“Augmentation”

SIGMA CLOPODIA

CASTLE Complex

OUTSIDE OF AUGMENTATION LABS

“Well, open it! They ain’t gonna be living much longer if we dilly-dally out here, Doc!” Cranklin Mendez hollered to Halsey. Behind Mendez and Halsey, were at least twenty prepared technicians and twenty medics.  They were all infront of the sealed entrance to a wide, one-story laboratory where the ponies had been augmented and stored in cryo pods until further chemicals arrived.

Lames Ackerson’s AI, Discord, had infiltrated past their CASTLE complex’s firewalls and into the lab’s network. Halsey had yet to see what that AI did to the candidates while they slept frozen in ice. However, she had trouble punching in her password on the touch-screen keyboard.

PASSWORD INCORRECT: Please Re-enter the digital screen on the door flashed.

After failing for the third time, Halsey Sparkle wacked the screen with her hoof violently, gritting her white teeth.  She was so frustrated, that until now Mendez assumed that he was the angriest pony involved in the GREENHORN-II program.

“Stupid Discord-AI has changed the password, Celestiadammit!” Halsey swore, and then she lowered her head in defeat. None dared to make a move to comfort her, while she blinked back tears.

“Hey, doc?” Mendez asked “What about that back-up access we installed last week?”

“What back up?”

“The one where you yell it into the camera’s microphone to gain access?”

Doctor Halsey’s eyes widened, either in shock or hope. She found a video camera pointing down at the entrance.  Halsey dreaded doing the back up access though the audio that the camera could catch– such as specific pony’s voice saying specific things in a specific tone.

Halsey knew she would have to say her backup password out loud to the camera in order to gain access into the augmentation labs.  It was a lot more of a ‘pass-sentence’ than a password…an embarrassing sentence.

“Okay, but Chief…I’m asking you to not humiliate me as I enter it in.” Halsey requested.

Mendez seemed confused. “What do you mean? This program is bending ethics, you’re going to jail, and half our trainees are dying, so what’s there to laugh about? Enter it in, doc!” Mendez ordered.

Halsey pointed her hoof to medics and technicians behind Mendez “But…with all these ponies around? It’s top-secret.”

“Enter it. We don’t have time for puny-PONI-privacy!” Mendez argued. The twenty medics and technicians started to get more curious at why Halsey was reluctant to speak out a back-up audio password

“But can’t we blast a hole into one of the lab’s wall? Doesn’t that sound….reasonable…for an emergency?” Halsey suggested, desperately wanting to not use the audio access into the facility.

“The armory and motor pools are on the other side of this complex, ma’am!” replied a medic from behind Mendez.

Halsey pleaded to Mendez “But Chief-”

“JUST SAY THE PASSOWRD TO THE CAMERA!” Mendez roared, in his magically enhanced drill sergeant voice.  Halsey knew that when he did speak like that, you had to do what the drill officer said.

So Halsey Sparkle turned around and started into camera and the embarrassing song that was her back up password for the audio access flowed out of her mouth as she closed her eyes:

“Sunshine, Sunshine,

ladybugs awake,

Clap your hooves

and do a little shake”

With loud hiss and cloud of dust sweeping into the air, the doors to the lab opened wide, displaying a darkened room filled with rows of cryo pods holding test subjects altered by the Zebra’s chemicals.

Halsey Sparkle turned to Mendez and other ponies, expecting snickering from them, and then out loud chuckling.

Instead all she got was their jaws open wide.

“What? What’s wrong?” Halsey wondered.  In her backup password she had to sing to the camera was the nursery rhyme that was passed down from Twilight’s foal sitter who sang it to her every day.

Mendez was the first to speak among the sliced group. “Uh…how come you don’t sing that much, ma’am? It sounded…”

“Nice? Well…I didn’t think I was going to make a living though singing. So I went into science.” Halsey stated, beginning to move into the labs. She kept a straight face while trying to find the light switch. This wasn’t the time to be flattered.

“No – what I meant to say was that it’s really out of your character, ma’am. I’m just saying.” Mendez answered, before returning back to seriousness. The technicians and medics followed him inside.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CRYO ROW 16: DESIGNATED FOR ALL MEMEBERS OF:

Crimson Team, Cobalt Team, Indigo Team, Verdant Team  

SPECIFIED SUBJECT: GREENHORN DESTINY-117

CLANG!

