Loyalty - The Circle is Now Complete
Twilight opened her eyes as she and the Boss appeared in the streets of Simulated Steelport, the former glancing around frantically to try and see her resurrected mentor. She could not. "... Where is she?" she queried, looking at the Boss as said human rather calmly accessed her "HUB".
"Ehhh... Looks like she's at the airport," the woman replied, seeing her looking at what she presumed to be a map of Steelport. "If you're worried about time, don't be. We could sit here with our thumbs up our asses for hours and the bitch'd be content to do the same."
Labeling these "thumbs" as an "ask later", Twilight walked up next to the biped, watching her from below as she did some other things with the screen before dismissing it. "How in Tartarus does that work?"
The Boss immediately responded with a shrug. "Fucked if I know. But I'm not complaining!" she followed up, summoning her Temptress and appearing inside. Twilight considered teleporting into the passenger seat, but elected to just run over and get in the easy way. She glanced at the Boss briefly and saw her on her HUB again, this time messing with something that seemed to have to do with music.
Before she knew it, some sort of song was playing from somewhere with incredible clarity that a record could never hope to match. The Boss chuckled and started tapping the wheel with her fingers as she sped off, promptly remindng the unicorn to put on that belt before she could potentially be flung through the windshield.
Twilight, however, was not enjoying the music as much as the Boss, instead dreading the encounter that she knew was coming. The fact that her idol's impostor was in the Boss' own Simulation was... nervewracking, to say the least.
But here, things were different. She had her magic here. She wouldn't have to rely on the Boss for protection like she had previously.
Twilight could fight. And she would. As much as she was dreading the encounter, she couldn't help but picture a clash between her and her fake teacher.
She began to fantasize about victory. She imagined herself besting "Celestia," overpowering her through sheer magical might, stomping the alicorn into a messy, mangled pulp... A dark, devious smile curved the mare's muzzle, beginning to fidget in place in anticipation.
Fuck the anxiety, she was excited! ... And as soon as she came to that conclusion, her grin vanished, replaced by a solemn, disappointed frown. She backed up her train of thought and looked at herself.
I was just thinking about killing Princess Celestia... and enjoying it, she informed herself, turning her gaze down to her hooves. Barely even reacting to a sudden skid and collision on the Boss' part, she grit her teeth. What would the real Princess Celestia think if she knew? The thought chilled her to her core, making her shiver in place and shake her head.
"Huh?"
"I said 'What is sh-'"
"No, no, I heard you..." she interrupted, sighing deeply and shaking her head again. "She was my teacher and mentor since I was a filly."
"Meant a lot to you, huh?" the Boss pressed, displaying surprising awareness to the unicorn.
Twilight merely nodded, watching out her window as they zoomed down the road at ridiculous speeds. "And I... can't wait to kill her."
The Boss reacted by grinning and stopping the car in the middle of the road. Ignoring the irritating beeping from the cars behind her, she put the mildly damaged supercar in park and turned her attention to the pony. "That's a good thing," she uttered with certainty. "You start hesitating when we're fighting her, you're gonna get your ass kicked."
Twilight looked the Boss in the eye through those sunglasses of hers, biting her lip as she tried to think of something to say. But she couldn't. What could she possibly say? Both options seemed like lose-lose scenarios.
If she lost her nerve while fighting Celestia, she would likely get herself killed, and perhaps the Boss along with her. If they both died, who knew what could happen?
If she fought the fraudulent Princess... Such violence... She imagined herself going completely and utterly insane...
"Nngh..." she emitted, turning away from the President and staring at her hooves.
---
The last few minutes of their ride were spent in relative silence, only the music playing from nowhere keeping it from becoming awkward. How can any silence be awkward when Haddaway is playing?
Regardless of her musical tastes, the Boss eventually reached the airport as Kinzie began speaking to her over the song.
"The Princess is leading an army of Zin your way," she began as the human got out of the car, ignoring Twilight as she followed suit. "I think she's killable this time, but you'd better not waste time. I don't think Zinyak's going to let you kill her the same way."
"Figures. So, what, no bullshit, just killing?"
"If you two are quick. If her shields go up, you'll need Twilight to keep them down."
The Boss turned to the unicorn - who now stood right beside her - and frowned as the pony just nodded softly.
"Twiliiiight," she pressed, crossing her arms. "Don't do this."
"... I know, I know... I'll do it..." she conceded, shaking her head and sighing. "Doesn't mean I have to like it..."
