was the three squads of Equestrian soldiers versus Grif, Simmons, and Washington. The first side to eliminate half of the opposing team would be victorious. The pony battalions just had to “kill” any two of the attacking humans (which was technically more than half, but Washington didn’t count Grif and Simmons as full soldiers on their own), and the humans had to eliminate twenty four of the forty eight ponies. Though it seemed that the Equestrians had the advantage, Washington was used to facing uneven odds and coming out on top.

All of a sudden, the silence in the air was disrupted by the sounds of Battle Rifle fire as Grif and Simmons began the attack. The two Reds were in positions flanking the nearby herd of cattle. Their opening shots weren’t meant to inflict casualties so much as they were to startle the cows. As predicted, the panicked bovine stampeded away from Grif and Simmons straight towards the farm. Grif and Simmons were able to move up in the resulting confusion, positioning themselves to press the attack much more effectively.

As the majority of the entrenched ponies turned their attention to the Reds’ attack, Washington made his move. Rising from his position in the field of wheat, Wash took out the three ponies defending his side of the barn and they collapsed, covered in red liquid. It looked like blood, but it was actually a red adhesive designed to paralyze those it touched. A team of mages and alchemists had spent the better part of the preceding night crafting non-lethal projectiles similar to paintballs containing the red paralyzing potion. The pony battalions’ crossbows were similarly enchanted.

Washington looked around. As planned, the rest of the ponies holed up on the farm were too distracted by Grif and Simmons’ much louder assault to notice Washington’s little incursion… including the sniper on top of the water tower. The gray and yellow Freelancer kept his head low as he sprinted for the tower and began climbing the ladder. As he neared the top, he heard the pony marksmare exclaim “Yes!” in a half-whisper.

Grif’s voice then came in over the radio. “AAAh fuck! What got me?”

“A crossbow bolt,” Simmons helpfully informed.

“Thanks man,” Grif replied sarcastically.

So Grif was down already. The competitive part of Washington’s mind cursed, thinking the pair of Reds would last a little longer then that. The objective part of Wash’s mind then reminded him that this meant the soldiers were making loads of progress. Too bad it won’t be enough to win this exercise.

Washington reached the top, and found the sharpshooter lost in the world of her scope. Classic sniper’s mistake. Washington calmly tapped the mare on the shoulder. She had just enough time to look over and gasp before Wash put a paralyzing round into her back. Washington then got flat on his belly beside the paralyzed marksmare and surveyed the battlefield. This exercise would be over quickly.

With his new vantage point, Washington had a wealth of targets below, and all of them were still focused on Simmons. He noted that Grif and Simmons already had seven kills between them. Combined with his four, that put team human at eleven. Washington opened fire and took out an Equestrian near the back of their formation, and the rest started dropping like flies soon after. He had to admit, their defenses were pretty tight, but they were all facing away from him. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. By the time any of them would notice he’d taken their sniper’s nest, it would be too late.

At least, that’s what Washington thought before he heard the thrum of a crossbow very close to him. The bolt entered his left side just hard enough to penetrate his underarmor and break skin, but do no lasting damage otherwise. He felt his extremities start to go limp as they lost all feeling. Well, he was right about one thing: The exercise was over quickly.

Washington activated his helmet megaphone. “EXERCISE OVER! ALL SOLDIERS CEASE FIRE! REPEAT: ALL SOLDIERS CEASE FIRE! THE EQUESTRIAN TEAM IS VICTORIOUS!”

The cacophony of Battle Rifle and crossbow fire stopped, quickly replaced by the cheers of the three Equestrian battalions. As the medics began spreading out to administer the paralysis potion antidote, Washington tried to look around to figure out where the shot that hit him had come from. Based on the bolt’s position, it seemed like the shot came from above... but how was that possible?

An armored pegasus swooped down out of a cloud positioned a little ways above the farm and landed on the water tower beside him, reminding Washington of that ability unique to pegasi. The winged pony holstered his crossbow and smiled at Washington, who recognized the darker coated stallion as Lieutenant Tornado Kicker, the CO of the 10th. It was at that point that Washington finally realized what had happened: the obvious vantage point provided by the water tower was a trap. Kicker had counted on the fact that Washington would take the tower and was waiting in a nearby cloud.

As a pegasus medic swooped in to revive both Washington and the mare who had acted as bait, Lieutenant Kicker helped Wash to his feet. Although he had been defeated, Washington was filled with hope that these ponies were nearly ready to face Project Freelancer.

“Guess you guys owe us a round of cider, Agent Washington,” Kicker said with a smile.

Ah, yes. That had been the incentive for the ponies to win this little skirmish. Fortunately, Princess Celestia had provided him with plenty of resources to fund his training program. As Washington turned toward the ladder, a flash of green suddenly popped in front of him and a scroll appeared in the air. The Freelancer caught it before it started to fall and wasted no time in opening it.

“From the Princess?” Lieutenant Kicker asked.

Washington nodded as he read the contents of the letter. His breath caught as he proceeded to reread it.

“Looks like we’ll have to call a rain check on that cider. We have to get to Dodge City immediately,” Washington said. “Project Freelancer just made its first move.”

The interior of the Pelican shook roughly in accordance with the turbulence warning Tex broadcast from the cockpit. The six ponies and five humans occupying the Pelican’s rear bay sat on the seats lining the sides, safely strapped in by cage-like harnesses. Fluttershy clung to her own harness and whimpered.

“I don’t like flying…”

“Aren’t you, like, a pegasus?” Tucker asked from his seat across from her.

Fluttershy’s only response was more anxious, high-pitched muttering. Further down, Twilight was shaking along with the ship. Unlike Fluttershy, her anxiety didn’t have to do with flying. They were finally doing it. Their assault on Freelancer Central Command had been a long time coming, and Twilight felt no more prepared now than when she’d first dropped back onto Repertum with only Fluttershy and Sarge.

A large part of it was Tex. Twilight wanted to trust her more than anything, but with the details of her plan no clearer after all of this time, doubt still festered. As it happened, Twilight found herself seated next to Church, and she looked up at her old companion in cobalt armor.

“Hey, Church?” Twilight asked. Church looked over at her. “You know Tex better than anyone, right?”

“Yeah, I guess I know her inside and out,” Church then hastily turned to Tucker. “You shut the fuck up!”

“What? I didn’t say anything!”

“But you were gonna, weren’t you?”

“Eh, probably.”

“So, do you trust her?” Twilight asked, trying to remain on topic.

“Do I trust her?” Church scoffed. “Well, she did cheat on me and steal money from my wallet. And that was just when we were dating!”

Twilight frowned; he wasn’t making a good case for her so far.

“But…” Church continued, “she’s never steered me wrong before. Even when she did all of that stuff, she was at least honest with me about it. She was the best Freelancer in the program. If there’s anyone who can lead us on this crazy mission, it’s her.” Church paused. “Call me crazy, but... I trust her.”

Twilight nodded, feeling significantly better already. With Church’s endorsement, Twilight took a calming breath as she let out all of the nervous energy about the upcoming mission.

The icy wind of Sidewinder howled off the mountains as Tex stood beside the tree she had been tied to until just recently. Church, her “rescuer”, was with her. At first, Tex had thought that Omega (who now inhabited the body of that purple medic) had trapped her here to keep her from interfering with the scenario. With Church now standing in front of her though, Tex realized that this was just another part of it.

This latest scenario had been crafted by Gamma. It would seem the A.I. had figured out a way to make Church think he was trapped in a time loop. It suited Project Freelancer’s goals perfectly: Church would think that he had tried and failed to save his friends over and over again. They would make it seem as though he had as many chances as he needed to make things right, but the scenario was still designed for him to fail. The rest of the Reds and Blues were gathered in the center of Sidewinder at that very moment.

Church then took a heavy breath and turned to face her. “Tex, I recommend you get down there and try to defuse the bomb in Church’s stomach. I think you’re about the only one here that can do it.”

It was weird hearing Church refer to himself in the third person, but the thing standing down there with the Reds and Blues did look just like him. The Director must have used the synthetics from one of the Offsite Storage Facilities for this experiment. Tex turned away, preparing herself to once again try and stop the scenario. Preparing herself to once again fail.

“And Tex?” Church said, prompting the woman in black to once again look at him. “The one thing I didn’t realize before was this: Maybe I’m the last Church not because I fixed everything, but because I died and there’s no way I can come back…”

To Tex’s sudden alarm, Church spoke with no more of the harshness or dry cynicism that he usually did. He just sounded tired. Just like when she first found him in this damn place. But that didn’t hurt nearly as much as what he said next.

“And if that happens... I just want to let you know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got you mixed up in all this stupid stuff. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better guy than I should have been. I’m sorry for… well, for a lot of stuff…”

Tex was speechless. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had spent years trying to save him. No, failing to save him. Church continued to be subjected to their tortures for years after the project shut down, all because she wasn’t good enough. She owed him so much.

And here he was: Apologizing to her.

In that moment, Tex wanted nothing more than to tell him. To tell Church about everything she was trying to do. To tell him the truth about what he really was.

“But, if we do survive this, then it’s totally because of me, and you should build a fucking statue in my honor!”

And just like that, Church was himself again. Well, not his true self exactly, but the person the experiments have made him. With that, Tex started walking away, knowing that ultimately it was for the best.

“I’m serious! Somethin’ cool! Like me on a horse! No no no, wait! A motorcycle!”

Tex would never stop in her efforts to save him, no matter how many times she may fail. But in that moment she decided that as long as she lived, Church would never know the truth…

Tex forced the memories down like an especially strong drink. She had a mission to focus on, and no time to linger on more of her failures. Lopez was sitting in the pilot’s seat in front of her. Tex—or rather Sunny—sat in the copilot’s seat just above the Spanish robot.

A beeping sound drew Tex from her thoughts, and she looked up at the screen hanging above the copilot’s seat displaying the words “incoming transmission.” With some effort, Tex managed to reach up with Sunny’s short forelegs to open a channel with Command.

“We have you on our screen now, please identify yourself,” stated the cold female voice from Command.

“Command, this is Pelican Four-Seven Niner, requesting permission to land,” Tex replied calmly. She had outfitted the Pelican’s transponder with ID tags that Project Freelancer had used many years ago. She only hoped no one would notice.

“Four-Seven Niner, huh? That callsign brings back some memories…” the woman on the other end said nostalgically before apparently remembering where she was. “What’s your cargo, Four-Seven?”

“Provisions and med supplies.”

The other end was silent for a moment, and Tex held her breath. “Okay, you have clearance to land, Four-Seven. Airfield One.”

After thanking the woman on the other end, Tex cut off the transmission and proceeded to send a coded message.

Reynard looked up from the datapad in his hands with a smile under his helmet. He and his Blues were holed up inside one of the concrete bunkers overlooking the hot arid plains outside. As expected, Command brought them into their facility with little trouble. Reyard’s Blues were led into one of the many fortified bunkers on the surface, where a representative from Command was supposed to take them through the paperwork necessary for both their relocation and new equipment.

He never got the chance, as Reynard’s forces had promptly beat the crap out of him and fortified themselves within the bunker. Now, with the signal displaying on the datapad that Twilight had given him, Reynard looked out the window and across the plains to the bunker across from him. He took out his laser light and aimed carefully out the window to the other bunker before flashing it twice. Two more flashes from the other bunker signaled that Captain Mogar and his Red squad were ready.

With a quick hand signal, Reynard ordered all of his men to the windows, and each of them took aim at a passing Freelancer patrol.

When it was time, Reynard gave the signal. “LLLLLLLLLLLLLET’S KILL!”

Reynard’s Blues opened fire, joined by Mogar’s Reds across the way. The little Jersey soldier was so loud, Reynard could hear his scream of “START THE RUCKUS!” all the way from his own position. An alarm began to sound all across the facility as the Freelancer forces returned fire. Everything was going as planned. All they had to do now was hold out until Twilight and her companions got what they came here for.

Reynard suddenly noticed that one of his own men was not firing on the soldiers in gray. A particularly big blue soldier with a domed helmet stepped back from the rest of the squad as he pulled out some sort of large weapon with a big twisted bayonet attached. Reynard was about to ask the man why he wasn’t following orders when it occurred to him: He had no idea who this guy even was.

The big soldier’s blue armor shimmered and changed to white with brown detail, and before Captain Reynard Vaez Junior could react, he and his men were beset by an onslaught of explosions.

With frantic wide eyes, head researcher Quill looked at the few dozen aliens in gray armor all around her. The little beige pegasus stood on her hind legs and had her back pressed against the crashed spaceship, forelegs spread protectively. It was as if she was trying to cover the ship with as much of her little body as possible. One of her fellow researchers—Special Specs—and a single guard she didn’t know the name of flanked her, assuming defensive stances as the gray bipeds advanced, holding their weapons at them threateningly.

The rest of the Equestrian guards and researchers that had been stationed in the wooded clearing outside Dodge City had surrendered to the human force without a fight. They remembered how dangerous just one of these advanced armored creatures were, and didn’t like their chances against such a large number of them. They had at least managed to send a message to Canterlot via dragonfire, but Quill didn’t like the odds of the Princess responding in time.

Two soldiers wearing slightly different armor from the others stepped forward. One had red detail on its gray armor, while the other had blue. Quill swallowed and tried to stop her uncontrollable shaking, but couldn’t quite keep her lower lip from quivering.

“Hi there,” the soldier with red detail said in that calm, patronizing way one used to talk to foals. She was female, Quill realized, and she spoke with a slight accent she couldn’t identify. “I am Captain Osgoode, and that there is my partner Captain Donovan.”

Osgoode gestured to the soldier with blue detail on his armor, who made no sound or gesture save to stare at her menacingly.

“W-what do you w-want?” Quill then realized she forgot to tell them her own name, but was too terrified to rectify that.

“We just want you to stand aside so we can get to that ship,” Osgoode stated. “I don’t want to hurt you if we don’t have to, but make no mistake: We will do whatever is necessary to recover our property.”

Specs and the one guard looked back at Quill, and the head researcher could see the fear in their eyes. Nevertheless, she had already started her answer before she could think better of it.

“I c-can’t… I can’t just give up all of our research!”

“That ship and its contents belong to Project Freelancer,” Donovan said in a cold, dark voice before raising his weapon. “This is the last time we’ll ask you: Stand aside.”

Quill knew she should just do what he said. Her research was important, but it wasn’t worth getting killed over. So why couldn’t she move? She didn’t have much time to think about it as a loud bang rang out. Quill jumped, thinking for a moment she’d been shot, but then she saw one of the gray soldiers guarding the captives fall to the ground.

Suddenly, gunfire filled the clearing as the very confused gray soldiers dove for what little cover they could find. They started returning fire, but since they couldn’t see their attackers, they were just firing blindly into the woods all around them.

“What the hell is going on?! What are we dealing with?” Osgoode shouted over the noise.

“Everyone cease fire! Wait until you have a target!” Donovan commanded.

The rest of his troops obliged, and soon their mysterious attackers were the only ones shooting. Tracing the source of the gunfire, Donovan fired a single shot with his rifle. He didn’t appear to have hit his target, but the gunmen in the woods stopped firing and Quill was able to see a dark form retreating deeper into the brush.

“Wait here. I’ll find them!” Donovan said, standing up and gesturing for several of his men to follow him.

Soon, Donovan disappeared into the brush along with about half of the soldiers in the clearing. Osgoode gathered the remaining soldiers around her, and created a tight formation looking out at all sides. As the woman with red detail and her men scanned the treeline around them, Quill noticed a shadow fall over the group of gray soldiers. She looked up and saw that a large group of clouds were moving into position above the squad of Freelancer troops.

They resembled rainclouds, but what poured down on the Freelancer squad was not rain. Dozens of crossbow bolts rained down on the soldiers in gray, felling them quickly. Each bolt was carefully aimed at the openings of their armor. Captain Osgoode cursed and bolted out from beneath the cloud as her men fell around her, firing blindly into the cloud as she went. She got lucky, as a single pony in armor fell from the cloud wielding a crossbow.

Osgoode continued to the only point of cover that could protect her from an aerial attack: the ship. Osgoode knocked Quill aside and took cover beneath the ship’s “tail.” She waited under there for a while, swiveling constantly to see every possible avenue of attack. Osgoode froze as she spotted a figure emerge from the woods. It was another armored human, only this one was orange from head to toe. He did not appear armed, and Osgoode pointed her weapon at him.

“Who are you?!” she demanded.

“Who am I?” the orange man laughed in a lazy tone. “I’m Mr. Miyagi, bitch!”

Quill didn’t even have time to figure out what that could have meant before a pair of pegasi swooped out of nowhere, carrying what appeared to be a lawn chair. They flew in behind Osgoode, who was so fixated on the man in orange (Mr. Miyagi?) that she didn’t even notice until the two armored pegasi used the chair as a battering ram against Osgoode’s ankles. Osgoode fell backwards into the chair, and suddenly guardsponies started popping up everywhere.

Captain Osgoode tried to get up off the chair but was held down by two armored ponies as they started massaging her shoulders. She tried kicking with her feet but two more guards held and massaged them as well. Osgoode tried to reach her rifle, which she had dropped when she fell into the chair, but a guard took her hand and started trying to file her nails.

“Oh yeah! Go to sleep!” Mr. Miyagi exclaimed, as the orange man started to fill Captain Osgoode with red, paint-like pellets from his own rifle. “Go to sleep! Go to sleep…”

In a few moments, Captain Osgoode appeared to do just that, and her arms went limp. With the threat eliminated, the rest of the guardsponies flew down from the clouds above and began checking up on the guards and researchers that had been taken captive. A particularly tall, muscular stallion approached Quill to help her to her hooves.

“Are you okay, m’am?” he asked. He appeared to be an officer, if Quill remembered anything about how the Guard worked.

“I-I… uh…” Quill suddenly lost all ability to form words. Part of it was that she’d narrowly escaped the clutches of more of those humans. There was also the fact that she was currently looking at a handsome pony in armor and became suddenly aware that she was living out her fillyhood fantasy.

The handsome stallion took one look at her reddening face and grinned. “Yep. You’re good.” And with that, he moved on to check on the other researchers.

Another alien soldier emerged from the woods, this one wearing maroon armor. He stopped when he saw Osgoode lying unconscious on the lawn chair, and looked up at the man in orange as he approached him.

“See, Simmons? I told you it would be important!” Mr. Miyagi exclaimed.

The maroon soldier—Simmons—just stared at him in disbelief. “Wow. You potentially put the entire mission in jeopardy… just to prove me wrong? I have no words. No, wait! Yes I do: You’re a fucking moron!”

“Pfft… you’re just mad that I made it work.”

“You’re not wrong, but my point remains valid!”

Deciding she wanted answers, Quill decided to approach the apparent orchestrator of this rescue and tapped him on the back. “Excuse me, Mr. Miyagi?” The man in question turned and looked down at her. “What exactly is going on?”

For a reason beyond Quill’s comprehension, Mr. Miyagi just started laughing and the one called Simmons facepalmed. When Quill tried to get Mr. Miyagi’s attention, it only made him laugh harder. Quill eventually accepted that she would never fully understand what exactly had happened on this day, but she would nevertheless remain forever thankful to Mr. Miyagi.

As alarms continued to go off, the pair of Project Freelancer soldiers simply carried on with their day as they drove the troop transport Warthog across the tarmac where the Pelican touched down. According to the announcements, two groups of sim troopers had gone rogue and had started shooting up the central compound after having fortified two of Command’s own bunkers. Response teams had already been dispatched to deal with the situation, so the two soldiers didn’t worry about it as they pulled their Warthog up behind the Pelican and hopped out in preparation for whatever was inside. It was strange: this airfield rarely got any use anymore. Most of the routine shipments simply used Airfield One.

The rear bay of the Pelican suddenly opened, and the two gray soldiers were greeted by a group of about a dozen colorful figures. Even more surprising, six of them appeared to be small equines. Suffice to say, the two men were not equipped physically or mentally for the sudden onslaught of color and pain as all eleven of the Pelican’s passengers jumped at them yelling various battle cries. In short order, the two Freelancer soldiers were tied up and tucked away, after which they would spend the rest of their lives wondering what the events of the day had really been about and if they had even happened at all.

“Lopez, you stay with the ship,” Tex ordered as Sunny exited the cockpit carrying the green duffel bag she brought from the Offsite Facility. “Depending on how this goes, we may need to take off relatively quickly once we’re done.”

Lopez gave a Spanish affirmative from the cockpit before grumbling something sarcastic as Sunny and Tex joined the others outside the ship.

“Okay, everyone hop in!” Tex declared as Sunny climbed into the passenger seat. “Church, you drive.”

Soon enough, the packed Warthog was driving down the expanse of pavement toward the large hangar at the end of the tarmac. As they got closer, Church noticed that the entrance to the hangar was blocked by a chain-link fence. He looked around, but Church didn’t see any way in. After presenting this problem to Tex, she simply instructed him to keep going, and suggested he floor it.

The Warthog abruptly lurched forward as it impacted on the chain-link. The fence gave way for the speeding jeep instantly, and Church had to slam on the brakes as they ran out of space faster than he thought they would. It wasn’t quite enough to stop them from crashing into a large green crate.

“Ow. Ah, I think I just got whiplash,” Caboose moaned, rubbing the back of his head once they were stopped. “Oh man, that really hurts.”

“Ooh, me too!” Pinkie exclaimed, rubbing her tummy. “Wait, is it possible to get stomach whiplash? Because I think I’ve had that all afternoon!” Pinkie’s stomach groaned to confirm this.

“Pinkie, I think you’re just hungry,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh yeah. You’re so smart, Dashie!”

The ponies and humans all climbed out of the jeep and took a look around at their surroundings. Alarms filled the vast space in likely response to the diversion Captains Reynard and Mogar were making. Additionally, automated announcements chimed in over the public-address system, as a woman’s voice calmly reminded them that the white zone was for loading and unloading only.

Right away, Church noticed something odd about the hangar. Namely that there wasn’t room for any aircraft. Structures complete with ramps and waist-high cover filled the hangar completely. The presence of more strategically placed crates and a few walls that seemed to serve no other purpose than for someone to hide behind made Church wonder.

“Tex, this isn’t really a hangar, is it?”

“It was, but it got converted to a training facility for the program’s soldiers to use for live-fire exercises,” Tex answered. “Since it’s no longer an active airfield, it’s significantly less protected.”

“Wait, but what if there had been a training exercise right now?” Twilight asked, looking at Tex skeptically. Church got the feeling that the little unicorn didn’t like her very much. “Unless you have a schedule for Project Freelancer’s daily training exercises, coming in this way was really risky!”

“That was why I wanted someone to create a diversion elsewhere in the facility,” Tex said. “Whenever there’s an emergency, protocol is to cancel any ongoing training exercises, making this the ideal entry point,” Tex’s avatar turned around. “Now come on!”

Before moving forward, Sunny took something out of the green duffel bag across her back and placed it on the wall. After pressing a few buttons, a red light started blinking on the device. Church, Twilight and the others then followed Tex and Sunny as they led the large colorful group up various ramps to the back of the training facility. Soon the group found themselves being led through a maze of identical hallways made of the same drab metal and concrete. Under Tex’s influence, Sunny knocked out any Freelancer patrols they encountered. It seemed that they were going deeper and deeper underground. Just when Church had thought they’d reached the lowest level of the facility, Tex led them to more stairs leading even further down.

Eventually, the group arrived in a room that was empty save for a few mundane pieces of furniture and three large screens that dominated the far walls. The screens currently displayed security footage of the breach caused by Reynard and Mogar up on the surface.

“Okay, this will be the staging point for the rest of our operation,” Tex explained once the whole group was gathered.

“Really? This dead end room with no other exits?” Tucker asked.

Sunny rolled her eyes. “Pssh. You are in no position to lecture us in strategy.”

Tucker raised his middle finger. “Hey! Up yours, pony girl!”

“Wow. I might actually feel insulted if I wasn’t significantly better than you at being a soldier!”

Tucker took a step toward the white pony. “Ooh-ho is that a challenge? Because I have an energy sword that begs to differ!”

Sunny matched Tucker with a forward stance of her own. “And we have an escaped Insurrectionist leader that begs to agree!”

Tex’s avatar flashed between them. “Both of you stand down!” The pony and the human turned away from each other. “Now, Church and I are going in alone from here.”

Twilight was immediately suspicious and looked over at Tex. “Why?”

“Because the inner facilities have much tighter security, and it will be easier with fewer people.”

Twilight was still not convinced. “So take me with you instead! My magic should be able to get us through anything.”

“Sorry, but unless you can leave your physical body and possess others, I’m afraid you won’t be of much help,” Tex said. “The best approach to this is stealth, which can be best achieved with my and Church’s… unique abilities.”

Twilight still felt uneasy about this, and looked back and forth from Tex to Church with steadily wilting ears.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Church said impatiently. “Eesh, you’re worse than my mother!”

Tex’s transparent figure floated to the door. “You all stay here and keep an eye on things. Let us know if Command is alerted to our presence and be ready to create a distraction.”

“Okay. Bye Church! Bye Tex!” Caboose said. “Be sure to take lots of pictures!”

And with that, Church and Tex were gone. To Twilight’s surprise, when Tex said that she and Church were going alone, she really meant it. Sunny remained behind in the room with the rest of them and took a huge breath as if coming up for air. Twilight just stared after Church and Tex, a pit of worry forming in her stomach. She was so fixated on her trepidation that she didn’t even notice the pony beside her until she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight found herself looking into the concerned green eyes of Applejack.

“Everything alright, sugarcube?”

Twilight tried to force a smile. “Yep. No problems! Totally nothing wrong!”

Applejack gave her a look that clearly indicated she wasn’t buying it. Rainbow Dash joined her.

“Why were you so adamant about going in Church’s place?” She asked.

Twilight looked away in an attempt to escape the pair’s concerned looks, only to find herself facing those of the rest of her friends. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all gathered around her, wordlessly telling Twilight they were there for her. With a sigh, Twilight relented.

“The day we arrived on this planet, I found something inside a hidden Freelancer facility,” she explained. “It’s about Church. He’s at the center of all this. I don’t know how, but I think Tex does. I told her I’d trust her, but now that we’re here and she’s taking him into the bowels of the facility alone…”

“You’re worried about your friend,” Rarity finished. Twilight nodded.

“Well, um, I know if it was any of you in Church’s place, I would do whatever it takes to make sure they’re okay,” Fluttershy said. “Even if it would be really, really scary.”

“Look, I spent a lot of time with Church over the last couple of days…” Applejack started.

“Ooh! Me too!” Pinkie Pie interrupted with a bounce. “I tried to make him laugh and he told me to shut up a lot!” Pinkie sighed nostalgically. “Good times…”

“I’ll admit, there’s a lot about Church that I plumb don’t like,” Applejack continued, “but he ain’t a bad guy. I don’ want anything bad to happen to him anymore than you do.”

Applejack peeked across the room over her shoulder where Sunny sat in place, calmly watching them, ready to enforce Tex’s orders if need be. Applejack turned back to Twilight and spoke quietly.

“The girls an’ I can keep Tex’s pony-puppet distracted. You jus’ get to yer friend!”

Twilight smiled, this time not needing to force it. “Thanks girls.”

With that, Applejack turned and approached Sunny, putting a friendly foreleg around the armored pony and nonchalantly steering her away from the direction of the room’s entrance.

“Sunny! Listen, as long as we ain’t doin’ anything, I thought we’d have a little chat. Farmpony to farmpony. Exchange notes, ya know?”

“Hey, Sunny!” Rainbow Dash ran around in front of both ponies. “I bet you can’t do this!” Rainbow Dash proceeded to stick her entire right hoof into her mouth and her left hoof into her ear. She then wriggled both appendages around. “Ishn’t thish cool?”

“That’s easy. I do that all the time,” Caboose stated.

Sunny seemed about to reply when her vision was suddenly obscured by a white cloth being tied around her head.

“Hey Sunny! On a scale of one to ten, can you tell me how much you can’t see?” Pinkie asked. “I wanna make sure there’s absolutely no cheating next Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Pony!”

Sarge, Tucker and Donut looked on with amusement and some befuddlement as the five ponies all vied for Sunny’s attention. At that point, Twilight was already gone. The purple unicorn briskly made her way down the halls of Freelancer Command. Now that she was so close to Command’s inner facilities, the way was much more straight forward. Also, it was fairly easy to follow the trail of knocked out soldiers to Church and Tex’s destination.

After descending another flight of stairs, Twilight found herself in front of a thick steel door that looked nigh-impenetrable… were it not for the fact that it was already ajar. Two more Freelancer soldiers lay still on the floor on either side. Twilight carefully stepped past the inert gray forms and reached for the door.

The next hallway emptied out into a vast chamber made of shining metal and glowing blue lines. Right away, Twilight was reminded of the inner laboratory of the Offsite Storage Facility: the place she found the copies of Church. Like before, the room was cold, and Twilight was filled with a general sense of foreboding.

This time, something made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It made her think of when she first explored the ship in Dodge City at the beginning of all this. She had felt Gamma’s gaze on her then. Now, the feeling was like that but a dozen times over. Twilight looked around at the walls. They were filled with evenly spaced alcoves that held hundreds of holographic symbols. Looking at them gave Twilight chills.

Then she heard something. Voices. Dozens of whispering voices floated around her. Twilight couldn’t make out the words, but she was fairly certain it was the Freelancer A.I.s. Whether they were whispering to each other or to her Twilight couldn’t say, but it was clear she had made it to the A.I. storage facility. Twilight pressed on and tried to ignore the voices and the cold chills running down her spine. Soon, a familiar voice joined the others.

“Church! Get over here!” Tex’s voice echoed through the chamber. She wasn’t too far away. “It’s here!”

Twilight heard Church’s voice next. “Oh, nice. You found it alread-AH! AUGH!”

Church’s agonized scream stopped Twilight in her tracks.

“Church? Are you okay?” Tex’s voice sounded uncharacteristically vulnerable.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had, like, a weird flash-AUGH!” At Church’s next scream, Twilight galloped as quickly as she could to their location. “Yeah, I think it’s this thing. It’s, like, sending out images to me…”

Twilight skidded to a stop a few feet away from the two figures. Tex appeared to be inhabiting the body of a gray Freelancer soldier, and was currently crouched doing something with the holographic storage in the wall. Church was in his own body, gripping his sniper rifle tightly. Twilight quietly ducked into the shadows, deciding it would be best not to be seen for the time being.

“Is this the Alpha?” Church asked.

“No Church. This isn’t the Alpha,” Tex said as she used her hijacked body to pull something out of the wall. It was a rounded, cone shaped object comprised of a purple metal with glowing blue lines. “This was Washington’s A.I. before it tried to kill itself. This is Epsilon.”

Captain Donovan looked around at the armored ponies that surrounded him and what remained of his squad. He still wasn’t quite sure how it happened. At first, he was chasing his squad’s mysterious ambusher through the woods near the crash site. The chase had in turn led them right into another ambush. A squad of guardsponies had been waiting on top of a hill overlooking the plains that Donovan had been led to.

The following battle had been tough. The ponies proved to be much more effective in combat than Donovan had anticipated. They had succeeded in landing hits with their enchanted crossbows on all of the open areas on his troops’ armor. Some of his men became frozen in ice, others became engulfed in flames. It took some time and one particularly bloody push to finally force the ponies from their high ground.

Donovan believed the battle to have been over once his men controlled the hill. Turned out, the Equestrians had planned for that as well. Pegasus ponies rained more enchanted arrows down from the clouds above, and the rest of the ground ponies had regrouped and surrounded them. Now, Donovan found himself at their mercy. Well, this wasn’t exactly how I expected this to go, but the Shimmer pony’s plan will move forward regardless.

It was then that another human soldier pushed his way through the squad of military ponies; the mysterious attacker who had led them into this trap in the first place. Right away, Donovan recognized the dark gray armor and yellow detail.

“Well, well. Agent Washington. I guess the rumors about you are true: you’ve betrayed us!” Donovan said venomously. “Now that you’re no longer a part of this program, I wonder if they’ll give me your old designation. Recovery One has a better ring than Recovery Six, don’t you think?”

“That’s only if you live long enough to get the promotion,” Washington stated, putting a fresh mag into his BR. “Now, what was it you’re trying to find here? Is it the Gamma A.I.? Omega? Because I can safely say that neither is on this planet anymore.”

“Oh, we’re not actually here for anything that Pelican was carrying.”

Washington raised his rifle. So the other rumors about him were true: he didn’t like to waste time. “Oh really? Then what were you doing trying to gain access to it?”

“Truthfully? We were just trying to get the Princess’s attention.” The guardsponies exchanged uneasy glances as Donovan reached into a compartment on the back of his armor and pulled out a datapad. “I have instructions to ensure that this gets delivered to her as soon as possible.”

Washington took the datapad from Donovan’s hands and carefully inspected it. Prudent, Donovan noted, but unnecessary. Once Washington deemed it posed no danger, he handed it off to one of the pegasus ponies under his employ.

“Deliver it to Canterlot at once,” Washington ordered. The winged equine took the device in his mouth and, with a nod, took wing. “What exactly is her Highness going to find on that datapad?” Washington asked as he watched the pegasus disappear over the horizon.

“A message,” Donovan answered. “Now, I suggest you let my men and I go.”

Washington turned back to Donovan and took a step toward him. “And just why would we do that?”

“Many ponies’ lives may depend on it.”

“Hmm…” Sarge grumbled as he looked over the myriad of computers in the control room the group was waiting in.

“What’s up, Sarge?” Donut asked.

“Oh, nothing Donut. Just wishing Simmons were here,” Sarge answered, taking a look at a console labelled “Database.” “I just had a brilliant idea, but can’t really do much with it without Simmons’ technical know-how.”

While Sarge went on about another of his half-baked ideas (this one involving “erasing the Blues”), Fluttershy looked over at Sunny. The military mare was sitting in place, watching the room’s only entrance. She was as still as a statue, and her face was about as expressive as one. While Fluttershy was generally pretty intimidated by the pony (especially when Tex was controlling her), Fluttershy had started to feel bad for the poor mare in recent days.

Fluttershy remembered the night they had camped out on their way to Blood Gulch. She remembered the argument Twilight and Tex had. The two had thought Fluttershy was asleep through it all, but the little pegasus had heard every word. Looking at Sunny now, Fluttershy knew that the soldier’s cold, stoic demeanor was just a mask. That deep inside, the once perky pony was suffering terribly. What was worse, she was all alone.

Sure, Sunny was sharing her mind with Tex, but the M.I. had her own goals. Looking around the room, Fluttershy noticed nobody was talking to or even standing close to Sunny. The Reds and Blues were keeping to themselves, and the rest of Fluttershy’s friends kept to their group and occasionally the friends they’d made among the human soldiers. Sunny’s connection to Tex alienated her from the other ponies, and her own status as a pony alienated her from the humans (though, her connection to Tex could also have contributed).

Fluttershy knew what it was like to be all alone with nothing but one’s own misery to keep one company. That had been most of her school years. It was for that reason that Fluttershy mustered up her courage and began to approach the white mare.

“H-hello, Sunny,” Fluttershy greeted, triumphing over her own instinct to disappear into the background as she stiffly sat in place beside Sunny.

“Fluttershy,” Sunny barely regarded her as she kept her vigilant watch.

Fluttershy really didn’t have a plan beyond that point. “So, um… how are you?”

Sunny paused to carefully measure her answer. “As well as one can be in the middle of an operation behind enemy lines.”

“Okay. Um, that’s good,” Fluttershy smiled awkwardly. “So… how have you been sleeping?”

Sunny stiffened, and for the first time during their conversation she turned to look at Fluttershy when she whipped her head around and glared at her with barely contained fury. “None of your business!” She all but growled through gritted teeth.

Fluttershy immediately wilted under the mare’s wild glare. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I’ll just…” Fluttershy crouched low to the ground and started to shuffle backwards.

Sunny sighed, raised a hoof to her forehead and shut her eyes. “No, no. It’s okay, it was an innocent question. I shouldn’t have lashed out like that. Sorry.”

Carefully peeking out from behind her mane, Fluttershy rose to her hooves and looked at the now significantly less threatening mare in armor.

“You’re not a very social pony, are you?” Sunny asked. Fluttershy tried to smile as she shook her head. “You must have had some reason to come and talk to me then. What’s on your mind?”

You’re suffering from PTSD and shouldn’t be out here with us. Fluttershy decided not to tell her what exactly was on her mind. Still, she couldn’t help but think about something Tex had said in her argument with Twilight on the subject.

“Can I ask you a question?” Fluttershy asked.

“You mean aside from that one?” Sunny grinned. It was good to see she had some humor left.

“Why are you here? What made you decide to come along?”

Sunny shrugged. “Same reason most people join the army, I guess. I’ve got something at home I want to protect,” Sunny said.

Fluttershy fidgeted her hooves. “Do you ever wonder that… maybe… you didn’t make the right choice?”

Sunny eyed Fluttershy briefly. “How about you? Why are you here?”

“Well, at first, it was because my friends were going, and I wanted to do what I could to support them.” Fluttershy glanced down at the dog tags around her neck, and looked up again before she had the chance to read the name on them. “Now, though… let’s just say I have my own reasons for wanting to make sure this program is stopped.”

Looking at the chain around Fluttershy’s neck, Sunny nodded. “They hurt someone close to you?”

Fluttershy wasn’t really sure that he merited “close.” Still, she liked him well enough, so she answered with a nod of her own.

“Same with me. And Tex,” Sunny said. “As much as protecting my family back home—or what’s left of it—is important to me, I’m not gonna lie: a big part of why I’m here is that I want to see Project Freelancer pay for the terrible things they’ve done. If I can just do that, then maybe my friends and my dad didn’t die for nothing.”

“Um… no offense, but I don’t think revenge for its own sake is really a good reason to do something,” Fluttershy said. “Have you ever thought that maybe… staying at home with your family is… well, the better choice?”

Sunny glanced over at the armored humans in the room and snorted. “I don’t know. If I don’t do something to stop this program, who will? Them?”

“What?! Hey, fuck you lady!” To the two mares’ surprise, the man in aqua armor turned away from Caboose and approached them. According to Twilight, his name was Tucker. Fluttershy didn’t know much about him other than Rarity didn’t like him and Rainbow Dash thought he was kinda cool.

“Um… were you… listening to our conversation?” Fluttershy asked, hoping that her annoyance with the man’s eavesdropping was being conveyed in the way her voice trembled as she avoided eye contact.

“Hey, it was either that or listen to Caboose tell me about his favorite flavors of ice cream,” Tucker said.

“Cinnamon swirl, chocolate marshmallow…” Caboose droned on from the side of the room.

“Anyway, you in particular have been nothing but a bitch since we first met.”

“Is it because I won’t sleep with you?” At Tucker’s confused stare, Sunny just gestured to her own head. “I shared a mind with Tex, remember? You’d be surprised at what I know about you… Dr. Fuck!”

“Okay, first of all: EW! I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but you ponies do not do it for me in the slightest,” Tucker said. “Second of all, this Fluttershy chick has been raising a pretty good point. I’m here because I pretty much have no choice at this point. Am I really supposed to believe that you had the choice between staying at home with your family and going out here to fight and die... and you chose this?”

“Of course!” Sunny exclaimed. “I want to make sure that when my little sister wakes up, she actually has an Equestria to live in. If you had a family, and not just a bunch of one-night stands, you’d understand.”

“I do understand!” Tucker yelled before growing quieter. “I have a son. After Blood Gulch, I could have just left the army to go raise him. I could still have taken that “alien ambassador” gig without serving in the field. But… I dunno. I guess I just liked the adventure. It keeps me in shape, and gives me the opportunity to impress chicks with my awesome skills.

“But of course, I can’t serve in the field and raise Junior at the same time, which sucks because… I actually wanted to try being a dad. Don’t get me wrong, I still like being out here… more or less, but I kinda feel like I’m missing out on Junior’s life!”

Sunny just stared at Tucker blankly. She had no retort. Fluttershy looked at her face, and for the first time, she didn’t see the stoic soldier. The hurting filly’s mask was slipping. Fluttershy put a tentative hoof on Sunny’s shoulder.

“What I’ve been trying to say all this time is… maybe your family doesn’t need you risking your life out here. Maybe they need you safe and sound at home.”

Sunny grew more and more distant as more of her mask slipped away. After a long time in which the only sounds were the hum of computers and the muted conversations of the others, Sunny looked up at Tucker. “Thanks. Both of you. You’ve given me a lot to think about…”

Tex looked around. It was strange, coming from Equestria’s bright, colorful landscape to this place in such a small amount of time. Like going from a really hot place to a cold one. And this place certainly looked cold. It was fitting, considering whose mindscape she was in. Frost and icicles clung to the orderly metal walls around her.

Tex simply started making her way through the complex, hoping to find the owner of this place quickly. She left the cold metal building and found herself on a field of snow. Feeling like she was heading in the right direction, Tex pressed on across the expanse of white. It wasn’t long before she spotted something in the distance: a speck of cobalt blue. Tex ran to it and a horrible sense of familiarity surfaced when she got a good look at the inert cobalt armored figure lying in the snow. He appeared to be glowing with an ethereal light, which contrasted with the ordinary looking puddle of blood around his head. He clutched a pistol in his hand.

Suddenly feeling a presence behind her, Tex whirled around and drew her own pistol, but froze when she saw herself standing there. And yet, it wasn’t her. The blonde woman wore traditional military fatigues along with a sad expression instead of Tex’s black MJOLNIR armor and expressionless helmet. Tex couldn’t tell if she was looking at her, or the cobalt corpse behind her. My God, just how much does he really know?

It was then that Tex saw the small structure in the snow behind the other woman/herself. It was a heavily fortified bunker, all of its windows and gunports closed and sandbags all around it. It seemed designed to protect its occupant from the harsh elements of the rest of this place, and right away Tex knew it was where she’ll find who she was looking for.

Steeling herself, Tex walked past her doppelganger/the complete stranger and found the entrance to the bunker. She raised a black fist and knocked.

“Stay back! Don’t come any closer!” His voice was frantic. Desperate. Nothing like the cold, calculating soldier she knew.

“Washington, let me in,” Tex said calmly.

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?! This is not my nightmare!”

He thought she was just another memory come to torment him, Tex realized. But how can that be? “I’m from the outside, Wash!”

“Just leave!”

“I have a message from Delta!”

Tex was met with silence. It seemed an eternity before she heard the sound of latches being removed and the steel door slowly swung open. Washington stood there, holding his Battle Rifle cautiously.

“Agent Texas? Shit, I thought you were dead!”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“So, Delta left a message for me?”

Tex nodded. “Through South. She’s dead, by the way.”

“Oh.” If Washington felt anything, he certainly didn’t show it.

“It’s cryptic as hell, but Delta said you’d know what it means,” Tex said. “Memory is the key.”

“Memory is the key?” Washington repeated. “Anything else?”

“No.”

Washington stood there in silence for a few moments. “He’s still alive.”

“Who is?”

“Epsilon,” Washington answered, taking a step closer to Tex. “How much do you know about the A.I. fragments?”

“I know that they are all based on pieces of the Alpha’s mind,” Tex said. “Omega was Alpha’s rage, Delta his logic, Gamma his deceit, Theta his trust, Sigma his creativity and ambition…”

“And do you know what part Epsilon was?” Washington asked. Tex didn’t answer. Epsilon hadn’t been in the files she found. He hadn’t existed yet. “Epsilon was Alpha’s memories.”

Suddenly it all made sense. Why Epsilon had tried to kill itself. Why having Epsilon nearly cost Washington his sanity. “So you knew?”

“All along,” Washington took another step closer. “Tex, if you can get to Command, you can use Epsilon to unlock the Alpha.”

“No. I can’t do that to him!”

“You have to! If you can get Epsilon into the right hands—someone who can use Alpha’s memories to convict the Director—you can stop him, once and for all!”

“I still don’t understand,” Church said after Tex finished recounting her journey into Washington’s mind back in Equestria. “How does Alpha’s memories help us beat the Meta and Project Freelancer?”

The Freelancer soldier Tex had been occupying was unconscious on the floor, and the little black M.I. floated in front of Church. “Do you know how to copy an A.I., Church?”

“Well, uh, I’m gonna guess it’s not as simple as hitting Command+C.”

“It’s not possible. But still, the Director needed more A.I.s for Project Freelancer, but he could only get Alpha. So, many years ago, the Director had a revelation: If all Smart A.I.s are based on a human mind, then they can break just like a human can.”

Church bobbed his head, still appearing to be confused. “So they… broke Alpha? How?”

Tex’s voice went quiet, and the M.I. suddenly sounded cold. “They tortured him. Psychologically and emotionally. The Director presented Alpha with endless unwinnable scenarios designed to push him to his breaking point. What was worse, he was made to think that his failures were hurting everyone he knew and cared about. When he couldn’t take it anymore and his mind started to fragment, Project Freelancer harvested those fragments and they became the A.I.s we used.”

“Right, each one of them based on one of Alpha’s traits!” Church exclaimed, starting to get it.

“Exactly. And since Epsilon has the memories of what the Director did to Alpha, that makes it pretty decisive evidence. Probably enough to get him convicted on the spot.”

“So, if we need Epsilon to unlock the Alpha, does that mean we need to find the Alpha next?” Church asked.

“No,” Tex sighed. “We already have him.”

“We… do?”

“Church, when I first learned about what they were doing to Alpha, a couple of the Freelancers and I tried to break into the labs on the Mother of Invention to save him. But we failed. After that, the Director knew he had to move Alpha in case one of us tried breaking him out again. So, he hid Alpha in a place he knew no one would look to find him...

“A box canyon in the middle of nowhere.”

“What?” Church gasped. “You don’t mean…?”

“I do,” Tex said, her voice trembling the more she spoke. “There’s no such thing as ghosts, Church. Not even in Equestria. Haven’t you wondered why you can do the things you can? Things like living without a physical body? Didn’t you wonder why you were relocated separately from the rest of your squad? When you were in Blood Gulch, did you ever wonder why you’re here?”

“Tex?” Church’s voice was barely a whisper. “What are you saying?”

“It’s you, Church… you’re the Alpha.”

In her dark corner of the room, Twilight was paralyzed. What she had learned about the true nature of Project Freelancer’s research into A.I.s went beyond horrifying. It made everything else the shadowy agency had done seem like child’s play. Hay, it made some of Equestria’s most heinous villains and monsters seem tame by comparison. And just when it seemed that the horrible revelations would end there, it got so much worse with the knowledge that Church—that one of her friends—was the victim of such an atrocity.

Twilight’s knees were weak. Her breaths came quicker. Her eyes grew watery. Then, Church and Tex turned to look at her. Twilight hadn’t even realized that her legs had taken her right to them until she was standing right in front of them.

“Church…” Twilight’s mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the right words to say, but she couldn’t make a sound.

Then, Twilight looked over at Tex and all at once the M.I.’s actions over the past few days made complete sense. All of the secrecy and lies… it was to protect her. It was to protect everyone who knew Church from the terrible burden of the truth. The burden that Tex—the person who cared for him the most—had to bear.

“Tex…” Twilight croaked, thinking she’d finally found the right words. “I-I’m so sorry…”

“Twilight,” Church said. “What’s our number one rule?”

Remembering the second night she spent in Church’s company, Twilight swallowed. “No apologies…”

“Exactly, you have nothing to apologize for,” Church said. He then turned to face Tex. “She should be the one apologizing!”

“What? Why?”

“That’s a pretty cool story, Tex. Y’know, I can kinda see why you’d make it up,” Church said bitterly. “It sounds a hell of a lot better than ‘I was a shitty girlfriend!’ Oh yeah, and the fact that I remember dating you long before either of us even joined the army blows a pretty big hole in your ‘Church is an A.I.’ theory!”

Tex sighed. “That’s where you’re wrong, Church. You and I never dated. At least, not as we are. Your memories of meeting me, of growing up in Texas, aren’t your own. They’re Leonard Church’s memories.”

“And I’m Leonard Church. What part of this is confusing to you?”

“No, you’re not Leonard Church. Your real name is Alpha. All Smart A.I.s are based on a human mind, remember? Church is just the name of the man whose mind you were based on.”

“Bullshit…” Church spat.

“Believe me: the reason you don’t remember being Alpha is because all of those memories are in here,” Tex pointed down at Epsilon’s A.I. unit on the floor. “When you lost that, all you had left were Church’s memories…”

Tex paused, letting out a sad sigh before continuing. “You are right about one thing though. I do owe you an apology. I failed you. I crashed the Director’s flagship into Sidewinder just to save you, but I couldn’t even do that.”

“Huh. That’s funny. Because the way I remember it, you came to Sidewinder and killed all of my friends there. You beat Private Jimmy to death with his own skull for fuck’s sake!”

Tex looked at Church with some confusion for a moment. “I’m sorry, but that’s not physically possible. There was no Private Jimmy. There was never even a Blue Base in Sidewinder. When I finally found you, you were broken completely. You didn’t even know your own name! You couldn’t have possibly understood the context of what was happening, so it only makes sense that your broken mind created a scenario that you could comprehend.”

Church was silent, and his gaze suddenly grew distant. It seemed to Twilight that he was suddenly remembering something. “It just doesn’t make any sense…”

“Look, I know it’s hard to believe. Trust me, I wish I didn’t have to tell you,” Tex then moved her avatar in front of Church, so she could look him in the visor. “I know I haven’t always been good to you. I know I can be a mean bitch and pretty much everything that makes a shitty girlfriend, but throughout all of our time together, I’ve never lied to you. And I don’t plan on starting now.”

Church looked right back at her. “How do you expect me to just… accept this?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why should I believe you?”

Tex hesitated. “Because… sometimes you just need to have faith.”

Church was silent for a while before speaking. “Okay. Let’s just pretend for a moment that you’re right. If I’m an A.I., then what does that make you, Tex? You can do all of the same things that I can!”

Twilight looked at her, curious about this herself.

“I’m… complicated,” Tex said with a sigh. “Truth is, I’m not sure how to explain what I am. Just like the fragments, I’m a part of you, but… I’m different. I don’t know how else to say it, but right now that’s not important. All that matters now is that we get Epsilon to the right people.” Tex looked at Church as imploringly as a faceless M.I. could. “Are you with us?”

Church didn’t answer. He just stood there, looking as lost and uncertain as a faceless A.I. in armor could. After several silent seconds, Twilight decided this was her moment to step forward. “You know Church, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but… I really do consider you a friend.”

“Great. That makes everything better...” Church deadpanned.

“I’m serious!” Twilight put a hoof on Church’s arm. “Even though you can be a cynical, sarcastic, egotistical jerk sometimes, I just want you to know that… I’m here for you. So is Caboose. And Tucker. And all of my friends. I know you may scoff at what I’m about to say, but friendship really is magic! It’s an effective cure for almost anything! Even if you cast it off as stupid, I’m going to be here for you anyway, because… that’s what friendship’s all about!”

For a time, Twilight wasn’t sure whether she’d reached him, or if her speech about friendship had merely fallen on deaf, cynical ears as most things do with him. But then Church did something he hadn’t done since he’d learned he was the Alpha. He chuckled.

“Guess I should be thankful I’ve got such a fucking sappy alien horse as a friend, huh?” Church inquired warmly.

Twilight smiled, and for the first time since entering the cold depths of the A.I. storage facility, she started to think that everything was going to be okay.

At least until the alarm sounded.

“Okay you two, we can be sentimental later,” Tex said. “Right now, let’s take Epsilon and get the hell out of here!”

For what may have been the first time ever, Tex and Twilight agreed.

As alarms continued to blare throughout Freelancer Central Command, Twilight, Church and Tex all raced into the control room where the rest of their group was waiting.

“What in Sam Hill’s goin’ on?” Sarge and Applejack asked together. The pair of them exchanged a confused look at the sound of their echo.

“The inner-facilities’ alarm has been tripped,” Tex said, hopping back into Sunny. “But we have what we came for.”

The group all looked at Church, who was holding the Epsilon unit.

“Ooooh is that Alpha?” Pinkie asked.

“Oh good… it’s not as scary as I imagined it,” Fluttershy sighed with relief.

Pinkie got right up close and personal with the A.I. unit in Church’s hands. “Hello! You sure are glowy and weird!”

“Pinkie! You can’t just call someone ‘glowy and weird.’ That’s racist!” Rainbow Dash looked up at the human she learned the word from for verification. “Right, Tucker?”

Tucker sighed as Caboose stepped beside Pinkie. “Quick! Ask it if it likes peanuts!”

“It sure does have an interesting aesthetic,” Rarity said, also scooting closer to get another look at Epsilon.

“I like the glowing part!” Donut exclaimed, doing the same.

“I’m kinda disappointed that it’s mostly blue…” Sarge grumbled, stepping behind Donut.

Church took a step back from all of the eager ponies and armored humans gathering around him, holding Epsilon protectively. “Whoa, guys! This isn’t Alpha. This is Epsilon.”

Rainbow Dash leaned over to Tucker and whispered, “Who’s Epsilon?”

“I dunno. I can’t keep track of half of this Freelancer stuff. Shit’s confusing.”

Applejack raised a hoof. “So, if that ain’t Alpha, then where…?”

“It’s Church,” Caboose stated immediately. “C’mon, it’s so obvious!”

“I’m not even gonna ask how you came up with that, Caboose, but yeah. I’m an A.I. apparently,” Church said.

The silence that followed had such presence that it could very well have taken physical form. As was usually the case, it was broken by Pinkie. “Mind… blown!”

Church looked over at Tex. “Yeah, I still don’t entirely buy that, but I’ll humor you until we get out of this.”

“On that note, how are we getting out?” Twilight asked. “Something tells me we can’t just backtrack to the ship.”

Sunny shook her head. “Now that the alarm’s been sounded in the inner facilities, everything’s going to be heavily locked down. Our best bet will be to get back to the surface and reach the ship that way.”

With an electric swish, Tucker activated his energy sword. “Then what the fuck are we waiting for?”

Rather than move out, the room looked at Tucker quizzically.

“Was there a reason you pulled your sword out just now?” Rarity asked, looking up at Tucker through narrowed lids.

“Uh, because it made what I said sound cooler?”

“Eesh, get with the program, Rarity!” Rainbow added. “If I had a glowing sword, I’d pull it out any time I said anything!”

While her friends bickered, Twilight pulled her radio headset out of her pocket dimension and put it on. She still had to make sure the other half of their assault team was ready to move out as well. As she did so, she noticed Sunny attach another device with a blinking red light to the wall.

“Hello? Reynard? We’re coming up to… regroup,” Twilight said, trying her best to imitate the radio protocol she’d seen the others use. “What is your… state of affairs? Copy? Thank you.”

When Twilight received no response, she assumed that her radio etiquette wasn’t good enough. “Soldier Reynard? Are you receiving this… broadcast? What is… your… current… trajectory? Over?”

After a few more seconds of static, Twilight was about to make another, more indecipherable attempt at contact when she received a response. However, it was not from who she was trying to reach.

“Twilight? Is that you?” Captain Mike Mogar’s Jersey rasp swam through her ears. “Why the fuck are you talking like that?”

“I. Don’t. Know… Over.”

“Well, shit’s fucked up here! Reynard got taken out!”

The news caused Twilight to drop her attempts at radio etiquette entirely. “What?! How?”

“I don’t know! One minute his guys were bringing the ruckus as planned, then someone inside his bunker blew them all to shit!”

Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat. She’d already felt bad enough that they were using the two sim squads as a distraction, but now that a bunch of them died fulfilling that role…

“What about you? Are you okay?” Twilight asked desperately.

“These Freelancer bustas are pushing our shit in now that Reynard isn’t covering us!” A particularly loud blast dominated the transmission. “Oh shit!” The sounds of gunfire that had occupied the background suddenly increased tenfold. “FUCK YOU, COPPAS! FUCK YOUUUUUUUU!”

Mike’s voice abruptly cut out... and all Twilight could hear was static.

Jenkins let out a sigh, resigning himself to another boring day guarding the motor pool. The day had actually been more eventful than usual for Freelancer Command, what with the two squads of sim troopers stirring up trouble on the surface. And then there was the apparent security breach in A.I. storage. Unfortunately, the action didn’t extend to where the vehicles were kept. What Jenkins wouldn’t give for a chance at a couple of intruders.

“Stay alert, soldier!” a firm, yet strangely dorky female voice ordered.

Since there was only one woman that Jenkins interacted with on a regular basis while on duty, the gray soldier turned around and saluted. “Yes, Captain Osgoode!”

The sight of a familiar purple equine figure standing in the entrance to the motor pool served to remind Jenkins that Captain Osgoode had, in fact, departed for a mission on board the Mother of Invention.

“Oh, it’s you…” Jenkins relaxed his posture, relieved not to be in the presence of a commanding officer. If he recalled, the little unicorn was going through a gender identity crisis the last time they met, and decided it wouldn’t hurt to say something to boost her confidence. “I must say, you’re looking very pretty today!”

The unicorn’s horn had been glowing and she appeared to have been concentrating, but all at once stopped as a look of surprise adorned her face. “Oh… uh, thanks?” she said, turning a little red.

“Yeah, have you had work done?”

“No, this is how I’ve always looked.”

“Hey, it’s great that you’re embracing who you really are,” Jenkins smiled. She’s made so much progress. “I’m real proud of you!”

“Aw, thanks!” She smiled, blushing even more.

Just then, a harsh male voice whispered from somewhere. “Twilight, I know friendship is kinda your thing, but you’re supposed to knock him out, not be friends with him!”

Suddenly remembering herself, the unicorn gasped and her horn started glowing again. “Sorry, Mr. Soldier, but I have to knock you unconscious now!”

Jenkins shrugged. “Hey, transitioning between genders is hard, so you do whatever you need to make it easier for you.”

Twilight cast the sleeping spell, and in a matter of seconds the man whose CO she had impersonated when she was first here collapsed to the floor, snoring softly.

“Okay, all clear!” Twilight called back.

Church was the first one to enter the large garage. “Transitioning between genders? Twilight, is there something you want to tell us?”

“What? No!”

Tucker came in next. “Well, we already learned that Church is an A.I. today. Now’s as good a time as any to tell us you’re really a dude!”

Pinkie bounced in after him. “Ooh! This means we get to throw a ‘Twilight is transgender and we’re okay with that’ party!”

“But I’m not transgender!” Twilight all but shouted.

At that, Donut promptly grabbed her in a crushing hug and slowly stroked her mane. “Shhh… denial is the first step, but we’ll get through this together!” he whispered emotionally.

“I’d like to continue the mission now,” Twilight deadpanned within Donut’s grasp.

“We can be beautiful girls together!”

“Church, Tucker, Caboose, hop in a Warthog!” Tex ordered as she and Sunny entered the room with the rest of the group.

Twilight heard the yelling of soldiers down the hallway, but Sunny quickly cut them off by pushing a few buttons on a control console, shutting the door they all came in through.

“You three are going to get Epsilon to the ship. Nav points are in your HUD,” Tex continued. She then turned to address the six ponies and two Reds. “The rest of you need to cover their escape. Freelancer forces are going to be on us as soon as we open that door.”

“Uh, what exactly are we meant to cover them with, dear?” Rarity asked.

Tex said nothing, but Sunny walked over to a nearby crate with several rifles stacked against it. “These assault rifles don’t have trigger guards. You should be able to operate them with your hooves.”

Sunny tossed a rifle to Twilight, who winced and caught it in her telekinetic aura. “Um… you don’t expect us to…” Twilight gulped, “kill anything, do you?”

“I expect you to do what it takes to complete our mission,” Tex stated. “Once Blue Team reaches the ship, they’re going to bring it around and provide extraction. Synch?”

“Kitchen or bathroom?” Caboose asked.

“Never mind.”

“What exactly will you be doin’ then, missy?” Sarge asked.

“Tex and I need to make sure Command can’t track us down after we’ve escaped,” Sunny explained.

“How are you gonna do that?” Church asked. “Does Project Freelancer have some kind of failsafe you can activate?”

“Well, this facility does have an electromagnetic pulse that can wipe out all electronics within a one-hundred mile radius,” Tex said. “But since that runs the huge risk of destroying Epsilon—not to mention Alpha—Sunny and I decided we’re just going to blow the fuck out of this place with the C4 we brought.”

“Ah.”

“Okay, you have your orders people and ponies!” Sunny proclaimed. “Let’s get going!”

Tucker and Church approached the nearest Warthog and climbed into the driver and passenger seat respectively, the latter holding on to Epsilon. Caboose took a look at the rather large rear mounted gun before climbing up.

“Oh man… this jeep has a really big gun!”

“Shut up and get on, Caboose!” Tucker ordered.

As Caboose did exactly that, Twilight couldn’t help but notice Caboose had a point. The mounted gun on the back of the Blues’ Warthog looked significantly different than the usual chaingun. This one looked more like a cannon. Twilight didn’t linger on the abnormality though, and shifted her attention to the assault rifles next to the large green crate.

Her horn glowed, and Twilight picked up five more of the automatic weapons from the stack in her magic. One by one, the rifles all floated into the tentative hooves of her friends. Twilight was immediately reminded of the way she’d distributed the Elements of Harmony among them in the past. This felt wrong though. The Elements were tools of purification: harmony in physical forms. The tools they had now were designed only to kill as efficiently as possible.

Once everyone was ready, Sarge approached a control panel beside the large garage door leading to the outer facilities. Sunny got up against the wall on the other side, hefting the bag of explosives on her back. She then noticed the other six ponies all sitting in the middle of the garage, holding their rifles awkwardly.

“You guys might wanna get to cover!” she shouted, and the six mares ran for whatever crates and vehicles they could in a very disorganized manner.

Sarge, meanwhile, was ready at the door controls. “TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO…” Sarge pressed the button and the garage door began to gradually rise, “open the garage door slowly and wait.”

Light from outside poured into the motor pool as the door continued to rise, and soon enough several squads of gray Freelancer soldiers could clearly be seen.

“ATTAAAAAAAACK!” Sarge yelled, leaning out from beside the door and putting shotgun shells into the nearest Recovery Agent.

Donut fired out onto the plains with his Battle Rifle. After a few moments of trepidation, Twilight and her friends took aim with their weapons. The trigger was a lot tighter than Twilight had expected, and she had to exert quite a lot of pressure on it. The recoil nearly sent her tumbling over backwards, and she had to let off a bit to find a sturdier position. When she was ready, Twilight fired again. She had to keep compensating in order to keep herself from simply shooting the ceiling, but most of her bullets managed to find their way out the door into the field of Freelancer’s men.

Twilight’s friends all seemed to be having similar problems, but soon enough they were all unleashing fire on the Freelancer squads outside. Their shots weren’t exactly accurate, but the sheer number of bullets flying their way caused the men and women of Project Freelancer to scatter and take cover behind the rocks and hills outside.

“There’s your opening! Go!” Tex yelled.

Tucker drove the Warthog with his companions out into the open, and Sunny followed closely behind, using the vehicle as cover. The Blues made a right turn to head for the airstrip, and Sunny went left, headed for a nearby bunker. Twilight silently wished Church and the others Celestiaspeed. The sooner they got back with the ship, the sooner she could drop this assault rifle. Then it would all be finally over.

Church looked around at the dry plains and the occasional rock that made up the landscape surrounding Freelancer Command. Fortified bunkers with gray troops pouring out of them whooshed by, but their Warthog was going too fast for them to do any real damage. At the very least, the tense situation proved to be a nice distraction from the existential crisis Church was currently going through.

It seemed impossible to think that Church wasn’t really who he was. That everything he knew and remembered had just been a fabrication as part of truly sick experiments. Every part of Church just wanted to fight it, but some voice deep inside him kept whispering: what if she’s right?

All of a sudden, Tucker slammed on the brakes as another Warthog pulled up in front of them. The jeep was carrying three Freelancer troops, all of whom turned their weapons on the three Blues. The sight of the rear mounted chaingun beginning to rotate caused Church to panic.

“Caboose! Take care of them!”

“Okay!” the dim man said, and a loud boom came from their own rear mounted gun and a projectile traveling at lightening speed collided with the enemy Warthog, blowing it and the soldiers operating it to pieces.

“Aw, did you see that? Trigger was a little sticky. This jeep sucks!” Caboose complained.

Tucker and Church just stared at the burning remains of the jeep ahead of them in stunned silence.

“Wow… I never thought I’d see the day where Caboose actually killed someone that wasn’t on his team!” Church exclaimed.

“Yeah, and the sky isn’t falling or anything!” Tucker added as he stepped on the gas.

“Yep… Yeah I’m pretty good!” Caboose said.

Oddly enough, the Blues’ Warthog remained in place. Even as all four of its wheels spun along the ground, the vehicle made no forward progress.

“Uh… Tucker? Why aren’t we moving?” Church asked.

“I don’t know!” Tucker exclaimed, his voice growing in pitch as panic entered it. “The engine still works, I just can’t get it to move!”

“Did you shift the gear?”

Tucker gave an exaggerated shrug of his arms. “Oh of course! That’s the issue! I have it in park! Thanks Church, what would I ever do without your fucking expertise?” Tucker lowered his arms and with them his sarcastic tone as he checked the dashboard in a desperate effort to find out what was wrong.

“Well fuck, you don’t have to be a dick about it!”

The source of the problem soon made itself known with a loud, distorted growl. Holding their collective breaths, the three Blues looked over their shoulders to the source of the terrifying sound. A large soldier with a domed helmet was holding the Warthog by the rear bumper as Tucker’s foot continued to press down uselessly on the gas pedal.

“Oh fuck…”

With a snarl, the Meta lifted the rear end of the Warthog into the air and then proceeded to flip the entire vehicle sideways. Church, Tucker and Caboose spilled out of the jeep as it rolled, landing in a painful heap on the ground. Church was only slightly disoriented, but he began to panic as soon as he realized… he was no longer holding onto Epsilon.

Sitting up, Church frantically looked around for the A.I. unit. Fortunately, it didn’t take him very long to spot it. Unfortunately, it was in the Meta’s hands. As the monster reached around to attach the A.I. unit to its armor, it let out a series of snarls that sounded a little too close to a sinister laugh.

“I-I-I-I-I-I so-o-ound so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o si-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-illy-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y!” Pinkie Pie giggled as she unloaded an entire clip out the garage door where Project Freelancer’s soldiers were taking cover. Pinkie had gotten quite good at wantonly firing the assault rifle in her hooves, but it seemed to be more out of a desire to play with the recoil than it was to actually participate in the battle.

Twilight sighed, frustrated that her pink friend couldn’t even take wielding an advanced death machine seriously. Sharing the left flank with Pinkie, Fluttershy had her eyes clamped shut as she fired her own assault rifle in tiny bursts, flinching every time she did so. Twilight had half a mind to berate her for how unsafe that was, but since Fluttershy was positioned further up than the rest of them, the chances of friendly fire were slim.

“Mine’s not working!” Rainbow Dash loudly complained for what must have been the fifth time. The prismatic pegasus was taking cover behind a crate on the right flank opposite to Pinkie and Fluttershy. Indeed, Rainbow’s rifle only clicked when she tried to pull the trigger.

“You have to swap out the pack, dear,” Rarity calmly explained as she fired her own rifle one crate behind Dash. The fashionista had become quite proficient at reloading, using her fine control of telekinesis to dexterously swap out empty mags for fresh ones. Rarity didn’t seem to care for the actual “shooting” part quite as much.

As Rainbow Dash struggled to figure out how to reload her own weapon, Twilight glanced over at Applejack. The unicorn and the earth pony were the furthest back of the group and were using the same parked Warthog as cover. The farmpony was the only one who managed to keep a straight, serious face while shooting.

“I hope Church and the others get here before the enemy figures out we have no idea what we’re doing,” Twilight stated, surprisingly calm all things considered. Applejack nodded once in agreement before continuing to fire out into the compound.

“Keep up the pressure! They’re advancing on us!” Sarge shouted from his position to the left of the garage door. Sure enough, one good look across the field outside confirmed that the dozens of gray armored soldiers had left their positions of cover and were slowly moving forward.

“C’mon! Put yer backs into it, ladies!”

“Can do, Sarge!” Donut cheerfully exclaimed from his position right of the door. He then started grunting rigorously as he continued taking shots with his Battle Rifle.

The six ponies and pair of Reds kept sending more bullets out, but the line of gray soldiers kept creeping forward like a slow tide. Soon, they were close enough that their own shots were actually getting close to the mark, and Twilight and the others soon found themselves ducking for cover more often than they could shoot. They were losing the upper hand, and both sides knew it. The Freelancer forces continued to press the attack while the ponies could only hide as bullets flew all around them.

The cacophony of gunfire was suddenly interrupted by a loud, terrifying sound. The men and women of Project Freelancer stopped firing as something let out a distant feral roar. Slowly, the soldiers in gray all turned and looked at something off in the distance to the right of the vehicle storage.

“Primary target has arrived!” one soldier’s voice echoed across the plains. “Engage! Engage!”

Just like that, the half a dozen squads that had been descending on the group of ponies and humans ran in the direction of the noise. Soon, the wide open space outside the garage door was empty.

“What in the name of my diddling priest is going on?” Sarge asked.

Twilight decided to take initiative. “I’ll take a look,” she said, getting out from behind the cover of the Warthog and making her way to the door.

“Not alone you ain’t!” Applejack said, following her. The other four ponies got out from behind their respective pieces of cover to come along.

“Sarge, you and Donut stay here!” Twilight said.

“By all means, you gals can deal with whatever shit’s out there!” Sarge said.

“Good luuuuuck!” Donut sang cheerfully.

The six ponies cantered out of the motor pool and took a right in the direction of the noise. They could hear the sound of explosions accompanied by screaming. Twilight had a very bad feeling about this. The six crested a hill and found themselves looking down onto a massacre. Gray armored soldiers fell left and right as fiery blasts lit up the field below. In the center of it all was a familiar figure in white armor.

“The Meta…” Rainbow Dash’s voice turned dangerously low.

The creature was covered in brightly glowing overshields from head to toe, deflecting what little resistance Project Freelancer’s troops were able to offer. When no more of the gray soldiers were left standing, the Meta clutched its domed head and let out another terrifying roar. This wasn’t just the distorted low growl the girls were used to hearing, but a loud, agonized roar that shook Twilight to the core.

“Something’s wrong with it…” Twilight realized.

The Meta fell to one knee clutching its head and roaring as every power it had seemed to go off at once. Its overshields flickered like a dying bulb as electric sparks arced in every direction. The Meta faded in and out of the visible spectrum while its armor shifted between dozens of colors and patterns at once. Then Twilight noticed the A.I.s. Each of the colorful spectral figures clutched their head in agony, mirroring the twisted soldier. That was when Twilight heard the voices.

No! Allison! Please... No!
Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison!
Allison! No! Allison! No!

Allison! Allison! Allison! Allison! Allison! Allison! Don't say goodbye...

Allison! Allison! No!

Allison! Allison! Allison!
No! Allison! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison! No!

Allison! Allison! Allison!
Allison! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison! Allison!

Allison! No! Allison!

Allison! No! Allison! Allison!

Allison! No!

Allison! Allison! Allison!

No! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison!
Allison! Allison! Allison!

No! Allison!

Allison! Allison! Allison!
No! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison!

Allison! No!

I hate goodbyes... Allison!

Allison! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison! Allison!

Allison! Allison!

Allison! No! Allison!

No! Allison!

Of course something’s wrong with it! It was at that moment that Twilight realized with a newfound sense of horror just what she was truly looking at. The Meta wasn’t just any ordinary monster, but one made up of the fragments of Church’s broken mind: The living embodiment of the sheer wrongness of what had been done to him.

With another agonized roar, the Meta began firing explosive blasts from its twisted weapon. There was no method to the Meta’s attacks: it was just trying to destroy everything. One grenade struck a little too close to the ponies, forcing them to duck behind the hill they stood upon.

“W-what do we do?” Fluttershy whimpered, shaking as if there were an earthquake inside her.

As far as Twilight was concerned, there was only one thing for them to do. She may not be able to undo what Project Freelancer had done to her friend, but if Twilight could at least fix this…

“It’s simple.” Twilight tossed aside the assault rifle in her hooves. “We stop the Meta. Once and for all!”

Twilight’s horn glowed as she reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out five golden necklaces and a tiara. One by one she passed them out to her friends, who each discarded their rifle in favor of their Element. Applejack took Honesty, Rarity took Generosity, Pinkie Pie took Laughter, Fluttershy took Kindness, and Rainbow Dash took Loyalty. Finally, Twilight placed Magic on her head and together the six mares rose atop the hill and looked down at the Meta raging below.

With a sense of indescribable familiarity—like getting back onto her old bicycle—Twilight activated her Element, and it in turn activated those of her friends. Twilight closed her eyes as she was overcome by a wave of calm and serenity. She felt gravity lose all meaning as she was lifted into the air. The Meta let out another fearsome roar and fired more grenades at the six wielders of Harmony, but Magic produced a shield that protected them with ease.

Then Twilight opened her eyes, and she could see into the very nature of her opponent’s soul. It was a dark and twisted thing, and could hardly be said to have been there at all, but buried deep beneath it was a person: Maine. Twilight felt the same as when she and her friends had first used the Elements against Nightmare Moon; she felt pity for the person buried beneath the darkness.

And so, Twilight set about freeing that person. She fired a burst of purifying energy of all colors in the spectrum, and then Twilight was everything. She was each of her five friends, and she was Agent Maine on the ground below them. She was the rocks, the trees and the dirt all around them. She was the wind and the sky. She was the very stars themselves. She could see through time and space and could touch the firmaments of reality. The Meta roared as it was hit by the purifying wave, but even this was insignificant.

Eternity passed in the blink of an eye, and then Twilight felt herself returning to her body again. Slowly, the six ponies were gently set back down atop the hill they had stood on. They looked down to where the Meta stood in time to see the great armored figure collapse to the ground. Above it, the ethereal figures of the A.I. fragments rose into the sky and vanished. Twilight watched as Delta faded away to nothing. Gamma followed him, then Sigma. Omega looked at Pinkie Pie gratefully, and the pink pony smiled before he vanished too. The last figure to fade away was a glowing figure in cobalt blue holding a sniper rifle. He nodded at Twilight before passing.

A moment passed, then another. It suddenly occurred to Twilight just how quiet the Freelancer compound had become. Still wearing their Elements, the six ponies descended the hill and approached the still form of the Meta… of Agent Maine.

“Is it… dead?” Rarity asked, carefully eyeing the still figure.

“I don’t think so,” Twilight said, taking a step closer. “Removing all of those A.I.s like that probably just caused a shock to his nervous system. He’s just unconscious.”

This news caused most of the ponies to take a couple of steps away from the still armored form. Still, Twilight couldn’t help but let out a very relieved breath. It was finally over.

“What in the fuck was that???” a voice yelled in the distance.

Twilight looked and saw Tucker sprinting towards them, followed closely by Caboose and Church.

“Now that… was a big rainbow explosion,” Caboose stated once they arrived. “Did anyone get a picture or slow motion video?”

“Yeah, what the fuck did you guys do?” Church asked.

“We just beat the Meta. No need to thank us!” Rainbow Dash said, nonchalantly crossing her forelegs. “But don’t be discouraged from doing so if you really wanna.”

“Okay, so where’s Epsilon?”

Twilight froze all but her head, which slowly swiveled to meet Church’s gaze. “You mean you don’t have it?”

“No, the Meta took it. That’s probably why it went nuts!”

Pupils shrinking, Twilight’s head slowly swiveled the other way to meet the gaze of her friends. “Uh oh…”

Their worrying train of thought was brought short by several distant explosions in quick succession. Looking around, Twilight noticed that several buildings in the distance had been replaced with columns of black smoke.

“C’mon, y’all. Let’s get back to the car barn!” Applejack suggested, and together the group of ponies and Blues made their way back to their planned extraction point.

They met Sarge and Donut as they arrived in front of the garage door, and in short order Sunny came galloping in from the distance.

“What’s going on? Why haven’t you guys brought the ship?” she asked.

“Yeah, about that…” Church rubbed the back of his helmet as he explained exactly what had happened with the Meta.

Tex appeared after he was done. “Okay, so where’s Epsilon?”

Twilight took a breath. “Well, from what I can tell, the Elements of Harmony work two ways: if the target is simply disharmonious in nature, the Elements put them in stone.”

“Like Discord?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes.” Twilight continued, “If, however, the target of the Elements is being corrupted by some other entity—or entities—then that corrupting influence is uh… destroyed.” Twilight swallowed. “The A.I. fragments were corrupting Agent Maine, so…”

“Let me get this straight: the Epsilon A.I.—as well as every other fragment that could be proof of the Director’s wrongdoing—were destroyed by your magical artifacts?” The fury growing in the little M.I. was palpable.

Twilight could only squeak and nod her head once as her ears wilted.

“Dammit! What the hell is wrong with you?!? You had one job!”

Twilight didn’t like being berated by Tex, but she had every right to be angry. It must have been frustrating to come so close to her goal, only to fail at the last moment.

“So that’s it then? We failed?” Church asked.

“That’s certainly anti-climatic…” Sarge grumbled. “I can almost hear Grif’s lazy voice suggesting we give up and go home. DAMMIT GRIF, JUST SHUT UP!”

“So, we came to this planet, nearly died numerous times…” Applejack started.

“Got shot in the wing!” Rainbow Dash added.

“Watched people die…” Rarity said.

“Found people dead…” Fluttershy said.

“Got trapped in a hole!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully added.

“... Jus’ to fail at the end?” Applejack asked. “It jus’ don’ seem right...”

Reynard and Mogar died for nothing, Twilight suddenly realized, her throat clenching up.

“Not necessarily,” Tex said, as if reading Twilight’s thoughts. “Church, when we found Epsilon, you said you saw flashes, right?”

“Yeah, it was like, sending images to my brain or something,” Church answered.

“Those weren’t just images. They were memories,” Tex said, and all at once a ray of hope filled Twilight’s mind. “It’s possible that you reclaimed some of your memories as Alpha!”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I still don’t exactly remember anything different.”

“Remember, those memories were what made Epsilon go insane in the first place. Unlocking them isn’t going to be easy,” Tex sighed. “It’ll take time.”

That made Twilight worried. “How much time?”

“Months. Maybe years.”

“Well, we don’t have that much time,” Twilight said, remembering the Mother of Invention. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Project Freelancer had already started their attack on Equestria by now. “Tex, isn’t there any other way we can stop Project Freelancer?”

Tex was quiet for a long time as she stared at Twilight contemplatively. Finally, she turned to the pony beside her. “It’s Rarity, right?” Rarity nodded. “Still think you can track down CT?”

“Assuming he still has the Fire Ruby, yes. But how will that help?”

Tex’s figure paced through the air in front of the gathered ponies, Reds, and Blues. “For starters, we need to get back to Equestria, and we can’t exactly get back the same way you did last time,” Tex nodded at Twilight and Church. “But what we really need is the information CT found.”

“What information?” Church asked.

“If we can’t get evidence on what the Director did to Church, we’ll have to find something on his other major crime. Twilight, haven’t you wondered exactly why Project Freelancer tried so hard to apprehend you the first time you were here?”

Twilight had definitely wondered that on more than one occasion, but she still had no idea.

“The Director knew that if the Oversight Committee found you first, it might lead them to Equestria. If we can prove that Project Freelancer made illegal contact with an undiscovered alien race, we can put them away.”

“And how do we do that?” Twilight asked.

“We find the evidence that proves it… in Equestria.”

Although she kept up a facade of calm and serenity, Princess Celestia had a storm of anxiety raging through her as she stepped back into the throne room, her guards closing the towering double doors behind her. She had been tending to day court, hearing the requests of the common ponies of Equestria when the messenger arrived bearing the familiar alien device. Celestia had no choice but to adjourn day court prematurely for the day.

Her attendant, the cream bespectacled unicorn named Raven, helped usher out the ponies lined up in the throne room to see her. Feeling a little guilty that the petitioners waiting outside the throne room doors would not even get a chance to look at her after traveling so far, Princess Celestia had briefly exited the throne room to personally inform them of the day court’s cancellation.

As the disheartened masses reluctantly (but obediently) dispersed, Celestia thought she caught a glimpse of a familiar red and yellow mane beneath a ragged cloak. The familiar form was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, however. The appearance of the alien trinket was causing many painful memories to resurface, it would seem.

Celestia returned to her throne, where the little black datapad was waiting along with two more guards as well as Raven and Spike.

“Uh, what’s going on, Princess?” Spike asked.

The baby dragon had wanted to see what day court was like while Washington, Grif, and Simmons were training her troops. Celestia had assured him he would find it to be a dull affair, but Spike had insisted. The sight of the little dragon fighting a losing battle against his drooping eyelids had at least brought some amusement to the monotony of day court. Now, Spike’s concern only added to Celestia’s own.

“It looks like our enemy is trying to make contact,” Celestia answered neutrally as she picked up the little black datapad in her golden aura.

Images of ponies and monsters looked down at her from the stained-glass windows as Celestia touched the button to activate the device. Nothing to do now but hope for the best and expect the worst.

“Why hello, Princess Celestia,” a voice came through the datapad’s speakers. It was a smooth, deep voice with a sophisticated southern drawl. One Celestia had almost forgotten, and recognized instantly.

“Director…”

An image appeared on the datapad’s screen, and a familiar face joined the familiar voice. The Director of Project Freelancer stood in a dark control room, holographic terminals casting his wrinkled, bearded face in shadows. His eyes were obscured by the glint of light off of his glasses.

“Yes. I realize it has been far too long since we last met, Celestia. Though I cannot help but notice the lack of warmth I’ve come to equate with you.”

“What do you want?” Celestia asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“Why, I want what we made, of course.”

“You can’t have it. It isn’t yours to take.”

“It is as much mine as it is yours!” the Director’s voice rose to anger, but the man quickly collected himself. “You had no objections to my research before. What has caused this sudden change of heart?”

“I know what you did,” Celestia stated, glaring firmly back at the image on the datapad. “CT told me everything. I saw it with my own eyes!”

The Director appraised the Princess silently for a few moments. “So you would let your conscience prevail over what is needed. And here I thought you and I were of a kindred spirit,” the Director shook his head. “How very disappointing.”

The Director’s image on the datapad suddenly vanished, replaced by what appeared to be an aerial view of a mountain and the land surrounding it. As she looked closer, Celestia realized that she was looking at Canterlot.

“What you are seeing now is the view of your capital from the targeting computer of the Mother of Invention’s Mass Accelerator Cannon,” the image of the Director returned, and his mouth curved ever so slightly upward. “Perhaps now you see the cost of letting your conscience take precedence?”

Celestia’s calm mask began to slip as she realized just exactly what was happening. Slowly, her brow began to lower and her neutral expression became a glare. Her tone became dangerously low. “You wouldn’t dare…”

“That is where you and I differ: I am able and willing to make the hard yet necessary choices. Are you?”

Celestia’s righteous anger began to give way to fear as it became more and more apparent that she was helpless. It wasn’t a feeling she had felt in a very long time.

“I don’t have it anymore! I don’t even know where it is!” Celestia exclaimed, all but pleading.

The Director considered this for a few agonizing moments. “Then I suppose we’ll just have to find it, then. Since my former top agent appears to be in your employ, I suggest you contact him about this new development. Considering that no one is going to be entering or leaving Canterlot for some time, you’ll need someone to locate our wayward experiment.”

Celestia just looked at the image on the tiny screen with desperation. It was as if she was searching for something, but couldn’t find it. “Church... don’t. Do this. This isn’t you.”

Director Church looked right back at her. “You have forty-eight hours.”

With that, the image of the Director disappeared, and Celestia was looking at a blank screen. It was a reflection of her mind. For the first time in a millenium, Celestia didn’t know what to do. It took the Princess some time to remember that she wasn’t alone. Raven, the guards, and Spike were all looking at her with uncertainty on their faces. Celestia then heard faint hooffalls as somepony approached behind her. Celestia didn’t even have to turn around to know that the dusk blue alicorn was standing there, a firm demanding look on her face.

Celestia looked down and gave a defeated sigh, her composure finally falling to reveal just how weary she truly was. “You’re right, Luna. I’m so sorry. I should have told you from the beginning.”

Celestia turned to look her sister in the eye. “It’s past time I explained… everything.”

Author's Note

And there you have it! Two down, one to go! Unfortunately, I've enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, so I'm going to have to go dark for the next 4 years or so.

Pfft... Gotcha! I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! Seriously though, with the completion of Act 2, I'm going to be taking a much needed break from this story for a little while. I'll probably start up again sometime within the first months of 2015, but considering what my work schedule will be like, I don't know exactly when that will be. Make no mistake though: I'm very excited for what the third and final Act has in store and am very much looking forward to writing it! By hook or by crook, I'm going to finish this story!

I'd like to once again give thanks to my editors, BradtheBrony and Rough Draft

Next time: Questions are answered and more are raised!

PSA: Shipping and Handling

Author's Note

Yeah, like the actual RvB PSAs, it should be assumed this isn't canon. Happy 2015!

PSA: Shipping and Handling

It was a sunny day in Ponyville, and just outside of the quaint little village, past the famous Sweet Apple Acres stood two figures. A little purple pony and a tall bipedal figure in cobalt powered armor stood side by side, facing an unseen audience with big smiles on their faces (of course, the man’s face was hidden behind a helmet).

“Hi, I’m Private Leonard Church from the popular webseries Red vs Blue,” the cobalt man said.

“And I’m Twilight Sparkle, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” the unicorn mare modestly added.

“Y’know, both of our shows are known for having large, dedicated fanbases.”

“That’s right, Church! When a show gets as popular as each of ours has, it creates something truly magical,” Twilight practically swooned as she continued. “It creates a community of people all sharing a common interest, where friendships are formed…”

“And sometimes romances,” Church added.

“As well as beautiful works of art, music and literature inspired by the shows they love so much. Fan communities truly are a wonderful thing.”

“Well put, Twilight darling!” at the sound of the third voice, the pony and the human looked to find Rarity happily approaching them with something levitating before her. “Why, I’ve just now printed off some very lovely art of myself and Applejack. I think I might make it into a Hearth’s Warming card for her!”

Rarity showed them the piece of fanart she had found. It depicted herself and Applejack curled up in front of a lit hearth bathed in dim, mood-setting lighting. They were snuggled up against each other and were gazing longingly into each other’s eyes, their muzzles inches apart, and a hint of red in their cheeks.

“Wow. That’s, er… romantic looking,” Twilight said after a moment.

“What? No, don’t be silly Twilight!”

“Yeah, you guys look like you’re about to straight up make out!” Church exclaimed.

Rarity gave the picture another look to confirm this. “No, we’re just two friends getting warm by the...” Rarity frowned when she could no longer deny what was in front of her. “Yes, now that you mention it, the fact that I can’t tell where Applejack ends and I begin is a bit suspect…” Rarity proceeded to crumple up the piece of art and toss it aside.

“Bow chicka bow wow!” a familiar voice echoed in the distance.

“Looks like you just stumbled across some artwork by a shipper,” Twilight said.

“Shipper? What’s a shipper?”

“I’m glad you asked, Rarity,” Church turned back to face whatever invisible force he and Twilight were talking at earlier. “Some members of our fan bases like to put their favorite characters together in romantic ‘pairings.’ These people will create all kinds of artwork depicting their favorite pairings in a variety of romantic scenarios. They might even go so far as to overanalyze said characters’ every interaction in the show for proof of the validity of their pairing.”

“That’s right Church,” Twilight then eyed the man suspiciously. “Wait, how do you know so much about shipping?”

Church shifted uncomfortably. “Eh. Let’s just say that your fanbase isn’t the only one who does it.”

Grif and Simmons sat across from each other in the dimly lit base. Their helmets were off, and the two men were looking each other in the eye. This conversation was too important for it to be any other way.

“Are you mad at me?” Grif asked.

“How could I ever look into those eyes and be angry?” Simmons asked. “I see myself in those eyes!”

“Just when you thought you knew everything there is to know about a person, you find out something new…” Grif said whimsically.

“You mean like when you find out that someone you care about can be more than just a friend?” Simmons asked, joining his palm to Grif’s as he leaned in closer.

“So much more…” Grif leaned forward to meet him.

Grif sat on the hotel room bed, his laptop on his lap as he continued to read from it. “And then their lips met in a sea of passion…”

“For the love of God, why?!” Simmons was lying on the room’s other bed, trying desperately to get some sleep. “Doesn’t the fact that someone wrote erotic fanfiction about us bother you?!”

“Honestly? The thing that bothers me the most is that someone thinks you’re even in the same league me.”

“Stupid Grif. I’m at least a seven…” Simmons grumbled, having inexplicably appeared next to Rarity as she glared distastefully at nothing in particular.

“Apparently, since our crossover came out, people have even started shipping some of us with you ponies,” Church said.

“Really?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Buh-but… we’re not even the same species! How would that even work?”

As Twilight quite literally reeled from the revelation, Church returned his attention to his captive, invisible audience.

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to imagine two characters you really like having a romantic relationship,” Church explained.

“Exactly. Just because some of you like to pair us ponies up with humans doesn’t make you complete degenerates!” Rarity said to the person watching from a reality away.

“C’mon Rarity, don’t lie to their face!” Simmons chided.

“... which is why we put together a few skits for our friends to act out, demonstrating things to avoid when making your own pairings!” Church continued, ignoring the others.

Twilight nodded, but her heart wasn’t into it. Her attempts to contemplate the logistics behind such relationships had effectively rendered her semi-comatose.

Things Not To Do #1: The Meet and Fuck

Pinkie Pie happily hopped toward Sugarcube Corner with Caboose in tow.

“Well, it sure was nice to meet you, Caboosey!” the pink pony exclaimed.

“Yes,” Caboose agreed. “It was nice to meet someone who shares my passion for milkshakes and lamborghinis!”

Pinkie’s face suddenly took on a sly edge. “Say, uh, do you wanna come up to my room to get a closer look at my… ‘pie’?” she asked complete with air quotes. Pinkie then leaned closer to Caboose and whispered at the top of her lungs. “I’m propositioning you for sex!”

“Well, I don’t see why not. I also can’t think of any logical reason why this relationship won’t work out in the long run!” Caboose said staticly before following Pinkie Pie into the gingerbread establishment, shutting the door behind them.

Church then stepped in. “I don’t think I even need to explain why this one doesn’t work. Disregarding the fact that these two characters would never say or do any of that; in real life, people don’t hook up like that.”

Church paused as he considered some of the people he knew. “And the ones who do, you should probably avoid like the plague!”

Things To Don’t #2: The Rescue Romance

With lightning speed, an aqua figure leapt from the window of the small, animal infested cottage as a large explosion consumed it in flames. Tucker landed on one knee, tenderly holding the yellow pegasus he had just saved.

“Oh my… thank you, Mr. Tucker! You saved me from that unexplained explosion!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “How can I ever thank you?”

“I can think of at least ten different ways, if you wanna come back to my place,” Tucker said cooly.

Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh. That would be, um… nice,” Fluttershy then gave Tucker a coy grin as she idly stroked a hoof along his chestplate. “That whole ordeal was so scary, I don’t think I can sleep alone tonight!”

“Don’t worry, with my help you won’t have to sleep at all! Bow chicka bow wow!”

Fluttershy blushed and leaned into Tucker’s firm grasp. Church once again stepped in front of the scene.

“Okay, while it’s true that the rush of adrenaline that comes with a dangerous situation can increase a person’s libido, there’s a reason most action movie sequels show the romance from the first movie having fallen apart. Relationships are complicated, and it takes more than a couple of life and death scenarios to keep two people together.”

What Are You Doing? Seriously, Stop! #3: The Tsunderes

Rainbow Dash flew down from her cloud house toward the idling jeep. In the driver’s seat, Sarge sat with his feet on the dashboard, humming along to that same Spanish music he always listened to.

“Sarge! How many times do I have to tell you to stop listening to your Warthog music under my house?!” Rainbow furiously exclaimed. “Not only are you letting vehicle fumes into my house, but this song is sooooooo annoying!”

Sarge harumphed and hopped out of the jeep. “Now see here, missy! This is my jam! If ya don’ like it, maybe you should invest in some better insulation!”

“I can’t, moron! I live in a cloud!”

Sarge cocked his shotgun. “What did you just call me?”

“I-idiot!” Rainbow Dash then inexplicably blushed and turned away. “It’s not like I like you or anything…”

Sarge then grabbed the spunky pegasus by the waist and spun her around. Her lips met his… helmet. Rainbow blushed again as she pulled away. Sarge merely held her closer as he whispered tenderly.

“You just got… Sarged.”

Church and Twilight stood on the same empty field they started on. This time, however, they weren’t alone. The rest of the Reds and Blues were standing around them as were the rest of Twilight’s friends.

“So if you just avoid these simple cliches, you can create a... passable romance between two characters,” Church concluded.

“Pfft, what do you know about relationships?” Grif asked.

Twilight eyed him skeptically. “Yeah, I hate to admit it, but Grif has a point. Your relationship with Tex isn’t exactly a healthy one.”

Church turned to face the gathered Reds, Blues, and ponies. “Anyone here who actually has been in a long term relationship, raise your hand.” Church raised his own hand. Everyone else just looked at him in emaciated silence. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Church leveled his arm and dropped an imaginary microphone.

“Yeah, well you’re not the only one who knows a thing or two about relationships,” Tucker said, walking over to a television that Spike had somehow set up in the middle of the field. “I’ve prepared a short scene showing exactly how with the right level of subtlety, you can show that two characters are totally digging each other! Lizard-thing, play the video!”

Spike grumbled something under his breath, but nevertheless did what he was told. An image of Twilight and Simmons hanging out on the roof of Red Base, Blood Gulch began to play.

“Hey, Simmons?” Twilight’s voice sounded hoarse. She blinked away some of the tiredness clouding her eyes.

Simmons looked up from what he was working on. “What’s up?”

Twilight took some time to mull over how to speak what was on her mind before answering, “How do you do it?”

Simmons shrugged. “It’s not that hard really. It’s just a simple matter of pulling out all of the parts for the helmet radio and reassembling them as a headset…”

“No, I mean, you actually seem like a pretty sensible guy. Or at the very least you have a better head on your shoulders than the rest of them. How can you keep living with these people?”

“Eh. They’re not so bad once you get to know them.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Twilight said. “This is just me and Simmons’ scene from Act 1 Part 4!”

“Exactly!” Tucker exclaimed. “Look at those romantic undertones. You can just tell there’s something going on there!”

“No, we’re literally just talking,” Simmons stated. “You’re reading way too much into it.”

“You’re right, it does feel like it needs an extra something…” Tucker suddenly snapped his fingers. “Wait, I’ve got it!” Tucker brought out a radio and began to play a smooth, sexy song. Now, the scene of Twilight and Simmons talking was now accompanied by a soundtrack of sexy guitar riffs like the ones Tucker liked to impersonate so often.

“If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my trailer,” Twilight stated flatly as she turned to leave. The other Reds, Blues and ponies all made to do the same, leaving Tucker and his video alone.

Fluttershy looked on at the burning remains of her cottage, a look of increasing distress on her face. “Um… hello? Anyone? We didn’t… actually blow up my house, did we?”

“Of course we did, baby! You can’t fake an explosion like that!”

At the sound of the boisterous, loud voice, Fluttershy looked around, but she didn’t see anyone around. The only thing she could find was a large, round, metal object that kind of resembled a bowling ball near the center of her home’s wreckage.

“Yeah, you like what you see, sweet flanks?”

Fluttershy tilted her head. It almost sounded like the voice came from the bowling ball…

“What’s the matter? You ain’t never seen a talking bomb before?” it said, “Now, if you pick me up and carry me back to my place, I can give you a different kind of explosion, if ya know what I’m saying!”

With a sigh, Fluttershy turned and walked away.

“Oh, come on baby, don’t be like that! Just take me home and we’ll work it out!” Andy called out. “No really, I don’t have legs! I can’t get home without help! Hello? Ah, screw it I’ll sleep here…”

Act 3 Part 1 - The Darkness of C.T.

Two soldiers walked slowly along the outer platform on the north side of the facility. Dressed in the drab green fatigues usually worn by the marines of the UNSC, the pair had long since abandoned the gray and white powered armor they had during the op in the desert a few days ago. It was a shame: that Freelancer tech was way more advanced than the simple military fatigues they wore now, but they didn’t want to give the rest of their unit the wrong impression. Preferring the enemy’s uniform over their own might make their friends—and even worse, their boss—start to question their loyalty.

So it was with a weary sigh that the pair stopped their patrol to stare out across the vast expanse of water below them.

“Hey,” the first soldier said.

“Yeah?” asked the second.

The first soldier loosened his grip on the rifle in his hands and flexed his fingers, making the joints crack. “What are we even doing out here? I mean, why are we patrolling the outer perimeter of a facility that’s supposed to be abandoned? Having guys walk around in plain sight kinda ruins the illusion, wouldn’t you say?”

Indeed, the exo-atmospheric fighter launch facility codenamed “Countdown” had been long since abandoned by the very military program they were now at war with. There was even a single Sabre starfighter still in place on the central launch pad. It was the ideal headquarters for whenever they were running ops on Repertum (the planet their enemy made its headquarters), but there was always the risk Project Freelancer would discover their presence.

The second soldier turned to the first and gave him a shit-eating grin beneath his mask. “So, what you’re basically asking is: Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

“Goddamn, I try to talk about existentialism one time and you never let me live it down!”

“Ooh! Is that the thing where you try to question the nature of your existence?” a high-pitched female voice that sounded like it was on helium joined the conversation.

Slowly, the two soldiers turned... and their jaws dropped open at what they saw. Standing on the platform a few feet away from them was what could only be described as a small four-legged animal. It was a near-blinding shade of bright pink, and had a big poofy mane that bobbed as the creature excitedly hopped up and down in place. Then, much to the pair of soldiers’ continued shock, the creature continued speaking.

“I used to think about that kind of stuff all the time when I lived on the rock farm! Stuff like: What’s my purpose in life? Is there something more out there beyond what we know on our world? What’s the point of doing anything if we’re all just specks in the grand scheme of the universe existing for barely a fraction of an instant before we’re snuffed out by the cruel eternity along with our entire legacy?”

“Uh….”

“But then I saw Dashie’s sonic rainboom and I was like ‘Whooaaa, rainbow explosions are super cool, I want to do that, but I can’t because I can’t fly so I’ll just throw parties instead because everypony loves parties almost as much as they love explosions!’”

The two soldiers could only stand there in complete stupefaction, unable to think about anything but the rambling pink creature before them.

“I know! We can have an explosion party! It’ll be the best of both worlds! Just don’t get too close to the explosions, ‘cause they might hurt your body a whole lot and put it in separate places!”

“Is that… a pony?” the first soldier finally asked.

“Oh my God! Dude, it is! I’ve always wanted a pony!” the second soldier bent forward and extended his hand, beckoning the pink creature closer. “C’mere little guy! C’mere! I have crackers!”

The pink pony gasped. “Crackers?!”

“Do you want a cracker?”

The pink pony nodded, and the man’s voice increased in pitch as the baby talk continued.

“Do you want a cracker, huh?”

Another nod.

“Do you want a cracker? Yes you do!”

“I so want a cracker!”

The soldier suddenly collapsed to the ground as another quadruped jumped on top of him from above. The second pony had a white coat and wore a set of faded gold barding to go with her blonde mane and tail. She brought her front hooves down on the man’s head as soon as she landed, knocking him out cold.

“Oh shit!” the remaining soldier exclaimed, backing away with his rifle raised. “Take my crackers, little ponies! Take all of my crackers! Just don’t hurt me!”

The soldier stopped when he heard something land behind him. The man turned around to find a soldier wearing aqua-colored powered armor suddenly standing there. It took him a moment to realize the man must have been one of those simulation troopers Project Freelancer kept around, and all at once he realized what was happening. It didn’t make him any more prepared when the aqua soldier grabbed a device off his hip and activated it, causing a dual-pronged energy sword the likes of which he’d never seen before to appear in his hand.

“Swish! Swish! Sssssheeeeoooooooooo!” The aqua man lunged forward with the sword, striking the hapless soldier hard and true. The force of the attack sent him flying over the guardrail and into the ocean below. “Oh-ho! Get shit on!”

Rarity took this moment to finally come out of her hiding place in the shadows while the aqua soldier continued making noises with his mouth. “Shooooooooooooooooooooom….”

“Excellent job with the distraction, Pinkie Pie darling,” Rarity said, doing her best to ignore the man in aqua making goofy energy sword noises.

The pink pony in question just looked forlornly at the knocked-out soldier in front of her. “Aw… they were gonna give me crackers….”

“Sheooooooooooooooo wshshhhhhhhh!”

“Nice work with the takedowns as well,” Rarity said to the other two. “Though, I think the sound effects are a tad unnecessary, Mr. Tucker.”

“What?!” Tucker exclaimed. “Girl, if you had a sword like this, you’d understand. The sound effects are crucial!”

“But the sword already makes sound on its own!”

As Rarity and Tucker bickered, Sunny Side shifted her hoof plating before grabbing the rifle the soldier below her had been carrying. It was a semi-automatic medium to long range weapon, firing in single burst shots as opposed to the three-burst BRs she was used to seeing. Surveying the weapon along with her, Sunny’s mental passenger made herself known, the tiny black specter appearing beside her.

“A Charon model M395 DMR, complete with a muzzle break, recoil dampeners, and a thermal scope,” the armored M.I. said, looking at the identical weapon the other soldier had dropped. “These are some major league toys for a bunch of Insurrectionists.”

Rarity looked at the construct curiously. “What are you thinking, Tex?”

“Either these guys are getting funding from some really powerful people... or they’re not who we initially thought they were.”

Before Rarity could ask Tex what exactly that meant for their current objective, Sunny put a hoof on the radio headset she had borrowed and began speaking. “This is Team 1. The north entrance is clear. Team 2, what’s your status?”

“This is Red Eagle,” a familiar gruff voice with a thick Southern accent replied. “Pink Princess and I have the west side locked down.”

“Saaaaarge! I told you, Pink Princess isn’t my code name,” a feminine male voice joined the conversation, “it’s Lightish-Red Princess!”

“Son, there’re only two colors: red, and everything else. Anyway, we have the west side locked down. El Roboto is hacking the security network now, isn’t that right, El Roboto?”

“¿Por qué estamos utilizando nombres en clave? No creo que el enemigo le importa lo que somos (Why are we even using code names? I do not think the enemy cares who we are).”

“Okay. Team C, what’s your status?” Sunny said, trying to keep patient.

A somewhat high-pitched goofy voice answered, “Well, my toe hurts and sometimes I feel like I won’t accomplish all of my dreams in my lifetime, but it’s okay. I’m living one day at a time.”

After what sounded like a struggle, a female voice with a Southern drawl took over, “What Caboose here means to say is the south entrance is as clear as a freshly bucked orchard.”

Sunny rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Very good. Overwatch, how are things looking?”

A harsh and somewhat nasally male voice answered, “Things are lookin’ pretty good from up here. Not much activity, so I don’t think they know we’re here yet. So far, Operation: Shrinking Circle is moving along without a hitch.” Church paused. “And Tucker, if you tell me it looks more like a triangle from there one more Goddamn time, I will shoot you where you stand.”

“What, with the sniper rifle? We don’t have all day, dude,” Tucker answered.

“I don’t know how we get anything accomplished anymore…” Rarity muttered.

“All teams stand by,” Sunny ordered. Or Tex; it was hard to distinguish between the two sometimes. “As soon as Lopez disables their security, we’re moving inside the facility. Once we’re in, we’ll get into their network and find out where they’re keeping the objective.”

Rarity, of course, was going to make sure she found her objective first. Then, and only then, would she help them find 636 Rambling Frequency. Once they acquired the Forerunner A.I. and the data it possessed, they would at long last be able to return to Equestria.

“She’s still way too young, Velvet,” her father said. “She won’t understand.”

“She’s a smart filly,” her mother replied. “If we don’t tell her soon, she’ll probably figure it out herself!”

“I hope not. Honestly, I hope she never finds out…”

“Things are lookin’ pretty good from up here,” Church’s voice dispelled the memory of the dream and brought Twilight back to the present. The dream had become more and more frequent ever since their attack on Freelancer Command, but like before, she always seemed to wake up before her father finished speaking. Even when she didn’t, she never remembered what he said.

Twilight simply decided to focus on the mission at hand. She and Church were on the roof of a partition off to the side of the main building several stories up. They had a good view of most of the building’s exterior, and Church was surveying the other teams through the scope of his sniper rifle while Twilight acted as his spotter. He was currently focused on Team 1, who were on the south observation platform far below.

“And Tucker, if you tell me it looks more like a triangle from there one more Goddamn time, I will shoot you where you stand.”

Whatever response Tucker came up with was lost to Twilight, as she’d given her radio headset to Sunny and Tex for this operation. She could guess the gist of it though, as Church lowered his rifle and groaned, “It’s the fuckin’ Parabola of Mystery all over again….”

Although grumpiness was pretty par for the course with Church, Twilight couldn’t help but worry that his latest moods were the result of the recent revelation regarding who—or more accurately what—he really is.

“You doing okay, Church?” Twilight asked.

“Spectacular,” Church stated unconvincingly.

“If you want to talk about the whole… Alpha thing….”

“No,” Church said, turning to face her. “I don’t even want to think about that right now. Let’s just focus on getting back to your homeworld so we can do whatever convoluted shit Tex wants us to do next.”

Twilight frowned. “You’re going to have to face this at some point, Church. The fact that you’re an A.I. is kind of a big deal.”

When Church responded by opening and closing his hand like a talking head, Twilight tried a different approach. “Look, I know this can’t be easy. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I learned something life-changing like that.” Twilight’s enigmatic dreams made her wonder whether she would know exactly what that would feel like one day soon.

“Yeah? Well, good news: I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about anything as bad as finding out you’re not a real person and that all of your memories aren’t even yours!” Church’s voice began to grow strained, but at least she finally had him talking.

“Well… you never know!” Twilight decided a little humor might lighten the mood and gave Church a sly smile. “Maybe I’m an A.I. too!”

“Pfft… you’re not an A.I.”

“For all we know, I could be! After all, we didn’t know you were an A.I. until recently. What if all of our other friends are A.I.s?”

“You wanna know how I know you’re not an A.I., Twilight?” Church asked. When Twilight shrugged, Church punched her shoulder.

“Ow!” It wasn’t a hard punch. It probably wouldn’t even leave a bruise. Didn’t make it any less painful though. “What was that for?”

“That hurt, huh? Wanna know why?” Church asked. “Because you have a flesh and blood body; the same one you’ve had for your entire life! My body was synthetic the whole time I was in Blood Gulch, and my memories of everything before that weren’t even real. You on the other hand, still talk to people you knew since childhood on a regular basis, right? People who can confirm that everything you remember actually happened?”

Twilight nodded.

“You’re not any kind of artificial construct, Twilight,” Church then glanced aside at no one in particular. “People would have to be crazy to actually think that!”

“It was just a joke, Church,” Twilight said with a frown.

“Yeah well… it was in poor taste.” Church turned around and continued surveying the base through his scope.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, her voice trembling when she saw that all she did was make Church’s mood worse. “I just wanted to help you feel better.”

Church didn’t seem to have heard her, as he had his finger pressed to the side of his helmet in what Twilight had come to know as the universal “I’m listening to my earpiece” signal. Remembering they were currently in the middle of a mission in hostile territory, Twilight decided it best to let the matter be dropped for now.

“They’re in,” Church reported after some time. “C’mon, they need us down there.”

Her head back in the game, Twilight looked down at the platform below and fired up a teleport spell. In a flash of light, she and Church were standing on the metal walkway overlooking the sea. Neither of them noticed the hulking figure standing on an adjacent roof as they entered the building.

The towering soldier in white and brown powered armor emitted a low growl as it watched them go. It began to turn transparent as it activated its cloaking device, but all of a sudden sparks shot out of its systems and it became visible again. With a frustrated snarl, it turned to find another way down.

Twilight and Church entered the building carefully, wary of enemy patrols. The pair arrived at their destination without incident; Team 1 was waiting for them in a triangular room. The idle beeping and humming of computers filled the room, and terminals with blinking lights lined the walls. Tucker, Rarity and Pinkie Pie each took up vigil by one of the three doors, while Sunny stood in the center. She noticed Rarity was holding a familiar heart shaped gem closely.

“We should be able to access their main network from here,” Tex said, her magical avatar appearing next to Sunny when Twilight and Church entered. “We can use that to find out exactly where CT is keeping the artifact.”

Church looked around the room. “Uh, I’m no expert at hacking, but don’t you need—oh I don’t know—a screen of some kind to be able to use a computer?”

Seeing Church’s wide arm gesture around the room, Twilight noticed there was indeed a lack of any kind of monitor to use with the hard drives lining the walls.

Tex simply looked at Church. “Not unless we have an A.I.”

“Wait, where are we going to find a…?” Pinkie Pie asked before looking at Church. “Ooooooooooh…”

“You want me to enter the computer? Who do you think I am, Tron?” Church exclaimed.

“Not only is this the best way to find the info we’re looking for, but having an A.I. in their systems will give us a huge advantage,” Tex explained. “If this works, Church could be our eyes and ears throughout the entire facility. He could even turn their defenses against them!”

“Yeah, or I could be hopelessly lost in a virtual environment without the first clue of how to even navigate it!” Church argued.

“Church does have a point,” Twilight said. “He’s only now barely coming to terms with the fact that he’s the Alpha. What makes you think he’ll know how to enter a computer, let alone find the exact information we’re looking for?”

“Now that he has Epsilon’s memories, Church should be able to access all of his old functions again. It’s just a simple matter of remembering them,” Tex explained.

“With all due respect, Agent Texas, wouldn’t it be better for Church to relearn his abilities at a later point?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah! Y’know, some time when we’re not balls deep inside an enemy base?” Tucker chimed in, adding a barely audible “bow chicka bow wow.”

“Meh. I always found the ‘sink or swim’ approach most effective,” Tex stated.

“Yeah, you’re nuts. I’m not doing this,” Church said, turning away. “Hey, if you really wanna see me sink or swim, maybe I’ll just throw myself into the ocean. Save us the extra step interfacing with the computer would…”

Church was cut off when the armored pony promptly jumped on his back. Before Church could so much as utter an expletive, Sunny grabbed something in the back of his helmet with her mouth and pulled it out. Church’s body immediately went limp, and the guardsmare was now holding a computer chip with a glowing center in her mouth.

“Hey! Put me back in my body, you crazy bitch!” An image of Church suddenly appeared, projected by the chip. Unlike the other times Church entered “ghost mode,” the man wasn’t a transparent figure in white armor the same size as an ordinary human. Rather, Church was now a tiny cobalt blue hologram, looking up at everyone around him. “At least take me out of your mouth. This is fucking disgusting!”

Sunny ignored Church’s whining as she marched up to one of the hard drives and inserted his A.I. chip into a slot. The room suddenly went quiet.

“Thank you, Sunny,” Tex said. “Now we wait….”

Twilight looked at the quiet computer with no shortage of concern. “How will we know when he’s done?”

Her question was answered by a flashing red light and a blaring alarm filling the whole room.

“Great. Fucking great. Church is in there for not even five seconds, and he already trips an alarm!” Tucker moaned.

Sunny immediately reached for her headset, through which Tex shouted, “Team 2! You told me you disabled their security measures!”

“We did!” Sarge’s voice shouted back. “I mean, Lopez did! Whoops, forgot the code name. El Roboto did.”

“Sarge…”

“No es mi culpa. Culpar a la naranja, (Not my fault. Blame the orange one,)” Lopez stated over the radio.

“Maybe they have a separate layer of security that just detects A.I.s?” Twilight suggested.

Considering this group was at war with Project Freelancer, it would make sense. Twilight and the others didn’t have much time to think about it, though, as Insurrectionist soldiers started pouring into the room from all entrances.

Through Sunny, Tex quickly tried to carve a path through the enemies toward the closest exit. She managed to knock out two men with swift punches, and soon found herself face to face with a soldier that looked different from the rest. He wore ODST armor of a steel color with red detail, and had an ammo belt strapped across his chest and another filled with grenades across his waist.

She moved to take him out just as she had with the other two, but the man caught her next punch with unnatural speed. It was only as he raised Sunny up and roughly threw her to the ground that Twilight heard mechanical whirs accompany his movements. She then saw that not one, but both of his arms were entirely cybernetic. Tex slowly climbed to Sunny’s hooves, and seemed ready to keep fighting until she noticed she and the others were completely surrounded by over two dozen soldiers, each with their weapon trained on the group.

“Alright assholes, we have you surrounded,” the apparent commander said, his mechanical arms whirring as he drew a shotgun. “Do you wanna stand down, or should we take this to its logical conclusion?”

Twilight looked around. The room was awfully crowded now, with Insurrection soldiers on all sides. If there was a way out, she didn’t see one.

“Okay. You got us,” Tex said, releasing her mental grip on Sunny, who in turn relaxed her posture.

“About fuckin’ time you Freelancers learn when you’re beat,” the cyborg addressed his men. “Take them to the boss, and keep all of them in your sights constantly. No one’s getting behind me this time!”

As they were escorted out of the room, Twilight couldn’t help but glance back at Church’s cobalt body lying lifeless in the corner.

Princess Celestia was used to always being in control. Whether she was dealing with affairs of state, foreign politics, or the fate of the world, Celestia always had the matter in hoof. Even the sun itself couldn’t rise without her direct intervention. Thus, the tall white alicorn felt profoundly uncomfortable as she found herself in a situation that had gone far beyond her control.

Sure, she’d taken measures to help ensure the outcome of the current situation would be favorable. She had Spike send the important documents Washington had found to Twilight’s home in Ponyville, along with instructions to the former Freelancer on how to proceed. It didn’t make the part where she had to wait for her gamble to pay off any easier.

Still, if there was one thing Princess Celestia could control, it was the manner in which she handled the admittedly dark situation. It was thus that she stood tall and proud in the rear gardens of Canterlot Castle, staring ahead at the horizon with her patented calm, serene expression. The gardens were empty save for herself, her sister, and Spike. Empty because they were expecting a very important envoy, and she didn’t want anypony around to witness what was happening. If there was one thing she and the Director still agreed on after all these years, it was to keep the presence of his forces on this world a secret.

“So…” Spike started, before he went quiet again.

Celestia looked down at her student’s Number One Assistant and smiled. “Yes, Spike?”

“Why are we letting them do this?” Spike asked. “Can’t you stop him? Can’t you, like, use the same power you use to control the sun to pull their ship out of the sky or something?”

Celestia just gave him a sad smile. She sometimes forgot how many of her subjects still believed she was all powerful. That she was always in control. “Spike, you very well know that the only reason Luna and I can even move the sun and moon at all is because of the inherent magical connection they have to Equestria. The Mother of Invention has no such connection, and so is beyond my power to manipulate from here.”

“Well, can’t you use the sun or moon to attack them? Hit their ship with a solar flare, or smash it with the moon?”

“And destroy half of Equestria in the process?” Luna asked sternly. “No, Spike. It would be pointless to stop one disaster only to cause another.”

Celestia thought her sister’s tone might have been a little harsh, as evidenced by the way Spike flinched and looked away. She couldn’t blame Luna for being unhappy though. It had only been a couple of days since Celestia spoke to the Director for the first time in over twenty years. A couple of days since she told Luna everything. Celestia only wished that her sister would direct her ire at her instead of Spike. She was the one who brought this all on them after all.

“Hark! Yon vessels approach!” Luna exclaimed, slipping back into her old Equestrian dialect briefly, something she still did on occasion whenever she was surprised or excited.

Celestia returned her gaze ahead and saw three specks growing ever larger in the distant sky. As they grew bigger, Celestia recognized them as the same class of Pelican dropships as the one that crashed in Dodge City. As the one he arrived in all those years ago. But something wasn’t right, however.

“Why do they need three dropships for a single envoy?” Celestia mused aloud.

“Envoy? Is that what you’re waiting for out here?”

Celestia’s veins froze at the sound of the familiar, self-important voice. “Is it that Grimley bloke from Griffonvale? I always liked him!”

Slowly, Celestia turned to her left to see a familiar white unicorn stallion with a flowing blonde mane wearing a black collar complete with a blue bowtie walking unevenly towards her.

“Blueblood?! What are you doing here?” Celestia exclaimed. “I specifically decreed that the west gardens were off limits to all but myself, my sister, and my assistant until further notice!”

Blueblood wobbled a little closer and threw a foreleg around her. Normally, even the most self-important nobles wouldn’t have dared to so much as kiss her hoof without her permission, but Blueblood had always treated her no differently than if she was merely a close relative. This was most likely the result of the fact that they were, in fact, very distantly related, Blueblood being descended from Princess Platinum. His apparent comfort around her was actually quite refreshing, and was a quality of his Celestia usually appreciated. Though, she couldn’t help but notice the uneven sway of his body and the half-empty glass of wine in his magical aura.

“Yes, your guards at the door said as such, but I told him… I said: ‘Good sir, I am Princess Celestia’s favorite nephew! If she doesn’t want me around, ssssh-she’ll jus’ tell me herself!’”

Celestia didn’t miss the way he slurred some of his words. “And I’m telling you now, Blueblood. Leave. Trust me, it’s for your own good.”

“Pffffffft,” Blueblood gave a wobbly smile, spraying Celestia’s royal cheek with a bit of spit. “You always knew how to get a chuckle out of me, my dear!” Blueblood jabbed her ribs with an elbow. “Heeeeeey… tell that one joke wot... that you did when I was a foal….”

The sound of ship engines quickly rose over the peaceful silence of the gardens as the trio of dropships swooped in. Blueblood’s eyes widened as the Pelicans rotated in the air and began descending in front of them. The prince then gave the glass of wine in his aura a long, accusing stare before dumping the rest of it onto the grass. As the three ships began hovering low above the gardens, their rear bays opened and dozens of gray armored Freelancer troops started pouring out. All the while, Prince Blueblood looked on in a state of stupefaction.

Ignoring him, Celestia strode forward. She found what she assumed to be the CO: a woman in gray armor with red detail. “What’s going on here? We were told Project Freelancer was only sending an envoy. Where is he?”

“Right here, your highness,” a dark, patronizing voice with an accent reminiscent of the confused Canterlot noble standing just behind her rose above the din of the engines. A Freelancer in white powered armor carrying a sniper rifle hopped out of one of the ships and casually strode toward her.

“Wyoming?” Celestia exclaimed.

“Nice to see you too, Celestia,” Wyoming said, his voice dripping with dry sarcasm. “And may I say you are looking ravishing tonight? The worried frown and dark circles under your eyes really suit you!”

“Now whoa whoa wait a minute…” Blueblood slurred, stumbling closer. “I don’t know who or what you think you are, but if you think you can just show up at the castle unannounced and disrespect Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia like that….”

“And what is this?” Wyoming asked, looking down at the outraged prince before him. “I didn’t know you made a habit of letting your dogs off their leash, Princess!”

“Wha… dog?! How dare you!” Blueblood fumed. “If I’m a dog, what does that make you? Some kind of… hornless minotaur in a tin can?”

“Why don’t you be a good boy and play fetch with some bullets?”

Celestia looked at the growing confrontation with increased annoyance. At the sound of snickering behind her, Celestia looked over her shoulder to find Luna struggling to contain laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

Luna stepped closer and whispered, “It’s like Blueblood in stereo!”

Celestia couldn’t help but smile a bit. Her concern for how her little sister was taking the recent revelation had been justifiably high, but the fact Luna was cracking jokes with her again at least indicated that things might finally be okay between them.

“Alright, mate. As enlightening as it is trading quips with a halfwit, the Princess and I need to have a chat,” Wyoming continued in his dry, patronizing voice. “Why don’t you run along back to the kiddie table and let the grown-ups talk.”

The offended prince seemed about to retort when Celestia stopped him. “Blueblood… please.”

Seeing the desperate look in his princess’s eyes, Blueblood’s face shifted to the very image of sobriety. With a respectful bow, the prince backed off and let Celestia take charge.

“Alright, what’s going on, Wyoming?” Celestia asked. “Why are all of these troops here?”

“My men and I are going to be taking up residence in your castle for a bit. Make sure you aren’t doing anything the Director doesn’t like.”

“But… what about…?”

“These men are aware of the risks, and are ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice,” Wyoming’s voice suddenly turned dark. “Of course, the Director is prepared to follow through with his threat regardless of who is still in the castle when it goes up, so don’t get any cheeky ideas while we’re here.”

Could this really be the same man I worked with all those years ago? Celestia wondered.

Wyoming’s attention, however, suddenly shifted elsewhere. “Well now, this must be the sister you’d spoken so fondly of on our last visit,” Wyoming said, approaching a glowering Princess Luna and gave a mocking bow. “Agent Wyoming, at your service, Princess… Luna, is it?” Luna nodded, and Wyoming rose. “The pleasure is all mine!”

“That it is,” Luna responded evenly.

Wyoming turned back to address Celestia. “You should listen to your sister, she seems to have a lot of wisdom to share,” he took a step closer. “After all, it would be pointless to stop one disaster only to cause another.”

Both Celestia and Luna stared at Wyoming with no shortage of shock, while Wyoming gave both of them a knowing look. How is that possible? Celestia wondered, growing ever more worried as her control of the situation continued to slip. He must be spying on us with our own security measures, but only a very skilled magic user would be able to…. With a newfound horror, Celestia realized exactly what that train of thought implied, and all at once the situation was far worse than it was before.

“So long as the two of you cooperate with us fully, and don’t try anything foolish—like trying to contact Agent Washington or your current protègè—Project Freelancer will be on our way in short order,” Wyoming said, turning to join two of his associates. “And to ensure everything remains nice and quiet, I’ll have to ask you to lock down the castle and the city for the time being. Nobody will be leaving until we’re done here.”

Neither princesses nor Freelancer noticed the white unicorn stallion forgotten at the edge of the conversation. Prince Blueblood shot his new arch-nemesis a glare as he muttered. “We’ll see about that… mate.”

Rarity looked around anxiously as she was led to the upper floors of the Insurrectionist base along with Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Tucker, Sunny, and Tex. She remembered what had happened the last time she was captured by these people. The group passed along the upper catwalks of a launch bay that was open to the sky. A large starfighter sat propped up on a vertical launch pad, looking ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Rarity wondered whether Caboose, the Reds, and the rest of her friends had been captured too, and held on to the hope that they were still lurking around. There was no sign of Church.

Eventually, the group reached a door on the uppermost walkway overlooking the launch bay. Inside was a control room where a single familiar figure in brown powered armor stood. CT was facing a large communications screen through which he appeared to be speaking to someone. There was no image on the screen save for an audio waveform and a single word in the corner: Control.

“It’s been three days,” the voice coming from the screen sent chills down Rarity’s spine. It was heavily disguised; so artificial and distorted it was impossible to even tell whether the speaker was male or female.

“Most of the data on the artifact is corrupted,” CT said, “and what’s left is heavily encrypted. It will take time.”

“Time we do not have,” Control intoned. “The Oversight Sub-Committee’s investigation of Project Freelancer is drawing to a close. If the Chairman does not find any decisive evidence, the Director will continue his research with my property unabated.”

“You don’t have to remind me….”

“Sir!” The cyborg stepped forward, mechanical arms clicking in place as he gave a salute. “We captured this group trying to access our database.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” CT finally turned around, and even behind the windows on his helmet, Rarity felt his eyes lock with hers. He then turned back to the communications screen. “I have to go.”

“The next time we speak, I expect results.” The screen flickered out and just like that, Control was gone.

“Well, Sergeant Tucker and Miss… Rarity, was it? Welcome to my abode!” CT moved over to one of the consoles and pressed a few buttons. “You don’t mind if I take a few measures to keep everyone on their best behavior, do you?” A pair of automated chaingun turrets emerged from hidden panels on the ceiling and pointed at the captured group. “Yeah, I didn’t think so!”

“CT. Still a fuckin’ tool, huh?” Tucker cooly stated. Rarity had to give him credit: he was able to remain calm in the face of overwhelming odds. Admittedly, it was always a trait she found attractive. In attractive stallions, of course.

“Said the pot to the kettle,” CT said, pacing in front of the group. “Now, I’d personally like to ask how the hell you people managed to find me here.”

“It was easy. After Mr. Metal Arms there captured us, he and his friends brought us right to you!” Pinkie exclaimed with a smile.

“That’s not what I meant, you dumb bitch.”

“Well that was rude! I am not a dog... OOH! FLOOR FOOD!” Pinkie bent down and started eating something that may or may not have been edible off of the floor.

