Author's Note

I admit the title card is juvenile, at best. So if anybody is interested, feel free to come up with a more effective display of characters, places and/or situations. Thanks and God bless.

Part One

Twilight woke without a start, as the Tartaran nightmare drained her as much as she had rested that night. She struggled to lift her heavy eyelids with a groan, pushing off her pillow with stiffened hooves. Once she finally rose onto her haunches, she stretched out her new, feathered appendages with a growling yawn, fetlock to her gaping muzzle. Next she extended her legs in the same manner

It happened again.

The same evening terror that has tormented the lavender Alicorn before finding her destiny. Everything around her and her friends was burning. She could hardly remember who she was, or what was happening. Until it stomped menacingly over her with a feral snarl. Then the memories all came back. The crashed ship, the shots fired, that human bounty hunter in white, the doubt and anxieties of what else her Princess knows, the betrayal, the torcher, Sunset's attempt to destroy her, seeing the traitor's bleeding body beneath the Meta, her failed attempt at freeing Church from it with her friends, seeing it kill the Reds and Blues then come to crush the Elements and their throats one by one, holding tightly to Spike before it all went to black.

Normally, Princess Luna would be there to cut it abruptly before the halfway marker. But not this time for some reason. The Nightly Regent's word's, however, were recalled each time she doubted herself. They arose with silent serenity.

"There will come times when you doubt your sacrifices bear substance. That those you trust with your life will disappoint you, or visa-versa. The efforts made by others to redeem themselves will seem for naught. And those whom you lost had perished for a cause that will ultimately fail. But we are all temporal beings, trapped in the present, with only prior memories. Fear of the future is what bounds us most often, based merely on what we know from past experiences.

But don't let those fears and doubts consume you, for they will come to fruition by that very bottled act alone. Always remember, my dear friend, the past can repeat itself, either out of that trepidation or beyond our say. As it can also bring forth a stronger, braver, and more joyous future beyond our imagination. Done by the simplest act of friendly love. Persevere, dear Twilight Sparkle, then you and the others shall succeed."

With that, Twilight got up from her royal mattress and levitated something from the night stand in her magenta glow. The dark, loosely strung wires sticking out of the box, the barcode on the instrument, and the smelted piece of maroon-coated metal gave her a bittersweet smile. Looking at it with melancholic nostalgia, the transformed mare placed a sound barrier over Spike's sleeping basket, then pressed one of its wires loosely back into its socket.

"...Pzz-zzzt...Hello, everyon-pzzz-nd every pony. If you're hearing this, then that means you found a way back into this place...zzzzzzt-covered what's left of my cyborg corpse. By my calculation, my chance of survival is 10,084 to totally fucked. I'm leaving this recording in the hopes that someone might be able to recover it from the wreckage and debris, so I can get a few things off my chest while buying some time for Twilight, Church and the rest.

Sarge, though it hurts to admit it, I found a lot of your tactical decisions to be questionable, if not downright mediocre. I guess I was always such a kiss-ass to you because I was desperate to find a father figure after mine left and never came home. Maybe he would've come back as an alien to acquire my penis for experiments, kind of like how Ego tried to use Star-Lord. Hell if I know. But I directed all those childish and repressed feelings into following your orders, via chain of command or otherwise, in the hopes that I also can climb up the ranks myself.

I'm not going to say you failed miserably though, Sir. In fact, I'm just glad someone I could look up to in what not to do staid in my life, and not tell me to join the girls' junior high softball team when I wanted to be a mathlete. Guess you now know why you thought I threw like a girl. Not that their throwing style is ineffective, or anything like that. In fact, it's quite efficient now that I think back on it. Anyway, at least I got to be a captain with my own successful operatives before the end. Even though I might be labeled a traitor again, and by our own species no less.

Grif, I know you're as much into mushy-sentimental bullshit as I am, so I'll cut to the chase. Thanks for the memories, fat-ass. We may not have shared the same tastes, common interests or any damn thing to agree on, but you were a good friend. One thing we did have in common though was that Donut annoyed us, and we hated Doc nearly as much as Sarge. Okay, that's two. Also we got to be captains, three. Plus my limbs and organs, four and five. Sorry about Sister. Wish I could’ve met your mom at the circus.

Donut....Uh, you take care, okay buddy?

And Twilight, be sure to check on those fillies for me will you? It was nice to be a sort of big, wimpy uncle, or babysitter for them, and their sisters were alright also. But more importantly, you were the first cross-species friend I ever made. And that just made it to the top of my bucket list. So, thanks for that. And thanks for showing what friends really amount to, I guess. Just don't give up, okay?

Now, time to show these bastards what this Captain's really made of! Yeah, suck it Blue! I mean, damn it, Red! I mean, Grey! Suck it, Freelancers! Yeah, come get some! You like that? You want more RP-Ow, the front of my upper leg! Son of a bi~vvvvvpssssssh.”

