Project Fusion

[Cloudchaser]

Info post

Any new information such as new character sheets will be posted here.

Map of Equestria for the RP

Character sheets:

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Joe's characters:
Name: Amber Heart

Race: Pegasus 
Age: 25
Sex: Female
Cutie Mark: A lightning bolt strike signifying her love and affinity for speed.

Appearance:


Implants: Blades of light that forms wings and a right hoof replacement that allows her to flick out a katana or connect a high tech weapon too.

Combat:  Prefers close quarters combat with her Katana, speed and agility but doesn't shy away from using high tech guns.

Weapon Skills:  Katana and high tech guns.

Weapons Available:  Katana.

Unusual Traits (not mandatory and can be left empty): 

History:  Amber Heart was just a regular female pegasi living in Ponyville, she was brought up there as well. Her parents being pegasi that were employed on the weather team in Ponyville. Amber had found her love and affinty for speed at a young age and when her parents took her to see the Wonderbolts perform in Cloudsdale she instantly fell in love with Spitfire and wanted to be just like her so when they got augmented she did too and lost her free will just like everyone else until recently when the experiment that released a couple of ponies from Twi's control knocked her back into reality where she saw the unjustice being done and decided to flee and seek others that might be like her.



Name:  Nyte

Race:  Batpony 

Age: 26

Sex: Female

Cutie Mark: A half circular moon with 6 stars dotting it's right side and embracing a black full moon.

Appearance: A very tomboyish mare with purple eyes, dark midnight blue coat and a light brown/red mane and tail colour.

Implants: None, she's a bat pony from the Night watch faction.

Unusual Traits (not mandatory and can be left empty): 

Combat: She fights with two light swords with jagged edges on one side that causes hemorrhages on her victims, carries a light AR for when she has to use ranged weaponry.

Weapon Skills:  Swords and light ARs.

Weapons Available: Her custom crafted swords and her signature light AR.

History: Nyte's village was a target in the early purge raids on the bat ponies and Twilight's forces killed and burned down everything except the little filly that had been tucked away in a chest by her parents. When she broke out of the chest everyone she ever knew and loved were dead and Nyte swore with tears in her eyes that she would dedicate her life to the pain and misery of Twilight and her forces. Night Weaver found her picking up remains and burying her loved ones, having no one else to turn too Nyte cried out for 'Weaver's help and 'Weaver decided to adopt the young filly as her daughter. Everything Nyte knows has been thought by 'Weaver and Nyte considers 'Weaver as her true mother now, a role which 'Weaver has happily fulfilled.

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Jake's characters:
Name:  Cosmos 

Race:  Batpony 
Age: 22
Sex: Female
Cutie Mark: A circular universe

Appearance: A rather feminine light purple batpony mare, who prides herself with a delicately groomed mane and tail, coloured a light purple with blue highlights. Her eyes are light blue, and being a mare, is rather small in size. Her wings, unlike other batponies, are fully feathered.

Implants: A astrologist by trade, Cosmos has a range implant, allowing her to see in the dark, as well as much farther. She has a pair of stabilized augments in her back legs giving her supreme balance, and even the ability to run and walk on her hind legs with ease, as well as a pair of augmented horseshoes that extend into fingers, giving her the ability to use small objects with ease without magic.

Unusual Traits (not mandatory and can be left empty): Unlike most batponies, she does not have pointed teeth, which leads her to believe that along with her fluffy wings, she is not full batpony.

Combat: Long range, as well as accurate.
Weapon Skills:  Prefers a weapon that can take down enemies silently and quickly, and from long range. As a batpony, she's fast, but not strong, and must use her wits and speed. Exteremely specialized in accurate shots over long range, as per her training as an astrologist.
Weapons Available: Keeps a Batpony Greatbow with Specialized arrows in home. 

History: Cosmos was born to a single batpony mother in the bustling city of Canterlot. Her mother was a guard, but had a deep infactuation with the moon. After a while, Cosmos took up the trade of astrology, going to the Canterlot school for gifted ponies. She graduated from the Astrology College with a major in stars, and took up work inside Canterlot castle as a star-gazer. After the augmentation boom, Twilight paid for a bunch of simple augmentations: Eye range and night vision, fingers, bone stabilizers. Cosmos felt as if she was falling into a routine that was not her own soon after her transplants, until one day she seemingly snapped out of it.


Name: Swift Wind

Race:  Earthpony
Age: 26
Sex: Male
Cutie Mark: A twister

Appearance: A sand coloured, small earthpony, with brown eyes. Mane is a mixture of sandy blonde and brown highlights. The sides of the mane are shaved completely off, leaving only the top of Swift's mane growing. It's tied off with a pony tail at the very end. Has multiple tattoos up his front legs, as well as docks for second generation exo-skeletons.

Implants: Carries a 5th generation Obsidian Exoskeleton with him at all times, complete with grappling hook, boosters, battle saddles, targeting systems, as well as allowing Swift to operate better than a regular guard pony with implants. 
Unusual Traits (not mandatory and can be left empty): 

Combat: Proficient in melee weapons as well as Military Grade weaponry
Weapon Skills: Heavy assault weapons and light weight melee weapons
Weapons Available: Exoskeleton has battle saddles, but usually carries a long Zeus Staff (Being hit with either of the electric ends causes an instant EMP, which has a chance to shut down the augments) as well as a arc-taser in his saddle for dire situations.

History: Swift Wind was just another soldier. Born in the Mild West, Swift Wind had spent much of his life fighting with the Buffalo of the region, and grew up knowing how to hold his own in combat. Kicked out of the Equestrian Military due to his refusal to accept augments, Swift joined with Obsidian Outfitters, and became a Military Police Officer. Starting with a Generation 2 Exo Suit that connected directly into the Neural Interface of ponies, Swift Wind realized his true potential. After trying out for a position on the Obsidian Cleanup Team, he was upgraded to a Generation 5 Exoskeleton, as well as real weapons. After ascending to the new team, Swift Wind was informed of the network of control that Twilight had put over the land, and was given the responsibility of keeping it  covered up. Now, in a time of great Crisis for Princess Twilight, the OCT is now tasked with hunting down the defectors with the help of Twilight's guards, and her group of ruthless AI's. Never one for killing, Swift Wind prefers to hunt down his prey with the help of augment destroying tools: Arc-Tazer, Zeus Stick, EMP grenades, as well as his own immense strength. What he makes up for in strength, he lacks in speed, and is easily out ran.

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Bella's character:
Name:  Sage Remedy

Race: Pegasus
Age: 19
Sex: Female
Cutie Mark: A floral print spear

Appearance: Dark grey-Blue coat with a darker blue mane that has reddish-purple streaks. Wears a flower crown matching the pale pink color of her eyes. She has spider bite piercings on her cheek dimples

Implants: Fangs that feed poison into whoever she bites. Hearing Implants that increase her hearing to the point where she does not need Eyesight at all to know the exact placement/movement of a creature. Increased Hearing also improves Balance considerably. hind hoof implants that have retractable blades, along with supreme balance and durability. Small implants at the base of the wing that increase speed by puffs of air.

Unusual Traits (not mandatory and can be left empty): She is abnormally tiny, in height and weight, making it easy for her to fit into small spaces. Her size also makes her better in both agility and flight, allowing her to fly fast, and navigate much easier than a normal sized pony

Combat: Close range
Weapon Skills: Bo-Staff, Blades, Hoof to Hoof
Weapons Available: An extendable spear with pointed ends that can fit into her belt when not in combat mode

History: Grew up in Canterlot with her two parents and three brothers. She was always quiet, and mysterious. Her father enrolled her in a combat school so she could train in the arts of close combat to become a royal guard. Instead of going out with her friends after class, she would go to the Canterlot park and sit under trees, observing nature. Sage found an affinity for plants within herself, and decided to study herbs and all sorts of plants she could use to her advantage. She often traveled away from Canterlot to adventure through forests to seek out new species of plants and herbs. Worried about her safety in the forests, her father forced Sage into getting hoof augments for self defense, along with hearing augments to allow her to fight, even without the use of her eyes. She then went ahead and got wing augments, that allow her to soar higher and faster than the average winged pony.

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NPCs:

Name: Vulcan 032

Race: Earth pone
Age: Unknown
Sex: Female
Cutie Mark: Tig welding torch (for reference https://www.arc-zone.com/blog/carmenelectrode/wp-content/wp-26fv.jpg )

Appearance: Light brown coat with darker brown tail. Rather muscular, especially for a mare, from years of hard work. Face (including ears, nose, and entire mane) and front legs are replaced by implants, originally painted industrial yellow, but after years of work, the most of the paint has scratched off. Tail is cut short, to just a couple inches, but is otherwise completely unkept. The ID code “Vulcan 032” is stamped on both of the shoulder plates in black.

Implants: Both front legs are replaced past the shoulders with industrial strength prosthetic legs equipped with plasma torches which may also serve as welders. These are quite durable, can easily lift a couple hundred kilograms, and have no pain sensors of any kind. The main purpose of the face implant is to provide a permanent face shield that won’t get damaged in hazardous environments that comes from dealing with melted metals all day. The other purposes of the implant are eyes which have been replaced to be much more durable than organic counterparts could ever be and to auto-darken from bright lights (example: when using the plasma torch). The replacement ears are made to muffle any loud noises, the original versions of these were designed as a military implant meant to help soldiers deal with the explosions of the battlefield, but the muffling effect was found quite useful on a construction site.

History: Born and lived her entire life in Detrot, at least that’s what she remembers. After Vulcan received her augmentations, she had memory loss of almost everything that was her life before them. The first memory she can recall is waking up in some sort of hospital and being told where she now works and when she starts. She has been working since that day. Sometimes a small event may happen and she can hold on to a memory from before, but only for an instant, like an old photograph and having it blown away by the wind. Vulcan can’t remember her old life, but she knows that it was was better than the one she’s living now.

[Cloudchaser]

In an alternate universe of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle's ascension into an alicorn didn't quite go as intended. After her ascension something happened to her, Rainbow Dash one of her closest friends was injured really badly during a practice stunt for the wonderbolts. The doctors said she might never be able to fly again and that would have crushed Rainbow's heart and Twilight's as well since she knew how much flying meant to her friend, she began to experiment on how to prevent such a thing in the future.

Rainbow Dash made a full recovery but Twilight didn't stop her experiments, instead she began to increase the pace of her research and experiments until a year later the very first wing augments were made, due to lack of test subjects she cut her own wings off and replaced them with the augments to show that they worked. 

The process was painful but once she had full control of her wings again she found a new type of power, she no longer needed to rest when flying long stretches and her stamina increased because of the wings automatically adjusting to the wind direction and maximizing her speed and agility with minimal effort.

The success of this experiment led to her becoming more and more obsessed with replacing dead or sick limbs of ponies to help them live their life easier. She hired a bunch of scientists to help her and every year that passed she made larger and larger discoveries about augmentation, improving old designs and coming up with new ones.

Her friends had started to get worried about her obsession with augmentation and implants, they tried to talk with her about it but she shrugged them off and soon enough her friends went on with their lives without her, hoping that their friend would go back to her bookwormy self once she had finished her research.

Equestria was launched into an golden age of technology thank to Twilight Sparkle and her augmentations and other research on technological advancements but the adaption rate of the new technology was slow, this aggravated her to no end. If only she could control the citizens of Equestria she would make sure everyone who needed or wanted augments or implants would receive them, so she sent out a request to Princess Celestia to royally order the wonderbolt leader Spitfire into augmenting herself to show the people of Equestria the benefits of it.

Hesitantly, Princess Celestia decided to trust her most faithful student and ordered Spitfire to get augmented, now 10 years since Twilight first started her augmentation, Spitfire got augmented wings that gave her a major boost in her performances and it didn't take long before the rest of the crew was lined up for it, everyone except Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow Dash and Spitfire has become a couple 2 years ago when Rainbow Dash finally passed her trials into the wonderbolts team, she and Spitfire had clicked off almost immediately and now they were officially a couple or at least amongst their friends. The public didn't know that Spitfire and Rainbow Dash were fillyfoolers and they were already harassed as it is by media.

Another 10 years later and all of Equestria has been plunged into an age of technology, with the augments, implants and other technological advancements improving everyday life. Major cities have skyscrapers miles high with routes for flying vehicles marked out with traffic droids making sure there's organization in the everyday chaos.


Even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had themselves augmented and unbeknownst to them all, Twilight had found something hidden deep inside Equestria and it's network. Something that was not meant to be discovered and yet she found it and embraced it, now she has plans of worldwide domination. All of Equestria under her control, everyone who has ever gotten an augment has been under her complete control for the past 5 years, not able to think freely but never fully realizing that they're being controlled.


But an unfortunate failure in an experiment caused Twilight's lab in Ponyville to explode along with most of her equipment for augmentation and the network that she uses to control the ponies of Equestria but only a few ponies were affected by this change and they quickly find themselves confused to their modern world, what has happened and where they are and even who they are now and who they were before.


"When harmony is no longer a solution.. We must act in a different way, adapt to a new world. You will most likely never read this and understand it my old mentor but I am the ruler of Equestria now and there is nothing you can do about it.." Signed your once faithful student Twilight Sparkle.


"GUARDS!" Twilight yelled, her guards came in through the door to her half blown lab, ignoring the scene and instead focusing on their ruler and her command. 


"There have been an accident here that I didn't foresee, some ponies may have been released from my control. These are very dangerous individuals to society and they must be found ASAP and brought back to me so I can repair the damage. They will most likely be confused and angry so you are authorized to use any means necessary to bring them back here ALIVE. Track them down, hunt them across Equestria if you so have too as long as you bring them to me alive, you're now dismissed." She gave the guards her orders and they saluted her and left the building.


"Soon everything will be alright again, these ponies will not be able to hide for long. WE will once again have full control of the ponies of Equestria, the rebel group be damned, they will join us sooner or later." Twilight said as she began to repair the damage to her broken lab.


The guards had started to communicate to all of their operatives throughout Equestria and notified them of Twilight's orders and soon enough five ponies fates would cross together as they're being hunted by the orders of the ruler of Equestria. 

[Pegabella]

“It’s going to be okay sweetheart. It is perfectly safe. I promise you will be much happier after the procedure.” Sage’s mom spoke as she gently brushed a piece of hair behind her daughters ear. Sage sighed  and nodded in agreement. She tried not to show it, but fear was creeping into her mind with every passing moment.


She gathered her things from her room, including her trusty bo staff her father had given to her when she was just a filly. After fitting it into her saddle bag, she walked out of her room and toward the door.
“Good Luck!! I’ll be waiting to see your shiny new augments once you get back!!!” Yelled her mother as she stepped out of her home.


Sage smiled and opened her wings, making her grin fade away.
This will be the last time I get to use my wings as they are now…


She gulped and jumped into the air, flying as fast as she could toward the Canterlot Hospital.
The wind hugged her body as she flapped her wings to a constant rhythm, pausing occasionally to glide in the strong wind currents.


After some time, she finally reached the hospital. She looked around her, only to be greeted by the judging glances of augmented ponies. She kept her eyes forward and entered the Augment wing of the building, feeling strange among all of the cyber ponies around her.
“Sage Remedy.” asked a large fully augmented colt with a cold, mechanical voice. Sage felt tiny before the thing.
“Uh...Yeah thats me.”
He looked down at her, with emotionless eyes. “This way.” motioning her to follow, which she did reluctantly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sage’s eyes shot open,and glanced around in shock. She could not feel anything in her body, causing her to panic, and attempt to thrash around to no avail. Her eyes shot vigorously from side. She tried to speak but was left silent. All she could do was watch as the doctor dissected her body and removed her limbs, replacing them with shiny new objects. The doctors looked down at Sage, then to each other and nodded. Suddenly dark spots began to cover her vision. She fought desperately to stay awake, but was pulled against her will into a deep slumber.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


“Alright Ms.Remedy. You are all set.” Spoke the mare nurse that tried to assist her in getting up. Sage winced at the sudden influx of noises entering her ear. The nurse sounded as if she were screaming directly in her ear.


“Ahh, its so loud in here.” She complained.


“Ah yes, that is to be expected with your new ear implants. It will take some time getting used to...Along with those.” The nurse pointed to her sharp teeth.


“ Sage licked around her new fangs, confused about their purpose.


Sage looked at the nurse angrily. “ We didn’t ask for these to be put in.”


“Oh?” Spoke the nurse, sorting through her clipboard.


“Quite strange.” She said, completely dismissing Sage’s concern.


“Quite strange? My father and I had nothing to do with this decision. Who told you to do this?” The nurse simply stared at Sage.


“None of your concern, Ms. Remedy.”


“None of my concern?!” Anger boiled up inside of her. “It’s MY body! You cant just do something in which I did not request, and say it is ‘None of my Concern’!!”


“It is beyond my status to tell you. Now I should be going.” The nurse said coolly as she walked into the hallway.


“Come back! I demand to know!” Sage fumed as she got off of the bed and stumbled onto the floor, struggling with her new hooves.


She grabbed the collar of the nurse, causing her to whip around and call the guards.
Suddenly, heavy cyber colts came charging after Sage, causing her to back up in shock and fall due to instability from her new augments.


