There was no time for rest, and so much information to absorb that from the moment she woke up Chance was practically assaulted with news. Some of it was good. There had been an unexpected miracle at the Ponyville General Hospital. Despite the awful condition the bombing victims had been in when they arrived, not a single one had died in the night and all were now stable. None had lost any limbs or apparently suffered any of the mental degradation associated with severe cranial injuries. They would all make it back to their families.

But most news was not so good. Los Pegasus had been taken and the guard there completely destroyed. Worse, that entire part of the Equestrian navy had burned while floating useless in the port. There would be no deterring invaders by water, for by the time reinforcements could arrive from Seaddle their enemy would have all its troops and resources installed. If reports from the as-of-yet unassailable pegasus quarter were to be believed, the invaders were burning their own ships as well. They obviously didn't plan on going anywhere.

"Celestia has a special assignment for you," Twilight explained, when she had caught them up on all the recent happenings. It wasn't just Chance she explained it to. Her friends were there too, looking as quiet and dignified as the CMC ever did. She was not so different from her friends that she felt anything different than they did. Exultation and pride welled in her. Celestia had thought of them! She had a special assignment! Not that this was the first time. The entirety of Equestria's electronic defenses were their special contributions, at her personal request. That did not make future requests any less meaningful in their eyes.

Still, there was something sad about the way she said it. "You don't all have to go," Twilight Sparkle was explaining. "But when the mechanical humans arrived they damaged Truth. We realize now just how much we depend on Truth for our entire infrastructure. That his location is known even by an ally puts Equestria at risk."

"Because you could blow up their stabilizer and stop them from getting reinforcements," Chance explained, for the benefit of her friends. "But if the Tower knows where Truth is, there's nothing stopping them from doing it again. They don't depend on us to stabilize the bridge, so they could make their own supply-lines. They could even invade if they wanted to." The way she said it, she tried to make it seem as though she knew that was exactly what they were going to do. It disturbed Chance greatly that the alliance with humanity had been expanded to include the Steel Tower.

If Twilight caught on to her implications, she ignored them. "It would be even worse if Truth fell into the hands of the invaders while trying to get him safely out of human reach. After what the Fury did to that dreadnaught, we think it might be the only ship in Equestria that we can be sure will keep Truth safe. So the assignment is to take Truth far away from any major city, maybe out of Equestria completely. Just get him somewhere he won't be found, and keep him safe until the war is over. Make sure nopony finds out where you are, not even me."

Scootaloo nodded. As the captain of the Fury, she was the de-facto leader when it came to making decisions for the group. "We'll do it!"

"For Equestria!" echoed Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle just nodded.

"The Fury's upgrades aren't finished." Chance was a little less optimistic. She could see that, while this assignment was important, it also seemed chosen to practically guarantee their safety. It was keeping them out of danger, babying them. "The armor isn't installed, no telling when the thaumic shield we commissioned will be delivered, besides the lift-crystal not being configured for a four-ton steel cube."

Scootaloo deflated visibly with her words, chest not puffed out nearly so much. But Twilight didn't seem the least bit perturbed. Not even surprised. "I know. We've already had all the parts you had in storage in Canterlot shipped here, and Truth has been making more ever since he woke up. Celestia requisitioned a thaumic shield from the royal armory, along with a military lift-crystal. There is a team of a dozen naval shipwrights on the train from Canterlot right now to help you finish your upgrade by tomorrow morning. I've been told if you need anything else, simply give me the list and I'll see it's here before you leave."

Each time Chance was about to bring up some other objection, Twilight pre-empted her and she just shut her mouth. Celestia had thought of everything. She had to admit, it even excited her a little. They estimated that with the limits on their budget it was going to take years to finish the Fury. Now the royal treasury was opened, and everything would be done by tomorrow. Their little hobby ship was going to be a part of Equestria's defense.

Besides, so long as they got Truth to safety it didn't matter what they did after that, right? They could help with the war if they played their cards right. And unlike last time, they would have a finished ship to do it with. "You should move the Fury to the courtyard," Twilight instructed. "And get ready. The shipwrights only know how to build Equestrian ships. They'll need your supervision."

Her friends nodded, thanked Twilight, and began to disperse. Chance promised she would catch up and waved them off, looking darkly up at Twilight. Just because they were in her mentor's castle didn't mean she couldn't be mad. The other thrones were empty, so she wouldn't be arguing with Twilight in front of her friends.

