Rows of dozens of water tanks stand neatly in the large, well lit, concrete chamber. Tubes of wires and fuel snake along the walls like veins and the humming machinery is still loud enough to be heard despite the dozen plus voices talking over each other.

The League of Justice ponies are quick and fluid in their motions as they carry the cylinders they brought towards each tank, where others are carefully inserting giant, grainy pills into the water that came from the cylinders. They start dissolving immediately, gradually turning the clear water black.

Watching everything from the top of the stairs is Kairos. Due to his armor, no one can read his expressions, but his stance is firm and his visors are like the ever watchful eye of a hawk. He stands there, unmoving, for a few minutes before he walks towards the back where a wall sized control panel is being operated by a mare.

“Is everything set?” asks Kairos when he is behind her.

“Almost sir,” says the mare, her brow scrunched in concentration. “I don't think this facility is strong enough to do what Roar Shock wanted, though.”

“Good.”

“Sir?”

Kairos turns away from the mare and starts back towards his original perch.

“I do not want to poison the whole nation. Just this city,” he says evenly.

“But Roar Shock-”

Kairos snaps to the mare, and she whimpers and shrinks as the armored behemoth stomps towards her. When he is in front of her, she has shrunk down to the floor and is trembling under the wrathful gaze of the glowing visors.

“Just. The city,” growls Kairos. He snorts and marches back to the terrorists working on setting up the devices. “I will handle Roar Shock. You do what I tell you.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kairos snorts and turns back to the door, stopping when he sees Mullet and Lyra stumble in, covered in bloody sweat and panting. His hoof points towards the nearest terrorist and orders them to get the medic ready before walking towards the two. They offer weak salutes when Kairos is in front of them. He returns the salute and starts speaking.

“What happened?” he asks, holding no attempt to hide the concern in his voice.

“Our team was killed and the communications equipment was destroyed by Pinkie Pie, but she was taken care of,” says Mullet after taking a moment to catch his breath.

“By taken care of do you mean knocked out or dead?”

“There was no way she could have gotten up after what Lyra did, sir.”

Kairos looks at Lyra for a few seconds before he looks back at Mullet.

“You two see Doc,” he orders swiftly. “When the Royal Guard arrive, I want everypony here prepared and capable.”

Mullet salutes and gently guides Lyra away from their leader, but as she walks towards Doc, a lanky unicorn wearing a Royal Guard medical uniform, she notices how disgusting the water has become. It makes her grimace, and when she sees one of the giant brown pills pushed into a water tank, she stares at quizzically, paling when it starts to dissolve.

“What's in the containers?” asks Lyra.

Mullet and Kairos look at Lyra, but since Kairos is wearing a full mask, Lyra can't see the look he is giving her. She can see Mullet's just fine, though, which is one of knowing and reluctance. Then Mullet looks at Kairos, but the mechanically armored stallion keeps his visors on Lyra.

“You do not need to know, all you need to know is that Doc is in the back, waiting for you,” says Kairos.

“You said that they were explosives, but explosives do not dissolve! What are those things?”

“Go and see Doc for treatment. That is an order.”

Despite Mullet's best efforts to keep her back, Lyra shoves him aside and limps towards Kairos, ignoring his threatening growl. When she is hoof to hoof with Kairos, she glares into his visors. She can't even see her own reflection and is forced to squint because of how bright the light is.

“I thought you said we were going to bomb this place!” says Lyra angrily.

“And there was a reason why you were told that,” states Kairos. “I knew you couldn't handle the truth, but regardless of what you believe, Heartstrings, this will benefit us all in the end. If it is any consolation, what I have planned is far more merciful than what Roar Shock had in mind. You two are dismissed. See Doc and report back to me when he is finished with you.”

Kairos walks away to oversee a couple of ponies preparing another tank for contamination.

“What are you going to do!” yells Lyra after Kairos.

Mullet puts his hoof on Lyra's shoulder and tries to get her to stop, but she shrugs him off and stomps towards Kairos, furious. The mechanically armored stallion stops, motions the group he was observing to keep working when their pace falters, and he turns to look at the aquamarine unicorn.

“What's going on!” demands Lyra.

“You cannot purge a place without absolute destruction,” explains Kairos. “Destroying this building would only encourage the criminals to carry on their deeds. The only way to ensure absolute destruction of this criminal enterprise is to kill them all in one swift strike. Wipe this city clean and allow newer, morally superior officials to take their place.”

At first Lyra doesn't understand, but as she watches the pills dissolve, she realizes that they hold the same color as expired healing mushrooms. Something that Roar Shock has made adamantly clear makes a great poison.

“Poison?... You're gonna... What about the innocent people here!? That poison is going to kill everypony!” cries Lyra.

“When Roam was destroyed by the meteor, there were innocents in there as well, but its destruction paved the road to balance and morality in an age where there was none,” says Kairos grimly. “Now go see Doc.”

“But you can't-”

“Go. See. Doc. Now. I do not want to see you two back here without Doc by your side, saying you are well. Dismissed.”

This time four League of Justice ponies come up behind them and Lyra stares at them hatefully as they cock their weapons.

“Make sure they see Doc,” orders Kairos. “And warn the others about the Royal Guard coming.”

“Yes, sir” says the lead guard, then he turns to Lyra and Mullet and orders them to move.

Mullet walks away without resistance, but Lyra has to be pushed to keep moving, and even then that doesn't stop her from looking over her shoulder to glare at Kairos.

Kairos watches the group leave, and once they are out of sight, he resumes his walk, carefully watching to make sure that all is going according to plan. When he is by the control panel again, watching the mare jot down notes and make the proper adjustments, a massive yellow coated and rust maned earth pony approaches him with brisk steps.

“Sir, we have a problem,” says the stallion when he is next to Kairos.

Kairos turns to the yellow stallion, saying: “Yes, Butters, I know we have a problem. Which is why I ordered all of us to be prepare for the Royal Guard's imminent attack.”

“With all due respect, sir, did you know that all the hostages have escaped?”

A League of Justice stallion grunts in pain when he is thrown against the brick wall, and he starts gagging and kicking his legs when a magical aura wraps around his neck and slides him up the wall. He snaps his maw for air while helplessly watching Trixie approach him with menacing steps.

“We're going to try this again,” growls Trixie. “Where. Is. Monte.”

“I-I don't know who...” wheezes the stallion.

“I'm going to count to three.”

“But-”

“One.”

“All hostages are being held in the atrium! Please don't kill me! This is my first day on the field!”

The stallion starts sobbing, and Trixie can only watch the pathetic display. When the stallion starts bawling with his weeping loud enough to be carried down the hall, Trixie scoffs and drops the stallion. He lands hard on his rump and curls up on the ground, begging her not to kill him, and Trixie shakes her head and forces the stallion to get up with her magic. When he is standing, his eyes are squeezed shut and he is still crying.

Trixie looks around nervously, swearing under her breath, then she grabs the stallion and slaps him across the face. He stops crying instantaneously and his eyes go wide as his jaw locks. Then Trixie grabs his cheeks and forces him to look into her visor. He puts up no fight whatsoever.

“Stop crying! I'm not going to kill you!” says Trixie sharply. Then she pokes him hard in the chest, saying: “But I will kick your ass again if you don't lose the gear and get out!”

The stallion nods and hastily removes his helmet and when he drops his vest to the ground, Trixie stops him. He freezes in the middle of removing a hoof pad and looks at her nervously.

“How many guards are there?” demands Trixie.

“E-Eight,” stammers the stallion.

“Are you lying to me?”

The stallion shakes his head, and Trixie grabs him and drags him close so that her armored mouthpiece is nearly touching his snout. His pupils shrink and he whimpers as he sulks down on trembling legs, giving Trixie the ability to tower over him as the scourge of the League she is.

“Are you sure?” she asks slowly.

The stallion gulps and-

A few minutes later, Trixie presses her head against the door to the atrium with two more knocked out guards behind her. She is trying to get an idea of what is on the other side, but she finds out that despite how amazing her helmet is, she can't hear jack diddly squat on the other side. Trixie mouths swear words and uses her magic to remove the pieces protecting her head before attempting another shot at trying to figure out on the other side.

She doesn't hear much, just some quiet talking and shuffling. She waits and listens for a few more seconds, but when she concludes that all she will be getting are vague sounds, she pulls away, takes a deep breath, and puts on her helmet.

“Alright, Trixie, you can do this,” she says quietly and shaking the nervousness out of her body. “Time to kick some ass, Trixie style.”

She takes a deep breath, aims her horn at the door, and fires a blue electric beam at it. The door explodes into burning splinters and she gallops inside, horn sparking a show of bright, colorful lights and fireworks that ricochet off of the walls, floors, and ceiling and leaves everyone inside disoriented. Trixie gallops towards the nearest pony, a unicorn stallion levitating a mini-Gatling gun, and pushes his weapon away with one hoof and punches him in the throat with the other. While he gags and stumbles back, she grabs the weapon with her magic and slams it against his head, sending him down to the ground with a loud crack. Next, Trixie lowers herself down as low as she can go with a spin and shoots at the next closest terrorist, who is still disoriented. Her bullets strike the mare, and her armor holds out until one of the shots hits her where the neck and shoulder meet. The terrorist can only gurgle blood as she crumbles to the ground, and Trixie ducks down when the five other guns shoot at her.

“Flank them! Flank them!” barks Cheddar.

The terrorists spread out and Trixie barely pokes her head up before she is forced down from the gunfire that obliterates the atrium chairs. She swears and fires blindly, ears perking with surprise when she hears a table break over the gunfire. Trixie crawls on the ground, cringing from the bullets barely missing her, and only pauses when she sees an injured stallion on the ground, moaning and clutching a gushing wound next to a crushed table. Then another pony jumps into view with his weapon raised and Trixie brings her gun up and fires on shot before it clicks. The stallion leaps out of the way, even though she missed, and Trixie jumps up and uses her magic to throw the weapon against his nose. The stallion yelps as he stumbles back, pressing his broken nose with his hoof, and Trixie charges, leaps next to him and punches him in the ribs. Even with his armor on, he still exhales explosively and stumbles, and Trixie wraps her hoof around his neck like a hook and slams him to the ground before stomping on his head. And when another mare shoots at her, she stumbles, wincing from the metal-hard punches against her, and she spins around and swings the empty weapon against the mare's head. There is a crack and the assailant flies off of her hooves and crashes into a some chairs, where she then rolls and belly-flops to the ground, unconscious with her tongue lolled out.

