Rainbow Dash looked up at the hulking mass of steel before her, her head slowly rising until she nearly fell over from looking so high. She had seen large buildings before, in Manehattan or even in Canterlot, but this was no building. It was a train.

The rails alone were inconceivably huge- -each one was forty feet wide and nearly fifteen feet tall, spaced over two hundred feet apart. The engine itself spanned the distance and wider, perched on the rails by proportionally large wheels to a train that must have been close to seven hundred feet tall, its industrial walkways and windows making it look more like a ship and the numerous halide lights set in it making it look more like a refinery. Even inactive, the sound it was producing was like distant thunder, and steam would occasionally billow from its sides.

“Have you ever before witnessed a train?” asked Five, who was standing beside Rainbow Dash, also admiring the vehicle.

“I have,” said Rainbow Dash, watching as ponies worked on the train, its size making them look like ants. “But they used to be…a lot smaller…”

“This one was built by Saxon Heavy Industries,” explained Five. “Three million tons of steel and iron with six full-sized nuclear reactors. It takes seventeen individual AI’s to operate it. Her name is Princess of the Night.”

“Wait,” said Rainbow Dash, turning to Five. “You mean like Luna?”

“I imagine,” said Five.

“So they named that thing after Luna?”

“Possibly.”

Rainbow Dash turned back to the locomotive. “I don’t feel like Luna would like the comparison…”

“I believe she would,” said Five. “But I know that we both had proper sets of genitals, I would give that machine my virginity.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Um…okay…” She continued to admire the machine, and tried to wait for the awkwardness of that last statement- -which Five did not seem to be aware of- -to fade.

“It is pretty metal,” said Rainbow Dash.

Without changing her facial expression, Five raised one of her metal-covered hooves. A set of claws popped out, and she brought several of them together, forming four fingers. She lowered the two in the middle and extended the two on the edge.

“No way!” said Rainbow Dash, nearly bursting out laughing. “You’re into metal?”

“Not the modern stuff so much. Too whiny. But the stuff from you’re era, it was reasonable.”

“Pinkie was way into thrash,” said Rainbow Dash, recalling several concerts they had attended together. “But I just loved power metal!”

“There was a chiropteran band…SaBaton?”

“I remember that!” squealed Rainbow Dash. “With the singer who had the Mohawk! I loved them! And what was that one, the one where almost every song was about werewoods?”

“Powerwoad?”

“Oh, yes! Them!”

“I rather do enjoy their material. I even was ‘sanctified with dynamite’ once.”

“That brings back some memories,” said Rainbow Dash. They were good ones, too. She was actually surprised- -and relieved- -to see that she and Five had at least one thing in common.

“What are we talking about?” said Gell, casting a shadow over them. She was wearing a cloak that mostly obscured her demonic features, and carrying a greasy paper bag of something highly odiferous.

“Metal,” said Five.

“Hail Satin!” cried Gell, extending one of her hooves into the sky. Several passersby jumped, terrified, and scurried away. Rainbow Dash was vaguely disturbed by how dexterous the two prongs of Gell’s hooves were; they could separate and point in almost opposite directions. The very idea of a hoof doing that made her shiver.

“Don’t be a poseur,” said Five, nonchalantly. She turned to Rainbow Dash. “She mostly only listens to calypso.”

“It’s true,” said Gell, shrugging. “I like steel drums.”

Gell reached into the greasy bag she was holding and withdrew a pile of something gross, and promptly shoved it into Rainbow Dash’s mouth.

“MMMFF!” she said, feeling something with a horrible texture in her mouth. She swallowed it, though, and nearly vomited. “What was that?”

“Haggis!” said Gell, shoving several pieces of the long, gross substance into her mouth.

“Haggis?” cried Five, jumping back faster than Rainbow Dash had ever seen her move. “I thought I smelled- -get it away from me!”

“Are you sure?” said Gell, dangling the bag, letting the nearly visible smell waft out.

Five promptly vomited. Small crystals scattered all around Rainbow Dash’s feet.

“Is that normal for her?” said Rainbow Dash.

“I…hate…the smell of food,” said Five, her eye sunken and her gray skin looking green. “I can’t- -ooop!” She heaved again, and more crystals- -these red- -came out.

“Fine,” said Gell. She downed the rest of the bag. “Ah! Nothing like haggis truck haggis!”

“What is haggis?” asked Rainbow Dash, herself starting to feel like Five was looking.

