//------------------------------//
// 17. Worlds Collide 
// Story: Project Eclipse 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

Filly waited a while after the Counselor left before turning to E. “Do you want to do it?” she asked, frowning.
“I’m… not sure,” the colt replied, frowning. “I mean, this operation sounds very dangerous, but you heard what the Counselor said; it might help me recover.”
She snorted. “Right, that’s their only reason for doing that. That’s why they-”
E interrupted her. “Yeah, I know, I’ve figured out that it’s another experiment for them, too. But it might be my only chance of getting back to top form.”
As if to substantiate his words, he shook and had to propel himself with a hoof to not fall down on the bed. “You seemed to do well during the night,” Filly said, worried, as she wrapped her wing around him.
“My grip on my own body seems to come and go,” he explained weekly, blushing. “So… what do you think I should do? I mean, it’s kinda your decision as well.”
Filly snorted again. “In case you forgot, the operation doesn’t pose any risk to me, not with my regeneration power.”
“But it means that they won’t be able to sedate you, as none of the drugs work on you,” E pointed out for her.
“That diamond fucker cut me in half and burned me. I’m pretty sure the operation will be like acupuncture compared to that. You, on the other hoof…” Filly trailed off, searching for the right way to describe what the Counselor had told them. “They are going to go knife happy on your back.”
E shuddered at the mental image. “But the Counselor assured us that the risk was minimal… after all, they wouldn’t want to lose either of us, right?”
“I suppose…” Filly replied after pondering a few seconds on that. “And they certainly wouldn’t like what I would do to them. So… does that mean you’ll agree?”
E sighed. “I… I’d hate being useless. Back when we fought the Emperor and I saw you fall, I was more scared that I ever remember being. I know your wounds can heal almost instantly, but still…” Filly hugged him a bit tighter. “I know you’re strong. Very strong, Number One,” he added, smiling. “But I want to be able to keep up with you.”
The pegasus kissed him on the cheek. “If that’s how you feel, then okay. And hay,” she added, smirking, “I’ll get to say that I’m inside you.”
They both snorted with laughter.





Cant didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.
As soon as he woke up, he realized that Crys wasn’t in their quarters, but before he could set out to look about her, all the agents were called in to the Briefing Room.
Now he was there, as well as the others… except for Crys.
She wasn’t the only one missing. Absent were also Filly and E. However, Cant hadn’t put much thought into their absence; E was still recovering from their fight with the Emperor. While Los, who was also recovering, and still technically confined to infirmary, was present, Filly was a different kind of stubborn. Knowing her, she probably had told him to ignore the call.
Crys, however…
Their argument from last night echoed in Cant’s mind. He knew how much it mattered to her to be Number One. “Did she go to the Director?” he mused, recalling that he still hadn’t decided which three among the agents would undergo further Augmentation. Did she go to him to ask if she could be chosen? Cant knew her; if further Augmentation would help her resume her spot as Number One, she wouldn’t care about possible consequences.
Even though it’s been years since the agents had been Augmented, Cant never forgot how painful it was. Nor did he forget about the three worst cases; that of Filly, Trot and E.
He glanced at his fellow earth pony, the only one of those three currently present. After his Augmentation Process, he had suffered several panic attacks for a few days afterwards, had trouble eating, had been dizzy, couldn’t sleep well and had a few hallucinations.
Cant was about to ask him how he would react if he was offered a chance to get further Augmented, but at that moment the door of the Briefing Room opened. Along with everypony else, he stood up at attention as the Director entered.
“At ease,” he told them, trotting towards the center of the Briefing Room.
“Sir,” Cant quickly spoke up as everypony else sat down, “agents Crystal, Eastin and Fillydelphia are missing-”
“I am not blind, Agent Canterlot,” the Director cut him off.
Cant clenched his jaw tightly to stop himself from uttering another word. Since the Director didn’t appear to be surprised about the absence of three agents, he already knew about it beforehoof.
He didn’t like it.
“Agents,” the Director started, looking at them attentively, “as you might recall, prior to this whole incident with the Diamond Empire, you’d been told that we’ve discovered a way to further enhance the abilities you’ve been granted by Augmentation Process. We also told you that we have the resources to perform this operation on only three of you, and that those three who will receive this offer will be chosen based on your performance during the mission.”
“So does that mean that Agents Eastin, Fillydelphia and Crystal were chosen?” Mane asked, frowning.
Cant knew he thought the same thing as he did. That after what E and Filly went through during their Augmentation, neither would agree to undergo whatever this operation entailed.
“Agent Crystal had been chosen, indeed,” the Director replied, “and is now being prepped for the operation.” Cant cursed inwardly; why didn’t she come tell him? He knew he couldn’t talk her out of this decision - which, after some of the Director’s actions, he began to believe might be a wrong one - but he still would have wanted to wish her good luck. Worried and angry, he resigned to listening to the Director’s further explanation. “Agents Eastin and Fillydelphia, however, were not. Their absence is related to Agent Eastin’s recovery, that’s all you will learn at this point.”
Mane, Trot and Cloud’s expressions mirrored Cant’s own. Even Balti, Hoof and Los looked worried, and they weren’t as close friends with E as they. Why couldn’t the Director tell them?
“The other two agents that were chosen to get further Augmented,” the black unicorn continued, ignoring the looks they were giving him, “are Agent Los Pegasus and Agent Baltimare.” Cant frowned, surprised, as the others congratulated them quietly. Why did the Director choose them? “You have time until midnight to decide whether you will accept this chance or not,” the Director continued. “If you do, we will schedule your operations for the day after tomorrow. Now, moving on to another matter,” he said, flaring his horn. An image of the Diamond City appeared on the table, just like the previous time when they had gathered in this room. “We’ve finished securing anything of scientific or military value from Diamond City. There weren’t many of such objects; a lot had been destroyed in your battles with the diamond dogs. As per Agent Crystal’s suggestion, we’ve given the hole where you’ve buried the draconequus a wide breadth; the blood samples she had brought are enough to learn about his species. But more importantly, between the Harmony Orbs, and several other magical artifacts, the Counselor and I had decided that we are ready for the next step of Project Eclipse’s goal.”
Cant hoped he hid his worry well when the Director turned to look at him. “As some might recall, Agents Canterlot and Crystal were sent out to scout a certain location. That location will be where your next mission will take place. The Simulation Room is ready with a basic mission scenario, you will go to train as soon as Agent Canterlot gives you a description of that location, along with its inhabitants. Do I make myself clear?”
That last part wasn’t directed to all of them as the others probably thought, but to Cant. He understood that the Director had just told him to not tell anypony anything else. Like, for example, that those inhabitants were the source of the essence they used to Augment all of them.
Or that this location wasn’t on Equestria…
“Yes, sir!” he replied along with everypony, full of bad feelings.
“I must go oversee the operation of Agent Crystal,” the Director told them, turning to leave. “Agent Canterlot, you’re in command.”
Resigned, he nodded reluctantly and moved to the table. “The location is a city in a desert,” he started, pressing runes and gems around the table. The enhancements reacted to his thoughts and conveyed his thoughts, conjuring an image of a crude stone city, with several levitating crystals scattered through it and some more elegant buildings that Crys thought must have been built by somebody else. “It, along with the surrounding area, is populated heavily with insectoid beasts and insectoid people.”
He watched with mixed emotions as the ponies he’d came to call friends looked at the images of the very creatures that he and Crystal had captured and brought back. That each of them had been augmented with their modified essences. Each was of a different shape and size, even those that weren’t beasts. Though the strange race was divided into several types, they were similar to ponies in that regard. Except where the difference between pegasi, unicorn and earth pony was minimal…
One type had a lithe build, similar to some other two-legged creatures he and Crys had observed. However, unlike them, they had long insectoid wings. Cant wasn’t able to tell where its clothes ended and where chitin began, but he didn’t want to ask the Director what the necropsy results on that matter were. Also, every single bug from this type seemed female.
The other was massive, towering over ponies, and had pincer-like claws, a horn, and was the most common.
The last type was the one used to augment E.
Cant spared the strange tall being with multiple legs a long glance before he continued. “They are also able to use magic, and have used it to create defenders of stone to guard their city.”
They didn’t get to know them as those insects, but he and Crys got a good look at them; tall and huge constructs with faces similar to that of diamond dogs, and four legged cat-like things made of obsidian with wings.
“This is the location of our next objective,” Cant said, wondering just what that objective was supposed to be. “The city of Ahn’Qiraj.”





