Iron Mare

Chapters

Held and Tortured
Escape
Soaring to Freedom
Back Home
Titanium Findings
Losing Time and Working
Too Late
Finding The Arc
A Nuisance in the Plans
Titanium vs Iron
Twilight Sparkle Is....
A Pain in the Chest and Early Concepts
Epilogue

Held and Tortured

Twilight woke slowly, blinking rapidly and shielding her eyes with her hooves at the bright light that was shining onto her face above her.

Twilight groaned softly as she tried to sit up, hearing voices off to her side as she did so. She turned her head and found two ponies sitting in front of a lit fireplace, talking among themselves.

Twilight made an attempt to stand up, but felt a sharp pain in her chest that caused her to cry out in pain.

Both of the ponies turned their heads when they heard her, one of them standing up and walking to Twilight, putting his hoof on her shoulder and laying her back down.

“I would recommend you take it easy Ms. Sparkle. The sedatives are just wearing off it seems, so you must be careful.” The stallion said with a noticeable accent that sounded somewhat like one from Canterlot.

The stallion reached over her to her side and messed with something, Twilight turned her head but found her eyes covered by the stallion’s hooves just as her head was turned.

“Now... Ms. Sparkle... I need you to promise that you will keep your head leveled, okay? Promise me you’ll stay calm.” He said.

Twilight’s heart was beating faster as he finished, but she nodded her head anyways. What’s over there?

The stallion sighed heavily and moved his hoof slowly, allowing Twilight to see a small table next to the table that she was laying on, with a large, rectangular battery on it. Twilight noticed the cords coming from the top of the battery and followed them, her breath becoming increasingly shaky as her heart started breathing faster as she followed the cords closer and closer to her own body.

Twilight’s eyes began watering up as she found where the cords had ended on her chest, a small, glowing, metal object in her chest in the shape of a circle. The object was connected to all of the cords that Twilight had followed from the battery.

Twilight let the tears flow from her eyes as she began to push against the stallion to try and stand up.

“Uh, Ms. Sparkle, I wouldn’t really recommend you stand up quite so fast. That magnet isn’t the most effective thing in the world,” the stallion said, motioning for the other figure by the fire to come to them, “It gets the job done, but sudden movements can stop it.”

“You heard the doc Ms. Sparkle, go easy.” Twilight stopped as she heard the familiar voice. Lifting her head she smiled as she saw Spitfire walking towards them, she was dirty and had a large number of scars across her body, but Twilight was just happy to see she was alive.

Twilight saw Spitfire’s side and a frown instantly formed on her face as she remembered what they had done to her. She lifted her horn and felt her sawn off horn and had to hold back even more tears from bursting free. While she was successful as holding back her tears she couldn’t hold back her sobs as Spitfire and the stallion looked at her with sadness.

“They’re monsters, the lot of them.” The stallion said.

Twilight stood up but felt herself get pulled back by the cords. She reached her hoof out and picked up the battery, carrying it with her in her hooves.

“I’m afraid that you’ll have to carry that around with you everywhere you go Ms. Sparkle.” The stallion said.

“So, Mr....” Twilight began, holding onto the word, signalling for the stallion to answer.

“Oh, sorry. My name’s Hooves. Dr. Hooves.” Dr. Hooves extended his brown hoof and Twilight bumped hers with one of hers, holding on tighter to the battery and trying her hardest to not fall over from the lack of support on the front of her body.

“W-Well Dr. Hooves, where.... Where exactly are we?” Twilight asked, looking around the cave.

“Ah. We are currently in the Zebra Kingdom in the Zedamantium mines. Or that’s what they call the metal anyway. The rest of Equus knows it as Adaman-I digress. The group holding us captive is the Four Rings, a group that is evidently very interested in your weapons division Twilight Sparkle.” Dr. Hooves said, moving to the fireplace, sitting down as he picked up a cup and began sipping from it.

“What do they want from me...?” Twilight asked, sitting down next to Hooves with Spitfire next to her.

“I’m not exactly sure, but I do think however they are after your brilliant mind for a new weapon they would like you to make for them.” Dr Hooves said, continuing to sip his drink.

“I’ll never make anything for them!” Twilight exclaimed, stomping one of her hooves to try and make her statement stronger as she had seen Celestia do on several meetings with the Council. Twilight had always wondered just how Celestia’s mane hadn’t gone completely gray from the stressful meetings with the Council.

Dr. Hooves just stared at Twilight with a raised eyebrow, looking her up and down as he continued to drink. He put the drink down and continued for two heartbeats before he simply chuckled.

“Ms. Sparkle, surely you’re smart enough to know that if you don’t give them what they want then they will kill you.” Dr. Hooves said.

Twilight looked down, knowing that he was right. But she couldn’t just give those monsters any of her tech. Not even a DragonFireDroid. "I don't ca-" Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard noises coming from outside the door on the other side of the room, Dr. Hooves and Spitfire standing straight as they heard it. Spitfire helped Twilight up and picked up her battery, carrying it and staying close to Twilight.

The doors swung open and Twilight saw several muscular zebras in front of several muscular stallion ponies. They all stared at Twilight and whispered among themselves, chuckling. A voice was heard from behind them and they all stiffened, moving to the sides to make a path in the middle where a single zebra walked from.

The zebra walked to the three slowly, looking up and down each of them as if he was looking for a weapon of any kind. His face was stiff and emotionless, but his eyes showed extreme caution as he walked to the three. He stopped just a couple feet in front of the three and spoke to Dr. Hooves in a foreign language Twilight didn’t know. Hooves responded in the same language and they had a short talk before the zebra turned to Twilight, a small smile formed on his lips.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Hooves said, “This is Mr. Ahmed, and he would like to apologize for how the workers had treated you earlier.”

Twilight looked back and forth between Hooves and Ahmed, Ahmed still holding onto his warm smile but cautious look. Twilight didn’t accept their apology, but she had to say she did. “I accept your apology.” Dr. Hooves turned to Ahmed and said something, Ahmed crying out in joy and clapping his hooves together as Hooves finished. Ahmed turned to Twilight and spoke.

“He said he would like for us to talk to his boss so that he may tell us why you are here.” Hooves said.

“I see no reason to disagree.” Twilight said, which Hooves translated for her.

The zebra turned to the buffer guards by the door, who Twilight now noticed were staring at her as they continued to talk amongst themselves, and shouted something at them. One of them ran out the door, and Ahmed walked to the door to talk to his guards.

“So what are they saying over there doc?” Spitfire whispered.

“They’re talking about something called the ‘Hydra Cannon’.” Hooves said, furrowing his eyebrows, “I don’t know what that is. Twilight?”

Twilight’s heart stopped when she heard the name come from Dr. Hooves’ mouth, her eyes growing wide and her legs began to shake violently.

“Uh... Doc? That’s the name of the weapon that Twilight was over here to spectate.” Spitfire said, causing Hooves’ bottom jaw to fall to the floor, “are you absolutely sure that’s what they said?”

“P-Positive....” Dr. Hooves said.

Ahmed said something, causing the three to break from their private conversation and turn their heads forward the crowd, seeing Ahmed talking to another zebra. The zebra looked like a normal zebra in his early 30s, until he turned his head and showed his left eye, which was just a pool of white without a pupil. The eye was split with a giant scar that ran up and down the eye, the scar clearly in need of medical attention soon.

The zebra walked over to Twilight and towered over her, making her crouch down and feel completely helpless. The zebra held up a picture of the Hydra Cannon and said something to her, Hooves immediately translating it for her.

“He wants you to build the Hydra Cannon.” Hooves said, the zebra staring intently at Twilight with his one eye as if he was staring into her soul and trying to break it in two.

Twilight then furrowed her brow and stood up straight. She looked into the stallion’s eyes and said one word. “No.”

Dr. Hooves’ jaw fell to the floor one more time as the zebra still stared directly into Twilight’s eyes.

Hooves then said something that caused the zebra’s mouth to form into a wicked grin, bearing out his yellow teeth.

“That’s what I thought she had said.” The zebra said, his evil grin and accented voice sending chills down Twilight’s spine.

The zebra walked to the door and stopped, turning back to Twilight. “I’ll have my men bring in any equipment you will need for this Twilight Sparkle, the world’s most notorious serial killer, all you have to do is ask and it will be delivered.”

The zebra left, but his words were etched into Twilight’s brain. ‘The world’s most notorious serial killer?’ Is that what Twilight was? Because of her weapon’s division? Twilight wanted to deny it, say that it wasn’t true, but she knew that it was. She was responsible for the deaths of anypony that are killed from any of her machines.

An hour of talking and waiting passed before the large doors swung open, Ahmed, the zebra from earlier, walked in with several of the muscular guards from earlier who were carrying large boxes on their backs. The boxes were filled with metal parts, each of them carrying one distinct feature that made Twilight’s blood freeze when she saw it: They all carried her company's’ logo.

Ahmed said something to Hooves who translated, “He says, ‘so, what do you think?’”

Twilight stood quiet for a minute, staring at each of the box that was brought in before she took in a shaky breath and answered. “I think you have a lot of my technology.”

“Well of course we do,” a familiar and thickly accented voice said, “after all Ms. Sparkle, we are your most loyal customers.”

Twilight turned back to the door to see the one eyed zebra staring at Twilight, his pupil was just a tiny black hole in his eye as he stared at Twilight with his emotionless face. He opened his mouth and spoke again, each word causing Twilight’s heart to skip a whole beat.

“We’ve given you everything that we’ve bought from you Ms. Sparkle, it is your job to build the Hydra Cannon for us. Let us know if you need any additional supplies, please let us know and we will bring them to you. And when the Hydra Cannon is completed we will let you go free,” The zebra gave Twilight an toothy grin, “do we have an deal?”

Hooves leaned over to Twilight’s ear and whispered quietly, “You know they won’t let you go, right?”

Twilight felt more warm tears fall down her cheek as she nodded her head, the zebra nodding back and walking off as Twilight answered, “I know.”

“Ms. Sparkle! You can’t build this for them! They’re terrorists! If we give them this kind of technology then we might as well be giving them the bucking arc reactor!” Spitfire pounded her hoof on the floor, using her other one to hold tightly onto Twilight’s battery as Twilight walked to the boxes and began sorting through them, placing every part she took out down next to others that looked just like it, as if she were categorizing them. While she did this Hooves and Spitfire’s bickering carried on.

“We can’t do this Ms. Sparkle!” Spitfire continued, grabbing Twilight’s hoof with her free one.

“... What other choice do we have?” Twilight said softly, her voice so low that Spitfire could have missed what she had said completely.

“We bust out!” Spitfire said, leaning into Twilight’s ear and whispering, “We can make a break for it!”

“Uh, no.” Hooves said, looking up to Spitfire raising his eyebrow with a questioning gaze, “They have the most advanced technology that Sparkle Industries has to offer, we have nothing but spare parts and rocks.”

“Well going down fighting will be better than just doing what they want!” Spitfire slammed her hoof on a nearby table, glaring at Hooves with an stare that made him freeze dead in his pose.

“Stop it!” Twilight said, “We have no.... other.... ch-choice....” Twilight lowered her head as her voice went quiet again, and her eyes were narrow, as if she were deep in thought.

“Ms. Sparkle?” Spitfire said.

Twilight looked up to Spitfire, thrown out of her thoughts, "Yes?" She asked.

"Sorry Ma'am, you just kind of checked out there for a second," Spitfire replied.

"I was just thinking... Trying to find a way that we could possibly have a way to escape.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin in deep thought, her brain racking through idea after idea of ways that they could all escape.

“Hm.... Wait....” Spitfire said, “I think I’ve got an idea!” She continued, turning to Twilight with a wide grin spread across her face. “Make us some armor!”

“Armor?” Dr. Hooves said, raising his eyebrow with sarcasm sprayed all over his voice.

“Yeah! Really strong armor! And we hide it from them and act like we’re making the Hydra Cannon!” Spitfire said, her idea still not selling well with Twilight and Hooves.

“How do we hide that we’re making armor?” Hooves said.

“We’ll make it piece by piece. And connect the pieces together as they each get finished.” Twilight said.

“Well okay. Great. Armor. But how exactly are we going to be able to compete with Twilight Sparkle’s own weaponry?” Hooves said.

Twilight looked up for a while, deep in thought, before she had an idea form in her head. “I got it! Back at home I found a way to use the Element of Magic as a way to make more efficient energy rather than the polluting ways we were using. Perhaps... if there was some way to get a small amount of that energy from my.... magic....” Twilight trailed off, remembering the loss of her horn. She felt like she couldn’t do anything without it. She felt like she had pretty much lost her ability to create anything without her horn, her ability to do anything.

“Well.... Due to the lack of your horn I’m sure there’s something else we can do?” Hooves said.

Twilight thought for a moment of another way for them to get enough energy to possibly compete against Twilight Sparkle’s own weaponry, but maybe that was just it! Twilight began running the schematics of her own weapons in her head, and thinking about how she could melt the metal to make three suits of armor that Hooves, Spitfire and herself could protect themselves with during their escape attempt.

“Ms. Sparkle,” Twilight was slightly thrown out of her thoughts as she heard Spitfire’s voice call her name, Twilight turning to face Spitfire, “do you have an idea?”

Twilight just nodded her head on instinct and reached her hoof to the box, picking up a flat piece of metal with a large hole on one of its sides, holding it up to her face with her right eye looking out the hole.

Twilight didn’t have to say anything, Hooves and Spitfire’s reactions both showed her that. While Hooves showed a more cautious and somewhat scared reaction, Spitfire showed approval to Twilight’s plan.

“A suit of armor will help us get out of here, huh?” Hooves said, lowering his voice so their captors couldn’t hear him.

“It won’t be easy to make this with them watching us, but I have faith in you Ms. Sparkle.” Spitfire said, lowering her voice as well. She began digging through the box again, taking out all the pieces of metal and putting them on the floor, completely ruining the piles Twilight had divided the scraps by.

“We’ll build the armor in pieces. And we’ll build it one piece at a time,” Twilight whispered, barely audible to Hooves and Spitfire, “But it will still be difficult when we finally put them on. And we don’t have enough metal to cover our entire bodies with each suit.”

“Don’t worry ma’am, cover yourself and the Doc up with more armor and just cover my most important parts. Chest, head, all that stuff, and I’ll protect you two.” Spitfire said, taking a break from tossing the metal around like a child looking through its toy box and giving Twilight a slight smile.

Twilight sighed and nodded slightly, moving back to the boxes and looking through the one that was filled with several batteries and wires, all of them bearing the logo of Twilight’s company, making her shudder slightly and feel something rising in her throat.

Now that she thought of it, Twilight was starving. She hadn’t eaten much before she left for the Zebra Kingdom, and now it was coming back to her.

She shrugged off the thought of food for now, knowing that Hooves probably had food stored, or that their captors would feed them soon. They needed Twilight if they wanted the Hydra Cannon, they couldn’t risk losing her from mere starvation.

Twilight sighed to herself as she began racking her brain to how she’s going to make the armor for all three of them, and how she’ll make the armor fit comfortably on them, allowing them to move quickly enough to get out of the caves before they all get shot down. Or.... Maybe.... Maybe they just needed one set of armor!

Twilight began thinking on how she could make a suit of armor that the three of them could fit in. She finally decided upon a bipedal design, much like a Minotaur, but with a bulkier design. And with much smaller eyes, but big enough that they can still see out of.

The three of them will have to learn to stand on each other’s backs, and they’ll most likely have to do it while standing on their hind legs, but if they want to get out with the most protection in the biggest armor, they’ll have to learn fast.

Oh sweet Celestia, please find me...

Escape

Creating the armor hadn’t been easy for any of the three kidnapped friends, but they were careful only to build the armor in parts, building each part a single piece at a time, building each piece as small as possible.

The three of them had all grown paranoid that their captors would soon find out what they were doing and come in to put a stop to it, possibly harming one of Twilight’s friends in the process... Or worse.

But thankfully they never did, and Twilight had to thank Celestia for their captors’ ignorance to what they were doing. But that didn’t mean they built it in the open, no, they built the pieces in the open, while putting the suit together behind a large, whiteboard on the other side of the room from the camera that stayed as the all seeing eye to the three.

Speaking of the camera, Twilight shifted herself to the left, looking past the whiteboard and to the camera, turning back in front of the whiteboard as soon as she saw the familiar, red blinking light of the camera.

She turned her head to the fireplace and saw Spitfire and Hooves talking as they melded more titanium together to the mold Twilight had made.

“So, we’re almost done with our project. Got any stories for us good doctor?” Spitfire asked as Twilight looked back to the pieces on the table next to her that she was responsible for bolting together.

“Hm.... I’ve shared all the stories I have with you all that I think you both should hear.” Dr. Hooves said, taking the newly made helmet out of the mold and throwing it on a nearby table and blowing on his hooves from having to hold the still burning hot metal. “That wasn’t very smart...”

“Oh, come on! You’ve told us all about these awards you’ve won for this whole college graduate stuff that you, for some reason, quit for charity and support businesses, but what about you? You’ve told us all about what you’ve done, but you haven’t told us what you like to do when you get home from work. What about family? Do you have one?” Spitfire said.

Hooves’ eyes widened as he heard the word ‘family’ come out of Spitfire’s mouth, gulping down a large lump in his throat and looking down as a sad smile formed on his lips accompanied with a single tear that flowed down his cheek.

“Uh.... Doc? Are you okay?” Spitfire said, reaching out and putting her hoof on his shoulder.

“Huh? Oh. Right! Yes, I’m quite alright. Don’t worry about me.” Hooves said.

“Okay.... You don’t have to tell us about your family if it’s too uncomfortable a topic for you.” Spitfire said.

Hooves looked back to Twilight, then his gaze moved to looked at the pieces of the armor they were making, his eyes filling with tears slowly as he did. “Thank you... Spitfire.... I’d much rather not talk about them....”

Spitfire smiled softly and nodded her head. “You’re welcome Doc. Now come on. Let’s keep working so we can get out of here.”

“Yes. Out of here. As soon as possible!” Hooves wiped his eyes, walking over to Twilight and began grabbing pieces of the armor to begin bolting it together before a loud knock was heard at the door.

Ahmed, the zebra who had welcomed them the first day walked in, behind him were two large zebra bodyguards.

Ahmed gave the three a warm smile, one that made Twilight’s skin crawl as she stared at the paranoid eyes of the zebra.

“Hello Ahmed,” Twilight replied, her voice coming out as calm and relaxed as she could muster, “what is it you need?”

Ahmed said something in a foreign language, keeping his smile as Hooves translated for the two mares.

“He said he’s just checking on how the Hydra Cannon is coming along.”

Spitfire softly growled at the sight of Ahmed, Twilight and Hooves being the only ones who had heard, with Hooves hitting the side of her front arm, silencing her.

“The project is going by great! We’re-We’re building it slowly. One piece at a time, you see? It’s-It’s how I always built my projects back home in Ponyville.” Twilight gave off a nervous smile as Hooves translated for her.

Ahmed spoke and Hooves translated without missing a heartbeat. “He said ‘that is good. And thank you clearing up your construction methods, as we had not been able to recognize the machine’s build.’”

Twilight nodded, smiling still, “Don’t worry Ahmed, we’re working on the Cannon.”

Ahmed nodded, smiling still as his guards moved around the room to the back of the three, slightly shaking ponies.

Ahmed said something, making Hooves grow a bewildered expression, replying back to him without even telling the mares what he had said.

“Wh-What did he say?” Twilight asked.

Hooves gulped after Ahmed replied, turning to Twilight and shakily replying to her. “H-He says that the invention we are building looks like it would n-not.... Make the Hydra Cannon when they are put together....”

Twilight turned to look at Ahmed, sweat going down her brow as she swallowed a lump in her throat, responding to Ahmed as best she could, “W-We’re working on it! It’s just.... Smaller now, you see? It’ll be much bigger when it’s all complete!”

Hooves translated for her and Ahmed just chuckled deeply, his chuckle making Twilight’s skin crawl and her blood freeze. She softly and slowly turned her head, seeing Ahmed’s guards looking around the room, both of them searching through everything as if they were looking for something specific, making Twilight’s previous fear grow even more as she thought about something they might be looking for.

Hooves bumped her shoulder and Twilight turned her attention back to Ahmed, doing her best to smile naturally and not come off as the nervous wreck she probably looked like. Ahmed just looked to the three with his warm smile as they all stood there in complete silence, Ahmed’s guards continuing their search through.

Ahmed began tapping his hoof softly, calling out to his guards and yelling something to them. When they responded Ahmed turned back to the three and kept his soft smile, gesturing for his guards to follow him through the door.

As his guards walked through the door Ahmed turned to the three and smiled, waving to them as the doors shut behind him.

A long moment of silence fell upon the three, broken by Twilight making sighing deeply and running to her bed, reaching her hoof deep inside a tiny slit in the bed and looking for something. She sighed and pulled out a small, metal and glowing object that looked just like the main star in her cutie mark.

“Uh.... What the hay is that?” Spitfire asked, walking next to Twilight and looking at the device in her hooves, “It looks like the magnet in your chest.”

Twilight sighed and put the metal object back in. “The one in my chest isn’t going to keep me alive forever... So one night I did some tinkering and made a new one, one that can keep me alive longer than this one.”

“And what will you do when it’s time runs out?” Spitfire asked.

“I’ll build another one if we get out, one that’ll-”

“When.” Spitfire interrupted.

“R-Right.... When we get out of here.” Twilight said, doing her best to sound hopeful and optimistic, but the back of her mind was still haunted by the idea of them failing and living their days in the prison.

Twilight sighed as she saw Spitfire and Hooves went back to work on the nearly finished armor.

“So what next Twilight?” Spitfire asked, picking up a large gauntlet for the suit, Twilight seeing the large cylinder object on the bottom of it, shivering slightly as she began to remember how Spitfire and Hooves had to practically get on their knees and beg for Twilight to allow them to add flamethrowers to the suit.

She had held her ground, saying they weren’t going to become just like the terrorists who are holding them, but Hooves and Spitfire eventually won her over by swearing to her that they wouldn’t use the flamethrowers on anypony, and just use them to burn any tech that they have.

The three began working on putting the armor together, making sure to hide behind a large board so they wouldn’t get caught, but all three of them stopped dead as their blood froze upon hearing the sound of the door knocking.

“Oh buck,” Spitfire swore, “what do we do?”

Hooves thought for a moment before turning to the mares. “You two keep working on the armor, I’ll talk to them and hopefully get them away.”

The mares nodded as Hooves walked to the door, the two continuing to work on the armor as Hooves began opening the door slightly.

“Ah! H-Hello sirs,” Hooves said in a foreign language, “C-Can I help you with something?”

Ahmed stepped forward, the same small smile on his face as he spoke.

“We are just here to check on your progress with the Hydra Cannon. We hope that’s not too troubling.” Ahmed said, Hooves nervously chuckling and looking back slightly.

