Their escort broke off when they reached the city, returning to the landed Dragon, and they went straight for the hospital. Spike had Dash drop him off at his workshop so she and Emerald were a few seconds behind as Fluttershy was already out of the Bat and was with a group of nurses wheeling Vinyl on a stretcher. Twilight followed closely and Emerald caught up, Dash giving her best wishes before taking off again.

“I don’t really know how much we can do, she’s almost completely Biometal. What little flesh and blood she has we can’t get to.” Fluttershy said as they rushed through the facility.

“Spike’s on his way with some gear, he knows how to fix her he said.” Emerald said. She looked like she had hardened up, with a rather passive face, but her tone and how she sort of trudged alongside the stretcher showed that she was incredibly worried.

They had been waiting for about two minutes, just outside of a room where Fluttershy and other medics and surgeons were working on her, when Spike arrived with a mobile workshop. They pointed him in and watched through the observatory windows.

“She’ll live, and she’ll be fine after a while… She’s tough as all hell. We found artificially formed flesh and organs in her body, if anything of hers is actually hers it’s her brain… and even then, it’s encased in a Biomechanical one.” Spike said to Twilight and Emerald when he finally came out of the operation room.

“Artificially formed? If they were going to use real flesh and blood why didn’t they just use hers?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, you know how fucked up Seekers are. I need to go take a nap, that was 17 solid hours of work… They’ll be taking her to my workshop once she’s stable enough to do so and I’ll fix her up real nice.” He replied with a tired tone.

“There a chance of you giving me some upgrades?” Emerald asked softly. They both looked at her.

“Once we fix up your sister we can have a look at you. For now, I need to go sleep.” Spike answered. They both hugged him, which he smiled to and returned it.

“You’re the best, you know that? First you turn me into a badass and then you save one of my best friends’ life.” Twilight said with a tired laugh.

“Yeah, I try. You sound like you need some sleep too. Emerald, you’re welcome to poke around my workshop while I’m out, just don’t mess anything up or you’ll be fixing it.” Spike said. Emerald nodded when she stepped back and the other two left together; Twilight agreeing that she needed some sleep as well.

Emerald looked through the window again, where a new shift of surgeons and medics were working on whatever it is they were doing to help stabilize her sister.

“She’ll be alright. Emerald.” Fluttershy’s soft voice came from behind her. She turned around to where the weary-eyed girl was drying her hands off. Vinyl’s nearly black blood still stained her clothes, though.

“I know… but… This is the first time I’ve seen her in a month, and I was supposed to be here to help her… and all I could do is sit outside where my supporting fire couldn’t reach. She almost died, and I can’t help but think it would have gone differently if I was with her instead of outside.” Emerald explained to the Medic.

“I heard the story from Twilight and Spike, and one thing I know for sure is that it most certainly would have gone differently. Vinyl probably wouldn’t have made it back, neither would you or Twilight or even Spike. According to him, your spotting and covering fire is the reason he was able to help the other two out so well without danger of getting shot in the back.” Fluttershy reassured the girl.

“Really?” She asked.

“Of course. A lot of people think that someone who stays back and supplies covering fire is next to useless, but it’s the opposite. Especially something as powerful as sniper cover. I can’t even remember how many times my life has been saved while trying to help someone because a sniper protected me from far away. If they tunnel vision down their sights, like a lot of soldiers tend to do, then they tunnel vision half of the battlefield- which isn’t tunnel vision at all.” Fluttershy continued. She let out a rather impressive yawn, then, and her posture slumped a little.

“You’re exhausted, you should go get some sleep like the others.” Emerald said with a smile, Fluttershy’s words obviously helping her mood. Fluttershy giggled and held her hand out.

“Well you’re exhausted too, a hospital waiting room is no place to sleep. I’ll be alerted when they move her, so if you stay with me to rest then you’ll be the first to know.” She offered. Emerald smiled and accepted the hand.

It was a whole week before Vinyl woke up, and when she did she seemed… off. It wasn’t because of the various tweaks and upgrades Spike gave her, it was more like the girl herself. What she was inside of that husk of biometal. She seemed exactly the same except for that one thing, that thing was the sort of presence she gave off.

Before it could only be described as Vinyl, but now it was ever so slightly different. It was as if someone had taken Vinyl’s very being as if it was a physical object, turned his back and then replaced it where he found it. You couldn’t see anything different at all, but you could just feel that something wasn’t the same.

This made Emerald wary about having Spike give her modifications and upgrades, fearing that had something to do with it, but eventually she went through with it. She was nearly on VInyl’s level now, except all of her insides were her own.

Vinyl, Emerald and Twilight were on a bus back in Canterlot, heading towards the location for their latest mission. It was a simple infiltration mission, for Vinyl and Emerald to get used to their new augments and the likes.

“Right there, see him?” Vinyl asked, nodding her head to where a man was in an alleyway when they got off of the bus.

“That’s our informant?” Twilight asked. Vinyl nodded and the other two followed her as they walked into the alleyway.

“I don’t like this.” Emerald said lowly.

“Good, then you’ve noticed.” Vinyl replied darkly. This man that was supposed to be a Seeker double agent wasn’t the only one here. There were maybe half a dozen Seeker agents on the rooftops above.

