I woke up at camp and held my blanket closer to me. While the cave was warmer than it was outside, it still had an uncomfortable bite of cold to it. "I'm wearing a bodysuit and I need to use the bathroom. It's on the ship, which is only a short trek through the woods. And there's snow falling. JUST PERFECT. BRILLIANT MOVE, CAPTAIN." After getting my fire magic going inside, I ran out towards the ship. No snow touched me, each flake turning to steam in the presence of my heat. The heat also left a clear path through the snow on the ground.

The ship wasn't far, and I already knew which bathroom had the least chill in it, so I made a beeline for it. Thankfully, nobody else was up at camp, let alone onboard, so I wasn't worried about encountering someone there. As I sat down to take care of business, I did my best to quell some of the anger building up in me.

I left the bathroom feeling physically better, but otherwise still upset. The snow hadn't covered up my trail to the ship and it was light out, so getting back to the cave was easy. When I got back, Queen was just waking up, and he noticed me. "Good morning, Yang," he greeted. "I'll get started on breakfast soon."

"I'll start a fire for you."

"Thanks."

It didn't take long for me to get a fire going, since all I had to do was stack up a few logs and ignite them with a bit of my magic. Once the fire was going, I pulled up a chair and my blanket, sat down, and wrapped myself up. Sitting bundled up by the fire was nice, especially once Queen started cooking and the scent of bacon, eggs, and toast filled the air. It was a simple breakfast, but it was good.

"So, did you learn anything from the machine after the crystal muscle thing?" Shamrock asked as the quick breakfast was finished. "What else did Firebrand do?"

"She never really abandoned her crystal muscle strands," I answered as we passed a few crates filled with collapsed computers, monitors, keyboards from the office, except for Firebrand's. "She started looking into cybernetics after a few more failed biological things, including something with that shadow stuff. I didn't get much further than that."

"Sounds rough. Are you going to watch some more of those logs?"

"Yeah. I'm curious about what went on here."

Later, I was back at the computer while everyone else was out looting. The logs I'd seen on Firebrand's projects were pretty far apart on each entry, if the strings of numbers that made up each video title were anything like dates. If I was right, then there were a few months between recordings, meaning she was at Helios for a number of years.

She sat down and started recording. "Hey, diary. Just got over my most recent bender from another failed project. I'm all sobered up and ready to start something I've wanted to work on for a while now: cybernetics. Machine replacements of limbs. Something that's easy on, easy off. The trick is going to be getting the neural interface done right. Thankfully, we have a number of in-house amputees thanks to an incident down in the shadow labs that involved a blender. Someone thought it would be a good idea to put a shrunken durian in there, and there was an audience. The shrinking spell got undone and the spikes shot through nearly everyone there." Her face turned green for a moment. "I can still smell it now. I'm never going to complain about dumpsters again. Anyways, I'm going to figure out the cybernetics. The physical design is easy enough. Steel shape, crystal muscles inside, all that jazz. I'd better get to work on the tough part first. Bye bye."

I skipped a few entries and went to one near the end of the list. Firebrand looked pretty happy when she came on camera. "The cybernetics are working spectacularly! I've made arms, legs, wings, and even horns! Freaking horns! Unicorn horns! I thought the crystal muscle was good, but this! This is even better! Hahahaha!" For a solid fifteen seconds, she laughed a mad laugh, then took some calming breaths. "And to top it all off, there's a minotaur here, Firm Grip, that showed me a creature he designed. It's kind of like a minotaur, but waaaaay less beefy. It's like a hairless ape, really. He called it a human, says it's an intelligent, frail creature that has no magic, and has to rely on tools. Ha! There's no way such a creature could survive to intelligence with that kind of build." I took some offense at her opinion. "That being said, something about it struck my fancy. I think it's the arms and hands. Their arms are, according to him, about the same length as my forelegs, and their hands are highly dexterous. I'm wondering if I could. . . That's going to be a much more personal project. Details later. Bye bye!"

The next one was short. "I did it! I made an experimental mechanical hand!" She held the metallic hand up with visible green crystal muscles in it. "I put it on an arm over in the neuroconnection department, hooked myself up, and spent hours testing it out. Firm Grip was watching, and he was impressed. I figured out the fine motions and how to gauge my grip with it. Unlike the other hands I've made, this one's performance was spectacular! Maybe it's the thinner fingers that are key to it. Minotaur hands are big, and not really suited for finer tasks involving smaller items, even with tools. I think I'm onto something. Bye bye!"

The next one was some time later, and opened with a shot of the chair for quite a few seconds with some soft mechanical sounds off to the side. It was a bit before Firebrand showed up, and she didn't sit in her chair immediately. "Diary, I've taken a big risk, putting my own body on the line for this experiment. It's something I didn't want to get out if I could help it. I ran experiments in my lab and in neuroconnections. I mastered them before installing them. Five hours ago, I got some medical personnel to observe and step in if necessary. Four hours ago, I went into a surgical suite they had prepared, as both the doctor and the patient with a headset to control everything. I cut off my own forelegs with particle saws, just below my shoulders. It HURT SO MUCH! But, I held it together, and put the mechanical forelegs on. The connection process HURT SO MUCH! I may have blacked out for an hour or two. But, when I woke up, I tried my new forelegs." She sat down on the chair, revealing her fancy silver and green prosthetics. "And they work like a charm! Plus, they can do this!" Her hooves shifted around until they became hands, a process that took only a second. "Hands! Hands! I feel so powerful! I can do things that only unicorns with levitation could do before! I can put things together so much more independently now! That being said, I can only use these while sitting down, flying, or just one at a time while standing. I need to build more parts. I think Firm Grip's human design will be perfect." She came down from her excitement high with a yawn. "Anyways, I'm going to go to sleep now. I'll figure out the leg design while I recover. Bye bye!"

