The moon was full, and sat in the center of the sky. This was almost invariably the case, as Discord seemed to enjoy having it placed there in few view of the population he ruled. At first it had been a sign of his power, but the ponies of Equestria had long since forgotten its meaning or what Discord had imprisoned there.

Xyuka looked up at it, watching through a window- -or rather, the idea of a window. Her facility had no transparent openings. It had actually been several decades since she had seen the word outside, a fact that did not remotely bother her. It was only the most infinitesimal fraction of time. There was nothing stopping her from leaving, of course; she just saw no need to. Seeing the world through the facility’s internal sensory system or through her own modified eyes was hardly different. None of it was real either way.

“It’s in phase,” she said to no one. “I could wait another month. Or another ten. Or another thousand. But I suppose I might as well hurry this along.”

The statement was redundant. With the completion of the reactor, everything was finally ready- -or nearly ready. One piece- -the most critical piece- -was still missing, but that was irrelevant to the current project. The machinery would work fine for the purpose that Xyuka was being paid to use it for.

She slowly turned away staring at a bland and empty corner of the ceiling, and then slowly crossed the room. The hologram and suit she had worn in the past had been replaced with her true exterior, as she had once again donned her armor. The final piece of it was sitting on her desk. It was part of her helmet, consisting of a flat black faceplate. Xyuka paused before it, realizing that she could not remember the last time she had been complete. Then she picked it up.

The surface reacted to her presence, and the black surface was interrupted by the appearance of a luminescent white circle. It immediately moved across the surface, looking around the room to establish its position. The mask was already interfaced with what was left of Xyuka’s nervous system, and she could see what it saw.

This produced a strange situation: the fact that she could see herself from below. The eye paused, and Xyuka stared at herself. Normally she felt very little, but at this time felt nothing but dull disgust and hatred. She despised looking at herself, at a face that would never grow older. It reminded her of what she might have been, and what she had been. Despite her age, she did not look much different than she had in her youth, when she had grown up as a filly in Ponyville so long ago.

That part of her life had been the last time that Xyuka had been truly happy, running and playing with her friends. She remembered that there had been two of them, a unicorn and an earth-pony, with Xyuka being the Pegasus to round out the trio. To her mild horror, she realized that she could not remember their names anymore. It had been too long. In fact, she only barely recalled what her own name had been back then.

It did not matter at the moment, though. She would remember in time. First, though, she needed to attend to the mundanity of ordinary life. With a click, she slipped the mask on. It connected to the rest of her armor, and she felt the pressure change as her body was completely and entirely isolated from the environment around her. Standing alone in an empty office- -that would be the last time any piece of her skin was exposed to this world ever again.

Morning came- -or at least, the semblance of morning in a world that had no sun and no night. Like every morning, Rainbow Dash was the first awake. She had to be, as she had to hurry to eat breakfast before her early morning nap. Hurrying, though, was not easy- -even for her- -at six in the morning.

So, as every day, she mostly stumbled and staggered into the common cafeteria that the facility shared. It was large, as though it had been intended for a small army of Watchers despite there only being seven- -or in Rainbow Dash’s opinion, five plus a contractor and her pet.

Rainbow Dash flopped down into a seat with a large cup of coffee and a plate of eggs wrapped in delicious bacon. She then looked around carefully before producing a small bottle and filling her coffee with alcohol.

“Being Irish, Dashie?” asked Pinkie Pie, her cheek suddenly touching Rainbow Dash’s.

“GAH!” cried Rainbow Dash as she shot out of her chair and ended up clinging to a gas fixture on the ceiling. “Pinkie! Don’t do that!”

Pinkie pointed at the cup. “You know you’re not supposed to do that. You are what you eat! And if you eat alcohol, you both get drunk!”

“Well I need something to counteract the amphetamines!” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she descended back to her seat. “And at least I don’t put four pounds of sugar into it!”

“Silly filly!” said Pinkie, balancing a bowl on her head and placing it on the table. “I gave up on coffee! It’s bad for you, you know! Now I just eat the sugar! Exclamation points in every sentence!”

“You mean you’re just eating plain sugar?”

Pinkie Pie sighed. “Well, I tried putting cyanide in it, but it all spontaneously denatured before it could, you know, do cyanide things. So it’s just sugar now. Want some?”

“No!” Rainbow Dash pulled her plate away. “Processed sugar is bad for my performance!”

“You mean your murtalizing?”

“Duh. Why else would I bother eating healthy and training every day?”

Pinkie Pie looked at Rainbow Dash’s plate. “Eew. Eggs.”

“What’s wrong with eggs?”

“They don’t have sugar. Not even the Easter eggs. I’ve tried. I mean, who wants to lick an egg.”

“I want to lick your eggs.”

“Hmm.” Pinkie Pie paused for a moment, and then picked up Rainbow Dash’s coffee and splashed it into its owners face.

“GAH!” cried Rainbow Dash, clutching her face. “HOT!”

“You see Dashie, I want this to be clear, because we’re friends. What you do with Pinkamena is your own business, and I let you do it because I love my sister. But I still think it’s disgusting. Don’t talk about it to me.”

“It’s in my eyes!”

“Yes. Because you’re eyes deserve it.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “But it’s okay, because you were joking. And I was too! Joking with scalding!”

