War Zone-Equestria

The pair continued through the hallways of the large base. It was incredibly quiet, the only sound of which Twilight could here were her own hooves and Derpy’s trotting on the cement. Seeing as they weren’t quite at Celestia’s office yet, Twilight decided she wanted a few questions answered.

”Derpy?” She asked

Derpy didn’t look back but acknowledged that she was listening “Yes Twilight?”

”I’m just trying to figure out a few of the things about this dimension, like what are bullets? What started the war? What was the mission we were sent on that got us all killed? And what did you mean you said you had an explanation to support my story?”

”I’m can answer most of those for you… Bullets are small metallic objects that we use with a hoof-gun…”

”You think you could be a little bit more specific?” Twilight asked pulling a confused face.

”I’m not done.” Derpy stopped and lifted up her right hoof that had the metal contraption on it that Twilight had seen when she was being interrogated. “This is a hoof gun. We had our own forms of weaponry when our spy Spike sent the Princess the blueprints from Canterlot Castle, but these babies blew them out of the water. We don’t know how Spike got into the armory, or where he found the blueprints, but the fact that he got them to us earned him quite a reputation. As soon as they could the engineering team got to work manufacturing them, and altering the design for better mobility and response. And this is the newest model available. These haven’t been mass produced yet… being the commander under the Princess, I do get my privileges."

Twilight looked at the contraption on Derpy’s arm. It seemed to fit on like a sleeve that went up to the second joint in her leg. The body of the weapon spanned over the mid way of this distance and ended in a small tube peeking over the middle of her hoof. Although it wasn’t connected to the hoof due to it not being able to bend, there was a lever connected to the body of the weapon that went under her hoof, and another smaller lever the connected to the top of the body above an empty slot. “Let me describe how it works…”

She pulled a bullet from the ones that Scootaloo had given her and put it on the ground. “The bullets are made up of a few parts, but it’s quite simple to understand. The part of the bullet that does the damage is this small round part that makes up the tip. That’s the only part that fires. The body around it acts as a case to hold it. And on the bottom, that little metal dot is the primer, and that's what ignites it. The case is combustible and filled with a low level explosive powder called cordite. When you push this lever after loading the bullet into the barrel, the pin on the body flies forward almost instantly and strikes the primer. That sends a spark into the bullet which ignites the cordite. Because it’s pressurized, the explosion caused is much more powerful, and it forces the bullet out at incredible speeds. Because cordite has a slower burning rate then the powder that the Lunar Army uses, it seems to create less smoke then traditional powder. The bullet case ejects itself once the body moves back into position. If you didn’t have a mag on you, then you’d load a bullet in the same way; just push it into the slot, push the handle forward and pull it back, and you’d be ready to fire it again just like that. A magazine is just a case that holds more bullets, you put it in the hole you’d normally insert bullets in and every time you cock the lever, it removes a bullet from the clip and loads it. It’s not exactly a fast process, but it’s better than the Lunar Army’s hoof guns, they only have single shots.” Derpy tried to make it simple, but Twilight understood the contraption rather quickly.

“So the Lunar army thought of this then?” Twilight asked.

”Yes, but we made it better. We had the upper hoof, because we could shoot faster. But the original version of you that fought with one of these on the field was a natural born shooter. She’d always hit her target. Not to mention she was extremely clever with the guns. Although I didn’t know that version of you I could tell she probably knew more about them then the engineers who built them. She was the first to manufacture a semi automatic version.”

”Semi Automatic?” Twilight asked confused.

“She didn’t have to cock the head of the gun to load in another shot. She figured out some sort of spring mechanism to have the gun load another bullet on its own. All she had to do was pull the trigger, fire a bullet, the case would eject itself, and another bullet would be forced into the barrel and loaded.” Derpy explained. “But she never wrote down the schematics or instructions on how to do this to the other hoof guns. So ever since she died nopony in the engineering team could figure out how to replicate it.”

That was odd to Twilight because she’d always written down notes on anything she’d discovered or created, and she’d have assumed that the version of her in this dimension would do the same. “Maybe I can take a look at it later and see if I can do it.” Twilight offered.

“You’re welcome to try, but you’ve never even held one of these things or shot one. So your chances probably won’t fare any better than the engineers.” Derpy picked up the bullet and put it back in the casket with the rest. “I’m not sure how the war started though. All I know is that I have to fight for the right side. You’d be better off asking the princess that one when we get to her office. And as for the explanation… I’d rather discuss it with the princess first.”

“What else did you want to know?” Derpy asked as she continued leading Twilight through the tunnels.

”Well… I’m not sure what to expect from this question, but how did we die? What was the mission the princess had sent us on? And why were Apple Bloom and Scootaloo fighting in it?”

