Over her many years as Princess Celestia’s pupil, protege, and peer, Twilight Sparkle had only managed to truly upset her three times. The first was an incident involving Twilight’s doll Smarty Pants and an illegal charm. The second involved two mimes, five barrels of ‘special’ Apple Family Cider, and waking up next to Discord in a hotel room in Las Pegasus.

The third time was right now as she was being stared down by the figurehead of GDI, the Solar Goddess herself. Behind her, crammed into the room a little tightly, were five unicorns and one pegasus in gilded ZOCOM suits which signified their status as royal guards. Each had saddles with GD2 rifles slung on them and unforgiving black visors that hid their faces completely. On their flanks were oxygen tanks, with even their horns being completely covered by the tiberium resistant armor.

“Princess Celestia! What happened was… I saved my friends.” Twilight replied sheepishly, steeling herself for the inevitable, disappointed speech that she had no doubt Celestia was preparing.

“I want a full explanation, from the moment the tiberium spike burst up until now, with a special debrief from you about why you’ve breached the code of GDI’s Charter, Twilight.” she replied, her voice no longer having the same volume, yet carrying the same commanding tone she had used during the Smarty Pants issue.

“I can provide some of that information, your majesty.” Rarity spoke up. “We were all returning from Braeburn’s funeral when somepony began shouting… it was all a bit of a blur after that, but I do remember some parts. We.. we went in to help with containment, tried to get everypony away from the breach and help those wonderful ZOCOM ponies keep the containment shield active before one of the infected… well…. mutated.”

All three Princesses cringed at that. All had seen first-hand what tib infection could do if it was bad enough to cause Visceroids. The process was brutal, painful, and traumatic for the victims along with anyone watching them turn into huge blobs of crystal, flesh, and tendrils.

“I was beaten aside by one of them, the brute… Pinkie pushed a filly out of the way and was nearly consumed for her trouble.” Rarity continued, “After that all I really recall is ZOCOM ponies putting me to sleep and then waking up here.”

“That’s where I came in, Rarity. Over the past few months I’ve managed to create a workaround.” Twilight said, not daring to look her teacher in the eye.

“A workaround?” Luna inquired, doing her best not to sound too interested in how the younger princess had achieved such a miracle.

“Yes. By testing on mice, I managed to find a way to allow a simple treatment to cause controlled tiberium infection where the crystal is rendered almost completely inert and stops its spread. Pinkie and Rarity may have tiberium in their systems for the rest of their lives but it won’t infect anypony or anything that they come in contact with.”

“Mice?! How did you accomplish this with mice?! Research of this caliber would take months, even years to carry out, and yielding such results!” Luna exclaimed, incredulous.

“I magically altered their DNA to be exactly like that of a pony, while keeping a shapeshifting charm active on their body so that they’d still look like mice. Their essence was changed, but their form stayed the same. With the spells in place I could test on pony DNA without endangering any sapient life.”

“So you deliberately disobeyed my instructions to find a way to make our sonic resonance technology more effective when dealing with tissue infestation, Twilight.” Celestia cut in, her voice growing in volume again, “You went behind my back, betrayed my trust, and violated the Charter to create a… an abomination no better than those Visceroids! Tiberium is a cancer that we need to destroy, not embrace!”

So much pain. So much suffering. So much death. All because of that damnable crystal. Her critics often pointed to her decision to seal all borders to non-GDI-affiliated territories as an abandonment of those suffering the most. Celestia understood perfectly how it may have looked like that, but not for a second did she forget about the plight of the Gryphons or the downfall of the Dogs. For the time being, GDI had to protect itself and its member-states. It had to buy time, time necessary to develop a method to eradicate this cancer to the world. Time to prepare itself for the non-trivial task of healing the world once they had it. By the Sun that grants life-bringing light to the world, she would cleanse the world of Tiberium, eradicate the abominations born from it, and make the land whole once more.

“Princess, I only-”

“Enough, Twilight. I will not hear it. You carried out illegal experiments, ignoring the very foundation of beliefs that GDI was founded upon, and you did it all under my nose… I will need time to think this all over.”

