-Party Load Out and Materia-

Tifa: Human (Displaced)
Armored Knuckle- Fire, Ice, Gravity ---- Shinra Beta (Bangle) - Time + Added Effect
Other: Enemy Skill+Mime (Absorbed), Rude’s Sunglasses

Rarity: Unicorn
Silken Dream- Restore, Esuna, Ice ---- Shinra Beta (Bangle)- Barrier, Lightning
Other: Enchanted, Reinforced (and Perfectly tailored) Suit, Earrings

Rina “Indigo” Zap: Human
Collapsible Baton- Lightning + Elemental --- Shinra Alpha (Bangle)- Pyramid, Neo Fire
Other: Enchanted, Reinforced Suit, Tough Ring

Celestia sighed into her tea as the gentle hum of the airship’s engines threatened to lull her back to sleep. Currently turned away from her desk to the large window, she gazed at a sun higher in the sky than she was used to so shortly after waking, making her lament missing its rise. A gentle golden glow lazily danced over her horn as she, completely unperturbed by the glare, watched the point of light shine down on the glimmering sea.

She stayed like that for a time with a tired yet still content smile on her lips as she just took in the moment. At least until a shadow passed by her window and another airship slowly drifted into view as it followed her craft. With an appreciative eye she studied its long sweeping curves, bright colors and intricate designs that served as a sharp contrast to the typically far more utilitarian designs of Shinra. Not that every Shinra airship lacked a certain flare; Celestia’s own ship was quite the work of art itself, but she always admired the aesthetics of the neighboring continent.

A small knock on her door suddenly echoed as her working life was looking to find her once again.

“Come in” she called just before a young, dark haired woman entered with her gaze down to her tablet.

“Good morning Madam President, the captain has just informed me that our escort has arrived,” the bespectacled aide informed her, eyes still on her tablet. Celestia gained a playful smirk and pointed over her shoulder.

“Yes, I can see that” she returned with good humor. The woman finally looked up and blushed as she spotted the large airship just outside the window.

“Oh, hehe… sorry ma’am” she smiled sheepishly, eliciting a chuckle from the president.

“Not at all Raven,” she assuaged the woman “Please, continue.”

“We should be arriving at the capital within a few hours” the assistant continued on “So communications with Equestria will soon become less and less immediate and thus less reliable. So hopefully nothing like last time happens again as we’d be hard pressed to even hear about it quickly, let alone able to return in time to make any difference.”

“I doubt anything like that will happen again so soon. It would seem our adversaries spent and lost quite a few resources on the assault themselves, not to mention those we managed to apprehend that they are now deprived of” the president consoled her “And I’m sure the department heads can handle anything that does happen.”

“If we can trust them…” Raven grumbled before she could stop herself, immediately sputtering after “I-I’m sorry ma’am! I didn’t mean to speak out of turn or-”

“Calm down Raven, you’re more than entitled to an opinion” the alicorn woman quickly interjected “I rue the day everyone agrees with me and my appointments after all.”

‘Especially when I don’t fully trust most of them myself’ she added mentally as her smile slipped a little. She sighed internally at the thought, regretting yet another necessary evil of their goal. She could only hope it would be worth it in the end. She banished the thought and with another sip of her tea she refocused.

“So, back to work then?” the president smiled warmly at her assistant.

“As always” Raven smirked before they dived back into that wonderful world called responsibility.

Tifa squinted at the sun just barely cresting on the horizon as the wind swept her hair into her face. She brushed the locks back behind her ear as she watched the pilots continue to prep the helicopters. She fidgeted with her gloves and double checked the rest of her new equipment; it wasn’t a lot but it would help and the materia could have been tricky to get a hold of outside of Shinra.

‘Perks of working for a company that owns half the world I guess’ she thought before spotting Rarity emerge onto the helipad with the other senior Turks, the ones she knew about at least, and what looked the be Ms. Sparkle. The purple haired agent waved as the pair of unicorn made their way over to her.

“Good morning Darling! I love the new touches to your usual style, very sporty!” Rarity complemented the small additions to the martial artist’s typical skirt and tank top. It was just a black leather vest, a hip pouch she got with her new equipment and a short pair of spats under her skirt “Tired of giving everyone those little peaks eh?”

Twilight blushed slightly behind her as the Turk just smiled coyly. While it was true that she didn’t feel like giving a free show on this mission with what she had been briefed on, Tifa was surprisingly unconcerned with the brief flashes one may glimpse in combat actually. She figured the more distracted they were, the better.

‘I don’t really mind the bouncing either come to think of it…’

‘At least as long as it doesn’t cause a black eye right?’

“You said we might be climbing” Tifa replied simply with a small smile, before turning to the other woman that very much dressed for an expedition; she even had a pith hat on “Good morning Miss Sparkle, does the treasurer usually go on missions like this?”

“Oh, and good morning to you Ms. Lockhart! And uh, well no…” Twilight giggled a little awkwardly “Most of the science staff is still busy recovering and cataloging after the attack, including all those qualified enough to help with this mission. I was available however and with my… previous experience, I was asked to assist.”

