Lost World: Lost Memories

Outside the castle, it was a large display of gunfire and laser bolts that lit up the entire forest. While the ponies had the advantage of defense, the machines had the advantage in term of numbers. Even as the machine gun nests plowed down numbers of them, more kept coming.

“There’s no way we can withstand an attack like this,” Night Breeze said as she and Silverhoof made their way towards the entrance.

“I’ve pulled off miracles before lieutenant, and this wouldn’t be a new one for me,” Silverhoof replied as the two of them had to dodge a laser bolt.

“I hope you’re right about that then,” Breeze as she got into cover and aimed her rifle. “Cause there isn’t much between us and HQ now.” She fired a shot which severed the head from one of the sentries.

“Don’t you remember what happened the last time you bet against me?” Silverhoof joked as an artillery round exploded behind them.

“Sorry sir, but even you are going to have to throw a Hail Mary on this one,” Breeze said as Silverhoof tossed a grenade over his head. The blast threw three sentries into the trees behind them. He then grabbed his sniper rifle and started sniping the drones near the tree line.

“We’ll see,” he said as he took down three of them in five seconds. “Somepony get those cannons fired up and maintain fire on the edge of the forest. And get those AA guns ready in case those carriers appear above us!”

Acknowledgements were made as three soldiers broke from cover, two to load up the artillery directly above them and the other towards the AA gun near the top of the castle. “They’re diverting everything towards the front gate,” Breeze said. “You absolutely sure there’s no other way in?”

“Not any that haven’t been collapsed over time or by us,” Silverhoof said. “If we can keep them out then we stand a chance.” No sooner did he say that that he started to curse. There were three sentries literally galloping towards the front gates. “We got Berserkers! Take them out!”

Berserkers weren’t very different from the common sentry, but these particular sentries were fitted with explosives, the kind that could level a four-story building. They were nicknamed Berserkers not just because they were fast, but the fact that they moved and ran in such an erratic way they gave away their intentions.

Two of them were shot down immediately, but the third was hit in the chest area by a bullet and exploded prematurely. While the blast was about ten feet from the wall, the blast still managed to punch a small hole into the gate and the shockwave managed to knock most of the ponies to the ground.

“Shit!” It was like smelling blood in the water as the sentries made a new push toward the gates. Fortunately, at least a dozen soldiers were guarding this spot and had the gates reinforced to withstand a large blast but they still kept coming, even as Silverhoof and the others up above took many of them down.

Twilight could hear the low rumbling coming from outside as the battle waged on. She was quite aware how large the enemy force and based on multiple simulations she had run, there was an eighty-seven percent chance that the ponies would fall. Part of her wondered what would happen next. Surely, they knew she was here, even though she currently didn’t her SOS signal pinging. But once they did find her, what next? Would they release her and let her assume command? Or would she destroyed here and then due to her failure of a simple mission.

Twilight didn’t quite understand the feeling of fearing death. As a machine, there was no such thing as death. Death was completely irreversible. Machines however could be fixed, though certain things could be lost in the process such as data banks or processing speed. There was no such thing as what ponies called a “soul”.

And yet, Twilight knew if there were orders for her to be destroyed, there was almost zero chance that she would return. Maybe that’s why they fear it so much, because they don’t know what’s on the other side. Twilight wasn’t quite ready to find that out just yet.

There’s so much I still need to know. If they scrap me then… She was quite aware of what she was thinking and she knew the consequences. Both choices had similar risks but Twilight wasn’t thinking based on probability, she was thinking what felt right. But before that, she had to find a way out of this cage.

Twilight had partly lied before, a tactic she wasn’t quite used to, about how she could get out. Sure, she could get out the hard way which as she said would mostly deplete her energy, but there was a more-efficient way. Twilight scanned the walls, impressed how they were able to get wiring through the old castle. She was able to track the wiring from her prison to a nearby power source. She “wormed” her inside, hacking into the power source that would cause it to short out for ten seconds.

