Twilight grunted softly as she sat on the edge of her hospital bed, pulling one of her boots onto her right hind leg. She was no longer wearing the green hospital gown she had been given; that was sitting on the bed behind her. Now that she was ready to check out and was gathering her things from the room, she had decided to put her Sneaking Suit on, gloves and all. Finally pulling the noise-suppressing boot on all the way, she lowered her hind leg as she glanced back over her shoulder out the window at the orange sky outside. “The doctor really did give me quite a thorough check-up and physical. That had to be one of the longest exams I’ve ever had,” she thought to herself.
She looked down at her Sneaking Suit, taking another look at it. “Some burn marks, some holes, the shoulder patches are probably ruined… but on the plus side, it doesn’t look like I lost anything I was carrying.” Indeed, all of her pouches and holsters were where they belonged, as were the belt and straps. She reached down with her hooves and unclipped her iDroid from its case, holding it on her left hoof while using her right hoof to turn it on. A light blue screen appeared above it, showing the MSF skull and the main menu, though a message popped up saying that it was searching for a signal. “Well, of course it is. There’s no network like that here in Equestria, and Mother Base…” Her thoughts halted as she knew what words were inevitably going to follow.
Suddenly she heard the door open and she clicked off the iDroid, her hooves falling to her sides as she looked up. The unicorn doctor stepped into the room, carrying a small metal box beside him with his magic. He walked up to her and asked, “Do you have all of your belongings, Princess Sparkle?”
Twilight moved her iDroid around with her hooves to put it back in its case as she replied, “Yes, I’ve got everything, Doctor. I just need to put my saddlebags on.” The doctor nodded with a hum and set the box he was carrying down on the edge of the nightstand, close to the bed where her saddlebags lay.
Both he and Twilight looked down at the box in silence for a moment before he said, “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, Your Highness, that this is rather unorthodox. We’re not supposed to give patients things that we… take out of them, so you can understand why it took so long to get this cleared. None of the other doctors agreed with this exactly either, but they eventually relented since they understood that whatever happened to you is your business and that the foreign bodies we removed might be of interest to you.”
Twilight replied softly, “Thank you. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy request to fulfill, but it’s true. Everything you removed… it does have value to me and… well, if it’s just going to sit untouched…”
The doctor eyed her for a moment before saying, “Well, I won’t pry into your personal business, Princess, so long as you don’t go shouting this to the rest of Equestria.”
Twilight gave him an uneasy smile, “No, I certainly won’t. You can be sure of that.”
The doctor nodded and said, “Now remember to take it easy, Your Highness, and don’t use that wing for a few days. The rest did wonders for you, but it’s still healing and any strenuous activity could agitate it and cause the bone to break.”
Twilight replied, “Yes, I know. This isn’t my first broken wing.” She looked down at her right wing, which was folded against the outside of her Sneaking Suit, “At least I didn’t get stepped on this time…”
She looked up at the doctor when he said, “Well, if anything comes up, be sure to let us know. Will you be in Canterlot long?”
Twilight replied, “Uh, probably for another day or two, I would say.”
The doctor nodded, “Well, hopefully, if anything comes up, it’ll be while you’re still in Canterlot, otherwise you might have to go to Ponyville’s hospital. I’ll walk you out to the lobby.” Twilight nodded and used her magic to carefully pick the box up and place it in her center saddlebag before she stood up and put the saddlebags on her back. She and the doctor then walked out of the room.
After a few minutes of tense silence, the two reached the double doors that led to the hospital’s lobby. As they stepped through them, they found a small entourage made up of Shining Armor, Cadance, Spike, and Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle waiting for them. Smiling, Twilight hurried over to them while the doctor remained in the doorway, ending up in the center of a group hug when she reached them.
“Oh Twilight, it’s so good to see you back up on your hooves again,” Cadance murmured.
“We’ve missed you so much, dear,” Mrs. Sparkle whispered.
As she stepped back, Twilight said, “Well, I’m just glad to see that you both made it.”
Mrs. Sparkle replied, “We wanted to come earlier, but we both got a lot of work that we had to take care of.”
Mr. Sparkle added, “Considering what Shining Armor mentioned to us on the way about your examination, it’s probably not such a bad thing. We would’ve gotten all excited about coming to visit and seeing you up and awake, only to find out you were already getting ready to check out.”
The doctor cleared his throat and everyone looked to see he had moved a little closer to them. “Yes, about that,” he started. “I could not find anything that would require her to stay longer, but she is still healing and being bedridden for a week means her muscles may be a little weaker than usual.” He looked directly at Twilight, “Now remember…”
Twilight raised her right hoof up near the bandage patch on her cheek, “I know, Doctor. Take it slow, no using my wings, and no strenuous physical activity.”
The doctor nodded, “Yes.”
Shining spoke up, “I don’t think she’ll do anything reckless, Doctor, but we’ll keep an eye on her.” The doctor gave another nod before turning and going back through the double doors, Twilight and her family exiting the hospital afterwards.