"Mechanical arms. . ." I mused as I looked at my right arm. I knew what happened to it in RWBY, and was very glad it hadn't happened to me, though a robotic arm did sound nifty. Then I remembered that it would need to be maintained, and it suddenly sounded less appealing.

After getting over it, I went to the next video, and Firebrand's chair was absent. Instead, she rolled up in a wheelchair, her hind legs replaced already. "Okay, so it turns out that I couldn't just plop on some prosthetic hind legs and call it a day, even after training myself like I did with the arms. I need to build a new pelvis and get that installed by professionals. I already have a design in mind, and it will have a silicone coating everywhere that it directly touches muscle to prevent it from shredding them. So, yeah. It's a bump in the road, but I'll get past it. Bye bye!"

The next one opened with her walking in like a human, wearing a small dress that left most of her mechanical legs exposed. "I've done it! I've worked out all the kinks in the design! Staff Resources says I have to wear clothes at all times now for modesty reasons, which is a very funny thing coming from a stallion wearing only an ascot and collar. Still, I can see why, what with being upright and all that sometimes. But you know what, I'm actually alright with this, surprisingly enough. Oh, let me show you this!" She set a leg on the table and I watched as it went from an armored human leg shape (there were no visible toes) to an equine leg shape. "I can go back to four legs anytime I want!"

A knock came from the video. "Firebrand, may I come in?"

Firebrand shifted her leg back to humanoid and properly stood. "Yes, Overseer Celestia!"

I watched as Princess Celestia, wearing a tasteful white suit and pink tie came in, her clothes just a hit darker than her coat and eyes respectively. "Firebrand, the results of your tests with your prosthetics has come to my attention. You are going to be moved to a new position."

"Overseer?"

"Your talent at metalworking and engineering is spectacular, first of all. You've done a lot in your ten years here."

"The new position, though?"

"Internal security at the shadow labs." Firebrand's expression dropped at that. "You've built yourself into an excellent form for the job."

"But, but. . . What about my research? My projects?"

"Your achievements have been spectacular, yourself the crown example of them all. Your designs and processes have been patented, and the Helios labs will take only ten percent of anything the patents make while the rest goes to you, as is standard. Now, I have an assignment for you. You have a month to design and build yourself some armor and obtain armaments. I'm sure you know why we can't just give you armor."

"Mecha shifting and posture change."

"Yes. I don't care much what the design is, as long as it works." She levitated a folded piece of paper out and Firebrand accepted it. "These are things you should keep in mind when designing your armor."

"I. . . I see. What about the armaments?"

"You need ranged and melee armaments. You can build them, buy them, or accept what's available here. The ranged armaments must use ammunition that's available here to avoid stock issues and confusion at potentially critical moments. I have a sample of everything here." A box of ammo levitated onto Firebrand's desk. Part of the visible ammo overflow caught my attention. "If you decide to build your armaments, I will give you up to two weeks more time to make sure it works." Celestia noticed the recording. "Ah, you're recording. Well, you'll have a reminder available now if you need a refresher. That's all for now. Good luck, Firebrand."

After Celestia walked out, Firebrand slumped into her chair. For a minute, that was all she did. Finally, she turned to the camera. "Bye bye."

Not long after the video ended, Queen came in. "Hey, it's almost supper time. Come on up. We're having spicy chicken alfredo tonight."

I gave the computer a wistful glance before powering it down. "Alright."

After supper, I was busy helping figure out what the various looted things were. Some were easy enough, mostly office supplies. There were a few handguns in the mix, which I assured could be lethal, even if they weren't as big as Iron Debt, which I still wanted to see. A crate was set aside exclusively for weaponry, and I was put in charge of it. The guns were all very rusty, and probably wouldn't work, but I handled them as if they could work and were loaded.

Before I went to bed, I went back into the ruins to watch one more video. Firebrand's armor was brown and yellow with a few spots of purple, and it looked like it would fit me. "Well, it's been five weeks, and I've got my armor and weapons done. I have two shortswords here." She pulled a pair of yellow blades off her thighs and set them on the table. "These are my backup melee weapons. My real close quarter weapons are on my arms and legs. Each limb on the armor has built in shotguns for punching and kicking, and includes empty shell ejection. I can get five shots per shell with the arm or leg guns before it has to be ejected." Multishot ammo sounded pretty cool, though my unlimited ammo was better. She also demonstrated the operation of the mounted guns, and it was pretty simple. "The real beauties though are these." She picked up a pair of what looked like shotguns with a big blade above and below the twin barrels. "Blades and barrels. Melee and range. The barrels spin while firing, and can get ten shots per shell before ejection, so 100 shots before reloading." She slid a panel on top open and pulled an integrated magazine up, loaded with a band of orange plastic shells. "Overseer Celestia likes the design of these so much, she wants to make a mass production model of it for our soldiers." She sighed and lowered the amazing gun. "When will the fighting end? It's been fifteen years and two wars already. The shadow labs here have helped our side a lot, but. . . When will it end? I guess for now, this entry is over. I'll start in the shadow labs tomorrow. Bye bye."

I had mixed feelings as I left the office. On one hand, her story was taking a downward turn, going from the science she liked to internal security in the shadow labs. Based on what I'd learned, and the fact that she had armor and heavy weapons for the job, it was probably less a matter of keeping suspicious people out and keeping something dangerous in.

On the other hand, her armor and weapons were really cool, and I wanted them for myself. I knew it was probably gone, lost to the sands of time, but I could dream.

Author's Notes:

The chapter title says it all.