The creatures that had escaped the containment cells in the Pentagon basement ripped through the doors to the elevator shaft and raced upward toward freedom. They could sense the fight on the roof but were more interested in escape... particularly the ones who's acuity of perception allowed them to recognize the combatants as the ones who had captured them in the first place.

But there was one who wasn't interested in escape. That one paused at every level, sniffing at the cracks of the elevator doors until one bore the scent she was searching for. She shoved a long horn between the doors, forced them open, and leaped out into the hallway.

The pony ran, head down, following the scent until she came to a wide double door that was securely locked. She tore through the doors in seconds and snarled at the sharp whine of bullets that hit her behind her shoulder as she surged into the room. Reflexively, she spun and dispatched the soldier with a single blast of green energy from her horn.

Then she hesitated, staring down at the dead man, feeling confused and uncertain. "Never kill humans," had been an unbreakable rule. But there had been other rules, too, rules that had been broken. Trusts that had been betrayed. She shook her head and snarled in dismissive anger. The scent, and finding its source, was all that mattered.

Two more doors gave way before her and the scent grew steadily stronger until, when she pressed her nose against the crack beneath the third, the scent came clear and strong and fresh. She kicked at the door, but it wasn't as flimsy as the others. It was solid layers of steel over a heavy metal framework. The pony bared her teeth in frustration and savagely blasted at the door and the frame and the wall until the sheet metal tore and the frame buckled and shattered. She used so much of her strength that she was unable to maintain her disguise, and it slipped away in a whirl of green fire.

The changeling shouldered the ruined door aside and burst into the small room—searching in the dim illumination of the emergency lights. And there she was... a small girl huddled, terrified on a simple metal cot. Terrified... until she could make out the shape of the monster that had ripped its way into her cell. The girl gave a half-shout, half-sob of joy, leaped off the cot and ran to the changeling, throwing her arms around her neck.

"You're alive!" she cried over and over again as tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks. "You're alive! You're alive!"

"Ow! Ow!" Greg yelled as he rubbed the red mark on his forehead where the third bullet had struck him. "Shit, Gwen! That hurt!"

Gwen froze in surprise for an instant but then raised the gun again.

"Oh, no you don't." Greg muttered and stepped in on her with startling speed. He tried to grab the gun out of her hand but found that it was attached to her. A metal rod was connected to its butt and ran up her sleeve. By pulling on it, he merely jammed the mechanism and jerked her around a bit. So he satisfied himself with pushing the gun's slide back and crushing its end between his thumb and forefinger, rendering the weapon useless.

"What the hell..." Gwen stared at the broken gun and then at Greg.

"Equestrian reconstruction," Greg told her. "I'm all carbon-fiber muscles and pure electrical reflexes now... better, stronger, faster... pretty much the same as the ponies, really. You can't hurt me." He stepped back out of her range and took a quick glance at the battle. The Dark Goddess strode among the fallen, casually dealing with the few who were still able to resist.

"You might as well call off your... unit. Sorry, Gwen, but I just can’t bring myself to use the stupid acronym. All the top brass will have been neutralized by now," Greg told her. "You've already lost. Being turned to stone, encased in crystal, or... " He waved a hand at the varied examples of the Dark Goddess's work. "All of that is reversible, but some of it isn't exactly comfortable."

Gwen sneered at him. "Not even human anymore, Greg? Why aren't you in there with your partner?" The way she said the word made it sound like an obscenity.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to deny the Goddess her fun," Greg shrugged. "Besides, even as strong as I am now, I'm still vulnerable to unicorn magic, and I don't have—"

"Good!" Gwen interrupted him as she grabbed at the small of her back with her left hand. If she had been able to use her right hand, Greg wouldn't have had a chance. But because the ruined gun still hung in front of it, she had to fumble at her back-up weapon with her off hand, and it made her just slow enough.

Greg stared in surprise as the stubby little gun rose toward him. Its barrel was so wide that he could have stuck his thumb down it. Just as he was beginning to twist aside from her line of fire, a set of razor fangs slammed shut on Gwen's left forearm. She shrieked in pain and the gun went off, blasting a bathtub-sized hole in the roof where the specially-designed pony-killer round impacted. Greg recovered his balance and just stared at the newcomers, unsure what was happening. Gwen used her broken gun to hammer at the black head of the changeling that held her arm trapped but it simply squinted its eyes shut and bit down harder. There was a muffled crunch from inside its mouth and Gwen gasped and sank to her knees, her face whitening in pain and shock.

"You lied to me," said a soft voice.

Greg hadn't noticed the small girl standing beside the changeling, resting one hand on its back just behind its gauzy wings. She was small and delicate of build with long dark hair. There were the streaks of dried tears on her cheeks and an expression of pure hatred on her face.