Enraged, Rainbow Dash threw a punch at Pinkie. Despite being partially unable to see, she still would have hit Pinkie square in the jaw- -had the gas fixture that Rainbow Dash had been clinging to before not been damaged by her weight. It pulled off the wall and fell between them, causing Rainbow Dash to jump back.

“Buck you, Pinkie,” she said, wiping her face and moving three seats down. “Next time Pinkamena shows up, you’re getting extra hot wax. You’ll never get it out of your coat!”

“That’s future Pinkie’s problem! Current Pinkie’s problem is that the room is filling up with acetylene. But I don’t mind. In fact, I’m enjoying it! It’s a gas!”

Rainbow Dash looked up at the ceiling. Indeed, she did smell the vanilla-like scent of the gas, and the hissing sound of it being released into the room.

She suddenly chuckled. “Hey, Pinkie? I’ll bet eight hundred bits and a picture of a shaved griffon that if I light a match, it won’t blow up.”

“You’re on!”

“No, you won’t.” The gas hissing slowed as it was turned off, and both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash turned to see Darknight standing in the doorway and shutting the emergency valve. Unlike both of them, he was already dressed in his standard uniform. Not for any particular reason, of course.

“Killjoy,” muttered Rainbow Dash.

“I don’t like filling out work orders.” He walked into the room and looked at the damage. “I guess I already have to do one for the main pipe.”

“Have Rarity do it,” said Rainbow Dash, shoving three boiled eggs down her throat. “She’s not good for much else.”

“True, but she also has a seventh-grade education. I doubt she could manage the forms properly.”

“Speaking of that,” said Pinkie. “I see you got new legs.” She shoved Rainbow Dash’s plate toward Darknight. “How about some eggies? Eggies are good for your weggies!”

“They are fine,” said Darknight, flexing one of them. The reconnection procedure for all of his various parts had been highly successful, and the scars had already faded into imperceptibly pale lines underneath his coat. “It will take some time to restore symmetry, though.”

“You should have let her get blown up,” said Rainbow Dash, now guzzling bacon. “She’s a waste of space.”

“She’s also right behind you.”

Rainbow Dash turned to see Rarity behind him. She looked her in the eye. “You’re a waste of space,” she said. “And you deserve to die.”

“Good morning to you too, Rainbow Dash,” sighed Rarity. “And I’d rather not, but frankly, you need to dye LESS. Your mane is gauche. There, I said it.”

“Oh!” said Pinkie Pie. “BURN!” She then picked up another cup of hot coffee and poured it down the back of Rainbow Dash’s neck.

“PINKIE! My wings!”

“Triple BURN!” cried Pinkie. She giggled madly. “I like seeing Rainbow Dash in pain. It turns me on. Which makes me some kind of deranged pervert, doesn’t it? HMM? I should probably feel ashamed of myself, shouldn’t I?” She turned to Darknight. “Actually, you should pervert Rarity! I mean, you saved her life! Fill that filly! Come on!”

Rarity blushed profusely, but Darknight seemed to register no emotional response.

“No,” he said. “I’d rather not.”

“Oh,” said Rarity, disappointed.

“I totally would,” said Rainbow Dash. “I would bite that horn so hard…”

“Unfortunately, I have an aversion to mares that smell strongly of cheap coffee. And…” Rarity sniffed Rainbow Dash. “Traces of rum.”

“Rum?” said Pinkie Pie, perking up, “where did you get rum?”

“From pirates,” said Rainbow Dash sarcastically.

“Really?”

“No. From that guy. You know, the one I sodomized with his own severed- -”

“Ahem,” said Rarity, clearing her throat. “Despite how rude and uncouth you all are being,” she started, “I would like to establish some amount of goodwill between us. I know I’m a tad…deficient.”

“No kidding,” said Rainbow Dash.

“At least in combat skills,” continued Rarity, “but I do think I have the capacity to do some good. So I made you all some gifts.”

“Gifts?” Rainbow Dash perked up. “Well, buck, now I feel like a jerk.”

“You are a jerk,” noted Pinkie Pie.

Rarity reached into a bag on her side. She removed a large folded piece of translucent fabric and passed it to Rainbow Dash.

“Clothes?” said Rainbow Dash, looking disappointed.

“Yes clothes! It’s a new cloak. Made from omnichromic threading.”

“I don’t know what that means.” Rainbow Dash opened the cloak and slipped it on. The fabric, now unfolded, shimmered and shifted, drawing colors from its environment. It did not cause her to become invisible, but it distorted her presence in a way that camouflaged her perfectly with the room around her. “Oh,” said Rainbow Dash, wide-eyed. “Now I see what it means.” She looked up at Rarity. “This is super-cool! Where did you even get this?”

“I didn’t ‘get’ it anywhere. I woke up very early from some…strange dreams. I decided to do some work to calm myself down. So I made that. By satin-looming the fixed hair of a demiguise with ulexite fibers.”

“You mean you just made this? Like, with your hooves?”

“And the horn that you so desperately want to…eh…chew, on?”

“Okay,” said Rainbow Dash. “My first opinion of you may have been…off. So you are good at something. Also, I will now DEFINITLY be getting you in bed. Except now…” She pulled the cloak up to her face and slowly drifted beneath the table, “you won’t see me coming…”

“Indeed,” sighed Rarity, rolling her eyes.

“Ooh! Ooh! Do I get an invisibility cloak too?! I want to rob the donut shop down the street, but this time without having to cut everypony’s throats again!”