During the whole ordeal of Trixie doing the epic beat down, Cheddar and another stallion try to get a clear shot at her, but they can't shoot unless they want to be labeled as team killers. But after Trixie whacks the mare in the head with the empty weapon, Cheddar smiles from the clear shot and aims her shotgun at Trixie. Monte sees this, and right as she is about to pull the trigger, the showstallion grabs one of his cards with his magic and throws it like a knife at the unicorn mare. The card slices Cheddar's eye and she shrieks in pain with the first shot going wild and catching Trixie's attention. Monte smiles, only for it to disappear in a flash when Cheddar snaps her head to him with one hoof over her gushing eye and her shotgun pointed at him.

“You son of a bitch!” screams Cheddar painfully.

Monte dives away from Cheddar when she fires, and after landing on his stomach with a grunt, he army crawls as fast as he can as blasted out plaster rains down around him from her mad shots.

Trixie's horn and hooves are covered in sparks, and Cheddar is grabbed by an electrical mist and thrown away. Cheddar screams again, this time dropping her weapon, and is slammed into the ceiling. She falls on the stage with a loud thud and parts of the hastily made fixture falling around her. She groans and tries to get up, but Trixie grabs her with her magic again and slams her into the wall on the other side. Upon impact, the plaster breaks to reveal the cracked brick underneath, and the mare collapses on top of a table in a heap, which then breaks awkwardly and sends her flopping to the ground, limp like a boiled noodle.

Trixie is now panting rabidly, and when her sparks disappear, she exhales and looks at Monte with an uneasy smile hidden behind her mask.

“Hey, Monte,” says Trixie, completely forgetting that her mask makes her voice out to be ridiculously manly.

“Uh... hi?” replies Monte, confused about the overly manly stallion in a suit of armor making small talk like they are chumps at a bar.

Trixie is about to say something else to add to the awkward moment, but a burst of gunfire and the thumps of bullets hitting her snaps her out, and she turns around just in time to see the wall painted red by the stallion's exploding head. Trixie swears and backpedals, then she looks over her shoulder and sees Andromeda holding Cheddar's shotgun in a faint mist, wheezing with bloodshot eyes. The injured mare is using the wall for support, and after the headless stallion falls, she almost collapses, but is once again caught by Hank and gently lowered to the floor. Trixie gallops up to them and finds herself standing dumbly, having no idea what to do. That is until she remembers that Adanz carried some healing potions with him when the League attacked the guard station in Bernese.

Trixie spends the next minute trying to find some of those syringes, but all of the bodies have broken syringes, leaving the headless pony as the last one unchecked. Trixie suppresses the urge to vomit when she approaches the body, and rather than stepping into the pool of blood, she uses her magic to remove his pack and open it up. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the medical syringes perfectly fine.

When Trixie turns back, she sees the hostages coming out from the backstage with Monte motioning them out with his hoof. When they see the mess, though, some freeze and others gasp loudly.

“Come on, everypony, don't be shy. Just ignore the dead guys and keep walking,” says Monte nervously.

“Did he do that?” asks one of the workers while pointing at Trixie with her hoof in regards to the mess.

“Hey, I'm a mare!” snaps Trixie, then under her breath: “Man, this voice disguiser sucks.”

The mare that confused Trixie with a stallion shrinks back, eyes shifting uneasily with a blush on her cheeks. Trixie then shakes her head and trots over to Andromeda and kneels down next to her with the syringe next to her. Mimicking the incident at Bernese, Trixie taps the air bubbles out of the needle and presses the tip against Andromeda's neck. The dark colored mare's eyes are closed and her breathing is very shallow, and Trixie takes a deep breath before sliding the needle into Andromeda's neck.

As soon as the fluid is injected, Andromeda gasps awake and convulses on the ground, coughing and wheezing as a single bullet is pushed out of her lung and the hole stitched shut with freshly formed flesh. Monte grimaces and Hank stares at the scene with a dropped jaw while most of the crowd murmurs in disbelief of what they are seeing. When the injury is stitched up, Andromeda pushes herself into the sitting position, coughing and hacking as her hoof rubs her formerly punctured lung. She then looks at Monte with glazed eyes, and then at Trixie when he points at her.

“You saved me?” asks Andromeda between her pants.

“Sure did,” says Trixie with a bit of smug. “Oh, and by the way, your magic is gone for the next day so enjoy being handicapped.”

Andromeda smiles weakly. “Wouldn't be the first time that happened.”

Trixie blinks in question, and Hank and Monte exchange glances while Andromeda rubs the back of her neck, wincing.

“You're familiar with the building, right?” asks Trixie. Andromeda nods as she is helped up by Hank, and Trixie asks: “Where would somepony go to inject a poison directly into the water supply?”

Andromeda stops and stares at Trixie, and Monte's eyes widen.

A few minutes later, Trixie has the information she needs to confront the remaining League of Justice terrorists. According to Andromeda, the terrorists would need to go into the water chamber, which is a massive room located in the basement of the structure and it is also where the filters can be shut on or off, talismans added or removed, or, in this case, have poison injected directly into the water supply. During the length of the conversation, Andromeda armed herself with a battle saddle and put on some armor from one of the fallen terrorists. Trixie can't help but think that Andromeda looks out of place in it. After the conversation ends, Andromeda takes control by bringing the crowd together, and she approaches Trixie.

“Okay, Mare-Do-Well, I need you to lead these guys out, I'll handle the League,” says Andromeda.

“Uh, no,” says Trixie with a snotty tone.

Andromeda furrows her brow. “Why not?”

“Look at you! You're wearing Royal Guard armor and these guys wiped out the Royal Guard easily!”

“Yeah, by cheating. Besides, as the Director of the Equestrian Investigation Bureau I am ordering you to stand down and let me finish this.”

“As Princess Luna I am ordering you to kiss my ass and let me do this.”

Monte facehoofs and Andromeda chuckles as she shakes her head.

“Wow. First off, you are too small to be Princess Luna. Secondly, Princess Luna speaks archaic. Thirdly, Princess Luna hates swearing. And fourthly, she left Equestria. So, Mare-Do-Well, I am not going to arrest you for impersonation only because your attempt was so pathetic that it was actually funny.”

“It was worth a shot,” grumbles Trixie, then at her normal level: “Look, just trust me. You won't stand a chance without magic. These people need you to lead them out, and I am a professional when it comes with dealing with the League.”

“Oh really?” says Andromeda skeptically.

Trixie nods and lightly paws the ground. “We kinda have a history. I know them. I know what they are capable of and, no offense, but you do not. I got this suit and magic and know their ropes. You got shot up armor, no magic and have no idea how they work.”

“Plus, it'll be hard to fight a robot without magic,” comments Monte uneasily.

Trixie nods. “Right and-” she pauses, then turns to Monte, wide eyed. “What robot?”

Back in the communications room where Soarin is, he drums his hooves nervously against the metal table as he listens to Gust give a radio report of what has happened. His coat is shining in the dim light from sweat, and his eyes are glazed over. He feels as though he is about to die from a combination of suffocation and an exploding heart from how panic stricken he is.

“Airmare Lightning Dust and Airstallion Bronze Coin returned from recon,” says Gust over the radio. “Captain Spitfire Temper, Airmares Rainbow Dash and Misty Cloud, and Airstallion Thunderlane Hurricane have been found, alive, but in need of medical attention. Over.”

“Captain Gust, is there any sign of the package? Over,” says the mare working the radio.

“Negative. The package is missing.”

Soarin doesn't even hear the rest since he bangs his hooves on the table and swears loudly. He swears again and swipes a lamp off of the table, which shatters on the floor, and the room looks at him as he paces in circles, panting and muttering angrily to himself. When he gets himself under some control, he is hyperventilating and running his shaking hoof through his sweaty mane, ruining its neatly kept look.

“I want Glorieta and the entire region quarantined,” orders Soarin in a dangerously low voice. “I want every home, every building searched. Every tree knocked down. Every tunnel flooded and every cloud broken up.”

“Sir?”

“Anypony who throws a fit is to be arrested on sight, any soldier who questions this will face court martial. No exceptions. Roar Shock will be found and we will not rest until we've found him.”

Soarin looks over his shoulder, and gets annoyed by the dumbfounded and concerned faces his soldiers are giving him. He furrows his brows and stomps his hoof as hard as he can on the floor.

“That was not a suggestion! Do it! Get it! Done! NOW!”

The communications officers snap to work and Soarin goes back to his seat, sighing heavily when he falls into the cushion. He rubs his brow, hearing the voices, but not comprehending the words, and he barely notices when the mare in charge of monitoring the Celestial Spire approaches him. Very carefully.

“Excuse me, Captain Pansy, sir,” says the mare nervously.

“Do not call me Pansy,” growls Soarin without removing his hoof from his face.

“Sorry, Captain Soarin, sir.”

“What do you want?”

The mare takes a deep breath and looks down, unable to look at him, and when Soarin looks at her with a deep scowl and fiery eyes, she looks up at him, swallowing.

“We lost contact with the Celestial Spire.”

Soaring jumps to his hooves, face red and veins ready to pop.

“WHAT!”

He doesn't wait for her to repeat herself for he runs over to the Celestial Spire monitoring station and looks at the red blinking lights. His eyes dart between the lights and the skinny, infinite streams of paper being printed out to be translated. His breathing becomes raspy once more and his heart again goes into overdrive as he shakes his head.

“No... No. Nononononononono! NO!” screams Soarin. He turns to the mare that approached him with near psychotic rage in his eyes and jabs her in the chest hard enough to make her stumble back. “Send Lieutenant Flash Sentry's force there right now!”

“But, sir-”

“Is he closest one there?”

“Yes, sir, but-”

“Then send him NOW! GO! GO! GO!”

The mare nods and gallops to one of the communications officers and relays Soarin's orders while the new Captain of the Royal Guard stomps back to his desk, his expression becoming tyrannical in the weak lighting.

“I will be damned if these assholes ruin my career,” growls Soarin to himself.

Trixie slumps to the ground, groaning, after Monte gave a description of Kairos, and from what she has heard, the League's robot came straight from a science fiction book. She knew they were capable of building crazy vehicles and weapons, but she had no idea they could build robots!

“Oh man,” groans Trixie. “I gotta fight a robot.”

“Do you still want to go?” asks Andromeda with a cruel, teasing smile.

“Shut up.”

Andromeda snickers and Trixie glares at her, but no one can see it because the mask is doings its job very well. However, even though Andromeda is snickering at her newfound plight, Trixie finds herself liking this EIB Director a whole lot better than their old one. She still wants to punch her for laughing, though.

