War Zone-Equestria

Twilight continued to follow Celestia through numerous tunnels. Every now and again they would take a quick pause so Celestia could make sure she was going the right way. She didn’t often have to visit the medical centre and didn’t know the layout of the whole base as well as ponies like Scootaloo. Although the stops were brief Twilight always tried to seize the opportunity to offer assistance to rescue Spike, but the Princess seemed to have too much on her mind and would either tell Twilight she’d listen to what she had to say when they got to her friends, or didn’t reply at all. Although this was slightly annoying to Twilight, she accepted that the Princess did have her hooves full at the moment and that she could wait a little longer. She didn’t seem to be considering the danger the mission would pose, but it was Spike. Her Spike or not, she wasn’t going to let this one die like the ridiculous amounts of innocent Ponies that were already killed by Luna in this dimension.

Finally, after traversing many tunnels and hallways, they reached the medical centre and Celestia stopped Twilight before they entered.

“Now Twilight; I’m not sure exactly what condition all your friends are in right now, hopefully they’re still at a point that I can use my magic to heal them, so although we have a highly trained squad of medics and surgeons, I need to make sure you’re prepared for the worst.”

“I am Princess; I’ve been worried sick about them ever since Derpy told me they were in bad shape. But I’m hoping I don’t need to be. “

Acknowledging this Celestia opened the door and walked up to one of the nurse mares on the scene.  She reminded Twilight of Sapphire Shores, but with a dark, deep red mane. Celestia spoke to her but Twilight couldn’t hear them from the distance she was at and it only sounded like mumbling. She started to move closer, but the nurse smiled and spoke back turning towards a hallway. Celestia seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and looked at Twilight with a smile on her face. The Princess calmly walked over to her before explaining their conversation.

“Your friends are fine Twilight, bruised and battered and a few scratches and grazes. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are the only ones who will need my magical aid in order to heal their injuries, but other than the damage they received from the bullets, they should be just fine.”

Twilight breathed a huge sigh of relief. Probably the first one since they came to the alternate dimension.

“So I can see them?” Twilight asked hoping they weren’t resting.

“Yes, in fact the two fillies Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are also here seeing them.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Twilight said excitedly rushing into the hallway the nurse had recently walked into.

Celestia laughed as Twilight ran in. It was gleeful moments like this that she had missed, especially with Twilight.

Without hesitating Twilight ducked under a curtain at the end of the hall way, and sitting there talking to the fillies were 6 of her friends, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack lying in beds. They looked up instantly all at once and joy overtook their already happy expressions, and multiplied them.

“Twilight!” They all said at once, including the fillies.

Pinkie Pie instantly jumped up and quick as a flash zipped over and hugged Twilight tightly.

“Oh my gosh! I told you not to scare me anymore Twilight! And the first thing you do is scare the life outta me again, Where in Equestria have you been? You had us all worried sick! Sick I tell you! Are you ok? Are you hurt? Was everypony nice to you? Was...” Twilight put her hoof over the fast talking pony’s mouth to get her to stop talking so rapidly, but Pinkie still trying to talk was making muffled sputters, similar to the time she’d run into poison joke, increasing the size of her tongue and rendering her speechless.

“Pinkie! Calm, down! I’m Fine! What we should be worrying about here is how you girls are! If anypony has been worried sick all day it’s me.” She sounded serious but she kept a smile to make sure her friends understood she wasn’t panicking.

“Rarity I hope it wasn’t too hard for you to find out from these two about your sister… “ she looked at the fillies hoping they had been feeling a little better to see their friends again, they were still saddened when they thought about Sweetie Belle, but they could hide it this time.

“Oh it’s alright Twilight, as long as my real sister’s ok I’ll be fine” Rarity said, managing a weak smile. “Oh and I’ve been especially worried about you two,” she said pointing to Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” Twilight said as she ran over and hugged them both, but accidently bumped to close to Rainbow’s wound, but she didn’t wince because she knew her friend was trying to be affectionate and concerned.

“Well ahm quite alright Twi. A little hazy yeah, but the only real disappointments that I won’t be buckin no more apple trees with Bucky McGillicuddy.” She said wiggling her bad leg.

Rainbow Dash tried to speak without sounding disappointed, but it was a hard thing to do, considering that she was the best flyer in Equestria, and had all that taken away from her in a second.

“Well, I feel a lot better too Twilight, it’s just...” She trailed off before she could even mention her wings. Twilight thought she saw a tear about to appear in her eyes, but nothing happened. Rainbow sighed. “I guess it’s just hard to be told I’ll never fly again...” she finished, but this time a tear did form in her eye.

