Sundance tore off his neurohelmet and threw himself forward in his seat, gasping for breath. His head felt like it was being stuffed with cotton, his heart was hammering in his chest so hard he swore he could feel it through his rib cage, and his entire body hurt sharply all over. The muffled sound of machine guns abruptly cut off, and he put a hoof to his temple. "What the hell was that?" he thought as he flinched at the now receding headache. He looked around the dark cockpit, realizing he was shut down in a field. "What..." He sat there for a moment, recollecting what had just happened.

The only thing Sundance remembered after the Commander's call was the flash of gunfire and lasers, followed immediately by horrible pain coursing through his whole body, possibly the worst he had ever experienced. He brought his hoof to his still-pounding heart. He was sure he could remember something else, but... it was more like a distant memory, probably triggered by the gunfire. Sundance wasn't sure what it was, but it felt important. He winced and placed his hoof back on his head as the migraine kicked back up slightly.

Sundance glanced up as Vermilion walked over to him in his Timber Wolf. "Sundance? Are you alright in there?" he asked over his external speaker, the noise dully reverberating in the cockpit. Sundance nodded and restarted his Hellbringer, the cockpit relighting and coming to life.

Sundance gingerly placed the neurohelmet back on his head and Solis's worried humming soothing the headache slightly. "I'm alright, Solis. I just need a moment," he thought. He leaned back into his seat and winced, the contact making his pain flare up again. After a moment, he saw movement from the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to see Commander Charcoal in his Mad Dog walk into view.

"What was that about, cadet Sundance? You did not even fight back!" the Commander said, obviously more than a little displeased.

"I-I was just, um..." Sundance struggled. He wasn't exactly sure how to explain what happened to the Commander, especially considering even he didn't know what happened. His pain certainly didn't do anything to help.

"I think there was something wrong, Sir," Vermilion cut in. "He had his neurohelmet off and he looked like he was in pain."

Commander Charcoal looked at Sundance in the cockpit. "Is that so? Are you well enough to continue, or do you need to go to the infirmary?"

Sundance shook his head and gritted his teeth. "I'll be alright, Sir. I can continue." Truthfully, Sundance wasn't alright, and he'd love to go to the infirmary and skip the rest of training, but there was no way he could slink away and use his pain as an excuse for his poor performance.

The Commander frowned and stared at him for a few more seconds. "No, you can not. I will not have one of my most promising cadets ruin himself." He turned towards the 'Mechs at the other end of the field just as two light 'Mechs finished their skirmish.

"Cadet Tangelo, come over here," Commander Charcoal called over the open comms as the shut down light Mech powered back up. The tiny 'Mech turned around and ran over to stand in front of the Commander.

"You called for me, Sir?" a singsong voice said over the comms. Sundance saw the cadet inside, presumably Tangelo, salute to the Commander.

"Yes. Take cadet Sundance here to the infirmary. And be quick about it."

"Of course, Sir," Tangelo said.

"Cadets Lilac and Chrome, it is your turn," Sundance heard the Commander say as he wheeled around. He watched another heavy and a medium step out in front of the other cadets before they stopped and faced each other.

Sundance heard a polite cough on a private comm channel. He turned around to find Tangelo waiting a short distance down the field in her Mech. "We shouldn't keep the Commander waiting. Unless, of course, you don't want to go to the infirmary?"

Sundance sighed and shook his head. "I'm coming." He cast a quick glance back at the other cadets as they started their skirmish before lumbering behind Tangelo down the training field. They walked past the tree line and into the forest, and the sounds of weapon fire faded behind them. After a while, Tangelo broke the silence.

"You heavy Mechs are all so slow. How can you handle dragging your hooves everywhere?"

Sundance looked down at her and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know. I guess I never really thought of heavies being slow, just lights being really fast. The Commander always said lights are like annoying gnats that never go away," he said, almost immediately realizing his mistake. "Though, umm... I'm sure he meant the 'Mechs themselves, and not the, uh, ponies piloting them." Solis buzzed in an amused way. "I know, I know. Not a great way to start a conversation with a pony I've never met," Sundance thought.

