A Hero Untold

Wolfram stood with his allies to the left of Celestia. On the right of the Princess was first her sister, Luna, then to the left of her were the leaders of each guard team, as well as all of whiskey. Beside Wolfram's team, however, were the other riff raff heroes of the day. Brandy stood there, along with Amp. There were a few other ponies he hadn't met, as well as some that appeared to be from the medical facilities of Canterlot. This put roughly 30 ponies to either side of the princesses. The crowd gathered in front of the display was fairly large. It spanned densely for a good 30 meters away from the balcony which the whole group was standing on. It was the balcony of the Canterlot Barracks, and it was very large.

"Citizens of Canterlot," The sun princess began "You are all here today so that we may recognize the valor of those who would show it when the need comes. As you are all aware, the city was attacked by a great enemy yesterday, and although they were ultimately defeated, I fear that without the help of these relatively few ponies, many lives would have been lost. Lives that stand among you now, paying their homage through respect.

Although every citizen in this city acted bravely, and did their best to survive, and keep their families safe. There are a few who did their best not only to survive, but to ensure the survival of the city as a whole. These are the ponies who we have called heroes. These are the ponies who we will call heroes until our voice breaks, and our bones turn to dust.

Yesterday, on the radio channel for the guard a certain stallion disobeyed orders. He wasn't even the leader of his own squad an hour before. He received a field promotion, and that very moment was willing and able to assume the responsibilities of a squad leader. He led the remainder of his team to safety, and to help the Captain's personal guard. Unfortunately they couldn't have done anything to help team Zulu. Who were already taken out by the time Whiskey arrived. Whiskey's leader, the newly promoted one, remained resolute in the face of almost certain doom. When he saw that even I had been bested by the enemy, he realized what needed to be done.

Whiskey ordered a full scale evacuation of the city, without the authority to do so. When he was opposed by a superior, he united every squad besides Yankee under his intention. He led the evacuation that saved so many of your lives, and every other leader worked with him to make it possible.

This pony is the one known as Officer Ferrous of the Fortis Family. Stand forward Ferrous, let the population know who would protect them in the face of great danger."

Ferrous stepped forward, and the crowed cheered. He stood proudly, and smiled. Once the roar died down, he spoke.

"Thank you, citizens of Canterlot for recognizing me in particular. But I'm afraid I cannot accept this recognition without it being shared by everyone who worked with me to help keep you safe. It wasn't me alone who saved this city. It was the combined efforts of every guard we have, some of which gave their lives to keep you safe. Let the leaders of each squad represent them, and stand forward with me!"

The rest of the leaders stood forward, proudly and happily. The crowd cheered again for them. Once they stopped, the Night Princess stepped forward, and the guards all stepped back.

"But it is not only those who have sworn duty to their suit who can be heroes." Princess Luna began "There are those among the civilians of this city who would also show great selflessness, bravery, and initiative when they must. These ponies rose above what was even expected of them, and showed valor as great as any knight or guard.

Smiths, tailors, bakers, and adolescents. All with the heart of a hero, and the courage of a battle hardened warrior. There are of course a few of these ponies who deserve a further mention, above their counterparts. For they did the even greater, and led those who were willing into the fray of danger, to protect the city and it's population. The first being Thunder of the Sonus family. She took the initiative to contact the city's defense, and volunteered her team to assist in any way they could."

Thunder stepped forward as rehearsed.

"Next we wish to commend the sheer genius, and technical expertise of an engineer in Canterlot. Her creations may have saved lives many times over yesterday, and she literally did not rest until she was certain that everything she could do to help had been done.

This pony has now been recognized for her creativity, dedication, intelligence, and initiative. She has been effectively contracted as the engineer of defense for Canterlot, so you may all rest calmly, with the knowledge that the city is being protected by her great creations.

This pony is Amp of the Degroot family. Step forward Ms. Degroot. Let the population know who is the inventor of their safety!"

Amp did not only step forward, but stood up on her hind legs, and proceeded to dance forward. She span around once, bowed gracefully, and then went back down on four legs.

The crowed cheered, but Wolfram could hear their confusion at the display.