Slowly, consciousness returned to him. E opened his eyes. Almost immediately, he found himself staring into Filly’s eyes.
“Hi,” he muttered weakly. She kissed him on the nose. “How long was I out? And was the operation a success?” he asked, raising his head.
“Only a couple of hours,” Filly replied. “As for the operation… you tell me.”
Realizing that he was lying on his stomach, E turned his head to look at his back.
A scar ran above his spine, ending somewhere below his ribs. And on the opposite side of it where two new appendages.
Filly’s wings.
E forced himself not to panic. He knew what he was getting into. He knew when he agreed that he was about to be inevitably altered, even more than when he underwent the Augmentation Process. But the Director and Counselor had come to a conclusion that transplanting a part of Filly’s body into his was the only way to stabilize his nervous system after the trauma it suffered during the fight with the Diamond Emperor. A piece of her spine was the most obvious choice, but since there was a risk that his body would reject it, due to his earth pony magic, they had to ensure that his body would also posses a pegasus magic.
So they gave him her wings as well.
“How do you feel?” he heard Filly ask him.
How did he feel? E closed his eyes. He felt… better than during the last few days. He regained ‘consciousness’ of his whole body, he didn’t feel that any part of his body was numb or anything like that. He could even feel his new limbs on his back, even though he hadn’t yet figured out how to move them.
Turning to Filly, he smiled. “Better.”





“Agent Crystal?” he heard the voice of the Counselor ask her as she woke up. “How do you feel?”
“Worried, intrigued,” she almost replied, but then blinked. Why did she feel like that? Shaking her head, she replied instead, looking around, “Good.”
She was in the infirmary. The clock on the drawer told her that she had been here for only three hours. Crys was relieved; the Counselor and the Director were the only ones in the room. She was worried that Cant wasn’t here, but considering the time he must have still been training.
Almost as soon as she thought of Cant, she suddenly became increasingly worried. She was afraid. She was determined; felt annoyed, felt loved-
“Agent Crystal, what’s wrong?” the Counselor asked her as she grabbed her head, but she wasn’t listening to him.
What was wrong with her?! Why was she feeling as if she had thousand different emotions all at the same time!?