“W-W-Well c-could you m-maybe come back later? I-Is that an o-option?” Hooves said.

Ahmed began chuckling, a deep chuckle that made Hoove’s body freeze and his bones to shiver.

Ahmed turned to his two bodyguards and nodded, both of them beginning to walk to the door before Hooves got in their way.

“T-T-The Hydra C-Cannon i-isn’t done yet! W-We need more t-time!!!” Hooves said.

“And we’re here to check your progress.” Ahmed said in the nicest tone he could muster before harshly ordering the two men to force him out of the way.

Hooves began protesting as one of the guards picked him up, moving him out of the way as the other opened the door, only to be met with a rock thrown by Spitfire.

“Ms. Sparkle, down!!!” Spitfire shouted as she threw another rock at the guard holding Hooves, the rock missing and just grazing off the guard’s shoulder as he growled, turning his body to show an assault rifle, branding with the Sparkle Industries logo, aimed right to Spitfire.

The guard prepared to fire, but was stopped by Hooves as he threw his head back, connecting his head against the guard’s jaw. The guard groaned out in pain and turned, his assault rifle firing out at the wall of the caverns, forcing Twilight to lower her ears and cover them from the loud echoes through the cave.

Twilight kept her ears down as she returned to working on the armor, Hooves freed from his captors’ grasp as he ran to Spitfire, who had already thrown another rock that smacked directly into the guard’s face, a loud crunch echoed through the caves that made Twilight squeal softly before a dull thump was made by the body falling to the floor.

Spitfire trotted to the two bodies and lightly poked them with her hoof, Hooves walking slowly behind her to see the body.

“A-Are they… Dead?” Hooves asked hesitantly as Spitfire turned, nodding before walking back and helping Twilight with the armor, “Good riddance...”

Hooves moved over to a large battery, plugging it into the suit’s back and neck. “This’ll power the suit for just an hour! Which means we have that long to get the buck out of here!

“Those were ponies… Living, breathing ponies...” Twilight whispered, putting the helmet onto the armor, completing it.

“And they would have killed us if we didn’t kill them! So it was just a matter of us or them!” Spitfire shouted, entering the suit’s legs through the torso and beginning to strap herself in, Twilight entering the suit through the torso to the head.

“Hooves! You next!” Spitfire shouted.

Hooves looked to the two mares as Spitfire strapped herself to the bottom half, the two of them waiting for Hooves to enter in the middle, but he wouldn’t move.

“Hooves! Come on, it’s time to get moving!” Spitfire said, fastening the armor plating over her, Twilight grabbing onto the large head of the suit and strapping herself in, setting her hind hooves down on the little platforms she had made for herself and Hooves, so the two of them weren’t standing on somepony.

Hooves looked at the suit, and then back to the door, then to the battery that was connected to the suit.

“We’re not going to have enough time....” Hooves muttered.

“Did you say something Doc?” Spitfire said as the suit was then covered with a veil of darkness as Hooves shut the middle section of the armor.

“I’m sorry girls, but I’ve got to make sure that you two get out of here safely.” Hooves said.

“DOC!!! What the tartarus are you doing?!?!” Spitfire shouted, her voice painfully echoing in the titanium suit.

“I couldn’t help get my two girls out of here, so now I’m making sure that you two do,” Hooves said, looking into the eye slots of the head part of the suit, “Twilight! You need to get you and Spitfire out of here! Use the flamethrowers on the suit to burn everything that they have in this cave! Don’t let a single one of the tech they have here to remain intact! Please... Please get out of here safely! I can’t let you two die in this awful place too!”

Spitfire continued shouting as Twilight nodded tearfully, knowing that Hooves couldn’t see her nod, but watching as he disappeared from sight, the sound of gunfire confirming he had stolen a gun from one of Ahmed’s guard’s bodies and was trying to buy them time before the suit would be operational.

“No!!! NO!!! Dammit!!! Ms. Sparkle, we gotta get out of here!” Spitfire said, struggling to remove the straps holding her to the suit in the darkness.

“No! We.... We need to wait for the suit to be done downloading! Then we can use the suit to help him!” Twilight said, tears filling her eyes as she held her gaze at the eye slots, hoping that Hooves’ face would appear on the other end of them at any moment.

“Dammit, Ms. Sparkle! No! We need to rescue him! By the time the suit’s done it’ll already be too late!” Spitfire said, but she was silenced as the sound of gunfire that echoed through the cave suddenly stopped.

Twilight choked back a sob as the silence filled the cave, the only sound being the sound of hooves clopping on the floor of the cave, the sounds coming closer with each second.

“Dammit.... Dammit....” Spitfire kept repeating softly, not wanting to alert the guards that were coming. Spitfire made one last tug at her restraints, successfully freeing herself from them as she climbed up to the middle section of the suit, putting her front hooves in the arms of the suit and holding her hooves above the flamethrower trigger buttons, her hind hooves reaching down as she strapped them into the buckles so she could still walk the suit, Twilight still sobbing uncontrollably and staring out the eye slots.

She covered her face with her hooves, her breathing as violently shaky as her hooves as her mind flooded with the thought of what the guards would do to them if they were to be discovered, while Spitfire continued to swear under her breath, barely audible to Twilight.

Then, in the blink of an eye, everything went silent as everything in the room shut down as Twilight’s breathing got quiet, her body staying still as she stared back out the eyes of the mask, seeing the lights of the guard’s flashlights illuminate the room, the lights moving across the area as the guards searched for them.

One of the guards walked in front of the armor and looked to it, shining their flashlight into the eye slits, but not before Spitfire sent the arm forward into the guard, sending him flying backwards to the wall of the cave.

The sound of two more guards coming echoed through the room as the suit lighted up, a large star shaped symbol on it’s chest, the symbol illuminating the path ahead of the armor as it turned to face the two guards who were shaking as they watched this larger than life Minotaur looking monster walk up to them and throw them away with a single swing of it’s arm.

Twilight winced as Spitfire swung the suit’s arms about to attack the guards, but could do nothing about it as Spitfire made the suit move deeper into the caves, both of them hoping to find a way out.

“So which way next?” Spitfire asked, her voice echoing through the armor.

“Uhh..... I-I think... Maybe a left?” Twilight hesitantly said as she saw the split hallway.

“Is that a question or a statement?” Spitfire responded, turning the armor left.

“A-A statement?” Twilight responded.

Just then the girls heard shouting from their side, making Twilight turn the suit slightly to see what was going on. And as soon as she did she saw a large group of ponies stopping at the end of the right hallway, firing their weapons at the two of them.

The suit stood still, taking the abuse from the bullets before they stopped, all of the guards slightly shivering as the suit stood there, seemingly unaffected by the bullets fired at it.

Spitfire looked out the tiny hole in the torso, going close to see the guards standing there, watching the armor as if they wished it’d fall over comically for show them dead, but it didn’t. So Spitfire grew a grin on her face.

She used all her strength to lift the armor’s right arm, pointing it’s hoof to the guards and preparing to pull back the trigger in the arm.

“W-What are you doing??” Twilight said.

“Ms. Sparkle! It’s either US! Or them!” Spitfire shouted.

“B-But they’re ponies! Living, breathing ponies!” Twilight said back.

“And they’re not going to stop until I’m dead and you’re still stuck here,” Spitfire shouted back, “so it’s us or them!”

“But if we kill them then we’re just like them! Murderers!” Twilight said back.

“And if we don’t then you’re still stuck, I’m dead and Hooves will have sacrificed himself for nothing!

Twilight looked to the guards, who were visibly nervous from the arm’s sudden movement up. She gulped and closed her eyes tight, nodding slightly.

“Go ahead...” She said quietly.

Spitfire gulped, grinning and looking back out to the guards through the hole as they sent over one member to check the suit out.

She readied the flamethrower, but froze before she could pull the trigger back with her hoof. She looked back to the guard, seeing him walk closer, and sighed.

“Dammit...” She muttered before sending the right arm quickly left, sending the guard flying to the wall before the other guards charged forward, stopping a few steps in front of the suit and preparing their weapons, Ahmed behind them grinning.

“You are surrounded my friends. Behind us is the exit, but as you can see you are clearly blocked. So just give yourselves up now. Or my men will fire through your mask.” He said, still with the grin that replaced his normally friendly smile.

“Go buck yourself Ahmed!” Spitfire shouted, Ahmed chuckling deeply and shaking his head as he did.

“Men... Fire.” Ahmed said.

The guards turned their body’s slightly to show their assault rifles, pointed to the mask of the suit before they pulled the trigger.... Only for nothing to happen.

The men, confused, looked to their weapons, taking out the clips to show them empty.

“YOU FIRED YOUR FIRST CLIPS AT THEM ALREADY?!” Ahmed shouted.

The men chuckled slightly and began reaching for their spare clips, Spitfire scoffing at their unprofessionalism.

“This is getting ridiculous. Time to move along.” She reached the right arm back and then brought it back, swinging the first row of guards before bringing it back again to knock back the second row.

Ahmed screamed in a pitch so high that nopony could hear it at he ran back with the others to the exit of the cave.

Twilight smiled softly as she saw the guards groaning on the ground, Spitfire moving the suit’s legs to move them after Ahmed, knocking back more guards in their way.

“Sorry for hurting you!” Twilight said as they moved through the cave.

The two reached the end of the cave to see Ahmed standing behind a large group of men, all of them aiming their weapons to the mares before opening fire, this time for real as they had made sure to check to see if they had full clips.

Twilight squealed and covered her eyes, lowering her head away from the slits as the entire suit was assaulted by the seemingly endless barrage of bullets.

When the bullets had stopped Spitfire looked out, Twilight still covering herself and asking what she saw.

Spitfire scoffed quietly, “Our turn.” She raised the armor’s arms and immediately pulled the triggers back, sending large flames to the men who all began running, those who didn’t make it burned along with the weapons they had.

Twilight looked around before seeing the flames, seeing they had a camp that was filled to the brim with her company’s tech, not just from her weapon’s division. But her vision was obscured when she saw large flames erupt from them, setting everything ablaze as Twilight covered her eyes and lowered her head again, not wanting to see what was going on.

Spitfire began taking control again as she moves the armor forward to make sure she got every last bit of tech and every last guard, shouting and swearing at them as she did. She watched a couple guards running away, Ahmed with them, and prepared to burn them as well. But her burning was stopped when Twilight screamed for her to stop.

Spitfire looked up to see Twilight had turned the head of the armor slightly, Spitfire doing the same to see what Twilight was looking at, seeing a familiar brown Earth Pony laying on the ground.

Spitfire immediately moved the legs of the suit quickly to get to Hooves as he lay on the ground, three blood covered holes in on his side with one more in his gut.

Twilight raised the mask of the helmet and shouted Hoove’s name, causing him to stir slightly and groan.

“Come on! Get in the torso! We can all get out of here! We can get you help! I can keep you alive until then!” Twilight shouted, tears welling in her eyes as Hooves shook his head.

Spitfire brought the suit down to it’s joints in it’s legs to look closer at Hooves, who began coughing slightly, rolling to his left side to show burn marks on his back, the burns so bad that the skin had been completely melted away and his muscle was the only thing showing.

Twilight covered her mouth to hold back her bile from the sight as Spitfire choked back a sob, her eyes welling up as well.

“T-T-T-.... W-We can’t just leave you!!!” Twilight screamed, Hooves shaking his head again.

“You have to Twilight.... I’m not going to make it....” Hooves said weakly.

“NO! Don’t say that! We’re not letting you-”

“I’ll be with my family Twilight...” Hooves said.

“W-What do you mean Doc?” Spitfire asked.

Hooves sighed and looked up to the sky, a tear falling from his eye as he breathed a shaky breath.

“I had a wife... She and I... We were expecting a beautiful little filly soon,” he begun, “but, during a ride home from a road trip to the absolute worst pile of filth of a city in Equestria, we got into an argument... I-I don’t even know what we were arguing about!” Hooves choked back a sob as he kept looking to the sky, seeing the sun shining bright in the center of the sky. “... And then we crashed into another carriage... I hope it was something important.... Because the next thing I knew these monsters were dragging me away, kicking and screaming, from my carriage.... My wife still inside as she screamed and banged on the window for me to help her....”

Twilight began sobbing loudly and wiping her eyes as Spitfire shook her head, wiping her eyes as well while Hooves groaned softly.

“I don’t want you girls.... To die because you waited for me.... So please.... Please go.... Get back home....” Twilight wiped her eyes again and nodded, hesitantly putting the mask back onto the helmet.

Spitfire straightened the armor’s legs as she prepared the triggers on the feet, looking back up to Twilight, who was still wiping her eyes.

“Ready?” Spitfire said.

Twilight nodded as Spitfire stepped the armor back a couple feet from Hooves, Hooves watching as the armor’s feet began emitting smoke and flame that began rising the armor slowly up to the ground.

“Go girls.... Be free....” Hooves said, turning his gaze back to the midday sun and closing his eyes.

The two mares began soaring through the sky, soaring far from the caves, from their captors, and from their friend, as they began soaring to their home, Equestria, or to any town they can find to help them get there.

Soaring to Freedom

But that lasted about 15 seconds before the suit began sputtering crazily, Twilight screaming and doing her best to help Spitfire keep the suit together before an arm fell off, followed by another one.

“AH! D-Don’t let go!” Twilight screamed.

“What do you think I’m trying to do??? If I let go I die!!!” Spitfire shouted to Twilight, both mares struggling to keep the suit together as long as they could.

The suit lost a leg, causing Spitfire’s to dangle out into the air as she screamed, looking down and bringing that leg back into the suit, only for the other leg to fall out, causing her to do the same with her other leg.

The two mares screamed out and held onto each other’s hooves, but Spitfire began weakening her grip as she lowered herself closer to the bottom.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” Twilight screamed.

“One of us needs to get out of here!!! One of us needs to get back to Equestria! And that somepony is going to be YOU!” Spitfire screamed, the armor cracking and falling apart.

“No! I’m not letting you die in the desert!” Twilight screamed, tightening her grip on Spitfire’s hoof, not wanting to let the mare go.

“Just go! Send a team after me to find me if you want, but YOU need to get out of her!” Spitfire screamed back, “Twilight, just g-”

The armor cracked in half, sending Spitfire flying back far to the ground as Twilight floated still before slowly falling to the ground.

“NOOOOOO!!!!!!” Twilight screamed as she saw Spitfire’s part of the armor fly far away, but only for her vision to be obscured by large dunes of sand before her vision went black upon impact with the ground.

Twilight groaned as she regained consciousness, looking around her to see the armor sprawled out across the desert sand, with Spitfire nowhere in sight.

Twilight took a deep breath before shouting Spitfire’s name out as loud as she could muster, but it wasn’t very loud as she felt a sharp pain in her side as she screamed. She groaned louder as she stood up to her legs, looking around for any sign of Spitfire, but seeing nothing but sand for miles, with mountains behind her.

She began sobbing quietly as she began to walk towards the setting sun, each step sending sharp pains through her body, but she was determined to find Spitfire and return to Equestria with her, wanting to fulfill Hoove’s dying wish.

Hours. At least, that’s how long it felt for Twilight as she continued limping through the desert under the blistering sun, which was slowly setting. But she kept on going, even if she was practically dragging herself across the sand.

She began thinking she was going insane, as she began hearing whirring sounds coming from behind her that sounded incredibly similar to her company’s....

Twilight turned around and looked to the sky, wanting to confirm what the noise was, only for her eyes to widen upon the sight of her company’s very own helicarriage soaring through the sky, flying closer and closer to her.

Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes, but didn’t want this opportunity to be gone as she began waving her arms around like a madstallion, screaming at the top of her lungs. And to Twilight’s relief, the helicarriage began hovering over her, the sight of stallions and mares dressed in Equestrian Army uniforms was making her eyes well with tears of joy as they helped her get tied to a rope and carried up to the helicarrier, where she was greeted with a large bottle of water and a large plate with hayburgers, fries and regular fries, which she began devouring as soon as she finished the entire bottle of water.

As she ate she began shouting at the soldiers about Spitfire, and where to find her.

“WE CAME HERE TO GET YOU!” A soldier shouted over the sound of the helicarriage’s blades.

“BUT SHE’S STILL OUT THERE!!! WE CAN’T LET HER DIE!!!! PLEASE!!! LOOK FOR HER!!!!” Twilight shouted back to the soldier, who looked to the other soldiers, all of them nodding.

“OKAY! WE’LL TAKE ONE GIANT LOOP AROUND, BUT WE’LL HAVE TO RETURN TO BASE TO REFUEL! I’M SORRY! BUT WE CAN’T BE OUT HERE FOREVER!” The soldier said.

Twilight returned to the food, relieved they were going to be looking for Spitfire, and began praying to Faust that they would be able to find her. She felt something on her as she looked back to see a medical team checking out her wing stubs and her horn stub.

When Twilight finished her last bite of hay she realized again just how exhausted she was, and fell on her side on the helicarrier’s floor, the shouts and speech of the soldiers lost to her ears as she could hear nothing, her consciousness fading until she could also see nothing but black.

She woke up in a white room, laying down in a bed and hooked up to a IV bag, a small table next to her with a small platter. On it was a small note that read ‘We know you’ll be well’ on it, with hay and fries on it.

She looked to the other side of the room to see the sleeping figures of her friends on the floor, Rainbow Dash taking up pretty much the entirety of the small couch, barely leaving any room and forcing the others onto the floor outside of Rarity, who is doing her best to squeeze herself on the couch, she probably put up a fit at the thought of having to sleep on the floor.

Twilight began giggling softly at the thought of Rarity arguing with the other girls over sleeping on the floor, which caused Rainbow to stir in her sleep until she woke up.

“Huh? Wha? H-Hey girls! Girls! She’s up!!!” Rainbow screamed upon turning to see Twilight, who was already welling with tears as the others woke.

“TWILIGHT!!!” All of them cried as all of them got up and jumped on top of her, hugging her tightly as she hugged them all back.

“Girls!!! Girls! Oh, I’ve missed you all so much!” Twilight cried out, sobbing slightly.

Twilight then noticed something. Something..... Odd.

“G-Girls?” Twilight said, “W-Where’s Pinkie Pie?”

“We have much to tell you, my student,” Twilight turned to see Celestia, smiling with tears in her eyes as she watched the five friends, “and we will answer whatever questions you have.”

“Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked again.

All of their smiles faded into frowns as they lowered their heads.

“Not to long after ya disappeared.... Pinkie.... She also disappeared....” Applejack said.

“W-What?” Twilight responded.

“It’s true,” Rainbow said, her ears drooping, “we’ve been looking everywhere for her... But it’s like she just disappeared off the face of Equus!”

“P-Pinkie....” Twilight said, trailing off as she wondered where her friend could be.

“Do not worry, my student. We will be looking for her until she is found. We will not rest.” Celestia said.

Twilight nodded and opened her mouth to speak again, “Have you sent in more teams to look for Spitfire?”

Celestia’s ears drooped as she looked down, turning away from her student until her mane covered her face, “We.... We could not find her....”

Twilight looked down, more tears welling in her eyes as she sniffed loudly. Fluttershy handed her a tissue and she took it graciously, blowing her nose before her head perked up.

“Celestia?” Twilight said, looking up to her teacher, who was now looking back to her.

“Yes, my student?”

“Call in a press meeting, for today. And please call in the Council.”

Back Home

Celestia was hesitant to Twilight’s request, but managed to call in a press meeting, but the Council would not attend not to Twilight’s surprise.

“What are you doing my student?” Celestia asked Twilight as she watched her student rush to the desk to sign the paperwork for her to be let out.

“Celestia, I have an important announcement to make to the public of Equestria,” Twilight said, finishing the paperwork and quickly trotting to the door, her friends right behind her along with Celestia, “and no matter what the Council says, it’s going to happen.”

Twilight saw the chariot outside that was waiting for Celestia to arrive, two pegasus stallions standing impatiently at the front of the chariot. Twilight stepped inside the chariot with Celestia, pretty much having to drag her friends inside the royal chariot as Twilight instructed the pegasus stallions to head to Town Square for the press meeting.

“Twilight? Why are ya so jumpy?” Applejack asked her friend.

“Applejack, there’s something I need to do. And I need to do it now. I don’t care what the Council says, it’s going to happen.” Twilight said, looking down to the streets of Ponyville below.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked.

“.... Something I should have done a long time ago, Rainbow.”

“It doesn’t have to do with a blue thing, does it?” Rainbow asked, tapping her hooves together and looking to the side nervously as Twilight rose one of her eyebrows and turned to stare at the rainbow colored mare.

“Uh... No? Why would you ask that?” Twilight asked.

“N-No reason! I don’t even know why I mentioned a blue thing! Oh wait, is that the time??? Oh well, gotta run!” Rainbow then flew off the chariot, Twilight and her friends watching their rainbow colored friend fly away at a speed that they never knew Rainbow could go after just taking off.

“Oh my... I wonder what’s going on with her.” Rarity said.

“I don’t know... But don’t worry girls, we’ll figure it out.” Twilight replied, keeping her eyes still at the horizon where Rainbow flew towards.

Twilight trotted to the Town Square after she stepped out of the chariot, her friends and Celestia following her, but she barely made it up the stairs before she was jumped by another one of her friends, Moondancer.

“Twilight!!! Oh sweet Faust you’re safe!!!” Moondance hugged Twilight tight enough to nearly crush her ribs as Twilight hugged her back.

“It’s fine Moondancer, I’m back now. And I’m not going anywhere.” Twilight said as the two broke the hug, Moondancer sniffing quietly and nodding, lifting her glasses and wiping her eyes.

“It’s just... After Pinkie disappeared-”

“I know, Moondancer, I know....” Twilight said, smiling softly and putting her hoof on her friend’s shoulder.

Moondancer nodded her head lightly before speaking, “They’re inside, waiting for you.”

Twilight nodded and walked inside with her friends, her legs beginning to shake more and more as she approached the podium. She stood straight at the podium when she reached it, seeing her friends and Celestia at the back.

Twilight stared at the crowd, the mass of ponies with cameras and notebooks in their magic grasp or in their hooves, wearing the hoof braces Twilight made to make grasping everyday objects easier, each of them asking Twilight a plethora of questions. Seeing the ponies wearing her companies’ hoof braces made Twilight’s nervousness seem to...... Fade. As she saw ponies using the real future, making a small smile form on her face as she spoke.

“Mares and gentlecolts, I have come here today to tell you that you can all put your worries away... I am here. And I’m fine. And I come here also with a very important announcement that I hope the Council will understand,” Twilight said, the newsponies sighing in relief before they turn their attention back to Twilight again, “Effective immediately, as in now and forever, Sparkle Industries is closing it’s weapons division and will become a company that is solely focused on the improvement of the personal lives of ponies across Equestria.”

