"Spitfire?" Spike asked

"Right here." The Angel answered

"You have the coordinates to the other people we need?"

"Just uploaded them. Who do you want to get?

"The Mechanist."

"Gotcha. Setting coordinates to... Las Pegasus? Strange.

"And bring in The Doctor and Diamond Tiara. I got a feeling I may need them."

Locations:

Las Pegasus is a desert planet that was used as a place for criminals to hide, due to the planet's lack of resources and excruciating heat. History has revealed that, with a large number of criminals, the way to pass the time and prevent people from murdering each other, was they gambled with each other. Years later, the first casinos came, followed by service, and, before Celestia realized it herself, a whole new planet was made and it was making more money than the royal treasury. Since it's creation, while more than half of the casinos were made by criminals themselves, they have been monitored by declared governors of the planet, and many of the criminals that made their casino were arrested, many were released and a large handful are now retired in their own casino, taking pride on what they made that Celestia never did. Though Las Pegasus is under the Equestria's government, the planet is considered to be the most dangerous & chaotic, with the only source of order being the Casino managers themselves in their casino & hotels and some of Equestria's own soldier's there on patrol, with the only thing stopping Celestia from gaining full control over the colony under Martial Law, is that each Casino pays 25% of all their incomes.

Spike, Diamond Tiara, and the Doctor all sat in the shuttle together as it floated to an area on the planet that wasn't even close to the casinos or city.

"...So," Spike began "where'd you place both Trixie and Garble?"

"Trixie is in the Port Observation in the 3rd floor," Diamond Tiara answered "as a way to let everyone know where she's at and as a way to help her relax a bit. Garble is in the Starboard Cargo Area, where he's responsible for trash duty."

"As a way to make him work for his money?"

"No. It's just because I don't like him."

"That's very bias of you two." The Doctor commented.

"No one's perfect." Spike shrugged.

"Spike," WOONA spoke "our data indicated that our mechanist is somewhere in the ruins you're all going in. There is considerable Doppelganger activity here and an environmental hazard here. Solar Outputs have overwhelmed this area for unknown reasons; Exposure to direct sunlight will damage your shield." The doors to the shuttle opened, revealing they were in an ancient looking temple and, luckily, in shade. They hopped out, and their shuttle left.

"If only I brought my umbrella." The Doctor complained, pulling his device out and syncing it.

"You're a bit too late for that one." Diamond Tiara replied. Spike and the others walked ahead, feeling the heat of the sun, though relaxing to Spike, felt like fire for the others, making them run ahead of Spike into the next source of shade, where a huge gate stood with a door leading to it's security entrance. The Doc opened the door for them, but they stopped and heard a recording.

"Emergency Log Entry:" a male voice spoke in the recording "The Doppelgangers are here! I've stayed to buy the others time. Anyone who get's this, find Sweetie Belle! Only she and that data are all that matters! Boreí i̱ mi̱téra sas proséchei."

"Sweetie Belle is the Mechanist!?" Spike asked in surprise.

"We don't know that at all." Diamond Tiara replied "Besides, there's multiple people out there that are better than her. That recording and that guy may be the mechanist."

"Considering they said that only she and the data are important," the Doctor inquired "it's more than likely that Sweetie Belle may actually be the mechanist for our team."

"I hope not."

"If she is," Spike replied "deal with it!" Diamond Tiara grumbled under her breath, but followed Spike as he lead the two to the next area. A whirring sound was heard, followed by something that familiar to the buzzing of bees.

"Doppelgangers!" The Doc yelled, getting into cover. Doppelgangers landed near their area and began to fire at them. Luckily, no queen was around, so it meant Sombra has the queen somewhere else, most likely attacking Sweetie Belle's location, or she was with Sombra on board his ship. For Spike & Diamond, when a lone Doppelganger was in the direct sunlight, they were taken out easily, though the Doppelganger caught on to this and quickly took cover in the shade. Spike took notice on how Diamond Tiara was in combat: she wasn't focused for not only was that Sweetie Belle may be the mechanist, but something else. He looked behind and saw the Doc; instead of being a bit frightened, he was almost on the verge of panicking, probably about his daughter back in Manehatten.

Maybe I should've asked them what's happening. Spike thought to himself.

They all traveled ahead, dealing with the last Doppelganger, and made it into a shaded hallway. There were corpses of Doppelgangers, but also a fresh corpse of what looked like an angel in a hazmat suit with a radio next to it. Gunfire was heard across the area.

"Break-break-break." A male's voice spoke in the radio. "OP-1, this is squad leader Button Mash, do you copy?" Spike walked to the radio and picked it up. "OP-1, this is squad leader Button Mash, come in, over!"

"This is Commander Spike of the Celestia." Spike began "Can we provide assistance?"

"Spike!? THE Commander Spike!?... No, it's... gotta be a joke! Well 'Spike', if that's who you really are, patch your radio into channel 617 Theta. We're on a stealth mission sent by FIST, as I can tell Diamond Tiara's bio signature is here. We found what we're after, but the Doppelgangers found us. They got us pinned down; we can't get to our ship not can we transmit data through the solar radiation."

