Federal Press July 12, 2037
REBELS RAID LAB
By: Mark Erickson

Last night rebel forces launched a daring raid on Deminal Labs killing much of the staff. Survivors who escaped do to the brave efforts of the lab Security Forces giving their lives to protect the research staff. The survivors were eventually able to reach the nearby town of Hudson Cross and report the incident and were later picked up by Federal Army forces.

When Federal Army sent a small force to search for more survivors they found the labs completely destroyed, preliminary findings suggest the rebels planted multiple bombs to bring the building down. The loss of Demanil Labs has set government research into alternative energy sources back by months as all research stored within the building is a total loss.

Research will be restarted at a new undisclosed site as much of the science team involved with the research has survived….

Doctor Agatha Grey, former ICU trauma doctor at Our Lady of Hope Hospital, now turned rebel, walked down the tunnels of the rebel base. Past dried pools of blood on the floor and some smeared on the walls left by injured as the fled the advancing Federal Army strike team. Her left arm was in a sling do to having been shot in the shoulder during the attack.

The attack had been swift and brutal, standard Fed movements. They had gotten inside of the tunnels before anyone had actually noticed them do to the units station topside having been found and taken out silently. The rebels had been caught completely off guard and had barely been able to mount a counter attack to repel the Feds. Once they were sure there were no more Feds hiding in the base or nearby they began the process of collecting the dead and injured.

At first they had been sending them to the infirmary but Dr. Grey had directed them to the mess hall stating it was larger and could actually hold the inured. That had only been part of the truth and not even the main reason.

As she entered the infirmary she saw the main reason, Twilight Sparkle sat where Dr. Grey had left her staring at the dried pool of blood a beside the door, empty bullet casing and medical supplies from a dropped medkit scattered around her, Her eyes were shrunk as small as they could be and were unfocused staring at the dried blood.

“Hey….Twilight...” Dr. Grey said gently and like every other time Twilight failed to respond. Dr. Grey sighed and took a seat on the bed closest to Twilight and started at her with sympathy.

When Dr. Grey had stumbled into the infirmary during the attack it had been with the intention of getting Delco, Marcus and Twilight out before the Feds showed up. She had overestimated how close they had been and been caught off guard when a Fed soldier stormed the infirmary rifle at the ready. Dr. Grey had fully expected to die and closed her eyes to wait for the shots.

She had heard them of course but she didn’t feel any pain. After a few seconds she realized she hadn’t been shot, when she opened her eyes she saw the Fed soldier on the floor choking on his own blood from a neck wound and held in Twilight’s magic was Dr. Grey’s dropped pistol. The little unicorn was still squeezing the trigger over and over again even through the gun clicked empty, her eye’s unforced on where the soldier had been and tears streaming down her face. The gun was too weak to actually damage Fed combat armor, especially since it was loaded with hallow points, but a round had struck the soldier in the neck and wrecked his throat and passed through his jugular.
It hadn’t taken long for the soldier to die either from blood loss or choking on his own blood, Dr. Grey didn’t know which. Slowly Dr. Grey had taken the pistol from Twilight and when the soldier expired Twilight had shut down completely. No matter what Dr. Grey had tried the little unicorn hadn’t responded, she just stared at the body.

Even after the body had been removed she continued to stare, Dr. Grey had to check periodically to make sure she was still breathing. Dr. Grey had learned a few things about the mare as she worked in the infirmary, about how she came from a peaceful land where war was a long distant memory that no one understood and people only died from old age or the occasional accident or sickness.

Dr. Grey had seen death before both in her personal life when her parent passed away and in her professional life when she lost patients. And today Twilight had seen a man died in front of her from injuries and a few hours later she took the life of another. Dr. Grey wasn’t surprised she had shut down.

She sat a while With Twilight talking to her about anything that came to mind in the hope of drawing her back out but the mare remained unresponsive. Dr. Grey sighed as she needed to get back to the mess hall to tend to the injured. She stood and told Twilight she would be back on her next break and left her sitting in the infirmary. She hoped the mare would recover before it was time for the rebels to move to their new base since this one was now known.

Twilight Sparkle sat staring at dried blood. The event of a few hours ago playing over and over in her head. She hadn’t meant to kill him, she thought he would run or something, but he hadn’t instead she had killed him. The worst part being it hadn’t even been a quick death; no he had suffered because of her.