"I know what you're doing," Chance said, as darkly as she could. "This special assignment. I bet it was your idea, not Celestia's. To keep us out of danger."

Twilight shrugged, though the way she avoided looking into Chance's eyes was all the answer Chance really needed. So she went on "We're more useful on the front lines. We can take out a dozen dreadnaughts when the ship is put together, easy."

There was long silence. Twilight watched her, expression growing sadder with every moment. After a short time, she got up and walked past Chance, around the throne room. "While you were gone, there was a mission to the Dragon Capital Typhon. Not Equestrian ships. The mechanical humans had little metal ships that combined into one big one. Dozens and dozens of them."

"They had enough drones to make a carrier here? Overnight?"

Twilight nodded. She had stopped walking in front of one of the other thrones. Chance stopped beside her, looking down at the carved markings in its stone surface. This throne belonged to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow Dash led a whole contingent of Royal Guard pegasi. They were supposed to show the enemy we had irresistible force on our side, so they would give up and leave us alone." She shook her head. "Only a few of those 'powerful' human ships made it back, along with maybe a dozen of the pegasi. None of the human pilots or the pegasi officers made it." A few tears fell from her eyes, landing on the stone. She turned fierce, and locked eyes with Chance. She hadn't ever seen Twilight Sparkle this intense, not in her whole life. "I won't let anypony else I love get hurt!"

There was nothing unexpected about the first wave of troops from the United Earth Federation. There was no covert infiltration, and no massive devices were brought through, nor was their arrival unexpected. Amber Sands stood ten meters or so away from a circle of unicorn of the Royal Unicorn Corps, with Twilight Sparkle at the head. It was night now, so she saw the glow of magic from each of them as they combined their strength. Amber knew little about magic compared to the pony she had been copied from, just enough to levitate objects while she was pretending to be a unicorn. She could make nothing of the ritual, though she didn't need to understand any of it to guess what they were trying to do.

There was no green lightning when the ritual completed, no explosions. Rather, the center of the circle became a source of light, which radiated brightly in all directions. Looking at it from below, Amber saw a high empty space, and a transparent ceiling beyond which was a grey waste.

Luna Prime, the capital of the Federation. Amber Sands remembered arriving there in her childhood, and spending several years in common education until she specialized and moved to secondary school on Luna 7. Of course those memories weren't really hers, but the further back the memories went the harder it was for Amber to consciously accept that they weren't real.

First through the opening was a woman in a white uniform with black trim, which reflected the light of Earth so well it seemed practically to glow. It was a dress uniform, not the thick armor of the Tower. She had dark brown hair in a bun behind her head, and harsh gray eyes like flecks of silver. The woman was well-built and confident, but the best thing about her was that she was alive. In a flash, Amber realized exactly who she was looking at.

"Fleet Admiral Alexi Colven, representing the United Earth Federation." She saluted to Twilight, though her stance was also significantly less rigid than a common soldier. Amber's hooves were frozen in place as she watched this exchange. Her sister was a fleet admiral? No, not her sister. Chance's sister. She could tell herself that all she wanted, but she couldn't stop the tears. After all this time, Alexi was okay! Something radical must've happened after officer's school if she had climbed to the pinnacle of the Federation's military.

"Do I have permission to begin landfall operations, as described in the terms of the Terran-Solar Accord?"

Princess Twilight was obviously doing her best to seem as princessly as possible, though she was still nearly a foot shorter than the human woman if you didn't count the horn. There was no fear this time. Admiral Colven carried no weapons, just a scroll and a cap under one arm. Twilight sounded as though she were reciting something she had memorized. "Equestria welcomes its allies under the terms of the accord."

The woman extended her arms with the hat and the scroll, which Twilight took. Some sort of naval ceremony, transferring the privilege of command? Amber didn't know. Even in her false memories she had been a scientist, not a soldier. "Very good. How long will the opening last?"

"One hour. We can always cast the spell again if that's not enough time."

"One hour will be more than sufficient. Can you get your people back from the entrance? I don't want any accidental injuries as we bring the hardware through." Twilight gestured, and the assembled ponies retreated from the opening towards the huge timber fence to the south. They did not dare move left, for not far in that direction would lead directly to the camp of the Steel Tower. Nor did they flee north, where the huge trees of the Everfree loomed like dark ghosts.

