Daniel shifted in the office chair, but its original cushioning had been lost over the last two centuries. Specialist Olin sat in her own equally-uncomfortable chair beside him, watching the same terminal screen that he was. Twilight had been inside the pod for only twenty minutes, but Daniel's worry over her safety, the heat from the running servers, and the unbearable chairs made it feel like decades had passed.

"What's going on in there?" Daniel muttered, face underlit by the lambent glow of the screen. The information it offered was the only link they had to Twilight while she was in the pod, scant as the information was. The time elapsed outside the simulation, the time experienced within it, and Twilight's pulse and respiration rate, among other medical details.

Twilight's heart rate had temporarily spiked again before leveling out. If only the terminal would tell him exactly what was going on in the simulation, or even better, a screen to see from Twilight's point of view.

Specialist Olin tsked and shook her head, face creasing.

"I don't know, but these numbers don't add up," she said. The memory usage was in the terabytes, and the CPU heat should have melted plastic by now. "She's experiencing time in the simulation faster than us outside of it. Speed that fast shouldn't be possible, even with the best pre-war supercomputers. But what’s most concerning is the storage space. It’s almost full, like there are far more files shoved into the servers than there should be. Hang on a second."

Specialist Olin pursed her lips and skittered her fingers across the keys in a complex dance of dexterous movement. She navigated through menus and submenus with missile-like speed. Daniel sat up higher in his chair to try to learn as much as she could.

She opened the command prompt and typed a string of inputs, and Daniel turned away to squint at the faded, open copy of Programmer's Digest propped up on the console the terminal sat upon. It was like working out the metro tunnel map, and Specialist Olin was too fast for him to keep up.

"I'm going to see if I can get the system information after overclocking the CPU fans to try and cool the servers down," Specialist Olin said before he had even thought to ask what she was doing. “The room’s about to get even worse for us.”

“Good,” Daniel said. “Maybe you can see why the pod closed early on Twilight while you're at it.”

Behind them, the servers let out an ominous groan as the exhaust fans kicked into overdrive. The temperature in the pod room instantly climbed to toasty levels as the server banks shed more heat directly into the room; a clear design flaw with putting all the servers so close together. At least the door leading into the pod room was open, allowing fresh air in, though it wasn't enough to stop Daniel tugging at his already sweaty shirt collar.

He regretted it as his furred fingers came back damp, which he tried to wipe off on his pants, but they too were soaked through.

Specialist Olin jerked.

"Holy shit."

Specialist Olin's shock hit him with the force of a super mutant behemoth. Before he’d recovered enough to enquire what was going on, she spun the terminal screen to face him. On it was a system log detailing more information than the basic diagnostics. Her command prompts had worked.

Daniel's eyes flitted over the information as fast as a shooting star as he scanned for whatever had startled Specialist Olin so badly.

He found it, and his blood ran cold while the fur on the back of his neck stood on end.

"How could you miss something like that before we sent her in!?"

<>~<>~<>

“—and when the countess sat down, her chair was missing, and Princess Celestia got kicked out of the bar again!”

The two guards down the hall exploded in raucous laughter that was so infectious and hearty that Twilight almost joined them… almost.

Being locked in the dungeon under Canterlot Palace had put a damper on her mood. But there was a bright side. The group was even closer to their objective than when they had emerged from the sewers. If only they could escape.

“Vell, they are awfully chatty,” Dr. Braun quietly remarked from her seated position in front of Twilight, who was busy using Dr. Braun’s talons like scribing tools on the stone floor.

Was it two lefts and a right… or three lefts and two rights? Twilight couldn't recall the route they had taken into the dungeon after interrogation. The end result of her attempts at a map were more like a game of drunken tic-tac-toe than an escape route.

"Princess Celestia is a notorious prankster," Twilight stated, scrunching her face and releasing her telekinetic grip on Dr. Braun's talons. Twilight wasn't giving up, but she needed a break after the last ten minutes of scratching at the floor. "She once gave my friends and I tickets to a stuffy formal ball knowing we'd find some way to liven up the night."

Twilight cringed as just mentioning that night dredged up old memories. The Grand Galloping Gala had been a train wreck hauling dumpster fires.

“So, did you?” Veronica asked. She was reclining with her hooves behind her head in the bottom bunk of a bunk-bed, one of three in their cell.

“The fact I sometimes try to forget that night should tell you a lot,” Twilight said sheepishly as she got up, catching sight of Sergeant Dornan as she paced back and forth around the cell. Outside of her power armor, the earth pony mare had a coat the color of a toasted marshmallow, a jet-black mane, and hazel-colored eyes.