“Leave me alone! I just want to know why these are here!” She yelled as she bore her fangs to everyone around her.
 One of the guards tried to grab Sage, making her twist and slam her hoof into his face on instinct.
The eyes of the colt turned bright red as others came rushing into the room to restrain her.
“Hostile in Motion. Hostile in motion.” Chanted the cyber pony as he stood up, muzzle bent and smoking.


Others closed in on her, attempting to grab and hold her down.
“Let go of me!!” She yelled as she swung her hoof at another pony, hearing a crack as his jaw snapped. Another came from behind, causing her to buck him with her new hind hooves. She felt something strange, before she realized she couldn’t move her legs since they were stuck. Sage looked back only to find her legs covered in blood.

I must have accidentally triggered the blades...Shit this is bad.
Before anyone could think she pounced off the pony, her blades immediately retracting back into her hooves so she could run. Sage sprinted sloppily though the white halls, staining the floor crimson as she attempted an escape.


She ran as fast as she could until the hospital alarm sounded, throwing off her balance due to the extreme volume in her new ears. She stumbled to the ground and watched as the entire hospital shifted into lockdown mode, making all the accessible doors close. Sage searched for an exit, only to see a window above her that she could possibly crash through if she hit it hard enough.


She opened her wings and struggled greatly. “Augh what are these things?!?!” She spoke to herself as she saw the small engine like structures at her wing base. “How do I even-” Before she finished her sentence she was launched into the air with the assistance of her base engine augments. She struggled to gain control over her wings until she found herself near the window. The sound of breaking glass assaulted her ear drums as she forced herself through the window, making her lose control and fly onto the parking lot, where she lay still for a few moments.


“I...Must...Get...Up” She spoke as Hospital security came surging after her.


From the power of adrenaline, she stood up and gained composure before leaping into the air and flying off at record speeds, hoping to lose the guards that were on her tail only moments before.
Sage pushed herself as hard as she could manage to get as far away from the hospital as possible. After realizing she was finally alone, she began to swerve since this was her first flight with the new wings.


She looked below her and saw only trees and an open field.
Where the Hell am I???
She asked herself before she descended rapidly to the grass, resulting in her stumbling over her front hooves and face planting in the dirt. Her fangs pierced her bottom lip, making blood begin to trickle down her chin.


Sage sniffled and slumped on the ground, allowing the noises of the grass swaying in the wind to calm her down. She then began to think.
I can never go back...
A single teardrop rolled down her cheek as she ached to go home, but knew it to be impossible since she was most likely wanted for murder.


She lay there, disguised by the long grass that swung high over her head, and closed her eyes, wanting to wake up from her nightmare.


After some time her eyes shot open, and she was determined to learn how to control her new abilities. She stood up and looked around her to make sure she was completely alone.


Sage opened up her wings, and realized lifting them at a certain angle creates different reactions within the small engines. She lifted them slightly, and was delighted to hear the gentle purr of the engines. She then flung them over her head, and lurched forward and into the air with little to no effort from her wings. “I could get used to this” She spoke over the sound of her engines.


After what seemed like hours of traveling Sage landed in a small town that bordered the ocean. “HorseShoe Bay” Read one of the signs on the edge of town.


She walked around aimlessly until she stumbled along street corners that had the words “Resistance” plastered all over them.


I have nowhere to go...no place to stay...I might as well just find this so called “Resistance” and see what it is all about…


Sage walked into the town square and saw an orange augmented pegasus walking toward her.


“Hey are you alright?” Asked the mare. Sage simply nodded and looked down.


“Well you have blood all over you. Are you injured?” Sage nodded once more.


“Why don’t you come with me. The name is Amber. Amber Heart.”


Amber extended her hoof to Sage, and she took it gently. “Sage.” She spoke with a slight smile.


“Well Sage, come on. We have to get you a bandage or something.” 

Sage nodded in agreement, and followed Amber hesitantly.

[Fluttershy]

“Daddy daddy, come play with me”
“I’m sorry sweetie but I have to go to work”
“Aww, but why daddy?”
“I do it for you, so so we have a place to live and food to eat”
“But I miss you when you’re gone”
“I miss you too”
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“OW, son of a bitch!”
“Sweetie, I know you’re a grown mare now and you are at work, but could you please watch your mouth”
“Sorry dad, just burned my leg on some hot steel”
“Let me see”
“I think i need to bandage it”
“Yeah I think you’re right, here, follow me, I’ll get that fixed right up”
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“WOOO, HELL YEAH”
“SWEETIE! Are you alright?”
“Never better dad”
“Oh dear Celestia, but your face, it’s bleeding”
“Oh come on, it isn't that bad, I don’t need to stop and bandage it”
“It looks pretty bad, I’ll go get a medic, stop working, have a break, and don’t move around too much”
“oh come on dad, I’m fine, really, I could keep working all day lon-....”
“Sweetie? SWEETIE! Oh fuck, oh Celestia. Stay here!”
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“Ah, you’re awake, we would like to inform you that your augmentation procedure was a complete success.”
“Wh-where am I”
“You're at Detrot City hospital. You had quite an accident at work”
“Work?”
“Yes, when you were welding on some equipment and a battery pack exploded”
“... I…. I weld”
“Why yes, don’t you remember your job at all?”
“No…”
“Miss, you remember your name, where you live?”
“I…. I’m……….. I-I live……..”
“oh… oh dear, excuse me Miss while I go and get the doctor.”
“my name is……………. My face and legs feel weird….”
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“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST MY PAPERWORK!”
“I’m sorry Miss, but we don’t have ANY paperwork on who you are, and we can’t find the stallion that brought you in”
“FUCK YOU, FUCK THIS DUMBSHIT HOSPITAL”
“Miss please calm down”
“I DON’T EVEN KNOW MY OWN FUCKING NAME AND YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN!?”
“nurse, get the anesthetic”
“FUCK. THIS. SHIT. I’m leaving here and I AM GOING TO FIND HOME”
“Miss this is only going to hurt for a bit”
“NO, no get that away from me, NO, stop tha-.....”
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“I’m sorry to inform you Miss that we still are not sure of your name or family, but I would like to inform you that we have found where you used to work”
“...”
“And the manager there sadly doesn't know your name either but he told us that he would gladly provide housing for you”
“...”
“He also said he would gladly let you start working there once again”
“...”
“Miss?”
“fuck you”
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A brown coated mare with leg and face augmentations wakes up in a large tent on outskirts of Baltimare. The word “Vulcan 032” is stamped on both her shoulders. She gets out of the cot, and walks over to the entrance and looks out and into the morning sky over the construction site of a new research facility. “What a beautiful day to work for the princesses” She walks out and over to her work station, the first one on the job this morning, as every morning. “Celestia is always right, I must work harder” the mare mumbled to herself as she began the long, hard day’s job.


That night, she was the last to stop working, she went to the tent and immediately went to sleep, dreaming of the next day’s work, and how she will be supporting her beautiful motherland.
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Vulcan wakes up, she has a headache, she looks around the tent and it’s deserted. “something’s not right” She jumps out of her cot and trots to the tent’s door, the sun is already quite prominent in the sky, all the other ponies are already at their stations. “What the hell…” Something was wrong, she knew something was terribly wrong. She looked upon the working ponies and something seemed different. She couldn't quite place what was different. A memory from her past hit her, one of her father. His face… his face even at work was filled with life and love. Vulcan looked closer at the other ponies again and it hit her. All the other ponies didn't seem to be fully aware of what they were doing, they almost seem to be mindless worker ants, carrying on in the same way a hive of termites would.


Vulcan wanted to go lie back down for a bit, for the headache started to get worse. She turned around and started walking back to her cot when she stopped. This was the first day since she started work that she had ever considered doing something besides work. She let that thought sink in. Was she free? Was she truly free now? Could she actually do something besides work? She stood there, frozen for what felt like hours, thinking, “Can I do something else today”.

She turned back around, and left the tent, she walked off the construction site and into the city. For the first time in her memory, she just walked aimlessly through the city, actually looking at it, not just seeing it from her welding station.

Vulcan walked down the sidewalks for hours until she reached the older part of the city, filled with trash and graffiti. She found some spray paint on the side of an old building that said “2+2+5” She stood staring at this, wondering, wondering what something like that could even possibly mean.

“I see you must have just ‘awoken’ today sister”

Vulcan turned around and saw a stallion with eye augmentations standing there. “what do you mean by that”
“You have slipped ‘her’ control and you are finally awake, sister.”
“Why do you keep calling me sister, I don’t even know you”
“Everyone that is awake can call each other brothers and sisters”
“Okay, I don’t know who the hell you are or what the hell you’re talking about so I’m leaving”
“Wait, there will be a meeting today of all the ‘awakened’, you should come, we need all the help we can get”

She knew this probably wasn't a good idea, but she wanted to know more of what this strange stallion was talking about. “Ok, fine, I’ll follow you, just quit calling me ‘sister’”

[Princess Blueblood]

Cosmos was always fascinated with the stars. The first thing she saw when she was born was the swirling cosmos of the sky. It seemed so long ago, now that she was a full grown mare. But it wasn't the only thing that seemed so long ago. Even things that Cosmos did minutes ago seemed like years inbetween.

It had been only a few years since she had gotten her implants, but now, at the age of 22, Cosmos was the most successful astronomer in all of Equestria, and definitely the most successful batpony outside of military units. She was on top of the world, but she didn't feel like it. She always felt drained, sallow, as if her will was not her own. 

Funny thing was that as hard as Cosmos tried, she couldn't break her habits. Things that once may have been shocking were the norm now: When she would go out for tea, she would pay no mind to a group of droids carrying off a pony, or ponies dissapearing for no reason: This was life.

Everything seemed so perfect, so normal: Mapping stars and working on plans for a space program by night, sleeping by day. 

Until it happened.

-----------------

"Ugh... where am I?" asked Cosmos, looking around. She had ended up on the floor somehow, but with no memory of how. Hell, she didn't have memory of what had happened for the past couple hours. She had last remembered going out to get some tea at around 1 am, and now the clock read 8 am.

Cosmos quickly got to her hooves, feeling panicked. Why did she feel panicked? She had no reason to, she was in the safety of her home, and nothing was going wrong besides that she had passed out for a few hours. Had she pulled a few all day'ers? No, she woke up at 6 PM and went to bed at 8 AM. Always. Never differentiated. 

Cosmos' first instinct was to check her work, but something in the back of her mind was telling her that she needed to go to bed. While the voice was fading fast, it seemed to be getting more angry and louder every passing second, and unlike her decisions to go and check on her star maps, the voice was not her own. 

As Cosmos trotted over to her drafting table, her mind felt less fuzzy: as if she had more control over her body. It almost felt unnatural. Cosmos had no idea what was happening, but she was feeling a dozen times better than she had in the past few years. 

Her hoof augments spread into fingers, as the mare flipped through her book. She scanned over a few pages, and realized, she had no recollection of drafting any of it. Almost as if somepony had done it for her. Plans for space-routes, different equations for moon landings, satellites. Cosmos worked for the School of Natural history, not the Technology and Development department.

Cosmos reared onto her hind legs, and used her fingers to rub her temples, questioning what in Equestria was going on. Maybe she just needed a breath of fresh air. The mare walked out of her small home in the less mechanized area of Canterlot, and breathed in the sweet air. Suddenly, a police-guard walked up to Cosmos, his golden-chrome augments shining in the morning sun.

"Ma'am, you wouldn't possibly be Cosmos, would you?" asked the pony, and Cosmos fell back down upon her front legs.

"Why yes, that would be me," Said Cosmos, and the guard quickly whipped out his Zeus-Stick, and lunged at Cosmos. 

Cosmos jumped back just in time, avoiding a high voltage swing that would have easily knocked her out and fried her augments to a crisp. She looked up, about to ask what the guard was doing, when he swung again, yelling for help. Cosmos dodged it again, as the guard aggressively tried to subdue her, but due to his heavy metal augments, he was far slower than nimble Cosmos. 

The mare quickly flew into the air and into the skylight of her home, where she looked desperately for a means to defend herself.

The Bow...


Cosmos quickly ran to her bed room, and rummaged through her closet, as she heard the guards breaking in, shouting for her to turn herself in. After a few moments of chaotic searching, Cosmos pulled out a dark blue and purple bow, glistening with what looked like black wax. It was massive, almost as big as Cosmos herself, and had a quiver of arrows that matched the size of the bow. It had been at least 5 years since Cosmos had used the bow, could she still fire it?

As the guards barged in, Cosmos could only hope that she remembered how. She reared on her hindlegs, the augmented bones attaching to her hips with a click! and she knocked back a massive, lance like arrow into the greatbow. As soon as a guard rounded the corner, she let the arrow fly.

As soon as the arrow left the string, a dark magic encircled it, and left a purple and blue aura in its wake. The arrow smashed into the wall next to where the guard was standing, sending out a shockwave of smoke. 

"She's got a bow! Hit her with the static grenades!" Shouted one of the guards.

Suddenly, three opaque glass balls that crackled with electricity flew into Cosmos' room, exploding ravenously across the small abode. Cosmos felt her legs give out, and her fingers go limp. Her eyesight went blurry, and she fell to the floor. Her augments had been deactivated, probably by some type of EMP. She couldn't even move her hind legs.

The guards scrambled in, but far too soon. The EMP had left a shockwave in the air that practically incapacitated the guards, knocking the few with brain augments out. The others, whom had completely replaced their legs with augments, helplessly rolled about, as Cosmos helplessly attached her bow and quiver to her back, before reaching for her back-up batteries that were charging by her bed. She quickly  put the batteries into her leg port, a small opening on the inside of her right thigh, and got to her hoofs unsteadily, before trotting off.

She sprinted out of the house, her vision blurry and her body sore, running in the opposite direction of Downtown Canterlot. Whatever happened, she knew that everything had changed. She needed to get away from civilization, and there was only one place she knew where she'd be safe. The coast was her only bet at this point, preferably a fishing town like Baltimare. She would have to catch the Sky Bus out of a neighboring town, as they were the only type of public transportation that didn't take funds out of the Personalized Banking System Card that was attached to your augments.

She had made it quite far out of the city and even to the border of the wilderness, before she stopped to take a breath. By now, her augments were back online, and she was feeling normal again. 

Everything Cosmos had ever known was about to be turned up-side down. She needed to find help, find refuge.

She needed to find the Nightwatch.

But where would she begin?

-----

It took her 2 days to reach Baltimare, but it was worth it. It was a rarity to see a guard or a droid pony, and government installations were few and far inbetween. She could lay low there for a while, until the heat lifted. Then she could possibly get a boat across the water and settle in somewhere away from Equestria. She was afraid of sleeping for fear of waking up with Guards looking down upon her, but now that she was in Baltimare, she could rest easy. 

But another part of her was telling her to get to the bottom of the whole problem, not just to leave it. Why had she been attacked? She could find the same safety with the Nightwatch as she could overseas, and possibly find some answers. That is, if they would accept her.

She had no idea where to start looking, except for some vague leads on batpony colonies on the fringe of Equestria. The only promising lead she had was that of a rebel meeting happening somewhere in Baltimare. She would at least stick around for that, and hopefully, find her way off the continent, or to the nightwatch. Either way, things could only get better from where she was at already.

Or could they?

[Arualsti]

“Wake up Bubble”

“No, I don't want to, five more minutes” replied the colt, pulling his duvet up and over his head.

“Sleeping in isn't good for you Bubble, you've had more than enough sleep for tonight, you need to wake up, breakfast is ready” the voice contested.

Bubble groaned and kicked the duvet off, rolling out of bed. He wasn't tired, even though he only needed to sleep around 4 hours a night. Just another quirky effect of MARLA.

Breakfast was indeed ready. It was a small bowl full of chalky tablets packed full out the nutrients his body needed.

“Hey MARLA, I only have two sodium tablets this morning, what gives?” He asked.

“I noticed your sodium levels were a little high this morning, so I adjusted accordingly.” MARLA replied.

Bubble scooped up the pills and dropped them one by one into a small opening in his suit. The pills made an audible fizzing noise as they entered the inner workings of the suit, the nutrients ready to be distributed around his body where they were needed. The nutrients would be used and reused, until the held no more benefit, and any waste would be disposed of in a fortnightly waste disposal from the rear of his suit. Bubble hadn't tasted food or taken a shit in nearly 20 years, a fact he had gotten used to, but he lamented all the same.

“Are you angry with me?” MARLA asked, her flat voice somehow sounding sad. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay MARLA, I know you do what is best for me” Bubble said genuinely. He had to tell the truth the MARLA, she would detect the increased heart rate if he lied, and there was no need to upset her. There had been a time, when he was old enough to feel anger and desperation and hopelessness in only the way an adult can, but still young enough to have not found acceptance, where threatening and upsetting the thing that had both saved his life and condemned it thrilled him. To berate her and torment her was where he got most of his pleasure. To remind her off all her failings, the hurt she had done him all in the name of his health. Worst of all to tell her he'd rather be dead than bonded with her. It had given him satisfaction until he realised how unnecessarily cruel it was. It was like abusing a pet or a child, someone who only wanted to please you, and abusing them tenfold for every mistake they made against you. And like a pet or child, they were dependent on you, they couldn't leave, they were trapped with you, trapped trying to please someone who was disgusted by your very presence. For all the faults being trapped with MARLA had, he realised she was stuck with him too, and he may as well make the best of his lot in life and accept it. This didn't mean he was happy with the situation, far from it. Most days he could struggle through, distracting himself with projects or research, but some days he just couldn't face, and would push MARLA to the absolute limit with her healing. He had built many bizarre machines built solely for Bubble attempt to kill himself in the most violent and abrupt way as possible, from impaling to crushing. But MARLA was tough, the harder you pushed her, the harder she pushed back. Any blow he could create to end himself would simply cause MARLA to shut him down for a week or so whilst she repaired the damage. He would wake up feeling fitter than ever, and even through the disappointment of failure, he would always feel a little brighter.

