Dash had taken the ball from someone headed to her goal. She had not had this much fun on the ground in forever. This game, this "football", was amazing. And she was good, better than most everypony else; as was usual. She passed the ball to another human on her team, who reversed it back to her almost immediately, tripping up the pony between them. The cyan pegasus was little more than a blur as she dodged around the opposing team, securing another goal for her team.

She whooped in elation as the goalie picked up the ball and heaved across the field to keep her away from it. One of the opponents, a smaller, quick pony, took the ball and ran it towards Dmitri. She reared up and kicked the ball as hard as she could toward the young pilot, who knocked the ball back with ease. The pony then jumped and delivered a mighty kick in mid air before Dash could so much as blink. Sands was forced to dive out of the way to avoid the high powered ball as it passed through the space he had so recently occupied. But his dive put him underneath the falling pony, whose hoof landed on his left hand with an audible crunch. The game came to a screeching halt as the pilot climbed to his feet, gripping his twitching hand at the wrist.

"Go ahead and keep playing you guys." He said with a small smile, "I'll be back soon, just gotta take care of this." He took off at a jog, showing no signs of having any pain from having his hand crushed. Dash excused herself from the game to follow the pilot and make sure he was actually okay and not just playing tough. He was not paying attention to the pegasus following him, paying head only to where he was going. He made his way to his tent and quickly stepped inside. The cyan pegasus stopped for a moment outside the tent, wondering if she should go in. Buck it, she decided, what is the worst that can happen? She pushed open the tent's door flap and made her way into the cool dark of the tent.

Sands was sitting on his bed, and quickly made a sweeping motion over his arm, "Dash! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same." Dash retorted quickly, "Why aren't you in the medical area?"

"Well," He glanced at his arm, "it's not that bad."

"Everypony could hear the crunch. You need to see a doctor."

"More like a mechanic."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" The cyan pegasus brought herself a little close to the young man.

Dmitri let out a short huff of breath, "Guess I can show you, but don't freak out okay? That is the reaction of most of the ladies when they find out." He picked up a small tool that looked like a screwdriver without the head and pressed it into the underside of his arm. A small patch of skin opened up to reveal the mechanical parts of the limb.

"What is that." Dash whispered, peering at the workings below the skin.

"I lost my arm below the elbow in an explosion during a fight with the Cye. I had enough money from my father to afford this mecha-limb, but it does make life… different."

"I didn't no, I'm so…"

"Hey," he cut the pony off with a smug grin, "I saved my unit and a bunch of civvies, and all that was lost was a piece of an arm. Plus it is a fun party trick." He grabbed a small tool bag from underneath his bed and removed a hammer. He placed his hand on the bed rails of his bunk and smashed the hammer into it repeatedly. "I've made hundred credits a bet letting people try to hurt my hand, and I can't feel a thing." His grin grew wider at the thought.

"You really don't mind this?"

"Oh hell no, mecha-limbs are way cooler than flesh and blood. Course," he added thoughtfully, "they don't fix themselves. I've gotten pretty good at minor repairs, but I still have to let the local mechanics know of my condition."

"So… about that… can you… you know…"

"Do anything cool? A little, wanna see?"

"Yeah, let's see what it can do." Sands removed a tiny screwdriver from the bag of tools and reached into the works of his arm. Dash had to admit that it was creepy to see a metal object that looked like a normal arm unless the access panel was open. But Sands did not seem to care as he carefully turned a few screws and tested his hand by opening and closing it. Finally satisfied, he went and retrieved a rock from outside his tent. With a wink, he crushed the rock into a fine powder.

"Whoa, that is so cool!" Dash exclaimed excitedly.

"I know, right?" He smiled, "But unfortunately, I can't control how hard I squeeze so I can't just leave my hand with the ability to crush anything I want. But I did hear that the new feedback sensor-package would allow for very fine control of your mecha-limb. I think I may go in for an upgrade."