“No. You get something a little different.” Rarity gave her a folded garment. “A new robe. Smaller, sleeker, more form fitting. The one you have now looks like you would trip if you ever tried to run. There is an enchantment too. I haven’t tested it, but it should shift colors for your sister.”

“Yay, blasphemy!” said Pinkie Pie. “I love it! Even though I could legitimately kill you right now for denigrating my Discord-approved Chaos Priestess attire! But I won’t, because it has POCKETS! Also because I don’t know what ‘denigrate’ means…”

“And for you,” said Rarity, taking her bag to Darknight. For the first time, she saw Darknight show some level of emotion: pure surprise.

“Me?” he said. “I’m afraid there must be some mistake. I am a noncan. I do not deserve gifts.”

“Oh please. Even if you’re not canon, you’re still on the team. And you did save my life.” She removed something black and made of metal from her bag. “I was not sure what exactly you would want, so…”

“New holsters,” said Darknight, surprised and even slightly moved.

“Yes. It took me a while to find the blueprint for your armor so that I could get them compatible with the clips. But their lighter, smoother, and more durable. Also, black, so they match.”

Darknight took them in his magic, looking at them with some level of amazement. “My right-side holster was damaged in the blast. I thought I was going to have to track down a replacement…but now I don’t have to. Thank you. No pony has ever given me a gift before.”

“You’re welcome,” said Rarity. She looked around the room. “Do you know where I could find Sunset and Starlight?”

“Sunset left earlier,” said Darknight. “Discord is throwing a private party to celebrate the one thousandth anniversary of the conclusion of the Final War. She was requested to run security.”

“A royal party?” gasped Rarity. “Oh my! She’s so lucky! But if only I had caught her earlier!”

“Why?”

“Well, I made her this dress,” said Rarity, lifting a spectacular red dress out of the bag. “If I had gotten it to her earlier, she could have worn it!”

“Why would Sunset need a dress?” said Rainbow Dash, who was now clinging to the ceiling. “She’s made of metal! She can’t wear clothes!”

“Of course she can! And…well, I have the impression that she probably does not get many chances to dress up like a normal pony.”

“Of course not! Why would she want to? She’s got all those epic enhancements! A dress would just cover them up and make her look like the rest of us!”

“She does,” said Rarity. “I just thought she would want a dress…” She turned to Darknight. “And Starlight?”

“With Twilight. As always.”

“I cut her a gem,” said Rarity. “A ruby. She normally wears that sapphire. Although I was not sure if that serves some medical purpose…”

“But nothing for Twilight?” asked Pinkie.

“No,” said Rarity. “Nothing for her.”

“Any particular reason?” asked Darknight.

“Because in all honesty I don’t like her. At all. I may be generous, but even I have limits.”

“Of course not,” said Rainbow Dash, dropping from the ceiling. “Nopony does. That’s why she has no friends and spends all her time alone. Because everypony hates her and doesn’t want to be around her.”

“She doesn’t have any friends?”

“No. Not even family anymore, except for her brother in the Crystal Empire.”

“She’s been alone for a long time,” said Darknight. “Sunset has proposed that the prolonged isolation has had…effects.”

“Oh,” said Rarity, finding herself regretting her decision not to at least try to extend a friendly hoof to her other coworker. “I didn’t know that.”

Rarity was about to ask more about the subject when she saw a strange expression come over Pinkie Pie’s face.

“Pinkie?” said Rainbow Dash, pulling back her partially invisible hood. “What’s wrong?”

Pinkie Pie did not answer. Instead, she doubled over in pain. Her skin went pale, and her pupils narrowed to the point where they were almost no longer visible.

“Pinkie!” cried Rarity, rushing to her side.

Pinkie looked up, and her hair was now straight instead of curly. There was no joy on her face anymore; in fact, Pinkamena looked terrified.

“I’ve never felt it like this before,” she said. “Something is about to happen. Something terrible.”

“Then we have to stop it,” said Darknight, as though it were that simple.

“We can’t,” said Pinkamena, softly. “We’re already too late.”

Through all of Equestria, it seemed that only two ponies were able to both sense and articulate what was happening, or about to happen. All the others that knew were not sane enough to speak, although most ponies had a general sense that something was not quite right.

Discord, of course, would not let this spoil a good party, especially one of such great significance. He himself did not fully comprehend what was already in motion, as care had been taken to ensure that he would not be able to stop the inevitable from occurring.

So the party went on unhindered without a care. It was being thrown in Discord’s palace, a vast and largely uninhabitable structure in the pocket dimension that he called home. One particular room had been set aside for the guests, largely because the last time Discord had held a party some of the nobility had accidentally wandered into the area that had an atmosphere of pure fluorine gas. That room was normally used to store bananas, and it had given him quite a surprise to find pony corpses other than the ones that he naturally used to calm the bananas.

Guests of great importance and even guests of higher-moderate importance had come from across Equestria. Few, though, were as important as the reclusive ruler of the Crystal Empire. His very presence caused a stir amongst the other guests as well as the members of the servantly that were not animated furniture. Few among them had met a unicorn so tall, or with such a long dark mane and threatening continence.