“Don’t worry,” said Gell. “I got you the vegetarian kind.”

“How in Equestria do you make vegetarian haggis?” asked Five, dry heaving at the thought.

“Out of vegetarians, I guess.”

“Ohhhh…I feel terrible. Help me pick up these gems…”

Rainbow Dash hesitated, knowing that the gemstones were technically vomit, but recalling that she herself had once had a similar condition after ingesting an Order-saturated apple in the Gloame. She knew that they really were gems, same as the kind that grew in the ground- -and knew how agonizing it was to get one stuck in one’s nose.

They took a few moments to pick up the gems, many of which were still greasy with whatever kind of fluids were inside Five. Then they continued on their way. As they did, Rainbow Dash could not stop herself from flying into the air and looking out at the train in the distance. She could not get over the bigness of everything. The train itself was several miles long, stretching nearly to the horizon, and the stations that lined it were equally as long. Things of all kinds were being loaded onto in scales that dwarfed anything she had ever seen- -lumber, stone, agricultural crops, fluids; she even saw several whole battleships parked on cars in the distance. She could not believe that she was actually going to get to ride that thing.

She looked down at the ponies that were surrounding the train, and easily picked out where Gell and Five were. Rainbow dash performed a large sweep around the engine itself, looking down at the metal and drawing herself through the warmth of the plumes of flames. As she dropped from the sky, she was joined by a pair of red-orange wings, and Philomena fell into formation with her. Below, the pony engineers checking the locomotive looked up, pointing, some waving. One even cheered. Excited, Rainbow Dash decided to give them a bit of a show, and performed some tricks that she was distantly aware she had not performed in four and a half centuries. She slowed her speed and performed several loops so slow that she seemed to fall out of the sky, and Philomena kept her position. The engineers below cheered louder and whistled.

Smiling, Rainbow Dash re-scanned the ground and descended toward where Gell and Five were waiting. She swooped from the sky, momentarily hovering over them before dropping vertically to the pavement below.

“Very impressive,” said Gell. “You are indeed an impressive specimen.”

“Is the prosthetic operating appropriately?” asked Five.

“It sure is!” said Rainbow Dash, waving around her front leg and then her rear one before jumping into the air and nearly kicking a passerby. “It hardly even feels like it’s there! It’s just like my real leg!”

“This is good,” said Five, rather dismissively.

“Yeah! To be honest, I really missed the origional at first, but being a cyberpony is kind of cool! Oh, who am I kidding, being half-robot is awesome!”

“It is actually only your legs and several internal organs,” corrected five.

“You’re saying words…but I hear ‘half’.”

Five sighed. “Come on. If we do not hurry, we’ll miss the train. Or Gell with get distracted by a tripe vender.” Five shuddered.

“What?” said Gell, suddenly paying attention. “Did somepony say tripe?”

“What is ‘tripe’?”

“You would rather not know,” said Gell and Five at the same time. Philomena, who had perched on Rainbow Dash’s back, nodded in agreement.

The started walking across the concrete platform, but Rainbow Dash oddly good. Even though the station was lit only by harsh, white lights and there were all sorts of strange things around her, the world seemed like more of an adventure. She liked the feeling of the cool air, and the fact that even with her injuries- -injuries that would have put her permanently out of commission in her own time- -she was still able to fly, and still could rally a crowd.

“Hey, what’s that!” she said, excitedly. She jumped into the air and flew forward. Ahead of her, something was being loaded onto one of the train cars. Rainbow Dash had seen loading docks before, but these were on such a grand scale, she could not help herself from becoming excited.

As she did, she stopped and, once again, felt her jaw drop. Although it had taken some effort, she had become accustomed to seeing equidroids. Every one of them she had ever seen had been at least approximately the size of a pony, though. The ones she saw working on the docks, however, were at least forty feet tall from hoof to withers, toting heavy cargo on their backs.

The particular cargo they were carrying was also interesting in its own right. Whatever it was, they were large and metal, vaguely shaped like birds, complete with stiff, immobile wings with a translucent window in the front. Rainbow Dash assumed it was some kind of vehicle, and also noted the fact that the giant equidroids had an entire fleet of them to move.

“Oh wow! Look at them all!”

“Indeed,” said Five, approaching from the ground. She did not seem especially excited. Rainbow Dash supposed things like this were mundane for her, which was a shame.

“What are those things?”

