Yukito teleported onto the launch pad as the moon started to set to yield its hold of the sky to the rising sun, just in time to see Sora alighting on the pad a mere ten feet away, stiff in the legs and in the wings. She was shivering, red in the face with sleeves rolled up, teeth chattering a little and front hooves a smidgen pale. "Dear stars above, you look like you've flown from windigos and had to wage war with the earth itself. What in the world happened?" he asked.

Sora took a few breaths to gather herself, and stumbled to Yukito in a rather fitful trot, her body chilling up despite the movements. As a result, she almost faceplanted, but caught herself with her blades. "Y-you know a-as well as I-I do that... w-windigos a-aren't real," she hissed, before she sucked in a deep breath to collect herself. "Th… the Crested Plains… got colder…" she muttered, wings almost rattling with how badly she shook. "I-inside?"

Yukito nodded and sighed. "This almost reminds me of when I had to keep everypony else away from you while you went and hibernated for three months after stopping Starbreaker's rampage… oh, that reminds me, she wants to talk to you," he said as he embraced Sora in his magic, before they teleported and reappeared in Starbreaker's much warmer room. Sora had little chance to gather her bearings before then, and once the teleportation ended she managed to stumble in place and slumped rear-first against the farthest wall.

Starbreaker was looking at them expectantly, both brows high and a frown etched on her face. Sora noticed there was now a metallic cone-shaped object affixed where her left ear used to be, and it twitched in tandem with the torn right. In doing so, the object gave a very soft whir. "Where'd you go?" she asked.

"H-Hollowed Gorge," Sora replied, pressing her wings tighter against herself in an attempt to get warmer. She donned a smile. "Y-you got that p-prosthetic?" At Starbreaker's nod, she asked, "C-can you hear out of it?" That garnered a shaking of the head.

"That ear canal's been ruined. We had to close it with the small control rod that lets the prosthetic move," Yukito replied, smiling himself. "But, we were able to connect it to the nerve endings where her eardrum used to be, and it moves as splendidly as any real ear would."

Sora nodded and proceeded to lay on the floor, smiling at the warmth of the room and the little bit of good news she had received. "C-can y-you feel it m-move?" she asked, looking pointedy at Starbreaker, who nodded that time with another twitch of her prosthetic. "Wh-what did you w-want to talk to me a-about?"

"Something about getting the new ear bugged me." Starbreaker took a breath, causing Sora's brow to rise, before she asked, "Can you feel your blades?"

Sora shifted her wings a little and nodded. "Everywhere… except th-the joints where they're affixed t-to," she answered with a shrug. "It's like h-having natural primaries that a-aren't linked to my nerves—n-not exactly phantom limb s-syndrome, but that's the closest thing th-that would describe my wings. I don't h-have my terminal phalanxes, but my b-basal phalanxes are all intact."

Starbreaker tilted her head. "What's that mean in basic equine?" she asked.

"Have you s-seen anything with slim digits o-on l-limbs where hooves would b-be for us?" Sora asked. At Starbreaker's nod, she added, "With c-claws?"

That got another nod. "I saw a big animal once, walking on its hinds to shake a tree in the forest I grazed from," Starbreaker replied, "and it had claws on both fronts and hinds."

At this, Sora promptly re-translated her initial mumbo-jumbo, "My wings h-have fingers about as long a-as my legs, with their claws t-taken out and replaced by th-the blades. Does that make any s-sense to you?" A third nod mutely answered her, and she relaxed a little more.

Yukito trotted to Sora and laid down next to her. "Are you spending the night here?" he asked. Sora fervently nodded and nestled her head between her forelegs. "In the barracks?" That got a snort, a shake of the head, and a slight ruffling of bladed wings.

"I am not s-sleeping in the same r-room as a bunch of d-dead-eyed bitches tonight," Sora scoffed, brow furrowing as her eyes closed.

"Dead-eyed?" Starbreaker parroted, her prosthetic twitching fervently as she struggled to mentally picture what Sora was on about.

"Don't ask…" Yukito stated, his tail swishing a little. "Sora, did you eat anything at all today?"

For a moment, Sora contemplated this, before she promptly lifted her head back up and facehoofed. "I knew I-I was f-forgetting something today…" she grumbled. "Next time I'm o-on patrol, I-I'm packing a l-lunch…" Yukito chuckled as his horn lit up, and he magically flung open the miniature fridge before pulling a medium-sized black bowl with a clear lid out of it. "Wh-what is that?"

"A serving of salad," Yukito answered, levitating the bowl over before removing its lid. He set it in front of Sora, revealing a whole menagerie of greens waiting for her. As with yesterday, Sora wrapped her hooves around it and attacked the bowl's contents face first, crunching the greens with relish.