As they stepped outside, Twilight released a soft sigh, glad to be feeling the outside air after being cooped up in the hospital for so long. They came to a stop on the path and Spike said, “Rarity and the others are waiting at the castle, Twilight.”
Mrs. Sparkle looked at her husband and asked, “It’s been a while since we’ve been invited to share a meal with Princess Celestia, hasn’t it?” The blue stallion nodded in reply.
Shining looked at Twilight, “You think you can handle walking all the way there, Twilight?”
The lavender alicorn answered, “Uh, yes? I’m pretty sure walking from the hospital to Canterlot Castle doesn’t count as strenuous activity, Shining.”
Shining said, “All right. I just want to make sure, considering walking down the hall was a bit of a challenge for you earlier this morning.”
Twilight replied, “Well, I can walk fine now and I know they didn’t give me any sort of stimulant to help with that, so… I guess my muscles haven’t seriously atrophied after a week of bedrest.”
Shining nodded, “Fair enough.”
Mr. Sparkle spoke up, “Shining brought us up to speed on what you’ve told everypony, Twilight. If you don’t mind, we’d like to hear what you did while you were away from Equestria as well.” Twilight nodded and with that they started walking away from the hospital, heading for the castle.
As they were walking, Cadance noticed that Twilight seemed to have an odd spring in her step, like she wanted to take off running. “Calm down, Twilight. Remember what you promised the doctor,” she teased slightly.
Twilight looked at her, “I know, Cadance, I just… It feels so good to be out of the hospital. I know I have to wait, but I really want to get back into my routine.”
Spike snickered, “Don’t worry, Twilight. Being asleep for a week kept you from getting any reading or studying done, but you’ll get back into it soon enough. Tonight, probably.” While the rest of her family shared a laugh, Twilight just rolled her eyes. She may have mentioned one of the ‘assignments’ she had gone on for the MSF, but she knew they currently had no idea what all she had done. She let them keep thinking she was talking about getting back to hitting the books, though; convincing them of the new ‘habits’ she had developed was going to be hard to do with words anyway.
Luna’s moon had risen into the sky by the time they arrived at Canterlot Castle, a squad of Celestia’s guards, including the one that had reported Twilight’s return, meeting them at the entrance and leading them to the castle dining room.
Celestia, Luna, and Twilight’s friends immediately noticed the family when they arrived, the two princesses smiling at them while Twilight’s friends began saying how glad they were to see her out of the hospital. After everypony had quieted down a little and Twilight and Spike had taken their seats at the long table across from where Cadance, Shining, and Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle sat down, Mr. Sparkle said to Princess Celestia, “We’re so honored to be having a meal in your presence again, Princess Celestia. It’s been a long time.” He then looked at Princess Luna as he quickly added, “Err, and of course it’s a real honor to properly meet you, Princess Luna.”
The night princess nodded, “Of course.” She glanced up at her older sister as she asked, “Is it safe to assume you two have not been here since before my return?”
Mrs. Sparkle spoke, “Yes, I believe that’s correct, Your Highness.”
Celestia nodded, “It has been a while since we’ve been together like this. I thought this would be best for everypony.”
Rainbow started, “So, uh, we’ve kind of been waiting here for like ten minutes, Princess. When’s the food going to get here?”
A few of her friends gave her a look, but Celestia simply said, “It will be arriving soon, Rainbow Dash. We just have to wait on one more guest and then we can eat and Twilight may continue her story.”
Everyone looked at her curiously. “You invited someone else, Aunt Celestia?” Cadance asked.
Before the white alicorn could respond, the doors to the dining room began to creak open, causing everyone to turn to look. Even the guards stationed outside turned to look at them; there was no one standing out there with them, so why were they opening? They got their answer a moment later when a loud explosion sounded right in the doorway, followed by a cacophony of odd noises, bright lights, and flames that snuffed out as soon as they touched something. The explosion surprised everyone, particularly Fluttershy and Twilight, both mares letting out a yelp as they dove under the table.
When the theatrics died down a couple of seconds later, a familiar mismatched figure was standing in the doorway, dressed head to the top of his legs in formal dinner wear. “Ta-dah! The real guest of honor has arrived!” he exclaimed.
The look of shock on Shining Armor’s face almost instantly turned to one of anger. “Discord!” he growled.
Fluttershy overheard him and instantly popped her head out from under the table. “Discord!” she said before flying over and wrapping her forelegs around his long body in a hug. “Oh, I was so worried about you!” she cried, her tears starting to soak into his orange suit.
The draconequus looked down at her for a moment before glancing down at his suit. “Aw, and I just got this back. Oh well,” he remarked before returning the hug.
Back at the table, Luna looked up at Celestia, “You invited him, sister?”
The white alicorn nodded, “Yes, Luna. I was fortunate enough to find him after we left the hospital and…”
Shining Armor interrupted her, “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia, but I don’t find anything about this to be lucky at all.” He pointed at Discord, “Why is he here?”
