"I can't believe it..." I stared as the mighty monster that resembled the former princess took to the heavens.

"Believe it, kid. It's a good thing we saved all that ammo, we're gonna need it to bring her out of the sky." Vinyl cocked her weapons.

She was serious? This creature was the thing that actually set up the military she so proudly served. It was the pony she served under, and she was ready to slay her in an instant.

"Are you serious? That's Celestia!"

"Not anymore it isn't, she's one of them now. And there's only one cure for this disease... Celestia would rather be dead than live like this anyways." Vinyl explained as she readied her blade.

Eagle started making his way up to the stands again. "I'll cover you blokes from up here. I brought some ammo reserves with me that I left at the top. I'll toss it down to you, just focus fire on her wings. We have to bring her down of we want to have a chance."

"Alright... Let's bag us a monarch." Vinyl grinned. "Kid, you go in the opposite direction and we'll confuse her. Try not to get killed." She bolted away from me and drew one of her fire arms and began unloading rounds onto the flying monster.

Celestial responded with a roar, with a lightning bolt to accompany it. Vinyl just narrowly escaped the bolt of electricity and kept firing. Realizing I was a sitting duck, I let off a few shots on the former ruler of Equestria. Needless to say it only angered her as she threw fireballs in my path.

I jumped back and started following Vinyl's plan of moving away from her in two directions. Eagle laughed as he pointed towards the stadium doorways. "Looks like we've woke up the worker bees. I'll take care of them." He let off a few shots as he laughed. I could still hear his odd chants. "Death will free you."

Vinyl lobbed a grenade into the air after cooking it for a few seconds. Her timing was perfect as it exploded right next to Celestial, causing her to groan in pain. She raised her horn and with a glow it unleashed a powerful beam that chased Vinyl. Fortunately she was quick on her feet so she was able to move faster than it while showering Celestia in bullets. Sure enough though she called out to me. "Cover me, I need to reload!"

At those words, I aimed at her wings and unloaded everything I had to distract it from Vinyl. It didn't seem to care much until I got a few hits on it though. At that point it turned around and swooped down towards me in a very impressive dive. Jumping out of the way, I could feel the gust her wings created; it was enough to send me flying back even farther.

Taking to the sky again she had lifted a large chunk of debris, and hurled it at me. I ducked as I noticed it split in half. A clean shot from Eagle had saved me.

"You two better take her down soon, I don't know how much longer I can hold them off." Eagle yelled to us as he reloaded his weapon.

Vinyl had come up beside me to utter part of her plan. "I got an idea, but I need you to lure her closer to the ground." She started heading up into the stands.

I called out to her in confusion. "What are you gonna do?"

Vinyl stopped and looked directly at me with a smile. "I'm gonna go for it."

I wasn't certain what "it'" was, but I already didn't like this plan. Regardless, I followed along as I started to shoot at Celestia to get her attention. She threw a few more fireballs which I just narrowly dodged.

Finally frustrated with her attacks failing she did another dive, but this time she managed to tackle me. Pinning me to the dirt, her jaw snapped at my face, trying to rip any part of it off that she could. I held her back with my hooves, but I knew I couldn't forever. "Vinyl, where the hell are you!? Get this fucking thing off of me!"

Behind Celestia I could see Vinyl leaping from the grandstands with her blade drawn. Coming closer to the ground she landed next to Celestia with a slicing sound ringing through the air. The "princess" let out a shriek of pain as Vinyl stood back up, blood dripping from her blade. I took the opportunity to punch her in the face and push her off of me.

Crawling out from under her, I noticed a part of her didn't move with her: her wing. Vinyl had sliced it clean off.

"Alright, ugly... Let's dance." Vinyl readied her blade.

The princess stood up and revealed a similar device strapped to her hoof. With a glow of her horn, a blade came out.

Vinyl just laughed heartily. "Now this should make things interesting!"

Celestia merely roared as she bolted forward swinging. Vinyl's blade work however proved more than a challenge for the princess. She was able to move so agilely swinging her two blades at once. Their swords met several times with loud clacks.