“The copters are prepped! Let’s Go! You can talk in the air!” Sweetie Drops’ shout interrupted the exchange and urged the trio to board. They climbed into the smaller copter with the director, Rina and Rude as a decently sized squad of troopers loaded into the larger craft with the majority of the equipment and the medic team. The takeoff was fairly smooth and soon enough they well above the city and headed towards its borders.

They had just crossed over the barrier wall when Tifa suddenly realized this was the first time she was actually outside of the city, bringing up a whole myriad of questions she hadn’t really thought of. Was this continent like the Gaia of the game? Or the Equestria of the show? Or like the rest she’d seen was it some mishmash of both? She already knew it wasn’t the whole planet, what with the neighboring continents and all, but she didn’t even know what was right outside the city.

“Never seen the city from above I take it?” the director asked, snapping the brunette out of her haze.

“Never even been in a helicopter before” she answered back, glancing down and taking in the sight of the receding plate nested atop the mountain range. From here the second plate below it looked like little more than a shadow “Sure looks a lot nicer from above than below…”

A few shrugs and slightly uneasy expressions acknowledged the somewhat somber observation. People knew that the lower support plate known as Midgar was a far step below the luxury of the plate above it known as Canterlot. They weren’t destitute by most means, particularly where Tifa lived in Sector 6, but things could always be better. A lot better for some of the other sectors especially. Twilight was the first to say it though;

“It could always be worse; you could be stuck in the Undercity. Surely you saw those conditions.” Tifa arched an eyebrow at the treasurer’s comment.

“Why would I have seen the conditions the Undercity?” she asked, the lavender woman matching her confusion.

“Well if you didn’t fly in and we don’t have any record of you going through the gondolas or checkpoints then I just assumed…” she trailed off before then asking “did someone sneak you in then?”

“Oh um… yeah, something like that” Tifa answered quickly before turning back to the window, hoping this current line of questioning would drop before-

“So where ARE you from anyway?” Rina piped up.

‘Fuck’ the martial artist’s face dropped. By some miracle she’d managed to avoid or dodge this question all this time, even with them occasionally reminding her of her ‘questionable citizenship’. It wasn’t like they could deport her when she technically wasn't from anywhere but the more lies she told them the deeper her hole got and she couldn’t very well tell them the truth; they’d think she was insane. ‘ Kalm? Junon? No, they practically own those places. Wutai? No, that won’t work. Oh come on Tif! Think! The longer you stall the more-’

‘Nibelheim.’

“Nibelheim” She quickly repeated aloud with her best poker face, still looking out to the horizon. She could still see Ms. Sparkle's perplexed reaction out of the corner of her eye though, along with an unsubtle ‘pfft’ heard from the less kempt Turk.

“Fine, don’t tell us” Rina shot back, leaving Tifa to ponder the implications of her answer. Thankfully the conversation then turned to one a lot less stressful or personal. With the focus off her she continued to watch the scenery pass by below as the rhythmic humming dulled her thoughts. She eventually found herself being stirred awake by Rina trying to ask her something, having falling asleep against the glass without even realizing it.

“So Tif… Tif wake up! Has Zest ever told why she doesn’t play anymore? I heard she didn’t even try to get on a team after graduation!” Rina exclaimed.

“Oh uh… no, no she hasn’t told me why” she fumbled out eventually “but if had to guess it has something to do with her independence and whole ‘money don’t make me happy’ thing.”

“Did any of the teams ever try persuading her though? Surely at least Sour’s team has tried with the kinds of tricks they used to pull off together in school” the red-head reasoned.

“Oh yeah, even in just the time I’ve known her she’s had a few recruiters track her down. She’d always hear them out and get a free meal out of it, sometimes even both of us one, but she’s yet to bite” Tifa explained with a stifled yawn “I think she’s just not too interested in that kind of life.”

“Fuck’n-A man, I’d jump on that in an instant if it were me. Fuck this government shit if you can have that kind of life” the Turk bemoaned, earning an irritated look from her superior and an eye roll from Rarity.

“It may not many of ours’ first choice but we are still doing a very important duty Rina dear” the well coiffed woman countered to which her compatriot just shrugged. Tifa’s interest however was piqued.

“So what was your first choice then?” Rarity’s expression faltered slightly at the brunette's question, falling to a more somber smile. Before she could answer however the pilot announced their descent, the unicorn mouthing ‘Another time’ with the interruption.

‘I slept through the whole trip? Geez, good job learning the lay of the land Tif… I need to start getting some better sleep...’ she mentally berated herself as the craft slowly weaved through the trees and touched down in a clearing. Climbing out she took in the forest surrounding them as the troops unloaded the gear.

“So where are we supposed to be finding this… whatever? Do we even know what it is?” the martial artist asked. The director spoke evenly as she checked her sidearm.