"Are there any other nifty little gadgets hiding inside you?"

He gave a quick nod and a laugh, "Check this out." He leaned forward and scraped his fingers across the back of his neck, just at the hairline. A small piece of flesh colored rubber fell away to reveal a small slot in the back of his neck, "Dad got this for me for my birthday, it allows you to plug into a computer and access it using your mind. Think, and it is so. Anything you can actually imagine will come true in the virtual world. Good way to get away from a boring class or something."

"That is kinda cool, how much would one of those be?" Dash questioned excitedly.

"Uh," he rubbed his neck worriedly, "I don't think the procedure would work on a pony."

"Aw man, that's no fair!"

"Hey, maybe one day soon they will develop a way to use these techniques on ponies."

"Augh." replied the frustrated pegasus, "I hate waiting."

"Don't feel so bad, girl. It will happen, soon. Humans can't help but tinker with anything that comes their way, it's a bad habit."

"So long as I get some cool stuff, I'll be a test subject."

"Don't sound so eager about it," He pointed to the slot in his neck, "this hurts like hell if you get too near a magnet." The pair shared a laugh while Sands tuned his hand back to a normal level.

"So are there other, what did you call them, mecha-limbs?"

"Oh sure, the docs can replace your whole body with mechanics if you wanted, and had the money."

"That sounds like it would be fun. Nopony could hurt you, ever!"

"That is why some people undergo the surgeries. Others have no choice, they have to have much of their bodies replaced after accidents or such."

"Why don't more people do this? These mecha-limbs seem so much better than normal ones."

"Many people distrust those with mecha-limbs, something about being less than human. It's the worst for the ones with whole body replacements; no one will have anything to do with them. That's the reason that I hide mine, I don't need any trouble for something that is not… entirely my fault."

"That is not fair! Just because those with the fake parts…"

Dmitri held up a hand and gave a knowing nod, "It's not fair, but that is humanity for you. I trust that you will not let anyone else know about this?"

"My lips are sealed, you can count on that." The pair left the tent to continue their game; a bond of trust was forming between them, forged in battle and tempered by understanding.

Twilight lay in her bunk, the hard bed aggravating her already sore body. Even so, she had had no trouble falling asleep after the long day she had went through. Her sleep was dreamless and deep as death. She had walked in, picked one the empty bunks in the communal tent, and fell into it, dead to the world before she hit the bed covers.

All too soon, she heard the banging of pots and a drill instructor yelling at her to wake up. She groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the intruder into her blissful slumber. Big mistake, the DI walked over, grabbed the bed in a hand, and flipped it and its occupant to the floor. The unicorn screamed at the unanticipated fall and landed on her side with a dull thud, bruising her flank.

"Rise n' shine, maggot." the instructor yelled, Celestia had not yet even raised the sun, "You got ten minutes to get your bunk made, get showered or whatever you ponies do, and get your sorry ass to the parade grounds; now MOVE!"

"Ten minutes?" Twilight questioned as she yawned, "That is not enough time."

The DI, who had been leaving the tent, turned around, "Oh really?" He proceeded to kick over the rest of the bunks and looked to her with an evil smile, "Now look what you did! Get this mess cleaned up, and report to the parade grounds. Is that a problem?"

"No."

"No, what?" the DI asked dangerously.

"No, sir."

"What do you know; you are smart enough to learn." He said with the evil smile still firmly in place as he left the tent. Twilight began righting the bunks and replacing the bedcovers, tears beginning to sting her eyes. She could not believe the change in the DIs from yesterday; they had been mean, not evil. She finished fixing the beds, but had no time left to take a shower and had to run to make the ten minute deadline. She just barely made it, by her calculations. The DIs, however, thought differently.

"You're late, maggot!"

"But I…" she stopped herself argument, "Yes sir."

"Get down, a hundred pushups. NOW!"

Twilight dropped into the ready position and began doing the pushups, until a boot descended on her back and forced her to the ground. She was held there for several seconds; she nearly collapsed from the pressure applied by the human's heavy frame.

