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Twilight Sparkle Is....4,316 words
Held and Tortured3,289 words
Escape4,346 words
Soaring to Freedom1,312 words
Back Home2,330 words
Titanium Findings2,609 words
Losing Time and Working1,362 words
A Pain in the Chest and Early Concepts2,220 words
Too Late5,616 words
Finding The Arc4,255 words
A Nuisance in the Plans2,054 words
Titanium vs Iron5,469 words
Epilogue449 words

Finding The Arc

Twilight removed the helmet and put it down on a table, sitting down on one of the nearby chairs and leaning forward, burying her face in her hooves as Spike ran down the stairs.

“Twilight!” He called out, jumping to the mare and hugging her tight, “where the heck did you go???”

“Sorry Spike,” she said, hugging the little dragon back tight, “I went off with the computer to go find something I never should have forgotten.”

“Well thank Faust that you’re back...” Spike tightened his hug before letting her go, sitting down on the chair next to her, “that armor’s pretty sweet too.”

He grabbed the helmet and began looking all around it, poking the two, small rectangular eyes it had, “it could use a bit more color though.”

Twilight chuckled and rolled her eyes at the little dragon, “oh yeah? Like what?”

“I don’t know. But silver is just too boring.” Spike said, putting the helmet back on the table.

Twilight chuckled again and began messing with Spike’s head spikes, “alright Spike, I’ll think about adding some color.”

“Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA said.

“Yes computer?” Twilight said.

“I have begun my search, and I have begun by looking for areas where the Four Rings are all rumored to be based, along with areas where multiple alleged sightings have been reported.” AIVHA replied.

“Uh... Why are you looking for the Four Rings, Twilight?” Spike asked.

Twilight gulped and took a deep breath, she turned to Spike and let her breath out before she spoke. “Spike... Look. The thing I left behind... It’s one of these.” She pointed to her chest, where Spike knew her arc reactor was underneath, “and... if the Four Rings get a hold of it... Then they’ll be practically unstoppable. With power as great as that...”

“S-So... You’re going to tell the Council, right? A-And you’re going to get them to send military soldiers to go look for this thing, right?” Spike said, his voice getting shakier the more he spoke.

“.... If the Council were to get a hold of it then there’s next to nothing they couldn’t do... I... Spike, I just can’t let power that great fall into the hooves of the Four Rings or the Council... They’ll both abuse it. So I need to find it... Myself.” Twilight answered, looking down as her voice got quiet the more she spoke.

“S-So what?? You’re just going to go out there and probably get captured again because of it?” Spike said.

“No Spike, I won’t get captured.” Twilight replied, doing her best to sound sure of what she was saying. Truth is, she had no idea what would happen if she went hunting for the arc reactor.

“Well how?? That armor you’re wearing??? Will that be enough to protect you??” Spike began breathing frantically, his eyes watery as he spoke, “I... Twilight... Please...”

“Spike... It’s okay... I don’t want to do this, and you clearly don’t want me to do this... But it’s the only way...” Twilight softly patted Spike on the back, who immediately jumped up to Twilight and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

“Please... At least make the armor stronger or something... Don’t let them get you again... Please...” Spike whispered.

“I promise Spike... Don’t worry, I promise.”

Twilight sat down on her chair in her office, Spike standing next to her and climbing up on her desk as a screen rose, showing Twilight a large list of areas the Four Rings are said to be hiding.

“And these are all of them,” she asked, “you’re absolutely positive?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle, these are all of the locations where the Four Rings have been rumored to have been sighted, and be stationed at.”

Twilight sat back in her chair and looked over to her armor, which was standing on it’s hind legs with its forearms extended out to it’s sides. “Computer,” she said, “if we’re going to do this we’ll need a lot of protection. So would you please take the armor and add in more layers of armor? Make it comfortable, but still strong enough to stop gunfire and missiles.”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

“Thank you.”

“Oh!” Spike jumped up, “and add some color to it!”

“Color?” Twilight said, “Spike, this is armor. Not a dress to make look nice.”

“But you can at least add some color to it. It won’t take long to add at all.” Spike replied.