“We have a good idea, and given the area and what we’re looking for I’d surmise it’s in the nearby ruins or their connected cave systems” she explained before they started moving “And with the new information Corneo gave us we can finally bypass one of the obstacles the excavation team has run into.”

A pair of troopers took point as the group started on their way, their machetes chopping as clear a path as possible. The director was right behind them with Twilight in tow acting as navigator, though how she knew where they were going in all this overgrowth with just a compass and her tablet was beyond the brunette. The troopers and Turks chatted amongst themselves as Tifa mostly concentrated on not tripping or falling into the walls of vines and trees all around them.

They finally came up to a large set of ancient stone doors carved into a suddenly steep incline and a trio of field researchers milling about examining the runes. Their trooper escort straightened as he spotted the director before what was apparently the excavation team’s leader finally took notice and jogged up to Sweetie Drops.

“AH! So that garbled message Was that we would be receiving visitors! Though I must say I certainly wasn’t expecting Turks! Let alone the director herself!” the excitable man rambled before collecting himself “but on to business then, right? What can I do for you?”

As the senior Turk explained the situation, Tifa hung back with the others. She shifted back and forth as the scientist began reading through a folder Sweetie Drops handed him, his growing interest contrasting the group's increasing boredom. Tifa didn’t even realise that she began singing softly to herself.

~”What can I do for you, What can I do for you, What can I do for you?”~

~”I can’t hear you!”~ Tifa jumped almost imperceptibly as Rarity and Rina suddenly finished the lyric for her, each with their own smile.

“Didn’t figure you for a Dazzlings fan Lock’, I’d think they’d be a little too ‘pop-y’ for you” Rina smirked. The brunette just shrugged back; she actually hadn’t heard much of the Dazzling’s music, her singing triggered by a sparked memory she only just realized she had forgotten.

“Well I’d say it means you have wonderful taste in music!” Rarity proclaimed proudly, saving her from having to potentially bluff her way out something else today.

“Says the girl who likes Sapphire Shores” Rina teased the pale Turk, earning some laughs from the troopers. Even Rude give a small chuckle.

“Oh Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” the scientist began spouting excitedly, drawing back their attention “This is exactly what we’ve been looking for! With this we could finally be able to access the ruins proper!”

With that he immediately grabbed his colleagues and dove through the doors as their exasperated guard quickly moved to follow. The rest followed through a wide, stone passageway boarded with portable lights, piles of gear and small stacks of wall etchings.

“Quickly! Quickly! Rotate that slab over there! No, the one above that!” the team could hear from further down the hall. When they caught up they could see the science team scrabbling back and forth in front of a much larger and more intricately designed door than the one leading outside. “And… TURN!”

With the final synchronized twists the great doors began to rumble and pull apart, revealing! …a rather ordinary looking cavern. The only real thing of any interest Tifa noticed was the intricate stone work beneath their feet. The science team and Miss Sparkle seemed enthralled but the rest well, underwhelmed is a good word. Sweetie Drops instructed some of the troops to stay behind and secure their exit before addressing the rest of them.

“Watch for pressure plates and traps, ancient Equestrians just loved to pack these kind of places full of them for some reason” the Turk director warned the group. Sure enough it wasn’t long before one of the scientists, a unicorn with his horn aglow, cautioned them to stop before marking a floor tile with a small flag.

After a few more flags and having to actually set one trap off to proceed, the group reached a large chamber with another intricate door at the the other end. As the researchers rushed toward it, Tifa took in the surroundings. Another fairly uninspiring room overrun with jungle growth along the wall and lit by large cracks in the ceiling above them.

“Why didn’t they just force their way in though one of those?” Tifa asked looking at the openings, the answer coming as a surprising huff from the lavender unicorn behind her.

“It could compromise structural stability, maybe even throughout the whole ruins” she delivered briskly “Plus with how few resources we’ve been able to give them out here, they probably wouldn’t have even found them anytime soon. In fact, our budget for all the science departments outside of-”

The surprisingly impassioned rant from the normally timid treasurer was suddenly cut short by a rustling amid the dense vines of the wall. The Turks and troopers readied their weapons at the potential threat…

Only for a small white rabbit to emerge and take a seat at the tip of a broken branch sticking out of the foliage. It tilted it’s head curiously at them, completely unconcerned about the amount firepower currently pointed at it. With an eye roll, Sweetie Drops held up a hand for the rest to stand down while holstering her own sidearm. Along with a few relieved sighs, Rina was the first heard.

“What the hell’s a rabbit doing in the jungle?”

“Well there are actually a few species of rabbits that-” Twilight began when the ‘branch’ the rabbit was set upon pivoted down and the room began to shake. The reason why soon became clear as the floor grew steeper, pitching toward a growing darkness opening below the far door. The researcher trio were the first to disappear, being the closest to the edge.

