Message from Federal Army High Command to Unidentified Intelligence Agent

In light of the recent attack on Camp Pentcol it has become clear the Rebels have not been defeated as we were told and in fact are much more bold now thanks to those Mercenaries. As such we have liquidated the Helios Mercenary Company for causing this mess.

It is clear that the city of Calten will need to be reinforced in order to deal with the Rebel threat. Camp Pentocl will have their casualties and equipment replaces and we will increase the number of our soldiers across the city.

We will also need to discover why the Rebels have become far more aggressive since their defeat. They have gone from a minor annoyance to a legitimate threat when they should have gone the other way, I want to know what has changed with the Rebels and I want it removed.

Failure will result in your liquidation as an asset….

Twilight slowly woke up to total darkness and an absence of sound. That was to be expected when waking up from surgery so her cybernetics were offline. Even still it was a bit disorienting not being able to tell if her eyes were open or closed and whether or not she was alone in the room, though she knew Dr. Grey and Dr. Anderson would be there.

Sure enough she felt a tap on her shoulder and lifted her head to feel the panel at the base of her skull moved then came the click and the wave of pain as everything came online as her vision was flooded with light. She had to squeeze them closed and even still she saw the numbers dancing in her vision.

Once the numbers faded Twilight slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. “There we are, how do you feel Twilight?” Dr. Anderson asked as he took a step back from the cot.

Twilight rolled her shoulders and slowly rolled onto her hooves. “I feel fine Doctor, happy to be able to see out of both eyes again.” She said looking around a bit. If not for the slight pain she’d almost think they were her old eyes.

Dr. Anderson nodded. “That’s good; I’d suggest taking a few days to get used to them as we had to add more implants so you could use everything safely”

Twilight nodded. “Fair enough, I needed to familiarize myself with the lay out of the base anyways.” She said. “Which reminds me. “Twilight said and her horn flared and she pulled all the medical supplies out of her storage locker and dropped them on the floor against the far wall of the infirmary. “Happy Hearth Warming Eve.” She said with a smile before turning to leave, she had a lot of stops to make today.

The walk through the base was defiantly different than it used to be; every soldier she passed stopped and saluted. Seemed word of her promotion had gotten around rather fast though she figured it wasn’t every day the Rebels got a new second in command and it wasn’t exactly hard to mistake her for anyone else.

She had already delivered the guns and ammo to Dupo and had just left the Mess hall where she made Cook’s day with the food. For some reason when she told him to have a Happy Heath’s Warming Even the soldier who overheard gave her odd looks, granted it wasn’t exactly the holiday but she was delivering huge gifts in a sense so the joke seemed appropriate. Anyways she had ignored the looks as she finished dropping off the food and was now heading for her quarters to rest and enjoy having her magic back fully.

She walked into her quarters and removed her helmet before flopping onto her bed. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling as she let the past couple of day sink in. She suppose she should have seen the promotion coming what with being in charge of the attack on the base and being given her own quarters once more instead of a bunk in the barracks with the others. At the old base she got to keep her old quarters as she was already settled into it before she become a soldier so was no point in changing it. But the new base she had been a soldier so giving her, her own quarters was odd. Though with plans to make her the second highest ranking person in the entire army defiantly made sense she’d get her own room.

She was still a bit in shock and trying to wrap her head around her new rank and position within the army. She had made sure not to show it on her face, no point in making the soldiers, who showed faith in her that she was uncertain, that just wouldn’t do. When she had been a sergeant and just a normal squad leader she could show her emotions on her sleeve, but she was now in charge and knew that an officer showing fear or uncertainty would cause all sorts of issues with the men.

So she steeled her face to be neutral at least when on duty, She felt when she was alone or off-duty it would be fine to show her emotions more openly. Luckily she had seen Celestia do it for years so all she had to do was copy her, granted Twilight couldn’t give of the motherly air, hers was more along the lines of calm and controlled. Which as she thought about it worked better when dealing with soldiers, having a motherly figure in an army would just be weird and most likely make the men uncomfortable.

