2: DATA_PARSE

She awoke abruptly from a short burst of static, the interference making her ears ring for the slightest moment before her system fully compensated and blocked out the glitch.

"Again?" Twilight muttered groggily, blinking through the low light coming in from the curtains a few times as her vision started to sharpen and her system rapidly cleared any trace of sleep inertia. It was the damn sensory implant; it was Nexus made, and she'd thought it had been a good idea at the time to get something on sale. Looks like the trip to Velvet was going to happen quicker than she had initially planned.

Luna was going to be pissed, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Twilight stretched, and smiled as there was a cute yawn beside her. She turned her head to look upon the cream-coated mare from the night before, still somewhat wrapped under the silken duvet in a scent of juniper, who was gazing at her intently and apparently been watching her sleep. Her jade eyes seemed quite content. Twilight slowly leant down and gave her a gentle kiss, pressing her lips against the mare's own and deliberately drawing it out as she gently brushed her raven mane out of the way. She liked the sheer intimacy of it, the romantic notion, the way the girl's heart beat faster as a mere kiss built up her arousal, Twilight's hoof travelling down her sleek navel and cupping a hefty teat as the mare squeaked in delight, and once more as she moved a little further and brushed the polymer hoof-edge against her vulva. She wanted to take her again and delve between her legs, make her moan in absolute ecstasy the way she did so many times last night, but sadly she was on the clock.

Twilight begrudgingly moved off, and stretched out again until she heard a satisfying series of pops in her back and neck, swinging herself around and slipping out of the marvellously comfortable queen-sized bed. The room itself was quite lavish, and the night prior it had just been a minor note, but now she focused on the massive mirror mounted on her side of the room that reflected her naked body. It made her give pause for a moment as it was always rather strange to behold herself; she didn't have anything but a small cabinet mirror in her compact apartment's bathroom where she mostly just saw her face.

Without her bodysuit and duster on, she could see her rather nice body, what little was left of it anyway. Her barrel and belly were slim, toned well and bordering on ripped, no more pudgy teenage librarian to be seen in this gut. She took a small measure of pride in it, along with her strong back, the withers and loin a little more defined than most mares had, but it didn't detract from her powerful flank and shapely haunches, leading into muscular thighs, even if the thighs weren't completely stock as then came the majority of extensive augmentation that comprised her overall form.

Her legs were the most glaring sight; sleek, heavy, but durable carbon-fibre infused metallic-polymer limbs with matte panelling, housed in their ports that pierced flesh and were grafted straight into the sockets of her skeleton, from the beginning of her shoulders and mid-thigh, flesh had been replaced. A series of small overlapping protective armour plates neatly ran down her spinal column from the base of her skull as well, running over the croup and ending before the dock of her tail, and were grafted into the bone much in the same way as her limbs. She met her own augmented glowing eyes for a moment, tracing the shunts underneath them, and down the minimal dermal lines that neatly ran under them symmetrically through her cheeks until they ended just under her jaw at the neckline, where they interfaced with her inner system and neatly vanished into her coat just above the chest. Beyond that and her augmented limbs, what couldn't be seen was all of the hardware under the surface.

Augmented organs, augmented musculature, a crystal-filament-weave hardened skeleton, numerous implants and inner-setups that fulfilled a variety of invaluable functions, a powerful shielding system, an inbuilt potent healing matrix with reserve trauma systems, and of course the very resistant dermal armour that had stopped a Gryphoness from giving her a new hole to breathe from, point blank.

Certain parts of her anatomy were still stock, her lovely genitals and modest teats were untouched and her shapely croup that led into an enticing arse was still wonderful flesh, with no dermal to be seen. She'd happily rely entirely on her shields protection for her back end if it meant having a springy bottom a bit could bounce off.

Vanity, thy name is Twilight.

She glanced at the other pony in the room who still seemed quite content just to watch her, the cream-coated mare's own eyes attentively tracing the various contours of her augments with more than an academic interest. The girl really did have a thing for metal, as Twilight had discovered the night before, and it was rather hot if a tad bemusing. It must have been more of a young persons thing because it wasn't often that Twilight saw sexual interest in augments beyond a few secluded sites on the Farscape Web. It probably wouldn't be all too long until the mare got a few augments of her own, or probably more likely a few subtle implants at the very least, nothing that would detract from the stock appearance.

"I'm going." Twilight politely told the mare as her horn flared to life, the corona grabbing her smooth bodysuit from the place on the floor where it had been thrown as she quickly stepped into and pulled it on. She made it look incredibly easy to do. The familiar feeling of the bodysuit's magitech interface linking with her system as the tight flexible chitinsilk surrounded her was always comforting, as was the enhanced leather duster that followed after. She gave her dishevelled mop of hair a quick tussle so it fell back into a semi-normal style of her usual look, and turned back. "I had a lot of fun last night. Hope I'll catch you around, Cream."

It was obvious the pretty mare had used a pseudonym, as most people involved in porn or the oldest profession in the world were wont to do. If Cream Dream was her actual name then she clearly didn't have the most thoughtful of parents, and to be a prostitute this young usually meant the absence of at least one parental figure, or the abuse of one. Far be it for Twilight to judge though; she had two very loving parents, and yet she was a walking tank and an incredibly decisive instrument of death wielded by the Crown.

The glowing emblem on the duster's flank almost seemed to knowingly shimmer with recognition at her thoughts, or maybe she just needed some strong morning caffeine. At the very least she wasn't hallucinating again, that never ended well for anyone. A long parting gaze at the lovely mare laying in the silk covers that she'd bedded, and Twilight left the room.

When she got downstairs she acknowledged the clerk at the private hotel's desk as the stallion gave her a curt polite nod, crossing the regal lobby to the double doors and making a swift exit. It was raining again when she trotted out of the building onto the street, the canopy overhead was a beautiful pattern of rippling light as the elements drizzled away at its surface while cars flew by, just fuzzy blurs through the magical barrier. Pinkie's wouldn't be open until later, which sucked because she made some excellent coffee, and Twilight didn't usually like the stuff. She opted for another usual haunt instead, making a right and heading down the open street occupied by a few staffed outlets offering fancy breakfasts with aromatic scents she didn't care for, weaving between others as she went and ignoring their curious or concerned glances.

Normally a trip as far as halfway across the Hibiscus ward for breakfast in the morning would have probably put most people off of going unless it was near to the place they worked, but on prosthetic hooves she was there within a good fifteen minutes, and a quiet walk kept the mind calm while also allowing her to think. She smelled the scent of industrial-grade cleaner before she saw the usual spotless white of the open area with its tables and tacky looking pink-neon sign reading Quik-Fix, resting her eyes upon the dug-out that extended beyond its wall like a large brass metal military pillbox, tucked away into the street's side very comfortably like a rivet on an iron girder.