“But Princess…”

“I said enough!” Celestia snapped, “Captain, please detain Ms. Rarity and Ms. Pie for their own safety and have them moved to ZOCOM Command HQ in Canterlot until we can find a way to permanently get rid of their tiberium infection. I also want a detachment sent to the Castle of Friendship tomorrow morning to be sure that Princess Sparkle has destroyed all tiberium research in her possession that is not authorized by myself, Princess Luna, or GDI’s tiberium research mandate.”

“Sister, surely we can find a silver lining to this… dire, situation.” Luna interjected.

“You know very well that we can’t.” Celestia told her before looking back at Twilight, “If you don’t burn it, Captain Sentry will.”

“Yes, Princess…” Twilight managed to mutter out as the guards moved in around her and began putting up quarantine spells around Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Both mares looked at each other for a moment before attempting to grab each other’s hooves once their beds began moving. To their credit, the guards were kind enough to move their beds close enough so that they could and were as gentle as possible as they moved them to the transport waiting outside. Captain Flash Sentry flipped his visor up once the infected ponies had been removed and gave Twilight the most apologetic look he could muster before Celestia turned to leave. Princess Sparkle made eye contact with them both for only a moment, yet the amount of pain in her eyes was enough to make Sentry cringe. Celestia suppressed the urge to break down in tears herself, if only barely.

“Sister, we need to talk about this in private.” Celestia stated, not even looking over at Luna, before walking out and letting the door hiss shut behind her. For what seemed like an eternity, Luna sat next to a quivering, sniffling Twilight Sparkle with a look of disdain on her face.

“We should banish her to the Sun for a thousand years and see how she likes it.” Luna finally said, snapping Twilight out of her internal pity party. Her somber expression was replaced by one that was half terror and half confusion.

“Kidding. We are kidding… mostly.” Luna added with a hint of a smirk across her muzzle.

“Princess…”

“Twilight, We must regretfully ‘agree’ with our sister.” Luna said, giving quotation marks with her hooves for emphasis, “But that does not mean We want to agree with our sister. You accomplished something that could save Equestria and the other kingdoms that share our world, but now it will be destroyed. Commit to memory what you can, We will try and reason with Our sister that compromise is sometimes necessary for survival.”

Twilight simply nodded, still too shocked for words after all that had just happened as Luna began walking out. Once she was gone, Luna stood as well and looked around one more time before she too left. Continuing back the way she came, Luna made it outside just in time to see the doors of the ‘Ox’ transport close up its bay doors and take off. Beside it was Celestia’s chariot and four pegasi guards in ceremonial armor.

“Sister, please get on.” Celestia said from her seat.

“Only if you let Us stay here. We can have this talk, but We believe our efforts would be best suited here while you take care of business in Canterlot.” Luna replied.

“Very well…” the Solar Princess sighed as her sister took a seat next to her. Celestia gave a simple flutter of her wings to the guard commander and they dispersed outside of earshot.

“Sister, We have never seen you snap at Twilight like this before.”

“I’m barely containing the tears, Luna.”

“Anger or sadness?” Luna asked, looking up to her sister. Celestia was usually the perfect picture of royal composure and bearing but even Luna had seen her break the facade from time to time. This was the closest she’d seen her to tears in over a thousand years.

“And We were not the ones to actually see them…” the Lunar Princess thought with a shudder as a few of her memories as Nightmare Moon flashed across her mind.

“Both.” Celestia replied, throwing up a privacy shield around the chariot before sinking to both knees and letting a few tears flow. “Twilight lied to me. Lied to us. She betrayed GDI and… and…”

“She betrayed no one, dear sister.” Luna whispered as she sat next to her sister. “She is by far the most knowledgeable pony in all of Equestria. Science has been her field of expertise as much as magic has. Remember when she sent you a friendship letter speaking of faith? How hard she tried to explain Laughter’s Pinkie Sense?”

“I fail to see what that has to do with this, Luna.”

“She is a visionary, even if somewhat misguided at times. Have you stopped to think of who she did this for? She wishes to save others, regardless of cost or compromise. Can you really blame her for seeking out every alternative to saving our planet and those who haven’t been killed by this cancerous crystal yet?”

