"Alright, listen up. I am not going to be repeating myself again, so I am expecting you all to pay close attention." Twilight ordered as she glanced around the room.

Princess Luna and her had issued this secret meeting with myself and a few other individuals. She made sure to tell us all that we could back out if we wanted in her invitation. That only made me think it was even more important.

At that table sat myself, a couple of strong looking stallions, and a strange unicorn with a black aura where her mane should be, and off of her right front hoof the same mystical aura radiated. Her eyes glowed red as she sat there. Something about her made me uneasy.

"Luna, you have the table." Twilight bowed.

Nodding, the princess of night stepped forward and raised a remote. With a click, a projector came on, and a picture of an azure unicorn came on screen. I took note of her black cloak.

"As many of you know, little is known about the darkness. However we do understand that it creates agents to issue its orders for whatever reason. Trixie being one the most notorious of these agents." Luna explained.

Clicking again another slide came up with what appeared to be some kind building. "However, what we have just recently discovered is how the darkness protects its investments. They possess a facility with entire DNA samples of every one of their agents."

The unicorn with the black aura raised a hoof. "Why is this important?" She asked.

Luna frowned. "It's a cloning facility... Meaning our work defeating Trixie might be completely wasted because the darkness can clone any of their agents and bring them back. Before we know it, they will grow a new Trixie, and we will be back where we were a few months ago."

"So, they could simply make copies of their agents...?" I asked with a brow raised.

Luna nodded.

"That is why we have selected you few. This mission is top secret, and you all were chosen because we believe your abilities will be sufficient to neutralize the facility." Twilight interrupted.

I quickly chimed in. "If this is a top secret cloning facility, how are the four of us going to waltz in and destroy it? I mean, wouldn't they be guarding in closer or something?"

Twilight gave a nod to Luna who clicked on her remote again, putting up another slide with a map. "The facility is located in the ruins about fifteen miles from their Manehatten stronghold. Its kept very lightly guarded so as to not raise suspicion on our part. If they had a large task force protecting it, we would become aware of its operations."

One of the two stallion rose his hoof and unlike the strange looking pony and I, he waited to be called upon before speaking. "Ma'am, why isn't the facility located inside the stronghold?"

Twilight shrugged and shook her head. "I suppose the darkness does not fully trust its own agents. To our knowledge its agents are completely unaware of this structure. However with their stolen blueprints from Dr. Pie's cloning chambers, they can replicate an entire pony within three short months. Meaning that within a few more weeks they could already have another Trixie ready to unleash upon us."

"Bastards... Does their power have no limit?" Growled the other stallion.

"We're going to place a dual set of explosives inside after destroying any clone tanks that have any specimens inside. You will then remote detonate the facility and make sure that it is completely destroyed. You will be given grenade rounds to destroy anything left. I can not stress this enough; you must destroy the entire facility." Twilight detailed the mission for us.

"So stroll in, kill any personal, blow the place up and lob grenades at the remains then?" I grinned.

"Precisely." The unicorn smiled.

"Seems easy enough..." The bigger of the two stallions replied.

"We'll get the job done." I spoke.

"See to it that you do, commander." The general replied. "Now, move out. We expect you to arrive at 0600 tomorrow. You will be leaving this base within the hour and dropped off about five miles from the location." Twilight clapped her hooves together to signal the urgency.

It was a cold day that day. We all had jackets to bear the October weather. There was no sunlight in Equestria, but unfortunately the winter and fall seasons still existed. It was cold in the summer, and freezing in the winter from what I heard. Thus why many savages do not make it past November in the ruins unless they stuck together to get shelter. Food became even scarcer, and supposedly by the middle of December all of the ruins would be a constant blizzard that did not let up until late February.

In SkyVale it was always a constant seventy three degrees. The temperature was regulated by a powerful magic spell cast over the city. Naturally I was poorly adapted to the cold, but I made due.

"Alright, team. Twilight put me in charge of this operation, here's what we're going to do; Link, you and Gold are going to enter through the back side, neutralize any workers and plant the explosives. I then want you to meet Jewel and me at the entrance to the front side." I spoke to the two brutish stallions who just nodded as they took off to make their way to the backside. I had come to discover this white mare with the strange aura went by “Jewel”.

