"I know over the years, you've heard this speech a bunch of times."
"Heard it? Bitch, I wrote it."
Twilight was the only one not laughing at that first exchange between the Boss and one of the strangers standing with her in the cargo bay. The Boss was standing on an upper catwalk while she and six other humans listened. She recognized Shaundi, Pierce, Kinzie, Matt, and... Johnny, but there was also the woman she had encountered briefly before she met Shaundi. She would have to ask the woman's name later, if she remembered.
But thoughts of some other human's name were far, far from the ones that dominated her mind at that moment. Twilight was scared. As the Boss began to make her speech to the rest of the crew, Twilight couldn't bring herself to listen.
As far as she knew, her planet had four hours until it was destroyed. And she had no way to warn them. She could barely keep from crying. It was a wonder that she hadn't already started.
Not only was she unable to contact anypony, but she could already feel the immense pressure weighing on her. She did not doubt the Boss' capabilities, make no mistake. The confident human had given her no reason to doubt her. And yet the unicorn feared failure.
For starters, she did not know the capabilities of the other Saints, and that unnerved her. She had met a good portion of them, but she had only seen what the Boss could do.
Then there was how little she knew about their enemy. For all she observed about the Zin in the Simulation before she began to break down, this Zinyak was an unknown factor. Could he use magic? How strong was he? How smart was he? She knew nothing about this alien or how to fight him.
Neither of these held a candle to the most glaring problem: herself. In the realm of reality, she knew that the Simulation boosted her magical abilities, but she was on her own outside of it. Nothing new, but she could just picture herself running out of magical energy at a terrible time. Then she would die, and by dying, she would fail all of Equus.
Failure and survival were what held her thoughts hostage most. She couldn't easily picture the Boss being killed, but she could certainly see herself in that respect. She kept going over scenarios of her own future ends, imagining how she would die and how her friends, family, and mentor would take the news.
Really, how else could anypony react to such a thing? If one of your best friends/children/students went missing for fifteen months, then turned up dead, the only reasonable response was sorrow.
That was assuming the Boss would even bother to bring her remains home.
The thoughts of her home going up in flames, her friends being murdered, their families viciously ended... It..
It...
Twilight grit her teeth and shook her head, only absently noting the cheering around her and then following everyhuman as they returned to the Simulation room. She moved on autopilot as she now examined not the possibilities and consequences of failure, but herself.
Such apocalyptic thoughts... she wasn't feeling as torn up over the matter as she should have. Instead, she felt angry and determined. Twilight wasn't going deny that such could be useful when push came to shove, but...
"What's happening to me...?" she quietly asked herself her eyes half closed as she came to sit against the wall of the Simulation room, the other humans talking among themselves while the Boss seemingly tried to decide on something. She should have felt something more.
She thought back to the acts of murder she had committed barely fifteen minutes ago. She hit her low, then her enraged high, briefly became rather drunk on the power, turned violent, and then reluctantly admitted that the feeling was incredible. Her conscience nagged at her, bringing her guilt. The rest of her didn't care. "... What has happened to me...?"
In all, she had to side with the apathetic side of herself. After all the shit she had been through since being foalnapped, she told herself, she had a right to feel this way.
The mare bowed her head, allowing herself to become further lost in thought.
---
"I know over the years, you've heard this speech a bunch of times."
"Heard it? Bitch, I wrote it."
The Boss snickered a little at her Chief of Staff's remark before continuing, casting her crimson gaze back over the gathered Saints. "But we need to remember why we do what we do. And today the stakes are even higher."
She started pacing a little on the catwalk as she continued with her speech, noting their newest member's downcast gaze, but ignoring it. "Earth is gone." The President paused very briefly for effect. "It's not coming back and nothing we do today is gonna change that.
"But one thing we can do is get revenge. And you better believe we're showing this motherfucker humanity isn't dead because we're still alive."
A brief, low murmur from her crew, and Twilight was still in apparent shock. "This isn't about hope, or faith, or even about winning," the leader of the Saints continued, letting out a quiet sigh. "Kinzie's right... Those things died on Earth."
The human walked to the railing and gripped it tightly with both hands. "This is about will," she said firmly before adding more energy to her tone. "This is about saying I don't give a shit how many times you knock me down, if I'm still breathing, I'm standing right back up and ya know what?! You can hit as hard as you want 'cause when I hit back, I'm gonna lay your ass out bitch!
"It's our time now!" she yelled, thrusting a fist into the air. "Let's get this shit started!" The Boss breathed a little harder as she finished, taking in the cheers from her small audience while her vision snapped to the unicorn. Still sulking. Surprise surprise.
She ran back to the Simulation room as her crew followed, then watched as everyone else filed in. Kinzie grabbed her laptop, Shaundi and Pierce gathered around one of the terminals in the center, Johnny and Ben stood near a crate and talked, and Matt and Asha seemingly strategized near her Simulation link.
