> Seeker
>  by Dark0592
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Seekers and Chasers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Note: This takes place in the future of Survival is Hell, but it does not follow the same storyline- just the general universe. Consider this a spiritual successor)

Most people know what Necromancy is, the use or manipulation of the dead through magic. Its definition has expanded over time, depending on who you ask, but as technology advanced so did the magic. First there was the discovery of Biometal, which was used to create Biomechanical limbs and prosthetics. The technology soared with the discovery of steam power as an energy and mechanical source, but it’s gone even further.

Cybermancy is a new term that describes those who use and manipulate technology with their magic. Unlike Necromancy, though, it isn’t frowned upon. There aren’t many mages who know enough about the technology to be considered Cybermancers, yet the technology is prevalent in nearly all forms of life nowadays.

From augments to artificial people, fixing your sight to fixing your tea. Equestria is in a time of war, though. Civil war, to be exact. Many neighboring states and countries have joined in, it’s practically a world war. See, not everybody uses the technology in ways that are considered good. They preach the advancing of technology by any means, usually illegal, and strike at the peacekeeping government for trying to limit the dangerous progress they try to make.

Many people would probably join the faction, who call themselves the ‘Seekers’. But the thing is, Seekers are generally seen as villains. They use illegal and experimental Cybermancy and Biomechanical weapons to strike at their enemies, their enemies being anybody who doesn’t support them. A new faction was formed, with the blessing of Celestia and Luna, to combat these Seekers. They were never given an official name, but the Seekers and the public dubbed them ‘Chasers’.

Not all Seekers are villainous, though. Seekers take in anybody they can find and force them into their ways. They’re called Seekers because they seek advances by any means, but people nicknamed them ‘Snatchers’ too. It’s even gotten to the point where they would attack someone, erase their memories and brainwash them.

And that’s where a story really starts.

---

“Barely even a bruise…” A girl said as she stood on a roof top five stories high, next to a boy about the same age.

“Maybe if we landed on our necks?” He suggested. The girl shook her head.

“No matter the trajectory, we’d still be just fine…” She sighed.

Their countless augments were calculating trajectories and showing their results, which told them that the jump- or fall- would be easily survivable. They heard the distinct sound of a weapon being drawn behind them. They turned to find a girl holding a handgun up to them.

“I can see where your fake skin and metal bodies meet, you’re Seekers…” She said. The Seekers’ information gathering augments recognized and brought up files on this girl. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, known affiliate of the Princesses and suspected Chaser.

“If you know what we are, then why don’t you shoot?” The Seeker Girl asked. The Chaser’s gun lowered ever so slightly before returning to its place pointed at them.

“Normally I would have, but it’s not every day you sneak up on two Seekers discussing suicide… And it’s not everyday you alert a Seeker and they’re not running or trying to kill you…” She continued.

“We’re not exactly the kind of Seekers you’re used to then. But, I think I’m going to sit the rest of this interview out. Come on then, Vinyl. Might as well give her half of what she expects.” The Seeker man started. The other seeker knew what he was saying, they had been running from Chasers for a while now. She just sighed and shook her head, Twilight was getting confused.

“You go, I’m tired of running.” The Seeker dubbed Vinyl said solemnly. Both the man and the Chaser were surprised by this, but before the Chaser’s surprise lifted the man gave her a slute and dropped off the roof. Twilight rushed forward to try and catch him, but he was already gone. She cursed and immediately pointed the gun at Vinyl’s head.

“Where is he going?” She demanded. Vinyl shrugged and walked over to the wall enclosing the doorway to the roof and sat down against it.

“I don’t know, we never know where we’re going. I’m just sick and tired of running, of being shot at every time I catch my breath…” She said. She pulled the hood of her open jacket down to reveal two toned electric and midnight blue hair and red irises in her eyes. You could clearly see where her skin went from real to fake around her jaw, and further towards her neck where the fake skin faded into skin colored biometal.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, never taking her sights off of the Seeker’s head.

“If we hadn’t been doing what we were doing, if you would have just found us lounging about up here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You would have started shooting and we would have started running.” Vinyl replied. Twilight’s grip relaxed slightly.

“Last time I was identified as a Chaser by one of your kind I was nearly killed with no provocation whatsoever.” Twilight retorted.

“Have I tried to kill you? Have I even reached for any sort of weapon? The only time I’ve used a weapon is to hunt for my dinner and to defend myself from muggers, I haven’t even tried fighting a Chaser because I know I’m not in the right.” Vinyl explained, her tone almost annoyed.

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked, letting her aim fall to the ground in confusion. It snapped back up and she fired, barely missing Vinyl’s head, as a series of nearly silent movements appeared all over Vinyl’s body. 

She pulled a biometal compound bow, a multitude of blades and a long range rifle from compartments in her back, four handguns from compartments in her thighs, two trench knives from her calves and revealed long cylinders of arrows in her forearms. Claws extended from her fingertips and blades extended from her elbows and talons from her toes.

“These are all of the weaponry and weaponization that I have built into my body. If I meant you any harm, I would have used any of them before you even had a chance to set your aim straight after that miss.” She said. Twilight held her aim until Vinyl had finished replacing everything and eventually let it fall again.

“Tell me, then… Why haven’t you done that, or ran?” Twilight asked.

“I told you, I’m tired of running. And I’m not the kind of Seeker you think I am. I don’t even remember my life before a month ago, I just remember waking up like this and being sent to gather information. That man I was with Calls me Vinyl because the closest thing to a name I can remember is ‘Vin’ and because I’m always listening to music.” Vinyl answered. Vinyl didn’t react, arms crossed on her curled up knees staring into the ground, as Twilight sat against the wall next to her and started looking over her weapon.

“So you were snatched, and their brainwashing didn’t take… Do you remember anything else?” The Chaser asked, surprising Vinyl a bit with how her tone changed to be somewhat sincere.

“Pain… lots and lots of pain… Enough pain to make me want to scream out and shoot myself in the head over and over again until it stops…” Vinyl replied darkly. Twilight gave the Seeker a look. After a minute or so she sighed and stood again, holstering her weapon. She offered a hand to the Seeker, who hesitantly took it.

“You say you’ve never attacked a Chaser, and I’ve never heard of a Seeker that matches your description and weapon loadout so I’m going to go ahead and believe you in that respect. I can’t kill you for that reason, but I can’t just let a Seeker run around free. I’ll have to take you to Mother then and see what she wants to do with you.” She said, beckoning for the Seeker to follow as she started down the stairs.

This day just got very interesting, Vinyl thought.
> Chapter One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They stepped out of Twilight’s car in front of a very large mansion. Twilight had called ahead and lightly explained the situation, therefore the armed guards only pointed their weapons at her rather than turning her into a pile of flesh and scrap.

“Warmer reception than I expected.” Vinyl said with a tired smirk, seeing two people she recognized as Princess Celestia and Luna. Celestia had a warm smile on her face, Luna’s face was neutral.

“Well, Seeker, you certainly don’t look like a biomechanical monstrosity; you look like a girl about to fall over from exhaustion. Stand down, guards, she will do us no harm.” Celestia said. The guards all lowered their weapons with varying levels of hesitation. Twilight led her up to where they stood at the top of the marble stairs leading to the front door.

“Running from authorities trying to shoot you before you’ve done anything for a week straight does that to you…” Vinyl said. Celestia seemed slightly surprised by that, or something similar to surprised.

“You aren’t in our logs, so it can’t be that you were recognized, did you provoke them?” She asked.

“Of course not, I never do. It’s my eyes, nobody but Seekers have glowing eyes according to them… They just start yelling and shooting when I run.” Vinyl replied.

“Have you ever tried not running?” Luna asked, her tone flat.

“Once.” Vinyl answered, pulling up the white tank under her open hoodie to reveal a rather nasty scar. “My Biometal mimics flesh and skin, so it scars. I have plenty more from you guys, not just from trigger happy cops.” She continued.

“That’s illegal technology.” Luna said with a bit of annoyance, as if Vinyl was a pest she wanted to get rid of.

“She’s a snatch victim, and she’s obviously not brainwashed. She didn’t choose this.” Twilight retorted. Vinyl wondered why the girl stood up for her, and by her look Luna was wondering the same.

“She has a point, Sister. By the sound of it she hasn’t abused her augments, We’ve already got a team scouring the records for a Seeker matching her description.” Celestia started to Luna and then turned to Vinyl and Twilight. “She is your responsibility, Twilight. She is exhausted, show her to the guest room, we can question her later.” She continued. Twilight nodded and beckoned for Vinyl to follow with her head. She heard Luna say something to Celestia, but didn’t dwell on it.

“A week straight of constantly running, is that true?” Twilight asked as they walked through the halls.

“I don’t have a reason to lie… It’s either cops, thugs or chasers that find me every time I relax or try to sleep, so I stopped trying.” Vinyl replied. Twilight led her into a room with the best best she’d ever seen, complete with an actual pillow. Her body suddenly felt all of the exhaustion she was trying to suppress and she nearly fell over.

“You… alright?” Twilight asked as Vinyl wavered a bit where she stood. The Seeker nodded and started walking towards the bed.

“If you want I’ll have your clothes washed, and I don’t know if you can or not but you can bathe when you wake up. If it’s not too personal, though, exactly how extensive are your augments if you were snatched? I’ve seen that even Seekers normally don’t willingly go too far.” Twilight asked. Vinyl answered by stopping before she reached the bed and stripping down to nothing. Twilight was surprised and fascinated to find that the girl’s body had no major features. She strangely enough had a belly button, but her breasts were smooth and she had nothing noticeable below her waist.

She semi-neatly gathered her clothes consisting of just the hoodie, tank and loose cargo pants, left her boots next to the bed, handed the clothes to Twilight with a thank you and proceeded to practically pass out on the bed. Twilight watched her for a little while and decided that not even a gunshot in the room would wake her up.

“How is she?” Celestia’s voice startled the girl when she left the room.

“Completely out, I have a feeling we’ll be lucky to talk to her even tomorrow…” Twilight replied.

“I’ve heard that Seekers can gather information even while they sleep.” Luna said, who was standing behind Celestia.

“Either way we still need to be cautious with this girl, she is still a Seeker.” Celestia said.

“Agreed. Why do you have her clothes, by the way?” Luna asked.

“I offered to wash them for her. Seeker or not she’s a guest in this house, I’d like to show at least some semblance of hospitality. I don’t think she’s lying about anything, personally.” Twilight replied.

“Why? Hospitality or no she is still a Seeker. Until she is proven to be harmless she should be treated as a dangerous entity. We’re Chasers, not laundry maids.” Luna said. Celestia gave her a bit of a look and she sighed, but Twilight seemed agitated.

“She’s not the only one who’s been forced into a body she didn’t ask for, Princess, and I’d like to believe that Seeker or no she’s still a good person. She’s given me no reason to believe otherwise.” The girl nearly growled and walked off, her agitation evident in the way she walked. Celestia sighed and looked at her sister.

“That was a bit cold, Luna. This girl revealed her entire arsenal to Twilight, since when has any undercover Seeker done that?” Celestia said. Luna sighed and put her face in her hand, shaking it slightly.

“Alright, I’ll try to keep an open mind with her… after we’re done with the background check.” She said. Celestia rolled her eyes and they went their separate ways.

---

Twilight was right, it was early in the morning the day after next when Vinyl finally woke up. Twilight was in the room maintaining gear, cleaning weapons and a few pieces of what looked to be biometal armor, when Vinyl silently awoke and slowly sat up.

“It’s about time you woke up, I was starting to think you’d gone comatose.” Twilight said, noticing when the girl stood up. Vinyl stared at the girl for a while, before Twilight could ask what was wrong the Seeker slowly walked towards her and gently took Twilight’s arm in her hands.

“What are you…” The girl started. Vinyl saw that the flesh was Biometal, like her own, and she saw the telltale lines of major augments all around the girl’s torso; she was only wearing a loose tank at the moment.

“Are you like me?” Vinyl asked. Twilight seemed a little surprised by the question, but she shook her head. “But you said you didn’t choose this, I dream what my senses detect while I sleep.” Vinyl continued. Twilight gave her a look at that, but stood up and looked at her biometal flesh for a moment.

“You were snatched by Seekers, I was torn apart by an explosion following a very bad accident caused by a firefight between Seekers and the local authorities. The Seekers got a hold of my body, found that I was still alive and turned me into their own frankenstein project. I was ‘Liberated’ by Celestia and Luna before they could try and brainwash me or erase any of my memories.” She explained. Vinyl looked and saw that where the girl’s real flesh met biometal there was faded scarring.

“So they tried to snatch you?” Vinyl asked. Twilight gave a soft exhale of a laugh.

“You can’t exactly snatch a corpse, they had to restart my heart. I have a lot more flesh and blood than you do, but I know what you’ve gone through…” Twilight replied. Vinyl smiled slightly.

“I think I’d like that shower now, even my biometal is starting to smell of filth…” She said, changing the subject. 

“Of course. It’s at the end of the hallway here, I need to go tell Celestia that you’re awake. You’ll find everything you need in there, and your clothes are there.” Twilight answered, finishing by pointing towards where Vinyl’s clothes were neatly folded on a nightstand next to the bed and proceeded to walk out of the room after carefully packing up the gear she was cleaning.

It had been so long since Vinyl had felt clean, let alone warm, water on her body. She stood there under the water and just let it cascade over her for a good ten minutes before she even thought about looking for something to actually clean herself with. She let every alcove, armor plate and compartment open up to allow every single bit of her was cleaned. She found the body wash and the shampoo deific, and even felt a little spoiled to be using conditioner.

She didn’t even react as the door opened and closed.

“I would have expected you to have some technological way to go about cleaning yourself rather than using soap and water…” She recognized Luna’s voice say. 

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t want to use it. Clean, hot water and soap is a rarity I’ve rarely been able to partake of. I understand that you don’t trust me, and I understand that you aren’t exactly too fond of me either, I just ask that you give me a chance. I don’t want to make any enemies, and I especially don’t want to make an enemy of you.” Vinyl said as she washed the cleaning products out of her hair. 

She turned the water off and grabbed the towel hanging on a rack next to the open curtain and began drying her hair and her face, everything else steamed slightly as the water evaporated. She stood in front of Luna, then, putting the wet towel in the appropriate bin without moving her gaze. They stayed like that for about a minute before Luna sighed and turned.