“Oh I wouldn’t be so sure about that...” Princess Celestia’s voice filled the room.

Fluttershy looked around, Twilight flinched a little seeing a large dry graze on her neck.

“Was that...” Fluttershy nearly finished as the curtains were lifted up and the large Alicorn walked into the room, which lit up in her presence.

“Princess Celestia!” all the girls exclaimed almost in perfect synch, except the fillies, who were already used to seeing the princess on a regular basis, and Twilight, who was waiting for the princess to make her appearance.

“But how are you here? Did you use the same spell as Twilight?” Rarity asked confused as to how the princess was standing there before her.

“Oh, no she’s the Princess Celestia from this dimension Rarity.” Twilight said to help her friend understand.

“And as ruler of this dimension, I’ve taken responsibility for all your injuries.”

“Come on Princess, there’s no need for that...” Rainbow said trying to ease the weight she believed the princess shouldn’t be putting on her own shoulders.

“I’m responsible for the safety of my subjects, war or no war. If one serves for me, I am responsible as a leader to keep them safe and alive. Twilight has made it more than clear which side of this war you would fight for. I don’t ask you to fight though... It’s far too dangerous out there for that. But instead I will make it up to you another way.” The princess said as she closed her eyes.

“Mighty appreciated Princess, but it’s really not necessary.” Applejack said, but then she noticed Celestia’s horn light up with a spark of energy, which quickly erupted to much more magnitude of intensity. Her body started to flash with brilliant yellow revealing her entire skeleton, as if she was standing behind an x-ray machine.

“What in the hay is she, gah!” Applejack went to ask what the princess was doing, but an orb of energy erupted from the princess’s horn and swept her up before she could finish her sentence. The same thing quickly happened to all the girls, including Twilight. A magical beam, acting as a link found its way from the Princess’s horn to each of the girls, before joining with the large orbs of energy and connect them directly to Celestia. She flashed a few more times filled with energy, but slowly started to collapse to the ground, as the magic became weaker, along with her. Before long, the princess collapsed and the magical connection broke away, causing the orbs around the girls to be absorbed by their bodies.

Celestia was heavily dazed, and in pain, but she was still able to control her basic motor skills, but still found herself rolling over when she tried to stand up. The girls also seemed dazed for a bit, but they were much faster to recover. They all looked at the princess worriedly, but the princess slowly managed to get to her feet, still wobbling a little though.

“Princess! Are ya alright?” Applejack asked jumping up and running over to her, along with Rainbow Dash, who was flying over to where the princess had collapsed.

“I’m alright, I’ve been far better before. But it looks like you girls are feeling better too.” Celestia said as she looked up at the girls, Applejack on her leg, and Rainbow Dash flying.

“Whoa nelly! My leg... It’s... it feels fine. I feel like I could buck all the trees in Sweet Apple Acres with it now.” Applejack said as she stopped, looked back and wiggled her back left leg to see if it looked as good as it felt.

“Hey, maybe ya can give me a hand collectin fruit from tha forest later on now.” Apple Bloom said looking at the alternate version of her sister, and her now healed leg.

“My... my wings... I...” Rainbow Dash felt a look of joy spread over her face. “I can fly again!” Rainbow Dash may have been confined by the small hospital room, but she was so happy that she flew around as fast as she can without knocking anything over. She seemed to create a small whirl of wind in the middle of the room glowing with a rainbow tinted aura. She felt like a new Pegasus. She came to land near Scootaloo. “Guess I can take you for a flying lesson after all Scoot.” She said rubbing her head.

“Yes!” Scootaloo shouted jumping into the air, flapping her little wings as fast as she could, but still struggling to get very high in the air before falling back down. Rainbow couldn’t help but smile at the little filly’s attempt.

“Um, Princess, what did you just do? Even my grazes are fine.” Fluttershy said rubbing the clean fur on her neck.

“And my legs feel perfect for jumping again!” Pinkie said bouncing around the room with delight.

“I shared my own life force with you all to heal your injuries. It won’t take long to recover...” the princess felt a click in her neck and grimaced a little, “but it’s going to hurt until it does.” She finished.

“Princess, ya really shouldn’t ave done that. It wasn’t your fault at all. We ran into this dimension on our own accord ya see... Twilight even tried to get us to stop.” Applejack explained, feeling guilty that the Princess had given up some of her own life force to fix her injuries.

