3: SYSTEM_ERROR_WARM_REBOOT

She needed to get to the Verdant Estate, an enclosed wing in the castle on its westside, which made sense to her as Celestia's half of the Royal Palace felt much more appropriately lush for a huge sprawling garden. She headed for the fastest way there coming from the Lunar Wing, which in fact weren't the normal gloomy halls leading back outside that she'd come in from as she'd have to circle around the castle, nor was it any of the connecting hallways that lead around to centre rooms shared by the Princesses, given the ample activity of the business sectors within and the internal flow of hectic traffic of creatures that would slow her down.

The quickest path led through the Mausoleum.

The Mausoleum was once a small cave system inside the mountain the Royal Palace was sat upon, that had been lovingly carved out and turned into a sanctum by Luna's Thestrals over a thousand years ago, in honour of Luna's death. Of course, Luna hadn't died, she'd only been banished to the moon, but the Thestrals hadn't known that since Celestia herself had thought her sister lost when Luna had been turned into Nightmare Moon.

Twilight still quite vividly recalled the time she and her friends had stormed the ancient ruins of the Princesses' long-abandoned castle out in the Everfree Forest, and boldly confronted the daemonic being that had possessed the Princess of the Night after going in search of the Elements of Harmony. Like her older sister, Luna had an unendingly deep maelstrom of energy and power within her, the very kind of power that blazed like a beacon and attracted otherworldly fiends that preyed upon such things. She'd been so torn up inside so long ago that something horrendous from Tartarus had convinced her in her ultimate moment of weakness to make a pact with it, and it had held sway over her ever since.

It was only a pure stroke of luck that the spirit was the vain sort.

That had allowed Twilight and her friends enough time to banish it back to Tartarus using the Elements and free the Princess from her bondage. Her return had been heralded for months, Celestia had been utterly speechless with joy when Luna had been reformed intact, even creating a new festival and marking the new Aeon for the momentous occasion, and the Thestrals who already viewed Luna as a sort of deity had only become more fervourous in their belief that she was divine. Before, and after, The Mausoleum stood as a testament to their love.

There were shrines around Equestria that paid homage to the Princesses, Twilight saw them often enough and never really paid much attention to them, yet it was common among many races that they were seen as deific. While they always denied such things in person, they didn't disallow people from believing what they wished, so a number of these sites were commonly visited, if only for people to give a simple thanks as opposed to making pleas to the aether. One never really knew if the Princesses were watching them or not, and she herself was no stranger to Luna having walked through her dreams when she was younger, much stranger things had happened since. Who was she to deny people their hope if it got them through the day?

She knew that Canterlot City held a large sanctum of worship in Celestia's name in the Grey Eagle ward, she'd passed by it a few times as well, and it had a really nice large statue made of sun-blessed gold. Where Luna was concerned however, the Mausoleum was the largest tribute site that she personally knew of, and it was blinding in its zealotry. She was careful and considerate when she finally moved down into the eerily cold hall that held its venerable gates, it always felt like she was being monitored. The Lunar Guard chosen to stand watch were extremely protective of the location, and she generally did her best not to annoy them out of respect for their traditions, as intense as they were.

She stopped a few hooves short of the gate, the two guards' eyes fixing onto her.

Yet another apparent difference with these two was that both of them bore uniquely coloured armour in a deep midnight shade rather than the standard silver, decorated in ancient-Equish symbols. They still wore it over their standard-issue bodysuits, which was the only modern component. The armour pre-dated the Fifth Age, the Discordian Aeon, from well before Luna's banishment when the Sisters fought endlessly to unite Equestria, and there was very little information on it or its creation as it was as closely guarded by the Thestrals as the creation of Luna's Mercy or Celestia's Grace was by the Sisters. Both the helm and plate were almost warped in appearance, slanted and segmented and wreathed in wisps of umbral shadow. Staring at any piece too long tended to screw with her head so she didn't generally do that, she really wasn't a big fan of the strange whispers that she heard when she did either. If the tales from books and the rumours she'd heard could be believed, those were the voices of countless Thestran ancestors. Cheery stuff.

Twilight spoke plainly. "May I enter the Mausoleum?"

They regarded her with distaste, she could see their clear disgust.

"What is thy business?" Asked the left.

She stopped herself from giggling at the archaic speech. The more... devout of Luna's Thestrals took on her old-fashioned Equish way of talking out of reverence for her dated understanding of the world's since evolved language when she'd come back. She still did it because she was a relic of a more refined time and age, and some Thestrals wanted to embody that. All of the Honour Guard did it too. It was honestly quite amusing, she had to really try hard not to let a smile break out across her face. How long had it been now, since she'd used this place as a throughway? A year? She doubted these were the same guards she'd passed back then, if they were she didn't remember. She cleared her throat and played to their tune.

"I seek to repent my transgressions against Her Majesty, and pay tribute."

It was a small thing, using Majesty rather than Highness. The common subject of the Crown would use Highness to address either of their Princesses as that was how it was; equal station and respect for both Diarchs. Thestrals however liked to refer to Luna with Majesty because they saw Luna as superior to Celestia in certain regards. Celestia being the absolute paragon of compassion and motherly love that Twilight knew she was, she honestly wasn't upset at the opinion. Thestrals respected Celestia's absolute might, maybe even loved her as well on some level, but they had held Luna in far higher regard since before her banishment and would continue to do so indefinitely.

They still scrutinised her, a stallion on the left and mare on the right. The mare was all lithe muscle under the form-fitting armour like an athlete, and the stallion was rather slender with more a swimmers build, both probably had great arses. Most Thestrals did, had to be something in their genes. After a moment the stallion spoke again, he had a somewhat middle-pitched voice.

"Thou art craven, honourless scum. But, I see no reason that is not good to let scum beg Her for absolution."

The mare gave a nod. "If thou ever could possibly be absolved of thy sins. Pass, but know it is highly begrudged, Agent."

"Thanks, gorgeous." Twilight smiled at her as she walked towards the massive opening double doors, they were polished moon-blessed silver in their entirety. If they were locked down it would take a great deal to break them open, the same as any entrance made from sun-blessed gold. "I'll think of both of you next time I pleasure myself, the creepy armour really does it for me."

The stallion's head turned with a raised eyebrow as she sauntered past, flicking her tail at him at the last second. He bristled in his annoyance and shot her a death glare but remained where he was. She quietly laughed to herself as the doors closed shut behind her. Later he'd either beat a punching bag while thinking of her, or beat his dick. Twilight knew some of these purists had a deviant kink for augments when they couldn't or wouldn't have any of their own. It was quite an odd one, like getting turned on at the idea of being oppressed by another race because of a war or two that had happened several hundred years ago, in which the same oppression had occurred and the offspring wanted to know what it was like on a deeper level. The Diamond Dogs were weird like that when it came to the Minotaurs and their old personal wars, history could be rather queer in such regards.

She breathed in deep through her partially clogged nostrils, chuckling that she'd probably looked like she just came from a bad bar fight to those guards. She was feeling pretty shitty still, and her power cells were on the last of their juice thanks to Luna's rather severe punishment. She shook with a sudden weariness and was incredibly aware of the mite of freeze-burn in her lungs with each breath she took, and her vision constantly cycled in and out of focus.

Her system was almost back up to sixty percent efficiency now, but total system power was at twenty percent. She must have lost some awareness during the psychic attack, probably wouldn't have flirted with Lunar Guards that likely wanted to disembowel her for fun either if she was more coherent. She hadn't dropped below sixty percent efficiency since... years now, the mission with the Dragon that had mining gauntlets grafted into his arms. Celestia's fat arse, that really took her back some. Twenty percent power... Maybe Vee would give her a boost, if not she'd just dock into a station after the visit.