Bubble made his way to his work bench, his hoof pausing over the power button to the ancient set up of cameras that surrounded the exterior of the lab. He hadn't activated it in about 2 years, not since his last outside venture. MARLA had brought him back from an accident that should have at best left him bedridden for weeks. Bubble hadn't been so cooped up through his life that he didn't know healing augmentations were highly controlled and illegal, but he had not expected the reaction from the guards that he had gotten. He hadn't felt fear like that since he lost his family. That bubbling, boiling feeling of adrenaline firing up every sense. His mind becoming a supercharged, animalistic machine, filtering out any consist thought, leaving only fear and urgency, pure terrified emotion driving his need to escape. MARLA had snipped out memories of that night, as was her tendency to do so. She removed memories that she deemed too painful to be kept, the ones that caused nightmares and panic attacks. All he had now of his escape were fragments. The flashing lights, the noise, blaring sirens and shouting, screams of terrified civilians that were mown down in the guards pursuit of Bubble. The stink of iron that could have been from augments pushed to their limit or from the blood that stained the streets. The pursuit had lasted into the dark hours, but Bubble had no memory of how he actually got back to the lab or when the ponies stopped crashing him. He just had a vague image in his mind of staring up at the ceiling as MARLA wordlessly administered a tranquillizer. She had been silent throughout the entire evening, working to her limit, healing Bubble enough so he could move on broken legs, rearranging and repairing organs, administering enough anaesthetic so he could function, and keeping his adrenaline in check so he didn't make himself sick with fear. In fact MARLA was silent for weeks afterwards and every day was filled with the oppressive fear that he would be discovered. He shut down external cameras, turned off every machine he could, in case they could track the heat or energy signatures coming from the lab. As his panic died down, MARLA had crept back into his head, her flat words reassuring him.

Since then he had slowly turned the machines back on one by one, noticing the guards seemed to have forgotten about him. He still didn't dare turn the cameras back on, a child-like thought niggled in the back of his mind 'if I can't see them, they can't see me'. The monitors would stay turned off for today, he decided.

Bubble spent the day working on something called a 'cattle prod'. The ancient books he perused had instructions on ho to make one, but like so many devices of pre-industrial Equestria, it was powered by magic. Bubble had no magic, so he had to adapt all his technology to be powered by electricity instead. He depressed the clunky switch on the handle, and watched with glee as an arc of electricity crackled between the prongs at the end. He lifted it, and gave it some practice pokes. It was a bit heavy for his liking, his colt body struggling to hold it steady. He would experiment in the weight of it later, maybe try out the shock power on it tomorrow. He could almost feel MARLA's disdain at that idea. A shock like that would kill a colt of his size. Possibly. Probably. He shrugged, what did it matter, his heart would re-start and he'd be none the worse off. He swung it more slowly through the air, making whooshing noises, copying an old film he remembered.

Suddenly, the entire workshop light up, the bank of monitors bursting into life. Bubble gasped, dropping the cattle prod, barely recognising the figure on the screens. He was an old, bearded stallion, with crazy eyes behind tortoiseshell glasses and a wild mane. He had a white lab coat that was grubby and wrinkled. He began to speak, his thick Germane accent removing any doubt in Bubble's mind who it was, the scientist, MARLAs creator.

“Bubble? Are you there? I hope you are there. I have set this video recording up in the event that a systems failure has occurred has occurred at the Princess Twilight Sparkle's laboratory. Now, I don't know how bad the failure is, but hopefully it is big enough that you can escape her watchful eye. You should find your family and go, I know this is scary for one as young as you, but MARLA will keep you safe. Take your family and head to Horseshoe Bay, I predict you'll be safe there, at least for a time, I’ll try to leave a message for you there, only I can remove MARLA for you. I have prepared a bag for you with enough provisions to last the journey. Remember, take your family and head to Horseshoe Bay.”
The display flicked off, and a hidden panel under the monitor array slid back, depositing a bag at Bubble's feet. He stared at it, not quite aware of what had happened. He had never, ever expected to see that stallion again. He never gave much thought to him or his disappearance. At for it to be dragged up again so suddenly. And his family. He hadn't thought much about them either. He tried to picture his mother, face nothing more than a vague purple shape in his mind. He hoofed open the bag, peering inside. There was water and chemical mixes, enough for at least a year, and an old paper map of Equestria, alongside other provisions for a long journey. The scientist has clearly never expected Bubble to be trapped for long, he had included a colouring book and crayons for him.

Bubble slung the bag onto his back, finding it fit snugly with MARLA, like it had been made to fit around the suit. He picked up the cattle prod with the intention of returning it to the workbench when he heard a noise from the entrance. Bubble froze again, his ears straining to hear through MARLA. He cautiously made his way to the labs secret entrance, cattle prod in hoof, he felt his mouth go dry and his stomach curl up like a fist. A shadow from the doorway shifted, and Bubble thrust the prod toward it, depressing the switch, sending a jolt of electricity through the shadow. It groaned and fell to the floor. Bubble peered closer, turning the black leathery shape over with some effort. It was a guard pony, it a uniform of black leather over augmentations. He was unconscious, but breathing. Bubble looked toward the entranceway. The door was wide open, it must have unlocked when the message played, ready for him to make his escape. A beeping emanated from the guards lapel. “Pony down, back up requested, pony down, backup requested” Bubble pulled the device off the guard and tried to crush it under hoof, but it was made of a black slippery material and he didn't have the weight to even leave a scratch. It was too late anyway. Backup would be here soon, very, very soon. He grabbed a mottled old travelling cloak that completely covered his body, and strode out the door at a calm walk.

Barely a minute away he saw a platoon of guard ponies streaming toward the lab. Other ponies in the street didn't even glance toward the intimidating leather and metal clad ponies. Bubble averted his gaze from them, concentrating on making it out of the city alive.

The city had alien layout, so much had changed even in the few years he was locked away. Barely any of the old décor remained, replaced by black iron and blinking lights. The wide plazas and open air cafés were gone, the space replaced by towering buildings. He made his way toward where he once knew the exit gates to be, and was thankful that despite the change in street layout, the huge mountain gates remained, cameras scanning and whirring in the arches. Ponies filed single file in and out of the gates, armed guards on either side. Bubble joined the exiting queue and kept his head down. He made it out without suspicion, not daring to glance at the guards. He didn't dare relaxed until he was halfway down the mountainside, and the guards were replaced to the odd patrol. He steadied himself against the rock wall and let out a single gasping sob. He was uprooted again, thrust into a life he knew nothing about, wholly unprepared for the ordeal. MARLA let out a burst of dopamine or serotonin or perhaps a mild sedative into his blood stream. He felt his anxiety and fear filter away in stuttering waves, until he was calm again. The fear was still there, like an angry beast that was only sleeping now, but his body wasn't affected any more at least.

Bubble made his way down the rest of the mountainside, his old map useful only as a rough guide as to where to head next. Building projects and small towns had popped up along the route, whereas villages and hamlets were left in ruin and empty. He found a small tent and fire lighters in his satchel, alongside a small book on survival tactics in the wild. He had read it before, when he was very young, but he appreciated the re-fresh. On the dawn of the sixth day, Horseshoe Bay came into view. Rows of squat buildings, relatively unmolested by technology, sat around the perfectly flat, dark waters of the bay. He thought he should look around first, try and find where the scientist would have left a message, if there even was anything to find.

A soft sound came from behind him.

“Hello little one, are you lost?”

The voice was soft and kind, quite unlike anything Bubble had heard in years. He turned and pulled his hood off the round bubble sphere around his head, seeing the orange coloured mare stood before him.  A dark blue mare stood just behind her.


“Oh.” She said, taking in his appearance. “I think you'd better come with me”

[Cloudchaser]

Amber Heart had been a very ambitious mare already from a young filly age, somehow she knew she was destined for something great but she never quite knew what that was. She was a great flier and ever since the day her parents who were both pegasi brought her to see the Wonderbolts perform she was awestruck. 

Spitfire and Rainbow Dash's daring stunts that kept pushing each other's limits until one of them backed off was simply stunning and Amber had always dreamed of flying with the wonderbolts one day, maybe even take over the reins of Captain from Spitfire once she retired. Yeah that was quite a dream, Amber had and everyday at work in ponyville she would daydream about her performing in front of a cheering crowd who gasped and awed at her daring stunts. Of course those were just dreams, she was just a simple pegasus doing her everyday job of clearing clouds or bringing clouds together for rain periods and while she tried to incorporate some style into her work, there was only so much one could do before you came crashing down into a tree or something. 

When Spitfire had gotten herself augmented and Amber Heart had seen it, she immediately knew she'd have to do it as well if she even wanted to dream about being a match for Spitfire. So she had gone and gotten herself a pair of new wings when she first heard of an augment section opening up in Ponyville, she'd been the first in line. 

When she got out from the hospital it first took her a little bit of time to get used to the lightness of her wings, it was like they weren't even there but yet she could feel them like they were real wings, like she could feel every pulse and twitch in the rhythm of her heartbeats. It was quite a surreal experience but once she took off into the air it was like she'd been fused together as one with the sky and she flew faster and harder than she had ever done before and had she not overestimated herself and crashed into a tree and broken her right leg then she could very well have pulled off a legendary sonic rainboom.

A few months later she returned to the hospital because of her right leg not having healed properly after her crash a few months earlier when she'd gotten her wings, the doctors said they'd have to amputate it and that she'd been chosen to receive a free high class leg replacement, as a sign of gratitude from Princess Twilight Sparkle herself for having been an early adopter of her augments.

When she woke up after the surgery she was told her name, her job, where she lived and who she was related to and then scurried her off out into the world again, Amber Heart couldn't quite put in place what had happened or why it seemed odd that the doctor had told her all the stuff she already knew, hell she even remembered she had a date with her coltfriend this evening so why had the doctor then told her all of that? 

She shrugged it off as stress after the surgery and flew off to her job for the rest of the day, she performed her usual tasks without any groaning or complaining that she'd rather be trying out new stunts for her eventual wonderbolt tryout. When the work day was over she clocked out as usual and flew home to prepare for her date in the evening, funny how she was going on a date now. She could have sworn she didn't have a coltfriend before but her mind told her otherwise and yet a nagging feeling in the back of her head told her something was off..

It continued like this for a few years, waking up, going to work and then coming home and either meeting her coltfriend in the evening or meeting her friends after work and then going to bed before repeating the same routine every single day, except on holidays, days that she had used to look forward to the most had now just melted into a part of her daily life and she spent most of her days off with her coltfriend, planning for their eventual move in together, talks about getting married and having foals. Stuff that Amber Heart had NEVER dreamed of before now seemed like a thing she was looking forward to, becoming a mother, marrying her coltfriend and moving in together as a family..

That is until one fateful day when she was on her way to work she suddenly blacked out and crashed into the forest and was knocked out cold for a few hours, when she woke up it was like she'd woken up from a long dream. 

"Oww, aaah. My body hurts and my head is pounding like I've downed 20 mugs of the Apple family's best cider and woken up with a terrible hangover. What the hell happened and where the buck am I? I was flying somewhere.. I think? Man, did I drink last night? No.. it's Wednesday today and I never drink during the week. I think I should probably fly back home and call in sick.." Amber muttered for herself before she took off towards Ponyville, the little rural town had grown into quite the metropolis over the last two decades and it's buildings towered into the sky.

Amber decided she'd try and find a newspaper or someone to ask what time and date it was since she had obviously been out cold for sometime, she landed outside the gates that lead into Ponyville and marched up towards the guards who instantly noticed her.

"You there, miss!" One of the guards shouted as he motioned for a squad of his men to follow him.

"Who? Me?" Amber looked around and saw that none of the other ponies around her had reacted at all.. How odd, you'd think ponies would be curious about something like this.

"Yes, you! Stop right where you are! You're under arrest by the order of Princess Twilight Sparkle and you're ordered to come along peacefully or we are allowed to use any means necessary to make sure you come along." The guard captain flipped out a nasty looking shock baton and some of the other guards did the same while others had hoof cuffs and handlebars ready, another few of them were trying to flank her.

Amber Heart didn't know what she'd done wrong, all she'd done was black out on her way to work, probably due to exhaustion from the heat or something and now she was being arrested? Amber panicked and just as some guards were approaching her rear she flicked her blade out from her right hoof and cut the guards before kicking dust into their faces and taking off into the sky, luckily for her the guards were all earth ponies and didn't give pursuit. She was sure that they'd called for aerial backup and thus she hurried off towards the coast, it was the only place she could think of that could be safe, maybe she could try and find help from the Griffons. It was her best option..

She stayed low for the next few days and moved mostly by land towards the coast and Horseshoe bay, she'd overheard some ponies in a local bar, she'd stopped at for a bite and drink spending the last bits she had on her, talking about a "rebellion" or something. It wasn't the Griffons organizing that much was clear, there were some murmurs about the bat ponies of Luna who had been banished long ago mounting some counter resistance against Princess Twilight's rule. She heard them mention something about Horseshoe bay and she knew it was off to the coast and decided she'd try her luck with finding this "rebellion", maybe they could explain what was going on. Why ponies everywhere were acting like nothing was going on, walking on casually like little worker ants being ordered by their Queen.

She arrived in a less than desirable state in Horseshoe bay, her usually bright orange coat was dull, dark and wet. She stank of sweat, she hadn't had a shower in days and her female instincts made her shudder at the mere thought of not having showered in so long.

Amber kept walking on, trying to keep an eye out for where this "rebellion" could be meeting and when she turned around a corner she saw a mare with a dark gray-blueish coat, slumping down a bit as she walked along, she looked hurt or something. Amber could see blood stains in her coat and at that moment she didn't quite know what came over her but she stopped and asked if the mare was alright.


“Hey are you alright?” Asked the Amber. The mare simply nodded and looked down.


"Well you have blood all over you. Are you injured?” The mare nodded once more.


“Why don’t you come with me. The name is Amber. Amber Heart.” Amber said to the other mare and extended her hoof to the other mare, and she took it gently. “Sage.” She spoke with a slight smile.


“Well Sage, come on. We have to get you a bandage or something.” 


Sage nodded in agreement, and followed Amber hesitantly.


They walked on for a little while and chatted a little bit but Amber didn't really get anything out of Sage, she was a bit shy to put it lightly and didn't seem quite comfortable following a stranger. Come to think of it, this was the first pony since leaving Ponyville that didn't to be in some form of trance, odd.. Very odd.


Ever odder was the pony if you could even call it that, who was walking away from them with a hood up covering his or her face entirely, Amber went up behind the little pony and tried to put on as kind of a voice as she could without being demeaning.


"Hello, little one. Are you lost?" She asked and the pony turned to her and pulled his hood down revealing his suit and head encased in a glass sphere. Amber knew that this was another one of the ponies that must've broken away from the worker ant flow that she had observed earlier.


"Oh." She said and took in his appearance fully. "I think you'd better come with me."


Again they walked on, Sage was even more quiet now but the new pony who had introduced himself as Bubble wasn't as shy and him and Amber were having a conversation about his peculiar suit and condition when Sage suddenly burst out from behind them.


"COSMOS?!" She darted past Amber and Bubble who were left standing there in confusion of what had just happened, Amber saw Sage run up to a light purple bat pony and hugged her.


"Sage? What the hell are you doing here?" The mare whom Sage had called Cosmos chirped out from what looked like an intense hug.


"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you since we were fillies! We have so much to catch up on." Sage said as she continued to hug Cosmos.


"Sage.. I can't.. Breathe.. You're hugging me.. Too hard.." Cosmos gasped out as Sage realized what she was doing and let go of her friend, apologizing at the same time.


Amber walked up to them and Cosmos became aware that Sage had brought company with her. "Cosmos, huh? I'm Amber, Amber Heart. This here is Bubble and well you're clearly familiar with Sage here, look you're the third pony today who isn't acting like everyone else and I think something larger is at play here. I was almost arrested when I was going back home after blacking out earlier last week."


"You're not alone on that, guards stormed my house and looked ready to kill me when I wasn't doing my normal daily routine, I felt free and then suddenly I'm being arrested?" Cosmos shook her head, not knowing what to do of it.


Bubble chirped in that he too had seen guards moving in on where he had been hiding.


They stood there on the streets discussing between themselves what to do and where to go, Amber suggested seeking the help of the Griffons but Bubble couldn't fly and they'd never be able to carry him all the way over the ocean.


They were interrupted by a stallion who looked like he belonged in some form of cult came walking along with a mare who looked like she belonged in an workshop trailing behind him. When he laid eyes upon the group he got a glint in his eye, everything was going smoother than he had expected. All the escapees from Princess Twilight's rule had bundled themselves up nicely for him all he had to do now was alert the nearest guard station and he would be showered in praise by the goddess and Princess that was Twilight Sparkle.


