The air of the museum had suddenly felt so tight, and so restrictive. Rainbow Dash had been unable to take it, and had raced out as quickly as she could. As she was leaving, the lights suddenly dimmed and all the Curators froze, but she did not even care. She had just cried in public, making a fool of herself- -if she still had a reputation, she had surely ruined it, and that had caused her sadness to be replaced with anger.

So she had run outside, into the city, and now found herself in the middle of the circular courtyard that the museum and its associated buildings produced. Above her loomed the edges of the much taller buildings that made up 616, forming a tube of empty space hundreds of feet high toward a smoggy sky that had still more buildings on the far side, facing downward from above, their lights glimmering through the perpetual darkness.

At the very least, she was able to fly, to feel her wings pumping in the hardly-fresh air as she moved over the miles of sooty, anemic trees that had been planted in the massive courtyard. As she moved, though, something large appeared in the center of the courtyard.

As she approached, she realized what she was seeing. In the center of the courtyard was a monument, consisting of four platforms, each with a statue atop it. The statues themselves were immense, standing at least seventy feet tall. More impressive, though, was the detail that they rendered their subjects: subjects that Rainbow Dash easily recognized.

The four statues were representations of the four Princesses, the only four alicorns ever to live, aside from Thebe. The two largest were to Luna and Celestia, standing across from each other, Celestia seeming to smile fondly over the land while Luna looked down sternly. To one side of them, on Celestia’s right and Luna’s left, was a slightly smaller statue of Cadence, the Princess of Love. Across from Cadence was an equally sized statue of Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.

Rainbow Dash landed and walked over the pavers that made up the floor of the monument, past the white-lit fountains at the base of each concrete statue, staring up at them in awe. This monument seemed to be the center of the park, its core- -and it was certainly massive. Rainbow Dash had never seen a Celestia so big.

When she looked at the giant Twilight smiling down on her, she broke into weak laughter.

“Twilight,” she said, “you’re huge!” It was funny, and yet somehow Rainbow Dash still had to wipe away tears from her eyes. “I knew alicorns got tall, but this is ridiculous…”

As she approached the Twilight statue, she realized that Twilight was not alone. At her base stood five other smaller statues, each one easily recognizable to Rainbow Dash. They were larger-than-life representations of her and her friends, standing beside Twilight even in death.

They were pretty good, too. Rainbow Dash immediately looked to her own statue- -it was the only one that made her happy instead of sad- -and saw that they had captured her spirit well in concrete, even if her hair looked strange. She could not help but look at the others, though. More than anything, she wished that they could just be alive. That she would not be alone.

Rainbow Dash stared at them for a long while, lost in thought. She did not know how much time passed before she heard a voice beside her.

“You look just like her, you know.”

She turned to see a pony standing to her right, dressed completely in thick robes. He stepped forward and placed a single flower on the altar beneath the statues, specifically below that of Rarity.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” said Rainbow Dash. “But I am her.”

“Careful,” snapped the cloaked figure. “Do not disrespect the dead, child.”

Rainbow Dash smiled. The idea of disrespecting herself was not really funny, but she could not help but find it amusing. “I remember…I remember one time, me and Applejack dared each other to go into the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Stop talking,” growled the pony beside her.

“So we went in…but what we didn’t know was that all the others were there, too.” She chuckled. “We thought we were getting followed by ghosts, but it was just Fluttershy and Rariy. And then Pinkie Pie on the organ, and Twilight was oblivious through the whole thing, just reading.” Rainbow Dash was smiling, but she felt herself crying at the same time. “And then we found out we were all there. Fluttershy crying over what she thought was Angel, and Rarity talking to the castle, and me and Applejack scared out of our wits. Well, mostly Applejack. I wasn’t there.”

“That story is public knowledge,” said the pony beside her.

“I wonder if Rarity ever finished that wall-art she was trying to sew.”

“Wall art?”

“Yeah. Something with Luna on it. I mean, I guess she wanted to do the whole place, but she never had time, I guess. Spike even brought her some of the big pieces for her birthday one time. I don’t know how the little guy got them down, but…he really loved her, I think.”

The pony looked at Rainbow Dash, and for a moment Rainbow Dash saw the glint of one overly large golden eye implanted in one of his eye sockets. “You really are her,” he said in awe. He pulled back his hood.