“Okay, stop laughing,” orders Trixie. “You need to get these ponies and let me deal with the... with the robot.”

“But-”

Andromeda doesn't finish her sentence because Hank steps up to her, yelling: “For the love of Celestia's plot! You do not stand a chance against the League's machine! We need you here! Let Mare-Do-Well distract them long enough for us to escape, and then we can alert the Guard about what happened, got it?”

There is a moment of heavy silence as all eyes fall on Andromeda, and she looks at everyone in the room before sighing in defeat and nodding with her head down.

“Fine, but there will be no time for walking. All of us are running out of here,” says Andromeda. Then she looks at Trixie and asks: “Is the way clear?”

“As far as I know, yeah,” says Trixie, nodding slightly.

“You don't sound so sure about that.”

“Well, I beat up everypony that tried to kill me, and I don't know how many League of Justice guys are running around... so... yeah, take your chances. I'll make sure their eyes are on me.”

Again, Andromeda is hesitant, but still nods and trots ahead, ordering everyone to follow her. The crowd walks by, gradually picking up their pace, with Trixie following, and when they reach the door, they run out until it is just Trixie and Monte alone. Trixie looks at Monte, and he looks back at her, smiling.

“Uh... shouldn't you be with them?” asks Trixie as she motions towards the leaving crowd.

“Yeah, I should, but I just wanna say you kick butt,” says Monte.

“Thanks, but-”

“Trixie, can you take off your helmet?”

“You know!?”

“Well, yeah. My first clue was-”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You found out, so-” Trixie removes her helmet and pulls back her jumpsuit to let her messy mane fall around her eyes “-now what?”

Monte smiles. “You look good with a messy mane.”

Trixie frowns. “I was kinda hoping for something else.”

Monte shrugs and trots out, whistling, and Trixie walks after him, flabbergasted with her jaw nearly to the floor about what had just happened. She extends her hoof out, whimpering, then lowers it and stomps the ground, muttering angrily as she goes to walk in the opposite direction.

“Oh, and Trixie,” calls Monte.

Trixie stops with an angry sigh and a roll of her eyes. “Yeah?”

Trixie turns around and her surprised gasp is reduced to a muffle when Monte presses his lips against hers. Her body tenses as do her eyes widen from this sudden motion, but her eyes drift shut and her body relaxes to where she sits down. She wraps her hoof around Monte's neck and holds him in place, moaning in his mouth. Monte slides his hoof down Trixie's barrel, which makes her shudder even though she can't feel his touch, and-

“Are you two done?” asks Hank, completely killing the tender moment between the two.

They quickly pull away, and after Monte and Trixie shoot Hank a vengeful glare, he holds up his hoof defensively and backs away, shaking his head. They continue watching him until his is around the corner, then Monte tries to offer Trixie a brave smile as he runs his hoof through her mane.

“For good luck, and there will be more where that came from, my little super-heroine,” he says.

The zony raises his eyebrows and smiles suggestively, and when Trixie realizes what he is implying, her face burns red as her ears droop and mouth goes dry. Monte snickers and clicks his tongue with a wink, then he turns tail and gallops away. Trixie watches him leave with a fan girl smile, and as soon as he is out of view with the others, she slides her helmet on and goes in the opposite direction with a small skip that turns into a full on run.

Back in the water chamber, Lyra is sitting on a makeshift bench made out of crates. Next to her is Mullet, who is being injected with some of the healing serum by Doc. While doing the injection, Doc whistles blissfully to himself and Lyra glares daggers at Kairos and the workers sliding the poisonous capsules into the tanks.

She shakes her head when Kairos walks out of her line of sight, and she looks at Mullet and leans close to him when Doc walks away to get another needle.

“I can't believe this,” grumbles Lyra. “This is just wrong on so many levels, don't you think?”

Mullet sighs. “Lyra, drop it, alright? You'll get in trouble, and then the big guy is going to tell the bigger guy what you did and we all know he doesn't like it when anypony gives him problems.”

“Mullet, you know this is wrong,” hisses Lyra.

“What is wrong is letting this criminal government do whatever it wants.”

“Would you listen to yourself! You sound like a lunatic!”

“Oh, right, because not being okay with government agents arresting dissenters and burning books and basically stripping all our rights away for the sake of Celestia's idea of Harmony means I am crazy. Thanks, Lyra.”

Lyra groans and cranes her head back, cringing when Doc injects her with some of the healing serum. She glares at him as he whistles a cheerful tune while putting away some stuff, then she looks back at Mullet, who is rolling his healed shoulder with a small smile.

“We are supposed to be protecting innocent people,” says Lyra angrily. “That is what Roar Shock told me when I joined. I killed believing that I was making the world better.”

“And you are,” says Mullet, glancing at Lyra without stopping his shoulder test. “You are not seeing the big picture, Lyra. This is the only way to wipe out the greatest criminals in our nation.”

“But there has to be another way.”

“There isn't. You bomb a building, assassinate a judge, what then? They rebuild, they hire bolder judges, they build monuments to commemorate those who died, and they use the chaos as a reason to grow.”

Trixie gallops down the hallway, past a wall sized mural of a lush landscape, clear blue skies, and an ideal farm community with ponies of all types cheerfully galloping with each other, carrying fun party banners with them. In the distance, there is a silhouette of Canterlot and a simple depiction of the Royal Palace painted white and the Celestial Spire painted gold. Beneath it is a caption reading: PERFECTION THROUGH HARMONY.

Trixie slides to a stop, seemingly to have a closer look at the enormous mural, but instead she puts her hoof against a framed map of the Celestial Spire and does a quick scan before running again.

“The EIB was created when Blueblood was assassinated, and the one pony that knew who the shooter was, was killed in her cell.”

Trixie pushes open a stairwell door and peeks around, making sure nobody is around to shoot or stab her in the face. After seeing that it is clear, she runs down, passing a metal sign with the EIB logo on it, stating that disruption inside the building is counted as a royal offense and violators will be fined a hefty sum of bits as well as some jail time.

“Her murderer became the Lead Investigator of the EIB, and the EIB razed an entire griffin community and got away with it. What happens next? The CDA, led by one of the suspects of the Blueblood Assassination.”

Trixie reaches the bottom of the stairs, and after a quick scuffle that leaves two more League of Justice ponies knocked out, she pushes herself against the wall, next to another EIB warning, and some other workplace warning signs, including a hard hat sign. Trixie takes a deep breath and goes inside the hallway on the other side when she doesn't see anyone.

“He had libraries emptied of 'inappropriate' books to burn them under Celestia's orders, along with original copies of the Lunar Republic and books locked up in the Royal Archives. And because of him and Celestia, ponies are dragged out of their homes at night to be imprisoned or killed for speaking out.”

As Trixie speedily walks down the hallway, she passes thick pipes and wires snaking along the walls and ceiling, and barely working lights that seem to be temporary placements rather than permanent fixtures. One area she passes, though, is free of pipes and wires, and leaves just enough room for a picture of the Equestrian Sun with “TOLERANCE PAVES PROGRESS” printed in big bold letters in the center.

“Face it, Lyra, Equestria is done for, and we need a new one.”

Trixie reaches the end of the hallway, heart racing and a sickly feeling in her gut, and she peeks through the reinforced window to see what is going on. She sees the rows of water tanks, most of which are now ugly brown with the few remaining untainted ones being worked on with great speed by workers being overlooked by League of Justice ponies in Royal Guard armor. She counts six guards and eighteen workers, which she is sure are armed anyway, making it a lot of guys that are going to shoot at her. But she doesn't see the robot Monte mentioned anywhere in there, and she doesn't know if that is a good or bad thing. It doesn't take her long to settle with “bad”, though. Trixie pulls away and dances nervously in her spot, really regretting not letting Andromeda tag along now.

Trixie leans against the wall, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. She has gone too far, and the League is almost finished with their work. All it would take now is a flip of a switch, and then Equestria is done for.

“Well, Trixie, it was fun while it lasted,” says Trixie to herself quietly.

Trixie opens her eyes and pushes the door open and marches inside like she owns the place.

“Okay, boys and girls, pack it up, play time is over!” yells Trixie.

Everyone stops and looks at her, with some taking a step back while others snicker as she marches in. Lyra, Mullet and the Doc run out of cover with their weapons raised, which Trixie tries to play it cool by not missing a beat with her steps.

“Seriously, pack it up and get outta here or else all of you are going to the hospital,” threatens Trixie.

Butters smirks and aims his battle saddle at her, and Trixie looks at him, hoof and horn sparking.

“Buddy, don't even try it,” sneers Trixie.

The door slams shut behind her and Trixie jumps around with a small yelp, and gulps when she sees Kairos with his armored hoof against the closed door. The only comfort she is getting from seeing Monte's robot is that he is not as big as the show stallion described. He is still big, but more like a hard working farm stallion big rather than the foal eating monster that was described. That still doesn't change the fact that Trixie is beating herself over the head with a frying pan for missing something so massive and mechanical.

“You must be the other one causing all the trouble,” says Kairos coolly.

Trixie steps back as Kairos steps forward, his steps heavy and the parts in his mechanical suit making music with whirs and clicks.

“I can only assume that you are another Colt-Do-Well, judging from your costume and overly manly voice,” says Kairos, sizing up Trixie's armor while still stepping closer to her.

Trixie is forced into the middle of the room by Kairos's approach, and every gun in the room points at her, including Lyra's and Mullet's. Trixie risks glancing at each of the League of Justice soldiers before putting her attention back to Kairos.

“It's Mare-Do-Well,” corrects Trixie, trying to sound brave with her snappy tone.

Kairos starts pacing around her, and Trixie tries to be threatening by releasing a growl, it holds no ground against Kairos. He is bigger, his suit looks superior in every aspect, and even his voice is deeper and more menacing than hers. While he paces, Trixie tries to follow him, but her legs keep her locked in place so all she can do is turn her head. She knows that Kairos is toying with her, and she does not like it one bit.

“Your suit is well made, obviously not cheap,” compliments Kairos. “But did you honestly think you could stop the Reckoning with just that little costume?”

“I took care of your other guys with this little costume, what makes you think I can't kick your ass with it as well?”

Kairos's hoof shoots out with blinding speed that knocks the air out of Trixie's lungs and sends her crashing into the wall behind her. She falls to the ground, coughing and gasping for air as she presses her hoof against her barrel in a pitiful attempt to comfort her aching lungs.

Kairos marches forward, his steps heavy but cool, and the other League of Justice ponies step forward as well, minus Lyra, Doc, and the mare at the control panel. Trixie coughs again and uses the wall to help herself up, her narrowed eyes locking on Kairos.