“Your eyes tell me you’re not lying, and your background check agrees. I still don’t trust you, but I think you can earn it eventually… My Chasers and I will still be watching you, Seeker, but I’m giving you a chance to show me that you’re more than just a Seeker. Twilight will show you to Celestia, she’ll question you about before Twilight found you and what you plan to do in the future, as well as any information you have regarding other Seekers.” Luna explained. She left the room then, Vinyl couldn’t help but let a small smile form.
> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vinyl was a little surprised when she was questioned, it was rather brief. She and Celestia talked for a while, discussing everything she’d done as far as she could remember. She only remembered the month since she woke up like she is and she’d done little more than run and fight for her life in that time.

“You said earlier that you knew you weren’t in the right, I assume you meant being a Seeker. Tell me then, Vinyl, what do you want to do? I’ve come to the conclusion that you are neither an enemy or a threat, so all Seeker records will be updated with your description and your harmless status.” Celestia explained as they finished up Vinyl’s past. 

“I don’t think I can have a ‘normal life’, even if I were to remember everything… I want to find out who I was and I’d like to help the Chasers. The main advantage that Seekers have is the abilities and augments to collect, analyze and spread information. I can help with that, not to mention the fact that I’m still technically a Seeker and the fact that I can handle myself in a fight…” Vinyl explained after a few moments of thought. Twilight and Celestia looked happy with that.

“Information and working as a double agent is all fine, but I want to see just how well you can handle yourself in a fight. I am the head of the Chasers, I will evaluate you and decide if you can do what needs to be done. If you do, you will have access to all of our resources in return and you may have access to our archives and records.” Luna said with a neutral tone, but she wasn’t cold about it this time. She was professional. 

“Well she has quite the arsenal.” Twilight said.

“I discover more of it as time goes on.” Vinyl said with a little smile.

“What does that mean?” Luna asked as she motioned with her head for them to follow. Celestia sat down in the chair behind the desk in the room while Twilight and Vinyl followed.

“When I sleep, my senses continue gathering information and what they sense is what I dream. What also happens is that all of my augments run self scans and diagnostics for anything out of the ordinary, and every now and then I notice something I hadn’t before.” Vinyl explained.

“Like what?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll show you when we have room.” Vinyl replied. Luna led them into the massive yard, where a few guards and Chasers were loitering about or sparring.

“Well let’s see this new discovery.” Luna said, curious. Twilight had excused herself momentarily to grab her gear when they were walking and had now returned with the large cases from before.

“I think they’re based off of experimental technology because I’ve never even seen them in the Seeker databases.” Vinyl said. She closed her eyes in concentration and her body shifted. A dark purple tinted, angled visor slid over the top half of her face and a matching biometal panel slid over the rest; creating a sort of helmet. Parts of her legs moved down to her feet to seemingly create boots.

The most drastic change, though, was what looked like her spine splitting in half and extending outward a bit. What seemed to be biometal spines shot out of the two halves, creating a very basic and angular set of wing frames. Energy emitters in the spine halves filled in the empty space with what Twilight and Luna recognized as an experimental energy surface that creates lift. It was essentially hover technology, but if manipulated correctly she could probably fly with practice.

“That looks like my SPIKE gear… I thought I was the only one who had perfected the prototype.” Twilight said. Vinyl and Luna looked over to see Twilight opening the largest of the cases to reveal what Vinyl had thought was biometal armor before. She put it all on and it turned out to be somewhat similar to Vinyl’s setup.

Everything was connected to the ‘spine’ of the thing, which Twilight had put on resembling a corset. She pulled on gauntlets and boots and the Helmet, which could all retract into the torso of the thing.

“Supplementary Personal Imitation Kalon Exoskeleton, or SPIKE. It’s an ultra lightweight system meant to match a Seeker’s mobility.” Twilight continued. “I work it all with magic akin to Cybermancy, but I imagine you work your setup as if it was just another part of your body.” She continued. Vinyl nodded and let everything return to its place.

“Well, I suppose that is quite impressive. Now let’s see how you fare in a fight.” Luna said, calling over one of the more middle aged Chasers. He took up a fighting stance and Vinyl stood in front of him.

“Are you not going to ready yourself?” The man asked.

“I am ready.” Vinyl replied. The man shrugged and began. He started out with a series of quick strikes and jabs to prod the girls defenses, in which she avoided every single one. She refrained from physical contact with him as she evaded even his more aggressive strikes.

“Why aren’t you blocking or counterattacking?” He asked after a moment of inaction.

“I don’t know what I’m capable of, and flesh is so fragile compared to biometal.” Vinyl replied. Twilight rolled her eyes and waved the man off, taking his place. She, like Vinyl, didn’t take much of a stance.

“Just don’t hit my face or my heart and you won’t really hurt me.” The girl said. Vinyl smiled and nodded. They sort of stared at each other for a little while before the two exploded into action. It was almost like a television show, strikes and kicks and jabs flung and blocked or deflected almost too fast for the others to see.

It was protocol for Seeker engagement to never engage in hand to hand without special training, only the elite of the Chasers like Twilight could even hope to keep up with the artificial speed and strength; and most needed augments of their own in order to do so. It finally ended when, in the blink of an eye, Vinyl had caught every attack that was thrown at her and she had Twilight in a hold that would have shattered the bones of any normal human. Twilight’s augments audibly creaked under the immense tension and pressure.

“Alright, you win.” Twilight said with a slightly pained chuckle. Vinyl let the girl go and helped her to her feet.

“I am so glad that wasn’t me…” The man from before said, his tone saturated with relief.

“Well, Vinyl, it would appear that you are on par with our top agents. If your hand to hand is so impressive I can assume you’re just as proficient with the rest of your arsenal. I will not stop you if you want to take on a Chaser’s duties, if you choose this path then you will be under Twilight’s command. She is our best agent when it comes to subterfuge.” Luna explained, turning to Twilight.

“Since this isn’t my home I have no say in whether you stay or not, but I believe nothing would be gained if you were forced out. I bid thee good day, and you have shown me that it was nice meeting you. I have a few things I have to take care of away from home.” She continued, turned around and left.

“Exactly whose home is this?” Vinyl asked, more to herself really. She assumed it was either Celestia’s or Luna’s.

“Mine, but I gave it to the Princesses to be Chaser HQ. Come on then, I’ll show you to the archives where you can do your own research on who you were. I need to go through my practice routine. I have an assignment tonight, and if you’re up to it you should come with me. I could use your arsenal and your skills.” Twilight replied as she started walking.

“What kind of assignment?” Vinyl asked.

“Come with me and I’ll brief you en route.” Twilight said, opening a door to reveal a library of books and servers. “I imagine anything you’ll be looking for is on the server databases, though the books are free game too. These are connected to the Guard and Police databases as well, so I wouldn’t advise altering anything or trying to access anything you can’t easily hack into if need be.” She explained.

“Thank you, and I think I will join you. At the very least I owe you for not blowing my head off.” Vinyl said, earning a chuckle from Twilight.

“Alright, I’ll come find you in a few hours then. The guards of the house have been told of your situation so they shouldn’t be hostile so if you want to explore go ahead… just don’t try getting into locked rooms.” Twilight continued. Vinyl nodded and Twilight went back from where they came. As she sat down she pulled something small, resembling a flash drive, from a port under her ear and placed it into the computer. She closed her eyes and focused on this new database. It was massive, even with her information gathering skills and augments it could take days to comb through the entire thing and all of its connection, weeks even. She didn’t let that get her down, though, as she started searching through it.

---

“Find anything?” Twilight’s voice startled Vinyl as the sun had started its descent. She opened her eyes and looked over to the doorway as her other senses quickly returned to her.

“Nothing of note, what is that?” Vinyl replied, eyeing the two large steaming bowls the girl had in her hands. If her stomach could it would be growling.

“Stew, I’m a pretty good cook. You do eat, right?” Twilight answered, offering one of the bowls. Vinyl pulled her wireless link from the computer, replaced it and cautiously accepted the bowl. Vinyl didn’t remember seeing anything that looked or smelled so good, just what she could find or buy on the streets.

“I do, though while I still feel hunger and thirst like you I only need it about a fourth as often… Doesn’t mean I won’t thank you for this, though.” Vinyl said, tasting the meat and vegetables soaking in the warm and fragrant broth. It was the best thing she’d ever tasted, and her expression probably showed it as they sat down at one of the few tables to eat; Twilight was giggling.

“I didn’t know I was THAT good a cook.” She said. Vinyl gave her a sheepish grin, already halfway finished before Twilight had barely started.

“While it is amazing, don’t get me wrong, two weeks without anything but a starving rat burned nearly to charcoal to burn away the filth and anyone would have killed for less…” Vinyl said. Twilight gave her a strange look.

“You’d think the Seekers would feed their own…” She said softly, shaking her head.

“I ran away from them when I found that man. Neither of us remembered our names… He called me Vinyl, and I called him Sam. For the first week it wasn’t Chasers chasing us. We found each other the day I woke up.” Vinyl explained softly, setting her spoon down in the empty bowl.

“If you didn’t remember that you weren’t a Seeker, why did you run?” Twilight asked after a moment.

“That’s the thing, I knew it was all wrong. What little I saw of them I knew I shouldn’t be with them, and I knew everything was wrong with my body. You might be able to understand, because of what you went through, but… the thing is… I don’t even know if I still have a real heart under all of this biometal. I don’t know if I’m 100% artificial or not. I don’t know if I have a real brain in my head or if they somehow transcribed my very being into some super advanced AI system that makes me think normally… And you saw that I’m still discovering more about my body that I had no idea was there… do you know how scary that is? Not knowing anything about your own body?” Vinyl continued solemnly.

“... I don’t know, they honestly did very little to me… But I do understand, at least a little bit… That’s why I didn’t blow your head off, I imagined if the situation was reversed and I couldn’t bring myself to do it even though you were a Seeker…” Twilight said. Vinyl smiled slightly and stood.

“I have a feeling I’ll find who I was and figure out everything that I am now eventually… for now, I’m going to make the best of it.” She said. Twilight smiled and quickly finished the rest of her meal and took the bowl from Vinyl.

“If you still intend to join me tonight then be on the roof in half an hour. I’ll brief you then.” The girl said and turned.

“I’ll be there.” Vinyl said. Twilight smiled as she left, glancing back at Vinyl before she went past the door. Vinyl was looking at her hands. She really did have no idea what was left of her flesh and blood, if there was any at all. She resigned to think about that later, though, and decided to try and find her way to the roof.
> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their assignment consisted of two separate stages. The first would be to escort a transport from one Chaser facility to another by helicopter, which was uneventful and a little more trouble than it was worth; since Vinyl was nearly shot and harassed over the radio the entire way. She wound up extending noise cancelling headphones, which would normally be used for radio contact while under fire or something like that, to play music.

Twilight nudged her shoulder and Vinyl looked over to see the girl pointing to her ears. Vinyl retraced the side Twilight was on so she could hear the girl.

“What are you listening to that has you so spaced out? We are an overwatch escort you know.” Twilight asked lightheartedly. 

“I don’t know, some sort of japanese synthetic radio station or something like that. I don’t really feel like dipping into local databases to find out.” Vinyl replied. “And I don’t exactly need my hearing to keep watch, we are in the noisiest thing in the area at the moment.” She continued.

“Fair. We’ll be landing soon, there we’ll travel by rooftop to a known Seeker hideout and gather information. We’ll be running a localized broadcast that blocks the Seekers’ ability to instantly relay information to one another. This helps us with remaining undetected and also stops anything inside from getting help from outside.” Twilight explained.

“What about me? I’m using the same thing they are, we wouldn’t be able to communicate by radio.” Vinyl asked.

“Before we put it up we’ll have a designated one on one frequency we’ll use programmed to bypass the shield. Even if they hack into it, they can only listen. If they listen then they’ll know what we’re doing, so only use it if you need to.” Twilight answered. Their flight continued for around five more minutes before the chopper hovered over the roof of the facility that was their escort’s destination. They hopped out and Twilight waved it off.

“I’ve sent the destination to your HUD, in case we get split up.” Twilight said. Vinyl looked over as the augments in her eyes showed her a heads up display, which she had rarely ever used. She saw Twilight’s lavender eyes glowing slightly, meaning she had a heads up display augment as well.

“Am I to keep your pace or am I to get there as fast as possible?” Vinyl asked.

“If you can go faster than I can while still not sticking out then go for it and do a little reconnaissance.” Twilight replied as she pulled her helmet on, she already had the rest of her SPIKE on. Vinyl nodded and her own mobility systems, which she had decided to just call SPIKE systems for simplicity’s sake, extended out in full and she retrieved her bow from its place as Twilight loaded a silenced long range rifle. They nodded to each other then and launched into the air with a small burst of thrust from jet pads in the boots.

Vinyl sprinted effortlessly across rooftop after rooftop, barely even needing her jump pods to help her. She didn’t use the wings, since they gave off a lot of light, and instead used a sort of grappling cable in her forearms when needed. The map on her HUD showed Twilight halfway to their destination when she got there, about two minutes away, so she activated some of her information gathering augments and examined the hideout.

Her map had blueprints so she knew the general layout of the place. It was one story with three basement floor accessed by stairs. She effortlessly hacked into the building’s less protected databases and was able to update her map with dynamic markers indicating the signatures of the registered Seekers present there. She managed to hack into some of the security camera feed just as Twilight crouched next to her, breathing a bit heavily.

“Good job, you’re faster than most of our best teams.” Twilight said quietly as Vinyl sent the updates and the feed. “Looks like they’re armed, three of them with automatic weapons and the two with just what their augments give them. I need to get to that server room on the surface floor, you think you can handle clearing it?” She continued.

“Most likely. Put that shield up and we should be able to take the two lookouts here at the same time.” Vinyl replied, sliding an arrow out of one of her forearm quivers and notching it. Twilight pressed a series of buttons on a device she retrieved from a pocket and Vinyl suddenly felt very bare as her connections to local databases were completely cut off. The guards seemed to notice as they looked at each other and seemed more alert.

“Take your shot a second after mine, or the other will react to it and you may miss.” Vinyl advised as she drew back. Twilight was unsure about the timing, the distance was quite far for a bow and arrow. Even a powerful metal bow would take at least three seconds for the arrow to hit at this range. She trusted the Seeker, though.

She could hear the metal cable straining, creaking with tension. She took aim on her own target, the two seemingly unarmed men looking like a pair of homeless around a barrel fire, and waited for Vinyl to take her shot. She heard the release of the arrow and waited the second before firing her own shot. The two men had no time to react as one had their head torn off and pinned to the ground by the arrow and the other had blood spray from the shot in his temple. 

It would appear that they were both drones, Seeker grunts that weren’t originally human, as their blood was white.

“That kind of reminds me, Vinyl. What color is your blood?” Twilight asked as she packed up her rifle to take up less space in a sort of folded up form.

“A nearly black crimson, why do you ask?” Vinyl answered.