“Gah!” Sergeant Dornan snapped. “This was a stupid plan. I’m not going to die like a dog in a cage. I want to go down fighting for my country with a rifle in my hands!” She did a double take as she stared down at her forelegs. “Hooves… fuck! Not even a human.”

“Calm down, I don’t think they want to kill us,” Nick Valentine said, moving a chess piece. He and Pearl were playing a game at a table in the back of the cell. Although the latter was too busy staring longingly out of the cell window at the wide open Equestrian sky to move her pieces. “Our lockup here is far nicer than any I’ve seen.”

“And you’ve seen many?” Princess Celestia asked curiously.

All heads whipped around to the front of the cell, and Twilight’s jaw practically unhinged with how fast it dropped.

Princess Celestia was flawlessly recreated, from her clean alabaster-white coat, to her radiant and regal golden regalia, her stern yet motherly smile, and all the way to the distinct ethereal wind perpetually blowing her liquid-like watercolor-rainbow mane.

Before Twilight could stop herself, she bowed to her.

“It is a strange notion that my enemy bows to me,” Princess Celestia chuckled mirthfully, but there was a stern and powerful undercurrent to her jovial mood. There was something about Princess Celestia’s accent that Twilight could tell was… off. “Rise and look me eye to eye. I wish to judge your countenance and culpability, not your abasement.”

The answer came to Twilight quickly. The accent was not off, but outdated. The way Ponish was spoken had shifted ever so-slightly in the two hundred years since the programmers had a reference to build this Celestia off of. Twilight had to remind herself that this wasn’t the real Princess Celestia as she rose to meet the judging, critical eyes of her second mother.

The false Princess Celestia eyed Twilight with the same intensity as the real one, scanning over her, before she shifted to look upon everyone else in the cell. She lingered on Dr. Braun the longest, the only non-pony in the cell.

“Do you wish me harm, Twilight Sparkle?” Princess Celestia asked, returning her piercing gaze to Twilight.

“N-No, Princess Celestia!” Twilight blurted, backstepping at the sudden use of her name by the Princess. Sure, Twilight knew she had given her name to the guards during questioning, but something about Princess Celestia using it caught her flat-hoofed. “Never. I wanted to ask you to surrender peacefully. This war has been going on far too long. There is a peaceful way out.”

Princess Celestia’s soft, caring smile faltered.

“Peace enforced by the barrel of a gun is no peace at all,” Princess Celestia said, horn glowing. The cell door unlocked and swung open with a glimmer of sunlight-gold magic. She stepped back and motioned with her head to follow. “What history shall be forged when that gunbarrel lowers away, and the rage of the subjugated can be unleashed?”

Twilight had to take a moment to unscramble the meaning behind the archaic phrasing, before catching herself idling and obeyed Princess Celestia's suggestion, exiting the cell. The meaning behind the Princess's words was that forcing a peaceful resolution through the use of violent coercion was only opening the door for further violence later.

Sergeant Dornan scoffed from behind as she, too, followed Twilight out of the cell with the others in tow. Princess Celestia made no move to stop them.

“And what if the gun never lowers?” Sergeant Dornan asked, surprising Twilight. She didn’t take the Sergeant as someone pushing for a debate.

“You are Sergeant Dornan, correct?” Princess Celestia asked, prompting Sergeant Dornan to nod. “With that being a valid question on your lips, then you know why I cannot surrender my subjects to subjugation. A life under the unmoving and uncaring boot of another is no life at all. Your country tore itself away from the British empire for much the same reason.”

Twilight caught Sergeant Dornan, Nick Valentine, and Dr. Braun react with subtle facial expressions like squints or eye blinks as comprehension dawned on them. Twilight didn’t have the historical context to make the same connections they likely were, not exactly, but Princess Celestia did bring up a good argument.

“I read that this whole war started after a lynching,” Twilight said as Princess Celestia turned away from the cell, presenting her backside to the group as she walked down the hall. Twilight could still read the tense body language coming from Princess Celestia. Especially after she added, “One carried out by ponies.”

“While I do not condone vigilante justice,” Princess Celestia’s voice was stern, but tinged with sorrow. “I also do not condone murderers and rapists freely preying on my citizens. I tried negotiating with America after the lynching, but the first domino had fallen. The murder of a single US citizen was justification enough to cry for war.”

Twilight didn’t know how to respond, and simply fell silent as she followed Princess Celestia.