“Ow, buck……” I yawned.

Cryo sleep makes your mind literally rest; you don’t even have dreams.  And when you are slowly ‘defrosted’ your body suddenly snaps back into action.

Anyways, I whacked my head in front of tight cryo-pod that I was shoehorned into for week. While I was in comatose, augmentations were done by nanites.  My mouth was dryer and then ever…and filled with mucus.  My white-tipped legs and wings felt like they were pushing into my ribs

The cold air inside had fogged up the glass inside this pod which I had been shoehorned into.

I could not see what was outside, but I could hear something.

“Destiny-117? Are you alright?” replied a half muffled voice, rapping on my cryo pod.

“Mudd? Blades? Team Indigo?” the muffled voice repeated.

A second voice spoke, coming from a speaker inside my cryo pod. “All Trainees this is Lyra. If you are able to do so, push up manual release….”

Manual…release…..my mind felt slow and so did moving my head. It felt heavier as I swayed it back and forth, up and down, searching for a button or a lever – any sign of “manual release”

There was handle right above my head. Thinking this was it, I used a weary hoof to push it up. It’s bitter to the touch so much, I beggar to shiver.

----

Hsssssss…..WOSH! The cryo pod’s cover swiftly swings outward, as foggy cold air seeps out of the tight pod.

I’m flung out onto the floor. The freezing temperature catches up to my yellow coat, only to be impeded at my growing mane and my tail. My eyes ached intensely as well as my stomach and wings.

I began to spit out mucus – although it looked more like I was gagging it out. I tried my best to get up, yet my body and wings almost wanted to be welcome to resting on the flat surface of the floor.

A dark blue hoof picks me up by the chin and cleans the mucus off my mouth with a levitating napkin.  Looking into the unicorn’s icy eyes, I see its Halsey Sparkle, who gives a smile of relief at me. I try to return it.

“By Celestia’s grace…I’m glad he didn’t kill you Destiny.” Halsey whispered.

“Killed…who?” I groaned.

“An AI known as Discord; He’s in our data base and…” Halsey hastily answered but then stops, unsure of else to say.

I started to hear Halsey’s voice again yet strangely her mouth didn’t move. He did….things….to half your friends while they were in mid augmentation….How am I going to explain that?

Me? Ugh…I can understand a little of what Halsey had said but I’m too tired to process or respond to any of it quickly.  Yet this was troubling; on a field trip to Canterlot we visited Discord’s memorial, we learned he was the Spirit of Disharmony who altered the world he controlled in to his amusement; which was synonymous with the words ‘chaos for everypony else’.

But what could an artificial intelligence named after him do?

Hsssssss…..WOSH!

Hsssssss…..WOSH!

On my left two cryo pods open up.   My mind begins to slowly get up to speed up, so I see that it’s Blades and Lipizzaner.

Blades came out of the cryo pod closest to me, also coughing out mucus.  The magenta unicorn decided to grow out her mane after it was shaved.  It was kept in ponytail, similar in the same fashion she had when we first met as fillies on day one.

“I’m….he-ere, Des…” Blades coughed. Her sky blue eyes were bloodshot.

After spitting out mucus of her own, Lipizzaner has her side on the floor, quivering.  Her albino eyes are redder that ever, and she curled up into ball to warm herself from the coldness of cryo pod.  In addition to that, Lipizzaner also seemed to clutching a spot on white coat, where her lung would be located.

The poor albino earth pony mouthed the words ‘Here’. Other than that, I knew she would pull though.

Hsssssss…..WOSH!

Hsssssss…..WOSH!

Hsssssss…..WOSH!

Around the cryo bay being filled with pony technicians and pony medics, more cryo pods opened up with my fellow trainees collapsing on the floor, spewing out mucus and struggling to wonder what had happened.  

But some pods didn’t open up manually by the ponies inside - they just stayed closed.  Two technicians started to open up a sealed cryo pod across form mine.

Hsssssss…..

When they finally get the hatch off, Snapshot topples out.

What shocks me is that one of Snapshot’s wings was oversized – in fact it was large enough to cover his entire body, where ice crystals (a terrible side-effect of cryo sleep) formed.  