“Well synthetic blood is always white, and the blood full augments use is usually black or white. I was curious, we can talk more later though.” Twilight replied. Vinyl nodded and extended the claws and talons on her fingers and feet as they made their way to the street below and towards the building. She pulled the pair of smaller, silenced handguns from her thigh compartments as Twilight unholstered a similar single handgun and a tactical knife. They entered the building and went their separate ways.

Twilight went to the server room, containing one armed Seeker, while Vinyl made her way down to the other two on the floor below.

“Do you want me to check out the last floor, even though there aren’t any of them down there?” Vinyl asked over her radio.

“Clear your targets and wait for me, I’m already uploading.” Twilight replied. They cut the contact then and Vinyl examined the room the two armed Seekers were in. They were alert and from what little she saw they were ready for something to enter where she was. The ceiling was very high, though, higher than their estimated cone of view by the looks of it. She holstered her weapons and looked at the wall of the doorway.

Soundlessly, she grappled up to the ceiling and used her claws and talons to latch onto it. She silently used this method to get into the room undetected and behind their fields of view. She dropped to the ground, landing without stirring up even a spec of dust, and in a flash was behind her opponents. Their startled yelps were cut off as Vinyl’s clawed hands went through the backs of their biometal skulls, covering her and the area in black blood. These ones weren’t drones.

She pulled out her handguns again and noticed Twilight cautiously making her ways down the stairs.

“Any of that yours?” She asked.

“Too dark to be mine.” Vinyl replied as they continued down the stairs to the lowest floor.

“Oh hell yes, I’ve always wanted one of these…” Twilight said with a laugh as they found that it was an underground garage. The only things left in the place were two very strange looking motorcycle-esq vehicles.

“I’ve read about them and even seen a couple of them in the city, but it looks like these ones are weaponized.” Twilight continued as she stepped up to them. Vinyl’s augments were already scanning them and compiling lists of functions and components. She sent them to Twilight as the girl mounted one of them and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened.

“Damn, they’re identity locked…” She sighed. Vinyl smiled and walked up to it. The way these things were activated was you put your arms and legs into the slots and they synched with your augments. For obvious reasons they were almost exclusively used by Seekers, but some of the richer civilians had started using them like they were sports cars.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked when she mounted it after Twilight got off and put her limbs in their places. With a rather violent twist she pulled a metallic mass of wires out of the right arm slot and the thing started.

“There you are, there was just a bit of blockage. These one’s haven’t been identity locked yet, they have internal locks on them.” Vinyl said, getting off and mounting the second one and repeating the process. “Most people, and Seekers for that matter, don’t know that you can rip the locks out without damaging the system if done right.” She continued. A sort of cockpit extended over her as she turned it around towards the lift that would take them up to the street-level garage.

“Now that is really cool.” Twilight said with a bit of awe as she reviewed the components and functions as she followed VInyl’s lead. “Good lord these things have cannons?” She continued as they went up the lifts, noticing some of the components.

“Energy canons with the power and armor penetrating equivalent of 122mm high explosive anti armor canons. There’s also energy machine guns and very powerful jet thrusters in the rear. All of it is designed to recharge on its own as the engine runs, and the engine runs on fuel or magic.” Vinyl explained.

“Once again, that is really cool.” Twilight repeated as they shot out into the streets. Twilight gave them a route to follow back home and called in their new means of transport.

“You’re going to need another shower. What’d you do, shove your arms into their chests and let all that blood rain down on you?” Twilight asked over the radio, remembering the other girl’s state.

“Skulls, actually… you weren’t exactly sparkling either.” Vinyl replied.

“Wow, you’re pretty brutal. I shot my target in the head and it splattered.” Twilight said, her tone a bit skewed between afraid and impressed.

“There’s a reason I never tried to fight Chasers…” Vinyl said softly. There was a bit of silence as they made their way through the streets of Canterlot.

“We can talk about that later. For now, let’s go get cleaned up.” Twilight broke the radio silence as they pulled into the large garage at the Chaser HQ. Vinyl nodded and dismounted, following Twilight in.
> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They debriefed with Luna, the Princess rather impressed with their performance and their find, and Twilight led Vinyl to an area of the mansion she had to unlock to get into. Vinyl was curious.

“This is one of the parts of the mansion that’s still mine and now part of the HQ, I only let friends in. I think you deserve to relax a while though after tonight.” Twilight explained as they entered a humid antechamber. Vinyl felt her clothes adhering to her body and found herself unsure of how to react as Twilight stripped.

“It’s a natural hotspring that the place was built around, come on.” She giggled, entering the next room. Vinyl pulled her clothes off and retrieved all of her weaponry and piled them neatly next to Twilight’s and followed the girl in. Twilight beckoned her over to where a small waterfall of sorts was pouring into a drain, where she was washing off what little blood was on her body.

Vinyl relaxed and allowed her body to open up like before. After a few moments of rinsing the blood off of her body she realized Twilight was staring at her.

“What?” She asked.

“Oh, nothing… I’ve never seen someone with that level of augmentation… It’s fascinating.” Twilight replied. Vinyl smiled, but soon became very aware of the differences between their bodies. Namely the features that made Twilight a woman, and for some reason she didn’t know how to react to it. She felt slightly embarrassed, but at the same time she felt oddly strange because of it.

Twilight hadn’t noticed her expression, as she had turned and stepped into the large pool of steaming water and was currently relaxing in it. Vinyl finished up and joined the girl. sitting next to her in the spring.

“So you’ve seemed a bit off since the assignment, you alright?” Twilight asked, opening her eyes and looking over. Vinyl didn’t respond for a few moments, trying to find words to what she wanted to say.

“I don’t know… Even when I was fighting thugs and killing them, it was all conscious and I knew everything I was doing. When I killed those Seekers, though… it was like instinct. It happened so fast I barely even remember it exactly… I was behind them and then they were on the ground and I was covered in their blood.” Vinyl explained.

“Really?” Twilight asked. Vinyl nodded. She lifted her hand out of the water and stared at it. There was a series of different emotions and feelings that she couldn’t describe flowing into her. Twilight definitely noticed it this time, her hand was on Vinyl’s shoulder and she had a concerned expression.

“I’m fine, I think… I went from street rat to killing Seekers to trying to relax in a hotspring in the middle of a mansion. All in the span of a few hours, at least to me… I guess not all of my brain is synthetic because a computer wouldn’t have all of this turmoil about it.” Vinyl said.

“I think I know what you mean… Do you regret letting me take you here?” Twilight asked. Vinyl smiled at her.

“Of course not. I feel like I’m in the right place now, that this might be what I’m supposed to do now. I certainly feel better killing for a good reason rather than just to survive…” The Seeker girl said with a weak smile.

“Speaking of that, where did you learn to take them out? It isn’t easy to sneak up on two of them, let alone kill them in one go.” Twilight said, retracting her contact and relaxing once more.

“I think I was a good fighter before I was snatched because I know a lot of stuff that wasn’t in my local databases. As far as Seekers go, though, I had more luck than skill to start out with. But, when you’re one of the most advanced Seekers out there you learn quickly.” Vinyl replied.

“Most advanced… huh? I wouldn’t doubt it, but do you know if that’s fact?” Twilight asked, her curiosity bleeding into her tone. Vinyl nodded.

“I was good at hacking even from the start, and there aren’t too many safeguards set up on Seeker databases designed to counter another Seeker. I’m an experiment, a prototype. Obviously I didn’t turn out how they wanted me to so they probably scrapped the project…” She explained.

They stayed silent for a little while, enjoying the springs, when the door opened once more and Luna and Celestia entered.

“Hello, we were just talking about the mission.” Twilight said absentmindedly. It was apparent that them joining her wasn’t rare.

“Oh look at you, I was wondering just how artificial you were. I like it.” Celestia said as the two dipped into the water on either side of the two, Celestia next to Twilight and Luna next to Vinyl.

“Anything you talk about worth repeating?” Luna asked, chuckling lightly and shaking her head at her sister’s comment.

“Nothing I can’t put into a report later.” Twilight replied. Luna seemed satisfied with that.

“Oh, speaking of your current state, Vinyl, I had a few teams trying to research who you were and we may have found a lead.” Luna said, opening her eyes as they gained a slight glow. After a moment a file was sent to Vinyl and she opened it to find a series of photos. 

The main picture was a poster for some sort of club. It showed the silhouette of a girl with hair identical to hers being the only color on her, aside from purple shades. The title read ‘DJ Scratch’ and it seemed vaguely familiar.

“What is this?” She asked.

“It looks like one of those nightclub posters. I think I actually remember seeing this before, it looks familiar.” Twilight suggested.

“We did a bit of research, it’s one of the ones in the middle class side of town that get all kinds of people. Bar fights and other acts of violence were commonplace.” Luna said as Vinyl looked through the other pictures sent, which consisted of security camera stills.

“I have to admit, the girl behind the table does look a hell of a lot like you. And you do love music, you said. It’d also explain why you knew how to fight, working at a place like that.” Twilight said. Vinyl looked closely at the pictures, her augments able to clean up the poor quality of the stills. She wasn’t completely sure, though. 

The hair, at least, is exactly the same.” Celestia said.

“Well maybe she was a Seeker and they made me in her image for some reason? I’ve always sort of felt that this body was off… at least until I got used to it.” Vinyl suggested.

“We’ll do a bit more research then.” Luna said.

“Oh no, I can handle it. If I leave my transponder in your database I can search while I sleep, it is getting to be around that time.” Vinyl said, noticing the time on her HUD read 11:00 PM.

“So it is. Well I’ve had a particularly boring day of paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork so I’ll just sit and soak for a while longer.” Celestia said as Vinyl got up. Luna hummed in agreement.

“I should be getting ready to sleep too, I have my morning routine and maintenance.” Twilight said, standing up with Vinyl. They bid each other goodnight and returned to the antechamber. Vinyl gathered the gear she had left as she steamed as the water evaporated from her body and Twilight toweled off.

“So, do you really think you were made in the image of someone else?” Twilight asked as she started dressing.

“I don’t know… I can’t help but feel that my hair is one of the only parts of me that’s really mine, though… I’ll figure it out eventually though.” Vinyl replied. Twilight shrugged and continued dressing as Vinyl left to find her way back to the library.

When she returned to her room she was a little surprised to find that Twilight was entering the room across from hers, brushing her hair. She had no idea their rooms were so close, she had assumed they were in different sections of the house. She put that into the back of her mind, though, as she dropped her clothes next to her bed and dropped the boots she carried next to them and rather unceremoniously plopped onto the bed.

For having a biometal body, she was rather weary. She closed her eyes and let sleep take her, but her mind remained active as she cross referenced the pictures she had and the poster, as well as the name ‘DJ Scratch’ and set up a great many filters and got to work researching.

---

Vinyl bolted upright when morning came, startling Twilight as she had just entered the room.

“Luna wants you to do training routines with me in the mornings, what’s the matter?” She asked with a bit of worry. Vinyl looked at the girl and Twilight was surprised to see her eyes watering.

“I’m supposed to be dead…” Vinyl said nearly in a whisper  Twilight’s expression changed to one of intrigue and more concern.

“What?” She asked. Vinyl wiped her eyes that had watered up, a little surprised that they had, and stood up.

“I… I don’t think I could really explain it… I still don’t remember what happened, but I remember the pain now…” She continued in her weak tone. With a few thoughts she sent a series of files, articles and pictures to Twilight. The girl’s eyes widened after a few moments.

‘The DJ at the nightclub went missing one night, the next morning other workers found a gruesome scene in the secluded back alley behind the place. She was declared dead, as the alley was splattered with gore and blood and they found what amounted up to a pair of arms and legs. The workers recognized the DJ’s signature shades and locks of her blue two toned hair in the area as well, confirming that the girl was at least there.

More bits of flesh and bone besides the arms and legs were recovered, teeth and even a jawbone were recovered after further investigation. The rest of the girl still has not been found, but a full blown investigation is working on further details.’ Read one article. There was another much smaller one,

‘Scratch family mourns the loss of their daughter and sister, Veronica Ramona Scratch, who was a DJ at a local nightclub. They’ve launched a full, privately funded investigation to find the culprit of Vincenza’s brutal murder and the rest of her remains. More information pending.’ The second one read. There were many more, but they all said the same thing really.

Twilight waved everything on her HUD aside to see Vinyl still on the bed, but she had curled up and was shaking.

“Vinyl?” She asked, concerned, and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“It hurts… it… it hurts so much… I… Please, make it stop…” Vinyl said in a pained whisper. Her eyes were closed and her face scrunched up in pain. Twilight’s expression softened in sympathy. She went through something similar, although Vinyl’s pain must be on a level all in its own. By the articles, it seemed like the girl was ripped apart. She silently sat with the girl, ar arm around her shoulder.

Tears were flowing down her face, which neither of them thought was really possible, but Vinyl’s shaking slowed gradually until she was just breathing heavily, staring at the floor.

“Is it gone?” Twilight asked softly. She expected it was so, or at least in part, as that’s how hers went.

“No… I’m just getting used to it…” Vinyl replied darkly. Twilight stared at her, the girl’s expression went from that of someone in immense pain to more of a darker and slightly intimidating one.  After a little while her breathing slowed back to normal and she stared at her hands. Her fingers twitched slightly, in rhythm with the jolts of pain.

“Do you remember anything else?” Twilight asked. Vinyl shook her head and took a deep breath before standing up.

“Thank you, for sitting here with me, Twilight…” She said, smiling slightly. 

“I know what it’s like to feel the pain of death again, though it faded away for me… Maybe when you remember something besides that from your past it will fade as well.” Twilight replied, standing up as well. Vinyl looked at her and nodded. She turned back towards the door, wiping her face of her tears.

“Do you need me for anything today? I have something I want to do…” She asked.

“Unless something comes up we have at least two days of rest after a mission, Luna told me this morning that if you wish to spend some time away from the manor that I should go with you.” Twilight replied. Vinyl nodded.

“Makes sense… Even if she trusts me now, any Chasers roaming around may or may not even know I’m not with the Seekers anymore… I hope you don’t mind being my escort for the day.” Vinyl said. Twilight giggled and started out of the door.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been around the city on my own time, especially with a friend. I’ll go get our pay from the mission so we can do more than walk if it strikes our fancy.” Twilight said. Vinyl smiled, she saved the map of the city she had pulled from the Chaser database and highlighted a specific manor in the other rich district near the palace towards the center of the city. She needed to find something elegant to wear.
> Chapter Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What makes you think we won’t be thrown out?” Twilight laughed when Vinyl showed her the announcement of a rich family’s party. They both wore dresses, though VInyl’s a lot more plain than Twilight’s. Twilight’s was an elegant dress you’d normally see royalty wear, it was the color of Lavender. Vinyl’s was more of a gown mixed with a dress designed for dancing at a place like a nightclub. 