The few fliers among the troopers took to the air and moved to help when the sound of several heavy shots rang through the cavern, knocking them from the air to tumble down into the pit. Tifa couldn’t see the shooter and was unfortunately a bit too preoccupied trying not to slide down the the rapidly tilting floor to try. Even the handholds she and a few of the others managed to grab were rendered moot when more holes exploded all around them and sent the stragglers plummeting with the rest. The only thing the brunette managed to see before the light cut out was a glimpse the rabbit on the lever.

'Was that little fucker Waving?!'

As the darkness engulfed her she felt the wide expanse of the hole replaced by a narrow tunnel, separating her from the others as they were shunted down other chutes. After a few dips and curves she found herself falling into a dimly lit room, key word on falling. After failing to tumble as well as she hoped to she started to raise with a groan. Again with a keyword-

“OUF!” Tifa grunted as she found the weight of someone slamming into her back from above. The body pushed themselves up to take a seat on her, legs straddling on either side.

“Hey thanks for the assist Lock’!” Rina’s voice delivered with good humor, patting the the brunette on the back before bouncing her plot lightly against Tifa’s own “Guess all your extra cushioning didn’t just go to your chest, huh?”

Even in the dark, the flat glare the martial artist shot back was clear. The Turk just chuckled back before getting off the fallen woman. She did at least help her up after though. Tifa stretched and brushed herself off before trying to check herself over but couldn’t see much in the near dark. A sudden crack sounded next to her before a Rina’s image became much clearer.

“Here,” reached up and flipped down the sunglasses perched on Tifa’s head, the room instantly several shades brighter.

“Whoa” she replied with slight surprise. It was far from daylight but at least she wouldn’t be tripping over herself with these “No wonder Rude wanted these back.”

“Oh forget that, he has tons and puts darkness protection on all of them, what with his weird compulsion to always have some on. Besides, I’d say you earned them by now” Rina waved off as she took in where they landed. Far less constructed than the room above, the naturally carved cave walls were marked with small, faintly glowing crystals providing the only other light besides the agent’s glow stick.

“Is this natural materia?” Tifa asked as she learned in to take a closer look.

“Almost, bit more time and they could be. But no, this stuff's not concentrated enough to be used as actual materia; you can tell by how pale they are and the lack of color. But!” Rina explained before tapping her her stun rod on one of the larger protrusions, eliciting an odd but not unpleasant chime “It does mean we’re on the right track. We’re definitely over a mako surge. Come on, we should keep moving.”

Tifa had no complaints and followed as the Turk took point. Still watching for traps, they slowly made their way down the only path they had until they came to a another heavy door. This one lacked any of the complicated components of the the other two, it was just down and blocking their way forward. Tifa simply stepped forward and squatted before it to get a handhold and, while certainly not without effort, hefted the door high enough for the two to slip under. After the loud thud of it falling back into place she turned to see Rina smirking at her incredulously.

“You sure you’re not a Earthie? I’d say even most of them would be hard pressed to match you girly.”

“Pretty sure I’m human… even if I still have trouble telling them apart...” Tifa shot back with a smirk before mumbling the last part.

“Preaching to the choir there Lock, I still haven’t figured out what the hell the director is and we’ve been working together for years now” the redhead laughed as they moved on “but if it helps; Me, Sunny and Sour are Human, Rude’s an Earthie and of course Rarity’s-”

“Is someone there?! Lady in distress here!”

“-Just ahead apparently” Rina finished as the voice echoed from ahead. The pair ran forward into a cavern to find one of the pegasus troopers dead at their feet, a hole through his wing and his neck broken from the fall. Rina summed up the sight fairly succinctly with “Aww shit…”

“Rina?!” a shout sounded from high above. A small purple light ignited to show the porcelain skinned Turk dangling from slide identical to the one the pair exited earlier, except this one was far higher off the ground.

“Hold tight Priss! We’ll try to find somethi-” Rina started before the woman next to her simply shouted,

“Just let go!”

“What?! Tifa dear even IF you manage to catch me it’s much to far of a-WHAAAAA!” the horned Turk was cut off when a tremor shook the room, breaking her grip and sending her screaming towards the floor. Clenching her eyes she waited for the sudden stop, though when it struck her that she’d been screaming long enough to need to take a breath she cautiously cracked one open… just in time to see herself drift gently into the martial artists arms “....uhhhhh”

“Gravity materia” Tifa said a bit winded before setting her down. With the blushing unicorn’s fellow agent snickering nearby, Rarity quickly righted her suit and hair before sighing heavily at the sight of the dead trooper and bringing the group back to reality. Tifa fidgeted uncomfortably as the Turk crouched down over the body searching for something; The only dead body she’d ever been around like this was her grandfather’s when he passed. She knew it was kind of silly but still couldn’t shake the uneasiness, at least he had died of natural causes though.

Rarity rose a moment later with was seemed to be a dog tag and after nodding to her cohort the pair simply started walking on. Tifa stood and gave a quick double take between the pair and the body.

“Wait, we’re just leaving him?”

“We’re still in hostile territory Lock’, we can’t afford to have him slowing us down” Rina replied simply, to which Rarity cut in.

