Once again, Five found herself in the void of non-life.

“Great,” she said, even though words had no meaning in the eternal darkness. “Massive head trauma twice in the same month. This probably is not healthy.”

Around her, the darkness slowly started to resolve into something resembling a plane, or an infinite dark room. Five suddenly became aware that she had a body, and that she was standing on something. She braced herself for what she knew came next.

More figures resolved from the darkness, as if rising from the mist. They stepped forward into her view, and she saw them clearly. Unlike so many times before, though, there were no longer four of them. At the farthest right edge, apart from Four, was a tiny, floating pony fetus.

“Hello again, Anhelios,” said Three.

“Very funny,” muttered Five, angrily. “Is it even possible for me to die and avoid seeing you?”

“You are not capable of death,” said Two. She turned toward the fetus floating at the end of their chain. “Well…actually, you are…”

“Don’t frighten her,” said Four. Her voice was as monotone and empty as ever, but for a moment Five thought she had seen something else, a glimmer of emotion in this vision of her mother that she had never expected- -and that somehow made her words worse. “We were never intended to be immortal. Death awaits us all.”

“You’re not even real,” said Five, her eyes flicking toward the developing fetus and then away from the others. “You are all a hallucination…the voices of the memories that Blackest Night has collected from each of you.”

“That is correct,” said Two. “We are nothing more than fragments of you. Because you are us.”

The others nodded.

“NO!” cried Five. “I am NOT you! I am not any of you!”

“You are Anhelios,” said Four. “So were we.”

“Sorry,” said Three. “But you’re lucks kind of out. Six will be born, and you will die. And then Seven will be born, and Six will die. And so on.”

“Not if I stop it. Not if I kill you all.”

“We’re already dead,” noted Two.

“And this destiny cannot be escaped,” added Four.

“This is wrong, and you know it,” said Five. “I can’t keep going…there’s nothing left.”

“Five,” said a voice. It was the same voice that they all shared, of course, but all four of them turned suddenly to the pony on the farthest edge of the line, next to Two. There was a collective gasp. In all the times Five had come this close to dying, she had never once heard Anhelios herself speak.

“What do you want?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. Anhelios turned toward the shades of her descendants. “To all of you. I’m so sorry.”

For a moment, she looked so much older than the rest of them. Five realized that the first Anhelios probably had never known. Her destiny had not yet been observed repeating for generations; it would have been a mystery to her. Unlike the rest of them, her mother had survived birth, and she had lived life as a normal pony- -and Five hated her. She hated the original Anhelios more than she hated the rest of the copies combined, save perhaps only for herself.

“But, you can’t be here,” said Five, the realization of what was happening suddenly causing her to step back, as if she could possibly escape what were essentially fragments of her own mind. “You- -you coexisted with Luna. You were never linked to Blackest Night!”

Anhelios smiled, and she seemed so weary. She looked into Five’s eyes, and Five looked back into them. The eyes of her great great grandmother were identical to her own.

“Do you really think it is her that binds us?”

Then, for the first time, the darkness seemed to lift slightly. Behind the Anhelii, Five saw something seem to materialize. Even in the dim light and fog of the void, she perceived its appearance, even if she could not comprehend its nature.

The closest thing her mind could conceive of was a tree- -but on a scale that there were no words to describe. Even if she could not see it completely, she knew of its size, and in her mind saw the trunk of crystal, and the spheres that hung amongst its branches, built of combined universes and orbited by so many suns and moons.

In this, she saw its horror, and she was more frightened than she had ever been- -but she knew that it was familiar. She could feel it, and knew that this was the source of all Order. The creature she saw, if only in a shaded half-glance, was the Soth itself.

“Our bodies are mortal, built of flesh,” said Anhelios, “but we are not. We are Order. Though one body may age and die, we persist, and are reborn into new flesh. Forever, and for all eternity. And this is my greatest regret, the curse I have forced upon you all.”

“I hate you,” whispered Five, to her face. Then, to the others. “I hate you all. And you will all burn.”

“You cannot escape us.”

“I will be free,” said Five. “Even if I have to die for it.”

Five opened her eyes. She felt terrible. Her vision was badly distorted, with little depth perception and terrible color saturation. That further exacerbated how sick she felt; she was tired, groggy, and nauseous. A horrible smell of parsnips was trapped in her nose, and she barely managed to hold down her vomit.

Her body also ached, and when she looked down, she realized why. Surrounding her were a number of thick metallic bands. They were exceedingly tight, and had been bolted around her, forming a durable container that completely restricted her motion.

Five looked around the room she was in. Her memories were starting to return- -if only slowly- -and she remembered that she had been captured. That was unfortunate, but she was at least satisfied that her captors had given her enough freedom in her restraints to turn her head- -even if that was all she could do.

The room she found herself in was dark and dusty. It seemed to be filled mostly with ancient looking office equipment: an ugly, dented desk, a few tilting filing cabinets, and some lamps and staplers piled in a corner. The only thing she found that was notable was Rainbow Dash, who held by a set of hoofcuffs to an exposed pipe in one of the walls. She was staring at Five, and looked oddly nauseous.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“How long was I out?”

“Hours, maybe? I’ve been staring at that gaping hole in your head for at least two hours.”

“Hole?” Five tried to turn her eyes toward where a hole might be, and realized that she only had one eye. Her skull had not yet completely regenerated, which was odd.

“Yeah. It’s really gross. I mean, looking at a pony’s brain and sinuses and stuff.”

“That is odd,” said Five. She summoned some of her magic and pushed it into her wounded skull. She felt her tissue starting to regenerate, but the magic felt oddly hard to use, as if her supply of Order was depleted- -or blocked.

She looked down at the metal that bound her, and realized what it actually was.

“Well, that explains it,” she said.

“What?”

“I had heard that centuries ago, Celestia had commissioned the invention of metal intended to resist Order. It would seem that I have been contained within bindings that suppress my ability to use Order.”

“Yeah, but you still used it.”

“I did not say that it works especially well. And I think they know that.”

She struggled against what was holding her, but it was no use. The metal was far too thick and well-constructed to break. To her dismay, Five saw that they had also taken her gauntlets and supplies.

“Can you get out?” she asked Rainbow Dash.

“No.” Rainbow Dash shook her hoofcuffs, pulling at them and making the pipe she was bound to rattle.