The entire room fell into an uproar as soon as Twilight had said her weapons division would end, the newsponies flashing their cameras, writing in their notebooks, pointing their microphones to her face as they shout even more questions her way.

Celestia quickly trotted to Twilight and quickly used her magic to teleport Twilight out of the room, to the Royal Thrones in the Canterlot Royal Castle.

“Twilight! What was that??” Celestia said filled with shock as she paced back and forth.

“I’m sorry Celestia, but I cannot allow Sparkle Industries to continue being the war weapon market capital of Equestria,” Twilight said, lowering her ears, “I can’t.”

Celestia stopped pacing, looking to Twilight with worry in her eyes, surprising Twilight as she thought the worry would be replaced with fury instead. She then felt Celestia pull Twilight into a hug, Twilight smiling softly and hugging her teacher back.

“I understand my student,” Celestia said, “the Council obviously won’t be happy. And will most likely brush your statement off.”

“Celestia,” Twilight said, breaking the hug, “I know they will. But I’d like to see the Council try to stop me from fixing what was wronged.”

Celestia looked down to her student, smiling softly but still speaking with concern. “No matter what the Council says, my faithful student, I will remain at your side.”

Twilight smiled and nodded softly, hugging Celestia again as she wiped her eyes as Celestia sighed tiredly, closing her eyes and likely thinking of the multiple scenarios that the confrontation with the Council will go after what Twilight did, each of the scenarios ending with the Council either forcing Twilight to make weapons, or the Council stealing Sparkle Industries from Twilight and banishing her from Canterlot, Ponyville and all Sparkle Industries HQs.

The thought of her student forced away from the very company she worked to raise made Celestia grit her teeth in anger, but she had to keep her anger inside as she knew she, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor and Twilight would be called in by the Council for Twilight’s actions.

And, not to Celestia and Twilight’s surprise, a Royal Guard entered the throne room, panting heavily as if he had been searching for them for much time, and telling them the Council demands their presence in the usual conference room.

Twilight and her teacher shared one more glance to each other, their eyes making the promise to not let the Council have their way. Or at least not Flur, the unicorn pony of the Council.

Twilight, Luna, Shining Armor, Cadence and Celestia could do nothing but look upward to the large podium, the enraged unicorn, Flur de Lis, practically leaning her entire body over the stand to look down to Twilight, shouting to her about the purple mare as she turned from her normal light shade of pink to a shade of red that made Twilight compare Flur more to a ripe apple from Applejack’s farm than the elegant and pink unicorn noble she was meant to be.

The meeting had started out calm, with the earth pony, Blue Aer, and the pegasus, Sky Cluster, both looking to Twilight with somewhat of a light in their eyes, while Flur de Lis looked down to Twilight with a calm face that the Council always has when you first glance to them, but her calm demeanor quickly changed to one of impatience as Twilight kept stating that her word was what was going to happen, and her impatience quickly turned into anger as Twilight still wouldn’t budge from Flur’s attempts to get Twilight to go on the air and take back her statement.

The other ponies in the room couldn’t stand watching Twilight feel the fury of Flur’s anger, Celestia and Shining especially as Shining even grit his teeth and swore to the unicorn quietly under his breath.

After Flur got done with her long vent of anger, she took in a large breath, waited a few heartbeats, and then let it go before doing the same thing multiple times before her coat went back to it’s natural pink color. She rose her hooves up and began straightening the random tufts of her disheveled mane that were pointing into crazy directions. As she finished she cleared her throat, the other two Council members lowering their heads in embarrassment.

“So,” Flur began, “do we have an understanding, Ms. Sparkle?”

“No.” Twilight spoke nearly immediately after Flur had finished her last name, Flur’s eyes flashing with rage once more as her coat nearly turned bright red as well. But she managed to keep her calm, taking deep breaths before she spoke.

“Ms. Sparkle... The Council has been gracious enough to allow you to continue making personal items along with the war machines we ask for that our troops can use to go against our enemies.” Flur said, “Why do you wish to just stomp on our generosity and go against us?”

“Because what we’re doing isn’t right. Several mares and stallions died the day I was foalnapped. And they all died from the weapons that I created. Weapons that I allowed to be manufactured and sold to the military. And I’m putting an end to it.” Twilight responded, furrowing her brow and keeping her confident stance, meanwhile her insides felt like it was filled with enough butterflies to make Fluttershy look like Pinkie Pie.

Flur was quiet, while the other Council members softly nodded their heads, small smiles on their faces as Shining Armor walked up to the stand.

“But my sister will not leave Equestria’s protectors completely vulnerable, her company will still work on other nonlethal projects that can help our military still defend itself from any attackers.” Shining said, Flur’s anger now directed to him and his sister.

Flur then sighed and sat back in her chair, looking down to the group then as she brought her hooves together, trying to look as civilised as her fury filled eyes looked angry. She took a long while before speaking, so long that Twilight began wondering if her silence was just a sign for her and everypony else to get the buck out. “Very well,” she eventually said, “I can allow this. But,” she leaned over again, looking directly to Twilight with a look that could kill the purple mare if looks could actually kill, “if our home, if our Equestria, is ever in any danger of being overthrown? Then the blame will be on you as we all are forced to work for Tirek.”

Twilight slightly winced at the mention of Tirek’s name, but she was quickly waved out by Flur.

“Now leave. Go prepare your ‘nonlethal’ weaponry for our military. And Shining? I do hope you and your department can find our little problem soon, or I will have to replace you with a stallion who can.” Flur said, Shining then looking down, causing Twilight to wonder what exactly she meant. What problem?

They all left the room, Celestia, Luna and Cadence about to congratulate Twilight before she turned to her brother.

“What did she mean by ‘problem’, big brother?” Twilight asked.

Shining then grew visibly nervous, looking to Celestia, Luna and Cadence, who all grew nervous expressions on their faces as well.

“Well... It’s, uh...” Shining began, finding himself having a hard time finding the right words to describe the problem, “It’s just somepony that has been causing trouble for a bit.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Uh... Just foalnapping... T-That’s it.” Shining said, Cadence walking to him and putting her hoof on his shoulder. “R-Right. I should get back to my station. Gotta get the men up and ready to head out and search again.”

Twilight and Shining brought each other close for a tight hug before the two let go, Shining and Cadence walking off, but Cadence stopped for a second to speak to Twilight. “I know that you’ll be able to keep us safe, Twilight. You always have.”

Twilight nodded softly and watched Cadence and Shining walk off until they had disappeared from a turn in the hallway.

“So, my student,” Celestia spoke, getting Twilight’s attention, “what nonlethal weaponry do you plan on creating to protect us?”

“Well I’ve been thinking of creating some kind of beam of energy that doesn’t kill, it just knocks somepony backwards. I’ve been thinking of ways to do it for a while now, and I think I’ve got just the way to do it.” Twilight said.

Celestia and Luna put their hooves on Twilight’s shoulders, both making a soft smile as Luna was the next to speak. “We have the utmost trust that you can do it, Twilight Sparkle. You’ll be able to change the way ponies live their lives.”

“Thank you, Luna.” Twilight said, looking to her teacher who, with a smile still, nodded. Both princesses turned and walked off, Twilight watching them walk down the opposite hallway that Cadence and Shining Armor walked down, leading them to the much brighter throne room, as Twilight began walking down the middle hallway, walking outside and seeing Celestia’s sun overhead, smiling as she looked back to her back, seeing the small stitches from where her wings used to be, raising a hoof she could feel the area where her horn used to be, making a small frown grow across her lips.

She looked back ahead to the slightly crowded streets of Canterlot, an image of Spitfire and Dr. Hooves still fresh in her mind as she sighed softly.

“Don’t worry Hooves,” she whispered under her breath, “I’m sure Spitfire made it out.... We’ll find her.... Somehow....”

Titanium Findings

A hooded figure looked down to the sand, it’s face covered with a mask, covering the figure’s eyes as they looked downward to the silver, flat mask laying down in the sand. The figure used it’s magic to lift the mask out of the sand as several more ponies dug around in the sand, collecting several more silver pieces of metal protruding from the ground.

The figure took a long while to examine the object in silence as a zebra stallion watched her, half of his face was scarred and burned badly, his face turned to one of anger, and a smaller zebra stallion with burn marks on it’s body, blocking out it’s flank, standing next to him.

“I give you cretins a chance of a lifetime. And you let it walk right out the front door???” The figure shouted, turning to the two zebra stallions, throwing it at the smaller one.

The smaller one winced in pain as the metal mask made contact with his face, the bigger one keeping his eyes locked on the figure.

“W-Well you can’t b-b-blame u-”

“Shut it Ahmed,” the figure shouted to the smaller zebra before turning back to the bigger one, “and you! I was told that you were the best in the criminal underworld! And now, here I am, standing in the desert as we gather up pieces of machinery that your prisoner used to ESCAPE!!!!”

“How were we able to guess sh-”

“YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED THE BUCKING CAMERA TO LOOK BEHIND THE WALL!!!!” The figure screamed, taking off it’s hood and running it’s hoof through it’s bright blue mane and sighing in exasperation.

“... Trixie. We will find her and we will force her to create the Hydra Cannon.” The bigger stallion said.

“No. She’s back in Equestria. We only had that one chance. Now that she’s back she’ll most likely be guarded by the best. And besides...” Trixie used her magic to pick the mask up again from the ground near Ahmed’s hooves, grinning as she brought it closer to her face, “we’ve got something that I think will be much better.”

“But are you sure that they will be okay with our change in plans?” The bigger stallion said.

“Don’t worry Biashara,” the light blue mare said, moving the mask from her face and throwing to Ahmed as he caught it between his hooves clumsily as Trixie grinned widely, “I’m sure the others will be okay with this new plan.”

Twilight looked up to the large, crystal castle before her, seeing the castle had never been such a beautiful sight to the mare, and she could feel her eyes watering up. But she closed her eyes and worked her best to fight back the tears that were quickly trying desperately to surface and go down her cheeks.

She could feel herself getting closer to bursting to tears as she trots closer and closer to the castle, her trotting slowly increasing to galloping to the castle, growing a large smile across her lips as she closed in on the large crystal castle.

She stopped in front of it and reached her lavender hoof out, planting it in a small circular indent in the door, waiting a second, and then turning it to open the door and reveal the inside.

The inside of the castle was the same as she had remembered, all of the lights strewn through the ceiling to illuminate it’s darkness. As she stepped inside she could still hear the echo of her steps bouncing off the walls of the halls and traveling through the crystal home.

But there was something else Twilight was hearing. Almost a... Soft pattering. She stood still and turned her head to listen closer, confirming that she was indeed hearing a soft pattering sound coming from somewhere in the castle, and the sound was coming closer.

She turned her head to look forward and saw something small and purple running to her, immediately recognizing it as-

“SPIKE!!!!” Twilight smiled widely as she ran to the small dragon, who’s eyes were filled with tears as his lips were formed to a giant smile.

The two continued running to each other until they ran into each other, both of them embracing each other into a tight hug, Twilight unable to hold back her tears anymore as she held the small dragon close and tight.

The two held onto each other for what felt like hours, Twilight knowing the little dragon wouldn’t want to let her go again. And, knowing full well why, she didn’t let him go.

After a long moment of silence Spike was the first to speak.

“I’m so glad you’re back Twilight....”

“And I’m glad to be back Spike.” Twilight said, her voice slightly breaking as she wiped tears from her eyes.

“Please don’t ever leave Equestria again....” Spike whispered, sniffing loudly as he held tighter to the lavender pony.

Twilight broke the hug and looked down to Spike, smiling softly. “Don’t worry Spike. Nothing bad will ever happen to me again. I promise.”

Spike turned his head upward to look up to the mare, his eyes still filled with tears as he wrapped his arms around the mare tighter, sniffing quietly as he laid his head on her and slowly nodding it.

Twilight sniffed as more tears flowed down her lavender cheeks as she did the same, hugging the small dragon as she looked down to the crystal floor.

Neither of them wanted to break the embrace, but eventually they had to as Spike’s stomach made a deep, grumbling noise, causing the two of them to end the silence in the hollow castle with small laughter as they broke away.

“I guess somebody’s hungry.” Twilight said, both of them chuckling softly before Twilight’s own stomach made a low and deep growling noise, making the two share another short lived laugh. Spike lunged forward in the air, landing on Twilight’s back stomach first, the lavender mare chuckling and rolling her eyes playfully at the small dragon.

Spike began shifting around on her back, sitting up as she began trotting to the kitchen, careful to not drop the young dragon. As soon as the two entered the kitchen Spike immediately jumped off Twilight’s back, jumping and successfully landing on the counter, the young dragon running over to multiple shelves and opening them and beginning to pull out several different gems, including rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, etc, and also making sure to pull out hayburger patties and buns with frozen fries for Twilight.

Twilight watched Spike practically empty the shelves with excitement, smiling softly at the small dragon. She felt several things lingering at the back of her mind though, something she didn’t like thinking about. How did those murderers get their hooves on any of Twilight’s tech? Were there more groups of them out there? Did they also have Twilight’s tech? And where were they hiding?

Twilight had so many questions, and she was going to find the answer to them. She’d just have to get used to doing it completely magic-free and flightless. She picked her hoof up and softly felt the area where her horn was, but was now just slightly rough skin and fur.

She frowned softly as she felt the area, lowering her hoof down to the floor. The absence of her horn and wings didn’t seem to affect Spike at all, did he just not care about her wings and horn being gone?

“Spike?” She asked.

“Yeah? What is it Twilight?” Spike answered, turning to face her, behind him a pan of fries ready to be cooked to golden perfection.

Twilight slightly lifted her hoof to her forehead, then moved it to her back, frowning softly still and then putting her hoof back down to the floor as Spike made a small frown of his own.

“Those things don’t matter to me as much as you.” Spike said, his frown turning into a soft smile as Twilight found herself tearing up slightly, her own frown turning into a soft smile of her own.

Spike turned back to the drawers, taking out a small handful of diamonds before closing it softly as he carefully shifted his weight onto one foot, gently poking the door with the tip of his foot to shut it as he placed the several jewels on the counter.

There was a loud knock on the door as Spike jumped off the counter, placing the food on the counter he began running to the door while shouting back to Twilight, “I’ll get it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, laughing slightly to herself as she turned to the counter, gazing upon the frozen fries bag. She used her magi-Oh... That’s right... She looked to the cabinet that held the trays and opened it, biting down on the handle and pulling back to open it, then picking up a medium sized tray with her teeth, using her back hoof to close the cabinet.

She put the tray on the counter next to the bag of frozen fries and looked back and forth between the two, wondering just how she’d be able to get the fries actually ONTO the tray. She continued trying to solve this fry puzzle before she turned her head to the sound of multiple hooves against the floor, heading to the direction of the kitchen.

Twilight instantly knew who was creating the sound and ran to the door, seeing it swing open to reveal her friends, Spike in front of them as they pushed him forward in their mini stampede to Twilight.

“Twilight!” They all cried out.

“Girls!” Twilight said back to them, smiling warmly as they all wrapped their hooves around each other, Twilight slightly saddened at the notable absence of Pinkie Pie in the group. The girls broke the hug, all with warm and soft smiles. Twilight noticed something about Rainbow, something strange. She had a weird look in her eyes, as if she had something on her mind.

“We were all wonderin if ya’ll would like ta come with us ta go to a restaurant? We can all grab a bite ta eat at yer favorite place Twi!” Applejack said, Spike nodding and smiling widely.

“Really? Well that sounds like a wonderful idea!” Twi said, “I haven’t talked to your girls in forever! Now let’s go!”

Twilight turned and used her magi-Right... Right... She walked over to the tray and bit her teeth on it’s edges, carrying it over to the drawer, which Spike opened for her as he put the food away.

“Now let’s go! I’m starving!” Spike said, a big smile still on his face, Twilight rolling her eyes with a soft smile of her own.

Spike jumped up again, grabbing onto Twilight’s back and climbing up on and sitting down as she walked with the rest of the girls out of the castle.

Trixie ran a hoof through her mane as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing her hoof travel through her disheveled mane that was pointing in several directions like a spiked ball. She sighed softly and used her magic to surround the purple brush in front of her with a light blue aura, picking it up and lifting it to her, straighten her mane with the brush.

She winced slightly as the brush tugged at the knots that were in her hair, pulling harder as her mane straightened out. She heard her door open as somepony entered, looking into the mirror she saw that it was Biashara walking in, looking around with that same dumb look Trixie always saw on his face, the one the she knew meant he was confused about what he was looking at.

“Trixie.” He said, the mare rolling her eyes and scoffing at the zebra stallion, looking to the mirror still as she put the brush down, her mane now back down to it’s natural state.

“What do you want Biashara? I’m busy preparing for the press conference. Twilight Sparkle comes back and all of a sudden all of the businesses in Equestria are expected to make a response about it.” Trixie said, turning her head left and right to see all sides of her, making sure everything was just right for the conference.

“I just came by to ask if you had asked the others about-”

“I’ll ask them in my own damn time Biashara!” Trixie shouted back to the stallion, “I have to get the bucking press of my flank before I can contact the others.”

“Are you sure they will be happy with waiting for a progress update?” Biashara said, raising an eyebrow with a cocky smile, to which Trixie just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“They can all deal with waiting. I need to deal with this first before we can do anything. And I’m sure the leader of our little group will definitely be rather pissed that you let our prized asset slip right around your hooves!” Trixie spat back to Biashara.

He didn’t respond, how could he? He knew that insulting Trixie to her face would just result in him getting replaced by somepony else while he ended up dead at the bottom of the ocean. In this operation you were required to talk greatly about the higher ups. No matter how they acted.

“Besides, we have our findings.” Trixie curled her lips into a malicious grin, Biashara knew this grin. He’d seen her make this grin several times before as she discussed their previous plan.

“Are you sure our findings will help us?” Biashara asked.

“Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle herself made them. So it’s only a matter of waiting. Waiting for my team to piece her little robot suit back together, and then create more of them. Sparkle Industries will never know what hit them.” Trixie said, holding her grin as she stood from her chair, trotting to the door and opening it, looking back to the stallion.

He slowly nodded and walked to the door, giving her one last glance before trotting out, heading for the nearest exit to the building.

Trixie used her magic to take her DragonFireDroid out from her dress, scorning that she was resorted to use her enemy company’s tech to help her with her plans. She quickly swiped the screen with her hoof and entered her password, seeing her new message and opening it, grinning widely as she saw the picture message of her scientists standing in front of the finding. A giant, titanium suit. The one Twilight had used.

Trixie nodded softly, grinning still as she tucked her Droid back into her dress, walking down the hallway until she reached a pair of doors, an earth pony waiting there to open them for her, revealing a large room filled with ponies, several flashing their camera lights as rest had their notepad’s and quills ready, the unicorn’s holding them in their magical grasp as the pegasai and earth ponies used what Trixie immediately recognized as Twilight’s very own body arms.

Looking at the parts that wrapped around the body, Trixie felt her blood boil upon seeing Sparkle Industries’ very own logo of each of the destroyed Elements of Harmony.

Don’t worry, Twilight, Trixie thought, moving past the crowd to a large, wooden podium, You’ll get yours.

Losing Time and Working

Twilight gazed upon the menu, looking at all of the three options they had available. For a restaurant with very few options it was always difficult for Twilight to choose what she would order.

She looked around to her friends, who were all also focused on their menus as they pondered over what they could order. Twilight took this momentary silence to look around, taking in the peaceful sight of their hometown. Seeing the various ponies wander town, all doing their own thing for their day. She noticed that several were staring over to Twilight. She looked around her, wondering if perhaps the ponies could be staring at somepony else, but no, they were all staring directly at her. She quickly noticed that more ponies were staring, and she tried to block them out.

But no matter how hard Twilight tried to ignore the stares, all of the ponies were still staring directly at her. She had just returned to Ponyville, so she could see where they were coming fro-

“It’s the thing.”

A soft voice from the table shook Twilight out of her thoughts, and she turned to see her friends staring at her. Or... More to her chest. She looked down before she was hit by a sudden realization.

On her chest was the glowing, purple and metal star. Still there and out for all to see. Twilight looked back to the ponies who were previously staring at her, to see they had all turned their gazes back forward to what they were doing.

She looked back down to the glowing, purple star as her lips curled to a frown.

She felt a hoof touch her shoulder and she looked up to see Applejack, smiling reassuringly to her, Twilight seeing that her other friends were doing the same.

Twilight gave them a warm smile back, looking back down to her menu as a waiter trotted to their table.

“And what would you like this evening, Ms. Sparkle?” The waiter asked, his voice carrying an accent that’s not too far off from Rarity’s.

“Hm... I’ll just take a regular hayburger please, no lettuce. Girls?” Twilight responded, hoofing the menu over to the waiter.

The others, except for Rarity, responded with the same request, a plain hayburger but with different toppings for each of them. Rarity herself choose a small salad instead.

As the girls waited for the waiter to return with their food, Applejack was the first to start conversation.

“So, how much free time do ya have before yer off to change things in yer business Twilight?” She asked.

“I’m not quite sure, but I’d have to say it isn’t long.” Twilight responded.

“Ah, well we all understand darling.” Rarity said, “Business is business unfortunately, and even I will have to let business take control of my schedule.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked timidly.

“Well it’s nothing darling, I’ll just be leaving Ponyville for a couple days, but I’ll be back in time for Twilight’s big returning party!” Rarity replied, Twilight cocked her head in confusion.

“My returning party?” She asked.

“Didn’t you hear?” Rainbow said, “Princess Celestia is throwing you a big party in a week or two. She’s throwing it to welcome you back to Equestria.”

“I never heard about that.” Twilight said.

“Oh... Well shoot, ah reckon that she meant fer it ta be a surprise party.” Applejack said, brushing the back of her mane with her hoof and looking down. “Ah well, ah guess ya can still act surprised.”

Twilight made a soft chuckle before her eyes widened upon hearing a soft ringing coming from her bag, and she struggled to bite onto the bag to flip it to her side.

Spike then got up and walked to her, opening her bag and taking out her DragonFireDroid, handing it to her with a soft smile and a ‘thank you’ in return as he sat back down.

Twilight swiped the screen and answered the call, seeing Celestia’s face on the screen.

“Princess Celestia? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“I’m sorry my dear student if this is a bad time, but the Council is at it again. They say that if you’re truly to go through with your plans then they expect you to be at your company right this second to work on creating your machines. They want to see a prototype by the end of the week.”

“What???” Twilight said, raising her voice in shock, “By the end of the week??? How am I going to get a prototype done by then???”

Celestia sighed deeply, closing her eyes before responding. “I’m sorry my student, but it’s what Flur wishes, and I think we shouldn’t rebel against the Council too much. It might cause some stir amongst foreign nobles that will smear the Council’s reputation with their control.”

“It’s okay... I understand Princess. I’ll get to work straight away on a prototype.” Twilight said.