Vinyl insisted that they go, even though they weren’t invited, and seemed confident they would be let in.

“Look at the family name…” Vinyl said. Twilight rolled her eyes and pulled the announcement up on her HUD. 

“Let’s see… ‘16th birthday party for a young girl in the rich district, blah blah blah, oh wow they invited Celestia? Girl’s name is Emerald Elizabeth… Scratch…’ Your family?” Twilight read. She looked at the girl next to her. They were currently stopped in the clothing store’s parking area on their Spectres, which is what the bikes they ‘liberated’ were called.

“My little sister… I did some more research, I’m still plugged in to your database, and this family was listed as VIncenza’s family… My family. I’m hoping seeing them in person will help me remember something other than this pain.” Vinyl explained.

“Has it faded at all, by the way?” Twilight asked as they started their vehicles.

“Not at all, but now I’m able to push it back… kind of like that sore feeling you get a while after you get hurt but you’re busy doing something else.” Vinyl replied. They took off out of the lot, then.

When they arrived at the large manor they found a few drone servants in the large lot, filled with expensive looking cars. They stopped the two as they slowed just before the space.

“What is your business here madams?” One of them asked with a synthetic voice.

“We’re here for Emerald’s birthday.” Vinyl said.

“Oh I apologize miss Veronica, We had not recognized you. We recognize your voice, though. You and your Guest can go right ahead, welcome back.” The drone said, bowing as they stepped aside. Vinyl inclined her head and they parked the Spectres.

They were stopped again at the main door by a human servant taking invitations.

“Invitations please.” He said with a smile. The two looked at each other and Vinyl looked back at the lot. They had certainly been noticed, driving in on a Spectre is one thing; but driving in on Spectres that have visible cannons mounted along the sides is a whole other level.

“But they let us in…” Twilight said.

“I’m sorry madams, but without a physical invitation I can’t let you in.” The man said apologetically. They were surprised, then when hands fell on their shoulders from between the two. 

“Don’t worry, sir, they are accounted for. This one here is my personal assistant, and the other is her escort. I hadn’t had the chance to have invitations for them in time. I hope my word is enough?” Celestia’s voice came. They looked up at her, she winked, and the man bowed.

“Of course Princess, though I implore you to manage these things a bit better in the future.” He said politely.

“I hear that a lot.” Celestia chuckled and they entered. After a few steps they stopped and Celestia turned to them.

“Fancy meeting the two of you here, I thought you were on your rest days.” She said with a smile.

“Luna wants me to be Vinyl’s escort for obvious reasons, and this is her family’s party…” Twilight explained. Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“We can talk about that after the party. If it’s true, I think that you’ll be wanting some time with them then.” She said. The two bowed their heads and Celestia walked off with a happy farewell. They walked around, Vinyl getting a few looks and stares. Most of them were for her augments, the only other beings here with that much Biometal in them were the servant drones. A few of them were whispering about how terrible she was.

“Why do they think you’re terrible?” Twilight whispered to her as the room went rather silent as they walked up to the main table where a girl and her parents sat. The girl had emerald green hair in an elegant bun.

When they saw her they each had different reactions. The girl’s eyes went wide, the woman looked hurt and the man looked furious.

“I don’t know who you are, but making yourself in the likeness of our passed daughter is an insult I can’t forgive… I’m going to have to ask you to leave or to be thrown out.” The man said, keeping his anger from his voice.

“I’m sorry, but I will not leave.” Vinyl replied softly. With a wordless order, and a few startled yelps from bystanders, the servant drones stepped towards her with blades coming out of hidden scabbards.

“Madam, please reconsider. We do not want to harm you.” One of the drones said.

“I will not leave until I remember…” Vinyl said, her voice wavering as she felt the slightest bit of something  within her besides the pain. She seemed to not notice as with another wordless order from the Man, a blade was placed at her throat.

“Vinyl…” Twilight said lowly, concerned. Vinyl stepped forwards, towards the table, grabbing the blade and shattering it as the drone tried to hold it in place.

“I want to remember…” She said lowly.

“Remember what?!” The man exclaimed. More drones rushed forward to block her path, the other guests backing towards the door. Just as Vinyl reached them they all lunged at her, but the scene froze just as soon as it happened. The Drones were all in precarious positions, mid-lunge, and Vinyl had opened all of her compartments containing weapons. Something new, though, was a head of green between then.

“Stop it!” She yelled. There was a silence before the girl’s father sighed.

“Stand down…” He said reluctantly. The drones all retracted their weapons, stepped back, bowed and returned to their positions. The girl turned around to face Vinyl, who cautiously returned to her previous state as well. Twilight holstered a handgun in the holster hidden on her leg under her dress.

“I don’t think this person was changed to look like her, Dad… I think this is Veronica…” The girl said.

“What are you talking about Emerald? Veronica isn’t with us anymore…” Emerald’s mother said. Vinyl knelt down to Emerald’s level and cupped her face.

“I don’t remember you, but I feel like you are very important to me…” She said.

“Is it really you Veronica?” The girl asked, hope enveloping her tone.

“I think so…” Vinyl replied. Emerald quickly hugged Vinyl and Twilight stepped up.

“We found her not too long ago on the run, an escaped Seeker. Her memory was erased but she resisted the indoctrination.” The girl said.

“I can vouch for this information.” Celestia said from where she hadn’t moved when the half-attack started.

“So you don’t remember me?” Emerald asked, looked at Vinyl in their embrace. “Veronica?” She asked. Vinyl was limp, her eyes wide open and frantically flying around their field of view, as if she was reading at an incredible speed. “Veronica?!” Emerald exclaimed. Vinyl started twitching and moving unnaturally, as if she was seizing up, and her face gained an incredibly pained expression.

“What’s happening to her?!” Vinyl’s mother exclaimed, rushing out of her seat to her Daughters.

“I don’t know…” Twilight said, cradling Vinyl’s head where she had fallen onto her back.

“H-H-Hurts-s!” Vinyl gasped out before she suddenly stopped, going limp again. The congregation remained silent, probably in horror, before Twilight picked the girl up.

“What just happened, Twilight?” Celestia asked as she walked up to them, Vinyl’s family staring at the now unconscious girl.

“I don’t know, but this morning she found out what happened to her and remembered the pain of it… I don’t know if she remembered any of her past or if she remembered more of what happened before she was snatched… We’ll have to wait and ask her when she wakes up.” Twilight explained.

“W-Well then bring her here, we’ll show you to somewhere quiet she can stay.” Vinyl’s Mother said. Twilight nodded and followed the woman, Emerald in tow, as her father attempted to get the party started back up again. It was mildly successful.

“How exactly did you find her, Miss Twilight?” Emerald asked Twilight when they reached a spare bedroom. Vinyl’s mother had left almost immediately to fetch something to drink for her when she woke up.

“Well I saw these two people looking down from a really tall rooftop so I went up there. I’m a Chaser, you see, one of the people that hunt down the Seekers. You know about Seekers right?” Twilight started. The girl nodded.

“Veronica made sure I knew what they were and how to defend myself from them… The last thing I remember us doing was going to a firing range with her and learning how to use a gun…” Emerald replied as they both looked down at the girl who looked like she was sleeping peacefully. There was nearly black blood running from one of her nostrils, in which Vinyl’s mother returned with a glass of water and a rag and proceeded to wipe it off.

“It’s strange, I can remember the feel of her face perfectly from the last time we saw each other… But it’s different now, it just feels a little off…” The woman said softly, more to herself. There were a few moments of silence before Twilight continued her tale, Vinyl’s mother gaining interest.

“The only people that go on rooftops like that are people trying to commit suicide or Seekers looking for a route… Turned out it was both.” Twilight continued.

“Wait, she was trying to commit suicide?” Vinyl’s Mother asked. Twilight nodded.

“I haven’t really talked to her about it, but the first thing she said to me was that she was tired of running. She showed me all of her weaponry outright, which Seekers don’t just do, and just sat down against a wall. She was tired and her companion had run away, so she was alone. As a Chaser I couldn’t just let a Seeker loose… but I couldn’t shoot her.” Twilight continued.

“You almost did, remember?” Said girl wheezed tiredly. They all quickly looked over to find her barely awake. Her mother and her sister quickly bombarded her with concerned questions, but went silent as she put her hand up with a pained face.

“Sorry, but it feels like my head exploded… I’ve got a lot of new stuff up in there that I’m not used to anymore…” Vinyl said, her voice was scratchy and hoarse so her mother wordlessly handed her the glass of water. She took it and gave an appreciative nod and down it. Her next words came out much softer and clearly.

“Thank you… I needed that.” She said.

“Do you remember anything from before now?” Twilight asked, noting what she said before. Vinyl nodded.

“I can remember the house, your faces and who you are… but my memories are from when I was little, up until I was around thirteen if I were to guess… After that it’s either gone or I’ll have to go through another fit again to remember it and I’d rather not do that again right now.” Vinyl explained.

“What about the pain?” Twilight asked. Vinyl snorted, looking down at her hands again.

“More intense than ever before, but I’ll live. Maybe it’s something that won’t fade or will be up to time.” She replied.

“What pain?” Emerald asked. Vinyl looked over at her and put a hand on her head.

“Something you don’t need to know.” She replied. Emerald looked a little disappointed about that but didn’t pursue the topic. Vinyl stood, wobbled a bit but maintained her balance. With a shiver, she did something that was probably along the lines of stretching for her. All of her compartments and moving parts and everything moved, opened and extended and went back to its previous place in quick succession.

“Should we get back to the party or do you want to leave?” Twilight asked the girl. Vinyl smiled at her and shook her head.

“Disoriented and sore I may be, but we spent a lot of money on these outfits. It’d be a shame to waste them.” She said. Twilight chuckled and the four left the room to return to the main hall where the party took place.
> Chapter Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the morning, and the afternoon for that matter, was consumed by the party and talking and explaining and everything. It was all a blur, which may have been caused by the headache and the new flow of memory, but she knew she enjoyed herself. It wasn’t some formal ball or anything, but it was a rich sweet sixteen so it might as well have been. Vinyl spent a lot of time with Twilight and Celestia, this party wasn’t for her after all. The two had to explain a lot of things to the Princess.

“Um… Veronica?” VInyl heard at the end of her explanation to Celestia. She turned to find Emerald standing there.

“What is it, Emerald?” Vinyl asked, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Can I come with you guys when you go back?” She asked. Twilight and Celestia started listening in at that.

“What do you mean?” Vinyl asked, already sure of what the answer was, though she wasn’t sure how to answer.

“You’re a Seeker now, but you’re not. You’re with the Chasers, I know that miss Twilight is definitely one… I’m Sixteen now, old enough to enroll in the police force like you did when you left… but I want to do more than just that, I’ve seen what the Seekers can do… I don’t want them to do things like that anymore.” The girl explained. Vinyl still didn’t know how to answer. For starters, apparently she was a police officer at one point.

“Things like what?” Celestia asked.

“The leading suspect for your murder was a Seeker…” Emerald replied. They were all silent for a while.

“You told me, when Vinyl was unconscious, that she taught you how to defend yourself and use a gun. If that’s so, then sometime in the future we’ll have to see just what you can do. It’s not up to me, though I’ll put your name in with Luna for observation and evaluation.” Twilight said, patting the girl’s shoulder.

“Thank you.” Emerald said with a smile.

“Are you sure, Emerald? A Chaser’s job isn’t pretty…” Vinyl warned.

“Especially if your partner is someone like her.” Twilight said, nudging Vinyl’s shoulder. Vinyl smiled for a second at the gesture before turning back to Emerald. 

“We hunt down Seekers and destroy them. You saw a little bit of all the different gear I have built into me, they’re not much different. They are incredibly intelligent and there aren’t many Chasers that can even fight an actual Seeker in a fair fight. It’s very dirty work, too… I had to soak for half an hour to get the smell of blood off of me and if it weren’t for this fancy shampoo my hair would still smell of death.” Vinyl explained in a serious tone. She noticed her father walk up to where they were talking, him hearing most of the conversation.

“You’ve changed, Veronica…” He said in a slightly sad tone. VInyl deadpanned. “I mean obviously yes, but I mean you; the person you are. You used to be such a sweet and caring girl, even when you joined the police force and started working at that club… nobody would have thought you even had the capacity to become so cold and merciless as you make yourself sound…” He explained. Vinyl smiled lightly and stood up.

“A person is molded by their experiences… Until today I had no memory of anything before my life turned to hell as a Seeker… Then I found out that I died, and the pain I felt then came back. And even now, it feels like I’m being constantly ripped apart and cut and burned… But who I am hasn’t changed, and I have some of my memory back… Yes, I am changed… but I’m only cold and merciless to those who deserve it.” VInyl explained. Twilight stepped up to her than, planting a hand on her shoulder.

“Trust me, she may be a Seeker turned Chaser, and she may be a total badass on the field, but she still knows how to care.” The girl said. Vinyl laughed lightly and shook her head. Her father smiled then and looked down at Emerald.

“Well, what do you think Emerald?” He asked. The girl didn’t answer for a little while.

“I think anybody Veronica is cruel to deserves what’s coming to them…” She started. She looked up at them now, determination in her eyes. “And I think that if I saw them I’d do the same thing.” She continued. Twilight chuckled and Vinyl crouched down to her level, taking her shoulders.

“Then I’ll see what I can do too… According to Luna I’m already one of their top agents.” She said. Emerald smiled and hugged her, which she returned in full. She stood up, still holding her for a while before putting her back down.

“It’s getting a little late now, and we’ll have to fill out some reports about this and I’d rather get a nice soak in before sleep.” Twilight said, noting the time at 8pm. 

“Wouldn’t this be considered a private matter?” Celestia asked, most of the group forgetting she was still standing with them. 

“Yes and no… Vinyl regaining her memory, and the episode of pain she experienced, as well as what caused it need to go into my reports of her observation. Everything else is private though.” Twilight replied.

“Understandable. I’ll go with you then, so that I can give you my firsthand.” Vinyl said. Twilight nodded, extending her farewell to Vinyl’s parents and made for the door. Vinyl made to follow, but with an afterthought turned back to Emerald and placed something she detached from one of her head’s data compartments.

“This is one of my wireless transmitters. Plug it into any device and I’ll have access to it and vice versa. If you were to use it on a communication device we could speak.” Vinyl explained. Emerald’s eyes widened slightly, with a smile, and surprised Vinyl. She slipped the small chip into her forearm, which had a patch of biometal there, and her eyes glowed slightly. She had some advanced augments as well, Vinyl guessed this one consisted of a HUD and the controls for it being mental or on this forearm panel. She felt the connection between them form and smiled.