The Royal Unicorn Corps in their bright uniforms waited and watched as the allies they had actually invited began to arrive. Amber thought that this wouldn't be all that bad to watch, really. After the shock of the Tower drones and those tiny unliving bodies with their enormous strength, she supposed the ponies here probably thought they couldn't see anything more shocking.

Amber knew better. She remembered the ferocity of the Free People's Army well. It was not hard to remember, since her own brother and father had fought in it.

First through the opening came four soldiers, no larger than Alexi. Unlike the admiral they wore full combat-gear, with armored vests and weapons in their hands ready for use. One stepped forward and saluted to Alexi, while the other three surrounded them and spread out a little, forming a protective perimeter. When they spoke, it was in English. Amber still remembered what the words meant, even if it took much more concentration to understand than Equestrian.

"Bring them in, Sergent."

The man began to shout commands through the opening. The ground shook, and a pair of massive shapes emerged, vaguely humanoid shells of steel and hardened plastic. They had legs and arms, attached to an entirely enclosed torso, with feet easily the size of a pony. They sunk deep into the grass with each step, carrying an enormous plastic container between them. Another pair emerged from the opening, then another and another. When a dozen of the mechanized suits had passed through the barrier they began filing back into the opening, making trip after trip until they had piled up the plastic crates higher than many of the trees. Only then did the soldiers began to flow through the opening.

"Bring the bag, Sergeant," Twilight said, and Amber slid her neck under the hefty saddle-bags waiting by the fence and slid them on. She followed Twilight obediently towards the opening. None of the grass had survived, it was all dirt now, freshly turned by numerous mechanical feet. Amber followed her to the opening, and stood mere feet away from Admiral Colven. But she didn't say anything, not as Twilight opened the bag and began lifting little bracelets out one by one. They were small, but the magic flowing in each was immensely powerful. Twilight gave one to the admiral, and began levitating them to the soldiers as they passed in their formations. Each group of nine got nine of the bracelets, followed by an instruction from one of the human sergeants.

"Put this on immediately! Do not remove it under any circumstances." Amber had no idea what that could be about, but it was none of her business and she didn't ask.

The admiral towered over Amber, tall and proud and so young. Did Second Chance know her sister was going to be here for the arrival of Federation troops? It was hard to imagine Chance not wanting to see her only living family again. But why wouldn't they have told her? Wasn't she the Federation's official ambassador or something?

Amber squeaked a quiet, "H-hello," to Alexi at one point, but was not heard over the sound of so much activity and did not try a second time. She was here as a part of the Equestrian Royal Army now, not a lonely changeling with some false memories of a past that was never hers.

And besides, she was going to be here overseeing the new human city called Normandy long after Princess Twilight had gone. There would be other opportunities to talk, perhaps more privately.

Still, it was not the triumph of having such a large and powerful military fighting for Equestria that occupied Amber's thoughts. It was not imagining a swift victory and liberation of Los Pegasus. All Amber could think of for the rest of the night was whether this alien biped would have a place in her heart for a sister that she didn't know existed.

Critical Error - unit damage detected

Sys.left_arm critical failure
Sys.left_leg critical failure
Sys.transmission_suite critical failure
Sys.homeostasis critical failure
Sys.autorepair critical failure
Sys.matter_accelerator critical failure
Sys.micronuclear critical failure

Transmitting Damage Report
Transmission Failure
Attempting Self Repair
Repair Failure

Charles blinked into consciousness, face-down in the red dirt of a desert wasteland. He felt no pain, which was to his advantage. It was likely that if an organic human could have survived a situation like his, the pain of it would have sent them into shock at once. As it was he had nothing but a strange numbness where some of his limbs ought to be. He tried to push himself up, but found that only one of his arms responded, and instead of sit up he ended up pushing himself onto his back. It was dark above him, and for several long moments all he did was look up at the sky, watching the stars. This is it, he told himself. This is how I die.

Begin transmission through satellite network. He thought, King Richard-

Transmission hardware unavailable. Message failure.

He swore to himself and went back to watching the stars. Of course he didn't feel any discomfort, but laying here also didn't allow his body to naturally heal itself and make him feel better as it would have if he were organic. Not that an organic would have been very likely to survive. Is library system intact?

Yes.

Is the exterior speaker working?

Yes.