“Good, my student. We will speak after you finish?”

“Yes Celestia, we will.” Twilight ended the call and put the Droid back into her bag, Spike getting up and zipping it back up with a sad smile.

“Hey, it’s okay Twilight. We can all go out to eat after you finish, right guys?” Spike said.

“Yeah!” The girls said, smiling.

“Alright... I’ll see you girls later next week. Hopefully.” Twilight said, still looking down as she got up from her chair and walked with Spike back to their house.

Spike opened the door as Twilight continued, walking through the hall until she reached her room, hearing Spike call down to her from the door. “I’ll see you later today, alright? For dinner?”

She turned to him and nodded, smiling softly before turning and closing the door, hiding herself in her room.

Her desk was still as neat as she had left it, and the lack of dust proved that Spike had dusted it during her absence. She sat down and bit down on the handle of the top left drawer and opened it, biting down gently on a blank, folded blueprint inside and taking it out, setting it on the desk and opening it. She did the same for the top right drawer, removing a small container of ink and a quill.

She bit down onto the quill lightly, thanking the fact that she had learned how to write with her mouth in her younger years. She might be rusty, but it’s better than nothing. She wrote down on the top right corner of the paper ‘Prototype 1: Nonlethal Blast Weapon’ before going to work.

Trixie ran her hoof through her mane, sighing. There had to be something they had overlooked. Something, anything.

"Are you sure that we don't have the materials to use the suit?" She asked one of her scientists.

"Yes Ms. Trixie. I'm sure. Without the power source that goes into the chest, then I'm afraid we can't use it." He replied.

Dammit! She thought, This can't be it! There has to be something! Anything!

"Ugh!" She kicked the suit, leaving a throbbing pain that she groaned at, "WELL BUILD IT!!!!"

"I-I'm sorry Ms. Trixie! B-But we don't know what she used or if we have the materials necessary to create-"

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE BUILT THIS THING IN A BUCKING CAVE!!!!" Trixie shouted, "WE HAVE ALL THE RESOURCES WE COULD WANT!!!!"

"Well... We're not Twilight Sparkle. And we don't even know what she had to use like she had back at the cave!" The scientist replied, shaking slightly at Trixie's sudden shouting.

"Well then." Trixie said, reaching to the table and getting her DragonFireDroid, calling Biashara. "Biashara! Get your men and meet me at the cave you used to hide Twilight Sparkle in. We're looking for something." She said, walking away and hanging up before Biashara had time to respond to her sudden call.

Too Late

Twilight yawned as the computer activated the next model of the prototype, blasting the dummy back, watching as it hit the wall.

“Test concluded, Ms. Sparkle. The test dummy seems to be completely intact, with all of it’s inner workings left unharmed.” The computer said.

Twilight sat up, “did you double check it?” She asked.

“I triple checked it.” The computer responded.

Twilight jumped from her chair and slid her hoof through the opening in the device as the dummy was set back up again.

“Alright. Now just to see if it’s comfortable to use.” Twilight said, aiming towards the dummy.

Twilight heard the device ‘whirr’ quickly before shooting out the blast, knocking Twilight’s arm back slightly as the dummy was hit with the same results as before.

“Alright, good job computer. Now make three more based exactly like this one.” Twilight said.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.”

Twilight got up from her chair and trotted outside of her office, biting her blueprints and taking them with her. She called for Spike, who appeared almost immediately after she called, and he opened the door to her lab for her and followed her down.

“So did you complete the prototype Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Almost Spike.” She replied, “I still need to test one last thing. Yes, it can be used to knock an enemy back, but I also have plans for it to be used as something that earth ponies and unicorns can use to fly with the Pegasus soldiers with.”

“Ohhh.... That sounds awesome! Are you going down here to try it out yourself?” Spike said.

“Well I can’t ask you to do it Spike.” Twilight said back.

The two reached the bottom of the stairs, both watching as the tables and lab equipment were pulled to the sides of the lab, and large, thick glass panels were placed in front of them.

“For the equipment’s protection.” The computer explained.

“Good thinking computer.” Twilight gave the blueprints to Spike, walking up to two mechanical arms that were holding one of the prototype models each.

She slid her hooves inside each of them and shook violently as she struggled to stay on her two hind legs, another mechanical arm appearing and putting a type of body armor around Twilight that adjusted, tightening around her stomach and chest to allow her to stay upright without shaking.

“Alright computer, let’s go for a safe test, so use only 30% power, and increase slowly.” Twilight said, aiming her hooves down as the devices activated, slightly jerking her up before she began slowly lifting off the ground to stop just a mere inch.

“Now adjusting to 40% power.” The blasts from the devices got louder and bigger, becoming more powerful as Twilight was lifted slightly higher as Spike watched in awe.

“Now adjusting to 50% power.” Twilight was lifted even higher about 2 feet as the devices slowly got stronger, looking down and to each device to make sure they weren’t showing signs of malfunctioning.

“Alright... Now let’s try to fly around the room a little. Test to see if they can do more than just hover.” Twilight gently began moving her arms back, leaning them as she slowly began moving forward, her hooves beginning to shake slightly as she moved her left arm out a bit to turn right and fly back to Spike, stopping as she hovered directly above him before he moved out of the way.

“Okay computer, adjust the power to 70%, I’m feeling pretty confident about this.” Twilight said.

“As you wish, Ms. Sparkle.” The prototypes shot out a stronger blast of energy each, Twilight suddenly beginning to hover higher about 5 feet, nearly touching the roof of her lab as she began maneuvering around slowly. Going in circles before going to the other end of the lab, then returning. Twilight gulped and leaned her arms back more, flying faster around the lab, but still slow enough to control.

“Do you wish to lower the power, Ms. Sparkle?” The computer asked.

“No, no,” Twilight replied, “this is good. But we need a bigger area to try 100%. So open the hatch to go outside and let’s see how it goes.”

“Yes Ms. Sparkle, get ready.” The computer said, lowering the power in each prototype to 25% each.

“But Twilight, what if you crash? You could get hurt bad!” Spike said.

“Right... Hmmm.... Computer, remember that armor prototype I made for the Equestrian military before I replaced it with an even better model? Twilight said.

“The one you couldn’t get the right eye size on?” The computer asked.

“That’s the one.” Twilight said.

“You wish to use it to avoid injury?”

“Yes computer, please.”

“Very well.” The computer replied.

“Are you sure about this Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Don’t worry Spike, I’m sure the prototypes will work just as expected. They’ve been doing just that so far with no sign of malfunction. So I’m sure they’ll continue working just as they should.”

“The armor is ready for you to wear, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer said. Twilight turned and held her arms out for her to appear in a ‘T’ position, a group of mechanical arms putting the armor on her one plate at a time.

She watched the front part of her helmet close and she could only see out of the tiny, rectangular eyes before a holographic screen appeared in front of her face, surprising her.

“W-Woah! What’s this? This wasn’t in the original blueprints of the suit. You could have just made the eyes bigger computer. Nopony is going to be shooting at them, so it would have been fine.” She said.

“Well I just thought that this would be a much better way of checking on the prototypes, the suit itself to make sure the suit stays together, and also so you and I can stay in contact better.” The computer replied.

“Good thinking AIVHA.” Spike said.

“Yeah, good job.” Twilight added.

“Thank you, both of you. Now, shall we give the prototypes a test flight?” AIVHA said.

“Yes, now let’s go.” Twilight turned, Spike staring in awe at the silver suit as it turned to face a wall on the opposite end of the large laboratory, the wall lifting to reveal a dark tunnel which illuminated with light as the wall raised.

“Alright Twilight and AIVHA, good luck!” Spike said.

“Thank you, Spike.” Twilight and AIVHA said in unison.

The prototypes whirred loudly as they were activated with 50% power, Twilight leaning her arms back and her body forward and flying out of the lab through the tunnel with ease.

Daylight filled the tunnel as Twilight flew closer to it, the prototypes slowly gaining power. 60%. Then 70%. Then 80%. Then finally they flew out of the tunnel about 3 miles off the borders of Ponyville, the prototypes flying at 90% now.

“Computer! Is everything okay?” Twilight asked, gulping and breathing heavily.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle. Everything is working just as expected. You can calm your breathing now.”

“Hehe... Right. I’ve just... I’ve never flown like this. Even before I lost my... My...” Twilight just stared forward in silence as she continued flying upward, remembering her times flying with Rainbow Dash as she helped her get better adjusting to her wings, and flying with Fluttershy when she just wanted a nice, calm time.

“Ms. Sparkle! Ms. Sparkle! You’re going too far up!” She heard her computer yell, breaking her out of her trance, “you need to turn around now or the suit will freeze!”

Twilight yelled and stopped the prototypes, turning around and starting them back up again, flying directly down before she turned upward.

“S-Sorry computer... I just kinda zoned out there for a moment...” Twilight said, shaking her head.

“It’s alright Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA replied, “the prototypes seem to be working exactly as expected, would you like us to turn around?”

“No computer, I’d like to continue for just a bit longer. Make sure they’re working just fine.” Twilight said, leaning downwards more as the blasters gained more power.

“Yes Ms. Sparkle. How long shall the test last?” AIVHA said.

“Just a few minutes, Computer.” Twilight said, “I want to see just how smooth this thing can move.”

Twilight faced her hooves forward, sending her curving upwards quickly and flying up to the air, hearing the wind whistling past her ears outside of the helmet. She could see herself flying directly into a cloud, then burst out through the other end where she slowed herself down, turning herself to look downward at Ponyville.

She smiled softly as she saw the small little town, turning herself to fly forward in it’s direction, staying high up so she doesn’t cause some kind of panic amongst the ponies seeing the flying object that definitely wasn’t Equestrian Military.

“Wow... This sure is a nice view.” Twilight said softly, under her breath.

“This is a pleasing view.” AIVHA said, “do you wish to stay and enjoy the view or turn back to the lab now, Ms. Sparkle?”

“Just a few more seconds and then I’ll return.” Twilight smiled as she responded, taking in a deep breath in and then releasing it, closing her eyes as she heard the wind flow past her helmet as she held herself in her place.

She opened her eyes and took one last look to the small town, the town she never thought she’d see again, then she turned and began flying back to the underground tunnel entrance.

“Alright, so I think it’s safe to say that the blasters are certainly working as expected, wouldn’t you say Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA said.

“Yes, I would,” she responded, “we can begin mass producing more of these soon, we just have to hope that the current source of energy doesn’t begin-” Twilight was cut off by her holographic screen turning red, and a quiet alarm going off. “oh please don’t tell me that’s the power source...”

“I’m afraid that I have to be the bearer of bad news, ma’am.” AIVHA said.

“Crud... What happened? I can still fly easily, but my right leg is feeling heavy.” Twilight said.

“It seems that the power source for the blaster in the bottom right hoof has begun depleting, most likely from overuse.”

“So the replacement power source has a short time limit...”

“I recommend haste to the tunnel to avoid the others failing as well. As in now. So hurry.” AIVHA said.

Twilight nodded and turned the power up on the three working and sped to the tunnel, lowering the power as she approached and flew downward into the tunnel, through it as fast as she could while keeping stability, and then slowing down immensely when she saw her lab ahead of her.

She stopped in the center of the lab, and slowly began lowering. “Easy... Easy...” She said to herself as she lowered, crying out when she eventually fell down with a loud clang onto her back.

“Ow...” That was all she managed to say as she turned to get back onto her feet. “Don’t tell Spike about that.”

“I’ll try not to.” AIVHA replied, holding back a chuckle.

“No need to.” Spike said from the other end of the room, chuckling, “nice landing.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, smiling, “Alright computer... Looks like it’s back to the drawing board...”

“Might I recommend a short break, Ms. Sparkle? It might do you some good.”

“Yeah... Yeah, okay. But during the break I want you to think of any possible ways to do one of two things. I want you to find another power source that could work as a long lasting source for the blasters, or find a way to keep these ones from losing power so fast.” Twilight said.

“Will do, ma’am. I will print out any copy of the research I find and leave it all on your desk.” AIVHA replied.

“Alright, thank you computer,” Twilight said, then turning to Spike and taking off the helmet to her suit, setting it down on a nearby table, “so, anything good on Spike?”

“No, not really. I have to wait a whole three days for my favorite show to get it’s new episode and it’s killing me!” Spike said, laying down onto his side, “ugh... You wanna take the controller for a bit?”

“Yeah, sure, hoof it over.” Twilight said, Spike tossing the controller to Twilight with AIVHA’s mechanical arms catching it. Twilight then pushed down gently on one of the buttons with the edge of her hoof, switching it to the news channel.

“Oh, come on! The news?” Spike exclaimed in a voice too whiny for Twilight’s liking.

“Yes, the news. I like watching the news. Seeing all of the things happening over Equus. It was never possible before, with it only happening through cards and letters, but now we can actually see these things happening!” Twilight said, growing a big smile as she thought more about what she was talking about, “don’t you find that amazing?”

“I guess it is kinda awesome... But come on, the NEWS???” Spike sighed, then picked up a comic from his side and opening it, “tell me when it’s over.”

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes, shaking her head and then turning her attention back to the news.

“Crime in Manehatten seems to be at an all time low since a while now, making Manehatten lower down from it’s spot as the third most dangerous city in Equestria, and down to the fifth. The one responsible for this seems to be the same red stallion helping the police, the very same stallion that police officials haven’t been able to catch ever since his appearance two weeks ago, which is when the crime rate began declining.” The news mare said.

“Still nothing new for that guy still I guess.” Spike said.

“Of who?” Twilight asked.

“This stallion in Manehatten. He hasn’t been seen at all outside of the night before you returned, but he made himself known. They said that he wears some sort of a weird red suit. And he looks kinda like a horned monster. He’s all mysterious and spooky.” Spike answered, not looking away from his comic.

“Hm... Strange.” Twilight said, turning back to the EED.

“Also in international news, the terrorist group known as the Four Rings, are on the move again.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, her pupils becoming as small as pinpricks as she heard that name, her breathing becoming quick and short.

“The Equestrian Government earlier had an anonymous tip from one who referred to themselves as a “urban legend” from the Zebra Kingdom. The tip stated that a large group of them is moving north towards the desert.”

Twilight stepped back, Spike not noticing her frantic breathing as he had put his headphones in and was too busy with his comic. She began panting heavily and holding her chest.

“Ms. Sparkle! Are you alright?” AIVHA asked.

“T-T-They... T-The desert... T-The... The replacement!!!” Twilight cried out, “they’re looking for it! They’ll find it!”

Twilight then stopped her frantic breathing, the room was nearly silent, with the only noise heard being from the news mare on the EED. She began remembering her times in the cave, how they had tortured her, Spitfire and Whooves... How they had cut off her wings and horn... And how much her blood boiled at the thought of them.

She was angry, so angry it somewhat scared herself. And then she thought of what would happen if the Four Rings, or anypony else had gotten their hooves on the replacement she had made. She couldn’t let anypony. She had to find the cave she was forced in, and she had to find the replacement she had made, and hide it from everypony forever. Or destroy it. Either option was fine by her.

“Computer!!” Twilight cried out, putting her helmet back on and raising her hooves, allowing AIVHA’s mechanical arms to remove her gauntlets, “I need you to transfer the power for the current blasters on the suit to be given by the arc reactor on my chest! I need to find that group and stop them from finding the replacement reactor!”

“M-Ms. Sparkle?!” AIVHA said, “can’t we just call the Council and have them send a team??”

“No! If the Council gets their hooves on it then we’ll never see it again! I need to get it myself!” Twilight said, AIVHA’s mechanical arms adjusting her blasters and connecting their wires to her arc reactor on her chest, “Oh Tia... Oh Tia… Oh my Faust… This is crazy... B-But I can’t let the Council OR the Four Rings get their hooves on it! I’ll... This’ll be a one time thing... I’m doing it only to protect everypony from them having the arc reactor... And that’s it...”

Twilight felt the arms let go of her hooves, allowing her to turn to the tunnel entrance opening up and the lights inside shining, showing Twilight the way out. She turned to Spike, “I’ll be safe... Don’t worry,” she said, her helmet lowering and clanging shut as she then lifted up off the ground, flying as fast as she could out through the tunnel.

Spike lifted his head and looked around, lifting one side of his headphones away from his ears and looking around, seeing nothing. He shrugged and put it back, leaning back down on the floor and continuing his comic where he left off.

The group groaned as they heard what their comrade had asked, several of them facehoofing themselves.

“Are you kidding me???” One asked.

“You just went 10 minutes ago!!!”

“Well I really have to go now guys! I can’t control it!” The comrade said.

“Fine! But hurry up! Trixie expects us to be there soon, and if we’re not there then she’ll show us to the leader of her little group she’s in. And word is he’s not very forgiving to those who don’t work to his coworkers expectations.” One of the members said.

The group all groaned as they sat down in the hot sand on their backpacks, each of them covering their eyes from the blistering sun as their comrade galloped far away from them.

“So... What exactly does Trixie want us there for? Can’t she and her own little team she already have with her look by themselves? She has that one guy with them, that assassin for her group’s leader. Can’t he help her find it?” One member asked another.

“I don’t know man. She just told us to meet with her team out here in the desert. She also told us to travel light, taking things that aren’t essential. She said we want to be at the cave with them before the Panther can get us.” The other member responded, his voice carrying a thick accent.

“The Panther? Man, that guy even shows his ugly mug and I’ll blow it off.”

“Yeah, sure you will. Believe me, the Panther moves faster than you can blink. Pfft... I’m sure Trixie will want us to deal with the Panther soon anyways, make sure he doesn’t start screwing up our operations.”

“Well we can handle that freak. Easy as-” The member was interrupted by the sound of screaming from a nearby member, followed by a loud whirr sound and two blasts of energy knocking the two members who were talking back onto the ground hard, leaving them groaning and holding their stomachs.

The figure was bent down, and appeared to be a pony made of silver. It was looking to the ground with one hoof planted firmly on the ground and it’s other pointed upwards diagonally. It lifted it’s head and the members could see the small, rectangular, purple eyes staring at them, and it lifted it’s hoof from the ground and shot a blast of energy that knocked another member back.

Another member aimed his rifle to the silver pony, about to fire before it quickly turned and fired, knocking him back. The silver pony jumped up as it’s feet shot two blasts of energy, it’s front hooves knocking the last member on the ground, groaning in pain and holding his stomach with his comrades.

The pony landed and stood up on it’s hind legs, the area around the stomach tightening to allow this.

“Now... I don’t want to hurt you all any more than I have already. So please, tell me,” the pony spoke with a robotic voice, deep and understandable. It walked over to one member and bent down onto it’s knees, face to face with a member of the Four Rings, “where’s the cave you all are headed too?”

“G-Go to Tartarus... F-Freak...” The member said, groaning.

“Please tell me... Please! I don’t want to have to blast you again.” The pony said.

“Y-You think I’ll betray the Four Rings???” The member said, “you think I’m crazy???”

“Please work with me... Please... Please do what’s right... I can’t allow the Four Rings or the Equestrian Council to get their hooves on the object they’re looking for. Please. If you help me, then I promise you that I will make sure the officials know you helped me stop something terrible from happening.”

The member was silent and stared at the pony, then he spoke, “and when the Four Rings are ordered to find me?”

“They won’t find you. I promise. I’ll get you and all of your friends to be hidden and be protected by the Zebra Kingdom Government. I’ll find a way. I promise.”

“And how do I know that you’re a pony that has that kind of influence??” The stallion asked.

“I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”

The member stared into the purple lights that the pony had for eyes, then rolled his eyes and scoffed, muttering to himself, “i’m bucking insane...”

“Fine! Only to get away from these psychos that our boss works with... We’re headed to the mountains. To the part with the largest mountain that’s highest in the sky. Right next to that is the lowest part, there’s a cave there. That’s where we’re headed.” The member said.

“Thank you. You don’t know how many lives you most likely just saved.” The pony said, looking to the mountains and standing up.

“Alright... Now I’ve kept my end of the deal... Now you have to do the same!” The member said.

The pony nodded and looked back down, “Of course I will.” The pony turned and put it’s hoof to the side of it’s head, muting its voice to the outside.

“Computer... I need you to send a message to the Zebra Kingdom Military. Tell them to show up to these coordinates and take these stallions away. And have them make sure they’re protected and hidden from anypony that might wish to do them harm. Make it anonymous. Also! Use the name that the tipper that the news mare used.” Twilight said.

“Right away Ms. Sparkle. And it has been signed as you asked, with the name ‘Urban Legend’.” AIVHA replied.

“Thank you.”

“Ms. Sparkle... Are you seriously going to allow these stallions to not be taken into custody?” AIVHA asked.

Twilight turned to look at the stallion, her mute staying on. “Everypony deserves a second chance. They will be punished, as they should be for what they’ve done, but everypony deserves a second chance.”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

Twilight turned her mute off and watched as the previous member returned from his break, slowly trotting to them with his rifle aimed to her.

“B-Back off!”

“Don’t worry. Help is on the way. Just remember to use this second chance wisely.”

Twilight looked up and the blasters started, lifting her up off the ground and flying through the sky towards the mountains with the two members sitting alone, accompanied only by their injured comrades.

“... Who was that?” The returning member asked.

“I don’t know... But I really hope they’re a pony who keeps their promises.” The member replied.

Twilight scanned the mountains she was flying over, finding the smallest peak and searching it until she found a small cave entrance.

“There it is!” She said, flying downwards and landing in front, stopping as she looked inside.

“Are you alright, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“... I-I... N-No... B-But I have t-to go inside... I-I have to get the arc reactor and stop anypony else from ever getting it...”

Twilight took one shaky step inside, then another, then another, and another until she found herself walking on her hind legs deeper into the cave. She could feel chills go down her spine as she continued, AIVHA turning on night vision tech so they could see in the dark tunnels.

Eventually they reached the fork, the right side leading to where the Four Rings resided, and the left side leading to the room she, Spitfire and Whooves were held captive.

She took a deep breath and continued down through the left cave, finding the broken door to their room hanging off the hinges. She walked in and could see the place was torn apart, evidence that the Four Rings had been there before and had searched. She trotted over to her previous bed, and looked down, her eyes widening as she saw a cut in the bed.

She put her hooves inside and felt around the entire area, putting her other hoof inside and tearing the bed apart, searching through the bed’s filling in a desperate attempt to find the object she had been looking for.

“No... No! No!!! No!!!! NO!!!!! NO!!!!! NO!!!!!!! NO!!!!!” She yelled out, punching the ground hard with her fist when she gave up.

“... Ms. Sparkle...?” AIVHA hesitantly said.

Twilight was silent, looking down to the ground, covered with the stuffing from the bed, and the arc reactor nowhere in sight. Twilight blinked when AIVHA spoke, wondering just how long they had been in this position, as it felt like it had been forever.

She kept her head down as she was on her knees, “... t-they... They took it... They got here before we could... And now... Now they have it...” Twilight eventually said.