“As callous as it is, I’m afraid that’s the just standard procedure darling. ‘Until the area or at least an escape has been secured, agents are to retrieve identification if possible and leave the fallen behind’” she explained “I’ve activated his tracker, so for now we just have to focus on our task and hope the company will send a retrieval team when all this is over.”

Tifa frowned but nodded. She understood the reasoning, she didn’t like it but she understood and didn’t argue as she took up the rear. She didn’t have time to dwell though when another temor vibrated beneath their feet, though without Rarity’s screaming they could hear a distant echo of an explosion through the tunnels this time.

While still mindful of traps the trio quickly picked up the pace as they continued toward the now near constant clamor of what sounded like gunfire echoing ahead. Between the urgency and darkness Tifa almost didn’t notice the walls were now carved or constructed again, unlike the natural cave she and Rina fell into. Though even that didn’t seem to stop the solid mako protrusions from forcing their way through, which only got bigger and brighter as they delved further in the tunnels.

They passed through a final archway and suddenly found themselves in a massive cavern on a stone catwalk above…

“Is that…?” Tifa began, staring down at the great, glowing river made of multi-chromatic ribbons of light and magic flowing under and through the earth beneath them. She could see that some of it also seemed to branch off to crawl up the walls and ceiling toward-

“Down!” a shout sounded from above just before a barrage of shots nearly shattered Rarity’s barrier. The fashionable Turk fell to a knee, fishing something from her pockets as the other pair crouched behind the cracked shield. More shots rang out above them though thankfully aimed elsewhere, at what looked like more mako crystals sticking out from the wall. The resulting explosion sent more tremors through the rock that began threatening their balance.

Tifa then finally spotted the source of the shots, what looked like a living cloak weaving wildly through the chamber. She couldn’t even make out anyone inside the dancing crimson ribbon, only the bright flashes and booming rapport of the seemingly endless shots coming from within and toward a group of troopers on the lower catwalks with them. Without a protective barrier like Rarity’s they were forced to simply try avoiding it. The martial artist grimaced as one unlucky rifleman took a shot to the chest, knocking him off into the stream below.

“We need to move up!” Rina yelled as Rarity held the barrier, still searching for something on herself until the former jammed what looked like a morphine syringe into the latter’s leg. The cracks in the barrier disappeared almost the instant after while the purple haired unicorn shot a rather nasty glare at the other Turk, who just ignored it and continued “To the center! Stay close Lock, Rares can only cover one direction! ...Move!”

The trio crouch ran as quickly as the could toward a wide platform in the room's center under a ring of the upper catwalks. The flash of red wiped past them when Tifa thought she saw an opening and quickly casted another gravity spell centered on the threat, hoping to drag it into the pit. Her only reward was to see a brief humanoid silhouette with wings before it flashed and a tight grouping of shots struck her shoulder, her bangle’s defensive charm only barely deflecting them into a pair of deep gashes across her bicep.

“Not to deride your efforts dear but maybe you should just keep your head down! This kind of fight doesn't exactly seem like your forte” Rarity offered consolingly as they reached the center. Tifa obliged and took cover behind the Turks again, far more exhausted than she expected.

‘That armory clerk hadn’t been joking when he said this materia was strenu… holy shit…’ Tifa’s thought was quickly derailed as she looked up.

Suspended right there above them, from what looked like a mass of huge coiled roots covered in jutting, glowing crystals, was an unrefined materia the size of her torso that simply radiated with a pinkish magic.

‘Well, they did say there’d be no mistaking it’

“Hey Boss!” Rina shouted next to her, breaking her out of her awe enough to follow the agent’s gaze. Perched on the edge of the of the ring above was the the rest of the team with two of the scientists and Twilight scrunched under a domed barrier spell. The Shinra treasurer clutched her pith hat tightly against her head with her horn glowing brightly within her protective bubble. Agent Sweetie Drops paused mid-aim to glance down at her subordinate's call “Are you a Human or an Earthie?!"

The Turk director rolled her eyes with an irritated huff and returned to the task, emptying her side arm before deftly dodging another barrage of bullets. As Rude rushed to her side with a barrier of his own she looked back down at them, her gaze shifting between Zap and Tifa. She knew so long as their opponent kept up this pace and their seemingly endless ammo that it wouldn't be long until they were whittled away enough to finish off. The arrival of the two gave her an idea, even if she didn’t like it…

“GaH!” another trooper cried out behind her when a heavy round caved in half his helmet, sending him falling to a bridge below. She let out a heavy sigh as she relented and with a frown, ached an eyebrow at the bald man next to her who returned a quizzical look.

'It's just so stupid.'

“PITCH IT!” she called out. A beaming smile immediately exploded onto Rina’s face.

“Really? You’re saying that?” Rude asked incredulously.

“Shut up you'll ruin it!” Rina was practically bouncing “Lock, that arm still work?”

“Uh, yeah mostly. Why?”