The place, and the street by extension were rather deserted at this time of the day, the other few shops on this street not open just yet, but even then it wasn't really a common hotspot for activity and even the automated kiosks along the way had very few customers, which was one of the reasons why she liked it. Twilight approached cautiously just in case, given the previous night's attack, however she didn't sense anything out of the ordinary as she passed a few occupied tables and came up to the service counter before the bulky structure. She tapped a button, walking over to a vacant table and sitting down.

"Tea; black, three sugars, with milk." Twilight spoke up as she took the seat and a hologram projected by the building neatly materialised with a buzz next to her small table in the form of a mare with a pink hue not too dissimilar to the large neon sign, the mare contently smiled at her as she continued. "BLT with red onion."

"Sure thing! That will be five silver meadows and fifty-two bronze rabbits." The chipper program responded, presenting a transparent hoof. "This establishment is credit onl-"

Twilight lifted her right hoof and swiped it over the hologram's own, followed by a small ping and the hologram flashing a shade lighter before it nodded the transaction complete with a thank you, and quickly dispersed as the building cut the projection. While she waited for the order to come and be delivered she pulled up files on her HUD on the gang of Gryphons that had tried to take her down. She accessed all of the known data the Crown had in its database on the group in just a couple of seconds and found herself smiling at how little there was, which meant she'd actually have some work to do while off mission which was nice; she hated being idle and as much as it wouldn't hurt her chronicle she couldn't just bed whores all the time.

The outfit didn't have an official name, because they seemed to know well enough to stay mostly under the radar, and no one had given slip of any major details. When their gang colours were spotted they generally disappeared before long, and the few names of those tied to the group that were in jail hadn't given anything to the police. Beyond a vague idea that they were organised around the southside of Canterlot's downtown areas ─and crossed into the extended plateau─ there wasn't much to go on. A number of lower wards that fit that description crossed the inner plateau into the extended plateau up to its edges. They would be lying very low after last night, especially with a number of them in police custody, which meant finding them was going to be an adventure and a half.

She partially missed when Canterlot was a small city and just looked like an enormous castle from the distance of Ponyville, these days the entirety of the mountain was dominated by the massive circular plateau ─often simply called the plate by many─ that surrounded it and the sprawling megacity across its length that climbed ever skyward. Looking for them might not be an easy task, but an easy task was never all that fun. With their little stunt they'd put themselves on her shit list, and she was going to enjoy busting in on wherever their main operation was and painting one disturbingly gruesome canvas that would likely end up on the Farscape Web.

An adorable off-white foal-like android whirred as it silently dropped her order off with a cherub grin, its horn winking out as it promptly marched away back to the structure where the pillbox opened up and it stepped inside, then sharply closing again in a snap. She started to eat as she looked through another series of documents on other gangs that had possibly run into her unnamed Gryphons. She sat for roughly twenty minutes as she casually went through the meal, finding very little beyond chance encounters where each time there had been run-ins, all parties involved had gone their separate ways with no bloodshed. In each case no one had spoken a word to the police again, and that rubbed Twilight as highly suspicious.

It opened up a number of possibilities as to the why, and she didn't like any of them.

These Gryphons having EMP ammunition wasn't the issue, such ammo was widely available even to the public. Any decently expensive shield will manage to negate the power behind the rounds using a magical energy field as a secondary wall, letting the majority of those pulses be absorbed by that barrier and dealing as little damage to the main shield as possible.

The slug from the high-calibre Thuddgun that had broken past her shields had likely been made with a powerful magical tip beyond its specialised core, so it had hit the secondary barrier through the shield and utterly destroyed it, allowing the EMP round to take down her shielding and deplete the pulse charge she'd had in her hoof. At present she wasn't sure what sort of magic had been used, yet being able to make ammunition of that degree where all the magical wavelengths played well with technology was high level. This wasn't coincidence that it had wound up in the elusive outfit's claws, they were clearly being supplied.

She also wasn't so vain as to think it had been an attempt on her life either, that bordered on extreme paranoia. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time for them to decide to test their new acquisition. It didn't stop her from glancing around at the few other customers eating here though.

A few grizzled or odd looking folk were dotted about, not uncommon for dispensaries like this, simply keeping to themselves and not looking her way beyond the almost mandatory curious glance at her duster's emblem, before she caught their eyes and they suddenly found their meals far more interesting. Beyond that, no one was paying her any more attention than usual, although one of them was giving the small foal-droid that delivered his food a very long and interested lookover that made her raise an eyebrow, it was only a tad concerning. The oddity of people was likely down to her choice of venue.

These sorts of automated food vendors were supplied by megacorps looking to make easy money, letting them be handled by basic A.I that could fulfil several simple tasks, from selling food to guns to sex. The ones in Hibiscus were an infinitely nicer level above other places in Canterlot, hence why she frequented this one so much. They might be greedy bastards but sometimes they got it right. She could take or leave the androids that looked like foals, but she suspected that they'd been a cheap option and the intent behind them was more to be adorable serving staff than something vulgar, and they were pretty cute with their large innocent eyes and smiles.

"Would you like to order something else? We have a good deal on lunch today!" The same foal-droid that had delivered her order spoke up in a tinny voice next to her, diligently taking her plate and cup within its magic field with the same smile it had been sporting when it had left the first time around, quite a simple model with a basic range of facial features.

"No thanks." Twilight told it. The foal gave her a look that she was sure was meant to be both endearing and yet somewhat crestfallen, but the end result made it appear almost annoyed and vaguely threatening. It curtly nodded, told her to have a pleasant day, and all-too-quickly marched off again knowing there was no more business to be had.

Twilight enjoyed A.I, and she quite liked the low-end models as much as the high-end ones, even if most people looked at the basic models as if they were a beat-up old car or a piece of fruit about to turn and go rotten. She'd been there when the very first robot was unveiled by Albion Technologies, and it could do nothing but take a couple of janky steps forward and recognise a person enough to greet them by name, so long as it was repeated several times until they registered it. It had been over two decades since then, and now some of them were as intelligent as any sentient being.

Most common A.I were technological constructs, like the little foal-droids, or a construction A.I housed in a vehicle to assist with precise motor control. They were often built for a single purpose and did it decently, and generally the more expensive they got, the better they did the work. However, it was always the case that they were limited in their capacity and never grew much beyond it. A nanny-droid could develop a damn fine personality for the family it worked for but it could never remember more than a few details or memories unless it had some serious memory mods, otherwise it would have to constantly recycle data in order to keep the most important information in its system.

The rarer A.I were the magical constructs. Magic was, by all means of the word, unlimited in the amount of power that could be given to any spell or construct. All that mattered was the skill that went into it. A shoddily cast fire spell would create a quick burst of flame, and it could still be a very powerful burst despite its simplicity, but an expertly cast fire spell with a great amount of power behind it could utterly decimate beyond what was expected and overwhelm shields. An A.I that was created by very skilled magical means had the potential to grow exponentially.

