> Commander Twilight Sparkle’s Adventures through the Multi-verse
>  by Scorch215
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Not Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Twilight Sparkle walked into her room in Canterlot Castle and removed the tiara adorning her Cutie Mark and flung it across the room, smiling as it stuck the wall and clattered to the ground before scrubbing a hoof through her mane.

“You know you should treat your crown better Princess.” A voice that sounded like two different people speaking at once said behind the purple Alicorn.

Twilight turned and looked at the Changeling Queen as she walked into the room removing her beret and setting it to the side. “It’s not like it’s the actual Element, it’s a knock off.” Twilight said with annoyance. 

“Still it is your crown Princess.” Chrysalis said.

“Don’t you start calling me that too.” Twilight said with a glare.

“Calling you what Princess?” Chrysalis said with a completely innocent look on her face. Twilight just glared at her till the Changeling Queen chuckled. “Sorry I couldn’t resist Commander.”

“Thank you. “Commander Twilight Sparkle said. “I have to put up with that shit from the nobility and the civvies here in Canterlot; I won’t have my own second in commander doing it to.” Twilight said and scrubbed her hoof through her mane again before going over the bathroom and splashing some water in her face before looking at herself in the mirror.

The mare that stared back at her was slightly taller then she used to be when on four hooves and wearing gold regalia around her neck a slightly darker coloring then that which Princess Celesita wore, though there was a small purple six pointed star in the middle of the chest piece. On her hooves she wore the standard princess hoof coverings that matched the rest of her regalia that she hated wearing but needed to look the part of a Princess at certain events.

The left side of her face was a mass of small scares, though fades slightly were still easily seen by anyone who looked at her and down the right side of her face was a single slash from a blade. Running along her body was man other small scars, some slashes from blades, some small and round, some burns and other surgical, all faded slightly but still noticeable with ease, but the scars were not the first thing people who met the young Princess ever noticed. That right was reserved for her legs and eyes.

Both her eyes and all four of her legs were clearly not natural and were in fact made of what was once high grade steel, now something far tougher since her ascension to Alicornhood gave them an upgrade. The legs looked more like her legs and something she was still getting used to she was able to feel through them now where before she was completely numb, but yet she only felt pain up to a certain point then nothing so it was still like her old legs.

Her eyes were also unnatural just like her legs but they did look more natural then when she was a unicorn. Many people she met she caught staring at her as they tried to understand what they were seeing do to the fact the plant still had not reached the level of technology to make cybernetics like what she had. Many would then question where she got these and she always explained she got them on a trip somewhere that was hard to explain.

It wasn’t a lie, how do you explain to ponies who thought war was very small scale skirmishes where both sides take the other soldier as prisoners with stun spells and the like and death rarely happened. How do you explain what true war is where it’s kill or be killed while using technology far beyond what everyone else on the plant had back when she took the unwilling trip to a planet called Earth and joined a group of rebels fighting against a corrupt government in the year 2037.

That was where Twilight had learned what true war was and learned how the world really worked and abandoned the naive belief that there was good in everyone. Her time away taught her there were those that were irredeemable and needed to be removed from existents for the betterment of everyone.

Twilight sighed and shook her head to clear the thoughts of her past away.  She had bigger things to worry about then how she got to where she was. Grabbing a towel she dried her face and walked out to see Chrysalis reading a book. “So Queeny how much time do we have before the dinner for the delegates?” 

The Changeling Queen marked her place in the book and looked up. “Well I’d say about four hours, why?” she looked up at the smiling Alicorn. “Let me guess we are sneaking out of the castle again aren’t we?”

“You read my mind!” Twilight said throwing a fore leg around the changing and a moment alter they vanished in a flash of purple light and reappeared at the Equestrian Defense Force garrison in Canterlot, Twilight loved the booster her magic got from becoming an Alicorn as it made teleporting this distance easy as cleaning her side arm.

Twilight looked around a moment before she felt something placed on her head and reached up and pulled off the tiara. “The hell you grab this for?” She asked looking at her companion.

“Well you are a princess and since you are still wearing the rest of the outfit I figured might as well make it complete.” Chrysalis replied.

Twilight huffed. “You know both my uniform and armor are in my pocket dimension right?” she said but still put the tiara back on her head.

“I know but till you change your clothes you should look the part and seeing as where ever we are going it won’t be long before we need to return for the dinner so might as well stay dressed for it.” The Queen said.

Twilight huffed again. “I hate when you are right you know that Major?” Twilight asked using the Changeling’s military rank. It had been a long time since Twilight “recruited” the changelings into the EDF and made their queen her second command of the entire thing. Things had been rough at first due to the Changelings having a very bad reputation do to the incident are Twilight’s brother’s wedding but that was about fifty years ago and since then the changelings had done much to help protect the nation so most ponies had no issues with them now, though there were still pockets of racists but unless they did more than talk Twilight wasn’t allowed to do anything about them.

Twilight and the Major walked into the Garrison and past the soldier who stopped and saluted the two leaders of the army as they made their way to the helipads out back, both officers payed the soldiers no mind as stopping to salute back to every single one of them would be extremely time consuming and they were on a tight schedule.  As the two of them exited the building and walked out onto the helipads they made their way to a black EDF gunship that had two pilots, an earth pony and unicorn lounging beside it either reading a magazine or playing a hoofheld gamming device 

As the two approached one of the pilots looked up and quickly nudged his companion and they got to their hooves and saluted. “At ease.” Twilight said. “Mount up, we are taking a trip to the EMSD plateau and we are in a hurry. “She told them and the two pilots smile before dropping the dark visors their helmet shad over their eyes, they were used to their Commander sneaking out of the castle to escape the nobles or other political duties she now had.

Twilight used her magic to open the door to the crew compartment as the pilots climbed into the cockpit and her and the queen climbed inside. Once in Twilight shut the door and took a seat with a sigh of relief as she heard the blades start to spin up. 

Once they were in the air the Queen spoke up. “You know Twilight the Royal Guard is going to panic when they realize you are gone again.”

Twilight laughed. “Let them, not like they aren’t just for show when they are “guarding” me. That’s what you are for. “Twilight said and nudged the queen’s shoulder.

Chrysalis shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Be that as it may it still isn’t good to scare them like that.” She said and looked at the flat stare the Alicorn was giving her. “Right forgot who I was talking to for a moment.” She said and facehoofed. “You want them to panic so you can come back to the chaos and enjoy the show don’t you?”

“Hell yeah!” Twilight said with a laugh and patted the changeling Queen’s back.

Chrysalis just sighed and sat back in her harness as they flew through the air feeling the anticipation radiating off the mare beside her and joy at what they would return to. “What about Celestia and Luna?”

“Which ones?” Twilight asked.

“The bots.” The Queen elaborated.

“Oh I sent them a signal explaining I was taking a break so they don’t panic when word comes down that I am gone.” Twilight explained.

“You know that is still really hard to get used to.” Queeny said.

“Hey not my fault that whatever magic made me an Alcorn saw fit to make my brain implants actually part of it.” Twilight said with a chuckle. After she had ascended she had submitted herself to many medical exams with the aid of the Queen and found that the computer chips and circuit that allowed her to use her cybernetics had been altered so they no longer looked like foreign object on her brain but were now actually just another part of the mares brain like her cybernetics were, though she could still detach her legs to do maintenance on them.

After a little over an hour the two friends felt the gunship starting to descend and the speaker crackled to life. “Alright we are coming in to land, shouldn’t be more than a minute ma’am.” Came the pilot’s voice.

Twilight pressed the putted on the wall. “Alright, thank you Skies.” She said to confirm she had heard.

Sure enough after a few minutes the gunship touched down and passengers undid their harnesses before Twilight opened the door and they climbed out and stretched, the gunships were made to be efficient, not comfortable and sitting in the same spot for so long was very uncomfortable.

The two were met by the security chief, a Pegasus, for the Facility and a few of the security forces. “Ma’am we weren’t expecting you to be arriving today.” He said with a salute.

“At ease Lighthooves, I decided to do a surprise inspection today.” Twilight told him.

“Ah I see, nobles getting to you again I take it?” Lighthooves said with a smirk.

“Seriously does everyone think that? I can’t do a random inspection of one of my own facilities without it having something to do with the nobles?” Twilight said waving her forehooves in the air.

“Of course you can ma’am.” The security chief said face returning to the stoic professionalism all EDF soldier wore when on active duty.

Twilight nodded. “Now then lead the way to whatever tests are being done today.” She said with a wave of her hoof and a neutral expression. Maybe coming the EMSD Facility all the time to escape the nobles wasn’t such a good idea.

Lighthooves lead the way into the Equestrian Military Science Division Facility as the officer followed behind. After a few elevator trips they arrived at one of the labs and the Security Chief swiped his ID card to unlock the door. With several loud clicks and the sound of rushing air the door opened lightly and the Chief pushed the door open and the group walked inside.

The lab looked like many of the EMSD labs throughout the facility in that it was large with many tables and scatterings of equipment and a few of the Computer that had been developed right in these vary labs, they were nowhere near the computer Twilight was used to and had been trained on but they were still a computer, just basic and improvements were being researched all the time.

What set this one apart was on the far side of the room within the test chamber part of the room was some sort of large machine that looked like a massive generator with researchers moving around it checking readouts and adjusting dials.

“Ahem” Lighthooves cleared his throat to get the research teams attention. 

A dark blue unicorn mare looked up and blinked as she adjusted her glasses. “Oh my Commander! I wasn’t expecting to you be interested in my project.” She said as she set her clipboard to on a small table and made her way over.

“I take an interest in many projects Dr….”Twilight trailed off.

“Clear Mind Commander.” The Unicorn said with a smile. “I must say it is an honor to have one such as you taking an interest in my work.” She said and giggled nervously.

Twilight nodded. “Why don’t you tell me a little about your project?” Twilight prompted, truth be told she had no idea what the project was but there was no reason to tell Clear Mind that.

“Oh well I’m researching alternate forms of energy that will be cleaner and more powerful than our current generators.” Dr. Mind explained.

Twilight blinked. “That is very impressive if you have already reached testing stages.” She said looking at the large machine with interest.

The researcher nodded vigorously. “Yes we were just about to run the first test on the prototype, would you like to observe?”

“Absolutely.” Twilight said as she saw the rest of Clear Mind’s team clear the test chamber and seal the door behind them. The group passed out tinted goggled that were a requirement when testing do to an incident a few years back that resulted in an entire research team being permanently blinded when a  test went wrong and exploded in a flash of light.

Once everyone in the room was properly protected Clear Mind started to type on one of the computers and a few moments alter the machine in the test chamber started to come to life. “Ok…reading good so far, entering stage two.” She said and hit a few more keys.

As the group observed stage to active the machine rumbled more and started to vibrate and a few moment alter the air in the room started to vibrate as well as the machine started to glow in some areas. “Doctor is that supposed to happen?” Twilight asked as she looked at the researcher.

“No, no it’s not, it’s reacting to something. “She looked at the group and her eyes widened. “Commander you’re glowing.”

“What?” Twilight looked down and saw she was wrapped in a yellow aura she was all too familiar with. “Shut it down!” She yelled at the doctor.

“Shutting down. “The mare said and started typing. “Attempting shut down.” She said as the machine started to fire off electricity around the test chamber. “It’s not…it’s not shutting down!” Clear Mind yelled over the alarms that started to blare. 

“Everyone out now!” Twilight yelled and everyone started to head for the door a moment before the magically enforced glass of the test chamber shattered and bolt of magical electricity lanced out form the machine and struck the Commander and everyone looked on in a mix of shock and horror as she folded in on herself for with in a second and then vanished as the machine shuttered and then died as it released a puff of smoke.

The gathered ponies looked where the military leader had once stood till the Major sighed and ran a hoof down her face and said the one thing on her mind. “Not again.”
> City of the Dead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Princess of Friendship blinked as she took in her surroundings. This was defiantly not the lab back at the EMSD Facility, this certainly wasn’t. “Damnit, not this again. “She grumbled. The Alicorn found herself standing in the middle of a street in some city she didn’t recognize in the middle of the night, while this would be concerning in of itself the fact that a little ways up the street was a car pile up with a few of the cars burning and no signs of anyone around was more concerning to the mare. She turned up her augmented hearing but couldn’t hear any sirens to signal emergency services were on the way, what she did hear were occasional gunshot and screams.

Looking around she could see columns of smoke rising in the distances from what she could only assume were burning buildings. And not a sole was on the street to be seen and it was eerily quiet. “Ok….I’d say this city was in the middle of a war but there would be more gunshots and signs of battle.” She said out loud as she ran through what information she had as she returned her hearing to normal. She looked up. “No signs of air units either despite this looking like a modern city and judging by the cars, human.” She said as she looked around, the lack of animals or any sound at all except the occasional distant gunshot made the Princess’ skin crawl. She wanted to get out of her regalia and into her armor but didn’t want to risk being attacked while in the middle of changing.

“So first objective get the hell out of the street and find some cover. “She said as she pulled her side arm from her pocket dimension. She checked to make sure the mag was fully loaded with the .45 caliber bullets even though she knew it was and made her way to the side walk and started to walk in the opposite direction of the care pile up keeping her side arm close wrapped in her magic. She was glad her silence enchantment kept her hoof covers from making any sound on the concreate sidewalk.

She was tempted to switch to being a biped but voted against it as she would most likely scare anyone she came across as is and being at the same height as them or taller would only make it worse and right now she needed information on where the hell she was.

She carefully made her way to the corner of an intersection keeping her eyes peeled for…well anything but all she saw were discarded items and signs of struggle and smearing’s of dried blood. The longer she was here without information the more her skin crawled and she had to keep her wings still as they kept wanting to shift in response to her agitation. 

As she reached the corner she finally saw her first signs of life in a man in what looked like a suit was crouched a little ways up the side street by a car that had crashed into the street light. Perfect someone to question. Aiming her sidearm towards the sky so as not to frighten the man to much Twilight slowly approached him. When she was a relatively close to him she spoke. “Excuse me sir, I was wondering if you might be able to help me?” She said as friendly as she could.

The main raised his head and slowly turn to face the mare and Twilight recoiled in surprise despite herself as the man’s cheek was just a ragged hole that she could see straight into his mouth through. “What the fuck?!” She said as she took several steps back and took aim as the man stood and turned towards her and she saw the front of his suit was stained red with blood and torn slightly and it was then she was able to see he had been crouched over the body of the driver of the car who looks to have been drug from the car kicking and screaming and had half his face and neck eaten off.

Twilight took aim at the man as he started to shuffle forward. “Stay right there or I’ll blow your Luna-damned head off!” She order as the man shuffled forward seeming to not to care he had a gun aimed at him or was facing an alien. “Ok I warned you. “Twilight said and put three round in the guy’s chest causing him to stumble back….and then start to walk forward again making Twilight blink. “The fuck?” She put another four rounds into his chest and still he kept coming. 

“The fuck is wrong with you, you are cheating!” She said and then saw the empty eyes of the man. “Necromancy, of course.” She said with a roll of her eyes and lite her horn, a moment later the man’s body burst into flames hotter than any that could be produced normally and his body was quickly turned to ash as the mare reloaded her side arm.

“Ok so apparently there is a necromancer running around, just my luck.” She grumbled and looked around to make sure no other undead horrors were sneaking up on her. Her ears swiveled back towards the car as she heard a scraping sound and a gurgling moan and when she looked back she recoiled in surprise for the second time that night as the body of the driver was dragging itself towards her eyes firmly locked on her as it let out another gurgling moan through its ruined throat. 

“What the hell, that’s not how necromancy works! You are not necromticly possible!” She said as she pointed a hoof at the corpse that ignored her words and kept pulling itself towards her. With an annoyed grunt she burned this new undead abomination to ash same as the first.

“Ok so maybe not necromancy but something close to it unless in this world necromancy can be spread somehow…or the master of these things ordered them to eat each other but that wouldn’t make any sense. “She said as she looked around. “Though it is unlikely magic naturally exists here based on the level of technology that seems to exist so either someone else is here who shouldn’t be or….this is something else.” She said looking at the dwindling ash piles as the wind took them slowly. “But what could bring the dead back to like necromancy?”

Deciding standing around wasn’t going to give her any answers she turned and headed back towards the street she had been following to continue her objectives of finding a relatively secure place she could change into her armor and or find someone to give her some information.  She kept looking at the buildings she was walking by but they all had either smashed windows and doors or were so dark she didn’t completely trust their safety if these things were truly like the undead.

As she walked she kept her eyes open for more of the things as they could be anywhere, she was tempted to take flight but decided against it for fear a random human would shoot her out of fear, she wouldn’t blame them as this city was under attack by the undead so most if not everyone alive was probably panicking. 

As she walked she saw up ahead was a newspaper dispenser and approached it. After confirming it had been stocked, at least before whatever was happening started. After doing a quick scan of her surroundings to confirm she was still secure she used her magic to tear the small door from the dispenser and took out on of the paper and read the head line. “S.T.A.R.S suspends? The hell kind of name is S.T.A.R.S?” Shrugging she read the name of the paper. “Raccoon City Time eh? Guess this must be Raccoon City, strange name but I guess it’s better than S.T.A.R.S, unless someone is being a smartass with the name of their paper.  She checked the date and found it was September 25th 1998. 

“Well least I don’t need to worry about the Feds here I think, come to think of it I never did find out when they came to power….or the name of the country I was in….hell I don’t recall seeing a flag anywhere.” She said as she thought about her time on a different Earth.

Twilight’s ears swiveled further up the street and she dropped to the ground aiming her side arm up the street as she heard many gunshots and panicked screams mixed in with a few of pain as the shots grew more frantic. From where she could tell they were coming from a couple of small caliber pistols and at least one shotgun.

She made her way towards the gunshots cautiously as anyone shooting most likely is either trying to protect themselves in which case she will help if she can, or are attacking other in which case she would help by killing the attacker, either way she gets information.

As she passed a bar and apartments building she came upon an alleyway with several police cars in it and some people pushing one of the care against another to block the alleyway as other used various weapons to protect them from the undead. Twilight paused as she watched one used a pipe to cave in the skull of one of the undead and it stopped trying to get up. She watched as one that looked like a cop fired his pistol and another undead’s head jerked back and it didn’t get up.

“So wait headshots kill them? That seems kind of odd for something undead…” She said as she looked at one of the undead that had noticed her and started to shamble towards her. With a shrug she raised her pistol and took aim. A moment later the undead creatures head jerked back and it dropped and was back to being normal dead. “Huh….guess it does work…..weird.” She said as she saw another cop further up the alleyway unlocking a gate saying something about them getting closer. Twilight had to agree the alleyway was quickly tuning tonto a death trap as more of the undead poured into it, some being pushed over the police cars by the ones behind them.

“Well they are the first living people I’ve seen so…” The Princess took to the air and flew over the undead who reached for her till she near the gate as the last of the group was moving through it, in back was a blond haired women in a waitress uniform carrying board as a weapon. She wasn’t paying to close attention as one of the undead lunged for her. The women gave a yelp of surprise as Twilight landed and shot the creature in the head killing it. “Pay attention you dumbass!” She scolded before shoving the women through the gate enlisting another yelp of surprise. 

Twilight took another look to make sure none of the undead were to close before walking through the gate and snapping her shield up as the humans armed with guns open fired at her as some of the nearest ones with melee weapons tried to strike her. All of it harmlessly bounced off her shield as she started at them with a neutral expression. “You are wasting ammo that I think you will need if you plan to survive this.” She said flatly.

This caused all the humans to freeze and stare at her wide eyed. “Yes, I am a talking horse, no I am not part of whatever has brought the dead back, no I don’t plan to hurt you or else I would have already, and yes I speak English. Can we close the gate now and move on before more of the undead show up?” Twilight said flatly getting all their questions answered before they could ask them.

The humans looked between each other before a large dark skinned human and one in a tan jumpsuit moved past her and closed the gate, making sure it was locked.  Twilight dropped her shield and reloaded her side arm.

“What the hell are you?” One of them dressed in a dark grey police uniform asked as he looked between her and the gate, keeping his pistol at the read.

“Short story, I’m an alien, best way to describe it.” Twilight said as she walked past the group to the gate on the other side of the small courtyard they were in. 

“Aliens aren’t real.” A woman dressed in a dark red business suit said from where she stood with arms crossed.

“Next you are going to tell me the dead aren’t trying to eat us huh?” Twilight snarked. “Do I look like a human? No? I am an Alicorn.”

“Look I think we should deal with this later when we are to safety.” A police officer armed with a shotgun and wearing a white uniform said as he started to follow the Alicorn to the far gate. He tried it and it didn’t budge. “Damn it’s locked, hold them off while I get this open.”  He said turning back to face the gate in time to see it wrapped in a purple glow before being forced open.

“Oh look it’s not locked anymore, moving on.” Twilight said walking through the gate as the humans all looked at each other before following behind her as the gate they had entered the court yard through collapsed do to the mass of undead trying to get through.

The group found themselves in a small back street with a tanker trailer at the top of the small hill. “So then Mr. Police Officer where to next? I’m assuming you have some sort of safe zone set up?” Twilight asked the cop with the shot gun as he seemed to be leading the group somewhere.

“Um…yeah we are heading to the police station as it’s secure, we just need to meet up with some other officers who have a police van.” The cop said. “And my name is Raymond and I’m with the Raccoon City Police Department.” 

Twilight nodded. “Commander Twilight Sparkle with the Equestrian Defense Force, pleasure to meet you. “The mare said as the moans of the dead drew the group’s attention.

“Damnit. “Raymond said as she moved and started firing at the approaching horde. As he was pushed back he looked back at the group. “Keep moving, I’ll hold them here.” he said and then did a double take as he looked at the tanker at the top of the hill not seeing the undead lunge for him. 

It grabbed him before he could bring his shotgun up but before it could sink its teeth into him Twilight put a bullet in its head and it dropped and she wrapped the officer her magic and dragged him back to the group. “Not that I don’t admire someone willing to do the whole ‘heroic sacrifice so other can live’ thing but I’m not leaving you to get eaten.” She told him as she started firing on the hoard. 

Raymond nodded in thanks and looked back at the tanker. “Open the valve and let the fuel out, we are going to burn these bastards.” He yelled and other cop that was part of the group ran up and started to turn the valve till the strong smelling fuel began to rush down the slope and under the hoard of the dead as the rest of the group sprinted up the hill.

Once the group was at the top Raymond took out a lighter and faster a couple of flicked got the small flame to lite and tossed it at the fuel soaked hill. With a loud whooshing sound the fuel ignited instantly and the flames rushed down the hill and began to consume the dead.

“Alright! Look at ‘em burn!” another dark skinned human in a blue uniform of some kind as he did a fist pump.

“Uh….hey….I think we got a problem….”Twilight said and when the group looked at her she pointed a hoof at the flames rushing back towards the tanker that was still empting its contents from the open valve.

“Oh shit!” the large dark skinned human dressed in a security guard uniform said.

“Everyone into the canal!” Raymond yelled and the group wasted no time in jumping down into the water below, Twilight going last to make sure everyone in the group made it and then jumped down herself. A moment after she splashed down the road above became bright as day and was filled with a deafening boom as the tanker exploded and sent a fireball skyward.

The group all treaded water in the semi deep canal as they took stock of their surroundings.

“Ok that was close.” The second RPD officer said as he looked from the fire above and back at the group. “Everyone alright?” He asked and got conformations but he noticed some one was missing. “Where is the alien?” he asked.

The group all looked around and noticed the strange member of their group was missing. After a few moment there was a coughing sound from the near the wall and when they looked they saw the Alicorn hugging the wall and coughing up water and taking a few gasps of air. “Ok….didn’t think it was that deep.” She croaked.

“Are you ok?”  The waitress asked with concern.

Twilight took a few more deep breaths then nodded. “Yeah I’m fine, I just can’t swim.”

“Aren’t horses good swimmers?” Ask the skinny dark skinned human.

“I was a good swimmer, but it’s hard to swim when half your body is made of metal and you weigh six hundred pounds.” Twilight said and the group all stared at her. “Didn’t notice the legs I take it? Make sense did kind of have more important things to worry about. “She said. “Anyways where to now officer Raymond?” Twilight asked.

Raymond nodded and pointed at the far end of the canal. “That should lead to the sewers and from there we can get back to the street.” He said and the group nodded before they started to swim and in Twilight case walk towards the sewer entrance.

Once everyone had climbed inside the group made their way deeper into the tunnels. “Man it stinks in here.’ The skinny dark skinned human said, Twilight thought she should learn these people’s names once things weren’t so dangerous as she was probably going to be spending a lot of time with them.

“Eh it’s not so bad once you get used to it.” Twilight said as they walked getting some strange looks from the gathered humans. “For about six months I lived in a sewer, long story.” She explained with a shrug as they soon reached a ladder.

“I’ll go up first and make sure it’s safe, twilight I’d suggest you come up last so as not to spook anyone that may be up there.” Raymond said as he slung his shot gun, Twilight nodded as he had a good point, it wouldn’t do them any good if they ran into other survivors who panic fired at them.

Raymond climbed the ladder and after a minute called back that it was clear so the group started to climb up with Twilight switching to biped mode so she could easily climb the ladder that, like all human ladders, was not designed with ponies in mind.

Once Twilight reached the top of the ladder and climbed out she found they were outside of a place called Apple Inn and she couldn’t help pausing to look at the name before shaking her head to clear it. She looked around and saw Raymond talking to another officer and a few other people huddled together and looking scared shitless, a couple staring at her wide eyed.

“What the hell? I thought you were a horse?” The skinny dark skinned human said.

Twilight looked over at him as she grabbed her sidearm out of her magical grasp and held it in her finger that had deployed from her hooves to make hands and she smiled. “I’m just full of surprises.” She said and chuckled. Her grouped all looked at her before a couple shook their heads and made their way over to Raymond.

The other officer, an older human with brown hair that was thinning and had a comb over looked at the mare wide eyed. “You weren’t kidding Raymond; it’s an honest to god alien.” The man said.

“Yup, though am I really the strangest thing you’ve seen tonight?” She asked the other officer sweeping her hoof wide to gesture to the city engulfed in total chaos.

“No, can’t say that you are. “The other officer said as he ran a hand down his tired looking face. 

“Is this everyone? What happened to Jackson and Graham?”  Raymond asked. The other officer just shook his head sadly. “Damnit….” Raymond said and looked back at the group he had led here. “Alright it’s not safe here so everyone into the van.”

The gathered humans, both Twilight’s group and the others nodded and slowly made their way to the police van and started to climb inside, with all the humans in the back and the two officers in the front there wasn’t any room for Twilight.

Raymond looked between her and the van. “Relax Officer Raymond, I can keep up so don’t worry.” She said raising her hand. 

“How?” He asked.

Twilight spread her wings and with a small flap lifted off the ground. “I can fly; I’ll stick close to the van and keep an eye out for anyone that needs help or dangers.” She told him and he nodded before climbing into the passenger seat of the van and the humans in the back pulled the doors shut. The van started up and within second was driving down the street with Twilight flying close to it scanning the street ahead, keeping her side arm close.

After about a twenty minute drive with the van having to take many side streets do to the main roads being blocked by abandon cars and such the van came to a stop as an abandoned road work site blocked the road. When the engine turned off Twilight came down and landed as the humans climbed out of the van.

“All the roads to the station seem to be blocked; we are going to need to find an alternate route.” Raymond told the gathered survivors. “While we look over a map feel free to stretch your legs but stay in the area.” He told the gathered humans who nodded.

Twilight had a question she needed answered as she walked up to the two officers. “Isn’t there some sort of military force that should be percent and helping to rescue everyone?” She asked.

Raymond looked at her and shook his head. “When all of this started happening and we realized it wasn’t just riots all the phone lines went down and none of our radio signals seem to be getting out, I don’t know what the hell is happening, it’s almost like someone doesn’t want us to call for help.” He said.

“What about what S.T.A.R.S said?” The other officer asked.

