There was a light knock on Rainbow's door, and she moaned. She had finished her bath, and was just lying on her bed. She made a lazy wave, in which AL acknowledged.
The door clicked open, and Octavia was standing there. She must've washed as well, but she was wearing her bounty hunter clothes. They seemed a lot cleaner than they were though, so AL must've washed them for her or something.
"You okay?" She asked.
"Yeah... Just... Tired." Rainbow said.
Octavia waved at the air. "Private mode." She said, and all of AL's sensors in the room turned off. She placed her hooves in her pockets, her expression strict. "You're wide awake."
"I've never been a great liar." Rainbow said, covering her eyes with an arm.
"That speech getting the better of you huh?" Octavia asked, taking her hat off and closing the door.
"I really have no idea what to say."
"You'll be fine." Octavia said. "You're thinking too hard."
"Well of course I am!" Rainbow sat up. Her mane was a mess, and while she clearly wasn't tired- she wasn't exactly in great condition either. "You do know how big of a deal this is right?"
"I do." Octavia said. "But I'm saying you need to properly rest. By the looks of it you probably just had a bath, but that's just the body. The mind needs its rest as well."
"But you know I can't sleep when I'm thinking." Rainbow groaned, shaking her head.
"I do. That's why I want you to stop thinking." Octavia said.
Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah, no." She said. "Not that easy."
"I was going to head downstairs, cause AL told me about a spa there. I thought I might just come over and get you to come with us- really, we can lay that speech off for later- let's go relax." Octavia said. "We could still get a good massage, even if we don't use the spas."
"It really isn't that easy."
"You don't trust me." Octavia said flatly.
"I never said that."
"But you don't."
"Oh come on Tavi, you know I trust you." Rainbow said.
"Not by the looks of it right now." Octavia said. "Don't you think a pony like me who has about half a life of organizing performances would have some sort of experience as to how to manage time before the big days?" She said. "And I'm telling you, those ten years of experience are telling me to drag you to the damn spa."
Rainbow thought about it for a moment. She really didn't want to think about the speech anyway, but she simply couldn't ignore it's importance. But then again- what was that thing about her again? That she 'always gets her way'?
"Private mode off." She said. "AL, if you don't mind getting me a warm and fluffy dry towel."
*
Zealo had come to visit Magnum, and was determined to stay. But after staying awake for a constant twenty four hours from the ATLANTA battle all the way to the Manehatten skirmish, his dreams really got the better of him.
Determined to stay however, he tried to stay awake for as long as he possibly could- and didn't even notice when he fell asleep. By the time that happened his head was resting on Magnum's arm, and he had long been dragged out of consciousness.
But soon he was back again as Magnum yanked him into the most sweet yet strangling hug anyone had ever given anyone else which was accompanied by the most delighted 'squee' he had ever heard.
He struggled to take in a breath, but Magnum's arm was tightly wrapped around him, preventing his lungs from expanding. He felt her let go, flip him around, then pull him back into a hug again now that he was facing her.
Magnum buried the lower half of her face in his shoulder, hugging him as close to her as possible. Yes, he was real. It was all real.
Slowly and warily, Zealo hugged her back. She was hugging him so tightly and so closely it was impossible for him to keep his head clear of her shoulder- so he just did what Magnum did and rested him chin on her shoulder. Then he started feeling tears slowly drifting onto his shoulders, Magnum's body shaking as she sobbed.
"You're alive. You're alive." Was all Magnum said as she cried into Zealo's shoulder.
"I missed you." Zealo said, giving her gentle pats on the back in an attempt to calm her crying, despite a tear of his own slowly sliding down his cheek.
"I missed you too." Magnum said with a light laugh, and loosened her grip slightly as to give Zealo some space to breath.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, not wanting to let go.
"I very much hate to interrupt this sweet reunion from what I've gathered so far, but circulation is important for our patient and currently the hug is preventing that from happening in a surprisingly effective way." AL said, which made both Magnum and Zealo jump.