“NOW!” Sweetie Drops yelled out before an answer and broke away firing, drawing the cloaked enemy's aim. The rest of the troopers caught on to open in full too. As the streak of red danced and weaved through the fire above, Rina had sprinted back down the catwalk and was now charging straight back toward Tifa.

“Ally-OOP!” the Turk called as she planted a foot in the cup of the surprised martial artist’s hands. The brunette’s wounds protested but she thankfully caught on quick enough and heaved the woman straight up to her partner, who was now glowing along with a materia under his sleeve. Flipping in mid-air she landed against a pulled back forearm that launched right back out.

“EEP!” the cloak tried to stop as a sloppily dressed red-head was suddenly an foot from her face, a pale figure finally visible as it tried to reverse its flight. It’s eye’s bugged and pupils shrunk as it realized it was too late.

“FASTBAAAAALL-SPECIAL!” Rina cheered with way too much joy and cracked her baton against the flier’s face as hard as she could. Their opponent landed in a heap on the center platform between Tifa and Rarity, who were the first to see it was a pegasus woman under all those layers of a tattered red. She began to stir as the remaining Shina forces moved to surround the downed shooter.

“Noooo…” Tifa heard the girl groan angrily and a pair of blood red eyes under ratty pink locks suddenly caught her own as the girl pushed herself up. The gaze snapped about erratically to the approaching threats before locking back on to her’s, Fury and pain shone clearly in the intense orbs; Fury, pain.. and fear “I won’t go back there…”

Pale yellow bat like wings with odd patches of askew feathers flared out when a shot shattered the stone before her.

“Don’t move!” Sweetie Drop’s voice echoed with strict authority, sidearm aimed unerringly at their opponent.

“I’M NOT GOING BACK!” the red-eyed woman screamed, head whipping around frantically in an enraged panic. She suddenly snapped her massive handgun's aim upwards at the hanging materia “I WON’T LET SHINRA TAKE ME AGAIN!”

Another shot from above struck the girl’s chest, sending the shot wide and into the roots. Unfortunately, it became abruptly clear it hadn't been wide enough.

The chamber began to to shake even more violently as great cracks of light spread from the hole. Everyone struggled to keep their footing as the mako flow intensified and grew to an almost blinding brightness. To worsen an already bad situation the currents flowing up the walls now blocked the ways out. Even in her short time here Tifa already learned that making contact with raw, unfiltered mako was a very bad idea.

“GET TO THE CAVES! YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO PUSH THROUGH!” the Turk director’s distorted voice called through the rumbling. Tifa and Rarity sprinted down the catwalk with the remaining troopers, the brunette only barely catching the pegasus woman mumbling a mantra of “Never again” over and over as she passed. Another pang of guilt hit her as she left the girl behind, but they couldn’t afford to stop with their footing readily crumbling beneath them.

They had nearly reached the exit when a beam of pure white engulfed the narrow path from above, erasing it from existence. They couldn’t even turn around before the catwalk fell out from under their feet…

Sending them into the surging stream below

The three Turks sat huddled together under blankets in front of a medical tent near the landing zone, trying to shield themselves from the essentially constant gale the presence of so many more copters cramping the clearing had created. Holding oxygen masks up to their faces as as IV drips fed a mako neutralizer into their systems, the trio looked like death.

Sweetie Drops looked again to where the needle met her arm, failing to ignore just how much she hated the stuff. She of course knew it was deathly important but even the smallest amount made the patient feel like complete shit, even worse than what was causing it in the short term. But still, Mako poisoning wasn’t something you messed around with.

All things considered though their exposure was pretty minor, and with the full treatment and how quickly their support arrived most of those that were lucky enough to be on the upper walkway would be better within a day or two. Maybe not feeling too great for a while yet, but not in any danger.

‘Those that were on the lower level though...’ the director thought grimly. A grunt from Rude immediately refocused her attention however. The larger Turk jut his chin at a group in hazmat suits wheeling a trio of isolation pods into another tent. The Turks immediately rose to follow.

“Hey now you need to-MRPH!” a medic protested until a hand latched onto their face.

“Fuck off” Rina grumbled as her partner easily shoved the poor fellow to the ground without even breaking his stride.

“Did you find them?” Sweetie immediately asked as they entered the tent, her tone calm and even but still clearly without the patience for any bullshit. One of the hazmatted medics turned but appeared to be struggling on how to answer.

“Yes, and they’re… well, there’s some… complic-” he faltered, before cutting himself off and with a heavy sigh just gestured “See for yourself.”

The group shouldered past, Sweetie and Rina stepping between the two on the left to look in the pods' observation windows. Rarity and the yellow woman they’d been fighting both lay unconscious within. By some miracle they looked fine, other than the wounds the girl received in the fight they looks perfectly unharmed. A least until they realized-

“Are they glowing?!” Rina balked, her fellow Turk looked to be illuminating her entire pod in a deep purple light. She turned back to see the pegasus was the same only glowing a bright pink instead.