Unlike me, Blades, and Lipizzaner, who ‘passed’ augmentation, Snapshot ended up being ‘a failure’; he couldn’t fight or fly with a wing like that, due to his body not being able to take in the various chemicals. And the cryo crystals would blister his skin, causing a long-term, ever-throbbing pain.

After stretching my stiff wings, I moved closer to him to comfort the poor Pegasus stallion. At least he was still alive.

In the corner of my eye, a medic was trying to do CPR on a rose-colored mare.  I assumed she was dead; the manual release level wasn’t pulled down in the open pod, the mare was limp as a ragdoll, and her eyes were open just like one.

-

With my help, Halsey was going to open the pod next to mine.  If I recalled correctly, Mudd Slinger was residing there. The fact that he hadn’t open his pod already bothered me.

“Ma’am you alight?” I ask taking hold of one edge of the pod’s hatch as Halsey griped the other. Her eyes were with and her other was sealed shut “Doctor, are you okay?” I repeated.

Halsey responded “Huh? Yes, Destiny. I’m alright; let’s just help Mudd. I’m sure he’ll be…”

As we pull the pod outward, Halsey can’t finish her sentence with the word ‘fine’.

Hsssssss…..

Out of cold mist of cryo pod, Mudd Slinger flopped face down onto to the floor, revealing infection after infection on the backside of his coat. His eyes were wide open and leaking out of his mouth was a puddle of mucus.

Me and Halsey edged closer and saw that infections were injected into the scar on the back of his neck.  The sickly veins traveled from the scar down to the back of hooves, his tail, and into his head.

In fact, the sight of looking at Mud’s condition this made my stomach really uneasy.

“Halsey…I think I need a….” It came too late and I had to hold in my vomit.  Halsey nodded, giving me permission. Instantly, I threw up behind Mud’s pod.  It took about minute to recover myself and glance at Mud’s horrid corpse once again.

It was this moment Mudd Slinger-077 was presumed dead.  And Somepony wanted him dead; nanites never incorrectly operated with zebra chemicals. Neither did they insert poisonous injections on their own accord. This was part the Discord AI’s doing.

Halsey Sparkle’s mouth trembled, and started to tear up. I’m sorry…I’m sorry….why….

I could hear Halsey sparkle speaking very clearly …yet why was that so? Her tearing face and trembling mouth showed she was lost for speaking articulately.  

We placed Mudd Slinger against his cryo pod, ignoring the fact his infection could be contagious.

I didn’t mean to do this to you Mudd…mommy’s here…mommy’s is sorry... Halsey’s voice continued to cross my mind.

Mom? Halsey Sparkle was mom? And Mudd was her son? I closed my mouth shut before I could spit out these questions, trying to think how this was all possible; not only how Mudd Slinger and Halsey Sparkle could be related but how come I was hearing Halsey’s thoughts?

I didn’t want you to know…I didn’t want you here, Halsey stated as she closed Mud’s eyes.

Eventually I stop hearing Halsey’s metal lament. Yet, then the truth stuck me; I could somehow read minds again. Could it have come back from the augmentations we went through?  

Oh no….Now everything would come back – being a lone timber wolf and deceiving all the nice white lies everypony told me…

I was lost in thought and Everypony was too busy to help Halsey’s grief. Being the Greenhorn-II’s project head, it wasn’t out of the ordinary that she really would be crying in front the trainee who came out in the worst condition.

At thunder of hooves stomping the floor on a bad day, Chief Cranklin Mendez storms into the room.  The chief looked as if he was expecting the mess to be big as this. And he seemed a little relived when I, few workers, and surviving trainees salute him. I noticed that he had grown a nicely combed moustache.

As always, Mendez starts his voice raised high “Doc, the Discord AI is still loose - Lyra is trying to track it down in the network it, but Team Quartz and Team Sage are one-hundred percent K.I…” He voice comes to halt, seeing Halsey looming over Mud’s corpse, similar to a grim reaper that reaped the life of the sole being he loved.

Mendez starts to back away only to have Halsey release her gaze from Mud’s corpse him still, sniffing.  

Then I hear Mendez’s voice yet his mouth stays shut. So I assume again I’m hearing his thoughts: Half my kids are gone….and a lot more will join them soon if we carry on with this… Mendez’s thoughts also come  and go.

