“There we go! finally. Well, it’s day 40, On the day I started the wing surgery I slept for three days straight, and when I woke up I found that I changed a tiny bit.” Twilight said into the log camera from a spot sitting on her bed. She took her mask off and pulled her hood down to reveal her eyes had faded into a soft lavender color and her pupils were nonexistent. Her hair was the same length, though after about eight inches the color faded into white.

“I don’t know why these changes took so long, maybe there’s more that are coming. I think I’m going to cut the white out, Scootaloo’s old hairstyle might work. Anyways, progress since last log ten days ago. I’ve successfully mastered the wings now, though the high speed nearly dashed me into the barrier a few times too many. The Longsword works amazingly, I fought off three Ghasts with it, my normal gauntlet would at least need some repairs after that. Status on the state of Canterlot city, it’s even more of a hell hole. The acid the toxin produces gets everywhere and buildings have started collapsing. There’s also some sort of new mutations or something creating new creatures. Some of the weather teams and wonderbolts must not have made it out because I’ve seen some of them flying around looking like Ghasts. I’ve started calling them Ghosts.” Twilight explained into the camera, but suddenly looked towards nothing for a few moments. After a full minute she slowly looked back towards the camera.

“I’ve also seen ghost-like creatures... After scanning them with the mask and with my own spells I’ve found the natural magic the mage had in life is still there, just not regulating. I’ve started calling them Spectres. The Ghosts are easy to take care of, just take out a wing or hit them when they’re searching for steam tanks. The spectres though, if I get close the magic tries to kill me so I’ve had to use the steam rifle. Since the spikes are made from magic the ambient magic around the spectres lets it through for some reason.” She continued, but looked at the same spot of nothing again.

“That’s the second time today...” She said to herself softly. “Twilight Sparkle, day 40, Log 7.” She said into the camera quickly before turning it off and dashing out of the door.
---
“What the hell are these things?!” One of the men yelled. There were three men surrounded by Ghasts, they were holding them back with spears and shields, but they were getting overwhelmed.

“Commander!” One of them yelled as the leader suddenly found himself being raised into the air by a glowing Ghast. The creature tilted its head and the commander imploded, ripped apart by the violent magic.

“Private! Stay back!” The second in command said as he stabbed at a Ghast and lunged for the Spectre. The magic caught the man before the creature even realized he was there. By the time it did, the unstable magic had mixed with the man’s own and caused a sort of reaction that caused his organs to turn to mush and leak out of any opening it could. The private would have vomited if it weren’t for the gas mask he wore. The spectre turned towards him and he froze.

Just as its magic reached out to him, something impacted its head, pinning it to a wall a foot away. He blinked as everything else in the area was blasted by what looked like spikes. As soon as everything but the Private were dead, the spikes slowly turned to a sort of mist and all flowed towards the same place.

Twilight let the magic in the spikes return to her as she jumped down from the building she was on. It was around twenty feet high but she had safely jumped from higher. She didn’t bother trying to roll as she landed rather lightly for the height she jumped.

“W-who are you?” The private asked.

“That doesn’t matter right now. The question is who are you and what are a team of royal guards doing in here?” Twilight asked.

“I-I’m Private Spike... We were sent here to investigate the city. The princesses used their magic and saw that there’s active life here, but all we’ve seen are those zombie things.” He replied.

“S-Spike?” Twilight said softly.

“Yeah... What’s wrong?” Spike asked. Twilight took her mask off and Spike froze.

“Twilight?!” He exclaimed. He was about to take his mask off, but she stopped him.

“Don’t take that off or your insides are acid.” Twilight said.

“But... What about you?” Spike asked.

“They already are, I’ll explain later. Come with me, did you finally get those wings Dash tried to talk you into getting?” Twilight asked. Spike nodded. “Good.” Twilight said as hers extended.
---
“Whoa, how are you doing all of that without magic?” Spike asked.

“I’ve made it so only my arm will open it.” Twilight said, showing the Longsword.

“Your... Wait, what happened to your original arm?!” Spike exclaimed. Twilight didn’t answer as she opened the door, pulled Spike in and closed the door. She used a burst of magic to turn the lights on.

“You can take the mask off, the air is filtered in here.” Twilight said.

