“Are you sure this is the correct locale?” asked Five, shaking her wings slightly. Unfortunately, she had no feathers, and she detested the cold. Her frostbite had completely healed, and the forest she had been brought to was not nearly as bad as the Crystal Empire- -but she disliked it nonetheless.

“Would ah lie?” said Proctor_Jack, his voice projected from one of several of the decrepit surrogate bodies he had managed to piece together and link to his central core body.

“Don’t do that,” said Gell to the primary body. She was sitting in the corner of the church. Five was oddly surprised that being on hallowed ground had not caused her to combust. Of course, Gell would probably have enjoyed that- -and all hallowing of the ground had surely ended when the worshiped god had died.

“Trust me, darling,” said Proctor_Rarity through a heavy, churning body that looked more like a rotted piece of construction equipment than an equidroid. There was even a tree growing out of it. “These bodies are simply dreadful.”

“Yes, but do not lose them,” snapped Five. “Those parts are worth money.”

“Technically, my primary body is worth more than all of your worldly possessions,” noted Twilight_Proctor.

“Then I shall scrap you- -after you do what you’re supposed to.” Five exhaled slowly, putting her metallic claw to her forehead. Five, as a rule, did not like ponies. She only barely tolerated Gell, and Brown was adequately pliable for her to consider more of a pet than a pony- -but Rainbow Dash and Proctor were annoying. If Five had a choice, she would be alone with Philomena. “Just answer the question,” she said. “You believe the grave of Fluttershy is out here?”

“Oh yes,” said Proctor_Shy. Then, switching to Twilight_Proctor: “This church and the associated town- -now defunct- -were constructed by an order of ahuizotl known as ‘the Light’. They were the last to report a yellow coated, pink-haired Pegasus dwelling for an extended period around this area. We are also within one hundred miles of the location where Twilight Sparkle- -me- -Rarity- -”

“Also me,” said Proctor_Rarity.

“And myeslef,” said Proctor_Shy, “had our last argument.”

“So you think she died here?”

“Well, not here,” noted Pinkie_Proctor. “Although that would save us a lot of trouble. And her, considering we’re in a church and they could just drop her in a hole outside. Or eat her. She always was so tender.”

“Um…I think you might be getting Pinkie’s personality a bit…off,” noted Five.

“Well, my processor took more damage than ah cat in ah hailstorm,” noted Proctor_Jack.

“However,” interrupted Twilight_Proctor. “Fluttershy most likely met her final demise near here. Thirty three percent chance of suicide, sixty two percent chance of death by exposure, four percent chance of getting shot by an ahuizotl. I’ve given this a lot of thought. On the bright side, though, it is unlikely that her corpse was torn apart by ravenous scavengers…oh. I just made myself sad.”

Five did not bother to point out that there was a missing one percent- -or that a machine could not technically feel “sad”. She herself had never been fond of Fluttershy. In her studies of the Six, she had always wondered why Fluttershy had never gotten herself killed. She was, after all, the team weakling.

“Am I going to have to go out there?” whined Gell. “I’m tired. And hungry.”

“What happened to all those crackers?”

“I ate them. Come on An, keep up.”

“Stop calling me ‘An’!”

“Yeah,” said Pinkie_Proctor. “She’s not a small ceremonial table!”

They both stared at the machine, and it seemed to glare back at them. Five realized that it was weird that Proctor never, ever blinked.

“Annnyway…” said Proctor_Dash, probably unaware of the pun, “you don’t have to search for them at all.” He summoned the various makeshift flying drones he had constructed, allowing them to hover into the air. “I can search remotely at a range up to fifty miles. I’ll have this done so fast you’ll hardly even know I started.”

“I actually rather dislike it when that happens,” noted Gell.

“Why not more radius?” asked Five.

“Because ponies would see a much larger signal,” said Twilight_Proctor. “This area is very secluded, but not invisible. My reactor is damaged, as are my projectors. If we get attacked, I will not be useful for defense.”

“We were fine without you, we will continue to persist in our fineness.”

“And where are Dashie and Brown?” asked Gell. Her eyes widened and she sat up suddenly, nearly tipping over the idol that she was leaning against. “Don’t tell me they’re getting it on right now!”

“Eew- -Gell,” said Five, nearly shouting. “Do not say things I cannot un-imagine!”

“I dunno,” said Proctor_Jack. “It kahnd of turns me on.”

“But no,” said Proctor_Rarity, sounding somewhat disgusted. “I sent them out to ‘search’ the area. And, in case you are not aware, Rainbow Dash is a lespony. I’ve checked- -or, rather, Rarity checked.”

“And,” said Pinkie_Proctor. “This would be a great time to…you know…‘hash the Dash’ if you know what I mean.”

“Wait a second,” said Gell, now standing. “You are not seriously talking about murdering Dashie right now- -in front of me, her future lespony lover?”

“Maybe…”

“I thought you were unable to murder?”

“I’ve been working on the morality codes in the cube,” said Pinkie_Proctor. “I’ve been getting through some backdoors in Pinkie Pie…”

Proctor_Dash snorted.

“…and I may have overcome the Six’s aversion to violence! Yay me!”

“Congratulations on breaking the First Law of Robotics,” said Five, halfheartedly. “But leave her alive. If I lose her, I lose Brown.” Brown, Five knew, was not ready for disposal yet. That time would come soon.

“Okie dokie lokai!”

Five hated that phrase. As much as she was not aware how Fluttershy had survived, she was not sure how the other five had not murdered Pinkie Pie. In fact, Five realized, Pinkie’s spastic personality may have precipitated her actual murder.

“And you?” said Gell.

“I have work to do,” said Five. “I need to streamline the main reactor. At present, it consumes far too much energon for practical use.”

“Right,” said Gell. She sat back down, taking the wooden idol under her arm. “I’ll just be here with my new coltfriend.”

Five pulled open the door to the Pocket as Proctor pranced out the door- -all eight of him, plus his drones. Gell was starting to spoon the statue, apparently unable to resist the urge to commit blasphemy when inside a church.

For a moment, Five considered taking Proctor up on his offer. She just knew that allowing Rainbow Dash to live would come back to haunt her- -but she chose not to act on that impulse. So much more needed to be done- -but she could tell that everything was starting to fall into place.