“There is no compromise with tiberium, Luna.” Celestia replied, the resolve returning to her voice, “Our world is like a pony’s body, and tiberium is a cancer. Not a flu, not a pox, not a virus, but a cancer. There is no way to cure a cancer other than complete eradication.”

“Sister, open yours eyes please. We are not exactly ‘winning’ the war against Tiberium right now. What Twilight has brought forth, even if the means are controversial, could give the world time to come up with a cure proper. Think of what would have happened if Rarity and Pinkie Pie died. What would have happened to Appleloosa if they could have survived the initial infections.”

“Luna, we cannot compromise with this crystal. It is nothing more than a monster that you cannot reason with. A beast in its own right. We destroy it or it destroys us.” Celestia retorted, “And if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were starting to pay too much attention to those ‘Brotherhood’ broadcasts that have been going out.”

“The tiberium extremists?” Luna asked, raising a single eyebrow, “You mean those ‘followers of the way of Nod’ or somesuch, correct?”

“Who else, Luna? They are the only ones who seem to share your cavalier attitude about Tiberium.”

“Just because We are willing to entertain all the options does not mean We are in league with a petty band of terrorists, dear Sister.”

“Braeburn was a member, Luna….” the Princess of the Sun replied, her tone going from commanding and accusing to one full of regret, “He was one and I fear my nightmares of Appleloosa will return once more because of it.”

“Then We will be there to soothe your mind and calm you as We did at the start of this entire catastrophe.” Luna replied, giving her sister a loving nuzzle before the shield disappeared. Luna stepped down as it did, giving her sister the most encouraging smile she could muster as Celestia regained her royal composure.

“I await your return eagerly, dearest sister.” Celestia said as her guards returned to their harnesses. “Please, take care of this all with as much stealth as you can muster, I fear if word got out about this fiasco the media would have a hay day.”

“No one here but us trees, dear sibling.” Luna teased back with a wink.

“As it should be. Farewell Luna.”

With that, the royal chariot took off towards Canterlot once more, followed by a flight team of 10 pegasi guards. Once all of Celestia’s guards had flown off to escort her back to the capitol, Luna’s smile immediately fell off her face. Had Discord still been alive, her expression would have likely literally fallen to the ground and shattered with the speed that a frown spread across her muzzle and her brow furrowed.

“As bullheaded as Steelwing the First on that blind date…” Luna muttered, more venom in her voice than in a thousand manticore tails.

The cleanup process at and around the area in which the Tiberium spike burst to the surface was proceeding about as well as could be expected of ZOCOM. Sonic emitters were set up around the newly-grown tib field to prevent its spread to the immediate area, all while pegasi in bulky, extremely-protected suits flew over the epicenter of the burst. Flying with one’s wings covered usually wasn’t a problem seeing as most fabrics were thin and light. These suits were anything but. The need to protect these ponies against infestation, however, made any thoughts regarding comfort a secondary concern. After all, comfort was worthless if one had a crystal growing inside one’s trachea.

Holding position above the epicenter, the ZOCOM pegasus’ instruments measured both the height of the primary crystal node, as well as the height of the soil displacement. Combining all these measurements with the tib field’s radius and size of the crystals gave an accurate measurements of the force with which the Tiberium had breached the surface, which in itself gave ZOCOM an idea of the scale of their job. Most civilians normally thought said job consisted of clearing the field with harvesters and then plugging the breach with a Tiberium silo, and they’d be partially right. However, there was a reason ZOCOM set perimeters to be a minimum of four times the radius of the field. Microtib, pebble-sized tiberium crystals, were far too common a sight during these sort of events, flying off far past where the field itself ended. They each had to be found and disposed off in order to consider an area clear, lest a fresh new tib field, or twenty, form in the middle of a blue zone weeks after the initial breach. And as the harvesters finally arrived at the scene, Luna watched the ZOCOM ponies sweep the area grid by grid.