“Is it just you then?” The man asked. Vinyl nodded and he motioned for them to follow with his head as he started down the alley, which would under normal circumstances mean he wanted to make sure they couldn’t be overheard by heading to a more isolated part of the intersections that made up the narrow alley. Considering they could all just barely hear the movement above, though, it meant that he was leading them into a better ambush spot.

“Do you have the information?” Twilight asked.

“I do.” The man replied simply.

“Hand it over then, you know you’re being watched.” Vinyl said with a rather demanding tone, holding her hand out for the data chip that held the information they needed.

“Sorry ladies, but I’m afraid it’s you who’s being watched.” He said, turning around and unholstering a weapon from a hidden holster. He didn’t even have a chance to see what he would have assumed to be looks of surprise before Vinyl’s data leech was in his skull.

“I’ll just have that information then, thank you.” She said darkly and flung his now lifeless husk up, colliding with an agent that was dropping down to attack her. She followed it up with an arrow from her bow, which she had been drawing as she interrogated the traitorous double agent, and pinned the Seeker to the wall. A quick series of gunshots and the sounds of rending flesh and metal left them dusting themselves off as they exited the alleyway.

“Got it Spike?” Vinyl asked, Spike being their ‘eyes in the sky’ from the mansion’s connection with the city databases. She sent the leached information to him.

“Yep, I’ll have everything you need by the time you get there.” He replied, updating their maps with the coordinates and a path to their objective. They pulled up the garage doors on the storage units across the street, which they had prepared the previous day, and found their Spectres just as they left them.

“You’re getting better at close quarters, Emerald, I’m glad.” Vinyl said with a smile as they rode.

“Thanks, I’m learning from you. I’m still figuring out all of the new upgrades though.” Emerald replied.

“You should have seen me, even after Twilight found me. I was figuring out new things by accident all the time. Almost killed somebody with them half the time, like when I figured out about my reinforced forearm blades.” Vinyl said lightheartedly.

“I can imagine, I almost set my face on fire this morning…” The younger girl said, earning a chuckle from the other two.

“This may be simple, guys, but according to the databases there’s some Seekers of importance there so you’re in for a fight if you get caught.” Spike’s voice warned.

“I think we can handle anything they can throw at us.” Vinyl replied.

“Probably, but still. I’d rather not have to fight manticores or an ursa today.” Twilight said as they shot off towards their destination.

“I know you don’t like it all that much, Emerald, but I’m going to ask you to give us sniper cover here. Most of your augments are for it and medical support.” Vinyl said when they arrived and made their way to the rooftops around the small complex.

“I know… I’ll be joining you once you’ve secured a point of entry though. I have a lot of CQC augments and I am your medic.” The girl replied. Vinyl smiled and put a hand on her head before nodding to Twilight. The two of them silently made their way towards the complex as Spike’s voice sounded in Emerald’s ear.

“You been able to pinpoint it yet?” He asked. Emerald shook her head and set up her rifle.

“It has something to do with the Timberwolves, Twilight said she started feeling it after she interrogated one. If I come across one I’ll be sure to do the same.” The girl explained. Spike said nothing in reply and focused on Twilight and VInyl as they found a way into the complex.

“Target of interest in the next room as well as four drones and two agents. There is a point of entry here where you can get Emerald in easily too.” Spike’s voice came over their radio as the two prepared to breach a room.

“Can you mark them for us?” Twilight asked as they readied their handguns. Faint static outlines appeared through the door and walls then. Two of them were red and one was blue. The two nodded and they kicked the door open. two pairs of gunfire had the drones on the ground, a few more and the sound or rending metal had the agents on the ground- one decapitated- and finally a few bursts had the target of importance on the ground with blown out kneecaps and Vinyl’s data leech in his skull.

“Vinyl?” Twilight said softly, noticing that Vinyl’s expression and demeanor went totally blank. The Seeker fell to the ground in full with a thud as the data leech retracted.

“Is something wrong?” Emerald asked.

“I’m not sure, you’re good to get in here through the outer door now. You should take a look at her.” Twilight replied as she turned to unlock and crack open said door. When she turned around she froze, Vinyl was so close they were barely touching. Twilight jumped a little, she’d never seen Vinyl move so silently and wasn’t feeling any sort of presence from her like she usually did.

“Vinyl? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. Emerald entered quickly and silently closed the door as Spike’s voice sounded.

“Guys, something’s wrong with Vinyl. I’m getting unfamiliar readings from her systems, it’s like she’s not there anymore.” The Draconic boy said over the radio.

“Emerald, get ready for the most difficult fight of your life…” Twilight said, unsheathing a blade as Vinyl’s forearm blade slowly extended. Her eyes were distinctly cerulean, not the normal crimson.

Author's Note

My apologies for the huge gap between updates, but there was a huge block of time where I either had no ideas, no time or no drive. Remember when I said it was time for the evil plot twists?
well here's the start.
I originally intended there to be something along the lines of a 'book two' for this story, but unfortunately I realize that if I try to write what I originally had in mind it'd never get finished so I'll have to skip that part and go straight to the ending. It won't be the next chapter, but maybe the chapter after that.
and also, my apologies for the shoddy work on this particular chapter, it was written in three sitting each months apart from each other.