Past the cells and down the hall, the group neared where the chatty guards were stationed. They made to fall-in to flank Princess Celestia, but she bade them away with a hoof wave. If it was anyone else, Twilight would have thought it irresponsible or overly cocky to turn their back to the enemy on top of sending the guards away, but after seeing Princess Celestia blow a power-armored gryphon apart in the real Equestria, Twilight knew that the guards were mostly for show anyways.

They had nearly made it to a set of stairs before Princess Celestia suddenly stopped, took three steps back, then knocked her hoof on a brick in the wall low to the floor six times in a small tune.

“Fish whistle,” Princess Celestia muttered. A crack split the wall and the bricks folded backwards to reveal a wooden platform at the bottom of a long brick shaft. Princess Celestia wasted no time getting on. The platform was big enough for everyone, and then some.

“Why ‘fish whistle’?” Pearl asked with a giggle. “Sounds like a funny code word.”

Princess Celestia chortled. “When escaping prison, would you shout ‘fish whistle’ at the walls looking for the secret elevator?”

She had a point, Twilight thought as they approached the elevator and stepped on.

Pearl spun around in place then looked straight up the elevator shaft. A grin spread across her elderly features. “Princess Celestia, may I fly up the elevator shaft?”

“I don’t see why not,” Princess Celestia replied. “A soldier of advanced years such as you is no threat to my guards if you wander off.”

Pearl either didn’t care Princess Celestia called her old or didn’t hear as she took off up the elevator shaft, giggling like a filly on Hearth’s Warming Eve who was just given a wrapped book heavy enough to be the textbook she had asked all year for.

Twilight pursed her lips as Princess Celestia’s horn glowed and the elevator rose. The analogy would probably fit better if it was toys instead of textbooks. Twilight didn’t know of any other fillies who begged their parents for ‘Advanced Alchemy 101’. Regardless if the analogy worked or not, Pearl was ecstatic, circling the rising elevator with fillyish squeals of delight.

Princess Celestia watched the older mare with a soft smile.

The elevator neared the top of the shaft before it stopped at a ledge jutting out into the elevator shaft from a hallway. Everyone stepped into the hall, and Twilight relaxed her muscles. She hadn’t realized she had tensed up in the first place, but it was warranted. Neither the elevator or the ledge leading into the hallway had guardrails.

“Where are we going?” Twilight finally thought to ask. If this Princess Celestia was being so amicable and kind to prisoners, then maybe she would answer.

“My throne room,” Princess Celestia replied as they reached a not-so-dead-end in the hall. Princess Celestia pressed a brick and the wall split open like the one at the bottom of the shaft.

Beyond the threshold was an immaculate polished-marble-floored room with a single large throne on a golden dais at the back beneath a stained glass window. Floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows were spaced evenly around the circular curving walls.

Twilight instantly recognized Princess Celestia’s old throne room. The one she’d had before it was remodeled after Princess Luna’s return. Curiously, Sergeant Dornan’s power armor was standing open and ready for an occupant next to the dias, surrounded by the rest of the group’s confiscated gear laying on a sheet, including their guns.

Why would Princess Celestia leave their guns out in the open like that? Twilight could just grab one with her telekinesis. Or Nick. Something was… wrong. Twilight didn’t know what it was. Princess Celestia ascended the dias and sat on her throne, facing the group. She had a scowl on her face.

“You came here in disguise,” she said, shaking her head like a disapproving teacher, “dressed in the uniform of my soldiers, armed with lethal weapons, and skulking through the sewers on the way to my palace. Yet you claim you came here for peace. You are here to prove that might makes right.”

Twilight’s ears folded back. It had been a stupid plan that could easily be misinterpreted as an assassination attempt.

“I know how it seems,” Twilight said, stumbling over an explanation to deescalate the situation. She glanced at the weapons on the floor and thought back to the earlier debate between Sergeant Dornan and Princess Celestia. Twilight knew that she was coming for a peaceful resolution, but how to get the point across to this archaic version of Princess Celestia? A Celestia that would have never known her. Maybe if Twilight phrased her counterpoint correctly?

Twilight had her answer, and she puffed out her chest.

Twilight proclaimed as theatrically as she could, “If might makes right, and the pen is mightier than the sword, may blood and blade need not be used when ink and quill offer superior substitutes?"

Silence hung in the air like a lurking predator, Princess Celestia glared down from her throne. She leaned back, grinned, then let out a short and happy laugh.