“Supersonic jetfighters,” said Five.

“Supersonic what?”

“Flying machines,” said Five, slowing her voice down substantially.

“Those? But, look at them! They’re made of metal! Metal can’t fly!”

“Says the cyborg flying at this very moment.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the machines that the Equidroids were moving. They did, in a way, look like something that might fly. She recognized that the back had several outputs that looked a little like the magical propulsion system Twilight had invented, but there were other parts as well, and she could not see where the hot air bag was supposed to go.

“But…why would ponies need those if we can already fly?”

“Because Pegasi can only carry so much in the way of weaponry. I doubt even you could support a stratobomber for very long in a dogfight. Flightless ponies can fly now, Ms. Dash.”

“So…just anypony can get into one of those things and…fly?” Rainbow Dash did not know what to make of such an idea. She supposed, in some part, that it was a good thing, that now anypony could experience the freedom that had been previously reserved for Pegasi- -but part of it just felt wrong. “Even a unicorn?”

“Not anypony. Soldiers. Airponies. Those are not toys. They are weapons, meant to kill. In fact…”

Five crossed the gap and approached one of the giant equidroids, one that was waiting with a “jetfighter” on its back, waiting for the others to pass it as they loaded theirs on board.

“Excuse me,” said Five as Rainbow Dash landed beside her. The equidroid seemed to notice them. Something on its flank shifted, retracting and revealing a small multi-faceted dome. The dome suddenly illuminated, and bright blue light filled the air in front of five, resolving into a ghostly image of a pony.

“Ghost!” cried Rainbow Dash, jumping behind Gell.

“It is no more than a hologram,” said Five.

“Hello, Five,” said the smiling image of a pony. Its body looked somewhat unnatural, as if its parts were only the exterior surface of a pony, like a basic cartoon image of what one should look like. “How may I help you?”

“Does it…does it know you?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Excuse me,” said hologram, sounding somewhat annoyed and frowning at Rainbow Dash. “I am a female AI. The correct pronoun to use when referring to me is ‘she’. ‘It’ is insulting.”

“Oops,” said Rainbow Dash. “Um, sorry. I didn’t know.”

The AI smiled. “All is forgiven. You simply did not know my gender. And no, I do not know Five. I am reading her personal data from her equipment’s digital signature in an attempt to sound more affable.”

“These planes,” said Five. “Is 616 at war?”

“No,” said the AI. “These planes are for distribution to 21, 789, and the Black-Wing Alliance for their wars with 334/2311/84, the Nerium Consortium, and the Pit-City, respectively.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” said Five.

“Not a problem. Remember, purchase all your warfare supplies from Steelhammer Industrial.”

The hologram dissipated and the mechanical door in the equidroid’s flank re-sealed itself. After several moments, she took her place in line with the others, carrying her jetfighter to be filed onto the traincar with the others.

“War?” said Rainbow Dash, her eyes wideneing. “There’s a war going on?”

“There are always wars occurring,” said Five.

“But doesn’t Celestia- -I mean Thebe- -”

“Thebe protects her own interests. She cares little for the wars of mortals. Also, believe me, you do not want her involved in a war.”

“No survivors sort of thing,” said Gell, her mouth full of something.

“Where did you get that?” said Five, looking up and stepping back.

“You said Tripe, so I got hungry. And the tripe mare was totally into me. Do I have time for a little bit of ‘tripe’ with her?”

“Stop filling my head with unpleasant visions,” said Five. “And don’t breathe on me! Tripe is gross. And no, we don’t.”

“You’re no fun,” muttered Gell, finishing the foul-smelling substance she was eating. “She had the most seductive smile, too…still barely a candle to you, though, my little pony.” She patted Rainbow Dash on the head, which was almost the same size as her hoof. Philomena produced a disproving warble.

“I know, I know,” said Gell. “Annnnnd I’m talking to a bird. You know, I could have conquer this world. So far I have fallen.”

“They would bait a pit-fall with a liver taco and end your reign rapidly,” suggested Five.

“Liver…” said Gell, salivating.

“Do you ever stop eating?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Nope. Eating, sleeping, castration, and amazing sex with amazing mares. That’s the demon way. Well, for a female demon. The males sort of do what we tell them.”

“Train. Not be late. Move now,” said Five, motioning for them to keep on their way. Watching her get agitated was somewhat funny.