Twilight was vaguely aware of someone entering the infirmary; it was probably whoever it had been early. A shadow fell over her but she didn’t look away from the blood, even when whoever it was waved their hand in front of her face. She was aware they said something and then suddenly her head was being tilted back as something was poured down her throat. Whatever it was burned as it went down and she coughed and sputtered pushing whatever it was away as the liquid settle in her stomach and seemed to have its own warmth.

“Ah there we are, she does still live.” Someone said with a chuckle and Twilight looked at the speaker. It was an older human; most of his once dark hair was grey and cut very short. Even with his obviously advanced age Twilight could tell he was fit because all her wore was camouflaged jacket and pants and the boots that all the rebels wore. Twilight couldn’t help staring up at him as he took drink of an amber liquid from the bottle he was holding. “So what are you doing here all by yourself staring off into space?” He asked after his drink.

“I….I killed someone…”Twilight replied in a quiet voice and looked down at her hooves.

“So?” The man asked and Twilight looked back up at him, his face was completely emotionless as he looked down at her.
“I…I never ….killed anyone before…I….I didn’t mean to….” She whispered.

The man took another drink from the bottle and sighed as he moved over and sat down on one of the bed and swirled the contents of the bottle. “Way I hear it you saved three people.” The man looked up at her.” He wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot everyone in here and then move on.” He took another drink from the bottle and offered it to Twilight. Tentative she took it in her magic and took a large drink, that had been a mistake as it burned her throat and she coughed hard. “You need to sip it, it’s not like water. “The man laughed and patted Twilight on the back to help her.

“W-what is that stuff, it burns.” Twilight said, she could feel the warmth spreading from her stomach to the rest of her body slowly.
“Whiskey, nectar of the gods.” He replied and took another drink. “I saw how you looked and thought you could use a drink and since you didn’t’ say anything when I asked if you wanted one, I took that as a yes.” He said smiling at her. Despite everything Twilight found herself giggling a bit, she felt a bit light headed. “And it seems I was right. “He smiled wide and took another drink and offered it to her. This time she took a sip.

He patted the bed beside her and Twilight hopped up and sat beside him. “I know how it is, you’re first time is never easy and you never forget it. Ask anyone here and they all have a story and most of them handled it not much better then you did.” He told her taking a drink. “Hell first time I shot someone I pissed myself.” He took a sip and held the bottle out.

Twilight took a sip. “Really?” She looked at him.

“Yes, but if you tell anyone I’ll deny it.” He looked at her very seriously for a moment then his features softened and he took another drink before holding out his hand. “Tomas Clancy.”

Twilight put her hoof in his hand. “Twilight Sparkle.” She said as they shook hand and hoof.

“It’s nice to meet you Ms. Sparkle.” He said as he let her hoof go.

“I prefer Twilight.” She said and he chuckled taking another sip. They talked and drank for a while longer before he finally stood up.” As much as I enjoy having a new drinking buddy I have duties to attend to Twilight.” He patted her head before he turned towards the door and made his way over. He stopped before it and looked over his shoulder at her. “You’re going to be ok Twilight, and if you ever need to talk, just ask anyone where I am and I’ll see what I can do to make time.” And with that he stepped through the door and disappeared into the tunnels of the rebel base.

It wasn’t long after Clancy had left that Dr. Grey retuned and she froze seeing Twilight sitting on one of the beds. Twilight gave a small wave she swayed a bit. Her head was a bit foggy and she had a nice warm feeling all over her body. “You…are you ok?” Dr. Grey asked.
“I think so.” Twilight replied her words a little slurred.

“A-are you drunk?” Dr. Grey asked in shock as she stared at her.

“Drunk? I don’t know, I just drank something call ‘whiskey’ with Clancy.” She said and giggled a bit. “I have to agree with him, it is the nectar of the gods.”

Dr. Grey stared at her. “Clancy, Tomas Clancy?” She asked and Twilight nodded, though she almost fell off the bed when she did. “General Clancy came here…and you drank Whiskey with him?”

“General?” Twilight asked looking at Dr. Grey inquisitively.

“General Tomas Clancy is the leader of the PFDR and the one that started the entire resistance.” Dr. Grey said looking around. “And he was here and you drank whiskey with him?!”

“Yeah, he said we were drinking buddies.” Twilight said, her foggy mind not comprehending what the leader of the entire resistance sharing a drink with her meant. Dr. Grey just stared at her for a while as Twilight’s head got foggier as more of the whiskey reached her brain and the room seemed to spin a bit. “Oh…everything is all spinny.” She said as she swayed more and eventually fell over on the bed passing out.