Celestia gave him a perturbed look as she responded, “Because, Captain, he came before me on the night your sister returned and made it clear that he was upset about what happened. He has every right to be here.”
Discord crossed the room while still supporting Fluttershy with his eagle talon and patted Shining Armor on the head with his lion paw as he said, “You heard the princess, Captain Armor. I’m a guest here; I’m allowed to be here the same way you are. No need to be so cranky.”
Shining Armor reached up and slapped the paw away with a hoof before glaring up at Discord, “As a brother, I have every right to be ‘cranky’ at you, Discord. Twilight went missing for over a month, and that can easily be traced back to you siding with Tirek. How did you feel about her being in the hospital for a week when she got back? Were you ‘upset’ about that as well?”
Discord let out an exaggerated yawn, not bothering to cover his mouth, before asking, “Are you saying anything that I should actually be concerned about? Because I find it hard to listen, or speak, to anyone who speaks to me with a tone like that.”
Rainbow spread her wings and flew right up in front of Discord’s face, the cyan pegasus looking about as angry at the draconequus as Shining Armor did as she said, “You really should be paying attention to what Shining Armor is saying, Discord! We could be holding you responsible for what happened to Twilight you know, but we’re not going to because we’re not complete jerks! You should be glad for that!”
Fluttershy let go of Discord and flew up to her friend, saying, “Rainbow Dash!”
While the two stared each other down, Discord bent down to look at Shining Armor and said, “Look Captain, Celestia DID invite me here tonight. I would not have accepted if I didn’t want to see how Twilight is doing.”
The white stallion glanced over at Twilight’s seat before saying, “Well, it looks to me like she doesn’t want to see you.” The draconequus looked over and saw that the seat was still empty, the lavender alicorn still underneath the table and Spike and Applejack peering down at her.
Discord stood up straight and looked at Celestia, “You told me she was going to be here, Celestia! Did you lie to me?! And I went to all the trouble of trying to make this ensemble look nice for you!” He snapped his fingers before the white alicorn could respond and reappeared on the other side of the table next to Twilight’s seat sans his formal clothing. “I could’ve sworn I heard her in here earlier! Are you hiding her from me? I have to say I don’t care much for this kind of joking, Celestia!” While he was speaking, he looked around the room with his hands on his hips, though he began reaching towards Twilight’s seat with his lion paw. Suddenly, he seized the end of her tail sticking out from under the table and gave it a sharp pull, bringing the pony it was attached to out with it. “Ah, here she is! I found her!” he said as everyone looked on, Twilight hanging upside-down in his grip.
With the sudden motion, Twilight found herself face-to-face with Discord as he held her up. “Hello, Discord,” she said after a moment, trying to keep her tone of voice, expression, and body language as neutral as possible and the white tube sticking out of her mouth where it was.
Discord gave her a flat look. “Really, Twilight? After all this time, that’s how you greet me?” he asked.
Twilight held a hoof to the side of her face, “Well, I was thinking of something to say a moment ago that was more thought out, but now that I’m dangling like a piece of meat… I seem to have misplaced it.”
Discord asked, “So that’s all you have to say to me after being gone this long? You’re not going to say you thought of me at all while you were away?”
Twilight regarded him with an even look, “Yeah, that’s not going to be taken out of context at all, Discord. But if you want to hear me say something normal, I could echo what Rainbow Dash just said.” Discord’s response was to let go of her, Twilight landing on her back on the cushion she had been sitting on, the back of her hind legs on the table.
“Well, I never! She comes back after disappearing and all she gives me is mild annoyance! Not her usual annoyance, mild annoyance!” he complained. He looked down at Twilight as she lay on her left side and rubbed her back with her right hoof, feeling some pain there despite the softened landing, and said, “I believe I’ll be sitting on the other side with somepony who DOES appreciate me, far away from you and your filthy costume and habit!” With that he disappeared and reappeared with his own table right next to where Fluttershy was sitting.
Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle were both starting to share Shining’s annoyance at the way Discord was treating Twilight, Mr. Sparkle especially. Before either of them could say anything, they looked over when they heard Twilight let out a grunt and saw Spike and Applejack helping her back up to a sitting position. She began to feel over her hind legs with her hooves once she was up, but that wasn’t what caught their attention; it was the white tube with green coloring at the end of it sticking out of her mouth that they quickly noticed. “Twilight, when did you start smoking?” Mr. Sparkle demanded, catching everyone else’s attention save for Spike and Applejack’s.
Twilight looked up, “What?” Her eyes shifted down to look at the tube, “Oh, that.” She raised her right hind leg and pulled the tube out with her right hoof, holding it out as she said, “This isn’t a cigarette, Dad.”
Off to her left, Applejack remarked while trying not to sound incriminating, “It sure looks like one, Twilight.”
Twilight turned to look at her, “I know, Applejack, but it’s not. Here.” She held her hoof out, holding the tube in front of Applejack’s nose.