"That ain't pushups, start over!"

The unicorn had begun to wonder if the DIs were capable of any volume below a shout while the instructor counted off the pushups for her. She would dip down, be expected to hold that position for a few seconds, then she would rise to the resting position, just to repeat the sequence again. Every so often, the instructor would say she had messed up and add ten more to the pile. The words turned to mush in her mind while her body slowly turned to jelly. Finally, she heard the instructor begin to count off the final set. But instead of letting her finish, the DI had her hold the downward pose for what felt like eternity.

"What a useless sack of crap you are." an instructor commented as he circled Twilight, "You think that you could actually do this? What the hell makes you think that you could join the ranks of the galaxy's strongest fighting force?" He gave the struggling unicorn a kick to the hind leg, making her fall over, "Look at that, you can't even stay on your feet! Jesus, I'm supposed to make you into a soldier? I'm an instructor, not damn miracle worker!"

Twilight's eyes shined with hate and anger at the man while he continued to circle her, delivering blow after verbal blow to her. He insulted everything from her parents, upbringing, and even going so far as to insult the Princess for not preparing the ponies for war, calling her, among other things, "coward". If nothing else had worked before, this brought Twilight to her hooves in anger.

"Oh look, she can still stand!" the DI sneered, "If you can do that, then you can run."

"What did you say?" Twilight asked, her voice shaking in anger.

"You heard me, or do you need to get your ears cleaned? I said that frilly Princess of yours must be a coward to make humans fight for her."

"Don't talk about Princess Celestia like that!" Twilight nearly screamed at the human.

He brought his face close to the unicorn's, "Or what?"

Twilight had never before swung her hoof in anger, but now she wanted to make this smug human feel her anger in his broken jaw. She put all the force she could muster behind the hoof that looked like it was going to connect with his face. But the DI merely swept aside the blow with a wave of his hand and brought his knee into her chin. Stars burst in her eyes as the taste of blood filled her mouth for the first time, its metallic tang making her want to vomit. She fell to the ground, cradling her face in her hooves.

The DI stood over her, shaking his head, "Pathetic, but if you can attack me; you can still work." He made the injured pony do hundreds of sit-ups to his specifications. Once that was over; she was made to do everything from squats and even pull-ups. Any time she failed a task, or if they just felt like it, one of the instructors would make her do some arduous task as punishment.

After a short break for breakfast, the female DI who had been so nice yesterday once more tossed the heavy bag to the exhausted unicorn; ordering her to put it on. She had changed her entire demeanor from the day before; going from a strict but caring mother-figure to a fire breathing demon from the depths. They had her run at top speed carrying the heavy bag for about two miles.

Twilight was not feeling well, her stomach churned and her head was swimming. Despite the shouts from the DIs, she stopped and lost what little food she had been able to stomach. Her eyes watered and slowly she began to lose consciousness. She was not awake to feel an instructor catch her before she hit the ground.

Jaze sat at his desk, working in vain to get through all the paper work that had been building up in the last few days. It was a frighteningly dull task, but a necessary one. There were requisition forms, orders, and lists of supplies that all clamored for his attention with their differently colored ink. He had been working nonstop since that morning and had had enough to last him a life time.

"Seriously," he said out loud to the air, "why do armies need so much paperwork? Next there will be a written request form to use the toilet." He stood and shook his head, "I need a break, maybe I can check to see how the 'recruit' is doing. By now she must be ready to quit."

As if that was the signal, an aide came in and gave a hesitant salute, "Um, sir?"

"What is it?" the annoyed Colonel asked.

"Admiral Gaston is calling for you."

Jaze rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger while he squeezed his eyes shut, "Okay, put him on the view screen." He stood before the screen and waited for Gaston's face to appear. Thankfully the wait was short, in no time the Admiral's tired features appeared before the assassin.

Jaze snapped a salute, "Admiral."