Now that they were aware of the hug, it was kind of an awkward one- since Magnum kind of dragged Zealo onto herself out of sheer excitement.
Zealo awkwardly hopped back down, and sat down on the stool that he had been sitting on while waiting for Magnum to wake up. He felt a light tug on his arm, and Magnum shuffled to the side and gestured at the free space she made on her bed.
Zealo shook his head since the bed wasn't exactly big and he didn't want to accidentally push her off or something, but Magnum dragged him in anyway and hugged his arm tightly while resting her head on his shoulder.
"There's a spa on the lower levels of the HQ should you two want to relax, however our patient here will have to be kept under surveillance just in case something happens. Just a thought." AL said.
"You keen?" Magnum looked up at Zealo.
"Anything really, as long as I get to be with you again."
"Oh, you. Let's go then!" Magnum grinned.
"Also, once you're done with that- Applebloom has requested to have a meeting in the surgery. Zealo, you may accompany her should you wish to. Applebloom wishes to have your robotic implants done before the war starts. Note that we are not in supply of robotic eyes, so you will have to settle for one eye for now until we either stock up again or a pocket opens up in which we can use magic for long-term healing." AL said as the two stood up, Zealo helping Magnum since she had a broken leg. "Since we don't have eye implants, what color would you like your eyepatch to be?"
"Dark red, if you will." Magnum said, the left half of her face covered in bandages as to hide her wounds.
"I will forward that to the factory. The eyepatch should be completed by the end of your spa session." AL said.
"Thanks... Uh..."
"AL."
"Right." Magnum said, rather awkwardly.
"Now if you care to follow the blue arrows, they will lead you to the spa." AL said, conjuring up blue holographic arrows and guiding the pair downstairs.
*
"Katana." AL said, and Katana turned around. She was in her room, just polishing up some equipment.
"AL?"
"Scootaloo has requested you accompany Lily and Dainty to the local confectionary store."
"And she thought I was the best mare for the job?" Katana raised an eyebrow, wiping down a samurai sword.
"Even I know that's not why she requested that you take the job." AL replied.
"Then why?"
"You obviously need to rest up." AL said. "You've been doing so much to take your mind off something, that you've done the exact opposite by trying not to think about it."
"Easy for you to say, you didn't just wake up with the two ponies you hold the dearest dead by your side one day." Katana said, sheathing the blade menacingly and throwing it down on her bed.
"I didn't. But you did. And that's why we're trying to help." AL said.
There was a light buzz as a nearby holographic projector projected an image of AL in her three dimensional form. She glowed a dim blue, a concerned expression on her face.
"You need to take a walk out there. You need to laugh. You need to learn how to be happy again."
"What makes you think I don't want to laugh? To be happy? I DO want to!" Katana yelled.
"Then why don't you at least try?" AL asked. "Why don't you let us help you?"
Katana didn't know how to reply, and only let her head droop as she shook it from side to side.
"You're just trying to get rid of the sadness." AL said. "You're not trying to be happy- therefore you never will be. Once you rid of the sadness you'll only be an empty shell."
"Humph. Look at me, must be the first mare to have been lectured on emotions by an artificial intelligence." Katana chuckled. "Alright. Who and where are these two guests I must escort?" She looked up.
"Not escort, ACCOMPANY. Nothing formal. They're just two school-age fillies, you'll be fine. I've already told them to meet you in the lobby."
"Before I even agreed to this?"
"I trusted that you would. You're a reasonable pony, after all." AL said.
"Flattering."
"Was only meant to be a statement, but you're welcome."
"Lobby, was it?" Katana asked, shrugging two sheathed swords onto her back.
"Correct." AL said. "And the swords are for?"
"General protection, and a sense of security." Katana said. "I feel insecure without them after what happened."
"Understandable." AL said, and her holographic image went away. "I hope you have fun."
