Rarity entered the room with equal parts confidence and fear. The night before, she had been unable to sleep. Instead, she had busied herself with the preparations for the battle that she knew was coming. She had polished her armor, sharpened her knife, and loaded her pistol.

When she entered, she saw Darknight. He had similarly prepared his armor, doing his best to patch the damage that it had occurred in the last fight.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Rarity.

“No,” he said. “I had strange dreams.”

“What do you mean ‘strange’?”

Darknight was pensive for a moment. “I’m not sure. It was hard to tell. But I saw…her.”

“Her?”

Darknight looked at her, and then shook his head. “Anomalies. I’m just not used to it, I suppose. Noncans rarely dream.”

“After what you saw, I think you deserve it.”

“She was not the first Watcher I have seen die. Nor will she be the last. And this…it makes me sad.”

At that time, Sunset Shimmer entered the room. “You two,” she said. “I’m glad you’re up.” She looked around. “Where the buck are Twilight and Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m already here,” said Rainbow Dash. One of the more shadowy stone walls shimmered as she stepped forward, revealing herself. She had been hiding beneath her cloak. Even Rarity was a bit stunned; she had not realized that her cloak was really so effective.

At the same time, she saw why Rainbow Dash had been using it. She looked terrible. It was simultaneously apparent that she had not slept at all, had been crying, and had taken a considerable amount of whatever drug cocktail she was favoring for that day. “I don’t need to be briefed,” she said. “Twilight told me everything.”

“Like Tartarus you don’t need to be briefed,” said Sunset. “Do you think you’re just going to go in there guns blazing?”

“I’m going to kill Xyuka,” said Rainbow Dash, plainly.

“Not by yourself you’re not. Remember, you’re the one who took the most damage last time.”

“I don’t care how hurt I get. I’m going to get revenge. For her.”

“Not if it costs any more of us. I’ve confirmed it, as best as I can. Discord is dead. That means we’re the last six Watchers EVER. Either we go in as a team, or not at all.”

“Five,” corrected Rarity. “There are five of us now.”

Sunset looked to Rarity, seeming confused. She opened her mouth to ask what she meant, but before she could speak Twilight flashed into the room.

“There you are,” growled Sunset. “What the buck took you so- -”

“It’s Starlight,” said Twilight rapidly. “I can’t find her! She’s not in the perimeter spell around the castle, not anywhere!”

A look of realization came across Sunset’s face. She knew what Rarity had meant.

“She may have wandered off,” suggested Darknight.

“She can’t ‘wander off’,” snapped Twilight, as though that were something unbelievably obvious. “She only does what I TELL her to do!”

“Not anymore,” said Rarity.

Twilight suddenly glared at Rarity and took a step forward, charging her horn. “You little witch,” she said, “you did something to her!”

“Stand down,” ordered Sunset.

“You do NOT give me orders!” screamed Twilight. “This is MY castle! MY home! I am not going to take instructions from a magicless cybernetic ABOMINATION!”

“Starlight is gone,” said Rarity. “She left.”

“I just told you! She can’t leave- -”

“And I just told YOU that she DID. She spoke to me last night.”

“She can’t speak. She doesn’t have the capacity!”

“Then how do I know about her village? About what you did to her friends? About how you couldn’t defeat her in a proper fight, so you took…well, a rather dastardly alternative route.”

Twilight grew pale. “You shouldn’t know that.”

“I do. That spell that Luna used on her seems to have undone your work.”

“Well buck,” said Sunset. “This just got a lot more hopeless.”

“We have to retrieve her,” said Twilight, flatly.

“No,” said Rainbow Dash. “Starlight is not my concern. Only Xyuka.”

“And we don’t have the horsepower to take her down anyway,” said Sunset. “I mean, you saw her, right? Even if we had the entire Centre on watch, I don’t know if we could find her, let alone ‘retrieve’ her.”

“Do you know how much time I have invested in her? Do you have any idea how difficult the implants in her body COST?”

“No. And I don’t care. You can go look for her if you want. AFTER we deal with the problem at hoof.”

