Chapter 1 - Fallen Star

“Five-hundred years ago, before the rise of Nightmare moon, there was a War on Equestrian soil.”

“This war came with no warning, against beings of the unknown. They came in many shapes and sizes, they were intelligent and fierce, but were nothing like who occupies the neighboring lands now. None were Dragons, none were griffons, or zebras, or even changelings. They looked nothing like any of the wildlife documented to this date from the nearby lands or other races pony-kind associated themselves with. Yet, they bared flesh, scales, chitin, fur, and by observation from afar, even liquids like water or metal armour. They showed their opponents no mercy, only Death, Destruction, Agony, and Terror.”

“They fought like monsters, wild animals, but they always had a strategy. No matter what the Equestrian Guards did against these beings, they easily countered. The lands that were once serene, were now bloody, dark and ruined by what came with these beings.”

“They carried strange weapons; some breathed fire, setting anything in its wake alight; some shot strange beams of light, vaporising anypony that was touched by these lights; some spat hot metal, piercing and fatally wounding or killing those in the metals path. Some of these creatures fought against the Guard in close quarters, wielding only claw-like armaments, slicing through any poor soul in proximity to them. The ones that stood afar, letting those alien weapons to do their work were slow in movement, but had a sharp eye and amazing aim. The ones that came close to fight, were fast in movement, and agile, but not as smart as their ranged allies. We could tell there were more stationed at where they advanced from, but the pegasi that went to scout those areas, never returned. “

“Our magic worked against these creatures, but the more we used it, the less effective it became. Our hooves were effective, but like our magic, hooves became less effective as their armour became stronger. Our wings gave us advantages, but again, we became less reliant on them as those that took flight, were killed not long after from either those creatures from afar, or fliers of their own.”

“Despite how long the war went, despite the losses on both sides, the tides were always at a draw. This was until a unique pony, a rare breed of pegasi, joined the fight against these creatures. What made them unique was not what they were, or where they came from, or who they were (although their identity was never discovered), or even how they looked. No, what WAS unique, was how this pony fought against the attackers.”

“When in the skies, they flew with Grace, Ease, Skill, Speed, and in some reports: Beauty. They risked their safety to protect the other pegasi from harm. Using their own created advantages to close in on those at range and take them down. When on the ground, they were not only agile and quick to react, but were able to use even use the enemies own weapons against its creators. How was it possible for this Pegasus to do such a thing when the weapons they picked up required what looked like appendages that dragons and diamond dogs have?”

“Magic! How this Pegasus was using magic is still a mystery to even the wisest of unicorns, researchers and professors to this date. Many said this Pegasus was actually an Alicorn, and that their horn was small and hidden by their mane while others speculated that there was actually an invisible Unicorn with this Pegasus, being told where to aim and use the strange weapons, along with many other assumptions that were made to explain this abnormality.”

The ‘Alicorn’ Hypothesis was the more favoured guess out of all the members of every meeting made on the subject. However, one fact about this pony prevented all conclusions behind the theories: The glow that ponies find around a Unicorns horn when magic is in use, was not found where the horn should be, nor did anypony with a horn use magic whose glow was the same Luminescent Crimson that blanketed the objects. Instead, the crimson glow came from the larger pinion feather on both wings. Nopony believed such information and every time this fact arose, they all debated that the information was false, made-up, however there was still always the doubt at the end of the meetings that maybe, just maybe: This Pegasus really could use magic and their golden pinion feathers acted as a horn.“

“Over the course of many moons, this pony advanced in rank far quicker than any other member of the Guard to the point where they were second in command of the entire force, a feat that is impossible to achieve in such short time. It was at this time that the tides really turned in Equestrias favour. This pony was able to set out each regiment strategically in a way that the opposing forces could do very little to fend against with each push against them when the moon was high.”

“Why is the moon being mentioned? The reason for this is because something in the night gave off healing magic. This magic was not as strong as a Unicorn medics magic, but it gave the forces an advantage they needed. Nopony has figured out how this magic did not affect the invaders, but nopony complained.”

“The majority of each attack against the invaders were successful. Despite the failed pushes, losses of life were extremely low while the losses of the invaders were costly. Reasons for the failed advances were all due to a large metal bipedal suit of armour appearing and using its weapons against the Guard. After the first failed regiment was wiped out by this suit, the order ‘Retreat-on-sight’ was issued, taking effect almost instantly.”

“Operations ran smoothly (Not including the Retreat orders) and the push against the main base of the invaders was close at hoof. All regiments were undergoing final preparation for the next attack. However, preparations were cut short as instead of setting up defences, the invaders made a push against the regrouped army of guards. The Guard was able to quickly set up a defence, but was halted when the Suit appeared from the back of the main camp, sending large metal objects at the Equestrian forces which exploded on impact.”

“The battle was almost a loss until the Pegasus was hit by one of the smaller flying shards of metal right through their chest, directly through their heart, dealing a hit against them that should have killed them. However, this did not happen, instead, with an ear-piercing scream of pain and agony followed by an eruption of magic that blew away anything with in a small area around them, the was-once Pegasus transformed into a tall bipedal being, much like the invaders, but still retained their fur, mane, tail, hooves and wings. From reports of the guards, this ally bipedal sported a horn and the once golden pinions were the same colour as the rest of their pinions.”

“Meetings that spoke on the subject of this change felt ever so closer to concluding that this Pegasus was indeed an Alicorn like their Princesses. Yet, at the end of each meeting, the aura of doubt still lingered in the atmosphere.”

“A few other difference that stood out of the reports of this ally were that they also had the same digits that the invaders, dragons and diamond dogs have on their forelegs while the hind legs were longer, slim, almost straight. Their hind legs had a joint almost in the middle of their leg instead of the usual pony anatomy. Other details were included in the reports, but enough of that has been explained.”

A series of knocks sound on a nearby door followed by a faint voice on the opposite side, however the reader isn’t disturbed by the effort to get attention and continues to read the text.

“Within moments of the appearance of this ally, the suit was pulled into combat against the strange ally who swiftly dodges any swings the armour made while crippling the suit with magic they were casting and the physical hits made against it. Within roughly an hour of fighting, the invaders started to retreat, many of the guards were confused as to why their enemies ran until they spotted their unique ally standing on the corpse of the suit in their Pegasus form.”

Another series of knocks fill the room, however this time, more loudly followed by a slightly louder, young voice. “…light!” However, the reader continues.

“One of the reports say that the guard who wrote it saw the words “Neon” written on one of the forelegs of the suit and had decided to call the un-named Pegasus ‘The Neon Guardian’. After mentioning the name to their fellow guards, they began to-“

“TWILIGHT!”

The lavender Alicorn jumped from her bed in a loud startled yelp before crashing against the floor right next to the bed in a painful heap.

“W-what the hay Spike!” Twilight groaned as she glared at her Number-one assistant. “Why couldn’t you just knock like everypony else in this town?!”

“I did knock! Six times!” Spike retorted at the stretching Alicorn.

Twilight could only blush a little from embarrassment and then lower her head shamefully. “I’m sorry spike.” She apologised in a soft voice.

Spike sighed. “It’s fine Twilight, I know how you get when you have your head stuck in the books. But you have been reading that one-“ He points a claw at the now shut, blue hard-cover book. “Quite a lot recently. What is so interesting about that book?”

Twilight looks at the book Spike had pointed at. “It’s about a pony that happened to end a war that occurred not long before the Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon. The book mentioned that the pony was a Pegasus that could use magic like a unicorn, and near the end of the war, used a forbidden spell to end the threat against Equestria.”

“Did they win?” Spike questioned.

“Well, yes.”

“Then why keep reading it if you know that?”

Twilight let out a long sigh. “Because Spike, I can’t help but have conflicting thoughts about this book.” She began to trot around slowly while beginning to ask herself questions. “Is this all true? Was it made up? Is it possible for a Pegasus to achieve what this one did? How could a Pegasus have access to magic like a unicorn, let alone a Forbidden spell and survive it? Is it-”

“Twilight.” Spike spoke up in a tone of voice that caused her to pause. “How about you stop trying to think about it and come down for lunch, let your head rest a bit so you have a clear mind for when you see the Princess’ this afternoon? You don’t want to end up like you did when you discovered Pinkies ‘Pinkie Sense’ again, right?”

“I-” Twilight began before closing her mouth and thinking over what her assistant just said, only to exhale. “… Alright Spike.” As she began to trot past spike, she stopped mid step in front of him and stretched her wing out around him, pulling him in for a half hug. “Thanks.”

Spike only returned the gesture with his own hug for roughly half a minute before finally letting go of her. “Come on Twilight, I’ve made us some sandwiches and I’m sure you’re hungry.”

“Daffodil?”

“Do you eat anything else at this time of the day?”

Right on cue, Twilights stomach lets off a low but loud grumble. Her expression changed to one of embarrassment as they both shared a small laugh while heading down from Twilights room for lunch.

After a short lunch and some packing later, along with a trip to the train station and still having numerous ponies bowing to their new princess despite being politely asked to stop, Twilight was ready to move off to Canterlot.

She turns to Spike who was more than happy to accompany her on her trot here. “You sure you will be fine looking after the library on your own? You know Tuesday is one of the more busy days, right?”

“For the last time, everything will be fine, Twilight!” Spike reassured, he knew what she was like if she got too worried and worked up, especially after reading something that bugged her mind. “I guarantee, everything will be fine, like always. When has something ever gone wrong while you were gone?”

Twilight could only stare at her Assistant with a deadpanned look, remembering all the times she came back to a big mess, whether it included the Library, or residents of Ponyville, thanks to the little purple dragon in front of her.

Spike began to feel uncomfortable under her stare and have her a large ‘I’m innocent’ grin, a few sweat drops forming from a few of the scales on his forehead. Upon seeing this, she also began to remember the good things she had returned to while the library was under spike care, which happened to push aside all the bad memories with a smile on her face.

“Alright Spike, I trust you.”

Spike was able to relax while mentally fist pumping, he passed her little test…. This time. “So what was it that you wanted to ask the Princess about again?”

Twilight uses her magic to levitate out the very same book she was reading that very morning. “I was hoping that speaking to Princess Celestia about the Neon Guardian would help straighten my thoughts. There is so much information in this book about them, but I still have my doubts on whether they are true or myth.”

“The Neon Guardian.” A voice spoke up from above Twilight which could only belong to a certain athletic Pegasus. “The super awesome hero of Equestria before Nightmare Moon. Was able to use magic due to their golden pinion feathers and was able to match up against the strongest enemy of Equestria without the need of the Elements of Harmony, the Princesses aid, or even the Guard. Mysteriously vanished the week after the end of the war when Nightmare Moon rose for power against Princess Celestia. The perfect fighting Pegasus since the founding.”

Twilight just stared up at the hovering cyan Pegasus above her with wide eyes while Spike gawked at them with surprise, only to have the Pegasus blink in reaction to them. “What? I’m not allowed to know of a hero that trotted on Equestria a thousand years ago?”

Twilight shook her head to get her thoughts together while Spike continued to gawk. “It’s not that Rainbow Dash, it’s just… Well, I’ve never seen you as the type of pony who knows things from history, let alone Neon Guardian.”

“Are you kidding?” Rainbow said excitedly. “Every Pegasus knows about them! We’re taught this stuff in Flight School and some of our manoeuvres were made by the Neon Guardian all those years ago. It’s thanks to them that we’re as agile as we are when going at high speeds. She was also one of my idols!” She squealed excitedly like she did at her first Wonderbolts performance before stopping instantly, noticing the forming crowd around them, staring at none other than Dash herself.

Rainbow finally touched down on the ground and tried to compose herself properly. “Well, second to the Wonderbolts of course. Eh heh…” She trailed off, feeling embarrassed that she let her excitement get a little too overboard and was a little worried her image she’s worked so hard to keep up may have slipped.

Dash shook her head and then looked at Twilight, trying to steer the topic to a different direction. “So why are you here Twilight? Surely you’re not here to talk about Neon, right?”

“Well… sort of.” Twilight responded before looking in the direction of Canterlot. “I’m going to see the Princess’ and ask them about her.” Looking back at the book, she opens it up and magically flips to the written profile and looks down at it. “No given names, no age, no gender, no cutie mark, no location of training or family. This Pegasus is a complete mystery. So little is known about them, yet they played a major role in the war. The researcher in me is bucking me constantly in the flank to figure out who they were.” She looks up, only to see a tittering Rainbow dash.

Twilight could only roll her eyes and facehoof as she waited for her friend who obviously took something she said the wrong way, to calm down. However time was short as the train to Canterlot rolled up to the station followed by the conductor yelling “All aboard for Canterlot!”

“I’m sorry Rainbow, I have to get going!” Twilight quickly said as she gave Spike a parting wing hug before boarding the train. Spike unfortunately had missed everything discussed up to the point of the wing hug. He blinked a few times as he came out of the hanging daze of Rainbow actually knowing of something that happened so long ago.

“Huh? What did I-“ Spike stopped as he looked around, not seeing Twilight nearby but a train departing the station and a guffawing Rainbow Dash on the ground. “Rainbow, what’s so funny?”

Dash was able to catch her breath and calm down enough to squeeze out an “It’s nothing.” She stands up and positions herself to launch into the air, facing in the direction of Fluttershys Cottage. “I have to get going. Fluttershy is having some problems with her animals and needs my help finding where they’ve disappeared to.” Within finishing what she said, she was already in the air, flying to her destination, leaving a small, groaning, mumbling dragon to make his way back to the library.

Within a short few minutes of flight, Not including her little foalish moment she had when she saw members of the Wonderbolts flying towards Canterlot, Rainbow Dash could spot the small cottage on the edge of town in the distance quickly approaching. What she also spotted though which drew her eyes, was her Pale Yellow friend with a long pink mane, frantically looking around for something who Rainbow assumed was either herself, or her animals.

“Had any luck Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked as she stopped and hovered over her friend with a hopeful smile which quickly soured with Fluttershy shaking her head.

“I honestly don’t know what has them so spooked, even the fiercer animals are fearing something.” Fluttershy softly sighed before quietly continuing. “Every time I find and ask one of them what they are afraid of, they just look up to the sky for a few moments before running off like a frightened mouse. It’s as if they fear the sky all together. Even Angel ran.”

Rainbow thought about the strangest things she has encountered throughout her life, but this one topped all of them. “Wow, never thought Angel would be scared as well. What about the the birds of prey, the hunters of the sky?”

Fluttershys response was a single nod and a concerned and confused look.

“Well, do you want to try round a few up, take them inside to see if they feel a little more comfortable and can give us a little more information as to what is scaring them?” RD suggested as she looked at her friend.

Fluttershy looked around, contemplating the suggestion, it was something she hadn’t tried yet, but wasn’t going to turn it down. She finally responded softly. “Alright, let’s see if we can find angel and a few of the small ones and take them in.”

With a plan set, both mares began looking for Angel and some small animals, although Rainbow couldn’t help but look up at the sky to search for anything that could cause fear. They all knew something was wrong, but neither of the two mares could pick out anything.

“Do you feel it too, Sister?” the Princess of the Night asked in concern as she stared out over the land from her balcony, looking at the now darkened land as night had taken over the skies, feeling a strange disturbance in the air around them.

“I do, Luna.” The Princess of the Day responded, with the same concern as her sister as she stepped up.

“Do you think it’s a sign that ‘They’ have returned?”

“No. It wouldn’t be possible. We both saw them get removed from this world by her those many years ago…” Celestia couldn’t help but trail off at the end, thinking of the possibility that perhaps the old enemy had indeed returned along with an old memory of who she spoke of. “It isn’t something we should need to dwell on during our every waking moment.”

Luna looked at her sister. “You’re not suggesting we should ignore this disturbance, are you sister?”

The Celestial sister shook her head slowly. “I am not, but unless something happens that is linked to this, the need to do so is not required.”

Two firm knocks sounded from large doors to the Lunar Princess’s room followed by a stern voice from behind the doors. “Your highnesses, I apologise for this interference but Princess Twilight has arrived. She has been escorted to the dining room to await your arrival, the chefs have also prepared dinner.”

Celestia turned towards the door and called out. “Thank you, you may return to your post.” She got her usual “Yes your highness!” response from the guard and heard hoof steps moving down the hallway. She turned to Luna, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure what it is, isn’t something we need not worry about. If something does happen, the Wonderbolts will immediately fly to the castle for any orders on short notice. Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?”

Luna glanced at her sister for just a moment through the corner of her eye before returning her gaze to the view she had, the expression on her face showing both concern and concentration. “Not tonight, the night doesn’t feel right, there is something wrong, but I cannot seem to find what it is.” She closes her eyes for a brief moment before opening them to look at the Sun Princess. “Please understand. I’m sure you have felt like this a few times before during my absence, am I correct?”

Celestia nodded in affirmation, she did know how her sister felt right now. “Very well, I shall pass on your apologies. Come find me if any trouble arises.” And on that note, Celestia took her leave, praying silently to her parents’ spirits that is uneasiness is just a false alarm and passes without any trouble.

Not too far from the Dining hall, Celestia couldn’t help but feel a pang in her heart as she had remembered the reason for her former students visit. It was a touchy topic for her, one that she was not comfortable about discussing. Or remembering either… However, she knew her guest all too well for it to be easily avoided. She would have to brave it and hope she held together. There were too many painful memories, and they were able to even emotionally weaken the Sun Princess herself, despite her age.

She stopped just outside the door to the Dining hall, composing herself and preparing for what was to come in the room in front of her. Her struggle did not go unnoticed as one of the two Royal Guards looked at her with a worried expression. It was clear he was one of the newer members of the Guard as he asked “Is something troubling you, your highness?”

She looked at the guard and blinked with surprise, feeling caught off guard by the earth pony recruit’s question of concern while his Pegasus superior opposite to him barked at the younger guard for his mistake. She raised a hoof to silence the older guard as she looked at the younger, it had been a while since she had met somepony in her guard that showed heart for their princesses. She smiled and looked at the recruit. “Yes, there is, but it is nothing for you or any of the other guards to be concerned about.”

His posture changed to what looked like a young filly or colt being scolded by their parent while his superior said nothing. “However.” She continued, earning a raised ear from both of the guards. “Because of what you have done this very evening, I would like to thank you for your worries, it has eased my distress and I am able to calmly continue with my upcoming task.”

The younger guard smiled, accepting the Princess’s thanks while the older just stood where he was with a dumbstruck look upon his face that almost made Celestia break into a small giggle. Her smile grew a little larger as she looked at the recruit. “May I ask for your Rank and Name?”

Almost instantly (and excitedly), he gave a sharp salute and responded eagerly. “Recruit Stonehoof, your majesty!”

“Well Stonehoof.” She began. “Normally guards that step out of line would be required to go through an extra two weeks of training before being assigned to guard duty again. However, for stepping out of line for royalty such as myself and attempting to ease their tensions, I shall put in a good word for you to your Captain when he returns from his trip for Member Assessments.”

The big smile of appreciation on Stonehoofs face was priceless, she felt much better seeing this. “You may continue your work, Stonehoof.” He gave a firm nod and a quick salute before returning to his guard posture. She then looked at the older guard who had done the same, but caught him glancing at the younger, clearly jealous of the praise he had just received.

With her mind at ease, she opened the door to the dining room to be greeted by the chatter of not only Twilight, but the Captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire as well who happened to be out of uniform. Both stopped their discussions as soon as they heard the door close, stood up and bowed down in front of their host. Celestia laughed at this sight and told them they could raise. “You both know you don’t need to bow down to me in private.” Her gaze moved to Twilight specifically. “Especially you, Twilight. You are Royalty now, so you are no longer required to do such gestures, even in the public eye.”

Twilight stammered. “M-my apologies Princess. I’m still not used to being royalty, and probably won’t be for quite some time yet. Old habits will be hard to push aside.”

The corner of Celestias mouth raised. “All in due time. You may also drop the title. We are in private, so no one will be bothered by this.” She then walked up to her former student and received her ‘official’ welcome from Twilight, a gesture she loved dearly. Her gaze moved over to Spitfire, to looked a tad awkward facing these gestures. “And welcome back from your trip to Manehattan, Spitfire. However, I had no knowledge of your arrival. I do hope everything went well over there?”

Spitfire smiled. “The performance over in Manehattan went smoothly as usual, and the population seems to be stable. From quick observation, the crime rate has gone down. An improvement from last time. And my apologies for the surprise visit, I hope I am not intruding on anything that you and Prin-“ Spitfire quickly corrected herself, taking in mind Twilights uneasiness of her title. “Twilight have planned?”

Both of them shook their heads in response before Celestia spoke up. “You are not intruding on anything, my little pony. And it is good to hear the situation over in Manehattan is improving. I am actually glad you have picked a more appropriate time for your visit.” She then made her way to her seat, followed by Twilight while Spitfire stood in place for a moment with confusion on her expression.

Spitfire then made her way to the table and sat herself as the royal chefs and waiters entered the room and placed down the host and guests meals. It was good that Twilight and Spitfire were both regular guests to the castle. Because of this, both of their orders were memorized by the chefs, so the need to ask for what they wanted was no longer needed.

Once the staff had left the room, the three started eating. After a few minutes of silence over the table, Spitfire looked at the two. “So, I don’t wish to be rude, but can I ask why I came in at the ‘perfect time’?”

Twilight sat at her seat for a moment before looking at Celestia in hopes she would answer, however the Princess had no need to be reminded that she was the one who said it. “Twilight is here looking for information about a certain pony. Or should I say: a certain Hero of the Pegasi.”

Spitfire looked at Celestia, wondering who she could be referring to, but whether the older Alicorn could read minds or the question was written over Spitfires face, she continued. “Would you happen to know about ‘The Neon Guardian’, captain?”

Celestia got the reply she hoped for as Spitfire smiled and nodded. “Almost every Pegasus alive knows about them. Hay, some of her manoeuvres we use at our shows. Why do you ask?”

Twilight looked at the Wonderbolt. “I’m trying to get more information about them, and I was hoping Celestia would be able to clear my doubts.”

Spitfire smirked. “Let me guess, you find it difficult to believe such a Pegasus existed?” Twilight nodded. “Can’t believe that there was a Pegasus alive that had the magical powers of a unicorn?” Twilight nodded again. “Ranked up faster than any pony in the military?” Twilight repeated her action. "Took a blow to the chest only to grow stronger with the use of a forbidden spell?" Both Princesses grimaced at the thought but twilight still nodded.

Spitfire’s smirk only grew. “It’s all true, every bit of it, even the information in the text books. I wasn’t there obviously when it happened, but proof has been passed down my lineage. Records, photographs, even a personal heirloom that was handed to my family by the mare herself.”

Twilight happened to be in mid-drink as a word she didn't expect to hear crossed her ears, causing her to spray out her mouth contents in surprise. She quickly apologized for the mess she had made and quickly cleaned herself up and then stared at Spitfire while Celestia tried hard to hold back a snicker. "C-could you repeat what you just said?"

Spitfire began to repeat what she said, but was rudely interrupted by Twilight asking her to repeat the last part. "Even a personal heirloom from the mare herself. Why did you want me to repeat that?" She questioned as Twilight sat where she was with shock on her face.

"The Neon Guardian... was a Mare?"

Both the Wonderbolt captain and Celestia nodded while twilight's wings went limp and opened up, her pinions resting against the ground as she stared at them both, finding it difficult to comprehend. "I... I... I don't believe it.... can't believe it..."

Spitfire’s next response caught her off guard. "Well, believe it or not, it's up to you, but that is the absolute truth." She then stood up, moved over to her saddlebag which was neatly placed by the door and opened it up. After rummaging her head through her bag, she pulled out two items and held them in her mouth. "Veeff are two itemf I keep wiff me for when I need motifvation before a fow."

She then trotted over to the table, stopping right next to twilight and placed both items down in front of her. Twilight used her magic to levitate both items in front of her, one of the two was an old greyscale photograph of a mare and a stallion next to each other, smiling at the camera, while the other happened to have even Celestias attention.

Spitfire stretched out one of her wings and used it to point at the photograph first. "That was a picture taken of Neon Guardian, the stallion next to her was Lieutenant Blazing Trails, one of my great grandfathers from that time.” Her wing then moves to point at the other object she owned. “And this, believe it or not, if one of Neon’s own Golden Pinions.”

Both Celestia and Twilight went wide eyed in disbelief. The feather had a little bit of damage to it, indicating that it needed to be removed when it did, but other than that, it was in pristine condition, despite how long it had been since it was once attached to its owner.

Twilight was amazed the feather was as it is, while Celestia was struggling to keep long lost emotions at bay. However, the internal battle of emotions didn’t go unseen as Twilight looked to her former mentor and noticed she wasn’t as relaxed as she was used to seeing. “Princess? Is everything alright?”

Twilights question broke Celestias struggle and then blinked for a few seconds, looking lost for a moment before recomposing herself. “Ah, yes Twilight, everything is fine.” She gave Twilight a semi-honest smile while inwardly kicking herself for needing to lie to her favourite and former student.

Twilight gave the older princess a worried look before being asked if they would like to continue on with their meal. Both of the younger mares accepted the suggestion and all continued on with the meal set out for them.

Twilight was happily getting all the answers she was looking for over dinner. Her doubts slowly being eaten away with the knowledge and praise of such an amazing mare. Her personality was something many of the Pegasi looked up to, along with why she did what she had to, her determination and even going as far as to put herself in harm’s way as a distraction to give some of her fellow guards a chance to retreat and recuperate. However two things remained unanswered, and Celestia already knew what was coming next and was not ready to answer.

“With all that happened to her, and all near-death experiences she had encountered over that period of the war, what happened to her that ended up killing her? Did she sacrifice herself for ponykind? Did the invaders sneak up and finish her off?”

Celestia sighed a little too loudly for comfort and looked at twilight, who went wide eyed at the sight of her mentors eyes being slightly bloodshot and a small twinkle forming from both of them. “I wish I could say that was what happened, but I would be covering up information you would mostly likely try to scold me over later on.”

After a momentary pause, Celestia finally spoke, her voice was pained, full of regret, and both Twilight and Spitfire felt their hearts shatter as their princess showed them a side of herself that she had hoped no one would ever need to see. “The truth is… Her life was taken from her at the old castle a week after the war was won. But it wasn’t from any invaders, or a sacrifice.”

Twilight was slowly beginning to regret asking what she did as tears fell from Celestias eyes. “What killed Neon, or should I say who killed her, was-“

“Me.”

A soft but regretful voice sounded from the doors of the dining hall. All three mares looked up to see the sight of an emotionally ruined Luna, tears formed and fell from her eyes as well as they stared down at the floor in front of her, remembering all too clearly what happened that very night.

Both guests were struck hard by the confession while the host only lowered her head to hold back her erupting emotions.

“W-why?” was all that Spitfire could squeeze out before choking on a sob. She was crushed, finding out that her own hero, the pony she looked up to for so many years, was killed by one of the Princesses of the land. Twilight only stayed silent.

“Because that was the night I went out of control.” Luna looked at all three of them. “She tried to stop me, to calm me down, to make me see what I was turning into. And I got so furious, I just… vaporised her.” She tried hard not to break into tears like her sister.

“She was my best friend. We always kept each other company, she could always talk to me if something was wrong, and it was the same for me too. We did many things together, shared many fun memories. To be the one who killed my own best friend, in a craze I could…. C-could not control…” She couldn’t take it anymore, she clenched her eyes shut as her body began to tremble heavily, the two guards just outside the open door couldn’t help but look in, the older didn’t know what to do, and the younger only wanted to give their Princess comfort, but he refrained from doing so regretfully.

After a few minutes of silence in the heavy atmosphere, Celestia slowly stood up and walked over to her sister. Within seconds of reaching her, Luna collapsed, however the older sister quickly caught her and gently lowered her to the ground, lowering herself as well. She spoke, her voice croaked, but it still kept the soft, caring tone. “Will you be alright, sister?”

Luna’s one and only response was a nod.

“Am I right to assume everything is alright outside?”

Luna nodded again before resting her head against Celestia. The older sibling then looked to Twilight as both she and spitfire raised their heads, also ending their mourning. “Was there anything else you’d like to ask Twilight?”

Twilight looked at her mentor and nodded. “Yes, and I assure you this won’t be a question that will cause as much pain as the previous…. I’m very sorry, Princess.” Twilight lowered her head and ears.

“It is alright Twilight, you had no…. WE had no idea how we’d all react to that question.” Celestia reassured her, causing her to look up at the two sisters. With a deep breath, she nodded and asked her final Question. “What did they call themselves?”

Just as Celestia opened her mouth to answer, there was a bright flash from the windows. All three Princesses’ eyes shot open as a strange magical spark struck through their minds before a loud explosion sounded from outside the castle, causing the entire city to shake violently from the explosion before settling.

All four mares in the dining hall shot up on their hooves and bolted to the nearest window facing the direction of where the flash came from. They could all see residents of Canterlot frantically running around trying to find shelter or just simply run around in a panic. All four looked at each other, noticing how bad they all looked, but that didn’t matter.

Twilight turned back to the window and let out a loud gasp as she noticed smoke coming from Ponyville’s direction. They all looked at the smoke and noticed that the smoke wasn’t coming from Ponyville, but the Everfree Forest. Something crashed there and they were all eager to find out what it was.

“Guards!” Luna yelled out as the two guards from the door and many more entered the room. “Mobilise the Pegasi units and get them to fly to where the smoke is coming from. Try to keep the residents clear of the forest, and look out for Green smoke when the Wonderbolts arrive! And have a group of Unicorn or Earth Pony guards move to the town itself to ensure Nopony got hurt.” All present guards saluted before bolting out of the room, shouting orders to the others as they moved down the hall.

Celestia turned to Spitfire. “Round up your travel party and have them scout out the area around the crash in the forest, see if you can find anything out of the ordinary. If you find anything, use the Green smoke and circle around your discovery and a few of the guard should come straight to whoever sprayed the smoke.” Spitfire, despite her current emotional condition, saluted quickly, pulled out her uniform from her saddle bags and left them behind as she flew out of the closest open window.

Luna then turned to Twilight, followed by Celestia. “The three of us will have to go out and calm the population of Canterlot before we can move to Ponyville.” Twilight nodded before all three made their way for the exits to do their job.

It had been two hours since the Royal Guard had arrived in Ponyville to ensure there was no damage to the town while most of the Unicorn guards had erected a force field to keep residents from entering the woods and to keep any crazed wildlife from emerging from the forest and possibly cause harm to the town’s residents.

Meanwhile in the air, all pegasi guards floated around on watch for any movements through the woods while the Wonderbolts were spread out over the forest to look for anything out of place. So far, the only ‘Out of place’ thing they could find was Zecora, a zebra who lived in the Everfree. She had been shaken up from the explosion when she was found and was lifted to the town nearby for possible medical aid as her house was trashed and none of her brews had survived.

With all the activity around her, Spitfire floated over the crater that whatever came down from the skies had caused. Something wasn’t right about it. Something obviously came down and hit the ground hard enough to create the large bowl in the ground, however, nothing could be seen to act as the source of the cause.

After flying a few more laps around her area, she decided to fly down into the blemish of the land to get a closer inspection. The ground felt warm to her hooves as she touched down and the air smelt of sulphur, but nothing other than dirt could be seen.

Glancing at the middle of the depression, she noticed that something was smoking and quickly moved to the centre. But as she got closer, all she could see was more dirt with the same stream of smoke coming from it. In frustration, she kicked her front hoof into the dirt, spraying it in front of her. She was tired, she wanted to sleep, but she couldn’t do so for another few hours unless someone found something.

After closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, her ears perked up as she heard something near her.

-Kzzzzzt-

-Kzzkzzzzt-

Her eyes opened to look at where the sound was coming from, with little effort needed, she looked down and noticed sparks from the middle of the crater. They became more recurrent before something flashed in front of her. By instinct, she tried to run but that flash happened to paralyse her body for a few short seconds, forced to watch as small hexagon shapes glow over the shape of what looked like a pony.

The glow vanished along with the shapes, leaving behind a burnt furred Pegasus wearing some strange armour over the top half of their body. Two devices on the pony’s forelegs gave off a glow between two rotating disks on each leg, however that glow slowly faded and the disks came to a stop.

Spitfire stood there for what felt like moments, looking over the pony. Their fur was charred black, giving off the same smoke she saw earlier, and most of their feathers were severely damaged apart from their larger pinion feathers. She was able to make out that this Pegasus was a mare and that she was probably what caused this damage. How she could have done so didn’t matter at that moment, as Spitfire needed to find out of the mare was alive.

She took a few cautious steps toward the pony and nudged her lightly. No response. She nudges them a little harder. Again no response. She gives the mare one final nudge, but jumps back at the mare gives off signs that she was alive, letting out a strained, raspy cough as puffs of smoke exited her lungs. The pony curled up and one of her eyes opened slightly.

Spitfire was frozen in place as she was introduced to crimson iris’ of the mare as they shivered, groaned and weakly curled up. A tear dropped from their open eye before it rolled back as the pony fell unconscious again.

Almost instantly, Spitfire tugged on a cable attached to the bag on her back and flew up into the air, circling around the crater. Her bag let out a stream of green smoke, the signal everyone was told to look out for. Within seconds, every Pegasus Guard and Wonderbolt in the immediate area flew to Spitfires location and got their orders to move the unconscious pony to the Ponyville hospital.

As the guards transporting the mare flew towards the hospital, Spitfire couldn’t help but think about that eye that looked at her, showing her that the mare was very much alive, but in a lot of pain. How did that pony survive that crash and live through the damage caused to the earth below? Why did the shape of that mare look familiar? And many other questions flowed through her mind, but out of them all, one stood on top…

Just who is that Mare?