Twilight looked at him. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

Raymond sighed. “A couple months back Special Tactic And Rescue Squad, or S.T.A.R.S were deployed to investigate some grisly murders and something happened up in the mountains, when they returned most of them were dead and the survivors were telling stories of a mansion filled with the undead and some sort of virus developed by the Umbrella Corporation.” Raymond shook his head. “They were found unfit for duty and suspended and evidence was found that they had consumed drugs and alcohol before going on their mission, but….”

“But this is exactly like what they described?” Twilight finished and Raymond nodded. Twilight narrowed her eyes, all her time with the nobles had made her very good at smelling out bullshit and cover-ups and what happened to the S.T.A.R.S team was very ripe, now it seemed this Umbrella Corporation was ready to sacrifice this entire city to keep their secret.

She was drawn out of her thoughts of looking for these S.T.A.R.S and seeing if they were up for letting her join up as she had a feeling the team didn’t just go away by some gun shots that were close by.


She looked towards where the shots came from and saw her group doing the same. The group of humans started to move to investigate and Twilight followed them.

They walked past abandon shops in the narrow alleyways and eventually up to a pedestrian overpass over main street and looked down as more shots rang out. What they saw made even Twilight’s eyes widen. The street below was packed shoulder to shoulder with undead as far as the eye could see, all of them pressing against a small makeshift barrier as two RPD officer fired at them while a third was doing something by a small case.

As the group watched the barrier collapsed and the undead surged forward at the officer who fired franticly. “Got it!” The officer who was crouched said and held up something just in time to see the three undead descends on him. The officer that was to his right cursed and turned to try and save the first officer. This left him open to two of the undead who lunged and drags him down tot eh ground as he fired franticly. This just left he last officer backing up as he aimed as the approaching undead  and kept switching between targets unsure which to shoot as there were so many of them.

“Move!” Twilight yelled and leapt from the overpass and landed with a loud thing, the asphalt under her cracking as her full weight crashed down on it. Twilight pulled out ever gun she had from her pocket dimension her two .357 revolvers appearing in her hands as she took aim at the approaching horde. With a thought and cool precisions she began to unload into the hoard that dropped in waves.

Even with her aim and fire power it was clear she would be overwhelmed with in minutes as there were just too many of the undead. The Princess looked at the terrified officer who stared up wide eyed at the Alicorn in full regalia unleashing a wall of bullets on the approaching hoard. “What are you waiting for; get the hell out of here!” She yelled at him as she continued to fire.

“I’I can’t we need to get the detonator!” The officer reeled back and the mare looked at him. “We set up explosives all along the street to try and clear the zombies! Allister just finished setting up the detonator!” The officer yelled as he pointed at the case the one officer had been working for.

Twilight nodded and saw her group arrive from the stairs to the overpass. “He said there is a detonator in the street, it might have slide somewhere when the cop went down, try to find it and get back to the demo box, and I’ll cover you!” She shouted back and the group nodded before they ran to where the officers bodies were as the Princess started to walk forwards into the thick of the hoard to draw as much attention on herself as she could while firing at every undead horror she saw.

The undead pressed around her and she was starting to prepare a teleportation spell when a massive fireball erupted from the far end of the street followed by another that was closer. As if it were a fireworks display explosion after explosion raced up the street towards the humans taking out the undead around it till the last one only a few dozen yards for where the mare stood holding back the undead army.

With most of the undead now blown to bits it didn’t take long for Twilight and the humans to clear out what remained and then they stood in an empty street filled with bodies of no dead. Twilight let out a breath, and reloaded her guns, thankfully she always carried a very high amount of ammo and looked out at the carnage with barely contained joy, that had been a hell of a fight and it had bene an absolute blast for her. Best part about it is that it ended with fireworks.

She returned all her guns, save her side arm, to her pocket dimension  and looked back at the humans, they all looked tired and she couldn’t blame them, the last couple of hours had been hell and who knows how long they had been fighting to survive with just whatever they could lay their hands on. Twilight had to admit she was impressed by the group, she had a lot of training and firepower and magic so facing down an undead hoard wasn’t that big a deal to her, but save two of these humans they were just random civilians thrown into a very bad situation and trying to survive as best as they could and doing alright at it all things considered.

After making sure the other officer was alright the group returned to the van to find it being loaded up again as Raymond and the other officer had found an alternate route. The new officer managed to squeeze into the back and with Twilight flying escort they made their way through the city till they reached a street filled with police officers and other emergency workers and civilians the police were moving in organized chaos as they disrupted supplies and got the injured medical attention. Twilight used this pause in safety to change out of her regalia and into her armor once Raymond and the other had vouched for her that she wasn’t a threat, seems there were some kind of monsters running around the city so a lot of the gathered people were jumpy around her.

Twilight stood off with her group checking over her SMG that she had pulled out of her pocket dimension, she knew it was in good order as she had just cleaned it a few days ago but she wanted to be sure as she had no idea how long she would be stuck in this world fighting the undead.

As if in answer the wind started to pick up, blowing towards a small clear area and the gather humans looked around in confusion as the wind was coming from all sides and swirling around that one point. As it grew stronger it suddenly blasted out as a tear appeared in the middle of the cleared aria bathing it in light.

“What is that?” a man that was part of her group and dressed in a dark green suit asked.

Twilight smiled. “That would be my ride home. “She said with a smile, she found it a bit odd no one came through but maybe there didn’t think it was needed. Twilight turned to face the group. “I’d like to stay and help but if I don’t take this now I won’t get another chance, but something tells me you guys will be ok if you stick together.” She said with a smile and a wave. “Watch each other’s back and stay safe.” She said. With that she switched to quadruped mode and ran forward before leaping through the rift that flashed and collapsed shortly after.
> Least It Isn’t Federal (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Twilight Sparkle blinked several times before looking around the room she found herself in as the rift snapped closed behind her. This certainly wasn’t what she had expected to see when jumping back home, if fact none of this looked like the EMSD, or an EDF facility much less anything in Equestria to begin with.

Twilight was standing in a large room that had a second story that was just a catwalk that ran around the edge of the room. There were many creates and barrels stacked in the room leading the mare to believe she was in some sort of storage room. Looking around once more she approached one of the creates and looked it over, it was sealed with some sort of symbols running along one side that looked like it was meant to be read by a computer. With it being sealed the Commander had no intention of opening the create in case it was meant to store some sort of biological weapons or something of the sort.

A soft hiss on the far side of the room drew the mare’s attention in that direction but do to the creates she could see what it was. “Ok, the energy anomaly came from this storage bay, start scanning and be careful.” A voice said and the Alicorn heard some sort of rhythmic beeping she assumed was the scan. Not knowing who these people were the mare pressed herself to the create and started to move deeper into the room to put distance between her and the unknown speaker, she knew there had to be at least two but without being sure she needed to find a way to safely observe them without being detected. 

“Sir, I’m picking up an unknown lifeform moving away from us.” A second voice said and Twilight froze mid step.

“Is it in the room?” The first voice asked.

“Yes sir, though it has stopped moving, I think it heard us.” The second voice said. “Should we call security?”

“WE can’t be sure if it is dangerous or not but…” The first voice said and Twilight heard another beep. “This is Ensign Mahoney to security; we are picking up an unknown life form in cargo bay three.”

A moment later a third voice spoke. “Understood Ensign, sending a security team, be careful you two.”

“Understood, me and Dobbs will wait here.” The first voice said. Well that answered the question of how many were in the room but that number was going to increase whenever the security team arrived. Twilight estimated a four or five man squad so that would put the number up six or seven, though since the two in the room called security it meant they were either unarmed or untrained to fight so she had an advantage.

Twilight needed to get out of the room before the guards showed up and find out where she is. Turning around she started walking back towards where the voices had been. “Sir, the lifeform is approaching us.” The second voice said and Twilight could hear the nervousness in the voice. Defiantly not trained to fight.

“Stay calm Dobbs, it’s probably just wandering around, most likely some animal got in a create we brought onboard at the last planet we visited.” The first voice said and Twilight paused. Planet? Visited?  What were the two of them talking about? Her curiosity now firmly peaked the mare started walking once more.

“Sir it’s getting closer and keeps pausing when we speak, I think it knows we are here and is taking a direct route towards us.” The second voice said sounding more nervous.

“It’s probably just an animal that’s curious about our voices; security will be here any moment.” The first voice said.

“It’s right behind that create.” The second voice said and Twilight rounded said create and faced the two speakers, one of them she immediately identified as being human but the other was completely unknown to her. The being walked on two legs and hand hands like the human beside it but there was where the similarities ended. It hard light blue skins and was completely hairless, from between its eyes ran some sort for small ridge up the center of its forehead and off over its head, it had two eyes that where white but only had irises and nothing more, this was the one pointed towards the crate Twilight had just stepped around with one hand while the other held some sort of device that had flashing lights on it and was making the rhythmic beeping sound.

All three being looked at each other as time seemed to stand still, one being in dark green combat armor, the other two in some sort of clothing that was mostly black except for their upper chest was yellow. “See….like I said it is an animal.” The human said and reviled to have been the first voice Twilight had heard.

“If it’s animal why is it wearing armor and a helmet?” The second one asked not taking his eyes off the mare.

The Human looked back at her and Twilight could see he was starting to share in his companion’s nervousness as he took in the sight of the militaristic mare. Twilight took step towards them and they stiffened, so she took another and they took a tentative step back watching her. Well this is amusing. She thought and smiled.

“I don’t think that is an animal.” The blue skinned one said. a moment later the wall behind them split down the center with the soft his as before and two bipeds walked in, one human the other almost human but has some sort of ridge on the bridge of her nose, though what Twilight payed more attention to was the fact the two comer had some sort of small gray and black objects in their hands and though it didn’t look like what she was used to she could easily identify them as weapons.

The two new comers blinked and the one with the nose ridged raised her weapon, that was all Twilight needed for her instincts to kick into overdrive. She closed the distance between her and the group of aliens and humans and slammed her shoulder into the alien female knocking her back. The human tried to raise his but The Commander shot her hoof out and struck his wrist, feeling the bones break from the impact of her steel hooves causing him to drop his weapon and stumble back.

The other two in the room simply dove for cover. Twilight spun, expecting more guards to rush her but found the path to the door clear, had they really only sent two? No matter. Not wasting time Twilight leapt through the door and took a right and galloped up the hallway.

The hall was well lite and carpeted as well as wide, and none of it looked remotely like something she knew. She wasn’t sure where she was going, her retreating from the cargo room had been purely instincts and training, the only thing that had stopped her from killing the two armed guards were the fact she didn’t know if they were actually hostile or nor and the fact she needed to know where she was. Which meant attacking two guards and galloping away like a criminal probably wasn’t the best way to make a first impression on this alien alliance. 

Twilight skidded to a stop as she caught the fainted glimpse of a flash in an archway she had been about to go through. Carefully she reached a hoof out and the empty space turned blue and she jerked her hoof back as she received a minor shock. She turned and looked at the arch behind her and reached for it and received the same shock. Some sort of shield trapped her.

She looked around; being trapped like this was making every fiber of her being cry out to escape. Not wasting anytime she lite her horn and fired a magical best at the shield that had blocked her path. It activated and blocked the blast but she kept it up and poured more power into her horn and slowly the shield started to flicker till it finally collapsed and she galloped on.

She saw another flash before her and sent another magical blast into the shield and it to collapse. As she galloped on she saw two more of the armed bipeds, neither of these humans but she didn’t waste time taking in details. They raised their weapons a moment before Twilight powered through them, knocking them to the side with ease as her cybernetics legs carried her forward like a freight train.

As she ran she saw a door that stuck out do to being made of what appeared to be wood and having two glass windows in each door, just beyond that was four more of the guards who raised their weapons. Twilight ducked the first….beams the weapons shot, where they using magic? No matter, Twilight rolled towards the door which opened on its own when she got close, much to her surprises, and leapt through, only t skid to a halt as she found herself in what looked like a mess hall with a lot of aliens, though at least a third were human the rest were defiantly aliens and all of them dressed in the same uniform though they had different colors, most likely details jobs she assumed.

The large group of aliens stared at the Alicorn in surprise who stared back with surprise and determination. The spell was one more broken as the doors behind the mare opened to admit the guards who had fired on her in the hall. Twilight dismissed  the group of aliens in the room for now as none of them appeared to be armed  as she turned to face the guards quickly switching to bipedal mode which seems to have caught the guards by surprised as they froze for  moment giving Twilight enough time to unsling her SMG and take aim.

She pulled the trigger and sent a small volley of bullets over the heads of the guards causing them to drop to the ground as Twilight back pedaled. She didn’t want to harm them for now so she was aiming to suppress them till she found a way out of the damn room; this was no place to fight with so many unarmed aliens.

Twilight back struck a table stopping her retreat and she turned and sprinted for a door she saw across the mess hall, passing startled aliens who made way for her. As she neared the door it opened and admitted another three of the guards who raised their weapons. If not for Twilight reflexes being augmented by her cybernetics shed have been toast right there she was sure. Instead she barely leapt to the side and over the counter into the kitchens, startling a strange cat like alien who back peddled further into the kitchen in surprise.

Twilight sat with her back against the counter, SMG clutched in her hands as she ran through her options, she could surrender, but she was physically unable to do that. There may be another exist from the kitchen, though that was 50/50.

She could always fight, though she was trying to not kill anyone till she knew they were actually hostile but that option seemed to be becoming the only option available to her. She had one last chance to get out of here without a body count. Calmly  she pulled a flash bang form her pocket dimension and saw the car-like alien’s eyes widen as to him it probably looked like the object just came from nowhere. She pulled the pined and tossed it over the counter. She heard shouts of armor from the aliens a moment before she heard the flashbang detonate. 

She leapt up over the counter and charged towards blinded and deafened aliens who blinked and stumbled around. She ran past the guards snatching their weapons from them and tossing them into the farthest corner from anyone and by the time she was finished the aliens senses were starting to return. Twilight flipped a table onto its side to sue as cover just in case and aimed her SMG at the aliens as they blinked their vision back to find themselves unarmed and held at gun point.

“Hands where I can see them and no one gets hurt!” Twilight barked. the aliens seemed surprised to ehar her speak but quickly put their hands up. “Now then where the hell am I and who the hell are you people?” She demanded.  Before anyone could answer a guard that had been hiding around the corner near the door Twilight had entered, thus avoiding the effects of the flashbang stepped out and fired his weapons into her side.
Twilight felt the impact and was sure she was dead as she swayed but then the effect stopped and she was fine, in fact she recognized that feeling. She calmed turned and looked at the human guard who looked surprised. “Did you just try to taz me?” She spat with annoyance, why does it seem like that happens way more than is normal?

The human raised the weapon and Twilight tore it from his grasp with her magic and brought it close to her face as all the aliens stared dumb founded at the weapon wrapped in the purple glow, though none dared move as she still had the SMG aimed as she inspected the weapon. “You mean to tell me this thing is some weird Taser?” She asked no one in the room. “All this time I thought I was in danger of dying and it’s fucking Taser?!” She said in annoyance and hurled it across the room to join the others as she looked at the gathered aliens. “Guess that answers the question on whether or not you are hostile as I don’t think actual hostiles would be trying to use non-lethal methods.” She said as she raised her SMG to aim at the ceiling, she kept her grip on it and her finger close to the trigger as she used her free hand to flipped the table back onto its proper place.

“You can put your hands down now; I don’t really plan on hurting you, unless you do something stupid that is.” She said as she reached up and lifted her visor on her helmet. She watched as the aliens all looked between themselves before slowly lowering their hands and staring at her clearly not sure what to make of this sudden turn of events.

As Twilight watched she suddenly noticed the window behind all of them, more spastically what was beyond the window? “No fucking way.”  She said and teleported to the window, startling the aliens that had been closed to it and causing them all to jump back as all the other looked around in confusion for a moment till they saw her now suddenly beside the window her free hand pressed to…whatever it was, she didn’t think it was glass as her face was as close as her helmet would allow.

“This is space.” She said as she stared at the passing asteroid field beyond the window. “This is motherfucking space!” she said and turned to face the aliens pointing out eh window. “Do you have any idea how amazing this is!” she said and blinked. “OF course you do this is your…whatever the hell it is so you must see this all the time.” She turned and faced the window again. “I am in space!” She said and giggled, she had always wondered what it would be like to be in space and now she was standing on a ship, or a station or something actually floating through the vast vacuum. This was one of the most amazing things she had ever experienced. She was so excited she didn’t even care that her wings were shifting on their own to show her level of excitement.

She sensed one of the aliens approaching her from behind and turned to face them lowering her SMG slight just in case he tried to attack. It was the cat-like alien who passed when she faced him and raised his hands slightly to show he meant no harm and Twilight returned the weapons to aiming at the ceiling. “I take it you have never been to space?” He asked in a voice that sounded like he was use to being cheerful.

Twilight shook her head. “Nope, read about it, seen some stuff on it, never actually been myself. “She looked glanced out the window again.

“Ah…well…congratulations Mrs.….” The alien said.

Twilight faced him and gave a mock salute with her free hand. “Commander Twilight Sparkle, Equestrian Defense Force.” She said semi formally, she wouldn’t mention the rest just yet if ever as she doubted it would mean anything to them but what she did say would tell them enough.

“Ah commander, I’m Neelix.” The cat alien said. “Uh….could I ask that you lower your weapon, I can assure you we mean you no harm.”

“That remains to be seen Neelix, till I am sure I am in no danger I think I will hold on to my SMG, thank you.” She told him simply and looked back out the window. “Also I wouldn’t recommend going near those Tasers unless you want to see what a .12mm round will do to you. “She called to the two guards trying to make their way towards the weapons without looking from the window.

She couldn’t see it but she knew she had startled them, what few people knew about Twilight was she had practiced seeing with her peripherals so even when looking one way, she could see and identify what was at the edge of her vision. “So…Commander Sparkle, if you don’t mind my asking. “Neelix said. “Ah….how did you get on our ship here?”

Twilight looked from the window back at the alien. “Haven’t the slightest idea, I thought the rift as supposed to take me home, instead it dropped be here.” She gestured to the mess hall.

“Rift?” Neelix asked with confusion, but before Twilight could answer one of the doors to the mess hall opened to admit a human female being escorted by dark skinned humanoid with pointed ears dressed like the guards. The women on the other hand wore a style of uniform the mare had yet to see being that hers was red rather than yellow or blue and she carried herself with authority. 

Twilight faced the officer who looked around the room at all the aliens standing around and the pile of Tasers in the far corner before her eyes settled on the Alicorn that had disarmed her guards. “I am captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, why have you attacked this vessel?” Janeway demanded.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, she wasn’t just any officer, she was the one in charge it seems, that is if this universe’s navy was like the one back home. “I haven’t attacked this vessel, believe me, if I had then we wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation and there would be a lot more bodies.” Twilight said and the Captain glared at her. Twilight raised a hand to calm the officer. “I have no idea why I am here and I can assure you my presences here is not my choice, I’d much rather be in my office back home.”

“Then why did you attack two of my security officers?” Janeway demanded once more, it was clear to Twilight she was angry about that, much like Twilight would have been. Twilight officially decided she like this women somewhat.

“Self-defense, they aimed a weapon at me and I reacted, I made sure not to do anything permanent.” Twilight explained. This seemed to satisfy the Captain as she relaxed slightly.

“Very well, but why are you holding my people hostage?” She gestured to all the unarmed humans and aliens still standing around the room.

“I’m not, they have been free to go the entire time, and it’s their choice to stick around.” Twilight said and shrugged. “The SMG is because I still don’t know if you people are friendly or not though I am leaning more towards the friendly option.”

“If what she says is true.” The dark skinned alien said in a slightly deep detached voice. “Then I believe there has been a misunderstanding Captain.”

“I believe you are right Tuvok.” The captain said looking at this Tuvok alien before looking back at Twilight. “I must apologize for security confronting you as they seem to have and I can assure you we mean you no harm, we are peaceful explores who are just trying to get home.” 

Twilight nodded and looked around the room one last time before slinging her SMG behind her back. “Very well, I’ll take your word for now, not like I have anywhere to go anyways as I have a choice of this ship or the frigid vacuum of space and I am rather fond of being alive.” She said and she heard a couple of the aliens softly chuckle at what the mare had said.

“I must say you are taking this rather way…” Janeway said leaving it open for a prompt.

“Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force. “She introduced once more. “And this isn’t the first time I’ve found myself where I shouldn’t be and the third time I have seen humans so I’m more or less used to it. That and you are a hell of a lot nicer then the first ones I met.” She said causing the Captain to blink in surprise. 

“You’ve met humans before?” She asked with some confusion in her voice.

Twilight nodded. “Yes I have, a few times even been to Earth, long story.” She said. “Actually what did you say earlier when introducing yourself? I got this ships name is Voyager but what was the rest of what you said?”

“We are representatives of the United Federation of Planets and this is one of our exploration vessels.” Janeway said.

Twilight nodded. “Alright, was making sure you didn’t say Federal cause then we’d have a problem.” She said and looked around. “Anyways I don’t know about you but it’s been about 10 hours since I last ate and the smells coming from the kitchen are taunting me so I was wondering if we could continue this meeting over dinner.”

Janeway couldn’t hide her amusement as the mare looked at the kitchen once more. “I suppose we could see what Neelix has whopped up for us today commander Sparkle.”

Twilight nodded and smiled at the captain, lease she was going to get food and could learn more about this group and enjoy some downtime as everything seemed to be peaceful in this reality. Twilight was going to enjoy a little R&R while she waited for the rift to reopen and learn about an advanced alien conglomerate, this was going to be fun.
> Chapter 3: Least It’s Not Federal (Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Twilight Sparkle sat with Captain Janeway and her chief of Security Lieutenant Tuvok in what she learned was called Tenforward. The Commander had just finished telling the aliens a little about who she is as well as her explanation of what she meant when she had met humans before and been to Earth, she didn’t give all the details as some were either personal to her or she wasn’t up to dealing with at the moment but they got the gist of the edited story.

Janeway looked somewhere between shock and sympathy. “I must say I am sorry your first encounter with our race was under such terrible circumstances Commander and I want you to know The Federation isn’t like that in anyway.” She told the mare.

Twilight nodded, she had removed her helmet near the start of the meal as she became more comfortable, and the fact eating was just more enjoyable when not wearing the helmet, though she still wore the armor, she was still in an unknown environment. “I know not all humans are like…..those humans. I made a lot of friends among your species and choose to judge on a case by case basis rather the assume everyone out of a race is evil.” Twilight said as she took a sip from a small glass of whiskey, she had chosen to drink her own stock of beverages rather then what was currently available on Voyager.  “But I will assume that though you’re Federation is on the side of good, if it is as vast as you say then I’m sure it is safe to assume there are….shall we say bad apple within the cart?”

At the Janeway sighed. “Unfortunately you are correct Commander, while the Federation as a whole tries to do good there are those who go rouge and seek either profit or power.”

Twilight nodded. “Such is life Captain, good and evil will always exist as two sides of the same coin no matter what we desire.” She said simply. She knew she was an excellent example of that phrase.

“What fascinates me Commander is that you say your people have developed devices that allow you to create these rifts as you call them to other dimensions?” Janeway asked and Twilight nodded in the affirmative. 

“Yes, we were forced to do it after I ended up in an alternate reality that, though very similar to my own, wasn’t mine. So the EDF designed a device to come rescue me, which was a good thing too as the barrier in my home reality is….strange.” She said slowly as she wasn’t sure how best to describe it.

“How so?” Janeway asked.

“Well…I’m not the only one who has ended up in other realities; it’s actually a lot more common then would be considered normal by any stretch of the word. EDF soldiers and personnel have randomly vanished and needed to be recovered, usually we get them back within a few days once we locate their signature, though for them it has been longer and always they seem to end up in realities where they must fight or apply their skills to survive against threats there. Heck onetime an entire base, buildings and all vanished and was recovered a month later, an eighth  of the base personnel dead as they had spent over a year fighting in an alternate version of our country against an army that was occupying the nation and had turned the citizens into slaves.”

Twilight chuckled a bit and smiled. “The base personnel had had their bodies altered to match the realities as the ponies there were a cross between normal ponies and humans, as were all races, the occupying force thought that the EDF base would just roll over like that version of Equestria had, needless to say they got a very rude awaking when they attacked a scouting party.” Twilight said and laughed once more. “By the time we were able to recover them they had raised a massive army of freed slaves and pushed the Caribou out of most of the country, they still held a few places here and there but about 90% of the nation was back under pony control.”

“Your people sound very skilled at combat Commander Sparkle as well able to handle unfamiliar situations calmly.” Tuvok said.

Twilight nodded and sipped her drink once more. “I made sure they were trained well to handle anything that can be thrown at them as well as instill a sense of doing the right thing, even if the right thing does involve violence I think liberating a nation from a race of rapists even if it wasn’t their own homeland is a very good thing.”

“I’d have to agree Commander; it sounds like your people would be a good addiction to the Federation if they were in this universe.” Janeway said. “However I do wonder why it is you went from one different reality to ours and not back to your own.” The Captain said thoughtfully.

Twilight shrugged. “No clue I’ll need to ask Queeny when I get back.”


<<<O>>>


“What do you mean you she didn’t come through and you lost her signal!” Queen Chrysalis, usually Major Chrysalis under normal circumstances, yelled as she shook the Researcher in charge of recovering lost EDF personnel from other dimensions, a light green earth pony by the name of Sunny Meadow, in her magic. She was holding the pony by the front of his lab coat a couple feet of the ground so she could yell in his face.

“I-I don’t know what happened! We found her signature and opened the rift, but it didn’t open on this end though we got a confirmation of a stable Rift being opened.” Meadow stammered out. He could not be blamed for his fear; anypony would be scared when facing an enraged Changeling Queen who was backed up by two very concerned sentrybots.

“Find her! If I have to spend more than a couple of days dealing with those nobles and they Tartarus-damned scheming I’m going to start tossing ponies over the edge of Canterlot.” Chrysalis said and her eyes narrowed as she looked at the cowering Researcher. “Starting with you.” 

“I’ll help! Those annoying quadrupeds are always annoying the Commander!” Lunabot chimed in cheerily.

“Yes well I’m sure shouldn’t toss Dr. Meadow off the city as he is needed to run things here.” Celestiabot said being the voice of reason, though not against tossing nobles from the city, just the researcher needed to get the Commander back.

The Queen growled and dropped the pony from her magical grasp and giving him a shove back towards the control room. “Find her and get her back!” She order as the pony quickly rejoined his team in the control room as they scanned for the commander’s magical signature. The Queen nodded before turning and trotting from the large room to go and play politics with the foreign diplomates in Twilight’s place, even taking on her form so things run smoothly, Celestia and Luna were already aware of what happened so knew it would be the Queen attending disguised as Twilight but no one else knew for now so everything would run smoothly.


<<<O>>>


“Though I’m sure they are doing everything they can to get me back.” Twilight said as she finished her drink with the three aliens.

Captain Janeway nodded. “If they are like you said then I do not doubt it.”

“Captain I was wondering if I might have a tour of your ship? If it’s not too much to ask, I have always been fascinated with space and well…” Twilight blushed very faintly. “And it’s been sort of a dream of mince to go into space since I was a small filly with my first telescope.” She said slightly embarrassed at admitting one of her fillyhood dreams.

Janeway smiled a nodded. “I don’t see why not, I’ll have someone show you around as me and Tuvok have duties we need to return to.” She said as her and the security chief stood. “I believe Mr. Parris is available.” She said before taping the badge on her chest. “Janeway to Parris.”

“Parris here Captain, what do you need?” Came the voice of a male human from the device, Twilight found these forms of radios odd as it allowed anyone to hear the conversation.

“Could you report to Tenforward, I’d like for you to give a tour of Voyager to a guest we have.” 

“On my way Captain, didn’t know we had picked up anyone.”