“Y- -you!” said Rainbow Dash, suddenly recognizing him. He was the pony that had been in all the pictures with rarity, the purple and green one. “But that’s impossible,” she said. “You- -you haven’t aged!”

“I don’t age,” he said.

“Who- -who are you?”

“Who am I?” he asked, smiling. “You don’t remember? I was there that day, Rainbow.”

He took a deep breath, and blew outward. As he did, a thin stream of green fire slid from his mouth. It wrapped itself around him, igniting him. Rainbow Dash panicked as she watched him burn, but for some reason he only smiled.

Then he shifted. His body seemed to expand, and he reared up on his hind legs. Within seconds, he was far taller than Rainbow Dash, and his hooves had become claws. As the fire faded, Rainbow Dash looked up into the face of a dragon.

“Sp- -Spike?” she said in disbelief.

“Rainbow Dash,” he said, dropping to one knee to be closer to her level. Even at that height, his head was still substantially higher than hers. As he moved, his robes parted slightly, and Rainbow Dash could see that he was wearing some kind of armor beneath them. “How are you here?”

“How am I here- -how are you here? And related note, you and Rarity?”

“I’m a dragon,” said Spike, smiling. “We can sleep for five millennia and hardly even notice. Actually, I once slept for an entire year- -Scorpan thought it would be a funny prank to not wake me up.” He looked down at her more closely. “But you…you died. I saw it. We all saw it.”

“But I didn’t!” said Rainbow Dash, smiling uncontrollably. For once, she was not alone. “I did some sort of time-jump thing. I don’t fully understand it myself, but…Spike! You’re so big!”

“I am,” he said, smiling. “And look.” The back of his robe shifted, and a pair of immense leathery wings burst outward. “I have wings now, too.”

“So. Cool. I bet I can beat you in a race, though!”

“You probably can. I’m actually a terrible flyer.”

“That’s just because you need more practice. Don’t worry, when I’m done, you’ll be flying almost as fast as me!”

“Rainbow Dash,” said Spike, frowning.

“I mean, with wings that big…but don’t worry. If I can trail Scootaloo, I can train you too!”

“Rainbow…”

“But, I mean, really…Spike!” She wondered how she could have forgotten. She had always just seen Spike as roughly the equivalent of Twilight’s kid brother, but in retrospect, it made sense- -Spike was a dragon, and inherently immortal. That thought in itself was surprisingly tragic, though- -because it meant that the whole time, on some level, he must have known that he would outlast them all. “And that pony form- -how did you do that?”

“Magic,” said Spike. “And a great deal of practice.”

“With Rarity, right?”

Spike blushed. “Well, it wouldn’t do for her to be seen with a dragon, especially me…not in public, anyway.”

“But that was centuries ago,” said Rainbow Dash. “What have you been doing all this time?”

“Oh, not much. Rebuilding an empire, teaching the next generation the ancient ways, trying my best to keep Thebe from burning up the whole place. But Rainbow. Listen. There is a reason why I am here.”

“What? Actually, how did you even find me? Or do you come here a lot? I mean, for her…”

Spike smiled. “I do. Because I loved her. I still love her. But not this time. This time I came here for you.”

“Me? Spike, I mean, you’re pretty handsome as a big dragon, but I’m not actually that into…”

She trailed off as Spike reached his claws behind his golden eye and plucked it out. The delicate mechanical iris in it immediately closed. Rainbow Dash shuddered at how deep it went, and how there was nothing behind it but an empty, black eye socket. “Do you know what this is?”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, nodding. “Lord Goldmist’s eye. He gave it to Crimsonflame during the First Choggoth…” Her eyes widened. “What am I saying that?” She stepped backward. “I- -I don’t know who that is! Why do I know that?”

“I don’t know,” said Spike. “But Crimsonflame was…well, she taught me a lot of things. About who I am, and what we are. She told me that this was a gift from a madpony who died long ago to save the Draconian people from destruction.”

“And you…you wear it?”

“I have to. Because it sees. Not what I’m looking at, but other things. So many things in so many places. But recently, it has seen only one thing.”

“What?”

“You.”

“Me? Why me?”

“I don’t know, but it hurts. And…I think it’s been talking to me.”

“How can an eye talk to you?”