“What’s done is done Applejack. I don’t mind sacrificing a little if it saves a life. And it doesn’t matter anyway, because what I can give, I can get back with time.

Almost all at once each of the girls ran up to the princess to thank her, which seemed a little overwhelming, but the princess knew they were trying to be appreciative all the same. Before long they had returned to general chit chat, but their expressions were much brighter to Twilight and Celestia’s delight.

“So Princess, like I was trying to say earlier. You mentioned sending a group of ponies to get Spike from Canterlot...” Twilight tried yet again to offer her assistance but the Princess suddenly jumped and remembered that she had to go oversee preparations for a team to send.

“Oh thank you for reminding me Twilight! I must go and make sure Derpy has her team together.” Celestia said about to leave before Twilight spoke up.

“Princess please wait. I want to ask if I can help!” Twilight said a little louder than she intended to.

Celestia didn’t take notice to her tone though as much as the thought of such a silly suggestion.

“Twilight, I know Spike probably means a lot to you, especially the one from your dimension... but you haven’t got any experience with weapons or field work...”

“But I’d be a huge help in the field of magic.” Twilight remarked hoping to stack the odds a bit.

“I... I don’t know Twilight. I don’t want to place you in any danger... and a mission in Canterlot is one of the most dangerous I can issue.” Celestia told her still ready to decline Twilight’s request.

“Princess I read in Professor Malcolm’s book that in another dimension, if the version of you living in that dimension is deceased, you will slowly take on some of the knowledge and experience that pony retained before death. Maybe I'll pick up on some of the other Twilight’s skills if I do this.”

“Well... what if you don’t?”

“It also said the chances of not gaining some features of the original pony are extremely low. The only other thing that could cause it to not happen is if two ponies co-exist in the same dimension, but if that was to happen they must not make contact, a dimension supporting two copies of one life is dangerous enough, but two instances of one pony making contact in one dimension could cause a massive paradox... but that’s not important. It’s the fact that I will pick up some of her skills if I go on this mission. I’m possibly picking up some of her knowledge as we speak.”

Celestia was not for allowing the request at all, she had no intention of letting this Twilight get put into harm’s way, but she didn’t want to just flat out deny her. She thought about ways she could prove to Twilight she wouldn’t want to go on the mission, but then an idea struck her.

“Come with me to the armoury then. If you can fire a hoof gun to an appropriate level, I’ll let you go on the mission.”

Twilight lit up with glee. She might get to help save Spike and talk to him again.

They were halfway out the door before Twilight’s friends noticed she was leaving.

“Twilight, where are you going?” Rarity asked first.

“Umm well, I’m hopefully going on a mission to Canterlot to save Spike!” she said, still excited.

“Twilight you shouldn’t be excited, the mission will be extremely dangerous.” The princess said.

“Wait! Spike’s here too?” Rarity said perking up slightly, but giggling and shying back down when everyone looked at her.

“It’s the Spike from this dimension.” Twilight explained.

“Wait sugarcube. You wanna go ta Canterlot to save Spike? The place where that metal thing that almost took mah leg off came from. Are you mad?” Applejack asked, also worried that her friends enthusiasm might be getting the better of her.

“Well if you’re going to be in danger, I’m coming with you Twilight!” Rainbow said showing the loyalty to her friend she was well known for. “No friend of mine’s getting hurt on my watch.”

She flew next to her and slung her front leg over her friends shoulder.

“It’s dangerous enough for Twilight to go even with a team, I can’t let you go too...” Celestia said but none of the girls heard her because Pinkie also spoke up.

“Me too! I’ll be right there with you Twilight!” She said bouncing next to her two best friends. The others seemed to hesitate, especially Fluttershy, but she was the next to speak up.

“Me too. I know it’ll be dangerous, but the guilt you feel when you don’t help your friends is much worse than fear of danger.” She said as she walked over to Twilight’s side. Twilight was shocked at the courage her friends were showing, that they were actually willing to walk into a warzone with her. Rarity spoke up next.

“Don’t think you lot are going anywhere without me.” She said trotting over to the group.

“Nor me yall.” Applejack said going to the large group herself. The fillies stood up too, but they knew the princess would never even consider letting them go on a field mission at their age.

“I’ll go prepare some ration packs fer yer mission, trust me, you’ll need em. It’s a long walk te Canterlot when ye take the long route. “Apple Bloom said rushing out past them to go to the kitchen.”