“Good thinking.” She said. She kissed the girl on the head and made her way towards Twilight was waiting at the doorway. She looked a little annoyed, and Vinyl found out why. There were armed police officers standing next to their Spectres.

“Oh what is it now?” Twilight sighed as they walked up to them.

“I recommend you stay away from these and get to your vehicle quickly. These things are very dangerous, they’re known to be stolen from military bases by Seekers and they don’t care if you’re a human or a drone.” One of the officers said. They both deadpanned.

“I’m not a drone…” Vinyl said.

“These are ours, don’t worry.” Twilight said. They made to leave then, but they were barred as the officers drew weapons.

“You don’t want to be doing that…” Vinyl said darkly, some of her compartments opening and extending. Before she could start a confrontation, though, Twilight put a hand on her shoulder. With the other hand she retrieved both her personal identification and her Chaser identification.

“We’re above your heads, stand down.” The girl said. There was a moment of nothing until the one in charge repeated the order and Vinyl relaxed.

“Sorry if I’m a little quick to violence, but I’m in a lot of pain at the moment…” Vinyl said, activating her Spectre. 

“These were stolen by Seekers but we confiscated them on a recent raid. And also, try not to assume that anyone with that much augmentation is a Seeker if they aren’t a drone. She was a snatch victim and is working with us now.” Twilight explained, mounting her own vehicle. 

“And I’ll be telling my brother of this, so make sure any reports on this are accurate.” She continued before taking off. The officers’ respect for her order to stand down was because of her Chaser status, as well as the fact that it was generally known that she was Shining Armor’s brother; retired captain of the Canterlot police force and current commander of the Royal Guard.

“Are you alright? Has your pain intensified further?” Twilight asked when they were back at the manor, dining. Vinyl had seemed rather sluggish and irritable since they left the Scratch Manor. Vinyl sighed and put down the fork onto the plate of half-eaten food.

“I don’t know…” She started, putting her head in her hands. “I just… I don’t know why I’m feeling like this, I should be happy because I can remember a lot of my life again… but… Something just… I don’t know.” She tried to explain.

“Maybe you’re not used to all these emotions at once? Psychological exhaustion can lead to things like this, personality changes and things like that. It might take a little time, or something to vent it all out on. I have my training routine in the mornings to vent and the spring or a nice hot shower for when I just need to relax. I maintain my equipment when I need something to focus on and Celestia or sometimes even Luna will sit with me and just let me talk when I need it. You’d be surprised how much just talking things out helps.” Twilight explained. 

“I don’t really think I have anyone that I can just talk to like that…” Vinyl said. Twilight chuckled lightly and pulled the other into an embrace, surprising her.

“I may be your superior now, but you’re still my friend. We’ve talked like that before, and I’d be happy to be your vent if you need it.” Twilight said. She put Vinyl at arm’s length and smiled at her. Vinyl was surprised by the contact and even more so by what she said. She just kind of stared at the girl.She felt her mood softening as she smiled and hugged the girl again.

“Thank you…” She said softly. Twilight returned it in full. 

“You know where my room is, so if you even feel the need to talk to someone I’m there. I think I need to go soak in the spring again though, you coming with?” Twilight asked when they separated. Vinyl smiled and nodded, she had discovered that soaking with Twilight was always very relaxing.

They didn’t talk much, they relaxed. They sat there in the steaming water, the slightly cooler humid air just perfect for what wasn’t in the water. Vinyl found that her muddled thoughts cleared up now that she was resting. She closed her eyes and gave out a content sigh. Twilight was surprised when Vinyl put her head on her shoulder, but when she looked to asked what she was doing she found the girl fast asleep.

She chuckled lightly and chose to leave it be. Vinyl had gone through a massive amount of physical and mental strain today, afterall. And besides, she didn’t plan on getting up for a while longer.
> Chapter Seven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month had passed since Vinyl was taken in by the Chasers, and she hadn’t let them down since. She quickly rose to some of the highest levels of prestige, to the point where she was as widely known as a top agent as Twilight was. This also meant she had a lot of infamy with Seekers and their sympathisers, she had been shot at in the streets on more than one occasion. 

In the Chaser databases she was listed as a solo agent and as a duo agent, her partner being Twilight. That’s why she was surprised one day when Luna asked her to do something she wouldn’t have expected.

“Are you asking me to take a new partner?” Vinyl asked. Luna shook her head.

“No, I’m asking you to take an apprentice. You were Twilight’s, but you’ve reached her level now so you’re partners. You will still be a solo and duo agent, but your apprentice will go with you. She will be your responsibility, in terms of instruction and safety until she can take care of herself.” Luna explained. Vinyl looked unsure.

“I’ve never really taught anybody anything, at least that I remember… Why me? I’m one of the newest agents.” Vinyl asked.

“You’re also one of my best. She recently underwent a massive amount of augmentation in order to be here, and she passed all of the preliminary tests with flying colors. She has no specific role or preference, like you, so I feel that you’re probably one of the best to teach her. Not to mention since you spend so much time with Twilight she would be able to help teach her the finer things that you still have yet to grasp. Also, she requested it.” Luna answered. The last part made Vinyl feel very apprehensive. She turned around as the door opened.

“Hello Veronica.” Emerald said. Vinyl gaped at her. She was even more augmented than Twilight, though still not even really close to Vinyl’s level of augmentation. She had a rifle on her back, what looked like a compact machine gun in a holster horizontally at the bottom of her back and a large handgun in a holster on her shoulder. At her sides were trench knives. It didn’t seem like she had any internal weaponry, like Vinyl had, but then again it is technically very illegal.

“You told me you were sick and weak, that’s why your contact with me was scattered…” Vinyl said softly, walking up to the girl and looking her over slowly.

“I was, but because of all this… I’ve been practicing with it too, with the drones at the house. Mom and Dad would only let me join if I promised to send back proof that You’re watching over me here.” Emerald explained. Vinyl smiled light and hugged the girl.

“I warned you about this, Emerald… Your life is going to become much harder now, especially since you’re my apprentice… Twilight and I take on the most dangerous of missions, missions which we’ve barely made it out in one piece.” Vinyl said in a serious tone, holding hte girl at arm’s length.

“And speaking of dangerous mission, you have an assignment.” Luna said, sending the briefing to the two of them to display on their HUDs. “Are you aware that Twilight recently went to Ponyville to assist the small cell of agents we have there?” She continued. A map of Ponyville and a series of identification files opened.

Six files opened, five girls and one boy. They all had varying levels of visible and reported augmentation. The first, a very toned girl with nothing but the HUD and strength augmentations in her arms, was named Applejack. There was one that had about every speed augment legal, and even something similar to the SPIKE systems that was reported in the file to allow her to practically fly for extended periods of time; her name was Rainbow Dash. The next one, a fairly small and frail looking girl with pink hair, was reported to have a series of medically focused augments; her name was Fluttershy. There was Pinkie Pie, who had full biometal arms and legs, and was reported to be a wild card. The last of the girls had quite a few augments in her arms and head, she was reported to be incredible and hacking through the intricate safeties and system blocks of Seeker systems. The last was a boy who was labelled as an independant drone, it seemed whoever built him gave him very draconic features; he was reported to be an expert in Cybermancy.

“The drone at the end there, his name is Spike. Twilight named the exosuit systems you two recently perfected after him. He was a Seeker project a long time ago, but Twilight found him and ‘rescued’ him and reprogrammed him to have free will without the indoctrination the Seekers were programming him with. The reason the rest of them and Twilight are there are because they finally found where he was and they want him back. They have a lot of forces dedicated to it, though, and they need some help.” Luna explained as the map changed to reveal a large complex outside of Ponyville.

“We’re hoping to capture any of them who have power and have memories we could get from them. I know you recently developed a way to interrogate on the field so I’ll leave that as a secondary objective for you. Emerald, you are a Chaser now and Vinyl is your mentor. You should know what you’ve gotten yourself into, it won’t be pretty.” Luna continued.

“I assume we have an airlift waiting for us then?” Vinyl asked.

“Of course, though you’ll be dropped off a bit of a ways outside of the city. You’ll have to break through to get inside. I’ve already sent word of your arrival so they shouldn’t shoot you.” Luna answered, the most recent report of numbers and locations popping up on their HUDs. Emerald’s eyes widened at the force, but Twilight hummed lightly.

“Alright then, we should get the Spectre then. We’ll leave immediately.” Vinyl said. Luna nodded and bade them good luck and the two left.

“Ever since I first saw yours I wanted one.” Emerald said when Vinyl mounted her Spectre, only to find that there was one next to it that Emerald mounted. It obviously didn’t have the weaponization, but it was still impressive. It was a rare machine to see in the hands of civilians.

“Nice.” Vinyl started before looking up to see a Chariot hovering above, lowering to land as it dropped the loading ramp in the hold. The Chariot was a military grade transport aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, had a large infantry capacity and could even hold a few infantry vehicles and tanks if needed. Two Spectres, one of them little more than a smaller tank really, would easily fit inside.

“You’ll be dropping from the air so I hope those things can handle it, I’m gonna bug out as soon as you’re away. They’ve got a lot of firepower, we’ve already lost a few bats and even a Dragon in that area.” Their pilot said over the radio.

“We should be fine. I’m guessing we won’t be having any air support then, for a force this big?” Vinyl asked.

“Not from me, though one of the agents is part of a privately own squadron of pilots called the Wonderbolts. They probably can’t risk going in while their big guns are in play, but I’d talk to her about that.” The Pilot answered as they took off and shot towards Ponyville. The Chariot wasn’t slow by any means, they’d be there in around ten minutes.

“Our briefing reports armor, know anything about it?” Vinyl asked.

“Two Manticores and an Ursa weaponized to all hell. I hear your Spectre has some powerful firepower though, hopefully that’s enough.” The Pilot replied. Emerald was going to ask what Manticores and Ursa were, but Vinyl quickly sent over files on them. Manticores were large security drones, normally used by the military or particularly rich and powerful private estates. An Ursa was a massive construction drone, the kind that could raise a building as soon as level it. Even with her heavy cannons that one would be particularly difficult to deal with.

“Though that Ursa has yet to charge, they know Twilight’s there. She’s taken out more than one Urse used by the Seekers before, they probably want to wait until she’s too tired to fight against it.” The Pilot continued.

“Makes sense. Emerald, when we get there I want you to stick to me like your life is depending on it because it most certainly will. As soon as we get through I want you to get inside the city, even if I’m not in front of you. I’ll need to deal with their armored units. Find Twilight or any of the other agents and report to them until I get back.” Vinyl said to Emerald as the Pilot warned them they were almost at the drop. The loading ramp lowered and the rush of wind filled the cabin.

“What about the Seekers?” Emerald asked.

“Take out as many as you can without stopping. Unless you’re absolutely sure they can’t hit you back or you’re saving someone’s life, just keep to me or go straight for the city.” Vinyl answered as the red light above to cockpit door turned green.

“Godspeed ladies, here’s to hoping I get to fly you back.” The Pilot said. The two nodded to each other and dropped out of the thing on their vehicles. They hit the ground rolling and shot forward towards where they could see large metallic walls in the distance, as well as hear the sounds of conflict. She looked over as Emerald matched pace with her. She looked scared but determined. She patched into a radio transmission that she recognized and heard the sound of reports and orders.

“This is Chaser agent Vinyl and agent Emerald, we are en route and in sight.” She said when the chatter calmed slightly.

“Are you all the support? We have two Manticores that we can’t get through to. They’ve weaponized with long range and artillery and they’re battering our defenses.” The man in charge explained. He had a heavy accent, but his voice held authority. 

“Send me their exact positions and I’ll do what I can, I have my own artillery.” Vinyl replied. He gave an affirmative and she saw her map slowly updating with live information transmitted directly from the troops in battle.

“Um… are either of you medical engineers? We’re swamped here at the hospital and even just one more pair of hands would help immensely.” A very soft voice asked.

“I have extensive medical training and augmentations, Luna said the two of you could use a medic.” Emerald said ,the second part more to Vinyl.

“Oh thank goodness. Vinyl, Twilight is currently trying to deal with those Manticore units so if you want to see her I’d recommend starting there. Emerald, was it? The sooner you get here the better.” The shy voice explained. Vinyl remembered Twilight talking about these Chasers here, they were most of her closest friends. 

“Right, then you’ll report to Fluttershy when you get there. We’ll split paths here, use your map and keep your Spectre’s blast shield up.” Vinyl said as the cockpit-like extension of her vehicle went over her. Emerald nodded and did the same, hers much more aerodynamic compared to the practical patchwork of Vinyl’s.

“Hey, if you and Twi manage to take out those Manticores then I can go get the Wonderbolts that are holed up nearby and give us some air support!” A voice Vinyl guessed was Dash’s yelled over the radio as she and Emerald split up. It sounded like she was in the air, as there was a bit of static and the sound of roaring wind. “I can see you now, I’ll give you what cover I can!” The girl continued.

Vinyl put her hand up in greetings as a girl wearing full SPIKE gear matched her pace a few meters above her. She was holding an infantry grade cannon, by the look of it the thing had the caliber of around 37mm at the most as the thing was pretty massive. It wasn’t strong enough to do more than put a few dents in something like a Manticore, but Vinyl’s would probably go right through them.

“That is a sexy piece of machine you have there.” The flier said over the radio, causing Vinyl to laugh.

“I know. Could you do me a favor and look after the other agent until she gets to safety? She’s my little sister and she doesn’t have a weaponized Spectre like I do.” Vinyl asked over the radio.

“On it. Yo Scoots!” The girl exclaimed over the radio to someone else.

“On it!” A young girl called back, having heard the request.

“My little sister.” Dash explained. Any further conversation was cut off as Dash had to weave around fire and Vinyl focused on not losing control of the vehicle.

“Go for it! I’ve got you covered!” Dash called as she zoomed around Vinyl, using her cannon to obliterate any of the drones that came near Vinyl. She saw the Manticores, they were behind large blast shields they they had probably deployed. They looked like large hulking beasts, something like a lion mixed with a bear or something, and these one’s had massive artillery cannons mounted on their tails.

“Let’s do this!” Vinyl yelled, ramping off of the burning wreck of some sort of aircraft to get over the line of drones that had formed to block her from the Manticores. Her Spectre cannons were already ready to fire as she landed. She dropped her blast shield as a long blade extended from her right forearm, nearly as long as she was tall. She used it to slice the tail cannon from the first and, as it turned to face the new threat, sent two blasts of anti armor energy blasts through its chest. She ducked under a massive metallic paw of energy claws from the first one and did a quick 180 spin with the bike. 