“See what I mean? They’re completely saturated yet have virtually no symptoms typical of mako poisoning” the medic shrugged “And that’s just them, her on the other hand… forgive my bluntness but I’ve got NO damn clue.”

The pair followed his gesture to the last pod that Rude was standing over, staring down in stunned confusion. Seeing him slack jawed and with glasses having allowed to fall askew, the two shot each other concerned glances and rushed over.

It was then that those in the tent witnessed a far rarer sight than a mere shaken Rude. Sweetie Drops had been in the game longer than most Turks and had seen more than most anyone else in the company, which was saying something considering her age. There was nary a sight that could shock her. Oh sure she could get flustered or even angry, and there still plenty of things she knew better than to assume she knew or to think there was any lack of what could still surprise her. But she liked to believe herself disciplined enough to never be completely caught off guard. So when she looked at something and her only response is,

“What the FUCK?!”

Then you know that something was seriously wrong. For there below the trio in her pod was Tifa Lockhart, lying unconscious like the others.

And with her entire form covered in large, brightly shining cracks of light.

‘Uuuuugghhh...’

‘Hey! There you are! You were out for a while there.’

‘Uhhhh …hwha?’

‘Yeah, that lifestream can be pretty nasty huh?’

‘Steam?’

‘But good news! You’re still alive! But you really should probably wake up’

‘Wha-AAAAHHHHHH!!!’

‘To find out what’s causing tha-

Tifa awoke with a scream as an electric current surged through her. Her panicked attempts to flee quickly revealed she was restrained, suspended vertically in a great ring by her arms and legs. The voltage mercifully stopped and let her fall limp in the shackles, leaving her panting and her eyes wrenched shut in pain.

“THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! SHE’S A SAPIENT BEING DAMNIT!” she could hear what sounded like Sweetie Drops shouting at someone, though it seemed a bit muffled and distorted. With some effort she cracked an eye open to see she was on a raised platform behind some kind safety glass, little bleeps and whirs of monitoring equipment sounded around her.

“Oh it was just a little wake up jolt. It’s nothing a specimen of her caliber can’t withstand” a flanged, female voice the martial artist couldn’t describe as anything other than sadistic answered back over an intercom “See?”

Tifa cried out as another shock ripped through her, this one lasting just a little longer than the first. Though it certainly didn’t feel like it to her.

“STOP IT!” the Turk leader demanded, which Tifa was immensely grateful that is seemed to work. She sagged down as low as the restraints would allow again, a pitiful groan escaping her as the director continued “You have no right to-”

“I have every right!” the voice interrupted smuggly before quoting “-With the exception of the company president herself with support from the board, the head of the science division has full jurisdiction and final say of all matters both scientific and medical-. Meaning you have no place here Turk! Let alone any authority! I'd say you’re lucky you still even have a place in this company after losing the third one like you did!”

“Policy doesn’t allow you to just ignore-”

“SECURITY!” the intercom squealed slightly with feedback at the interruption “Agent Drops seems to have gotten lost on her way to the security offices. Please see she makes her way there.”

“This isn’t over professor” the woman warned as a quartet of guards escorted her out. Tifa watched helplessly through squinted eyes as her only rescue was forced out. The intercom clicked again as the doors closed.

“And bar the Turks from the detention area, in fact no unauthorized personnel are to permitted on even the surrounding floors!” the voice added.

“Yes ma’am” one of the guards confirmed before relaying the instructions.

A moment later Tifa heard a pressurized door open behind her and footsteps making their way over. Vision still blurry, she couldn’t completely makeout the woman she could only assume was ‘The Professor’ that stepped in front of her, only the general details: Lab coat, Glasses, Dark grey skin, flat turquoise hair hanging limply down over her face, and what even with her hazy sight seemed to be an exceptionally jagged horn. Tifa tried to speak but found she could barely manage small choking sounds, a small collar around her neck impeding her voice.

“Now then…” the scientist purred as a complicated contraption lowered in to view behind her. The device sparked to life and began radiating waves of mako around it’s tip as the changeling smiled deviously “Let’s see just how ‘Broken’ you are...”

“Oh no. OhnoOhnoOhnonono this isn’t good” an excitable woman paced frantically back and forth in her office, bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet as she tried to wear a hole in the carpet. She turned back to her screen, double checking the logs and schedules “This is very bad.”

The woman stood back straight, trying to think of an answer. With the sudden addition of the professor’s ‘new toys’, she had pushed up several of her other project plans to get the out of them the way; Including the one the woman had been working so hard to postpone. In her near hysterical state she turned so suddenly that she banged her leg into her cabinet, nearly knocking her little pet project off to the-

A huge gasp immediately filled the room.

“THAT’S IT!” she cried before quickly clamping hands over her mouth. She quickly snatched the bundle down with a small giggle.

Rarity jumped as Tifa unceremoniously collapsed to the floor before the door even closed behind her, the guards that shoved her in completely unfazed as they walked away from the cell. The martial artist stirred but failed to make any traction in her condition.