Chapter 2 - Rediscovering Oneself

View Online

Earth.

The home planet of the human race. Its main population ranged in the billions, and there was never an exact number of how many humans lived across the entire world. Every continent was either a single country on its own, or many sharing the same landmass. Some parts of the world were calm country side paradise, some were thriving cities, and others sat between the two. All of these shared a beauty of its own. Or at least….

It used to.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

Off the coast of Perth in Western Australia, the last of the Alien battleships that have been invading Earth and attacking Humankind for nearly a hundred years, exploded and erupted in flames, plummeting to the ocean surface below it, signalling that the hardest part of the war was finally over while lighting up the looming afternoon cloud cover.

The sound of the explosion thundered throughout the ruined city and bounced off any still standing buildings that were lucky to not get blown up from the war, causing the sound to linger in the air before slowly dying down to be replaced by the sounds of many Military soldiers’ cheers, celebrating their Victory after so much hard work and sacrifice.

Celebrations, however, did not last as long as the fires of the now ruined vessel floating in the ocean as many groups of soldiers were required to sweep through the streets for ‘Clean up duty’. A task well known from many pushes against the aliens where the soldiers had to basically clean up any remaining forces the enemy had hidden in the area. Most groups had at least 15 soldiers, while the specialist groups only had roughly six.

However, one group of specialists consisted of only three members. One was a master at explosives who went by the name Farley. He kept his packs full to the brim with anything that went boom and could deal heavy damage in a small area ranging from high explosive landmines, grenades and missiles. He also kept homemade Acidic Claymores on hand for missions where his group needed to clear out an area with little property damage.

The second was skilled with sniping and assault weaponry who answered to the name Dronin. When not moving from one location to the next in quick succession or shooting, he was collecting spent casings and creating handmade bullets for his Assault Rifle. Sometimes he was lucky enough to find an unspent bullet compatible for either his L96 rifle or refurbished AK-47. Other times, he would find a bullet head in decent condition and re-use them with one of his scavenged casings and some gunpowder. If he didn’t find any of either, he would pick up small pieces of rubble, fill an old casing with the powder, and hammer the mouth of the shells over the rubble, forming a ready-to-use ‘Rockhead’. Rockhead’s weren’t as efficient as the standard rounds, but they did something to the enemy at least.

The third member of the group, who went by the name Shifty, never carried weapons on her. Instead, she wore mechanical armour over her body, consisting mostly of chest plating along with leggings of thick metal plating for body protection. On her arms were two mechanical gauntlets with spinning disks and a few other things attached to them that supplied power the suit along with the boots that came with the set and a small holographic visor that when worn, didn't obstruct the users vision. An AI came with every suit to manage and control all operations, so all the user had to worry about, was using the suit, picking the targets, and moving. The power source of this particular model though was something that couldn’t really be explained in great detail since it was accidently discovered.

~On the night of the accidental discovery~

The ‘accident’, happened to be the suit being shipped to Shifty without a power pack installed into the right gauntlet, which was the main unit of the two. Because of how much it would have costed her to have the suit shipped back for a replacement, she instead tried to install her own but had failed many times.

Over a course of a few weeks, she never gave up trying to fix her suit, but every morning, she noticed her tools on the workbench were moved and the different pieces of her armour in a different position than the previous night. She always thought it was strange at first, but eventually ignored it, figuring her pet cat had entered her room during the night and made a mess.

On the final night before being shipped to her assigned base, she gave up with getting the armor working. She equipped her right gauntlet and manually locked it in place, only to stare at it for a few short minutes, thinking of all the hard work she had put into restoring it.

With a glance at her clock, she decided to have an early night. But, as she reached to unlock the device, she felt something ice cold press against her wrist under the gauntlet. After a quick yelp and jump on her bed from the shock, she went straight for the lock but paused as she heard a hum from the device.

"Could it be..." she whispered to herself as she stared at the device on her arm. She then turned and reached over to the visor that sat on her bedside table, picked it up, and slipped it over her ear. Reaching behind her ear, she pulled out a small retractable cable out of the back of the visor and connected it to the gauntlet. Surprise was how she felt the very moment the two devices were connected as her visor began to glow and the holographic display formed over eyes.

"H-how..." she stuttered, not believing what she saw next. A small box formed infront of her sight with the words 'Awaiting start-up confirmation from Operator. Speak confirmation to begin...'. With haste, she bolted for the storage crate the armour arrived in and pulled out the manual, flipping to the ‘Startup’ page. After reading the confirmation, she reached up and tapped a button on her visor and the message ‘Microphone manually enabled’ popped up in the top corner of her vision.

After reading the words again, she looked up from the manual and with a firm tone, she repeated the words from the manual.

“AC#4582-9AJ-856-U1 Project Steel Wall.”

Instantly, Shiftys view was obscured by walls of text and she felt her gauntlet twitch as the two disks in the centre of the device began to rotate clockwise around her arm, constantly increasing speed. Then the gap between the two disks began to glow a luminescent blue as more and more of her vision was clouded by the text.

A strange feeling of exhaustion overcame her body the more the system loaded itself and its AI software, but she didn’t care, as her excitement quickly overcame that feeling and kept her awake. Within a few minutes of issuing the confirmation, all the text disappeared and was replaced by multiple warnings that had something to do with disconnected hardware which made her assume it was referring to the rest of the suit. Remembering that the visor could react to eye movement for the use of a virtual cursor and thoughts for operating the interface, she looked at each box that displayed the word ‘Ok’ and using the thought of a mental left-click of a computer mouse, she cleared each one of the warning until finally coming across the entire interface.

Many bits of system information were displayed around the edge of her vision along with information about her vital signs, but then something caught her eye: The power meter, which displayed how much charge was left in the power pack, had a flashing question mark on it which repeatedly changed to ‘Pack not found’ and back again.

Shifty was pulled out of her thoughts as an artificial voice sounded in her ear followed by a Wireframe head coming into view looked at her with a virtual smile. “Hello User, I am MechSuit Unit #052AR-U Ram Class, but you may call me Blaze. I look forward to working by your side.”

Shifty stood on the spot, baffled by what she just went through. ‘Was this really happening? Did all my tinkering pay off? Was this thing really running without a power pack?’ Many questions flew through her mind, trying to understand her situation.

Finally, she shrugged those thoughts off, looked at the virtual head and smiled excitedly. It didn’t matter right now how she did it, but she got it working, and was eager to get moving. “Nice to meet you Blaze. You can call me Shifty.”

~Back to the present~

“Blaze? Why would an AI have a name already given? Let alone that?” Farley asked as he looked up from his bags, interrupting himself from his mental inventory. “Don’t you usually have to assign one yourself?”

Dronin glances at the armor before looking at Farley. “That’s usually the case…” His attention moves to Shifty who was between them. “You sure you didn’t give it that name?”

Shifty nodded before raising her right arm. “She said her name was Blaze, I went with it. I never thought it was strange till you told me that generally new users have to assign a name.”

Before Dronin could say anything, she quickly point an accusing finger at his face and said “And no! I didn’t read more of the manual past the point of start up.”

He raised both his arms up in the air quickly. “Hey, I didn’t say anything about that!”

Shifty stared at him with a suspicious look. “But you were thinking it…”

All three stopped walking for a moment as both Dronin and shifty stared at each other. Farley swore to himself that he could see imaginary sparks coursing from both of their eyes, fighting for dominance. Finally, Dronin sighed. “Fine, you got me. Yes, I was thinking it.” He replied with sarcasm. He was lying.

The sarcasm completely flew over her head as she grinned cheerfully and began happily humming to herself, resuming her walking pace, followed by the other two.

Farley rolled his eyes, laughing to himself quietly and resumed his inventory as he heard Dronin quietly mumble something under his breath and believed it was something along the lines of women being difficult and annoying.

After a few minutes of silence (Not including the heavy thumping of metal boots on the ground), shifty turned around and looked at the two while walking backwards, occasionally glancing at her back-view camera window in the bottom corner her visor. “So what do you think was the purpose behind the attack? Since it’s not like they attacked us for no reason… Right?”

The question got the twos attention. All three of them had occasionally thought about that very question over the course of the war, but never really asked what the other two had thought.

“I had always thought they came looking for slaves to do their bidding, but since they had destroyed America’s parliamentary house, or the “White House” as they call it; along with the Pentagon; Followed by just killing everything outright. I’d say looking for slaves was out of the question.” As Farley finished his input, he looked around as he thought he heard some gunfire.

Dronin nodded. “It was a damn shame the Americans didn’t have much of a chance, let alone prepare for the attack. But then again, it was quite sudden.” He looked up at the dark cloudy sky, deep in thought as he continued. “Having their military power at full strength would have helped stop this war even before the three of us were born. Even a few heavy impact missiles would have helped take down the larger transporters our enemy had brought with them…”

“… How many Americans actually survived the first attack, military wise?” Shifty questioned as she looked at the two, but was disappointed that neither of them had an answer.

“About a third of the military population survived the first attack. However they were forced to give up their grounds and move here since most of the main grounds were already taken over by the enemy. Australia was the preferred choice of retreat as it was a safe distance away from America.” A female voice sounded from a speaker on Shiftys main gauntlet.

Dronin stared at the device. “… Okay, One: Thank you for the information, Blaze, and Two…” He shifts his sight to Shifty. “I still don’t understand why you gave it a female voice. The name ‘Blaze’ has nothing feminine about it.”

“So what if it doesn’t, it’s my AI.” Shifty sharply retorted, stopping mid step. “Why? Is that a problem?”

“Yes!” Dronin shouted as he stopped mere inches in front on her face, clearly frustrated. He cursed himself inwardly for his height, only standing a couple of inches shorter than her.

“Yeah? Why is it a problem?” She smiled evilly as she moved her face even closer to his. She knew being this close would throw him off. And throw him off it did.

Dronin opened his mouth to shoot back something, but with the close proximity between them, he lost his roll, causing him to close his mouth, take a step back and look away. “It… just is.” ‘Fuck!’ he cursed to himself.

She then giggled softly and ruffled his hair with her plated hand, making him feel like he was a child. “So, what’s your theory of the attack kid?”

He went to slap away the hand but instantly regretted it as it made contact. “I’m not a fuckin’ kid Shifty!”

“You’re sure acting like one.”

He shook his hand to rid the pain, but it didn’t help. “Am not!”

N’aw, poor baby hurt his poor wittle handy? Want momma shifty to kiss it better?” she said in a way one would talk to a child or even a baby, causing him to tip off his edge.

“I’m OLDER than you by a year!” he shouted back, close to being furious.

“So what if you’re 21 and I’m only 20? You’re still shorter than me.” She smiled sweetly, silently taunting him.

While the two continued on, Farley, who had been patient for quite some time, had enough. With a rub of his temple, he groaned. “It’s moments like these I wish I packed another box’a durries… I could really use one right about now.” With a deep breath, he reached to his side bags and ruffled through them for something.

“- AND I WILL TEAR YOUR ASS APART IF YOU CALL ME ‘KID’ ONE MORE TIME BITCH!” Dronin shouted in rage, teetering on whether to follow through with his words or not. His breaths came out as puffs of steam due to the cool twilight air flowing through the ruined city.

“Oh?” She spin around and stuck her plated rear at him, moving it from side to side in his view. She was enjoying this way too much for her own good. “You want it? Come and get it kiddo.” She followed up with a wink.

“THAT’S IT!” he screamed as he went to swing a punch at her.

“ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!” Bellowed out a voice to the side of them as two cracks followed right after.

“Owch!”

“Sunna’ va’ bitch!”

The two yelped as they jumped opposite to where the pain was on their bodies. They looked at their attacker to see pissed off Farley, something they rarely saw, especially having it directed at them. He held leather whips in both hands and the tips were coated with both dirt from the ground they lay rest on and a tint of red which made them realize the lingering pain on them.

Shifty winced as she looked down at her exposed midriff at a nice fresh scar was opened up on her side, cursing inwardly that her model didn’t cover up her entire body. ‘Why do men always have to make things that show midriff?’ she thought inwardly as she covered the scar and looked over at Dronin.

He was lucky his scar was on his arm, but there was no luck when it came to how long and deep the scar actually was. Remembering her Field First-aid sessions she was pulled into a few months back, she realized that their wounds were actually quite minor compared to what they could be if Farley had actually decided to attack with the intent to kill instead of suppress.

"Now if you two do not cut this out, I will personally break his sniper rifles barrel off the gun itself and shove both pieces up your asses and duct tape them in place. Both of you have gone at each other multiple times since this team was formed. Can't you two just stop this childish nonsense?" His voice came off calm, but not the friendly calm, but the killer calm that sent a chill up Dronins spine.

His sharp gaze looked directly into Shiftys eyes as she tried to hold back a snicker at the thought of the shorter team mate getting the larger object. “Just to get across who's mostly at fault here, you’ll be getting the larger of the two, and I’ll even make sure it’s loaded since you started this.”

She found it all too difficult to take him seriously as she still had one more thing to say and looked at him with a sultry gaze and smile. She even put on the tone suited to her expression. “You know, I may very well enjoy that~”

Dronin stared at the woman next to him with wide eyes. ‘Is she serious?!’ He thought to himself.

Farley, however, didn’t buy it and his stare only intensified. With a slow rise and draw back of his arm in prep for another whip, she finally got the picture and all confidence she had of getting out of this dropped instantly.

She fearfully stumbled back and shielded herself from his attack. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, I swear! Just don’t hit me again! Please!” she begged as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to hold back her tears. Her heart raced and her suits system gave off a warning of her quickly heightened heart rate, fearing the pain she was about to experience.

Both of the two knew how deadly Farley was when someone got on his bad side. When he wasn’t trying to blow things up, he was a torturer, and would inflict immense pain to his victims, no matter how messy it got, till he was satisfied that he achieved his goal, whether it was to get information, or get a point across. They had seen the agony his torture victims went through, and prayed to any gods out there that they’d never have to go through that same treatment as it was something worth truly fearing.

Absolute Fear. Something no one wished to experience. However, Shifty was feeling exactly that. With a long pause between the three of them, Farley finally packed up his whips and moved forward to her. Her heart rate only increased as she heard the footsteps grow closer before stopping, causing her to tremble on the ground.

“Hey…” Was all that she heard from Farley. His voice carried a soft, caring tone which seemed to ease her a bit. She cracked open an eye and moved her hand away from her face, looking up at him. His expression wasn’t what she had just saw only moments ago, but one of a worried friend.

He reached out his hand to her, causing her to flinch back.

“Vanessa, it’s alright. I sorry for hurting you.”

Shiftys eyes shot open at the mention of the name… Her name… She looked up at Farley, running tears blurring her vision. “H-how… do you know that name?”

Farley squatted down in front of her and held his hand out to her again. He could tell she was hesitating to reach up to grasp it. And she had a reason to that hesitation. Seeing that side of him directed at her was sure to make her cower, it made anyone cower once it broke through their mental walls.

Finally, after what seemed like forever for them, Shifty took hold of his hand, but as she seemed to calm down, she yelped in fear as he pulled her into a tight hug. Instantly, she began to squirm wildly as her fear returned in full force, screaming begging him to let her go.

Blaze, who had silently been monitoring her users’ emotions, bodily reactions, and noticed the intention of Farleys actions, turned off all the powered joints of the suit, removing all artificial strength Shifty had, leaving her with her own strength.

Farley silently thanked Blaze for catching on, amazed how an Artificial Intelligence could pick up on the emotion of the air around them and held his friend tightly as her struggle continued on.

Eventually, she broke down and erupted into tears in his arms, halting all struggles against his hold and blabbering apologies as he silently comforted her like a father comforting his crying daughter. All fear she had of him was burnt away and replaced with heartache and grief as realization hit her: she was just a plain, simple human and not some super human she felt like in the past 2 years thanks to the advantage of her suit. She never wanted to feel weak, or show fear, yet she had done just that.

Dronin could only stand where he did, tears slowly running down from his own eyes, seeing the one person who he believed was invincible against anything thrown against her, shatter in Farleys hold like fragile chinaware. He couldn’t help but feel relieved that some of those apologies were directed at him for all the frustration she had caused him.

Her wails echoed through the ruins around them, pouring her heart out into her friends shoulder as he rocked them both back and forth, giving her the comfort she desired during her time of need.

It’d been half an hour since both Shifty and Dronin calmed down enough for all three of them to continue on with their final mission. Not a peep was heard by either of them, Blaze included.

Finally, after the droning silence, Shifty closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “So…” Her voice was soft, pain still lingered in her breath, but she felt better than before as a strange calm held onto her.

"Hm?" was the only response she got from Farley, making her feel uneasy.

After a quick glance, she looked at Farley. "Where did you find it?"

"Find what?"

"My name... Where did you hear it?"

"I didn't hear it, I saw it."

Shifty gave him a confused look, prompting him silently to continue. And he did. "I was the one that processed your papers. I know everything you've written on those forms. Name, date of birth, who your father was, family reputation, where you lived and previously lived."

She lowered her head in embarrassment, but she also did so because he knew that she came from a wealthy family.

"I don't care about that."

Shifty could only blink, did she think out loud? "Care about what?" she questions cautiously, trying to confirm if he knew her other fears.

"Your family's reputation. I don't care about it."

Her suspicion was correct.

"Rich or not, it means nothing. Never did to me, and never will." He then looked at her. "You were scared that if someone discovered who you really were, your friends on the military would only like you for your riches, am I right?" He arched a brow with a smirk. Her reaction to the question was proof enough.

The reaction, was her eyes widening and a pause in her step. With a deep sigh, she nodded. "You are..."

"Care to enlighten us?" Dronin asked as him and his other group mate looked at her.

"I'd rather not, but since you both know my first name, might as well tell you." She dreaded this, but took a deep breath and began.

"Well, my real name is Vanessa Shifern, my father is the owner of the Farlane Weapons Munitions company, the main weapons manufacturer for Australia. Because of how successful his business is, his income was high and his assets sat in the billion dollar range."

The two men didn't say a word, but Dronin was a little surprised.

"Over the course of my youth, I was treated like royalty from everybody, friends, teachers, everyone. At first I liked the attention, but once I got into High School, it all started going downhill. Friends insulted me behind my back, and I once overheard some of them say that all they wanted from me was money. That didn't last long. Every teacher that knew me faked all my grades because of my status in the world. I knew I was failing classes, but they gave me the highest marks possible anyway just to earn a 'Bonus Pay' from my father. And everyone saw me as his successor for his business once he passed. He tried to teach me how is company worked, how to manage the costs, and all the other bullshit you're required to know to run a business."

Shifty motioned them both to the side of the ruined road and they all sat down next to one of the buildings as a few of the military transport trucks drove past them.

"Personally, I never wanted to follow in his footsteps. I only acted like is 'little angel' because of the fact that I was his daughter and he was nearby. But when I was out of his sight, I did my own things. After about two months of secrecy, he found me filling out the forms to join the military and tried to punish me for my secrecy. Now, he was no friendly father, so his punishments consisted of physical hits which left bruises and welts on my body."

"Explains why you fell apart when I drew back the whip back there." Farley said quietly.

Shifty looked at him grimly. "That's..... part of the reason. The rest was seeing how far you went with your enemies. You both don't hold back, but your method lasts a lot longer than dads." She curled up into an upright ball and hugged her legs. "I can handle whips, belts, chains, knifes, any tool that can inflict pain without taking off body parts or crippling me. The memories though... The pain they bring back..." She trailed off.

Farley couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Had he known she went through all that, he would have never attacked her like he did. "I'm..." He struggled to speak and looked down for a moment, then he raised his head to look at her. "I'm sorry I re-"

Farley's speech was cut off by her extended arm and a plated finger pressing against his mouth. His eyes looked at hers, and his heart ached as he saw how much pain she was in talking about this, but she gave him a ghost of a smile. "It's alright, you didn't know. I deserved it anyway."

After she was sure her words got through, she removed her finger and leaned against the building behind her. "Memories of those days are constant. I can never stop thinking about them, which is why I’ve acted as cocky as I have since I joined."

Her gaze moved to the orange-lit clouds above them. "It was to hide my pain, my sorrow.... my depression."

Dronin looked at her in disbelief. "Is this all true?"

Shifty looked over at him but didn't nod or shake her head. He had gotten his answer from the tears welling up in her eyes and the slightly rough breathing.

She then wiped the tears from her eyes. "Eventually, I had enough of him. I had enough money to move out and live on my own accord, but he held me back."

"What did you do? What made him change his mind to you leave?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she looked at her gauntlet. "Blaze? Can you bring up the Newspaper that had John Shiferns injury as its main story?"

Immediately, a holographic image of the article projected from the main gauntlet in front of the three and repeated the articles contents. "National Times Paper. Date: 23rd August, 2099. Title: Shiferns Attack. Last night at 2:08am, Mr. Shifern of Farlane Munitions was transported to Attadale Private hospital due to a leg injury after an unknown attack at his residence. Reporters later discovered that he had received a gunshot wound to his leg, dealt by one of his companies proto-type Anti-Tank rifles. Find out more on page 23."

Dronin was the first to speak. "I remember seeing that two years ago. Authorities never found who attacked him."

Then Farley spoke up. "They assumed many suspects; workers, company competitors, care staff, neighbours, people who once were close with him, ex-wives."

Shifty nodded. "Mmhm, but the thing was, it wasn't any of them."

Both Farley and Dronin looked at each other before one of them asked why she was bringing this up now.

They got no answer from her at first, and found it strange that she kept quiet for so long. Finally, she looked at them. "Because I know who shot my father, who turned him into a cripple and almost killed him."

This caused them to press on. They both leaned to her and said "Who? Who was it?"

She didn't hold back her answer. "You're looking right at them." Her tone was firm, they picked up no regret in her voice. A small smile then formed on the corner of her mouth.

They were both baffled by what they just heard. Over the last two years, neither of them even considered his daughter was the one that hurt John. To find out this information, it was unbelievable. But a small part of them actually accepted the information and believed it really happened since they had seen how she fights. Then the thought of becoming her enemy crossed their minds and made them shudder a little.

Before they could ask on any more details, her smile faded and she looked off to the side before standing up. “Can we talk about something else? I don’t want to keep this conversation going anymore.”

With the knowledge of what she had been through, both Dronin and Farley could tell it was a touchy subject. They nodded and stood, following Shifty as she began to move away from where they sat.

“So Dronin, what was your theory for the attack?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh right.” Dronin was silent for a few seconds before answering. “Resources. Perhaps they came here for Earths natural resources.”

“Yanno’” Farley interrupted. “That actually makes more sense than my theory. It’s possible that they might have exhausted their homes resources and have been stripping other planets of their resources.”

Dronin nodded. “Mmhm, and I’m sure that there is still plenty of natural ores still deep within’ the Earth’s crust. But thinking of it just makes wonder: Why Earth?”

All three of them shrugged. “Perhaps Earth was along their travel path?” Shifty suggested.

“It’s possible they are actually extracting all resources in this Solar System.” Blaze speculated.

Farley then looked at Shifty's gauntlet. “Since when did AI’s have speculations?”

The suit forced shifty to shrug. “Possibly since my coding was written that way.”

“Please don’t do that, Blaze.” Shifty looked at her gauntlet.

“Do what?”

“Force my body to move.”

“It’s your fault I have to do such actions.”

“Oh? And why is that, Blaze?” Shifty asked with an annoyed tone.

“You never installed a Virtual body for me to manipulate using the holographic projectors.”

“… Oh.”

“So unless you do so next time you’re at a computer, you’re my puppet to control and manipulate when I please.” A virtual, wireframe face came up on Shiftys visor and have her a big, cheeky, evil grin.

Both Farley and Dronin whistled and laughed as her jaw dropped. “Never in my life did I think I’d see the day where an AI could act and bite back like us.” Farley spoke, before adding “Also, she has a point.”

“Blaze 1. Shifty 0. Blaze wins the first round!” Dronin said loudly with a chuckle.

“Shut up!” Shifty screamed at them in embarrassment.

Both of the guys continued to laugh while trying to keep up with Shifty who happened to storm off from them.

After everyone calmed down, Farley paused as he looked at a point between two high-standing buildings, swearing he saw something. “Hey… Do you guys feel like you’re being watched?”

“Nope.”

“All the time.”

… Wait, what? “All the time?” Farley questioned.

An affirming sound and a nod was Shiftys answer as she raised her arms up behind her head.

“For how long?”

“About six years. It used to make me nervous all the time when I was young, now I’m just used to it.” Shifty shrugged. “That feeling is sort of my theory as to why they were here.”

“And what would that theory be?” Dronin asked slowly.

She stopped and spin on the spot casually. “That they are here because of me.”

“And we are.” A deep voice sounded around them, causing them to all jump.

Dronin then pulled out his Assault rifle and a custom clip, loading it up and pulling back the hammer in preparation for a fight. Farley pulled out his Acidic grenades and quickly looked around for the source of the voice. Shifty stood in her combat stance which had one foot in front of her and the other behind her while both arms were on either side of her body. Blaze executed her combat mode, priming both gauntlets by raising strange cylinders which expelled compressed air just behind her hand and spinning up the disks on both devices.

“Who’s there!?” Farley shouted while the others carefully listened for the voice.

A heavy laugh echoed through the ruins. “Oho, look at yourselves Humans. Trying to look all scary and dangerous.” Sarcasm then flowed through the air. “Oh~ I’m so scared, I will be killed before I even have a chance to fight back, oh what shall I do? What will I dooo~?” The laugh resounded even louder. It was obvious this guy was enjoying the moment.

“Are you with the invaders?” Shifty shouted her question. At the same time, she was feeling twitchy.

“Maybe I am? Maybe I’m not.” He continued to chuckle around them.

“What do you want?!” Dronin shouted. Blaze was slowly pinpointing the source of the voice, causing Shifty to turn to her right a little. Both of her group mates noticed and turned to the direction she was facing.

“What do I want? I don’t want anything.” The voice spoke, his tone sent cold chills down their spines. “The master on the other hand…” The voice chuckled once again before going cold. “Wants you, Neon.”

A dome of shadow formed over their general area and blocked off all outside light. The only light that gave them sight was what some of the still operational street lights gave off.

“What does he mean by ‘Neon’? Is he talking about someone? One of us?” Farley asked quietly.

Before Dronin said anything, Shifty looked at Farley. “He’s talking about me.”

“What do you mean he’s talking ab-“ Farley stopped himself as both him and Dronin saw Shiftys eyes. They were glowing. Not glowing from the visor, but actually glowing a luminescent green.

They were both mentally reminded about all the fights the three of them went through where her eyes glowed. She never fought like herself, but as a different person altogether. Her tactics were always sharp, her reaction time was insanely quick, her hits were brutal and not a hint of mercy was ever shown. When they didn’t glow, her reaction time was about average and she made mistakes occasionally

Other times when her eyes glowed when not fighting, she would just walk off to do whatever she did. Especially at night when she was working on her suit. She’d make alteration and try different things with it, but when one of them asked what she was altering or why she was doing so, she would ask them what they meant, showing signs that she had no idea what they were talking about.

“Ah, there you are.” The voice echoed. “We’ve been wondering where you disappeared to. The shadow lord has been looking to finish you off after you stepped out of nowhere a thousand years ago and stopped his forces.”

Shiftys eyes darted around, looking for something. “So he sent you to finish me off?”

"You could say that. But, unfortunately, it isn't my job to finish you off." The voice sounded clearer and a little more direct, causing everyone to look down an alleyway where they assumed the owner was.

"What is your job then?" She growled.

Suddenly, a loud, heavy thump sounded behind them, causing the ground to shake beneath them. All three turned to see a dark, towering figure standing before them in the shape of a lizard that'd been fed steroids. All that could be seen was just metal protection over the whole creature so none of them could tell what exactly it was and N30-NR4N-23 sprayed on one of its arms. "My job." It looked down at them. "Is to see how much you've grown!"

Instantly, the creature brought its right arm up, clenching its hand into fist. Like time had slowed, the only thing Dronin and Farley saw was Shifty turn to them and leapt at them, taking them both into her arms as the giant fist came down upon where they stood, sending all three of them out of the fists path.

All three of them tumbled across the ground before shifty released her grip on them, allowing them to slide to a stop. Shifty was the only one who stopped on their feet with one of her hands on the ground for balance. She breathed hard while the other two felt disoriented by what just happened. Their moment for recovery was interrupted by the sound of the lizards’ hand being drawn out of the ground it had just punched and began moving towards them.

"I was hoping you'd be crushed under my claw. But it seems I underestimated you. You're as quick as remember, Neon Guardian. Too bad you have all that extra weight to move around with instead of that little blue body you once had all those years ago." The giant rolled its shoulders, cracks sounded from the joints. Shifty could only assume there was more to come.

She gritted her teeth and bolted towards him with a raised arm to throw a punch. The attack however, failed as it collided with the creature with a resounding dong from the plating. With no delay and quick reaction, she leapt back as he had taken another swing at her. She slid back to where her team mates were sitting, the looks on their faces was all too easy to read: 'What the fuck?'

Farley thankfully regained his train of thought as the giant began to move closer to them. Shifty looked at the plate she had hit but inwardly cursed as not even a mark of some sort was left behind. "Shifty..." Farley cautiously said. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, they still glowed. "What are you?" was all he said afterwards.

"Not exactly the best time to ask me this." was all shifty could respond with before turning to grab them both, but her retreat was halted as the giant who had come much closer than she liked, reached down and grabbed her in his large hand, raised her up into the air then slammed her down into the road below them. She let off a pained scream as she was crushed under his grip.

Dronin finally snapped back to reality at the sound of her scream and horror overcame his expression as he saw Shifty being crushed. Farley pulled out one of his Acidic grenades, pulled the pin and lobbed it at the attacker. The grenade bounced off of its left leg armour before exploding. Its stomach and leg was covered by the acid that began to eat into the armour before fizzling out. The giant laughed as it's gaze moved to the two of them. Neither moved.

"Run!" shifty screamed out at them before letting out another agonizing scream as the giant pushed more of his weight on top of her. The road beneath continued to crack apart the more he pushed. Her armour groaned under the pressure and warning after warning appeared in her sight.

The giant began to laugh as he put more and more weight on top of her before his face plating exploded in front of the two. Farley tried to scramble away but stopped at he saw that Dronin had pulled out his sniper rifle. The barrel smoked as he drew back the hammer, causing the gun to spit out a spent case that he had never seen before.

"Explosive round. A prototype bullet made by Farlane Munitions." Dronin grinned as he answered Farleys question before it was even asked.

The creature moved back and covered its ‘face’ with its hands to protect it while it tried to recover, releasing shifty like Dronin had anticipated. He quickly stood up, his grin changed to a fearful expression and ran to Shifty, trying to pull her out of the small crater. Farley quickly picked himself and ran to do the same while the creature was distracted.

They both grimaced as they saw the condition of Shiftys body and armor that’d looked like she’d just came out of a crusher. Farley pulled out some high-explosive grenades and lobbed them at the creature who was still trying to regain focus to distract it while his teammate dragged shifty into one of the ruins for cover.

When both was out of sight, he bolted into the same building before he could be seen. As he entered the building, he was struck hard to the heart from the sight in front of him. Shiftys midriff was scraped, scratched, and bleeding while the suit looked to be on the verge of falling apart, but it surprisingly still operated judging by the disks on both gauntlets spinning. Dronin was tearing his bag apart, looking for any first aid supplies through the tears clouding his vision.

Farley knelt down next to her and lightly slid a hand across her cheek. He started tearing up a little as she winced and groaned from his touch. This was the first time he, No, both had seen her in this condition. Every fight they went through, Shifty was always the ‘Tank’ of the group, taking most of the hits and attention from the other two, and always came out unscathed. To see her reduced from the ‘Tank’ to the mess she was, it was too much.

Shifty cracked open her eyes, but surprisingly, one of them still had their glow. Farley could see that both her irises were separate colors, one was her natural hazel, while the other was green. Tears welled in her eyes as she croaked. “H-hey… why the tears?” She smiled, but it was obvious she was intense pain.

Dronin fell apart, her voice had sent him over the edge and he cried into his bags. Farley was close, but he still held on. “…idiot.” was all he could say as he clamped his eyes shut.

“You asked what I was, right?” she asked in a pained whisper.

Farley could only nod.

“Well…” She coughed, some blood splattered from her mouth.

“No. Don’t talk... Please.” His body shook while Dronin regained himself and pulled out some bandages and a healing salve. Thank you science!

She groaned as she raised an arm up to his face, cupping his cheek in her plated hand. “I need… need to tell you…. B-both of you.”

How she kept her smile, neither of the two knew. “I’m not really of this world.”

Dronin opened the salves bottle and dipped a bandage in it before trying to wrap it around her midriff. His actions were slower than he should have been when he heard what she said. Farley looked down at her in disbelief, he knew she was spouting nonsense, most did when they were as close as she was to death, or even closer.

She continued. “You know h… how my eyes glow?”

They nodded.

“When they glow, that’s when my spirit is in full control.”

They still looked at her the same way and began to beg her to stop talking.

She let out a sigh and another bloody cough. They begged her to stop, but she only kept going. “Shifty… Vanessa… That’s only my identity of this world. She was a part of my soul, fragmented to hide this side of me from possible danger like the lug out there. We’ve only just merged back together, and I have complete control, but my fighting capability is severely limited.”

They then stopped begging and continued to listen. She could see what they wanted now from their eyes.

“My original home was a land called Equestria, on a planet much like this one. We never knew what it was called, so we ended up calling it Terra. Before I was… killed on that world by one of my best friends going mad, we had a war, again, much like this one. It lasted for a number of years but not as long as what it has here, but the scales were always balanced as to which side was winning.”

