Twilight finished reassembling her side arm and returned it its holster on her chest. As she put the bottles of chemicals back into her pocket dimension she looked over at her friends. Spike stared with wide eyes; Fluttershy was curled into a ball hiding behind her mane whimpering while Rarity was trying to calm her down as best she could while looking like she was trying to not be sick. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were staring at her in a mix of shock and horror and strangely enough Pinkie Pie looked to have handled things the best her mane had only lost a little of its poof and she stared at Twilight intently.

Pinkie stood and walked over to where Twilight sat and put her front hooves around her shoulders pulling her into a tight hug. Slowly Twilight returned the hug noting Pinkie’s shiver as the cold metal wrapped around her. “I’m ok Pinkie, like I said this all happened a long time ago, I’ve gotten over it.”

Pinkie gave a small nod as she released the hug and wiped some tears from her eyes. “I know Twilight, but it’s been so long since you had a proper hug.” She said and smiled at Twilight before looking back at the others. “Right girls?” She said and the others jerked as if they were slapped before trotting over and hugging Twilight in a group hug.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah I guess it has been.” She said and returned the hug as best as she could. “Anyways, I think that’s enough storytelling for the night. You guys are tired.” She said releasing the hug and the other stepped back.

What makes you think that Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I’m not tired at all.”

“Guy’s I know you are all tired, and in two of your cases suffering from severe nausea.” She said and they all stared at her. With a sigh Twilight taped next to her eyes. “Passive Medical scan. It shows me basic medical information of any living being I’m looking at. Normally when not in the field I ignore the information it displays but in this case it was kind of important.” She said looking at their now confused faces. “Remember I was a trained medic, so I thought the upgrade would be useful, which it was.”

They still just stared at her and Twilight sighed. “Look it’s late; I want to have dinner and then go to sleep in a bed I haven’t seen in a long time.” She said and looked at them. “If you don’t mind.” That did it. The bid their farewells, Pinkie giving Twilight another hug and telling her if she’s up for it the party could be tomorrow. Twilight thought that sounded like a good idea and with that everyone but spike left.
With another sigh Twilight closed the door and smiled at spike. “So then how about some dinner?” She said walking towards the kitchen.
“Oh yeah what do you want?” Spike asked following her.

Twilight thought about a bit. “Hmm…I think some daisy sandwiches sound good and…”She trailed off and Spike looked at her. “Do we have any ham or something?”

“What?” Spike asked looking at her in shock.

“Ham, you know pork? Meat?” She tilted her head a bit. Spike just stared at her. “Didn’t I mention I’m an omnivore now?” Spike shook his head. “Huh…thought I mentioned that.” She shrugged. “Oh well. Do we have any?”

“Um…no…n we don’t.” Spike said as he opened the fridge.

“Ah, too bad, we will need to pick some up tomorrow then.” Twilight said as she sat at the table.

Spike looked at her for a long while before he started to make their sandwiches. When he turned back towards the table he saw Twilight had some sort of flat, black device in front of her and judging by the light shining on her face the side facing Twilight was lit up. “Hey Twi what’s that?” He asked as he set her plate before her.

“Hm? Oh this? It’s just my Datapad.” She said not looking up from it. Her magic gripped her sandwich and took a bite as she looked at the screen.

“And…what are you doing with it?” He asked as he took his seat across from her.

“Writing my after-action report on today’s events.” He said taking another bite of food.

“Report? You mean for the Princess?”

“I guess if she wants it though it will be hard to send it to her, unless in the time I’ve been gone Equestria has had a technology boom I’d have to give it to her in person as there is no way I want to see what your dragon fire would do to it.” She looked up. “No offence.” She went back to her work before he could respond.

She finished her report and moved the pad back to the pocket dimension. Now that she wasn’t distracted she quickly finished eating and stood up. “Thank you for making that Spike.” She said before leaving the baby dragon to finish his food.

She made her way up to her room and slowly pushed the door open and turned on the light. She stood in the doorway looking around the room. It was a sight she hadn’t seen in a very long time and she wanted to enjoy the moment.