Begin playback from favorites list at "I Dreamed a Dream," he instructed. If he was going to slowly die here, he might as well enjoy it. And the body's speakers obeyed, producing the English words and soft piano of Old Earth. Charles watched the stars as they moved, moving his working arm close to his chest. The uniform had been shredded to pieces, but somehow the fragile-bracelet was completely intact on his wrist. He felt the links against his skin, then grunted and sat up. He would gain nothing from laying here stewing in his regret.

Sir Charles Gray sat in a puddle of cybernetic maintenance fluids, a creamy white that had mixed with the native dirt. The arm and leg on his right side had been completely severed, with wires and contacts exposed sickeningly. Limbs could sometimes be easily reattached, but it was immediately clear that neither was a clean enough break for that. Beside him in the dirt was the native captain, her armor scattered and broken by the impact.

Charles still remembered the fall. As it turned out, she had been far less able to fly than she had first thought, let alone with his weight. As they neared the earth, Charles had curled up around her with his body, calculating the fall perfectly so that he could absorb most of the impact and she would be flung free, bounced through the air like he was a spring. He had no conscious recollection after the fall though, and had no reason to suspect any organic could survive such a fall. Not even a Federation soldier with intensive Nanophage should've survived such an impact, nevermind what he had done to try and protect her. It had been foolish. Perhaps insane.

Yet as he watched, his visual sensors registered a faint stirring of breathing. Aside from her wings, it didn't seem as though she was so badly hurt. Could she be alive? Charles had to crawl to find the emergency pack, dragging himself through the mud by his one good arm and kicking with the leg. He took the bag in his teeth and crawled back toward Rainbow Dash, lying crumpled and unconscious. He sat up again, holding the bag under one leg as he opened the pack. All the while human music from an ancient past played quietly in the muddy clearing, to the sound of clicking plastic cases and the faint electronic whir of machines.

An entire half of the pack was occupied with the largest field-issue medical kit produced by the Tower, the sort with hardware and supplies for organics. This medkit had been brought along for just such a situation, since the only casualties they had expected were the natives. Once the medical probe was in place, the screen filled with the native's medical report.

It wasn't good. She had broken bones in one of her legs, an infection growing in one of her wings, cranial trauma, and damage to her internal organs. The medical program gave her an hour without intervention, and predicted she would not regain consciousness in that time.

Charles found that completely unacceptable. It didn't matter that she had made some absurd claims. It didn't matter that she had been obstinate and difficult. It wasn't even that she was important and powerful in Equestria. None of those things mattered. It would have been easy to lie back and close his eyes. They would both be dead soon enough. His transmissions weren't getting through, his own people would have no way of finding them. The damage to his body was so severe that it didn't seem like they could escape from behind enemy lines anyway. Death would be so easy.

But Charles would not accept it. Not for himself, for that was easy. Rather, he could not accept the idea of this person, this pony, dying right in front of him when he might have been able to do something. He had seen enough death for one day.

It was hard work with half his limbs missing, despite all the training he had in field medicine. It would have been far easier if he were with the Federation, accustomed and trained to heal organics. A few doses of a Nanophage tailored for pony biology and that would have been enough. But the Steel Tower, absolutely committed to the triumph of machinery over biology, had no medical gear that simply repaired damaged flesh the way the Federation did.

No, every medical device the Tower used replaced or supplemented the function of existing organs, never just repaired them. Once applied, they were not designed to be removed, only upgraded. Perhaps the native named Rainbow Dash would have objected to becoming partly cybernetic in order to survive. But even if she had been awake to object, Charles would've ignored her objections. She could take out her implants and die later if that was what she really wanted.

Charles had performed several "emergency-field-conversions" before, in the early days of the war when the Tower still had biological soldiers. First came the cortical recorder, complete with its supplemental processor that would allow a biological brain to control artificial implants. The recorder was quite small, a silvery disk about a fourth the size of his fist and weighing just a few ounces. Once applied to the place where the neck met the head, cortical fibers began snaking their way into her brain, interfacing with every important neural group. Eventually every cell would have a mechanical partner, recording every last connection in real time for the recorder.

Next came bone-hardening injections, which were incredibly difficult to administer accurately with only one hand. He managed quickly enough, and even while her bones were "healed" he set about the third portion of the task. A fist-sized implant called a Universal Bio-Regulator could supplement the functions of damaged internal organs. Charles knew little of how the implant worked, save that once he placed it just below her ribs it sliced its way through flesh and fur and burrowed inside like a benevolent beetle. Thank God this poor native was unconscious for all this.