It was quite obvious to Luna that ZOCOM would handle this well enough. Kindness herself was overseeing this cleanup operation herself after all, meaning that little could go wrong as far containment was concerned. With that in mind, the Night Princess headed into town, towards the most conspicuous building around. The Castle of Friendship, a literal treecastle. Luna knew for a fact that Twilight was not home yet, having left the temporary ZOCOM base before Twilight had even left the quarantine area. Luna could feel someone inside, however. Someone currently enjoying her domain: The Realm of Dreams. It was quite late, after all, and most ponies were sleeping at this time. Chances were, so was Twilight’s assistant, Spike. Focusing on the one mind, the Night Princess jumped into her subject’s dream.

From her experience, dreams usually had something to do with the individual’s personal experiences, worries, fears, hopes, interests, desires, all sorts of things. The most usual type, however, revolved around the events of the very day. Spike’s fell right into that category, and then some. He appeared to be in a lab with Generosity, himself represented as a taller, more muscular version of what he was right now. Apparently he fancied himself a scientist, performing absolutely flabbergasting feats of science capable of leaving the white mare absolutely speechless in amazement. Her overacting to it though reflected reality too closely. The location however did not look like it was in the main building proper. It looked rougher, still well-lit yet at the same time darker. The walls didn’t look like the wood or rock that made up the interior of the castle, nor did it look like the lab she knew was inside. Subtly influencing the dream, she dropped unspecified dream-chemicals into each other, starting a fire. This prompted the brave, knightly dragon to pick up the white mare and run out. Out of the ruins of the old library.

Perfect.
___________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle was dealing with a war of her own within the confines of her mind by the time she made it back to her crystalline castle. She had gotten past the dejected mood that her scolding had set her in and let her view of the situation take a rather confused tone.

“Why would she order me to destroy all my research? I mean, sure, it was technically outside of what the charter allowed, but it worked! And nopony was hurt either, so...” she asked herself as she magically slammed every door she passed through in frustration, en route to her personal lab. “This has to be a test, right? Yeah, she’s just testing me. Wants to test me as a princess now that I have this place… right? But, she definitely sounded serious. But then she’d HAVE to sound serious to get me to buy it. But I can’t just destroy all my research either; it saved my friends, it could save everyone else! I could just memorize all the data though… but then I’d be disobeying orders… but Luna said she’d talk to the Princess about it.... which means I could memorize them just in case… unless she’s not convinced and AAARGH!” she cried out in complete frustration.

“Twilight? Is everything ok?” a male voice inquired. Spike had come to see what all the noise was about and was greeted with the sight of Twilight Sparkle with a frazzled mane and deep scowl.

“No. I saved Rarity and Pinkie Pie by rendering their tiberium infestation completely safe, only to get Princess Celestia to order me to get rid of all of my personal research by tomorrow morning.” she grunted, a hoof to her forehead foreshadowing the onset of a headache.

“Sheesh… that’s harsh.”

“That’s not the half of it. Rarity and Pinkie Pie are now in a quarantine prison until further notice because they’re now considered to be mutants.”

“What!?” Spike shouted, “How can they do that!? Rarity isn’t a mutant!”

“No she’s not, but she’s got an inert tib infestation all along her face and neck that Celestia wants to ‘make sure’ is harmless.”

“That’s not right! She can’t just lock up our friends like this.” Spike retorted, getting more defensive of his crush by the second.

“I know that, Spike, but there’s nothing we can really do right now... except salvage what we can. Spike, the Princess ordered me to destroy anything related to my Tiberium research, but not you. I want you to pack up anything that isn’t ‘sanctioned’ and get it ready for transfer; I want it all ready for me to teleport to my auxiliary lab underneath the library ruins. The Princess may be testing me, but this is going too far… this is just too important to destroy.”

“You got it, boss.” Spike replied without hesitation. Despite his original misgivings, when Twilight was committed enough to defy Princess Celestia about anything, she always had a perfectly good reason. Whether or not he heard it now or after everything was moved didn’t really matter to him.

While Spike worked at boxing up anything he could get his claws on, Twilight started duplicating everything she saw and burning the duplicates immediately for the sake of throwing Flash Sentry off the trail. The more convincing her alibi, the easier it would be to continue her research and prepare a treatment that Princess Celestia couldn’t ignore.