Tangelo giggled lightly. "Well, he wasn't wrong about one thing. I think whoever named most light Mechs kept that in mind, considering mine is called a Locust. Well, the Clan version of a Locust, anyway. So what do you need to go to the infirmary for? We weren't using live ammunition, so I wasn't expecting to have to take anypony there today."

Sundance winced as the headache flared up slightly. "I'm not sure. As soon as the skirmish started, my body started hurting all over," he said, rubbing the back of his head gingerly. "And what do you mean by that? You knew the Commander would tell you if somepony got hurt?"

"Of course. My cutie mark is a first aid kit, after all," Tangelo said, slowing slightly as they went around a turn in the path. "Hmm... I've never heard of that happening to anypony before. Maybe Cornsilk will have an idea of what happened."

They continued along the path in silence before it narrowed drastically. Tangelo stopped quickly, and Sundance scrambled to not trample her as he stumbled to a halt. "Sorry. I forgot you guys can't just stop when you're running at seventy kph," she said as she stepped away from Sundance. "So anyway, you can't really get to the infirmary in that Mech, as you've no doubt already realized. We'll have to continue on hoof."

Sundance glanced at the low-hanging branches. "Can't we just push through them? It's not like the branches are going to hurt our Mechs."

"I'd rather not spend my lunchtime dragging broken limbs off of the path instead of eating, thank you." She powered down her Locust and swung the cramped cockpit open, leaving her neurohelmet on the seat. The first things Sundance noticed about her was her extraordinarily bright orange mane and her almost-as-bright yellow eyes. It was almost difficult to see the duller shade of orange that made up her coat past all of the more intense colors. She motioned to Sundance to follow her and hopped off of the short 'Mech.

Sundance stared after her for a moment, slightly distracted, before Solis beeped and got his attention. "What? I know, I'm going," he thought. Solis hummed, confused. Sundance certainly seemed out of sorts, though she wasn't sure why. "No, it's nothing. I'll be back soon. Don't go anywhere."

Sundance shut down the Hellbringer and removed his neurohelmet, his heart beating noticeably faster than normal. "Huh, that's weird. I hope this all isn't being caused by some horrible heart condition," he thought. He swung the access hatch open and looked down at the distant ground. A fall from this height would no doubt break something, so he'd have to be careful.

The rungs attached to the outside of the Hellbringer led down to the ground along the side of the 'Mech. Sundance had never used them before, and it seemed like a precarious way to get off and on a 'Mech. "Let's hope I don't fall to my death," he thought as he began his descent.

Climbing down the 'Mech was slow progress, but eventually Sundance began to near the ground. He got a little too impatient however, and in his haste to reach the ground, he slipped on one of the rungs and tumbled a couple of meters to the ground. Luckily the snow broke his fall, and he let out a grunt as the air was knocked from his lungs.

He laid on the ground for a few moments, staring at the sky as the world spun around him. Tangelo walked up to him and looked down at him, seemingly entertained by his trouble. "Are you alright?"

Sundance shook his head to clear his vision and pulled himself quickly to his hooves. "Yeah, I'm fine. Never better," he said as he brushed the snow off of his cooling suit.

Tangelo eyed him amusedly before shaking her head and smiling. "Come on, let's not keep the Commander waiting."

Sundance paused as she walked past him, then turned to follow. Their hooves left trails through the snow as the two cadets walked through the quiet forest, with Tangelo leading the way. A light breeze swept through the trees, and Sundance shivered. The cooling suits were designed to be breathable, so they understandably didn't have much in the way of insulation.

Before long they made it to the infirmary, where the doors were shut against the cold. Tangelo pushed one of them open and stepped inside. "Cornsilk? Are you in here?" she called.