"Now we will mention one last individual amongst the civilians. He is a colt of questionable reputation, that is until the events of yesterday. He was previously thought of by the media as forceful, and occasionally brutish. But yesterday, he not only showed that those traits are sometimes needed in a pony, but he also showed that those are not the only traits he possesses. He is a great warrior for his age, in melee combat, but he is also a grand tactician, and an inherently inspiring leader in battle. When his leader, Thunder, gave him command over half of his remaining team, he made the unlikely group work together. He used each of their strengths perfectly, and defended each of their weaknesses just as well.

He has a handle on a sword, and a perfect grip on group dynamics. But most importantly he struck fear out of the hearts of those who followed him. By the accounts of the ponies under his command, they would not have willingly charged into a horde of monstrous shape shifters, had Wolfram not been the vanguard of their onslaught.

This pony, who has done more than redeem himself, is Wolfram of the Fortis family. Step forward, Wolfram, let the people see the greatest warrior of your generation."

Wolfram reluctantly stepped forward. He hadn't had many good experiences with crowds. He was covered in gauze and bruises, as well as wearing a torn up jacket, which was invisibly lined with steel. He didn't look like a warrior, he looked like a beggar.

There was a very light cheering. With quiet stomping to accompany it. But the praise didn't nearly match what the more formally dressed, or more outgoing, subjects of thanks had received. Wolfram would have been fine with this, but somepony took it too far.

"As if! This slummer gave my son a fractured concussion, and his friend a dislocated shoulder! Then, the very same day, he beat two of his own previous allies in an alleyway! To top it all off, he was a suspect for causing an explosion in the streets of the city, and then he ran away from the city for three days!" The stallion who spoke was clearly upper class, and wore the badge of an inspector on his jacket.

Wolfram growled angrily, and was about to bark something very, very nasty when a small yellow shape caught his eye. It was a young filly running up to the front of the crowd. She was yellow coated, and green maned. She had a teddy bear on the back of her neck, and she looked awfully familiar to Wolfram.

"Lillypad?" Wolfram asked. quietly down the balcony.

The filly nodded happily and then turned to face the crowd.

"Wolfram isn't mean!" She shouted in the loudest voice she could make "He helped me find my mommy when I was all alone! Nobody stopped or looked at me except for the nice stallion! He made me stay happy when I was scared because mommy wasn't there. And then he brought me to mommy!" Wolfram smiled at the filly.But he feared that the word of a child so young wouldn't give him much credit.

Then another pony pushed her way to the front of the crowd. She had a yellow coat, and blue mane, and she wore a straw hat. She put Lillypad on her back, and spoke as well.

"It's... True. I hadn't seen my daughter in ages, but then he came to my door carrying my little girl on his back."

This was Lillypad's mother. The mare who had slammed the door at Wolfram's name not a week ago.

"I was horribly rude to him then, because I had heard only bad things about him. But I think I was wrong. He went out of his way to bring my daughter home when no one else would. He clearly deserves another chance, if he risked his life to save a place which didn't even like him!" For a moment there was utter silence.

The mare who spoke in Wolfram's defense shifted about uncomfortably for a bit. Wolfram was just as worried. But then he heard something. In the back of the crowd one pony had begun to stomp. A few seconds later it was two. Then it was three, four, and five. In just a split second more practically the whole swarm of ponies was stomping and agreeing loudly.

Amp gave wolfram a friendly punch to the shoulder.

"A little kid probably just saved you from being laughed off the stage." She whispered.

"Yeah," Wolfram said thoughtfully "I noticed." He trailed off looking at the crowd with intrigue. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to popular support. That hadn't happened before, and he honestly didn't expect it to. In fact, the cheering session following Wolfram's supporters speaking for him lasted longer than any of the previous sessions. The Princess of the Night had to use her infamous "Royal Canterlot Voice" to get them to calm down.

"Yes, well..." Celestia began "Now that official recognition has been given to the heroes of the Changeling Siege, we will move to closing statements. By suggestion of my sister a feast will be hosted for all of the ponies who stand up here with me, and a few other's who already know who they are. It will be taking place at seven o' clock tonight, in the royal dining hall."

Luna quickly responded to that "Do not let my sister make it seem dull. I will do everything in my power to ensure that it remains a feast, and not a formal dinner party. Alcohol, singing, dancing on the tables, and brawling will all be acceptable. This is my decree!"

There was a moment of near silence. Amp was busy stomping the ground and cheering at the decree. Everyone else stayed very still about the whole thing. Wolfram wanted to laugh, but it would have ruined the atmosphere of it, so instead he coughed loudly. Which did a good job of amplifying the appearance of the situation.