“It’s a bit of a long story Mr. Parris but I’m sure our guest wouldn’t mind explaining it to you. Janeway out.” With that the Captain clicked the badge to close the connection.

The Captain and Security Chief waited with the Commander till another human entered wearing the same type of red and black uniform as Janeway. “Mr. Parris this is Commander Twilight Sparkle, She is the guest I’d like you to give a tour to.” Janeway said.

Parris looked at the Alicorn with a bit of surprise. “You can count on me Captain.” HE said and received a nod from Janeway. 

“Very good, if there is any trouble me and Tuvok will be on the bridge.” She told the other human before turning to Twilight. “I look forward to speaking with you again Commander Sparkle.” 

Twilight nodded. “Looking forward to it Captain.” She said and the two departed leaving the military mare with the human who she looked at. “So, I’ve notice there is not form of salute or anything of that nature between officer and subordinate?”  She asked as she had been observing the aliens carefully since learning she wasn’t in any danger.

Parris shook his head. “No not really.” He said as he eyed the alien equine. “Got to say I’ve never seen an alien species quite like yours before.”

Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “Never seen aliens on my home world either.” She said as she looked at him. “I’m curious what it is you do on this ship, or is tour guiding your official job?”

Parris chuckled at that. “No, I’m the main helmsmen, though I guess right now I am the official tour guide as I’m not really on duty.” He said with a smile. “So tell me, what is it you do back on your home planet?”

“I am the founder and leader of the Equestrian Defense Force, which is the army we have to deal with any and all threats both foreign and demotic whenever the local forces are unable to handle the situation.” She said with pride and a slight smirk as Parris did a sort of double take.

“Wait if you are the leader of the army then shouldn’t that make you a general?” He asked as he started to head for the door with Twilight following.
“No not really, Equestria doesn’t really have a general rank though I suppose the ones that would hold that rank if it existed would be the other Princesses as we all answer to them and obey their orders.” Twilight explained as she switched to quadruped mode.

“Wouldn’t you answer more towards the king and queen?” Parris asked as they made their way through the halls of the ship.

“Equestria doesn’t have a king and queen, we have the Princesses who have ruled the land for centuries and have seen much. They know their way around a battlefield I am sure even if it has been sometime since they were forced to join.” Twilight said. “They mostly leave the fighting to the Royal Guard, the EDF or myself, though I have to tell you trying to run an army while also taking care of princess duties is a real pain in the flank.” She chuckled.

“What do you mean princess duties? Like running errands for them?” The human asked.

Twilight chuckled. “Right forgot, not home. My full title is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Former student to Princess Celestia the Element of Magic and Commander of the Equestrian Defense force.”

“Wait you are royalty?” Parris asked stopping suddenly and looking at the mare dressed in dark green combat armor with an SMG slung over her back.

“Yeah kinda.” Twilight said with a laugh. “But I am a solider first and prefer a hooves on the ground approach to leading. “She said and looked at the human. “Trust me, I much prefer leading soldiers into battle then I do playing politics with the nobility. Though I am enjoying this break from it as from what I’ve seen The Great Game isn’t here.”

“The Great Game?” Parris asked as he started to walk once more. 

“The Great Game or the Game of Houses or simply The Game is what the political system in Equestria is called, I would explain it but it took me years to understand it myself and I had help. Just know it is extremely complicated and very dangerous, one misstep, one careless slip of the tongue and you could find yourself on the bad end of The Game, I’ve seen it happen to new Players more times then I’d care to remember and it is never pretty as The Game does not care about what happens to the Players, it just wants to be played and damn anyone who refuses to hell and Tartarus”

“You make it sound like it’s a living being.” Parris said as they reached a door.

Twilight nodded slightly. “In a way it is as it is always active and everyone within the nation is part of it even tough very few are aware of its existences.” She said as the doors parted to show a well lite room with several beds along the wall as the security officer twilight broke the wrist of sitting one while another human used some sort of hand held scanner on it. The injured human blinked in surprise at finding the mare there but calmed down when he saw Parris with her. However that was not what held Twilight attention, that was reserved for the human examining the broken bones and the fact her eyes displayed absolutely zero medical information about him.

The balding human picked up some small device and ran it over the injured wrist and Twilight watched both him and the action. The medical scanners in her eyes told her the security officer was there and had a broken wrist which was being healed rabidly by the device, but no matter how many times she looked at the other human they showed absolutely no information, medically he wasn’t there yet she could clearly see him.

“There we go Ensign, that should take care of it, though I do recommend giving it a day before you try doing anything that will put strain on it.” The Doctor said, for Twilight could tell he was a doctor. The Security nodded and thanked him before making his way from the infirmary.

“Hey doc, brought a visitor.” Parris said as he walked the rest of the way into the room with a very cautious Twilight following behind. 

“Ah Mr. Parris it’s good to see you and your…”The Doctor trailed off as he looked at Twilight who was watching him carefully and starting to circle him. “Friend?” He finished as he watched the mare’s strange behavior.

“Something like that, Captain Janeway is having me give her a tour of the ship and I thought I’d start with Sick Bay since she already has seen Tenforward.” Parris said as he semi-ignored Twilight’s action.

“Ah well then I am honored you thought of me first when you—“ The Doctor was interrupted when Twilight leapt forward to try and tackle him, only to pass harmlessly through him and crash into the medical bed on the other side. Both being looked at her as she scampered to her hooved and shook her head furiously to clear if before spinning around and facing the Doctor with annoyance.

The Doctor watched as she approached him with determination and her right hoof shot out and harmlessly passed through him once more. “What the hell is this!? How can a Hologram interact with the physical world?” She demanded as she continued to jab at what was basically empty air staring at the space with both annoyance and determination, as if she tried hard enough she’d touch the Doctor.

The Doctor sighed in annoyance and stepped back out of her reach, only for her to follow him to continue poking the space he was in. “I can assure you I am a hologram and am only solid when I want to be. I am the Emergency Medical Hologram for Voyager and am the lead Doctor.” He said as he took another step to try and get away from the jabbing mare, who only followed with relentless drive to unravel the mystery.

With more exacerbation the Doctor transferred himself to another part of Sick Bay causing the Mare to franticly look for him till she spotted him on the other side of the room. “Found you!” She cried out and launched into the air to fly across the room towards her prey. She passed through him once more and crashed into the wall behind him. “You know what….screw it….i don’t care anymore as this is giving me a headache.” The mare said from the floor as Parris couldn’t  help chuckling at her behavior.

“Take it there are no holograms on your homeworld?” He asked once he got himself under control.

The Commander shook her head to clear it before climbing to her hooves once more. “No we have no reached that level of technology yet.” She said and eyed the Doctor. “However I believe I think I will steer the EMSD towards it when I get home as they will be very useful.”

“Yes well seeing as you are done poking at me would you mind telling me who you are?” The Doctor asked.

“Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force. Who are you?”  She asked.

“I’m the Doctor.” The Hologram replied.

“OK and your name?” The Mare asked.

“…I don’t have one.” HE replied. “EMHs weren’t designed to have them or run for as long as I have and I have not yet decided on a name.” 

“Oh…um…my apologies.” Twilight said.

“No need to apologies, I’m quite flattered you wanted to know it.” The Doctor replied. “I also must say I have never seen an alien species quiet like yours.” 

“Yeah I get that a lot when I end up where I’m not supposed to be.” She said with a shrug. “Also my species is called Pony and my race is Alicorn as of fairly recently.”

“Pony? Really? What are the other races?” The Doctor asked out of curiosity as he started to collect his medical supplies to store them.

“Well of the Pony species there are four Alicorns, then there is the Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies.” Twilight said, this got the one human and one holograms attention. 

“Pegasi, unicorn and earth ponies?” The Doctor said with surprise. “Humans have mythology concerning two of them and the name of the third is rather surprising.”

“Really?” Twilight asked in surprise.” Huh…and I hadn’t even mentioned the Horses, Zebras, Griffins or Changelings that also live on the planet in their own nations, well the Changelings are part of Equestria but the others all have their own nations.”

The other two being blinked. “Earth has Horses and Zebras but the other two are also part of the mythology.” The Doctor said.

“Really? That’s just the sentient species; I haven’t even mentioned the animals or the monsters that rom the planets like Hydras and Manticores among a lot more.” Twilight said producing more surprise form the aliens.

“Facinating. “The Doctor said as he grabbed a pad. “Would you mind if we talked about your planet? I think it would be very fascinating to hear all about it.

“As much fun as that would be Doc I still have to give Twilight here the tour of the rest of the ship. “Parris said heading off what he could tell would be a very long talk that he would be stuck sitting though.

“Oh! Yes! Right I still have to see the rest of the ship.” Twilight said and looked at the Doctor. “I can come back alter and we can talk.” She said and the Doctor nodded in appreciation. Twilight nodded back before following Parris from Sick Bay to continue the tour.

As they walked towards what Parris called Engineering the lights suddenly dimmed slightly and lights along the corridor started flashing red as an alarm blared. “Something tells me this isn’t a good thing.” Twilight said as she saw crewmen running up the hall before Parris badge beeped at him.

“Janeway to Parris, report to the bridge imminently.” Janeway said over it.

Parris taps the badge. “On my way Captain.” He said before he started to head for a turbolift. Not really knowing what else to do and also wanting to know what was happening Twilight followed him onto the lift.

“Commander you should head back to Sickbay or Tenforward for now.” Parris told her as the doors closed.

Twilight shrugged. “I’d rather finished the tour, and the next stop sounds like it’s the bridge.” She said. Parris sighed as it was clear there was no talking the Commander out of it so he told the left to take them to the bridge.

The lift doors opened to the darkened where the only light was the flashing red lights. Twilight didn’t spend a lot of time looking around it as she stood to the side of the lift as Parris made his way to a console in front. What drew her eyes was the front window, or maybe it was a view screen and what filled it. 

Twilight wasn’t sure what it was besides a large green and black cube filling the screen. As if in answer a voice suddenly spoke from the speakers hidden throughout the bridge. “We are the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated. Resistants is futile.”
> Chapter 4: Least it’s not Federal (Part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight stood on the bridge of Voyager as she looked at the main screen showing the Borg Cube. “So I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say they aren’t here to make friends.” She said.

“Something like that.” A human dressed in a yellow uniform said from behind his console to Twilight’s left. “Shields are up.”

“Ready phasers and arm photon torpedoes.” Captain Janeway said not taking her eyes from the screen.

“Phasers ready and torpedoes armed captain.” Tuvok said after a moment. Twilight watched as an area on the Cube started to glow and a moment later it fired a beam of green energy at the Federation Ship. The shields blocked the beam for a moment before they suddenly vanished and the beam stopped.

“Shields offline captain!” The one human who spoke before said as his finger franticly hit buttons on the display. “I’m trying to bring them back….Captain transporter signals all over the ship!” HE said and a moment later three green glows appeared on the bridge and three humanoid creatures who seemed to be mostly made of metal faded in to view.

One was close to the human who seemed to run the shields and before anyone could react it grabs him and two small injectors sprouted from its right hand as the bridge crew moved to draw their weapons as more of the Borg grabbed crewmen.

Before the beige crew had their weapons half way draw the air on the bridge was split by two loud bangs and sparkle sprayed from the Borg that held the shield crewmen and it stumbled back. A moment later two more blasts sounded and the Borg went down.

Everyone on the Bridge, Borg included looked to the source of the unfamiliar sound and saw Twilight standing with two smoking heavy pistols in her hands, they were silver and had ivory grips and were large revolvers. The Mare wasted no time turning the Beauties on the two remaining Borg and the Bridge echoed with more shots as she emptied the cylinders and the two Borg went down.

“Ha! Don’t like .357s do you mental bastards!” Twilight said as she reloaded the Beauties. “Captain I recommend we get the hell away from them.” She said looking back at Janeway who nodded.

“Mr. Parris move us away, full impulse, I want to jump to warp as soon as we can.” She said as she took her seat.

“Captain, whatever the beam was didn’t just take down our shields, Warpcore is offline as well.” Parris said as he maneuvered the Ship away from the Cube that started to pursue.

“Damn, Harry, how many Borg transported aboard?” Janeway asked looking to the human who ran the shields.

“Detecting at least two dozen captain, security is trying to fight them off but they keep adapting to our phasers.” Harry said. 

Twilight looked at the three dead Borg on the ship. “Captain if you can keep us out of range of them being able to put more on board I’ll help deal with the boarding parties.” Twilight said and when Janeway looked she saw the Alicorn held a scoped rifle and had a smile plastered on her muzzle. “They seem to have trouble adapting to bullets so I think I am going to go hunting.” She said with a hint of Glee and the Captain nodded.

“Good luck Commander, don’t let them grab you or else they will assimilate you like they tried to do to Harry.” Janeway said and Twilight nodded as she stepped back into the turbolift. “
Where is the nearest boarding party?” She asked Harry from the Turbolift.

“They are heading for Tenforward, two of them.” The human replied and Twilight nodded before ordering the turbolift to take her to the nearest group.

Tenforward was in chaos as most of the crew inside were unarmed as the phaser had been collected. The two members of Security were trying to hold off the Borg drone as best as they could but their shield had already adapted to the phasers frequencies. As one was in the process of changing the frequency one of the drones grabbed him by the front of his uniform and dragged him close causing him to drop his weapon. The other security was trying to keep the other drone away from two unarmed crewman and didn’t see his companion get grabbed.

The Securitas member’s eyes widened as he knew he was done for. “Hey tinman, back the fuck off!” The room echoed with a loud crack and the side of the Borg’s head vanished in a spray of sparks and it dropped the security guard and scrambled for his phaser before jumping to his feet.

He got to his feet in time to see the remaining Borg’s head jerk back as the back of its skull blew out with the sound of another crack. It was then he saw the purple alien security had been informed was on boarded step in from the open doorway on the opposite side of Tenforward racking the bolt on her rifle. “You lot ok?” she asked the crew, the other member of Security had bene thrown across the room by the board and was unconscious but the other members of the crew were ok if shaken by coming close to being assimilated.

The Security member nodded and suddenly found some sort of rifle being shoved into his hands by a purple glow. “Take this, bullets seem to be more effective than your weapons, try to fire in short burst and watch the recoil.” The alien Commander said and four extra magazines were placed on the table beside the security member. “I’m leaving you with four reloads, make your shots count, you only have thirty-two per mag and the button to eject the spent mag is right above it, make sure the fresh mag is fully inserted before you try to fire or the rifle will jam.” The Alicorn quickly explained.

The Security member nodded before taping his bade. “Tenforward secured Captain.” He reported.

“Where’s the next nearest boarders headed?” Twilight asked the guard as he would know do to reports.

“Last I heard there were some near Sickbay.” The Guard told her and she nodded before turning and heading for her next objective.

Sickbay wasn’t much better off then Tenforward was, injured crewmen filed in along with the Security, all of them injured by the Borg as security tried to repel them. The Doctor had his hands full as he treated burns and broke bone while three members of Security watched the door.

He had just finished repairing a broken bone when the doors to Sickbay opened and a crewman flew in and crashed to the ground as four Borg entered the room. Security opened fire and managed to bring one down before they adapted and they had to rotate frequencies.  They had just finished when the door behind the three Borg opened once more and a loud crack split the air and one of them went down, the top half of its head missing.

The one of the Borg turned to face the new threat while the other advanced on the members of security. The was another crack and another board dropped as a moment later the three members of security opened fire on the remaining Borg and brought it down.

Twilight stepped over the downed Boars as she racked the bold to chamber her last round in the sniper rifle. “Everything ok here?” She asked and got a nod in response before shoving one of her shotguns and another assault rifle into two of the Security’s hands as well as four extra mags for the rifle and two boxes of shells for the shotgun.

“Watch the kick and make your shots count, that Shotgun should take one of them down in a single shot at close range, you have eight shots before you need to reload and that will take time as you need to load each shell individually, don’t forget to pump it when you are done loading to chamber a shell, after that its semiauto so you won’t need to pump it after that.” She explained and the two newly armed security nodded, she only gave them two as having one of their own weapons firing would be a good back up as it didn’t seem to need to reload like her guns did so it had an advantage over them in that. “Where’s the next nearest boarders?”

“Last we heard Engineering was under attack but we haven’t heard anything from the team sent down there.” One of the guards said and Twilight nodded.

“Ok, where is Engineering? I never made it there in my tour.” She asked and the guard gave her direction, after thanking him she left Sickbay to clear engineering.

Engineering was under attack by seven Borg, three normal drones and the freshly assimilated security team sent to stop them. The engineers were making a stand near the offline Warpcore and giving the Borg hell when Twilight arrived on site. She wasted no time in sighting the Borg closest to the mostly unarmed engineers and pulled the trigger. The top half of its head vanished in a spray of sparks and Twilight quickly started to reload as three Borg turned to face her. She barely got her shield up in time to absorb their shots, seems they remembered her.

Once the sniper was loaded Twilight dove behind the center console and dropped her shield as she came up and fired a shot at one of her attackers, the former human fell back, a large hole in his chest from where the .308 rounds tore into his body. She ducked as her two remaining attackers opened fire and she switched out the sniper for the Beauties and came back up a moment alter. Sighting both Borg she put three rounds in their chests and they went down.

She sited another Borg that turned to face her and pulled the trigger, only to have her shot deflected by a green shield. “Shit.” Twilight explained as she ducked the next shot, they had adapted to two of her most powerful weapons and they were closing on the Engineers, she needed to take the remaining Borg down quickly.

Well, she was trying to avoid damaging the ship but that wasn’t an option anymore. Pulling a small round object out she stood up as she pulled the pin. “Get back!” She yelled at the Engineers as she let the small handle go and it flew from the round object in her hand. As soon as the Engineers fell back she threw the object. “Frag out!” She yelled and dove for cover. A moment later Engineering was rocked with an explosion as the grenade detonated right in the middle of the remaining Borg and pieces of them were added to the shrapnel from the frag.

Twilight got to her feet holding another grenade, the pin still in it and found the Borg were well and truly dead, scatted all over Engineering and among the damaged computer panels. Nodding she returned the grenade back where it came from and headed for the Engineers to check on them. “You lot alright?” She asked once she reached them

A humanoid alien with ridged on her forehead spoke up. “Yeah, we’re good, who the hell are you?” She demanded as the other engineers grabbed emergency medkits to tend their companions who were injured in the blast.

“Commander Twilight Sparkle, Equestrian Defense Force, I’m helping to repel boarders on this ship.” Twilight answered automatically before pulling out her heavy assault shotgun and shoving it into the alien’s hands. “You seem like you’ll be able to handle this, it’s a fully automatic shotgun, the drum holds thirty-six shells.” She said as she placed three more drums on the now dead console beside the alien female. “It’s got a hell of a kick but should shred just about anything unlucky enough to be in front of it.” She explained.

“I’ve cleared Tenforward and Sickbay; do you know where the next nearest Borg are?” She asked.

The engineer thought for a moment.” I heard that security was under heavy attack near Halodeck Three.” The female said looking over the strange weapon in her hands.

Twilight nodded and got direction to her next objective. “How do you plan to fight them as they seem to have adapted to your weapons.” The engineers said and looked as a large scoped rifle appeared from thine air in the Alicorns hands. 

“This is designed to punch through a foot of armor plating; I think a few lightly armored tinmen will be no trouble.” Twilight said with a smile, she looked much like a child getting to play with her favorite two, which was accurate as she didn’t get to use her anti-tank rifle very often. With her baby held close Twilight made her way towards the last main battle for Voyager.

Halodeck Three was active and running a program of a Federation hospital back on earth, Security was using it as a secondary Sickbay for those who couldn’t make it to the actual Sick bay. The safeties were turned off so there were holographic guards engaging the Borg as well as the actual security but still the Borg were adapting fast to both forms of attack.

The hospital’s hall was rocked by a deafening crack and four Borg simply exploded from the waist up and their legs collapsed as there was nothing telling them to stand anymore.

The Borg turned to face the attacker and twilight had a wide smile on her face as she racked another massive AT-Round into the chamber and took aim. The Borg raised their shields against her primitive projectiles as they had adapted to her sniper and the two heavy pistols. The hall exploded once more and the heavy round ripped through their shields like tissue paper and kept going without being slowed as it passed through the Borg under it and kept going into the Borg behind it before the round sped away into the while blue yonder, it would be some time before it hit something that would actually stop it as it was meant to punch through a main battle tanks armor and hit the crew inside, being used on normal soft infantry meant nothing came close to slowing the round down.

She racked another round but the halo-security opened fire and brought the remaining Borg down as they were all focused on the Alicorn.

Twilight swept the rifle form side to side checking for any more active targets and finding none slung the massive rifle over both her shoulders and steadying it with her arms being over it.

“Top of the morning to you laddies!” She proclaimed with a smile. “Is everything secure here?” She asked and one of the real Security members nodded.

“Those were the last of the Borg on board, thank you; you save a lot of live today.” The human said and Twilight nodded, she made a mental note to go collect her weapons before she would return to the bridge however the entire ship was rocked as an explosion reverberated through the hull.

“That can’t be good.” Twilight said looking back the way she had come. “I’ll leave you to clean up; I’m going to go see what that was.” Twilight told the guards before sadly storing her AT-Rifle and heading for the nearest turbolift.

Arriving on the bridge Twilight was nearly thrown from her feet as the ship lurched from another explosion and had to grab the door frame of the turbolift to stay upright. Holding onto the door just in case she saw what the issue was, the Borg Cube was firing on Voyager and with their shields down they were taking near direct hits, the only thing saving the ship from being destroyed was Parris’ skill as a helmsmen. 

Even with the shots only coming close they were still doing damage to the ship and it would be long t the starship was either destroyed or disabled and then the crew would be easy picking even with Twilight’s aide.

Twilight watched as Voyager returned fire only for the second shot to be blocked by a shield as the Borg adapted and then Voyager was on the run again. Twilight watched the screen trying to figure out how she could help but her firearms and training only worked on actual ground forces and boarding parties, she had no idea what to do against an enemy starship…..starship….space….they were in space and space meant stars.

Twilight searched the void around the Cube until she saw what she needed. “Captain, if you can get us near that sun I think I can help destroy that Cube.” Twilight said and Janeway looked at her.

“How sure are you? Without our shields we will be exposed to a lot of radiation.” Janeway asked and explained.

Twilight ran the calculations in her head. “I’d say 50/50 chance I can pull off what I am planning, but I have never tried something like it so I can’t be sure.” Twilight said and Janeway thought a moment as she looked back at the Cube.

Then. “Mr. Parris get us as close to that sun as you can.” She ordered.

“Aye, aye Captain.” Parris said and Voyager headed for the sun at full speed the Cube right behind them.

“That’s right you mental-son-of-bitches, follow the birdy.” She said under her breath as she moved to the center of the bridge so she had a clear view. As they neared the sun alarms started to go off as the hull heated and radiation flooded the ship but still Parris kept going and the Cube followed, if fact it was gaining as the gravity from the sun was slowing Voyagers pace.

“Captain if I get any closer we will be pulled into the sun.” Parris said as he leveled out.

Janeway looked at Twilight. “Is this close enough?”

Twilight ran the calculations again and nodded. “I believe so; keep us steady, this is going to take a few moments.” She said as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her horn glowed as she ran thought the spell she needed and the Cube filled the view screen more and more as it neared the stationary ship. Twilight ignored the nervous shuffling of the bridge crew and the alarms that blared as the hull heated more and more and more radiation alarms went off. Her horn was wrapped in a second layer of magic and then a third as she squeezed her eyes shut as a headache bloomed in her head, she pushed through it and she ignored the wetness she felt running from her nose as she forced all her magic into this one task. She was an Alicorn as strong as the Moon Princess; this shouldn’t be this hard even if she has never done something like this.

After a minute a purple glow wrapped around the Borg Cube and it stopped moving as is was held in place and Twilight started to sway as her headache greet as she fought the ships momentum. After a few more moment the Cube vanished in a purple flashed and reappeared with another flash, much closer to the star. The Ships engines flared as it tried to escape the stars gravity but slowly the ship was pulled down and after a few seconds began to break up as it was racked with explosions and the hull melted when the shield failed and a second alter the Cube exploded in a blinding while light that was consumed by the sun.

“Get us out of here Mr. Parris!” Janeway ordered and Voyagers own engine came to life as it made to break orbit.

“She actually did it; sensors are showing Borg Cube completely destroyed captain.” Harry said and the Crew looked at the Alicorn who had saved her life just in time for her to collapse to the deck, blood flowing freely from her nose and eyes as she lost consciousness from the straining of teleporting a massive ship.

IT was several hours before Twilight started to come to and found herself in Sickbay on one of the bed with the Doctor running a scanner over her. “Ah welcome back Commander, I was beginning to worry.” He said as he finished his scan. “Well despite not knowing much of anything about your alien physiology much less what you did to yourself I think you have completely recovered.” He said as he tapped on the scanner.

Twilight groaned in response and rubbed her temples as she still had a faint headache. “Did we win?” She croaked.

“I’ll say we did.” Parris said coming into view. “Whatever you did cause the Borg Cube to be pulled into the sun.”

Twilight nodded. “That was kind of the plan though I didn’t know if I could pull it off.” She said. “Moving a moon is different then moving an entire ship that is fighting you the entire way.” She said and closed her eyes.

“You can move a moon?” The Doctor asked and Twilight nodded.

“Princess Luna let me do it a couple of time, to see if I could as I’m the same power level as her, it was hard but the moon didn’t fight and I could get used to it, I don’t think I should try moving ships though as I think that nearly killed me or permanently gave me burn out.” She said.

“Well either way “ Janeway said as she stepped up beside the bed. “This entire ship has you to thank for saving us back there so on behalf of the crew and the Federation I thank you Commander Sparkle.” Janeway said and Twilight nodded.

“I’ll say, doing that to a Borg ship is not something seen every millennia.” A voice Twilight recognized said and she groaned.

“Discord I am in no mood to deal with you.” Twilight said with a groan.

There was a flash of light and a human dressed exactly like Janeway stood in the room. “Discord? Well, can’t say I have ever been called that.” The human said.

Twilight sighed and looked at the God of Chaos and Disharmony. “Discord if you are going to try and disguise yourself you really should change your voice; it’s kind of a dead giveaway.” She said flatly and the Human looked at Janeway.

“Captain would you mind telling me what she is talking about?” Discord said.

In response Janeway clicked her badge. “Janeway to the bridge, go to yellow alert, Q is on board.” She said.

Discord/Q looked hut as he gasped and held his chest. “Now Captain is that anyway to treat an old friend?”

“You are no friend of this ship Q.” Janeway said as she glared at “Q”.

“Um…..excuse me.” Twilight said as she raised her hand. “Who is Q and how do you know Discord?” She asked the humans and hologram.

Everyone in the room, Q included, looked between each other in confusion.

“Commander who is Discord?” Janeway asked.

“Discord is the god of Chaos and Disharmony, him.” Twilight said as she pointed at Discord.

Discord blinked several time. “I think you have me confused with someone else.” He said and looked at Janeway. “Tell her.”

Janeway looked between Twilight and Discord. “What makes you think this is one of your gods Commander?” Janeway asked gesturing towards Discord.

Twilight blinked in confusion and then waved a hand. “Oh no he isn’t one of my gods, he is a god and I know it’s him because he has the exact same voice and that flash of light.” She said.

“You mean this?” Discords asked and snapped his finger and he disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on the other side of the bed beside Twilight who calmly looked at him.

“And the snapping to do everything.” She said simply and nodded. “No denying it, you are Discord, so I’m assuming you are the reason for me ending up here rather than going home.” She said.

Discord looked confused once more. “I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.” 

“Discord I am in no mood for your games, besides you are suppose to be overseeing that group of recruits that’s failed your course’s training.” She said. “And on top of that you can take me home since you are able to move between dimensions it seems.”

Discord blinked. “What do you mean recruits? What course?”

“Discord enough of your games.” Twilight said running her hand down her face is exasperation. “Or are you going back on our partnership?” She asked staring at him flatly.