“Ms. Sparkle... We could go back to the lab and find the arc’s energy signature, find out where they hid it.” AIVHA suggested.

“... I made that arc in a cave with a box full of scraps... There’s no way it’ll be able to make an energy signature powerful enough for us to track...”

“... Well… We cannot give up hope yet ma’am... There must be some way we can find it.” AIVHA said.

“..... For now I just want to get home computer..... Then we’ll talk about where to find it.” Twilight said, looking back up to her destroyed bed, and then turning to see two more beds, one that belonged to Spitfire and the other belonging to Whooves.

She got up and sniffed, turning back around and walking outside of the cave. When she left the cave she could see it was night, with Luna’s moon high in the sky. She looked to the ground, seeing burn marks from the escape.

“Are you alright, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“... No... Computer... No, I’m not alright.... I just wish I hadn’t forgotten it... Then maybe Whooves and Spitfire would still be alive... And then... Then they could be home right now... In Equestria... They’d be happy... But now they’re gone... And it’s all because of the Four Rings...” Twilight said, “... let’s just get home computer... I want to get to bed soon after we talk about where they could have taken the arc reactor.”

Twilight took one last look back into the cave before blasting off into the sky. She sniffed again as she remembered Whooves and Spitfire’s faces, remembering their last moments, which they spent trying to make sure Twilight made it out alive.

She looked to the moon and felt her eyes watering slightly, yawning as she had just realized how exhausted she was.

Trixie groaned as she leaned forward, burying her face in her hooves as she sat down on a small bed in the cave room. She could hear the members of the Four Rings searching the room, all of them searching for anything Twilight Sparkle could have left behind.

She looked up to a member and called for him, causing him to trot to her quickly.

“When’s the assassin going to get here? I need to get away from here...” Trixie asked, “No... I deserve to be here... To be in the same room where he sent the prisoners I was forced to torture...”

“Just a few, I checked in a minute ago.” The member said.

“Good... Now go.” Trixie waved him off and buried her face again.

Trixie rubbed her temples softly, perking her ears up when she heard voices from the hallway, knowing they were arriving.

She could still feel a slight pain in the back of her head from after she had visited the leader of her group, it was beginning to throb softly. She was hoping they would finish up soon so she could get back to her office in Equestria and get her medicine.

She looked up as she continued rubbing her temples, but what she saw made her eyes grow wide. She saw a group of her leader’s personal soldiers, all outfitted and armed. But in the middle of them was the leader’s own personal assassin. His own personal guard he trained and hired a few days ago. A stallion with a brown mane, coat and tail. His cutie mark was burned off, and his mane was cut short and in a messy style.

“Dr. Whooves...” Trixie thought to herself, “Oh mother of Faust... What did they do to you...?”

She stood up from the bed and slowly trotted to the stallion, who was looking around the room with an angry glare, his eyes could be shooting daggers out of them.

“S-So. You must be Whov-” Trixie was stopped by one of the soldiers next to Whooves.

“His name is Agent 48, our leader’s personal guard.” The soldier said.

“Ah... Right. So... Agent 48... We were told that you would be able to help us find the special... Item... We’re looking for. Since you remember being here for a time. Do you... Remember why you were here?”

Whooves’ face begun to strain, showing that he was struggling as he was obviously trying to think about why he was there.

“Hey!” One of the soldier said, “unless you want to have a death wish I suggest you don’t ask anymore stupid questions!”

“It’s... Fine.” Whooves said, moving forward to Trixie, “I... I remember something glowing... Something... Something circular and... Purple... Near there.” He pointed a hoof to the area around the beds.

Trixie whistled to her guards and pointed to the same area, all of them nodding and moved there to continue their search.

She looked back to Whooves, his face never changing from it’s angry expression, and his body remaining stiff as if he were ready to attack anypony at any time.

“Boss!” One of Trixie’s guards called out.

She turned and saw him holding a small, glowing, circular purple object in his hoof, trotting slowly to her. “I found it from it's light glowing in one of the beds!”

Trixie used her magic to pick it up, "Hiding it in a bed... Hm." she thought, then showing it to Whooves.

“T-That’s it. That’s... That’s what I saw.” He said, “I can’t remember why... But I remember that.”

“Alright, good! Now come on ponies! We have to get Agent 48 out of here now!” One of the soldiers next to Whooves said, the others taking him away, “and I suggest you all get out of here soon! The Panther might be done attacking that little group of bait in the dessert and will be coming here.”

Trixie’s guards all gulped at the thought of going up against the Panther, and they all began trotting quickly to the exit of the room to the tunnel.

She looked back to the room when she reached the door, then looked forward and continued down the tunnel.

“I knew I should have just killed Whooves instead of let the leader turn him into... This!” Trixie held her head as she felt a sharp pain, forcing her to stop and lean against a wall of the cave, “Nopony deserves what I and the others had to go through....”

She continued holding her head and trotted as fast as she could to the exit, climbing onto the helicopter and hitting the door to the pilot seat, telling them to lift off. They lifted upwards and began flying away from the cave, Trixie sitting down and holding her head, leaning back against the a wall and sighing. She looked outside to the stars and wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I’m sorry Twilight... If only I knew what pain he had put you through... I could have stopped him...”

Finding The Arc

Twilight removed the helmet and put it down on a table, sitting down on one of the nearby chairs and leaning forward, burying her face in her hooves as Spike ran down the stairs.

“Twilight!” He called out, jumping to the mare and hugging her tight, “where the heck did you go???”

“Sorry Spike,” she said, hugging the little dragon back tight, “I went off with the computer to go find something I never should have forgotten.”

“Well thank Faust that you’re back...” Spike tightened his hug before letting her go, sitting down on the chair next to her, “that armor’s pretty sweet too.”

He grabbed the helmet and began looking all around it, poking the two, small rectangular eyes it had, “it could use a bit more color though.”

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes at the little dragon, “oh yeah? Like what?”

“I don’t know. But silver is just too boring.” Spike said, putting the helmet back on the table.

Twilight chuckled again and began messing with Spike’s head spikes, “alright Spike, I’ll think about adding some color.”

“Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA said.

“Yes computer?” Twilight said.

“I have begun my search, and I have begun by looking for areas where the Four Rings are all rumored to be based, along with areas where multiple alleged sightings have been reported.” AIVHA replied.

“Uh... Why are you looking for the Four Rings, Twilight?” Spike asked.

Twilight gulped and took a deep breath, she turned to Spike and let her breath out before she spoke. “Spike... Look. The thing I left behind... It’s one of these.” She pointed to her chest, where Spike knew her arc reactor was underneath, “and... if the Four Rings get a hold of it... Then they’ll be practically unstoppable. With power as great as that...”

“S-So... You’re going to tell the Council, right? A-And you’re going to get them to send military soldiers to go look for this thing, right?” Spike said, his voice getting shakier the more he spoke.

“.... If the Council were to get a hold of it then there’s next to nothing they couldn’t do... I... Spike, I just can’t let power that great fall into the hooves of the Four Rings or the Council... They’ll both abuse it. So I need to find it... Myself.” Twilight answered, looking down as her voice got quiet the more she spoke.

“S-So what?? You’re just going to go out there and probably get captured again because of it?” Spike said.

“No Spike, I won’t get captured.” Twilight replied, doing her best to sound sure of what she was saying. Truth is, she had no idea what would happen if she went hunting for the arc reactor.

“Well how?? That armor you’re wearing??? Will that be enough to protect you??” Spike began breathing frantically, his eyes watery as he spoke, “I... Twilight... Please...”

“Spike... It’s okay... I don’t want to do this, and you clearly don’t want me to do this... But it’s the only way...” Twilight softly patted Spike on the back, who immediately jumped up to Twilight and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

“Please... At least make the armor stronger or something... Don’t let them get you again... Please...” Spike whispered.

“I promise Spike... Don’t worry, I promise.”

Twilight sat down on her chair in her office, Spike standing next to her and climbing up on her desk as a screen rose, showing Twilight a large list of areas the Four Rings are said to be hiding.

“And these are all of them,” she asked, “you’re absolutely positive?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle, these are all of the locations where the Four Rings have been rumored to have been sighted, and be stationed at.”

Twilight sat back in her chair and looked over to her armor, which was standing on it’s hind legs with its forearms extended out to it’s sides. “Computer,” she said, “if we’re going to do this we’ll need a lot of protection. So would you please take the armor and add in more layers of armor? Make it comfortable, but still strong enough to stop gunfire and missiles.”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

“Thank you.”

“Oh!” Spike jumped up, “and add some color to it!”

“Color?” Twilight said, “Spike, this is armor. Not a dress to make look nice.”

“But you can at least add some color to it. It won’t take long to add at all.” Spike replied.

Twilight sighed and shook her head at Spike, ruffling his mohawk, “Okay then, go tell AIVHA what colors you want and how you want it designed. I’m going upstairs. We’ll go out looking for these groups tomorrow, alright computer?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said as Twilight turned and trotted upstairs, a knock echoing through the halls from her front door.

“Who could that be?” She wondered to herself as she approached the large doorway, placing her hoof in the door slot and turning it, opening the door and revealing her friends standing there with small smiles on their faces.

“Girls!” Twilight smiled back as she opened the door wider, letting them inside. “What are you all doing here?”

“Well, we thought that maybe we could just come by and check in on you. How are you doing with the proto-thing you’re making?” Rainbow said, flying inside backwards and leaning back in the air, holding her head in her arms.

“O-Oh! Heh... Well, it’s going!” Twilight said, a big, nervous grin on her face, “I’m making some progress. I just need to find a better battery for it.”

“Well how about you take a little break?” Rainbow said.

“Yes darling, we all were hoping that you were free for today, and we could all go out for lunch together without an interruption? But if you’re still working then we completely understand darling.” Rarity added.

“No, I’m free. We can go now.” Twilight said, ”even though I still need something to actually show to the Council!” And just then, Twilight felt a lightbulb turn on.

“That’s it!!” Twilight exclaimed, taking off for her office while her friends stood at the door, confused as to why Twilight had run off.

Twilight burst into her office and immediately called out for AIVHA, who responded back just as quickly.

“Computer, I need you to draw up plans for a rifle, but the ammunition is made from rubber!” Twilight said.

“Rubber bullets, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“Yes, it’ll fire just the same as a regular gun, but it’ll just harm them, not kill.” Twilight said.

“Why didn’t you just make that instead of the thrusters?” Spike said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame.

Twilight stopped and looked at Spike, then looked to the right, “I wanted to make something that could have multiple uses Spike, but I guess now I’ll have to make this.”

Spike rolled his eyes, “Yeah, alright, I guess that's what you have to say now that you already made them in the last one.”

Twilight simply looked to Spike in complete confusion, unable to fully comprehend what exactly Spike had meant. She eventually shook her head, ignoring Spike for the moment as she turned back to AIVHA, who was already holding down blueprints of various guns, but each designed to fire rubber bullets, and at to fire at a greater force to allow them to cause damage enough to severely injure, but avoid casualties.

“Alright, good job computer.” Twilight said, turning to her friends, “sorry girls, I just have a lot on my mind right now.”

“Don’t worry about it Twilight, we understand,” Rainbow said, “now let’s hurry and get some grub! I’m starving!”

Twilight and the rest shared a short laugh which Rainbow joined in on, and the group of mares left, Spike staying behind and reading more of his comic books.

Twilight returned late in the afternoon, finishing her hayburger as she walked to her castle. She had used magic to hold items for most of her life, and now she was struggling to get used to the machine with an arm attached to her side, holding her hayburger to her right.

She scanned her hoof and the door unlocked, opening itself for her as Twilight took another, quite large, bite out of her hayburger. She saw a small, holographic ball float down to her, greeting AIVHA with a nod as she finished her bite.

“Welcome back, Ms. Sparkle. I assume you and your friends had a fine time?” AIVHA asked.

“Yeah, it was fun,” she responded, swallowing her bite and continuing down the hall to the stairs to her lab, “the girls and I need to go out more often. Well, after we figure out what’s going on with Rainbow Dash.”

“Ms. Dash is troubled?” AIVHA asked.

“Eh, she’s something alright. Really jumpy.” Twilight replied, stepping down the steps into her lab, seeing the suit she wore standing in the center of the lab, under a cloak, Spike laying down next to it and snoring softly.

“Spike wanted it to be a surprise, and so he put the cloak on it.” AIVHA explained.

“Awww, that’s nice.” Twilight looked down to the sleeping dragon, who currently had his thumb in his mouth and was sucking on it softly.

“Please put him on my back computer?” Twilight said.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA lowered an arm down from the ceiling, which gently picked up the baby dragon and placed him down on Twilight’s back, the Body Aid around her opening up and then closing, keeping Spike from falling off her back.

Twilight trotted up the stairs and to Spike’s room, the small dragon snoring softly during the journey there.

Twilight turned around and opened up her Body Aid and dropping Spike down on his bed, turning around as it closed to bite down on his blanket and put it over him.

She smiled and closed the door, turning the dragon’s light off as she did, returning to her lab.

“Do you wish to turn in for the night, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“No, computer. The longer we wait, the closer they could be to discovering something about the Arc. A way to use it for their own purposes. And I can’t have that.” Twilight said, trotting to her armor, biting down on the sheet. She removed the sheet and then turned to her armor, shocked to see the colors Spike had chosen.

The armor was the shade of purple as Twilight’s coat, but it had two lines going down from the neck to the arc, circling around it, and stopping at her legs, one line was orange and the other was blue. The back had a similar pattern, except it didn’t stop to circle around an arc, and instead went straight down, one line was yellow while the other was white. And finally, the plates holding the armor together was pink.

Twilight stepped back, admiring the armor as a soft smile grew.

“Spike knew you would love it,” AIVHA said, “and it turns out he was right.”

Twilight nodded and trotted to the armor, taking a while to walk around it, admiring it, before telling AIVHA to open it up, allowing Twilight to enter the armor. She struggled and groaned as she was on her back hooves, but sighed in relief as the torso area closed and tightened, along with some areas around her hind legs, allowing her to stay up straight without problem.

“Alright, have you found specific locations for the Four Rings?” Twilight asked.

“I have found only a few that I can confirm through extensive and careful examination through the Sparkle Industries satellite photographs taken throughout the years, though the rest are merely simple speculation.” AIVHA said.

“Well we’ll have to take the chance” Twilight said, her helmet closing and her voice modulator activating.

Twilight turned as AIVHA opened the exit from the lab, Twilight activating the thrusters and flying out of the lab as smooth as she could, feeling relieved for the freedom as she was outside.

She flew high into the air as the holographic screen in her helmet showed her a list of several locations, AIVHA speaking to Twilight as the list appeared.

“These are the locations which I believe are bases for the Four Rings, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA explained.

Twilight took a close look at the list as it passed by, nodding when the list was complete, “Alright, you’ll know where exactly to go to computer. So let’s get to the places we are most certain are bases for the Four Rings, capture the members we find there, search the whole base, and then turn the members into the police force of that country.”

“Very well Ms. Sparkle, I have locked our course onto the closest base.” AIVHA said, the suit turning up, flying upside down opposite where they were going before flipping around, flying Twilight towards a mountainous region of Equestria.

The two guards posted outside were sitting opposite each other, both had sweat drops flowing down their foreheads as they looked each other in the eyes, both of them studying each others faces for the slightest sign of facial expression that could give them an advantage.

The one on the left’s ears perked up, hearing something whooshing in the distance. The other heard the noise as well, and took a quick look to the right, seeing nothing, and then returning to their game.

The one on the right squinted his eyes before speaking, “Do you have any fours?”

The other groaned and used his magic to hand over one of his cards, leaving him with two as the other chuckled, taking one of his cards out and putting the two removed cards together in a pile to his left.

“Well do you have any-” The stallion was interrupted by a whirring noise, followed by a large beam that fired at him from his right, sending him hitting the wall, leaving him dazed and rubbing his head. His friend turned to see where the beam had came from, and saw a colored, metal pony floating above the ground in front of the cave, staring directly at him.

“... I’d like to hurt as little ponies as possible, so if you could just sit next to your friend and let my computer tie you up, that would be great.” The pony said with it’s robotic voice.

The stallion nodded and moved to sit down next to his friend, still dazed and holding his head. Then the metal pony moved quickly, tying both of the guards together tightly with rope.

“Now, if you guys leave or try to escape, then I’ll be forced to hit you with my thrusters again. And I’d rather not do that, so please just stay here and wait for me to get back. Thank you.” The pony’s hooves fired beams that made the pony float up, then it turned to the cave and flew inside.

The two could hear gunshots from inside the cave, along with screams and sounds of the beam firing. Then, moments later, there was nothing. Just absolute silence. It was like this for several minutes, but then the two heard another loud whirr from the cave, and the metal pony flew out of the cave, one of it’s hooves holding onto a rope, carrying the rest of the Four Rings members.

“Oh, you’re still here! Good, I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t want to hurt anypony I didn’t have to,” the pony said, it’s other hoof somehow grabbing onto the end of the rope they were attached to, “unfortunately your friends weren’t so willing to stop. And don’t worry about falling, the suit’s hooves have tiny spikes that grab onto any surface they touch, unwilling to let them go unless I were to allow it.”

The stallion who could still see straight and wasn’t dazed nodded, nervously chuckling as the pony began floating up, taking them with it as they flew towards the closest town, being dropped of at the entrance to the police station, a single police officer trotting outside and looking up, seeing the metal pony.

“They’re all yours.” Twilight said, looking upwards and flying off.

“Alright computer,” Twilight said when she flew high up into the air, “now let’s get back to the base and find out whatever we can.”

Twilight turned around and flew at full speed to the cave, slowing down quickly as she approached it, causing her to lose her balance slightly before finally getting used to the speed, reaching the end of the tunnel and stopping, looking around the small room before her filled with computers, boxes of weapons, and more. She stepped into the room and towards a computer, leaning over it and sighing at seeing it locked.

“Give me a moment, Ms. Sparkle, and I can unlock the computer” AIVHA said, various images, text and lines of code appearing in front of Twilight’s face on the holographic screen.

“Alright, and let me out. I’ll go around and look to see if they have the arc.” Twilight said, stepping out of the suit as it opened.

She looked around the room, before trotting to a table covered with various papers. She looked over the papers and saw several blueprints, including some that were clearly the Four Rings trying to replicate several of weapons made by Sparkle Industries.

She moved the blueprints and other papers around, reading them over. She kept seeing the words, ‘group’, ‘bosses’, ‘big guy in charge’ various times in the papers, which were simply status reports on recreating Sparkle Industries’ weaponry.

So there must be multiple ponies that have the Four Rings wrapped around their hooves then... Who could these ponies be? She thought, finding another paper from a more recent date, talking about process with the arc reactor that Twilight had made. She read they had made little progress in harnessing it, but were certain they were close to hitting a breakthrough, all they needed was for the ‘big guy in charge’ to have a little more patience.

Twilight bit down onto this piece of paper, planning on keeping this one. She continued looking over the papers on the table before her ear twitched, her head turning as she heard a small beeping noise.

She kept quiet, hearing another soft beeping, and then another one which was followed by another one, the time between each beep getting shorter and shorter.

“Computer!!” Twilight screamed out, AIVHA stopping immediately and turning around, “We need to get out of here!!!”

Twilight sprinted to the door of the room as the suit flew to her, “Jump, Ms. Sparkle!” AIVHA said.

Twilight jumped and the suit scooped her up, closing shut when she was inside, and flying at full speed out of the cave, the entire room filling with flames that followed Twilight and AIVHA as they flew out, both of them escaping just in time.

The suit stopped and turned around, looking at the flames erupting from the tunnel before dying down.

“Holy cow... That was close...” Twilight said, panting in her suit. Her helmet opened and the paper she was biting onto fell, but Twilight caught it easily.

“Did you figure anything out through their computer?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing, Ms. Sparkle. Their databases are much more difficult to hack into than I had thought. It suggests that they are controlled by somepony very intelligent.” AIVHA responded.

“Darn... Well all I got was this paper, it’s just a progress report. Apparently they’re having trouble working on the arc, but they think they’ll eventually get somewhere.” Twilight said, looking at the piece of paper she held in her hoof, “... How did that place even blow up anyways?”

“They must have found me trying to get into their database, and chose to cause the base to self destruct instead of let us see what they had.” AIVHA replied.

“Alright... But hey, we still have more bases to search before sun rise. Let’s just get those done and get back home.” Twilight said.

“Right, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

Twilight turned and flew off towards the nearest base AIVHA had located.

Three bases in one night doesn’t sound like it’d be a very difficult task, but each base had a very annoying habit of blowing up each time AIVHA had tried to enter their databases.

Twilight sighed in relief as her suit opened up, and she put all four hooves down on the ground. Her eyelids were struggling to stay open, begging for her to lay down and take a rest.

“Goodnight computer...” She tiredly said, yawning as she did.

Twilight made the journey up the stairs and to her room, feeling herself leaning and nearly falling over as she did, but she eventually made it to her bed and laid down right as her eyes shut... For about 30 minutes before Spike came running in through the door, yelling out to her.

“Twilight!” The little dragon said, “did you like the suit?? Did you?”

Twilight’s mane was all over the place, several parts of it sticking upwards. Her eyes remained shut as she bolted upwards, desperately looking around the room for the source of the yelling. “W-w-whaaa...?” She tiredly mumbled.

“Oh. Geez Twilight, you look like you’ve stayed up all night!” Spike said.

Twilight stretched her arms and let out a long yawn, her eyes opening finally and she turned to Spike, “y-yeah Spike...?”

“I said did you like the suit’s colors!” Spike repeated.

“O-Oh yeah! The armor... Yes Spike... I saw it... I love it Spike, thank you...” Twilight said, slowly falling back to sleep once more.

“Twilight!” Spike said, “Come on! You need to get up!”

“Why...? Why can’t I just sleep all day, every day...?” Twilight mumbled.

“Because AIVHA finished the models for the weapons you asked it to make!” Spike said, pulling on Twilight, her head and arm hanging over the side of the bed.

Twilight groaned as she slowly slid downwards, hitting her head against the ground, “Ow...” she mumbled. She flip herself over onto her stomach, groaning loudly as she stood herself up, her legs shaking and her eyes struggling to stay open.

“I-I’m up... I’m up...” She said, standing up straight and rubbing her eyes.

“Good, now let’s go!!” Spike said, pulling on Twilight’s hoof.

“I-I’m still waking up Spike!” Twilight said, pulling against Spike.

“You can do that later, you’ve gotta check out what AIVHA made!” Spike said, leading Twilight down to her lab, where AIVHA’s holographic ball was waiting.

“I apologize for Spike waking you up, Ms. Sparkle. But I just thought you would wish to know how the weapon’s production was going along.” AIVHA said.

“Y-Yeah sure... Show me computer. I’m paying attention.” Twilight said, opening her eyes finally.