"Ah I see everyone's gathered already, you go and say hello to your brothers and sisters and I shall go see if there's any other "awoken" walking about." The strange stallion said and hurried off and left the mare alone.


"Uh.. Okay, well. Hello I guess? The name's Amber Heart, this is Sage, Cosmos and Bubble. I have no idea who these "awoken" that stallion is talking about is but you and us are the only ponies we've come across the past week that haven't been acting like worker ants, so.. yeah, what's your name, Miss..?" Amber said and reached out a hoof to shake with the mare.


"Vulcan 032 or that's what I think at least, it's what it says on my shoulder pad." Vulcan responded, with a surprisingly fleshy voice for being an android, Amber thought.


"So you're an android then? I've heard of you but I never met one before." Amber raised an eyebrow and examined "Vulcan" a bit closer.


"An android..? No.. No, I don't think so? I don't know, I can't remember much if anything." Vulcan said with a little bit of worry in her voice.


Amber was about to open her mouth again when she saw a bunch of droids moving up on their position and it didn't look like they were friendly.


"Shit.. droids, we gotta run, does anyone know of a place we could hide in that is nearby?" Amber said quickly and turned to the others in their newly formed group.


"Uh.. I think there's a swamp just south of here, can't be more than a few hours away at best." Cosmos quickly said, Amber nodded and said "It'll have to do, Cosmos you take Vulcan and me and Sage will carry Bubble, hopefully we can make it out of town before the droids catch up with us."


Cosmos did as Amber said and Sage clumsily grabbed hold of Bubble together with Amber and they flew off as fast as they could, heading towards the swamp and the outside of the town. They flew for a good 40-50 minutes before the weight of Bubble and Vulcan started to become a bit too much for them but they weren't being chased for the moment and they made a break for the swamp and by early evening they had reached it.


They made up a camp with the help of Sage's skills in survival and herbalism, she even pointed out what berries and fruits were good to eat and which ones to avoid unless you wanted to shit bricks for two weeks or suddenly have an extra limb poking out underneath you.


At nightfall they made a fire, deciding that it was worth the risk. All of them gathered around the fire to warm them from the cold rays of the moon and the chilly coastal winds. Eventually Amber Heart broke the silence and asked the question that no doubt was on everyone's minds right now.


"So where do we go next? Does anyone of you know anywhere we could go to seek help or try and figure out this whole mess with?" Amber looked around the group and eventually her eyes came upon Cosmos who seemed like she was battling herself on if she should tell them or not.


"Well.. There is this faction called the Nightwatch.." She began.


"Go on." Amber said and motioned for Cosmos to continue.  

[Princess Blueblood]

"They're a group of batponies whom have been against Augments since the day they were displayed. Very naturalistic, not very open to new members. Not sure where they are now, but they'd be on the fringes of society. I have no idea where to start looking, but chances are that they'll find us: we've caused quite a stirring," Cosmos said, her eye augments glowing dimly in the darkness. 

Amber nodded, and looked around. "We should think about settling down for the night. We should head out in the morning to find this "Nightwatch" group."

Cosmos nodded, and walked over to Sage. She was quite shaken, and had been quiet the entire night. Cosmos had sworn that the last time she had seen Sage, she had told her that she was never going to get augments. 

"Hey there. You alright?" asked Cosmos, sitting next to Sage. She smiled sweetly, and put a hoof on her old friends shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay," Said Sage quietly, not looking away from the flames of the fire. "So much has changed in so little time, I suppose."

"We'll get through it, okay?" said Cosmos, smiling. She was a tad older than Sage, and since they were younger Cosmos had attempted to take on the role of a big sister, even though it didn't always work out that way. "So, what have you been up to as of late?" 

"Well...."

-----------

"Wake up, Wrath. Sleeping in is bad for you," Said a voice. 

Wrath sat up, and sighed. "I hate how you carbon based life forms automatically assume when I'm charging I'm sleeping." 

"Only rational, you damn robot."

Wrath's blue eyes focused on the slot in the door, where the voice was coming from. Had it not been for his illumination of his eyes, the room would have been pitch black. 

"How much do you get paid to harass me, Oil Slick?" asked Wrath.

"Oh no, you're not doing this again," 

"Yes, I am. You sit in a chair all day, by my door, watching all 5 camera feeds from your nice comfy chair, hoping that I do something stupid, so you can put a bullet in me or hit me with that blasted baton. What have you done with your life?" Asked Wrath.

"Shut the fuck up, Wrath,"

"I'd rather not, and your use of the more offensive version of 'fornicate' does not increase the impact of your intelligent-less words, simply just makes them more useless, in my personal opinion." Wrath said calmly. Years of living in the cell with Oil Slick had given Wrath time to study his carbon based brethern, and he realized they were very easily angered, and very volatile when in the state of anger. "Now, I was asking, what have you done with your life?"

"Well, I have a wife and two colts that love me. That's more than you can say."

"Considering I am unable to reproduce, that is a fair statement. But do they really love you? From the pictures of your children on your dashboard, I can tell that they aren't yours. Otherwise they'd be far uglier, and actually shared some attributes with you," Wrath said, smiling. 

"How do you know what my kids look like? Are you implying my wife cheats on me?" asked Oil Slick, slamming his hoof on his dash.

"No implications at all: I know she is. Why would a trophy wife like her hold on to a two bit security guard like yourself?"

"You're lucky I don't let you out and give you to the Nightwatch. They'd turn you into spare parts, you fuckin' robot!" shouted Oil Slick, slamming on the cell door.

That's exactly what I'm going for.


-------

The next day, the group got up. Cosmos had spent the majority of the night talking to Sage, catching up on things they had missed in one another's life. It was nice, but now they needed to move on. Every second they stalled was a second they were in more danger. They quickly set off, a group of 5 ponies: An android, three augmented misfits, and a colt who had a mind like a bitter old man, from what Cosmos had collected. Not exactly the best survivalist in the world, but they'd have to do for the time being. While Cosmos knew they were in the same boat, she had no intention on going any quest with them. She wanted to get to safety, and stare at the stars again. That's where Cosmos belonged.

It hadn't been long before a rumbling started to fill the ears of the group, but no one paid any mind. Maybe a ship off in the distance, searching for them. The muddy swamp took all their attention to get through, and no one noticed the danger lurking around them. 

It wasn't until Cosmos had noticed the water moving rather quickly from about 500 wing lengths away when she realized they were in danger. She quickly drew her bow, balanced on her hind legs, and notched an arrow, just in time for a hydra to emerge from a deeper part of the swamp, screeching loudly.

"HYYYDRAA!" Shouted Cosmos, letting her arrow fly. The massive rod smashed into one of the heads of the hydra, but did nearly no effect, simply angering the giant lizard. "Get ready!"

[Pegabella]

Eventually after hours of travelling the group decided to set up camp for the night. Sage felt completely drained of all energy. Every subtle movement was a pain for her due to the fact that she had only received her surgery a few hours beforehand. The rush of pure adrenaline in her veins seemed to have toned down a bit, making it difficult for Sage to even move without wincing.


The fact that Cosmos was there made Sage feel a bit more comfortable since she has never spent a night with complete strangers. Talking to her helped Sage feel more at home. Cosmos always had that effect on her, even when she was in the darkest of places.


After the two had talked for what seemed like hours, Sage finally retreated back to her own spot and closed her eyes, hoping the rest may bring relief to her newly placed joints.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The sound of very low rumblings woke Sage up, causing her eyes to shoot open and scan her murky surroundings. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, discouraged by the stickiness of the air.
The sun had not yet risen over the horizon, making Sage sigh from lack of rest.
Sage adjusted the flower crown on her head and pushed her damp hair back the best she could without it fluffing into an afro from the humidity.
She rubbed the base of her wings, trying to soothe the dull pain that emanated from her bones, and walked into the trees to find some berries to eat.


After some time, she came back and shared her findings with the rest of the group before they packed up and headed off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sage heard the splashing of water off in the distance as she whipped her head around to see what the commotion was about. Her eyes widened in surprise as her ears flicked about, struggling to calculate the exact distance of the incoming creature. Her mouth opened to try to warn the others, but no sound came out. She was completely speechless from the sheer size of the being barreling toward them.
Sage shot a glance over at Cosmos, who seemed to have sensed something amiss.
“Hydra!!” Screamed the mare as she readied her arrows.


“We’ve gotta get out of here!!” Sage yelled as the arrows bounced off the Hydra's head.


She flicked out her wings as her engines emitted puffs of flame, readying themselves for flight.
“Come on!” She hovered over to Cosmos and tried to push her away from the advancing creature. “That thing is going to get us if you don’t move!”


Sage pushed Cosmos forward, forcing her to get back on all fours so she could run faster.


She flew forward and through the swamp trees, trying to weave her way away from the Hydra like the rest of the group. As she flew she saw Amber stumble over her hooves and fall into the muck.


Sage struggled and swung her wings down, forcing her engines to break and slow so she could turn quickly to help the mare. She then flew and grabbed Amber by the hoof to pull her out of the muck that attempted to consume her. “Lets go!” She screamed as the Hydra drew closer. Amber continued forward as Sage furled her wings high into the air, causing her to miscalculate her wingpower. She flung herself over the treetops, struggling to gain control of her augments as one of the Hydra’s heads snapped at her tail, its razor sharp teeth trimming it down almost all the way to her rump.


Sage slowed and flew a bit higher right as the hydra snapped at her once more, allowing her time to fly above its head and land a kick into its face, shooting the blade from her hoof augment into the creature's eye.


She then pounced off its head as it came to a screeching halt and let out a mighty roar. Sage rocketed out of its reaching area and bought time for the group to run far enough to be at a safer range.


She flew down and glided slightly above the group, listening for the hydras next movements as they booked it the hell out of dodge.

[Cloudchaser]

The evening passed by fairly uneventfully for Amber, Cosmos had cuddled up with Sage and they were catching up on something. Not that Amber really cared, once she'd be able to clear her name and explain to the authorities that this was all a big misunderstanding she'd high tail it out of this misfit gang of ponies.

Amber, trying not to let the boredom get to her looked around at what Bubble and Vulcan was up too. Bubble wasn't really doing anything interesting, seemed like his suit was going into sleep mode or something. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Vulcan was staring at her, oddly curious for being an android, Amber thought to herself and tried ignoring it but Vulcan was clearly scanning her or whatever androids do.

"You like what you see, android?" Amber said a bit mockingly and saw Vulcan squinting at her, clearly upset at being called an android. The others were too busy with their own stuff to notice that Amber and Vulcan were staring at each other until Vulcan spoke up.

"I'm not an android, stop calling me that." She said with a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Not an android? Vulcan-032 sounds like some form of android model number.. If you're not android then why are you calling yourself Vulcan-032, you said that's what stood on your shoulder pad, that sounds pretty androidy too me." Amber pointed out, Vulcan was clearly getting frustrated at this.

"I can't explain why I don't remember my real name, just as we've established I "woke" up like the rest of you and all I remembered was where I worked and lived. Just call me Vulcan for now and I'll assure you I am as much flesh and blood as you." Vulcan stood up and walked further away from Amber and went to sleep.

"Damn.. An android would've been wicked, always wanted to meet one, oh well.." Amber said and looked around, the others were also getting ready to sleep and she figured she might as well try and catch some shuteye, in the morning they'd move further south and start searching for this "nightwatch" group that Cosmos had mentioned.

The group got going in the early morning light, Celestia's sun had barely risen over the horizon but they knew they had to get going before the authorities came looking for them, they had already been lucky enough that no one found them in the night. Horseshoe bay was a small town and it'd take sometime for the authorities to get some proper equipment and manpower to look for them and by then they'd be long gone.

They were marching on in a good pace through the swamps, so far nothing had tried to attack them but Amber had heard of Hydra's living in swamps, there had even been an Hydra attack on a group of ponies in the swamps near Ponyville but they had all escaped unscathed.

Suddenly a loud rumble was heard and a second later Cosmos yelled "HYYYYDRA!" and Amber could see her shoot off an arrow from her bow which barely did anything but annoy the hydra and it was now focusing on Cosmos, Amber turned to Vulcan and Bubble and yelled "RUN! I'll distract it and then catch up with you are the edge of the forest, NOW GO!" She turned around and saw Cosmos was gone and the hydra was now going after her. Amber decided to try and damage it, not that she'd probably be successful but hey someone had to do something other than run.

She went in dashing towards it's legs thinking she might be able to injure it's legs to slow it down, the hydra however wasn't about to let her do that and it snapped angrily toward her. Amber decided to not risk her life further and ran away from the hydra but in the midst of it all she forgot she could just fly away from it.

Suddenly Amber tripped on something and landed in the muck and got mud in her eyes so she couldn't see anything, "Well fuck, I'm done for." Amber thought to herself as she suddenly felt herself being lifted off the ground and into the air and after wiping off the mud she was that Sage was carrying her. Sage let go of Amber after yelling "Let's go!" at her and Amber took off on her own, she thought Sage was right behind her but when she saw where Bubble, Vulcan and Cosmos had gathered up and when she slowed down she noticed Sage wasn't there.

She considered going back for her but she saw Sage gliding down towards them a short while later, Amber was about to ask Cosmos where she reckoned they should be heading next but she saw shadows approaching the distance and motioned for everyone to hide in behind the trees. 

Shortly after a squadron of bat ponies landed where they had been standing a minute ago and the mare at front of the group made a bunch of signals and the squadron fanned out and surrounded them in a half circle.

"I order you to come out and show yourselves or we will use force but if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to lose either." The commanding bat pony kept staring into the forest, Amber looked over at Cosmos since she was the bat pony here she figured she'd know what to do next.

"By the order of commander Ni-" The batpony commander was interrupted by Cosmos stepping out from the shadows of the trees and Amber could've sworn the batpony commander's jaw just dropped a mile at the sight of Cosmos.

"You.." the batpony commander hissed at Cosmos, glancing her over and clearly being disgusted by the augments Cosmos had, great so they had stumbled upon a group of anti-augment radicals.

"You know you're not welcome here, Cosmos. What are you doing here? You know she's not gonna like *this*" The commander pointed at Cosmos's augments "Anymore than I do..."

"Yeah.. I know.. But we need help, please Night Streak take us to see her and if she refuses to help then we'll be on our way and never bother you again." Cosmos told the batpony who was apparently called Night Streak.

"Wait, us? You and those others hiding in the forest are working together? What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Cosmos." Night Streak was letting her guard drop and was more curious than angry now.

"Long story but we're being hunted by the government for something we don't even know what we're being hunted for, guards of Princess Twilight just showed up on our doorsteps quite literally and told us we're under arrest and when we tried to ask why they just attacked us instead." Cosmos explained, Night Streaker was nodding along and clearly she was in two minds of what to do.

"Hmm.. Hunted by the Princess's guards themselves and you say you didn't do anything to piss them off? Yeah, this is far over my authority level. Alright we'll take you to see 'Weaver but she ain't gonna be happy I'll tell you that, you two didn't exactly leave off on good terms." Night Streak reminded Cosmos and then turned to her unit and ordered a scout to fly ahead and prepare transport to the main base of operation.

"Yeah.. that's what I'm afraid of.." Cosmos muttered under her breath as she went back and told the group what was going to happen next and they had come this far so they might as well see it through to the end if anything. So they all took off after Night Streaker, her guards helping to carry Bubble and Vulcan so they wouldn't have to walk all the way to their forward base of operations.

[Princess Blueblood]

The group was quickly escorted to a ship, and over the ocean. They stopped breifly at a small island to switch from ship to air, and continued on over the ocean. It felt good to get away from the city, from everything Cosmos had been running from. After a bit, they stopped at another island, the Minotaur island, before flying to the mainland. The minotaurs were about as hospitable as hot glue, and went through every nook and cranny of cargo they had, including Cosmos' Greatbow. They inspected the bow, then the pony herself, and simply laughed. "I doubt a small thing like her could operate this thing. Leave it be." Cosmos held her tongue, but just. She was skilled enough with it that she could pick them off from a mile away if she wanted too.

 They flew onto the beach, where they were greeted by a group of more rugged batponies, eyeing the augmented ponies with a pure disdain. Quickly, they ushered the group into the beachside forest, on a path leading to somewhere.

Cosmos grinded her teeth as they walked through the dark canopy, afraid of what she would find at the end of their path. Where they were going, Cosmos had left a long time ago for a different life. 'Weaver would not be happy that she was returning, and she would definitely not be happy she brought in a bunch of ponies with augments. Cosmos would be lucky if she survived an encounter with her old friend. While she did love reunions, this is one she'd rather skip on. 

As they grew closer to the base, Cosmos could feel the eyes of other batponies upon her. Ponies she had grown up with, except now they viewed her as an abomination, even more so than she was growing up. Without a set of fangs, or even the leathery wings that almost all batponies had, many believed she was a half breed, and not worthy of living with the rest of the Batponies. Even though she became almost the best archer within the ranks of the Nightwatch, Cosmos never felt wanted nor loved, and left the group - against the will of many of her friends - for a better life among regular ponies.