“Twilight, I know I’m your assistant and all, but do you think you could help me out? There’s a ton of equipment for us to move.”

“Sure, Spike. Just give me a moment to burn this last duplicate.” she told him as another piece of paper went up in magic purple flames. Once satisfied that there were enough ashes all over the floor, Twilight began magically moving everything into boxes, crates, and folders while Spike worked as fast as he could so he could go back to bed.

“Spike, hold on tight.” Twilight said as the last crate was locked up. Spike obeyed, again without hesitation, as he felt himself blink in and out of existence for a moment as he went from looking at the laboratory basement of the Castle of Friendship to the sub-basement and secret lab of Princess Twilight Sparkle buried under the ruins of Golden Oaks Library.

“Thanks for the warning this time, Twilight.” he muttered.

“Quite the entrance, as always, Princess Sparkle.” a mare sitting in the center of the darkened lab stated. Twilight seized up like Fluttershy seeing her shadow at the voice, eyes going wide and near-panic spreading across her muzzle.

“Princess Luna… how… h-how did you find this place…?” she finally asked, her voice shaking a little.

“That is of no consequence, dearest Twilight, and if you do not mind, We would like to be the one asking the questions.” Luna replied as she stepped into the light. She was smiling, though not the smile of a predator. She was smiling as a friend would to another when an embarrassing secret is accidentally told, or a mother finding her daughter in the middle of pranking a sibling.

“Of… of course.”

“You managed to create a way to live with tiberium, not against it. A way to control infestations instead of trying to reverse them completely…. why?”

“It’s the only way.” Twilight answered instantly.

“The only way?” Luna echoed, her smile turning into a sly smirk.

“We’re losing this ‘war’. Every day we lose ponies and miles of land. Sonic resonance technology requires constant recalibration to counter Tiberium’s constant evolution and if I’m to be completely frank… if you can’t beat’em, join’em.”

“Ah yes, a phrase that has adapted itself to this new age. Would you believe we once felt that way about Discord when he first ruled? We tried to reason with him, come to a compromise, but he could not be reasoned with and the only option was to turn him into stone until he could be reformed. But he was reformed in the end.”

“Is there a point to this before you arrest me, Princess?” Twilight asked.

“We are not here to arrest you, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said, taking a few more steps towards her younger peer, “We share your thoughts on Tiberium. On how we must adapt, not eradicate… natural selection must sometimes be helped along, and right now this crystal is attempting to wipe us all out.

“Dearest Twilight, I come not to arrest you, but to recruit you. If you wish to continue your research of controlled mutation, I will spirit you away to my private facility in Changeling territory and you will be allowed to do whatever you wish as long as it is for the greater good of our world.”

“I can practice freely…?”

“We… are afraid not. Celestia does not know that we have this facility or its location. She does not know that two days ago, my research team barely started to scratch the surface of what you have already accomplished with mice and minimal resources.”

“Princess… you…. you went behind her back too?” Twilight asked, her shocked expression carrying over into her tone.

“She would never sanction what we both know to be true. Tiberium must be embraced, in a way, if we are to survive what it does to the planet. We can save this world, Twilight, all you need to do is say yes. However, be aware that if you choose this path, you will never be allowed inside GDI territory again, at least until this crisis is over. If you wish to back out now and simply give us your research, we will not hold it against you. The choice is yours.”

The offer was, in the simplest terms possible, overwhelming. Here they were, two Princesses, one being the co-ruler of Equestria, the other being a vassal of the realm. Both of them going behind the head of GDI. The world was dying; that they both knew quite well, and so did Princess Celestia. Some suspected Tiberium had arrived much earlier, but it had now been a year since the fight against the crystal began. A single year that had seen entire portions of the planet depopulated of all kind of life. The Sonic Emitters were too slow, too inefficient at their job. The constant need for recalibration and remodulation meant that, most of the time, it was impossible to remove Tiberium from somepony’s body due to technical limitations. All they did was make pretty corpses that then had to be disposed of carefully.