It was the late afternoon before the feast, and Amp was sleeping like a log. She had been awake 33 hours, 10 minutes and 26 seconds prior to her usual nap. That is her 3rd and 4th Wednesday of the 5th and 7th months of every 4 years, and the 3rd Tuesday of every 2 years that occurred from approximately 12:30 to 16:45. Actually since she had finished one of her later inventions, it ended precisely at 16:45.

Amp's head was laid peacefully, if uncomfortably, on her prosthetic design desk. Drool was leaking onto her chalk blueprint of a wing she was sketching out, and it was blurring one of the more important components. Luckily Amp new what she drew by heart the moment she drew it, notes were merely a formality, and a contingency should her memory be externally affected.

As an analog clock to her left in the dark, cement room, lit only by a reading lamp on her desk, hit 16:45, her latest invention came marching though the door.

A small orange tabby kitten, wearing a collar made up of unsafe metal bits, mewled happily and jumped up on Amp's desk. It began pawing at her nose and purring loudly. Amp awoke instantly. She decided that cats are the most annoying, but also the cutest animals she could think of, so she trained a cat to wake her up when it's collar gave it a small 4 volt shock. Completely humane, and not terribly painful.

"Alright Galileo, I'm up." She said grumpily, pushing the cat off her desk gently. The cat looked at her sadly, clearly offended by her crankiness.

"Oh come on, you know how I am when I wake up. I'm not really angry." Amp said.

The cat appeared to have absolutely no idea what she was saying, and went on it's way to vandalize some some of her less industrial furniture. Amp didn't really mind, she figured that if she had claws she'd spend all her time destroying cushions as well.

If I had claws... Good idea, noted.

Amp yawned, and stretched slowly. Her back was twisted into an uncomfortable position, and she needed to sort it out. She  spun her shoulders back and forth, standing on her hind legs, and arched backward as far as she could, releasing an audible snap from her lower spine.

"Ouch, I really ought to replace some of those vertebrae. Gliding joints are terribly obsolete." She said to herself.

She began walking to the closest kitchen in her tunnel system, on the way she passed an intercom in one of the hallways. As she walked passed she spoke into it.

"A23, initiate protocol 'Cook Underscore Hotpocket'." She said into the machine.

"Initiating protocol 'Cook Underscore Pizzaroll,' respond yes/no." It requested.

"Close enough," Amp said. The voice complained.

"Unclear response, please repeat."

Amp sighed angrily "Yes." and continued walking toward her kitchen.

Within a couple minutes she was typing a code into a terminal in front of a steel door. Psychothetical_Hypokinetic978TROGLODYTE. The terminal returned a string variable ">correct" and followed with a console.log "Releasing magnetic locks..."

Amp heard the seals break, and pulled the door open. She walked past a toaster at the exact moment that a slightly burned pizza roll popped out, and at about head height Amp bit it out of the air.

She kept marching, now on two legs, while eating her pizza roll. She walked up to another door, this one was made of glass. There was a large crack in it where her attempted rocket glove had struck the glass. She was happy that it broke actually, because the glass was supposed to be resistant up to 3000 newtons of force.

This door had no password lock, but did have a retinal scan. She quickly aligned her eyes in the spot where they were meant to go,and waited for the computer to validate her entrance.

"Good afternoon, Miss Degroot. If you were not aware, your eyes are bloodshot. Visene will be provided at the next medical station." A less robotic voice than the last one said.

The glass door slid open with a hiss, and Amp stepped into the elevator.

"Thanks Buddy." She said to the voice.

"Of course, madam. Which floor will you be going to today?" It asked politely.

"Take me to genetics, I've got a few hours before the feast. I want to check up on the clones. Send an extra pizza roll down too, I'm still hungry."

"As you wish, Ampere." The voice complied again, and the elevator began moving downward.

"I told you not to say my full name, it sounds foreign."

"It is foreign, Amp."

Amp waved the voice off, and muttered a few insults under her breath. She watched the floor counter, as the numbers went up. As subterranean level systems worked, the lower the floor, the higher the number. The counter went down one by one, untill it hit 13. Then it started displaying strings. "Armory," "Cybernetics," and finally "Genetics."

The doors opened, and she stepped out into a large cement hall. 5 meters wide by 4 meters tall by 250 meters deep.