The nurse's head popped out from behind a curtain halfway down the room and she smiled. "Tangelo, my favorite cadet," she said as she stepped towards the two cadets. Sundance could see the faint outline of a pony lying on the bed behind the curtain, and he saw dark green hooves sticking out at the end of the bed. Cornsilk scowled when she saw Sundance, and he smiled awkwardly and waved. "Along with Sundance. Not my favorite cadet." She shook her head. "I know my personality is charming and it's warm in the infirmary, but you can't keep coming here. It's been, what, a week since I last saw you?"

Sundance shrugged. Bittersweet had been pushing him around almost constantly for the past year, but he hadn't told his friends about it. He knew they would get involved and would probably get hurt, especially Vermilion. "I get injured a lot."

Cornsilk shook her head again. "You need to be more careful. You'll have joints like mine by age thirty if you keep this up." She sighed. "So what's the problem this time? Broken leg? Lacerations covering your chest? Crabs?" Tangelo giggled.

Sundance opened his mouth and stopped. He frowned. "What? No, eww. That's disgusting. Why would you even think that?"

"You've come to me with nearly every injury and ailment I know about over the past year, and that just came to mind as one you haven't complained about. Yet, anyway. You don't have to be embarrassed about it."

"Of course I don't have crabs. I'm thirteen," Sundance said, making a face.

"That's too bad. They just sent me an entire case of ointment for the nasty buggers, and I have no idea what to do with all of it. It's completely useless to me." Cornsilk sighed before walking over to a cabinet and opening it. "They must have mixed up my order again. Command always does shit like this." She rummaged through the cabinet before shutting it, frustrated. "If they could actually send over the medicine I ordered, then I could do my job. I'm sure you two know about the horrible viruses that plague Dike in the winter. They're not lethal, thank Celestia, but it's dreadful business without medicine. Poor Fern over there is getting the worst of it right now," she said with a nod toward the green hooves Sundance noticed earlier. A pitiful cough sounded in response from the sick cadet.

She turned back to Sundance and looked him over. "So what exactly's the matter with you this time? I can't see blood pooling on my clean floor, so you must be better off than usual."

Sundance sighed. "I'm not sure, actually. We were starting skirmishes in training today, and as soon as my turn started, my body started hurting all over."

Cornsilk frowned. "That's odd. Either you're the victim of a strange coincidence or there's something terribly wrong with you." She nodded towards one of the beds. "Have a seat."

Sundance walked over to the bed and sat down nervously. "I sure hope it's nothing serious," he thought. Cornsilk walked up to him and immediately tapped him roughly on one knee to test his reflexes. Sundance flinched and grabbed his knee. "Ow! Did you have to do it that hard?"

"No, but I wanted to. Now hold still." Cornsilk prodded him in the stomach a few times before peering into his ears, eyes, and down his throat. "Hmm... Tangelo, can you bring me the tray on that cart over there, darling?" she said, nodding towards a cart at the end of the room. She turned back towards Sundance. "I need you to strip out of that cooling suit. The Commander would have my ass on a platter if I stabbed you through that thing. It's probably worth as many bits as I make in a month."

"Of course." Tangelo walked towards the end of the room with her hips swaying slightly. Sundance stared after her for a moment, and Cornsilk waved a hoof in front of his eyes to get his attention.

"Hey. Stop mooning and get out of that cooling suit."

Sundance blinked a few times. "Oh, sorry. I've been really distracted recently for some reason," he said, sliding off the bed and unhooking the collar of the cooling suit.

Cornsilk raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? I hadn't noticed. That reason wouldn't happen to be an eye-piercing shade of orange, would it?"

Sundance shook his head as he pulled his forelegs out of the sleeves. "No. I think it had something to do with why my body started hurting. I got a really weird headache at the same time, and I felt like I almost remembered something I had forgotten, too."

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say," Cornsilk said. Tangelo walked back over to them with a metal tray in one hoof, and Cornsilk grabbed a stethoscope from it. She turned back towards Sundance and placed it on his chest, listening intently. Every once in a while she moved it to a different location, before doing the same thing on his back.

After a minute or so, she sighed and shook her head before removing the stethoscope from her ears. "I can't find anything immediately wrong with you, so we'll have to do this the fun way."