Sometime later Twilight slowly started to wake up. One of the first things she noticed was that she was moving. The next thing she noticed was that she had a splitting headache. With a groan she opened her eyes and found she was on a stretcher being carried by two PFDR soldier through the woods. She wasn’t’ sure what time it was but a quick look at the sky through the trees revealed that it was night.
“So finally decided to rejoin us I see. “Delco said from a stretcher being carried by two other soldiers.

Twilight groaned, his voice hurt her head. “What happened…” She asked covering her ears.

“You are experiencing your first hangover.” Delco said and smirked at her. “When you recover you sure pick an interesting way to do it.”
“I didn’t pick it, it was picked for me…”She said,

“Here, the headache is because you are dehydrated.” Delco said as he held out a canteen of water. Twilight took it and drained half of its contents before she handed it back. Feeling a bit better she looked around, there were ten other rebel soldiers beside the four carrying Delco and Twilight, all armed and watching the woods carefully. Twilight noticed only two of them had the armor she had seen the rebels wear, the rest had mismatched sets but all of them were dark green in color she’d need to ask about that.
“Where are we and why are we here.” Twilight asked looking at Delco.

“We are heading to the new base, but if we all went together by the same route we would be noticed fast. So we are moving in small groups all taking a different way. Dr. Grey wanted to come with our group to keep an eye on you but thought it would be best she stay with that Fed friend of yours to make sure nothing happened to him. She told me to say ‘Hi’ when you woke up.” Delco said looking at the surrounding trees. “In the meantime you are in the care of one of the field medics and me to an extent I’m assuming. Unless there was another reason I was suddenly put in the group.” He looked back at her and shrugged.

“So where is the new base?” She asked lowering her voice.

Delco shrugged again. “Hell if I know; only one member of each group actually knows where we are going. The rest of us are just following.”
“I guess that makes some sense, wouldn’t do much good if one of us were captured and could tell.” Twilight said and got a look from Delco. “What?”

“You just said ‘one of us’ weren’t you just helping out so that you had somewhere to stay?”

Twilight’s ears went back. “I…guess I did.” She sighed. “But that kind of changed….when I killed that soldier…”

“Fed. We call them Feds, it’s short for Federal Army. I owe you one for that by the way seeing as you saved my life and all.”

“Yeah…don’t worry about it, you’re my friend and…I just didn’t want anything to happen to you.” She told him looking at him and he nodded.
“You should try to rest, a lot is going to happen once we reach wherever it is we are going, got a lot to do to set up a new base.” He told her. “I’ll wake you if anything interesting happens.” He told her and patted her head. She nodded and laid her head back down. The headache was already starting to go away and with the stress of what had happened sleep soon took her.

The next time Twilight awoke they were walking down a concrete aquafer towards a tunnel at the end of it. “Where are we?” She asked looking over at Delco. She thankfully felt a lot better than she did before though the headache was still there it was bearable.

“Welcome to the city of Calten, or more precisely, welcome to an entrance to the Calten sewers.” Delco said wrinkling his nose. “Seems out next base is under the damn city.”

“In…the sewers?” Twilight asked eyes widening and her nose wrinkled as well.

“Seems to be where we are headed, it’s actually kind of a good idea.”

“How is hiding in a sewer a good idea?”

“Considering the sewer system links to every part of the city and the fact if you take into account all the sewer tunnels, old and new, utility tunnels, and who knows what other tunnels were built since the city was founded and it adds up to being about five times bigger than the city itself. It would be impossible for the Feds to search for us down there.” He said and shrugged. “Still it’s going to stink like hell.”

Twilight had to agree it was a good place to hide based on what Delco told her and she also had to agree with how it will smell, especially to her sensitive nose. She was not looking forward to the new base.

As the group slowly entered the tunnels Twilight became acutely aware of the smell and that it was in fact bad. The worst part was if it smelled this bad so close to fresh air how would it smell further in. She sighed; she was going to find out.

“Not that it isn’t fun carrying you ma’am but if you are able to walk, would you mind doing so?” The front soldier asked turning his head back to face Twilight as he spoke.

“Oh…um…right, sorry. “She said sheepishly and rolled off the stretcher onto her hooves. The lead soldier stopped long enough to break the stretcher down and store it in his pack before moving to catch up with the rest of the group along with Twilight and the soldier carrying Delco.