Discord looked at Janeway. “Well I came by to see what was able to move an entire Borg Cube into a sun and I find her. “He gestured at Twilight. “Something the Continuum has no knowledge of and she seems to have me confused with another Q.” He looked back at her. “Though I don’t know of any Q who has ever gone by Discord or would form a partnership with mortals.”

“Ok I am getting annoyed with you so either make some semblance of sense or when I get back I’m sealing you in stone for a year.” Twilight said firmly.

“You have trapped a Q?” Janeway said.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah Discord was trapped in stone for over one-thousand years till he escaped for a couple of days and we had to put him back. Twilight explained. “After that we let him go and me and my friends were charged with reforming him which we succeeded at and I gave him a job helping to train EDF recruits at how to be able to stay calm no matter what happens, anyone that fails Discord course gets two more chances to try and if they fail all three times they are out of the EDF. Granted success doesn’t not mean actually completing the course as Discord has a field day with his chaos, there is only one person who has ever completed it besides myself and that is the Lieutenant in charge of the Flame Troopers.” Twilight explained. “Me and him have been partners for about fifty years now though he is in danger of losing that partnership.” Twilight said with a glare for the God of Chaos.

“Well then I must say I have not been surprised for a very long time but I can say without a doubt I am surprise and I have no idea what she is talking about.” Discord said and looked at Janeway. “I’ll be in touch Captain.” He said before snapping his fingers and vanishing in a flash of light.

“Did she just scare away Q?” Parris asked as he looked where Discord had been standing.

“I think she did.” The Doctor said staring at the same spot before both humans and hologram in the room turned and looked at the mare in the bed.

“What?” Twilight asked.


<<<O>>>


After having Discord or Q as he seemed to be, it took Twilight sometime to be convinced they were two separate being but after Q’s abilities being pointed out and found lacking compared to Discord, such as no seeming to be aware of alternate dimension as Discord was and the fact there were more of these Qs where there was only one Discord, thank the gods, she had been allowed to rest as the Voyager downgraded from yellow alert and the crew went about repairing the ship.

After a few hours they had shields back and about an hour after that the Warpdrive was back online and the ship wasted no time jumping to warp to put as much distance as it could from where the Borg Cube had been destroyed.

In that Time Twilight remained in Sickbay to make sure she was fully recovered from what she did to the Borg Cube, in that time she got a visit from a human women who apparently used to be part of the Borg named Seven, she was curious about Twilight after what she had done and Twilight suspected many members of the crew were.

After visiting with the former-Borg for a while and learning more about the hive minded race of cyborgs as well as how Seven came to escape and live on Voyager and ran astrometric, something Twilight needed to look into, Twilight found herself quietly chatting with the Doctor about his history as well as how he came from being seen an a simple tool to a full fledge member of the crew and his non-stop quest for a name and some of the adventures Voyager had been on, the ones where they ended up going back in time were very interesting to her. 

She also shared some of her own history and the history of her planet, what wasn’t classified anyways, as it was only fair. She also enjoyed talking shop with the Doctor as the Federations advancements in medicine far outpaced that of Equus but yet she was still able to follow it all with ease do to years of work as a medic. When she told the Doctor of just how extensive her knowledge of medicine was he asked why she was just a medic and not a doctor, to which she explained she never applied for a license as she didn’t want to be seen as anything other than a soldier and a medic even if she was vastly over qualified for that title.

He also demonstrated how the tryquarter worked and explained its functions and at her request taught her about it. It was a very useful device. She also learned aby the replicators on board the ship and how they could make anything from food to ship parts. Twilight made a mental note to examine this marvel of technology first chance she had.

Close to dinner time Twilight was released from Sickbay as she had no negative side effects from her little adventure and she began to explore the ship on a quest to recover her weapons that seemed to have been scattered around the ship. She found her heavy assault shotgun was still in engineer, in the care the Chief Engineer still who has actually used it to take out a stray Borg that had entered the compartment. 

As Twilight had been concerned with she hadn’t been ready for the kick and while the heavy assault shotgun had shredded the Borg it also traveled up and shredded the engineering station behind it as well, even still the Chief Engineer, one Bella Torres found the weapon very effective and impressive and Twilight spent some time chatting with the half-human-half-Klingon for a bit before she left to find her other weapons. Two had ended up locked in a security station and it had taken Tuvok intervening for them to be realized back to her, Twilight had thanked the officer and continues on.

The last one had remained in Tenforward in the care of Neelix who had stored it in the kitchen, she had stayed and chatted with the cat-like alien for a bit before deciding to have some dinner and chat about what happened after she had cleared the room to go and hunt more Borg.

Turned out nothing to exciting had happened beside tending to the wounded Security team member while the other one remained on watch with Twilight rifle at the ready, the Security team member had actually improved on their defenses by having them barricade the doors with the chairs and tables after Twilight had left while keeping a single table for cover for the armed guard. They had remained like that till they received an all clear from the bridge.

After Dinner Neelix had helped Twilight get a place to sleep and she was escorted by Tuvok to her guest quarters and the Vulcan had stayed long enough to explain how everything work, Twilight was glad to see the room contained one of the replicators she had heard about from the Doctor.

Once the explanation was done Tuvok made his leave and Twilight got the impression the bridge officer was very no-nonsense and by the book. She like that in at last one member of any command staff as it always ensured things got done when it was needed.

Once Tuvok was gone Twilight began to experiment with the replicator, first asking for simply things like drinks, they tasted perfectly right, and then a small meal, also exactly right. However it failed to produce something from Equus as it had no idea what she was asking for. It was at that pint Twilight pulled out a small engineering kit she carried with her and began to take it apart, making sure she knew where each part came from. Once she found what she as looking for she plugged in her Datapad using the universal cord it came with, once more marveling at how literal that was as even on technology far beyond the year it had been made and in another reality all to get it still connect her Datapad to the replicator’s system.

Once in Twilight as able to upload a few Equus favorites to the network, she then also found out that that network also gave her access to the computer core. With a smile and an urge she simply couldn’t resist Twilight began to work.


<<<O>>>


Twilight woke up the next morning in better mood then she had been since all this started. Last night had been eventful as she used the replicator network to gain access to the Computer and from there she was able to access all the ships systems, it had been a delicate dance of hacking the Voyager’s systems and avoiding detection but even though this computer was years ahead of the systems she had been trained on there were a few fundamental aspects of computers that remain constant no matter how advanced the system and from there she had been able to adapt her skills to the new system.

She hadn’t done anything as the crew of the ship had been decent to her so she made sure not to damage anything but she rarely got to practice her computer skills as Equestria was still new to Computers, heck they had just recently brought the internet to the civilians as for about ten years it had remained strictly military for safety as the system was still to new, too weak to safely allow anyone else on, it wouldn’t be to hard for anyone to simply get on and access military files. They needed to improve security before the civvies gained access and once that the CNet, or Civilian Network was released and anyone could by a home computer and connect, for a price as the EDF was using it to supplement their budget as it was still a fight for funding even after all these years.

Equestria had two networks, the Civilian Network, know and CNet, and the Military Network, known as Mnet. CNet had basic security protocols in it in order to allow anyone with a computer who has paid the fee and been given access can get on and surf the net at their leisure, as long as they paid the bill. Whereas Mnet was heavily encrypted and only certain computers had access to it and it was on a rotating encryptions that had to be hoof delivered to bases or else the computers would be locked out of the network. It was to prevent someone from simply getting a military computer and having full access to the military’s files. Evens till there were files that were encrypted even from standard MNet computers and could only be accessed with codes the Command Staff had, without them the flies were locked.

It was a good system and Twilight was helping to improve it when she had the time but with her being the leader of the EDF there wasn’t much call for her to hack a network she had access too already. Granted she did it from time to time just for fun and to test for vulnerabilities. It helped keep her skills sharp and it had paid off for gaining access to Voyagers systems.

From the computer core she had downloaded a map of the ship as well as info on their nearby planets, she basely took whatever interested her and made sure not to leave a trail as it wouldn’t do good if her friends found out she hacked their system while she was there.

Twilight rolled out of the bed and stretched, it was her usual time to wake up though there was technically no sun to rise but still she had her routine and after so many years there was no way she was physically able to brake it even if she wanted to. She would have liked to have used a Halodeck for her routine but with the ship having limited supplies that wasn’t an option so she ran the halls of the ship around the outer edge of the widest part. It was strange to see crewmen awake at this hour as usually she was the only one awake unless she was on a base.

The Alicorn greeted everyone she ran by but didn’t slow as she was on a schedule and after her laps were done she went into her exercise regiment and when that was done it was breast of replicated eggs, bacon, toast and Sweet Apple Acers Apple juice, ok so she may have tweaked a few things in the ship’s systems.

Once that was done she began to explore the ship a bit till she found Astrometric, as her time in the systems had told her the room was empty. Alone she spent an hour working on the system before she did what she needed to and then she headed for a storage room. Using the backdoor she had left in the doors locking system she easily gained entry and collected what she needed before erasing the back door and heading for an armory and doing the same. With her objectives contained she made her way back to her room where she dismantled the replicator and took the key parts that allowed it to replicate objects and stored it with the rest of her new gear.

She may have felt bad under normal circumstances taking the objects from the crew but they would be of use to her and the EDF plus she made sure she paid for them. She then began to wonder the ship as she waited. She visited the Doctor for a bit and after that she met with Seven in Astrometric and visited with her, both because she liked the former-Borg and to keep her distracted just enough to not notice certain things just yet.

It was several hours before an alarm started to blare and the Computer said one word. “Tenforward” Twilight smiled as Seven looked slight confused, well as much as she can for her extremely calm demeanor and impassive facial expression. 

Twilight bid her fair well and made her way to Tenforward where security had arrived as well as several other crewmembers. Twilight faced hoofed as she forgot to make it so the computer only spoke in the compartment she was in and not ship wide.

The Crew all looked around as most thought they had been called here when the computer spoke. “Afternoon Captain, how are you?” Twilight said as she approached Janeway who was speaking to the security team who thought he alarm and word meant a security issue.

“Hello Commander, I’m sorry I can’t talk now as we seem to be having some computer issues right now.” The Captain said.

“Oh don’t worry about it; it’s nothing to concerning for you, just me.” Twilight said with a friendly smile and the gathered crew looked at her.

“What do you mean?” Parris asked from where he stood with the Doctor who was on his mobile emitter as they had been together in Sickbay when the alarm has sounded and arrived for a medical emergency.

“Oh nothing really.” Twilight said as a wind started to blow and the crew looked around in confusion as win did not happen on a starship. “Relax nothing dangerous though I would move away from the center of the room as I have no idea what this will do if you are in the way.” Twilight said and the crew moved from the center of the room as the wind grew stronger.

“Commander what is happening on my ship?” Janeway asked sternly.

Twilight smiled. “Nothing, just my ride home.” She said and on que the air in the center of the room split into a tear of light. “Captain, it’s been fun but that Rift should be my way home and I’d rather not miss it.” She said and saluted. “Safe journey to you.” She said and headed for the Rift stopping just before it. “Oh and I may have borrowed a few things from the ship store but don’t worry I paid for them as well as rent.” Twilight said over her shoulder before she leapt through the Rift.

Before anyone could do anything the Rift snapped shut and a moment alter the computer sounded the “Now hear this” signal across the ship and Twilight voice spoke from the Speakers.

“Hello crew of the Voyager, if you are hearing this then that means a Rift has opened and I closed and I am no longer detected aboard the ship. First things first, this sub file will delete itself after the recording is done so you don’t have to worry. Secondly I’d like to thank you for having me as a guest and treating me well, your Federation founds amazing and it was an honor to meet you all and maybe someday we shall meet again, but who knows.”

“Now for something I need to mention, I may have “Barrowed” some gear from your ship with no intention of returning it, both to aide me just in case the rift doesn’t take me home and because it could be of use to the EDF, while I know you are probably angry about this know I made sure to pay for them as well as pay a bit of rent.” There was a pause. “Ok what I took was one Triquater, one phaser and part of the replicator unit in my room as being able to replicate food and parts will be useful.”

“Now then onto my rent, price of the gear as well as pay for anything grief my little shopping spree may have caused, first off it was no one fault, I am a skilled hacker and gained entries to the computer core from my room, I didn’t break anything and I made sure I didn’t leave anything permanent. However I did learn how astrometric works and earlier this morning, as I’m sure Seven should be discovering just about now, I managed to improve its efficiency by about 4.3% and range by 6.8%, with the improvement was able to locate a nearby planet that had a large deposit of that martial you need to run your equipment, I wasn’t able to pronounce it but I’m sure you know what it is. That should serve as more than enough payment for rent, the gear I borrowed, as well as grief caused and then some, it should be enough to last you about a month and a half after replacing the item I now have.”

“Anyways I’ve said my piece so I will say good bye and good luck, I’m sure you will make it home Captain and that the friendships you have made out here in this part of space will mean a lot in the future. This is Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force, former Student to Princess Celestia, the Element of Magic and the Princess of Motherfucking Friendship! Signing off.”

With that the file deleted itself and all systems added removed themselves. Sure enough Seven remoted astrometric had indeed been improved and the plant mentioned in the message was close and had enough of what they needed to make it another month and a half. The Captain looked at her crew not really sure what to say, she was both furious at the Commander and thankful. Finally she sighed. “Well, it seems we have made a very strange friend on our journey home.” She said and the rest of the crew nodded not really sure what to make of the alien that had been among them and who called herself the “Princess of Motherfucking Friendship”
> Chapter 5: To Infinity and Beyond!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight landed with a muted thud on the floor of what could only be described as a dense jungle, this certainly wasn’t the EMSD Facility either, unless some on used way to much miracle grow with their potted plant. With a sigh Twilight unslung her SMG and held it at the ready so if she needed it was ready, jungle always had wild animals in them and many can be very dangerous after all.

Not having any if this jungle had people in it or not much less where they may be she started to walk in a random direction, luckily the jungle floor was easy to travers as it didn’t have to thick of foliage. After walking for some time the mare noticed a distinct lack of wild life, much less signs of wildlife that was unusual for a jungle this dense.

As she walked she finally got signs of life in that she heard movement around her and had a very strong feeling of being watched, and that watcher was defiantly unfriendly. She listened to the sounds as they move around her and she could tell they were moving to surround her and were trying to be stealthy about it, they didn’t count on her having augmented hearing though.

Twilight continued to walk on as if she was unaware of her watchers as the best way to figure out they were would be to simple let them try and ambush her and she had a district feeling wouldn’t be long.

She hates being right. 

As she entered a clearing the watchers made their move in that they leapt from the trees, seems they had been running along the branched and not the jungle floor. What caught the alicorn off guard was the fact they weren’t animals, they were animal shaped but defiantly machines. They were low to the ground and looked much like Timberwolves only a dark orange with bright orange light running along their body, and they were armed.

Whatever they were they fired orange energy balls from their face, some at the speed of a semi-auto pistol and other at the same speed as an SMG. Twilight had to raise her shield as there were about a dozen of the mechanicals wolves all of them firing on her. The shield stopped the shots but whatever that energy was it was causing havoc with her magic and nearly broke through her shield in the first few seconds making her need to pour more energy into it to keep it stable.

Now she had the issue of the fact at least one of the mecha-wolves was firing at her at all times so she couldn’t drop her shield to return fire, at least while on the ground. Twilight spread her wings and took to the air and this seems to have confused the mecha-wolves as they scattered and headed for the trees to try and get above her while others fired from the ground, she was able to dodge better in the air though and began going through some of the maneuvers Rainbow used to always show her, seems that being made to watch was paying off though she wasn’t as good at them as Rainbow do to still being new to flying.

Even still with only two firing on her and the other climbing it gave her enough breathing room to take aim at the nearest mecha-wolf and fired off a burst. Despite being machines these wolves were susceptible to bullets and oddly enough seemed explode slightly when they died, not enough to injure their fellow wolves but enough to completely destroy them.

Knowing this Twilight wasted no time in maneuvering and firing, only pausing to switch to a more powerful and accurate assault rifle and before long she had dealt with the perusing mecha-wolves. The maneuvering as carried her a good deal of distance away from where they had ambushed her and she could now hear a distant sound she knew all too well, gunshots.

Seems she wasn’t the only one out here and whoever it was, was under attack and based on the sound by more of the mecha-wolves. Not missing a chance to make friends Twilight flew towards the distance gunfire and it wasn’t lock before she came across sighs of battle, whoever was shooting was on the retreat in the damage to the jungle floor was any indication.  She quickly followed the shots and came across a group of humanoids, she wasn’t sure if they were humans do to the fact their armor covered their bodies completely though it looked similar to standard military armor she was used to humans wearing, the helmet looked a lot like the one she wore.

The humanoids were pinned down at the edge of a large clearing that sloped up and it looks like this was some form of defensive positions if the sandbags and crates were any indication. There were seven of the humanoids trying to hold off about four times their numbers of the mecha-wolves and other mechanical creatures.

There were two other types of machines fighting the humanoids behind the sandbags. One smaller one that looked like it had two fan like wings on either side of it and was flying out while the other was humanoid as well with broad shoulders and looked like a humanoid in armor. While the flying one didn’t appear to be armed, she wasn’t sure what it was there for, the humanoid machine definitely was as it fired a single shot that hit one of the besieged humanoids and Twilight watched in surprise as light rabidly spread over his body from where the shot it and then blew way leaving nothing but the humanoids gun to drop to the ground.

“Disintegration?” Twilight said as she looked at the large humanoid machine. “I am defiantly taking that.” She said, but before that she needed to go make friends and what better way to make friends then to aid in battle against overwhelming odds? As Twilight watched she saw a mecha-wolf run along the trees unseen by the defenders and drop down behind them to attack from behind and probably score a couple of kills before they knew what was happening. Wasting no time Twilight flew down as fast as she could and tackled the defender about to take a round in the back.

They both went down with the defender uttering a curse Twilight was familiar with but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as she rolled off the humanoid before he could try and fight her, no doubt thinking she was an enemy and she came up on her feet and put a burst into the mecha-wolfs head causing it to explode.

“Watch your backs, they are flanking you!” She shouted at the defenders, hoping they understood her or else this meeting was going to be short as two of them were turning their weapons on her. Thankfully they seemed to understand as they paused for a moment, she couldn’t see their faces behind their helmets and the fact they wore some sort of fabric around the lower half of their face but they got the message when four more of the mecha-wolves dropped from the trees.

Between Twilight and the two humanoids the attack from behind was quickly repelled and, one of the humanoid paused long enough to nod a thanks to Twilight before turning back to deal with the attack from in front, seemed she earned a bit of trust, at least for the current battle. Twilight took a position behind the sandbags along with the other soldiers and together they started to push the enemy back, it didn’t take long to figure out the mecha-wolves were weak against shots to their face as it seemed to be a major weak point and the soldiers with what Twilight saw were DMRs started picking them off while the ones with assault rifles focused on the larger two legged targets, only firing on the wolves when they got close.

They were doing well when Twilight heard something behind them and flipped around raising her rifle to fire on the flanking enemy and froze as she saw another humanoid in dark green armor that covered his body completely, it was clearly worn and had seen much combat as it has scorch marks and small dents and scratches along it, clearly having saved its wearers life many times but what caught the alicorn off guard was just how damn toll the thing was, it towered over her and the other soldiers, she estimated it was around seven feet tall, the only thing that stopped her from thinking it was part of the enemy was the fact it carried an assault rifle like the soldiers she was with, though it was aiming it at her.

The two aimed their rifles at each other, neither making a move as they weren’t sure if what they were seeing was an enemy or not, what broke the spell was one of the soldiers taking half a dozen shots from the energy SMG and collapsing back. “Damnit.” Twilight hissed as she looked at the soldier and received a deceased message. She looked back at the tall humanoid. “IF you are here to hell then quit standing around and help us repels the attack!” She barked, not sure if it understood her or not.

It seemed to, or at least got the meaning behind it as it looked up at the mecha-creatures and joined them at the sandbags. Twilight watched as shots were fired at the much larger target and seemed to be blocked by some sort of shield it had around itself. It fired it weapon with the cool precision and calmness only years of training and thousands of hours of combat could bring and with the large humanoid’s aid the attack was broken and the enemy pushed back.

It was at that point that the soldiers aimed their weapons at Twilight and she scowled. “That’s some way to show gratitude!” She said with annoyance.

Several of the normal soldiers, for Twilight was sure the smaller humanoids were normal size and the larger one was abnormal, shared a look. The only one not seeming to be showing any reaction to her speaking was the larger humanoid.

“Who are you?” The large humanoid asked in a deep voice that spoke of a being that had seen countless battles and nothing much surprised it.

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Commander Twilight Sparkle, Equestrian Defense Force.” She said and rested her rifle on her shoulder to show she meant them no harm.

The large humanoid nodded slowly. “Ok, why did you help the marines against the Prometheans?”

“You mean the mechanical things? Easy, they attacked me first and I saw your soldiers were also being attacked by them and saw an opportunity to make friends, saved one of their lived when one of the mecha-wolves tried to flank them.” Twilight explained.

“It’s true sir, if she hadn’t tackled me I wouldn’t be here right now.” One of the soldiers spoke up, his voice muffled by the cloth he wore over his face.

The large humanoid seemed to relax slightly as he nodded again. “Ok, well it’s clear you aren’t with the Covenant or the Prometheans.” He said as he slowly lowered his gun and the soldier followed suit. “What are you doing here?”

“Well what I’m doing here at this exact spot is trying to make friends as I have no clue where I am, as for what I am doing in this jungle I’d like to know that as well as I am not supposed to be here.” Twilight said with a shrug. “Also if I may ask who and what are you lot?”

“I’m Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan One-One-Seven and I’m what is called a human.” The Master Chief said and Twilight nodded as she recognized the rank though the name was odd as humans didn’t use numbers for their names, least none she had ever met.  She looked at the soldiers.

“We are marines from the Infinity, we were on recon when we got separated from the main force and held up here.” One of them said.

Twilight nodded. “Ok, what is the Infinity, some sort of base?” 

“No, it’s one of the largest and most advanced ships in the UNSC’s fleet.” One of the marines said.

Twilight nodded once more. “Alright, so then it’s a starship as I don’t think you would be reconing Earth.” She said and the marines tensed as they hadn’t told her their home planet. “Relax. “Twilight said waving a hand. “I’ve met humans before; I just didn’t recognize you do to all the armor you are wearing, kind of makes it hard to see exactly what you are under it you know?”

The marines looked at each other once more but before they could say anything more a female voice spoke up. “Not that this isn’t interesting and all but we have an LZ to clear if we want to get out of here.” 

Twilight blinked and looked at the Chief as the voice came from him. “Wait I thought you were male? How the hell did you just sound female?”

“That was Cortana, she’s an AI.” The Chief said.

“A Smart AI thank you very much!” Cortana said and her voice distorted slightly and twilight blinked, she knew AIs and their voices defiantly were not supposed to distort like that.

The Chief looked as if he sighed in his armor before hefting his rifle. “Marines, I could use some help clearing an LZ if you are up for it.” He said.

“Oorah!” Several of the marines said raising their own weapons.

“Mind if I tag along and hitch a ride?” Twilight said and the Chief nodded that it was alright. With that the Spartan, the marines and the alien moved off with the aliens making a slight detour to scavenge that disintegration gun, which turned out to be some sort of sniper rifle from the downed Promethean as well as any ammo she could for it, when she got the chance she would need to figure out how it worked.

For now they had a lot of Prometheans and a collection of aliens Twilight assumed were the Covenant the Chief had mentioned. They found them all guarding a hill that lead up to some sort of structure and the group wasted no time in opening fire on the much smaller group.

Twilight and the marines took cover behind rocks and trees and began to return fire while the Chief sprinted around the side of the enemy; Twilight had to admit the human was fast, much faster than normal as with in seconds he was coming around a rock half way up the hill behind one of the humanoid Prometheans. With Speed Twilight had only seen in heavily augmented soldier the chest grabbed a spike the Prometheans armor had and tore it off before the Promethean spun around to try and slash the Chief with its sword arm only for the chief to dodge and thrust the spike he had under the Promethean’s face plate and it disintegrated as it died, leaving behind a strange floating field.

With the death of that Promethean the rest of the enemy noticed the Chief and sever turned to face him, including two birds like aliens holding shields, exposing themselves to Twilight and the marines. Twilight put a burst into each one of them then ducked a blast of green emerging from one of the small bulky aliens who barked like dogs a bit. One of the marines dropped in before it could fire another shot.

Nodding in thanks Twilight jumped over the log she was behind and sprinted for a rock and dove behind it, while teleporting would be useful the fact she didn’t know exactly where the enemy was she didn’t want to risk ending up in front of an unseen enemy and get shot in the back.

Slowly with the Marines advancing slowly up the hill and keeping up the pressure on the enemy Twilight was able to move up the hill rapidly and she caught glimpses of the Chief doing the same. With the two of them moving randomly through the enemy it was causing chaos in their ranks and the enemy kept exposing themselves to the marines who took full advanced and filled them with a healthy dose of lead.

Twilight came around a rock and came face to face with one of the humanoid Prometheans and she raised her rifle, but before she could fire a blue shield appeared between her and it and she saw a thin line attached to the shield and when she followed it she saw one of the flying machine hovering close by. So that’s why they hung around.

Twilight ducked back behind the rock to avoid getting her head taken off by the Promethean and came around the other side. After emptying half a mag into the flying machine she dove back around the rock as three of the bird like aliens opened fire on her. A moment later a small round grey object landed in the middle of them and exploded, splattering dark blue blood everywhere and Twilight caught a glimpse of the Chief moving behind a fallen long and mentally thanked him for the assist.

Coming back around the rock she emptied the rest of her mag into the promethean before lunching forward and burying one of her blades in the same place she saw the Chief do earlier. Sure enough the Promethean dissolved into that strange cloud.

It didn’t take much longer for them to reach the top of the hill and find it had been fortified with more of the human’s defenses only instead of finding marines fighting off an attack they found only the dead, the position having been overrun before they arrived. “These marines were overrun trying to unlock the door; their equipment is still hooked up. Chief get me close and I can work on cracking the door.” Cortana said.

When the chief neared some sort of pad beside one of the dead marines a ghostly image of a young women appeared above it. “Alright just give me a few minutes and I should have this open.” Cortana said form where she floated above the decoding equipment. The Chief nodded and the group quickly spread out among the defenses in case of attack, which of course arrived. The enemy really wanted them dead it seemed.

With Marines manning two gun emplacements and the rest scattered among the sandbags with Twilight and the Chief moving from position to position to help if it looked like the marines were about to be overwhelmed they were able to keep the enemy about half way down the hill.

That was till one of the humanoid Prometheans stepped out with some kind of large weapon and fire d it at one of the gun emplacement Twilight was beside to help the gunner. She dove to the side and barely avoided the blast and the second explosion as well, however the gunner and one other marine wasn’t so lucky, the gunner having taken the first blast while the second marine was caught in the smaller explosion and both were disintegrated.

Twilight cursed and grabbed the gun, which had survived the explosion with some minor scorching as it seemed the Promethean weapons were meant to kill organic targets, and hefted it as it had been torn from its stands. Holding the turret like a Heavy Trooper’s minigun the mare hosed the Promethean down with bullets before turning the gun on the nearby Covenant.

When the belt was almost depleted she tossed the turret into her pocket dimension as it may come in handy later if she finds ammo for it and took a risk to teleport to where the humanoid Promethean died, sure enough she found the large weapon lying beside the cloud and she grabbed it before she teleported back to safety. 

Not wanting to wait to figure it out the mare hefted the alien weapon onto her shoulder like a rocket launcher and squeezed about where a trigger would be. The alien weapon kicked slightly and sent a ball of engager towards a group of Covenant and Prometheans, the first explosion killed two of the Covenant while the secondary blasts killed the remaining, she officially liked this alien weapon. Deciding now was as good as any time to test weapons she stored the alien rocket launcher and pulled out the sniper rifle. Aiming down scope she noticed it activated three lasers that marked where she was aiming and sited one of the larger Covenants, a humanoid alien in blue armor and fired sur enough it was a one shot kill as the blue alien disintegrated, it was official, and she was keeping these weapons.