Sombra, of course, did not attend alone. Perpetually at his side stood a white stallion dressed in gold and white to complement Sombra’s silver and red. While Sombra had a quite menacing appearance, the white stallion actually appeared quite feminine, with precisely cut fetlocks and his long blue mane braided back behind his crown and heavily decorated ears. While Sombra wore heavy mithril war-armor, the white stallion wore a far more revealing garment that would be more commonly seen on a mare- -in addition to extensive makeup around his eyes.

These two initially seemed to have little interest in those around them. Of the few that had arrived so early, none would approach them. That was, at least, until an even more terrifying pony entered the room.

She arrived with comparatively little fanfare, apart from a sudden gasp in the room followed by slight coughing from those not familiar with the scent of the embalming fluid that sustained her aid’s undead body. Many stepped back as she descended the multicolored stairs that led upward to parts of the castle that had been known to consume those not familiar with Chaos.

On her right walked a rebody stallion, his pale yellow body covered mostly in dark Tartaran armor wrought into the shapes emblematic of death and decay and decorated with a sash made from the teeth of the dead for the occasion. On the Queen’s other side walked a vicious double-dog that stood and moved without a leash or any apparent means of control to keep it from devouring the guests at will.

The Queen herself was far less imposing, and yet somehow even more terrifying. She was the ruler of Equestria, and yet wore no clothes save for the round black glasses that perpetually covered her eyes. Her coat was sickly and yellow, and her long and crimson-colored hair hung nearly to the floor and backward between her wings.

She looked through the crowd, but her eyes finally fell on Sombra. She smiled and approached. Sombra smiled in return, and approached her as well.

“Sombra!” she said. “And Shining Armor! I’m so glad you came!”

“Of course,” said Sombra, having to talk somewhat slowly to ensure that his speech was intelligible. He took the Queen’s hoof and kissed it. “How could I not attend knowing that you would be here, Queen Fluttershy?”

The rebody frowned and growled slightly. “Oh, come now,” said Fluttershy. “If anypony should be getting jelous, it’s poor Shining Armor here.”

“Hardly,” said Shining Armor with a demure chuckle. “I trust my dear Sombra more than any pony in all of Equestria.” He put his head against the Sombra’s mithril coated neck.

“Of course,” said Sombra, smiling and showing several long canine teeth. “It was meant as a nicety. I would hardly want to reenact the Filliad. Not because you are not a worthy Hellen, of course, my dear Fluttershy, but because I respect your husband too deeply to cast him as my Agamemnon.”

“I’m afraid the classics are not my specialty,” sighed Fluttershy. “These eyes, they make it hard to read.”

“In all honesty, I never read it myself. I lived it.”

“Oh, wow,” said Fluttershy. “You’re really old!” She gasped. “Oop! I’m so sorry!”

“There is no need to be. Unicorns are like the greatest wine. We only grow greater as we grow older. In addition…” He stroked Shining Armor’s chin with his metal-clad hoof. Shining armor shivered and nuzzled the hoof passionately. “…I have always had a predilection for younger lovers.”

“You two are so cute,” said Fluttershy. “I remember when Discord used to treat me that way…”

“He doesn’t anymore?”

“I’m not mad at him. I couldn’t be mad at ANY pony. It’s just that he’s so busy all the time…” Fluttershy sighed. “It gets lonely being surrounded by my mother’s soldiers all the time.”

“Although you may not believe it, I do understand the feeling,” sighed Sombra. “Ruling can be a lonely proposition. Especially for immortals like us.”

Shining Armor looked from Sombra to Fluttershy. It was apparent that the mood was dropping, and doing so fast. He nudged Sombra. “You should tell her.”

“Tell her what?”

“You know…”

Sombra’s eyes, as dark as they were, lightened slightly. “Oh yes!” He turned to Fluttershy. “Shining Armor and I are going to have a foal.”

Fluttershy immediately gasped so loud that the only noble daring enough to stand near her- -for the sole purpose of looting the shrimp cocktail- -jumped and nearly dropped his food.

“Oh my ME!” squealed Fluttershy with such a frequency that several wine flutes were put in dire danger of shattering. “You AREN’T!”

Sombra chuckled. “We are.”

“Wait,” said Fluttershy, calming down for a moment and adjusting her glasses. “How exactly…”

“Well, as you know,” said Shining Armor, leaning against Sombra. “We can’t exactly produce a child normally. Despite how much Sombra tries, he just can’t get me pregnant. So we decided to adopt!”

Shining Armor produced a photograph from his ornate garment and levitated it to Fluttershy. Her double-dog took it in one of its mouth and held it up for her to see.

“She’s an orphan,” said Sombra. “A Pegasus from Ponyville.”

“Her name is Scootaloo!” gushed Shining Armor. “Isn’t that adorable?”

Although they were both smiling, Fluttershy was not. She was staring transfixed at the girl on the page. It was a simple photograph, the kind that for-profit orphanages took of their wares. The Pegasus in it was orange, with large violet eyes and a short violet mane. Her wings were small and atrophied, so Fluttershy supposed that she was probably unable to fly.

“Is something wrong?”

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before,” said Fluttershy, softy.

Before she could fully remember, there was the sound of a tremendous explosion. It was followed by crackles of fireworks in every shade of plaid, many of which released pudding instead of ash save for one which released deadly acid onto one unfortunate mare. Discord had finally made his grand entrance.