The Boss had a thought and grinned slightly. "Try. Seriously, don't knock it till you try it."
Twilight winced and shook her head, walking away a little as she started speaking. "I'm not you!" she yelled as the Boss crossed her arms. "... I... I don't like killing! I don't want to kill!"
The human raised an eyebrow and shook her head as well. She was no genius, but she could spot Twilight's brand of bullshit. She wasn't exactly a brilliant liar. "Uh-huh. So your begging to do more Genki earlier was just my imagination?"
The unicorn blinked once, frowned, and stamped her hooves. "Th-That was... was..." she started, her visage angry until she realized that the Boss was right. "... I don't know why I was like that... That wasn't me...." she then tried.
The leader of the Saints gave a disbelieving "mmm-hmmm" in reply, walking towards her before stopping right in front of her in an effort to be imposing. "Wasn't you? It sure looked like you. That, and you seemed pretty damn disappointed when I said 'no' to more Genki."
"I don't care!" the mare yelled, her anger returning as she grit her teeth and seemingly did her best to look big in front of the woman. "I'm not a killer! I don't like it...! I don't..."
The Boss uncrossed her arms and turned away, throwing her hands up in "defeat." "Fine. You just keep telling yourself that," she uttered, looking back over her shoulder as she did so. When she looked ahead, though, she saw what Kinzie had been speaking about.
Indeed, there certainly was an army at the airport, marching down the runway on foot, in their hover cars, hover tanks, hover bikes, and their UFO VTOL things. Never mind the... marauders... Seriously, there were so many motherfucking marauders that the Boss couldn't help but cringe.
And then there was the Princess herself. She was no longer an unstoppable looking giant, but rather a regal, majestic looking thing marching near the back. While only being barely taller than the Zin she was leading, she was still easy to see thanks to that perpetually flowing rainbow sherbet mane of hers.
"... You just keep living in that little world of yours and I'll deal with the giant fucking army of Zin by myself," she uttered with no small amount of salt or guilt tripping. She produced her sniper rifle from her "radial" and leaped onto the terminal building, taking aim immediately and taking shots at the purple unicorn's false idol.
Surprisingly (for her), there was no visible shield, and her shots found purchase squarely in Celestia's chest. And, surprisingly, it seemed to do fuck all. There was an appropriate spray of blood, but the winged unicorn continued to march without even so much as an "ouch." The Boss frowned and reloaded her sniper rifle before using an Ice Buff. She began shooting the seemingly invulnerable equine in the head as rapidly as she could without missing. But again, nothing happened.
Until her clip ran out. As soon as she ran out of ammo, the Boss suddenly found herself suspended over the mare's head with dozens, if not hundreds of weapons trained on her.
"... Fuck." And then they opened fire until the leader of the Saints was little more than a pile of ash.
---
Twilight stood stock still as she watched the Boss being vaporized from afar, shaking in place as she began to breathe heavily. She knew Celestia was powerful - anypony could have told you that - but to effortlessly teleport somehuman like that and hold them in the air to be filled with whatever the Zin were using as weapons...
It was a grievous abuse of magic. And it made her angry. The violet mare did not mourn for the death of the President, but rather, she quietly tried to contain her building fury.
She paused for a second. Her eyes went wide. The Boss had just died. "... Oh no... Oh no no no no no..." she uttered softly prompting a three tone noise from the air.
"What's with you?" came a quizzical quip from the Boss' "hacker" friend.
"Th-The Boss is dead!" she yelled, taking a few steps back towards the Boss' unoccupied Temptress.
"No she's not."
"... What? B-But I j-"
Kinzie emitted an irate sigh, as if she were trying to teach a concept to a difficult student. "You realize that nothing in the Simulation is real, right?" she began, getting Twilight to nod a little. She had guessed that much based on the Boss' change in wardrobe between the Simulation and the ship, never mind the constant " shimmering" of the environment. "If she dies, the Simulation revives her at a hospital and takes her money. She's probably running your way right now."
Twilight looked to the west to search for the human, but didn't see her. She frowned slightly, and turned her attention back to the army. The horde of Zin was slowly drawing closer, but were still far enough away - it seemed - for them to not be firing at her yet.
"Either way, nothing in this Simulation is real. You can do whatever you want, really. Go insane if you want. No consequences." Kinzie stopped talking briefly and Twilight could faintly hear her having a conversation with somehuman else. She couldn't understand them, but she knew they were there. "Look, just keep the Zin in the airport, alright? It's a big, open area, there's plenty of space for you to unleash hell, and there's plenty of big, exploding objects for you to throw. Now go!"