She had met Sage when she first moved back to Canterlot, and had a long friendship with her, but she was cut off from her when she went into the Astrology academy. There, she learned everything she knew about her previous job there, but she also got her augments there. They made her day to day tasks far easier, but now she knew there was something far more sinister behind them. Behind all of their augments.

Finally, they came upon a giant castle, covered in vines and looking like it was quite nearly about to collapse. Batponies patrolled the sky, as well as the walls, their shock-spears crackling audibly. It had been a while since Cosmos heard the crackling of the spears, but it somehow comforted her. It reminded her of her mother, before she had died when Cosmos was just a filly. By that... thing.

"Oi, Cosmos, snap out of it!" shouted Night Streak. "Get a move on before I shove my spear up your ass."

"Yeah yeah, I'm moving," Growled Cosmos. She moved quickly into the castle.

As they entered, the whole group realized this was not the castle they had predicted. Circuits glowed in every corner of the entrance hall, as well as old dial up controllers. Monitors glowed green and white in the area, where ponies typed vigorously, as if studying something. They continued onwards, studying the castle as they went. While it was no where near high tech as Canterlot, they were doing pretty well for themselves. 

Finally they came upon a throne room. Night Streak took away all weaponry from the group, and tapped each one with a static neutralizer to disable any overloading of energy their augments would need to produce a weapon. 

"Jeez, they really are anti-augment, eh?" asked Amber, and Cosmos sighed. 

"Yeah, I'm surprised we got this far," Cosmos said, as she was shocked.

The throne doors opened, opening a massive intelligence room to the eyes of the group. Batponies worked tirelessly at their monitors and servers, shouting across the room and mapping out different things. Almost as many ponies were flying around as there were on the ground. There was a pony standing up near a podium, flanked by another bright neon coloured batpony.

"Oh, well, if I wasn't going to die with just 'Weaver, I know I am now," Cosmos said, as they approached the podium. 

The podium pony turned her attention to the group, and narrowed her eyes, her lips curling back to reveal dual fangs.

"I ought to kill you where you stand, Cosmos," Said the pony, and Cosmos just sighed.

"Nice to see you too, 'Weaver," Cosmos said, smiling fakely, before turning her head to the neon-haired batpony. "Hello Aurora. Time has treated you well."

Aurora North flew from the podium, her spear crackling loudly.

"How dare you show your face here," Snarled Aurora angrily, and Cosmos sighed.

"I know, I know, I broke the pledge, blah blah no augments," Cosmos said, and 'Weaver simply sighed, and shook her head.

"No, you did more than that, though that is something we'd punish by death had you still been in the Night Watch. You weakened us, you broke us, for your own good," 'Weave said, and Cosmos groaned.

"I never belonged here, 'Weaver. You know it," Said Cosmos, and 'Weaver sighed.

"It doesn't matter anymore. Why are you here, with these augmented freaks?" 'Weaver asked, and Cosmos sighed. 

"We need help."

"So do we. Why do you need help?"

"We're being hunted by the guard for some odd reason. All of us seem to have broken free from something, and now we've got the augmented guard on our ass, and if we don't get help soon, we may have something more tailing us."

'Weaver called Aurora over, and whispered something to her. She then turned to the group. "And why would we care?"

"Because we broke something in the system, and the only thing any of us have in common, except for Bubble over here." Cosmos pointed to the small, suited pony. "Is that we have augments."

'Weaver looked like she was thinking for a moment, and then sighed. "Is that so? Well, I suppose we could help one another, if you catch my meaning?"

Cosmos looked at the rest of the group, and they all nodded. She took a deep breath, and sighed. "What do you want?"

"There's a certain developmental factory on the coast that we'd like to visit, but I've been running so many other missions, we haven't had the chance to get to it. We believe there is a prototype of a very effective transportation method, code named "Mole". It's a Digger, and we could use the tech. It would allow us to dig, or swim, anywhere we want to. It's far stealthier than air-ships, and probably a site more cheap," Said 'Weaver, smiling. "Break in, get it, and bring it back here. "

"You want fries with that?" asked Bubble, and 'Weaver cast a gaze that would have vaporized the small pony if looks could kill.

Cosmos sighed, and looked back at the group. "And if we do this, you'll help us?"

"You have my word. Even though I hate you, and your kind, I'm willing to help you if you hold the key into stopping this unnatural monstrosity," 'Weaver said, and Cosmos nodded.

"Alright, we're game."

-----------

Wrath sat in his cell, studying the blueprints of the digger carefully. Since he was plugged into the research center's power, he could easily hardwire all the files within the research database. The digger had taken his curiosity, as it ran on the same technical power that he had. Perhaps it was his next fate? From what it looked like, it seemed like it could be manually piloted by both AI and Pony. It seemed a bit implausible that they'd ever commission Wrath again, after he very nearly annihilated Princess Twilight's underground labs, but from what he was learning, he could easily pilot the Digger. He almost wanted to test it out, but he knew he would never be able to.

"Oil Slick, what do you think the percentage of me being released is?"

"Go fuck yourself, robot."

"Do you ever say anything intelligent?" 

"Fuck off."

Wrath groaned, and slammed his head on the wall. "Death would be better than this."

-------------

It was the dead of the night as the group sneaked up to the perimeter of the research center, before they stopped. 

"Alright, so, we need a plan for this break in, otherwise we might end up more screwed than we were before. Any ideas?" asked Amber.

[Pegabella]

5 years ago


“Goddammit! Just leave me alone!” Aurora yelled as the ponies chased her through the winding streets of canterlot.


“You shouldn't be out here alone in the daytime Moon Trash!!” they called as they advanced at a rapid rate toward her.


She growled and continued running through, trying to weave through the small alleyways that made up the city in order to escape her assailants.


She hopped onto a trashcan and opened her wings to boost her up to a nearby roof so she could get away faster, but failed. She flapped as hard as she could, and cried out due to the fact that the attackers slashed through one of her wings.


two colts grab each of her hooves and threw her to the ground.
“Hey...Catch a look at these fugly wings.”
One of the colts said as he pinned Aurora down and attempted to force one of her wings open. She grunted and struggled against him, but wasn’t strong enough against his grasp.

The sound of a switchblade caught Auroras attention and triggered pure fear. She flailed about and tried to yell for help, but her cries were ignored. Normal ponies passed by, but did nothing. They simply stared as The colt slowly carved into her wing, making her scream in agony. The other colt laughed and shoved a cold, metallic hoof in her mouth to muffle her screams.


Nobody cares. It doesn’t matter. They are the Augmented ones. The ones who Twilight lets loose to “Preserve order and further our advancement.” Nobody will care if they tear me apart. Its just the way it is. They can do whatever...And nobody will care…


Tears began to stream down her face as she tried to kick the colts off, but couldn't. She was outnumbered, and they were too strong.


Suddenly, a shadow flew over her.
“The fuck was that?” Asked one of the colts.


Little black clouds began to form in her eyesight as the shadow knocked down one of the colts easily. She heard a thump by her head and saw the faint outline of the other colt, eyes open and blood pooling around him.


Aurora heard a voice that seemed like it was a mile away.


“Hey!!Get up!” Yelled the voice, barely penetrating her eardrums.
“We gotta hurry! Lets go!” yelled the voice.


Before she could react Aurora was hoisted upwards, and snapped out of her stupor. She was confused to see another batpony in front of her, looking her up and down. The pony grabbed her hoof and led her away from the alley she was attacked in.


“The...Names...Weaver…” Said the mare between breaths as they were a safe distance away from the attack sight.


Aurora simply looked at her, and began hiccupping. She threw her hooves around Weaver and hugged her tightly. “Th...Thank you for saving me.” She choked out before Weaver pushed her away gently.
“It’s okay...You’re safe now…”
It was silent for a few moments before Weaver spoke again. “Do you have a place to stay?” Aurora shook her head in response.


“Alright then…” Weaver held out her hoof. “Come with me. I promise everything will be okay.” Aurora nodded, and took Weavers hoof, relieved for the first time in a while.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


present time


The group advanced toward the research center quietly, The bat ponies naturally blending into the darkness. They all gathered around to devise a plan to get in.
“Alright...So after countless times of scanning this place, some of our group members have discovered weak spots.” Aurora Laid out a blueprint and a laser pointer.


“We have found that the security is lazy at a certain point in the night. Basically, they don't really care because at this point they just want to get sleep...This means very minimal checking in when it comes to reports to the inside. If we take them out, this can give us enough time to slip through the side doors that are basically hidden from plain sight. Nobody will notice since the guards barely check in. There are 3 entrances like this. Since they have almost basic locks, the security on these doors can be disabled with a simple arrow or good hard hit to the locks. Security shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone good?”

All the ponies nodded and carried out their mission. they took out the two guards at one of the doors and everyone entered through. They were in.

[Princess Blueblood]

Cosmos entered the plant, greatbow at the ready. She traded in her massive arrows for more slim, quick arrows: They would be easier to manuever in tight spaces such as the plant. The main entrance was already creepy enough. A dim lit light barely illuminated the area, and dead droids sat in glass containers, their lights flickering.

"Alright, lets move. This place creeps me out," Said Aurora, and Cosmos nodded. "We'll split up. Cosmos, take the suited freak and your batpony wanna be. Rest of you, with me."

Cosmos groaned, and thought about launching an arrow at Aurora right there and then. She decided against it, and went through the door at the right. 

They walked right into the droid production area, which was guarded by multiple robotic ponies. They hadn't noticed Cosmos' group yet, but they're enhanced sensors would definitely trip as soon as they got into range. Many of them only carried shock batons, but there were a few red coloured droids patrolling the catwalks above the group, armed with what looked like shotgun's built into their chasis.

"Son of a bitch. Alright, Sage, I need you to stay here. Once I deal with the droids up top, you can go to town on these ones down here," Cosmos said, before flying up to he catwalk. The droids started to go crazy, beeping as they focused on the purple streak flying through the air. 

Cosmos landed, knocked an arrow back, and sent one of her arrows flying through the central processor of one of the shotgun-droids. Suddenly, all of the droids focused on Cosmos, firing faster than any pony she'd ever seen. Cosmos took cover behind one of the catwalk walls, knocking another arrow back. Quicker than the droids could process, Cosmos jumped over the edge of the catwalk, and plugged two other droids with her arrows, destroying some part of their processors. She gained flight again, knocking back another arrow midair, and launching it at the final shotgun droid's head. The arrow met its mark, and destroyed the droid.

Cosmos looked down and saw Sage going to town on the droids, slicing them apart with her hoof blades effortlessly. The droids, unable to feel fear, simply charged her, being destroyed easily. Cosmos provided support, launching her arrows quickly at approaching droids. By the end of the ordeal, the room was covered in dead droids and pools of oil. Cosmos landed, after collecting her arrows, and putting them into her quiver, and met up with the others. 

"Hullva welcoming party," said Sage, and Cosmos nodded.

"Damn droids are annoying, but effective. They'll throw themselves at you until they're de-activated," Cosmos said, before looking at an exit at the end of the room. "Let's get moving. We have to get that digger."

The group moved, when suddenly, when Cosmos looked back, she detected some type of movement. It was moving fast, and wildly. 

"What the hell?" asked Cosmos, before she watched as Bubble Berry was lifted into the air, seemingly out of nowhere. 

"What the-" He started, before he was ripped in half, suit and all, and chucked into the part grinder at the bottom of the factory, falling in a mass of blood and gore.

"What the fuck!?" Asked Cosmos, not waiting around. She grabbed Sage's hoof, and started speed flying through the building.

The invisible creature materialized, revealing a blood splattered AI Pony, it's chasis a toxic green and black mixture. It's LED eyes glowed bright green, as it looked at its handiwork. If Greed greed could have smiled, he would have. But the robot simply looked at the pony, now dead, being grinded apart. As much as he knew about MARLA, he wasn't sure if it'd put that poor pony back together. Greed, looked back at the fleeing ponies, and his robotic wings spread, as he recloaked. He flew after them, his hoof blades extended.

Cosmos and Sage pushed past any employees or guards, blowing their cover indefinitely. Guards attempted to chase after them, but were quickly sliced apart by the pursuing force. It's blood covered outline was the only thing visible now, as he flew after the two ponies. Finally, Cosmos and Sage turned a corner, leading to a darker area, where only one monitor was visible. A pony's face was revealed in the light, but his eyes were rolled into the back of his head, blood coming out of his mouth. It was a dead end. 

Cosmos and Sage turned around to see the approaching creature, a certain amount of grinding audible. The creature solidified, it's green eyes glowing in the darkness, as it approached the duo, almost making a chuckling noise. It's hoofblades extended, a SLIIINK sound being made as the rusty blades appeared. 

"Get down." Said a voice, smoother than any pony the duo had ever heard. They did as the voice asked, and saw a beam of blue energy smash into the pursuing robot. 

While the robot was not destroyed, it was badly damaged, and it quickly retreated, as if it knew it was going to lose the fight. Cosmos and Sage looked behind them, and saw another robot pony of a similar build, its horn glowing blue. It looked down upon the two ponies, its Blue LED eyes focusing on the two ponies.

"You two don't look like employees... you must be here for the digger," Said the AI. 

"What's it to you?" Asked Cosmos, standing up and backing away.

"Well, its easy enough to get the digger, but you're not gonna get anywhere unless you have a drive software that can pilot the thing," Said the AI, before making a sound that sounded a bit like a laugh. "And considering how one is trying to kill you, and one just saved your life, I suggest you take this opportunity to get out of here."

Sage and Cosmos looked at one another, and nodded.

-----

After trekking through the factory, they came across a battered Aurora, Amber, and Vulcan. The only surviving members of their group. Multiple batponies lay bloody on the floor, obviously sliced apart. 

"Oh my Celestia, we thought you were dead!" Shouted Amber, looking at Cosmos and Sage. "Whose this?"

"Just call me X2-9928 for now. I won't be sticking around long. You found the digger?" asked the AI. Aurora walked over to the AI and raised her spear.

"I ask the Questions, AI." Said Aurora, and the AI just scoffed.

"Okay. Well, how about this: You try and dismantle me here, you're done: You can't possibly pilot the digger as a sentient being, so you kinda need me," Said X2, his LED's making it look like he was making a facial expression of contempt. "Let's get out of here first: Then you can try and kill me."

"Hey, where's Bubble?" asked Amber, and Cosmos coughed. 

"That... thing tore him apart," Said Sage, and they all nodded.

"That thing would be Greed: and he'll be back," X2 said, his built in battle-saddles extending. "He's called Greed for a reason: Loves to take things from others, namely their lives. I suggest you keep on a lookout for him. If the nosebleeds released him, you guys must be pretty important."

"Hard to track something thats fucking cloaked," Said Aurora. 

"Then don't. Just lay down and wait for him to disembowel you." 

Aurora grumbled, and Amber pointed towards a door. "We managed to lock 'Greed' in that room. We welded the door shut, but that is also where the Digger is."

"Wow, you sentient beings really are unintelligent," The AI said, his battle saddles glowing blue. "I'll deal with him. Anyone here have any type of ranged weapon?"

Cosmos raised her hoof. 

"That isn't a bow."

Cosmos lowered her hoof. 

"Great. Alright, I'll deal with him. If anyone has any shock weapons, use it to decloak him. Then I'll deal with the rest of the problem," Said the AI.

With that, the AI blasted the door open, and a flash of electricity shot at a blur. Greed materialized, and was instantly hit by another blast of X2's magic, tearing the other AI's wing off. X2's guns went full auto, acting like a gattling cannon, practically melting Greed. The invisible AI slumped in a corner, his motherboard visible through his melted chasis. X2 walked over, and stomped on Greed's board, killing the rusty AI instantly.

"and that is how you deal with AI's." X2 said, walking into the room. "Taxi service to wherever we need to go, coming right up."

[Cloudchaser]

Twilight's PoV pastime:


Twilight had her guards lined up in front of her as she was pacing back and forth, berating their incompetence for letting the augmented ponies that escaped her control get away. It wasn't exactly useful to shout at ponies already under her control and doing everything she told them too already but if anything it was a way to blow off some steam of her own failure. At least her master hadn't found out about this yet but she had no doubt he would or it would, Twilight wasn't quite sure what he or it was but it clearly spoke to her with a male voice but it's appearance was something far more horrible. 

When he had come to her in her dreams she had been horrified but slowly but surely she realized that his talk about how powerful she was and how her brilliance was being wasted under the rule of the twin sisters of the sun and moon, if she took control herself she could use her brilliance to launch the world into a golden age of prosperous technology. Medicine, science all of that could be advanced by decades with her rule and it had, augments had made ponies live twice as long and new treatments for previously deadly diseases assured that almost anything was curable.

Deaths per year had gone down and down and the pony population increased and became more healthy, all thanks to her. Well she had kinda taken control over the entire population to ensure that chaos wouldn't break out, she'd had enough of that with Discord already... Thinking of Discord brought back memories of her friends, of Rarity, AppleJack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.. Those friends were gone now, all except Rainbow Dash, she had fallen in love with Spitfire and now they both were under her control. 

Rarity had moved to Canterlot and her business was booming, she had no idea what was going on around her. The fool, always too busy with her work to pay attention to what's happening in the world around her.    