Twilight sighed and pushed herself up to a sitting position. There was no point in dwelling on her fears now; the time to back out was long since passed. Like it or not she was an officer now and had a responsibility to lead the Rebels against the Feds, even if she felt she wasn’t the right mare for the job.

Sighing again Twilight climbed off her bed, she needed to take her mind off her fears. She reached into her storage locker to retrieve a book when she remembered the two Sentries she had picked up from the heist what felt like forever ago. She pulled the two damaged bots out and set them on the floor. The .308 round had done a lot of damage to the two bots.

Before she could look over the two bots more a knock at the door drew her attention.
“Come”

The door opened to admit Desmond followed by the rest of Nightmare. “Hey Commander. “Hudson said smiling at her. “Been looking all over for you since we heard you woke up.”

“Yeah you think you were avoiding us what with going from the General’s off and straight into surgery and then from there all over the base.” Rook 2 said.

“Sorry, just had a lot to get done is all, what with needing a new eye and to drop off the supplies we got from the base.” Twilight said.

“Right and it has nothing to do with you becoming an officer.” Desmond said as he leaned against the wall beside the door as the rest of the squad spread out to find various places to sit and relax. “You may have most everyone else fooled but frankly it’s clear you are scared shitless.”

Twilight blinked at him and opened her mouth to deny it when she was interrupted by McKay. “Commander, we spend more time with you then anyone, we can see it.” He said calmly and Twilight saw the rest of Nightmare nodding.

She sighed and looked down at her hooves. “Is it really that obvious?”

“As obvious as the words on the pages of those books you are always reading.” Desmond said. “So, talk. What’s got our fearless leader so scared, because it has to be something since you are the one that came up with the idea of taking on an entire Federal Army base.”

Twilight sat on her haunches and looked around at her squad. They all stared back at her with a mix of concern and curiosity. She couldn’t help but sighing again. “I don’t know if I should be in charge like this. I mean it was one thing leading a squad but now everyone is counting on me and if I make a mistake it could cost a lot more than just a single mission.”

Desmond nodded. “Well if you do make a mistake I still have standing orders to speak up about it, and I think that extend to beating your magical unicorn ass till you are a darker shade of purple then you are now.” He said with certainty. Twilight couldn’t help smiling at that. “Look Commander you should know by now that you can count on us to have your back no matter what.”

Twilight looked around at the members of her squad and could see that Desmond spoke for them all, they’d have her back no matter what happened and Twilight could feel some of the fear leave her. Nightmare was with her and she could count on them when she needed it.

She sighed again. “Thank you, all of you.” She smiled at them.

“Hey if you can’t rely on your squad then who can you rely on?” Hudson asked her.

Twilight chuckled at that. “That is true.” She said smiling; her Squad knew her very well it seemed. “So is that all you wanted or was there another reason you tracked me down?”

“Oh yes one more thing.” Hudson said before walking over and punching her shoulder hard. Before Twilight could say anything the other were around her and proceeded to do the same, punching her shoulder as hard as they could. “Had to make sure the rank was pinned on right and since it has been a couple of day since you got them we had to make sure they stayed pinned.” Hudson smirked.

Twilight rubbed her sore shoulder, even with armor that hurt. “Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.” She said.

“Now then you mind telling us what you are doing with those two bots?” Rook 2 asked looking over the two damaged bots lying on the floor.

“Oh I got them from the heist; they gave us a lot of trouble so I thought I’d work on them as they could be of use to us.” Twilight said walking over to where they lay.

“You realize those are civilian models right? Wouldn’t be very useful against the Feds.” Hudson said.

Twilight nodded. “I know, I was going to see if I could fix them and maybe improve on them, sort of like a project to do in my spare time.”

“Don’t you read for that?” Hudson asked her.

“Yes but I don’t always have a book on hand so this could occupy my time for when in that situation.” She said looking at him.

“Do you even know how to work on these things?” Desmond asked walking up beside her and looking down at the bots.

Twilight shook her head. “No but I’m sure I can find some books on the subject.”

Desmond sighed and turned to the rest of the humans. “Well looks like Nightmare had its next mission.” He said and Twilight stared at him as the other all got to their feet.