The tunnel was dark, only being lit by lights set into the wall every twenty meters or so, when they actually weren’t burnt out or broken. The soldiers some of the soldiers activated lights on their helmets to help light the way as they went deeper and deeper under the city.

After a while they were soon in parts of the sewers that seemed older than what they had been going through and the rest of the soldiers turned on their helmet lights or took out lanterns for the ones who didn’t have helmets.

Twilight wasn’t sure how long they walked through the maze of tunnels, it felt like hours to her but when they rounded a corner she saw a light at the end of the tunnel and couldn’t help but smile. The darkness was growing very tiresome.

“Hey want to know the difference between a pessimist, an optimist and a realist?” Delco asked her.

“Uh…sure?” She said glancing at her.

“Well you see a pessimist only sees the dark walls of the cave.” He said and gestured to the darkness around them.” An optimist only sees the light at the end of the tunnel.” He gestured to the light.” And a realist” He paused for dramatic effect.” A realist knows that that light is probably an oncoming train.” He said and Twilights eyes widened as he looked between him and the light in alarm.

Delco’s laugh cut short her growing panic attack. “Oh man you are easy. Does this look like a train tunnel?” He asked her and she had to admit, it didn’t. Her cheeks turning red she stared forward. She couldn’t believe how easily the rebel soldier had gotten her!

Slow the blush faded from her cheeks as they neared the light. Twilight couldn’t help but gasp when they entered a large circular room with high ceilings. Looking up at the large flood lights suspended from the ceiling she estimated the room was about three stories tall and about the widths of a hoofball field.

The room was filled with rebel soldiers carrying equipment every which way, setting up tables, chairs, and going off into side tunnels. She heard Delco whistle next to her. “Wow, I see why they chose this place, it’s huge.” Twilight couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

The group stood where they were till another soldier came over. “Good you finally arrived; we were starting to get worried.” He said and looked at Twilight and the medics carrying Delco.” You follow me, Dr. Grey left orders you two were to be brought to her as soon as you arrived.” The soldier said then looked at the rest of the group. “Go and help unload equipment.” He told them and with that he turned on his heels and headed for a side tunnels with Twilight and the medics following.

Twilight couldn’t help look around at all the activity, the mine hadn’t been this active, though the mine had already been set up when she arrived and this one was being set up so it made sense.

It took them some time to reach the infirmary do to having to wade through soldiers carrying crates of ammo and equipment to other parts of the new rebel base, but they soon arrived in what used to be a maintenance storage area. Whatever had been stored in the room was gone and now the walls were lined with cots. In the corners of the room someone had set up floodlight to make sure the room was brightly lit. On the door had a Red Cross spray painted on the door.

As they entered Twilight saw Dr. Grey moving from one occupied cot to the next along with her staff tending to the wounded who were too injured to have been allowed to leave the infirmary. “Oh good you’ve arrived.” Dr. Grey said noticing the group and she nodded to the soldier that had leaded them to new infirmary. The soldier saluted then departed leaving the three humans and one unicorn. “Put him over there then could you two help me check the others?” She told the medics who nodded and carried Delco to the cot she had indicted and transferred him onto it. They then went to check on the other injured.

Dr. Grey smiled when she looked at Twilight. “It’s good you see your walking around Twilight.”

Twilight nodded.”Yeah, the medics didn’t want to carry me through the tunnels when I woke up so I had to walk.” She said and gave a pout, getting a laugh from Dr. Grey. “But in all seriousness this place looks amazing, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to learn my way around here. It was like a maze just to get down here.”

“Oh you’ll get used to it, will just take a little time and we have maps.” She said and patted Twilight’s head. Slowly her face took on a sympathetic look. “How are you feeling?” She asked hesitantly.

Twilight sighed.” Better than I was, I’m no longer drunk and…I’m a bit better than before but I don’t know if I’ll ever get over what happened.” She said looking down.

“Good.” Dr. Grey said causing Twilight to look up in shock. “We don’t have any room for those who kill because they enjoy it. We kill because we have to; to fight for what’s right, not because we enjoy it.” Dr. Grey said. “We have no room for monsters in our ranks.” She said firmly and Twilight gave a small nod.

“Anyway I can help here?” She asked and Dr. Grey gave a nod.

“Yes could you unpack our medical supplies and store them in that locker over there?” She said gesturing to a two creates that were stacked beside some wall mounted storage lockers. “I’ll leave organization to you.” With a nod Twilight made her way to the creates and began her work.

