//------------------------------//
// 4. Augmentation Process 
// Story: Project Eclipse 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

"Are... are you sure you're going to be alright?"
Filly growled, annoyed. It was about tenth time this morning E asked her that question.
"For the last time..." she answered, forcing herself to be calm,"... they are going to sedate me. I won't feel a thing. Stop worrying!"
He winced at her harsh tone.
"Sorry." he muttered.
"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Filly thought, annoyed even further with him, and also mad at herself.
As much as she hated to admit it, she liked Eastin. He was most definitely different from anypony she has ever met, both since and before she became part of Project Eclipse. He cared for her and considered her friend, for some reason, despite her... not being a pony that was easy to get along with.
"Look." she said, trotting over to his bed and nudging him. "Everypony else went through the Augmentation Process and nothing bad happened to them."
She knew better that to mention about what she heard happen to Trot.
"I'm going to be fine, I promise. Now, get up. I need to go for the surgery, and you have a training session with Cant, Balti, and Cloud."
Since both the Director and Counselor were needed for observing the Augmentation Process, the training was going to be supervised by Crys and Cant. Remembering that he was actually already late, E reluctantly rose, and left their quarters after her.
"Good luck at the training." Filly told him as she prepared to fly to the entrance to the lab section of the compound. She glanced back, smirking: "Next time we're going to train together, so you better toughen up while you still have the chance."
"W-wait!" E said, causing her to stop. She glanced at him, and saw that he looked away and poked the ground with his hoof, blushing. "What's... what's your name?"
"You've got bees in your brain or something?" Filly asked him, raising an eyebrow. "It's Fillydelphia, remember?"
"No, I... I meant your real name." he asked.
Filly immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Protocol dictates that we aren't supposed to reveal our real names to anypony, especially to other soldiers." she hissed.
Eastin looked at her, startled by the change in her voice.
"I-I know, but... I would like to know. I could tell you mine..."
Before he got a chance to finish that sentence, Filly flung at him and pinned her to the ground.
"My name is Fillydelphia!" she growled, pressing hoof on his throat. "Got it?!"
She watched, furious, as E squirmed beneath her, terrified.
"I'm sorry!" he cried, gasping for air. "I'm sorry, please, I..."
Finally, Filly raised her hoof, allowing him to breathe. She waited for him to take few gasps, before she leaned down, stopping barely an inch in front of his face.
"Don't you ever dear to bring up my old name again! Understand?!"
E, with tears of fear in his eyes, nodded. Filly pulled back and turned away, leaving without goodbye.
Few moments later, she practically stormed into the underground part of the compound, trying to get to the lab section. She was still furious at E. Furious that he made her remember her past. Furious that he asked her about her old name.
She was furious that she screamed at E and hurt him.
Filly stopped and punched the wall, hissing as pain hit her. E was her first true friend, and she nearly choked him because he wanted to know what her name was! Filly bit her lip as she pulled her hoof from the small hole she made, wincing when she realized that she have broken her wrist.
"As if I didn't have enough problems already!" she thought angrily as she resumed walking towards the lab, limping.
Filly didn't cared about her wrist at the slightest, and even less about the cracks she made on the wall. Right now, all that mattered to her was to get through the Augmentation Process...    
... and how would she apologize to E.





Don't you ever dear to bring up my old name again! Understand?!
Filly's words rang in his ears as he made his way towards the Simulation Room, where he saw the others, already waiting for him.
"Why did she react like that?" he thought, distraught.
"You're late." Balti noted.
He murmured an apology, but stopped to cough. His throat was still a bit sore.
"Sorry, I, um... wanted to wish Filly good luck, and... lost track of time." he said finally.
He didn't want to tell them about what happened, but form the look Cant gave him he realized that the stallion had recognized choking marks on his throat.
"Aww, how sweet of you to stay with your very special somepony as long as possible." Cloud chattered, and started giggling when E blushed.
"She's... not my..." he stammered.
"Relax, E, I'm just making fun of you. Although," she added, winking, "the two of you would look so cute together."
That comment caused E's face to be even redder, and everypony else chuckled.
"Alright, enough chatter." Canterlot said, getting serious. "We've got a training to do. E, I know you're probably worried about Filly's surgery, but it's completely safe, so focus, okay?"
"Okay." E said unenthusiastically.