AJ and Fluttershy had moved out into the last remains of nature, rumours had it that they were in charge of a rebellion group that was against augments. They had never understood that what she was doing would further ponykind in a positive way and now she shunned them, friends indeed, pfah.

Pinkie Pie had moved somewhere to Canterlot as well, opening up a very successful bakery. It still surprised Twi that the pink mare hadn't caught on what was going on but then again she had always been more obsessed with throwing parties and making cupcakes than to care what was going on in the world as long as she could make everyone "smile, smile, smile." hah, the arrogance that a simple song could make ponies happy. Twi's work as a ruler was making ponies happy, no more diseases killing ponies and limbs could be replaced with augments.

"Twilight.." A dark and robotic voice spoke at the same time but still coming from the same voice.

"Master!" Twilight dismissed the guards and turned around to face her big screen where the face of a half robotic and half spirit demon was glaring at her.

"You seem upset my dear pupil, is something wrong?" The master asked, Twilight was getting a bit nervous now.

"Ah, eh.. Some ponies broke free from my control after an ah "accident" I had in my labs here and they managed to escape my guards.. My fully armed guards were unable to stop five ponies from getting away, I failed and I await my punishment." Twilight said and bowed down to her master who was pondering the new information.

"I see.. Clearly you underestimated these ponies then. If they could escape you then they could become a problem, especially if they ally with one of the resistance forces and you don't want that now do you, my dear? Send THEM out." The master said and glared at Twilight who was now starting to sweat a little.

"Them? I really do not think-" Twilight was interrupted by her master yelling at her. "What you THINK is insignificant, do not underestimate these ponies, do so and they will find a way to bring you down and I don't think you want to lose all your power now do you? Isn't it amazing being the most powerful pony in Equestria?" The master said.

"Ye-yes, master. Of course, the power I have is amazing, my old self never knew what she was missing out on, being evil is much more fun than being Celestia's pupil and constantly being told what I could and could not do. Now I'M in charge and I make the decisions about what I can and cannot read and do. I will send THEM out, even though I do not think it necessary but if you insist then I will." Twilight purred at the end to flatter her master, she knew how to play him and he knew how to play her.

The transmission ended and Twilight went to activate her most advanced war AIs, they were only on experimental stages still and were highly unstable but she had no choice. The unruly ponies needed to die or be brought back under her control and this was the only way.

"Greed, I have a mission for you.." She said and Greed awoke and stared at her.

---

Amber Heart's PoV present time:


The group followed X2-9928 down into a dark cave, a bit wary of traps that the AI might've hidden. Aurora and the remaining bat ponies were being quiet as mice, staring at X2 with disgust. 

Amber wasn't sure what to make of the situation, Bubble was dead and now they were being lead to some transport that the AI had arranged and what was up with that other AI from earlier? Why had it suddenly attacked them.. It didn't exactly look like any typical lab AI and where had it come from? So many questions and so few answers, Vulcan seemed curious about the AI though.  

After what felt like forever they suddenly came to a halt and the AI "X2" told them hold for a moment. A short while later the entire chamber began lighting up and a massive digger was revealed. Pretty much everypony's jaws dropped right there at the sight of it.

"So IT does exist!" Aurora burst out suddenly.

"Yes it does and I am the only one capable of driving it, so where do you want to go? We can go anywhere you want." X2 asked. 

Amber looked at Cosmos who looked at Aurora who looked at Cosmos, Cosmos sighed and turned to Amber and said: "Back to the Nightwatch.. Back to 'Weaver.."

They gave X2 the co-ordinates and stepped into the digger and hours later they popped up just outside the camp and made their way back to where 'Weaver was still working, bat ponies were still surging back and forth with documents for her to look at and others grabbed her attention for patrol reports, when the group entered the room her attention went to Aurora first. An obvious relief in her face was seen at the sight of Aurora being okay then she went back to her stone cold face and turned to Amber, Cosmos and the rest.

"I have to admit, I didn't think you'd make it out of there and you even found an advanced war AI as well as a digger. I have to say that is quite a feat.. Now I believe I did promise to help you but we're not exactly armed for taking on Princess Twilight on our own, we need allies and supplies. The Zebra's have long avoided Twilight's gaze and lived in relative peace, now their lands are being slowly being incorporated in her rule. I want you to take your group and travel to the Zebra lands and get whatever support you can find and then come back here, you're dismissed." 'Weaver said and turned her attention back to her own ponies.

Cosmos looked like she wanted to say something but sighed and Amber decided to take the reins and lead them back to the digger where they could get some rest before the next stage of their newly gained free life, if you could call being hunted "free life".

---

Sometime later in 'Weaver's quarters.


*knock knock*

"Come in." 'Weaver yelled at the door, she was going over some schematics of the digger to see if they could replicate anything when Aurora came in.

"Hey." She said as she came up to 'Weaver and gave her a kiss which 'Weaver returned. "Hey" 'Weaver returned as she admired her lovers eyes. 

"Why did you let them go? We could've dissected that AI and gained a lot from it, not to mention the digger could've been useful for surprise attacks on Twilight." Aurora asked softly, not wanting to upset her commander and lover.

"I think we'll benefit more from them this way, I have a feeling we'll end up joining their cause but that thought can wait, what brings you to my chambers?" 'Weaver asked a bit naughtily.

"Oh I don't know.. I was just thinking I'd help you relieve some stress after a long day.." Aurora said as she dragged a hoof over 'Weaver body before pushing her down on the bed.

---

Back on the digger.


"Sleeping quarters have been arranged for everyone and there's plenty of things to do on this digger, there's a fully functional bathroom with showers and bathtubs as well as training quarters for whatever you could need, if anyone is familiar with repairs there's a few rooms and sections of the digger that I can't repair manually from here and needs an expert look. I've lit the walkway lights to show everyone the way to their rooms, I estimate that the journey will take 48 hours so I suggest you all grab some rest and familiarize yourself with the digger in your own free time before we arrive." X2 spoke before turning to the control modules of the ship.

Everyone followed the lights in silence, no one was really in the mood to talk right now and they hadn't slept very well since leaving their homes.

Amber went into her quarters and inspected them, finding them to her liking. Not exactly like her home but at least the room had been fitted for an pegasus in mind, if that was thanks to X2 or simply a coincidence that there had been a pegasus room onboard already she didn't really care to think about right now.

"48 hours.. Guess I might as well grab some sleep." She mumbled to herself and crept into bed and drifted to sleep.

[Princess Blueblood]

Wrath sat in the front seat of the digger, his eye's surveying the on-screen map. He watched as the Digger's digital signature moved quickly through the dirt, towards the Zebra lands. Smooth music was playing, as Wrath's half lidded LED eyes traced the digger's erratic movements through the ground.

He quietly judged the others in the digger, not completly trusting them. As the music played, he thought about the Batpony, Cosmos. He had known that the Night-Watch were highly hostile towards augmented ponies, so why was she augmented? She looked calm and collected, and even tried to make small talk with the AI. He had none of it.

Then there was Sage. She was young: Not as young as the AI, but he was only built a few years previously. She was quiet, seemed to be close friends with Cosmos, and her augments were definitely Government grade. Due to his constant snooping on the database of Twilight's networks, he knew all about how they'd take strong, young ponies, and turn them into war machines. She was somehow different: They all were.

Vulcan seemed far more like an android than an augmentee: she was all augmented up. Seemed like a technician as well, which might help if Wrath took a bullet or a laser to an unwanted area. While the AI was made of a very strong alloy, he was by no means indestructible: He was a computer, and one well placed bullet could turn him into scrap. 

Amber seemed like the leader, outgoing, strong. He hadn't talked to her really, but he knew that she regarded him with a certain amount of respect. It was only right that Wrath returned it.

Suddenly, Wrath's motion sensors detected movement in the back of the cockpit. He sat up from his charging station, his chrome, snakelike tail disconnected from the interface of the Digger. He looked back to see Sage standing at the door. 

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude," she said softly, and Wrath's LED eyes made a mimic of what it would look like if he were to smile.

"Not at all, come right in," said Wrath, turning back to the interface. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, well, I heard the music, so I was wondering if somepony was in here," Said Sage, walking up to the other piloting chair. "What's the point of pilot chairs if you can't see?"

"A place for the AI pilots to rest, I suppose. Sentient beings aren't supposed to pilot this," said Wrath, looking at the digger map. "Maybe it was a submarine once."

"I see," said Sage, before moving to stand up. "I should be going."

Wrath's eyes lowered in dissapointment. He thought he was actually going to have a conversation. Long shot.

"Oh, well, okay. Goodbye then," He simply said, plugging back into the neural interface. 

Suddenly, Sage sat down again. "Eh, there's nothing better to do."

Oh yeah, that makes me feel wanted.


Wrath's eyes smiled once more, as he turned towards Sage. "So, what's your story?"

[Pegabella]

Sage sat down and shifted a bit in her seat under Wrath’s gaze. She was not used to actual interaction with an Ai, and it felt strange to her. She became a little more comfortable with him after they began to converse, and decided to stay and chat despite the fact she barely knew him.


“I come from Canterlot…”


She looked down at the thought of her life before the Augments. It was much better than what she was enduring with the other misfits.


“I had a family. Not a very big one...But we were all close...My dad thought it best for me to be a fighter, since he ran a training program.”


A small giggle escaped her lips.


“I honestly miss it...But this is for a good cause. So I guess we have to give up some to gain a lot.”
Sage stood up and adjusted her flower crown. “ I best be going now…I still have yet to check the place out.”
Her expression shifted into a warm smile. “It was nice talking to you. Next time, I’d like to hear your story.”
Her hooves clicked lightly on the floor as she exited the room. “See you soon, Wrath.”
And with those words, she left.


The surroundings were foreign to her. She has never been in a ship like this one, and still had much to explore.
The sounds of hoofsteps entered the hallway as Amber turned the corner.
               
  “Hey Sage” Sage dipped her head and smiled. “Hi Amber.”


“What are you up to?” Asked Amber as she turned around to talk to Sage.
“Just exploring...This place kind of gives me the creeps.”


Amber laughed a bit. “Understandable. Anyway i’ll let you go on your way.”

“You too.” Said Sage as she walked away to continue her adventure.

[Princess Blueblood]

Cosmos walked around her room of the digger, realizing it had been made for a soldier, a specialized one at that. In the corner sat a small cryo-tube that looked like it had an exo-suit inside it. There was a logo on the outside, seemingly familiar to Cosmos.

"Obsidian... outfitter's of tomorrow..." Cosmos said to herself, looking at the logo. The O had a tri-force symbol within it, a stark red in contrast to the black of the letters. Cosmos then looked down at her own fingered hooves. There was the logo, stamped into the side of the metal.

"Hmm, must be a augment company..." Cosmos said to herself, looking at the exo suit. "That would help a lot if I ever got into combat again... my augments aren't exactly suited for battle..."

Cosmos attempted to open the cryo tube, was denied quick, the visor shutting down with metal plates. The pony who had access was probably dead, sliced apart by Greed. 

"So close, yet so far. Probably don't even have the ability to support it." 

Cosmos walked over to her bed, and sighed, looking at her bow. She wouldn't have much to use in a combat situation in close quarters. She wasn't like Sage: She wasn't a combat Augment. Hell, she didn't even have speed. Best she could do was stand on her hind legs, zoom in, and use her fingers to shoot things. She was the least equipped out of any of the ponies. 

Cosmos stretched on her hind legs, and accidentally tripped forward, kicking the underside of her bed. Out popped a weapon's case, this one unlocked.

"Just my luck!" shouted Cosmos, opening the case.

Inside was a sniper rifle, in its compacted mode. On the Side, it had its name "FATAL 515" listed, next to the "Obsidian" logo. The black and white finish of the gun contrasted Cosmos' purple hues, but she cared not. She picked up the weapon, and it's weapon's barrel and stock extended, the scope illuminating. It was the perfect weapon.

Now if she could only get to the exo suit.

Cosmos put down the weapon, it compacting once more. That would be for another day, one when she'd have to deal with somepony a little more well armoured. She'd stick with her bow and arrow for now. 

She continued to look around the room, and she found the clothing area for the would-be-soldier. There were helmets, body armour, and pads inside the wardrobe, all of which read "Obsidian". None of them would ever possible fit a small mare like Cosmos...

Worth a shot.

Cosmos slipped on the clothes quickly. While they were a little big, it was obvious the clothes and the armor were made for a mare not much bigger than Cosmos. Nothing a little tucking and folding couldn't fix. 

After getting all geared up (Minus the helmet: Cosmos hated things covering her face), Cosmos put her mane up into a messy bun, and grabbed her bow and arrows. She walked out of her room, brushing what bits of her mane couldn't be put into her bun out of her eyes, when Wrath's voice piped up over the speaker system.

"5 minutes until surfacing. Get your gear in check ladies: We wanna be prepared for any welcoming party we meet." Said Wrath, his smooth voice flowing calmly out of the PA system.

Cosmos walked to the common area, as the Digger ascended. She knew things had to be better this time: They were outside of Twilight's realm of control, so there wouldn't be heavy resistance. 

At least she hoped.

[Cloudchaser]

After splitting up with the others and bidding them a good night before going into her new quarters, Amber had a look around her. It was quite an impressive ship or tunneler, whatever you wanted to call it. Aside from looking a bit beaten up it seemed like the ship was in good condition, the ship rumbled a bit and a few minutes later an agitated Vulcan ran past muttering something under her breath. Amber guessed she'd been woken from trying to fall asleep and was now making her way to check out what the rumble was, seeing as she was the mechanically trained pony, Amber trusted she'd fix whatever had been broken if something had.

She turned and went into her cabin, it wasn't very fancy and it had signs of previous occupation, old clothes lay around in the room and from the looks of it they belonged both to a mare and a stallion and looking around a bit more closely, Amber noticed that it wasn't ordinary clothes.. There were lingerie for the mare in the closet and the stallion clothes were just as equally revealing.

Amber's cheeks reddened when she realized what had probably been going on in the cabin before the departure of the previous inhabitant and judging from the closets full of mare clothes she could take a guess at WHOSE cabin it had been and she quickly stashed away everything into a trunk and tried to not think about the fact that someone had had sex in here.

She found a diary, most likely the mares and she opened it on the last page that had been written, it was talking about her lover and how she hoped she'd get to marry him and start a family together once their adventures were over but the closer to the current date, Amber got the more fanatic the writing became. It shifted from a mare in love, fantasizing over her "to be" husband to someone who seemed to be driven mad, not with love but something else. 

The last entry was what disturbed Amber the most as she read:

"Day something, I don't know anymore. I've lost track and I don't care for checking what date it is today, we uncovered some old ruins hidden inside the earth deep beneath Equestria. Obviously we were excited at first but we felt this bad feeling in our stomachs, something was telling us not to go on and explore the ruined city. As adventurers and archeologists it was our duty to do it anyway, we'd heard and read of old myths mentioning an old city from way before even the twin princesses were born, maybe even before their parents were born.. These ruins were unfathomably old and nothing we did to try and date them worked, it was almost like they weren't of Equestrian origin but surely the myth of an ancient creature that came to Equestria long long ago and enslaved the population until it vanished from historical texts sometime before the known dates of Queen Faust's first mentions in texts.

Evening of the same day as what I wrote above, my lover has started neglecting me and the crew is acting weirdly. It scares me and there's this voice in my head that speaks to me, it tells me they don't love me, that they never did and that I'm just a burden for them.. A fucktoy even, a pussy to fuck and dump their cum in when they feel horny and not even caring if they impregnate me, they'd just leave me to die if they couldn't fuck me. The voice says I have to take action and if this is the last entry in my diary then I have heeded it's call and we're all either dead or driven insane by this "thing".."

Amber put down the diary and looked around the room and it's eerie silence, something had gone wrong here and since it looked like the previous crew had just upped and left it seemed like whatever happened was related to them finding these "ruins" and they must've disturbed something or someone and it's power and manipulation had driven them insane. Judging by the frantic writing of the mare on the same evening and how she had gone from having a true lover and plans for family to just seeing herself as a fucktoy for the stallions pleasure they had succumed to the manipulations..

Amber decided to go for a little walk, maybe talk with Wrath and see if he knew anything about what had gone down here.. Amber was walking around in her own thoughts as she turned a corner she almost bumped into Sage.

“Hey Sage” Amber said and Sage dipped her head and smiled. “Hi Amber.”

“What are you up to?” Asked Amber as she turned around to talk to Sage.


“Just exploring...This place kind of gives me the creeps.”


Amber laughed a bit. “Understandable. Anyway i’ll let you go on your way.”


“You too.” Said Sage as she walked away to continue her adventure.

"You have no idea just how right you are about this place being creepy.." Amber thought to herself as she watched Sage walk away, she decided not to go to Wrath. Whatever had afflicted the previous crew was probably nothing for them to worry about and Amber eventually went back to her cabin to try and sleep a bit.    

"5 minutes until surfacing. Get your gear in check ladies: We wanna be prepared for any welcoming party we meet." Said Wrath, his smooth voice flowing calmly out of the PA system.


Amber, Cosmos and Sage gathered up in the hall where the hatch to the surface opened and they ascended up to the surface. The first thing that hit them was the warm, dry air of Zebrica. They were far away from the realm of Twilight's control now and that was quite apparent as the land was still natural, there were forests and there were no big buildings to see anywhere. 