They could now tell she wasn’t making any of this up. There was no hints of a lie or sarcasm in her voice, and there was no possible way she was thinking this up on the spot, so they both listened more.

“Once I had joined in on the battle, I went up in ranks quicker than the others and the scales tilted in our favor every fight I fought in. Eventually, we made it to the last of their bases and finished them off. Eventually,” She coughed again and painfully tried to reach for a cloth, but had the bloody mess around her mouth wiped away by Dronin.

“Eventually, I was faced with the hardest battle of that lifetime, and I was brought to deaths boney appendages multiple times. That was, until I was shot through the heart.”

Both were confused by what she meant. “What do you mean ‘until you were shot through the heart’?”

She just smiled even more, trying her best to ignore the pain in her body. “In my old world, there was such a thing as magic, and only two of the four races of my species could use it. I was born from the more powerful of the two, but came out differently. I was a Hybrid.” She turned her head to Dronin. “A special one.”

They all froze as they felt the ground shake in a pattern like footsteps, and they all knew exactly what was causing them. It didn’t stop the next question from escaping Farleys mouth. “What are you trying to say?”

She gave a quiet, pained laugh. “My body couldn’t hold the amount of magic I could use since that race can only use a tiny bit of magic for flight control, so a spell was put on my soul to act as a limiter so I don’t kill myself. Those who cast the spell succeeded, but didn’t know that if the holder of that spell is put on deaths row from a killing blow, the spell temporarily breaks. And the results… well…”

The vibrations grew heavier. “Where did you go Neon? Why hide from me? Too weak to face me in front of those two hairless aberrations you call ‘friends’?” The attacker laughed heavily.

She sighed, then looked at the two of them. “I don’t want to do this, and I know I have a lot to explain, but there is no more time. He will find us eventually.”

“Then we run. Get away from here.” Farley said with determination.

“We can’t.”

“Why not?”

Shifty closes her eyes. “That dome over us. Anything that touches it will die.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I have seen many die from touching it back home. My real home.” She strained a frustrated whisper but started coughing again.

“Come out, come out, wherever you hide. I’m sure the Shadow Lord won’t mind if I do kill you in the end for being as weak as you are. After all, he does want you dead. And I do want to rip that tiny pink thing that shot at my face. Although you didn’t do any damage to it, I must reward you for your efforts with a slow, painful death.” The sounds of a solid explosion was heard from a building not too far away, followed by a crumble of what was assumed to be the wall of said building.

Dronin stood up and picked up his gun. “We’ll kill HIM then.”

“It’s impossible, Dronin.” Shifty looked at him with eyes pleading him to stop. “Not even his own soldiers’ guns work against that armor. I know what will though, but in order for me to do that, I need you to do something to me that you’ll regret.”

They both looked at her.

“I need you… to shoot me with your rifle.”

Nothing was said, but they did stare at her. Dronin shook his head. “No.”

“Dronin…”

“No…” he repeated, but his body shuddered at the thought.

“Dronin, you have to do this.”

“I… I c-cant. I won’t.”

“I need you to do this!”

“Why?” His tone was now cold.

“Just do it… Please.”

“NO!” he shouted.

A low laugh echoed through the buildings. “So… You’re over here?” Another explosion and crumble was heard, much closer than the last. “Shout again, human, guide me to where you are!” He laughed more.

Shifty then turned her head to Farley.

“Don’t even ask, because it isn’t happening, Shifty. I can’t.” His voice was soft, his gave off more pain than Dronins.

“Please… It has to be done.” She pleaded.

Farley stayed silent.

“You need to understand: If you don’t do it, I’ll be in a lot of pain…. This pain. It won’t go away, ever. I can’t die unless I get shot a second time.”

He turned his head to the side, still showing that he wouldn’t do it. A crimson glow caught his gaze, along with Dronins. They both looked at the rubble nearby where the glow raised into the air and then flew right at Farley. By instinct, he raise his hand up to shield himself but was never hit. Instead, something was forced into his hand.

Farley looked at his hand and stared in shock as he noticed a small pistol was in his grip, still shrouded by the glow. He looked around the room to look for anything else strange.

“F-Farley.” Dronin said in a scared tone.

He looked at Dronin who was looking at Shifty. Following his gaze, he saw that her hand had the same glow. Shifty smiled and nodded as he looked at her. “This is the best I can do. You need to do this Farley. You need to break the spell.”

The gun was telekinetically guided to her breastplate which gave off a hiss, followed by the plate splitting apart in the middle, exposing a fraction of her bare chest to him. The gun was then pulled to it, the tip pressing against her.

“Shifty… please… don’t.” Farley pleaded. His eyes were bloodshot, he was scared, teardrops rolling down his cheeks.

“Why? Why can’t you do it?” she asked. “Why can’t you pull the trigger, despite me telling you I can’t die from the first hit?”

Farley shook more and clamped his eyes shut as she pressed on. “I’ve had this happen many times. It hurts, yes, but only for a second. Then the pain is gone and I’m fine.” She painfully reached up and grabbed his shoulders. “Trust me, I won’t die, I promise! You’re not killing me! I need you to do this so I can save you! Both of you!”

Farley said nothing, but shook more.

“Why is it so hard for you to do it?”

Finally, Shifty got her answer. “Because I love you Vanessa!”

She was immediately taken back by his confession while Dronin sat there dumbstruck.

“You make things difficult, you can be stubborn, loud, hardheaded, a real pain to be around. You never really listen to others suggestions, you don’t listen to reason, and you charge into the fray head first.”

Shifty felt a pang in her heart, stunned by his words. He kept going.

“But, I’ve seen you do amazing things, things I never would have even thought of, gotten us out of very sticky situations, know what to say and when to say it. You don’t look at the cons of an ally, only the pros. You fill the position that we lack. You keep the group going when we’re on our knees and wallowing in the dark. You give us the motivation we need… and you give me hope for a better tomorrow.”

Shifty was beginning to understand why he couldn’t do it.

“I have admired you from the first day I saw you fight. I have enjoyed the time we spent when there wasn’t a battle. The moments where embarrassment was the only thing we felt after something happened between us. You even surprised me at one point too.”

Both Dronin and Shifty remained silent.

“I lied when I said I didn’t care about your family history. I once thought you were going to be some stuck up rich bitch that didn’t care about anything other than herself, but I was giving you a chance anyway. What I saw though when I was assigned to this group, was not what I expected, a woman who always put her friends before herself. Not caring about what was happening to her, so long as her friends weren’t in the brunt of it. I’ve never worked with someone like that before.”

He clenched his free hand while her eyes formed tears. “To see you, someone from a rich background who could have had anything she wanted in the world, stand up for us, protect us and go out of your way for the sake of others… it’s not something to be seen every day. And I fell in love with you because of not only that, but the fact that you proved my first thoughts wrong and showed me a better person.”

He leans forward and rests his head on her shoulder, trying to hold back the tears. “I cannot, in my right mind, shoot you and think of it as another thing to happen. How would I live with myself with the memory of myself shooting the one I love without it bothering me?”

“Farley…” she whispered as she painfully wrapped her arms around him, making sure the disks on her gauntlets don’t come in contact with him. He then removed his head from her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Chris…. My name is Chris.”

Shifty smiled. “You remind me so much of him. He cared nothing about titles, statuses or political standings. He almost said exactly what you just did a thousand years ago. When I died and my spirit moved to the next world, I swore I would be celibate till I ended the war completely. Hearing you say that…” She trailed off for a moment as her cheeks felt a little warmer. “It makes me want to change my mind…” Chris smiled.

“Aww. Isn’t that sad? Too bad you won’t live much longer to follow through WITH THAT!” The giant said before the wall behind them blew open, Dronin was unfortunately hit by the debris and was crushed underneath it as it was blown away by the plated fist that was once swinging at them not too long ago. “Surprise!” He yelled excitedly, ready to finish what he was sent to do.

Tears rolled from Shiftys eyes and a genuine smile formed on her face, she didn’t want to hurt him, but she had to. “I’m sorry Chris…” she whispered to him before painfully leaning up to him and laying a kiss on his lips. Her eyes shut, placing the deed that would do her in.

Chris’ reaction was exactly what she expected. Shock went through his body, causing him to tense, which led to his hands jolting, and causing the finger resting on the trigger to twitch, releasing the hammer only to have it hit the base of the loaded round, the powder inside igniting and shooting the bullet right through her chest with a loud bang.

Chris’s eyes widened in fear realizing what just happened as her body began to grow limp under him, a few final tears rolled from her eyes before their kiss broke. The glow around the gun and her hand faded till it was no more and her body drew out its final breath.

‘I’m sorry Chris…’ was all he heard repeat through his head. He shook wildly and held her body in his arms, calling to her through the agony his heart felt

Dronin managed to stay alive long enough to move some of the rubble from his view, only to witness the shot. “N-no… please… No… it… can’t be…” was all he could say from under the rubble before his life slipped from him.

The attacker looked a little stunned by what he just saw, and then smiled under his mask. “Ah, so I neither myself or the Shadow Lord had anything to worry about..” Chuckled resonated from his throat. “I shall let you live, for now. Your time will come though, I guarantee. Take this delay as my thank you for finishing something myself and my Employer have wanted to do for so long.” He said before straightening up and walking out of the building heavily. She was dead, he was no longer needed on this world.

“Please…” Chris croaked. “Come back… please…”

The suit began to power down, the glow from her visor and gauntlets fading to nothing.

“No… please… Vanessa.” He whispered.

The soft hum of the suit faded into silence, the only sounds around them was Chris’ mourning and the heavy thuds outside of the building. Natural light began to shine through as the dark dome that had covered the area, faded away. There was a break in the cloud line and the full moon shined down over them.

“We need you… I need you… You promised…” His voice faded away as the pain became unbearable on his heart, silent whimpers came from him.

‘Lyrin…’

Light sobs echoed through what looked like a dark room, the pain and suffering evident to the owner. Curled up tightly into a ball, eyes shut and tears streaming from their eyes, they only wished the pain would stop, the confusion to disappear, and the memories of strange worlds unknown to them which tore them apart emotionally ever since they passed out after hearing a heavy voice from the ruins of the city.

‘…essa…’ A distant voice called out from the darkness.

The voice was soft, but it grabbed Vanessa’s attention. She slowly opened her eyes and uncurled herself, pushing herself up with her arms. “H-hello?” she called out into the darkness.

‘Vanessa…’ The voice seemed a little louder. Vanessa could hear the worry in the voice.

“Who’s there?” She asked loudly. Her heart thumped, it felt like it was going to explode from her chest as the fear only kept rising.

‘Calm yourself, dear.’ The voice said before a sphere of light formed in front of her. Just seeing it calmed her slightly for some reason, and made her feel warm on the inside.

She looked upon the sphere and then looked around her in search for the voice. “Who are you?”

‘I am you…’ the voice sounded again, but seemed more like it came from the sphere.

She looked back at the sphere curiously before flinching back as it spread itself out, changing its shape to that of a human body of light. ‘Or, to be more precise, the rest of you.’

“I…” she started. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘the rest of me’?”

The being of light talk a few steps forward to her. She wanted to move away from it, but her body wouldn’t allow it. The being then knelt down in front of her and extended its arm and hand forwards her face.

‘You have had moments where you feel like something is amiss with you, am I correct?’ it asked as its hand rested against her cheek. The feeling of relief flooded her body, the fear she had only a few seconds ago, disappearing. She only nodded in response and pressed her cheek against the hand willingly, no longer wanting to retreat from it. It soothed her, it calmed her, and she felt at peace. She didn’t want to lose this feeling of serenity. Ever.

Unfortunately, the being did pull its hand back. She wanted to reach out and pull it back, but her arms wouldn’t move. So she looked at it with a begging look which seemed to be ignored.

‘I do not wish to hurt you with what I am about to say, but it must be done. You must hear what I am about to tell you, just like many others have before you, and it will explain why you have felt like that.’

Vanessa could tell it didn’t want to say what it wanted, but she remained silent in respect.

‘You are not who you know yourself as. It’s a mask you have taken on since birth. I know this because I have been with you since then.’

The words almost hit her in full force. She wanted to talk, to say something back to deny it, but her mouth wouldn’t move to form words, nor would her voice sound when she tried.

‘I know you do not believe me. I know you wish to say something against what I have just told you, but please, listen to what I have to say.’

The only option she had was to remain quiet and nod.

The being seemed to inhale deeply for a moment before it began talking, looking to one side.

‘For a thousand years, I have been moving from one world to another, one body to another, one life to another in search for a way to get back home after being painfully torn from it by a ruler gone insane.’

Images began to form in front of her, many showing a world single world she recognized from those alien memories. One of the images had many creatures, much like what she has seen on earth, fighting against a field of multicolored horses which took on many shapes and sizes. Some looked large and masculine, while others were small and… feminine?

Some had wings and were occupying the skies, either fighting against those in the air, or diving to the ground. There were some that had horns and stayed at the back, glows covering their horns. While others had neither Horn nor Wings and were covered in armor wielding many weapons from swords, to spears, to even crossbows which were mounted on their armor. Every one of these horses had an image on their backside which she found strange.

Another image she looked at was a table of a map surrounded by more of these horses which she thought looked like high ranking soldiers planning for an attack. One of them happen to catch her attention: One of the winged horses which she assumed was female, had Persian Blue fur with a golden feather on both wings, appearing as though she was issuing orders. This horse didn’t have an image on its backside like the others did.

‘One of the main races of my world are what you see in front of you. And I must bring this up: They are not horses, but Ponies.’ The being said.

She thought it was a joke. ‘Ponies? That can’t be true, they are just animals…’ She thought to herself.

It never moved its head. ‘We are nothing like what you know of from this world.’

Her reaction to the beings words was a look of confusion. Almost immediately, before she could think of something, it spoke again.

‘Yes, I did just reply to your thoughts. I hear everything you think. But that is not important. There isn’t as much time as I’d like to explain, so just listen to me, please?’ It asked kindly.

After a few seconds of thought, Vanessa nodded.

‘Thank you.’ It said, making Vanessa feel more warmth inside her.

‘I was born as a Pegasus, one of the winged ones. Naturally, only a Unicorn, the horned ponies or an Alicorn who has both wings and a horn, can use magic, but when the doctors of that time checked me to make sure whether I was healthy or not, they discovered that I was generating higher levels of magic, more than what a Pegasus can use.’

An image of many unicorns in white coats surrounding a table appeared in front of her. In the middle of the table was a bunch of blankets and a small blue, Pegasus foal with those two same golden feathers within them. Each of the unicorns horns were covered by different colored auras and beads of sweat on their furred faces.

‘They were afraid that if this unnatural condition was to be left untreated, I would not last long as the overload of magic would kill me. So they cast a spell on me that would create a shield around my soul: the source of my magic, and filter how much was generated. The spell worked, but there were a few side effects to it that they never knew of.’

A new image appeared in front of her with a much older looking version of that foal, taking a shot of what looked like a bullet through their chest. She winced as she saw her eyes: They were wide, the irises and pupils close to the size of pins, and at the bottom eyelids were tears. She could imagine the pain she’d experience if she was in their position, but the imaginary pain felt all too real.

‘One of the side effects were that if I was to take on a blow that would otherwise kill me, the spell would temporarily shatter and my magic would flow at its full force. The result of this causes my body to change into something that could handle the amount of magic. Blows that would usually cause someone or somepony to die from loss of blood or extensive pain wouldn’t kill me, and instead, I would be forced to live through pain that would never fade completely until I am hit by that killing blow.’

Vanessa couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of living through everlasting pain. The image then changed: The Pegasus was levitating in the air, its expression told her it was screaming in agony inside the Column of light that erupted from the ground beneath them. Anything that was in close proximity to it looked like it was being blown away by a shockwave.

‘With my magic erupting from me in full force, I would take on a new form, but that form wouldn’t have the benefit that my normal body did. This meant that if I was to take a second killing blow, there would be nothing to save me, and I will properly die…’ the beings voice trailed off for a moment as it lifted its hand up to where its lips would be and held it there for a moment as if it was holding back its emotions.

Not long afterwards, the image changed to one where there stood two ponies in clear view and a few armored ones in the background, pointing their spears at them. One was a taller pony with a horn and wings with dark sapphire fur. Their horn was lit by a cobalt aura and pointed at the smaller pony who she assumed was the same pony she had seen in the other images. The Pegasus however, was covered by flames, being burned alive by the taller one which Vanessa guessed was the ruler the being mentioned before.

‘The other side effect was that if I were to die, my spirit would not move on into an afterlife as the humans call it. Instead, it is forced from the world into the abyss and must find a new body to live in. If I could explain why this was, I would, but time is not in our favor at this very moment.’

She wondered what the being meant by ‘Time is not in our favor’, but the mental question forming in her mind was immediately answered.

‘At this very moment, I am in control of your body; our body, currently fighting against an old foe from all those years ago. They have grown strong, and I cannot fight them for long in this human body you have grown accustomed to for the past twenty years.’

“Will we win?” she muttered to herself, but was overcome by surprise as she found her voice again.

The being finally turned its head to her. ‘Only when you truly accept who you really are. I cannot match his strength without you, which is why I am speaking to you at this very moment. I have had to do this many times before, but this is the only time where we don’t have that long to get to an understanding before it is too late.’

The beings words echoed through Vanessa’s mind before she nodded again. “Then please, continue.”

The image that was once in front of her fades from sight. ‘Every rebirth I have gone through, my soul would be at a constant battle with the body. I could never understand why for a number of failed rebirths, or ‘miscarriages’ as the already living would call it. It wasn’t until I tried fusing a smaller part of my soul to my new body that I found a way to live again for as long as I could. So during every transition from one life to another, I would split a small part of my soul and fuse it to the new body. That fragment would live through whatever life was given to them until they are into their adult years when both mind and body have matured. Luckily, every world I have lived in, its races have lifespans of under 150 years, but I have never lived past the age of 30 in any of them save for my original life due to worldwide conflicts, wars, or fights for dominance.’

She gave it a questionable look as if something was missing. “Fights for dominance?”

The being nodded. ‘While some worlds had technology, greatly advanced or only just beginning, others are still in primitive stages.’

“Oh.” Was her only response.

‘Prim worlds taught me how to survive better in many different circumstances, things that have kept you alive up to this point, while the Tech worlds have taught me how to craft and utilize many things. It’s because of what I have learnt from the Tech worlds that allowed me to modify that suit you bought two years ago to operate off my passive magic use, and allow us to do many other things. Flight was one of the things I was able to modify the suit to achieve in case it was needed.’

“I always did wonder why the suit looked different from the original diagram when it finally activated.” At least she now knows (Or hoped) that part of what she did helped with the finished product, but that thought was squished.

‘By the way, speaking of suits: Don’t touch the internal hardware or software ever again without me aiding you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to rewire, move, reconnect and reprogram everything after you fiddled with it.’

‘Well fuck you too, Lyrin.’ She thought to herself before something in that thought made her freeze… Well, two things. First was remembering the fact that the being could hear her thoughts, and second was the last word she thought in that sentence.

The being seemed to ignore the first part, but that final word caught her attention. ‘It seems you’re beginning to understand who you really are.’

It- No, she was right: thoughts, memories, feelings and experiences that once felt alien to her were now growing familiar, she was understood who she was. She knew who she was, and the openly accepted it.

Suddenly, her mind was filled with what has happened between her passing out and her core taking over her body up to the point where the wall behind her was blown open, followed by the word ‘surprise’ being yelled out.

She looked as Chris’ face as the dark room around her warped into her bodies surroundings and the glowing figure faded out of sight. Her soul was whole once again, and she knew what had to be done. It pained her to think of it, especially with his confession, but she needed to push it aside. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and gave him a genuine smile.

“I’m sorry Chris…” she whispered to him before painfully leaning up to him and laying a kiss on his lips. There was a pause in time where she felt like she was floating on a cloud once again before a sharp pain shot right through her chest.

It hurt, it burned, and she felt like she was slipping away. Memories of her first love flashed in her mind, Chris really did remind her of him. Maybe it was him, just with a different face, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t care. She kept her lips pressed against his for as long as she could before her body went unbearably numb.

“Please…” She heard him whisper to her, he was growing distant “Come back… please…”

“No… please… Vanessa.” She heard again, the voice a lot further away.

“We need you… I need you… You promised…” The voice was faint, it was difficult to hear him, and then everything went silent.

‘Lyrin…’ The voice of a soul, she heard it.

Just as the giant looked down at the ground and a rune circle formed around him to send him back to where he came, something in the air made him feel uncomfortable and halted him. He turned to see the two humans, the male holding the female. One lover mourning the passing of another, something his own race had experience many times before being overruled by the Shadow Lord. He was not happy to see this sight, but he watched anyway. “I’m sorry, young ones.” He said quietly as he looked at them.

Then, something from the back of his mind struck his mind that he should have remembered. “Rakehj!” He loudly cursed as his limbs were instantly restrained by magical chains protruding from the road under him before he could move. With a quick glance at his shackles, he looked back at the two, only to have an uneasy feeling fill his stomach.

Chris cracked open his eyes to see what the shout was about but froze as he noticed something around both himself and Vanessa’s body. Multiple circles had formed around them with strange writing in the outer ring. They glowed as a breeze flowed through the ruins.

Chris quickly jumped back out of the circles as small wisps of light rose up from the circle and bent towards Shiftys body. He wanted to run, he wanted to grab her body and pull her out of whatever was covering her body, but he also wanted to see what would happen. Then he heard what sounded like a whisper in the wind.

‘I told you, I can’t die from the first hit…’

He let out a loud gasp as Shiftys lifeless body began to levitate upright over the ground, slowly rising up as her body began to glow from the strange aura blanketing her body. He wanted to close his eyes as her body brightened, but all he could do was watch in astonishment as a crimson rings of light formed at her base and slowly slid over her body.

What passed through that ring changed as it continued its path up the body, armor being repaired instantly, legs thickening at the base and the ends becoming round, boots shaping to fit the new shape, blue fur replacing the scarred skin of her midriff with two blue luminescent lines down each side of her body, armor around the arms and shoulders disappearing and being replaced by fur and luminescent lines flowing down to the now larger gauntlets as they spun to life, wings spread out from her shoulder blades and stretched out to their full span, fur growing on her face as a small muzzle grew out of her face, her ears changed to those horse or pony would have but more rounded and what looked like a horn protruded from her forehead.

Her hair grew thicker at the front, longer at the back and the color change to both her furs color on one split and a darker blue on the other. A separate ring appeared around where her tailbone would be and floated away from the body; what was once air was now a tail sporting the same colors as her hair.

Both of the rings disappeared and the glow that covered her body faded away into the dark. The strange circles that were once around her also disappeared as she dropped to the ground on her hands and… feet?

Both wings tucked up tightly against her back as she slowly stood up and took a deep breath before opening her eyes. Chris just looked at them in a daze, they were larger than the human eye and her irises sported the same green that they used to glow with. They looked down at him and returned the gaze before a smile formed on her face.

“V-Vanessa?” She nodded as her visor returned, she then took a few steps forward, went down on one knee and nuzzled her cheek against his. He was stunned by the soft feeling brushing against his face and froze again as she whispered into his ear. “Cleared any doubts you had after my little explanation, Chris?”

Without given time to pull away, she was immediately pulled into his arms, being held tightly against him, she returned the gesture willingly. “I hate you for doing that.” He mumbled into her. “But I’m so glad you’re alright now.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” She said softly, squeezing him tighter. “But it had to be done. If I’d done it myself, the spells break would have been denied and I would have actually died.”

Chris cut her off. “Have you tried before?”

This halted her and tried to recall ever doing it. “...No. I haven't, and I’m not willing to try. But I do know that at the hoofs of another, I would be reborn as this for a short time before changing back.”

He pulled back and she loosened her embrace around him. He looked at her with a questionable look. “Hoofs?”

She giggled and nodded. “My race are ponies. Nothing like the ones you have here on Earth though. We’re sentient beings and are one of the larger populated races of Terra.” She smiled at him. Again, there was no hint of a lie.

“So… I’m in love with a pony?” That knowledge didn’t really sit well with him.

“In a general term, yes. In a technical term, No.”

“What’s the difference?” He asked.

“In this body, I’m only half pony, other half… I don’t know.”

They were interrupted by an angered roar from behind them which happened to be the shackled alien that was sent to kill her.

“I don’t wish to intrude on your little reunion, but we do have a battle to finish I believe?” the Suit suggested. Blaze didn’t sound as mechanical as before, she actually sounded like an actual living being.

“Hold on, Blaze.” Chris said, he then looks up at her. “So, if Shifty or Vanessa wasn’t your real name, what should I call you?”

She looked back at him questionably while reaching out a hand. “What do you mean? You said my name after I was shot.”

“I did?” He questioned as he took the hand and was pulled to his feet. “I don’t remember saying your real name. Or any name other than your… human name?” He was glad she was still standing at 5’2, allowing him to still stand higher than her at 5’10.

She just rolled her eyes and smiled. “Lyrin. That’s my name.”

Chris nodded and then looked the roaring attacker. “So, how do we take him out?”

“Not we, I.”

He looked at her. “What do you mean?” he said sharply. “You make me shoot you, you make me spill my heart over you, make me watch you turn into this.” He gestured at her body. “And now you won’t let me fight?”

“Please Chris, understand that for the last thousand years, I have been preparing this. This is the only life I’ve been able to put what I have learnt through my travels to good use. This suits operation is one of them.”

Chris blinked at her. “How?”

Lyrin smiled. “It operates off my own magic.” Right on cue, her horn flared with the crimson glow of her magic while at the same time, the disks on both gauntlets spun up more. Then as the glow faded, they returned to their normal rotational speed.

“Huh…” was all that came from Chris.

“I promise.” She leaned up to him and placed another kiss on his lips. “I’ll take care of him and get revenge for Dronin. Then maybe, we can go on a date to celebrate the end of all this.” She gave him a wink before turning towards the attacker, one of her wings stretched out and brushed a pinion feather against his face before tucking it back against her and making her way over, leaving a stunned, blushing Chris behind. He didn’t care if she was part animal, he still loved her, and the thumping of his heart proved that.

As she approached, the magical shackles shattered and the attackers’ limbs were no longer suppressed. He didn’t move, but she assumed he was looking at her. “I should have known that shot wouldn’t kill you.” He said in a low voice.

“Then you should also know that you won’t stand a chance on leaving this place alive.” Her voice held the icy tone of a killer. “For killing one of my friends, you’ve just indirectly told me not to show mercy.” Her horn flared and her gauntlets powered up.

“Threatening my home is inviting me to not even consider holding back.” She began to walk faster as the cylinders let out another hiss of compressed air before the tops rotated. ‘Impact Amplifiers Armed’ flashed in her vision as she clenched her fists.

“Killing my old lover, Blazing Trails.” The line struck Chris. ‘He was killed?’ he asked himself.

“And threatening to kill my current.” She began to run at the alien as it just laughed at her.

“Is making your down Death Wish!” she yelled as she drew back a fist. The disks began to spark and an electrical hum resounded through the air before she threw her fist forward into the armor.

The sound gunshot filled the air as her fist made contact with her targets armor. The cylinders released compressed air which made it sound like a gunshot, and a device within caused the force of her punch to increase dramatically. The result of the impact was an alien who could have weighed a good few tons with dented chest armor where she hit, flying through wall after wall of ruined buildings.

The hand she used steamed from the amount of friction between the impact, and the sight of a flying enemy baffled Chris. Lyrin only stayed where she stood, watching the creature break through many walls before it came to a stop.

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the ruins followed by thunderous footsteps running towards them. She didn’t flinch or turn to retreat, since she was expecting this. Instead, her only actions were a grin growing on her face, shifting into her fighting pose, and muttering to herself as her attacker charged towards her.

“Oh, I love this game!”

Chapter 3 - Waking from the Dream

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“Come on Chris, where are you?” Lyrin whispered to herself as she leapt backwards, avoiding another uppercut that could have sent her spiralling through the air. She let out a loud groan as she had lost her balance mid-air and slammed down on the ground on top of one of her wings painfully.

Both she and the oversized, armoured lizard had been fighting for two hours, and the exhaustion was beginning to get to them both. They were both making mistakes, but that was more of a worry was that Lyrin was making more than her attacker.

An hour before hand, Chris had sent a Text message to her suit telling her to buy him some time. This message had come shortly after tearing off one of the metal plates from the back of the lizards’ neck that she used as a grip while being flung around like a tied up ragdoll. Something about that plate didn’t feel right to her, but it was too far away from it to do anything about it, and she was still in the middle of a fight. She had a job to do for her friend, and she would follow through with it.

“Blaze,” She panted before swallowing, her throat and lungs felt like they were on fire and it almost pained her greatly to speak. “How far did I get with altering those booster packs?” She was able to catch the sight of another swing from the attacker and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. She quickly got up and bolted for the closest wall to hide behind.

On one side of her view, a wireframe view of the entire suit was constructed and then zoomed in on four blocks in the shape of half an octagon that would be attached to her back which was used to represent the four units of hardware mounted between her wings. Four red bars appeared next to the blocks and filled up with a green bar almost three quarters of the way. A percentage count on top of each bar read 71%. Blazes voice then sounded in her ear. “Modifications of the renamed ‘Aerial Manoeuvre Gear’, which I must comment is not decently named, are Seventy-one percent complete.”

Lyrin couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “What in Tartarus happened to you to make you sound more like a pony than a bank of codes controlling a machine?” Blaze didn’t say a word for a few seconds and the silence had actually helped Lyrin greatly as she heard a grunt from behind the wall. She leapt through a hole to her side, entering the building next to her as the wall she previously hid behind had blown open by the evil plated fist.

“I don’t quite understand what you mean by ‘more like a pony’. Ponies are just animals.” Ouch, that last but struck a nerve. In return to the insult she had just received, Lyrin growled a response. “On this planet, they are just animals, but where I am from, they act almost like the Humans here. If it makes more sense, I shall rephrase my wording. What in Tartarus happened to you to make you sound and act like a HUMAN.” She had put in a little too much emphasis on the last word.

“Right... sorry.” was all she got back from Blaze, but that didn’t stop her. “Eventually I will lose my life in this world and will travel to another plane of existence and live another life. If what I have done to your platform works as I intend it to, you will be magically dragged with my soul to where my new body is. At some point, I will eventually be sent back to where I originally came from. Because of the threat that may still be looming back home possibly still exists, you will be required to protect the very being you arrived with: a Pony. Never say anything like that again as I take huge offence to that. Understand?”

It felt strange for her to be scolding a machine controlled by a computer program, but it still had the intending results she would have gotten if it was a living being. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good, now. Are you able to get the AMGs operational? Even if it is just to activate the core? That should at least be enough to convert the energy your systems operate off into raw magical energy and solidify it into a hardened material, generate a negativity field around the case and do what needs to be done. Right?”

She heard another grunt and ran forward away from the wall she pressed herself against. She ran under one of the holes in the floor above and used her wings to launch her up to the next level. She had barely made the jump due to the weight of the suit and caught the sides, pulling herself up just as the wall she was leaning against before was busted open. She knew there would be too much dust for her attacker to see where she went.

“I can, but may I ask a question first?” Blaze asked with a little more of a questioning tone than Lyrin had expected. Did her transformation change Blazes code? She nodded and allowed Blaze to ask the question.
“Why can’t you use your wings to fly?”

There was no thoughts needed to answer. “Because I have you equipped. I’m weighed down by at least forty kilograms more than average.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you are trying to point out.”

Lyrin sighed, but at least she wasn’t agitated anymore. “I have a very light bone structure so my weight in this form averages around forty seven kilograms. Because of the extra weight, I need to use more energy for the power flap. So there is that problem, but there is also the problem that my muscles in my wings are underdeveloped. That flap to get up was just enough to get me torso up above the floor, but I needed to grab on and pull myself the rest of the way.”

Her ears twitched at the sound of a deep growl coming from down below her as well as heavy steps. She quietly lowered herself to the floor and crawled along the ground towards the hole. As she got close, she saw her attackers’ tail move around just in sight. Moving a little closer to the edge, she was surprised to see that the lizard had been able to fit in the lower floor. The sudden feeling of being homesick crossed her as she noticed it was on all fours.

A random box suddenly pops up into her view with the message “Lead it to this location”, causing her to smile. She never bothered to check who it was from as she had already known who it was. Noticing a file was attached, she opened it up and saw it was a map with a virtual pin on a location which was at the next block from her. “It’s about time, Chris.” She whispered to herself as the directions were cleared from sight.

She stood up as quietly as possible and took a few steps back away from the hole, matching her steps with the ones sounding below. With a good bit of distance from the hole, she brought her wings forward, getting them away from the AMG’s. “Alright Blaze.” She whispered. “Activate them.”

The timing was more than perfect as the AMG’s gave off a hiss and ejected in sync with another footstep below, giving it the cover needed. The four units floated in place but rotated so the flat part of the units faced away from Lyrin.

The disks on both gauntlets spun faster and began to make a little more noise than she was comfortable with, followed by a glowing blue gas flowing out from the modified boosters. The gas didn’t disperse or evaporate into the air, but instead looked like it was filling up a long, invisible container. It didn’t take long before the ‘container’ was filled up completely and almost gave off a reflection of light from one of the street lights shining through the window.

The core she made for the AMGs did what she wanted. It had gotten her magic, converted it into raw energy, released it, and caused the magic to make a hardened case protruding from the base of it. The hardened magic was slightly smaller in thickness than the proper unit and was almost as long as she was in height.