Sundance furrowed his brow, confused. "The fun way? What does that involve?" he asked just as Cornsilk took a massive needle from the tray Tangelo had brought her. She turned her head to face Sundance with a crooked smile on her face.

"With needles, how else? I did say I was going to stab you. Unless, of course, you were too distracted to hear."

Sundance backed up against the bed in alarm. "That? But it's huge! What are you going to do with it?"

"Sample your blood, of course. I need to run some tests to make sure you're not diseased." Cornsilk took a step towards him.

"But do you really need to? Isn't there an easier way to draw blood?" he asked anxiously. Needles certainly weren't his favorite thing, especially ones the size of a drinking straw.

"There certainly are, but this is the most fun way for me. Now hold still or I'll have to prick you more than once." She grabbed his left foreleg none too gently and looked it over. "If you relax your muscles, this won't hurt as much."

Sundance shot her a look. "Relax? Easy for you to say. You're not the one- Fuck!" he yelled as Cornsilk abruptly jabbed the needle into his foreleg. "Ow! Why didn't you warn me?"

"Because you were going to tense up if I did. You'll thank me later," she said, winking. "I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu." Sundance gritted his teeth and held on tightly to the edge of the bed. He sat there for a few moments, watching the syringe fill with his blood. It was a bit unsettling.

When the syringe was about half full, Cornsilk nodded to herself. "That's enough." She suddenly yanked the needle back out of Sundance's foreleg, and he gasped and clutched the wound. He shot her a glare, and she just stared back innocently. "What? Remember what I said about tensing your muscles?" She turned to Tangelo and nodded towards Sundance. "Take care of him for me. I'll be in the back room running exciting tests like sitting around for two hours while I wait for the results to come back."

"Sure thing." Cornsilk nodded and walked down to a metal door at the end of the room. She used the key around her neck to unlock the door and disappeared inside. Tangelo walked over to Sundance, who was still clutching his bleeding foreleg. She set the metal tray down and grabbed a disinfectant wipe and a paper towel from it before turning to Sundance and motioning for him to remove his hoof. He obliged, and she began wiping down his foreleg with the towel. "So, you said something about a distant memory or whatever when you were in your 'Mech?" she asked.

Sundance nodded. "Yeah, but I can't remember what it was about." He went to scratch the back of his head, but stopped when he remembered the blood on his hoof. He set his hoof back down on his lap.

"I kind of gathered that much. Why don't you try harder to remember it? Put yourself back in your 'Mech and try to remember everything." Tangelo raised an eyebrow at him. "I meant that figuratively, by the way. In case you were actually about to walk back outside and climb into your 'Mech."

Sundance laughed. "I'm not that stupid. Alright, I'll try." He closed his eyes as Tangelo switched from the towel to the disinfectant wipe. He imagined he was back in the cockpit of his Hellbringer, facing Vermillion's Timber Wolf, waiting for the Commander to give them the signal to start. He frowned. He didn't think this was helping, but he went along with it anyway. He remembered the Commander's call, machine guns, and... And...

Nine years ago, a group of soldiers was invading the small town of Styx. Gunfire was echoing across the whole town, and every single pony was awake and panicking. Innocent blood was flowing unrestricted down the streets, and frightened screams could be heard from nearly every building. All but one.

Eggshell, who was the mother of a four-year-old foal at the old age of eighteen, dragged her young foal out of bed, who cried in protest. "Come on, we have to run! The soldiers are here!"

The foal rubbed its eyes. "But mommy, I'm tired. Can't we go back to bed?"

Eggshell shuffled her wings, frustrated and terrified at the same time. "No, we need to go. Now!" She grabbed the foal's foreleg and pulled it along behind her. The foal let out a sharp cry of pain.

"Ow! Mommy, that hurt!" it whined. It stumbled, struggling to keep up with the older pony.

"I'm sorry young one, but we can't slow down. I need to keep you safe." She went up to the front door and hovered her hoof over the handle. "No, they'll see us," she thought. "We need to get out a different way." She dragged her foal to the rear door and silently swung the door open. She peeked her head out carefully, praying to Celestia that nopony would see them.