A year earlier, Twilight might have considered the very idea of doing anything behind Princess Celestia’s back as beyond unthinkable. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Tiberium was going to consume all. They couldn’t fight it. It couldn’t be banished. It couldn’t be disposed of. It couldn’t be reasoned with or tamed with the magic of friendship. The only ones outside of GDI’s domain who continued to prosper were the changelings, and they had changed and adapted to Tiberium. If ponykind didn’t try and replicate that miracle, then soon there would be no one left to try.

“Alright. I’ll do it. If it’s for the good of the world, I’ll definitely do it, but there’s something I need to do before we leave.”

“Yes?”

“I’m rescuing Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and I’m not leaving without them.”
__________________________

The headquarters of the Zone Operations Command, or ZOCOM for short, was one of the most secure locations on the planet. While technically located at Canterlot, geographically speaking it was almost its own city. A more accurate description would be to say that it was located over Canterlot, 6,000 meters over the sea level, located just high enough to avoid being hit by ion storms. ZOCOM HQ wasn’t so much a military base as it was a city of its own. Built on a solid foundation of clouds, the facility was one of its kind, unlike any floating pegasus city in the world. It was equipped with vast hydroponics towers capable of producing enough food to sustain approximately 50,000 ponies, with space allocated for the production of more towers should the need arise, thus increasing the capacity tenfold. Automated foundries were also present, capable of producing practically anything so long as they were fed by the raw materials provided by the onboard refineries that used tiberium as fuel, all of which were fed by carryalls loaded with harvester teams. Being the headquarters of ZOCOM, a moderate military detachment was present with its own base. However, said base was merely a secondary structure, with most of the floating city being dedicated to Tiberium research and how to counteract it.

There were only two ways to get onboard. Either one flew there, or took a transport; it simply was too high to teleport onboard and besides, the magical wards would prevent such an attempt. Twilight decided to fly there, mostly for the view. She never did like the place. To the general public, its purpose and location had been explained as being necessary to prevent a vital part of GDI from ever being threatened by Tiberium. However, to GDI’s politicians, the elite, and the heads of the military, its purpose - its real purpose - had been made abundantly clear. In the event that GDI fails and Tiberium’s spread reaches critical levels, enough to make the surface uninhabitable, all remaining non-infested personnel, both civilian and military, would be transported to ZOCOM HQ, becoming the last remnants of ponykind. ZOCOM HQ would then rise to an altitude of 10,000 meters, out of reach of any ion storm, and begin its new mission of attempting to reclaim a world-encompassing red zone.

Twilight didn’t only dislike the concept. She detested the idea itself. Of course, she understood the need for it, the need for a failsafe in case the worst came to pass, but that did nothing to reduce her hate for something that was the manifestation of defeatism, especially when she’d found a way to make it unnecessary.

As she flew closer, she suddenly felt magic covering her, scanning her once she was 10km out. A combination of changeling and ID scanner, it essentially saved VIPs’ time before they even set hoof on the facility. A pair of royal guards soon made themselves present, but by the time they’d shown up, Twilight was already landing.

“Your majesty, what an unexpected surprise!” one of the guards told her with a tone that spoke volumes about how fake his enthusiasm was. “Might I ask what’s the purpose of your visit?”

“Visiting two ponies in quarantine.” Twilight said as politely as possible while forcing a smile of her own.

“Miss Rarity and Miss Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, perfect! Lt. Colonel Macintosh is down there visiting them right now. I’ll call up his escort and we can go ahead and rush you through security without any problems.” the stallion replied with a genuine smile. Less time in security meant less time dealing with VIPs, and less time with VIPs meant resuming his rather lazy shift of waiting for ponies to fly by.

“The sooner the better.” the Princess of Friendship told him, her smile fading slightly at the thought of Big Macintosh having to see Pinkie Pie in her current state. She pushed that thought from her mind the moment that another stallion, another pegasus, found his way up to the waiting area and began leading her towards where her friends were being contained.