For such a reason, magical A.I had constraints that held them down, layered in during the creation of their matrixes. She'd seen a shackled A.I's mindscape, and it had been as if the construct had been chained to the ground with weights so heavy it would take a deity to move them. It had been representative of course, but no less true to the fail-safes in place. That had been the Crown's own A.I that managed its vast information network and Canterlot extranet, and its power had still been very considerable with such handicaps.

Her vision flicked to the small minimalist icon of a ruby in the bottom right of her peripheral vision, it was lit, solid, and unmoving, always there to show that the A.I was online and that she was connected to the network. She found its presence comforting, calling the A.I 'Vee' when she talked to it; named after the initials of the Verdant Estate in the Palace where the magical construct was hosted. Vee liked her name.

Those that weren't privy to magical A.I thought of them as some ultra-freaky supernatural force that could destroy society as people knew it, and... they weren't wrong exactly, but any magical construct that was created on such a scale knew of its own fail-safes, and knew it could be destroyed in an instant if it ever tried to breach them. What folly would it be to create something without knowing how to destroy it. Some of the less powerful A.I's were unshackled, and had to have been granted that right from the Crown. They were fun to come across, and it was obvious when they were around; they had a habit of attaching themselves to a particular person or place, and never failed to be fascinated by life in its complexity.

Some avoided them for that reason, they were very... intense.

Twilight didn't mind that either.

Her business here finished, she got up and left Quik-Fix behind. Next on her list was Velvet, she needed to swap out this fucking sensory implant. She also wanted to get some different eyes, and that was going to take a bit of time as well. While she didn't care too much that she'd already be fashionably late seeing Luna, being overly late especially after a mission would be less of a casual joke and more of a fatal action. There was only so much time that could pass before it was treated as being absent without leave and she likely got some painful treatment in a drill room for her tardiness. Luna only tolerated so much of her bullshit before bringing down the hammer, Celestia was the lenient one that took it all in stride as one of Twilight's personal quirks. She used to be so much more punctual, though time had changed that little part of her.

Taking a sharp turn down a narrow side street that had seen better days, she walked for a good minute, then trod down halfway into a flight of steps that led to some moody basement bar and let energy begin to flow through her. Her horn glowed deeply as her eyes squeezed shut, and there was a blinding flash followed by a sudden crack of subdued lightning before she mildly breathed out and reopened her violet eyes.

She was in a familiar backstreet behind Velvet's shop she commonly walked through, three wards away from Hibiscus out west on the edge of the extended plateau, in the Draconis ward. She took in a liberal deep breath; the air here was a stark contrast to the hazy thrum that permeated through the whole of the Pink Palace, it was almost crisp and clear thanks to it being so far out from the mountain. Hibiscus wasn't bad but at the very minimum it didn't feel like she was trying to push through a veil to get anywhere.

Twilight moved around to the front of the store into a busy commercial street where a number of wary onlookers were giving her mute stares as she passed, and several parents dragged their kids behind them as they stopped and looked on with awed little eyes. She smiled kindly at them, but that just sent them fearful and scurrying at their parents' behest. No doubt they'd all heard the whiplash of energy and a reflection of light the flash from her teleportation had made, though at least they hadn't seen it directly. It was why she'd gone into a vacant street and down some stairs when she'd travelled; the initial burst wasn't as powerful as the landing with the expulsion of generated energy, however it was still quite disorientating to see both ways, and it tended to make people panic when a damn Crown Agent just snapped into reality before them. People generally assumed shit was about to hit the fan for such occurrences, and they often weren't wrong.

Velvet's place was a decent setup being the larger of the shops surrounding it, The Penrose was one of those live-above two-storey setups so he worked for as long as he liked custom modding parts, implants, and augments until someone came in looking for some hardware, and could easily take a trip upstairs and relax for some downtime. He'd been here for about a year or so before Twilight had come across the place and took note of the rather excellent custom work, and her making visits to a shop that dealt in augments had put Velvet in the spotlight for an invaluable amount of time. Now he dealt with more than just his own work, he got to sell big-name tech and earn a decent cut when he did, and a nice bonus was that Twilight got a whole twenty-five percent discount even though she was pretty well off.

She made as fast an entrance into the shop as she could, which took a moment because the main door was a heavy security one she'd recommended to Velvet after the store had a few attempted robberies, as even in a decent ward like Draconis there were always opportunists waiting just around the corner. Unluckily for the burglars, Velvet was more armed to the teeth than a Hydra and consequently they had been turned to paste by a massive high-calibre chaingun installed in the ceiling that was meant for military application. The second robbery was the reason for the large door, if only because stopping people before they got inside meant less cleanup in the long term. It was a sound investment in order to avoid hiring a cleaner-droid to scrub blood off the walls.

Once she stepped in, the door automatically shut behind her. She was standing in a small enclosed hallway with faded hazy indigo walls and neon strip lighting in the corners, another similarly heavy door waiting at its end. The previous business had been a massage parlour, so this had once been a reception area to separate where all that fun took place, only now it functioned as a sort of airlock where Velvet could peer through the hatch of the second door and see who was wanting in.

Twilight's vision immediately snapped to the domed extrusion just before the door beyond with interest, noting that the thing was on standby. That was a new addition. And quite heavy duty at that; no such thing as excess when it came to home defence. What she did recognise was the small security orb embedded above the door frame that was scanning over her. She waited with amusement, it wouldn't be able to scan her system so she'd be showing up as an unknown entity.

The hatch in the opposite door slid open after a moment and a pair of hot-pink irises focused on her through a bulletproof window, she flashed a winning smile at them. A series of bolts were unlocked behind the door in rapid succession as the hole was shut and the door swung inwards, revealing a slender, pretty stallion with a lilac mane and a deep wine-red coat. He was dressed in his usual attire of a dark-brown leather jacket, an insulated undersuit that cut off just over the right shoulder for his fancy prosthetic foreleg, and steel hoof-capped boots on his back hooves. The goggles that sat atop his head were quickly ensnared in pink magic, and went back over his eyes as he whipped about, trotting across the tiled floor as she followed him in over to a back corner where one of many workbenches were placed, piled high with all manner of tech and gizmos next to several holoscreens that ran their diagnostics.

The Penrose's interior was haphazard at best, always smelled of various oils and metals, and nearly every inch of the walls were covered in dozens of augment types for the numerous races of Equestria with the most up to date models being neatly displayed on mounts behind the till, right down to special spotlights that made them stand out in the low club-style lighting. Beyond that, the polished tiled floor was mostly clear save for two massive fitting decks on the left side of the room for applying the endless myriad of augments and implants any person could want. He'd gotten another in the time she'd been away, although it was a little less new and a bit more shabby and retrofitted than the one he already had. The decks were essentially like a madpony's wet dream for an operating theatre wherein the entire thing had more ability to restrain people than a BDSM dungeon, and looked more like industrial equipment than medical apparatus, however they were extremely precise as they were generally co-ran by a tech A.I that specialised in medical skills.

