"Hello, Epsilon," Carolina growled, slowly walking towards him. "It's been too long since you stabbed me in the throat. I've been meaning to have a little chat with you ever since we came back."
As Carolina neared the group, she was stopped when her armor began to glow gold. Looking around, she saw the source of what was stopping her.
"I will not have any blood shed under my watch," Celestia said slowly, releasing the bind on the vengeful ex-Freelancer. Looking to the others, she bowed her head slightly. "I realize that this comes as a rather large surprise to you, but understand that it was not my doing. When you... incapacitated her, I had to keep her body safe."
"You kept her here? Do you know how dangerous that was? She's a murderer!" Church snapped.
"Guess we're two of a kind, then, aren't we?" she asked harshly.
"She was no longer living, nor did I have the intention to bring her back," Celestia explained. "We were simply guarding her from everything else. If I were to have buried her somewhere, I feared that somepony might find out about her and bring her back to use as a soldier."
"So what, she's your personal guard now? Keeping her as a special unit to take out Discord?"
"No. She said she was going to send me back, and now it looks as if that opportunity has arrived," Carolina said, hand still hanging over her gun. "If the Director is involved in any way, I intend to find out and kill him. If he isn't, then I'm going to help deal with this Discord or whatever problem, then I'm leaving you guys behind and going after him by myself."
"You seem to be taking this situation well," Simmons said quietly.
"That's because I don't fully believe it is happening. And I don't care. What I do care about is leaving this place and resuming what I planned on doing when I came in here. Looking for a way to find the Director."
"And you're just up for letting her do that?" Church asked.
"As she has explained to me, the Director is a war criminal. What he has done to you, as well as her past colleagues is an inexcusable offense. Though I do not agree with harming him, I do agree with justice."
"So the white horse gave me the go-ahead to go back home and finish the job," Carolina said, hands clenching into fists.
"Her name is Princess Celestia," Twilight said sternly, beginning to go towards her. Carolina then shifted her sight to Twilight, making her freeze in place.
"Again, I don't really care all that much," she growled, then looked around the room and noticed that there was a certain black mare squinting at her. "What are you looking at?"
"Don't you remember me?" Tex asked in an icy tone, glaring at her.
"Texas?" Carolina asked in anger when she recognized the black pony's voice. Her finger's tightened on her pistol as she gazed around the room and studied the looks of the unfamiliar ponies. Or rather, the ponies that had a certain air of familiarity to them, but one she could not place. "Where do I know you from?"
"It is good to see you are well, Agent Carolina," Delta said indifferently after a few moment's pause.
"Delta?" Carolina asked as she instantly placed the voice, but was now slightly confused. She then glanced at the others and realized who they all were just by the way they looked at her. "How are you all back? When I was with Wash, he said that you were deleted."
"I can explain that," Church grunted, taking a step towards her. "When you killed Caboose, we had to do some stupid shit involving dark magic to bring him back. Since I can't really die, we used me as a trigger to bring him back to life. But when we did that, it brought back all the fragments."
"Except for Eta and Iota," Twilight said carefully. "They came later."
"That's impossible," Carolina growled. "The EMP wiped them out. There is no way they could possibly be back."
"They were gone, but not forgotten," Church retorted. "I survived the EMP, so I brought them back through what little memory I have of them."
"Interesting," Carolina murmured, eyes settling on the fiery orange colt. "Hello, Sigma."
"Agent Carolina," Sigma said cautiously. "It has been far too long."
"I'm not sure if it was long enough. Last I heard, you and a power-hungry Maine were stopped by these idiots before you managed to become all-powerful."
"I would not be so quick to poke fun at me. There is no guarantee your plan for taking out the Director will work either," he countered.
"I'm not sure whose side I should be taking here," Simmons whispered nervously to Grif. "The crazy and angry woman with a gun, or the completely insane artificial intelligence that nearly got us killed multiple times."
"If life has taught me anything, it's better to not argue with the psychotic woman with a weapon that can blow your brains out," Tucker murmured.
"So the girls are staying here, and we're going with Carolina. What about the other fragments? Are you going to send them back out inside each of our brains?" Church asked curiously.
"Please say no," Simmons begged in an instant.
"I am not sure if I am truly able to send Texas and the other fragments back. While they are relatively real here, they are beings of magic. I am not convinced that they would be able to last on the other side. Instead of sending them with you, they will stay here with my sister and I. We do not want them running around unsupervised," Celestia said, then looked to Church. "I am not sure, but the same might go for you, Church."
"I'm not a being of magic, though," Church grumbled.
"But you are. To a certain degree, at least. Do you remember what happened when your friends first rescued you?"
"Yeah, I was angry that they saved me, and more angry when I saw that Carolina wasn't dead," he said instantly. "Then Caboose somehow went into the unit, making their rescue very short lived, so I sent myself in after him."
"And do you recall what happened when you and your friends came into the unit in search of Caboose?"
"We slammed into the ground and found ourselves talking to a bunch of talking horses," Church said.
"I also punched you in the stomach," Sarge chuckled heartily, remembering the short but fond memory.
"Yeah, and Sarge punched me in... the... stomach..." he trailed off, realization setting in as he said the words. When he was rescued, he remembered he was in his AI form, but when he entered the unit after Caboose...
"Magic created a body for you when you came here," Celestia said with a nod. "Should you return back out there, I am sure you will turn back into your translucent state. But since you will still be of that world, you should be able to get somebody to use you as a host."
"And that person would be me," Carolina added.
"What? Not only are you making me possibly chase after Discord, but you're putting me in the hands of that psycho when I'm back out?"
"I am afraid that is your best bet of completing your objective. As I understand, she is more equipped to deal with having something else in her."
"Bow-chicka-bow-wow," Tucker said, then ducked and yelped when Carolina took out her pistol and fired a single bullet over his head. "Hey, watch where you shoot that thing!"
"Then you watch what you say. I have no interest in making friends. I'm only interested in taking out the Director," she growled, holstering the weapon.
"Sister..." Luna grunted, horn glowing dark-sapphire.
"I apologize, but this needs to be done," Celestia said finally, horn beginning to glow. "If you find out that Discord is not involved and you choose not to aid Carolina with the Director, you may come back right away. Should he be involved, however, I expect you to return with him alive and well."
"Good luck," Tex said, offering the guys a hopeful smile.
Before they could say anything else, the Reds, Blues and Carolina were enveloped in a gold flash, returned to the place from whence they came.