AIVHA raised an arm from the floor that carried a standard assault rifle, but one Twilight had asked AIVHA to create to fire bullets made of rubber instead of live rounds.

AIVHA fired the gun, it shooting a dummy, knocking the dummy down and leaving it with no visible holes.

Twilight rubbed her eyes and walked to the dummy, yawning as she leaned her head down and took a closer look, examining the point of impact on the dummy. “How’s the inside looking?” She asked.

“The inside structures seem to all be intact.” AIVHA responded.

“Alright... Alright, good.” Twilight said, yawning, “now Spike, keep out of trouble, and computer, keep working...”

Twilight continued upstairs, stopping at the top to call down to Spike, “and don’t wake me up unless it’s something that absolutely can’t wait!”

Twilight was about to enter her room before she heard a knock on the door, groaning loudly as she trotted to the door, opening it quickly and ready to scream, but quickly shut her mouth when she saw a mail pony there, smiling softly until he saw Twilight’s messy mane and groggy eyes.

“O-Oh! Uh... Hello there!” Twilight said nervously, grinning.

“I, uh... Have a letter for you Ms. Sparkle.” The mail pony said, hoofing Twilight a letter with her Body Aid.

“O-Oh... T-Thank you!” Twilight called to the pony as he flew away quickly.

Twilight sighed and closed the door, turning around and looking down to the letter. Her name was on it, and turning it around and opening it showed Twilight a little piece of paper. Twilight pulled it out and read it aloud.

“You, Twilight Sparkle,” she started, “are hereby invited to attend a party to properly celebrate your return to Equestria that you should have gotten the first day. So please come to Canterlot this Friday evening, forget your meeting with the Council for an evening, and instead enjoy fine dining and the company of close friends and those who care about you from all across Equus.” Twilight looked down to the bottom of the letter and her heart skipped a beat, her mind not truly being able to comprehend that she was reading, “signed, Ms. Trixie Lulamoon”

A Nuisance in the Plans

Trixie rubbed her temples and groaned, the lack of sleep finally getting to her as her eyelids were starting to droop, and she would doze off at random.

She turned to look out her office’s window, seeing several workers surrounding the giant, silver suit they had recovered, along with the arc reactor they had found with Whoo-.... Weapon Y’s... Help...

Trixie’s mind kept going back to thoughts of what exactly her boss had done to Whooves to warp him into this new thing. This... Shell of what he once was. She could remember sitting in the cave, looking for the arc with her team, and then seeing the brown stallion walk directly to her, his eyes searching the entire room, as if there was something he was specifically looking for.

She could see his eyes were blank, and his mind was clearly broken by whatever her boss had done to him. She couldn’t bring herself to think about what he had done. He had already showed how ruthless he was when he ordered Twilight’s horn and wings to be sawed off.

She stared intensely at the desk, remembering the day she and her boss first met. The promise of revenge on Twilight Sparkle was an enticing offer, and so she agreed. But she shouldn’t have... She should have listened to that tiny voice at the back of her head that was telling her to turn away and decline, but was now telling her, ‘I told you so’.

The next thing she knew she was being forced to run a group of terrorists, fillynapping scientists to create weapons, soldiers, anything that could be used to overthrow Equestria.

Trixie was just a normal mare, one who was working on getting past what had happened, but still felt the burning anger and the looks from ponies. The looks that would tell her they remembered, they remembered the day Twilight embarrassed her in front of the whole town.

She was just promised a little bit of harmless revenge, a little poke in Twilight’s back for what she did... But that wasn’t what he had planned at all.

She turned back to her desk and continued watching the footage her boss had sent to her, with the simple text next to it saying, "I'll call you when I'm free". The footage was just the same thing, a shaky camera from one of her Four Rings' henchmen as they ran through their compound, but it occasionally stopped and looked around, allowing Trixie to see a figure fly by quick, looking almost like a bullet flying by the screen through the sky. The footage then shows the figure land, a multi-colored pony made of metal standing on it's hind legs in front of the henchmen, then it raises it's arm and hits them with a beam that knocks them back

The camera can still see a minute more of footage, as it shows a tank drive over to the pony as it flies through the air, but then is knocked out of the sky and crashes hard against the ground. The pony quickly gets up and turns, lifting up and flying to the tank, landing on it and ripping the door open as it throws the door to, and past, the camera. The pony reaches in and somehow manages to grab the pony inside with it's hooves.

It flies off and lands in front of the camera, putting the pony down and then turning around, shooting something from it's shoulders that eventually causes the tank to explode after a few seconds. And then the footage cuts right there, only to repeat the footage again.

Trixie was about to stretch when she heard her desk begin to whirr softly, Trixie jumping up from the sudden noise. Her desk then showed a screen, showing the dark silhouette of her boss.

“B-Boss... I... I wasn’t expecting to hear from you for a couple days.” Trixie said, sitting straight up, “I-I would have-”

“What have you been doing??” The figure began shouting, making Trixie jump nearly a whole foot out of her chair, “I thought I told you I don’t tolerate failure!”

“I-I don’t-” Trixie began.

“You don’t what?? Clearly even you can’t be so unintelligent that you cannot even recognize several of your own headquarters are all disappearing!” The figure shouted to her again, a few of Trixie’s workers outside her office faintly hearing this shouting and turning to see where it was coming from, but eventually they just shrugged it off and continued their work.

“Oh... You mean that iron pony...” Trixie said, then she jumped as a newspaper dropped down on her desk, the scientist who dropped it quickly leaving the room as soon as Trixie looked up to him.

“This “Iron Mare”, as the newspapers have so lovingly decided to call her, has constantly been assaulting your bases, turning your soldiers into the authorities!” The figure said, their anger beginning to grow to the point where Trixie thought that she would start seeing steam emanating from their head at any moment, “what have you been doing???”

“W-Well we’ve been so busy with the suit and the arc... I-I’ve been sending more troops to each base, b-but they’re always stopped by this iron pony!”

“I don’t care about your excuses! I’ve had it with them!” The pony leaned back, taking in a deep breath, calming himself down, “Trixie... When you and I had our little agreement to work together, you promised me that you would work to the best of your abilities. Now, does THIS SEEM LIKE IT’S TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES?!”

Trixie sighed and remained silent, simply shaking her head as a reply. “But how do you know this pony is a mare?” She asked.

“Because Twilight Sparkle’s AI is the only AI in the world who could possibly hack into our computers that fast. But... It still isn’t fast enough before it activates our failsafe systems.” The figure explained.

“So... It’s... Twilight Sparkle? She’s this ‘Iron Mare’?” Trixie asked.

“Precisely.”

Trixie sat back, letting out a breath she wasn’t aware she held in, and turned from the screen, wiping her eyes of tears that were beginning to form, and then turned back to the figure.

“Now, I expect Twilight Sparkle to be dead by tomorrow! You’ll finally get your revenge I promised you. And... To make sure you won’t slack off, I’ve sent a little somepony there to greet you.” The caller ended the call before Trixie could even have the chance to think about what her reply would be.

“Who could they have sent to help me?” Trixie thought to herself. Just then, she heard a knock at the door. Deep and heavy, as if the pony on the other side was trying to hold back punching the door off the hinges.

The door opened and Trixie’s eyes grew, her pupils shrinking to the size of small dots as she saw Dr. Whooves, her boss’ latest slave walk through, a dead and evil expression as he walked in, looking around at the room, a large bag strapped to his back.

He walked to her desk, and grabbed the bag with his teeth, putting it down on her desk, then opening it, showing a large arsenal of guns, each of them made with designs similar to weapons Twilight’s created. Trixie looked up from the weapons to Whooves, who just sneered at her.

“The boss already sent a letter to the target, whoever it is, to meet for a party at the Council building. So get ready for tomorrow.” He said in a dead, monotone voice.

“T-Tomorrow,” Trixie said, “why didn’t he give me more time??”

“He expects you to always be prepared. So shut up, get there, and tell me who to shoot. And here,” he passed a note to her that was in his bag, “boss wanted you to read that over.”

Trixie took the note with her magic and opened it, Whooves grabbing his bag, closing it, and leaving.

”Trixie,” the note read, “I have sent Weapon W over to you to help you get rid of our problem. I expect you to keep Twilight Sparkle’s back turned to him so he can properly take the shot without the possibility of remembering her. He’s a tricky one to keep on our side, but since he’s the only available assassin we have, he’ll have to do. Now don’t fuck this up.”

Trixie gulped as she finished the last line, then placing the note down on her desk in its envelope. She turned to her workers and saw them continuing to work on the suit, seeing they were nearly complete. The whole suit was built, and now they were just ready to put the arc reactor on as well as the rest of the helmet and left arm.

She got up from her chair and walked to her closet, opening it and she began searching through her dresses to find a dress to set aside for the party, praying that time would slow so the party wouldn’t come as fast.

Much to her pleasure, the days seemed to come and go quick, and it wasn’t long before Twilight found herself putting on her old Gala dress, her and her friends each trying on their dresses for the party at Moondancer’s house, who was also trying on a dress Rarity had made for her.

“Oh, we all look simply divine darlings! Our dresses from the Gala never cease to amaze me!” Rarity said, her eyes sparkling as she continued to gaze at her friends in their Gala dresses.

“Yeah, the dresses are beautiful Rarity,” Moondancer said with a smile, “thank you for making this for me.”

“Oh, of course darling. Anything for a dear friend of Twilight.” Rarity replied with a point to Twilight, smiling softly as she saw Rarity pointing to her.

“Though I really wish you’d keep your work at home Twilight,” Rarity said, nodding to Spike, next to AIVHA’s holographic ball, both of which were next to a large curtain made into a cylinder shape that, little to their knowledge, held Twilight’s suit inside, “this is a party Twilight, a time for you to celebrate being back home in Equestria!”

“I know girls, but it’s almost done. I swear.” Twilight said, turning to AIVHA, “right computer?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle. Your prototype is nearly complete.” AIVHA responded.

“Alright, now let’s hurry and get to the party! It’s going to be so awesome!” Rainbow said, jumping up and down excitedly by the door.

Twilight and the rest trotted over to Rainbow, each checking their dresses to make sure they were on properly.

“Twilight,” Spike said from behind, running up to Twilight.

Twilight leaned down and Spike whispered in her ear, “what do you want us to do with the suit after AIVHA is done updating it and fixing it up?”

“Just keep it where it is, and don’t touch it.” Twilight whispered back into his ear.

“Uhhh.... What are you two whispering about?” Rainbow asked, each of Twilight’s friends looking at them.

“Ah, Spike was just asking about the new weapon that I’m making to show the Council tomorrow. Asking stuff about where to store it when the computer is done creating it.”

“Ah, well come on! The party’s going to start soon!” Applejack said, Rainbow opening the door as they all run off without Twilight to the carriage.

“Alright, don’t worry, I’ll be back.” Twilight said, turning and trotting to the carriage with her friends. The door closed as soon as she entered and sat down, and it begun on it’s way.

“Why did you not wish to go to the party, Spike?” AIVHA asked.

“Well there’s gotta be someone to open the door for Twilight next time.” Spike simply said, causing AIVHA to grow confused as to what exactly he meant as he walked away, whistling, “because she doesn’t do well under pressure sometimes.”

Titanium vs Iron

Twilight looked around at the swarm of party guests, seeing a swarm of nobles from across the world, all of them gathered here to celebrate Twilight’s return to Equestria. They all were swarming her at the start, obviously, and it took the intervention of Celestia to get them to back off a bit.

“So, why isn’t Spike here celebrating?” Celestia asked as the latest nobles to speak to Twilight and welcome her back walked away.

“Oh... He said something about opening doors.” Twilight said, Celestia turning with a puzzled look.

“So... I see the Council is really making it their job to get well acquainted with the party guests.” Twilight said, gesturing to Fleur De Lis and her husband, Fancy Pants, chatting with some party guests, while the other two Council members chatted and laughed at a table of a previously alone guest.

“Well Fleur does love any chance to improve her publicity,” Celestia replied, “must be why she even bothered giving you a chance to make non-lethal weaponry in the first place. Oh, how bad would it have looked for her to have turned you down. So, how have things been in Ponyville with you girls?”

“Eh, Twilight and us haven’t really hung out that much.” Rainbow replied.

“Yeah, she’s just been all cooped up in her castle, working on whatever it is she’s got in there.” Applejack added.

“Ah, but it’s completely alright darling, we understand that you wish to prove to the Council that you can create non-lethals.” Rarity added upon seeing Twilight somewhat wince from Rainbow and Applejack’s comments.

“Yeah Twilight, we completely understand.” Fluttershy added, putting her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“So Celestia? My letter I received... It said that this party was orchestrated by Lulamoon Corps., which means... Trixie’s back?” Twilight said, turning to the princess.

Celestia looked down to Twilight, then sighed and turned back to gaze upon the crowd.

“Yes, Twilight. It seems that, after three years of silence, Trixie has finally done something publicly,” She said, “and I think it’s great. Because she came back, and orchestrated something with the Council, all for this very moment.”

Twilight smiled softly as Celestia said that, and the thought of Trixie was in the back of her mind, and then she began taking a closer look at the crowd, “So will she even show up? I mean... It’s not really sensible if you plan a party for somepony and then don’t show up without telling why.”

Celestia was about to open her mouth when Fleur and her husband walked up, Fleur greeting Twilight with her typical friendly greeting that Twilight could see right through. Fleur was angry. And she could see from the way that Fleur looked at the whole party, that she was angry at the party and most likely at Trixie herself.

“Ah! Twilight! My, my, you look quite amazing!” She said, Twilight mentally rolling her eyes at her fake greeting before giving one of her own.

“Ah, Fleur! Thank you, and I have to say that you look quite lovely too!” Twilight said.

“So, I see that all of your friends are here with you.” Fleur said, looking to Twilight’s friend, and stopping at Moondancer, who was at the other side of the table, her head somewhat lowered as if in fear.

“Ah, well who is this?” Fancy Pants asked, causing Moondancer to squeal a little bit.

“Moondancer? She’s another friend of mine.” Twilight answered.

“Ah, Moondancer then. Greetings! I hope you’re enjoying the party!” Fleur said, stopping her husband from greeting himself.

“S-So, Ms. Twilight, I’ve noticed that one of your friends is missing. And it’s been all over the news. I’m terribly sorry for the disappearance for your friend, Pinkamena.”y Fancy Pants said.

Twilight sighed and nodded, “thank you Fancy, that means a lot. My big brother is on the case right now, but I’m just kinda worried because of all the new cases that have been showing up all across Equestria recen-”

Twilight’s train of thought was quickly derailed as soon as she saw a pony behind Fancy Pants and his wife. A light blue pony, with an even lighter shade of blue for her mane, which was carefully done in small waves. Her dress was a shade of purple that instantly reminded Twilight of the cape Trixie loved to wear, with a decor of small stars across it, some even shaping constellations. Underneath that was a light blue addition that also had small star decor at the end. Her eyelashes were done in a color of pink similar to that of Fleur’s own mane, light pink at the top, with a somewhat darker shade at the bottom. And her hooves each had a bracelet, with a star at the front. And what was holding the entire dress together was a small, diamond shaped clip.

“T-Trixie...?” Twilight slowly said, unable to fully believe that she was seeing Trixie standing there, about five feet away from her.

Trixie sighed deeply, closing her eyes as she quickly put on a smile, opening her eyes as she walked closer to Twilight, Fancy Pants moving out of her way as she walked.

“Hello... Twilight.” She said with a smile.

Twilight wrapped her hooves around Trixie with a big smile, squealing as she did.

“I can’t believe you’re here Trixie! I-I-Thank you, for organizing this party for one. And two, what happened?? Why haven’t you been so silent for three whole years?” Twilight said to Trixie, who gulped at the last two questions.

“W-Well Lulamoon Corporation made a deal with a much bigger company three years ago. And they’re incredibly strict, you see. So it only took until recently for us all to finally work out some agreements about how we’ll all act to benefit each other.” Trixie said, smiling still as she nervously tapped her back hoof against the floor.

Trixie looked up to the ceiling, taking a quick look around as she tried to pass it off as if she was stretching, which worked, thankfully.

“Oh... That’s it?” Twilight asked.

Trixie nodded, chuckling softly. She saw movement from the ceiling from her right eye, and she quickly took a peek, seeing a dark figure moving through the area up above, Trixie able to see the figure up above through the hole that allowed those upstairs to peek downward onto the lower level.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Trixie said, “so... I heard you recently escaped imprisonment by the terrorist group known as the Four Rings.”

“Ah, you heard right.” Twilight said, frowning slightly, “but I’d much rather put that behind me, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course Twilight, I completely understand.” Trixie said, her eyes lowering to the light purple glow from Twilight’s dress, Trixie instantly knowing what it was as her eyes quickly went back up to Twilight’s face.

“So, how are you Trixie?” Rainbow asked, “the last time we saw you, you were just starting out your very own business for magic tricks.”

“Ah, I’ve never been better Rainbow Dash.” Trixie replied.

“We’re glad you decided to come back Trixie, ya wouldn’t know how many of us were concerned about you.” Applejack chimed in.

“Yes, we were all wondering what had happened to make you hide.” Fluttershy said.

“Well, I’m glad to be back. And I hope that we can all continue being friends.” Trixie said, “after all, it would be a spit in the face of the pony who helped me.”

“Of course we can Trixie,” Twilight said, “and after this, you and I can work together. Over the years I’ve thought of some ideas over how you and I can work together for more magic tricks and spellbooks your company creates.

“Of course Twilight, that sounds wonderful.” Trixie said, smiling warmly as she felt her eyes water up, holding back the tears as she felt overjoyed by finally being back, but the back of her mind was reminding her about what she was really doing at this party.”

Twilight spoke more as Trixie heard a voice coming from her headset, carefully hidden behind her hair. “I’m in position. Just keep her back turned to me and this’ll be a quick, clean shot.”

Trixie sighed again softly, shakily, immediately regretting it as it came out louder and more noticeable than she planned.

“Trixie? What’s wrong?” Twilight said, concerned.

“Yeah, you okay sugarcube?” Applejack added.

“I-I’m fine, really guys.” Trixie said, her face going back to smiling and warm, as a single tear broke free and rolled down her face.

Twilight’s brows furrowed as she saw the tear, turning her head behind her to see if it was something Trixie was looking at.

“T-Twilight!!” Trixie said quickly, Twilight looking back still and then turning to Trixie, “Trixie, what’s wrong?”

Meanwhile, the figure Trixie saw earlier was staring straight through the scope of his rifle. He was unmoving, and it was aimed to the back of Twilight’s head, and he was about to pull the trigger, if it hadn’t been for Twilight turning and showing her face.

The figure continued staring through the scope, but spoke softly. “T-Trixie... T-This target,” he could see Trixie gulp, “who is she...?”

Trixie chuckled and then spoke loud enough for the whole party to hear, “T-Twilight!!”

The assassin, Whooves, stopped dead, still looking through the scope of his rifle as the purple mare turned the back of her head to him.

“T-Trixie...?” He struggled to say, breathing heavily, “T-Twilight... Twilight... Why... What... Why do I know that name... Why do I... Trixie??? TRIXIE?!?! TWILIGHT! WHO IS SHE TRIXIE?!?!”

Trixie’s eyes grew wide as she, and the rest of the party, heard a voice coming from above them beginning to yell. It continued shouting out Trixie and Twilight’s names until the Royal Guard dragged the stallion down to the main party room.

“TRIXIE! TELL ME WHO SHE IS! WHO IS SHE?!” Whooves continued yelling, allowing the Royal Guard to drag him down to the main room.

“Princess, we’ve found the cause of the noise along with a few of his party gifts.” One of the guards said, another one with a large duffel bag walking up and dropping it, opening it up to show several different type of guns.

Twilight was taken back at seeing them, along with everypony else at the party, and Twilight definitely couldn’t believe that she was watching her friend, Whooves, scream at the top of his lungs, crying out to Trixie of all ponies.

Twilight turned to look at Trixie, who by now was the main focused of the entire party, as everypony stared at Trixie with shock, whispers were heard from the crowd, all of them calling Trixie a liar, a thief, a murderer, and many more.

“T-Trixie,” Twilight managed to say, “W-What’s going on here…?”

Trixie gazed over to Whooves, who was still yelling atop his lungs, and began shaking slightly, her eyes darting all across the room as she began backing away slowly. One of the Royal Guard shouted something, and that was the spark that caused the whole room to explode into an uproar, ponies shouting as the Guard pushed past them, sprinting to Trixie, who yelled and sprinted away, her horn flashing as she tried to cast a teleportation spell.

“Oh no you don’t!” Celestia yelled, casting a spell of her own, summoning a magical wall in front of Trixie, stopping her from casting her spell as she ran through it. Her horn only shooting sparks as she struggled to cast her spell.

“Trixie!!” Twilight called out to her, sprinting after her with the guard as Celestia called to Twilight to stop.

“Twilight! Let the Guard handle her!” Celestia said.

Twilight ignored her teacher and her friends as they called to her, sprinting after Trixie still, a mix of anger, confusion, betrayal running through her mind as she did. But it didn’t take long for Twilight to eventually lose them, Trixie leading the guards through alleys after alleys trying to lose them, only for her to lose Twilight instead with the Guard still hot on her tail.

Twilight panted, leaning down and sitting on the street ground, the bottom of her dress covered in dirt from running through the alleys. “How… How am I going to find her now…?” Twilight asked herself, before a spark went off in her eye, signaling her having an idea.

“I’ll have to think of an excuse for the silver pony being here... But I’m sure I can find Trixie with the suit’s help!”

Twilight got up and began jogging back to Moondancer’s home, panting heavily as the door opened as she stepped a foot in front of it.

“Welcome home Twilight. Need the suit?” Spike said, not looking up from a comic book he was holding.

“Uh… Y-Yeah. I do… How did you know?” Twilight asked, taken back by Spike asking such a question.

“The way it’s written...” Spike looked up to Twilight, her face still one of confusion, “your face! Your face looks like the way it always looks when you’re about to use the suit. And since you do, it’s right beside you.” Spike said again, rolling his eyes and walking away, burying his face back into his comic book again.

“Uhhh...” Twilight began as Spike walked out of the room, but then shook it off and rose one of her hooves, waving it aimlessly to her side, feeling for her suit before finding it.

“Ms. Sparkle, has something happened at the party?” AIVHA asked Twilight, who had unveiled her suit, and opened it up, taking a step inside with the suit, the suit closing shut as she steps inside.

“I... I saw Whooves... But he wasn’t Whooves. He was something else, crazy... I think he tried to shoot somepony at the party.” Twilight answered, her voice modulator activating near the end of her sentence.

“Your friend, Dr. Whooves? Ms. Sparkle, didn’t you tell us that he had become deceased when you had made the escape from the cave you were held in by the Four Rings?” AIVHA asked.