The unicorn gulped as she listened, already teleporting onto a nearby roof and then to a point somewhere behind the advancing army. Upon further inspection, she noted that the apparent tower was probably further from them than she was previously. And she was okay with that. For as little as she liked procrastination, she had very few problems with putting off fighting.
Twilight Sparkle examined her immediate surroundings. From her tower, she could see several large objects with huge, solid wings near the largest buildings, as well as a few smaller ones and the occasional car near the tower itself. She had no shortage of objects to throw at the Zin, but she also had to factor in the utter fraud leading them all. The unicorn had no problems imagining her plucking them out of the air and either destroying them or putting them on a high speed "return to sender" course.
As she thought on her options, though, the horde of Zin began making a change in their course, instead turning to march towards her. As they did, the smaller of the two types of flying object began to advance on her, the "tanks" firing huge, slow moving blasts at her position. She gasped and backed away from the edge of the tower, leaping away just in time to avoid the glowing projectiles. Several missed, but a few hit the tower itself; the heat from the explosions was incredible.
She didn't have a lot of time to think, however, as half a dozen of the mounted Zin floated into her sight, their vehicles firing thin beams of red... something that impacted on her sides and back. "Aghhh!" she cried, teleporting off of the tower and reappearing near one of the giant winged vehicles. A hail of laser fire tore through the place where she once stood, if only briefly, as the sources began to approach her new position.
"BOSS!" she cried, gritting her teeth as she half-planned, half-panicked. "I could use some help!"
---
The Boss whistled as she browsed the inventory of the nearest Friendly Fire, letting her sniper rifle, Violator, and H.M.D. be coded out of existence temporarily as she replaced them with a new set of virtual killing implements.
"She just needs to see how fun this is..." she said to herself as a familiar pair of weights appeared on both shoulders, making her grin wildly. Her business concluded, the President needlessly shot the clerk and took off towards Wesley Cutter International.
---
Kinzie sighed as she watched Twilight Sparkle dodging and thinking through one feed and the Boss shopping through another, shaking her head at the two. For all the trouble that they had gone through, she would've thought that this little pony would be more worth it. There was no denying that they had done a good deed, saving her, and Kinzie did feel better for it, but as the false alicorn and her forces advanced on Twilight more and more, "savior's remorse" now set in.
Still, thinking ahead, there were potential future benefits to saving an alien not allied with the Zin. The first that came to mind was returning the mare home as a gesture of goodwill, potentially setting the stage for trade, alliances, perhaps even a home. Provided the President didn't do something stupid first.
The hacker shook her head and rolled her eyes behind her glasses, rubbing the back of her neck and rolling her head with a quiet but satisfying crack. Of course, she had to plan around the Boss and her bullshit. Someone had once said something along the lines of "Plan A never works." Of course it didn't. If it did, it was either a trap or dumb luck. Or the Boss. Plan B was usually the way to go. Assuming the Boss wouldn't offend alien royalty was a huge risk.
More likely was a win-lose scenario of some sort, it seemed. Especially the first one that came to mind. They'd kill Zinyak, take Twilight to her home planet, and upon meeting royalty, the Boss would theoretically do one of two things:
She would be herself.
Or she would provoke the other ponies, and then be herself.
... Other ponies... She briefly paused as she recalled Twilight's request. "... Don't see why not," she uttered as she picked up her laptop and got off of her huge beanbag chair. "MILLER!" she called, heading towards the cargo bay. A short walk brought her to Miller's couch, where she found the little bitch on his ass playing a game. "Miller, go keep track of the Boss and Twilight," the former fed demanded, frowning as the black haired male glared over his handheld of choice.
"Why? She prefers your voice droning in her ears," he retorted rather calmly, returning to his game.
Kinzie shook her head and snatched it from him, prompting a "Hey!" as he leaped up to try and reclaim it. "Not until you delete those nudes you got of me," she replied. The British hacker froze as his eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. A perfect "oh shit" look. Kinzie smirked a slight smirk and pointed to the door, and Miller left the cargo bay.
A moment later, the self proclaimed "cyber god" was in the Simulation room and Kinzie was on her beanbag, cracking her knuckles before getting to her hacking.
---
Twilight panted as she fled from the Zin, dodging lasers and occasionally tossing an object or two at them to try and deter them. She reluctantly teleported away when they got too close, due to its usual drain on her magic, but the more she used it, the more she came to realize something.