"What's the status of your team? How many are left?"

"We were a small team; Dozen marines, plus the science team. We're down to half strength now, but we took those bugs pay for it, though."

"What brought you this deep besides the city?"

"You're asking the wrong person, 'Spike'. I just point and shoot. Something about the sun & the area here, just an energy problem."

"And idea where the Doppelgangers came from?"

"Really? You're asking that!? It's Sombra: he somehow found us, sent his ships out and it rained giant bugs! And we hoped low emissions would hide us."

"Do we have to worry about Sombra sending in reinforcements?"

"I don't think so; Their ship hasn't left yet and the radiation blocks all off-world communications."

"That's good to hear. How are you holding up? We can be there in a few minutes."

"Take it slow and careful; direct sunlight fries all your shield to hell. We're bunkered down at base camp across the valley. I left Sweetie Belle at a secure shelter, then doubled back to hold the checkpoint. Getting Sweetie out safely is out top priority; if you can extract her, we'll keep them off you."

"You've got confirmation that they Doppelgangers haven't reached Sweetie yet?"

"Affirmative: I left my best men with her. When you get here, you can talk to her on the comm. Every marine is sworn to protect Sweetie Belle; as long as one of us is drawing air, she'll be safe.

"And you're willing to die for this data?"

"This data holds secrets that, in the long run, will aid all of us, and only Sweetie Belle can decrypt it."

"If that's the case, hold your position: we'll hit their back ranks."

"Wait! Watch your ass! We've got a dropship incoming!" The place shook, and the gunfire ceased, followed by something tall & heavy falling. Spike and his crew rushed to see a pillar falling & crushing fallen marines. "Crap! The Doorway's blocked! Grab the demo charges in the buildings nearby! Use them to clear a path!" Doppelgangers flew from the sky and landed near them, each hissing at them and preparing their weapons.

"You may need to hold on!"

They made it in the first building nearby and took the Demo charge in it. Spike, curiously, activated a recording Sweetie Belle left behind her.

"Sweetie Belle's journal," the voice of an older, more beautiful & less squeaky, but robotic sounding Sweetie Belle spoke "We need a core sample to get a timeline on the rate of radiation increase, but our equipment keeps dying on us My sister once used a mining laser some rubble back in Ponyville. Maybe I can do something similar, but with demo charges, as long as FIST doesn't find out."

"I almost forgot that she works for me now." Diamond Smirked

"For a different are, not under you directly." The Doc corrected.

"Same difference!" They traveled up and took care of the other Doppelgangers nearby and Spike stopped, clicking on another recording left by Sweetie Belle.

"It's next to impossible to get accurate solar measurements!" The recording of Sweetie whined "This radiation keeps burning our equipment! Whatever's happening here, we know that this sun shouldn't be like this; radiation levels were fine here hundreds of years ago! It's almost as if this star is dying quickly."

"Why is the radiation here so high?" Spike asked aloud.

"Who cares!" Diamond replied angrily "Let's get that other Demo charge and get the whiner!"

"What's up with you right now?"

"What's up is that any other engineer would've been fine, but NO, my dad had to choose Sweetie Belle out of everyone!"

"If your father is in charge of this operation," The Doc inquired "Maybe it's because he knows of her talent more than you do."

"Ech! Lets get those other charges and get her the hell out!" Spike gave a stern look at Diamond, wondering if this is her problem she needed to solve, or if it's something else that's a bit related. Nevertheless, they continued to make their way to get to the other charges.

They grabbed the other charges, found at the very end on the other side from where they entered. As they turned around, more Doppelgangers came out and fired at them, blocking them from their path. Spike and Diamond Tiara fired at the Doppelgangers and protected the Doc as he set up the explosive charges. After a few seconds, the remaining Doppelgangers were dead and the charges exploded, letting them open the door & enter the room. Inside, they saw a bunch of corpses of both soldiers & scientists in hazmat suits, and doppelgangers, with a lone Doppelganger crawling towards them, both of it's legs missing. Diamond Tiara wnet up front, pulled her pistol out, and executed the single Doppelganger with a single bullet. No words were spoken, but the Doctor looked around in amazement and Spike walked to find another journal of Sweetie Belle

"My Ancestors, The Mages," Sweetie Belle's recording began "use to walk around these halls before the rule of Princess Platinum. I believe that there must be a device, or a group of powerful mages, that worked here and made everything suitable, but something must've happened. I... wish my friends could see this. I... I wish... Spike... was here too."  

"Sweetie Belle to Base camp!" Sweetie's voice spoke through a transmitter across the room. "Come in, base camp!" Spike walked to the transmitter, seeing a hologram of Sweetie Belle under a hazmat suit. "Hello!? Is anyone there!?"

Guess that explains why she sounds like a robot. Spike thought to himself. He reached over to the controls and spoke. "Sweetie, it's Spike."