Then she took notice as her HUD popped up a beta-critical alert that she had just dropped below twenty percent of her total power. Apparently she'd missed the notifications that were reporting multiple areas of damage, it was likely that she'd been getting an icepick shoved through her skull at the time those popped up. She didn't care for them right now, or any other notifications either, dismissing them and quickly popped into the safety settings to switch the critical alerts off. Those annoyed her a lot and never really served to do anything but get in the way, and she'd be where she needed to be soon enough, no biggie.

The erratically inclining passage before her was quite cold, go figure. It was carefully extended from its original haphazard tunnel to resemble what it had once been, supported with pillars of silver-veined smoky marble that were expertly carved in all manner of sprawling constellations from Luna's Night, the connecting lines inlaid with moon-blessed silver, with small emeralds and sapphires marking the stars in them. It wound and travelled for quite a time, with a few off-shooting tunnels for other purposes leading elsewhere, with the main way leading out into an open chamber that was the Mausoleum's heart.

The massive chamber itself, as her system told her, was roughly over a thousand hooves from this wall to the opposite, given the chamber's circular unevenness, and almost about the same height, with oversized and imposing stalactites hanging down from the ceiling stalwartly between countless smaller ones, dotted in uneven lengths and sizes that made a myriad of patterning, and were magically secure so they wouldn't break. She saw, as the last time she came; that a number of Thestrals were quite comfortably hanging from the ceiling with the stalactites like the bats they shared some resemblance to, and little carved out hollows in the chamber wall to her left safely bore their armour.

This place was their sanctuary.

There were a number of tributes in any direction of wall Twilight looked, from ribbons of purple, blue, or silver; to wrapped gifts that were likely to never be opened; piles of moon-blessed silver here or there in small carved hollows; an enchanted knife mounted far up, they were almost endless, and every one of them personal. Every single one of them was for Her. Not to mention there were numerous sprawling tunnels leading to separate rooms throughout the mountain she'd never been in, ones that bore the ashes and final resting places of Thestrals from the castle staff or the Lunar Guard, and somewhere there was a wholly separate tunnel network for the Honour Guard too. If any of them worked in Luna's service then they were allowed to be interred here as a final honour if they were permitted to and so wished. She saw several small tributes leading into the mouths of these hollows as she walked, gifts given to those passed on.

Twilight was intruding on something that was beautifully sacred to these Thestrals, even if she had been allowed. It made her a little guilty, though at the same time it was something she didn't dislike getting to see. She didn't worship Luna or see the Princess the same way these Thestrals did, but she saw how they did, how they cared for their dead, hoping they were forever watched over in death. She couldn't help but smile at the overblown exaltation and grandeur of the impressive monolith ─entirely impossible to miss unless someone was blind─ that took up a majority of the space at the chambers centre. Without a doubt it was the most flattering and reverent homage to Luna in existence, and very few would ever be allowed to behold it. It was the kind of thing Luna herself wouldn't ever care to flaunt, but Twilight knew she cared for the Thestrals, so she would probably look upon it with a small amount of appreciation for the unrestrained effort that had gone into the piece.

The way she'd heard Thestrals tell it, the colossal statue of the beloved Alicorn was carved from the largest hewn block of pure white marble known to Equestria, taken from the northern mountains in the Crystal Empire where the best deposits existed. It had taken over five-hundred Thestrals to ferry it here on an arduous journey, and the narrow tunnel she'd passed through had been massively widened to accommodate it before being rebuilt at a smaller size. The statue had taken one-hundred-and-ninety-three years to complete from the time the block was placed, given that Thestrals refused to allow any creature other than a Thestral artisan to work upon it, and thus it had sat untouched for dozens of years until a master sculptor had been found. Twilight could barely imagine the weight of that task to an artist that had never worked on anything so large before, but by Celestia's massive alabaster arse, the fervourous bastard had done it all by himself; if the tale held true.

The final result was a one-hundred-and-sixty-one by one-hundred-forty-two hooves, timeless monument to the sheer adoration and love Thestrals bore their Princess they saw as a pure-hearted deity. The colossal sculpture saw Luna gazing down upon everything with a beautiful motherly smile and caring eyes, sitting comfortably upon an ancient style of throne as her wings splayed out around her, her forelegs reaching down ready to embrace. It greatly did her justice and was almost as beautiful as the Alicorn herself.

The white marble Luna wore her old regalia from Twilight's fillyhood, in what Twilight suspected were still the largest forged creations of platinum to date. Her crown sat atop her head, hoof-slips snugly fitted too, her flowing mane captured perfectly as it rippled over her imposing spiralling horn and flowed over a shoulder, and much as the columns on the way in; constellations had been lovingly cut and inlaid with moon-blessed silver, the stars each an emerald or sapphire. For a statue this size, those gems were extremely rare these days, and as large as Twilight's head in many cases with several clustered together to form a single star. The wings had immense detail that must have taken ridiculous precision as they thinned; every feather of each wing was meticulously cut, no single one being the same, all grooves being inlaid with platinum.

And she thought it was pretty hot, but she knew the Thestrals saw it as far from sexual; the sculptor had seen to it that Luna's stand-in should be as motherly as Thestrals deemed, and the teats between her legs, her hips, her thighs, as well as her entire backside were far more generously proportioned than the real mare's own already decent curvature, the cutie-mark of the Princess taking up a sizable space on her haunches.

The mark's surrounding area was a deep-midnight like the real mark, made of Luna's Mercy so it would glow beyond measure, but forged differently to achieve the dark colour, and the glowing pale centre-moon simply being enchanted so it shone all the more. The flowing tail stretched around one side and rested over the throne, looking much like the mane in its splendour. The throne was no less impressive than its occupant with how it contrasted the overall clever way the marble on the mare was carefully and painstakingly smoothed with magic, so that every inch of the coat flowed like water; and instead was brushed, smoothed, and polished so it gave either the appearance of natural stone or forged metal. The natural inlay of sediments along with the magic gave the whole effigy a measure of realism beside its already heightened allure.

The scope of it completely outshone anything else in Canterlot, the Luna's Mercy alone likely meant they'd had to request it from Celestia at the time to have obtained such an aweing amount, and the platinum regalia must have taken incredibly careful forging to work at such size. Such overt ostentation in a public space would certainly have the beauty tarnished by the extreme security measures that would be taken to protect the wealth it held. When she was a teenager, gems were absolutely abundant and never used in technology, but in the modern world they were core components in nearly everything. All of her augments had tiny cores made from rubies or diamonds that stored power and kept excess during overload, and the expensive internal batteries, leg prosthetics, and core system used enchanted diamond-weave-filaments to effortlessly conduct power instantaneously, as well as be part of their extremely resilient makeup that made them nigh-unbreakable to most means.

An emerald or sapphire the size of her hoof could help make dozens of low-to-mid-grade augments for the everyday person, or be used in different industry applications and general technology. One the size of her head could go even further beyond. This ancient monument of love wouldn't last even a couple of hours unprotected in a good part of town.

It added to the humbling feeling of being in the Mausoleum.