Her magic barely seemed affected by the spells she cast. She should have felt more drained by the heavier she was occasionally slinging, yet the strain it put on her was all but nonexistent.
She had to wonder why. Maybe it was just the Simulation? She'd have to ask Kinzie. Either way, she began to ponder the possibilities...
Maybe it was time to dig up some of those offensive spells. Twilight allowed a slight smile to curve her muzzle at the prospect. She had never had a reason to use such magic before, but she did know it.
She shook her head as she teleported away again, frowning. The Boss was wrong. She wasn't a killer. She refused to become a killer. What happened before was... was...
"What was that?" she asked herself, her eyes widening at the revelation. There was no excuse. No justification. She had ways to do so, but as she thought about them more, she just couldn't picture herself actually saying it without sounding juvenile, desperate, or stupid.
Snapping back to reality for a moment and teleporting away yet again when she was found, Twilight Sparkle grit her teeth. "... I killed those humans," she reminded herself aloud, the words bitter on her tongue. "Fake or not, I killed them with a fucking smile on my face..." The thought horrified her. Indeed, it didn't matter whether or not those oddly clothed humans were real or not, nor if they were ponies or not. She had killed them. She had enjoyed it. She began trying to justify it again anyway, telling herself that she was afraid of refusing the Boss and being attacked.
Twilight felt tears welling up in her eyes as she subsequently rejected that line of thinking. It didn't change the fact that she had killed both during that "Mind Over Murder" game AND while the Boss had been stomping around the city.
"... I'm a fucking monster..." she uttered guiltily, quietly. Twilight only regretted her vulgar choice of words for a second before making a much easier admission to herself: she couldn't care less about her language anymore. There was no point in censoring herself.
Teleporting again to that tower - hiding behind it this time as the army changed course to follow her - she sat on her haunches, silently crying as she repeated those four words again and again. Her ears twitched as she heard the one named Matt Miller say something in "Kinziespeak", but the mare wasn't listening.
Why bother?
Twilight began to picture herself returning home a killer. She could try to not tell her friends about her crime. She could keep it to herself and nopony would ever have to know. But the rational side of her argued how much that would ruin her. It would eat away at her until she either caved in and confessed or went insane trying, possibly doing something she would regret.
She might kill again.
Twilight only barely realized she needed to teleport again in time, narrowly avoiding being blown up by tank fire as she reappeared on the opposite side of the "airport." She began to loudly sob, again missing what Matt was saying as she wallowed in despair.
Twilight Sparkle had never considered suicide before.
---
The Boss pulled the trigger as she stopped sprinting on a runway, aiming her "Industrial" Dubstep Gun at the army and beginning to open fire. The musical beams and waves impacted on some of the Zin, but it did very, very little. It took an entire charge to kill just one soldier. "Maybe I should actually upgrade this thing some," she said to herself before looking skyward. "Hey Kinzie!"
"It's Matt, actually," the very same replied, seeming rather irate about something. "Kinzie's doing something."
"Oh... Okay then. Hey Matt! I know I don't use the Dubstep Gun... ever... but it was never this weak!"
Miller was quiet for a moment, leaving the Boss time to whip out her acidic rubber band guns to try plinking away at another Zin grunt. To little effect.
"Well, it turns out that that shield went up while you... went shopping?" Matt seemed disappointed now. "Princess Celestia brought an army into the Simulation and you were shopping?!"
"Yeah." The President of the United States could have sworn she heard Matt let out a sigh-covered "women." "You watch your mouth, motherfucker," she reminded him. "Now get Twilight some superpowers or something."
---
The unicorn sobbed as she teleported again, this time feeling the pain of a single laser blast that had hit her flank. It burned, yet she felt like she could take a few more if needed.
Until she realized why all of this was happening. The reason she was in this Simulation in the first place. Or in fake Ponyville before then, even.
The Zin. Zinyak.
Thinking about them made her blood boil, her bloodshot eyes opening as sorrow and guilt began to contend with rage and wrath. The Zin... Those bastards! If it weren't for them, she could have been at home with her friends. With Spike. With the real Princess Celestia.
Instead she had spent the last year and a quarter trapped in a nightmare where everypony she knew and loved had turned on her. Her absence was no doubt making everypony at home miserable. And she didn't even know if they were still alive. They could be on Zinyak's ship, being subjected to their own personal Tartarus for all she knew.
