“I think we’re safe now...” the mareling said, panting.

Luna and Mac observed their surroundings, finding themselves right at the base of Canterlot Mountain. They spared no time, and looked back down at the mareling. “We need to find one of their bases. They were the ones responsible for the attack on the Citadel.”

“I...” the small mareling hesitated to continue. “I know...”

“You do?” Mac asked, leaning down menacingly.

“Yes... I suppose you know of Lauren Davidson?” she asked, frowning and returning the android’s stare.

“She was from another cult, I assume,” Luna said, gesturing around with her metallic hoof. “I was interrogating her in the Citadel. How do you know of her?”

The mareling huffed, “She’s my sister.”

“Adopted,” Mac cut in.

“Yeah,” reaffirmed the mareling, “thanks for stating the obvious.” She sighed, closing her eyes. “Anyways, she’s dead now, all thanks to GoldenTalon. Now, I’ll take you to where one of their space elevators are. Follow me.” She turned around, motioning for them to follow. “Name’s Ayaki Davidson, designated ‘Combat Infiltrator’ of our cult: ‘The Keepers Of The Old World’, in case you didn’t know.”

A few hours passed, hours of following the mareling Ayaki through the forests adjacent to Canterlot, towards one of the many mining complex of GoldenTalon. Luna could not be sure whether Ayaki was truly leading them towards somewhere useful or not, but it was the only lead she and the android had at the moment. Little else could be done about that. Time was running out with each step the three took, but the Princess could already smell what little fumes the post-human mine emanated. It was something, at the very least.

Soon enough, past the tree line, the small group reached the vicinity of the complex. A canyon that stretched for miles on end, with a tall energy lift stretching all the way to the orbital range of the planet, where another lift reached into the moon.. Luna could see equipment and materials being lifted through them from the bottom. Tall buildings that dug into the ground, centered around a dome, supposedly the mine itself, with the main lift protruding from its center.

“Here we are,” Ayaki said, sighing in exhaustion. “GoldenStrike Mine.”

Luna stepped past the other two, looking over the large complex. “It will be a pain to get in there.” She looked over all the possible entrances. “It is guarded even on the smallest gates...”

“And we cannot fight our way through,” Mac added.

“I knew this was going to happen...” Ayaki muttered. “It’s why I chose to come with you.”

Luna’s mind lit up. “An infiltration... But...” She looked down and frowned, kicking the dirt with her metallic hoof. “We cannot come with you.” The Princess sighed, “You-”

Ayaki held her one of her hooves up, looking away. “I spent the whole road trip preparing myself for this. This is the... the meaning of everything I’ve done.” She turned to face the complex. “I’ll get in as deep as I can and cause a distraction... When the alarms sound off, that’s your cue... Maybe I’ll try to find answers while I’m at it.”

The Princess nodded, sighing as the changeling took her first step towards the complex. “Good luck, Ayaki...”

Mac, who had been silent during the whole ordeal, reached over to Ayaki and grabbed her, causing her to yelp as he lifted her. “Mac!” yelled Luna, only to be shot one of his trademark cold glances. She went quiet as he looked back at the confused changeling, a stream of gas shooting out of his face as his faceplate fell, revealing a skull-like “face” made out of metal and synthetic muscle with blue, glowing eyes. Ayaki showed no fear.

The two shared stares for a few seconds, before Mac spoke up, his jaw not moving, “We... I, will ensure that you are remembered for decades to come. Is that clear?”

“T-thank you...”

Ayaki cloaked herself as she ran from cover to cover, using the road that lead down the canyon and into the complex. Thoughts flitted through her mind about what she was going to find inside the complex. Her heart was beating fast and her hooves touched the ground with graceful speed, to minimize the noise as much as possible.

The complex grew ever larger in the view as she got closer to it. A large office building was the first thing visible on her approach, outside of it a large parking lot with several cars and the entryway flanked by two armed Gryphon mercenaries. She got behind one of the cars, still cloaked, and peered over, watching carefully.

Soon enough, someone walked out from the exit. A tall, muscular minotaur carrying a rather large suitcase. He greeted the guards, who seemed to snicker at him, before he resumed his walk towards the parking lot. It was then that Ayaki began to maneuver between the cars, following him until he stepped over to his own car.

As he waved his hand over the sensor on the car’s door, Ayaki snuck up behind him. It was then that she leaped into the air, summoning all of her strength to deliver a jab to the back of his neck. He fell over to the ground with a loud thud.

Hovering back down softly, she sighed in relief, looking at the unconscious minotaur carefully. With minor effort and concentration, she was able to change herself, at least visually, so that she looked just as the downed minotaur. The changeling leaned down, opening the suitcase and searching its contents. She took notice of an ID card, and picked it up, reading it. “Iron Will...” she muttered with her normal voice, smiling. Ayaki cleared her throat, speaking up with the minotaur’s original voice, “Iron Will doesn’t speak like no girl!” She then chuckled and stood up, stuffing the items back into the suitcase. Looking back over to the complex’ entry, the fake minotaur smiled and began walking towards it.