Kairos stares back at Trixie, unfazed, while Lyra and the dozen other League of Justice soldiers aim their weapons at her. However, unlike the others, Lyra's hardened stare isn't fixated on Trixie, it is shifting between the other League of Justice ponies, and when she levitates a mini-Gatling gun sitting near Doc, Doc and Mullet look at her and she looks at them crossly. They look back to Trixie when she turns both of her weapons to the costumed heroine.

“You are foolish for coming here, Mare-Do-Well,” says Kairos harshly. “And you just told us all how afraid you truly are. Which I cannot blame you, for you have just entered a fight that you cannot win.”

The crowd chuckles and Trixie grinds her hoof against the ground, aiming her horn at Kairos and preparing for the worst. Her legs tremble and her sweat coats the inside of her suit as the stare down ticks by. Trixie finds herself surprised that he hasn’t tried to shoot her yet with that jumbo sized cannon of his.

“Like it or not, Mare-Do-Well, what is about to transpire will benefit us all in the end,” continues Kairos. “You do not realize this because you have refused to open your eyes, but I saw the truth. Criminals are just the byproduct of the corruption of power. If we are truly to see Equestria as the way it once was then we must strike at the heart of the corruption of our civilization. We must destroy Canterlot and all the immoral bureaucrats that reside within it.”

Trixie looks at Lyra when the aquamarine unicorn does a subtle nod directed towards her. She blinks, wondering what the aquamarine unicorn is going to do, but when she sees her eyes closing and her horn charging, she gets an idea and braces herself for whatever biblical attack Lyra will unleash of the villains.

“Once this city is destroyed, all will know that corruption will not be tolerated,” concludes Kairos.

Lyra’s horn suddenly emits a sonic screech that shatters all the light bulbs, cracks the glass tubes in the area, and makes just about everyone collapse and clutch their ears. While everyone is disoriented, Lyra's eyes snap open and unloads on the terrorists. With her revolver, she puts one shot each through Doc's head, two into Mullet's chest and empties the remaining rounds into the mare at the control panel. The bullets rip through the unarmored mare with ease and punch holes into the control panel. With her mini-Gatling gun, Lyra shoots at the weakened water tanks, and they explode as the hundreds of gallons of poisoned water escape. The terrorists are still disoriented, and when the glass filled, murky water engulfs them in waves, they are knocked off of their hooves, getting cut up in the process. Lyra is also knocked down from the tainted wave and is pushed against the wall. She squeezes her eyes and mouth shut as she is engulfed, and after hitting the wall, she clambers to her hooves, gasping for air.

During this, Trixie shoots Kairos in the chest with her telekinesis, sending the stallion off of his hooves and straight through another container and almost through another. He falls into the water with a large splash and Trixie gallops forward, eyes narrowed and legs kicking up water. When Kairos gets up, Trixie leaps in the air with an electric ball in her hoof and slams it down on Kairos's head. An electrical shock wave explodes outward upon impact and pushes Kairos into the water once more. Trixie brings her hoof down for another punch, but Kairos blocks it with a grab, and when Trixie goes for another, he mirrors his other block and keeps her locked tight. Trixie grunts as she tries to break free, but he has her locked in and is twisting her forelegs, making her wince. Then he leans forward so that their snouts are nearly touching.

“Butters, kill Heartstrings,” orders Kairos, his voice rumbling through the speakers. “I will take care of Mare-Do-Well.”

With a flick, Trixie sails through the air and hits the wall with her injured shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. She lands on the ground hard, wincing and tenderly rubbing her shoulder while struggling to sit up. While doing so, she looks past Kairos and sees Butters and five other ponies chasing after Lyra, who is now galloping out of the room. They are shooting at her with Butters barking orders, and Trixie's heart misses a beat when Lyra barely makes it into a maintenance hall after a barrage of gunfire blows off chunks of the concrete wall. Her eyes go back to Kairos when his cannon charges, and she rolls out of the way, barely avoiding getting shot. The explosion, however, carries her off of her hooves and sends her crashing in the water with burning debris raining around her.

Trixie jumps out of the water, panting and grateful that none of the poison got in, and she awkwardly backpedals as Kairos marches towards her. His cannon charges again and Trixie dives out of the way, narrowly avoiding the shot that reduces the door to a smoldering hole in the wall. Without giving a second thought, she scrambles to her hooves and gallops out, ducking slightly when a shot narrowly misses her head and blows out some of the pipes. She jumps through the steam and gushing water and fuel, and continues her run, looking over her shoulder to see where the robotic menace is. He steps through the steam with his Tesla coils powered down and walks after Trixie in even strides.

“Shit!” yells Trixie in angry fear. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Trixie runs past the knocked out guards and slams the door to the hallway shut, then locks it and runs up the stairs, panting and sweating seemingly all the moisture out of her body. She doesn't even need to look down to know that the door didn't hold when she hears a thud and metal hit concrete. When she reaches an entrance to one of the many floors still in construction, she stops and backs up, fighting to keep her breathing under control, and aims her horn at the stairwell.

She gulps audibly when she hears the turbine engines whirring, and takes a step back as the glow from Kairos becomes stronger. When the mechanically armored stallion flies into view, his coils and cannon are sparking again and Trixie fires an electric beam at him right as he shoots at her. The two beams collide and explode with blinding results and a force that pushes her back with parts of the door, its frame, and the wall.

After rolling and bouncing across the floor, Trixie positions herself upright and skids backwards on all fours. Only for her to get shot in the chest by Kairos's electrical weapon. Trixie's eyes squeeze shut and she barely hears herself scream as the electrical flames washes over her face and chest. After crashing into the wall behind, she slumps down, coughing with smoke rising off of her cracked and burnt armor. When she gets up, Kairos lands in front of her and takes a swing, but she brings up both of her forehooves and locks his arm in. Trixie grunts loudly as the metal monster gradually turns her arms down at an uncomfortable angle, and right as she is about ready to fall over, she wraps the villain in a telekinesis spell to make him considerably lighter and swings him away with a loud scream.

Kairos slides across the floor, and much to Trixie's disbelief and amazement, he activates his boosters and uses them to do a back flip and land upright on all fours, and proceeds to have them act as brakes that scorch the surrounding area. Trixie's eye twitches, with the only thought being along the lines of how unfair the fight it going so far. Then he starts walking towards her, snorting with the coils around his limbs glowing bright. Trixie grinds her teeth and stomps the ground, releasing an electrical burst from her horn that engulfs her hooves.

“Come on!” screams Trixie challengingly.

The growl emitted from Kairos's speaker shakes the bones in Trixie, but she holds her ground, returning the growl, even if it is pathetic compared to her enemy. Kairos's walk turns into a trot, which then turns into a full gallop, and Trixie runs towards him at full speed. Trixie's vision goes redder and her breathing becomes more ragged the closer she gets to him. And once they are near each other, Trixie leaps into the air, hoof sparking brilliantly, and Kairos leaps up to her as well, and he tackles her full on in the chest and he activates his boosters, carrying both of them straight through the ceiling.

Lyra gallops down the maintenance hallway, panting and glancing over her shoulder every so often to see where the hunting party is. She swears under her breath and runs faster when Butters rounds the corner with the five other soldiers. Lyra slides around a corner, nearly falling to the ground in the process and shoots out the lights using her mini-Gatling gun. Sparks and broken glass rain down in the hall, bathing it in darkness mere blinks later, and Lyra skids to a stop and stops her magic, letting the weapon fall into her hooves.

Lyra slithers back, pressing herself as far as she can into the pipes, shrinking lower, and watching, waiting, listening for the approaching soldiers she had fought side by side for in the name of the Greater Good. She takes a deep breath and takes aim when the voices bounce off the walls, and when the first two gallop into view, she fires on them. The weapon's recoil jerks her, but the stream of bullets strikes down both of them, killing the first and injuring the second.

“Son of a bitch!” screams one of the other soldiers over his gunfire.

Lyra dives to the ground when the sparks of bullet-hitting-metal bounce towards her, and she crawls across the ground, fighting to keep her breathing and heart steady. She has to bite her tongue to stifle a yelp when a bullet whizzes past her head, but not even a bitten tongue can silence her cries when a hot bullet rips into her leg.

“Cease fire!” barks Butters.

Lyra grits her teeth with one hoof pressed awkwardly against her gushing wound, and the other she uses to drag her across the cold cement floor. She hears Butters giving more orders, then him and two more ponies approaching her with quick steps. Panting and whimpering, she looks up at the three with glazed eyes. She can't see their expressions, only their shadowed figures. The only one she can really see is a unicorn stallion whose horn is giving just enough energy to keep his weapon trained on her head.

Lyra extends her hoof, shaking and whimpering, but none of the stallions appear to show even the slightest sense of remorse for the mare at their hooves.

“You betrayed us,” growls Butters, then to the others: “Have fun with her.”

And not even a second after he finishes his sentence, Lyra's world goes white with the pain erupting from her head. She collapses, head cracking against the concrete, and the unicorn stallion raises his weapon from his melee, and the other stallion stomps on her side. Lyra howls in agony and spasms on the ground from the trauma her ribs received, and Butters takes a couple of steps back with his hoof against his helmet.

Lyra can't see or hear what he is saying over the grunts and hooves of her assailants beating her ruthlessly, or her very own screams of pain. Bash after bash, stomp after stomp, the assailants leave no part of her body unbruised. And when the unicorn turns Lyra so that she is on her back, she groans weakly in protest with her bloody forehoof extended pathetically towards them, and then her groin is stomped on by the other stallion. Never before had Lyra felt anything more painful, and when the crushing blow and the piercing pain had occurred, she had never screamed as loud either.

The stallions pull away, leaving her huddled on the ground, sobbing and bleeding profusely from her lips and gashes all over her body. Tears mix with sweat and blood as she finds little strength to move and crawl from the three. She wheezes and crawls faster, leaving a brush-stroke trail of blood in her wake when Butters walks after her.

“Did you honestly think you could escape?” sneers Butters.

He kicks Lyra in the side, and she howls in pain as she turns and clutches herself. Butters raises his hoof again, shaking his head.

“Recruits these days,” he says, glancing at the other two out of the corner of his eye to see them snicker.

Then he brings his hoof down and something inside Lyra ignites, fueled by the will to survive. Right when Butters' hoof connects with Lyra's side, her eyes snap wide, and she yells as her her horn and eyes glow a blinding aquamarine color. A screech of supersonic proportions emits from her horn with a shock wave, and the stallions yell and stumble, clutching their bleeding ears. The shock wave knocks Butters so hard into the pipes that they burst open, spraying everyone and flooding the floor with fuel.