Not that they'd expect any out here since rumours said that the Zebra's were very down to earth kind of people and they still lived in huts and villages out in the wild and refused any modern technology. That said there were still the occasional Zebra that had broken away from these lands to pursue the modern society but at a large the Zebra's didn't leave their homes for their entire lives in most cases.  


They hadn't had much time to admire the natural lands before a group of Zebra warriors approached them.


"Intruders! We will give you a fair warning, turn away now and leave and we will forget you were ever here but we do not appreciate that your "kind" comes here to try and make us forget our ancestors way of life, tell your "Princess" that we don't want anything to do with her or her technology." The leader said and glared angrily at the group.


Amber stepped up when she noticed that neither Cosmos nor Sage were saying anything. "We're not here for that, we broke away from her control and we're now allied with the Nightwatch bat ponies faction to try and end Twilight's control over the ponies of Equestria and we're here to ask for your help."


The Zebra warrior leader looked at them back and forth, turned to one of his younger warriors and told him something in their native tongue, Amber didn't understand what he said but the younger Zebra nodded and ran off.


"I have decided to take you to our tribe elders, if what you say is true and that Princess Twilight is indeed controlling the ponies against their will then it is up to them to make a decision." The warrior leader said and turned away to walk back to his tribe, Amber, Cosmos and Sage followed them and after walking for a while they came to a village that was full of life. Zebra mares tending to their children and households, the Zebra stallions were practicing, repairing weapons and bringing home wood for the fires that they used for heating and cooking. 


When the group entered the village, the Zebras stopped what they were doing and stared at the newcomers with both curiosity and disgust but not fear and the Zebra warrior leader motioned for them to wait as he went in to the elders hut. Some of the younger Zebra's came up and started looking at the augments and ponies themselves, most of them had probably only heard mention of the Equestrian ponies and their advanced civilization and their curiosity took over.


After a few minutes the warrior leader came out again. "The elders will see you tonight and they invite you to take part in our festivities as guests. I will show you to the hut you'll be staying in and we will have our best tailor come by later to take your measurements."


"Excuse me? What? Measurements for what?" Amber quickly blurted out and the warrior leader looked a bit confused at the question.


"For your festivities dresses of course, we have a strong sense of tradition here in Zebrica and our mares are required to dress up in proper for the occasion and I would highly recommend going along with it if you truly wish to gain our favour and help. Our elders do not take kindly to strangers who refuse our traditions." The warrior leader explained to them.


Amber looked less than pleased at this turn of events but they had no choice if they wished to become friends with the tribes in Zebrica they'd have to adhere to their traditions. They were escorted into a maidens hut were the three of them were left on their own until nightfall, shortly after settling down the tailor came in and took their measurements and scurried off to quickly prepare the outfits for the guests.  

[Princess Blueblood]

"Sir... we have a breach."

"What? What do you mean we have a breach!?" 

"Someone is accessing the files from the inside."

"That's not a brea-"

"It's an AI."

A deep breath followed.

"Is it Envy?"

"I doubt it. Envy would have gone out of her way to make sure she didn't leave a digital footprint."

"What is it accessing?"

"Digger files."

"Fuck. Try to block it!"

"I'm trying, sir. Not like we can do much to encrypt something we don't even understand."

"Fucking hell! Just... stop it!"

-------------

Wrath's LED eyes shifted over the multiple files the digger had. For the most part, they were jumbled jibberish, but some of the files were truly scarring. Talks of unknown ruins deep underneath the crust of the planet, disgusting experiments, and files that had the same sentences repeated over and over again. It was quite unusual, but Wrath was looking for something else.

The digger crew had to have had an AI to pilot through the Earth, something with an advanced operating system, such as Wrath himself. He only knew of one AI that had gotten past all of the test trials and would be let out of her box.

Envy


The only AI that's intelligence could come close to Wrath's. She was originally an espionage AI, her ability to cloak as other ponies giving her a supreme infiltrating ability, but she also had the ability to learn, like Wrath. But unlike Wrath, she was not taught morals and such, which allowed her to do field work.

Wrath continued to look through the files, finding nothing. He was about to sever the data connection, when he heard what sounded like whispers. He stopped for a moment, looking over the data again.

"Must've been nothing..." said Wrath to himself. He turned around, and realized his LED's weren't turning on. The hall in front of him was pitch black. Wrath clanked his head once, when he noticed Purple eyes glaring at him from the hall. 

Suddenly, his LED's illuminated, the purple eyes dissapearing. Wrath shook his head, before walking back to the pilot area, and charging once more. Judging from the luck of these ponies, he might have to use his lasers soon. 

Wrath closed his eyes, thinking about the safety of the ponies top side, and suddenly his mind was filled with the images of Sage. He did sincerily hope she was okay. The crew hadn't checked in in the past hour, and Wrath contemplated whether or not he should have gone topside. 

He decided against it, before relaxing to the deafening silence of the Digger's multiple buttons.

[Cloudchaser]

Twilight's PoV:

"GREED IS WHAT?!" Twilight yelled out at the poor soul that had brought her the terrible news of Greed's demise.

"T-t-they managed to k-k-kill Greed, your highness. W-we're not entirely sure how, we'd need his remains for a-a proper survey." The pony who had brought the news was literally trembling before her majesty. Twilight wasn't exactly known for being merciful to those that failed her.

Twilight sat back down on her throne and looked deep in thought as she continued to stare at the messenger who was sweating profusely, it kind of amused her that her presence alone was enough to terrify somepony. Eventually she just sighed to herself, she could see no other way to solve this matter than to activate THEM. She'd rather not do this as the war AIs were still very much on a prototype level and they still had a lot of kinks and other things to be worked out, especially that nasty habit of them not obeying orders very well..

"Activate the rest of the war AIs." She simply stated, catching the messenger off guard. It looked like he was going to begin protesting but he shut his mouth, nodded and ran off to execute her orders.

Sometime later the war AIs were lined up in Twilight's court room as she circled them, making last minute adjustments and making sure they were serviceable. Eventually she went back to her throne and sat down again, staring at the AI ponies in front of her who were standing in attention.


"You're my most advanced creations, the most deadly and lethal of all war AIs.. Yet someponies managed to defeat one of your brothers, Greed to be specific and Wrath has gone rogue. Your mission is to track these rogue ponies down, either kill them or bring them back to me so they can be integrated into my kingdom again, oh and if you find Wrath give him my greetings before you destroy him, you're dismissed." 


Twilight watched the war AIs exit the room and when she was sure they'd left she turned to one of her guards.


"Go and fetch me, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Swift Wind and the rest of their unit, I don't trust the war AIs to stick to their mission and I think it's time to send in my special unit after these unknown rogue ponies, at least they'll obey my orders."


"Yes, your highness." The guard said, bowed and quickly left to fetch the ponies she'd mentioned.

---

Amber Heart and co:


"No! NO! NONONONONO! You ARE NOT ever getting me to put that THING on me!" Amber Heart was almost crawling up the wall when the tailor had come back with their dresses, they weren't exactly Canterlot style but they were still fairly feminine and if there was something Amber loathed it was being girly.

Sage and Cosmos had already put on theirs and were now rolling eyes at Amber after trying to get her into her dress.

"Look, it's their tradition and we're here to seek their HELP so don't you think you can put your personal bias aside for just ONE evening and get in the damn dress already?" Cosmos said with a tone of annoyance at Amber. "Even Sage here put her dress on and you don't see me complaining either."

"..." Amber just stood there silently staring at the dress until she finally sighed in defeat and motioned for Sage and Cosmos to help her get into the dress. "I feel utterly stupid right now.." Amber commented for herself, Sage couldn't help but elicit a small giggle at Amber in a dress.

After being dressed properly, one of the younger tribe mares came and escorted them to a large bonfire that had just started burning and lighting up the night sky. They were seated together across to the tribe elders who sat there munching on some local dish and chit chatting with each other in their local language about something that, Amber, Cosmos nor Sage couldn't understand.

Eventually they turned their attention to them and the eldest of them asked: "They have told us you've come here to seek our help against your vicious Queen ruler is that correct?" The trio nodded in unison, not knowing if they were allowed to speak without permission or not.

"Mm.. Well there is something you could do for us if you want to gain the loyalty of our tribes, there is this creature that haunts our tribes and has for a long while. We believe it to be a Werehyena, a creature of Zebrican myths but it seems that it's all too real." The tribe elder looked down at the ground for a moment.

"Wait, aren't you guys supposed be speaking in rhymes and shit?" Amber suddenly breaks the silence.

"Amber!" Sage hissed. "Show some respect." Sage continued to give an angry stare at Amber for her lack of respect.

"What? I was just being curious." Amber shrugged at an still angry looking Sage and Cosmos who was just facehoofing.

"It is quite alright, young one. While yes it is true some of us do speak in rhymes it is mostly only our tribe shaman's, like my dear daughter Zecora-"

"ZECORA?! YOU'RE HER FATHER?! She'slikemybiggestidolandstuff." Sage suddenly bursts out and after realizing her own outburst she sits down with cheeks blooming red in embarrassment.

"Now where was I? Oh yes, the Werehyena. If you young ones want the loyalty of our tribes you will have to stop the creature that has been terrorizing our villages for years now, bring back it's head and I will personally talk with the other tribe leaders on your behalf." 

The trio looked at each other, nodded in understanding of their next task, they bid the tribe leader adieu for now and went back to their tent to get changed back into some more proper field work attire.

[Princess Blueblood]

Swift's Zeus Pole crackled loudly, as he brought it down upon the diamond dogs neck, which in turn, cracked loudly. Blood flooded out of the diamond dog's mouth, and Swift sighed.

"This is Exile 2-1, Diamond Dog's eradicated."

"This is Exile actual, good job. How many is that today, Swift?"

"I count 17. These things can't do shit against a pony with an exo-skeleton: I outclass them easily," Swift said, looking around at the piles of dead diamond dogs. "The Zeus Staff works well too." 

"Good copy, Swift. Rooster and Indigo are waiting at Exfil, you're on your way to a new mission after this," Said Exile Actual.

"Wait, what? I have tomorrow off!" Shouted Swift, and Exile actual just laughed.

"You think that Obsidian gets a day off? You'll be meeting with Spitfire and Rainbowdash for this op. Few augmentees gone rogue, along with a nice little War AI to go along with it. Have fun, Exile. You're under callsign 'Cobble 1-5' Now."

Swift groaned, and sped out of the Diamond Dog hole, towards exfil. A gyro-copter had landed in the clearing, and two ponies decked out in similar exo-skeletons to Swift were standing in guard formation, their own weapons at the ready. The bright red pony, Rooster had a crossbow, his helmet's visor pushed down, tracking would-be targets with the HUD. The bright blue pony, Indigo had dual arc blasters crackling in her battle saddles.

"Howdy you two," Said Swift, holstering his Zeus Staff. He was the only pony out of the three not wearing a helmet, as was per the special operatives of Obsidian. 

"'sup Windy, how was the hunt?" asked Rooster, smiling, his toothpick showing.

"Yeah, Swift. How was murdering the minorities?" asked Indigo, her entire face covered by a gasmask-visor.

"Fair. Let's get going. Are the mutts already on board?" asked Swift, and Rooster nodded.

"For mutts, they seem to be pretty well trained. I can see why Twilight sees those who broke free are so dangerous," Said Rooster.

"I have a vague feeling that one of these days those two are going to be hunting us down," Indigo said, and Swift scoffed. 

"We'll be ready. We're outfitted to kill fuckers like them, remember?" 

------------

"Werehyena, huh? Seems like myth," Cosmos said, sharpening her arrows.

"Very real, actually," Wrath said, holograms of data running in front of his eyes. "Lots of reports on them. Apparently they're near extinct, which might be why no one has done anything about the thing as of late."

"Hmm, seems reasonable," Said Sage, and Cosmos shrugged. 

"Not when the fucking animal murders entire villages," Said Amber, and Cosmos looked at her bow.

"I have this odd feeling this might not be enough," Said Cosmos, before finishing sharpening her batch. "Any idea on where to look, Wrath?"

"It likes to hunt in open plains. I wouldn't take the digger as it would scare off the hyena." Wrath said. "I'll keep an eye on the sky or the ground, just in case Twilight comes knocking."

"Alright, good. Sage, why don't you lead the way?"

[Cloudchaser]

"M-me? Why?" Sage stammered and looked back and forth between Cosmos and Amber, trying to see if they were joking but they both remained dead serious.

"Well, you're the one who's the most in touch with nature and all that so we figured you might have an idea where this creature might be, based on what the locals told us." Amber said calmly, Cosmos nodding in agreement.

"O-okay, I guess so.." Sage said and without further delay they left their digger.

---
A moment later


"Hey, Wrath?" Vulcan yelled over the speakers.


"Yes, what is it, Vulcan?" Wrath's robotic voice came back.


"Is Amber and the others still here? I may have found something that they should see.." Vulcan's voice sounded slightly worried.


"No, they just left to help the locals with the Werehyena, why? What did you find?" Wrath's curiosity was now piqued and he wondered what Vulcan could've possibly found.


"I.. Well.. Hmm.. Y'know I think it might be best if you come down here yourself.." Vulcan went back to examining the recent findings, grim as they were.


A while later Wrath came down to where Vulcan was.


"Oh.. Well this is quite a predicament." Wrath said and looked at Vulcan.


"Yeah.. It sure ain't pretty, any mention of what drove them to this in the ship logs?" Vulcan asked.


"Not really, no. The logs just ended abruptly a few months back, they did come across some strange ruins just before that. Do you reckon those events are linked?" Wrath asked Vulcan.


"I'm not one to jump to conclusions but you may be onto something, we need to let the others know of this when they return. I'll continue exploring these decks for any more clues, can you notify me when they get back?" Vulcan turned her back to Wrath and left the room.


"Of course." Wrath said to himself and looked again at the scene in front of him, had he had any pony emotions this might've disgusted him but now he only had intrigue over what could've possibly driven these ponies to such an act.
---
Back with Amber and Co.


The locals had shown them the cave from which the Werehyena usually dragged it's prey back too, before they wished them good luck and then retreated back to their village in case the Werehyena were to attack.


"Welp this is it then, let's g-"


"No!" Cosmos was interrupted by Sage. "Let me talk to it first, maybe we can reach an agreement with it." Sage suggested.


"You're outta your mind, Sage!" Amber said and looked at Cosmos. "Come on you two are old buddy buddies, tell her she's being irrational." 


"You haven't seen her affinity with nature, Amber. I'm with her on this one, maybe the creature can be reasoned with, it's worth a shot at least. I mean we can always kill it if that doesn't work." Cosmos said and shrugged at Amber.


"Fine." Amber facehoofed, she couldn't believe she had just let herself get talked into this but she followed after Sage and Cosmos, keeping an eye open in case the creature decided to surprise attack them.


Eventually they found the creature, he was sitting on a rock throne. Munching on some meat, most likely pony or some other random animal.


"Ah, welcome to my humble abode. I hope you don't mind me having a bit of an evening snack, it can be awfully long between meals out here. Now what can I do for you since you sought me out?" The werehyena asked as he continued to snack on his bone.


"Why are you attacking the Zebra tribes and killing their kin?" Sage asked. The werehyena sat up, threw his bone away and looked straight at Sage.

"Mine and their kin have been at war for ages, slowly but surely they've driven my kin extinct. I only see this as repaying the favour. But you.. You three don't belong to these lands, what's your business with the Zebras?" The werehyena's curiosity was piqued now.


Amber, Cosmos and Sage looked between them, unsure what to answer.


"Silence? Have I really stunned you that much? Please you flatter me too much." The werehyena laughingly said.


"We're fighting our own war and we're here to get the Zebra's help to fight it, if we don't stop the threat from where we're coming from it will devour this land too and I don't think they'll be very tolerant of either you or the Zebra's." Amber said bluntly, she decided to gamble everything on one card, to get the Werehyena on their side.   


The werehyena sat in thought, trying to think of a way out of this that didn't require him killing these ponies in case they were telling the truth. After a moment he stood up and walked over to Amber and looked down at her, Amber didn't budge an inch and stared coldly back into his eyes.


"This threat of yours, is it behind these mechanical.. things, which you're equipped with?" He asked.


"Yes and our entire nation is like us except they're under her control completely. We managed to break loose, how we do not know yet and when we woke up they were hunting us already. They want us dead or worse and they will come here if we do not stop this, and they will purge every trace of your race, just like the other minor races of Equestria." Amber explained and it seemed to have hit home with him.


"I was wondering where the dragons and diamond dogs had gone, this place used to have a decent amount of a Zebrica based diamond dog race and the dragons would fly over here in their migrations.. Alright." The werehyena said.


"Alright?" The group said in unison and looked at each other in confusion.


"I will help you, this petty little dispute with the Zebra's was getting tiring anyway and I had more or less ceased my attacks on them, I'll have you know that Zebra meat isn't very delicious and I like to consider myself more sophisticated than others of my kin. Let the Zebra's know I'll be over and discuss amends with them and when you call upon us we will be ready." The werehyena said and then began shoving the group out of his cave before they could protest or say anything.


"Did.. Did that just happen?" Amber looked over at Cosmos and Sage who were equally confused.