Inset in the walls all the way down were giant vertical tubes of synthetic embryonic fluid. Lit with green lights, you could make out the silhouettes of ponies in fetal positions. They were all hooked up to various tubing, and they varied a lot in size and fetal stage.

Amp walked trotted down the hall slowly, making sure to look at every tube. She had a total of 20 available cloning tubes, and 16 of them were occupied.

She eventually reached chamber 13, which was occupied by the most developed of her clones.

"I seriously hope you're not riddled with cancer and brain damage. Hey, Buddy. Get a dolly down here, then release the drain the chamber and release number 13."

"I'll get right on it, madam. Dolly will arrive in 38 seconds."

"38? Didn't I install hybrid fuel engines on them?"

"No, that is still on the to do list. It's right after 'Hire an assistant to help with managing to do lists.'"

"Oh yeah, I should probably get one of those two done." Amp said partially to herself.

The dolly, which was a roughly welded chassis of metal, with an old mattress atop it arrived, and the liquid in the chamber in front of Amp began to drain. The tubing attached to various parts of the clone released themselves.

Soon enough, the chamber was dry, and the front slid upward. Leaving the subject collapsed on the floor in an uncomfortable position. As per safety regulations, she was pumped to the brim with anesthetic, and as such she was out cold.

Amp then clumsily bent over and lifted the limp body up. She was slightly lighter than the real Amp, the physical equivalent of about 10 years younger. Though the clone had started development only 10 months before. Growth hormone works wonders for under-aged clones.

Subject 13 was now on the dolly, and Amp had just finished strapping her down in case she needed to make any sharp turns. She wheeled the dolly down the hall a good 30 meters, and turned off to a branch hallway. The room she entered soon enough was a simple medical chamber. She had an X-ray machine, a CT scanner, and an ultrasound machine for various kinds of mapping.

She also had basic surgery supplies, a few leftover sandwiches, and some spare cybernetic parts in case she wanted to do that kind of thing. She moved the dolly over to the table, and heaved the clone onto it.

She took the breaks off the table, and wheeled it into the CT scanner. Which was no difficult task, the wheels were mechanically assisted, meaning she barely had to touch the table to move it.

"Alright Buddy. Start the machine up and send me the scans when they're done. I want full brain cross sections every 0.1 millimeters and on every axis. I'll be playing minesweeper until then."

"Of course, Miss Degroot. ETA is 10 minutes 23 seconds."

Ten minutes and thirty-six seconds later, Amp's computer screen was invaded by the CT software, interrupting her thrilling game of Minesweeper. It was her 46th consecutive game, and she was just almost finished at 12.35 seconds.

"Oh come on, couldn't you have waited until the round was over? That would have beat my old 17th best score."

"My apologies, Miss Degroot. But the scans are complete."

"Yeah, I can see that." Amp responded in a huffy tone. She flipped through the images, taking note of each area of the brain, and comparing it to her cognition of her own brain scans.

Everything seemed to line up, it was all identical to her 10 year old scans. The frontal cortex was just a little smaller than hers, but that was a negligible difference of 0.23 millimeters in depth.

"Alright Buddy. She's looking good, DNA scan now."

"I expected you'd want that, I already preformed a test on 256 blood cells. Would you like the diagnostics?" Buddy offered happily.

"You know it," Amp said "No cancer?"

"None at all, madam. The only genetic damage found was a very small portion of duplicate chromatin missing. But that is to be expected from the use of GH. Subject 13 appears to be in perfect shape."

"Amazing, honestly amazing. The odds of perfection are stupidly low." Amp said, she was very pleased. "So, let's start this fuckin' turkey! Get virus 32C, and give her a sufficient dose for total rewrite."

"Acquiring 15 CCs of 32C, regenerative and muscle growth serum in supportive solution. Sample will be ready for injection in 17 seconds."

Amp waited patiently, while tapping her foot and humming for 17 seconds. A lot of thoughts were going through her head, namely why she hadn't thought through how she was going to test muscle growth if she wasn't going to wake the clone up. Manual tissue damage? That'll probably cause muscular deformities though. Her thoughts were interrupted by a needle being dispensed out of a nearby chute.

Amp stepped up to the shoot, and grabbed the syringe. She walked over to the bed that the clone was lying on and spoke to Buddy.