“Use your wings,” sighed Five. “Cut through them.”

“No. Because I clearly didn’t think of that!” Rainbow Dash twisted, and showed Five her wings. They were both covered in well-secured devices that kept her bladed feathers from touching anything. “I can’t even use my legs! The robot ones, I mean- -I think they did something to them!”

“At least they failed to remove them.”

“Failed?”

“Do you have any idea where we are?”

“No. I was out when they brought us in here. And you were…”

“Dead?”

“Yeah.”

“It happens.” Five looked around the room at the dust and the desks. “It looks like an office,” she said. “Like something in a factory.” Her eyes were drawn to a tattered calendar on the wall- -one featuring a picture of Fluttershy in a highly suggestive position. Five looked at the last date. “And it’s been abandoned for a long time.”

“Then why are their sounds?”

“Sounds?”

“Listen.”

Five did, and she realized that Rainbow Dash was correct. The air circulation system was still running, and she could hear the rushing of fans. There was also a clanking of machinery and the repetitive hum of badly maintained machinery.

There was also a foul smell in the air. It was more than the smell of old oil and decaying files that a factory would normally have; instead, it smelled like sulfur and metal.

“I think I know what this location is.”

“What?”

“It’s an autofactory. A substantially outdated one. A smelter, by the scent, or possibly a mine. My supposition is that it has been abandoned but operational for a long time.”

“How can it possibly be both?”

“The ‘auto’. It’s all robotic. Not even AI’s. These offices were for the overseers…or maybe the janitors. I don’t know. But they’ve been gone for a long time.”

“But how did we get here?”

“This must have been the nearest place for their base of operations.”

“Who is ‘they’? The ones who captured us, are they mercenaries, like before?”

“Mercenaries? Oh no, we’ve gone quite a few steps past that.”

“Then who are they?”

“These were government soldiers.”

“Government? You mean…Thebe?”

Five nearly laughed. “Thebe lacks soldiers. She has no need for them. Nor does she care enough about Equestria to bother intervening. Thebe rules Equestria, but she is no government. Of course, I’m not sure which government these are from. Probably the Equestrian Federation. Maybe Blackminster Corp, though. I’m relatively sure that the one that shot me in the head was from the Brotherhood of Celestial Light.”

“An ahuizotl. An armored ahuizotl. This is pretty epic, Five.”

“Epic? No. We are probably going to die here. Well, you are.”

“And whose fault is that?” Rainbow Dash sounded annoyed; she seemed instant on treating this like an adventure. Five knew better; in all her years of experience, she had learned never to get on the bad side of any government. If they had finally decided to come for her, it meant that the ponies in charge had finally realized the significance of what she was trying to do- -and intended to prevent her from succeeding.

“I fail to know,” said Five. “How about the ‘fastest pony in Equestria’ who cannot even dodge a Taser dart?”

“Oh! Really? Not the pony who led us into a trap, and then got knocked out by the smell of parsnips!”

“You know I cannot tolerate food!”

“Which is the stupidest weakness ever!”

“I have a reason!” screamed Five.

“Really? Then come on, tell me. Go ahead. I’m listening.”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Five turned away and looked at the crooked filing cabinet, its top drawer still slightly open. “But they so much about us. Both of our weaknesses. We were an easy target.”

“Well, you were at least,” said Rainbow Dash. “But I still don’t get it. And, actually, come to think of it, I never did. Why are they after us, Five? Why are they after me?”

“You do not need to know that,” said Five.

“Really? Because- -now, let me be sure to get this right- -we are chained up in an old factory, captured by government soldiers who are probably trying to kill us.” She frowned toward the opposite side of the room from the one that Five was looking at. “It’s that thing you were looking for, isn’t it?”

“I told you. You do not need to know.”

“Like Tartarus I don’t!”

Five took a breath, and stayed silent for a moment. Rainbow Dash seemed to expect a response, but eventually gave up. She instead simply sat, chained to the wall, refusing to speak to Five.

Eventually, though, Five realized that it might be better to tell her. In her mind, she weighed the possibilities of both outcomes. She knew that Rainbow Dash would never trust her if she continued her course of action- -and that there was a good chance that Rainbow Dash would be the only pony to get out alive. That, and, by definition, she would have to know eventually.

“Fine,” said Five. “I’ve been building a weapon.”

“What kind of weapon?” Rainbow Dash seemed self-satisfied in her miniature victory, but also afraid of the implications of what Five was doing. “Not that I’m surprised.”

“What we were looking for in the forest. It was an Element of Harmony.”

A small gasp escaped Rainbow Dash. “An Element of Harmony? A weapon? The Elements of Harmony are not weapons! Believe me, I should know. I used to have an Element.”

“I know. But you are wrong.” She motioned with her eyes toward her flank. “If you didn’t notice, I was once Nightmare Moon. Sort of. I can actually remember getting hit with them- -and they hurt.”

“Sorry about that. But you- -she- -kind of deserved it.”

“Yes, I know. But the point still stands. With a device that could access the Power of the Elements of Harmony, a pony could do anything. Even change her own destiny.”

“So that’s it. You want to use the Elements to save your own life.”

“No. Of course not. I do not care what the Elements are used for. I do not intend to use the machine I create. It is not meant for me.”

“Then why the hay are you making it?!”

“To sell it. To the highest bidder. To make myself fabulously rich.”

“What?! Five, I think that headshot raddled something. I’ve seen this world. Anypony who can afford the Elements isn’t going to use them for good!”

“No. They will probably use them to attack Thebe. Or maybe not. It is difficult to tell. Probably for something highly destructive, though. Hence why the government has finally decided to eliminate me. They know what I am doing, and have decided that I am a threat to them.”

“And you want that? To hurt ponies?”

“Not in particular. I don’t really care. That’s not the reason why I am doing this.”

“You’re trying to get your hoofs on the most powerful source of magic known to ponykind, and you don’t even care what it’s used for?!”

“You couldn’t understand.”

“Well, I’m clearly not going anywhere! So how about you try to explain it to me!”

“Rainbow Dash,” interrupted Five. “Tell me, how did you get your cutie mark?”

“Don’t try to change the subject, Five!”

“I am not. Nor do you need to answer the question. I already know. As a filly, you achieved a sonic rainboom at the junior-speedster’s flight camp. You were the first pony to do so in thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of years. Your mark signifies the rainbow glory of that moment, and of your speed and strength as you soar through the clouds. Now, do you know how I got my cutie mark?”