Filly rolled her eyes as she tried to imagine E's reaction to this sigh.
She was lying on her back, being strapped to the table, with a lot of medical instruments (needles among them) around her. There were three unicorns from the Project's medical staff, and she could see the Director and the Counselor observing from behind the glass.
"What happened to your hoof?" one of the medics asked her, noticing how she winced when he touched it.
"Nothing." Filly lied. "I overstretched it when I was doing push ups this morning."
"Rrrrriiiiggghhhttt..." the medic replied, reaching for her hoof.
"Touch me and you're dead." she threatened, and despite her being tied up, the medic backed away.
"Yeah, that's right." Filly grinned in her thoughts. "Move the fuck away from me, you filthy..."
She stopped her mental ranting when she noticed another medic, a mare, walk up to her and was levitating a syringe.
"We're going to sedate you now. Are you ready?"
Filly nodded, and the medic lowered the syringe down to her body. She felt a little sting when the needle pierced her skin, but that was anything worth noticing.
"Start counting from ten to one." she heard one of the medics ask her.
"Ten, nine, eight..." she started and paused, starting to feel the effects of the tranquilizer. "... seven..." Filly wasn't fond of this sensation. "... six... " she wondered if E would visit her before she wakes up. "... five..." she dozed off.





E jumped away as, the griffon descended down on him, twisted around and hitting him in the eye with his hindhoof. His opponent backed away, screeching, and those few seconds cost him his life, as Balti spit acid on him melting the half-eagle, half-lion. Well, it was an illusion, so he didn't have a life to loose, but still...
He shook his head and concentrated on battle. He noticed that Cloud was about be overwhelmed by her opponent. E rushed to her when he saw the griffon slash his claws across her throat... only for the illusion to disappear, while the real Cloud hit him in the stomach and neck.
"Good going!" Cant said, appearing out of nowhere, There were three knocked out or dead griffons behind him. "The three of you will continue to press on while we still have the momentum on our side, while I will..."
He was cut off by the sound of the alarm. The illusion of the griffon fortress disappeared, and they found themselves in the empty Simulation Room, which now had walls covered in red glowing symbols. E looked quickly around, recalling all the alarm patterns and trying to recognize which one was this.
"We're not under attack, nothing's on fire," he started eliminating the possibilities, "nopony was found dead, there's no intruder..." his eyes widen.
"No..."





Her body was on fire.
Filly woke up, screaming in pain, causing all the medics she didn't give a flying feather about now to stumble back, surprised and scared shitless.
She continued to scream feeling as if her whole body, every singular cell of it, was burning; Filly tried desperately to free herself from her bindings. This pain she felt right now was unbearable.
"Increase the dosage!" she heard somepony scream.
"She's not reacting to it!"
"Give her more!"
"But..."
"That's an order!"