"Wasn't that the point?" Katana sighed, walking out the door. AL closed it behind her.
"Indeed it was." AL said. "And still remains so. And of course, you have spare change right?"
"Nope."
"Thought so." AL said, and she almost sounded unimpressed. "Have some 'spare change' then."
A socket in the wall opened up, and a robotic arm handed Katana a few coins.
"Should be enough for the fillies and you." AL said.
"Me?"
"Sweets are good for mental health, and you're physically healthy and fit enough to handle a good dose of them. 'I dislike sweets' is a highly unlikely statement should you make it. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason for you not to buy some for yourself."
"Scootaloo told you to say that didn't she?"
"Information is classified." AL replied.
"Of course it is." Katana muttered, pocketing the spare change and heading for the lobby.
*
Scootaloo was leaning on the hoof rails on her balcony, overlooking Haven. A glass of iced orange juice sat on a small table next to her, the breeze ruffling her mane and raking through the feathers in her wings.
"Katana is on her way." AL said.
"I knew she would go." Scootaloo said, taking a sip from the glass.
"Since when did you become so strategic about things?"
"Never did." Scootaloo replied, and yawned. "Just trying to get everyone- myself included- to have some fun times before everything goes to crap when the war starts."
"How logical of you." AL said. There was light knock on the door. "Sweetie Belle is outside."
"Open the door, obviously." Scootaloo said, turning around. "What up?"
"Boredom." Sweetiebot said, clunking in. "I just got my motorized systems polished. Some additional processors and engines have been installed. Just waiting to test them out."
"New upgrades aye?" Scootaloo stretched. "I needed a little stretch too anyway."
"Applebloom would not approve of this." AL noted.
"Doesn't matter." Scootaloo replied. "AL, set up the waypoints again. All the way around the city. Also, time us this time."
"Virtual targets?" AL asked.
"Anything that adds to the adrenaline." Scootaloo said, and two training lasers popped out of Sweetiebot's back. They're training lasers, and only do damage to virtual holographic targets that AL conjures up.
"Waypoints set. I've got your equipment set up." AL said.
"Deploy." Scootaloo said, and a socket in the wall popped open. A canister sprung out, and she caught it. A second later it unfolded into her scooter, a few last pieces sliding into place. She stepped on it, and some LED indicators flashed as it recognized its owner.
"Take to the start line." AL said, a holographic checker flag stretching across the balcony as the hoof rails retreated into the ground. "One lap, around Haven city. Waypoints as marked with holographic drones. Try not to cause too much damage. Take your marks..."
Scootaloo and Sweetiebot walked under the checker flag, Scootaloo clicking her neck and making some stretches.
"Get set... GO!" AL yelled, and they both took off sprinting.
Scootaloo dove over the edge, swinging her scooter under her. The wheels sparked as they came in contact with the metal walls of the HQ.
Sweetiebot followed, thrusters embedded in her hooves flaring up and boosting her downwards.
The first waypoint was drawing near- a large holographic circle on the side of the CMC HQ. behind it were many others, lining up to form a track around the whole of the city, weaving through traffic, buildings, across streets and roofs, creating a gigantic obstacle course in which the two competitors are racing to finish.
Scootaloo zoomed through the ring without a problem, but since Sweetiebot wasn't in contact with the building she had to make a slight course adjustment. She flipped around, the thrusters in her hooves boosting her towards the building. She flipped again, her hooves clunking heavily on the side of the HQ, sparks erupting as metal ground against metal. There was a beep as she grazed the waypoint, and continued on her way down towards the next circle.
"Virtual targets inbound." AL reported, a cluster of sphere-shaped holographic drones zooming in from the distance. "Note that destroying these targets get you extra points."
"Copy." Scootaloo said, boosters underneath the scooter sending it off the building and into the air. She swung it out from underneath her, and used it as a weapon and swiped it across at the drones. Three of them were taken down in one swing, exploding in virtual chaos. Scootaloo spun the scooter back under her hooves again, and landed on the building.