"At ease." His voice was more tired than his face.

"Sir, you look like a demon dragged you backwards through hell."

"Ya could say that." He sighed, "A lot has happened recently. First off, I have some bad news for ya."

"What, what's wrong?" Worry saturated Jaze's voice.

"The Cye have been launching massive offensives all across human territory. I won't be send able to the rest of the troops there for some time to come."

"I understand." The Colonel's tone was understanding, but his mind was churning. Damn, he thought, that'll make this holding action so much harder. Hopefully the reinforcements can get here before the Cye.

"Wait Jaze, there's more."

"What else happened?"

"We lost Vaseti." Those three words struck Jaze to the core. So much had ended, and began, on that planet. And now it was in the hands of his enemy. He had a feeling that Carn was doing this just to get into his head; which, if true, seemed to be quite effective.

"Bastard." the assassin whispered vehemently.

"I do have some good news for you though. I got a resupply coming to you, lots of food and ammo, along with a few Valkyrie dropships."

"Thanks, if nothing else the will be useful as air support."

"Be careful, the Cye are behaving… differently. They're more focused and seem like they've been bypassing some key worlds while they will spend days annihilating the forces stationed on others."

"Thank you sir." a thought struck the assassin, "Could you show me the planets they attacked, and at what dates."

"No problem." The Admiral's face was replaced by a star chart with all the attacked systems highlighted. Gaston's thoughtful tone filtered through the speakers, "Stranger still, they have somehow made off world communication impossible on the worlds they attacked.

Jaze stared at the chart; something was nudging at his brain, mocking him for something he should see. Come on, it whispered, it's right there. There seemed to be no pattern, but there had to be a reason.

"Wait a second…" Jaze touched a button on the com screen and a holo keyboard appeared. After typing a few quick commands, a line connected all the systems together. They formed a perfectly straight line, with the exception of Vaseti. The assassin quickly extended the line to confirm what he already knew. Sure enough, the line passed right through a certain geo-centric system. "Gaston, take a look at this!"

"What have you got?"

"I think that the Cye are building a supply line. This line leads from deep in Cye space, right through everything, to land here, in this system. They are setting themselves up for a siege."

"Bloody hell, you're right! We've been too busy cleaning up the mess to realize what was going on." The star chart closed to reveal a smiling Admiral, "You just save a heap of lives, Jaze."

Jaze crossed his arms and smiled, "You're slipping, old man. Two years ago you would have spotted that days ago. Do I need to call the nursing home?"

"Tell ya what," he replied with a raised eyebrow and a smile, "you don't call them, and I won't get a babysitter."

"Okay, fair is fair." Jaze laughed, then became serious, "I wonder how big the fleet they are moving is."

"Jaze!" the Admiral called excitedly, "we can use this to find the Cye home world."

"What?"

"Look," the star chart reappeared on the screen, "all we would have to do is follow this line back to their home world. We could take the fight to these bastards!"

Jaze suddenly shared in the Gaston's excitement, "Yeah, we could go find where they live and breed, so to speak. Rip out their heart. We could slow them down, or even halt them entirely." Visions of something that had been eluding the galaxy for six years danced in the assassin's eyes; visions of peace, a life without constant fear of attack.

"First things first," the Admiral said as he closed the star chart again, "you can't let them have that planet. It has become a rallying force for the whole human race. We're not alone anymore, and that gives people hope. And right now, hope is more helpful than a thousand starships, a million soldiers, and even more important than our lives."

"Don't worry sir. I never planned to abandon this planet. But, we could end the war! It could all be over!"

"It is something to hope for, but back to the task at hand. We have to get the planets in the path of the fleet evaced. Maybe some of the neighboring systems will be able to take 'em in for now."

"You're going to send our findings to the politicians?"

"Obviously; they need to spread this info around, it will be another boost for morale. Imagine it, the war, over." The thought of finally having peace brought a smile of true happiness to the old soldier's face.