“Well spoken, Twilight Sparkle. Tell me, how is the real Equestria fairing?” Princess Celestia asked. Twilight and the others jerked back. “I know this isn’t real. You are far too young to be a United States Colonel, Dr. Braun has disguised himself but gave over his name during interrogation, and both he and Pearl are past retirement age. Veronica and Sergeant Dornan are the only two I wouldn’t be suspicious of.” She turned and nodded to Nick. “As for you, Nick, well met, kindred spirit.”

Nick studied her with a critical eye, squinting, and asking in a half-mutter, “Someone mind filling me in on what the heck is going on here?”

“Uhm,” Dr. Braun stammered, shifting uneasily as Princess Celestia focused on her. “Vell, it seems General Chase may have stolen brain scans of Princess Celestia during her two trips through Operation Anchorage. Like you and I, Nick, she’s a copy of memories in a machine.”

“You’re a brain scan, too, Dr. Braun?” Princess Celestia asked politely. “I was aware that some time has passed, but I’m not sure how long I have been like—” she pointed a hoof to herself, then gestured vaguely around the room, “—this.”

“I am indeed a copy of Dr. Braun’s memories,” Dr. Braun said, scratching the back of her head. “A lot has changed since you last saw me. Vould you mind referring to me as female, please? It’s been two centuries.”

Princess Celestia’s posture stiffened, like she was bracing herself against a physical blow. Learning that she had missed out on two centuries was a lot to take in, so Twilight chose that point to interject and hopefully soften the blow.

“Equestria, as well as the original version of you, is still alive and well.” More or less, but Twilight didn’t want to overburden Princess Celestia with the knowledge that Equestria had lost Canterlot and Cloudsdale to nuclear attacks. “Also, Princess Luna has recently returned and was freed of Nightmare Moon’s control with the Elements of Harmony by my friends and I.”

Princess Celestia’s mood brightened tenfold, and she rose from her seat with a cheer, “Marvelous, it’s nice to know the Elements found new bearers. Tell me, how is America fairing? This simulation has to be ancient by human standards if two centuries have passed.”

Princess Celestia’s horn glowed, and all of the discarded equipment laying on the floor was wrapped in a golden telekinetic glow. It flew over to the group, and combat armor began to click back into place, weapons slid into holsters, and helmets were placed back over heads.

Princess Celestia was playing along with the simulation if Twilight had to guess.

“America still exists,” Sergeant Dornan said, quickly jumping back into her power armor. It sealed around her with a clatter and hiss. The minigun on the side gave a test spin as the armor systems booted up.

“But there is a nuance to it,” Veronica added sheepishly, scratching the back of her head with the metal plate on her power-fist.

Twilight could tell from the way Princess Celestia winced that she knew what that nuance was.

“Not all is lost,” Twilight interjected. “There is stable travel between the worlds, and Equestria is going to help America rebuild. A big step in that process is disenchanting the original mirror portal to this world, which was damaged by the nuclear bombs, but it’s locked behind an armored door that needs me to finish a simulation to unlock. I’m only in this simulation rather than Operation Anchorage because of some sort of Enclave code on my Pip-Boy.”

“I see,” Princess Celestia said with a sigh, her shoulders slumping. “If there is a real-world need for my surrender, then there is no sense dragging this game out as long as we can to truly have some fun with it. At least I thought to rearm and re-armor you.” She sat on her haunches and raised both hooves. “For the good of all, I surrender.”

Twilight smiled and started approaching Princess Celestia while flanked by her companions. Thoughts of getting out and returning to Daniel was on her mind, but also a sense of sadness weighing her hooves. She slowed and looked at the people accompanying her. Sure, she didn’t know most of them for long, but she liked to think of them as friends after their brief experience together.

Pearl, a happy, carefree pilot with a love of the open skies. Nick, the epitome of the hard-boiled detective with a robotic twist. Sergeant Dornan, a soldier with a love of her country and a desire to make her father proud… Veronica she knew the least about, but had a good opinion of her after she stood up for Sergeant Dornan. And lastly, Dr. Braun, who… suddenly lunged at Princess Celestia, tackling her as a bolt of white lightning shot over them.

Snapped out of her temporary reverie, Twilight shot her gaze to the source of the bolt and cried out in shock. Nightmare Moon?

No, the onyx black alicorn standing on the dias of Princess Celestia’s throne was a stallion with deep ruby red eyes, and a cutie mark of an ‘E’ surrounded by stars.

“If you want something done right, you have to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself,” The stallion growled. Twilight knew his voice. A voice she had heard weeks ago coming from an eyebot’s radio.