The orange earth pony was expecting to be disgusted by the smell, but after taking her first whiff, she curiously sniffed it a few times. “Huh… That’s got a nice scent ta it,” she said after a moment.
Spike made his way around to Twilight’s front and she held it down to him to let him sniff. “It smells like mint chewing gum. And… is that honey?” he asked.
Twilight held the tube up as she replied, “It’s eucalyptus oil to be precise. That’s all that’s in here. No nicotine or tobacco; just oil.”
Celestia asked, “So you’re just burning oil, Twilight? Like a form of aromatherapy?” Twilight nodded in response.
Shining raised an eyebrow, “Why do you have something like that, Twilight?”
The lavender alicorn explained, “Well, you see, after I became an official staff member, I was rotated around a lot. I spent time in every unit at one point or another, but I spent a lot of time in both the R&D and Intel Units. There was one time where Miller and I were both in R&D and, since we weren’t working on anything at the moment, we started talking about how nearly everyone at Mother Base used some form of tobacco.”
Rainbow, who was back in her seat next to Applejack, leaned over to look at Twilight and asked, “You were surrounded by people who smoked all the time, Twilight?”
Twilight replied, “Well, they weren’t all typical users, Rainbow. Huey’s… e-cigarettes weren’t exactly available for everyone to buy from what I could tell, and Dr. Strangelove preferred snuff.”
Cadance questioned, “Snuff?”
Twilight explained, “It’s a smokeless form of tobacco use. It basically involves inhaling or sniffing tobacco instead of smoking it.”
A few disgusted looks appeared around the table, Shining Armor groaning, “How do you know this?”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she remarked, “The things you learn from and about your co-workers…” She then continued, “But yes, almost everybody at Mother Base smoked either cigarettes or cigars, especially Snake.”
Spike asked, “You saw him smoking?”
Twilight put the tube back in her mouth and wrapped her left foreleg around him as she said, “He didn’t do it often around me, but I still saw him doing it from time to time.”
Luna pointed at the tube, “So how did that come about, Twilight?”
Twilight answered, “We managed to go from talking about smoking to talking about Miller’s home country, Japan. He made it sound like they do a number of things there involving pleasing aromas. Tea ceremonies, flower arranging, burning oils… We ended up coming up with what we thought was a brilliant idea: what if the men could smell nice things instead of cigar smoke? Miller thought it was something that would come out of Japan at some point anyway, so we decided to try making it ourselves.”
Fluttershy noted, “Well, it looks like you succeeded.”
Twilight gave a wry smirk, “Yeah, we did. This is what we came up with… and then Snake made us stop.”
Applejack asked, “He wasn’t happy?”
Twilight replied, “He was FURIOUS. That was one of the few times I saw him legitimately angry.”
Rainbow smirked, “Just didn’t want to give it up, huh?”
Twilight said, “I don’t know how long he’d been a smoker, but I’m pretty sure it was longer than ten years. Even being constantly on the move never stopped him from smoking, and I don’t think that wou- WILL ever change. I can picture him being on his deathbed with a cigar in his mouth.”
Rainbow winced a bit at how easily the last sentence slipped out of Twilight’s mouth. She cleared her throat softly and noted, “So, uh… despite him telling you to stop, you still have those… oil tubes.”
Twilight nodded, “Yeah, Snake wanted them all destroyed before they started infecting anyone’s mind, but Miller didn’t want all the time we spent working on them to go to waste, so he put them in a box and told me I could keep them as long as I kept them hidden from Snake.”
Discord spoke up, “So he secretly supported you becoming addicted to smoking? Some friend, Twilight.”
Twilight shot the draconequus an annoyed look as she replied, “I already said this isn’t a cigarette, Discord. I’m not a smoker; this is a form of stress relief.”
Discord countered, “I bet most smokers would say the same thing about cigarettes. So, I must ask, what’s the difference?”
Twilight answered, “The difference is one is meant to help you live longer and the other is a bad habit that’ll kill you unless you’re Big Boss. Or Snake, rather. Regardless, there’s nothing addictive in these tubes.” Discord just snorted, indicating he didn’t believe her.
Cadance cleared her throat before saying, “Well, that aside, Twilight… Don’t take this wrong way, but while it is good to see that you have another healthy way of managing your stress, seeing that tube in your mouth is a bit distracting. Do you think you could, uh…?”
Twilight replied, “Of course, Cadance. No problem.” As she was talking, she reached her left hoof into one of the pouches on her chest and pulled out a cap. She then took her oil tube in her right hoof and put the cap on it before putting it in the same pouch. When she looked up and saw some of the looks she was getting, she shrugged, “I’m going to finish it later. Like Miller said, no sense in wasting perfectly good oil.” Almost everyone gave murmurs of agreement at that.
A few seconds later, the dining room doors burst open again as the kitchen staff ponies came in with dinner. As they served everypony and noticed Discord, Celestia looked at Twilight and spoke, “Now then Twilight, if you would like to wait until after dinner, that is fine, but I would very much like to hear what happened after you met Huey. I believe Snake sent you with him to that Mother Base location?”