Twilight sighed and shook her head at Spike, ruffling his mohawk, “Okay then, go tell AIVHA what colors you want and how you want it designed. I’m going upstairs. We’ll go out looking for these groups tomorrow, alright computer?”

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said as Twilight turned and trotted upstairs, a knock echoing through the halls from her front door.

“Who could that be?” She wondered to herself as she approached the large doorway, placing her hoof in the door slot and turning it, opening the door and revealing her friends standing there with small smiles on their faces.

“Girls!” Twilight smiled back as she opened the door wider, letting them inside. “What are you all doing here?”

“Well, we thought that maybe we could just come by and check in on you. How are you doing with the proto-thing you’re making?” Rainbow said, flying inside backwards and leaning back in the air, holding her head in her arms.

“O-Oh! Heh... Well, it’s going!” Twilight said, a big, nervous grin on her face, “I’m making some progress. I just need to find a better battery for it.”

“Well how about you take a little break?” Rainbow said.

“Yes darling, we all were hoping that you were free for today, and we could all go out for lunch together without an interruption? But if you’re still working then we completely understand darling.” Rarity added.

“No, I’m free. We can go now.” Twilight said, ”even though I still need something to actually show to the Council!” And just then, Twilight felt a lightbulb turn on.

“That’s it!!” Twilight exclaimed, taking off for her office while her friends stood at the door, confused as to why Twilight had run off.

Twilight burst into her office and immediately called out for AIVHA, who responded back just as quickly.

“Computer, I need you to draw up plans for a rifle, but the ammunition is made from rubber!” Twilight said.

“Rubber bullets, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“Yes, it’ll fire just the same as a regular gun, but it’ll just harm them, not kill.” Twilight said.

“Why didn’t you just make that instead of the thrusters?” Spike said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame.

Twilight stopped and looked at Spike, then looked to the right, “I wanted to make something that could have multiple uses Spike, but I guess now I’ll have to make this.”

Spike rolled his eyes, “Yeah, alright, I guess that's what you have to say now that you already made them in the last one.”

Twilight simply looked to Spike in complete confusion, unable to fully comprehend what exactly Spike had meant. She eventually shook her head, ignoring Spike for the moment as she turned back to AIVHA, who was already holding down blueprints of various guns, but each designed to fire rubber bullets, and at to fire at a greater force to allow them to cause damage enough to severely injure, but avoid casualties.

“Alright, good job computer.” Twilight said, turning to her friends, “sorry girls, I just have a lot on my mind right now.”

“Don’t worry about it Twilight, we understand,” Rainbow said, “now let’s hurry and get some grub! I’m starving!”

Twilight and the rest shared a short laugh which Rainbow joined in on, and the group of mares left, Spike staying behind and reading more of his comic books.

Twilight returned late in the afternoon, finishing her hayburger as she walked to her castle. She had used magic to hold items for most of her life, and now she was struggling to get used to the machine with an arm attached to her side, holding her hayburger to her right.

She scanned her hoof and the door unlocked, opening itself for her as Twilight took another, quite large, bite out of her hayburger. She saw a small, holographic ball float down to her, greeting AIVHA with a nod as she finished her bite.

“Welcome back, Ms. Sparkle. I assume you and your friends had a fine time?” AIVHA asked.

“Yeah, it was fun,” she responded, swallowing her bite and continuing down the hall to the stairs to her lab, “the girls and I need to go out more often. Well, after we figure out what’s going on with Rainbow Dash.”

“Ms. Dash is troubled?” AIVHA asked.

“Eh, she’s something alright. Really jumpy.” Twilight replied, stepping down the steps into her lab, seeing the suit she wore standing in the center of the lab, under a cloak, Spike laying down next to it and snoring softly.

“Spike wanted it to be a surprise, and so he put the cloak on it.” AIVHA explained.

“Awww, that’s nice.” Twilight looked down to the sleeping dragon, who currently had his thumb in his mouth and was sucking on it softly.

“Please put him on my back computer?” Twilight said.

“Yes, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA lowered an arm down from the ceiling, which gently picked up the baby dragon and placed him down on Twilight’s back, the Body Aid around her opening up and then closing, keeping Spike from falling off her back.

Twilight trotted up the stairs and to Spike’s room, the small dragon snoring softly during the journey there.