“Alright... so, you’re immune to the toxin somehow, you jumped from a two story building like it was a step ladder and you’ve got a biomechanical arm, which was barely more than a theory in terms of technology before this all happened.” Spike said, pulling his mask off.

“You know those things that attacked you? That’s what happened to me. I have no idea why, but it’s either my magic or my connection to the elements of harmony that let me retain my intelligence and stopped me from decaying and everything.” Twilight said.

“What happened to your arm?” Spike asked.

“After all of that happened I woke up with one third of an arm in a puddle of acid.” Twilight answered.

“Where did you learn how to make all of this stuff? How to work and attach wings and an arm?” Spike asked.

“The library was still intact, so was the military and hidden archives.” Twilight answered. “Alright, my turn. Why did you become a Royal Guard, and why are you here if you’re only a private?” She asked.

“I became a guard after we all thought you died... I wasn’t going to let something like that happen to anyone else. I came here when I heard there was stuff living inside... I thought maybe I’d find you and I did.” Spike answered.

“Did everyone make it out alright?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, though Fluttershy got really sick because she stayed too long helping the animals get out. Celestia saved her though and she’s fine now.” Spike said. Twilight sighed in relief.

“Hey wait a minute, I’ve seen this thing before... This was a prototype about two months ago from what my superiors told me. It was made so veteran guards could still live on happily or return to the service even after losing a limb... How did you get it?” Spike asked, noticing the longsword name on the forearm of Twilight’s right arm.

“You know that really popular sports store that popped up recently?” Twilight asked.

“You mean ‘the olympic pride’ or whatever it was called?” Spike asked.

“Yeah that one. They were getting illegal prosthetics and prototypes on the black market, this was the main one and I needed an upgrade from that.” Twilight said, pointing a thumb at the gauntlets lining a wall.

“Who was their supplier, did you find out?” Spike asked as he got up to look at the salvaged machinery.

“Blueblood.” Twilight replied, standing up and grabbing a much more bulky gauntlet with space to fit something inside.

“Hey toss me that spear.” Twilight said. Spike gave her the spear that was on his back and watched as she fitted it into a slot. “Give me your right arm.” She continued. He warily did so and she fit the gauntlet on him like a glove. He flinched as a bunch of little stings went through his arm and all the way through the rest of his body.

“What was that?” He asked.

“That was the glove connected to your nervous system so you can just will it to work. I was working on this before I found out it was too clunky to put it over my left arm but I still worked on it. I designed it so I could use something like iron bars or something like a spear, but that spear just so happens to be here. It’ll work like those magic Jackhammers the city workers used to use. There’s also a blade if you need it.” Twilight said as he examined the handle of the spear sticking from the elbow.

“How do I make it work?” Spike asked.

“Think of the spear like a finger and poke things with it. For the blade, I dunno... Think of it sort of like your forearm maybe?” Twilight wondered.

“Why’d you give me this?” Spike asked.

“Because you’re one of my best friends, I’d give you my arm if it could protect you.” Twilight responded.

“Why do you only have that arm and that weird rifle? With all of these things walking around you’d need an army to take care of them.” Spike said, looking from the glove to Twilight.

“I’ve learned how to survive in this place. Anything else is too heavy or clunky.” Twilight said.

“Last time I saw you in a fight you lost...” Spike said.

“Well a scuffle at college is nothing compared to this. Surviving in this place may have become natural to me, routine... But it’s still hell. I haven’t eaten in four days. Why? I don’t need to. In order to drink anything that’s not contaminated I have to use my magic to filter it for at least three hours or I have to use my magic to create steam power and drink condensation. I’m the only thing that doesn’t want to kill everything I see in here so any movement could mean attack.” Twilight said lowly.

“Twi? I think this place has changed you more than physically, and frankly I don’t blame you. I just hope you can go back to normal life.” Spike said.

“What normal life? My blood eats through iron, I’m part machine and if you haven’t noticed I hardly have eyes anymore. I’d be a freak. Don’t get me wrong I’d love to go back, but even so I need to stay here. The Spectres have been getting close to the barrier... if they break it before I can find something to combat the toxin then Equestria will be like this everywhere.” Twilight said.

“That’s why we were sent here, the second in command was a field scientist. He was supposed to research the toxin and find a cure.” Spike said.