"How could she wake up during the surgery?" Cloud wondered.
All of them were standing in the infirmary's Recovery room. The alarm, caused by Filly's trashing during her surgery, stopped both training sessions and were later informed by the Counselor about what exactly happened. Everypony's training was cancelled for today, so they decided to visit Filly.
"I talked with one of the medics." Cant said. "He told me that she stopped reacting to the tranquilizer few seconds after they Augmented her. The medic team had to increase the dosage to the point when it would put a dragon under before she was finally sedated."
E was listening to what the other soldier was saying with one ear. He already asked the medics when he came in here, sooner than anypony else.
"What if she doesn't wake up?!" he wondered, panicking.
Taking into the account the amount of drugs they put into her, and how small her body was, not to mention her lighter body built due to being a pegasus...
"So... when is she going to come around?" Trot asked.
He wasn't fond of her nor, truth to be told, was anypony else beside E and Hoof, the latter of whom was only interested in what was under her tail. But seeing a teammate, even a disliked one, in a condition like this wasn't very pleasant.
"They say in couple of days, at best." Cant said grimly.
"And at worst?" Mane inquired.
Cant didn't answer that one.
If E wasn't in such big shock, he would probably be crying right now.
"Wanna know the best thing about unconscious chicks?" Hoof asked.
E glanced back at him and growled. The unicorn backed away, surprised.
"Okaay, forget I asked."
"Pig." Cloud commented, and returned to discussing what happened  "So, do you think that has something to do with whatever her ability is?"
"It must be." Mane replied. "After Augmentation, we all experienced some side effects, right?"
"What side effects?" E asked, half-curious without turning around.
"You know, bleeding from the eyes, ringing ears..." Mane answered, and after a second of hesitation, added: "... inverted penis..."
That got E to actually turn back.
"Inverted what?!"
Mane chuckled.
"Dude, I'm just bucking with you, ok?"
"Very funny." E muttered as everypony else started laughing.
"Anyway," Cant picked up where Mane started, "those side effect are little aching of some body parts, depending on the ability gained through the Augmentation Process, which in my case, happened to be my whole body. It went away pretty quick though, within a day I think."
After that they all went silent, with E wondering when Filly was going to wake up, the others probably recalling the own Augmentations.
"Well," Trot finally broke the silence, "there's little what we can do standing around here. I'm going to the dining hall."
The other ponies murmured between themselves and started to make the way out. E didn't budge.
"E, you comin'?" Mane asked when he reached the door and realized that the youngest of them was missing.
"No." he answered, keeping his eyes on Filly.
He didn't need to look their way to know that Mane and Cloud exchanged glances.
"E..." she started.
"I won't be long." E replied, lying.
"Okay, if you say so..." Cloud said, obviously not convinced, but she most likely figured out that it would be pointless to argue. "See you later."
E listened to their hoofsteps as the left, his eyes not leaving his friend in a drug-induced coma. He knew that was impossible, but he could shake the feeling that it was his fault, that if he didn't angered her in the morning, she wouldn't be in this state.
"Please, wake up."





"That colt is too nice for his own good." Mane commented as he and Cloud were trotting after the rest of the group.
"Well, that is part of the reason everypony likes him so much." Cloud replied, giggling. "You know, besides being adorable and all."
Mane rolled his eyes. He had no idea why E was so liked by mares. "Hell, even Fillydelphia was fond of him!"
"So, anyway..." he said, clearing his throat. "Seeing as we have free time until tomorrow, would you like to..."
"Hey, why are you two taking so long?" Balti asked from ahead, glancing at them.
"Bow-chicka-bow-wow!"
"I swear, I'm going to..."
"We better go, before Balti kills Hoof." Cloud smirked and flew ahead.
Mane sighed.
"I'm always unlucky." he muttered.