Twilight fumed for a moment, but then looked to Rainbow Dash. She groaned. “Fine,” she said.

“Right,” said Sunset. “Now. Do any of you have synax bullets left?”

“I brought four,” said Darknight, “but I had to use two in the escape.”

“Three,” said Rainbow Dash, “and one runic round.”

“I’ve got two,” said Sunset shimmer. “Heavy caliber. Let’s hope it’s enough.”

“Enough for what?” asked Rarity.

“I’ve run the math on the scans. I still have no idea what the Stonies are using as armor. It’s not magic, but it’s some kind of field. Normal bullets won’t penetrate well, but synaxarium should be able to short it out. Darknight, give one of your rounds to Rarity.”

Darknight nodded and removed a secondary magazine from his body. He clicked out one of the bullets onto his hoof. It looked strange, with no definite color or shape. He passed it to Rarity.

“I don’t know if this will fit my revolver,” said Rarity.

“It will. Trust me.”

Rarity removed her pistol from its holster and daintily removed one of the bullets. She held the synaxarium bullet up to the cylinder, and saw that it was indeed the wrong size and shape- -only to suddenly realized that it would indeed fit. Rarity blinked, not knowing if she had just been mistaken or if the cartridge had changed to fit its new temporary home. Whatever the case, she put it into the last hole.

“Okay,” said Sunset. “I have no intel. None at all. But I can tell you what I think is going to happen. My guess is we’ll be walking into an entire army of Stonies. They are going to protect their creator. To the death. This isn’t going to be an easy fight.”

“None of us expect it to be,” said Darknight.

Sunset nodded. “We need to take Xyuka ALIVE.”

“I can’t promise that,” said Rainbow Dash.

“You’re going to have to. We need information out of her.”

“At the very least, we need her brain,” said Twilight. “And besides. Do you really want to just put a bullet through her head and let her go like that?”

Rainbow Dash smiled, although it was a vicious and unpleasant expression. “No. She doesn’t deserve that.”

Twilight smiled. “Excellent.”

Sunset turned to Twilight. “Alright,” she said. “There’s still enough residual Chaos in the distribution system to power the portals, but without Pinkie, we can’t use them. You’re going to have to teleport us.”

Twilight nodded and lit her horn. Rarity braced herself. There was a flash of light, and they left the castle. For three of them, it would be for good.

The teleportation brought them to Xyuka’s island. Although, as Rarity quickly realized, it was no longer an island at all. She immedicably blinked and looked around. For some reason, she had expected the situation to be far more epic, with scenery more fitting of the mood. A night attack, perhaps, or one in driving rain or even snow. Instead, she found herself standing under a bright, pleasant blue sky. Or what would have been a pleasant blue sky were it not for the massive fractal structure that had once been the moon dominating the sky.

Likewise, the island was no longer floating. None of them were. The Cataclysm had withered and almost entirely vanished, and the Chaos energy that had kept the Floater District floating had caused the islands to descend. Looking out across the rocky landscape, it appeared that for the most part the result had been cataclysmic. For Xyuka’s island, though, the landing appeared to have been smooth as though aided by some unseen secondary force: it now sat amongst the toxic and uninhabitable stones as green and pleasant as ever, if slightly unleveled.

Twilight winced and took a several deep breaths.

“Twilight?” said Sunset. “Why are we on the perimeter?”

“It’s as close as I could get us,” she said. “Something was jamming the spell.”

“A magical perimeter?”

“If it’s magic, it’s not any kind I’ve ever seen.”

This seemed to make Sunset’s expression darken. “No time to investigate,” she said. “We’ll have to make the rest on hoof.”

“Not a problem,” said Rainbow Dash, taking flight into the trees. She disappeared almost instantly, disguised by her polychromic cloak.

“Should we split up?” asked Darknight.

“No. Dash will manage cover fire as usual, but if we get hit, we need to be together.”

Rarity gulped in a rather unladylike fashion, and then followed the others into the manicured and artificial forest, knowing full well that she might not come back out of it.