Lightning danced across President Eden’s horn, and he pointed it right at Twilight.

“I think it’s time for you to die, mutant.”

Twilight poured everything she could into a shield around the group, the lightning blast meant for them bouncing off the curved surface like a mirror and blasting a parking-lot sized hole in the ceiling.

Masonry and rubble the size of wagons fell into the throne room as the domed ceiling of the throne room collapsed in on itself. It took everything Twilight had to keep her shield up as blow after blow came. Princess Celestia joined her side, horn glowing as she joined Twilight in holding back the tide of rubble. After several long, tense moments, the tide subsided.

But that was only one problem dealt with. Twilight couldn’t see Eden through the thick clouds of dust kicked up by the collapsing roof. The dust rolled around the room like fog banks, obscuring anything past a few hooves outside of their shield dome.

“What the fuck was that!?” Veronica yelled, taking a defensive stance back to back with Sergeant Dornan.

“That sounded like President Eden,” Sergeant Dornan replied, doubt clear in her voice.

That shouldn’t be possible… Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Colonel Autumn had betrayed President Eden and blew his mainframe to scrap. Unless… Electrum had said that SOCOM got all of its portal information from President Eden. He had fled to the one place with enough servers and memory to store an AI like him.

“It has to be,” Twilight said, shaking her head. She squinted, trying to peer through the thick dust clouds. They were starting to settle, but it was still too thick to see through.

“So why is he a pega-corn?” Sergeant Dornan snarled, shifting her entire body to aim her side-mounted minigun. “Seems hypocritical of him to be a ‘mutant’ when Humans can exist here.”

A white flash inside the shield stunned Twilight long enough to send spots dancing across her vision. It was enough of a distraction that she didn’t see the glimmer of cold steel before it punched right through her armor and warmed up inside her chest.

She spit blood and wheezed as the knife twisted, grinding on ribs.

“To think like my enemy, I became my enemy,” Eden said, before flash-teleporting away, the knife leaving with him.

Twilight fell forward, vomiting a mix of bile and blood. The HP bar in her vision had shrunk by three quarters and was losing pips by the millisecond.

“Frau Sparkle!” Dr. Braun yelled, pulling out a stimpack and jamming it into Twilight’s flank. As soon as the needle slipped in, a quarter of the HP bar returned, and Twilight felt like she could breathe again.

She sprung to her hooves, eyes darting high and low in search of their adversary to no avail. Too many places and still too much dust.

“We’re—” Twilight coughed a few times and wiped away the last of the bloody phlegm that had come up from her mending lung, “—too exposed here. We need to leave.”

“I hate to break it to you, kid,” Nick said, a large-caliber snub-nosed revolver in his telekinetic grip. “But where can we go that he can’t just teleport to us? He appeared right in the middle of us to personally give you an Alcatraz Acupuncture right to the ribs. Something about that felt personal. Does this perp have beef with you?”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said. She let out a sigh of relief as Dr. Braun gave her another stimpak, and her HP was almost full once more. “From what my friend Applejack said, Eden was under the notion that my friends and I are living weapons of mass destruction.”

“You accursed witches are a threat to America.” President Eden’s voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once, bouncing off the walls, the floor, and what remained of the ceiling. “There is no telling what power those artifacts hold. I will not allow my nation, my people, to become enthralled by eldritch sorcery. Equestria’s resources will help rebuild America. I have no need for its people. Even if you defeat me here, General Beckett has—”

“Already fucked around and found out!” Sergeant Dornan yelled, cutting him off.

Twilight turned to Princess Celestia, who had remained in the center of the shield, holding it up. Yes, Eden could teleport through it, but Twilight knew that the shield was the only thing keeping them from being blasted apart at range.

She also knew that President Eden leapt in and got out quickly. He wasn’t a melee fighter. And from how big of a blast his horn created, he couldn’t teleport into the shield to shoot them without catching himself in his own blast.

“Where should we go, Princess?” Twilight asked. “We can’t stay here where he has too many angles on us with too many places for him to hide.”

Princess Celestia scrunched her face, visibly running over a mental list of places. Her eyes widened.

The world flashed sunlight gold, but it wasn’t painful to her eyes like the harsh white light of President Eden’s magic. Twilight’s sight cleared quickly as she looked around.