“And I get stuck with a whiny teenager…”

Rainbow Dash snorted, covering her mouth as Five glared at her.

Even the boarding of the train was strange. There was a large, flat area set aside from the rest of the station, fenced off and containing several large containers that looked something like ordinary train cars. From what Rainbow Dash gathered, they were meant to be loaded onto the train like any other form of freight- -something that she found somewhat disheartening.

They lined up in the queue with the other ponies, as well as several nonponies ranging from goats to llama to a pair of rugged looking griffons. Rainbow Dash waited impatiently to pass down the line, wanting to go talk to the griffons and see if they had any griffon ale, but finding that the line was packed to tightly for her to move much.

Eventually their turn came at the ticket booth- -an Rainbow Dash was surprised to see that there was nopony there, aside from the armed guards standing next to the gate and a small post with a smooth metal pad next to the set of turnstiles. As they got closer, Rainbow Dash saw that each pony that would approach would put their right hoof over the pad; a light would then change color, and they would pass through.

When it was their turn, Five placed her right hoof over the pad.

“Three and one animal,” she said. The pad seemed to beep in response, and a display near it changed, showing a string of digits that Rainbow Dash cold not read. Then they simply passed through.

“It is so nice to finally arrive at a location that uses bits,” said Five.

“Bits?” said Rainbow Dash, confused, looking back at the ponies passing through the gate. “But there aren’t any bits, they’re just waving their hooves!”

“It’s a chip,” said Five. “Most ponies have it implanted at birth. Obviously, mine is virtual. You have one in your left hoof. I will transfer funds to your account upon reaching our destination.”

“So you just wave your hoof and it just takes the bits out with what, magic?”

“No. It’s just a digital transfer.”

“And,” said Rainbow Dash as they stepped onto the ramp of one of the more dilapidated containers, “um…just how many bits do you have in there?”

“Don’t be rude,” said Gell.

“About sixty million,” said Five.

“Sixty million bits?!” cried Rainbow Dash, causing several onlookers to stare at them.

“Great,” said Gell. “Now we’re going to be robbed again…”

“Sorry,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, don’t be. The last one who tried had an excellent pair.”

“But you are loaded! And you live like this? How did you even get that man bits?!”

“I had cholera. Twice.”

It took Rainbow Dash a moment to process what she was saying. Then she understood. “Ohhhh,” she said. Then, realizing the implication, “eeeewww…”

“Some mercenary jobs also pay a lot. And I tend to steal things.”

“But- -stealing is bad!”

“I’m too tired for my ‘moral relativism’ rant,” said Five, pointing to a bank of chairs. The inside of the train car smelled strange, and the seats were ragged and stained. They were arranged against the walls, with a pair of cloth-like benches facing each other with a small table in the center.

Gell motioned for Rainbow Dash to enter first, which she accepted because it gave her the window seat. Five sat across from Rainbow Dash. Gell sat on the floor in a slot where a chair had been removed, which was probably the reason Five had picked that particular spot.

“Nothing is designed to the right size,” complained Gell.

“Tell me about it,” said a voice with a thick Galloway accent from the seats on the other side of the train. “And say, are you a Rainbow Dash impersonator?”

“You might say that,” said Rainbow Dash, leaning forward to look past Gell at the speaker- -and once again feeling her jaw drop open.

“I’ve always been a fan of Third Era followers,” said the owner of the voice, who Rainbow Dash now saw was, of all things, an owl. He was wearing glasses and had a hologram of something like a newspaper projected in front of him. He deactivated the hologram and folded his reading glasses neatly with his wing. “Perhaps I could get a picture?”

“Ow…ow…owl,” muttered Rainbow Dash.

“Sure,” said Gell. She picked up Rainbow Dash and set her in the isle. The owl fluttered into the air, perching on the top of his seat. A small sphere projected from a band around one of his legs, and floated out before him, snapping a picture and returning to him.

“Thank you, dearie,” he said. “My colleges will be most jealous! And might I say, what a lovely phoenix.” He bowed toward Philomena, who had seated herself on the table between Rainbow Dash and Five’s seats. The bird raised her wing to her face, and seemed to blush.

“Owl…owl…owl,” mumbled Rainbow Dash as Gell picked her up and returned her to her seat. The owl bowed to them and returned to the far side of his seat, near the window, and opened his holographic newspaper. After a few moments, a pony approached and, as though nothing were unusual, asked him if the seat across from him was taken and then, at the owl’s friendly response, sat down.