“And he’s dead because he knows nothing about it. I’ve been trying for thirteen days to find anything that could get rid of it.” Twilight said.

“He said something about a counter toxin.” Spike said.

“Counter toxin...” She said to herself. after a full five minutes of thinking she suddenly rushed over to a well and slid open a sort of vault. She opened it and inside there was a vial filled with what looked like the toxin.

“Is that what I think it is?” Spike asked. Twilight nodded as she opened the top and surrounded the cloud that escaped in a bubble of magic.

“I’ve been experimenting with my blood for a while now to see if it’s anything but acid... It was miniscule, but now that I’m looking for a counter toxin I went back through everything I’ve researched about the toxin and my blood. A little piece of overlooked data, my blood absorbs the toxin.” Twilight said as she put her right arm up to the bubble. She turned an out of place valve and flipped an out of place switch and her blood slowly seeped into the small barrier. The cloud of toxin slowly but steadily shrank until it was gone. The entire process took about two minutes, but it left the toxin completely gone.

“You did it Twi!” Spike exclaimed.

“I found an antitoxin, but even with how fast my blood regenerates I can’t just cover the city in it, that’d completely destroy everything.” Twilight said, falling into a chair with a hand on her forehead.

“You ok?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, my brain’s just in overload right now and I’ve got a headache... You hungry?” Twilight asked. Spike’s growling stomach answered him so she giggled and got up. She pulled a hatch open, revealing a refrigerated unit. There was about five days’ worth of food inside of magic bubbles to preserve them and a bottle of hard cider.

“Perfect! The cider is finally done filtering.” Twilight said happily as she grabbed two wine glasses and two plates. She used her magic to levitate over a sealed jar of jam and half a loaf of bread. She made the bread slice itself and the jam spread itself and returned them to the cooling unit and closed the door before plopping the sandwiches on the plates and now filled glasses in front of them.

“That’s a lot, don’t you need all of this?” Spike asked.

“All of this would last me a few months at the least.” Twilight said with a smile as she sipped her fizzy cider. Spike noticed her face had fallen again and asked what was wrong.

“To think, suddenly finding a cure for this whole place. Then realizing There’s not really a way to get it through the city in a safe or quick way. I haven’t had hope like that in weeks, at least now I have a goal other than survival.” Twilight said.

“And I’m here to help.” Spike said.

“No you’re not, tomorrow I’m sending you out of the barrier. I’m the one who sealed it so I can control it too. I’m not risking your life.” Twilight said.

“If you’re just sending me home why did you give me something to help me survive?” Spike asked, putting his gloved hand up.

“Because we’ll probably need to clear an area to get to the barrier safely, and besides. That’s your spear now.” Twilight said. Spike sighed.

“I don’t want to leave you again...” He said softly.

“Don’t worry. You can see the barrier from Canterlot, when you see it turn blue that means the Toxin is gone. After that I’ll keep the barrier up, but bring more guards that know what they’re doing once that happens. An entire city of monsters will need to be cleared.” Twilight said.

“Fine, but I’ll be the first to come and help you.” Spike said.

“Deal.” Twilight giggled.

“You haven’t touched your sandwich.” Spike said.

“You can have it if you like, I won’t be hungry for another day or two.” Twilight said with a smile.

“... I’ll save it for later then, if you get hungry again or if I do we’ll have it.” Spike said, wrapping it in plastic wrap he found on the counter.

“Alright, it’s getting late. Go to the cylinder on the wall, flip the panel and turn the valve three times to open it. Get some sleep.” Twilight said.

“Where are you going?” Spike asked.

“I’m going to go scout out the best extraction point for you. Oh, by the way. There’s a valve that’s smaller than the rest under the forearm panel of that glove, turn it counter clockwise and you’ll be able to take it off.” Twilight said as she pulled her mask on and opened the door.

“Good luck.” Spike said.

“Sweet Dreams.” Twilight replied as she closed the door.

(A/N for those of you who paid attention yes there are seven logs, that means five haven't been seen. We'll get to those. And don't worry that I've possibly come up with the end of the fic already, I'm hoping this fic will be at least ten chapters. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had writing it. the next few chapters will get more into the survival instead of explanation now. -Dark)