After a few minutes she slowly walked into the room using her magic to start removing her armor as she teleported her helmet from the table downstairs onto the small table beside her bed. Once the armor was off she held it in her magic eyeing the window for a long while before shaking her head. “There are no snipers here…” She whispers before cautiously stepping in front of the window, her eyes locked on the rooftops of the other building and their windows reading to drop the second she saw a shadow out of place.

She saw nothing and reached her bed. She looked around. She wasn’t sure where to put her armor; she could put it in the closet but what if she needed it in a hurry? She needed a locker or a stand for it. In the end she set it on the floor beside her night stand and removed her side arm and set it on the stand in easy reach. With a satisfied nod she turned to find Spike staring at her. “Something wrong?”

“Twi are you ok? You are acting really weird.” He said as he stepped into the room.

“I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.” She smiled to reassure him. It was true; she knew every escape route from the room and the rest of the library as well as all the possible places someone could attack her from. “Just enjoying being home.” He looked at her for a long while before he made his way to his basket and climbed in. Twilight smiled and gently tucked him in before climbing into her bed. “Good night Spike.” She said and turned off the lights. She closed her eyes with a small sigh and waited for sleep to take her.

After an hour she was still awake. No matter how she laid, no matter how comfortable she got sleep escaped her. She kept finding her thoughts drifting to the window. With an annoyed groan she put the pillow over her head. “There are no Fed strike teams here, no snipers, and no attack helicopters. No Feds of any kind Twilight.” She told herself but her eyes drifted to the window and she imagined a flashbang smashing through the window followed a few second later by a black and white armor wearing humans.

With a sigh she rolled out of bed, grabbed her armor, helmet, side arm blanket and pillow before leaving the room. She made her way to the basement and looked around, only one entrance. She placed her things across from the stairs then looked around. Using her magic she moved some stuff off a table and moved it over to where her stuff was and laid it on her side between her sleeping area and the stairs. With a satisfied nod she slipped under the blankets and sleep claimed her in seconds.

Princess Luna, Mistress of the night and dream, moved through the Dreamscape over seeing her subject’s dreams. She kept her eyes open for any of the many star like orbs that floated in the void around her looking for any that flickered to indicate a nightmare.

As she moved she sensed a ripple through the Dreamscape and when she looked around she saw a rapidly flickering orb of light and moved towards it. As she neared it something felt familiar but yet very alien to her about the dream. It was like she knew the pony whose dream it was but yet also didn’t.

Both for her duty and out of curiosity she slowly entered the dream.

The dream scape faded and a dark forest. Looking around she found the dream was set at night. “Man we sure showed the Fed fucks a thing or two huh?” A voice not far from her said. She had no idea what a Fed was but she wondered why a pony would use such language to describe them.

Making her way through the woods her eyes widened when she saw a group of armor wearing bipeds walking through the woods. Though they were dressed as soldiers only a few wore what could be called full sets of the dark green armor and in their hands were strange metal objects she could only assume were weapons.

She followed the group as they continued to talk about some form of “raid” they had just completed against these Fed creatures. She ignored the vulgarities some of them used to describe them. As the group passed a small hill the sound quiet forest was filled with a loud clattering noise and Luna saw flashed from the trees at the top of the hill and members of the group drop to the ground from bleeding wounds. “AMBUSH!” One of the still standing ones yelled as the group scattered for cover raising their strange weapons and filling the forest with more clattering as the weapons spat small gouts of flame.

Luna recoiled as three of the dark green soldiers, who had taken cover together behind a fall log, were suddenly consumed by an explosion. “They have a grenadier!” one of the dark green soldiers yelled as he fired his weapon from behind a large tree. Luna watched as the soldiers fell one by one.

“They are flanking us! Fall back!” A familiar voice yelled and when Luna looked her breath caught as she saw Twilight Sparkle behind a log, wielding one of the strange weapons in her mage and wearing the same dark green armor as the bipeds. She aimed the weapon over the log and fired. “Move damnit!” She yelled her voice full of authority. Luna stared at the young unicorn mare, she looked like a completely different pony then the one Luna knew. Her eyes were filled with defiance and determination and as Luna looked closer she saw one of them didn’t match the other, it was the same color as the other but it didn’t look like a natural eye. The mass of scar tissue around it didn’t help. As Luna looked more she saw that Twilight’s front legs were made of metal.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck come on man stay with me!” Luna heard one of the biped say behind her. When she looked she saw one hunched over another of the soldier, his fingers laced as he kept pushing on the fallen soldier’s chest. Luna saw the side of the fallen soldier’s chest was splattered with blood. “Come on damnit breath!” Suddenly Twilight was beside the biped.