When all four ‘Pylons’ were complete, she had just enough time to take a deep breath and launch herself out the window as the floor burst up. “Missed me, you filthy reptile!” she yelled out as the AMGs hummed with more energy being fed into them as they were no longer being fed raw magic. A quick thought crossed her mind: ‘Where did that line come from?’

When designing the Aerial Manoeuvre Gear, Lyrin came up with the idea to have four controllable platforms that were able to manipulate the air in a small area depending on how much magic was filtered through the devices. The more energy there was being fed, the less air pressure there was around the hardened case. Being able to control the magic, she should be able to create greater negative zone at one point and gradually weakening it at another point. If done correctly by focusing on those two points, Positive air pressure should flow through the negative to ‘fill’ the gap and cause a weaker version of an aircraft’s thrust.

One other idea she had was that the AMGs would be separate from the suit, but still be connected and controlled with a specially made device (of her own design) that would ‘hold’ the AMGs in place without physical contact using the connect of something like a magnetic pull and push.

Thinking over her work and plans, she focused on creating a stronger to weaker ‘zone’ around the hardened magic essence and was able to get a decent airflow and hovered in the middle of the air. There was no specific way for the air to flow as it could be manipulated to go in any direction by changing the angle of the AMGs.

Suddenly she was reminded about how far the progress was with the AMGs due to a sudden feeling of exhaustion, which then lead her to a question. “Blaze... Did I ever get around to setting up the Limiter?”

“Limiter?” was all she got in return, followed by a loud earthen curse flowing out of Lyrins lips as she realised she still needed to restart Blazes system for the limiter to register and work. The AMGs cut out almost instantly after her realisation, causing her to fall a lot faster than she would have liked.

She strained herself as she spread her wings to glide down but because of the extra weight and the lack of muscle development in them, she was able to glide down for a short moment before hitting the ground hard.

Ignoring the pain in her wings, she tucked them against her and made her way to the location Chris wanted her to go to. She was glad she didn’t need to worry about drawing attention, as she could already tell she was being followed by the sounds of the quickening thumps that grew louder every second. She didn’t even need to look behind to see that it was catching up to her as well.

It didn’t take long before she arrived at where the marked location was, but the arrival could have been a lot better than tripping on a section of raised road, slamming her stomach against the road, sliding along the surface and giving off sparks where tarmac met metal and slid to a stop.

Just as she rolled onto her back, she felt a massive hand pin her down against the road. The bridge between its digits pressed against her neck which the plate between them didn’t help with and made her struggle to breath. She was glad the armour was reinforced, but that did nothing to save the boned in her wings from cracking under the weight of her suit, her body, and the giant lizards appendage.

Its plated face moved down to hers and she could feel the breath of it being blown against her, it was way too warm for comfort, and that only made her uneasy. “I am getting tired of your little games, Neon.” It said as it pressed against her more, bringing a gasp from her mouth as the boned in her wings splintered and tears formed in her eyes. Health warnings began to appear in her sight, telling her what she already knew.

“As much as I would like to let the Shadow Lord end your pathetic little journey, I will have to do his job for him and finish you off myself.” It pressed against her harder, causing her to scream in pain.

She then bit her bottom lip to stop the screaming, but that only caused a new wound as blood began to drip from the bite. She gripped its hand with hers and tried to push it up to give her some breathing room. The artificial strength was enough to lift the massive hand up a little, but more warnings kept on appearing in her view, this time referring to the extra load on the joints. “Why.... do this?” she strained out. The beast on top of her halted its abuse which came as a surprise to her.

“Why do I do this?” It asks. “Because I was ordered to do it.” The tone was off in the response.

She knew all too well that there was something behind all of this. “Because you were... ordered to do it, or because you were forced to do it?” She found it hard to speak, it pained her to breath, and she was sure she could feel that one of her ribs were broken.
The beast didn’t move, didn’t say anything, but it did twitch at her question.

She continued on. “You don’t need to do this.”

“I do!” It shouted back at her. “I must to this in order to get him off my back.”

“Get him off your back?”

The beast pressed hard against her again, causing her to whimper under the pressure. “He gave me promise to release my family once you were taken care of. He wanted it done his way, but never said I couldn’t do it any other way. Killing you now will only just allow my family to be released from slavery sooner than later.”

“He’s... holding your family hostage?” she asked, but was not given a chance to say anymore.

“Enough talk, I will end your life, return to the Shadow Lord, and have my family released.” The beast then gave off a low growl before looking to its left. She looked over and saw a rolling piece of rubble coming from one of the buildings.

The attacker let go of her and she took deep breaths, she was already feeling better now that she could breathe deeply, but that only caused spikes of pain to come from her lungs. Yay, stretching lungs hurt.

“So this is where you have been hiding, you pathetic hairless abomination.” The monster growled as it spotted a laser pointing down at it from one of the windows on the second floor. Lyrin let out a gasp as the monster stood up on its back legs and slammed a fist through the window. “Got ya!”

“CHRIS, NO!” She yelled out. She was sure he was in the path of that fist, until a red dot appeared on the exposed part of the beast.

“THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TAKE THE EUCALYPTUS FROM A KOALA YA OVERSIZED GOANNA!” was all she heard from the building opposite to where she looked, followed by a bang from the building behind her and an explosion erupting from the weak spot. Chunks of smoking meat and blood splattered around her and the beast fell back from the building, landing in a bloody twitching heap.

After staring at the gore near her, she turned her head to the other side only to see Chris land in front of her, carrying the Rifle Dronin had and a smoking ‘explosive’ shell popping from the sniper rifles chamber. “So... What do we say?” He asked with a cocky grin.

“Uh... Thank you?” she asked, a little unsure.

“For?” he asked back.

“Uh... shooting that things neck?”

He shook his head.

“For helping me?”

He nodded. “And?”

“Uh... I’m sorry?”

He knelt down to her. “For?”

“Missing your birthday?”

He shook his head. “That’s not for another few months, try again.”

She winced as she tried to sit up, the broken bones in her wings shifting a little due to the movement. He noticed the pain on her face and looked at her wings. Noticing they were in bad shape, he reached into his back and pulled out a First Aid pack. “Keep guessing while I try to straighten these.”

She nodded and winced some more as he shifted the wings into the proper position and tied them to a splint, she was glad there were no wounds opened up. “For... not buying you dinner the other night?”

“Try again.”

“Eating the rest of the Christmas pudding?”

“So that’s where it went. And here I thought Dronin finished it off.” He stared at her as she smiled sheepishly again. “Still, no. Try again.”
“For- OW!” She yelped.

“Sorry! Sorry! Almost done!” He said quickly.

She waited till he was done before trying another guess. Once he was done, he moved back next to her and looked at her. “Any more guesses?”

She nods, she was sure this was the right one. “I’m sorry for telling you to stay back and thinking you wouldn’t be that helpful.”
He nods a few times as she answers before smiling. “Anything else you’d like to add?”

She nods and leans over, pulling him into a hug. “Yes, for now on I promise not to ask you to sit on the side while I do the work. It was stupid of me to think I would have been strong enough to go against him, but-”

“But,” He quickly cut her off. “You jumped the gun and didn’t take into consideration that you weren’t fully ready. You also forgot that your armour wasn’t complete as well.” He gave her a smile as they both knew he was right, but one thing began to bug her.

She loosened her grip on him and moved away a little, looking at him questionably. “How did you know it wasn’t finished? I never told you.”
“You’ve been broadcasting your voice for the last two hours over our private channel. I heard everything. And I mean...” He grinned at her which sent a heavy chill down her spine. “Everything.”

During the first hour of the fight, Lyrin had broken into a chatting spree with herself about what she would do after the fighting was over. She was positive that she would live a full lifetime for once compared the many she has lived previously. The ‘conversation’ ranged from traveling to learning more about her current home planet to foods prepared by the many cultures to spending time with Chris as more than just Partners of a war. Somewhere in the last topic, she had begun to talk to herself about what she would do with him and maybe experience what love was like once again, along with many other unmentionables. But during that little talk session, she couldn’t help but feel something was off. Now she knows why.

“Oh... Hah... Ha hah... Yeah... Um...” Lyrin was at a complete loss for words as the embarrassment was too much for her mind to come up with a straight answer.

He just smiled and hugged her tightly. “Not that I have a problem with it.”

The gesture and his words were able to calm her down, but then a question popped up in her head. “Why are you so accepting of this?”
Usually Chris would figure out the reason for a question, but for the first time for a number of years, he didn’t quite understand the question. “What do you mean?”

She looked at him for what seemed like a long time to her before speaking. “Humans don’t go for anything other than another human when it comes to relationships, right?”

Now he was beginning to catch on. “Yeah.”

“So...” She wasn’t sure whether it was right to ask the question now plaguing her mind. Chris knew she wasn’t done and just waited. Every time she looked at him with an unsure expression, he’d just smile, silently telling her to ask away when she was ready. And she did.
“Are you okay with liking someone who is possibly a completely different species to you?” She did try to hide it, but she couldn’t help but sound worried.

He didn’t say anything after she asked the question, which was beginning to worry her even more. Eventually, the worry turned into heartache the longer he was silent until it was just too much for her to handle. She slid herself out of his arms and stood up, almost falling over and realising she needed to get used to having hooves again now that she no longer had feet. “I’m sorry.” was all she said as she straightened herself up.

Just before moving away, he finally spoke. “In all honesty...” She just stood there, bracing herself for that one line that would shatter her. But it never came. “I think I can live with it.”

His response was a shock to her. She quickly turned around and had to look up at him as he was now standing in front of her. She had no time to curse herself for still being short as she blurted out “What?”

He chuckled lightly and took her into his arms again. “If I was someone else, I would probably shun you away, sure. But I’m not someone else, am I?”

She didn’t even need to move back to look at his face, the feeling in his voice was enough. He was happy. “There is a saying here on earth, not sure if you have heard it yet. It goes a little something like ‘It’s not what’s outside that matters. It’s what’s inside that counts’. I’m a very open minded person, so that is something I can follow.”

She didn’t move, she couldn’t move, she felt numb, but she was smiling slightly as he kept going. “A lot of people go for their own race in this world. Whites for Whites, Blacks for Blacks, Abbos for Abbos, and so on. Others go for the opposite race and not their own. But when you have those like me...” He released her and lightly lifted a finger against her chin, raising her head up, causing her to look at him. “I’ll happily take what I get. I don’t care what you look like now. Because you are still you on the inside, no matter your form.”
Tears welled in her eyes once again, happy tears, as she hugged him tightly. “I’m glad.” She whispered. Her wings twitched a little as he returned the hug and she could hear her feathers rustle lightly. She wanted to use them as a second pair of arms, but the current damage to them stopped that thought from becoming reality.

After a while, he let go of her and she did the same. If there were any onlookers, they would see how obvious it was the two were happy with each other. Some gunshots in the distance pulled them back from their little moment and things they still needed to two began to fill their heads.

“I’ll go get our stuff, I hid it in the building behind me after I set the trap.” Lyrin nodded and turned after wiping her eyes dry. “I’ll go...” ‘Dammit...’ she cursed herself as she remembered what happened with their third. “Get Dronins body.”
“There’s no need.” He quickly spoke up, causing her to turn around. “I gave him a quick burial after you went off playing ‘hero’ against that thing over there.” He thumbed back to the beast with the blown out neck. Looking at it, she could have sworn she saw it twitch, but he let the thought go as another one crossed her mind.

Just before he entered the building, he turned as Lyrin called out his name. ‘Why is she smiling like that?’ he thought to himself. That question was answered right after. “’Take the eucalyptus from a koala’? What is that supposed to mean?”
She hoped to get a better reaction from him, but he just simply shrugged. “Spur of the moment. And I’m sure you know what does happen when a Koala runs out of eucalyptus, right? Well think of me as the Koala and you as the eucalyptus.”

“... Oh.” was all she said.

He nodded and smiled. He then pointed over at the plate she tore off earlier which was not leaning against the wall. “Think you might be interested in looking at that.” He turned back and walked into the building to get their things.

Lyrin walked over to the plate and lifted it up. “It just looks like an ordinary piece of metal.”

“I am unable to determine what type of metal it is. The plate is too light to match anything recorded to this day.” Blaze spoke up out of nowhere. “And yet, it was able to withstand one of my punches.” She said to herself. As she turned the plate over, she noticed some sort of strange substance on the back of the plate, still dripping from the plate.

“So.” Chris said as he walked out with their stuff. “Anything interesting about that thing?” He motioned to the plate as he moved up next to her.
“There is...” she said softly. “I’ve... seen this before, but I can’t quite get my head around what it is...” She grabbed hold of something sticking out of what she was looking at and tore it off the plate. It was hard, it shined on one side, and it made her feel uneasy.

Then, it hit her. “Oh shi-.” A rumble sounded behind them and they quickly turned to see the beast was still alive despite the amount of blood lost. Stood up on all fours and turned to them. A dark fog seeped from the wound and part of the faceplate was blown off, showing part of a scaly face. The eye of the beast was black, the scales were a greyish-red, and the fangs on it were huge. Then the mask shattered and leathery wings burst out of the back of the beast and stretched out wide.

“Dragon...” She said softly as realisation hit her. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened greatly as she screamed out “Dragon! Run!” The Dragon inhaled and they both caught a glimpse of a glow within the dragons throat before bolting away from it.

It raised its head and let out a roar as fire erupted from the beast, engulfing them both in flames. The suit gave off warnings, flesh felt the hot licks of flame hitting it and fur was being burnt. Yells of pain sounded from them both as they took hold of each other. Lyrin was just able to open her eyes long enough to see Chris one last time in her arms as her vision began to fade.

They both stopped screaming as the pain as it hurt to scream and held each other for the last seconds of their life. The feeling of being hold, the crackling fire around them, the bright blaze, the bellowing roar, fading to black.

“I’m sorry...” A pained whisper echoed.

A blue Pegasus wakes from her sleep to the sound of beeps from an unfamiliar device with a sharp inhale of breath, she felt exhausted, sore, slightly damp and a little fearful as she could hear her heart racing. It takes her a few minutes of deep breaths before she is able to calm herself down a bit while the dream she had awoken from flashed in her mind. It felt so real as if it had actually happened, but a nagging feeling inside her told her otherwise.

She laid on what felt like a soft surface after the numbness in her body disappeared, thinking over the dream before she was calm enough to try sit up. That task alone was a challenge as she felt like she had no control of her body. It was alien and unfamiliar but she could feel things pressing against her back, which indicated that it was indeed hers.

She made attempts to move, and most of her bodies reactions were twitches, but those twitches alone was able to give her little aid in pinpointing her muscle groups. The first thing she wanted to do was to look at what was around her. This gave her the motivation to twitch her muscles more untill one of them felt like the right one.

Her attempts weren't in vain as she found the right muscle needed which made her head turn to the right a little, and it never mattered which way it turned, so long as her head and view were different to what she had before. The first thing that greeted her sight were white walls and a window with many colors within it. The view she saw was calming, she didn't want to look away from it, but the constant beeping caught her curiosity.

Her ears swivelled around to locate the source of the sound that peaked her curiosty, and it didn't take her long to find the source. With some effort, she was able to turn her head to the opposite side and stared at what she saw: White boxes with moving zig-zags in the center of a darker shape on the front of the box. Where the green line went from straight to the zig-zag, a beep sounded. There were some bags filled with clear liquids hanging on a pole, with hoses leading from the bottom of them to something out of view but she couldn't be bothered to follow those hoses.

They were strange things to her but she soon lost interest with them and turned her had back to her right. It had turned more than previously and her sight was filled with more objects, each one was something she didn't recognise and did nothing but stay where they were. However, her focused moved back to the window, the color of what was on the other side drawing her attention.

She felt her ears swivel around and soon stopped in what she imagined was the same direction as where she looked. He could hear a range of sounds coming from the opposite side, and she wanted to go and find out the source, but the lack of movement with her body was preventing her from doing anything.

Any motivation she was able to bring up to move was quickly lost as the sounds were too soothing, causing her to just lay where she did.

"It seems you're awake now." a soft voice sounded near her. She twitched a little from the surprise and turned her head back to her left. Instead of just those strange objects in her sight, she saw a light grey furred being standing on four legs wearing some sort of cloth over her body and atop her head with a red symbol at the front of it resting against its light pinkish mane with a hint of grey in it.

‘Mare...’ a distant voice said in her mind.

"My name is Nurse Redheart and i'm here to see if you are feeling alright. I do hope you slept alright, miss?" the mare asked as she released the clip board and pen from her mouth, resting the items on the floor.

‘Earth Pony...’ she heard again in her mind.

The Pegasus just stared at her for a moment, the words the Nurse spoke echoed through her mind as it processed what Redheart said within the few seconds she was silent before shaking her head.

The nurse frowned at the silent answer. "I'm sorry, miss."

The Pegasus grew a confused look on her face at the apology.

"There is only so much we can go while you're wearing that... what ever it is on your body." the nurse motioned to her, or more specifically, what she was wearing over her body.

The Pegasus blinked a few times before trying to look down at her body, but she wasn’t able to lift her head due to the lack of energy she had at the very moment. The nurse notices the struggle and moves over to the bed, pressing one of her hoofs against a button on the floor which caused the bed that the patient was laying on to lift her top half.

She froze as she could feel the bed moving and got a nervous feeling creeping into her, but that faded as she was soon sitting up and able to look over herself. The first thing she noticed was the armour that covered her top half and her forelegs which were tucked against her chest.

Plates of metal were somehow connected to one another over her chest and looked like they allowed some movement and flex, but she only guessed that. She then looked at the metal casing over her forelegs, she noticed that just like on her chest, the metal had been split into four parts, the metal from her shoulder ran down the top section of her foreleg, then a smaller plate over her joint, and then more metal covering her forelegs, and finally ending with a small... ‘Shoe’ at the tip. She tried moving her forelegs as she found the right muscle groups, but for some reason, they didn’t move like she wanted them to. Or at least, couldn’t see them move.

Staring at her forelegs, she noticed that right in the middle of the second set of metal plates were two disks that looked like they wrapped all the way around her legs. Between them was a faint glow which seemed to be pulsing.

Shifting her sight away from the glow, she notices that the bottom half of her was covered by a thin sheet of cloth and prevented her from seeing the rest of herself. No matter how hard she thought about moving that away, she just couldn’t get her forelegs to move. Tilting her head down a little more, she could notice blue fur on her neck, and crossing her eyes, she saw that her muzzle was the same colour as the fur, which made her assume that was her colour. Looking to her sides, she noticed two extra, feathered limbs extending and outstretched from her back. Wings...

“Now, I will need you to answer a few questions for me, then I will go and get the doctor to give you a check-up. Can you do that for me?” asked the Nurse, causing the patient to look at her. After a quick moment of silence, she nods in response, seeing a smile grow on the nurses’ lips.

“And do not worry, they won’t be anything difficult to answer.” She reassured the Pegasus before picking up the pen with her mouth. “First question. What is your name?” she asked expertly through her teeth.

The blue Pegasus looked down at herself for a moment, the expression of deep thought showing in her features. The Pegasus however, didn’t know the answer. She remained silent for a little longer, still trying to remember who she was, but nothing came to her mind. She looked at the nurse and shook her head.

“You...” Redheart blinked. “You don’t know your name? Don’t remember it?” Her response was a shake of the head. After a quick note written on the clipboard, Redheart asked the next question. “Okay. What about your Date of Birth, do you remember that?”

She frowned as her patient did the same thing: Pause for a moment, deep in thought, then look back up to her and shake her head.

After taking another quick note, she looked down to the clipboard. “I see... I think I already know what your answer for this next one will be, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

A very faint hum began to sound through the room. The Pegasus could just pick up on the sound before the next question was asked.

“Do you know where you are?” Redheart asked as she looked back up. She began to feel a little hopeful as her patient began to look around the hospital room they were in, then glances out of the window for a moment before looking back to her with the same response as the other questions.

That hope was lost and she couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh. “Can you at least talk?” She never really saw any responses as she was looking at her clipboard in a disappointed manner. However, her ear twitched as she heard a soft voice in the same room as her.

Looking up, she notices the Pegasus concentrated on moving her mouth slightly, as if trying to form words. A few times, she swore she heard a voice come from the Pegasus as they continued to mouth something. The next thing that happened wasn’t something she expected from the Pegasus.

A very soft and quiet voice, barely auditable to the nurse as it almost sounded like a whisper, came from her mouth. “I... think so.” The Pegasus blinked a few times and a smile formed on her lips before nodding at Redheart. “I can.” Her speech was slow, but too not slow to be a problem.

Redheart smiled. “That’s good, I was afraid you would be somepony that could talk, but in a different language. But hearing you talking none the less is better than not at all.” She released her pen and picked up the clipboard. The Pegasus noticed that the pen and board were tied to each other by a thin string as the nurse picked up the latter of the two.

“I will go and let the doctor know you are awake and he will be with you very shortly.” And with that said, she turns to the door and noisily makes her way out of the room. As she left the room, the Pegasus notices that Redheart had some sort of picture on her rear... Flank which looked like the same thing she saw on the Nurses... hat?

The Pegasus stares at the empty doorway for a moment before turning her head back to the window, thoughts of the questions she was asked flowed through her mind. “Why can’t I remember who I am?” she questioned herself quietly as her smile faded.

Her mind began to go over the dream she had woken up from. The two smaller creatures, one with fur and the other without, fighting against that large monster. Why she remembers only seeing the Blue-furred ones side of the fight she had no idea. Then there was that explosion, the detail of that blast, and what damage it had caused, was almost too real.

Then there was the part where the monster grew large wings on its back and a mouth opening up in front of the two. The fire being breathed on them both was all too vivid to her, then came the screaming, the sounds of them burning, the roar of the monster, and even the feeling of what they would have experience striking her mind and her nerves. She felt her breaths shorten and her inhales rapid as her heart began to race again. She was scared and confused as to why the images were making her feel this way.

She closed her eyes shut tightly and tried to push away the thoughts, she didn’t want to feel the way she did anymore. Finally, after trying to calm herself again for a number of minutes, she was able to relax as her breathing returned to normal. “Why do I feel this way?” She mumbled to herself.

“That’s a very good question to ask, but I’m afraid none of us can answer it.” Came a voice from the door. The Pegasus turns to look at the door to find another one of the four-legged beings standing by it, wearing only the white coat over their body. They had Brown fur and their hai- mane were same colour as their fur but a darker shade. It felt strange as she finally noticed her thoughts were being corrected. Her mind quickly went over how many times she had been mentally corrected but was interrupted by that distant voice once again.

‘Stallion... Unicorn... Magic...’

“Is it something you’d like to talk about miss? Is there something on your mind?” the stallion asked. But before she could say yes, her mouth reacted on its own. “No. It’s fine.”

‘What? That wasn’t what I wanted to say.’ She thought to herself.

“I see. Well then I should probably introduce myself. I am Doctor Heath.” He then smiled. “Ironic isn’t it?” He asked. In return, he got a confused look from her as she didn’t quite understand what the doctor meant. “My name is Healthy Ways, and I’m one of the doctors at this fine Hospital. If you think about it, it’s like my family knew my special talent would be in the Medical Field before I even discovered it or before I even entered school, am I correct?”

She didn’t know what to say, so instead she just nodded.

“Good. Now, I understand that you don’t know who you are, when you were born, where you are, as well as many other things along the lines of Identification. Am I mistaken?” The Pegasus almost nodded until she caught that last bit of his sentence. She shook her head.

“I see. That is a little bit of a disappointment. But I suppose not much can be done about it. One thing I know I can do, is to try and clear up a few things with you through some questions that you may have...” He moved closer to her and sat down on his haunches. “Do you have any questions?”

She asked the first thing that came to mind. “Aren’t you supposed to be ‘checking me up’ or something?”

The question wasn’t something Dr Health expected. He blinked a few times, just trying to register what was just asked before he gave out a hearty chuckle. “My dear filly, I wasn’t expecting anything like that to be asked. But, a question is a question. Yes, I should be doing exactly that, but I have been monitoring your health ever since you were brought here and assigned to this room. I am quite happy with how you have turned out.” He paused for a moment before adding “Well, not including your lack of knowledge of who you are. But still! Better this way instead of finding out that we couldn’t save you from a serious injury or the like.”

She nodded, then asked the next thing that came to her mind. “Where am i?” There was a more noticeable hum echoing in the room and she felt her forelegs twitch for some reason, but ignored it. The Doc however, noticed something and looked in the direction of her forelegs and then back to her. “Ponyville, a small town in Equestria, but to be more specific, you’re in the Ponyville Hospital.”

She sits there for a moment before nodding, taking the information into her mind and memorising it.

“Next question?” he asks.

She looks around the room for a moment before returning her gaze. “How did I get here?”

The Doctor began to fidget a little which she found strange. “Oh... um... Well... When a father and a mother have strong feelings for each other, they tend to...”

The Pegasus’ body grew stiff and felt her cheeks warm up, her back began to feel very uncomfortable. “No!” she squeaked immediately. “I didn’t mean that!”

“She meant how did she get into the hospital, Doctor.” A strange voice sounded in the room, causing both of its occupants to look around for the source. “Who said that?” Dr. Health asked.

“Do you see the armour covering your patient, Doctor?” The voice asked. Both looked at the ‘armour’. “That’s what this voice belongs to.”

The Pegasus was speechless, and the Doctor was shocked.

“I must apologise for the confusion I am creating, but I do urge you to treat this as just another day and answer the Masters questions.” The armour said. “I must also ask you to return the device you have been using to read the instructions I have given you when looking after the Master to her ear. She will need it.”

“Master?” was all the Pegasus said under a breath while the Doctor stuttered. “O-oh, right. S-Sorry.” His horn flared up and a small device floated out of his pocket to her head. He slipped it over her right ear and tapped the side of it, causing the device to give off a beep into her ear.

Suddenly, her vision was obstructed by a blue screen giving off a blue glow and many different boxes and text that she had no clue and couldn’t understand that came with the screen. Just as quickly as they came, they were cleared away, allowing her to see again, but some of the text she saw around the sides of her visions remained. One box appeared in sight for just a second before disappearing again, followed by the screen shutting off, returning her vision to normal.

The armour thanked him and got a smile in response. She waited for the Doctor to answer her question but it never came until she said something. “Uh... my question?”

“Oh. Right. Yes. How did you get here...” He paused for a second. “Well, seeing your reaction, you know one answer.” ‘Thank Celestia I don’t have to explain that.’ He quietly whispered to himself. “So I’ll happily tell you the other answer.”

“A few nights ago, something fell from the night sky. Now I’m not sure what it was as no details were released about it, but apparently, an object from beyond our skies crashed in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Do you know about the Forrest?”

She shook her head.

“The Everfree Forest is one of the more dangerous places you can find here in Equestria. It’s unpredictable, unmanageable, and unliveable unless you want a death wish... Basically, it brings a new meaning to the word ‘Wild’.” He couldn’t help but shudder a little.

“Anyway” he continued. “I’m not exactly sure what happened over there, but when you arrived along with at least six exhausted guards, they had said you were required to be moved into the emergency room immediately, which was something we could not do since your weight was too much for our equipment to hold up.”

Why did she suddenly feel like lunging at this stallion and hurting him for what he said?

“So instead, we got some of the guards to get some reinforced supports for one of our beds while the rest of us checked up on your condition. We were able to thankfully say you had not obtained any physical injuries, and the worst we could discover was how burnt your fur and feathers were. You were still smoking when they brought you in, might I add.”

He then nodded at something underneath her. “I’m sure you can fill the rest out on your own. We’ve cleaned you up and got rid of most of the burnt fur from your coat, save for a few patches that couldn’t be washed off completely, removed some of the damaged feathers, and made sure you were given food for your recovery. Surprisingly,” He smiled. “Your armour, and how amazing it is I must add, was able to help us look after you and came though unscathed. It was slightly darkened as well which I assume was from whatever set you alight, but a little spit and polish cleaned it right up. Well... water and polish, but you get the idea.”

She only nodded, thinking over what she was just told. Then he adds a little more. “Best I can think of is you came with whatever crashed into the forest the other night. But if you need more information on that, I would suggest asking one of the guards in town, or the mare that found you when she arrives later today.”

“Later... today?” She asked curiously.

“Later today.” He repeated. “We were asked to send for her as soon as you woke up. Why such a thing was requested, Celestia only knows, but how are we supposed to turn down a request from a celebrity without gaining a bad reputation from the media?” He asked. She wasn’t sure whether that was a rhetorical question or a serious one, but at least she could answer in a way that was acceptable for both. A simple shrug.

“Was there anything else you’d like to ask?”

“Just one more thing.” With a bit of a pause, she looked down at herself. “What... am I?”

This was clearly another question he didn't expect to be asked, but he still answered it. “You know, usually I’d call this a concern and send you to one of the larger hospitals, preferably the Canterlot Hub. But, since you are a special patient to us, and have somepony famous coming to see you, I'll let it slide.”

Taking a deep breath, he looked into her eyes as she looked at him. “You are a Pony, one of the major species to trot on this world. That’s the general knowledge though, what you are in terms of race is a Pegasus, Pegasi if you wish to refer to more than one of the race.”

She canted her head to the side, edging him to explain.

“In Equestria, there are three races of ponies: Unicorns like myself, Pegasi who can fly through the air, and Earth ponies who cannot use magic like Unicorns or fly like the Pegasi. The nurse you saw earlier is an Earth Pony, so you've seen firsthoof what they are.” He stood up on all fours and moved over to the window on the opposite side of the room.

“Each of the three races have their own roles to play in day to day life. The earth ponies, lacking what the other two have, make up those disadvantages with Physical labour, strength and endurance. Now I am not saying their role is forced upon them because of their lacking wings or horns, but because their bodies are more built and toned for tasks that ponies like myself and you cannot physically manage. They are also looked up to by the other races for their natural skills for Construction, Agriculture, Engineering, Blacksmithing, and many other fields of work that many of us cannot easily fill.”

“Now, you would think all is fine and dandy with the knowledge of them doing all of the hard stuff, but they can only do so much and go so far. This is where Unicorns come in.” He raises an upturned lim-Hoof. There’s that mental correction again.

“Unicorns use their magic for a wide range of tasks such as Tailoring, Research, Science, jobs that require a delicate ‘touch’, and my favourite one: Medical. And I mustn't forget to mention this, but there have been some occasions where the odd unicorn or two give aid to the Earth ponies with their jobs. So this is to say that Unicorns are not exactly ‘required’ to work where many others do. This works for Earth ponies as well.”

“Then, there are the Pegasi.” He sits on his haunches and straightens up, raising his other hoof. “They generally have only one main role here in Equestria: Weather Control. But like the Unicorns, they can choose to work in other jobs as well.”

He couldn’t help but snicker a little unprofessionally as her expression changed to utter confusion. It’s very rare to come across a pony who showed this much disbelief. “The reason why the main job of a Pegasus is weather control, is because Equestrias weather can be both the boon of the lands, but also the bane of it. For some reason, without the aid of Pegasi, the land cannot grow under the lack or excess amounts of Water. And if it isn’t the Water, then the sun’s rays that if left exposed for too long, can cook the greenery you see outside this window. We don’t complain though, as their aid keeps us all going from one day to the next.”

The doctor lowers his hoofs to the ground and stands up on all fours, walking over to the Pegasus. “Did my little lecture answer your question, miss?”

“It did a little bit. Thank you.” She smiled.

“Glad to hear it! If you would like to know more about the three races, I could suggest seeing a play that will be hosted up in Canterlot on Hearth’s Warming Eve, or even reading a book about them from the local Library, you will learn a lot more from those. Now, anything else you’d like to ask me?” He never felt this excited to answer more questions in his life. Sadly, his excitement was shot down as she shook her head, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been with that thankful smile of hers directed at him. “No, I think I have asked enough questions. As much as how enjoyable it is learning this, don’t you have other... ponies to look after?”

He blinked as it dawned on him that he had more patients to visit. “Right, yes. Thank you for reminding me. I must get moving then.”

Before exiting the room, he stopped mid step and turned his head to her. “Oh right, if you require any assistance, just press that blue button on the table to your right and one of our nurses will come see to you. And if you decide to stay for the rest of the day, lunch will be in a few hours and dinner at sundown.” And with that, he turned back to the door and walked out. The mention of a button got her curious and he looked to her right as instructed.

There it was, the button he just mentioned... Why did it seem like it was sparkling?

“I wouldn’t if I were you, Master.” The armour interrupted her thoughts and she looked down at it. “Wouldn’t what?” she asked innocently, but that innocence was never bought. “Don’t push the button. He said to push it for assistance.”

She turned her head to the side. “I wasn’t going to push it.” She retorted.

“There is no fooling me. I can see what is going through your mind by observing your actions and comparing them to previous situations, so lying to me won’t work.”

She remained silent for a moment, looking outside the window. “Even if I was thinking it, I wouldn’t be able to do so. I can’t move my legs.”

“Sorry, that would be my doing. One second.” was all the armour had said. After waiting a few seconds, the joints of the armour over her forelegs gave off a hiss and a loud click which then followed up with her forelegs falling to her sides limply. “There, you should be able to move them now. I had to lock them up and disable the joints due to you thrashing about during one of your check-ups.”

The armour was right, she was able to move them now, but there was some resistance against the movements. After a while, she began to find it entertaining to move her front limbs around, learning about her body and what it could do while laying on top of the makeshift heavy-duty bed and kept herself occupied for quite some time.

Author's Notes:

Yay! Finally out of one world into another!

There are a few things i tried here: Seeing the world from the MC's perspective is one thing, another is keeping what happened between one world and another a mystery (Probably to make you come up with your own ideas on what happened), and humour which i probably did quite badly at.

And what does happen when a Koala runs out of eucalyptus? Drop bears!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, i tried my best. Like, comment, criticize, suggest things, ask questions! I welcome them all!

