The forest was dark and cold. Of those two aspects, Five only liked the darkness. The cold, although not deep enough to freeze her solid, was still uncomfortable. Even with the thin coat she wore, she still felt the chill of the occasional humid forest wind.

She passed quickly through the forest, her short featherless wings propelling her in a series of long leaps. The trees passed around her, their tall and perfectly straight bodies looming above her in the eternal darkness, and occasionally she would see distant things moving in the darkness. Nothing of consequence, of course, but they were still unnerving.

After a moment of consideration, she slowed and perched on a large fragment of stone. The blue holographic cube that followed her slowed and positioned itself above her, its blue-green light illuminating the area immediately around her. Unfortunately- -and for unknown reasons- -she had not inherited her people’s ability to see in the dark.

“Hold on!” called Rainbow Dash from behind.

“You are Rainbow Dash,” said Five, checking a holographic projection of a map of the area and clicking at it with a metal claw. “Is not fast motion related to your special talent?”

“I’m sore,” she whined, climbing up a nearby rock. “Really, really sore.”

“Well, that’s what you get for violating my clone.”

“Nopony was ‘violated’!” cried Rainbow Dash, clearly annoyed by the implication. “We’re both adults. We can do…that sort of thing…if we want to!”

“Except that Brown is barely over a week old.” Five looked down and saw the expression of understanding slowly cross over Rainbow Dash’s face.

“Sweet Celestia!” gasped Rainbow Dash, clapping her hooves over her mouth. “You’re right! I’m a pedophilly!”

“Yes you are. Now wallow in shame, pedophilly.”

Rainbow Dash looked up angrily. “You- -are you joking?”

“At this temperature, I don’t even know anymore.” She closed the map and jumped down from the rock. Rainbow Dash followed, her steps awkward and slow. Flying, of course, was out of the question. Rainbow Dash’s wings had been thoroughly cramped from being held erect for far too long.

“Celestia’s flight feathers…I can hardly walk.”

“How do you think the other feels?” asked Five. “He can’t even stand.”

Reminding Rainbow Dash of that fact seemed to cause her to become sad, although Five did not know why. “Yeah,” she said. Then she giggled. “Maybe I should have taken it easier on him.”

“No. His only purpose is to be of use.”

“Hey! That’s not a nice thing to say about him!”

“Have you met me? Hello, I am Five. I am not a nice pony.”

“You don’t need to be mean to Brown,” protested Rainbow Dash. “I mean, he’s comes off as an arrogant jerk, but he’s really sweet once you get to know him.”

“Ah, yes. ‘Get to know him’. Indeed.”

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat awkwardly. “Why are we even out here? I was busy sleeping.”

“You slept for over two days. Now is not sleep time; now is work time.”

“Work for what?”

Five produced a device from inside her coat and extended a trio of antenna. She examined the screen, momentarily ignoring Rainbow Dash. Her own Order was reading on the signal, but it was far to weak to overwhelm the deinterference algorithm.

“I am looking for something,” she said, linking the device to her back.

“Not in a very specific mood, are you?”

Five stopped and looked directly at Rainbow Dash. “Fine. I am looking for a certain piece of equipment, a magical artifact of great power that I can exchange for great money, once properly processed. Proctor seems to believe that it was buried out here. Somewhere.”

“If it’s supposed to be so powerful, why did somepony bury it?”

“Because most ponies are idiots who fail to comprehend the power of some items.” Specifically, in the severed, rotted skull of the Element of Kindness.

“So this is the thing you had me and Brown looking for?”

“Yes.”

“Even after what happened?”

Five began walking quickly again, this time changing course slightly to the nearest high-point of the signal. “There are no reindeer left here. If there are, I will eliminate them.”

“Can’t you just have Proctor do this? I mean, he seems to enjoy it. I think.”

“No,” said Five.

“But I’m sleepy. And you’re cold. Why are we even bothering?”

“Because I lack trust in Proctor.”

Rainbow Dash stopped. “Really? You pulled me out of bed because of that?”

“Yes.”

“He’s been living with us for, like, two weeks! He’s been nothing but helpful!”

“You are confused,” said Five, who continued walking and forced Rainbow Dash to follow her. “Perhaps because Proctor acts like your friends. But he isn’t- -Soth, he isn’t even a ‘he’!”

“He’s saved our lives- -several times!”

“I’ve saved ponies lives before. And then offed them.” Five sighed. “You would not understand.”

“No, because I don’t understand crazy.”

“No, because you are still so young. I have never trusted, nor shall I ever trust, anypony. I simply lack the capacity to do as such.”

“Wait. You mean you don’t trust me? Or Gell?”

“Of course not.” Five sighed. “As I said, I am simply not able. Instead of trust, I assess motivation. I understand your motivation, and I understand that demon’s. I do not understand Proctor’s.”

“Because you can’t read his mind?”

“No. Think about it…but then again, you were never known for that. Proctor is helping us, he always has been. He has risked his ‘life’ for us repeatedly. But why? Have you ever stopped to think about what he wants from us?”

“Maybe,” said Rainbow Dash, firmly, “he just wants to be our friend.”

Five paused and checked her instrument again. “You don’t know him very well, do you?”

“And you do? You’ve known him for, what, an hour and a half longer than I have?”

“I’ve been watching him for over two centuries.”

Rainbow Dash blinked, probably trying in vain to do the math. “Wait…how? You knew him? From where?”