"Yeah, but the government or some researcher will get the credit for figuring it out."

"Yeah, but we still get the pleasure of hitting 'em hard."

"You bet," Jaze pounded his fist into the opposite hand, "these bastards got six years of payback coming. I look forward to this."

A knock came at the door and another aide poked his head in, "Uh, sir?"

"Yes, what is it?" Jaze asked, unable to keep the smile from his face.

"It's about the new recruit sir. She, uh… collapsed, and was taken to the infirmary."

The smile slid from the assassin's face like oil on water, "When?

"About two minutes ago, sir."

"What's this I hear about a recruit?" Gaston asked confusedly.

"Sir, I have to go. A friend of mine is hurt." Jaze said quickly.

"Go on, I have said all I need to anyway." The assassin was gone before the Admiral had finished his statement, running at top speed for the infirmary.

Twilight slowly became aware of her surroundings again. At first, she felt something beneath her back, something soft a comfortable. She was then aware that she was covered by something, perhaps a blanket. The unicorn's head was swimming; she was having trouble focusing. After much concentration, she was able to discern a sound, voices. There was two of them, both male, and they sounded familiar, but she could not focus her mind to remembering right then. They seemed to be having a quiet argument. It was sometime before she could actually understand what the pair was saying

"Sir, I knew that we were pushing her too hard." One of the male voices whispered.

"I told you to treat her like a normal recruit, this is not your fault." the other answered. That's Jaze, Twilight finally gathered, and the other is one of the instructors. Where am I?

"It damn well is, I should have stopped; let her rest."

"Would you let a human recruit rest?"

"… No, I wouldn't. But this is different, sir."

"How so? She wants to be a soldier, and your job is to get her ready for something one cannot possibly prepare for."

"I understand, sir, but this just feels… wrong. She's not ready."

"We agree on that; don't worry, she is done now." Twilight could hear the sound of footsteps leaving and felt a presence nearby. She slowly forced her eyes open to see Jaze standing over her with a worried expression.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to sit up but stopping when the room swirled around her.

Relief was written all over the Colonel's face, "Oh thank heaven you're awake!" He pulled a chair over and sat down, "You passed out in training, the instructor who just left brought you in here."

"Where is here?" The unicorn cast her eyes around the room. She saw many beds and a mess of medical equipment. She guessed she was in a hospital, but it was not Ponyville General.

"This is the infirmary, where wounded soldiers are brought for treatment."

"Oh, I…" she was interrupted when a white alicorn burst into the room, worry etched deeply into her features.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Celestia asked as she closed the distance between her and the bed.

"I'm fine." the unicorn assured, but she fell back onto the bed as the world spun around her.

"No you're not." She turned to Jaze, worry replaced by anger, "This it twice you've hurt one of my ponies."

The assassin stiffed and prepared to deliver a scathing reply, but Twilight cut him off, "Princess, it's not his fault."

"How so?"

"I made him let me go through with this. I want to help."

The Princess's expression softened, "I see, but this is not the place for you."

"Why not? I can help, so I should."

"Are you truly set on this?" The purple unicorn nodded, "And I believe that I cannot say anything to dissuade you?" She shook her head this time, and Celestia turned back to Jaze, "Please then, continue this training. If she wants this, I cannot stop her."

"But I can!" Jaze said passionately, "She is not cut out for this; she could get hurt much worse next time! Trainees have died in basic before; I won't let her join them!"

"Jaze, stop being selfish." The Princess's words brought him up short, "This is her wish, give this to her."

He took a deep steadying breath, "Okay then, but if it ever gets too tough…"

"I'll tough it out. Just because I can't use a gun doesn't mean that I can't die from one."

"Fine then," Jaze, "I won't stop you. But you have to promise me that you will not make this any harder on yourself."

"I promise." Twilight replied, a fire of hard determination in her eyes. She did not know what the future held, but she knew that she would be ready to meet it. She let her eyes slide closed and fell into a natural slumber.