She leisurely approached the ornate smoky-marble dais the entire monolith rested upon, where it was bordered by luminous ivy crafted of Luna's Mercy all the way around, and surrounded by a fresh aroma from the nightshade and lavender that lay all across the regal platform, picked by Thestrals from special gardens down in one of the deep tunnel networks she wasn't given permission to go in. A deep font of undisturbed perfumed water was laid wide before the smiling likeness, set into the dais itself above a single long velvet-cushioned step platform. The lower surrounding area was, as with the walls, utterly covered with tributes save for the floor before the basin of water. There was a difference in them though; whereas the offerings on the walls were gifts of sorts, these were all ribbons of litany. On them was written something to give for another; a wish, dream, or hope, and it should always be for another, never oneself. When she first came here, she wrote down a hope for good health for her friends, writing their names, and placed it on top of all the others. She felt a little silly afterwards though it did make her feel better in some small part. That silver ribbon was long buried now, under hundreds more like it, possibly thousands as Thestrals commonly made pilgrimage to visit the site from all across Equestria and beyond.

Her peripherals caught movement and she sharply turned her head to look at an attractive Thestral in modestly beautiful onyx silks flying down from high above on his wings, and he quickly landed before her to block her path. The clothing choice was sultry considering it was a stallion, she recalled the last visit had a mare tending the shrine, but apparently the dress sense was the same. His pretty orange eyes locked with hers almost in a challenge as he stood straight. He used a bat-like wing to lower his hood, letting his tousled midnight mane go sprawling down his dark-grey coat. Like most Thestrals in Luna's service; he was all stock, and had a really nice arse. This one in particular apparently had a fondness for eyeliner, and it really added to the whole gothic vibe. When he spoke, it was husky like the deep thrum of an acoustic guitar, and suited his coltish looks quite nicely.

"Agent, I tend Her this coming nightfall, but the Sun-deity's morning reigns if my senses dost not fail me. It wilt not beest long before the day reaches its zenith, I shouldst dream until Her Night is upon us." He spoke plainly as he addressed her. "Why hast thou comest?"

She smiled amicably. "Paying tribute, Shrinekeeper."

He eyed her, relenting after a few seconds of study. He stood taller and deftly bowed to her with his tuft-tipped ears flattened out to the sides by their custom of admittance. He moved aside and then took to checking the litanies, neatening them up while she stepped forward and climbed onto the step platform below the dais, and peered into the large font of water.

The basin was simply water given a cleansing spell so it remained pure, but some Thestrals believed it was divine too, blessed solely by their dedication to Luna, and to keep it purer beyond normal measure offerings should be given. To them, this also served as a way of atoning for crimes committed that she would be displeased with, namely crimes against one's kin, betrayals of the family as was her own crime she yielded sentence for. A pony couldn't buy redemption for cold-blooded murder here, nor would Twilight expect Luna to want to forgive such an action, but surely she would understood failing at a crucial moment in time and turning on family; the Thestrals would be capable of that just as she had been, and believed she would show mercy if they had such a weakness of heart. Their grief and repentance alongside an offering would surely sway their Princess, and see them safely through Her Night and all nights to come.

That was pretty much how they saw it, anyway. Broadly speaking, they probably weren't altogether wrong in their thinking as Luna had a soft spot for the batty bastards. Twilight simply went along with the show. She used the Mausoleum as her personal throughway, she might as well dance the dance to be decent about it.

After what felt like a few respectful moments of peering in, she withdrew a platinum moon ─one of the last few on her person─ and carefully dropped it into the basin. It joined countless other coins of the same value down in the deep hollow that seemed almost endless, and Twilight even spotted a palladium sovereign under a few moons and sols. That must have been quite the sin. In this well alone was probably a sizable fortune, enough to turn a pony from perfectly stock into a fully augmented high-end war machine thrice over, but no Thestral would ever dare to rob from something so sacred.

Turning back and stepping down she was met with the Shrinekeeper, who seemed oddly concerned as he nodded his thanks for her atonement, leaning forward and embracing her with his wings, and gently kissing her on the forehead. An odd ritual, but she wasn't complaining. He did surprise her a bit when his wing took out a length of cloth from within his silks and he passed by the basin, soaking a corner and pausing next to her, to then gently wipe down her snout and clean it of dried blood.

"Mayest She forgive thy transgressions against Her, Agent." He intoned gently with the lightest of smiles, his orange eyes glowing in the dimness of the chamber. "I wishest thou well in recovery; Her wrath is upon thee as clear as Her Moon shines."

"I'll live." She shrugged as he wrapped the cloth up and placed it back within his silks. She nodded a goodbye and started to walk around the white marble Luna, and as he considered his duty to the shrine complete for now, he took off back up into the stalactites above.

Nice guy, maybe she'd see him around.

The path beyond her beyond the sculpture was much the same as the other leading in. She took her time to go along though as the damage was really getting to her now that the Shrinekeeper had mentioned it again, and she'd been trying rather hard to put it to the back of her mind. The chill as she walked into the passage somehow felt more piercing than it had on the way down. Luna had made her hurt linger on, the ghost of the icy claw was clutching at her spine even now.

The Thestrals loved and revered Luna as some kind of ultimate mother figure and deity, and sure, she was polite as polite could be in public. Celestia was the same about it with a higher level of grace, though in private she was a wholly different pony, one that Twilight could sit down and have a drink with. Luna was no such creature, however. Twilight never felt relaxed in the Princesses' presence anymore, not for a long time since her teenage years. She liked Luna in a commander-and-subordinate kind of way, respected her too on many levels, but damn her if the bitch couldn't be overwhelming. The term 'Ice Queen' didn't do her justice.

Not to say Twilight disliked her at all; she fully understood what Luna had done was all in the name of discipline and a deeper respect that she commanded, and she wasn't angry about the punishment. To not give respect was an insult Luna wouldn't abide. Until now, Twilight had never actually pushed her luck, and she'd always been as punctual as possible and very rarely was she informal when Luna was around, save for when Celestia was with her and the decorum gradually slipped thanks to Celestia and Twilight cracking jokes.

It often made her wonder if Luna ever truly smiled anymore. The powerful mare was a victim to the modern world much in the way Twilight and her friends were, and in many ways she had it far worse. Twilight, her friends, and everyone of her generation had all mostly adjusted to the rapid advancement of technology, but Luna came from a time where electricity didn't exist and crystal light was king, where normally no matter the creature, long distance travel was always made by hoof, wing, or ship. The way Twilight understood it, Luna was something of a technophobe and avoided using anything too advanced if she could help it, if only because it made her realise how far back in the past she was rooted.

But she also liked it that way. To her, there was a certain dignity in doing everything without the use of technology. Holding onto traditional ways of ancient Equestria and preserving them.

Twilight eventually trotted through to the end of the long passage, and into the following entry hall through the gate. The Lunar Guard standing by in their creepy armour eyed her with unhidden contempt, but said nothing as she went on by them. It was pretty clear to see that Luna's attitude towards technology extended to her domain, the room beyond this cold passage was one of the last of Luna's own before the middle of the castle where both Sisters had rule, and she saw a castle hoovespony carefully performing maintenance on an incredibly old grandfather clock, its workings being all cogs and classic pony ingenuity, and likely one of the most advanced types of technology during Luna's day. It was tangible to the eye, every part of it made by what were considered basic antique machines and entry-level forging compared to the current day. Every gear, pulley, and cable could be accounted for and held in the hooves, it was real, everything had a weight to it and could be quantified.

The Goddess Aeon brought digitalisation and advanced technology Luna didn't deign to begin fathoming, and would likely never care to. She also likely didn't use Canterlot's extranet, the Crown's own information network, or the Farscape Web herself. There was a distinct reason Vee was built within Celestia's side of the castle. She might allow her Agents access to Vee when asked, but she never spoke with the A.I directly.