“We should have charged,” said Five, only half serious.

“That was...that was an owl,” whispered Rainbow Dash. “They can…since when can they talk?”

“Since about three centuries ago,” said Five. “An uplift experiment by Thebe, or somesuch. They actually have, in Unst, a rather impressive capital city.”

“But they’re owls,” said Rainbow Dash. Her mind was still not fully able to comprehend what she was being told, that something once considered a pet had now become equivalent to a pony. “Owls.”

“And you are a small horse,” noted Gell. “You evolved from ponies, him from birds, me from…mold?” Five nodded. “Doesn’t matter much, though.”

“It’s just…weird,” said Rainbow Dash. Her happiness, for some reason, was beginning to fade. She needed to change the subject. “So, um, where exactly are we going?”

“Megatropolis 616,” said Five. “Again.”

“An hates cities,” said Gell.

“I do not dislike cities. I simply detest their populations.”

“The name just doesn’t sound right…” said Rainbow Dash. “But why are we going there?”

“I am curious as well,” said Gell.

“616 is the most stable of the Megatropoli, and one of the largest. We are going there so that you might witness the Equestria History Museum.”

“A museum?” sighed Rainbow Dash, thoroughly disappointed. She slouched back in her seat. “Five, I’m Rainbow Dash, not Twilight.”

“I don’t care. The reason is because said museum contains a permanent exhibit to the Six.”

“You mean…” said Rainbow Dash, sitting up. “A museum about me?”

“And your friends, yes,” said Five. “As a group, you have a whole floor. It will be easier for you to learn the past that way than for me to explain it all. Perhaps this will help alleviate your depression.”

“I’m not depressed,” said Rainbow Dash, defensively.

“Of course. Sure. Also, you shall see.”

“See…what?”

“What the world has truly become in your absence.”

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash. For some reason, she suddenly felt afraid, and she felt a desperate urge to fly. When she was flying, she could escape the feelings of dread and see a world that was new and strange and wonderful- -but then the feelings would always come back: memories of the world she had lost. In that museum, she would be forced to face that which was crushing her from within, and the thought nearly made her panic. “I- -I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet…”

“Too bad.” Five’s eyes narrowed. “And don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying!”

“Yes, you are. This whole time you have wondered. You desire to see so much. Every second you think of it, wondering where they went, what they did. Perhaps if their lives ended badly?”

“Stop reading my mind!” shouted Rainbow Dash, causing the pony and owl across the car from them to glare at her.

“I’m not,” said Five, calmly. “For some reason, I can’t. I just know these things. Though I may look young and fresh, I am old enough to be your grandmother. Well, perhaps not your grandmother, but a grandmother. I have lived a long time, and the other one has lived longer. I see these things, even if I do not understand them.”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “Granny Five…maybe. Can you at least give me a hint?”

Five paused for a moment. “No,” she finally said.

Leaning against the rail of the battleship, Five looked through the scope of her rifle. Although they were moving at nearly supersonic speeds, she sighted her targets as they passed: diamond dogs, pony workers, and deer. The claw on her left hoof pulled the trigger rapidly, and there was a brief moment where she could see the laser burn into them before the train passed them by.

“Ooo,” said Gell, who was standing beside her. “Right in the plot!”

Five twisted slightly and managed to hit both of a pair of does that were watching the train pass. They jumped in pain, not understanding why their flesh was burning. Five had decreased the power of the laser component of her rifle- -the wounds it inflicted would be painful, perhaps leaving scars, but they were hardly dangerous.

“Why are you out here, Gell?” asked Five. Although it was difficult for the two to hear each other over the rushing of the air over the ship’s deck, Gell had once again allowed their minds to link, allowing them to hear each other’s words clearly.

“What are you doing out here? Aside from sniper practice?”

“You know why: that owl opened up a cup of yogurt. ‘But it’s plain’ he says. It still stinks! Like rot and death! But you did not need to accompany me.”

“Anhelios,” said Gell, her eyes narrowing. Five cringed at hearing that name. “What are you up to?”

Five sniped one last diamond dog, and then lifted her rifle, lowering the scope and retracting the barrel. She turned around and faced Gell. “What do you mean?”

“Taking her to the museum? In 616? An, you’ve never taken one altruistic action in your life. Why are you doing this?”