Sweetiebot's targeting system locked onto the remaining drones, the weapons mounted on her back already adjusting and charging up. But there were certain angles the lasers won't reach- directly upwards, for example. That's why some adjustments will be required.
She kicked off the building, the thrusters in her back hooves sending her into a spin. As she flipped through the air, the lasers were able to finally achieve a proper lock on and within the seconds the drones were blasted out of the air. She landed back down again, however kicking off to keep up with Scootaloo.
Suddenly the waypoints were leaving the surface of the building and heading across the street to another's roof- right through a whole bunch of traffic.
Scootaloo kicked off the wall, the thrusters in her scooter giving her an extra boost. She extended her wings, much smaller than she was used to; however still able to assist her in gliding towards the next waypoint.
Sweetiebot's laser cannons suddenly transformed to make two giant thrusters- but then again, there was that problem with the angles again. So she had to provide upward momentum with the boosters in her hooves.
She launched off the HQ's side, flying straight for the waypoint while constantly making adjustments with the boosters in her hooves.
More holographic drones showed up, weaving through the sky lane of traffic up ahead.
Sweetiebot's engines turned back to lasers again, blasting them out of the air. Then just before she started losing momentum, they transformed back to engines and kept her on her way.
Next they had to weave through the equivalent of a high-way... Except much, much more lethal.
*
"Haven will act as a bunker for retreat and a primary base of operations on the ground in case we need one." Spitfire said, her holographic image flickering from a few signal interferences.
"I'll keep the city running." Applebloom replied, stretching. This conference is taking too long- she needs a walk or something. "Haven will be on standby- we'll keep everything in order."
"Good. But now we just need a signal for after Rainbow finishes her speech. Something we won't need our magic broadcasters to broadcast- something everyone can see for themselves, even from space." Spitfire said. "To signal the actual starting point- once the signal is given, that's when the entire plan starts and everyone charges out. We need something equally effective as her speech, just something to knock it into everyone once she's done."
"Before that though, I heard some of the recruiting isn't even done yet?" Applebloom frowned. "We need the Wardens to have our reinforcements before we can move out."
"No, the Wardens have already done their part. It's just that a lot of them have chosen to stay at their current locations- makes sense though, having our superpowers less concentrated and more evenly spread out."
Applebloom nodded.
"Our ground troops have to have maximum efficiency. There's an obvious time limit, considering we can't hold off their space fleet forever." Soarin noted. "It's a good idea to have a bunch of ponies leading the charge instead of just a few- multitasking, right?"
"Right. There are various outposts throughout Equestria, some beyond. But for now we only need to worry about within- there's a whole army outside waiting for them to make a move." Shining Armor said, his holographic image flickering. He waved a hoof in the air, and a map of Equestria was conjured onto the conference table. "Blaze and his army will take care of the outposts outside the border." He pointed at the edges of the map, which indicated the ends of Equestria. Beyond it laid only darkness- an empty mass of none existence. What later came to be known as 'the edge of the world', otherwise known as 'Tartarus'. "There is at least one hidden outpost on the borders of each city, each base is about a kilometer across. Not quite large, but there's quite a few of them and they're heavily fortified. Most of them are near the ancient craters when the barricade rose into the air, also acting as the only access points to the Underground where at least fifty percent of our current forces are trapped as slaves. The main reason they haven't rebelled yet, as you well know; is because even if they could easily take control of the Underground, it's almost impossible for them to break free to the surface. Without our help they'd either starve to death inside or miraculously make it out and get slammed right back down by their nukes. First priority, we free those captive fighters. Main outposts we have to take out to free them are: two in Badlands, San Palomino Desert and Macintosh Hills, Appleloosa, Los Pegasus, Ghastly Gorge, White Tail Woods, Tall Tale, Galloping Gorge, Foal Mountains, Neighagra Falls, then finally Hollow Shades." Shining Armor gestured at the various places on the map, highlighting them red. "These are key areas we need to take down in order to free the prisoners most effectively, but of course we can't do that because we can't be everywhere at once. Therefore we'll advance towards the center, as two of our strongest forces- on one side Haven, the other the various colonies of Badlands- we'll advance towards the center of Equestria, picking up the other colonies along the way as reinforcements for the two main forces. They'll have nowhere to run- if everything works out, they'll be smothered. First off, since our two main forces are located on opposing edges of Equestria, Haven- you will advance in a South West direction, while the Badlands colonies will go North West. On the way we'll take down the outposts and free as many forces as we can- and once we have total control, that only leaves us one last priority."