And Twilight was all alone. She sat in the corner of the room, a sort of dead look in her eyes as she stared at some really interesting grey, featureless flooring. As much as she hated how Twilight was acting at a time like this, she could understand, at least. Sympathize, even.
The Zin would reach Equus in roughly three hours and forty-five minutes, and she imagined that if they didn't stop the bastard before then, it would follow Earth. She understood. She just wished that the purple pony could save the "freaking-the-fuck-out" phase for later.
In this line of thought, she had only been able to half listen to what Kinzie was explaining. Something about only taking two crew members for each phase of what would be a three part plan. She could deal with that. The choice was pretty easy, in truth. She approached the two former MI6 agents and gestured towards other Simulation links before stepping into her own and preparing to defend the "key" that would allow them to finally crack the system.
As she was loaded into the Simulation, she had to question why this plan seemed so valid. "... How stupid are these fuckers?"
---
Twilight only looked up once she realized that the Boss, Matt Miller, and that one woman whose name she still had yet to learn were in the Simulation. She cast her gaze towards the link that had been modified for her use, thinking briefly on it before starting to approach it.
"Don't, Twilight!" A sudden yell from Kinzie startled her as her hooves touched the device, glancing at the "hacker" as all eyes turned to her. "The Boss will need you later."
Attention drifted away from her as she backed away from her Simulation link, eying the female critically. That was a rather vague statement, she mused, approaching her but being halted from doing so when somehuman stood in the way.
"Been meanin' to tell ya somethin', girl," came Pierce's voice as he stared... glared down at the unicorn. She grit her teeth and subconsciously backed away a hair, but stood her ground. "I really don't appreciate what you did to the Boss before."
"I know, I know... I said I was sorry," she replied, a tinge of annoyance seeping into her voice by mistake.
"Uh-huh."
"Leave her alone, Pierce," came a sigh from Shaundi, sitting nearby and staring at a bright blue screen. "You wanna tell her off, do it later."
The dark skinned male frowned and crossed his arms, looking back and forth between Twilght and Shaundi before groaning and stepping out of her way. Granted, not before emitting a sincere "I'm watching you."
The equine continued approaching Kinzie until she stood near her. The female was perched rather high up, so she couldn't see the screen of the thing she was working with, but she wasn't really planning on watching. She opened her mouth to speak, but not before the woman shook her head. "Not now. Busy. Need to focus," she hastily emitted, not even giving the mare a glance as she worked.
Twilight sighed and looked around the room impatiently. Nothing to do for now. It was a dangerous kind of boredom she was risking, she told herself, recognizing her likely future of harrowing, fevered thoughts if she just sat idly by and waited. "... I'm... gonna go do something... be right back..." she uttered lowly, only receiving a nod from Kinzie that might not have even been for her.
The unicorn left the room, beginning to explore the ship while looking for something.
Twilight needed to send a letter. She needed to try to contact her friends before she gave up on the prospect. Even if everything went perfectly and Zinyak died without trouble (which she doubted, somehow), she didn't think it was fair to let anypony worry any longer... about her, at least. They still had plenty to worry about given the circumstances. They just needed to know.
She stopped in the rec room first, searching it before quickly finding the Nyteblade comic on the pool table near the shark. She picked it up in her teeth and began looking for a quill and ink, or something else to write with. She would accept crayons, if need be.
Unfortunately, the search was a waste of time. Nothing to write with meant no letter. She returned to the Simulation room with ears lowered, the comic book now open and draped over her barrel. She glanced up at the humans as they looked at her briefly.
... Why not ask them? She immediately felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner.
Twilight approached Kinzie again. The woman held up a hand with a gesture that probably meant to silence her, but she ignored it and spoke quickly. "Is there something I can write with?"
Kinzie paused for several seconds, watching her device intently before speaking. "Once you get in there, you'll-" She cut herself off, for some reason, then cursed under her breath and sighed. She glanced up to the other gathered humans and spoke again. "There's a pen in Miller's pocket. One of you grab it for her." Kinzie then returned her attention to her device. The four other bipeds looked at each other briefly before Shaundi sighed, stood up, approached Matt, and searched him. A few seconds later, the woman presented Twilight with a thin, cylindrical object. It was mostly white, a strange black thing over the end of one. On its side was the word "BIC."
"... Uhhh..." Twilight emitted as she took it in her magic, examining it. Shaundi stared at her for a moment, then sighed, grabbing the black part and pulling it off. With it gone, the object was shorter, with a bronzish colored tip in place of the black thing.
"It's a pen. You write with it," she stated increduously. Twilight looked at it with a raised eyebrow, levitating the comic book off of her back and onto the floor before dragging the "pen" across its surface. It left a perfect trail of black in its path, though considering the texture of the page and its dark color, it was barely visible.