"She's been like that, hasn't she?" Starbreaker queried, garnering a look from Yukito. When his ears twitched and his brow rose, she elaborated, "Not eating until the sky's black as charred corpses, and then just sticking that muzzle of hers into the food?" That got a shrug.

"Some days she does, some days she doesn't. Depends on how engrossed she gets into whatever tasks the Majors throw onto her withers, or with things she goes off and does with her own two wings," Yukito replied in earnest. "She gets a little… too into her job sometimes."

Starbreaker sighed and leaned back into her bed. "Don't you?" she asked.

"Not enough to slash into patients willy-nilly, and certainly not without reason," Yukito answered, snorting as Sora finished off the salad and pulled out. He turned to her and smiled, seeing that there was now a pretzel sticking out of her mouth. "Oh? It seems you found a surprise," he mused as Sora reeled in the pretzel with a giggle.

"I w-wite pwhetshels," Sora managed through said pretzel as she started chewing it. Upon swallowing it, she delved into the bowl again, before snorting when she found it had been cleaned out… and sighed in defeat before parting from the bowl. "A-any more p-pretzels?"

Yukito shook his head. "No, but you look… a bit dehydrated," he noted, his horn alighting again. The fridge door opened once more, and this time out came a small metal canteen that founds its lid unscrewed even as it was levitated over. Hastily, he thrust the lip of the canteen in Sora's mouth, but not before shaking it a little to confirm that liquid still sloshed within. Her head tilted up with the bottle, and she drank down the contents without batting an eye. Only when the canteen was parted from her mouth did her head drop back down, and she heaved an immense sigh of relief.

"Mm… th-thank you," Sora cooed, before she put her muzzle in the bowl again. She felt her case of chills go down as the liquid and food started to reinvigorate her system, and slowly her body started to warm up. She yawned, prior to closing her eyes and falling asleep with her face still wedged into said bowl almost immediately after. Yukito chuckled and magically pried the bowl from her muzzle, gently so as to not rouse her, then stood up and put the bowl atop the fridge before closing its door.

"I'll be back, with blankets and pillows," Yukito stated, garnering a look from Starbreaker just as he vanished in a flash of light.

"Weirdos, the both of you," Starbreaker hissed before laying back down with a yawn leaving her mouth. "But at least… I'm getting better… thanks to them," she muttered as her eyes slipped shut, and a dream of fire and smoke took her the same time sleep claimed her.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Three weeks passed after that, without incident or without the other army-bound ponies giving Sora so much as a glance each time she passed them throughout the halls. Granted, Sora stayed with Yukito and Starbreaker a lot during that time, and hadn't been summoned to undertake any sort of tasks, which for her was a much welcome change. Of course, Starbreaker would issue threats of torching something off of her body, but Sora cared not for those declarations—they weren't even as effective as Major Trinity's riding crop.

Starbreaker was monitored, almost religiously, by her makeshift bodyguards. Daily, she'd be allowed small trots out of bed, from the door to back or the bathroom if needed, and slowly her gaunt legs strengthened with these trots and the food she was served. Hell, said makeshift bodyguards started sleeping in the room with her, bringing sleeping bags and pillows nightly, which was something that she herself found most bizarre. Halfway through these dragging three weeks, she started to trot on all fours instead of three-fours, and not long after that her legs stopped shooting pain through her nerves in protest.

At the end of that three weeks, after one such trot which spanned several laps around the room and ended at the bed, Yukito scrutinized Starbreaker's horn, which now stood as tall as any proud horn would, down to a now-sharp and lethal point. Wordlessly, he scrutinized the rest of her body thereafter; her stomach had rounded out a little, her ribs were not showing as much as they were when she'd been found, and her legs had put on a bit of bulk and muscle. The scar on her chest was still visible, yet it had shrunk a fair margin, perhaps due to the fur around it growing like a weed.

"So… what's Starbo's prognosis?" Sora piped up, hovering off to the side of the room as Yukito finished the initial check-up. That got Starbreaker to snort in her direction.

"Call me that one more frickin' time, and I will flay your coat off before I torch you!" Starbreaker hissed, eyes narrowing and brow furrowing. "And then, I'll make you into a nice warm blanket!"

Sora promptly flared her wings and strutted over with an exaggerated gait, almost lashing with her tail just from the movement. She leaned towards Starbreaker upon reaching the bed, a small smirk of schadenfreude adorning her muzzle. "I thought you wanted to annihilate me?" she taunted. "Wouldn't preserving my hide, I don't know, count as a reminder of sorts—perhaps, I dunno, me kicking your ass—for you?"

"Maybe, but only so ponies wouldn't stop me once I trot around with your fur on my withers!" Starbreaker countered, returning the small smirk with a wide, manic grin.