"Valhalla." Iris said, and Shining Armor nodded.
"Valhalla, the Science Faction's last line of defense on the ground, and the equivalent of Haven. Therefore that makes a change for Haven-" Shining Armor paused, making sure Applebloom was listening. "Haven must hold its ground. We mustn't lose Haven, it is equally important to us as Valhalla is to them. Whichever one of these two falls first will determine a hell of a lot. Haven, you must hold off forces from Valhalla until reinforcements from Badlands can assist you- and together the two forces will finish Valhalla. If everything else goes to plan, that last step should be a breeze- however a costly one at that."
"That leaves their space fleet." Halcyon said, her arms folded.
"We can take them out with the CYCLOPS, which must remain under heavy protection throughout the war. The COLOSSUS is going to be a real problem though- being a heavy space fortress in itself would have caused enough problems for us, not to mention Val has Blithy captured there." Shining Armor said. "That's why, instead of trying to destroy it- we'll take brief control over it by making a direct insertion to the bridge. The ILLUSION can easily sneak a few gunships close to it, then send them in with a few squads loaded. They'll have to be used to operations in zero-gravity- because once they bust into the bridge via the windshields the entire place will go into lockdown- no one will be able to go in or out, plus gravity generators will be offline because of the breach. Since that's the primary control station, even if they run an override so it has no power our technicians can easily override their override, so we'll have control of the entire COLOSSUS for several minutes- until they break back onto the bridge. We'll deal as much damage as we can to the enemy fleet while that happens- and the ILLUSION will dock onto it. The forces we have on the ILLUSION should be able to take back a good chunk of the COLOSSUS, in the process rescuing Blithy. We'll find out where she is through the bridge, then we blow the COLOSSUS to bits after our forces get off the damn thing via the ILLUSION. That way we get a good little three in one, Val, Blithy and the COLOSSUS all taken care of." Shining Armor finished, leaning back into his seat. "Then we retreat to the surface, where we'll barricade the world away from their forces with our ground army. They'll run out of solid resources eventually, and we'll wear them out."
Silence followed as Shining Armor finished the plan he had constructed with the rest of the OASIS crew.
"Sounds good to me." Applebloom said, seeing as things were turning awkward.
"We'll leave it to different divisions to get to their plans then. Remember the main objectives Shining Armor has listed for us- those will be our primaries." Spitfire said, standing up. "Now if you would excuse me, I do have a coffee break waiting for me. I suggest we all take a break- it's been a long meeting. Then we've got an even longer war to fight ahead of us." She said, turning away from the conference table, her holographic image fading.
Then one by one they all left, the dark room slowly growing dimmer and dimmer as the holograms left. The only sources of light left were Neon's glowing eyes and the strips of light running up and down her body.
"Lights, AL." Applebloom said, and the lights turned on. She turned to Halcyon and Neon, who had sat through the meeting with her. "Any thoughts?"
"Yes." Halcyon said, getting up. "I think I prefer tea over coffee." She said, and left.
"Neon?" Applebloom turned to the Warden of Light as Halcyon closed the door behind her.
"I can't eat or drink."
"Of course..." Applebloom muttered, resting her face on the cold metal desk and dosing off just a little.