At the room's end was a regal circular stairway leading up into the castle's mid-section, she continued onward and slowly made her way up, every hoofstep she took feeling far heavier than the last. Her system might be telling her she was operating at a decent efficiency, but it didn't fully reflect overall power. Her limbs required a fair amount of energy and she was about running on empty, which meant her system was putting less into them in order to keep her alive, and soon they'd cease working properly so that her organs could still function nominally. She could still be at over fifty percent efficiency with her limbs fully shut down and non-responsive. Pretty soon she'd just be a very efficient quadriplegic.

Twilight stepped up into the centre of a grandiose atrium with an opaque skylight, Celestia's Sun bore down but barely filtered through beyond enough light to see around the area, no blinding rays shone inside out of consideration for the Thestrals in Luna's service. It wasn't that the sunlight hurt them or anything; it just made them uncomfortable with its intensity and they far preferred the gentle glow of moonlight. She'd never seen a Thestral outside on a hot sunny day, and most days when the sun was calm and hidden behind overcast weather, they still wore sunglasses when they ventured out.

The heat still came through though, and was quite welcome to Twilight's still warming system that couldn't spare the power just now to heat her up beyond core regulation. So long as her organs were pumping, the system was mostly happy. The readout on her HUD was showing the power levels in her batteries were critical and she'd be in trouble soon, her legs were at the point where moving them was like trying to move through deep water unaugmented. She pulled up the interface for her legs and overrode the currently locked-in settings, manually dialling down their individual efficiencies to fifty percent each so they consumed far less power. Now it was like fucking walking through deep water unaugmented with Celestia and her huge arse sitting on Twilight's back. It was a shitty stopgap measure akin to slapping a plaster on a haemorrhaging wound, but it would keep her walking a bit longer despite the extra strain.

It wasn't that she would actually be unable to walk, but it was near enough to the truth as walking with no power eventually tore up her normal musculature like it was made of old shitty parchment, and put heavy strain on the augmented ones while she barely took any steps forward at all. Her limbs were all prosthetic, carbon and polymer, and the surrounding musculature was dense augmentation made of a multilayered carbon-fibre-weave supported by a latticework of diamond-filament-weave so power that travelled in an instant and was incredibly tough. They heavily interfaced with her overall system structure, so what was still stock muscle would be trying to move enhanced muscle with only a sliver of power, that was attached to and trying to move around two dozen kilos of prosthetic limb with a sliver of power. Her limbs and her system as a whole would have the barest spark coursing through them based on the fact her organs generated a current through her body so long as they had the energy, so until her batteries couldn't fuel her organs, technically she was never without power.

But it basically equated to fuck all in the grand scheme of things, so... paperweight.

She suppressed her rapidly mounting discomfort as her energy dwindled, she was running on fumes, Vee wasn't far, she just had to make it there and she was golden. Times like this never fucking occurred because she could operate for nearly a month without needing to recharge her systems without a proper station to do so, specifically for long missions where she might not have access to any sort of decent tool. It was why she didn't even bother to have a photovoltaic charging system, because if she needed a quick power fix when on mission like that she could eat specific calorie-dense foods like the Crown MRE's, and then her augmented stomach would put the chemical energy through an energy-catalyst conversion implant to put power into her system... but that took time where she'd usually sleep during the charge. She wasn't anywhere near the kitchens either, and even if she was she wasn't going to stand around with her hoof up her arse waiting for her batteries to gain what amounted to a drop in the bucket as it wouldn't give her more than a small boost at present anyway, she had shit to do.

With her current setup she could theoretically have a backup spark-cell installed for emergencies like this, but her entire body was already nearly at capacity for her size as the two batteries she'd had put in was about the last of her space, and unless she wanted to take something out, have a frame refit, or have the world's smallest rescue pack ─none of which were great options─ then she was staying as she was. Her ongoing backup plan was already to dial down the efficiency of each limb so it used less power, and generally she only ever allowed them to drop to seventy percent so she didn't lose any feedback. This was a really fucking shit position to be in, Luna really fucking knew how to punish and show a mare a bad time.

As if she already didn't have it bad enough, it was at that moment in time that an incredibly self-satisfied Thestral prick chose to make an appearance before Twilight. She'd been focusing too much on walking to notice his silent approach behind her, to the point she hadn't even heard him with her new sensory implant; good fucking thing he wasn't actively trying to kill her. When her glowing eyes found him as he crossed into her path, her sheer fucking will and determination, in hoof with intense dislike, just about forced her along through him.

"Twilight, your systems are failing, would you allow me to assist you?" He spoke in his cuntishly semi-monotonous voice, his fluffy jet-black mane slicked back like he was in some stupid fucking spy film. His duster was far neater than her own, like he had it dry-cleaned and waxed every day. Prick. "You left Her Majesty in a state of great shock, but I think you recovered rather well considering you should probably be comatose."

"Fuck off, Noctis. I am not in the fucking mood." She growled, her voice carrying with such venom that the joint guard at the atrium's main entrance both turned their heads.

"Evidently." He nodded politely, stepping aside and falling into step beside her as she trudged on her path. His augmented amber eyes were taunting her silently, laughing at her current misfortune. Even what little of his silver coat that could be seen was being a dick, the small level of brightness filtering through the skylight was making his face all the more luminous like he was the fucking poster bat for the Lunaris Agents and it was fucking hurting her eyes. That wasn't even possible because of her type of eye augments but the fucker was somehow succeeding at it with flying colours. "I don't think you'll make it to the Estate, you must rest."

"Bite me, faggot." Twilight snapped back at him.

Noctis's cuntish poker face went blanker than usual as he blinked in confusion.

Yeah, exactly, batty cunt. Fuck him.

Twilight didn't actually know if he took it up the arse or not, but she'd definitely put money on it being true, and it did certainly shut him up for a few blessed seconds so her increasingly growing migraine could abate from the bitchy sounds that were coming from his mouth. She narrowly avoided smacking her head into the doorframe pushing into the adjacent corridor, the smug arsehat presently looming like a shitty cartoon sidekick even taunting her by opening the door so she could go through it with a bit more ease. Prick.

"I'm not a homosexual, Twilight. Regardless, I read that your systems overall power level at two percent, you don't-" Noctis paused for a brief few seconds as he used a wing to stop Twilight from crashing into an ornate table with old sailing artefacts displayed on it, she growled and shrugged him off as he kept walking with her. "-you don't have enough energy to get where you're going. 'Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul; Pride is lost; Wings stripped away, the end is nigh.' Let me help, please."

Twilight stopped walking as he recited the fucking verse. Noctis was one of those irritating fucks that thought the Princesses were divine beings; Astralists, more commonly called Imps by anyone that had sense, because they were a fucking impingement on society. But it went beyond how the general populace might have a common love of the Sisters, or even how the Thestrals worshipped Luna, as this was the belief that the Sisters had created the world, created the Sun and Moon, created life on Equus as everyone knew it. They even had a divine book put together from which his poxy verses came from. Fucking bullshit, the lot of it. Being able to control celestial bodies did not make a pony a fucking deity, but try explaining that to a devout bat with mummy issues and a latent Alicorn fetish.

She really fucking wanted to send an electro-pulse shooting through his chest but she didn't have energy for a single charge and his own magitech bodysuit and special augments would negate it anyway, so she settled for lazily bopping him instead. He made no attempt to stop her but she didn't hit him with any decent amount of force, sadly. She ignored him and kept taking steps.

"Do you feel better now?" He enquired. His passive face was very cocky under the surface, she just fucking knew it. Bat bastard. "Her Majesty asked me to ensure you rest... in a manner of speaking."

"Exact words?"

He coughed into his hoof. "Ensure she does not perish."