After organizing the medical supplies Dr. Grey had suggested Twilight go explore a bit to get a general idea of the layout of the new base and Twilight had thought it was a good idea. And that was how she found herself in the large circular room she had started thinking of as the main room. There was a little less activity but it was still very busy. It reminded Twilight of the market places of Canterlot, with the addition of a few large tents having been set up it just added to the feeling.

slowly made her way through the room having to dodge past soldier who were on their way to other parts of the base. Eventually she managed to reach the other side of room and took another look back at the main room, she had no idea why a sewer would have such a large room but then again she didn’t know much about the city above so the room probably served a purpose.

With that thought she turned and made her way down the tunnel. It wasn’t hard to figure out what wing she had ended up in when she saw the crates of ammo and guns stacked on one side of the hall waiting to be brought to whatever room was acting as an armory.

As she walked past soldier going about her business she caught site of a lone soldier in a side room using a spray can to make a straight line across the room and she could help but stop and stare trying to figure out what he was doing. She saw there were three other lines pained across the room leading to a far wall.

“You going to stand there or are you going to help an old man?” The soldier said in a gruff voice as he shook the can.

“Oh um…I was…”

“Just standing there while an old man did all the hard work.” He interrupted her and looked up at her. “Am I right kid?”

Sighing Twilight walked in and took the can into her magic as the old soldier got to his feet and walked over to a chair in the corner and sat. He pulled a small pack of cigarettes from his front pocket and shook one out as his other hand retrieved a light from a pouch on his hip and lit the cigarette he placed between his lips.

Twilight stared at him. “You know what will kill you right?” She said.

“Yeah? So will a bullet kid.” He said and took a drag before gesturing for her to get to work. Grumbling Twilight started to continue the line. “What is this even for?” She asked.

“Firing lines.” The older soldier replied. “You are standing in our new firing range kid.”

“I’m not a kid, I’m twenty three years old and my name is Twilight.” She said with annoyance.

“Kid you come up to my hip.” The soldier replied simply resulting in a sigh from Twilight. Once she finished the line the soldier told her were to make the next one and she started on it. “If this is so hard for you to do why didn’t you get someone else to do it?” She asked as she worked.

“I did kid.” He said and Twilight stopped and looked at him as he blew smoke from his nose and she realized what he went and she groaned as she went back to work. Once the lines were down the soldier directed her to set up some folding tables against the wall opposite the lines then to go and set up some paper targets on the other wall.

Once everything was finally finished the soldier stood and stretched. “Well glad that’s finally done.” He said and twilight couldn’t stop from glaring at him.

“You didn’t really do anything.” She said annoyance growing.

“I got you to do it kid, you think I wanted to do it?” He asked her as he dropped what was left of his cigarette and ground it under foot. “And besides you’re the new blood so it’s your job.”

“New blood?” She asked annoyance replaced by confusion.

“You are the newest person to join up, which means you get the shit jobs that no one else wants to do.” He said as if explaining to a child. “We all know what happened in the infirmary.” Twilight opened her mouth to argue that it didn’t mean she was a soldier but the old soldier went on not giving her a chance to. “You’re a damn hero.”

This made Twilight’s brain skip for a moment. “Wh-what?”

“You saved the Doc, without her most of us wouldn’t even be here anymore. You literally saved us all by saving her and so you have our respect.” He said nodding to her and she blushed a bit. “But you still get the shit jobs kid.” And the blushed vanished with annoyance.
“I’m not a kid!” She said.

“Whatever kid, I’m Sergeant Malcolm Dupo; I’m in charge of the armory. If you need a gun, ammo or firearms training you come to me kid.” He said tapping his chest. “Anything else and I’d thank you to leave me the hell alone.”

“Uh…I’m Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia and the Element of Magic.” She said surprised at how formal the old sergeant was it had caused her to be just as formal back.

just stared at her for a while and then spoke. “Ok kid that’s nice doesn’t mean a damn thing to me.” He eyed her. “Now unless you want something, I’d thank you to get the hell out of my armory.”

Author's Notes:

New friends(?), new base and a new status. What an eventful day Twilight is having.

Also I have never been drunk so Twilight's reaction to it is based of research ive done.
and this is twilights first time drinking alcohol.

I have a PATREON with fair rewards. Every bit is greatly appreciated and helps me out.