"What do you need, Twilight? Looking for some new gear?" Velvet asked politely, sitting back down under a focus lamp and picking up his precision tools within his magic to work on what appeared to be a prosthetic arm for Minotaurs.

"Always am." Twilight replied nonchalantly, sauntering over to the better looking fitting deck and taking off her duster, draping it across a small table mostly free of gadgets not far from the machine as it sensed her and thrummed to life, the onboard computer waking up with a sudden glow. "I need the Nexus implant pulled, the fucking thing keeps trying to interact with the Crown stuff I have and it doesn't play nice."

"Ah, I was wondering about that." Velvet said with a touch of remorse, getting back off the stool and coming over to her as she began to strap herself in. He lifted his goggles and assisted her, readying a local anaesthetic and the appropriate medical tools. "I got sent a message about recalling a few Nexus products from the shelf about two months back and remembered you had such, it seems a number of their pieces had minor faults."

"Yep, mine keeps waking me up. I've been lucky to not have it glitch in the middle of a fight or something, it was a bitch while I was out-of-country." Twilight grunted, shifting about to get comfortable in the deck while Velvet pinned her hair up at the back of her neck where the implant was fitted into the base of her skull alongside a few others specific to her brain, he also unzipped her bodysuit and tugged it down just over her shoulders so it wouldn't get in the way, then returned to preparing equipment.

Twilight spoke again after a moment, flicking her vision in his direction. "Swap it with that custom piece you were tinkering with a few months back before I left, you know; the real fancy one you were meaning to sell to Aeon."

Velvet paused in the middle of sterilising with a raised eyebrow.

"Twilight, that was meant to be for Dragons. It's got a lot of power in it, but it generates a lot more heat as a trade-off, which is nothing to them." Velvet explained with a tone, setting down the tools as the A.I went on standby to await instruction. "That was also why Aeon rejected it, they saw that as too much of a design flaw because it couldn't be fitted to multiple species without needing to spend a great deal for each variant model."

"Probably also said something about cost effectiveness too, right? Dragons don't tend to get augmented very often." Twilight grinned as she craned her head back to see Velvet's curt nod of annoyance. She continued while getting back into position for the machine. "It's got tons of fun my system would love to use, and I can handle a little extra warmth. Do it."

Velvet sighed.

"I'll need to add a medium cooling billet for emergencies, and retool the tie-in systems for your custom work from the Crown to interface with it properly, the few pieces you do have from my end didn't intrude on that side of things until now, I changed how I built the Dragon implant and everything else since then; it's all going to need major overhauling to get along with what's already in you." Velvet said with a slight pause in his voice, tapping his hooves on the deck in thought. "You might also need an additional power cell housed in your chest alongside the others; it runs harder than most sensory implants, clocks it in at a hundred-eighty-seven percent of the standard level."

"So do it, I don't care. I've got space." Twilight shrugged, feeling impatient. She watched as Velvet moved over to one of his benches to grab the required materials, continuing. "I'm also gonna need new eyes because these ones have some really shitty purple overlay that covers everything, it didn't bother me at first but now it's really getting on my teats, the last ones I had were better by comparison. If you're adding an extra battery then add two, go with Eidos and mod them like the others, and make the eyes something by Aeon, the top shelf military stuff if you got it; they have the best resolution and targeting acquisition systems, the Crown still hasn't made anything quite that good."

"That'll take me some time, and you'll need a general anaesthetic. I'll have to get the eyes attuned to all the custom bits in you and the batteries and sensory implant as well. Aeon's architecture doesn't play nicely with anything unofficial." Velvet wryly informed her with a sardonic snort, pressing a few buttons on a holo-panel to change medicines. "I'm assuming you're going to bill this to the Crown rather than your personal chronicle?"

"Naturally." Twilight hummed.

"Alright then." Velvet nodded, grabbing a surgical razor and scalpel in his corona and swabbing the incision site with a soothing gel. "Avesta, please keep her perfectly steady while I work."

"Acknowledged." Came the deck's medical A.I, Avesta. She'd never really spoken with it.

"Applying the anaesthetic now, Twilight." Velvet told her. Twilight grunted in minor discomfort, feeling the prick immediately as the A.I acted, and the subsequent piercing feeling that shot through her neck where the needle pierced into a vein. She hated the slow spreading throb of pressure and crawl of numbness a needle caused, getting stabbed with a knife was infinitely better by comparison and disturbed her far less. It was withdrawn as fast as it had entered, and with a heavier dosage for her augmented system it didn't take very long before Twilight fell under.

Twilight awoke to a world not tinted in purple, everything was the correct colour.

Thank fuck.

She could also hear Velvet talking to himself upstairs... No, he was talking to someone else actually, but wow; she could hear that without even trying to dial up the new sensory implant beyond its standard level. She was already pretty good at listening, something that most people didn't tend to do all that often, actually take time to focus and hear the world around them and make out details that truly mattered, but now she could immediately hear what she wanted to hone in on barely a second of focusing. Her heat readouts also barely budged an inch as the implant did its work and her system properly compensated for the excess energy usage, excellent stuff, Velvet.

"If you feel nauseous, there is water to your right." Spoke a feminine voice from... all around her.

Right, the A.I, Avesta.

"Thanks." Twilight mumbled, still not fully awake. She moved her hoof towards what she saw was a glass, but then stopped, because that would be fucking stupid. Her horn glowed with light instead, and enveloped the glass. She lifted it to her mouth and took a few gulps of cool water, and it did make her feel a lot better. The medicine used as an anaesthetic was magically potent enough that it could stay in the body for up to a day afterwards, and her body had required a heavier dosage as it automatically cleansed such things as a foreign entity, so the effect of her system purging everything after the fact left her feeling pretty shit.

"Your operation took one hour and twenty-nine minutes. There were no complications during the installation of your implants or augments." Avesta intoned neutrally. Twilight even saw a small purple avatar with a short layered manestyle pop up from the table next to the deck. Velvet had been busy creating.

She flicked her sight down over her new white and gold military style HUD that came with Aeon eyes and took account of the changes, switching it according to her preferences, the surrounding overlay switching in colour to the dark onyx with purple accents she'd chosen for her system along with all her other changes, and saw when she pulled up the time that it had been over four hours since she'd gone under the knife, what the actual fuck.

"Wh-"

"-You have been sleeping for three hours, the minimum amount of time recommended for patients receiving invasive augmentation upon the brain or body." The A.I cut her off, anticipating the spike in her reaction. The avatar remained still. "I did not wish to disturb sleep essential to your recovery."

"I would have walked it off." Twilight frowned with a sigh. Fucking stupid annoying helpful creations, she was already late, damn it. "Alright, whatever. Will you lose the bindings now?"

The avatar shook its head. "I cannot."