If there was one thing about my telepathy - or ‘curse’ - coming back, I realized they didn’t seem to be irritating as much as they used to be.  For example, I’m not hearing everypony think at once either; yet I shouldn’t get my hopes up that it will stay that way.

“I’ll…attend the other cryo bays ma’am…” Mendez replied.

Before he could trot off, Halsey begged, “Please….find that AI. And capture it, if you can. We can’t let it return to Ackerson.” It must pay for killing Mudd…

“Understood.” Mendez nodded.

Right when the words escaped his mouth, a light, sinister chuckle was coming from the speakers in ceiling of the cryo chambers everywhere. It wasn’t Lyra’s; the voice belonged to a male.

<hehehehe….ahahahahahAHAHAHHAHA!>

“Discord! Show yourself!” Halsey shouted.  I assumed the blue unicorn and the ‘Discord AI’ had quite an adversarial past.

Upon alert, Mendez levitated his personal magnum out.  Ironically, there was no exact location to shoot at – the featureless AI was running though wires in walls.  It could be anywhere.

We heard the AI’s voice that echo across the cryo bay. His speech was shifting between speedy and slow, as if he were a madmare.

<hahaha….awwww, you poor little ponies. You miss the old discord? The one who caused chaos and chocolate rain only to have some fun? Not the, all-caring-about-friendship-and-redeemed-as-too-never do-chaos-again-then-gave-his-life-in-The-Everfree-Wars…But Yes my middle name is Discord as in ‘The Discord AI’….and you are?>

“Why you…er…buck you!” I yell, enraged clothing my hoof at him. “You think its fun to kill off my friends!? Why did you do it? Where’s Lyra?”

All the bitterness from the cryo pod had been washed away, replaced by a raging fire. I haven’t been this furious in long time since Cogneto died.

<Tsk, tsk…That’s one harsh way to introduce yourself …Destiny-117, is it? Such a wonderful name, might I add...so is Lyra, but she fell into my trap of firewalls. It will take her while to break them, though…>

“You know my name, you trapped my teacher….What else, Discord?” I scoffed to the speakers in the ceiling and the walls.  I so wanted to rip them out and cease hearing this mad creation.

<I know everything about you. I hacked the files in the base…I left only the necessary ones alive made only necessary ones to die...> the faceless intelligence snarled. <I thought 077 counted as one of the ‘necessary’ ones.>

“You’re not based off of Discord; you’re based off of somepony’s twisted mind! YOU KILLED HALF MY TRAINIEES!” Mendez roared in his Drill-sergeant-voice. “And I’d like to know who-”

<…Yes, Chief Petty Officer C. Mendez, I do have differences from him. One of them is that I truly do make ponies feel better. I bring peace to those who were going to be living the rest of their lives hurt by augmentations…think of what a pity that would have been. Plus, I make my master, Ackerson so happy by doing this.>

“Ackerson!?” I and every trainee, medic, technician and Mendez echoed in shock. Halsey shuttered much like a leader in total defeat. Colonel Ackerson was part of UNSCOE council; for whatever reason of sending this AI here, I wanted to buck the Donkey Colonel in the snout after he told it.

<Yes, which brings to my second point…Discord could have chosen to live infinitely.  Only he did-d-d-d-d-not-d-d-d-d-d-Did you know an A.I.’s mind becomes rampant after seven years? Let’s do the math: What’s seven years to live minus eight years of chaos with Colonel Lames Ackerson?>

“One year in pony hell?” Halsey wondered, livid.  

Discord’s last response came in fashion where it sounded like he was malfunctioning.

<No, it means that after that I have to give one-one-one-one-one year too rampancy….I also start to become d-d-d-d-depressed or desperaaaaaaaaate. So I have ful-ful-fulfilled m-m-my last promise to Colonel Lames Ackerson. Oops my t-time is gone and so is your proof to the P-princess….hahahaha->

*Fzzzz - BLAM!*

We all duck at audio of a cross between a gunshot and lightning strike. As we did, the lights flickered out.  In the darkness I start to hear fragments of somepony’s thoughts, most likely Blades:

….Shit, shit, shit…Breath, Breath, 302! Don’t die…no...Damn Hooligans…

“Damn Hooligans!” Blades angrily repeated the last phrase out loud, bucking a metal wall.  At the power of her hoof, it made a huge dent.