Part of me suspected that Twilight put me in charge to test me, to see if I could handle leadership. Regardless though, I purposely put Jewel on my team so that I could keep an eye on her. I didn't trust her, and something told me she was going to pull something. The darkness on her body could not be ignored.

Jewel smiled warmly at me as she raised her astral hoof, ready to fight our way in. "Ready?" She smirked.

I placed a charge on the door and stood to the side of it. "Try not to get killed." I replied.

"Likewise, commander." She winked.

Setting off the charge, her and I bolted inside quickly after. Jewel didn't fight with weapons, instead she used the darkness on her hoof as her weapon. It seemed as though the energy could form solid objects, such as blades and piercing weapons. She could extend it like a whip and pierce her foe's skull then retract it back to her hoof.

When bullets rained in our direction from the guards, I simply sliced with the Rainbow Edge. Its cut were was fast enough to stop rounds. It looked like Jewel could use her dark aura as a shield as well.

The mare flipped next to one of the guards and touched her hoof gently to his cheek. "Hey, sweetheart. Looking for some fun?" She winked before grabbing his neck and flipping again with it in hoof, effectively snapping it.

A larger group came out of the back hallway towards us. I looked to Lyra's Song on my right hoof. Now was as good a time as any to use it. I took a step back and focused the blade. After a second of concentration, I sliced at the air to hear everything fall silent, followed by a sudden boom and shockwave that went to the direction of our would-be attackers. The shockwave sliced them all in half with ease.

I blinked in astonishment as I stood back up. My attention turned back to the sword.

Jewel stepped forward. "Interesting... That blade can break the sound barrier. It caused some kind of sonic boom. I can detect great magical energy coming from the weapon."

"You can detect energy?" I rose a brow.

She nodded. "Yes, it was why I was trusted with this mission. My ability to read energy levels means I am good at finding powerful being for hunting them down and destroying them. I can actually detect some strong energy readings in the next room."

I blinked. "Then let's waste no time."

I ran ahead with Jewel following at a casual pace. The next room was filled with giant test tubes, some empty, others with what appeared to be organic tissue floating in them. Then right on the far end, exactly what Twilight predicted; a whole new Trixie being formed. She still looked like she was developing, but from the pictures we were given, there was no mistaking it. It was Trixie. Next to her a purple dragon being formed as well.

"This is astounding..." Jewel blinked as she touched the glass.

"What is?" I asked.

"This creature... Its energy readings are far superior to the original Trixie. I am detecting that even in this state it possesses twice her magical prowess. It seems as though they are capable of increasing the power threshold of the clones by sacrificing life." She explained.

"What do you mean?" I tapped the glass.

"They boosted the clones' metabolism to increase their development rate and power. However by doing so they have cut their life spans in half. These were clearly designed to be expendable. It only takes them three months to get these clones where they can get over forty years of use out of them. By the time they die naturally, they will have served their purpose. If they increase the metabolism to ten times the normal rate, they could soon be pumping out clones ten times the strength of the originals." She began unpacking equipment out of her saddle bag.

"Wait, you mean they could produce clones stronger than Luna herself?" I asked in disbelief. There was no way that clones could be that much superior to the originals.

The unicorn nodded. "Correct, though the clone would only survive for about eight or nine years. But in theory they could make a clone at max about one hundred times as powerful as the originall, but the same clone would be dead in about a year."

"Quite an ingenious plan..." I admitted as I pulled out a poison syringe and injected it into the feeding tube. "How do they make them?"

She began injecting her syringe into the tank with the dragon next to Trixie. "I'm not too familiar with how cloning works to be honest. That's a question better suited for Dr. Pie, after all she designed the process, though I'm sure this wasn't in her blueprints."

I nodded. "Either way, I'll be much more comfortable when we blow this place up."