"Awwh~, she does care..." Twilight drawled out, losing the false smirk she'd put on immediately and sluggishly pushing him away. She spoke through gritted teeth. "Well... I'm not dead, so fuck off, Imp."

"You are very rude." He observed, breathing in and exhaling. She smirked and sneered almost childishly at him and dragged herself along ahead, her back legs were dead weight now but it didn't matter, she would keep going. He continued to talk. "You realise that you were stood in the Mausoleum for two hours, yes?"

Twilight stopped again, breathing heavily.

She shouldn't stop, she wouldn't be able to keep walking.

"I believe the Shrinekeeper was rather worried. I waited the entire time, I thought perhaps you were seeking further penance." He said, approaching again and gently resting a hoof on her shoulder. She didn't shrug him off, she wasn't sure she could lift her foreleg to do so. "I see now it was a rapid onset of delirium. If you had sufficient power you know you would be a danger to yourself and others. 'All that awaits you is a sombre morrow; No matter where the winds may blow.'' Twilight, you must stop."

She looked back at Noctis's cuntish face with his stupid pretty amber eyes and his fucking snaggletooth he had of all things, why was he so fucking annoying? Fuck him and his little innocent routine... fuck him and that niggling feeling that he was entirely correct and Twilight actually felt like she was carrying a mountain, also something about her entire system possibly crashing as her organs were about to have no juice. Just little things piling up like the encroaching darkness bleeding into her eyes as they shut down, just small warning signs that something probably wasn't quite right with the world. She barely managed to send the neural signal to pull up her power percentage and re-enable alerts, and it spottily popped in through a glitching HUD with a distant blaring alarm in her head of an alpha-critical alert. She came to the very sudden realisation that Noctis hadn't been screwing around, and now she was at a single percent. How long ago had it ticked down to one? Did she have enough to-

Oh.

Twilight locked eyes with Noctis in realisation. "...Fuck."

She collapsed.

Opening her eyes seemed like a tall order, but when Twilight managed to slowly allow light into them, she assessed the situation and found herself wearing a basic gown, while covered by a duvet and a few cables, in a comfortingly familiar gunmetal-grey room that was tinged with antiseptic in the air, a room which she'd paid many trips to over the years. She was in the Crown Agent Medical Wing's recovery ward.

Past her rapidly rebooting HUD and automatic diagnostic routine that dutifully informed her she'd had a critical system failure, she examined the various medical apparatus and beds that were awaiting usage, her vision going to a particular and long since painted over filled-in crack in the ceiling she herself had put there during an accidental weapons discharge a decade or so back; when she was still testing certain augments to put in her system and one hadn't agreed with her. She'd really scared the doctors with that one, but they all had a good laugh afterwards. Always felt good to see it.

Coming back to that last though... critical system failure. User death. Whoops.

When she craned her head to one side of her medical bed she saw Noctis of all ponies looking at her, quite attentively too. She vaguely recalled him being around recently.

"Howdy, Noctis." She smiled somewhat amicably. She didn't mind the guy, though he was one fuck of a teachers pet, and an Imp of all things. Luna's favourite Agent, too. Kind of funny given the Princess didn't like technology, and yet she liked him well enough regardless of his enhanced nature. Maybe it was just because he was very effective at his job, on par with her if not better with how much stealthier he could be, but he cheated; she couldn't literally jump through shadows. "I remember leaving Luna's bedchambers. Thought I might have spied you tailing me, then it's a blur, can't recall much beyond anger. Getting the feeling I was a massive dick, though."

"You were delirious, I hold no grudge." Noctis replied with a gentle smile.

"Sorry about that." Twilight offered, then glanced around at the large recovery ward with fondness. All the other beds were vacant save for hers. "Haven't been here for a while."

"Nor I." Noctis nodded, looking at the bed's inbuilt monitors. "You're recovering quite well despite your injuries. 'For you are beloved by the Princesses.' ...Although, I'm curious as to why you didn't immediately seek medical attention after departing Her Majesty's company."

"I'm stubborn." Twilight grinned, amused as she probably wasn't beloved by Luna, then shrugged. "Don't think my system picked up on anything besides power loss either. Given my state of mind, I wasn't likely to notice if it did anyway."

"Your system was compensating for heavy fractures to your spine, moderate freeze-burn to your lungs and throat, and a small bleed on your brain." Noctis explained, eyeing her over with concern. "As I said when I met with you, I'm quite surprised you weren't already comatose from the sheer trauma. You are rather steadfast."

Wow. Luna did not pull her fucking punches.

"Huh." Was all Twilight could manage for the second.

She'd never actually angered Luna to the point where she'd been punished by Luna's own hoof, usually she just ended up with additional work or drilling, so her normal antics had apparently been building to a boiling point and this was the spillover. She leaned back and laid in silence for a time, Noctis not offering anything more than to join her quietness. She didn't feel terrible considering the damage, so she was definitely quite hopped up on the standard high-grade meds.

Tetrahydramorphone, coming from an exhaustively long line of chemical family engineering and belonging to a special group of drugs primarily created by the Crown, thanks to the Institute they'd taken in once upon a time. The clever bastards had pretty much redefined modern medicine in certain areas, and had utilised the tetrahedral framework to create some of the most powerful additions and elevations to common substances in the market through the brilliance of magitech.

It had a street name of Ghost. She loved the stuff for its utility, it was pretty expensive as there was never any shit comedown after her system purged it either seeing as the meds were synthetic concentrate designed specifically to play nice with cleansing implants and general augmentation. One couldn't use too much of it though, being based off of old-school opiates made it addictive. She'd known a couple of Agents to be pulled from active duty due to their chronic addictions.

After a minute she spoke again. "So, I died. That sounds like it was fun. How long have I been out, total?"

"It's been nineteen hours since I brought you here, it is past dawn." Noctis supplied, shifting in his seat as he met her gaze. "I was unsure if you would actually survive this time, as I couldn't link my system to yours and transfer power, and couldn't try to do so until you were... placated. Your heart ceased functioning as I admitted you, I assume you were resuscitated shortly thereafter."

"Yeah, lotta new custom inside me since we last swapped some juice." She smirked, patting a hoof on her chest, regarding him again. "Appreciate the attempt."

He gave her an actual smile, then. "Next time I will preemptively render you inoperative."

"By all means, you can try."

She took a moment to test her movements and seemed to be alright enough to go, as usual the sawbones had done their job damn well and she'd been put on charge during the time she'd been napping, glancing at the cable snaking out of a hindleg. Being hooked up like a toaster wasn't the most effective way to gain energy, but her power was at over thirty percent when she pulled it up so she would be good for about a week without needing to properly zap herself at a station; at least pending no further serious damage or heavy expenditure. She had a thought, and restored her limbs back to their full efficiency in the settings, going over a few final checks.

"Right, I have shit to do."

"Do bear in mind that you haven't fully healed." Noctis cautioned, but made no attempt to stop her as she cast off her shackles and left the bed, thankfully.

He got up from the chair and came over to walk with her as she trotted out, the medical equipment pinging that its occupant had just gone AWOL before soon becoming silent as it was monitored from elsewhere. They knew her well enough to know she didn't stay longer than needed. Noting Noctis's line of sight on the armour-plating going down her back between the gown, she rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine." Twilight said as they walked into the corridor ahead, taking a right and striding with purpose, she didn't feel any discomfort at all thanks to the Ghost in her bloodstream. "Quit looking at me like that or I'll think you want to drag me into my bunk, don't tempt me."

It was always funny when Noctis blushed.