He appeared in a flash, dressed to the hilt with a suit of fluorescent orange and pink that combined plaid trousers with a striped shirt and a paisley tie. He also wore a hat which was, in fact, a cat. As Discord took it off to bow to his subjects, it leapt away and mugged poor Blueblood for his shrimp cocktail.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! And Blueblood! Discord has ARRIVED!” He floated into the air and pointed his cane at a gray earth-pony who was playing slow, calming cello music. She was immediately replaced by a white unicorn DJ who began to play far more upbeat music.

Discord then floated to the ground and did a small dance while his subjects were obliged to applaud. Fluttershy giggled.

“Oh Discord,” she said, covering her mouth.

Discord was not alone. He had arrived with the High Priestess of Chaos, a bluish earth-pony with wavy light hair. Although she wore the standard robes of a Chaos Priestess, she was attached to Discord by a leash. Her immediate behavior made the reason for this obvious. Almost as soon as she arrived, she jumped around the room, barking excitedly. Her mind had burned free decades earlier.

One other pony accompanied Discord, a grotesque cyborg with a red-and-yellow mane. She did not seem to share in Discord’s rivalry, and immediately scanned the room with her mismatched eyes only to quite obviously come to the conclusion that this was a place she really did not want to be.

“Sunset,” said Fluttershy, approaching the cyborg. Her tone was neutral. “You’re actually here.”

“Why of course!” said Discord. “As my delicious orange-flavored Watcher, she has to do whatever I say! Isn’t that right, Sunny-side-down?” Sunset just glared at Discord. “Aww,” said Discord, feigning disappointment. “Such a sour puss! You’re puss didn’t used to be so sour, back when I was in charge of it!”

“Any and all connection we had is terminated,” said Sunset, curtly. “I am here because you asked for additional security. This is just work, and time I could be spending on much better things.”

“Oh my! I’m so sad that you’re talking to me like that! It makes me blue…” Discord turned pink for irony’s sake, “is that any way to talk to your old teacher, especially after I taught you so many…heh heh heh…things?”

“I will talk to whomever I want however I want.” Sunset looked to Fluttershy, and then away. It was quite apparent that their situations put them at odds. “Hello, Queen Fluttershy,” she said. “If you have time later, there is something I need to speak to you about- -”

“Oh!” said Shining Armor, walking up with Sombra. “Careful! You’ll make Discord jealous!”

“Sombra, Shiny-hiney!” said Discord. “I didn’t expect to see you here!”

“This is an important occasion,” said Sombra. “I thought we could take some time to celebrate the defeat of our enemies, no?”

“Indeed!” said Discord. “Or maybe even OUTdeed, if you’re into the real KINKY stuff! One thousand years, and I don’t look a day over nine hundred!” His Priestess began barking at a stranger, and he yanked her leash hard, causing her to yip in surprise. “I just checked on them, too. Still in the moon, right where I left them.”

“As expected,” said Sombra. “But I can’t help but wonder. You are aware of Starswirl’s prophecy, aren’t you?”

“Ah, yes, the coot-king of cootsville. Yes. I dealt with it already. Trust me, everything is fine! Chaos is Eternal! Now come on, you two!” He leaned in close to them. “How about you have yourselves a GAY old time?”

The joke was so bad that the music stopped and the room fell silent. One yellow unicorn lifted her hoof to her mouth and yelled. “BOO!”

Discord sighed and snapped his fingers. The disapproving mare collapsed, having been transfigured into a pile of potatoes. “Well, she’s dead,” he said. “Anypony else?” At that, every other pony laughed and applauded and Discord only turned two more into root crops.

“You know,” he said. “It occurs to me, Sunny.” He turned to his old student. “That body of yours…why, if I just snapped my fingers, I could give you your old one back. Just like that.” He tried to snap his fingers, but pretended to be unable. “Flesh, horn, fiddly bits, all of it. It wouldn’t even be hard. Trivial, really.”

“I hate you,” whispered Sunset through clenched teeth. “I hate you so much.”

“And yet if I told you to get down on your little robotic knees, you would, wouldn’t you?”

Sunset growled, and part of her robotic exoskeleton began to shift. Fluttershy- -who already did not like the way this conversation was going- -stepped in.

“Now, Discord, this is supposed to be a party. You don’t want to bring down the mood, now, do you?”

Discord gasped. “Heavens no! The mood can’t be moody, that simply WON’T do! How about I throw someone into the pool? Or better yet, throw the POOL into SOMEPONY!” He snapped his fingers, and there was a cry of anguish as that actually did happen.

“And look over there!” said Fluttershy, pointing at a quivering pile of green slime. “Isn’t that the Schmooze? And look, he even wore a new hat. Or, well, ate somepony else’s. Or somepony else.”

“The Schmooze is here? How’s my hair? How’s my butt? Is it buttery enough? I’m going to go talk to him.” An idea seemed to pop into his head, and a lightbulb- -a technology not yet invented by Equestrian science- -appeared over his head. “I know! Teehee! I’m going to spike the punch with him! Have you ever seen what happens if a large amount of warm, living goo is put into a pony?”

“Yes,” said Shining Armor.

“Oh. Well, you’re about to see it again!”

Discord slithered off, and Fluttershy turned to Sunset. “I don’t really like you being here,” she said.

“And I don’t like being here.”

“You could have refused.”

“He’s my boss. And he was once my teacher. I can’t just do that.”

“And if I ordered you to leave?”

“Do you think I even could? How much do you want to bet that if I tried to open that door I would just end up back in this room?”