"You said they wouldn't hurt Chitter. You said it was just for tests," the small girl continued. "But they did hurt her... they hurt her a lot.” She broke off and sobbed once. "But she got away... she found me..."

Greg felt safe enough to glance at the fight again. The Dark Goddess was shaking a pegasus like a terrier would a rat. The pony was making a ridiculous pbpbppbpbpbppbbbb sound and feathers were flying everywhere. Most of the rest of the opposing ponies seemed to be out of the fight, and without their pony friends, the kids didn't seem to know what to do. Greg turned back to Gwen, the girl, and her changeling friend.

"If... if Chitter had died..." The girl paused to sob again. Gwen was now hanging from the changeling's jaws, halfway to unconsciousness from pain and blood loss, but the girl either didn't notice or didn't care. "I would have been all alone! She's the only one who ever... who ever liked me! Melissa never did! You never did! The creepy girl and her creepy monster friend... I know that's what you all thought! But I never thought you would... you..." She was crying at the same time as she spoke, her words nearly unintelligible. "Did you... hate me so much? I fought for... for you..."

"It's all right," Greg told her softly, stepping around the changeling to reach out to the girl. The changeling gave a little warning growl, blowing small bubbles of saliva and blood from between her lips. She shifted her weight, preparing to strike at Greg if he offered any threat to her friend. Greg lowered his hand. "Chitter’s fine now. You won't be alone."

The girl wiped away her tears with her forearm and looked down at Greg as if seeing him for the first time. "I want to join you," she said. "I guess I'm a bad guy now... like you. But I don't care! I don't care as long as I have Chitter with me."

Greg stepped back. Bad guy, huh? he thought, sourly. He looked back at the fight. The Dark Goddess was standing with one hoof on a unicorn and holding up a huge weakly struggling earth pony in a twist of her glowing mane.

"I think you've made your point, Your Majesticness!" he called to her.

The Dark Goddess threw him an are-you-sure look, then lifted her hoof off the gasping unicorn and lowered the earth pony to the roof. She calmly surveyed her beaten opponents. "The next time we meet, you will show me the respect due to a princess of Equestria."

When they didn't have to desperately struggle to keep from being flung around like stuffed toys, the ponies had a chance to see what was happening across the rooftop.

"Captain!" The girl sergeant called out, "Are you alright? Leave her alone you monster!"

Greg assumed that she was probably talking to the changeling but it was the small girl who answered her. "No, Melissa! She would have killed Chitter, and now I'm going to kill her."

The girl blanched in shock and pulled off her helmet, revealing a freckled face and a tumble of fiery red hair. "Lisa? What... what do you mean? You can't be serious!"

"Let her go," Greg said softly to Lisa. The girl said nothing... just stared at him in confusion.

Greg didn't have time to explain or argue. "If you want to join me, you can. But you have to do what I say. Let her go."

Lisa whispered a response and Chitter released Gwen, who slumped down onto the roof, cradling her ruined arm. Greg nodded his thanks and then turned to the Dark Goddess.

"Looking good, lover!" Greg called up to her. "Ready to fly?"

She lifted one eyebrow and looked down at him out of the corner of one eye.

"We need to go. Can you carry all of us?" He made a motion indicating Gwen, Lisa, and the changeling.

She didn't deign to reply. She just lit her horn and picked them all up in her magical aura. They began to lift off from the rooftop, smoothly and silently.

"Wait!" Melissa called up to him. "Leave the Captain! She needs a doctor! Please!"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of her," Greg replied in a tone of voice that wasn't very reassuring.

"No!" the girl screamed, "We'll get you! We'll find you and stop you! And you too, Lisa... you traitor!" Lisa tried not to react to the screamed curse, but Greg saw her flinch and Chitter lifted her lip ever so slightly. They soared off into the sky, rapidly accelerating and leaving the Pentagon and Washington far behind.

"Can you spare some magic for Gwen?" Greg asked. The Dark Goddess sighed and a glow formed around Gwen's mangled arm. The magic pulsed briefly and disappeared. Gwen relaxed and then slumped, going completely prone and slipping into a forced sleep.

Greg turned to the small girl who still sat on the shoulders of her partner. "Okay... Lisa, is it? First, tell me what happened to you and Chitter and then I'll try and set you straight about who the real villains are around here." He kept his voice as light and cheerful as possible and was rewarded by a wan little smile from the girl.

Gwen woke up gradually. She was lying on a bed under a thin coverlet. The room was sparsely furnished, but one side had a large piece of unfamiliar machinery in one corner. Gwen cautiously sat up and raised her left arm. It seemed fine. There were no wounds... not even any scars... not even the ones that had been there before Chitter had bitten her.