Me? I couldn’t believe that those many that died or became disabled was due today was due to two ‘hooligans’; A rampant Discord AI, who died taking the lives of trainees and our revenge to the grave. And by the order of our own leaders who got away clean.

Worst. Day. Ever.

Up to date.

-----------------------------------------------

“Thanks for getting the power back on, Cranklin….” Halsey replied, starting to pull herself together.

Halsey whispered to Mendez “…and tell Lyra to cancel sending us more chemicals from the Zebras; I can’t risk more disabilities or another sabotage; augmentations are now fully over. Celestia can have my horn for my failures….”

Lyra’s words rang in Halsey’s head: …they are only children today who will only be soldiers tomorrow and dead in a month. It won't matter if you lied to them...

Mendez whispered, “Who was 077’s father?”, gesturing to Mudd Slinger.

Halsey stared down, truly defeated by her rival, laughing stars away at her.  Lames had now haunted her with her son’s death for the rest of her life “Ponyfeathers….how am I going to explain this to Corncob?”

“Corncob? You mean Lieutenant Keyes?”  Mendez specified. Halsey then shushed Mendez, in case there was any eavesdropping in this mess of ponies

Few seconds later, a yellow pegasus had hoofed up to Halsey and Mendez. “Yes, one-seventeen?” Mendez sighed.

“Chief, Doctor…” Destiny-117 saluted, almost posing as a super-mare in colt’s comic.

Halsey seemed to be taken slight back; Destiny was…perfect, almost causing her to alter her mood for a moment.  There were almost no disabilities or loss of individuality in Destiny-117. Hopefully, she regained her telepathy powers along with enhanced wings and hooves.   Halsey Sparkle persistently requested the nano-machines to try and heal her telepathy.  Now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Destiny-117 spoke “This is a PONI program; this doesn’t exist. So why the worry?”

“Celestia knows it exists! How will I explain that I messed up?” Halsey panicked, put here hooves on her head “I’m doomed! This project is doomed! Everything is Doom-”

Before Halsey could go further into her breakdown state, Mendez interrupted “Be a thesaurus, Dr. Sparkle! It wouldn’t hurt to try sending a report of what truly happened; and Princess Celestia stills need you for this war with the insurrection; besides...We’ll get Lames Askersud back for this.”

“Ackerson, Chief.” Destiny Corrected

“Asskerson is his real name, Destiny.” Halsey stated. No one adult had called Destiny by her first name in long time.

But The Chief just shot a frown that showed he didn’t give a care about the mule’s name, as he put a lit Sweet Apple Cigar in his mouth.

-------------------------

The funeral was on the following day.  Coincidentally, it started to rain.  The funeral consisted of a speech by Mendez, a ‘three-volley salute’ on our twos, and some tears before returning to training.

We buried the dead trainees in the field where we started doing our stretches in the morning of day one. Being right next to the barracks, we would always remember them in our sleep. Blades-204, Lipizanner-390, and I were part of the lucky half of the three-hundred and three who had to dig the holes from them.

Some of those who didn’t pass who “died” had died in their sleep; they never woke up. And if they did, even fewer only had seconds to breathe their last breath.

And some of us had come out just slightly stronger, smarter, and swifter.  That was only what a week of enhancing could do; if was month we may as well be powerful as the Alicorns or Unicorns in the Royal Family.  But Halsey ordered no more augmentation – just training.

There were those who suffered from disabilities from doses Zebra’s chemicals.  Like I mentioned before, Snapshot-102 had an oversized wing.  Exe Posuer-303 and Turning Fork-075 had to be strapped to wheel chairs.  Vector-056 strangely got gender swapped; that was the only thing that could be considered positive (in view). Waterbelle-009 had cryo crystals forming in her lungs, blocking oxygen.  And Typo-283’s bones became brittle; luckily he was sent out of program to live with parents who worked for PONI.

Three whole fire teams, Quartz, Sage, and Grey, were sealed back into their pods, with medics and technicians looking over them and promising they would bring them back, if they could.