"I'm concerned. The datasheet on your bed said-"

"-Said there's still likely to be irritation in my lungs and that my spine still has hairline fractures, yes." She completed for him, passing a young stallion she craned her head back to ogle for a moment before continuing on her way. "Nothing I can't handle. I've got no remaining head injury beyond a slight headache, my healing matrix will sort out my spine within a day or two even if I'm pushing myself hard, and the lungs should self-repair in about the same timeframe."

"You should still wait until you're at full strength before going back out. 'All that awaits you is a sombre morrow; No matter where the winds may blow.'" Noctis sighed after reciting the verse seeing that Twilight tutted at him, ignored him, and promptly kept on. "At least dock into a station for a couple of hours."

She didn't respond as they came to the locker room, and Noctis didn't continue to pester her as she went over to the end corner of the main section where her personal locker sat into the wall. Pressing the flat of her hoof against the locker door, it recognised her pattern signature and granted access, the door panel shooting up into a recess above. Her horn ignited, and she grabbed her bodysuit and duster off the rack inside, seeing the docs had handed her clothes to the techies to patch up while she'd been indisposed, as usual.

Noctis politely turned around as she threw the hospital gown off, slipping the bodysuit and duster on in moments like she'd done hundreds of times before, the magitech interfacing almost needily as if it had missed her touch, the leather just as comforting. Feeling complete again, she folded the gown and left it on a bench for the staff to sort out later, before securing her locker and leaving with Noctis in tow.

"Thought about it." Twilight said to him, turning left and going towards Luna's side of the castle. Noctis gave a half-smile. "Need to check the Quartermaster's stock anyway."

She took the quickest route from the medical ward, which took them all of ten minutes to go through the various connecting hallways and corridors, leaving the Crown Agent Quarter as they passed ponies, a few Gryphons, the occasional Thestral, and even a lone Deer doing their jobs around the castle. Many of them were accountants and the like for the Crown's more industry-based side, easy to note with their business suits, but it was just that Twilight and any other Agent could scan them and see who they were and what they did; it was one of the many tasks of her own job that she did without even thinking about anymore. The centre of the castle where things crossed over was where things became a little less intense with magical protection to ease the access for the everyday staff, with the Crown Agent Quarter acting as a sort of security station alongside the Royal Guard Quarters that were placed more around the castle, so it was all in the name of security.

Once again Luna's halls graced her vision as they passed the attending Lunar Guard through moon-blessed silver doors, the Thestrals not looking at her as disdainfully probably on account of Noctis's presence. The dark hallways and rooms of simple furnishings were their company beyond the small number of Thestrals that Luna had to keep things in shape at this early hour, no doubt things would be more lively come nightfall.

Travelling in companionable silence until they reached their destination through a hallway that was heavily defended with autoturrets tucked away in their domed extrusions mounted into the ceiling, Noctis stepped forward and opened the door ahead for her, because of course he did. Twilight stepped through but delivered a lazy back hoof at his chest that he dodged, following her in afterwards. Given the hour, the entry room's activity was rather minimal, those that were there greeting them both with respectful nods or a polite word.

Lunaris Crown Agent Garrison, sister barracks to the Solaris Crown Agent Garrison on Celestia's side of the castle. From outfitting high-tech augments, to a dozen or so drill rooms for heavy training, to simply being a decent place to grab some food and a night's sleep, both locations were solely for their benefit. Didn't mean that the Royal Guard weren't welcome, but they generally avoided both places on principle. At present, she only saw one other Agent here, the rest were a couple of techies working on projects amongst themselves, naturally they'd be doing it here. The entry lobby was pretty large and laid-out in an almost civilian fashion, making the entire place feel more relaxed than it normally was, a huge common area in the centre was cut into the floor with a line of couches along its inner edges, seats opposite or central, and wooden tables between, while the outer surrounding doors led to all the places of business. Some might call it unprofessional, but they could take it up with Celestia; it had been her design, and Luna hadn't gotten too involved as Agent Garrison things pertained to the side of technology.

"Brick!" Greeted the lone Agent, looking up from where she sat on a corner piece of the inner couches that was suffering her immense size. She put down the book she'd been reading, as well as a popular variant of canned soft drink, both of which were almost comically small in her hands, and sat up straighter to rest her arms on her legs, flashing them a smile.

The mountain of muscle and sex appeal was called Titania. It was uncommon for Dragons to serve the Crown, but Titania was rather uncommon for a Dragon. To this day very few of them ventured out of their own lands, still mostly untouched by the modern markings of industry and progress, however on occasion they were pulled by it due to their greed and found themselves on Equestrian soil looking to become stronger or richer. Titania for her part, had come looking for work to escape the monotony of draconic life and found herself a stable mining job with one of Equestria's more prolific megacorps, Earthen Crest, who's sole business was ore and gem collection, and they'd jumped at the chance to employ a literal walking powerhouse.

However when a network of their deep mining shafts within the mountain that Canterlot City was built onto had collapsed on her and hundreds of other workers a year or so down the line, the megacorp had been quick to abandon them to their fate. In the initial hour of it happening the public attempted to amass and look in on the incident during emergency response efforts coming along, and they were all quickly driven off by Earthen Crest's private security. It had taken time before the higher ups had cleared it so that emergency services were allowed through to actually assist. It being Earthen Crest's jurisdiction in land, they'd made an attempt at a rescue operation, but dropped it soon after the estimated cost of 'asset recovery' had reared its ugly head, and even with the Crown offering them aid with the relief they hadn't cared for the price tag. Using the fact that all miners that had been found nearest to the surface had all been dead, they claimed the chances that any people further in that were still alive was slim to none, and they'd officially attempted to wash their hooves of the situation, only allowing the general emergency services in to perform the most basic of clean-up ops until they could then seal the collapsed mines and simply continue on like nothing had happened.

Then the Crown had officially stepped in.

It worked by law that if something bad happened to a megacorp along the lines of a natural disaster or such, it was the Crown's sovereign duty to offer assistance, as a high-yield business that generated a large income over a certain threshold contributed to the economy and was essential to keeping the wheel of Equestria turning. A fun caveat to this, that brought the Sisters no end of joy in some cases, was that the high-yield business would have to pay for the services rendered after they had bounced back from the disaster. This didn't used to be the case, but early rising megacorps back in the day had heavily abused this longstanding old law when things went pear-shaped on their ends and used the Crown as a means of a free bailout. It was during the Venrum Disaster that amongst the passing of new coinage the Sisters had enough leverage in the noble's courts due to desperation to pass this small addendum and properly remedy that slap in the face.

Nothing stopped the Crown from going where it pleased within Equestria during a crisis or state of war, but if a business was on private land and refused the Crown's assistance, and then barred them or their relief efforts from entry during great trouble, it was grounds for serious fines and legal action. However, to be seen doing their utmost to fail softening the blow to their employees, actively working against them such as holding severance pay, not honouring the contract of the job that allowed furlough, or perhaps leaving them to die, brought a very special clause into action within the law, in which the Crown had complete and legal right to freeze business assets or impose levies, stop movement of its members or place a summons order on them, and in cases such as this; hold them solely responsible for every single one of their failings to the highest possible degree, perfectly fucking them raw with no lube.

Twilight loved the charge they used in the High Court.

'Held in Contempt of Equestria'.