"Spike!? No, no, nononono! You must be that same man Button Mash told me about; the one who said was Spike, am I right?"

"It IS me, Sweetie Belle. Remember at the party during Princess Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding, we danced together?"

"... I remember that... what was my role there and what were you wearing?"

"You were one of the flower girls, along with Applebloom & Scootaloo, and I was in a tuxedo with top hat, doing the shuffling."

"... Either you are really lucky, or you really are THE Spike I knew! Well, 'Spike', what are you doing here in the middle of the Desert? I doubt Diamond Tiara sent you here to rescue me."

"You wish." Diamond grumbled to herself.

"I was in the neighborhood," Spike joked "and I though you might need a hand."

"Your joking, right?" Sweetie Belle asked "Never mind, thank you for coming, it means a lot. Button Mash and what's left of his marines got me into the observatory.  From where I'm at, it's through the door and across the field. I got the data I needed, and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of Doppelgangers outside."

"Would it help if I brought my ship, the Celestia?"

"Doubtful; these buildings are centuries old. If you bring down heavy fire, this whole place can collapse on us."

"It was worth a try. Is there anyone else with you, or are you alone?"

"Button had a team of marines covering me when I ran for the observatory. At least some of them are still alive; I can hear them firing at the Doppelgangers from outside."

"What's this research your after?"

"It's about this place in particular and why it's sun is overheating this area. I can tell you more once there's few Doppelgangers shooting at me." Spike turned to his crew, seeing the door was locked & the console is damage, but nodded to the Doctor. He went ahead and used his device to open the door.

"Just hold on for a bit longer; we're going to get you outta here!"

"Thank you, and please, keep Button alive." The door opened, and, after following the hallway, they entered what was a field with pillars providing shade from the sun, but Doppelgangers were everywhere as well. They knew what they needed to do, and both Spike and Diamond Tiara armed themselves and charged ahead.

After an extensive battle, the Doppelgangers fell and the three entered a room with closed security windows and a closed security door. Without much thought, as their way through was locked, Spike deactivated the security, unlocking the door and the shutters of the windows opened up. They looked outside, but saw Doppelgangers trying to open the door on where Sweetie Belle was at, and their queen... only this one was different from the other queens. Unlike the other Queens, this queen was really tall, and unlike the others, it was coated with Cybernetics; head to toe, there were wires all over her body! It turned around, revealing it had a cybernetic eye now, and it's right arm turned into a canon.

"What the f-!?" Diamond yelled.

"Get down!" Spike yelled. They all jumped out of the way as the above average tall queen fired through at them through her canon, but missing them.

"This feels all to familiar!" The Doc exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Spike asked

"I'll explain later!" They walked down the way and, in cover, was one of the people in a brown hazmat suit with a red, light yellow, & light orange pattern on top of the helmet that made it look like a beach-ball, but had a green cross on it's top. He had a grenade launcher in his hands as he leaned & crouched on the wall.

"Over here!" He yelled "Get to cover!" Spike took cover next to the man in the hazmat suit. "What the-!? Holy shit! You are Spike!!!"

"I told you." Spike simply said with a smug

"Sorry. I thought you were one of THOSE people before, now I can say otherwise. You better stay down before this queen gets any ideas! I have no idea why you're here, but this ain't the time to be picky. Sweetie's inside over there; they killed the rest of my squad and are trying to get over to her! The best I'd been able to do was draw their attention"

"Are you sure she's still alive?"

The observatory is reinforced, even those bugs will need time to get through it, and it's hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you. These bugs are at near platoon strength, but their queen is the worst part; not only is she huge and can fire canon blast as you, but she's got a repair protocol where she huddles up into a ball, uses her new exoskeleton to shield her, and fixes herself! I can't get a clear shot while it's down like that; I tried to move in closer, but one of the bastards punched a shot clean through my suit."

"How bad is your suit damage?"

"Don't worry about the radiation! We only wear these suits to not get irradiated like any other person would. Staying here like what you're doing won't have effects until about a week in, but I can tell you're not going to be here for that long. These bugs might get me, but I'm not gonna die just because I grew an extra arm in the middle of battle; that's just insulting!"

"Good to know. What can you tell me about the battlefield?"

"There's three pathways you can go through, each with their ups and downs. Right side has a catwalk with a sniper perch; you could wreck some havoc from there, but none of my men made it past the Doppelgangers. The middle's got cover, but that damn queen has a clear shot at you the whole time, and you've got bugs coming in from both sides. The left gives you some cover from the queen, but your ass is hanging out for the bugs; that's how I got shot."

"How do we get rid of the queen."

"Easy: lots of bullets and, if you have it with you, pesticides to kill the bitch!"

"A bit simple there, but we need to get to Sweetie. Have any ideas?"

"Just one: I'm not moving so well, but I can still pull a trigger and I've got this huge ass rocket the sun hasn't fried yet! You move in close; I'll keep the queen busy, maybe even drop it's shield. With luck, you'll be able to finish it off.

Stand down.

Give us Cover fire.

You're coming with us!