When you and the Bearers failed, and were imprisoned, Spike... nearly killed himself in grief. No, don't make that face, you'd do the same if it were him. I have no doubt that you never stopped considering it throughout my earlier explanation, Auntie. Still, he didn't do it. He hardened.
He wasn't the same dragon anymore. He may not have looked different, but he sure carried himself different. He didn't waddle anymore. He strode. He didn't look unsure about anything. He studied for two years until he was more versed in magic than you, and more in military than even Celestia. Okay, maybe not that good, but good. He couldn't be weak, him being weak, in his mind, got you killed.
He lead over a hundred successful infiltration missions. On those hundred mission, he lost only twenty-four... you probably don't know this, but after a half-baked plan involving a mirror, we started calling our soldiers 'men.' Oh, you know what those are? Okay.
He lost twelve men, in a hundred infiltrations. No other officer had that good a record. What makes his record better? He lost those twenty-four on his hundredth. He had zero deaths and ninety-nine missions. You should be proud.
On top of that, his men killed over twenty thousand of Nightmare's little puppets. Don't look like that, we couldn't save them, you think we hadn't tried? He himself had a kill count higher than any other officer, at a whopping thousand.
Five percent of kills on a mission. Crazy, right? And all the while being, like, half an average pony's height? Insane! But he did it. Without a single injury, he killed a thousand thralls. Yeah, I changed the name, it's interchangeable. Puppet, thrall, minion, whatever.
It all changed in operation Black Walk. I have the files, if you'd like to look through them? Alright. Here's the files.
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Casualties:Shadow Streak (I) 17 Male [Recovered] {Decapitation}Frost Wind (II) 25 Female [Recovered] {Pierced heart}Grain Grind (I) 23 Female [Unrecovered]Flurry Hearts (IV) 19 Female [Unconfirmed]Freeze Wind (III) 40 Male [Recovered] {Asphyxiation}Blur Flash (VII) 34 Male [Recovered] {Bleedout}Green Leaves (V) 52 Female [Recovered] {Decapitation}Black Sky (II) 18 Male [Unrecovered]Cloudy Day (V) 23 Male [Recovered] {Bleedout}Wind Wisp (VI) 29 Female [Recovered] {Torn windpipe}Flood Waters (III) 17 Female [Unrecovered]Lily Flower (II) 23 Female [Recovered] {Decapitation}Black Sun (IV) 20 Female [Unconfirmed]Viral Thorn (VI) 18 Male [Recovered] {Impalement}Lackluster Gems (IV) 35 Female [Unrecovered]Grounded Cloud (I) 16 Male [Recovered] {Pulverization}Power Pound (I) 17 Female [Recovered] {Suicide}Grass Clod (III) 24 Male [Recovered] {Shattered skull}Hay Bake (II) 23 Female [Unrecovered]Baked Cookie (VII) 34 Female [Recovered] {Killer overdose}Mind Meld (VIII) 45 Male [Unconfirmed]Crisp Morning (VI) 33 Female [Unrecovered]Last Light (IV) 26 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}Fury Froth (III) 24 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}Drain Brain (V) 21 Female [Unconfirmed]Wooden East (IX) 43 Male [Unconfirmed]Beaver Maple (I) 16 Male [Recovered] {Collapsed ribcage}Ground Pound (II) 31 Male [Recovered] {Head trauma}Color Blast (IX) 44 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}
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Yeah, suicide is often commited when there is no way out. Puppets like to take their sweet time, so it's the preferred alternative. Killer overdose? Let me see that... yeah, Killer. Actually, KL-3R. It's a drug that limits pain receptors. Many of our operatives use it in open combat, because you can't alway work through the pain, you know? Oh, the lines? That means that those words are redacted for others.
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Survivors:
Twilight Twinkle (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Rainbow Blast (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Flitter Shine (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Apple Crack (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Ponkie Fry (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Gregarity Maneas (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Spykoranvellitar (X) 31 Male [UNRESPONSIVE]
Screwball (IX) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO X]
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...No, Twilight, I'm sorry, but I'm not in any way screwing with you. This isn't a cruel joke, those are actually their names. Quit looking at me like that! It's the truth! Just read the action report. Auntie Screwy wrote it. Actually, you might want to check the mission specs first.
...What? I have a ton of 'Aunties'. I'm actually related to Screwy, though. She's actually my Aunt. Her dad is Momma Chryssie's dad. Who? Uh... You... Probably wouldn't believe me. I'll tell you later. Those six with names like you and your friends are also my biological Aunts. They were named in honor of you and the other bearers, actually. Grandpa Double D isn't great at names.
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BLACK WALK
COMMANDER: SPYKORANVELLITAR (X)
SUBCOMMANDER: SCREWBALL (IX)
GOAL: Retrieve CE-3 from FROSTFALL COMPOUND. Failure is not an option, CE-3 is vital to operations.
INTEL: CE-3 is stored on SUBLEVEL 32.
CE-3 is guarded at all times by 15 SGB (Slade Golem Brute).
CE-3 LOCKUP is permanantly sealed. The door must be broken down to access CE-3.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND lacks security cameras.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has up to 13 CMAT (Ceiling Mounted Auto Turret) per level.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has no direct line to NIGHTCORE.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has one entrance.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND is located at [REDACTED].
CONCLUSION: The Frostfall Compound is insane. High security, but can't talk to Nightmare. It's as though she'd been setting a trap, but different somehow. Take great care in the assault. Even I have no clue what in the world you might encounter. After all, there are no patrolling guards. 15 SGB total, and two handfuls of CMAT on each floor is ridiculously heavy, but where are the guards? keep an eye out, and if things get too hot to handle, retreat. Failure IS an option, men, so long as most of you survive. Don't die. Good luck.