Lyra can't hear anyone scream over the noise of her horn, but when everything stops, she is lying on the ground, sobbing weakly and spitting fuel from her mouth. The fuel stings her wounds, but even then she can barely move. It pains her just to shift her position to see the three stallions lying on the ground, motionless and more than likely dead from the unexpected burst of magic.

With trembling hooves, Lyra pushes herself up and approaches Butters. Her weak, raspy breaths escape through her tightly sealed lips and she fumbles through the fallen stallion's gear and finds that the syringes are destroyed, flooding his compartment with the glass and healing potion. Still wheezing, Lyra levitates a blob with weak energy and carefully picks out the glass. Then she takes a deep breath and swallows the blob.

After having a hard fall on a tiled floor, Trixie groans and rolls on her back clutching her side, only for her to barely avoid getting stomped a second later when Kairos tries squishing her. She rolls out of the way, and the pieces of the floor are kicked up when he lands hard on the ground. Trixie's horn glows and two tables of tools are lifted off of ground and smashed against Kairos's sides. The table shatter and the tools fly all over, it not only serves to make the stallion growl, but it also distracts him long enough for Trixie to fling him through a pillar with her trusty magic.

The mechanically armored stallion goes through it with ease, and as the pillar crumbles under his weight, a piece of the unfinished ceiling collapses, covering the floor with a cloud debris that would choke anyone if they failed to wear a mask.

The stallion gets up, growling, and he tries to shoot at Trixie, but she flings piece of rubble in the way of the electrical shot, reducing it to burning dust, then with a scream she uses another piece of the broken pillar to bash Kairos. It shatters against his head and the stallion skids across the floor, and tumbles from view when the wall and window to the outside world is destroyed from his impact.

Trixie stares at the hole, carefully listening for anything other than the rushing wind that might signal his survival. When she looks over the edge, a terrified lump clogs her throat as she looks at the pavement over a dozen stories below. The rubble had splattered below, but there is no sign of the unstoppable machine, and that worries Trixie greatly.

Trixie backs away, legs shaking and her magical aura surrounding her hooves and horn again, when she hears a crackling. Then her eyes widen and she leaps away from the window as far as she can go with her hooves covering head as the floor behind her explodes into flaming shards. She swears and scrambles across the floor as more explosions rip apart the floor, and she rolls to her back and extends her hoof when Kairos flies through the fire from the floor below. Looking unaffected besides the soot on his armor.

“Just die already!” cries Trixie.

She fires an electric ball from her hoof that hits Kairos in the chest and sends the beast into the ceiling. He falls with parts of the ceiling around him, but rather than falling back from the hole from whence he came, he activates his boosters and keeps himself level.

Trixie roars, scrambles to her hooves, and gallops towards Kairos, vision red and every bone and muscle in her body aching to near shut down. But she doesn't care. She wants to take him down. She will take him down. One way or another.

Kairos shoots at Trixie, and she evades the shots, keeping her eyes focused on him, rather than the flaming debris flying around her, and she leaps in the air and slams both of her electrically charged hooves on his head. A double shock wave erupts from under Trixie's hooves, and both she and Kairos go straight down through the floor, and down another, coming to a hard stop on the twelfth floor.

In the cloud of dust and crumbled debris, both lie motionless, with Trixie lying on top and Kairos beneath. Trixie's barrel rises and falls like waves as her breaths remain as the only noise on the dead floor.

Seconds later, the silence is broken when Trixie gasps awake. She pushes herself up and rests both of her forehooves on Kairos' chest and looks down at him. His visors are still glowing, but he has yet to move or make a sound. She gulps audibly as she carefully raises her hoof. Then she taps the lens and is greeted by fully charged mechanical hoof to her chest.

Trixie screams as the volts surge through her armor and straight to her chest, and she keeps screaming as he presses his hoof harder against her chest, both seemingly magnetized to each other. When the electricity stops, Kairos throws Trixie off like a rag doll and stomps after her as she crawls on the ground, coughing and gulping for air with smoke rising off of her.

“That was stupid of you,” says Kairos snidely.

He hoists Trixie up by hooking his hoof under her chin, and she grunts and bashes her hoof against his armor, but that does nothing to faze him, and when he punches her in the stomach, all the air is violently forced out of her lungs. Trixie falls to the ground, coughing and awkwardly making an attempt to clutch her gut as she stumbles back. Then Kairos whirls around and while the tail slashes her breastplate, barely slicing the skin underneath, his hind leg connects with her chest and sends her sailing back with a giant hoof print underneath a slash slowly dripping blood.

Trixie hits the wall on the other end, leaving a pony sized imprint with massive cracks surrounding it, and when she collapses to the ground, she coughs blood into her mask and blinks the crimson liquid out of her eyes while trying to stand on her weak legs. However, right as she is half way up, Kairos launches himself towards her, sending both of them through the wall. Trixie skids across the floor and rolls to stop, moaning as Kairos comes closer to her, and each step he takes fuels the fire of rage in her. She questions how the League is able to create such a monster and yet with all of Canterlot's resources they can't even match them with an air vehicle of their own. She questions why this thing in front of her is so determined to kill millions. But most of all, she questions how she is able to stop this agent of death if she can't even falter his advances.

With her teeth grinding together, and anger burning through her veins, Trixie pushes herself to her hooves, and yells furiously as she charges Kairos with tears of rage clouding her eyes. She swings her hooves madly and tries to buck him every chance she can get, even using her magic to zap him and throw every loose item at him. But the villain coolly blocks her attacks with simple hoof motions, deflects the flying objects by either shooting or slashing them, and he jumps out of the way of her lightning attacks.

Trixie charges a large lightning beam and shoots it at him. Naturally he dodges it, but the beam rips apart the floor and the passing shock wave does send him veering off course with chunks of the burnt floor. Trixie jumps through the fiery smoke and wails on him before he can bring his hooves up. She rabidly bashes his armor, leaving tiny dents and scratches with every impact. When she brings both of her hooves up for a final smash, he activates his boosters, zips out of her way so that she only stomps the floor, and turns around and rams her in the barrel. Trixie locks her hooves around his neck and waist and punches him in the face with her free hoof, sending him veering off course and causing the two to crash through another wall and bounce, roll, and skid across a walkway under construction. During the crash landing on the walkway, they separate, leaving Kairos near the front and Trixie having a painful travel almost all the way to the other side. When she's done bouncing, she skids to a stop and tries standing up, however her wobbly legs and spinning world make it nearly impossible and is forced to use a railing to help her stand.

Trixie looks up and gets a hoof to the face that sends her tumbling over the railing. Luckily for her, she is able to wrap her hoof around it, but that doesn't ease the fear she's feeling when she sees him looking down at her. She also has the misfortune of looking down, and gulps loudly when she sees the dozen stories she’ll fall if she slips.

When Kairos brings his hoof up, Trixie holds up her free hoof, shouting: “Wait!”

Kairos waits.

“Aren't you going to do a villain speech?” asks Trixie pathetically.

She highly doubts that he will, given that he has barely spoken the entire time, but she hopes that she will get that slim chance to think of something. While Kairos looks at her, Trixie tries to hoist her herself up, but her shot shoulder is burning and even with both of her hooves wrapped around the bar, she is still slipping. She tries to adjust her grip, but it only succeeds in making her slip, and Kairos raises his hoof again, much to her horror.

"No,” is the only thing he says before he slams his hoof against the railing.

Before his hoof connects, though, Trixie pushes herself off the railing and goes in free fall. The wind rushes past her ears as the world does past her eyes with bent metal falling past her, and she silently prays that she did not just commit suicide. And her prayers are answered!

The fluttering cape stiffens and within a couple of seconds, it becomes a stiff glider, giving Trixie the ability to swoop down gracefully.

“Yeah! That's how it's done!” whoops Trixie.

Then she hits a wall.

Hard.

Naturally she tries to make the appropriate turn, however, she is going too fast and hits the brick wall with her injured shoulder and snaps the cape back to a fluttering piece of cloth. Trixie screams in pain from her shot shoulder's abuse, and when she hits the ground, she lands on her side on a receptionist desk that breaks upon her landing and effectively stops her from going too far.

Groaning, Trixie rolls off of what is left of the desk, with splinters either cascading off of her or getting stuck on the fabric, then she stumbles away, coughing and collapses to the ground a few paces later. She tries to use the wall for support, but slides to the floor when a spike of stabbing pain in her ribs forces her to the ground. She tastes copper in her mouth, and

The mechanically armored stallion's presence is signaled by the whine of his engines and the thud from his hooves touching down. Trixie grits her teeth and gets up and zaps Kairos in the chest with barely enough strength to send him stumbling back, but he quickly recovers and shoots the ground in front of her, clouding her vision with dusty concrete bits. Trixie narrowly avoids the tail blade that slices through the cloud, but as she rolls out of the way, her legs are kicked out from under her. Trixie rolls out of the way from Kairos when he brings his hooves down on her, leaving two shattered, hoof shaped indents in the concrete, and backpedals with her horn charging again as Kairos marches towards her. The stallion seems to be nigh unstoppable with his advanced suit, and she is certain that the only way to get past his armor is with a powerful strike.

As Kairos approaches Trixie like a mechanized angel of death, she takes deep breaths and keeps collecting energy to her horn, hoping and praying that her idea will work. She can feel her muscles weakening from all the energy being diverted, and it feels as though someone is taking a blowtorch to the crack on her horn. But still she keeps charging, even when Kairos punches her to the ground, and after doing so he bends down and puts his hoof under Trixie's chin and forces her head up. His sparkling Tesla coils make her hair stand and the stench of burning fabric ravages her nose.

"You must welcome death. Never before have I seen anypony fight so hard yet do something so stupid in the same fight,” claims Kairos.

Trixie chuckles painfully, and she's sure that Kairos is raising an eyebrow because of it.

"Do you find that funny?" asks the stallion.

Trixie stands up, breathing heavily with a dark cloud forming above her head, and once a ring of lightning bolts strike down around her Kairos steps back. Trixie stands up, panting and tensing for a powerful strike while her lightning shield shreds and scorches the area around her. Trixie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, and when she opens them, an eerily confident smirk comes across her masked muzzle.

“You're toast,” says Trixie sinisterly.

Kairos brings his hoof up to block the blinding light as Trixie stands on her hind legs and extends her forehoof with the lightning forming a ball around the bowl of her hoof. Then she screams and fires the beam at his chest.