Storing them once more as she had limited ammo for them she withdrew her LMG and began to open fire in burst why yelling “DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE!” at the enemy. After a few more minutes of fighting Cortana spoke over the radio. “Ok, doors open, lets clear us an LZ” She said and Twilight fell back to the door with the remaining marines, they had lost about half of them holding the position.

Through the door was a relatively flat clearing with a few rocks and trees and some kind of hovering vehicle Twilight had no idea what it was.

“Enemy mortar tank!” One of the marines yelled answering Twilight’s unspoken question. The group scattered as the tank lobed a ball of pure blue energy at them. Barley getting clear the clearing exploded into chaos as enemy ground forces came from behind the trees and rocks and opened fire while the tank continued to fire randomly as it saw a target. Twilight was having to focus on dodging the mortar shots as well as enemy small arms fire she wasn’t able to keep track of the marines or the Chief as she fired on enemies she found.

She tried to near the tank with the intents of taking it out but found a Covenant was manning a turret on the front of it and kept her away, so she would take out the tanks support first and forced on the infantry. When she found one of the humanoid Covenants behind a rock, getting a thankful breather from the tank she noticed it wore black armor unlike the others she had seen. She had enough time to wonder what it meant when it drew a small object from his hip and roared with its quadruple jaws splayed wide as energy shot from the small device and formed a double pronged sword of pure energy.

“Ok that is cool.” Twilight said with a smile before the Covenant lunged for her. Twilight dove to the side and came up to fire only to find the enemy had anticipated this and was side stepping where he was supposed to be before lunging for here with the energy sword.

Twilight deployed her own blade and parried this would work as she blocked the attack, it worked but she felt the blade started to heat up do to the pure energy of the sword. Twilight pushed the Covenant back and raised her rifle but the Enemy dodged before she could fire once more. “Damnit hold still! Your remind me of the damn black ops!” Twilight shouted in announce as she dodged another attack by the enemy soldier.

She gave up on the rifle and slung it as she engaged her second blade and took a righting stance with them. “Bring it on mother fucker!!” She said switching into combat mode, causing her eyes to shrink as down to the width of a quarter and glow red, it had the advantage of highlighting the Covenant soldier as a Hostile and made him easier to track, it also caused her blood to boil for some reason but that didn’t matter now, what did was tearing this bastard apart.

With a yell she lunged forward and the enemy blocked her slash with his sword and delivered a kick to her chest and caused her to stumble back. She regained enough balance to kick off the ground and avoid a slash from the black op covenant solder and came up again. The two circled each other eyes locked on their opponent, she had a strange feeling that the enemy was enjoying this battle.

It Was twilight who made the first move as she fainted left and then charged forward, the enemy barley recover from the face out to dodger her attack for the most part but the blade went across his side and drew some dark purple blood. The enemy reached down and touched the wound and looked at the blood on its hand before nodding to her and taking up another fighting stance.

Twilight knew the enemy was going to put everything he had in his next attack, she could only respond in kind and only one of them was going to walk away from this. As one both aliens lunged forward, Twilight used her left blade to parry the energy sword as she disengaged her right blade and spun around the enemy, drawing her combat knife from where it was sheathed on her left shoulder and came around and buried the blade into the enemy’s eye.

The Covenant spasmed once and went limp, Twilight’s blade sliding free as he dropped and she stood there panting. She felt like she was on fire and she just wanted take her blades to the corpse and make sure he was dead. She almost did but a cry of pain from one of the marines snapped her out of it and she shook her head before disengaging combat mode and the fire died out. She had no idea what the hell that was but there was no time to worry about.

Pausing only to grab the energy sword Twilight came around the rock with her assault rifle to find the battle mostly over. The tank was a burning pile of wreckage while only a handful of the cowardly aliens and two of the birdlike aliens remained. Twilight took aim and dropped the two bird like aliens as they were focused on two of the marines and before she could take care of the others they were dropped by the marines.

She moved into the clearing scanning for any more active targets and notices the marines doing the same, they had lost two more and one of the remaining ones was injured as he limped heavily but it couldn’t be treated till they were sure the area was safe. They got it confirmed when the Chief came from behind a rock and radioed that the LZ was clear and they were ready for pick up.

Twilight scavenged some the bodies for more ammo for their new weapons as well as anything else that may be of use, like one of the those shield gauntlets the bird like aliens used, she ended up choosing an orange one as it was the rarest so it probably meant something as well as some small blue spheres that one of the Marines told her was a plasma grenade and explained how it worked. She also grabbed one of the large green energy weapons from one of the humanoid aliens as well.

She had offered to help tend the injured marine but he said he’d be fine with bio-foam, which was then explained and Twilight asked if she could add it to her kit. The marines obliged her and gave her one of the cans and she stored it.

After a bit more humans arrived, one wearing as more stream-lined set of armor similar to the Chief and a human without any armor at all, just a uniform. When the marines with them saw Twilight stand from her scavenging they nearly shot her but the other marines quickly spoke up. After that it was another round of introductions as she met Commander Lasky and Spartan Palmer.

“So you are not native to this planet?” Lasky asked Twilight as they waited for a drop ship to arrive.

Twilight shook her head. “No, this place is just as alien to me as it is to you, and just as hostile.” She explained. “Why I decided to make some friends.” She gestured to the marines who were talking with the marines that arrived with Lasky.

“So you’ve never heard of the Covenant, the Forerunners or the UNSC?” Palmer asked and Twilight got the feeling the women didn’t trust Twilight, which was the mark of a good soldier who just met an unknown alien.

“Nope but I’m not exactly supposed to be here so that makes sense.” Twilight said. “So that makes sense.

Before anyone could say another word the sound of an engine overhead filled the clearing and when Twilight looked up she saw what she could only describe as a flying whale and judging by the fact everyone was grabbing gear that was their ride.

One the dropship, or Pelican as it was called, landed the rear doors opened and everyone boarded it and took seats, and like all human contraptions this Pelican was not built with ponies, much less alicorns in mind as Twilight had to lean forward do to her wings or else have them uncomfortable pressed to her back.

“Alright, according to the Captain Infinity is under heavy attack, they have boarders and some sort of sphere hovering above the ship that has disabled the Infinites weapons system, the marines are fighting back but as long as dropships can keep arriving it’s a losing battle, Infinity needs its weapons brought back online which means that sphere needs to go, and to do that the anti-air batteries need to be reset.” Lasky explained to the humans and one alien as the dropship flew.

Twilight nodded. “I’d be happy to help with taking out the sphere.” 

“It’s call the Diadact and he the reason Infinite was dragged into Requiem in the first place.” Cortana said through the speakers on the Chief’s armor.

Lasky nodded. “Alright, well whatever he is called he needs to be driven off if we want to have any hope of repelling the Covenant Phantoms. Chief do you think you can handle that?” the human commander asked as he looked at the Spartan who nodded the affirmative. “As for you Commander Sparkle I don’t really have any authority over you but if what my men tell me is true I think you can handle yourself so I’ll send word ahead that you will be with the Master Chief so other marines won’t mistake you for some new Covenant or Promethean.” 

Twilight nodded and checked her weapons to make sure they were loaded and read while Lasky made his way to the cockpit of the Pelican to use the radio. It was a quiet trip as everyone in the Pelican prepared in their own way for the coming fight as the area near the objective was too hot to fly in which meant Twilight and the Chief were going in on foot, though Lasky informed there that there was marines scattered around the route they would need to take that would help them if possible, and if not asked the two of them to assist the marines if possible so they don’t get overwhelmed as most of them were pinned down. Twilight agreed and mentally added assist the marines as a secondary objective.

It wasn’t long before the Pelican was as close as it could get and came in to trop off The Chief and Twilight before it took off again to head for a safer landing bay. Both the Chief and Twilight checked there surrounding and found it secure but they could hear the sounds of battle not far off.

Both augmented soldiers quickly made their way for their objective, Twilight having to follow the Chief as he had a waypoint set to where they were going and with Twilight not familiar with the terrain nor the ship all she could do was follow, she didn’t mind so much as the Chief knew what he was doing based on what she had seen so far.

It took only minutes for them to crest a hill that overlook a pitched battle between Covenant and pinned down marines, though there was a very useful piece of equipment sitting only a few yards away that would even the odds nicely and the Chief made a beeline for it while Twilight took up a sniper position on the hill with the alien sniper. While she started picking off what she was told were Elites, which acted as field commanders for the Covenant the Scorpion tank came to live and rolled forward.

The Covenant hadn’t been expecting the tank to suddenly come to life nor for a sniper to start disintegrating their officers and the scrambled for cover which gave the trapped marines some breathing room and allowed them to spread out some instead of being packed together. Between the marines, the tank and Twilight’s sniping the Covenant soon broke ranks and retreated and Twilight left her position and teleported down to the marines, that was a bit of a mistake as she startled one who ended up shooting her with his DMR, luckily her armor stopped it but it still hurt like hell. The marine was quick to apologize once he realized it was the friendly alien they had heard about over the radio.

As marine boarded the tank, one on the turret and for more on the sides it left Twilight having to fly and two marines having to try and keep up on foot, till one mention they had something called a Warthog that had flipped when it struck a rock while retreating. Once they showed it to her it wasn’t that hard to flip the Hog over with her magic and she climbed into the driver seat while the two other marines boarded.

Now with two fully loaded vehicles they group advance for a cargo elevator that would get them into the ship. Twilight let the Scorpion roll ahead and rain down explosive shells on the Covenant while the passengers kept the infantry away, Twilight used the speed and maneuverability  for the Hog to run along the outside of the battle and let her marines pick of the fringe of the enemy. 

She couldn’t help laughing madly as the hog caught air as she came over a hill and when they landed the gunner joined in with his own cheer before they got back to work. Thought she was used to driving to an extend the fact the seat wasn’t meant for a winged creature and that both the front and back wheels turned, making every turn sharp, it took her a bit to get used to driving the Hog but she adapted rapidly s she always did when it came to combat and soon it was like she always drove the alien vehicle.

The Chief and her kept up the same tactic of the tank pressing the attack while the Hog ran around the edges and flanked the enemy and broke their lines as they tried to organize a defense, Twilight even got the satisfaction of running over a few of the little barking aliens and they were satisfying speed bumps.

It wasn’t long before they reached the cargo elevator along with a small army of liberated marines as between the tank and hog completing the secondary objective was simple. And they arrived with their little army just in time as the marines defending the cargo elevator was in severe danger of being overrun, till the Covenant were broad sided by dozens of squads of marines and a tank and hog that came sailing over a small hill to land on several of them before speeding off as the marine on board sprayed the passing enemies.

“You know you are insane and I love it!” The marine in the passage seat said as he fired his assault rifle at a group of the barking aliens.

“Hey what’s not to love about this?” Twilight yelled back with a broad smile as she skidded around a large boulder and came upon more speed bumps. They came around the boulder after the speed pumps and the gunner sprayed more of the Covenant as they sped past.

After a short engagement the cargo elevator was clear and while the rescued marines stayed behind to ensure nothing came in behind them the Chief and Commander drove their vehicles onto the elevator. Once aboard it started to rise to carry them into the ship.

The Cargo hold was in chaos as boarder had arrived from the other parts of the ship and marines were scattered everywhere fighting for their lives in either little groups or individually with the only real defense being put up at the elevator. “Well then Chief, let’s see if we can even the odds shall we?” Twilight said over her radio, somehow her radio worked with the Spartans radio and was set to the correct frequency.

“Agreed.” The Chief replied and as soon as the safety bars droped Twilight floored it into the cargo hold while the tank rolled out behind her. The Cargo hold was a lot more confine then outside and with her having to watch for marines it severely limited the Hogs maneuverability  but she was able to make it work, it helped the Scorpion was taking most of the fire as armor was always a bullet magnet.

Between the two of them they were able to thin out the enemy in the cargo hold enough for the marines to mount a defense and start to push them back, however there was no way to take the vehicles with them the rest of the way and they had to abandon them, well for the most part as Twilight moved the Hog into her pocket dimension in case they needed it.

The marines that had come with them stayed behind to help clear the cargo hold as the Spartan and Alien made their way to the next compartment. Inside was a bit calmer, at least where they were as a few squads of marine were set up to defend the area but the Covenant seemed content to stay away as they seemed to be setting up to defend as well.

“Ok, that is a lot of enemy units.” Twilight said as she looked out through the corridor, there were hundreds of Covenant dug in as well as what looked like a few automated turrets, she wasn’t sure even she could get through it.

The Chief was calmly collecting supplies from a few crates the marines had and Twilight decided to look over what the UNSC had to offer. It wasn’t much different than what she already had but still it couldn’t hurt to have a few more weapons so she ended up grabbing one of the assault rifles as well as a shotgun, sniper and rocket launcher, SAW, and a DMR. She can say with 100% certainty that she chose the weapons purely from a tactical stand point and she was not acting like a foal in a candy store and she was not drooling over the crates of weapons at all and if any of the marines say otherwise they are a liar.

Now armed with more weapons and ammo she felt a little more confident about their odds but still doubted they could get through as she ran simulations in her head, the prospects were not good.

“Hold on you two, I have something that may even the odds.” Lasky said over the radio, he must have been monitoring them from the bridge. A few moments later a cargo elevator descended from the ceiling and on it sat two vehicles that Twilight could only call mechs.

The Chief wasted no time climbing into one and Twilight soon followed, as the hatch closed she found that like everything else this was not built for a pony, much less an Alicorn as her wings were pressed to her back and her horn kept bumping into things in the confined space, oh well if it got them through the Covenant then who was she to complain?

After being given a quick run down by the marines on how to pilot a Mantis, why it was called that Twilight had no idea as it looked nothing like a mantic but she also didn’t know why the jeep was called a Warthog when it looked more like a big cat to her but oh well, it’s the UNSC’s toys so they could call it whatever they wanted to.

Once they were ready Twilight and the Chief advanced from the staging area and into the Covenant defenses. After a very brief tactical discussion it was agreed upon that Twilight would move along the higher path while the Chief when straight up the middle of the lower path.

The Covenant defenses never knew what hit them as the two Mantises advanced through their lines cutting down all in their path. Whenever the Chief’s shields went down Twilight was quick to cover him as they recharged, she didn’t have to worry so much as most of the defenses were set for the lower path and they hadn’t expected two of them. As they marched through eh line Twilight had very wide smile on her face and had to shut off her radio as she laughed at the covenant as they vainly tried to stop her advance. “That’s right, run little speed pumps! Run!~~~” Twilight sang out as some of the barking aliens tried to run for it, they didn’t get far before their florescent blue blood painted the deck.

To say Twilight was enjoying herself was an understatement, she had not gotten to enjoy this level of death and destruction in sometime and the panicked squeals and cries of the lower ranking Covenant  was music to her ears, it had been some time since she got to just let go and enjoy herself fully and inside the Mantic against an army of an alien collective was the perfect time, the only issue was dealing with the after effect as she didn’t have Chrysalis to help with that, oh well she knew how to take care of herself quiet well and had done it for some time before Chrysalis.

It didn’t take long before they reached the ended of the corridor and Twilight was disappointed there wasn’t more, thought she was finding it very hard to sit still as she kept twitching, after the Diadact was driven off Twilight would need to find a nice quiet secluded spot to take care of a few things.

Still riding her high the mare advanced alongside the Chief out onto the main deck and she got her first look at the Diadact, ok that was a big sphere and she was sure even the Mantic would be able to scratch it. “Ok, you need to clear the jammers and then reset the system; once you do that we will have defenses again and will be able to deal with the inbound Phantoms.” Lasky said over the radio reminding her of the plan. She defiantly needed to take care of herself so her head was clear, she was clear headed enough to be thankful that even when off the mantic could receive radio broadcasts.

Without a Word the two soldiers moved to opposites side of the deck and much to the annoyance of Twilight found the jammers where shielded and the mantic couldn’t shoot through the shield and was too big to step in and shoot the jammer. Luckily she found the stomp worked just fine as there was no way in hell she was getting out of the Mantic like this till she had some privacy, insane or not she was s till a mare.

With that dealt with she moved onto the next jammer as she saw the Chief finish with his and they met at the third, with a cross fire of both Mantises the Covenant never stood a chance. With the last jammer down the Chief activated the reset and Twilight learned Lasky failed to mention that would take time, time they would need to spend repelling incoming Phantoms.

To say the fact the Phantoms were a lot more heavily armed and armored then anything else they had faced and they dropped two of the Covenant tanks on the deck which could take out a Mantic very quickly it almost ruined Twilight mood, almost. It still ticked her off at how close it came what she added her Magic to the fight and yanked several Covenant from the enemy drop ships and let them drop the hundred or so feet to the deck bellow as she fired on the phantom, she had learned her lesson in using magic on moving ships so didn’t even want to try doing anything to the Phantoms themselves unless it was normal magical blasts, which she couldn’t do without blasting a hole in the Mantis unless she got out.

Still between the two of them and with only a few close calls they were able to repel the attack till the defenses came back online and started firing on everything in the air, including the Diadact till he was forced to retreat from the ship.

“Ok, looks like the Covenant are falling back, good work you two. “Lasky said over the radio, a moment later another voice spoke up.

“Sir I am detecting a strange energy build up on the hull.” The voice said.

“Is it Covenant or Promethean?” Lasky asked.

“I don’t know sir, I haven’t ever heard of this type of energy before; it’s collecting in one area on the hull.” The second voice said. 
“Location?” Lasky asked.

“Close to the Master Chief’s location sir,” The voice said. “Sir its building rabidly, it’s reaching critical levels!”

“Chief, Commander, I’d recommend you get out of there.” Lasky said and the Chief started to move back to the entrance into the ship but paused when Twilight didn’t move to follow.

“I think that’s my ride Commander Lasky, it should do any harm.” Twilight said.

“What do you mean Commander?” Lasky asked.

“Well, see when I say I shouldn’t be here I didn’t just mean this planet, I meant this universe and that energy build it is most likely my people trying to get me back.” Twilight explained.

“What? What are you talking about?” Lasky asked.

“You will see.” Twilight said and a moment later a Rift formed on the deck. “Yup that’s my people. “She turned the Mantis to face the Chief’s. “Well it’s been a lot fun Master Chief but time for me to head out as this is my extraction. Good luck to you in finishing off the Diadact.” Twilight said as she backed the Mantis through the Rift before anyone could say anything about leaving the mech behind and the Rift snapped shut.
> Chapter 6: When your Counterpart Royally Screws up! (part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a barren and brown dirt field a large green machine stood slumped slightly besides a small group of boulders, beside it a purple mare was using water from a canteen to wash her hands before drying them on one of her work rags she carried with her.

Twilight had to admit, fingers were very useful, though they didn’t beat Chrysalis’ aide they still got the job done nicely. The UNSC Mantis, piloted by the alicorn had landed in this tan dry, barren field after stepping through the rift and after concluding she still didn’t seem to be home she had done a quick visual scan for enemies and when she found none began to walk the mantis a ways till she found the rocks to provide some privacy.

Once that had been dealt with and she cleaned up she looked at the Mantis, while she absolutely loved the vehicles ability to cause death and mayhem it also would probably scare the first person who saw it and that could lead to accidents, so reluctantly the mare stored the mech till she would need it again, she would also need to check its ammo count as well as what it fired, which meant she would need to work on the replicator she had to get it working to make ammo and other supplies, right now it was a food replicator so could only make meals and it had limited power. Twilight would need to work on getting it to be able to be powered by her magic as well as replicate more than just food and drink, she looked forward to tinkering with the alien device but before she could do that she needed to figure out where she was.

Taking her binoculars out and climbing on the largest boulder she had used for privacy the soldier swept the horizon with the binoculars set to maximum zoom. After a few second of her slow scan she spotted what looked like a house a few miles away from her current location, with an objective now firmly in mind the mare hopped from the rock, stored her binoculars and donned her armor.

Once she was fully armored and armed the mare began to trek across barren land towards the distant structure. She walked so as not to use up valuable energy, she had been in combat not that long ago and wasn’t sure when she would be able to sleep again much less get something more than the military issued protein bar she snacked on as she walked, she only ate half of it and stored the rest as the bars were for used in the field by EDF soldiers when on long missions so they could keep their strength up and she only had three in her survival kit. She had to agree with the general consensus, that despite the fact the bar’s package said it was apple flavored, the high protein bar tasted nothing like apples, she wasn’t sure what it tasted like actually but it certainly wasn’t anything one would choose to eat if they had a choice.

As she neared the building she saw it was indeed a house as she had thought though it was in bad shape, the windows were all empty of glass and most of white paint had long since flacked off as well as one side of the of the house looking like its paneling had been blown clean off by a very strong wind.

If not for what was clearly neglect on the home owner’s part by the long dead lawn and mostly destroyed white picket Twilight felt the house would have been nice. It was clear that someone was home as she could see lights in the windows on the first floor and making sure she looked as friendly as one could look in full combat armor with an assault rifle slung on her back she approached the door, or where the door would have been if not for the fact it looked in it had been blown off its hinges, idly the mare mused that it looked like the house had been raided.

Twilight dropped to quadruped mode as it seemed to be a pony sized house as she reached the door and was about to knock on the door frame when she heard a giggle that could only be described as unbalanced from inside. “Heheh, what you think we should do with her?” The voice, a stallion, asked

“I don’t know, ask the boss.” Another stallion’s voice answered.

“I told you two idiots to shut up so you don’t wake her. “A mare’s voice said with annoyance.

“Come on, can’t I have just a little fun with the little bitch?” The first voice asked.

“No, if she is hurt we won’t be able to get a good price for her.” The mare said with annoyance and Twilight heard enough.

With a scowl on her face Twilight barged into the house and made her way to where the light was coming from which seemed to be the living room. She found four ponies in the room, one mare and two stallions, and one filly lying unconscious in a cage that seemed to be made from shopping carts however it was the room’s decor that caught the military mare’s eye. One of the walls was decorated with a ponies headless corpse that had been nailed in place fully spread eagle and had been disemboweled, what she assumed was the pony’s head was sitting on the mantle place above the fireplace a fork jammed into each empty eye sockets.  On the other side of a room was the scattered parts of another pony that had been dismembered and the parts arranged into a collage of gore. While Twilight could enjoy art when she saw it as much as the next mare, it told her all she needed about the three ponies around the campfire, why the fire wasn’t in the fireplace she had no idea, that she needed.

The three ponies dressed in a grab bag of objects to serve as armor, with a few smears of blood thrown in for good measure, jumped to their hooves as the mare barged in and interrupted their talk of selling the filly. “Who the hell are you!?” The mare, a unicorn, demanded brandishing a shotgun of a design Twilight was unfamiliar with and was in need of some serious TLC as it had rust along the barrel, Twilight could almost cry at the sight of such poor gun maintenance  

“Hehe, its’ another bitch!” An earth pony stallion said with glee in the voice of the unbalanced pony from before as he brandished a large butcher knife held in his mouth.

The last pony was another unicorn wielding an unfamiliarly designed pistol in similar disrepair as the shotgun, what did these ponies have against basic weapon maintenance, in his magic. Twilight put on her friendliest smile. “You do realize I have to kill you all right?” She said gesturing to the filly in cage.

“Oh yeah, you and what army? There’s three of us and only one of you.” The mare said with clear superiority and Twilight’s smile only grew wide.

After about ten minutes Twilight walked out of the house humming a cheerful tune she had heard somewhere, she wasn’t sure where, her armor had a splash of crimson on it and the filly was resting comfortably on her back, held in place by the alicorn’s wings as she wondered off into the barren wasteland to put a bit of distance between herself and the house that had some new art decorating the walls.


<<<O>>>


Broken Dawn slowly started to come to; her head was swimming as consciousness slowly returned. The first thing she noticed was the fact she was laying on something soft, the second was that she was breathing air that didn’t stink of rotting bodies

Realizing there was no stink when there should be caused the memories of being ambushed by the raiders and knocked out by a blow to the side of the head to come rushing back and her dark green eyes shot open and looked around franticly. 

She blinked several times as she relied she wasn’t in a raider camp and in fact there wasn’t any sign of the raiders anywhere. She didn’t really know where she was actually as she was sitting in a seat covered in some rather comfortable cushioning and around her was mostly metal with glass held in a frame in front of her and was open above her and to her sides, with just a think beam running between the two seats. In front of the other seat was some sort of wheel like on motorized boats, though this didn’t look like any boat she had ever seen, and the fact she could see the tri-barrels of a weapon that was clearly mounted behind the seats above her told her this defiantly wasn’t a boat, oh and the fact it she was surrounded by land and not water told her as well.

Brushing her red and pink mane out of her eyes, reveling a small horn, the dark blue unicorn filly sat up and started to look around the strange vehicle, everything looked brand new like it was freshly built. She had seen what “new” looked like as she had looked at the pictures in old magazines and it showed what new objects looked like and this vehicle looked new.

As she looked around she looked out the side of the vehicle and found a face topped with a dark green helmet mere inches away from hers and wearing a smile. “Oh good! You ar—“

Whack!

The pony stumbled back clutching her nose with a hoof, her eyes squeezed shut as Dawn pressed herself to the raised area between the two seats, her heart beating like mad and threating to burst from her chest as she tried to get control of her breathing.

“Ow! Son of a bitch you got a hell of a right hook kid!” The pony said rubbing her nose vigorously and Dawn took a closer look at her as her heart and breathing calmed. The other pony was purple and wearing a dark green helmet as well as armor with some smeared blood on the front that looked like she had tried to wipe off but had failed to get it all off and the filly could see a horn poking through the front of the helmet, but what the filly noticed most, besides the scars on the other ponies face, were her eyes, they were purple but something was off about them, they didn’t look right, like they were unnatural.

The other pony blinked several times before she lowered her hoof and looked at down with sheepish smile. “Suppose that wasn’t the best way to greet you after you just woke up was it? “The mare said as she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, her eyes closed and Dawn noticed for the first time that the mare’s legs were made of a purple metal. 

The mare lowered her hoof back to the ground. “Sorry for startling you, I didn’t mean to.” She said and smiled warmly. “My name’s Twilight, what’s yours?” Dawn narrows her eyes at the mare and tried to figure out what her angle was acting friendly like that. The mare’s smile slowly faltered. “Are you ok? Can you speak?”

“I’m fine.” Dawn said crisply, her eyes locked on the mare.

The mare nodded. “Ok that’s good, you’ve been out for a few hours and I was starting to get worried as your head injury didn’t seem that severe but you were out for a long time.” The mare said and nodded matter of factly. “Do you remember your name?” Dawn nodded her head. “Ok….mind telling me?”

Dawn’s eyes’ narrowed once more. “Why should I?”

The smile dropped from the mare’s face into a confused frown as she tilted her head to one side. “Because I told you mine, it’s only polite you tell me yours.”

Dawn rolled her eyes at what the mare was saying, she sounded like a stable-pony who was fresh from the stable, come to think of it the mare did look rather clean and well fed so she probably was.  “You don’t need to know my name as it won’t really matter in the end.” She said simply and sat down on her haunches in the seat.

“Oh? And why’s that kid?” Twilight asked.

“Because you will probably be dead in a few hours is why.” Dawn said with a shrug.

The mare blinked and scratched her chin with a hoof. “No, I don’t think so, that doesn’t sound like me.” She said thoughtfully before nodding as if reaching a decision. “No that defiantly doesn’t sound like me. I don’t die easily.”

Dawn sighed at how stupid stable ponies were. “Look, it doesn’t matter what you did in the Stable, it won’t matter in the end and you’ll be dead unless you are extremely lucky to find somepony willing to hire a…whatever it was you did in the Stable if they can put up with your stupidity.”