Vinyl and her had been slashing at each other a solid 30 seconds before she jumped back and cracked her neck in delight. "Is that all? I'm not even trying yet." She mocked as she jumped right back into battle.

Celestial gave a few power swings which Vinyl was able to easily avoid. She was much faster than her foe, giving her a small advantage over the sluggish mutant.

In anger, Celestia took another mighty swing, just for Vinyl to tuck and roll out of the way. Springing back to her battle stance, she grinned as she mocked her. "I suppose the royal sword isn't that great is it?"

With a grunt Celestia dashed forward with her blade. Springing into the air, Vinyl jumped right on top of her sword. She balanced on a single back hoof and cut at the beast's face. It jumped back with a hiss as it grasped its wound. Vinyl of course landed on her hooves weapons still drawn.

"Celestia, it's Vinyl Scratch, remember?" I called out, hoping that perhaps we could reason with her.

Vinyl waited for her to make another attack before jumping to the side and taking off Celestia's other wing with a clean cut. The growl of pain she made was the loudest I had ever heard. She hissed and spat as her horn began to glow. "Now' we're talking!" Vinyl grinned with excitement.

"Uh.. Eagle, what's she doing?" I asked to the griffon on the stands.

He lit another cigarette and drew his weapon. "I don't care what she's doing, I'm going to stop it." Cocking his gun he gave a shout out to Vinyl. "No more fooling around, love. Use every bullet you have on that thing."

With a sigh, Vinyl started backing up with her weapon drawn. She began to fire rapidly at the monster which only seemed to scream more and more, but soon a powerful aura emitted from her horn and eyes as she bolted forward towards Vinyl. Eagle attempted to get it away from Vinyl let off a few rounds. A big mistake as Celestia, just teleported next to him and knocked him back with her hoof.

Eagle went flying backwards and crash landed into a set of seats. He hit them so hard that he knocked a few off their mounts.

Trying to prevent her from giving chase to him, I began hitting her with every round I had. It definitely got her attention. Which was both good and bad. Good because she had forgotten about Eagle, bad because I had a jam in my weapon.

I fumbled with it, trying to dislodge the jam while she came darting towards me at incredible speeds. The only response I could think of was to turn the other way and run. Jumping into the stands, I ducked below some seats, knowing full well it wouldn't be enough to still her. Seconds later she leapt into the stadium and smashed everything that stood in her path to me. Only a few feet away I heard another gunshot. Celestia flinched as she turned around to see Vinyl. I could then see where she was hit. Blood (or whatever that black liquid that leaked out of her body was) dripped from her backside running down her legs and costing her flank. I couldn't believe it...

"Right in the asshole." Vinyl chuckled as she stood there.

The two had a few seconds as their standoff. Vinyl however made the invitation. "It's me you want, come and get me, ugly."

Celestia let out a battle cry as she started to gallop. Vinyl began to hum and lightly sing a tune as she ejected the magazine from her weapon and pulled out some rather strange shaped magazine and began loading it casually.

The tainted princess was only a few meters away as Vinyl raised her weapon still humming her tune. Just as she cocked the weapon she took aim. "Fuck off." She said plainly.

The bang from that weapon was louder than a box of grenades going off. The kickback was enough to make Vinyl skid back a few feet, though she stubbornly didn't fall over.

The impact was great. Celestia's head not only came off, but it essentially exploded on impact. That bullet made light work of the fight.

Running down to meet her, I noticed Eagle coming out of the stands brushing himself off. I was actually glad he was alright. The two of us came up to the triumphant mare and at first we remained silent. Eagle was the one to finally speak up. "That's one hell of a bullet."

"Custom anti-tank round. I was saving it for someone who really pissed me off, but I figured now was as good a time as any to try it out." She shrugged.

"Someone, like Trixie?" I joked.

"Oh no." She became very serious. "I want that to all be hoof to hoof combat. Then when I subdue her, I want to strap her to a chair and torture her for a while. Then I'll let every stallion in Equestrian have their way with her. Then when she finally started to beg me for death... I'll piss in her face and break her hooves one by one." She was practically drooling. Clearly she had thought about this plan for a long time.