He didn't watch the way her insides shifted, and looked away until the unit transmitted a ready signal. Only then did he close the wound with biosealent and begin the last portion of the treatment.

One of Rainbow Dash's wings was intact, with healthy feathers glistening under the moon. The other was an awful, disgusting sight. She was lucky she wore armor, or else her body might've been just as badly burned. The feathers had melted like wax, and the flesh had sloughed off in awful sheets. He could see bone in more than one place. This was probably the wound that was killing her, and it was miraculous she had survived at all.

"I'm really sorry about this." He sat up, and despite his missing limbs he did not sway. She did not reply, of course. He had used as much tranquiliser as was safe for her body-mass. She couldn't wake up, not now. "But if I don't amputate this wing, you're going to die before we get back to Equestria. If it makes you feel any better, the Federation can regenerate lost limbs pretty easily. If you really have an alliance with them, then they should be able to help. If not... we could always design a prosthetic wing with twice the strength of the old one." He gripped the laser-scalpel in his hand as he spoke. It was hardly the tool for the job, but it was the only tool he had. "I'm so sorry."

It took over an hour for Rainbow Dash to regain consciousness. During that time Charles had managed to use some of the cybernetic sealant to reattach his leg and lock it into an extended position. It would never function properly again, but at least if he found a walking stick or something he could probably walk. There was no point to do the same thing with the arm, since it would serve no practical purpose but weighing his body down.

By the time she woke up, Charles had heavily bandaged the stump of her wing, sealing it so that it could not become further infected. Were it not for the UBR, no doubt she would not have regained consciousness for hours more, if not days. But with a partially cybernetic brain and a bioreactor in her chest, one didn't have to wait for the natural processes to fully restore one to consciousness. He had not replaced what was left of her armor after he had finished with his field-medicine. Not only did Charles lack the dexterity with one arm, but Rainbow Dash would be too weak to take on all that extra metal weight. Of course he wished he had been wearing his own armor; perhaps with it he might have survived the fall without losing any of his limbs.

"I feel funny," was the first thing she said, her voice much lighter than it had been during their previous conversations.

"You're probably feeling the painkillers," Charles explained. "We crashed. I had to do some emergency first-aid."

"How bad was it?" She moaned, one of her hooves twitching. Then, in a show of enormous strength, she rolled sideways so her hooves were beneath her and rose to a wobbly standing position. Richard couldn't believe his eyes, and for several moments he just stared openly. This native had just been in a high-altitude crash, had an amputation, and been partially cyberized. Yet before three hours were up, before he could even voice his objections, she rose to her hooves.

"Bad enough you shouldn't be moving yet!" He reached out, trying to push her back down, but she pulled out of reach and just looked at him, with all the determination of a soldier. Many humans had faced much kinder fates with far less composure. "You would've been dead already if I hadn't used our medicine. Had to give you a cyber-controller, to fix the concussion and let you have other implants. It's mostly outside your body, you probably feel it on the back of your neck."

"And?" She was already wobbling less and less, her eyes becoming more awake. The cortical recorder would be doing its best to keep the pain down to a dull ache, though no doubt it was not fully integrated yet and would do an imperfect job.

"A hardening agent for your bones. That one you should hardly notice, just speeds healing and makes it so you don't need a cast. No maintenance, and those bones should never break again."

"And?"

He wilted. It was true that the interface in the recorder would eventually provide her with basic information about her implants and how they worked, but it should take at least a week before the network in her brain was developed enough to communicate anything with her conscious mind. "Internal damage, pretty bad. Gave you something to keep you alive inside until we can get you to a hospital. Encourage them to heal naturally. Hopefully you won't even need surgery when we get there."

"My wings." There was a weakness to her voice he hadn't heard from her, not since they had first met. It didn't sound very much like a military commander at all. Rather, it was a frightened young woman. A girl, who had seen something horrible and knew what it meant. "Dragonfire... right in the wing..." She made as if to stretch the right wing, muscles twitching on the base that remained. But there was nothing to bring before her face to inspect. No injury remained, because there was no longer a wing there at all.

Rainbow Dash looked at him for a long time, and in her eyes Charles could see such a sense of pain and loss as to defy his ability to describe. There were no tears, just a soul-crushing despair that made the pony's shoulders slump. "Yeah," was all she said, dropping onto her haunches. "I thought so."