Intercepted Radio Transmission from Camp Pentocl

“Yes that’s right, the Rebels attacked us and somehow stole all our medical supplies, our food, weapons and emptied three bunkers in the Ammo Dump. I have sent some personal to check the fourth bunker they entered but so far they have not reported…”

An explosion is heard clearly over the radio

“What the hell. Command the ammo dump has just exploded, I repeat the ammo dump had just exploded. “

More explosions are heard over the radio.

“Jesus, Command, the mess hall, Infirmary and Armory has just exploded; the Rebels must have planted bombs before leaving. Requesting additional forces and emergency medical supplies, we have multiple casualties and injured, I say again we need additional forces and emergency supplies…”

Twilight slowly started to return to the land of the living. With a groan she opened her eye; the right eye was still wrapped in bandages. She was staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. She gripped the sides of her head with her hooves and groaned at the familiar headache of magical burn out.

“Well I see you have finally woke up Twilight. “Came the voice of Dr. Grey and Twilight looked over to see her standing beside her cot.

“What happened with the mission?” Twilight asked trying to ignore her head ache.

“Well from what I’ve been told it was a success overall though judging by the scorching on your horn we won’t be able to get it till you recover but that’s a minor detail.” Dr. Gray said with a smile.

“How is that just a minor detail if we can’t get the supplies?” Twilight asked.

“Because even if we can’t access for the moment the fact is we still have it and we got it by attacking the Fed base and actually returning.” Dr. Grey said.

“Not all of us.” Twilight said thinking of the fact over half of the soldier sent on the mission didn’t make it.

“Yes but considering the odds were stacked against us and it was basically suicide to attack the base so the fact any of you came back is a minor miracle, and the fact you actually succeeded had actually given everyone some hope that we can do this.” Dr. Grey said with a smile. “And it’s all thanks to you Twilight.”

Twilight just sighed as she thought about how many soldier died in the raid on the base. Most of Charger was dead two members of Hell Raisers and all of Deadmen were gone. As she thought of Deadmen she remembered what Sergeant Zander had told her before she left him to hold back an army of Feds. " We are all dead men walking. " She whispered and for some reason thinking what the strange Sergeant said and how calm he spoke of his own death comforted her.

Sighing again Twilight closed her eyes and laid back down. “I’m going to rest a bit before I go check on the other teams.” She told Dr. Grey before taking a few deep breaths and letting sleep take her.

Twilight made her way down the tunnels of the new base, it was mostly a series of tunnels, room and catwalks but it was in an older part of the sewers. One of the young recruits came up with it mentioning him and his “crew” used to come down here all the time. She wasn’t sure what he meant by a crew but judging by the tattoos the young man was covered with she figured they weren’t a friendly group. But either way the Kid’s suggested was an excellent place for a new base as he said no one had ever come down there before.

The new base was much more cramped then the old with the tunnels being much more narrow but Twilight thought that was a good thing, a single squad could hold back an army in tunnels like these and as she walked she had already found places that would make excellent defensive positions in the event the base was attacked again.

Twilight had given her report to the General about the base and he suggested she rest up as her magic was burned out again. Twilight had taken his advance but had soon grown board sitting in the infirmary as she couldn’t read any of the books she had. A lot of squads who went topside to spend Credits they had would pick her up a book or a magazine since she couldn’t go into town for obvious reasons. She always made sure to pay them back with the Credits she won while playing Blackjack. She had acquired a nice collection of reading material from fictional stories to technical manuals on various topics to fashion magazines.

Twilight wondered how the soldiers had Credits to spend in the first place; she would need to find that out at some point. But that would need to wait; right now she needed to get her mind off her headache and her boredom.

As she wondered she eventually found someone she had been looking for. She knocked on the door frame before walking in and the older human stood up from where he had been painting lines on the floor much like when she had first met him. “Hello Kid, come to help an old men out?” Dupo asked looking at her.

Twilight couldn’t help laughing. “Sorry, not falling for that again. Besides as much as fun as it was doing your job I can’t do anything without my magic.” She said with a wry smile.” So I guess you are stuck doing it all yourself Old Man.”

“Doubt it, you are resourceful kid, I’m sure if you put your mind to it you’d figure out a way to do it but frankly I don’t have time to wait so I’ll just get the recruits to do it.” Dupo said taking out a cigarette and placing it between his lips. “So what has caused you to grace my humble armory with your percent’s Kid?”

Twilight shrugged as Dupo lite his cigarette. “Just getting familiar with the new base and checking on the men. We suffered a huge blow and I wanted to make sure moral wasn’t too low.” She said. “And wanted to see who has been recovered so far.”