A smile curved Twilight's muzzle. She quickly took the book and pen to an empty corner of the room, flipping through the pages to find the page with the lightest color possible. After finding one that would work, despite its apparent purpose as an advertisement for a place called "Image as Designed," she set her new "pen" to the page and began writing.
In spite of the paper's apparent reluctance to accept the ink, Twilight realized what she was using: a quill with a built in ink well. Why had nopony ever thought of it before?
---
Another beautiful Wednesday afternoon saw Spike the dragon in the Golden Oaks Library once more, the scaly little creature quietly reshelving books while his new boss, Wonder Wine - a middle aged unicorn stallion - helped him out. Wine's name was quite fitting, judging by how his coat, mane, and tail were wine-ish colors and his cutie mark was a pair of crossed bottles. He peered at spines through his glasses with relative indifference before reshelving each, occasionally casting a glance over to his young employee to check on him.
The baby dragon had been without a real caretaker for a little over fifteen months. He'd been counting the days, going through a rather alarming number of calendars due to his grief.
When Twilight had vanished, she had done so without a single trace. The last thing he had seen her doing was studying at a desk just two feet behind him. She had had yet another mountain of books piled up on the desk and a copy of The School of Enchanting: Intermediate Edition open to page 213, with a graph on the magical drains of several large area-of-effect enchantments.
One evening, Spike had returned from a long day helping Rarity, seeing the violet bookworm poring over that textbook intently. He greeted her and ventured up to their room to look for a special gem he had been saving. Before he could even take a bite, however, he heard a very odd, blunt sounding noise come from the library proper.
When he returned, Twilight Sparkle was gone.
Initially, Spike was confused. Where could she have gone in such a short time? But as he searched, found nothing, allowed a day to pass, and asked the other Elements of Harmony, he feared the worst.
For months, the little dragon had searched, assisting everypony he could in searching for her. Suffice to say, their search led them over the whole of Equestria, anywhere within reach where he could search in safety. And even then, the depths of the Everfree forest, the heart of the badlands, and even the coldest of the northern mountain ranges hadn't kept the desperate drake from looking on his own. He was lucky to be alive, to say the least.
After many months, in his despair, he gave up searching. Princess Celestia had offered him a home at the castle, but Spike vehemently refused. He begged to be allowed to stay in Ponyville and eventually the Princess agreed.
Rarity, ever the generous mare, took him in. She gave him a place to stay, fed him, did her best to be the best... mother that she could be to him. But even living with his crush could not and did not help him. He had merely existed.
When the Golden Oaks Library became open to a new resident, Spike immediately jumped on it, but due to his age, he could not own it. Instead, Wonder Wine had come along. He had heard about Spike's foolish, desperate lone searches for Twilight and offered him sympathy and a job.
Spike had taken the job, but had proven himself to be... quite the headache. Wine had to endure daily searches of his bedroom by the displaced dragon, and the desk that Twilight had been seated at before had been viciously (even violently, on one occasion) defended. Not a single book would be touched or checked out. Not a single page would be turned. Not a single speck of dust would be tolerated. The only changes to that space were the signs he had erected around it. "DO NOT TOUCH!"
Wine understood, even if he didn't like it. Spike had said as much. "When she comes back..." he said with a small amount of hope. "I want everything to be exactly as she left it."
He had kept his own word since then, and everything was still exactly as his caretaker had left it. The library had many more patrons than before (it was no longer merely a home, after all), and there was much more work to do, but the little dragon was doing his best.
Still, on such a beautiful afternoon, there were only one or two ponies actually browsing the shelves. It had allowed the tree's new resident and his employee to catch up.
Wine sighed softly as he placed the last book from his cart on the shelves, smiling as he glanced at the baby dragon. "Alright. I'm gonna go grab some lunch," he stated. "Want anything?"
As usual he thought on it for a moment before shaking his head, which seemed to satisfy his boss and get him to leave the library. Spike was as alone as he could be these days. Alone with his thoughts. He very carefully shelved the last book on his own cart before sitting gently against the leg of the desk, sighing deeply. He closed his eyes and began to whisper to himself.
"Hey Twilight..." he began, trying to imagine the mare that hatched him standing in front of him. "Pinkie Pie visited me at Rarity's yesterday. She said she had a dream about you. I guess you were back with us and we were all gender swapped or something. ... I uh... don't remember much about it, but it was funny the way she told me... I can't remember laughing that hard in... wow... I can't even remember..."
He took a deep breath, imagining her smiling at him. It made him smile just a little, even if what he saw wasn't real. But as sad as it was, he knew it was all he could ever have. Twilight was... probably dead. There was no way that she could be gone this long - without any explanation or slightest clue - without having died. As long as there was life in her, she wouldn't give up. She wouldn't stop trying to come back home. She would do anything to return, to see her friends, the Princesses, him.