Quick note: 37kg is 82lbs if you didn't know (For all you people that use pounds to measure)

Oh, and one more thing, the gap between events was intentional!

5/2/2014: OH! Wow... those mistakes o.o uh okay... whoops... Okay, going through chap 1-3 to make sure i have no more mistakes like what i had just found >.> (Currently half way done) Sorry about that!!!!!

Chapter 4 - New Beginning

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“Good Afternoon and Welcome to the Ponyville Hospital. Are you here on visit or appointment to see a doctor?” The receptionist never looked up from the papers in front of her, but she knew there was somepony there.

“I am here on visit.” The mysterious mare said with a voice that could easily hold a commanding tone. When the mare spoke, all noises around both her and the receptionist died down to whispers.

“Mmhm.” The receptionist responded half-heartedly. “And who are you here to see?”

“A pony who was carried here by some of the royal guards a few nights ago. And it is very rude of you to be looking away to who you are speaking to, I’m surprised you have a job here if you are going to act like that to those that come here.” The mare said with a slightly agitated tone. “Especially to one who is well known and looked up to by many ponies.” She added.

The receptionist groaned and spoke with a little hostility. “And who might you be to speak to me like tha-…” The receptionists’ words came to a screeching halt as she looked up to find a not very happy looking Spitfire in her uniform standing at the desk. Her eyes widened as she recognized the mare and almost instantly wished she could just sink into the floor. “M-Mi-Miss Spitfire, I am so sorry for my behaviour.” was all she could squeak out.

“So you should be after souring my good mood that I once had after receiving word at my desk that a special ‘guest’ here had woken up. I was hoping I could talk to them on good grounds, but it seems that won’t be possible now.” It was clear Spitfire was in no happy mood as she spoke. “If you were one of the Trainees back at the Academy, I would have you doing drills until you passed out for that behaviour. For the whole week.”

The receptionist gulped and felt like she was frozen under the Captains stare as she continued. “However, I do think the humiliation you have put upon yourself in front of both your fellow staff and even some of the patients here, parents, adults and even the children is punishment enough for you already. I will let this slide past me, this time. Next time, I won’t be so easy.” Her voice lowered to a whisper that seemed to hold ice cold venom. “Am I clear?”

The receptionist was now sweating under her fur under that strong gaze she was receiving. As stunned as she felt, she was able to nod lightly and squeak out a “Y-Yes ma’am” from herself.

Spitfire then took a deep breath and that threatening stare was gone. “Now, can you direct me to where your guest is?”

The receptionist pointed a shaking hoof down the hallway behind her. “R-Room 119.”

“Thank you.” was the last thing Spitfire said before walking down the hallway. Behind her, she could hear a few of the staff going off at the pony she had spoken to. She also swore she could see a few flashes of light from the corner of her eyes every time she looked at the room numbers, no doubt the media was outside the hospital. She could already see the headlines: ‘Captain of the Wonderbolts loses temper at Hospital!’ in big capital letters on the front page.

As she approached her destination, Doctor Health walked out of the room she was going for and noticed her with a smile. “Ah, Miss Spitfire, a pleasure to have somepony as famous as yourself in our Medical Center. I do hope your travel was well?”

“It was, but your receptionist would beg to differ that pleasure.” She responded, her voice was almost as calm as it was before she arrived, but still held that slight agitation.

The Doctors smile flipped. “Ah yes, I must apologies for her if she insulted you in any way, she is one of the new employees here and I don’t think she is quite used to the early morning shifts yet. I will have a talk to her before she finishes her shift today. Now, are you here to see her?” Heath motioned to the door next to him marked 119.

“I am, I left as soon as I saw the letter. How is she?”

“I can see that.” Heath chuckled lightly as his smile returned while looking at Spitfires uniform. “I was expecting you to be wearing your flight suit, but I suppose that would have taken a little bit to get into.” Spitfire nodded. “And with how our guest is… Well for one thing, she is healthy. Worse damage I could find was burnt fur. Her memory however… Is a different story.” His expression saddened. “Unless she gains her memory back, she’s going to have some difficulty getting back on her hooves with day to day life.”

“I see.” was all Spitfire said as she looked at the door.

“Not all hope is lost though.” Spitfire looked back at Health to see his smile again. “She is actually quite a fast learner, I only just finished helping her with her leg work, what would normally take about two hours of aid, ended up taking only twenty minutes. That armour she wears I believe helped her out a lot, but she is walking, so that is progress.” He quickly glances at the door before leaning over to her. “I actually believe she is more than ready to be released from the hospital. But I think I’ll let you be the judge of that, since I don’t know that much about Pegasi.”

Spitfire nods. “I’ll talk to her myself and make a judgment through that. If I see her as ready, I may set up payment for her release.” Health just smiles. “Alright, well I shall leave you to it, I have others to see.” Suddenly, a low grumble sounds from his stomach and he smiles sheepishly. “Maybe…. After lunch.”

As Health walks away, Spitfire looks over herself to make sure her uniform was straight. After accepting her look, she glances at the clipboard on the door for any quick information. “Coat is Cobalt Blue… Can’t remember name… no date of birth… Blood Type A… Eyes are Crimson Red…” she mumbled as she read through the list, until one listing seemed strange. “Magic reading 17-21?”

Pegasi were able to use magic but only to shape, mold, and move the clouds, manipulate the water vapor, and even use the clouds as a surface by creating an ice ‘shoe’ over their hooves. During most tests, a Pegasi’s reading would be around 7, so why did this one have a much higher level… This knowledge went through Spitfires mind but the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. She shrugged it off but it never went away.

“What else…” she said to herself as she continued though the list. “Home town, no known family… Additional Details. ‘Patient has Memory loss, but is fast learner. Mentioned she didn’t sleep well… Armour cannot be removed but aided recovery and monitoring… Largest pinions seem have a Golden Shine and colour to them?!” She almost yelled out the last bit.

Without a second thought, she ran into the door and it swung open with no resistance. The Pegasus on the other side squeaked in fright from the window as the door slammed into the wall. Both Pegasi panted as they looked at each other. Spitfire had wide eyes and a gaping mouth as she looked at the blue mare wearing armor all over the top half of her body who looked like she had just experienced a mini heart attack while sitting by the window looking back.

‘Blue coat, red eyes, dual blue mane and tail, and golden pinion feather on each wing.’ Spitfire thought to herself. ‘No… no way… it can’t be her… it can’t be…’ “Neon Guardian.” She whispered to herself. That one mare she looked up to, her Idol, was alive right in front of her, facing towards her, moving her lips… ‘Wait, moving her lips!’ Spitfire cleared her throat and hastily straightened herself up. “Sorry, what did you say?” she asked, though she felt her excitement rising within her.

“I asked why you slammed the door open?” the Pegasus asked in a soft voice.

Spitfire looked at the door she ‘slammed’ open. “Uh… I…” It was the first time she needed to come up for an excuse for something she did without a proper reason. “I…” She let out a sigh after a few more seconds of trying to think of a good reason. “I guess I got a little too excited.”

“Excited?” the blue mare cocked her head to the side.

A feeling of Déjà vu fell upon Spitfire, feeling as though she went through this before. An image filled her mind of a mare looking forwards her, her mane flowed lightly from the breeze coming through the open window, curtains shifting through the breeze. The mare smiled at her while cocking her head to the side.

As quickly as the feeling and image came, the image faded from her mind. ‘What was…’ she thought before shaking her head. “Yes, well…” It was rare to find Spitfire caught on her words and thoughts like this, and any other pony seeing this would not let this slide.

She took a deep breath and exhaled to calm herself a little more before looking at the mare. “You look like somepony that I’ve looked up to as a role model and an idol ever since I was a young filly. Somepony who always gave me the motivation to push my limits, achieve my goals, and excel what I have already accomplished.” A small smile formed on her face. “She is why I have made it as far as I have.”

The mare opposite to her blinked. “I see. Well…” She looked to the sides for one moment before going back to her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I am that pony… Or I am, but don’t remember it…” Her sadness could be felt through her voice, she wanted to remember who she was, but never ever came to mind other than that dream she had.

“Could you perhaps… tell me more about this pony?” She asked, and spitfire couldn’t help but smile and began talking about her idol, mentioning she once knew her great grandfather of that time, what she had achieved, the moves the Pegasi learnt from her, the battles, everything. Spitfire regretted leaving her keepsakes back at the academy as she would have more than happily showed this mare those items, but she didn’t let that bother her.

A few hours past and the mare was told everything Spitfire knew. She was amazed that there was such a pony that existed, but every time a fight was brought up in the explanation, she felt uneasy. She could tell her visitor really looked up to this pony, but every time she was mistaken as Neon, she would try to explain that she wasn’t that pony.

Finally, the little info session ended as spitfire had run out of thing to mention, a small silence filled the room before the Blue mare spoke up. “I’m sorry, but I never actually asked who you were.”

“You didn’t?” Spitfire asked, but felt a little surprised for a moment that this mare didn’t know who she was until the reminder of memory loss crossed her. “Well, my name is Spitfire, I’m Captain of the Wonderbolts. The Wonderbolts, to the public, are a group of Stunt Fliers, but under the table, we’re the EQRS, Equestrian Quick Response Team, and probably the only ‘Military’ Equestria owns aside from the Royal Guards of Canterlot.”

The mare smiles, happy she now knows who this pony was, but a question popped up in her mind. “It’s a pleasure to meet you then, Miss Spitfire. If I may ask, are you the one who was coming to see me today?”

Spitfire nodded. “Spitfire is just fine. And yes, I am. I was the one that found you in that crater those few nights ago. The doctor told me about your condition, and I have to say: We’re both amazed you came out of that unharmed. One other thing he told me is that you are healthy enough to be released from the hospital.”

The mare turns herself to the side and looks out the window. “There might be a problem with that…” She said as Spitfire walked up close to her. “Why not just use ‘Neon Guardian’?” this caused the mare to quickly turn her head and look at spitfire.

“I’m not ‘Neon’, Spitfire.” She stood up slowly, her back legs wobbling a little while the front were firmly on the ground thanks to the armor. She began to walk back and forth, figuring she could get more used to using all four legs. “I may look like this ‘Neon’ pony from the description you’ve given me of her, but I’m not her.” She paused in the middle of one of her steps. “I can’t be.” She then said softly as she lowered her head for just a moment, inwardly hoping her visitor would just drop it.

“Why not just go with it for now, not many will know better in this area. It’s mainly Pegasi that know about her, the other won’t know the better unless someone shouts it out.” She was going to keep going, she was sure this was her Idol, it had to be. “Just go with it and you’ll be out of here with no ha-“

“Spitfire!” the mare yelled at her, causing her to freeze up. “I am not going to go out living with the name of a pony who has been dead for a thousand years! And I am not going to say I am that pony without any proof telling me that is who I really am!”

Spitfire could see it, she made the mare angry, and it was only now that she figured out it was the best time to drop the subject. She kept still in the mares gaze before slumping and realizing how much of a foal she has been acting since she saw this pony. “Alright.”

“If you two are trying to figure out names, why not Sapphire?” a male voice sounded from the door, causing them to both look at Doctor Health who had snuck in.

“Doc, Come on. Why are you visiting me so much? Don’t you have better things to do than to talk to this nobo… Nopony here.” The mare motioned to herself.

“Actually.” He grinned. “I don’t. And you’re not a Nopony. You’re probably one of the most interesting patients and enjoyable I’ve met in my working lifetime here in Ponyville.” He then turns his eyes to Spitfire. “And I was curious to find out why Captain Spitfire here was eager to meet you, so I snuck in and have been listening since.”

Spitfire had been caught off guard and looked around the room while the mare looked down at her armor. “Why didn’t you tell me he had come in?”

“You two were in a heated conversation, and I didn’t want to step in between it and interrupt.” was the response she got from the chunks of connected metal plating her top half. Spitfire quickly looked around for the other voice. “Who said that?”

The mare sighed as she sat down and raised her right foreleg. “My armor can talk.”

Before spitfire could say anything, she was cut off by the armor. “It’s true, the armor can talk, although I am actually a Mechanical Suit designed to…. Aid the master with fitting in and getting her back on her hoofs. I must also voice up and say that the name ‘Sapphire’ the good Doctor Health has suggested would be a fitting name for the Master, albeit a little strange to what I am used to.”

Spitfire gawked at the armor while Health walked up to them all with a big ol’ smile on his muzzle. “I’m glad somepony… or some…. Armor? Agrees with me.” He then looked at Spitfire with a smirk as she looked up at him. “And who would have thought the Great Captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire herself would have a filly crush for somepony.”

“What!?” both the Suit and ‘Sapphire’ said in unison while Spitfire loudly denied his words. “That’s not true Doc!” But Health only pushed on. “I know a filly crush when I see one, Captain. You might deny it, and may not be showing off the usual signs, but the evidence is still there. From what I’ve heard, ‘Neon’ has had a big impact on your life, from the young years to now.”

“I can vouch for that Claim, Doc.” Said another voice, this time, it was Soarin that walked in. Spitfire went wide eyed almost instantly before glaring at Soarin. “Don’t you dare Soarin!” He only grinned at her. “Don’t you bucking dare! You promised!”

“I do believe I am due to revenge after you blurted out about that Hooficure I had at the local spa, don’t you think so? Besides, telling these two and your idol-lookalike is nothing compared to the entire media, don’t you think so, spits?”

She gulped and backed away, she had him there, and regretted breaking that promise she made with him. He had every right for revenge, and he couldn’t have picked the perfect time to do so. She mumbled to herself before sighing. “Fine, fine. Go ahead.” She then raised a pointing hoof at him. “But just them! If I find out more have heard of this, I’ll-“

“Yeah, yeah. ‘Buck you up until next year.’” He cut in before chuckling. “You know, for a Captain, you are still quite foalish, and honestly…” ‘Pause for effect’ he thought to himself. “I miss that side of you, Captain.”

"Just shut up and get it over and done with already." she groaned as she made herself comfortable for the embarrassment she would go through. Her and Soarin had been friends of a number of years, and he was the only one out of the whole team that knew about her personal collection and the heirlooms she kept.

She was a little surprised Soarin kept his cool around the rooms occupant as he went into great detail about what Spitfire owned that related to 'Neon Guardian'. Everytime something new was brought up about her posessions, Spitfire would glance at her idol lookalike for any reactions to what was listed. She knew what to look for as she was famous herself, and knew exactly what to look for when it came to a 'fan' bragging about their collections. But this mare, showed none of those signs. She just sat there and listened.

"How is she fine with all of this?" She thought to herself as she stared at the mare. "She could be showing fake excitement, questioning what I own, looking at me like i'm obsessed or something was wrong with me. It's like none of this means anything to her."

It didn't take long before the mare noticed Spitfire staring at her. "Spitfire?"

No response...

Soarin stopped and looked at Spitfire, noticing he was looking right at the Blue mare. "Hey Captain, you alright there?"

Still no response.

"Hey Spitty!" He said in a louder voice.

Still nothing...

He sighed and took a deep breath before shouting "Hey Loogie!"

Heath tried to hold back a snicker while Spitfire stared daggers at Soarin. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that, Soarin!" she growled at him as he rolled his eyes.

"More than enough."

"When are you gonna stop calling me that?"

"When it stops working."

"What do you mean 'When it stops working'?" Her glare only intensified.

"Spits, you were staring at her." He said casually while pointing a limp hoof at the mare.

Spitfires glare stopped and she blinked in a confused manner. “I was?”

The three others in the room looked at each other for a moment before looking back at her. The three ponies and the armour replied in unison. “Yep.”

Spitfire shrank into a corner, averting her gaze elsewhere. She was beginning to hate herself for slipping so far out of line, but Soarin was having none of it. “Spits. Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” She asked without looking at him.

“Don’t beat yourself up.” Soarin walked over to Spitfire who stubbornly denied. He sighed. “I’ve been by your side ever since we joined the Wonderbolts. I know how you act, what you do, what you say when something is wrong, and right now you have this look that screams ‘I hate myself for such and such’”

She couldn’t help but wince at his words, and the fact that he was more observant that she thought. She never would have thought Soarin had an eye for detail, but she never really paid that much attention to him.

While Soarin tried to stop her, Health walked over to the current resident of the room they were in. “I have a feeling these two will be the ones that will sign you out, and they will probably pay for the bills as well since you don’t have any Bits on you.” He whispered to her.

She looked at Health. “Bits?”

Health just smiled and looked at her armor which answered her question. “Bits are the currency that this Country uses.” Followed by a nod of Heath’s head.

“Will you be going by the name ‘Sapphire’, or would you like me to put something different down on the release forms?” He asked with a smile.

She did think about the name a number of times while the Soarin was listing what Spitfire owned and eventually came to the decision to go by that name. She nodded with a smile. “Sapphire will be fine, Doc.”

Heaths smile only grew bigger. “Wonderful! I will go get those papers now while those two over there sort out their little issue… if it is called that.”

Soarin was still trying to stop spitfire from beating herself up as the Doctor left to get the papers. ‘Sapphire’ figured it would take a while before everything was fine and decided to practice moving her limbs around and stretching her wings.

“Good luck out there Sapphire!” Doctor Health yelled out, waving to her as herself and the two Wonderbolts left the Hospital at a slow pace and headed towards Ponyville. The Doc was right to assume they would pay for her release and was happy when they agreed to go through with the payments. Sapphire was still thinking over what she saw when the three of them entered the reception room, seeing that one pony frantically fixing up her posture at the sight of Spitfire. It was interesting to see, but she wondered why she was like that.

“How’s it feel to get out of that hospital, ‘Sapphire’.” Soarin asked as he finished packing Spitfire's uniform in his saddlebags and trotted up next to them. Spitfire wasted no time finishing those papers and leaving the hospital after shedding off her uniform and pushing it to Soarin to store since she had nothing to carry it with her.

“I’m… not too sure.” She said as she looked around. “It’s different than this morning that is for sure.” She then looked down at her armor. “What about you Steel Guard?”

Steel Guard was the name given to her armor as she felt it wasn’t right to just call it what it was. She felt it had a personality, and was almost like her, so giving it a name seemed appropriate, but how she thought up of the name still left her hanging no matter how much she thought about it.

“It’s refreshing to see some color around instead of just the plain white. Definitely is something that can be easily missed when denied from it for even a few days.” Steel semi-lied but did it convincingly, she was learning things.

“I don’t think I’ll get used to the fact that there is a pony soul fused with that armor and can control it by will.” Soarin commented as he looked at it in awe. “But I can say that it is impressive none the less. And certainly nothing like the armor I have seen on the Guards.”

“I must ask, what is the armor like on these Guards?” Steel asked. Sapphire blinked as her vision as clouded by the screen projected from her earpiece with a smaller box and a bunch of strange symbols within the box she couldn’t understand, but she assumed it was words. Steel told her that every so often the screen would show up when something was needed to be done and to ignore it for the time being. Wasn’t like she had much of a choice, and didn’t complain too much as she could still see what was ahead of her.

“Most of the guards these days wear Magically Enchanted plates of metal that is used to protect them from most injuries. The magic strengthens the metal and decreases the chance of anything penetrating through the plates while also altering the physical appearance through a number of spells that alters things like a ponies mane color, coat color and even eye color if need be.” Another voice sounded from above the four.

Looking up, the three ponies of the group noticed a lavender coated pony flying above them, slowly lowering towards them. Sapphire looked at Soarin and Spitfire with confusion as both bowed down to the pony as they landed in front of the three of them.

‘Alicorn…’ She heard the distance voice say at the back of her mind. The voice sounded like it was going to add something, but nothing else came.

“I don’t think I have seen you before.” The Alicorn said as she looked at Sapphire. “Are you new to Ponyville?”

Sapphire nodded while Steel answered. “We are, only just came out of the hospital.”

Sapphire couldn’t help but giggle a little while she once again saw a pony today look around for a voice that didn’t come from a pony. The Alicorn looked around but the more she looked, the more confused she became. “Who said that?”

Both Spitfire and Soarin got up and Spitfire was the one to answer. “Her armor can talk, Princess.”

The Alicorn looked astound by the information and stared at Steel. “Is this true? It can talk?”

“It is indeed true. My name is Steel Guard, and the one wearing me is Sapphire.” Sapphire smiled and nodded at Steels words.

The Alicorn face blanked for a few seconds as she couldn’t believe such a thing was possible before shaking her head, deciding to look into magic that did that later on. “Ah, I see. Well it’s nice to meet you both.” A smile then grew on her face. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Bearer of the Element of Magic, and one of the Princesses, but please treat me as if I was just another pony.”

Sapphire nodded again while Steel responded. “We can do that.”

“Thank you.” Twilight smiled a little more before looking at the two Wonderbolts. “So where are the three… Sorry, four of you going?”

“Soarin and Spitfire were going to show me and Steel Guard around Ponyville.” Sapphire answered with a smile.

“Speaking of which, can I make a request before we go into town?” Steel spoke up before anything else could be said.

“Uh… Sure. What is it?” Soarin asked while looking over at Spitfire she just shrugged.

“I need you to take us to where you found Sapphire and myself those few nights ago.” Soarin blinked while Spitfire knew exactly where Steel was referring. “I guess it won’t hurt to take a small detour, but why do you need to go there? It better be a good reason by the way. Soarin and I won’t be setting hoof in that place just for anything.”

Soarin give her a look that silent said “Where?” while Steel continued. “It’s reason enough. I believe there are still some pieces of this armor that have been left behind at the crash site. It’s important we get those few pieces.”

“Crash site?” Twilight questioned while Spitfire squinted her eyes a little at Steel. “Why are they important?”

There was no delay with Steels response. “Without those pieces, Sapphire cannot fly because I weigh too much for her wings to carry without the proper training. Her muscles are severely under developed and wouldn’t even be able to hold her own weight up. Those parts can greatly lighten us both and will be able to help Sapphire learn how to fly without overworking her wings.”

"Why not just remove yourself from her?" Twilight asked curiously.

"I..." Steel paused, trying to generate a decent answer to follow through, before giving out a sigh. "I can only animate this armor and aid Sapphire while attached to her since I work off her natural magic. A small amount of her natural flow is enough to allow me to do what I need to do, but I have to be in contact with her."

Both Sapphire and Steel were assaulted by confused stares with a hint of disbelief. Twilight was the only one who followed through with it though. "If that is the case... I can enchant an item to feed you her natural magic through a direct link between you both."

There was a silence for a moment from Steel while all Sapphire could do was stare at the stuff appearing and disappearing from her vision before the screen shut off. "I think that would work. If you can do that, we would be very thankful for that."

Sapphire looked down at Steel. "What do you mean 'we'. I didn't agree to anything as far as I'm aware of.”

“Every so often I will be required to make the decision of certain things, but not all the time.”

“So long as it doesn't get us into trouble, I guess I am okay with that.” She said while looking back up to the three. “So what sort of item would work?”

“Any item will work, so long as it is something you can wear. A sweater, bracelet, necklace… Anything.” Twilight said with a smile. She was given an opportunity to try a new spell, why would she turn this down?

Sapphire went into deep thought about she wanted to use. An item ranging to just about anything… not an easy pick. She began to think about what she would look like with whatever came into her mind. It was difficult to choose as almost everything she thought of just didn’t tickle her fancy, until she came to the thought of a small black ribbon wrapped around her neck with a small round silver tag hanging off the front. She opened her eyes with a smile and told Twilight the item she wanted.

“A black Choker with a tag?” She gave the two wonderbolts a strange look before going back to Sapphire. “Are you sure you want something like that? It’s not exactly something you’d… Um…” She lowered her head a little the more she thought about it. Thankfully Spitfire continued for her. “It’s not exactly something somepony would wear in public Sapphire.”

“It’s not?” Sapphire asked innocently as she canted her head to the side. The three of them could tell she was serious, which amazed them.

“The innocence is strong with this one.” Steel Guard said out of the blue, but at least the others got the idea of what was intended with the line. And they could see Steel was right, they could literally see it.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to get one…” Twilight hesitantly said. “Might have to see Rarity about it though.”

“What’s a Rarity?” Both Steel and Sapphire asked in sync.

The group of ponies weren't too far away from the crater. During the trip, Twilight told Sapphire about her friends and what each one of them did, while Soarin and Spitfire followed quietly close behind. It was difficult, but Spitfire was slowly beginning to understand that the pony in front of her wasn’t who she wanted to believe it was. “I guess you were right Soarin.” she sadly confessed, breaking the silence that was between them for the majority of the trip.

Soarin looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Right about what?”

Spitfire looked at him for a second before looking at the two in front of her. “You were right about her not being the pony i thought she was.” She then sighed and lowered her head.

“Don’t let it get to you Spits.” Soarin tried to reassure her. “I can understand why you thought she was Neon. I would have done the same if I was in your position!” He couldn't help but laugh a little with the thought of him doing the same, and he wasn’t wrong, he would've too.

“Yeah…” was all she said, not really feeling like saying much else.

Soarin moved closer to her and bumped his shoulder with hers. “Come on, don’t be like that. Everyone has a moment where they see somepony that looks like another pony that they look up to, love, or are looking for.”

She lifted her head and looks at him. “That rarely happens thou-”

“It still happens.” He cut her off. “Look, if it helps out in any way, why not be her friend at least? I’m sure she could use one after all.” A tiny smirk then grew on the corner of his lips. “And so could you.”

Spitfire turned her head away from Soarin and scoffs. “I have friends.”

“Yeah. You do. In the Wonderbolts. I’m talking outside of work.” Soarin kept his cool as he casually walked with spitfire. “Do you have any that isn’t a Wonderbolt?”

She winced. He had her cornered and there wasn’t anything she could really do about it, and he even knew it. It was one of the benefits he had with being a team, there was a lot that both knew about the other, and this was just one of those things. “No.” she sighed heavily before looking at Sapphire, seeing her smiling as Twilight spoke to her. “Would she want to be my friend though? Would it be an actual friendship and not just a ‘friendship’ because I’m famous and have lots of Bits?”

“How did she act when you told her who you were?” Soarin kept his smirk as he asked.

“She acted like she had never heard of me or the Wonderbolts. But what is there to say it is not just an act?” She watched the two in front of her.

“Well, what is there to say it isn't the real deal.” He countered.

“... We’ll see Soarin.” she answered after a short while.

While the two Wonderbolts followed, Sapphire and Steel Guard was going over what Twilight had told her, ranging from who her friends were to what the Elements of Harmony were, and even what the Princesses did.

“Wait wait wait, so your telling us that the Sun and Moon are actually being controlled by two ponies?” Steel asked with a tone of disbelief. “I’m sorry, but I find that just a little bit difficult to believe.”

“I’m with Steel for this one, Twilight.” Sapphire agreed with a nod.

“Well you two aren't from around here, and are possibly from one of the more distant towns or from a different country.” Twilight slowed her pace which sapphire did as well. “From what I’ve heard, many species, cultures, and countries believe different things. Everypony has their own assumptions and thoughts. The movement of the Sun and Moon are just one of those topics, but we have proof of how they move. I’ll show you when we leave this forest.”

“Speaking of Forest…” Soarin interrupted. “Isn’t it a bit too quiet in here for comfort?”

All four of them stopped and perked their ears up. Twilight was the first to nervously speak. “Soarins right, it is too quiet…” she then looks at Sapphire. “Let’s just go to this place, get what you need, and get out of here before something happens.”

“Follow me.” Spitfire said as she ran past them. The other three followed closely after Spitfire, trying their best to keep up. “It’s not too far away.” Spitfire shouted as she ran. The three behind her could just see the crater on the distance, but the only one who was amazed was Twilight as she skidded to a halt on the rim of the crater with wide eyes, an open mouth and pupils the size of pinpricks as they all arrived.

“I did this?” Sapphire stammered, shocked by the size of the crater.

“WE did this.” Steel corrected her. Sapphires vision went blue as the screen appeared and lines of text scrolled over the screen while small thin boxes flashed about the screen, focusing more around the center area of the crater.

Soarin couldn’t help but whistle at the damage in front of him. “Remind me not to stand in Sapphires path when she’s on the move… Ow, hey!” He shouted at the end as Spitfire hit him in the shoulder harder than needed. He sat and rubbed his hoof against the spot that was hit. “That hurt.” he mumbled.

“Oh harden up Soarin, you’re a full grown stallion, not a young colt. You can take it.” Spitfire said with smirk. “Or do I need to treat you like a colt.”

Soarin grew a massive grin. “Yep!”

Spitfire grew a grin herself, but had an evil glint in her eye. “I’ll go get the diapers then.” She began to turn before Soarin stopped her.

“Nonononono! I’m a stallion, I’m a stallion!” He yelled out desperately. “I’ll take the hit!”

“Good.” Was all she said as she turned back and looked at Sapphire. “So why aren’t you down there finding what you need?”

“There’s no need to be as I can find them quite easily from here.” Steel answered. In Sapphires ear, she heard a beep and four of the boxes turned red, but one of them had thicker lines with some text next to it. “There we are. Sorry Sapphire, but let me take the wheel for a moment.”

“Take the whe-AH!” she yelped as her forelegs began to move on their own towards the thicker box. “Why are my legs moving?!” She yelled in shock while her back legs were dragged along the ground which caused both Spitfire and Soarin to laugh at the display while Twilight came out of her daze and gave Sapphire a strange look as she saw what was happening.

“Lift your back legs and just move them as if you were walking.” Steel said into her ear. She did what she was told and stopped herself from being dragged.

“How are you doing this?” She asked.

“I’ll explain later when it is much safer.” Steel answered.

They both stopped over where the thicker box was and she stared at it. “So… what now?”

“Sit down.” She followed the orders and did just that. “Now, you’re going to feel a little more weight than usual on your rear.” Before she could question Steel, her forelegs lifted up and she almost lost balance but was able to stop herself from falling forward. Steel was right though, there was more weight.

Suddenly, small metal digits from the ends of her forehoofs popped out and wiggled about in front of her. “What are those?”

“They’re called fingers.” Was all Steel told her before her forelegs lowered against the ground and by using the ‘fingers’, moves the dirt to the side as they both dug at the ground.

Twilight walked up next to them. “Did you find what you wer-WHAT THE HAY ARE THOSE!” she shouted as extended one of her wings and used the feathers to point at Sapphires hooves.

“Apparently they are called ‘Fingers’.” Sapphire said softly as she watched the dirt being moved away from the red box in her vision.

“You’d be amazed what they can do.” Steel commented. "Use them when you need the Flex-a-bility..." Steel said in sing song before getting a raised eyebrow from Sapphire.

They kept digging into the ground before something poke out from the dirt. The object that came into view caused the red box to change to green. “Here it is.”

“What is it?” Sapphire asked as Steel pulled out the object.

“It’s the main unit for the AMG’s.” All Steel got was silence.

There was a sigh. “Aerial Maneuver Gear…”

More silence.

“The things that will allow Sapphire to fly with me equipped.” Steel ‘groaned’.

“Ooh.” Twilight and Sapphire said in unison.

The fingers took hold of the buried device and was able to easily remove it from the earth. “Still looks operational.” Steel retracted the fingers and places the armored hoof on the device.

More of Sapphires vision went away as more and more boxes of text appeared and scrolled. Where one box disappeared, another would take it’s place.

“What is all this?” Sapphire asked as she tried to keep up with whatever was in front of her.

“Data, Words, Numbers. I’ll teach you how to read them later.” Steel answered. All the boxes then disappeared. “Stand up.” Sapphire did that and Steel made her move back a few steps.

“Activating AMG’s. First time start-up initiated, Running diagnostic… ‘Essence Limiter’ installing... Hardware operational. Connecting AMGs to platform.” Steel announced in a monotone voice. Sapphire blinked as she felt the armor over her torso jolt.

She turned her head to see if she could find what made the armor jolt, but was greeted by Twilights wide eyes looking at her back. “Twilight?” She looked stunned while staring at Sapphires back. “What’s going on?”

“Engaging Energy Links.” came Steels monotone voice again and something caught both of their eyes. In front of Sapphire, was the same device she just dug up, but the flat part of it was giving off a glow.

“Distributing Energy to remaining Units.” Three spots began to give off a blue glow from under the dirt.

“Powering up.” The ‘Main unit’ levitated up in front of the two ponies, followed by the other ‘units’ erupting from their earthen burials. The base of the four units then released a glowing, luminescent cloud which began to harden when it reached a certain point. The new part of those four ‘units’ glowed as they finished hardening. “Magical Essence Solidification Process complete. AMG’s Operational.” Steel announced as the ‘AMGs’ floated over to Sapphires back and levitated over her.

“Now, you can fly.” Steel said without the monotone voice and a large green tick appeared in Sapphires vision.

Back at the rim of the crater, both Spitfire and Soarin stared at the other two ponies with wide eyes and gaping mouths. “Did… you just see…” Soarin started.

“Y-yeah… I did.” Spitfire finished. Both of them shook their heads and made their way over to the others. “What was all of that.”

Sapphire just shrugged. “I have no idea, but apparently these are what will let me fly now.” Twilight was staring at the new additions and next to her was a notepad and a pencil scribbling something on the notepad.

All four of them froze up as a number of low growls were heard from behind them. All four slowly turned to see a number of Manticores staring at them with drool dripping from their mouths and a few of them licking their lips. The four could see they were hungry, and as it turns out, they were the main course.

“RUN!” Spitfire shouted as she quickly extending her wings and launched herself into the air, followed by Soarin and Twilight who shot up after her in close succession. After getting to a certain height, spitfire stopped and looked back to see only Twilight and Soarin.

“Wait, where’s Sapphire?” She asked in a panicked tone before looking down and seeing the armored mare begin surrounded by the manticores on the ground. It was difficult to see, but he could tell Sapphire was scared by the way she stood and her wings extended slightly.