Dupo nodded and made his way over to the wall and leaned back against it as he smoked. “Yeah, getting more people in every hour once word got out about the raid on the Feds, told our boys that we weren’t dead and were still in the fight. Thought it’s hard to find everyone as we all scattered to the wind but we won’t stop looking.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, we didn’t lose as many as I thought we had.” She said, it was true, only half their forces were lost but with the numbers still coming in things weren’t as bad as she had thought when moving through the old base. “Also just letting you know when I get my magic back you are going to need a much bigger cage then your last one as the Feds had a lot of hardware they were generous enough to let us have.” She smirked. The only thing they didn’t really have was Armor but that wouldn’t be nearly as hard to get their hands on as what they got from the base.

Dupo nodded. “Already got it planned Kid, no way you were coming back without weapons. Just need to actually give them to me so I can get them organized.” He said and blew smoke at her.

Twilight looked at him. “When I get my magic back you will get your guns Old Man.”

“Yeah, yeah, till them would you kindly—“

“Get the hell out of your Armory.” She said with an exaggeration sigh. “Fine I’m going I’m going. Good luck tricking a recruit into doing your work for you. “She said as she turned to leave.

“Don’t need luck, just skill.” Dupo said as she left the room.

Twilight wandered down the tunnels with no real destination in mind still. As she wandered her mind slowly wandered back over the past few months she has been away from home. She hadn’t really thought about it but a lot had happened since her experiment caused her to end up here on this world caught up in a war that was not her own at the time but had become hers.

Back in Equestria if someone had asked if she would ever kill anything she’d have quickly answered no as that wasn’t how she had been raised. Far from it, she had been brought up with the ideals of love and tolerance and that it was better to talk things out and reason with others. How naïve she had been.

One thing being here had taught her was that sometime violence is the best solution, that some being had forfeit their right to live, Dr. Frisk was an excellent example of such a person. IF she was still the mare she had been back before this entire mess started she’d have either witness him be sent to Tartarus or turned to stone, possibly banished. Hell she might have even tried the Elements of Harmony to purify him. But no, she knew the truth now, some beings could not be reasoned with, some being could not be purified and brought back into harmony. Some beings just needed to be removed from existences all together.

Thinking about this Twilight came to a sudden realization, there mare she used to be was long since dead, and she died in the labs and in the field. In her place was Twilight Sparkle the Soldier. The mare who though held the ideals of Equestria and the Princesses in high regard knew she did not believe in them anymore, far from it in fact. She knew she would do whatever it took to protect those ideals from anyone and everyone who would dare threaten her home by any means necessary.

She looked down at her steel hooves, how many had she killed? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? She had stopped counting after Wilkerson and Rook 1 had been killed as she had been focused more are making the Feds pay. And how many wore would she kill before she returned home? How many enemies would she crush beneath her hooves before she completed her objective?

Her mind wandered to the Fed patrols she had ambushed, both as a mission and to relieve her anger. She knew what if there was anything left of her old self then it should bother her what she had done but the fact they were her enemy made her feel nothing for her actions. And what of the Merc she had tortured with both her blade and magic? Sometime ripping the information she sought straight from his mind with her own magic when he couldn’t tell her fast enough. Only being careful enough so as not to damage the information she sought till she left his mind shattered with no hope of recovery.

She stopped walking and blinked as another thought hit her. What would her friends thing? Her family? The princesses if they ever learned what she had done? They would see her as a monster. A thing that either needed to be thrown into Tartarus or banished to the moon or some other place where she wouldn’t be around anyone ever again. She sat on her haunches as another thought hit her of what would happen if they tried, she would defend herself without hesitation. She would bring everything she knew about fighting, every weapon she had against anyone who attacked her as they would be the enemy. And the thought of killing her friends or the Princesses didn’t bother her in the slightest.

“What the hell am I?” She asked the empty tunnel. She latterly just thought about possibly needing to kill her friends and the fucking Princesses themselves and it didn’t bother her at all because attacking her made them the enemy and she had no issues killing her enemies.

“Maybe them thinking I am a monster wouldn’t be so far off.” She mused out loud. There was only one way to ensure she wouldn’t harm her friends or the Princesses. IT was so simple really and such an easy thing to do that she smiled at the thought. “They just can’t learn the truth.” She said before she got back to her hooves and continued on her way, the smile at the plan she had still on her face. She will need to go over what story she would tell them all when she returned, make sure she didn’t let something slip that could lead them to the truth.

She sighed with relief as she had a plan of action for her return home to ensure safety of everyone involved because she now knew what she was and what they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.

Twilight stepped into General Clancy’s officer and saluted. “Sergeant Twilight Sparkle reporting as requested sir.” She said crisply. She had been in the middle of talking to Dr. Anderson about getting her eye replaced as he had been recovered along with a couple of soldier who had been hold up with him in a warehouse in the eastern part of the city , when a private had told her Clancy wanted to see her.