As she began to take in the room, the diamond dog perched on a stool behind her spoke up. “Nice lady is awake now, yes?”

Gwen leaped from the bed, throwing the cover in the direction of the dog and dashed for the door. She wrenched at the handle but it didn't budge.

"Don’t be afraid of Rex! Rex won’t hurt you!”

Gwen spun and delivered a full-strength back kick beside the door handle. The door made a cracking sound but didn't otherwise seem affected. Gwen turned to face the diamond dog but kept as far away from it as the small room allowed.

"Rex will get Greg. Greg will know what to do!” The creature reached up to its collar and pinched what appeared to be a dog tag between two of its thick clawed fingers and spoke to it. “Lady is awake now. Greg come before she breaks more things, yes?”

Gwen suddenly realized she hadn't a stitch of clothing on and hurriedly reexamined the room. There were some light gray sweat clothes draped over the back of a single chair, and she slipped into them as fast as possible.

A minute or so later, there was a rattle at the door, a pause, and another, more forceful rattle. Then the door cracked and broke and swung out into the hallway.

"I think you jammed the lock with your kick," Greg said as he held out one arm, indicating that Gwen should come out into the hall.

"How did you know what I..." Gwen began.

"Cameras." Greg said shortly. "They're everywhere throughout this facility, and there are ponies on patrol outside the building who have orders to kill you on sight, so no stupid moves, please." He led her into a room that had three large swivel chairs facing a wall of monitors. On the central monitor was a view of a large room containing several long couches around a large, low table. The room was well-lit but there were no windows. Luna was sitting on one couch and Chitter was stretched out on the one next to hers. Between them, on the floor, sat Lisa, passing tidbits of food up to her partner from the large platter that rested on the low table in front of her. She looked happy.

"Lisa has told me a very interesting story, Gwen," Greg said as he waved her to a seat and settled into the chair next to hers. "I'm really impressed with what you did with the kids... collecting them and their pony friends... training them... indoctrinating them."

Gwen said nothing. She sat silently, carefully watching his face.

"I always knew you were deceitful and manipulative," Greg continued, "but I never thought you'd just turn over someone on your own team to be—"

"I didn't have a choice!" Gwen snapped. "If those bastards had gotten their way it would have been half my team in those cells instead of just that one." She tossed her head at Chitter.

"And you picked her because she didn't fit in well with the others? Or was it personal dislike or something more subtle? Maybe some devious psychological manipulation you had in mind to—"

"Goddammit, Greg!" she spat at him. "You're nobody to be pointing a finger at me for doing the best I could under difficult circumstances. As for dishonesty and outright lying, you and your monster are way out of my league!"

"Misdirection and even outright lies are just weapons, I'll grant you," Greg said. "But I'm talking about betraying someone who's... who... what did you say?"

"I said you're a lying sack of shit," Gwen replied helpfully.

"No you didn't. Not just me... you included Luna." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why did you do that?"

Gwen threw back her head and laughed. "Oh good God, Greg! You still haven't figured out how she's been playing you all this time? Every move you've made has been tainted with her objectives!"

Greg was on his feet. "That's bullshit! This is one of your sick games and I'm not going to listen to it!"

"Fine. But you're close to consolidating your power aren't you?" Gwen continued, ignoring Greg's flushed face and his tightly clenched fists. "When she's safe... when she and the other ponies aren't in danger any more... do you really think she'll have any reason to serve you... her master any longer? You think I'm an expert manipulator? Well it takes one to know one, and I could see what she was doing to you from—"

"Shut up!" Greg snarled at her.

"Okay, okay," Gwen said, as she sighed and pretended indifference, "I won't try to enlighten you. But you're a smart guy... you should think back to every important decision you've made and see if it wasn't just what your horsey fuck-buddy wanted you to—"

The slap echoed in the small room like a gunshot. Gwen tumbled to the floor and collapsed, dazed by the force of the blow. Greg left the room with long, angry strides and made a curt gesture to the unicorn waiting in the hallway. "Tie her up and gag her and bring her to the Common Room in fifteen minutes. If she gives you any trouble, you can kick the hell out of her but don't kill her. I've promised that privilege to someone else."

Greg continued down the hallway, trying to keep his anger under control. He'd be rid of Gwen soon, and then he could begin to wipe the memory of her from his life. He wouldn't have to think... to think about what she'd said.

He tried not to...

...but the seed had been planted.

Author's Notes:

Thanks again to my egregiously erudite prereaders and editors Fana Farouche, WrittenWord333, and Jordanis!