It was an excellent charge that really stabbed deep into the megacorps that valued their profits over everyone else, which was practically all of them, and was yet another reason why the Crown was so popular in the modern day, and why so many megacorps worked against the Crown. It was part of the law that was often overlooked because most megacorps knew about it in intimate capacity and always looked to circumvent it by pulling as many tricks as possible to pay out as little as they could in all regards; so it was such a basic level of knowledge to many that to not know or care about it was quite rare. When a business like Earthen Crest dropped the ball and glossed over this part of the law while pulling a stunt like this, it brought the might of it into full swing. Very rarely could it be disputed as the Crown had full control during such time, and it was rarely questioned by the people because the Crown was equally as subject to it too if they were ever seen to have abandoned the people. It truly hit home the level of protections that the Princesses extended to the average person in Equestria, while showing how dedicated they were themselves by being just as beholden to the same laws.

It all essentially boiled down to: Abandoning the people in their time of need means you will have the book thrown at you twice as hard.

Within days, a majority of Earthen Crest had been summoned by royal decree and put through the wringer in the High Courts while the Crown had already orchestrated a huge multi-level rescue operation, sparing no expense to get it done properly. It had only taken weeks to do, but in the end they'd pulled out just forty-seven people from the mines, Titania among the survivors. From analysis of the injuries of both the survivors and the deceased, if the original rescue operation had actually gone forwards past the first few critical hours, it had been estimated that over two-hundred people could have possibly been saved. Dozens of those that had gotten out had said that they had Titania's strength to thank for their survival, as even with the cave-in having heavily injured her, she'd dug many of them out of being buried alive.

When it came to Earthen Crest, their lawyers had levied blame onto natural causes of the surrounding land being in terrible condition and the reasons why it had been beyond detection, or the workers poor ability causing collapses rather than shoddy structural equipment, dragging the case out in expert fashion and wasting time. Behind the scenes Earthen Crest tried to pay off the families of those that had died with paltry sums out of court so they wouldn't sue, threatened people within the company into silence when they came forward to talk about irregular bookkeeping, and had attempted to destroy evidence that proved their cheaply manufactured equipment was at fault for the mines collapsing. It had even been found that they had several judges paid off to give minimal sentencing should there be any convictions while they were holding the hammer, the jury being intimidated with covert tactics to scare them into passing a 'not guilty' verdict on any of their serious counts.

Beyond the blame shifting however, none of that had been official. The public broadcasts had shown a number of things that could have lent blame but there was no decisive evidence presented to the High Court, and the average person might see that it was clearly bullshit when the defence lawyers prattled on, but in the end public opinion had been split. The people at the top of Earthen Crest were found to be not guilty due to lack of evidence surrounding the mine collapse, and some people below them had been given minimal jail time and fines for poor management of the rescue, while the business as a whole only received a heavy fine and minor suspension of practice, as having waived their right to a jury meant it had been ruled by the judge overlooking the case that their orders to block entry onto the land was simply confusion during a high-stress situation, and their improper equipment safety procedures had likely not helped the clear natural erosion in the area that was the definite cause of the collapse. It all amounted to a small slap on the hoof followed by the words now don't do it again.

It was an absolute miscarriage of justice of course, and that hadn't sat well with the Sisters, so when Twilight and a few of her peers had done some careful digging and found the evidence of their wrongdoing, over the next year everyone involved in the case had received their just desserts, most of them having made it onto Luna's shitlist.

The judge that had passed the lenient sentences was involved in a scandal regarding quite a number of escorts, and while not illegal to seek such company his wife had certainly had a thing or two to say on the matter. He'd denied it but had still been let go of his high position as such a thing was lauded through the papers and it was well known that infidelity was heavily frowned upon. Many expected he might simply fade away in retirement, but he'd ended up falling down the stairs in his home one night. Shortly thereafter those that had accepted large bribes to destroy the evidence along with those directly involved with cutting costs and embezzlement had all been found to have jumped off of buildings with high levels of alcohol in their blood, or having overdosed on illegal designer drugs found among the higher-classes of criminal and noble alike. The committee that had put a fork in the rescue operation to save lives had found themselves inexplicably in possession of large quantities of the same illegal drugs, complete with damning paper trails, to which an anonymous tip had led the CPS right to them, and most of them were still in jail, although a few seemed to have succumbed to prison shankings when they had tried to shift funds about to bribe their way out of prison. Finally, the two CEOs that had orchestrated the destruction of evidence and threatening of people into silence had bizarrely killed one another over a rare piece of jewellery that had somehow been stolen from the Canterlot History Museum.

Very few people had raised a fuss, and of course all conspiracy theories were just that.

Titania had been praised in the papers for her part in saving lives, and had met Twilight while she'd been running security for the Princesses that had both attended a huge public ceremony for the victims of the mine collapse. Twilight had then extended Titania an invitation to meet with Celestia, who wanted to personally thank her and present her with an opportunity for her heroism and join in the quest for harmony. Twilight had outlined the basics of the offer during the trip to the Royal Palace, and Titania had been deeply interested. It had been a few years since then, the Dragoness was still learning a lot about being a Crown Agent despite having blitzed through the training, and it was in her favour that she was naturally formidable without even trying.

Quite hard not to be at about twelve hooves. In Draconic Standard she was just over seven-and-a-half feet, but Twilight preferred the Ponish measurements, generally more even to count. Her scales were a rich orange in shade like the core of a burning fire, and the softer scales that ran from her snout down her neck, over massive breasts and chiselled abs, down and under all the way to the tip of her thick tail, it was all a paler shade of peach. Her face was narrow, and her snout rather short for an adult, with dangerous eyes the colour of amethysts. Usually a Dragon would have neural spines atop their heads that would travel down their back, and females would grow their head spines out and try to shape them like a mane, but it was something of a new fad among Dragons in Equestria to simply have their head spines removed for a thick crop of hair which grew just the same as a mane, while trimming down their back spines for a far smoother form.

Titania apparently liked the look, and thus had a long messy cascade atop her head pulled back into a loose pony-tail, it was a deep-red the same as her spines had been when Twilight had met her. She was nearly all corded muscle and strength, her arms were something Gryphons would call a gun show, but she possessed femininity beyond the obvious section most eyes were drawn to; her hips were waspish and her thighs, muscular as they were, were almost as thick as Twilight's body. Trailing behind her was a large and long tail, something which Twilight had learned many years ago that for Dragons, denoted a high level of femininity.

She had a few augments to complement her impressive muscle-bound physique beyond just a CINI for a HUD, communication, and general identification. In many places she had dermal plating that commonly stopped whatever her formidable scales already couldn't, had augmented claws and teeth that were far more durable, sharper, and deadlier than her natural ones had been, and her bones had been given the same special treatment as Twilight's. Similarly, her spine was also overlapped with sleek protective plates grafted into the bone, but went right down to the tip of her tail. Beyond that she hadn't gone deeper into enhancement yet as she was quite attached to her natural body; everything else including all the fun parts were all still stock.

It wasn't like she needed any further enhancement. Titania was an incredibly dangerous foe, generally deployed more like equipment than a soldier. She mostly handled demolitions and heavy defence given her high constitution, and when she came into play not much else was left standing.

Currently she just wore a leather crop-jacket over a loose top, both of which barely contained her massive bust, along with a pair of jeans that hugged every curve and looked almost sprayed on, sporting open-toe boots common for species like Gryphons or Dragons. Finding clothing for her size, even amongst Dragons, was probably quite hard; doing that jacket up all the way to her neck was an impossibility, her immense cleavage bursting up through the gap where the zip couldn't close. Twilight didn't envy her, but was content to admire.

"Been a while since I've seen ya. How's tricks? Heard from the techies that you added to your total score." Titania laughed, the sound making the floor vibrate.

Twilight slugged her on the thigh in way of greeting as she trotted over and craned her neck slightly upward to look the Dragoness in the face. "You heard right, I was in CAM for a bit."