Trixie is not only blinded by her very own attack, but it is also strong enough to push the stallion away as well chunks of the floor and shake the very building with thunder. Blue electrical sparks snap out in every direction, burning and breaking everything they touch, and-

In the basement, Butters groans and sits up, rubbing his head and glancing up as the ceiling shakes violently from the explosive force rumbling above. He shields himself from the falling dust and loose ceiling chunks, and tries to escape when snapped wires dangle down, spraying the area with sparks. However, he barely takes two steps before one of the sparks touches the fuel. From that tiny spark comes a sea of oily flames that engulfs him and everyone else in the hall. The pipes pop, and the trail of an all consuming hell surging through the veins of the Celestial Spire that shoots up through the stairwell and-

Trixie's world is engulfed in flame and debris, and she becomes weightless as the unexpected explosion carries her away. The last thing she sees before blacking out is Sunshine standing coolly with a demented smile right before the wall he is standing in front of crumbles.

Seconds or minutes later, Trixie’s eyes flutter open as she groans slow and painfully with a thick layer of dust and crushed debris rolling off of her during her struggle to get back up. She blinks blood out of her eyes and strains her eyes in search for Kairos, but all she can see is fire and smoke blanketing the ruins.

The thick blanket of fire and smoke that is clogging her vision and lungs has given her a taste of what Tartarus will be like when she finds herself there. Her lungs are burning and her eyes are tearing up, making seeing all the more difficult. To make it worse, she can hear wooden and metal beams snap and pieces of the super structure crumbling all around her in a hellish, fiery mess. The whole place is falling apart around her and she’s completely powerless to stop it.

Trixie looks at her hooves and sees that her armored gauntlets are destroyed, and she just now realized that one of the lenses on her visor is shattered.

A sharp pain shoots throughout her hoof as she struggles to push a piece of a pillar away from her to clear a path. When the piece is pushed aside, she collapses and tries standing up immediately after, and once again she feels an intense pain, this it’s time all over her body. She feels her fractures and her muscles tear as she pushes herself to the limit to stand. But in spite of her best efforts to stand, the pain is too much and she cries out in pain and tumbles to the ground. The only reason she doesn’t fall all the way down is because her broken body falls against the remains of the pillar she pushed aside.

Trixie's vision is so hazy that she can barely inspect her body to see how extensive the damage is. Her gauntlets are in desperate need of repair and her cuirass is scratched, dented, burnt, and overall so abused that she will have to get it replaced immediately. Her dark lavender cape and suit also need to be replaced. Her cape is tattered beyond sewing repair, only being held on by the clip,which is also dented, and the “M” is almost burnt completely off. Her suit and fedora have their fair share of tears as well. She also notices that she’s bleeding. A lot. So much that it’s a miracle that she hasn’t passed out from smoke inhalation and blood loss.

“Mare-Do-Well, where are you!”

After the initial shock of realizing that Kairos lived through two devastating attacks passes, with the second being completely unintentional, Trixie forces herself to meet the behemoth head on in what she knows will be her last stand. She winces and bites back pained tears as she moves away from the pillar, leaving a bloody streak behind. Her hooves barely keep her up as she wobbles towards him. She only knows where he is because of the sound of his voice, and his thunderous footsteps. She starts shivering and her vision fades in and out as the effects of blood loss start kicking in.

Finally, the smoke clears just enough for her to see Kairos approaching her. His flickering visors glow like the eyes of a vengeful demon blinking through the fiery smoke as his bladed tail carelessly knocks debris aside. Glowing with his eyes is a series of small gems placed around a larger gem imbedded into his chest. Their presence know known because of the gaping hole caused by Trixie's point-blank shot. However, the extent of his damage does not stop there.

Like Trixie, his suit is also damaged; its covered in a gratuitous amount of dents, scratches, and burns, and the energy cannon on his shoulder is also sparking, looking like it’s dangerously close to exploding if he isn’t careful with it. The Tesla coils around his hooves spark violently and char him and the ground around him as he marches towards her. Trixie also marches towards him, but unlike him, her steps are labored and incredibly painful.

Trixie silently pulls off what’s left of her hat using what's left of her depleted magic and painfully tosses it aside. Some of her silvery mane has breached through her torn jumpsuit and now flutters without direction in the hot wind, and her smoking horn is also peeking through.

“You need to surrender! Enough damage has been done already! No more ponies have to die today! Please stop this!” begs Trixie as Kairos comes closer to her without pause.

The two ponies stop shy a few paces away from each other. Trixie tries to glare at him from behind her ruined visor, and she’s sure he’s glaring at her too. Her breathing becomes more labored and raspy and has to blink blood out of her eyes as she tries to stare down the villain in front of her. But she knows that he knows this victory will be his. She can feel it in every bone and muscle in their body.

“You expect me to surrender?” growls Kairos. “Surrender and let these monsters ruin more lives!”

Trixie speed limps behind a concrete slab when he charges his cannon, but it is not enough to stop the electric beam. It reduces the cover to burnt chunks, blasts Trixie off her hooves, and almost sends her flying through a brick wall that has a mural on it glorifying Celestia. But Trixie doesn’t go through all the way, she only goes halfway through before falling to the ground with chunks of brick falling and bouncing off of her. She coughs blood into her mask and desperately tries to gulp in much needed air, and she feels gaping holes in her armor as well as painful burning sensation all over her body and the warmth of her blood sticking all over her coat and suit. She can also feel a bad crick on her back, and finds it a miracle that she can even move.

The ground shakes with each angry stomp Kairos takes towards her and she helplessly looks up and sees the stallion approaching her. Trixie tries to get up, but her her legs give way and she falls to the ground with pained, tearful grunt and doesn’t have to look up to know that he is towering above her. He kicks Trixie on her back, breaking a couple of her ribs, and presses his hoof down on her chest. Trixie gasps and struggles to breath while frantically trying to push the pony off as the electricity from his suit slithers into her.

“You are all the same! All of you!” claims Kairos. “You'd rather be chained with your gilded shackles, pretending that you are free because of your porn and drugs and free money!”

Kairos pushes down on Trixie and she cries out in pain as she feels her chest being crushed under him, and then he leans down and slightly opens up his helmet so that his mouth is showing.

“By fault of your own, you have refused to see that Gray Area Logic made immorality the new morality, and tyranny the new freedom. This hub of desecration will die, and you shall see it die with your own eyes,” says Kairos with absolution.

Trixie thrashes weakly and groans out protests while Kairos bends down, putting more pressure on her. He yanks off her tattered mask and tosses it aside unceremoniously, revealing her sweaty silvery mane, bloody azure coat, and violet eyes.

Kairos does a double take. “Trixie?”. He steps back and shakes his head. “You... Impossible... Adanz said you died!”

Trixie’s weak legs tremble as she pushes herself up, grunting with pain and finding it impossible to speak. And what little breath she has is punched out of her by shock when Kairos uncovers the rest of his face by pushing a small lever on his suit. His helmet clicks and whirs, and with some trouble it retracts all the way, revealing the one that saved her from Sunshine those many months ago.

“Gray Muffin? Is that-Is that really you?” stammers Trixie.

Her mentor aims his cannon away Trixie, smiling. “I can’t believe this. Love Joy and Adanz said Gilda killed you!”

“Was that before or after Adanz tried to kill me?”

Gray Muffin's smile fades. “Trixie, you are confused. Adanz was sent to rescue you.”

Trixie's weak body is suddenly sprung into action with rage fueled energy, and she takes a couple of pain free steps towards her mentor, screaming and charging her horn.

“How dare you lie to me!” she says furiously. Trixie loses balance for a moment and Gray Muffin steps forward, but when Trixie shoots a bolt of lightning at his feet he steps back. Trixie grunts as she uses the wall to regain her balance while glaring at Gray Muffin. “How can you play innocent when you knew that Adanz- How did you not know!”

“I know only what I am told,” says Gray Muffin, his voice barely heard over the flames.

“Don’t play dumb with me!”

Trixie fires a weak beam at Gray Muffin’s chest that sends him back a couple of steps. Then in a fit of rage, Trixie uses her minimal magic to throw Gray Muffin into the ceiling and then slam him back into the floor with chunks of the ceiling falling around him. Trixie hobbles forward, panting and crying from the returning pain in her horn and body, and the piercing talons of betrayal gripping her heart.

Right as Gray Muffin pushes himself up,Trixie punches him on the side of his head. He collapses to the ground with a grunt, and Trixie rolls him onto his back and starts wailing on his face, sobbing and screaming incoherently with each punch. After the fourth punch, Gray Muffin’s hoof collides with Trixie’s right as she brings it down, cracking it on impact. She screams in pain and rolls off of him, pressing her broken hoof to her chest, weeping and trying to drag herself away using her good forehoof when Gray Muffin stands up, face dripping with blood, and approaches her with a murderous snarl.

“I was hoping you would return when you were captured, and when I heard of your work in Canterlot I was proud of your ambitions,” says Gray Muffin darkly, now pacing around Trixie’s huddled, defeated figure. “I was -and still am- more proud of you than of Terra or any of my students before you. You have grown so much with such little, and I can help you become stronger if you will let me.”

Gray Muffin's murderous expression softens to pity and extends his hoof to Trixie, and she looks up at him, her eyes bloodshot from the tears soaking them.

“Please, let me help you as I have before,” says Gray Muffin earnestly.

Trixie stares at his hoof for just a few seconds before shaking her head. She winces as she slides herself away from him, whimpering and sobbing quietly as the pain forces her to lie on the heated ground. Trixie looks away from Gray Muffin, and he lowers his eyes and hoof.

“Th-there is still a chance. Gray Muffin. You don’t have to do this,” she says weakly, wincing when she shifts her position.

“I took an oath to protect Equestria from those who threaten her. Gray Area Logic and the corrupted government that came from it is a threat, and therefore must be destroyed,” says Gray Muffin, his voice once again low.

Gray Muffin's weapon hums to life and he steps away from Trixie while she whimpers and attempts to stand up using debris as a crutch.

“When Gray Area Logic takes over, when you say there is no right or wrong, society degrades into filth and allows the corrupted to rule. With the corruption of power comes tyranny, and I will not let this police state ruin more lives.”

“You’re insane!”

After shouting, Trixie grunts painfully and collapses to the ground, clutching her side with her injured hoof. Gray Muffin quietly observes the burning mess for just a moment before his eyes return to Trixie, watching her trying to stand with the help of a chunk of pillar.