They had appeared in a cobblestone plaza with a central fountain surrounded by stone buildings. Humans and ponies hurried back and forth between the buildings, with many stopping to gawk at their arrival. Twilight tracked one group—an even mix of humans and ponies—as they fled into the largest of the stone buildings in the plaza. A patch of grass out front held a flagstone half-wall with decorative bold metal letters spelling out Everfree Public Library. The building itself had a familiar shape, and it took Twilight several moments to realize that the library she was looking at was built on the foundations of the Castle of the Two Sisters.

The fountain in the center of the plaza was the orrery that held the Elements of Harmony.

Princess Celestia’s eyes flashed and her voice boomed with the Royal Canterlot Tone, “Everyone flee this place, you are in mortal peril.”

She then cast a shield over the group just in time to deflect a lightning bolt from above.

“Didn’t take him long to catch up!” Veronica groused.

Twilight growled. He was likely cheating. Somehow.

The dark black alicorn landed in the plaza and sneered at a human who had picked up a pony and ran with her over his shoulders. The unicorn had a bright gold ring over her horn, matched with a gold ring on his ring finger.

“Is this how you see humanity’s future?” President Eden growled, stopping the pair in their tracks. The man backpedaled and tried to spin around. “Kowtowing and cavorting with… with beasts?”

Eden’s horn crackled with lightning.

Twilight watched as if it were slow motion, the lightning discharge from his horn and snake through the air towards the married couple. So much like herself and Daniel. The pair were young, and had a long future ahead of them. Or would…

The lightning crawled through the air in jittering waves, jumping and redirecting from point to point like a drunkard stumbling through the streets.

The lightning slammed into Sergeant Dornan’s power armor as she jumped between the bolts and the married couple. Lightning dancing across the metal plates and illuminating the pony within in a radioactive-blue flash. The sound of the impact was like a cannon loaded with brass bells, and Sergeant Dornan flew away from President Eden in a shower of destroyed armor plates, sailing over the couple who ducked under the Enclave-soldier-turned-missile.

Sergeant Dornan’s flying arc ended with her crashing into the fountain. The stones perched on the arms of the orrery pitched off from their mounts and smashed into the ground, shattering like the Sergeant’s armor.

“Dornan!” Veronica yelled, rushing out of the shield and to the fallen soldier. Twilight charged right after, praying under her breath with each hoof fall that somehow the Sergeant was okay. Twilight was already levitating out stimpaks from everyone's supplies.

“Hehehehe… pathetic,” President Eden gloated. “Go ahead, run, group up together. It’ll make disposing of you weak mutants easier.”

Twilight ground her teeth. President Eden was a villain. She hated him. Hated him because he hated her and all of Equestria. She needed to stop him… she needed—

She skidded to a halt as the mare in smoking, busted armor shifted and stood with jerky, pained movements and a loud groan. Water sloshed off her ruined armor, and the power-pack on the backside sparked dangerously. It was likely Sergeant Dornan was only moving the armor out of raw earth pony strength and sheer will alone.

“Pathetic!?” Dornan yelled in defiance, forcing a grinding step forward out of the fountain in her creaking, unpowered armor, helmet muffling her but her natural furious volume punching her words through the dead helmet so all could hear. “I AM SERGEANT ASHLEY DORNAN, AND I WILL DIE DEFENDING MY COUNTRYMEN, NO MATTER THEIR RACE, CREED, COLOR, OR FUCKING SPECIES! NO MATTER WHAT SHAPE THEY COME IN, I WILL DEFEND AMERICANS.”

Twilight would have cheered if she was on the sidelines and not actively part of the battle. That was true loyalty right there. Rainbow Dash would have been proud.

“And how are you going to stop me?” President Eden belittled her with a dismissive eye roll and pointed his horn at the gaping hole in her armor. “You took one blast. I doubt you will survive another.”

Twilight rushed to join Sergeant Dornan’s side.

“She won’t have to take another, because she isn’t fighting this alone!” Twilight yelled, feeling a familiar stirring in her breast. Her horn glowed, and the shards around the fountain began to glow and rise, along with Twilight, Sergeant Dornan, and the four others in her group. “She has friends!”

“What!?” Eden yelled, firing a lightning blast, but Princess Celestia deflected it with a wall of golden light.

A shard flew towards Sergeant Dornan’s destroyed armor, the gaping hole mending as the armor reforged itself anew, most of the armor turning olive green while the pauldrons repainted themselves with red and white stripes and a field of blue covered in silver stars.

“Sergeant Dornan,” Twilight said, the magic flowing in the air giving her far more insight than she once had. “Loyal to the true ideals of freedom and democracy you yourself had shouted over the radio but never meant, willing to put her own life on the line to protect others, and that idea represents the Element of Loyalty.”