The mare remained silent as she finished planting our bomb in the center of the room. After she stood up, I nodded and started leading to the center of the facility. It looked like the others had made light work of the other workers, so our walk was rather uneventful. We met with the two in a room lined with aluminum cases lining every wall. Each case had a name on it, and I recognized Trixie's on one.

Me and the two stallions peered around the room in awe. "So, these must be the DNA kits..." One of them said.

An impaling sound was heard and before he knew what was going on, Gold had fallen to the floor and clenched his neck where blood was now spurting out. Link pivoted around only to be decapitated by a familiar black aura. I however jumped back before turning around with my weapon readied.

"What are you doing, Jewel!?" I growled.

Levitating one of the cases into her bag she smiled. "I owe a favor to an old friend. It’s no concern of yours."

"You're a traitor..." I snarled.

She shook her head. "No, I still do not serve the darkness, however I needed those two dead so they don't tell Twilight what I am doing here today. Trust me, I want this case for my own reasons, so you have nothing to worry about."

"How can I trust you?"

"You don't have a choice. I am sparing you because killing those two won't raise suspicion, we can mark them off as casualties. You however, are more important, you're a commander and the new leader of the Rainbow Raiders... Killing you would spark an investigation, though I could find a way out, it would make things complicated for me; I’d rather avoid that if I can. With those two, they will just assume they are killed in the line of duty, especially if you confirm it." The unicorn explained.

"And why would I do that?" I rose my brow.

She grinned. "I don't want to kill you, but if try and stop me, I will simply just do so and not return to Canterlot. Why not make this easier on the both of us and let me take this case without you saying anything?"

I rolled my eyes and stepped forward quite confidently and kept my weapons down. "Keep your case, I don't really care to be perfectly honest. If you decide to become a problem though, I'll have Twilight and the others come down on you. So keep your case and let's finish this job, shall we?"

The mare began laughing and nodded. "I think I like you that much more... Not a worry at all about any of this?"

"So long as you don't harm our cause, you're no concern of mine. I don't know why you want that thing, but I don't care so long as its no threat to Equestria." I responded.

"They weren't kidding about you... You only care about your goals and nothing more... I can sense a great power in you... A power that I am sure if awoken could cause destruction never before seen..." She stated.

"Then pray you'll never force me to use it." I responded, still not sure what she was talking about, but going along with it regardless.

She nodded and began fastening a weapon to her hoof. I noticed her weapon didn't look a thing like either of mine. It had a black finish to the metal, and I saw no spot for rounds to be loaded. This weapon clearly used something else as ammunition, my wager was energy.

The two of us made our way outside where I levitated the detonator out of my bag. With it brought to my hoof I looked to the building, my gaze not leaving it. "What are you?"

The mare raised her weapon, ready to fire on my comment. "I'm living proof that this world will burn eventually, that this will all just come to an end."

"How do you figure?" I spoke as I pressed the button.

The entire building blew into nothing more than debris and remains. The two of us wasting no time began to open fire, launching every explosive round at our disposal towards the remains. We lobbed every single grenade at the place, demolishing anything that was left. Twilight's orders were very clear; leave nothing left.

Lowering her weapon, she observed the damage. "I was a weapon created to end pony life. My whole purpose for existing was to eliminate life that refused to give into the darkness. I am a weapon of mass destruction and if ponies ever want to have any peace they should destroy weapons like me before its too late..." She finally answered.

"You would end your own existence to prove a point?" I asked.

She laughed. "I could say the same for you."

I rolled my eyes. "So weapons need to be destroyed then?"

"Peace can not come from violence. All violence does is create more violence. When ponies build weapons, it only drives them to make bigger, more destructive weapons. Before they know it, they will make weapons that end them." She responded.

I looked around us to see the wasteland around us. Nothing, but dirt and dead plants, there was some validity to what she said. "Can we ever know peace again?" I asked.

"It is difficult to say. When the seeds of violence are planted they spread quickly. It is in ponies' nature to destroy, it is how they rose to power. An empire is always built upon something, even the skulls of their enemies. If you do not change soon... No, I can't say that peace is in your future..." She sighed.

I nodded and lowered my weapon. "Then I will find a way to make it so we don't need to fight anymore..."