The mare blinked and tilted her head once more. “What’s a Stable?”

Dawn blinked; no way could this pony be that stupid not to know where she lived until recently. “It’s the underground shelter you lived in before you came out here.” 

“So it’s a bunker.” The mare said and nodded. “Ok, well I don’t now, nor have I ever lived in a bunker, I did live in a sewer for a time but that was a looooonnnng time ago.” The mare said sweeping her hoof through the air to show how long ago it was. “As for what I am, I am a soldier, pure and simple.”

Dawn blinked at the mare, who was she trying to fool saying she wasn’t from a Stable when it was clear she was, and what was that about being a soldier? Yeah she seemed to have military armor but those weren’t too hard to come by as there were many old army bases around if one was willing to risk venturing into them as many had security systems that were still active.

There was only one possible explanation, this pony had run into trouble and it had been bad as a lot of ponies saw Stable ponies as easy targets do to the fact they didn’t know anything about how to survive and were ridiculously friendly and so now the mare was trying to hide the facts.

“Anyways I don’t recommend wondering off as though the head injury wasn’t to bad it could have still done something I can’t detect so I recommend resting for a few hours.” The mare said as she went around to the front of the vehicle. “If you need something just call kid.” She said before disappearing from sight around the front of the vehicle. 

Seeing as it was a stable pony which meant she wasn’t dangerous in the slightest Dawn decided to take her advice and rest for a few hours and watch the mare to try and figure out what she was doing. Dawn watched as the mare moved around the vehicle she sat in and inspected it from top to bottom. Dawn also inspected the vehicle from where she lay with all for legs tucked under her in the passenger seat, she  been trying to figure out what was wrong with the vehicle besides the fact Dawn had never seen something like it and that it looked new and it finely hit her. It was huge, bigger than it should be to allow a pony to operate easily, almost as if it were designed for something larger than a pony.

After a couple of hours of watching the mare go over the vehicle in great detail she watched as the mare climbed behind the wheel of the vehicle. “So then kid, will you at least tell me if there is a town or something nearby? “I’m kind of new to the area and don’t know where anything is out here.” She asked looking at Dawn.

The filly thought about it for a few moments and decided there was no harm in telling the other mare where the nearest settlement was, checking her Pip-buck to get her location the filly spoke up. “Chapel is north east of her.” She said and looked up at the mare, noticing she didn’t seem to have a Pip-buck, probably stolen from her during whatever happened that lead to her trying to lie about being from a Stable. “Northeast is.”

“I know which way that is, my helmet has a compass.” The mare said interrupting Dawn. “You may want to hang on.” She said as she reached behind the wheel and pushed a button, a growling sound coming from the front of the vehicle made Dawn jump and nearly bolt for her life but the sound of the mare laughing stopped her. “Jeez kid, it’s almost like you’ve never heard an engine before.”  She said smiling with amusement at the filly who scowled back.

Dawn then noticed that five fingers had sprouted from the mare’s front hooves and she used them to grip the wheel as she pressed on of the peddle on the floor with a hoof and the vehicle shot forward throwing Dawn against the back of the seat. “I warned you.” The mare said with a chuckle as she looked from Dawn to out the window in front of the vehicle.

Dawn recovered and sat in the seat holding onto the raised area between the two seats for dear life as she watched the terrain race past as the vehicle rocketed through the wasteland. How did this thing work? Nothing like this worked! The filly looked over the dashboard in front of her, it looked new….because it was new, brand new which meant it functioned.

Turning her head she looked at the mare behind the wheel a small smile on her face as she drove the vehicle, just what sort of Stable did she come from that they had working vehicles like nothing else in the wasteland? “Do you like music?” The mare suddenly asked breaking Dawn out of her thoughts. Before the filly could answer the mare continued on. “Of course you do, everyone likes music.” She said as she pulled a small flat rectangle from her saddle bags in a purple magical glow and placed it in a stand attached to the center of the dashboard. A screen on the object turned on and Dawn watched in wide eyed amazement as the mare used her magic to expertly navigate through all the menus that popped up rapidly, Dawn wasn’t sure what they said as reading wasn’t exactly a priority to survive, least not a main one, she enough to get by on the items she finds.

After reaching whatever it was she had been looking for in the endless menus the menus vanished and were replaced by bars that moved up and down as a strange TUNEstarted to play from both the object as well as speakers mounted on the vehicle.

Dawn blinked as the strange music played and then somepony started singing, it wasn’t like anything she had ever heard on the radio, in fact it was nothing like any music she had even heard about before. The mare seemed familiar with the song as one of her fingers tapped the wheel in time with the beat of the song and her head bobbed with it as well, after a bit she actually started to sing along with the song showing she knew it well.

Who in the name of the Goddesses was this strange mare? Dawn didn’t know if she had made a mistake or not staying with the mare and not slipping away the first chance she got, either way it was too late now as they were going too fast for her to leap from the vehicle and though the mare had gotten her saddle bags and quick inspection reveled they were empty of most of her items so that meant no health potions which meant getting a broken leg would be a death sentence as she had no food or water either, all she had was the few items she had salvaged before the raiders jumped her.

Come to think of it what happened to those raiders? They wouldn’t have just knocked her out and stolen her supplies then left her there alive would they? No that’s not how raider worked. For a moment Dawn thought maybe the mare had dealt with the raiders but that thought was quickly snuffed out by simple logic of her being fresh from a Stable so wouldn’t be able to kill anyone. Something must have scared off the Raiders or they liked the idea of her starving out in the wasteland, either was a possibility.

As the song came to an end the vehicle came sailing over a hill and at the speed the mare had it going it actually left the ground and Dawn clutched the center piece tighter as her heart threatened to escape from her mouth and her stomach became floaty. “Woohoo!” The mare yelled at the height of their jump and then they came crashing down and kept going as Chapel grew in the distance, thank the Goddesses! She wanted to be out of this crazy vehicle. 

The mare used her magic to turn off the music as another song started up and the only sound was the vehicles engine and Dawns own thundering heart. “IS that Chapple?” The mare asked pointing over the steering wheel.

Very carefully and trying to keep as tight a grip on the center peace as possible the unicorn filly looked over the dashboard and out the windshield. “y-yes.” She croaked out and dropped back down to hug the center piece tightly, she chided herself for letting fear into her voice but this thing was going faster than anything she had ever seen and she was on it and the fact it had just left the ground not a moment ago didn’t help.

The mare didn’t slow down at all as she headed straight for the town and dawn was afraid she thought she meant the large city behind the town, of that was the case Dawn would have to jump from the vehicle before it reached the mercy line on the bridge and take the broken legs.

However as the vehicle came roaring into the town the mare hit the brakes and turned the wheel causing the vehicle to skid around as it came to a stop in the center of the town. Dawn wasted no time leaping from the vehicle. “Land! Sweet glorious land!” She said as she hugged the dirt and killed it, couching and spitting as some got in her mouth.

“Dawn? Is that you?” A voice asked and the filly looked up to see several other foals, all wearing capes with a rearing foal on them staring at her wide eyed as well as several adults. Realizing how she was acting dawn jumped to her hooves, a slight blush on her face.

“Yup, yup! It’s me.” She said a bit too quickly and chided herself once more.

The fillies and colts, known as the crusaders blinked at her. “Are you ok?” One of them asked.

“Never better!” She said a bit loud and almost face hoofed at how she was acting, it’s not like traveling at that speed had harmed her, it was just…she had never traveled faster than a gallop and that vehicle traveled a lot faster than that.

The Fillies and colts looked at each other then back at Dawn and she could tell they didn’t believe her. She couldn’t believe she had acted that way in front of the Crusaders after telling them she didn’t want to join their group of wasteland orphans. While Dawn was an orphan, her parents apparently having been killed by raiders or something, she didn’t know, they just never came back one day when they had gone out to scavenge, she preferred being on her own as it allowed her to hide easier and plus anything she found she didn’t have to share so it meant more food, more water and more caps.

She wasn’t saying the Crusaders wanting to band together was a bad thing, she knew that having more than one pair of eyes made searching buildings faster and easier plus most ponies meant more directions could be watched for threats as well as having somepony on watch while the others slept, though Dawn just found a really good hiding place and slept that way. It was a good system in the wasteland but she just preferred not having to worry about taking care of the younger foals that the group had as well as the older.

“Dawn, did you bring in any good salvage?” one of the foals asked as the adults started to file away, seeing it was just Dawn, there were very few adults that lived in Chapel as most didn’t come here to live here.

Dawn recovered from her ride with that question and stood up as tall as she could and puffed out her chest. “You know I did.” She said then remembered her saddle bags were mostly empty do to the raiders. “But on my way back I got ambushed by some raiders and lost most of it in the fight.”

The younger foals eyes widened and some of the other ones leaned forward to hear more. “You were ambushed by raiders? How did you escape?” One of the younger ones asked.

“It was easy, there was only about twenty of them is all.” She boasted. “IF they want to catch me they would need to bring a few hundred.” She said with pride.

“You escaped form twenty raiders?” A younger filly asked with awe as she looked up at the older unicorn filly.

“I only counted three when I found you kid.” A voice said from behind dawn and she froze, she had forgotten about the strange mare in telling her story. “And they didn’t seem too much of a threat as they had no real training and there weapons were in such poor repaired I’m surprised they didn’t explode when they fired them.”

Dawn slowly looked back over her shoulder and her eyes widened as the mare came around the front of the vehicle, the driver side had been facing away from the gathering of ponies do to the spine it had done as it came to a stop. What caused her eyes to widen was the fact the mare was on two legs and not four and stood tall over all of them and she could hear gasps from the fillies and colts as the mare leaned against the front of the vehicle and the wing son her back shifted to balance her. Dawn hadn’t seen them as the entire time the she had watched the mare she had never been at an angle to see her back.

She head lead an alicorn to Chapel! Where they had many unicorns for it to round up. She knew the others had noticed as well as some of the adults when she heard one of the other foals scream out. “ALICORN!” and the town exploded into chaos.
> Chapter 7: When your Counterpart Royally Screws UP! (part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight blinked as the foal cried out in fear and the rest scattered while the kid, who apparently was named Dawn just stared at her with wide eyed horror and Twilight hear a click behind her and raised her shield just in time to blocked the rifle bullet and based on the sound it had been a .308 or something close to it.

She looked back over her shoulder to see a terrified earth pony stallion not much older than a foal trying to rack the bolt back on his rifle as he stared at her with fear which was making him clumsy and unable to work the bolt. There was a bust of machinegun fire that peppered her shield from her side and she looked and was shocked to see an actual foal with a small SMG in his mouth aimed at her. As she watched he fired another burst at her and then she saw more of the foals and adult rushing out with guns and other weapons, whatever they could find it seemed, as they had baseball bats, knives, she even saw a few rusty swords as well as other house hold items.

The ones with guns opened fired on her but their shots failed to so much as scratch her shield as she watched the chaos around her unfold and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. When she saw a small foal not much older than a toddler trying to pull the pin from a grenade she had had had enough of this insanity.

“ENOUGH!” She shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice to be heard over the gunfire and used her magic to seize every weapons being held by a pony and yanked them from their grasps and held them above her head. The use of the Royal Canterlot Voice as well as the fact she disarmed them all in one go caused all of ponies to freeze in place and look at her in wide eyed horror.

With an annoyed scowl she pushed off the hood of the Hog, she hadn’t left that spot since leaning against it before all the chaos started, and spoke in a more normal voice but one that carried the authority of a military commander. “You people sure have a real funny way of greeting guests to your town; do you treat everyone that way or just me? Hm?” She demanded as she fixed the ones in front of her with her scowl causing them to flinch back, she didn’t fix the foals with her look, just the adult who let children wield weapons. “I’m waiting for an answer and I am losing patience.”

The ponies were literally shaking where they stood and she wouldn’t be surprised if some of them actually wet themselves based on how they were acting. Finally a stallion spoke up his voice quaking with fear. “y-you’re an alicorn.” He said simply.

Twilight blinked and looked back over her shoulder at her wings. “Holy crap I am! I hadn’t noticed.” She said sarcastically and looked back at the one who had spoken. “Mind telling me something I don’t know?”

The Stallion swallowed nervously. “Ain’t you here to drag us unicorns off to be added to Unity?” he asked.

Twilight blinked. “What in the name of all things under the sun is Unity?” She asked tilting her head in confusion.

This caused some of the ponies to also share a look before the stallion spoke again this time with a little less fear and more confusion. “You know? Your Goddess’ Unity for unicorns.”

Twilight blinked once more, this was making less and less sense. “Ok first off, I stopped believing in gods a long time ago, secondly I still have no idea what Unity is much less who this Goddess is but frankly she sounds like a bitch if she forces people to join her religion.”

This caused all of the ponies to blink in confusion and a few murmurs to be heard b Twilight, her hearing was set to normal range so she couldn’t make out much more than the fact it was voices. “Based on your reaction I’m guessing this Goddess has something to do with why it looks like a battle was fought in the street?” She asked gesturing to the craters and the fact several buildings had been damaged and one building that looked to have been a church partly collapsed. 

“No, that was a ghoul named Sanguine and the small army he had.” The stallion said with a bit more confidence and Twilight notices they were all started to show less fear as she talked with them and she softened her voice.

“Alright, no idea what that is but that doesn’t matter.” She said. “If I give these back to you do you promise to not shoot me some again?” She asked pointing up at the weapons above her head. And the ponies looked nervous but slowly they nodded one by one and Twilight returned their weapons, wee except for she didn’t rearm the foals as that was ridiculous arming children. She gave all the weapons to the adults and dropped her shield.

She saw a large pony dressed in funeral attire of all things watching her from near the ruined church and she also saw several ponies galloping for the town from up on the hill. She stood there, hands behind her back waiting to see what the new arrivals did and if she would need to disarm them as well in case they had the same greeting for Twilight as the town had.

The ponies arrived and she saw one was a unicorn mare wearing thick black body armor with a rearing filly on it that Twilight knew well, come to think of it all the foals save the kid wore the capes of the CMC. It was interesting to see that group existed here as well though why they knew how to use guns didn’t make a lot of sense to her but if the CMC could spread across Equestria back home then why not spread to another reality as it wouldn’t surprise her with some of the crazy stunts the founders pulled off before finally earning their Cutie Marks.

The other pony entering the town was a Pegasus wearing a hooded cloak but Twilight saw a hint of a cyan muzzle hidden within. And lastly a blue earth pony with a wide brimmed black hat, all of them armed with the white unicorn mare having what looked like a shotgun while the Pegasus wore the same type of saddles the EDF used only this had some strange weapon Twilight defiantly didn’t recognize attacked to it and the blue stallion had what appeared to be a grenade launcher on his back, as they neared town she watched him split off from the group, no doubt to move into a flanking position, which meant these ponies were used to fighting tactically.

As they entered the town they slowed down as they saw everyone gathered around Twilight and the Hog looking confused. “Greetings.” Twilight said. “ I do hope you aren’t planning on greeting me the same way this town did as I can tell you it has worn out my patience as I have been having a rather annoying past few days.” She said stiffly, a commander speaking to a couple of soldiers caught raiding the mess hall after hours. 

The two ponies glanced at each other before the unicorn slowly stepped forward, her shot gun not aimed at anything but still in a position to easily be brought up in a moment. “Why are you here?” The mare asked her. “I know alicorns can’t stand being around the Hoof do to the Innervation so you must have a reason for coming.”

Twilight gestured at the kid who was rooted to the ground a few feet away. “Kid said this was the nearest town and I gave her a ride here.” She said gesturing to the Hog behind herself. “I’m assuming this region is called the Hoof? As for Innervation I have no idea what that is.” She explained simply.

The mare cocked her head to the side. “It’s sort of like a screaming noise, you should be hearing as it’s all over this valley in some form or another.” 

Twilight paused as she focused, while she did hear something the cybernetics in her ears must be dampening it though it did sound like a lovely scream of pain and anguish and was more soothing to her then bothersome. “Well I think I hear something but not very well.” She said looking over the mare. She was of about average build for a unicorn who kept themselves in decent shape with a messy red and black mane, her horn was a bit on the small side but that didn’t really mean much, what caught the soldiers eye the most was that her legs were cybernetic like Twilight’s, though looked to be of a different design then hers had been or were now and it seem her eyes were as well, interesting.

The mare tilted her head slightly once more, why did that seem familiar to Twilight? “You aren’t like other alicorns.” She said.

“I’m not like most ponies I’m sure.” Twilight said with a shrug. “Hell you are the first other augmented pony I have ever met.” She said gesturing to the mare’s cybernetics. “Also could you ask your friend to stop aiming his launcher at me? It’s making my skin crawl and when that happens I tend to go on the defensive and that’s when people die and I’d rather not do that at this point in time.” She said looking over at the second story window of one of the buildings catching just the barest glimpse of movement as the blue pony moved out of sight, the guy was good at stealth but Twilight hadn’t lived this long without having good awareness of what’s around her, it had developed a sort of sixth sense of when someone was aiming at her that was unseen.

The unicorn mare blinked at what Twilight said. “How did you…”

“I’m a soldier with over fifty years’ experience to my name as both a grunt and military leader; I know when someone is aiming at me.” Twilight said firmly. “Anyways since I think it’s clear I mean no ill intent cause believe me if I did then we wouldn’t be standing here talking and I would have left the Kid where I found her.” She said gesturing to Dawn who seemed to be recovering from whatever shock she had been in. “Seeing as I am new in town would you mind introducing yourselves as you are the first lot not to act afraid of me.” Twilight asked.

The mare slowly nodded and slung her shotgun seems she agreed with Twilight. “My name is Blackjack…why are you laughing? It’s not a funny name!” The mare said defensively.

Twilight couldn’t help chuckling at meeting a pony named after her favorite card game. “Sorry, it’s not that the name is funny, it’s that it’s the name of a card game I enjoy a great deal” She said and gestured for the mare to go on.

The Pegasus stepped up beside the unicorn. “This is Glory and…”The blue stallion walked out to the building wearing a slight scowl on his face. “P-21.”

Twilight amused smile dropped at the name of the stallion and her left eye twitched behind her visor. “Interesting name you have sir.” She said in a complete neutral voice, she could recognize a designation a mile away but the unicorn mare didn’t seem to be the type and how the stallion moved didn’t indicate anything like what designations are for came from the mare so he was from somewhere that used them and had most likely met the mare afterwards, either escaping to being deployed.

“And the big pony behind me is?” Twilight asked pointing at the large unicorn in funeral attire as she had walked over once the weapons were lowered and walked by Twilight to join the others, something was off about the large mare and Twilight had a distinct feeling she was hiding something with her clothes but also that the mare was filled with a profound sadness that few could deal with, the fact the mare hadn’t eaten a bullet and was actually walking around spoke volumes of an inner strength of some sort.

“That’s Lacunae.” The mare said and the large pony bowed her head slightly.  

“It is a pleasure to meet you.” She said in a soft pleasant voice that seemed like she was not sued to using. Strange, Twilight allowed herself to see the magical aura around the mares and saw that Blackjack had a lot of potential but it seemed she had not bothered to practice much while Lacunae had a lot of power though her aura was odd, Twilight wasn’t sure but her aura was different then a normal pony’s should be.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” Twilight said with a smile as she relaxed a bit. “I’m Commander Twilight Sparkle of the Equestrian Defense Force.” She said and the town became deathly quiet. Twilight glanced around and all eyes were on her in confusion, disbelief and a few had angry scowls. “I get the feeling something I said has some meaning yes?” Twilight asked looking back at the ponies she had been talking to, the white unicorn was staring at her in shock while the larger unicorn’s eyes looked different then they had been, almost as if she were a different person at that moment and she couldn’t see the pegasus’ face do to the hood and the earth pony was staring at her.

“I’m sorry, I think I miss heard, it sounded like you said your name was Twilight Sparkle.” Blackjack said.

Twilight nodded. “I did, it’s my name.” She said and the group before her shared a look.

“You are named after one of the Ministry Mares?” Blackjack asked her voice a bit uncertain.

“Ministry what?” Twilight said in confusion, what was with all these names and titles. “I have no idea what that was, as far as I know my parents didn’t name me after anyone or anything. It’s just the name I’ve had all my life.”

“Remove your helmet.” P-21 said.

Twilight blinked.” Excuse me?” She asked.

“I asked you to remove your helmet so we can see your face.” He said. “please.” He added as an afterthought.

Twilight stared at him before rolling her eyes behind her visor and sighing. “Fine whatever I was getting tired of wearing it anyways.” She said and undid the strap under her chin and pulled off the helmet allowing her mane to fall out, she kept it short these days so as to fit in the helmet better as well as make it harder for an enemy to grab onto her. Her made getting the first bit of air in the last hour felt good and Twilight scrubbed her fingers through her mane as she put her helmet under her other arm. “There happy?” She asked as she looked at them.  Somehow, against all odds the town got even quieter as everyone’s eyes were locked on her; even the kid had recovered and was staring at her.

“Ok, what in the hell is going on? I mean honestly this is getting on my nerves.” Twilight said scowling.

Blackjack was staring at her in true disbelief as was everyone else around her. “I….you….what?” The mare said, her brain seeming to have short circuited.

“I have a distinct feeling my counterpart fucked up royally.” Twilight said. “Didn’t she?” Looking at P-21 as he seemed to be the most stable right now.

“Counterpart?”  He asked proving her theory, her statement seemed to have shocked everyone else out of there dazes as well as the confusion took over.

Twilight sighed and leaned back against the front of the Hog. “See this.” She said taping its grill and he nodded. “Ever seen anything like it before.” He shook his head. “Exactly, because it’s not from here, I got it from the last dimension I visited, didn’t mean to keep it as I only brought it with due to it might have come in handy against the Covenant.” She said. “This isn’t even something I had seen, well least not this version of it as we haven’t built anything like it in Equestria, well my Equestria.” She said.

She looked at him as he processed the information. “If I may ask a question.” She asked and he nodded after a bit. “I know this is most likely Equestria, so what the hell happened to it? This looks like something close to a Mass Extinction Event.”

“Balefire bombs happened, ending the war with the Zebras.” A stallion in the crowd said and twilight looked at him

“Balefire bombs?” She asked and the stallion struggled a bit and she got the feeling even eh wasn’t sure but he gave her the gist of it.

“So, nukes.” She said and placed her hands behind her head and laced her fingers as she rested her head in her hands. “Knew Equus wasn’t ready for nuclear power yet.” She said and sighed shaking her head. “Fucking stupid.” 

“You said it was due to a war with the Zebras?” Twilight said looking at the stallion who had spoken before and he nodded and Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose. “If not for the fact my counterpart is most likely dead I’d have no choice but to beat my own ass for allowing this to happen.” She said and sighed before putting her helmet back on.” Did they even try diplomacy?” She asked the crowd and a few shook their heads and Twilight sighed once more. 

She was going to have to keep her name to herself while here and she doubted her counterpart was very popular for being part of this major screw up. She looked at Lacunae and saw her eyes were still different watching her intently, no mistaking it, something else were there as none of what Twilight had sensed about the large unicorn was there anymore, most likely a split personality. 

Looking back at Blackjack she saw she had recovered from the shock of her name and was no looking at her somewhat normally. “Is there somewhere I can go that is quiet, I have some work to do.” She asked and slowly the white unicorn nodded.

“Uh…yeah. I think it would be alright if you stayed at Star House.” The mare said and Twilight nodded.

“Lead the way.” She said and caught the town’s people looking at her Hog; if they were survivors of a MEE then they were eyeing part of the hog they could strip. The crowd jumped back when the Hog vanished into thin air and Twilight smiled with amusement as she looked back at the ponies before her. “Now I am ready to go.”

Blackjack eyed the alicorn Twilight and looked back where the Warthog had been. “How did you do that?” She asked.

Twilight sighed. “Why is it only my Equestian seems to have the pocket dimension spell, I mean honestly it’s not like it’s that complicated of a spell.” She muttered loudly. Anyways can we get a move on?” She asked and the mare named Blackjack blinked and nodded before turning and heading for the hill her and her friends had come running down with Twilight following behind a bit off, right beside Lacunae , or at least whoever was in control right now. 

“So mind telling me who you are as it’s clear you aren’t Lacunae.”  She said softly so only the larger unicorn would hear.

“I do not know what you are talking about.” The mare said in a close approximation of Lacunae voice but to someone who was a master of The Game of Houses the subtle differences might as well have been screamed at her.

“You are talking to a trained soldier and someone who has been trained by Equestrian Politics, at least my version. I know you aren’t her and are someone else.” She said pleasantly. 

“You are perceptive.” A voice said in Twilight head and she froze and looked at the mare beside her who calmly looked back at her. “I am the Goddess of Unity.” The voice said and Twilight blinked as she started walking.

“So you are what the towns people attacked me over, interesting.” Twilight said calmly.

“Yes, not everyone is enlightened to know the power of Unity and my Alicorns.” The voice said. “We are superior for the dangers of the wasteland are no danger to us.” 

Twilight nodded. “Good to know, still think you are a bitch for forcing people to join.” Twilight said.

“You insolent foal!” The voice yelled in Twilight head and she winced.” How dare you say that of the great and powerful Goddess!”

Twilight started laughing. “Oh my god really, did you just say ‘The Great and Powerful Goddess?” “She laughed. “Holy ship I haven’t heard someone sue that title in a few years.” She said and looked at the mare with a smirk. “Hello Trixie, how’s life been treating you in this shit hole?”

This cause the other mare to look at her sharply. “We know not who this Trixie is you speak if, we are the Goddess.” 

“Keep telling yourself that but I know that arrogance anywhere as I am the one who broke Trixie of it when we fought when she had the Alicorn Amulet.” Twilight said. “I am also the one who gave her career the break it needed for her to become a headliner across Equestria.”

“You did what?” the Goddess said, the loud bombastic voice gone for a moment for a one of disbelief.

“I helped her get her break, after some events that happened back home I needed way to boost morale in the army, what better way than a show, I knew just the show mare who could do it.” Twilight smirked. “At first she just did shows for the soldiers and their families but soon word spread and once I started taking lessons in illusory magic from her, let’s just say having the Commander of the entire army saying you were the best illusionist in Equestria was a very big deal for getting a career off the ground and she soon had job offers for many hot spots in Equestria and was the top magicians in the land, even did a few foreign jobs as well as royal events at the castle in Canterlot for the Royal Sisters themselves.” Twilight said with a smile. “And she never forgot how she got her start and did shows for the EDF completely pro bono.”

“She….She did shows for the Royal Sisters? At the Castle?” The Goddess asked a bit hesitantly.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, even did a few Grand Galloping Galas.” Twilight said off handedly. “Like is aid she was the top magician in Equestria.”

“And you took lessons from you? You specifically?” The Goddess asked once more.

“Hell yeah, just because magic is my talent doesn’t mean it all comes easy, I always had trouble with illusionary magic as it was somewhat hard to explain in a book and was more a subject that needed to be taught visually.’ Twilight explained. “And I thought, why not asked someone whose talent is illusionary magic?” She nodded. “Worked out well for both of her, I got to learn the magic and she got a big break. I never did get as good as her at illusions but then her talent was that form of magic so it makes sense I was second to her as I’m most a jack of all trades.”

The Goddess was quiet for a while as they walked. “Well you are a very generous mare.” She said slowly. “However I am not this Trixie you think I am for I am the Goddess and I will save this land!” She said going back to the showboating arrogance near the end. “You would be a great addition to Unity….what is that…” The Goddess said still inside of Twilight’s head.

“What is what?” Twilight asked looking around for something in the distance.

“Something is….AAARGG” The Goddess screamed inside of Twilight head and Lacunae’s  head jerked back as if she were struck and Twilight could tell the Goddess retreated and Lacunae was back as her demeanor  changed and she swayed slightly on her hooves. 

“That was….unpleasant….”She said in Twilight’s head closing her eyes to steady herself

“What was?” Twilight asked looking at the alicorn in concern.