And while her rescuers, these Saints, had freed her and made promises of a safe return in exchange for her help, she couldn't help but see them as just a new set of jailors.
But she understood why. They had already experienced what could or already had happened to Equus. Their home was gone, their race all but eradicated, their loved ones dead. Theirs was a mission of vengeance. The Saints had already lost everything, and now wanted their shot back at the motherfuckers responsible. Trapped as she felt she was with them, she didn't blame them.
Twilight began to breathe heavily through her nostrils, her horn glowing a violent violet of its own accord. It was the Zin. The Zin were the ones responsible for her misery, her despair, her pain, her anger, her hatred.
Everything.
She grit her teeth as she growled a furious growl, channeling an immense amount of magic. "You bastards..." she uttered lowly, deeply, going through her known attack magic to remember how to use it. She stepped out of cover and glared at the army being led by a false representation of her idol, marching about a hundred yards away and in her direction.
"You're all... going to fucking pay..." she managed again, casting the most powerful barrier she could without regard for the drain it might have. The Zin opened fire with what seemed like everything they had, virtually hundreds of beams and explosives impacting on her violet shield.
"You ruined my life! You ruined everypony's life!" she yelled, rational thought now lost to her as her vision turned red. She lowered her head and fired a long column of magical flame through her barrier, setting the first line of Zin ablaze while disregarding the colorful beams being fired by a distant black figure.
"Now I'll end yours!!" Twilight's voice continued to grow as her eyes began to glow, turning her attention to the fliers trying to get behind her shield. She regarded them with utter ire, grasping them in her telekinesis and pulling them down to the ground as fast as magic itself would allow. The resulting craters were very, very deep. Casting a voice amplification spell on herself, she screamed one more word.
"DIIIIIIIIEE!!!"
---
The Boss heard every word that the unicorn had said somehow, even over her own gunfire, the laser fire of the Zin's weaponry, and the pretty okay sounds of Men Without Hats.
And the following display of Twilight's magic made the Boss glad that Twilight was on her side. And that the Simulation didn't simulate bodily needs. Seeing the <XOR>s and <VOID>s being buried in the tarmac, the Zin being set on fire, and the powerful glowy eyes that her equine comerade was sporting reminded her very vividly of her latest near-death experience.
Twilight was not one to be trifled with; the Boss knew that already. Her magic could easily rip her apart if she gave the lavender pony a reason to. And indeed, she already had one.
The Boss frowned and looked down as she put away her Dubstep Gun, instead producing her RPG to begin putting rockets into the Celestia's forces. She felt... something. Something she hadn't felt in a very, very long time. Not since her Stilwater days, in fact.
Legitimate fear.
She chuckled a little as she realized what she was admitting to herself, putting another rocket into her medieval launcher and firing immediately. She was afraid of a magical talking purple unicorn. It would've sounded crazy in any other circumstance, yet watching as Twilight screamed and created a huge sphere of purple, magicky death, she no longer felt so ridiculous about it.
"Boss, you might want to run," Matt warned her as the ball continued to grow bigger, taking his advice and super sprinting far away from the army and equine.
"So, what is Kinzie doing?" she asked as she ran looking up at the sky to address the former Decker.
"I don't know," Matt replied defensively, seeming nervous despite the busy key tapping that could be faintly heard over all the other noise. "When a woman like her has dirt, I'd rather not ask questions."
The Boss was quiet for a few seconds, then let a knowing smirk curve her lips as she stopped running to observe the impending fireworks. "She found those nudes, huh?"
A pause. "... H-How did you know?"
"Kinzie told me, what, a week ago?" she replied quickly, now wishing for her sniper rifle as the sight of distant heads begged for bullets.
Matt went quiet for several seconds after that, giving the Boss time enough to see the fruit of an enraged equine's efforts. When that magic death ball was "big enough," the unicorn brought it down on the sizeable remaining Zin force.
"Whooaaa..." the leader of the Saints emitted as she bore witness to one of the best explosions she had ever seen. It slammed into the runway and burst, the violet light bright enough to blind as it disintegrated every single one of Sunbutt's troops.
She was certainly glad to be wearing sunglasses, that much was certain. As the glow faded and the destruction became visible, the Boss grinned widely and began to laugh.
The Zin were gone. In their place, smoke. And as the icing on the proverbial cake, the most appropriate song began playing.
And Twilight now seemed to be wearing the most appropriate garb.
---
"You got the touch!