“No.”

“I didn’t. I was born with it- -if you could even call the way I arrived into this plane as birth. It is roughly the same as the cutie mark my mother had, and her mother before her, extending back to the Anhelios of your time.”

“And it means…what, exactly?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. It refers to the fact that I wield Order magic, but that is not a feature that makes me unique. Because I am not unique. I am nothing more than another incarnation of something which has already existed, a copy.”

“But that’s not how cutie marks work. You’re supposed to get it when you realize your special talent. It’s what makes you you!”

“Nothing makes me ‘me’. One Anhelios dies, and another is born into her destiny. I have so many memories, Dash…and so few are from me. The reason I can never be your friend?” She chuckled sardonically, “It is because I do not even exist.”

“That makes no sense!”

“Doesn’t it? There is nothing here. I am not Anhelios. She died long ago. Yet her destiny persisted, forced on to me. I have no identity of my own. I am little more than a replica. We were not meant to last more than two or three generations; with every birth, we get diluted. There’s nothing left now.” She looked directly at Rainbow Dash. “I don’t even have my own name! ‘Anhelios’? Not my name, but hers. And ‘Five’ is just a number. They couldn’t even give me a name…”

“Five…”

“I have lived for sixty three years,” said Five, “Never once have I had a friend, or a special somepony. Because there’s no ‘me’ left. I don’t exist. So instead, I spent that time finding a solution, a way to force this universe to allow me to be real!” She was now truly smiling, overjoyed to be telling another pony the truth that had haunted her since birth. “Her destiny- -all their destinies- -I can change them! I will break free! I will do what they were unable to! I will be me, and choose my own destiny! I’m not just born do die to make the next Anhelios, that isn’t my only purpose. I will make my own life, I will EXIST!”

Five felt the tears running down her face, but she could not tell if they were tears of joy at the thought of being free, a truly living pony with her own fate, or if they were tears of sadness. “I just want…I just want to be me. Not Anhelios. Not the ‘Guardian of Order’. Just…somepony.”

“You are an idiot,” said Rainbow Dash. Five looked up at her, and saw that Rainbow Dash truly did not understand. “Sixty three years? Come on! That’s longer than some ponies even live, and you wasted it!”

“But…but I needed that time to reach a conclusion on how to escape!”

“You didn’t need some machine! You don’t exist- -that’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard! That whole time, you could have been living your life. You could have had friends, Five. You could have spent years with them. You could have loved them, and been loved, but you chose this instead. Screw destiny! You had a chance at life, and you blew it.”

“I knew you could not understand,” sighed Five. “How I wish I could have had friends…how I wish I could have been born a normal pony. But it is too late for me now. This is my only chance. I have dedicated my life to this, Rainbow Dash, and I will succeed. I will have my on identity, and my own destiny.”

“Not if we die here.”

“No. I suppose not. I think it is time for you to leave.”

Rainbow Dash looked over at Five. The bands that held her in place prohibited her from drying her tears, and Rainbow Dash did not know if she should be afraid of Five or sad for her- -but she was a bit of both anyway.

“Get out?” she said. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“My ear,” said Five. “Can you reach my earrings?”

“Um…I think so. Why?”

“Because I can’t reach them. Take one out. Here.”

Five craned her neck sideways. Rainbow Dash was relatively close to her, she stretched out her own neck toward Five’s bushy bat-ear. The distance was farther than it had looked, but Rainbow Dash was flexible enough to reach.

She took one of the three large rings in her mouth, and found that it tasted terrible- -and yet, she somehow recognized the flavor. An image of a blue apple came to mind, although she had no time to remember where exactly she had eaten it.

The earring was also peculiar in construction. A normal earring should have had a clasp at one end, but Five’s did not. They were just solid rings of metal.

“Eew,” said Rainbow Dash. “This tastes so gross.”

“Just take one out,” snapped Five.

“I can’t! They don’t have clasps!”

“Clasps- -of course they lack clasps. You are going to have to pull it.”

“Pull it- -like, though your ear?” Rainbow Dash shivered at the thought.

“Yes. Just pull quickly.”

“But won’t that hurt?”

“A lot, yes, but if you want to get out of here, you are going to have to do it.”

“Okay,” said Rainbow Dash. She took the ring in her mouth again, and realized that she was shaking. Then, with a quick tug, she tore it out of Five’s ear. Blood sprayed over her face, and she fell backward, the ring still in her mouth.

Five squeaked with pain, but then took a deep breath. “Ow,” she said. Rainbow Dash looked up at the large, bleeding gap where Five’s ear had nearly been torn in two, and saw several anemic sparks of Order begin to repair the damage.

“Now don’t drop it,” said Five. “Or swallow it. And do you have any fillings?”

“Fwwinf? Whff?”

“Never mind. Now, you shall need to linearize it. There should be a seam.”

“Smmm?”

“As in a joint between two- -you know what a seam is!”

Of course Rainbow Dash knew what a seam was, but she did not know what “linearize” meant, or how exactly to do it. So, instead, she shifted the earing in her mouth, feeling along it with her tongue to try to find the seam.

As soon as she felt it, the ring immediately jumped in her mouth, nearly pulling itself out. It sprung outward, its ring-shape becoming a long line. At the same time, it suddenly felt heavier, and the taste changed to something more sour, and Rainbow Dash could feel it seeming to vibrate with energy in her mouth.

“Good. You didn’t drop it,” said Five. “Now, with a firm grip, insert it into the lock on your hoofcuffs.”

Rainbow Dash understood; the ring was a kind of lockpick. She gripped it firmly and placed it into the lock- -and the instant she did, the metal detonated with a resounding explosion sending sand-like flecks throughout the room.

“What the buck!” cried Rainbow Dash, dropping the rod and jumping back. “What the hay?!”

“Superordered metal,” said Five. “It was something Two came up with. It reacts violently with metal. And some glass. And a few other things.”

“Wait…so if I did have a filling?”

“If it was metal and the earring touched it while linearized, your head probably would have exploded.”

“Thanks a lot for warning me!”

“Your welcome. Now, you need to hurry. They may have heard that sound. There should be two objects on your legs to dampen neural signals. Pull them off.”