“What mission? I haven’t heard about any missions right now as we are still getting organized.” She said.

“We need to go top side and track down some book for out fearless leader her so she doesn’t end up electrocuting herself when she inevitably starts poking her muzzle around inside of these bots.” Desmond said not looking at her and the other humans saluted before they grabbed the sentries then making their way towards the door. Desmond turned to face her. “See you after mission completion ma’am.” He said and saluted before following the other out.

Twilight couldn’t help staring at the door after it closed. “The fuck just happened?” She said and her brain could not come up with any answers. With a sigh she slipped out of her armor and climbed onto her bed. Looks like it was going to be reading after all.

Twilight sat in the mess hall enjoying her dinner of what Cook called a hamburger when a stack of books was dropped onto the table in front of her. She looked as saw Nightmare standing behind her. “Mission accomplished ma’am.” Desmond said with a smirk. “Every book we could find on robotics and computer programming as well as parts we could scrounge together that we left in your quarters along with the bots.”

Twilight blinked at the human. “Eh?” Was all she said.

Desmond sighed and rolled his eyes. “we couldn’t have you electrocuting yourself messing with those bots while having no clue what you were doing. So...” He gestured to the stack of books. “Here’s everything we could find on the subjects you’d need and as I said we left parts and tools in your room along with the bots. Now you can safely work on them without us having to worry about needing to find a new squad leader.”

“Oh…um thank you. “Twilight said blinking and looking at the stack of books counting them. There were fifteen of them. “How much where they?”

“Don’t even think about it Commander, consider this a congratulations gift for your promotion. So we won’t accept anything to repay us.” Desmond said. “
Now then if you’ll excuse us for a moment we haven’t even all day.” He said and the Nightmares headed for the line.

Twilight looked after them before her eyes returned to the stack of books. She picked one up in her magic and opened it; it seemed to be a book on AI programming. After a few minutes she had four books levitated around her reading them as she ate. She was vaguely aware of the Nightmares taking seats around her but was to absorbed in the books on computer programing to really notice, it was truly fascinating.

Twilight was half way through her books when there was a tap on her shoulder. She tore herself away from the books and looked up to see Cook looking down at her. “Darlin, not that it isn’t fun watching you read so many books, but the fact is the mess hall isn’t a library.”

Twilight blushed lightly. “Right sorry.” She said chuckling nervously as she moved the books into her storage locker and the tray over to be washed. She then stood up and left the mess hall fully intent on reading all of her new books.

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof and glanced at the open book levitating besides her mouthing the words as she read over a paragraph before turning her attention back to the disassembled Sentry bot that lay before her. Twilight had spent the day reading all the books Nightmare had acquired for her and couldn’t wait to start working on them.

She had disassembled both of them to see exactly what was broken. Tanks to the book she knew how to fix them and had an idea how to upgrade them. They had given the Rebels trouble during their heist mission and if she gave them some more armor, better bullets and improved the AI so they didn’t just sit and fire when they spotted a target she knew they would be very deadly to the Feds.

“ok…so then need to replace that…”She said as she looked at the pile of spare parts she also had on hand thanks to Nightmare, where they got it all she had no idea but her squad was resourceful and from what she could tell the parts were in good condition so who was she to complain.

She found the part she was looking for and pulled it from the pile and placed it where the damaged part had been laying. At this rate it shouldn’t take her more than a few hours to have the Sentries in working order, though the AI programing would take longer, she’d need to borrow a computer from the Hacker teams as her Datapad couldn’t handle the project, much to her annoyance.

Even still she was enjoying herself far too much to allow herself to remain annoyed for long. In just a few hours she’d be read to make the AI, and in the next few days the Sentries would be fully operational.

She stopped and looked around her quarters. While working was very fun to her it was too quiet, she was used to spike being beside her either reading his comic or other sounds being in the room. Being in a base surrounded by a large group of other people didn’t help her being used to noise.

She glanced over at wear her Datapad sat. One of the soldiers had offered to give her some music as a sort of “Welcome to Command” gift. She couldn’t exactly ask someone to come stand in her quarters and make random noise so she guessed it would be the best thing.
She levitated over the Datapad and opened the Music folder; she didn’t recognize any of the songs. Shrugging she chose one at random and set the Datapad to the side as the track loaded.