Twilight nodded, “I thought he was... But I guess I was wrong... And Trixie knows just what’s going on, so then if I find her I can find out who he was trying to kill, and why.”

“Uh-huh, and if the Royal Guard ask you just what the Iron Mare is doing at Canterlot?” Spike asked.

“Well I’ll just tell them I was already on this case for a while.” Twilight said, walking to the back door of Moondancer’s house, each step making a dull and loud thud, making the floorboards creak and make the three think that the floorboards were going to come down at any moment.

Twilight opened the door and closed it behind her, the sound of her thrusters activating is heard and she flies off.

“I do hope that Ms. Sparkle will be okay, do you believe she will Spike?” AIVHA asked.

Spike didn’t look up from his comic book, but answered, “Yeah, she’ll be fine. I’m still worried, but I have confidence that Twilight will be fine. She’s got the suit, she can fight back. And honestly, with the stuff going on, she’s going to need it and more.”

Trixie panted heavily as she ran through the halls of her HQ in Canterlot, her dress dirty from running through the streets in her attempt to evade the guard, but to her misfortune the guard had kept their eye on her, following her no matter how many alleys she went down and no matter how many times she thought she lost them, they always just turned a corner that led them right to her.

She ran down the stairs, hearing the guard at the other end of the hallway she just left, making her groan as she continued down.

She then burst through the doors to the lab where her scientists were working on the suit that Twilight had used to escape, which made her stop, giving her an idea.

The guards burst through the door, all of them checking the area, and not seeing Trixie, and they slowed down.

“Alright, it doesn’t look like there are any exist in this room. So she should be in this room, locked with us. You,” the captain of the crew pointed to one soldier, “guard this door. Me and the others will search this place for her. And remember, she doesn’t have the use of her magic, Princess Celestia blocked her horn. Now, spread out.”

The guards all separated as they went deeper into the large lab, one guard checked the area with several computers, all of them attached to large wires that went to the far corner of the room. Another guard checked Trixie’s office, several papers detailing several of them detailing Trixie’s involvement with the Four Rings, and each one talking about a machine that would be used in the future to take over all of Equus.

“Men!” The captain of the crew called out from the far corner of the room. Following the wires, and the voice, the men eventually found themselves next to the captain, each of them staring directly at a giant armor, a body structure similar to that of a Minotaur, and flamethrowers where the hooves are.

“What... Is this thing?” One of the soldiers asked.

“A monstrosity.” The captain of the crew said, “we need to contact Princess Celestia as soon as we’re done here and let her know about this.”

The suit was dark on the inside, and claustrophobic, Trixie breathing heavier with each second she spent trapped inside the silver contraption.

The soldiers then separated, going their separate ways throughout the room, except for a single soldier, who stayed in his spot in front of the suit, even slowly stepping closer, his eyes facing directly towards where Trixie was looking through the eye holes, and his head gently tilted to the left, as though he were listening for something.

Trixie tried to quiet her breaths, but the soldier continued moving closer, sweat slowly dripping down her forehead. The soldier’s eyes grew wide and Trixie knew immediately that she had been caught.

The next thing she knew the arm of the suit was extended, and the soldier was screaming as he was flung backwards, hitting the wall on the far side of the room.

The soldiers all turned straight towards the giant suit, as it raised its arms, it’s flamethrowers firing, each soldier running and/or hiding behind something as the machine made a single step, moving towards the door.

“She’s trying to escape! Don’t let her!” The captain said, moving from his spot, his horn glowing as he prepared to fire a blast of energy towards the machine.

Trixie quickly turned, firing towards the captain, who was quick to get out of the way. Trixie turned back around and walked out of the laboratory, taking the large filing cabinet next to her and dropping it in front of the door.

The captain ran to the door and turned on his trotty-talkie, “We found Trixie! She’s leaving her HQ in a giant, metal suit. She is armed with flamethrowers and very dangerous!”

Twilight flew up into the air in her suit, looking around the city, “Computer, have you finished hacking into the Guards’ communications?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle. And it appears they have found Ms. Lulamoon in her Headquarters for her company. They describe her being in a large, metal suit armed with flamethrowers.”

Twilight’s heart sank, “Oh Trixie... Please stop this...” Twilight flew off towards the Lulamoon Corp. HQ.

Trixie broke through the door, and looked up to the sky, “I just need to get far enough away.” Trixie said to herself.

“Trixie!” A robotic voice called out, making her turn quickly, startled by the sudden cry. She saw a lavender, pony shaped figure land in front of her, standing on it’s hind legs. Trixie looked at the suit and saw the lavender, the pink, the yellow, cyan, orange and white colors on it and knew instantly who it was.

“Twilight... You... You are the Iron Mare...” Trixie breathed out, still unable, or unwilling, to fully comprehend what she was seeing.

“Trixie, please. Stop this. Get out of the suit.” Twilight held her hoof out towards her. “Please.”

Trixie found her gaze stuck on Twilight’s hoof, and for a second, she was about to open the suit, but then she heard the sounds of sirens, alarming her of the Royal Guard’s advance.

“I... I can’t Twilight... I just... I just can’t!” Trixie held her arm back and then swung it towards Twilight, hitting her head on with the back of her hoof, knocking Twilight back far, crashing into one of the Guard’s cruisers.

“T-Trixie!” Twilight coughed as she fell from the hood of the vehicle. Twilight stood back up and looked to Trixie, who’s arm was raised, flamethrower at the ready.

“Stay away from me, Sparkle! I mean it! I can’t go with you!” Trixie said, “Now let me go!”

“... I’m sorry Trixie… But I can’t.” Twilight’s pulse reactors on her hooves began glowing, “Now please... Just come with me. Or I’ll be forced to make you. Please don’t force me to make you.”

Trixie remained silent, but released a missile from her arm, Twilight instantly raising her hand and firing a beam towards it, instantly detonating it. The detonation caused Trixie to stumble back slightly, and Twilight’s pulse reactors on her bottom hooves fired, allowing Twilight to jump forward, knocking her hoof directly onto Trixie’s helmet.

Trixie fell down onto the ground, and then activated her shoulder missiles, which turned and shot towards Twilight, hitting her helmet and knocking her far back. Twilight managed to start up her blasters just in time, catching herself in mid-air.

Trixie picked up a parked auto carriage next to her and threw it, Twilight being knocked back by the projectile.

Twilight hit the ground and Trixie started up her bottom hooves’ blasters, flying up to escape the city.

“No! Trixie!” Twilight cried out, starting up her own blasters and flying after her, knocking into her, causing the two to fall and crash onto the ground.

The two landed next to Spike’s favorite donut shop. Twilight groaned as she struggled getting up, but Trixie was already up, and kicked Twilight with her bottom hoof, sending her flying to the side into the next building across the street, an auto carriage hitting her as she hit the wall.

“Computer-”

“The building is uninhabited, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA quickly replied, Twilight sighing in relief.

“Good, now I can take the fight here.”

Twilight shot up into the air, Trixie following her into the air, swinging towards her. But Twilight managed to move quicker than Trixie, and knocking her down into the building, crashing through the roof.

Twilight floated where she was for a moment, hoping Trixie was finished with the fight, but quickly knew she wasn’t as she fired a blast towards the lavender mare, knocking her down to the ground.

Trixie crashed through the wall, and turned her head, seeing a bus stopping right in front of her. She picked up the bus with a groan and throwing it towards Twilight, who quickly caught it.

The passengers screamed as they were flown to the lavender mare, and each sighed in relief as the lavender mare caught them and put them down.

Twilight flew over the bus, but was hit by a stallionhole cover, and then punched back, crashing onto the ground.

Trixie landed a few feet away from Twilight, another stallionhole cover in her hoof.

Twilight got up and quickly flew towards Trixie, knocking her up into the air, "Trixie! Please! Get out of the suit! Stop this!"

Trixie knocked Twilight down to the ground, and she continued falling. She turned and saw the castle that the party for Twilight was at, and she could see the Council quickly coming closer to her as she fell towards them.

She shut her eyes tight, but didn't hear the impact of metal on concrete and ponies, instead she felt herself get stopped. She opened her eyes to see Twilight holding Trixie, firing her bottom thrusters at full capacity, groaning as they flew up towards the sky.

Trixie tried knocking Twilight with the stallionhole cover, but Twilight fired at it with her thrusters, knocking it out of her hoof, and then felt Twilight's hoof knock into her, sending her flying.

“Ms. Sparkle, I strongly implore you to look towards her chest. The suit uses the same power source as yours.” AIVHA said.

“The first arc! So I just need to tear it out of her, or at least temporarily disable it.” Twilight said.

“Exactly.”

Twilight jumped forward and brought her hoof down to Trixie’s helmet, knocking her into the ground as Twilight pressed her hoof against Trixie’s suit’s chest, grabbing onto the area around the arc tightly with her miniature claws, and began to pull.

Trixie punched Twilight, the sound of metal crashing against concrete was heard as Twilight slid away, groaning as she got up, only to be knocked back down by Trixie, who held her bottom hoof against Twilight’s chest, holding her there.

“! Let me go! I’ve caused enough pain! I’ve gone too far! Just let me leave!” She cried out.

“Why…? Why won’t you let us help you?!” Twilight groaned, struggling to lift her foot as her own suit was finding slight difficulty turning her blasters on.

“I thought this was what I wanted! Revenge on you! But I realized too late that I was getting more than what I asked for! I didn’t want any part of it and now I just want to leave! So leave me be!” Trixie cried out.

“Ms. Sparkle, you have enough energy for one blast.” AIVHA told Twilight.

“Then let’s make it count...” Twilight thought, quickly lifting her arm up and firing, hitting Trixie’s arc reactor, the beam from Twilight quickly going up and hitting Trixie’s helmet, knocking her back with a loud yell and a thud as she hit the concrete behind her.

Her suit slowly began regaining it’s energy, so Twilight had to stand back up slowly, and she slowly moved to Trixie’s head, praying as she tore off the face, seeing Trixie’s teary face.

“The ponies I was working with will find you...” she managed to say in between sniffs and sobs, “and they’ll find me too...”

“... Well then I’ll stop them.” Twilight said, looking up as she saw the Royal Guard slowly begin trotting towards them. She activated her blasters and flew away, leaving the Guards alone with Trixie, crying in the suit on the ground.

Twilight looked at the newspaper Spike was showing her, using her hoof aid to apply her makeup.

“Catchy name, isn’t it?” Spike said.

“‘Iron Mare’?” Twilight said, “well I guess it’s pretty nice. But don’t get used to this Spike. This is only lasting until I take down the Four Rings.

“Well yeah, but doesn’t mean we can’t have a cool name to go along with it.” Spike said “So, this party is going to have a big cake there, right?”

Twilight giggled softly, “Yes Spike, the cake should be pretty big.”

“Ms. Sparkle. I have put the suit away as instructed, and am now running more scans over satellite images to pinpoint more areas where the Four Rings could possibly be hiding.” AIVHA said.

“Alright, thank you computer. Now come on Spike,” Twilight said as she got up, trotting to the door of Moondancer’s home, “we’ll wait for her here.”

“I’m here, I’m here!” Moondancer said, trotting down the stairs quickly. “So the others are already there?”

“Yes, now come on guys. But first, we have a stop to make...”

Twilight looked through the mirror into the interrogation room, Whooves sitting alone in the room, looking down to his hooves with an expressionless face.

“... I’ll just be a minute. I just… I just need to talk to him.”

Celestia nodded to the guard at the door, and he opened it, allowing Twilight to pass through.

“H-Hey… Whooves… Dr. Whooves? You… You remember me… Right?” Twilight said as she as she sat down across from him.

“... Twilight...” He simply said.

Twilight smiled and nodded. “... Whooves. Please. You can tell me. Who hurt you? Who did this to you? Who wanted me dead?”

“I’ve already told you… I don’t know who, why or where… I can’t remember. I’m sorry...” Whooves replied.

“... It’s okay... You know... You can come to my party that the Council is throwing for me before you leave.” Twilight said, “another party since the last one... Y-You know...”

Whooves remained silent.

“... And they just wanted me to remind you to call them if you can remember anything.” Twilight continued.

“I… I know. And I would love to go to your party… But I remember my home before I was fillynapped... Where I moved to, and found the love of my life... Where I raised a child with her... And I just need to go back to Manehatten Twilight. I need to.”

Twilight nodded, “Alright... And remember, you can call me too if you need anything Whooves.”

Whooves nodded, and Twilight sat up and hugged him tight, Whooves remaining still and staring at the table. Twilight broke the hug and trotted to Celestia, “I’m ready to go now.”

Twilight smiled as her mother and father hugged her tight, her returning the hug with a few tears shed between the three.

“We’re so glad you’re back here and safe sweetie. We were… We were so worried.” Twilight’s mother said, her voice cracking up as her eyes teared up again.

Twilight’s father patted her back and smiled to his daughter, “We both were worried sick for you, Twilight.”

“I missed you two too.” Twilight said.

“Excuse me, Twilight?” Princess Luna said to Twilight, “It’s time for you to go up.”

Twilight nodded and gave her parents’ one last hug, then following Luna up to the stage at the end of the room. Twilight trotted up to the stage and turned to the crowd of ponies, Celestia stepping to the side next to her sister as Twilight cleared her throat.

“Hello everypony. Thank you all for coming. Your support, everything, all of it. It means so much. You being here truly warms my heart. I just wish… I just wish Pinkie Pie were also here to celebrate.” Twilight said, smiling sadly as she thought of Pinkie.

“We’re all sure Pinkie would have made this party the best one she could ever throw.” Celestia said, patting her student’s back.

Twilight chuckled softly, and sniffed, “Yeah... She would have. Anypony have any questions before we get back to the party? Oh? Um... Yes?” Twilight pointed to the mare raising her hoof up high, struggling to stand up the highest, like a small filly in school.

“Ms. Sparkle! What do you think about the pony that’s making all the news: The Iron Mare?”

“The Iron Mare?” Twilight said, gulping softly, “I... Uh... Well...” Twilight looked down, and began thinking, she stood like that for a while, before the mare spoke up again.

“Ms. Sparkle? Are you okay?” The mare asked, snapping Twilight from her trance.

Twilight remained silent as she looked to the crowd, and she then let out a deep breath, “.... I am Iron Mare.”

The room exploded after that, everypony standing up, each member of the press shouting their own questions and pushing past the nobles, trying their hardest to get their question heard and answered.

Twilight let out another deep breath as she watched the press shout their questions and push past the nobles, and she could see the Council member, Fleur, at the back of the room, her eyes open wide in surprise, and her mouth open to allow Twilight to see she was grinding her teeth in anger.

Twilight closed her eyes and smiled, knowing that nothing was going to be the same after this party.

Twilight Sparkle Is....

Twilight Sparkle looked out the window of the carriage she was riding in with three of the royal guards, seeing vast amounts of desert outside, not a single building or pony in sight. She was visiting the desert of the Zebra Kingdom to spectate a new weapon that was being created by a smaller division of her company.

Twilight hated seeing her company, a company dedicated to benefiting the lives of ponies, build weapons that had the means to kill all who stood on the other end of it. If she had it her way then she would shut down the weapons division and make her company's’ focus on making anything that can help a pony's’ life, but it wasn’t in her control, she was forced to have a division in her company focused solely on making weapons by the Equestrian Council.

Twilight and Princess Celestia were cornered by the Council during the meeting that was discussing the future of Twilight’s company, Sparkle Industry, and had no way of getting out. Twilight and Celestia both felt as though Sparkle Industry should help a pony's life, but the rest of the nobles kept saying that her company should be focused solely on using Twilight's brilliant mind to focus on protecting Equestria with the creation of new weapons to fight off any invaders from the other nations. Twilight and Celestia both disagreed, but there was no way of fighting back when the Council felt the same way as the nobles. So the Council let Twilight focus half of her company on creating new inventions to help a pony's’ life be more convenient, while the other half focused on the creation of weapons to kill. Twilight didn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue with the Council. So she just nodded her head and kept her anger to herself.

“Sparkle,” Twilight’s ear twitched when she heard somepony call her name to show she was listening. “So how exactly do you feel about the whole weapons division?”

Twilight narrowed her brow and turned to the mare to her left who had asked the question, “What do you mean?”

“Well you clearly didn’t look all that happy seeing the show, so I’m just curious as to what your thoughts are.” The mare continued.

“Well I’d be lying if I said it was part of my vision for the future of the company.” Twilight said, sighing. She looked back out the window as the mare spoke.

“The Council?” The mare said.

Twilight nodded. “They believe that my company has the responsibility to protect Equestria,” Twilight looked back to the mare, “but at least they let me have half of my company focused on what we were really meant to do.”

The mare nodded and looked forward, out the front of the carriage before turning back to Twilight and holding out her hoof.

“Sorry ma’am. Name’s Spitfire.”

Twilight held her hoof to the mare’s side and they both rose their hoofs up and down, “A pleasure Spitfire.”

“I’m sorry Ms. Sparkle, but the pleasure it all mine.” Spitfire said.

Twilight nodded and looked back out the window, the carriage going quiet again except for the sound of the wheels rolling on the pony-made gravel road below.

Her horn began emitting a purple aura as Twilight levitated a small notepad and pen from her bag. She looked over the notepad and began scribbling on it, crossing out ‘spectate new hydra weapon show’ off the list.

Okay, so now I just have to go to the meeting with Celestia and Luna to discuss with the Council what to do about the strange creature attacking poachers in the Zebra Kingdom. Twilight bit the inside of her cheek and began thinking about the strange creature, that was described to be zebra shaped, but it was completely black and had two white eyes.

“WATCH OUT!” Twilight was pulled from her thoughts when she heard Spitfire scream next to her and hearing the loud explosion of the carriage in front of them.

The carriage came to an immediate stop and the soldiers began grabbing their specially made weapon gloves, along with their weapons, while Spitfire held Twilight down and told her to stay in the car and stay down.

Twilight did just that without a moment of hesitation by getting down onto the floor and covering her head with her hooves defensively, hearing explosions coming from outside.

Spitfire began shouting orders to the soldier ponies, staying inside with Twilight, but Twilight could only hear the explosions from outside and her own thoughts that were praying to Faust they would get out of this alive.

Twilight felt her whole body shaking and her breaths getting more frantic and rapid. She looked up a bit to look out the window, but was forced back down by Spitfire.

“Twilight! Stay down! We need you to stay here until we can get a hole in the enemy! Then you and I will get out and get as far from here as possible and send a message for pickup!” Spitfire yelled over the sounds of explosions.

Spitfire looked back out the window, her weapon glove ready to fire at any enemy she saw, and saw that almost half of the soldiers they had were already dead or injured. But Spitfire managed to spot a large hole in the enemy fire to the south-west of the carriage.

“Alright Ms. Sparkle, it’s time to get up and moving! There’s an opening in the enemy's’ fire at 7:00! We have to get there fast while our troops give us covering fire!” Twilight could barely hear Spitfire’s words through the explosions, even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs, but when she saw Spitfire open the carriage door and step out Twilight took it as her opportunity to run. So she took the chance.

Spitfire began firing on the enemy group that was in front of the carriage while Twilight ran south-west of the carriage as fast as she could, hoping that Spitfire and the rest of the soldiers would be able to keep the enemy at bay.

Twilight ran to a large rock and jumped behind it, crouching down and staying low with no intent to look up. She took out her DragonFireDroid, a small rectangular object that makes and receives letters based off of Dragon Fire magic, and instantly tried to make contact with Princess Celestia.

Come on, come on, come on, come on! Please! Twilight prayed that the call would go through every time she pushed redial when the Droid said the call couldn’t have been made.

THUMP

Twilight turned her head immediately when she heard the object come in contact with the ground, seeing a cylinder object sticking out of the ground that read ‘Sparkle Industries’.

Twilight began getting up, but the object exploded and sent her flying, blood flowing out of her body slowly as her body fell onto the ground.

She looked down to her chest and stomach, seeing the blood was continuing to flow out, and she could feel her consciousness slowly fading away as she turned to her right, seeing a group of soldiers trotting towards her with an unconscious Spitfire laying on one of the soldier’s back.

Twilight heard the ponies talking, but couldn’t make out what exactly they were saying. She tried to see exactly what was going on, but she couldn’t see anything through the potato sack that was covering her face, but she could make out bright lights and pony shaped silhouettes in the lights.

She was forced to shut her eyes when the sack was suddenly removed, hearing a pony with a very thick accent say her name. She looked around as her vision adjusted, seeing she was in a cave, surrounded by soldiers with their weapons aimed directly at her head.

She closed her eyes tight as she tried to use a spell to get out of there when she got her bearing as to where she was, but felt immense pain when she tried to perform the spell. She tried again and again, but found she just wasn’t able to perform the spell.

She felt streams of tears flow down her face as she continued to try a spell, any spell, and saw flashes of her time before arriving at the Zebra Kingdom desert to try to calm her down, but to no avail. She tried to open out her wings, hoping that somehow she’d be able to cut the ropes with her wings and somehow learn how to fly fast enough to escape the cave in ten seconds, but she felt immense pain crawl up her back as she tried to open her wings.

Eventually the immense pain emanating from her forehead and back caused her to black out slowly, her eyes slowly shutting as her she went unconscious as her captors continued to speak in their foreign language.

“Twilight!”

Twilight turned to see who had said her name, but was met with a several figures surrounding her and hugging her tightly.

“Girls!” Twilight strained to say, feeling the pressure of their hug crushing her. She saw a larger, white figure approach them, chuckling softly. “Princess Celestia!”

“Hello my faithful student, I must speak for all of us here when I say that we are so proud of you for winning your award.” Celestia said.

Twilight looked at the medal that was wrapped around her neck and frowned, taking the medal off and holding it out.

“I got it because of the weapons division....” She said, looking at the medal, “I got it for creating weapons that murder ponies.”

Celestia showed a frown of her own. “I know you’re not happy with the Council for forcing it onto your company, but until I can find some way to change their mind then this is the only way.”

“I just cannot believe that the Council would force Twilight to do such a thing.” The white fashionista unicorn, Rarity, said.

“They’re looking out for Equestria. They don’t want anypony from the other Kingdoms coming in and attacking us with us completely unprepared. I can see why they did it, but it’s not fair they had to force Twi to do it.” The cyan pegasus currently flying above the rest, named Rainbow Dash, said.

Twilight looked back to the large Canterlot building behind them, it’s architecture resembling something from the pony Victorian Era, with carriages parked outside as some left with nobels inside while others were left. The bright lights were on and the spotlights shown in the air, brightening up the midnight sky. The party was still on inside, but Twilight needed to step out for a breath of fresh air, feeling over cumbered by the amounts of nobles that surrounded Twilight as they all congratulated her on her medal.

