The conversion was far more agonizing than Five had expected, but she responded in the only way she knew how. She forced her own Order into the spell, enhancing its power exponentially. She screamed as the energy began to alter every cell in her body, changing her into something new.

She leaned backward, and stood on two legs. Thoughts started filling her mind. She saw memories of crystal and death, and recalled the endless war that had led to the inevitable victory of her people. Inside her, she felt the schematics, and the compulsion to build the machine. Her mind was filled with hatred for the different, a desire to kill and a love for the power that came with the destruction of the inferior.

“No,” she whispered. Her mind steeled against the thoughts, and she rejected them. They were all so pointless. The desire to construct the machine was not her goal, and the hatred of others was an exercise in futility. They already had what she never could. They were so much better than she was, and so lucky. Her hatred turned inward, toward Anhelios, and the entire structure that the vector tried to force on her mind shifted, falling into line with her own mind.

She felt immense power flowing through her body, and it all made sense. They had been dead for too long. They had no idea how to use more than the most infinitesimal fraction of their power, repeating the same tired sequence over and over again. Their minds were all identical, all the same. They had no creativity, no real motivation of their own. Unlike them, Five saw what needed to be done. She did not simply read the ancestral schematics, but understood them, and began to change them. To make herself so much more than any of them could ever be.

Her body sparked with white and blue Order, and she felt the crystal that grew over her new skin. She raised her claws, and instead of drawing on the resources pulled from the shattered remnants of Equestria, she forced her power into herself. Her flesh became mutable, shifting under the force of Order and Chaos, and she used herself as a resource to build a new and better body. She reconfigured the organs within her, as well as the machines, forming organic armor from bone, flesh and steel.

Then she stood and looked out over the four creatures below her. The three ponies looked up at her- -two with horror, and one with awe. The creature who had given her this gift also turned, his white eyes staring up at Five. She brought her clawed foot down upon him, crushing his head.

“What have you done?” whispered Vale. “You’re body…”

“I did what I had to,” said Five. “I needed more power. But I think…I think I might finally have succeeded…”

Thebe smiled. “You don’t understand,” she said, still lying drained on her side. “You don’t even know what they are, do you?”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Five, her voice booming over them in their own language. “I’ve destroyed everything about me! I have become perfection itself!”

Thebe pointed upward at Five’s shoulder. Five’s vision spell shifted, and she felt her equivalent of lungs inflate with a gasp, and then release a silent scream. Carved into the crystalline metal of her pauldron was the image of a crystal. Her cutie mark was still attached to her.

“N- -No!” she cried. She ran an internal diagnostic check, dreading what she would find- -and discovering exactly what she expected. Even in this new body, she was still pregnant. The thing inside her was no longer a pony, but it was still growing. Even after tearing apart her own body, her destiny had still not changed.

“You can’t escape destiny,” said Thebe. “I couldn’t…and you certainly can’t.”

“No,” said Five. She was not ready to give up, not yet. Her mind expanded exponentially, scanning the immediate area. The thoughts and schematics poured through her head- -and then she stopped. She realized what could be done.

She turned her glowing white eyes upward, toward the Pyramid overhead. She knew what was inside, and understood how it was built. She knew what she needed to do.

Five lifted her hand, and the assembly holding the black cerorite flew forward into her grasp. Then, with a surge of magic, she shot upward toward the Pyramid above.