“He’s gone, fucking move!” She yelled at the soldier.

“No! I’m not leaving him!” The soldier yelled back and continued in what Luna could only assume were attempts to revive the fallen soldier.
Twilight ground and hit the soldier in the face with her mettle hoof and he fell back out cold. “You two! Get him out of here!” She yelled at two remain soldiers who nodded and grabbed the unconscious soldiers by the arms and dragged him into the dark forest. Twilight linger long enough to reach around the fallen soldiers neck and yank a metal necklace her wore that had two square bits of metal on it and she slipped it into a pocket on her armor before she followed the soldiers into the trees.

Luna looked around at what was left of the battle, at least two thirds of the dark green soldiers who had been walking lay dead on the forest floor.

Suddenly the dream shifted and Luna was standing in a stone room lit by overhead lights. The room had a few lockers in it and another biped sitting behind a metal desk wearing camouflage. Suddenly the door behind Luna banged open and Twilight stormed in.
“Ah sergeant you have returned.” The biped behind the desk said as Twilight put her right hoof up to the front edge of her helmet in what Luna assumed was some form of salute. “At ease sergeant.” The biped said and Twilight relaxed. “I understand there were some issues with the raid.”

“The raid went off perfectly sir.” Twilight answered stiffy, Luna could see controlled rage behind her eyes. “It was after the raid everything when to fucking hell in a hand basket.” She growled.

“Give me your report.” The biped said.

“We were fucking ambushed! I don’t know how they fucking knew what route we were taking back to base but they were ready for us!” Twilight spat. “They handed us our asses and we barely made it back by the skin of our teeth.” She said and Luna saw her shoulders slump a bit. “Some of us anyways…”She said quietly.

“Yes, I’ve got the preliminary report. I am sorry for your loss Twilight, for a first mission this one was a bit…rough.” The biped said with sympathy.

“Rough? Fucking rough! Most of my men are lying dead in the fucking forest!” Twilight shouted. “My first fucking command and most of my fucking men are dead!” She reared up and slammed her metal hooves down on the desk, denting it. “I got Wilkerson killed! He and McKay have been together since this whole fucking mess started. No matter what happened those two were always together and I got one of them fucking killed!”

“Calm down sergeant.” The biped said calmly. “I know what it’s like to have everything fall apart but this is war, people die, it’s not your fault.” He sighed.” Sergeant, I’m relieving you of duty for now. Please, get some rest. We can talk more after once you’ve calmed down.”
Twilight ground her teeth. “Yes sir.” She said and dropped back off the desk. “Permission to leave and get drunk off my ass sir?” She asked.
“Granted Sergeant.” The Biped said and Twilight saluted before leaving.

The dram suddenly shifted again and Luna found herself in a small, bare concrete room with a single light overhead and a metal hatch on one end. What struck her as odd is nopony was around. She then heard a clicking behind her and something pressed to the back of her neck. “Enjoy the show Princess Luna?” Twilight’s emotionless voice said into her ear. “I don’t appreciate people entering my head without my permission. If not for the fact you are Luna I would have ended you.”

Luna felt whatever was pressed to her neck removed and then Twilight was stepping around in front of her. Luna couldn’t keep a gasp from escaping her mouth as she saw Twilight. She looked far more different than she had in the nightmare. She still wore the same armor she had in the nightmare but now both her eyes now looked to be artificial with the right eye having a single scar going down her face behind her eyes was a cold rage that was well controlled but still there behind the emotionless face. More disturbing was the fact all her legs were made of metal now. But the most disturbing thing was that Twilight was standing on her back legs like a biped in her right hoof, held by fingers that seem to have emerged from the hoof itself was held a smaller version of the strange weapon the bipeds used.