Rainbow Dash turned over her robotic front leg with her organic one, and finally found it- -a small device that had been tack-welded to her golden leg plating. She smashed it off, and feeling immediately returned to her leg.

“Ow ow ow ow!” she cried, pounding her leg on the floor.

“Did it hurt?”

“No, but it’s like my leg’s been asleep for days!”

Ignoring the tingling feeling, Rainbow Dash knocked the blocking unit off her rear leg. She then moved to take the binders off of her wings- -and nearly picked up the rod with her metal claw.

“Don’t do that,” said Five.

“Sorry,” said Rainbow Dash, scooping up the metal object in her mouth. She pressed it into the lock on her back, and the metal exploded. The wing binders fell off her, and she stretched her beautiful blue and gold wings. “Now for you.”

“No time,” said Five. “This metal contains a reinforcement enchantment. It would take yours to cut through.”

“I’m not going to leave you here.”

“Element of Loyalty to the last. Please, Dash, you have to survive this. Get out. Find Gell and Brown. They will protect you.”

“Five…” Rainbow Dash could hear heavy hoofsteps approaching the door. She looked to the door, and then back to Five. “I’ll get you out of this. I promise.”

“Sure,” said Five.

Rainbow Dash took the superordered rod in her mouth and spread her wings. The room had been locked closed with a heavy door, and she could hear the sound of a key inside the lock. Before it could even turn, she shoved the rod into the keyhole.

There was another explosion, and Rainbow Dash felt the sand-like remnants of the metal lock fly into her face. The pony on the far side had been taken by surprise, and took a step back. He was a tall earth pony dressed in thick armor. A robotic mechanism on his back automatically leveled a gun at Rainbow Dash.

“Dft tfnk so!” cried Rainbow Dash. She slammed the rod into his face. Even though the rod itself was barely two inches long, it hit with the force of a cannon as the pony’s metal helmet exploded inward. One of his side-guns fired, pouring plasma spheres into the wall, but he could not aim.

The earth pony soldier took a step back and shook his head- -only to faint. The force of the explosion had apparently given him a concussion. Rainbow Dash hoped that he was not permanently injured, but she knew from experience that Earth ponies had exceedingly hard skulls.

She also entertained thoughts of taking his armor. Even with a damaged helmet, it looked beautiful, even sexy. It was clearly power assisted, just like some of the armor in her own time, but it was so much more well-built and laid out. Of course, she did not know how to get the earth pony inside of it out of it, and it had no wing holes.

There were more hoofsteps coming from down the hall. Rainbow Dash turned quickly and darted upward down the hall. She passed around a corner, and then went upward through a fallen tile in the drop ceiling and into the next level.

The structure that they were in was a labyrinthine network of corridors and boiler rooms connected with what seemed like little reasoning behind their construction. Everywhere she went, Rainbow Dash was surrounded by rusted metal, rotting walls, and darkness lit only by small, weak, dirty industrial lights. This made hiding from the other ponies easy, but made finding her way out nearly impossible.

Rainbow Dash rose rapidly through a vertical channel that seemed to be designed for pipes more so than ponies. Most of the pipes were either leaking or broken, and several seemed to be spilling out a lava-like substance that dripped down them. Even getting near that substance caused Rainbow Dash’s hair and feathers to singe, so she made a point to avoid it.

Then, suddenly, she stopped. She hid herself in a high crotch between two pipes, out of view from anypony who might be watching. From there, she listened. The industrial sounds of the dying factory were now far louder, but she still would have heard hoofsteps if there were any- -and she heard nothing.

“What am I doing,” she said, spitting out the metal rod into her organic hoof. She tapped her head with her other one, hating herself for leaving Five behind. Even if Five was a jerk, and probably insane, and had lied about the crazy plan she had for the Elements of Harmony, she still deserved better.

That, and Rainbow Dash was still angry with her for several reasons, and if she was going to yell at Five, Five needed to make it out safely.

Rainbow Dash formulated her plan, and descended from her perch toward one of the offshoot hallways that connected to the central column. She could not help but smile. The situation was dire, but it also seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi version of a Daring Do novel. It was even complete with at least one ahuizotl as an adversary.

While fixated on this thought and imagining herself as her idol, Rainbow Dash turned a corner and nearly ran headlong into a pony. She looked up and found herself facing a heavily armored zebra, his grizzled and scarred face exposed and glaring down at her.

“Ha!” she said, “tafe dfft!” She jabbed him in the chest with the superordered rod. It impacted with a clunk, and then nothing.

“Fff?” said Rainbow Dash, momentarily terrified that it had somehow ran out of power.

“Rainbow Dash,” said the zebra. As Rainbow Dash watched, his body seemed to shift. In a flash of light and green-colored magic, he was no longer a power-armored zebra. Instead, he was replaced with a yellow-striped changeling.

“Lady Vale grows impatient,” she said in a buzzing, high-pitched changeling voice.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open, and the rod dropped from her mouth. “You- -changeling- -”

“We have given you the coordinates in the pony city of 616,” she said. “Time is running out. You need to hurry.”

“Who is Vale?” demanded Rainbow Dash. “What does she want with me?”

“She is the Ninth Queen, and the true ruler of Equestria. Go to her, Rainbow Dash. She is expecting you. Find her, before it is too late.”

Her form shifted again, and she reverted to being the zebra- -although this time he appeared bruised and bloodied. He flopped against one of the walls, as though he had just lost a fight.

Rainbow Dash realized that this changeling was not part of the soldiers. “Can you help me get out of here?”

“You are a secondary target, but still important to them,” said the changeling-zebra. “If you desire freedom, use the ventilation system.”

“Right,” said Rainbow Dash. She picked up the supreordered rod in her mouth and saluted the changeling- -something she never expected she would knowingly be doing- -and flew quickly down the corridor.

It did not take her long to find a ventilation duct- -in fact, Rainbow Dash was moving so quickly that she nearly missed it and landed several feet beyond. Quickly, she trotted back and used the golden feathers on both of her wings to slice off the opening.

She peered inside. The metal was dusty and dirty, but more importantly, it was metal. Rainbow Dash looked down at the rod in her mouth, and then spat it into her hoof.

“What did she say…? It had to be linearized….”