Luckily for them, fate was smiling on Eggshell and her foal, at least for the moment. She led the foal out into the open air where the gunshots were much louder.

The foal covered its ears. "What's that noise? Why is it so loud?"

"The soldiers are attacking our town," she growled. If she had known this was going to happen she would have taken her foal and left to live in the countryside, instead of letting that good-for-nothing, manipulating stallion walk out on her. She stamped her hoof, her nostrils flaring. "No time for loathing," she said quietly to herself. She pushed her foal underneath a cart in the alley next to their house and stopped to think for a moment.

"We need to leave town, but how? They'll see us if we try to run." She glanced out at the main square, and was wholly unprepared for the terrible scene before her. There were pools of blood everywhere seeping from the countless dead bodies lining the streets. Among those faces were many ponies she had grown up around, and even a couple of friends she could recognize, their dull eyes staring lifelessly at nothing.

"Dear Celestia, no..." she whispered, her voice cracking. She planted a hoof over her mouth, willing herself not to scream out. She knew ponies were dying, but seeing their corpses piled on top of each other like yesterday's garbage was too much for her. Her jaw began trembling, and she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She continued gazing out at the terrible scene, unable to tear her eyes away, when she saw a stallion standing in the middle of the square.

Staring right at her.

She shrieked and backed up against a wall, her wings unfolding but refusing to carry her anywhere. Even if she could fly away fast enough to avoid being shot down, there was no way she was going to leave her foal behind. The best she could do was not draw any attention to it and hope she died quickly and painlessly.

The stallion sauntered up to Eggshell, his face twisted in an expression of corrupt pleasure. She trembled as he breathed in deeply, unable to will her body to do anything but cower. His horn began to glow, and she felt herself being lifted off the ground, followed by the most intense pain she could imagine.

Eggshell screamed in agony as every single one of her joints were ripped from their sockets. She could feel her teeth being torn from her jaw and her skin shredding like paper as her bones snapped and slashed through her flesh. What was only about twenty seconds dragged out into what felt like hours of excruciating torture, and she continued screaming.

"AAAAHH! FUCK! Please! Please just kill me already! she cried, just wanting the unbearable pain to end. Her torturer, however, had different plans for her. He contorted her body into unnatural shapes with his magic and watched as the sharp bones shredding her body into an unrecognizable mess. Her cries slowly became fainter and weaker, until the blood pooling in her throat silenced them completely. Her mind slowed and her pain ebbed as her body mercifully began shutting down. As the last of her life flowed onto the cobblestones and her eyes began to flutter shut, she risked a glance at her foal.

The young colt was cowering under the cart, just where she had left him. She stared at him in her last moments, wanting to take the memory of him to whatever afterlife awaited her. His perfect coat the color of lamb's wool, his black mane as slick as oil, his beautiful purple eyes always looking at the world as if there was something he could see in it that she couldn't. "Please, Sundance... make it out alive..." she thought as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Sundance! Hey, just breathe, alright? Calm down and breathe. Deep breaths. You're alright, I've got you."

Sundance blinked rapidly as his eyes slowly readjusted to the world around him. He could feel his weight leaning forward on something soft, and there was a hoof on his chest trying to calm his ragged breathing. "That's it. Nothing here is going to hurt you. Just keep taking deep breaths."

As his eyes refocused, Sundance glanced around the room, trying to remember where he was. "Oh yeah, I'm in the infirmary. Cornsilk assaulted me and stole a bunch of my blood, then left Tangelo to do the rest of her job."

He shook his head and turned to Tangelo, who was staring at him with a worried expression. "Are you okay? You blacked out for a minute."

Tangelo helped Sundance back into a sitting position and he rubbed his forehead with one of his hooves. "I think so. I just... I remembered something from when the soldiers invaded our home town. Not everything, just a few pieces."

Tangelo frowned slightly at him, concerned. "Really? That can't have been an easy memory," she said, noting his wet eyes. "Here, let me get that for you." Before Sundance could react she reached towards the tray behind her, grabbed a clean paper towel, and started gently wiping the tears from his face.