You got the powaaaah!
Yeah!"
Twilight panted heavily as her eyes ceased to glow, staring down at the ground as her vision blurred slightly. Despite the Simulation's apparent magical empowerment, she couldn't help but feel tired.
But incredibly empowered. She felt fantastic! She grinned a wide grin and reared her head back, unable to help a loud, long laugh. "... I do have the power~!" she cackled, as her vision became clearer.
She realized she was now clothed.
Adorning most of her body was a brown and white robe of some kind, a belt around her barrel and her legs fully wrapped. It was comfortable, but that didn't hold a candlle to what came with it.
Wings. Actual wings. Experimentally, she tried unfolding them, and upon realizing she could, she spread them to their greatest length. "Woooow..." she sighed as she looked back at them, giving them a few experimental flaps. To her surprise, it felt second nature. A few flaps later and she was off the ground, a huge smile plastered on her face. "Th-This is incredible!!" she cried, tempted to soar off into the sky and only being prevented from doing so by the sight of her false idol glaring at her in place of her late army.
---
"Nice touch, Matt," the Boss commented as she sprinted to the Jedi mare's side, skidding to a halt next to her and producing her red energy blade from her "radial" while she heard Matt Miller's proud chuckling.
"It seemed only fitting," he replied with undisguised pride. "Shame I couldn't make her a lightsaber. Oh well."
"... Wait, why couldn't you?" the President asked as she tapped Twilight on the side and offered her the glowing melee weapon, which she took in her magic and held at the ready.
"... Umm-"
The Boss sighed and shook her head, producing her EM Railgun and taking aim at the Princess. "Later, Matt," she said to cut him off. She didn't hear him again, so she assumed he dropped the subject. "Like it, Twilight?" she quipped, getting a nod from the mare as they both stared down the simulated royal pony.
Celestia stood there, seemingly unscratched and with a rather unsettlingly serene expression. Her eyes were open and she glared at Twilight, but she was oddly calm for a pony about to get her ass kicked.
"Twilight, I'm disappointed in you," the winged unicorn (there must be a name for those!) uttered in a fitting tone. And much to her own disappointment, Twilight slowly landed, appearing to be listening.
The Boss sighed and covered her face with a palm.
---
It was her. That was Celestia's voice. It was too perfect to be anything but. Twilight stopped flapping her newly gained wings to land next to the Boss, gritting her teeth as a look of panic washed over her features. "Pr-Princess, I-"
"I taught you better than that." Her teacher began to step forward. The Boss began shooting her "railgun" at the Princess, but didn't get any results beyond a sidelong glare and being flung into the nearest wall. "I hope you intend to atone for this betrayal."
Twilight looked down, the rational part of her that would have her plunging her new weapon through the alicorn being drowned out by her conscience and her despair. "... I... I do, Princess."
"Good." Twilight grimaced; Celestia uttered that word with nothing but undisguised contempt. It stung at her heart, and made her want to cry. "Then you may begin..." she started, getting her to look up at her mentor. Her long, sharp horn was aimed right at her head. "... by dying.
Those two words snapped her back to reality and she quickly dove to the right, just barely managing to dodge a very thin beam of magic that would have likely put a nice, clean hole through her skull. "... No. No! You're not the Princess!" she yelled, swinging her weapon in her telekinetic grasp threateningly. "You're a fraud!" As she yelled this, the Princess took another shot at her, the beam finding purchase on her chest. And yet, Twilight endured the blast. She grunted loudly when it struck and she definitely felt it, but it didn't kill. "How dare you!"
To her surprise and her displeasure, the impostor merely laughed. But it wasn't Celestia's laugh. "Ahhh, what a shame. I had hoped this could end decently."
"Goddammit, Zinyak!" she heard the Boss yell. Upon hearing that name, Twilight couldn't help herself.
She lunged.
---
Kinzie Kensington raised an eyebrow as she finished skimming through the Zin's abduction databases once more, looking for any equines that Zinyak might have also captured. She didn't have much to go on, so she was really going more by names than anything else.
But she came up empty handed. Good news and security for Twilight, she concluded, nearly closing her laptop. But just before she did, she had another thought.
Again, she opened the computer and hacked back into those databases and quickly found Twilight's file. Idly noting that the security on her name was drastically reduced since they rescued her, she opened it and began looking it over.
The file contained data such as her name, age, origin, and various physical attributes such as eye color, skin/fur color, size, and such. It also contained a short personality bit that didn't tell the hacker anything new, a status that was marked as "escaped," as well as a few warnings about how Twilight was meant to be handled for transport.