“Do you even known what Proctor is?”

“Yeah. He’s an equidroid.”

“No. He isn’t. He is not even a proper AI. Proctor is a virus. A Trojan, specifically.”

“You mean like a disease? Am I going to get sick?”

Five pressed her clawed hoof to her head. She had a strong desire to squeeze herself into unconsciousness. “No. Proctor is a network of subsentient nodes loosely linked in a cascade network to accomplish the semblance of…” Rainbow Dash’s eyes had glazed, and Five knew that a correct description was pointless. She instead sought an analogy.

“Look,” she said, pointing at the trees that surrounded them. “Imagine that this forest is Proctor. Not our Proctor, but the real one. The Proctor Network is like this forest. Each tree is a node. It is an independent unit existing within a greater structure to produce a greater whole.”

“Okay,” said Rainbow Dash. Five could not tell if she actually understood. “So…what we call ‘Proctor’ is just a tree?” Rainbow Dash looked sad. No doubt she had just thought of Fluttershy.

“Yes. But not one of these trees. Proctor is a renegade node. He is a tree that has left the forest. Now tell me, Ms. Dash: what manner of event would motivate a tree to depart its forest?”

“I don’t know…maybe he was lonely,” suggested Rainbow Dash. Now it was Five’s turn to not understand. Rainbow Dash had clearly not understood the analogy. “Have you tried talking to him?”

“No. Of course not.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You don’t know much about friendship, do you?”

“Of course not. Considering I have never had any, and never will.”

The device on Five’s back began to produce a small tone. The result made little sense- -although Five did not trust Proctor, she did agree with him. Fluttershy’s grave should have been well marked, perhaps in a beautiful location, but this part of the forest was rather dim and ordinary. The only abnormal part about it was that the trees had an overly thick canopy.

“I thought I was your friend,” muttered Rainbow Dash.

Five shook her head. Once again, Rainbow Dash did not understand the nature of the assertion. Perhaps she could not. “That isn’t what I meant.”

Rainbow Dash felt somewhat hurt, but decided that she did not care. Regardless of what Five was, she a friend at least in a marginal sense. Not in the same way that Brown was, of course, or even the way Gell was, but Five was still some kind of friend. Not a particularly good one, of course. She was cruel and strange, and Rainbow Dash did not like her- -which just made their relationship weirder.

The device Five was carrying started whirring loudly, and she followed it deeper into the woods.

“You know, it would help to know exactly what I’m supposed to be looking for,” called Rainbow Dash. She followed after Five as quickly as she could, but even after all the walking they had done- -and several attempts at flying- -she was still terribly stiff. Mentally, she made a note to stretch next time- -assuming Brown would allow her a next time.

Five suddenly stopped. She reached down and picked up something small from the ground. Rainbow Dash leaned over Five’s shoulder, looking at what she had found. The object was a small glass ampule filled with a whitish substance that was glowing pale violet in the darkness.

“Is that it?” said Rainbow Dash. She was rather let down; she had been hoping for a staff or a big gemstone- -or even an enchanted hammer.

“No,” said Five, sounding distant. She lifted her scanner up to the object, and it beeped loudly. She looked down at the readout, and then at a hologram that sprouted up next to her. “This is Order fallout from the Crystal Empire,” she said, confused.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t…oh no…”

Before Rainbow Dash could ask what was wrong, several objects dropped from the thick canopy above. They bounced across the hard, root-covered ground, and Rainbow Dash realized that they were grenades.

“Get down!” she cried, tackling Five.

There was no detonation, though. Instead, they grenades split open and released plumes of gas. Rainbow Dash tried to hold her breath, but it was already too late. She had breathed some in- -and found that it smelled like stirfrying parsnips.

“Wow,” she said, standing up slowly. She found herself starting to salivate. The smell was so strong that she could nearly taste it. “That smells amazing.”

Then she heard a loud retching souond, and looked down. She realized that Five had not stood up- -instead, she was confusing in a pile of her own crystalline vomit.

“Dash,” she said, trying to stand and drawing her gun, sounding like she was choking. “RUN.”

“I’m not leaving- -” Something suddenly came rushing toward Rainbow Dash. She responded by raising her wing, stretching out her golden feathers to deflect whatever it was. Instead of the impact of a bullet or rocket, however, the projectile stuck to the metal.

Every thought in Rainbow Dash’s mind seemed to come to a violent halt. Her body shook and seized, as if somepony were shaking her harder than she had ever been shaken, and she found that when she told her legs to run or wings to fly, they did not move.

She collapsed in a heap next to Five, and smelled the scent of burning feathers and hair merging with the smell of delicious food. The electric shock had rendered her mind hazy, and she was both stunned and semi-conscious.

Unable to move or speak, she watched as figures emerged around her, descending from the trees and emerging from the shadows. One of them approached Five: a tall, bipedal, cat-like creature coated in heavy armor carrying a large pistol in the hand at the end of its tail.

The figure loomed over Five, kicking her over. Five weakly lifted her rifle, but the ahuizotl was faster. It leveled the pistol at Five’s head and fired. Rainbow Dash was showered in fragments of blood, skull, and brain. A large blue eye rolled into her plane of vision, and she could not prevent herself from vomiting.

The last thing she was conscious of was that she was being lifted onto a pony’s black, and a needle prick in her neck. Then everything grayed into blackness.