“Well look who’s back,” the guard on the left said with a mocking tone, reaffirmed by a snicker coming from the other.

Ayaki quickly read the two guards’ ID cards. “Pepper, Sabron... Iron Will is afraid that he lost his ID card in the shitter over in his work block. Could you let him through?”

“Pfft,” Sadron scoffed. “Like we haven’t heard that before.”

“Yeah,” Pepper continued. “Tell us, what block do you work in?”

Ayaki recalled the information from the minotaur’s ID card. “Iron Will works in J Block.”

Pepper nodded. “Good. Now... how does the saying go? If somebody blocks...”

“Tell them that you rock.” Sadron gestured towards his gauss rifle, laughing together with the other Gryphon mercenary.

The false minotaur sighed, head shaking. “Come on, guys. Iron Will doesn’t need this! His wife will be pissed if he’s late again!”

“Well, I gotta take a shit anyways,” Pepper said, looking over to Sadron. “Do you mind if I escort him in just to make sure, boss?”

The other guard sighed, “Make it quick. I don’t wanna be late either, or it’ll be your flank.”

Pepper shuddered, Ayaki smiled. “Alright, alright...” He looked up at the minotaur. “Follow me, and don’t do anything funny or I’ll shoot you in the dick.”

The minotaur held both hands up. “Iron Will understands...”

Ayaki followed the mercenary into the complex, having to walk through mining sites and a few warehouses, before suddenly finding themselves inside a large office building. Workers of all species could be seen working in their offices or cubicles, and none of them paid any attention to the two individuals walking through. “Remember: sharing confidential information with people from outside your work area will result in execution,” a gentle female voice called out through the loudspeakers.

After a few minutes, the false minotaur and the guard reached an empty, rather clean bathroom composed purely of white tiles deep within the facility. Ayaki glanced around, noticing several stalls made for each species. What was most distracting was the gauss turret on the upper corner, which locked onto both of them just as they walked in. The minotaur and the Gryphon wasted no time to walk into their designated stalls.

“Alright,” Pepper said. “You deal with your own- Shit...” A light bump on the stall was heard. “Bastards never flush, don’t they?”

Ayaki snickered. “Iron Will found his ID card! Thank you!” Of course, the minotaur-changeling had found nothing, and was instead standing in an empty bathroom.

“Yeah, yeah...” the mercenary continued, then the sound a zipper. “Just get the fuck out and let me-” was all Ayaki heard before rushing out of the bathroom after taking the ID card out of their suitcase.

Outside, the intercom messages continued, “Mister Pickaxe, please report to sector zeta for execution, thank you.”

“Why is this place so twisted...” Ayaki thought, gulping as they continued to walk. Afterwards, it was a matter of following the directions of the ID card towards Iron Will’s office. On the way, they ran into a particular propaganda holoposter that showed a Gryphon in an execution chamber, and read, “I will stay in the mess I made.”

The minotaur shook their head and walked into the office. Inside was a small desk with several trinkets that, as far as Ayaki could infer, served as reminders for better times of Iron Will’s life, including a picture of the element of kindness. On the corner was an electric guitar (An odd musical invention of the humans favoured by minotaurs,) complete with an amplifier. Ayaki shrugged off most of the artifacts in the room and went straight for the work console.

Ayaki sat on the office chair and began to type awkwardly on the terminal. Even though shapeshifting is relatively easy, using extra limbs such as unnecessarily complex hands was still a tremendous feat. The piece of electronics prompted them to a magical signature scan, something the changeling was very much used to. Easily bypassed by copying Iron Will’s own magical field, they were able to access the data stored within.

Rummaging through it, there was not much that caught their eye. That was, until she came until a certain encoded file.

The copy of Iron Will opened the file with the very program used to manipulate it, which the actual individual had on the same console.

“We finally found it...,”

“Thank the ancient gods that IT was cracked by you-know-who... It was a bitch to contain, until we found out that IT could talk. We made a deal with it, one that I think you’ll like-”

“The fuck are you doing?”

The minotaur stood up, startled. Standing in the doorway was Pepper, together with two more guards. “We told you to go,” the mercenary said, receiving no answer but a stare. “You’re my friend, dude, I’d hate to kill you. So tell me this... Why didn’t you go?”

Ayaki spoke in her real voice, “Luna and Mac better pull this off...”

“What the- It’s a changeling!” one of the guards yelled.

“We’ve been infiltrated! Sound the alarm!” was the last thing Pepper said before Ayaki warped back to her real form, launched herself from behind the desk and bit hard into his throat, ensuring that she was not going down alone.