General Twilight Sparkle stood above the crowd with John Connor. She had hardened over her time in service. There was a long scar stretching across her right cheek. Her mane was frayed and some of her tail was singed. She wore black body armor that covered her barrel. Specially-molded protective plating covered her wings, and strips of yellowed gauze covered at least half of her left leg.

Above all, she was exhausted. She mentally reminded herself that it was probably not good for morale to see one of the resistance's leaders looking near-dead, both from literal exhaustion and being tired from the war.

She had to do this, though. To raise troop morale. For both this world, and Equis itself.

John spoke to the crowd first.

"When we look at each of you, we see the marks of a long and terrible war."

Twilight stepped forward. She steeled herself with a deep breath.

"If we die tonight," she said. "Both ponykind and mankind die with us. As some of you may know, we are going to launch not one, but two massive offensives in-" she glanced at the communicator on her right leg- "roughly eleven hours."

The crowd began to grow louder.

"Quiet!" John yelled. The crowd fell silent once again so Twilight could speak again. She cleared her throat.

"We have two targets. Skynet's TDD and their ETDD. TDD, for those who do not know, is an abbreviation for "Time Displacement Device" and in twelve hours, one minute, and thirty-seven seconds, Skynet is going to send a terminator through the TDD to kill John Connor's mother. Furthermore, Skynet is going to send a terminator through the ETDD to kill me. We are going to stop this. Tonight."

John pressed a button on his communicator. "Here's a general map of the base based on one of the satellites our tech team was able to hack. We get through this gate-" he gestured to a break in the giant wall around the giant base "-by driving a supply truck with a dead terminator in the front to confuse the guards."

"It's essentially the same in the work camp with the ETDD," Twilight added.

"We have two teams. The ETDD team will be lead by Twilight Sparkle. Kyle Reese and I will lead the TDD team. The team members will be listed on the door to this room. Report to the garages at twenty-two hundred hours. Dismissed." John finished.

He walked off stage. Twilight followed him backstage, walked up a staircase, jogged down the following hall, and entered the barracks.

Passing through those, she finally reached the private suits for high-ranking members of the resistance. She passed by a few rooms before she found hers: room 148. There, she entered a code with her magic to open the door.

She stripped off her armor, throwing it on the floor, and fell on the bed. She lay there for a few minutes.

When she regained some strength, she stood and walked over to a steel case next to her dresser. She lowered her eye to a rental scanner and pressed a button, then focused her magic on a knob on the device. Once the box confirmed that the retina and magical signature were both hers, it popped open, revealing a glass case. Beneath the glass lay six pieces of jewelry- five golden chokers and one golden tiara.

A tear fell on the glass. Then two more.

Not soon after she had opened, she was crying on the floor over the magical artifacts. She was wrapped in her own grief so much that she didn't hear the door open. She only knew there was someone else in. the roof when she felt the hand on her shoulder.

"Twilight."

"What now, John?" she asked, her voice obviously bitter.

His voice was filled with sorrow. "I know how it feels."

"No, you don't!"

"Twi, I lost my mother to leukemia. The two terminators who were sent back to protect me both died. One was like a father to me, the other was the closest thing I had to a best friend."

She fell silent after that. "It's too much for me"

"Just another ten hours. You can make it."

"I suppose," she replied. She looked back to her wing and realized she had not taken off the plating. She reached back, but John loosened the clamps himself.

"You do realize I can do it yourself, right?" she snapped at him.

"Chillax. I get enough shit from Cat as it is," he said. He paused for a moment. "You remind me of my mother."

Twilight snorted. "As if I could ever measure up to the great and powerful Sarah Connor, the woman who worked out whenever she wasn't destroying Cyberdine or fulfilling her body's basic needs."

"Give her some slack. She knew Judgement Day was coming and wanted to be prepared or delay it. She knew I could take care of myself."

Twilight fell silent as John removed the last bolt. He removed the plating on her right wing very carefully and then hung it up on her armor stand.

"Sorry, John" she murmured.

"It's all right. By the way, I got this awesome new .50 caliber that I want to try out tonight. You need to see this!"

Twilight allowed herself to smirk a bit. "Count me in. Is it in your room or in the armory?"

John smiled. "My room. High Command's probably going to give me shit, but I don't give a fuck."

Twilight chortled. "Of course. The general of the army leaves his gun in his room and High Command gives him crap about it. You need to stop leaving your high-caliber rifles in your room."

"This thing isn't a rifle. It's a death laser. Like the BFG or something"

"Doomguy?" Twilight asked.

"Making good use of the arcade machines we salvaged?"

Twilight blushed. "Maybe."

John guffawed. "So that's what that giant research period was for!"

Twilight swatted him with a hoof. "Shut up!"

"Fine! Just follow me. You seriously need to see this thing."

Twilight rolled her eyes and followed John out the door.

Author's Note

I used this site for my rankings. It may not be canon, but all they call John Connor is the leader of the resistance, and I know his call sign is "bear" so he must have an official rank.
Y'know that big gun John uses in Genisys that's mounted to the truck? That's the .50 cal I'm referring to. Official sources confirm that it is, in fact, a .50 cal.
Yes, the prologue is going to be split into two parts because I really want to publish this and otherwise this is going to be really long.