Twilight looked down and saw the same thing and turns to dive for the mare. “Sapphire!”

Sapphire couldn’t move, she felt paralysed under the gaze of all the manticore. “Sapphire, we need to get out of here! Sapphire!” Steel called to her through her ear, but she didn't do anything. Her pupils went wide as she saw one of the Manticores launch themselves at her, claws extended and glinting under the remaining afternoon sunlight and a gaping maw of sharp teeth racing at her.

“SAPPHIRE!”

“Your time has not come.” a voice said in the back of her mind as her vision went black.

Chapter 5 - Secrets

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"SAPPHIRE!" Spitfire screamed out as she shot past Twilight and Soarin like a speeding bullet, faint evidence of a colored trail following close behind her as she dove for the mare.
The manticore launched itself at Sapphire as she just stood there as if waiting to be kill, but time seemed to slow due to what happened within the split second between the mares life and death.

Out of Spitfires view, Sapphires Iris's grew to their full size and changed color from her Crimson Red to a Luminescent Green and fixated on the Manticores gaping mouth. She pushed herself forward and spread her forelegs out, causing her hooves to intercept the Manticores bite via the teeth.

Spitfire stopped her dive a few meters away from Sapphire and gawked at the sight of her holding the manticore back with her hooves. "What..." was all she could say as she stared at the sight before her.

"Elevate User privileges to Administrative level. User to elevate, Sapphire. Authorization by Shifty." Sapphire said in a quiet but firm voice that didn't belong to her. It was still the voice of a mare, but the tone it carried was one that held Spitfire used when she spoke to her trainees at the academy or giving orders to her fellow Wonderbolts.

"Privileges elevated and DNA profile recorded." Steel announced into her ear with the same monotone voice as before. "Awaiting Command..."

"Override all automatic control and switch to manual. Resume AI program." Sapphire ordered.

"Sapphire? What are you doing? I told you to run!" Steel yelled into her ear as the program resumed.

"Your warning came a little too late Blaze."

"Wait... Blaze... You're not Sapphire, are you?"

'Sapphire' grinned as she extended the armours fingers and gripped the Manticores teeth as it tried harder to close its jaw over the pony between it. "Nope. It would be-“ She grunted as the manticore tried closing its mouth on her but she was able to keep it open. “Wise for you to take note of my eye color Blaze. That will be my way of identification."

"Wait... Lyrin?! I thought you died during the fall."

The manticore had waited long enough for its meal and extended both its arms, claws ready to attack. "We'll talk about this later Blaze. However, don't mention any of this to Sapphire, she doesn’t need to know about any of this... not yet at least. Just act like this was all you’re doing."

She grunted as the fingers opened for a split second, the tips of her hooves rotated to reposition the metal digits and took hold of the Manticore again while using two of the AMG’s to block the attack path of both claws.

She then twisted her back half and cast a spell on her rear hooves, rooting them to the ground as two rune circles formed under them.

Spitfire, Soarin and Twilights jaw dropped as not only did they see a crimson aura cover Sapphires gold pinions or the brightening glow between the two rotating disks which had increased their speed, but they saw the small blue Pegasus flip the manticore three times her size on its back like it was nothing, stopping its attack and causing it to let out a yelp with a sickening crack echoing through the forest.

The other manticores that once saw the pony as their prey, instead saw it as a predator and forced them to turn tail and run away. They were smart creatures to realise what has become of their pack member within a mere few seconds. The one that laid still on the ground breathed heavily and its eyes stared widely at Sapphire.

"I will let you go. The pain will only last for a short time, but if you pose a threat against me or my kind again, I will ensure you feel unending agony." Her voice gave off venom and her eyes had the glint of a pure killer behind them, portraying the message to the beast. She released the Manticores mouth, retracted her fingers and moved away from it, showing she was being true to her word.

The manticore in front of her stared at her for a moment before hesitantly getting up on all four limbs, turn and limp away with her in the corner of its vision.

"I will talk to you later Blaze. Until then... " She began to feel drowsy as her adrenalin levels dropped. "Look... after her..." She breathed out before her eyes rolled back under her eyelids and falling on her side in a cloud of dust. The disks on her forelegs spun down to their idle rotation after kicking up some dusts, creating an impression in the dirt.

Soarin was the only one out of the three that snapped out of it and flew down to ensure Sapphire was alright. Spitfire and Twilights however had many thoughts rush through their minds. Spitfire was now sure Sapphire was Neon, while Twilight was just baffled by what happened, but something seemed familiar to her.

“Sapphire!” Soarin flew down and landed next to her body. He placed his front hooves against her and tried to shake her awake. “Sapphire! Wake up!”

“Calm down Soarin. She is fine. Everything is okay.” Steel said to try and reassure him.

“Okay? How is this okay?” He shouted. “We almost got attacked by manticores, she forgot she can’t fly, we almost left her behind to get eaten-“

“And see that she pulled through regardless what happened.” Steel butted in. “I said I was here to aid her. Part of that aid is to protect her, which is exactly what I just did.”

Steels words made Soarin pause and what he had seen replayed through his mind. “Wait… protect? You mean you’re the one who did all that?”

“You could say that, Yes.” Steel lied, but with reason. “I tapped into Sapphires passive magic and used it to protect her in a way I saw fit.”

“Passive magic? A Pegasi’s magic much lower compared to a Unicorn. It wouldn’t be impossible for her to have enough to even allow you to do what you just did… I think.” Soarin looked down at the ground, thinking if he knew what he was talking about or not. He didn’t but he did know one thing. He looked back to Steel. “Did the Doctor do a magic reading with her?”

“He did. Said he was impressed.” Steel shifted Sapphires forelegs around and was able to lift up her top half, her head hung down low since nothing was holding it up.

“What was the number?” He asked with wide eyes as he just saw Sapphires forelegs being manipulated as if she were a puppet.

“Not an accurate reading, but the lowest reading was seventeen.” Steel was able to reposition and start up the AMG’s, dust began to fly outwards from the spot directly under each unit as they were able to manipulate the air around them.

“Suh suhsuh suh Seventeen?!” he stuttered with a dumbfounded look on his face, not realizing that sapphires body was beginning to float in the air by the four glowing pillars surrounding her. “How is that possible?!” He looked down to find an imprint of Sapphires body before looking up to her floating limply.

“I don’t know… Magic?” Steel answered simply, followed by the noise of what sounded like two snorts after they said the word ‘magic’.

“Uh…” Soarin straightened his face and raised an eyebrow at Steel. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Steel asked with a tone of confusion.

“That snorting.” He squinted his eyes.

“A bad comedy attempt. Now can you snap those two out of their trance? There isn’t much time before I exhaust her magic and can no longer keep her flying, and it would be nice to at least have a place to stay for the night, mainly for Sapphire." Steel tucked Sapphires forelegs up against herself and locked them in place with a hiss.

Soarin, after watching the mare being somewhat puppeted, looked up to the sky and noticed it had gotten darker. "You take her straight to the edge of town, we'll catch up with you both shortly."

Steel turned them towards the town and began to float forward as the Heads of the AMGs angled forward. "Wait." Soarin called out, causing Steel to stop. "What are you? Gender wise?"

"Specifically, I don't have a gender.... anymore. But previously, Sapphire called me a mare due to my voice, so that would probably be more fitting to know." Steel began to float forward again before the AMGs tilted to a ninety-degree angle and sent both her and Sapphire into the night sky. Despite nothing moving on them apart from those new additions, Soarin was amazed he could feel a wind blowing against him as she flew away.

He looked up at the two mares who were still staring at where Sapphire once was and couldn't help but roll his eyes at the two. "How these two can zone out just like that and keep afloat in the air, I will never know." He shook his head for a moment before looking around. "Now, how am I going to bring them back..."

A shift in his body reminded him that he was still wearing his saddlebags, which would most likely contain something that would do the trick. He reaches his head around and flipped the bag open before poking his head in it for a moment and pulling out a whistle . "Thith'll do."

He launched himself up and approached the mares. Looking at the two, he rolled his eyes one more time before taking a deep breath. "Sorry you two." he thought before blowing the whistle. His method had an immediate effect as they both locked up, fell a few meters, regained themselves and and flapped their way back up. Everything was silent for a moment before both gave out a gasp and looked at each other.

"Did you see that?”

“How did she do that?”

“I don’t know, but it…”

Both went silent for a moment as they stared at each other for a number of seconds. Twilight was the one to break it. “Did what we just see really happen? It can be possible-“

Spitfire interrupted Twilight. “For a Pegasus to do that. That was-“

It was Twilights turn. “Magic that she used, but how is-“

“Girls…” Soarin tried to get their attention.

“There is no way. That had to be-“ Spitfire was too

“Something that can be used by a full grown unicorn. And to flip-”

“Something three times larger than her-“

“There can only be one thing to explain this.” Spitfire finished with a sure look on her face and a huge smile.

“Hey!” Soarin shouted, but was still ignored.

“She’s Neon Guardian!” Spitfire only smiled more and more.

Many bits of knowledge of what she had recently been reading, what she heard at the castle, and what she just saw all began to connect to each other. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the Captain in front of her. “You’re right. She is Neon Guardian. The Magic, the aura, the unique feathers: She has all of those, so it can only mean that is her.

Both mares looked as though they made a big discovery, which didn’t last long as they turned to where Sapphire was supposed to be and noticed she was gone.

“Where did she go?!”

“Can I talk now?!” Soarin literally shouted into their ears, causing them to flip down from the outburst. Both almost stopped flapping from the shout and turned to Soarin who was eyeing them both.

Thankfully, neither said anything, which Soarin took as an invitation to speak. “Thank you. Now. As amazing as it sounds that what Sapphire had matches what Neon had and could do, I must break it to you that she is NOT, Neon Guardian.”

Spitfires look changed from a silent stare to a glare she flew closer to Soarin and hit him in the chest with a hoof. “Don’t bucking say that wasn’t her. You saw with your own eyes what she did!”

Soarin winced at the hit, but he took on his calm expression. “I did, but while you two were in your own little world, I went down to help Sapphire after she had fallen down.”

“Wait, she fell down? Is she alright?” Twilight gasped.

“She’s fine, just passed out. Steel has taken her to town though and will be waiting for us by the edge of it.” He then looked at Spitfire with narrowed eyes. “SHE was the one who did all of that, Not Sapphire. And in case you’re going to ask how I know this: She told me.”

Spitfire just looked at him, eyes constantly searching his face for anything to show he was lying, but had no luck. He then narrowed his eyes a little more. “So drop the Neon Guardian thing, alright? She doesn’t need all of this pinned against her, not especially after only just waking up a few hours ago with no idea where she is or what is around her.”

He turned his back to them both, more to Spitfire than Twilight. “I’m going to meet up with them. Whether you would like to join me, it’s up to you.” He turned his head slightly and looked at Spitfire from the corner of his eye. “She needs friends, she needs help, not a false identity, or pressure.”

Twilight knew Soarin was right and couldn’t help but picture herself in Sapphires horseshoes. It’d be tough to readjust to life with all this pressure of a fake identity being pressed against her. Then her thoughts went back to when she first entered Ponyville, she had been in Sapphires position before, but just starting the journey a different way and with a different train of thought.

Spitfire however, took his words in a different manner. He was giving her a decision, which was his intention. It was either go with him and do the right thing by becoming her friend and seeing her as who she is, or leave while holding onto her speculation.

Twilight nodded after her thoughts. “I’ll come with you, I think she could use a helping hoof from somepony who knows what she is going through.”

Soarin turned his head a little more and looked at Twilight with a raised corner of his lips for her to see. He gave Spitfire a final glance before turning to fly away with Twilight back to the town, leaving Spitfire behind to think about her decision.

Spitfire sighed as she watched the two fly away before flying up a little higher to one of the stray clouds and made herself comfortable on it. “What ever happened to the pie-loving lug I used to fly with?” she asked herself before laying her head down against her forehooves.

As Twilight and Soarin flew over the edge of the Everfree, Twilight couldn’t help but glance back at the forest which was bathes in the moonlight of the night. “Is she going to be alright?”

“She’ll be fine, she just needs to make a decision.” Soarin responded calmly.

“About what?” she asked as she slowed down a little.

Soarin noticed and slowed down to her speed. “She’s taking the whole ‘Neon’ thing a lot differently than you are. She doesn’t want to let go of the idea that Neon could very much be alive to this day. I’m sure you’ve noticed her change of behaviour?”

Twilight nodded. “I did. Why is she like that? She seemed in the right place the other night at the castle.”

“It’s because of Sapphire. It’s because of that splitting image both her and Neon have, the fact that Neon is seen as a Hero of our race, and that the mare is Spittys personal Idol that is making her step out of her usual line.” He began to look around for Sapphire and Steel after sighing.

“You can’t really blame her though. Seeing what Sapphire and Steel did back there, It just makes it easier to jump to the conclusion like she did.” Twilight tried.

“I suppose.” Soarin was able to pick out a glint of moonlight shining from the ground below and flew down towards it with Twilight close in tow.

As they got close, they could tell Sapphire was still unconscious by the way her head hung down and how her back legs look like they were dragged forward a little bit. The cores of the AMGs they saw earlier were now firmly attached to the armor which him and Twilight assumed was where they sat when not being used..

"How is she?" Twilight asked as she and Soarin landed either side of the two.

"She's fine, Just exhausted. With a bit of rest, she should be alright.” Steel reassured them both.

Twilight then perked up. “Speaking of which, you two need a place to stay, don’t you?”

Soarin nodded. “I’d offer my place but I don’t think Steel can go flying any more.”

“Pretty much spot on there, soarin. Couldn’t hold her up any longer and touched down here.” Then Steel sighed. “Although if I didn’t lose the bottom half of this armor, I would probably be able to walk her the rest of the way.”

“Bottom half?” Soarin asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Mmhm. I used to be a full set until the crash.”

“Speaking of crash.” Twilight spoke up. “What happened to get you both into that position?”

If Steel had eyes, they’d be wide and her pupils small, quickly looking around while listening to her hasting heartbeat, but she didn’t have any of those. “I’m… not too sure myself. Give me a little while and I might…. remember.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Steel for a moment before nodding. “Now, since you two need a place to stay, I should have some room at the Library that can act as a temporary home for you both if you'd like." Twilight offered with a smile.

"If we won't be a burden for you." Steel said before both her and sapphire were lifted up by Twilights magic.

“You won’t. Hope you don’t mind being levitated.” Twilight looked at the two with a smile. She was eager to help them fit into society and make friends with them, just like her friends did when she first came to town.

“I think we can manage.” Steel had no need to go against Twilights levitation and just let Sapphires body go limp.

Twilight turned to Soarin, still keeping her smile. “Would you like to join us, or do you have somewhere to be?”

“Thanks for the offer Twilight, but I should be getting back to the Academy for a debrief with the other instructors.” He stretched out his wings and power flapped them a few times lifting him into the air. “You make sure to listen to Twilight, alright Steel?” He then gave them a final smile before flying off into the crystal clear night.

After arriving at the library, Twilight carefully placed Sapphire and Steel on the couch in the main room but couldn’t help but laugh a little at the unlady like snoring coming from the pegasus which almost rivaled Spikes who was in the same room before yawning and going to bed early. She had spent the last three days and nights calming the populace of Canterlot which turned out to be much more frustrating than what her and the other princesses expected it to be, she deserved a rest after living through that.

It was late into the night when the pegasus awoke, got up and silently made her way to the front door to sit on the porch, looking up at the stars with her luminescent green eyes.

"Lyrin?" Steel asked cautiously.

The pegasus took in a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it. "I've missed this place.... so much..." She whispered to herself.

"So I guess this is your home world?" Steel questioned which caused the mare to laugh softly.

"Indeed. And I can see so much has changed..." she trailed off for a moment before sighing and looking down at the ground in front of her. "Gone for a thousand years, and here I am again... I don't know whether to feel happy, depressed, scared, nervous..."

"Why can't you decide?"

"Because..." She began to think about her answer as she stared at the ground. She then looked up and looked at all the stars. She missed how beautiful the nights here were. All her previous worlds didn't have a night that could even match what she currently saw.

"Because of many reasons. I will tell you those reasons in due time." She decided her answer. "Until then, I believe I owe you some answers."

"You don't owe me anything, Lyrin." Steel assured her, but she wasn't going to have any of it.

"I do actually. You said you thought I died, right?" She asked with a small smirk.

"I did." Steel answered.

"Well I have a few things to say to that line. One: You've changed. By the sounds of it, you're no longer acting like just a computer program that can learn and adapt.” She cast her gaze up onto a tall mountain in the distance with a castle sitting on the tip.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Machines and computers don’t ‘think’, they just ‘do'. You on the other hoof, have been ‘thinking’. Another thing is you lied-” She was then interrupted by Steel.

“You told me to act like I did it.” Steel retorted, which only made ‘Lyrin’ smile even more.

“I know I did, but I didn’t expect you to actually do it. Programs can’t lie, you did.” She then looked back at the door behind her. “You’re now more like a pony than what you started off with. Which is what I intended to happen when I started working on you back on Earth.”

“You intended this to happen?” Steel puppeted Lyrins foreleg, causing her to point to herself, but she knew what Steel meant with the gesture.

“I did.” She nodded and looked back at the sky. She had always loved Lunas nights, and being away for all these years only just made the experience worth the wait. “But the rest of that conversation will be for another time. Now the second thing. Did I die during that fall?”

She paused as her mind ventured back to what happened. “I did… but at the same time… I didn’t.” She then laid down on the ground and ejected the AMGs without proper activation and rolled onto her back, stretching out her wings before letting them rest against the ground, tucking her forelegs up. “Although I sort of wish I didn’t.”

“I guess it’s because of what happened to him?” Lyrin nodded slightly and sighed as the memories of her previous self went through her mind. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to save him.”

“It’s fine Blaze. I think being in love with a pony is one thing, but turning into one is a completely different platter of the serve all together. I don’t mind it so much because I started off as one, but Chris…” She trailed off for a moment as more memories and emotions went through her, bringing a few tears to her eyes.

Steel decided they had spoken on the topic long enough and put the conversation back on track. “Anyway, you said you did die, but at the same time, you didn’t… What do you mean by that?”

Lyrin raised her head a little to look at the armor on her and smiled slightly for a few seconds before resting her head back on the ground. “Technically… I’m dead to this world. Have been for a thousand years, but when I was in there, thought on what might happen if this world found out I live once again… who knows what would happen.”

She turned one of her hooves over and thought about the metal fingers on them, causing them to extend out. She then moved them around a little to test the flexibility and dexterity. “Because I didn’t want to cause any mayhem of my return, I cast the spell I use every time I got sent to a new world to fragment my soul once again and let that take over the body.”

“Which is how Sapphire same to be?” Steel tried.

Lyrin just nodded before continuing. “This is her life now, Blaze. Not mine. I’ve cut myself from her as much as I can so hopefully she doesn’t have to live through my pain…. Hopefully, but I will help her from time to time.”

“Hopefully?”

Lyrin retracted the fingers and rolled onto her stomach, tucking in her wings through the roll before standing up on all fours and recalling the AMGs back to where they idly rested. “The spell I cast… I couldn’t complete it. There is bound to be many loopholes and I have to constantly ensure nothing gets through them.”

“What are you trying to say Lyrin?” The visor lit up and a wireframe of a pony head looked at her with a concerned expression.

“The spell that I cast to fragment my soul… It was just a random spell I came up with, so I’ve never been sure of the side effects. So far, nothing too bad has happened, but I can’t help but feel that something will happen, and thats what I’m worried about.” She turned and looked back at the mountain castle in the distance.

“I understand.” Steel’s wireframe head shrunk and turned into a full wireframe pony. “I will try to keep her safe on this side, and you do what is needed where you reside.”

A corner of her lips lifted as a few tears welled in her eyes. “Thank you, Blaze. Hearing that means much to me. I want her to be able to live the life I never had the chance to get, and i will do the best I can to ensure nothing stops her.”

Lyrin used her thoughts to open Steels core software and started up a file marked as ‘SMAP-089’. “What did you just do?” Blaze asked as the wireframe looked at the box of scrolling text. “‘Survival Maintenance Adaption Program’, This program will allow you to maintain yourself. It carries all data in regards to what plans I had and the appropriate information you will need to manage your platform. Simply put, you’re now a pony in a metal body now. So that lie you made before about you being a pony, is now the truth.”

As the box closed, the wireframe pony glitches for a moment before taking on a proper virtual body with a generated maroon coat, grey/dark grey mane which was spiked up a little and pulled back, with a long, rough looking tail and dark green iris’s. Steel looked over her virtualised body for a moment before smiling at Lyrin.

Lyrin turned to the door and walked into the library, softly closing and locking the door behind her. “Also, if you ever need to, you can project your body holographically so the other ponies have an idea on what you used to look like if they ask.”

“Thank you Lyrin. If I may ask though, how often will you take control if that body?” Steel canted her head to the side.

“When Sapphire is asleep, or when she is in danger, I can or will take over if I feel I need to do so. Those will be the only times.” She hopped on the couch which a few springs creaked under the weight of them and laid down. The glow in her eyes began to fade as she slowly shut her eyes. “Look after Sapphire the best you can Steel, be her friend, and help each other learn how to be a pony.” her voice trailed off as her eyes closed.

Steel looked at the now sleeping mare for a moment on the screen before smiling and shutting off the visor, plunging the area around them into darkness. “I promise.”

Chapter 6 - Nightmares

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A breeze blew against dark sapphire fur and flowing cobalt mane as the Princess of the Night soared through the Dream Plane, watching over the ponies that slept peacefully and protecting them from the evils that may lurk in the dark.

It was only a few hours before she would have to return to the real world and lower the moon for her sister, and so far hadn't found any nightmares that her subjects could encounter during her nights, which made her smile. No nightmares only meant the night was right.

She loved her night duty, especially when she was able to help out the young colts and fillies of this generation of ponies. Seeing their young smiling faces after helping them face their nightmares made Luna herself smile and feel warm in her heart. She was able to accomplish something, even if her actions to the resolve were few, the outcome was always favourable to her.

However, that smile didn’t last long as in the distance, she could see three Dream Spheres in close proximity to each other, and one of them wasn’t the usual light blue that the others were, which meant only one thing. The pony who was connected to this dark sphere was experiencing a nightmare, and it was Lunas job to do something about it.

She looked at the sphere deeply as she landed next to it before closing her eyes and lowering her horn to the sphere. As soon as her horn made contact, the dream plane shifted away into a dark room.

The first thing she felt as the room completed itself around her was the cold, icy chill down her spine which causes her to jump a little with wide eyes and flared wings. She frantically looked around to check for any danger or the pony of this dream was nearby, but instead only found a hallway leading out from the room.

After some hesitation, she made her way down the hallway, having to make many turns and decisions as it felt like she was a mouse trapped in a maze. The lack of light of the dream did not help at all, but the small spark on her horn lit up at least a small area around her.

The longer she was in this dark maze, the more uncomfortable she felt and she swore under her sisters name that the darkness around her was slowly growing closer and closer, despite the amount of light her horn gave off.

Many minutes passed by as she explored the dark halls, growing ever more wary of the shadows her eyes were just barely beginning to pick up. She soon began to realise that these shadows were hostile as they shifted to and from her vision, their movement much like a predator toying with it's prey, but none had made a move against her yet, which only made her even more uncomfortable. "Why are you here you foul abominations of the night... What are you all waiting for?" She thought to herself as she trecked on.

Finally, she came into a much larger room that even though was still as dark as the halls, gave off some reflected light which brought back some ease. She looked around and perked her ears up as she heard some faint sniffles nearby. Following the sound, she found herself approaching a small dark blue pegasus filly, curled up in a ball of fur in the dark corner.

As she approached, something dropped nearby and the filly she was approaching jumped and frantically looked around her for the source, glints of tears were visible thanks to Lunas artificial light. She could also see her eyes were bloodshot from the tears and her pupils had shrunk as she looked up at Luna.

As Luna took another step forward, the filly tried to scurry away from the Princess but hit the wall and pressed herself against it. "Go away! Please go away! Don't hurt me! Please!" the filly begged as she cowered into the corner.

"It is alright little one, I will not hurt you. I am here to help you." Luna smiled at the filly as she began to noticeably relax a little in front of her. "What is your name little one?"

"S-sapphire."

"Well, young Sapphire, what is it that has you frightened?" She noticed Sapphire had her wings tucked tightly against herself and a soft glint from her wing.

"They want me for what I have." She then tensed up as she looked around, her iris's shrinking again. "They're here!" she squeaked as she pressed her back against the wall.

Before Luna could ask, her ears perked up as she began to hear very faint whispers around them.

"She is the new fragment."

"She is the new life."

"She is the special one."

"She is but a parasite."

"Who goes there?!" Luna shouted out. Almost immediately, her withers stood up as a sharp chill traveled down her spine.

"The tall one will be an obstacle."

"The tall one will halt our plans."

"The tall one is strong."

"But not as strong as us combined."

Dark thick liquid began to seep out from the floor and meld together, forming many growing globs which began to gain height and take shape. Each glob was a different shape to the previous but only a few things were the same. The transformed goos had taken on sharp claws and serrated teeth that Luna could just make out with the light she gave off, and all looked like beings completely unknown to her, but very few looked like something from a long time ago.

One of the goos opened its mouth and red liquid began to drip from its maw. A copper smell she knew all too well struck her nose, reminding her of many horrible experience: Blood.

The goos began to slowly move forward on their shining legs, both on either their back limbs, or all fours.

“The tall one can be our nourishment.”

“The tall one can be our Feast.”

“Then the small one shall be next.”

“And then the world she lives in.”

Lunas pupil’s shrunk to pinprick at the whispers, hearing a threat that if they got out of the dream by killing the filly, every other pony and species on the planet would be in danger. She then quickly regained herself and took a defensive stance between the Corrupters as she now called them and the Filly. “I will not let you lay a hoof on this filly!” Luna shouted with her Canterlot voice, but none of the creatures faltered. Instead, more opened their blood dripping mouths and began to hastily run towards the two ponies.

The smell of blood only got stronger the more unbearable as the Corruptors got closer.

“Let us show you.”

“What we can do.”

“To your Pitiful world.”

“Home. Species. Life. Destroyed.”

Mental images began to flash in Lunas mind as it was assaulted by a strange dark force. Fear crept up within her as she saw large fields of Blood, Insides, Corpses, Bones and fully stripped skeletons, and carnivores devouring their kill. Wild eyes looked into her with each flash. Many scenes, many places, many worlds, many species and races, all torn apart by strange, otherworldly beings of the unknown.

Lunas body began to fail her as her legs buckled, causing her to fall to the ground as her mind came back. She had been weakened, and the Corruptors took the chance. Most slowed and fell back while few lept forward with extended claws and blood red eyes of a cold hearted killer staring right into her soul. She couldn’t move to protect herself, she couldn’t cast a spell, or speak a word. All she could do, was watch this being get closer and closer.

The filly behind her screamed in fear and the scream echoed through the room and the halls. Time then seemed to slow in Lunas view as a force field was erected around the two. Just as the force field flashed up, a thin white line streaked in front of her view before suddenly thickening with a loud boom and a blinding light. The flash had blinded her for a moment before she shook her head, regaining control of herself.

As she went to stand up, she stopped as she looked up to find a glowing ghostly being standing between her and the Corruptors. The being stood on long slim back legs with a straight upwards posture, forelimbs on either side of its body, ethereal wings of blue light and a flowing mane and tail. The being turned its head to the side and glowing white eyes came into view, and the feeling of herself being watched became strong.

Looking past the being, Luna looked in awe at the mess that was made by the flash of light. The room had been lit up more and she could clearly see globs scattered all over the room and walls. However, she then noticed some of the mess began to move and slowly collect up. Then the filly screamed as she noticed the same thing, and one of the globs were collecting right by the force field.

The unknown ally noticed this and almost instantly turned its body towards the collecting pool and morphed the lower half of its arm into a long thin, sharp object. Leaping at it, the ally swiped its morphed limb at the reforming Corruptor and it gave off a sizzling sound as it caught alight. What sounded like millions of shrieks echoed around the Princess and her fur stood up on its ends as the Corruptor burned away.

“She is the source.”

“She is the Core”

“She may be strong.”

“But she can weaken.”

“We shall no longer be rejects.”

“We will take over the new life.”

“We will do our own will.”

“We will be the unstoppable force.”

“YOU WILL NOT HARM THEM!” A voice boomed out within the room and the ally turned to the fully reformed Corruptors and leapt into the group, engaging them in a battle that was too much for the Princes of the Night to watch and listen to. She turned to the filly who was shivering in the corner with darting eyes and moved over to her.

“I will protect you as much as I can until this is over.” She began to lower her horn forwards the fillies head. “Let me help you calm yourself.” Her horn made contact with the filly, but instead of soothing, she felt herself slip away. Her world morphed around her until the area was set: The old castle's Throne room. It was dark, the castle looked damaged from the inside as some of the pillars were cracked or had crumbled, and a large section of roofing laid in pieces only a few steps from her.

Luna wanted to look around but couldn't as she felt herself being controlled by another. Then, in her view, a younger version of herself came up into sight, looking down at her. “There is nothing wrong with me! These ponies have no idea what I have done for them!” the younger yelled down at the viewing older.

She then felt herself take a few steps back and shout. “No Lulu, this isn’t the way to go. This isn’t you!”

“NOT THE WAY TO GO?!” the younger retorted with a deafening shout, her pupils becoming slitted. “You have no idea how much magic I have used to aid my subjects with the war!” Something sparked inside Lunas mind, she remembered this. “Much of my magic was channeled to the moon’s reflective light to heal the wounded that slept, and they were beginning to sleep outside under my Nights, but after the war ended, they all retreat back into their houses and ignore the work and effort I put into my nights like it was nothing!”

“They all love your nights, you just can’t see it! You cannot just take the day away for eternity, think about the consequences it could have to hour home!”

“Why would they matter when my beautiful night is being loved by my subjects?” The older began to cackle madly as her fur began to grow darker along with her mane and tail. She then felt herself being lifted up into the air and found it difficult to breathe. It was all too real, this couldn’t be a dream, or a nightmare, being this surreal, it could only be one thing: A Memory.

She tried to funnel some of her Dream Plane magic and was able to remove herself from her temporary body, but the sight she saw in front of her made her stumble. It was a blue coated Pegasus with a golden pinion on each wing, being choked by her younger self’s magic. The younger then grinned as her transformation into Nightmare Moon was complete. “And those that do not appreciate my night...”

Doors burst open behind Luna as the younger version of her sister walked in with her Daytime guards. “Luna, NO!” Celestia yelled out as she ran towards them.

“No...” The princess of the night said to herself as she saw the younger charge up a spell, the spell she remembered using to kill her best friend of that time. A dark, sparking sphere formed at the tip of her younger selves horn and the rubble around them began to suspend into the air. “Shall be removed from this world.” The youngers words carried an icy tone.

“NOO!!!!” she tried to scream out as she went to block the path of the spell, but as her younger self fired the spell, it passed right through her and hit the Pegasus who began to scream and writhe under the spell.

Suddenly the world around her was pulled away and then formed back to the dark room to find herself pressed against the wall by a magical force pressing against her neck. She went to try and remove the spell but it was too strong for her. The unknown ally then came into her view with one of her arms raised towards her and the hand on the end open. Its white eyes stared right at her, and by how much of the eyes she could see, it looked angry. “You are not welcome here.” A voice echoed around the room, and Luna immediately knew who it was.

“Lyrin, listen to me, I’m not Nightmare Moon! It’s me, Lulu!” Luna choked out as the force against her neck pressed harder, her vision started to become blurry from the tears in her eyes as she inwardly begged to be let go.

“So you remember me. I suppose also remember what you did to me that night.” Its eyes glared at her.

“I do. But I couldn’t stop myself! Please, let me go!” Luna tried to remove the magic around her neck, but it only pressed harder.

“Your magic will not work here. This is my plane, not yours. This is what I feel to be punishment after banishing me from my own world for trying to HELP YOU! And this is only light compared to the hell I have gone through for the last thousand years!”

“B-banish?” She choked and the lack of air began to take its toll as the edges of her sight began to go dark, but then the magical grip released her neck and she fell onto the ground, breathing deeply and coughing as her airway opened up. If this was her plane, she wouldn’t have choked like that.

Suddenly, magical chains wrapped themselves around Luna’s legs and body, before tightening and keeping her on the ground. “You sound like you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t!” she yelled back sobbingly. “All these years I thought I killed you. And I hated myself for my actions during my banishment when I found myself sane.” Luna broke down in front of Lyrins ghost which said nothing.

“You were my best friend, and I understand why you did what you did. But you have to understand...” She looked up at the ghost, tears streaming. “If I had control, of myself, I would have listened.”

Lyrins ghostly form just looked at Luna for a moment before turning away and closing her eyes tight. “...How long...”

“Exactly a thousand years. Tia had used the Elements of Harmony against me a few weeks after your dea-... Banishment. She was able to weaken me and banished me to the moon.” Luna then continued in a softer voice. “I never forgot you, Lyrin. I never could, and I hated myself to the core for what I did. Every second of every day where I found myself in control, I would look back down on this world, and think about both you and Tia...”

Lyrins ghost turned and walked over to Luna, knelt down and hugged her. “I never forgot about you either.” The magical chains disappeared and Luna’s body was free, but before she could do anything, Lyrin let her go and stood up. “I am sorry... But you must leave. You cannot be here any longer or more will be attracted to your presence.”