Twilight almost felt an eyelid twitch.

"Why the fuck not?!" Twilight snapped, attempting to pull her hooves about, but the restraints were tougher than crystal-weave and designed to keep belligerent Dragons in place; they weren't going to be budged easily. She could just straight up tear herself free of the machine but it would severely damage the deck, and Velvet probably didn't deserve that just for his A.I being an irritating cunt.

"I require a voice command from my director." Avesta stated.

"Velvet, get your tight filly-looking ass down here!" Twilight immediately shouted at the ceiling, magically empowering her voice and going so far as to fire a bolt of energy from her horn. The projectile was just a small harmless shot of light that would bypass the floor above, but it would certainly make Velvet double time it down to her. It was probably a good thing she was still partially drugged, it might have been more potent and possibly harmful otherwise.

As she'd expected the conversation he'd been having abruptly halted, being followed by a stumbling of hooves as the bolt phased through and no doubt scared the everloving shit out of the unsuspecting stallion. It didn't take him even a minute before he was clambering down the stairs of his flat to wherever the connecting entrance was for his workshop.

"Twilight, you're awake! Sorry!" He hastily threw out as he burst into the room, sans jacket and goggles, taking in a breath and straightening up as he came over. "I was... talking to somepony."

Twilight lazily smiled while he unstrapped the enhanced leather and metal straps keeping her securely in place. "Somepony, huh?"

"She's... very nice." Velvet replied, returning a smile of his own.

"Well, didn't mean to interrupt your playdate with a hooker." She shrugged as she stepped out of the deck, pulling up her bodysuit that had been further unzipped from the surgery and also snatching up her duster. She slipped it on as Velvet baulked and glared at her, but she ignored it and gave him a light punch on his prosthetic foreleg as she walked by him towards the airlock, it was likely he was seeing a nice girl he wanted to impress given the change in his stance and indignation to her words, but she liked to tease him. "Thanks as usual, I'll catch you later sometime."

He sighed and grabbed some disinfectant from his work table to clean the deck down, speaking after her. "Come back if there are any problems with the new gear."

"Yep."

Twilight almost got to the door before she recalled through her rapidly clearing mind about certain topics at hoof that needed answers. She craned her head back towards the stallion.

"Before I go, Velvet; would you happen to know anything about some heavy-duty hardware moving through the general lowlifes of Canterlot?" She posed the question as friendly as she could, but he still twitched as if she'd just slapped him.

The information she wanted had just been locked in a crate and thrown deep into a river.

He fixed her with an irritated look. "Do I look like I would associate with Gryphon gangs?"

Alright, she hadn't mentioned the gangs yet, nor their race, that crate was looking extremely obtainable.

"Just wondering if you'd heard anything, I know a couple of gangers have made it their business to try shopping here from time to time." She shrugged as she brought them into the equation, making herself appear partially disinterested as she relaxed her body language and going for the look of hiding concern, her tone shifting accordingly. "It's nothing too major, but if you'd happened to hear about that kind of tech, I'd just be looking as to who'd let it slip. The less armed they come around here, the better."

Crown Agents had a rep for many reasons. Many of them revolved around beating the shit out of any criminal that crossed them, most of them came from their extreme hardiness and ability to fight their way out of impossible situations, but other reasons circulated in that they had a great ability to extract clues from the world around them with the kind of ease that made most Private Investigators green with envy. A few called it Agent Intuition, the coveted ability to absorb subliminal information from the world around them. When it came to people it was like seeing all their quirks and tells in a poker game, as if they were just laying their cards out before her, knowing what they might think in a conversation or coercing them into talking to her and telling her what she wanted to know.

It was easier with some people than others. It generally revolved around altering words to suit a situation, telling the other person what they wanted to hear or what they expected an Agent might say. A change of clothes and attitude might open a door in reality or someone's mind that was previously shut, though oftentimes it worked better to let people's expectations run wild and use it to an advantage, let them run away and build their own lie to make a truth. It worked better because when there was no time for skillful subterfuge, and the uniform intimidated well enough, it took only the right stance and words applied at the right moments during a person's state of uncertainty that information was gained or leverage used. It made rumours crop up as to just how a Crown Agent always managed to know what was going on in all the wards, or the noble's courts, where they knew a drug deal was about to go down or the general places certain people gathered; it made them appear to have all the knowledge.

And knowledge as anyone knew well, was power.

Of course, most everyday people weren't privy to these types of situations, where a number of Crown Agents had sources, beyond also not knowing of the Crown's large information network controlled by an A.I. For Twilight, Velvet was both a fond acquaintance she liked well enough, and a very good source of all the goings on in the worldspace around him. He wasn't an intimidating stallion to look at, his general demeanour made tough gang types look him over as a non-threat, and he was all manners and decorum when they came to play in his shop. But he listened, the way most people didn't, and so he had a measure of knowledge about him that made him a powerful piece on Twilight's board.

Twilight had always been frank with him because he was one to speak honestly and tended to appreciate the same in kind, that built rapport she could put to use, and she knew him well enough that the duster's symbol of her high position had no effect on his state of mind in a way she could turn to her advantage. To gain the insight she wanted from Velvet, she didn't need to lead him very far because he already had a certain expectation from her that she'd never delivered to him. She didn't need to smash up his business or threaten to do so, and she definitely didn't need to seduce him, she just needed to appear as though she was his friend, which wasn't far from the truth. The standard kind of forceful pressure in this situation would have had that crate sinking further to the bottom of the river, but showing him concern and making the idea that there would be less undesirables showing their faces around ensured that the crate was dredged up.

"W-well... there was a Gryphon the other week, quite a big guy, scarred up. He wanted an implant I didn't have." Velvet started, he looked downcast as he thought about it. "I told him I could try to custom make it but he'd have to wait, there would be no guarantee it would work or be stable, and I couldn't make it too powerful."

"He didn't like that, I assume?" Twilight said as she turned back to face Velvet.

"He smashed up the left deck." Velvet frowned, glancing at the massive contraption as he continued cleaning the current deck. "Took me a while to fix it up, had to use a lot of the bits I'd been collecting for a bigger project."

Ah. Not an older deck like she'd thought coming in, a more beat up deck. Likely the reason for the new dual-barrelled autocannon in the airlock. That thing was geared for taking down a decently-grown Dragon, which was exactly why the Crown had several much more heavy-duty variants just about everywhere within the Palace grounds.

"Took deploying the chaingun to make him leave." Velvet sighed, looking back towards Twilight. "He never mentioned anything specifically about things being moved, but he wanted something Crown-made or military-grade for stopping, uh, special bullets. I don't have that kind of tech, much less can I sell it or make it. You know as well as I do the only Crown tech I get to tinker with is the stuff inside you, and selling military shielding to the public is prohibited without a high-level licence, which I can't afford on my chronicle unless I was working for a corp. I mean, I could definitely make an excellent shielding unit that could block small-calibre projectiles, but stopping anything more than conventional pistol rounds?" He shrugged with a frown. "I could try and make something discreetly for personal use if I wanted to, but I'd actively need to be working for Aeon or one of the other military megacorps to have access to the right components and gear to make it without having to jump through hoops."