"Start recording." She commanded "Alright. log Wednesday may 21st, 16:58. This is a record of the initial effects of virus 32C on subject 13. Hypothesis; Immediate immune reaction, will be overridden quickly by artificial countermeasures. Next response will be a minor epileptic attack, causing twitching throughout the body. No more than 46 joules of energy will be produced by any one muscle group. After that, subject will get a fever of 312 kelvin. No more immediate effects expected, total rewrite process of gene therapy should be complete within 2 weeks."

She lowered the needle to the inner elbow of the subject, and pressed it against where the blood vessel should be located.

"Injecting now, time stamp event." She pushed the needle in, and released the virus into the bloodstream. It would attack the blood cells first, neutralizing the white blood cells and latching onto the red. Then it would carry to the neurons, and start jumping throughout the whole system from there.

The subject's heart rate increased by 10 BPM over the next 3 seconds, indicative of the immune system detecting the virus.

"Event two, immune response. Timestamp please. Log: As expected immune response is the first reaction."

The heart rate slowed down to a resting 46 BPM, much lower than the real Amp's rate. 10 years was a long time for the cardiovascular system to deteriorate.

"Event three, immune response neutralized. Time stamp. Log, once again, as expected the immune response was neutralized almost as quickly as it started."

Then something strange started to happen. The epileptic response occurred, as expected. "Time stamp event three, epileptic attack." But soon the eyes began moving.

"Wait, what? Log: Unexpected response. Eye motion is supposed to remain null even during an epileptic attack. The anesthetic was intended specifically to lock the yes in a forward position, for retinal surgery. Only two things could have happened, either I loaded the wrong anesthetic, or Buddy over there loaded the antidote."

The eyelids opened.

"Shit, shit, shit! Buddy, get me a sedative! Overdose by 30 percent! Log, subject is awake, reverting to Overdose Contingency!. Buddy, did we do knowledge transfer yet?"

"Yes, madam. We preformed a knowledge transfer on all subjects who were equivalent to less than 15 years younger than you a week ago. I regret to inform you that the sedative is not accessible from this level, my apologies."

"This is not good, lock down this level, and prepare an emergency elevator. Keep the subject in this room at all costs!"

"Understood, madam. Elevator is ready, to your north." Buddy said helpfully and whimsically as always.

"Sorry 13," Amp said to the clone who was clearly disoriented, "I can't let you wake up. Not yet anyway, try not to hurt yourself until I can sedate you again."

"Wait," The clone said, "Who am I?"

"You?" Amp asked rhetorically, "You're me." and with that she marched over to the north wall, and pushed one of the concrete blocks in. A secret door opened, revealing a rebar and steel grate elevator. It only went up from here.

She stepped in, and the door closed again.

"Buddy, permanently lock all retinal scans accessible from Genetics, and change entrance password to "POLARIZED_seaSponge{365; 15}" Amp said urgently. "Make sure even I couldn't break out of there."

"I'm not sure if that's possible, madam, but I'll try my best." Buddy said calmly. "Here is your Visene." A compartment opened up, and medical supplies could be seen. Right at the front of the collection was a bottle of Visene.

Amp took the bottle, and squeezed a few drops in her eyes.

"External climate?" She asked.

"286 kelvin, lightly showering and wind speeds of  7.2 meters per second."

"Ooh, chilly. Get me to the town square, and prepare my jacket, plasma cutter, blowtorch and basic tool kit."

"Of course, madam. ETA to surface 36 seconds."

36 seconds of worrying later, Amp had reached the surface. She was launched out of a manhole cover, up about 4 feet above the road, and she landed gracefully. Out behind her a jacket, an acetylene torch, a plasma cutter, and a utility belt

shot out of the manhole. She picked them up, and got moving.

"Clone awoke, probably confused, angry, and scared." She said to herself. "Should be as educated as me, and has no social ties or eventual memory. Possible threat to city -- No. Possible threat to nation, warn monarch? Maybe, serious illegal activity needed in explanation" Amp was muttering to herself as she walked toward the castle.

She knew that she needed to tell the princesses, even if she was debating it with herself.  She kept at the arguing with herself the whole trip to the castle which took just over 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the princess would not allow Amp to install entrances to her tunnel system very close to the castle. It took some serious doing to convince her that it was okay if Amp had a tunnel system at all.

Amp was afraid that the news she bore would only damage her relationship with the authorities more.