Luna wanted to say no but almost instantly, she felt a hard force connect with her chest which sent her flying. She could see the ghost had outstretched a limb with a fist as she flew away. She was able to catch a glimpse of the filly passed out where she was and her eyes widened as she saw the filly had a golden feather before the room faded.

Instead of ending up back in the dream plane, she instead found herself in her physical body, slamming into the wall next to her bed. She gasped as she was winded and took a few seconds before she could breathe again. For once, she felt tired and drained, and could feel sweat under her fur.

Suddenly, her bedroom door burst open and the sight of Celestia with a wild looking mane came into view. “Luna, is everything alright?!”

“I-I’m fine, sister. Just a... rough trip.” She wanted to tell Celestia what she just saw, but decided to refrain from it. She couldn’t believe it though, was it possible that her best friend who she lost so long ago, was alive once again?

She looked out her window for a moment and then back to her sister. “Coffee?” She asked.

Celestia let out a tired sigh. “Well, since you have me awake now, I suppose a coffee would be good.”

Luna tried a smile, she will have to look for that filly later, but until then, she wanted to relive something of the old days that she used to do for her sister, when then brought a real smile to the thought of it. “I'll make it, just like old times.”

Chapter 7 - A Fresh Day

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Twilight sat at a small coffee table with bags under her eyes in the middle of the main room of the library, a dead look upon her face, a large mug of nearly-finished, cold coffee and a notepad filled with many details resting next to her. As hard as she tried, she went over what Sapphire had just told her.

Sapphire, who was currently wrapped in a blanket with Steel, had woken up poor Spike from his sleep due to her whimpering, shivering and eventually, screaming in her sleep and unsure what to do with the mare he didn’t recognize, went and woke up Twilight who immediately came down with a tumble and woken the mare up.

With a collection of coffee for the two mares and a gem for Spike who had gone upstairs not long after being woken up a few hours ago to finish off his ‘beauty sleep’. Sapphire explained to Twilight her nightmare in as much detail as she could remember from it to the point of the large Alicorn resting her horn against her forehead. The amount of detail in the explanation was unnerving and sent chills down Twilights spine at just the thought of the dark beings.

“This…” Twilight looked over her notes. “This is quite a nightmare… I’ve never heard of anything like this before. If it is alright with you, I’d like to send this off to the castle for Princess Luna to have a look at later today when Spike wakes up.”

“Who’s Spike? And why do you have to wait for them?” Sapphire asked before taking another sip of her caffeinated beverage that had hardly been touched over the few hours of them talking. Noticing the coffee wasn’t hot anymore, she chugged the rest down and couldn’t help but smile blissfully as she finished the drink.

“Spike, My number one assistant, is the little dragon who brought you that coffee earlier. Why I have to wait for him, is because of his Dragonfire. He can send my letters straight to the princesses without much waiting. If I was to simply mail it, the letter would take days to even get to the castle.” Twilight then winced a little at the sight of Sapphire chugging her cold coffee and couldn’t help but wonder inwardly how anypony could drink coffee cold.

After her blissful experience of cold coffee, she looked to the window and noticed the sun was up. “I guess that would make sense then.”

“Does all Dragonfire send items to certain locations?” Steel suddenly asked which caused Twilight to raise a brow at the question. “It-“ She immediately cut herself off and thought about the question. “Actually, I’m not sure… I’ve never done any study on that now that I think about it.”

“What about ponies?”

The sudden question and thoughts about ponies being affected by dragon fire began to rack her mind and the thought made her a little squeamish with the thoughts on how it would feel. “I’m not sure…. “

“Do you think you can let me know when you find anything out? I’m interested on what Dragonfire could do.”

“I will try.” Twilight replied unsure before looking out the window. “Well, I believe we should start moving.”

Sapphire looked back at Twilight curiously. “Why?”

Twilight just smiled. “We have to introduce you to your new home: Ponyville.” She then happen to catch a smell in the room and couldn’t help but scrunch her nose a little. “After we have a shower first, get ourselves cleaned up for the day.”

Both empty cups were shrouded by Twilights magic and were levitated towards her as she stood, turned and made her way into the kitchen. Not long after, she returned and stopped at the base of the steps. “Would you like to go first or last?”

Sapphire glanced at the top of the stairs for a moment before looking back to Twilight. “You go first.”

“Okay, I will let you know when I am done.” She gave Sapphire a friendly smile before making her way up the stairs and disappearing from sight.

Sapphire sat there for a moment before looking around the room. There were so many things she didn’t know or recognize, and she couldn’t help but look in awe at the sheer number of items and colors. Then something crossed her mind which made her question out loud. “How did I get here?”

She felt the armor on her right foreleg jolt and light buzzing sounds followed. She looked down and noticed small objects had popped out of some holes that she swore wasn’t there before which seemed to angle themselves and then project a light in front of her. Looking up, she jumped from fright as Steels generated body projected itself for the first time for her to see.

“Don’t be scared, it’s just me.” The Maroon earth pony smiled at Sapphire who had pressed up against the couch and stared with wide scared eyes for a moment before calming down.

“Steel? Is that you?” She asked softly after noticing Steels voice and the pony’s lips move in sync.

Steel nodded with a bigger smile and sat down before looking to the side. “Well… Used to be.” Lyrin gave her this virtual body and a reason to stick to the lie she made yesterday, so she might as well make the most of it and eventually come up with a backstory.

“Anyway, you asked how you got here, right?” Steel looked back at Sapphire with a smile which was returned with a nod. “Okay, well what do you remember from last night, before the nightmare, back at the crater?”

Sapphire closed her eyes and went over what she remembered. “We were surrounded by some strange creatures in the middle of the crater. I remember a few of things making their way towards me while Spitfire, Soarin, and Twilight flew away.”

Steel butted in quickly before any assumptions could be made. “Just to let you know, they forgot you couldn’t fly and they turned back to come get you.”

“Okay.” Sapphire nodded and continued. “Then I remember one of the strange creatures launching themselves at me, glinting light from the tips of their… paws? My name being screamed out from above me, and then suddenly, a voice in my head telling me something. After that, nothing…”

Sapphire opened her eyes and looked at Steel who stood up and took a step forward, face showing curiosity. “Do you remember what it said?”

“I…” She thought hard, trying to remember, but what she was looking for in her mind couldn’t be found. “No, I don’t…” She said faintly.

Steel was silent for a moment before nodding, the answer already obvious to her. “I see. Well, what happened after you blacked out is pretty simple. I protected you and fought off what was known as a Manticore.” Sapphire nodded as she mentally linked the word to the creature to remember. “After that, I flew us both to the edge of town and waited for the others. Two flew off to where they needed to be and Twilight brought us here to her Library.”

“Library?” Sapphire repeated the word in question.

“It’s a location where large amounts of books full of stories, knowledge, advice, and even artwork are stored and borrowed by many for their own uses. The books, are what you see filling all the selves around you.” Steel motioned a hoof around the room and Sapphire lookd around the room with wonder. “Text from only recently all the way to even when the first book was even thought of so long ago.”

Steel then pointed her hoof at Sapphire. “And at one point, you will know how to read what is contained in these books.” Steels words just went over Sapphires head as she stood up and moved around the library, looking at all the books on the shelves. However, her little exploration was interrupted by a knock at the door and a number of voices from the other side.

Both mares looked at each other. “You open it.” Steel said first.

“Why me?” Sapphire asked back.

“Because I’m just a projection of what I used to be, you’re the one with the physical body.” Steel countered, motioning a hoof at Sapphire.

Steel had Sapphire there. She made her way to the door which was knocked on again and looked at Steel. “How do I open it?” She then felt her left foreleg raise and the fingers on the tip flipped out. Her hoof was forced to the handle and the fingers took hold, pulling the door open to four ponies, one older mare wearing a hat on her head and three younger ones who had big smiles on their faces. The older and one of the younger were both earth ponies, while the other two were a Unicorn and a Pegasus.

“Fillies… The younger generation” The voice in her head told her as she looked at the three smaller ponies before her attention was drawn to the larger.

“Howdy there miss, don’t wish ta be rude, but is Twilight here? These three are looking for a book to borrow before their class starts and we need ta get it as quick as possible.” The mare asked in a unique accent, but it seemed oddly familiar in a way she was unsure of.

“Um…” Sapphire looked back to the stairs for a moment before looking back at the group. “She’s currently busy, and I’m not sure how long she will be.”

The three fillies let out a long, sad noise before the little earth filly with a bow sprung up, speaking in the same accent as the older. “What about Spike?” The others seemed to regrow their smiles.

‘Awe, they’re so cute!’ Sapphire thought to herself before remembering Spike went back to bed. “He went back to bed. I accidentally woke him up a lot earlier than he is probably used to and went to catch up on what he missed.” She then lowered her head at the group, feeling guilty. “I’m sorry…”

“Maybe…” Steel said as her projection walked up next to Sapphire, gaining the attention of all five of them. “We can help you find what you are looking for? Just tell me what you need and we can all see if we can find it.”

“Well if ya can do that, we’d be mighty grateful of ya. Right girls?” The older asked, followed by the three fillies letting out a very loud “Cutie Mark Crusader Book Finders!”, which in turn made Sapphire and the older mare lower their ears to the noise. Steel motioned them to where the books were and the three little fillies followed quickly.

As Sapphire watched them go to the shelves, she heard the older letting out a little laugh. “Ah swear they’ll try anythin’ to get their Cutie Marks.”

“Cutie Mark?” Sapphire looked at the other mare with a curious look on her face.

“Yeah. You know, the mark on ya flank that you get when ya find what your special talent is?” The mare turned and showed off her three apple mark on her side. Sapphire curiously looked at her own flank and couldn’t help but frown very slightly at it as there was nothing there but her blue fur. The older took a glance at Sapphire’s and noticed it was blank.

“Wait…” The mare said as she got closer and took a good look at Sapphires side. “Ya… Don’t have a cutie mark?”

“I… guess not.” Sapphire said slowly before the mare looked at her. “Is it a bad thing that I don’t have one?”

“Well… No. But it’s very rare to come across somepony that doesn’t have their Cutie Mark at yer age.” The mare looked at Sapphires flank again. “Better not tell the crusaders about this…”

Before Sapphire could ask why…

“Tell us what?” Came a small voice which when the source was found, turned out to be the Pegasus of the group who happened to have a messy mane and tail. Almost instantly, she looked down at the blank flank in her view and went wide eyed with a gasp.

“YOU DON’T HAVE A CUTIE MARK?!” Three young voices shouted out in the room, the older of the group and Sapphire looked at the source of the other two and noticed that all three Fillies were point at both her and Steel before looking at each other.

“What’s going on down there?” Twilight asked from the top of the stairs as she poked her head out to find the group in her home. “Oh, hi Applejack, Applebloom, Sweetie, Scootaloo. What are you four doing here?” Her fur glistened a little from being fresh out of the shower and she had a towel around her neck. She looked more awake and refreshed now than what Sapphire saw earlier.

“Twilight!” The three fillies bolted up the stairs. “The two ponies down there, they don’t have a Cutie Mark!”

“Two? Applejack already has her Cutie mark.” She raised an eyebrow at them.

“Not Applejack, Twilight. The Blue one and the Maroon one!” Scootaloo said loudly and pointed at something.

“Scootaloo, isn’t that a little rude to ref- Wait, Maroon?” Twilight followed the pointed hoof to a sheepishly smiling Steel waving at her. “Oh. Wasn’t expecting all these ponies to be visiting the Library.” She said to herself before looking at Sapphire. “While I look after every pony, you can go clean yourself up.”

Sapphire nodded and made her way to the stairs, Steel had disappeared from sight without the others knowing.

“First door on the left” Twilight directed as she passed Sapphire. By the time Twilight reached the bottom step, she heard the bathroom door close. She looked at Applejack and the crusaders with a smile. “Now, how can I help you four?”

“We’ve already been helped, that pony over there was able to help us find the book we were looking for.” Sweetie bell looked over to thank their helper but blinked as there was no one there. “Hey… Where did she go?”

Up in the bathroom, Sapphire stood right by the door and looked around the room while saying to no one in particular “I have no idea what I’m doing…”

“Need a hand?”

Sapphire jumped from Steels sudden question as she was reminded she wasn’t alone. She looked around for Steel but with the lack of her projection, Sapphire could only assume she was back in the armor. “What do you mean ‘need a hand’?”

Steel corrected her question. “Sorry, I meant would you like some help figuring this out?”
“Oh… Um…” She looked around the room once again before smiling down sheepishly at her armor. “If… you don’t mind.”

The visor popped up over her eyes and she could see Steel smile at her from it. “Give me a second to shed the extra weight.”

As soon as the visor shut off, her armor gave off a sudden number of clicks and hisses before cracking loudly, causing all the plates that once covered her to come apart at the seals and drop to the floor heavily, including all of the armor on her left foreleg. On the right foreleg however, only the boot and the top half of her leg armor came off while the piece with the two disks spinning around her foreleg remained.

She shuddered a little from an uncomfortable breeze coming from the window which turned pleasant and refreshing quite quickly as it blew across her now exposed fur. It wasn't long before an unbearable odour came across her nostrils which made her scrunch up her nose and almost dry reach. She quickly sat on her haunches and covered her nose. "Oh... wow... What is that smell!?"

"That... " Steel said as she reappeared on the visor and pointed a hoof at Sapphire. "Would be you after four days without a shower or bath! The staff back at the hospital could only do so much with cleaning you up, but you do need a shower. A proper one."

"If I really smell like this, then I won't argue." She said after a moment of keeping her stomach down from the smell. "How come it's only now that I am noticing this?"

"The armor is airtight, so whatever odours your body had given off was all pent up until just now. Now do exactly what I tell you to do and after that, you should be fine. Also, don’t worry about getting that piece around your leg wet, its waterproof.” Steel gave her a big grin before the visor turned off and then dropped from Sapphires ear.

“Now get those front hooves of yours out of those boots and move over to the large bowl like object to your left. I’m gonna make your fur shine!” Steel didn’t say anything for a moment before happily bursting out with “And Smell like Coconuts!”

“Ah can’t believe she seems fine, even after all that has happened ta her. Ah mean, turning out fine after even a nightmare that bad is understandable, but finding out yer the cause of damage to that scale in the forest... Let alone only to come out of it unconscious..." Applejack trailed into deep thought, though understanding Sapphires state was straining her mind and she groaned because of it.

“I know, but I can’t help but think that it’s not true. It would be impossible for a pony to come out of that unscathed... right?” Twilight looked at her friend with a confused expression who only shrugged in return. Twilight then looked up at the clock. “She’s been in there for forty minutes. Wonder how she’s doing...”

Both Applejack and Twilight stood up. “Ah’ll leave ya be ta look after her, ah got ta get back ta the farm and help with the harvest. Lunch at the café down the road here later?” Applejack asked as she moved towards the door.

“Sounds like a plan, I’ll give her a quick tour and then come over.” Twilight waved as AJ left the library. Twilight couldn’t believe how quickly time flew after the Crusaders left for school and went into explanation about Sapphire. She couldn’t help but think she had only spent twenty minutes talking.

She made it to the top of the steps and noticed there was an unearthly amount of steam seeping out from under the door to the bathroom. She knocked twice and called out to Sapphire. “Are you alright in there, Sapphire? You’ve been in there for almost three quarters of an hour.”

She was just able to hear hoof steps move towards the door and heard it unlock, but she didn’t expect to get a facefull of steam and heat bombarding her, slightly stinging her eyes. She groaned a little and wiped her eyes before looking back towards the bathroom to see the fluffed up blue Pegasus with only one piece of her armor around her foreleg.

Sapphires coat had more color in it and come of it glistened with how fresh it looked. However that’s all Twilight could detail before snickering to herself after seeing Sapphires really fluffy face and mane.

Sapphire blinked at the snickering mare. “Why are you laughing?”

“She’s laughing because of how you look.... Fuzz butt.” Steel answered. “Check the mirror.”

She looked at her flank and noticed that her coat was much fluffier than she remembered before the shower. Then, with remembering what each object was in the room thanks to Steels direction and explanation, she got a towel and wiped it over the mirror next to her, revealing her fluffy self. “Oh.”

For a second, a mental image flashed before her mind of a very young and small Pegasus filly with her coat color, looking like the fluffiest little thing she had ever seen, reflected in the tall mirror. Behind the filly, was a tall pony with a near white coat, but the higher parts of the pony above the legs, were darkened and she could not see a face. Then, the image faded back to the reflection of her currently fluffed up face.

Twilight was able to calm herself enough to speak between snickers. “What have you two been doing in here?”

As Sapphire pulled herself back together by suddenly shaking her head, Steel answered the question. “We had finished cleaning her up and she stepped out of the shower, but before she could do anything else, a massive breeze came in through the window and somehow opened the door.”

Twilight nodded. “I remember hearing it open quite quickly. Then I heard it slam shut.”

Steel continued. “We ran for the door and closed it again, then closed the window. It stopped the wind, but that’s what turned her into fluffy here.”

Sapphire groaned. “Can you stop calling me that?”

Steel let out a sigh. “You’re no fun.”

Twilight finally stopped snickering. “That happened twenty minutes ago though. What have you been doing since then?”

Sapphire looked down at the clean pieces of armor scattered around her. “They smelt really bad, so we’ve been cleaning them with hot water.”

“Which would probably explain the heat wave that I felt when the door opened.” Twilight figured out loud with a smile. “Are they all clean?”

“They are. All that needs to be done now is to dry them, which shouldn’t take long if we open the window again.”

Twilight nodded. “It’s all part of you, so you know what’s best for them, Steel Guard. Now before we leave, there are two things which needs to be done. Firstly, we need to fix your mane and coat Sapphire.”

“And secondly?” Steel prodded as Sapphire looked over herself again.

“Who was that maroon mare that was with you both downstairs when Applejack and the Crusaders were here?” Twilight questioned. “They disappeared before we could even thank them for helping the fillies.”

Steel let out a chuckle. Suddenly, light projected from the device on Sapphires foreleg and Steels body formed in front of them. “That was me”

Twilight couldn’t help but do her little investigation, circling around Steels projection. Twilight stopped and stepped back as parts of Steels body were removed when she got between Steel and Sapphire. “What?” She then looked at the device which was projecting Steels body. “How?”

“Magic.” Steel then snorted twice again, but only received raised eyebrows. Steel let out a groan and lowered her head to mumble to herself. “This is going to suck.” She then acted like she was taking a deep breath and raised her head. “If you can, just accept this as is. It’d be difficult to explain.”

Twilight stood hesitantly for a moment, and both Steel and Sapphire could see she wanted to know more, but with Steel adding a please to the end, she let go of it. “Alright, I’ll leave it be. So this is what you look like?”

“Used to look like. Yes.” Steel corrected.

“Used to?”

“It’s a story for another time Twilight. Now, isn’t it time we got Poofy here ready?” Steel grinned before Sapphire Whacked the device on her leg against the edge of the bath.

“Ow!” Steel suddenly groaned as her projection sat down and covered her head before stopping with confused eyes staring at the floor. “Why did I say that… I can’t feel pain.”

“Possible Reflex?” Twilight half asked, half questioned.

Steel sat there for a little longer before shrugging and dropping the projection. “Probably.”

“Come on.” Twilight motioned as Sapphire moved over to open the window. They both moved into Twilights room and the Alicorn went to work, straightening Sapphire up for the days outing.

Sapphire sat at the table at a small cafe in town, looking around at the surrounding areas, going over the tour Twilight took her on, zoned out from the conversation between Steel and Twilight. Every so often, she would focus on the conversation and pick out certain things. From the sound of it, it sounded like they were discussing the use of magic and easy ways to use it.

The armor she wore felt weird, but she suspected it was because of it’s cleaning. However being no longer stained by dark patches, it look really nice and even had a nice shine to it as they walked around under the sun.

Her coat had also looked more healthy when she toured the town. Everytime she looked back at her exposed coat, she just couldn’t help but smile at it.

“Can I take your orders?” A waitress with a cream colored coat, light green mane and tail asked as she approached the table. Interrupting Steel and Twilights conversation which had drawn a number of stares from the other patrons, thinking either they themselves had gone insane as they heard voices that didn’t seem to come from anypony in particular at Sapphires table, or thought Twilight had cracked.

“We’re waiting on one more.” Twilight smiled at the waitress who nodded.

"Alright, you just call me over when you’re ready to order." The waitress informed Twilight.

As the waitress moved away, Twilight couldn’t help but look around with a concerned expression. Sapphire was able to notice her guides worry. “Is everything alright Twilight?”

Twilight had almost missed the question and looked at Sapphire. “You know the orange mare that was in the library this morning?” Sapphire nodded and Twilight continued. “We planned to have lunch together today and properly introduce you both to each other. I’m just wondering if everything is alright at her farm.”

Sapphire glance out of the cafe for a moment before making a suggestion. “Why don’t we go there and have a look?” However the suggestion was no longer needed as both Her and Twilight saw the orange mare in the distance.

“There she is.” Twilight smiled for a brief moment before noticing that the mares expression wasn’t a smile, but an apologetic frown.

“Applejack, is everything alright?” Twilight asked as her friend made it to the fenceline.

“Ah’m sorry Twilight, but ah can’t stay for lunch, Big Mac got a little to cocky and tried to carry more than he was used to and has strained the muscles in his back.” Applejack explained with a saddened look. “Ah have to get back and work harder to catch up with todays harvest, and I will most likely be working until tomorrow morning.”

Twilight stood up and looked at her friend. “I’ll help you if it helps speed things along.”

“No Twi, Ah don’t need the help. Ah can do this.” As she was in mid turn, Twilights magic stopped Applejack and held her in place before she could run off.

“Applejack, don’t you remember what happened last time?” Even if Twilight hadn’t stopped her, those words would have frozen Applejack on the spot.

“Do you really want to repeat what happened that day? Have you forgotten that lesson of friendship?” Twilight continued. She had her friend cornered, and Applejack could see that.

Applejack held her breath for a moment as memory flashed in her mind before exhaling out. “... Thank ya, Twi.” The magical hold released her and Applejack turned to her friend. “Could ya help me with todays harvest?”

Twilights smile grew big and she nodded. “I’d be more than happy to.”

Applejack then turned to Sapphire. “Can you also help me out? Ah know this was meant to be an occasion to introduce ourselves to one another, but my family relies on the harvests for a living. If ya can help us out, ya’d have the respect of the Apple Family.”

Sapphire looked down at her armor and the visor appeared over her eyes, Steel nodded at her before disappearing with the visor. Sapphire then looked at Applejack for a moment before nodding.

Applejack couldn’t help but smile as the two exited the Cafe and followed her to the farm at full gallop.

It didn’t take too long before they arrived at the farm. Twilight immediately went to work while Sapphire followed Applejack to some trees as asked to.

“Now, how goods yer buck?” Applejack asked out of the blue, catching Sapphire in a mental spin of meanings that assaulted her mind. “Wh-what?” Sapphire stuttered.

“Ya buck. Y’know, yer kick.” She couldn’t help but raise her brow and smirk a little at Sapphires reaction. “How strong can you kick?”

“I’m… not exactly sure.” Sapphire looked back at her hind legs and shifted them a bit.

“Well, give this tree a good ol’ kick, as hard as you can.” Applejack instructed and tapped her hoof on a spot of the tree nearest to her. “Try ta aim right there.”

“I think I see how this works.” Steel said into her ear as the visor came up and the tree was outlined in blue. “Okay, move over to the tree and turn around.” Sapphire did as instructed and got into position. “Now, bend your forelegs a little and lower yer head while at the same time, raising yer behind and tucking yer back legs into yaself.”

It took Sapphire a few tries but she was able to balance herself with the help of a small indicator that showed her ‘Center’. “Now, bend yer forelegs a little more and then push ya hooves forward while kicking them back legs out.” Following Steels example on the visor, she did exactly as shown and hit the tree with a solid buck.

Nothing eventful happened to the tree apart from some rustling leaves, however, the impact had a reverse effect and went through Sapphires entire body, stiffening her up and causing her to let out a squeak before tittering onto her side with an uncomfortable groan.

Applejack winced a little at the poor pegasus. “Okay… So buckin’ is out of the question. What about flight. You can fly, right?”

“She can, but only with my assistance at this point in time.” Steel answered. As always, she got the ‘pony looks around for sudden voice asking who said what’ in return.

A long sigh and a semi-groan was heard from Steel. “This is just getting old now… Anyway!” Steel burst out at the end before casually continuing. “The armor talks! That is all I’m saying on that subject. Back to the harvesting. Just tell us what we need to do, where to put the apples, and where to take them when the containers are full.”

Applejack had this dumbfounded look on her face before shaking her head. “Okay.. Basically, need all the apples brought down. Greens to deep reds. Put them into the bushels laid about the bases of the trees. Every tree that needs to be harvested has them, just need them filled and moved to the barn. Can ya’ll handle that?”

Before Sapphire could say thing, Steel answered. “It shouldn’t take long, we’ll have this entire section cleared in no time.” Sapphire went wide eyed and looked at Steel who was innocently swaying her backside back and forth in Sapphires view, looking like she was looking at Applejack.

Applejack grew a surprised expression, and she was planning to bolt straight for Twilight and bring her back to watch. “Alright, we’ll ah’ll leave ya too it. Ah’ll be very surprised if ya actually do finish this as quick as ya say ya will. Come to me if you have any problems or questions.” She smiled before turning and running off to where Twilight was.

“STEEL!” Sapphire almost screamed. “WHY DID YOU TELL HER THAT?!”

“Calm down.”

“I WON’T BE ABLE TO CLEAR ALL THESE TREES-”

“Sapphire!”

“IS JUST TOO MANY OF THEM! WHY WOULD YOU PUT ME INTO A POSITIO-”

“SAPPHIRE! SHUT UP!”

She stopped her vent and breathed quickly.

“Take a deep breath, calm yourself.” Sapphire did exactly that and calmed herself.

"Now, reason why I said that, is because of what we are both about to do.”

“Which is?” Sapphire retorted.

“Magic.”

…

...

“What?”

“No snorting?”

“Huh?”

“Well, every time you’ve said magic, I hear two snorts from you.”

“Can we get back on track please Sapphire?”

“Okay!” Sapphire held her lips shut tight.

“Now, close your eyes.” Steel began to instruct.

Only a few meters away from them, Applejack and Twilight snuck into one of the near by bushes to watch the two.

“Why did you pull me back here?” Twilight whispered.

“Y’know how ya told me about what she did last night with the manticores?”

Twilight nodded.

“Well, she… or whoever spoke, said that they’d have this part of the field done in no time.”

The realisation hit Twilight. “Oh, you think they’re going to do something we won’t expect.”

Applejack nodded. “Normally ah’d shrug it off, but with what ya’ve have told me, ah figure somethin’ll happen.” Before Twilight could say anything, Applejack held a hoof up to her own mouth to indicate it was time to keep it down as they looked towards Sapphire and Steel who just stood in the same spot, with Sapphire keeping her eyes closed.

“Now Sapphire, remember the discussion I was having with Twilight?” Sapphire nodded. “Good, well it was to get information and tips for new magic users.”

“What are you trying to say?” Sapphire questioned.

“You’re going to use magic to bring these apples down.”

“How am I-”

“Stop asking questions!” Steel stopped her and Sapphire just keep quiet. “Now, do what I tell you, if I’ve compiled my information right, this should work, ready?” Sapphire nodded once more, ready to be instructed.

“Okay, clear your mind of all things.” Steel monitored Sapphires brain waves and electrical pulses and was able to determine when to give the next instructions. “Open your eyes and look at your surroundings, take in what you can see into your mind.”

Sapphire did exactly that. She looked around and unconsciously engraving the image of the area in her mind. “Feel the area around you. Feel the energy surrounding you. The energy in the ground. Take it all in.”

Sapphires eyes began to faintly glow and Steel was able to quickly detect the change. She waited another minute before speaking. “Good. Now close your eyes and mentally envision your surroundings.”

She closed her eyes and the mental image came before her, looking exactly like what she just saw. “Good, now focus on the apples.”

Steel waited a little to give Sapphire time to set her focus. The contacts pressed against Sapphires forelegs under the main device began to take in her flow of magic and the disks on both legs began to spin up and glow blue.

At some point, Twilight had teleported a note pad to her and began to write down what she could see in great detail while Applejack just stared right at Sapphire.

“Now, picture a glowing ring surrounding the middle of each tree you mentally see.” In Sapphires mind, Rune circles foreign to her appeared around the midsection of the trees and her focus sharpened onto the apples. “Now, reach for them.”

The breeze around all four of them began to pick up, however only Twilight and Applejack could feel it. It didn’t seem strange at first for either of them until they noticed fallen leaves beginning to very slightly circles around Sapphire.

Twilights writing quickened as she looked with widened eyes while Applejack started to feel strangely excited.

“Now, when I say jump, I want you to open your eyes and jump as high as you can. When you fall, throw your right fore hoof at the ground. Ready?” Sapphire nodded and both disks spun even more and started to spark, the glow brightening between the disks. On the visor, a meter marked as ‘Magic Amplified’ filled to the 100% mark. Steel could detect Sapphires adrenaline increasing and her heart rate rising.

Steel waited a little more before suddenly yelling “NOW!” out loud. With in short succession, Sapphires eyes shot open, her iris’ glowing brightly, lowered herself and then launched herself into the air. All round Twilight and Applejack, rings with symbols encircled every tree around them. Looking back at where Sapphire was, Twilight saw a Rune circle form right under Sapphire, matching those encircling the trees.

She dropped her notepad and pen as Sapphire spun in the air and lunged her forehoof towards the ground below. Sapphire suddenly felt a lot of weight in her foreleg pulling her down to the ground very quickly and couldn’t help but feel scared. However, despite the fear, keep her eyes open and hoof towards the ground as it raced towards her.

“What…” Was all Twilight and Applejack could say as Sapphires hoof hit the ground, right in the middle of the circle Twilight and Applejack felt nothing through the ground, however the trees shook and all the apples within them fell from their branches and fell around them to the ground. However, the two hiding ponies didn’t expect a number of apples to bounce off their heads. They couldn’t help but cover their heads and groan from the fruity assault.

As the two peepers were being attacked by red and green fruit, Sapphire collapsed on the ground where she impacted, feeling drained. Steel came up on the visor. “Sapphire? You alright?”

“I don’t know…” Sapphire breathed out exhaustedly. “I just feel… So tired for some reason.” Her voice slowly grew soft.

Steel stared at Sapphire from the visor, a little confused. “Lyrin was able to still stand after using magic and not be affected by exhaustion, but Sapphire on the other hand… Wait… Why do I hear unspoken words?” Steel blinked and looked even more confused. “Are these words… coming from me? This happened before as well...”

While Steel grew more confused, Sapphire couldn’t help but pass out from the lack of energy to even stay awake. It took a while before Steel came out of the state of confusion, deciding to ask Lyrin about it later, and notice Sapphires state. Instead of trying to wake Sapphire up, Steel activated the AMG’s and with a little struggle, was able to get a constant flow of magic to allow her to hover above the ground.

Extending the metallic fingers, she began moving back and forth, collecting and relocating the harvest to the barn as instructed.

It didn’t take long for both Applejack and Twilight to get over their assault and look at the surrounding area. “Did she just…” Twilight began only to be immediately stopped by Applejack’s “Yep.”

Both stood up and scouted the area, noticing that every Apple in the area Sapphire was allocated, was in the bushels and surprisingly undamaged. Applejack had a look at each tree for any notable marks that could have been caused by the spell cast on them, but nothing was out of the ordinary.

An hour had passed before the two mares just stopped looking for things that stood out in the area, however they both felt like something was off. It didn’t take long before it hit them. All the Bushels with the harvested apples were gone from sight.

Then the realisation. They had both wasted time doing their own things instead of harvesting apples like they should have been. With a quick sheepish smile to one another, the bolted to their areas and began to work straight away.

The Sun was nearing the horizon as both Twilight and Applejack finished moving their last bushel of apples to the barn. They both sat down and were immediately greeted by Applebloom who had brought them both some food and drinks. Twilight didn’t realise how hungry she was until she heard her stomach growling after seeing the food being shared with her.

With a quick thank you from the two mares, Applebloom turned to make her way back to the house.

“Applebloom?” Twilight stopped the filly. “Would you happen to know where Sapphire is? The Blue pegasus that was here before, I mean.”

The filly turned and gave them a big smile. “The metal thing she was wearing told me that it was taking her back to the Library so she could rest. She looked like she was sleeping when they came to the house.” Suddenly, she started bouncing on the spot. “Oh oh! Did you know that the metal thing was the maroon mare we saw this morning!? Called herself… uh...” She stopped bouncing on the spot and had a funny look on her face as she tried to remember the name. “Seal Shard’er somethin’.”

“Was she really?” Applejack asked with a smile while Twilight laughed a little from the attempt to remember the name. “Well, ah hope ya thanked her for helpin’ you and the other crusaders out this mornin’.”

“Ah did.” Applebloom responded with a larger smile before an elderly voice called her inside. “Comin’ Granny!” She yelled as she ran back to the house, leaving Applejack and Twilight to themselves.

“So.” Applejack caught Twilights attention. “What’re yer thoughts about what ya saw today in the fields?”

In her mind, the Alicorn went over the days event. “Honestly, I’m already having my doubts. She claims that she isn’t who she has been mistaken for, but these facts about Sapphire, what I've heard from Steel Guard, and what they’ve both achieved already..."

“If there is somethin’ ya wanna say Twi, just say it. Not very good at figurin’ things out when ya say things that aren’t straight answers.” Applejack pushed her friend on.

Twilight stared at the horizon before sighing. “There isn’t anything I can really say about this. There is too little to go off of to even come up with a basic answer, which might only just scrape the surface of what’s really there.”