Five sat down against the rail, replacing her fully compacted rifle into the holster under her wing. She raised one of her gauntlets and projected a hologram, displaying an advertisement. She passed the floating construct to Gell.

“Come see the Mane Six in person,” read Gell. “Now you too can meat Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle in stunning hard-light construct, exhibit at the Equestria History Museum, blah blah blah…”

“Meet, not ‘meat’,” corrected Five.

“What is this?” said Gell, driving her hoof through the hologram, trying futilely to flick it back to Five. “I mean, I know you’re a history nerd, but holo-simulation? Really?”

“I have no need to meet them,” said Five, retracting the hologram back to her gauntlet and dissipating it. “I already have, back when I was Luna.”

“Then why bother?”

“Because of what allows such an exhibit to exist,” said Five. “I have researched this greatly. The exhibit operates with coded personality simulations. They are said to be the most advanced in Equestria- -it is claimed that Thebe herself assisted with the design.”

“Still not getting it.”

Five sighed. “It’s for the weapon,” she said. “The skulls alone are just bone, unless I fail to perceive a Choggoth in your pocket. I cannot get them to activate, not without something almost identical to their original users.”

“Explains why you kept Dashie alive.” She frowned. “So you’re trying to steal this…core, thing?”

“The personalities contained are exact replicas of the Six, or nearly so. I am attempting to recreate their bodies synthetically to access data contained within the skulls to act as an analogue to the original Harmony matrix- -”

“Yes, or no?”

“Yes.”

“Then count me out. You know how bad I do with the whole ‘heist’ thing. But what about Dashie?”

Five unfolded her rifle again and took up her position on the side of the train. “Let her go to the museum. Let her see how her friends died. Let her loyalty to them die as well, and fall to me instead.”

Rainbow Dash stumbled into the bathroom and barely made it over the toilet before the vomit started pouring out of her. It did not come out like it did with Five. No gemstones or crystals came out; instead, just torrents of yellow-black fluid twinged with blood.

When she had finished, she took another swig from the bottle in her left hoof, feeling the burning and foul tasting drink pour down her throat. Things had been going so well at first, but then they had started to change. As she had watched the landscape go by at such high speed, the others had stopped talking. As soon as the pony and the owl in the neighboring seats had opened their lunches, Five had looked deathly ill and stormed off, joined by Gell, leaving Rainbow Dash alone.

That was when she had started to think. The thinking was agony. The world around her was so different: the massive train, her robotic limbs, and even the owls. She did not understand any of it; it was as though her whole life, all the effort she had placed into everything she had ever done, had been wiped away. She had been shoved into a new world that she did not understand, and the more she had thought about her situation the less it looked like an adventure and the more it seemed like an inescapable torment.

Everything hurt, not physically, but mentally, as though the universe were trying to squeeze her out of existence- -and she could not blame it. She did not belong. Every second, she expected to turn around, to see Pinkie Pie smiling, or Fluttershy standing at her side- -but every time there was nothing there.

She took another long swig from the bottle. She had bought it from the dining area from the goat bartender using several of Five’s gems. The goat had been reluctant, but had eventually accepted the currency- -and given Rainbow Dash a whole bottle. She needed it, though, and would probably need more. The burning liquid made the voices in her head slow down, and it numbed the memories that she had somehow once considered to be happy but that now brought her nothing but pain.

Slowly, she stood up and looked in the mirror. She looked so tired and so pale, like a corpse- -which she supposed she was: a corpse that had somehow failed to die properly. She wiped the vomit away from her mouth and took another long swig of whatever bitter alcohol the goat had given her. She missed her cloud gin, her house, her bed, her friends, her tortoise, and she hated the world around her with its sterile and overcomplicated machinery. Mostly, she just hated Five for having not let her die in a bloody heap at the end of that empty airship runway.

For a long moment, she peered into the mirror, seeing the bathroom stalls reflected behind her. Then something caught her eye. She leaned closer, looking into one of her eyes, and wondered why the back of her pupil seemed to be filled with golden flecks.

As she shifted, she saw a pony standing behind her, his face reflecting so close to hers. She jumped and turned around, not in the mood to be dealing with a weirdo with anything except a full-blown hoof-fight, but saw nopony.

She looked around, then at the bottle. “This ith good stuff,” she muttered, and then tried to down the rest of it. She would go to museum. She would see what became of the life that was rightfully hers, and her friend’s. She owed at least that much to them.

Then, she decided, she would join them.