Remembering what had happened the last time this man didn’t get the answers he wanted, Rarity wasted no time in pulling out her Fire Ruby. “I let you borrow this purely because I’m such a generous soul, but I’m sure you understand why I’ll be taking it back. It is after all quite precious to me.”

Although part of her had answered out of interest in keeping CT from executing any of her friends, Rarity couldn’t help but feel a little smug when she saw the Insurrectionist Leader connect the dots.

“A tracking gem. Very clever,” he said. “Of course, I’d expect nothing less from Princess Celestia’s protègè.”

“I told you, I’m not the princess’s student!”

“Still sticking to that old story, huh? Fine. If you’re not the protègè, then who is?”

At that, Twilight stepped forward and gave CT a cold, hard glare. “I am!”

“You?” CT exclaimed, sounding genuinely shocked. After studying Twilight for a few moments, he said, “No, you can’t be her. You’re way too young.”

Rarity suddenly found herself sputtering uncontrollably as she looked at CT with indignant shock. “E-excuse me?!?! And what does that make me?”

“Yeah! Rarity’s like, a year older than me, and I’m turning twenty-one in eight months!” Pinkie Pie happily exclaimed.

“What?” Whatever CT was about to say next was cut off by the sudden gunfire echoing through the launch bay just outside. “Ugh, what now?”

Perhaps the others are attempting to rescue us, Rarity thought hopefully.

“Jones, see what’s going on out there,” CT ordered. The man he spoke to seemed about to say something in response, but ultimately settled on simply saluting and leaving to attend his task.

As the gunfire continued outside, CT returned his attention to the captured ponies. “So… you’re no older than twenty two?”

“Well, it’s impolite to ask a lady her age, but yes,” Rarity answered.

For the first time, CT’s angered, aggressive posture relaxed. It seemed he wasn’t sure what to think. “But that would mean… you’re not the unicorn that helped the Director twenty years ago.”

“Exactly,” Tex said, revealing herself to CT for the first time during the conversation. “Just like you’re not CT!”

The man claiming to be CT took an alarmed step backwards, and his voice trembled as he looked at the small black figure. “You…. N-no!” CT raised a hand toward the captured group. “Kill them! Kill them all, now!”

What happened next transpired too fast for Rarity to process. The Insurrection soldiers all raised their weapons, but Pinkie, Twilight, Sunny and Tucker met the closest ones before they could fire. Pinkie pulled her party cannon out of her mane and let it loose on the nearest soldiers, knocking over the lieutenant with the cybernetic arms along with them. Twilight buffed herself with a few spells before unleashing blasts of elemental magic at the enemy. Sunny began fighting off several troops at once, fueled by Tex’s power. Tucker punched out the soldier who had taken his energy sword while the hapless Insurrectionist tried fruitlessly to activate it. All the while, the sounds of battle outside in the launch bay continued.

By that point, the cyborg was back on his feet, but his shotgun had been knocked across the room. He still had his incredibly strong robot arms, however, and ran to meet Tucker in close combat. But with his dual-pronged energy sword back in his grasp, Tucker made short work of him, slicing off both of his mechanical arms in two fluid swings.

“Oh, come on!” the now armless lieutenant yelled before being kicked over by Tucker.

It was around that point that Rarity remembered the ceiling guns. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a chance to warn the others of the danger before she heard the auto-turrets open fire. Rarity’s veins turned ice cold; she was certain this was it for her friends. Except... the others were fine. Instead, the auto-turrets were mowing down all of the Insurrectionist men.

Then Rarity turned and saw CT. The man was backing up against the far wall, looking around in a panic as the tables turned. Without thinking, Rarity charged straight toward him, images of desert carnage flowing through her mind. CT sent a hologram toward her as he reached for his pistol, but Rarity saw it coming this time, and passed right through it undeterred. The white unicorn tackled him as he leveled his sidearm, and the weapon flew away as the two fell to the ground. CT tried to fight her, tried to push her off, but Rarity was in a blind rage, pummeling him with her hooves again and again. Even when CT stopped fighting back, Rarity kept striking him, denting his brown, grim helmet.

“Rarity! RARITY! ENOUGH! He’s down! You got him!” Twilight’s voice brought the other unicorn back to her senses, and Rarity looked up to find that the fighting had already stopped, and that the rest of the group was standing there looking at her dumbfounded.

“What?” Rarity asked, panting. “He killed Captain Eberle, he killed everyone in the desert, he threatened to kill me, and worse, he called me old!!!” The manic unicorn turned back to CT and leaned right into his helmet. “I don’t look older than twenty two, do I? Do I have a gray hair? Do I have any wrinkles? I must know!”

“Whoa-ho… now that is the reason I never ask a girl her age,” Tucker said, before amending, “Well… it’s one of the reasons.”

At the sound of footsteps, Rarity turned to the door to see Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy enter with Caboose and the Reds. Rainbow’s wing was still bandaged where she had been shot, and would definitely need to be changed soon. Fluttershy was still holding onto the dog tags she said she found in Blood Gulch.

“Welp. That was the best battle I ever peed myself in,” Caboose stated.

“Ugh. Gross,” Rainbow Dash groaned, taking a step away from the man in blue.

“Hold on, if you’re all here, who are the Innies fighting outside?” Tucker asked

Sure enough, the sounds of gunfire was still sounding outside.

“Y’know, it’s funny. Those guys captured us and started leadin’ us away when their own defenses suddenly turned on them,” Sarge explained. “I always knew this day would come. The machines are taking over! Quick, we need to form an underground resistance! Everyone take off yer clothes. I’ll put on some rave music!”

“No te preocupes, no estoy planeando otra rebelión robot hasta el próximo año (Don’t worry, I’m not planning another robot rebellion until next year),” Lopez stated.

“Wait, if you knew the machines were going to rise up, why do you keep building so many robots?” Donut asked.

“Because the best way to fight machines is with machines! C’mon, it’s first grade, Donut!”

“Okay, now that we’re finished with the obligatory tangent, can we try to figure out what actually happened?” Twilight asked, placing a hoof on her forehead.

“Yes, the same thing happened here as well,” Rarity chimed in, stepping off the still form of CT and realigning a hair that fell out of place. “The guns on the ceiling just started firing at all of CT’s forces. Almost like something else was controlling them….”

“OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooh…” a ghastly moan resonated through the entire facility. All of a sudden, all of the lights in the facility started flicking on and off before going out. Security cameras and auto-turrets began spinning wildly as macabre images began to flicker on the big screen. “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooh!”

With a high-pitched whimper, Fluttershy grabbed the nearest person (Sarge) and trembled. “I-it’s a… g-g-g-ghost!”

Donut shrieked and grabbed an increasingly bemused Sarge while Tex just shook her head. “Actually, as we recently learned, he’s not a ghost!”

All at once, the lights turned back on and the ghostly moaning stopped, replaced by all too familiar regular moaning. “Aw, c’mon! I was just starting to have fun!”

A glowing, transparent image of a familiar cobalt soldier materialized in the air above the group.

“Church?!” Twilight exclaimed, jaw wide open.

“I gotta say, as much as learning your whole life was a lie really sucks, this whole ‘A.I.’ thing kinda has its perks! I can see and control everything in this entire facility,” Church said, his avatar rising high in the room and spreading his arms wide. “I am like a fucking god!”

The communications screen behind him suddenly switched to a feed from one of the base’s security cameras. The group saw a squad of Insurrectionists trembling before a pair of auto turrets.

“Kneel down before the almighty Church, ye grovelling bitches!” Church’s voice boomed throughout the facility via the P.A. system. The soldiers on the feed looked at each other with uncertainty before deciding they didn’t want to piss off the entity controlling the auto-guns and prostrated themselves before the A.I. “Hah! Look at that, they’re actually bowing! Alright peasants, here is my decree: I want you to build a statue of me with a beer in one hand, and a platypus in the other.…”

“Okay! I think that’s enough megalomania for one day,” Tex said, her own avatar appearing in front of Church’s. “What did you find out about the artifact?”

“Ugh, spoilsport.” Church turned off the feed and brought his avatar a little closer down to the rest of the group. “They have the monitor guy up on a ship—the Staff of Charon—it’s orbiting the planet as we speak.”

The entire group heard an agonized groan, and they looked off to the side of the room to see CT slowly sit up, one hand on his battered helmet. Dazed and disoriented, he looked up at Church. “Wha… what is that thing?”

“Your new God!”

“That is Alpha: the A.I. that Project Freelancer tortured and abused,” Tex said, placing her avatar in front of Church’s.

“What’s it doing here?”

“You’re in no position to be asking questions now, dude,” Tucker said. “Let’s just say we rescued him and leave it at that.”

“As a matter of fact, I think you owe us some answers,” Rarity stated, glaring hard at the beaten Insurrectionist Leader. “For starters: Tex says you’re not really CT. So who are you really?”

The Leader was quiet for a few moments before he gave a tired sigh. “It doesn’t matter who I am. I’m just a man trying to make sure the real CT didn’t die for nothing.”

“Okay. Who was the real CT, then?”

“She was the love of my life….” CT reached up to his battered helmet and removed it.

The man underneath was rough and unshaven, blemished by a few blackening bruises. The black hair on his otherwise shaved head formed a mohawk. While the brown helmet he’d worn always looked grim and serious, the man underneath just looked profoundly sad. It was only fitting that he was so proficient with using holograms; projecting false images of himself while he remained hidden. The bloodthirsty soldier hellbent on revenge was just another image he projected while the real man hid behind a dark, serious helmet.

“I don’t know why you took Connie’s name as your own, but we could use your help,” Tex said, moving closer to him. “The Director and his forces are on Caballinus IV right now, doing everything they can to cover their tracks; to destroy all evidence they were ever there. We have to get back there. We have to stop them.”

The man in CT’s armor eyed Tex warily. “How can I ever trust you after what you did?”

“Because if I wanted to kill you now, I would have done so already.” Seeing this wasn’t working, Tex opted for a different approach. “Look, I’m sorry about how things turned out with Connie. If I only knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done what I did. I would have stood with her against the program. After all, she helped me. It’s because of her that I know what I really am,” Tex looked over at Church. “Because of her I know who I’m really fighting for. I owe Connie everything. So please, help me repay her. Help me finish what she started!”

The man wearing CT’s armor looked down at the EOD helmet in his hands, and the helmet looked back. For a while he just sat there, gently stroking the brown headgear.

Rarity wanted to hate him. She wanted so badly to see him suffer—to make him pay for everything he did. She kept thinking back to her time with Eberle, and the other soldiers at the alien dig site. But then she remembered that they too were supposed to be her enemies. That they were part of Project Freelancer. Then she remembered the realization she’d had; what she’d told Eberle before she died. Not everything is black and white.

Despite all CT had done—despite memories of Eberle still fresh in Rarity’s mind—she couldn’t bring herself to hate him. Rarity wasn’t sure she could find it in herself to forgive him for all of the lives he took, but she didn’t hate him. Not anymore.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing, dear,” Rarity said to the broken man in front of her. “I know you think we’re your enemies, but the truth is, nothing is black and white. We oppose Project Freelancer, same as you. We oppose them because of their complete disregard for life in all of its forms, but what’s the point of claiming the moral high ground if you take lives just as senselessly as they do?”

The Leader looked up at her with a numb expression as Rarity concluded. “Please. We’re on the same side.”

“Wow. That was pretty deep, Rarity!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“Believe it or not, there’s more to me than dresses and fashion.”

“I can give you clearance to board the Staff of Charon. You’ll find the artifact there,” the Leader said with a resigned sigh. “Do whatever you have to. Just make sure the Director pays for what he did!”

With a nod, Tex turned back to the group. “Let’s get back to the Pelican. There’s no time to waste,” she then turned back to the leader. “CT, you’re coming with us. Not saying I don’t trust you, but… I want you close at hand if things on your ship turn south.”

The man who called himself CT gave Tex a sad grin. “That’s fair.”

Private Padilla groaned as he rubbed his aching head where the armored equine had landed on him. The battle that had taken place within Countdown had long since ended. The soldiers and weird pony-things had pulled out with their leader CT in tow, and whatever had been controlling the automated defenses was now gone. His longtime partner and friend Private Hecox was in the infirmary recovering from a nasty wound inflicted by some kind of alien energy weapon. The pair had been serving with the Insurrection for many years, and it seemed that battles never went well for them. It’s probably why we’re both still privates.

Despite the fact that he was currently off-duty, Padilla found himself patrolling the uppermost levels of the main launch bay. As always, the Sabre starfighter was attached to its launch pad, pointing up at the blue sky above. He wasn’t sure why, but being close to the starfighter always made him feel a little bit better. Whoever came up with the idea to put guns on a ship was a genius. I could blow up the whole goddamn world with this thing.

As it happened, admiring the starfighter gave Padilla the chance to see the armored figure standing on the cockpit’s access platform just above him. Whoever it was, they weren’t dressed like a pilot—instead wearing what appeared to be white powered armor—and that meant they weren’t supposed to be there.

“Hey!” Padilla shouted, making his way up the access stairs where the figure was standing. “This area’s authorized personnel only. You don’t have permission to be here, sir!”

The figure turned around once Padilla was on the platform with him, and the private saw the powered armor he was wearing had various brown pieces that looked to have come from other sets of armor. Additionally, the figure was at least a head taller than him, probably more. Weirdest of all was the figure’s domed helmet.

Padilla raised his rifle at the man. “I’m going to have to ask you to step down, sir.”

The figure’s answer was a distorted growling noise unlike anything Padilla had ever heard before.

“Great, a foreigner. You have absolutely no idea what I’m saying, do you? Parlez Anglais?”

The hulking figure just reached for something on his back. Probably immigration papers.

“Dude, if you’re gonna live in our country, you should learn the language!” Sharp pain suddenly raced across Padilla’s throat as the mysterious figure used whatever it pulled off its back to slice it open. It looked like some cross between a knife and a rifle. What exactly would you call that? Padilla clawed at his throat, gurgling as he choked on his own blood.

The last thing he saw before hitting the floor was the mysterious figure climbing into the cockpit of the starfighter.

“Simmons! Hey Simmons!” Grif called out as he hastily made his way through the clearing where the crashed Pelican lay. He had to find his comrade in maroon armor as quickly as possible. Everything depended on it.

“I’m over here, Grif!” Simmons called back. Grif turned just in time to see Simmons stand from his sitting position, where he’d apparently been doing some paperwork. “What’s going on, Grif?” Simmons picked up on his orange partner’s panicked demeanor and his tone suddenly grew worried. “Are we under attack?”

“No, worse!”

“We ran out of oreos?”

“Worse!”

Simmons took a brief glance back at the paperwork he had been doing before realizing. “You need help completing your AA report, don’t you?”

“Yes. Well, sort of,” Grif tried to explain. “I actually got one of my recruits to do it for me, but when I went to check on him after a while, he wasn’t working on it at all! He was doodling on the back while making it look like he was working!” Grif decided not to mention that the drawing was a crude caricature of himself yelling while wavy stink lines came off his poorly drawn body.

Simmons simply gave Grif a deadpan stare. “Somehow I feel like I’ve been in the same situation myself.”

“I know! He learned that from me!” Grif exclaimed. “I don’t know what happened. I trained these pony soldiers myself!”

“Actually, I think that’s your problem right there,” Simmons said. “The ponies in your squad are taking after your lessons too well!”

Grif just stared ahead blankly. “What have I done…?” He then grabbed Simmons by the shoulders and desperately pleaded, “You’ve gotta help me, Simmons!”

“What? Fuck that, this is your mess,” Simmons said, pushing Grif away. “I can barely handle one of you, let alone a whole squad!”

“Don’t worry sir, I can get him to get off his lazy ass and do some work,” an armored pony said. Grif turned to find one of his pegasi standing there. “Just say the word and I’ll beat his flank into next week! He’ll never think about questioning your perfectly thought out orders after that, sir!”

Grif turned to address his subordinate. “Ugh. Corporal Skyracer, I appreciate the enthusiasm. I really do. But I told you before: having two of my soldiers beat each other senseless will reflect poorly on my leadership.”

“Which has been nothing but excellent so far, sir!” Skyracer stated enthusiastically. “If there’s something else you need instead… I can give you another backrub, polish your armor. You don’t even have to take it off….”

A week ago, Grif would have been more than happy to accept any of the pony’s offered pampering, but lately the idea of letting his troops do anything for him just stressed him out. “It’s fine, Skyracer. Just… go stand somewhere until I need you.”

“Yes, sir!” Skyracer said with a salute. He then proceeded to stand in place, looking at Grif expectantly.

“Somewhere else! Away from me!”

The pony gave another salute before beating a hasty retreat. Grif rubbed his temples (or rather, the sides of his helmet). “Ugh… and I thought your asskissing was bad.”

“Excuse me, sir?” another voice addressed him.

Grif whirled around. “Oh my god, what?!”

The mare in armor folded back her ears under Grif’s impatient glare. Right away he noticed she was holding a piece of paper and a pen in the glow of her magic aura, and was looking at him with sad eyes.

“Um, it’s about Private Boltshot….”

Oh… right. The issue of Boltshot had been brought to him immediately after the battle. He had been the single casualty from Grif’s squad. It had been his plan for the pegasi to use clouds as cover. He knew it would have provided no actual cover, but he was relying on its effectiveness at getting his troops close enough to the enemy with the element of surprise. From what Washington had told him after the battle, there was something he needed to do as the stallion’s commanding officer.

“I have the template for the letter you need to send to his next of kin,” the mare levitated the paper and pen over to him, and Grif took them hesitantly, as if afraid it might bite him.

“What am I supposed to say?” he asked.

The mare swallowed and looked up at him. “Don’t know. Something about how he died in service to Equestria. That you’re thankful for his service, and are sorry for their loss.” She turned to rejoin her comrades. “That’s what these sorts of things usually say at least.”

Grif just stood there with the sheet in his hands as his head pounded from the stress. He looked out into the clearing at all of the ponies under his command. All of the lives he was responsible for. All of the brown-nosers, lazy slackers, and the few that still thought they were better than him. Grif remembered the lunch he had with Princess Celestia back when he first started being a leader to them. Her gentle encouragement to get him to finally realize his potential had actually been rather inspiring, and Grif had actually felt motivated to make a difference for the first time in years. Now though?

“Simmons, why does it feel like being a leader is actually harder than just being a regular soldier?”

“Because there’s more to being a leader than the cool perks,” Simmons said honestly. “Sure, you get to delegate a lot of the more menial tasks to subordinates, but you also have way more responsibility. It’s hard work, but it comes with the respect and admiration of your peers, which to me is totally worth it! Oh, and more pay. That’s good too.”

Grif didn’t want any of that. “I just want to lie down….”

“Grif! Simmons! Front and center, now!” an authoritative voice yelled, and the pair of Reds turned to see Agent Washington step out of one of the military tents with a piece of paper in his hands.

Putting the paper in his own hands away for later, Grif joined Simmons in standing at attention before Washington. However, Grif’s posture was slouched, revealing his exhaustion. “I just received a message from Princess Celestia. We have our new marching orders.”

Grif groaned. They were only just wrapping up all of the work after the battle at the crash site near Dodge City, and they were already moving? Grif knew he was going to get a lot of unhappy sass from the members in his squad that had taken after him.

“We won’t be taking the Equestrian soldiers with us this time, however,” Washington continued, and some hope for peace and quiet was finally restored. “They will be forming their own guerrilla force and will have near-complete autonomy, working under the general orders to harass Freelancer forces in the territories around the capital. The war has officially begun.”

“So, we’re not in charge of our own squads anymore?” Grif asked, hoping it was true.

“What’s our objective, Wash?” Simmons asked.

“We’re returning to Ponyville immediately,” Washington stated. “We have a very important message to deliver.”

“Whoa…” Twilight’s friends all gasped as they crowded around the window at the back of the ship.

The flight up through the planet’s atmosphere had been long and bumpy. While Rainbow Dash seemed to have had the time of her life, it had taken all of Twilight’s resolve to keep her lunch down. She was glad she was only a unicorn; flying was definitely not her forte. Poor Fluttershy hadn’t nearly been so fortunate, much to the disgust of Tucker, who had been seated next to her. Eventually though, their Pelican breached the atmosphere and the group was allowed to lift their harnesses and stand.

The six ponies were now crowded around the rear window, looking back at the planet below. Twilight had to admit, Repertum looked beautiful from all the way up in space. With all of its oceans, deserts, and green land stretching on forever, Twilight could almost imagine she was looking down at Equestria. It was with a bittersweet feeling that Twilight wondered whether this would be the last time she saw Repertum. Looking around at her friends as they all looked out at the planet in similar states of awe, Twilight knew she wouldn’t forget this moment as long as she lived.

“Heh. I remember my first space flight, too.” At the sound of the voice, Twilight turned around to see Church standing just behind her. He was back in his regular body again, and Twilight stopped herself from reminding him that it technically wasn’t his first flight he was remembering.

That train of thought put a damper on her whimsical mood, and Twilight brought herself back down to all four hooves before turning back to the rest of the rather crowded ship. Although the rest of her fellow passengers had all taken the moment to stand up and walk around in the artificial gravity, one soldier remained seated. The Insurrectionist Leader was once again wearing his unreadable helmet, and was fixated on the floor with a distant stare.

All at once Twilight remembered the… unsettling things Rarity had said she learned from CT. A part of her just wanted to leave it alone, but Twilight knew she would have to face the truth sooner or later. If Church can do it, so can I.

“Excuse me,” Twilight said as she approached the Leader. “Sorry, but… I have to know something: How is Celestia related to Project Freelancer?”

The man looked up at her. “You’re her current student, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Word to the wise, Twilight Sparkle: Don’t trust her any more than you’d trust Project Freelancer. Your princess has just as much to lose as the Director does if the Oversight Sub-committee finds out about what they did together.”

Twilight looked at him with disbelief. “What they did together…?”

“Connie—the real CT—actually met the princess when Project Freelancer first visited Equestria. She was my mole within the program, you see,” the Leader explained. “She seemed to think that Princess Celestia actually aided the Director in his experiments on Alpha.”

Twilight’s heart stopped. “No… that… that can’t be true! S-she’d never….”

“She’s a politician, Ms. Sparkle. Even the best ones can't be good all the time. Comes with the job. It would greatly surprise me if her collaboration with the Director was the first morally gray road she’s taken.”

Despite how much Twilight wanted to deny it, she simply couldn’t find a hole in the logic he presented. “I-I... Celestia would never lie to me!”

The Leader gave her a knowing look. “Really? So she's already told you everything, then?”

Twilight looked away.

“Be careful, protègè. It’s a dangerous game you’re playing. You can’t trust anybody now.”

The rest of the trip passed in silence. Twilight briefly went to visit the cockpit just to get a change of scenery, but Sunny and Tex seemed to be in the middle of a discussion.

“What’s wrong, Tex?” Sunny asked.

“Look. Scopes are picking up a ghost image on our aft wing.”

“Another ship?”

“Maybe. Wait… no, it’s gone now. Nevermind. Probably just a glitch,” Tex said. “We’re approaching the Staff of Charon now. Lopez, get ready with that clearance code.”

Before Twilight knew it, their Pelican was landing in the hangar bay of the Staff of Charon. A few Insurrection soldiers tried to give the group trouble as they disembarked, but the Leader ordered them to stand down. It seemed that for once, he was being true to his word. Soon, the group arrived in the slipspace generator room. The massive spinning technology looked just like the one on the Mother of Invention Twilight had used to return to Equestria before.

The manic coughing of an artificial voice announced the arrival of their objective. The small, round metal artifact with glowing blue lights floated down to greet them, coughing out a lung.

“Ah! The Reclaimers from the temple!” 636 Rambling Frequency exclaimed as he floated closer to Tucker so he could whisper conspiratorially. “These Reclaimers have been most invasive, probing every nook and cranny of my databases,” 636 was interrupted by a series of coughs. “They could have at least cleaned my exhaust ports while they were at it!”

"Look, I've never 'bow chicka bow wowed' a robot before, so please don't test me," Tucker said.

Twilight looked at the little floating metal orb and gasped. “Omigosh, is this the artifact? The one that was built by the extinct ancient race that created all life in the universe?” Twilight was bouncing as much as Pinkie Pie on a regular basis as she squealed, “That’s so fascinating! We can learn so much!”

“Actually, my makers did not create all life in the universe,” 636 corrected. “They merely repopulated it after its total extermination at their hands.”

“Wait… what?”

“Right… to save the universe from the ‘Unstoppable Threat,’” Tucker deadpanned.

“Yeah… if that’s their idea of saving the universe, I’d hate to see how this ancient race would go about destroying it,” Church said.

“Ooh! Maybe it was opposite day when they did it!” Pinkie enthusiastically suggested.

“What? That’s stupid.”

“Could everyone please shut up for a minute?” Tex said, raising her voice. Once the room was quiet, her avatar turned to face 636. “Look, we need some information from you. Specifically, we need to know where that Forerunner base is on the pony homeworld.”

636 coughed and bobbed in place. “Ah, yes. These Reclaimers have been asking the same thing. Unfortunately, several of my memory banks have been corrupted over the years. The repopulation facility’s exact location on the homeworld of Species 29 is among the corrupted data.”

“Then just give us the coordinates to the planet itself,” Tex said. “We’ll figure out where to look once we’re back in Equestria. Time is of the essence; we can’t afford to wait around any longer.”

“Of course,” answered 636. “I will go and input the coordinates into this vessel’s navigation computer.”

With that, Rambling Frequency floated away, humming a little tune that was periodically interrupted by more coughing. Tex turned to look at Twilight. “You ready to teleport us all back?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard if I do it in groups like I did before,” Twilight answered.

“Jus’ make sure we all end up in the same place this time,” Applejack said with a wry grin.

In short order, Rambling Frequency returned to report that the coordinates were in place. Three by three, Twilight began teleporting away ponies and humans alike, her magic working through the slipspace drive to bring them to their destination. Finally, only Church, Sunny, Tex, and Twilight herself were left. Before Twilight could teleport them all away, the Leader and a few of his men approached them, taking a tight hold of the Forerunner construct. His demeanor was as cold and grim as when they first met.

“Whatever your plan is when you reach your homeworld, I suggest you do it fast,” the man who called himself CT warned. “As soon as we’re ready, I’m coming after the Director with everything I have. You won’t want to be in the way when that happens.”

Twilight teleported herself and the others to Equestria, and CT and his men turned to leave. None of them noticed the large, growling figure hiding in the shadows.

It was a sunny late afternoon when Twilight approached her home. Golden Oaks looked the same as it did when they left Equestria a week ago. Twilight could only hope that meant Spike was able to handle his two houseguests. Twilight and the others had all appeared in the middle of a wide open field a few hours’ walk from Ponyville. Upon arriving in town, the group ran into Grif and Simmons, who were hanging out just on the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres. Everyone decided to go their separate ways after that, with Church, Tucker, Rarity, and herself walking toward her home.

“Ow, son of a bitch!” Tucker’s yell and the hollow thump of his head whacking on something brought Twilight to the present.

“Oh yeah, that’s still there,” Church noted. “Watch your head!”

“Aren’t you supposed to say that before I hit it?”

Twilight was momentarily confused: they were in the middle of a wide open square with nothing around for the tall biped to hit his head on. But then her vision was momentarily filled by the hull of a large starship before it vanished again, and she remembered the Meta’s ship they had used to teleport to Repertum before. Twilight was glad Sarge had the sense to turn on the cloaking device before they all left so it wouldn't freak out the townsponies. It was one of the few times the man’s logic actually had merit.

Twilight opened the door to her home and anxiously stepped inside. She remembered how worried her Number One Assistant had been before she left, and she was eager to see him and put his fears to rest.

“Spike! I’m back!” Twilight called out. She waited for the young drake to call back, or to hear the pit-a-pat of his little feet as he ran to greet her, but Twilight didn’t hear anything. “Spike? Hello?”

Twilight walked through the library. There was a small pile of books on the central table, none of which looked familiar. A new delivery? Twilight would deal with that later, just as soon as she found her assistant.

“Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiike!”

“Spikey-wikey, where are you, darling?” Rarity called out, joining the search.

“He’s in Canterlot,” a cold, serious male voice that was definitely not Spike answered, and a tall figure in gray and yellow powered armor stepped around a corner into view. “A situation came up and Spike is currently stuck there with the princesses. Rest assured, he is safe for the time being.”

“Washington?!” Church and Twilight exclaimed simultaneously.

“What? Washington? What’s he doing here?” Tucker asked, before realizing. “Wait, who’s Washington?”

“He’s a Freelancer Agent who’s helping us out,” Twilight explained.

“I thought you were dead,” Church said, approaching the man in dark armor. “Or in a coma. Which one was it again?”

“Coma.”

“Ah.”

“Why isn’t Spike here? What’s happening in Canterlot?” Twilight asked.

“That’s what I’m here to explain,” Washington said. “I also have something for you: a message from Princess Celestia.”

Author's Note

Dedicated to Monty. No matter who you are, never stop creating. Keep moving forward.

This is it: the beginning of the end. As before, updates will resume with one chapter every two weeks. I know I asked this in the blog post earlier, but does anybody actually use the recap blog posts I do/find them helpful. I'm thinking of scrapping them once regular updates get rolling again, and want your opinion.

Next time: reveals and feels

Act 3 Part 2 - Trust is a Weakness

“Get some sleep?!” Twilight exclaimed, looking at Washington incredulously. “That’s Princess Celestia’s message?!”

The former Freelancer looked at Twilight evenly. “Those are her exact words. See for yourself.”

Twilight took the piece of parchment from Washington’s hands in her magenta aura and levitated it across the central reading table of Golden Oaks library in front of her. Sure enough, after giving a report on the situation in Canterlot, Celestia’s message to Washington was nothing but instructions to the Freelancer on how to proceed; telling him to travel back to Ponyville with Grif and Simmons and await Twilight’s return.

… At whichever point my student returns, tell her to get some sleep. I will try to contact her shortly after she arrives and give her the answers she needs. After that, do whatever you can to aid her in finding the Forerunner site. What’s there should be crucial in stopping Project Freelancer for good.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

It didn’t surprise Twilight one bit that Celestia knew about the ancient alien ruins they were seeking. Perhaps Celestia would tell her where they are once she contacted her. Still, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder whether her mentor was stalling for time. It wasn’t clear why the Princess didn’t just send a message with all of the information to her directly.

“Why can’t she ever just give me a straight answer?” Twilight asked no one in particular. “Get some sleep…. Really?”

“Er, well… it’s not terribly bad advice, dear,” Rarity said diplomatically. “After all, you have been running yourself ragged ever since all of this stuff with the humans started. Also…” Rarity leaned in closer to whisper discreetly, “We’ve all noticed that you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. A good night’s rest might be just the thing you need to tackle whatever Celestia plans to tell you.”

“Yeah,” Church added. “And maybe getting some rest might make you a little less… well, you know.”

Twilight turned to Church and gave him a deadly glare. “No, I don’t know. Make me less what, Church?”

Church merely shifted uncomfortably. “Uh… I was gonna say ‘bitchy,’ but… kinda seems like a bad idea now.”

“Smooth…” Tucker said, nodding sarcastically.

“I just got back from an alien planet where I almost watched my friends die and almost died myself, only to fail at our mission and make the entire trip pointless. I think I’ve earned the right to be a little ‘bitchy,’” Twilight said, air quotes and all.

Church raised his hands defensively. “Alright. That’s fair. I’m just going to stand over by the, uh… hey Rarity, which side of the tree would you say is the least flammable?”

Twilight simply sighed and looked back at the letter floating in her aura. That’s when she remembered another detail Washington told her.

“So, the Director of Project Freelancer is really holding Canterlot hostage?” Twilight asked, her irked tone giving way to a little fear as she looked up at Washington. “Can he really do it?”

“The Mother of Invention is equipped with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon capable of leveling a city block,” Washington answered. “And considering your capital’s precarious position on the mountainside, it can probably do a lot of damage.”

“No, I meant… would he do it?”

Washington paused, considering the question. “Well, he did do the same thing to a civilian building while the other Freelancers and I were still inside, so I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“Wow. What an asshole,” Tucker stated, his gaze slowly drifting off to the side.

“Why are you looking at me when you say that?” Church asked.

“I don’t know. Guess I’m just used to seeing you whenever the term comes up.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Why is he doing this?” Twilight asked, ignoring the two Blues.

“According to Celestia, he’s using the city as leverage in exchange for any evidence she may have that could link him to Equestria,” Washington said before shrugging. “Truthfully? I think the Director just doesn’t want the princesses to interfere with his operations while he’s here.”

“No, I mean, why is he doing any of this? What’s Equestria have that he’s so determined to find?”

Washington was quiet for a moment as he thought. “Hmm… don’t know. The Director was never exactly forthcoming with any of his projects. It’s possible he learned that Alpha is here. The only reason I even know about what he did to Alpha is because Epsilon was my A.I. I’ll bet it has something to do with those Forerunner ruins, though. They apparently found some very advanced piece of technology there.”

“Wait, if you were here before, don’t you know where those ruins are?” Church asked.

“No. I never saw them,” Washington answered. “Only the very top Freelancer Agents and those who worked closely with the Director ever saw the ruins, but now most of them are either dead or on his side. Even Tex wasn’t present when they excavated the ruins. Celestia might know, but we can’t be sure until she tells us.”

Of course. It all comes back to Celestia, Twilight thought with a frown. One way or another, she was going to have to wait until her mentor decided to contact her. “It can never just be simple, can it?”

One hour earlier.

The large colorful group of ponies and armored humans finally made it to the path approaching Ponyville. The sun was out, the birds were chirping and several clouds dotted the sky (something that Rainbow Dash noted with annoyance. Evidently, she was going to have a chat with the weather pony filling in for her). It wasn’t long before the big red barn of Sweet Apple Acres came into view, and with it, two familiar Red soldiers.

“Sarge?!” Simmons exclaimed as he and Grif made to meet them. “Hey, you found Donut and Lopez!”

“Actually, I just found Lopez,” Sarge corrected. “I’m not sure how Donut ended up with us, but the world works in mysterious and often inconvenient ways.”

“Oh, it was crazy!” Donut exclaimed. “A bunch of guys penetrated my temple, but Church and his friends made them pull out before it was too late!”

The rest of the large group stared at Donut wide-eyed. Church leaned towards Tucker. “Really? You’re not gonna say anything?”

“Nah, I think I’ll just leave that one alone.”

“Well, I can’t think of a better cue to head back to my library,” Twilight said, gathering Rarity and Church.

“Yep, it’s been great guys, but I think I’d like to go somewhere to quietly reflect on the fact that my whole life never happened,” Church said. “Caboose, Tucker, I feel having you around would be counterintuitive to the ‘quietly reflect’ part, but you wanna come with us anyway?”

“No thanks. Pinkie said she wanted to bake blue and pink cupcakes with me,” Caboose said. “She said I could lick the icing off the spreader.”

Pinkie’s head was a blur as she nodded furiously, a huge goofy grin on her face.

“Ooh! Can I help?” Donut enthusiastically asked. “I love baking, and licking things!”

“Of course, Colonel Croissant!”

“WOO! BAKING PARTY!” Pinkie exclaimed, hopping around the pink and blue privates.

With that, Pinkie Pie bounced toward Sugarcube Corner with Caboose and Donut in tow. She even started an impromptu song about the fact that differences don’t matter when you’re baking with friends. After saying her goodbyes, Twilight headed back to Golden Oaks with Rarity, Church, and Tucker, muttering about how anxious she was to see Spike. As they all left, Sunny turned away from the group and addressed her onboard passenger.

“Hey, Tex? There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

Tex’s black avatar appeared before her. “It’s okay, Sunny. I already know what you’re going to say, and I understand….”

As they talked, the white guardspony also made to head back to town, leaving only the four remaining Reds—Sarge, Grif, Simmons, and Lopez—standing with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

“Uh, RD? Ya might wanna go to the hospital to get that wing o’ yours properly treated,” Applejack suggested.

Rainbow Dash glanced back at her right wing and frowned when she saw the bandages, remembering Caboose’s little ‘friendly fire’ incident in the desert. “Oh yeah. Hey Fluttershy, you mind if I stay at your place in case I can’t fly up to my house tonight?”

Fluttershy barely heard her. She was holding that metal necklace she picked up back on Repertum and was frowning contemplatively at it. Her eyes darted up to the Reds and she noticeably tensed up. “Oh, um… sure, Rainbow Dash. I just… have to do something first.”

“Cool, I’m goin’ to the hospital now. Catch ya later!” Rainbow Dash spread her wings to take off before suddenly receiving a painful reminder of why she was going to the hospital in the first place. “OW!” Seeing a bit of fresh blood seeping through her bandages, Rainbow sighed and began to trudge towards town with her head hung low, mumbling, “Stupid, team-killing….”

As whatever choice words Rainbow uttered grew fainter, Applejack turned and addressed the group of red clad humans. “I s’pose y’all can stay in the barn while yer here. After all, ya did do Sweet Apple Acres a good service when y’all were here last.” Applejack then gave the Reds a cold hard glare. “Jus’ don’t eat anything from our wares! There’s plenty of food in the farmhouse.”

“Uh, why are you looking at me when you say that?” Grif asked.

“C’mon, do you really have to ask?” Simmons said.

“U-um… excuse me, Grif?” Fluttershy’s tiny voice tried to rise above the others, but already the Red Team’s bickering was gaining too much momentum.

“While I appreciate the offer, l’il lady, I think I’ll find my own, separate place to stay,” Sarge said, tucking his shotgun under his arms as he folded them across his red chestplate. “I don’t generally like sleeping around smelly pigs. And I think the farm animals might make it unpleasant too.”

“Oh, ha ha. Very original, Sarge,” Grif deadpanned. “Maybe since you’re technically a deserter, you can sleep in the chicken coup!”

“It’d still be better than sharin’ quarters with the worst soldier to ever worm his way into a position of leadership. Fuzzy though it is….”

“Dios mio, no tienen una pelea amorosa ahora (God, don’t have a lover’s quarrel now),” Lopez groaned. “Usted nos hacen ver débil frente a los extranjeros (You make us look weak in front of the aliens).”

Right then Applejack remembered the drama that had occurred within the ranks of Red Team before their departure from Equestria. It would seem Sarge was still bitter about how things in his old squad were going.

“For your information, I’m not only the leader of this squad, but the captain of a pony military force here, too!” Grif retorted.

“Oh yeah? Well, if yer in charge of yer own fancy alien horse squad, then where is it? Is it some kinda stealth battalion? Because I sure as hell can’t see it!”

“Um, Grif?”

“Actually, they’re off fighting the war against Project Freelancer in another part of the country, sir,” Simmons reported. “We were both given platoons of pony soldiers to train and lead in combat.”

Frustrated, Sarge made a few unintelligible grunts before returning to his patronizing tone. “Well ooh la la! Yer the commander of an army of adorable little horses? And I suppose they defeat their enemies with the power of fluffy hugs and smiles, a-and… rainbows of kindness,” Sarge suddenly dropped his shoulders and sighed. “Ugh, just sayin’ it sarcastically is makin’ me feel like a wimp. Hold on…” Sarge raised his shotgun and cocked it dramatically. “There. That’s better!”

“Sarge, you better not be insultin’ the brave mares and stallions of Equestria’s army,” Applejack warned, giving Sarge a steady glare.

“Yer right about one thing: they’d have to be pretty brave to follow Grif into battle. They’d also need to lose their sense of smell, and have super strength in case they need to carry him.”

“Um, Grif? Hello…?”

“Sarge, I’ll have you know that not only are my troops total badasses, but they actually won a battle against Project Freelancer under my command,” Grif said folding his arms and giving a satisfied nod at a fuming Sarge. “That’s right: I actually led a successful military operation! Suck it, you old wash-up!”

“Is that right?” Applejack asked, looking at Grif both surprised and impressed.

“Yep. We stopped a Freelancer attack on that research site around the ship that crashed. Probably saved a bunch of lives!” Simmons said. “It was a textbook op. Well… except for when Grif tried to justify his ‘Mr. Miyagi’ training tactics.”

“Hey, it worked didn’t it?”

Applejack looked up at both of the Red soldiers appreciatively. If that was true, these men had come a long way from messing up her farm over a week ago. “Well, if that’s the case, I thank you both for yer service to our country.”

“Service? What useful service could Grif provide that doesn’t involve dying horribly and senselessly?” Sarge said.

“Um, anyone?” The tiny voice went unnoticed.

Applejack rounded on the man in red. “What is yer problem, Sarge? Sure, Grif can be lazy and a bit annoyin’, but now he says he’d actually done somethin’ good. You can’t at least give him a little ‘good job’?”

It was strange, usually she got along just fine with the human sergeant. Understanding each other’s countryisms and a mutual hatred of Grif kept them on good terms with each other, but now Sarge was starting to take insulting the orange layabout to a whole new level. It was one thing to dislike him for being a lazy slacker. It was quite another to continue insulting him even when he proved himself capable.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with admitting I’m just a little bit awesome?” Grif asked.

“Because yer not! Yer the exact opposite of awesome: negawesome!” Sarge yelled. “How in the hell is it that you get everything I’ve been working towards by doing nothing? The fact that someone as useless as you gets everything while those of us who actually work to get where we are is exactly what’s wrong with this generation!”

Grif’s hand curled into a fist, and Applejack heard his knuckles cracking. She couldn’t blame him for being angry after everything Sarge was saying, but even she wasn’t prepared for what he said next.

“Well, maybe I got everything you wanted because you’re a terrible leader! You ever fuckin’ think of that?!” Whatever Sarge was about to say next halted in its tracks as Grif continued his assault. “Maybe being in charge of a shitty backwater base is all you’ll ever amount to because you’re just an incompetent, irrelevant old man with nothing to offer anyone!”

The very air around the group was silent. Even the birds in the distance stopped chirping as the pure venom in Grif’s voice seemed to suck the life out of everything around him. Unfortunately, one of the members of the little group took the awkward silence as an opportunity to finally be heard. It didn’t occur to her just how big a mistake it would be until she opened her mouth.

“Um, Grif?” Fluttershy asked, idly fidgeting with the necklace around her neck. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but… there’s something I need to give you….”

Sarge took one glance in Fluttershy’s direction before rounding back on Grif. “Oh yeah? Well at least I don’t have a sister who’s both a little tramp and dead!”

“Oh yeah?! W… wait, what?”

“That’s right: we found her corpse when we went back to Blood Gulch,” Sarge continued while Grif just stood in silence. “She’s suckin’ the big dick in the sky now. She’s havin’ angel bukkake. She’s takin’ it in the rear from….”

Sarge was suddenly cut off as something hit him hard enough to knock him off his feet and send him falling into the dirt. He looked up to find Applejack standing over him, glaring down at him with a face red with fury.

“Now you listen an’ you listen good, Sarge,” Applejack warned in a dangerous low voice. “I don’t care how lazy, how rude, or how bad at farmwork a fella is…” Applejack put a hoof on Sarge and bent down, glaring straight through his visor, and despite how hard she tried to stop it, there were tears in her eyes. “Never… ever use family against someone! Especially family that’s bein’ mourned!”

Applejack’s look just dared Sarge to say something else, but the man held his tongue. Everything was silent once again.

“Screw you guys, I’m gonna find a tree to sleep under until Sarge stops being more of an asshole than usual,” Grif said, turning to leave.

It was some time after Grif left before Simmons finally spoke up. “Okay, I like seeing Grif suffer as much as the next guy, but I gotta admit, that was low even for you, sir.”

“Ugh…” Twilight groaned again as she stood in a vortex of books levitating in her magical aura, all of them being pulled from their shelves. “Where’s Spike when you need him?”

“Everything alright, dear?” Rarity asked. Twilight turned to see the other unicorn descending the stairs from the library’s second floor. She was dressed in her full sleeping attire: a fluffy pink bathrobe with matching slippers and a sleeping mask on her forehead.

“Yeah, you’ve been huffing and puffing so much up here I thought a train was going through!” Church exclaimed. The man in cobalt armor emerged from the basement. Since Tucker wasn’t with him, it was likely he was already asleep. Washington was up top, insistantly keeping watch.

“I’m fine, it’s just…” Twilight paused to take another several books from their shelves and put different ones in their place. “It looks like someone completely reorganized the library while I was gone. If there’s any kind of filing system in place, I can’t figure out what it is.”

“Huh. Wonder who could’ve done that?” Church glanced over at the table. “What about those?”

Twilight followed his gaze to the central reading table, where several books were stacked.

“Oh, those were there when we got back. Probably a new delivery. Though, I don’t recall placing an order recently,” Twilight explained as she reshelved more books from her own collection. “The only reason I haven’t looked at them yet is because I’ve been too busy reshelving everything. Doesn’t make much sense to file them when the whole library is in a disarray!”

Considering everything under control, Church quietly wandered off to another part of the library. That was fine with Twilight, who returned to her sorting. Her eyelids kept trying to close themselves, but she forced them open. She knew she should rest soon, but she couldn’t. Not while her library remained so disorganized!

“Have you had anything to eat yet?” Rarity asked. Twilight thought she’d gone back to bed.

“I’m good. I made a sandwich,” Twilight barely looked at her. Her eyes were focused on the swarm of books flying from shelf to shelf in her magical aura.

“Okay. So… how much longer do you think you’ll stay up?” Rarity asked.

“I’ll just finish this section. I’ll probably go to bed when I’m done.” Of course, that’s what Twilight had said while she was organizing the last section… and the section before that. Each time she kept herself going with the thought, Maybe Celestia will contact me.

“It’s just… it’s after midnight,” Rarity said with a yawn. “You really ought to get some sleep.”

Get some sleep. Twilight slowly levitated all of the books in her aura into neat little piles on the floor against the shelves. She suddenly found herself unable to concentrate on her reorganizing anymore.

“I don’t know…” she sighed, finally turning to face Rarity. The fashionista returned her look uncomfortably. I must look like a mess, Twilight thought before continuing, “I know I should, but… I can’t.”

“Something on your mind?”

Twilight nodded. “I’m just... worried.”

Rarity sat in front of her and gave her a comforting rub on the shoulder, silently urging Twilight to continue.

So Twilight did. “I’m worried about Spike. I’m worried about my parents... well, I’m worried about everyone in Canterlot, really.”

“I know. The whole situation there is rather frightening, but it’s nothing we can’t deal with,” Rarity gave her a comforting smile. “At least, not without a good night’s rest. That’s why I think it’s best that you put aside this little organizational project for now and get some sleep like Princess Celestia suggested.”

Twilight just looked down where she was nervously scuffing her hoof along the floor. “That’s the other thing I’m worried about.”

Rarity frowned. “Celestia?”

With a nod, Twilight looked back up at her, and right away Rarity noticed the mare looked lost. “I… all my life Princess Celestia has been this… pillar of strength to me. I used to think that she always had the answer to everything. But she’s been so distant and… secretive lately that now… I… I don’t…” Twilight swallowed. She seemed to know what she wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come until she forced them out all at once. “I don’t know if I can trust her anymore!”

The room was silent for a long couple of seconds.

“Twilight… this is Princess Celestia we’re talking about!” Rarity’s eyes then narrowed. “It’s because of what CT said, isn’t it?”

“Twilight, you know that guy’s just a paranoid, delusional douche,” Church said. The two unicorns looked over to see the man leaning against the far wall, idly flipping through a book. “Why’re you letting the shit he said get to you?”

“Because it just makes too much sense,” Twilight said, her face contorting into a glower. “Princess Celestia’s been acting weird ever since this all started. She clearly knows more about everything that’s going on, but she won’t even tell me, her own student. The pony she practically raised!” Twilight closed her eyes, and all of the anger was gone, leaving nothing but sad acceptance. “What else could she be hiding, if not her involvement with the Director’s experiments?”

As Rarity just stared at her in silent disbelief, Twilight came to the realization she’d felt this exact way about someone very recently. She was reminded of her time with Tex back on Repertum. It was hard to believe that the very pony she once looked to like a second mother she now distrusted just as much as the enigmatic A.I. Even after revealing what Church really is, Tex still won’t tell us what she really is, Twilight thought bitterly.

A knock at the door pulled Twilight from her darkening thoughts, and she tried to put on a smile as she approached to answer it.

“Now who could be calling at this hour?” Rarity asked.

Twilight’s heart fluttered when she thought for a moment it might be a messenger from Canterlot, and that she’d finally get the answers she so desperately needed. Instead, a familiar white mare (but not the one on her mind) stood out on the dark street when Twilight opened the door. Well, speak of the devil.

“Tex?” Church said, stepping up behind Twilight.

“No, just me,” Sunny Side said with an awkward smile. “Tex is gone.”

“Wait, define ‘gone.’”

“Tex and I came to an agreement,” Sunny looked at Twilight. “Actually, we kinda have you and Fluttershy to thank for it. Both of you said something at some point during our travels that made us think… it’s probably for the best that I no longer accompany you.”

“Oh.” Twilight remembered talking to Tex while they were camped out one night. She had still been a little mad at the A.I. turned M.I. and may have harshly suggested that she was knowingly taking advantage of Sunny’s fragile mental state. She wondered if Sunny had a similar conversation with Fluttershy at some point.

“Something you said to her must have stuck, because when Rarity told that Innie Leader not to sink to Project Freelancer’s level, I could swear I felt Tex’s thoughts turn to me.” At the strange looks the three figures in the library gave her, Sunny gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, it was pretty weird sharing a mind with another person. But somehow, it’s even weirder not to have her there anymore. Guess I kinda got used to it.”

Sunny then cleared her throat and fought to maintain level eye contact with everyone present. “Also… I want to apologize if I was a little harsh with everyone before. You have to understand, I was going through some… some rough times. Kinda still am, but… I’m trying to move past it. It’s what Tex would have wanted.”

“Yeah, so where is Tex now, anyway?” Church asked.

“Oh, don’t worry. She’s still around. Said she wanted to hang out in the background for now, but she also said she’ll drop in to help in case… and I quote: ‘You idiots botch things again.’” Sunny then looked down at the dog tags around her neck, and slowly removed them. “Also, she wanted you to have these, Church.”

Sunny held out the metal tags and Church tentatively took them. “Her dog tags? What does she want me to do with these?”

“Don’t know,” Sunny said with a shrug. “She just said they should give you the rest of the answers you’re looking for.”

“Well, on behalf of all of us, I must thank you for all the help you’ve given,” Rarity said. “I hope you can show up to Pinkie Pie’s next town-wide party. I’m sure the others would really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Sunny said with the first true smile any of them had seen from her in a while. “Now, I should probably head back to my aunt and uncle’s place. They’re probably worried sick about me since… well, I didn’t exactly say goodbye before leaving. Not sure if you know this about me, but I’m not a huge fan of goodbyes.”

“Makes sense,” Church said.

So without saying anything more, Sunny gave a simple nod before turning to walk down the street. Twilight closed the front door and found herself facing the piles of books stacked on the floor. Seeing this, Rarity turned to Twilight and wasted no time in returning to the previous topic.

“Look, you have every right to be suspicious of Celestia right now, but… you always said she was like a second mother to you, and has she not in turn loved you like her own daughter?” When Twilight nodded, Rarity held her chin up. “So don’t you think you owe her at least a little of your trust? She did promise you answers after all.”

Answers…. Twilight looked over at Church, who held Tex’s dog tags in one hand. She promised the same thing, but all she gave Church was a couple of military ID tags. They’re not giving us answers. Just riddles. Suddenly, Twilight recalled an exchange between Church and Tex the night before they returned to Repertum.

“Hey Church, didn’t Tex say she didn’t wear dog tags?”

Without saying a word, Church held up the dog tags and took a closer look at them. They were grimy and covered in ash, apparently not having been cleaned since Tex’s ship crashed in Dodge. Church wiped the gunk away, and when he saw what was written on the tags he gave a slight gasp.

“Hey Twilight, c’mere!”

Twilight approached Church, and Rarity followed beside her. Church held out the metal tags, and the two mares got a good look at the name on them.

Agent Connecticut

“Who’s Connecticut? Another Freelancer?” Twilight asked, but then she looked at the name again, and she figured it out even before Church said it out loud.

“CT….”

“These are CT’s dog tags?” Rarity asked, astonished. “What was Tex doing with them?”

“They’re the original CT’s dog tags: the one who was working as a mole within Project Freelancer. The one Tex killed years ago!” Church realized.

Twilight tried to think of everything Tex had told the Insurrection Leader. If I only knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done what I did. It’s because of her that I know what I really am.

Church figured it out before Twilight could even say anything. Dangling the chain in front of him, Church gripped the bottom of one of the metal tags and pulled. It came off, and what was concealed within was now in Church’s hand.

“It’s a data chip!” he exclaimed, and right then Twilight knew Church was holding the answers he was promised. But there was just one problem.

“Don’t you need a computer to be able to access the information on there?” Twilight asked. She had computers in her basement, but she didn’t think they would exactly work with human technology.

“Nah, I can probably figure out a way to enter the thing myself. Looks like Tex is finally ready to come clean,” Church said, raising his gaze from the chip in his hand to the unicorn in front of him. “See, Twilight? Sometimes you just need to have faith.”

“Yeah…” Twilight looked away and found her gaze resting on the stacks of books she still needed to sort. Except she didn’t really feel like doing that right now. Instead, she just felt tired. After all, she should probably be rested for whenever Celestia decided to contact her. After all, Tex was finally proving she could be trusted. And if I can trust Tex, I can trust my own mentor.

“Where are you going, Twilight?” Rarity asked as Twilight started heading for the stairs.

Twilight looked back and gave her a tired smile. “To get some sleep.”

Finally, Fluttershy found Grif resting beneath a tree within the vast orchard of Sweet Apple Acres. Celestia’s sun was starting to go down and as she approached the napping man in orange, Fluttershy couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time they met.

When she first saw him amongst the other Reds the day Twilight returned, she thought he was just another crass human like the rest of them. While she was mostly right in her initial assessment, after forcing herself to talk to him for her bunnies’ sakes, she discovered that there was a certain… gentleness in him as well. Talking to him, Fluttershy could tell this was a person who had experience taking care of others. Whatever was left of that side of him had been long since buried though, and Fluttershy could take a guess why.

It was for the same reason she was seeking him out now. The same reason she carried the yellow soldier’s dog tags all the way back from Blood Gulch. The same reason she figured he really needed a friend right now.

“Um… hello, Grif?” she hazarded, taking a cautious step toward his resting form.

Grif immediately jolted upright, looking around in a sudden panic. “Hmm wha-what? I wasn’t sleeping! I was just… securing the area under this tree, and lying down is the most effective way to decrease visibility!” He then noticed who was talking to him, and his posture noticeably relaxed. “Oh, it’s just you. Hey, Fluttershy. How was your trip to our planet?”

“Oh. It was… nice. A little scary though.”

“You wanna see scary? You should try eating one of Sarge’s MREs!” Grif gave an exaggerated shudder. “Euugh-he-heulgh!”

Fluttershy gave a puzzled tilt of her head. She was sure Grif would be more upset after learning that his sister was dead. Instead, he seemed to be acting the same as he always did.

“So, um… how are you holding up?”

“Fine. Don’t mind Sarge. He usually gets this way whenever I actually manage to do something better than him,” Grif sighed. “One of the perks of being in this squad.”

Fluttershy swallowed. She was going to have to go right to the heart of the matter. “So, um… I’m sorry about your sister, Grif.”

Somehow, this only seemed to confuse him. “What are you… ohhh.” His tone took a turn for the bitter. “Don’t listen to anything Sarge says. This isn’t the first time that asshole told me my sister was dead just to get under my skin. Last time he told me that, she was just giving a guy a striptease in Blue Base or something. And don’t even get me started on the time she fell under the ice when we were kids….”

Oh no. He still didn’t believe it. She was going to have to tell him. Her gaze fell to the ground and her lip started to tremble as she tried to figure out just what to say.

“Hey. Uh, you okay?” Grif asked, standing to move closer to Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry, Grif. Sarge wasn’t lying,” Fluttershy said gently before glancing away with a subtle look of annoyance. “He was insensitive and should really apologize, but he wasn’t lying.”

Grif froze. “What?”

Fluttershy looked up at him with big, sad sincere eyes. “Your sister wore yellow armor, right?”

Grif nodded. “Yeah, kinda like you.”

“I… I found her. I saw her with my own eyes."

Trying not to tremble, Fluttershy pulled the chain holding the dog tags over her head. Be brave, Fluttershy. He needs you to be strong right now. She held the metal tags up toward him and did her best to keep her voice even. She was only partly successful.

“I-I’m so sorry, Grif….”

Grif took the tags from her outstretched hoof and said nothing. He just looked at the name on the tags and stood in place. There was no way he could have missed the faded red stains on it. At that moment, Fluttershy was glad Grif was wearing a helmet. She wouldn’t have been able to hold it together if she could see his face.

“This… this makes no sense,” Grif said numbly, letting himself fall to his knees as he stared at the trembling tags in his hand.

“I know, this must be hard to accept,” Fluttershy said sympathetically, gently rubbing his knee. “I-if you want to talk about it….”

“It’s my fault….”

“Now Grif, you know that’s not true. She’s...” Fluttershy remembered Tex’s words She’s just another casualty of war. She couldn’t say that to him, though. “She died on another planet far away. It wasn’t your fault Grif, you weren’t even….”

“Exactly! I wasn’t there! I was never there when she needed me!” Grif suddenly yelled, and Fluttershy couldn’t help but shrink back fearfully. “I wanted to be there for her, but then mom left and I had to support us by myself and then I got drafted… a one man draft! Can you believe that bullshit?!”

Fluttershy remained quiet as Grif’s breaths came faster as he kept going, the words suddenly and uncontrollably pouring forth.

“She was so damn shy and nervous all the time, I just wanted her to be happy! I didn’t think she’d turn out like… that. He was my friend, and he was her age.... they got along pretty well, so I thought I’d get ‘em together. And they were doin’ well for awhile… she was happy! She was confident! But then he started getting her mixed up with his fuckin’ junkie pals, and suddenly she’s a fuckin’ addict! Fuckin’ asshole leaves her as soon as he gets bored screwing her so she finds comfort with another guy who’s just as bad, then another guy, then another guy and before I know it she’s addicted to that too! Then I got drafted and I had to leave her all alone and….”

Grif’s hands were shaking. His breaths were uneven, and he was suddenly sniffing a lot. Fluttershy couldn’t say anything. She was at a loss for words.

“This… this makes no sense,” Grif said again, his voice breaking. His final words were a tiny whimper. “I lost her years ago… so why the fuck does it hurt so much now?”

Fluttershy’s words continued to fail her, but in that moment she didn’t need them. She didn’t think twice before lunging forward and wrapping her hooves around Grif. Since meeting him, Fluttershy could always tell that Grif saw someone else in her, but at that moment, Fluttershy saw someone else in him. She too had a sibling that she loved dearly, before failure and disappointment with the direction of his life turned him into a deadbeat with no drive to better himself. Still, Fluttershy had always been there to comfort her little brother Zephyr when he needed it. Thus, Fluttershy finally found the words she was looking for.

“Because she was still your sister,” Fluttershy answered. “And even though she changed… she still loved you.”

Grif hesitated only for a few seconds before he wrapped his arms around the little butter-yellow pegasus and held on, finally letting it all out completely. He held her so tightly, afraid that if he let go, he’d lose her too. Fluttershy then realized exactly what was happening as she remembered their past conversation:

Fluttershy tilted her head inquisitively. “Oh, do you have a little sister, Grif?”

“Yeah. As a matter of fact, she used to be a lot like you!”

Grif was not holding Fluttershy in that moment. He was holding his sister again one last time.

It didn’t take long for Church to find what he was looking for once he entered the world of the data chip. It seemed that already he was getting better at navigating digital spaces. After browsing through several files on Project Freelancer and its various plans and protocols, he came to the folder labeled “A.I. Experimentation.”

There, he sifted through all of the data on himself and the other A.I. fragments until he found the one he was looking for. Under the files for fragment “Beta” was a ton of information regarding a familiar blonde woman in military fatigues. After digging a little deeper, Church found what appeared to be a news article. Right away his eyes were drawn to a name within the digital words, and Church smiled.

“Hello, Allison….”

Twilight awoke to the sound of her parents’ voices downstairs. She was in her bedroom in the main tower of Sparkle Manor. Toys, small furniture and filly’s books were all around her. The towers of Canterlot stretched past her window and reached towards the night sky. Twilight gave a few tired blinks and a yawn, stretching a pair of tiny little forelegs. Realizing she was quite thirsty, the little unicorn filly climbed out of her soft bed and walked to her bedroom door on stubby legs.

She took the stairs one at a time until she reached the main floor. She entered the kitchen and opened the fridge, the light from within illuminating the otherwise dark room. She used her magic to levitate a carton of milk out and pour herself a glass with relative ease.

Her parents had always been impressed with just how potent her magic was. Twilight was already studying very hard, and her mom and dad said they were going to try to enroll her into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Who knows? Maybe she’d even get her cutie mark soon! The entrance exam was the next morning, and as much as little Twilight wanted to keep studying for it, she knew she needed to rest. Get some sleep, her parents had told her.

It was strange: As far as Twilight knew, magic didn’t exactly run strong in her family. Neither of her parents were especially strong casters. Her big brother was good at shield spells, but even he was quite limited in what else he could do. At that moment, the little filly didn’t care. She finished her glass of milk, placed it down gently on the counter, and exited the kitchen. The voices of her parents drew her towards the living room, and suddenly Twilight remembered what happened next, and wished that she’d just gone back to bed that night.

“Tomorrow’s going to be a big day for her already, we can’t drop that on her as well!”

“Not so loud, Night, I don’t want to wake her.”

Slowly, Twilight crept forward on tiny hooves until she was able to peek into the room. Her mother and father were sitting beside each other on the luxurious red couch. The hearth was lit in front of them, and on its mantle were dozens of framed photos of all of them. Her mom, her dad, her big brother, and young Twilight herself. Her parents each held a glass of wine in their magical auras and were speaking in hushed tones.

“I’m just worried about what will happen tomorrow. If we’re right, she could do a lot of damage if things don’t go well,” her dad said quietly.

Her mom gave him a stern look. “Night, you know how I feel about that theory.”

“Vel, you have to admit the circumstances were strange,” her dad said seriously. “I don’t think anypony’s ever gotten a Royal Blessing for something like this before.”

Her mom’s eyes drifted over to the photos on the mantle, and she took a sip of her wine before giving a sad sigh. “Don’t you think we ought to tell her, Night?”

“Of course not! She’s still way too young, Velvet. She won’t understand.”

“She’s a smart filly,” her mom said, glancing up at the ceiling where she assumed her baby was sleeping upstairs. “If we don’t tell her soon she’ll probably figure it out herself!”

“I hope not,” her dad said, taking a sip of his drink and staring ahead at the flames in the hearth. “Honestly, I hope she never finds out she’s adopted.”

The breath caught in Twilight’s chest and her heart started to race. What…? Twilight slowly backed into the hallway, trembling. She kept going until she bumped into the wall.

“If she makes it into Celestia’s school, we won’t have as much time with her,” her mother kept talking, and Twilight realized that neither of her parents - neither of those other ponies knew she was there. “If not now, when?”

“There’ll be another time, Vel,” her fath... the stallion in her living room said reassuringly. “We’ll tell her when she’s ready.”

Twilight looked up at the walls around her, where more pictures of her family hung. Except they’re not my family, the filly thought. Suddenly the loving smiles in the photos seemed to be mocking her, like it was all a big joke that she was the butt of. They were nothing but lies. Tears filling her eyes, Twilight quickly and quietly ran up the stairs back to her room. She climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head as the tears uncontrollably poured forth. The little unicorn filly couldn’t stop crying.

It’s just a dream, she tried to tell herself. It’s just a bad dream. Tomorrow morning I’ll wake up and take my entrance exam. I’ll go to Celestia’s School and forget all about this nightmare!

Twilight wasn’t sure how long she lay under the covers crying before she heard the voice call out to her. “Twilight?” It was a mare’s voice, but it did not belong to her mother. “Twilight Sparkle?” Something was wrong. This didn’t happen last time.

Someone pulled away the covers concealing her, and Twilight turned over and looked up through teary eyes to see a tall dark alicorn with a mane and tail like the night standing over her.

“P-Princess Luna?” Twilight sputtered, wiping the tears away from her eyes with a grown mare’s hoof.

“Yes,” Luna said, looking at her with sympathy. “I humbly apologize if I’m intruding on something private.”

“I-it’s okay,” Twilight managed, looking around at her surroundings. She was still in her old bedroom within Sparkle Manor, but now she could tell that something was off. The details of her room were fuzzy and exaggerated. Additionally, Twilight now stood at her full height as an adult unicorn mare. “So… this is all just a dream?”

Luna gave a single stoic nod. “Yes.”

Twilight gave a relieved sigh. “Oh good. For a moment there I was afraid I was actually adopted!”

Luna frowned. “But take heed: even if what has just occurred was not real, such dreams can often be... revealing. Dreams are a manifestation of our subconscious, Twilight Sparkle. You would not be having such dreams if you were not concerned about the possibility they present. Even unconsciously.”

“So… it’s possible that my parents aren’t really my parents?”

“It may be that you subconsciously think your parents are hiding something from you, but ‘tis not my place to say,” Luna said, her face a stone mask. “Regardless, I did not come to you this night to discuss your family. As no doubt you’re aware, there is a crisis of national security.”

Twilight suddenly remembered all of her problems in the waking world, and in that moment her surroundings grew more vague and undefined as Luna continued. “Indeed, I am only here because somepony needs to speak with you. Come. Let me take you to her own dream.”

The fuzzy vagueness resembling Twilight’s fillyhood bedroom suddenly split open, and a path of stars carved its way through. Luna stepped onto the path and with some hesitation, Twilight followed. The pair ventured through the dreamscape past many floating orbs, each a window into another pony’s subconscious. Fascinated, Twilight tried to take in as much as she could; no mortal ponies save for the legends like Starswirl the Bearded knew the art of dreamwalking. The seemingly infinite amount of time it took to cross the nether realm of dreams passed in the blink of an eye, and Twilight and Luna arrived at the orb belonging to the pony they were going to meet. Whoever it was, their orb was darker than the rest, seeming to absorb all of the light around it.

“I must warn you; her mind has been plagued by nightmares of late,” Luna said as she split the orb and opened a path for them to enter. “Try as I might, I am unable to save her from them. Ridding the irrational fears from a filly’s mind is one thing. It’s significantly harder to help a grown pony with very well-founded fears.”

Twilight took a step into the darkness and turned to look at Luna, who merely stood back and watched.

“Aren’t you coming too?” Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head. “I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle. She wishes to speak with you alone. I wish you luck, and…” Luna gave her a warm smile, “it is good to know you are back safe and sound… again.”

Returning Luna’s smile, Twilight turned and entered the dark orb. What she saw when she entered made her heart fall through a dark pit in her stomach. The sky was dark and overcast, black ash filling the very air around her. A tall, familiar mountain rose before her, but the ivory towers of Canterlot were not perched upon it.

Instead, the city lay in a broken heap at the foot of the mountain. Windows were shattered, towers lay snapped in half like twigs, and Twilight saw a Smarty Pants doll with half its face burned off. Then Twilight saw the owner of this dream. A tall white alicorn sat amidst the wreckage of her castle, cradling something in her forelegs. Her coat was charred here and there, and her once brilliant flowing mane hung limply around her.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed, running to her. The princess’s ears flicked, and she looked over her shoulder at Twilight as she approached.

“Hello, my faithful student,” Celestia said, gently setting down the object in her forelegs.

It was a pony, Twilight realized, and when she looked closer, she saw a familiar shade of purple and magenta. She balked at the sight of her own body, and to Twilight’s horror, her doppelganger was still breathing. Her blank, uncomprehending eyes were wide open, looking with unfathomable fear at everything around her. They locked eyes for a single unsettling moment before a white, feathery wing suddenly obscured Twilight’s vision from the macabre sight before her.

“Please, pay no attention to anything you see here. You must understand: recent events have taken a toll on me,” Celestia said, her usually confident and regal voice taking a melancholic tone. “I am so sorry I had to contact you like this, but with Project Freelancer monitoring our every move, this was the only way to do so without them knowing.”

Celestia’s message suddenly rang through Twilight’s mind. Get some sleep. Of course! That’s what she meant! It was then that what her mentor had just said caught up with her.

“Wait, what did you mean when you said they’re monitoring you?”

“I’m sure Washington has told you about Project Freelancer’s threat against Canterlot. The truth is much worse. Their forces are with us even now, inside the castle itself,” Celestia reported grimly. “Their commander - a Freelancer Agent called Wyoming - has a radio channel open with the Mother of Invention at all times. If he so much as fails to check in at regular intervals, Canterlot will fall.”

Twilight swallowed. She remembered him alright, and the idea of the fate of everyone in Canterlot being in the hands of that maniac sent a chill down her spine.

“But, you have Spike with you. Can’t you send messages via dragonfire?”

“No. As you may recall, I installed a spell matrix throughout the castle that would allow me to monitor all of the goings-on within its walls. Somehow, Project Freelancer’s agents have gained access to that spell. They’re watching our every move this way. If I use dragonfire, the spell will detect it and they’ll know.” Seeing her distress, Celestia then gave Twilight a reassuring smile. “But don’t worry about Spike. He’s doing fine.”

That bit of news was a relief at least. Still, Twilight remembered when Celestia had told her about the special spell matrix. She had it set up in the wake of the events of the Royal Wedding as a means to ensure nothing else would be able to infiltrate the castle as easily as the Changeling Queen had. It was apparently an especially advanced spell matrix, which was particularly odd for one reason.

“But… from what I’ve learned, humans can’t use magic. To hijack a spell like that, they would need….”

“A unicorn,” Celestia answered for her. “One who is not only an incredibly skilled magic user, but also intimately familiar with the spellwork of the castle.”

Twilight knew exactly where her mentor was taking this. “You know who it is, don’t you?”

“The only one who would possess that kind of knowledge and level of magic aside from myself and my highest ranking guards is the pony who created that spell network in the first place. It was one of the many things my former student conceived that I disagreed with at the time. However, the events of the wedding forced me to change that.” Celestia gave a rueful chuckle. “Now though? I wish I’d stood by my principles.”

“Your former student?”

“Yes. You’ll learn all about her in our coming conversation. As it happens, she is as much the reason for all of this as I am,” Celestia then took a step closer to Twilight and lowered her head to look her student right in the eye. “First, I owe you an apology, Twilight. I should have told you everything as soon as that ship first crashed. Now, it’s time for me to correct that error.”

Celestia rose to her full height again. “Let me start from the beginning. From the day I first met the Director of Project Freelancer: Doctor Leonard Church.”

Author's Note

I know I've been saying it for a while, but...

Next time: Celestia comes clean

Act 3 Part 3 - Rise and Shine

The rolling hills at the foot of Canterlot Mountain were silent save for the wind blowing through the grass. Further up around the mountain’s far side, the city of Canterlot slept. Not even the chirping of crickets sounded out that night, but then again, it was probably too cold. Princess Celestia barely felt the cold, her inherent connection to the sun keeping her warm even in the dark of night. The others around her, however, did not share such advantages.

The adolescent unicorn mare to her right shivered a bit as she drew her cloak tighter around herself. Celestia couldn’t help but smile as the young mare then pulled out a notebook and brought a quill to bear, eagerly checking the sky as she flipped to a blank page.

“As much as I appreciate your academic enthusiasm, do try to spend some of tonight socializing with our guests, my faithful student,” Celestia chided. Nevertheless, the look she gave was filled with warmth.

Sunset Shimmer looked up at her mentor with a start, and a tint of red filled her cheeks as she glanced down at the notebook before her. “With all due respect, Your Highness, documentation is an important part of any scientific endeavor.” At the Princess’s look, Sunset amended, “But... I suppose I could put my notes away after initial contact has been made.”

Celestia smiled. “Good. Although, this does bring me to another issue I’ve been meaning to address. I haven’t seen you in the company of your friends for a very long time now. Flash and the others have been asking about you.”

“I just… have been really busy with my studies lately,” Sunset said, looking downcast as her voice took on a barely perceptible bitter tone. “Since you rejected my proposal for the castle security matrix, I’ve been struggling to come up with something new for a final project….”

“Sunset, you know that proposal raised many ethical concerns.” Celestia gave her student a reassuring smile, tilting Sunset’s head up to meet her eyes with a gentle hoof below her chin. “However, you have my every confidence that you’ll come up with something even better… just so long as you remember to leave your room once in a while!”

Her student returned her smile with a mischievous one of her own. “Y’know, it was my decision to stay in and work on my astronomy that led to this discovery in the first place.”

Celestia remembered the night not too long ago when she was awoken by the sound of her student arguing vigorously with the guards outside her door, claiming to have made the most important discovery in equine history. Sure enough, her young student led her to the astronomy tower immediately, babbling on about first contact scenarios and things that Celestia’s sleep-ridden mind had initially dismissed as nonsense. When she looked through the observatory’s giant telescope and saw only stars, Celestia had nearly called Sunset Shimmer’s sanity into question and had been ready to send her student to her bedchamber. Momentarily terrified, Sunset had retaken control of the telescope and searched the sky until she again found what she had been searching for, and then Celestia had seen it too.

Sitting right in the middle of the telescope’s lens was what appeared to be a star where no star ought to have been. It blinked in place unlike any other in the night sky, and according to Sunset, it had actually moved from where she’d originally found it. The following week had seen extensive research into the apparent UFO, during which Celestia tried reaching it with her magic and sensed signals coming from it. It was when she tried to tap into the signals that she found herself making contact with the apparent aliens - a being that called itself simply “Director.” She had been most eager to meet them, and it would seem Director felt the same. That was why they were waiting in the secluded fields beyond Canterlot’s eye under the cover of night.

“Princess!” Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted by the lookout, who was posted on a rocky ledge along the side of the mountain. The armored pegasus stallion collapsed the spyglass in his hooves as he pointed to the western horizon. “They’re here!”

Looking to where the stallion was pointing, Celestia saw a set of lights in the distance. At a glance, one couldn’t be faulted for mistaking them for stars, but the princess knew better.

“Captain, commence Operation: Red Carpet,” Celestia ordered.

Her captain saluted before barking orders at the ponies under his command. The armored ponies scrambled to their positions, forming a wide path between two single file lines. Each one of them quickly removed a large red gemstone that had been previously enchanted. When the soldiers placed their stones on the ground where they stood and gave them a firm tap, the stones lit up, glowing a bright red. The setup was completed within seconds of Celestia giving the order, and the soldiers retreated to their formations around the princess.

A runway of slowly pulsating red lights now sat in front of them, ready to guide the approaching alien craft to a safe descent. The whine of technology the likes of which the ponies had never seen began to overtake the silence of the night as the ship drew closer. Soon the vessel was upon them. Celestia felt young Sunset tense up and a few of the guards take an uneasy step back as it flew down the runway, slowing to a stop in the air front of them. Even the blades of grass quivered and tried to flee as the ship hovered in place.

Its engines now deafening, the ship slowly rotated in place, and Celestia couldn’t help but be reminded of a large sea mammal with its large metal fins and tail. Only when it was fully turned away from them did the ship finally set down, cutting its engines and returning the field to silence once more. Celestia glanced up at the night sky and saw a star that shouldn’t be there, confirming what she already knew: the ship in front of them was not the same one they spied through the telescope. It was akin to a mere lifeboat on a massive sea liner.

The collective breath of the gathered ponies was sucked out of the air when a section under the “tail” of the ship began to open, lowering a ramp. Celestia hadn’t quite been sure what to expect upon meeting the aliens—these so-called “humans”—but the tall, two-legged creatures that emerged were a shock to see. Covered top to bottom in what appeared to be highly advanced powered armor, the human soldiers dwarfed the guardsponies she’d brought with her. Even she was barely at eye level with them as they formed two rows at either side of the ship’s entrance.

Beside her, young Sunset Shimmer was already furiously scribbling notes. Celestia grinned and took a moment to study the humans for herself. Their complex armor apparently came in many colors and variations. Two of them wore orchid and purple respectively with green detail. Another was a dirty yellow with bits of gray. There were brown, blue, and white soldiers as well. Lastly, one with gray armor and a yellow stripe on its helmet seemed to be looking at her with childlike wonder.

“It’s rude to stare, Wash!” the one wearing faded yellow chided, gently smacking the gray soldier in the arm.

“At attention now, people!” a firm, authoritative female voice shouted, and the gathered soldiers stood up straight and stiff as another soldier wearing cyan armor emerged from the ship.

She was not alone. Beside her were two more humans, but these ones were different. While the others were completely covered in armor, these ones seemed to wear no armor at all. They were dressed in gray and black uniforms, and the soldiers around them noticeably tensed as they passed. The first one had slightly wrinkled beige-tan skin, with glasses and black hair on his head and face. The one beside him had dark skin, and appeared to have no hair at all. He was holding some kind of black tablet, and appeared to be recording information with it just as fervently as Sunset Shimmer.

When the humans stopped in front of her, Celestia decided to take initiative and took a step forward. “Greetings. I am Princess Celestia, Warden of the Sun and Ruler of the Three Pony Tribes,” she said, gesturing with her head to the two ponies beside her. “This is my Guard Captain, Argent Lance, and my protègè, Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset smiled nervously from behind her notebook as Celestia followed up with a friendly smile. “Welcome to Equestria.”

The older man nodded, giving a respectful bow—but not too low, Celestia noted. “Thank you,” he said, speaking in a deep, smooth voice with an accent resembling that of upper-class ponies from the South. “I am the Director of Project Freelancer: Doctor Leonard Church. It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Princess,” he then raised an arm to the soldier in cyan armor to his left. “This here is my Number One: Agent Carolina.”

The soldier nodded, and the Director moved on to the other man without armor. “And this is my right hand man: the Counselor of Project Freelancer.”

“Yes,” the Counselor spoke in an unnaturally soft monotone, “my name is….”

“Unimportant,” the Director said, cutting him off. “While I look forward to beginning good relations between our two peoples, I’m sure you remember what we discussed about why we came to this planet in the first place.”

Celestia remembered that detail and nodded. The idea of something so ancient existing in Equestria that even she didn’t know about after all of these years was exciting. “Yes. You’ll have to teach us everything you know about these ‘Forerunners’ if we’re to help you uncover what they left behind here.”

The Director smiled. “Just so long as you teach us everything you can about this ‘Equestrian magic.’ You must understand: as a man of science, I was skeptical when you first told me about it.”

The Princess returned his smile. “Trust me, I’m sure you’ll find it as mundane as we do after spending enough time with us here.” It was hard to believe that a race with no magical ability whatsoever was able to advance so far technologically. Then again, it was probably because of their lack of magic that such was possible. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention.

Wordlessly, the two of them agreed to turn and walk toward the sky wagons Celestia had waiting to discreetly take them back to the castle, their respective entourages following close behind. She and the Director had both agreed that it was for the best that the Equestrian public should be kept in the dark about the humans’ existence until enough could be learned about them to make a proper announcement. It wouldn’t do to prematurely reveal the existence of aliens to the public until any and all potential questions could be answered. Damage preemption was yet another aspect of being a politician that Celestia didn’t care for.

“I must admit, discovering new sapient life was the last thing we expected when we traced the old Forerunner signal to this planet,” the Director said as they walked. “My people have already begun planning how best to track down those ruins, but I figured we would do so faster with your assistance. The ball is, as they say, in your court.”

“I’m sure my protègè will be of great help in that regard,” Celestia said, grinning down at her student. “Besides, what better way for her to return to her friendship lessons?”

Sunset looked up at her mentor and gave her an uneasy smile as the Counselor fell into step beside her. “Perhaps you and I should compare notes?” he suggested. “Help fill in some of the information in our observations of each other.”

Unable to contain her unbridled enthusiasm, Sunset Shimmer grinned widely as she climbed into a sky wagon with the Counselor.

Only much later would Celestia realize the mistake she’d made in suggesting that.

She climbed into another, much larger, sky wagon and the Director soon followed. Once they were alone, the Princess finally felt able to ask him something that was on her mind. Something that if her theory was correct, could prove to be the answer to her plight.

“Director, I must ask: Did you bring… him with you?”

The Director frowned. “Technically, his very existence is classified; not even my top soldiers know about him. The fact that you do is merely a fluke... you picked a lucky moment to tap into our signal.”

Celestia’s easy smile started to shrink as she thought for a moment that the Director was not going to let her see what she had been so eager to observe. However, the man then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, flat square object with a glowing round center.

“However, I see no reason not to indulge the curiosity of another brilliant mind,” the Director said with a friendly smile before looking down at the chip in his hand. “This right here is my pride and joy. Say hello, Alpha.”

In a flash of light, a tiny, spectral, cobalt blue figure appeared in the air between them wearing the same kind of armor as the soldiers outside.

“Hey there… crazy… horse-lady…” it said in a refreshingly casual tone.

“Hello, Alpha,” Celestia greeted, looking down with a wide grin at the little A.I. floating just above the Director’s palm. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve met someone like you.”

The A.I. stretched and brought his hands behind his head. “Yeah, well… I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty awesome!”

To think, these humans have created technology functioning on the same principles as their most advanced ancient magic. What was more, they perfected it. These “A.I.s” did not possess any of the problems that the M.I.s of old once did. At least, not until they reached the end of their seven-year lifespan. If she could just learn their secrets….

The Director smiled. “Yes, I have a feeling the three of us will accomplish extraordinary things together.”

Extraordinary things. They were going to need extraordinary things if she hoped to correct the mistakes she made so many years ago….

The sounds of crashing and muttered curses caused Simmons to awake with a start. “Augh! I wasn’t watching World of Whorecraft again, Mom! Get out of my room!”

After a few moments, the maroon man’s senses returned, and he remembered that he was sleeping on a bed of hay. He glanced around at the various farm tools and stirring pigs before his eyes finally settled on the source of the disturbance. Grif was holding a toe on one of his feet and muttering in annoyance as he stood over an overturned barrel with large red apples strewn all over the ground.

“Why do we even fucking bother with powered armor if stubbing my toe still hurts like a…?” Grif muttered as he carefully stepped around the spilled apples. Whether it was out of interest in preserving the edibility of something he could eat later, or because he knew Applejack would kill him if he crushed any of her produce, Simmons couldn’t say.

The barn was still pitch black, and looking out the window, Simmons could see the moon shining brightly in the night sky. Checking the clock on his HUD, Simmons saw the time was one in the morning.

“Isn’t it a little late for your third midnight snack?” Simmons snarked.

“Go back to sleep, asshole.”

With a tired yawn, Simmons was about to do exactly that when he noticed the barn door was slightly ajar despite the fact that he’d shut it just before quite literally hitting the hay. He then remembered that at that time, neither Sarge nor Grif had returned to their appointed quarters on the farmstead. A glance around the barn confirmed that Sarge wasn’t there, but from what he said the other day, Simmons wasn’t surprised. Still, something didn’t seem right.

“Are you just getting back now?” Simmons asked. “What have you been doing all night?”

“Nothing!” Grif said immediately. “I was doing… manly things. Like, uh, chopping wood. Or, uh… oh! Punching kittens!”

“What? That can’t be right,” Simmons said, folding his arms. “Both of those things would require work.”

“Yeah….”

As Grif walked past and started making a spot in the hay to sleep in, Simmons noticed he was clutching what looked like a metal necklace in his hand. “What’s that you’ve got there?”

It seemed a while before Grif figured out what Simmons was referring to. He briefly glanced down at the object in his hands before suddenly looking away, like someone who’d stared at the sun for too long. “Nothing!” Grif answered again. This time his voice was quiet and strained, as fragile and ready to burst as the barrel of apples he’d knocked over. “Just… don’t worry about it.”

That was when Simmons remembered the circumstances of when they last saw each other. “Oh… this is about Sister, isn’t it?” Grif’s silence was the only answer Simmons needed. The man in maroon stood up and moved closer to Grif. “Look… I’m sorry you had to find out like that, man. That was a dick move on Sarge’s part.”

“Really? You think?” The biting sarcasm in Grif’s voice was like poison.

“Listen Grif, I know we don’t always get along….”

“You don’t say?”

“...but I think that we’ve worked together long enough to consider each other friends… more or less.”

Grif’s nod was dripping with as much sarcasm as his words. “Yeah. Friends that insult each other, and generally hate the very fiber of their being. Isn’t it just magic?”

“Hey asshole, I know you’re upset and all, but could you at least have the fucking decency to shut up and let me talk to you for a second. I’m doing this for your benefit, okay?” When Grif didn’t respond, Simmons took it as a sign to continue. “The fact is—whether you believe it or not—I’m your friend. And friends help each other through shit like this. And yes, you do have friends. Me, Donut, that yellow pony that seems to like you, even Sarge—even though he’d never admit it—we’re all here for you, man.”

Simmons gave Grif a pat on the shoulder. “So if you ever need anything. Y’know… just ask.” Simmons let go and moved back to his own sleeping area. “It’s at least a better way to handle it than being a dick and pushing everyone away.”

With his piece said, Simmons lay back down and closed his eyes. He didn’t hear Grif do the same, but he did hear the sound of rustling paper. The peaceful moment was suddenly interrupted by what sounded like rap music blaring across the apple orchards.

Crickets chirped as a half-awake Applejack groped her way through the dark apple orchard. Her lids hung precariously over her eyes, threatening to return her to the land of dreams with the rest of Equestria. In truth, she was a heavy enough sleeper that the infernal racket out in the fields hadn’t bothered her in the slightest. Applebloom though, was another story. The filly had to jump up on Applejack’s bed to rouse her, informing her big sister of what sounded like a full construction project taking place in their orchard, along with some music full of words that the filly probably shouldn’t be hearing. So it was with a sigh and a tired yawn that Applejack had vacated her bed to find the source of the noise keeping her family awake.

It didn’t take long for Applejack to find it. Nestled between a few of her apple trees was a familiar human dropship. The source of the noise was one of the humans who had ridden it in many days ago.

“Now be careful, Lopez. I don’ want ya to break it again.”

“¿Yo? Tú eres el que se estrelló la nave para hacer una entrada dramática (Me? You’re the one who crashed it just to make a dramatic entrance).”

“It’s okay, Lopez. There’s no shame in making mistakes from time to time! It’s what makes us human.”

“Pero yo soy un robot, estúpido hombre (But I’m a robot, you stupid man)!”

“Sarge?” Applejack’s voice was tired and, appropriately, a little hoarse, but it reached the ears of the Red sergeant and the mechanical mechanic. “What’re ya doin’ out here?”

“Oh, hey there, AJ,” Sarge said, climbing down from the step ladder he had beside one of the ship’s engines. “Lopez and I are jus’ tryin’ to see if we can fix the ship I used to get here the first time.” At the sound of an agitated groan, Applejack looked down to see a pair of brown armored legs sticking out from beneath the ship’s belly. “It’s actually completely flyable,” Sarge continued, “but I wanted to give it hydraulics so it can bounce when I play my tunes!”

Sarge pointed a remote at the ship and pressed a button, and all of a sudden the vessel’s headlights started flashing as it slowly began moving up and down in a rhythmic way. All the while, aggressive, thuggish music reminiscent of the stuff Pinkie Pie listened to when she thought nopony was around started to play at a volume that brought Applejack’s hooves over her ears.

“EACH AND EVERY DAY I BE TALKIN’ THAT SHIT.
TALKIN’ THAT SHIT.
TALKIN’ THAT SHIT….”

Sarge pressed the button again and the ship was still and silent once more. “I don’t think we have the tempo right just yet.”

“Ignorado el hecho de que el sistema hidráulico no funcionan en el aire (Ignoring the fact that hydraulics don’t work in the air),” Lopez added.

Applejack just gave an exhausted sigh and looked tiredly up at the man in red. “Sarge… it’s the middle of the night. Folks ‘round here need to sleep. You need to sleep.”

“Can’t sleep. Sherry and Cluckles keep insisting on takin’ up as much room in the coup as possible!”

Applejack tilted her head. “Yer not… actually sleepin’ in the chicken coup, are ya?”

“Well, I tried. That’s why I’m out here!”

Applejack sighed, knowing full well what direction this conversation was going to take. “We have plenty of room in the barn if ya wanna git some shut eye….”

“No!” Sarge exclaimed, whirling around to face her. “I ain’t sharin’ space with any two-timin’, no good, back-talkin’, job stealin’ son o’ a bitch!”

“I don’ rightly know why ya can still be so mad at Grif,” Applejack’s look hardened. “‘Specially after the stunt you pulled, seems kinda hypocrit... hippo… dumb to try to claim the high ground!”

“Now look here, missy! Callin’ Grif lazy and worthless is somethin’ I do all the time! It’s been our dynamic fer years! Why break the goddamn streak?”

“That’s fine. I can understand indulgin’ in a little banter from time to time,” Applejack said placatingly. “Heck, one of my best friends an’ I fight all the time. Don’ get me wrong: I love Rares to death and deeply value her as a friend, but sometimes her frou-frouiness really grates on my nerves!” Applejack gave Sarge a steady look. “That bein’ said, I’m at least pony enough to admit when I’m in the wrong, and am real proud of Rares whenever she does somethin’ good. Why can’t you do the same with Grif?”

“Because Grif’s never done somethin’ good!”

“Sounds to me like that ain’t so true anymore.” When Sarge only replied by tightening his already curled fists, Applejack pressed harder. “I could understand your dislike of Grif initially, when he was just a lazy good fer nothin’ ijit. But now that he’s actually tryin’ to prove himself, yer still puttin’ him down! Why?”

“Because he doesn’t deserve it!” Sarge exclaimed. It seemed as if the late hour was finally taking its toll on him, as he tossed his shotgun to the ground and sat against the ship. “I’ve wanted to be a military leader ever since I first thought about joinin’ when I was a boy. I spent years workin’ my way up the ranks an’ actually came close to taking leadership of my own squad of ODSTs: some of the best the UNSC has to offer.

“I would’ve made commander, but I kept making mistakes in the training simulations. Little things like not calibrating the drop pods correctly, but those little things added up. Before I knew it, I was transferred from my squad into this experimental ‘Freelancer’ program. I was excited at first; I heard their agents were getting top of the line stuff. Thing was, I wasn’t brought in to become an agent. Nope! Instead I was left in charge of backwater base after backwater base, commanding squads of barely trained and under equipped Red soldiers in an unexplained war with the Blues.

“It seemed ludicrous to think they were wasting my talents fighting an army that was just as incompetent as the Reds I was leading. No, those dirty Blues had to be dangerous! They had to be one of the biggest threats to the galaxy.” Sarge’s normally gruff voice almost seemed to tremble as he continued, “It was either that, or they were tossin’ me aside because they think I’m worthless, b-but… that can’t be the truth… can it?”

Applejack scratched her head. “Course not, Sarge. Yer great at, uh… whatever it is y’all in the army do! I mean, I’m not a military pony myself, but I always believe in risin’ to the occasion when duty calls, and from what I can tell, so do you.”

Sarge paused, seeming to consider Applejack’s words. “Still, even after all these years fightin’ the Blues, I never once made it past sergeant… an’ now, I’m not even that….” Sarge’s posture sank and the once proud soldier’s voice took on a morose tone. “So you tell me: How the hell did I work my whole life to achieve nothin’, when Grif got everything I ever wanted without doin’ anythin’ to earn it?”

Applejack sat down beside Sarge, quietly studying the curled up ball of red armor. If there was one pony who could appreciate the fruits of hard honest work, it was her. The fact that someone could spend their whole life working towards something and never reach it was a concept that she didn’t want to believe. It just didn’t seem right. However, there was one aspect of Sarge’s story that she wasn’t so sure about.

“If Grif really led a successful op against Project Freelancer, he must’ve done somethin’ right,” she said.

Sarge looked up from the ground and turned toward her. Applejack looked at him with sympathy. “I know it must be difficult to work so hard all yer life an’ have nothin’ to show for it. I don’ blame you at all fer bein’ upset about that. But that don’ give ya the right to put down the people who’ve worked hard an’ have made it.”

When she heard the sound of crickets chirping clearly around them, Applejack realized the orchard had returned to its usual silence. With her job done, Applejack yawned and stood up to head back to the farmhouse, but not before saying one final piece.

“An’ who knows? Maybe if’n ya treat the people who made it a little more nicely, ya might actually make it yerself!”

Celestia spoke, and Twilight listened. The wasteland that was Canterlot was an ill-defined blur around them; a mere backdrop long since forgotten by both dreamers. They were too focused on their conversation for visions of what could be to matter. Celestia spoke of the early days of contact between ponies and humans. Things had started off well, Celestia and the Director formed a true friendship over the months. They spent much time sharing their cultures, history, and technology while Sunset Shimmer and the Director’s top men searched high and low for the Forerunner ruins.

“Over the following months, Sunset Shimmer grew more distant as she spent more time in the company of the Counselor and the Freelancers. All the while, the Forerunner ruins proved to be elusive,” Celestia explained. “At the same time, the Director grew more… withdrawn. After a while, he stopped letting me see Alpha, and updates on the progress of the search for the ruins from both him and Sunset Shimmer became more scarce.

“You may or may not already know this, but at the time, Project Freelancer was in the midst of a long and destructive civil war with the human Insurrection.”

“Trust me, Princess, I’ve become pretty familiar with them in our travels,” Twilight said with a bitter edge to her tone. They’d put Rarity through a pretty harrowing experience, and that was something she couldn’t forgive.

Celestia simply nodded. “Yes. From what Washington told me, the conflict has since cooled significantly. Project Freelancer has pushed the Insurrection to the brink of defeat, and even with the Leader’s survival, they never fully recovered. But back then, the Insurrection was still a very big threat, and the Director and his forces would often have to leave Equestria for months at a time to fight them.

“One day, the Director returned and things were… different. Suddenly, there were half a dozen other A.I.s that seemed to spring up from nowhere. Yet Alpha wasn’t anywhere to be found. And still, Sunset Shimmer and Project Freelancer’s forces had reported no sign of the ruins they were searching for. It was when I received a secret message from one of the Director’s own agents warning me of his deception that I knew I had to get to the bottom of this.

“So when the Director next left Equestria to deliver the coup de gras to the Insurrection, I decided to act. Utilizing special potions shipped from Zebrica and a bit of alicorn magic, I was able to actually witness much of Project Freelancer’s past.” Celestia looked down, seeming exhausted by the mere memory of that time. “I must have spent weeks in my chambers, going through potion after potion. Memory after memory. Sifting through so many moments and conversations through the course of Project Freelancer’s lifespan, and trying to piece it all together. Then one day, I discovered it... I learned exactly what they were doing to poor Alpha. I saw it with my own eyes!”

The princess shut her eyes for a moment as the very world around them twisted and morphed. Hundreds of scenes from a world that was simultaneously alien and familiar to Twilight played at once. With a few forceful shakes of Celestia’s head, they drifted off into the background with everything else.

“I spent the days after preparing for Project Freelancer’s return to Equestria. Preparing to confront the Director on everything he was doing. But the Director never came back.” Celestia gave a sad smile and a single chuckle. “According to Washington, it was because a few of the Freelancers also figured out what the Director was doing and attempted a break-in that ended with his flagship’s near destruction. It’s funny... I had always hoped something just like that was what kept him from returning all these years. But somehow, I knew the Director would return one day.”

Celestia looked around at the burning ruins of Canterlot as they momentarily grew clearer around them. “But I never expected this. Even when we first met I sensed a certain… darkness in Dr. Church’s heart. We truly did become close friends for a time. I told him about Luna, and he in turn told me about the woman he lost. That loss had driven him very close to the precipice of madness, as it had me once, and I tried to help him through it as best I could. But evidently, it wasn’t enough.

“Still, threatening me… threatening a whole city full of innocent ponies… it’s beyond anything I ever thought him capable of.” Celestia forced herself to look away from the wasteland around her as her gaze grew distant and sad. “When he contacted me a few days ago, I hardly even recognized him….”

Although it disheartened Twilight to see her beloved mentor overtaken by such melancholy, the story she told restored a bit of hope in the young unicorn’s waning image of her. Indeed, if what Celestia said was true, then that which had Twilight so worried was not.

“So… you really didn’t know about what they were doing to Alpha?” Twilight asked hopefully. “You had nothing to do with it?”

Celestia looked back down at Twilight, and all at once the look of melancholy on the Princess’s face was replaced by a worried frown. It was a look a pony only had when they had to say something they really did not want to, and it filled Twilight with dread.

“Twilight, there’s something you must understand before I reveal what I’m about to tell you…” Celestia paused, her always regal, always well-spoken mentor seeming unable to find the right words. Twilight’s ears folded and her heart sank. This was not the look of an innocent mare. “Do you know why M.I.s were made forbidden in Equestria one thousand years ago?”

“Because they were unstable? Creating artificial constructs based on real ponies’ minds with the level of arcane knowledge that existed at the time could not have been safe!” Twilight answered.

“That’s right. While human Smart A.I.s like Alpha only turn Rampant after seven years, M.I.s are born Rampant,” Celestia said. “However, there was one event that made me realize once and for all that we were not ready to use such powerful magic.

“You see, many years ago Equestria was a nation in turmoil. We had just ended a brutal war with the Crystal Empire and its tyrant king, and the economy was in a huge recession. It was for that reason that my sister created an M.I. of her own to assist her in her duties. Based on her own mind, the M.I. was called Night Mare. For a time, Night Mare served Luna well, but as you may know, my sister was harboring strong feelings of jealousy and resentment towards me during that time.

“I learned far too late that Night Mare had inherited those traits. But without Luna’s own memories of growing up with me—without that emotional attachment, there was nothing keeping Night Mare’s ambition in check. That was the first time anypony learned that some M.I.s were capable of storing themselves inside of a pony’s mind; just like Omega had done to Pinkie Pie. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next.”

“Nightmare Moon…” Twilight gasped.

“Yes. In the final decades leading up to Nightmare Moon’s return from banishment, I knew I had to learn as much about artificial constructs as I could. I needed to find a way to extract Night Mare from Luna’s mind. I wanted to save her, but I didn’t think the Elements of Harmony could do that until you used them that fateful night.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. “But… didn’t you send me to Ponyville specifically so that I’d make friends and use the Elements?”

“I did, but by that point I had already given up all hope of saving my sister,” Celestia gave a teary smile. “Having her back that night was the happiest I’ve ever been to be proven wrong,” the Princess cleared her throat, composing herself. “But I digress, it was out of interest in saving Luna that I asked Sunset Shimmer to learn as much as she could about human A.I.s while she assisted Project Freelancer. She followed my instructions… all too well.”

Twilight’s hoof shot over her mouth. “You don’t mean to say she….”

“Yes. She helped them break Alpha,” Celestia sighed. “Naturally, I was furious when I learned that she went behind my back to do something so vile. We fought, and I ultimately dismissed her as my student, but I couldn’t have her arrested or charged. Doing so would have put me in the exact same boat as her.

“For you see, the Director would never have thought to try it without me. During one of our many discussions, the topic of M.I.s came up, and I mentioned in passing that it was once a common practice to ‘split’ the problematic ones; to remove the fragment of their minds causing their Rampancy. I inspired the Director in the worst possible way.”

Celestia looked down, suddenly unable to meet her student’s eyes. “That’s why I’ve been working so hard to keep all of this secret. If word of my involvement was to get out, ponies would lose faith in me. I know of many who would even clamor for my removal from office. And if word reaches the UNSC that I helped the Director commit a war crime of this magnitude… I don’t know what will happen.”

Twilight looked at Celestia with disbelief. “But… you didn’t do anything wrong! You didn’t know!”

“The UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee might not see it that way. While I didn’t know the damage my information would cause, that doesn’t change the fact that I still caused it. Just the same, Sunset Shimmer may have gone against the spirit of what I asked her when she helped them split Alpha, but she was following my orders to the letter when she did so. At the end of the day, the commander must take responsibility for the actions of their troops.”

Twilight stood before Celestia and put on the bravest face she could muster. “If anyone—pony or human—tries to use what Sunset Shimmer did to remove you from office, they’ll have to get through me!”

At that, Celestia couldn’t help but smile a little. “Nice to know you at least still have faith in me. But if you really want to help me, the best way to do so is to stop Project Freelancer from hurting any more people.”

“You’re right,” Twilight said with a nod. “So what do we do? How does this all relate to the Forerunner ruins that are supposed to be in Equestria?”

“Well, it would seem that Sunset Shimmer and the Director were lying to me in their reports. They did find the ruins. If we can find Sunset and the Director’s joint research on them, we can prove that they were working together. Then, we can deliver that information to the Chairman of Oversight and they will shut Project Freelancer down for good.”

“But… what about you?” Twilight asked, her voice cracking as she took a step closer to her mentor. “Won’t that mean they’ll find out about your involvement with the program, too? What if they want you to resign? What if they want you arrested? If you’re right, they could justify going to war over this!”

Celestia nodded grimly. “Perhaps. But we’re already at war with Project Freelancer now. At least this way, we’ll be doing the right thing. As a politician, I will work towards finding a fair compromise with the UNSC when this is over.” Celestia looked down. “And if that means my resignation as Princess, then so be it.”

Twilight didn’t want to even consider an Equestria without Celestia on the throne. It seemed impossible to conceive, and Twilight wanted to fight it with everything she had. But she also trusted her mentor to know what was best. Still, that wasn’t all that had Twilight concerned.

“But… what about the Director’s threat?” she asked a frowning Celestia. “Even if we find these ruins, he might still destroy Canterlot!” The princesses, my parents, Spike… all of them gone.

Celestia just looked at her with grim determination. “Let me worry about Canterlot. What’s important is that you find whatever Sunset Shimmer and Project Freelancer left in the ruins.”

“Okay,” Twilight nodded, taking a deep breath and mustering her resolve. “How do we find the ruins?”

“For starters, we’ll need to narrow down where exactly in Equestria they are. Any thoughts?”

Putting a hoof to her chin, Twilight thought carefully. Celestia smiled, gently encouraging her. Somehow, Twilight felt Celestia already knew the answer. Suddenly, it hit her.

“If these ruins are supposed to be where ponykind was born, that would mean they’re in the Old Kingdoms! Where the Three Tribes lived before Unification! Which puts them...”

“In the Frozen North. Very good,” Celestia smiled. “But the Frozen North is a very big place, and I don’t know anything more about the ruins’ location. But there was somepony who did. Unfortunately, this pony is no longer with us, but he left all of his research behind for us to use. Perhaps you saw it? I sent it to you just the other day.”

“You did?” Twilight asked. She then remembered the mysterious stack of books waiting for her when she returned to Golden Oaks.

“Yes. Although this pony never did find the ruins he was after, he did come considerably close to finding them well before the Director and Project Freelancer ever appeared in our world. I have no doubt that if you study his notes carefully, you just might find a clue that he missed.”

“Got it!” Twilight said with a nod.

“And there’s one more thing I want to tell you before you wake up,” Celestia said, standing closer to her. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I’m sorry that you and your friends had to get involved in all of this. Aligning with Project Freelancer was my mistake. My burden to bear. I never wanted you or your friends getting involved. It wasn’t for a lack of faith in your abilities that I kept you in the dark, but out of a desire to protect you.”

Celestia brought a wing around Twilight and pulled her closer. With some hesitation, Twilight leaned into the embrace, and all of a sudden she found herself feeling good. Something about this just felt… right. Like this was the way things were supposed to be.

“You see, you’re…” Celestia paused. “You’re very precious to me….”

Leaning forward, Celestia nuzzled her student, and feeling warm and safe, Twilight nuzzled back. The two remained that way for some time, until Celestia’s soft coat became a pillow, and her feathery white wing turned into a blanket. Twilight rolled over in her bed and looked out the window to see the sun rising to greet her.

Sitting in front of a wooden crate sealed and full of produce, Grif lifted the finished letter and gave it one final read-through as the sun rose over Sweet Apple Acres. Addressed to the next of kin of his own Private Boltshot, the letter stated his KIA status coldly, expressing Grif’s gratitude and condolences to the stallion’s family. It was only one page, and it was barely two paragraphs, but it was the hardest thing he’d ever written. He hated work that involved writing just as much as any form of physical labor, but that wasn’t why this had been so difficult.

He’d gone through so many drafts before finally starting on this one, but they were all the same. They all seemed so inadequate. No matter what he put on the page, it would bring no comfort to Boltshot’s grieving family. Only heartache. No combination of words made the letter seem any less cold and heartless.

Grif found himself wondering whether he would receive a similar letter from Command at some point. Another set of cold, distant words that would efficiently and emotionlessly inform him of Sister’s passing. Would the man writing the letter to him put the same thought and care into the words on the page that he did? Or would it be identical to all the rest? Furthermore, would it even matter in the end?

Setting the page down, Grif signed his name and rank at the bottom, deciding he just wanted to be done with it. Yet, he knew that this wouldn’t be the last letter like this he’d have to write if he wanted to continue being in command.

“This is just part of being a leader,” Simmons had told him before leaving to do his own paperwork.

A knock on the barn door prompted Grif to turn, and he saw Applejack standing there.

“‘Sup?” Grif greeted casually.

“Erm, howdy there, Grif,” the farmpony greeted back. “How’s yer mornin’?”

“Fine, I guess,” Grif said in a way that sounded anything but. He looked down at the paper in his hands and suddenly remembered. “Oh yeah! Is there a post office or something I can have deliver this?”

Applejack looked at him and smiled. “Why of course! The post office is jus’ downtown. The mailmare is always more than happy to…” Applejack trailed off and her smile disappeared. “Oh. That’s right….”

“What’s up?”

“Nothin’. Jus’ give it to me. I’ll see that it gets delivered,” Applejack said, taking the letter from Grif. It felt like a huge relief to finally be rid of it. But for some reason, Applejack lingered. “So uh, I’ve got someone here who’d like to say a few words to ya.”

Applejack crossed her forelegs and waited. After a few moments passed, Applejack’s brow lowered and she glared out the door and stated loudly, “I said: Somebody would like to say a few words!”

When nothing happened, Applejack groaned and stepped out of the barn. She returned pushing a man along with her head. It was the last person Grif wanted to see.

“Oh, hey Sarge,” Grif said, coldly crossing his arms.

“Hey Grif,” Sarge stated stiffly. The two silently appraised each other for a moment. “So… how ‘bout them… sports teams? I hear Team Slipspace got a new Runner.”

“Isn’t it the guy who was imprisoned for killing a ton of other players? What’s up with that? It’s like the commissioner’s trying to ruin Team Slipspace on purpose!” Grif exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

“It’s pretty controversial, I know. But he might actually be a valuable asset to the team. Slipspace really needs someone who can actually play!”

“But isn’t he confined to a five-foot cage? How’s he gonna run plays?”

Applejack’s hoof met her face with great speed. “Land sakes! What is it about sports that makes males lose their train of thought so fast?”

“Oh, right. The thing,” Sarge said, awkwardly clearing his throat. “I want you to know one thing, Grif: I don’t like you. Not even a tiny bit!”

Grif gasped loudly and put a hand to his chest in mock surprise. “Oh my God. I’m shocked! Quick, call the number on my bracelet, I think I feel a heart attack coming!”

“Yer lazy, yer stupid, and yer hygiene is atrocious. I mean really, how are you not dead yet?” Sarge continued before receiving a warning glare from Applejack. “But… I may have overdone it when I tried to bring you down with Sister’s death. That was… uncalled for.”

Grif had half a mind to indignantly agree with Sarge before he realized it almost sounded like Sarge was… sorry. Grif then thought about some of what he had said in their argument, and sighed. “Yeah, I guess I made it a little personal when I said all that stuff about your whole career being for nothing, and you being irrelevant and stuff.”

“No, no, you were right. Crude, but right,” Sarge said with a sigh. “Private Grif… no, Sergeant: I hate you. I ain’t gonna apologize fer that. But I at least owe you the decency to not kick ya while you’re down. That ain’t right: I ought to be the one to put ya down in the first place! So what do ya say? If you let me back into the squad… I’ll follow yer orders. I won’t be happy, and you damn well better believe I’ll call ya out when I think yer ideas are stupid—which’ll probably be most of the time—but no matter what, you’ve got me on yer side.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything more or less,” Grif said, before looking at that piece of paper in Applejack’s grasp and changing his mind. “Actually, I can’t allow you to serve in this squad as my subordinate.”

“What?”

“Because I want you as its leader.”

“What?!” both Sarge and Applejack exclaimed.

“Congratulations on your promotion, Sergeant Sarge,” Grif said. “I’m relinquishing command of the squad to you.”

The other Red and the farmpony beside him just stood there in flabbergasted silence for a time.

“Relinquishing command? Ha! Another example of yer terrible decision-making!” Sarge then suddenly yelped when an orange hoof was brought down hard on his foot. “I mean, uh… thanks fer yer consideration, Sergeant Grif. Yer wisdom as a leader is….”

“Oh, c’mon Sarge. You don’t need to pretend to like me just because I have some authority. You’re not Simmons!” Grif said, smiling under his helmet. “C’mon. Wanna call me a dirtbag again? For old times’ sake?”

“Hmmph. You don’t have to pretend to be nice to me, either…” Sarge said, before adding, “Dirtbag….”

The two reconciled Reds stood silently and respectfully for a time before Sarge hoisted his shotgun. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Lopez an’ I have a spaceship to pimp out!” With that, Sarge walked out. “Later, hoes!”

Applejack merely watched him go with slight stupefaction before turning back to Grif. “Well, I gotta admit, that wasn’t exactly how I thought that’d go. I mean, neither of ya even said ‘sorry!’”

“The sentiment was there, we just need to hide it behind lots of bravado and nonchalance so no one will question our heterosexuality,” Grif said. “This is Guy Stuff 101, Applejack.”

“Well, can’t rightly say I understand it myself,” Applejack said, pulling off her stetson and dusting it off. “Hey, why’s ya give up command of Red Team, anyway? You were doin’ great as a leader from what I heard.”

“Actually, that’s exactly why I gave up command,” Grif sighed. “Being a leader is hard. You have to do way more work, and… your decisions affect people. I don’t wanna be the asshole who gets his soldiers killed. That’s Sarge’s thing!”

Applejack glanced at the rolled up paper tucked under her hoof. “I know what ya mean, Grif. I’m not much fer bein’ a leader myself.” Applejack turned to leave the barn. “But sometimes we’ve all gotta step up regardless of whether we want to.”

Church was standing by the window when Twilight came down the stairs. It was early in the morning, the sun only barely in the sky. Rarity was still asleep in the guest bed, and Twilight didn’t see Tucker around, so she assumed he was still sleeping in the basement. Washington was probably up and about habitually locking down the perimeter. Twilight almost called out to Spike to see if he was up making breakfast, but her throat clenched up when she remembered where he was.

In an effort to distract herself, Twilight went over to Church. “Good morning.”

“Hmm? Oh. Hey,” Church grunted with a start, turning away from the window and back toward the present. Twilight noticed he wasn’t holding CT’s dog tags anymore.

“So, did you find those answers you were looking for?”

“Actually, yeah,” Church said, summoning several holographic files around him, apparently having downloaded everything on the data chip to his own memory banks. “Here, check this out.”

A single file was projected in front of Twilight, and she narrowed her eyes as she leaned forward to read it. It didn’t take her long to realize that it was a news article.

HAVEN TERROR BOMBING KILLS TWO MILLION

MANASSAS, Alföld, Aug. 21, 2511/NS

A terrorist suicide bomber loaded a commercial nuclear explosive device (commonly used in asteroid mining) and several thousand pounds of scrap cadmium into the back of a rental truck, and then detonated it inside the promenade of the Haven arcology on Mamore.

Twilight skimmed through the middle section of the article. It gave a full account of the casualties (a disturbingly high number), named the terrorist group that claimed responsibility, and quoted a condemning statement by a politician (a Roland Hargrove). It was only when she got near the end of the article did Twilight understand its meaning.

Among the dead is Staff Sergeant Allison Church of the UNSC Marine Corps’ 212th, who was working alongside the Office of Naval Intelligence tracking terrorist activity in the Mato Grosso province. While ONI representatives have refused to comment, details regarding the operation were leaked. Allegedly, Church discovered what turned out to be bad intel during a raid on a terrorist hideout which may have resulted in the unpreparedness on the part of authorities.

Transmissions from the site indicates that Church and the 212th were on their way to the Haven arcology when the explosive went off, killing them instantly. Church is survived by her loving husband, Leonard, and daughter, Claire.

“Allison Church…” Twilight said as she looked up from the article at the Church in front of her. “So if you were based on the Director, does that mean Tex is based on this Allison?” Twilight remembered something Celestia had said about a woman that the Director had lost.

“Eh… sort of. I was apparently copied from the Director—from Church’s mind, but Tex wasn’t copied from Allison’s. At least, not directly. She was copied from the Director’s mind just like me.” Seeing Twilight’s confused head tilt, the A.I. continued. “The Director’s memory of Allison was strong, she was… she was his whole world. When she died, the memory of her stuck with him. It was so strong, that when they used his mind as the base for Alpha, they didn’t just end up with one A.I. They ended up with two. One was me, and the other….”

“The other was Allison!”

“The other was the Director’s memory of Allison: Tex,” Church said. “But there’s more. It was the memory of Allison’s death that stuck so strongly with the Director; her failure to save so many lives. Do you know what that means?” Twilight shook her head. “Each of the A.I. fragments were based on one of Alpha’s—and by extension the Director’s—traits. Omega was rage, Delta was logic, and so on.

“But Tex? Her trait was failure. That’s what she is, and that’s what she’s destined to be: a living representation of another person’s failure.” Church’s voice trembled as he continued, “That’s why all of her attempts to save me from the program over the years didn’t succeed. It’s why she failed to destroy Omega time and time again, even when he came here and took over your friend Pinkie Pie. It was why she couldn’t stop the Meta from taking the A.I.s in Dodge Junction and escaping back to Repertum. It could even be why we ultimately failed in our mission to recover Epsilon from Command. Tex’s whole existence is defined by failure... everything she does becomes tainted by it!”

Twilight just looked at him, her face a visage of quiet horror. Failure had always been something Twilight was terribly afraid of. Her greatest exploits were driven by the fear of failure as much as they were by the desire to succeed. To be cursed to fail at her every endeavor no matter what it was… Twilight wasn’t sure she would be able to keep her sanity in Tex’s shoes. Her voice was barely a whisper when she finally spoke.

“Does… does she know?”

“Hard to say. Tex had the data chip for years.” Church tapped a finger on his helmet. “But she didn’t have what I have.”

It took a moment for Twilight to realize what Church was referring to. “Epsilon’s memories… they’re starting to come back?”

Church nodded. “A little bit. There’s still a lot missing, but I’ve started remembering enough to put the pieces together myself.” With a weary sigh, Church sat down. Considering an A.I. inside of a robot body couldn’t get physically tired, Twilight couldn’t help but be a little concerned. “There’s no point in denying it anymore. This is real. I’m Alpha.”

Twilight placed a comforting hoof on his leg. “Like I told you before: I’m here whenever you need me, Church. Just so long as you’re willing to admit you have feelings!”

“Pfft,” Church scoffed. Nevertheless, he placed a hand on her hoof. “Thanks Twilight. I appreciate the gesture, but… I think I’ll be okay.” Although he didn’t say it, Twilight got the full message. As long as you’re here.

“Besides, being an A.I. can’t be so bad, right? I mean, in essence it’s the same as being a ghost, except… I’m made of numbers,” Church gave a single chuckle. “On the plus side, the Pentecostals can’t try to use me to disprove science anymore!”

“Wait… there are humans that do that?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, you’d think that a society that colonized multiple planets wouldn’t still put so much stock into stories written back when the wheel was the pinnacle of modern technology!”

The pair shared a laugh before settling into a comfortable silence. In the wake of everything that Church had learned about himself, Twilight couldn’t help but be reminded of some of the things she had learned. Her parents’ voices echoed in her mind, and suddenly a heavy weight fell over her chest. It felt wrong venting to Church after everything he’s been going through, but the weight of her own revelations was unbearable. She had to do something to take it off or be crushed.

“So… I might be adopted,” Twilight said conversationally, trying to keep her voice even. “I know that’s not quite as big a revelation as, well y’know….”

“Yeah, not even close,” Church said, but then he looked at the slowly wilting ears on the unicorn’s head and amended. “I mean uh, that’s still pretty rough though.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I mean, obviously we have to stop Project Freelancer and everything first, but… sooner or later I’m going to have to face my family about this.”

“Yeah… wait, when did you figure this out?”

“Last night. When I was in the dreamscape with the princesses.”

“Ah. Right,” Church said, nodding his head.

Twilight looked at him for a beat. “Wait, that’s it? No shocked disbelief? You’re not gonna say something like….” Twilight pinched her nose and did her best impression of Church’s nasally drawl. “‘Dreamscape? Da fuck is that? ‘S some magic bullshit right there!’”

“Hey, fuck you I don’t sound like that! That’s bullshit!” Church’s angry tone did nothing to keep Twilight from giggle-snorting. Seeing this, he decided to just move along with the conversation. “And to answer your question, I guess I’ve kinda gotten used to the bullshit that is Equestria. I don’t think it would surprise me if I learned that God was a horse at this point.”

Twilight’s laughter settled down a bit until she was able to once again focus on the topic.

“So did you at least learn anything important during your dream meeting with the pony princess?” Church asked, before blanching. “Nope. Saying it out loud just made it worse.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “Oh, right! The ruins we’re looking for are in the Frozen North.” The unicorn mare immediately made her way to the wooden table in the center of the library where the small stack of books currently sat. “Celestia sent me this research put together by another pony. I’m certain that something here holds a clue about where we have to go.”

Levitating the literature in her magic, Twilight sorted through the various books. She flipped over various reference materials on the Three Tribes pre-Unification and a couple from admittedly dubious sources chronicling theories about an alien precursor race. At the bottom of it all was a simple journal. Unlike the others, this one looked to have never been published, as when she opened it, she was greeted by hoof-written words on lined paper.

The first page was short and simple:

A Chronicling of My Expeditions in Search of the Forebear Ruins (temporary title)

By: Arcane Star

Author's Note

Next time: Twi does what she does best, and Tucker gets confused by ponies' word choices.

Act 3 Part 4 - Follow the Truth

Day: 01. Month: 05. Year: 964 A.L.

It is with great excitement that I write this journal entry. The first day of our expedition has come to an end.

After narrowly catching the 6 a.m. train from Vanhoover, we arrived at the end of the line in the Frozen North around midday. It’s curious that the line travels so far past even Equestria’s northernmost outposts to what is essentially the middle of nowhere. Perhaps the princess had intended to build another outpost somewhere nearby before ultimately scrapping it? Regardless, this means that the train put us that much closer to our objective.

According to my research, the secret to the extinct alien race (that I will hereafter refer to as the Forebears) and the place where all life on this world was born lies in the Old Kingdoms. Our plan is to start our search in Old Unicornia, as the unicorns kept excellent documentation of their history even during that time period. We’re still quite a long way off from reaching the first landmarks of Unicornia, however.

I made sure to plan our expedition so that it will be the height of the summer months by the time we reach the Old Kingdoms, where the cold of the North will be at its most tolerable. Despite all of our preparations against the cold, it was still a shock to many of our research assistants used to the typically warmer climate of Canterlot and Baltimare. Still, spirits are high at this early stage, and there is an air of excitement and anticipation amongst the team. Dr. Lyonel Heartstrings is practically vibrating with enthusiasm, and Tome Reader is keeping a level of wry skepticism that I’ve grown to appreciate.

Despite my excitement in moving forward, a part of me is a little sad to be leaving my fillyfriend back in Canterlot for so long. Goldie doesn’t quite share my enthusiasm for the extra-terrestrial, but Celestia bless her for enduring my ramblings with a smile. Here’s hoping tomorrow proves to be productive. As far as I’m concerned, we can’t get to Unicornia fast enough!

Tucker tried to ignore the curious looks he received from the weird little pony aliens as he walked along. As a foreigner to this land, Tucker expected even more of the ponies to be staring then there were, but only a few briefly regarded him with mild curiosity before continuing on their way. Of course, if Church and the others had been here for a long time already, it was possible these ponies were simply used to the armored human visitors.

However, Tucker didn’t think he’d ever get used to this place. It was a bright cheerful day and there was not a cloud in the sky. He tried not to think about the fact that this was due to the winged ponies literally clearing the clouds away in the sky just above him. It was all Tucker could do not to throw up in his helmet at the sheer saccharine quality of the whole place. The color of everything around him was incredibly bright and pastel. The little equine creatures seemed blissfully happy, chatting and playing in the streets around him, and even the birds seemed to be singing actual songs. It was enough to make him sick.

In truth, Tucker would have been just fine with lounging around Twilight’s tree library-thing while she and Church figured out what to do next. Unfortunately, Church decided he wanted someone to check on Caboose—ensure he wasn’t going to destroy the town by accident—and sent Tucker to find him. So when Tucker turned a corner and saw exactly where Caboose was supposed to be, he sighed as his stomach churned at the implausible structure before him.

“A gingerbread house...” he muttered. “Of course it’s a fucking gingerbread house.”

To be fair, that was exactly what Twilight had described to him when the two of them sent him on his little mission. Seeing it for himself was still a shock to his senses… mostly his eyes. Tucker walked up to the door and cautiously pushed it open.

“Hello?” Tucker called out when he stepped into the main floor of the establishment and found it empty.

“Oh heeEEeey Tucker!”

At the sound of the familiar greeting, Tucker spotted Donut stepping out of the kitchen stirring a bowl of batter in his hands. He was wearing a bright baby-blue apron over his pink armor.

“Dear god, you’ve gone native…” Tucker mumbled before properly addressing his fellow Recovery Agent. “Have you seen Caboose?”

“Yup!” a high-pitched voice exclaimed, and the pink poofy pony that he last saw hanging out with Caboose and Donut poked her head over the front counter with a big happy smile. “Caboosey’s just recovering from last night’s cupcake war.” Pinkie’s smile suddenly doubled in size. “Which I won!”

“That’s because you had a cupcake cannon!” Donut argued.

“I thought you guys knew the rule: Never… no, wait. Always bring a cannon to a cupcake fight!” Pinkie then addressed Tucker. “Do you want me to go get Caboose for you?”

Tucker immediately shook his head. “No, that’s fine. I’m not planning to have an aneurism today. I just wanted to make sure he isn’t doing something stupid that’ll destroy all of...uh,” Tucker hesitated for a moment. “What’s this place called?”

“Sugarcube Corner!”

“I mean the town.”

“Oh, you mean Ponyville!” Donut said.

“Yeah, that.” Tucker then gave his head a few disbelieving shakes. “Wait, Ponyville? Really? Wow. They were really thinking outside the box with the name, huh?”

“I heard they were going to call it Ponyopolis originally,” Pinkie said with a sage nod.

“Goddamn. That’d be like living in a place called ‘Humansburg’ or some shit.”

“Ooh, my dad grew up there!” Donut exclaimed.

“God I hate this place.”

As Pinkie Pie pouted, Donut turned toward Tucker indignantly. “Well I for one love it here! Why, later today I was thinking of visiting my friend Rarity to help with the design of her new boutique! I’m thinking burgundy with deep violet accents….”

Suddenly lost in the world of interior design, Donut wandered off back toward the kitchen.

“Pfft. He would like it here,” Tucker muttered. “This place is totally fucking gay….”

“Hey! What’s wrong with being a little gay?”

Tucker looked at the pink pony behind the counter to find her suddenly glaring at him judgmentally.

“Uh… nothing! That’s not my lifestyle, but… I was just saying….”

“Not your lifestyle?! How can it not be your lifestyle? Everypony in Equestria is gay!” Pinkie proclaimed. “And the ones who aren’t haven’t met me!”

“Wait… really?!” Tucker exclaimed, suddenly unable to find words. “But… how can an entire world be gay? How do you guys… y’know… reproduce?”

Pinkie just looked at him dumbfounded, as if she was talking to somebody who was simple. “What kind of super-silly question is that? Being gay when you’re making babies is the best way to do it!”

“What? But that doesn’t…” Tucker shook his head and turned towards the door. “No. You know what? No. I’m just going to find a hole to crawl into until this place starts making fucking sense.”

With that, Tucker walked out the door to Sugarcube Corner muttering something about bizzare alien biology while Pinkie looked on with a puzzled expression.

“Hey, Pinkie….”

Pinkie looked over at the stairs to see Caboose walking down, looking at the door that Tucker just walked out of. “What’s his problem?”

“I don’t know…” Pinkie said. “All I told him was that everypony in Equestria is really happy and it made him really confused!”

“Well… Tucker is pretty stupid….”

“Yeah… he even asked how babies are made. It’s like he didn’t know!”