She must be gone. Spike just didn't want to believe it.
His fantasies would have gone on further had he not heard something strange, but undoubtedly familiar from behind him. The sound of teleportation. He gasped loudly, his reptilian eyes shooting open as he stood up and scanned for the offender. Oddly enough, nopony was there. He frowned and rubbed at his chin, looking around briefly before finding a chair nearby and pulling it up to Twilight's desk. He hopped up on it and glanced at the surface of the literature laden piece of furniture.
His eyes immediately narrowed angrily. Somepony had teleported garbage onto the desk. "Really!?" he couldn't help shouting, immediately grimacing at his own volume before carefully climbing onto the desk to grab the piece of paper. It felt like the kind of paper that comic books were made out of, and it wasn't in terrible shape. There were a few small holes in the paper, but only a few.
What struck him, though, was what he saw on the side he looked at. The word "Nyteblade" was written in a sort of background to nothing. He had no idea what it meant, but he hadn't heard that word tossed around in any comic shop he'd been in.
He idly flipped the page over and then raised an eyebrow. On the other side appeared to be an advert of some kind with some very strange figure with light skin standing in some sort of pose. However, he quickly noticed something else about the page: writing. It was small, likely to help fit the sheer amount of writing on that one page. He began to read.
"I desperately hope that somepony, anypony at all, finds and reads this message quickly. There isn't much time to explain. My name is Twilight Sparkle-"
Spike's entire body went rigid, his eyes becoming wide seas of white with green reptilian pinpricks while his mouth hung slightly agape.
"T-T-Twilight...?" he uttered breathlessly, now breathing heavily as he held the desk intruding page tightly and feverishly continued reading.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. I apparently was foalnapped 1 year, 3 months, and 16 days ago by a being named Zinyak."
The dragon then raised an eyebrow, doing some quick addition in his head. He was good at addition! When he got his number, his grin widened ridiculously. 473 days! It really was Twilight! The baby dragon nearly fainted. His long lost caretaker, his best friend had finally sent word! He wanted to scream and cheer, but he kept reading.
"I know this is crazy, but if you don't act on what I say here, the entire planet is doomed!"
Spike frowned a little at that. He didn't doubt the message's authenticity anymore, but impending planet doom seemed pretty out there, even for Twilight.
"As of the time of writing this letter, the Zin are flying towards Equus at a pace that will allow them to reach you in 3 hours and 28 minutes. They intend to invade. They've apparently already conquered several planets and even destroyed one fully.
If you find this letter, seek out Spike the dragon immediately and give him this message. If you ARE Spike, I'm sorry I can't say more than this. I'm alright. I'm sorry for any worry I've caused you, but right now, you need to focus. If you're reading this, Spike, send this letter to Princess Celestia IMMEDIATELY. There's absolutely no time to lose."
Spike's happiness began to decay as he continued reading, not with uncontained glee, but with determination. Twilight was giving him a mission! He kept reading.
"Everypony needs to take shelter. The Royal Guard must help everypony hide. From what little I've seen, the Zin are much more technologically advanced than anything we have on Equus. If they reach the planet, it's over. Princess Celestia, you are their only hope if it comes to this.
With luck, though, it won't. I was rescued from the Zin by a small group of 'humans' that call themselves the 'Saints.' I am now one of them, but I digress. As I write this letter, the Saints and I are attempting a plan that, if all goes smoothly, will kill the Zin emperor, Zinyak, the one who foalnapped me."
Spike's eyes widened again as he read that line again. Twilight... a killer? ... Impossible. He was nearing the bottom of the page, however, so he continued quickly.
"If we succeed, the invasion will never come. And if I survive, the Saints have promised to return me to my home.
Spike, if you're reading this... I miss you. I miss you so fucking much. I miss everypony. I wish I could explain more, and tell you for sure that everything will be alright, but I simply don't have enough time. If I survive, and we succeed, I'll see you in around 4 hours. Please, hurry Spike.
-Twilight Sparkle"
Spike stared at the last portions of the message for a short while, digesting everying... wrong with it. The constant allusion to her potential future demise, that swear word, the concept of Twilight Sparkle killing somepony... A part of him wanted to tear up the page, find the pony responsible for such a cruel prank, and to beat them down with the biggest, heaviest object he could find.
The rest of him puffed up his chest, took a deep breath, and blew his dragonfire on the page to carry out his instructions. Once he had done so, he began dashing towards the entrance of the library, leaving the hollow tree to run and tell everypony else.
He didn't get further than the first few steps outside as Princess Celestia teleported directly in front of him, then teleported away to gather the remaining Elements of Harmony.