“Betting is a sin. Among other things.”

“You would know.”

“I would. Sunset, I don’t have anything against you. But this isn’t healthy for you. Or for him.”

“I think she understands,” said Sombra. “Four hundred years ago, she would have attended every one of these meetings that she could. Even when those wounds were fresh just fifty years ago. You were always vying for position and power. But I see you gave that up.”

“There’s no point. I’m already dead. The machines just don’t let me realize it.”

“The search for power without vision is a dangerous path indeed. As I warned you. When was that?”

“Two hundred sixty years ago. And I didn’t listen.”

“Clearly. There is a reason why Discord dwells here. Those who get too close…well, they do not survive it.”

“Except for Fluttershy,” noted Shining Armor.

“Fluttershy is a unique example,” said Sombra, looking into where Fluttershy’s eyes would have been visible had she not been wearing large opaque glasses.

“I am,” said Fluttershy. She turned to Sunset. “And I mean this in the friendliest way possible. Stay away from my husband. Or I will have whatever parts of you aren’t metal fed to carnivorous ducks.”

“Duly noted, my Queen,” said Sunset, bowing before her ruler.

“Now if you will excuse me,” said Fluttershy, turning sharply enough that she nearly flicked her long scarlet tail into Sunset’s face, “I want to dance with my husband. The ceiling in this room is carpeted, and the rug needs to be cut.”

She left, leaving Sombra and Shining Armor alone with Sunset, apart from the High Priestess, who sat with her head cocked to one side and her tail wagging.

“Should we give her a biscuit or something?” whispered Shining Armor.

“No. And don’t make eye contact. Her Induction was…well, I’m sure somepony will find the mass grave one day. Knowing your sister, probably her.”

An animated table passed by, dancing to the tune. On it were numerous drinks of fizzing, bubbling solution.

“Ah,” said Sombra. “Please, allow me to get us a drink before Discord puts…ahem… ‘warm, living goo’ into it.”

He walked away, and the High Priestess followed at his heals.

“So,” said Shining Armor. “I actually was wondering, while we’re on the subject. How is my sister doing these days?”

“She’s you’re sister. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“I would, but I’m pretty sure she resents me.”

“Not as much as I resent her. Your sister is a callous, narcissistic, self-serving fool.”

“Well, yes, of course. I just want to make sure she doesn’t do anything else to embarrass the family.”

“As opposed to slaughtering countless children for their ‘ingredients’?”

“Oh now. Our family has done that for generations. Her studies are really no concern.”

Sunset raised the eyebrow over her synthetic eye. “Then what did she do?”

“She was born colored,” sighed Shining Armor. “It’s not her fault. But it is…unpleasant.”

“Be very careful what you say next,” said Sunset. “I may not have most of my skin anymore, but I was orange when I was whole.”

“You are also not nobility. For a noble child to be born…like that. It’s so unfortunate. I really do feel bad for her.”

“Yes. She won’t be able to marry into royalty, will she?”

“Knowing her, I doubt she’ll ever marry anything. Unless Discord can animate a book. But that’s why I ask. It’s the reason my mother gave her the castle. As long as she stays there, out of sight, our family can continue our work.”

“Twilight does as she pleases,” said Sunset. “It isn’t my job to foal-sit her. It isn’t my job, and it isn’t my problem. If you want to deal with her so much, just have her shot.”

“We tried. She sent the assassin’s head to us in a box. Still alive.”

“Then use that Crystal Empire money to hire a real murderer. I don’t know, try a griffon or something. They like to kill things.”

“Unfortunately your homosexual friend killed the best ones. And she won’t accept our terms. She’s incessantly loyal.”

“Well I’m not going to do it. She’s a sadist, but she’s still useful.”

Sunset started to walk away, leaving Shining Armor behind. “You would think that,” he said as she left him. “And you will…until she decides that you’re in her way.”

Far away, the Cataclysm continued to rage in all temporal directions. Even Xyuka would have had difficulty approaching it had she chosen to. The level of Chaos was simply too strong, and unfortunately not useable to her. The entropy cost would simply be too high.

It was well known- -or had once been well known- -that the Cataclysm was the site of the final battle in the Final War, where Discord had unleashed an incredible amount of purified Chaos and finally defeated the Two Sisters Celestia and Luna. What had been long forgotten, though, was that the war had not ended there. It had in fact ended almost sixty miles away in an area that was now completely forgotten, one of countless hundreds of ruins in the Madlands. It was where the Two Sisters had been thrown by the blast, and where they had finally been banished for all eternity to the moon- -and where Xyuka had built her machine.

She approached across the silent desert, walking amongst the ruins. They were columns of immense size, some of which still stood partially complete from the sands below. Xyuka did not know what had once stood here, nor did she care. What mattered now was what was buried beneath the sand, hidden from magical perception by a powerful cloaking field.

In the center of the ruin stood the remains of a dusty plaza, a circle of brick and cobblestone that had been decayed and eroded by centuries of exposure to the wind and dust of the desert. Slowly, Xyuka took her place in the center. She paused for a long moment and looked up at the crimson sky and the moon directly overhead. Then she began.

The interface appeared around her. Symbols and light, representing a language that was uniquely her own. They quickly began shifting at her will as the machinery below initialized. The ground vibrated slightly, and new structures began to form around Xyuka. They were transparent, and cast in orange light. They began to assembled the remainder of the machine with Xyuka at the core, surrounding her and completing the working portions of the device.