Filly stretched as she regained her consciousness, the pain all but a memory, when she felt her body brush something. She opened her eyes and saw E, his head and forelegs laid next to her on bed, asleep. She rolled her eyes, wondering what was wrong with him.
"How long was I asleep?" Filly thought, glancing around the Recovery room, until she localized a calendar. "It's the same day? Huh."
She took a peek under her bed sheet to look at her flank. Like the other soldiers said, the Augmentation Process altered the pony's body to such degree, that after the surgery, a cutie mark appears, related to pony's ability.
"Okay, why is my cutie mark a light blue leaf of a maple tree?" Filly wondered, but shook her head. She had more important stuff to worry about.
She nudged E, waking him up. He yawned and looked at her, his eyes widening.
"Hi." Filly said, a bit faintly, recalling their previous talk.
"Um..." E replied, but before he could finish, he was interrupted.
"Ah, you're awake, soldier Fillydelphia. Good."
They both turned around as the Director and Counselor entered the Recovery room. E quickly stood in attention, while Filly saluted.
"At ease."
"How do you feel, soldier Fillydelphia?" the Counselor inquired.
"Great." she said, and she meant.
There was no trace of her pain from when she woke up during the surgery. Heck, even the pain from her hoof disappeared. In fact, she felt better than she remembered ever to feel.
"Why have I wakened up during the surgery, sir?" she asked.
She wanted to know who screwed up, so that she could kill him.
"And why did she wake up so soon?" E asked, and , realizing how that could`ve sound, added. "Um, not that I'm not happy with her awake, or anything, but..."
"We have a theory." the Director said, interrupting E's pointless speech.
"And what would that theory be, sir?" Filly inquired.
"Extend your hoof."
Filly raised her eyebrow, surprised at the command, but obeyed, and lifted her right foreleg in front of her. The Counselor levitated a pencil and poked her hoof with it.
"What are you doing, Counselor?" E asked, voicing her own question.
The Counselor used the pencil to pierce Filly's hoof.
"What the fuck?!" she screeched in pain, kicking the unicorn with her hinglegs.
She pressed her hoof to her chest, only to realize that suddenly, she stopped feeling any pain from it. Frowning, she brushed off the blood from her wound... but there was no wound.
Her eyes went wide.
"What... how..." she stammered.
"It would appear that we were right, Director." the Counselor said, picking himself from the floor.
Filly spared a moment to ponder should she apologize for kicking him, but decided not to.
"What do you mean?"
"The ability that you got through the Augmentation Process, soldier Fillydelphia, is instant regeneration." the Director answered her.
"Instant regeneration?"
"Your wounds are going to heal much faster now, and your immune system fights off any kind of infection or intoxication even faster, which made you wake up during your surgery."
"... huh..." Filly said, trying to comprehend it. "So... what now?"
"We need to know the extent of your healing capabilities." the Counselor answered. "To do that, we will run few tests on you..."
"No."
Everypony in the Recovery room looked at Filly, surprised.
"If you want to know the extent of my abilities, we're going to do that my way. By fighting." she explained, crossing her forelegs as if inviting the two unicorns to try and talk her out of this. "I want a match. Right... now."
The Counselor glanced at the Director, who thought about it for few moments.
"Very well, then." he finally said. "Is there any specific soldier you wish to fight?"
Filly grinned in response.





"So..." Canterlot said as they watched from the viewing room as Fillydelphia and Crystal prepared for a fight. "... she woke up two hours after we left, and demanded a match with Crys."
"To sum things up, yes." E answered, while the other soldiers murmured between them.
He didn't think it was such a good idea for Filly to jump into a fight so soon, even if her body now healed instantly. But he knew better than to try to talk her out of this.
"So, Miss Number One vs. an augmented Filly..." Mane exclaimed. "Anyone wanna bet one of them gets killed?"
"Are you kidding, mate?!" Trot replied, slight hint of fear in his voice. "I'm hoping one of us doesn't get killed just by watching!"
"Except that now it's most likely impossible for Filly to die." E murmured, wondering how the fight would go.
"What do you mean?" Cloud, who overheard him, asked.
"Her augmentation ability." E explained.
"Which is...?" Mane inquired.
"Sorry, um... Filly asked me to keep it a secret."
"Her cutie mark is a leaf..." Cant thought out loud.
"Controlling plants?"
"That just dumb."
"Quiet!" Balti hissed at the others. "They're about to start."





