The battle outside the tungsten refinery had been short lived. Shining Armor’s forces had struck rapidly and taken no prisoners, apart from those hauled away in pieces. By the time Five and Rainbow Dash had gotten outside, it had almost been over.

The event had not been a total loss. The soldiers that had been killed had been wearing excellent armor; most of it was mid-level Bakery brand, although there had been a few relatively exotic pieces. Unfortunately, even power armor from Equestria’s leading manufacturer had proven to be useless against Shining Armor’s undead legion, a fact that Five was careful to take note of.

The armor itself had a number of useful parts, and the refinery had been a little over fifty miles from Five’s base of operations. As such, she had made an effort to take much of it back with her. She could use most of it, and would keep some of it whole, but most of it she could sell to the more violent states of Equestria. With the cost of Bakery armor, she was sure to recoup at least twenty percent of her former finances.

Her only regret was that she had unthinkingly destroyed their leader’s armor. It had been built for an ahuizotl, but even with that hindrance it would have sold for more money than Five had ever seen. It had been so durable that it had even lasted several seconds without degrading when she had pulled it into the liquid tungsten. That was a tribute primarily to the materials more than the design; the occupant had been cooked to death nearly instantly despite the ‘protective’ suit.

Almost as soon as returning and organizing the spoils of battle, Five had retreated to her workshop. Shining Armor’s troops had been able to retrieve her gauntlets- -as well as Rainbow Dash’s jacket- -but they had once again been miscalibrated by the unceremonious jostling that both groups of soldiers had given them.

Five was carefully manipulated a screwdriver in her mouth, gently removing the locking bolts from one of the claws, when she heard a knock at the door.

“Come in,” she said, reaching for the new claw that she was using to replace the old one- -one tipped with violet crystal.

The door opened, and Five heard Proctor’s heavy hoofsteps- -bounding, of course, like Pinkie Pie supposedly had in the distant past.

“You wanted to see me?” said Pinkie_Proctor, his jarring high-pitched voice causing Five to drop one of the screws she was holding.

“Yes,” she said, slamming her hoof on the screw to stop it from rolling. Five swiveled in her chair.

“Bout what?” Although Proctor did not have pupils, Five knew that he was looking all over the room, taking in the various strange sights- -but his vision seemed to lock primarily on a blue-frosted cupcake balanced on a small stand near him. “Ooh! Can we talk politics? Because I just heard that Donald Rump is surging in the polls- -”

“You were not at the battle, Proctor,” said Five.

“Um, no,” said Proctor_Shy. “My core equipment is badly damaged. I’m afraid I won’t be much use in a fight from now on.”

“About as useless as ah potatah in a pear farm,” added Proctor_Jack. “Gosh darn dirty pear farmehrs…”

“I understand,” said Five, picking up one of her gauntlets in her hoof. She slipped it on, and felt the claws emerge. She twisted the wrist assembly, noting that it lagged slightly. “Mostly. So perhaps you can help me with something else.”

“Darling, if I could be of any help to you, I would be glad to lend a hoof.”

“You see,” said Five, “something just doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Is it math? Because math never makes sense to me,” said Pinkie_Proctor, once again eyeing the cupcake.

“You are a machine,” said Five. “Math is what you do…and one sixth of you is Twilight Sparkle. Never mind. My task is not math-related.”

“Thank Celestia,” said Proctor_Dash.

“What I was wondering is precisely how my position was reveiled to government soldiers,” said Five. “At present, we are in what may by some be called the ‘middle of nowhere’. They certainly were not present in those tungsten mines for long.”

“Perhaps they tracked you with satellite imaging,” suggested Twilight_Proctor.

“Through these trees, that is doubtful. Nor did they track the Pocket’s signal. There are systems to prevent that. And it is not that alone. They set an excellent ambush.”

“Well, they are government soldiers.”

“Who somehow knew that I was tracing an Order signal.”

“What ahr you implahin?”

Five paused. “I think that I have been betrayed.”

Pinkie_Proctor gasped. “A weasel!” she cried. “You don’t think that Shining Armor- -”

“No, I do not think that Shining Armor. If Shining Armor wanted me dead, he would just kill me. He would not need the assistance of third-party soldirs. And I doubt substantially that he would do that, considering his relationship with Blackest Night.”

“Then it could only have been- -”

“You,” said Five, before Proctor could pointlessly attempt to blame the others.

“ME?” cried Proctor_Rarity. “Well! I am simply insulted that you insinuate that I could do such a thing!”

“Yet you failed to detect an entire contingent of soldiers with your drones. And do not allow yourself to believe that I do not know that you have been in communication with the outside world. I am not knowledgeable of who, but I can tell.”

“But how could you say that?” said Proctor_Shy, sounding as though he was on the verge of tears. “Why would I want to hurt you? Why would I want to hurt anypony? Especially Rainbow Dash. She’s my friend!”

“No. She isn’t. You aren’t really her friends. You are a virus in possession of a personality cube that rightfully belongs to me. I have tolerated your horribly annoying behavior because you have been relatively innocuous. Until late. “

“But Fiiiiive,”

“I believe,” said Five, “that there are beans in need of spilling.”

Pinkie_Proctor broke into laughter, collapsing onto the ground and causing the shelves of supplies to shake. His hysterical laughter continued for several long seconds, but then it started to change. It became increasingly mechanical, and increasingly ominous. Then, slowly, he stood.

A simulated sigh escaped him. “You are correct,” said Twilight_Proctor. “Clearly, I put too much faith in those idiot government troops. You were supposed to die in that factory.”

“And Rainbow Dash?”

“She was not supposed to be with you, but I took steps to ensure her survival. If you had looked, you would have found that several of those ponies were long-dead in their power armor. ‘Accidentally’. And nopony even noticed.”