Sora tilted her head, and her smirk widened a smidgen. "Perhaps, but you must bear in mind the fact that there's a chance somepony else wouldn't be deterred by that display and would probably rip your head clean off your neck," she replied coolly. She closed her wings and turned to Yukito, who smiled warmly at her.

"I'll burn them before their grubby hooves touch me!" Starbreaker declared, chest puffing out.

Magic briefly clamped their muzzles shut before either could continue their mane-measuring contest. "Well, she's just about good to go, although the only thing left to sort out would be weight," Yukito replied as he started scrutinising the bit of parted forelock that revealed the tiny chip implanted in her forehead, his horn alight. "And, of course, this little rock here…"

Sora's smile fell as Yukito's horn dimmed and the magic let go of her and Starbreaker's muzzles. "But if we remove it, we'll get blown to kingdom come," she pointed out dourly, wings bristling at the thought. Her hoof lifted to her bell, straying just a few centimeters, before falling still. "Unless… we can teach her to adjust?"

Yukito lifted a hoof and adjusted his glasses with it, before shifting to tap his chin idly, eyes gravitating to Sora as he pondered what to do. "Sounds… plausible," he muttered, brow furrowing as gears started to grind in his mind. He turned to Starbreaker, who noticed she was being stared at and turned back to him with the manic grin still etched on her face. "Do you know what it means to adjust?" he asked.

The manic grin dropped faster than Yukito could blink, followed by a shrug of earnest so slight it seemed that Starbreaker hadn't moved at all. She ruminated for a moment, and with a whir her eyes shifted to a bright yellow. "Nope," she confirmed.

"At least she's honest…" Yukito grumbled with an exasperated sigh. He stared into her eyes and asked, "Can you… control that, by the way?"

"Control what?" Starbreaker asked. Yukito silently gestured to the mirror again, and she looked before finding what it was he was referring to. "Oh… a bit," she answered, as with another whir her eyes reverted. "But… it goes on and off, mostly."

"With your mood?" Yukito guessed. That garnered him a nod. "Huh. Never thought ocular augments could do that before…"

"And mine glow in the damn dark," Sora chimed in, frowning.

Yukito smiled, and had to concede Sora's point. "Oh well, I know not how the ocular augments are even made, much less implemented…" he muttered.

"Painfully," Starbreaker hissed, brow furrowing and forelegs crossing over her chest with a snort.

"Hrm… in that case, a glitch had probably occurred during that particular… transplant… because even in ocular augments, rainbow irises are rarer than hen's teeth. Rainbow irises that can shift color… don't get me started on those logistics. Unless, perhaps, the ponies who bestowed you that modification did that on purpose, with its color-changing aspect?" Yukito muttered, pondering this for a moment. He sighed, shaking his head as he decided to change topics when he realized that the color-change aspect had something fishy about it, but whatever the case, Starbreaker wouldn't be so forthcoming with answers if 'painfully' was her response to the prodding. "Have you developed any particular preference, food-wise?" he tried.

Starbreaker uncrossed her forelegs and bit her lip, ears twitching as her mental gears started turning. After a few minutes, her head shook. "Not really," she answered. "I can taste it, but… good or bad hasn't…" she trailed off, mental gears halting in place as she struggled to come up with a word to finish her reply.

"Clicked?" Sora offered after a minute of silence.

Starbreaker nodded. "Yes, that, it hasn't clicked yet," she finished.

"Hrm… guess we'll need to give her more homemade meals…" Yukito muttered, lips twitching like he wanted to frown, but couldn't. "But what would we make…?"

Sora looked up toward the ceiling, as if there had been a smudge on it that only she could detect. "Hrm…" She shrugged, wings ruffling a little with the motion. "Dunno…" She turned to Starbreaker and smiled. "Want that nickel tour?"

Starbreaker turned to Sora and blinked, tilting her head with ears perked to attention. "But wouldn't anypony try harming me if I so much as left this cell?" she pointed out, frowning. Sora flinched, ears falling back at that as she bit her lip in contemplation.

"Well… Major Trinity didn't lay a hoof on you… and the only pony who really did kicked you, so…" Sora contemplated, folded ears twitching as her mind whirred. "If we did it by carriage, not many would even notice unless they looked inside…"

"Would they even allow a carriage in these premises?" Yukito chimed in, which made Sora look at him and purse her lips. "Because I don't think the Admiral would take kindly to the idea of a nickel tour. As he may see it, we'd just be painting new targets for Starbreaker to annihilate if we did that."

Sora sat on her haunches and lifted a hoof to rub the back of her head, mental gears grinding to a screeching halt as she remembered the base had a magical thing called cameras scattered all over the damned place. Her wings dropped, and her blades clattered against the floor as her gears continued to stall, trying to move yet were now rendered unable to do so. "Well, shit…" she muttered, dropping her hoof as her eyes fell onto Yukito. "Would it be possible to, somehow, link our minds together so we can see out of each other's eyes? We could do the nickel tour that way," she sighed, not bothering to hide the desperation from her voice.