-----

As for Mudd Slinger-077, Halsey protested to having him buried with the others. She wanted to fix him…and somehow bring him back – I learned this though my mind reading powers. I knew it was actually she was his mother; she just didn’t know that I knew.

I could have told her it was a dishonor to him, as both a soldier and son. He woke up and trained with me in these barracks. And every single night we gazed up at the stars, wondering what could be up there. And right before he was in state of comatose in his pod, he died next to me and several other ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’

But I couldn’t let Halsey….or anypony else…anypony, know that I could read minds. So let Mud’s body go, keeping my secret.

Before we did let Halsey Sparkle have Slinger’s body, Lipizzaner-039 nuzzled Mud’s neck, right where she unintentionally delivered his scar at Ghastly Gulch, and then she wept all the way back to the barracks.

------------------------

Four Days later….

----

It was hard to believe Halsey would get any more support after what had happened. But funds did come, and more support to the GREENHORN-II program was being offered.

Thanks to Lyra hacking into Asskerson’s datapad, Celestia found out about his plot to over throw the Greenhorn program, his stinginess to any UNSCOE legion that didn’t have any donkeys in it, and five megabytes of pornographic images. As a result, the donkey colonel was to be detained briefly and secretly by PONI.

The Princess still was disappointed to hear of 154 dead and disabled trainees, but she decided to give Halsey Sparkle a second chance.  Halsey Sparkle didn’t understand why she was being cut some slack but she was briefly overjoyed chances of going to Luna’s Moon went down.

---------

CASTLE complex

UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS

DOCTOR HALSEY’S T. SPARKLE’S LAB

“I….I don’t know what to say….” Halsey Sparkle began behind her front desk, speaking to Queen Chrysalis. Halsey wasn’t dressed perfectly for guests; her purple hair was completely out of place and she had stains all over her lab coat.

“Doctor….” Queen Chrysalis hissed, displaying her ebon body as she wrapped a holed hoof around Halsey, sending chills down the doctor’s spine. Chrysalis’s insect wings twitched and the shadow of her horn descended on Halsey.  She looked more terrifying in the light that in darkness.

“I’ve the seen contribution of the Griffons and the Zebras to Greenhorn project, and I wish to join in; my changelings will infiltrate the insurrectionist colonies and find some targets for your….cadets…to deal with. Also, I’m throwing in the offer of supplies and resources from our colonies that may help the disabled ones.”

Halsey asked “Why are you helping me?”

Chrysalis then was silent for few moments, looking around the lab. It was so cold that frost was beginning to appear in the corners. Test tubes, microscopes, needles, jars, and artifacts were thrown around the place as if it was stuck by a twister. The only thing that seemed in order was a unicorn guard at the entrance, armed with shotgun.

“We must all play our part as a united species to fight the very thing that will undo this unification of Equestrians we have built after the Everfree Forest Wars….I’m old, Sparkle. The young ambitious fire is all put out of me. I have very little left to give, in the form of little kindness. And that goes a long way as seen with Fluttershy.”

“I hated Fluttershy. Everypony else had their opinions about the others, yet they all loved Fluttershy.” Halsey grumbled.

“Anyway I must be off…” Chrysalis clopped out of the lab “I bid you good night…”

“Night? It’s nighttime out there!?” Halsey gasped glancing at digital clock. “I just came here at six in morning! I was supposed to be done in half an hour!”

“Check your clock and calendar next time dear; you’ve been here for quite longer than that…” Chrysalis snickered before being escorted out of the chambers by a guard.

After checking her calendar and watch, Halsey found out she had been down here for a day straight and all she did in her time down here was sedulously work on cure for Mudd Slinger.  Mendez didn’t see her much so he probably didn’t care about her absence.

Halsey gripped her coffee mug on her desk. She yearned for some warming vanilla favor to ease her tired soul….

But nothing came into her mouth. Halsey peeked in the mug and found it empty except for a faint brown ring on the inside.

“Lyra, where’s my coffee?” The doctor asked the AI, almost in a panicked state. She always had coffee ready when she felt an experiment was going wrong.

Lyra popped up on her desk’s AI projector. “Doctor, you last drank forty-eight hours ago and forgot to fill it back up, since then.” Halsey had a bad habit of forgetting to drink the coffee over the course of hours.