“Easy now darling…” the unicorn quickly knelt next to the fallen woman, trying to hoist her up to at least sit against the wall. Brushing the brown locks away from the woman's face, she tried to best to assess the damage. Between the deep bags under her eyes and the sickly pale tint to her skin she looked like hell, but Rarity released a small sigh of relief that were no obvious injuries “Alright, let’s get you on the bed now.”

“No, no I just… I’m fine, I just- I don’t wanna move right now…” Tifa managed, eyes still closed as she weakly waved the woman off. The Turk seemed to accept it and stepped away. The martial artist had lost count of how many times she lost consciousness as that grey woman repeatedly exposed her to different forms and concentrations of mako. She wouldn't have thought something like that would hurt all that much; she was wrong. Even worse the professor never seemed to recreate whatever she wanted to and Tifa had a feeling she wasn’t the type to just let it go.

“Here you are dear” she cracked an eye open as she heard Rarity return, seeing a cup of water in her hands. She took an unsteady sip as the disheveled unicorn retreated to take a seat across from her on the cell's only bed “Your... ‘session’ was even longer than mine. I’m guessing she was indulging herself looking for something other than another potential wielder.”

The human's eyes shot open and shot her a quizzical look, uncertain she heard what she thought she did.

“Yes, so... We found one... Yaaaayy...” Rarity delivered with in mock celebration before sighing heavily, her head hanging low “Actually it appears we found two from what little I overheard from the guards. Both that pale pegasus woman and I were apparently glowing after they recovered us from the stream, which of course led to my own 'examination' and the discovery that I'm one of the very things I was assigned to find. Not sure why she’s so interested in you though.”

“She said something about me being ‘broken’, whatever the hell that means” Tifa answered after a moment, her head clearing ever so gradually. “How long’s it been?”

“Since we fell in? About two days from what I’ve gathered. I haven’t seen any of the rest of the team since I woke up and the professor had us taken for ‘observation’ ... I think we’re on our own here darling” she answered solemnly before placing her head in her hands. She seemed to be just barely holding it together herself. She slid them to the back of her neck, staring at the floor in her hunched over position “...I’m sorry Ms. Lockhart.”

“Hey I’m not blaming you, not when you’re sitting here in the same cell as me” she responded truthfully, Rarity had been nothing but as upfront with her as she could be during this whole mess “Besides, I'd be lying if said I didn't kind of see this coming. If it wasn't one thing I'd figured it'd eventually be another.”

“Heh, I guess there are some pretty nasty rumors about us out there isn’t there?” she scoffed with dark humor “And I’ve seen that at least some of them are true personally but, I didn’t think they’d ever just… I always felt that at least the president was always trying to keep us on the better side of things. That while the means could be undoubtedly questionable that ends were usually worth it for the greater good. But if she can condone the methods of a woman like the professor, not even to mention some of things I've heard about the others on the board...”

She trailed off before they both just let out another heavy sigh together. From there they shared what little they gleaned to try to fill in the blanks but ultimately there just wasn’t much to say. The conversation died off and the two eventually drifted off to sleep, still exhausted and having no idea what to do about their current situation other than wait.

A few hours had passed before an odd whirring noise caught the pair's attention, even waking the resting Tifa. A churn of a lens focusing rather loudly drew their attention to the small black dome covering a corner of the ceiling. The sound grew louder and began to stutter continuously until they saw a small spark flare behind the dark glass and a deep *fRRzzZT* groaned down at them.

The two glanced back and forth between each other and the dome a few times before Tifa finally voiced the shared thought.

“Did the camera just… break itself?”

Rarity began to open her mouth with a shrug when a loud clunk echoed from a the vent at the floor along the cell’s back wall. Several smaller thuds echoed from what sounded like something fumbling around behind the grating. Both pairs of eyes snapped wide as the cover’s screws began to push themselves out from the other side. As soon as the last screw fell out the grate immediately tripped forward, allowing what Tifa never expected to see in this version of Equestria to step out.

Standing on four legs ending in smooth, marshmallow like hooves, a brightly colored pony about the size of a large house cat or small dog emerged from the vent covered in dust. And not like the 'basically human' ponies she'd grown used to here, but an actual tiny horse with vibrant pink fur walked out of the vent wearing a small cape on its back and a tiny crown perched atop its particularly poofy mane.

The two just stared in a shocked awe as it somehow shook every last particle of dust off itself with a single tremor that slid from the tip of its muzzle to the end of its tail. A pair of bright and very large blue eyes snapped open as it found them with a simply beaming smile.

“HIYA!”

Author's Notes:

I BACK, BABY! And with a new year's resolution to FINISH MY DAMN STORIES!

To any you readers returning: thanks for coming back! and to anyone new: Welcome to the madness! I still wouldn't expect any kind of set schedule of releases but by harmony if I'm not gonna try to keep things moving and accomplish that resolution.

Stay tuned readers, more of both Locked Heart and Nano Machines and Magic are on the way. But until then, As Always: Thanks for reading and have a good one!