“Gray Muffin, please don’t do this,” begs Trixie. “The Gray Muffin I knew wouldn't do this. He wouldn't want to... You can still end this. Nopony else has to die.”

Gray Muffin shakes his head. “I am sorry, Trixie, but there is nothing of the old me left. All there is, is Kairos and Canterlot's reckoning. When I poison this city, and its evil into extinction, all will know that injustice and tyranny will never win. When this cancer is purged, we will no longer have to sleep in fear for all who have harmed Equestria and her purity will be wiped out. You have one last chance, Trixie. Return to your family and help end the rule of tyrants. Or die with them.”

Trixie swallows her tears and wipes her eyes with her injured hoof. “You'll have to kill me. I won't let you do this while I'm still breathing.”

Gray Muffin barely nods his head, his eyes shimmering in the fire.

“Very well,” he says quietly. “You have made your choice.”

Gray Muffin reluctantly charges his cannon, and Trixie grunts as her eyes focus on his face. He scowls and his cannon sparks as it charges, it has more than enough power to finish her off. Gray Muffin’s jaw tightens, and Trixie narrows her eyes and takes a step closer to him, biting back the tears coming with the surge of pain and the burden of what is to come.

“Close your eyes,” orders Gray Muffin.

“No, if you’re going to shoot me I want you to look me in the eyes,” Trixie says, tears streaming down and washing the blood and grime off of her cheeks.

“Close your eyes!”

“No! I will not be another one of your faceless victims!”

Gray Muffin swallows a lump in his throat keeps his cannon trained on Trixie, but is still refusing to fire; his glare is betrayed by the tears rolling down his cheek.

Trixie takes a step forward. “DO IT!”

“NO!” shouts Lyra right as Gray Muffin fires.

Trixie is shocked to see Lyra leap out of the burning haze to push the cannon down right as he fires. The electric beam impacts the ground in front of the trio, sending up large fireball that launches pieces of burning concrete up into the ceiling. The force of the explosion is strong enough to send all three ponies flying off of their hooves, and when Trixie hits the wall behind her again she blacks out.

Lyra doesn't have time to feel pain as she scampers towards Gray Muffin, who has naturally made a quick recovery from her little stunt. His cannon is dim and bleeding energy fuel, but that doesn't stop him from turning it to her. It charges and shoots a thin beam at her that she easily evades, and in spite of her poorly healed body protesting, she still leaps on Gray Muffin's back. Gray Muffin growls and tries bucking her off, but she keeps herself on by biting down on his mane. He yells when Lyra tugs his head back, and with a few hard kicks, the cannon breaks loose and falls to the ground, spraying sparks over both ponies.

With a ferocious growl, Gray Muffin finally bucks Lyra off. The mare tumbles off of him and momentarily loses focus when her head cracks against the cement. Her vision fixes just in time to see Gray Muffin bring his hooves down on her, and narrowly avoids getting squished under his wrath. The floor breaks under his hooves, and Lyra tries to flee, but she trips over herself and rolls down a small set of stairs, and Gray Muffin easily jumps over the steps and lands next to her. Lyra yelps and backpedals as Gray Muffin turns to swing his tail at her. She shrieks as the blade slices deep into her hoof, and as she falls to the ground, Gray Muffin stomps on her side. She gasps as her armor dents and her ribs snap, and as she wheezes for air while blood pools past her mouth, Gray Muffin bites down her tail and starts dragging her across the floor. Lyra groans and weakly paws against the ground, and awkwardly kicks Gray Muffin in the face with her hind leg when that proves futile.

Gray Muffin growls, yet keeps his teeth gripped tight on her tail despite the gratuitous amount of blood on his face, and then he swings her over his head and straight towards what remains of a wall.

“Wake up,” urges Custos, his voice echoing in her head.

Trixie’s eyes flutter open, everything is a red, blurry mess, but she can still make out Gray Muffin and Lyra fighting. From the looks of it, Lyra is losing. Badly. She watches Lyra fly across the room and hit the wall behind her and slump to the ground. She also sees Custos standing in front of her with his hoof extended.

“Wakey, wakey. Rise n’ shine, darlin’. It’s time t’ make things right,” says Sunshine.

Trixie looks to her side and sees Sunshine in his shadowy, demonic form grinning and pointing at Gray Muffin and Lyra; the latter now lying on the ground. Trixie stretches out her hoof and begs Gray Muffin to stop while he marches towards the fallen pony. She tries to crawl towards them, but passes out again.

“Trixie, you need to wake up!”

“Wake up and kill him! It is the right thing ta do and you know it!”

Trixie’s eyes snap open, she no longer sees any spectres, only Gray Muffin standing above Lyra with his hoof raised above her neck, and she is coughing blood and trying in vain to stand up. Trixie screams in agony as she fights to inch closer.

“End this now!”

“Kill him!”

Trixie’s eyes drift towards a jagged piece of metal and back at Gray Muffin. Time seems to slow down and her heartbeats and heavy breathing dominate all the noise as she fights to stand up, trying desperate to ignore the pain and and the burning sensation in her lungs from the flaming debris falling around her.

“It’s a perfect shot! Go ahead and kill him! It’s perfect!”

Trixie takes one step forward. Her horn glows and a section of the building collapses behind her, covering her with scorching hot air and burning dust.

Trixie takes another step forward. The jagged metal glows, is lifted up, and aimed at Gray Muffin. Gray Muffin is bringing his hoof down and Lyra twists to block the executing move. More deformed metal beams fall from the ceiling, making more parts of the building collapse in an inferno.

Trixie takes another step and screams as the blade flies towards Gray Muffin. He doesn’t see the crude weapon flying at him, though, he’s too focused on Lyra. However, the aquamarine pony sees it and her eyes widen and she looks away right as the tail blade impales itself in the side of Gray Muffin’s ankle. The tip of the blade pokes out of the other side of his ankle and he falls to the ground, screaming and thrashing in agony.

Sunshine walks next to Trixie, shaking his head in disappointment. “Pickin’ and choosin’, I see. Sad.” Sunshine flaps his one wing and disappears in a puff of wispy, black smoke, leaving his voice to echo: “One of these days you'll get it right.”

As Gray Muffin cries and tries to remove the piece of metal from his ankle, Trixie falls to the ground with her vision quickly fading, and watches Lyra limp towards her. Trixie’s eyes move up and she smiles sadly at the fiery globs raining from the burning sky above. But in spite of all the fire and burning smoke, she shivers from the cold feeling that is rapidly taking her over.

Custos steps into view and lays next to her and strokes his hoof against her back in soft motions; for some reason Trixie thinks he’s smiling. She hopes he’s smiling.

“You did good, Trixie,” says Custos proudly. “You’ve earned your rest.”

Custos disappears and Trixie extends her hoof, begging in whimpers for him to come back, but all she sees is Hell and Lyra limping towards her. Trixie's hoof and head falls to the floor, and Lyra limps quicker, yelling for Trixie.

Trixie's ears barely flick when the building groans, and as pieces of the building snap and collapse around them, pushing more burning dust and bits of debris towards them, Lyra uses herself as a meat shield to cover Trixie. What is left of a deformed metal beam falls dangerously close to them and bounces over their bodies, and Trixie looks back up to see the fiery sky above them, raining scorching debris around them. Trixie looks back at Lyra with tears in her eyes and tries to say something, anything, but her eyes become too heavy and they slide shut, covering her world in darkness and taking all the noise with it.

Gray Muffin bites down on the tail end of the jagged metal and with one hard tug he pulls it out. As soon as he pulls it out he screams, swears, and stomps the ground with his good hoof as blood pours out from his injury. He kicks the blade away, then flinches as a piece of the ceiling breaks off and shatters on the ground next to him. After that he looks around him at the crumbling inferno and he sees the group disappear into the thick smoke. He grits his teeth, pushes himself up and glares at where Lyra and Trixie are huddled. He starts towards them, but when a giant fireball rolls out of a random spot, showering him with burning debris, he growls and limps away in the opposite direction.

“FREEZE!”

“DON'T MOVE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Gray Muffin stops and snarls as a small army of Royal Guards aim their weapons at him. He stays frozen in place, watching them circle him with high powered weapons trained on him. His heavy eyes dart between each of them while his injured leg throbs and his lungs burn from the smoke. His brain tells him to fight his way out, to make a last stand against the soldiers of corruption, but when he takes a step forward, his leg gives out and he collapses to the ground, coughing.

The guards rush forward and pile on him, and when one of the unicorns levitates a muzzle attached to a chain to his face, he tries to fight them off, screaming and swearing, only his protests to be muffled when it is clamped over his mouth. Even with that on, he manages a cry of defiance and shakes the guards off and swings at the one that muffled him. The guard leaps back and uses his magic to tug on the chain, and Gray Muffin digs his hooves in the ground, but the injured hoof gives way and he falls down once more. When he tries to stand again, another unicorn grabs his hoof with a chained cuff and tugs him back down, then he feels a blunt object crack the back of his skull and he blacks out.

Pinkie Pie's eyes snap open with a gasp, and she looks around the communications room, hyperventilating and shivering, even though she feels nothing. She pushes herself up and rubs her forehooves against each other when she folds them over her chest. As she rubs, she notices that the room is intact. There are no bullet holes, no scorch marks, no bodies. She stops and inspects herself and finds that she is virtually scar free. She stands up, eyebrows cocked quizzically, and walks in a circle, trying to get a better view of herself. There is no blood on her, no ugly scars or burnt fur, and no back pain.

“What in the world is going on?” wonders Pinkie Pie aloud.

Her ears flick when she hears some faint voices down the hall. She gets up and carefully trots down the hall, glancing at the untouched décor and freshly painted walls. When she is near the door, she freezes and takes a step back. She recognizes one of the voices.

“Let me talk to her,” says Spike firmly. “I know her. She will freak out and won't make this easy on you if you just jump in.”

“You do know who you're talking to, right?” asks a stallion with an oil slick tone.

“How could I forget? Come on. Let me do what I was sent to do. Let me talk to her. Just five minutes.”

“I'll give you two. I have a schedule to keep up.”

There is a moment of silence, but when the door to the stairwell opens, Pinkie Pie steps back again and Spike walks in. He looks surprised at first to see her there, but his surprise melts to a sad smile.

“How are you doing, Pinkie?” he asks.

“Spike, what's going on?” asks Pinkie Pie.

She looks past him, trying to see who he was talking to, but all she sees is a dark void in the stairwell. Spike looks over his shoulder, then sighs deeply as he looks back at her, eyes burdened with sadness and motions her to have a seat. Pinkie Pie shakes her head and takes another step back, and Spike responds by standing still with his hands massaging each other.