“In my sleep. I hear it. And believe me, I’ve seen way stranger things.” He replaced his golden eye into his skull, and winced as it reconnected. He blinked. “Rainbow Dash…are you crying?”

“No,” lied Rainbow Dash, wiping away her face with her cold robotic hoof. “I am just surprised is all. I thought I was…alone.”

She felt a weight lifted from her back, and Spike stretched out a surprisingly long claw, which Philomena landed on.

“Philomena?” he said in disbelief. The bird nodded solemnly. “It’s really you.” He smiled. “Then you are not alone, Rainbow. For the longest time, I thought I was the last…but today I found two. I guess that makes today a pretty good day.”

Spike stood up, and looked around at the monuments that surrounded him. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight with her friends, cast in high-grade concrete, stained by the acidic precipitation that condensed from the upper levels and fell onto the park. He had been to this park many times, especially since Rarity had gone, but most of the time he had only looked toward her image- -and now, for what he realized was the first time, he finally paid attention to the others.

Suddenly he felt something against his legs. He looked down to see Rainbow Dash hugging him.

“A bit sappy, don’t you think?”

“You’re an armored dragon knight and I’m a cyborg. Shut up, because this might be the only hug adequately awesome for me to be seen in public doing.”

“Fine,” said Spike, Returning the hug as carefully as he could without impaling her on his claws. They were still a relatively new addition to his ever-changing body, and he had still not grown fully accustomed to them. As he did, he felt Rainbow Dash’s gold-covered leg around him, and realized it was squeezing hard enough to crush a pony.

“Rainbow Dash,” he said, releasing her, “is that a cybernetic arm?”

“What, this?” said Rainbow Dash, looking down at her golden leg. “Yeah…I kind of wiped out pretty hard. As in, it was epic. Lot my arm and leg. Now I’m a cyborg.”

“Really,” said Spike. He had initially thought that they were just some kind of surface armor for her to look futuristic, but looking closer, he recognized them as a rather high-end set that had been produced by the company that he had co-commanded with his wife for close to two decades. This surprised him almost as much as it was heartbreaking to see his friend with her body broken, replaced with technology that she likely only barely understood, especially when he knew several dragons that could have healed the wound more than adequately if they had caught it early enough. “Then ponies are more altruistic than I thought,” he said slowly. “They just gave you an arm and a leg? Because a pair like that would cost…”

“An arm and a leg?”

They could not help but both laugh. Even Philomena let out a loud caw that Spike assumed was laughter. “Indeed!” he said. “And I really doubt that you brought much money with you.”

“Yeah. I was really lucky. I think I would have died if Five hadn’t picked me up.”

“Five?” said Spike. “That’s a weird name for a pony.”

“I know,” said Rainbow Dash. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not her real name. What was it? Oh! Anhelios!”

Spike’s whole body stiffened. His biological eye narrowed. “What did you just say?”

“I don’t know if I pronounced it right. An-helios? An-eelios? Something like that. Gell just calls her An- -hey, now that I think about it, Gell is almost as old as you are! Oh, wow, you are old, Spike…”

“Rainbow Dash,” said Spike, sternly. “You don’t mean Anhelios V, do you?”

“Yeah. Anhelios Five.” She seemed to realize that something was wrong. “Why? Do you know her?”

“Of course I do,” said Spike rapidly, scanning the surrounding area. He once again knelt near Rainbow Dash. “Listen to me! If you are around her, you are in grave danger!”

“She seemed nice- -”

“She is a murderer,” said Spike, “and insane. Her entire bloodline is sick- -I don’t know what she’s told you, but don’t trust her, and don’t believe a thing she has told you!”

“Spike, what’s wrong with you?”

“I agree,” said a voice from behind Rainbow Dash. Spike looked up to see an smiling, blue-eyed and blue haired bat pony sauntering out of the shadows, a strange glassy-eyed equidroid at her side, staring up at the statues around itself in awe. “Grand Magus, how could you say such terrible things about me?”

She shifted positions quickly, drawing a pistol from beneath her wing. Spike reacted defensively, drawing up his wings around Rainbow Dash and himself. As he did, he felt his protection spell suddenly backfire painfully, singing him internally, and a unicorn-horn bullet pierce his wing and rebound off his armor.