“And I’ll go make sure the armoury has enough ammo stocked for the 6 of you.” Scootaloo said as she ran past the group out the door. All of this had happened so fast that Celestia didn’t have a chance to voice her opinion… that is if it was still even valid anymore.

“Look I know you girls all want to do your part, but I simply can’t let you all go in without knowing you’ve got survival skills first.” Celestia explained to the group. “Just this once I’ll let you all demonstrate any experience in fighting you may have, but unless you can operate a hoof gun, I can’t let you go on the mission. It might be the thing that saves your life if you get into a bad situation.” Celestia told them trying to convince them to just leave the mission to the trained soldiers.

“We’re more capable than you think princess. I know you think I’m underestimating the danger involved, but I know we can do this, I want to help Spike.” Twilight told her. The princess was still sceptical, but she could tell by the determination in Twilight’s voice that she had to be a part of the team going to Canterlot.

“Ok Twilight, I’ll take you and your friends to the practice range. You can have a look at a hoof gun, test your aim, and any combat skills you might have. But we don’t have long; I’ll give you until Derpy has a full team ready to be dispatched. Don’t expect me to give you this opportunity again though. If you were to be lethally injured on a mission just because of my decision to allow you to go on it… it was just hard enough to lose you all once, and if it happens again, it would devastate me, and imagine your friends back in your dimension if you never returned. They would never know where you went or what happened to you all.” The Princess explained to them all.

“I don’t plan on anything bad happening to any of these girls Princess… I want to help because the other versions of my friends have died already, and if Spike goes too… alternate or not I’d feel horrible. He’s been my closest friend ever since the princess in my dimension let me keep him as a filly.”

Celestia could fully understand now why Twilight was persisting for a position amongst the other soldiers, but she still wanted her to get a small amount of combat training so she would be in less danger if things got ugly.

“Ok then. Follow me.” The princess instructed as she led the girls out of the hospital wing.

She led them through a less complex track of tunnels, delving deeper into the base through stairs and dipping lanes.

“Princess, this here big underground base of yers is nice an all, but it’s so big. How in Equestria did y’all build this place?” Applejack asked admiring the continuing tunnels and ever deepening rooms.

“Well actually it started off as a secluded bunker for anypony who needed it, even others species like griffins and changelings had showed up to find safety. When Luna attacked me, after I left, I had to go to many places in Equestria to make sure she wasn’t attacking others.  I had warned them all that something was wrong with Luna and that I could provide them safety if they came here. With help of many unicorns and builders, we built a stable and secure base, and since then, have been long hidden from the lunar army. The base is constantly monitored, and oxygen is pumped down to all the lower levels. We also had to fortify the base more and more as it grew deeper. As it is we are already 20 levels below the ground.”

She stopped outside a room, the door was closed but Twilight could hear loud banging noises coming from the other side.

“This is the shooting range; I’ll have my leading weapons expert run you through how a hoof gun works in just a moment.” Celestia said as she looked down the hall and pointed her hoof at the other end of the hallway, which was a dead end with two doors on either side making it symmetrical.

“The room on the left is the barracks, that’s where the soldiers sleep ever since the massive spy attack, where many of our soldiers had their throats cut... I had the soldiers moved down here to keep them safe. The room on the right is the armoury, it’s where the weapons and ammo are kept, and it also holds the lab where the weapons are created.” She said before turning her attention to the shooting range again.

“Follow me girls.” She said pushing the door open to reveal a small glass chamber, with ear muffs and protective glasses hanging on the walls.

“Take a pair of these each please; it gets noisy in this room.” Celestia said ushering the girls to take the safety equipment and then leading them into the room.

Twilight looked around and saw many rooms lined up next to each other, with rows of compartments in each. Some soldiers had pony shaped posters at the end of their compartments some distance away, and looked like they were practicing their aim on them. She paid particular attention to the way they held the weapon, and fired it. They were all very accurate shooters, and managed to get most bullets in the middle rings of the targets on the paper pony’s head and body. As Celestia walked the group through the shooting range, ponies started to notice them.  Mild chatter broke out, mainly about the fact that the ponies didn’t know if they were definitely witnessing their 6 long dead leaders walking past them. Twilight almost chuckled when she looked over to one of the booths to see a stallion spin around to see what the commotion was about, and got smacked over the head for spinning a loaded weapon towards other soldiers. Celestia ignored the other soldiers and kept walking, before walking into another room. Twilight and the girls followed her inside.