“No! It can’t end like this!” Eden yelled, realizing what was happening. Twilight knew he had read her journal.

There was a noise in the air, the sound of magic beginning to build as the stone pebbles, leaves, and dust began to swirl around the area. A second shard floated to Pearl, transmuting into the shape of a pair of gold wings sprouting off a gold smiley-face. It pinned itself to her chest like a military medal.

“Pearl, with a happy heart soaring through the sky, enjoying the freedom with a smile on her face, represents the Element of Laughter.”

Another shard, this one to Veronica, turned into a fine black silk cocktail dress that slipped like liquid under her armor, replacing the uniform she’d been wearing.

“Veronica, who was able to relate to a sworn enemy of her faction over common ground and confide in that enemy represents the Element of Kindness.”

“I have no idea what’s going on but this is so cool!” Veronica yelled over the sound of building up magical energy in the air. It was growing to a fever pitch now.

A fourth shard, to Nick, turned into a golden police badge.

“Nick Valentine, the Boston detective, always on the case and unwaveringly honest, not stopping until he gets the crook, represents the Element of Honesty.”

“I always said it was my best policy,” Nick chuckled as the star pinned itself to the military armor he wore.

The last of the small shards floated to Dr. Braun, turning into a simple golden hair-comb that settled into her mane.

“And lastly, Dr. Braun, who, um… took in ponies from Equestria into her personal vault, allowing them to survive earth’s destruction. She represents the Element of Generosity.”

“If you really knew me two centuries ago you’d say this is a big stretch,” Dr. Braun said dismissively.

“Just roll with it, girl,” Veronica said with a laugh.

The last shard floated over Twilight’s head.

“I may not have known many of these people for long, but I care for them, and when this simulation ends I will miss them. We have formed an unbreakable bond that can not be defeated by your hatred and fearmongering. We are friends, and we share a magic stronger than any other… the magic of friendship!”

A familiar tiara settled over Twilight’s head, and like a dam bursting, the magical energy surged out from all of the elements in a prismatic spray of rainbow light, slamming into President Eden like a tidal wave of raw, undiluted power.

The alicorn threw up a shield that only served to prolong the inevitable as he strained to hold back the energy. The shield cracked. The cracks spread with the sound of splintering twigs and tinkle of falling glass. Then the shield shattered.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” President Eden yelled. Then the magic overtook him. His black fur flew away, revealing that there was only a skeleton made of glowing-green code strings underneath. Then the code began to crack and shatter like glass, letters and numbers disappearing in clouds of pixels like spraying seafoam thrown up by a wave hitting a rock.

In moments, Eden was gone, and nothing remained.

Twilight stared at where Eden had been for several long moments before Veronica let out a whooping cheer and practically tackled Sergeant Dornan with a hug. Her new friends congratulated and cheered each other on. The ponies and humans who had watched the fight or emerging from the buildings around the plaza began to cheer. Pearl took to the sky in a victory lap.

“Wonderful work,” Princess Celestia said, smiling. “I took a leap of faith bringing you here, but I was confident that if you'd used the elements once, you would be able to again.”

Twilight beamed with joy, a bright smile emerging. It didn’t last, though, faltering to confusion as she played the events back in her head.

“How was this possible, though?” Twilight asked. “The developers would have never known about the Elements of Harmony.” She turned to Dr. Braun, who had approached them. “Dr. Braun, you worked with simulations before. How is any of what we just did possible? The simulation feels way too real.”

Dr. Braun scratched the back of her head.

“I’m not sure… ve vere experimenting vith exotic gemstones and materials from your country, using them in computer parts,” Dr. Braun said, shrugging. “It is vy I asked you to collect parts specifically from the VSS bunker. Magitech computer parts are not something you vill find in any ROBCO retailer.”

Twilight simply nodded. It didn’t matter, ultimately, regardless of why or how it was possible, they had come together as a group and defeated a foe. But with Eden defeated, there was nothing stopping them from ending the simulation in peace. It would mean losing contact with her new friends.

Twilight sighed.

It was time for some goodbyes.

<>~<>~<>

“They did it!” Specialist Olin yelled, making Daniel jump.

Daniel spun around to face the pod as it cracked and hissed open. He rushed over, heart racing in his chest.

“Twilight!” Daniel yelled, embracing her.