"Crazy bitch, love ya. Gonna kill yourself properly one of these days going on the way you do." She grinned, shaking her head. Augmented teeth that could tear through ten-inch thick metal smiled back at her.

"Yeah, but I'll leave a sexy corpse." Twilight joked back, standing in place as Titania leant back into the couch, the furniture protesting weight that it wasn't made for. Titania had once told Twilight that she'd been a runt of her hatchmates, it always brought up the thought of if her siblings rivalled Ember's father. Twilight didn't join her at the moment though, just talking as she barely heard Noctis silently pad over. "You're not in uniform, so what are you hanging around for, Tee? Come back from knocking a building over?"

Titania laughed and shook her head. "Nah, you caught me after my medical, I was overdue for it. Just relaxin' a while."

"Ah, fair enough." Twilight smiled. The medicals always sucked, being poked and prodded was only fun when it was happening in bed. "I can't stick about, I'll have to catch you around with any luck, Tee. I need to get this bat off my back."

Noctis eyed her for the comment as they went on, and Titania cheerfully waved them off, resuming reading her book. They passed through a sliding door to their left that was clearly marked as the sleeping quarters, but made a short left again in the next corridor instead of going straight ahead to the bunkroom, entering into a room that looked almost like a gym.

Like a cross between a fitting deck and a spa bed, over twenty charging stations of different sizes for different species sat around the edges of the room next to each other, with no current occupants. She supposed most of the Lunaris Agents were out working, just as fanatical as the Lunar Guard, if not more. The walls were uniform and untouched, and other than the stations, the layout of benches and storage lockers had changed, which meant the place had been redone since she'd last come.

"Simpler, isn't it? The stations run better as well, they've been upgraded to newer specs." Noctis spoke up, shrugging off his almost pristine duster and folding it up with his wings, placing it on the bench with one while unzipping his bodysuit with the other, his pale silver coat being revealed the further the zip went down.

Twilight grinned and undressed as well. While she didn't often feel the need to use a charging station, she enjoyed it when she was around others as she did. Noctis was a stand-up guy and likely didn't want to leave her here alone given her injuries, but that meant he had to join in the occasion, and she could see his rising blush as he took off the rest of his bodysuit and she took off hers. She just threw both her clothing items onto the bench and ogled him, he had an excellent figure and put other Thestrals to shame with his very nice arse. When had the culture shifted so abruptly that not wearing clothes was almost obscene? It was so many years ago now, though it certainly added to her enjoyment.

"I'd prefer if you didn't do that." Noctis said, a hint of embarrassment shining through the semi-monotone of his voice while his glowing amber eyes focused on the wall next to him.

Twilight couldn't keep the shit-eating grin off her face as she went over to one of the stations for ponies, slapping his arse with magic and making him jump, and he shot her a disparaged look. Poor batty boy, one of Luna's best Agents and still so inexperienced with the ladies. Well Twilight was no lady; that fell to Rarity's area of expertise. She still needed to introduce them, they'd probably get along like a house on fire.

"You know I'm sure I could build my own charging station." Twilight said, pressing a few buttons on the nearest one to her as her horn glowed and watching it open up like a segmented sarcophagus, the gel-padded interior being a lime-green, before the upgrades it had been grey. Twilight looked at Noctis as the station he was at also opened up, making an honest effort to not look at his admittedly very sizable package he was doing his best to hide with a hindleg as his unconscious excitement brought it to life. "If I did, I'd build it so two people like us could fit nice and close together at the same time, preferably one on top of the other."

Noctis blushed deeper, Twilight laughed as she was sure his face wasn't meant to be such a deep shade of pink, yet here they were. She was never usually so blatant with her sexual advances and demeanour unless she was talking to a whore. Sure, the occasional flirt or complement to someone like Noctis, but not to this degree. This was post-near-death primality coupled with her unique system, her brain and body were amped-up to do something fun and exciting that really relaxed her. Luna's onslaught had pushed her into that part of herself that could be reckless without thinking of the consequences, no matter the context of the situation.

Although, Noctis weathered her like this pretty well. He'd been there during their assault on a syndicate in Trottingham, she'd taken an anti-material round and had one of her prosthetic legs blown off from her shields being ripped through, still kept fighting without shields and taken several shards of shrapnel from grenades that punched through her dermal, and collapsed after they'd taken down the head. The rest of them had cleaned up the stragglers and she'd woken up during emergency evac back to the Palace, with an incredibly patient medic trying to stabilise her vitals after resuscitation while she attempted to seduce Noctis into eating her out for good luck, seeing as he'd come along to watch over her.

She always got pretty horny after a good fight too, the normal buildup of fighting an opponent would certainly lead to a shaky comedown as the adrenaline wore off, but her system circumvented that process to keep her in top fighting condition, with each pulse her body was only let down slightly to ride out the spike of chemicals, and partially kept it in reserve to flood her veins in a split second if another battle should start again. In a way, the result of the change meant she was rewarded for fighting. The onset to it was that with all the chemicals in play, natural or otherwise, she was also hit with a bit of oestrogen, and the longer a battle dragged out, the more bleedover there was of the hormone. It was something she could probably have sorted by a techie, but she rather liked the warm fuzzy feeling she got in her nethers after a decent fight, it went hoof-in-hoof with the primal part of her brain.

She turned around, smirking at him as his eyes had curiously panned over, making them go right back to staring at the wall, before stepping backwards into the machine. The internal sensors reacted and the station closed up, automatically adjusting to her build and pressing in around her, a supporting platform resting up under her belly, barrel, and chest so she could fully let the weight off her hooves. They were designed to be comfortable, though originally hadn't been made for use while nude, as the magitech bodysuits that Crown Agents wore were meant to be a conductive layer between the machine and the user, but the more technological side of the machine didn't pan out; the bodysuits being their own mix of technology and magic on different wavelengths meant they hadn't played nicely with the stations and caused a lot of malfunctions, and went to being overwhelmingly magical instead. The station gel-padding worked far better being able to press against uncovered flesh anyway, better able to reach the gem-cores of augments.

"What are you at, anyway?" Twilight asked the Thestral, now in his own station.

"Sixty-eight. A few hours will be good for me." He replied, thankful for the return to normal conversation. He closed his eyes and began to hum a tune after a short while, sounding a tad strange and tone-deaf with his voice, but Twilight didn't mind it. It was something Noctis did to relax when he was tense, usually on long missions away from the Royal Palace. It had been a year or so since their last assignment together, things around Canterlot City were calmer for now, although she felt that was going to change. "I may fall asleep though, my apologies if you wanted to talk."

"Nah, I'm fine, you rest up." Twilight yawned, the gel-padding was warm and really pressed deep into the coat, the sensation of charging was almost like a really basic massage when the body was heavily augmented. "I might catch a few zee's myself."

Before she knew it, she had slowly dozed off. Not fully asleep; she was aware of the room, and of a techie coming in and checking a few things on one of the stations, but her thoughts drifted back to the task at hoof. She needed to see Vee and find out anything about the Gryphons that had assaulted her, and for that matter the CPS would soon have young Gryphoness in lockup she needed to talk with if she'd been discharged from hospital, then she could go meet with a few of her contacts in downtown Canterlot's lower wards. She should also meet with the Quartermaster while she was here, as she'd joked with Noctis about as an excuse to visit, but it was a good idea to talk with them anyway regarding her mission. There might even be something new to fawn over.

She even decided to make a short checklist.

Author's Note

This was originally a much larger chapter.
So much exposition, can't bloody help myself. Bunch of fixes and added lore as well.