But what interested her most was the "reason for abduction." Giving some props to the Zin for being so thorough in their data keeping, she noted that it was labeled as "preparatory." She raised an eyebrow at that one. Preparatory? For what?
She had a naggling suspicion that she was forgetting something.
Kinzie kept Twilight's file open and began opening several others in other tabs. She opened her own. Her own file described her reason as "volunteer." True.
She opened the Boss' file. Snickering again at the fact that they didn't have her name, she noted the Boss' reason as "potential threat/plaything."
Those two options cleared, she found Johnny Gat's file and glanced at his reason: "Preparatory."
"... Shit." It was a fitting curse. The Zin had abducted Johnny because Zinyak feared he was a threat to his invasion of Earth. She cursed herself for forgetting such an important detail, closing the files and beginning to hack into the Zin's navigation.
---
The Boss reloaded her railgun and opened fire on the white mare as the superpowered unicorn kept attacking. The Princess was dodging and counterattacking Twilight's every move, and Twilight took many a blow, but she just kept going. She would've admired her tenacity if only the purple unicorn would get out of the fucking way.
"Twilight! Fucking move!" she yelled as another stray shot hit Twilight in the back, finally just sprinting over and leaping a short distance into the air before Stomping near the winged unicorn. The attack seemed to stagger Celestia, and that made an opening for Twilight.
She saw the robed mare bring the blade down on Celestia's left wing, slicing it off before blasting the white equine in the chest with a stream of purple lightning that would put Palpatine to shame.
Celestia cried out in pain as Twilight electrocuted her, the unicorn gritting her teeth as she kept up the stream.
"Looks like fun," the black clad woman commented with a snicker, pulling out her alien pistols and using a Lightning Buff before starting to shoot Celestia.
---
As the Boss began shooting, Twilight stopped shocking her, panting heavily as she took the opportunity to even out Celestia's wing count.
She whirled the red blade behind her, eying the false Princess while the Boss kept her down. She watched her pained face and grit her teeth. Her conscience begged her to stop. To turn away, throw down her sword, refuse to partake in any more violence.
The rest of her screamed for blood. She obliged. "RAAAAAAAAGGHHH!!!" came the bookworm's wrathful scream, raising the blade and bringing it down on Celestia's head.
Time seemed to slow as the head of the impostor hit the ground, the alicorn's body going limp and her mane and tail ceasing their endless "flow." Twilight shook visibly as she regarded the equine, her conscience screaming at and scolding her for her crime. "... I... I... I killed her," she uttered softly, dropping the murder weapon next to her as she fell on her haunches.
"You did." The Boss' words didn't sting. "You did good, Twilight."
Twilight said nothing for a long while, trying to resist the conclusion that most of her wanted to come to. But she could not deny it. "I did."
"And how was it?"
"... Incredible..."
"Boss!" Kinzie's voice rang out over the audio system loudly, startling both females and getting the Boss to groan. Before she could respond, however, the hacker spoke again. "Both of you need to get out of the Simulation! Now! Celestia was just a ruse!"
---
Twilight's expression was grim as her hooves touched the cold floor of the ship, seeing Kinzie waiting for her and the Boss. "What happened?" the mare asked, sparing a few brain cells to notice that her chest didn't hurt very much anymore.
Kinzie started fiddling with her device as she began. "Twilight, I didn't find any other ponies in the Zin's systems, but I remembered something." The glasses wearing female turned to the Boss. "We need to use the key now."
The President raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to the other human. "What happened?"
"Remember what I said about Twilight before you went to get her? How she was an obstacle to Zinyak's invasion like Gat was?"
The Boss slowly nodded, comprehension dawning on her face while Twilight stood there, listened, and tried to figure out what they were talking about.
"Zinyak's going to Equus next."
Twilight froze. "... Wh-What...?" she managed, her expression plagued with terror.
"He abducted you because you would have tried to stop him from invading Equus. He's invading Equus next."
"... No... No nonononono..." Twilight began to panic, looking around the room frantically while desperately thinking, hoping, wishing for this to be a nightmare.
The Boss slapped her a few seconds later, snapping her out of her stupor quickly. "... Th-Thank you..."
Kinzie cleared her throat loudly, getting their attention. "Hey, remember what I said about using the key now?" she reminded, getting Twilight and the Boss to nod. "I meant it. I hacked into the Zin's navigation systems. They'll be there in four hours."