Sundance froze, unsure how to react. He hadn't even realized he had been crying, and he certainly hadn't expected Tangelo to bring her face so close to his. He could faintly smell citrus, probably from her shampoo, and each of her breaths lightly caressed his cheek. Sundance felt his face growing hot and he held his breath.

Tangelo finished drying his face and stepped back, making eye contact with him. Her face flushed as she realized what she had done, and the two of them looked away from each other awkwardly. "Sorry, I was just, umm... I got a bit caught up in the moment." She put the towel back on the tray and picked it up. "You should probably get back into your cooling suit so we can get our Mechs to the hangar."

"Shouldn't we wait for Cornsilk to tell me I can go?" Sundance asked. He looked down at his foreleg, which had apparently been bandaged while he was unconscious.

Tangelo carried the tray back over to the cart and began dropping the used supplies into the trash. "She'll call for you if she finds something. Besides, I don't actually think there's anything wrong with you."

Sundance tilted his head at her as he struggled to pull the cooling suit over his body. "Why not? Do you think it was just a coincidence?"

Tangelo turned back towards him and shook her head. "I think it's a combination of two things. I think that memory tried to surface which caused you to black out, and there might be an explanation for the pain. It isn't unheard of for a MechWarrior to feel pain when their 'Mech is damaged, so it would make sense if you felt it to a much greater degree than any other pilot with your talent."

"Are you sure? We weren't using live ammunition, so how could I feel anything if my 'Mech wasn't actually being hit?" Sundance asked as he got the last of his legs into the cooling suit.

Tangelo shrugged. "I'm not sure, it's just a theory. Though, the training program in the Mechs is designed to simulate damage, so it still could have caused some sort of pain."

Sundance zipped up the front of the cooling suit and hooked the collar. "I guess that makes sense."

Tangelo walked over to the door to the infirmary and pulled it open, letting the cold air flow inside. "Ready to go? We took so much time the others might already be on their way to the hangar," she said.

Sundance nodded. "Sure. Let's go." He followed Tangelo out into the open air where the wind whipped around them. The sun was reflecting brightly off of the snow, and Sundance had to squint his eyes to see. "That certainly was an eventful morning," he thought to himself. He glanced at Tangelo. "I know I told Mist I wasn't interested in a relationship, but..." Sundance shook his head. "I don't know. I'll just have to see what happens. Even if things don't quite work out, I wouldn't mind having more friends."

Meanwhile on Terra, two hundred light years from Clan space...

"But why can't we just attack them? They're weakened with all the fighting going on. This would be the perfect time to take revenge for everything they've done! With the three of us and the entire Inner Sphere, we could easily wipe them out now," Discord said, frustrated. His colleagues were quite vexing to work with sometimes.

Celestia shook her head. "We mustn't attack unprovoked. I know you're still angry about the invasion all those years ago, but we can't hang on to the past."

"They killed millions of our ponies! Five hundred years later and we're still recovering from the damage they inflicted. They even almost killed you!" he argued.

"That was in ritualistic combat. I survived, they honored their laws and agreement to leave, and now we must honor our own laws. I will not attack unless it is absolutely necessary. That is the end of it, Discord," Celestia said as she stamped her hoof.

"They will attack again. You know how ruthless and bloodthirsty the Clans are-"

"Discord! That is the end of the discussion," Luna said angrily, cutting him off. "We are not attacking and that is final. Come, sister. We must tend to the needs of our citizens."

The two princesses turned and left the dark council room, leaving Discord to stew in it by himself. He glowered after them as they left and rapped his claws once on the oak wood table. "We'll see about that." Discord stood up and walked over to one of the tall windows. He parted the heavy red curtains and looked out at the bustling city below, where the automated traffic systems kept everything running flawlessly. A terrifically terrible plan began forming in his head, and he grinned devilishly. "The two of you ponies have been in power for far too long. Perhaps it's time for a certain Draconequus to take your place."