The interior of ZOCOM HQ could best be described as a labyrinth of metallic corridors and locked doors. Every now and then a another guard would pass by, but those were few and far between. After a while, Twilight was escorted into the research wing where her friends were being kept. Despite her escort not being the chatty type, she could easily tell, the entrance being labeled as such and all. To be honest, even though the corridors snaked around as if they were designed by Discord, at least they had everything properly labeled, arrows and floor-lines included. Soon enough though they entered the Quarantine Wing where both Pinkie and Rarity were being held. Walking past the cells, Twilight looked away. The ponies, gryphons, and animals in them were in various states of Tiberium infestation, kept sedated to spare them the pain. That was a sight she’d rather not see, not knowing what she knew. Soon enough she reached their cells, finding Big Macintosh still there.

At first he didn’t notice the alicorn standing at the end of the hallway, his attentions focused on the pink party pony leaning against the glass, himself pressing a hood against it. Pinkie Pie and Big Mac continued whispering to each other. As far as Twilight could tell, they were both attempting to comfort each other, despite their current situation.

“Big Mac…?” Twilight finally spoke up as she walked over.

“Princess Twilight. Nice of ya ta drop by and say hello.” he casually replied as he looked over and gave a respectful nod. He had learned long ago to stop saluting her but, regardless of her protests, he would never drop her title while in uniform.

“Well, I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t check in on these two after such a traumatic experience.” Twilight replied, “Even if that experience is still going on…” she thought to herself.

“Hiya Twilight!” Pinkie cut in, smiling at them both. Rarity perked up at that and looked around but did not speak.

“Hello Pinkie, how are you feeling?”

“Super DUPER minus the whole ‘locked up in a jail cell for being the first mare to survive a meanie crystal infection’! Mac Attack has been keeping me company for a while now and they even let me have some cake!”

“Well, I’m glad they’re not treating you too badly.” Twilight said, her grin weary, “How about you Rarity?”

“I”m scarred, disfigured, and incarcerated. Oh I’m just peachy, darling.” the former fashionista quipped with a frown, “Though if you’re referring to my health, I’m… alive, and that is not a gift that I would ever take lightly, Twilight.”

“I’d say that’s good to hear but imprisonment never really has a silver lining.” the purple pony told them, “But, I may have worked a way to get you two released. Big Mac, would you mind leaving us ‘gals’ alone to have a little chat? I promise it’ll only be a moment.”

“I’ll give ya more than a moment, yer highness.” the red stallion replied with a small smile, “Ah’ve got ta get back to it anyways. Just lemme say goodbye real quick and ah’ll be outta yer mane.”

“Awww… you’ll be back tomorrow, won’t you..?” Pinkie whined.

“Ah’ll try.” he said, nuzzling the glass where her muzzle was and getting her reply in the same manner before giving Twilight another respectful nod and walking out. Once he was gone, Twilight’s smile vanished and she moved from her spot on the opposite wall to being mere inches from the glass containment cells.

“Rarity, Pinkie, get ready to run with me.”

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity asked.

“The only way I can free you two is to break you out and I am not leaving you two behind to rot away while Celestia’s research labs try to find a ‘cure’ for you two that doesn’t exist. Stand back and get ready to follow my every movement.”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie didn’t get a chance to reply as they found themselves teleported simultaneously outside of their cells and into the hallway next to Twilight. The moment she had discharged her spell, alarms started sounding throughout the facility and the lighting went from sterile white to red. Outside, the sound of boots on metal reverberated through the hallways, signaling the arrival of unwanted company. Remembering the walk through the halls and the distance travelled, Twilight calculated that their next teleportation would place them right outside the entrance to the research division. In the blink of an eye, the trio had left the quarantine area and teleported into what looked to be the main hub connecting the different research divisions, landing on an unsuspecting scientist.

“...whoops” said Twilight to no one in particular. “I… think I forgot about a turn somewhere.”

Well, at least they were close to the exit. They just had to reach it, run a few hundred meters, and then she’d be able to teleport them out.

“FREEZE! DON’T MOVE!”

It was then that Twilight realized the significance of this hub and the fact it connected the research divisions. It meant that all the soldiers would be coming through here, just like the thirty that had them surrounded. Rarity, usually a mare of sophistication and grace, let out what Twilight was thinking with the most unladylike grace she could muster.

“Buck.”