There was SILENCE for a second before the vocalist suddenly yelled out the first lyrics to the song causing Twilight to jump a bit in surprise and look at her Datapad as the song played forth from its speakers.

The song was unlike anything she had ever heard but yet she found herself not minding the loud music, though she supposed some would call it noise. It would do for the silence problem and she went back to work. She didn’t notice when she started to sing along with the song under her breath or that one of her hooves was tapping along to the beat while thinking how she would always remember the fallen.

“So why are we here?” Rook 2 asked looking at the rest of Nightmare as they all stood in Twilight quarters. The other just shrugged in response.

Twilight meanwhile had her head poked under a tarp that sat in the middle of the room doing the finishing touched on her project. It had taken three days but they had been worth it.

Twilight slipped out from under the tarp and turned to face her squad with a large grin of pride. “You’re here to see this.” She said and with a magical flare she yanked the tarp off the two repaired and upgraded Sentries. They looked a bit bulkier then they used to do to the extra armor and Twilight had painted them dark green to match the Rebels colors.

Nightmare looked them over. “You already fixed them?” Hudson asked and Twilight nodded enthusiastically.

“And upgraded them. They have thicker armor, better AI and are loaded with AP rounds.” She said excitedly. She had to admit, she felt like a little filly again but she didn’t care, this was the first project she had gotten to work on in months so she could forgive herself for being excited at completing it.

“So, show us already.” Desmond said crossing his arms.

Twilight nodded and picked up her Datapad, closing the music file, she had pretty much been listing to it nonstop since the first song and opened the link she had set up with the bots.

With a few quick button presses there was a low hum from the Sentries. After a minute the central lights came on and the bots lifted off the ground and faced the soldiers in the room who tensed a bit. “Relax; I already programmed their Friend and Foe settings.” She said waving a hoof. “You think I’d turn them on if I hadn’t?” She aid and before they answer she turned to face the bots. “Say hello you two.”

The two sentries beeped. “Wait you can talk to them and they respond?” Rook 2 asked looking between Twilight and the bots.

“Well….yeah kind of.” She said looking at them. “Why wouldn’t I do that? It makes it a lot easier to work with them, though unfortunate I couldn’t give them a way to speak so it’s just beeps and chirps but the message is also relayed to my Datapad.” Twilight said proudly.

“That’s….really impressive.” Desmond said and the others nodded. “So what are they called?”

“Called?” Twilight asked looking at her second.

“Yes, what do we call them? We can’t just call them Sentries as that would cause issues since there are two of them.” Desmond said.

Twilight smile slipped a bit, she hadn’t actually thought of that. She sat on her haunches and the smile slowly slid from her face as she fell deep into thought. What should she call them? She didn’t want to just call them random names and their old designation were out as they that made them seem like nothing special instead of something she had half way built with her own hooves.

After a long while a smile slowly split her muzzle, she had the perfect names. She quickly used the Datapad to add the names as their designation then had them turn away from her squad as she quickly made some stencils out of some paper she used to make notes on then grabbed a can of black spray paint.

After a minutes and some quick painting she step back in front of her squad. “Say hello to….Celestia and Luna.” She said happily as the bots turned around to at being called showing the name CELESTIA stenciled on front of the one on the left and LUNA for the other.

Desmond nodded. “Alright, those names will do.” He said. Twilight couldn’t help but agree. She had been a bit hesitant for a moment about naming them after the Princesses but that was quickly snuffed out by the fact Celestia had practically raised her and Luna was a close friend that Twilight looked up to and both of them protected her and were deceptively strong to fools.

Yes naming the two Bots after the Princesses made perfect sense and the Princesses would be honored to have two machines that would help Twilight destroy the Feds be named after them. It was such an obvious thing how could she have ever thought otherwise?

Author's Notes:

Well this chapter was hard to get going but thanks to talking to a soundboard I was able to get it written so this chapter is partly brought to you thanks to Admiral Q Ponyform for saving me from writer's block.