Hacking was a basic tool that most machines like her could use. The only difference was the level of encoding. A simple sentry lacked the clearances and tools to hack into a level one door system, but an SRC unit like her could hack into what could be considered level six systems. Hacking into a power source like this was foal’s play however.

The shield that was holding her in suddenly shut off and Twilight managed to break out of her confinement rather easily. Her cloaking mechanism was still damaged, meaning she would have to take the short way out. In her current state, she saw a fifty-four percent chance of success of what she was about to do. She couldn’t help but smile slightly, something she didn’t do very often. Those were the kind of numbers she was willing to take.

Meanwhile, the situation was getting worse by the minute. They were getting overwhelmed and Silverhoof hated to admit, but it seemed like even his luck wasn’t going to get them all out of this jam. “Sir, with all due respect, I think we’re going to need a plan B!” Breeze yelled over in his direction.

Silverhoof gritted his teeth. Retreating was all he and his troops were doing the past few weeks and he was getting sick of it. But the truth was right in front of his face. There were no other options.

Suddenly, it felt as if the ground near him exploded, which again made him worry about the castle itself collapsing. However, it wasn’t caused by an artillery round. Once the dust cleared, he saw a familiar figure floating in the air and he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. As if things couldn’t get any worse. However, what happened next caught not just him off guard, but the entire battalion.

“New directives enforced. Acknowledging destruction of new enemies.” Twin hatches under Twilight’s wings opened up, revealing a pair of Vulcan Cannons, which immediately opened fire. To everyone’s surprise, the bullets weren’t hitting them but the machines right in front of them.

The high velocity bullets ripped them to shreds, leaving behind carcasses of shredded metal. Twilight activated her thrusters and shot forward, continuing her attack. Most of the ponies could only stare in confusion.

“Is that thing malfunctioning?” Breeze asked.

“Who cares!?” Silverhoof looked around. “What are you all waiting for!? Give the machine a hoof why don’t ya!” The troops weren’t sure what was going on but they were happy to comply as they opened fire on the sentries before them.

Twilight meanwhile was leaving carnage in her wake. She could imagine their confusion as to why one of their own was attacking them. She wondered if Sunfall was even aware of this betrayal, such an action that would even give the AI pause. Honestly, even she wasn’t sure what was driving this passion but…for some reason it felt…good.

A warning popped onto her HUD, telling her that she was starting to run low on ammo and based on the numbers before her, she wouldn’t have enough to finish these machines off herself. She then looked to the sky and an idea came to her. She diverted all power to thrusters and shot towards the heavens.

High above the forest, the three helicarriers sat in the sky, a formidable foe that was largely feared by the Equestrian masses. Twilight’s plan was very simple: using a familiar phrase, she was going to kill two birds with one stone. Or, in this case, three birds.

She shot forward, going around the three ships. None of them opened fire, proving that they didn’t currently consider her an enemy. That was about to change in ten seconds. She went behind the leftmost ship where its engines laid exposed. Twilight aimed carefully and opened fire.

It didn’t seem possible, but the force of the bullets managed to blow up one of the engines which suddenly left the ship staggering. Once again, she applied power to her thrusters and rushed towards the ship, slamming into the front left side. Again, it didn’t seem possible her plan would work but she could slowly feel the ship turning to the right.

She managed to get the nose to point straight towards the middle part of the ship next to it and the resulting crash could be heard throughout the entire area. The squeal and rattle of metal bending and breaking was all Twilight could hear as she kept pushing. Another warning told her that her power source was at the point of overheating but she didn’t care. She just had to continue the domino effect.

Silverhoof could hear the destruction taking place in the sky and he saw the colossal ships slowly approaching near the edge of the woods. Seeing how they were descending quickly, his eyes suddenly widened. “Everypony get inside and brace yourselves!”

“She can’t be serious!” Breeze yelled.

“Oh she is!” The remaining troops retreated to the lower parts of the castle and braced for the impact that was soon to come.

As she expected, the middle carrier had been pushed sideways and managed to graze against the rightmost ship, causing all three to head towards the middle of the forest. Twilight finally broke away and felt her power starting to fail, causing her to fall towards the earth as well but she managed a reasonable landing with minimal impact. She personally wanted to see how it would end.