“Especially since it is you and not I who is complacent with the rule of a tyrant?”

Spike stood up, retracting his wings. As he removed them from around Rainbow Dash, the hole in his wing began to combust, the magic flames repairing the whole instead of enhancing it.

“So says the pony who fought on the front lines during her war,” he said, fire and smoke pouring from his lips and resolving into a staff.

Anhelios’s eyes narrowed, and the smile vanished from her face. “That was not me,” she said through her pointed, gritted teeth- -teeth almost identical to those that the false-pony D27 had worn centuries ago. “But, I suppose you are right. I do not mind working for Thebe. Or any other tyrant. Tyranny does not bother me. I respect no political spectrum.”

“Spike?” said the equidroid beside Anhelios, suddenly seeming rather exited. “Spikey Wikey, is that you?”

Spike’s blood ran cold, and then began to boil within him. He knew that voice, and he knew the pony it belonged to. He gripped his staff tightly, almost hard enough to crush the metal and crystal structure that made up its exterior. “How dare you speak to me in that voice?” he whispered, raising the staff.

“Spike, what’s wrong?” said Rainbow Dash, looking toward him.

“Ghosts,” said Anhelios, once again smiling. She was still holding her pistol, but now it was no longer pointed at Spike. Instead, it was pointed directly at the back of Rainbow Dash’s head.

From out of nowhere, a shape appeared around Rainbow Dash, enclosing around her.

“Hey!” she cried. Spike was just as confused- -from the look of it, it appeared that Rainbow Dash was being surrounded by a spell, and for a moment, he believed that Anhelios was doing it, even though logically he knew that she, like the other five of her kind, were only able to use a limited form of Order magic that could not perform such spells. At the same time, he sensed no magic at all coming from the construct.

“Don’t want you getting hurt, now, Rainbow,” said the equidroid, now in Twilight’s voice, a voice that Spike had not heard in three hundred years. As she said it, Rainbow Dash was pulled back to Anhelios and the equidroid, and joined by Philomena, who landed on the equidroid’s head. “Hello Philomena,” it said.

“What the hay are you supposed to be?” demanded Rainbow Dash.

“Calm down,” said Anhelios. “I can explain that. Also, I might.”

“Anhelios!” roared Spike, a small burst of fire coming from his mouth.

“That is not my name!” she snapped back.

“I don’t care if your name is Butthurt the Magnificent,” said Spike. “What are you doing with her? Let her go!”

“No,” said Anhelios.

“I could turn you into a newt!”

“And I could detonate the six hundred individual bombs that have been placed in this city.”

“You don’t have any bombs, Anhelios.”

“That is not my NAME!” She took a deep breath. “Not. My name. I am Five. That isn’t even a name I guess…but the question is, do you want to take the risk?”

“There is no risk.”

“Isn’t there?” She smiled. “You seem to know me, dragon. Or has living up in that ivory tower of yours dulled your senses that badly?”

Spike paused, but knew that she was right. Much to his chagrin, he was forced to lower his staff. He did not know the Fifth Anhelios at all, and had only been distantly aware of the Fourth- -but if they were anything like the First, any of them were cruel and dangerous enough to bomb a city of innocents.

“Fine,” he said, allowing his staff to ignite and return to the trans-dimensional space where it normally resided. “Fine…but two things.” He raised two claws. “First, this is not over. Rainbow Dash is my friend. I won’t let you hurt her.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, clearly lying.

“She isn’t going to hurt me, Spike,” said Rainbow Dash, fluttering her way out of the non-magic spell that had pulled her backward. “I mean, come on. I think we can talk this out- -”

“Two,” said Spike, raising a second claw. “Something is happening. Something bad.”

“Something is always happening,” said Anhelios, dismissively.

“No. This is different. Something has come through. A monster. Check for yourself. The changelings have already nearly been wiped out.”

“Thebe handles cosmic threats. Not me.”

“Really? Then ask Rainbow Dash about Nil. War is coming, Anehlios, and I will fight for Equestria, beside that monster Thebe if I have to.”

“So what?”

“You are the Guardian of Order…or were. You may need to remember that.”

Surpisingly, Anhelios smiled, but in a way that was different from before. This time, it was not a sadistic or mad smile, but one that seemed horribly pained. “Do you think I ever forget?”