The Boss immediately sprang into action, running through the ship and calling everyhuman to the cargo bay.
Twilight sat there much longer in stunned, horrified, worried silence before managing to follow suit with the rest of the crew.
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I'll put this in my read laters for now.
Oh sh*t. I can picture two things:
Twilight: I'm back and you're all my b*tchs now.
Fluttershy:...Okay.
OR
Celestia: Uh Twilight?
Twilight: Yes Princess Celestia?
Celestia: I know Zinyak was evil and all, and we've gained a powerful alley in the Boss and her new empire, who saved us all along with you and her crew from the Zin.
Twilight: Hmmmm.
Celestia: But did she HAVE to sent you Zinyak's head in a jar and DO you really want to keep it?
Twilight:..... Yes she did and hell to the yes I do!
YES... that is all.... Great chapter and story though, I look forward to more. Keep goin and stay golden^^
Finished the chapter and then proceeded to rescue Miller. Again. For I am a kind and generous Boss.
so then... will it be possible if super powers + orbital friendship cannon beats Zinyak this time. that and I sense a great disturbance in the Elements *looks at discord*
Discord: It wasn't me. It was some alien.
Yeaaaaaah! Great use of supporting music!
I really enjoyed how you built up Twilight's hesitation and her internal conflict over violence and death. Willfully and deliberately killing is a big change for her, and while it could have been drawn out a bit more the circumstances were not such to allow her that.
The boss's reaction to Twilight finally taking the limiters off was fantastic. Twilight going all out has managed to put her onto an otherwise very small and select list.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
. Today was fun.
Yesterday, I shot myself in the face with a metal device and the Boss laughed at me. Today, I killed you an your entire army in a computer simulation and the Boss is afraid of me
-Twilight 'Motherfucking' Sparkle"
ETICHAL!
One thing that's confused the hell out of me about this fic (and our old friend the Google hasn't been very helpful in this regard): What the HELL is an H.M.D. in the context of SRIV?
I should note that I've done this to random Friendly Fire patrons in SR3 because they wouldn't get out of the fucking doorway when I was trying to shop.
5570970 Sorry, mate. The HMD is my name for the Tiny Pistol. The one you find in Let's Pretend's basement.
5570874 Look out, Ben. Twilight has her eyes on your job.
5571517
Ah, the Noisy Cricket. So what does HMD stand for?
5571740 Holdout of Mass Destruction (as stated in chapter 2)
5572040
And so it is... How could I have forgotten?
*checks indicated chapter*
5572301 Just one of those days, I s'pose.
This.
This is amazing.
All I can really say is mmooooooooooorrreee
GG, you got this story on my favorite reads shelf!
5571512 I believe its a move where a person leaps onto their feet from the ground. Don't quote me on that.
Ohhhhhhh!
Shit is about. To. Go. DOWN!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpwyYOBtkQFb3vVfW7eWM-0BaLX6XYwDghm_xEv8exIYBDlJuE
Oh I'm so pumped for you next chapter, this one was amazing!
Also, am I the only one who swore he heard "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles when Celestia and her army were approaching?
No?
Also, When Yoda sees Jedi Twilight...
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfKKenRnDG4Q39Mc7C0L2H99B8Cd0D3Xe7-br1iLg1qDcAZECDgw
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/099/660/shit-just-got-real.jpg
It's touches like needlessly shooting Friendly Fire clerks that make this story.
5576601 Because if you don't kill every clerk you see, you have no soul.
Excellent story as always. ^^
And she didn't upgrade the Dubstep Gun! Blasphemy!
5578048 ... Huh?
Well... shit. Seriously. OP Twi fight was awesome. And upping the ante. Congratulations, you amazing/sadistic being you, for breaking Twi's mind further and further
5578406 the physical description of the Boss is almost spot on with the character I made for SRIV
5580677 Huh. Interesting.
Just to note; the first music link is dead, saying it can't be played. Well, for me anyways.
When Twilight said this, I imagined this song playing
5580677
Pix or it didn't happen.
5577223
Agreed. Her status as "Patron Saint" is now at risk.
5576648
Amateur.
No no no. First you shop, then you do a hold up, and only then do you shoot them.
It looks like The Doctor has some competition in being the one who stops the monsters!
I'm pretty sure the fact that she has a RED blade makes her a Sith, not a Jedi.
7607190
Actually in the books and others sources many Jedi use red