-DD
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...Yeah grandpa wrote the briefing. No, I can't tell you where the compound is located. Only Auntie Screwy knows. Anyone at or under Grade IX is disallowed from that information, even those that took part in Black Walk... No, it's enchanted. You have Grade VIII right now, so you can see the casualty list. Otherwise you'd just see a page covered with REDACTED. Yeah, security measures are a bitch, but all of this is really sensitive, you know? We have to sweep the compound for sleepers every month.
...That lesson was a much harder learn than the Las Pegasus thing, actually.
You can only see the thing about Spike getting Oblivioned because you are listed as his next of kin, what with... Anyway, here's the report.
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I'd like to open by saying that, no, we didn't fail to retrieve CE-3. The mission was a failure regardless. We lost all but eight of our number, and one got Oblivioned. Side note, it says on Commander Spike's file that we are NOT under any circumstances to reveal it if he ever gets Oblivioned, we are to inform others that he is comatose and heavily wounded. Nobody will know the difference.
Intel was completely right about all the measures. However, they were wrong about one thing. They didn't lack a line to NIGHTCORE, the bastards were waiting on the other side of the fucking {REDACTED}. When we tripped the alarm, they swarmed us. We had the {REDACTED} in hand, and we got there without a single death! And then they caught us with our fucking pants down!
Beaver took a BLACK HOLE to the chest! That's when we turn around, and who do we find but NIGHTMARE FUCKING MOON?! She's got that fucking traitor {REDACTED} with her, watching him tear into Commander Spike, and she's just laughing that creepy fucking laugh of hers, like it's the funniest thing she's ever seen! An NT rushes us and blows, completely vaporizing Hay, Lackluster, and Crisp, and all we can do is stand there and watch 'cause she turned the fucking gravity up!
Anyway, she Oblivions the Commander, and we're all officially up a shit creek without a paddle, now! We can't call reinforcements, we can't do this, we can't do that, we can't do jack SHIT with the gravity up like that, 'till she just up and leaves, giving us a fighting chance. "Give 'em hell!" Flitter screamed, I recall, and pulled out a chain gun that I am ninety percent sure she didn't have ten minutes ago, and mows down swathes of thralls. In reality she probably only killed like, fifty, but she downed at least three hundred, and it was glorious. She survived, and I am recommending her for promotion.
Who pops up next but bloody Knife Bitch and starts throwing knives haphazardly?! There goes Grass, Ground, Viral, Lily, and Wind, before she pops out too, leaving us with five fewer men to get out of this with. I have no fucking clue where Wooden, Drain, or Mind are at this point.
Twinkle manages to mind control a thrall in the middle of a group, and makes him pull a grenade. He doesn't throw it. She wiped out a good hundred thralls in that one move. She made it out, so I'm recommending her for promotion as well.
Color, Last, and Fury get surrounded, and Blast Nukes the surrounding combatants... three seconds after they commit suicide. Still, she managed to kill {REDACTED}, and just for that, I'd say she deserves a promotion. I don't see much else as we retreat.
Crack and Fry manage to {REDACTED} their computer, which wasn't just amazing, it was beautiful. After they got all the info, they set the facility to self destruct. The AI was furious, 'cause she couldn't do JACK. I'd like to recommend them as well.
The only other one that gets out is Gregarity, who manages to decapitate Foreca Allegra. I'm sure you remember Nightmare's level 2 commander from my other reports? I have to say she earned a promotion. Yes, it seems like nepotism, and I guess it kind of is, but when you go into a compound like that, and your siblings are the only ones that make it out, nepotism is kind of unavoidable.
[END OF REPORT]
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"I always knew he had it in him to be a hero..." Twilight mutters, staring up at the prone form in the cabinet. Lightning nods sorrowfully. Twilight binks, slowly, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'll find a way to bring you back, Spike..." She mutters, choked, "I'll bring you back..."
Lightning places a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, pressing the button to reseal the cabinet. She gives her a reassuring shake, an awkward smile gracing her features. "God," she jokes, "It is weird to comfort someone over twice my age." Twilight smiles back, softly.
The ache in her chest has lessened greatly at the knowledge that Spike is really alive, and that some day, he might be woken up. But, for now, he has to stay in the cabinet, kept alive by the various machines that her apparent niece built to sustain him.
The ache remains, though. In the core of her being is a gaping hole, bleeding sadness into everything she feels, even the relief that her sort-of son is alive. She might never see him again, still. His mind is gone, maybe to never return. All she has now is a husk, and she can still feel that eating away at her.
Lightning's enthusiasm is still a great help. She's right, too. Who better to find a magical means to an impossible task than the Element of Magic herself? Maybe it was just a dream, but Twilight knows in her soul that what she did, what made her ascend, was real, and within her all along. Now, she has to use that power, that potential, to bring Spike back.
She's shaken out of her determined reverie by Lightning clearing her throat. She shakes her head, blinking a couple times, and then gives her niece a sheepish grin. "Sorry."
Lightning smiles understandingly. "Yeah, I get lost in my head too. I said, you wanna see the changelings? We got a sweet hive in... one of these warehouses..." Lightning rubs her chin, trying to remember which warehouse houses the changeling hive.
She sends out a pulse to her mother over the Mental Intel Networking Distributor, and receives a MIND pulse back with the information she needs. "It's Warehouse Three. Interested?" She smiles hopefully, and even with her negative experiences with changelings, Twilight can't help but smile and nod.
"Alright! Let's go see us a hive!"