Twilight turned around and opened up her Body Aid and dropping Spike down on his bed, turning around as it closed to bite down on his blanket and put it over him.

She smiled and closed the door, turning the dragon’s light off as she did, returning to her lab.

“Do you wish to turn in for the night, Ms. Sparkle?” AIVHA asked.

“No, computer. The longer we wait, the closer they could be to discovering something about the Arc. A way to use it for their own purposes. And I can’t have that.” Twilight said, trotting to her armor, biting down on the sheet. She removed the sheet and then turned to her armor, shocked to see the colors Spike had chosen.

The armor was the shade of purple as Twilight’s coat, but it had two lines going down from the neck to the arc, circling around it, and stopping at her legs, one line was orange and the other was blue. The back had a similar pattern, except it didn’t stop to circle around an arc, and instead went straight down, one line was yellow while the other was white. And finally, the plates holding the armor together was pink.

Twilight stepped back, admiring the armor as a soft smile grew.

“Spike knew you would love it,” AIVHA said, “and it turns out he was right.”

Twilight nodded and trotted to the armor, taking a while to walk around it, admiring it, before telling AIVHA to open it up, allowing Twilight to enter the armor. She struggled and groaned as she was on her back hooves, but sighed in relief as the torso area closed and tightened, along with some areas around her hind legs, allowing her to stay up straight without problem.

“Alright, have you found specific locations for the Four Rings?” Twilight asked.

“I have found only a few that I can confirm through extensive and careful examination through the Sparkle Industries satellite photographs taken throughout the years, though the rest are merely simple speculation.” AIVHA said.

“Well we’ll have to take the chance” Twilight said, her helmet closing and her voice modulator activating.

Twilight turned as AIVHA opened the exit from the lab, Twilight activating the thrusters and flying out of the lab as smooth as she could, feeling relieved for the freedom as she was outside.

She flew high into the air as the holographic screen in her helmet showed her a list of several locations, AIVHA speaking to Twilight as the list appeared.

“These are the locations which I believe are bases for the Four Rings, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA explained.

Twilight took a close look at the list as it passed by, nodding when the list was complete, “Alright, you’ll know where exactly to go to computer. So let’s get to the places we are most certain are bases for the Four Rings, capture the members we find there, search the whole base, and then turn the members into the police force of that country.”

“Very well Ms. Sparkle, I have locked our course onto the closest base.” AIVHA said, the suit turning up, flying upside down opposite where they were going before flipping around, flying Twilight towards a mountainous region of Equestria.

The two guards posted outside were sitting opposite each other, both had sweat drops flowing down their foreheads as they looked each other in the eyes, both of them studying each others faces for the slightest sign of facial expression that could give them an advantage.

The one on the left’s ears perked up, hearing something whooshing in the distance. The other heard the noise as well, and took a quick look to the right, seeing nothing, and then returning to their game.

The one on the right squinted his eyes before speaking, “Do you have any fours?”

The other groaned and used his magic to hand over one of his cards, leaving him with two as the other chuckled, taking one of his cards out and putting the two removed cards together in a pile to his left.

“Well do you have any-” The stallion was interrupted by a whirring noise, followed by a large beam that fired at him from his right, sending him hitting the wall, leaving him dazed and rubbing his head. His friend turned to see where the beam had came from, and saw a colored, metal pony floating above the ground in front of the cave, staring directly at him.

“... I’d like to hurt as little ponies as possible, so if you could just sit next to your friend and let my computer tie you up, that would be great.” The pony said with it’s robotic voice.

The stallion nodded and moved to sit down next to his friend, still dazed and holding his head. Then the metal pony moved quickly, tying both of the guards together tightly with rope.

“Now, if you guys leave or try to escape, then I’ll be forced to hit you with my thrusters again. And I’d rather not do that, so please just stay here and wait for me to get back. Thank you.” The pony’s hooves fired beams that made the pony float up, then it turned to the cave and flew inside.

The two could hear gunshots from inside the cave, along with screams and sounds of the beam firing. Then, moments later, there was nothing. Just absolute silence. It was like this for several minutes, but then the two heard another loud whirr from the cave, and the metal pony flew out of the cave, one of it’s hooves holding onto a rope, carrying the rest of the Four Rings members.