Eagle seemed rather unmoved by her thought, which partially made me question his morality. Then again he probably was trying to have his way with Vinyl.

Vinyl looked at the corpse and lit another cigarette. "I think it's best we keep this little incident to ourselves."

After a short walk outside the coliseum, we were back on the road. Eagle stopped at an intersection. "Alright, the archives should be just down that road there. Big building, you can't miss it. If there is anything valuable in this city it's there."

"Thanks, chief." Vinyl gave his shoulder a nudge, to which he winked at her.

"Why don't you come to Canterlot with us?" I questioned.

He shook his head and readied his weapon. "Sorry, mates. My home is here, after all someone has to contain this infection. This flock tends to get restless if they are not tended to."

"So I guess this is goodbye then?" I frowned a bit. I really was hoping Eagle would come with us.

"We all meet again when we leave this world, friend." He grinned. Still a very religious creature in a place like this, it was almost inspiring.

Before he had the chance to say anything else, he heard another horde coming. "Shit... Listen, when you get what you're looking for, there is an exit to the city in the town hall over there. It's a second teleport beacon. It was meant as an emergency escape for the council. Be careful though, not even I have ventured this part of the city." He ran towards the coliseum doors and tossed another Molotov behind himself, blocking his path with fire. "Farewell friends' and good luck!" After that all we could hear was gunfire.

"We better get moving." Vinyl instructed as she started heading down the road.

I stopped for another few seconds to catch a glance of the spot where Eagle exited. I really did hope I'd see him again, maybe in a better place where we wouldn't be fighting mutants every day. Then after I had cleared my head, I turned to follow Vinyl.

A short walk brought us to the archives. Vinyl rushed inside with weapons drawn. I just decided to enter slowly and carefully. When Vinyl was certain it was safe she unpackaged a small box from her belt and hooked it up to an old terminal. Working quickly she tried to start the machine up. A celebratory "yes" left her mouth as she managed to get it to turn on.

"Alright kid, I'm going to be busy hacking this thing. Once I got it cracked I'm going to download the archives onto this drive and we can get the hell out of here. You should check around for either that element or anything useful. I'll try and shut down all the security so you can get around easier. You should check out the vault, that might be a good place to start." Vinyl instructed as her face was lit by a glow from the screen.

Nodding. I began to head deeper into the building. It was falling apart slowly, and the foundation didn't appear every stable. It was amazing that anything was still working in a place like this.

I took a quick stop to check an old map of the building on the wall. I scanned it until the word "Vault" popped up. Making a mental note, I began heading in that direction.

It actually wasn't too far from the entrance, though I noticed that there were old sentries that have long since gone out of order protecting it. I imagined back in its day, it was closely guarded by many security officers.

Now though, it was free for looting with the vault door hanging wide open, thanks to Vinyl Scratch. With nothing stopping me, I waltzed right in and began to check the contents.

There were many oddities and strange artifacts in the vault, most of which I assumed were top secret so I wouldn't have known about them prior anyways. However one certain object stood out to me; a golden necklace inside of a glass box sitting in the very back of the vault. It bore a butterfly jewel and didn't seem to stop sparkling. It was a perfect match, this was the element of kindness. Part of me wondered how it even got here.

I hesitated, but then realized that there was nothing stopping me from taking it. This part of Cloudsdale had been abandoned for so long that nopony stood between me and that element now. So I reached out and grabbed it without fear.

I could hardly believe I was actually holding it. This item was a part of Equestrian history, and here I held it in my hoof.

Throwing it into my bag I raced back to Vinyl to show her the treasure I had found. She turned to me wondering why I was so excited. Before she even had the chance to ask, I retrieved the emblem from my bag and presented it to her. For once, Vinyl actually appeared legitimately stunned. Taking it in her hooves, she examined it. "This... It's been so long since I've seen it..." She was very quiet. "This could certainly change the tide of this war if we can find the other ones. It is said that the power of harmony comes from the hearts of those who use it. The strength of their desires can take form..." She paused and grinned. "If that's the case, then Dash's desire... Well let's just say Trixie is fucked."

"So can we leave now?" I asked taking a look at the device hooked up to the terminal.