"Round begins in three," voice of the Counselor sounded across the Simulation Room, "two, one, begin. Good luck, ladies!
"Thanks, I won't need it." both mares answered and started circling around each other.
Filly knew she could beat her. Their fighting capabilities were more or less evenly matched, and with her newfound ability, she could surprise Crystal. Her only concern was Crys' magic. Against a normal unicorn, this wouldn't be much of a problem. She could easily fly out of reach of her spells, and swiftly move to attack.
But this was Crystal.
Not only her magical abilities were greater than that of Hoof and Balti, both of which were better than average, but also had her shapeshifting ability. While she couldn't copy the powers the others gained through the augmentation, she still could change into a pegasus (knowing Crystal's sense of humor, she would assume the shape of Filly herself), and there would go her advantage.
"Well, it's not like walking around like this will get me anywhere."
Filly jumped into the air and dived at Crys. The unicorn immediately stopped and braced herself. When Filly was right in front of her, Crys tried to grab her. The pegasus whirled in the mid-air, trying to kick her with her hindhoof in the horn, but Crys quickly moved slightly to the right and blocked her kick with he left fronthoof, her horn glowing.
Filly immediately moved her face out of the harm's way, but while she dodged the magical bolt, she was punched in the nose by Crys' righ fronthoof and was sent flying.
"Nice landing." Crys smirked when Filly rolled on the ground.
Filly pressed hoof to her broken nose, only to realize it wasn't broken anymore.
"This is quite useful."
Using her hindlegs, she kicked sand at Crystal, who not expecting her to react so quickly, had to cover her eyes instead of shielding with magic. Filly immediately threw herself at her opponent. Crys responded with activating her ability. For a split second, green flames surrounded her. Filly, expecting her to change into pegasus, aligned her flight to intercept her if she tried to fly. The flames disappeared...
She was attacking E.
Filly's eyes went wide and her body reacted by shifting her punch a bit to the left, letting the E impersonator to easily dodge it.
"You sneaky bitch!"
Crys grinned at her as she shifted back and thrust her horn into Filly's chest, expecting the protection spells to teleport her way.
That didn't happen.
Filly gasped as she felt Crystal's horn pierce her chest. For a brief moment, despite the pain, she took a great pleasure in the sight of pure horror on Crys face, before she raised her hoof and aimed punched her in the right eye, putting all her force into it.
This time, the protection spell activated, and Crystal disappeared. Filly landed on the ground, feeling her lung, ribs, muscles and skin regenerate themselves not that there was no horn in the middle of all of them. Since the wound was bigger than her previous injuries, she got a chance to feel them regenerate. It was a tingling sensation. By the time her opponent appeared again, she was perfectly fine. She didn't even feel tired.
"Round one, over. Point awarded to Fillydelphia. The score is: 0, 1. Beginning round two."
"What the hay just happened?" Crys asked with wide eyes.
"Try to figure that out as I continue to beat you senseless." Filly smirked in response.





"You were amazing." E said an hour and four rounds later.
"Thanks." Filly replied to his complement while she blushed for a bit, still feeling guilty about the morning.
She glanced at the Leaderboard.

1.     Crystal        36, 217
2.     Canterlot        33, 162
3.    Fillydelphia    28, 251
4.     Los Pegasus     22, 042
5.     Trottingham    19, 010
6.     Baltimare        18, 487
7.     Manehatten    18, 111
8.     Cloudsdale    16, 631
9.    Hoofington    15, 211
10.   Eastin        11, 105

"I'm getting closer to you, Crystal."
"Looks like because of the commotion I caused, the rest of you didn't earn any points." she notices aloud. "Sorry."
"I-it's nothing." E replied, glancing away.
Filly looked at him, wondering how to apologize. She didn't have much experience in that department.
"E..." she started.
"I'm sorry."
The pegasus starred at the earth pony.
"I didn't know that you would be so upset about... that thing I'm supposed to not talk about. It won't happen again, I pro-"
Filly pressed her hoof to his mouth, silencing him.
"Okay, couple things." she told him, still keeping him quiet. "Firstly, what I told you earlier, still stands: I don't want to talk about my old name, or anything before I became a part of Project Eclipse. Secondly, stop being so damn nice all the time. While it's cute, it gets boring over time. And while we're at it, don't apologise for something that isn't your fault. And thirdly..."
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, causing both of them to blush,
".. it was Sky Grace."