“Maybe…Maybe, I just need….to go for a walk around the Complex.” Halsey settled.

---------

While gaining a few salutes, Halsey started to stroll through CASTLE Complex, taking in the military world outside her labs.  She found Chrysalis was just departing on shuttle, only to instead join Halseyon a walk.

“Why do you want come? On my walk, I mean.” Halsey asked.  The question could have also been interpreted as ‘why are you with me in this?’

Chrysalis stated, strolling at Halsey’s side “My dear doctor…I hate to say this but you remind me of myself when I was young. Taking risks for our people. Not that it’s wrong right now…”

“Right now? You mean like me taking risks is a sign that I will be held responsible later?” Halsey worried.

The wise old changeling queen was silently thinking.  They passed by two marines clad in UNSCOE forest-green plating. One of them saluted to Halsey, other stammered in front of Chrysalis.

“History repeats itself, Halsey.” Chrysalis said “But there is always time that we have to undo our mistakes.  Just don’t expect that you’ll get that chance.”

Halsey nodded, knowing that she was pretty close to life in prison on Luna’s moon. “I see…”

Chrysalis halted in her tracks. “Who are those ponies in field reading books? Is literacy also necessary to the coming of a soldier?”

Halsey saw who was in the field. Actually it was November Flare sitting right beside Destiny, in a fort of several books.  It was afternoon, so Halsey assumed training was over for the day.

“Oh…that’s a phoenix dropship pilot. He’s just reading with a trainee.” Halsey explained.

Halsey Sparkle remembered telling November Flare that he should see his cousin after the augmentation incident.  November Flare became more dubious of Halsey’s actions as a result, yet was pleased that he was reunited with Destiny.  November fully interacted with the trainees, bringing news of what was happening in the Milky Way and supplies for the base.  Despite being cousins far apart in age and positions, November Flare was planned to become the designated pilot, medic, scientist, and even weapon crafter of Indigo team.  

Halsey wished she could walk up to both Destiny and November and peer into their books.    

But the distant memories of her own family gatherings sprang up in her head as she considered joining the two yellow pegasi.  She wasn’t a good daughter, being smarter and more stubborn than her parents….and she blamed herself for being an even worse mother.  She had let Mudd enter the program because he found out and volunteered.  

Halsey promised Corncob that Mudd would be alright, and it was what Mudd wanted; to be a soldier.  Now in either anger or regret, Corncob couldn’t look at Halsey in the eye after she told him what had happened to their son.  While conversing, over his ‘Skipe’ account, he disconnected to grieve on his own.

I’ll bring you back….I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DIE….not allow you to die again….then we’ll all be a happy family again….no more secrets… Halsey swore, before starting tear up.  It’s my fault…I don’t have a shoulder to cry on, or a normal life, or even a boy calling me mum at home….all I have is my greenhorns and co-workers…But it’s not the same…I shouldn’t have chosen this. I’m sorry….that’s all I will ever be…

“Doctor? Is everything, alright?” Queen Chrysalis asked.

Halsey Sparkle couldn’t hide it anymore “Chrysalis….There something I have to tell you…”

As they kept walking, Halsey then revealed of her relationship to Mudd and Corncob Keyes and how Mudd died from Ackerson’s AI sabotaging his augmentations.

“Ah,” Chrysalis grinned “So that was why Ackerson has been absent from duty for a while.”

“That’s not going to bring Mudd back.” Halsey protested “You weren’t there when he died.”

Feeling sorry for Halsey, Chrysalis wrapped her ebon hoof around Halsey’s ear and whispered, “Maybe that’s why Celestia gave you a second chance. Don’t misuse it; what you do if Mudd was still alive?”

Halsey frowned, “I don’t pretend or have a boy anymore.”

“No you don’t,” Chrysalis replied “But who looks up to you as mother still?” -  She pointed to Mendez addressing a greenhorn-II squad – “These soldiers are your children; they don’t have their parents anymore. But can you promise me that you would care for them just as you would care for Mudd Sparkle.”

Halsey knew that there was only one answer that she would choose. “Yes, Queen Chrysalis. Its promise I will keep.”  The doctor then requested to Chrysalis to mention Mudd only by his alias, Mudd Slinger, from now on.