The message had cycled back to repeat, as Twilight disconnected the chord with a congenial grin. It may not be every morning now, but she kept that to listen whenever she needed a morale boost. She just had to ensure Spike was still asleep and not hearing the vulgarity too often while activating it. Putting the charred device back onto the stand, the Alicorn then turned towards the blinds to open them.

Even though the human technicians could not figure how to repair him, likely due to Sarge's inadequate methods of bulding him, they were able to recover and relinquish that piece after inspecting what remained of Simmons. They downloaded the message into their files, then granted Celestia's request to have it for her student. And despite having his whole being shut down beyond retrieval of his soul and consciousness, she was glad for that last bit of encouragement from her first, and maybe best friend from another planet.

She could hear the gunshots and grunts he made while recording that. And the only reason he survived that long from shielding her passed-out form out of shrapnel’s way was his cybernetics. She recalled him explaining that to her once, after she witnessed him shooting his own foot.

Just as she looked out of her window though, a real disturbing sight met Celestia’s faithful student from through the window panes.

"Spike! Spike, wake up!" She turned back to see her small Dragon assistant waving a pencil in his snoring slumber.

"Huh...check, check, check, check."

"Ah, horse apples!" The Earth Pony farm mare pulled out another length of black, thorny weeds from the ground, seeing the futility of the family's efforts to clear Sweet Apple Acres of them. "Them weeds ain't like nothin' I'd ever seen before! You, Big Mac?"

"N-nope!" He tried to bite down on another patch himself, which responded by ducking back into the soil, then pop up slapping his tail end. Hoping to prevent reliving a recent, painful memory, he tucked his tail tightly between his legs and gingerly stepped away. "Nope."

"Ponies! Attention, ponies! Fall back inside! Repeat, fall back!" Both siblings turned to see a grey stallion calling out to them from near the house. Inside through the window, they spotted Applebloom and Granny peering out to spot them also. Applejack looked down at the twisting, growing, prickly things turn more into vines than weeds, and opted to heed the stranger's advice.

She and Macintosh galloped eagerly back to their family, and be safe at home until this whole thing gets settled. But just as they reached the front porch, the Earth Pony stranger stood in front of her in a steady, but firm manner.

"Miss Applejack," he announced, his voice sounding oddly familiar in its level-headed fashion, "As an Element bearer, I'm going to have you come with me to Golden Oaks."

"What, why!"

"The others are being gathered there also. We need to ensure you're all together for when Princess Twilight comes back to help."

Before she could even ask how the fellow knew all that, a sudden spark of magenta brought a beige Unicorn, with a red mane and purple-lavender strands that made Applejack think of her Alicorn friend.

"The Carousel Boutique is secure, Hunt," she told him, "and so is that section of town."

"Alright," nodded the forenamed Hunt, "then let's get moving."

"Wait," shouted a young voiced from inside, "I can't find Winona! Did you see her?"

"No, Applebloom. I thought she was with Gran. Big Mac, you go in and watch them, I'll go back out an' fetch her!"

"Eeyup!" He did not have to be told twice, leaping over the porch steps with a loud thud.

"Sorry," chided the Unicorn, grimly shaking her head, "but there's no time. We have to go before those vine things start taking more ponies."

"But we gotta find 'er," said the filly, lips quivering, "She could get lost an' hurt too!"

"Moondancer," said the stallion, "go back to the Library and Miss Zecora. Make sure the rest have made it, and meet us there. I'll take Miss Applejack over once this situation's resolved."

"Hold on," said Applejack, "What's Zecora doin' there? Did them vines get to her home in the Everfree?"

"That's where they started coming from, yeah," he nodded plainly.

"With all due respect, Hunt," Moondancer stated, "you're worried about a housepet's safety?"

"I'm not, but they are. That's what matters to them right now. Don't worry, I'll regroup with you shortly."

Then the Moondancer gal huffed in annoyance, saying, "If you say so, Boss. But if you're not back in fifteen, I'll drag your sorry flank, myself."

"Copy that. Now go check on the rest."

"You know what's coming, don't you," she called out to him, as he and Applejack began their jaunt to the orchards. "What you'll have to do when she gets here?"

"That's what I said from the start," he shouted over his withers, ignoring the farm pony's slight confusion. "Now less talking, and start teleporting!"

This Hunt guy might have been a tad curt and impolite to his colleague, but she sure was grateful for his help and understanding. She could not help but wonder about him though. A total stranger and his own group of friends coming to check on the Elements and their families? Rounding them all up for Twilight? But that was not the weird thing that caught her attention. He seemed to know them all fairly well from the get-go. Fact, Applejack could have sworn she crossed paths with this stallion before. But ignoring that at this time, she decided to focus on the here and now, find Winona, and get to the Library before the damn weeds and vines could get any worse.