Rainbow Dash took the bar between her teeth and hoof, and found that it was surprisingly flexible. She immediately had an idea. Holding her breath, she poked it through her ear. Doing so was painful, and she felt some blood run down her ear, but she managed to bend it carefully. The rod immediately fused itself back into a ring, and Rainbow Dash smiled- -until she realized what she had just done.

“BUCK!” she cried. Although it was now safe for the earing to touch metal, she had permanently fused it to her ear. The only way to remove it was to tear it out, like she had with Five- -except that Rainbow Dash’s ear would not regenerate from the injury. “I could have just put it in my pocket or something.” Assuming, of course, that she had still had pockets; the soldiers had stripped her of her jacket while she was unconscious.

She dismissed her choice as getting caught up in the moment, and wondered if she was perhaps more panicked than she thought. Farther down the halls, she thought she heard voices, and she ducked quickly into the vent.

Inside a few feet, it was surprisingly roomy. Rainbow Dash could not fly in it, but she could walk easily if she lowered her head.

“Wow,” she said to herself. “Wouldn’t it have been bad if this were smaller.”

She lifted her robotic hoof and cast a hologram, just like the one that Five had used in the woods. The vent filled with light, and Rainbow Dash began to trot down its metal slope.

Vent climbing, Rainbow Dash quickly realized, was not fun. The air ducts were wide, but they were also just as complex as the rest of the building. That, and they did not follow a pattern that was conducive to pony motion. They would occasionally slant upward or downward, forcing Rainbow Dash to climb or causing her to slide downward unexpectedly.

Sometimes, the shaft branched off into smaller sections, or into vertical components. The verticals posed their own unique problem: Rainbow Dash’s wings had grown too long for her to fit within them; the one time she tried to fly up one, she had shredded it with her golden feathers. She was just as hesitant to take the dark, empty ones that led downward; there was no telling where they went.

Compounding the problem was the heat of the channels. Apart from being dusty, they were terribly warm, and occasionally hot blasts of air would cause Rainbow Dash to panic slightly. Tight spaces were not the ideal location for any Pegasus, and thinking of ovens did not make navigating easier.

The air carried with it a strange, powerful, and unpleasant smell. Rainbow Dash had never smelled something quite like it, but it smelled something like metal, electricity, and something burning. That smell made her wonder just what exactly this factory had been used for- -and what it was still trying to accomplish.

Eventually, she came to an area where the vent duct moved forward in a long, straight line. This particular vent was compressed vertically, meaning Rainbow Dash would have to crawl. Despite this, she still breathed a long sigh of relief.

She pressed herself against the floor and clamped her wings against her body. Then, slowly, she began to pass through it. The air was especially foul and hot through this particular vent, but she had a good feeling about it, as if she might find an air intake just on the other side that led outdoors.

Halfway across, however, Rainbow Dash heard sounds from below that did not sound like the normal hum or hiss of machinery. They sounded instead like voices.

She stopped moving immediately, and the vent let out a long, slow creak as it settled. Rainbow Dash held her breath, and then slowly moved to an area where the surface of the vent had rusted away. Looking through the hole, she saw that this particular vent passed through the ceiling of a large room. Below was a floor covered in debris and broken fragments of waste from the ceiling- -as well as a number of fresh hoofprints in the dust.

Then, suddenly, a figure passed into view. Rainbow Dash ducked back, but still kept her eyes on the floor below. She could not look away from the ahuizotl below, dressed in bulky but somehow elegant power armor.

“You’re report, lieutenant?” she said, pausing for a moment. Her hands were behind her back, and she walked on two legs. The armor she wore, despite its size, moved like a second skin, if not making her move even faster. It did not thud as she walked, either, but rather moved without a single sound.

“Lady Ce,” said a unicorn, approaching her from the side. “ ‘Color’ remains at large. Guard Dog is recovering from his head injury, and we found Zebron badly beaten in level six sector ten.”

“Tell me, Point,” said Ce, “how is it that a mere Pegasus even managed to escape us, and to defeat two of my strongest stallions?”

“We believe that she may be carrying some kind of concealed weapon, Lady Ce. One that was not found on initial search.”

The ahuizotl paused for a moment. “That is interesting.” She continued walking. “Find the pony who did the initial inspection, and have him or her gutted. After reconstruction, he or she will be demoted. Severely.”

“Yes, milady.”

She paused again at the very perimeter of Rainbow Dash’s vision, and turned her masked face toward somepony out of view. “Are the preparations complete?” she asked.

“Ja, mein commandant,” replied a heavily accented voice.

“Milady,” said the unicorn, “are we going to execute ‘Deviant’ even without ‘Color’?”

“Indeed. Assemble a semicontingent.”

“That many, Lady Ce?”

“We shall not underestimate her. And place the remainder of troops on perimeter. I am rescinding the procedure on ‘Color’. She is to be shot on sight.”

“It shall be done.”

The unicorn projected a magical screen from his horn and stepped away from the ahuizotl. “Right. She is on her way. Six guards, inbound in eleven minutes.”

Rainbow Dash nearly swore. She had spent nearly an hour vent-crawling in circles to go a distance that could be passed properly in ten minutes. More concerning, though, was that she was mostly sure that she was ‘Color’ and Five was ‘Deviant’- -which meant that they were planning to execute Five.

There would be no time for her to go and find help. She had to act quickly; saving Five came down to her, and she had only eleven minutes to form a plan. Never had she felt so much like Daring Do in her life, and she wondered what her hero would do.

The main problem was that she did not know how many soldiers there were down there. Rainbow Dash could move in the vent- -being careful not to make any sound- -but the other holes were all extremely tiny. There were definitely more of them down there, probably at least seven. That was bad; Rainbow Dash could probably have taken at least four- -based on her own assessment- -but seven was too many, especially since the only weapon she had was her wings. She could, of course, pull the ring out of her ear, but she decided that the superordered fragment of metal that she had negated should only be used as a last resort.

Her eventual decision was that she needed to wait. If she was right, they would be bringing Five in. If she could free Five, they would stand a better chance; Five could operate their guns effectively, and could withstand getting shot far more than Rainbow Dash could. Of course, that alone was two ‘if’s, but it seemed to be the only option. Two against seven was better than one against seven. Either way, though, Rainbow Dash found herself wishing that Brown was with them.

Eventually, there was a clanking sound, like a large door being pulled open. Rainbow Dash looked through the holes in the duct, and saw several ponies and ahuizotls entering. Once again, she nearly swore- -she had forgotten about the six escorts coming with Five.