“I’m about to introduce you girls to the best shooter in the base. Twilight, the version of you from this universe actually trained him, he was even originally going to be granted a spot in a rescue mission over a year ago, but I ultimately gave that position to Derpy instead.” Celestia stopped talking and stopped outside a black door. There were very faint banging sounds coming from the other side.

“What’s his name?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, he only ever told the other Twilight his name, and when she died, his name died with her. So he goes by the nickname she gave him; Bullseye.”

She pushed open the door, to reveal a satin brown stallion, about Twilight’s height, standing on his two back hooves, slouched onto the bench of his private compartment, hardly looking down the range he had his hoof gun pointed down, but to Twilight’s surprise; none of his shots missed. Because the room only contained the one compartment, it was rather small, but still it was well lit and clean, with only few bullet shells lying around here and there, empty clip casings and several torn and destroyed posters lying on the ground; each one of which had bullet holes only in the middle of the targets on them. Wearing the ear muffs, he hadn’t heard them come in and continued to arm and fire bullets with little attention, but lethal accuracy. Twilight was trying to put some distinction on the stallion’s age though; he looked rather young to be one of the best marksmen.

Celestia walked over calmly to Bullseye, who had just detached and discarded an empty clip from his weapon, and was midway loading another.

He cocked the weapon ready to blindly fire another bullet at his paper target before she tapped him on the shoulder. It startled him, as he’d just shot as she’d done it, but still his bullet hit the very middle of his target. He looked behind him and as soon as he saw the Princess, he dropped into a bow; he still hadn’t noticed the others behind her.

“Afternoon Princess. How can I help you?” he said slowly jumping up. Hearing His voice was all Twilight needed to know that this stallion was in his prime of youth.

Celestia smiled as she spoke up, “I have a few soldiers in need of combat training.” She said before moving to the side to reveal the others behind her.

Bullseye didn’t say anything. He looked at Twilight directly and completely blocked the others from his line of sight. ‘Am I dreaming’ he thought to himself. He walked over and studied her for a second, before rubbing his eyes. Twilight watched him carefully wondering what he was going to say, but she expected it was going to be something like...

“Is... Is it really you Twilight?” he asked her.

Twilight giggled, she was expecting those exact words.

“Mostly yes.” She replied, prepared to explain herself to yet again another person, hoping he’d be the last.

“So I’m not dreaming?” he asked still confused. “How is this possible... they told me you died.” Bullseye explained, but Twilight had been expecting him to say all these things as everyone else who’d seen her had said pretty much the same thing.

“I am Twilight, but not the same Twilight that taught you.” Twilight explained.  Bullseye stopped and looked confused at her.

“There’s a spell that can make another version of someone?” he asked looking at Celestia. Twilight just chuckled again.

“I’m from another dimension.” Twilight explained making sense of the situation for him. He was still confused, but being an earth pony he didn’t want to argue with the many possibilities behind the use of magic, so he just nodded his head and looked at the others.

“What about you 5? You’re all from another dimension?” he asked the rest of the group. The girls all nodded simultaneously.

“So you don’t remember me then do you?” he asked turning around to Twilight.

She hated to tell him she didn’t know him because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t want to lie to him.

“I’m sorry...” she said hoping he wasn’t upset.

“It’s alright.” Bullseye assured her smiling. “So how can I be of assistance princess?” he said returning his attention to his leader.

“There’s a mission to Canterlot to extract our spy...” Celestia started, before being interrupted by Bullseye.

“Spike? Yeah Derpy already assigned me a spot in the group leading the rescue.”

“Oh... are you sure your ready for that Bullseye?” Celestia asked him a little concerned.

Bullseye looked at her a bit offended, then looked at her with a sarcastic frown, cocked his hoof gun, pointed it back at down the range, and without any attention at all, maintaining his eye contact with Celestia, shot a perfect round straight into the middle of the head of the poster target.

“I’m definitely ready princess.” He said removing his hoof gun and placing it on the bench.”

“Well, the 6 of these girls wish to help out in the mission too. But if they are to secure a spot, they need to pass a section of combat and endurance training. If I leave them with you, I want you to record how well they do... if they reach satisfactory levels I’ll let them go on the mission. I must see how Derpy’s team is coming along.” Celestia said as she moved towards the door. As she opened it, she looked back at the group. “Good luck girls.” And she walked out the door which slowly shut behind her.

Twilight swallowed her nerve and prepared herself. She had to get a spot on the mission and was prepared to do anything to get it. She was determined to help save Spike. It was time to begin the short session of combat training.