Twilight nodded, “Of course, Princess, and yes, that’s correct. Once the chopper picked us up, it took us to where Mother Base was, away from land and out to sea…”
________________________________________
Twilight looked around the cargo area of the transport helicopter with great interest. She was sitting close to the front on the left side of the helicopter next to the door while Huey’s wheelchair was secured closer to the back. Despite there not being much to look at, she was still amazed at how big it was on the inside, having a great number of seats available on both sides and in the back for transporting troops while also having lots of storage space.
Huey chuckled as he looked at her. “You’re easily impressed. Bet you don’t have anything like this back where you come from, huh?” he wondered.
Twilight looked over at him and replied, “Well, we do. I mean, not like this, but my friend Pinkie Pie has something like this. It only seats one pony, though, and she has to peddle to keep it airborne. Other than that, we can use hot air balloons or carriages pulled by pegasi to travel by air if we can’t fly.”
Huey let out another chuckle before saying, “Sounds like you come from a world that hasn’t made the technological advances that ours has, and I’m not necessarily saying that like it’s a bad thing. Despite understanding what deterrence means, your world has probably never had to live with an illusion of peace. You’ve probably never had to live during a war, I’ll bet.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow as she replied, “Well, that’s true, but like I told Snake when we met, Equestria happens to have a storied history, from nearly being frozen over prior to its founding to dealing with evil kings, beings of chaos, and dark forces that leech off of ponies’ darkest fears. My friends and I have had to deal with such things in order to maintain peace. I would hope that somepony else would’ve tried to do the same if we hadn’t been around, but it doesn’t matter. The point is Equestria hasn’t known nothing but peace; it still has to be fought for.”
Huey let out a hum and looked down, pushing his glasses up as he said, “So, even in a world that’s probably as close to being free from advanced technology, peace is still just an idea that anyone can give their own definition of. It’s not a universal truth, even among the same species I imagine.”
Twilight looked a bit hurt as she spoke, “Well, it’s not like we’re not open to understanding. We are trying to make peace with each other and other kingdoms. And we have steam engines and electricity.” Huey looked up at her, an odd expression on his face.
Before the slightly awkward conversation could continue, the pilot called back to them, “Hey, you two! We’re approaching Mother Base! Commander Miller is ready to receive you at the helipad!” They looked towards the front of the helicopter, listening as he reported in, “This is Centipede. On approach! Standby…” Twilight couldn’t resist and stood up, moving over to the door on the right side. She used her magic to open it and stuck her head out, holding onto the outside and inside with her hooves as she looked forward.
It wasn’t the best vantage point, but she could see the offshore plant rising up out of the water up ahead like a manmade island, complete with supports. It was made up of six square-shaped struts, though a walkway jutting out from one of them leading to a construction area indicated that they were in the process of building another. “Wow… That’s Mother Base?” Twilight breathed, the struts and what was on them becoming more defined as they got closer.
The helipad was situated on the edge of what was currently the plant’s bottom-most strut, right next to a large air control tower that had a satellite dish on top. At Centipede’s insistence, Twilight shut the door and sat down on the seat next to it as they approached the landing pad. The descent went smoothly as the chopper hardly shook while it went down, and even touching down didn’t cause much of a jolt. Once she was sure they were back on solid ground, Twilight stood up and walked over to Huey to help him release his wheelchair. Afterwards, they both went over to the right side of the helicopter and Twilight opened the door again, using her magic to set Huey down on the ground before jumping down next to him.
Looking up, she saw Miller standing across from them near the edge of the helipad, his left hand on his hip and several masked soldiers flanking him. The soldiers were all wearing black uniforms while Miller was wearing an olive-green uniform with the sleeves rolled up, exposing part of his forearms. He was wearing black boots like the soldiers, as well as a brown bag on his belt buckle, a watch on his left arm, a yellow ascot, and tan sunglasses that completely hid his eyes from view. His perfectly combed blond hair waved slightly in the faint sea breeze.
There was silence for a minute, which was only broken by the spinning rotors of the helicopter as it lifted off and flew back towards Costa Rica. Twilight turned her head to glance back at it for a moment before turning back to face Miller, who was now walking towards the two. He stopped in front of them and looked down at Huey first, saying, “Dr. Emmerich. Welcome to Mother Base. How are you feeling?”
Huey replied, “A lot better now that I’m away from the CIA, and you can call me Huey. This is quite a pad you’ve got here.”
Miller nodded and turned to Twilight, seemingly looking her over before saying, “So you’re Princess Twilight… You’re just as the Boss described.”
Twilight asked, “‘The Boss’? Oh, you mean Snake. …What did he say about me?”