“The Council shouldn’t have to ask or tell anypony to create weapons that were created for the sole intent of murdering anypony.” Celestia said, her voice sounding firm and filled with anger. She had been nearly begging the Council to reconsider their demands that Twilight be forced to make weapons of murder, but they always said the same thing every time.

Twilight looked up to her teacher, seeing she was looking down at the ground with fury in her eyes, it was rare for Twilight to see her teacher this angry before, but now that the Council is forcing Twilight’s company to make weapons the sight of Celestia angry is almost a common sight.

“Twilight, we should get going now. The Council has told us to meet with your top scientists in your weapons division in the desert in the Zebra Kingdom to test out the newest weapon they have created.” Celestia said.

“Did they ask or order?” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you think the Council said?” Celestia said, raising her head. She and her student shared a soft laugh while Applejack spoke.

“Why are the Zebra’s okay with y'all testing yer weapon thing in the desert in their kingdom?”

“We’re testing in the desert, miles and miles away from the nearest village. The Zebra’s still weren’t okay with us testing even in the desert though, but the Council eventually got them to let us do a quick test and leave immediately afterwards.” Twilight answered.

“We should really get going Twilight, we need to meet with the Council in a few hours.” Celestia said, looking up to the moon, which was already beginning to lower in the sky.

Twilight nodded and said her goodbyes to her friends as they said theirs as they trotted to the train station.

Celestia led Twilight to her chariot, which took them high to the sky and towards the east, to the Zebra Kingdom, while Celestia and Twilight enjoyed a chat.

“So, anything new that my student is working on currently?” Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded. “A couple things. Most notably a prototype for a new invention that should allow a pony to watch moving pictures taken from anywhere on Equus.”

Celestia gave Twilight a warm smile at this. “You’re really changing ponies’ lives my student. I’m so proud of what you and your company have accomplished.” Celestia turned her head to look out of the chariot and grit her teeth, whispering to herself but speaking loud enough that Twilight could hear what she was saying. “Except for the decision by the Council.”

Twilight turned to look out of the chariot with Celestia, seeing the Zebra kingdom approaching fast. “I’m sure one day you’ll be able to get the Council to change their minds Princess, they can’t ignore you forever.”

Celestia sighed and closed her eyes, shaking her head softly. “I hope you are right Twilight.”

The chariot continued flying until it was in the desert of the Zebra Kingdom, seeing a large group of ponies standing next to a mountain in the shade the mountain gave off from the sun Celestia had just risen.

The chariot landed next to the ponies and Twilight saw that the Council was there, along with her top scientists from the weapons division, and a group of zebras that Twilight figured were here to watch them and make sure they were here to simply test the weapon and not cause harm to the kingdom.

The Council, which consisted of a earth pony stallion with a purple coat with a mane that was a darker shade of purple, a pegasus mare with a light blue mane and a dark gray coat, and finally a unicorn mare with a light pink mane and an equally colored coat, both colored lighter than Pinkie Pie’s mane and coat.

“Ah! Ms. Sparkle! We are glad to see you have finally made it!” The stallion said upon seeing Celestia and Twilight step out of the chariot. He was the kindest of the Council members, along with the pegasus mare, and even Celestia would say that she found him somewhat bearable.

“Now that you are both here we can finally begin with the demonstration to see if Ms. Sparkle has been following our instructions clearly.” The unicorn mare said. She was the Council member who first said that Twilight’s company should be focused on making weapons, if it wasn’t for the earth pony and the pegasus stepping in and suggesting that Twilight’s company was split in two divisions, then her whole company would be making weapons around the clock.

“I’m sure she has Flur, now please. Let us get this over with.” The pegasus mare said, looking to a small group of soldier ponies and nodding.

Twilight gulped, feeling her legs shaking softly as the soldiers began preparing the weapon to be fired.

“Now, Ms. Sparkle. Would you care to tell us exactly what the weapon should do?” The unicorn mare said.

Twilight looked over to her and gave her a friendly smile while nodding softly, but on the inside she wanted to blast the mare all the way to the moon. Or the sun.

She walked in front of the group of ponies while the soldiers finished preparing the weapon to be shot harmlessly a couple miles in front of them.

“The Council has asked us to answer the call that would allow us to attack our enemies across a wide range without our soldiers having to get close enough to be in danger of being harmed. We here at Sparkle Industries’ weapon division have answered that with what the scientists have taken to calling, the Hydra Cannon.” Twilight gestured to the Hydra Cannon, which had four large missiles sticking from its rectangular shape that was aimed to the sky, and the Council members looked to it. The unicorn mare nodded her head softly.

“With this cannon our soldiers can stand to a limit of four miles of the enemy and shoot this cannon, it’s four primary missiles will break into pieces of several smaller pieces and spread across a two mile wide area that will.... Harm.... Anything in it’s way,” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat as she took a break, not wanting to say that dreadful k-word, “I regret to say though that it cannot do damage to enemies that are hiding in underground bunkers, but it does to those who are above ground.”

Twilight turned to the soldiers, who were staring at her and waiting for their order, and nodded her head. The soldiers began pushing the buttons on the machine, which began giving off a low and deep rumbling noise as it activated.

Twilight rolled her eyes as she began her last part of the speech that the Council forced her to say at the end of every weapons presentation.

“Mares and gentlecolts, I, Twilight Sparkle, present to you...... The future.” Twilight held her hooves out to her sides lazily as the weapon shot, the four missiles breaking off into smaller pieces that crashed onto the ground miles away, creating a large boom, making the zebra’s there incredibly uncomfortable, that was soon followed by a large gust of wind blowing towards the group of ponies and zebras.

The Council members began clapping, the unicorn mare clapping with more enthusiasm than the rest.

Twilight lowered her hooves and walked to Celestia, standing next to her while the Council members talked to the zebras that were watching the whole show.

“Twilight, I must leave now, but you must stay. I am sending you with the soldiers on your way to the Zebra Kingdom’s capital to speak with them about the message they sent us last night.” Celestia said to her prized student.

“What message?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head to the side lightly.

“I still do not know. But you should hurry to them, they made their message seem urgent. They claim to have more information for us in Equestria about the one they refer to as the ‘Black Panther.’” Celestia said, causing Twilight to become even more confused.

“The Black Panther? You mean that strange, black creature running around the jungles here?” Twilight said.

“Exactly, they claim that the information was for us specifically. I do not have even the slightest guess on what they would like to share with us, or even what the Black Panther has to do with us, but they would not call for us without reason.” Celestia said, walking to her chariot, “Good luck my student.”

Twilight nodded and waved Celestia off as her chariot flew off, followed soon by the Council’s chariot. She turned and saw the group of soldiers packing the weapon up in one of their carriages, breaking it down into a smaller shape to fit inside.

One of the soldiers walked up to her, a pegasus mare with a fiery mane and coat color, and saluted to her, leading her to the carriage. The carriages began moving and they were quickly on their way to the Zebra Kingdom’s capital.

Twilight woke up with the feeling of her head being submerged under water, feeling the cold liquid surround her she began to spastically move around, desperate to escape the grip of her captor and run as fast as she could.

But she had no avail and was held under the water long enough for her consciousness to slowly begin slipping away, but only for her head to be pulled back up and slapped hard.

“Uh, uh, uh.” She heard a deep voice with a thick accent say.

Twilight tried again to cast a spell, but felt more pain when she attempted, hearing numerous amounts of chuckling around her as she cried out in pain.

She was forcefully turned to the right and shown a mirror, showing her a sight that caused tears to flow from her eyes.

They had sawed off her horn, her wings included.

Her tears began flowing down as she cried out in fear, only causing a bit more chuckling from her captors that surrounded her.

She was turned back left and met with a zebra, a large gash going down his left eye that left it completely white, absolutely useless. The zebra was munching on an apple as it watched Twilight as if he were studying her. The zebra then grinned.

He turned to his back and nodded, a pair of large earth pony stallions carrying something between them walked towards Twilight. Upon closer look Twilight saw that the thing they were carrying was a pony! And not just any pony, a pegasus pony with a fiery color scheme.

Twilight’s eyes widened when she realized the mare they were carrying was Spitfire, one of her guards. Since she’s the only one here, that means the others must be....

Twilight shut her eyes tight, fighting off her tears that were forming at the thought of those ponies dying for her. She opened her eyes and took another look at Spitfire, only to have the tears she had been fighting back flow out of her eyes when she saw her back.

Just like Twilight’s horn and wings, Spitfire’s wings were also sawed off.

Twilight cried out to the unconscious mare, sighing in relief as she saw Spitfire shift around in the stallion’s arms.

The zebra in front of Twilight said something in a foreign language to the two stallions holding onto Spitfire, both of them nodding at what the zebra had said and walking off behind Twilight with Spitfire.

“Wait! Where-Where are you taking her?” Twilight screamed, more tears threatening to break free. She began frantically shifting in her captor’s grasp, trying to look behind her to see where the two stallions were taking Spitfire.

The zebra gave another order, this time to her captor, and Twilight was taken, kicking and screaming, to where the previous stallions had taken Spitfire. She was taken to a large doorway that opened up an even larger room, filled with tables that were filled with medical supplies all across the tables, on the other side of the room was an anvil with a large fireplace that was currently unlit. Twilight’s eyes went to the other side of the room, opposite of where she was, and, sitting in the middle while his eyes glanced downward as he tended to Spitfire, sat a stallion with a brown coat, mane, but his light blue eyes stayed focused on Spitfire as they glanced only once up to Twilight, with the glance lasting no longer than a second before he returned his attention to Spitfire.

Twilight was released from her grasp and pushed into the room, falling down onto her stomach as the stallion quickly ran to her, lowering his head underneath her stomach and pushing up, lifting her up down his neck and to his back as he carried her to the other side of the room with Spitfire. He placed her down softly on the rock floor and continued working with Spitfire again.

Twilight looked back to the door and saw the zebra and the stallions on the other side of the doorway. The zebra said something to the stallion in an foreign language, causing the stallion to jerk his head upwards and stare at the zebra with a face of absolute shock and horror, and then the doors were slammed shut with enough force to make Twilight think she felt the whole mountain shake slightly.

The stallion ran over to Twilight and laid her down on her back, spreading her front hooves, his face morphing to shock as he looked down on her chest.

Twilight, a slight blush on her face, tried to ask the stallion what was the matter, but she felt a stinging pain in her chest right as she opened her mouth to ask the question, causing her to cry out in pain.

The stallion ran to a table and came back with a large cylinder and a mask that he put onto Twilight’s snout quick before turning back to the cylinder and flipping a gear.

Twilight wanted to ask what was going on, to beg for answers, but she soon found consciousness fade away as her eyelids became harder and harder to keep open. Before her eyelids shut completely and she fell into unconsciousness she saw the stallion run back over to another table, walking over to her the stallion placed his hoof on the mare’s cheek.

“Don’t worry,” the stallion said, his voice showing he was doing his best to sound reassuring, “you’re going to be just fine, Ms. Sparkle.” And with his last words ringing in her head, Twilight fell into unconsciousness.

A Pain in the Chest and Early Concepts

Twilight moved the blueprint to the side and sat up, looking upwards to the ceiling. “Computer, activate.” Twilight said.

Then, moments later a small, purple holographic ball appeared next to Twilight.

“Hello Ms. Sparkle. I’ll have you know that I have not deactivated since your departure and disappearance 217 days ago. I had begun tracking your survival chances at about 14% before today as a matter of fact. But I had always kept the possibility that you would return, regardless of the odds.” The holographic ball said, a line inside of it moving in small waves as it spoke.

“Yeah... I, uh... Missed you too.” Twilight said, shifting in her chair and clearing her throat, “Now, we’ve got some wor-”

“Would you like for me to play the 4,298 messages including e-mails, and calls you have received since then?” The ball asked.

“N-No thank you computer. I’ll check them at a later date. Right now I have to plan out and build a prototype for a nonlethal weapon to show off to the Council by the end of the week. That’s seven days we have to use to our advantage.” Twilight answered.

“Very well then. I shall place them in the ‘to be looked upon later’ folder. Now, what ideas do you have as of now, Ms. Sparkle?” The ball said.

“Well, for right now I need to focus on something else for a bit.” Twilight turned her chair and pointed to the small circle on her chest, “I’d like you to scan this and tell me exactly what it is. A.... Friend of mine.... Told me that it was some sort of a magnet. But I’d like to know exactly why they put a magnet inside of me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The ball said, as a mechanical arm lowered itself from the ceiling, then releasing a thin, horizontal bar that sent out a small and thin purple light that surrounded Twilight’s chest. It stayed there for a few seconds before the light disappeared and the bar turned 90 degrees, spreading it’s two pieces open and showing a hologram screen in between them, showing an image of Twilight’s chest.

“Alright, now enhance and scan in to show the cardiovascular layer, specifically my heart. I want to know what’s there.” Twilight said.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer replied, the holographic screen zooming in slightly and the image changing to show an image of Twilight’s heart, and what seemed like dozens of sharp pieces of metal around her heart.

“C-Computer...?” Twilight said, her voice cracking as she began breathing heavily, “W-What’s that?”

“Those appear to be small pieces of metal. More specifically though, they are pieces of shrapnel made, the metal they are made out of seems to show that the pieces were made from your company.” The computer replied.

“The bomb....” Twilight slowly realized, “t-the battery! No! I left the battery! And the replacement! I left that there too!!!”

Twilight put a hoof to her chest, breathing in quick and short breaths to try and control her breathing as her heart started beating rapidly.

“The object seems to be losing it’s effectiveness.” The computer said.

“W-What can we make that can perhaps stand as a permanent replacement for the battery and the current object?” Twilight asked, “could we maybe make a smaller version of the arc reactor? And use that?”

“Odds of you surviving this theory are 47 percent, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer replied.

“Are there any ways to raise the chances?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Twilight sighed deeply and ran her hoof through her mane, then buried her face in her hooves. She didn’t know what kind of battery to give the current magnet in her chest, had only a 47 percent chance of survival if she made a new, miniature arc reactor to use as a magnet.

“Computer... Go. Make a miniature version of the arc reactor and prepare to exchange my current magnet for the new one.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer said, the holographic ball disappearing afterwards.

Twilight sat back in her chair and looked up, her hoof running through the circumference of the circle on her chest.

Twilight didn’t know how much time had passed until she saw the holographic ball of her computer appear again.

“I am ready now, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer said, “would you like for me to perform the exchange here?”

Twilight sighed, closing her eyes and nodding, “yes, computer. Do it.”

Twilight held her breath during the exchange, shutting her eyes tight, not wanting to see what was happening. The computer told her that it would be a painless process, but the sight would most likely make Twilight gag, so keeping her eyes shut seemed like the best way to go. The computer said there would be no blood, so Twilight stayed seated in her chair, Twilight wishing that it would be over quick. And thankfully, it was..

“I am done now, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer said.

Twilight opened her eyes, seeing her previous purple circle replaced with one that was pretty much the same, but it’s edges were a lot shinier, and Twilight felt herself seemingly lift up and feel as though all the stress and problems from her life have all somewhat gone away.

“The new device, the miniature arc reactor, seems to be working just as expected, so it should be able to keep you alive for decades, Ms. Sparkle.”

“Alright... Good job computer... And thank you.” Twilight said.

“You are quite welcome, Ms. Sparkle. And please tell me if there is anything else you wish for me to help you with.” The computer said.

“Nothing now for my heart now, computer,” Twilight turned the chair back to her desk, moving the blueprint back in front of her, “now we just need to run through ideas for our nonlethal weapon prototype to show off to the Council.”

“I will search through the folders of previous projects, please give me a moment.” The computer said, the ball disappearing as Twilight nodded.

She sighed when she looked down to her arc reactor, knowing she’ll have this constant and permanent reminder of the cave, of Whooves, of Spitfire, and of waking up with her only chance of survival being a magnet powered by a battery. She then ran her hoof through her mane, but then moved back down to her forehead, rubbing the small, circular rough area where her horn used to be. ”Well.... Three reminders....” She thought.

The ball then returned, “I have finished, Ms. Sparkle. I have found a few designs we could use as a base for an idea that I have if you would like to hear.” It said.

“Sure computer, go ahead.” Twilight said.

A holographic screen appeared in front of the ball, showing early designs for Twilight’s hoof aid, which was supposed to have been created to help soldiers during war to hold their weapons in their hooves, but was eventually replaced with the body holster, which offered a 360 degree look around the soldier.

“I was thinking that the weapon could be, as you said, a nonlethal blast that originated from the hoof, allowing the one being attacked to survive, as the attack will just simply knock them back.” The computer said.

“Alright... It sounds good computer. Put a bookmark in that option, and we can revisit it if we can’t find any other options.” Twilight responded.

Twilight yawned and rubbed her eyes softly, looking up to the corner of her desk to read her clock, which said 11:20 PM. It had been three days since she had begun working on the blueprints, and she was close to being done. All that she needed was a way for the machine to actually get the energy necessary to use it, since not all soldiers were Unicorns.

She had run through many ideas for the design, all of them ending up scraped. There were plans for a horn casing that could be placed on top of a unicorn’s horn to be used, or put on a pegasus and earth pony to be used just like a horn with the beam. But it was scrapped as Twilight thought it’d be easy for enemies to just shoot off. So she kept thinking.

Eventually, she decided on the design that her computer had offered, which would end at the hoof. They added that the device would have wiring that lead to the chest area, where their armor is strongest, where it would store the energy to fire from the device on the hoof.

All she needed was a way to actually make the energy and for it to be used in a small device. She looked down, sighing and lightly tapping the small, glowing circle on her chest.

“I fear that I have no ideas of anything that can give us the energy required to make this weapon outside of making a smaller version of the arc reactor, Ms. Sparkle.” The computer said.

“And we both know why we can’t do that.” Twilight said, looking down to her notes still and gently biting down on the end of her pencil.

“It’s too powerful to put into the Council’s hooves.” The computer responded.

“Exactly. I don’t trust them with something so powerful.” Twilight said, "Now, have you finished the prototype?"

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle. I shall send it up immediately.” A small square opened up on the floor of Twilight’s office and a small stand rose, on it was a device made of wiring that was in the shape of a pony’s hoof, a small box was attached to another cord that attached to a wire in the opening. At the other end of the device, where the end of the hoof went, was a small circle that had a slight blue glow to it. Twilight turned to it and nodded.

“And you’re positive that this box will be able to give us the power required for the blast?” Twilight asked.

“I have a 86% feeling that this will work, Ms. Sparkle. Using the replacement should give enough power to give you the blast results you are looking for.” The computer replied.

“Alright, then go ahead and try it out. Let’s see if this’ll work.” Twilight said, turning her chair.

“As you wish.” The stand turned, pointing the end of the device towards a small pony shaped dummy, rising from the ground as the wall behind it was covered by a much thicker wall, Twilight put on a pair of goggles as this happened.

The goggles wouldn’t do much of anything, in fact, during most of her experiments she’s never really needed to use them, but she always wore the goggles her parents bought her when she decided she would be a student for Celestia.

“Alright, when you’re ready computer.” Twilight said.

The device made a short whirr noise, before a yellow blast of energy shot out from the end of the hoof towards the dummy, knocking the dummy back hard against the wall, causing Twilight to scream. The dummy landed on the floor with a large hole in the area where it’s front legs, head and top part of it’s body used to be.

Spike entered the room, panting and looking around. “T-Twilight?? What happened??” He asked.

“N-Nothing Spike... T-The current model for the prototype just... Had a lot more ‘oomph’ than we thought.” Twilight said, removing her goggles.

“We apologize if we frightened you, Spike.” The computer said.

“Oh, no problem AIVHA” Spike said.

“‘AIVHA’?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, AIVHA. ‘An Intelligent Virtual Helping Ally.’ It’s just a little name I call the computer. It’s better than just saying ‘computer’ all the time.” Spike replied, “it gets a little repetitive. So I gave her a name.”

“Yes, Spike has given me this name a while ago, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

“AIVHA... Well... Alright then.” Twilight said, chuckling. “We really should get back to work though computer.”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.”

“Alright, I’ll see you for dinner then Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Of course Spike.” Twilight said.

“Alright. And good luck!” Spike closed the door and Twilight watched as the dummy was grabbed by a small arm from the floor and taken down, along with the stand holding the current model for the prototype.

“I think we should try adding more constriction to the cord where the energy goes through, take away from it’s power.” Twilight said.

“I shall get to work on it right away, Ms. Sparkle.”

Twilight leaned forward and buried her face in her hooves, sighing and yawning. ”We’re almost done,” Twilight thought, ”just a couple more trials.”

Twilight sat up in her chair and looked down to her blueprints, taking the pencil and jotting down the note on restricting the cord where the energy goes, putting the pencil back down when she finished.

“... I need to send someone back there. We need to find it. The cave I was held in. I left back a bucking miniature arc reactor. And if they decide they want to go back for Faust knows what, and they find it... Then there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”

Epilogue

Twilight groaned as she trotted back up to her office at her home, the party wearing her out along with the session with Flur she just had to endure.

“So she’s mad at you for saving ponies’ lives? That’s... What??” Spike asked.

“No, Spike,” Twilight replied, “she’s mad because I’ve ‘withheld important technology from Equestria’ and ‘performed multiple acts that could be labeled criminal.’”

“What??? Like what??” Spike said.

“I have no clue with her sometimes, Spike. But I’m sure I’ll hear all about it again tomorrow. Good night, Spike.” Twilight said, opening her office door.

“Alright, good night Twilight.” Spike said.

Twilight smiled and turned on her office’s light, and stood still, her heart stopping as her face was nearly flushed of all color.

At the end of the room, was a figure. Standing in front of her window, staring out. She stood like that for a while, having no clue how to respond. She then opened her mouth to call for the suit, but the figure spoke first.

“Don’t bother, we’ve shut down your computer system for a while. We needed to speak to you.” The figure said.

Twilight’s heart started beating faster. Who would need to talk to her? What happened? Was this one of the people Trixie warned her about? But most importantly... Why did she recognize that voice?

The figure turned around and answered that last question, as she saw Spitfire walk from the shadows and into the light, showing Spitfire wearing a leather coat, and a black eyepatch.

“Oh, but don’t you worry about this,” she gestured to her eyepatch, “the docs said my eye was damaged pretty bad from that shard from the suit back at the desert, but I’ll be completely fine. I actually think this looks cool, don’t you?”

Twilight found herself at a loss for words, stuttering every time she tried to make a response. The shock of seeing a friend, one she had previously thought to be dead, standing just a few feet in front of her.

“Now, you don’t need to say anything, but listen. Now, the ponies I’m working with are a group that wants to actually do something. But do it without public knowledge so they don’t get scared. Because the stuff we know, the stuff we’re doing, it’s crazy stuff. And we don’t want to start a panic across Equus. You get it?”

Twilight nodded slowly.

“Good.”

“But... But... B-But what do y-you want from me...?”

“Ms. Sparkle...” Spitfire said, stepping closer to Twilight, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative.”