“At ease Sergeant.” Clancy said and Twilight went into rest. Clancy looked her over from behind his desk; it wasn’t the one from his old officer as the Mercs had used that one for target practice so this one was one that had been found already in this room. “How have you been Twilight?”

“I’ve been alright sir, magic is still burned out but the headache is mostly gone.” She said relaxing a bit more as this clearly wasn’t a formal call since he used her name.

Clancy nodded. “That’s good. I was pleased to hear the attack on Camp Pentcol went so well.” HE said and twilight opened her mouth to speak but Clancy held up a hand to silence her. “I know there were casualties but that was to be expected when attacking an entire base. Frankly I wasn’t sure any of you would make it back much less be able to hit all four objectives.” He said and smiled. “And that little extra flare you added with Hell Raisers was a nice touch I must say Twilight.”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at that. “Thank you sir.” She had heard that after she passed out the raiding party had retreated. After they got a way away the Hell Raisers had triggered the explosives in the ammo dump, then waited a few seconds and triggered the rest of the explosives to cause more damage and confusion to both hurt the feds and make sure they weren’t perused. It had worked perfectly.

Clancy nodded. “You are probably wondering why I asked you here.”

“To toast a successful mission and acquiring a new base?” Twilight said.

Clancy smiled. “There is that but no it is something far more important I wanted to talk to you about.” Clancy said and his face became very serious. “Major Briggs’ betrayal has dealt a severe blow to our moral and damaged the trust a lot of our people have for the officers. If Major Briggs, my most trusted man, could be a traitor then who’s to say that the Lieutenant giving them Intel isn’t, or the Captain issuing duty rosters? Who’s to say the entire command structure isn’t traitors that will throw them to the wolves?”

Twilight nodded, she had been hearing whispers of such and done her best to alleviate her soldiers’ fears but Major Briggs had been a huge blow to trust for everyone. “What is needed is someone that everyone knows would never work with the Feds because it would be a physical impossibility.” Clancy said as he sat back in his chair. “Someone the men know cares whether they live or die and knows how to lead.”

Twilight nodded again. “And you want me to find someone like that sir?” She asked as it was the only reason she could think of her actually being there.

Clancy shook his head and reached into his desk. “No Twilight, I want you to be that someone.” He said and pushed over two small pins towards her. “I am promoting you to Commander Twilight Sparkle and giving you the position as my second in command.” Clancy said and Twilight just stared at him wide eyed.

“Ah…but….I’m not qualified.” She said.

“Commander you may have only been on a few missions but each of those missions have been complete successes and usually went better than expected. The men trust you Twilight and you actually care what happens to them and do to you history with the Feds I and the rest of the troops know you would rather die than work with them.” Clancy said smiling at her. “You are a superb soldier Twilight, you have surpassed every record in training there is, and you are a quick study and absorb knowledge like a sponge. In just the few weeks you were in training you learned everything Mendez taught you with remarkable speed and easy. I know you can fill this role Twilight or else I wouldn’t have chosen you as my second.”

Twilight stared at him then the commander insignia then back at him. She reached for her magic and pushed through the pain till her horn lit. She removed the sergeant chevrons from her collar and picked up the Commander insignia. Carefully she applied them to her collar right where the chevrons had been.

Clancy smiled at her and reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of whisky. “Now then we are going to celebrate a successful, our new base, and most importantly of all your promotion Commander Sparkle.”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile and nod. She felt the weight of responsibility settler around her shoulders but she was a soldier and a soldier adapts to a changing field. She would learn her new position and would do everything in her power to lead her men to victory, for they were no longer just her fellow soldiers, now they were all her subordinates and their lives were in her hooves. She would lead them to the best of her abilities and ensure the Feds never claimed a victory like they did when the Rebel’s base fell to the Mercs. She silently swore this to herself as Clancy poured them both a drink.

“To the future commander.” Clancy said raising his glass.

“To the Future.” Twilight said as their glasses clinked together in a small toast. Yes, the future was going to be far more interesting for The Commander.

Author's Notes:

Wow, this chapter was a pain to write, not because of writers block but for some reason I just couldn't get it going, I'd sit down to write it and would take 10 minutes to get a single sentace down. No clue what was up but after putting on a bit of music today and listing while staring at the screen for a while the damn broke and I was able to write once more.

And boy did it produce an interesting chapter. Twilight set up to get a new eye, we learned how the new base is set up to an extend, Twilight had realized what she is and she has embraced it.

and she is now Commander Twilight Sparkle of the PFDR, Student to Celestia and the Element of Magic.

the only major question remaining, how long till she is The Commander that is currently sitting in Canterlot? Only time will tell.