Twilight slipped the small weapon into some form of holster on the left side of her chest. “Who….Who are you?” Luna found herself asking. It looked like Twilight and felt like her to an extent but also felt like a completely different pony as well.

The reaction was almost instant as Twilight’s back stiffened and her right leg snapped to the edge of her helmet in the same salute she had given the biped behind the desk. “Commander Twilight Sparkle of the PFDR, Student of Princess Celestia and the Element of Magic reporting for duty ma’am.” She said looking straight ahead like one of the Royal Guard when being addressed. It was a little comfort to hear she still saw herself as a student to Celestia but what was the PFDR?

“What…What happened?” Luna asked wide eyed. Seeing Twilight act this way was very uncomfortable.

“In the dream? It was my first command ma’am. The raid went off perfectly but we were ambushed on the way back to base and people died. Was the first time I lost anyone and wasn’t the last.” Twilight shrugged and dropped the salute as a table with two chairs appeared in the room behind her. “Whiskey?” She asked as a bottle of amber liquid also appeared on the table along with two glasses as Twilight took a seat.

Luna shook her head and Twilight shrugged. “Suit yourself. “Twilight replied as she poured herself a glass. Luna walked over to the table a sat. It had gone from extremely formal to very informal very fast that Luna was a bit off balance.

“Why are you acting so different now? “ She asked looking at the unicorn as she sipped her drink.

“Well this isn’t exactly a formal setting now is it, unless you count inside my head formal. “Twilight replied flatly. “I’m still annoyed you came here without asking first and I barely recognized you before I attacked.”

“You knew I entered your dream?” Luna asked shocked.

Twilight nodded. “As soon as you started to enter it. You are very noisy Princess, if that makes sense. It’s hard to explain. The short of it is yes I knew the second you made contact with the dream and was using the dream as a distraction while I moved into a better position.” Twilight sipped her drink.

“You mean…you can attack ponies that enter your dream?” Luna asked blinking in shock.

“Yes, it’s my head after all, I make the rules here. “She gestured to the bottle.” Try to remove it.” Luna blinked and looked at the bottle and her horn light up as she removed the bottle, or tried to. The bottle remained where it was. Luna concentrated and her horn flared brighter but the bottle remained right where it was. “Careful Princess, don’t give yourself an aneurysm, I may be a medic but even I’m not skilled enough to heal you through a dream.” Twilight chuckled as she took another sip.

The magic faded from Luna’s horn. “How is this possible? Even with a lucid dream you shouldn’t have this much control.” Luna said looking at Twilight who only shrugged.

“It’s my head why wouldn’t I be able to control everything? “She asked simply as she finished her drink. “As much fun as it is talking to you Princess I do have to ask you to leave.” She set her glass down. “I am still very annoyed you entered my head without asking, I know it’s your job and all but next time I want you to ask me first.” Twilight asked coldly as she glared at Luna.

Luna stared at her for a few second before nodding. “Very well Twilight Sp—“

“Commander Twilight Sparkle, I’d like you to use my rank please.” Twilight interrupted.

Luna recovered quickly. “Yes…Very well Commander Twilight Sparkle, I shall honor your request.”

“Also please keep this meeting from Celestia; I want to speak to her in person so she doesn’t get any Intel out of context. That can lead to a deadly miscommunication and I’d rather not hurt anyone.” Twilight said emotionlessly. What little friendliness had been there during the conversation was gone.

“If that is what you wish Commander.” Luna found herself say and blink as she spoke as if Twilight was a member of the Royal Guard.
“Good, anyways was a pleasure to see you again but now you must be going.” Before Luna could open her mouth to say anything the hatch behind her opened and Luna was yanked back and found herself tumbling through the Dreamscape.

She righted herself and stared at the orb that was Twilight…No Commander Twilight Sparkles dream. Slowly she turned away and made her way through the Dreamscape. She was done patrolling for the night as she had much to think about. The entire conversation had been unnerving what with Luna having no control of the dream and the fact Twilight referred to that nightmare as a dream.

Author's Notes:

So I decided to give this a small rewrite.

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