“I do not but something harmed the Goddess, I believe it was felt all across Unity.” She said and opened her eyes and started walking again and Twilight moved to follow. 

“Ok, well no idea what could do that but ok. “Twilight said.

“Is it true what you said about the Trixie in your world?” The dark alicorn asked.

Twilight nodded. “Every word, I have no reason to lie about it, she was a top performer till she retired and even then she still did shows every now and then till she passed away a few years ago, she had a huge funeral with all sorts of guests, it was very nice.” Twilight chuckled and shook her hair. “She was always a performer even in death she made sure people were entertained as she had arranged everything for her own funeral and donated about half her wealth to the EDF as a thank you for her break and the rest to various charities around Equestria.”

The Alicorn smiled softly. “I believe your words of what happened to your Trixie had an effect on the Goddess, though it was small and I do not know what it will mean for her.”

“You sure the Goddess would want you telling me that?” Twilight asked.

“She has closed herself off from me as she usually does because being in this place hurts her.”  Lacunae explained. “We are here.” 

Twilight looked from the disguised alicorn and saw the were approaching a small house set against some large rocks. Twilight could only describe it as pleasant looking. She followed Blackjack and the other three as they walked into the house. The interior of the house looked much like a normal house back home, though everything looked old and there was dirt here and there but based on how the outside looked, and compared to the first house she walked in, the house looked nice.

She did not expect to see another pony though wearing spiked black armor with red strips on her white fur who was calmly lying back on the couch using a clawed hoof to pick her nose. “Hey Blackjack what was all the fuss in town about?” The mare asked in a board manner.

“Uh…well.” Blackjack said and stepped to the side to reveling Twilight standing there.

The striped mare facehoofed. “Don’t tell me you found another pony to take in; what’s this one’s story? Raiders kill her entire family and she’s on a quest of vengeance?” 

Twilight blinked and looked at the white unicorn. “Do you normally recruit people with backgrounds like that?” She asked.

“ehhh….kind of?” The mare said a bit sheepishly.

Twilight had to chuckle at that. “So you are building an army of fighters with sad back stories.” She said and shook her head. “Explains a few things.” She said before looking back at the striped mare. “I’m not exactly joining your group, merely looking for a place to do some work is all and Blackjack offered me the use of this house.” She said. “You can call me Commander.” She said not using her name after the town.

The mare blinked and sat up. “What kind of a name is that? I tell you it’s not, it’s a military rank.” She said firmly and Twilight blinked and the medical information for the mare went haywire. It kept flashing that she was deceased, then that she had a heartbeat, then that she was in cardiac arrest, then that she wasn’t a pony but a zebra, then that she had been shot over a dozen times in the chest, then changed to say she had been shot in the head. Twilight had to close her eyes as the information overload was giving her a head.
Rubbing the side of her head. “Yes I am aware that it is a military rank, thank you. However it is what I would like you to call me.” She said a bit exasperated, the headache mixed with being fired upon in the town plus finding out what her counterpart had done to this Equestria had made her have very little patience.

“Ma’am yes ma’am!” The mare barked and when Twilight opened her eyes she saw the striped mare was giving her a proper salute and looking straight ahead as if standing at attention.

“At ease.”  Twilight said automatically and the mare dropped into rest for a moment before her posture relaxed and she looked at Twilight with a cocky grin. 

“So even if you aren’t joining our little group yet, what is your story, I bet it’s a real tear jerker.” She said.

Twilight sighed. “I am not joining your group, I am merely here waiting to be found by some people and to do some work as this place is the calmest vie been to in the last few days. As for my story let’s just say….I am a traveler of sorts.” She said, it wasn’t a lie, she had hoped to multiple dimensions in her life at this point and several in a row the last couple of days.

“Oh? So no real destination in mind?” The mare said walking towards Twilight.

“Well I am working my way home but seem to keep getting side tracked.” She said as she watched the mare as she kept walking towards her with that same cocky grin.

“Right right, I bet you have all sorts of stories too.” The mare said and suddenly her right hoof shot out when she was close enough to strike.

Twilight raised her hoof and blocked the strike. She then blocked the next one the mare threw at her. The mare launched into a full on attack as the rest of the group seemed to only be mildly surprised by this. However they seemed to be surprised when Twilight head-butted the am rein the face to stagger back and then deployed one of her blades and buried its full length into the mare’s left eye socket.

Twilight withdrew her blade. “Whoops didn’t mean to do that.” She said and looked at the group. “Sorry about that, was a reflex.” She said and slung the blood from the blade, whatever magic infused them kept them from ever being stained and for blood to easily be removed by either whipping it off or merely slinging it off.

“Oh that’s alright, she does that sometimes.” Blackjack said and Twilight blinked as she showed no reaction to her friend being killed in her living room. That concerned Twilight a great deal and she thought maybe this mare was more messed up in the head then she herself was and that was a scary thought.

She found out why when the corpse groaned and sat up holding a hood over here eye as a pink light emanated from it and after a few moments she dropped her hoof to revel her eye, perfectly fine. Twilight had only one thing to say to this.

“How in the name of Celestia’s flaming ass are you not dead?!”

> Chapter 8: When your Counterpart Royally Screws Up (part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight sat on the couch of Star House, the replicator she got from Voyager on the table in front of her as well as sever of her tools she was never without, never knew when you may need to engineer the shit out of something. After the others explained about Rampage, the mare who got back up after being stabbed in the brain by one of Twilight’s blades, being unable to die because whenever she does she just heals. Twilight tested this theory by putting a round from her sidearm right between Rampage’s eyes. She got up and spat the bullet out so Twilight used Party Time, her Desert Eagle, to shoot her. Got up and spat the bullet out. Before anyone could stop her she took the striped mare’s head off with a close rang sniper shot. The other managed to stop the militaristic alicorn before she shot their friend with an AT rifle at point blank.

Rampage was somewhat annoyed about Twilight repeating shooting her in the head and Twilight had explained she was merely seeing if it was true. With assurances from the others as well as her own tests Twilight believe the mare could not die which could explain why Twilight’s medical readouts for the mare freaked out when she looked at her, however that was only a weak theory as the information flipped between specific injuries, none of them were the damage Twilight did, it was the same injuries and currently the readouts said the mare was healthy. It only ever freaked out when Rampage did something that did not seem to be her usual cocky and smart ass self, like when she responded to Twilight’s rank by acting like a trained soldier with a proper salute and dropping into rest when told “at ease.”

Something was going on with that mare that wasn’t just her inability to die. However Twilight would worry about that later, right now this was her free moment to go over her acquired gear.

As Twilight worked she knew that Blackjack and Lacunae were watching her, Rampage had gone off to her room while Glory was in the kitchen making lunch as apparently it was lunchtime here. P-21 had gone off to look for someone named Scotch Tape, strange name for a pony Twilight mused. Twilight was doing her best to ignore the stares but in all honestly her skin was crawling, she hated when people just stared at her, always had since after she was rescued from the labs.

Lacunae’s staring wasn’t so bad as it was more of just seeing what she was doing so was more tolerable, Blackjack on the other hand was staring intently at her and it was borderline creepy. “Need something Blackjack?” Twilight asked looking up from her work, her helmet was off and she wore a pair of tinted goggles.

Blackjack gave a start at suddenly being spoken too. “Oh…uh…no nothing, sorry.” She said waving a hoof in front of herself.

“You have been staring at me for the last hour and it is making me feel like a lab animal and I do not like to feel like a lab animal, been there done that.” Twilight said a bit harsher then she meant to.

“Sorry it’s just; you look almost exactly like the Ministry Mare Twilight.” Blackjack said.

“Except for the scars, cybernetics and the fact I am an alicorn I am assuming?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah….” Blackjack said and Twilight had a feeling that wasn’t the entire truth of the matter but chose not to press it, the mare was nice enough to lend Twilight the use of her home after all. “What happened to you?”

Twilight blinked behind her goggles and reached up and lifted them up onto her forehead. “Excuse me? You need to be more specific.”

“Sorry, I mean….how did you get so…scared up and need cybernetics, is your Equestria really that messed up?” The white unicorn asked.

“Equestria is fine; usually it’s just monster attacks or the occasional shootout with some criminals. Though we have rendered aide to several allies before.” Twilight explained. “But no I didn’t get my cybernetics or scars in Equestria; we don’t have the technology level for them yet.”

“Then how did…”

“War is hell.” Twilight said. “And when you are a librarian suddenly dragged into the middle of it and rescued by a group of people who didn’t have to, you tend to want to pay them back.” Twilight said with a shrug. “I became a soldier and through bad luck and inexperience, plus a traitor lost parts. Its’ that simple.” Twilight said. “I got home and worked on securing my homeland from threats so no one would ever have to go through what I did before I became a soldier.”

Blackjack stared at her for a long while not saying anything. “That bad huh?” She asked and Twilight had a distinct feeling something very bad had happened to the mare to result in her needing cybernetics.

Twilight nodded. “Let’s just say me and most sciences are mortal enemies and I really do not like biology labs.”

It was at that moment that Glory still wearing the cloak and hood for some reason came in with a tray of what Twilight assumed was food though it didn’t look like any food she had ever seen; maybe they were supposed to hunt it first?

“Lunchtime everypony.” She said cheerily in a very familiar voice as she placed the tray on the table. 

“Dash?” Twilight asked tilting her head to the side and Glory jumped with a small exclamation of startlement.  

She looked as if she was about to bolt as she spoke in a voice she was clearly faking. “Dash? Why would you call me that?”

“Because I know my oldest friends voice as it’s only been about a year since she passed away.” Twilight said and used her magic to jerk the hood down confirming her suspicions when she saw the cyan fur, rainbow mane and pink eyes. Glory started to move to bolt but twilight magic held her in place. “So seeing as there is no way Dash would be alive or looking this young in this world if the damage I’ve seen is anything to judge time by I’m guessing something else happened yes?” 

Glory stood there and seemed to calm down when Twilight explained she knew she wasn’t Rainbow Dash and slowly nodded. “Yes…I had a run in with Killer Joke.”

“Killer Joke? I’m not familiar with that, it have any relation to Poison Joke?” Twilight asked scratching her chin as she thought.

“It’s a mutation of Poison Joke, caused by the radiation and Taint.” Blackjack said and none of the ponies in the room noticed the slight flicker in the purple alicorn’s eyes at the mention of Taint. “It has the same transformative abilities from what I understand but its jokes are always lethal in some way.” 

Twilight looked the cyan mare up and down. “She seems fine to me.” she said looking back at Blackjack. She needed to remember to ask the mare why she didn’t have a heart beat later.

“She won’t be if the Enclave gets their hooves on her, who knows what they would do to her.” Blackjack said.

“Enclave?” 

“Oh right you don’t know them.” Blackjack said and Twilight nodded. “After Cloudsdale was destroyed the pegasi retreated to their other cities and closed up the sky with clouds to protect themselves from the radiation and more missiles.”

“So they ran like cowards and left everyone else to die?” Twilight said and Glory winced and after a moment Blackjack nodded. “Disgraceful, if they were part of the EDF they would have all been shot for desertion.” Glory winced once more and Twilight looked at her. “What with you?”

“She’s Enclave.” Blackjack said and Twilight looked between her and the Pegasus mare.

“Well that’s nice.” Twilight said somewhat coldly.

“We aren’t all like that, Thunderhead has been saying we need to reconnect with the surface and already has taken steps to do so with the Civilian Corp to provide medical aide and food to surface ponies.” Glory said with a bit of fire Twilight hadn’t expected form the mare.

Twilight nodded her head. “Good maybe you lot can make up for the cowardness of your ancestors.” She said a bit less coldly, she couldn’t stand the thought of ponies running and hiding safe and secure while leaving others to die, it was beyond disgraceful.

Glory winced at Twilight tone and Blackjack stepped up beside her. “Hey, that is no way to treat Glory, she completely agrees in the Pegasi returning to help the surface and she says Thunderhead also wants to and the only reason they aren’t down here right now is because of the rest of the Enclave doesn’t want to.” She said glaring at the alicorn.

“Good for them, doesn’t change the fact of what the rest of the pegasi did in the past, it is a step towards making up for that.” Twilight said and before anyone could say anything more the door opened to admit P-21 and a dark green filly with a dark blue mane wearing some sort of jump suit on.

The filly look at Twilight sitting there with her goggles up and tools sitting on the table around the replicator. “Yeeesss?” Twilight said drawing out the word, why did everyone seem to want to stare at her today?

The P-21 nudged the filly from behind and she blinked and stepped into the house to allow him to close the door and the filly made her way over to Twilight who was watching her, noticing there was a ninety-nine on the back of the filly jumpsuit and her saddlebags had tools in it. “Are you really Twilight?” She asked when she was before Twilight.

“Uh…kinda?” Twilight answered. “Not from here mind you but I am a Twilight.”

The filly looked at the replicator and tools on the table. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing what exactly makes this tick and if I can get it to run off my magic as right now it’s on emergency backup battery which is very limited and once that’s depleted it will be just a hunk of….whatever it is made out of.” Twilight said looking back at the partly dismantles replicator.

“Can I watch?” the filly asked as P-21 watched from where he saw a little ways off, Twilight wasn’t completely sure if he was watching her or the filly.

“Sure I suppose, just don’t touch anything as this is way advanced and delicate and I have no way to get new parts for it.” Twilight explained and the filly hopped up on the couch beside her as Glory fixed her hood and got plats of the food for everyone, so they didn’t need to hunt it first, pity.

The gathered ponies all received a plate and even Rampage returned from her room eye the stuff on the table with disinterest for but a moment, Twilight noticed that all of them but Blackjack grimace at the food who wasted no time in starting to eat which made Glory rather happy. The other were a bit hesitant to eat and as Twilight looked over the replicator she absentmindedly started to levitate the food into her mouth while other parts of her magic worked.

Meal was better than the protein bars she had as well as much better than the rations she also carried. “Do you actually like that?” Rampage asked eyeing her as she ate.

Twilight shrugged. “It’s alright, not the greatest but certainly far from bad.” She said grabbing another bite. She didn’t notice the other look between Twilight and Blackjack as she was focused on her work and eating.

Once the meal was finished the plates were cleared away and Twilight tinkered a bit longer with the replicator before she decided she should actually talk to her hosts and stored it away and lifted her goggles. “So…what’s your story?” Twilight asked Blackjack as she sat across from her.

“What do you mean?” The mare asked.

“Well….tell me about yourself, I’ve told you a bit about myself so it’s only fair you tell me a bit about yourself, quid pro quo.” Twilight said and the group looked at her oddly before she facehoofed, she forgot that wasn’t a term in Equestria and only existed in her Equestria because she used in and is spread to the EDF and from the EDF to the rest of Equestria, come to think of it she was patient zero for a lot of terms that existed in Equestria. She should look into just how many terms she had introduced to the land over the years when she gets back.

“Uh…well not much to tell, I worked security for my Stable and had to leave to save it and I’ve been running all over the hoof with ponies chasing me.” Blackjack said lamely.

Twilight nodded. “Alright, mind telling me why you don’t have a heart beat?” This seemed to startle the young mare and twilight taped the side of her head next to her eyes. “Built in medical scanner, it’s also doing a passive medical scan of anything that registers as a living being and gives me basic medical info, currently you have no pulse but you are not registered as deceased.”

“Oh…um…”Blackjack said having been caught off guard. “Well, my organs have been replaced by cybernetics as well as my legs and eyes and ears.” She said.

Twilight blinked. “Organs too? Huh….all I got was legs, eyes, ears and then brain implants to allow me to run it all among other things, I’d say most of my motor cortex is implants and at least half my frontal lobe.” Twilight said. “Couldn’t get organs as they couldn’t be made to work so had to avoid injuring them.

“Your brain is partly cybernetic?” Glory asked. “How is that possible?”

“Well originally they were just implants on the brain but when I became an alicorn they went from being on my brain to part of it, it’s hard to tell were the brain matter starts and the cybernetics end in those areas, there are a few others but they are minor compared to those.” Twilight said with a shrug. “It also gave all my cybernetics upgrades too like I am now able to feel through my legs where originally I had no feeling.”

Glory started at her from deep in her hood not really trying to hide her face now that Twilight knew.

“That is amazing, I’d love to study wha—“

“Fuck no!” Twilight said and her side arm was half way out of it holster on her chest wrapped in her magic before she caught herself and took a deep breath and slipped it back in. Closing her eyes she took several deep breaths. “Do not ever mention studying anything to do with me.” She said and opened her eyes again.

Everyone but Glory, Lacunae and the filly, who Twilight assumed was Scotch Tape, had either half way drawn their weapons as well or in the case of Rampage gotten ready to pounce. “Relax, just…..things happened and I never really got over it. I’m fine just don’t mention doing any sort of research on me and things will be fine.” She explained once more and the others relaxed. 

With that outburst conversation between the others and herself died and they seemed to have things the needed to do so they departed, except for Rampage who Twilight had a feeling she wanted to go into town but something was keeping her from doing so as she merely went to her room once everyone left. With nothing else to do Twilight went back to her tinkering with the replicator as she wanted to get it working before anything else as it would be the most useful.

It had been about an hour when Twilight felt she was being watched, looking up from her work she looked around the room expecting to see Rampage but she wasn’t there. After looking around once more she went back to work till the feeling returned once more and she looked around, once more no one was around but this time she got up and checked around the room as well as in the kitchen and the top of the stairs, finding no one she sat back down.

It happened again shortly alter and her head shot up as she looked around and she caught the barest glimpse of movement at one of the window and her eyes narrowed behind her goggles. Lifting her goggles up she drew her side arm and silently made her way to the window. Once she was there she grabbed the window with her magic and yanked it open and leaned out pistol at the ready. “You.” She said when she saw who it was and holstered her sidearm before reaching down and picking up the dark blue filly and hauling her inside. “What are you doing here kid?”

The filly struggled to break free but Twilight grip would not be broken as she held the filly gently in her grasp. “Let me go!” 

“I will when you tell me why you are spying on me.” Twilight said simply and the filly kicked her leg, it did about as much as one would except from kicking solid steel in that it did nothing to Twilight but caused the filly to yelp in pain and hold her hoof. 

Twilight could tell she was trying to hold back tears from the pain and she sighed. Walking over to the couch she sat the kid down. “Let me take a look.” She said and when she crouched down the filly pulled her leg back. “Relax I’m a medic. I know what I am doing.” She said and grabbed the leg and pulled it where she could see it. “Nothing to bad, at worst a bruise.”

The filly blinked at her. “How do you know? You didn’t even look at it for five seconds!” 

Twilight taped beside her eyes. “Medical scan, tells me a lot of useful information about people I’m looking at” Twilight said simply and let the leg go as she stood up to her full height forcing the kid to crane her neck back to look at her.

“How are you doing that?” She asked wide eyed.

“Magic, special magic.” Twilight said and walked over and sat back down looking at the kid. “So mind telling me why you were spying on me?”

“Uh…well…”The filly said and then swallowed before looking at Twilight as fiercely as a filly could. “You aren’t like other alicorns and I was curious what you were doing and….um…” She said hesitating.

Twilight looked at her expectantly. “Yes?”

The filly looked off to the side and rubbed the back of her neck. “uh….thanks…for saving me from those raiders, I wasn’t awake but I know I was ambushed by them and the fact I wasn’t in a raider camp and with you I guess you must have rescued me from them…so…um….thanks for that.” She said and peeked at Twilight before her eyes darted away again.

Twilight smiled slightly. “You are most welcome kid; it’s what anyone would have done.” She said.

“Not really.” The filly said looking at Twilight. “Ponies don’t really risk their lives for others.” She said. “Unless you are the Stable Dweller or Security.”

“Who?” Twilight asked.

“You know, the Stable Dweller and Security, the heroes DJ-Pon3 is always going on about on the radio.” The filly said looking at her like she was stupid

Twilight blinked at the third name. “Dj-Pon3? You mean Vinyl is still alive?”

“Who’s Vinyl?” The filly asked now the one not recognizing the name.

“Vinyl Scratch, she is a DJ I used to know, her stage name was DJ-Pon3.” Twilight explained.

“Oh no. Dj-Pon3 is a stallion.” The filly explained. “He reports on things going on around the Wasteland, especially on the Stable Dweller and Security or any pony ‘fighting the good fight’ as he says. Has an entire network keeping tabs on everything or something, I don’t really know, all I know is he reports things really soon after they happen sometimes I hear.” She said not really sure.

Twilight blinked and pulled out her datapad and pulled up the radio. She never really used the feature as she had her own music but she was curious. Activating the radio she set it to scan for open frequencies but all she found was an emergency station playing an annoying tone at a slow rate and everything else was static.

“Oh, for some reason her hasn’t been on the radio, haven’t been able to get anything from outside of the Hoof actually for a few days, not DJ-Pon3 or any of the other stations unless they are here in the Hoof.”  The filly explained.

Twilight blinked and looked at her. “Why not?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know, just one day were couldn’t get anything, was really weird.” She said and Twilight nodded looking back at her datapad contemplating trying to break through the jammer that was most likely in place. She was running through the calculations on whether the anti-jammer program in the datapad would be able to get through an unfamiliar system when she was brought back to reality by a flash of light and a yelp form the filly and she looked and saw she had her hoof in her mouth as she was looking at the replicator….which was smoking.

“What did you do?!” Twilight yelled as she grabbed the replicator and looked at the fried components.

“I was just seeing what it was when it just sparked and started smoking!” The filly yelled removing her scorched hoof from her mouth to speak.

“This was a delicate piece of highly advanced tech and you fried some of the circuits!” Twilight yelled and glared at the filly.

The Filly shrank back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to break it.” She said uncertainly.

“You shouldn’t touch things that don’t belong to you, didn’t you parent teach you that?” Twilight said as she went back to looking at the replicator to see if she could salvage it.

“No…not really.” The filly said.

“Tsk, should have guess, did they teach you anything?” Twilight asked not really paying attention as she inspected the damage.

“Uh…they taught me how to read a bit.”

“Only a bit? What’s the point of only teaching a bit? If you are going to teach someone something you either do it fully or not at all.”

“I’m sure they planned to teach me more.”

“Then why didn’t they?”

“I…don’t know….they left to go scavenging for food or things we could sell and didn’t come back….”

Twilight paused and looked up from the replicator and then at the filly who was looking down at her hooves. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to break you….whatever it is….”She said not looking up.

Twilight sighed and kicked herself for being so callouses and not thinking that this was a post-MEE world so high chances a foal running around unsupervised had lost their parents or whoever was taking care of them. “Look its fine, the damage doesn’t look to bad, I should be able to fix it in theory.”

The filly looked up at her. “You sure? It looked really broken.”

Twilight nodded. “Positive, I’m an engineer so I know machines.” Twilight said with a smirk.

“I thought you were a medic.” The filly said looking up from her hooves.

“Ponies can have more than one skill set and I’m over sixty years old so I’ve had time to learn more than one skill.” Twilight with a gentle smile.

The filly looked at her. “Wow you are old.” She said bluntly and twilight smile dropped into a frown.

“I am not! I’m quiet young.” She said.

“You said you are over sixty years old, that’s not young, that’s old.” The filly said back.

“By normal pony standards, but I’m an alicorn we are very long lived. Sixty is a very young age.” Twilight said defensively. 

“So….you are a baby?” The filly asked her.

“What? No! Do I look like a baby to you?” Twilight sputtered.

“No but you aren’t old and said you are very young for an alicorn so sixty must be the same as being a baby for alicons.” The filly said with conviction.

“No, that's not how it works, I am just young but I am not a baby.” Twilight said.

“I’m just following your logic is all.’ The filly said with a shrug.

Twilight eyed the filly. “What do you know about logic, you’re just a filly.”

“I know how to get past the security systems a lot of the places around the Hoof have.” The filly said. “And I can usually avoid raiders really well no matter how many there are. “She boasted.

Twilight looked at her. “I’m assuming raiders are those ponies I found you with, nice work dodging three of them with poorly maintained weapons.” 

The filly looked back at her with indignation. “They got the drop on me! I had just found a safe that had a really complex lock on it so I was focused on that and didn’t hear them come up behind me till it was too late.” 

“Wait you can pick the lock on a safe?” Twilight asked looking at her. “Those are rather complex usually.”

The filly nodded. “Uh-huh, my mom showed me how to do it as I was almost old enough to go with them.” The filly said and puffed out her chest as she polished a hoof on it. “I rarely find a lock I can’t pick.” She said with pride and Twilight had a sense of deva vu.

“So do you use your horn to work the picks or your hooves?” She asked.

“My horn of course, my hooves can’t move the bobby pins well enough to unlock some of the harder locks.” The filly said.

Twilight blinked and looked at the filly closely. “That’s rather impressive; most fillies your age wouldn’t have that fine of control of their magic yet.” She told her as she allowed herself to see the filly’s aura, for a small filly she had a good amount of poetical if she worked on refining her skill she could be a rather powerful magic user. “Mind showing me what you can do?”

“Huh?” The filly asked looking around. “There isn’t anything around that’s locked though.”

“I didn’t mean that, I meant with your horn.” Twilight said tapping her own horn. She then looked around and placed grabbed one of her tools and placed it before the filly. “Try lifting that up and moving it across the table.” She said knowing the tool was heavier than a bobby pin.

The filly looked between her and the tool before concentrating, her horn was wrapped in a blue aura and a moment alter so was the tool. The filly’s cheeks puffed out as the tool slowly lifted a few inches off the table and started to float across the table and Twilight could tell the filly was having some trouble as sweat started to appear on her forehead. About half way across the table the tool wobbled in the air a bit and the aura around it vanished and the tool dropped to the table with a clatter.

The filly sat back panting slightly and wiped her brow. “Darn it thought I had it.” She muttered.

Twilight picked up the tool herself and brought it back over to where it had been before the test. “That was very impressive, most foals your age wouldn’t have been able to pick it up much less move it.” Twilight said and patted her head. “Good job kid.”

The filly smiled wide. “Really?” She asked. “And my names not kid, its Broken Dawn, or just Dawn.” 

“Yes really kid.” Twilight said ignoring her name. “If you get a teacher you could get rather skilled with magic.” 

“Oh….um…that might be a problem as I don’t think anypony would take the time to teach a random filly magic, everyone is too focused on their own tasks.” She said a bit disappointed.

Twilight thought about it rocking her head back and forth as she weighed the options. “I suppose I could take a break from my work and teach you a little.” She finally said, she couldn’t let a unicorn with this potential not get at least some training to control her magic and avoid a possible surge, that and Twilight didn’t want to work on repairing the replicator just yet.

“Really?” The filly asked eyes lighting up as she smiled wide.

Twilight nodded. “Yes really, I said it didn’t I?” Twilight said and moved her tools and the replicator back into her pocket dimension and got a bit more comfortable before facing the filly. “Ok, so then let’s begin with simple levitation, I know you can do small things but we will work on more complex things you can do.” She said and the filly faced her with a wide smile splitting her face.
> Chapter 9: When your Counterpart Royally Screws up (part 4)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9: When your Counterpart Royally Screws up (part 4)

Broken Dawn sat with the alicorn named Twilight as she demonstrated some of the stuff you could do with levitation by moving several objects around the room at once. Twilight had been giving her lessons on levitation magic for the past two hours and even when Blackjack and her friends came back she only paused long enough to greet them before going back to the lesson, they were all now sitting around the room either quietly chatting or in the case of Blackjack listening to the lesson.

Dawn didn’t pay too much attention to them as she needed to focus on what the alicorn before her was saying as she made three plates spin in a circle above her head while eight pieces of silverware spun in an opposite circle outside of them. “Now it will take a lot of practice but if you stick to it you will be able to levitate multiple objects and have them do different things at the same time.” The mare said as she watched the plates and silverware move before she carefully stacked them on the table and looked back at the little filly. “Understand kid?”