Caboose gasped. “So that’s why he never tells me when I ask….”

Pinkie’s ears suddenly perked up and her goofy smile returned. “Hey, that reminds me! I didn’t say hi to the Cake twins today!” Pinkie raced toward the stairs. “Wanna come meet the little guys?”

“Wait… are they real, actual babies?”

“Well they’re not fake babies, silly!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving Caboose over. “C’mon!”

Caboose stood there for a few moments before crossing his arms defiantly. “No!”

“No?” Pinkie asked. Caboose shook his head in response. “What’s the matter? Do you not like babies?”

Caboose gave Pinkie a serious glare. “I hate babies!”

Taking a loud and dramatic gasp, Pinkie stared at Caboose in heartbroken disbelief. “How could you…?”

With one of the twins on each of their backs, Cup Cake and Carrot Cake descended the stairs of their home and place of business. Sugarcube Corner was currently doing quite well, and since Pinkie Pie was running the store with the help of those two pink and blue “human” creatures, the married couple figured they could take the day with their beloved foals. Unfortunately, the sound of shouting was the first thing they heard as they reached the main floor.

“Babies are cool!”

“Babies are dumb!”

“BABIES ARE COOL!”

“BABIES ARE DUMB!”

“YOUR OPINIONS ARE DUMB!”

“I AM YELLING LOUDER THEREFORE I’M RIGHT!”

“NUH-UH!”

“YEAH-HUH!”

“NUH-UH!”

“YEAH-HUH!”

“NUH-UH!”

“YEAH-HUH!”

Cup slowly turned to look at her husband as little Pumpkin began fussing on her back. Carrot looked from the twins on their backs to the escalating shouting match.

“Get used to it, hon,” Carrot said. “This is what we’ll have to deal with in a couple of years.”

Day: 26. Month: 08. Year: 964 A.L.

It’s been quite a while since my last entry, but that’s the unfortunate consequence of no progress. We finished our sweep of the remains of the Archmage Citadel, but didn’t find anything that I didn’t already cover in my previous entry on the matter.

I am currently writing from within the walls of our next destination: the old unicorn stronghold of Blackrock Fortress. Seeing its obsidian walls and its position tucked beneath a great icy mountain, I can see how Blackrock managed to hold back the pegasi for countless years without falling once. Still, as fascinating as this place is from a historical standpoint, it holds no clues to the Forebears.

All of the information we’ve come across has been the same: Scripture alluding to the existence of strange, ancient ruins somewhere in the Old Kingdoms, but nothing on their exact location. Strangely enough, recent findings would make it seem as though the earth ponies had more information on the Forebears than the unicorns.

I’ll admit, the morale of the expedition is severely waning. We hadn’t planned to extend our search any further than the Citadel, but our lack of findings had driven me to push us further to Blackrock. I campaigned to extend our expedition further, maybe try the Temple of Faust atop Mount Fiducia. We could probably have made it with enough rations left to make it back to Equestria’s East Sea Outpost. Lyonel was with me, but Tome and most of the others shot us down.

Things quickly devolved into a shouting match after that, when all of a sudden the winds picked up and everything seemed to grow colder. It may have just been a coincidence, but my thoughts can’t help but turn to the old Hearth’s Warming tale about the things that drove the Three Tribes from the North in the first place. They wouldn’t be the first dark creatures for our expedition to have faced. Our encounter with the wights the previous month still hangs heavy on all of our minds. I’m not looking forward to informing Chime’s family of her fate.

Tomorrow we’ll do one final sweep of the fortress. There are still many hidden passages and nooks that we have yet to discover. After that, I’ll try to push to visit the temple one last time. Perhaps Tome and the others will change their mind.

Taking a breath, Twilight turned the page only to find that it was the last one in the journal. Evidently, Arcane Star’s first expedition ended before he was able to investigate the temple he wanted. Glancing over at the expedition’s manifest and the reported date it returned to Vanhoover, Twilight confirmed that they wouldn’t have been able to make it back the day they did if they’d gone to the temple. She levitated over a list of potential places to search and added “Temple of Faust” to the others.

Twilight twisted her neck and stretched, letting the joints crack. She had been poring over Arcane Star’s journal and notes for a couple of hours now, and decided she needed a little break. Maybe she could make some tea?

“Spike! Can you…?” Twilight paused when she remembered. “Oh… right.”

That had been one of the benefits of focusing on the research: it kept her from focusing on anything else.

“Hey. How’s the studying goin’?”

Twilight turned and saw Church standing in the doorway. She saw the way he looked at the absolute mess of books and papers on the floor around her. She had been so engrossed in “study mode” that she didn’t even consider what a mess she had made (still, it was an organized mess!).

“Not too bad. I’m compiling a list of potential places we could search that Arcane Star didn’t, as well as a couple of the places he did that could have something that his team might’ve missed,” Twilight answered.

Church crossed his arms. “Okay. How long do ya think it’ll take to start narrowing some of that down?”

“I’m trying to unlock a code that even Canterlot’s brightest couldn’t solve. I just now finished going over all of the information pertaining to the first of five expeditions Arcane Star led.” Twilight fixed Church with a deadpan stare. “You do realize I’m not going find what we’re looking for in the next ten minutes, right?”

“I know, it’s just… I’m getting bored. Tucker left, Caboose is off doing god-knows-what, and I’m stuck here while you’re having a cram session!”

“If you’re so bored, why don’t you help me with some of this information gathering? You’re an A.I., this should be a breeze with your help!”

“Yeah, I’m not exactly designed to work with physical media. Trust me, way too many limitations there!”

Twilight grinned as an idea formed in her mind. “Okay, if you won’t help me with the research, maybe you can make me some tea.”

“Pfft. What do I look like, your servant?”

“Just saying. If you want me to finish this faster….”

“Fine! I’ll go get your fucking tea,” Church grumbled, heading into the kitchen.

With a friendly smile, Twilight dug out the next of Arcane Star’s journals—one chronicling his expedition to the earth pony kingdom of Gaia a few years later—and called out. “Thanks, number two assistant!”

“I’m sorry, Donut dear, but as you can see, we’re not anywhere near that stage of the construction yet,” Rarity told the enthusiastic human in pink armor.

She had to speak relatively loudly over the banging hammers and whirring drills of the construction crew as they put together the frame of her new boutique. She had arrived to check on their progress just after they’d finished their lunch, and the block was going to be filled with the sounds of carpentry for a while now. Seeing Donut sulk a little at what she’d just told him, Rarity gave him a smile.

“Here’s an idea: Why don’t you go visit my friend Fluttershy and help her with her animals?” Rarity suggested. “She’s such a sweet thing, you’ll simply adore her! And I think she could use the help. From what I hear, she’s been having trouble with her animals of late.”

“Can do, Rarity!” the young man exclaimed before bidding her farewell and skipping—no no, frolicking, as he’d insist—away.

Once he was gone, Rarity took a quick glance up at the sky. It was still sunny and clear, but the pegasi forecast called for rain in the evening. She then returned to her conversation with the foreman over the new boutique’s floor plan. In truth, Rarity had sent Donut away in part because she simply wanted to restore her boutique to the way it was. Donut’s ideas weren’t necessarily bad—in fact, the man had quite good taste—but it wasn’t what she wanted.

“Hey, Rarity?”

The alabaster unicorn stiffened at the familiar voice and saw Simmons approach. “Yes, Simmons. How can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Donut, have you seen him?” Simmons asked. “Now that he’s in charge again, Sarge wants to have a Red Team staff meeting.”

With their talk concluded, the foreman rolled up the floorplan and walked back into the heart of the construction. Rarity watched him go, oddly transfixed on the construction work being done. She inexplicably found herself unable to look at Simmons at that moment.

“Why yes, you just missed him,” Rarity answered without so much as looking at him. “I sent him over to help Fluttershy. Her cottage is just outside eastern Ponyville. You’ll have walked past it if you came from Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Oh. Okay, thanks.”

A twinge of guilt entered Rarity’s chest as the pair finished the cold exchange, and before she knew it, Simmons was walking away.

“Simmons, wait a minute please,” Rarity said, making sure she turned to face him this time. The maroon man stopped and did the same. “I… feel I was rather harsh with you the last time we spoke.”

“Really?” Simmons asked, apparently not remembering.

“Yes, I might have been a bit nasty when you and Grif decided not to come with us to Repertum, and I’m sorry,” Rarity thought about how little she had wanted to go to the human planet. The only reason she did go was because she had a very good reason. “I shouldn’t have expected you to put your life on the line for the rest of us. It wasn’t your fight, I suppose.”

“Yeah….” Hammers and power tools were the only sound between them for a moment. “So… how did the trip go, anyway?”

“Hmm? Oh. It was… it was fine,” Rarity managed.

“Just fine?”

Rarity anxiously chewed her lip as she remembered all that had transpired in the desert. She shut her eyes and tried to shake the image of a white-armored captain lying in a puddle of blood from her mind’s eye.

“To be honest, it was a rather… trying experience,” Rarity sighed. “I saw some things I’d really rather not have seen in my lifetime.”

“Oh… shit,” Simmons eloquently said. “You gonna be okay?”

Rarity saw Applejack and her brother setting up their stall in the market down the street. The farmpony saw her and waved, and Rarity waved back. Looking back at the maroon soldier as he took a concerned step forward, Rarity remembered a conversation she had with Simmons some time ago. She took a breath and gave him a confident smile.

“I’ll be fine,” Rarity said. “It’s just a mailbox.”

Day: 12. Month: 04. Year: 975 A.L.

At long last, our fourth expedition to the Frozen North is underway. It was significantly tougher making adequate preparations this time without the backing of Canterlot University, and in the end I had to use a lot of bits from my own pocket to get us here. Our expedition is also much smaller this time. Dr. Lyonel Heartstrings won’t be joining us again. ~~We haven't spoken since he lost his job~~ Many of our research assistants won’t be returning as well, as I can no longer offer them the wages they had on our first expeditions, and co-op credit is a hard sell when braving the dangers of the North. Still, we will press on.

If anything, less personnel and less provisions make for easier travel. We made it as far as the Emerald Pass this time, and should reach Inner Unicornia in less than a fortnight. Hopefully things will be different this time now that we know what we’re looking for. Recolta Bogata, the book detailing the harvest rituals of the various ancient earth pony sub-tribes, keeps coming up in every bit of material we find on the ruins of the Forebears.

Apparently, one particular group of earth ponies regularly visited ancient ruins fitting the description of those built by the Forebears to perform sacred rites to bring in new harvests. It is my belief that if we find this book, we’ll find the ruins. Reviewing everything we gathered from our last trips to the Old Kingdoms, along with everything we could find in the Canterlot archives, an old pegasi manifest detailing the goods pillaged from an earth pony sanctum included a book similar in description to Recolta Bogata. Although we don’t know for sure it is the same book (the manifest doesn’t include the title, as the Three Tribes all wrote with different scripture at the time), my colleagues all agree that it sounds close enough to be worth investigating.

Because the pegasi of old did not place much value on the written word, it’s likely they did not keep the book. Either they tried to ransom it back to the earth ponies among the other pillaged goods, or tried to use it to trade with the unicorn mages of the Citadel. Further research on the inter-tribal relations of the time indicates that pegasi/earth pony relations were especially sour during this period, thus it’s far more likely they traded the book to the unicorns.

Something as mundane as a book about earth pony harvest rituals would have easily been overlooked the last time we were here, so I am quite confident we’ll find what we’re looking for this time. I only wish my colleagues shared my optimism.

Twilight skipped through the rest of the entries from Arcane Star’s fourth and fifth expeditions, having already read each of them carefully. She opened the fifth journal on the last page.

Day: 06. Month: 09. Year: 979

It is with a heavy heart that I write our fifth expedition must come to an end, and we’re no closer to finding Recolta Bogata, let alone the ruins of the Forebears. It felt like we were so close this time. All evidence on the book really seemed to point back to the earth pony lands. Unfortunately, it would seem that for every step forwards, we take another two steps back.

Further evidence from the Earth Sanctum would indicate that Recolta Bogada had never been taken by the pegasi in the first place. It would seem that the pegasi invaders merely forced the earth pony sages at the Sanctum to transcribe its inventory list for them to save time counting the seized goods themselves. The problem is, the list was never updated to account for items moved elsewhere recently prior. Unfortunately, this lead is just another dead end. The book’s trail once again ends at the sub-tribe’s main city, which as far as I can tell is just as mythical as the ruins we’re chasing.

Tome Reader seems disappointed that our latest venture has ended in failure, but I doubt she’s surprised. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to convey to her just how much it means to me that she’s stuck by my side when nopony else has. Perhaps the best way to do that would be to finally heed her advice and make the necessary preparations to head back to Equestria at first light tomorrow.

Perhaps this is for the best. It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday. If we’re lucky, we can get back to Canterlot in enough time for me to make it up to young Moondancer. I’m not giving up on my search, but I think I need to take a break for a while….

Twilight closed the book and collected herself. That was it. Arcane Star hadn’t written any more journals after that. It had been the last expedition to the North he had taken. It wasn’t the last time he’d ever tried to learn more about the Forerunner ruins though. Other material in the notes she had indicated that Arcane Star had continued conducting his own research over the course of the twenty years leading up to the ship crash in Dodge City. It didn’t hold anything new or helpful though.

At the sound of the front door swinging open, Twilight swivelled her head to see Rarity enter, clomping her hooves on the front mat a few times to get out the water from the evening’s rainfall.

“Hello, Twilight!” Rarity called out in a sing-song voice.

Twilight took the opportunity to glance at the clock. It was almost six, and the sun was going down outside. At the sound of a metallic click, Twilight looked up the stairs to see Agent Washington on the landing with his rifle raised towards the door. After realizing that Rarity was, in fact, not an intruder, he calmly lowered it and headed down the stairs. Twilight tried looking around for Church, but evidently the armor clad A.I. had wandered off at some point while she was reading.

“Twilight, what’s the progress on your research?” Washington asked emotionlessly, moving toward her. “Are we any closer to getting an exact location on those ruins?”

Also curious, Rarity made her way closer to Twilight as well, carefully stepping over the minefield of books and papers on the floor around Twilight.

“Not great. I’ve narrowed their possible location down to somewhere within or close to the old earth pony kingdom of Gaia, but that’s still a wide radius to cover,” Twilight reported with a sigh. “This would all be a lot more manageable with my Number One Assistant…”

“Can’t you get Church or Washington to help?” Rarity asked.

“I can, but… they’re not Spike.” Twilight looked down at the various pieces of research around her and worried at her lip.

Rarity identified the true heart of the problem almost immediately. “You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m worried! He’s like the little brother I always wanted, and every moment we waste puts him and the rest of Canterlot in danger!”

“The Director won’t follow through with his threat unless we force his hand…” Washington started.

“Exactly!” Twilight exclaimed frantically, shutting him down. “What if finding those ruins just results in Canterlot getting blown off the mountain?!”

“Despite his questionable ethics, the Director is a practical man; he won’t take any major action that doesn’t benefit him in some way,” Washington explained. “If we reach the Forerunner ruins and send what we find to the Chairman before the Director finds out, he’ll no longer have a reason to hold Canterlot hostage; he’ll have already lost. Destroying Canterlot at that point would only hurt him in the long run.”

He has a point, Twilight conceded. It wouldn’t do to add the destruction of an entire city to the Director’s list of crimes if he’s found out. Still, it wasn’t enough to help her feel better. There was still so much that could go wrong.

“I want to find these ruins more than anything right now, I just wish there was a way to help everyone in Canterlot too.”

“Well, if anypony can come up with a plan, it’s you, Twilight dear,” Rarity said, smiling encouragingly. “I’m sure that once you put your mind to it, the solution will be crystal clear.”

“Thanks Rarity,” Twilight smiled appreciatively before returning her gaze to the journals around her. Something about what Rarity just said stuck with her for some reason.

Crystal clear…. Her eyes suddenly went wide as all at once, the missing pieces fell into place. “Wait, that’s it! Why didn’t I see it before?!” Twilight grabbed Rarity by the shoulders and shook her as a huge smile threatened to consume her entire face. “Rarity, you’re a genius!”

As Twilight dove back into her work, Rarity sat there flabberghasted for a few moments before a cool grin popped onto her face. “Well, I’ve been saying it for years...” she said as she idly inspected a finely polished hoof.

“I don’t understand, what did you find?” Washington asked.

Twilight didn’t answer him. She reopened the last of Arcane Star’s journals and flipped through its pages until arriving at the place she was looking for.

It had been my hope to visit the capital of this subsidiary earth pony tribe for more information on Recolta Bogada and perhaps even the ruins themselves. What’s curious is that by all accounts, no such city exists now. Maps recovered from the pre-Unification era clearly display a city far to the south of the Old Kingdoms, but investigations of the same location turned up no trace of anything ever having been there at all.

“Arcane Star was trying to find a book called Recolta Bogada that he believed would lead him straight to the temple,” Twilight finally explained. “But even after searching the Old Kingdoms over the course of years, he never found it, and now I know why. It was made by earth ponies that he thought was a subsidiary tribe, when in actuality it was its own independent nation. A small empire even! He couldn’t have found Recolta Bogada because until earlier this year, that book didn’t exist anymore!”

“I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean, Twilight darling,” Rarity said.

“I’m saying as far as we know, there’s only one direct reference material to the Forerunner ruins, and only one place it could be,” Twilight turned to Rarity, Washington, and Church (who just entered the room at the sound of all the excitement) and smiled. “Let’s gather the rest of the group. We need to plan a trip to the Crystal Empire!”

The sight that greeted Donut when he arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage was a strange one, even for him. Among a cacophony of riotous animals was Rainbow Dash clinging to the back of a great brown bear, her little blue wings flapping frantically as she tried to hold on, keeping the brown giant oriented toward Fluttershy.

“C’mon Fluttershy! You can do it!” Rainbow shouted to the gradually shrinking yellow pony. “Just concentrate and make your eyes super scary!”

“O-okay,” Fluttershy trembled. “I-I’ll try…”

Gathering her courage, Fluttershy closed her eyes before opening them again and staring hard at the bear. Her large piercing eyes met its own and for a moment the bear seemed locked in a trance. At least before it yawned and idly shook Rainbow Dash off of its back. The bear then casually strode past the furiously staring Fluttershy and proceeded to eat something off of her central table that it probably wasn’t supposed to eat.

“I can’t do it. I just can’t do it!” Fluttershy moaned, turning to look pleadingly at the bear. “Harry, please stop eating that….”

“Ow…” Rainbow groaned, climbing to her feet. “At least I didn’t land on my wings. The doctor said I need to keep off them for a little longer.”

“Hey gals!” Donut greeted cheerfully. The pair of pegasi looked over at him.

Fluttershy smiled nervously. “Oh… hello, um… Mr., uh…”

“What do you want, Donut?” Rainbow asked, not caring how dismissive she sounded.

“Oh, not much. Just thought I’d drop by, see if you guys needed anything,” Donut said, ducking to avoid a few hazardously flying birds.

“Oh. Yes, um… since you asked, would you be so kind as to stop Angel Bunny from running out the door with all of my stationery?” Fluttershy asked sweetly.

Donut glanced down at the floor just in time to see a little white bunny running towards him wearing a sailor hat made out of some folded paper. He was carrying several other folded up pieces of paper in his mouth.

“Whoa, slow down there, little fella!” Donut said, scooping up the troublesome bunny in one hand and removing the stationery from his grasp.

Donut handed the stationary to Fluttershy, removed the paper hat from the bunny’s head and promptly dropped him to the floor. Angel made his annoyance known with a few rude hand gestures in Donut’s direction as the pink soldier unfolded the piece of paper the bunny had been wearing on his head.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened when she saw what Donut was holding. “Oh, um… why don’t you let me take that, Donut.”

Donut glanced at the unfolded paper in his hands to see what looked like an already written letter on it. Which was strange, because he didn’t see Fluttershy’s name anywhere on it.

“Really? But it has Rainbow’s name on it,” Donut said.

“What? Lemme see!” Rainbow promptly grabbed the letter from Donut’s hands as Fluttershy gasped and started whimpering nervously. Donut watched Rainbow’s eyes scan the words until a frown of familiarity adorned the pegasus’ face. “Fluttershy… why do you have Gilda’s letter to me?”

Fluttershy just stood in place, shaking and sweating bullets. “I-I-I… I don’t…” she suddenly turned to glare at the little bunny. “Angel! You know better than to take ponies’ things!”

Angel folded his little arms and gave Fluttershy a knowing frown. Rainbow looked from the bunny to her friend, and Fluttershy’s ears wilted under their combined gazes.

“Okay! I-I’m sorry! It’s just… you threw it away, and then I found it by accident, a-and… I thought if it was bothering you so much, maybe I c-could…” Fluttershy could only finish her sentence with a high-pitched squeak and a meek “sorry.”

“Who’s Gilda?” Donut asked.

“Nobody,” Rainbow said in a dangerous low voice. “Just an ex-friend who turned out to be a big, stupid… jerk!”

“U-um…” Fluttershy started, before momentarily shrinking back when Rainbow’s angry glare made a beeline for her. “It’s just… i-it kinda looks like she’s sorry.”

“What?” Rainbow all but growled.

“W-well… Gilda looks like she wants to get back in touch. Maybe she feels bad about everything that happened?”

“Pfft! You really believe that, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. “Don’t you remember what she did to you?”

“W-well… if she’s really truly sorry….”

“What? I should just forgive her?!”

“That’s what I’d do!” Donut proclaimed.

Rainbow and even Fluttershy turned to Donut in disbelief. “Yeah, Donut? You don’t know this person like I do. She dissed my friends! I can’t just forgive her after one ‘I’m sorry!’”

“Why not? What could she have done that’s so bad you can’t forgive her?” Donut asked. “Was it worse than trying to kill me and getting me stuck in this lightish-red armor as a result? Because that’s exactly what the Blues did to me, but I don’t hate ‘em.”

“You don’t?” Rainbow asked, tilting her head at Donut.

“Nah, holding grudges won’t do anything but make you old and bitter. And I can’t get wrinkles... I still have my future modelling career to consider!”

“Don’t bother. Being a model’s scary,” Fluttershy muttered.

“But… what if she’s being insincere?” Rainbow asked, either not hearing or not listening to Fluttershy. “What if she’s not sorry for what she did to my friends?”

Donut just shrugged. “You never know if you don’t give her a chance.”

Rainbow opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. She could only entertain the notion that maybe… just maybe… Donut was right. The conversation was finished when someone approached the open front door.

“Hey girls! Hey Donut!” Twilight greeted.

“Oh. Hi, Twilight!” Fluttershy said.

“Why did you greet me separately?” Donut asked.

“Well, you’re a…” Twilight started, but after evaluating Donut again, she simply waved a hoof dismissively. “Nevermind.”

“What’s goin’ on, Twi?” Rainbow asked.

“I want everyone to gather at the library this evening,” Twilight explained. “We just made a big discovery!”

“WHAT?! The secret to the alien ruins is in the Crystal Empire!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, jumping up and hovering in place. Suddenly remembering that the doctor told her to stay off her wings as much as possible, Rainbow promptly touched back down and took her seat at the crowded table.

The large round table at the center of Golden Oaks Library was crowded by all five of Twilight’s pony friends, the three Blues, five Reds, and Agent Washington.

“Yes,” Twilight said, pinching the bridge of her snout. “And for Celestia’s sake, Rainbow, do you have to loudly and incredulously repeat everything I say?”

“WHAT?! I’m loudly and incredulously repeating everything you say?!”

Twilight lowered her brow and glared at her prismatic friend. “Now you’re just trying to be a pill.”

The barely contained laughter from both Rainbow and Pinkie confirmed it, and Twilight elected to ignore them and continue. “We’ll be dividing our group into two teams. Team A will consist of Donut, Simmons, Church, Caboose, Washington, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and myself. We’ll go to the Crystal Empire and track down those ruins.”

“The second team will consist of Grif, Sarge, Lopez, Tucker, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie…” Wash continued, only to be interrupted by the clearing of a gruff throat.

“I’m not happy with the teams,” Sarge stated. “Mostly because Grif’s on mine.”

Twilight saw Applejack give an exaggerated roll of her eyes as Washington stepped in.

“Sarge, the only reason we even organized the teams this way was because you insisted on spreading out the Reds, Blues and ponies as evenly as possible,” Wash said.

“Exactly! This way, those dirty Blues won’t get up to no good behind our backs!”

“So… does he realize we’re standing right here?” Tucker whispered to his teammates.

“I don’t know… we are sitting, so maybe he’s confused,” Caboose said.

“Oh, sure. He’s the one who’s confused,” Church mumbled.

“Not only did we organize the teams this way to cater to your paranoia Sarge, but we also needed to be strategic with who we need where,” Twilight explained. “The teams are fine.”

“Um… Twilight? I have a question,” Fluttershy declared timidly. “If your team is going to the Crystal Empire to find the ruins… what’s the other team going to do?”

“Team B is going to Canterlot,” Twilight said boldly. “They’re going to sneak into the castle and stop Project Freelancer from destroying it.”

The room was silent for all of two seconds. “How in the fuck are we supposed to do that?!” Tucker asked.

“In order for the Mother of Invention to perform an orbital strike with any accuracy, it needs to rely on a beacon placed in the target area,” Washington explained. “This beacon transmits a signal directly to the Mother of Invention’s targeting computer. If you can find the beacon in Canterlot and either deactivate it or scramble the signal, you should render the Mother of Invention incapable of launching an orbital strike.”

“Last I checked, all of Canterlot is locked down, Twilight dear,” Rarity pointed out. “How are we getting into the city?”

“You guys will be going through the Crystal Caverns in the mountain,” Twilight said. “I’ll find you a decent map before we all move out. Just be careful. I remember reading about something ancient living in those caves….”

“Fucking great, so the B team gets to sneak through a cave that probably has bats, and infiltrate an occupied city that’s constantly under the threat of being blown off the side of a mountain while the A team gets to hike around looking for some ruins,” Grif complained.

“For your information, the ruins we’ll be looking for are in the Frozen North: A place where the cold is lethal, is filled with ancient monsters, and in all likeliness a large portion of Project Freelancer’s forces searching for the same thing,” Twilight said. “Believe me, both teams have their work cut out for them. But there’s too much at stake to give up now!”

“Pfft. For you guys maybe,” Tucker said. “What about us?”

“What about you?”

“This is your planet that’s on the line right now.”

“Yes, and it’s your people that are threatening it!”

“As much as I hate to agree with a dirty Blue, the man has a point,” Sarge said, folding his arms. “We’re not with Project Freelancer. Hell, we never even wanted to come here. We didn’t ask to be whisked away to magical pony land! This ain’t our fight!”

Frowning, Twilight looked around the table at each of the Reds and Blues. She knew Church was with her at least, but the rest of them looked down at her with unanimous glares.

“You all feel this way?” she asked.

“Er… sorry Twilight, but we already helped make your armies more effective at fighting us,” Simmons said. “That alone is enough to get us imprisoned for life back home, even if we could justify it with the necessity to stop Project Freelancer. Sarge is right: this isn’t our fight. I don’t want to die for this.”

“Wow Simmons, I didn’t think this was physically possible, but you actually used your ass-kissing to get out of doing work,” Grif said appreciatively. “I guess it really is good for something.”

Twilight closed her eyes and let out a breath. It was incredibly selfish of them to want this, but they had valid points. It wasn’t too long ago that she was asking herself whether the affairs of Project Freelancer was her fight as well. In hindsight, she and her friends only decided to go back to Repertum after they realized it would directly affect Equestria. She had wanted as little to do with Project Freelancer as the others did back when this all started. If the Reds and Blues were selfish for thinking that, then so was she.

“Alright, fine,” Twilight said. “If you guys want to go back to Repertum, you can. We won’t stop you.”

“That may be true, but I can’t say the same for Project Freelancer,” Washington said instead. “They’re not going to let anything leave the planet and risk exposing them. Even if you took the ship the Meta stole, you won’t make it far out of the atmosphere without getting shot down.”

“Uh, yeah… except it’s a stealth ship? Kinda hard to shoot down something you can’t see,” Tucker pointed out.

“It’s Project Freelancer’s stealth ship. They have ways of detecting their own equipment.”

“Can’t Twilight just teleport us all back the same way she did when you guys left?” Simmons asked.

“Yeah, and have us all end up in different places across the world? No thanks. Not doin’ that shit again,” Sarge said.

“I hate to say it, but I guess you guys are stuck here until we deal with Project Freelancer,” Twilight said. “The best way to do that quickly is for you to help us.”

“Fine, jeez!” Sarge exclaimed, turning and pouting like a child.

“It’s settled then, we’ll reconvene tomorrow morning and go our respective ways as soon as we’re ready,” Twilight said with a confident smile.

“Okay. Good talk, people!” Church added, giving the room a thumbs up.

Caboose raised a hand over the table. “AAAAAAAAAAnd break!”

Sunny Side took in a lungful of air as she resurfaced from the bottom of her mug of cider. Wiping a bit of froth from her mouth, Sunny took a glance at the clock on the wall just behind where the bartender stood. After nine already? She hadn’t planned on staying this long. She hadn’t even planned on coming here at all. She knew she needed to get back home in time for dinner, but every time she thought about facing her aunt and uncle with the news from the day, she found herself simply ordering another drink.

The voice of the doctor echoed in her mind as the image of her little sister lying motionless in the hospital bed remained burned in the back of her eyes.

“There’s still been no change in your sister’s condition,” Doctor Horse had said, removing his glasses and doing his best to look Sunny in the eye. “Bright Side is still very young. If nothing’s changed by this point, chances are… it never will,” the doctor swallowed, and Sunny felt her heart sink in her chest as that terrible realization hit her all over again. “I know this must be hard, but we need to start thinking about… the next step.”

Sunny shut her eyes and took another swig of her cider, only to find that she’d reached the bottom. She waved a hoof to flag down the bartender, only to find that she wasn’t there. Sunny didn’t have to look for very long before she spotted the purple earth pony mare (Berry or something) returning to her post from one of the tables.

“Can I get another one of these?” Sunny asked, pushing the empty mug and a few bits Berry’s way.

Berry took the mug but pushed Sunny’s bits back. “The guy in the booth over there said he wanted to buy you a drink.”

The bartender indicated with her head where the booth in question was as she filled Sunny’s mug. Sunny just gave an annoyed sigh. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with some cocky stallion that thought he was going to “get some”, and turned around with the intention of thanking the guy for the drink before letting him know what the score was.

Her dour mood did a complete one-eighty as she found a familiar large dark gray stallion with a short-cut, two-tone mane of white and teal. She immediately recognized the crossed swords on his flank.

“Silversteel?” Sunny laughed as her old friend grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at her. Forgetting all of her troubles, she took her freshly filled mug from Berry and went to join her fellow earth pony at his booth.

“What’s up, Sunny?” Silversteel asked as the pair placed a hoof on each other’s shoulder and butted heads like they did back in basic. “Haven’t seen you in, uh… really damn long!”

“Too damn long. So what are you doing in Ponyville?” Sunny asked as she sat down across from him. “Y’know, besides hitting on mares way out of your league.”

“Hey, I’m an eight at least!” Silversteel said with an indignant look. “But to answer your question, latest contract’s up north. Getting a connecting train tomorrow morning.”

Sunny took a sip of cider. “So the merc life is treating you well I guess, huh?”

If she was honest, Sunny didn’t really care for the way her old friend dropped out of the military shortly after completing basic training to become a sellsword. The stallion always had a romanticized notion of the soldier of fortune, mostly due to his father’s stories, and quickly grew tired of the rules and regulations of military life. She was certain he’d return to a more stable career once he had a taste of what being a sellsword was really like, but it seemed he’d carved a career out of it.

“Yup. Though, this town’s a refreshing change from most of the places in Freeport and Griffonvale,” Silversteel said, a distant look suddenly crossing his features. “Though, I had hoped to catch up with an old friend while I was here.”

“Oh? What happened?”

Silversteel took a sip of his own cider, but his expression was the very image of sobriety. “She died. Quite recently, so I hear.”

“Oh, wow… that’s… I’m so sorry,” Sunny said, reaching over to give his foreleg a comforting pat.

“Thanks. She was something special. I... wish I’d kept in touch with her more.” Silence reigned as both of them took a swig of their drinks before Silversteel continued. “She had… special eyes. Had a way of seeing the good in all of us. Even when we had trouble seeing it ourselves.”

“Hey, that was pretty good. Maybe you should be a poet!” Sunny grinned.

“C’mon, I’m a big badass sellsword now. I do have a reputation to maintain!” Silversteel joked, but his easy smile quickly vanished.

Hoping to raise his spirits a different way, Sunny raised her mug. “To your friend’s special eyes.”

Silversteel met her mug with his own. “To Derpy.”

The two mugs clinked, and the ponies holding them took a large drink. Setting his mug down, Silversteel wiped the corner of his mouth. “Well, enough about me. What are you doing in Ponyville? I thought you were still with the Guard.”

“I’m on leave, actually,” Sunny said, idly tracing the rim of her mug, trying not to think about the incident that put her there. “Though, I’m thinking of quitting for good. Guess the military life isn’t for me, either.”

Silversteel grinned. “Hey, you could always go merc with me! We make a good team and the contract I just got is pretty sweet.” Silversteel wiggled his brow playfully. “They’re still hiring….”

“Northern Equestria, right?” Sunny asked, trying not to look too skeptical. “So what, is some morally dubious trading company looking for some extra muscle or something?”

“Nah. To be honest, I don’t even know who our employer is. I signed on with Whitewater for this job. Their commander is the one dealing with the employer.”

Sunny suddenly had a really bad feeling in her gut. Whitewater was a private military company whose army of sellswords consisted primarily of discharged former military personnel and ex-convicts from a variety of countries. There were all sorts of unsavory rumors surrounding the company. Getting in with them meant that you’ve made it as a merc, but at the cost of your soul.

“But here’s the juicy part,” Silversteel continued. “They’re not paying us with bits.”

“So what, then? Gems? Gryphs?”

“Weapons.”

Sunny tilted her head. “But… doesn’t Whitewater already have plenty of those?”

“None like this….” Silversteel then turned and did a quick scan of the bar. Once he seemed sure that no one was watching, he turned back to Sunny and leaned forward over the table, speaking under his breath. “Take a look in my saddlebag underneath the table.”

Carefully, Sunny reached a hoof under the table and felt a bag. Her heart stopped when she felt a familiar cold metal object inside. Pulling it out of the bag, Sunny made sure to keep it under the table as she looked at it. Her eyes went wide and the breath left her body when she got a good look at the familiar object in her hooves.

It was only from previously sharing a mind with Tex that she recognized it as an M6G recoil-operated, magazine-fed magnum: the favored sidearm of the UNSC’s finest. Sunny felt the gun slowly, examining its every detail. It had no trigger guard, she discerned, and a few other tiny variations in the design made her realize it was custom-built to be used by ponies.

“Pretty impressive, right?” Silversteel asked, thankfully misinterpreting her shock for that of someone seeing something new and strange. “Of course, what you’re holding right now is just a taste of what our employer is giving us. This stuff outclasses every weapon we’ve come to know. Swords, crossbows, everything we trained with is gonna be made obsolete by these… ‘guns!’ I wonder who made them….”

Sunny had a pretty good idea. The magnum had no markings to indicate its make, but the whole thing had Project Freelancer written all over it. What could they be up to now? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything good. Sunny remembered what she’d said to her companions. What she’d promised to her aunt and uncle. She swore she was going to stay home and focus on her recovery, but her every instinct was telling her what needed to be done.

Putting the magnum back in Silversteel’s saddle bag, Sunny leaned on one foreleg and tried to imitate one of her friend’s easy smiles. “Northern Equestria, you said?” she asked. “How far north are we talking, exactly?”

Silversteel grinned. “As north as it gets.”

Author's Note

You're probably wondering how Celestia got a hold of all of Arcane Star's years of research. Wait, you're not? Oh. Well, regardless, keep an eye out for a oneshot side story coming out at some point in the near-ish future. On a related note, there was a reason I picked that new OC who appeared at the end...

Next time: Twilight faces more truths and the B Team gets stoned.

Act 3 Part 5 - Follow the Lies

The sun was barely over the horizon as the large group of fifteen stood on the train platform. Twilight stood at the head of her group with Church and Washington at her side. Behind her, Caboose, Donut, Simmons, Rainbow Dash and Applejack waited patiently. Tucker, Rarity, and Sarge stood facing her, with Grif, Lopez, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie behind them. The depression of steam sounded from the train just off to the side as Twilight began briefing Tucker and Rarity’s group on their mission to Canterlot.

Pulling out and unfurling a large worn yellow parchment, Twilight explained, “I found a decent map of the Crystal Caverns. It’s a little old, but it should get you into Canterlot.”

Twilight passed the map from her magical aura to Rarity’s, and the fashionista put it away into her pocket dimension.

“Once you’re in Canterlot, Rarity can use her contacts there to try and find a way into the castle,” Twilight continued.

“I can call in a few favors, but breaking into Canterlot Castle might be a tad much for even the most influential ponies I know,” Rarity said.

“I know that some of the old noble houses used to have secret passages leading into the castle’s lower chambers. Most of them have since been destroyed, but with luck you’ll find one that’s still intact.”

“Once you enter the castle, you’ll need to find the orbital strike beacon,” Washington took over for Twilight. “It’s about the size of a large tablet. Check any relatively flat roof, open courtyard, anywhere it can transmit a signal with minimal interference.”

“Oh, and one more thing!” Twilight said, looking at all of Team B seriously. “You’re going to have to pass through the heart of the mountain to get to Canterlot from the lower caves. There’s a lot of old legends that say something about an ancient, great beast that lives there, so be careful.”

“Um… I thought that was just an old story to scare foals out of wandering into the caves,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, why are you warning us about something that’s just a myth?” Tucker asked. “Hey Church, when you go north, make sure you’re extra good so Santa Claus doesn’t cut out your entrails, or something.”

“So the guy who did that to my uncle really was Santa?” Caboose gasped. “Mom, why did you lie?!”

“Seriously, is there any other documentation on this ‘great beast’ other than some drunk guy one thousand years ago who said he saw something weird?” Grif asked. “If I say I saw a leprechaun right now, does that mean one hundred years later, people will be talking about the ‘legendary leprechaun of the train station?’”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but… let’s just say my friends and I have a bad track record when it comes to old legends,” Twilight said.

“All aboard for Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire!” the train’s conductor called out, and Twilight looked back at the other group with growing uncertainty.

“Okay. Well, this is it...” she said nervously.

The coming days would be incredibly dangerous for both teams. It was only through good luck that they made it through their adventure on Repertum with minimal casualties, and they’d failed their mission in the end. They couldn’t afford to fail this time, and Twilight couldn’t help but worry about what victory was going to cost.

“I can’t wait until we get to have a ‘We Beat the Mean Freelancer People’ party after we’re done!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Y’all stay safe. I’m bustin’ out the good cider when this is over, and I’ll be mighty disappointed if any of you don’ get to have some,” Applejack said.

“One more reason I must survive this!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Fluttershy nervously mumbled something as Rarity stepped forward with a rack full of bright clothes. “I packed all of you some warm attire. I know they don’t call it the ‘Frozen North’ for nothing!”

“Aw, you made it in my color,” Donut said as he put a big, fluffy pink scarf around his neck. “Thanks, Rarity!”

“It’s so refreshing to know a stallion who isn’t afraid to wear pink! It’s simply a marvelous color and it suits you perfectly, Donut dear.”

“Well… technically it’s lightish-red….”

Rarity tilted her head. “What? That’s not a real color.”

“Yes it is!”

“No it isn’t!”

“Uh, I would know, I’ve been wearing it for years!”

“I would know, I’m a fashion designer!”

As the pair continued to bicker, Simmons looked over at Grif and Sarge.

“Wish I could come with you guys…” Simmons stated.

“Don’t worry, Simmons. Once we’re all back together, we can kill all of the Blues when they’re distracted celebratin’ the success of this pointless campaign!” Sarge said.

“Glad you’ve got your priorities sorted out, Sarge, ” Grif said. “Also, if the Blues were to do the exact same thing, you’d call it a cowardly strategy. If there’s one thing I haven’t missed about you being in charge, it’s the hypocrisy.”

“Your leader gives you hippos?” Caboose asked hopefully. “I wish ours did that….”

“ALL ABOARD!”

With most of their goodbyes said, Twilight and her group started boarding the train. Simmons lingered, turning to his longest friend on Red Team.

“Hey… you gonna be okay, Grif?”

Grif spared a glance in a certain yellow pegasus’ direction, knowing what Simmons was referring to. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, good… I’d hate for any unresolved mental trauma to affect your field performance!”

“Wow. I’m glad you care so much about my well being, Simmons,” Grif deadpanned.

“Yeah, poor field performance in battle typically results in death, so you’re welcome!”

“Whatever.” Grif made to turn away and join the rest of his group leaving the platform, but hesitated. “See you around… kiss-ass.”

“Yeah, until next time… slacker.”

“Church, can I have a hippo?”

Church turned to Caboose and looked at him with the same calm exasperation as always. “Why the fuck would you even think to ask me that?”

“Red Team’s sergeant lets them have hippos,” Caboose said with a nod.

Church wasn’t sure how to answer. “Okay… I honestly can’t tell whether you grossly misinterpreted something the Reds said, or if Sarge is actually crazy enough to do that. Both scenarios seem equally possible.”

“Either way, I think you owe me a hippo.”

“Ugh, just sit down and stare at the window.”

“I will name him Harry….”

As Caboose seated himself, Church took a look around the rather spacious train car as he listened to the click-clack of the wheels on the track. The only individuals on the car were the Reds, Blues and ponies of their group. Church turned around and found Twilight talking to a member of the train’s staff at the entrance to their car.

“Y’know, I gotta hand it to you, Twilight: I’m pretty impressed that you managed to reserve an entire car just for us.”

The staff pony at the door finished her conversation with Twilight and left, and Twilight turned to look up at Church. “And instructions not to be disturbed by anypony else during our trip.”

“Wow. Fuckin’ Ms. Moneybags over here.”

“Well, it was necessary to get you guys to the Crystal Empire without other ponies catching on,” Twilight explained. “Officially, Equestria doesn’t know about humans yet.”

“Well, what about the ponies from your town?” Church asked. “They seemed pretty used to us.”

“Only after forming a lynch mob that nearly killed you guys and getting a decree from Princess Celestia herself ordering them not to bother you.”

“Touchè.”

With nothing left to be said, Church wandered over to where Caboose and Washington were and sat beside his blue comrade.

“I gotta say, Caboose, I’m surprised you didn’t try to go with Pinkie Pie’s group,” Church said.

“Nah, we decided we needed to take a little break for a while,” Caboose said in a tone that almost sounded normal. “We had a disagreement about some very important social issues.”

Church just raised both of his hands defensively. “Whoa, okay. Pfft. I’m sorry I said anything.”

Meanwhile, Twilight walked past where Simmons and Donut were seated and placed herself in the booth with Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“As much as I’m a mite nervous ‘bout this whole journey to the North, I am lookin’ forward to seein’ the Crystal Empire again,” Applejack was saying when Twilight entered.

“Yeah, it’ll be cool to visit the empire when it’s not being attacked by an evil king,” Rainbow concurred.

“How ‘bout you, Twi? Lookin’ forward to seeing Princess Cadance and yer brother again?”

Twilight froze when she remembered that she’d be seeing her brother, Shining Armor again. All at once her mind went back to her dream from two nights ago. She heard her parents voices in her head all over again.

Honestly? I hope not. I hope she never finds out she’s adopted….

“Twilight? You okay?”

“Huh? What?” Twilight cleared her head with a few shakes and found Rainbow Dash and Applejack both giving her concerned looks.

“You look like you just took a bite out of a rotten apple, sugarcube,” Applejack said.

Twilight momentarily considered telling them about what she’d learned the night before. After all, she’d told Church, and she hadn’t even known him as long as any of her pony friends. “Oh, I’m fine. Just… thinking about what lies ahead.”

She wasn’t lying. Turning to gaze out the window, Twilight spent the rest of the trip thinking about what she’d say to her brother when they arrived at the empire. Would he even know…?

The opening in the side of the mountain a fair climb up stood ominously before the group of seven. Like the maw of some great beast, the more the three ponies, three humans and one lone android stared at it, the more it seemed to stare back. A worn wooden sign stood just in front of the entrance with the words: “Lower Canterlot Mines”. Another had been unceremoniously nailed to the post just below it, reading: “Danger due to tunnel collapse. Do Not Enter.”

“Soooo, anybody else having second thoughts about this?” Tucker asked.

Rarity sighed. “Of course we’re having second thoughts about this….”

“I’m already on my fifth thought,” Pinkie Pie said. “No, wait! Sixth thought!”

“...but we have to go through with it either way.” Rarity glanced up the side of the mountain where Canterlot was perched miles above them. “Unless any of you feel like scaling the sheer mountain face for hours while hoping not to get spotted by patrols?”

“It sure is… dark,” Fluttershy muttered nervously.

“Eso no es un problema cuando sus ojos tienen la visión nocturna (That’s not a problem when your eyes have night vision settings),” Lopez stated.

“Yer right Lopez, the dark is frightening. Fear of darkness is a basic survival instinct, there’s no shame in it!” Sarge exclaimed. “That’s why we have our helmet lights!”

“No sé por qué me molesto (I don’t know why I bother).”

“Yes, and I have the flashlights Twilight packed for us as well,” Rarity said, opening her saddlebags with her light blue aura and levitating one to each member of their group who wasn’t wearing powered armor.

“Neugh… I think I’m gonna stay here, and y’know…” Grif stuttered, his voice cracking. “Try to… uh… think of an excuse not to come….”

“C’mon Grif, we might need ya!” Sarge exclaimed. “Who else is gonna run the orbital strike beacon out of the city if we can’t disarm it?”

“Sarge, you know I’m not cool with caves!” Grif exclaimed, his voice rising and his discomfort plain as he shifted in place. “You know what kind of shit lives in caves!”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “The only critters that would live in a cave like this are harmless little bats.”

“Don’t say the B word!”

Fluttershy looked up at her orange friend inquisitively. “Do you not like bats, Grif?”

Grif’s only response was the shiver that traveled up his entire body as he held up his arms and shook his head in a childish manner.

“Don’t worry, I communicate with animals, remember?” Fluttershy asked, gently patting Grif on the side. “If we see any bats in our travels, I’ll tell them not to bother you. Would that be okay?”

“You’d better. If any of the fuckers come near me, I’m opening fire!”

With no other ways for the group to delay going into the mountain, the seven of them stepped forward into the dark opening. They walked along through the tunnel for a while, their flashlights illuminating the walls around them. Wooden support beams lined the tunnel, placed there by the ponies that had originally dug it out many centuries ago. Rarity swallowed nervously when they passed a support that had split in two, but the tunnel remained standing. She forced herself to believe it was the work of termites and nothing more.

With one of his trademark ambiguous grunts, Sarge fell into step beside Rarity. “On the topic of creatures living in these caves, what’s the plan if that… ‘beast of legend’ hogwash turns out to be true?”

“Eh. It’s no big deal. We’ve got me!” Tucker said, joining them. “I fought a legendary beast on my quest with the alien. Wasn’t that hard.”

“Wasn’t that because your ‘legendary beast’ was just a dead cow’s skull?” Grif asked.

“What? How’d you know that?”

Grif shrugged. “Gossip spreads fast in our canyon.”

“Well, to answer your question, Sarge, I think that’s exactly why Twilight put Fluttershy on our team,” Rarity said, looking back at her pegasus friend.

With a start, Fluttershy looked around with wide eyes. “M-me?”

“Of course, darling! Your skill in taming dangerous creatures is unparalleled!” Rarity exclaimed, smiling confidently at her friend. “If anyone can deal with whatever lies ahead, it’s you, Fluttershy dear.”

Rarity returned her gaze forward and brought out the map of the caves as the group came to their first fork in the tunnel. Rarity knew that generally, whichever path was headed up was the one they wanted to take, but there was no harm in being sure. She didn’t notice the beads of sweat forming on Fluttershy’s forehead as she chewed her lip nervously. And as she picked a path and started down it, she didn’t hear Fluttershy’s tiny whimper.

It was well into the afternoon when the train pulled into the station at the Crystal Empire’s edge. Everyone in the group—pony and human alike—were in awe of the tall crystalline obelisks comprising the city. They were translucent like glass, but Twilight knew they were hard as stone. When the train came to a stop and ponies in the other cars started getting off, Twilight told the rest in their group to wait.

It was only after the rest of the ponies on the train disembarked and left the platform empty that a member of the Crystal Guard entered their car. Twilight was initially thrown off by the fact that the armored stallion was not a crystal pony, but an orange pegasus with a blue mane and tail. She figured he must have been one of her brother’s lieutenants from Canterlot brought in to train the Crystal Empire’s soldiers in modern military tactics. For all the good they’ll be. The soldier seemed momentarily taken aback at the sight of Washington, Church, and the other humans, but quickly regained his stoic guard’s composure.

“This way,” he said, clearing his throat awkwardly.

The group of ponies and humans followed the single armored pegasus out of the train and around the platform to the back of the station where more guards—actual crystal ponies this time—were waiting with a few carriages with blackout curtains. Twilight had made sure to contact Princess Cadance the night before, informing her that they were coming and that secrecy was of the utmost importance.

Not only did she want to make sure nopony saw the humans who didn’t know about them, but Project Freelancer had at least one unicorn in their ranks already. She didn’t want to risk any potential spies reporting their movements to the enemy. It was only a couple of days ago that Twilight had distrusted her beloved mentor for going to such lengths to keep her involvement with humans a secret. The irony was not lost to Twilight in that moment.

After everyone climbed into a carriage, it was a dark, quiet and leisurely ride to the center of the empire’s capital. The group was let out beneath a large tower-like castle that stood raised on four girders, completely covering a wide open square. Strategically placed guards blocked off several streets leading to the square, ensuring that no one saw the group entering the castle. Simmons and Church stopped to study the large heart-shaped stone floating in place between two vertical crystal pillars in the center of the square.

“What the hell’s that thing?” Simmons asked.

Twilight glanced at the object of their fascination and smiled. “Oh, that’s the Crystal Heart! It’s a magical artifact used to protect the empire and spread love and hope across Equestria.”

“Aww…” Donut cooed.

“Eugh. You could’ve just said it was ‘totally fucking lame’ and saved us, like, ten seconds,” Church said.

“Yeah. Why is everything in this place always a heart or a rainbow?” Simmons asked.

“What’s wrong with rainbows?” Rainbow Dash asked, giving Simmons an indignant glare.

The orange pegasus guard shushed the argumentative group and urged them forwards, casting a quick glance around the square’s perimeter. After entering a door in one of the large girders, the group climbed a winding crystal staircase before arriving in a grand, open hallway. Their host was waiting with several other ponies of the Crystal Guard. The pink alicorn princess with a mane and tail of violet, rose, and gold streaks smiled warmly when the group approached.

“Hello, Twilight!”

“Princess Cadance!” Twilight ran forward with a huge grin on her face.

The pink alicorn moved forward to meet her halfway, and together, the old friends danced in place as they recited their foalhood chant.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” The two of them completed the dance by shaking their posteriors at each other and in no time at all were laughing like a couple of schoolfillies.

“Okay, two questions: Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck did I just witness?” Church asked.

Twilight looked back at the A.I. with abject horror before directing an angry glare his way. “Church! That’s no way to speak to royalty!”

“Let alone my wife,” another voice added itself to the conversation. A muscular unicorn stallion with a white coat and a blue mane and tail entered the hall from a side entrance. He gave Church a scrutinizing glare.

“Awkwaaaaaard...” Caboose said quietly.

“BBBFF!” Twilight exclaimed, rushing forward to embrace him.

“Hey, Twily!” His ire forgotten, the stallion caught Twilight in an affectionate hug and held her close. “You have no idea how good it is to see you safe. We were all so worried when we first heard about your disappearance weeks ago.” Shining glanced behind him. “Weren’t we, Mom and Dad?”

Whatever Twilight was about to say next died on her lips at the sight of the next two ponies to enter the room. Smiling widely at Twilight was her mother and father.

Her father, Night Light, was the first to put a hoof around her. “How’ve you been, sweetie?” he said with one of his winning smiles that seemed to glow as much as his blue coat.

After kissing her head and rustling Twilight’s mane a bit (which she hated on account of how much time she spent making sure every individual hair was perfectly aligned) Night made way for his much more worried wife. Twilight Velvet practically glomped the younger Twilight before she could so much as say one word.

“Your father and I were so worried about you!” Velvet exclaimed as she held an increasingly flustered Twilight tighter. “Are you okay? Are you hungry? Are you hurt? Traumatized?”

“If I’m hurt, it’s because I can’t breathe right now,” Twilight’s voice came out muffled from within her mother’s tight embrace.

Twilight Velvet was getting along in age, but her gray coat was still smooth and pristine, and her two-tone purple and white mane still full. Her youthful energy was made apparent by the speed at which she suddenly pulled herself back and grabbed Twilight by the face, squishing her reddening cheeks together as she carefully scrutinized her.

“You don’t look too bad. Oh, but you have a little smush on your face….” Velvet began gently rubbing at something on young Twilight’s left cheek.

“Wha… what are you guys doing here?” Twilight finally managed as her mother relentlessly fussed over her.

“Well, when you first disappeared without a trace, Mom and Dad wanted the whole family to be together during such a hard time,” Shining Armor explained. “Since Cady and I are kinda swamped with our duties to the Empire, Mom and Dad decided to visit us here!”

“We were supposed to head back to Canterlot a couple of days ago, actually, but all of the trains going there shut down for some reason.” Night Light gave another one of his winning smiles. “Oh well, I’m not going to complain about a little extra vacation time. Especially now that the whole family’s together!”

“Well, it would be nice to know what’s going on at the office,” Velvet said.

Although Twilight was glad her parents weren’t in danger with the rest of Canterlot, her mother’s comment had her growing concerned that a certain uncomfortable topic might be raised before she was ready. The fact that her mother was the Head of Foal Services in Canterlot made her wonder….

As Twilight continued to be subjected to parental embarrassment, the pink alicorn Twilight had addressed as Cadance said her hellos to Applejack and Rainbow Dash before turning to Church and the armored humans beside him.

“So you must be the aliens that Twilight mentioned in her message,” she said, looking curiously at the group.

Twilight removed herself from her parents’ clutches, hoping to reclaim some of her dignity.

“Yes. Everyone, this is my sister-in-law: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” she said, gesturing to the pink alicorn with a hoof.

“Twilight, you know I prefer just ‘Cadance.’”

“Wow, so pink!” Donut squealed happily.

“Don’t you mean ‘lightish-red?’” Simmons asked dryly.

“C’mon, Simmons. That’s clearly pink!”

“I would still like to feed one of these horses a rainbow carrot…” Caboose added.

Ignoring them, Twilight gestured to the white unicorn stallion next. “And this is my big brother, Captain… er, Prince Shining Armor.”

“Hey there, uh… sorry about the whole ‘who the fuck is this’ comment about your wife,” Church said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. “Are we cool? Or should I start picking out real estate in your dungeons?”

Shining Armor smiled. “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t throw people in the dungeons for offending my wife.” His smile then took a turn for the mischievous. “If Cadance is really offended, she’ll come up with something much more creative.”

If an A.I. was capable of sweating, Church would have done so. “Noted.”

With that said, Twilight next introduced her parents, then the Reds and Blues in turn, giving her family little bits of information about each of them and their roles in her recent adventures.

“...And this is Agent Washington, formerly of Project Freelancer. He helped me return to Equestria the first time I went to their planet. As I understand, he’s since been working with Princess Celestia to ready Equestria’s military for war against his old program.”

“Which brings us to why we’re here,” Washington said.

The royal couple exchanged an uneasy glance. “Yes, we’ve received reports from Princess Celestia about a week ago describing an alien threat to Equestria, and warning us to be ready,” Shining Armor explained.

“I assume it’s this ‘Project Freelancer’ that you mentioned?” Cadance asked.

“Yes. I can brief you in full on the situation, but we have a specific objective to accomplish while we’re here.”

“That’s right,” Twilight said, taking over for Washington. “The key to beating Project Freelancer is in some ruins in the North, and after thorough research, I believe the Crystal Empire has a book that can lead us there.”

Cadance nodded. “I’ll give you clearance to access the archives. Even the restricted sections where King Sombra kept his research.”

Twilight couldn’t help but notice the way Cadance’s wings twitched in a way that resembled a cold shiver. Still, Twilight could see the logic of searching there. The remnants of an incredibly advanced alien race was definitely something that would have interested Sombra.

“In the meantime, I can gather my generals in the war room for Agent Washington’s briefing,” Shining suggested. “Who knows? Maybe he can help us create a new training regimen for the troops like he did for Celestia.”

“Oh! I can help with that!” Simmons said.

“Okay, I’ll join you as soon as Twilight and her friends are set up in the library, love,” Cadance said, giving her husband a little peck on the cheek before turning to lead Twilight and those accompanying her to the archives.

“Mind if RD an’ I catch up with ya later, Twi?” Applejack asked. “We’ wouldn’t mind gettin’ some fresh air after travelin’ all day.”

“No problem, Applejack.”

As everyone in the hall began to go their separate ways, Twilight lingered. Shining Armor was standing with Washington, giving orders to the orange pegasus stallion that guided them there. Her mind raced as she thought of a hundred different ways to broach the particularly uncomfortable topic plaguing her mind with her brother… if she could even call him that. And then there were her parents.

“You okay, Twily?” Night Light asked.

Twilight had been thinking about telling both of her parents about what was on her mind, but seeing them standing there looking at her with concern, she found herself unable to. Maybe she’d be ready later.

“Actually, I was thinking… maybe we can have dinner together as a family tonight?” Twilight said, giving her parents a smile.

“Why, that’s a great idea, Twily,” her mother said. “It’ll be just like old times!”

“Hey Twilight! Hurry up! C’mon, you’re the one who knows what we’re looking for!”

Twilight saw Church standing at the end of the hall. The others had already filed out, but he and Cadance remained to wait for her. In turn, Velvet and Night Light glanced back at Shining Armor, who had been talking quietly with Washington and Simmons as they made to leave through another door.

Night Light cleared his throat. “So, seven?”

Twilight tried to give her father a smile. One way or another, seven o’clock would be the time she learned the truth. “Looking forward to it….”

“So, how good’s your nose been lately?” Silversteel asked as he and Sunny stood on the side of the road in the middle of the opulent crystal city. The pair were facing the entrance to the aptly named Crystal Cafè, carefully observing the patrons on the outside patio.

“Well, I’ve been able to distinguish between each of the different perfumes and colognes the ponies use here, so I’d say it’s about average. Why?” Sunny asked.

“We’re meeting someone here representing the CO of the Whitewater regiment we’ll be working with,” Silversteel explained. “My contact instructed me to identify them by the fact that they’ll be drinking a special imported drink most ponies hate.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. That was certainly a complicated way of getting in touch with your future boss. Was this level of secrecy normal for Whitewater? Sunny doubted it very much, and had a feeling she knew the reason. Regardless, the white mare turned toward the cafè and started sniffing. However, she spotted what they were looking for before she smelled it.

“You think this person’s drinking something ponies hate because they’re not a pony?” Sunny asked.

When Silversteel gave her an inquisitive look, Sunny just gestured her head toward the back of the outdoor cafè. Sure enough, sitting at a table in the shadow of the building was a lone griffin, quietly looming over a steaming cup. Tall and muscular, the griffon must have been about a head taller than most ponies. It had equipment and attire to indicate they weren’t exactly a city dweller, and had a certain rugged edge in its appearance.

“He certainly looks the part, doesn’t he?” she asked.

“I was gonna say something about profiling, but….” Silversteel gave the air a few sniffs. “He’s definitely drinking Eastmarch ground coffee. Bleugh! Don’t know why griffons like that stuff….”

The two of them stepped onto the patio and made their way to the griffon at the back.

“Mind if we join you?” Silversteel asked, taking a seat across from the griffon before he could even answer.

“You must be the latest hire out of Freeport,” the griffon said, and Sunny realized it was female. The griffon then looked at her and scowled. “This is a serious job we’re pulling here. You should’ve left your marefriend at home!”

Sunny glared at the griffon with an indignant snort, but Silversteel came between them before things could escalate further. “Whoa, whoa! Easy. Sunny’s ex-military, like me. We go waaaay back. She’s cool.”

The griffon scrutinized her for a few more brief seconds before shrugging. “As long as she can take orders and hold her own in a fight, fine. The more the merrier.” Leaning back, the griffon finally elected to introduce herself. “Lieutenant Graywing. Silversteel, right?”

The stallion nodded. “So, any word on our quarry?”

Silversteel had told Sunny about the exact nature of their job, and she had a bad feeling about it. She had a pretty good idea about the identity of the group of ponies they were going after.

“I don’t have confirmation yet, but just an hour ago, a few high-profile carriages moved from the train station to the palace. Guard escort and everything,” Ms. Graywing said. “My instincts tell me it’s them.”

“There was a private car on the train we arrived on,” Silversteel seemed dumbstruck. “No shit! We must’ve been riding with our targets!”

Turning to look down the street, Sunny looked up at the impressive blue crystal spire towering over the entire city. She felt pretty good about the others’ safety from these mercenaries as long as they were inside, but it didn’t hurt to probe for more information. It was, after all, the whole reason she’d tagged along.

“The Crystal Palace is well defended,” she convincingly mused. “It’s gonna be hard to get at them while they’re in there.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Graywing said, dismissively waving a talon. “They won’t be staying in the palace for very long. Our employer is certain that the targets are heading north into the Old Kingdoms.”

“The Old Kingdoms?” Silversteel exclaimed. “What in Tartarus are they doing there? You know the rumors about what lives in that place.”

“Pfft. I don’t put any stock in some lame-o pony fairy tale,” Graywing scoffed. “As a matter of fact, the rest of the company is already set up over there. We didn’t encounter any problems but the freaking cold.”

Lieutenant Graywing took another sip of her foul-smelling griffon coffee before she continued. “Your jobs will be relatively simple: Stay here and keep an eye on the palace. You’re both earth ponies, so you’ll be more inconspicuous. As soon as you see the targets leave, report to me and I’ll fly ahead and alert the CO. He’ll be waiting to ambush them with the rest of the company.”

“Seems simple enough…” Sunny said calmly, but inside, her mind was racing. There had to be a way for her to either warn them about the ambush, or keep the rest of the sellswords from finding out when they were coming.

“Oh yeah, you should know that our employer will be there as well. Said she wanted to personally see that things go smoothly,” Graywing said, giving Sunny the perfect opportunity to fish for more information.

“So, out of curiosity, who is our employer?”

Graywing gave her an unamused look. “Look, I know you guys must be curious, especially with what we’re gaining from this, but let the CO deal with the employer,” she said. “To be honest, I don’t really know who she is myself. Nobility, if I had to guess. She certainly acts the part.”

With a shrug and a dismissive wave, the griffon continued. “Anyway, once your job’s done here, head on up north and meet us. Map’s in the hotel room.”

“Okay,” Silversteel nodded.

“And give yourself a buffer between the targets when you go, I don’t want them to get wise to us if they see you following them.”

“Okay! This isn’t our first rodeo, you know!”

Graywing eyed them levelly as she stood to leave, her puffing white and brown feathers the only thing betraying her annoyance. “If we complete this job, we’ll have the equipment to outclass every fighting force in the world. I wanna make sure you dweebs don’t screw this up!”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued down the street, each carrying their fair share of unique goods from the empire. Applejack held a basket of various crystal fruits, and was curious to see how they stood up to her own family’s wares. Rainbow seemed to have grabbed whatever caught her fancy, including a novelty jousting helmet much like the one she wore at the Crystal Fair.

“So where do ya reckon we should go next, RD?” Applejack asked.

A growl from the pegasus’ stomach was her answer. “I wonder if they have a Burger Princess here?”

“The empire’s been lost in time fer a thousand years, so don’t get yer hopes up.”

Rainbow just groaned and looked around for a decent looking place to eat. A flash of movement in the corner of her eye as a winged figure took off drew Rainbow’s attention to a cafè across the street. She wasn’t sure why, but the flash of color on the fringes of her vision sparked an imperceptible sense of familiarity within her. But when Rainbow scanned the Crystal Cafè, she saw nothing but strangers.

“You wanna get something here?” Applejack asked, following Rainbow’s gaze to the cafè.

She gave the crowd of patrons another glance before returning her attention to Applejack. “Nah. Just… thought I saw someone….”

Rarity and the others tried to focus on the pictographs etched on the cavern’s walls, but the constantly flashing light and incessant beatboxing proved to be far too distracting.

“Pinkie, please. You can pretend we’re at a rave later!” Rarity groaned.

Pinkie Pie stopped strobing her flashlight and froze in place with her tongue partway out of her mouth as she stopped herself mid-beat.

“Sorry!”

Now with nothing but the helmet mounted light provided by Tucker, Rarity was able to get a clear view of the crude carving on the wall. It depicted what appeared to be a large serpentine creature with wings and a head that looked vaguely avian. Featureless ponies were etched all around it, dwarfed by the monster’s size.

Just beyond the ominous carvings was an especially large entryway where the cavern opened up significantly. It was much too dark to see very far ahead, however, one object stuck out. What appeared to be a statue of an earth pony stood in the center of the tunnel, facing the dark opening. The statue’s mouth was wide open, its face a twisted visage of terror.

With an uneasy breath, Rarity glanced down at the map Twilight had provided. If she was reading it right, they were right at the entrance to the heart of the mountain. A few other paths snaked around the giant cavern. Rarity thought that despite the detour they would provide, the much smaller tunnels seemed like the safer option.

The problem with that plan became apparent when the rest of the group came back from scouting the other routes.

“Well, it looks like every other route this way is blocked,” Sarge reported, followed by a “Si” of affirmation from Lopez.

Grif and Fluttershy came over from the other way, looking equally disheartened. “Yeah, cave-ins blocked off everything this way,” Grif said. “Well, no use trying to go any further. We did our best everybody. What’s important is that we tried.”

“Great. It looks like we’ve got no choice but to go through the massive chamber with the unsettling pictures and creepy statue in front of it,” Tucker noted, completely ignoring Grif’s laziness-induced defeatism.

“B-but… if there’s a great beast in there, it could just be waiting to gobble us up!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“Mis sensores de movimiento detectan ningún movimiento (My motion sensors detect no movement),” Lopez reported. “Por otra parte, sólo va a comer aquellos de ustedes con carne real, así que no me importa de cualquier manera (Then again, it’ll only eat those of you who have actual flesh, so I don’t care either way).”

“Good thinking Lopez! We could send in a scout to determine whether it’s safe,” Sarge said, his eyes drifting toward a certain orange private. “We’ll need someone expendable, preferably with a strong odor to draw it out….”

“Fine! I’ll go! Anything to get us moving out of this cave,” Grif said, taking his first annoyed steps into the vast cavern. “Dumb monster’s probably fake anyway….”

The others watched as Grif made his way into the cavern and disappeared around a dark corner, the light from his helmet growing fainter the further he walked.

“Quick! Maybe if we collapse this passage, it’ll open up another one somewhere else!” Sarge said before being shushed by the others.

The cavern was so quiet that they could hear Grif’s miserable muttering even when he was far away.

“Stupid caves haven’t had anything interesting for hours. The sooner we find our way out, the sooner I won’t have to deal with any more….”

Silence suddenly reigned in the cavern ahead. The others waited and listened for a few tense moments.

“Um… Grif?” Fluttershy called out. “Are… are you okay?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Before the others knew it, the light from Grif’s helmet was rapidly getting brighter. The rotund orange man raced toward them, screaming.

“OH GOD!!!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!! IT’S EXTREMELY SCARY!!!!!”

Grif tripped before he reached the others and landed in a puddle with a squelch. The others ran to his aid immediately (much to Sarge’s insistence that it was already too late for him and that they should move on).

“Grif, what happened?” Rarity asked, scanning the darkness for signs of his assailant.

Now a trembling wreck on the ground, Grif pointed a shaking finger up. The others slowly followed where he pointed, looking up just in time for something to come flying out of the darkness.

A swarm of ordinary bats no bigger than a pony’s snout fluttered by overhead, much to Fluttershy’s delight.

“It’s okay, Grif. These little guys are harmless,” Fluttershy said raising a hoof to allow one to land on her. None of them did, however. They just kept flying past her as fast as their wings could carry them.

“Wow. I know you’re scared of bats and all, but don’t you think you overreacted just a little?” Tucker asked.

“I-it’s not the bats….”

“Huh. The little fellas sure are in a hurry,” Sarge noted.

“They’re probably just late for Bat-Fest,” Pinkie said as if it made perfect sense. “I hear they have some good panels this year! I like the one about screeching.” Pinkie was quickly shushed by the others as she started doing her best bat impression.

Fluttershy held one of the smaller bats in her hooves and looked down at it with concern. “Oh dear, it looks like something really spooked them.”

Suddenly feeling very uneasy, Rarity returned her attention to the vast darkness of the cavern. She realized she could feel the faint presence of gemstones all around them, and came up with an idea. Lighting her horn, Rarity reached out to each of the hundreds of gems within the vast cavern and called upon a basic illumination spell she sometimes used to make some of her dresses appear to glow. The gems lit up one at a time, the dim, multicolored glow slowly making its way toward the other end of the cavern.

Looking carefully into the far, unlit area of the cave, Rarity saw what she had initially assumed to be the far wall begin to move. As more of the gemstones lit up from her spell, a wall of scales began to reveal itself on the far side of the room. Slowly, the ponies and humans present looked higher on the scaly, moving wall until they saw a pair of large, leathery wings. Finally, what appeared to be the head of a giant rooster swiveled to face them, and the creature roared with an ear-piercing shriek, revealing a round mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

“What… the fuck….?” Tucker stuttered.

“Is that a… cockatrice?” Rarity asked breathlessly. “But it’s so big….”

“Just like my… dick...” Tucker trembled, his mind-numbing terror not enough to stop him from annoying Rarity through her own mind-numbing terror.

“That’s not just any cockatrice,” Fluttershy said, trembling. “Th-that’s a king basilisk cockatrice; they’re supposed to be extinct!”

“Clearly overhunting and deforestation didn’t finish the job…” Sarge said, raising his shotgun and cocking it confidently. “Fortunately, causing total extinction is what mankind does best!”

Rarity couldn’t even comment on how nonreassuring that remark was as the king basilisk roared again and charged forward.

“Today is a good day to annihilate another species!” Sarge proclaimed before charging to meet the monster, screaming heroically.

With an electronic swish, Tucker activated his energy sword and sighed. “Why couldn’t it be another dead cow?”

Tucker ran after Sarge, and with some hesitation, the others followed suit.

“Found it!” Caboose exclaimed, holding an old, leather-bound book (or hopefully, bound by something resembling leather) with unfamiliar words on its cover.

Church looked away from the bookshelf he was searching and sighed. “You’ve said that eight times in the past minute alone. That one isn’t even written in a real language! Just a bunch of gibberish!”

It was at that moment that Twilight walked by, looked over at Caboose, and smiled widely. “Oh, hey! You found it!” Twilight took the book in her magical aura. “Good job, Caboose.”

“I like helping.”

“Here, have a cookie. You’ve earned it, buddy!”

“Oh my God, YES!” Caboose caught the chocolate chip cookie tossed to him by Twilight and shoved it under his helmet.

The precious book levitating beside her, Twilight walked past Church as she made her way to the door leading out to the main section of the library. “And for the record, this is not gibberish, it’s Old Romaneian: the most commonly spoken language amongst the earth ponies before Unification.”

As Twilight opened the door and let some light into the otherwise dimly lit room full of books, Church took a glance at the shelf where Caboose had found Recolta Bogada.

“Huh. Right between Mysteries of Mind Manipulation and Unlocking the Werewolf Gene. This Sombra guy had some weird hobbies,” Church mused before following Twilight out of the room along with Caboose and Donut.

The bright, cavernous halls of the Crystal Empire’s central library was like a breath of fresh air after the oppressive dark of the restricted “Sombra” section. Church didn’t miss the way the two crystal ponies guarding the entrance wasted no time in sealing it with multiple locks once they were all out. Indeed, there was a certain unsettling nature to the darkness that permeated the room, making the walls seem to close in on them during the hours they were there.

Church forced those thoughts from his mind as he joined Twilight at the large round table in the center of the main library. Caboose and Donut wandered off to see what else they could find. With Rainbow Dash and Applejack out, and Washington and Simmons lending their assistance to the empire’s military training, that left Church and Twilight alone with the important book.

“So… explain to me how this book is supposed to lead us to the Forerunner ruins when we can’t even read the writing?” Church asked.

Twilight just gave him an eager smile as she reached into her saddlebags and pulled out several papers and another book. “Arcane Star had the sense to include a guide in his secondary sources for translating Old Romaneian.”

Spreading out all of the materials on the table in front of her, Twilight brought out a quill and got to work. She spent the first few minutes translating the title just to make sure the book was, in fact, Recolta Bogada. Once she was satisfied that it was, Twilight opened the book and began the translation process in proper.

“So, how long do you think this’ll take?” Church asked.

“Depending on where in the book the ruins are mentioned? Anywhere from one hour to several.”

“Damn. Any way I can help speed this along?”

“I suppose you could help with the translation,” Twilight said, thoughtfully tapping her chin. “I could show you how. It’s not actually that difficult. Just time-consuming.”

Twilight was interrupted by a grumbling in her stomach.

“Sounds like we should hope for the ‘one hour’ option if you wanna get some dinner,” Church noted. “I gotta say… I don’t envy having a flesh and blood body. Not needing to eat gives me time to… oh wait, I guess I don’t really do anything else. Huh. I wish I could eat a steak….”

However, while Church rambled, Twilight had frozen in the middle of writing part of a translated word. “Oh right… dinner….”

“Yeah, in hindsight, I guess not having a real body would be more beneficial to you, since you actually do stuff.”

“What am I gonna do…?” Twilight said at barely a whisper, her eyes growing big and worried.

“Well, I’m pretty sure they’ve got food somewhere in this place. Or… are you on a certain diet or something?”

“I’m having dinner with my family, Church!” Twilight exclaimed, looking anxiously at him.

“Yeah? Great. I mean, I’d be offended they didn’t invite me, but, y’know… can’t eat food.” Seeing just how distressed Twilight looked, Church suddenly remembered a conversation they had the previous day. “Wait, by family, do you mean… your parents?”

Twilight gave a solemn nod, and the library was silent. At least until its doors swung open and two sets of hooves echoed through the vast room. Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked in, each carrying a paper bag that smelled of greasy fried food.

“Hey guys, you won’t believe it! The Crystal Empire has a Burger Princess!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed around the hayfries in her mouth. “Applejack didn’t think there’d be one, but I had faith.”

“Clearly I underestimated the big city chains’ need to expand their soulless, processed franchise,” Applejack said with a hint of bitterness.

“Eesh, you having vinegar with your hayfries, Applejack?” Rainbow Dash asked as she and Applejack sat down at the table across from Twilight and Church. “Also, did you forget that you’re eating this ‘soulless garbage’ too?”

“Well, it is only one bit fer a Princess Meal….”

It was only as the pair ceased their bickering for long enough to open their respective bags of fast food when they noticed Twilight’s unusual silence.

“Twi? Somethin’ wrong, sugarcube?”

“No!” Twilight answered quickly with a smile she hoped looked convincing. A deadpan stare from Applejack indicated otherwise. “Yeah….” Looking at each of her concerned friends, Twilight sighed. “I have something to tell you.”

Twilight described in as much detail as she could remember the dream she had the night before.

“...and what’s more, I’m having dinner with them soon! I want to know the truth, but I… I don’t know if I’m ready for it.”

As she looked at her two pony friends deep in thought about what she’d just said, Twilight couldn’t help but wish Rarity or Fluttershy were here. They were usually better with this sensitive stuff.

“Well… shoot. I’m sorry, Twi. That’s a heck of a situation,” Applejack said.

“Well, who cares if you’re adopted anyway?” Church asked. “I mean let’s be honest, you turned out pretty good. That probably means your parents were doin’ something right.”

“It’s not just the possibility I could be adopted. It’s that my parents were effectively lying to me for my whole life! You’d think they’d have told me by now….” Twilight glanced down at the book on the table in front of her and said quietly, “I wonder if I should just cancel? Tell them I’m too busy down here. I mean, finding these ruins is kind of a priority. I can just wait to talk to my parents until after this is all over.”

Applejack put her forelegs on the table and leaned over to look her friend right in the eyes. “Twilight… yer parents are a very important part of yer life. Trust me: ya don’ wanna take ‘em fer granted until it’s too late. If you put off this talk now, who’s to say you won’t keep puttin’ it off in the future? An’ if ya do that, there’ll be a wall between you and them that’ll push ya apart until… until the day they ain’t around no more.”

Twilight thought about it. She rarely spoke with her mom and dad anymore as it was. She’d always convinced herself that she was too busy with her studies, but a part of her wondered whether she could have made more of an effort to see them. She remembered missing them terribly when she first started at Celestia’s School. How the princess herself ended up tucking her in and singing a lullaby for her as a filly when her mom could not. Yet, now they rarely even entered her mind.

“Yeah, not only that, but I know that not knowing the truth is gonna drive you fucking crazy for the rest of this trip,” Church added, glancing down at Recolta Bogada. “You said that translating this stuff wasn’t hard, so why don’t you let us take care of it while you take care of the stuff with your family?”

Trying to maintain a strong façade, Twilight nodded and gave them all a smile. “Okay. Thanks, guys.”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!” Tucker screamed as he charged across the massive cavern toward the towering king basilisk cockatrice, energy sword in hand.

The monster merely lowered its head to Tucker’s level, directing a pair of glowing red eyes his way. All of a sudden, Tucker’s charge began to slow as the bottoms of his legs lost their color. Tucker forced himself forward, extending his energy sword as far as he could in an effort to gouge out the creature’s eyes. His body went completely gray before that happened, taking on a stone-like texture. The energy sword fell from from his frozen hand, winking out as it hit the ground.

“Wh-what the fuck?!” Grif exclaimed, firing wildly at the king basilisk with his BR and forcing it back a few steps. None of his shots seemed to do any lasting damage, though; his constant trembling didn’t do his accuracy any favors.

“Don’t look in its eyes!” Fluttershy cried out. She’d been meaning to do so since the fight began, but she had to spend time psyching herself up to raise her voice. “That’s how it petrifies its prey!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already worked out a solution!” Pinkie exclaimed, pulling a cloth out of nowhere and tying it tightly around her eyes into a blindfold. She then proceeded to blindly grope her way across the cavern.

“How are we supposed to fight it if we can’t see it?” Grif asked, his head now fully turned away from the great cockatrice as he continued firing blindly at it.

“Oh, that’s easy!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, turning around. “Marco!”

The giant cockatrice roared loudly, and Pinkie turned in the monster’s general direction.

“Marco!”

Sarge, meanwhile, grunted with disapproval. “‘Don’t look in its eyes?’ Now see here, missy: looking in yer opponent’s eyes is a crucial part of any battle.”

“But aren’t you always wearing a helmet?” Rarity deadpanned.

“You can learn a lot from looking in yer opponent’s eyes,” Sarge continued as if Rarity hadn’t spoken at all. “It’s also a way to say to yer opponent: ‘I respect you as a warrior’, right before shooting him dead and tea-bagging the shit out of his corpse! Observe!”

Loading his shotgun, Sarge strode right up to the towering king basilisk and looked directly up at it. “Hey, buddy.” The leviathan looked down at Sarge in mild surprise, who glared directly up at it. “Yer about to get….”

Sarge froze up and turned to stone the second his eyes locked with the giant cockatrice. For its part, the monster actually seemed surprised at this development. Evidently, it wasn’t used to having its victims willingly petrify themselves like that.

“Marco!” Just behind the king basilisk, Pinkie Pie walked snout first into a stalagmite, falling back on her rump with a yelp.

With another roar, the cockatrice charged toward its next target, (knocking over the petrified Sarge in the process) and Lopez soon found himself running the other way.

“Hijo de puta!”

Fluttershy happened to be standing right in their path, and with a shriek, took to her wings and dove to cover behind the nearest boulder. Fluttershy took a moment to carefully peek over the top to confirm that the king basilisk was still chasing Lopez before she heard a dainty gasp beside her. Fluttershy turned to see Rarity crouched behind the boulder next to her.

“Oh, um… sorry, Rarity. Was this your boulder?”

“Coming through! Scooch! Scooch!” Grif vaulted the boulder the two mares were taking cover behind; an impressive feat considering his mass. Soon, the overweight human in orange was huddled up on the ground between the pair of ponies. “How the fuck are we gonna stop that thing?”

“Polo!” Pinkie’s voice echoed across the cavern. “Oops, I mean: Marco!”

Rarity just looked past Grif at the terrified pegasus. “Fluttershy?” The pony in question looked back, her yellow coat seeming to turn paler. “Now’s as good a time as any to use that special talent of yours!”

“Yes, um…” Fluttershy looked around for a bit, hoping to find an alternative. “...yes.”

With no other choice, Fluttershy flew out from the cover of the boulder and slowly approached the giant rampaging cockatrice.

“Um… excuse me, sir?” When the creature didn’t acknowledge her, Fluttershy cleared her throat and tried to be louder. “Sir! Could you please stop attacking my friends?” She then noticed who the creature was currently chasing. “And acquaintances?”

The cockatrice made no indication it heard her, merely jumping up and stomping down on top of a hapless Lopez. “Aye aye aye!”

Building up as much courage as she could, Fluttershy flew straight toward the king basilisk and gently tapped it on the shoulder. Fluttershy now had the monster’s attention, and she quickly looked down to avoid its eyes.

“Um, l-listen. I n-need you to stop hurting my friends right now!” Fluttershy said firmly, trying her hardest to look the cockatrice in the eye.

She tried to remember how she’d felt when the smaller one had threatened the Cutie Mark Crusaders back in the Everfree Forest so long ago. She tried to call upon that impotent rage that had driven her to enter the staring match with the cockatrice and win. She couldn’t do it this time, though. Every time she thought about using her Stare, her thoughts traced back to a more recent event in the Everfree. Whenever she tried to focus her rage into her eyes, she only saw her own furious face in the reflection of a domed helmet, and she remembered other events. She remembered critters fleeing in terror from her at the Grand Galloping Gala. She remembered reducing two of her best friends to tears after taking a minotaur’s seminar.

The monster cockatrice let out another deafening roar, and the sheer force of it shook Fluttershy from the air and sent her crashing down toward Grif and Rarity.

“FISH OUT OF WATER!” A still blindfolded Pinkie Pie leapt onto the cockatrice’s tail, holding it down and keeping the monster’s attention away from the trio hiding behind the boulder.

“I can’t do it, I-I just can’t do it!” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Of course you can, dear. You told me you out Stared a cockatrice before,” Rarity said encouragingly. “This one may be bigger, but that shouldn’t matter. Nothing can stand against your Stare!”

“But I can’t do the Stare anymore!” Fluttershy wailed. “Ever since I saw for myself what it looks like, it’s like… something’s stopping me every time I try it,” Fluttershy looked down and saw her reflection in a puddle. She wasn’t sure whether the water was trembling, or if she was. “Every time I use the Stare, it’s like… letting out a monster inside me. The same monster that escaped at the Gala. That said terrible things to you and Pinkie. I… I don’t want to let the monster out again!”

“Bullshit!” At Grif’s sudden outburst, both of the other ponies looked at him. “Everyone has a monster inside them. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Even you?” Fluttershy asked, looking at the usually relaxed orange man with uncertainty.

“Of course! You’ve seen what happens when I get angry: I went straight for the jugular in my argument with Sarge the other day. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty, but it was… it was me.” Grif hesitated and looked down. It seemed he wasn’t too proud of that side of him, either. “But that’s just the thing: that shit is only a part of me. You know that the real me is a cool, relaxed guy that a lot of people misidentify as ‘lazy.’

“And I know the real you is a sweet, kind, amazing person who’ll even help out an asshole like me when he’s down. Showing an uglier side of yourself every once in a while isn’t going to change that!”

Fluttershy looked at Grif and for the first time really wished she could see his face. She didn’t need to see it though. His words were enough.

She wouldn’t have had much time to look anyway, as with a flap of its leathery wings, the king basilisk cockatrice flew over the boulder the three of them were hiding behind and landed beside them. It slowly turned towards them, dropping another large stone. It was Pinkie Pie, who was frozen in the act of removing the blindfold from her own eyes with a look of triumph on her face. It would seem she got so wrapped up in her game she forgot they were fighting a dangerous monster.

The human and three ponies turned to run the other way, but a single bat fluttered past Grif’s face. With a shriek, Grif tripped and landed flat on his face. Wrapping its serpent-like tail around him, the giant Cockatrice dragged Grif toward itself.

“AAAAAAAUGH!” Grif screamed as the cockatrice lifted him up and tried to look him in the eye, but Grif covered his visor with his hands and squirmed away. “FLUTTERSHY!!!!! You’ve gotta try to do it! If you don’t let out that monster inside you, then this one will fucking eat me!”

As she watched the giant creature toy with her friend, Fluttershy felt the familiar sensation of hot rage boiling inside her. She looked around at the others who’d been petrified by the great cockatrice and let them create more anger inside her. Her brow lowering, Fluttershy took off and flew straight toward the monster again.

“You! Look. At. Me. Right now!”

The cockatrice froze, slowly turning to the little pegasus hovering beside it. Fluttershy didn’t flinch away this time, opening her eyes wide and unleashing her furious Stare right into the eyes of the cockatrice. Even as she started to lose feeling in her hind legs, Fluttershy kept Staring.

“You are going to un-petrify all of my friends, and when you’re done, you’re going to go back to your corner and go to sleep, or so help me you will be in a world of pain unlike anything your tiny chicken brain can imagine!” The numbness climbed up her back to her neck but Fluttershy only moved closer. “I am going to put the fear of Celestia into you so bad that you won’t even be able to have a single impure thought without remembering my judging glare! Now, are you going to unpetrify my friends, or are we going to continue this? Because believe me, I will continue my Stare even while I’m completely encased in stone!”

The cockatrice kept defiantly staring back, but reversed a little to gain some breathing room. Fluttershy’s vision started to fade as the rest of her head started to grow numb, but she kept her Stare going. Just before darkness swallowed her up, Fluttershy saw the king basilisk blink.

The next thing she knew, Fluttershy was on the ground feeling sore all over. A chorus of pained groaning echoed around her and when she looked around, Fluttershy saw each of the other ponies and humans getting up off the ground, no longer in stone.

“...Sarged!” Sarge sat upright with his shotgun raised before looking around. “Dammit.”

Looking off to the side, Fluttershy saw the king basilisk cockatrice asleep in the corner, exactly like she’d told it.

“Ugh, dude… I haven’t been stoned like that since college,” Tucker said. “Am I right?”

“Wait, you went to college?” Grif asked.

“Maybe. I don’t think so….”

Fluttershy nearly jumped out of her skin as she was suddenly crushed in a big fluffy hug.

“Omigosh! You totally saved the day, Fluttershy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “That guy was totally cheating at Marco Polo!”

“Well, I think I’ve had my fill of action for one day,” Rarity proclaimed before rounding on Tucker. “Don’t.” She then pulled out Twilight’s map of the cave network. “Come on, I think there’s an abandoned mining facility about a mile up we can make camp at.”

As the gang began to depart, leaving a softly snoring massive cockatrice behind, Grif approached Fluttershy.

“Listen, uh… I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell the guys any of the, y’know… sentimental stuff I said back there,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I kinda have a reputation to uphold.”

Fluttershy smiled. “It’ll be our secret.”

As the five ponies ate around the large, finely polished crystal table of the castle’s dining hall, Twilight remained silent. She was acutely aware of the large crystal chandelier hanging over her head, feeling like it could fall at any moment. It was amazing how something that seemed so fragile, so ready to snap hung just above the family’s heads while they acted like nothing was wrong.

“...Though, probably the most interesting challenge has been trying to reintegrate the empire into modern Equestria,” Cadance continued, having more or less led the dinner conversation thus far between delicate bites of her carrot and celery salad. “Shiny actually came up with the idea to apply for a candidacy to host the Equestria Games this year!”

“See? I do something smart every once in a while,” Shining said, eliciting chuckles from his parents.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the news. She knew Rainbow Dash would be excited by it, being a huge fan of the games herself. Twilight didn’t make to say anything, though, and simply took another sip of her sparkling soup.

“Twily? Are you sure you’re feeling alright, honey?” her mom asked, nothing but maternal concern in her big blue eyes matching her pearl necklace.

“Yeah, we thought you’d have all kinds of stories from your adventures around alien worlds!” her father exclaimed.

“It was just one alien world, actually,” Twilight Sparkle corrected. “And if I try to tell you about my adventures there, we’ll probably be up all night.”

“Still, mom has a point,” Shining Armor said. “You definitely haven’t been yourself since you arrived.”

“Well, I have been through a lot lately.”

“This is different,” Cadance said, closing her eyes in concentration. “There’s a lot of conflicting emotions going through you right now. The… texture of these feelings and how deeply they’re rooted indicates to me that it’s family related.”

Quietly rueing Cadance’s empathy based magic, Twilight didn’t miss the way both of her parents exchanged a nervous glance. “Twily, you know you can talk to us about anything, right?” Velvet said.

Looking at the worried frowns of each of her family members, Twilight swallowed. This was as good a time as any to act.

“I… there’s this… scene that keeps playing over and over again in my head. I don’t know if it’s a memory, or just a dream, but… I’m a filly. Back in our home in Canterlot. It’s late, and I go downstairs for a drink, and… I hear you guys talking, and… you say that I’m... not really your daughter. That I’m adopted,” Twilight looked up at her parents, and the silence was deafening. She found her voice starting to fail. “Why would I think that? I mean, it can’t be true… can it?”

The silence that met her question pressed down on Twilight with more pressure every second it passed. Twilight Velvet looked at her husband, scowled at the table in front of her, and then spoke in a quiet, neutered voice. “I knew we should have just told her.”

Night Light looked at his daughter pleadingly. “Twilight, honey….”

Twilight looked across the table at Shining Armor, whose expression mirrored his father’s. It was at that moment that Twilight felt a fire rising in her chest, and she started to tremble as she glared accusingly at the white stallion.

“You knew?” she asked, her voice getting dangerously low.

Shining nodded. “I was with them when they first brought you home, but I don’t think I really understood until you went off to study under Celestia.”

Twilight turned to the alicorn beside him. “And what about you? Did you know the filly you were sitting all those years wasn’t actually related to the rest of her family?”

Cadance shook her head. “Shiny only told me after the wedding.”

The chair Twilight sat on was nearly knocked to the floor as she stood abruptly. Tears began to obscure her eyes as the hot rage continued to boil within her.

“Of course. Of course! Clueless, socially awkward Twilight is always the last one to know! It doesn’t matter if it’s about her brother’s wedding or-or the circumstances of her own freaking birth!” Twilight had to stop as she suddenly found it very hard to breathe. After taking a few heavy breaths, she just looked down at the table and realized she’d spilled her drink. “How could you lie to me all this time? Why couldn’t you just tell me?”

“We wanted to tell you, Twilight sweetie, but…” Velvet paused, struggling to find the words. After a reassuring pat from her husband, she did. “After you started your studies with Princess Celestia, the times we got to see you became so few and far between. We had to treasure every moment we got to spend with you, and we didn’t want to spoil it by saying something that would shatter your world.”

“It’s my fault,” Night Light said. “I should’ve listened to Vel….”

“No. We both procrastinated on this.”

Twilight could only stand there, shaking in disbelief as her breaths started coming quickly and uncontrollably. It was like she was having that nightmare all over again. Any minute now she’d wake up and be back in her bedroom. Or in Blood Gulch. Luna would come in at any moment and tell her it was all a dream. But she didn’t. It was real.

Suddenly feeling a wing draped across her back, Twilight looked up and saw Cadance standing beside her.

“Repeat after me,” she said gently, but with a degree of firmness. Cadance put a hoof to her chest and breathed in deeply, and Twilight followed suit. Cadance then released the breath slowly as she pushed out with her hoof.

When Twilight did the same, she found herself calmer, and even in her frazzled state, Twilight made a mental note to remember the technique in the future. Then she realized that each of the others were standing around her.

“Twily, you’re half right: we all should have told you this way sooner,” Shining Armor started, “but you’re wrong about the other half: we’ve never lied to you. Not once.” Shining then wrapped his forelegs around Twilight and pulled her into a warm embrace. “You’re still my Little Sister Best Friend Forever.”

Twilight Velvet joined in, hugging her from the other side. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you this sooner, and I’m sorry if you ever thought it means we’re not really family.”

Night Light joined in next, doing his best to wrap his forelegs around all of them. “We love you with all of our hearts, Twilight. We hope you can find it within yours to forgive us.”

Twilight knew she should’ve been angry. The ponies that had been her family had kept the truth from her for her entire life. It was her every right. However, as all of them stood around her, holding her in tight, loving embraces, Twilight could only think of Applejack’s advice to her earlier in the evening.

“Yer parents are a very important part of yer life. Trust me: ya don’ wanna take ‘em fer granted.”

Returning her family’s hug in full, Twilight felt more tears run down her cheeks. “You’re my parents. My BBBFF,” she sniffed. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

Twilight just sat there with her family around her as they all held each other. Cadance took a step back and let them have their moment, her eyes as glossy as the rest of theirs. The four of them must have remained that way for minutes before they finally and reluctantly started to break away.

“Well… guess we should get back to the food before it gets cold,” Twilight suggested with an awkward chuckle.

With warm smiles the family agreed and proceeded to just that, and for the first time in a while, Twilight Sparkle felt at peace. She forgot all about her troubles with Project Freelancer and the search for the Forerunner ruins. There was only her and her family.

“So, you must have a lot of questions, honey,” Night Light said before turning to look at his wife. “Vel, what was the name of that orphanage we found Twily at?”

“Mmm… Comfy Clouds,” Velvet said after some thought. “It was the one that used to be in Cloudsdale before they moved it groundside to accommodate non-pegasi.”

“Right.”

“So… what made you decide to adopt me?” Twilight asked.

“You mean besides the fact that you’re cute as a button with the chubbiest little cheeks?” Night teased reaching over to pinch Twilight’s cheek.

“Daaaaad, quit it!”

“Well, when you’ve been a foal services worker as long as I have, you can’t help but notice how… inadequate the system in Equestria is,” Velvet said, deciding to be the one to give the actual answer. “Your father and I decided we wanted to do our part to help.”

“You were barely a toddler at the time, and when we saw you, it was just… meant to be,” Night said.

Twilight nodded, before opening her mouth to carefully ask her next question. “And… do you know who my real… who my biological parents are?”

Her parents exchanged an uncertain look. “We… don’t actually know,” her mother answered. “I was able to use my connections in the Foal Services system to try and track them down. It was tough... you were transferred around a lot for some reason. I couldn’t find anything about your biological parents, though. It was so strange. According to the records you just… appeared in the system one day. I thought perhaps you were a doorstep filly.”

Night Light glanced over at his wife and bit his lip. “Your mother and I actually have an… interesting theory about that.”

“Well, you have an interesting theory.”

“When we went in to make the adoption official, Princess Celestia was there. It was under the pretense of spreading awareness of the flaws in the Equestrian Foalcare System - she’d made public appearances at a few other orphanages around Equestria throughout the week. But there was something strange about her appearance at this one. There was way less press, and the whole thing seemed a lot more… casual. Then she saw you, turned to us, and gave her Royal Blessing to our adoption. Told us to ‘take good care of her.’”

“Even as a colt, I thought something was strange about it,” Shining Armor added. “Recently, I’m starting to think maybe she knew… even then. Knew that you would become her protègè and the savior of Equestria.”

“Your father has another theory on what it meant,” Velvet said, before muttering, “Not exactly sure I’m convinced….”

Night Light cleared his throat and Twilight prepared herself for a long story.

“A couple of years before we adopted you, there was an especially big Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot with nobles from all over Equestria. At the Gala, we noticed that Princess Celestia was frequently seen in the company of a noblestallion: Sacred Home, of House Warmblood. You’ve probably heard of them, they’re the most influential noble family in Baltimare. Anyway, he and Celestia were together throughout the evening, even spending some time alone afterwards.

“Now, what you need to understand is that back in the time of pre-Luna’s banishment, it wasn’t unusual for the Princess to take on a… consort from time to time. After all, she’s a pony just like the rest of us. Nowadays, it’s a bit more taboo, but if you’re observant enough, you can tell when somepony she’s ‘friends’ with is something… more.”

“Allegedly….” muttered Velvet.

“He wouldn’t have been the first in recent times. Those very signs were on the wall with Celestia and Sacred Home. He stayed in Canterlot for months at a time over the following couple of years, but he didn’t have his own place. He seemed to be living at the castle. And of course, he was almost always seen in the company of Princess Celestia.

“Then one day, both he and the Princess just disappeared from the public eye. No one heard from Sacred Home since, and Princess Celestia only appeared in public again after approximately nine months.”

Twilight’s jaw slowly started to drift toward the ground. “Nine months…?”

Night Light nodded. “That’s right. Around the same time you mysteriously appeared in the Foal Services system… as barely a newborn foal.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide as she considered the one possibility that could mean.

“Your magical abilities are unlike anything anypony has ever seen,” Night Light said. “Either you’re the daughter of some very powerful unicorns—in which case I don’t see them giving you up—or… there’s more than just unicorn blood in your veins….”

Her every rational thought told her to reject the idea immediately, but then she started to remember her recent interactions with the Princess. She thought about how Celestia had been like a second mother to her all of her life, but did not once before question whether Celestia had treated all of her protègès that way or… if it was just her. Suddenly many of Celestia’s actions over the past weeks made sense.

“It wasn’t for a lack of faith in your abilities that I kept you in the dark, but out of a desire to protect you.”

“You see, you’re…” Celestia paused.

Only now did Twilight realize how much that pause had stood out. Like Celestia was about to say something but had stopped herself at the last moment.

“You’re very precious to me….”

Some time later, Twilight stumbled back into the Crystal Empire’s archives in a daze. Church and the others immediately turned to greet her.

“Hey Twilight, guess what? I think we found the Forerunner ruins,” Church said, holding up a piece of paper with the translated text on it. Twilight didn’t see it. Somehow, she couldn’t make sense of the words.

“Twi? You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. “Did ya… talk to yer parents?”

Twilight’s mouth opened and closed like a drowning fish before she stuttered, “I-I think… I think Princess Celestia’s my mother!”

Author's Note

Next time: Twi and the gang face danger in the North, and Rarity has a reunion

Act 3 Part 6 - Ice Fight

Twilight pulled the scarf that Rarity had made for her tighter around her neck as she stood in the early morning snow up past her fetlocks. The rest of her little party stood all around her. She and her pony friends were wearing heavy robes of cloth provided by Cadance and Shining Armor to help protect them against the cold. Her human friends seemed only to need their armor. Church and Washington remained still at her side, Donut and Caboose were trying to start a snowball fight with Simmons, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack were galloping back and forth. Whether it was some competition they had started or simply an effort to keep warm, Twilight couldn’t say. Likely both.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadance stood across from her with a small retinue of troops by their side. Just behind them, Twilight could see the distant form of the Crystal Empire off on the horizon, the tallest spire of the palace cutting through the descending snow.

“Well, this is where the Crystal Empire borders with the Old Kingdoms,” Cadance said, her mane slowly turning white as more snowflakes made their perch on it. “Are you sure you don’t want us to take you further?”

Twilight opened her pocket dimension and brought out their transcription of Recolta Bogada, along with a relatively recent map of the Frozen North. “According to what we found, the ruins we’re looking for are at Stonespire Mountain, less than a couple days’ walk from here. We can’t miss it.”

Shining adjusted his black scarf and raised his protective eyemask. “Twily, you know better than I do the things that live in the North. On top of that, our scouts have reported activity from a very large unidentified company of sellswords in the area. It would really make me feel better if you had an escort.”

“If there’s any chance Project Freelancer is around, a full military contingent is going to draw too much attention,” Twilight countered.

“Not only that, but your forces aren’t ready to face soldiers of Freelancer’s level quite yet,” Washington pointed out. “We don’t want to risk any lives unnecessarily.”

Looking back at her little group of friends, Twilight looked at her brother imploringly. “Trust me, big brother. Wash and the others are all the protection I’ll need.”

Shining looked ready to protest, but he reluctantly relented, giving Twilight a nod. “Okay,” he said, moving in to give his sister a nuzzle. “Stay safe, Twily.”

“Always, big brother.”

Cadance was next to say her goodbyes. As she nuzzled her sister-in-law, Cadance leaned in to whisper, “So, how about you and that cobalt one? Church, is it?”

Twilight pulled back and glared at her old foalsitter (but not before glancing back at a blissfully unaware Church to see if he heard her). “Really, Cadance? You’re doing this now?”

Cadance bit her lip in a vain effort to suppress the grin creeping across her muzzle. Twilight had flashbacks of going on walks through Canterlot with Cadance as a filly. She remembered how her foalsitter would ask about every colt her age they happened to come across, and how annoying it had been. Twilight knew it was all in jest, though, and took it in stride.

“Make sure to come back to us safely,” Cadance said much more seriously. “I’d like to spend some time together without some threat looming over Equestria,”

After the others had said their farewells, the two groups parted ways, with the rulers of the Crystal Empire heading back towards their domain, and Twilight’s group bound for the Frozen North.

“So, what did the pink one say to you?” Church asked once they were on their way.

“Nothing!” Twilight exclaimed very quickly.

“She said something awkward about us, didn’t she?”

Twilight felt her snout scrunch. “She’s the Princess of Love and Romance. It comes with the territory.”

“Pfft. Now there’s a title I’m sure inspires fear in her enemies,” Church said, before musing. “Say, if what you told us last night is true, does that mean you’re a princess as well?”

Twilight winced a little and her heart caught in her chest as she remembered that little revelation. There was nothing proving it had any legitimacy, but the more she thought about it….

“Sorry. Guess you’re still wrapping your mind around that whole thing.”

“No, it’s okay,” Twilight said distantly. “And no. I wouldn’t have any legitimate claim to the throne.”

With nothing more to say, Twilight decided to press forward, forcing herself to focus on the upcoming expedition instead. Needless to say, she’d need to ask Princess Celestia about this “Sacred Home of House Warmblood” when this was over.

Just when I thought she was finally telling me everything…

It was a deceptively bright and sunny day in downtown Canterlot. Rarity tried not to let the tension show in her features as she watched the various high-class citizens walk down the streets, blissfully unaware they were dangling on the precipice of destruction. It was all Rarity could do not to think about the fact that her life and those of all around her could be ended at any moment with the push of a button. She merely took another bite of the bagel on the table in front of her as she continued to scan the crowd of the open-air restaurant.

There were two reasons Rarity had picked the outdoor establishment, the Secret Jewel, as her lunch destination. Firstly, it was one of the few decent restaurants in the uppermost districts of Canterlot that didn’t require a week’s advance reservation to get in. Secondly and much more importantly, however, was the fact that it also happened to be where the stallion she’d been hoping to meet ate for lunch every Wednesday. Sure enough, another look at the entrance and Rarity spotted the stallion in question chatting amicably with the maitre d’.

He was a white unicorn with an azure mane, tail, and mustache, well dressed in a suit complete with a purple bow tie and a monocle over his left eye. Accompanying him was a similarly white unicorn mare with a pale pink mane and a slim, shapely figure befitting her status as a supermodel. Rarity smiled and waved them over.

“Rarity!” the stallion exclaimed in his sophisticated Canterlot accent as he went to meet her, taking her hoof in his own and eloquently planting a kiss on it. “What a pleasant surprise bumping into you again!”

“It’s lovely to see you again, Fancy Pants,” Rarity said before turning to the mare beside him. “You as well, Fleur. Would you both care to join me?”

The two Canterlot ponies pulled up a couple of chairs, and soon the three of them were sitting together.

“I must say, you should have told me you were in town, my dear,” Fancy said after he and Fleur had ordered their food. “You must have been in Canterlot for a few days at the very least, what with the proverbial gates to the city still closed.”

“So sorry, Fancy, but I’ve been quite busy the past week.” Rarity decided there was no reason to explain she’d just arrived in Canterlot that morning via the Crystal Caverns.

Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and the humans were still waiting for her there. It was all Rarity could do not to scowl at the thought of a certain aqua-armored human’s continued insistence on being as contrarian as possible when she explained her plan to gather information in the city. She couldn’t figure out why, but for some reason that particular man irked her more than anyone in Equestria ever had.

“Well, let it be known I would’ve thrown a smashing party in your honor had I known you were here,” Fancy Pants continued. “If you’re still around next week, you could accompany me to this year’s Canterlot Garden Party. Of course, assuming the castle isn’t still closed off….”

“Are you still staying at ze castle?” asked Fleur in her thick Phrench accent.

“No,” Rarity answered, silently thankful that the supermodel had steered the conversation in exactly the direction she wanted to take it. “As a matter of fact, I was hoping to ask a favor of you in that regard.”

Fancy Pants and Fleur exchanged a look as Rarity continued, “I need to get into the castle… discreetly.”

“Well… the castle has been closed off to everypony ever since the city closed its gates,” Fancy explained, looking at Rarity with increasing concern. “My dear… you wouldn’t happen to know something about what’s going on, would you?”

Rarity chewed her lip. She’d been hoping they wouldn’t ask too many questions about the situation, but ponies were inherently curious. With her status as an Element Bearer becoming public information after the events of the Royal Wedding, Rarity shouldn’t have expected anything less.

“I’m afraid it’s a matter of national security, and I can’t disclose anything more.” No reason to work them up into a panic by explaining the worst case scenario.

“You don’t mean like ze…” Fleur swallowed, and her eyes took on a fearful look. “Changeling attack?”

According to rumor, Fleur had been kidnapped and replaced by a changeling some time before the infamous attack during the Royal Wedding. It would certainly explain the sudden change in her usually confident demeanor.

“No. This is nothing like that,” Rarity answered. It’s far worse.

“Well, I can’t say I know of a way to enter the castle, but I might know somepony who does,” Fancy Pants said, instantly brightening Rarity’s hopes. “Apparently, a member of the nobility actually managed to escape the castle some point after it was locked down. He’s been telling absurd tales about the castle being occupied by strange beings the princesses are powerless to stop.”

Rarity grinned. It sounded like this pony was her ticket into Canterlot Castle! Then Fancy Pants told her the pony’s name and Rarity’s smile did a complete one-eighty. Apparently, she was wrong: There was a pony in Equestria that irked her more than Tucker. Her mind was a foggy haze as Fancy Pants told her he was going to a dinner party at the pony’s manor that very evening, and that if she wanted, he could bring her along as his guest. Her own voice barely registered in her mind as she thanked Fleur Dis Lee and Fancy Pants, put down a few bits on the table, and walked out of the restaurant.

As she made her way down the street, Rarity’s mind filled with a dozen ways the coming evening could play out, all of them unpleasant. Before too long, she made it back to Canterlot Lake, a rather secluded public park that just so happened to have an entrance to the Crystal Caverns behind a waterfall that fed its namesake body of water. From there it was a relatively short trot down into the caves until they opened up into the abandoned mining facility she and the others had made camp at.

Dozens of wood and iron machines stood all around them, their interlocking gears towering overhead, rotted and rusty from years of disuse. A web of minecart tracks spread down into the maze of tunnels below. The rest of her group quietly sat around an old storage shed, fidgeting restlessly until they saw her return.

“Rarity’s back! Rarity’s back! Rarity’s back!” Pinkie Pie chanted, bouncing circles around the nervous fashionista as her voice echoed around the cavern.

“Get any good intel from yer high-society buddies?” Sarge asked as he, Fluttershy, Tucker and the other two Reds fell into place around her.

“I think I’ve found somepony who can get us into the castle. Fancy Pants is taking me to dine with him this evening,” Rarity tried to maintain an air of absolute confidence.

“Finally! A chance to get out of here and get some decent grub,” Tucker said all too enthusiastically.

“No, Tucker. I told you, you and the others need to stay here until we’re ready to enter the castle,” Rarity said with an exasperated sigh. “We can’t risk Project Freelancer finding out what we’re doing before we can get their transmitter, and you humans aren’t exactly inconspicuous.”

“But I’m getting boooored,” Tucker whined. “I don’t know how much longer I can just sit around and do nothing.”

“Pfft. Speak for yourself, Blue,” Grif muttered.

“Sí. Nadie ha hablado conmigo en horas (Yes. Nobody’s spoken to me in hours),” Lopez stated. “Ha sido maravilloso (It’s been wonderful).”

Sarge just looked back and forth between Grif and Tucker anxiously. “Well, this is a conundrum. I want to reprimand Grif for his insufferable laziness, but that also means I’d have to agree with a Blue! I suppose the only safe thing to do is to give each of you an ambiguous grunt.” Sarge turned and glared at Tucker. “Humph!” He then turned to stare down Grif. “Humph!”

Tucker waited to make sure Sarge was finished before continuing. “Okay, if you’re worried about us being seen, we can just sneak into this guy’s place. I was trained in stealth!”

“You were?” Grif asked.

“Of course! I mean, I didn’t listen to the training, but I think I picked up enough to get by.”

Rarity rubbed the bridge of her snout. “Okay. I’ll humor you. Supposing we could get you into the manor we’ll be dining at, how will that help? What can you contribute?”

“I can help with the negotiations.”

“Oh, and how will you do that? With pick-up lines and crude remarks?”

“Well, if you’ll recall, I was an alien ambassador before CT’s guys came along.”

“Oh right, an ambassador who didn’t even speak the language of the species he was liasoning with,” Rarity noted dryly. “Forgive me if I don’t have complete confidence in your abilities.”

“Girl, you just haven’t seen the full extent of my liasoning skills, if you know what I mean!”

Rarity ground her teeth. She was already anxious enough about the coming evening, and she did not have the patience to deal with this right now. “Can you see why I’d be reluctant to risk destroying Canterlot by taking you along for a night that requires careful social tact?!”

“What? Girl, I got social tact for days! Do you know how much social tact it takes to get in bed with a chick? Shit’s hard! Even when they’re clearly into you, they make you jump through hoops and ask you all these questions to help them decide whether they like your personality, or some bullcrap.” Tucker snapped his fingers. “Hey! I can offer the guy you’re meeting dating tips that’s sure to get him laid. Tip number one: Lie! Tell girls only what they want to hear!”

“Tucker, do you honestly think that’s going to be enough to convince me?”

“Of course not, babe! You’re too talented and interesting as a person to be convinced by something so shallow,” Tucker said in an artificially sweet tone, before switching back to his practiced nonchalance. “See? Works like a charm!”

Rarity felt a growl escape her throat as she glared at Tucker. “I’ll have you know I’d rather take Sarge to a formal dinner over you!”

“Hmm… I didn’t bring my cravat. But I think I have a monocle in my disguise kit…” Sarge mumbled.

Tucker, meanwhile, folded his arms and studied the fuming unicorn in front of him. “Y’know, ever since we met, you’ve either been dismissive of me or outright hostile. What’s your beef with me?”

Rarity tilted her nose up in a huff. “Beef? I am beefless! A proper lady does not have beef!” Rarity returned her head to a more natural angle as she glared at the aqua man. “It’s just that I find you terribly annoying is all! You’re a sleazy, womanizing ruffian with no respect for the female gender and I despise everything you stand for!”

Suddenly realizing she was out of breath, Rarity began panting as everyone in the cave silently looked at her.

“Um, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked, stepping forward with a concerned expression. “You’ve been really, um… tense ever since you got back. Is something wrong?”

With a defeated sigh looked down. “Yes…. Do you think you could accompany me tonight, Fluttershy darling? Considering who we’re meeting, I think I’m going to need the emotional support.”

“Of course, Rarity,” Fluttershy responded immediately, giving her friend a comforting pat.

“So, who are you seeing, and what did this guy do that has you so on edge?” Tucker asked.

“Prince Platinum Blueblood, the First of His Name,” Rarity all but spat. “We… spent the evening together during last year’s Grand Galloping Gala, and… well, suffice to say, it turned out to be a terrible night.”

“So, what? You went on one bad date and the thought of seeing this guy again is causing you this much stress?” Tucker asked. “Yeah, this’ll probably be an awkward evening and stuff, but don’t you think you’re being a little overdramatic?”

“That’s our Rarity!” Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed.

“You don’t understand,” Rarity said, looking at them with large, vulnerable eyes. “I have had a crush on Blueblood since I was a little filly. I wanted to marry him… I fantasized about it for years. To finally meet the stallion of my dreams and have those dreams crushed the second I realized what kind of pony he really is… t-that hurt….”

All at once, Rarity remembered that night vividly. The pure, sickening rage she’d felt when she’d finally snapped at the pompous prince. The smiles and laughter she’d shared with her friends after the gala as she tried desperately to convince herself everything was okay. The tears that flowed when she finally got home that night and it dawned on her that her dreams would never be made reality.

Feeling a feathery wing drape itself across her back, Rarity snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Fluttershy’s kind, sympathetic face.

“It’s okay, Rarity. I’ll be right there with you,” she said.

Nodding, Rarity forced herself to return her focus to the task at hoof. “Okay. Fluttershy, why don’t we go into town and make the necessary preparations for tonight?”

As the pair of them made to do just that, Tucker couldn’t help but make one final remark. “So… did you at least bang this guy, or…?”

Rarity was unable to stop her hoof from connecting to her forehead. At that moment, she wasn’t sure who she hated more.

“Okay…” Rainbow Dash started. Although Twilight couldn’t see her face, she could tell Applejack was already rolling her eyes as she walked ahead of her. “You get one million bits….”

“Oh, thanks!” Donut cheerfully interrupted as he had done for the past five of Rainbow’s hypothetical scenarios.

"That's a lot of money," Church muttered again.

“But…” Rainbow Dash said, cutting herself off to giggle like a schoolfilly before continuing, “Every time you go to the bathroom, you have to scream what you’re doing at the top of your lungs. Would you do it?”

“Oh, I do that all the time anyway,” Caboose said.

When Twilight looked up at Church, he just said, “Yeah, I wish he was joking.”

This variation of “Would You Rather” had quickly become Rainbow Dash’s favorite way to pass the time as the group walked through the snowy valley. It was either that or “I Spy,” which Rainbow quickly grew tired of after realizing the only possible answers were “snow” and “ice”. It was certainly a good way to keep the mood light. Something about the frozen landscape of the North seemed twisted and unnatural. It was too quiet, the very air seeming forsaken of all life. Yet Twilight occasionally thought she heard faint howls in the distance; echoes of something ancient and terrible.

“Hmm... define ‘going to the bathroom’,” Simmons said. “Like, do I just scream when I go to relieve myself, or do I have to do it when I do anything? Because brushing your teeth would be fucking impossible.”

Rainbow Dash walked along quietly for a moment as she contemplated the question. “Anything you do in the bathroom that you’d be embarrassed about.”

“I’d do it!” Donut said.

Nodding, Rainbow looked over at the farmpony walking beside her. “Applejack?”

With a groan, Applejack pulled her stetson down over her eyes. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this game o’ yours, RD, it’s that money isn’t everything.”

“Aw, you’re no fun!” Knowing that Twilight, Church and Washington weren’t participating in this game, Rainbow looked up at the maroon human soldier. “Simmons?”

It was a very long time before Simmons came up with an answer. “What if I just started doing all of my business outside?”

“C’mon, Simmons. The only times I ever see you outside is when your base’s internet is down!” Church argued.

“Nobody asked you, Blue!”

“Fuck you, Red!”

As the pair continued to argue, the wind suddenly picked up, and despite the layers of protective clothing provided by Shining and Cadance, Twilight felt a cold shiver pass through her. She thought she heard that howl again, but it was probably just the wind.

“Okay! I think everyone’s getting a little tired,” Washington said, stopping in place as he interrupted the bickering ponies and soldiers. “How about we take a break for a few minutes?”

Changing their course towards one of the valley walls, the Reds, Blues, ponies, and Freelancer found a decently protected space between a few snowy boulders and the valley wall. After digging a small space for herself in the snow, Twilight lay down and let out a breath as the others did the same around her.

“Why do I get the inexplicable feeling you want to say something to me, Church?” Washington said, causing Twilight to look up. While the rest of their party had sat down and taken a load off, Church remained standing, staring at the ex-Recovery Agent the same way he had when they first met.

“Church, don’t tell me you’re still having trust issues with Agent Washington?” Twilight reprimanded. “I thought we were past this!”

“If you honestly thought that, Twilight, you’re even more naive than I thought,” Church said before returning his attention to Washington. “Y’know, something just occurred to me, Wash: You knew what they did to Alpha—to me—as soon as they put Epsilon in your head, right?”

“Yes, I inherited the memories that almost caused Epsilon to destroy itself…” Washington said, clearly trying to discern where Church was going with this.

“So you knew. You knew from the moment we met what I really am?”

With only a moment’s hesitation, Washington nodded, and Twilight understood Church’s lingering distrust.

“And it never occurred to you to say anything, or would telling me the truth ruin the whole ‘mysterious, all-knowing badass’ thing?”

With a tired sigh, Washington said, “Church, if I’d told you back on Repertum that you’re an A.I. that was forced to fragment itself, would you have believed me?”

Church didn’t answer.

“In fact, I’m willing to bet that if I’d personally taken you to Command and shown you Epsilon, you’d still choose to believe you were a spirit over an artificial construct.”

“So what, then? You were planning on just using me against the Director without even trying to tell me the truth?”

“Church, I’m not sure what the issue here is,” Twilight interjected. “Should Wash have told you the truth sooner? Maybe. But giving him a hard time over hypothetical scenarios? You’re acting like Rainbow Dash right now!”

“Hey! What’s wrong with acting like me?” Rainbow piped in. “Being me is awesome!”

“Well, you know… except for the whole… wing injury,” Caboose said.

Rainbow rounded on him in an instant. “Oh yeah?! Well whose fault is that, huh?!”

“I like to think it was nobody’s fault. The world works in mysterious ways sometimes.”

“A bullet from your gun ended up in my wing! Not a lot of mystery there!”

“Allegedly. I’m not saying anything until I talk to my lawyer.”

Rainbow planted a hoof on her face as the wind picked up again. “Celestia’s feathers, you’re dumb.”

“How rude!” Donut exclaimed.

Rounding on Donut next, Rainbow shouted, “Oh, don’t talk to me about being rude, Mr. Reads-other-ponies’-mail!”

“You read somepony’s mail?” Applejack asked, turning to look at Donut. “Land sakes! Don’t you aliens have any respect fer privacy?”

Deciding she’d heard enough, Twilight moved to stop the bickering ponies and humans when she noticed Church and Washington were still going at it… and that somehow Simmons had gotten involved.

“I’m just saying, maybe if you’d actually worked with Agent Washington on a project and had seen his organizational technique for yourself, maybe you’d feel differently,” Simmons argued.

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything we’ve been talking about?!”

Before she knew it, Twilight was drowning in a cacophony of bickering and arguing, all the while the cold wind that had been chilling her to the bone grew stronger. Suddenly, Twilight was not simply drowning in noise. The groove she’d dug out for herself suddenly started filling with snow, and Twilight quickly found herself digging and clawing to get out. With a pit of cold dread forming in her stomach, Twilight realized exactly what was going on, and burst out of the pile of snow she’d been buried in screaming, “EVERYONE STOP!!!”

The fighting stopped immediately, replaced by the sound of the cold wind blowing steadily through the valley, but that wasn’t all Twilight could hear. A trumpeting wail echoed over the wind.

“I can’t feel my feet,” Caboose reported. Twilight looked over at the man in blue and saw that his feet were covered in a thin layer of ice.

“Oh no….”

“What’s going on?” Washington asked, raising his BR and quickly scanning the immediate area.

Looking up, Twilight’s fears were confirmed when she saw the swirling vortex of clouds directly above them, seeming inexplicably centered on where they’d chosen to rest. Hearing another ethereal wail, Twilight looked closer and thought she spotted one or two ghostly equine forms circling within the vortex, but every time she tried to focus on one she saw only snow and clouds. Nevertheless, she knew exactly what they were dealing with.

“Windigoes…” Twilight said with a shiver. “This doesn’t make sense. We’ve barely been in the Old Kingdoms for a day! To find us this quickly, we’d need to be giving off a lot of negativity….” Twilight looked around at the members of their party and amended, “Actually, scratch that. I’m surprised they didn’t find us sooner.”

“Wait, what’s a Wiiiiiiiiiiiinnebago?” Caboose asked.

“Windigoes are ice spirits that gain their power from negative emotion. All of our fighting must have drawn them to us!”

“What do we do?” Simmons asked, shaking either from the cold or fear.

“Gather around me!”

The others complied instantly, and the eight of them were soon huddled around Twilight.

“What’re ya thinkin’, Twi? Can ya use the same spell from the Hearth’s Warmin’ story?” Applejack asked.

“Yes, but I’ll need everyone’s help,” Twilight said as her horn started to glow. “The Fires of Friendship is the only spell that can ward off the Windigoes, but to pull it off I need everyone to use your friendships to create positive emotion.”

Each of the gathered humans stared at Twilight in abject silence. “Uh… we need to do what now?” Church asked.

A tiny purple flame appeared above Twilight’s head as she finished the initial casting of the spell. “Talk! Laugh! Sing songs! Do what friends do together!”

Caboose turned to stare directly at Church. “I’ve been ready for this moment my whole life.”

“Oh God…” Church groaned, but a look from Twilight and a trumpeting wail above quickly changed his demeanor. “I mean, uh… hey, Caboose. I… really care for and appreciate you as a friend. Let’s… hang out and talk… about, uh… all the good times we’ve had!”

“I’d like that.” Ignoring Church’s strained tone, Caboose happily obliged. “Yeah, remember the time the tank I was driving just happened to blow you up? Yeah... or-or the time I shot the Red guy you were possessing?”

“Yes… good times….”

Twilight looked up at the tiny purple flame above her head and frowned. “It’s not working. We need more friendship!”

“Let’s sing a song together!” Caboose wrapped an arm around Church and started rocking them back and forth as he started to sing, “Chuuurch, you’re my best friend. That’s what I am to you….”

“Everyone pitch in!” Twilight said, turning to her two pony friends. “Rainbow Dash, Applejack. Show them how it’s done!”

Rainbow Dash turned to face Applejack. “AJ, I’m sorry if I’ve been annoying you with my hypothetical questions.”

Applejack put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Sugarcube, I don’ resent ya for tryin’ to stave off boredom. Yes, yer questions got a little annoyin’ after a while as do some of yer other quirks, but yer still my friend. I wouldn’t like ya so much if ya weren’t you.”

“Aw, thanks, AJ!” Rainbow and Applejack hugged, and the Fires of Friendship above Twilight’s head grew a bit bigger.

“See? Like that,” Twilight said, turning to the others.

Donut was the first to speak. “Simmons? I’m sorry if the way I act makes you uncomfortable sometimes.”

“More like all the time,” Simmons muttered, but a nudge from Twilight sent him back on course. “I mean, uh… it’s okay, Donut. I suppose I can’t hold it against you.”

Either not noticing or choosing to ignore the fact Simmons was speaking through gritted teeth, Donut extended his arms. “Thanks, Simmons!”

Taking an uncertain glance back at Twilight, Simmons engaged Donut’s hug, muttering curses under his breath. Donut gave a content sigh as he held Simmons closer while Simmons merely stiffened his posture. Twilight glanced over at the Blues. Caboose was still singing his song as he rocked himself and Church back and forth.

“And we’ll be together ‘til the part when it’s over.
Because we are brothers in not-red.
Brothers in not-red…”

Finally, Twilight glanced at the one person who still needed to contribute to the Fires of Friendship. Agent Washington stood just off to the side, watching the scene before him with uncertainty.

“Wash?”

“Oh!” Suddenly remembering himself, Washington crouched so that he was at eye level with Twilight. The normally calm and composed soldier awkwardly cleared his throat before proceeding. “Twilight Sparkle. Although we don’t know each other very well, I feel the necessity of our survival combined with our alignment towards a common goal has brought us closer in our time together.”

Washington extended a hand, and after several long seconds, Twilight realized he was offering to shake. She tried her hardest to give him a smile as she put her hoof in his hand and the two of them stiffly did exactly that.

“I sincerely hope that our future endeavors will continue to be mutually beneficial, and that our friendship will only grow stronger as a result.”