Behind them, she saw Five being transported. Five was lying on a surface projected by one of the unicorns, held completely immobile by her cage-like bindings.

“Anhelios V,” said Lady Ce, standing over her. “I’ve heard so much about you. I suppose it finally is an honor to meet you.”

“And you must be…a manner of commander?”

“Indeed I am. This operation is mine.”

“Tell me, commander, then. Exactly what government do you work for?”

“We are from Overlord Dominion Seven,” said Ce, “but this is a United Coalition operation.”

“Really? You got the Coalition to finally agree on something?”

“When it comes to the fate of Equestria, the will of Thebe arrives swiftly.”

“Oh please,” said Five. “Reduce that nonsense. I’m not an idiot.”

“Indeed you are not. Hence the honor in meeting you. Few single ponies have ever warranted such an elaborate execution.”

Below, Rainbow Dash saw Five’s eyes shift in color, and she smiled. She had forgotten about Five’s other power.

“That will not work,” said Ce. She pointed at her helmet, tapping it with one of her metal-coated fingers. “Antipsychotronic headgear.” She motioned to her troops. “Load her up.”

Five was pushed out of Rainbow Dash’s field of view, and an exceedingly large earth pony came to stand beside Ce.

“Sargent,” said Ce, “do you have the restraint device ready?”

“Auxiliary restraints are prepared, Lady Ce.”

“Good. Arm it, and prepare to fire.”

With one swift motion, Lady Ce’s tail reached to her side, unhooking a large sidearm from her hip. The tail immediatly pointed the machine pistol directly upward. There was a burst of small, almost liquid-sounding explosions and the vent around Rainbow dash was torn to shreds by automatic laserfire.

Rainbow Dash covered her head, and prepared for the impact. She had no idea what a laser felt like, but knew it would probably hurt. None of the shots hit her, though.

“Ha!” she shouted. “You missed!”

Then the badly damaged part of the vent tore, and the segment that Rainbow Dash had been hiding in tilted forward and tipped her out into the room below. Rainbow Dash cried out and spread her wings. The time to attack, it seemed, had come earlier than she expected.

Almost as soon as her hooves touched the ground, though, she felt something slam into the side of her, knowing her into a nearby wall. The force knocked the wind out of her lungs, but as she looked down she saw a set of metal restrains mechanically locking themselves into place around her- -heavy metal restraints identical to the ones Five wore.

Rainbow Dash struggled to escape, but found it nearly impossible. The metal was far heavier than she had expected it to be. Even with the strength of her robotic limbs, she could not break free. Likewise, her wings were pinned at such a position that she could not get the blades to contact the metal properly.

So she fell over onto the floor. The ahuizotl Ce approached her slowly, looking down.

“Ah, yes,” she said. “You indeed are Rainbow Dash. I actually did doubt that you truly were, but seeing you, it is confirmed.”

“How did you know I was there?”

“Because you make more noise than a varnaq in a bloodbank, and have been dropping flecks of rust on me for several minutes.” She tilted Rainbow Dash into a sitting position. “Although your escape was impressive, as your reputation suggests. Were the situation different, I would consider offering you a position in my own forces. Alas, it cannot be.”

Rainbow Dash was tilted to face the far end of the room where Five had been taken, and she discovered that there were a lot more than thirteen ponies. There were at least thirty, perhaps more, all of them with their weapons drawn and ready. Many of them were ahuizotl, but there were just as many ponies as well, all dressed in thematically identical armor.

The room itself was far larger than Rainbow Dash had predicted. Running along one side were a number of circular pits, each one connected to a number of machines. The soldiers seemed to be surrounding only the nearest of the pits, and above it, suspended by a crane, was Five.

“I thought I recommended that you escape,” called Five.

“I was,” protested Rainbow Dash. “But then I found out that they were going to execute you, and I had to do something.”

“Execute me? Really? Do not be foolish. I cannot die.”

“Actually,” said Lady Ce. “I am quite sure you can.” She motioned toward the pony nearest to the machinery nodded, and entered several manual commands into the system. The ceramic iris that Five was suspended over shifted suddenly, and then slowly twisted open.

Rainbow Dash felt the heat before she even saw what was inside. Even at thirty feet away, she could feel her feathers starting to heat up and singe, and she knew that if she looked directly at the contents, she might be blinded. She saw enough, though, to see that the sixty-foot wide hole was filled with a bubbling mass of white-hot liquid.

“That is boiling tungsten,” she said. Rainbow Dash could not see her face, but she could tell that Ce was smiling. “Five thousand nine hundred thirty degree liquid metal two hundred feet deep. Of course, it would indeed be miraculous if you were to reach the bottom.”

Rainbow Dash gulped. That vat of splashing, bubbling, liquid metal and the horrible smell it was impressively frightening. It was also something most definitely worthy of the Ahuizotl form Daring Do.

“It is why we chose this facility,” said Ce. “That, and its proximity to your location. You can survive things that no pony can, but you cannot survive this. Your body will be instantly carbonized and completely annihilated.”

“Most interesting,” said Five, not sounding at all afraid. “I am surprised such a suggestion never occurred to me.”

“Five,” called Rainbow Dash, “that won’t kill you, right?”

“Oh, it will,” said Five. “And instantly. I mean, come on. It is boiling tungsten. All the Order in the world will fail to generate a pony from naught but ash.”

“Don’t worry, Five, I’ll get you out of there!”

Five’s eyes shifted to their blue-green state, and Rainbow Dash felt something impact her mind. Having something reaching into her thoughts was uncomfortable and unnerving, but her brain rapidly resolved Five’s thought into words, all perceived simultaneously.

“Do not attempt to save me, Rainbow Dash,” said Five, telepathically. “This might quite possibly be my only opportunity to die. I want this. I know that may seem strange, and I know you do not understand now. Perhaps you never will. But I was always fated to die. It was my destiny to die, to produce a new Anhelios. If I die here, in that beautiful metal, I will escape that destiny. For just a brief moment- -no matter how small- -I will cease to be Anhelios. I will be me. Please, Rainbow Dash. Let me have this. I want to die here, like this. I want it more than anything.”