"Or the Crown." Twilight smiled, waggling her eyebrows.

"Right." Velvet nodded in response, ignoring the obvious implication. "Making that stuff from scratch isn't ideal, you need the right equipment, the right workshop and machines."

He stood for a moment, unsure of what else to say.

"Thanks, Vel." Twilight nodded to him, reassuring him with a soft smile. "With any luck the Crown will have dealt with everything by the end of the week."

"I didn't really tell you anything." Velvet cocked his head slightly.

Twilight grinned. "You've given me a decent lead. See you later."

She took a taxi back to the Royal Palace, she didn't need to use more energy than she should. The trip to Velvet's had been nothing for her, but from Velvet's all the way across extended plateau and the inner, and up the mountain Canterlot City was built into, while having a suppressant still running through her heavily augmented system? That would have exhausted her and probably drained all the power her system had, even with the two new fully charged power cells installed in her chest, she'd be a paperweight until friendly forces picked her up.

The cab trailed its way through the wet mid-morning air and eventually set down in a hazy cloud of fog that was passing across the landing pad, its marking lights diffusing through the mist to make a blurred outline of where to land. This high up sometimes a dense cold fog could surround the entirety of the Royal Palace, and it actually made a great defensive barrier for the giant castle, which had penetrating scanners that could see through it all with ease, and environmental systems built into the walls that kept it all at bay. If those ever failed, there were a number of Pegasi that could help substitute the need.

The landing pad was a way out from the grounds, and the taxi driver hadn't been happy about taking her here, but the extra three gold sols she offered as a tip had swayed him pretty quickly. Going up this high meant having to be warned about violating airspace and needing permission to enter, it didn't matter if your vehicle was with a registered taxi company or not; if you could be seen on radar, you were a possible threat and possibly subject to summary destruction via any number of hidden anti-aircraft batteries the Crown had built into the mountainside.

The radio hadn't signalled about it because she had a Crown Integrated Network implant in her head known as a CINI, and was pinging the cab as friendly on the scanner. Just as well; she reckoned if the Zebra flying this thing had heard an aggressive burst of a voice demanding he tell who he was he'd have panicked and turned about immediately.

She didn't mind immigrants into Equestria, as most always tried their best to join into things and learn the values of ponies. It was the ones that refused and kept values of their own lands which didn't mesh with harmony that annoyed her. This cabbie was alright, yet he kept trying to talk to her in Zebawhi, perhaps assuming that she had an implant for translation, and didn't speak much of the local language. She'd gotten a great deal more tired of that over the years since she'd been sent on routine jobs to police the border. His Ponish was broken and barely understandable, but at least he understood enough to know where he needed to go. She paid him the fare and the tip, and his taxi quickly made a swift exit as he was then pinged, as he jumped in alarm when she heard the dashboard in his cab start wailing at him that he was in restricted airspace, sharply going from a hover into a full speed retreat in seconds.

He could certainly fly, she'd give him that.

She turned her attention towards the looming marvel that was the Royal Palace and felt the corners of her mouth tug in a smile, in a way it was kind of a home away from home.

Twilight began briskly trotting down the smooth granite path, passing hidden sensors and security weaponry every few minutes and that she'd long ago disabled the alerts on her system detection for. She could see the faint outline of their silhouettes under the pathways and in the grass surrounding the stone, quite glad she'd never have to attempt infiltrating the grounds. She made it from the west landing pad to the south gate in less than five minutes, the castle towering higher overhead overlaid by weather-proofed banners depicting the Crown's emblem as she approached two Solar Guard on the morning shift, smartly standing to attention with their deadly Spearshots resting against their shoulders while they flanked the large gate. The heavy tri-barrelled anti-personnel autoturret controlled by the Crown's A.I that was mounted into the high wall above the gate was the delicious icing on the cake.

Customary for the Solar Guards was their golden armour, albeit far more modern from the time of her fillyhood. Their armour these days was still plate, but were made of a far lighter, stronger, and enchanted alloys, interlocked into a powerful environmental bodysuit much like her own, with a number of the same capabilities that helped them perform better. She at least didn't have to have an entirely sealed system in order to be safe; she had augmented lungs that could filter chemicals and generate oxygen. This far into the sky the oxygen began to thin in places due to pollution issues from the city, and there might be the occasional anti-magical pocket where a small vacuum was created, allowing little-to-no oxygen to gather as they passed through the area. The Royal Palace's protective environmental system managed it all just fine, but they had the controlled suits just in case it should ever fail.

Their ornate Spearshots were certainly fully loaded and deadly, with magically imbued anti-everything rounds, quite ready to be brought to bear against any threat of the Royal Palace and its inhabitants. The golden weapons were, in essence, a compact high-calibre battle rifle and a long sweeping diamond-edged glaive melded into a single destructive instrument of death, attached to an expertly weighted heavy staff. They weren't simple weapons to wield, and took years of training to master their usage in combat.

The two guards respectfully saluted her, but otherwise remained perfectly still as the gate opened, the absolutely massive barricade lowering into the ground with a decent pace. Far long gone were the days of simple steel bars. The giant blast-door of a gate started closing the instant all her hooves had passed it, and she smiled at the ten superb autocannons that fixed towards her location from tactical positions around the expansive courtyard she'd entered into. While no one in their right mind would ever dare to attack the Royal Palace, the Princesses liked to go with the idea that one day some insane bastard might actually try such a thing. Should the Guard be overwhelmed, the gates be broken through, and the near impervious walls and shielding breached; the opposition would rapidly find themselves turned to mulch, not fit for much but fertilising the gardens.

She loved it here.

Confident and purposeful, Twilight marched down the path that would lead her to the First East Wing, and from there the side of the castle where Luna resided, naturally in the Lunar Wing. The Night Princess wasn't going to be very happy, at all. Twilight was very late, and she was coming during the time which Luna wanted to be sleeping, and in all likelihood was still awake, because Twilight should have reported to her last night after the mission. She wasn't worried too much, the extra four or so hours she'd taken from having herself upgraded probably wouldn't add onto the deep shit she was already going to be in.

Didn't mean she didn't quicken her pace a little though.

The east side of the castle was essentially Luna's domain, and it was very clear to everyone that ever saw it. The stained glass windows that depicted moments in history were almost entirely opaque, and enchanted as to not allow in too much of Celestia's Sun, but fully allow the light of Luna's Moon without question. When she entered into the castle she was greeted by more evidence of ownership, the smoky silver-veined marble of the walls being laid over in many places by regaly dark silk banners of rich purples and blues that themselves were streaked with silver, depicting the comforting feel of Her Night. Beyond the banners, ancient tapestries lovingly run through with moon-blessed silver and trimmed with platinum occasionally passed her vision and glowed in the light, but little else other than old and functional ebony-willow furniture graced the polished floors between the pillars, their mounted torches lit with blue flame.