They began to operate. Distantly, Xyuka became aware of the interface in her mind revving up, and of her consciousness spreading into her creation. Around her, the lettering changed, forming a new form of letter that long predated Equestria. The interface had been successful.

The cobblestone below began to shift, and something resembling liquid grayness sept through. It lifted up, curving and snaking toward Xyuka. Part of it formed a console, but some of it formed a set of probes. Xyuka opened the back ports of her armor and allowed the ancient machine to interact with the implants in her spine.

“Identity?” asked an idea within her mind. Xyuka turned her left foreleg over and her armor shifted, reveling a tiny but bright blue-purple crystal.

“Choggoth Ravine,” replied the idea as the interface spread and separated, opening the final interface to her. Xyuka’s will spread across it, manipulating the parameters as she saw fit, integrating the data from the primary antenna to her device.

Then, finally, it was done. The connection was complete. All was ready.

Xyuka stepped back, and the translucent orange device around her closed in. A pattern on the ground began to glow, and the reactor implanted within her began to react. There was a sudden explosion of force, and she felt one of the six suppression generators detonate below. It did not matter now, though. It was too late to stop the process.

A circle of light appeared on the ground in front of Xyuka. Without hesitation, she set her left front hoof into it- -and the reactor connected.

Far above, the moon continued its eternal path through its icy orbit around Equestria. Inside, nothing moved. Nothing ever did move. The machinery that it had been constructed of had been dormant since the dawn of time, and the knowledge of how it worked or what it even was had long-since been forgotten.

Inside, Luna had stopped crying. It was, in part, because when she did her sister would scream at her- -but it was also because there was nothing left to cry about. There was only despair, and the thought of a thousand years more of pain and emptiness- -and then another, and another, and the rest of eternity. For the longest time, she had held out hope that Starswirl would return, for Celestia at least, but he never had. They were all gone. Anypony they knew must have been dead by now, and likely no pony remembered they were even trapped.

Then, suddenly, she felt something. She lifted her head and looked around in the darkness. Celestia seemed to have noticed it too.

“What was that?” asked Luna, softly.

Before Celestia could answer, the entire moon seemed to hum to life. The walls illuminated with blinding silver light, its gray and dead-looking surface melted from within by a complex pattern of lines and shapes.

“Luna!” cried Celestia. “What did you do?!”

“It isn’t me, it isn’t me!” Then, suddenly, Luna screamed in agony. Something inside the machines that connected to her body seemed to have found her, and it knew her. Her moon, though it had been her prison for so long, became something else. Something far more terrible.

Her power rose to heights she had not even imagined were possible, but not of her own choice. IT flowed from her into the machinery, and what flowed back was a voice: instructions spoken in a horrible language that her mind could not understand but that her body was forced to obey without question.

The moon’s circuitry erupted with energy drawn from its patron alicorn, and the ancient systems began to respond to the commands from below. Internal mechanisms came to life, pushing outward with impossible force. Tectonic plates began to shift and spread outward. The moon was opening, and becoming something new- -but to do so, it had to finish serving in the capacity of a crude prison.

Far away from Celestia and Luna, the frozen statues of their former generals and loyal servants suddenly flashed to life. They dropped to the ground as whole, organic ponies instead of stone. Some died instantly. Others lay there catatonic, and some did little more than scream. Only a few remained with enough lucidity to be truly considered survivors.

Then it happened. The bounds that held Luna and Celestia began to strain, and then broke away completely. The pair of them dropped to the floor as the machinery linked to them began to snap and pull away. Luna looked back and to her horror realized that the machine had not just been covering her lower body- -it had replaced it. Her body ended at her mid-back. She was just a torso. This was something Celestia had known from the start.

Their immortal bodies almost immediately began to regenerate. Then, as they each stood for the first time in exactly one thousand years, a blinding light filled the room.

The resulting shockwave was felt across Equestria, but only by a select few. In Discordalot, Pinkie Pie suddenly screamed and fell to the floor, writhing in agony. Discord, who had been about to toast himself with a glass both made out of and filled with toast, suddenly froze and then without a word collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. In a distant castle, Starlight Glimmer looked to the sky. Twilight knew what she saw, and a smile crossed her face. Within seconds, both of them had teleported.

Celestia and Luna both landed and for the first time in many centuries felt solid soil beneath their hooves. Luna was almost immediately incapacitated by the drain of the transfer, but Celestia remained standing. She looked at the world around her, and did not need to examine it long to know where she was. They had been returned to the very place they had been taken from. It was certainly different- -the lush green landscape that had once filled this part of the world was replaced with a horrid gray desert, and the ruins that had been fresh in her own time had now been worn and degraded by the wind and sand. To her chagrin, she saw that the sky was a combination of crimson with violet polka dots. Discords was, it seemed, still in charge of the world.

All around her, others began to arrive. The ones she had sensed for so long but had never seen. She knew their names, as they had fought alongside her. They had been the ones who had chosen an eternity of torment alongside their Princess instead of accepting the taint of Chaos. Now, to Celestia’s divine sadness, she saw their lifeless bodies returning to the place of their birth- -the place that should have been rightfully theirs.

Some came alive, though. They were weak, and broken, but one among them still stood. She limped slowly toward Celestia. At first Celestia did not know why she was walking so slowly, but then she saw it. Although she was trying to hide it with one wing, her right front leg had been completely severed and was bleeding badly.