The cannons weren’t ready to fire quite yet, so she waited for the thing to lunge. When it did she used a blast of the thing’s thruster engines to blast forward, which surprised the thing. She ramped off of its face, dealing a swift decapitation with her blade. It and her arm were spattered with white drone blood as she retracted it, extended the blast shield and the mounted chainguns. She turned her attention towards the now small army of drones.

“Let’s get some real air cover now!” Dash called and shot off in a seemingly random direction with immense speed. She then became acutely aware of a series of disturbances in the mass of drone. She saw the girl named Applejack with what seemed like a huge riot shield and was literally plowing through the drones, firing what seemed to be a very high capacity automatic scattergun. There was the girl named Pinkie Pie, who had one of the happiest grins on her face as she hefted a massive autocannon of enough caliber to cut down at least half a dozen enemy drones every time the thing fired with a high fire rate. It had some sort of energy shield mounted on it protecting her from return fire.

Lastly she noticed the girl named Rarity in the ramparts of the wall surrounding the city. The girl had what looked like, with her sight enhancements and scanning augments, a high powered long range rifle capable of rapid fire. She didn’t see Twilight, though, at least not immediately. She found out why when a familiar Spectre nearly smashed into her from where it seemingly fell from the sky.

“URSA!” Twilight’s voice yelled as she charged off back towards the city. Vinyl quickly followed her, the two mowing down anything in front of them with their chainguns.

“Where in high hell were you?!” Applejack exclaimed over the radio, panting, as she took a moment of rest behind her shield to reload her scattergun.

“Trying to disable that thing before they had a chance to use it.” Twilight answered as they all, except Rarity and Dash, regrouped with the militia behind the defensive line they had set up. 

“Jeez, looks like you guys had more fun than we did!” Pinkie exclaimed, looking at the black and white blood of the drones and Seeker agents still dropping from their Spectres.

“Anyone know if Emerald made it to Fluttershy?” Vinyl asked.

“Emerald?” Twilight asked. At that moment, a young girl with full SPIKE gear landed and shouldered the cannon like Dash’s she carried.

“I saw her to it.” The girl said, Vinyl remembered her being called ‘Scoots’ and assumed it was one of the young girls Twilight told her about named Scootaloo. Before any further conversation could be held, though, a lot of the Militia started yelling and going back to their places shooting out of the makeshift walls around the main walls. It was coupled with a dangerously close rumbling noise.

They all yelled and scattered when a massive energy blast hit the main wall and a chunk of it fell on where they were just a second ago.

“GO! TRY TO TAKE OUT THE LEGS!” Twilight yelled. She and Vinyl took to their Spectres and charged the cannons as they used the walls to ramp off of them. Rarity gave them sniper support and Scootaloo joined her, it would be too dangerous to fly around with the Ursa active and her cannon was accurate at long range. Pinkie and Applejack both charged out of their defensive position with yells of determination and glee, weapons blazing. The Militia with similar shields joined them while those without stuck with covering fire.

“Now Mac!” Twilight yelled over the radio when the Ursa noticed her and Vinyl as they concentrated their fire on one of the legs of the massive bear-like thing that towered over them. The wall was nearly 70 ft, and this thing could peek over the top of it if it stood on its hind legs. Their shots went through the outer plating, in which Rarity and Scootaloo immediately focused their fire to try and damage the much weaker inner plating to try and get at the joints and systems.

At Twilight’s yell, a massive volley of heavy anti armor artillery fire came from somewhere in the town and devastated the battlefield, their points of impact painted on all of their HUDs so they could avoid them. The Ursa, with a now damaged leg, staggered around as the massive artillery cannon on its back was blown off and it gained a series of dents and holes all around its body. It screeched a deafening metallic screech and charged towards the wall, though before it could reach it the damaged leg gave out and it tripped over itself.

“Good! We’re not late!” Dash’s voice came over the radio as a large aircraft, somewhat resembling the Chariot but much bigger and identical to the wreck that Vinyl ramped off of earlier, crested over the city walls. It focused its massive arsenal of weaponry on the downed thing, pummeling it into the ground, as what seemed like a swarm of birds dropped out of holes on the bottom and shot out of holes in other places. 

The things looked a lot like SPIKE units, though they were fully enclosed. Unlike SPIKE systems, though, they had rigid wings and actual control surfaces like flaps and ailerons. Mounted under the wings were chainguns that seemed to be slightly weaker, but fired much faster, than the Spectre chainguns. Mounted in the nose of what could be considered the head was a pair of cannons, which looked a little more powerful than the Spectre’s. 

They swarmed the Ursa immediately, the things almost too fast to follow, circling and diving on the thing in conjunction with the larger craft’s heavy firepower. Within seconds the thing was little more than a mass of biometal and white drone blood. 

---

One of the things impacted the ground near where the four had regrouped again, the tail splitting into flexible legs and someone’s arms covered in some sort of flight suit came out of the wings. The head’s visor went up to reveal Dash’s face and multi-colored hair. Nearly half an hour had passed since their arrival and she seemed a little exhausted.

“Thanks for taking out those Manticores and distracting the Ursa so we could get in, we already lost the one Dragon. Now all of our Bats can clean up the rest of the drone forces.” She said, breathing a little heavily. Scootaloo landed next to her and the girl hopped up to high five the girl that now towered over her in the Bat exoskeleton.

“You got here just at the right time, Vinyl.” Twilight said, hugging her now that the calm had settled as the fighting calmed down to clearing out the remaining scattered drones. It had been a week since they last saw each other. “You said Emerald is here and with Fluttershy?” She asked, stepping back.

“We can talk about that later when we’re still not in danger. Dash, is it? You guys are amazing.” Vinyl said, turning to the girl in the exoskeleton.

“Yeah, you too. Not many Chasers can say they took out two Manticore units, let alone as easily as you did. I’ve gotta go and help finish cleaning up and recovering our dead. AJ, any idea how many we lost in the militia? We’ve got reports of thirteen lost fliers of the weather core and the wonderbolts combined.” Dash said, first kneeling down to bump fists with Vinyl and then turn to Applejack.

“We don’t know exacts, but looks like we only lost a dozen and a half. We’ll miss em and their families sure as hell will, but at least we know they died protecting their home. A lot more would have died if you haven’t showed up, Miss Vinyl.” Applejack explained as Dash took off again, heading towards where the large wreck of the Dragon was still burning. There were already people in SPIKE systems using large energy lances to cut through the hull of the thing and some Bats there to pry plates off or lift heavy things when needed.

“They took the most casualties, so many injured… Half of their total force was on that Dragon Carrier…” Scootaloo said softly as all of the fighting stopped. They all stayed silent for a little while, looking over the battlefield littered with drone corpses. the dead of the Militia were being carefully lined up under large blankets of fabric along the wall while the Wonderbolts and the weather core pulled dead, dying and hurt from the Dragon and the Bats that had been shot down. They were carried up to the dragon that was now entering an easily accessible distance above the city.

“Here in Ponyville we still burn our dead on a funeral pyre, one for every soul lost. I had better go and prepare for it.” Applejack said. Pinkie went with her, the previously hyperactive girl now very calm and visibly saddened by the aftermath.

“Wonderbolts take their losses out on a shuttle raft, you know; the ones that actually go on water, and line them up in their flight suits. They’re given a gun salute from Spitfire’s Dragon there, one for each life lost, and then it’s burned.” Scootaloo explained softly.

“Fitting, for ones who so resemble Valkyrie.” Vinyl said. Scootaloo said nothing for a little while before shooting off into the air to go help them.

“Thank you again for coming, we would have lost so many more lives if it weren’t for you… If I never told you, this is where I lived until I joined the chasers. This is my home, sometimes even more so than the manor back in Canterlot. And because of you, we were all able to protect it.” Twilight explained very softly, to the point where Vinyl would have had to strain to hear it if she hadn’t had enhanced hearing. She smiled and clasped the girl’s shoulder.

“You’ve told me, and I’m glad to help protect anything so important to you.” She said. Twilight smiled back before looking back towards the city.

“It’s going to be a lot of work to clear this and repair the wall. The wall the construction crews can handle, but we Chasers and the militia are tired after fighting for so long. We’re all exhausted. Now that it’s safe, we need to get a lot of hands to help. First, though, I want to go check on Fluttershy and the wounded. You said your sister was there with her?” Twilight explained. Vinyl nodded and they mounted their Spectres and turned them towards the city.
> Chapter Eight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a day of relative silence after the battle, people working to repair the walls and clear the battlefield. The funeral pyres took place in the center of town, a total of twenty pyres in a circle. The weather corps and and wonderbolts held their viking-style funeral on a large river leading into the Everfree, their losses amounted to twenty-five.

Those who fought returned to their homes or went out to try and enjoy themselves and rest. Vinyl and the others had met up with Emerald and Fluttershy, both nearly covered in blood of the injured, and after they did what they could for everyone they proceeded to one of Ponyville’s bathhouses to clean the gore and grime from them and to relax in the springs.

“Damn, I dislocated it a few times and it’s still sore…” Applejack said to herself as he held her right shoulder and stretched it out.

“Well no kidding, you just bowled them all over with that shield.” Rarity said.

“Hey, you try firing a cannon like the ones we carry with nothing to counter the recoil, they can blow your arms out of their sockets if you’re not careful.” Dash retorted. Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Oh come on guys, we all did well and we all had a bit of bad stuff happen to us out there, it’s a battle.” Pinkie said happily, despite her hands that how now scarred over major burns from how hot her chaingun gets after long enough.

“I’m always a little guilty whenever we all work together like that, since I’m almost always out of the fight giving you guys support.” Rarity said.

“Sniper cover is one of the most important kind of support one can have, Rarity.” Fluttershy said softly, staring at where there were still a few crimson stains on her hands. 

“Yeah, they get to see the battlefield from a bit of a ways back so they can react better than the people in the battle too, and they rely on you to help protect them from things they can’t see.” Emerald agreed.

“Well sniper support or no, I think we owe this battle to you fliers, those Bats and that Dragon completely decimated their forces and ripped that Ursa to shreds.” Vinyl said. Dash grinned.

“Well that’s what we’re supposed to do, but really we owe it to you. With that Ursa an unknown factor and those two Manticores watching the skies we couldn’t get close. You took them apart like scrap metal, and you and Twi distracting that Ursa and managing to somewhat disable it with that artillery fire was amazing. Most of our losses were when that first Dragon was shot down and from pilots not being able to get out of their downed Bats in time before they burned to death. If they would have shot down Spitfire’s Dragon, the flagship, we would have lost so many more.” Dash explained.

“Your timing really was impeccable.” Twilight agreed. The rest gave their agreement too.

“Not to mention Emerald’s help treating the injured, there’s just no way I would have been able to save so many lives alone. She really knows what she’s doing.” Fluttershy said, smiling at the green haired girl. They remained silent for a little while longer before Vinyl thought of something.

“Hey, Twilight. We’re here because those Seekers wanted to get that drone Spike back, where is he anyways?” She asked. 

“He’s currently at the wall making sure the repairs go well. By the time we’re done here he should be back home so you can meet him. I think you’ll like him, and he’ll definitely like you. He’ll beg you to scan and examine your systems and give you upgrades.” Twilight explained, chuckling lightly. That interested Vinyl.

“Should I let him?” Vinyl asked. Twilight shrugged.

“The thing is quite the little charmer by the way, especially if you know a thing or two about augmentation and Cybermancy.” Rarity chimed in.

“He and Twi developed the SPIKE systems, which is what we based our Bats off of. At least off of the prototypes and concepts they had a long time ago.” Dash said. Vinyl wanted to meet this boy now. But for now she resigned to continue relaxing, the battle may have been somewhat short for her; but it was still exhausting. Emerald had actually falling asleep, as had Fluttershy, keeping the dying from doing just that was not easy work.

---

“Spike, you here?” Twilight called when she, Vinyl and Emerald entered the unusually placed large tree that was a home. 

“Yeah, downstairs.” A young voice came over what seemed to be an intercom at the door. “I’m guessing they’re Vinyl and Emerald?” The voice continued.

“I’ll introduce you in person.” Twilight said. Vinyl was fascinated by the laboratory-like structures and objects just scattered around the place.

“Downstairs is the workshop, Spike is probably the best Biometal technician alive, and he’s a full independant. We don’t even really know anything about him before we found him, but he’s a lot like you.” Twilight explained as they made their way down the stairs.

They entered a massive chamber, almost a chasm, that was like one of those cliche underground laboratories. They found Spike waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. He was shorter than Vinyl. but they met eyes and stared at each other.

Spike’s false flesh looked like it had scales all along it, and he had major draconic features. His eyes were slit pupiled, but Vinyl saw something in them. Something that a Drone could never replicate. 

“You’re no drone…” Vinyl said. 

“I wouldn’t know, I don’t remember. But you’re definitely not, even though you look a lot like I do.” The draconic boy reply.

“How can you tell he’s not an independant drone?” Twilight asked.

“What made you think that I wasn’t going to try and kill you once you put your gun away when we first met?” Vinyl retorted. Twilight smiled lightly and nodded. “Your eyes, they have life behind them. Not even the Seekers that were once human have that when they’re brainwashed and indoctrinated.” She continued.

“Do you know how much of you is biometal?” Spike asked, a glint in his eyes.

“Almost all of me.” VInyl replied.

“Wanna find out the exacts?” The boy offered. Vinyl smiled.

“Maybe another time, I think we can have a rather interesting time together. For now, though, I have a secondary objective I need to uphold.” Vinyl said.

“The interrogation? But we couldn’t risk trying to spare some of them.” Twilight asked.

“I had Dash ask her commander, Spitfire, for scans of the area and I managed to find where I think they came from. It’s small, so it was probably just where they amassed, but there may be something there we can use.” Vinyl explained.

“How exactly does one interrogate a Seeker if they don’t want to be interrogated…?” Spike asked. Vinyl grinned.

“You’ll find out soon enough, after all for this mission I’ll be wanting some overwatch if that’s alright with you. Twilight, you and I will be going in. Emerald, you’ll stay back with Spike and provide sniper overwatch support while he gives us technical.” Vinyl said.

“Oh, a mission. It’s been a while since I’ve gone out on the field.” Spike said happily.

“Happy to help.” Twilight said. 

“Thank you.” Vinyl said with a smile. “I’ll be ready whenever you are, I imagine you don’t want to leave right this very second.” She continued.

“I would like to make sure everyone is alright…” Twilight said.

“I’ll need to prepare a couple things, I dunno how long Twi’ll take but I’ll be maybe an hour.” Spike said. Vinyl nodded to him and looked at Twilight. 