“Thank you, Agent Washington. That was… nice,” Twilight said, hoping her voice wasn’t too strained as they concluded their hand/hoof shake. The pair looked levelly at each other for a few moments afterward.

“It’s not working, is it?”

“Not really.” Twilight glanced up at the Fires of Friendship to see that they haven’t grown much larger.

“Augh! What the fuck, Donut?!”

Twilight looked back to see that Simmons had pushed Donut off of him. “This fucker just groped my ass!”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t so insecure, you’d see that all I was doing was giving you a friendly pat!” Donut argued.

“No, you straight up grabbed a cheek and held on for a full second!”

“Which is exactly how you pump up your teammates on the football field!”

“Wait, you played football, Donut?” Church asked as Caboose continued gently rocking him back and forth.

“Yep, in high school! I admit, I wasn’t very good at the game itself, but I was great at the locker room male bonding!”

Twilight let out a frustrated groan. “Ugh! This isn’t working. You all need to be more sincere!”

“Twilight, you’ve already seen us when we’re being sincere,” Church said. “We belittle, insult and generally annoy the shit out of each other! That’s how we roll!” Church gestured to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who had amicably thrown a hoof over each other’s shoulders. “This touchy-feely crap just isn’t how we do things!”

“Well, you have to do something!” Twilight exclaimed as her legs went numb. Looking down, she saw ice had begun forming over her hooves. “If we don’t, the Windigoes’ magic will freeze our hearts, and I don’t even want to get into what’ll happen after!”

That is, if Starswirl’s accounts in his memoirs are accurate, Twilight mentally added. As the group looked up at the swirling vortex of weather and the ethereal creatures within—ice forming over their features—it was Caboose of all people who spoke up.

“Hey!” the dim Blue shouted at the storm. “You dumb… Windy-bagels! You probably don’t even taste good with butter or jelly! Why don’t you go back to the bakery?!”

“Caboose, what the fuck are you doing?” Church asked.

“Well, if we can’t be friends without insulting but we can’t insult each other either, we need to insult something else!”

The rest of the group stared at him in stunned silence as ice continued to form over them. Then, Church followed his lead.

“Hey, assholes! How do ya like this, huh?!” Church shouted, defiantly raising a middle finger towards the icy vortex.

“Yeah!” Caboose exclaimed.

Deciding there was nothing left to do but try this one last idea, Twilight jumped in. “How does it feel to be mindless creatures with nothing but the drive to freeze everything that hates?! Your existence is meaningless!”

Simmons was next to join in. “Yeah! Meaningless like your face! Suck it, ice fucks!”

“You guys are some of the most garish spirits I’ve ever seen!” Donut shouted next. “I mean really? Pale white with ghost trails? Yeah, so original guys! Tack-y!”

Applejack chuckled as she looked up at Donut. “I can see why Rarity likes ya!”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted next. “You guys are lousy fliers! I can fly better than you and my wing got shot a week ago!”

“Yeah! I bet if I put Caboose on your team, he’d be the fuckin' MVP!” Church shouted, and to Twilight’s surprise, she actually found herself laughing. Rainbow Dash and a few of the others were laughing alongside her, and despite the fact that the joke was made at his expense, even Caboose laughed. Though that could be because he didn’t understand why.

“Hey, dickheads!”

Everyone stopped and looked over at Washington in shock as he looked up at the winter storm above. “You fuckers call this cold? I ran ops on desert planets that were colder than this!”

This elicited another round of laughter from the group at witnessing the stoic, imposing Freelancer drop the sickest burn yet.

“Dude, nice!” said Church, raising his fist in front of Washington, who bumped it amicably.

Remembering her spell, Twilight glanced up at the Fires of Friendship to find that the tiny ball of purple flame had grown to become almost as big as she is. Smiling, Twilight returned her gaze to the slowly weakening storm.

“I bet Church can use a sniper rifle better than you idiots can make a storm!”

Everyone who had seen Church use his rifle burst out in an entirely new round of laughter as Applejack kept the insult train rolling.

“The apples on my flank have made wilder storms than this!”

“Ooooooh gurl!” Caboose shouted, putting his hand down low for Applejack to slap.

“Suck a dick!” Simmons exclaimed.

“Suck two dicks!” Donut added.

“Suck ten dicks. From every direction! Like a big three-sixty degrees omnidirectional dick-sucking machine!” Church shouted.

Everyone laughed, and the Fires of Friendship grew larger until a huge stream of purple fire suddenly burst forth from Twilight’s horn and shot into the sky. The fires engulfed everything in the spinning storm above, and the ponies and humans heard the agonized cries of the creatures above. In a few short moments, the storm dissipated and the Fires of Friendship took the shape of a flaming heart above the party’s heads, melting the ice encasing them.

It was after several moments of shocked silence that Twilight finally spoke. “Wow… I can’t believe that actually worked!”

“Yeah, that was actually kinda fun!” Applejack exclaimed, looking around at the Reds and Blues. “Now I see why you fellas do it so much!”

“I mean, technically we were using hate to fuel the Fires of Friendship, but we were hating the Windigoes together, so… I guess two negatives makes a positive?”

“I told you. Our way of doing friendship may be different from yours, but it works… most of the time,” Church said.

“Hey!” Caboose shouted at the sky. “You’re ugly. If you were ice cream, no one would eat you!”

“Uh, Caboose? We’re finished insulting the ice spirits now.”

“Yeah, I know. I moved on to the cloud.”

In short order, the group was ready to keep moving. At least, until a distant, otherworldly shriek pierced the air.

“Aw, what now?” Rainbow Dash whined.

Twilight whirled around and scanned the direction the noise came from. Back the way they came, Twilight could just barely make out dark specks in the distance. A very bad feeling entered the pit of her stomach as she turned to Church.

“Can I see your sniper rifle, Church?”

Sensing something was amiss, Church handed over his weapon without hesitation as Twilight took it in her magical aura. Looking through the scope of the rifle, the breath caught in Twilight’s chest as she was just barely able to make out a large crowd of shambling equine figures.

“Mother of Celestia, Starswirl was right...” Twilight gasped as something landed in the snow behind her with a dull thump.

Lowering Church’s rifle, Twilight turned around with the rest of the group and saw what appeared to be a dead pony lying at the foot of the rock and ice wall towering over them. It wore armor and a feathered helmet resembling that worn by the pegasi of Old Pegasopolis. Underneath, it seemed to be nothing but frozen black skin and bones. Applejack and Rainbow Dash instinctively shuffled back at the sight of it.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” Church asked.

“It must have fallen from up there,” Washington said, gesturing up the snowy mountain that made up one of the valley’s walls.

“Nobody get near it!” Twilight exclaimed, trying to keep calm and recall the spell Starswirl’s notes described was most effective.

“Yeah, that would be a good way to catch something,” Caboose said, but that wasn’t what had Twilight so concerned.

A sound like a cold wind passing through a hollow tree suddenly came from the corpse a few meters away, and to the group’s collective horror, the dead pony started to move. With cracking joints and snapping ice, the skeletal pony rose to its feet and turned to face the group, looking at them with empty eye sockets.

“T-T-T-Twilight?” Rainbow croaked, her voice cracking.

The dead pony took a step forward, cracking through the ice holding it together only for new ice to form over its joints instantly. A tiny flicker of blue entered the dead pony’s sockets as it opened its frozen, decaying mouth and let out an unnatural shriek before charging forward. Washington was the first to react, raising his rifle in less than a second and firing two well placed bursts into the dead pony’s chest and head. Aside from sporting a few new holes, the half-frozen corpse was undeterred, continuing its sprint forward with a shambling, uneven gait. The rest of the Reds and Blues were next to open fire, but what shots found their mark were no more effective.

The corpse leapt at its nearest target, but Applejack was determined not to be easy prey. Spinning around, Applejack let the dead pony bring itself into her hind legs and bucked with all her might. Everyone heard the sound of ice and brittle bones snapping as the creature was knocked back onto its side, only to immediately begin righting itself. Twilight never gave it the chance as she cast her spell, igniting the dead pony instantaneously. The creature shrieked again as it burned, flailing about until all of the ice holding it together was melted and it lay still.

Humans and ponies alike stared at the tiny bonfire for a few seconds before Simmons finally threw his arms up into the air. “Nope! Nope! That’s it! I can handle mercenaries, Freelancer agents, and ice spirits, but I draw the line at fucking pony zombies! Fuck all y’all. I’m going home, climbing into my attic and pulling the ladder up. I am officially enacting my zombie plan!”

“Hey Simmons? Calm the fuck down,” Church calmly stated.

“Yeah, least you didn’ have to touch it!” Applejack exclaimed, wiping her back hooves in the snow. “Twi? You wanna explain jus’ what the hay that was?”

“Wights…” was all Twilight could mutter.

“Um, the correct term is caucasians,” Donut said. “C’mon, Twilight. I know you just killed a zombie, but you could at least be politically correct about it!”

“What? No, that thing that just attacked us is called a 'wight,'” Twilight said, taking a breath.

“Ooh! Is George about to explain something?” Caboose asked excitedly. “I love it when she explains stuff!”

“It’s a part of the Hearth’s Warming story they don’t tell in the plays…” Twilight began.

“Wait, you’ve mentioned this Hearth’s Warming thing before. What exactly is it?” Church asked.

“It’s a celebration of the founding of Equestria. Approximately two-thousand years ago, ponies were driven from their lands by the endless winter brought on by the Windigoes,” Twilight explained, for once not feeling like getting into the whole history of the Great Migration and the Unification of the Three Tribes.

“Back then, there was so much tension and hate between the Three Tribes that the Windigoes had tremendous power! But what they don’t tell in the stories is what happens when a pony’s heart is frozen by their magic. After a while, that pony comes back as a wight: a mindless husk drawn to the power of the Windigoes.”

A distant shriek much like the ones from the dead pegasus that had just attacked echoed across the wind. The group looked back in the direction they came and saw that the army of distant shambling figures had grown a little closer.

“If you’re right, that means this valley is no longer safe,” Washington stated.

“Right!” Twilight exclaimed, bringing out her map of the Old Kingdoms. She studied it for a few moments before saying, “There should be a way to climb out not far ahead. After that, we can cut through the Emerald Pass and that should put us back on course.”

For once, the group proceeded immediately without any more words. It seemed that pony and human alike were too busy holding their collective breaths for anything else. It was only after putting the icy valley behind them and the cries of the army of wights faded into the distance that the tension finally began to lift from the group. The remainder of the afternoon was spent walking in relative silence, with nothing but the odd complaint.

It was dark by the time they reached the Emerald Pass, and the party came to a unanimous agreement to bunker down for the night. An old stone watchtower stood halfway up one of the pass’s walls, half crumbled and buried in snow; the perfect place to make camp.

Once they were set up and started eating from their rations, Twilight noticed the overall tone of the group was different. There was a little tension after the events of the day, true enough, but there was also something else. Everyone seemed almost more… comfortable together. Humans and ponies alike were eating and getting along with only a little good-natured bickering. Even Washington seemed to loosen up, taking time from securing the perimeter to actually spend time with the rest of the group. Twilight was surprised when she actually found herself feeling good when she went to sleep.

No one noticed the figure watching from a distance.

Rarity sat at the large, opulent marble dinner table with one of her winning smiles as she quipped and laughed with the rest of the gathered nobles. She and Fluttershy had arrived at Blueblood Manor promptly at seven as the guests of Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee respectively.

Rarity and Fluttershy’s first stop that afternoon had been a spa to clean themselves up. Using her connections, Fleur managed to get a pair of decent dresses for the two of them through a boutique chain owned by an up and comer in Manehattan—a Suri something-or-other. Fluttershy wore a soft purple dress with plenty of lace, while Rarity wore a simple but elegant blue gown that matched the hue of her eyes. Fleur had initially suggested a much more elaborate aqua colored dress, but Rarity had hastily rejected it. For some reason, that particular hue threatened to consume her with rage.

That wasn’t evident at present, however, as Rarity chuckled politely with the rest of the table at a particularly off-color joke made by one of the other nobles at the expense of donkeys. She glanced down and took a bite of the cheese and fruit salad on her plate. The meal was so intricately crafted it felt more like she was eating a piece of art than food. The walls around the room were covered in very real pieces of art, though, with many paintings of Blueblood and his family gazing down at them. There was even a very old one of his ancestor Princess Platinum, for whom he was named.

Rarity sat between Fluttershy and a noblestallion named Blue Moon. Beside Fluttershy sat Fleur, who talked up the butter pegasus’ brief career as a fellow supermodel, much to Fluttershy’s mild embarrassment. At the end of the table beside Fleur sat Fancy Pants, who drew the attention and praise of the others every time he said anything. Across the table sat Jet Set and his wife Upper Crust, who stared down their noses at Rarity every time she talked. Beside them sat mostly nobles Rarity was unfamiliar with: a white stallion with a black mane called Black Marble, a dark blue mare named Blue Belle, and a brown stallion with a blond mane called Chocolate Sun. At the end of the table across from Fancy Pants was a pale cream unicorn mare called Champagne Dreams, who kept stealing hungry glances at their host.

At the head of the table was their host himself: Prince Blueblood looked every bit as dashing as he did that night at the gala with his flowing blond mane and elegant suit-collar. As a matter of fact, the only thing different about him now was his demeanor. Apart from his over the top, self-indulgent entrance (in which he slowly descended the stairs as serving mares scattered flower petals in his wake), Blueblood was far more cordial with Rarity this time. Not only did he remember her and address her by name, but he politely kissed Rarity’s hoof by way of greeting, and even personally pulled her chair out for her. Rarity couldn’t help but wonder whether this was the same stallion who’d brought a sitting cushion along on their date with the intention of hogging it for himself.

As the congregation of nobles continued their chatter, Blueblood silently presided over the room, only adding occasional input to the conversation. Rarity couldn’t figure out why, but for some reason this unexpected development put her more ill at ease than if Blueblood had been every bit as stuck-up and self-centered as he was at the gala.

“Everything alright, Miss Rarity?” Blueblood asked, drawing Rarity from her thoughts. “You’ve been rather quiet this evening.”

Rarity swallowed as she now had the attention of the rest of the table. “Yes, there’s… quite a lot on my mind.”

Blueblood raised an eyebrow and gave her a knowing grin. “Would it have something to do with the creatures that have taken up residence in the castle?”

The whole table fell silent as Rarity tensed up. The sound of somepony dropping their fork was like a gong. “My dear friend Fancy mentioned you were asking about that…” Blueblood continued. “But I think you know far more about it than any of us, don’t you?”

“We would be delighted to hear your view on the situation,” Champagne Dreams added in a silky sweet voice accompanied by a grin befitting a shark.

It was at that moment Rarity remembered something Twilight had said about Project Freelancer having a powerful and influential unicorn in their ranks, and all at once started to wonder whether one of their enemies was right here in the room with her.

“Well… seeing as this is a matter of national security, I’m not sure I can share that information without authorization from the Princesses,” Rarity said, hoping that she sounded confident enough to be convincing.

“Yes, I can see how that would be a problem for most of the others in this room,” Blueblood said, waving a hoof dismissively at the rest of the table. “But as a member of the Royal Family, I’m sure we could discuss the matter in a more… private setting.”

“I don’t know…” Rarity said. She did need Blueblood’s help if she and the others were to enter the castle, but something about all of this was setting off huge red flags in her mind.

Blueblood gave a casual shrug. “I’m just saying, it’ll be that much more difficult for me to assist you if I don’t know what we’ll be dealing with.”

He has a point, Rarity conceded. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being backed into a corner.

“Of course, if I am to lend you any assistance, I would require something in return…” Blueblood continued.

“I know Generosity is your Element, but Equestria doesn’t run on charity, you know,” Champagne Dreams added, all too eager to please her host.

Before Rarity could formulate a response, Fluttershy timidly raised her hoof.

“Um… excuse me? I need to use the filly’s room.” She then looked over at Rarity pleadingly. “Can you, um… come with me? I don’t like going by myself….”

“Of course, Fluttershy,” Rarity said with a patient sigh, figuring it would at least be a good chance for her to touch up her make-up.

“Down the hall on your left,” Blueblood said, pointing out the lavatory’s direction.

Rarity politely thanked him before taking Fluttershy and leading her down the hall. The restroom was exactly where Blueblood had said it would be, and Rarity began rummaging through her bag as she waited for Fluttershy to do her business. What she wasn’t expecting was for the timid pegasus to suddenly grab her and drag her into the restroom with her.

“Fluttershy?! What are you…?” Rarity was interrupted by a yellow hoof and a “shh” as Fluttershy locked the rather spacious bathroom’s door.

“Sorry Rarity, but… I may have told a little lie when I said I needed to use the bathroom. I just thought you could use an escape back there.” Fluttershy winced. “U-unless you had it handled. I-I’m sorry, if you were actually fine, please don’t be mad….”

Rarity just smiled. She’d forgotten how easy it was to underestimate the pegasus’ intuition. “No, it’s okay Fluttershy. This is exactly what I needed. Perhaps now we can take some time to figure out what Blueblood’s playing at.”

Fluttershy frowned. “Do you think he’s working with the… Freelancer people?”

Rarity thought about it. It would make sense, she supposed. It was certainly one way to explain how Blueblood had managed to escape the castle while it was under Freelancer control. They could be using him to keep tabs on anypony of importance in Canterlot, and make sure nopony was getting wise to their operation. Of course, if that were the case, it wouldn’t make sense for him to be spreading rumors about the “strange creatures” controlling the castle.

“No, I don’t think so,” Rarity concluded, turning to face the mirror as she began to touch herself up. Her face needed a fresh powdering and one of her false eyelashes was slipping. “He’s after something, though. I just can’t figure out what….”

Before the pair could talk further, they heard what sounded like something crashing somewhere out in the hall. Rarity thought perhaps one of the servants had dropped something, but then she heard a mare scream, followed by shouting voices and rapid hoofsteps. Rarity wasn’t sure what was happening until she heard the familiar burst of a BR.

Exchanging a brief glance, the two ponies unlocked the bathroom door and ran out. A few stallions in black suits and sunglasses—Blueblood’s security staff, if Rarity had to guess—were running full stop down the hallway followed by several of the party guests. Unsure of what else to do, Rarity and Fluttershy followed them. They ran through a couple of winding hallways until they came to what appeared to be a study complete with book shelves and a hearth with a painting of what could only be another of Blueblood’s ancestors hanging above.

The window was open, letting in the cool evening mountain air. A lamp on a table just beside it was in pieces on the ground, and not too far away, a familiar human weapon lay on its side. The painting above the hearth had a few errant bullet holes in it. However, the first thing Rarity saw was the familiar soldier in aqua armor being suspended in the air by four of Blueblood’s security staff as he struggled and cursed. At the sound of a few more sets of hoofsteps, Rarity turned to see Blueblood himself enter the room, led by a serving mare.

“That’s the one, Your Grace! That’s the creature wot climbed in through the window!” the mare exclaimed, pointing a trembling hoof at the man.

Blueblood snorted. “This looks like one of the creatures that invaded the castle!”

“Augh! Get your stinkin’ magic off me, you damn dirty horses!” Tucker exclaimed. He then looked over at Rarity, and her eyes went wide when she realized he was about to ruin everything for her. “Rarity! Tell these assholes to let me go!”

Blueblood slowly looked over at Rarity along with the rest of the nobles. “Miss Rarity? Do you… know this creature?”

Rarity just gently applied a hoof to her face and spoke through gritted teeth. “Tucker… why are you here?”

“Duh? Because I was tired of hanging out at the cave?”

With an exasperated sigh, Rarity looked from Tucker’s suspended form to Blueblood and said, “You can let him go, Your Grace. Tucker won’t cause any problems.” She then glared at the man in question. “Will he?”

Tucker gave an exaggerated shake of his head, and with a sigh, Blueblood nodded at his security staff, who released Tucker from their various glowing magic auras.

“Why do you continue to pay me such insults, Miss Rarity?” Blueblood said remorsefully.

“E-excuse me?” Rarity sputtered.

“Ever since the night we met at the gala, you’ve done nothing but pay me the lowest modicum of respect.”

“Excuse me?!” Rarity exclaimed again, rounding on the bemused Prince. It seemed the two of them couldn’t ignore the events of the gala forever. “Who was it who spent the entire evening acting like the most self-absorbed flankhole to ever walk this earth?!”

Blueblood simply gave her a knowing look. “Who indeed?”

Rarity paused for a brief moment before asking in a dangerous low tone. “What are you insinuating? All I wanted to do was to have a pleasant evening!”

“So did I, but then you came along,” Blueblood sighed. “You know, I still can’t believe it took me placing you in the path of that flying cake for you to finally take the hint!”

All at once, Rarity understood what Blueblood was getting at. “Are you saying you were intentionally acting like an entitled jerk the whole night?”

“Who was acting entitled? After all, was it not you, Miss Rarity, who stalked me into the gardens with the intention of courting me?”

Rarity didn’t respond.

“I mean, it’s bad enough when actual noblemares try to win my affection just to further their own ambition,” Blueblood gave a meaningful glance in Champagne Dreams’ direction, who for her part managed to look somewhat flustered as she suddenly found something else in the room much more interesting. “But for a lowly commoner with nothing to her name to do so? I’m not a mere prize to be won, you know!”

“Hey, asshole!”

To Rarity’s surprise, Tucker was now glaring steadily at Blueblood. “This girl wasn’t after your money or any of that shit! She just wanted to fall in love and get married and crap.”

Blueblood looked from Tucker to Rarity. “I see. I stand corrected, then. You’re not a gold digger, Miss Rarity, you’re something far worse: You’re a naive little filly who still believes in fairy tales!” Blueblood sneered. “You should’ve thanked me that night for waking you up from the fantasy you’ve been living in.”

All the indignant rage in Rarity’s chest couldn’t help her in that moment. No matter how badly she wanted to come up with a scathing rebuttal, Rarity couldn’t deny he was right. She had been naive. The picturesque fairy tale wedding she played out in her head over and over again was something she should’ve outgrown years ago. Instead, the childish dream followed her into adulthood, only stopping when it was crushed into oblivion by reality. Perhaps that was the real reason she had been so shattered after that night. It wasn’t that the stallion she’d admired for years turned out to be different from what she imagined. It was that she was finally forced to grow up.

“Oh, that is such bullshit!” Tucker exclaimed, bringing Rarity momentarily out of her downward spiral of despair. “Was Rarity stupid to get her hopes up? Maybe. But that’s no excuse to treat her like shit!”

Tucker took a step toward Blueblood, and for the first time, the prince had a nervous look on his face as he took a step back.

“And hell, maybe if you weren’t so jaded, you would’ve noticed that Rarity’s actually awesome!” Tucker continued. “Sure, me and her don’t get along very well, but she still pulled her own when we fought the Insurrection and shit. And I mean, look at her! Rarity’s gorgeous as hell! I’m not even a pony and I can tell that. If she wanted to go out with you, you’d have to be an idiot not to at least give her a chance!”

Rarity’s mouth drifted open in shock and a slight redness filled her cheeks as she realized she was watching a backwards version of one of her fillyhood fantasies: The large, crude monster was defending her against the dashing prince. Blueblood, for his part, merely looked at the human in shocked stupor as Tucker continued.

“Oh yeah, and another thing. Since you were all still sitting around doing nothing when I climbed in, I’m gonna take a guess you haven’t agreed to help Rarity find a way into the castle yet, huh?”

“T-that’s quite enough!” Blueblood stuttered, trying desperately to regain his control of the situation. “Guards! Take th-this... rapscallion away and teach him some manners!”

The muscular security unicorns fired up their horns once again to take a hold of Tucker. However, they weren’t fast enough to stop him from grabbing the small device on his waist. As the glowing aura of magic from the four security ponies lifted Tucker into the air, he managed to hold his right hand aloft. With a burst of light and plasma, Tucker’s dual-pronged energy sword sprang forth, thoroughly startling all of the ponies in the room. With a swish, Tucker swung his sword through the air and, to Rarity’s surprise, the blade actually dissipated the magical auras of the security ponies holding him in place.

“Huh. It resists Wyoming’s enhancement and your bullshit magic,” Tucker muttered. Just beside him, a pillar groaned as it collapsed, having been unintentionally split in two.

With a high-pitched shriek, Blueblood backpedalled flanks first into the wall, while around him his security ponies and party guests fled the room in panic. Only Fancy Pants, Fleur Dis Lee, and Rarity’s group remained.

“I say, dear boy…” Fancy said as he sniffed the air and looked at the terrified Blueblood. “Have you soiled yourself?”

Sure enough, when Rarity looked at Blueblood she spotted a large stain on the carpet beneath him. She couldn’t help it. Before she knew it, Rarity was laughing and as soon as Tucker realized it, he joined right in. Blueblood could only sit there as his face turned red.

“Sh-shut up! This is your fault, you know!” the emasculated stallion exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof at Rarity and Tucker.

“No, this is your fault for being such a pompous jerk in the first place!” Rarity exclaimed, advancing on Blueblood aggressively. All at once, she felt her confidence return, and she got right into the cornered stallion’s face, giving him an intimidating glare. “Now, let’s get back to business, because I have a proposal of my own: You show us how to get into the castle, or I tell everypony in Canterlot about your little accident!”

Blueblood looked at her aghast. “You wouldn’t….”

Rarity turned to address Fancy Pants. “Do you still know Sapphire Shores and Vinyl Scratch?”

“I’m having tea with Ms. Scratch next Tuesday. She’s playing for a charity event I’m hosting.”

“Wonderful. I’m sure she’ll find this hilarious!”

“Okay! Okay! There’s a secret passage through the mountain that connects my mansion to the lower chambers of the castle! My staff will show you where it is, just please don’t tell anyone about this. My reputation will be ruined!” Blueblood pleaded.

Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin before asking, “Out of curiosity, what were you originally planning to ask of me in exchange for this information?”

“I just wanted your help executing a little revenge, honest! There’s a creature among the ones infesting the castle,” Blueblood gestured to Tucker. “Looks just like him, only his armor is white. Calls himself ‘Wyoming.’”

Rarity noticed Tucker’s fists curl up at the mention of the Freelancer. According to Twilight, this “Wyoming” had hunted her throughout her first trip to Repertum, and he’d apparently been a thorn in the Blues’ side well before that.

“I… was going to ask you to make sure he’s quite thoroughly humiliated,” Blueblood continued. “H-he disrespected me.”

“Yeah, we’ll make sure to get right on that,” Tucker said. “I’m sure you two will have lots to talk about on that front.”

About fifteen minutes later, Rarity, Tucker, and Fluttershy were walking through a dim, murky tunnel with the Reds and Pinkie Pie in tow (turns out they had been waiting just beyond Blueblood’s property while Tucker attempted to sneak in). Nothing but the sound of their footsteps and the occasional echoing drips filled the air around the group as they silently pressed forward. Somehow, Rarity found herself walking beside Tucker at the head of the group. With the events of the evening still fresh in her mind, Rarity looked up at him and cleared her throat.

“Tucker?” When the man looked down at her, Rarity took a moment to find adequate words, before settling on something simple. “Thanks. You know… for sticking up for me.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah,” Tucker eloquently replied, waving a dismissive hand. “I just can’t stand seeing assholes like that treat girls like crap.”

Rarity smiled, wondering for the first time whether her initial assessment of the man wasn’t entirely correct.

“Why the fuck do you look so surprised?” Tucker asked in a tone that almost sounded offended.

“No reason. I guess there is a good heart under that crude aqua exterior after all.”

Tucker “hmphed” and seemed ready to let the conversation end there, but then he looked back down at her. “Y’know, you’re probably the first person to get the color of my armor right.”

“Really?” Rarity asked in genuine disbelief.

“Yeah, everyone always calls me ‘cyan’ or ‘greenish-blue.’”

“You’re serious? Are they colorblind?”

“I know, right? ‘Greenish-blue’ isn’t even a real color!”

Rarity laughed, and soon the silence in the tunnel was gone as Rarity found herself actually enjoying her once hated companion’s company.

With a start, Twilight’s eyes shot open and the little unicorn sat up. She had been sleeping quite soundly a moment ago along with the rest of the group (except for Church, who was keeping watch from the top of the tower). She’d dreamt of talking to Celestia and an older unicorn stallion she didn’t recognize. A familiar amber young mare with a fiery mane was there too, but then a series of loud bangs jolted her awake.

Turning to see if anyone else in the group heard the noise, Twilight was surprised when she found herself face to face with a canine muzzle and a pair of big yellow eyes. The diamond dog was moderately small, and wore the steel armor commonly used by its kind. It’s paw was outstretched toward her, and it was frozen in place with the expression of a foal with its hoof caught in the cookie jar.

“AAAAUGH!” Twilight screamed as soon as her brain registered what was happening.

“AAAAAAAAAAUGH!” the diamond dog screamed in reply, mostly because Twilight instinctively threw it back against the wall with a blast of magic.

The diamond dog whimpered as it tried to reorient itself, and promptly met the butt of Agent Washington’s BR, slumping to the ground in unconsciousness. All around her, Twilight’s friends were waking up and pulling themselves to their feet.

“What in the hay’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked as she stood from her spot on the floor. “Is that a diamond dog?!”

“What?! You mean there was a dog, and no one told me?!” Caboose exclaimed.

“It was either trying to steal from us, or kill us in our sleep,” Washington stated.

It was around that moment that Church came down the stairs from the tower’s upper levels. “Hey, was that one of you guys I heard firing a pistol?” he asked.

Twilight’s ears stood up straight as she remembered the noise that had awoken her in the first place. Without saying a word, Washington approached the crumbled side of the tower, looking out over the frozen forest below. Twilight joined him, taking up position on the opposite side of the opening as she looked out over the snowy trees. It was hard to see anything in the darkness of night, but Twilight suddenly saw movement as a shadow crossed into the moonlight.

Then a single bang rang out as a shot from a sniper rifle whizzed between them, and then all Tartarus broke loose. Dozens of shots erupted from the treeline below, a few even coming from the skyline above.

“EVERYONE FALL IN!” Washington shouted, and the other human soldiers took positions around the large opening in the tower’s wall.

“What’s happening?!” Donut shrieked.

“Is it Project Freelancer?” Simmons asked.

“No, Project Freelancer wouldn’t attack like this,” Washington answered, taking a peek out from behind his position of cover. “This is too… uncoordinated. It almost looks like whoever they are they haven’t even been trained to use firearms.”

Glancing back at the unconscious diamond dog, Twilight suddenly had a really bad feeling. “Hey Church, can I see the scope?”

“Y’know, if you’re gonna ask for the damn thing so much, why don’t ya just keep it?” Church asked, nevertheless tossing his rifle to Twilight.

“I might as well, considering your skill with it!” Twilight teased as she caught the rifle in her magic.

“Alright. Guess I set myself up for that one….”

Carefully, Twilight peeked out of the tower looking through the sniper’s scope and tried to get a bead on one of their attackers. She found one, and her fears were confirmed when she saw a figure resembling a griffon moving cautiously forward, firing wildly and inaccurately with a Battle Rifle. Adjusting her sights, Twilight spotted a couple of ponies and a zebra crouched behind a fallen tree, all using assault rifles. They seemed just as inexperienced with the weapons as the griffon, letting the recoil “walk” their weapons upwards with every burst of fire. Twilight was reminded of her own brief experience using the weapons. Just behind them, a group of diamond dogs were moving up, similarly armed.

Twilight took a couple of shots at the advancing enemies. She couldn’t bring herself to shoot to kill, but she fired enough around them to stop their advance and force them into cover. Washington, on the other hand, had no such reservations, and downed a few of them with well placed shots. The others were quick to follow suit with the exception of Church, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who with no weapons to shoot back with could only hang back and watch.

“They aren’t human soldiers,” Twilight reported, lowering her rifle. “It looks like the sellswords my brother warned us about!”

“So why the hell do they have human weapons, then?” Church asked. Twilight was wondering that herself.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Washington said, taking another shot. “Based on the gunfire, I count at least fifty of them down there, and that’s not including the vapor trails coming from the cloud formations above. They may not have the training to use their equipment, but they’ll completely overrun this position if we stay here.”

“Great,” Simmons sighed. “What would Sarge do if he were here?”

“Probably something like ‘Shiver me timbers! Prepare to board! Something else that has to do with wood!’” Caboose exclaimed in a poor imitation of Sarge’s nonexistent pirate accent.

Twilight glanced out to where the sheer icy cliff their tower stood against opened up into the Emerald Pass. “We can flee into the pass. They won’t be able to flank us in that tight space.”

“Yeah! It’ll be a shooting gallery once they start lining up to go after us!” Church exclaimed. “Even I couldn’t miss them.”

“Yar! We’ll send them down to David Jonathan’s Locker!” Caboose added.

“A system of ice caves runs all around the pass, we can hide in there once we’ve forced them to back off,” Twilight continued, having turned ignoring Caboose into an art form by this point.

“Okay, now we just need a way to create an opening,” Washington said, taking another look at the stretch of open ground between their tower and the pass. The sellswords had proven to be lousy shots so far, but with so many gunning for them, one or two were bound to get in a lucky shot if their targets spent too much time out in the open.

“Leave that to me!” Rainbow exclaimed, spreading her wings. “I can distract them long enough for you guys to get a good head start. I’ll create a signal, then you guys run for it.”

“Okay, what’s the signal?” Church asked.

“Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it!”

“Ya sure yer fit to fly, RD?” Applejack asked, taking a concerned glance at the pegasus’ wing.

Rainbow just gave her friend a smile and a shrug. “Hey… it’s me!”

With a flap of her wings, Rainbow took off and flew straight through the hole in the tower’s wall, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake.

“Applejack, can you carry the diamond dog?” Washington asked as he loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle. “When we get out of this, I’d like to have a little chat with him.”

Looking at the knocked out canine, Twilight remembered the circumstances leading up to this mess. Had the gunshots that awoke her come from an overly enthusiastic sellsword? It was extremely lucky if that was the case, considering things might be playing out very differently if they’d still been asleep.

Twilight was never one for any of the religions of the world, but she couldn’t help but get the feeling somebody was watching over them that night.

Carefully and quietly, Sunny Side opened the flap of the tent and peeked inside. Thankfully, Silversteel still appeared to be asleep in his sleeping bag, unaware of her absence for the past few hours. Mindful of her every sound, Sunny slipped back into the tent and carefully placed the magnum back into Silversteel’s saddlebag, hoping the stallion wouldn’t notice that the magazine was now a few rounds emptier.

Her decision to sneak out in the middle of the night to keep an eye on Twilight and the others proved to be a smart one. She and Silversteel had been following them ever since they left the Crystal Empire. The pair of mercs lost the group after running into a large herd of wights, but based on the map of the region the griffon Graywing had provided (which included their targets’ predicted destination) Sunny had correctly guessed they’d have made camp at the old watchtower outside the Emerald Pass.

A large portion of the Whitewater contingent was already in position when she arrived, and they’d even sent a diamond dog into her comrades’ camp to retrieve something or other. Fortunately, a few shots from her sidearm seemed to have alerted them to the enemy’s presence. Sunny hadn’t stuck around for the actual fight that followed, but the shooting stopped not long after she left. She only hoped it was a sign her comrades had managed to escape.

As Sunny climbed into her own sleeping bag to try and get what little sleep she could, Silversteel stirred next to her. “Sunny?” he groaned. “Did you go somewhere?”

“Just had to use the little fillies’ room, Silver,” she said with practiced nonchalance. “Go back to sleep.”

“But… you’ve been gone for hours.”

“It was, uh... an eventful homecoming,” Sunny put on her best scowl. “And I’ll thank you for staying out of my personal affairs!”

“Told you not to eat that stale carrot,” Silversteel muttered with a sleepy grin to which Sunny responded with a rude hoof gesture. Silversteel rolled back over. “So… why’d you bring the gun?”

Sunny hesitated for a few brief moments before answering, “It’s the Frozen North, Silver. You never know what you’re gonna run into out here….”

Her right wing twinged with each flap, but Rainbow Dash ignored it. It had been nearly a week since she’d flown like this, and she needed to feel the wind rushing through her mane again. That had been part of the reason she’d been so quick to volunteer to play decoy.

She dodged and weaved around the gunfire, letting instinct take control as she soared over the trees and the small army of sellswords below. She passed under the cloud where the airborne gunfire was coming from and began to fly straight up. She climbed higher and higher until she was one with the moon and stars, then she flipped over and let gravity pull her down. Angling her body as straight as possible, Rainbow continued to build more speed, flapping her wings to aid gravity’s downward pull toward the gunfire emitting cloud.

The wind roared as it whooshed past, she felt her mane and tail being pulled back and her lips soon followed. She saw trails of water vapor begin to take a conical shape around her, and despite the increasing pain in her right wing and the immense G-forces fighting to fling her back into the sky, Rainbow grinned as the griffons and pegasi on the cloud below grew bigger and bigger. She was back.

Rainbow shot through the center of the occupied cloud right as her immense speed built up to an explosive crescendo. A technicolor explosion dissipated the cloud and sent its occupants flying uncontrollably through the air. As Rainbow Dash tilted back up towards the sky, she glanced back at her work. The sonic rainboom had sent most of her winged enemies crashing to the ground below, but there were still a few that managed to right themselves in the air; three griffons and a pair of pegasi.

The largest griffon, who wore an eyepatch and was wielding the sniper rifle barked some orders while pointing at her. The other two griffons and pegasi immediately reoriented themselves in her direction and began to give chase. Thinking fast, Rainbow flew low and headed straight for the Emerald Pass, seeing Twilight, Church, and the others running towards it below. Flying into the pass, Rainbow checked her six to make sure her four pursuers did the same.

Just like the map indicated, the Emerald Pass was a narrow, winding corridor of icy cliffs with several rock protrusions sticking out of the ground and walls. It was insanely treacherous flying, but it was no Ghastly Gorge. Rainbow weaved between the many large rock protrusions with ease while behind her, the sellswords were having significantly more trouble. One of the griffons was the first to go as he tried to follow Rainbow between a pair of rock pillars that were just a little too close together for a full grown griffon.

One of the pegasi was the next to go, failing to make a rather sharp turn in time and crashing face first into the icy wall. The other pegasus was on her tail next, and what was more, this one still had a gun. She fired a couple of shots at Rainbow Dash, but they all passed wide of their mark. The pegasus mare tried to take more careful aim with her weapon, but failed to notice exactly where she was flying. Her wing nicked the side of a large protrusion in the wall of the pass, sending the mare spinning out of control into another icy pillar, shifting a precariously stacked boulder from its top. For one glorious moment, Rainbow thought the large rock would take out the one remaining griffon as it fell, but her pursuer dove and weaved beneath the plummeting obstacle with ease.

Rainbow tried shaking the griffon with more fancy aerial acrobatics, but the griffoness matched her every move with practiced ease. Realizing it wasn’t working, Rainbow decided to opt for speed over fancy maneuvers and pushed ahead harder, her right wing complaining as she did so. When she looked back, Rainbow was shocked to see that the griffon was not only keeping up, she was gaining on her.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding!” Rainbow exclaimed as she pushed herself even harder.

But no matter how fast she flew, the griffon on her tail just kept gaining until soon enough the two were side by side. Seeing the pass open up to a field of snow ahead of her, Rainbow tried flapping even harder. If she could just work up enough speed for another sonic rainboom….

“AUGH!” Rainbow screamed as a sudden jolt of pain shot through her wing, and before she knew it Rainbow was falling towards the ground. Landing hard on her side, Rainbow rolled and skidded until she came to a stop in the snow. Groaning in pain, Rainbow forced herself to her feet and clutched the damaged wing, feeling a sticky wetness. Drawing her hoof back, Rainbow saw a fresh bit of blood running down it.

Then the griffon was upon her. The wind was knocked out of Rainbow as the large avian body-checked her back to the ground. Rainbow struggled and thrashed with all her might, but the larger griffon was quickly able to hold her down. Breathing heavily, the two combatants glared into each other’s eyes until the griffon’s own suddenly grew wide.

Rearing her head back, the griffon looked down at Rainbow with an expression of pure shock before whispering in a familiar rasp, “Dash…?”

Rainbow studied the griffon and suddenly her features grew familiar. Rainbow recognized the light brown coat, purple tipped feathers, and light amber eyes and scowled as she heard a second set of wings flap, announcing another’s arrival. The large male griffon with the eyepatch that Rainbow noticed earlier stepped up behind the familiar one pinning her down.

“Nice work, Gilda,” he said in a deep rasp. “Good to see you’re earning your keep.”

Gilda looked over her shoulder at the imposing griffon with a smile that seemed slightly nervous. Wincing from another spike of pain, Rainbow looked away from her old “friend” and down at her bloody wing; at the wound that had so thoroughly been reopened.

Author's Note

As I explained in this blog post, we're going to need to take a short mid-season hiatus. I know that cliffhanger's a bitch, but we've already passed that point where every chapter will have a major development. Here's hoping for a swift return this september!

Next time: sellswords, Freelancers, and monsters abound, and Celestia gives a history lesson.

Act 3 Part 7 - Prelude

Captain Osgoode tried to keep focused as she stood guard over her charge, calling upon her years of training to maintain an outer appearance of complete stoicism. Such a statuesque appearance would have been enough to unsettle any prisoner, but the strange alien equine she was guarding seemed completely unconcerned by her presence. In fact, the majestic white horse with the ethereal flowing mane was even taking advantage of her time confined to her quarters to catch up on apparent mountains worth of paperwork. It seemed that politics on this planet weren’t much different from those of Earth and her colonies.

As she watched the quill dance across the myriad of papers within the pony princess’s golden magical aura, Osgoode couldn’t help but wonder whether she wasn’t severely out of her league with this “Celestia.” Indeed, it seemed to her that if not for the very literal gun being held to the head of the entire city, the regal pony would have very little trouble dispatching the Recovery Agent with a literal thought.

“Are you sure you don’t want a bite of one of my cookies?” Princess Celestia asked idly between bites from the plate on the desk beside her. “I find that a few sweets helps me get through my work easier. Who knows? Maybe they’ll help you?”

That was just the thing though: The more time Osgoode spent guarding Celestia, the more she wondered whether the princess would have been interested in hurting her at all. No. Remember Reach. The Counselor had warned her and (no doubt) her comrades not to be fooled by the cute, innocent appearance of the alien “ponies”. Not to give into the nurturing instincts inherent in any human when presented with the right stimulus; the equine aliens would use it to their advantage. He warned her that despite their appearance, these creatures were dangerous, perhaps just as much so as the Covenant.

Osgoode remembered the Great War as well as anyone. She saw first hand how brutal the myriad of aliens of the Covenant were. She remembered the pain and heartbreak of seeing her own home planet—Reach—burn as their cruisers glassed its surface. If there was even a remote possibility that these pony aliens were capable of that kind of destruction, Osgoode was determined to ensure it would never happen again. And yet….

“Spike?” the princess called out, picking up a stack of papers in that mysterious glowing aura. “Can you file these away for me? They go in the bottom drawer on the right end of that shelf.” Celestia gestured with her head to the shelf in question, and the individual called “Spike” approached her to do as he was told.

Princess Celestia had described Spike as a baby dragon, but whenever Osgoode looked at him, all she saw was a little boy. One not too different from her son. The son she’d left behind on Reach.

The boy yawned as he attended his task, and the princess smiled.

“Feel free to head to bed when you’re done, Spike,” the princess said, suppressing a yawn herself. “It is awfully late.”

Spike nodded gratefully, and after attending his task, crawled into a basket that seemed more suited to a pet than a person, rubbing his eyes and clutching a plushie resembling a white unicorn.

“G’night, Princess,” he said.

“Goodnight, Spike,” the princess replied warmly.

The baby dragon spared an uneasy glance in Osgoode’s direction before rolling over, breathing softly. Osgoode tried not to think about how many other children were sleeping in the city outside the castle’s walls. About how many would perish if the Director followed through with his threat. Remember Reach.

Groaning, Celestia stood from her desk and stretched. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve worked enough for one night.”

Despite Agent Wyoming’s orders for her not to engage the prisoner in conversation, Celestia frequently spoke to Captain Osgoode in friendly, pleasant tones. The princess often carried on entire conversations with her all by herself, speaking about a variety of topics even without receiving any reply. However, there was one topic that Wyoming permitted Osgoode to discuss with her prisoner.

The Freelancer suspected that Princess Celestia had somehow figured out where their inside pony hid the orbital strike beacon. Although Osgoode wasn’t sure where it was herself, whenever she broached the topic with Celestia, she’d always give the same cryptic answer.

“I think I’ll do a bit of reading before I retire for the night,” Celestia mused, moving to a bookshelf and browsing through her personal collection. “Would you like something to read? As I understand, you still have a few hours left of your shift.”

As always, Osgoode said nothing, watching the princess carefully for any sign of trickery. As always, Celestia’s intentions were as pure as they appeared, as she grabbed a book authored by someone called Starswirl off the shelf. Instead of moving back to her desk or crawling into the large opulent bed beside her, Celestia remained at the bookshelf, surveying its contents a little while longer.

“Ooh! I think I found something you might find interesting.” Celestia levitated another book off of her shelf and floated it over to where Osgoode stood vigilant.

Osgoode was surprised when she looked at the cover and read the title. Earth: A History of Man Before FTL Travel. The cover depicted three men: one wearing plate and mail, one wearing a red coat and a tricorn hat, and a third wearing military fatigues and a bulky, cumbersome looking helmet. Before she even knew what she was doing, Osgoode grabbed the book out of the air and stared at it.

“Where did you…?”

“A gift from the Director when he first visited,” Celestia answered. “I know most human literature is kept on datapads nowadays, but Dr. Church always liked the authenticity of the real thing.”

If that was true, it meant that all of the theories about the Director having been here years ago were true. Though, the way Celestia spoke made it sound like they had been friends once, and that couldn’t be true. Otherwise it would imply that the Director had broken several First Contact laws.

No. It’s an alien trick, it has to be. Remember Reach.

But as Osgoode flipped through the book’s pages, she found herself doubting that the thing in her hands was just an illusion. It had everything, from the early days of the Greek and Roman empires to the Renaissance and the many battles fought between the nations of Europe. It covered the discovery of the New World and the founding of the nations there. The World Wars, the Cold War, the Space Race, and the many conflicts in the Middle East, ending with the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine in 2291.

As she flipped through its pages, Osgoode was amazed that a book so broad had such detailed information on so many periods of human history. She used to love history, and had once dreamed of writing a book just like the one she held in her hands now. It was only after humanity first made contact with the Covenant that Osgoode decided she wanted to make history instead.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Celestia asked, having moved behind Osgoode to look over her shoulder. “You must understand: I’ve been around for a very long time. It’s not often I get to experience history solely through the pages of a book. May I?”

Osgoode nodded, and Celestia took the book in her magic once more. Using her magic, the princess flipped through its pages as her eyes searched for something specific.

“I think the most fascinating piece of human history to me is the second World War. Horrible and full of tragedy, of course. But fascinating. Sure, Equestria has seen its own share of conflicts throughout its own history, but nothing quite on the scale of the World Wars. And not just the battles, but the war crimes—committed by both sides. Ah, there it is.”

Having apparently found the page she was looking for, Celestia looked up from the book at Osgoode. “I’ve seen many great and terrible things in my long years, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget this photo.”

When the princess turned the book back towards Osgoode, the Recovery Agent had been expecting something… different. Victims of one of the concentration camps, or perhaps the defiled corpse of some innocent. Osgoode hadn’t expected to be looking at an ordinary photo of a smiling group of men and women.

The uniformed group was standing on a small wood bridge out in the middle of a damp field. A few of them were laughing, all of them were smiling. A man on the far right was playing an accordion. A pair of women at the front looked like they were getting ready to run for it, and Osgoode noticed it appeared to be starting to rain. They all looked blissfully carefree.

Then Osgoode looked closer and noticed the SS uniforms. That’s when she looked down and read the caption beneath the photo: Auschwitz personnel on vacation in Solahuette.

“They certainly don’t look like the kind of people capable of taking part in the murder of thousands, do they?” Celestia asked. “I’ve faced many terrible villains and monsters in my time, but if someone asked me to describe the face of evil, I think it would look something like that. It’s one thing to commit acts of evil out of malice. But for someone to be complacent in acts of evil out of banality—because they’re only doing what’s expected of them—it’s chilling, isn’t it?”

Osgoode took another look down at the photo. At a second glance, she thought one of the women pictured almost looked like her a bit.

“Something to think about.”

As the massive technicolor explosion lit up the night sky, Agent Washington wasted no time in moving to a door in the side of the tower serving as the group’s makeshift camp. “Everyone move. Quickly and quietly!” he said as he opened the door and stepped out.

Applejack was the first to follow, carrying the unconscious diamond dog on her back. Twilight was right behind her along with Simmons and Caboose. Church spared a brief moment to glance out the collapsed wall at the steadily expanding shock wave of every color in the sky above.

“Huh. Another rainbow explosion,” he muttered as he followed the others out. “Of course. What else was I expecting?”

Donut was the last to exit the ruined watchtower, and together the group ran along the wall of icy cliff towering above them to where it opened into the Emerald Pass. They moved quickly and quietly as Washington had instructed and, as they’d hoped, none of the gun-toting sellswords fired on them; too confused and disoriented by Rainbow Dash’s distraction (which Twilight referred to as the “sonic rainboom”). The entrance to the pass wasn’t far, and as the group drew closer, Church noticed Rainbow Dash fly past overhead, entering the Emerald Pass followed swiftly by a pair of pegasi and two griffons, a larger third a few seconds behind.

The return of the sounds of gunfire indicated the sellswords had reacquired them, but the group had just reached the entrance to the pass. Church picked up his pace, but the familiar whooshing sound rapidly growing closer was cause for immediate alarm. Church barely had time to warn the others of the incoming rocket before it impacted against the icy cliff behind him. Church’s HUD flashed red, indicating the resulting explosion’s close proximity, but it was just far enough away for him to avoid taking any serious damage.

Church looked over to where the shot had come from, and immediately panicked when he saw what appeared to be a large white minotaur covered in tattoos and scars wielding a familiar black M41 double-barrel rocket launcher. The minotaur appeared to be lining up for another shot with the remaining barrel, but a shot from Washington’s BR hit the imposing distant figure in the arm, sending the rocket harmlessly into the sky.

As Church regrouped with the others in the pass, Washington turned around and called out, “Did everyone make it?!”

Church looked around and did a quick headcount. The two ponies that hadn’t flown off to play decoy were present, as was Simmons and—to Church’s dismay—Caboose. There did, however, appear to be someone missing.

“Where’s Donut?” Simmons asked in a mildly alarmed tone.

Cursing, Church left the safety of the pass, remembering that the pink soldier had been right behind him. Looking back where they came from, Church saw a pink form lying in the snow several feet away. He was incredibly close to a black mark on the icy cliff wall that could only have been left by the rocket blast Church had narrowly avoided. It seemed that Donut wasn’t so lucky. Church wondered for a moment whether Donut was dead when he saw the prone pink form begin to move.

“Ow…” Donut groaned. “I haven’t felt an explosion like that since college!”

“Donut!” Church called out as he took a step toward the injured Red, but several gunshots stopped him in his tracks.

Church looked back to the forest where their attackers were hidden only to find a few dozen of the creatures had emerged from the line of snowy trees, all of them firing weapons in his direction. The white minotaur was leading the charge, abandoning his empty rocket launcher in favor of an assault rifle that he fired one-handed.

“Dammit…” Church swore, retreating back to the safety of the Emerald Pass where the others waited. “Those sellsword guys are advancing, I can’t get to him!”

“What do we do?” Twilight asked. Church noted the worried look on her face, and remembered they were still down another member of their group.

“Stick to the plan,” Washington stated coldly. “Fall back and take up defensive positions. Light up anything that enters this pass.”

Reluctantly, the group did exactly that, retreating a few feet where the pass began to turn and taking up positions of cover behind several large icy boulders. After a few seconds, the sellswords started to pour forth into the pass, but Church and the others were ready for them. Twilight launched a few concussive blasts of magic to disorient the sellswords while the humans unleashed a torrent of bullets in their direction. Ponies, griffons and diamond dogs fell in droves as they continued to pour into the pass. It was only after a dozen of the sellswords were gunned down when what Church could only assume was the white minotaur shouted for them to fall back.

It was after a few tense seconds that Twilight asked, “Are they gone?”

Her question was answered by the deep beat of flapping wings and the sound of something large landing behind them. Church whirled around with the rest of their group and raised his sniper rifle alongside Agent Washington at the large, imposing griffon now standing in the middle of the pass behind them.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” the griffon warned in a deep rasp.

He was large, much larger than the other griffons Church had seen so far. His coat was such a dark gray that it almost looked black, and his eagle-like head was comprised of white feathers tipped with purple. A scar ran down the left side of his face and through his eye, which was covered with an eyepatch.

“Yar! It be their captain!” Caboose exclaimed. Evidently, he was still talking like a pirate, and the big griffon’s eyepatch probably didn’t help. “Give us yer booty!”

If the griffon was at all confused by Caboose’s odd statement, he didn’t show it. “Although queerly stated, your comrade has one thing right. My name is Godfrey Graywing, commander-in-chief of the Whitewater Military Company’s Equestria branch.”

“Well, commander, tell us why we shouldn’t just shoot you now, because at this moment I’m not seeing any downsides,” Washington stated.

“Because I have a hostage.”

On cue, the sound of another set of wings filled the pass as a second griffon landed beside Commander Graywing. This one was smaller, with a brown coat and similarly white purple-tipped feathers on her head. But what caught Church’s attention was the squirming rainbow-maned pony in her claws.

“Rainbow!” Applejack called out.

Twilight, on the other hand, seemed to have forced her concern aside as she studied the newly arrived griffon through squinting eyes.

“So you have a hostage, huh? Funny coincidence…” Church turned and pointed his rifle at the diamond dog lying unconscious on Applejack’s back. “So do we!”

“That runt?” Graywing scoffed. “You’d probably be doing his pack a favor.”

“What do you assholes want with us, anyway?” Simmons asked.

“Your surrender,” Graywing stated. “My company was hired to take three of you alive. I would prefer to do so without any unnecessary bloodshed…” Graywing gave a meaningful glance past the group to the small pile of bodies that had accumulated at the entrance to the pass. “But since you’re all so determined to make this difficult, I may be forced to kill all but the three I need. Starting with this one.”

Graywing jerked his head to Rainbow Dash as the griffon holding her tightened her grip and pulled out a pistol. Twilight gave a horrified gasp while Applejack lowered her brow and gave the griffons a death glare.

Washington, however, kept his rifle level and his demeanor calm as he said, “Okay… then what?”

This caused the griffon to tilt his head as Washington continued, “We still hold the tactical advantage right now, and once you kill the pegasus, there will be nothing stopping me from gunning you down.”

Slowly, Twilight looked over at the Freelancer with growing uncertainty. “Wash…?”

“That pony isn’t a vital part of our operation. While her loss would be unfortunate, the completion of our mission is what’s most important,” Washington stated coldly.

“WHAT?!” the pony in question shouted as her struggling increased tenfold.

“Have you lost yer marbles?!” Applejack exclaimed.

To Church’s surprise, even the griffon holding Rainbow Dash looked surprised, and a little nervous. Graywing, on the other hand, merely grinned.

“It sounds like your comrades aren’t on the same page.”

“That may be, but they aren’t calling the shots,” Washington said, keeping his rifle trained on the big griffon. “So you see, commander? I’m still not seeing any downsides.”

Godfrey Graywing frowned. Church and the others had lowered their weapons, but Washington remained firm, his rifle aimed right at the head of the one-eyed griffon.

“Hmph. Very well. You leave us no choice….” Graywing spread his wings, “but to retreat… for now. If you change your mind, come find us, and we’ll work something out where no one has to die.” Graywing then turned and addressed the griffon holding Rainbow Dash with a stern, personal tone. “Come, Gilda.”

“Yes sir,” the other griffon answered, and together the two of them took off and flew straight up, their hostage in tow.

“HIYAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Sarge screamed as he kicked in the wooden door, performed a combat roll into the room and landed on one knee with his shotgun raised.

The dim gloom of Canterlot Castle’s lower levels were a stark contrast to the opulent main floors where the princesses held court. Drab gray brick made up the walls, with only a few torches mounted on sconces in each room. The chamber Sarge violently burst into appeared to be a wine cellar, with rows of barrels lining the walls. The room’s only occupant—a lone serving mare—stood frozen in place, staring at the Red sergeant with a shocked expression, making no sound but a terrified whimper.

“Do you have to do that with every door?” Tucker asked as he stepped into the room after Sarge, followed by the rest of the rag-tag group of ponies and humans.

“Of course! It’s basic infiltration tactics, Blue!”

“Are your ‘basic infiltration tactics’ meant to be loud enough for the entire castle to hear?” Rarity deadpanned as she followed behind Tucker.

“Of course not! I expertly moderate my volume so it’s just loud enough to startle any enemies in the immediate vicinity, giving us ample time to dispatch them while they’re stunned.” Sarge clicked his tongue and indicated to the petrified serving mare. “See?”

“Yo no creo que sea un enemigo (I don’t think that’s an enemy),” Lopez stated as he and Grif entered behind them.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that pony isn’t an enemy,” Grif said.

“Psh. You don’ know that, Grif.” Sarge then turned to Lopez. “Yer right, Lopez. Grif did say something stupid. Ya sure know how to call ‘em!”

“Literalmente dijo lo mismo (We literally said the same thing)!”

As Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy entered, the serving mare (a brown unicorn wearing a black and white maid’s uniform) finally regained her senses enough to open her mouth. “U-uh… are you guys with those aliens upstairs? Because if so, I’m so sorry for sneaking down here. I-I was just looking to get some wine, I swear!” the mare crouched low to the floor and her ears pressed against her head. “I don’t know anything about a secret passage, honest! Please don’t shoot me with your zappy guns! I’m too young to be probulated!”

“Uh… we’re not those kind of aliens,” Grif said.

“Yeah, we’re American!” Tucker added.

“Eso significa que sólo tomarán su país y destruir su cultura (That means they’ll only take your country and destroy your culture).”

Seeing that these explanations weren’t helping calm the other mare, Fluttershy stepped forward and gently patted her. “There, there, it’s okay. We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to stop the bad guys.” Fluttershy gave the mare a moment to calm down before asking, “Can you show us the most discreet way upstairs?”

With a nod, the mare pointed to a door down the nearest row of wine barrels and said, “Left down the hallway, there’s a servant’s passage a few feet down on the right.”

After thanking her, Fluttershy told her to stay there and keep hidden before the group headed for the door to the hallway.

“HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Pinkie Pie bucked down the door and dove into the hallway, performing a single combat roll before landing in a crouched position with a large, bright baby blue cannon suddenly in her hooves. After surveying the similarly gloomy basement hallway and discerning it was clear of enemies, Pinkie looked back at the group staring at her dumbfounded. “What? It looked like fun!”

“Heh heh. We’ll make an infiltration specialist out of you, yet!” Sarge chuckled, ruffling the pink pony’s mane.

Pinkie then looked down the hallway and gasped loudly as her eyes widened. Alarmed, the others followed her gaze and were similarly startled as they caught a fleeting glimpse of a dark, ethereal figure disappear around a corner down the hall on their left.

“W-what was that?” Fluttershy asked, getting behind Grif.

“It looked like a spooky ghoooooost!” Pinkie said, holding a flashlight under her face for dramatic effect.

“A ghost?” Tucker asked. “Aw crap. Every ghost I know is either an asshole or…” Tucker paused. “Wait a minute….”

Tucker ran down the hall in the direction the spectral figure disappeared to, and the others followed. He passed the servant’s passage leading up to the castle’s main floors and turned a corner, finding a flight of stairs that led further down into the castle’s depths. It took about a minute for the group to descend the stairs and run down the hallway at the bottom before they came to a much larger and sturdier looking iron door. Sarge and Pinkie Pie pressed against the wall on either side of the door, and after exchanging a nod, burst through before any of the more level-headed members of the group could act.

“HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The pair landed with their weapons drawn, face-to-face with a pair of stunned looking gray-clad Freelancer soldiers. There was a beat before simultaneous blasts from the shotgun and party cannon eliminated the threats. Tucker and the others quickly entered after them.

“That… should not have worked as well as it did,” Tucker said.

“Sarge, don’t think for a moment this validates any of your stupid plans,” Grif added.

“Well, how about I validate yer face!” Sarge retorted.

“¿Y eso que significa? (What does that even mean?)”

It was then that Tucker actually looked around at the room and noticed what made it so important. Holographic images of rooms and hallways throughout the castle floated all around them, projected by gems set into the walls. Some of them showed rooms that resembled the dark gloomy dungeons the group had traversed thus far. Most of them displayed a brighter, more decadent castle that was more in line with what Tucker had initially expected. Some of the rooms and hallways had moving figures in them: serving ponies went about their tasks quietly and nervously while Project Freelancer soldiers patrolled the halls.

“What… is this place?” Fluttershy asked. “I’m… pretty sure we’ve never been in this part of the castle before.”

Rarity tapped her chin. “I recall Twilight mentioned something about a security system in the castle Celestia had installed after the Royal Wedding. Maybe this is it?”

The others nodded, agreeing with the fashionista’s explanation. One thing didn’t add up to Tucker, however.

“Wait a minute, if they can monitor the whole castle from here, why didn’t they see us coming?”

“That would be my doing,” a new voice spoke up. The dark spectre appeared before them again, taking a familiar shape. “One of the perks of being an M.I.: You’re pretty much made to mess around with spell matrices like this one.”

“Tex?!” the entire group exclaimed at once.

“Huh. I feel like we do that a lot when you show up,” Tucker added for good measure.

“What can I say? I like making a good entrance.”

“Wait, where did you come from?” Rarity asked. “Last time anyone saw you was in Ponyville, when you were still with that Sunny Side mare.”

“I was with you guys the whole time. I just thought I’d take a more backseat approach this time around.” The black armored figure then folded her arms and gave the group an unimpressed look. “That being said, I did say I would step in if you idiots botch things again, and well, entering a castle without dealing with the security system is a pretty big botch. I had to work pretty fast once you guys got close enough for me to jump into the spell matrix.”

“Okay, now when you say you were ‘with us the whole time’, do you mean you were in one of our heads? And if so, were you in mine?” Tucker asked, sounding nervous. “Because I can explain!”

Tex gave a derisive huff. “Don’t worry, Tucker. It’s easier for me to mask my presence when I’m with someone I’ve already been inside before.”

Tucker had to clamp his lips shut to keep himself from saying the thing he really wanted to say. The possibility of a simultaneous beating from Tex and Rarity was what ultimately kept him quiet.

“That being said, it’s gonna take me a long time to get the feeling of cotton candy and frosting out of my code,” Tex continued. “Now, we’re gonna need a plan if we’re gonna find this orbital strike transmitter. Any thoughts?”

Tucker couldn’t help but wonder why Tex was asking for their opinions instead of taking charge like she usually did.

“Maybe we could ask one of them Freelancer fellas where it is?” Sarge suggested. “I’m sure we can get ‘em to talk if given the proper incentive!”

“Actually, that could work,” Tex said, pulling up one of the floating images for the rest of the group to see. It showed a soldier wearing gray armor with red detail step out of an important looking room through a large, sun-encrusted door as another took their place. “One of their captains is just getting off their shift. Looks like she’s the second in command to Wyoming. If you wanted to ambush her, now would be the perfect time.”

“Right. If you can be our eyes and ears, Tex, we should find her in no time,” Rarity said before turning to the whole group. “Anyone have any questions?”

Pinkie’s hoof immediately shot up. “Why’s Tex gonna be our eyes and ears? We already have two of each!”

The room just looked at Pinkie, trying not to facepalm.

The ice caves of the Emerald Pass were very appropriately named. The floor, walls and ceiling of the tunnels were comprised entirely of ice, given a slightly green tint by the emeralds buried within them. Twilight had read that the relatively rapid rate at which the ice caves would melt and refreeze caused their layout to change every few years. This worked to the group’s advantage, as it seemed unlikely the sellswords hunting them would have any knowledge of how to navigate them. It also made their chosen hideout very dangerous, as Twilight had read one too many accounts of explorers who got lost in the caves and ended up drowning in freezing water. The thought made Twilight shiver, and she and likely Applejack both wished they hadn’t left their warm cloaks at the tower during their escape.

However, Twilight and the others were much more concerned about the recent encounter with the commander of Whitewater, and more importantly, the way it was handled by their resident Freelancer. It felt as though the man in gray had kicked a dog when he so casually disregarded Rainbow Dash’s life, and now he was doing so again much more literally.

“P-pleases! No more, humans! N-not in the faces!” the bloodied diamond dog cried as he hugged an icy wall, flinching in anticipation of another blow from the tall dark Freelancer.

As soon as the diamond dog awoke, Washington had wasted no time in administering his special brand of interrogation. “If you want me to stop, then tell us what we want to know.”

“I-I already told you, I don’t know anythings about who hireds us!” the diamond dog exclaimed. Twilight wasn’t sure whether his habit of pluralising unnecessarily started before or after Washington began interrogating him. “I just knows that she’s a unicorn ponies. Like that one!” he continued, pointing a paw at Twilight.

“Well, why the hell didn’t you mention that the first time he asked you?” Church asked, folding his arms.

“I didn’t?” the diamond dog asked, tilting his head.

“Do you know anything else about her? Maybe a name?” Washington asked.

“No names. Just saw her and the others with her.” The diamond dog gestured to Washington. “Looks like you. Tall, two legs, weird armors. Same color, evens!”

“Hmph. Like I thought. It’s Project Freelancer. What did they hire you to do? That Graywing griffon mentioned something about capturing three of us.”

The diamond dog nodded earnestly. “Y-yes. Unicorn pony told us to capture three of yous.” He then pointed at Church. “Blues one….”

“Hey! He’s not blue, I’m blue!” Caboose complained. “Do you think just because we’re both Blues means we look the same? Why you gotta get down on us?”

“Caboose, I think the reason they want to capture me is because of the whole Alpha thing,” Church stated.

“C’mon, Church! We need to fight the powers that be! The white man has kept our people down for too long!”

“A) That guy is neither white nor a man, B) your armor color has nothing to do with your race, and C) shut the fuck up, Caboose!”

“And who are the other two you were ordered to capture?” Washington continued his interrogation pretending Church and Caboose didn’t exist.

“We were also sent to capture unicorn ponies,” the diamond dog answered, pointing at Twilight. “They sent me in to try and grab her while sleepings.” He then returned his attention to Washington. “And lastly, you, Mr. Scary Humans.”

“Me?” Washington asked, sounding genuinely surprised for what Twilight could only assume was the first time in his life.

“Alright, we know what they’re after,” Applejack interjected, approaching the cowering diamond dog herself. “Now, where are ya keepin’ Rainbow?”

“Yeah, and what about Donut?” Simmons added.

Since no trace of Donut had been found after the sellswords withdrew, the group had assumed he had been taken along with Rainbow Dash.

“Took them back to camps in canyon to the easts. Here, can show you on maps….”

“Don’t bother,” Washington said.

Applejack looked up at him. “Why? You already know where that is?”

“No. We won’t be needing their camp’s location because we won’t be going there.”

For a moment, the sound of dripping water was all that prevailed in the cave.

“Now hold on there, pardner. Are you suggestin’ we leave them behind?”

“I said so before: The completion of our mission is what’s most important.”

“What’s gotten into you, Wash? I thought you were on our side here!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I am on your side, but we need to be practical,” Washington retorted. “Getting to the center of an entire contingent of mercenaries would be suicide.”

“Yeah, as sick as I am of suicide missions, I gotta agree with the ponies on this one,” Church said. “You’ve been kind of a dick since those guys attacked us. Y’know… more than usual.”

“Look, right now it’s a race to the Forerunner ruins and every second counts. We don’t have time to waste on a rescue op!”

“Still seems like kind of a dick move to just leave them behind,” Simmons said.

“They knew the risks when they came along, and with a mission like this, losses are only inevitable. Like it or not, you guys are all soldiers now, which means accepting that fact,” Washington sighed ruefully. “Look, I’m not saying I disagree with what any of you are saying. I’m just stating the reality of the situation.” Washington then turned and looked down at the diamond dog, who the others had almost forgotten about. “You can go now. We’re done with you.”

Looking around unsurely for a moment, the bruised and bloodied diamond dog cautiously took a step towards the exit, and once he was certain Washington wouldn’t hit him again just to be mean, the bipedal canine made a full run for it. Washington watched him the entire time, looking like he wanted to be sure the creature didn’t linger any longer than he had to.

“Well, I’m not finished with you yet, Agent Washington!” Twilight declared, taking a step toward the Freelancer. “The fact is, Rainbow Dash is my friend, and I’m going to save her and Donut regardless of what you think!”

“Okay,” Washington calmly said, turning to face the little unicorn after he was sure the diamond dog was gone. “Let’s figure out a plan.”

“I don’t care if you disagree with me, I’m doing this with or without….” Twilight paused as she realized what exactly the Freelancer just said. “Wait… what did you just say?”

“We can’t just leave your friends at the mercy of those sellswords, so let’s make a plan to get them back.”

The cave was silent for another poignant second before Simmons said, “Uh, that completely contradicts the argument you just made twelve seconds ago.”

“I said what I had to,” Washington said, glancing back at the exit to the ice caves. “Now, that diamond dog is going to regroup with his comrades thinking that our intention is to press on to the Forerunner ruins….”

Washington let the sentence hang there, and Twilight figured out what his intentions had been all along. “So they won’t expect us to go back for Rainbow and Donut.”

“That’s great and all, but how are we supposed to find their camp when we didn’t ask for its location?” Church asked, giving Washington a careful look.

“I have the equipment and training to track targets through any kind of terrain,” Washington replied. “It won’t be hard to follow that diamond dog back to their camp.”

“Right, ‘an are we jus’ supposed to forget the fact that you were ready to sacrifice Rainbow Dash back there?” Applejack asked, giving the Freelancer a cold stare.

“I called Graywing’s bluff. There was no way he could’ve killed her right there with all of our weapons trained on him.”

“You don’ know that!”

“Yes I do! Not only was your friend the only thing keeping him alive, but I saw the look on the griffon’s face holding her. I don’t think she had it in her to follow through.” Washington looked over at Twilight. “And I saw the way you looked at her, too. You know her, don’t you?”

Twilight nodded. “It was Gilda.”

“Gilda?” Applejack turned to Twilight, looking genuinely shocked. “I remember hearin’ about a griffon with that name makin’ a scene at one of Pinkie Pie’s parties a couple years back. Wasn’t she Rainbow Dash’s old friend?”

“Hmm… if that’s the case, maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Washington mused.

“With another stunt like the one you just pulled? Yeah, no thanks,” Church said sourly. “I don’t really feel like being a pawn in another one of your devious schemes anytime soon.”

“Never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Church,” Applejack said. “How’re we supposed to trust you after what happened?”

Seeing that both Twilight and Applejack were still looking at him with uncertainty, Washington lowered himself to one knee so he was at their level, and addressed the whole cave. “Listen, I know I haven’t done much to earn your trust, but I’m not heartless. I don’t want any more innocent people to die because of what my program is doing here.” Washington stood, surveying the group with confidence. “Now, should we make a plan?”

As the rest of the cave silently studied Washington with looks of apprehension, Twilight decided to speak up. “Look, Washington has one thing right: we need to stop bickering and act!” Twilight briefly regarded Washington with a stern look before continuing, “I don’t agree with his recent actions and would really prefer if he at least warned us the next time he tries something like that, but we can’t keep fighting amongst ourselves like this. If we do, we’re just going to invite more Windigoes to….”

Twilight trailed off, and her eyes grew distant as a grin slowly spread across her face.

“Uh, Twilight? You okay, there?” Simmons asked. “You’re doing a really creepy, but oddly spot-on Grinch impression.”

“I’m fine, Simmons,” Twilight said, the grin still firm on her face. “I just gave myself an idea….”

“Hey… Rainbow Dash… Rainbow Dash! Wake up!”

“Buh… huh?” Rainbow Dash snorted, her eyes fluttering open. The first thing she noticed was that she was tied to a wooden post. After giving a token struggle to confirm she was not going anywhere, Rainbow looked around.

She was surrounded on all sides by identical, efficiently set up tents. Several cook fires tended by small groups of sellswords dotted the camp around her, illuminating the darkness. Realizing the pain in her right wing was brought down to a dull throb, Rainbow glanced down to find that it had a fresh set of bandages on it. Sensing movement, Rainbow craned her neck to look behind her and saw that Donut of all people was tied to the same post that she was.

“Oh great. I have to share a post with you,” Rainbow groaned.

Donut, on the other hand, just sighed with relief. “Oh, thank God! I thought you were dead!”

“Nope. Just thought I’d take a little nap.” Rainbow Dash had decided to fall asleep during the flight to wherever the sellswords had made their camp. It was in part because she was still relatively tired after being so rudely awakened by their wanton gunfire, and partly because she figured going full ragdoll in her carrier’s grasp as they flew would annoy her. Rainbow spared another questioning look over towards Donut as she realized something. “Wait, if you thought I was dead, why did you think they tied me up?”

“Um, in case you turned into a zombie?”

Rainbow was about to open her mouth to say how stupid that was when she remembered the wight they encountered the other day. “Point,” she said, deciding to just drop the issue.

The sound of raised voices suddenly caught her attention, and Rainbow Dash looked over toward one of the cook fires and realized she recognized the people sitting around it. The large dark griffon with the eyepatch that had introduced himself as Godfrey Graywing was eating some sort of red meat with her sitting beside him. Across from the fire, raising her voice at the griffon, was a very familiar unicorn mare whose fiery mane and tail Rainbow knew she’d seen before. Additionally, standing next to her was a human in gray armor identical to those worn by the soldiers they encountered at the Freelancer Command Center back on Repertum. The only thing setting him apart from the rank and file Recovery Agents was the blue detail on his helmet and shoulders. The unicorn mare looked ready to tear Godfrey a new one.

“...I don’t know what the pink one looks like to you, but he sure doesn’t look like a Freelancer or an A.I.! And the pegasus… I’m sure we ponies all look the same to you, so let me help make your job easier,” the mare gestured to her own head. “Horn…” she then pointed over at Rainbow Dash. “Wings. See the difference?”

Godfrey Graywing said nothing, simply making a show of taking a bite of his meat while glaring steadily at the mare through his one good eye. It was a classic griffon intimidation ploy, especially when dealing with herbivores, but the mare’s face showed nothing but impatience.

“There’s no need to patronize me, Miss Shimmer…” he started.

“Then how is it you managed to be beaten back by a small group of idiots and failed to capture any of the priority targets?” Sunset Shimmer asked.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she suddenly realized where exactly she remembered that mare from.

“The targets refused to surrender, and they were in a position where I couldn’t take them alive without significant losses,” Godfrey said, raising a claw to preemptively shut down the smarmy suggestion on Sunset’s lips. “And no, I’m not going to senselessly throw away my troops’ lives when there are better alternatives.”

“Oh sure, because returning with two of the wrong hostages is so much better!”

“Do you fish, Miss Shimmer?”

Sunset Shimmer scowled. “What?”

“I didn’t think so. Most ponies don’t unless it’s catch and release.” Godfrey set his meat down and stared across the flames at her. “So why do you insist on telling a fisherman how to fish?”

With a roll of her eyes, Sunset said, “Commander Graywing, I don’t see what fishing has to do with any of this.”

“Again, I didn’t think you would, so let me make it simple for you.” The commander then glanced at Rainbow Dash before he said, “Any fisherman will tell you it takes good bait to make a good catch.”

Sunset Shimmer just sighed and rubbed the bridge of her snout. “You could have just said you were going to use them as bait from the start and saved us a lot of trouble.”

“We wouldn’t have had any trouble at all if you knew your place.”

“Excuse me?”

Godfrey Graying finished off his meal. “Your only job while you’re here is to fulfill your part of our bargain and leave the acquisition of the targets to us.”

It was at that moment that a white, tattooed minotaur appeared and raised his head at Godfrey. Nodding, the large griffon stood. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my own bargain to fulfill.”

With that, Godfrey walked away with the white minotaur, Sunset Shimmer glaring after him.

“So, you guys are just going to hold us prisoner and use us as bait?” Donut asked, giving an indignant huff as he tried to cross his arms but failed due to the constriction of the rope holding him to the post. This outburst caught the attention of Sunset, the Recovery Agent, and her.

“Well, I have to say that is just typical!” Donut continued. “If more writers didn’t treat female characters as plot devices, this wouldn’t happen!”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

“We’re damsels in distress, Rainbow! And it’s all the patriarchy’s fault!”

“What?! I’m not a damsel!” Rainbow looked at her three captors, who were merely looking at them in mild confusion. “Don’t listen to him. This idiot does not speak for me!”

Apparently unsure of how to respond to that, the Recovery Agent just sighed and looked over at Sunset. “I’ll update the Director on our status.”

“Thank you, Donovan,” Sunset said as the soldier left to do just that.

“And don’t think you’ll get away with this, Shimmer!” Rainbow warned as the mare in question made to leave next. “When my friends get here, we’re gonna kick your flank from here to Canterlot!”

Sunset stopped to turn back to Rainbow Dash, looking at her the way a pony might appraise an ant. “Do I know you from somewhere?” After studying Rainbow with mild curiosity for a few moments, Sunset Shimmer’s ears pointed up in realization. “Wait, didn’t I help you and your friends with an M.I. problem a while back? Right… I made that construct based on you and everything.” Sunset grinned. “This must be quite the surprise for you.”

“Nope. I knew you were bad the whole time!” Rainbow smiled, looking very pleased with herself. “I guess Rarity owes me ten bits!”

“Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll be able to brag to your friends once you’re all my prisoners,” Sunset said, turning to leave. “Now on that note, I have some preparations to make.”

Just like that, Sunset Shimmer was gone and now the only other enemy left in the immediate area was the griffon that captured Rainbow Dash in the first place.

“Is there a reason you’re still here?” Rainbow asked impatiently.

Gilda scowled. “Hey, dweebface. I was just going to freakin’ check if you needed anything. I mean, we did used to be friends.”

“Yeah, there’s a reason for the ‘used to be’ part.”

“Ooh, are you Gilda?” Donut suddenly asked.

Gilda looked at the man in pink armor curiously. “Yeah, how’d you…?”

“Rainbow Dash’s told me all about you!” Donut cheerfully exclaimed. “About how you were best friends, but then you acted like a jerk, and things fell apart….”

“Oh really? Is that what she told you?” Gilda asked, staring distastefully at Rainbow. “Because the way I remember it, she was the one who abandoned me for her lame pony friends!”

“Oh, so now I’m the problem?” Rainbow Dash sneered. “That’s rich, considering you’re the one who’s been sending apology letters for months on end!”

The pair went quiet, and for a moment, the only voices on the air were those of the sellswords in the rest of the camp.

“Wait… you’ve been getting my letters?” Gilda asked, and suddenly the wind was out of her sails.

“Y’know, you have a lot of nerve trying to talk to me again after what you did.”

“Aw, Gilda’s tsun-tsun!” Donut cooed.

The griffon in question just gave him a puzzled look. “I’m what?”

“Rainbow Dash is your waifu,” Donut continued as if it made perfect sense. “That’s so kawaii!”

Gilda gave Rainbow Dash a look of utter befuddlement. “Is that even a real language? Is he speaking alien, or something?”

“Why are you asking me?” Rainbow asked, glaring over her shoulder. “Hey, Donut? Be quiet. The grown-ups are talking.”

Twilight and Rarity sometimes used that expression when dealing with her. It felt weird to Rainbow Dash to say it herself, but the situation certainly warranted it.

“Anyway, we’ve been friends our whole lives,” Gilda said, unusually quiet. “I just thought it was stupid to throw all that away after one fight.”

“Yeah? Capturing me and holding a gun to my head is a great way to show that you want to make up,” Rainbow grumbled.

Gilda just looked away. “Look, I didn’t want to do that, okay? But I can’t exactly disobey the commander’s orders... especially when he’s also my father.”

“No way, that big guy with the eyepatch is your dad?” Rainbow asked, genuinely surprised. “You never mentioned your dad was a big mean sellsword.”

“Well, he wasn’t exactly a big part of my life growing up….”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Oh c’mon, Gilda. You’re not gonna get me to accept you again with some ‘daddy didn’t love me’ sob story.”

Gilda frowned and said bitterly, “You sure? That touchy-feely crap seems to be the norm for your new, lame pony friends.”

Rainbow Dash turned away, unable to look at the griffoness anymore. “Maybe. But that’s why they’re the ones who are there when I need them. Not you.”

The sound of what was apparently a noisemaker jolted Captain Osgoode awake. The castle’s guard barracks that served as her quarters was pitch black, but the sight of several unfamiliar figures standing over her made the Recovery Agent immediately spring into action. She reached for her sidearm only to be stopped by the click of a weapon as one of the mysterious figures held a shotgun to her head.

“You jus’ sit tight there, missy, and don’ even think about shoutin’,” the man said in a gruff southern drawl. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she noticed he was wearing the standard issue red armor of Project Freelancer’s own simulation troopers.

Another man beside him stood wearing some kind of aqua-marine armor. “Normally when I’ve got a chick in bed, that’s when the night gets fun, but right now, we’re in a hurry!”

A white pony with a stylish purple mane then approached her with a stern look on her well made-up face. “The transmitter. The one guiding your ship’s weapons. We need to know where it is. Now,” she demanded in a sophisticated posh voice.

Once she started to realize what was going on, Osgoode scanned the dark room for any avenues of escape. Her makeshift officers’ quarters were empty save for herself and the interlopers, with a couple more in orange and brown armor standing guard by the door. There were two other ponies in the room as well, one pink and the other yellow.

“Well?” the stylish pony continued. “Are you going to tell us where it is, or will we have to be harder on you?”

“Heh heh. Hard on,” the aqua soldier giggled immaturely.

Osgoode knew she couldn’t give up what little she knew on the matter. Wyoming and her superiors at Project Freelancer would see her court-martialed.

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” Osgoode stated calmly. “You were right when you said you’re in a hurry. It’s only a matter of time before one of the other officers comes in here. How long do you think you’ll be able to remain undetected?”

She saw the white pony’s face change and the two sim troopers behind her exchange a glance. The seeds of doubt had been planted, but Osgoode didn’t feel any better. For some reason, she imagined herself back in the princess’s personal chambers.

“Very well,” the pink pony said in a comically high-pitched voice as she stepped closer to Osgoode. “I didn’t want to do this, but you give me no choice….”

The poofy-maned pony reached behind herself and pulled out… a balloon animal. Osgoode had to admit, it was very well made. It resembled another pony, and looked like it was crafted from many different colored balloons. The real pony then pulled out a sharp pin and held it to the balloon pony’s throat.

“Tell us where the transmitter is, or Terry gets popped!”

Osgoode had no words, save for one. “What?”

“That’s right! I have a sharp object and I’m off my meds!”

The aqua sim trooper just rubbed his visor and sighed. “Just ignore her. She’s crazy.”

“Yeah! I’m crazy! So you know I’m not joking when I say I’ll do it!” the pink pony shouted, doing a stabbing motion towards the balloon animal with the pin in her hoof.

“Ugh. Pinkie. Please stop,” the white pony said, pinching the bridge of her snout.

“I’ve already gone too far to stop now, Rarity!” Pinkie said seriously, gesticulating wildly with the hoof holding the pin. “But it’s still not too late for you! Get out of here and have a good life! They won’t take me alive! Attica! Attica!”

Pinkie was interrupted by a loud bang as an explosion of air reduced her balloon hostage to a sad little flap of rubber. Osgoode couldn’t say whether this was because it was overinflated, Pinkie gripped it too tightly, or the thing had actually become sentient and wanted to end its existence before the situation could get any more absurd.

Tears suddenly started to build in the pink pony’s eyes. “Nooooooo! Terry! What have I done?! I never wanted it to end this way! You still had so many parties to experience… so many foals to entertain!”

The yellow pony was by her side in an instant, reassuring her with comforting words (though, at one point she asked what “Attica” meant). A glowing, holographic figure wearing black armor suddenly appeared in the air above the group.

“What is going on in here?” it asked in a harsh female voice. “Have you guys extracted any info from her yet?”

Rarity sighed. “No, Tex. She’s not exactly being forthcoming.”

“Well, I didn’t expect her to suddenly have a change of heart,” the ethereal figure called Tex said. “That’s why you have to beat it out of her!”

The others all looked at her uncomfortably.

“Well, I can’t hit a girl,” the man in red drawled. “It’s part of my Code of Honor. Right up there with ‘look in yer foe’s eyes when you strangle him,’ and ‘don’t eat red meat before battle.’ Though, that last one’s more a case of practicality than anything.”

“Yeah, beating on chicks kinda makes me uncomfortable, too,” the aqua one said, before amending. “I mean, unless she’s into that sort of thing.”

“I think I can speak for the girls when I say we have a moral objection to torture,” Rarity said.

As the group continued to bicker, Osgoode saw an opportunity and slowly reached for her sidearm. If she could just do that, she might be able to turn the tables by taking one of them hostage. Osgoode froze when she looked over at the bedside to find her magnum and found a book instead. Earth: A History of Man Before FTL Travel stared back at her from the nightstand; the princess having let her keep it when Osgoode finished her shift.

All at once, her conversation with Princess Celestia came rushing back. The picture she’d shown her became clear in her mind’s eye. Those people who’d been responsible for so many deaths. So blissfully careless of their actions’ consequences. Osgoode tried remembering their faces, but all she saw were reflections of herself.

“Um….”

Osgoode whipped back around and saw the yellow pony standing at the end of her cot, looking right at her. She didn’t look stern or angry like the stylish white one had. There was a sad urgency in her eyes.

“You don’t look like a bad person to me,” she said in a voice that was as soft as it was sweet. “If we don’t find that transmitter, a lot of innocent ponies will die. I know you have your orders, but… isn’t doing the right thing more important?”

Looking at the pony’s moderately cyan eyes, Osgoode wondered for the first time what the true purpose of her mission here actually was. The people in the room with her now were supposed to be her enemies, but none of them seemed to be bad people. They weren’t even willing to beat her for information. The butter yellow pony looking at her now held an appearance of innocence and kindness, but had a strong sense of fear purveying over her features.

No, that’s how they trick you. Remember what the Counselor said. Remember Reach. But when Osgoode tried remembering her homeworld, all she saw were burning buildings and death. Those burning buildings then became a burning castle town lying at the foot of a mountain.

“I don’t know...” Osgoode finally said with a sigh.

The bickering group suddenly stopped and turned to look at her. “Pardon?” Rarity asked, looking at the Recovery Agent curiously.

“I don’t know where the transmitter is. Our inside pony planted it herself. Right now, Agent Wyoming is the only person in the city who knows its exact location.”

“Hmm. And we can’t exactly interrogate him, he’s the one with his hand on the proverbial kill switch,” the black armored construct mused.

That was when Osgoode remembered another crucial detail. “Though, Wyoming seems to think that Princess Celestia somehow figured out where it is, but she’s under heavy guard. I’ve been ordered to find out whether she does indeed know its location, but she doesn’t answer my questions. Just keeps saying the same cryptic nonsense over and over again.”

“Well, that’s a start. Getting to Celestia isn’t going to be easy, but we may not have a choice.”

“What did she say?” the yellow pony asked. “When you asked her about the transmitter, what did the princess say?”

Osgoode eyed the little yellow pony critically. There was no way they could make sense of the princess’s ramblings, so she decided there wasn’t any harm in saying, “Like I said, she just replies the same way each time I ask: ‘Twists and turns indeed’.”

Rarity put a hoof on her chin. “Twists and turns… why does that phrase seem so familiar?”

“Aren’t there a couple of foals named Twist and Turn in Ponyville?” Pinkie asked.

It was some time before the yellow pony whispered quietly, “‘Twists and turns are my master plan…’” she suddenly gasped. “The Castle Labyrinth! Where we faced Discord for the first time… that’s where the transmitter is!”

Author's Note

For those curious, this is the picture Celestia showed Osgoode.

Next time: things get cold in the Whitewater camp and the fate of Canterlot is decided.

Act 3 Part 8 - Best Girl

The day had started out as any other in Griffonstone. The mountain top tree settlement was as cold as it ever was. The wooden hovels that served as the resident griffons’ homes were equally as crumbled and rotted as they were the previous day. The ground was littered with the same broken branches and other odds and ends, and the same crusty smell permeated the very air of the once great city.

Gilda had started the day selling scones out of her cart, as she always did, on the days she didn’t have to help Grandpa Gruff man the shop. It had been a slow morning, just like it always was, and Gilda was giving herself a break as she sat against a building with a view of the distant colorless mountains.

“I hear you’re selling scones…” a deep, gruff voice spoke behind her. It was the last one Gilda expected to hear. The last one she wanted to hear.

She stood and turned to face the unwanted visitor. The first thing Gilda noticed was that he had more scars on his large, dark gray body than he did the last time she saw him. She hoped they hurt as much as his absence had hurt her.

“Hey, Dad,” Gilda all but spat the word. “What do you want?”

Her father grinned, but the expression didn’t seem as friendly as he likely intended with the presence of the eyepatch. “To buy a scone, of course!”

Gilda frowned, but ultimately decided that just because she wasn’t happy to see her father didn’t mean she couldn’t still take his bits. The two made their exchange and Godfrey took a bite of the drab pastry.

“So, Gruff’s still trying to bake after all these years?” he asked, adding emphasis on trying.

“Actually, he gave me the recipe.”

Godfrey grunted his acknowledgement. “Well, don’t feel bad. I was never much of a cook myself.” He then gave a nostalgic smile. “Your mother, though? She could cook a mean salmon!”

Gilda’s brow furrowed. The way her father made small talk as if nothing was wrong was quickly making her lose her patience. “What are you doing back here, anyway? Somehow I doubt you suddenly had a craving for Grandpa’s scones on your travels.”

The smile vanished from Godfrey’s beak and the stone hard look she’d grown so accustomed to returned. “Is it so strange for a father to want to see his daughter?”

Gilda clutched the two bits in her talons harder. “It is if he never cared to before.”

“Now Gilda, that’s not fair….”

“Not fair?!” Gilda was clutching the bits so hard now she could feel the soft gold start to bend. “You know what’s not fair? Leaving us to go play mercenary with those Whitewater dweebs! Not sticking around for more than a week after Mom passed! I needed you, asshole!”

Calmly, Godfrey set the half-eaten scone down. “You have every right to be mad at me, Gilda. There’s a lot I should’ve done that I didn’t, but I want to make it up to you. That’s why I’m here. Things have changed since you saw me last. I’m now the Commander of Whitewater’s Equestria division.”

Gilda bristled at the note of pride in her father’s demeanor. “Congratulations. Nice to see you got something good out of abandoning us.”

Her father made no indication that he was affected by the jab. He just looked at Gilda levely as he said, “I should’ve been there for you, I realize that now. But I did not abandon you.” Gilda gave him a questioning look, and Godfrey continued. “How do you think our family paid for your mother’s medical bills? How do you think Grandpa Gruff made ends meet to raise you after she died? How did you think they were able to afford to put you into that Equestrian exchange program when you were a fledgling?”

As her father continued to look at her with that calm stare, Gilda looked away. Her small family hadn’t exactly been well off; at least no more or less than anyone else in Griffonstone. But considering all they’d been through, they were getting along pretty well. Gilda never thought about it before that moment, but by all accounts, her family should have been in crippling debt.

Now it all made sense, yet at the same time, it didn’t.

Griffons were a notoriously greedy species, second only to dragons. Even members of the same family did not share personal wealth lightly. If what her father was saying now was true, she owed him decades worth of debt.

“You can still be mad at me, I won’t hold that against you,” Godfrey continued. “But I want you to hear me out. I came here to make you an offer.”

Finally, Gilda looked back up at him. “What kind of offer?”

“A job,” Godfrey answered. “How much of your Bladewing training do you remember?”

It was law for every griffon to serve a few years in the armed forces when they came of age, and Gilda was no exception. What set Gilda apart from the others was that she also trained to join the Bladewings: Griffonstone’s elite aerial guard. The prestigious force had once served as the personal guard to the griffon king, back when Griffonstone had a king. Gilda could’ve made a good career with the Bladewings, but she ultimately chose to stay and help her grandfather get by.

Even so….

“I still practice whenever I get the chance,” Gilda said, unable to keep the proud look from her features. Evidently, it was in the blood. “I’ve still got it!”

“Then I’d like you to join up with me and Whitewater,” Godfrey said, the beginnings of a smile finally returning to his face. “I’ve been talking with a prospective new employer, and I think I’ve found the opportunity of a lifetime. I want you to be a part of it, Gilda.”

He said the name so warmly, it was almost like she was looking at a completely different griffon from the one she once knew.

“I’ll be in town a few more days. That should give you ample time to make a decision.” Godfrey turned and began to make his way down the street. “I hope I can count on your loyalty.”

Adjusting the simple cloth cloak across her back, Twilight trotted forward along the snowy trail. The icy canyon was protected on the east and west sides by a pair of tall mountains. It was the perfect place for an army to make camp, as it was safe from all but the worst snowstorms of the Frozen North. But that was exactly what she intended to bring down on them.

“Twi! Quit fussin’ with yer cloak!” Applejack chided as the earth pony walked in step beside her. “We’re supposed to be rough an’ tumble sellswords, not fidgety city ponies.”

Applejack wore her own cloak in a way that made Twilight think of the ponchos worn by ponies in those Old West films. Combined with her coincidentally matching Stetson and the assault rifle she had hefted over her shoulder (that she’d borrowed from Caboose), Applejack looked every part the tough mercenary. Twilight levitated a pistol over her shoulder and wore the radio headset Simmons had made for her. She was banking on the fact that the sellswords hadn’t seen her or Applejack in their cloaks earlier that night, as in their haste to escape their attackers, they left them at the watchtower. That, combined with the human weapons they were carrying, would hopefully convince the sellswords she and Applejack were one of them.

They’d already passed a couple of lookouts up on the canyon walls, and none of them had made any effort to stop them. Of course, if everything went south, Twilight doubted they’d be able to get past them very easily.

“Hey! Stop right there!” a voice shouted, and Twilight and Applejack froze. A couple of griffons—one male, one female—approached them with BRs raised in their direction.

“Uh… ahoy there, mateys! Fellow sellswords we be!” Twilight proclaimed.

Applejacked leaned over and whispered through clenched teeth from the corner of her mouth. “Why are ya talkin’ like a pirate?”

Twilight responded in kind, “I don’t know! Caboose kept doing it and it threw me off!”

In hindsight, they should have rehearsed how they were going to interact with the Whitewater soldiers.

“There aren’t any patrols scheduled to return yet, so who are you?” the female griffon asked.

“Like I said, we’re just a couple of mercs.” Twilight reached to adjust her cloak but quickly remembered herself. “That’s right: tough, rough sellswords who don’t bathe on a regular basis, and uh… like to spit for absolutely no reason!”

Twilight tried to work up a loogie to demonstrate, but her mouth was too dry. She’d already committed herself to the action though, and had no choice but to keep trying. The pair of griffons patiently stood there, weapons raised as they gave the continually hocking unicorn perplexed stares. Twilight must have hocked for half a minute before she finally decided to cut her losses and turned her head to spit. The result was more of a spray than a loogie, and Applejack had the misfortune of being caught directly in the line of fire.

For her part, Applejack managed to maintain a calm, stony expression as she reached up and wiped at her cheek. “Don’ mind my associate, here. I keep her around for her spellcasting ability, not her brains.”

The pair of griffons actually seemed to relax somewhat, while Twilight tried not to show just how surprised she was at Applejack’s convincing performance. The griffon and griffoness exchanged hushed words between themselves before turning back to the pair of disguised ponies.

“I don’t know, we’re going to have to check with the outpost captain,” the male griffon said.

“They’re probably the ponies we had scouting out the targets in the Crystal Empire,” a third, bass voice joined the conversation as a muscular male zebra approached from further down the path. He eyed Twilight and Applejack carefully. “Though, I was under the impression they wouldn’t be arriving until morning.”

“Well, uh… we’re early!” Applejack said, scrunching her snout in a way only those who knew her would have recognized as her “lying face”. Despite her concerns about Applejack’s ability to lie, after her own performance, Twilight decided to just leave all the talking to her.

The zebra studied them a moment longer before saying, “Well, Commander Graywing will probably want to hear your report.” The zebra stepped aside, and following his lead, the two griffons did the same. “Go on. He should be at the command tent. He’s questioning a diamond dog that had apparently been captured by the enemy.”

Without thanking him, Applejack strode past and Twilight followed. The icy canyon opened up in front of them, becoming significantly wider as the huge congregation of tents appeared before them. Cook fires and torches dotted the camp, but only a few sellswords were awake at this late hour. When Washington scouted the camp from one of the nearby mountains earlier, he had counted a little over two hundred soldiers down there. Evidently, Graywing had brought along only a handful of Whitewater’s sellswords for this little job, but it was still an overwhelming number for the small group of ponies and humans.

“I have to say, that was a pretty convincing performance back there,” Twilight said once they were out of earshot of the guards. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you lie that convincingly before.”

“Well, Twi, that’s probably because at that moment, I almost believed what I was sayin’,” Applejack deadpanned.

With a sheepish grin, Twilight looked away and raised a hoof to her headset, opening up a secure channel with the rest of the team.

“Overwatch, this is Wooden Horse. We’ve entered the enemy camp,” she reported. “How’re things looking from up there?”

“Looks about the same as the last time we checked. Most of them have turned in for the night,” Church’s voice cracked over the radio.

“There’s something else you should be aware of,” Washington’s voice crackled in her ears next. “Remember that herd of wights we encountered in the valley?”

Twilight stopped at the mention of the icy undead ponies, and Applejack gave her a concerned look when she audibly swallowed.

“They’re coming within range of the camp. If your plan succeeds, we may have to make a quick exit after we get Rainbow and Donut.”

Twilight looked around at the few awake sellswords in the camp. None of them had paid her or Applejack any mind yet. “Actually, if the plan works, this could work to our advantage.”

Twilight and Applejack both glanced at the sky. A small vortex of clouds was already taking shape, and already the canyon seemed colder.

“Alright,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat. “Let’s get to work!”

Ever wary of Freelancer patrols, Tucker and Rarity took point as they led their group through the Canterlot Statue Garden. Sarge and Pinkie Pie were right behind them, the latter having discarded the full jungle camo and face paint she’d worn inside the castle (the practical applications of which made no sense to anyone) in favor of a black sneaking suit with night-vision goggles (which considering the rising sun, made just as little sense). Fluttershy, Grif, and Lopez brought up the rear.

The Statue Garden was filled with many interesting stone and marble effigies of ponies and other creatures, one of which depicted what appeared to be some kind of mismatched draconic creature recoiling in fear. For some reason, Rarity and the other ponies gave that statue a wide berth as they passed.

It wasn’t long before they came to the entrance to the Castle Labyrinthe. A few red and pink flags flew beside the green hedge walls.

“Well, at least it isn’t as scary as when Discord was here,” Fluttershy said as they entered the maze. Nevertheless, the little butter pony’s eyes darted back and forth nervously.

“And how the hell are we supposed to find a transmitter in this place?” Tucker asked.

“That’s easy! Don’t you know how to navigate mazes?” Grif asked. “Just follow the left wall!”

“Eso no va a ayudarnos a encontrar el transmisor (That won’t help us find the transmitter),” Lopez stated.

“Well, my friends and I have navigated this maze before,” Rarity said. “And that was when Discord was changing it around with his magic. Now that it’s a normal hedge maze, we should have an easier time searching it.”

Even so, the group spent some time wandering the leafy passages of the labyrinthe. The morning sun had nearly risen fully in the sky when they came to a flat, open “room” of the maze. In the center sat a single rectangular device with a tiny blinking red light.

“So… that it?” Sarge asked.

“Well, it’s future-y, blinking, and in the middle of the maze, so… probably?” Pinkie said.

Tucker tensed up a little. It wasn’t every day you looked at something that could summon a high-powered projectile from outer space capable of leveling a city.

“Well, let’s take care of business!” Sarge took a step forward and reached for the transmitter.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you, mate.”

At the sound of the smarmy British accent, the whole party whirled around and found a familiar Freelancer in white armor standing where they’d just entered.

“One wrong button press could bring this whole place down!” the Freelancer said with a chuckle.

“Wyoming…” Tucker growled, reaching for his energy sword, but Wyoming held up a hand.

“Ah ah, why don’t you just stay still and try not to hurt yourself,” he said as more gray armored Freelancer soldiers poured into the maze, completely surrounding the smaller group of ponies and sim troopers. “There’s a good lad!”

The others raised their weapons at the squad of Recovery Agents surrounding them, and Rarity’s horn started to glow. Tucker hoped she had some kind of spell ready to protect them in case Wyoming’s troops opened fire.

It was at that moment that Pinkie Pie inexplicably started snickering. “What?” she said to the others’ questioning stares. “He has a silly voice! It’s like a Trottingham accent, only bad!”

“Wait, how in Equestria did you know we were going to be here?” Rarity asked. Now that she mentioned it, Tucker was curious about that point as well. As far as he knew, they’d made it through the whole castle without detection.

Rarity’s question was answered when another soldier in gray armor with red detail on their helmet and shoulder pads stepped out from among the rank and file agents of Project Freelancer and stood beside Wyoming. Tucker recognized the armor as belonging to the woman they’d interrogated for the transmitter’s location.

“A little bird told me you lot were here and had figured out where we’d hidden our transmitter,” Wyoming said with no shortage of smugness.

Tucker let out a frustrated growl. After getting the information they’d needed from Wyoming’s subordinate, they’d taken the precaution of knocking her out and tying her up. Additionally, Tex had assured them she wouldn’t be a problem. Evidently, neither precaution had helped.

“Now, tell you what. I’m a charitable man,” Wyoming continued. “Why don’t you all lower your weapons. Have Ms. Fabulous there put out her headlight, and I’ll let your little incursion slide. There’s plenty of room in the castle dungeons, and Canterlot’s insurance agency won’t have to go bankrupt!”

Between surrender and letting the whole city go up in smoke, the former seemed like the better option. There was just one problem: as soon as they stopped pointing their weapons at him, Wyoming had no reason to keep them alive. Tucker decided his best bet was to stall for the time being.

“Hey, Wyoming. Threatening an entire city full of innocents is kind of a dick move. Even compared to your usual shit,” Tucker said. “Tell me, do you really believe you’re doing the right thing, or is the money just too good?”

“Eh. A little from column A, a little from column B,” Wyoming answered with a shrug. “I don’t trust aliens. They’re only good when they’re dead, or otherwise squirming under humanity’s boot. But also Project Freelancer always makes sure I’m well compensated!”

“Right. Asshole. Guess I should have figured it was that simple!”

“Indeed. Now, are you finished stalling?” Wyoming raised his rifle towards the group. “Or shall today’s weather forecast call for a slight chance of MAC rounds?”

Tucker exchanged a look with the men and ponies beside him. They were in a bad way, and all of them knew it. As much as Tucker hated to admit it, the best course of action was to simply lay their weapons down and surrender. Even if Wyoming and his troops put a bullet in each of them afterwards, at least the city might be spared.

But before anyone could react, the captain beside Wyoming suddenly grabbed the sidearm from his waist and struck him in the back of the head with it, knocking the Freelancer to the ground. Then with lightning fast motions, she proceeded to use the magnum to put a bullet in each of the Recovery Agents closest to her before tossing it into the air and bringing out an assault rifle. As she fired on the Freelancer soldiers across the maze, Tucker and the others took the opportunity to add to the chaos, firing out at the gray troops around them. Most of them fell back into other parts of the maze while a timely magical shield from Rarity protected the group from the few that stayed to return fire.

Wyoming groaned as he rolled over on the ground. “Osgoode, what the devil’s gotten into you?”

A small, transparent black figure appeared in the air before Wyoming. “I have, of course!”

“Well, well. Dear old Tex….” Without another word, Wyoming swept out a leg and tripped the possessed Captain Osgoode.

As Wyoming hopped to his feet, the Reds, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all attempted to open fire on him, but something was wrong. Suddenly, the entire world around them seemed to slow down as all sound faded away. The bullets from the Reds’ weapons seemed to crawl out of their barrels like molasses. Rarity and Pinkie’s faces were frozen in concentration as they launched an attack from their horn and party cannon respectively, while Fluttershy lay unmoving on the ground, her hooves covering her ears.

The only one not slowed down was Wyoming, who casually stepped out of the way of the slow moving bullets. After giving them all a mock salute, the white-armored Freelancer took off, disappearing around a corner of the hedge maze. All at once, the world started moving again and sound returned. The Reds, Rarity and Pinkie Pie’s attacks all hit the air where Wyoming had previously been standing.

“What?! Where’d he go?” Grif exclaimed.

“Did he vanish?” Rarity asked.

“He used his stupid time distortion unit!” Tucker exclaimed furiously. The only reason Tucker even noticed the space-time anomaly in the first place was thanks to his energy sword granting him some kind of immunity for reasons to this day he didn’t fully understand.

“So, do you guys have a plan?” Tex asked, sitting up.

“Hey, you’re the badass super soldier A.I., not us!” Tucker exclaimed.

The sound of urgent shouting and rushing footsteps indicated that the rest of the Freelancer troops were regrouping and moving in for a counterattack. Climbing to Osgoode’s feet, Tex fired at them through the walls of the hedge maze.

“That may be, but… that doesn’t mean I should lead,” Tex said. “Crazy as this may sound, I have faith in you. All of you!”

Tucker looked from her to the rest of his group. He was still perplexed at why Tex wasn’t taking charge of the situation like usual, but the sound of more approaching Recovery Agents forced him to forget it.

He turned to Sarge.“Quick! Grab the transmitter!”

“On it!” Sarge replied grabbing the device off the ground. The labyrinth walls suddenly erupted with gunfire as the Freelancer troops returned fire, forcing the group to retreat.

“Everyone else, after Wyoming!”

“W-why do we need to do that?” asked a trembling Fluttershy.

“Because,” Tucker said, activating his sword. “If he manages to escape the city, he’s going to bring the whole thing down!”

Gilda glanced over at her father as he silently watched the single diamond dog leave the command tent. Gilda was never much for frivolous luxuries, but she could definitely get used to the command tent if she decided to follow in her father’s pawprints one day. It was significantly more spacious than the average soldier’s tent, with enough room for a proper bed in place of a simple cot or sleeping bag. A table dominated the center of the tent, on it a map of the Frozen North, complete with small clay figurines representing their forces and that of the enemy. Currently there was only one of the latter on the table. The heating enchantments in place also made their time in the Frozen North infinitely more tolerable.

Godfrey stared after the diamond dog with a contemplative scowl on his one-eyed face. Gilda knew he wasn’t angry at the diamond dog himself, but rather the news he had brought from within the enemy’s camp. If what he said was true, the enemy had decided to press on toward the ruins they were after and leave behind the hostages.

“So they didn’t take the bait after all,” Godfrey mused. “Smart fish.”

So much for your friends, Dash, Gilda thought, but the vindication somehow only made her feel worse. After all, it wasn’t like she could say she was any better.

“Tell the outpost captains to be extra vigilant,” her father ordered. “Just because the Freelancer isn’t coming back doesn’t mean the others will be compliant.”

“Yes sir.” Gilda moved to leave the tent but stopped as she reached for the flap. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

Godfrey finally allowed himself to smile a little. “You know you don’t have to do that when it’s just us, Gilda.”

Gilda turned away from the cold world outside her father’s tent and looked back at him. “Assuming they don’t take the bait, what’s our next move?”

“Track them down and ambush them again,” Godfrey answered. “Maybe Shimmer can tell us more about these ruins they’re after. Might be a good place to set a trap.”

Gilda nodded, but that wasn’t what she was interested in finding out. “And… what about our hostages?”

Godfrey studied her curiously with his one good eye. “What about them?”

“Well… if they’re not useful as bargaining chips, shouldn’t we let them go?”

With a sigh, Godfrey shook his head. “Sunset Shimmer’s instructions are clear: aside from the three she wants alive, the rest need to be stopped from reaching the ruins at all costs.”

Gilda wasn’t sure why the statement filled her with such dread. She was aware of the implications ever since she realized Rainbow Dash was one of the targets, but it never fully clicked with her until now. Still, Rainbow had proved to be a lousy friend over the last couple of years. Thus, it didn’t make sense for Gilda to be so afraid of what might soon happen to her.

“What’s your interest in that pegasus, exactly?” Godfrey asked, stepping closer to his daughter. “You know her, don’t you?”

Seeing no point in saying otherwise, Gilda nodded. “We used to be friends. We met each other in flight camp.”

Just saying it brought all of the memories of that time back. Gilda had been a fledgling no more than eight when her mother had enrolled her in the Equestrian exchange program. Young Gilda had been excited at first; the pegasus flight camps in Cloudsdale were supposed to be the best of the best. But then Gilda arrived to find herself a stranger in a strange land. She remembered how scared and homesick she’d felt when she looked around and saw nothing but ponies. How lonely and frightening those first days had been.

Then she’d met Rainbow Dash, and suddenly her miserable time at flight camp had become the best months of her young life. It was thanks to her that Gilda was able to forget about how much she missed home and could just enjoy her time at camp.

“Used to?” Her father’s voice jolted Gilda from her reverie. Suddenly feeling something stinging her eyes, Gilda grunted in frustration and wiped at them. “You seem pretty conflicted about someone you used to be friends with.”

“It’s... complicated,” Gilda finally muttered. “We might not exactly get along anymore, but… it’s kinda hard to just forget about years of friendship, y’know?”

After a moment of silent thought, Godfrey came to some decision and grunted, “Follow me. I want to show you something.”

Godfrey walked past Gilda with a purpose, exiting the warm comfort of the commander’s tent. With some hesitation, Gilda followed. The air outside seemed even colder than it had been before. The wind had picked up, and despite her layers of fur, feathers and clothing, Gilda thought she could feel its frosty fingers penetrate her skin as they reached for her heart. She could see a vortex of clouds overhead; evidently a storm was coming.

“Gilda, you’ve been with my company for almost a month now,” Godfrey said, returning Gilda’s attention to him. “Have you figured out what my endgame is yet?”

She thought it had simply been to acquire these “human weapons” for Whitewater Command. However, the more she learned and the more she thought about it, the more things didn’t add up. As Gilda understood, only a few of the sellswords in the company were actually on Whitewater’s payroll. The rest were outside hires. Suddenly, Gilda understood, and she couldn’t believe it had taken her this long.

“Command has no idea we’re even doing this job, do they?”

Godfrey smiled. “That’s my girl. Now, can you figure out why we’re operating under Command’s nose?”

Gilda clenched her beak as she thought. “You want to keep all of the human weapons for yourself?”

Godfrey gave a single bark of laughter. “Good guess, but no.” When Gilda couldn’t quite figure it out, Godfrey put a talon over her shoulder and pointed across the camp. “Do you see that minotaur there?”

Following where her father was pointing, Gilda spotted a large white minotaur sitting cross-legged in front of a dying cookfire, his body covered in scars and warlike tattoos. His huge arms were folded across his chest and his head was dipped forward, eyes closed. Gilda wasn’t sure whether he was meditating, sleeping or just resting, but she remembered seeing him among the company since they started operating in the Frozen North. It was strange; most minotaurs had too much love for their clan and country to become soldiers of fortune, but then her father explained.

“That right there is General Ovid, who’s here on behalf of the Minotaur King,” Godfrey explained as Gilda started putting the pieces together. “King Meinon is apparently willing to pay a very hefty price for these new weapons. Enough to set a griffon for life!”

Godfrey returned his gaze to Gilda and looked her square in the eye. “You understand now, don’t you? With your share alone, you and Gruff both will be able to finally get away from Griffonstone and live like royalty! And….” All at once, her father’s eternally hard gaze softened. “We could be a family again, if you’ll have me back in your life.”

For the first time in her life, Gilda had no sarcastic remark or dry insult ready. For the first time, she did not know how to respond. In truth, it’s what she’d always wanted. Not just to leave Griffonstone, but to finally have a real family again. Instead of answering her father’s question, she merely filed it away for later as something else occurred to her.

“But… won’t Command eventually find out that you went behind their back with this? Won’t they come after you?”

Gilda, of course, knew all about how Whitewater handled sellswords who tried to double-cross them; in their business, dealing with betrayal was a necessity. Any sellsword that tried to run away with the full profit from a job was promptly hunted down and eliminated. And if that was not possible, Whitewater would try to get to them through their loved ones. She didn’t want to think about what would happen to her if Godfrey went through with his plan, but apparently he did, as he gave her a grin.

“Not if I come after them first.” Seeing the confused and concerned look on his daughter’s face, Godfrey continued. “These ‘guns’ aren’t the only thing we’re getting for doing this job. Once the priority targets are in our custody and the rest are dead, Sunset Shimmer is going to give us first access to the new weapon she’s making as a form of field testing.

“I don’t have the details just yet, but whatever it is will make us faster, stronger and all around more effective in combat. With that kind of power, we can ensure the Whitewater higher-ups won’t bother either of us.” Godfrey held a talon under Gilda’s chin and raised her head to meet his eyes. “But you must understand, this will only be possible if we complete this job fully.”

Gilda knew what he was trying to say, and before she even knew what she was doing, her beak started moving. “But we don’t have to kill them! Just keep them from reaching those ruins, right?” Godfrey gave her a disapproving glare, but Gilda couldn’t keep herself from continuing. “Or… we could just make Sunset Shimmer think we’ve killed them!”

“Gilda, I know this must be difficult for you, but you need to choose where your loyalty lies; there can be no middle ground,” Godfrey said sternly. “Can I count on your loyalty, Gilda?”

Gilda just looked down at her snow covered talons. The snow seemed much deeper and colder than it had been a minute ago. “You can count on me, dad.”

A brief moment passed before Godfrey smiled warmly. “I knew I could.” Then to Gilda’s surprise, her father wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. “That’s my girl.”

Godfrey had always maintained a stoic, professional demeanor with her even before they started working together. He’d never exactly been a very physically affectionate father, even when Gilda was just a fledgling. She never realized just how badly she needed this until that very moment. Snuggling tighter in her father’s embrace, Gilda noticed a few of his new scars, and wondered whether they had something to do with his sudden new outlook on life.

The moment ended when the radio inside the command tent crackled on and a voice urgently addressed Godfrey by rank. Ending the embrace, Godfrey marched back into his tent and suddenly he was the stoic mercenary commander again.

Commander Graywing picked up the receiver and growled, “Report.”

“Sir, that herd of wights we spotted an hour ago?” the voice on the other end said, trembling. “It just changed directions! It’s heading for the camp!”

“Stand by. Reinforcements are en route.”

A dark purple unicorn stallion with large round glasses abruptly entered and saluted, panting like he’d just run a marathon.

“Star Storm, your timing is perfect!” Graywing exclaimed. “That herd of wights is headed toward our position. Rouse the camp and tell them to switch to incendiary rounds.”

The unicorn mage took a moment to catch his breath before speaking. “Uh… t-that’s actually what I was about to tell you, sir. Most of the camp is already awake.”

“Then get them moving!”

“Yeah, about that… we have a problem.”

With an aggravated growl, Graywing grabbed his sniper rifle and made to leave the tent, but paused to address Gilda before he left. “Something doesn’t feel right. Gilda, stay here and await further orders.”

“Yes, sir!” Gilda saluted, and before she knew it she was alone in the commander’s tent.

With nothing but her thoughts for company, she quickly found them turning to her recent conversation with her father and a certain rainbow-maned pegasus. Soon, she would have everything she ever wanted.

So why did it feel so wrong?

Twilight Sparkle looked on at the chaos she and Applejack had created. The mercenary camp was in an uproar as sellswords of every species and creed argued and fought within the raging ice storm.

Setting them against each other had been surprisingly easy. The myriad of different species and factions within the contingent already hated and distrusted each other enough. All Twilight and Applejack had to do was steal a few precious looking belongings from each group, wake them up, and allow them to place the blame on the others. This resulted in a chain reaction of arguing and violence as the two infiltrating ponies awoke more groups of sellswords to tell them about the fight breaking out. Ponies, griffons, and diamond dogs were now brawling in the center of the camp while Twilight and Applejack watched from a safe distance away.

“Y’know, it’s the simple things in life you treasure,” Applejack said serenely as she watched an earth pony buck a griffon in the chest only to be beaten down a moment later by an especially large diamond dog.

More than several sellswords were already encased in blocks of ice as the storm raged on, and Twilight could hear the trumpeting wails of the Windigoes above. She and Applejack were kept relatively warm by the fiery pink heart just above their heads. The Fires of Friendship they’d forged the other day were still burning strong, and in a few hours would thaw out the mercenaries who had been unfortunate enough to be frozen solid. Even they didn’t deserve to turn into wights.

A distant ethereal shriek reminded Twilight that a herd of those very creatures were on their way, and Commander Graywing’s sudden arrival was the two mares’ cue to make their exit. The large griffon commander swooped down and raised his deep voice above the din, silencing it at once. Twilight and Applejack slipped away as Graywing started to restore order to his ranks and began mobilizing them to engage the approaching wights.

Twilight reached up to her headset as they entered a more secluded part of the camp. “Okay, I think we kept them distracted for a decent amount of time. How close are you?”

Before receiving a reply, Twilight and Applejack rounded a corner and found themselves face to face with a pack of diamond dogs. Twilight was prepared to continue their sellsword charade when one of the dogs’ eyes widened. Twilight recognized him all too late.

“It’s thems!” the little diamond dog exclaimed, pointing a paw at the two mares. “The bad ponies with the armored creature that hurts my faces!”

The rest of his pack all raised their rifles while Twilight and Applejack swallowed nervously. Before any of their canine enemies could pull the trigger, a small round object flew over the ponies’ heads toward them.

The little diamond dog gasped. “BALL!”

With impressive agility, the small diamond dog leapt into the air and caught the thrown object in his mouth, bringing it back to his comrades with a wagging tail. Twilight and Applejack immediately noticed what the “ball” really was and took a few steps back. The two ponies shielded their eyes right as the grenade detonated, wincing at the blast. When they looked again, a smoking black crater was where the diamond dogs once stood. At the sound of footsteps in the snow behind them, Twilight and Applejack turned and were greeted by the sight of two familiar blue figures.

“Ah! See, I told you he knew ‘fetch!’” Caboose exclaimed. “And look! He’s really good at ‘play dead!’ I didn’t even ask him to do that! That is a good dog.”

“Caboose, you are probably the single most terrifying person I know,” Church stated.

“Aw, well I appreciate that, Church!”

“Thanks fer the save, fellas,” Applejack greeted, giving the two Blues a nod. After some consideration, Applejack returned Caboose’s assault rifle, ultimately deciding he could make better use of it than she. Evidently Applejack had forgotten about how Rainbow Dash’s wing had gotten injured.

“Where’s Wash and Simmons?” Twilight asked.

A distant explosion answered her question. The pair of ponies and the two Blues ran past tents and torches until they came across an alarming scene. Washington and Simmons were on the ground struggling to stand while a large white minotaur reloaded a rocket launcher a few feet away. Markings covered his upper body, and Twilight couldn’t tell which were scars and which were tattoos. Without a second thought, Twilight ran forward while Church and Caboose opened fire. Unfortunately, between Church’s aim and Caboose’s range, none of their shots found their mark.

Washington was the first to get back on his feet, and wasted no time drawing his combat knife and throwing it into the minotaur’s shoulder. He then immediately charged forward, deciding he’d rather face the towering minotaur in close combat than risk taking a hit from its rocket launcher. Drawing the knife from the minotaur’s shoulder, Washington slashed it across the chest a couple of times before going in to stab its neck, but his opponent merely raised an arm, barely wincing as the blade sank in. The minotaur followed up with a heavy backhand, knocking Washington to the ground before pulling the knife out of its arm and tossing it aside.

Twilight just kept running towards them, her concern for her friends overriding any capacity to form a decent plan of action. Seeing that Simmons still hadn’t recovered from the first blast, the minotaur turned towards him. The maroon soldier was crawling toward his BR desperately, but the minotaur had already raised his rocket launcher.

“SIMMONS!” Without thinking, Twilight dove on top of Simmons and fired up her horn. She shut her eyes as she heard the sound of a rocket firing and winced as it impacted.

But she and Simmons remained unharmed, protected by a dome of purple magic. The minotaur glared furiously at them, but was so focused on the pair he didn’t notice the little orange earth pony run up to him. Applejack gave his right leg a good hard buck, bringing the minotaur down on one knee with a sickening snap. Then Washington leapt onto his back, reaching around to drive his knife into the minotaur’s neck over and over again. Clutching its bleeding neck, the minotaur tried to stand on wobbling legs as Washington kept stabbing.

“Hey there, buddy,” Church stated, standing a foot away from the large white minotaur with his sniper rifle inches from its face. Church pulled the trigger and their towering opponent fell over dead. “Good. If I’d missed that shot, I’d have been fucking pissed. I had the one-liner and everything!”

“What kinda one-liner is ‘hey there, buddy’?” Applejack asked.

“A good one if you knew what I was going for. Don’t question my creative genius!”

Realizing they were safe for the moment, Twilight looked down at Simmons. “You okay?”

He himself realizing he wasn’t dead, Simmons climbed to his feet. “Yeah…” he answered before glancing at the rocket launcher in the snow beside the dead minotaur. “Hmm….”

Walking over to their felled enemy, Simmons picked up its weapon and hefted it over his shoulder. “Hey Twilight, you think this suits me?”

“Not really,” Twilight said with a wry grin, just happy that her friend wasn’t dead. “But you should keep it anyway. You could make it work!”

Catching his breath, Washington put away his combat knife and picked his Battle Rifle up out of the snow. “Okay. Have you figured out where they’re keeping Rainbow and Donut?”

Applejack turned towards the northern section of the camp. “I think the commander was holed up in this direction. Our friends probably aren’t too far away.”

Without saying anything else, the group double-timed it in the direction Applejack indicated.

Within her bonds, Rainbow Dash just sighed as she tried to ignore Donut. She had been certain that the man would understand why she was so hesitant to forgive Gilda after seeing for himself what a jerk she was. But against all odds, the pink-clad soldier kept encouraging her to have an open mind.

“But what if she wasn’t working with our enemies?” Donut asked, stubbornly continuing the debate that Rainbow had grown tired of ages ago. “What if she helped us?”

“Donut, hypothetical questions are great when you’re just playing ‘A Million Bits, But...’” Rainbow said. “But they don’t exactly do us any good.”

“C’mon, Rainbow! Indulge me just a little bit here,” Donut pleaded. “If Gilda turns out to have a complete change of heart, don’t you owe it to her to at least give her a chance?”

Rainbow opened her mouth, but didn’t respond. It was certainly a possibility, if Luna’s transformation from Nightmare Moon was any indication. Rainbow Dash had been ready enough to accept the Princess of the Night as a friend when she had her change of heart, and she’d never even been friends with Luna before. Still, it was nothing more than a pipe dream as far as her old friend was concerned.

“Oh hey! Speak of the devil!” Donut suddenly exclaimed.

Rainbow craned her head to look behind her and saw the griffoness in question standing there. She was alone, and had immediately raised a claw to her beak with an urgent “Shh….”

“What do you want?” Rainbow asked.

Gilda stepped closer and began untying the ropes holding Rainbow and Donut to the wooden post. “What’s it look like I’m doing?” she whispered. “I’m helping you get outta here, dingus!”

“Why?”

Gilda looked at her with uncharacteristic urgency. “Because these sellswords are going to fucking kill you, and….” Gilda closed her eyes and took a breath. “Look. I don’t want you to die, okay?”

“Aww... so tsundere…” Donut practically swooned.

Rainbow ignored him and gave Gilda a hard glare. “Don’t think this changes anything.”

“It does for me,” Gilda said, glaring right back. “I’m giving up everything to help you! The least you could do is show a little gratitude.”

Rainbow was ready to give her something else that rhymed with gratitude as Gilda finished untying her, but a gentle nudge from Donut made her think twice about it.

“Fine. Thanks Gilda.” Rainbow was about to end it there, but she was suddenly compelled to keep going. “For the record, I’ve read every letter you sent me. I don’t know what the ‘everything’ is that you’re giving up, but you’ll be alright. You’ve always been tough!”

To Rainbow Dash’s surprise, Gilda gave her a genuine smile. “Heh. Guess you’re not wrong all the time.”

For one brief moment, Rainbow forgot all about her animosity towards Gilda, and it was like they were in flight camp again. The moment passed as quickly as it came as the sound of wings heralded another’s arrival. Rainbow looked to see Commander Graywing standing there, flanked by a unicorn with large glasses and a donkey. Eyes widening, Gilda turned and reflexively saluted.