“Hey, Daniel,” Twilight said through a choking cough, then she wiped her eyes with the back of a hand as she cried a single happy-sounding sob. Like she’d just had a heartfelt goodbye rather than a life or death fight with a rogue AI.

“What happened in there?” Daniel asked worriedly.

“I made some new friends,” Twilight said as she dried the rest of her tears and climbed out the pod. “I can’t wait to tell you about them later. Come on, let’s get what we started here over with and leave.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Daniel said, hugging Twilight again, hoping to comfort her. He decided to lighten things up with a joke. “Electrum’s probably bored out of her mind organizing inventory by now.”

Twilight chuckled and he let go of her. Together, along with Specialist Olin, they made their way to the armory doors, Twilight leaning on Daniel to support her shaky legs. She felt a phantom pain in her chest, the remnant of being stabbed by Eden.

Along the way, Specialist Olin called out into the rooms they passed so everyone could gather to watch the armory unlock. Electrum emerged from a side room with Protector McGraw close behind.

Twilight picked up the pace as they neared the doors, eager to discover what was behind the doors she had gone through an entire simulation for. Plugging her Pip-Boy into a terminal on the wall near the massive slab of metal that was the armory door, Twilight saw codes flash across the terminal screen before the option to open the door appeared.

She pressed the enter key, and the armored doors slowly ground open with the sound of a rusty metal sliding on rusty metal.

The Outcasts that had gathered gave Twilight and her friends space. Once the door had finally opened and Twilight was able to look inside, she gasped.

Beyond the doorway was a large room with a low ceiling that was completely overgrown with twisting, dark blue, almost black crystalline tendrils. They almost looked like the roots of a tree.

Rushing into the room, Twilight found the origin point for the spread. A large server bank, larger than all of the others in the pod room. It was the size of a garden shed, the metal casing buckled and bent outwards as the crystal roots spilled out and into the room beyond.

Jutting out of the metal was a small, dark blue crystalline tree that was more of a sapling with an overabundant root system than a true tree. The crystal ‘bark’ looked chipped and weathered, giving the sapling the appearance of a dying plant, yet the pencil-thin branches near the top glittered with multicolored buds the size and shape of small diamonds.

Then Twilight noticed the engraving on the trunk. A suit of power armor, a winged smiley-face, a badge, a dress, and a comb all surrounding a tiara.

It was a Tree of Harmony.

“How is this here?” Twilight asked. Was one of the gemstones Dr. Braun had taken from Equestria actually a seed for something like the Tree of Harmony?

“Something from your world?” Defender Sibly asked as he navigated over the roots towards a shelf near the wall stocked with ammo boxes. A root had pushed several laser rifles off one of the shelves and onto the floor. Electrum helped pick up the fallen rifles with her magic, joined by Daniel. More Outcasts were filing into the room to pilfer the weapons cache.

“I think so,” Twilight said noncommittally as she busied herself with tracking the roots filling the room. They led to a mirror against the wall, her objective for disenchantment. It was spiderwebbed with cracks as multiple roots pierced the glass. Not coming out of the glass, but trying to reach through it to the other side.

She narrowed her eyes at the mirror, then the Tree of Harmony sapling. Had it influenced where she and her friends ended up? None of them had ended up trapped in a place with no possible exits. Had her last several weeks, including starving alone in the middle of a minefield, all been part of some test?

No, not a test. The Tree of Harmony she was familiar with was a living thing, and not malicious. Staring at the chipped crystal bark and the overy-dark roots, Twilight guessed that the sapling was starving, alone and trapped in a hostile world with very little friendship. According to Electrum, President Eden had detected the Elements of Harmony when they were used to free Princess Luna. The sapling had simply spread out roots in search of nourishment.

The fresh growths on the tree were obviously from using the power of friendship and harmony inside the simulation.

“You are just one big bundle of weird, old magic,” Twilight said wistfully. The sapling gave her hope.

Even though it was starving in the dark on a world alien to it, the Sapling of Harmony had clung to life and persevered, stretching its roots out towards the mirror where it could sense love and friendship. The light at the end of the tunnel.

Even in Twilight’s darkest, bleakest of times, friends, or her thoughts of them, had always been there for her.

Looking again at the fresh buds on the tree, Twilight took it as a sign. It was time to give the Wasteland a breath of fresh air… or more accurately, a clean glass of water.

Once she was done here, her next stop was Vault 81. Project Purity would be finished.

Author's Note

Decided to write one big love letter to the ending of Season 1, the thing that started it all. Hope you enjoyed this, more chapters to come, you all have a nice day, cheers
:-)