Yukito fell to his haunches, frown widening and brow slanting to form a look of utter befuddlement. "Unless we installed a television here and tacked a camera feed to you which would then transmit through that television, making sure the device came with audio and color capabilities, no. Such a spell is beyond even my power, not to mention dangerous and with unnecessary risks involved," he said, firmly. "You'd both drive each other insane, were your minds linked, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's like using your bell to form missiles when you're trying to punch something literally inches from your hooves; much more trouble than it's actually worth."

"Her bell can make missiles?" Starbreaker piped up, garnering dual nods in reply. "I've never seen it do that."

"Only if I command it to, though. It's… similar to my shield; in both cases, they just materialize and do whatever I want," Sora answered, a hoof idly lifting to touch her bell without setting it off as her eyes gravitated to her charge. "I'm just a pegasus; I can't understand whatever unicorn workings went into it to make such a feat possible. Technology, on the other hoof, I'm more familiar with. I can use a standard gun, or hell, even a rifle without breaking a sweat if I have either on hoof and need to do so. I'm just not as good with either of those as I am with my blades," she added. "No offense."

"I wouldn't have expected you to understand unicorn feats anyway. And as a unicorn who barely understands such nonsense, believe me when I say I speak from experience," Starbreaker remarked, lifting both hooves and waving them dismissively.

Sora blinked, and her wings rose. "Wait… you can't understand unicorn feats?" she asked, pupils shrinking as her tone took on a note of disbelief.

Starbreaker nodded and crossed her forelegs again. "Not even a little bit. All I know is I'm modified, I can conjure the Crimson Light whenever I damn well please—or I would if there wasn't a rock attached to my head—and that I'm currently unable to do anything without you two hovering over my cutie mark. I don't understand pegasi either, even less so than myself! I can't just wrap my head around the winged pricks—" Here, she glanced at Sora and glared at her briefly, "—least of all, you. Don't get me started on the..."

"Earth ponies," Yukito chimed in, as his mental gears began grinding again. Starbreaker nodded as he crossed his forelegs and started biting his lip. "Well… hrm…" The gears continued to grind, but sped up as he considered something he'd had mentioned earlier. "Wait, a camera feed… Sora, that's it!" he exclaimed, tail bristling as excitement filled him. "We can just install a television here, and put a mobile camera on you to broadcast it in this room!"

Sora went wide-eyed, and her tail hiked. She quickly understood what Yukito was getting at; this ploy, if they could pull it off, would hit two birds with one stone! "Then… want me to fetch the necessary equipment?" she asked, donning a small yet serene smile. "We could do the nickel tour that way."

Yukito relented, and smiled. "If you do, we'll have another… night in the off-duty building," he cooed. "And perhaps…" Slowly, he turned to Starbreaker, who looked back at him with eyes shifting yellow.

"What?" Starbreaker asked as Sora turned to look at her.

"Say, do you know how to read?" Sora queried, lifting a hoof to gesture to the nearest bookshelf, which itself had started gathering a bit of dust as of late.

"I…" Starbreaker paused and turned to the ceiling, brow furrowing for a moment. Sora stood up and trotted to the bookshelf, randomly selecting a book to pull out with her hoof. She took a few seconds to dust its cover off and turned around, holding it to her barrel as she cantered back to hoof it over. Starbreaker took the book with a hoof, and looked at its title… but whatever it was, it was less a series of letters forming something and more a series of curved lines that became gibberish. There was no way in hell she could translate the gobbledygook even if she put in the effort, and a snowball's chance of her even starting to here and now. "Nope," she answered, hoofing the book back.

Sora nodded with her smile falling and took the book, turning to head to the bookshelf and put the book back in its place. "Guess that explains an awful lot," she muttered dismally.

"It does," Yukito agreed, his voice just as grim. "And furthermore… where would we get our requisite materials?" His tail lashed, but only once. "And when would we be able to get it? What parts of the base would you show her, and wouldn't?"

"I don't know what you're babbling on about," Starbreaker piped up again, brow furrowing and eyes reverting as she turned to Yukito first, then to Sora.

Sora paused, wings bristling as she pondered that question. Again, her mental gears locked into a halt, that time grinding into each other as she struggled to come up with an answer. Several minutes passed before anypony said anything, and when two of the three spoke, it was in perfect tandem. "Ah, shit," Yukito and Sora swore simultaneously, faces going pale.

"What?" Starbreaker asked. Slowly, Yukito and Sora turned to her, gulping audibly. Neither had an answer for her query now. Neither could form one at this point. Their charge started getting the niggling feeling that something was amiss, and opened her mouth once more, only to close it again as the silence gripped her too.