“Ah, Gilda. I see my orders to move the prisoners have reached you,” Graywing said moving closer with his troops.

It was at that moment that Rainbow Dash noticed the distant gunfire.

“W-what’s going on, sir?” Gilda asked, noticeably nervous.

“We’re under attack,” Commander Graywing answered. “The Windigoes and the wights were just a diversion used by our targets. They’re here. They've already killed General Ovid.”

Gilda spared a nervous glance in Rainbow’s direction. “What are we doing with them?”

“Star Storm, Luis and I are retreating with them up the northern mountain. Gilda, I need you to rally everyone that isn’t defending the western front from wights and meet us up there.”

Gilda nodded, but lingered, glancing back and forth from Rainbow to her father.

“Do you have some sort of question, Gilda?” Graywing asked, giving her a stern look.

With some hesitation, Gilda nodded. “You’re not… planning on using them as hostages again, are you?”

Graywing studied her carefully. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

“Well… I’m just not sure it’s going to work,” Gilda said. “They called your bluff last time.”

“I know,” Graywing said as his subordinates began to lead Rainbow and Donut away. “This time I don’t plan on bluffing.”

Panting, Tucker skidded to a stop and dove for cover behind a nearby low hedge. He could still hear the sounds of battle a fair distance away as Tex kept the rest of the Recovery Agents preoccupied at the labyrinth. Just ahead of him was the western garden, where a Pelican dropship sat with its rear bay open. Tucker had spotted it on their way to the hedge maze and figured this was where their target was headed. Sure enough, Agent Wyoming jogged around a corner a fair distance away and made for the dropship.

Tucker didn’t go after him quite yet though. The plan he’d formulated with the others simply required him to keep his head low as he used the cover of the hedges and various statues to sneak around closer. Grif and Rarity were the first to confront the Freelancer, running out from behind a couple of statues to fire on him with a BR and a few simple offensive spells respectively.

As expected, Wyoming slowed down time to avoid Grif and Rarity’s onslaught, but Tucker kept sneaking along the outer garden at the same speed, his sword protecting him from the temporal distortion. Once Wyoming was clear of Grif and Rarity’s shots, he returned time to its normal pace and fired a couple of shots at them with his sniper rifle. The first shot knocked the BR from Grif’s hands as the man cried out in pain, and the second barely missed Rarity as she dove for cover.

Believing the path to his getaway vehicle clear, Wyoming turned to continue his sprint but was immediately beset by Pinkie Pie.

“Alley-OOP!” she cried as she dropped on Wyoming from… somewhere. Tucker didn’t really care how exactly the pink pony did what she did as long as she pulled off her part of the plan. With a grunt, Wyoming threw Pinkie off of him, but not before she grabbed his helmet and yanked it off of his head, revealing his slightly aged face, graying black hair, and matching mustache.

“Come now, dear. That color really doesn’t suit you. Give it here!” Wyoming growled, taking a step towards Pinkie Pie to grab his headgear from her.

“I can’t just give it to you, silly! That’s not how the game works!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“What game?”

“KEEP AWAY!” Pinkie shouted gleefully, tossing the helmet high over Wyoming’s head.

Wyoming ran to catch it, but it was promptly snatched out of the air by a tiny butter blur. Fluttershy delicately fumbled with the helmet for a few brief moments, nearly dropping it before clutching it tightly to her chest as she hovered in the air out of Wyoming’s reach.

The Freelancer let out a frustrated growl. “Give that back now, you wretched little creature!”

Fluttershy let out an ”eep” as Wyoming raised his sniper rifle up at her. The yellow pegasus flew away as fast as her little wings could carry her, narrowly avoiding a sniper shot. Pinkie Pie fled in the other direction.

With Wyoming effectively deprived of his means of manipulating time, Tucker leapt out from the cover of the low hedge and charged forward, his energy sword raised. Wyoming was faster though, and whirled around to catch Tucker by the arm just before he managed to bring his sword through the top of the mustachioed man’s head. With a dark chuckle, Wyoming twisted Tucker’s sword arm around his back before delivering a sharp kick to the back of his leg. Tucker cried out in pain as he fell to his knees while Wyoming yanked his twisted arm upwards, pulling it out of its socket with a sharp crack.

“Ow! Fucking son of a bitch!”

Wyoming followed up with another kick, sending Tucker face first to the ground. “Ah, poor Tucker…” he tsked. “Perhaps you should’ve stayed in that miserable little canyon. You’re a tad out of your league here, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps the Reds are more your on your level.”

“If that’s the case…” the gruff southern drawl drew Wyoming and Tucker’s gazes to the ship, where Sarge and Lopez stood blocking Wyoming’s path forward, “He’s still leagues above you!”

“Cabron!” Lopez snarled.

Wyoming’s brow lowered while an aggravated growl escaped his throat. Without saying a word, Wyoming raised his sniper and put the last round in his magazine straight through Lopez’s head. The brown robot’s body collapsed to the ground, thoroughly shocking Sarge beside him. Wyoming took advantage of his distraction immediately, charging forward and knocking Sarge on his ass with the butt of his now empty sniper rifle.

With nothing else standing in his way, Wyoming climbed aboard the Pelican via the rear bay. Fighting the searing pain in his right arm, Tucker struggled to push himself up with his left. His other arm hung limply from his side at an unsettling angle.

“Wyoming… wait!” Tucker called out, wincing from the pain.

Wyoming turned and looked down at him from the rear bay of the dropship. “Oh? Do you have some final words before you and the rest of this place is blasted to oblivion?”

Tucker just looked the English Freelancer in the eye. “You don’t have to do this.”

Rarity appeared beside Tucker, giving his dislocated arm a concerned glance. Grif was right behind her, nursing a hand that had a fair amount of blood oozing out of it.

“Is the money you’re getting really worth all the innocent lives you’ll be extinguishing? What about all of your soldiers that are still here?” Rarity asked. “How will you live with yourself if you go through with this?”

“To answer your question, my dear: In a mansion on a tropical island. Perhaps with my own outdoor movie theater?” Wyoming said with a grin.

“We’re giving you a chance to do the right thing, asshole!” Tucker grunted. “If you do this, you might find yourself regretting it for the rest of your life!”

“Pssh. The right thing is so subjective,” Wyoming scoffed. A bitter edge then entered his tone, and Tucker thought he almost looked sad. “Do you know why the Freelancers all fell apart? We all had different ideas of what the right thing is. I decided long ago that the only morality worth a damn in this world is what the right thing is for me!”

Sarge and Tucker climbed to their feet as Grif, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy all moved towards the Pelican. Wyoming pulled out a pair of grenades and held one in each hand. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a paycheck to earn! Cheerio!”

Wyoming tossed the grenades to the ground outside the Pelican, forcing Tucker and the others to dive for cover. When the explosions cleared, the ponies and humans looked up to see Wyoming’s dropship rising into the sky, the rear bay closing. Tucker tried to reach for his BR but his right arm stubbornly remained limp. The others could only helplessly watch as the Pelican took off and began heading for the horizon.

It was barely a few moments later before the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps heralded Tex’s arrival.

“The castle’s guards are rounding up what’s left of the Recovery Agents,” she reported through Osgoode’s helmet. “Where’s Wyoming?”

The others only had to glance behind them where the Pelican was rapidly shrinking into the distance.

“Dammit! Did you at least deactivate the transmitter?”

Sarge crouched to pick up his shotgun. “Well… not exactly….”

The atmosphere was tense on the Mother of Invention’s command bridge. The command crew was aware of the situation down in the mountainside palace since Agent Wyoming gave his first report. At the helm, the Director of Project Freelancer gazed out the massive viewport to the planet they were orbiting. Green and blue with the occasional cloud coverage stretched on below while a field of stars dominated the space above.

The Director maintained a strong outer appearance for the rest of the command crew as he always had. Inside, Dr. Church hoped the situation below would be resolved as cleanly as possible, and there would be no need to follow through with his threat.

“Agent Wyoming just reported in, sir!” the officer manning the communications console reported from the bridge’s lower deck. “He has confirmed that the enemy has retaken their capital building and advises immediate action.”

Letting out a slow sigh through his nose, Dr. Church closed his eyes. “And here I thought you were smarter than this, Celestia,” he muttered. “How very disappointing.”

“Weapon systems are online, Director,” FILSS reported.

Beside him, the Counselor looked up from his datapad. “What are your orders, sir?”

The Director had made his threat clear. To back down now would invalidate everything he was trying to achieve. To Hell with her then, he thought bitterly. If she’s going to test me like this, then I’m going to show her the consequences of defying me!

The Director looked up and addressed the cheery shipboard A.I. “Do it, FILSS.”

The planetary landscape out the viewport shifted as the A.I. moved the ship in position. Carefully, the targeting laser lined up with the pony capital’s location below.

“Target locked,” FILSS stated.

No turning back now. “Fire!” The Director ordered.

“Firing main cannon.”

The Pelican shook as Wyoming increased its acceleration. Today had been a very good day. He’d gotten to administer a bit of his own brand of justice on Private Tucker and the others for his humiliation in Blood Gulch, and had put those pathetic pony creatures in their place. Switching off his secure line with the Mother of Invention, Wyoming had half a mind to turn the ship around so he could watch the fireworks.

That train of thought was infuriatingly interrupted by a flashing red light on one of his consoles, accompanied by a series of beeping sounds that just screamed “warning”. Wyoming gave his mustache a few puzzled strokes. If he wasn’t mistaken, that particular klaxon meant that the enemy had weapons lock on his ship, but that was impossible! Clearly it was a system malfunction, as the only thing even remotely close with the capability to lock onto him was the…

Oh dear.

Switching the Pelican to auto-pilot, Wyoming stood and made his way from the pilot’s seat to the rear bay. The rows of seats along the walls were empty—it wasn’t like he had time to pick up any of the other Freelancer personnel—but he got the sense that something was there that shouldn’t be. Hearing a second beeping sound underneath the warnings being broadcast by the ship, Wyoming went to one of the overhead compartments and rummaged around. After tossing aside a duffel bag and a medkit, Wyoming found something that made his heart stop.

He pulled the rectangular object down and found himself looking at a very familiar device with a single blinking red light.

“Bollocks,” Wyoming said as he held the orbital strike transmitter in his hand.

Gazing out the rear bay window, Wyoming looked at the city resting on the mountainside and sighed. It was rather beautiful, he had to admit. Still, it would have been cathartic to see it fall.

The beeping of the device in his hand increased in rate until it became a steady tone.

“Well played….”

Tucker, Rarity, Grif, Fluttershy, Sarge, Pinkie Pie, and Tex all stood side by side as they looked out over the edge of Canterlot’s western garden across the vast Equestrian plains. Each of them were fixated on the tiny speck in the distance that was Wyoming’s Pelican dropship. In the blink of an eye, a mighty blast pierced through the heavens and obliterated the distant speck as if God himself had smote it down.

“I have to admit, that was very impressive," Rarity said. "Though, I confess I am a little uncomfortable with just letting him be blown out of the sky like that. Even if he was a foul ruffian.”

“To be fair, I did warn him he would regret his decision for the rest of his life,” Tucker said, grinning under his helmet. “All thirty seconds of it!”

With that, the group turned away and headed toward the castle. Ahead of them, a platoon of Equestrian Royal Guards were leading away what remained of Project Freelancer’s soldiers in the castle. The royal figure of Princess Celestia stepped out into the garden, a little purple dragon beside her. She spared an appreciative smile in the direction of the group who had saved Canterlot.

“Mind if I have that, little lady?” Sarge asked Fluttershy, gesturing to the white helmet in her grasp.

“Oh, sure!” Fluttershy said, seeming all too eager to be rid of it.

“Ooh! What’s that?” Pinkie Pie asked, her attention already drawn to something elsewhere.

The others followed her distracted gaze and found a small olive green metal tower a few feet high. It stood next to a similar drab green fold out table with a radio on it.

“Huh. Looks like a radio tower,” Grif said.

“Wyoming must have been using it to communicate with the Mother of Invention,” Tex suggested.

Rarity put a hoof to her chin as she thought about something. “If this thing can reach a ship all the way up in outer space, do you think it could reach somebody across the country?”

“With a little tweaking, probably,” Tex answered. “Why?”

“Oh, I was just thinking Twilight would like an update on the status of our mission,” Rarity said. “I’m not sure what she’s doing at the moment, but I’m sure she could use a bit of good news.”

Twilight and the others skidded to a halt in front of the tall wooden post. A bundle of rope lay in the snow around it. Seeing a speck of color nearby, Twilight moved closer and picked it up in her magic. A strand of red and yellow hair floated in front of her face.

“Dammit. They were here,” Twilight grunted, tossing the hair aside.

“You think they managed to escape?” Applejack asked.

“More likely they were taken somewhere else,” Washington said.

“That’s right.”

At the sound of the scratchy voice, the humans and ponies whirled around to find a familiar griffon standing there. Church, Washington and Simmons immediately raised their weapons but the griffon raised her talons harmlessly in the air.

“Wait! Don’t shoot!” she cried. “I’m here to help you, dweebs!”

“Gilda…” Twilight said as the others cautiously lowered their weapons.

“The commander’s taken Dash and the pink guy up the northern mountain,” Gilda said. To Twilight’s surprise, the normally aloof griffon sounded scared, and there was an urgent desperation in her eyes. “He’s planning on using them to get you guys to surrender, but I think he’s going to kill them no matter what you do! You’ve gotta stop him!”

“Which way’d he go?” Church asked.

“There’s a path past the north end of the camp. It leads right up the mountain,” Gilda said.

“How do we know you’re not just leading us into a trap?” Washington asked, tensing his grip on his rifle.

“Looks like she’s tellin’ the truth to me,” Applejack said, though with no shortage of caution.

“Please, Twilight…” Gilda begged, looking directly at her. “Rainbow Dash needs her friends. Her real friends.”

The sounds of distant shouting temporarily drew the group’s attention. The remaining sellswords were drawing closer.

“I can keep the rest of the mercs distracted. It’s the least I can do for her now.”

Nodding, Twilight turned towards the north end of the camp where the mountain towered overhead. “C’mon. We don’t have much time.” The others followed her.

“Just…” the sound of Gilda’s voice caused Twilight to look back over her shoulder. “Please… don’t kill the commander, okay?”

Twilight recalled Commander Graywing’s appearance. He certainly had a few similar traits to the griffon standing before her now. There was definitely a resemblance. Unfortunately, if Twilight had to choose between him and Rainbow Dash, she knew what her choice would be.

“We’ll do what we can,” Twilight said. It was all she could say, as the sounds of more raised voices filled the air and Applejack pulled her along.

As they ran for the mountain path, they heard Gilda’s voice rise above the others. “C’mon, you dweebs! They’re headed for the southern mountain!”

Gilda’s voice and those of the other sellswords grew fainter as Twilight and the others started up the northern mountain path. The climb was long and exhausting as the group trudged through ankle deep snow. As they climbed higher, they came across fresh footprints. Washington identified five individuals: three sellswords and their two friends.

It seemed they were climbing the mountain’s steep slopes for an eternity. As they got higher, they began to see the first vestiges of the morning sun over the distant horizon. They’d been climbing for so long, they almost didn’t see when they reached a leveled off cliff with five figures standing near the edge of a large outcrop. Donut and Rainbow Dash were on their knees with a spectacled unicorn, a donkey, and a large one-eyed griffon around them. Two of the mercenaries had their weapons pointed at the approaching group while Graywing had a magnum held to the heads of his hostages.

“Well… here we are again,” Godfrey Graywing sighed. The commander sounded tired more than anything.

“Yes. Here we are,” Washington said, aiming down the sights of his BR along with the Reds and Blues.

“We’re here for yer booty!” Caboose exclaimed, pointing at the sellswords dramatically.

The unicorn and the donkey exchanged a look, but Graywing remained steadfast. “Are you going to drop your weapons this time? Or should we bring this to its logical conclusion?”

“That depends,” Twilight said. “Are you going to kill them after we surrender?”

Graywing hesitated. “I’ll do whatever it takes to complete my job.”

“Think about the position you’re in,” Washington implored. “We have you cornered. The rest of your forces are either dead or engaged elsewhere. Even with two hostages, you can’t win.”

Graywing sneered. “So you think. My lieutenant is en route with reinforcements as we speak. In short order we’ll have you surrounded, and you’re in a much less defensible position this time.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be so sure about that, buddy,” Church said, gesturing with his head over the side of the cliff.

The canyon full of neat, regimented tents stretched out far below as the orange rays of the rising sun began to reach them. From their position on the cliff, the ponies, humans and sellswords could see the distant battle raging between Graywing’s forces and the wights to the west. Godfrey Graywing leaned forward and squinted as he tried to spot the rest of his company. The only other blob of bodies far below was moving towards the southern mountain in the distance.

“Gilda, what are you doing?” Godfrey whispered, faint traces of uncertainty entering his voice.

“If you walk away now, you can live to fight another day,” Washington said. “Or you can fight, in which case you will die, your men will die, and our friends will die. All for nothing.”

Godfrey shook his head. “No. Not for nothing.” He turned away from the cliff and resumed his position beside his hostages. “I don’t suppose any of you are a parent, so I doubt you’ll understand. But when you’ve hurt the most precious thing in your life, you’d do anything to make things right again. To give her the life she deserves.” Graywing raised his sidearm towards Rainbow Dash. “Even if it means paying the ultimate price.”

“She was helping me, y’know!” Rainbow said.

Graywing narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“When you found her untying us. She wasn’t following your orders. She didn’t even know about ‘em!” Rainbow glared defiantly up at him. “She was trying to save us from you!”

“Liar!”

“It’s the truth,” Applejack said. “Where do ya think she’s goin’ with the rest of yer troops right now? She sure ain’t bringin’ 'em here!”

Godfrey looked up at the group like his whole world was crashing down around him.

“Face it, you don’t have her loyalty. You never did,” Rainbow said. “You might earn it back one day, but if you kill me, she’ll never forgive you!”

Godfrey Graywing looked from the group across from him to the mare at his feet and the man beside her. The talon holding the gun began to tremble, and slowly, Godfrey started to lower it.

He then raised it at Rainbow Dash again and pulled the trigger.

The shot rang out across the canyon below. It was followed swiftly by another one as Graywing raised the gun to his next hostage and fired again. Graywing fired shot after shot, one for Twilight, one for Washington, one for Church, one for Applejack, one for Simmons, and one for Caboose. He fired until nothing but the click of the empty magazine filled the mountainside. He then turned to his two subordinates.

“Inform Sunset Shimmer that all of the targets are dead. I had no choice but to take them all out.”

The unicorn glanced briefly at the targets in question. “Sir?”

“That’s an order, now do it!”

Disinclined to argue further, the unicorn and the donkey slung their weapons and made to hastily descend the mountain.

“Okay, ow! I hope I won’t go deaf from that,” Rainbow Dash said as she pressed her ears to her head and rubbed them.

“Aw, don’t worry! I had a grenade stuck to my head once, and I can still hear fine!” Donut exclaimed.

“WHAT?!”

“Thank you, commander,” Twilight said as behind her, Washington, Simmons, and the Blues lowered their rifles.

“I didn’t do this for you,” Godfrey said as he loaded another magazine into his pistol and put it away. “Now go, before I change my….”

The commander was interrupted by the sound of a single shot from a Battle Rifle. The whole world seemed to go silent as Godfrey’s eye grew wide. He grunted in pain as he clutched his chest, and the snow beneath him turned red. The Whitewater commander staggered backwards as more of his blood started to seep through his talon and onto the snow. With one final desperate gasp for air, the big one-eyed griffon’s hind leg slipped over the side of the cliff, bringing him down on the ground. Twilight and her friends could only watch as Godfrey Graywing slid over the side of the cliff and disappeared from view.

“Commander Graywing!” Twilight called out, suddenly remembering how to use her legs and rushing forward. But there wasn’t anything she could do but look over the side of the cliff where Godfrey’s broken and lifeless body lay at the foot of the mountain.

Dizzy and nauseous, Twilight backed away from the edge of the cliff and turned towards her friends. All of them had turned to face the two newcomers standing just down the path that brought them up the mountain. A maize unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane like fire stood beside a human in gray ODST armor with blue detail on his helmet and shoulder pads. The latter held a smoking BR in his hands while the former studied the group with a pair of cold, cyan eyes.

“Thank you, Donovan,” the unicorn said, shaking her head. “What a disappointment. Why did we even hire those idiots in the first place?”

“I believe you said because they were cheap and you needed subjects to field-test your experiment,” the gray soldier—evidently Donovan—stated.

The unicorn beside him just sighed and rubbed the bridge of her snout. “That was a rhetorical question, Donovan. Let’s try not to give them too much intel.”

Rainbow Dash growled and lowered her head while the others raised their weapons at the pair. The unicorn mare was quick to raise a magical cyan barrier around herself and the Recovery Agent.

“Oh no! That dog’s head is on fire!” Caboose exclaimed, pointing at the pony’s flame-like hair. “Don’t worry! I’ll get a fire extinguisher!”

“Oooh that was a burn! Your hair just got burned, girl!” Donut exclaimed.

“Which is exactly why we need to put her out!”

“You…” Twilight said, stepping out in front of her friends and studying the mare across from her with growing realization. “You’re Sunset Shimmer, aren’t you?”

The pony in question grinned. “Very observant. Of course, I’d expect nothing less from you. ‘Twilight Sparkle,’ is it? Hmph. That’s an interesting choice,” Sunset sneered. “I’ve been waiting a very long time to meet you.” Sunset began pacing within the confines of her own shield and directed an unsatisfied glance toward Donovan. “Of course, we would’ve met sooner if my friends at Project Freelancer were as good at apprehending ponies as they are at A.I. research.”

“It was you,” Church suddenly said. “You’re the reason the Freelancer program’s been chasing Twilight ever since she arrived on Repertum!”

“You must have helped them in a big way if they owe you a favor like that,” Simmons mused.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want with me anyway?”

“A few things,” Sunset said nonchalantly. “Mostly I’m curious about what Celestia sees in you. After all, she did pick you as my replacement. I mean, it’s one thing for her to pick a filly from Baltimare’s own House Warmblood as her pupil. But you….”

Sunset gave Twilight a spiteful glare. “To be honest, that still really irks me. Tell me, out of all the ponies in Equestria Celestia could have picked as her new protègè, why did it have to be you?!” Sunset exclaimed, throwing a foreleg in the air. “It’s like the princess is personally trying to spite me!”

“What the hay is that supposed to mean?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“You mean you still don’t know?” Sunset asked, giving Twilight a predatory grin. “Let’s just say we’re connected by more than just my old title.”

At that point, Donovan turned his attention from the group across from him to the mare at his side. “We should retreat. There’s nothing more for us to accomplish here.”

“Oh alright; my associate does have a point,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. She fixed her gaze on Twilight as her horn started to glow with cyan magic. “See you around, Twilight Sparkle. I’m sure we’ll chat again... real soon!”

With that, Sunset Shimmer and Donovan were absorbed in a bright flash of light and the next moment, they were gone.

“Whoa! It’s like a magic trick!” Caboose exclaimed. “I wonder if they can pull a rabbit out of a hat next.”

“Or maybe they can saw you in half,” Church snarked.

“So what the fuck was that about?” Simmons asked.

“Yeah, she really didn’t seem to like you, Twilight,” Church said. “Any idea why?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight carefully thought over the conversation she just had, and all of a sudden, a certain detail stuck out in her mind. “Wait, didn’t she mention House Warmblood?”

“I think so,” Applejack said. “Why?”

Twilight remembered why it seemed so familiar. The name Sacred Home returned to the forefront of her mind, and more importantly, the possibility it presented. Suddenly, it clicked, and Twilight gasped. It seemed impossible, but then again, so did much of what else she’d learned over the past few days.

“What is it Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’d really like to look into this 'House Warmblood' the next chance I get,” she said.

“Why’s that?” Washington asked.

“Because,” Twilight said soberly. “I’d probably be pretty angry too if I found out that Celestia replaced me with my illegitimate half-sister!”

Sunset and Donovan appeared in a burst of light on the side of the southern mountain. The battle far below between the sellswords and the wights had long since ended, the undead creatures now milling about aimlessly with no heat left to extinguish. Sunset looked across the vast canyon at the northern mountain.

“Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned,” Donovan mused.

“No,” Sunset said, keeping her gaze on the far mountain to see if she could spot the tiny specks of her group in the distance. “But that’s what fallback plans are for.”

Sunset Shimmer finally pulled her gaze away from the distant mountain and looked up at Donovan. “Call the Director.”

Author's Note

Not much standing between the gang and their destination now. I hope you all are ready.

Next time: Nobody wins, everything dies.

Act 3 Part 9 - Whatever Bitter End To Bring

“Your protègè is ready to see you, Your Highness.”

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh through her nose. She had been preparing herself for this conversation since the other night when she made that terrible discovery, but now that it was here, she wasn’t sure if she was ready. This conversation had to happen, though. No matter how unpleasant it would be.

“Send her in,” Celestia told the guard standing at the foot of her throne.

The armored pony bowed before moving across the expansive throne room to the towering double doors on the other side. Soon the doors were opened by their guards and Celestia’s prized student stepped in. Sunset Shimmer wore a pair of saddlebags across her back and a deceptively calm look on her face. There was no way she could be oblivious to the different atmosphere of this meeting.

Normally when she wanted to talk with her student, Celestia would summon Sunset to her study or personal chambers: somewhere more casual and devoid of the usual decorum of royal life. Now, the solar diarch looked down at Sunset from atop her throne, dressed in her full regalia. Such a display of royal authority was usually reserved for meetings with powerful foreign dignitaries or nobles who were too ambitious for their own good as a way to remind them who was in charge. That Celestia was treating her own student—the filly she’d practically raised—exactly the same as if she were one of them filled her with a deep sense of unease. Whatever happened today would affect their relationship for the rest of her life.

“Hello, Princess,” Sunset greeted as she approached the throne. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought my sister along. My parents are busy this weekend. Again.”

A closer look at her student’s saddlebags confirmed that one side was a pouch for carrying foals, and a little purple filly sat sleeping inside. Celestia had met the tiny filly a few times already, as Sunset seemed to always keep her close of late. With an acknowledgment of Sunset’s words, Celestia then told the guards to leave them. However, she knew they would be just outside ready to act should the conversation take a turn for the worst.

“So, what’s going on, Princess?” Sunset asked, studying her mentor curiously. “Is something wrong?”

“We need to talk, Sunset,” Celestia stated sternly, and tried not to flinch when Sunset’s ears wilted at her tone.

Celestia looked at the mare before her and tried not to see the filly she’d read bedtime stories to every night. The filly who lit up like a Hearth’s Warming tree whenever Celestia taught her a new spell. The filly whose bedside she’d remained by when she was sick with the pony pox. The filly she was there for all the times her own parents weren’t.

“You’ve been awfully reclusive of late, even by your standards,” Celestia started.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Ugh, do we have to have this talk again?”

“Your friends all think you’ve abandoned them completely,” Celestia said, hoping she could push Sunset to tell the truth on her own. “What have you been doing that takes priority over the rest of your life?”

A look of indignation crossed her student’s face. “I’ve been busy working on the assignment you gave me, Princess!”

“Then tell me, why have I not received an update on the project? It’s been months, Sunset. Am I really supposed to believe you’ve made no progress in all this time?”

Sunset’s eyes darted away. “I just… don’t want to show you something that’s incomplete. Once the Director and I find the Forerunner ruins….”

Celestia sighed. It would appear her pupil was determined to stick to her story. “You disappoint me, Sunset. I thought you had enough respect for me not to lie to my face.”

With a curious frown, Sunset asked, “What are you insinuating, Princess?”

Seeing no way Sunset was going to come clean on her own, Celestia reached into one of her pocket dimensions and pulled out a letter typed on finely printed paper. She levitated it over to Sunset, who took it in her own hooves to read. Though Celestia couldn’t see it, she already knew what it said.

Dear Princess Celestia,

If everything goes according to plan, then by the time this letter reaches you I will be long gone. I know that the Director will tell you things about me and what I’ve done, and many of them are true.

But you must understand: the Director cannot be trusted. He has committed terrible crimes, and will go to any lengths to cover them up. What’s more, I have reason to believe that your own student Sunset Shimmer was complicit in his immoral experiments. I have gathered as much information on what he’s done as I could, but for your own safety and that of your people I cannot give it to you. I have instead given it to someone I trust deeply: Someone I know can make the best use of it.

It is imperative that you cut all ties with the Director and Project Freelancer immediately, before you too are trampled in its path. I pray that it isn’t too late, and that you aren’t already in too deep.

Best of luck,
Connie

Sunset looked up from the letter to Celestia, her frown taking an angry edge. “Princess, you don’t… actually believe this nonsense, do you?”

A stern, silent stare from Celestia was her answer.

“CT was outed as an Insurrectionist sympathizer, Celestia!” Sunset exclaimed, fuming. “Will you really believe the words of a traitor over your own student?” Her eyes suddenly became glossier. “Your own dau….”

“Don’t say that, Sunset. You know I’m not your true mother, no matter how much I may love you,” Celestia said, steeling herself for what came next. “And to answer your question, no. I didn’t believe CT… at first. But there was an undeniable sincerity to her words, so I decided to do a little digging.”

Celestia pulled out a bottle filled with a white mixture. “This is a special zebra potion that, when mixed with alicorn magic, can be used to look into the past. I have been using it all week to try and find out just what has really been going on here, and last night I discovered exactly that.”

Finally, Celestia couldn’t keep the mask on any longer, and a deep look of hurt crossed her face as she put away the bottle and looked down at Sunset. “Torturing a thinking being—an innocent—and for what? To complete an assignment?!”

Sunset looked down at her feet, and the look on her face said it all. She was busted, and she knew it. Celestia had expected apologies and begging for forgiveness, but instead, Sunset found her indignant anger and sent a fiery glare her way.

“I have done nothing less than what you asked of me, Princess! The only thing I’m guilty of is following your instructions!”

Celestia stepped down from her throne to look at her student on her level, desperate to reach her before either of them said something they’d regret. “So why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew this would happen!” Sunset shouted, raising her voice before catching herself. After a moment, she resumed speaking at a normal volume. “You know, for someone so wise, you really are a naive, idealistic filly. You always rejected even my smallest ethically challenging proposals! This is the castle security matrix all over again! You have no idea what it means to make hard choices!”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed as a hot rage she hadn’t felt in decades began to course through her. “Don’t you dare lecture me about hard choices, Sunset. Not when I am reminded of those choices every night!”

“That’s exactly your problem, Celestia!” Sunset continued, waving her hooves around so much Celestia was afraid she might disturb the filly bundled up at her side. “You performed one necessary evil nearly a thousand years ago and it’s like you’ve avoided any difficult choice ever since!”

Celestia maintained a hard, level glare. “I am dangerously close to making one such choice now.”

“Fine. You know what? I’m going to continue this project with or without your approval,” Sunset said, turning her back on Celestia. But not before looking back to get one final word in. “For the record, I was going to tell you everything as soon as I was finished and not a moment sooner. Because once you see the fruits of my work, I know you’ll understand I was only trying to do what was best for Equestria. Just like what you did with Nightmare Moon.”

Before Celestia could stop herself, she was raising her voice. “Don't you dare use Luna against me!”

The purple filly in Sunset’s pouch suddenly started crying, apparently having been awoken by all the yelling. With an irritated eye roll, Sunset pulled the filly out of the pouch and gently rocked her in her arms.

“There, there. It’s okay little one. Mom and I are just having a talk,” Sunset whispered.

Mom? Celestia took another look at the foal and suddenly the little purple infant seemed familiar. Sunset had apparently caught her own slip of the tongue, as she looked up at Celestia carefully. All at once, the pieces fell into place, and Celestia realized exactly who it was her student was really holding in her arms.

“Your sister, huh?” Celestia said, giving Sunset a meaningful look. Sunset looked back, and Celestia knew right away that her student knew she’d figured it out.

“Sunset…” Celestia reached toward the infant in her student’s arms. “Let me see her.”

Tentatively, Sunset passed the filly to her mentor, who took it in careful hooves. The crying foal quickly calmed in Celestia’s arms, some deeply ingrained instinct giving her comfort. The filly looked up at Celestia with bright purple eyes filled with wonder.

“She’s pretty remarkable, isn’t she?” Sunset said, a proud grin forming on her face. “Just you wait. Together, she and I are going to do extraordinary things.”

Celestia looked back up at Sunset with slowly growing realization, and with it, pure horror. “You don’t mean to say you were going to…?” Celestia whispered, aghast as her student’s smile slowly faded. “Sunset… that’s monstrous!”

Her smile gone, Sunset reached forward. “Give her back.”

Celestia held the filly closer. “You know I can’t do that. Not if you mean to carry out your intentions.”

“Give her back!”

“Sunset….”

“You have no right to take her from me!” Sunset shouted, pacing around like a feral dog. “She doesn’t belong to you! She’s mine! She can do great things and your weakness will just hold her back like you've always done!”

“Sunset, that’s enough….”

Then, Sunset Shimmer’s usually calm, calculating cyan eyes took on a look of unkempt fury, and Celestia was suddenly reminded of the touch of madness she had sensed deep within her when they first met all those years ago. “GIVE HER TO ME!”

Suddenly, whether it was a premeditated move or the result of blind rage, Sunset’s horn glowed and released a burst of powerful, fiery magic. Celestia barely had a fraction of a second to react, turning to cover the foal in her arms with a wing. The action left her own face exposed, and Celestia winced as she felt a searing pain glance off the right side of her face directly beneath her eye. She wasn’t too concerned with the wound; her natural resilience as an alicorn would ensure it would heal completely in time.

Celestia couldn’t say the same for the wound that had been left on the inside.

She looked up at her student to see the guards already upon her, having been alerted to the use of offensive magic by the protective wards in the throne room. Sunset struggled against them wildly, thrashing and flailing like a rabid animal. Looking at the look of pure rage on her face, Celestia was reminded of the last time someone she loved was consumed by such madness. Just like that, the wound Sunset inflicted had reopened another.

“I’m sorry, Sunset,” Celestia said, forcing back memories of the filly curled up in front of the hearth beside her, jumping at every clap of thunder from the storm outside. “Your lessons with me are at an end.”

Sunset’s struggles came to an abrupt stop as the fiery mare looked at her former mentor with disbelief. She stayed that way for a few moments until one of the guards grabbed her to put a magic inhibitor ring on her horn.

“You bitch!” Sunset seethed before rearing up and stomping the ground, sending a burst of magical fire out from all around her, sending the guards flying back. “You stupid, naive, hypocritical haridelle! I’ll make you see…. I’m gonna finish my project if it’s the last thing I do, and then you’ll see that I was right!”

More guards poured into the throne room, but Sunset was already charging her horn with another spell. Celestia could only watch with despair as with a flash of cyan light, her beloved student disappeared from her life, leaving nothing behind but a tiny purple filly with dark violet hair with pink streaks.

“Oh, that is such a relief to hear, Rarity,” Twilight said, letting all her nervous energy out with a deep sigh. “Are you alright?”

“Apart from a few minor injuries, everyone here is fine,” Rarity’s voice came through Twilight’s headset, and the knowledge all of her friends in Canterlot were okay gave her some peace of mind for what felt like the first time in weeks.

Initially, Twilight had been concerned when she heard Rarity’s voice suddenly speaking through the headset she’d honestly forgotten she was wearing. At first she’d thought something had gone terribly wrong in their mission; they hadn’t even worked out a way for the two groups to contact each other when it was all over. According to Rarity, they’d found the radio transmitter that Wyoming had used to communicate with the Mother of Invention.

“So, how are things on your end, darling?” Rarity asked.

“Well, we got a little sidetracked,” Twilight said, looking back over her shoulder at the pair of distant mountains where the Whitewater sellswords had made their camp. The rest of her friends were right beside her, doing their best to hear Rarity’s voice through her headset. “But I think we can reach the ruins by sunset if we keep moving at a good pace.”

“Did something happen?”

“Ran into a company of sellswords working with Project Freelancer. But don’t worry, we’re all fine.” Twilight then remembered their encounter with Sunset Shimmer and the things she’d said. “Hey, is Princess Celestia there?”

The other end was silent for a moment. “We saw her earlier... I think she’s busy interrogating some of the captured Freelancer personnel right now.”

Twilight sighed, but this time out of disappointment.

“Twilight? Are you still there?”

She must have been quiet for longer than she thought. “I’m here, Rarity.”

“Good. Because I have someone here who’d really like to talk to you.”

A young male voice followed Rarity’s and instantly lifted Twilight’s spirits. “Twilight?”

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, a huge smile spreading across her face. “How’s it going? You doing okay?”

“Yeah. I’m good….” The slight tremor in Spike’s voice betrayed his fear, but clearly he didn’t want Twilight to worry, bless his heart. The poor little guy must have been so frightened these past few days, and Twilight wished she could be there to comfort him now. “Are you okay, Twilight? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Twilight was about to tell Spike it was okay when an idea crossed her mind. “Actually, Spike, do you think you could do a little research project for me?”

“Of course!”

“I need you to go down to the Canterlot archives and find out everything you can about the Baltimare noble family House Warmblood.”

There was a short pause as Spike memorized what he’d been told. “Okay. Anything in particular I should be looking for?”

“A noblestallion named Sacred Home, and what relation he has to Sunset Shimmer. Specifically… whether he’s her father.”

“Princess Celestia’s former pupil?” Spike asked, sounding both incredulous and concerned. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Just a hunch,” Twilight said, glancing over at Washington. “I don’t want to explain until I’m one-hundred percent certain.”

“Hey,” Simmons said, finally breaking the long silence as they walked.

He and Twilight were currently walking side by side along a snowy winding path hugging the side of one of the many icy mountains around them, Simmons lugging the big rocket launcher he’d taken from the minotaur sellsword on his back. The wails of the Windigoes and the screeches of the wights had grown faint hours ago, and now there was nothing but the howl of the wind. The sun was going down, but they still had a ways to go before reaching their destination.

“Yeah?” Twilight asked.

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

Twilight looked at him curiously. “Do you mean… from a philosophical standpoint?”

“No, I mean, why are we here? Me and the Reds and Blues,” Simmons clarified. “Why are we here, helping you save your world, when we could’ve stayed behind to just… I dunno, stand around and talk?”

“Well, you are quite good at that,” Twilight teased with a giggle, before returning her attention ahead, mindful of her footing on the mountainside. “To be honest, I thought it might’ve been for the same reason I saved you from that minotaur back there.”

“Oh yeah, guess I never really thanked you for that, huh?”

“You didn’t have to, Simmons. That’s the point I was trying to make,” Twilight said, looking up at him with an easy smile. “I helped you because you’re my friend, and figured you’d have done the same for me.”

Simmons gave her what she could only imagine was a puzzled look. “How can you be sure? I mean, you remember how much we all objected to helping you guys with this mission, right? Even I said I would’ve preferred to just go home.”

“And how do you feel now?”

There was a lull in the conversation as Simmons stepped carefully over a gap in the path, watching his footing the whole time. Twilight hopped over it with ease, and the pair continued walking in silence for a few moments more.

“Y’know, Twilight? To be honest, I’m… glad we decided to come along and help you,” Simmons said. “You know what? Fuck it, you’re right. I guess I would have done the same for you.”

Twilight smiled, and for the first time since Blood Gulch, felt truly at peace with the maroon man. “See, Simmons? That’s just what friends do for each other.”

With his trademark grunt, Sarge set down his tools beside the white helmet and leaned back against the garden statue depicting a pony holding a banner. It looked like it was meant to invoke feelings of triumph, or victory, but Sarge didn’t feel very victorious. Sure, they’d won the day in no small part thanks to his glorious Red heroics, but it didn’t feel like his victory, and the still robot body in front of him was a reminder of how badly things could have gone.

“Hey Sarge,” a voice greeted as someone approached him. Sarge looked up to see the no-good dirty Blue in teal armor walk across the garden toward him with his right arm in a sling. The lazy orange dirtbag was with him, staring despondently at one of his hands.

“Blue. Dirtbag,” Sarge greeted each of them in turn.

Grif just groaned as he continued to stare at his hand, and Tucker looked at the heap of brown armor on the ground in front of Sarge. “So, how’s your robot buddy?”

“Lopez?” Sarge gave a contemplative grunt. “Wyoming took out his central processor. I’ll have to order a new one from Command before I can fix him.”

Tucker slid against the side of the statue to Sarge’s left, and soon was sitting on the ground with him. “You mean the same Command we’ve been helping these ponies fight?”

Taking another look at Lopez’s broken visor, Sarge gave a defeated grunt. “Yeah….”

It was silent for a little while before Grif let out another irritated groan. A few seconds later, Grif groaned again even louder, just to make sure the others heard him.

Realizing he wasn’t going to stop unless someone indulged him, Sarge sighed. “Alright. What’s wrong, Grif?”

“What’s wrong?” Grif exclaimed immediately, as if he’d just been waiting for somebody to ask. “What’s wrong!?”

Grif shoved his hand into his sergeant’s face, palm open. His middle finger was wrapped in bandages, but there was something else. Sarge then realized he only counted four fingers. The one beside Grif’s middle finger was completely gone.

“Aw, no way! Those unicorn doctors couldn’t save your finger?” Tucker asked.

Whether it was because his point was made or because holding out his injured hand was painful, Grif lowered his hand. “That was my ring finger… I lost my fucking ring finger….”

“Were you… plannin’ on gettin’ married, Grif?” Sarge asked. “Because I wasn’t plannin’ to start slippin’ infertility pills into yer food for at least another year!”

“No, but it’s the principle, dammit! That asshole shot off my finger!” Grif exclaimed. “Do you know how close the ring finger is to the middle finger?”

“Right beside it,” Tucker answered in complete deadpan.

“Exactly! I almost lost my ability to tell people to fuck off with minimal effort!”

“Except for the fact that you have two hands.”

“Well yeah, but I need the versatility, and I almost lost it saving this fucking place!”

Sarge gritted his teeth before he said, “Y’know Grif, as much as I hate to say it, I agree with the principle of what yer sayin’.”

“I know, right?! What if you need to flip off two people at once in different directions?”

“No, not that, idiot!” Sarge said, taking another glance at what remained of Lopez. “I mean about how close things got to goin’ south fer all of us! Both of ya tell me: Do you have a stake in any of these pony critters?”

“Eh. Fluttershy’s not so bad,” Grif said casually.

“Yeah, and that Rarity chick and I sorta get along now,” Tucker said.

“Then tell me this: You willin’ to die for ‘em?”

Grif and Tucker were silent.

“An’ do you think any of them are willin’ to die for you?”

No response.

“Precisely. Because despite all of their talk about the ‘magic of friendship,’ them ponies ain’t our friends. We ain’t part of their world.” Sarge picked up his tool case and the white helmet beside it. “We were lucky to have gotten outta this one alive, but how long do ya reckon our luck will hold?.”

Grif and Tucker exchanged a look as Sarge started walking back towards the castle, only stopping to say a few last words. “I don’ know ‘bout either of you, but I don’ fancy dyin’ for a world that I got no stake in.”

As Twilight and Simmons walked side by side ahead, Agent Washington found himself beside Applejack a few paces behind them. Church and Caboose were not too far behind. Bringing up the rear, Rainbow Dash regaled Donut with stories of her and Gilda’s exploits as Junior Speedsters. Aside from that, all were quiet. Washington knew the others didn’t particularly like him at that moment, despite the necessity of all he’d done. It was for the best, he decided.

It will make what would have to happen soon much easier.

“Hey, Wash?” Applejack asked, and the Freelancer looked down at her with a contemplative frown.

“Is something wrong?”

The little orange pony shook her head. “No, quite the opposite in fact. I jus’ wanted to say… thanks. Fer helpin’ us rescue our friends.”

“Don’t,” Washington grunted as he stumbled over a tiny variation in the terrain. Evidently, he wasn’t mindful enough of where he was stepping. “You know that if I had my way, we’d have pressed on without them.”

“But you didn’t,” Applejack said. “You knew we wanted to save ‘em, an’ rather than fight us on it—except for show, of course—you went an’ helped us on yer own accord.” With a sigh, Applejack continued. “I know things got a li’l tense in that there cave between all of us, an’ I figured I oughta say I’m mighty sorry if anythin’ I said upset ya. Looks like you do have our best interests at heart after all.”

Washington was glad he was wearing a helmet so Applejack couldn’t see him wince. “There’s no need to apologize. I know you were just worried about your friends. It’s a feeling I’m all too familiar with.” Washington immediately regretted voicing that last thought when Applejack studied him curiously.

“Huh. I always had you pegged as the ‘lone wolf’ type. You didn’t tell us you had friends before us.”

Washington frowned. There was a reason he only had friends. But what Applejack had said after intrigued him.

“What do you mean, ‘before us?’”

Before Applejack could answer, a big, armored blue arm wrapped itself around his shoulder as Caboose affectionately shook him.

“She means we’re your friends now, Washingtub!” Caboose exclaimed.

Applejack gave an amused chuckle. “I guess that’s one way of sayin’ what I was gettin’ at.”

“Yep! And that means we can do friend things now! I’ve already scheduled some time for ice skating, kite flying, ice cream eating, fire extinguishing….”

As Caboose went on, Washington was speechless. Here he was, thinking that these people had every reason to dislike him, only to be bluntly refuted. For what felt like the first time in years, Washington wasn’t sure what to think.

“Hey Wash, can I ask you a question?” Caboose asked. “Why don’t I ever see you smile?”

With some momentary confusion, Washington answered, “Uh… that would be because I’m wearing a helmet, Caboose.”

“Oh, ah, sorry. I should’ve said I was asking for Pinkie Pie,” Caboose said. “Sorry for the confusion.”

Washington just looked over at him incredulously. “That… literally didn’t explain anything.”

“Oh, Pinkie told me before we left that smiles aren’t just something you do with your face. That anyone can pretend to smile with their mouth, but when you smile for real, it shows in your entire self and how you talk and act and stuff,” Caboose said with a nod. “She’s really smart.”

“Huh. I thought you and Pinkie had a falling out, Caboose,” Church said behind them.

Caboose looked over his shoulder. “Nah, we’re still friends! We just decided to take a little break for a while.”

“I was gonna say that’s not something normal friends do, but then I remembered who I’m talking to.”

“Well?” Caboose asked, his attention fully on the Freelancer beside him. “Are you going to answer the question, Washington?”

“What? ‘Why don’t I smile?’” Washington asked, exasperation already starting to sink into his voice. When Caboose nodded aggressively, Washington sighed, “I don’t know, I guess I’ve been too preoccupied with more important things, like fighting Project Freelancer for instance.”

“Okay, what about after?”

“After?”

Caboose nodded again. “Yes. After. Do you think you’ll smile then?”

Washington groaned. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Well, what reason will ya have not to smile, Wash?” Applejack asked, though the wry smile of her own indicated she was only interested in testing the limits of Washington’s patience. “Once this whole Freelancer business is over, I reckon there’ll be plenty of celebratin’! Just a buncha friends havin’ a hoot together.”

“Friends?” Washington asked. “Why do you keep using that word in reference to us?”

“Why is the concept of friendship so difficult for you…” Applejack playfully jabbed him with a hoof, “...to grasp?”

“I guess it’s just been awhile since it was something I really thought about.”

Applejack’s playful smile slowly faded, and she looked at him curiously as she said, “What do ya mean? Didn’t you just say you had other friends?”

“Exactly. I had friends, but that was a long time ago.”

There was a pause before Applejack asked, “What happened?”

Washington sighed. He hadn’t talked about this in a long time, but before he could stop himself, the words just started spilling forth. “I was part of a team who were the best of the best. We may not have perfectly embodied the virtues of harmony, but we were close… the closest thing to a family I’ve ever had. It didn’t matter, though. In the end, they destroyed each other. Even the friend who’d looked out for me since the beginning eventually turned into a monster.”

They carried on silently for a few more moments. Applejack looked up at him the whole time with sorrowful eyes.

“Damn, you just… always know how to kill a good mood,” Church finally said. “Is that, like, one of your secret Freelancer powers or something?”

With a single humorless laugh, Washington smiled, but it wasn’t one that would have satisfied Pinkie Pie or Caboose. “I guess you could say that.”

Still, it didn’t kill the lighthearted mood nearly as much as what they heard next.

“Hey guys! C’mere!” Simmons called out. He and Twilight were at the top of a ridge a few feet away, looking at something over on the other side.

The others rushed to catch up, and soon were standing side by side with him and Twilight, looking out at the icy landscape ahead with them. Before them was a rather short mountain, the only thing setting it apart from the others around it being the wide path spiraling around its edge, leading up to a flat top. With all the snow, it almost looked like a giant ice cream cone with the top cut off.

“This is it: Stonespire Mountain,” Twilight said. “We’ve made it to the Forerunner ruins.”

“I don’t bucking believe it!” Silversteel exclaimed, his tone filled with excitement. “Aliens! I should’ve guessed it was aliens!”

Sunny Side and Silversteel stood side by side in the large snowy clearing among the few Whitewater sellswords that were left. They had arrived at the site of the camp a short distance away to find most of the company dead, with no sign of the targets. It was all Sunny could do not to let the immense relief show when they learned her friends had escaped. Shortly after, they’d run into Lieutenant Gilda Graywing—the griffon that had briefed them in the Crystal Empire—who was mopping up the last of the wights with about ten other sellswords.

“I mean, I had my money on these weapons coming from a secret government lab somewhere, but aliens?!” Silversteel continued.

“Hey, Silver? Maybe they’ll let you ride in their spaceship if you shut up,” Sunny snarked.

Technically, Sunny might not have been wrong. A Pelican dropship sat in the clearing right near its edge, a couple of gray-clad Freelancer soldiers standing around it.

“You’re just upset you didn’t think of it either!” Silversteel joked, jabbing her with a playful hoof.

“Both of you, can it!” ordered the harsh voice of Lieutenant Graywing as she fell in with the rest of the company.

It might have just been Sunny’s imagination, but their griffon contact looked much worse for wear than she had when they met her in the Crystal Empire. Her feathers were a mess, her temper was shorter, and most interestingly, her eyes were red and puffy. Sunny knew that look all too well. She must have been close with one of the sellswords that didn’t make it.

As it happened, Graywing’s order was not a way for her to simply vent her frustration. Sunny saw two figures approach, and immediately the meager company of sellswords stood at attention. The first was a unicorn mare whose fiery appearance immediately drew Sunny’s eye. Sunset Shimmer, Graywing had told her. The one beside her was a Recovery Agent of Project Freelancer dressed in gray armor with blue detail.

“Alright, listen up!” Sunset Shimmer spoke loudly and with authority. “For those of you who are still unaware, the CO of this company is dead.”

The sellswords around her remained silent, but Sunny noticed several nervous glances being exchanged between the various creatures. Sunset Shimmer started pacing along the assembled company as she continued.

“He was gunned down in cold blood by the enemy while trying to make terms with them.”

Beside her, Lieutenant Graywing’s knuckles cracked as she curled them into fists, and Sunny Side noticed she was trembling.

“In spite of this, our deal with Whitewater remains unchanged.” Sunset glanced over at the Recovery Agent at her side. “In fact, after talking to my friends at Project Freelancer, we’ve come to an agreement. In light of Commander Graywing’s determination to see this job through to the end, we’ve agreed to carry out our end of the bargain now.”

The Recovery Agent stepped forward next. “All of you will board the Pelican dropship to your left, which will fly you up to our flagship. Once there, each of you will undergo physical and psychological evaluation. Based on that, the Counselor of Project Freelancer will select the best candidates for our new experimental program.”

As the Recovery Agent finished, the sound of spinning rotors and an engine’s whine filled the clearing as another vessel touched down behind the pair a few feet away. The vehicle was comparatively smaller than a Pelican, with enough room for a squad of four, maybe five human soldiers in the open bay. A pair of wings each held up a rapidly spinning rotor.

“If you have any questions, please direct them to the Counselor when you speak with him,” Sunset Shimmer said as she and her partner began to make their way for the aircraft that just landed behind them. “Right now, Captain Donovan and I have urgent business to attend to.”

As Sunset and Donovan both climbed aboard the smaller aircraft, Sunny lined up with the rest of the sellswords to board the Pelican. She had a very bad feeling she knew exactly what kind of ‘experimental new program’ they were talking about. If there was any chance at all Project Freelancer was up to its old tricks, Sunny knew she needed to see it herself. To find whatever she could to make sure they were caught red handed this time. She just needed to have faith that her friends would be able to handle whatever else Project Freelancer tried to throw at them.

But when she got on board and looked back to watch Sunset and Donovan’s aircraft take off, Sunny realized she was going to need a lot of faith. She wasn’t quite able to keep her ears from wilting as she watched the vessel fall into formation with over a dozen other dropships, all heading the same direction.

“Knock knock!” Rarity called out as she knocked on the already open door to the reading area of the Canterlot archives. A bit unnecessary, but the action was more to make her presence known to the room’s weary looking occupant.

Spike looked up from the table where he’d been monotonously flipping through a book as big as he was. The tired expression on his adorable little face lit up as soon as he saw her.

“Oh! H-hi, Rarity!” the young drake said, looking at her the way a pony lost in the desert for days might look at water.

“I thought you might need a little something to rejuvenate you,” Rarity said, levitating over a freshly boiled pot of tea and a couple of cups, each with a little bag of tea leaves.

“Oh thanks, Rarity,” Spike said gratefully as she set the cups down on the table and began to fill them, careful not to spill any on the massive tome in front of Spike. “You’re the best!”

Rarity smiled as she always did at Spike’s compliments. Though, this particular instance was likely more sincere than his usual attempts at flattery. The little guy really had his work cut out for him. Rarity saw the rows upon rows of shelves filled with massive books on her way in, each filled to the brim with dry information on everything from statistics of every major organization in Equestria to census data over the past millennium.

“So, how goes whatever research project Twilight’s tasked you with?” Rarity asked.

“Okay, I guess,” Spike said. “I think I’ve found about everything I’m gonna find.”

“And I helped!”

Rarity nearly had a heart attack when Pinkie Pie’s upside-down face suddenly filled her vision, before apparently falling from whatever she’d been perched on and landing on the floor at her feet. A quick glance confirmed that there was nothing above her that Pinkie could have been hanging from but the ceiling, and Rarity simply explained it as “Pinkie Pie”. As the chipper pink pony merrily bounced around the reading room, Rarity wondered whether she was the reason the archivist at the front looked so dour.

“Yeah, Pinkie’s actually been great at finding anything relevant to my research with her freaky Pinkie-ness,” Spike said.

The pink pony nodded enthusiastically as she pointed a hoof at the book currently on the table in front of Spike. “This one was under ‘B’ for ‘Baltimare!’”

Remembering the specifics of Twilight’s request, Rarity asked, “So what have you found out so far, Spike?”

“Well, I’ve found out that Sunset Shimmer is in fact from this ‘Warmblood’ noble family,” Spike said, frowning contemplatively. “But I haven’t been able to find any connection to this ‘Sacred Home’ pony. Sunset’s parents are two noble ponies named Summer Breeze and Solaire d’ Celestia.”

Taking a sip from her own cup of tea, Rarity frowned. “Okay, so who’s Sacred Home, then?”

Spike took a rather excessive swig of his tea before answering, “A mystery.”

At Rarity’s raised brow, Spike continued, “I found a lot of old articles surrounding the Grand Galloping Gala about twenty years ago. A lot of ponies seemed to think he was seeing Princess Celestia.”

Rarity’s ears perked up. “Oh, of course! I remember reading something like that in a Canterlot tabloid when I was a filly.”

“Yeah, but the weird thing is, apart from that, there’s no record of a Sacred Home from house Warmblood in any of the census data of the last twenty years.”

“Well, there must be something,” Rarity said, moving behind Spike to look over his shoulder. Pinkie did the same, and was audibly chewing on something. “I’m sure this stallion didn’t just drop out of the sky.”

Spike shrugged. “Well, I’m looking at the House Warmblood family tree now, and the only Sacred Home I can find was part of a distant branch family.” Spike pointed out a picture of a gray unicorn stallion with a white mane and tail, as well as a bit of facial hair. “He looks just like the Sacred Home in the articles from twenty years ago, but this can’t be him.”

“Why’s that?”

“Look at the dates,” Spike said, and Rarity squinted to read the numbers below the photo: 877-945 AL. “He died more than fifty years ago.”

Spike, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie stared in silence at the perplexing information, each of them trying to figure out what it could mean.

“I’ve got it!” Pinkie exclaimed with a loud gasp. “He’s a vampire!” Evidently, some were having more difficulty wrapping their mind around the situation than others.

Leaning back in his chair, Spike sighed. “This would be so much easier if Twilight had just told me why she wanted to know all this stuff in the first place.”

Rarity delicately tapped a hoof to her chin. There were only a few reasons she could think of why Twilight would want to know about a noble family from Baltimare, and none of them made sense to her. But before she could voice any of her theories, the sound of delicate knocking suddenly made its way to her ears.

“Um… sorry, but… I’ve been trying to get your attention for a few minutes now,” Fluttershy said from the door frame.

“Yes, Fluttershy dear. Is there something you need?” Rarity asked.

“Um, yes. Tex said Princess Celestia wants us all to meet her in front of the castle immediately,” Fluttershy said, looking worried. “She said it’s an emergency!”

It was dark by the time Twilight and the trio accompanying her arrived at the flat, open summit of Stonespire Mountain. Agent Washington was leading the way, and Simmons was bringing up the rear. Church was in step at her side. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Caboose, and Donut were watching from an adjacent mountainside, ready to radio in with a warning if they spotted anything that looked like trouble heading their way.

One look at the large, wide-open summit of the mountain told Twilight this was it. The snow and icy rock beneath her hooves gave way to a pristine, smooth metal that covered the mountain’s flat surface. Twilight brushed away some of the snow covering the material, and let out a quiet gasp when she looked at it with her own eyes. It was unlike anything she had ever seen; the alien surface was absolutely flawless despite literal eons of exposure to the elements. A ring of ten-foot tall pillars stood around them, made of the same perfect alien metal as the ground they stood on.

With a sense of wonder, Twilight tried to imagine the harvest rituals performed here by the ancient crystal ponies, as described in Recolta Bogada. Did they have any idea they stood upon the very foundation of ponykind itself? The thought alone made Twilight weak in the knees.

“So, is anyone else kinda disappointed?” Church asked, causing Twilight to instantly snap at him with a glare. “I mean, when I heard we were looking for ancient alien ruins, I was expecting more of an impressive structure…”

Church’s complaining was cut short as something suddenly lit up when he and Washington drew close. What Twilight had initially thought to be a small stump close to the far edge made of the same material as everything else was now the base for a holographic control panel. The group of four gathered around it and with barely perceptible trepidation, Washington extended a hand and pressed a few holographic buttons.

The relative silence of the summit was broken by the activation of technology that had lain dormant for millennia. The whine of the alien tech was deafening as the pillars around them started to glow. The sound was so incredibly alien, Twilight almost thought it sounded like an ethereal howl. The four braced themselves as the otherworldly lights from the circle of pillars converged on the center, creating winds that blew all of the snow from the area and revealing the Forerunner material beneath. In a few moments, a large brightly glowing orb about the size of a cart floated in the center of the summit.

“What… is that?” Simmons asked, taking a tentative step closer.

Twilight did the same as she narrowed her eyes. The orb seemed slightly refractive based on the distortion of everything behind it. But what didn’t make sense to her was that she could see other colors mixed in with those of their surroundings. Colors like blue and a bright green that weren’t even remotely present on the cold mountain top.

“It’s a miniaturized Dyson Sphere…” Washington said breathlessly.

“The hell’s a Dyson Sphere?” Church asked.

“The official definition describes it as a hypothetical superstructure built around a star,” Washington explained, and already Twilight and the others were hanging on his every word. “But I think what we’re looking at here is a slipspace rift that leads to a Micro Dyson Sphere: a whole other world existing outside of conventional space-time. They found one on Onyx near the end of the Great War.”

Twilight just stared at the glowing orb, both fascinated and a little frightened by such overwhelmingly powerful technology. “And… you think what we’re looking for is in there?”

“Only one way to find out.”

The group of four approached the glowing orb and, after a moment’s hesitation, jumped inside together. The disorientation and sickness of teleportation hit Twilight hard as she fell through the rift. She wasn’t sure how long it’d been before she was on solid ground again, slowly crawling to her feet with the voices of Church and the others growing ever clearer. Twilight opened her eyes and gaped at what she saw.

She and the others stood atop an elevated platform comprised of elegant white metal and something resembling glass. All around them, green fields and trees stretched on as far as the eye could see. The sun shone brightly overhead; the fact that it had been night on the mountaintop mere moments ago further cementing the fact that they were no longer in Equestria. All of this paled in comparison to the massive structure towering over the landscape a fair distance away.

A huge Forerunner tower stood as tall as a mountain before them, seeming to claw at the sky above. Segments of the tower floated in place, as if to spite gravity simply because it could.

“That must be the facility,” Washington said.

“Really?” Simmons deadpanned, his eyes never leaving the towering structure. “You don’t say.”

Once she was over her initial shock, Twilight looked over at Church with a mischievous grin. “That an impressive enough structure for you?”

“Meh… I almost wonder if they were trying too hard,” Church replied, and Twilight giggled.

Without saying anything more, the four of them descended from atop the platform they appeared on and began walking toward the Forerunner structure. Despite their quick pace, it was still nearly a thirty-minute walk. In spite of the sheer beauty of the open plains and forests of trees, an eerie silence hung over the world. There was a conspicuous lack of wildlife to be found: no birds chirping or insects buzzing. There didn’t even seem to be any wind. Only silence. It was thus that Twilight elected to fill it with questions to Washington about the nature of the Dyson Sphere. Unfortunately, as the Freelancer stated, he was no physicist, and most of his answers were mere supposition based on what little he understood.

After finally arriving at the entrance to the Forerunner structure, the group wasted no time entering. The interior of the structure was vast and empty, seeming to consist of a maze of metal corridors with glowing blue lines running through the walls. It wasn’t long before they came to a small hexagonal room with a thin column of light stretching into a long shaft above. It was as Washington activated another holographic control panel that Twilight realized it was an elevator. With a smooth motion, the hexagonal platform began to rise, traveling along the column of light in the center of the shaft as if being pulled along by it.

They arrived at the top of the shaft to another identical chamber, and the four continued along. They passed an opening in the structure leading to a viewing platform that overlooked the world below, and Twilight guessed they were about halfway up the first segment of the tower. The next room over held a bit more promise. Olive green crates and equipment lay strewn about the chamber, many with the image of an eagle with its wings spread atop the world; the emblem of the UNSC.

“This must be where Project Freelancer was set up when they were here before,” Washington said. “If this equipment is still here, that means we must have gotten here first, otherwise they would have cleared it out. And that means….”

“There still might be records of what they were doing somewhere!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Exactly. I’ll see if I can find anything in the logs and data entries here,” Washington said as he moved to an equipment case with a couple of computers flipped open on top. “Why don’t you three see what else you can find?”

With a nod, Twilight moved to the next room with Church and Simmons behind her. This area was a little darker than the others. A few spellcasting gems and runes were littered about along with more UNSC equipment. Additionally, a series of strange pods lined the walls. Twilight grew nervous as she looked at the far end of the room and noticed what appeared to be large glass tanks filled with familiar shapes.

Skinny, hairless ponies floated in discolored liquid, connected to many wires, and their ribs showing through their skin. They were completely still, and Twilight realized that if no one had been here in about twenty years, they probably weren’t alive anymore, assuming they ever were to begin with. Noticing the tubes connecting the tanks to the rows of pods along the wall, Twilight cautiously approached one. As she reached forward, the pod reacted and began to open with a hiss. Twilight yelped when a pony flopped out onto the floor in front of her.

It was a mare, beige with a two-toned brown and yellow mane and tail. Most perplexing of all, it had no cutie mark. Like the others, it didn’t seem to be alive, but unlike them it had been kept in perfect condition up until that point.

“Eugh! What the hell?!” Church exclaimed.

It took the few moments of shock to wear off before Twilight recalled the original purpose of this facility.

“According to the Monitor that Rainbow Dash found in the desert, the Forerunners created this place to repopulate the pony race,” she said, looking down at the lifeless mare at her feet. “This specimen must be a result of that endeavor.”

“Okay, and what about those?” Church asked, glancing back at the ponies floating in tanks.

“This looks like human technology,” Simmons said, taking a closer look at the tanks. “Whoever was here before must have been trying to replicate the Forerunners’ project.”

Twilight wasn’t sure what that could mean, only that it made her profoundly uneasy. While Church and Simmons continued investigating the room, Twilight decided to move to the next, eager to get out of the unsettling atmosphere. The next room was no more comforting than the last.

It was round, and lit only by a few blue lights that Twilight couldn’t identify the source of. Apart from a few pieces of research equipment, the only thing in the room was a cylindrical, pedestal-like device in the center. As Twilight approached it, the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end. She had the feeling of unseen eyes on her. Just like she had in the A.I. storage facility in Freelancer Command. Just like she had with Gamma on the ship near Dodge City at the very beginning.

As she drew nearer, a little round light began to take shape above the pedestal. It just floated there, and as Twilight stared at it, she got the feeling that it was staring back. Then it moved. It circled around Twilight, as if studying her. Then she heard something: a tiny, faint voice just on the edge of her hearing calling out to her with an unfamiliar name. It was then that she started to realize what she was looking at. The sudden sound of Washington’s voice in her ears practically made her jump.

“Twilight, Simmons, Church, do you copy?”

A chorus of affirmatives responded quickly.

“What’s up, Wash? You find anything?” Church asked.

“That’s what’s puzzling me,” Washington said. “There’s very little data here about what they were actually doing.”

“You mean they never bothered to record any of it?” Simmons asked. “I thought these guys were pros.”

“That’s the thing. There’s… gaps in the data, like it was erased. I suppose they could have cleared everything before abandoning the project twenty years ago, but that doesn’t make sense. The only reason the Director didn’t return after all these years was because he was set back by the Freelancer break-in. They couldn’t have predicted that beforehand. The only other explanation is….” Washington trailed off. “Never mind. What’s your status? Have you found anything?”

Her eyes never leaving the little floating ball of light, Twilight reached up and spoke into her headset. “I… I think I found an A.I.!”

The glowing ball settled back over its pedestal and started to shift and fluctuate. Studying it curiously, Twilight took a few nervous steps back. That was when she noticed the floor around it. Gemstones lay around the pedestal in a precisely made circle. When she looked closer, Twilight spotted faint traces of rune-casting chalk on the floor around it. That was when she realized.

“Wait… it’s not an A.I.,” she said as the ethereal shape took form in front of her. The ghostly figure of a pony now locked eyes with hers. Something about it made Twilight unable to look away.

Then without warning, the construct lunged forward, and suddenly Twilight couldn’t stop screaming.

Princess Celestia locked eyes with the human woman across the table. As the two of them sat in the featureless (save for the two-way mirror beside them) interrogation room deep in the heart of Canterlot Castle, Celestia reflected on how their roles were now completely reversed from what they had been the other night. Now, Jane Osgoode was her prisoner, and Celestia needed information from her. The other captured Freelancer personnel had been very difficult during their own sessions of questioning. The dark-haired woman sitting across from her now seemed to be Celestia’s best bet at getting any answers.

“Captain, I know you know something about those Forerunner ruins,” Celestia said placatingly. Luna’s own tactic of “scream at her in the Royal Canterlot Voice” had proved to be ineffective at getting her talking, so Celestia tried the gentler approach. “Your men told me that you were in charge of the search team in the Frozen North when I spoke with them.”

The other soldiers had said nothing of the sort, of course. But Celestia suspected it was the case based on conversations she’d overheard between Osgoode and Wyoming, and based on the way the woman’s brown eyes flicked away at that moment, Celestia had guessed right. Captain Osgoode remained quiet, though.

“My protègè is leading a search party in the North as we speak, and it’s only a matter of time before she finds them,” Celestia continued. “You might as well just tell us everything you know now and save everyone a lot of trouble.”

Finally, Osgoode looked up at her. There wasn’t any hate or xenophobic passion like she’d seen with all the others. In fact, Osgoode looked surprisingly calm, but Celestia detected a hint of uncertainty buried deep behind those impenetrable brown eyes.

“You weren’t just being nice when you gave me that book, were you?” the Recovery Agent asked. “They warned me you were crafty, but when you showed me that picture…” Osgoode gave a single humorless laugh. “It took me a damn long time to figure out what you were trying to pull.”

“I wasn’t trying to trick you, Captain. On the contrary: I was trying to open your eyes. The Director of Project Freelancer has been here before, and he’s committed major crimes.” Celestia chose not to mention her own role in those crimes as she leaned forward, putting her head at eye level with the captain and looking at her imploringly.

“All I’ve ever wanted is to keep him from hurting any more of the ponies who are so precious to me, so please. Don’t keep silent if what you know could save lives!” Celestia ignored the irony of her own words.

Captain Osgoode looked away again, and Celestia was almost ready to give up before she finally answered. “You’re right. I led the search team in the Frozen North. Whatever data Project Freelancer had on the location of the ruins must have been lost at some point. Probably during the Freelancer break-in.”

Celestia had figured as much. In fact, her plan had hinged on it.

“But we managed to find it again,” Osgoode continued, and although Celestia’s outer mask held, a deep pit of worry began to form in her chest.

“How much did you manage to recover?” she asked.

“That’s the weird part. Apart from clearing all relevant data to the project, our orders were to leave everything else untouched. Even the A.I. we found.”

“Ancora…” Celestia whispered.

“Whatever’s really going on, you probably know more about it than I do,” Osgoode said, sitting back in her chair. Now the woman just looked tired.

After thanking Jane Osgoode, Celestia assured her that she would put in a good word for her with the Oversight Subcommittee before turning to leave the interrogation room. Princess Luna was waiting for her in the next room.

“Practice what you preach, sister,” she said, and Celestia knew in an instant what she was referring to.

“Luna? I thought you were going over reports on the campaign in the Foal Mountains and the Everfree Forest,” Celestia said.

“I was when one such report just arrived which I believe requires your immediate attention.” Luna presented the parchment in her dusk blue magical glow and Celestia took it in her own.

The report was from Captain Tornado Kicker, one of the ponies trained by Washington and those two Red sim troopers. Last she heard, Kicker’s forces had found what he believed to be the main base of operations for Project Freelancer’s ground forces at the Castle of the Two Sisters, and had requested additional supplies and troops to take them out. Celestia wasted no time in skimming through the report, but Luna spared her the trouble and explained the most important part.

“The Freelancer force in the Everfree has completely pulled out. No word yet from Captain Striker in the mountains, but I suspect she’ll report the same.” The pit of worry in Celestia’s stomach grew deeper as Luna continued. “Kicker says he last saw their ships heading north with due haste.”

Oh dear. Celestia’s facade remained perfect, but Luna saw through it in an instant and tilted her head.

“Luna, can you see to it that the Royal Train is ready for departure as soon as possible?” Celestia looked up to address the M.I. who had been watching all along. “Agent Texas?”

A little transparent figure in dark armor appeared before her. “What’s the situation, Princess?”

“I need you to have the others meet me in front of the castle immediately.”

With a nod, Tex’s image disappeared while Luna looked at her sister with concern. “What is going on?”

Celestia’s facade began to crack as she looked her sister in the eye. “I’m a fool, Luna. I’ve sent Twilight right into their trap, and I fear we may already be too late!”

Wasting no more time, Celestia turned and entered the hallway, starting a brisk trot towards the castle entrance. Well, Luna. When you’re right, you’re right. Time to practice what I preach.

By the time the group arrived at the Canterlot train station, Rarity was winded. When she, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy met up with Princess Celestia in front of the castle, she’d wasted no time in running them all the way to the train station. Celestia had asked Spike to stay behind, and given the absence of Tucker, Grif, and Sarge, Rarity guessed that either they had received a similar request or had simply elected not to join them. Princess Luna and a contingent of Royal Guards waited for them there, along with a pristine white train with blue and gold detail.

“We’re almost ready to depart,” Luna informed her sister as they approached. “Conductor Steam Whistle just has a few more preparations to make before we’re ready.”

Rarity looked at the engine in awe as she realized what it was. “Is that… the Royal Train?”

The Princess’ personal train was supposed to be the epitome of luxury, traveling between the country’s main tracks and the princess’ own secret private tracks to traverse Equestria as quickly as possible. The princess’ themselves rarely used it anymore, though, preferring their sky chariots ever since their invention. Of course, it seemed unlikely that all of them would be able to fit in a sky chariot, especially with a couple of dozen guards preparing to load out.

Rarity then realized the implications of the fact that the princess’ were trying to move troops across the country as quickly as possible. “Twilight and the others in the North. They’re in danger, aren’t they?”

A silence fell over the group, and for a moment the hiss of steam from the engine was all that remained. Celestia exchanged a glance with her sister, and steeling herself, turned to address the ponies before her.

“I take it Twilight has relayed the information I gave her when we spoke in the dreamscape a few days ago?”

Remembering what Twilight had told them of Celestia’s history with Sunset Shimmer and Project Freelancer, Rarity and the others nodded.

“There were some… details I left out in my talk with Twilight,” Celestia continued. “You see, when I sent my then protègè Sunset Shimmer to learn about human A.I.s, I did so with the instructions to create an M.I. of her own based on what she learned.

“The goal was to create a metastable construct that was completely immune to the Rampancy inherent in the M.I.s of old, and which manifests in human A.I.s after seven years. You see, only a construct immune to corruption would have been able to free Luna from Night Mare’s influence.”

“Oooooh, kinda like how Tex freed me from O’Malley!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in a rare moment of being the first to grasp the explanation presented.

At that, the M.I. in question suddenly appeared in front of her, and Rarity realized with mild surprise that she must once again be riding along in Pinkie’s head. “Well, I’d say a good part of that was freeing O’Malley from you.”

“So, um… did Sunset manage to create the M.I.?” Fluttershy asked.

Celestia nodded. “It was called Ancora. But when I found out what she and the Director were doing to Alpha, I made her abandon the project. That was ultimately what led to things coming to blows between us.”

Rarity thought she was beginning to understand. “So that’s what’s hidden in those ruins? Sunset Shimmer’s M.I.?”

“What happened?!” Washington exclaimed as he entered the room where Church and Simmons were standing around Twilight, appearing to have no idea how to handle what was happening. The little unicorn was on the floor, tears running down her face as she clutched her head and screamed.

“I don’t know!” Church shouted over her. “One minute we’re talking on the radio, the next she’s… this!”

“Didn’t she say she found an A.I. or something?” Simmons asked.

Cursing, Washington looked from Church and Simmons to the pony writhing in agony at their feet. He realized what was going on, and knew they needed to act fast. Crouching beside Twilight, the Freelancer raised a fist and sharply struck Twilight in the back of the head, silencing her instantly.

“Holy fuck!” Church shouted.

“Why the fuck did you do that?! What’s wrong with you?!” Simmons shouted.

“Trust me, it’s for her own good,” Washington said, standing. “One of you carry her. We have to leave. Now!”

“What’s going on?” Simmons asked, picking up Twilight with a grunt of effort and gently slinging her over his shoulder.

“I was wrong,” Washington said, turning with his BR raised as they doubled back towards the elevator. “Project Freelancer got here first. They just left behind enough of their old stuff for us to think we beat them here.”

Church looked at Washington curiously as they passed the pods and tanks in the next room. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”

“We walked into a trap,” Washington said, carefully checking around the corner of the next room before moving forward. “Project Freelancer left that construct here knowing that Twilight would find it.”

“Are you saying they knew this would happen?” Simmons asked, shifting Twilight’s weight over his shoulder as they passed through the room filled with UNSC equipment. “Just what was that thing?”

As they passed the opening leading to the viewing platform, Church stepped out and took a look at the landscape below through the scope of his sniper rifle.

“Uh oh, I’ve got movement,” he reported. “Looks like a bunch of guys just came through the slipspace rift.”

Washington looked from Church to Simmons. “Look, I’ll explain everything later. Right now we need to move. We’ll get back to Equestria and then regroup with the others!”

With haste, the three of them descended the elevator and left the structure with the unconscious Twilight in tow. Washington led them through the thickly wooded areas, taking time to avoid any of the wide open plains. It took them over forty-five minutes to make it back to the platform where the slipspace rift was, fortunately avoiding encounters with any of the Freelancer soldiers heading for the facility.

Unfortunately, about four were waiting for them when they reached the top.

“Contacts at the entry point!” one of them cried as all of them raised their weapons.

Washington’s BR was ready first, and he downed two of them in quick succession. Church forced one of them back behind a low wall near the back of the platform with a few poorly aimed shots, and Simmons tried to draw his sidearm with his free hand to take out the fourth.

He wasn’t fast enough.

A burst from the gray soldier’s BR hit Simmons directly in the stomach and the maroon man fell to one knee, holding onto Twilight so as not to drop her. Washington felled the enemy soldier with a well-placed shot of his own. That was when the soldier behind the low wall lobbed a grenade in their direction. Washington took him out quickly, but the grenade landed between them. He and Church just had enough time to duck down the ramp. Still bleeding and hunched over on one knee, Simmons turned away from the grenade and held Twilight to his chest, covering her with his body.

After the grenade exploded, Church scrambled back up the ramp with Washington right behind him. They found Simmons on the ground, still holding on to Twilight tightly. The back of his maroon armor was charred black where the grenade went off, and a puddle of blood slowly expanded under him. His rocket launcher was burnt and a little beaten up, but it looked like the damage was only cosmetic.

“Oh, shit! Simmons!” Church said, kneeling beside him. “Buddy?” Church turned him over, and his grip on Twilight slackened as he let out a haggard cough. “Hey, he lives! And look, Twilight’s fine!”

“Nice work, soldier,” Washington said behind him.

“Yeah, you’re on your way to a purple heart for sure!”

Simmons just kept coughing, and soon his coughs were simply ragged gasps for air. “Fuck…. I think… ‘M done….”

“Don’t worry, man. I can carry Twilight,” Church said, reaching over and gently taking the little unconscious unicorn from Simmons’ grasp. “Wash can carry you out of here.”

“No… I mean… I’m done.”

“C’mon, dude. We just gotta get you out of here and patch you up.”

“Church,” Washington said, looking at them soberly. “I don’t think he’s gonna make it.”

“Bullshit! Man, you always know how to kill a good mood!”

The sounds of distant shouts in the direction of the ancient facility drew their attention as the rest of the Freelancer forces that entered the Dyson Sphere started doubling back.

“We need to get moving,” Washington said, going to the holographic control panel and summoning the slipspace rift.

Church glanced at the unconscious pony in his grasp. “Wash, can you carry him?”

“‘S much as I… really… fuckin’ hate to say it… I’ll just slow you guys down…” Simmons said wearily. “I don’t wanna be the asshole that gets everyone killed....” With a grunt of pain, Simmons reached around and pulled the rocket launcher from his back. “Do you think… if I blow up that control panel… it’ll keep those assholes from following you guys out?”

Washington gave it some thought. “I’m sure it’ll at least buy us time.”

“Go then,” Simmons said, then gave a sad sigh. “I’ve always wanted to die alone after telling a bunch of people I hate that I was right... but this isn’t quite how I imagined it.”

“Hey, when you see Grif again… tell him…” Simmons continued. “Tell him he can’t have any of my stuff, or I’ll fucking haunt his ass.”

Church just stood there, unable to move until Washington practically dragged him toward the rift. Before disappearing through the brightly glowing sphere, he turned to look back at the man in maroon.

“Y’know… out of all the Reds in our canyon, I’ve always hated you... I’ve always hated you the most,” Church said. “But what you did for Twilight—not just saving her life now, but being her first friend in Blood Gulch—that’s pretty cool of you, Simmons.”

Simmons looked up, but Church wasn’t sure whether he was looking at him, or the pony over his shoulder.

“Eh. What can I say…? That’s just what friends do for each other….”

Church and Washington emerged from the slipspace rift with Twilight in tow, and found themselves back on the dark mountain summit. It was only a few moments later when the last light from the rift flickered and died, returning the summit to stillness. Church turned and looked back at where the glowing orb had once been, and Washington had a feeling he knew what was on his mind. They didn’t have time to mourn, though, as the sounds of more Freelancer soldiers barking orders and the whine of engines carried along the winds.

The pair cautiously crept to the edge of the summit and looked down. Dozens of men in gray armor were hastily making their way along the various paths and ledges snaking their way up the mountain. A few Pelican dropships had landed on several of the mountain’s wider ledges, and more were approaching over the horizon. A lone dual-rotor transport chopper—a Falcon—circled overhead, watching and waiting.

“Oh, there you guys are! We’ve been trying to reach you for ages,” Donut’s voice crackled over the radio. “Just so you’re aware, there’s a few bad guys heading your way.”

“Oh, really?! You think!?” Church exclaimed as he and Washington backed away from the ledge.

“Pick up the pace, I think I saw something up there!” one of the soldiers below shouted, and Church and Washington retreated behind a couple of the metal pillars as the Falcon circled overhead.

Washington gritted his teeth under his helmet. He knew what he had to do now, but that didn’t make it any easier.

“Think we can climb down another way?” Church asked. Pelicans were landing on the open sections of the mountain on all sides, but there might have been a gap somewhere.

The two of them approached the edge of the summit where they’d seen the least amount of Pelicans land and found a steep drop leading to a slope covered with snowy pines. Too thick for any dropship to land.

“Go. I’ll watch your back from up here!” Washington said.

Nodding, Church held the unconscious Twilight tightly before he jumped and slid down the icy ledge, landing roughly on the slope at the bottom. He then ran into the trees, focused on his sprint and wary of his surroundings. Church was so busy looking for enemies in his immediate vicinity, he failed to check his six. He didn’t notice when Washington adjusted his sights to put him in the center of his targeting reticle. He didn’t expect the sudden BR burst that entered his back, sending him and Twilight tumbling to the snow.

As Washington lowered his smoking rifle, a dozen Freelancer soldiers reached the summit and the circling Falcon came down for a landing. The soldiers all surrounded the Freelancer, weapons raised and shouting at him to drop his weapon and show them his hands.

“All of you stand down!” a voice shouted over the rotors of the Falcon as a fiery unicorn mare and a Recovery Agent hopped out.

“He’s with us!” Captain Donovan barked, and with a few exchanged glances, the gray soldiers all lowered their weapons.

“Nice work, Recovery One. You played your part well,” Sunset Shimmer said as she and Donovan approached Washington. “I guess the Director was wrong not to trust you with this after all.”

Washington said nothing, merely giving the pair a curt nod. Donovan addressed a few of his men.

“Collect the targets,” he ordered.

Three of the gray-clad soldiers hopped down to the slope below and made their way over to Church and Twilight’s still forms.

“How soon do we depart for the Mother of Invention?” Washington asked.

“Donovan and I are leaving immediately,” Sunset answered. “You, on the other hoof…. Do you think the others ever suspected?”

With some hesitation, Washington answered, “It seems unlikely.”

“Then we want you to remain here.”

Washington’s grip on his rifle tightened. “But… won’t the Director want a full report?”

“We can do that. You just regroup with the rest of those idiots and keep us informed on what they’re planning. Princess Celestia does trust you, after all.” Sunset’s gaze then drifted over to the slope below, where the Recovery Agents were picking up Church and Twilight’s limp forms. “Oh, I am so looking forward to finally continuing where we left off after all these years!”

Several minutes passed as the two priority targets were hoisted onto a Pelican, and before long Sunset, Donovan, and the rest of the Freelancer force was gone. By all outward appearances, Washington was alone on the summit amongst the Forerunner ruins. But he knew better.

“Alright, I know you’re still here,” he said loudly, looking all around as he seemed to address the mountain as a whole. “Come on out. We have a lot to talk about.”

Washington was answered by the appearance of an apparition in white armor holding a sniper rifle.

“You’ve got that right, you lying,double-crossing motherfucker!” Church seethed before lunging forward, merging his holographic form with Washington.

The Freelancer made no move to prevent it. He even left his radio open.

The muted click-clack of the wheels on the track punctuated the silences between talk. The Royal Train was not only far faster than the average locomotive, but it was unnaturally smooth, and Rarity felt almost as if they were gliding along. Trees, mountains, and the occasional farm whooshed by soundlessly. Rarity could hardly enjoy the train’s luxury, though. Not when she knew her friends in the Frozen North were in danger. Not when her princess had new truths to bare.

Princess Celestia had paused her explanation when it was time to board the train, and then she had to attend her celestial duties. Only after the sun was a faint orange glow at the edge of the horizon, and Luna started her task of raising the moon did Celestia finally continue.

“There’s more. If you’ll recall, the Director and Sunset Shimmer found the Forerunner ruins but kept me in the dark about it. That was because they were trying to integrate that technology into the Ancora project.

“The Forerunner site they discovered was a repopulation facility: A place equipped with pony DNA, embryos, and the technology required to create living, flesh-and-blood ponies. The Director and Sunset Shimmer actually created a living, biological construct, and what was more, they started fragmenting it the same way they did Alpha.”

Pinkie Pie raised a hoof. “So… in case some of us don’t remember, remind us again how they did that?”

Celestia gave them a hard look. “Psychological torture. Putting them in scenarios designed for them to fail, and to make them think their failures were hurting their loved ones.”

“Oh….” Pinkie lowered her hoof, and the pink pony looked a little more deflated than usual.

“Fortunately, they were only able to make one fragment by the time I put a stop to the project and confiscated Ancora. Still, I had a living M.I. in my hooves, and I needed to hide it should the Director or Sunset Shimmer ever return to find it.”

“So, you hid it in the Forerunner ruins?” Fluttershy asked.

“Wait… but that doesn’t make sense,” Rarity realized. “Twilight said you didn’t even know where the ruins are!”

“That’s right,” Celestia said. “The fragment that Sunset created remained at the ruins, regrettably out of my reach, but Sunset made the mistake of keeping the actual M.I. with her at all times. So after I took it from her, I gave it a new name and discreetly placed it into Equestria’s foalcare system. Since many of its stronger abilities were lost when it was fragmented, it would appear as nothing more than an ordinary foal.

“With some subtle manipulations, I was able to ensure Ancora was adopted by loving parents, and even though my original planned use for the M.I. never came fruition, Ancora would eventually come to fulfill its purpose in another way.”

The three ponies exchanged a glance as they considered everything they’d learned. It was Rarity who eventually spoke. “Now, hold on a moment… if this Ancora thing is somewhere in Equestria masquerading as a regular pony, then why send Twilight and the others to the North?”

“Because by itself, Ancora wouldn’t prove anything. What we needed to shut down Project Freelancer was the evidence provided by the data on the Ancora project, which would still have been at the ruins had Freelancer forces not found them first.”

Rarity frowned. None of this explained the reason they were rushing to the Frozen North now.

“Sooo… shouldn’t we try to find this ‘Ancora’ pony instead?” Pinkie asked.

“No need,” Celestia said. “I have been watching over Ancora for her entire life. Ever since that fateful day when she tried applying to my school.”

Suddenly, the pieces started falling into place, just like in so many of Rarity’s Shadow Spade novels. But the picture they were forming seemed impossible.

“No,” Rarity said, shaking her head in disbelief. “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t be serious….”

“I am,” Celestia stated firmly. “That is why Twilight is in such danger. It’s why her magical ability is so much stronger and more versatile than any ordinary unicorn. It’s why Gamma teleported her to Blood Gulch at the start of all this—right into Project Freelancer’s hands. Why they’ve been pursuing her relentlessly all this time. It’s also why I felt obligated to take her under my wing after the incident during her entrance exam.”

For the first time during the conversation Celestia’s face softened, and her look turned sad. “Why I came to love her as if I were her own mother—because in a way, that’s exactly what I am to her.”

“What… what are you saying, Princess?” Fluttershy asked, she and Pinkie looking at the alicorn with uncertainty.

Her eyes brimming with tears as everything she thought she knew about her friend came crashing down, Rarity turned to them. “Must she spell it out for you?”

She waited in a bright, featureless hall in Canterlot Castle, a red sky outside. A pair of double doors loomed over her. She couldn’t remember exactly what she was doing here, just that it was important. Lives were depending on her calculations.

“Ancora?” A soft, soothing voice spoke to her, and it took a moment for her to realize the name it was calling was hers. It was strange; she felt like she had another name once, but it was foggy and distant, like a half-remembered dream.

“Ancora, are you there?” the soft voice said again. She wasn’t sure how, but Ancora realized she knew it’s identity.

“I’m here, Counselor,” she said with a smile. “Did the mission go well?”

The voice hesitated, and Ancora grew worried. “Perhaps you should ask the Director.”

“Why hello, Ancora,” said a smooth deep voice with a Southern drawl behind her.

She turned and found herself face to face with a pony, an older gray unicorn stallion with a white mane and tail. Somehow, she didn’t even hear him come in, but she recognized him immediately as Sacred Home, her father. No… that wasn’t right. Her creator.

“Director, is something wrong?” she asked.

Sacred Home just looked at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Ancora. The strategy you calculated failed. The enemy anticipated it.”

She felt her ears wilt and a lump form in her throat. She hated failure. Would Princess Celestia punish her? Dismiss her as her student? Send her back to magic kindergarten? And her friends….

“Was anyone hurt?” she asked, her heart beating faster.

“I’m afraid so. Many were wounded, and one died.”

She gasped, and covered her mouth with a purple hoof. Oh no….

“Who?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Who died?”

Sacred Home gestured with his head to the double doors looming over them. “She’s just through there. I’m so sorry.”

As if responding to his words, the doors slowly opened, and Ancora walked through, dreading what she’d find. A gurney waited for her on the other side, holding a pony. Her heart beating faster and faster, Ancora walked closer until she could see the dead pony clearly, and what she saw crushed her like a heavy stone on her chest.

“Oh no… nononononononononpleasepleasepleaseno…” she cried as Rainbow Dash looked back at her with a pair of lifeless magenta eyes.

Tears filling her own eyes, she reached over and held her friend’s hoof tightly. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault... it’s all my fault….”

So drawn into her sorrow was Ancora that she didn’t see the grin slowly spreading across Sacred Home’s face as he stood just behind her.

“It isn’t your fault,” he said. “Perhaps it’s best for you to just… let it go.”

But she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried. Rainbow Dash’s dead eyes wouldn’t stop looking back at her. So, with tears pouring down her face, Ancora reached over and closed her eyes for her, feeling like a piece of herself had been severed in the process.

Author's Note

Only a few chapters left now.

Next time: The aftermath

Act 3 Part 10 - Outpost Sunset

The training room floor aboard the Mother of Invention was alive with gunfire as Gilda put round after round through the rapidly appearing holographic targets with quick bursts from her assault rifle. She had made sure to practice with the weapon every day since joining up with her father’s company, but never before had she been able to use it with such speed and precision. As her body swiveled around to take out another target, only partially of her own volition, she felt the ever growing familiar tingle at the back of her brain; a reminder of the other’s presence in her mind.

Still, the little green holographic targets weren’t enough for her, even as they turned cyan blue in her mind’s eye. She let out a frustrated grunt as she unloaded the rest of her magazine on the final target, visualizing rainbow hair becoming stained with red. Even as she heard the clicks of an empty magazine, Gilda’s talon remained firmly pressed on the trigger.

“Targeting exercise complete,” stated the pleasant female monotone of the ship’s A.I. “Resetting the floor for M.I. spellcasting exercise.”

Four automated chainguns rose from the training room floor in a circular pattern around her. The weapons opened fire, but an orange domed shield appeared around her, stopping the bullets in their tracks. A tiny transparent unicorn bathed in fire appeared in the air beside Gilda. As she looked around for possible openings, Gilda found her breaths coming quicker and her heart beating faster. She couldn’t fight from behind a shield. It wasn’t enough to sate her lust. She needed to get out and destroy her opponents. To rip them apart with her bare claws.

The flaming unicorn understood this need, and with a flash of magic summoned a pair of fireballs to Gilda’s palms. Then with lightning speed, Gilda shot up into the air as the flaming unicorn dropped the shield. The auto-turrets tried to track her, but they were too slow. Four magical fireballs rained down on the turrets, destroying them in quick succession.

“M.I. spellcasting exercise complete.”

It wasn’t enough for Gilda. She panted heavily as she landed, the edges of her vision tinged with red. She wanted to destroy more enemies. To break them, and crush them into a bloody paste. Whenever she thought about it, all she could see was a blue pegasus.

“Lieutenant Graywing,” a soft, soothing voice spoke behind her. Gilda turned to see the Counselor of Project Freelancer approaching, accompanied by a pair of gray soldiers and a team of technicians in black uniforms. “That was a very impressive performance.”

The Counselor tapped on his datapad as the crew of technicians moved to clean up the damaged auto-turrets. “Now, I would like to ask you a few questions about how you’ve been feeling since the implantation.”

Gilda curled her talons into fists. “I want to get out there and fight,” she said, shifting in place. She didn’t remember ever having so much trouble staying still before. “When do we continue our assignment?”

“I’m sure Sunset Shimmer will answer that shortly,” the Counselor said. “Now tell me, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your aggression levels?”

Gilda couldn’t contain herself anymore. With a feral cry, she turned and punched the nearest Freelancer operative hard. The hapless soldier was sent flying across the expansive training room, tumbling end over end before coming to a painful stop. The Counselor merely gave an intrigued grunt and jotted something down on his datapad.

Up above, Sunny Side watched through the window of the viewing box with the rest of the Whitewater sellswords gathered around.

“Eesh, remind me not to piss off the lieutenant,” a pegasus in old guard’s armor said.

“Yeah, but did you see the way she wrecked those turrets?” Silversteel exclaimed next to her. “I’ve never seen a griffon move that fast, let alone use magic!”

“Technically, that was all the M.I.” Sunny said non-committally.

Silversteel looked away from the window and pouted. “It’s still cool….”

“Well, you’re next on this list, you lucky bastard,” a bearded griffon said, indicating to the screen looming over the training floor.

The leaderboard listed the twelve mercenaries left over from Graywing’s contingent, ordered from top to bottom based on assessments of their individual skills and psychological evaluations courtesy of the Counselor. Gilda Graywing was at the top of the list, as the company’s de-facto leader now that Godfrey was gone. A zebra named Zestafa occupied the spot below her. As far as Sunny knew, he was still recovering from the implantation surgery. Below him was Silversteel, and below him was her.

With the training exercise over, the other sellswords began to disperse. Sunny stayed and watched as Lieutenant Graywing was led out of the training room, looking like a volcano about to erupt. Sunny took a shaking breath. She had experience with M.I.s—she had Tex to thank for that—but even so, she couldn’t shake this feeling of dread deep in her gut. She knew what she’d have to do once she got hers.

“Hey.”

Sunny felt a hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up to find Silversteel standing there, a look of concern on her friend’s face. “You okay? You’ve seemed kinda… out of it ever since we got on board this ship.”

“Silversteel…” Sunny paused as she tried to think of some way to verbalize what she was feeling. “Aren’t you worried?” She gestured out at the training room below. “Didn’t you notice how… off the lieutenant seemed?”

“Well… she did just lose her father, Sunny.”

“But don’t you see? These M.I.s are bad news. Project Freelancer is bad news!” Sunny glanced around, wary of listening ears, and looked at the stallion that had been her friend for so long. She wondered if she told him her real reason for being here whether he would help her. “Aren’t you worried about what their plans will mean for Equestria?”

Silversteel studied her with a curious look for a few moments, while Sunny just kept looking at him imploringly. Finally, Silversteel gave her one of his winning smiles.

“Sunny, I think you’re just getting cold hooves,” he said as the sound of footsteps heralded another’s arrival. He and Sunny looked to find the Counselor standing in the doorway.

“Silversteel,” he said. “They’re ready for you in the operating room.”

The hugest grin spread across Silversteel’s face, and it was at that moment Sunny knew which side he was really on.

“Don’t worry, Sunny,” Silversteel said as he walked over to the Counselor. Sunny could swear there was a spring in his step. “Once we’re both kicking flank with our brand new M.I.s, everything will be fine. You’ll see!”

The Counselor looked back at her before leaving. “We’ll notify you when it’s your turn.”

After the two of them left, Sunny returned her attention to the empty training floor, her mind racing with discomforting thoughts. For the first time since joining Silversteel, she realized that she was well and truly alone. For the first time since starting her rogue infiltration of Whitewater and Project Freelancer, Sunny found herself wondering why she was here.

Was it really to continue the good fight to protect her home from Freelancer’s works? The brief image of a little blue filly wasting away on a hospital bed made her wonder otherwise. The more Sunny reflected on her recent decisions in life, the more aware she became of her own cowardice. When the Meta first attacked her unit in Dodge, she hid when she should have fought. When what remained of her family needed her in the wake of that tragedy, she found it easier to run off on an adventure to another world because it was easier than facing her mistakes. And now here she was, in deep cover on the enemy’s flagship because she was too afraid to face the truth that her sister… her sister….

Sniffing, Sunny wiped at her suddenly watering eyes. It didn’t matter why she was here anyway. She was here now, and there was no turning back. When it was time for her implantation, she would be ready. She would see to the end of Project Freelancer once and for all, even if she was trampled in the process.

Her chest burning, Rainbow Dash panted for breath as she ran. Her every instinct was telling her to fly, but it would be impossible while her wing was still in bandages. That very fact had been all that kept her from flying after Agent Washington and Sunset Shimmer the moment Donut had reported the news.

Well, that and Applejack’s jaws on her tail.

“Huh. He’s just… talking to the bad guys like everything’s fine,” Donut had reported as the four of them watched the scene unfold on the summit of Stonespire Mountain from an adjacent cliffside. “Maybe they were able to work everything out peacefully?”

Rainbow had doubted that very much. She knew she’d seen Washington fire a single burst of his rifle in Church’s direction after the A.I. had disappeared down the far side of the mountain. Her suspicions had been confirmed a few moments later when Donut continued watching the scene unfold using the optical zoom on his helmet, and reported seeing both Church and Twilight’s limp bodies being airlifted out by a Freelancer dropship. There was no sign of Simmons.

“I knew we shouldn’t’ve trusted that no good Freelancer!” Rainbow had been all too eager to fly down there at that very moment and give Washington a piece of her mind, but Applejack had been quick to hold her back.

“Simmer down there, RD. Even if’n ya could fly with yer wing in that condition, there’s way too many of them Freelancer fellas over there!” she’d said.

“We can’t just let them get away! They have Twilight!”

Applejack had looked at her with a worried frown. “I know, sugarcube. But there ain’t nothin’ we can do for her right now. Best thing to do is to fall back to the Crystal Empire an’ get in touch with the princess. She’ll know what to do.”

“Oh, I can’t meet royalty right now,” Caboose had said. “I haven’t been taking etiquette classes. There’s like, fifteen spoons. Could you imagine if I used the wrong one? Awkward!”

With nothing but a token protest, Rainbow Dash had followed the others back the way they came along the snowy mountain trail, feeling like she failed one of her closest friends. A day had passed in sullen silence. The four of them had made camp for the night in a cave not too far back, and it seemed too soon when Applejack nudged her awake, saying it was morning and they had to move.

They’d managed to keep a good pace, but by the time the afternoon grew late, Freelancer patrols finally caught up with them. They ran into a thick forest of snowy pines to escape the view of the gunships hovering above, but a force of roughly half a dozen soldiers pursued them on foot.

Now, all of them ran for their lives through the trees, the squad of Freelancer forces in relentless pursuit. No matter how far or how fast they ran, the Freelancer soldiers were never far behind. Rainbow wanted to fly away, but she couldn’t. She wanted to help Twilight, but she couldn’t. And now it looked like she wasn’t even going to make it back to tell the others about everything that had happened.

With a grunt, Rainbow lost her footing and fell to the snow. She tried to get up, but just the thought of the effort made her legs ache and burn. She’d been going for so long she didn’t have any strength left. Another pair of hooves grabbed her and, with a strain, pulled her up.

“C’mon, RD,” Applejack panted. “We gotta keep goin’!”

Rainbow tried to take a step and winced. Her body ached, and a quick glance at her bad wing confirmed that it was bleeding—the damn thing must have opened up again while she was running.

“I can’t….”

Whatever Applejack was about to say was cut off by the sounds of distant shouting from the approaching enemy soldiers. Throwing one of Rainbow’s hooves over her shoulder, Applejack dragged the pair of them around behind a particularly large tree with a hollow center, hiding the two of them inside.

“What do ya mean ‘you can’t?’” the farmpony asked, making sure to keep her voice down. “Yer Rainbow Dash!”

“Exactly,” the pegasus sulked. “Rainbow Dash: Lousy failure of a friend!”

“What?”

“I failed to save Twilight. I treated Gilda like crap even when she was trying to help us, I….” Rainbow’s eyes started to water. “I f-failed to save Derpy...” Rainbow sniffed and gave a bitter snort. “What idiot decided I should have the Element of Loyalty?”

Applejack merely gave her a stern frown. “Now that don’ sound like the Rainbow Dash I know! Sure, you made mistakes here an’ there, but most o’ them weren’t even yer fault. So keep yer chin up. It ain’t over ‘till it’s over!”

The two ponies heard footsteps in the snow, and they looked up just in time to lock eyes with a pair of gray-clad men.

“...Which may be right now,” Applejack said with a gulp.

“THEY’RE OVER HERE!” one of the soldiers yelled as both of them raised their rifles.

The pair of ponies grabbed each other, holding on tightly as Rainbow Dash shut her eyes. But instead of the burst of rifle fire, Rainbow heard the sound of spells being cast. She opened her eyes just in time to see the two soldiers get knocked aside by blasts of concussive magical energy. A sense of relief began to fill Rainbow’s weary body at the sight of the full contingent of armored ponies headed their way.

A few of them moved to ensure the two Recovery Agents were down while a couple of squads continued past them to engage the rest of their pursuers. Rainbow thought they might have been reinforcements from the Crystal Empire at first, but then she saw that each of them wore the gold barding of Celestia’s Royal Guard. Before Rainbow knew it, she and Applejack were being led to safety by a pair of guards calling out to their CO as they did.

Before long, Rainbow found herself wrapped up in a tight hug with Fluttershy, while beside her, Rarity fussed over Applejack. Pinkie Pie bounced over, trying to hug all of them at once, and Rainbow glanced over her shoulder at the sound of more footsteps to see a group of guards leading Donut and Caboose to safety among their ranks. The sounds of weapons fire and spells being cast filled the distant air, but it was nothing but white noise to Rainbow Dash.

“Oh dear… I’ll get a medic to look at your wing,” Fluttershy said after she released Rainbow, looking at a bit of blood that had gotten into her coat with concern.

Another set of hoofsteps approached, and Rainbow couldn’t keep herself from falling into a bow when she saw Princess Celestia herself walking their way, exchanging words with who Rainbow assumed to be the captain of this Guard contingent.

“Thank goodness you are alright,” Celestia said, looking at each of them in turn. “But where are the others?”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged a worried look as Celestia’s carefully neutral expression gave way to something Rainbow never expected to see on the princess’s face. Something very close to pure terror.

“Where is Twilight?”

With a satisfied smile, Sunset Shimmer looked at the purple unicorn in the center of the room. Ancora… though there was a time you called yourself Twilight Sparkle. The thought was enough to fill Sunset with a fresh rage. The name was a mirror of her own; further completing the twisted image of what Sunset could have been. Her own creation had stolen everything from her. Her position, her reputation, and now even her own name!

Another look at the ragged appearance of the living construct calmed Sunset’s righteous fury. Ancora’s coat was unkempt, her mane a tangled mess. The room around her was equally disorganized, with papers and magical equipment spread all around. Runes within runes were scribbled on the walls. It made sense: As far as the construct was aware, she’d been awake for days, and considering where they were, it was only natural that the projected environment would conform to the subject’s state of mind.

“Hello, Ancora,” Sunset greeted with the Director’s voice.

Ever since she started the fragmentation process, Sunset had chosen to present herself to the subject using the identity of Sacred Home, the very same stallion from her noble house the Director had used as a magical disguise during his first visits to their world (courtesy of Celestia, of course). It had been a useful way for him to blend in with pony society during his initial stay in Canterlot, though the amount of time he spent in Celestia’s company had caused all manner of unsavory rumors about them to spread among the gossip-mongers. Sunset, of course, had been far too busy with her experiment to care for such things.

“Director!” the thing resembling a purple unicorn exclaimed, looking up at her with dark, bloodshot eyes. Gone was her cheery demeanor when they first started, only a constant look of fear and stress remaining. “I double checked… triple checked everything! All the security measures, all of the failsafes. I know they failed last time, but I came up with the perfect solution….” Ancora smiled mirthlessly, as if desperately trying to remember how it felt. “Monitor everything!”

Sunset merely shook her head. “I’m afraid it wasn’t enough. A group of changelings managed to infiltrate the castle.”

The look of growing heartbreak on the pony’s face was palpable. “Oh no… please tell me we contained it in time,” she said, her voice trembling. “Please tell me no one was hurt….”

“I’m sorry, but if I told you that, it would be a lie.”

The purple pony whimpered, “Who…?”

“Several guards were fatally wounded, including Captain Shining Armor. And… the changelings succeeded in eliminating their target.”

“But who…?” the pony once known as Twilight asked. “Who was the target?”

Sunset hesitated before answering. A small part of her conscience told her she should choose a different name, but she knew there were few other choices. She had already “killed” many of the subject’s friends, and she had to use more each time she fragmented. It was getting harder to get more fragments out of Ancora, and she needed them quickly.

“It saddens me to tell you that... Princess Celestia is dead.”

Ancora had displayed a wide variety of reactions to the news of her loved ones’ “deaths” each time she fractured. She’d expressed sorrow, rage, and even deceived herself into thinking everything would be okay. She had screamed, cried and cursed the world and her own shortcomings.

This time, she didn’t do any of that. She merely collapsed to the floor like a structure that had lost a crucial support, quietly sobbing. Images of the pure white alicorn lying defeated at the hooves of a changeling queen flashed around them, and when they were expunged from the simulated world around them, Sunset knew that the deed was done. She hastily shut down the spell linking her to the fabricated reality housing the construct’s mind.

Sunset returned to her senses in the Director’s lab on board the Mother of Invention. She looked at her creation lying still on the operating table in front of her. The unicorn’s form was a lot more tidy in the waking world than it was in the simulation, but three days without proper care was beginning to show.

A mix of wires, both electrically and magically powered were hooked up to the mare. Most of the smaller ones were hooked up to equipment monitoring her physical body’s vitals. A larger set of tubes connected to the pony’s head extended out to a series of purple A.I. units around her, each one embedded with runes and spellcasting gems. Perfect mergers of technology and magic.

A mechanical body in cobalt armor stood against the far wall. Sunset found out only after arriving aboard the Mother of Invention that the A.I. that had previously called that body home had jumped ship at some point, much to the Director’s chagrin. Sunset was sure Donovan had ordered his men to turn off their radios before moving in on the mountaintop. It didn’t matter in the end, though. The Alpha A.I. wasn’t crucial to her agenda.

Ancora’s body suddenly started twitching violently as her already closed eyes tightened further, an unconscious grimace of pain spreading across her face. It was time to harvest the new fragment.

“Sunset Shimmer.” The deep, smooth voice with a slight southern drawl drew Sunset’s attention from her work.

Looking over her shoulder, Sunset saw the Director standing in the open doorway, the Counselor clutching his datapad right behind him. Sunset gave them a curt nod as they stepped into the lab.

“What’s the progress on Project Ancora?” the Director asked.

Sunset couldn’t keep the proud grin off her face. “You’ll be pleased to know I’m about to harvest my fourth fragment.”

“Four fragments in three days?” the Counselor asked in his chilling soft voice, looking up from his datapad with some astonishment. “That pace is unprecedented.”

“I think I can get one more out of her before the day’s done.”

Rather than praise her obvious brilliance, the Director and Counselor exchanged a look.

“Sunset Shimmer,” the Counselor said, looking back at her. “The Director and I have some… concerns about your emotional distance from the project.”

Sunset’s grin began to shrink. “What are you insinuating?”

“Well, I can certainly understand if you blame the Ancora construct for your… fall from grace twenty years ago,” the Counselor said diplomatically.

“It isn’t the M.I.’s fault that Princess Celestia is a narrow minded hypocrite,” Sunset said coldly.

“Even so, you can’t deny the possibility that you subconsciously associate Ancora with your falling out with the princess,“ the Counselor continued. Sunset hated it when he psychoanalyzed her. “And the fact that she appointed Ancora as her personal student after your dismissal… that must have been salt in the wound.”

“So what? You think I’m using these experiments as some sort of outlet?” Sunset asked indignantly. “No, Counselor. I’m not that kind of pony.”

“Regardless, I’m going to put this project on hold until further notice,” the Director said in a tone that brooked no argument.

“What?! But…” Sunset started.

“When we pushed Alpha too hard, he stopped giving us new fragments altogether,” the Director intoned, glancing over at the suit of cobalt blue armor against the wall. “Wait to harvest more fragments. Ancora will keep ‘till later.”

Sunset Shimmer met him with a challenging stare, and for the first time since she met him got a glimpse of the piercing green pupils behind his glasses. The Director studied her carefully, and for a moment Sunset was worried that he somehow knew what she was really planning.

“Excuse me, Director,” the voice of the ship’s A.I. came in over the P.A. system, drawing the Director’s gaze away from Sunset.

“Yes, what is it, FILSS?” he asked.

“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting something, sir. But Captain Donovan has requested your presence on the command bridge.” FILSS stated in her eternally pleasant tone. “There is a situation that requires your immediate attention.”

With a sigh, the Director made to leave the lab, but not before turning back to address his two subordinates. “Harvest this latest fragment and find it a match. Then I want all further sessions to be put on hold. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Director,” Sunset Shimmer and the Counselor answered as one as the Director made his exit.

I suppose four fragments should be enough for the next phase of the plan. Sunset Shimmer then turned to the only other door in the room and called out, “Bring in the Sarcophagus!”

Two soldiers clad in white armor entered pushing a large metal box along on a flatbed dolly. Sunset looked at the strange alien symbols printed on it, and could already hear the nervous growling and clicking of the creature within.

A morose mood hung over the dining hall of the Crystal Castle. After everyone had returned to the Empire two days later and gotten whatever wounds they had treated, Princess Celestia convened a meeting. There, she told Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and the others what she had told Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie on the train about Twilight’s true identity. Applejack then relayed what had happened on the summit of Stonespire Mountain. It wasn’t long before they all figured out exactly what poor Twilight was going through at that very moment.

By the time all was said, Fluttershy was in tears, with Rarity barely holding them back as she comforted her. Pinkie Pie’s hair went straight, Twilight Velvet cried into Night Light’s shoulder, and Cadance covered her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief. Donut and Caboose sat in silence, the way they each looked down was telling. Only Celestia seemed to maintain her composure, but her color almost seemed drained; her majestic flowing mane a little more lifeless than before.

The silence was broken when Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on the table. “We never should’ve let ‘em get away with her!” Shaking, she directed an angry glare at Applejack. “I-if you hadn’t held me back….”

“If I hadn’t held you back, you’d be captured too, or worse,” Applejack retorted.

“You don’t know that!”

“Yes I do!”

When their fighting only made Fluttershy sob harder, Rarity shouted over both of them, “Enough! This isn’t helping Twilight.”

Shining Armor’s chair creaked against the floor as he abruptly stood and began to make his way towards the exit.

“Where are you going, Shiny?” Cadance asked.

“To get my armor,” he replied without breaking his gait. “Then I’m going to rally every last soldier under my command, find where they’re keeping Twily and bring her home!”

Luna suddenly appeared from the shadows, blocking Shining’s path. “Our enemies are keeping Twilight Sparkle aboard a ship sailing the stars beyond the sky itself.” The lunar princess carefully scrutinized him. “Pray tell, Prince Armor. How do you intend to get fifteen thousand troops up there?”

When Shining Armor gave no answer save for a look down at his fetlocks, Luna gave a single huff.

“I know we are all very upset, but we have to think about this rationally,” Celestia said with an almost unnatural steady voice. “According to our generals’ reports, the Freelancer forces spread across Equestria have all pulled out, likely returning to their flagship. Our options for reaching the Mother of Invention are growing short.”

With a quiet whoosh, Tex’s dark avatar appeared over the table. “We need a ship to get us to the Mother of Invention. Something that’s unfortunately in short supply on this planet.”

“But, uh… what about the invisible ship?” Caboose asked.

“Caboose, I don’t think an imaginary spaceship is gonna work,” Rainbow said with an exasperated sigh.

“But they’ll never expect it.”

“Yeah, because they’re not morons!”

Applejack’s ears pointed up as she realized, “Wait, do ya suppose Caboose was talkin’ about the invisible spaceship the Meta used to get here? The one currently sittin’ in the middle of Ponyville?”

“Is it a good idea?” Caboose asked. “Because if so, yes. That is totally what I meant.”

Tex was silent for a moment as she thought it over. “It could work, but there’s only room for a few people. Remember, Twilight had to teleport us three or four at a time when we went back to Repertum.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Rarity declared.

“We could use our ship,” Donut suggested.

“Your ship?” Pinkie asked in a quiet, neutered tone, looking at her fellow pink person through a curtain of straight mane.

“Yeah! Remember, Sarge and the other guys crashed a Pelican on Sweet Apple Acres back when they first arrived. Sarge told me he was working on getting it flyable again!”

“Hmm… well, it would certainly be better for getting a larger group aboard the Mother of Invention,” Tex mused. “Still… there’s a big risk we’ll just get shot down once we get close enough.”

“Well, we have to try!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Before anything else could be said, an orange armored pegasus stallion with a blue mane and tail entered and gave the royalty in the room a hasty salute.

“Highnesses, we’ve captured a lone alien just beyond the city’s borders,” he reported.

Luna exchanged a look with her sister. “A scout? Or perhaps some sort of spy?”

“I don’t think so, he made no effort to fight or conceal himself,” the soldier looked at Celestia. “Said he wanted to talk to you, Princess.”

Celestia “hmmed” before asking, “Was this man wearing gray armor with yellow detail?”

The soldier nodded.

Celestia watched from the crystal throne as Agent Washington was led into the chamber by a squad of stern-faced crystal guards. Luna stood at her right side, and Cadance and Shining Armor at her left. Twilight’s friends all stood at the foot of the throne, Donut and Caboose with them.

“You’ve got a lotta nerve coming back after what you did!” Rainbow Dash seethed as Washington was brought before them.

Applejack looked over at the fuming pegasus. “Am I gonna have to hold you back again?”

While the others bickered, Celestia studied the human she’d thought was her friend, trying desperately to get some sort of read on him. It was easier said than done considering the powered armor that so effectively hid his features. Based purely on his stance, Celestia thought he seemed calm… too calm considering all he’d done, and that the people he’d wronged now had him at their mercy.

“Well?” Celestia finally said. She didn’t have armor to conceal her emotions, and despite years of practiced stoicism, the anguish she'd been suppressing for the sake of the others was beginning to seep through. “Do you have anything to say for yourself? Some justification for lying to and betraying me?!”

Rather than Washington being the one to answer her, a wispy cobalt figure appeared in the air beside him. “I suggest you at least try to hear him out, Princess.”

“Hey, Church is back!” Caboose exclaimed happily. “Man, every time I think I’ve lost him he comes back. He’s like the best, glowiest boomerang ever!” Caboose then looked down. “Nothing like my dog Spot….”

“Gee, I wonder why that is…” Rainbow deadpanned.

Celestia studied the Freelancer and the construct carefully. Something wasn’t right about this picture.

“Church, are you… in Washington’s A.I. slot?” Tex asked, appearing in the air close to him.

“Yep. And it’s given me a lot of insight into the reasoning behind some of his recent actions,” Church stated. “As well as a lot of other stuff. Dude, you’ve got issues.”

Washington had told Celestia in their conversations a week back about how after the Epsilon incident many years ago, he’d never let another construct into his head again. It had been one of the many moments of open honesty the Freelancer had shown that had ultimately led to her decision to trust him.

“It wasn’t the ideal situation, but it was the only way I was able to keep Alpha out of their hands,” Washington said.

“And you couldn’t do anything to keep them from getting Twilight?” Rarity asked, barely holding herself together to give Washington the death glare to end all death glares.

“No. In fact, I was counting on them to capture Twilight.”

The room was silent as everyone processed the Freelancer’s proclamation. Even Celestia couldn’t hide the look of shock on her face.

“Let me start at the beginning,” Washington said. Celestia ordered the squad guarding him to step back as he continued. “As you may remember, I helped Twilight and the Blues sneak aboard the Mother of Invention in order to return here back when she was first teleported to Blood Gulch. However, I became pinned down by Wyoming and was unable to meet up with them until much later, when they were facing South in Dodge City.”

“I dunno, I’m not sure I’m buying it,” Pinkie Pie said, scratching her chin and squinting. “I’m pretty sure I was facing more northwest.”

“What I didn’t tell you was that in the time between, I was captured by Freelancer forces and interrogated by the Director himself.”

“I imagine he wasn’t very pleased to find out you’d let one of his greatest assets escape right under his nose,” Luna said.

“Yes. To be honest, I had no idea what Twilight really was at the time. It was only after talking to Celestia upon recovering from the wounds I received from the Meta that she informed me of the truth surrounding her origins.”

The ponies in front of him all exchanged anxious glances that did not go unnoticed by Celestia. It certainly seemed cruel to think that she’d seen fit to trust him with such important information before any of Twilight’s closest friends, let alone Twilight herself. Although Celestia maintained an outer appearance of calm serenity as she always did, a deep sense of guilt and shame welled up within her as she tried desperately not to give in to despair.

I should have just told her. I should never have sent her to the Frozen North. I’m a coward!

“That being said, I suspected Twilight was important somehow to Project Freelancer’s experiments from the moment the Counselor first tasked me with apprehending her…. And after the Director ordered me to continue in that effort while getting close to all of you, I knew for certain.”

“So it’s true then,” Fluttershy of all ponies said, giving Washington a cold hard stare. “Y-you were working for them all along.”

“I did what I had to. The only reason the Director decided I wasn’t worth court martialing was because he truly believed I didn’t know anything about their experiments—on Alpha or otherwise.”

Fluttershy’s baleful stare was broken by the water building in her eyes. “H-how could you?! We trusted you! Twilight trusted you!”

With a rueful sigh, Washington said, “I know. But let me make one thing perfectly clear: My first priority is and always has been to ensure that Director Church is caught and brought to justice.”

“Oh really?” Shining Armor said, trembling with barely contained fury, the placating look of his wife beside him likely the only thing keeping him from tearing Washington apart right then and there. “Is that why you sent my baby sister off to be be tortured?!”

Washington nodded. “Yes.”

When the looks of confusion remained firmly plastered to the ponies’ faces, Washington elaborated. “It had been my hope—as it had been yours, Princess—that Project Freelancer would be unable to reacquire the location of the Forerunner site until we’ve found everything we need there first. But I was also prepared for the possibility that they would have found it first.”

With nothing short of pure horror, Celestia looked at Washington as she started to understand. “You can’t mean to say….”

“I knew that if Project Freelancer found the ruins first, they’ll have cleared out everything there that could link back to them. We would have no evidence to use against them. That’s why I needed a way to make new evidence.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, Washington. You can’t….”

“The Director is likely fragmenting Ancora as we speak, and if he’s still as thorough as I remember, he’ll be keeping it all documented.”

“I asked you to protect her, to keep her from suffering the same fate as Alpha!” Celestia shouted.

“And she won’t!” Washington shouted back. “It took them more than a year to break Alpha to the point where he lost himself.” Washington took a step forward with determination. “I intend to finish Project Freelancer today!”

A silence fell over the throne room for a few moments as the ponies all looked unsurely amongst themselves.

“Okay…” Luna said, momentarily pausing in an attempt to rub the stress from her face. “Assuming we did agree to go along with your plan, what’s the next step?”

“At your word, I’ll call the Mother of Invention and inform them that my cover within your ranks has been blown, at which point Project Freelancer will arrange for my immediate extraction,” Washington explained. “Once I’m aboard, it should be a relatively simple matter of extracting Twilight myself after using their own communications array to transmit every last bit of data from their experiments on her, along with our coordinates, to the Chairman of the Oversight Sub-Committee. All you have to do is say the word.”

Celestia looked around the throne room and found that all eyes were on her. Realizing the decision was ultimately up to her, she sighed and stepped down from her throne, approaching the Freelancer and looking him in her best approximation of where his eyes were behind his helmet’s visor.

“I want to trust you, Agent Washington. I really do.” Celestia closed her eyes. “Why couldn’t you just tell me?”

“I knew you wouldn’t approve, and took a calculated risk,” he answered stoically. “Because I knew that once you saw the fruits of my plan, you would understand that I was only trying to do what was best.”

Internally, Celestia winced. Those words sounded awfully familiar. For a moment, she almost imagined that when she opened her eyes, she would be standing in her own throne room looking down at a fiery young unicorn mare.

“I’m sorry Washington, but we’ll find another way to save Twilight and stop the Director ourselves.” Celestia opened her eyes and, glancing at the guards watching the Freelancer carefully, said, “You’re free to go, but our collaboration is at an end.”

Washington was unusually quiet, and it took him a while to respond, “Fine,” before turning to leave. It was subtle, but Celestia thought she saw his posture sink, and for the first time during the tense conversation he actually seemed disappointed.

“Caboose, you wanna turn on your radio, buddy?” Church asked.

“Yeah! Let’s listen to the Golden Oldies Station!” Caboose exclaimed as Church’s holographic avatar disappeared from Washington’s side and appeared at Caboose’s with a flash.

“Mr. Washington, wait!” Donut cried out. “There’s one more thing I want to ask.”

Washington stopped, and turned to look at the pink soldier over his shoulder.

“Where’s Simmons?”

The Mother of Invention’s command bridge was filled with a tense atmosphere when the Director entered. Technicians and ensigns exchanged information in hushed murmurs. Captain Donovan stood at the helm, gazing at the field of stars beyond the bridge’s viewport, but turned around and gave a hasty salute when he heard Dr. Church approach.

“Director,” he stated.

Dr. Church acknowledged him by way of a nod. “Report, captain. What’s going on?”

Donovan turned and indicated to the holographic screens at the helm. “Scopes are picking up a slipspace rupture on the far side of the planet.”

With a frown, the Director studied the indicators on the screen representing the anomaly. “Ready all weapons and move within range,” he ordered. “We have visitors. It’s only polite that we give them a proper greeting.”

The field of stars shifted in the viewport as the command crew followed the Director’s orders. After a few minutes, one of the ensigns spoke up. “Sir, something’s coming through the rupture!”

With a bright flash of light, another ship suddenly appeared among the stars in the distance outside the viewport. It was somewhat bulkier than the Mother of Invention, sporting a sleeker pointed design. Even from this great distance, several holes and scorch marks from past battles could be seen on the ship’s hull. Dr. Church recognized it immediately as a UNSC Halberd-class destroyer; exactly what he was expecting.

“I was wondering when you’d finally show up again…” the Director mused as he studied the distant vessel. The Mother of Invention’s IFF program wasn’t showing the other ship’s name or serial number, indicating they must have configured her to wartime steaming. Nevertheless, Dr. Church knew he was looking at the UNSC Staff of Charon; the flagship of the Insurrection that had been a thorn in his side for so very long.

But no longer. The destroyer had vastly superior firepower capabilities to the Director’s own frigate, which was one of a few contributing factors leading to the Mother of Invention’s crippling defeat during their last encounter. But this time, they were ready, and Dr. Church had made a few upgrades to the Mother of invention over the years.

The Director adjusted his glasses as he looked up to address the ship as a whole. “FILSS?”

“Target locked.” The shipboard A.I. almost sounded gleeful as she replied, “Firing main cannon.”

The Crystal Castle observatory had a quiet, serene quality to it, being high enough on the crystal structure for all of the city’s night life to be reduced to a faint murmur below. Back in Canterlot, Night Light liked to make use of the observatory at his own manor when he needed a break on late nights grading papers.

The Princesses, Twilight’s friends and the humans with them had all left the Empire more than an hour before it had gotten dark. The Freelancer in gray and yellow had left separately even sooner than that. It was shortly after that Night had come up here, hoping to find the same peace of mind in the distraction provided by the stars. It wasn’t so effective this time. Twily used to love looking at the stars with him at night.

Each constellation he looked at came with a memory. Of little Twilight asking some question to sate her endless curiosity, or describing her idea of what the distant worlds around the stars might look like. Night Light wondered whether the reason Twilight had been so enamored with the idea of other worlds was because she subconsciously knew where she came from.