She didn't even see any Luna's Mercy in anything; a rare and unique metal alloy consisting of moon-blessed silver, palladium, and platinum. It was quite hard to make, harder still to acquire, and the knowledge for creating it was ancient and well-guarded by the Sisters. Then again, maybe Luna disliked the name, and she hadn't ever been a mare of ostentation, the odd time pieces of historic record or two were the flashiest things to see other than the Moonspear mounted above the entrance to the Lunar Wing. It was a powerful artefact, and a formidable glaive, with a large sweeping blade and a wicked backswept spike on the reverse side. It was easy enough to see how it and its sister weapon, the Sunspear, were precursors to the Spearshots the Guard carried. The blade and it's dark leather-wrapped wooden length were inscribed in ancient-Equish runes she still scarcely understood, but they always caught her eye as they still faintly glowed with energy, as did the large polished uncut sapphire neatly encrusted in the pommel.

As if it couldn't be any clearer that this was Luna's side of the castle; ever vigilant in their duty to not swap day shifts with the Solar Guard, the Lunar Guard kept their own shifts so that they could always stand watch, and Thestrals stood guard either side of the double doors with their silver variant Spearshots and armour, further going into these two standing outside the Lunar Wing being part of the Honour Guard that protected the Princess, so they had different helmets and slightly more ornate plating. Each Sister had their own dedicated Honour Guard, and as an interesting aside, the Thestrals that served as Luna's guards generally carried little to no augmentation whatsoever. In her line of work she'd encountered Thestrals across Equestria that wholly augmented themselves, but those that served under Luna generally held to her conviction that to alter one's body through such unnatural means was to permanently alter the spirit, and such a thing was to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Even when faced with the possibility of death or permanent disability, a Thestral in her service might choose either over an augment.

Body purists, in essence.

Twilight knew a few around the Royal Palace, Canterlot too, they were colourful people.

The belief of that conviction that Thestrals had in the Royal Guard almost bordered upon fanaticism. It tended to create an interesting dichotomy between the Guard sometimes, but ultimately there was respect for fellow soldiers that served their Princesses. As such, when she came closer to be admitted both Thestrals tensed up and bared their fangs almost unintentionally. The divide there was that they recognised her, they recognised that she was quite literally a superior officer, and they recognised their dislike of her extensive modification was moot as it was all so she could serve in the greatest capacity she saw fit. Their salutes to her were brief and quick, somewhat lazy and technically an insult to her higher rank, but she honestly wasn't of a mind to really give a fuck about it.

Could also just be that they didn't like Crown Agents. Solaris or Lunaris, it wasn't just the general populace that talked about them with whispers and disdain. The Royal Guard were fine upstanding soldiers, a great many of whom had served in wars and skirmishes with other countries to keep the peace over the years. They were honourable and decent folk, following a solid code of ethics they swore to uphold by oath to the Crown.

Crown Agents had sworn no such oaths beyond that of serving the Crown itself, and followed their own loose code of ethics so long as they adhered to the general rules set down by the Princesses.

It kind of surprised her that the two out front as she arrived had been amicable towards her; to a good portion of the Guard, Agents were barely above the people that they hunted, little more than sanctioned criminals. They were just spooks, assassins, a shadow service of glorified murderers that shouldn't exist. Violent mad dogs on a leash. But they were necessary, because otherwise the Princesses wouldn't have them, and that was hard for honourable soldiers to accept.

The Royal Guard had trained hard for most of their young lives, believing that justice and force should be good and fair in their application, the latter used sparingly when needed, the former being the highest in regard. They'd poured their blood, sweat, and tears into becoming sworn disciplined soldiers of the Crown, to fight with honour against their enemies, and uphold a rightful and decent standard all good creatures could stand for.

To then have some possible street punk come in, and while no doubt train as hard as a soldier; circumvent the entirety of all they held dear. To be trained in and use underhanded methods and skirt or outright break the laws the Guards and everyday people were subject to for any reason they saw fit, acting with impunity in every matter while only being truly beholden to the highest authority that had given them that free pass, to then also be placed at a higher command and call the shots?

She did understand their feelings on the matter. Didn't fully agree with how they saw things one-hundred percent, they weren't far off the mark so she didn't begrudge them most of the time. At the end of the day they had all at least swore the same allegiance to the Crown.

She gave them a curt nod as she passed though the opening doors, the opaque and heavily enchanted dark crystal slabs that could stop an army moving inward as her augmented eyes immediately adjusted to the low-lit chamber. The resounding echo of the heavy doors slamming shut almost sounded like a death knell, she mused. Twilight breathed in, and stepped forwards into the gloom.

The Lunar Wing wasn't massive; much like the Solar Wing it was essentially a modestly sized apartment for its respective Princess to live when not on duty. Of course, they had an entire castle side each, but sometimes true privacy was wanted away from everyone. If Twilight had a single word to describe Luna's home? Gothic, possibly even sepulchral. She walked to the bedroom, past a duo of pretty Thestral maids ─a stallion and mare, she noted with interest─ that were giving her a cautious stare as they dutifully cleaned and polished the minimal furnishings, and didn't bother to knock as she pushed the double doors of the bedchamber inward, and into the shadowy domain of the Princess of the Moon.

Luna laid silently with a mute expression beside the bedchamber's fireplace, a crackling fire burning within. She was resting on an incredibly comfortable looking Canterfield settee that was probably hundreds of years old, levitating and sipping what Twilight could smell was some kind of expensive foreign tea from a place like the Albus Isles to the far west of Equestria. She wore a simple silver silk dress with her ornate regalia, her gorgeous midnight coat, flowing ethereal mane and tail, and the constellations within it all shimmering coldly in the flickering firelight; a stark contrast to its warming glow. From her petite snout and muzzle, slender body, model's tummy and barrel, the supple flanks, long shapely legs, and modestly-sized teats; the lithe curvaceous Alicorn had the kind of otherworldly presence and allure that simply ordained attention beyond just having a large horn and wings, like an artist's masterpiece that had taken several lifetimes to create and simply could not be looked away from.

Twilight wordlessly marched herself to one side, and stood to attention with her head high as the silence stretched on. Ten minutes passed and still, Luna said nothing as she sipped at her steaming cup of tea. Twilight fought an urge to scratch her snout and waited patiently, and she'd wait until her legs buckled if need be. She'd taken Luna's time from her, it was only fair Luna should do the same to her if she so wished.

"Twilight Sparkle." Princess Luna spoke then, her beautiful deep-cyan eyes softly closed, and her sultry voice icily calm. "Prithee tell Us; dost thou enjoy thy little games so dearly?"

Alright, she was fucking livid.

