War for Equestria

Rainbow Dash slowly stood, stretching her aching muscles. She grabbed her tray and set it on the conveyor by the service station to be taken back to the kitchen to be washed. She heaved another sigh and looked down the hallway to the science wing, her current destination.

She walked slowly toward the entrance of it and swiped her key card, the door opening with a hiss of compressed air. She entered the hallway and made her way through. Along the hall was a series of doors, each giving way to rooms where the few scientists they had were working on equations and various mechanical replacement appendages.

She lifted her left arm into her line of sight. What was once a part of her own light blue flesh, was now replaced by a beaten silver length of steel. She flexed the fingers on it as a mechanical whirring sound came from the silver limb. While she stared at the artificial part, her wings inadvertently twitched, causing her to look back at them. The dim light of the hallway gleamed off her right wing, also a cybernetic falsie. She remembered the day she got the 'enhancements'. She remembered all too well, sometimes the memories coming back as a nightmare.

It was during a battle to retake Canterlot castle, one that was unfortunately lost to them. She had misjudged one of Sombra's warrior's speed and it had caused her wing to be severed as he struck with a painfully sharp spear. After that had happened, she tried to retreat with the rest of the army. She was almost out of the castle walls when a chunk of rubble fell and hit her, it had pinned her arm and crushed it beneath the weight.

With no options and Sombra closing in on her, she had used her dagger to sever the arm a few inches below her shoulder. With a loud cry of pain, she sliced though the skin and bone in one swift move. She tore the sleeve from her other arm and quickly tied it tightly around her now armless nub. With the help of their first general, Celestia's son, she had managed to get back to the base and he had ordered that they give her the artificial limbs they were working on creating.

Shortly after, she awoke to the sight of the general standing over her smiling. She slowly got up from the gurney she was on and looked at herself in a mirror on the opposite wall of the infirmary room she was in. She had come to the realization that she was standing in front of him wearing only her sports bra and underwear, quickly moving to cover herself as she blushed deeply. He chuckled behind her.

"Relax. Not like I haven't seen you nude before." He had said jokingly.

She relaxed a bit and glared at him. She looked into the mirror, a look of shock crossing her face as she saw that her arm and wing both were now robotic in nature. She could still feel a phantom pain from her severed limbs and shuddered. She had no idea she would end up like this.

She snapped back to reality as she bumped into a scientist unicorn carrying a clipboard and pencil, causing her to drop a folder of papers.

"S-Sorry..." Rainbow Dash apologized.

The unicorn knelt to pick up her fallen papers and waved a hand at Rainbow Dash.

"Quite alright Captain Dash. It was completely my fault, I was lost in my reseach." The unicorn said politely.

Rainbow Dash managed a weak smile and knelt to help her pick up the various papers. Rainbow Dash stopped with her hand on a particuliar page that caught her eye. It showed a recent brain scan.

"Is that... from him?" Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.

The unicorn nodded and picked up the paper, showing it to her.

"The scan revealed that his psyche is fighting the effects of Sombra's dark magic." She said.

"Does... does that mean there's hope to get him back?" Rainbow asked.

The unicorn thought for a moment.

"Well... I suppose if his psyche were to continue to fight off the madness, then in theory he could come out of it unscathed. Although, with the state his body is in, we cannot be sure the shear shock of it won't drive his senses back into a state of madness." The unicorn said bluntly.

"Oh... I-I see..." Rainbow looked at the floor, covered in a thin sheen of dust.

"I am sorry, Captain Dash. We are doing all we can to help bring him back to us. But, if I may... why do you always come in to see him? We would willingly send news if there was ever a change in his state." The unicorn said as she stuffed the papers back into the folder, a bit messily.

"Uh... personal reasons..." Rainbow replied, a light blush visible on her face.

The unicorn placed a hand gently on Rainbow's shoulder.

"I understand." She said before standing up again and heading into one of the rooms along the hallway.

Rainbow slowly stood and brushed a bit of dirt from the knee of her pants and headed into a brighter lit room at the end of the hallway.

The room was about the size of a high school football field, but rounded off on all sides. To her left sat a table with wheels that had random medical equipment sitting on it. Off to the right was a doorway that led to the scientist's personal areas, such as bedding areas and perhaps even a rec room. Along the opposite wall was a large computer console that had various screens showing multiple diagnostic things about the main part of the room.

In the center of the room was a large tube like construct that had a single control panel extending from it's base. The tube itself was filled with a liquid substance that was one part water and two parts artificially created nutrients. What was inside the tube was what concerned Rainbow though. Inside the hypersleep container, as the 'eggheads' called it, was the son of Celestia himself.

He floated in the ooze inside the tube. There were various hoses connected to his body from the outside of the tube. One was leading from his mouth and nose to a device that kept him breathing, another led from his chest to a makeshift defibrillator that kept his heart pumping, and a third hose led from the middle of his back to an electrical type device that kept his newly fashioned cybernetics in working order on the off chance he'd come around again.

When she had seen him brought in, his body destroyed and his mind shattered, Rainbow Dash had broken down in tears. They had to replace almost his entire body with cybernetic upgrades so he would live.

She didn't like to admit it, but she liked him. They had been close friends since first grade. He had grown up his entire life as an orphan, his mother leaving him there as a result of a stupid law that restricted royalty from having children if they were unwed. It wasn't until Sombra started his rule that Celestia had claimed him as her child.

Rainbow Dash placed her hand on the glass of the container, a soft tinking could be heard as her metal fingers touched the surface.

"One day... one day we'll have you back... I'll have you back..." Rainbow said quietly as she looked into the closed eyes of her closest friend.