The resulting crash sent a ripple through the earth that was felt clearly inside the castle, causing part of the upper towers to crumble slightly and crash through the ceiling. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion started a large fire inside the forest, one that would most likely burn for a long period of time. Most of the enemy forces were obliterated in the ship and in the surrounding area or taken offline due to the shockwave. All in all, not a bad day’s work, Twilight thought.

However, her victory lap wouldn’t last long as she turned around and saw about fifty weapons pointed in her direction. Not quite the thank you she was expecting but not surprising either. “Everypony stand down!” Silverhoof suddenly floated to the ground in front of them.

Night Breeze quickly came forward, looking at the commander as if he’d completely lost his mind. “Sir, you do realize what that thing is capable of…?” she asked calmly.

“I’m perfectly aware,” Silverhoof replied. “But I also just witnessed this thing saving our asses so the least I can do is hear it out.” He then looked to Twilight. “I’m not sure how to ask this but…why? Why turn?”

Twilight was silent for a moment. “If I knew the right response I would tell you…but I honestly cannot say. Something has happened to me…something I’m not sure I can accept…Maybe it’s because I’ve developed a fear of…being turned offline.”

“Self-preservation.” Silverhoof nodded. “That’s definitely not a usual trait for machines.”

“No…and there’s something else. I’ve had dreams, something that should be impossible for a being such as myself and yet it happened nonetheless. Perhaps I am a defect…and under protocol I would be dismantled and rebuilt in a way that would render me a…emotionless being. Just like the rest of them.” Twilight looked right at the commander and to him it almost seemed as if there was a fire in her eyes. “I am well aware of the things I’ve done and I wouldn’t expect any forgiveness but…there’s a probability…no…something tells me you that if I want my questions answered then the Resistance needs to survive. So please, will you let me fight at your side?”

Many of the soldiers looked at one another, not sure what to think. Was this a trick? Have the machines become this cunning? Silverhoof looked deep in thought. “Well…having someone such as you would definitely even the odds in our favor…”

“Commander…” Breeze warned.

“I know I’m the one many of you have had to put trust in,” Silverhoof said. “And I admit, I’ve made my share of mistakes in life…but I don’t think she’s lying. If she wanted us all dead it would’ve already happened and it’s not like they would need us to find HQ, that I know for sure.” He then looked to Twilight again. “I suppose it’s a little late to ask this but…are you sure about this?”

“I’ve already disabled my tracking device,” Twilight said. “Sunfall will think I’ve been destroyed…and even if I had decided not to do anything, I still failed at a simple mission. No, I’ve made my decision: there is nothing to gain with ponykind’s extinction and if it is destiny that is driving me to do this, then I will gladly accept it.”

Silverhoof smiled. “That’s all I needed to hear.” He then offered a hoof. “Welcome to the Resistance. I can imagine you’re in need of repairs.”

Twilight stared at the hoof for a moment before she reached out hers and shook his. “That would be greatly appreciated…especially considering I’m running on five percent power.”

“Tonks!” An earth pony with a graying beard approached and saluted. “Think you can help our friend out here?”

“Aye, I’ll do what I can, but I’m limited on materials,” Tonks said.

“If anything, I just need a long charge,” Twilight said. She then looked at the hole in her side. “And perhaps a little patchwork too.”

“Aye, alright lassy we’ll see what we can do,” Tonks said as he led her inside.

“As for the rest of you, get some shuteye cause we’re leaving right at the crack of dawn,” Silverhoof said. His troops nodded as some went inside and others went ahead to check on the destruction inside the forest.

Breeze didn’t look pleased. “I hope you know what you’re doing sir,” she said. “This is one bet we can’t afford to lose. And you know if Command finds out they’re going to have a fit.”

“I’ll deal with them when the time comes,” Silverhoof said. “But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure about this one.”

“Why, you bought into that little speech?”

“Well, yes that’s part of it.” He then smirked. “But it’s mostly cause she said ‘please’.”