“Oh, you’re still here! Good, I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t want to hurt anypony I didn’t have to,” the pony said, it’s other hoof somehow grabbing onto the end of the rope they were attached to, “unfortunately your friends weren’t so willing to stop. And don’t worry about falling, the suit’s hooves have tiny spikes that grab onto any surface they touch, unwilling to let them go unless I were to allow it.”

The stallion who could still see straight and wasn’t dazed nodded, nervously chuckling as the pony began floating up, taking them with it as they flew towards the closest town, being dropped of at the entrance to the police station, a single police officer trotting outside and looking up, seeing the metal pony.

“They’re all yours.” Twilight said, looking upwards and flying off.

“Alright computer,” Twilight said when she flew high up into the air, “now let’s get back to the base and find out whatever we can.”

Twilight turned around and flew at full speed to the cave, slowing down quickly as she approached it, causing her to lose her balance slightly before finally getting used to the speed, reaching the end of the tunnel and stopping, looking around the small room before her filled with computers, boxes of weapons, and more. She stepped into the room and towards a computer, leaning over it and sighing at seeing it locked.

“Give me a moment, Ms. Sparkle, and I can unlock the computer” AIVHA said, various images, text and lines of code appearing in front of Twilight’s face on the holographic screen.

“Alright, and let me out. I’ll go around and look to see if they have the arc.” Twilight said, stepping out of the suit as it opened.

She looked around the room, before trotting to a table covered with various papers. She looked over the papers and saw several blueprints, including some that were clearly the Four Rings trying to replicate several of weapons made by Sparkle Industries.

She moved the blueprints and other papers around, reading them over. She kept seeing the words, ‘group’, ‘bosses’, ‘big guy in charge’ various times in the papers, which were simply status reports on recreating Sparkle Industries’ weaponry.

So there must be multiple ponies that have the Four Rings wrapped around their hooves then... Who could these ponies be? She thought, finding another paper from a more recent date, talking about process with the arc reactor that Twilight had made. She read they had made little progress in harnessing it, but were certain they were close to hitting a breakthrough, all they needed was for the ‘big guy in charge’ to have a little more patience.

Twilight bit down onto this piece of paper, planning on keeping this one. She continued looking over the papers on the table before her ear twitched, her head turning as she heard a small beeping noise.

She kept quiet, hearing another soft beeping, and then another one which was followed by another one, the time between each beep getting shorter and shorter.

“Computer!!” Twilight screamed out, AIVHA stopping immediately and turning around, “We need to get out of here!!!”

Twilight sprinted to the door of the room as the suit flew to her, “Jump, Ms. Sparkle!” AIVHA said.

Twilight jumped and the suit scooped her up, closing shut when she was inside, and flying at full speed out of the cave, the entire room filling with flames that followed Twilight and AIVHA as they flew out, both of them escaping just in time.

The suit stopped and turned around, looking at the flames erupting from the tunnel before dying down.

“Holy cow... That was close...” Twilight said, panting in her suit. Her helmet opened and the paper she was biting onto fell, but Twilight caught it easily.

“Did you figure anything out through their computer?” Twilight asked.

“Nothing, Ms. Sparkle. Their databases are much more difficult to hack into than I had thought. It suggests that they are controlled by somepony very intelligent.” AIVHA responded.

“Darn... Well all I got was this paper, it’s just a progress report. Apparently they’re having trouble working on the arc, but they think they’ll eventually get somewhere.” Twilight said, looking at the piece of paper she held in her hoof, “... How did that place even blow up anyways?”

“They must have found me trying to get into their database, and chose to cause the base to self destruct instead of let us see what they had.” AIVHA replied.

“Alright... But hey, we still have more bases to search before sun rise. Let’s just get those done and get back home.” Twilight said.

“Right, Ms. Sparkle.” AIVHA said.

Twilight turned and flew off towards the nearest base AIVHA had located.

Three bases in one night doesn’t sound like it’d be a very difficult task, but each base had a very annoying habit of blowing up each time AIVHA had tried to enter their databases.