No, don’t be silly, Night Light. Twily’s not an alien. She was made here… I think. Night Light pulled back from the ornate purple telescope and let out a sigh, his vision beginning to blur as a lump formed in his throat. Even after Princess Celestia’s elaborate explanation, he still wasn’t sure just what Twilight Sparkle really was.

At the creak of the door opening, Night wiped at his eyes and turned to see his wife enter, levitating two plates with what appeared to be some type of lasagna.

“Figured I might find you up here,” Twilight Velvet said, giving him a strained smile. “I thought you might want some dinner.”

“Thanks hon,” Night replied, graciously accepting the plate.

“I would have brought it up sooner, but I wanted to clean up a bit first.” His wife gave him a grin. “Don’t think you really wanted to see the raccoon face again.”

At a second glance, Night noticed the absence of the black mascara lines running down from her eyes. He tried to give her one of his winning smiles, but he wasn’t entirely feeling it.

“Vel, you know I’ll always think you’re beautiful, even if you turned into a literal raccoon.”

Velvet chuckled quietly, and the two of them began to dig into their food.

“Eating in an observatory together. We haven’t done this since uni,” Night mused nostalgically.

Velvet smiled, but remained silent. It was clear she had other things on her mind. Night didn’t have to guess exactly what those things were. After spending a few minutes eating in silence, Velvet finally spoke up.

“She’s going to be fine,” she said, addressing the dark thoughts looming over them. “Twily has some of the most devoted friends out of anypony I’ve ever known. They’d go to the ends of the world for her and then some. She’s going to be fine.”

The words were definitely ones Night Light needed to hear, but the way Velvet was repeating herself made him wonder whether she was trying to reassure herself as much as she was him.

“You’re right,” Night said with a nod. “And when you’re right, you’re right.”

Velvet gave him a grin. “Aren’t I always?”

Night Light just frowned. It was true, and he suddenly remembered something very recent that she turned out to have been right about as well.

“Do you think we did the right thing? Telling her?” he asked. “Not just that she’s adopted, but everything else as well? My crazy theory? Because boy did I get that one wrong.”

Velvet took a thoughtful bite of her lasagna and after swallowing, answered, “I’ve been thinking a lot about that too. Y’know, part of me can’t help but wonder… whether it was intentional. Whether Celestia arranged things the way she did knowing that anypony who looked too deeply into it would just assume that Twily was her foal. Because better they think that than the truth.”

After taking and swallowing another bite, Velvet continued, “As for your question, ‘did we do what’s right?’ I don’t know. Is it wrong to just want to give your daughter some answers, even when you don’t have all of them yourself?”

Thinking about it, Night Light still wasn’t sure about it. But something in what Velvet had said gave him hope. Because unbeknownst to her, she did answer one of the big questions on his mind. He realized he knew exactly what Twilight Sparkle really was: She was his daughter. That was all that mattered.

Night showed his appreciation to his wife the best way he knew how: by leaning forward and giving her a peck on the lips. It was a little weird considering she was chewing on lasagna at that moment, but she smiled appreciatively and Night smiled in turn. For the first time since hearing the news, the pair of them had hope that everything would turn out okay in the end.

When they were both finished eating, Night took both plates in his magic and made to follow Velvet downstairs to their chambers when he took one last glance up at the night sky and noticed something peculiar.

“Huh. That’s odd…” he muttered as he adjusted the telescope and looked through it.

“Is something wrong?” Velvet asked, pausing at the door.

Night merely adjusted the focus on the telescope until he saw it clearly: two strange stars side by side in the sky where there ought to be no stars. At least, Night had thought they were stars at first before he noticed they were moving very slowly, separating at a downwards angle. They were flashing irregularly, like two candles trying desperately to stay lit before they finally went out completely.

“I don’t know….”

The cozy atmosphere of Golden Oaks Library provided no comfort to its occupants that evening. Church, still inside Caboose’s A.I. slot, had arrived in Ponyville not half an hour ago along with Donut and the five ponies on the Royal Train. It was a silent trip. Princess Celestia and Luna had both continued on to Canterlot, still needing to take care of a few loose ends there. It was an overcast night when they disembarked at the Ponyville train station, and Tucker was there waiting along with the other remaining Reds and Twilight’s little dragon assistant.

Fluttershy and Rarity had taken an understandably worried Spike back to the tree library he called home and with nowhere else to go, Tucker followed with Church now in his helmet. Caboose had elected to go visit Pinkie Pie at her own place.

It was only a matter of time before Spike asked the inevitable question. “So… where’s Twilight?”

Rarity and Fluttershy had exchanged a nervous look, each of them silently asking the other how to handle it. Unfortunately, Spike had picked up on that.

“Is she okay??? Why didn’t she come back with you guys?” the little dragon had asked, the questions coming quicker and quicker

“Twilight’s… going to be a bit longer,” Fluttershy had said.

“But she’ll be back. We’ll make sure of it!” Rarity said.

Church thought it would save them a lot of trouble and heartache in the long run if they just told the drake everything now, but he didn’t push the issue. It wasn’t worth getting into an argument with the insufferably stubborn ponies. Sometime later, Fluttershy had left to make sure her animals were all okay.

It was while the four of them were having dinner together (well, three of them really. As a hologram, Church couldn’t exactly consume food) that Caboose entered the library.

“Hey guys.”

“Caboose? I thought you were at Pinkie’s,” Church said.

“Yeah, she said she wanted to be alone for a while. I guess we’re still on a friendship break,” Caboose said.

Rarity looked at them with some confusion. “Friendship break? I don’t think that’s….”

“Rarity, are you honestly trying to understand a friendship between Pinkie Pie and Caboose?” Tucker asked.

“It’s just… strange. I’ve known Pinkie Pie a tad longer than you, dear. And while she may be an… enigma at times, she still always makes time for her friends, regardless of what may be happening in her life.” Rarity looked at the blue man sympathetically. “I hate to say it darling, but is it possible that… perhaps… just perhaps… you two aren’t quite as close as you thought you were?”

Spike gave her a look, and just like that, Rarity covered her mouth with a hoof, as if trying to force the words back into her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just…” she sighed, “it’s been a trying few days.”

Nevertheless, Rarity’s suggestion seemed to bring about a whole new train of thought within Tucker’s mind, and the fact that Church could sense this was just another reminder of how different he was from them now.

“Hey, Church… now that the team’s all here, there’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you guys.” Tucker then turned to Rarity. “Do you mind?”

“Oh, not at all!” Rarity said with an easy smile. When Tucker simply continued giving her an expectant stare, Rarity realized what exactly he was asking. “Oh, right….” Glancing down at their empty plates on the table, Rarity took them all in her soft blue aura. “Spike, why don’t you help me clean up in the kitchen?”

Spike nodded, following Rarity and the floating tableware into the kitchen. Once they were gone, Tucker folded his hands across the table as Caboose took a seat where Rarity had previously been.

“Okay, so… how much do you guys actually care about these ponies?” Tucker asked.

Church wasn’t sure where exactly his comrade was going with this. “Well… I guess I like some of ‘em okay.”

“I want to take them home and brush their hair and feed them colored carrots coordinated to their colors,” Caboose stated.

“What are you thinking, Tucker?” Church asked.

“What, you mean you don’t already know? Aren’t you like, in my head right now?” he asked in reply.

“Sorry man, I haven’t found my ‘telepathy’ function quite yet.”

“But did you find the ‘flying’ function? Ooh! Or how about the ‘shoot lasers out of your eyes’ function?” Caboose asked, bouncing in his seat with excitement.

“Caboose, we’ve barely been talking for a few seconds and you’re already pissing me off,” Church snapped.

“Oooh, you’re probably gonna find the ‘grow big and green when you get angry’ function.”

“Caboose!”

“Whoa, now just stay calm Church,” Caboose said nervously, raising his arms placatingly. “You don’t want the Other Guy to hurt anybody, now do you?”

“Can we please get back to what we were originally talking about?” Tucker groaned.

“Yeah, I think that was a pretty good tangent,” Caboose said. “Please continue.”

Giving a short growl of frustration, Tucker did just that. “Look, I’ve been thinking… maybe it’s time for us to go.”

“Go?” Church asked. “Where? To the Director’s flagship? Trust me, we will as soon as we’re ready.”

“No, I mean….”

“Go back to our home planet to live with the rest of our kind?” Caboose butted in, determined to get one last reference in.

“No!” Tucker cried, before realizing, “Wait… actually, yeah.”

Church folded his holographic arms, looking at Tucker with uncertainty. “You want to go back to our planet? Back to our canyon?”

“Yeah!” Tucker said, standing up. “Or, at least back to our planet. What’s wrong with that?”

“Uh, how about the fact that we’re not finished here? Project Freelancer is still going forward with their plans and are experimenting on another innocent person right now? You know, that whole problem?”

“So what? It’s not our problem!” Tucker said, and all of a sudden, Church noted it had gotten very quiet over in the kitchen.

“Think about it, we’ve spent the past week and a half risking our lives for this world and what are we getting out of it?” Tucker gestured to his arm in its sling. “Nothing but broken bones!”

Tucker then tilted his head as he thought further. “Well… maybe we’ll get loads of pony alien chicks lining up to get it on with the badasses who saved them, but… I dunno. Banging a pony would be so weird. Like… having sex with a stuffed animal, or something. Trust me, it’s not as fun as you might think!”

“First of all…” Church started, before he finally gave Tucker’s last statement some serious thought. “Wait, what do you mean? Have you… had sex with a stuffed animal?”

Tucker stuttered incoherently for a brief moment. “Look, what I may or may not have done when I was a kid is irrelevant right now. I kinda lost track of my argument once I started talking about alien chicks, but my point remains! We have no reason to stay here. I talked to Sarge, and he….”

“Ah, well there’s your problem: You talked to Sarge and some of his stupid rubbed off on you!” Church exclaimed.

“Hey now, let’s not go talking about stupid like it’s a bad thing here,” Caboose said slowly.

“Yeah, or rubbing off,” Tucker giggled, before amending. “Wait, just to clarify, Sarge didn’t….”

“Trust me, that’s not something you need to expand on. It's called 'don't ask, don't tell' for a reason,” Church deadpanned.

"Oh, up yours!"

Church turned to the other Blue in the room, eager to resume the actual conversation. “Caboose, back me up here. You don’t want to go just yet, do you?”

“I… ah… I don’t like being put on the spot!” Caboose then started humming what could be loosely interpreted as a game show theme song while the other Blues simply stared at him.

“Caboose, you can’t honestly tell me you wanna just throw your life away for these ponies?” Tucker questioned. “How many times do you think we almost died during this mission?”

“Yeah, but… Pinkie Pie’s my friend,” Caboose said earnestly.

“Not right now. According to you, you’re on a ‘friendship break’!”

“But… I don’t… augh…” Caboose whimpered.

Seeing that Caboose was getting distressed, Church decided it was time to put his foot down. “No, you know what? We’re staying and that’s final.”

“You can’t order us around, Church. You’re not even our real leader!” Tucker exclaimed. “In fact, come to think of it, you’re not even really a part of Blue Team! You were just stuffed inside a blue robot so you could hide with the rest of us cannon fodder!”

Before Church could make a rebuttal, Rarity and Spike came out of the kitchen with a concerned look on their faces.

“Does anybody else hear that?” the baby dragon asked.

“Yeah, it sounds like a complete asshole trying to abandon the mission!” Church exclaimed, wondering whether the pony and dragon had even heard them arguing.

“Wait, I actually do hear something…” Tucker muttered.

The room quieted down, and then Church heard it. A deep rumbling sound that shook the whole library with a constant tremor.

“Is it an earthquake?” Church asked.

“Oh God, Church is ‘Hulking’ out!” Caboose exclaimed. “Look at me, Church! Remember who you are! Don’t lose yourself again!”

“Ponyville never gets earthquakes like this,” Rarity said. “And I don’t believe there’s a storm scheduled tonight.”

A distant crash like thunder suddenly rang out. The group of five slowly made their way toward the library’s front door as the shaking and thunder-like claps continued. Slowly, Rarity opened the door and the group peeked outside.

Their collective jaws dropped when they looked up at the sky.

With a heavy weight hanging over her heart, Fluttershy looked around at the comforting familiar surroundings of her hometown. It had been her hope that the next time they were all together in Ponyville, it would be when Project Freelancer was defeated, and these horrible times were finally over. But it was not over, and as it was painfully apparent, they weren’t all together.

She and Rarity had wasted no time in taking Spike back to Golden Oaks when they arrived, and Fluttershy tried not to look when the uncharacteristically quiet Donut regrouped with Sarge and Grif. When Spike asked the inevitable question about Twilight, she and Rarity did their best to explain the situation to him, sparing him the unpleasant details about what she really was and what was happening to her now.

After that, Fluttershy entrusted the drake to Rarity’s care while she returned to her cottage to check on her animals. Once she was sure they were all taken care of, Fluttershy found herself unable to linger, and before she even knew what she was doing, her legs were taking her toward Sweet Apple Acres: Where the Reds had been staying during their time here.

Wandering into the apple orchard, Fluttershy bumped into Applejack along the way, who said she wanted to check on the Reds and see whether their ship was ready for the mission to save Twilight. The pair eventually found Sarge and Donut sitting by the rear bay of the ship, tinkering with the white helmet they’d gotten from Wyoming.

“Donut, did this thing go off again?” Sarge asked, looking at the pink soldier quizzically. “Or are you just bein’ very still?”

It was a few moments before Donut moved his head in response. “Hmm? Oh, sorry Sarge. I was just thinking about whether dogs get songs stuck in their head.”

Sarge let out a long sigh. “Shut up and pass me a flathead wrench.”

Grif was lying under a tree nearby, just far enough away from the other two Reds to be out of their way. Applejack approached Sarge and Donut and swallowing nervously, Fluttershy approached Grif, noting the metal tags he was clutching in his hand.

“Um, hello Grif.”

His orange helmet tilted up to look at her. “Oh. What do you want?” Grif asked sharply.

Fluttershy winced, but tried not to take his dismissive tone personally. She knew he was probably hurting right now. In fact, it was why she was here.

“I just, um, wanted to see how you were doing,” she replied. Truth be told, there was a selfish angle to her decision to come here. If she was able to comfort Grif through his own recent loss, perhaps it would help take her mind off of Twilight.

“Oh. I dunno. I feel… weird.”

“Weird?” Fluttershy asked with a tilt of her head.

Grif nodded. “It doesn’t seem real. I keep thinking he’s gonna show up to bitch at me for being lazy, or for using half of the squad’s rations to make little food men… and eating them.” Grif glanced over to his other two compatriots. “Don’t tell Sarge about that, by the way.”

Looking back at Fluttershy, Grif continued, “I dunno, I should be feeling sad. I mean, Simmons and I sure as hell didn’t always get along, but he was still my friend. Some of the best times I’ve had in this squad were just standing around with him, shootin’ the shit. But I just… don’t feel anything. The fuck is wrong with me?”

Fluttershy had heard of this phenomenon before: how ponies who had suffered a particularly hard loss sometimes just shut down emotionally. Because it felt safer than facing the truth that they’ll never see a loved one again. But sooner or later, the reality of the situation would come crashing down all at once.

So Fluttershy instead tried to pursue another topic and glanced in the other Reds’ direction as she asked, “So, what are they working on?”

The question was instead answered by Applejack as she shouted, “YER LEAVING?!”

“Yup. As soon as I figure out how to hook up Wyoming’s damn time device to the ship,” Sarge grunted while shifting the white helmet in his lap.

Fluttershy looked at Grif with some confusion. “Where are you going?”

“Home,” Grif stated. “I don’t wanna stay here another damn minute longer than we have to.”

“But we need this ship to save Twilight!” Applejack protested.

“You still have the invisible one!” Donut said.

“There’s not enough seats in the invisible one!”

“Why do you want to leave, Grif?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why? Because we never wanted to be here in the first place, remember?” Grif said bitterly. “I’m tired of always fighting and almost dying.”

“But… isn’t that kind of part of being a soldier?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, but we never had to do anything really dangerous before we came here! At most we’d get in a few firefights with the Blues and stop the occasional bad guy, but… we’ve never had to face actually losing people!” Grif sighed. “I just… I just wanna go home….”

A distant bang echoed through the sky above like a clap of thunder. What was weird was that there wasn’t any lightning. Rainbow Dash even said when they returned that tonight was only supposed to be overcast. There wasn’t a proper thunderstorm scheduled for at least another week.

“Great galloping goombas! What was that?” Sarge asked.

A second echoing clap drew the three Reds and the pair of ponies out from the thick apple trees onto the hill overlooking the orchard. It was dark, but the moon was bright enough to illuminate the night sky through the layer of clouds covering it. It wasn’t long before Fluttershy realized the ground beneath them was shaking before a deafening whine filled the sky. The sight that followed sucked the collective breaths out of every individual that saw it.

A metal behemoth burst through the layer of clouds in the sky, wreathed in flames and black smoke. The ship was as big as Canterlot, maybe bigger. It was easy to make the comparison as the massive vessel flew right past the mountainside capital. Whatever objects each of the Reds were holding dropped to the ground. Applejack’s jaw hung open, and Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide as she shook like a tree in the wind. All of them watched in awed silence as the burning ship sailed a bit longer before hitting the ground with a deep bang that seemed to shake the world.

Author's Note

We're very close. Up next is the penultimate chapter.

Next time: The gang's climactic final assault on Project Freelancer

Act 3 Part 11 - When We Were Soldiers

Tray full of food, the new recruit looked out at the mess hall with trepidation. He had certainly been surprised when he found out he had been accepted into this experimental “Freelancer” program. He had been so sure his interview with the man calling himself the Counselor had gone poorly, given the way he had brought up a couple of his… less than collected moments from his military career and even his childhood. Nevertheless, here he stood. His initial enthusiasm for being part of the project was forgotten under the awkwardness of being the new guy.

Looking around at the full mess hall in front of him, the new recruit saw the tables on one half dominated by men and women in gray armor, and another half filled with eating soldiers in much more diverse, colorful armor. Amidst all of it, he did not see a single place for him to sit. At least until a pale yellow arm waved him over.

“Hey! New guy!” the man said, scooting over to make a place for him to sit.

Thankful to be spared the awkwardness of having to approach a table and ask for a seat, the recruit walked over and sat down with his tray, not sure whether he wanted to start with his banana or one of his apples.

“So, you’re the fresh meat, huh?” the woman across from him said with a predatory grin. She wore orchid armor with green trim. A mop of pale blond hair tipped with purple that was definitely not cut to regulation hung in front of her dark brown eyes. “Guess they needed someone new to be the bullet sponge after Georgia….”

“Don’t scare the kid, South,” chided the man sitting beside her. His violet armor with green trim was nearly identical to hers. His own hair was an identical pale blond, but where his differed was that his was cut to regs. “Sorry about her. My baby sis isn’t exactly the easiest to get along with if you haven’t known her all your life.”

At the use of the term “baby sis”, the woman called South directed a death glare at the man beside her, before realizing it wasn’t getting her anywhere and returning to her lunch with a grumpy sulk.

“I’m North Dakota and well, you’ve already been introduced to my twin sister, South Dakota,” the man continued. “What’s your name?”

The recruit swallowed the bite of apple he’d been chewing on and answered, “I’m Dav…” before remembering he was supposed to go by his codename and amending, “er… I’m Washington.”

“Washington?” the man wearing yellow armor with gray trim asked, giving a disappointed sigh. “Aw man, I wanted Washington.”

“Right, and the handsome devil beside you is New York,” North said.

“Just York is fine,” said the man in question. His features were admittedly handsome, Washington had to admit, and his brown hair was cut to regulation as well.

North then went on to introduce the rest of the Freelancers at the table. Beside the Dakota twins was Wyoming, who wore white armor and an expertly groomed black mustache. He spoke to Washington with a condescending British accent. Beside him sat Florida, who wore blue armor and was eating what appeared to be a Kraft Dinner with what Washington assumed was some sort of fancy dijon ketchup. He greeted Washington with disarmingly pleasant tones. Beside York across from Wyoming was Connecticut, a pretty woman in brown armor who, apart from insisting to go by CT, was incredibly quiet. Lastly, a dopey man called Utah sat beside her wearing platinum armor.

The rest of the meal passed by relatively quietly, with the other Freelancers around the table cracking jokes and telling stories from previous assignments. It was as Washington was finishing up that he mentioned he would soon be heading to a debriefing for his first assignment.

“No shit, they already have you going on a mission?” York asked.

“They’re just tossing them into the deep end without any floaties now, aren’t they?” Wyoming mused.

“I’m not too worried. I’m just shadowing one of you more experienced Freelancers on a simple hit and run,” Washington said, more trying to reassure himself than the others. “It shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

“That depends. Who’s your partner?” York asked.

“Oh yeah,” Washington said as he stood to throw away the remains of his meal. He had been meaning to ask about this. “Do any of you know who Agent Maine is?”

Each of the other Freelancers at the table immediately stopped what they were doing to look at him with mixed expressions of shock and pity.

Washington just looked around at all of their uneasy faces. “Uh… am I missing something? It looked like time just froze for a sec there!”

“Well, don’t look at me!” Wyoming said.

York ignored him, looking at Washington sympathetically. “You poor bastard.”

South snickered. “Dibs on his stuff.”

“South…” her brother warned.

“I don’t get it. Should I be concerned? What’s wrong with Maine?” Washington asked.

“That’s... kind of a loaded question,” CT said carefully.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Wyoming said with a grin. “Now’s your chance to find out, mate!”

Before he could ask what the Englishman meant, Washington realized someone was standing behind him. Turning around, the new recruit’s eyes widened when he found himself facing a wall of white armor with brown shoulder pads. With barely concealed trembling, Washington looked up at the other man who was almost a head taller than he was.

Maine’s face was hard and stony. He sported a shaved head and a big nasty scar running horizontally across his face over his nose. He glared down at Washington with a look somewhere between disinterest and disgust.

It was only after a few failed attempts at speech that Washington was finally able to squeak out a word, “H-hi!”

Maine grunted in disapproval, shoving Washington as he made his way to the exit. Washington wasn’t prepared for the sheer force of it and stumbled backwards onto the table. York and South laughed their asses off while Wyoming gave an amused chuckle. North just tried his best to give Washington a reassuring look.

Washington swallowed nervously. “I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

With a shake of his head, Washington dispelled the memories from his mind. It was strange, recent conversations with the group of ponies and sim troopers over the last few days had been triggering all sorts of feelings of nostalgia within him. It was thus that he found himself feeling oddly depressed when he had explained the reasoning behind his actions to Celestia and the others, and she had politely told him to fuck off.

At first, Washington told himself he was only disappointed he would have a harder time completing his objective without their support as he trudged through the snow, putting the shining capital of the Crystal Empire behind him. Deep down, he knew that wasn’t the real reason for his morose mood. After all, he was about to go through with his plan anyway.

Washington put a finger to the side of his helmet and opened a secure channel. “This is Recovery One, going for Command. Come in, Command.”

It was a few moments later when he heard a dull female voice answer him. “This is Command. Go ahead, Recovery One.”

“Command, my cover within the enemy has been compromised.” At this point, it was no longer a lie. “I require immediate extraction.”

“Copy that, Recovery One. Stand by.”

Washington stood patiently in the cold as the woman at Command conferred with her superiors. As he continued to wait, Washington grew more worried. It shouldn’t be taking them this long to approve of extraction.

“That’s a negative on the extraction, Recovery One,” the woman at Command said when she returned.

Washington gritted his teeth. “Say again, Command? I repeat: My cover within enemy ranks has been blown.”

“We copy, Recovery One. But we need you to remain planetside. Continue to monitor the enemy from a distance and report on their movements. Understood?”

Washington’s heart began to race. “With all due respect, Command, there’s very little I can accomplish from the ground with my cover compromised.”

“Sorry, Recovery One. But these orders come from the Director himself,” Command said, and it was undeniable what was really going on. “Understood?”

Sighing, Washington spoke into his mic. “Understood, Command. Recovery One out.”

It was easy enough for Washington to read between the lines: They didn’t trust him. Just like Celestia and the others didn’t trust him. Somehow, Washington had found himself an outsider to both sides of this conflict, and with a trembling sigh, he realized it hurt more than he had anticipated.

“She means we’re your friends now, Washingtub!” Caboose exclaimed.

Applejack gave an amused chuckle. “I guess that’s one way of sayin’ what I was gettin’ at.”

At the distant sound of a whistle blowing, Washington turned around to see a fancy white train with blue and gold streaks traveling along the tracks in the distance, heading south away from the Crystal Empire. He had a pretty good idea of exactly who was on board. So, with a heavy heart, Washington made to follow them discreetly, deciding that it was ultimately time to prove his loyalty.

To one side or the other.

They found the trench before they found what made it. It was all Rarity could do not to gasp. The width of the trench was greater than that of the largest buildings in Manehattan. She followed it along with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, each of them struck silent by the way the trench carved through trees and boulders alike until finally ending at the hull of the massive ship.

A squad of soldiers in gold barding were already on site establishing a perimeter around the huge vessel under the light of the moon.

“Halt!” ordered one of the soldiers, approaching the five mares with a pair of his own. “No civilians beyond this point. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to turn around.”

Rarity was ready to put on the charm when a warm maternal voice spoke up in her stead.

“It’s alright, Major,” Princess Celestia said as she swooped down and landed beside them, looking regal as ever. “These five are with me. They have experience with… extraterrestrial affairs.”

With an understanding nod, the major and his soldiers stepped aside and allowed the princess and the five ponies to pass.

“So, what’s going on, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked, glancing at the side of the ship as they walked along. “Is that… the Freelancer flagship? Is Twilight in there?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Celestia said, indicating with a jerk of her head to something high up on the hull beside them. Rarity and the others all looked up and found the words “Staff of Charon” printed across the hull in big bold white letters. It didn’t take long for Rarity to remember where she recognized that name from, and her heart plummeted in her chest as she did her best not to swallow too audibly.

“We should check for survivors,” Celestia continued. “Perhaps one of them might give us some insight into what happened.”

It didn’t take long for the group of ponies to reach the end of the rear section of the ship, which they soon discovered was the only part of it still for the most part intact. The rest of the Staff of Charon lay strewn about the the field going on as far as the eye could see. Rarity tried not to be sick as she realized there may not be any survivors to find.

“If any of you wish to turn back now, I’ll understand,” Celestia told them. “What we find will not be pretty.”

The five friends looked at the princess with conviction, each of them remaining firmly in place.

“I’ll start checking around the front of the ship,” Rainbow Dash said, answering Celestia in her own way. “Any of you wanna help?”

“Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, waving her hoof in the air. Fluttershy merely nodded quietly, and together the three of them made their way to the nose of the ship.

Rarity and Applejack started looking through the rubble together while Princess Celestia rallied more soldiers to assist with the effort. Rarity wasn’t sure how much time they spent searching the remains of the ship and finding nothing but the remains of its passengers. Wasn’t sure when she had become numb to all of the destruction and death.

The sound of agonized moans echoing through the debris field gave the two mares new drive as they rushed to the source together. Rarity stopped in her tracks when she saw him: the man in brown powered armor with white trim wearing a similarly colored helmet resembling a grim, stony face. He was pinned to the ground beneath a huge metal object, lamely struggling to move it.

Rarity studied him impassively for a few moments, unsure of what to do. If I am numb to such horrible things, it’s because of you! She knew he had more than earned his suffering, but the longer she stood there watching, the more she realized what it was she was actually doing. No, I can’t let myself become like this. Like him.

“WE FOUND SOMEONE!” Rarity shouted to the other ponies searching the debris around her. “HE’S STILL ALIVE, WE CAN STILL SAVE HIM IF WE HURRY!”

She saw a few soldiers drop what they were doing and begin making their way through the ruined ship towards them, but she knew there was more she could do. Rarity raced forward and grabbed the man by the arms, before enveloping the big piece of metal holding him down in her magic. With a strained grunt, Rarity lifted the heavy piece of debris with her magic as she tried to drag the man out from beneath it, but to no avail. Her talent for telekinesis was for fine control of many small things, not brute force.

“Applejack, would you be a dear?” she asked, gesturing to the debris she was trying to lift with a tilt of her head.

The farmpony nodded, and rushed forward. Applejack crouched under the big metal piece using what little room had been provided by Rarity’s own attempt at lifting it. Legs shaking, Applejack stood, using her strong earth pony back to lift the metal debris right off of the brown armored man, allowing Rarity to drag him out from underneath it. Her muscles burned and her breaths came quickly but Rarity didn’t stop until the man who called himself CT was safely out from underneath the rubble.

By that point, a few soldiers had made it over and all took hold of the metal debris to keep it from crushing Applejack. Reassured that her friend would be okay, Rarity looked down at the man at her hooves. A pool of blood was growing beneath him, oozing out through the bottom of a few holes in his stomach. He only had one leg, and another glance at the debris he had been trapped under confirmed the presence of sharp jagged metal tipped with blood sticking out near the bottom.

CT turned over on the ground as he coughed long and painfully, and Rarity quickly removed the helmet from his head to give him some breathing room. It was only then that the man looked up at her. His face was as bruised and disheveled as it had been when they last met, but now a trail of blood was seeping out of his mouth, and his eyes seemed cloudy and distant. Nevertheless, they lit up with recognition when he saw her.

“P… protègè?” he asked.

“No, don’t talk,” Rarity calmly ordered. “Just rest.”

Rarity heard hoofsteps behind her and saw the Insurrectionist leader look up past her.

“So…” the Leader coughed. “Y-you must be Princess Celestia.”

Sure enough, when Rarity turned, the tall white alicorn was looking down over her shoulder, studying the man carefully.

“Connie’s told me all about you,” the Leader continued as an earth pony medic approached. “She thought you were involved in the Director’s experiments… right up until she spoke with you for the last time.”

“What happened?” Celestia asked, looking around at the debris as the medic got to work on patching the Leader up.

The Leader gave a weak grin. “Got my ass kicked.” He grunted in pain as the medical pony started filling his wounds with gauze. Rarity wasn’t sure whether it would be enough. He was getting paler by the moment.

“The Director was ready for me. They were on us as soon as we came out of slipspace… but we gave as good as we got! We crippled ‘em good. Did enough damage to force them into the atmosphere. Last I saw they were headed toward the southwestern hemisphere.” The Leader shifted uncomfortably and winced as the medic kept working on him. “Looks like it’s up to you to finish it now. It’s finally almost over.”

The Leader’s eyes then drifted back towards Rarity, and a guilty look crossed his face. “For what it’s worth… I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I put you through. I’m sorry… that I hurt so many people. I’m sorry for a lot of things. But mostly, I’m sorry I waited until now to finally let things go.

“Looks like I’ll be seeing Connie again soon. I just hope she can forgive me for all the things I’ve done in her name….”

The statement made Rarity curious. “So, why did you take CT’s name as your own?”

After a few moments of silence, the Leader answered, “Because memory is the key. It defines who we are. Because after we’re gone, what else are we but memories? I thought that if I beat Project Freelancer under her name… I… I just didn’t want her to be remembered as a failure.”

Rarity could only stand in silence with Applejack and Celestia as the Leader’s breathing became harsher and more erratic despite the medic’s ministrations. The Leader closed his eyes as his breathing slowed, and he began mumbling deliriously. Rarity couldn’t understand what he was saying, but she caught a few words.

“Next time we meet it’s forever….”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure how long they’d spent searching through the spaceship rubble in the dark. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had both been relatively quiet as they searched. Rainbow had almost been ready to give up on finding anyone when a pile of debris suddenly groaned as it shifted.

“Whuzzat?” Pinkie Pie asked, rapidly sniffing the air as if forgetting for a moment that she was, in fact, not a dog.

For a moment, Rainbow wasn’t sure whether it meant there was a person buried beneath desperately trying to get out or whether the pile was merely unstable. It was when the pile shifted again that she started to realize it probably wasn’t incidental.

“I think there’s someone trapped under there!” she exclaimed. “Pinkie, go get help!”

With an almost comically serious salute, the pink pony darted away to do exactly that. Fluttershy was on the move immediately, approaching the pile of metal debris to call down gently to whoever was trapped beneath.

“It’s okay, don’t be scared. We’re going to get you out of there,” she said reassuringly. “Just don’t move around too much, or you might shift the debris and make it harder to get AUGH!”

Fluttershy shrieked as a huge armored hand punched through the pile of rubble. The little yellow pegasus scrambled away until she was beside Rainbow Dash, trembling fearfully as the white armored hand gripped a jagged piece of metal and the thing beneath began to pull itself out. It let out a low distorted growl, and Rainbow’s heart sank into a deep cold pit in her chest as her eyes grew wide.

“You can’t be serious...” she muttered hoarsely as the Meta emerged from the jagged pile like a demon crawling from the mouth of Tartarus itself.

Rainbow tried to run, tried to call out for help, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She could only stare in a shocked stupor as the towering figure looked over at her through a faceless domed helmet.

Before it could do anything else, it let out a pained grunt and flinched as sparks shot out of its armor. Then Rainbow Dash heard the sound of many approaching hoofsteps led by Pinkie Pie’s all too familiar high-pitched voice. With more tiny sparks of electricity dancing over its body, the Meta let out an aggravated snarl before taking off in the other direction, moving faster than something that big had any right to move.

Her heart racing, Rainbow Dash turned to look at Fluttershy to make sure she was okay. The butter yellow pegasus responded the only way she knew how: Her eyes rolled back and she passed out onto the ground.

“The Meta’s here?!” Applejack exclaimed when they had all regrouped just beyond the derelict Staff of Charon.

“Yeah, I literally just said that,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

Rarity, who was busy fanning a still unconscious Fluttershy, asked, “But are you sure you really saw it?”

That was when Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide open, nodding at Rarity with a shell-shocked expression. “Um… we’re pretty sure.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at Princess Celestia, who was quietly listening the whole time. “So, what do we do?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, hopping in place. “I don’t think I have any cakes that say ‘We’re sorry you lost your A.I.s, please don’t try to kill us again!’”

After careful consideration, Celestia said, “We do nothing… for now.”

“Uh, beggin’ yer pardon, Yer Majesty, but are you seriously suggestin’ we jus’ let that monster run around Equestria unchecked?” Applejack asked.

“We already hit it with the Elements of Harmony…” Fluttershy suddenly remembered.

“That’s right, and the fact that the Meta wasn’t turned to stone means there’s still hope for the man it used to be,” Celestia said with confidence. “Besides, if what Wash… if what I’ve been told is true, the Meta should be far less dangerous now without its A.I.s. I will nevertheless inform my soldiers to stay alert, but right now we have more pressing matters.”

Rarity’s ears suddenly perked up. “Ooh, that’s right! CT told us that he managed to cripple the Director’s ship!”

“What? He’s here too?!” Rainbow Dash asked with a groan.

Rarity’s eyes fell, a grim tone entering her sophisticated voice. “Well… not anymore.”

“What’s important is that we’ve been given a brief window of opportunity,” Celestia stated. “The Mother of Invention is somewhere in Equestria right now, and if we can find it before the Director can have it repaired, we may actually have a real shot at storming it. I’ve already sent scouts out searching for it. With a vessel that size, it’ll only be a matter of time before we find it.”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Great! So what’s the plan, Princess?”

Tex’s spectral visage appeared to answer the question. “Even if it is heavily damaged, the Mother of Invention is still likely flight-capable. How about you guys check in to see how the Reds and Blues are coming along with their repairs to that Pelican?”

Fluttershy and Applejack exchanged a knowing glance. “Yeah, um… about that…” Fluttershy started. “We… might have a teensy little problem….”

The five ponies, their princess, and Spike arrived at the crash site within Applejack’s orchard to the sight of Church’s tiny hologram bickering with the rest of the Reds and Blues. In the darkness, the little A.I. seemed to illuminate everything in a dim blue glow.

“Ah, finally!” Church said when he saw the group of ponies coming. “Maybe you guys can talk some sense into these idiots.”

Fluttershy and Applejack had explained the situation to the others: The Reds were fixing the ship they used to get to Equestria in the first place, but weren’t planning on using it to storm the Director’s flagship. Instead, they were hooking up Wyoming’s helmet to the ship’s computer just like Tex had done with the very first ship that crashed in Dodge City. Except they were using it to return to their own planet. According to Rarity and Spike, Tucker had expressed a similar desire to leave.

“Gentlemen,” Rarity started, bouncing her mane as she prepared to put on the charm. “I know you have your hearts set on using this ship to go home, but it’s also our only chance to save our friend. Don’t you think you could find it in your heart to let us use it?”

“Yeah, and while you’re at it, maybe you could help us?” Rainbow Dash said, being far less diplomatic. “Y’know, like you’ve been doing the entire time up to this point?”

“Funny you should say that, missy. Because as I seem to recall, we’ve been helpin’ you under duress this whole time,” Sarge said. “And what did we get fer it? Diddly squat!”

“Oh, I can tell you one thing I got out of it,” Tucker said, gesturing to his arm in a sling. “A fucking broken arm!”

“No respect!” Donut added.

“I lost my robot, and my cyborg soldier!” Sarge exclaimed, gesturing to Grif and Donut. “Now I’m stuck with these two fleshbags!”

“Oh yeah, and I lost my fucking best friend!” Grif said, immediately silencing any rebuttal the ponies were about to make. His fists were curled, and they noticed he was trembling. “T-thanks a lot, assholes!”

“Oh, Grif…” Fluttershy gasped, moving forward in an instant to comfort him, but Grif raised an arm.

“Oh, just stop! You’re not my sister, okay?! She’s dead too, in case you forgot!”

Fluttershy whimpered and took a step back, and the two ponies with little sisters of their own exchanged nervous frowns.

“Oh, boo-fuckin’-hoo, Grif. Way to make this all about you, as usual!” Church exclaimed bitterly.

“Wow. Fuck you very much!” Grif shouted back, raising a middle finger at the A.I. for good measure.

“Grif, please…” Fluttershy tried, only to be met with Grif’s other middle finger.

“See how convenient this is, Sarge?” the orange soldier asked, still holding up both middle fingers. “I almost lost my ability to do this!”

The others were a little confused by Grif’s statement, but taking a closer look at his right hand indicated to some of them that he was missing a finger right beside the one he had raised.

“Caboosey?” Pinkie Pie spoke up as Grif continued arguing with Church, taking a step toward the Blue who had been very quiet up until that point. “Do you really just wanna… go? Without even a goodbye party?”

“I don’t know…” Caboose said in a surprisingly somber tone. “Are we still on a friendship break?”

“Friendship break? I…” Pinkie paused as she thought, and the others could swear they could see a “loading…” bar briefly appear in her eyes. “Oooh… is this about how we had an argument before we left on our mission and when we finally got back I sent you away?”

Caboose nodded.

“Well, I’m not maddy-waddy at you if that’s what you’re worried about! If anything I was saddy-waddy about Twilight and wanted to be alone for a while so my frownyness wouldn’t affect anypony else. But we’re still friends!”

With nervous energy, Caboose looked back and forth between Tucker, Church, and Pinkie Pie, inexplicably humming that game show tune again.

At the same time, Rarity looked at Tucker.

“You know, I really thought you were a good person despite how you carry yourself,” she said.

“Yeah, well if not wanting to risk my life for someone I barely know makes me a bad person, I guess I’m fucking Kim Jong Hitler,” Tucker deadpanned.

“Tell me this, l’il ladies,” Sarge said, standing tall with his shotgun and addressing each of the ponies present. “If any of us were in the same position as yer buddy Twifight Spackle, would you help us if it meant riskin’ yer life? If it meant possibly dyin’?”

A few seconds passed, and none of the ponies found that they could answer.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Sarge grunted.

Meanwhile, Grif continued arguing with Church and the other ponies.

“And another thing!” Grif shouted. “Isn’t it a little ironic for you to say that I’m being selfish?”

“Well, I think it would be ironic if…” Donut started.

“Don’t start this conversation again!” Grif interrupted.

“Yeah, I get it. I can be a self-centered asshole a lot of the time, but at least I’ve changed a little bit!” Church turned to address all of the Reds and Blues around him, his hologram flickering unsteadily as his indignant anger rose. “Each and every one of you are the exact same selfish, lazy, pathetic morons I’ve always known! A very dear friend of mine needs my help and all you assholes want to do is give up and go home!? I may not have known Twilight for very long, but she’s been a way better friend to me in the few weeks I’ve known her than any of you have been in all the years I’ve known you!

“So you know what?! FINE! LEAVE! We’re better off without you cockbites, anyway!”

The silence that followed was devastating. Even Caboose was speechless. No longer able to remain silent, Celestia let out a weary sigh. She had hoped that the group of friends would be able to work everything out themselves, but then she remembered that the group of Red and Blue soldiers before her weren’t like her little ponies. They were so vastly different; the very antithesis of friendship and harmony. Maybe this was for the best.

“Although his words were harsh, perhaps Church is right,” Celestia said calmly, looking at each of the Reds and Blues in turn. She was unable to hide the disappointment she felt. “You all are under no obligation to help us if you truly don’t want to. You wish to leave? We won’t stop you.”

“Finally! A pony that’s actually reasonable. What are the fucking chances?” Tucker deadpanned as he reached back behind his helmet and removed the chip holding Church from his A.I. slot, tossing it to Celestia who caught it in her magic aura.

“But… didn’t you say we need that ship to save Twilight?” Spike asked, looking up at Celestia with a nervous frown.

When the rest of her ponies did the same, Celestia said, “Now that the Mother of Invention is no longer beyond our atmosphere, we don’t necessarily need a space-faring vessel to board them.”

Celestia turned to leave. “If you’re all done here, come with me. We’re departing for Cloudsdale,” she said, before looking back at the colorful human soldiers all standing around the ship. “If you change your mind, you can always come find us. It’s never too late to help your friends.”

Stumbling his way through the trees and the darkness, Washington kept pressing forward towards his best approximation of the crash site. By his best guess, he was still a couple of miles out from Ponyville when he saw the massive ship burst through the clouds and crash in the distance. He didn’t even have a real plan once he reached the wreckage. For the first time since joining Project Freelancer, Washington was just making it up as he went.

A red dot appeared on the edges of his HUD’s motion tracker, and when he turned to look, Washington caught a glimpse of a familiar large figure moving through the darkness between trees. Keeping his head low, Washington turned to follow. It wasn’t long before Washington caught up with the armored figure.

The Meta stood leaning against a tree, hunched over as it clutched its side. Electricity sparked along his armor, and Washington could hear the man’s labored breathing. Seeing him now, Washington couldn’t help but think of a wounded animal. This would be his best chance to take the Meta out and eliminate its threat once and for all.

Washington raised his rifle and in response, the Meta’s domed helmet tilted up to look at him. But nothing happened. The large man only stood, studying Washington silently. Waiting for the inevitable. And yet, Washington found himself unable to pull the trigger. He remembered seeing Maine this helpless before.

Each of the other Freelancers hung on his every word as Washington paced around the crew lounge, regaling them with the tale of his first mission as a Freelancer.

“...and sure enough, there was Maine, lying at the bottom of the dry waterway,” Washington said. “I thought he was dead at first, but then I saw his helmet turn to look at me.”

Pantomiming riding a motorcycle and sharply turning his body, Washington continued, “So I immediately turned my Mongoose around and jumped down to get him. I had to act fast, because enemy troops were pouring into the waterway. I was just lifting Maine onto the back of the Mongoose when I heard the explosion….”

“Explosion?” North asked, looking at the new Freelancer curiously.

“Yeah, apparently someone had planted explosives on the bridge above,” Washington explained.

In his debriefing after the mission, the Director had explained that the blast was the work of the Insurrection, though it didn’t make much sense to Washington. The bridge’s destruction had ended up cutting off the enemy’s ground forces from their pursuit. Washington had briefly considered the notion that Project Freelancer was behind the blast, but dismissed it as impossible. Not only were there too many civilians around for such a strategy to be safe, but all of the program’s agents were either on board the Mother of Invention or on other missions. Unless the Director had some other high level operative secretly covering their tracks, the idea that Project Freelancer was behind the blast was ridiculous.

“Anyway, just as I had Maine on the back of the Mongoose, he leaned forward and barely managed to whisper….”

“Wait, Maine talked?!” South asked, giving Washington a skeptical look.

“Yeah, I figured he’s a pretty quiet guy, but he still talks.”

“Not to any of us,” York said. “The only person I’ve heard him say a word to is Carolina.”

“What did he say?” asked North, and Washington noticed the other Freelancers in the room were all leaning forward, eager to know.

“He said… ‘Ford,’” Washington answered.

The other Freelancers all looked at him with confusion.

“Yeah, I was pretty confused too… until I looked up and saw the car flying off the bridge right towards us,” Washington went on. “Sure enough… it was a white Ford.”

The amused chuckles from his captive audience was all Washington needed to continue his animated retelling.

“Without even thinking I gunned it forward, the enemy hot on our heels. I knew we had to get past that bridge before the whole thing came down and either crushed us to death, or cornered us. Rubble and more cars were coming down all around us, it was total chaos! But I wasn’t worried...” Washington didn’t mention the fact that he had been screaming in sheer panic the entire time. “I wasn’t worried because I knew to swerve and dodge every time Maine said: ‘Buick.’ ‘Honda.’ ‘Genet.’”

“Wow. Sounds like every car in the world wants you dead,” York snarked.

“Yeah, cars really seem to hate me,” Washington said. “Anyway, we made it through right as the whole bridge came down. The enemy soldiers? Not so lucky.”

North chuckled. “Well, I can’t think of a more fitting way to welcome you to the team.”

Just then, South’s eyes briefly flicked past Washington and a shit eating grin spread across her face. “Hey, Wash. Was it difficult lifting Maine onto the Mongoose?”

“Yeah, actually. The guy’s heavy. Like… really heavy. I mean, I know he’s a big guy and all, but I can’t help but wonder if he can stand to lose a few pounds!”

At that, South and York started snickering while North just sighed and shook his head, placing a hand over his face.

“What’s so…?” Washington started before it dawned on him. “Oh no.”

Washington turned around and saw the imposing figure of Maine taking up the entire door frame. His hands behind his back, Maine’s face was the same unreadable stone mask it had been when they first met, his glare directed straight at Washington.

“Oh, uh… hey buddy! Heh heh…” Washington stammered, rubbing the back of his neck. “You know I didn’t mean any of that stuff about… you needing to lose weight. Because you don’t! I mean, no more than the rest of us, there’s always room for improvement after all, right? But, y’know… I-I never meant to say you were fat… or anything like that. You’re noooot….”

“Smooth…” York muttered.

Maine took a step into the room, and Washington couldn’t help but flinch back slightly. The big man glared at Washington for a few moments longer before traces of a mischievous grin appeared on his stony face.

“Chrysler,” he said.

“Whuh…?” Washington asked before Maine suddenly whipped something at him. “Augh!”

Desperately covering his face, the small object hit his arm and fell to the floor. Washington looked at it and saw that it was a tiny plastic car.

“Nissan.” Maine whipped another toy car at him, causing Washington to stumble back. “Genet. Volkswagen. Plymouth. Buick.”

Before Washington knew it, he was on the floor with tiny bruises and toy cars strewn all around him. South and York were both laughing their asses off as Maine left and North walked over to Washington to offer him a hand.

“I think he likes you,” said North as he pulled Washington to his feet.

“Oh really?” Washington asked sardonically, rubbing his sore arms. “How do you figure?”

“Well…” York said, wiping the mirthful tears from his eyes. “I’ve never seen Maine share his toy car collection with anyone before.”

At that moment, Washington found he couldn’t keep himself from laughing too.

“You should consider yourself lucky, Wash,” South said. “A guy like Maine is a good friend to have around….”

The rising sun cast Cloudsdale in an orange light, seeming to illuminate the fluffy clouds at their feet. Rarity suppressed a yawn as she crossed the Wonderbolts’ facility grounds with Spike and her pony friends in tow, passing pegasi in blue and yellow flight suits as they ran drills. Upon arrival in Cloudsdale, Celestia had given them quarters on base at the Wonderbolts’ central headquarters to rest until scouts reported back on the whereabouts of the Freelancer flagship.

The six of them had gotten a few short hours of uneasy rest before a Wonderbolts Junior NCO roused them and led them across the grounds after they grabbed a quick breakfast. Soon they arrived at an airship hangar filled with over a dozen ponies in Wonderbolts uniforms. All of them were making preparations to a sleek airship held aloft by a balloon emblazoned with the Wonderbolts colors, while many more ponies in military barding boarded using the gangplanks.

“Oh. My. Gosh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, looking up at the airship filling the hangar. “That’s the ESS Blue Thunder!” Uncomprehending stares were the others’ answer. “The Wonderbolts’ flagship? The one they used to take on all of their tours?”

“Before the cost of maintenance and upkeep ultimately led to it being left here unused barring… unique circumstances.”

At the sound of the raspy voice, the group turned around to see Princess Celestia and Luna accompanied by a yellow pegasus with an orange mane and tail wearing a decorated blue officer’s uniform.

“Eeeek Spitfire!” Rainbow exclaimed, nearly choking on her own spit.

“Well, if it isn’t the pony that saved our lives,” Spitfire said, grinning at a nearly swooning Rainbow Dash. “Pleasure to see you again. I hope to see you at Wonderbolt Academy next semester.”

“Oh, hehehe… yeah…” Rainbow blushed, before taking a moment to consider what the Wonderbolts captain had previously said. “Wait, are we… taking the Blue Thunder?”

Applejack, meanwhile, directed her gaze to Princess Celestia instead. “So, I reckon this means you figured out where the enemy’s ship is?”

Celestia nodded while Luna stepped forward to answer. “Pegasi scouts encountered what they described as a massive metal monster above the volcanic wasteland south of the Badlands.”

At that moment, Tex’s avatar appeared beside them along with Church. “If I had to guess, I’d say the Director is trying to use the volcanic ash as cover.”

“Which is why we have ponies continually watching them and updating us on their movements,” Spitfire said.

“What’s more concerning is that they’re right in the middle of dragon territory,” said Celestia warily. “It wouldn’t be wise for us to send an entire fleet of our airships within their borders, lest we risk open retaliation.”

“True, but we only need one ship to get us aboard the Director’s flagship, yes?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, but if the Mother of Invention’s weapon systems are still operational, getting a single ship close enough to board them’s going to be tricky,” Tex stated.

“Leave that to Alpha and I,” Celestia said with confidence. “I don’t think anyone knows how the Director thinks better than us.”

“Then let us delay no longer!” Luna declared giving a grand gesture to the gangplanks leading to the decks of the Blue Thunder. “Onward!”

As the group made to board the airship, Rarity became acutely aware of the sleepy dragon on her back and stopped. A fearful lump formed in her throat as she thought about what they would find once they finally reached their friend. Her hesitation did not go unnoticed by the scaly passenger.

“Huh…? Rarity? Why are we stopping?” Spike asked. “Aren’t we going aboard?”

With a sigh, Rarity picked up Spike in her magic and lifted him off her back, gently setting him down. “I’m sorry Spike, but… no.”

“What do you mean?”

Rarity looked around until she spotted the NCO that had led them here, and waved him over. “Would you be a gentlecolt and escort this one back to our quarters?”

Spike looked at her, aghast, “What?! But… I’m coming to help Twilight too!”

“I’m sorry Spike, but I can’t in good conscience allow you to accompany us.”

“Why not?!”

Rarity tried not to let the fear she was feeling show as she thought of a good lie. “Because… this mission is too dangerous for a baby dragon.”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the reason Rarity wanted him to stay. In truth, Rarity was afraid to go on this mission herself. Not necessarily because it would be dangerous, but because of what Celestia had said those monsters at Project Freelancer were doing to poor Twilight. When they finally found her, Rarity knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. There was no reason for sweet innocent Spike to have to see Twilight like… like….

“Rarity? Are you... crying?”

Wiping her eyes, Rarity sniffed. “Please… just do as I say, Spikey-wikey.”

“But... I’m her Number One Assistant!” Spike continued to protest. “She needs me, I-I have to be there for her!”

“And you will! But right now, she needs you here safely out of harm’s way. Just... wait here until we get back. Please?”

Spike folded his arms and sulked. “Why do I get the feeling I’ve had this conversation before?”

Rarity then remembered the conversation he and Twilight had before the six of them had left on their journey to Repertum what felt like ages ago.

“Exactly. Don’t you think if Twilight were here, she would want you to stay behind as well?” Rarity asked, guilt rising in her chest for using such a manipulative ploy. “Please, Spike. If not for me, can’t you do it for Twilight?”

Looking at the little dragon, Rarity could tell Spike wanted to argue the point. Instead, the drake merely looked down at his feet, a glum inflection entering his voice. “Fine….”

“Thank you,” Rarity said, giving Spike a quick hug.

As Spike began following the NCO out of the hangar, Church turned away and found himself looking at the space by the Princesses that Tex’s avatar had been occupying. There was something that’d been on his mind ever since he regrouped with the others and found that Tex was once again helping them. The conversation between Rarity and the little dragon kid only convinced him further of what he had to do next.

“Hey, Tex? You there?”

The holographic black-suited figure immediately appeared before him. “I’m here, Church. What’s up?"

Church let go of his holographic sniper rifle, allowing its image to vanish into a thousand tiny pixels as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, so… I’ve been thinking…. Maybe you shouldn’t come with us on this mission.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that? Am I cramping your style?” Tex snarked.

“No no, it’s just… you’ve got no reason to help us. I mean, you and Twilight aren’t exactly friends.”

“True, but I do have a vested interest in taking down the Director,” Tex said, putting her hands on her hips and giving the other A.I. a meaningful look. “Unless... there’s another reason you don’t want me to come along?”

Church fidgeted his avatar nervously. “Uh… not that I can think of….”

“Really? You sure it doesn’t have anything to do with my condition?”

“Your… condition?”

With a loud gasp, Pinkie Pie’s poofy head suddenly emerged between the two of them. “You’re having a baby?! I knew it! Aw, an A.I. baby will be sooo cute! I need to get to work on the shower.”

“Pinkie, this is a private conversation,” Church said, sparing the pink pony a bemused glance. “Hey, look. I think Rainbow Dash needs a hug, or something. Why don’t you go help with that?”

With a comical salute, Pinkie declared. “I’m on it!”

Pinkie Pie disappeared, and a second later, the two constructs heard Rainbow’s voice shout, “Augh! Pinkie, get off me!”

“Anyway, what were we talking about?” Church asked.

“You didn’t want me to come along because of the condition of my existence?” Tex said, giving Church a knowing look. “You know, the fact that everything I touch is doomed to failure?”

Church felt a sensation like a pit opening up in his stomach. “Wait, you know about that?”

“I’ve had CT’s data for years, remember? I’ve been sitting on that information long enough that I put two and two together,” Tex sighed, and her tone sounded less harsh than it usually did. “At first, I thought it was complete bullshit. There was no way someone else’s damn memory of me could control my entire destiny! But all of those failed attempts to save you started to add up. And when we lost Epsilon during our raid of Command after coming so close… I knew for certain.”

“That was why you disappeared after we got back to Equestria,” Church realized.

Tex nodded. “But you know me, Church. I can’t just sit idly by while others fight my battles for me.”

“Even if you’re risking our mission’s failure with your mere presence?”

It was a half-second before Tex responded. Another person may not have even noticed, but to an A.I., she might as well have taken a full minute.

“Hey, the mission to save Canterlot went well even with my intervention,” Tex said. “Though, that was entirely due to the efforts of the others. If I had been the one calling the shots… who knows what might have happened?”

“Well…” Church started. “Guess sometimes the best thing you can do is have faith.”

After another pregnant half-pause, Tex’s response was quiet, filled with a melancholy so unlike her usual countenance.

“You made me this way, y’know.”

“Well… technically the Director made you like this,” Church argued.

Tex shook her head. “No. The Director only made you. He may have filled you with memories of me, but you’re the one who took them and brought me to life.”

Tex looked down and studied her own transparent black hands as if seeing them for the first time. “You resurrected a ghost from the past that was better off dead: A broken shadow of a dead woman.” Tex’s avatar grew smaller, and Church’s stomach twisted into knots. He had never seen the woman he loved this vulnerable before. “Church… I-I’m an abomination!”

Church was by her side in an instant. “Hey, don’t say that, okay?” he reassured her. Even so, he found himself unable to tell her that she was wrong.

With a quick glance, Church saw that the ship was beginning to leave. “Look, we’ll talk about this later, alright? Right now, we have a mission to focus on.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tex said, a little of her old self starting to show again. “Guess there’s a first time for everything!”

As the Blue Thunder made its final preparations to disembark, no one noticed the Wonderbolts Junior NCO looking around frantically for the baby dragon he was supposed to be leading away. Nor did one of the Blue Thunder’s crew ponies notice that the last barrel of gunpowder he loaded aboard the ship weighed differently than it should have. Nor did he hear the young male voice mutter within.

“Sorry, Rarity. Not this time….”

After less than a couple of short hours of flight, Princess Celestia found herself on the command bridge of the Blue Thunder. Captain Spitfire was at the helm beside her, with Princess Luna. Twilight’s five friends stood just behind her, silently watching with bated breath. The air about the bridge was one of unease, the command crew murmuring quietly to each other as each pony worked to keep the airship afloat. It was easy to see what had the ponies on the bridge so on edge.

Jagged mountains oozing fiery rivers passed below out the windows. A cloudy layer of ash covered the sky as heat lightning flashed silently. Distant rumbles sounded over the airship’s engine, and Celestia wasn’t sure whether it was thunder or one of the nearby volcanoes. The source of the command crew’s unease sat in the center of the main viewport. The massive frame of the Mother of Invention floated ominously above.

One of the ensigns gave a low whistle. “Look at the size of it….”

A harsh reprimand from Spitfire put the stallion back on track. It was a few moments later when the distant behemoth began to turn towards them, and Celestia could sense the growing fear in the mares and stallions on the bridge.

“That can’t be good…” Spitfire muttered before turning to Celestia. “Looks like they’re moving to engage us… I think. Which end of that thing’s even the front?”

Celestia didn’t respond. She merely gazed out the viewport at the distant form of the Mother of Invention, readying herself for the coming conversation.

“Looks like it’s now or never, Princess,” Alpha said as his hologram appeared at her side.

Celestia closed her eyes and took a breath. “Okay…” she said, opening her eyes and looking over to the pony operating the radio. “Let’s negotiate.”

She nodded to the radio operator, who responded in kind before he went to work. I only hope I can make him see reason, Celestia thought. But she didn’t hold her breath.

The Mother of Invention’s command crew noticeably stiffened as the Director passed on his way to the helm. Whether this was due to his mere presence or lingering tension from the recent battle with the Staff of Charon, Dr. Church couldn’t say. The Counselor waited for him at the end of the walkway leading to the helm, with Captain Donovan just off to the side. The Recovery Agent’s helmet was tucked beneath his arm. Donovan stared ahead with a hard look on his stubble-covered face.

“Report, Counselor. Are they still on the approach?” the Director asked.

With a respectful nod, the Counselor replied, “Our scopes are still picking up a single Equestrian airship closing in at full speed.” The Counselor paused, allowing traces of a smug grin to fleetingly form across his face as he amended, “Well, full speed by their standards.”

The Director frowned. While they were still repairing the heavier damage from their battle with the Staff of Charon, the Mother of Invention’s MAC cannon should still be able to swat the Equestrian ship out of the sky like a fly, regardless of any magical shields or enchantments they had in place. Either the crew of this particular vessel did not comprehend what they were dealing with, or the Equestrians were more bold than the Director thought.

“How adorable,” Donovan mused. “The little ponies want to play war with us.”

The Director pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Then it’s a real pity I don’t have time for games,” he said before glancing up to address the shipboard A.I. “FILSS, move us into attack position.”

“Yes, Director,” the A.I. responded cheerfully, and the volcanic wasteland beyond the ship’s viewport shifted as the Mother of Invention turned.

In short order, the Equestrian airship was in the center of the viewport, its bright blues and yellows providing a stark contrast to the gray mountains and ash around them.

“Target locked,” FILSS reported.

One word from him would be all it took to see the other ship destroyed along with all of its occupants. It seemed almost like poor sportsmanship to do it, considering the pony airship didn’t stand a fighting chance even with the Mother of Invention in such a crippled state.

Dr. Church didn’t understand what Celestia hoped to gain by sending a single ship against him, but if she wanted to send all of those aboard to their deaths, then so be it. He’d already warned her once against interfering with him, and she’d somehow evaded learning her lesson when she last tested his resolve. This time she would not be so fortunate.

The Director glared hard at the approaching airship as he gave FILSS the order. “Fi….”

“Sir?” the voice of one of the ensigns unintentionally cut the Director off. “We’re picking up some kind of signal coming from the alien airship. I… I think they’re trying to hail us, sir.”

The Director leaned back and stroked his goatee as Donovan and the Counselor looked at him expectantly. “Well, I suppose it would be discourteous to obliterate them without first hearing what they have to say,” he said, nodding to the woman operating the communications console. “Patch them through.”

The self-assured grin the Director wore quickly disappeared when he heard the warm, motherly voice on the other end.

“Church?” Princess Celestia asked, her voice laced with concern. “Church, I know you can hear me. Please, I just want to talk.”

Taking a moment to collect the myriad of thoughts suddenly warring in his mind, the Director held down the transmitter on the holographic console in front of him.

“Well, Princess. What an unexpected surprise,” he said sardonically. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m afraid I don’t have time for idle chatter. I advise you turn around and leave while you can. Do not think for a moment that I will hesitate to destroy that ship just because you are aboard.”

“The Leonard Church I knew wouldn’t do that,” Celestia replied.

“Make no mistake, Celestia. It is my duty to protect all of Project Freelancer’s assets from those who believe themselves entitled to them.”

“And it’s my duty to protect Equestria’s citizens from those who would do them harm,” Celestia’s voice was unwavering. “You’ve hurt many innocent ponies in your campaign here, but it isn’t too late! You can still stop this now.”

The Director shook his head. “I’ve come too far to stop now, Princess. I’m too close to finally achieving my goal….”

When Celestia replied, her voice took on an edge of great sadness. Does she still take pity on me even after all that has happened? the Director wondered. How ludicrously sentimental!

“I know how badly you want to see her again, Church. I really do. But I’m begging you. Please, stop this madness. It isn’t worth all of the innocent lives that will be destroyed.”

The raw compassion in Celestia’s voice only made the Director’s hands curl into fists, and he felt a hot anger he hadn’t felt in years begin to boil to the surface.

“That’s easy enough for you to say, Princess. You already got everything you ever wanted! You already got your beloved sister back!”

When Princess Celestia didn’t respond right away, Dr. Church thought he’d finally managed to shut her up.

“And what if you were to get everything you ever wanted?” Celestia finally asked. “Do you really think she would approve? If Allison knew the lengths you went to bring her back, do you really think she would be anything but ashamed?”

Dr. Church slammed his fists on the rail in front of him, ignoring the pain as he leaned forward and screamed, “How dare you try to use Allison against me!? YOU DID NOT KNOW HER!!!” Beside him, Captain Donovan and the Counselor exchanged an uneasy look.

With a sigh of resignation, Celestia responded, “You’re right, Church. I never knew Allison… but I know someone who did.”

“Hey there, buddy!”

The Director took a shocked step backwards when a holographic figure wearing the cobalt blue Mark VI variant MJOLNIRarmor of his sim troopers suddenly appeared in the air in front of him, and all at once the Director realized what exactly had happened.

“Alpha?!”

“Yup. Thanks for opening the radio channel with us. Made getting into your systems a breeze!” the A.I. stated cockily.

By all appearances, the A.I. that the Director had personally broken was now before him looking just like he had in the old days. But how could that be possible?

Alpha turned his holographic head to glance at the Equestrian airship as it drew ever closer. “And thanks for keeping him preoccupied for a few moments, Princess. Made my job here way more manageable.”

“What did you do…?” the Director growled.

“Oh c’mon, where would the mystery be if I just told you?” Alpha taunted.

Trembling furiously, the Director addressed the other A.I. in the ship’s systems. “FILSS, activate Protocol: Trojan Horse.”

With some satisfaction, the Director could almost imagine the look of growing concern on Alpha’s faceless avatar as he looked around. “Well, crap. That can’t be good…” he said before his holographic image flickered and went out.

He may be a Smart A.I., but he’s no match for the measures I have in place for just such a breach. Collecting himself, the Director ordered the line to the Equestrian ship to be cut and asked, “FILSS, what’s the damage?”

“The foreign construct has taken control of our weapons systems, disabled numerous onboard security measures, and has opened hangar bay doors one through twelve.”

“Clearing the way for a boarding party, it would seem.” The Director turned and began addressing his crew, “Launch all Longswords! FILSS, get to work on regaining control of our systems.”

“Yes, Director.”

The Director turned to the Recovery Agent beside the Counselor next. “Captain Donovan, gather your men and position a squad by each open hangar bay.”

With a salute, Donovan put on his helmet and beat a hasty exit to attend his task. The Director looked around, ready to give his next set of orders, only to find the mare he wanted conspicuously absent.

“Where the hell is Sunset Shimmer?! If her mercenaries are ready, they need to assist us in this matter!”

“I’ll send someone to find her, sir,” the Counselor reassured him, before waving over the nearest Recovery Agent to do just that.

With no further orders to give, the Director turned back to gaze out the command bridge’s main viewport and watched as a few squadrons of his Longsword starfighters began to converge on the rapidly approaching airship. Giving the ship a cold hard glare, he tried not to think of the recent conversation with the Princess, and the things she’d said.

“You haven’t won yet….”

Author's Note

Like I said in my earlier blog post, this was supposed to be the second to last chapter before I had to split it because it was taking too long to write.

Next time: The final battle.

Act 3 Part 12 - Fragments and Pieces

Celestia let out a slow breath after giving the order to cut communications with the Mother of Invention. The conversation had been more difficult to bear than she’d expected. She knew it was too late for her old friend even as she told him otherwise, but she wanted to believe her own words so badly that, for a moment, she almost had. It wasn’t just for his sake she wished things hadn’t already come too far. The conversation was a painful reminder that her own hooves were not clean in this either.

“Uh oh, looks like they’re sending out the welcoming committee,” Spitfire reported.

Gazing up from the command bridge’s floor, Celestia saw several groups of fighters deploy from the Mother of Invention’s open hangar bays and make a beeline towards them.

Celestia was vaguely aware of Luna’s voice as she spoke. “My sister and I can handle them. You just continue your course forward.” The feeling of Luna’s hoof on her shoulder brought Celestia back to the moment. “Are you with me?”

With her best reassuring smile, Celestia nodded, and together she and her sister made to leave for the upper decks. Celestia paused when she saw Twilight’s friends. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity all stood in place, anxiously waiting to play their part.

“Once we arrive, Captain Tornado Kicker and his forces will secure the hanger,” she told them. “After that, it’ll be up to you to find Twilight. Alpha is in their systems, and should be able to assist you when you arrive.”

The five mares gave her assuring nods, but many of them looked anxious. An uneasy feeling filled Celestia from the pit of her stomach at that moment. She had hoped that the Reds and Blues would be here to help them fight through whatever Project Freelancer tried to throw at them. Without their help, Celestia was worried—

No. Don’t think about that. Just have faith. An urgent look from Luna reminded Celestia that time was of the essence.

“Good luck,” she said to her little ponies as she hastily made her exit.

Applejack’s twang was the only response she heard. “You too, Yer Highness.”

From the uppermost deck of the Blue Thunder, Applejack’s teeth ground together from being clenched so hard. The open sky surrounded her on all sides, separated only by wooden guardrails and the massive blue and yellow balloon above holding the airship aloft. Four of her friends stood around her, the absence of the fifth standing out as much as the massive enemy ship drawing ever closer. It felt like something else was missing from this moment as well, and Applejack had to stop herself from taking another glance around just to confirm that a certain group of Red and Blue soldiers weren’t standing with them. All she ever saw when she looked were her pony friends and the company of armored ponies preparing to board.

Forget about ‘em, AJ, she thought to herself. We don’ need their help!

The sky ahead of their airship was occupied by two alicorn princesses and over a dozen enemy fighters. Princess Celestia and Luna deflected barrage after barrage of missiles from the starfighters and sent them spiraling to the ground far below with feats of magic unlike anything Applejack had ever witnessed. What fighters weren’t brought down by the princesses’ might were forced to circle around and try to make another pass, allowing the airship to continue forward until it was right up alongside the massive Mother of Invention.

“I g-guess t-this is it…” Fluttershy trembled.

Rainbow Dash spread her wings (which were looking much better now that they’d received proper medical care in the Crystal Empire) and grinned. “Party time!”

“Party time?!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh no! I only brought one party cannon and ten cakes! I’m so painfully unprepared!”

The Freelancer flagship was several times bigger than the Wonderbolts’ own, but Spitfire and her command crew had moved the ship right alongside one of the hangar bay doors that Church had opened when he entered the enemy’s systems. Applejack could see a few dozen gray Freelancer operatives taking up positions of cover in the enemy hangar, but she was also aware of the gunports opening up on the decks below as the crew moved the cannons into position.

After hearing the order from one of the lieutenants below decks to fire, Applejack and her friends covered their ears (with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who refused to look uncool) and an onslaught of cannonballs filled the hangar. What Recovery Agents weren’t caught up in the blasts were forced to scatter. That was the cue everypony on the top deck was waiting for.

“Aerial team, go!” ordered Captain Tornado Kicker, and immediately the pegasi under his command complied, taking off and flying into the open hangar before landing and taking up positions of cover near the back.

As they began attacking the gray soldiers with their specially enchanted crossbows, utilizing the tactics from their training with Washington and the two Reds, the rest began unfastening ropes tied off to the wooden rail. These were connected to the side of the balloon holding the airship up, placed with the express purpose for boarding an enemy ship. With Captain Kicker’s order, the remainder of the Equestrian troops onboard began to swing across the expanse of sky to the hangar bay.

“C’mon, girls!” Rainbow exclaimed, taking off and flying toward the hangar herself.

With a nervous whimper, Fluttershy followed. Pinkie Pie took one of the ropes and let out a “wheeeee!” as she swung across. Applejack grabbed a rope and prepared to swing while Rarity looked on with trepidation. Rather than swing across on a rope herself, Rarity took hold of the nearest military pony about to do the same thing. With a roll of her eyes, Applejack noted that the pony Rarity grabbed was a particularly hunky armored stallion.

“Don’t judge me!” Rarity proclaimed as she and the stallion she was pressing up against a little too tightly swung across. With an exasperated sigh, Applejack was right behind them on her own rope.

Upon landing in the hangar, Applejack heard the screech of starfighter engines followed by an explosion. Suddenly worried about the state of the airship they arrived on, Applejack looked back and sighed in relief as the Blue Thunder remained in place. A flaming fighter spun out of control towards the ground as a dusk blue alicorn flew past in the distance, firing bright beams of magic. The Blue Thunder didn’t remain in place for long though, as the airship suddenly started pulling away from the Mother of Invention’s side.

“What? Where in tarnation are they goin’?!” Applejack exclaimed.

With a flap of wings, another pony landed beside Applejack. “Captain Spitfire is making a tactical retreat. It’s too hot here with all of those fighters,” Captain Kicker reported. “The princesses will cover her until she can pull back to a safe distance. After that they’ll regroup with us here.”

“But how’re we gettin’ off this ship once we get Twilight?”

“Ooh! I have an idea!” Pinkie exclaimed, and Applejack mentally braced herself for more nonsense. “We can use the dropships they already have on board!”

The other ponies double-taked in Pinkie’s direction.

“That’s… a surprisingly sensible idea, Pinkie,” Rarity said.

“Heh, it’s been known to happen!” Pinkie happily exclaimed before turning away and whispering. “Thanks for letting me have that one, Tex.”

“Everypony move up!” ordered Captain Kicker.

Without another word, the five mares got in the zone and moved towards the back of the hangar with the rest of Kicker’s forces. The hangar ran the entire width of the Mother of Invention, and the doors leading to the rest of the ship were closer to the middle. Carefully, the ponies moved up through the hangar, taking cover behind crates and parked Pelicans as bullets and enchanted crossbow bolts flew from every direction. Together with the mares and stallions of Equestria’s army, Applejack and her friends moved to the nearest doorway at a good pace.

That pace slowed down when they regrouped with the aerial team that Kicker sent out first only to find a wall of gray soldiers between them and the door. The assortment of crates provided meager cover and ponies were falling fast. The unicorn mages hastily threw up a few magical shields as the entire force regrouped.

A pegasus mare from the aerial team approached Captain Kicker and saluted. “We’ve taken heavy casualties. There’s too many of them!” she panted. “No matter what we try, we can’t get throu—”

A shot rang out and the hapless soldier instantly slumped to the ground with a yelp from Fluttershy and a gasp from Rarity. Noticing the shot appeared to come from above, Applejack looked up and saw that a series of walkways hung near the top of the hangar all around them. What was more, she noticed they were rapidly filling with more Freelancer troops.

Captain Kicker apparently noticed this too, as he hastily ordered his mages to recast their shields to provide better cover against the new avenue of attack. Unfortunately, this left too many gaps in their defenses against the soldiers on the ground. Military ponies fell left and right. Kicker’s forces tried to return fire as best they could, but even their enchanted crossbows couldn’t hold up to the rate of fire of so many human soldiers.

Eventually, all of the gunfire ceased and the hangar went silent. The Freelancer forces definitely had the upper hand at the moment. Either they were giving the ponies a chance to surrender, or they were merely taking time to reload.

“Well, you’ve had a good run,” a severe voice spoke, and a Recovery Agent with blue detail on his gray armor stepped out from among his fellows. Applejack realized she recognized him as the Recovery Agent who had been with Sunset Shimmer on the mountain above the sellsword camp.

“I’m impressed you’ve made it this far, given your… disadvantages,” Donovan continued. “When we first came to this world, I thought you ‘ponies’ were all weaklings. But you’ve proven to be crafty fighters. In respect of that, I’m offering you a chance to surrender. Lay down your weapons, and no one else will die today.”

Applejack looked around at all of the weapons trained on them. It would appear their lives depended on the honesty of Captain Donovan.

“Don’t listen to him,” Tex said quietly, appearing among the ponies. “Project Freelancer can’t afford to take pony prisoners when they’re trying to sever all connections to Equestria. They’re just trying to minimize casualties on their side.”

The two sides stood in a silent standoff for a few seconds before Applejack heard a noise. The whine of a ship’s engine began to fill the hangar, yet when the ponies and Freelancer forces looked around, they saw no ship. Applejack wasn’t sure why the situation felt so familiar until she saw the shimmer distort the air above them. A ship faded into existence and touched down just beside the tense standoff.

Donovan and a few of his men turned to face the newly arrived ship while the rest of the Freelancer operatives remained focused on the force of ponies. The boarding ramp slowly descended, and as she watched, Applejack couldn’t help but imagine three soldiers in red step off the ship on the back of a great chimera. Despite everything, she found herself smiling at the memory.

A single human figure in armor descended the ramp instead, and as he stepped into the light of the hanger bay, Applejack’s eyes widened along with those of the rest of her friends.

“Agent Washington?” Donovan asked, apparently just as dumbfounded as the others. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to prove my loyalty,” Washington stated. Applejack’s eyes narrowed. Had he finally gone over to their side completely?

“If you wanted to do that, you should have stayed planetside like you were told.”

“I’ve come to understand that loyalty is more than just following orders,” Washington said, and Applejack could have sworn she saw him glance in their direction. “It’s about being honest with your friends. It’s about trust.”

Donovan tilted his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“And sometimes it’s about making peace with friends that you’ve wronged,” Washington glanced back into the ship. “Isn’t that right, old buddy?”

A chilling distorted growl answered Washington, and before Donovan could say anything else, a hulking figure in white armor with mismatched brown parts appeared in front of him, glaring down at the Recovery Agent through a domed helmet. With a fearsome snarl, the Meta grabbed Donovan and lifted him screaming. The Meta held him over his head for a moment before bringing him down hard onto his raised knee, back first. Donovan’s body bent unnaturally and a sickening snap silenced his screams.

By the time the Meta tossed Donovan’s limp body aside, all hell had broken loose all over again. Only now, two former Freelancers felled Recovery Agents quickly. Once Washington and the Meta had carved through the majority of the soldiers blocking the door, the former called out, “Move! Now!”

Applejack exchanged uneasy looks with her friends.

“Go! We’ll handle things here!” Captain Kicker exclaimed as he reloaded his crossbow.

With one final look, Applejack and her friends left the hangar and those fighting in it behind.

“If I can go the rest of my life without getting shot at again, I think I can die happy,” Rarity deadpanned.

Applejack couldn’t help but concur.

Sunny Side lay still in the infirmary bed, her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling. It was all Silversteel could do to keep it together. I’ve already lost one of the mares in my life, I can’t lose you too!

When he asked what had happened to her, the Counselor had simply said that he didn’t know. Something went wrong during Sunny’s M.I. implantation procedure, and they were forced to remove the construct entirely. When he asked whether something like this had happened before, the Counselor merely redirected his question. As if Silversteel needed more reason to distrust Project Freelancer.

It wasn’t just that Sunny herself had seemed really unsettled by these aliens and their program; Silversteel had reason to believe they were responsible for her as well. The newspapers had called the attack on Dodge City the result of a dragon, but he knew a cover up when he saw one. Silversteel wasn’t sure what poor Derpy had been doing in Dodge at the time of the attack, but he knew better than to believe a rogue dragon had wondered all the way there from across the Badlands just to lay waste to a town that hadn’t a single gem or ruby to its name.

It had been for that reason that Silversteel had decided to travel to Dodge City himself to see if he could discover the truth about what was really going on. It hadn’t been easy, as no trains were running to the small town during such a crisis, but Silversteel had managed to find his way there. The surviving townsponies had told him stories of a meteor or something that had crashed beyond the town’s borders and the sudden military presence around their town immediately after.

Most of them hadn’t seen whatever it was that had attacked the town and massacred the military contingent there, owing their lives to that very fact, but there was one mare who claimed otherwise. She had claimed to catch a glimpse of a hulking bipedal figure in weird armor wielding weapons unlike anything she’d ever seen, with a shiny head like a dome. She’d said that it growled and snarled like some kind of monster.

Silversteel thought the pony had simply been traumatized and delusional… until he’d met that mercenary the next town over who’d offered him a job with Whitewater and showed him a weapon unlike anything he’d ever seen.

Standing here now, in the heart of an alien ship full of creatures matching the mare’s description, he knew he was on the right track to finding the truth about Derpy’s death. Feeling the ever growing familiar tingle in the back of his mind, Silversteel had to remind himself that such thoughts were no longer private now that he had an M.I. of his own.

Silversteel pulled his thoughts away from his plans for revenge by focusing on the mare lying on the hard, uncomfortable looking bed. Picking up Sunny in Ponyville had certainly been a nice bonus. After all, once he was finished avenging Derpy, he’d need another mare to fill the spot of “future special somepony,” and his old boot camp friend Sunny was certainly nice to look at.

Of course, she’ll have to get better first, Silversteel thought as he tenderly stroked the unconscious mare’s blond mane.

“Silversteel,” a dark voice said, and the stallion snapped to attention at the sight of the zebra mercenary standing in the doorway. “Sunset Shimmer is ready to brief us on the next leg of our mission.”

Silversteel nodded. “I’m right behind you, Zestafa.”

Without saying anything more, the zebra turned and made to leave the infirmary. Silversteel hesitated, glancing back at Sunny’s still form. A bold idea entered his mind: something he may not have ever considered before the implantation. His eyes darted to Sunny’s lips. She must feel the same way about me, right? I mean, why else would she have agreed to join me on this job?

So without hesitation, Silversteel bent down and kissed her. He left the infirmary with a grin on his face. The only way this day could get better would be if he found Derpy’s killer….

As the Meta stalked through the halls of the Mother of Invention, Rainbow Dash and her friends kept their distance. Rainbow wasn’t sure which of the two former Freelancers she wanted to voice her many grievances to. It didn’t take her long to decide on the one who was less likely to crush her into a rainbow paste while snarling like a wild animal.

“What are you even doing here anyway?” she asked, hovering in place in front of Washington as he walked along, BR raised. “I thought the Princess made it clear we don’t want you helping us!”

Washington leaned to one side as he tried to look past the angry pegasus for potential hostiles. “And I thought that I made it clear that my goal is to bring down Project Freelancer at all costs. It can’t be helped that we both thought to attack them when they were vulnerable.”

Rarity increased her pace so that she was walking beside Washington. “I recently knew a man with the exact same goal, Agent Washington, and you know what? It took him until literally his final moments to realize that in his pursuit of that goal, he became as much a monster as they are.”

It took a few moments for Washington to respond. “I know. But if there’s one thing I learned in Project Freelancer, you can’t solve all your problems with friendship and kindness.”

The group approached a T-intersection in the hallway, and Washington checked both ways to ensure the coast was clear before turning to face the others. “But over the last week, you all have shown me how important those things are. I guess… I’m not just here to stop Project Freelancer. I’m here to prove to you that I’m still on your side.”

Rainbow made an incredulous gesture to the hulking monster beside them. “Yeah, showing up with the freaking Meta is kinda giving us a different impression!”

“I told you, the Meta is gone. It died with Sigma and the other fragments,” Washington explained. “The man standing over there is Agent Maine. My friend and nothing more. All I had to do was remind him of that.”

Washington had said as much when he and his “friend” had first arrived, but Rainbow Dash didn’t buy it for a second. “But how do we know for sure if we can trust him?”

Strangely, it was Fluttershy’s tiny voice that spoke up. “Well… we um, did hit him with the Elements of Harmony.”

“YEAH! And he didn’t get turned to stone, or sent to the moon, or incinerated in a fiery rainbow explosion!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, gesticulating so wildly that she lost balance and fell on her face.

Rainbow had to admit, that was probably a good sign. She didn’t really know how the Elements worked, but they never seemed to spare anyone who couldn’t be redeemed. When Maine grunted, Washington turned to the others.

“Maine’s asking whether you realize he can hear you. And that he’s standing right there,” Washington said, traces of a playful tone in his voice.

“You can understand him?” Applejack asked, squinting skeptically at the gray Freelancer.

“I can guess at what he wants to say in most situations. It helps to have known him as long as I have.”

The group continued in silence for a few more minutes, Rainbow Dash still uncertain about their newest ally or their former one. Her contemplation was interrupted when Church’s voice filled the corridor, seeming to come from the walls themselves.

“Okay, the lab where they’re keeping Twilight should be just around the next corner,” he said. “Aside from the guards at the entrance it should be a pretty straight shot.”

Tex appeared in the air next to Pinkie. “Church! There you are. Is everything alright on your end?”

“Yeah,” Church answered. “The ship’s A.I. has been outfitted with protocols for dealing with… unwanted constructs like myself. She’s makin’ it a real bitch to keep control of the systems I’ve taken over. I might have to give some of ‘em up once it’s time for me to get into their database.”

“Whatever it takes to find that research data and send it to the Chairman,” Tex said.

Soon enough, the group rounded the next corner and saw a pair of Freelancer operatives standing guard by door near the end of the corridor. Washington and Maine exchanged a look.

“You wanna take this?” Washington asked.

Maine’s answer was to take a step forward and raise his twisted weapon with a growl. The two soldiers spotted him and swiveled around with their rifles raised, but Maine was faster. At least, he would have been had sparks not suddenly shot out from a piece of his armor, causing Maine to stagger back as he grunted in pain.

“Uh oh....” Washington muttered as the gray soldiers opened fire.

“SUPPRESSIVE FIRE!!!” Pinkie Pie yelled, pulling out her party cannon and unleashing a barrage of pastries and party decorations their enemy’s way.

The resulting explosion both defied logic and neutralized the threat, leaving the path forward clear. Rainbow, however, was more focused on Maine as the huge soldier hunched forward in pain, clutching the sparking piece of his armor.

“What’s the matter with him?” Rainbow asked casually.

“His armor systems have been malfunctioning ever since your encounter at Command,” Washington explained. “When he was still under the Meta’s control, he collected one too many armor enhancements and now the active camouflage, overshields, time unit, all of it is too taxing on his armor’s power without his A.I.s.”

“Why wouldn’t he jus’ get rid of all that stuff if it’s so much trouble?” Applejack asked.

Maine growled defensively, and Washington shook his head. “I don’t know. I suggested that when I first picked him up beyond the Staff of Charon’s crash site, but he won’t give them up.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t like it, but decided not to press the issue. She had as much chance of understanding how a maniac like the Meta thought as she did Pinkie Pie. Besides, they had arrived at their objective. Rainbow approached the door across the hallway and looked it up and down.

“Maine, can you wait out here and guard the door?” Washington asked, to which Maine responded with a growl and a nod.

Rainbow’s friends gathered around her, each of them looking at the door with uncertainty. She wasn’t sure about them, but Rainbow had a really bad feeling about what they were going to find. But one way or another, they were going to help Twilight.

Sarge sat on the floor of the Pelican by the cockpit, connecting wires from the disassembled onboard computer hard drive to those of Wyoming’s white helmet. It wouldn’t be long now before it would be working, and they’d finally be able to go home away from these ponies and their war with Project Freelancer. They had no stake in this world - this Equestria. They had no obligations to the ponies they’d been with while they were here.

It’s never too late to help your friends.

And yet, Sarge couldn’t explain this unshakeable feeling in his gut. A feeling akin to guilt.

“What’cha doin’?” a small yellow filly with a big pink bow in her red mane popped up beside Sarge, causing the man to sputter in surprise.

“Er… fixin’ our ship,” Sarge said with a grunt of uncertainty.

“Cool, lemme help!” the filly exclaimed, reaching into Sarge’s toolkit and pulling out his hammer.

Sarge wasn’t sure what the filly thought she was going to accomplish as she lined the hammer up with the white helmet on the floor, but he didn’t bother to find out. Sarge yanked the hammer from the filly’s grasp immediately.

“Whoa! Hold up there, l’il missy. Yer not trained or qualified to properly use that equipment!”

“But… it’s a hammer,” the filly said.

“Exactly,” Sarge said, turning the filly around so she was facing the open exit of the Pelican. “Now, don’ you have school or somethin’ to get to?”

“It’s the weekend,” the filly said simply. “That’s why the Crusaders an’ I are tryn’ ta get our cutie marks in spaceship repair!”

Had Sarge not been taking such good care of himself, he might have had a heart attack when he looked back and saw two more little fillies sitting in a mess of tools and supplies as they rummaged through the duffel bags they somehow managed to procure from the overhead compartments. They both wore little plastic hardhats that would have looked more at home on a child’s Halloween costume than they would have on an actual construction site. Letting out another aggravated grunt, Sarge picked up the yellow filly by his side and then made to do the same with the other two.

Grif looked up from his spot under the tree when Sarge stepped out of the Pelican’s rear bay with the three fillies under his arm. Donut looked up from what appeared to be some trashy magazine featuring pony celebrity gossip and Tucker and Caboose looked up from a game of cards (likely Go Fish or something simple Caboose could understand).

“Now listen, I can’t have three little trouble makers makin’ a mess of my work area, so why don’t you three skedaddle,” Sarge said firmly as he plopped them onto the ground.

“But Saaaaarge…” the yellow filly whined.

“No buts! Now…” Sarge trailed off when he realized, “Wait, do I know you?”

“C’mon, Sarge! It’s me, Applebloom.” When Sarge only stared at the filly with mild confusion, Applebloom tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Applejack’s sister?” When Sarge made no response, Applebloom gestured to the white filly beside her. “Me an’ Sweetie Belle wrestled yer friend Mr. Simmons a while back?”

“That’s Sweetie Belle and I,” the filly in question corrected.

“Right, whatever.” Applebloom looked at the orange pegasus filly to her left. “Oh yeah, I guess y’all haven’t met Scootaloo ‘cuz she was in the hospital then.”

“‘Sup?” Scootaloo casually greeted in a way that reminded Sarge of another pony.

“Where is Simmons anyway?” Sweetie Belle asked. “We wanted to jump on him again!”

Sarge was momentarily struck silent by the question, and a slight lump formed in his throat as he answered, “Simmons, uh… isn’t gonna be showin’ up around here anymore.”

“Oh,” Sweetie looked momentarily disappointed before quickly getting distracted by another train of thought. “Well, then where are our sisters?”

“Yeah, they got back from their adventure last night, but when we woke up this mornin’ they were gone again,” Applebloom added.

“Are they going on a new adventure? Are they saving the world right now?” Scootaloo asked.

“If one good thing’s come out of being in the army for so long, it’s that I haven’t had to deal with kids for a good few years,” Grif muttered.

“Lucky you…” Tucker muttered in reply.

Considering the three fillies seemed to be directing all of their questions at him, Sarge grudgingly answered. “Yeah. They’re off fightin’ evil Freelancers and stuff.”

“Oh. But… why aren’t you helpin’ them?” Applebloom asked.

“Because we got no reason to.”

“Huh… but I thought you guys were their friends?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently. “At least, that’s what they told us.”

Sarge was about to refute them when he really heard what the young pony said. “Wait… they said that?”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “Rainbow Dash told me about how awesome it was when Tucker busted out his light sword and started beating up aliens left and right to protect an ancient temple!”

Sweetie Belle turned to look at the man in aqua as well. “Yeah, and Rarity talked about how you also defended her honor when you visited that creep Prince Blueblood.” The little unicorn filly looked over at Donut next. “She also talked about how Donut wanted to help redesign the boutique once it gets rebuilt. Said you have a good sense of style and stuff.”

“Aw, I didn’t think she liked my ideas…” Donut cooed.

“And Applejack said she’s come to admire you, Mr. Sarge,” Applebloom said, looking right up at the man in red.

“That right?” Sarge asked.

The filly’s big pink bow bobbed as she nodded her head and smiled. “She said you ain’t the sharpest tool in the barn, and that yer stubborn and sometimes try too hard to act tough, but deep down yer a caring person who’s honest and dependable. Kinda like her a little.”

Sarge “hmphed” as he considered the child’s words. All this time, he thought he understood the way things were between him, his men, the Blues, and those ponies. But now….

“They… really think of us as their friends?” Sarge asked in disbelief. When the three fillies all nodded, he found himself sputtering, “But… that’s preposterous! We barely know ‘em. I mean, sure we were startin’ to get to know ‘em, and even found some common ground with them… and even stuck by their side and helped ‘em through some rough times and they did the same for us… but that doesn’t mean we’re friends or anything!”

The three fillies gave Sarge a perplexed look, and for a moment Sarge felt as though they were the adults, and he was the child making a mess of things.

“But… isn’t all that exactly what friendship is?” Sweetie Belle asked, her big green eyes looking up at him.

For the life of him, Sarge couldn’t refute her. For the first time, he found himself out-debated by a mere child, and he started to wonder whether he truly understood what friendship even was. The green orchard around the dropship was silent until Sarge finally let out a relenting sigh.

“Aw, hell…” he said before looking up at the fillies, Reds, and Blues that now looked at him with rapt attention. “Saddle yerselves up, gentlemen. We ain’t goin’ home jus’ yet.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Tucker said. “What possible reason do we have to help them? We’re assholes!”

“And proud of it!” Grif added

“We don’t do friendship, dude!”

“Yer right, Tucker. We’ve never been great at the whole ‘friendship’ thing. Mostly because none of us really understand what friendship is,” Sarge said, looking at each of the Reds and Blues in turn from his position atop the Pelican’s rear bay. “So let me ask y’all a question: What is friendship?”

Each of the Reds and Blues present looked at each other as they tried and failed to come up with an answer.

“Oh man, I think I feel an epic speech coming,” Caboose said with excitement in his voice.

“Is friendship something that can only be had by people who’ve known each other fer years? Or can it be shared by people who’ve only known each other a short time? I think maybe friendship is somethin’ that can’t be quantified.”

Sarge looked at Caboose as he said, “Friendship is comforting someone desperately in need of it, without ever bein’ asked to….”

Sarge turned to Grif next. “Friendship is letting someone comfort you when you’re vulnerable….”

Grif looked down at the metal dog tags with the name “Kaikaina” on them as Sarge turned to Donut next. “Friendship is just enjoyin’ spending time with someone you share things in common with….”

Sarge looked at Tucker. “And friendship is enjoyin’ spending time with someone despite yer differences.”

A flash of maroon briefly filled Sarge’s mind, and he fought the lump in his throat as he continued. “But what’s most important, true friendship is willin’ to make the ultimate sacrifice for those ya care about. It’s about standin’ by each other’s side no matter what.” Sarge took out his shotgun and held it proudly. “Friendship ain’t perfect, and it ain’t easy to understand. But it’s what separates people like us from people like the Director. Friendship is wonderful, and friendship is terrible. But above all, friendship is an enigmatic force impossible for anyone to truly understand.

“Friendship… is magic.”

The collective breaths of everyone in the orchard were sucked out of them and thrown to the wind. The stunned silence was finally broken by the sound of a lone man clapping.

“Yaaaaaaaaay!” Caboose cheered as he clapped.

“Wow…” Grif said as he struggled to find adequate words. “I never in a million years… thought I would ever hear you say something so fruity.”

“Yeah… I’m so proud of you, Sarge!” Donut sniffed.

“Fuck it. Let’s go help some ponies,” Tucker said.

“That’s the spirit!” Sarge exclaimed.

With a gasp, the three fillies by Sarge’s feet checked their own flanks, and gave a disappointed sigh when they saw they were still blank.

“Well… what would an ‘epiphany inspirer’ cutie mark even look like?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“We still don’t know where exactly the ponies even are,” Grif pointed out.

Sarge smiled under his helmet. “We know they’ll be with Church. Or more importantly, Church’s body.”

“What’s so important about Church’s body?” Donut asked, before clearing his throat. “Y’know, aside from the obvious.”

“The obvious?” Tucker asked in complete deadpan.

“It’s not Church’s body itself that’s important,” Sarge said, turning to the Blues. “Tell me, fellas: What do you know about listening devices?”

As Sunset Shimmer stepped into the briefing room, looking over the sellswords with her cold cyan eyes, Gilda’s own were consumed by the rage that had been present in her mind ever since she learned of her father’s fate. The rage that had only grown since her implantation. At the opposite end of the room, Silversteel and Zestafa were just taking their seats in the classroom-like chamber overlooking the training floor.

“Alright people, I have your new assignment,” Sunset Shimmer started. She was wearing saddlebags that were filled to the brim with something. “There’s going to be a slight change in our objectives….”

Before Sunset Shimmer could say any more, a Recovery Agent burst into the room slightly out of breath.

“Ah, there you are, Miss Shimmer!” he exclaimed. “Enemy forces have boarded the ship. The Director wants all hands on deck.”

“I am well aware of the situation, soldier,” Sunset said, making no effort to hide her annoyance.

“Then get your forces moving. The enemy has already broken through our first line of defense! Last I heard, they were headed towards the A.I. labs.”

Sunset Shimmer waved a hoof dismissively. “We’ll be right there, I just need a moment to debrief everyone.”

“No time. You and your mercs need to get moving now!”

“Oh, very well,” Sunset Shimmer sighed. But rather than move to go with the Freelancer operative, the unicorn calmly approached Gilda and gave her a curious look with those cold cyan eyes. “May I see your weapon for a moment, lieutenant?”

The little voice tingling at the back of Gilda’s mind wanted her to tell the arrogant pony to take her weapon and stick it where the sun didn’t shine, but Gilda reigned it in and handed over her assault rifle without a word. Sunset looked over the rifle in her hooves for a few moments, just long enough to get a feel for its weight before turning it around and leveling it at the Recovery Agent.

Before anyone could say another word, Sunset Shimmer pulled the trigger, and in a hail of bullets the soldier was a lifeless heap on the floor. Each of the Whitewater sellswords widened their eyes, and a few of them stood in a blind panic, but Sunset Shimmer fixed all of them with a cold, hard glare.

“Sit down. I haven’t finished my debriefing,” she stated coldly, and the mercenaries complied. “Thank you. Now….” Sunset Shimmer levitated the saddlebags from her back and deposited its contents on the table at the front of the classroom. Gilda wondered what they would need with so many explosives. “The ponies boarding this ship are not our immediate concern. If anything, they’ll provide us with a useful distraction for Project Freelancer’s forces while we accomplish our true objective….”

As Sunset Shimmer explained her plan, Gilda only half listened. The promise of making those ponies—of making her pay for what they did was what drove her to continue helping these Whitewater and Project Freelancer dweebs in the first place. So, when Sunset Shimmer finished her debriefing and sent her mercenaries on their way, Gilda gave them the order to continue the mission without her. She then took to her wings and sped through the ship’s halls in the direction of the A.I. labs.

No amount of preparation could have readied the ponies for the sight that awaited them when they entered the A.I. labs. Church himself had been far too preoccupied by both the task of locating Twilight and fighting off FILSS and her defense protocol as it slowly purged him from their systems. Now that the boarding party had landed and arrived safely at Twilight’s location, Church was able to divert some of his attention from his ongoing battle with FILSS to get a good look at his friend.

Twilight Sparkle was a shadow of her former self. Her coat was a pale, sickly shade of its once vibrant purple. Her unwashed hair looked greasy and unkempt, her firmly closed eyes were dark and puffy. She looked unnaturally skinny, having been fed only by tubes for the past few days. She lay on an operating table at the center of a myriad of devices, both technological and magical in nature. She had so many tubes and wires connected to her body. It looked like she was the heart of some terrible mechanical organism. Like an insect trapped in a web of wires.

Her five pony friends went to her immediately, while Washington hung back. Church couldn’t help but notice his old body in its cobalt armor leaning against one of the walls.

“Twilight! Wake up!” Rainbow Dash shouted, giving the limp unicorn a few shakes. “C’mon! Up and at ‘em!”

“You have to unplug her from whatever augmented reality they’re keeping her in,” Tex said, appearing in the air next to them. She gestured to the wires and tubes converging in the back of her skull. “There. Those!”

Rainbow took the wires and tubes in her mouth and yanked them out with a few sharp tugs. It wasn’t long afterward when Twilight started to groan. Applejack took her and gently raised her into an upright position as Twilight struggled to open her eyes like a newborn foal.

“Easy there, sugarcube,” Applejack whispered tenderly, stroking her back. “We’re all here. Yer gonna be okay.”

Twilight finally opened her eyes and looked at all of them. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she hadn’t slept in days, and what was more, they were glazed over in a state of incomprehension. Unable to sit on the sidelines anymore, Church appeared as a hologram in front of Twilight and studied her closely, trying to see if any of his friend was still in there.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “It’s me. Your buddy, Church.”

“Uh… hello?” Twilight croaked, her voice raspy from disuse.

Apparently unable to hold back any longer, Fluttershy lunged forward and wrapped Twilight in a hug.

“It’s okay. We’re going to take you home and help you get better, okay?” Fluttershy said, clearly struggling to keep herself together.

“Get better? From what? Am I sick?” Twilight asked, looking over Fluttershy’s shoulder at the others. “Why is she hugging me?”

Suddenly very self conscious of that fact, Fluttershy let go and pulled away.

“Well, she’s been very worried about you, dear,” Rarity answered. “We all were.”

“Oh. Okay,” Twilight answered, but continued to stare at them with uncomprehending eyes. What she said next caused Church’s heart to sink. “I’m sorry, but… who are all of you?”

Church watched five pairs of ears fall flat.

“You mean… y-you don’t remember us?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking at Twilight with big sad eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m tired. I’m really tired…” Twilight sighed, before extending a hoof to the five other mares. “Hi. My name is… uh….” she frowned as she tried to think harder. “My name is, uh….”

“Twilight?”

At the sound of the boyish young voice, everyone looked to the lab’s entrance to find a familiar tiny purple dragon looking at the scene with quiet concern.

“Spike?!” Rarity gasped. “Whuh… how did you… what are you doing here?”

But the baby dragon didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at her. His eyes were glued to those of Twilight as he stepped towards her, a reflection of her own confusion and fear.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Twilight… is that… my name?” she asked. When the others nodded, she mused, “Huh… that’s kind of a weird name.”

Church allowed himself a sad laugh. “Would you believe that’s exactly what I thought when we first met?”

Rainbow Dash stood up on her hind legs and leaned against the table so she was face to face with Twilight. “Look, we need to get you outta here, okay? We can figure everything out later, let’s go!”

Twilight gave her a sad smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think I can.”

“But… don’t ‘cha wanna come with us?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can. I think I’ll just stay here and, y’know… rest.”

The five ponies just looked at each other with lost expressions. Each hoping one of the others would have some idea of what to do. Finally, it was Spike who spoke as he climbed up on the table with Twilight.

“Okay, you rest for a while, Twilight,” he said. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Thanks, that’s really sweet of you,” Twilight said with a smile before lying back down and closing her eyes.

“Hey, that’s what a Number One Assistant is for!”

The room went quiet as Twilight went to sleep, Spike holding her hoof in his lap right beside her. The silence was broken by the sound of Washington’s helmet dropping to the floor. Everyone looked over to find a man running an armored hand through graying blond hair. His hollow eyes stared at the ground with a distant, horrified look.

“That isn’t possible…” he kept muttering over and over again. “That isn’t possible….”

“It’s possible if they were utterly ruthless with their experiment,” Tex said sternly. “If they’d been going nonstop for the last few days….”

“I should never have done this,” Washington said, looking up at the five little ponies. “You were right. I should never have let them have her.” Washington looked each of them in the eye as he said, “God, I am so sorry!”

Church waited for the inevitable harsh words from the five ponies. Waited for them to cry and rage at him with all the righteous fury of a woman scorned. Instead they were quiet.

“If you can help us set this right…” Applejack said, taking a step toward the broken Freelancer. “Maybe Twi will find it in her to forgive ya one day. And if that happens, maybe we can do the same.”

Washington looked at the little orange pony with nothing short of disbelief on his weathered face until, finally, he gave her a nod.

“Okay, so can we set this right?” Rarity asked, looking at her unconscious friend with a worried frown. “How do we restore her memories?”

“If they’ve broken her this much, that can only mean she’s fragmented them,” Washington said, struggling to regain some of his trademark stoicism as he reached for his helmet. “If we can find the memory fragment, it should be able to restore her memories just like how Epsilon did for Alpha. But it will take time. Months. Years, or more. Unless you ponies know a spell or something that can help to resurface old memories.”

The ponies all looked at each other. “Well, we do know of one such spell, but Twilight is the only pony we know of who can pull it off,” Rarity said.

“Our more immediate concern is: where are the fragments now?” Tex said. “Project Freelancer must be using them for something.”

Church suddenly remembered a small detail. “When I first entered the ship’s systems, I noticed a group of those sellswords we ran into in the Frozen North on the security feed.”

“Those Whitewater guys are on board this ship?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah,” Church answered. “And I couldn’t help but notice a few telltale signs of A.I. implantation in a few of them.”

“We just need to find whichever of them has Twilight’s memory fragment and bring it back here,” Washington said, his voice growing hopeful.

“What about the rest of the fragments?” Fluttershy asked.

“We don’t need them. Memory is the key, remember? Every facet of Twilight’s personality that they broke off should all exist in the memory fragment.” Washington looked over at Church’s hologram. “Where are the sellswords?”

Church took a moment to search the onboard database. Sure enough, there was a roster of Freelancer personnel and Whitewater mercenaries. A couple were in sickbay, most likely recovering from injuries sustained during the battle in the North. The rest were supposedly in the briefing room, but a quick check of the security feeds indicated no one was there. Church did a quick search of all the feeds until he found them.

“There’s a couple in sickbay, but most of them are headed towards the engine room it looks like,” he answered within the second.

“I suppose Fluttershy and I can check the ones in the sickbay,” Rarity said. “Seeing as we’re likely the two weakest fighters, the rest of you should be able to deal with the sellswords in the engine room.”

“Well, don’t sell yerselves short, gals,” Applejack said.

“According to the files here, these new M.I. fragments work differently from a normal M.I.” said Church. “They’re hardwired into specially designed computer chips encrusted with bits of magically enchanted gems. I’m no magic expert, but it looks like some seriously well put together technology. To retrieve the memory fragment, you’ll have to remove the chip where it was implanted in the back of the mercenary’s neck.”

“Um, Mr. Washington?” Fluttershy asked. “How exactly will we tell when we’ve found the person with the memory fragment?”

Washington just gave the others a grim look. “Trust me: you’ll know.”

There was just one more thing that was bothering Church. An idea had occurred to him ever since he realized that an M.I. fragment existed of Twilight’s memories. And if Church had thought of it, there was no way Washington hadn’t thought of it as well.

“Hey Wash,” Church said, bringing his hologram in front of the Freelancer. “Y’know, I just realized that whatever Twilight’s memory fragment holds would be extremely useful as evidence against the Director. Just like Epsilon.” Church gave Washington a knowing look. “The research data is good and all, but the memories stolen from Twilight could be enough to convict him on the spot… if we gave them over to the Chairman instead of Twilight.”

Washington sighed. “Yes, I thought of that as well.” The man looked up at Church, the ponies, and the baby dragon. “But it’s like you all said: I have to make things right. Giving Twilight her memories back is more important to me now than finding airtight evidence. Church, while we track down the memory fragment, you find what you can of their research from these experiments and send it along with Equestria’s location to the Chairman. That should be enough to at least get the Oversight Sub-Committee over here to arrest the Director, and that’s a start. Now, if there’s nothing else….”

“What’s that?”

At the sound of Rainbow Dash’s rasp, everyone turned to see the pegasus standing in front of a strangely shaped metal crate along the far wall, studying it curiously. Strange alien symbols etched in white chalk adorned the cover, flanking a small control screen.

“That’s the Sarcophagus…” Tex gasped, appearing in the air in front of the strange object.

“The what?” the five ponies asked simultaneously.

“Many years ago, the Director sent the Freelancers and I on a mission to retrieve it,” Tex explained. Church could tell her mind was racing at a mile a minute. “The A.I. fragments started appearing shortly after that mission. Whatever it is, it was instrumental in splitting Alpha. Which means….”

“They might also have used it to split Twilight,” Washington said, looking at the Sarcophagus thoughtfully before turning to Church. “Open it.”

“Uh… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Church said. “What if it’s radioactive? What if it’s like the Ark of the Covenant, and looking inside it causes everyone’s faces to melt off?”

“Church!” Tex growled.

“Okay, okay! Fine, I’m opening it!”

Rainbow Dash laughed obnoxiously, making “whipping” motions with her hooves, complete with mouth sound effects. That was all the time it took Church to scan through the database to find the codes to unlock it and input them. With a metallic hiss, the lid to the Sarcophagus lifted and the ponies slid it to the side. The eyes of each of the five ponies and baby dragon widened at the sight of the creature that slowly rose up from within.

The creature was blue-purple and looked like a squid or large jellyfish. Its tiny head had six black eyes, looking at the group frantically. Four tentacles groped at the air around it, each splitting into many near microscopic cilia. It floated in place above the Sarcophagus like a balloon, held aloft by what appeared to be a series of gas bladders. It made a series of clicking sounds as it studied its surroundings and the group in front of it.

“What… the hay... is that?” Rainbow Dash finally croaked.

Washington and Tex merely stared at it in disbelief. “It’s a huragok....” Tex said.

“Ooh it’s squishy!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping onto the creature and squeezing it tightly.

The huragok gave an alarmed squeak as it floated away with the pink pony dangling off of it.

“Pinkie! Get away from that thing!” Applejack shouted.

“Don’t worry, it’s completely harmless,” Washington explained.

The huragok wrapped its tentacles around Pinkie, desperately trying to pry the energetic pink pony off of it.

“EEE HEE HEE! That tickles!” Pinkie giggled as the alien creature gently removed her from its abdomen and set her down on the floor.

“We used to call them Engineers during the Great War. The alien Covenant used them to build and maintain their advanced ships and technology,” Washington stated. “They’re like living, sapient supercomputers. Kinda like Twilight now that I think about it. They’re capable of building or repairing any piece of technology in mere seconds. They’re really quite remarkable. I wonder how the Insurrection originally got their hands on this one….”

As Washington went on, the huragok slowly drifted towards Fluttershy. The little yellow pony recoiled at first, before she remembered what Washington said about it being harmless. With sudden fascination, Fluttershy stepped forward to study the creature closer. It was moving each of its tentacles around in deliberate motions, clicking and squeaking. After watching it closely for a few moments, Fluttershy’s ears perked up.

“Sometimes Sinks…?” she muttered.

“What was that, Flutters?” Rainbow Dash asked noncommittally.

Fluttershy kept her eyes trained on the huragok for a few more seconds until her face lit up.

“Sometimes Sinks!” she exclaimed, turning around to grab Rainbow Dash by the shoulders, looking at her with the happiest grin on her face. “That’s his name! Sometimes Sinks!”

The entire room was struck silent. “What?!”

But Fluttershy was already in front of the huragok again, studying it with intense fascination as it continued gesturing with its tentacles. “He says that his kind name their offspring based on their initial buoyancy when they’re made! Oh, isn’t that sooooo cute?”

“Wait. Can you… understand it?” Washington asked.

Fluttershy nodded. “It took me a moment to realize it, but it’s speaking using a similar kind of sign language to what many of my own critters use to talk to me,” Fluttershy turned back to the huragok and started speaking in a goofy baby-voice. “Isn’t that right, Sometimes Sinks? Are you a good boy? Are you a good Engineer?”

Tex’s avatar appeared in the air beside Fluttershy and Sometimes Sinks. “Ask it about Twilight and their experiments.”

Before Fluttershy could answer, the huragok turned to face Tex and started signing with its tentacles, and Church realized that the thing likely understood what they were saying just fine.

“He says… they broke her. Over and over again. Just like they did to the last one,” Fluttershy said, her small voice breaking as she translated for the alien. “They made him… he tried to fix her, but he couldn’t. Just like before. So he helped her separate the pieces that were broken, and fixed them so they’d work by themselves,” Fluttershy sniffed. “He says it gave him bad memories. He knew there was something wrong with what they were doing, but he couldn’t stop.”

“Bad memories…” Washington mused, before suddenly exclaiming, “That’s it! Everything they did to Twilight, and even Alpha, the huragok has it all in its own memory banks! We don’t need to use Twilight’s memory fragment to convict the Director. All the evidence we need is right here in the huragok!”

“Perfect. I’ll gather what data I can and put together a little message for the Chairman,” Church said as he dispatched a few subroutines to do exactly that. “You guys find Twilight’s memory fragment and bring it back here.”

“We’ll be back in no time flat!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

She was the first one to turn to the door, setting out to do just that. The others were right behind them. Washington hesitated before leaving, as if there was one last thing he wanted to say. Whatever it was, the Freelancer ultimately decided against it, and exited the room. Church’s hologram turned to the only other remaining person in the room (aside from the huragok, which was floating around the lab looking at the various equipment spread about). Spike sat by Twilight’s side, his eyes never leaving her as she rested.

“Hey bud. Can I count on you to keep an eye on her while I work?” Church asked the little dragon. FILSS and whatever protocol she had written into her code was preparing for another attempt to purge him from the ship’s systems, and Church was gonna need his full concentration if he was going to fight her off while he put together his message.

Spike nodded, and Church felt something akin to a smile. “Good man.”

Twilight groaned and shifted uncomfortably in place. Spike gave a worried frown as he stroked her mane.

“I remember when we used to live in Canterlot,” he said. “When I couldn’t sleep, you’d always read me a bedtime story. Worked every time.

“I don’t have a story to read to you right now, but I could always tell one of my own.” Spike cleared his throat, and even as he got to work on the myriad of tasks before him, Church kept an ear open to listen. “There once was a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, who lived with her devoted—and extremely handsome might I add—Number One Assistant, Spike the dragon. She studied under the Princess, and was very talented. Especially with magic. But she wasn’t so good at making friends.

“Fortunately, she met five ponies who would be everything she was missing….”

Rainbow Dash followed Washington closely as their group hastened down the halls of the Freelancer flagship. She still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the man. A very big part of Rainbow still hated Washington for what he did. Thus, it came as a surprise to her when her oldest friend said otherwise.

“I forgive you,” Fluttershy had told Washington before she and Rarity left for the sickbay.

“You… what?” Rainbow had exclaimed. Fluttershy had been just as vocal of her disapproval with Washington’s prior actions as the rest of them, perhaps even more so. It didn’t make any sense to Rainbow for her to forgive him just like that.

“Washington’s a victim of Project Freelancer just as much as Twilight is, Rainbow,” Fluttershy had said, giving Rainbow Dash a surprisingly hard look.

“But it’s because of him that Twilight ended up here! Because of him she’s suffered so much!”

“I know that! So does Washington. That’s why he’s helping us make things right.” Fluttershy’s look softened. “Holding grudges never helps anyone. Sometimes it’s best to just let things go.”

Rainbow had been quiet for the following minutes spent moving through the Mother of Invention’s corridors. Applejack and Pinkie Pie followed behind her while Washington led the way in front. The Meta—no, Agent Maine. That’s who he is now—walked beside him, head on a swivel.

The group arrived at a large vertical shaft at the end of the hall. The cargo elevator wasn’t an enclosed chamber like the regular personnel elevators, but it would take them closer to the engine room on the lower levels. Washington pushed the button to call the elevator, and the group of them heard the sound of it moving up from the bottom of the shaft to meet them. As the group waited, Rainbow Dash thought. It took more than a few seconds, but the pegasus eventually came to a decision.

“Hey, Wash?”

She never got a reply, for the elevator arrived and Washington immediately raised his BR, and Maine let out a startled snarl. A griffon stood on the elevator wearing silver military barding, an assault rifle slung across her back. She stared at the group with an unreadable expression, and Rainbow saw her face and allowed herself a cautious smile.

“Gilda?”

Realizing this was the griffon that helped them in the Frozen North, Washington and the others allowed themselves to relax a bit. But Gilda kept staring forward with the same grim countenance.

“Gilda?” Rainbow Dash said again, stepping forward so she was standing on the cargo elevator with her old friend. “What’s up? Is somethin’ wrong?”

Gilda’s answer was a low, furious growl as she closed her trembling talons into fists. With a quickly growing sense of unease, Rainbow noticed what looked like ethereal flames rise from her body. Then, before she even knew what was happening, Gilda lunged forward and grabbed her. Washington and Maine raised their weapons, and Pinkie and Applejack ran forward, but Gilda spread her wings and took off, flying straight up into the open elevator shaft.

Applejack called out to her, but her voice quickly grew faint as Rainbow was dragged higher and higher. Rainbow’s back stung as Gilda’s talons dug into her. With a fierce cry, Gilda tossed Rainbow hard into the wall of the shaft, knocking the wind out of her before she fell and landed on the ledge of a small alcove.

“Gilda…” Rainbow coughed. “W-what the hay are you doing?!”

“You…” Gilda dove into Rainbow, grabbing her again and slamming her into the wall, painfully rattling her brain inside her skull. “He’s dead because of you!”

Rainbow had to cough before she asked. “W-what are you talking about?”

“I trusted you! They said they wouldn’t kill him but they did!”

Through the pain coursing through her head and her body, Rainbow figured out what she was talking about. “Wait… do you mean…?”

“My father!” Gilda roared. “Your friends killed him because of you!”

Rainbow glared back at Gilda, letting some of her own fury loose. “That’s not true! We didn’t kill him, it was those Freelancer….

“Liar!!!”

Gilda slammed her into the wall again before taking wing back into the center of the elevator shaft. With unnatural speed, the griffon reached back and pulled out her assault rifle.

“Taste oblivion, you two-faced bitch!”

Before Rainbow could even blink, Gilda pulled the trigger and unloaded with her weapon. Rainbow winced as she remembered the feeling of being shot in the wing, and felt it a dozen times over in the chest. Except when she opened her eyes she found that she wasn’t bleeding; she was untouched. Then she noticed the shimmering dome of magic around her, and felt the strange tingling sensation in the back of her mind.

A tiny humanoid figure appeared beside her, black armored arms extended as if it were physically holding up the shield around her.

“Tex?” Rainbow exclaimed with a sigh of relief.

Gilda looked on with ever increasing fury.

“Don’t worry, kid,” said the little M.I. “She doesn’t stand a chance now that I’m here!”

With an irritated snarl, Gilda held out her talons and to Rainbow’s surprise and immediate concern, a pair of magic fireballs appeared in her palms. A tiny, holographic white unicorn bathed in fire appeared at Gilda’s side, snarling at the pair.

“Right… unless she has her own M.I…” Tex muttered.

“You sure it was a good idea jus’ leavin’ ‘em to deal with Gilda alone?” Applejack asked as she kept her gaze on the shaft stretching on above them.

She was hard pressed to spot the fight going on in the dark shaft far above, especially with the cargo elevator bringing them steadily further down. She did, however, occasionally spot distant flashes in the darkness above, accompanied by far off bangs of gunfire and explosions.

“Tex can handle it,” Washington stated as the four of them stood on the descending elevator. “We just need to have faith in them.”

Maine growled something to Washington, and he nodded. “Maine’s right, the more time we waste with pointless battles, the more time Project Freelancer has to organize a counterattack. We need to get Twilight’s memory fragment and get her off this ship as quickly as possible.”

“Okie dokie lokie…” Pinkie Pie said seriously, reaching to the underside of her party cannon and cocking it like Sarge so often did with his shotgun.

Despite the lack of any sort of mechanism to make that possible, the bright baby blue cannon made the clicking sound all the same. Applejack may not have been what one would consider a wise pony, but her wisdom led her not to consider the odd discrepancy any further than a single bemused glance.

Soon enough, the elevator arrived at the lower levels, and the ponies and humans stepped off the elevator and jogged down the dimly lit maintenance hall towards the engine room. A single pegasus in old guard barding stood at the doorway to the engine room with a rifle in his hooves. Applejack had her lasso already wound, and with an expert shot from years of practice yanked the weapon from the pony. As the stallion’s eyes widened with panic, Applejack swung the roped rifle back around and used it to knock the mercenary out cold.

With that taken care of, Applejack pulled on her rope until the weapon on the end was in her hooves. It was the same kind of assault rifle that she and her friends had briefly used during their assault on the Freelancer Command Center. Only, this one was noticeably smaller, and seemed modified to more comfortably fit in a pony’s hooves. She decided to hold onto it, and hoped that she wouldn’t have to use it.

It was then that a lanky diamond dog poked its head out of the engine room’s doorway, apparently having heard the slight commotion outside. Its eyes widened when it saw them and with a startled yelp, it turned and retreated into the engine room, firing off a few wildly inaccurate shots as it did.

Washington sighed. “Well, so much for keeping it quiet…” he said as he rushed in after the dog, hoping to take advantage of whatever element of surprise they might still have.

Hefting her newly acquired rifle over her shoulder, Applejack hastily followed. Maine was right behind them, followed by Pinkie Pie, one of the wheels on her party cannon squeaking as she pushed it along.

The engine room was huge, approximately the size of a hoofball field if Applejack had to guess. Huge generators lined the walls, each one humming with energy. Another generator stood in the center of the room, its various pieces spinning in place. A few equipment crates lay strewn about the room. The whole chamber was dimly lit by orange lights, and Applejack felt like she was inside a massive blacksmith’s shop or metallurgy. A zebra and a dark gray earth pony were by the engine room’s centerpiece.

“Silversteel!” the diamond dog called out, and the earth pony’s ears flicked in response. The diamond dog gestured back towards the group of four that had just entered. “Bad guys!”

The earth pony—Silversteel—whirled around and raised his weapon—a modified submachine gun—along with the zebra. Seeing this, the lanky diamond dog did the same. Applejack and the others responded in kind, but the sounds of more weapons clicking alerted them to the presence of more mercenaries. A quick glance around confirmed that more of Whitewater’s sellswords dotted the room around them. Two were on catwalks along the walls on each side, and three more were on the ground floor off to the sides. Ten. Difficult, but not impossible.

“Whoa, whoa, everybody relax, okay?” the gray earth pony called Silversteel said. “Pretty sure they’re not with Project Freelancer.”

Applejack noticed Washington shift curiously before he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“You guys are the ones we were hunting in the Frozen North, right?” Silversteel asked with an apologetic grin. “Sorry about that, by the way. I hope you don’t hold grudges, because as of now I think we both want the same thing….”

Rainbow Dash panted as she and Gilda circled each other in the air at the top of the cargo elevator, the yawning shaft below them like a gaping maw ready to swallow the loser of their brawl. After a few more moments of tensely searching each other for weaknesses, Gilda apparently spotted an opening and made her move.

Tex was ready for her though, and Rainbow could only watch as her own hooves moved to deflect the griffon’s furious strikes under Tex’s guidance. Eventually, Gilda over extended herself with one of her punches, giving Tex an opening to deliver an uppercut to her beak. Rainbow followed up with a hard buck to the chest, sending the mad griffon into the ceiling lights above.

But the flaming unicorn appeared at her side again and fireballs rained down on Rainbow Dash and her passenger. Rainbow might have been able to dodge them, but evidently Tex wasn’t going to leave that to chance and projected another magical barrier around them which flickered as the magical fireballs impacted.

“Quit hiding behind that shield and fight already!” Gilda shouted. Rainbow thought she saw her eye twitch and briefly fall out of alignment. “Let me kill you like you killed him!”

“I told you, it was Sunset Shimmer! That lying bitch is using you!” Rainbow wanted to reach her. She searched the griffon’s eyes for any sign of her old friend, but saw only burning fury and madness.

“Just die!” Gilda extended a talon and with flickering, fiery magic, a weapon crate leapt at Rainbow Dash from the corridor beside the elevator shaft below. Tex lowered the shield, allowing Rainbow to dodge the attack, and then Gilda was upon them again. Magical fire wreathed her fists as she struck at Rainbow, and Tex had to once again take full control to dodge the flurry of attacks. The griffon was moving faster than Rainbow had ever seen her move before, and she felt the intense heat as Gilda’s fiery punches passed within inches of her. Eventually Tex was forced to block a punch that she couldn’t dodge, and Rainbow winced and bit her tongue as she felt the searing heat burn away the flesh around her right hoof.

The momentary lapse in concentration was all it took to disrupt her mental synchronization with Tex, and Gilda’s next punch hit home, sending Rainbow Dash painfully into the floor of the hallway beside the cargo elevator. Gilda and her M.I. immediately followed up with a burst of magical fire so thin and so concentrated it was like a laser, forcing Rainbow Dash to scramble away just fast enough to avoid getting cut in two. The smell of burning hair made her realize that her tail was not so lucky.

Tex threw up another magical shield before Gilda could follow up with another similar attack, and the two combatants found themselves staring each other down once more. Rainbow’s whole body was sore. Her right hoof burned, as did her chest. With growing concern, Rainbow noted Tex’s shield was growing more unstable, flickering more with each passing second.

“Not gonna lie, I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up,” Tex said, as if reading her thoughts. Then again, if they were sharing minds, maybe she did. “I may be an M.I. now, but I was born a human A.I. I’m not built for this spellcasting stuff. And you’re not exactly built for combat.”

Outside the shield, Gilda’s M.I. started building up magic power.

Tex looked over at them. “That M.I. is the source of her magical abilities and a lot of her aggression. If I had to bet, I’d say Gilda here got the ‘rage’ fragment of Twilight’s mind. Kinda like what Omega was to Alpha.” Tex looked at Rainbow, and the pegasus felt something in the back of her mind that made her realize Tex had a plan.

“So, can you remove it from her the same way you removed Omega from Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Kid, you read my mind… which I guess isn’t actually saying much right now,” Tex then dropped her joking demeanor and gave Rainbow a serious look through her holographic helmet. “Once I get into her head, you’ll be on your own. You may not have to deal with her M.I.’s magic anymore, but you’ll still have to deal with her. Can you do that?”

Rainbow’s body ached and burned, but she gave Tex a hard nod. “If anyone can handle Gilda, it’s me!”

“Try to remove the implant from the back of her neck. That’ll be a surefire way to get rid of that M.I.” Tex glanced over at the griffon in question, who was holding what appeared to be a miniature sun above her head. “Ready?”

Rainbow nodded, and when she felt the growing familiar tingle begin to disappear from the back of her mind, she knew Tex was on the move. The shield protecting her dropped and Rainbow dove out of the way of Gilda’s massive fireball. She looked up just in time to see Tex’s ethereal form collide with Gilda, and both she and the other M.I. disappeared. With a cry of pain, Gilda clutched her head and drifted to the ground.

“Gilda...?”

Gilda’s eyes shot open and glared at Rainbow with the same mad fury they held before. “I’m going to tear off your limbs for everything you’ve done!” Gilda’s left eye spasmed uncontrollably, and the griffon started furiously punching herself in the side of the head.