Vinyl nodded. "Yeah, I just finished downloading it. We'll have to see if One-Eye has anypony who can decrypt it. I'm sure she'll be happy to see this element again though." Vinyl clenched the necklace in her hoof. "Let's get out of this hell hole." She added as she packed up the device now containing the archives, and kept the element in hoof. I suppose she wanted her eye on it at all times.

Stepping out of the door, she grinned. "I gotta admit, kid... I'm impressed. You actually got this thing, and on top of that, you survived Cloudsdale. Maybe you have some potential about you after all." She chuckled as she nudged me.

"Thanks... I think..." I replied, rubbing where she hit.

"When we get back, you buy the beer, I'll buy the women." She grinned.

"I think I'll pass..." I rolled my eyes.

"Ahhhh, holding out for-" she stopped herself as she felt a wind pass her. Looking to her hoof she saw the element was no longer there.

Looking up, she saw a strange cloaked pony standing on the balcony above us with the element in hoof. She wore a bandanna over her muzzle and a very nice black silk hood over her head. Her mane was midnight black, with a shining silver coat to match it. Her hooves adorned with a very interesting set of shoes made from silver and what appeared to be some kind of black metal. Her cloak had a very odd emblem on it that resembled a black cloud inside of a white circle.

Vinyl drew her blades without asking any questions. "That was pretty sneaky, it's too bad you won't live long enough to tell anyone about it." She grinned.

The thief jumped to the ground, flapping her wings to break her fall. When her hooves touched the ground she drew two blades and stood on her hind hooves. Vinyl merely laughed. "Good, I like them with a little fight in them."

Before she gave the mare a chance to rebuttal she jumped at her swinging both blades in an arch to try and dice the thief in half. In just a blink the thief was behind her; I didn't even see her move.

"Fast, huh? How about this then?" Vinyl gave a series of vicious slashes all of which appeared to go right through her opponent. Vinyl stopped with a puzzled look.

I pointed to the clouds under her. "Look."

Vinyl took note of the skid marks in the clouds she stood on. Was she moving faster than we could even see? Vinyl grinned at this discovery. "Ah, so speed is your secret?" With another slice, the mare had appeared three feet away and started making a run for the town hall. Vinyl began to dart after her. I didn't realize what was going on until seconds later when I started trailing the two who were locking swords every thirty seconds as the thief made her escape.

We had followed them all the way to the town hall, and of course they had just managed to enter the beacon before Vinyl. With a bright glow of the platform Vinyl dived after her to be teleported at the same time.

I had to wait another thirty seconds for the device to charge again. I impatiently tapped my hoof hoping it would speed up the process. "Come on... Come on..."

Finally it let me through. I jumped right in this time, not concerned with the risks now. I knew if I lost Vinyl, she would not be coming back for me.

Fortunately the two were only a short distance ahead. The pegasus and her were clashing blades with no sign of fatigue. Vinyl jumped back and grinned as her horn began to light up. "Too bad that I have something you don't... Magic!" She sends a fireball from her horn in the thief's direction.

With a twirling hoof gesture, the pegasus took a small leap forward as the ground came up as some kind of barrier that blocked the spell. "What the...?" Vinyl didn't even have a chance to finish that thought as the barrier then got pushed in her direction. She jumped out of the way and took note of a fireball sent from her opponent that she narrowly dodged.

"So... You have a few surprises don't you?" Vinyl picked herself back up and was ready to fight again.

My attention was drawn to a song being sung nearby. It was some language that sounded older than time itself. However the voice conveying it was magnificent. It sounded more elegant than a thousand angels singing.

When I turned to the direction of it, I could see a another cloaked mare. The same emblem on her hood could be seen in the distance. She approached me very gently. No weapons drawn, no signs of hostility. Nonetheless I kept my blade ready. Her song kept ringing in my ears as she came within a few feet of me. With her front hooves extended she offered an embrace into her gentle white coat.

I don't know why, but I felt drawn to her. I openly allowed myself to be held by her. I ignored the situation and just let my head bury into her chest. Her song was so pleasant... Yet it made me so tired... So relaxed...

So peaceful...