There was a long pause before Twilight spoke again. “For now, I think it’s better to let time take it’s course. It wouldn’t be wise to stay throwing things around about Sapphire when I know very little about her.”

“Eeyup.” A voice sounded behind them as Big Mac stepped out heavily from the barn.

“Darnit Mac, What’re you doin’ out here?! Ya should be in bed, restin’.” Applejack said as she stood up and looked at her brother, her words spoken in a tone made to sound like an order.

“Ah can move jus’ fine. So long as ah don’t do any heavy liftin’, ah’ll beh fine. Strained muscles, not a broken back.” Mac countered, which seemed to quickly change his sister's posture.

“Ah know…” Applejack sat down and lowered her head and ears. “Can’t help but worry ‘bout ya Mac. Specially when ya keep injurin’ yaself out there.”

Mac moved closer to his sister and used a forehoof to raise her head. “Ah may be stubborn at times, but ah ain’t stupid. Ah know my limits.” Those words seemed to bring a small smile to Applejacks face. “Most of the time.” She added as she hoofed his shoulder. Causing all three to laugh a little.

Twilight looked at the horizon as the fiery orb of the sky hit itself behind the horizon, the sky slowly growing darker as the night rolled in. “I should head home, make sure Sapphire is alright.” She gave the two siblings a goodbye wave before making her way out the farm.

“Thank ya again Twi! And give Sapphire our thanks when you can as well!” Applejack called out before Her and Mac made there way to the house where it smelt like Granny Smith was cooking up a storm of delicious foods.

The front door creaked open and Twilight entered the darkened main room of the library, being greeted by the sound of soft snoring from the couch to her right. Being as careful as she could be, she was able to close the door and lock up without creating too much noise and made her way upstairs.

As she entered her room, she was welcomed home by Spike who was wearing a black and white apron, running the duster over the place. “How did your day go, Twilight?”

“It was… interesting to say in the least, but tiring as well.” She lit the candle sitting on her bedside table. “Have you had dinner?” She asked, which was answered with a silent nod from the small dragon. “Good. I would have had to go down and make you something if you didn’t.”

Spike groaned and shuddered, remembering the last time Twilight made a meal for him. The memory didn’t last very long as it was interrupted by a dozen pillows attacking his face before floating back to Twilights bed. “Please don’t bring this up again, that was one time.”

“That was the only time.” Spike said under his breath as he pulled off the apron.

Just as Twilight made it to the light switch, she remembered something. “Oh! Spike.”

“Yes?”

“I need you to send this to the princesses for me.” She levitated over a letter with a cobalt seal on it instead of the usual medallion.

“What’s this for?” He asked as he took hold of the letter.

“Sapphire had a nightmare last night, and with this mornings talk with her, I wrote down some information that I felt Princess Luna would need to see it.” Spike just looked at the letter and shrugged. “Well, if she stops that ponies nightmares, I’ll be able to soundly sleep downstairs again.”

With a puff of his flame, he sent the letter off to the castle and laid down on his bed as the light was turned off. Twilight climbed into bed, said tonight to Spike who replied with a “Goodnight.” and blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness, only slightly lit up by the moonlight from the window.

“Good evening Tia.” Luna said as she entered the throne room.

“Good evening Luna, I hope you slept well?” Celestia smiled as Luna approached.

“I did, it was a surprisingly restful sleep. I feel much better than what I usually do. Thank you for raising the moon for me tonight, I was afraid I was late to do my duties when I woke up.”

“I had a feeling you would have slept in. Glad to know you feel refreshed.” Celestia laughed softly as she stood up, a scroll levitating next to her. “This just came in by Dragon Flame. By the Seal, looks to be addressed to you. And I’m assuming it’s from the new princess.”

“As it usually is.” Luna added with a little laugh. “Thank you. I look forward to reading this.” Lunas magic replaced Celestias and the seal broke from Lunas magic.

“Have a good sleep, Tia.” Luna called out as her sister left the room. Opening the envelope, Luna was greeted by a number of pages erupting from the letter. “Oh by my sister’s Celestial Flank…” She said to herself loudly, looking at the mess around her.

“I heard that!” Her sisters voice sounded from the other side of the door, causing Luna to cover her mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. Calming down enough, she began to read the letter. What was once a smirk on her face, now resembled a concerned expression which quickly changed to a look of horror due to the letters contents.

She then turned her head and looked out of one of the stained windows to her side. “So, that's where you are...”

Chapter 8 - Try Again

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Twilight groaned as the sun of the new morning shone against her eyes. She didn't want to wake up, she was too busy dreaming about books, words, complex mathematical equations and magic, but with the constant and subtle nagging of the sun and the fact that her curtains were not doing their job and blocking out the morning light, she just couldn't drop back into her dreaming state.

She rolled into her stomach and used her forelegs to lift herself up, the cracking of her joints started up her bodies reflex to then crack everything else with a big stretch, every pop that her body made including her wings, only improved her comfort making the desire to just drop back down and go back to sleep stronger.

Resisting the urge to give up and doze back off, she slowly flipped herself over and sat up on the bed, looking around her room while her eyes adjusted to the light levels and the occasional loss of focus. Positive that she was awake enough to make basic coordinated limb movement, she removed the blanket and shuffled over to the edge of the bed and slipped off. The moment of contact between hoof and wooden floors nearly made keel over, but with quick reflexes, she was able to balance herself, straighten up, and slowly but surely move on.

While passing the bathroom, she could feel some heat coming from the open door and further curious-driven investigating allowed her to discover water droplets in the shower and on her sink. Not really in the right mind to think about it all just yet, she continued with her morning routine with only one thing on her mind: Get Coffee.

Halfway down the stairs, she was greeted by two voices which drew her attention to both Sapphire and Steel who was holding a book in front of the former. “That explains the water droplets.” she muttered before yawning and saying “Good morning” back to them.

After a quick trip to the kitchen to brew two cups of coffee, she returned to the main room where the book holding finally triggered as something new in her mind. She glanced at it before looking at the two. “What are you doing?” She asked while placing one mug of coffee in front of Sapphire who happily began to sip at it. Steel replied simply. “Learning how to read.”

“Who’s learning how to read?” Twilight asked curiously.

Both Steel and Sapphire answered the second question in unison. “Both of us.”

Twilight only squinted her eyes a little, but as she opened her mouth.

“Neither of us know how to read. Sapphire said she was interested, and I told her I’d help out as much as I could.”

Then Sapphire followed on after Steel. “Steel told me to select a book, and after looking around for a little bit, I grew impatient.”

Then it was Steels turn while Sapphire tried to quietly slurped up her coffee from the cup. Slurping it was her only option as Steel was still controlling her forelegs. “Unfortunately, it looks like she picked a difficult book for someb- Pony at her reading level, and we're slowly but surely making progress. Surprisingly enough, she's making a fair bit of progress for two hours of trying… I think.”

The last bit caught Twilight by surprise. “Two hours?” Looking at the clock. “You've been up since Five Thirty?” She looked back at the two with wide eyes and an open mouth.

“Technically, Sapphire was up, I don’t sleep. And she actually woke up at Four Thirty.” Steel corrected.

“Three hours?!” she yelled in surprise.

“Easy Twilight, Easy. No need to yell.” After a moment, Steel continued. “Yes, three hours. However she did sleep for more than 12 hours, so it's expected of her to wake up that early." Sapphire only finished off with a nod, not adding anything else to what Steel had said.

“Oh, yes, I forgot about that.” Twilight shied her head a little before getting a proper look at the reading material which she instantly recognized. “So how far have you both gotten with learning how to read?”

“I think we have both made a fair bit of progress.” Steel answered. “However, there are a few words that we can’t really match to any that we know of just yet.” Sapphire raised her head from the coffee and smiled with a small offer.. “I can read what we’re up to if you’d like.”

Twilight smiled and sat down in front of the two. “Well, it has been a long time since anypony has read anything to me from a book. I don’t see why I should say no to an offer.” Twilight knew the whole book off by heart, so at least she can help the mare in front of her if she got stuck. Sapphire smiled as Twilight accepted the offer and looked down at the book, reading up to where she was.

After clearing her throat, Sapphire continued from where she was. “A few other differences that stood out of the reports of this ally were that they also had the same digits that the invaders, dragons and diamond dogs have on their…“”

Steel suggested ‘Arms’ and Sapphire was about to continue with that word, but both were corrected by Twilight. After looking at the word on the page and remembering what the symbols meant, she resumed. ““Forelegs while the hind legs were longer, slim, almost straight. Their hind legs had a joint almost in the middle of their leg instead of the usual pony anatomy. Other details were included in the reports, but enough of that has been explained.””

Twilight nodded, and Steel commented that ‘arms’ sounded like it could have worked as well, which the Alicorn agreed to after some thought.

““Within moments of the appearance of this ally, the suit was pulled into combat against the strange ally who swiftly dodges any swings the armour made while crippling the suit with the magic they were casting on top of the physical hits made against it. Within roughly an hour of fighting, the invaders started to retreat, many of the guards were confused as to why their enemies ran until they spotted their unique ally standing on the corpse of the suit in their Pegasus form.”

“One of the reports say that the guard who wrote it saw the words ‘Neon’ written on one of the forelegs of the suit and had decided to call the un-named Pegasus ‘The Neon Guardian’. After mentioning the name to their fellow guards, they began to idolize it and speak highly of the individuals achievements while later turning to them for orders despite what those of higher power had issued.“

“Many more reports brought to light that between battles and times of recuperation, the mare would distance themselves from the other soldiers. Some didn’t think much of it, while others began to put together the idea of this theory: The mare was more quick to move, growing more reckless, and coming up with plans that made her become a much larger target to the aliens while fellow soldiers pushed on; She was putting herself into a...

Sapphire looked up at Twilight, and she assumed Steel would be doing the same. “Suicidal” She then took a mouthful of her coffee while Sapphire continued.””Suicidal role. The theory was slowly spreading through each and every rank, and it made those above her position turn heads and slowly cause conflict between the leaders. After this was discovered, researchers went to discover that the change of tactics and behavior seem to happen not long after the death of Lieutenant Blazing Trails. Many wondered if there was a connection between the two, but there was lack of evidence to suggest anything.”.”

Twilight remembered back to the night when she visited Canterlot to discuss with the Princesses about Neon. Spitfire was there as well for a visit and both guests had dinner mostly with Celestia. Then Spitfire had brought out her items she kept with her: the picture and the Pinion feather. That picture alone could suggest both Neon and Leut.. Blazing were friends with eachother. But then there is the Pinion.

From Twilights knowledge, a pegasus sharing their pinion feather with another was a sign of affection to whom was receiving such a gift. If Neon had given their pinion to somepony, and Spitfire now has it as a motivator. Is it possible that the Lieutenant and Neon were in a relationship?

Twilight returned to reality to find that Sapphire was looking at her. Twilight looked around her before looking back at Sapphire. “What?”

“Twilight, are you okay?” Sapphire asked as she tilted her head to the side.

Twilight answered with “I’m fine” but then asked why.

Sapphire only looked at the floor, and Twilight did the same to find her coffee cup was on its side and what ever was left in the mug had dripped into the carpet. A large number of towels was quickly pulled over by magic, laid over the spill and sat on by the Alicorn. “Well, that was pleasant…” She said, looking slightly embarrassed. She looked back up at Sapphire to see her finish off her cup. “I will admit, you have done very well with reading Sapphire. Although I am curious about how you’ve made so much progress in learning to read with very little help by somepony who knows how to read.”

“It’s both simple but not so simple at the same time.” Steel answered. A screen was projected into the air and displayed what Steel next said. “Following the idea of ‘Straight-forward lettering’ or characters of the alphabet being where they should be to make the sound at the right moment, we started off with the two single character words: I and A.” Twilight thought about the idea and nodded as it made a little sense. Looking at the screen, both I and A were displayed separate from each other in equestrian text. “We looked for words that had a symbol that matched either letter and then using what I know, generate words that matched the length while keeping the two known letters in their appropriate position. It’s a long process, but that alone has gotten us this far… Sort of.”

“Sort of?” Twilight questioned, looking like she didn’t expect the last two words. “You’ve progressed so much with very little help from anypony, why say that when you have done such an amazing job?”

The word ‘Forelegs’ replaced what was on the screen and a circle was drawn around ‘or’ which was a more complex piece of text compared to the rest. Underneath that was a simplified version of the word, using the symbols Steel currently knew. “Our method has worked the majority of the time, but there had been a number of cases where I couldn’t match the lettering to a word. One example would be what is currently displayed: Forelegs, as you have told us. Instead of using the simplified version of the word underneath it,” The simplified version begins to flash. “It uses an entirely new symbol or some sort of combination to represent the word.” The ‘or’ from both versions of the word were bolded, making them stand out from the rest.

The point was true and Twilight was able to now understand why Steel said what she did. “Yes, I forgot about that. The younger levels reading use that concept, where text written for the older aged are written like what you both have gone through.” Twilight then had an idea and grew a smile. “If you’re both happy with the idea, I could teach you how to read both versions.” She began to look excited as she finished.

The comment of “Uh oh…” came from the stairs, which drew Steel and Sapphires to look up and find a slightly concerned and frightened Spike stopped halfway down the stairway, was shaking his head from side to side while mouthing ‘No’ repeatedly. Surprisingly, Twilight didn’t hear it, but the offer was too good to refuse. Both agreed and Twilight grinned, but at the slight movement of Sapphires wings, Twilights excitement dropped and attention redirected to the feathery appendages. "How are your wings?"

It took Sapphire a few seconds to wrap around the sudden topic changing question. "Oh..." She looked back and watched one of her wings as it moved slightly. "They're... Fine I guess? Why?"

Twilight stared at the blue mares wing while her memory went over the time Sapphire had spent at the library. "You've been living here for two days now, and I haven't seen you even stretch them once. So I wanted to know if they were okay."

Steels projection appeared and sat down next to the two of them. "She does occasionally let them relax, but I don't think she knows how to use them as of yet." Sapphire nods, agreeing with Steel. She then sighed. "It might be the lack of use or me not actually knowing the right muscles yet, but they just feel foreign to me. And when I do get the right muscles, it becomes... difficult to move them, I guess?"

"Hm." Twilight pondered for a moment. "Is it possible they could be tense?" She then stretched out her own wings, raising and lowering them casually while looking back at them. "I tend to have difficulties moving them myself when mine are tense, and a good massage tends to free them up. Maybe giving your wings a massage will help them out?"

Sapphire pondered the idea as she looked at one of her wings, and opened it a little with difficulty. After some thought, she tucked her wing back against her and looked at Twilight. "Okay, how do we do that?"

Soarin didn't like the Leader role, there was too much involved in the job that never came with a description or even a manual. Not that he’d even read it if there was a manual as it’d be too big, have too many words and pages, and likely to give him a headache very quickly. It’s a position that has to be filled and maintained though, even if it is temporary.

It happens every time Spitfire goes out on either a job away from the academy, visits the royals, has meetings with managers for future shows, and many other ‘Not here’ type tasks that had her out of the campus. Unfortunately, ‘Not showing up for work’ had rudely wedged itself into the number of reasons why Soarin had to play the ‘I’m-the-Boss’ game.

He was annoyed that Spitfire hadn't shown up for work over the past two days, but at the same time concerned as he has heard nothing of her since that night in Ponyville. He didn’t have the time to think of it too much though due to his current responsibilities; even as he walked down the hall towards his temporary office with a load of books, papers and other items being balanced on his head.

His vision was obstructed by some leaflets that had covered his eyes, so he had to solely rely on timing and memory to guide him. Luckily, he made it without bumping into anything, but he wished he had bumped into someone for a chance to actually talk to ponies. He was tired of serious talk.

“Guess my luck wasn’t that good today either” He said softly as he backed against the door, pushing it open. All the stuff he had balance on his head dropped heavily onto the desk and being able to see again, looked to find that everything was there.

He sat still for a few seconds, only to follow with a head slam against the desk feeling all too tired from the morning nightmare. “I hate this part of my job. If Spitfire wasn’t being so lazy as of late and came back to work, I wouldn’t still be in this nightmare.” He groaned. Then his nose was hit by an odor that made him instantly backpedal away from the desk. Once the smell of booze became notable, he covered his nose with his wing and cautiously went around the desk.

Laying on the floor, with a bottle only just in front of their mouth, passed out was Spitfire. ‘Well, this explains how she felt after what I said to her… or at least the bottle does. Odor, not so much.’ He thought to himself as he focused off the bad smell, and picked up the passed out mare.

It was a good thing today was evaluation day, meaning all the trainees and supervisors would be out off campus. On top of that, the showers were only two rooms down, as Soarin doubted anyone would want to see or smell what was being carried on his back. Carefully sliding Spitfire into the ‘Assisted Spray’ cubicle, he removed her uniform, reached up, grabbed the nozzle with his mouth and turned the taps to a temperature that would both wake and clean the mare in front of him. Tightening his grip, he used his tongue to press the trigger that released a strong torrent of hot water that did the former of the job instantly.

Spitfire, rudely awoken by a heavy spray to her face, flailed around like a drunk mare trying evade the ‘attack’ in the small cubicle easily pushed into the corner more and more. When Soarin felt like enough was enough, mostly by hearing “Stop!” being yelled out multiple times, he released the trigger and stopped his watery assault.

Seeing Spitfire standing in the corner, breathing deeply and soaked, he casually smiled and said “Morning!”. Spitfire however, looked up with him with an expression that said ‘I’ll kill you’ and jumped at him, only to be sprayed some more. Once again, he stopped and waited.

“Soarin, I swear to Celestia you’re going to regre-” Sprayed again. Every curse and threat she made against him, she was sprayed like a dog being punished for doing something they weren’t supposed to. After thirteen sprays, Spitfire finally gave up and stood there breathing heavily while Soarin stood ready for another shot. With half a minute passed, Soarin relaxed. “Better?”

Spitfire looked up at him, holding a stare for some time. All hostility was gone so her only reply was “Yeah.”

“Aww, I was hoping to spray you some more.” Soarin actually sounded disappointed.

Spitfire smirked only slightly. “Yeah? And why is that?”

“Because.” Soarin grinned. “I like making my Mares wet.”

“Can it, Soarin.” She laughed as she kicked up some water at him, making him jump back to try avoid it.

“Too bad I haven’t had th-” A hoof was shoved into his mouth before he could say any more.

“Don’t want to know about it Soarin. Now, mind getting me a towel while I shake off?”

It didn’t take long for Spitfire to dry up. After asking a favor from the cleaning staff of the academy and handing her uniform to them for cleaning, the two went to eat the only thing that was 100% free for after hour snacking, Cafeteria Leftovers. Most food made at the cafeteria was made to be fresh for each break, and most often there was little left at the end of each break, giving any lucky staff a free meal while chefs prepared the next batch of food.

The majority of the meal was quiet, and Soarin had tried to start up small talk, but all attempts had failed, so he then asked what was on his mind for the last few days. “What I said the other night, did it really hit you that hard that you ended up missing for two days?”

Spitfire paused mid bite of a Veggie burger, her eyes staring down at the table from the question. She released the burger from her mouth, placed it down on the plate and sighed. “I guess it did.” Her voice was soft which she rarely spoke with unless something was bothering her, and Soarin knew.

“Thanks, by the way.” Spitfire said quick enough to not even give Soarin a change to think of something to say. He looked at Spitfire, seeming confused. “Thanks? For what?”

The visible corner of Spitfires mouth lifted slightly. “For breaking my excitement.”

“Your excitement? Is that what made you end up like you did in your office?” He asked, mentally unsure how the two dots connect to one another.

“Well…” She nodded towards one of the lunch staff who was leaving for their break. “You know how you get so hyped up about something, and then someone says something or something happens that just breaks that hype which makes you then unsure how to feel or what to do?” Soarin only nodded. “That’s what you did.”

The dots were connected and the connection was made verbal. “Oooh…” Guilt started to grow within him.

“I was so sure that… Sapphire was it?” It took a few seconds for Soarin to realise the topic was still in progress and nodded, answering her question. “Yes, Sapphire.”

“I was sure that Sapphire was Neon, but I guess I got a little too excited and you saying what you did, just knocked down that excitement. Although it took a while for it to really hit me, I was put into what I guess was a sort of 'daze'.” She picked up the Burger and took a bite of it. Despite having a mouth full of food, she was able to still speak clearly enough. “Last thing I remember doing was laying on a cloud, and craving for alcohol. What happened after that is a blur to me.”

Between her chewing her food, swallowing it, and taking a new bite, Soarins guilt had become physically noticeable. That physical indication received a nudge from the mare. “And now you’re doing what I did when you were visiting Sapphire with me.”

“Hm…” Was all she got from him. She reached over and forced him to look at her. “Soarin, don’t feel bad about what you did. You did the right thing.” He looked at her. “You did what a good friend does, it’s not something to feel guilty about.”

He sat there, the words sinking into his mind. Closing his eyes, he breathed in, removing his guilt and smiling. “Thanks.”

Not long after Spitfire continued eating, one of the Chefs brought over a plate with a slice of pie and placed it in front of Soarin while taking away his cleaned off plate. Soarin immediately looked and smiled at Spitfire, although her reaction wasn’t what he expected. “I don’t know why you’re looking at me Soarin, I didn’t order that.”

“No one ordered it, I assure you.” The Chef smiled as they both looked at him. “We have noticed you had been working hard over the last few days during the Captains absence-” All the kitchen staff came up to the table in smiles. “and wanted to help give you the motivation to hold on. Although now that Spitfire has returned, I guess in the end, we all made a treat for you for the hard work you did.” Everyone around them nodded and agreed.

Both of them smiled, and Soarin thanked them all while mentioning that he would have needed it anyway if the day went differently. They assured him that he wasn’t alone, making it known that all staff are there when needed, and having the information confirmed by Spitfire, thanked them once more.

The Chefs went back to the kitchen and Soarin went straight to the pie while Spitfire watched. She tried recollecting what she could of the last few nights, but only a few things came back to her: Where the grog came from, how much was paid, and the flashback of that night.

Her eyes looked up at Saorin who was happily eating the gifted food. She remembered how serious he looked and sounded. And what he said, was as clear as when he said it.

“So drop the Neon Guardian thing, alright? She doesn’t need all of this pinned against her, not especially after only just waking up a few hours ago with no idea where she is or what is around her.”

“She needs friends, she needs help, not a false identity, or pressure.”

“Do you have any that isn’t a Wonderbolt?”

The last echoed in her mind. She didn’t have any friends outside the Team. At a point she did, but over time they also joined her. A seemingly recurring cycle. Her focus returned to Soarin looking at her, simply saying “What?” with a mouthful of pie, which with inspection, was the last piece.

“I was just recalling what you said the other night, about if I had any friends that were outside of our team. And it turns out that I really don’t.” She answered.

Soarin just stared at her, waiting for more. Spitfire took a little to notice, but continued when she did. “So, I am thinking of trying again.” After a short pause. “With Sapphire I mean.”

Soarin smiled and swallowed the rest of his pie. “Glad to hear it Spitfire. Now, my Question is: When?”

Spitfire just smiled, already deciding on when she would make this new attempt.

"Do you really think this will help my wings out?" Sapphire asked as she followed Twilight towards the Spa. She couldn’t help but look around nervously at all the ponies passing by her as they looked at her and passed by her much closer than she was comfortable with. Occasionally, she could hear whispers from some of the ponies as well, more so from the passing pegasi, and it gave her an uneasy chill for a reason she wasn’t so sure on. Steel however detected the nervousness and could figure out a few reasons why.

“It should, I go there myself to get my wings loosened before I go to practice with Rainbow Dash." Twilight answered as she expertly began to weave through the sudden crowd while poor Sapphire struggled to keep up, luckily for her, Steel was able to pick out the lavender guide and with an instruction to follow a set line which was brought to her view, Sapphire was able to keep up and eventually make it out of the crowd.

"Do you have to meet up with them later today?" Sapphire asked as she moved next to the Alicorn.

"No, I don't, but doesn't hurt to go anyway." She answered before spotting the spa ahead of them by a few meters. “There it is.” She announced.

“Ah, Miss Twilight, Welcome back to the Ponyville Day Spa.” was the first thing the three heard as the front door shut. Twilight turned to the mare welcoming them and smiled at her. “Thank you Aloe.”

“Did you have a surprise appointment set up for today?” Aloe asked curiously, remembering that Twilights actual appointment wasn't for another week.

Twilight shook her head at the question. “No, I don’t. I’m actually here for my friend.” She looked at Sapphire. “I’ve been looking after her for the last few days, but have noticed she hasn’t done much about her wings. I asked her if they were alright this morning and she has told me that they have been feeling tense and difficult to move.” She turned her head back to Aloe, just as Lotus entered the Lobby from the back. In Sapphires mind, she assumed both ponies that worked here were related due to their coat and mane colors. “I was hoping you, or your sister, could give her a quick service before it becomes busy here.”

Both Spa ponies looked at each other briefly before smiling and nodding to the other before looking at their clients. Lotus was the one to speak this time. “We can do that. We both owe you for introducing us to Zecora and her amazing bath remedy. Many of our clients ask for it more than the others we have available.”

Twilight thanked them both with a large smile as Lotus moved closer to Sapphire. “Now, if you may follow me Miss…”

“Sapphire.” she answered, sounding a little shy.

“Sapphire. A very fitting name.” Lotus smiled at the pegasus. “I am Lotus Blossom, but Lotus alone is enough.” Her voice was very friendly and calm, which slowly broke away the shyness. “I must ask you to remove your…” Lotus looked at the armor being worn, unsure what to call it. “Protective gear.”

Sapphire looked at Steels armor form and nodded. The armor hissed, cracked, and split apart, falling to the floor, all except the main component on her right foreleg and her earpiece. As Sapphire took a few steps forward, she was stopped by Lotus who was feeling a little disrespected. “All of it please.”

“I’m afraid Sapphire will need to keep that armor around her leg.” Lotus blinked at the new voice, and moved to find the source.

“Oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t know there…” She stopped as she couldn’t see any more here. “Was another…”

“You’re looking at the wrong objects to find me Miss Aloe. There is a reason why I asked for that unit to remain.” The voice came again, and both Spa mares looked around, utterly confused.

Then Twilight stepped up while Sapphire smirked from amusement. “I’m sorry, I forgot to mention our third. Steel Guard. She’s… “ Twilight paused for a moment, trying to think of what to call Steel. “A unique one.”

“Unique?” One of the spa ponies said. “I doubt she isn’t any more ‘unique’ than what we’ve met before, Miss Twilight.” A sure tone was held in the claim.

“Obviously, you haven’t met me then.” Steel let out a laugh. Sapphire looked down at her leg felt the amp jolt a little as the disks increased their rotation speed a little. A small metal stick extended from the Amp and all the pieces of armor that had fallen onto the floor, magnetized back together. Four longer and thicker rods like what came out of her Amp, extended from the right limb and made contact with the remaining boot that was still on its own and locked it in place. All four rods were the same length as what was around her foreleg. Both spa ponies stared at the armor and then everyone except Sapphire jumped away from the armor as it moved its two only limbs, lifting itself up and sitting itself upright on the base where the rest of Sapphires body would stick out when worn.

Twilight had only jumped back a meter, not reacting as bad as the two Spa ponies who can tried frantically hiding behind each other but then hid behind the counter for cover. They slowly poked their heads out from the top of the bench, one of them hesitant with their question. “Is that… The third?”

“It is.” Twilight answered, a little shaken up from the sudden surprise, but she was able to calm herself down enough. Steel then projected herself in front of them with a smile. “Sorry about that! Really wasn't expecting that much of a reaction or I would have warned you.”

“The warning would have been appreciated.” One of the two said before Lotus walked out from the counter, shortly followed by Aloe. Steel just kept smiling. “So, can she at least keep the leg unit on?” Both spa ponies nodded. Steel then looked at Twilight. “Can you put on the ear piece please?”

Twilight nodded and removed the earpiece from Sapphire and slipping it onto her ear. Both Aloe and Lotus took Sapphire into the main room and helped her up onto one of the beds while Twilight moved to just inside the door to the larger room and sat down.

It didn't take long for the massage to begin, and both Twilight and her temporary on-ear visitor watched the blue mare relax. Twilight flinched as the visor lit up over her vision, experiencing for the first time a digitally enhanced view of her surroundings that didn't last long as a smaller version of Steel appeared in her view, looking right at her with a more neutral expression. “Can I quietly have a word with you?” The Alicorn flinched again, this time at the voice directly in her ear. She nodded however, softly saying “I guess.”

Steel sat down and looked directly at Twilight. Steel went straight to the point. “I know both you and Applejack saw what Sapphire did on the farm yesterday.”

Twilight blinked, cautiously replying “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Twilight, I am not like you, or Sapphire, or anyone in this town. Because of this, I can be very observant without even having to force myself to do so.” An image of both Twilight and Applejack hiding behind a bush appeared next to Steels smaller form. The Alicorn lowed her ears. Before she could apologise, she was cut off. “Don’t think I hate you for lying to me. It would take a lot for you to achieve that. Instead, I want to ask you to do something for me. Can you do that?”

Twilight nodded, feeling grateful she hadn’t already ruined a new friendship. “What is it?”

The image disappeared. “I want you and your friend Applejack to keep quiet about what you saw. Can I trust you both to do that?”

“You can.” Twilight responded quietly. “I can go out now and ask Applejack now to keep it quiet if you’d like.”

Steel smiled. “If you don't mind, that would be greatly appreciated.”

Twilight nodded and stood up. “I need to go out to run a quick errand, is it alright if I leave Sapphire in your care?”

Aloe moved closer to Twilight. “We’ll look after her, She will be fit for flight as soon as you return.” Twilight thanked the Spa sister and took off the earpiece. “Give this to her when her massage is done, she’ll need it again.” After receiving a nod from Aloe, Twilight left the building just in time to hear Sapphire let out a few moans from the treatment. With a very light blush, she made her way to the farm.

Half an hour after leaving the spa, and a scenic route, Twilight had arrive at the farm just in time to catch Applejack getting ready to haul the last collection of apples to the barn. Twilight caused the mare to stop as she called out her name.

“Hey Twi, wasn’t expecting you to come out today.” Applejack greeted her visitor. “I wasn’t either, but I was asked to come out here, but that can wait a moment.” Twilight looked at the remaining buckets. “Would you like a horn?”

Applejack accepted the offer. “It would help a load off, saves me the extra trip for the rest.”

Twilight quickly helped her friend put on the harness and strap two buckets of apples to it, then used her magic to levitate the remainder. The walk through the orchid was short, and the apples were quickly stored for the day as they reached the barn.

As the the harness was being taken off. “So what was the reason for coming out here Twilight?”

The Alicorn had nearly forgot and got right to it. “I had taken Sapphire to the local Spa for some treatment with her wings after telling me they were feeling stiff and difficult to move.”

“Almost like after your first proper flying lesson with Rainbow?” Applejack asked. Twilight nodded and continued. “While I was at the spa, Steel Guard asked something of me.” AJ had asked who that was, and was reminded of the armor Sapphire wore. “Okay, so what was it she asked?”

“Okay, well remember yesterday how you and I saw them both use magic?” Applejack nodded. Twilight continued. “Well Steel saw us watching, and even showed proof.” There was another nod. “So because of that, she has asked me and you, through me, to keep what we saw a secret.”

“Did she say for how long?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Alright, I promise to keep on the quiet with this one.”

“Thanks.” Twilight smiled. Just as the two hugged, they both heard Big Mac walk up to the Barn, towing the apple cart with him.

Both mares greeted the Stallion who greeted them back. “How’d it go, Mac?” AJ asked as she unhooked the cart from her brother.

“Sold everythin’ quicker than I had hoped.” Mac said proudly, which piqued curiosities.

“Why were you hoping to sell everything quick today?” Applejack asked.

“Don’t ya remember what is happening today?” Mac countered

“Wait… What day is it today?” Something dawned on Twilight.

“Tuesday.”

“Tuesday the what?”

“Eighth.”

Both mares with wide eyed and looked at each other. “Oh no.”

Without another second wasted, both ran to the town as quick as possible.

It had been nearly three quarters of an hour since Twilight left Sapphire alone with the spa sisters who had done a miraculous job in massaging her and more importantly, her wings. They actually admitted their treatment was too good with her as she stumbled a lot when she was helped down to the ground. Sapphire had bumped into a lot of things for the first five minutes, but was able to adjust to her again foreign feeling body enough to keep steady and slowly walk away from the work table.

Steel made it easier by animating the armor, which made the sisters flinch at first, and moving it to Sapphire where it broke apart and then magnetized onto her, starting from the main unit, reconstructing itself around her body.

Aloe had gone over and retrieved the earpiece which Steel thanked for and manipulated Sapphires body, putting the small device around her ear. A quick flash of the visor showing reserve Cell levels for each part refilling within seconds and a few easy stretches with her wings that was taught to her, she was eager to meet with Twilight again.

As Sapphire and Steel thanked them, they all felt the ground begin to rumble, and the Spa mares were quickly reminded of what was occurring today. Before Sapphire could ask, a few ponies burst through the Spa doors screaming and running towards her, which kicked Sapphire into doing one thing from the pumping adrenaline and the yelling suggestions of both Steel and the Owners:

Run.

A Blue Blaze against the Shadows

by Lyrin

Chapter 1 - Fallen Star

Chapter 2 - Rediscovering Oneself

Chapter 3 - Waking from the Dream

Chapter 4 - New Beginning

Chapter 5 - Secrets

Chapter 6 - Nightmares

Chapter 7 - A Fresh Day

Chapter 8 - Try Again