More than just the words reached Rainbow Dash’s mind. Five’s emotions came through as well, and Rainbow Dash felt her own eyes start to water. Five was afraid, more afraid than she had ever been- -but she was also so happy, and so relieved. Rainbow Dash saw that Five was telling the truth, and that this was a duty that she solemnly accepted. In that instant, Rainbow Dash knew why Five had been driven to do the things she did, and she nodded to her friend.

“One question, before I depart for Tartarus,” said Five. “What will become of Rainbow Dash?”

“She will be processed.”

“As I am now?”

“No. Of course not. She will be given a swift and ordinary death, and her skull pulverized afterword.”

“You do not need to do that,” said Five. “She is no threat to you, not without me.”

“You plead for her even now, when you have put her in this situation?” said Ce, crossing her arms. “No. You do not have that right. We must take precautions to protect Equestria. Such is Thebe’s will.” She pointed toward the pony at the controls. “Release her.”

“No!” cried Rainbow Dash, unable to stop herself. She saw Five close her eyes, and saw the mechanism linking her bindings to the chains release. She saw Five fall, and then vanish in a splash of boiling metal.

Ce watched as well, and after several seconds, approached the vat. At her order, a lesser ahuizotl dragged Rainbow Dash along as well. Without armor like they had, the heat from the metal was intense and painful, but Rainbow Dash did not care. She looked into the pool of liquid, closing her weaker eye, knowing that the golden one would not be burned by the heat of the metal.

They watched for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. Eventually, several pieces of badly melted metal surfaced, and Rainbow Dash heard the click of every soldier’s guns being pointed at them. They were just the remnants of Five’s binders, though, and they quickly melted into nothingness and dissipated into the rest of the metal. Five was gone.

Just to be sure, though, Lady Ce waited several more minutes, and she continued to stare into the metal, stepping up to the very edge. When she was finally satisfied, she turned around and removed her helmet, revealing a narrow-bodied, gold-coated ahuizotl beneath.

“Nothing organic could have survived that,” she said, her voice sounding oddly meek without the distortion of her helmet. “Congratulation, stallions and mares. On this day, we have slain an immortal. Anhelios is dead.” She looked down at Rainbow Dash, her pale yellow eyes glimmering in the light of the metal. “Now there is only one more task to complete, before we return vic- -”

She suddenly fell forward, and Rainbow Dash saw the look of surprise on her face. That expression only lasted for a moment, though. Lady Ce only spent a fraction of a second on the ground before she was pulled backward into the vat of boiling metal, her claws leaving marks as she screamed and struggled.

Then she was gone, her body disappearing beneath the violently bubbling surface.

“Get her out of there!” cried her unicorn assistant. The other ponies and ahuizotls did not move, at least at first. They were to shocked to know what to do.”

“Move!” cried the unicorn, shoving another pony out of the way and approaching the metal. His projected his magic into the boiling, glowing mass, but all that he managed to return was a few fragments of metal that behaved more like wet tissue paper.

A large bubble erupted near him, and Rainbow Dash saw something flash near the rim of the container. The unicorn screamed as his legs slipped forward, and as the front half of his body fell forward, nearly plunging his face into the liquid metal.

One of the nearby ahuizotls acted quickly this time, and grabbed him by one of the handles on the back of his armor, dragging him out, still screaming. They both looked down at his front legs- -both of which were now completely gone, vaporized with their armor in the intense heat.

“My legs!” he cried, writhing in pain. “Oh Celestia, it hurts so much!”

Rainbow Dash could not bear to look at the suffering pony- -and could not bear to look away from the pool of metal. As she watched, the liquid metal seemed to rise, and from it, a figure emerged.

Five placed a hoof on the rim of the vat and slowly pulled herself out. The liquid metal ran down from her body like water, and Rainbow Dash saw that she was translucent and sparking with blue energy. Her body was no longer that of a normal chiropteran, but that of a crystal pony instead.

She looked down at herself, and through herself- -but she did not smile at her survival. Instead, her eyes seemed to sink inside themselves, her pupils narrowing into tiny triangles.

“I didn’t die,” she growled. “I didn’t die!”

“Shoot her!” cried the crippled unicorn on the ground before her. “SHOOT H- -aaaaarrrrhhhgg!”

Several sparks of energy shot From the horns in Five’s head, and the unicorn’s armor compressed around him. His body shrunk and crushed, blood pouring at high pressure from it as he was reduced to a six-inch wide sphere.

The soldiers opened fire. The lasers struck Five and refracted through her crystalline body. Beams went off at random directions, striking the walls and ceilings of the room, sending the soldires rushing for cover. Several of them landed dangerously close to Rainbow Dash.

Bullets, likewise, had no effect. They simply struck her and shattered. Five ignored them completely, and she looked lifted one of her transparent, glass-like hooves. She stared at it for several moments, and Rainbow Dash saw her face contort with rage.

“I DID NOT DIE!” she shrieked. A surge of blue energy poured from her body, and the air in the room immediately went from being tremendously hot to freezing cold. The liquid tungsten behind Five instantly froze into a mountainous landscape, its roiling surface permentantly trapped in waves and bubbles.

With the metal frozen, the only light in the room should have been that which came from the several grimy industrial lights at the perimeter. Instead, though, the air itself seemed to become luminescent, and the entire room was flushed in harsh blue light.

“Restraints!” cried one of the soldiers. There was an explosion as one of the earth pony soldiers fired them. The metal flew gracefully through the air, striking Five and wrapping around her, mechanically tightening to secure her.

Five collapsed slightly, and looked down at the metal surrounding her. A torrent of blue sparks poured from her horns, and the anti-Order metal was shattered. Five stood as the fragments surrounded her, straightening into long, sparking shards. Then the shards flew forward.

Several ponies were struck in the heads, and their bodies detonated from the impact of superordered metal, reducing them to piles of ruined armor and splayed organs.

“I WAS SO CLOSE!” she screamed.

Several ponies and ahuizotl nearest to her suddenly exploded, their blood tearing through their armor and hardening into long crystals of solid ruby. Five screamed again, this time without words, and several ponies were pulled toward her. As soon as they reached her, their bodies were ripped apart from within, detonating as clouds of blue sparks.

“I was almost free!” cried Five. “I was so close! But you all FAILED ME!”

The air at the perimeter started to condense. Rainbow Dash felt like she was trying to breathe water instead of gas, and it became deathly cold. At the same time, she smelled the ionization and sensed the shift of a storm beginning.