“Commander,” said Celestia, approaching her most loyal general. “You’re injured!”

“My Princess,” she replied weakly. “I…I know. Discord…my hoof…” She suddenly collapsed. Celestia stepped over to her side. “My Princess…”

Celestia lowered her horn to the wound. It burst into flames as she ignited her magic, and the Pegasus screamed from the cauterization. When Celestia was finished, though, the scream turned to laughter.

“My Princess. I…I’m so happy. I’m so happy to see you again. My troops…we will regroup. There are some…we can still…”

She began to fade into unconsciousness, and Celestia suddenly turned toward a pony that was approaching the group from a distance. Through the dust, it was difficult to see her, but Celestia charged her horn regardless. All those contaminated by Chaos would burn in her divine fire.

Just when she was about to fire, though, she stopped.

“No,” she said. “There’s no Chaos in you. I can smell it. But you’re not one of mine. That shouldn’t be possible.”

The pony did not answer. She just stared up at Celestia with a single luminescent white eye in the center an otherwise blank and featureless black mask. She was clad entirely in armor, but not armor from any military force that Celestia recognized.

“You surely don’t predate the War. Who are you?”

“I predate a lot of things. I am Xyuka. You are standing on a machine that I built.”

Celestia looked down. She perceived that she was standing over something deeply buried, and something of immense power, but she did not recognize it as any manner of machine she was familiar with. She looked up into the sky to see the moon directly above. It was no longer round, but instead spreading outward in an enormous fractal pattern.

“You were the one who freed us.”

“That is not all I intend to do.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Several components drifted free of Xyuka’s armor. They crossed the landscape and then split again, each pulling into four separate pieces. The space between them seemed to stretch and quickly break, producing thick red lines between them and a hole in the area between them that seemed deep black. Celestia watched with equal mild amusement and mild apprehension. She did not fully understand what was happening, or what manner of magic this was- -or more importantly, what purpose such a powerful sorceress intended to use it for.

Then, from the far side of the dark holes, Celestia heard hoofsteps. Thousands of them, all marching in unison. The sound was like thunder.

Then they stepped through. Line after line of identical white unicorns, all with identical blank stares on their identical blue eyes, and all dressed in golden armor.

“What is this?” asked Celestia, turning to Xyuka, not sure if she needed to prepare to fight.

“Your soldiers,” she said.

Celestia looked out at them. “My soldiers?”

“I have built you an army. These soldiers were my own design. Strong, powerful, intelligent- -but mindless. They will obey your orders, or those of whatever generals you have that aren’t yet insane. Or those that are, I don’t care. They will never betray you. They do not have the capacity to.”

Celestia looked out at them, and a hesitant smile crossed her face. Then, suddenly, she called out to them. “Bow to your Princess!” she ordered.

Without hesitation, they did. Row after row fell to their knees and bowed. Celestia broke into mad laughter. “Freedom, and a new legion of guards…” She turned to Xyuka. “Enough to start the war against Discord over again.”

“If that is what you want to do with it, yes.”

“What else would I do? Or rather, what would you expect me to do?” Celestia leaned forward. “Or is there somepony that YOU wanted me to fight?”

“I have no quarrels with anypony at all. Not Discord, even. And not you.”

“Hmm.” Celestia lifted her head, and turned toward where Luna was just now starting to shakily stand. “Well, Xyuka,” she said, “you have served me far better than…some others. And you should be rewarded as such.” She turned back to Xyuka. “A thousand years of nothing to do but thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that I require a pony to rule by my side.”

“Sister,” said Luna. Celestia shot her a cruel glance, and Luna silenced.

“To replace some far less adequate personnel. A second Princess of Three. Xyuka, I would like that Princess to be you.”

“No.”

Celestia suddenly gaped. That was not the answer she had expected. She quickly regained composure and frowned at Xyuka. “Don’t answer so quickly,” she said. “After all you’ve done, you’ve surely proven your loyalty to me. Otherwise, what was the point?”

“This was a job. I was paid to do it. To free you, to build you an army capable of taking back Equestria. My only intention was to get paid.”

“That answer makes no sense. Look what I am offering you. You could have your weight one million times over in Equestrian gold, and the power of a god. Whoever paid you, I can give you so much more.”

“I have no need for gold,” said Xyuka, “and power is pointless. For me, at least.”

Celestia smiled. “Then what? I think I know. Love, isn’t it?”

“In a sense. Although I have long since lost the capacity to feel it. To feel anything, really.”

“Then just tell me what you want, and I will give it to you.”

Xyuka turned away. “I only want to return home. And that is something even you cannot give me.” She took a step and then paused. “I should also warn you. Discord has a group of followers. Some of them are powerful. And several of them are inbound on your position.”

As if on cue, a barrage of crystalline magical bolts showered down upon her. They force of the blast tore apart several of the nearest ponies, including several of the old soldiers who were two damaged to escape. Several of Xyuka’s noncans were also damaged, although the remainder projected pink-violet shields around themselves.

When the smoke cleared, Xyuka was uninjured. She had surrounded herself with a projected shell if orange and violet energy arranged into a dome of hexagons. She slowly turned to Celestia. “You will not see me again,” she said.

Light then shone from around her body, and swirled as her material form began to fade like static. In seconds, she was gone.