“About the same for me, give or take.” She agreed. 

“Well what are we going to do until then?” Emerald asked. Vinyl looked down at her and shrugged. 

“Why don’t you guys take a look around here? Plenty of experimental augments and weapons that could use some testing.” Spike suggested. 

“I don’t think we’ll be taking anything experimental on a mission like this, but some of the prototypes are interesting. I’ll be back in a little while.” Twilight said, making for the stairs.

“Yeah I guess. If you wanna know what something is just ask me.” Spike said as he sat down at the larger workshop and began manipulating a holographic console. Vinyl and Emerald looked at each other and then at the wide array of different interesting things to look at.
> Chapter Nine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vinyl looked through the scope of her rifle, Twilight fitting silencers on her handguns and preparing a series of blades, as Emerald did the same. Spike was plugged in to Emerald through her forearm panel, which had taken a bit of coaxing and explaining, and was manipulating a portable version of his holographic computer. He was giving them active readings and scanning results. His readings and scans were through Twilight, which he already had a connection to, Emerald through the wired connection, as well as Vinyl through their connection.

“Looks like they don’t have much left in terms of guards. You guys really devastated them.” Spike said over their radio frequency.

“Unless you can hack into their databases directly and give us exacts, I’m still treating this like we’re not seeing them all.” Vinyl said.

“Agreed. We will actually be able to hack into their databases, I just need to find any kind of access point.” Twilight said. Emerald watched the two cautiously move up from her perch on the crest of a hill nearby. 

“You got a silencer and flash guard, Emerald?” Vinyl asked.

“Already attached and working.” Emerald answered.

“Good, there are three drones ahead. Me and Twilight have the two outermost, you take the one in the middle. I’ll trust you with the timing.” Vinyl explained. There were a few moments before the two in front of the small facility acted and the timing was impeccable. An arrow ripped the head off of one drone, two small holes went through one’s head and the last’s lost a sizable chunk of the back of its head to Emerald’s shot. Their bodies hit the ground at the same time and the two were already moving, Vinyl on the ceiling and Twilight in the shadows.

“Switching you to scanner view, we’ve lost eyes on you guys now.” Spike said. Emerald blinked a few times as her scope’s view phased into schematic-like lines. She slowly began to make sense of it, able to read the moving lines and make out the shapes of everything in scanning range.

“What are those cones of static?” Emerald asked. The two froze where they were, about to turn the corner.

“Cones of sight for any kind of security cameras and observation devices. Uploading to yours HUD maps now guys.” Spike said.

Vinyl and Twilight now saw the cones, as well as what parts of the facility they had scanned, and looked at each other. There was maybe one blind spot in the next corridor and it was about the size of a rat.

“Are there any kind of ventilation systems around here?” Vinyl asked.

“I’m not to keen on the idea of crawling through the vents, Vinyl…” Twilight said.

“It’s too small for you guys anyways, but I’ll put them up anyways.” Spike said. They were very narrow indeed, maybe big enough for them to crawl into and hide but not maneuver at all. They’d be stuck in second.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any chaffee, would you?” Twilight asked jokingly.

“I doubt it.” Vinyl said as she notched an arrow into her bow and watched the arcs and cones of the cameras moving. 

“See a pattern?” Twilight asked. Vinyl answered by, in the blink of an eye, loosing an arrow down the corridor and with similar speed ducked back behind the corner. The sound of rending metal and electrical equipment sparking told them that she hit and one of the larger cones fizzled out. This left a much more generous blindspot.

“Did you really just do that?” Emerald asked. Vinyl chuckled and took a few steps back. She had shot the arrow in the incredibly narrow blind spot generated by the camera’s arcs.

“I’m going to need you to hold on to me, Twilight, there’s only one way the both of us are getting past this and it won’t be gentle.” Vinyl said, holding her hand out to the girl. Twilight nodded and took the hand, to which she was practically tossed and held piggy-back style.

“You’re lighter than I thought.” Vinyl said with a little laugh before she shot forward and used her grappling hook to launch herself towards the ceiling. Before she hit it, though, she retracted the hook and shot it into the wall diagonally towards the end of the corridor, kicking off of the wall next to her, and repeated until she was standing in the one static blindspot.

“Do me a favor and plug into there so I can hack into them.” Spike said, indicating on their HUD a port that had the old connection ripped out by Vinyl’s arrow. Twilight, boosted by Vinyl still, pulled a disposable connector from a pocket and plugged it in. Within seconds the cones of view disappeared and Twilight dropped from Vinyl’s grip.

“Well that was fun, let’s never do it again.” Twilight said with a laugh. Vinyl chuckled in return as she drew her bow once again.

“I’m limited to all of their security, but looking at all of the security recordings and live feeds there really aren’t all that many. There’s a few blocks I’ll have to crack to get in deeper, but this place is a lot bigger on the inside…” Spike explained as their maps updated to reveal a massive underground section.

“Oh great… any idea on any personnel of importance?” Vinyl asked.

“All Seeker agents went down or haven’t returned, according to security databases, but there are a few independant drones that might still be here. One of them is under a bunker of blocks so I’ll crack it as you go and update you when I get through.” Spike answered.

“Sound important. Any idea where any servers we can give you easier access to what you’re restricted to?” Twilight asked. Spike answered by updating their maps with an objective.

“I’ll start using these objective markers and pathing suggestions as I find anything of importance.” He said.

“Thank you love.” Twilight said.

“Let’s hope they don’t have any more Ursa or Manticores anywhere…” Vinyl said lowly as the most recent wave of scans revealed Seeker agents in the next room. They were maintaining gear and making sure it all worked.

Vinyl and Twilight soundlessly prepared to take them out, but were interrupted as another entered the room. He looked troubled.

“Hey, I lost feed from one of the cameras. Can one of you go and check on it?” He asked.

“There’s at least five cameras in that one hallway, unless they can walk on the ceiling or something then nothing is going to get in here without you seeing.” One of the two retorted. THe newcomer grumbled but they all froze as the tiniest chunk of stone impacted the ground between them. They looked up and were too startled by Vinyl there to reach for their weapons.

Twilight put holes in the two that were there and Vinyl dropped down, forearm blade first, and skewered the Seeker.

“You’re covered in blood again…” Twilight said. Vinyl shrugged and they were both startled at the sound of metal colliding with metal.

“Guys we’ve got a big signature coming your way,” Emerald said.

“Looks too big to be an agent, but not as big as a Manticore… be careful guys.” Spike confirmed. A door opened down the corridor and there was a voice.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You’re acting like someone’s died in the next room.” The voice said. There was a Seeker agent leading what looked like a biometal lycanthrope, a Timberwolf. As they entered the corridor they froze. It was a split second before he was blindsided by Vinyl, the force of her strike strong enough to knock even a Seeker agent unconscious. The Timberwolf yelled in range and swiped at her, but staggered as the back calves of its legs were blown apart by Twilight’s handguns.

Vinyl put bullets of her own into the thing’s face, blinding it temporarily, and the two disappeared. Vinyl attached to the ceiling while Twilight made for the room where the third agent that had entered came from, attempting to establish a connection to the database for Spike. The thing screamed in rage again as its from legs were pinned to the ground by arrows and the torso was cut from the back legs with a plunging attack, earning a scream of pain and fury.

“If you can try and interrogate this thing, Vinyl. Timberwolves have been recorded as mobile databases and sometimes even officers.” Spike said. Twilight returned to the room to find the thing in the state that it was in, screaming and snapping at Vinyl, as the girl walked over to the unconscious Seeker agent.

“After him.” She simply said. Twilight was curious as to how Vinyl would ‘interrogate’ the man, but that curiosity turned into morbid fascination as a sort of black spike extended from the girl’s wrist and she impaled the man’s head on it.

“Is that a data leech?” Twilight asked.

“It’s more than that, by the readings I’m getting here. Anything useful, Vinyl?” Spike said.

“Useful to the Chasers, but not to my personal agenda.” Vinyl said, tossing the lifeless husk away and turning to the Timberwolf. She caught its front leg as it practically tore the thing from the arrow pinning it down and in one fluid motion stabbed the leech into the thing’s skull. This one had a visible effect on Vinyl. She staggered back after a moment, holding her head.

“Information overload?” Twilight asked, a little worried. The girl shook her head.

“It… It recognized me… It knew me from the collective Timberwolf database, and I know where to find the one I need to find the answers I want…” She replied.

“Well you might want to get the hell out of there, there’s what looks like a patrol returning. Seven drones, two agents and a Manticore.” Emerald said.

“Wait, what’s that?” Spike asked. Their communications, and their connections, abruptly cut off then and it scared the two.

“They must be jamming us… I can still feel Spike so they’re still alive…” Twilight said after a few moments. “We need to get out of here as quickly and as quietly as possible. When they see these bodies they’ll be looking for us…” She continued, reloading her weapons. 

“Then follow me.” Vinyl said. When Twilight nodded they sprinted back to where they came. The cameras were active again, but Vinyl didn’t want to have to deal with them so she destroyed them with one sweep of her blade. She proceeded to kick at the vent grating they had noticed before and inclined her head to Twilight.

“They’re coming, stay completely silent no matter what.” Vinyl said. Twilight didn’t argue as she slid the dented grating off of its place, slid into the tight alcove and Vinyl replaced it. She lost sight of the girl then, though by the repeated noise and the sound of her grappling hook it sounded like she had entered one in the ceiling. 

“It’s about to get really dark and most of our augments will be jammed so you won’t be able to see.” Vinyl’s voice came over their local radio frequency.

“Why?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll explain later, just trust me and don’t come out of there no matter what. Not until I say.” Vinyl voice came in response. Twilight said nothing, but she wouldn’t disobey the sudden commands as the lights went out and a dim glow revealed flashlights at the edge of the corridor.

“Someone’s definitely here. Spread out, our low light vision is being jammed. Keep the lights on everything you can.” A voice called. There was a very light clang in one of the walls, quickly followed by a hail of fire.

“Don’t be so jumpy!” The voice from before yelled. There was the clang again, and again. It was almost a rhythm. It started getting louder, and it sounded like it was coming from behind where Twilight assumed they were.

There was a screeching sound of rending metal and several yells of surprise. Twilight saw a flash of blood splatter on a wall, someone just got hit by one of Vinyl’s arrows. There was another hail of fire, but to no avail.

“What the fuck! What exactly are we dealing with here?” Someone yelled, apparently the blood spatter belonged to the one who talked before. There was the sound of a grate being smashed open, followed immediately by the sound of said grate impacting one of them and then the sound of rending biometal the blood spattering against walls. The hail of fire swiftly dwindled down as Twilight had to twist awkwardly to avoid lying in the blood that had started pooling in front of the grate- which was seeping through. It looked sickening, white and black in varying shades all mixed together.

“It’s safe now, Twilight.” Vinyl’s voice rasped. Twilight recognized that tone of voice, it was pain. She kicked the grate open and did as best she could to rush out of it to find Vinyl leaning against a wall. She was covered in gore, biomechanical or otherwise, but Twilight rushed to her side when she slumped down the wall. Some of it was hers.

“Why did you take them all out on your own?! I thought we were going to hide from them!” Twilight exclaimed, attempting to look the girl over, who was taking very quick rasping breaths. Her eyes were half closed, but she was alive.

“I didn’t want you getting hurt, and I just felt the need to deal with them… You didn’t see what I saw through those two Seekers…” Vinyl rasped, shakily getting to her feet. Twilight gasped in horror when the girl looked up to find that her hair was hiding the remains of what used to be the girl’s right eye. One of her arms looked to be in biometal tatters, too.

“Don’t worry, I can replace an eye, I was lucky it was a reflection and stopped before going into my head…” Vinyl attempted to assure her, but instead just stumbled and slipped on the floor now slick with blood. Twilight caught her and threw the girl’s unmolested arm over her shoulder. She felt her connections with Spike slowly return.

“Whoa… What happened while we were jammed?” Spike’s voice asked. “Emerald? Oh, right…” He continued. Twilight could hear Emerald’s horrified gasp.

“Spike, we’re going to need a medivac.” Twilight said.

“Quickly, if you don’t mind… Looks like you’ll get to play around with my augments after all Spike, I’ll need tuneups and replacements.” Vinyl said. Twilight started helping her back to where they came.

“Already on it!” Dash’s voice, surprisingly, came.

“Dash and a few of the Wonderbolts arrived right as the Chariot that was jamming us arrived, they tore it apart and we dealt with the rest of the patrols. I guess what went inside kind of tore you up, though.” Spike explained. Vinyl said nothing, now trying to concentrate on staying conscious. This scared Twilight, but not as much as the corridor. She remembered it being rather pristine, now it was literally dripping with gore and there were holes in the walls. These ranged from small arms fire to big enough for a person to leap out of.

“I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was I’m glad you’re alive…” Emerald’s voice came over the radio softly. Vinyl gave a single breath of a chuckle.

“Hey, it probably looked pretty cool at least.” She said. She was silent after that.

“Vinyl?” Twilight asked.

“Is she alright?” Emerald asked, scared. Twilight didn’t answer, she wasn’t sure.

“Guys her vitals aren’t looking too good.” Spike said, getting his scans back online.

“Vinyl?!” Twilight exclaimed when the girl tumbled from her grasp. They were at the doorway into the facility. Vinyl’s remaining eye was closed and it was always hard to tell if the girl was breathing or not.

“They just dipped a lot.” Spike informed them.

“Give her here!” A surprisingly authoritative voice nearly commanded over the radio. Twilight looked up to see Dash and another flyer in formation with her. The second one dived down, quickly landing and kneeling down on her bat. There was a pod big enough to hold a person along the front of the Bat there and there were prominent red crosses painted on the thing.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. The medic nodded and Twilight didn’t hesitate to hand Vinyl up to be secured in the pod.

“Hop on.” The girl said. Twilight nodded and stepped up into the thing’s arm, which returned to its place in the wing where she was secured. Spike and Emerald were similarly secured on Dash’s and with a brief feeling of inertia they were in the air shooting towards Ponyville.
> Chapter Ten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their escort broke off when they reached the city, returning to the landed Dragon, and they went straight for the hospital. Spike had Dash drop him off at his workshop so she and Emerald were a few seconds behind as Fluttershy was already out of the Bat and was with a group of nurses wheeling Vinyl on a stretcher. Twilight followed closely and Emerald caught up, Dash giving her best wishes before taking off again.

“I don’t really know how much we can do, she’s almost completely Biometal. What little flesh and blood she has we can’t get to.” Fluttershy said as they rushed through the facility.