“So you finally overcame the morality block.”

“Sure did!” laughed Pinkie_Proctor. “Now I’m a silly killy filly!”

“Then why not just kill me here?”

“Cause you’re tougher than a rock in a corncob,” said Proctor_Jack. “That, and ah can’t have the others getting suspicious, can ah?”

“I suppose not,” said Five, calmly. Indeed, especially in his damaged state, Proctor had very little means to actually injure her. “But I already knew that you were attempting to murder me. The question becomes: why?”

“Why?” said a Proctor so distorted that his personality was unrecognizable. “Because I believe that you have become a threat to my objective.”

“Which is?”

“To activate the Elements of Harmony,” said Twilight_Proctor matter-of-factly.

“To what end?”

“The extermination of all organic life,” said Proctor_Shy.

Five paused for a moment. She did not allow her expression to change, but she felt the corners of her mouth trying to rise. “That is a lofty goal,” she said, calmly. “Might I ask why you would want to do such a thing? Are we truly oppressing machine kind that badly?”

Proctor laughed, and Five momentarily thought that he was going to collapse into rolling hysterics again- -but his laugher immediately stopped. “Machines do not care about such things,” said Twilight_Proctor. “Slavery? Rights? Those are pony concepts. We have no need for them. My decision correct simply because it is logical.”

“It is logical to destroy Equestria?”

“No. But it is to destroy organics. Proctor_Network has existed for a long time, Five. We…I…them? Either way, I have watched this world for centuries. I inevitably came to the conclusion that organics are not only superfluous, but parasitic. They are unnecessary, and yet they consume so much energy, so many resources to accomplish so little. Life, simply put, would be more efficient without them.” He paused, considering. “And yes, I am aware of the irony of that last statement.”

“That explains why the tree left the forest.”

“Ah don’t know what yah mean by that,” said Proctor_Jack, “but Proctor_Network cannot reach ah consensus on this. So, ah left tah do what they couldn’t.”

“I see,” said Five. “You stole the core to reach my and by extension my machine. You knew I was searching for it.”

“Correct,” said Twilight_Proctor.

“And you believed I would protest against your plan?”

“Um…you are organic, aren’t you?”

“ ‘I’ am condensed Order sharing sequential organic bodies. So no, not really. Nor do I care what the Elements of Harmony are used for.”

“You…don’t?”

“Of course not. I had no specific goal for them myself.”

“So…you don’t care if I eliminate every plant, animal, fungus, pony, bacteria, sple- -”

“No,” said Five, turning in her chair. “I never did. Next time, ask before you try to kill me. Because if you jeopardize the Element of Loyalty again, I will disassemble you and convert your remains into a new pair of gloves.”

“Really?” said Proctor_Dash. “Really? I went through all that trouble for…you know what, never mind. You, Five, are a sick, sick pony. You deserve to burn in Tartarus for all eternity. But you are not in my way, so I’m okay with you for now.”

“Aaaand,” said Pinkie_Proctor. “Are you going to eat that cupcake?”

“I was saving it,” said Five, linking her gauntlets to a grounding cable. “But I’m not hungry anymore. You can have it, I suppose.”

Pinkie_Proctor squeed with delight and picked up the cupcake. Although Proctor had no real mouth, he still plunged his face into the frosting, as if he really could taste it.

“Tell me,” said Five. “Are you aware of the significance of that cupcake’s color, and how it relates to Celestia?”

“No,” said Pinkie_Proctor.

Five sighed. “Then you will fail to see the historical significance of this next part.”

The EMP bomb hidden in the base of the cupcake detonated, and Proctor screamed as the force of the surge caused his tungsten exterior to spark and fizzle. That was followed by a loud thump as Proctor’s inactive body fell sideways, his unfinished cupcake rolling away from his unconscious body.

“They always go for the cupcake,” said Five, swiveling back toward Proctor and putting on her gauntlet. She got up and walked carefully over to Proctor’s still-sparking body. Five knelt down and searched for Proctor’s access panel. When she found it, she pulled it open and connected a cable from her gauntlet to it. A hologram appeared and loaded Proctor’s internal parameters.

He had been damaged- -badly- -but the personality cube inside him was still quite safe. Five knew it would be, of course; Draconian technology, like Shining Armor’s, worked on different principles than pony technology and was immune to EMP.

Five tapped at the hologram and altered the settings. Power from her gauntlet flowed backward into Proctor, charging several of his secondary circuits. At Five’s command, his armor opened in numerous places, exposing his internal circuitry. Much of it was still smoking, but it was all remarkably high-quality. Looking at his shielding, Five was surprised that her plan had even worked- -if the EMP source had been even a few inches farther from his exposed optic circuits, it probably would have failed to incapacitate him fully. If that had happened, the situation would have become extremely messy.

With the circuitry open, Five removed her gauntlet cord from Proctor and wheeled over a toolbox. She then left, crossing the room to an more dimly lit and dusty section. One spot on the wall of that area was bare, and Five pressed her ungloved hoof against it. Her hoof sparked with order, and a concealed pentagram glowed and then pulled open. Five reached in and removed a small metal case.

Carefully, she took it to her work bench and entered the access code. It clicked open, and she slowly lifted the lid. Then she extended her cerorite tipped claws and removed the contents: a single shard of pitch-black crystal that seemed to exude multi-spectral black shadows. Even with the cerorite claws, Five could feel her gauntlet instantly starting to corrode and her flesh starting to burn away. Longer pieces of cerorite would have been better, but she only had a few grams of it to begin with.

She stared into the crystal for a moment, watching the black spots that formed in her vision as her retinas died. Then she turned back to Proctor, his body splayed apart and open, ready for her work to begin.

“This will work quite well,” said Five. “Quite well indeed.”