Dawn sighed when Twilight called her kid again; she had only used her name when she needed her to focus on what she was explaining or when dawn was doing something wrong in her practice that apparently was dangerous. It was clear that refusing to give her name to the alicorn when they had met was the reason for her being called Kid and when Dawn had protested Twilight had been quick to point on Dawn didn’t even come up to her hip, for some reasons he had paused for a moment and gotten a faraway look when she said that, a moment alter she had shook her head and went back to the lesson.

Dawn nodded in answer to the older mare’s question. “Yeah, I think so.’ She said and Twilight nodded and placed a fork and spoon before dawn.

“Ok, try picking both of these up at the same time.” She told dawn who looked at them. She took a deep breath and focused on the two pieces of silverware and as her horn was wrapped in magic so too was the silverware. She focused hard and her cheeks puffed out as they slowly lifted off the table. “That’s in…steady…” Twilight whispered encouragingly. Dawn lifted them about a hoof width off the table and held them there and she was happy to see they didn’t shake or wobble at all. “Good, good, you are getting it; now try moving them about half a hoof apart.” The mare said.

This made her almost lose her focus as she hadn’t tried that yet though Twilight had explained it in detail how to do it and said she was confident the filly could pull it off with practice. Taking a deep breath she focused on both pieces of silverware individually instead of as a whole and thought about moving them away from each other. They started to unsteadily pull apart till they were about where Twilight asked her to put them and they hovered there swaying slightly as it was harder to keep them in the air when they were this far apart. 

She felt her magic starting to flicker an before she dropped the silverware she felt another magic wrap around them and her blue aura was replaced by a purple one as Twilight took them from her and set them down. Dawn looked at the alicorn who was smiling at her. “Yes that’s it exactly!” She said happily. “You did very well Dawn.” 

Dawn couldn’t help smiling at the praise despite the lessons had tired her out as Twilight had her show her what she could do with her bobby pins by pretending to work on a lock, she then had her do it for about ten minutes and that had been tiresome before she began to explain something and have dawn lift several objects before moving on to more than one object.

As she caught her breath Dawn noticed Blackjack had two bullets wrapped in her magic and appeared to have been following along with the lesson as Twilight taught Dawn though the filly wasn’t sure why a full grown mare would be following a lesson in magic.

Twilight looked at what she called a datapad as it displayed the time before she spoke up. “I think that’s enough for now kid, we’ve been working for a while and I have work to do.” She said looking back at the filly who looked up at her.

“Are you sure?” Dawn asked. “Maybe one more lesson?” She asked hopefully despite being tired as she wanted to get better with her magic as it would help her in her scavenging.

“Yes I am sure kid, you are exhausted magically and it’s not good for a filly your age to push yourself to hard.” Twilight explained. “We can maybe pick up later if there is time.” Twilight said as the object Dawn had broken reappeared from somewhere, as well as the tools from before, Dawn had no idea where they came from as Twilight only explained it as “magic” when asked.

“Can I stay and watch?” Dawn asked looking up at the alicorn who sighed.

“Not my place not my choice, ask Blackjack.” Twilight said and the filly was quick to look at the unicorn in question.

“Uh….I don’t see why not.”  Blackjack said hiding the bullets she had been practicing with.

“Yes!” Dawn said pumping a hoof in the air before setting back into her seat.

“Alright, but try not to touch anything, this equipment is delicate.” Twilight said as she lowered her goggles and picked up several tools at once as she went about trying to repair the damaged parts. Dawn watched intently as Twilight worked with her magic, it was like how she picked locks, delicate and precise only with many more objects then a bobby pin and screwdriver.

After a while Twilight looked up. “You all mind if I put on some music? I like working to a bit of music.” She explained and received the ok that it was fine from the gathered ponies, save dawn who remembered the last weird song the mare played when they were tearing across the wasteland in what she called a Warthog though calling it some sort of cat would have made more sense. 

The mare wrapped her datapad in her magic and started to go through the menus once more tills he reached what she was looking for and before Dawn could protest selected a song. However unlike the last song the room was filled with a VIOLIN started to play and a voice began to speak about pushing something down and how words will not tire.

Twilight went back to work as the gently song played and Dawn was transfixed by the music as was everypony else in the room, even the weird mare in the spike covered armor and red strips came out of her room to listen. As the ponies were transfixed by the melody Twilight continued to work quietly, lost in her own world of her work as she repaired the replicator.

As the song played the music kept building as the voice was talking about how the truth was more powerful than even war and that words were bulletproof. Dawn had never heard a song like it before, even the upbeat songs DJ-Pon3 played to keep up everypony listening’s spirits never really had any messages to them but this song seemed to. And growing up in the wasteland Dawn was unfamiliar with the concept of anything being seen as more powerful then war, she simply had to look outside at the wasteland to know it, yet this song said that mere words and ideas were stronger and couldn’t be stopped by anything even the fires of war and how ponies united behind those words would be immortal even if killed as their thoughts and words would live on.

It was ridiculous, it was crazy, the thought that anything was more powerful then war and that somepony could be defeated by simple words…and yet……the song was so sure of this simple fact that it made the little filly feel like it was true, that words could withstand even the force of war.

Slowly the song came to an end and the room was silent as Twilight finished what she was working on just another  song was start to play, however she shut off the music as she was done for now, stood and stretched, popping sever of her joints as after being hunched over so long had left her stiff.

Looking around she noticed that the ponies in the room were quiet in the wake of the song and dawn seemed to be deep in thought. “Hey Dawn mind showing me around town a bit?” She asked the filly who gave a start at suddenly being spoken too.

“Huh? Yeah sure.” She said before lapsing back into thought. Twilight shook her head at how deep in thought the filly before she used her magic to pick the filly up and place her on her back as she headed for the door.


<<<O>>>


Twilight walked into town with her goggled up as she had left her helmet at the house do to wanting to enjoy some time without.  Everyone in the town could see and recognize her as everyone seemed to know what she looked like, it hadn’t been hard to find out why when she saw a poster with her face on it smiling widely while surrounded by books and holding one with the caption “READING IS MAGIC” Twilight had glared at the image of her counterpart for allowing this all to have happened and muttering how she should have done something, spoken up and not have gone along with it.

This counterpart made her actually feel bad about being Twilight Sparkle even though she wasn’t this one who had fucked up so bad it still annoyed her that her name and face was connected to a Mass Extinction Event. Maybe she would get lucky and no one would recognize her do to her mane being cut shorter then she wore it in the poster though the front was still mostly the same. 

Walking into town she knew her luck wasn’t that good as several ponies spotted her and whispered to their neighbor and she turned up her hearing to confirm it was about her looking like the Ministry Mare. Sighing she ignored the stares as she had more pressing matters at hand, namely fixing the filly on her back. 

Stopping just inside of the town Twilight turned her head around to look at Dawn who had her legs tucked under herself and still looked somewhat far off. “So then my little tour guide, what’s the first stop?” She asked cheerfully and wore a friendly smile.

“Huh? Oh, I guess the Post Office.” The dark blue filly said a little absentmindedly and she pointed to a nearby building. Twilight made her way over surprised there was a postal service at all, however entering the building she found the lobby empty and the area behind the counter was filled with shelves packed with random objects and she was reminded of Liston’s SHOP from years ago, she almost expected to see his smiling face behind the counter.

Instead it was a small pink filly looking over a clipboard with a pencil tucked behind her left ear. The filly looked up and her eyes widened slightly when she saw Twilight at the door before her face became much like a stone and she set the clipboard down.

“Need something alicorn?” She asked simply but Twilight could sense an undertone, the Goddess had sure done a great job making alicorns well liked in Equestria.

“Just getting a tour. “Twilight said gesturing with her head back to Dawn who seemed to be perking up at the voice of the other filly.

Dawn popped up over Twilight head, her back legs standing on Twilight back while her front legs rested on Twilight’s head to steady herself making them look a bit like a totem pole as the dark blue filly looked over Twilights head. “Hey Charity get anything good in?”

The filly, Charity apparently, looked between Twilight and Dawn before focusing on Dawn. “I may have, you got any salvage?” She asked. Wait the filly ran the shop?

Dawn nodded and hoped off Twilight’s back and trotted up to the counter as her horn lite with magic and she pulled out a few random odds from her saddlebags and end and set them on the counter.

Charity began to inspect items as if she were a jeweler and them precious gems. After a bit she finally spoke. “Well this is nothing like what you normally bring it but I suppose do to you being a repeat customer and I know you are good for salvage I can give you….a hundred caps for it all.”

“Only a hundred? Come on Charity I nearly died getting this stuff, there were like forty Raiders between me and it.” Dawn said.

Charity looked at her levelly. “One hundred caps take it or leave it.” She said flatly. Sighing Dawn nodded. With that Charity moved the items behind the counter and pulled out a small bag and tossed it to Dawn who caught it in her magic before moving it into her saddlebags.

Twilight watched the entire exchange from beside the door surprised that the filly acutely seemed to know what she was doing. Her eyes drifted from the two fillies and to the goods behind the counter, there were ammo boxes, weapons, food and various other items apparently for sell. Had the filly really acquired all of that on her own? Thinking about it if this shop was really only one for miles then it would make sense that she would do good business, but still the fact that a filly ran a shop at all was something the alicorn had never thought she’d see in her life.

“Are you going to buy something or just sand there taking up space because there is a standing fee of five caps every five minutes.” Charity said from behind the counter eyeing Twilight.

“Caps?” Was all Twilight asked. “Don’t you mean Bits?”

“Bits aren’t worth much anymore, we deal in Sparkle Cola caps.” Dawn explained and then looked at Charity. “She’s kinda new so don’t really know much.”

“So then she doesn’t have any caps?” Charity asked and looked out at Twilight. “If you don’t have any caps then why are you even in here? Get out.” She said with annoyance and Twilight blinked.

“Uh…ok then….I’ll wait for you outside kid.” Twilight said looking at Dawn before she headed out the door to stand in front of the Post Officer turned shop. She watched ponies go about their days many of them glancing her direction. She ignored the looks and just looked over the town, for being a post-MEE town it looked rather present, the only thing really wrong was the church steeping having collapsed and a few craters.

Over all it looked like a normal Equestrian town, though she was curious about the city across the bridge, looking at it for any length of time made her skin crawl like she was in a sniper’s sights. Maybe she wouldn’t need to explore that particular city while here, best listen to her instincts as they had never steered her wrong before.

A few minutes passed with her watching the town go about its day and the door to the post office turned shop opened and Dawn came out putting something in her saddlebags. “Hey there kid, where to next?” Twilight asked looking back at her.

“Um…well the only other major building in town is the chapel but it’s being rebuilt.” She said as she looked around the small town, there really wasn’t much to it, just a few building built near the Chapel and the graveyard.

Twilight nodded her head and looked around to see if there was anything else to see, she was glad to see the filly had recovered from her stupor but she really didn’t want to head back to Star House right now as she had already mostly repaired the replicator. It had looked far worse than it had actually been and most of the damaged parts were redundant parts to prevent such damage from disabling the replicator.

“So….I guess we could work on another lesson if you want.” Twilight said looking at Dawn who perked up. She was defiantly eager to learn more about magic though to hear some of her stories she was already a master of magic on pare with Twilight herself. Twilight find it rather entertaining listening to the filly’s stories even if they were greatly exaggerated to anyone who thought about it, however the younger foals seemed to believe her and from the loos of their faces it kept up their spirits in this hellish land. “So let’s find a nice place to get to work shall we?” Twilight said as she started to walk off towards the edge of town so that way any accidents would put anyone in danger in case of a mishap.


<<<O>>>


Dawn sat on her haunches in the dirt beside a few small boulders not far from Chapel, her horn was wrapped in her aura of magic as she focused on making two small pebbles orbit a larger rock that Twilight held in her magic as Twilight was explained to her how  the sun and moon orbited the planet. “So Celestia raises the sun each day and each night Luna raises the moon. Each one working together to bring about the day and night that we experience.” Twilight was explaining from where she sat watching the orbiting pebbles.

Nearby there was another group of pebbles orbiting another small rock held by Twilight, those pebbled were being manipulated by Blackjack. Shortly after Twilight had started Dawn’s lesson Dawn had noticed Blackjack watching them from a distance and the unicorn seemed to have been following the lesson. She had not escaped Twilight notice even through the purple alicorn had not taken her eyes away from the formulas she was daring in the dirt with a  stick she had found and spoke up that it would be easier to learn if she actually was closer so Twilight could more easily monitor her work.

It had startled the other mare that she had dropped the rocks she had been manipulating be she came over and sat in to listen to the lesson. It had also seemed that Twilight saying she was going to give Dawn another lesson had been over heard by some Crusaders as after Blackjack had joined a slow trickle of foals made their way from the town and Dawn soon found herself among not only Blackjack but almost two dozen other unicorns as well as several non-unicorns here to either watch or listen to Twilight explain history or mathematics or whatever tangent she ended up going on as she explained things to the impromptu class.

Even with so many others around Twilight focus was on Dawn and sometimes Blackjack and it was as If for the most part the others weren’t there though she did answer questions and occasionally give some advice to the others when they were having a particularly hard time, nothing seemed to escape the alicorn’s sight even as she seemed to be focusing on one thing. Dawn found herself wondering how she did it and was going to ask her about it later.

After the explanation of how Celestia and Luna raised and lowered the moon the lesson moved onto manipulating two objects about three meters apart, in this case small rocks. Twilight gave a demonstration and then explained how to do it and then sat back to watch dawn and the others try it. Several times she had to put up a shield around someone to block a rock that a foal lost control of and it went sailing through the air.

After a few hours of this, when Dawn was exhausted once more Twilight called and end to the lesson and the Crusaders departed for Chapel While Dawn remained with Twilight and Blackjack, mostly due to Twilight stopping the filly to ask her a question.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s that around your leg?” She asked pointing at Dawn’s Pip-buck.

Dawn look at the dark green device on her leg. “It’s called a Pip-buck, it’s like a computer you can carry with you and it keeps track of things as well as  helps you identify threats with its Eyes Forward Sparkle.” Dawn explained and Twilight looked at it.

“So it’s like my datapad?” She asked and Dawn nodded, she had seen the mare use her datapad several times so knew it was a computer like the Pip-buck but seemed to run differently. “Interesting, how does it track things and alert you to enemies?”

“It displays a compass just below your vision.” Dawns aid, explain as best as she could.

“So it has a visual interface?” She asked and Dawn looked at her in confusion. “It displays things on your eyes.” Dawn nodded. “Interesting, where did you get it?”

“I found it when scavenging an old building; I didn’t realize what it was at the time and thought I could get some caps for it. Needed to test it first so I put it on to see if it worked and well….I can’t get it off.” Dawn said and Twilight looked between her and it. “It takes special tools to remove it and they are rare and it costs caps to get somepony to remove it. Plus the risk of it being stolen because ponies think I’d be an easy mark. So I wasn’t able to get any caps for it but it has been very useful so I think it’s made up for the fact I can’t sell it.”

Twilight nodded and then looked up at the sky.” Strange…..” She muttered and it was Blackjacks turn to speak up.

“What is it?” The unicorn asked looking up as well.

“By my estimation Celestia should have lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon about an hour ago.” Twilight replied looking at the sky still. “I wonder why it is delayed.”

Blackjack hesitated a bit not really sure how to break it to the alicorn, in the end she decided it was best to just tell her. “Celestia and Luna died when Canterlot was destroyed by some kind of megaspell that filled the city with a pink cloud that kills everything.”

The other alicorn looked down at her. “So who raises and lowers the sun and the moon?”

“Eh….nopony, they just move on their own and it’s not really set.” Blackjack said.

Twilight was quiet for a while before looking back up at the sky. “So they died in the war they started, fitting, saves me the trouble of kicking their asses.” The alicorn said before her horn was wrapped in a magical aura.

“What are you doing?” Dawna sked watching the alicorn as her horn glowed brightly.

“I am setting the sun and going to raise the moon.” Twilight replied and Dawn’s eyes went wide.

“You can do that?” She asked in shock.

Twilight didn’t move her head as she spoke. “Yes, I’m as strong as Luna is…was...anyways, point it yes I can and have a few times back home.” She said and the two unicorns watched as it did indeed get dark as what sunlight filtered through the clouds faded and it was completely dark save for the glow from the city. A few moment later the light from the moon shone through the cloud layer. “There we go, decided to go with a full moon so there is more light.” The alicorn said as she looked down and started to head for the town.

Dawn looked after her in awe till she realized she was being left behind and galloped after the alicorn as fast as her little hooves could carry her. “You’re like a Princess.” She explained when she caught up to the other two.

“I am a Princess.” Twilight replied.

This caused both unicorns to stop in their tracks and blinks before having to trot faster to catch up to the alicorn who didn’t slow. “What do you mean you are a Princess?” Blackjack asked.

Twilight gestured with her head to the wings on her back. “See the wings? See the horn?” She asked looking at the mare. “I am an alicorn, a real one, which means I am a princess.” She said. “I am the Princess of Friendship.” She explained as Dawn trotted alongside her looking up at her with a bit of awe. Twilight then tilted her head. “Come to think of it can you answer me a question Blackjack?” 

The other mare nodded and Twilight continued on. “What happened to Cadence?” She asked. “Or Princess Mia mor Cadenza if that is more familiar.”

Blackjack thought for a moment before answering. “I don’t know, I don’t think she was really mentioned in history, or she was and I just wasn’t paying attention.” The other mare asked.

Twilight nodded and Dawn thought her mood seemed to have dropped a bit. “Well thanks for answering.” She said as they reached town. Dawn followed the Princess as she walked down the street towards the Chapel and stood beside it looking at the city before she shivered. “What is it?” Blackjack asked.

“Just….something about that city…..looking at it puts all my senses into high gear as if I’m in the middle of a Fed base.” The alicorn said.

Blackjack tilted her head in confusion. “Fed base?” 

“Long story, in short the reason I have cybernetics. Something about that city makes me feel like I am surrounded by enemies and being attacked from all sides and I want to both retreat and fight at the same time.” Twilight said shaking her head as she looked back at the town as a wind started to blow.

The ponies looked around but it was Twilight who reacted by smiling wide. “Alright!” She said and galloped off. 

“Where are you going?” Blackjack called as she moved to chase after the alicorn.

“To get my helmet from Star House and come back.” The alicorn called back over her shoulder and Dawn moved to follow her as well but she wouldn’t be able to keep up and she said she’d be back.

Sure enough after a few minutes the mare returned with her helmet strapped to her head and carrying her goggles in her magic with Blackjacks friends chasing after her drawn by what they thought was an emergency. At this point the wind was strong enough that ponies were coming out of the buildings to see what was going on as the wind was starting to swirl in the center of town.

“Hey kid catch!” Twilight yelled and tossed the goggles to Dawn who caught them in her magic, much to her surprise, she then looked at Twilight confused. “Relax I have another pair, consider that payment for getting me to the town as well as the tour.” She shouted over the wind.

It was growing strong enough that sever ponies drew weapons in case it was some sort of attack, however  what happened was the air blasting outwards as the air split open and bathed the town in light as bright as day.


“Well it’s been real folks, but that’s my ride so catch you alter, Oh and Blackjack, good luck with the whole hero thing” She said as she turned and galloped for the tear in the air.

Dawn watched as she leapt through and it grew brighter as she vanished and she looked at the googles in her magic and back at the rift the Princess had leapt through and then back at the town ponies looking on in confusion at what was happening and at the wasteland around the town before she put the googles on her head, right below her horn and got a look of determination on her face.
> Interlude: “Commander”
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interlude: “Commander”

Twilight Sparkle found herself suddenly freefalling through the sky, she registered this a moment after appearing and after a short panic she spread her wings and stopped her decent. While hovering in the air the alicorn looked around in confusion. Her confusion only grew when she saw the nearby town situated right beside a dark forest. Looking around more to get her bearing she confirmed that the town was indeed Ponyville based on where it was located but it looked so different.

Gliding down to the ground the mare still looked around in confusion as she trotted towards the town. All the buildings were made of stone and not wood like she was used to, the only part that was wood were the roofs. All the buildings were still painted all different colors as they always had been though so at least that was familiar though….the town wasn’t organized as it should be, the town was more tightly packed together and less haphazardly spread out as the streets  and alleys were more straight then she was used to.

As she entered the town proper she got another surprise in the fact she didn’t recognize any of the ponies walking the streets when she knew everypony in the town, though more shocking was that there were Changelings walking the streets openly, some with saddle bags as if shopping, others in uniforms of the various shops she knew were in town and some just seemed to be enjoying the day alongside ponies.  She heard laughter behind her and look, she had to step to the side as three foals and two changelings nymphs ran by laughing as they seemed to be playing a game of tag through the town.

This was so very confusing to the mare as she walked deeper into the town that looked so different. When she reached where Ponyville Market was located she was thankful to see it was right where it always had been running alongside the town square with the fountain in the middle; however that was where the familiarity ended as there were Changeling running small shop stalls. She looked around and saw the ponies around her were indeed aware of the changelings among them as they spoke to either the stall owners or chatted with them as they walked through the market.

“Hey Twilight, why you look so confused?” A southern accented voice said from a stall the alicorn was walking by and she smiled as she looked to speak to Applejack, happy to have somepony she knew to talk to.

However it wasn’t Applejack standing beside the apple cart but an older light yellow mare with a brown vest on and dark brown wide brimmed hat leaning against the cart looking at her with a  bit of concern. Looking at the mare it took Twilight a few moments to recognize the light yellow mare with the red mane. “Applebloom?” Twilight asked uncertainly.

The mare looked over her shoulder and back at Twilight. “You feeling alright Twilight? You’re looking very confused.” Applebloom said as she stood up and walked over to the purple alicorn. It was then that Twilight noticed that on Applebloom’s hip was a large revolver. The mare followed Twilight’s gaze to the pistol and then looked back at the alicorn. “You ok? You are staring at Lil’ Mac like you’ve never seen it before.”

“Lil’ Mac?” Twilight said blinking in confusion as she looked from the pistol to the mare.

“Yeah, that’s what we called it remember?” Applebloom said with concern. “I think you need a break Twilight.” The mare said before turning back to the cart and calling out. “Hey Frynil I’m going to take a break, can you handle things here?”

Twilight looked at the cart and saw a Changeling make its way from a second cart loaded with apple and to the painted cart. “Sure thing boss, have a good break. “The changeling said in the slight hissing voice changelings had.

Applebloom nodded and turned back to Twilight. “Alright, lets head over to Gruphon’s and grab a drink.” The mare said as she started to walk away from the marketplace, the alicorn following behind her confusion only growing.  That confusion double when they reached where the café was supposed to be and found another building there with a sigh that read “Gruphon’s Bar and Grill” With a another sign beside the door reading “No one under the age of 21 permitted”  

Applebloom opened the door and the sounds of multiple ponies speaking while an unfamiliar SONG played in the background. Twilight followed the other mare into the bar and found it mostly empty with only a couple of ponies sitting at the bar itself however one of the largest tables had multiple ponies and changelings all wearing a dark green uniform sitting around it, having grabbed more chairs from other tables so they could all sit together as they talked and drank.

Applebloom made her way to a one of the booths and Twilight followed, taking a seat when Applebloom gestured for her to do so. Once she was seated the other mare went to the bar and spoke to the Changelings dressed in a white shirt and black vest with matching bowtie behind it and after a moment the changelings placed a pitcher of brown liquid and two glasses that Applebloom placed on her back before making her way back to the both.

Setting the tray down the mare took a seat across from Twilight and poured them both a glass of what Twilight realized was hard cider. “I know this ain’t Nightfall and all, but I think you just need a little drink to relax yourself.” The mare said as she placed the pitcher between them.

Twilight didn’t answer as she looked around in confusion at what was going on as this was supposed to be a café not a bar, Ponyville didn’t have any bars. As she looked around she noticed the wall beside them had several areas that looked like small holes had been repaired and painted over but if you looked closely you could see the holes, there were dozens of them all running in a  line along the wall as if something was swept across it. 

Applebloom followed the alicorn’s gaze once more and sighed as she saw the holes. “Gruphone did his best to cover up the damage but even with it mostly hidden a lot of us still remember that day.” The mare said running a hoof along the line of holes.

“What day?” Twilight asked looking at the other mare who was looking at the damage sadly.

The mare blinked and looked back at Twilight with some confusion. “You know, the day the Separatists tried to massacre everyone in the bar.” The mare said. “Don’t think they expected some of yer soldiers to be armed even while off duty or that Gruphon has a shotgun under the bar.” Applebloom said looking at Twilight with more concern.

“Twilight are you ok? You’ve been looking around like you don’t recognize your own town and I think you out of anyone would remember losing over a dozen EDF soldiers in your own town along with other town’s people unlucky enough to have been in the bar when those damn Separatists showed up.” Applebloom said, her voice had a slight edge to it as she spoke. She then took a closer look at the alicorn that sat across from her. “Say, why you hiding your scars and cybernetics, pulling another prank or something?”

Twilight blinked as she looked at herself confused. “Um…well….” She stammered not sure how to explain.

Applebloom looked at her with some suspicion now. “Commander what’s going on?” She asked and the alicorn didn’t say anything as her jaw worked wordlessly and Applebloom’s hoof moved to the piston on her hip. “If’n you’re a changelings trying to pull a prank you know what happens to those who impersonate EDF Officers and ah don’t think you want to go to Irongate, ah’ve heard stories about that place and if even half of them are to be believed it is not a pleasant place. So ah recommend you drop the disguise before ah report you, Ah think those soldiers over there would be most interested in hearing about someone pretending to be their leader.” She said gesturing to the group of uniform wearing changelings and ponies.

“I’m not a Changeling, I’m Twilight but…I think something has gone wrong.” Twilight said seeing the arm before her resting her hoof on the pistol as well as the fact several of the soldiers wore pistols as well. “I was doing an experiment in my lab and there was a bright flash and I wasn’t in my castle anymore.” She said. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

Applebloom went from looking suspicions to looking more annoyed. “Shoot, not another one.” She said and sighed shaking her head as she removed her hoof from her pistol. “Though this is the first time ah think it’s happened in reverse.” She said thoughtfully.

“What’s happened again?” Twilight asked now confused at why the mare seemed to believe her.

“Well…not sure how to tell you this Twilight…..but you are displaced.” The mare said sitting back in her seat. “Happens every once and a while, you’ll hear about someone, or an entire group of some ones just vanishing out of the blue. When the guard can find no evidence of what happened they call the EF to scan the area and they find left over energy of a “dimensional shift” as they call it. I believe that’s what’s happened to you though like ah said its usually our people going to other places not the other way around.”

Twilight looked at the farmer mare. “You seem to know a lot about what seems to have happened.”

“Shoot everyone does, it happens often enough the EDF sent out pamphlets explaining it as well as some basic survival tips for if’n it happens to you. It’s even taught in our schools these days.” Applebloom said with a chuckle. “At this point it’s just a part of life here in Equestria. The EDF usually gets those displaced back with in the week though it may have been longer for the missing as time works a bit funny when tunneling to other dimensions.” The old farmer said with a smiled as the alicorn across from her started at her with wide eyed confusion at how she can calmly talk about this subject as if it were the weather.

“Whelp after you finish yer cider we will head over to the EDF office her in town and inform ‘em what’s happened” Applebloom said sipping her drink. Twilight didn’t normally drink, not after being told how she acts when drunk but today she downed her glass in a few gulps casing Applebloom to whistle and tip her head back. “You either really like cider or you were needin’ a stiff drink.” She said.

“That last one.” Twilight said with a minor slur causing the mare across from her to laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Just not used to seein’ you get even a  buzz from one glass of cider, well not you personally, I mean our Twilight, come to think of it I wonder if’n she will come by to see you, can’t be everyday one gets to meet their counterpart.” The mare said before she downed her own cider and got to her hooves tossing some bits on the table. “Anyway lets git you to the EDF office so they can’t get this all sorted out as I’m sure you want to get back home as soon as possible.” The mare said heading for the door as the displaced alicorn followed her on hooves that were a bit unsteady.