“Pinkie... You're dead,” says Spike after seconds of heavy silence.

“What?” cracks Pinkie Pie's voice, her eyes swelling with tears and panic gripping her. She starts hyperventilating and shaking her head. “No... No, I can't be... If this is a joke it is not funny!”

“It's not a joke. You died shortly after Lyra blasted you into the control panel. You tried to give chase, but you just shut down, I guess we can say. You put out too much.”

Pinkie Pie collapses to her haunches, whimpering with tears raining to the floor. She puts her hoof over her mouth, shaking her head and muttering incoherently as the burden of death crushes her heart. Spike walks over to her and sits down in front of her with his hand on her shoulder. Pinkie Pie squeezes her eyes shut and looks down, still shaking her head and mumbling her words.

“Pinkie, look at me,” orders Spike softly.

“I can't be dead. I don't wanna be dead,” sobs Pinkie Pie quietly.

“Please look at me.”

Pinkie Pie looks at Spike, sniffling and eyes poisoned with the red. Spike grabs her cheek with one hand and strokes it with his thumb. Pinkie Pie leans into his hand and puts her hoof on his shoulder while looking into his eyes, begging for him to tell her that this is all just a horrible dream.

“I thought ghosts couldn't cry,” says Pinkie Pie after taking a gulp of air, trying to get herself to smile. “That means I'm still alive, right?”

“Ghosts can cry. Same with angels and deities.” Spike pulls her to him and hugs her tight, eyes closed and clawed hands gently stroking her back, softly saying: “Please, let me take you home.”

Pinkie Pie also closes her eyes and wraps her hooves around him in a hug, trembling and whimpering with her tears wetting his scales. She tries to stay strong, to not cry any more than she already has, but she breaks down. Her sobbing echoes in the room and she tightens her grip on Spike as if he is her last hope of staying alive. Spike gently shushes her and rubs her mane with his claws. It would normally feel good, but the anguish is destroying anything and everything positive that is left.

“I don't want to be dead!” weeps Pinkie Pie.

“I warned you this would happen,” growls Pinkamena spitefully.

Pinkie Pie's eyes snap open and she sees Pinkamena standing in front of her, covered old and new scars, charred skin, and blood with her cheek missing to show the teeth underneath. Pinkie Pie whimpers and tightens her hug on Spike as her evil clone limps forward, seething and crying green tears that burn the ground like acid when they hit.

“I told you you would die but did you listen? No!” yells Pinkamena, her voice darkening the room and sending glowing green vines out from under her hooves. “You never listen to me! I could have saved us if you accepted that Canterlot was supposed to go bye-bye, but no, you just had to play hero!”

“You did the right thing, Pinkie,” whispers Spike without faltering his rub.

“And time is up!” booms the slick stallion.

Pinkie Pie and Pinkamena both look towards the source of the voice, and watch with mixed emotions as an alicorn steps from the void. His coat is black, and his mane is frazzled gray while his wings are like torn bat wings. The cloak he has on is tattered and fluttering with invisible wind, his armor is Gothic in design with red trim and a black base, and swirling around him is a mist made up of innumerable swirling faces. But what Pinkie Pie finds the most terrifying about him is that his eye sockets have no eyes, just pools of the same kind of mist swirling around with the edges bleeding out.

The alicorn steps forward, looking at Pinkamena and Pinkie Pie equally, and smiles, revealing his rotting teeth.

“Two souls in one? I love these!” says the alicorn energetically. Then he points his hoof towards the stairwell and says: “Ladies, if you will please follow me to the Afterlife we'll make this quick for everyone.”

Spike helps Pinkie Pie stand up, and she takes a deep breath and starts following him and the alicorn when-

“Lieutenant! We got a problem!”

Pinkie Pie freezes and looks at the ceiling, then back at Spike.

“Did you hear that?” she asks.

“The voice in the sky? I didn't hear yours, but I had my own when it was doctors trying to stop me from dying.”

Pinkie Pie stops and puts her hoof on Spike's chest to stop him.

“That means there is a chance I could be saved, right?” she asks, desperation in her tone. “That means I'm still alive!”

The alicorn stops and looks at Pinkie Pie, and in turn, Spike glances at him and Pinkie Pie worryingly.

“Is something wrong?” asks the alicorn.

“Nothing's wrong, Charon. She just has the jitters,” claims Spike.

“No, you got a problem. I'm not dead yet!” says Pinkie Pie with a defiant stomp of her hoof.

Charon stares at Pinkie Pie, then at Pinkamena, then he chuckles and paws the ground. The faces in the mist also laugh, like thousands of tormented people laughing because their torturer ordered them to. The room darkens and shakes and Charon steps forward, making the ground rot and Pinkie Pie step back, gulping. The mist around Charon turns crimson and his voice turns into a demonic rumble when he speaks.

“What makes you think you have a choice?” rumbles Charon, his voice shaking the walls.

“Get the medics! We are not losing her!”

Pinkie Pie points to the ceiling, trembling and sweating while Pinkamena and Spike watch her, waiting to see what will happen next.

“That voice up there,” says Pinkie Pie in a quivering voice.

“I am the only voice in here,” growls Charon.

His eyes flash bright right and Pinkie Pie gasps in pain and collapses to the ground, coughing and writhing on the ground as she feels her skin burning, her bones breaking and invisible blades piercing her body. Her eyes snap open and she screams in pain when she feels a particularly brutal pain shatter her back and burn her with electric flame. Soon Pinkie Pie is lying on the ground sobbing, and begging Charon to stop, but the alicorn only snarls and his magic glows brighter. Her heart and brain feel as though they are being crushed by stones as memories of flood through her. From Terra killing Spike, to her explaining her plan to Celestia to use Trixie, and Octavia being beaten to death in front of her and her stabbing Terra in the neck.

“Charon, stop!” yells Spike.

“You do NOT give me demands!” bellows Charon, swinging his hoof in a wide arc to point at Spike. Then he glowers back at Pinkie Pie, who is now crawling on the floor, desperate to reach a bench so she can stand, and he furiously says: “You ARE dead, Pinkamena Diane Pie! Your soul is mine! And where do you think you are going!”

Charon snaps towards Pinkamena and grabs her with red tendrils when she tries to gallop away. Pinkamena swears and thrashes in the air as she is pulled towards him. She screams and swears and bites on the unholy tentacles, but it only encourages Charon to wrap more around her. While this is happening, Spike gets up and grabs Pinkie Pie and looks into her eyes, desperate for her to understand.

“Pinkie Pie, please, just accept you are dead. All this pain will stop if you just accept it!” begs Spike.

“Give her more!”

Pinkie Pie shakes her head, tears running freely down her cheeks and body quivering from pain. “No, I can't... I don't... I can't die... I can't.”

“You already did,” snarls Charon.

A red tendril snaps towards Pinkie Pie and she grabs a bench and holds on as tight as she can when it wraps around her leg and starts pulling. She screams and tightens her grip, straining her muscles to the maximum as she fights to keep herself locked to the bench.

“No! I don't wanna die! I'm not dead!” cries Pinkie Pie.

“You have been a pain in the tail for far too long!” says Charon. “You are dead and that is final!”

“No!”

Pinkie Pie starts to pull against the tentacles, and she screams louder and pulls harder when more wrap around her legs and thigh. She looks over her shoulder, teeth gritting to near breaking point, and watches in horror as Pinkamena is thrown into the darkness of the stiarwell. She scream and flailing body disappear into the void, and Charon snarls and brings the remaining tentacles towards Pinkie Pie.

“Your time is up!” growls Charon.

“Pinkie, just let go!” begs Spike.

“No! I... Will... Not... DIE!”

With another loud, determined scream, Pinkie Pie breaks free of the tentacles and gallops the communications room. Charon yells after Pinkie Pie, as does Spike, and the red tendrils snap towards her, breaking apart everything that stands in their way. Pinkie Pie dodges the snapping tentacles, weaving in and out, jumping over and sliding under, and doing everything in her power to ignore the pain Charon has injected into her. She is panting and sobbing and praying to Celestia that she will let her live, and when she gets to the communications room, she slams the door shut and backpedals until her back bumps against the console. Then she shrinks down, trembling and sobbing.

“She needs more! Inject her again!”

“Please, Celestia, don't let me die,” prays Pinkie Pie.

“But, sir-”

“I am the only god here,” echoes Charon's demonic voice.

“Do it!”

Then the door is obliterated and the tentacles rush inside with Charon watching, wings fully expanded and the mist burning everything around him. The tentacles speed towards Pinkie Pie and she closes her eyes and turns her head away, and-

“Pinkie, can you hear me?” echoes a gentle, yet urgent, voice.

Pinkie Pie groans and slowly opens her eyes. Her world is hazy at first, but after a couple of blinks, she is able to make out a gamboge colored pegasus with a blue mane galloping next to her. She is on a stretcher with a breathing mask over her mouth, and she is covered in bloody bandages and has IVs stuck into her. She feels weightless, but even without the pain she is still in fear because next to the galloping pegasus is Charon, watching her and keeping up with a casual walk. She can't scream or move, all she can do is watch and whimper.

“We have her back!” yells the pegasus with relief, then he looks at Pinkie Pie, saying: “Pinkie Pie, I am Lieutenant Flash Sentry, and we're going to get you out of here, okay?”

The building rumbles and sparks rain down around them. A unicorn soldier swears and puts up a shield around the stretcher, and Pinkie Pie whimpers again as Charon leans over her, his misty eyes boring deep into her soul. Tears roll down her face and she tries fighting her way off of the stretcher when Charon puts his hoof over Flash Sentry's when he puts his hoof on her chest to keep her still.

“You may have cheated me this time, Pinkamena, but no matter how much you will it so, I will claim you,” says Charon, his voice swimming in her brain as well as being on the outside.

“You're going to be okay, Pinkie, I promise!” says Flash Sentry, barking at his soldiers to hurry up right after.

Charon pushes his hoof harder against Pinkie Pie's chest, and her eyes snap wide and she gasps for air as her strapped hooves become more desperate to rise.

“We need more medicine!” yells Flash Sentry.

Charon smiles broadly and his wretched breath burns her nose when he leans over her.

“Enjoy your slumber,” he says maliciously.

Then he disappears in a puff of smoke as soon as a medic injects Pinkie Pie with more morphine in the IV bags, and she closes her eyes and lets her head sink into the uncomfortable pillow, where the darkness takes her once again.