”They weren’t…” Derpy said which confused Twilight.

”But… Scootaloo said they were there, that they saw what happened.”

”That doesn’t mean they were fighting Twilight. They were being rescued. Like Scootaloo said, Celestia found her and Apple Bloom on the edge of their hometown. She was searching for survivors. But amongst the many others there were spies, sent by Luna to pose as helpless victims, to infiltrate the base and kidnap ponies to work for her as slaves. It happened while we were all asleep and unaware of what was happening. When we woke up, at least ¾ of the people Celestia had brought with her were gone, and many of the soldiers had their throats slashed… I was one of them…” Derpy paused for a minute and held up a tuft of fur on her neck revealing a large scar.

Twilight was horrified.

‘How could she have possibly had survived that?!’ she thought to herself.

”Anyway, I lost a lot of blood, but I was one of the lucky lot that didn’t have any extremely vital parts in my neck badly damaged. Don’t get me wrong; the pain was unbearable and my chances were bleak, but surviving it taught me something: I had a purpose to fulfill. I survived because part of me still longed to achieve a greater purpose. The medics patched me up as best they could, but without magic, there was no way they’d be able to save me or any of the others that hadn’t been killed. But Celestia used her magic you see. Being immortal let her give up plenty of life force to us and saved us all, but it really took a lot out of her to give up as much life force as she did. So she asked the other versions of you and your friends to lead a team to infiltrate Canterlot, and retrieve the captive slaves. The alternate you and your friends had quarters closer to the princesses, so none of them were in danger when the attack took place. I wasn’t in the best condition but I managed to convince the princess to let me go with your team. The team consisted of 10 soldiers including myself. The other you and her 5 friends led the other 4, which was myself, Lyra Heartstrings, a changeling who went by the code name of Back Stab, and a stealth griffin who went by the code name Shadow Hack… It’s a really long story Twilight; couldn’t it wait until later when everything has been sorted out?” Derpy asked.

”I really need to know Derpy. It could come in handy to know what I was like in this dimension. If you’d prefer I could use a memory spell to view the story from your experiences? It would take a lot less time too.” Twilight suggested.

”I… I don’t know Twilight.” Derpy said, uneasy about the suggestion.

”Trust me. If you think directly about the mission, I’ll be able to see it and retain the whole thing in my own memory.”

”Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just hear it? It would be a lot easier than seeing it through my eyes. I can promise you that.” Derpy said, still trying to avoid the Twilights suggestion.

Twilight thought for a short time about this, but she’d made up her mind. “Please Derpy; I want to know what happened.”

”Ok then Twilight, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Derpy said, before closing her eyes and focusing as best she could on the time frame. “Ok, I’ve got it.” She said.

Twilight’s horn lit with energy as she focused and altered her spell in her mind, ‘I have to view a memory, not share or unlock one. View one!’ She continued to process these words through her head as she moved her horn towards Derpy’s forehead. The pegasus seemed to flinch a little as Twilight moved her horn closer. Twilight noticed this and realized that Derpy still wasn’t entirely positive about the idea.

”Trust me.” She said stopping and watching Derpy.

She closed her eyes and nodded, “Ok Twilight.”

Twilight moved her horn forward and touched it to Derpy’s head. Suddenly everything faded around Twilight. And the environment started to shift. She saw things from Derpy’s eyes, as a few random memories popped up.

They were extremely brief as Derpy was trying her best to focus on the memory of her mission, but Twilight saw each one and was horrified by the things that had happened to the poor pegasus. She even felt like she was going through it herself, being inside Derpy’s memory. She saw a flashback of Derpy awakening to a pair of hooves surrounding her neck in her sleep and cutting her throat with a blade. Twilight cringed at the blood that seeped out of the wound and almost wanted to vomit. She saw flashes of her choking and sputtering, trying to get air, but Derpy was trying her best to hide these memories. The next few flashes saw her recovery, and how she had gone to the princess to request a position in the rescue mission. But finally, Derpy had found exactly the moment she was looking for, the environment faded and morphed yet again, this time, to a grassy field outside of Canterlot Castle, late in the afternoon. Twilight saw herself sitting in a field wearing a stealth suit, similar to the one she had worn when she traveled to Canterlot Castle in search of a time stopping spell, and the others in the group wearing their own outfit of choice, silently waiting for an order from her alternate self. Twilight suddenly found herself sucked into Derpy’s body. She could see only what Derpy had seen. She readied herself for the visions that were about to unfold before her, but couldn’t help but feel nervous anyway. She had to overcome it though now. This is what she wanted, and it was time to find out the grim past of her alternate self.