Miller smirked, “Well, aside from making sure I knew what you looked like, he told me you looked cute and you had your quirks… and that you can get rough when you’re angry.” Twilight didn’t know how to feel about that until he added, “You’re not exactly the kind of cute I typically go for… but I guess it fits.” Twilight glared up at him while he looked back over his shoulder and gestured to the soldiers standing at the edge of the helipad, all of them saluting and leaving in response.
Huey glanced over at Twilight, studying her until Miller turned back to them and said, “Come on, I’ll show you both around, introduce you to everybody.” He looked at Twilight, “Not to worry, Princess. Everyone here’s been told what to expect, so you shouldn’t have any trouble in that regard.”
The lavender alicorn spoke, “You can just call me Twilight, uh, Commander Miller.”
The man replied, “Okay, Twilight. And you can just call me Miller. Or Kaz.”
Twilight tilted her head, “‘Kaz’?”
He smiled, “Kazuhira. That’s my first name. It means peace.” Twilight smiled back as she and Huey followed Miller off the helipad, the three of them going into the control tower to reach the walkway leading to the next strut. As they were walking, Twilight looked over the right side and saw a small boat gliding across the water below. Miller stopped when he heard the fast sound of her hooves hitting the metal, causing Huey to stop as well, and looked back to see her peering over the railing. He saw what caught her attention and said, “Don’t worry about that boat, Twilight. Part of our R&D team is using it to scope things out and better plan Mother Base’s next expansion.”
Twilight looked at him, “Next expansion? So… you’re building this place up?”
Miller nodded, “Yeah. It wasn’t much when we moved in. It only had three struts. We’ve had to build it up a little to accommodate our growing numbers, but everything you see right now is temporary. Once the R&D team has the blueprints and manpower for it and we have the funds for them, something new and better is going to be taking the place of all of this.”
Twilight glanced to her right at the rest of Mother Base before looking back at him and saying, “Must be growing pretty fast if you’ve already doubled what you had.”
Miller replied, “We’ve had to constantly be on the move to avoid further trouble with our ‘friends’ from America. Out here, we’re free from them, and we’re going to take full advantage of it. This is our base, our home. MSF’s a business, a new kind of business.” Huey had been listening intently as the two had talked and was already thinking of ways he could help out, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself as they continued onward.
The strut they reached housed the Intel Unit and the R&D labs. They stopped to peer inside one of the labs to see members of the R&D team hard at work inside. Some of the men were standing around a board that had various notes and blueprints attached to it while the rest were putting together the weapons or gadgets they had been assigned to. It wasn’t a small work area by any means, but with the number of people working all at once, Twilight did notice that they didn’t have a lot of personal space. Some of them looked up briefly when Miller and his guests stepped in before returning to their work, most then looking up again to get a good look at Twilight and staring in shock or amazement, though a few quickly turned back to their work when she looked at them.
They left the labs soon after and headed for the next strut. As they were moving over the walkway, Miller noticed Twilight looking back with a mixture of nervousness and confusion and said, “The men are really busy in there, Twilight, and they’re not all used to each other yet. I know they didn’t say much, but don’t worry; they like you already.”
Twilight looked at him, “Well, if you say so, uh… Miller. But I guess I’m wondering why some of them looked away from me.”
Miller replied, “Oh, those guys? They were probably the Peace Sentinels that were looking to capture you earlier. They told us about that; they probably feel bad about it.”
Twilight blinked and asked, “So… they’re working for you now?”
Miller nodded, “Oh yeah, anyone the Boss sends back here can join us. Prisoners of war, CIA agents, dissidents like Huey… we try to convince them all to be a part of MSF.”
Twilight asked, “And what do you do if someone from the CIA gets sent here and they don’t want any part of this?”
Miller answered, “Then we detain them in the Brig until we can convince them to change their minds along with any troublemakers. We actually have a few CIA agents in there right now. The Brig is two struts over from this next one.”
Twilight thought the plant’s layout and reasoned he was talking about the strut that was farthest to the right. “Keep them far away from the helipad so that they can’t have an easy way out, huh?” she asked.
Miller nodded, “You got it. Want some advice? You should stay out of the Brig.” Twilight rolled her eyes at his slightly sarcastic tone, especially since she figured that was the obvious thing for her to do, but she didn’t comment on it. They soon reached the end of the walkway and entered the next strut. As Huey and Twilight followed him, Miller explained, “For the time being, this strut houses the Shooting Range and the Kill House. Now I know that second name might sound a bit bad, but don’t worry; it’s just a name. It’s one of the places we currently have to help the Combat Unit train. Since we have to come back this way, we’ll take a peek inside then. For now, we’ll move onto the next strut.” With that, the three of them exited the strut and headed to the strut to the right.
A few minutes later, they found themselves in Mother Base’s Sick Bay. As she looked around, Twilight noticed that most of the staff, despite all of them being considered medical personnel, were wearing uniforms similar to the combat fatigues she’d seen earlier. While there were probably a number of reasons for that, it did cause her to wonder what sort of training everyone in Mother Base got, if someone in the Sick Bay could fill in for someone in the Combat Unit if the need arose and vice versa.