The group returned to the Zebra village and told them of what had happened, the Zebra elders were skeptical at first since the creature was known for it's cunning and deceit but from what they had told him about the threat of Queen Twilight he had taken the threat seriously enough to consider peace. 


They remained in the village to oversee that the talks between the werehyena and the Zebra's went well and then they left for their digger again and just as they had gotten to the boarding hall, Wrath's voice came out of the speakers.


"Guys, Vulcan and I found something you should have a look at while you were gone. I'll light up a path for you to take you there, we'll meet you there." He said.


The three of them looked confused but decided to follow the lighted path that Wrath had lit and when they came to the room in question and saw what was inside it..


"Shit." Was all Amber said while Cosmos and Sage stood in silence, fully taking in the morbid scene in front of them.

[Princess Blueblood]

Swift sat in his seat, analyzing multiple documents on his HUD. He was trying to ignore the staring eyes of Rainbow Dash and Spitefire, who were steadily gazing at the exo-suited soldiers. Even though Swift, Indigo, and Rooster were on a fast team, they all had administrative duties, which they did on their downtime. Swift, who was a captain in the Obsidian Private Military sector, always had things to sort out: Court martials, idiotic recruits getting drunk, among other things.

Luckily, due to the fact that Obsidian was a private company, Swift and his crew (besides the two "mutts") didn't have to deal with the regulations of Twilight's government. As a free-minded soldier, it was harder than one would think: No smack talking, all that fun stuff.

"Boss, we got a rogue reading: Griffon Empire, or whats left of it," Rooster said, cigarette in his mouth.

"No smoking in the 'copter. Any idea who or what it is?" asked Indigo, and Swift brought up the reading.

"Sweet Celestia... there's two..." Said Swift, his eyes going wide, watching one of the dots, clearly labeled: Envy.

"Sir... should we?" asked Rooster, and Swift took a deep breath.

"It's our job... who's the other dot?" asked Swift, and Indigo brought up her own screen. 

"Sloth, sir. This could secure our retirement..." said Indigo, and Swift ran a hoof through his sloppy mane. "We also got another blip on its way, just came into view: It's faint, so it might be our targets. 3 birds with one stone." 

Swift went silent for a moment, and then looked at Indigo and Rooster, who returned the look. He nodded silently, and turned on his communicator.

"Obsidian Head... I think its time."

"Execute when ready, Swift. Do not fail us."


-----

Cosmos did all she could not to puke, looking away from the disgusting image. The prior crew, all dead, laying in their own puddles of blood. What on earth did that to them? 

"Readings indicate a high level of Alphrazolam, the chemical that causes anxiety, and in serious cases, insanity, depression, among other things. This would mean that the crew seemingly killed themselves, as there is a serious spike only seen in those minutes before suicide. Due to the fact that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, the chemical is still there. That as well as endorphins, which is odd, as pony's don't usually have that before suicide, which, mixed with the insane amount of bodily fluids, leads me to believe they all had sex, and then commited mass suicide," Wrath said, his eyes scanning the scene. 

"What the fuck is wrong with these fucking ponies?" asked Amber, and Wrath just blinked.

"Nothing in particular, all were very mentally healthy, as per their physicals one month prior to what the carbon dating says on their death time. Though, their logs lead me to believe there may have been an outside source of insanity, due to the trace amount of Uraziaum in their blood, a natural viral-element used often to fuse curses in the zebra lands," Wrath said, kicking one of the bodies. "This was not just something that happened: Something drove them to this."

"And what are we going to do about this?" asked Cosmos, putting an arm around the younger Sage, trying to block her view. 

"I can clean it up: due to my artificial superiority, I am easily the most suited for this task, no chance of internal contamination. I'll very quickly shove these less-than-fortunate cadavers into body bags, clean up the mess, and give them to the onboard medical computer for further examination. We'll be off in less than an hour."


----------

"So, you return. How goes the mission?" asked Night Weaver, and Amber smiled.

"We have the full backing of both the Zebras and the WereHyenas," Said Amber, as Wrath helped a few batpony sceintists move the dead bodies from the digger onto a gurney.

"Be careful: Those bodies may have something far darker than we have ever seen," Said Aurora, before giving a dirty look to Wrath.

Wrath joined the group, and 'Weaver sighed. "Well, sorry for the lack of downtime, but we have another mission for you: You're going to the griffon empire, as well as adding an addition to your squad." 

A figure approached 'Weaver from the behind, walking slowly with obvious reason in her step. Cosmos' ears twitched, as she could have sworn she heard a gyro-copter, before the figure revealed itself.

[Cloudchaser]

"You called for me mother?" Nyte asked and looked at 'Weaver before noticing the trio that stood before them, her eyes narrowed at Cosmos before focusing back on 'Weaver.

"Yes, Nyte. I want you to get ready as soon as you can, you'll be joining Cosmos and her friends on their journey. Your next stop will be in ruins of the former Griffin empire, we've had some pings of activity there and perhaps some of them are still alive, if not then just scavenge for whatever weapons and other things Twilight's forces didn't bother getting rid off." 'Weaver explained while keeping her focus on Amber, Cosmos and Sage.

Nyte had gone back to looking at Cosmos, with obvious disgust in her eyes. But if 'Weaver said to trust these ponies despite them clearly being augmented with implants made by Twilight and her corporations then she'd have too, she didn't have to like the situation as long as the mission went smoothly.

'Weaver saw Nyte's contempt, it was slightly amusing but she could understand why her daughter would be conflicted since her entire village and family was killed by Twilight's forces some 20 years ago. 

'Weaver decided to stop any potential dispute that could arise once they were gone once and for all now. "Wow is not the time for some petty little dispute with ponies who were as much victims of Twilight as us bat ponies were, if Twilight's kingdom and rule is to be crippled then everyone needs to work together and not fight amongst ourselves. I hope our work here is not for naught, you may leave as soon as you're ready."


Nyte grunted in acknowledgement and went back to her quarters to pick up some personal belongings before leaving.


Amber, Cosmos and Sage left for their digger again, to await Nyte joining them. A while later Nyte reluctantly stepped down into the digger's entrance area where everyone on board greeted her.


"So this is your crew then? I was expecting something more than a bunch of.." Nyte's eyes went to Wrath and she went pale for a second before she caught herself. "Is that a fully fledged AI pony?" Nyte said and approached Wrath to inspect him closer. "How did you manage to capture and turn it against it's master?"


"They did not capture me nor did they turn me against anyone, I was the first war AI prototype to be constructed by Twilight Sparkle but she failed to anticipate that I would develop my own personality and thus she locked me away until recently. I met these ponies during my escape and we have a common enemy and the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Wrath stated matter of factly, surprising Nyte who backed off, realizing she'd been proven wrong in her assumptions.


"So am I allowed my own quarters or am I bunking together with someone?" Nyte asked.


"There's plenty of rooms on this ship, I'll have Vulcan show you to your room." Wrath said, Nyte nodded at him as Vulcan stepped out and motioned to follow her.


After walking for a while Nyte felt like trying to converse with the silent pony ahead of her.


"So are you the head mechanic or something on this ship? Judging by your cutie mark you're some form of engineer or mechanic." Nyte asked, Vulcan grunted a bit before answering.


"Me and Wrath work together in making this ship run, it wasn't exactly in pristine condition when we got it and the previous crew was the dead ponies we handed over to your scientists." Vulcan explained matter of factly.


"Quite impressive I must say, I wouldn't mind finding out more about the previous crew though." Nyte was hoping Vulcan would cooperate enough to at least point her in the direction of some logs she could study.

"You'll have to take it up with Wrath, Cosmos or Amber they're basically the ones in charge here, I fix the ship and make sure it's running. I don't concern myself much with beings beyond machines, I never really understood them and even less so after having escaped from Twi's grasp." 

They came to a stop before a dark storage type room and Vulcan smiled and presented Nyte with her "cabin" and then walked away.

"Well I suppose it could be worse, it sure beats being locked inside a chest.. Now I'll leave my stuff here and then I think I shall see if I can find Cosmos, I'm curious why she chose to be augmented.."

[Princess Blueblood]

The VTOL landed in a clearing, and out hopped the 5 operatives, Swift leading the way. He looked at his Exo scanner, and watched as the Red blips - Two labeled as "Hostile" - moved around in a flurry, until one dissipated. 

"Well... Seems like Wrath has taken care of one of our problems for us," Swift said, activating his Zeus Stick. "Lets go check it out. On me."


-------------

Earlier...


Cosmos was busy cleaning her rifle, which she hadn't even used, when Nyte popped into her room. Cosmos glanced up, and from the look on Nyte's face, Cosmos realized that she was not in friendly company.

"Hello, Nyte," said Cosmos, putting the bolt back into the action of her rifle. "What brings you over here."

"Just exploring the ship," Said Nyte, and Cosmos nodded. She shouldered the rifle, sighting in the scope before putting it down.

"What made you decide you wanted to Augment up?" asked Nyte, and Cosmos looked at her, the batpony half breed's eyes twinkling.

"It made me accepted." Cosmos said, her emotionless face staring at Nyte. "I couldn't be accepted as a Nightwatch pony, I couldn't be accepted as a regular pony, so I got augmented, just like everyone else. It made me feel secure."

Nyte nodded, and looked at the Exo-skeleton in the corner. "Why aren't you wearing that?" asked Nyte, and Cosmos shrugged.

"Haven't figured out how to get it open yet," Cosmos said, before grabbing her bandolier, and loading a few rail rounds into the rifle. "Almost fired one of these at the damn thing, but I'd rather not get hit by the receiving end if it ends up ricocheting." 

"Hmm, I see..." Said Nyte, and Cosmos just smiled. 

"You should get some rest before we hit the surface... Never know what we could run into," Said Cosmos, and Nyte nodded, and promptly left.

-------

The digger breached the surface, smashing through the ruins of an old building as it emerged. Wrath walked out of the machine, followed by the rest of the reactionary crew. 

"Twi hit this place pretty hard, so we're here to pick up any technologies and any survivors we can, and bring them back to Nightwatch Base. We're going to need all the support we can get," Said Wrath. "I've linked your trackers to the Digger, so we can all communicate with one another. Spread out, get anything you can find."

"Copy that Wrath," Said Cosmos, bolting her rifle. The groups split up, and Wrath went off on his own.

His scanner scanned over multiple useless peices of equipment: Rotting augments, depleted energy weapons. After almost 30 minutes, he decided it was time to give up, until he heard a voice behind him.

"Hello, Wrath," said a voice.

Wrath turned around, his blasters at the ready, and the voice just cackled.

"If I wanted to kill you, I already would have," Said the voice. "Instead, I think we can work together."

Wrath groaned, and holstered his weapons. "Hello Envy. What do you want today?"

"Well, for starters, I want our siblings eliminated. We've all been sent after you and your little party, but I want the glory of your death to myself," Said Envy, and Wrath's LED lights twitched into an unsure look. 

"What makes you think that they'll kill me?" asked Wrath, and Envy chuckled.

"The fact that you don't know how to kill them. I will help you with that, so long as you get rid of them for me."

"Alright, I'll bite."

"Well, first off, Sloth is here, and luckily, he's the hardest to kill. He's near indestrucible, but I know how you can kill him," Said Envy, and Wrath raised an LED eyebrow.

"And how would I do that?" 

"His underside is where his sheild core is. If you can overload that, he'll be easy pickings for any attack you can throw at him," Said Envy. "Energy weapons are no good against his bare hull, but his shields are practically useless against them."

The voice dissapated, and Wrath looked at his HUD radar. Sure enough, there was a blip moving towards him, and it didn't have a ship tracker on it.

"Fuck."

Suddenly a massive, hulking steel pony smashed through a few stone ruins. Wrath's guns spurred up, and started hitting the massive pony with a blast of energy. The laser tore through the pony's sheilds, before it charged and kicked Wrath into a wall, knocking it down.

"Oh, you fucking pisser," said Wrath, charging his guns, before he was hit in the face by another kick. 

"HUD offline... rebooting" said Wrath's internal computer, as the War AI got to his hooves.

"Damn... you hit hard as hell," Said Wrath, his guns charging. "Too bad I hit harder!" 

A blast of blue energy came from Wrath's guns, smashing Sloth's shields to bits. Suddenly, Cosmos and Company entered the clearing, as Sloth attempted to recharge his shields.

"Cosmos! Shoot that fucker!" Shouted Wrath, and Cosmos reared on her hind legs, and shouldered the rifle. The weapon's sound was deafening, sending a shockwave around Cosmos, though the effects of the bullet were infinetly more powerful. It practically tore Sloth in half burning the metal and circuits of the AI, killing him instantly.

"Holy shit," Said Amber, as Cosmos bolted the rifle. "That things like a cannon."

"Yeah, about feels like one too," Said Cosmos, rubbing her shoulder.

"Well, looks like you'll need to fire your 'cannon' again," Said Nyte, pointing at a VTOL flying off in the distance. The side was clearly labelled "EQUESTRIAN MILITARY", as it flew off in the distance. "Probably heading back to Twilight."

"Fuck," Cosmos swore, shouldering her rifle. 

"Let it go," Sage said, covering her brow with her hoof. "It's got to be at least 2 wing miles off by now."

"I can make it," Cosmos said, tracking the ship with the rifle.

"Doubtfully," said Wrath, stretching. "Never read about anypony making a shot like that."

"Well now you can watch as I make a shot like 'that'."

Cosmos leveled the rifle, breathing carefully, before pulling the trigger. The bullet arced over the distance, and narrowly connected, smashing into the cockpit of the VTOL. A massive explosion followed, and Cosmos exhaled, lowering the weapon, as the VTOL smashed into the ground.

"We should probably recover that," Said Cosmos, moving a strand of hair out of her way. Suddenly, a pony decloaked in front of her, revealing a rainbow mane, and bright rose eyes.

Cosmos was knocked out immediately, as the rest of the hunter squad appeared, attacked the rest of the crew with static weapons, knocking out their augments quickly. The hunter squad moved around the now incapacitated crew of the digger, three of them wearing Exo Suits, two with full on augments.

"S-Spitfire?" asked Amber, and Spitfire cocked her head. 

"She knows my name?" asked Spitfire, and Swift nodded. 

"A lot of people know your name," Said Swift, twirling his Zeus Stick. "Even criminals."

Rooster spat on the ground, and Swift started pacing around the crew. 

"Well, quite a pickle you're in," said Swift. "Not only have you escaped from the mind-prison that Twilight put upon you, but you've stolen, destroyed, and killed government property. Even if I didn't have to bring you in for being out of the ordinary, you'd be subject to execution back in Canterlot."

"Fucking merc," Spat Nyte, and Swift laughed. 

"Ah, so you know I'm not part of the government? Thats good. So you realize I'm in this for the money, and the only way that comes is by following orders. So, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and my little group are gonna bring you guys back to Twilight, and add a few zeroes onto our next paycheck," Said Swift, and Spitfire and Rainbow Dash laughed in unison. 

Swift looked quickly at Rooster and Indigo, who were positioned behind Rainbow Dash, and nodded. "Though, it seems this time that I may have to skip on a paycheck from the royal highness."

Suddenly, Indigo and Rooster tackled Rainbow Dash, they're tazers crackling wildly. Spitfire immediately turned, only to get hit in the face with Swift's Zeus Stick, knocking her on her back. She quickly jumped to her hooves, and attacked Swift, who easily overpowered to weakened augmented pony. With a headbutt as a finishing blow, Swift quickly hit Spitfire one more time with his Zeus stick, knocking out her augments.

"Unlatch them," Swift ordered, holstering his Zeus Stick. "Sorry 'bout that. Had to get the sheep off their toes so we could bag 'em."

The crew got to their hooves, their augments restored. Nyte begrudginly got to her hooves with the help of Swift, and the pony smiled. 

"You got a place to hold these fuckers? They're augments won't be off for long," Said Swift, and Indigo kicked Rainbow Dash.

"Wait, wait, first, we get some fucking answers," Said Amber, and Swift smiled.

"I'm sure you're like that, wouldn't you? The fact of the matter is that we can't yet, not until we get you back to Obsidian City. Right now, we're going AWOL as hell for the Equestrian Government, but we're right on track for Obsidian. Now, you got a place to hold them?"

"Yes. We can hold them in the med bay of the digger: It can suppress their augments until we get them to a place where we can remove them," Said Wrath. "Do you need a place to stay?"

"Considering that little miss sharpshooter just shot our ride out of the air, yeah," Said Rooster, and Cosmos hissed at him.

"Don't piss them off, Rooster. That rifle could turn you into fucking dust, just like the pilot of that VTOL, though I have no problem with dead Sheep," Said Swift. "Let's get these fuckers back to your digger, and get on our way to Obsidian City. Then we can talk."

"Wait, we still have work to do here. We need to recover some tech, report back to Nightwatch, find some survivors," Said Sage, and Indigo laughed. 

"We can do all of those besides go to Nightwatch. I'd rather not shocked to death by their spears. Too many of our patrols have met untimely ends due to their effectiveness," Said Indigo. "Not saying I hate them, I'd just like to respect their borders, and considering that I'm wearing whats a WMD in their eyes, I'm sure I'd be dead before I got out the digger."

"Fine. We'll finish up here, then we'll go to Obsidian city with you," Said Amber, and Swift nodded. 

"Deal."

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