Twilight sighed in relief as her suit opened up, and she put all four hooves down on the ground. Her eyelids were struggling to stay open, begging for her to lay down and take a rest.

“Goodnight computer...” She tiredly said, yawning as she did.

Twilight made the journey up the stairs and to her room, feeling herself leaning and nearly falling over as she did, but she eventually made it to her bed and laid down right as her eyes shut... For about 30 minutes before Spike came running in through the door, yelling out to her.

“Twilight!” The little dragon said, “did you like the suit?? Did you?”

Twilight’s mane was all over the place, several parts of it sticking upwards. Her eyes remained shut as she bolted upwards, desperately looking around the room for the source of the yelling. “W-w-whaaa...?” She tiredly mumbled.

“Oh. Geez Twilight, you look like you’ve stayed up all night!” Spike said.

Twilight stretched her arms and let out a long yawn, her eyes opening finally and she turned to Spike, “y-yeah Spike...?”

“I said did you like the suit’s colors!” Spike repeated.

“O-Oh yeah! The armor... Yes Spike... I saw it... I love it Spike, thank you...” Twilight said, slowly falling back to sleep once more.

“Twilight!” Spike said, “Come on! You need to get up!”

“Why...? Why can’t I just sleep all day, every day...?” Twilight mumbled.

“Because AIVHA finished the models for the weapons you asked it to make!” Spike said, pulling on Twilight, her head and arm hanging over the side of the bed.

Twilight groaned as she slowly slid downwards, hitting her head against the ground, “Ow...” she mumbled. She flip herself over onto her stomach, groaning loudly as she stood herself up, her legs shaking and her eyes struggling to stay open.

“I-I’m up... I’m up...” She said, standing up straight and rubbing her eyes.

“Good, now let’s go!!” Spike said, pulling on Twilight’s hoof.

“I-I’m still waking up Spike!” Twilight said, pulling against Spike.

“You can do that later, you’ve gotta check out what AIVHA made!” Spike said, leading Twilight down to her lab, where AIVHA’s holographic ball was waiting.

“I apologize for Spike waking you up, Ms. Sparkle. But I just thought you would wish to know how the weapon’s production was going along.” AIVHA said.

“Y-Yeah sure... Show me computer. I’m paying attention.” Twilight said, opening her eyes finally.

AIVHA raised an arm from the floor that carried a standard assault rifle, but one Twilight had asked AIVHA to create to fire bullets made of rubber instead of live rounds.

AIVHA fired the gun, it shooting a dummy, knocking the dummy down and leaving it with no visible holes.

Twilight rubbed her eyes and walked to the dummy, yawning as she leaned her head down and took a closer look, examining the point of impact on the dummy. “How’s the inside looking?” She asked.

“The inside structures seem to all be intact.” AIVHA responded.

“Alright... Alright, good.” Twilight said, yawning, “now Spike, keep out of trouble, and computer, keep working...”

Twilight continued upstairs, stopping at the top to call down to Spike, “and don’t wake me up unless it’s something that absolutely can’t wait!”

Twilight was about to enter her room before she heard a knock on the door, groaning loudly as she trotted to the door, opening it quickly and ready to scream, but quickly shut her mouth when she saw a mail pony there, smiling softly until he saw Twilight’s messy mane and groggy eyes.

“O-Oh! Uh... Hello there!” Twilight said nervously, grinning.

“I, uh... Have a letter for you Ms. Sparkle.” The mail pony said, hoofing Twilight a letter with her Body Aid.

“O-Oh... T-Thank you!” Twilight called to the pony as he flew away quickly.

Twilight sighed and closed the door, turning around and looking down to the letter. Her name was on it, and turning it around and opening it showed Twilight a little piece of paper. Twilight pulled it out and read it aloud.

“You, Twilight Sparkle,” she started, “are hereby invited to attend a party to properly celebrate your return to Equestria that you should have gotten the first day. So please come to Canterlot this Friday evening, forget your meeting with the Council for an evening, and instead enjoy fine dining and the company of close friends and those who care about you from all across Equus.” Twilight looked down to the bottom of the letter and her heart skipped a beat, her mind not truly being able to comprehend that she was reading, “signed, Ms. Trixie Lulamoon”

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