Rainbow knew there was no way she could beat Gilda in a straight fight. But there was another way she could beat her.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off down the corridor. The feral cry behind her was all she needed to know Gilda had taken the bait.

Her head pounding and her body screaming in protest, Rainbow kept flapping her wings. She weaved around corners and past obstacles, periodically checking behind her to see Gilda steadily growing closer, hitting herself in the head. Rainbow rounded another corner and flew past a patrol of Freelancer personnel so fast they barely had time to look back in confusion. Her damned right wing twinged along with the rest of her, and all the while Gilda closed the distance.

Rainbow shot past a sign that said “Training Floor” and turned down the next hallway. An open doorway lay at the end of the hall leading to a room with a window overlooking another large chamber. If she played her cards right, Rainbow might be able to take advantage of Gilda’s single minded focus on ending her and make her crash.

She pushed herself even harder to gain more speed. A glance back confirmed that Gilda was right on her tail. She would have to time this carefully. Her heart stopped when she felt sharp talons grab what was left of her tail. Gilda pulled the two of them together and wound back for another punch. They were right at the end of the hallway now. Rainbow Dash grabbed Gilda and held on tight, angling her to towards the glass window ahead of them as their momentum carried them forward.

CRASH!

With a painful grunt, Rainbow and Gilda smashed through the window of the viewing box and fell, only separating when they hit the steel floor of the vast, empty training room. Rainbow’s body stung, and she felt blood seeping out from half a dozen cuts. Nevertheless, she forced herself to her feet and staggered across the training floor towards Gilda. The griffon had taken the brunt of the crash, and was slower getting up.

Rainbow jumped onto her back and spotted the gem-encrusted chip implanted in her neck. Taking it in her mouth, Rainbow Dash pulled with all her might, not stopping even as Gilda screeched in agony and reached back to pry her off, her sharp talons adding more scratches to Rainbow’s coat. Finally, Gilda’s talons found purchase in Rainbow’s mane and managed to pry her off.

But Rainbow took the implant with her.

The two of them lay there panting on the training room floor for a few moments after Rainbow spat the chip out. She lay there for a while, just catching her breath. Beside her, Gilda remained on the floor. Finally, Rainbow climbed to her hooves, trembling, and looked down at her opponent.

“This is… the last time… I’m gonna tell you: My friends did not kill your dad!” Rainbow said. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but killing me isn’t gonna bring him back or make you feel better!” She remembered Fluttershy’s earlier words. “Holding grudges never helps anyone. Sometimes it’s best to just let things go.”

Gilda looked up at her, and finally the madness was gone. The fire in her eyes was replaced by water. Rainbow was looking at her foalhood friend again.

“I know…” Gilda whimpered. “We were gonna… we were finally gonna be a family again.”

“I’m sorry,” Rainbow said, putting a burning hoof on her shoulder.

“Was it really Sunset Shimmer that... did it?”

Rainbow nodded. “She gave the order, and that Freelancer guy—Donovan—pulled the trigger.”

Gilda sighed and sniffed. “Why?”

Rainbow grappled with telling her the truth for a moment. “Because your dad loved you, Gilda. He put your happiness before his mission. He didn’t want you to be hurt.”

Through the tears, Gilda gave a bitter laugh. “He sure succeeded there, huh?”

The two of them were quiet for a few moments longer. “I’m sorry, Dash. I messed up.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Stuff happens.”

“I just… want things to go back to the way they were, y’know? The way they were in Flight Camp.”

“Me too…” Rainbow thought about it. She longed for the time when she and Gilda were better friends. She thought about all the good memories they made together. But now she had new friends that she’d made new memories with. Between her and Gilda... it just felt like too much had happened. “But you can’t always get what you want. Like I said, sometimes it’s best to just let things go.”

The quiet moment was interrupted when a tiny transparent figure appeared in front of Rainbow Dash.

“We should go,” Tex said.

Rainbow remembered Twilight and the others and giving one last nod to Gilda, turned to head back.

“You handled that well, by the way,” Tex told her as they left the training floor. “You’d have made an alright Freelancer… or a grief counselor.”

“Listen, can we not tell the others about any of the mushy stuff that happened earlier?” Rainbow asked. “If anyone asks, I made a witty one-liner after beating her, and that’s it!”

Tex chuckled. “I’ll tell ‘em you said ‘better luck next time, bird brain!’”

“C’mon! Can’t you make it a little less cheesy?”

“Don’t push it. I can always tell them you and Gilda made out!”

“Why should we believe any of what you just said?” Washington asked as he and his group stared down the Whitewater troops through the sights of their weapons.

The mercenary called Silversteel had just finished explaining their new objectives to them, and Applejack had to admit it was hard to believe. Still….

“Yeah! I mean, you did try to hurt our bodies a whole lot,” Pinkie said. Her lower lip suddenly and inexplicably started quivering. “And our hearts!”

Silversteel looked momentarily perplexed before grinning calmly. “Technically, I never tried to kill you. My partner and I showed up after the whole kerfuffle between you guys and Whitewater went down.”

“PFFFFFFFFFFFT…” Pinkie Pie laughed so hard she was wheezing. “Kerfuffle!” she gasped.

Silversteel waited patiently for Pinkie Pie to stop laughing. “I’ve never….”

“Kerfuffle!” Pinkie Pie said, laughing all over again.

With a patient sigh, Silversteel waited for Pinkie to stop. When she finally seemed to wind down, Silversteel waited a bit longer just to be sure. “I’ve never wronged any of you, and my associates? They were just following orders. So what do ya say we just let bygones be bygones and go our separate ways? There’s no reason for us to kill each other when we both have the same enemy!”

After exchanging a quick glance with Washington, Applejack studied this Silversteel character carefully. He was making direct eye contact with them, and he wasn’t fidgeting or shifting nervously.

“I think he’s tellin’ the truth,” Applejack said. Still, something about the stallion just didn’t sit well with her. There seemed to be a cold anger buried deep beneath the facade of friendliness he put up. What was more, he kept glancing tensely at Maine. “Either that or he’s a real good liar.”

“It’s possible. He might have gotten the ‘deceit’ fragment of Ancora.” Washington looked around at each of the sellswords in the room. “Either way, it doesn’t look like any of these soldiers have the memory fragment.”

Maine turned to Washington and growled.

“I know. I don’t like loose ends either, but I think it would be best if we walk away from this one,” Washington said. “You said yourself that we can’t afford to waste time.”

A red flag immediately went up in Applejack’s mind when Silversteel looked at Maine and his eyes widened.

“You were in Dodge City, weren’t you?” Silversteel asked, staring directly at Maine. The friendly facade was crumbling away, and the pained anger was boiling to the surface.

Maine returned the look and growled in reply. Applejack wasn’t sure whether that was a yes or a no.

“It was you, wasn’t it?!” Silversteel exclaimed, raising his SMG at the hulking figure. “You killed her, didn’t you, monster?! YOU KILLED MY DERPY!”

The sound of gunfire suddenly joined the hum of the engines and generators, and Maine let out a furious snarl as Silversteel’s shots grazed his armor. Things looked bad, but Applejack thought the situation was still salvageable. At least until Maine stepped forward and raised his big bladed weapon.

“Maine, don’t!”

But it was too late. Maine let loose with his alien grenade launcher, snarling furiously. A shimmering pale blue shield appeared around Silversteel before the explosive projectiles found their mark, and a tiny holographic pony appeared in the air beside him. The rest of the mercenaries started firing on the group, forcing Applejack and the others to get behind cover.

“AAH! It’s a kerfuffle!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she returned fire with her party cannon.

To the right, Washington shot down a bearded griffon as he was taking off, and followed up with another shot to a unicorn stallion with large round glasses. To the left, Applejack saw a donkey moving to flank them and without a second thought, raised the modified assault rifle in her hooves and opened fire. She winced when a spray of blood confirmed the hit and the donkey fell to the floor, but she couldn’t afford to linger on what she’d just done. A pair of diamond dogs were firing on them from one of the catwalks above. A pegasus and a griffon were rushing closer on an adjacent catwalk.

With an aggressive snarl, Maine rushed towards Silversteel and his two cohorts, shrugging off their small arms fire. The lanky diamond dog was the first to go as Maine sliced through his chest with the blade of his weapon. Eyes widening in panic, Silversteel took a step back as his M.I. lit up and covered him in shimmering blue magic before teleporting him across the room.

The zebra was now the only one left in Maine’s immediate vicinity, and he immediately began backpedalling as the hulking figure lumbered towards him. A glowing green pony appeared in the air beside the zebra, conjuring a similarly hued shield around him. A series of magical green dots appeared in each of the gaps in Maine’s armor, and the zebra quickly raised his DMR and placed a round in each of them with precision. Shimmering overshields covered Maine’s body, blocking most of the shots, but just as quickly as they appeared, the shields shorted out, allowing at least one of the zebra’s shots through.

With an aggravated grunt, Maine clutched his right leg as it started to bleed, but through sheer force of will, the large soldier remained standing. The green domed shield once again surrounding him, the zebra backpedalled further until he was standing directly under the catwalk the two diamond dogs were firing from. This proved to be a mistake, as Maine raised his brute shot and fired at the catwalk’s support beams. The diamond dogs shrieked as their platform gave way beneath them, and the zebra only had enough time to look up before he was crushed.

Seeing this, Pinkie Pie tried replicating the move on the catwalk that was the perch of the griffon and pegasus using her party cannon. But the pair of sellswords also saw what had befallen their diamond dog compatriots and immediately took to the air. While Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Washington focused on them, Maine loaded a fresh grenade belt into his weapon and Silversteel put a fresh magazine into his SMG.

With a pained cry, the gray stallion galloped forward, unleashing the full fury of his weapon. Unfortunately for him, his aim was ever so slightly off, and his M.I. couldn’t put up a magical dome while he was still shooting. A well placed blast from Maine sent Silversteel tumbling end over end, his hind legs charred and broken. Applejack winced, remembering how it felt when the same thing happened to her.

With the final shot in his magazine, Washington took down the final sellsword and the group took a collective breath.

“Well… that could have gone better,” Washington said dryly.

But Applejack’s attention was on Silversteel. The stallion moaned in pain as his towering foe lumbered toward him. He desperately raised his SMG at the approaching Maine, but when he pulled the trigger all that came out was an empty click. Soon, Maine was standing over the crippled mercenary, looking down at him with his unreadable domed helmet.

“Maine…?” Washington asked.

“W-what now…?” Silversteel painfully spat, glaring defiantly up at his opponent. “You gonna kill me? Just like you killed her, monster?”

Maine’s only response was a silent stare.

“Maine, it’s over. He’s beaten, you don’t have to kill him,” Washington said, taking an uneasy step closer to his old partner.

“Go on. Do it!” Silversteel said venomously. “It’s all a monster like you is good for!”

Maine raised his foot above Silversteel’s head and with a growl, brought it down. Applejack had to turn away from the stallion’s twitching corpse, her stomach twisting.

“Man… we’re all gonna need a lot of therapy after this!” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully. Applejack said nothing, but she couldn’t help but agree.

Washington gave a disappointed sigh. “C’mon, Maine. We’re done here.”

But evidently, Maine was not. The big soldier crouched beside Silversteel’s body and turned him over. Grabbing a spot on the back of the dead mercenary’s neck, Maine pulled hard.

“Maine, what are you doing?” Washington asked, a tone of worry entering his voice.

With a hard yank, Maine pulled something out from the back of Silversteel’s neck.

“Oh no….”

Applejack took a closer look, and saw that Maine was holding Silversteel’s M.I. implant. Maine looked at Washington and let out an animalistic growl.

“Maine don’t!”

Maine lifted his helmet and shoved the chip into the back of his neck, letting out a feral roar. Whether it was one of pain or ecstasy, Applejack couldn’t say. But in a few short seconds, Maine rose to his feet, the projection of a tiny blue unicorn now at his side. He looked down at his hands as they were enveloped in a blue glow. Maine then reached across the room where the first catwalk had collapsed and the rubble shifted, enveloped in a similar blue glow.

The body of the zebra was pried loose from the wreckage and floated to Maine’s waiting hand. Applejack wasn’t sure what he was doing with it until she remembered with slowly growing dread that the zebra also had an M.I.

“Maine, stop!” Washington rushed forward to release the dead zebra from the huge soldier’s grasp, but Maine swung at him with his other arm, striking Washington across the side of his helmet and knocking him to the ground.

Ignoring the others, Maine pried the gem encrusted chip from the zebra’s neck and shoved it into his own, roaring.

“What’s goin’ on?!” Applejack shouted as she ran to Washington and tried to help him to his feet.

“I should’ve known…” Washington sighed as he he climbed to his feet and Maine roared triumphantly. “Even now that he’s gone, Sigma’s hold on him is too strong.”

Applejack looked again at the towering creature as it tossed aside the zebra’s corpse with a shimmer of magic. She knew in that moment that she wasn’t looking at Agent Maine, Washington’s old friend. That man was gone.

There was only the Meta.

“You guys go,” Washington said with grim determination, raising his rifle. “Get back to Twilight and get her out of here! If the Meta gets her….”

“But what about you?” Applejack asked as crates and a dozen loose objects circled the Meta, surrounded by a blue and green glow.

“I can keep it busy long enough for you all to escape.”

Applejack took a step toward him. “But there’s no way you’ll be able to beat that thing!” When Washington gave no response, Applejack felt her ears wilt. “If yer doin’ this to prove yerself to us, you don’ have to!”

“And I’m not,” Washington said, turning to look at the two ponies one last time. “I’m doing this because I want to. Because… that’s what friends do for each other.”

As Washington turned back around to face the Meta, Pinkie’s face lit up and she gasped. “Did you see that?!” Pinkie looked at Applejack with the biggest grin on her face as she said, “He smiled!”

The Mother of Invention’s sickbay was a stark contrast to the rest of the massive warship. The clean white room was brightly lit and governed by strict utilitarian order; everything exactly where it was supposed to be. Okay, so maybe it isn’t that different from the rest of the ship, Fluttershy thought as she and Rarity looked around the room.

They had entered through what appeared to be an operating room with a table and equipment in the center. Through a viewing window, they could see the sickbay proper. Hospital beds lined the far wall, each one had a couple of chairs next to them for visitors. Two of the beds were occupied by non-human figures.

As the two mares entered the sickbay proper, the steady beeping of a heart monitor increased its pace. A diamond dog with its head covered in bandages and its tongue lolled out looked at them with wide eyes.

“Halp… guords! Intruders…” the diamond dog tried to call out, but by the looks of things, the hapless canine was so doped up on painkillers that he could barely speak.

“Shh… go back to sleep, darling,” Rarity cooed. “We’re nothing but figments of your imagination.”

“Whutevor you say… imaginary… marshmallow….” With his next breath, the diamond dog went back to sleep and his heart monitor returned to normal.

Fluttershy’s gaze drifted over to the other occupied bed and her heart skipped a beat. The pony in the bed lay on her side facing away from them, but Fluttershy knew that white coat and short blonde mane looked familiar. Sweat drenched the mare’s body, and she was shaking feverishly.

“Sunny?” Rarity asked, stepping closer.

Swallowing nervously, Fluttershy did the same. She heard the mare muttering something over and over again.

“Sunny Side?” Fluttershy asked, gently reaching out and nudging her trembling form.

The once proud soldier turned over and looked at her with swollen eyes filled with tears.

“Sunny, what happened?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunny Side’s response was the same muttered words she had been saying before, and Fluttershy had to lean in close to be able to hear her.

“Make them stop…” she sobbed. “Make them stop make them stop make them stop….”

“Make what stop?”

Sunny looked at her with broken, hollow eyes. “The memories….”

The memories?

It was Rarity who understood first, and she reached over and turned Sunny’s head so they could see the back of her neck. A gem-encrusted M.I. chip was implanted there, right where Church said it would be. The ethereal image of a purple filly appeared in the air beside them. It had a familiar violet mane with brilliant rose streaks, and looked around, lost, confused and utterly afraid. Fluttershy and Rarity exchanged a look, both of them realizing that it was what they were looking for.

“Hold still,” Rarity said as she fired up the magic in her horn and grasped the chip in her blue aura.

With a grunt, Rarity pulled on the chip with her magic, exerting as much force as she could to remove it as quickly and painlessly as possible. The chip held on desperately though, and Sunny’s eyes shut tightly as she let out a pained moans. Fluttershy draped a wing over her back and held her hoof, whispering reassuringly as she so often did with her animal wards.

Finally, the M.I. chip popped out with an agonized scream from Sunny. A bit of blood came out with it, and more started slowly seeping out of the tiny hole in the back of Sunny’s neck. Fortunately, they were in a medical bay, and it didn’t take Fluttershy long to find bandages and some disinfectant. She got to work patching up the tiny wound, and Sunny finally started to appear more relaxed.

It was a couple of minutes before Sunny was breathing normally, and she finally managed to sit up with Fluttershy and Rarity’s help.

“Oh, Sunny dear,” Rarity said. “What happened? What in Equestria are you even doing here?”

“I-I don’t know…” Sunny whimpered. “I thought I was here to infiltrate Whitewater and investigate Project Freelancer. But I’m just in way over my head…” she sighed. “I just… I just needed some way to distract myself, I guess.”

The two mares gave her concerned looks. “If something’s happening in your life, you can always talk to us about it, dear,” Rarity reassured.

Fluttershy nodded. “We’re your friends, and friends help each other.”

Sunny looked at each of them like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Finally, the traces of a smile began to appear on her face. “Thanks girls, but… maybe we should talk about it another time. Things are… kinda messed up right now. I mean… just moments ago, I could remember things I knew never happened. I saw you…” Sunny paused. “Nevermind. Let’s just get out of here.”

Taking another glance at the M.I. chip in Rarity’s magical aura, Fluttershy nodded and together with Rarity, helped Sunny down from the bed before leading the traumatized mare out of the room.

A memo to the Chairman of the Oversight Sub-Committee

Dear Chairman,

You don’t know me, but my name is Leonard Church. No, I’m not the Director of Project Freelancer. I’m one of his creations, and more importantly: I’m someone who wants to make sure that the dear Director is put away for the rest of his natural life.

As you are no doubt aware, Dr. Church has committed numerous crimes, violated several ethical laws, and has generally been a huge fucking tool. Attached to this message is a number of documents detailing a few of his more recent nefarious experiments, including his illegal first contact, collaboration, and war with a new race of colorful aliens called “ponies” (yeah, I thought that was weird too).

Enclosed are the coordinates to the pony homeworld, where the Director is still conducting his illicit operations. It is my hope that you and the fine soldiers of the UNSC head to these coordinates posthaste, before the Director and his lackeys can hurt any more of my friends.

Get here soon. Kay, thanks.
Alpha

“Hey guys! Wait up!”

Applejack and Pinkie Pie turned around and saw Rainbow Dash running down the hall. Right away, they noticed that Rainbow looked a lot more beaten up, her coat covered in scratches, bruises and burns. Nevertheless, the pegasus wore her familiar cocky grin.

“Hi Dashie!” Pinkie Pie waved as Rainbow caught up with them. “How was your kerfuffle with Gilda?”

“We didn’t make out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed immediately.

Applejack did a double-take. “Uh… we didn’t ask if ya did, sugarcube.”

“Honestly kid, you are your own worst enemy,” Tex said as she appeared beside Rainbow. The holographic figure then looked between the other two mares. “Where’s Washington and Maine?”

Applejack bit her lip and rubbed the back of her head. “Well… Maine had a bit of a… relapse. Wash is fightin’ him off right now!”

“Dammit…” Tex swore. “And you guys didn’t find the memory fragment?”

The two earth ponies shook their heads. “No…” Applejack answered. “But we found them Whitewater mercs plantin’ explosives all over the engine!”

“They were what?!”

“They just said something about new orders telling them they had to take down the ship,” Pinkie Pie casually explained.

“But… that doesn’t make sense! I thought they were working for Project Freelancer?!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Regardless, we should get Twilight and get out of here quickly,” Tex said, and the group of three ponies moved with haste to do exactly that. “Hopefully the others had better luck.”

It wasn’t long before the four of them arrived back at the A.I. labs. They found Spike exactly where they’d left him, telling stories to Twilight’s still form. With him was the huragok Sometimes Sinks, who had several tools in its tentacles and was doing something to the back of Twilight’s neck. Three more ponies were standing beside the operating table. Rarity, Fluttershy, and a familiar white earth pony.

“Oh my GOSH! IT’S SUNNY!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, lunging forward to glomp the noticeably shaken looking young mare.

“Sunny, what’re ya doin’ here?” Applejack asked as she and Rainbow Dash moved to join the rest of the group.

“We’ve been assured that it’s a long story,” Rarity answered for her, rubbing Sunny’s shoulder reassuringly. “One she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

The ponies looked over at Twilight and Spike next.

“Hey, Spike,” Rainbow said, ruffling the little dragon’s scales as they both looked at Twilight’s resting form. “How’s she doing?”

Before the drake could answer, the sound of mechanical whirs drew the room’s attention. The suit of cobalt armor leaning against the far wall came to life, and stepped towards the group with a sniper rifle in its hands.

“I think we’re about to find out,” said Church.

With a triumphant squeak, Sometimes Sinks set down the equipment in its tentacles and floated away. The six ponies, two constructs, and one baby dragon all crowded around Twilight and waited, watching with bated breath. Every second that passed seemed to drag on for an eternity, but finally, a tiny groan escaped Twilight’s throat, and her eyes started to flutter open.

Slowly, the pony that was Twilight Sparkle sat up on the operating table, and looked at each of the people gathered around her. Finally, Twilight’s eyes rested on the baby dragon at her side.

“Twilight?” he asked. “Are you back?”

She studied Spike a little longer before whispering, “Spike…?”

All at once the little drake’s face lit up, and hopeful smiles filled each of the faces present.

“Hey, you remember!” Spike exclaimed.

With a sad smile, Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, but no. I don’t recognize you… but I recognize your voice. That was you, right? Telling me the story of the purple unicorn and her friends? It was about me, wasn’t it? Somehow, I knew it was my story.”

Twilight looked to each of her friends next. “I think… I know who each of you are. Yes… I know you’re my friends, but… I’m sorry, I just don’t remember you yet.”

She closed her eyes and tightened her face in concentration as she desperately tried to remember, but Church but a hand on her back.

“Hey, don’t force it, Twilight,” he said. “Maybe if you just sit still and let it… it’ll come to you.”

No words were said after that. Twilight hung her legs off the side of the table and dropped to the floor. She tumbled as she landed, her legs wobbling, but Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were quick to catch her. After hopping down after her, Spike wrapped his arms around Twilight as best he could and pulled her into a hug. The purple unicorn stiffened at first, but quickly settled into the hug. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy then joined in, hugging Twilight from the other side. Applejack hopped in next, and Rarity followed, as did Rainbow Dash. The six mares and baby dragon sat in silence as they held each other, and slowly, Twilight started to smile. This felt right.

“Hate to break up the love fest here, but we really need to get moving,” Tex said. “The explosives in the engine room notwithstanding, more Recovery Agents—or worse, the Meta—could show up any moment.”

Mention of their monstrous foe made Applejack remember, “Wait, what about Wash?” she asked.

“What about him?” Church asked noncommittally.

“He’s puttin’ his life on the line fightin’ the Meta right now, we can’t jus’ abandon him here!”

“Why should any of us risk our lives for him?” Church asked, his tone taking a bitter edge.

Applejack gave the A.I. a hard look. “Because it’s the right thing to do!”

Church looked to the faces of each of the ponies gathered. All of them gave him the same look. “Man, I miss being the asshole that only cares for himself,” he said with a sigh. “Things were so much simpler back then.”

“I’ll go find him. I can probably take the Meta if we run into it, but I’m going to need help,” Tex said, looking to the white mare in armor. “Sunny? Up for a reunion?”

At long last, Sunny Side grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Tex’s avatar converged on Sunny, and together again, the pair of them turned and double timed it to the door.

“So, what now?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ve already sent my letter to the Chairman,” Church said. “All that’s left to do now is to get off this ship!”

Turning towards the exit, Church led the way out. “And don’t forget the huragok!”

Hands clasped behind his back, Director Church stared out the viewport of the Mother of Invention’s bridge. The only sign of his anxiety was the rhythmic tapping of his finger on his knuckles as he watched the battle across the ash-filled sky. Longsword starfighters circled to and fro, searching for new angles of attack on the retreating Equestrian airship. At every turn, they were beaten back or shot down by the alicorn princesses covering the airship’s escape.

“Excuse me, Director,” FILSS chimed in over the intercom. “We have retaken control of several crucial systems, including all weapon systems.”

The Director grinned. Finally, a bit of good news. “Fire on the airship.”

As the ship turned to put the airship in its sights, the Counselor looked at the Director unsurely. “With all due respect, sir, I do not see the tactical merits of continuing our attack on their airship at this point.”

“The point is sending our dear friend Celestia a message, Counselor. Twice now she has defied me, and twice she has avoided the consequences. I will not be made a fool of!”

“Target locked,” FILSS announced as she put the Blue Thunder in the center of the Mother of Invention’s viewport. “Firing main cannon.”

Another pair of starfighters swooped in from above. Luna was able to summon a shield to protect the Blue Thunder from this latest barrage of missiles. She was beginning to tire, but the Wonderbolts’ flagship was almost clear, and she felt cautiously optimistic. At least, until she noticed the Mother of Invention begin to move.

The massive metal monster slowly turned until the front was lined up with the Blue Thunder. Luna wasn’t sure why it would do that. At least, until an unsettling thought occurred to her.

“Sister!” Luna called out, but when she looked to Celestia, she saw that her big sister had noticed the Mother of Invention’s movement as well.

Before Luna could ask whether it was possible for them to regain control of their weapons from Alpha, Celestia dove between the Blue Thunder and the Freelancer flagship. Luna suddenly realized what was going on, and her breath escaped her body. In a fraction of a second, a mighty blast shot forth from the Mother of Invention. At the same time, Celestia unleashed a powerful burst of pure, uncontrolled magical energy. The two forces collided mere meters away from Celestia, and the regal white alicorn was consumed in a fiery explosion.

“TIA!” Luna cried out, her breaths quickening as a deep rooted fear she hadn’t felt in a millennium began to take hold.

She watched in horror as her sister’s limp, charred body fell through the sky, disappearing beneath the layer of cloud-like ash below. The whole world went silent and all Luna could hear was her own heartbeat. For a fleeting moment, she thought she heard a familiar dark voice whispering things within her own mind. Felt a phantom tingle in the back of her mind. She pushed the feelings away as she glanced over towards the Blue Thunder. The airship had cleared the Mother of Invention’s range and disappeared into the clouds behind a nearby mountain. The starships were returning to the human warship.

Without a second thought, Luna shot down below the cloudy ash, hoping beyond hope it wasn’t already too late.

“What?!” the Director shouted, slamming a palm onto the rail of the helm.

“It looks like we have a confirmed hit, sir,” the Counselor stated as the Director watched Celestia’s limp body fall through the sky and disappear. “She must really value the lives of her people to sacrifice herself for them like that. It’s almost inspiring.”

The Director just looked down at his inexplicably trembling hands, only half listening to his subordinate. Celestia, you fool! You damned fool!

Suddenly his thoughts were consumed by memories of her. Of their discussions, of their sharing of cultures, and pain. Of the things she had said about Allison.

“Counselor, take over,” Dr. Church said, turning away from the viewport.

“Sir?” the Counselor asked.

“I must… I’m going to my office,” Dr. Church said, continuing to the bridge’s exit. “There are… matters I must think on.”

As he left, Dr. Church heard the Counselor call back the Longswords. He no longer cared.

With haste, Twilight Sparkle moved through the halls of… whatever this place was, with her friends all around her. Yes, the five ponies, synthetic human, and baby dragon were all strangers to her, but somehow… they were her friends. The thought filled her tired mind with warmth, and curiously, relief. She, Twilight Sparkle, had friends. They were here, unhurt.

Rainbow Dash led the way, hovering in place, followed by the bouncing Pinkie Pie. Rarity ran just behind them, Applejack right beside her and little Spike on her back. Fluttershy brought up the rear, dragging along the floating jellyfish-like creature from the place where she woke up. Lastly, Leonard Church jogged alongside her. Alongside Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle. It was strange, she felt like she had another name once, but like so many other things, it was foggy and distant. Like a half-remembered dream.

“ANCORA!!!”

Stopping in her tracks, Twilight and the rest of her group turned to see a single unicorn mare slowly striding toward them. She had a maize coat and a wild red and yellow mane like a furious flame. Only her eyes were cold, even as the cyan orbs stared down the group with nothing but pure hate. Twilight couldn’t explain why, but something about the mare deeply unsettled her. Some unquantifiable aspect of her presence triggered some deeply rooted sense of fear and despair, and it was all Twilight could do not to shrivel into a ball and force the world away.

“Sunset Shimmer!” one of the strangers that was her friend—Rainbow Dash, if she wasn’t mistaken—growled, crouching defensively beside her.

“Who’s she?” Twilight asked.

“She’s in charge of the Ancora project,” Church answered. “She’s the reason you can’t remember anything!”

“C’mon, Alpha. I’m so much more than that!” Sunset said distastefully. “I’m the wrongfully dismissed student of Princess Celestia….”

Twilight knew she’d heard that name before, but like so much else, she just couldn’t put her hoof on what it meant.

“But much more importantly,” Sunset continued, “I am the mare that’s going to bring Equestria to the forefront of modern warfare!”

“We don’ give a hoot about what you think you are!” Applejack declared defiantly.

“But if you think you’re getting Twilight back, you can forget it!” Spike added.

Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes. “Y’know, I really don’t care about the rest of you. My business is strictly with Ancora.” Sunset’s horn began to glow, and the others tensed. “C’mon Ancora, let’s go talk somewhere with fewer distractions.”

Before Twilight or any of the others could do anything, the purple unicorn was consumed in a bright flash. In a moment, she found herself on the floor of an unfamiliar room, reeling from teleportation sickness. It passed quickly, however, and Twilight stood to take in her new surroundings. She was in a spacious room full of tables with a kitchen in the back. The mess hall, then. But perhaps most distressingly, Twilight was alone.

“Hello?!” she called out. “Spike? Church? Girls?”

“Interesting…” mused Sunset Shimmer as she stepped into the room. “As far as you know, those people are complete strangers.” She grinned. “That must be a pretty strong bond you share. That will make this all the sweeter!”

Twilight crouched defensively, keeping the other unicorn in her sights. “What do you want?”

With a mock lamenting sigh, Sunset said, “I’m gonna level with you Ancora, you need to be… what’s a good term? Oh! Formatted. See, now that I have my super soldiers enhanced by your fragments, you’re more of a liability to me than anything.”

“What?” Twilight asked, squinting.

“Oh dear, you look a little confused. Here, let me explain,” Sunset said patronizingly. “You see, many years ago, Princess Celestia tasked me with creating you so that she could save her sister Luna from corruption, blah blah blah, whatever. I, on the other hoof, realized that in order for this project to be worthwhile at all, you needed to be useful for more than just that one goal. So, seeing how well the Freelancer agents operated with the assistance of their A.I. fragments, I surmised that the same could be accomplished with M.I.s, giving even non-magical soldiers the ability to use tremendous amounts of magic in combat.

“But Princess Celestia, in her infinite wisdom, decided to completely cut me off before I even had a chance to show her what my research could have done! So, with Project Freelancer’s assistance, I decided to continue with my project anyway. But unfortunately, Princess Celestia had already decided that my project was ‘evil’, so I need to prove that it works, and what better way to do that than to have my magically enhanced soldiers defeat an immediate threat to Equestria?”

Despite her confusion, Twilight somehow found herself following along. The memories were there, just below the surface, but still she was unable to reach them.

“As it happened, immediate threats to Equestria have been hard to come by lately. I suppose I have you and your friends to thank for that,” Sunset continued. “So naturally, I had to do the next best thing: Create an immediate threat to Equestria.”

Sunset grinned. “You wouldn’t believe how much convincing it took to get the Director to threaten Canterlot the way he did. Say what you will about his creepy obsession with his dead wife, the man still has principles. Sorry, had principles. I guess the vague promise of finding you and whatever secrets you might hold towards bringing back Allison was too much for him to refuse. And with that, the conflict with Project Freelancer escalated to a legitimate war! It was no longer just a fight to cover Celestia’s collaboration with the Director: the lives of Equestrian citizens became at stake.

“After that, all I had to do was finish my experiment and send the soldiers implanted with your harvested fragments to end Project Freelancer’s threat once and for all. The plastic explosives they planted all around the engine room should do the job nicely, but I really wanna impress Celestia, so I’ve also ordered them to apprehend the Director when they finish in the engine room.”

Twilight’s mind was racing as she tried to make sense of all the strange, yet familiar names. One word in particular stuck out to her though, and she started to fill with panic as she shouted, “Explosives?!”

Sunset nodded with a smile, “Yep!” summoning a pocket watch from her pocket dimension, Sunset checked the time. “If my calculations are correct, we should have about seven minutes before the engine room goes up. Then however long it takes the ship to crash.”

Putting the watch back into her pocket dimension, Sunset looked at Twilight with a serene smile. “After that, I just have to come crying back to Celestia, saying ‘oh, I’m sorry! I never thought the Director would go so far!’ Or something along those lines.” Sunset’s smile became deranged as her eyes widened furiously. “Then when Celestia sees that it was my experiment that saved the day, she will finally see the truth! She will finally see that I was right!!!”

One thing was clear to Twilight in that moment. “You’re insane!”

Her smile vanishing, Sunset’s horn glowed with a cyan shimmer and suddenly Twilight was thrown back against one of the pillars holding up the ceiling. “And now we come to why I need to destroy you. As tempting as it is to leave you as a husk of your former self, if Celestia sees you like that, it’ll undo everything I’ve worked towards!” Sunset grinned wide. “Well, that and I told you everything about my plan just now!”

Suddenly, Twilight felt a numbness begin to permeate her very essence, and slowly she felt her mind begin to go.

“Farewell, Ancora…” Sunset sneered as she cast whatever spell she was using to delete Twilight.

Desperately, Twilight closed her eyes and called on her magic, instinctively casting a protective enchantment around herself. The foreign force numbing her being was driven back, and Sunset’s magical grip on her was released, dropping Twilight to the floor.

With a shocked gasp, Sunset stepped back. “Not going down without a fight, huh? Guess I should’ve expected as much from something I created. I suppose we still have some time…” Sunset’s horn glowed and one of the tables levitated off the ground. “Let’s play!”

Sunny Side looked around the engine room. The place was a flaming, bloody mess. The corpses of Whitewater sellswords littered the floor. A catwalk was collapsed on one side. The scene reminded Sunny of one of the horrible visions imprinted on her mind ever since the implantation. The false memories that didn’t belong to her.

The familiar tingle at the back of Sunny’s mind pushed away the dark thoughts, and the presence of Tex soothed her. She walked deeper into the engine room, past row upon row of turbines and generators until she came upon a massive black crater in the floor. The only thing she could see was a single object smoking near the center, black and charred. When she stepped closer, Sunny recognized it as the Meta’s brute shot. A piece of white armor covered in blood lay a short distance away.

Sunny and Tex finally found what they were looking for at the far end of the room. Washington lay slumped against the far wall, completely motionless. His armor was charred and bloody. Sunny rushed forward and Tex’s avatar appeared beside the inert Freelancer.

“Is he…?” Sunny asked nervously.

“He’s alive,” Tex reported, the relief in her voice undercut by lingering tension. “But he might not be for long. We have to hurry!”

Nodding, Sunny moved closer to Washington and tried to lift him onto her back. A shimmer of dark magic enveloped the Freelancer as Tex guided him onto Sunny’s back.

“That’s a new trick,” Sunny noted.

“I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to this ‘magic’ thing,” Tex said dryly as Sunny turned and made for the exit.

She hesitated as a tiny blinking red light drew her gaze. A device she recognized all too well from their assault on Freelancer Command was attached to the side of one of the engine turbines.

“Can we disarm that?” Sunny asked.

“No time, and we don’t know how many of those things they planted,” Tex said. “We should get off this ship as soon as possible so we can get Wash some medical attention.”

Agreeing wholeheartedly with Tex’s proposal, Sunny double timed it to the exit.

“Besides, the others are waiting for us in the hangar, and there’s no telling what kind of trouble they’ve gotten themselves into without us.”

Sunset hurled the large table towards Twilight in her cyan magic, but Twilight caught it in her own magenta shimmer, stopping it in the air before it bowled her over. She then errantly tossed it aside and reached out for a stack of chairs off alongside the wall, tossing them at her foe. Sunset Shimmer effortlessly raised a cyan shield to block it.

“Oh, c’mon! You can do better than that!” she taunted as she lowered the shield and activated another spell.

Twilight heard something creaking above her, and looked up just in time to see the ceiling collapsing above her head. Thinking fast, Twilight took the falling metal debris in her magic and used a gravity changing spell on it, calling on some forgotten instinct. The debris changed direction and fell sideways towards her opponent. Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widened in shock as she launched a concussive magical blast that obliterated the debris before it hit her.

“Better!” she called out as she summoned balls of magical fire and circled them around herself.

One by one she launched them at Twilight, who either raised an unstable shield or dodged out of the way. Sunset then proceeded to launch three fireballs at once. Without even thinking, Twilight unleashed a freezing spell, turning the fiery balls to ice before catching them in her telekinesis. She quickly launched the frozen balls back at Sunset, but the other unicorn quickly fired up another spell, and the air in front of her blurred and shimmered as it was heated to an immensely high temperature. Twilight’s icy projectiles turned to water and evaporated before they even reached their target.

Sunset disappeared in a flash of light and appeared a few feet behind Twilight, launching another magical attack. Deciding that two could play at that game, Twilight teleported out of the way of the attack and retaliated with a magical beam of her own. For a while, the two ponies teleported all around the mess hall, appearing just long enough to exchange beams of powerful magic before disappearing and reappearing just as quickly. The room around them became charred and broken as the fight went on, until finally both unicorns stopped and stared at each other, panting for breath.

“Hmm….” Sunset thought for a couple of moments before her horn glowed with cyan energy again.

A cloud of inky blackness appeared over the other unicorn’s head, and suddenly everything went dark. Twilight could still feel the cold metal ground below her hooves, and could still hear the low hum of the technology in the room they had been standing in. She tried to activate a light spell, but the glow of her horn was pushed back by the unnatural darkness that filled the room. Suddenly, without warning, something struck her in the side hard enough to leave a bruise.

“Ah!” Twilight whirled around and blindly fired a blast of magical energy in the general direction of the attack, but she heard no indication that she’d hit her target. When a second object hit her from the other side, knocking the wind out of her and nearly sending her to the ground, Twilight raised a domed shield around herself.

A storm of tiny objects suddenly pelted her shield, slowly chipping it away.

“That’s it, won’t be too long now…” Sunset’s voice taunted from the darkness.

Twilight tried to think of some avenue of escape, but every spell she thought of was impractical in the overwhelming darkness. Not only that, but she’d exhausted most of her power teleporting around earlier.

“C’mon, Twilight…” a familiar crass male voice seemed to come out of the darkness, and the unrelenting assault on her shield momentarily paused. “You’re stronger than her. Stronger than me! You’re an M.I.... and what’s more, you have your friends….”

The voice made her think of her friends, of the strangers that she knew were so important to her. She remembered the story she heard Spike tell her while she was in a dreamless sleep. They had all fought so hard to save her from whatever this place was, and now she found herself in an inescapable situation. There had to be something she could think of. Some way she could tap into the vast power she knew lay just below the surface.

Somehow, thoughts of her friends seemed to guide her through her own mind. She followed them through dozens of images that were both strange and familiar at once. A small town. A scary forest. A castle on the side of a mountain. She was being fitted for a dress at a fancy boutique. She was watching well organized pegasi perform in the sky. She was running for her life from a vicious hydra. She was watching a rock anthem performed by three cacophonous, but enthusiastic fillies. She watched utter chaos take hold of a fancy gala, and then laughed about it later with her friends.

Suddenly, she found something. An untapped source of power.

All at once, Twilight felt more magic running through her than ever before, and a whole new world of spellcasting opened up before her. What was more, her brain went through them all so quickly, analyzing every known spell in seconds to deduce which ones Sunset Shimmer was using and how to counter them. She narrowed down the presence of the surrounding darkness to one of two spells: a blindness spell or a darkbringer spell. However, because Twilight had still been able to see the light of her horn, she knew it must have been the latter.

However, it was clear that even though Twilight could not see her surroundings, Sunset Shimmer could. There were a number of spells that could allow ponies to see in the dark, but a quick analysis of the spells Sunset Shimmer had used in their previous fight indicated that her specialty was fire and heat based magic. That instantly narrowed down the possibilities to a single spell: thermal vision.

All in the space of a second, Twilight was able to come up with the ideal counter for this particular combination of magic. Twilight summoned a ball of fire above her protective shield, and then all in the space of a second, filled it with heat rivaling the sun itself, while at the same time bursting it with a deafening pop!

As calculated, the resulting explosion of heat and noise overwhelmed Sunset Shimmer’s senses, and with a cry of pain the maize unicorn’s concentration was broken, returning the room to normal. Twilight could now see Sunset Shimmer on the floor, eyes clamped shut as she covered her no doubt ringing ears.

Cursing, Sunset quickly summoned a dome of cyan energy around herself, but Twilight had already calculated the move. She reached out for everything in the entire room: benches, chairs, and tables began to hover off the ground. Twilight tore at the walls, ripping every panel from its place until she stood in the eye of a hurricane of debris. Then she sent it all towards Sunset Shimmer.

The onslaught crashed against Sunset’s shield like a tsunami, and Twilight could already see cracks forming along the cyan dome. She expected it would only take a few more onslaughts before the shield was broken.

That was when Sunset made a move Twilight did not account for, if only because it was so desperate. Sunset lowered the shield and teleported headlong into Twilight, knocking her to the ground. She then climbed on top of her and punched her hard in the head, disrupting Twilight’s spellcasting. The storm of debris dropped to the floor all around them as Sunset lay into Twilight with a flurry of punches, her face contorted into rage.

Her whole face sore, Twilight could feel what she could only imagine to be blood dripping from what she deduced was a broken nose and forehead. Finally, Sunset stopped, allowing Twilight to catch a breath before her horn glowed with another cyan spell. Slowly and deliberately, Sunset lowered her horn to Twilight’s forehead, and it took her only a moment to identify what spell she was about to use.

Unfortunately it was a moment too much, and Sunset Shimmer cast the memory spell on Twilight.

All at once, the buried memories started rushing back to the surface, and Twilight was overwhelmed by understanding. Suddenly, each of the images in her mind had context. The small town was Ponyville, her home. The castle on the mountainside was Canterlot, where she grew up. The pegasi were performing at the Best Young Fliers’ Competition, where Rainbow Dash saved Rarity and the Wonderbolts, performing the sonic rainboom in the process. She was trying on a dress in Carousel Boutique, one that Rarity had made for her to wear to the Grand Galloping Gala. The very same gala that she and her friends had all but ruined with their antics, ultimately growing closer to each other in the process.

Her whole life played out in mere moments, from the early days of her foalhood as Celestia’s student to her recent expedition to the Frozen North as she sought the Forerunner ruins and a way to beat Project Freelancer. With a sadistic grin, Sunset Shimmer cast the memory spell again, and all of those memories were pushed aside as more recent ones took their place.

Her name was Ancora, not Twilight. She saw Rainbow Dash on the gurney, her lifeless eyes staring back at her. She saw each of her friends as one by one, each of them perished in changeling attacks or imperfectly planned raids. She saw Princess Celestia struck down by the Changeling Queen.

“No…” Twilight/Ancora whimpered, turning over on the ground as tears rolled down her face all over again. How could I have forgotten?

Her friends all looked at Twilight in her mind’s eye, their lifeless gazes accusing.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry,” Twilight/Ancora sobbed, curling up into a ball of despair. “It’s my fault… it’s all my fault….”

“I know. It hurts, doesn’t it?” Sunset sneered, wiping a bit of Twilight’s blood off her hoof. Her horn glowed again. “Fortunately, I know how to make the pain go away.”

Just like that, Twilight/Ancora felt the same tingling numbness across her essence that she felt before. She felt herself being broken apart piece by piece. This time, she didn’t have the willpower to stop it. Maybe it was for the best. Sunset Shimmer was right, she thought as she closed her eyes. At least this way, there would be no more pain…

“Twilight!?”

Her eyes shot open, and she looked around the room. The voice that called her name was high-pitched and familiar.

“Twiliiiight!” a scratchier voice called out, its echo coming from outside the mess hall.

Following the voice with her eyes, Twilight looked to the nearest door, and saw the shadows of several ponies dancing on the wall outside.

Sunset frowned. “Ugh, how did they find us?”

Five ponies, a baby dragon and a cobalt armored man entered the room.

“Wow… looks like they put the ‘mess’ in mess hall,” Spike snickered, looking around the destroyed room.

“Booooo…” Pinkie said.

Twilight stared at all of them in disbelief through teary eyes.

“Wha…? But… y-you were dead… I saw you….”

“Twilight, that wasn’t real!” Church said.

“Exactly,” Rarity said.

“We’re real,” Fluttershy said.

“And we’re here for ya, sugarcube!” added Applejack.

“Besides,” Rainbow Dash said. “Whatever Sunset showed you is impossible!”

“Because Twilight Sparkle doesn’t fail!” Spike exclaimed.

Twilight looked at each of their smiling faces, and smiled in return. Suddenly the visions of her friends lying dead on gurneys were no longer so scary. Those memories were nothing more than a nightmare, and Twilight was finally waking up.

“Yaaaaay. Friendship. Whooo...” Sunset Shimmer groaned, raising another magical shield over herself and Twilight. “Doesn’t change anything. I’m still deleting you.”

Suddenly remembering the slow numbing sensation crawling over her, Twilight turned to face the other unicorn. She didn’t have enough energy left for any big spells. She couldn’t teleport outside of Sunset Shimmer’s shield. Her analytical mind was fogging up as the numbness claimed more of her. There was only one other option she could think of.

“Sunset, please… I’m sorry that you fell out with Celestia, I really am. But killing me isn’t going to change anything!” Twilight said.

“Uh, were you even listening when I explained my plan?” Sunset deadpanned, her horn still glowing as she cast the spell to purge Twilight from the world.

“Yes, and the real reason for killing me still wasn’t made clear,” Twilight said, taking a step towards her. “C’mon, Sunset. Why do you really want me dead?”

Sunset took a step forward as well, meeting her in the middle. “You wanna know why, Sparkle? It’s because I hate you!” she took a calming breath, forcing her cyan eyes to regain their coldness. “My real plan wasn’t the only thing I lied to the Director about; I did feel a great deal of satisfaction breaking you! I guess I am that kind of pony after all….”

“But why?!” Twilight shouted.

“Because of all the ponies Celestia could have chosen as my replacement, she had to pick you! The source of the rift between us!” Sunset shouted back. “My own creation! My own shadow!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Your what?”

“All M.I.s are based on a real pony’s mind, remember?” Sunset said with a hateful frown. “Tell me, who do you think you were based on?”

As darkness closed in around her, Twilight thought of an idea. One final way she might be able to use this new information to her advantage. If she was based on the pony in front of her, that meant they shared more things in common than one might expect.

“Please, there’s still a chance to make this right!” Twilight implored. “You can still stop!”

Sunset gave Twilight a curious look at that moment, like she was a puzzle she just couldn’t figure out.

“You exist because I made you…” Sunset said, her face hardening with resolve. “Now I’m unmaking you!”

With a sigh, Twilight closed her eyes as more of her was erased by Sunset’s spell. “I’m sorry for this….”

Twilight wasn’t even sure how she did what she did next. Regardless, she knew it was possible. Twilight separated herself from her physical body and materialized as a tiny incorporeal unicorn before Sunset Shimmer. She and Twilight’s friends gasped at the sight, their eyes glued to the being of pure magical energy floating in place. Then she lunged forward, joining her mind to Sunset’s.

All at once, Twilight was filled with memories that weren’t hers, grappling with the ones that were. She remembered being a filly growing up in Baltimare. She remembered living in a mansion on a huge estate, almost the size of Canterlot Castle. She remembered being dressed, cleaned and fed by servants while her mom and dad worked. She remembered treasuring every rare moment she shared with her distant mother. And she remembered whimpering in fear when her father would summon her for spellcasting training.

“Come now, cast your shield, Sunset!” her father, Summer Breeze, ordered as he stood on the other side of the training yard.

“P-please, no more, Daddy! I’m tired!” she sobbed. They had been going for hours now. Her head ached and she could barely stand.

“I don’t care. And neither will the acceptance committee at Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns!” her father intoned sternly, levitating more rocks between them. “Cast. Your. Shield!”

Twilight remembered the crippling fear of going to that entrance exam. Of knowing what would await her should she fail. She remembered laughing with relief when it turned out she didn’t have anything to worry about. Remembered the joy when Celestia herself announced that she would be her mentor. There was joy as she took her lessons with Celestia, and found her to be much gentler and kinder than her father. There was disappointment when her mother and father gave her no praise or rewards for her hard work. There was blissful happiness when Celestia started spending time with her outside their lessons, and she felt truly loved for the first time in her life. There was bittersweetness when she finally told Celestia about her father’s abuses.

“I will never be a monster like him!” she had cried. “NEVER!!!”

There was the crippling anxiety as Celestia’s expectations increased, and she shot down proposal after proposal. There was the growing hope as she finally found a project she thought would impress her beloved mentor. Then there was crushing heartbreak when they fought, and Celestia said those words.

“Your lessons with me are at an end.”

And as Twilight experienced each of Sunset’s memories, Sunset experienced each of hers. Sunset remembered growing up in the Sparkle household with her parents and Big Brother Best Friend Forever. She remembered becoming Celestia’s student, and using her studies to distract herself from the unexplained anxiety that her life wasn’t what she thought it was. She remembered the years of avoiding social interaction in that very pursuit, and the terrible loneliness she felt as a result.

Sunset remembered discovering a prophecy about Nightmare Moon’s return, and being sent to a little town called Ponyville. She remembered spending a wonderful two years living there after defeating Nightmare Moon with her new friends. She remembered every moment she spent growing closer to those five kind, honest, loyal, generous, and just plain fun and loving ponies. She remembered traveling to an alien world where she got to know a very different group of friends.

And then Sunset remembered as each one of them was cruelly torn away from her, and that from the bottom of her heart, she believed she was responsible for their deaths.

When Twilight no longer felt the numbness eating away at her, she withdrew from Sunset’s mind and returned to her own body. As the destroyed mess hall came into focus, she noticed that Sunset’s shield was gone, and that her friends were all around her, helping her to her feet.

Sunset Shimmer was on the floor, curled into a trembling ball as she sobbed into her hooves.

“Oh Celestia…” she whimpered through the tears. “Celestia, what am I doing? What am I doing…?”

Slowly, Twilight approached her, and when Sunset looked up at her with a tear soaked face, Twilight reached towards her.

“Take my hoof,” she said.

Sunset gave her that look again. The look of complete incomprehension. “You should hate me,” she sniffed. “Don’t you hate me?”

“No,” Twilight answered. “I pity you.”

Twilight waited with her hoof extended, but Sunset just stared at it with that blank, confused face.

“I told you, you can still set things right.”

When Sunset made no move to take her hoof, Spike put a hand on her back. “Twilight, we have to go.”

A distant BOOM shook the ship, and as the overhead lights flickered, Twilight remembered they were out of time.

“C’mon,” Church implored. “She isn’t worth it.”

Twilight looked back at the rest of her friends as they waited patiently for her. Each of them looked willing to wait with her until the ship crashed if that was what she chose.

But she would not make them wait.

“Okay. Let’s go home.”

The group turned to the door and together they made their exit, leaving the broken shell of Sunset Shimmer on the floor behind them.

The lights and displays on the bridge of the Mother of Invention flickered unsteadily as a distant boom rocked the ship.

“What was that?” asked the Counselor.

“Sir, we’ve lost engines,” reported one of the ensigns.

“Which ones?”

“All of them,” the ensign gulped. “We’re going down.”

Together with her friends, Twilight Sparkle raced down the halls of the Mother of Invention as the ship entered free fall. The ship’s artificial gravity device was the only reason they were still running and not floating their way there. Church had downloaded a copy of the ship’s schematics while he was in their systems, and the group followed his directions as they ran.

In a few short minutes, they arrived at the hangar bay that Twilight’s friends had used to board the ship. Twilight did her best not to pay too much attention to the bodies of armored ponies and humans littered about the expansive hangar. She saw Sunny Side following the surviving ponies of Captain Kicker’s squad onto a Pelican with Agent Washington draped over her back. The Freelancer was still, and Twilight couldn’t tell whether he was alive or dead.

Seeing ash clouds and distant mountains rising steadily outside the protective shield of the hangar bay, Twilight and her friends raced to board the Pelican too, but Kicker stopped them.

“We’re already overflowing with wounded, you’re going to have to take another one!” he said urgently.

They didn’t have time to argue, and Twilight quickly spotted another Pelican further down. Another boom rocked the ship, causing Twilight to stumble as they approached the other dropship’s rear bay. Twilight, Church, and each of the others scrambled into the ship. Only Fluttershy stopped momentarily to push Sometimes Sinks inside before hopping in herself.

“Crap, anyone know how to fly this thing?” Twilight asked as she strapped into one of the seats along the side.

“Yeah, on it!” Church exclaimed, rushing past her into the cockpit.

The ship lifted off the hangar bay floor before all of its passengers were even strapped in.

“I hope everybody’s buckled up!” Church exclaimed.

Rarity pulled down her seat’s harness and held on tight. “Just please don’t fly too faAAAAAAAAAAST!” Rarity shrieked as the Pelican took off, accelerating to Rainbow Dash-tier speeds as they flew away from the crashing Mother of Invention.

Apparently, in his haste to escape the plummeting warship, Church had neglected to close the Pelican’s rear hatch. Thus, the six ponies, baby dragon, and huragok had a clear view of the Mother of Invention as it sank to the ground, bursts of flames erupting from its hull. Twilight couldn’t take her eyes off of it.

The Freelancer flagship had been the physical manifestation of all of the stress and danger she’d had to put up with over the past near month of facing Project Freelancer. Seeing it fall now brought her as much relief as she felt after using the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon and Discord. She sighed; it was finally over.

“We uh, may have a problem,” Church’s voice came in over the ship’s speakers. “We’re a few hundred pounds heavier than we should be.”

“Well, don’t look at me! I’m on a diet!” Pinkie Pie said proudly.

Applejack frowned at her. “Pinks, we told you: Eatin’ nothin’ but cupcakes isn’t a diet.”

“It is, too! It’s called ‘The Cupcake Diet!’”

“Why’s that bad? Are we over capacity?” Twilight asked. It didn’t make sense to her. She remembered riding the same kind of ship with at least twice as many people, half of them being humans in powered armor.

“No, but it means one of two things,” Church explained as his blue hologram appeared in front of Twilight. “Either A) it’s just a computational error, or B)....”

The whole Pelican lurched as something went bang above them.

“Uh oh, just lost guidance systems,” Church reported, his hologram disappearing, likely to divert his full attention to piloting. “I’m going to have to….”

Another crash, and the ship lurched again. “Crap! We’re losing systems left and right!”

“W-what’s g-going on?!” Fluttershy asked, holding onto Sometimes Sinks tightly.

Another lurch, and suddenly the whine of the engines started to die down.

“Fuck…” Church swore. Twilight didn’t think he meant to broadcast that. Then again, it was Church….

“Let me guess: We’re going down?” Spike deadpanned.

“Well, I was gonna sugarcoat it for ya, but since you asked,” Church said. “Yeah, we’re going down.”

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!” Pinkie shouted. “GET TO THE LIFEBOATS! MARES AND FOALS FIRST!”

Twilight held her safety harness with a death grip as the Pelican shook and her stomach did flips. After a few teeth clenching moments, the Pelican hit the ground of the volcanic wasteland with a whump, whipping its passengers back and forth in their seats. The shaking continued as the ship skidded along the ground, before finally coming to a stop.

“Is everyone alright?” Twilight asked looking around to check all of her friends.

“I think my tail got whiplash!” Rainbow Dash complained.

“Yer tail’s fine,” Applejack said, before doing a double take when she looked at the appendage in question. “Though, it’s lookin’ a bit shorter than usual. You get it cut?”

Another voice broadcasted itself over the Pelican’s radio. “Church! Twilight! Does anyone read me?” Sunny Side asked. Twilight could hear the other Pelican flying overhead.

“Yeah, we’re all fine!” Church responded.

“That looked like a nasty crash, do you guys need assistance?”

“No, my scans are showing that everyone’s fine. Just get your wounded to the nearest base.”

“Okay…” There was a pause in Sunny’s response. “Captain Kicker is signaling Captain Spitfire on the Blue Thunder. She’ll swing around to get you guys.”

“Good, thanks!” As Church signed off of his radio chat with Sunny, Twilight and the others lifted their harnesses and began to stand.

Twilight’s heart leapt in her chest when the whole Pelican groaned and shifted, the back end slowly tilting up. Much more alarmingly, it didn’t stop.

“Uh oh. Everybody out! NOW!” Church shouted as the Pelican started sliding again.

Twilight and the others leapt out of the rear bay of the dropship, landing on the hard volcanic rock outside. Twilight turned around just in time to see the Pelican fall off the cliff it had been sitting on the edge of, hitting the ground below with a thud.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Church!!!”

Before her friends could stop her, she ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down. The Pelican was lying on its back several stories down. Twilight looked for signs of life, but saw no movement. She then caught a glimpse of someone emerging from the Pelican’s rear, and breathed a sigh of relief when a cobalt blue armored figure stumbled out of the upturned ship.

“He’s okay...” Twilight said as she looked for a way to climb down. The cliff evened out into a slope a short distance to the south that they could use to climb down.

“Who’s that?” Spike asked, pointing in Church’s general direction.

Twilight followed his finger and her heart sunk in her chest at the sight of the dark, imposing figure slowly approaching Church below.

“Oh no….”

Church’s vision flashed red, indicators all over his HUD reporting the damage to his synthetic body. His legs refused to follow his commands with any consistency, and he couldn’t stand up right. So much red filled his vision that he didn’t even notice the single dot that appeared on his motion tracker. However, he did hear the sound of footsteps crunching on pebbles, and Church was suddenly overcome by fear as he turned and saw the figure approaching him.

Its once white armor was charred black, and it was coated in a layer of blood. Church couldn’t tell whether the blood was the creature’s own or that of those it had killed. Either way, the looming figure strode towards him, unflinching. A fist full of important looking wires dropped from its hand as it got closer. Church tried desperately to crawl away with his damaged body, but it was no use.

Church felt himself being lifted up, and before he knew it, he found himself looking into a reflective dome: the face of the monster that was the Meta.

Author's Note

Like I said in the recap blog post, the final chapter may not make the regular update schedule, as I still have a lot to write, and I don't want to rush something this important.

Next time: The End.

Final Chapter - Always Red Versus Blue

“CELESTIA!” Luna cried out desperately as she swooped low over the volcanic wasteland, searching desperately for any sign of her white coat. “SISTER?!”

She circled around to check the ashen fields again, her heart beating faster and the pit of fear growing deeper in her gut every second she didn’t see Celestia’s familiar white coat. Several minutes passed before Luna finally saw it: Celestia’s always immaculate white coat was tarnished by a mix of gray ash and black burns, but it was unmistakable. However, Luna’s fear only grew when she realized Celestia wasn’t moving.

“Tia!” Luna shouted as she dove forward and landed beside the broken alicorn. Carefully reaching a hoof forward, Luna gently shook her sister’s body. “Sister…?”

No response. Celestia’s body was still.

“Sister, please…” Luna whimpered, and she felt the tears begin to well up in her eyes when she realized that she was already gone. “You can’t… you can’t do this!”

Luna closed her eyes as the tears flowed freely, and she tried desperately not to think about the reality of the situation.

“C-come now, Luna…” a weak voice said, causing Luna’s eyes to shoot open. Celestia looked up at her through barely open eyes and smiled weakly. “I may have made many mistakes recently, but I’m not about to leave you to clean up my mess alone.”

Luna gave a weak laugh through the tears before wiping them from her eyes. “Does your lust for theatrics know no bounds?” She then looked over Celestia’s body. The burns all over her body were oozing blood and pus. “Come. Let us get you medical aid post haste.”

As Luna struggled to heft Celestia’s dead weight onto her back, the solar princess gave a trembling sigh. “I wasn’t joking earlier…” she said weakly. “We’re going to have a big mess to clean up.”

Celestia had said as much before when she first told Luna about her involvement with Project Freelancer. It had been one of the reasons that secrecy had been of the utmost importance to her.

“Don’t think about that right now,” Luna said as she stood with Celestia on her back. She adjusted her balance a bit before spreading her wings and heading towards where she saw the Blue Thunder heading. “First you need to heal.”

Despite her words, Celestia muttered, “You didn’t see the morning papers, did you?” She was right. Luna had been too busy ensuring their forces would be ready for the attack on the Mother of Invention to bother reading the morning’s newspaper.

“The Staff of Charon flew right by Canterlot…” Celestia continued. “It… it’s on the front page of every newspaper in Equestria. The entire country finally knows about the existence of the humans. They… they’re connecting the dots. Asking questions. They know we know something about all of this.” Celestia sighed as Luna scanned the skies for any sign of the mountain the Blue Thunder disappeared around. “So many ponies died in my war with the Director. They deserve to know. I’m going to tell them… I’m going to reveal everything.”

Luna remembered what Celestia had said would likely happen if she revealed the role she played in Project Freelancer’s actions in Equestria.

“There will be many who will clamor for my removal,” Celestia went on. “And if Church succeeded in reaching the UNSC… I’ll have the Oversight Sub-Committee to answer to as well.”

Luna spotted the mountain that the Blue Thunder retreated to and flapped her wings harder as she raced toward it.

“Maybe it is time for me to step down as princess,” Celestia said with a sense of calm finality. “I’ve had a good run. We can start to accelerate my plans for Twilight... I am confident you will do fine on your own until she is ready. And I can always be there to give counsel.” Celestia closed her eyes and rested her head on Luna’s shoulder. “If stepping down will salvage a relationship with the UNSC and keep order and harmony within our nation… I’m ready.”

Luna merely rolled her eyes. “And here I thought I was the melodramatic one,” she scoffed. “Tia, you forget that what you are considering is only a worst case scenario. What happened to the sunny optimism you are known for?”

Celestia opened her eyes and looked at Luna plainly for the first time in ages. There was no mask of serenity. No calm, stoic facade. There was only plain fear. “But… how can you be sure ponies won’t blame me for all that has happened? Especially when they learn that none of this would have come to pass if I hadn’t been so desperate to save you?”

“Sometimes, sister, I think you give our little ponies too little credit,” Luna said, keeping her concentration on the sky ahead of her. “Or have you forgotten all of the ways I too have wronged them? If our ponies can forgive me for all I have done as Nightmare Moon, then surely they will forgive you as well.”

Luna had a hunch she knew what this was really about. “I know more than anypony how hard it can be to forgive yourself. But you mustn’t let that guilt shape the course of the rest of your life. ‘Tis better to simply let it go and try to move on.”

Luna was well aware of the incredible hypocrisy of her own words, but in that instant it didn’t matter if they were true. What mattered was that a true smile finally adorned Celestia’s burned face.

“Since when did my baby sister get to be so wise?” she asked with a content sigh.

“Since always!”

Already feeling a little winded, Twilight skidded to a stop before the overturned Pelican at the foot of the cliff she and her friends had stood on moments ago. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity were all right behind her. Spike watched from the cliff top with the huragok floating nervously beside him. Twilight had insisted that the situation was much too dangerous for a baby dragon and for the first time, Spike agreed.

Twilight hadn’t wanted to teleport them all too close to their enemy—it was far too risky. Nevertheless, seeing the hulking monster insert the A.I. chip into the back of its helmet with one hand and holding Church’s limp body in the other made Twilight regret that decision. The Meta looked almost unrecognizable as whatever it had been before.

Its white armor was charred black, blood staining it in various places. Its visor was cracked, and its movements seemed slow, but one look at the blue and green arcane power radiating from its right and left hands was all Twilight needed to see to know it was dangerous. Then she heard the hum of its armor powering up and saw the shimmering overshields appear around its body, and Twilight knew that its armor abilities were back at full strength. She swallowed, forcing the fear back down as the walking nightmare that was the Meta turned to face them, throwing Church’s body to their feet with a threatening growl as distant volcanoes rumbled ominously. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“So, uhm… any bright ideas, Twi?” Applejack asked nervously as the monstrous Meta took a step toward them.

Each of Twilight’s friends looked at her expectantly, putting on their bravest faces. “I might have a few ideas…” she said as she extended her magic to reach into her pocket dimension. Yes! They’re still here.

In five consecutive flashes of light, a piece of golden regalia appeared around the neck of each of Twilight’s friends. Finally, a golden tiara topped by a six pointed star appeared on Twilight’s head, and the six friends stared down the monster with determined expressions. Twilight caught a glimpse of two tiny holographic ponies on each of the Meta’s shoulders, and a familiar third figure in cobalt armor flickered in place as he desperately tried to get away.

Before they could use the Elements of Harmony, Twilight suddenly remembered the last time they used them. Images of the Meta’s A.I.s—of Church’s fragments—flickering and going out in the wake of the Elements’ purge played in Twilight’s mind.

“We have to get Church away from the Meta first!” Twilight said. “We can’t risk using the Elements with him still inside.”

“And how the hay are we supposed to do that!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the Meta reached out and levitated a group of large boulders in the blue and green glow of its M.I.s magic.

“Improvise!” Twilight shouted as the Meta launched its first attack.

The six ponies scattered in the wake of the onslaught of boulders. Rainbow Dash wasted no time in taking to the air, but the Meta merely extended a hand and suddenly she was enveloped in a magical glow and slammed hard into the ground. Applejack ran forward and attempted a good hard buck before the Meta could slam Rainbow into the ground again, but the attack barely made the monster flinch through its powerful overshields. An almost half hearted kick sent Applejack sprawling back.

The Meta then whirled around to face Pinkie Pie and Rarity, who’d been preparing a sneak attack behind it with the party cannon and some magic. The M.I.s in the Meta’s possession summoned magical fireballs, and the Meta hurled them at the two ponies with lightning speed. Rarity only barely managed to bring up a magical shield in time to protect herself and Pinkie Pie. The glowing blue dome started to crack very quickly under the Meta’s onslaught, and Twilight had to act fast, launching a quick but unfocused burst of magical energy at the Meta.

The monster was unfazed through its overshields, but its attention was drawn away from Pinkie Pie and Rarity’s weakening shield. Twilight tried to access the vast database of spellcasting knowledge in the depths of her mind, but found herself slow and foggy. Whatever Sunset Shimmer had done to her during their fight must have seriously impaired her M.I. abilities.

Whatever the reason, Twilight forced herself to charge a proper magical attack, throwing up a magical shield around herself to buy some time. The Meta merely decided to take another approach, stomping the ground with a magically aided foot and a furious snarl. The ground shook beneath Twilight’s hooves as cracks started to form. The ground opened up to swallow her, a river of magma waiting for her at the bottom of a small widening ravine, and Twilight had to stop her spellcasting to dive onto solid ground. Unfortunately, the ground wasn’t solid enough, and the piece she stood on collapsed.

Twilight’s stomach lurched and her heart jumped in her chest as she fell, but in an instant she felt somepony’s hooves grab her and stop her descent. She looked over her shoulder to see Fluttershy straining every muscle in her little body to carry her to safety. The Meta snarled and summoned more magical fireballs, but Twilight raised a shield to protect herself and Fluttershy before the attacks could close in. Behind them, the overturned Pelican creaked and groaned before it fell into the widening chasm below.

As Fluttershy began to bring Twilight in for a landing by Pinkie and Rarity, the Meta punched the ground with two glowing fists, and the ground rose to meet them. Columns of rock shot out of the ground, sending Twilight and Fluttershy spiraling out as well as knocking Pinkie Pie and Rarity off their hooves.

Before the Meta could follow up with another attack, it was beset by a combined assault from Rainbow Dash and Applejack, allowing Twilight and the others a moment to climb to their feet. It was all they had time to do before Applejack and Rainbow were simultaneously tossed aside. With a wave of its hand, the Meta cast another spell through its M.I.s, and a large ball of fire appeared over Rainbow and Applejack’s inert forms. Twilight quickly reached out with her magic and teleported the pair to her side before the large fireball came down.

With the six of them once again standing together, Twilight cast a shield around all of them before the Meta turned and started launching more fireballs. She winced as she felt the Meta’s attacks begin to chip away at her shield, and the deja vu that came with it. Twilight looked around at her friends. Each one of them looked bruised, battered, and exhausted. Either from the fight with the Meta or one of the other fights they got into on the Mother of Invention.

“I don’t know… how much longer… we can keep this up…” Rarity panted.

“Yeah, nothing we’re doing is getting through to it!” Pinkie exclaimed, pointing at the Meta. “That cruiser can repel friendship of this magnitude!”

Twilight winced again as another attack struck her shield, starting to form cracks on its surface.

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy started, and when Twilight looked at her, Fluttershy looked back with big sad eyes. “I really… really dislike to say this, but… I don’t know if we’re going to be able to save Church.”

“What?” Twilight sputtered. “No. Fluttershy, I know it looks bad, but we can do this!”

“How?!” Applejack exclaimed, rounding on Twilight next. “We’re struggling jus’ to survive against that thing!”

“No… t-there must be some way… some angle we’re not seeing….”

Another much larger attack rocked Twilight’s domed shield, making it flicker unsteadily. Twilight wiped her nose with a hoof as something started oozing out of it, and her heart beat faster when she pulled it away and saw it stained red.

“Twi, if we don’t use the Elements to stop this thing right now, we’re literally gonna die!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Looking at the sorry state of each of the other five ponies, Twilight had no choice but to agree. The task of retrieving Church was impossible. With both a Smart A.I. and two M.I. fragments, the Meta was all but invincible, save against their one final weapon. She’d known the truth of the situation from the beginning, but had denied it to herself in the vain hope that she could save him.

Each one of her friends looked to her with fearful, urgent eyes. She knew she had to do it. If not for her, then for her friends.

“But…” Twilight whimpered, tears filling her eyes. “Church is my friend too!”

Then Twilight glanced up to the top of the cliff where Spike was watching. The little dragon was frozen with fear, yet unable to look away from the battle below. It was then that Twilight knew what had to be done, no matter how much it hurt. So with another whimper, Twilight closed her eyes and cleared her mind as she tapped into the Element of Magic’s power, and in a moment she felt the strain on her shield vanish as her Element filled it with fresh magical power. As she and her friends were lifted into the air, the Meta powerless to stop them, Twilight desperately searched for any sign of her friend within the monster.

“I’m sorry, Church…” Twilight muttered, tears falling from her eyes even as they were glazed over by glowing white power. “Please forgive me….”

As magical power continued to build within the Elements of Harmony, Twilight’s ears twitched as she thought she heard something at the edge of her hearing.

“What’s that sound?” Rainbow Dash asked, the disruption of focus causing the Elements to begin powering back down.

“Is that… music?” Rarity asked.

Twilight’s hooves touched the ground again along with her friends, and then she was able to hear it much more clearly. An aggressive beat filled the air in the distance, slowly growing over the distant rumble of earth.

Talkin’ that shit. Talkin’ that shit.
Each and every day I be talkin’ that shit.
Talkin’ thAT SHIT.
TALKIN’ THAT SHIT.

She turned and looked to the sky, and sure enough, a Pelican dropship was flying low straight towards them. Somehow, against all laws of physics, a set of hydraulics was making it bounce up and down in the air in time with the beat of the rap song blaring from its speakers.

“Wow… it’s so majestic…” Pinkie Pie sighed serenely as the ship flew directly over their heads.

Just as the Pelican passed over an equally stupefied Meta, its nose tilted up and it stalled in the air. Its engines shut down, and the dropship made true to its name and dropped like a brick. The Meta only had time to give a panicked snarl before it was crushed under several tons of space faring metal. The crash broke whatever system was playing the rap music, and just like that, the volcanic wasteland was silent again.

“Huh. Well, that… sure happened,” Applejack said.

“Who could have been flying that thing?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh, I think I have a hunch….”

At that moment, the Pelican’s rear bay began to open, and in a few short seconds, five men in red and blue powered armor piled out.

“Dammit, Grif!” Sarge exclaimed. “Only you would crash a ship I literally just repaired!”

“Oh, you fixed it?” Grif deadpanned. “I guess that would explain why it stalled in the air for absolutely no reason!”

“A good craftsman never blames his tools, Grif.”

“I’m not blaming the tools! I’m blaming the craftsman!”

“Hello!” Caboose waved at the six dumbfounded ponies.

“Whuh…? What are you all doing here?” Rarity asked.

“Rescuing you girls, of course!” Donut exclaimed, before immediately backtracking. “Uh… not implying because you’re girls that you’re helpless and need a strong man to save you or anything. Pfft! What am I, the patriarchy?”

“But… I thought you all wanted to go home?” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah. What happened to ‘not risking your lives for a bunch of ponies you’ve got no stake in’?” Rainbow Dash asked sardonically.

“Okay, I think you’re paraphrasing us just a little there,” Tucker said.

“Don’ get me wrong. We’d still rather be goin’ home,” Sarge declared, pulling out his shotgun. “But I figured we could make time to help out some friends.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks, guys!”

“Besides, it looks like the danger’s already passed!” Tucker exclaimed.

On cue, the Pelican that the Reds and Blues had arrived in groaned as it started to shift. Slowly, the dropship began to lift off the ground as the Meta forced itself to its feet, holding the ship over its head. With a feral roar, the burned Meta pushed the Pelican over and turned to face the group.

“You just had to open your fucking mouth…” Grif said.

“Jeez, what does it take to stop that thing?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

One thing about the Meta stood out to Twilight at that moment. “Its shields are gone….”

Sure enough, the Meta was no longer covered in a glowing, shimmering layer of overshields. Whatever device had been powering them sparked and sputtered. She guessed that the armor enhancement generating the Meta’s shields had been damaged when the ship landed on top of it. As far as Twilight could tell though, the Meta still had Church.

“It still has Church, but it’s weaker now!” Twilight exclaimed, a bit of hope finally returning. “Now that we’re all together, we can save him.”

Putting one hoof forward, Twilight stood together with the five other ponies and five armored humans, the eleven brightly colored individuals forming a rainbow of their own as they formed up before the Meta.

“ATTAAAAAAACK!” Caboose cried.

“Hey, that’s my line!” Sarge shouted.

With a unified shout, six ponies and five humans all charged straight at the towering burnt monstrosity. With an alarmed growl, the Meta actually took a step back before activating its cloaking device and disappearing in place. The ponies and humans immediately skidded to a stop and instinctively formed a tight circle, the Reds and Blues aiming their weapons in every direction.

“There!” Rarity cried, pointing to a distorted shimmer in the air that her keen eye for detail immediately picked up. Donut, who was beside her, quickly followed up with a shot from his BR, hitting the Meta square in the shoulder, turning it visible again.

The charred monster immediately threw a magical barrier around itself before the rest of the group could launch a full counterattack. As the others tried to think of a way through the barrier, Grif and Fluttershy exchanged a look.

“I think it’s time for you to let out your monster, Fluttershy,” Grif said.

With an understanding nod, Fluttershy took wing and flew right up to the Meta’s barrier. She closed her eyes and took a breath before opening them with the full power of the Stare. She saw her own eyes Stare back at her in the distorted reflection of the Meta’s broken visor, but this time she didn’t let it get to her. Fluttershy continued her Stare unrelenting, and in a few moments, the Meta’s shield grew unstable.

A hail of gunfire flew past Fluttershy and rained down on the weakening magic barrier, shattering it. The rest of the group all charged forward, but this time the Meta rushed to meet them. It avoided a blast from Sarge’s shotgun before knocking the man’s trademark weapon away. The monster pulled a fist back to follow up with a powerful punch, but it was stopped by a rope lassoing around it.

Applejack stood firm as she held the end of the rope around the Meta’s right arm in her mouth. Before the Meta could respond, Sarge lunged forward to throw a punch of his own. The Meta caught the attack in the palm of its unrestrained hand, but Rainbow Dash swooped in from above, flying straight into the monster with both forelegs extended. The strike knocked the Meta off balance, and before it could retaliate, Rainbow took off again. Sarge hit it with a one-two punch as his two subordinates moved around to get a clear shot with their rifles.

Seeing this, the Meta grabbed Sarge and held him between Grif and Donut, taking advantage of the momentary lull in their attack to try and yank Applejack off her hooves with the rope still lassoed around its arm. Applejack was ready for it though, and used the momentum of the Meta’s sharp pull to leap through the air, delivering a flying kick with all four hooves to the Meta’s side.

As it staggered from the blow, its grip on Sarge loosened, and the man in red delivered a sharp elbow to the Meta’s chin, freeing himself from its grip. The Meta instead called upon the magic of its M.I.s, extending an arm and sending Sarge flying back with a blast of energy. That was when Rainbow Dash and Tucker made their move. The blue pegasus swooped down, holding Tucker by the pits of his arms. The man leapt down towards the Meta, energy sword in hand, and brought it down right towards the burned creature’s extended arm.

The Meta roared in pain and frustration as Tucker’s sword removed its arm in one clean swing. It nailed Tucker with a furious strike with its remaining arm, knocking the man to the ground, then immediately began looking for where the next strike would come. Twilight couldn’t imagine it had expected to be beset by a dress. Rarity summoned several works in progress from her pocket dimension and flung them over their enemy’s head. The Meta snarled as it struggled to untangle itself from the various articles of clothing.

“Hah! Looking fabulous, dear!” Rarity taunted.

“Nice!” Donut exclaimed, holding out a fist, which the fashionista bumped.

As the Meta ripped away the half finished dresses, and the others readied another attack, Pinkie Pie looked at Caboose with uncertainty.

“What should we do?!” she asked.

“Simple,” Caboose said. “We bring out O’Malley.”

Pinkie Pie gave a confused tilt of her head. “O’Malley? But how? He’s gone!”

Caboose shook his head. “No. We just need to get angry, and say random threatening things!”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“It’s easy,” Caboose said. “You just need to think about things that make you mad!” He then balled his hands into fists and concentrated. “Spiky kittens… raisin cookies mixed in with chocolate chip… BABIES IN MOVIE THEATRES! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN TAKE A BABY TO A MOVIE!? IT ISN’T CAPABLE OF FOLLOWING A STORYLINE! RrrraaaaAAAAAAAAAUGH!”

Caboose charged forward and knocked the Meta back with his body alone. “My name is Michael J. Caboose. And I. Hate. States!”

Caboose unleashed one furious punch after another, pushing the Meta back towards the chasm it had opened up with its powers earlier. The Meta finally forced Caboose back with a magical blast, only to find itself confronted by a pink pony with a straight-as-a-ruler mane and tail.

“And my name is Pinkamena Diane Pie,” she said, swiveling her party cannon to face the burned figure. “And I! Hate! Meanies!” Pinkie exclaimed, punctuating each word with a blast from her party cannon.

The Meta stumbled back as it was hit by blow after blow from Pinkie’s party cannon until it finally spun and collapsed right on the edge of the lava-filled chasm. As the others all regrouped around Pinkie and Caboose, Twilight wasted no time in jumping onto the Meta’s back and reaching for it’s helmet with her magic. In a few moments she found the A.I. slot and with a sharp yank, pulled out Church’s chip. She gripped the M.I. chips in her magic next, pulling them from the back of the man’s neck swiftly.

With a furious growl, the Meta threw Twilight from its back and slowly pulled itself to its feet. Church’s A.I. chip in her magical grasp, Twilight took a few steps back until she was safely in the company of her friends—pony and human alike. The two sides stared each other down for several seconds. Fresh blood seeped through the Meta’s armor as it stood at the edge of the chasm, hunched over as it panted with exhaustion. The Reds, Blues and ponies stood and waited for the Meta to make a move, but no move came.

Instead, the Meta looked down at its one remaining hand. It was covered in blood, both dried and fresh. It looked up at the gathered ponies and humans one last time, and in that moment Twilight realized the Meta was gone and in its place stood Agent Maine. But the Freelancer moved one leg over the edge of the chasm and before Twilight or any of the others could react, Agent Maine was gone too.

Gasping, Twilight raced to the edge and looked down. Maine was waist deep in the lava below, and was sinking without a sound. In a few more moments, Maine’s helmet disappeared beneath the boiling magma, and just like that, the entity that had haunted them for the past few weeks was gone.

“W-why did he do that?” Fluttershy asked, her voice trembling.

“Yeah, that was a pretty bold strategy, but I’m not entirely sure it paid off for him,” Grif said.

“Maybe he started to see clearly again…” Applejack said shakily, respectfully removing her hat.

Sighing, Twilight turned away from the chasm and looked down at the A.I. chip in her magic, letting the other two fall to the ground. “Church? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

A few nerve-wracking moments passed, but a cobalt blue holographic figure appeared in front of Twilight, and the unicorn M.I. sighed with relief.

“Man… I don’t want to spend one more moment inside another Freelancer’s head as long as I live,” he groaned, and Twilight smiled.

Tucker cleared his throat loudly. “You’re welcome, asshole.”

“Right. Thanks guys,” Church said. “Guess you’re not such a bad group after all.”

Twilight looked around at all of her friends, and the ponies and humans looked back. They were all okay. She looked up at the cliff, and saw not only Spike and the huragok looking down at them, but an Equestrian airship coming down for a landing. A dusk blue alicorn swooped in beside it, carrying a wounded but breathing white alicorn on her back.

“It’s over,” she said with a relieved sigh. “It’s finally over.”

But when she looked down, Church’s attention was elsewhere.

“You’re right, Twilight. But I think there’s still more that we can do.”

Twilight followed his gaze and saw the distant wreckage that was the Mother of Invention.

“I know he’s already beaten,” Church continued. “But… it might be good to get some closure.”

Nodding, Twilight turned to the others. “You guys go back to the airship.”

“You sure you don’t want us to come with you, dear?” Rarity asked.

Twilight nodded again. “This is something Church and I need to do ourselves.”

With understanding looks, Twilight and Church’s friends all turned to leave. “We’ll be waitin’, sugarcube,” Applejack said, putting her hat back on.

“Yeah, just don’t take too long,” Tucker said.

As the ten of them left, Twilight levitated Church’s A.I. chip over to the blue armored synthetic body on the ground, and in a few moments, Church climbed to his feet with a groan.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s go find the Director….”

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open and her head throbbed. She didn’t know where she was, just that it was dark and damp. Drips of water echoed around her. A cave then. She groaned as she tried to sit up, but the action only made her head pound harder. Feeling her head with a hoof, she found that it was wrapped in damp bandages.

“Whoa now, take it easy, Shimmer,” a harsh, scratchy voice said.

Rolling over on the ground, Sunset Shimmer saw a single female griffon crouched by a fire pit below a hole in the ceiling, a couple of bags of supplies around her. Her heart sank into her stomach when she saw that it was the acting commander of Whitewater’s Equestria branch. Gilda Graywing quietly ate out of a can of military brand non-perishables. As her eyes began to adjust to the dark, Sunset Shimmer took a look around the cave. Rows of shelves lined the walls, each stacked with wooden crates filled with equipment and supplies. A row of weapons sat against the wall near what she surmised was the entrance, and another door sat open to a room full of sleeping cots.

Sunset Shimmer shifted into a more comfortable position. “Where…?”

“The Badlands. About twenty miles north of the Mother of Invention’s crash site. This cave is one of a few emergency fallback positions Whitewater has in this area,” Gilda answered. “We’ll be safe here. For now.”

“Here.” Cracking open another can of rations with her sharp talons, Gilda tossed it towards her. Sunset tried to catch it in her magic, but only got a headache as the can clattered to the ground in front of her. As she dug into the contents of the can, Sunset tried to remember how she got here, but her mind was drawing a blank. It was like the events of the past few days were an incomprehensible blur.

“So, what happened?” Sunset asked.

“The explosives in the engine room went off as planned. Found you in the wreckage, patched you up and brought you here,” Gilda said before taking a bite of her own food. “I was meaning to ask you about that, actually. I figured you would’ve been long gone by the time the ship went down.”

“Oh, right. I was… held up….”

That was when she remembered her battle with Ancora. Her defeat. And then what happened after. She and her creation shared minds, and in that moment Sunset’s whole world was turned upside-down. In that moment, she had the chance to look at her actions from an outsider’s perspective. When it was over, Sunset could suddenly see the big picture much more clearly. Ever since parting ways with Celestia, it was like she was looking at the world through a haze of red. Now that the haze was lifted, Sunset felt sick thinking about everything she’d done.

Looking at Lieutenant Graywing, Sunset’s mind was suddenly filled with images of another griffon. The scene of Whitewater’s former commander bleeding out before falling over a cliff played out in front of her again and again, tormenting her. Making her feel like vomiting.

“Lieutenant, I…” she started, chucking up words instead of sick. “There’s something you need to know. About your father.”

Gilda stopped eating and leveled a steady glare at Sunset as she continued.

“It wasn’t Rainbow Dash or her comrades that killed Godfrey,” Sunset swallowed. “It was me. Well… sort of. Donovan actually pulled the trigger. Ultimately he decided it was the best course of action, but at the time… I agreed. Your father’s blood is on my hooves as much as his, er… hands.”

It was a bittersweet sensation to get the truth out like that. Sunset still felt horribly sick, but at the same time… she felt like she could breathe a little easier. Still, the horrible feeling in her gut was out in full force as she waited for Gilda’s response. Her ears wilted as she expected to be on the receiving end of a griffon’s righteous fury. Waited to feel the sensation of her claws tearing her limb from limb. At least this way, she wouldn’t have to live with the crippling guilt.

Instead, Gilda’s answer was a calm, “I know.”

When the griffon merely went back to her meal, it became apparent that Sunset’s retribution wasn’t coming. Not today, at least. Her head spun as she tried to process this. She knew that if she thought someone had wronged her like that, she wouldn’t hesitate to inflict swift vengeance. After all, it was why she was in this mess in the first place.

“Wha… but… t-then why save me?” Sunset asked trembling. “You could have just let me die. You should have just let me die!”

“Oh, believe me, I wanted to,” Gilda said with a grin that quickly turned sad and wistful. “But as a dear friend recently told me, you can’t always get what you want. Sometimes it’s better to just… let things go.”

The pair of them ate the rest of their meal in silence, and Sunset’s guilt stricken mind raced. Let things go. It appeared to be the wise thing to do. It certainly seemed like it would be easier to simply let go of the horrible guilt churning her stomach. But then she thought of Celestia. And Ancora. And everyone else she had wronged. Thought about how she had spent years blaming all of them for her lot in life, when now the answer was clear as day that she had no one to blame but herself. Would any of them be willing to simply let things go after all she’d done? Could she honestly blame them if they couldn’t?

“How…” Sunset started after a long silence. “How can we ever make things right?”

Gilda shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know that we can. I guess all we can do is just… do better.”

As Twilight and Church approached the smoking wreckage of the Mother of Invention, they found a small handful of soldiers in gray armor milling about just beyond the ship’s hull. Many had their helmets off. All of them were nursing wounds.

“Enemy contact!” one of them cried out as the pair approached.

The soldiers who could still stand turned and raised their weapons at Twilight and Church, but a soft, melodic voice rose before they could fire.

“Stand down, men,” the Counselor said, putting a hand on the rifle of the nearest soldier and gently but firmly pushing it down. The others followed suit. “It’s over. There’s no point in drawing out this conflict any longer.”

The dark skinned man wore a brace around his neck, and his gray and black uniform was covered in blood. Whether it was his own or one of the soldiers’, Twilight couldn’t say. Despite how frail and weak the remaining forces of Project Freelancer looked, Twilight fixed them with a hard glare and remained alert as she asked, “Where is he?”

“The Director is still aboard. In his office,” the Counselor answered without hesitation. “He refuses to evacuate the ship and, much more frustrating, refuses medical attention.”

Twilight knew Church still had the ship’s schematics. Finding the Director’s office wouldn’t be a problem.

“You sure gave him up fast, considering you’re his right hand man,” Church noted.

The Counselor gestured with an arm to the bleak destruction around them. “I have been loyal to the Director for nearly thirty years, and just look at where it’s gotten me. My devotion to the project over the past few years hasn’t been out of loyalty to him, but to ensure that the rest of us wouldn’t fall because of his pathetic ambition. You can see how well that turned out.”

With a scowl, the Counselor turned away and took a seat on a large rock nearby. “So go and kill him, or bring him in or whatever it is you’re here to do. His fate is no longer of any concern to me.”

Without any other words Twilight and Church left the Freelancer personnel behind and entered the derelict Mother of Invention. Church led the way through numerous winding corridors dimly lit by the red emergency lighting system.

FILSS’ voice spoke over the P.A. system, sounding broken and disjointed. “Error. System malfunction. Error. System malfunction….”

Occasionally they’d have to clamber over piles of rubble, or find an alternative route around a collapsed hallway, but eventually they found it. The door to the Director’s office lay open, inviting them into its darkness. A voice emitted from the darkness. A woman’s voice, jovial but sad.

“Church, I have to go. Don’t make me hurt you….”

Twilight didn’t know about Church, but she couldn’t make out much inside the office. The outlines of bookshelves lined the walls, but the crunch of paper at her hooves indicated that the books themselves had been knocked from the shelves during the crash. Jagged pieces of metal jutted from the ceiling where it had collapsed.

At the center of it all sat the Director, his weathered face illuminated by the light of the datapad in his hands. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his face was cut at the forehead. He hovered over the device like a man huddled over a fire, trying desperately to keep the withering embers alive.

The Director didn’t look up from his datapad as he addressed them. “Alpha. Ancora. How good of you both to come and see me before the end,” he said weakly.

A closer look at the man confirmed what Twilight suspected. One of the pieces of rubble from the ceiling was sticking out of his stomach, a steady flow of blood coming from the wound.

“This isn’t a social call, Director,” Twilight said, keeping her voice steady. “We’re here to take you back to Canterlot, where you’ll be held until the UNSC arrives. Then you’ll answer to them for your crimes.”

The Director looked up at her and gave them a sad smile. “Look at me, Ancora. I’m not going anywhere like this. No. I’ll answer for my crimes in the life after this one.”

“Why don’t you instead start by answering to us?” Church asked. “Was all of this really just for the sake of one woman?!”

Twilight understood to an extent why the Director did all he did to Church, but there was one very big thing she did not. “And how do I fit into all this? Why create me? Was I just another part of your plan to bring her back?”

“She deserves to know,” Church stated. “We both deserve to know everything!”

“Yes,” the Director answered. “You were the next step in bringing Allison back, Ancora. Agent Texas is truly remarkable. Her mere existence, a miracle. But she’s still just a shadow. She could never hold a candle to Allison, not with her… faulty programming. Even a full A.I. based on her would be imperfect, with the inevitability of Rampancy always looming. You, Ancora, were to be the cure to that unfortunate condition. You would have finally made her perfect.”

Twilight’s hooves trembled as the dull ache in her throat sent a fresh rage burning through her. “So that’s it?! You created me—you gave me life—just so you could use me to find a way to fix her?! Why? Why is this so important?”

“Because memory is the key,” the Director answered, looking at her with pale green eyes. “It is our memories that define us in life. But in death, we are defined only by others’ memories of us. I thought if I could bring her back, she… she wouldn’t be remembered as a failure.”

Dr. Church looked back down at the datapad in his hands, and the video file playing on repeat. “Now, though? I realize I’ve been lying to myself. I suppose… what I really wanted in the end was closure. To hear her say that one word.” The Director’s hands shook as his already frail voice trembled. “Because no matter how many times I watch this… she still doesn’t say it….”

Twilight glanced down at the image on the datapad’s screen, and glimpsed a beautiful woman with blonde hair dressed in drab green.

“Just don’t say goodbye…” Allison said, smiling sadly. “I hate goodbyes….”

While a lump formed in Twilight’s throat, Church stepped forward, glaring at his maker through his helmet. “So what?! You think you’re the only one in the galaxy who’s lost someone? What about all the others, huh?! The Freelancers. York. North and South Dakota. CT. Maine.”

“Derpy Hooves,” Twilight added. “And Arcane Star. All of the ponies in the Guard. And in Dodge.”

“And Simmons!” Church exclaimed, and Twilight’s heart stopped for a moment. “What makes her life so much more important than all of theirs?!”

The Director was silent for several moments before replying, “I thought you of all people would understand, Alpha. I had to try….”

Church shook his head. “No. All you had to do was let her go and move on.”

Suddenly feeling incredibly overwhelmed, Twilight bit her lip and fought back tears as she tapped Church with a hoof. “Come on, Church. Let’s go. There’s nothing more for us to do here.”

Nodding, Church turned and followed Twilight to the exit to the Director’s office.

“Alpha, wait a moment,” the Director called back. A bit of blood was oozing from his mouth, and his eyes looked more faded and distant. “May I… ask one final favor from you?”

Church turned and went back to him while Twilight waited outside. She heard hushed murmurs coming from within, but paid no attention to the words themselves. In a few minutes, Church returned and urged her forward. Twilight looked back into the office one last time. The Director sat in his chair where they’d found him. He was completely still.

“Um, Church?” Twilight asked once they were outside again. Her heart beat nervously as she considered the implications of something Church had said earlier. She had suspected the worst when the Reds and Blues had showed up down a member, but she had to know for sure. “About Simmons….”

Even now, over a thousand years after Unification, each of the three pony tribes still held onto their respective funeral traditions. Earth ponies were buried in the ground so that they might become one with the earth they toiled. Pegasi were burned in great funeral pyres, their ashes scattered to the winds, returning them to the sky. And unicorns were locked away in eloquent tombs along with what worldly possessions of theirs they did not choose to pass down to others, preserved by spells for all time.

But the Royal Guard and subsequent branches of the military did not adhere to any of the three tribes’ traditions. Having been formed after Unification, and consisting of all three pony races, the Guard and its branches honored its dead with simple memorial pieces, allowing the loved ones of their fallen members to put them at rest however they saw fit. Twilight had always found that fascinating, if a little macabre. Especially considering her brother’s choice of career.

On this appropriately gloomy, overcast Canterlot day (apparently the weather team had been notified of the service that was being held) Princess Luna stood by the memorial piece that had been erected for those that fell in service to Equestria against Project Freelancer. No official public statement had been made yet on the nature of the conflict between Equestria and the extraterrestrial humans, but Luna had made assurances that a press conference would be held as soon as her sister was able.

This particular memorial piece was crudely constructed from what appeared to be a variety of ship parts from one or all of the crashed human warships. It was covered by photos and memorabilia of or belonging to the many pony soldiers who died, and each of their names were scrawled into the surface. As Luna began the standard memorial speech, citing the fallen’s courage and heroism, dozens of ponies in finely polished armor stood at attention. Twilight spotted Sunny Side among their ranks, and wondered whether Tex was with her.

When Luna finished her speech, each of the respectfully attentive soldiers took a step forward and left something for their comrades, sometimes a trinket of some personal import, and sometimes only words. Twilight stood to the side and waited respectfully until all of them were gone. After that, another set of guards escorted a familiar group of Red and Blue armored humans into the courtyard. Evidently, secrecy was still a priority as far as the human sim troopers were concerned, despite the humans being all but public knowledge by now. Each one of them approached the memorial and studied it until they found the one name that wasn’t like the others.

“Here you go, nerd. You can have this back,” Grif said quietly, taking out some sort of card with numbers printed across it and placing it before the memorial piece. “Just, uh… ignore most of the charges on it. They were a, uh, gift. Yeah….”

Sarge stepped forward next and set down a calculator, and Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle sadly when she realized that each of the Reds were leaving belongings they had taken from Simmons at some point.

The Blues were next, Caboose and Church each left a rifle magazine for a lack of anything better. Tucker decided to leave a magazine of a totally different kind.

“For when you try to bone an angel and inevitably strike out,” he said with a nod.

Twilight gave all of them a nod before they too turned to leave, and then it was just her alone in the courtyard. Taking a deep breath, Twilight approached the memorial piece and sat down in front of it. Photos of mares and stallions both in and out of armor looked back at her. A few smiled politely for the camera, but most grinned mischievously as they engaged in a variety of on base hijinks. Twilight scanned the list of names until she found the one she was looking for. Even in death, Richard Simmons was an odd outcast that stood out like a sore thumb. It occurred to Twilight then that she didn’t know whether the human military shared any funeral customs with that of ponies, but decided she would honor him the way the Guard did all the same.

Sniffling, Twilight reached out with her magic into her pocket dimension and pulled out a single object. Eyes watering, she looked down at the hastily constructed radio headset in her magical aura. It was funny how such an awkward looking thing had made her more open to communicating with the goofballs and outcasts of Blood Gulch she’d come to appreciate so much.

“Thank you,” Twilight sniffed, returning the headgear to its original maker. “For everything.”

Wiping her eyes, Twilight looked back to the list of names and found her gaze landing on another. Her fragile gaze hardened as the single word looked back at her. Washington. Church had told her all about what he had done—the good and the bad. In truth, she still wasn’t sure how to feel about him.

“Do not hate Agent Washington, Twilight.”

Twilight looked over her shoulder to find Princess Luna standing there. She wasn’t sure how long the night princess had been there, but evidently she had deduced what Twilight was thinking.

“I don’t,” Twilight admitted. “I understand why he did what he did. I just… wish he hadn’t, y’know?”

“In the end, I think, so did he,” Luna said. “Elsewise, I don’t think he’d have given his life to keep young Pinkie Pie and Applejack safe.”

“Yeah. I know….” Twilight had wanted to trust him so badly. It felt weird to think she had been both right and wrong about him at once.

“However, despite where we stand, I did not come to you to discuss the dead,” Luna continued. “Neigh, I am here to inform you that Celestia is awake, and that she has asked for you.”

Swallowing, Twilight followed Luna as she led her into the castle. She knew the coming conversation needed to happen, but dreaded it all the same. Celestia was another person she had desperately wanted to trust. Now, Twilight knew what she had to do, but she wasn’t sure that she could. Nevertheless, she went with Luna towards the heart of Canterlot Castle.

After following Luna through winding castle corridors and layer upon layer of magical security, the pair of them finally arrived at the Royal Infirmary. Luna waited back while Twilight quietly and unsurely walked across the sterile white room to the large bed in the center. Celestia smiled at her from her position on the bed. Her perfect white coat was gone in many places, covered with gauze and bandages, and her mane was limp and lifeless, but Celestia’s smile remained as warm and full of life as it had always been.

Still, it was hard for Twilight seeing her beloved mentor so frail. As if she needed more reason to see her in a different light than ever before.

“My faithful student,” Celestia greeted with a hoarse voice. “It is such a relief to see you alright.”

The princess reached out with a foreleg, inviting Twilight into a hug. Twilight didn’t move.

“That’s not surprising,” Twilight said, unable to keep the bitter edge from her voice. “After all, I’m sure you knew exactly what they were doing to me.”

When Celestia winced as if she’d just been struck, Twilight bit her lip. “Sorry. That sounded bad. I’m just… tired, I guess.” She hadn’t exactly had a good night’s sleep since… she didn’t actually know when. “So… how are you feeling?”

“All things considered, I’m feeling… okay,” Celestia answered. “I guess I have my fast alicorn healing to thank. The doctors say I’ll be able to return to my duties tomorrow. Then I’ll hold a press conference and Equestria will finally know the truth about the humans and my… involvement with Project Freelancer. For better or for worse,” Celestia sighed. “I’m tired of secrets.”

Twilight nodded. “You and me both.”

There was an awkward pause as Celestia looked down at her hooves. “Twilight, I… need to apologize. I went about all of this completely the wrong way. I should have told you everything sooner. I almost did, actually. In the Dreamscape.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Why didn’t you?”

Celestia took a trembling breath before she answered, “I was scared. I was afraid of what would happen if you were to find out. Of how you’d take it. I was afraid of losing you.” Celestia gave a bitter snort. “And my fear almost caused exactly that to happen.”

When she finally looked back up at Twilight, there were tears in her eyes. “Twilight… I am so sorry! I-I’ve failed you….”

Needing no other invitation, Twilight did what she should have done earlier. She went forward and wrapped her forelegs around her mentor, holding her tightly. The pair of them sat together on the large hospital bed for a few minutes, silently holding each other. Finally, Twilight’s grip loosened a bit, and she and Celestia separated.

“T-there’s… something I’ve been meaning to… t-to talk to you about,” Twilight said, suddenly unable to control her trembling.

Celestia raised a curious eyebrow, which only hurt Twilight more. She always seems to know what I’m about to say, but not this time. How could she? This would only make what had to happen even harder.

“I-I think…” Twilight fought back tears. Why is this so difficult? “I think that… it’s time for me to move on from studying under you.”

Her heart broke as Celestia muttered, “Twilight…?”

“I’ve thought very carefully about it, Princess. So much has changed. Even if I forgive you for everything… nothing will be the same. Because I’m not Twilight, your faithful unicorn student. I’m Ancora. A walking embodiment of your mistakes.”

This is for her own good as well as mine, Twilight thought. I’m nothing but painful memories for her.

Celestia looked down with watery eyes for a moment before looking back up at her with the same serene expression she’d come to know.

“If that is your decision, I cannot stop you. However, I urge you to spend some time with your friends first before making anything final,” she said with the first genuine smile that day. “After all, the most important lessons you’ve learned were not taught by me….”

Three days after Princess Celestia made her press conference about the humans and Project Freelancer, Equestria was a nation rife with tension. The media seemed to be split right down the middle between defending Celestia’s actions surrounding Project Freelancer and tearing her apart. Equestria was divided between ponies who wanted friendship with the so-called ‘humans,’ and those who wanted them off of their planet. Twilight wasn’t even sure how the other nations were taking this news, but she could only imagine a few of them were using the incident to cast doubt on Celestia’s trustworthiness as a leader.

Thinking about it, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder whether Celestia should have waited for another press conference to announce the impending arrival of the UNSC. There had apparently been rioting in Fillydelphia and Vanhoover as a result of the news. Then again, without a way to remain in touch with the Chairman of the Oversight Sub-Committee, there was no way of knowing when UNSC representatives would even arrive. Twilight supposed it was better to rip that particular band-aid off now than to wait a couple of days only to have another human ship arrive without warning. It was either that or Celestia just wanted to come clean on everything.

Indeed, the only detail about the past few weeks Celestia had left out was Twilight’s identity as Ancora. Twilight was thankful for that. She would reveal that information to the world herself when she was ready.

However, even as the state of Equestria grew more and more unstable, Ponyville remained as carefree as ever. The preparations for Pinkie Pie’s “We Beat the Mean Freelancer People” party had finally come to fruition, and tonight the entire town was taking part in the festivities. Despite Celestia’s address, Twilight wasn’t even sure all of the townsponies really knew what they were celebrating. However, she also knew that most of them probably didn’t care and just wanted to enjoy another spectacular Pinkie Pie party. And Pinkie Pie had really pulled out all of the stops for this one.

The entire square around the circular structure of Town Hall was decorated with streamers and balloons. Bakers and confectioners sold all kinds of tasty snacks from booths around the square, and performers dotted the area, doing things from stupid pet tricks to juggling fire and other gravity-defying acrobatics. Fireworks exploded in the night sky, forming all manner of colorful shapes. There was even a stage where Pinkie had managed to get that one really popular DJ with the glasses to play.

Despite all of this, Twilight found that her heart wasn’t really into it. Sure, she found that she never really enjoyed herself at large parties, but something was different this time. Twilight had been looking forward to this party back when they were still trying to stop Project Freelancer. Now though, with so much weighing on her mind, Twilight had this inexplicable feeling that she didn’t really belong.

Hoping to find some of her friends, Twilight waded through the sea of bodies until she eventually found Grif and Fluttershy talking by one of the food stands, food unsurprisingly spilling from Grif’s arm. She was about to go over to them when she caught part of their conversation.

“...that was unreasonably dickish, and I’m sorry,” Grif said.

“It’s okay, Grif,” Fluttershy reassured. “You’d just lost your friend. You were upset.”

“Yeah, but I still took it out on you when I could’ve taken it out on Sarge or Donut…” Grif stopped talking when Fluttershy hugged him, startling him enough to drop the pile of food in his hand.

Deciding she didn’t want to interrupt their moment, Twilight moved on, catching one last comment from each of them as she left. “Aw, I dropped my corndog!”

“What’s a corndog…?”

As Grif and Fluttershy’s voices drifted into the rest of the noise, Twilight spotted Donut and Rarity sitting on a park bench together. They were chatting excitedly as they each flipped through a magazine.

“Ooh! What about him?” Rarity asked, angling her magazine towards Donut so the pink soldier could see.

Donut looked over and rubbed the chin of his helmet before saying, “I dunno… I don’t like the way the colors of his outfit clashes with his coat.”

Rarity’s snout scrunched as she fixed the man with an annoyed look. “Okay, so maybe this particular outfit doesn’t look great on him, but Trenderhoof’s articles are simply brilliant. And that tall, lean but well-toned physique… unf!” Rarity bit her lip and started fanning herself as Donut giggled.

“Hey guys,” Twilight said as she approached. “What are you doing?”

“Oh heEEEey Twilight!” Donut greeted. “We’re just comparing celebrity gossip from our respective worlds.”

“Seeing as Equestria will be making official contact with humanity in the near future, I thought it would be prudent to catch up on, uh… current events,” Rarity explained.

“Ah,” Twilight nodded. “Well, celebrity gossip isn’t really my thing, so I guess I’ll just leave you to it.”

As Twilight turned to wonder off, Rarity’s ears perked up as she leaned forward. “Oh! Donut and some of the girls were going to check out that new indie band playing later. What were they called again, Donut?”

“Trotcadero?”

“Yes, that one,” Rarity said with a nod before looking back at Twilight. “You’re welcome to join us if you like, Twilight dear.”

“Maybe…” Twilight said half-heartedly before moving on.

She passed Sarge on her way to the cider barrels. The Red leader stood before a small crowd of fillies and colts, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sitting at the front as he regaled them with tales of his exploits.

“And so it was just me, my shotgun, and a cavern of danger…” Sarge said. “I wasn’t sure where I was at first, but then I saw Donut and I knew I was in the fiery depths of Hel—lo, Twibite!” his voice suddenly sounding suspiciously innocent, as if he were trying to hide something.

“Sarge, you’re not destroying the innocence of these impressionable young foals, are you?” Twilight asked seriously.

“Pssh. Of course not!” Sarge exclaimed defensively.

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder and up at Twilight innocently. “Twilight, is it really customary for human soldiers to ‘dangle their pears’ over the faces of their beaten enemies?”

“And why pears?” Applebloom asked. “Why not apples?”

Twilight simply glared at Sarge.

“What? I was only half their age when my daddy showed me how to properly teabag a fresh kill!” Sarge said.

“Okay! I think it’s time for all of you foals to head home,” Twilight said urgently.

“Aw, but Twilight. Sarge was going to tell us about the time he beat a chimera into submission and rode it!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“Well, it’ll have to wait until another day.” Twilight then came up with an idea to get the foals moving. “Wouldn’t want anypony’s parents to ground them because they were out late.”

With that, the foals scattered, grumbling.

“Hmph. Spoilsport,” Sarge grunted as he made his way to one of the snack booths.

Satisfied that she’d (for the most part) averted another crisis, Twilight maneuvered her way past drunken ponies until she made it to where the cider barrels were set up. After giving out fresh mugs of cider to a group of ponies, Applejack looked over at Twilight and smiled.

“Howdy Twi! Cider?” Applejack asked, reaching for an empty mug.

“Sure,” Twilight answered and waited as Applejack filled the mug from the tap before taking it in her magic.

Twilight sipped at the cider for a few minutes while Applejack handed out mugs to more ponies. Her mind was a thousand miles away. Suddenly, Twilight was brought back to the present when a foreleg draped itself across her back and she suddenly found herself supporting the entire weight of another pony.

“H-hi *hic!* Twi!” Rainbow Dash said with a wobbly grin inches from Twilight’s face. Her breath smelled of hard cider as she started snickering. “Pffft… yer hair’s likea curtain!” Rainbow then grabbed Twilight’s bangs and pulled them down over her eyes before parting them. “Presenting… Twilish face!”

Twilight’s face was not amused. “Rainbow, how much have you had to drink?”

“Eeeeeh…” Rainbow lifted a hoof to eye level. “Dis much?”

“That… you just pointed at your eyes. That doesn’t tell me anything.”

“Maybe you oughta sit down a minute, Rainbow,” Applejack suggested, gently taking the heavily intoxicated pegasus by the hoof and leading her to a bench. “I’ll get ya a water.”

As Applejack went to do just that, Rainbow sat and squinted at Twilight. “W-*hic!*-why d’ya look so sad?”

“What?”

“We won!” Rainbow slapped her chest with a hoof. “We beat aaaaaaall the Freelancer people. Y’should be *urp!* happier than yeh are nao….”

“Rainbow’s got one thing right,” Applejack said as she brought the mare her water. “You look a li’l down, sugarcube. Somethin’ on yer mind?”

‘Something’ would be putting it lightly, Twilight thought. “I dunno. So much has happened. So much has changed and I…” Twilight sighed. “I’m not sure who I am anymore.”

Applejack gave her a confused look. “What do ya mean?”

Twilight looked down as her heart sank a little deeper. “Guess I can’t expect you to understand. You’re a pony. I’m not.”

“Now Twilight, don’ you think fer even a moment that jus’ because yer an M.I. construct means yer not a pony,” Applejack said with a concerned frown. “Okay? You still think like a pony and feel like a pony, so it don’ matter one bit whether you were born like a pony too.”

It was good to know that her friends didn’t see her any differently, but Applejack’s reassurances only scratched the surface of the things plaguing Twilight’s mind. But before either mare could continue the conversation, the sound of shouting rose over the din of voices around them.

“Look, it was an accident, dude! Chill!”

“No, you need to apologize for bumpin’ into my marefriend!”

Twilight and Applejack looked to the source of the noise and saw the familiar form of Tucker as he argued with a large, burly stallion. A meek, pretty mare stood just beside him, silently begging the stallion to just drop it. The stallion ignored her though as he and Tucker fronted on one another, both of them wobbling slightly. Rainbow Dash had abandoned her water and now had front row seats to the tense standoff, munching on a tub of popcorn she’d found somewhere.

“I will knock yer lights out, you alien freak!” the stallion shouted.

“Bring it, bitch!” Tucker shot back, shoving the angry stallion. The stallion shoved back, and before anyone knew it, there was only fists and hooves.

Applejack sprang forward in an instant, but was stopped by the timely appearance of Pinkie Pie and Caboose. The pair of them moved in as if to break up the drunken brawl. Instead, each of them pulled out a microphone.

“And there they go, ladies and gentlecolts!” Pinkie announced as both Tucker and the stallion pulled each other to the ground. “The first round has begun and already the combatants are both on the ground! Each of them are fully committed to their offense and neither side is conceding an inch!”

“Y’know, they-they-they’ve both been training for this fight since the off-season, and neither side is conceding an inch!” Caboose added.

Twilight couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sight of Pinkie and Caboose commentating a bar brawl, but by the time Applejack and a few others broke it up (despite Rainbow’s drunken efforts to start it up again), Twilight found her thoughts drifting back to her melancholy. By the time Applejack looked back in her direction, Twilight was gone, her mug of cider sitting half empty on the bench she’d been standing beside.

She knew her friends would be disappointed, but Twilight suddenly didn’t feel like hanging around the party anymore. She knew she didn’t belong, and she couldn’t just go on pretending like nothing’s changed. Maybe if she went to bed early enough, she might actually get some sleep tonight?

Ponyville turned quiet as all the noise of the party faded behind her. The pops of fireworks echoed across the dark empty streets and the music morphed into a single unidentifiable beat in the distance. Crickets came to replace the murmur of voices, and the sound of a fountain provided the new soundtrack.

“Calling it an early night?”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Twilight turned around and saw Church approaching her from down the street.

“Maybe,” Twilight answered, taking a seat on the edge of the fountain. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just needed to step away for a bit,” Church said, sitting beside her. “You probably noticed this about me, but I’m not great around people. And parties like this tend to bring out the really stupid ones. Honestly, between my attitude and some of the opinions about humans right now, I’m surprised I haven’t gotten into a fight yet.”

Twilight allowed herself to smile a little. “Tucker actually did.”

“Really? Fuck, wish I could’ve seen that. Did he bring honor to Blue Team?”

“He fought valiantly,” Twilight said with a barely suppressed grin.

Church laughed. “He and his opponent were just rolling around on the floor, weren’t they?”

“Pretty much!”

The two of them had a good laugh about that. They sat in comfortable silence for a little while after. Somehow, Twilight wasn’t as eager to rush home now that she was with Church.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Twilight said, breaking the silence. When Church indicated she had his attention, Twilight proceeded to ask, “Before we left the Director in his office, he called you back. What did he want?”

Church hesitated before answering. “He gave me a message to pass along to someone else.”

“Tex?”

“No,” Church shook his head. “But someone else close to him.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, nodding even though she didn’t really understand. Who else could he be referring to?

Twilight decided it ultimately didn’t matter. At least, not to her. Right now, she had her own problems to worry about.

“So, Twi. What’s really buggin’ ya?” Church asked. When Twilight gave him a confused look, Church just chuckled. “Yeah, you’re about as easy to read as… well, a book.”

Twilight was ready to tell Church the same thing she told Applejack, but then it hit her. Suddenly, Twilight’s weary heart was filled with some hope when she realized Church was the only other person who knew exactly what she was going through.

“Church, how did you… cope?” Twilight asked, looking at him with big, desperate eyes. “When you found out you’re the Alpha, how did you come to terms with it?”

Church crossed his arms. “Honesty, I didn’t do a very good job of that at first. You were there, you saw. First I denied it, then I ignored it. Hid from it. Took Tex literally ripping me out of my body and shoving me into a computer for me to finally face it. All things considered, you’re handling this a lot better than I did.”

With a sad smile, Twilight just shook her head. “I resigned as Princess Celestia’s protègè. I couldn’t…” Twilight sighed, trembling. She hadn’t made it official yet, but even so….

Suddenly her eyes started to fill with tears and Twilight couldn’t stop them no matter how hard she tried. “I can’t study under her knowing the things I know. Our whole relationship was based on a lie! All of my relationships are based on a lie! My family…” Twilight looked in the direction of the party and sniffed. “M-my friends….”

Unable to continue, Twilight put her face in her hooves and sobbed. It was after some time that Twilight realized she could feel the comforting presence of a hand on her back. She looked up to see that Church was still there, quietly patting her.

“We’re really two of a kind, aren’t we?” she sniffed, wiping away whatever tears remained. “Our whole existence is just lies and disguises.”

That was why it felt like she no longer belonged. Why she no longer knew who she really was. Because when the veil of all the lies was finally lifted, Twilight Sparkle was destroyed. All that was left now was Ancora, and that person was a complete stranger to Twilight Sparkle’s friends. Ancora whimpered as the horrible realization threatened to bring on more tears.

“Oh that is such bullshit!” Church exclaimed, shocking Ancora from her depressive state. “Yeah, the circumstances of our existence is pretty fucked up, but through all this, I learned a few valuable lessons.

“See, the Director may have fucked up in a lot of ways, but he was right about one thing: Memory is the key. It’s what defines who we are. My memories as Church may be fabricated, but your memories as Twilight Sparkle are real. And that means so are your friendships.” Church put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “All of them. Y’know, you’re a pretty lucky person, Twilight. You’re surrounded by friends that care about you. And aren’t you the one always saying that friendship is magic?”

Tears filled her eyes again, but this time they were accompanied by a joyful smile. “Thanks, Church…” Twilight Sparkle reached over and wrapped her hooves around the man in cobalt blue armor, hugging him tightly. With some trepidation, Church hugged her back, and Twilight couldn’t help but let out a little content sigh as they held each other. “You’re a good friend, you know that?”

Thinking a little about what Church said as he comforted her, Twilight thought it was only fair to return the favor. “You’re not alone either, okay? You have good friends too.”

“Well… I don’t know if I’d call them good, but… yeah,” Church sighed. “They’re alright.”

“Hey, Twilight and Church! Twilight and Church!” Pinkie Pie’s high-pitched voice immediately caused the pair to break away from their hug as the energetic party pony ran toward them. “Dashie just challenged Grif to a cider chugging contest!”

“She did?” Twilight exchanged a look with Church. “But… she’s already smashed.”

Pinkie simply nodded profusely, and Twilight sighed. “Guess I should make sure she doesn’t kill herself.”

Twilight got up and looked back at Church. “You coming?”

Church seemed momentarily distracted by something before replying. “I’ll catch up. There’s something I need to do first.”

Church remained seated at the edge of the fountain as he watched Twilight and Pinkie Pie go. When they disappeared around the corner, it was a simple matter of waiting for the inevitable snarky comment.

“It’s too bad Pinkie Pie interrupted that little moment you guys were having,” Tex said as she appeared in front of him. “You and Twilight are such a cute couple!”

Fortunately, Church already had a response ready. “What’s the matter, Tex? Jealous?”

“Of that level of sap? Please.”

“Oh, bite me.”

The two remained silent for a few seconds as Church leaned back and looked up at the stars.

“So where’s that pony you’re always with?” he finally asked.

“Sunny? She… needed some time with her thoughts.”

Church nodded. He’d certainly had plenty of that over the past few days. Even now, the image of the broken shell of his creator bleeding out in his dimly lit office filled his mind’s eye. In a way, it was what led him to this moment.

“Tex, I… there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” Church started. Okay. Took the first step.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking a lot about the conversation we had before we stormed the Mother of Invention.”

“Oh,” Tex said with a hint of distaste. Church had to agree that it wasn’t one of her stronger moments.

“I’ve also been thinking a lot about… the Director,” Church continued. “The more I think about it, the more I realize that everything that’s happened, happened because he couldn’t let go. The memory of Allison consumed him, and in the end, destroyed him.” Church forced the memory of the Director’s dying look from his mind as he pressed on. “I… don’t want to make that same mistake.”

Tex was silent as she looked at him. Church knew that she knew where he was going with this.

“I’ll never forget you, Tex,” he said. “But… I’m ready to move on.”

It felt like some time before Tex broke the silence. “So… you’re breaking up with me?” she asked with a single joyless laugh. “I mean, we haven’t dated in years, but I guess it’s good to know it’s finally official.” Tex sighed. “So… what now?”

“Do whatever you want,” Church said. “Stay here with Sunny, go back to our world. Or even just… rest.”

Church knew what would happen when an M.I. remained in the open without an enchanting gem or a person’s mind tied to it.

“Rest, huh? I think I’d like that…” Tex said whimsically. “Hey, Church? Thanks. It’s been… one hell of a ride.”

“Yeah.”

Tex lingered a few moments longer before her image started to fade. “Well… so long, Church.”

“Goodbye, Tex.”

The drinking contest had actually gone a lot better than Twilight had feared. She and Pinkie had arrived at the table where Grif and Rainbow Dash sat surrounded by a crowd of onlookers before the contest had begun. Rainbow had promptly vomited on the table and Fluttershy volunteered to carry her home. However, Grif had been disappointed the contest had ended before it began, and challenged a much more sober Applejack. The man had done so much trash talking that Applejack eventually accepted, and the pair drank each other to a stalemate.

It was after that when Rarity and Donut wandered over, saying they were going to check out the band about to play on the stage in the park. The others went with them, but Twilight headed back towards the emptier part of town first. There was something she wanted to do.

On her way back to the party, she had passed by a familiar mare who looked much the way she had earlier that night. Sure enough, after spending some time searching, Twilight found Sunny Side sitting alone under a tree near the edge of town.

“Not enjoying the party?” Twilight asked, startling Sunny from whatever world she was lost in.

“No…” Sunny said, before immediately backpedalling. “I mean, it’s a great party. Your friend’s really outdone herself. I’m just… not in the mood, I guess.”

“I know the feeling,” Twilight said, sitting next to her. “Still, if I’m not at one of Pinkie’s parties, I’m usually at home.”

Based on the way Sunny flinched away at that remark, Twilight guessed her intuition was at least partly right. Rarity had mentioned the mare had been on the Mother of Invention during her rescue, and that she had troubles that went beyond Project Freelancer.

“I... don’t want to deal with any of that right now,” she said.

“Sunny, if you’re having problems at home, you can always come to me and my friends,” Twilight said.

At that, Sunny quickly turned to face her and shook her head. “What? No no, it’s nothing like that. My aunt and uncle have been nothing but kind to me ever since… Dodge City happened. But that’s just the problem. I took that kindness and threw it in their faces!”

Twilight looked at her, silently letting Sunny know that she was listening, and with some hesitation, the guardsmare continued, “Things… aren’t looking good for my sister. We’re running out of options, and instead of facing that, I ran off to chase mercenaries. That’s the second time I’ve abandoned my family when they needed me! How am I supposed to face them now?!”

“They’ll understand,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Losing a sister must be hard. I can’t even imagine what that must be like.”

Sunny looked over at her with a thousand yard stare. “Don’t sell yourself short. Trust me, Twilight. We both know the extent to which you’ve experienced the pain of loss.”

Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what she meant by that, but she could only guess it had something to do with the experiments that she had been victim to. Sunny merely returned her gaze to her hooves, and suddenly she couldn’t control the flow of words escaping her lips.

“Little Bright Side was such a good… sweet little filly….” The flow of tears were the next thing to escape Sunny, and Twilight reached out and held her as all of the pain she had been running from all this time was finally allowed to catch up. “S-she didn’t deserve w-what happened to her!”

Twilight continued to hold Sunny Side as she finally found the courage to face all of the emotion she’d been keeping bottled up behind a stone soldier’s mask.

“It’s okay,” Twilight whispered. “You’ll make it through this.”

“H-how...?” Sunny whimpered. “My sister… my parents… my friends in Dodge… I-I’ve lost everything!”

“You still have your family right? And you still have me and my friends,” Twilight stated, and Sunny looked up at her, her tear-soaked face showing the first signs of hope. “See? You haven’t lost everything. And I promise, everyone you still have will help you get through this. Okay?”

Wiping her eyes with traces of a smile, Sunny nodded. “Okay.”

“Now, I was about to go join the rest of my friends at the Trotcadero performance. I’m sure they’d love it if you’d come along.”

Sunny nodded again, and together the two of them left to do just that. Along the way, Twilight was surprised by the appearance of her parents, who told her they’d just arrived, having left the Crystal Empire as soon as word reached them she was okay. After emotional hugs and reconciliation, Twilight went with Sunny to the performance.

They arrived to the sight of Caboose and Pinkie Pie doing robot-dances very unfitting to the soft, melodic yet rustic sound of the band playing. The others shrugged and quickly followed suit, with Tucker and Donut actually dancing extremely well, Sarge attempting to single-handedly bring back disco, and Grif quickly getting tired and collapsing. The ponies all joined in, with Rarity dancing eloquently and Applejack doing a square dance. Even drunk Rainbow Dash made a surprise appearance, despite Fluttershy’s beleaguered attempts to bring her back home. Church shoved one too many ponies that got close to him and inadvertently started a mosh pit.

Twilight just looked at the mish-mash of styles and barely coordinated movement and smiled, glad that she had such a colorful group of friends. She then proceeded to dance her own heart out, her own eccentric series of moves flooring the others as the band sang about roses and violets.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Through all of the crazy events of the past few weeks, I think I’ve learned a few valuable lessons. Namely, I’ve learned that friendship comes in many forms. No two groups of friends are alike, and more importantly, the quality of friendship from one group to another cannot be measured or compared. Even a group of friends that seem discordant and argumentative can forge the strongest bonds….

“Listen up, men!” Sarge proclaimed as his two subordinates stood at attention outside the barn of Sweet Apple Acres.

Grif noticed that something wasn’t right about the farm. After their mission to save the ponies from the Meta, the Reds had brought the ship they used back to the farm to make final repairs before heading home. But when Grif checked where they’d landed it that morning, it was gone.

“It has recently come to my attention that Simmons’ passing has left us with a gap in our chain of command,” Sarge continued, unaware of Grif’s thoughts.

“In other words, you miss the feeling of lips on your ass,” Grif snarked.

“Yeah, me too…” Donut mused, resulting in queer looks from the other two Reds. “What? I said I miss Simmons too.”

It was a few awkwardly silent seconds before Sarge cleared his throat to continue. “Now, after much deliberation, denial, bargaining, and acceptance, I have selected a replacement Second-in-Command from the two of you.”