While she was looking around, Miller spoke, “If either of you ever start feeling ill, you’ll want to check in here immediately so you don’t spread anything around. Once we get a little more space here, it shouldn’t be as big an issue, but don’t neglect your health. Come here right away if you start feeling sick. We only have a small staff in here and we don’t have a lot of animal experts, definitely no one who’s dealt with winged unicorns, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to help you.”
Twilight shot him an irritated look as she said, “I don’t think I’m going to give your soldiers anything, Miller, but if it’ll make you feel better, I know of a spell that I can cast to protect both them and me from each other.”
Miller rubbed the back of his head, “Sorry, I was just joking, Twilight. But if you’re being serious and you wouldn’t mind, that would be great. Aside from the space issue, there’s also no telling when someone will bring in something by accident. The staff here are already busy and they don’t need any more patients that are unhappy.”
As if on cue, they heard a woman inside the Sick Bay yell, “Miller!”
The blonde-haired man sighed, “And there’s the big one we have right now.” He turned and walked a few steps towards where the yell had come from before calling, “Over here, Amanda! What’s wrong now?”
Twilight and Huey saw a brown-haired woman wearing a yellow scarf, a black tank top, green pants, and black boots come into view a few seconds later, supporting herself with a pair of crutches. A quick look down revealed that she had a white cast wrapped around her right leg to keep it still. “Let me go back to the Combat Unit! I’m can’t stand going back and forth between that and laying around doing nothing in here!” she said as she hobbled towards Miller.
The man stood his ground as she came closer and calmly said, “Now Amanda, it’s for your own good. I know the Boss supported you being discharged early for the sake of your comrades, but I’m the one who insisted that the Sick Bay staff bring you back here for a little while every day to make sure you don’t do anything that could make that leg worse. Last thing anyone wants is for you to break it again.”
Amanda glared at him, “You make it sound like I don’t know that this injury is holding me back from fighting like I’m used to. I know better than to aggravate it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make sure my ability to fight suffers because of it. I can still use a gun, I can still use a knife, I still can…” She paused as she looked off to the side and noticed Twilight for the first time. She raised her right crutch and pointed it at the alicorn, “What the hell is that?”
Miller evenly replied, “That’s Twilight Sparkle. Remember? I mentioned the Boss was sending her back here?”
After a moment, Amanda nodded, “Ah. I thought that announcement was some sort of prank for Chico.”
Miller said, “I know the kid’s got an active imagination and he’s really fascinated with those UMAs or whatever, but I wouldn’t do that to him. Anyway, I should be wrapping up the tour I’m giving her and the doctor, so I’ll tell you what: since you’re not in a good mood right now, just ten more minutes in here and you can go back to the Combat Unit. Now if you’ll excuse me…” With that, he turned and went back to Huey and Twilight and ushered them out of the Sick Bay while assuring them that Amanda wasn’t usually so angry.
While they were moving back to the strut they had been in, Twilight asked, “Who’s Chico?”
Miller replied, “He’s Amanda’s little brother. He’s younger than any of the other men, probably even younger than you, Twilight. He’s assigned to the Intel Unit, but he spends time with the members of the Combat Unit as well. Since they’re both part of the FSLN revolutionaries, he wants to be a soldier too. Not sure I’m entirely okay with that, but the Boss is the one calling the shots here.” That made Twilight wonder how young Chico was, but she guessed she would see for herself soon.
As Miller promised, they stopped by the Kill House when they got back to the center strut. Inside, they found it housed a maze-like obstacle course with targets that popped up at various points for the soldiers to shoot at. As they stood in the entrance, they saw many soldiers doing just that, running around the obstacle course and trying to shoot at targets as they ran. But there weren’t just adult soldiers running it; sure enough, there was also a young boy in drab clothing with light hair under his cap and a yellow scarf around his neck trying to keep up with the older soldiers.
While she was following him with her eyes, he looked over at the entrance after stopping nearby to shoot at a target and looked back again suddenly when he realized he had seen Twilight. He stared at her with wide eyes while she smiled nervously. “Uh, hi?” she tried saying over the sound of gunfire.
The boy suddenly ran over to her and began moving around her, touching and grabbing her while saying, “Wow, you really are a unicorn! And you can talk! And you’ve got wings! Wow, you’re so amazing! Snake is incredible, finding a real UMA like you!” All of the soldiers in the Kill House were eventually drawn to the scene and they became fixated on Twilight too. She hoped that they would be like everyone else they’d seen at Mother Base so far, but much to her dismay, they all came over and began fawning over her like a kitten. It didn’t take long for Miller to intervene, the man pushing them away and ordering them to return to their training while holding his right arm out in front of Twilight and slowly backing her and Huey out of the room.
Once they were all safely out on the walkway leading to the last strut, Miller said, “Sorry about that, Twilight. That kid was Chico.”
The lavender alicorn replied while leaning against the left railing, “Yeah, I kind of guessed that. I did not expect all those soldiers to start doing what he was doing, though.”