“Spike’s on his way with some gear, he knows how to fix her he said.” Emerald said. She looked like she had hardened up, with a rather passive face, but her tone and how she sort of trudged alongside the stretcher showed that she was incredibly worried.

They had been waiting for about two minutes, just outside of a room where Fluttershy and other medics and surgeons were working on her, when Spike arrived with a mobile workshop. They pointed him in and watched through the observatory windows.

---

“She’ll live, and she’ll be fine after a while… She’s tough as all hell. We found artificially formed flesh and organs in her body, if anything of hers is actually hers it’s her brain… and even then, it’s encased in a Biomechanical one.” Spike said to Twilight and Emerald when he finally came out of the operation room.

“Artificially formed? If they were going to use real flesh and blood why didn’t they just use hers?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, you know how fucked up Seekers are. I need to go take a nap, that was 17 solid hours of work… They’ll be taking her to my workshop once she’s stable enough to do so and I’ll fix her up real nice.” He replied with a tired tone.

“There a chance of you giving me some upgrades?” Emerald asked softly. They both looked at her.

“Once we fix up your sister we can have a look at you. For now, I need to go sleep.” Spike answered. They both hugged him, which he smiled to and returned it.

“You’re the best, you know that? First you turn me into a badass and then you save one of my best friends’ life.” Twilight said with a tired laugh.

“Yeah, I try. You sound like you need some sleep too. Emerald, you’re welcome to poke around my workshop while I’m out, just don’t mess anything up or you’ll be fixing it.” Spike said. Emerald nodded when she stepped back and the other two left together; Twilight agreeing that she needed some sleep as well.

Emerald looked through the window again, where a new shift of surgeons and medics were working on whatever it is they were doing to help stabilize her sister. 

“She’ll be alright. Emerald.” Fluttershy’s soft voice came from behind her. She turned around to where the weary-eyed girl was drying her hands off. Vinyl’s nearly black blood still stained her clothes, though.

“I know… but… This is the first time I’ve seen her in a month, and I was supposed to be here to help her… and all I could do is sit outside where my supporting fire couldn’t reach. She almost died, and I can’t help but think it would have gone differently if I was with her instead of outside.” Emerald explained to the Medic.

“I heard the story from Twilight and Spike, and one thing I know for sure is that it most certainly would have gone differently. Vinyl probably wouldn’t have made it back, neither would you or Twilight or even Spike. According to him, your spotting and covering fire is the reason he was able to help the other two out so well without danger of getting shot in the back.” Fluttershy reassured the girl.

“Really?” She asked.

“Of course. A lot of people think that someone who stays back and supplies covering fire is next to useless, but it’s the opposite. Especially something as powerful as sniper cover. I can’t even remember how many times my life has been saved while trying to help someone because a sniper protected me from far away. If they tunnel vision down their sights, like a lot of soldiers tend to do, then they tunnel vision half of the battlefield- which isn’t tunnel vision at all.” Fluttershy continued. She let out a rather impressive yawn, then, and her posture slumped a little.

“You’re exhausted, you should go get some sleep like the others.” Emerald said with a smile, Fluttershy’s words obviously helping her mood. Fluttershy giggled and held her hand out.

“Well you’re exhausted too, a hospital waiting room is no place to sleep. I’ll be alerted when they move her, so if you stay with me to rest then you’ll be the first to know.” She offered. Emerald smiled and accepted the hand.

---

It was a whole week before Vinyl woke up, and when she did she seemed… off. It wasn’t because of the various tweaks and upgrades Spike gave her, it was more like the girl herself. What she was inside of that husk of biometal. She seemed exactly the same except for that one thing, that thing was the sort of presence she gave off.

Before it could only be described as Vinyl, but now it was ever so slightly different. It was as if someone had taken Vinyl’s very being as if it was a physical object, turned his back and then replaced it where he found it. You couldn’t see anything different at all, but you could just feel that something wasn’t the same.

This made Emerald wary about having Spike give her modifications and upgrades, fearing that had something to do with it, but eventually she went through with it. She was nearly on VInyl’s level now, except all of her insides were her own.

Vinyl, Emerald and Twilight were on a bus back in Canterlot, heading towards the location for their latest mission. It was a simple infiltration mission, for Vinyl and Emerald to get used to their new augments and the likes.

“Right there, see him?” Vinyl asked, nodding her head to where a man was in an alleyway when they got off of the bus.

“That’s our informant?” Twilight asked. Vinyl nodded and the other two followed her as they walked into the alleyway.

“I don’t like this.” Emerald said lowly.

“Good, then you’ve noticed.” Vinyl replied darkly. This man that was supposed to be a Seeker double agent wasn’t the only one here. There were maybe half a dozen Seeker agents on the rooftops above.

“Is it just you then?” The man asked. Vinyl nodded and he motioned for them to follow with his head as he started down the alley, which would under normal circumstances mean he wanted to make sure they couldn’t be overheard by heading to a more isolated part of the intersections that made up the narrow alley. Considering they could all just barely hear the movement above, though, it meant that he was leading them into a better ambush spot.

“Do you have the information?” Twilight asked.

“I do.” The man replied simply.

“Hand it over then, you know you’re being watched.” Vinyl said with a rather demanding tone, holding her hand out for the data chip that held the information they needed.

“Sorry ladies, but I’m afraid it’s you who’s being watched.” He said, turning around and unholstering a weapon from a hidden holster. He didn’t even have a chance to see what he would have assumed to be looks of surprise before Vinyl’s data leech was in his skull.

“I’ll just have that information then, thank you.” She said darkly and flung his now lifeless husk up, colliding with an agent that was dropping down to attack her. She followed it up with an arrow from her bow, which she had been drawing as she interrogated the traitorous double agent, and pinned the Seeker to the wall. A quick series of gunshots and the sounds of rending flesh and metal left them dusting themselves off as they exited the alleyway.

“Got it Spike?” Vinyl asked, Spike being their ‘eyes in the sky’ from the mansion’s connection with the city databases. She sent the leached information to him.

“Yep, I’ll have everything you need by the time you get there.” He replied, updating their maps with the coordinates and a path to their objective. They pulled up the garage doors on the storage units across the street, which they had prepared the previous day, and found their Spectres just as they left them.

“You’re getting better at close quarters, Emerald, I’m glad.” Vinyl said with a smile as they rode.

“Thanks, I’m learning from you. I’m still figuring out all of the new upgrades though.” Emerald replied.

“You should have seen me, even after Twilight found me. I was figuring out new things by accident all the time. Almost killed somebody with them half the time, like when I figured out about my reinforced forearm blades.” Vinyl said lightheartedly. 

“I can imagine, I almost set my face on fire this morning…” The younger girl said, earning a chuckle from the other two.

“This may be simple, guys, but according to the databases there’s some Seekers of importance there so you’re in for a fight if you get caught.” Spike’s voice warned.

“I think we can handle anything they can throw at us.” Vinyl replied.

“Probably, but still. I’d rather not have to fight manticores or an ursa today.” Twilight said as they shot off towards their destination.

“I know you don’t like it all that much, Emerald, but I’m going to ask you to give us sniper cover here. Most of your augments are for it and medical support.” Vinyl said when they arrived and made their way to the rooftops around the small complex.

“I know… I’ll be joining you once you’ve secured a point of entry though. I have a lot of CQC augments and I am your medic.” The girl replied. Vinyl smiled and put a hand on her head before nodding to Twilight. The two of them silently made their way towards the complex as Spike’s voice sounded in Emerald’s ear.

“You been able to pinpoint it yet?” He asked. Emerald shook her head and set up her rifle.

“It has something to do with the Timberwolves, Twilight said she started feeling it after she interrogated one. If I come across one I’ll be sure to do the same.” The girl explained. Spike said nothing in reply and focused on Twilight and VInyl as they found a way into the complex.

---

“Target of interest in the next room as well as four drones and two agents. There is a point of entry here where you can get Emerald in easily too.” Spike’s voice came over their radio as the two prepared to breach a room.

“Can you mark them for us?” Twilight asked as they readied their handguns. Faint static outlines appeared through the door and walls then. Two of them were red and one was blue. The two nodded and they kicked the door open. two pairs of gunfire had the drones on the ground, a few more and the sound or rending metal had the agents on the ground- one decapitated- and finally a few bursts had the target of importance on the ground with blown out kneecaps and Vinyl’s data leech in his skull.

“Vinyl?” Twilight said softly, noticing that Vinyl’s expression and demeanor went totally blank. The Seeker fell to the ground in full with a thud as the data leech retracted.

“Is something wrong?” Emerald asked.

“I’m not sure, you’re good to get in here through the outer door now. You should take a look at her.” Twilight replied as she turned to unlock and crack open said door. When she turned around she froze, Vinyl was so close they were barely touching. Twilight jumped a little, she’d never seen Vinyl move so silently and wasn’t feeling any sort of presence from her like she usually did.

“Vinyl? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. Emerald entered quickly and silently closed the door as Spike’s voice sounded.

“Guys, something’s wrong with Vinyl. I’m getting unfamiliar readings from her systems, it’s like she’s not there anymore.” The Draconic boy said over the radio.

“Emerald, get ready for the most difficult fight of your life…” Twilight said, unsheathing a blade as Vinyl’s forearm blade slowly extended. Her eyes were distinctly cerulean, not the normal crimson.
> 10.5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emerald could only watch in horror as Vinyl tried to kill Twilight and Twilight could only defend herself. The fight wasn’t quiet by any means, and soon Spike was warning them about incoming Seekers. One of them was a target of importance, and so Emerald moved to intercept them.

“I’ll be fine, and I won’t kill her!” Twilight said to her while pushing Vinyl back. Emerald nodded and quickly made her way into the next room to intercept the newcomers. She had a single high powered magnum and it made short work of the drones, but there were agents and the target of importance was a Timberwolf. It seemed to almost be laughing as the sounds of the fight raging on in the other room came through the door.

“You know something about what just happened…” Emerald said to herself more than anything and glared at the Timberwolf. It grinned and the agents charged her. She was fueled by anger and determination now, though, she needed all the information that Timberwolf had. She had forearm blades of her own, and she put them to use.

She sliced one’s kneecaps, causing him to drop to the ground, kicked another in the chest and put a bullet into the first’s head. Jumping over an attempt to trip her she landed on the one she had kicked over and threw him at the one that had pulled out a firearm and the thing was knocked out of his hands. In one swift motion she picked the thing up and put holes into the two, leaving one agent and the Timberwolf. 

She slid under a lunge from the Timberwolf and threw the taken firearm at the last seeker and put a bullet into his head with her magnum when he tried to dodge it and quickly slid around to face the Timberwolf. She could only brace herself as it tackled her through the door into the room where Twilight and Vinyl had their blades locked. Neither of them reacted as they exploded into action again as Emerald rolled over onto her feet and faced the Timberwolf.

Emerald and the Timberwolf glanced over for a second when they heard a scream of pain to find Vinyl missing her left arm. Emerald gasped, but quickly reacted as she dodged another lunge from the Timberwolf. She put a bullet into it, though it didn’t seem to slow down at all as it dodged the next and lunged at her again. She twisted over it and sliced at its back. She put another two shots into it before it dodged again. 

She reloaded, antagonizing another lunge, and quickly twisted around the thing as it did as she expected. It was the Timberwolf’s turn to scream in pain as it’s front right foreleg was lopped off. Another three bullets caused the other foreleg to buckle and she removed all of the thing’s limbs. Vinyl yelled in pain again as her other arm was sliced off and Twilight pinned her to the ground. The timberwolf was laughing again as its eyes gained a cerulean tint and it matched its gaze with Vinyl’s. The struggling girl suddenly stopped and her eyes stopped glowing, void of all color.

“What did you just do?!” Emerald nearly screamed at the disabled thing. It only continued laughing before screaming for her to kill it.

“Guys, her brain still has some activity let but its fading fast. I don’t know what happened or why it happened but there was a sudden spark of activity and then nothing.” Spike’s voice came. There was a moment of silence.

“She’s dead?” Emerald asked as Twilight got off of the husk of biometal that used to be Vinyl. Spike didn’t reply. Twilight gained a horrified expression and Emerald felt like crying, but she couldn’t right now. Quickly she stepped up to Vinyl’s body. Twilight let out a yell when the girl stabbed the lifeless skull with her data leech.

“If there’s brain activity left then I can leech the data stored in her brain…” Emerald said coldly. 

“Good thinking… I’m getting something.” Spike’s voice came. The Timberwolf on the other side of the room start yelling again as Emerald stood up. She gave it a cold look, her data leech dripping with Vinyl’s blood, and walked towards it. The thing must have realized what it was and went quiet. As she got closer it looked as if it was trying to get away, but without hesitation she stabbed the leech through an eye. It went limp almost instantly.

It was a few moments before she stood up again, but when she did she turned to Twilight. Twilight saw hope on the girl’s face as tears streamed down it.

“What did you find?” Twilight asked, looking back at Vinyl’s corpse.

“That… All this time… that… thing… that thing isn’t Veronica. That thing is a prototype in seeker cloning technology. The seeker she interrogated was really a drone with an advanced indoctrination virus planted here to indoctrinate her mind again. It would have been temporary, but that Timberwolf was the one controlling it and he initiated a permanent shutdown in her brain. We managed to get at it before her memories and personality were deleted- she only lost all of her body functions…” Emerald explained. 

“I’ll get to work decrypting the rest of this information and compiling Vinyl’s mind. I’ll pinpoint where they’re keeping the real Vinyl.” Spike’s voice came.

“Thank you…” Emerald said softly. The girl was surprised when Twilight quickly pulled her into an embrace.

“We have to go now, before more Seekers come, but I promise you that we will get her back… I think I know what was off about her since that one day…” Twilight said as they quickly made their way out of the complex and onto their Spectres. Emerald took Vinyl’s.

“What is it?” Emerald asked.

“Maybe the information she took from the first Timberwolf showed her what you got from the one in there… Maybe she knew she wasn’t the real Vinyl, that she was just a copy…” Twilight answered.

“She was no copy…” Emerald said lowly. Twilight gave her a questioning look before they took off. “You should know this almost as well as she did… A person’s body doesn’t make them who they are. The information I recovered, the data, Veronica’s mind. Her personality. Her very being. That’s what I recovered, not just memories. Her body may have been artificial and replicated, but her mind was 100% Veronica. That’s why she wasn’t a copy.” Emerald continued. They were silent for a little while.

“You’re right… but I don’t think she thought the same way. She was always afraid she wasn’t the real her, and then she found out that her fears were technically true…” Twilight said, breaking the silence.

“You promised me we’ll get her back. I’m going to make sure in person and I’ll die before making either of us a liar.” Emerald said. Twilight nodded as they reached the mansion.