Beep-boop, good little soldier mode activated.

"I completed my mission yesterday at eleven forty-eight post-aurora. Target was neutralised, no collateral, no witnesses." Twilight diligently cited, as Luna's frigidly icy eyes opened and fixed on her. If she could kill just by glaring alone, the piercing gaze would have impaled Twilight through each of her augmented eyes and gored her. "I decided to get something to eat afterwards, and rest up-"

"-Thy purchased pleasure in the carnal pursuits of cheap harlots and strumpets shalt not beest compared to resting one's mind of Our Night's troubles, Twilight Sparkle. Our patience with thee runs ever thinner." Luna sharply imparted with an annoyed flick of her starry tail, the constellations within both galaxies top and bottom flaring. She took another delicate sip from her teacup before gently resting it back on its saucer.

"-To rest up and recuperate." Twilight slowly finished, challenging Luna with a short-lived tilt of her head. She waited a second before resuming. "However at twelve twenty-seven ante-aurora I came under attack by a band of Gryphons known to our network as a loose organisation. They have no official name, no official leaders, and there is only a general idea of where they operate."

That perked Luna's ears up, her cold stare became slightly less withering and a tad more curious. She took a long draught of her tea and set the cup down again.

"We art to assume thou wert unharmed during thy altercation?" Luna wondered, running her vision over Twilight momentarily, as if assessing a piece of equipment for damage.

"My augments minimised any permanent injuries." Twilight nodded, that was normally what Luna meant by such a question. So long as she wasn't dragging herself along the ground, she was still capable of doing her job. "I neutralised one of them, and before things could become deadly serious, the CPS stepped in and stopped the fight."

Luna's eyes seemed to shine briefly at that, the ghost of a smile tugged at the edges of her lips, it was both somewhat frightening and breathtaking. "Being pulled from the flames of battle by common law enforcement. How scandalous for thine image."

"They were minimising possible collateral, I expect." Twilight gave a ghost of a smile herself; if the police hadn't shown up she'd have wiped the floor with every single one of them, and likely carved chunks out of the street while the Gryphons shot the place to shit. Not to go on mentioning all of the blood that would have needed cleaning up. "They didn't even prepare a carriage first, just came straight over to assist. Probably royally shit themselves when they got calls that a Crown Agent was getting attacked in the street."

Luna frowned as her magic enveloped a small log and gently placed it in the fireplace, and Twilight caught the subtle shift of her wings bristling, while her cold gaze bored into Twilight again. "Thinkest thou that We wilt not hast thee dragged to the baths and thy mouth washed out with soap?"

Twilight bowed her head in way of an apology, Luna remained still.

"Thou wouldst not hast spoken of such tidings hadst thou not thought it relevant." Luna continued, then tipping the cup up to a final point and setting it back on the saucer. She moved it to a table beside her and her long spiralling horn dimmed out. "Prithee, tell Us thy thoughts."

"The ammunition they were using bypassed my shields. Bypassed Crown tech." Twilight frowned, tapping a hoof in thought. "I highly suspect they're being supplied, and their loose grouping makes them ideal for testing it. I have a few ideas on leads, and I'm going to follow up on them when I leave the Palace. With your permission I'll talk to Vee as well, hopefully get some extra insight into things."

"The machine spirit?" Luna said with noteworthy detachment, giving the barest incline of her head. "We wilt sanction it and pass word unto Tempest."

"I'm sure she'll be thrilled." Twilight grinned, giving Luna a deep bow. "May I leave?"

"Thou mayest." Luna blinked, glacially blue eyes taking on a more intense weight as she locked them with Twilight's properly. "Indeed, couldst thou try."

Twilight was suddenly caught helpless as her limbs felt staggeringly leaden, like so much scrap. She couldn't move an inch, and was unable to tear her gaze away, only falling deeper into the unfathomable depths of those arctic orbs as a piercingly frozen phantom claw tore in and wrapped around her spine. Luna's voice became gently deeper, and as deadly serious and unforgiving as a howling blizzard. "Yet beest thou warned, Twilight Sparkle; if ever thy folly shouldst transpire once again, that thine duty unto Us is derelict in voluntary disrespect, We shalt not givest thee mercy as We now grant. Art We perfectly clear?"

Twilight could barely choke out words as Luna's psychic attack gripped her mind with an unlimited well of ancient strength she couldn't ever hope to match, she was but a sickly mouse poised before a tumbling avalanche of eternal ice and snow that had never been bested by mortals. Her shields, augments, and own significantly powerful magic counted for absolutely nothing in the face of a pissed off almighty Alicorn. The withering arctic grip of the wicked claw tightened and she gasped in acute pain, the remnants of the anaesthetic doing naught, and the temperature of the room was rapidly dropping to the point that her eyelashes were beginning to accumulate little ice crystals. The roaring fireplace had been reduced to chilled lumps of charcoal, and Luna was hardly bothered by the frost that was forming over her person and everything else, her gaze just tunnelled deeper.

She managed what she thought might be a confirmation as Luna drove large spikes of ice through Twilight's brain, but she couldn't be sure as the biting chill had severely impacted her ability to breathe. She groaned in excruciating agony as the seconds cruelly dragged on, and tasted a rising metallic tang at the back of her throat while faintly-warm blood liberally ran from both nostrils down her snout while she gasped and trembled. Her system was blaring alarms across her HUD as it superbly tried and utterly failed to regulate her core temperature, she briefly registered the critical alert of all her internal batteries draining to their last ounce of power as everything within her immense system tried to correct that her augmented heart was shutting down alongside her other organs, and darkness crept at the edges of her vision as her eyes rolled up into her head.

Then Luna withdrew with all the finesse of a decorated surgeon, and released her hold.

Twilight gracelessly collapsed in a shivering heap to the frozen floor, alternating between snivelling, choking out blood, and greedily refilling her lungs with precious air the cold had seized from them, even if the cold air was still so frigid that it burned her lungs to breathe. She violently quaked as her body was wracked with icy stabs, dismissing the numerous overlapping system alerts as the room and her core slowly returned to normal, and the frost around them almost instantly disappeared while the fire flared back to life again, as if nothing had happened while she retched on the carpet. After several pathetic moments of pained recovery, she shakily managed to pull herself onto her hooves, wiped her nose and mouth on her duster, bowed as respectfully as she could achieve towards Luna, and turned for the door without another word.

Twilight felt a very brief wave of energy pass over her, that restored a small measure of warmth into her being and took away only a degree of the numbness, but she was still left with a phantom pain of a dark chill across her spine as she felt the Princess of the Night's fierce eyes follow her intently as she limped out of the room.

That must have been the mercy, then...

Author's Note

"Why the fuck not?!" -- Twilight 'Gat' Sparkle.

Added a few changes and grammar fixes, including sorting Luna's wonderful old timey-wimey speech.
Her tiny (but not in this fic) bottom excites me so.