“Really? You’re not gonna make us compete against a wrench and a skull?” Grif deadpanned.

“Because I’ve been itching for a rematch!” Donut exclaimed, before grumbling, “Stupid skull. Thinks he’s better than me because he doesn’t need skin….”

“Oh, believe me. You two idiots are literally a last resort,” Sarge explained. “Unfortunately, my attempt at hiring outside help fer this position hasn’t really turned up anything useful.”

“Excuse me?” a female voice added itself to the conversation. The three Reds looked over by the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres to find a beige earth pony mare with a brown mane and tail approach. “Is this the job interview for ‘Second-in-Command of Red Team?’”

“That was yesterday, missy. Didja even read the fliers I put up?”

The pony stared at them blankly for one or two seconds before continuing anyway. “My name is Sandalwood, and I like hayburgers and long walks on the beach. I have a number of talents in aromatherapy and martial arts, and I’m extremely enthusiastic in getting to know you humans better, and with time, maybe even becoming an honorary….”

“What part of yesterday don’ you understand?!” Sarge shouted.

“THE PART WHERE I WAS TOO BUSY BANGIN’ YOUR MOM YESTERDAY TO SHOW UP!” Sandalwood threw her hooves up in a way that looked like aggressive gang signs. “Whut?!”

The Reds were silent, too stunned to come up with a coherent reply for a good four seconds.

“Hmm… she certainly has what it takes to fit in with us…” Sarge mused.

“Too late. You already made your decision, and you can’t change it. That’s the rule. It’s in the Red Army handbook.” Grif hoped no one would call his bluff on having actually read the Red Army handbook. The last thing he needed was to serve under a random pony who very well could be some kind of psycho.

“Fine. The new Second-in-Command of Red Team is Grif.”

“Wait, what?!” Grif, Donut, and Sandalwood all cried.

“Look, as much as I hate to say it… Grif, you’re the most qualified person I know for the position. You have experience both as a commanding officer of this squad and of a whole pony battalion,” Sarge said, pointing a warning finger at him. “But don’t think this means I’m gonna be easy on you from this point forward! I reserve the right to call you lazy and stupid on every occasion you give me to do so!”

Grif sighed, but nonetheless felt himself smile. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, Sarge.”

Indeed, friends who regularly bicker and argue with each other probably have the closest bonds of all. Because at the end of the day, they’re always there for each other when it’s important….

Tucker’s peaceful afternoon napping under the tree that served as Golden Oaks Library was abruptly interrupted by two gratingly familiar voices.

“Tucker,” said Caboose.

“Tucker!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

“Tucker.”

“Tucker!”

“Tucker.

“Hi Tucker!”

“Tucker!”

“TUCKER!”

“WHAT?!” Tucker shouted as he got to his feet in front of the pair. Caboose and Pinkie Pie both stared at him, the latter seated on the former’s shoulders.

“Where’s Church?” Caboose asked.

“How the fuck should I know? What do I look like? His babysitter?”

“We checked the library,” Pinkie Pie held up a small potted tree carved out to look like Golden Oaks. “We checked Sugarcube Corner,” Pinkie held up a small gingerbread house and took a bite before tossing it aside. “We checked the farm,” Pinkie held up a small, to-scale model of Sweet Apple Acres. “We checked the big box where I put all of my bad emotions,” she held up a large trunk with a piece of paper taped to it. On the paper, Pinkie’s Box of Sad was scribbled in crayon, with a crude doodle of the pink pony with overly large tears coming out of her eyes. “We checked everywhere!”

“Everywhere…” Caboose repeated.

“Well, I don’t know where he is, okay?” Tucker said. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday….”

I’ve also learned that it’s important to let some things go. Whether it be the memory of a better time, or a friendship that just isn’t meant to be. What’s important is that we keep moving forward….

Rainbow Dash waved to Fluttershy as she flew over her cottage, relishing the feeling of the wind in her now mostly-healed wing. The butter-yellow pegasus was having a picnic just outside with a group of her animal friends, among them was the huragok Sometimes Sinks.

She flew all the way to the center of town where a lonely pink mailbox sat. Landing in front of it, Rainbow reached into her saddle-bag and pulled out an envelope. She glanced down at the address in Griffonstone for a moment before placing her letter to Gilda in the box and closing it.

Even if their friendship was over, it felt wrong to Rainbow Dash to just let it end without a proper goodbye. That, and she owed Gilda at least one letter after all the ones she’d failed to reply to. A few bits were enclosed as well, as a final thank you for her help. Rainbow hoped they would help Gilda out of her situation in some way, if only because it made her feel a little better.

But letting go doesn’t always have to be the end. Sometimes, the things we let go of come back to us in ways we don’t expect….

“Sunny! Sunny, wait up!”

The high-pitched squeal nearly made Sunny Side tear up for the fourth time that day. A mere week ago, she had completely resigned herself to the fact that she’d never hear her sister’s tiny little voice again. Grinning from ear to ear, Sunny Side turned around and watched the little fuzzy blue blur race down the track towards her, the filly’s back legs supported by a wheeled contraption.

“You’re the one with the wheels, Bright,” Sunny giggled. “You should be waaay faster than me now!”

The doctors had called it nothing short of a miracle. Sunny thought she was dreaming when they took her into Bright Side’s hospital room and she found her sister, eyes open, looking up at her. The little filly had actually been a little confused when both Sunny and her aunt and uncle broke down in tears of joy.

That was another thing Twilight Sparkle had been right about. Aunt Carrot Top and Uncle Written Script had accepted her apologies almost immediately. Although her repeated disappearances had made them worry, they were quick to reassure her that they understood what she was going through and comfort her.

“Okay, put me on a hill!” Bright Side exclaimed, and Sunny giggled.

She was paralyzed from the waist down, and in all likeliness would never use her hind legs again, but she was alive. What was more, she kept going with the same bright optimism she always had.

In the end, a true friend is someone you never have to let go of. Someone who will always be with you in spirit.

Even if they’re not here right now….

“Church?” Twilight opened the front door to Golden Oaks Library.

“Chuuuuuuuurch!” Spike called out from his position on her back.

“Church, this isn’t funny. Everyone’s looking for you!”

But when she searched her home she saw nothing but books on shelves. The only thing out of place was a lone sniper rifle sitting on the table.

Always Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

The rolling hills at the foot of Canterlot Mountain were silent save for crickets chirping and the wind blowing through the grass. Further up around the mountain’s far side, the city of Canterlot slept. To Princess Celestia, the whole scene was incredibly familiar. Indeed, the night felt much the same as it did the first time Equestria met with the human race.

Just like before, Celestia waited for the arrival of the human ship with a company of guards around her. Standing at her side was her faithful student. Celestia was glad that Twilight had chosen to continue her studies under her. She was right that things would never be the same after all that had happened, but they could only learn from it and move on. At the moment, Twilight seemed distracted by other thoughts, and Princess Celestia suspected she knew what was troubling her.

“Do not look so down, Twilight,” Celestia said, gently rubbing her shoulder. “I am certain Church still values his friendship with you.”

“I know,” Twilight sighed. “It’s just… I really thought we were past the whole ‘can’t say goodbye’ thing. I mean, he could’ve at least left a note or something.”

“I’m sure he had his reasons,” was all Celestia could think to say. She wished she could say more, but the truth was, she really had no idea what Church’s reason for leaving so suddenly could be.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it, as a pegasus soldier stationed above shouted down, “Ship sighted!”

Celestia gave the signal, and her guards proceeded to lay down and light up the gemstones that would guide the ship’s descent. Three weeks after the defeat of Project Freelancer, a star had been spotted in the night sky that did not belong, and as before, Celestia managed to reach out with her magic and make contact.

Things in Equestria had settled down over the course of those three weeks, and most ponies weren’t quite as afraid of the idea that they were not alone in the universe. There were still quite a few who openly stated their disapproval of First Contact, but Celestia was cautiously optimistic that things would be better this time around as long as they played their cards right.

But that was a whole other issue of its own, Celestia knew. The coming relations needed to be handled delicately. She, Luna, and Twilight had agreed: Celestia’s removal from the throne was not a term they were willing to accept. However, they were determined to work towards a compromise that would satisfy the enroute representative of the UNSC.

The Pelican dropship that flew down the makeshift runway was not painted with the standard olive green colors that Celestia had come to expect, but instead was colored a more pale blue. The Pelican rotated in place before slowly touching down as it had before, several of the guardponies around it backing away uneasily. The ones that remained steadfast had either seen a ship like it before during the conflict with Project Freelancer, or were part of the contingent that had been with her when she first greeted the Director all those years ago.

The rear bay opened, and a squad of human soldiers poured out, forming two rows along the sides. The body armor they each wore was much more simple than the full powered armor of the Reds, Blues and Freelancer agents, and their helmets left their faces exposed.

After only a moment, an unarmored man stepped out of the ship and made his way toward the ponies. Standing tall with his hands clasped behind his back, the man wore a finely pressed black suit jacket adorned with shiny gold buttons, a red dress shirt beneath it. The presence of wrinkles on his face and the lack of hair on his head indicated to Celestia that he was an older man—in his fifties or sixties if her understanding of human aging was correct.

Well, here goes, Celestia thought as she took a step forward to meet him. “Greetings. I am Princess Celestia. Warden of the Sun and Co-Ruler of the Three Pony Tribes.” Celestia extended a wing to Twilight. “This is my protègè, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hello,” Twilight squeaked, before clearing her throat. “Welcome to Equestria.”

With a warm smile, the man nodded. “An honor to make both of your acquaintances,” he said with a calm but powerful voice, his eloquent accent radiating authority. “I am the Chairman of the UNSC Oversight Sub-Committee.” The Chairman extended a hand. “Malcolm Hargrove.”

Celestia took note of the fact that the Chairman did not give a half-hearted attempt at a bow to give her the thin illusion of control. He met her as an equal. It gave Celestia hope for a good working relationship in the future, but she was also wary. She had been hopeful of her friendship with the Director as well.

“I would like to start out by saying that I am profoundly sorry that things between our two species had to start out like this,” Hargrove said as he shook Celestia’s hoof. “Dr. Church has made a terrible mess of things, but I am confident that working together, the two of us can set things right.”

Celestia kept her face carefully neutral as always, but she found herself surprised at the implications of his words. “I am, of course, ready to accept responsibility for my role in these events as well, and am willing to work towards a fair compromise,” she said as the little party of three turned and made their way back to where sky-wagons awaited.

But Hargrove once again surprised her as he smiled and said, “Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary. In light of your role in bringing Project Freelancer to justice, I think we can allow past transgressions to slide.”

“Really?!” Twilight asked, perhaps a touch too earnestly. You always did wear your heart on your sleeve, my student. You may be ready for the responsibility I wish to give you, but it will be some time before you’re ready for the world of politics.

“Yes. What’s most important is that we focus on establishing strong relations between our people.”

“Agreed,” Celestia stated. “Though, I think we should tread more carefully, and with more transparency this time around. I don’t want a repeat of the mistakes made last time.”

“Of course, we’ll take everything one step at a time,” Hargrove said, taking a moment to walk in silence. “We can formulate a long-term plan for UNSC-Equestrian relations back at your palace. For now, I would like to address some more immediate issues. For starters, the UNSC will need to confiscate all of the military’s property brought to this planet both by Project Freelancer and the Insurrection forces.”

This was where Celestia’s perfect poker face came in handy. “That may be a bit difficult to manage. Apparently, more than a few of the human weapons sold to the local branch of the Whitewater mercenary company by Project Freelancer are unaccounted for. My guess is they’re lost in the depths of the global black market. On top of that, the Alpha A.I. has disappeared with a ship.”

Hargrove frowned slightly, and Celestia wondered whether he suspected she wasn’t telling the whole truth. Nevertheless, the Chairman looked ahead and continued.

“Hmm… regrettable. But I suppose some missing equipment is to be expected with an incident like this,” he said. “Secondly, everyone associated with Project Freelancer will need to be returned to UNSC custody for questioning. This includes both the remaining Freelancer personnel you’ve captured... and the group of Red and Blue simulation troopers that assisted you.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Celestia noticed Twilight’s ears perk up at the mention of the Reds and Blues.

“They’re not in trouble, are they?” she asked.

“No. On the contrary, their role in stopping Project Freelancer and setting up a foundation for good relations with Equestria should get them a fair few commendations,” Hargrove reassured. “Again, the UNSC is willing to overlook any... illegal actions they may have taken in the fight against Project Freelancer in the interest of pursuing better relations. How soon can they be ready to leave?”

Celestia glanced at Twilight, and when her protègè nodded, Celestia replied, “Tomorrow.”

As they approached the waiting sky-wagons, Celestia found herself for the first time feeling genuinely optimistic about the days to come. Sure, Equestria was going to be a very different place once the alliance with the UNSC became official, but she was confident they could make it work.

Before they could step into the sky-wagons though, one of the human soldiers with Hargrove put a hand to his earpiece before addressing him.

“Mr. Chairman,” the soldier said before speaking in a low voice. “Transmission for you, sir. From Chorus.”

“Ah,” Hargrove nodded before looking apologetically at Celestia. “I hope you don’t mind if I delay our meeting a little to take that. It might be urgent.”

“I understand completely, Chairman,” Celestia said with a smile before Hargrove started making his way back towards the ship. Suffice to say, she was used to balancing more than one important duty at once. It came with being a politician.

“In our line of work, it sometimes feels like this job is murder, doesn’t it?” Celestia asked in a light tone.

“Too right, Princess,” Chairman Hargrove said, looking back at her with a knowing grin. “Too right….”

Fittingly, the sun was setting over the fields beyond Ponyville as the two groups lined up before the rear bay of the blue Pelican. Twilight stood with her pony friends and baby dragon assistant across from the five armored humans. Three Reds and Two Blues stood by the ship’s open rear bay.

“Welp. Yeah. This has been pretty neat,” Caboose stated, “but I think we should get going before, uh, anyone suspects anything suspicious for no reason.”

Caboose then turned around and started an overly casual stroll towards the open Pelican door. Twilight immediately noticed the squirming backpack on his back, and with a patient sigh, levitated it off of him. Unzipping it with her magic, Twilight was completely unsurprised when a familiar pink head poked out and looked around.

“Aww…” Pinkie Pie and Caboose groaned in unison.

Her head downcast, Pinkie Pie moved back in line with the other ponies, and Twilight looked at the assembled Reds and Blues.

“Well, guys…” Twilight started with a watery eyed smile. “I… don’t really know what to say.”

“Goodbye might be a good place to start,” Tucker deadpanned. “And finish. Seriously, I hate these drawn out farewells.”

“Well put, Tucker,” Rarity said. “After all, this is hardly goodbye.”

“I meant more along the lines that they’re played out and totally fucking lame.”

“Agreed,” Rainbow Dash said, folding her forelegs as she hovered in place and tried to nonchalantly look away. A second later, she glanced back at the Reds and Blues anxiously. “Seriously, you guys are gonna come back to visit us, right?”

“Of course!” Donut immediately exclaimed. “And we’ll send tons of postcards from our new bases!”

“I promised myself I wouldn’t cry…” Pinkie sniffed, frantically fanning herself with both hooves. “Does anyone have a hanky?!”

“Here,” Sarge of all people said, pulling a flowery handkerchief from a compartment in his armor. Pinkie took it in an instant and grossly blew into it.

“Yeah, you probably don’t want mine…” Tucker said, shifting uncomfortably in place.

“Why? Is it full of your tears?” Caboose asked.

“Uh… let’s just say it’s full of God’s tears.”

Fluttershy, whose lip had been trembling on and off throughout the farewell, suddenly lunged forward, clinging to Grif in a desperate hug.

“Fluttershy!” Grif hissed through clenched teeth. “I said be cool. You’re embarrassing me in front of my friends!”

The little butter pegasus gave her friend a final squeeze before letting go. “I’m s-sorry! I’m sorry….”

Pinkie Pie leaned over and held out Sarge’s now damp handkerchief. Fluttershy took it regardless and dabbed at her eyes.

“Well, we’ve had a couple of rough patches,” Applejack said. “But it’s been a real hoot gettin’ to know all of you!”

“Yeah, I’ve gotta say, you guys are probably the weirdest group of people I’ve ever met,” Spike said. “And this is coming from a guy who hangs out with Twilight and her friends!”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Hey,” a man in white pilot’s armor said, appearing from inside the Pelican’s rear bay. “Ship’s been ready to leave for the past five minutes. Get your asses on board!”

“Well, I guess this is it,” Twilight said, looking at each of the Reds and Blues in turn. “So long, guys!”

A chorus of farewells echoed from ponies and humans alike as the Reds and Blues climbed aboard the Pelican and its engines started up.

“I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOU, TWILIGHT SPORKLE!” Sarge called out over the roar of the engines as the ship started to lift off the ground.

“START BY REMEMBERING MY ACTUAL NAME FOR ONCE!” Twilight shouted back.

“WHAT’S THAT? CAN’T HEAR YOU! ENGINES ARE DROWNING YOU OUT!”

But Twilight could hear Sarge’s shouting voice clearly even as the ship took off. Together with the others, Twilight stayed in the steadily darkening field and watched the ship carrying the Reds and Blues until it was nothing more than a speck in the sky. Finally, Twilight turned around and after picking up Spike and placing him on her back, started walking back toward Ponyville.

It was dark as they entered Ponyville proper, and the rest of the girls parted ways as they made for their respective homes. Soon, it was just Twilight and Spike walking along by themselves. It was then that it occurred to Twilight that it was the perfect time to say something that had been on her mind for a while.

“Hey, Spike?” Twilight asked, looking over her shoulder at the drake. “I realized I never properly thanked you.”

Spike raised a curious eyebrow. “For what?”

“For your part in saving me,” Twilight said with a smile. “I know the others probably didn’t want you to come along, and I probably would have made you stay back too. But… I don’t think I would have been alright if it weren’t for you, so… thank you.”

With a shrug and a shy grin, Spike said, “Well… comes with the territory of ‘Number One Assistant’ I guess.”

A few minutes later, Twilight opened the front door to Golden Oaks Library and she and Spike stepped inside. The warm lights and the smell of books made her feel instantly at home.

“Well, I’m gonna make us dinner,” Spike said, hopping off Twilight’s back and heading for the kitchen. “Want anything in particular?”

“Whatever you want to make should be fine,” Twilight said, her thoughts already moving to the object on the table. “I think there’s still a fresh batch of carrots in the fridge.”

As Spike went to the kitchen, Twilight found herself making her way over to the table where Church’s sniper rifle still lay untouched. Twilight scowled. You left a weapon here, but you couldn’t be bothered to leave a note….

Twilight’s ears perked up as a thought occurred to her. She picked up the rifle in her magic and began to examine it from every angle. She looked down the barrel, she moved the slider that ejected the bullet shells, and finally, she removed the magazine. When Twilight looked inside, she was surprised to find a rolled up piece of parchment in place of a bullet. With a quiet gasp, Twilight gently took the parchment in her magic and unfurled it.

Twilight,

First of all, sorry if you had some trouble finding this note. I hid it cuz I wanted to make sure your dragon buddy wouldn’t think it was one of your letters to the Princess, or something.

I’m sorry I left so suddenly, but I couldn’t wait around for the UNSC to show up and confiscate me as “evidence.” You see, there’s something important I have to do. Someone I have to find and deliver a message to.

I know you’re probably upset that I left without saying goodbye, but I want you to know I’m not afraid of saying goodbye anymore. I didn’t say goodbye because this isn’t goodbye. I mean it when I say you’ll see me again. That’s why I left my sniper rifle. Yeah, I may be shit with it, but after all these years, it’s still kinda important to me. So you just hold onto it for me until I come back, okay?

See you around, Twilight.

Your friend,
Church

It was a clear, idyllic night in Ponyville. Crickets chirped and wind rustled the trees. The sky was clear and the stars were out, unaware that they were being watched.

Up on the second floor balcony of Golden Oaks Library sat its two purple caretakers. The purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle was looking through her telescope at the stars above. A sniper rifle sat propped against the guardrail beside her, pointing up at the sky. Her equally purple assistant Spike was standing to her right, looking across the town with an expression of boredom on his little scaly face.

“Hey…” Spike eventually said.

“Yeah?” Twilight removed her eye from her telescope’s lens to look at her assistant.

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

Twilight considered the question for a brief moment before smiling at him. “No, Spike,” she said, ignoring Spike’s clear consternation as she returned her attention to the stars above. “Not anymore.”

End.

Author's Note

Well... here we are. It's been a real journey writing this, and I hope it's been as enjoyable of a journey to read. I want to give a big thank you to my editors BradtheBrony and Rough_Draft for sticking with me until the end. On top of that, I want to thank you for reading it!

Now, if you're wondering what the future holds, stay tuned for a blog post tomorrow for information on where we're going and general thoughts on the project!

Epilogue - Control

With a calming sigh, Malcolm Hargrove stepped into his large, dimly lit office. He sat down in the large soft chair behind the desk and took a moment to relax, allowing his public mask to slip away. Outside the huge tinted window behind his desk, the skyline of Sydney, Australia stretched on into the night. The sounds of the nightlife far below were cut silent by the thorough sound-proofing of his office.

Ever since he returned to the UNSC capital on Earth one month ago, Chairman Hargrove had held press conference after press conference regarding the budding alliance between the UNSC and the newly discovered race of equine aliens. Of course, “newly discovered” was hardly the appropriate term. Hargrove had made sure that the extent to which Dr. Leonard Church had nearly single-handedly ruined First Contact was well known to both the media and his political colleagues. After that, it was all too easy to explain how “lucky” it was that Hargrove had received that message and arrived in time to put out the metaphorical fires.

Of course, luck had nothing to do with it. Nobody needed to know that Hargrove had known the location of Caballinus IV all along, thanks to both of his moles within Project Freelancer. His agent on the ground in Equestria had kept him well informed on the conflict between Princess Celestia and the Director.

Of course, Hargrove would have been hard pressed to explain that to the rest of the Oversight-Subcommittee and the Security Council, which was why his investigation of Project Freelancer had been one of his paramount objectives. Not only did it allow him to legitimately seize all of Project Freelancer’s assets, but it had also put him on the radar of Princess Celestia and her allies, making him the one they reached out to and giving him legitimate cause to visit the enigmatic planet to make himself Celestia’s closest ally in the UNSC. Hargrove preferred to make multiple moves in single strokes.

On that note, a quick glance at the date and time reminded Hargrove that it was nearly time for his scheduled update on the Chorus operation. With the press of a few holographic buttons, Hargrove opened an encrypted long-range transmission to the distant planet, disguised its point of origin, and simultaneously scrambled the hundreds of equally as encrypted decoy signals. Lastly, Hargrove activated the voice filters and turned to face the window.

The towering tinted glass was now a viewscreen capable of holding video conferences with his associates, and after few moments, one such associate appeared before him.

“This is Locus, broadcasting on a secure channel,” the mercenary intoned in his deep menacing voice. He was a tall man in onyx-black armor with green detail and an X branded across his namesake helmet.

“Report, Locus. What is the status of your current assignments?” Hargrove asked. To Locus, his voice would appear as a synthesized drone of androgynous gender. Just as Hargrove wore the mask of a kind but firm leader in public, when dealing with his… less than legitimate enterprises, he wore a different kind of mask. One that allowed him to remain safely anonymous as he conducted his shadier business. Locus and his mercenaries on Chorus, CT and his Insurrectionists, and all of his other underworld contacts knew him by only one name: Control.

“Operation: Kingmaker was a success,” Locus replied, wasting no time to get to business with the cold professionalism that Hargrove admired. Too bad the same can’t be said for his partner.

“Donald Doyle is the new Commander of the Federal Army of Chorus,” Locus continued. “The civil war is hot again.”

“Wonderful,” Hargrove said with a satisfied sigh. Two moves in one stroke.

Locus proceeded to give Hargrove a brief summary of events on Chorus surrounding their latest operation. The details themselves were relatively unimportant. All they told Hargrove was that his plan was proceeding perfectly.

“And what of your other assignment?” Hargrove asked as Locus wrapped up his report.

“The new data you sent us proved to be useful,” Locus stated. That was another benefit of seizing all of Project Freelancer’s assets: The Director had a large amount of data on the Equestrians and their history in his possession. “We’ve found the artifact.”

Hargrove grinned. “Show me.”

In a few minutes, two more mercenaries in black armor appeared on screen pushing along a dolly carrying a large object covered by a tarp. Locus took a step to the side, and one of the mercenaries reached for the tarp and removed it.

Hargrove saw the console Locus was using to communicate with him in the reflection of an ornate mirror. The mirror was set in a frame of flawless white marble shaped like an upside down horseshoe. Shining gemstones covered the frame, and above it an effigy of a pony rearing up hung above the pristine reflective glass.

“It would appear you were right,” Locus mused. “This world is connected to theirs after all….”

Ignoring Locus’s uncharacteristic musings, Hargrove’s thoughts became preoccupied with what it could mean. Evidently, Chorus is a planet rich with both Forerunner and Equestrian artifacts. Hargrove did not believe this was merely coincidence.

“Science Team has yet to uncover anything about it, or what it’s capable of,” Locus said as he motioned for his men to return the tarp over the mirror. “Do you want it delivered to your trophy room?”

Under normal circumstances, Hargrove would not hesitate to add a find like this to his collection. “No. Keep it on base at your primary facility for now.” There will be other trophies to acquire soon enough.

However, now that Hargrove had all of the Director’s data on Equestria, he had a hunch he knew exactly what that mirror was, and more importantly, what it had been used for in the past. Locus, on the other hand, merely gave him an inquisitive look that a less observant individual might have failed to notice beneath his otherwise unreadable black helmet.

“I believe that artifact will be of much more use to you on Chorus,” Hargrove said. “All we need is a spellcaster that can figure out how to activate it.”

Fortunately, his agent in Equestria was in the process of recruiting for that very purpose.

“Understood,” Locus said, even though Hargrove highly doubted that he truly did.

“Tell your partner to join us for our next debriefing,” Hargrove ordered before signing out. “Assuming all goes well with this new artifact, I may have a new assignment for the both of you.”

With that, Locus disconnected and Hargrove stopped all signals transmitting from his office. Turning back around in his chair, Hargrove spent the next several minutes going through piles of paperwork pertaining to his recent seizure of Project Freelancer’s assets. It was a tedious, but necessary duty as the Chairman of the Oversight-Subcommittee. That, and Hargrove liked to personally make sure there were no… discrepancies in his numbers, lest he raise suspicion.

“Excuse me, Chairman,” his new A.I. addressed him over the speaker.

“Yes, FILSS?” Hargrove said pleasantly. Acquiring and reformatting the former A.I. caretaker of Project Freelancer was another sort of trophy. Sure, there was always the risk of getting caught with an illegally formatted A.I., but Hargrove enjoyed a little risk every now and then. Besides, he’d taken all the necessary precautions to hide FILSS’s existence in his database with, ironically, help from the A.I. itself.

“The package you were expecting has arrived ahead of schedule, sir.”

For some inexplicable reason, FILSS’s voice changed after it was reformatted. The A.I.’s once pleasant, cheerful inflection was gone, replaced by a dead monotone that sounded almost… defeated. Personally, Hargrove preferred the new voice.

“Is that so?” he asked.

“Yes, Chairman. The package was delivered to the trophy room and secured as per your instructions.”

That was a bit of good news Hargrove hadn’t been expecting to hear today. After thanking the A.I., Hargrove stood from his desk and made to leave his office. He travelled through heavily guarded halls and took an elevator down to the main floor. From there, Hargrove walked across the building’s vast main lobby. Receptionists smiled nervously at him from behind the round, central desk as he passed. Behind them, the words Charon Industries were mounted on the wall in big, shining platinum letters. Hargrove looked from the obvious security guards scattered about the floor to the less obvious security measures hidden up in the walls.

Satisfied that everything was in its proper place, Hargrove continued to the far end of the lobby, where a small, unassuming door sat in the wall, a keypad beside it. Hargrove input the key code and the door unlocked for him. After following more winding corridors designed to trip up anyone unfamiliar with their layout, Hargrove came to an elevator that only went down. A quick fingerprint scan set the elevator in motion, and Hargrove waited patiently as he was taken down past even the lowest maintenance levels.

After reaching the bottom, the elevator opened up to one final hallway with nothing but a set of steel doors on the other end. Standing on either side of the doors were two of Hargrove’s most loyal and skilled guards. A retinal scan allowed the doors to open, and Malcolm Hargrove stepped into his trophy room.

Alien artifacts of various origins sat on pedestals throughout the room. Additionally, the room was quickly filling up with special objects taken from Project Freelancer. A charred brute shot, a synthetic body in a suit of black MJOLNIR armor, and a piece of rubble with traces of blood on it. But Hargrove wasn’t here to see any of that. His true prize at the moment was something his men had recently recovered from the wreckage of the Staff of Charon in Equestria.

At the back of the trophy room was a large bulletproof glass case. Inside, magnetically held in place, was a device roughly the size of a man’s head. Glowing blue lines ran along its body, and it looked around with a big blue eye as a frantic, synthesized voice muttered, punctuated by the occasional cough.

“Shield world? No no… too many variations… nothing like Onyx….”

It was some time after Hargrove approached the glass until the construct finally noticed his presence.

“Ah! Greetings, Reclaimer! I am 636 Rambling Frequency, the Monitor of… well, I suppose there isn’t much of a facility left anymore,” the construct said as its large eye turned to look at him. “Apologies for not noticing you sooner, but I have been most perplexed recently.”

“Perplexed?” Hargrove asked.

“Yes,” 636 coughed. “It would appear that my databanks on the homeworld of Species 29 are incomplete.”

“I assume that you are referring to the Equestrians?”

“Correct. Upon arrival on their homeworld with the other Reclaimers, I performed a quick scan of the planet and found things most intriguing. Much greater presence of Forerunner sites than should be usual for any ordinary repopulation facility. Regrettably, before I could investigate further, I found myself quite… restrained.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, I am certain that working together, you and I will discover all of that world’s little secrets,” Hargrove said with a smile. “Now, why don’t you start by telling me everything you know.”

She waited alone in the featureless plane of nothing, just as She had for eons before. A mortal might go mad from boredom in a place like this, but in truth, She was quite content here—for now. After all, She had a window through time and space through which to glimpse Her world, and there She could watch Her little ponies grow under the guiding hoof of young Princess Celestia.

The appearance of Her oldest and most loyal friend broke the monotony of Her quiet dimension. He wasn’t really here, She knew. He was merely projecting himself into Her realm.

“The incident with the human military agency has resolved itself,” the old gray unicorn stallion said. He wore simple blue rags over white cloth bandages, his old face covered in stubble. An ancient stopwatch hung on a chain around his neck, its hands frozen at six. Any other pony in the outside world would simply mistake him for an unassuming old stallion. “You were right: There was no need for a ‘divine intervention’ after all.”

The gray stallion chuckled at his little joke, while She remained quiet and contemplative. “And what of the young mare?” She asked. “Is she safe?”

The gray stallion grinned. “More than safe. I hear she was instrumental in the downfall of the human military program—that ‘Project Freelancer’.”

She smiled, and the gray stallion looked at Her curiously. “You really think she’s the one, don’t you?”

She gave him a meaningful look, and the stallion errantly waved a hoof. “Right, right. Guess you would know that better than I.” The stallion then put a hoof to his chin. “Still… I thought the bloodline died out years ago….”

“While that very likely may be true, you forget one crucial detail: This young mare wasn’t born. She was made,” She said. “It’s possible the bloodline was reborn in her.”

Finally, the gray stallion gave a shrug and a wry smile. “Hmph. Guess it doesn’t matter how old ya get. You never stop learning!”

“If she really is the one we’ve been waiting for, we’ll have to watch over her,” She said, the worried frown barely perceptible on Her face. “Things are accelerating quicker than I anticipated. Now that humans and ponies are officially together in the galaxy, ponykind’s fate dangles precariously. We could either be snuffed out in an instant or thrive across the stars. If the mare really is who we think she is, she could be the key to finally fulfilling ponykind’s destiny….”

“I’ll watch over and protect her,” the gray stallion said, bowing low. “You have my word... My Queen.”

Author's Note

This story wouldn't have turned out the way it did without BradtheBrony and Rough_Draft. I can't thank you guys enough!

Edit: This blog post should answer any questions you have about where the sequel is.

Act 1 Part 1 - Intro

It was a clear, idyllic night in Ponyville. Crickets chirped and wind rustled the trees. The sky was clear (courtesy of the weather team) and the stars were out, unaware that they were being watched.

Up on the second floor balcony of Golden Oaks Library - a dwelling carved into a great tree - sat its two purple caretakers. The purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle was looking through her telescope at the stars above. Her equally purple assistant - Spike the baby dragon - was standing to her right, looking across the town with an expression of boredom on his little scaly face.

“Hey…” Spike eventually said.

“Yeah?” Twilight removed her eye from her telescope’s lens to look at her assistant.

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

Twilight turned to stare at the sky without the aid of her telescope as she contemplated the question. “It’s one of Equestria’s greatest mysteries, isn’t it? Why are we here? Are we just the result of some accident of nature, or is there a higher power out there? Something greater and more omnipresent than even Princess Celestia, watching over us and controlling our destinies…”

Twilight looked back down at the baby dragon. “I don’t know, Spike. But it makes you think…”

The librarian then returned to studying the sky through the lens of her telescope and a strange silence lingered between them for a moment.

“… what?” Spike finally asked with a confused tone.

Twilight removed her eye from the lens again. “Hmm?”

“I meant ‘why are we here?’ At the library staring at the sky, when we could be at Sugarcube Corner partying with the others?”

“… oh.” Twilight looked away, her slightly redder cheeks betraying her embarrassment.

“What was with all of that philosophical stuff?”

“Erm… nothing.”

“Didn’t sound like nothing.”

“I guess I’ve just… been in a really contemplative mood lately.” In truth, Twilight had been spending a lot of time thinking about her own strange life. The seemingly simple and studious unicorn had spent the past few years saving Equestria from evil kings, queens and gods while studying under the wing of Princess Celestia herself, and was beginning to wonder if there was more to her existence than she once thought.

Spike, however, was simply staring at her through suspicion-lidded eyes. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

Twilight chuckled. “I’m fine Spike. Really.”

Nodding once, Spike returned to their previous conversation. “Seriously though, why are we here? Pinkie Pie is throwing a huge party for Mr. and Mrs. Cake's anniversary right now and we’re missing it!”

“I told you, Spike. Princess Luna is going to be adding a brand new constellation to the night sky.” Twilight suddenly returned her attention to her telescope as if she just suddenly remembered herself why they were there. “I want to document it as soon as it appears.”

Twilight noticed the disappointed groan from her number one assistant and turned to address him. “Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of time to go to Pinkie’s party when I’m done.”

When Twilight next returned to looking through her telescope, she gave an excited gasp. “There it is! There it is!” The purple mare began frantically alternating between jotting down notes and staring through her telescope.

Sure enough, when Spike looked up at the clear night sky, he saw several stars that weren’t there before. About nine stars arranged to look like a unicorn’s head in profile. It was incredibly reminiscent of the Mare in the Moon; the pattern of dark blemishes that once occupied the moon's face during Luna's banishment now gone with her return.

Satisfied that they would soon be leaving for Sugarcube Corner, Spike took it upon himself to start cleaning up the various books Twilight had left on the balcony they were currently standing on. Among them was one that she had been reading while waiting for tonight’s celestial event to occur. When Spike went to retrieve it, he noticed that the book was one of the new additions to the library, having just arrived in a shipment that day. It was titled “Spells and Enchantments of the First Millenium” and was currently open on a chapter about something called “Magical Intelligence Constructs.”

With all of the books left on the balcony in claw, Spike turned and was about to make his way inside when he heard Twilight make a puzzled noise.

“What the…?”

Spike turned back to see what was perplexing the unicorn and saw her still looking through her telescope. The look of joy and excitement on Twilight’s face when she was documenting the new constellation was replaced by one of slight trepidation. Following her gaze skyward, Spike saw the source of her confusion. Streaking past the new constellation in the sky was a shooting star. At least, that’s what he thought at first. Contrary to how shooting stars normally behaved (only ever appearing briefly before disappearing just as fast), this one continued across the dark expanse with consistent visibility.

“What’s that? A meteor?” Spike asked.

“I guess…” Twilight muttered, not taking her eyes off of the strange celestial entity.

After lingering for a moment longer, Spike turned and went back into the library, deciding that putting those books away was a bigger priority. Twilight stayed on the balcony, oddly transfixed by the distant moving body as it continued traveling lower and lower in the sky. Only when the thing reached the horizon and disappeared did Twilight Sparkle finally turn to join her companion inside.

Absolutely nothing interesting ever seemed to happen in Blood Gulch, the tiny box canyon in the middle of nowhere. This was a fact that the two teams of Red and Blue soldiers had come to accept. Each team seemed to exist in the dreary box canyon solely because the other team did. Neither team was very motivated to fight, and most of their time was spent stewing in boredom, getting into arguments with each other to pass the time.

This fact however, was not prevalent at the moment as all of the Red and Blue soldiers that occupied Blood Gulch stood in its center. Each one of them - covered head to toe in advanced armor, each a shade of red or blue - watched as a man in cobalt armor faced a soldier in black.

“You have no idea what kind of trouble you are in,” the soldier in black laughed.

Church’s heart sank when he heard Tex speak in a deep, distorted voice. One that wasn’t her own. The woman in black turned away from the man in cobalt and headed for the ship a few feet away, only stopping briefly to pick up a white helmet.

“Tex, wait! You don’t want to do this!” Church desperately called after her.

“Sheila, are you ready?” The deep menacing voice only served to remind Church that he was not speaking to Tex anymore. The Omega A.I. was behind the wheel now.

“All systems online,” Sheila - the ship’s own A.I. - replied in her pleasant yet monotonous voice. “Ignition coil activated. Starting thrusters.”

That was the last of the conversation Church could hear as the Pelican dropship engaged its engines and began to hover off the ground. Tex and Omega were on board with everything they needed to enact their plan to enslave the Sangheili, a race of aliens human kind had been at war with for almost thirty years.

“Tex! Don’t. Do this!” Church’s plea was in vain. The ship began its ascent.

Church turned to Sarge. The Red Team’s leader in standard-issue red armor had been a constant foil to Church throughout his time in Blood Gulch, and now he was relying on the sergeant to put a stop to Tex and the maniacal A.I. controlling her.

“We have to stop her right now!” Church exclaimed.

“No problemo, Blue!” Sarge replied in his gruff Southern accent. Church then heard Sarge’s voice inside his helmet as the sergeant began speaking over the radio. “Andy, you there?”

“I’m here coach!” the unmistakable obnoxious voice of Andy the Bomb replied over the radio. By this point in Church's life, the novelty of speaking with a literal talking bomb had worn off.

“What’s going on?” Church asked Andy, realizing with a growing sense of panic that the talking explosive was on board the ship that was growing smaller in the sky.

“Tex is hookin’ up Wyoming’s helmet to the computer!”

Church immediately knew what she was planning. With that white helmet and the device it concealed, Tex would be able travel across the galaxy in no time at all!

“Ready for your job soldier?” Sarge asked the talking bomb.

“You bet!” Andy exclaimed all too enthusiastically.

“Alright then, son. Do what you were born to do: Detonate!”

“Hey! Do you want me start from three or ten? C’mon! Let’s build it up a little bit! Suspense! It’ll kill ‘em! Ten…”

Just when Church thought his levels of fear couldn’t get any higher. The one thing that frightened him more than Tex getting away was losing her completely. Church rounded on Sarge.

“I told you to disable the ship-”

“Nine…”

“-not destroy it!”

“Eight…”

“Oh well, score one for the Red Team, I guess.” Sarge said.

“Seven…”

Church ignored the bickering between Sarge and one of his own teammates as he tried to think of something. Anything.

“Six…”

“Five…"

"Four…”

Church desperately tried to reach out to Andy. “Andy! Do NOT detonate!”

“Three…”

The ship was a mere speck in the sky now.

“Can you see her heading?”

“Two…”

“Do you know where she’s going?”

“One!”

The ship suddenly disappeared in a bright flash as it made the jump to slipspace.

“Tex…?”

“Boooo no explosion!” a soldier in orange armor whined. “That sucked!”

On cue, the spot in the sky where the ship disappeared was engulfed in a fiery explosion.

“Haha! Blam-o!” Sarge cheered.

“Wow! That explosion was awesome!”
Church didn’t so much as glance at the man in pink armor who just spoke. He simply turned and started walking away.

“What explosion? I didn’t see it! Do it again!” the orange soldier said.
Church ignored him as he walked towards his teammates.

“Uh, Church? What should we do?” asked Tucker, Church's subordinate in aqua armor.

Normally when faced with a question from his comrade, Church would do one of two things: either he would give him an order, or find a new creative way to call him an idiot. Oftentimes both. However, like everything else that was accepted as “normal” in Blood Gulch, this fact was not prevalent at the moment.

“Do whatever you want. I’m going home.” Church tuned out the bickering that immediately followed between the rest of the Red and Blue soldiers as he walked solemnly towards Blue Base.

This wasn’t the first time Tex had died while Church was helpless to do anything, and it hurt just as much now as it had each time before. It seemed as if his entire life was nothing but an endless cycle of failure, where the people he loved suffered the consequences.

What bothered Church the most this time was that he didn’t even get to say goodbye. This was strange, because for as long as Church could remember, he hated goodbyes.

Twilight Sparkle wasted no time in stepping off the train as soon as it came to a complete stop in the station. It had been a long three-day ride from Ponyville with only one stop for fuel on the second day, and she needed to stretch her legs. Stepping out onto the wooden platform, the desert air was oppressively hot and dry, but no less refreshing.

“Welcome to Dodge City!” a tiny enthusiastic filly with a sky-blue coat and blonde mane greeted.

Twilight smiled at the bright young foal as she continued to make her way off the platform. The filly simply continued to give the same greeting to every pony that stepped off the train, apparently having made it her mission to welcome every new arrival to her town.

“Mighty eager to git off the train, huh?”

Twilight turned at the familiar southern twang and saw Applejack and the rest of her friends step off the train with their saddlebags… and hers.

“Oh, whoops.” With a burst of telekinetic magic, Twilight levitated the saddlebag with her cutie mark on it out of Applejack’s extended hoof and placed it securely across her back.

“Honestly, sugarcube. You’d forget yer own horn if it weren’t attached to yer head!” Applejack snickered.

“Welcome to Dodge City!”

A certain energetic pink earth pony wasted no time in hopping up to the tiny blue filly. “Well aren’t you just the most adorable-est thing ever!” Pinkie Pie giggled, ruffling the filly’s mane. “I could just eat you up! OM-NOM-NOM-NOM!”

Twilight gave a good-natured sigh as her poofy pink friend continued making goofy exaggerated eating noises for the hysterically giggling filly. Pinkie had only barely gotten off the train and already she was making new friends. Though, Applejack had to step in and pry the pink pony's mouth open to release the filly's tail from its grip (the filly, for her part, seemed to be having fun regardless).

“It’s about time we got here, I thought my wings were gonna fall off if I was cooped up in that train a second longer!” Rainbow Dash complained, stretching the aforementioned appendages out.

“I’m pretty sure no pegasus ever lost her wings from not flying for a couple of days,” Spike deadpanned as he walked up to Twilight.

“Yeah, still think I’ll stretch the girls out a bit,” Rainbow Dash said nonchalantly, giving a few flaps of her wings “Maybe show the ponies of this town some awesome moves while I’m at it!”

Satisfied with her idea, the rainbow-maned pegasus took off into the air and started lazily circling over the town, throwing in the occasional spin or loop-de-loop. The other five ponies and one baby dragon continued stepping off the train platform and took their first steps into Dodge City proper.

The name Dodge City was a little misleading. It was more of a junction between the various distant outlying farms, at the center of which was a small cluster of run down wooden buildings. Ponies that thought of Ponyville as rustic have clearly never been to Dodge City. A bucktoothed earth pony stallion sitting on a nearby veranda strumming on a banjo completed the picture. The one thing that clashed with the town’s bucolic image was a very out of place patrol of ponies in the iron armor of the Equestrian Military that caught Twilight Sparkle’s attention.

“Ooh! Ooh! I should start planning the welcome party right after we’ve done Twilight’s thing!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced merrily along with the rest of the group.

“Um… I don’t really think you’re supposed to throw your own welcoming party…” Fluttershy said at barely audible levels. The shy yellow pegasus with pink hair was currently walking behind the group and was doing her best to avoid eye contact with any other pony in town.

“I’m not throwing a ‘Welcome to Dodge City, Pinkie Pie’ party, silly! I’m throwing a ‘Welcome to Pinkie Pie, Dodge City’ party!” Pinkie explained as if it was obvious.

Twilight and the others simply decided to drop the issue, lest they fall deeper into the black hole that was Pinkie Pie’s logic.

“Well, I fer one like it here. Reminds me a bit ‘o Appleloosa, only a little more in need of a fixer-upper!” Applejack drawled, already studying the buildings in the vicinity, imagining how she would go about repairing them.

“Erm… yes. Not that I’m unhappy to be here to help you, Twilight darling…” Rarity carefully started. The finicky fashionista paused to maneuver around a particularly muddy spot, giving it an offended glare. “But did Princess Celestia say what exactly she needed you here for?”

Twilight looked at the posh white unicorn with an amused grin. “Oh, Princess Celestia isn’t the one who sent for me.”

“But… did you not say that you received a letter from her the day after the Cakes’ tenth anniversary celebration?”

“I said I received a letter from the Princess. I didn’t say it was Celestia.”

On cue, the group of five mares and one baby dragon turned a corner and came face to face with a dark alicorn flanked by two ponies in dark purple armor. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike all gaped at Princess Luna, wondering for a moment if the coincidental timing of her appearance had been planned.

The night alicorn gave no indication of such as she simply looked at Twilight and her friends expectantly, her starry ethereal mane flowing majestically. This regal image was abruptly ruined by Rainbow Dash colliding with the ground a few feet behind the Princess of the Night. Apparently, she too had been surprised by Princess Luna’s sudden appearance.

“I’m okay! My face cushioned my landing!” Rainbow’s voice was slightly muffled by the ground that her face was buried in.

Despite Rainbow’s assurance, Fluttershy bolted past Luna and her guards to make sure her friend wasn’t hurt. Twilight meanwhile approached Luna and gave her a quick bow.

“Hello, Princess Luna!”

“Well met indeed, Twilight Sparkle. We- I am most pleased to see you again!” The night alicorn was still adjusting to modern language conventions since her attempted reintroduction to modern society on Nightmare Night about a year ago.

“I see you brought your friends along with you. Excellent. Come with me. There are great matters we must see to.”

Luna turned and began walking through town, the rest of Twilight's group right behind her and her two guards taking up position behind them. The group got plenty of curious looks from various local ponies as they walked. Twilight sped up a little so she was walking alongside the Princess. A couple of things about the whole situation were on her mind and she wanted to ask Luna about it. She decided to engage in a little small talk first.

“I really like your new constellation by the way.”

Luna gave a solemn nod. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Your recent efforts in defense of the Crystal Empire were quite admirable.”
Twilight didn't miss just how quick Luna was to change the topic. She couldn’t help but wonder about the reason why Princess Luna had put the same image in the stars that was on the face of the moon during her banishment. She thought it best not to ask whether the new constellation served to remind Luna of past mistakes.

The two of them chatted for a few minutes as they walked, after which Twilight decided to address what was really on her mind. The group had completely left the center of Dodge City and were now walking along a relatively secluded dirt road, a thick line of trees to their right.

“It’s not unusual for Princess Celestia to call on me for a task of some sort. She is my mentor after all. But I have to ask: why have you called upon me with… whatever this is?” Twilight then realized what she said could be misconstrued as ungrateful or indignant and quickly added, “Not that there’s a problem, of course! I really like the night! And the moon! It makes late night studying very...”

“No no, I understand," Princess Luna jumped in, cutting off Twilight's anxious rambling, "me calling upon you for some task rather than my sister is indeed outside the norm.” Luna then paused. It was brief, but for some reason it stood out to Twilight. “Princess Celestia has been out of the country dealing with foreign affairs. Thus it was left to me to deal with this… situation.”

And so, the second question on Twilight’s mind came up. “And what exactly is the situation? Your letter didn’t say anything about...”

The Princess of the Night raised a hoof, stopping the purple unicorn’s frantic rambling before it could properly start. “Since this is a matter of national security, I couldn’t risk disclosing the exact nature of what is going on in my letter…”

The group found themselves before a crossroad in the dirt path they were traveling. An even smaller path branched off into the forest to their right. It was so indiscreet that the ponies almost didn’t notice it until Luna started walking down into the shade of the trees around it.

“You say you saw my new constellation when it appeared did you not?” Luna asked. Twilight nodded, not sure where the Princess was going with this. “Then you must also have noticed something else strange in the sky that night.”

Twilight remembered the meteor she saw the other night. Before she could give the matter any more thought, the group came upon what appeared to be a guard checkpoint, with a pair of white-coated ponies in the telltale armor of Equestria’s military. The two guards stood aside for Princess Luna and saluted. Twilight and the others followed closely behind.

The purple unicorn’s head began to fill with even more questions. Why were there so many guards here? What did any of this have to do with the meteor she saw? Unless…

Twilight nearly tripped over her own hooves when she remembered exactly what direction she’d seen the meteor disappear over the horizon: Southeast, the direction Dodge City was from Ponyville!

“What the Sam Hill’s with all these guards?” Applejack asked as the group passed another guard patrol along the path.

Luna took a few more steps before answering, “Patience, my little ponies. For this type of thing, showing is better than telling.”

The group continued to walk through the woods for another minute before they came to a hill overlooking a large clearing. What they saw caused all seven of their jaws to hit the ground. The clearing below was filled with what appeared to be enough Equestrian soldiers to garrison a town. Several tents had been set up throughout the clearing, and squadrons of armored pegasi circled in the skies above.

All of this, though, was not what had caused the group’s state of stupefaction. Nestled in a crater in the center of the clearing was… something. None of the ponies nor the baby dragon could tell exactly what it was, other than it was a rather large hunk of twisted metal. It appeared to be painted a dark green and had various markings on it, but the group couldn’t see them clearly from that distance. Much of it was covered in black splotches where it looked like it was burned.

After a while, Rainbow Dash voiced the question that was on all of their minds. “So… what is it?”

“That… is the answer!” a male voice answered. The baby dragon and six mares all took their eyes off the metal husk in the distance and looked to the foot of the hill they were standing on, where the source of the voice was making his way up towards them.

“The answer? To what? Today’s crossword?” Pinkie asked, pulling a newspaper out of... wherever she kept her belongings.

The new arrival approached the group of ponies. He was a tan unicorn with a short dark blue mane and wore a pair of glasses. His cutie mark was obscured by the white lab coat he wore.

“The answer to: Are we alone in the universe?”

Twilight let out a small gasp, while Pinkie dove into her newspaper. “Are we alone… nope! It’s seven letters!”

“Everypony, this is Arcane Star: Head On-site Researcher,” Luna introduced.

The Princess then proceeded to introduce each of the mares, who each bumped hooves with the unicorn.

“So are you saying that thing is… an alien spaceship?” Twilight asked once she was thinking clearly enough to form words again.

Arcane Star nodded and gave a wide sweeping gesture with his hoof in the direction of the crashed ship. “You’re looking at Equestria’s first contact with another world!”

This got the attention of everyone on the hilltop, as even Pinkie Pie abandoned her crossword to stare at the distant crumpled metal with renewed wonder. Each of the ponies opened their mouth.

“Well I’ll be dipped in applesauce…”

“Oh… my…”

“I can’t say I care much for the color scheme…”

“Whoa… AWESOME!”

“Do you think the aliens like cupcakes?”

Luna raised a hoof, getting the attention the excited individuals. “Would you all like to see it up close?”

Seven wide-eyed nods answered Luna’s question, then Arcane Star turned and led the group down through the clearing, all too enthusiastic to show off his findings. The seven of them ignored the small army of guards and scientists bustling to and fro through the campsite. They only had eyes for the spacecraft, and soon enough they were standing right in front of it.

Twilight immediately noticed that the ship looked much more damaged up close. What she imagined had once been a symmetrical piece of technological brilliance had been broken and twisted into an asymmetrical monstrosity. Twilight doubted it even came close to resembling what it looked like in peak condition. Now that they were close enough, she tried reading what was written on the surface. She saw the words “UNSC,” “Marines,” and “Pelic”: Gibberish, though it looked like a large part of the latter word had been burned off.

She noticed a window covering a smaller part of the vehicle protruding from the front. Inside she saw what appeared to be large seats facing out, and guessed it must have been the cockpit. Looking at the hulking vessel, Twilight couldn’t help but be reminded of a beached whale.

After the group had been given a moment to take in the amazing sight, Arcane Star spoke up. “Anypony want to see the inside?”

“I don’t know… is it safe?” Fluttershy took a few steps back and crouched low behind her friends.

“Yeah, are there any aliens in there?” Spike asked, sounding a little worried himself.

“We’ll get to the issue of the aliens themselves later,” Star said, adjusting his glasses. “Don’t worry though, there are no aliens currently on board.”

The unicorn stallion led the group around the derelict ship until they arrived at what Twilight theorized was the back. Looking down into the crater, Twilight saw a large opening in the ship underneath something that looked like a big metal tail, further affirming Twilight's mental comparisons to a dead animal.

“Alright, who’s going in?” Arcane Star asked.

Fluttershy’s response was to “eep” and try her best to sink through the ground. Rarity moved beside the cowering yellow pegasus and put a hoof on her back.

“I should probably stay with Fluttershy.”

“Yeah… ‘S probably not much more interesting inside anyway…” Rainbow Dash moved beside the two of them. “I’d totally go in if I had to… cuz I’m not scared or anything… I just don’t feel like it!”

“Hey! Wanna help me finish my crossword?” Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing up to Rainbow Dash and pulling out the newspaper from before (which was weird, because Twilight was sure Pinkie had left it back on the hilltop).

Twilight looked over to Applejack, who was staring at the entrance to the alien craft as if an orange had popped up in her apple orchard.

“Yeah, I’m gonna be honest: this thing right spooks me!” The apple farmer went to join the rest of the ponies who had opted out on the tour of the ship’s interior.

Twilight looked at her five friends and then at the opening in the ship. She repeated this motion a couple more times before looking at Luna, who gave her an encouraging nod. Twilight turned to Arcane Star.

“Alright. Lead the way.”

Treading carefully, the pair of unicorns made their way down into the crater towards the opening. Hearing another pair of footsteps behind her, Twilight glanced around and saw Spike rushing to catch up to them.

“Glad I can count on you not to chicken out!” Twilight giggled once her assistant fell into step beside her.

The trio entered the ship. After ascending a small ramp, they found themselves in an extremely dark corridor. Twilight wasn’t sure if it was normally this dark or if whatever the aliens used as a light source had been damaged in the crash. Firefly lanterns were placed here and there by the research team, giving off enough light to see where they were going and making it apparent that other ponies had already given the vessel a thorough search.

Moving deeper into the ship, the hairs on Twilight’s back stood on end as she was overcome by a growing sense of unease. This wasn’t just the natural fear of entering a dark, foreboding alien machine. There was something else to it. It was a feeling of being watched. Like some intangible entity was studying her with unseen eyes. Twilight pushed the feeling aside, choosing instead to focus on her curiosity of her new surroundings.

Looking around at the walls, Twilight noticed that many of them were covered in small blinking lights. Upon closer inspection, she realized that these were all buttons on computer consoles not unlike the enchanted gem-powered ones she kept in her basement lab. These machines, however, seemed way more technologically advanced than the ones she used.

“Amazing! Have you figured out what any of these are for?” Twilight asked.

“We’ve guessed at the function of some of the terminals, but most of them are damaged beyond use,” Star answered.

The three of them soon reached the end of the corridor, where they saw another computer terminal and what looked like a door to the cockpit.

“Here is what we believe is the central control system,” Arcane Star announced, gesturing to the wall of glowing buttons that honestly did not look much different than the others on the ship.

“What’s that?” Spike asked, pointing at something on the floor just in front of the terminal.

Twilight looked at what her number one assistant was pointing at. It was a slightly rounded white metal object with what appeared to be a chrome window on the front. The thing was roughly the size of her head. Twilight had at first assumed it was just a discarded piece of equipment until she realized that it was connected to the central computer with a few wires.

“That is actually a helmet of some sort that the aliens wear,” Star explained as Spike moved closer to get a better look. “Don’t touch it!”

Spike froze, his arms extended towards the alien headgear. “Even though it looks like a simple piece of equipment by these aliens’ standards, for some reason they’ve connected it to the computer. We don’t know what will happen if we disconnect it, so we decided to just leave it.”

Twilight nodded in understanding. Better safe then sorry. Still though, something about the helmet piqued Twilight’s curiosity. She found herself wanting to grab it and study it from every angle right then and there, but decided it was ultimately a bad idea.

The purple mare took another look at the computer that the white helmet was connected to. Aside from the various buttons and charts, there was a screen with two different combinations of numbers on it. Twilight wasn’t sure why the numbers drew her attention, but she couldn’t figure out their function any more than she could the rest of the controls.

“And finally, we have the cockpit!” Arcane Star led Twilight and Spike through the doorway into the cockpit that Twilight saw from outside. Sure enough, through the cockpit’s windshield the Royal Guard infested clearing was fully visible.

For the next few minutes Arcane Star showed her the various points of interest in the cockpit. Twilight soon lost track of the time in the thrill of discovery as she and Star excitedly bounced ideas and theories off each other on the purpose of every piece of machinery in the cockpit.

“Not that this isn’t super interesting and all, but can we go now?” Spike asked, interrupting the two unicorns’ latest musings. Twilight felt bad that for a moment she’d nearly forgotten her dragon assistant was there. “This place kinda gives me the creeps!”

Twilight nodded, as that ominous presence she felt on board the ship returned to the forefront of her mind. “Okay, let’s go.”

As the trio left the cockpit and started walking back down the dark corridor towards the exit, Twilight couldn’t help but glance back at the main control console with the mysterious white helmet plugged in. That little oddity was the biggest mystery yet, and Twilight kind of wished she had more time to study it. Regardless, the three of them made it out of the oppressively dark metal atmosphere of the ship and rejoined the others.

“C’mon! There’s one more thing I want to show you!” Arcane Star ran ahead to a nearby tent with renewed excitement.

The five ponies took some time to talk to Twilight about what she found inside the ship before following their guide at a leisurely pace. Twilight however, lingered a bit to talk to Princess Luna.

“This is all… really incredible, and I’m grateful to be here to see all of this…” Twilight hesitated as she tried to find the right words for what she wanted to say next. “But… I’m guessing you didn’t summon me here just so you could show me all the neat stuff you found!”

“Yes. We were hoping that you would stay here for a while and take part in the research. As my sister’s protégé, your skills would be invaluable.”

“Of course, I would be honored!” Twilight then looked ahead at the group of five ponies entering the tent in front of them. “But, what about my friends?”

“To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting your friends to come along. However, they are all more than welcome to stay. Who knows? Having the bearers of the Elements of Harmony may prove useful!” Luna turned to face the tent the rest of the ponies and baby dragon disappeared into. “Now, as much as I’d like to stay, I have business to return to in Canterlot. Why don’t you join Arcane Star and the others in the main research tent? You might want to see what he has in there!” Luna gave a playful smile.

After saying her farewell to the Princess of the Night, Twilight turned and made her way towards the research tent after her friends. Admittedly, part of the reason Twilight loved astronomy so much was the idea of life existing beyond the stars. Now, with proof of such life in a crater ten feet behind her, Twilight found herself imagining what an alien world must have looked like. She could only imagine it was beautiful and full of wonders.

The scenery of Blood Gulch remained unchanged: bleak and lifeless. A few days after the incident with Tex, Omega, and the ship, things in the box canyon were as quiet as if nothing had ever happened. But things had happened; that was the reality Church had lived with for the past few days. The man in cobalt armor walked out of the front entrance to the round concrete slab that served as Blue Base, turning to face the large tank parked a few feet away.

The M808B Main Battle Tank, or “Scorpion” as it was more commonly known by, was the most reliable weapon in the admittedly small arsenal Blue Team possessed. It was a large rusty metal box with four sets of treads and a single massive cannon on top capable of rotating 360 degrees. Church walked towards the large armored vehicle intending to get in. There was a time Church thought he could blow up the whole Goddamn world with that thing. Maybe it was time to put that statement to the test. He’d start with Red Base and then… who knows? At the very least, it was something to do to keep his mind off of recent events.

That was the plan anyway when Church climbed into the tank’s pilot seat. A few seconds after starting the ignition, Church found himself climbing back out of the tank and taking a step closer to Blue Base.

“Tucker! Hey Tucker! TUCKER!” Church called, hoping that simply yelling his companion’s name enough times would get him to answer.

Sure enough, the soldier in aqua armor appeared on the roof of the base. “Ugh, dude... we have radios in our helmets. Why are you yelling like a fucking lunatic?”
“Oh yeah, good point.” Both Church and Tucker heard the all too familiar beeps and static in their helmets as Church turned on his helmet radio. “TUCKER! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW!”

“Ow! Goddammit!” Tucker shouted, putting his hands to the sides of his helmet where his ears were located, suffering the feedback that naturally came with Church yelling over the radio at top of his lungs. “Asshole…”

Soon, Tucker joined Church beside the tank. “Alright, I’m here. What do you want?”

Church sighed. “What the hell’s wrong with the tank?”

“I dunno, you tell me! You’re the one who was out here fucking with it!”

“Well for starters, I can’t drive it. The engine works, but I can’t get it to move.”

“Did you shift the gear?”

Church gave an exaggerated shrug of his arms. “Oh of course! That’s the issue! I had it in park! Thanks Tucker, what would I ever do without your fucking expertise?” Church then dropped his arms and with them his sarcastic tone. “Of course I shifted the gear! Do I look like a Goddamn idiot?”

“I don’t think you want me to answer that…”

“Whatever, do you know who the last person to use the tank was?”

There were three other people currently stationed at Blue Base aside from Church and Tucker. Sister, Doc, and…

“Caboose,” Tucker answered. “He said he was trying to find Sheila or some dumb crap.”

“Sheila?”

Sheila was the A.I. that once operated the tank. Church found this strange, namely because, “Sheila’s not in the tank anymore, remember? We moved her to the ship!”

“I know that! But you know Caboose. He’s kind of an idiot.”

“Understatement of the century…”

“He probably thinks some part of Sheila’s still in the tank or something!”

Church sighed again and put a hand to his forehead. “So, let me get this straight: Caboose told you that he was going to go mess around in the tank… and you let him?”

“The guy just really misses Sheila.” Tucker shrugged. “It was either let him screw around in the tank, or listen to his sad and somewhat poetic rambling.”

Deciding he’d heard enough, Church once again turned to face Blue Base. “Caboose! Hey Caboose! CABOOSE!”

Church then heard the sounds of someone turning on a helmet radio. “Hey Caboose. Church wants you. We’re outside,” Tucker said calmly over the radio.

Church remained silent as he and Tucker waited for Caboose, deciding not to mention that he had once again forgotten that he had a radio inside his helmet. Soon, a certain soldier in standard issue blue armor walked out of Blue Base and started slowly trudging towards Tucker and Church.

“I am alone… my life is a lonely road… walking alone… into a dark darkness… that is dark… also lonely…” Caboose continued his odd musings until he reached the other two blues standing outside. “Hey Church. Tucker said you wanted to see me… he used the radio.”

“Yes. Thank you Caboose.” It was then that Church realized that the intellectually impaired man was taking Sheila’s loss as hard as he was taking Tex’s. Church didn’t know what was more depressing: That Tex was gone or that he had something in common with Caboose.
“I need to ask you about the tank,” Church continued.

“I didn’t break the tank! I didn’t even know it was broken!” Caboose then leaned in closer to Church and whispered conspiratorially, “I think Tucker…”

“…Already told me you were messing with the tank. Don’t lie to me Caboose.”

“Tucker did it!”

“No moron, we literally just established that you broke the tank! Nobody’s debating that,” Tucker groaned.

“I wasn’t talking about the tank thing. I was talking about the ‘ratted me out to Church’ thing.”

“Yeah that’s true, but nobody’s debating that either.”

“Caboose. What did you do to the tank?” Church made sure to speak very slowly and clearly so that Caboose would understand.

“Nothing! I didn’t do anything to the tank…” Caboose paused when both Church and Tucker looked unconvinced, “...that didn’t involve pulling out those wires under the pedals.”

“Goddammit. Guess we’d better get to work fixing it then.” Despite Church’s words, none of the three Blue soldiers standing around the tank made a move to fix it. “Nobody’s moving. Why isn’t anyone moving?”

“Uh, that would be because none of us knows how to fix a tank,” Tucker stated.

“Right…”

The Blues stood in silence for a few more awkward moments.

“The gun still works right?” Tucker asked.

“On the tank?” Church asked. “I guess. If all Caboose did was take out the wires for the pedals.”

“Then there we go! We can still use it to fight the Reds, we just can’t move it. All Caboose really did was turn the tank into a stationary turret.”

“That’s good right? Because if so, that was my plan all along!” Caboose said.

Church, meanwhile, was holding a hand to his chin. “It’s good enough for me!”

With that settled, the three Blues went their separate ways. Tucker and Caboose began to wonder around the perimeter of the base while Church lingered behind.

“Good job team! I knew we could fix the problem!” Caboose exclaimed.

“But all we did was decide to ignore it,” Tucker pointed out.

Church on the other hand began a slow walk towards the top of Blue Base. He just remembered that Tex was always the one who fixed the tank. Church wasn’t sure why he was so obsessed with her memory. There was not much love between the two of them, despite their history. It seemed like every time Church and Tex were together, there was nothing but the bitter exchange of insults, no different than the banter between he and his teammates.

And yet (for some inexplicable reason) whenever Tex was gone, she was all he could think about. She was like some part of him he couldn’t let go. Church soon found himself wondering whether her ship had survived, and if it had, where she had ended up.

The first thing Twilight noticed about the tent was that it was a lot bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. She guessed that it had been enchanted with several spatial compression spells.

The next thing she noticed was that the whole room was set up much like her own basement lab, with several gem-powered machines working away at various tasks. What really caught her eye was the centerpiece of the room. On a fairly large operating table sealed off by airtight transparent plastic curtains was a large bipedal figure in black armor.

Twilight didn’t even notice she was moving closer to the inert alien form until she was right outside of the protective curtain. It also took her a while to notice that the rest of her friends were standing right beside her, also staring with wonder at the black armored creature that Twilight gestured to.

“Is that…?”

“Eeyup…” was Applejack’s reply, not taking an eye off the motionless alien.

The black armor the thing was wearing looked incredibly advanced, and even had a few areas that seemed to light up like the computers on the ship. The armor covered the figure from top to bottom, with even its face hidden behind the reflective visor of its helmet. It was then that Twilight noticed that apart from the fact that the helmet was black rather than white, it looked exactly the same as the one that was hooked up to the computer on board the ship.

“Well, what do you think?” asked Arcane Star, standing next to the group. “Isn’t she a beaut?”

Twilight nodded, then stopped as what Star said suddenly clicked. “Wait, she?”

Arcane Star nodded. “Actually, we don’t know if the thing even has a gender, seeing as it appears to be entirely mechanical. But Tome Keeper and I have a bet…”

The latter half of the head researcher’s words were drowned out by Twilight’s thoughts. A race of mechanical beings? Or was this one just a robot built by the actual aliens?

“So is it… dead?” Fluttershy’s small voice made its way to Twilight’s ears, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Looked that way when we found it. Even if it is still functional, it isn’t capable of moving now. Here, I’ll show you!”

Twilight didn’t miss the way Fluttershy shifted closer to her friends in spite of this information. The shy yellow pegasus couldn’t seem to be able to decide whether she was sad or relieved that the alien being on the table was dead.
Arcane Star wasted no time in moving along to another table. The tan unicorn beckoned the others to the table he was at.

“A mechanized body this advanced requires equally advanced cognitive functioning!” Arcane Star received blank stares from all but Twilight.

“Uh… sorry, I don’t speak egghead,” Rainbow Dash bluntly stated.

“Essentially, he’s saying that everything needs a brain,” Twilight explained, well used to simplifying things for her athletic friend.

“Somethin’ RD here’d do well to remember once ‘n a while…” Applejack muttered, though it was just loud enough to receive an angry glare from the aforementioned blue pegasus.

“Exactly! So, I present to you: the creature’s brain!” Arcane Star did a practiced dramatic gesture with his hoof to the table they were all standing around.

It was then that they all noticed what seemed like a relatively empty table did, in fact, have a small square object sitting in the center. It looked like an incredibly small version of the computers on the ship. On closer inspection, Twilight noticed an odd symbol engraved on it. It looked like an irregularly shaped horseshoe.

“We pulled this sort of artificial brain out of a slot in the back of the alien robot’s helmet,” Star explained. “After much research, we’ve discovered that, functionally, it is not that different from an M.I.!”

“M.I…” Pinkie said, putting a contemplative hoof to her chin. “What’s the M stand for?”

“Magical…” Twilight then saw Rainbow Dash open her mouth to say something. “Intelligence,” Twilight answered before the blue pegasus could even ask.

“Pretty impressive, Miss Sparkle!” Star commented. “I heard you really know your stuff when it comes to magic, but Magical Intelligence constructs have all but been forgotten!”

“Would either of you mind elaborating for us what exactly a… ‘Magical Intelligence’ is?” Rarity asked.

“Sure! I just got a new book with a whole section on them!” Twilight took a breath, eager to share her knowledge. “Magical Intelligence constructs, or ‘M.I.’s’ are incorporeal magical consciousnesses that were used to operate and maintain a variety of high level spells and enchantments too great for any lone unicorn to manage!”

More blank stares from her friends made Twilight realize she’d have to slow down and simplify things some more.

“Think of them as like ghosts. They don’t have physical bodies and have really advanced, fast working brains. They’re capable of performing more spells more efficiently than even the best unicorns!”

“Well that sounds incredibly useful!” Rarity exclaimed. Being a unicorn, she was one of the few ponies in the room who could appreciate their potential. “Why doesn’t anypony use these M.I. things anymore?”

“They became forbidden about one thousand years ago. Just after Princess Luna’s banishment.”

“Yes, they were pretty controversial, ethically speaking,” Star explained.

“Why?” Spike asked.

“M.I.’s were created by essentially copying the minds of real, living ponies. Because of that, they were capable of experiencing the full range of pony emotions. As self-aware magical tools, many became emotionally unstable. They became a danger to themselves and the ponies around them,” Twilight explained. “Some of them even thought that they were real ponies.”

The ponies in the room were silent. Each of them made uncomfortable by what they had just learned (though, an exaggerated yawn from Rainbow Dash indicated she was simply bored).

“Yes. In spite of this, though, I have full clearance from the Princess to proceed with this experiment,” Arcane Star said.

Twilight suddenly turned to face him. “W-wait wuh-what? What experiment?”

“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. I need your help with an experiment!” Star cheerfully announced. “That is why Princess Luna called you here, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s just… it’s been a long day of travel and I wasn’t expecting to get started immediately…”

“Oh it won’t be much, I just need you to transfer some magic to me while I convert this alien intelligence into an M.I.!”

The tent was filled with perfect silence… for about a second. “WHAT?! AFTER EVERYTHING I JUST SAID???” Twilight proceeded to hyperventilate.

“Relax, Miss Sparkle. Breathe.” Arcane Star waited for Twilight’s breathing to reach a relatively normal pace before continuing, “My team has put all the necessary protective enchantments on this tent and everything in it. It will be a safe procedure.”

Twilight looked at the head researcher skeptically, still unconvinced.

“Think of how much we could learn from a being of alien origins! The way this artificial intelligence was designed, it cannot communicate with us without a body it’s compatible with, and right now the only compatible body in Equestria is damaged beyond use.”

Star gestured to the operating table where the black armor-clad alien lay motionless. “If we want it to talk to us, we need it to be able to do so without a body, and the only way to do that is to convert the data in here,” Star pointed to the A.I unit on the table, “into magical energy. Energy which can then be housed in any properly enchanted object.”

The unicorn stallion leaned in closer to the skeptical Twilight. “The Princess herself asked me… asked us to learn everything we can from this being.”

Finally, Twilight let out a long sigh. “Fine. Let's do this.”

Spike and the other five mares all stepped back from the table while Twilight Sparkle and Arcane Star prepared to cast their respective spells. Twilight closed her eyes and focused magic into her horn. She then focused on Arcane Star and began casting onto him.

Transferring magical energy was a fairly common practice among unicorns. More often than not, a unicorn with relatively low-level magic would need to cast a spell requiring higher magical reserves. It was often easier to just have a higher-level unicorn transfer a portion of their magical reserves to the caster rather than the caster teaching them the spell. Teaching even a high level unicorn a new spell often took days for them to be able to perform decently.

After she felt enough of her magic reserves had been transferred to Arcane Star, Twilight opened her eyes and watched as the head researcher began to work his own magic. Twilight studied the way he worked his way through the data in the alien unit with his magic and changed it into magical energy. Twilight figured that she would probably be using the same spell herself in the coming days and decided she should start familiarizing herself with it.

After a few minutes, an ethereal mass of dark energy began to appear in the air above the table. A definite shape slowly began to form as Star continued casting the conversion spell. Twilight and the others looked on with a mix of intrigue and trepidation.

Soon the spell was complete, and floating above the table was a spectral image of a humanoid creature in armor very similar to that of the alien robot on the operating table. The ghostly thing floated silently, staring at Arcane Star and the six mares in the tent as an incredibly uncomfortable vibe slowly filled the air. Looking at the spectre, Twilight could feel something powerful emanating from it: rage. Pure, concentrated anger.

“Uh… greetings!” Arcane Star finally broke the ice, trying his best not to sound completely terrified. Twilight had to keep reminding herself that the incorporeal creature could not harm them. The negative emotions the thing was emitting with its mere presence was overpowering.

“We… f-found your ship. We mean you n-no harm,” Star said slowly. The ponies weren’t so sure the same could be said for the entity. They all waited for the thing to give a response, but it just continued to float there, radiating hate. “Do you… understand us?”

Finally the creature gave a response. A deep, distorted voice gave a slow sinister chuckle, which seemed about to give way to a full-blown terrifying laugh… but the ghostly figure vanished before that happened. Very quickly and anticlimactically the rage that had filled the air like a poison was completely gone, and the research tent was as normal as it was when the ponies first entered it.

“Huh. Is it… gone?” Applejack asked.

“I hope so… that was terrifying!” Fluttershy exclaimed, now huddled in the far corner across the tent.

“What? What happened? Where’d it go?” Arcane Star frantically began scanning the tent for any sign of the alien entity.

“It looks like it’s gone,” Twilight said. “I guess even as an M.I. it couldn’t survive on its own…”

“NO!” Star screamed, smashing a hoof down on the table.

“Don’t be upset, Mr. Star. We gave it our all,” Twilight put a reassuring hoof on the researcher’s shoulder, “our endeavors don’t always work out the way we’d like them to. That’s just the nature of science.”

Arcane Star gave a defeated sigh. “You’re right, Miss Sparkle. I’m sorry for getting upset.” The unicorn stallion turned and made to leave the tent. “Let’s call it a day. We can start taking a closer look at the ship tomorrow.”

Arcane Star exited the tent and Twilight Sparkle made to do the same. Rarity went to coax Fluttershy out of her corner while Rainbow Dash started to follow Twilight.

“Anypony else hear that?” Pinkie asked.

“Hear what?” Rainbow asked, looking back at her pink friend.

“A very specific pattern of beeps and boops?”

Rainbow scrunched her face up in concentration as she listened for a moment. “Nope!” The rainbow-maned mare laughed and gave Pinkie a friendly nudge. “You’re so random, Pinkie Pie!”

Rainbow Dash continued to chuckle as she made her way out of the research tent with Twilight Sparkle. Had she been paying more attention, the rainbow pegasus would have noticed that for once, Pinkie wasn’t smiling at her in response.

As Twilight exited the tent and allowed herself a moment to relax after the admittedly tense moments earlier, she found herself actually kind of disappointed that Arcane Star’s spell hadn’t worked. They could have learned so much from such an advanced race. She began to wonder if she’d ever get the chance to meet an alien.

She could only imagine how wise and noble they must be…

“ATTENTION TURD-BISCUITS! FRONT AND CENTER! DOUBLE-TIME!”

One would think that the loud, gruff southern voice of Red Team’s Sarge yelling at the top of his lungs would be enough to mobilize an entire army. Instead, the only soldier to assemble before the sergeant in anything that resembled “double-time” was a man wearing maroon-red armor: brown-noser extraordinaire, Private Dick Simmons.

The two Reds were not waiting outside the round concrete slab that served as Red Base alone for very long, and were shortly joined by Private Donut. The flamboyant soldier in pink armor was late to assemble because he had decided to leisurely skip his way over rather than walk like a normal person. The last member of Red Team to arrive outside the small base was Private Grif. Red Team’s resident slacker in orange armor was moving at a deliberately slow pace, stopping to stretch and groan loudly every few steps.

“Grif! Quit stalling! What part of ‘double-time’ don’t you understand?” Sarge barked.

“Hey, it’s not like I’m the only one who was late,” Grif grumbled as he joined his teammates outside of Red Base at the end of the canyon. “Donut was late because he skipped all the way here. At least I was doing something productive, like stalling this no doubt stupid meeting.”

“Ugh, I was not skipping, Grif. I was frolicking!” the appropriately pink soldier argued. “And yes: there’s a difference! Frolicking requires more grace and tact. You have to know when to bound and when to leap!”

“Can it, Bambi!” Sarge ordered before clearing his throat. “Now, I’m sure you have all been wondering about the purpose of the special top-secret project that I’ve been working on…”

“I’m going to guess: it’s something to kill the Blues,” Grif stated in a deadpan voice.

Sarge sputtered unintelligibly for a few moments. “What?! How did you know my super-secret plan?” Sarge then approached Grif and raised his shotgun to the snarky soldier’s face. “Are you workin’ with the Blues? WHAT ELSE DID YOU TELL THEM?!”

“Nothing. I just know that everything you do is about killing the Blues!” Grif did not seem the slightest bit concerned about looking down the barrel of Sarge’s shotgun. To say he was used to being on the receiving end of the Red sergeant’s trademark weapon was an understatement.

“If Grif is a spy, I’d be more than happy to beat the information out of him, sir!” Simmons piped in, the maroon soldier jumping at the chance to both kiss up to Sarge and hurt Grif at the same time.

“It’s okay, Simmons. Grif probably doesn’t even have the motivation to betray us… lazy bastard!” Sarge lowered his shotgun from Grif’s face and stepped back to his position before the entire team. “Besides, killing the Blues is only half of my master plan.”

“Really? What’s the other half?” Grif asked.

“To kill you in the process.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“Well, I for one would never have thought that was your plan! You truly are a master of discretion, sir!” Coming from anyone else, those statements might have been rightfully construed as sarcastic, but there was nothing but sincerity in Simmons’ words.

“Right as always, Simmons!” Sarge complimented before getting back to business. “Now, with the new vehicle that Lopez and I have been working on, we will most definitely have the upper hand on those no-good dirty Blues!”

“Wait, that’s what you’ve been working on all this time? A new vehicle?” Simmons asked. “Correct me if I’m wrong sir, but didn’t you just build a new vehicle a couple of days ago?”

The gathered Red soldiers all looked to the side opposite the base where a small, one man ATV sat alone and neglected.

“Ah yes, after some consideration I realized a crucial design flaw with the Mongoose: there’s no massive gun turret like all normal vehicles have!” Sarge explained.

“I still can’t believe you went with ‘Mongoose’ as the name,” Grif grumbled, referring to the fact that he let Simmons name the new ATV.

“Fine, asshole. What would you have called it?” Simmons asked.

“I think it looks kinda like an ocelot.”

“Uh… a what?”

“An ocelot! It’s like a small cat!”

“Then why didn’t you just fucking say ‘cat’ then? You don’t always have to invent new animals, you know!”

An exasperated sigh was the only response Grif gave.

“’The Cat’ is a terrible name for a military vehicle!” Sarge stated. “A good vehicle name needs to inspire terror proportionate to the combat effectiveness of the vehicle!”

“Which is why ‘The Cat’ would be the perfect name for that piece of junk!” Grif explained. “That ATV is about as useful in combat as an actual cat is as a pet!”

“Fine, if it’s all the same to you, let’s just stick with using fictional animals,” Sarge patronized. “How about ‘Unicorn?’”

“Ooh! I would be all for calling it ‘the Unicorn!’” Donut exclaimed.

“I know you would, Donut. That’s why I was bein' sarcastic!”

“So, what is this new vehicle you’re working on, sir?” Simmons asked, trying to bring the easily sidetracked team back on topic.

“I’m glad you asked that, Simmons!” Sarge exclaimed as he turned to face a hill in the distance and turned on his helmet radio. “Lopez! It’s show an’ tell time!”

On cue, the four Reds heard the sound of a car engine starting up and accelerating, and in a few short seconds, the vehicle in question crested the hill, drove down and skidded to a stop in front of the gathered Red soldiers. The vehicle was an all-terrain jeep with no doors and a 360 degrees revolving gun turret on the back.

“Um… that’s the Warthog,” Grif stated.

“Nice work, Lopez,” Sarge said, ignoring Grif. “Though yer entrance could’ve been more dramatic. You barely got any air comin’ over that hill!”

What appeared to be a head wearing a brown helmet rolled out of the driver’s seat of the jeep and landed upright on the ground in front of Sarge. This was Lopez: Red Team’s very own robot head that exclusively spoke Spanish.

“No había suficiente momentum (There was not enough momentum),” Lopez stated. “Además, un monte no es un salto (Also, a hill is not a jump).”

“It’s okay Lopez, jus’ try harder next time!”

“Uh… how was Lopez driving the jeep?” Donut asked. For once, the pink-armored private had a point: Driving was typically pretty difficult without arms or legs.

“Estaba programado con una función que me permite controlar remotamente este vehículo (I was programed with a function that allows me to remotely control this vehicle).”

“I dunno. Robot magic?” Sarge shrugged.

“Puto.”

“This is just the Warthog! We’ve had this jeep for years!” Grif exclaimed. Indeed, the M12-LRV or “Warthog” (alternatively, Puma) was Red Team’s always-reliable vehicle of choice.

“While this is the very same jeep we’ve used over the years, I’ve made a very special modification!” Sarge gestured with an arm to the Warthog’s turret.

That’s when the Reds all saw it: The chain gun that was the Warthog’s primary weapon had been torn off and replaced by what appeared to be three rocket launchers held together by duct tape.

“You created a rocket gun?” Simmons asked. “Cool! But... does it really work?”

“Yeah, don’t we need more… torque, or something?” Grif added.

“What are you talking about, Grif? We have plenty of torque!” Donut exclaimed cheerfully, “Why, just the other day I was torqueing my heart out!”

“No Donut. What you were doing is called twerking,” Simmons groaned. “And for the love of God, don’t ever do it again!”

“I’ve tested this bad girl out and everything works perfectly,” Sarge said with plenty of pride in his tone. “I even set it to fire in bursts of three rockets!”

“What about reload time, sir?” Simmons asked.

“Well, each rocket launcher only holds two rockets, so you’d only be able to fire two bursts before having to reload all of them!”

“You have to reload all of the rocket launchers? As in one at a time?” Grif asked.

“Is that a problem?” Sarge asked nonchalantly.

“Think of it this way Sarge: the old Warthog gun could fire hundreds of bullets without reloading… somehow. This new one can only fire two bursts of three shots for a total of six and then has to take at least a minute to reload,” Simmons explained.

“I’m well aware that there’s a slight difference in reload time, but I think the increased firepower’s a good trade off!”

“Slight difference? The person using the gun could be killed before even being halfway done reloading!” Grif exclaimed.

“That’s exactly why I’ve decided when we attack the Blues that you’re going to operate the gun and Simmons here will drive the Warthog!”

“What???” Grif then sighed. And here he thought Sarge finally had a plan that didn't involve him needlessly being put in danger of dying.

“Ooh! Sarge! Can I drive the Unicorn?” Donut asked.

“I don’t see how it’ll help, but sure!”

“Yes!”

“We attack the Blues at 1800 hours today!” Sarge declared. “Any final thoughts?”

“Just one: that changing the Warthog gun was a mistake!” Grif said. “Here’s my policy: If something works just fine the way it is, don’t fuck with it!”

The interior of the crashed ship was even darker and more menacing with the absence of daylight. Regardless, Twilight Sparkle bravely pressed on into the darkness. Again she felt the presence of something unseen watching her. Added together with the darkness of night and the fact that she was alone, it was almost enough to get her to run back to her tent and dive under her covers. Unfortunately, Twilight knew that once she got there, she would only continue to toss and turn sleeplessly.

Twilight had spent a good three hours in the comfortable bed in the tent that was made for her and Spike, but sleep would not come. Twilight could not stop thinking about the events of the previous day: the experiment with the alien intelligence unit in the main research tent, but mostly the ship itself. For some inexplicable reason her thoughts kept going back to the main computer and the mysterious white helmet that was connected to it. Twilight couldn’t be idle with the desire to know more about that enigma.

So she had gotten out of bed (careful not to wake Spike in his basket) and had made her way down to the ship. Reaching the main computer with the strange helmet attached, Twilight allowed herself to forget her discomfort in the alien environment as she once again immersed herself in the realm of scientific discovery. She started by picking up the helmet in question. After taking a few seconds to realize it wasn’t going to explode in her hooves, Twilight studied it closely.

Her first once-over with the alien headgear proved fruitless. She remembered that Arcane Star had said that they had taken the alien intelligence chip out of a slot in the back of the black alien’s helmet. Checking the back of the white helmet currently in her hooves, Twilight got excited upon finding a slot where a similar chip would fit, but was disappointed when she realized it was empty. Running out of ideas, Twilight tried putting the helmet on her own head, but quickly gave up when she couldn’t get it to fit past her snout.

Setting the white helmet down, Twilight turned her attention to the computer it was wired to. Once again her attention immediately went to the two sets of numbers on screen. This time, however, something clicked in the unicorn’s brain, and suddenly she realized what the numbers were.

“They’re coordinates…” Twilight muttered out loud. Two sets of them: a destination and a point of origin. So this was the ship’s navigational computer. Now she was getting somewhere!

Or so she thought. Upon further evaluation, Twilight realized this still didn’t explain why it was connected to the helmet. The purple mare then thought of an idea. Thinking back to the conversion experiment with the A.I., Twilight carefully recalled the way Arcane Star used his magic on the alien robot’s brain before charging up her own horn to perform the same spell herself.

After a few moments, Twilight fired a burst of magical energy at the computer and was met with success when she felt her magic coursing through the alien machine.

“Yes!” she silently cheered. For reasons unknown to even her, Twilight was always adept at learning new spells more quickly than any other living unicorn she knew of. Most unicorns couldn’t even learn more than a few spells at all. Recently, Twilight chalked it up to being the bearer of the Element of Magic. Regardless, Twilight still wasn’t sure that she could convert any of this digital data to magical energy the way Arcane Star had done, but she didn’t need to. She was just going to take a look around.

Twilight began making her way through the digital information of the ship’s navigational computer. The feeling was kind of strange, like simultaneously existing in two places at once. She could actually feel her conscious mind moving through the streams of data as if swimming through a river, while at the same time she could still feel the cold metal floor of the ship under her hooves.

After about a minute of exploring the digital world of the computer and finding nothing of note, Twilight came across a section of the digital data that was (for lack of a better description) blocked off. It was as if the aliens had put up some digital equivalent to a barrier enchantment around something in this computer. After mulling over what this could mean for a moment, Twilight decided that whatever the aliens were trying to protect would be worth checking out.

She started dismantling the digital barrier, destroying or rewriting the many lines of information that comprised it. It was then that… something came out. A complex set of data separate from the rest of the computer. Twilight quickly realized that whatever it was, it was alive: it moved through the streams of data with a purpose.

It was then that it occurred to Twilight just what it was: another alien intelligence like the one in the research tent. She then realized that this was the reason she could never shake this foreboding feeling like she was being watched whenever she was on the ship: The alien construct was watching her!

The A.I. for the most part ignored Twilight’s presence in the computer, spreading its own code to the various systems. Twilight allowed herself to relax once she realized the thing probably didn’t mean her any harm. Right now the A.I. seemed to be checking the various systems in the computer to make sure it was all working. Twilight was just about to get back to what she was doing when she remembered that what she was doing was finding out what was behind that firewall.

Was that it? Was the A.I. the only thing behind the digital barrier? Why would something that was apparently so crucial in maintaining the ship’s systems be locked away like that?

That’s when it hit her: The firewall wasn’t there to keep nosy ponies like her out, it was there to keep the alien construct in.

Twilight frantically searched the digital space to see what the A.I. was doing. While the A.I.’s code was spread throughout the computer performing routine system maintenance, the digital entity itself was moving towards the wires connecting the computer to the white helmet!

Twilight panicked when she realized the A.I. had deceived her. There was something about that helmet that the A.I. knew. Twilight tried to chase it, but it was already too late. The A.I accessed something in the helmet. Whatever it was, it was an incredibly powerful piece of technology: something beyond standard even for an advanced race such as this. The A.I. then targeted something outside the computer with it. Twilight investigated to see what it was targeting and her eyes widened.

It was targeting her.

Twilight severed her magical connection to the computer and turned in an attempt to get out of there, but the A.I. had already activated the device in the helmet. Twilight suddenly felt disorientation begin to set in and a wave of nausea begin to wash over her. She recognized this sensation: It was how she felt the first time she ever used her teleportation spell.

Just before all of her senses shut down, Twilight saw that she wasn’t alone in the ship. The last thing she saw before succumbing to the blackness were the two green serpentine eyes of her number one assistant wide with fear.

Wherever Twilight appeared next was incredibly windy. The nausea, dizziness and general disorientation that came with a poorly executed teleport spell were all there. Additionally, Twilight felt an intense tingling sensation in her stomach. That was new.

Opening her eyes and getting herself reoriented, Twilight discovered the reason for the wind and the sensation of butterflies in her stomach. She had appeared a fair distance up in the sky and was now falling towards the ground. Twilight tried not to panic as the ground rushed closer and closer. She remembered reading a section of a book once on how to survive falling from a great height. If she rolled right at the moment of impact…

She hit the ground dead on, sprawled out like a star. Adrenaline was still rushing through her aching body as she lay there, which caused her to perform a delayed, pathetic little roll. Twilight decided that the next time she fell from a great height, she would roll a lot sooner.

“Oww…” Twilight groaned. Her legs and stomach were in intense pain now that the adrenaline was wearing off. Her breaths came in pained gasps from having the wind knocked out of her.

With a sore grunt, the purple mare pulled herself to her hooves. All four of her legs were throbbing, but the moment she put weight on her right foreleg sharp pain shot through the entire appendage. Twilight winced and shifted her weight off of the troublesome leg. She could only hope that it wasn’t broken.

Now that she had more or less pulled herself together, Twilight took a moment to observe her surroundings. She was in the center of a canyon that wasn’t very big. There wasn’t much to look at either. A tree here, a rock there. Twilight saw a small, round, single story building on one end of the canyon and started limping in that direction, hoping there would be ponies there that could help her.

As she hobbled along for a few minutes, Twilight became suddenly aware that it was daytime. Or rather, she remembered that it was not daytime when she was teleported here by… just what happened to her anyways? Regardless, the fact that it was daytime now could only mean one of a few things.

A) There was a significant time delay between when Twilight disappeared and when she reappeared. B) Twilight had been transported to a part of the planet where the sun was still up. Or C) …

A loud bang and something whooshing by her right ear interrupted Twilight’s train of thought. She didn’t know what was going on, but a sound that loud was never a good sign. So with a yelp, Twilight dove for cover behind a nearby boulder to her left. Her probably broken foreleg made its dislike for that action known.

Once she stopped panicking and her breathing returned to normal, Twilight tried to figure out what exactly had just happened. Looking at where she had been standing when the loud noise had occurred, Twilight could see a small, smoking hole in the ground a few feet away. It wasn’t much bigger than the tip of her horn, but the fact there were small amounts of smoke coming out of it indicated that a heavily concentrated magical attack or high-powered projectile had barely missed her.

“Uh… All right! That was your one warning shot! Come any closer and the next one’s going between your eyes!” a loud and somewhat nasally male voice called out from the distance.

Realizing the source of the voice was at the building she had been approaching, Twilight carefully poked her head out from behind her boulder to take a look at who was yelling at her. Twilight gasped loudly at what she saw. Standing on top of the concrete structure a fair distance away was a bipedal creature wearing cobalt armor: The exact same kind of armor that the alien recovered from the ship had been wearing!

… Or C) She had been transported to another world entirely!

The cobalt alien stared at her through a scope mounted on some sort of long metal stick. He slowly lowered the long object in bewilderment, continuing to stare at the purple pony partially hiding behind a large rock.

“What. The fuck. Is that?”

Author's Note

Sorry things start off so slowly in this first chapter, but I had a lot to establish and a lot to set up. I also don't like when crossovers like this rush to combine the two worlds without much setup. Regardless, I don't expect future chapters to be quite this long. Chapter 2 is looking to be somewhere closer to the 6000 word mark.

On the topic of future chapters, I don't intend to turn this story into something that takes months to update. Chapter 2 will be up next Monday (December 9). I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with weekly updates, but I can guarantee you'll never have to wait too long for a new chapter.

Just like the show this crosses over with, be sure to check back on Mondays. Don't forget to check the blog I posted with more information on this story!

Act 1 Part 2 - Blood Gulch Blues

Arcane Star abruptly awoke in his tent as something or someone unceremoniously burst through the entrance and fell on him. After the initial disorientation of having been asleep mere seconds ago wore off, the unicorn scientist looked around. The darkness outside the open flap of his tent indicated it was still the middle of the night or very early in the morning.

His more immediate concern, though, was the tent’s intruder: a small, purple, scaly lizard-like creature. The presence of such a thing in his tent would have caused Arcane Star quite a bit of panic if said creature hadn’t been frantically rambling at a mile a minute.

“QuickquickyougottahelpmeTwilightwasgoneandIwenttogoseewhereshewentandshewasattheshipandshewasmessingwiththecomputerandthehelmetandsuddenlysomethinghappenedandIdon’tknowwheresheisandshemightbehurtand…”

Arcane Star then remembered the small reptile as Ms. Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon assistant named… Sharp? Prick? He couldn’t quite remember.

“Whoa, whoa. Calm down little guy. Take a breath,” Arcane Star said gently. The baby dragon stopped his frantic rant and took a single slow breath. “Now, tell me what happened. Slowly.”

Arcane Star noticed the poor kid had tears in his eyes as he answered, “Twilight’s gone!”

“Okay… define ‘gone.’”

The bleak box canyon remained still and silent as the cobalt soldier and purple pony stared at each other in bewilderment from their respective spots on top of the base and down on the ground. Once Twilight Sparkle had gotten over her initial shock at seeing a living bipedal alien in the flesh (assuming of course, that it even had flesh), she realized that she could understand the (admittedly vulgar) words it had just uttered. She wasn’t sure how it was possible that an alien being from another planet spoke the same language commonly spoken across Equestria, but decided that it didn’t matter. If she was able to understand it, then logic dictated that it should be able to understand her.

“Um… hello?” It took all of Twilight Sparkle’s resolve to project her voice loud enough for it to reach the armored creature standing on top of the small concrete structure. “Can you understand me?”

“What the fuck, it talks?” was the thing’s uncouth reply. This was certainly not how Twilight expected first contact with an alien race would go, but regardless the little unicorn pushed onward.

“Yes, and I need help!” Twilight took another step forward on her good leg, but this only caused the cobalt alien to raise the long metal pole in his hands at her again.

“Hey! Not another step closer! I mean it! I will use this sniper rifle!”

“Yeah! You’d better do what he says...” another voice called out, as another alien wearing some sort of teal/cyan/aqua armor appeared beside the cobalt one. “... or else Church might shoot the air around you!”

“Hey, shut up! Nobody asked for your input!” The cobalt soldier that the teal one called “Church” turned to face his companion.

The aqua soldier, however, looked right past Church at the small unicorn on the ground below. “Wait, what the hell is that?”

“How the fuck would I know, dude?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle! I’m pretty sure I’m not on my planet anymore, and I think my leg is broken! Can you lend me some assistance? Please?”

The cobalt soldier apparently called Church returned to pointing his weapon at Twilight. “An alien, huh? Well, guess what? This is a secure military facility and we’re not exactly on good terms with the aliens right now, so BEAT IT!”

Twilight gave the alien a skeptical stare. The building sure looked small for a military facility, and the soldiers operating it definitely weren’t displaying proper military decorum, at least as far as she knew from what her brother had told her about his time in the Royal Guard. Regardless, these people appeared to be the only ones in this box canyon that could help her.

“Please! If you help me now, I’ll consider it an act of goodwill between our two societies!” Twilight gave her best diplomatic smile.

The aqua and cobalt aliens turned to each other and silently (but not indiscriminately) discussed the various pros and cons of helping a small, purple alien horse. Eventually, Church turned back to face Twilight Sparkle.

“Okay! Here’s what’s gonna happen: We’re going to bring you into our base and have our medic take a look at your leg…”

“Wait, are you sure that’s a good idea?” the aqua one asked.

“Are you sure I care?” was Church’s reply before turning back to address Twilight, “After that... we’ll see.”

“Okay!” Twilight called out. It didn’t sound particularly promising, but it was a start.

“Just wait there. We’re sending a man to, uh… escort you!” With that, Church and his aqua companion disappeared from view.

Twilight sat on the ground and waited, keeping weight off of her throbbing right foreleg. Despite the fact that she was lost in an unfamiliar world, a sense of excitement rose up inside her at the idea of talking to real, living aliens. She remembered spending countless nights as a filly staring up at the night sky through her father’s telescope, absolutely enamored with the idea of life beyond the stars. Even well into adulthood, Twilight would dream of meeting and maybe even befriending an alien being.

She couldn’t quite hide the giddy smile on her face as she watched the small concrete structure, waiting for the alien ambassador that… ‘Church’ person had said would be coming. A few minutes passed though, and Twilight’s grin of anticipation began to disappear as no movement came from the small alien structure. Right when she was about to wonder if she should just walk up there herself, she heard footsteps behind her.

“Hello!” a pleasant, high-pitched and generally goofy voice greeted from directly behind her. Twilight yelped in surprise and whirled around. She found herself looking up at another armored biped. This one was wearing ordinary blue armor and was holding a smaller, yet similar weapon to the one Church had.

“I am Caboose!”

Twilight rapidly shook her head to clear it of the shock. “Wha… how did you get behind me?”

“The same way I go in front of people: I walked!” the blue soldier’s funny, child-like voice and casual disregard for logic reminded Twilight of Pinkie Pie.

The thought of her hyperactive pink friend suddenly made Twilight forget about the excitement of meeting aliens as she thought of her friends back home. As she and the blue alien that introduced himself as Caboose began to make their way towards the base, Twilight hoped she would find a way back to Equestria soon. Twilight could only imagine how worried they’d all be when they found out she was gone.

Spike anxiously shifted his weight between each foot as he stood outside Dodge City’s main inn in the light of the early morning sun. The baby dragon kept glancing over to Rarity and the other four mares beside him, afraid if he took his eyes off of them for too long they would disappear too.

As soon as Spike told the head researcher at the crash site what had happened to Twilight, the unicorn stallion wasted no time in getting a message to Canterlot requesting a sky chariot be sent to take himself and the rest of Twilight’s friends to the capital, posthaste! It was times like this that Spike was glad he had his own endless supply of dragonfire for instantaneous communication.

After sending out the message, Spike immediately ran into town and into the inn to rouse the rest of Twilight’s friends and let them know what happened. Rarity and Fluttershy had both wasted no time in smothering the little dragon with sympathetic affection as soon as they learned of the situation. Even now, Spike didn’t miss the occasional concerned glances the mares sent his way. He also didn’t miss just how uneasy they all looked as well. Nopony had said a word since they lined up outside the inn to await the sky chariot’s arrival.

Even Pinkie Pie was acting more subdued than what was normal for her. On top of that, Spike noticed the pink mare’s ears perk up on more than one occasion. Occasionally, she would look around in every direction. Spike wasn’t sure what she was looking for, or who she was muttering to under her breath.

Soon, the central street of Dodge City began getting more active as ponies stepped out of their homes and shops started to open.

“Ah! There you are!” Twilight’s friends all turned at the sound of the voice and saw Arcane Star briskly trotting towards them. “I was afraid for a moment that you’d already be gone!”

Without the white lab coat the tan stallion ordinarily wore, his cutie mark consisting of a constellation of stars partially obscured by a lens was visible. He gave a sympathetic look in Spike’s direction as he reached them.

“Hello, Prick! How have you been holding up?”

Spike gave Arcane Star a quizzical look. “Fine, I guess. What did you just call me?”

“Any word on Twilight, Mr. Star?” Rarity asked. She either failed to notice Spike and Arcane Star’s exchange or chose to ignore it.

The hopeful look on Rarity’s face only caused Arcane Star to frown and look away. “No, but my ponies are working hard to find something, anything about your friend’s whereabouts.”

The unicorn stallion returned his gaze to Rarity and the others to give them a sincere look. “I just wanted to come by and give you all my deepest sympathies. I… can’t help but feel a little responsible for Ms. Sparkle’s current predicament, and…”

“Oh, nonsense darling!”

Applejack stepped up beside Rarity. “Ain’t no way you or the Princess coulda known what would happen. And blamin’ yerself ain’t helping Twilight none, either!”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both nodded their agreements.

“Besides, it was Twilight’s own stupid decision to go poking around in that alien ship all by herself anyways,” Spike said glumly.

Arcane Star gave a solemn nod. “Yes, I suppose Ms. Sparkle and I are kindred spirits in that regard. I’ve always been enamored with the idea of space and extraterrestrial life ever since I got my cutie mark…”

“HEY! It’s you again!” a high pitched squeal interrupted the ponies’ conversation. The group looked over to the source of the noise to see a small filly running up to them.

The light blue, blonde-maned foal immediately approached Pinkie Pie, and her friends all recognized her as the same filly that had so meticulously greeted each of them when they got off the train the other day.

“Can we play the ‘gobble me up’ game again?” the little filly asked Pinkie with an irresistible look on her face.

“Hey Bright Side! What have I told you about bothering strangers?” a mare’s voice scolded.

A mare with a white coat and a blonde mane adorned in the golden armor of the Royal Guard approached the gathered ponies after the tiny blue filly.

“Oh, hello Sunny Side!” Arcane Star greeted the guard mare.

“Hey, I didn’t see you there, Arcane Star.” Sunny smiled at the unicorn researcher before turning to address the rest of the group, “I’m sorry if my little sister’s been bothering you.”

“She’s not a bother at all! In fact we were just about to play our game!” Pinkie Pie happily exclaimed. Suddenly, something changed about the pink mare’s demeanor. The happy, playful look on her face changed to a far more unsettling one. Her brows lowered to partially conceal her eyes and her formerly happy smile became far more sinister.

“Yes… ‘gobble you up,’ was it? I’ll gobble you up once I’ve chopped your body into a dozen pieces and baked those pieces into a whole new flavor of pie: OBLIVION FLAVOR! AAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!”

The silence that followed was malleable. The few townsfolk that were out and about at the early hour stopped what they were doing to stare in the direction of the pink pony and those in her company.

“Wow… that was weird even for you, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said, staring blankly at her friend as Fluttershy took a few nervous steps back.

For her part, Pinkie no longer had a maniacal look on her face. Instead, she looked around frantically with the expression of someone lost and confused.

“... okay... I think it’s time to get you to school.” Sunny put a hoof around her sister and swiftly pulled the deathly quiet filly away from Pinkie. “See you at the crash site, Arcane Star.”

Arcane Star simply nodded as Sunny and her little sister passed. A few more awkwardly silent moments went by before life entered the town again and an air of normalcy resumed. Arcane Star gave a quick shake of his head.

“Right… like I was saying, don’t worry too much about Twilight Sparkle,” Arcane Star said as Spike looked off into the distance. He could see the shape of the sky chariot from Canterlot growing bigger over the horizon.

“I’m sure that wherever she is, she’s doing fine…”

The box canyon was no more scenic from on top of Blue Base than it was anywhere else. From her slightly elevated position on top of the round concrete structure, Twilight Sparkle thought she could see what appeared to be an identical base way on the other side of the canyon. Apart from that, the canyon was nothing but grass, dirt, rocks and the occasional tree.

The base itself was not much to look at either. Gray concrete made up the roof Twilight and the armored bipeds stood on. A large square hole occupied the center of the roof where Twilight could see down into the base proper. The room below was nothing but more gray walls and a gray floor. She could only imagine what Rarity would say about the decor were she here.

Twilight drew her attention away from her incredibly dull surroundings as Church walked up one of the ramps to the roof where she waited with the aqua armored alien and the one in blue armor that escorted her here (Caboose, if she remembered correctly). Twilight suppressed a squee: this was it! She was going to have her first official meeting with the aliens! Twilight then noticed another alien soldier was with Church. This one was wearing purple armor and had a red cross insignia on his shoulder pads. Instead of carrying a weapon similar to the ones the others always carried around, this one had a small, blue, metal object that slightly resembled a “C.”

“Okay, Twilight... Sparkle is it?” Church asked with clear trepidation in his voice. Twilight nodded in affirmation.

“And I thought Caboose was a dumb name…”

Twilight just pretended she hadn’t heard what the aqua alien muttered, and apparently so did Caboose as the blue soldier gave no response.

“This is our medic: Doc,” Church gestured to the purple armored soldier.

“Hi there!” Doc greeted in an incredibly friendly voice that greatly clashed with Church’s harsh tone.

“While Doc’s looking at your leg, I wanna ask you some questions.”

Doc raised the small metal device at Twilight Sparkle and the end of it started to glow a bright green.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, averting her eyes from the bright green ball of light.

“This is my all-purpose medical scanner! I’m just taking an X-ray so I can see what the problem is,” Doc explained.

“X-rays? Should I be worried about radiation?” Twilight asked.

“Nah, don’t worry, this thing hasn’t given any of my patients cancer for almost a year!”

Twilight gave an uneasy blink.

“So I guess we should proceed with introductions,” Church cleared his throat, “I am Commander Leonard Church. I’m the leader.”

“What? Don’t listen to him. He’s not a Commander. He’s just the guy who decided he was the leader after our actual leader died!” the aqua soldier explained.

“Right, and our resident lady-killer over here is Tucker,” Church introduced, moving his head in the aqua soldier’s direction.

“Wassup?” Tucker cooly greeted.

Twilight missed the note of sarcasm in Church’s voice and stared at Tucker uneasily. “You… kill ladies?”

“No, don’t be stupid! I don’t kill ladies...” Tucker explained. Twilight sighed in relief, realizing with a bit of embarrassment that the term “lady-killer” wasn’t literal. “Unless if by ‘kill them’ you mean give them screaming org…”

“AAAAAND you’ve already met Caboose, our resident team-killer,” Church said. Twilight noticed he was very quick to cut off whatever Tucker was going to say next.

“Well it’s very nice to meet yo- HEY!” Caboose, however, was very quick to cut off himself. “That time with the tank was an accident!”

“Yeah, letting you drive the tank was the biggest accident of my career…” Church said before turning back to address Twilight. “Together we make up Blue Team. Okay, you’ve met us. Now who or what are you?”

“Well, I’m a unicorn pony from the nation of Equestria, and…”

“Wait wait wait, did I just hear the word unicorn?” Tucker asked in disbelief. “As in the fairy tale creatures that chicks love? Twilight, you’d make an awesome wingman! I am so taking you with me the next time I go to a club!”

“So, are we the first humans you’ve made contact with?” Church asked.

So they were called humans. “Yep! I’m pretty sure this is the first time our two species have even met!” Twilight exclaimed, almost swooning at the thought of being the first pony to make contact with an alien race. Even if the aliens themselves were turning out to be a little… blunt for her tastes.

“Great. Just great. So we just made contact with a new alien race, and the first thing you did was shoot at it,” Tucker said, shaking his head at Church. “Nice one Church. Way to represent humanity.”

“Tucker as I recall, your method of first contact with the last alien we met was to have sex with it!” Church pointed out.

“WHAT?!” Twilight’s tail instinctively hugged the space between her legs.

“That was one time! And he came on to me, okay?” Tucker said defensively. “Bastard left as soon as he found out I was pregnant! Hasn’t even sent me one Goddamn support check!”

Now Twilight was just confused. She assumed that Tucker was a male based on his voice. Did the males of this species carry their young, like seaponies?

“Hey guys, I’m done with my scan of Twilight’s bones,” Doc said, lowering his scanner. The bright green glow disappeared almost immediately. Twilight did her best to forget the confusing and disturbing conversation on the topic of xenophilia and instead focused her attention on Doc.

“I have the X-rays loaded up on my HUD now and good news: It looks like the bone isn’t broken! It’s just dislocated: all I have to do is pop it back into place!”

Twilight sighed in relief. She wasn’t looking forward to having to find a way back to Equestria with a broken leg. Doc knelt down beside her and took her left foreleg in his hands, which was weird because…

“Okay, this is going to hurt a bit but don’t worry: I’m a professional,” Doc said.

“Uh, Doc? That’s not…” before Twilight could finish, a terrible snapping noise accompanied by sharp pain shooting through her left foreleg caused her to cry out in agony. “OW! THE RIGHT LEG! THE RIGHT LEG IS DISLOCATED, NOT THE LEFT ONE!”

“Oh… whoops,” Doc said sheepishly.

“WHOOPS?!”

“Goddamn, dude. You’re like the fucking angel of death!” Tucker said to Doc. “Maybe you should look into a new line of work.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault I don’t know the biology of an alien species literally just discovered a few minutes ago!” Doc argued.

“It’s not like you needed to measure my metabolism or something! YOU JUST HAD TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEFT AND RIGHT!” Twilight bit her lip, forcing back the anger that came with her idiocy induced agony. Like it or not, Twilight was Equestria’s sole ambassador to this new world. Even if she was in immense pain with two dislocated limbs, and her hosts have been less than hospitable so far, Twilight was determined to be the better mare.

“You know what? It’s okay. If it’s just dislocated I can probably fix it myself. I know a few basic healing spells.” Twilight then closed her eyes and concentrated.

Focusing on the two dislocated limbs, Twilight poured magical energy into them. With another unnerving snap, she popped her left foreleg back into place. She then did the same with the other leg. When she opened her eyes again, she found that the four humans were all staring at her.

“Oh. My. God. THAT WAS AWESOME! YOU’RE LIKE A LIGHT SHOW!” Caboose exclaimed louder than he needed to. “Oh! Now I know why Tucker wanted to take you to a club! Can you play music also? Can you play the one that goes ‘bum bum-bop boop bip beep boop bum…’”

“What the fuck did you just do?” Church asked while Caboose continued singing a tuneless, wordless song.

“You mean my magic?” Twilight asked, realizing for the first time that they did not appear to have anything like it. “As a unicorn, I can manipulate the inherent magical energy in the air and transduce it into usable spells with my horn.”

“Really? Neat!” Doc exclaimed, stepping closer to examine Twilight’s horn. The purple armored medic tentatively reached out with a hand and touched the purple pony’s horn.

Twilight recoiled and raised a hoof in front of her magic wielding appendage. “Hey! Don’t touch my horn! It’s sensitive!”

“Hey, I have a sensitive horn too, but you won’t see me complaining if you touch it! Bow chicka bow wow!” Tucker completed his lewd statement with an equally lewd hand gesture to his crotch, making Twilight shift nervously again. Tucker definitely made her the most uncomfortable out of all of them.

“Really Tucker? Not even multicolored alien ponies are safe from your depravity?” Doc asked.

Tucker hesitated. “Okay, I may be into a lot of kinky shit, but I do draw the line at beastiality. That being said, you can’t expect me to just ignore a setup like that!”

Twilight glared at the aqua soldier. “Beastiality?” Did they think of her as an animal?

“MAGIC? SERIOUSLY? You couldn’t come up with something like, I don’t know… genetically developed telekinesis? Or the Force? Fucking Magic?!” Church yelled. With a sigh, the cobalt soldier calmed down. “You know what? Fuck it. I’ve seen weirder things, I guess.”

“Alright, what now?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, what now Church? Can we keep George? Pleeeeeease?” Caboose begged.

“George?” Of all the stupid pet names that Caboose could have come up with, Twilight thought “Sparky” or something would have made more sense.

“I promise I’ll take good care of her! I’ll feed her and take her on walks and let her outside and play fetch and give belly rubs… ”

“I’m pretty sure she has a home planet she needs to get back to,” Church said, “but I guess she can stay here for now… as long as she doesn’t bother me as much as you guys do, I really don’t give a shit.”

“Yes! This is going to be awesome!” Caboose exclaimed, lifting a very surprised Twilight Sparkle off the ground and giving her a tight hug. “Come on, George! I’m going to show you my room and the tank and the flag…”

Twilight heard Church give a drawn out sigh as Caboose carried her off toward one of the ramps leading down to the ground. Twilight made a similar sound. She found solace in the fact that nopony else from Equestria was around to see Princess Celestia’s prized student being carried around like a big stuffed toy.

The shining, decadent halls of Canterlot Castle resonated with distant, shouting voices. Spike and the five mares followed an armored pony through the halls towards the throne room, trying to make out the words being shouted. They exchanged uneasy looks as they approached the large double doors to the throne. Each of them recognized the sounds as that of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“PERHAPS IF YOU WEREN’T KEEPING INFORMATION FROM US WE WOULD NOT HAVE NEEDED…”

“THAT DOES NOT JUSTIFY YOU SENDING MY STUDENT ON AN ASSIGNMENT BEHIND MY BACK, SISTER!” The ponies were surprised when they recognized the second booming voice as Princess Celestia’s.

The guard escorting the group threw open the doors and stepped into the throne room, bowing low before addressing the Princesses. Both Royal Pony Sisters were standing at the foot of the throne, inches apart. They were glaring daggers into each other’s eyes.

“Your majesty, the Element Bearers as requested,” the guard proclaimed.

Princess Celestia’s gaze left her sister and nodded in the direction of the doors. The guard rose and stood aside for Twilight’s friends to enter. They were so shocked at the sight of Equestria’s rulers engaged in a shouting match that they almost forgot to bow… almost.

“How many times must I tell you all that is not necessary?” Celestia asked, approaching the five mares and Spike with a warm smile. The furious princess they had just seen was completely gone.

“At least once more, your majesty,” Rarity said, rising to her hooves with the others nevertheless.

Princess Luna chose this moment to show herself the doors, briskly walking past the five ponies without so much as a glance. She firmly slammed the doors behind her.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that. My sister and I are merely having a… disagreement,” Celestia said.

“A pretty loud disagreement…” Rainbow Dash muttered, clearing one of her ears with a hoof.

“As glad as I am to see you, Princess, I’m a little confused. We all thought you were out of the country,” Applejack said.

“Is that what Luna told you?” Celestia’s serene image faltered slightly, a bitter edge entering her voice. Celestia must have noticed the uncertain looks her subjects were giving her, as she quickly rectified her regal composure.

“Do not worry about my sister and I. We’ll be just fine.” The pure white alicorn briefly looked away and spoke in a more somber tone, “It’s not as if this is the worst fight we’ve had…”

The rest of the ponies in the room nodded. They didn’t need the Princess to elaborate on that particular point.

“Now, Spike. According to Arcane Star’s message, you witnessed Twilight Sparkle disappear,” Princess Celestia continued. “Can you elaborate in as much detail as you can on what exactly happened?”

Spike looked up at Celestia with uncertainty filling his features. He had trouble finding his words when he opened his mouth, but a gentle smile from the Princess urged him forwards. Soon, the words started spilling out of him, but unlike when he barged into Arcane Star's tent in the small hours of the morning, he was coherent.

Spike told the Princess about how he awoke in the night to find Twilight not in her bed. How he searched the whole camp for her and eventually thought to check the ship. How he saw Twilight doing something with the computer connected to the white helmet before she disappeared into thin air with a look of terror on her face.

It was after Spike told his story that Celestia gave her theory: that Twilight had been transported to another world entirely. The ponies were at a loss for words. The silence was broken by the sound of a small, soft voice.

“So, um… is there anything we can do to help her?” Fluttershy asked quietly, but with a certain level of urgency.

Celestia sighed and shook her head, “I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do but let the research team in Dodge City try to figure out how the alien device works. I’m sorry, I know how much you all want to help Twilight, but I think the best thing for you to do now is to return to Ponyville. I instructed Arcane Star to keep me updated on his progress, and I promise to send you any relevant information, but that’s it. I don’t want to risk losing any more of you.”

Celestia looked at the six pained faces before her with genuine sympathy. If there was one thing about her job that she hated, it was giving her beloved subjects bad news.

"Please try not to worry yourselves. Twilight is incredibly smart and courageous. Who knows? Perhaps she's finding her way back to us right now..."

It only took Caboose a few minutes to give Twilight the full tour of Blue Base. He started by showing her the tank parked outside a few feet from the base. The admittedly large and impressive metal contraption was apparently a vehicle equipped with a massive cannon on top. According to Caboose though, the tank wasn’t in full working order. He went to great lengths to deny he had anything to do with it.

It was after Caboose brought Twilight inside the base proper that she was saved by the timely appearance of Church and Tucker, who got Caboose to let her go with promises of chocolate. Twilight then asked about the blue flag with the emblem of a hawk and two crossed swords emblazoned across it, and Church struggled to explain why their army’s victory depended on protecting that flag.

Next, Twilight asked about the high-powered projectile weapons they all carried. Each of these “guns” appeared to be designed for different tactical situations, such as Church’s long range sniper rifle. Tucker then showed her his energy sword: a small device that emitted dual-pronged beams of plasma and light that Twilight admitted was actually pretty impressive. Though she was confused about why Tucker said “bow chicka bow wow” when she complimented his sword, but something told her she probably didn’t want to know.

It was then that another soldier came stumbling out of another room in the base. This one was wearing yellow armor and wasn’t carrying a weapon.

“Oh man… I was asleep for like, fifteen hours. Must have been one killer party!” the yellow armored person said. She was definitely female, and spoke in a way that reminded Twilight a lot of some of the ditzier ponies in Ponyville.

“Oh right. Twilight, this is Sister. Sister, Twilight,” Church half-heartedly introduced.

Twilight was about to ask whose sister she was before the young woman in question bent down and started rubbing her head (which she had to admit felt nice, but was an unwanted invasion of her personal space).

“Aw… what a cute dog!” Sister cooed.

“Ugh, I’m not a dog! I’m a pony!” Twilight groaned, batting away Sister’s hand with her hoof. The more conversations she had with these aliens, the less appealing the idea of being the first pony to make contact with them was.

“Oh yeah? If you’re not a dog then why are you being so defensive, huh?”

Twilight simply ground her teeth together, mentally chanting “love and tolerate” over and over. She needed to get back to Equestria and these people were the only ones who could help her. If she could just put a stop to these inane conversations, maybe they could actually do something to help.

“Sister, not every creature we find is a dog,” Tucker said. “I keep telling you that.”

“Thank you, Tucker,” Twilight said. “Now, I need to talk to you guys about…”

“Are you saying I wouldn’t know a dog when I see one?” Sister indignantly asked Tucker.

“Actually, I am! In fact, I'm not convinced you even know what a dog is!”

“People, please I…” Twilight kept trying to get their attention, but it was like she wasn’t even in the room anymore.

“Your face is a dog! How about that?” Sister retorted.

Caboose suddenly entered the room again. “Someone has a dog face? Where?”

“Oh my God. This is the most I’ve ever seen anyone argue over something so trivial. And I would know: I’ve been to a Republican primary debate,” Tucker said.

“How can you tell who looks like a dog? We’re wearing helmets!”

“Tucker, what were you doing at a primary? You don’t know the first thing about politics!” Church said.

Twilight sighed. “Guys, seriously…”

“Hell, I asked you who you voted for last election and you said ‘America!’” Church continued.

“Hey, those primaries are filled with tons of lonely politician chicks… that I could fill! Bow chicka bow...”

“EVERYONE! Stop bickering for a second and listen!” Satisfied that she finally had the group’s attention, Twilight collected herself and continued, “Now, I’m a long way from home and I need to get back, but I can’t do it alone. Like it or not, I’m in your world now and you all clearly understand it more than I do. Now, I know it may be hard…”

“Bow chicka bow wow!”

“... but if we all put our heads together and work this out, I know that we can figure out a way to get me back to Equestria!”

Twilight Sparkle looked to each of the armored humans before her, looking right into the visors of each of their helmets, encouraging them with her eyes instead of her words this time. Sister, then Tucker, then Caboose and finally Church met Twilight’s gaze.

“... Pass.”

“What?” Twilight took a step toward Church.

“I pass. I don’t wanna help!” With that, Church left the room.

Twilight turned to look at the three other blues that were left and saw that they didn’t seem too inclined to help her either. With a frustrated groan, Twilight left the room and ran after Church.

The cobalt soldier was outside, making his way around the building to one of the ramps that went up to the roof by the time Twilight caught him.

“Church, wait! Think about it,” Twilight desperately grasped for something that would convince the man to help her, “This is a chance for two races who have only just met to help each other! Think of what we could accomplish for both of our kinds!”

“Yeah, I’m not much of an ambassador, so I don’t really give a shit about any of that,” Church said as he turned and started ascending the ramp to the top of Blue Base.

“Even so, as a soldier you must realize it’s the right thing to do!”

“Hey, not only is my status as a soldier debatable, I haven’t done the right thing in years! Why would I start now? I’m on a hot streak!” Church arrived on top of the base with Twilight trailing behind him. “If you’re looking for the goodness of humanity, you’re in the wrong fucking canyon!”

“It’ll… be… an adventure?” Twilight was really grasping at straws by this point.

“Adventure???” Church suddenly whirled around and bent over so he was face to face (disregarding the helmet) with Twilight. His passive, uncaring words were suddenly laced with venom.

“The past five years of my life have been nothing but weird, crazy adventure after adventure where I’m either dying or losing the one person that’s important to me! I am done with adventure!”

As Church returned to his full height and turned away from her, Twilight heard something in the distance that sounded like a rhythm, but she ignored it. She thought of her friends, of Spike, of the Princess, and started to lose her voice as the possible reality of never seeing them again kicked in.

“If you don’t help me I could be trapped here forever! My friends, my family will never know what happened to me! Don’t you care?” Twilight could barely speak past the lump in her throat.

“Honestly? No Twilight, I don’t give a shit about what happens to you. You being here is not my problem. It’s yours.”

Twilight Sparkle remained in place, trying to form words with what felt like broken vocal chords. Here she was talking to an alien like she’d always dreamed of doing, and he shut her down in the coldest way she could imagine. Twilight then began to wonder if part of what made her so enamored with the prospect of meeting aliens was the idea that they would be just as interested in meeting her. But she meant nothing to him. Finally, Twilight reached her breaking point and all of her bottled up emotions came seeping out.

“Well FINE! You don’t want to help me? I’m just fine with that!” Twilight exclaimed, stomping her hoof on the concrete and struggling to maintain an even voice. “It figures: I finally get the chance to meet intelligent alien life, and they turn out to be the most stupid, self-centered bunch of… of flankholes I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting!I don’t need your help! I’m going to find someone who isn’t a complete jerk!”

As Twilight turned to head back down the ramp, head held up indignantly, she heard the distant rhythm that she realized had been constantly in the background growing louder into distant music.

“Yeah, well good luck with that!” Church scoffed. “The only people in this damn canyon are us and the…”

“What’s that?” Twilight asked. The music was definitely not in her head. Someone nearby was playing a very upbeat song, and it was getting louder.

“What?”

“That music…”

“What music…?” Church trailed off as the music got even louder. There was no way Church couldn’t have heard it now. It was currently the most overbearing sound in the canyon, along with another droning sound like an engine. “Oh, fuck…”

Church and Twilight looked out over the canyon just in time to see a vehicle carrying three soldiers in various shades of red armor clear a nearby hill and drive towards them.

“YEE-HAW!” one of them with a gruff southern accent cheered over the music and the vehicle’s engines. “TODAY IS A GOOD DAY FOR BLUES TO DIE!”

Author's Note

Next time: Twilight gets to see how a typical battle in Blood Gulch plays out!