The air began to move, swirling around the room. Five’s horns continued to spark, feeding into the storm, providing it with lightning. Whatever the bolts of Order struck- -which was often unfortunate ponies or ahuizotl- -was shattered into crystal, torn apart violently from the magic.

The air accelerated, and as Rainbow Dash watched it hardened into something almost visible. The few remaining ahuizotl raised their guns, only to have the ends of their rifles severed, followed by their limbs and bodies as the Ordered air cut them into bloody chunks.

“I DID NOT DIE!” screamed Five again in desperation and fury. “I DID NOT DIE!”

Her explosion of Order reached the edges of the room, and the metal of the building itself burst forth in fragments, piercing the bodies of whoever was left, as well as the remains of those whose bodies had not completely been turned to crystal. There were no survivors, save for Rainbow Dash.

Five looked around the room, her sunken, triangular-faceted eyes looking for more to kill. Her eyes settled on Rainbow Dash. Five slowly started to walk toward her, trampling over the bloody and flesh-stripped remains of her victims and past the ruby-torn statues she had created with her magic.

“Five,” said Rainbow Dash. “That was epic and all, but…why are you looking at me like that?”

Five did not answer. She just kept glaring, walking slowly, her body still sparking with energy.

“Five,” said Rainbow Dash, “come on. We won. We won!” They had, or rather, Five had- -but the devastation had been tremendous. Rainbow Dash felt terribly ill, and she knew that when her mind finally comprehended what Five had done, she would probably never sleep again. This fight had started like something from Daring Do, but ended in a way that no Daring Do story ever would.

Rainbow Dash did not have time to consider that, though. She was terrified of Five, more so than usual. She struggled against the metal that held here, the metal that Five had so easily reduced to dust without any apparent effort. It was still too strong for her to escape.

Five stopped, and leaned over Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash saw her fangs, and those strange eyes- -eyes she had seen long ago in a different creature. They were not the eyes of a pony. Five, she realized, was barely a pony at all.

“I didn’t die,” hissed Five. She raised a crystalline hoof, and Rainbow Dash closed her eyes.

Instead of a blow, Rainbow Dash heard the click of crystal against metal, and felt the bands that surrounded her collapse into dust. She looked up at Five, watched as Five’s crystal nature started to reverse. Within seconds, she was restored to her normal gray bat self- -and Rainbow Dash saw that she was crying.

“I was almost me,” she whispered. “Almost real…but it won’t let me die…”

Rainbow Dash said nothing. Instead, she stood up and wrapped her front legs around Five’s neck. Five felt so cold. Rainbow Dash felt Five’s head against her shoulder, and realized that she was silently sobbing.

“I just want…to be me…” she heard her say, weakly.

The air rushed past Rainbow Dash’s wings as she moved swiftly through the long hallway. She could not see what was ahead of her, but she felt cold air, and knew that it was a way out.

“There’s more soldiers stationed outside,” she said.

“Then we fight through,” said Five, who was flying below, weighed down by a disproportionately large laser rifle that she had pulled from the armor of one of the dead ahuizotl.

“No,” said Rainbow Dash. “You take point. We blast through and then burn out of there!”

“Right,” said Five, accelerating slightly to take the lead position. Five was far slower than Rainbow Dash, but she was far more durable, as recent events had proven. That, and she actually knew how to fire the weapon that she was carrying.

“I see it,” said Rainbow Dash as the dark opening in the corridor ahead. “Come on, Five, speed up!”

“Quiet, wingpony,” said Five, raising the rifle she was carrying. The power crystals at its base charged as she armed it, prepared to fire- -when a bolt of energy from ahead struck her.

“Five!” cried Rainbow Dash as Five was forced to the ground, her body already regenerating but her gun smoking and destroyed.

Rainbow Dash, likewise, skidded to a stop and found herself facing a pair of power armored ponies, one whose back-mounted laser system was still venting heat. Rainbow Dash spread her golden wings defensively and charged forward into the fight.

She never reached the ponies. Something emerged from the darkness behind them, and a pointed metal hoof slammed into the side of one of them, cleaving through its power armor effortlessly and impaling the stallion on a spike. From the shadows, a pony much larger than either of them emerged, and Rainbow Dash stopped. The thing that had impaled the soldier reached forward, dislocating its mechanical jaw, its unblinking undead eyes leered downward. It clamped onto the pony’s head and tore it free of his body, severing nerves and muscle and mechanical connections, crushing the head as it removed it.

“Sweet Celestia!” cried the other pony, opening fire on the necromantic construct. The plasma bursts and bullets impacted its surface, but it hardly seemed to notice. It was not like the constructs that Rainbow Dash had seen in the Crystal Empire; this one was not a rotten and decrepit skeleton, but a fully reinforced and complete version.

The second pony was taken down by a sudden explosion of magic that took her legs. As the construct leapt on her, hissing angrily as it tore her body apart with its pointed front legs, a second figure emerged from outside. This one was far smaller than the first, dressed in armor made from synthetic bone and bands of steel, carrying a necromancer’s rifle.

Once again, Rainbow Dash raised her wings. “You want to fight? Bring it on!”

The smaller figure removed his skeletal mask, and Rainbow Dash was unable to hold in her laughter. The second figure, dressed in such threatening armor, was Brown.

He raced forward and wrapped his forelegs around Rainbow Dash’s neck.

“Rainbow!” he cried. “I thought I would never see you again! Please forgive me for- -oomf!”

Rainbow Dash had planted her lips against his. She held the kiss for a moment, and then pulled away. “You can apologize later. I’m fine. Five is fine. That’s what counts. Now, did you bring me a weapon?”

Brown turned toward the blood-covered construct behind him, which was now standing in a puddle of blood and pony bits. “Praesens auxiliaris!”

The construct grunted, and part of its mechanical body shifted. A long pony sword emerged from its side.

“Perfect,” said Rainbow Dash, slipping her hoof into the ring of the sword and pulling it out.

“I see Shining Armor has returned,” said Five,

“Commander,” said Brwon, saluting. “Indeed he has. He used his magic to trace your position.”

“About time.”

There was a powerful explosion from outside, and Rainbow Dash nearly fell over from the vibration.

“We have to go,” said Brown, looking over his shoulder and putting his helmet back on. “Rainbow, if you care to join me?”

“Do you even have to ask?”