Miller’s head tilted upwards, “I didn’t expect them to do that either, to be honest. If I had, I wouldn’t have taken you in there.”
Twilight leaned her head back and sighed, “It was one thing when fillies and colts wanted to crowd around me, but that… that was something else.”
Huey chuckled, “You’re pretty popular back home, huh?”
Twilight lowered her head to look at him, “That’s mainly because I was recently made a princess. I’m hoping the popularity will go away soon.”
Miller spoke, “Come on, I’ve just got to show you both this last strut to you two, then you both can get settled and I can let Snake know you’re here.” He started walking again and Twilight and Huey followed after him.
The final strut was divided into two sections, though one seemed to be larger than the other. Miller showed them the cafeteria-like area first, saying, “This is our Mess Hall. We’ve got people assigned here to make food for everyone, and for the most part, we all eat in here. The other section is the Living Quarters. The Quarters aren’t exactly coed; we’ve got them divided by sex, but certain exceptions can be cleared if, uh…” He trailed off, leaving little doubt what he was hinting at. “And that concludes our tour. I’m going to get in touch with Snake now. Go ahead and grab a seat while I contact him, Twilight. I’m going to.” He walked over to one of the tables and sat on one of the benches with his back to the surface, Twilight sitting on the one across from him while Huey came to a stop near them.
After a minute, Miller got through to Snake and said, “Snake, Twilight and the doctor are safe here with us.” After a moment, he stood up and walked over to Twilight while pulling a small radio out of one of his pockets. He held it out to Twilight, “Here, it’s on. He wants to talk to you. Just click the button on the side when you want to talk.”
Twilight took the radio in both hooves and held it up in front of her, looking at it for a moment before doing as Miller said and asking, “Uh, hello?”
After a moment, she heard Snake’s voice come through the speakers, “Twilight. How are you feeling? Did you enjoy the ride?”
While Miller walked over to Huey and gave him the other radio he had, Twilight answered, “Yeah, it was nice. Even that balloon ride was kind of fun.”
Snake replied, “Good. Now that you’re back at Mother Base and considering all you’ve told me, I want you to focus on figuring out how you’re going to get back home to Equestria.”
Twilight looked surprised as she started, “What? But I…”
Snake interrupted her, “I know what you said about wanting to help, but I’m sure Kaz has shown you everything in Mother Base by now. Everyone there is focused on helping deal with this situation. They’re working from dawn to dusk, maybe even through the night, to do what they’re assigned to do. I’m not going to put you through that unless the need arises. As I said, we’re going to shelter you while you’re here, make sure the rest of the world doesn’t learn of your existence. People start finding out, they’re going to react like those soldiers that tried to capture you did at the very least. None of us can afford to have that happen.”
Twilight sighed, “That’s a good point. But even with everyone here helping you out, are you sure you can deal with that Peace Walker thing by yourself?”
Snake answered, “If I can stop it before it’s completed, that won’t be an issue. If I can’t… well, it won’t be the first time.”
Twilight was silent for a moment before asking, “So, you want me to focus entirely on getting back to Equestria?”
Snake replied, “You may not know exactly how you got here, but if anyone can figure out how to get you back to where you came from, it’s going to be you. Don’t get the wrong idea. It might be nice having someone like you around, but like I said, sheltering you is risky. You can use Mother Base’s services as you need while you’re there. Just stay out of the way of the men and try not to let them rope you into doing anything.”
Twilight flatly replied, “Well, don’t hold me to this, but I have a feeling that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
Snake replied, “Good. I’m going to check in with Huey now, but maybe I’ll talk to you later.” Twilight nodded even though he couldn’t see it and set the radio down next to her on the bench. She listened to Huey talk to Snake about how impressed he was with Mother Base and that he was pretty sure he would of some use in the R&D section, even mentioning wanting to work on what he referred to as a bipedal mech.
Once Huey was done talking, Miller showed him and Twilight to the entrance to the Living Quarters and told them to get acquainted with where everything was. He then said one last thing to Twilight, “You can hang onto that radio for the time being, Twilight. Like Huey, you’ll have a frequency in case Snake wants to contact you, and like he said, we’re here to help if you need anything. You might not be an official staff member, but you’re free to stop by the Mess Hall whenever you need a bite to eat or go to the Sick Bay if you’re feeling under the weather. That being said, is there anything I can get you?”
Twilight held a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment before saying, “Well, if it’s possible, I could use some paper and something to write with. I kind of have an idea what happened and can start trying to work on something, but it would be nice to be able to write everything down so I have something to look back on.”
Miller nodded, “Done. I’ll snag you a notebook and a pencil in a minute. I’m just going to talk to the Boss about one thing and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, go get settled.” Twilight nodded and followed Huey through the entrance to the Living Quarters, both of them splitting off to go to their respective sections. As she was walking, she overheard Miller saying, “Hey, Boss, you mind if we powwow for a sec’?”