The Watchers had arrived. Xyuka’s scanners had detected them immediately. This course of events was unusual, but not unexpected. Xyuka had predicted that there was a higher probability that they would attempt to attack the Princesses first. Still, she had prepared for this contingency.

Or, rather, she had failed to plan for it, apart from an awareness that it might happen. There was not really a need to. She had the Black Rainbow. All she needed to do was to wait for the project to be ready. There was nothing the Watchers could do to stop her.

She approached the podium of the primary projector. She lifted the Black Rainbow- -encased in its orange interface cylinder- -and inserted it into the machine. She then opened a panel on her armor and removed two more stones- -each exactly identical to the first. Removing them took a significant load off her internal systems, and her processing speed accelerated as she built their cylinders and inserted them into the machine. As it hummed to life, several angular columns emerged from around it. Using these, Xyuka interfaced herself- -and the reactor within her- -to the machinery. This device, after all, was only a transmitter. The actual computational element was her own body.

It was at that time that the Watchers arrived.

Sunset had been wrong. There had been no resistance. The entire island was vacant. Not one Stonie- -or any noncan or pony for that matter- -was there. The trees and gardens were silent, and had they not been so green, Rarity would have sworn that they were dead. Maybe they really were.

They did not find a pony of any kind until they reached a large stone courtyard outside of Xyuka’s imposing brutalist headquarters. Standing there as if waiting were three. Two of them were Xyuka’s assiatnants, the faceless custom Stonie units. The other was dressed in a peculiar kind of armor, one that seemed to be made of many different types and styles of parts merged into a cohesive whole. The armored pony showed no skin whatsoever, but Rarity did not even question that it was Xyuka.

More peculiar was that Xyuka seemed to be surrounded by some manner of machine. Rarity did not know what it was for, but she could feel it running deep within the marrow of her horn. Whatever it was, it was not something that should ever be allowed to activate.

When the Watchers reached the courtyard, Xyuka turned away from the machine and stepped forward, joining her Stonies. Strangely, Sunset walked forward, taking the lead.

“Sunset,” whispered Rarity.

“We’re not going to sneak attack her,” said Sunset. “She’s scanning us. She’s been scanning us since we got here. I’d bed my right front leg that she even knows exactly where Rainbow Dash is standing.”

“And we’re just going to walk up to her and fight?”

“If that is how she wants to do it,” said Darknight, “I suggest we give her at least that courtesy.”

Rarity hesitated, but took faith in the fact that the others knew what they were doing- -or at least that her mithril armor would be able to stop most of whatever Xyuka could throw at her. Somehow, though, she felt very apprehensive about the whole thing.

They walked closer, and eventually stopped, the group of four ponies facing the group of three.

“Watchers,” said Xyuka. She did not say it with a sense of dread or loathing, but as a simple declarative. It was almost as though it were a polite greeting.

“Xyuka,” said Sunset Shimmer. “You are under arrest for crimes against Equestria, Discord, and Eternal Chaos itself.”

“No I’m not,” said Xyuka. “The government implicit in your statement no longer exists. Celestia and Luna, I believe, are the current rulers of Equestria. Which I suppose makes you rebels? Rogues? Anachronisms?”

“You don’t have to fight, Xyuka. I’m giving you the option. Come quietly, and peacefully.”

“So that you can torture me?”

“No.”

“Not very honest, I see. It would not matter anyway. I don’t know if my body can feel pain anymore.”

“You know how to put them back,” said Darknight. “The Sisters. You can put them back in the moon.”

“Yes,” said Xyuka without any hesitation or doubt. “I could. It would be relatively trivial. But I’m not going to.”

“Why not?” asked Rarity. “Can’t you see the damage your causing?”

“I can. But I need the moon in its current conformation. Releasing the Princesses was more or less incidental. I have no motivation to put them back.”

“Then we get to do this the fun way,” said Twilight. “You say you can’t feel pain? You would be surprised how many ponies have claimed that to me. I haven’t seen one yet who didn’t scream when I…well, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“It’s not a boast,” said Xyuka. “It’s a lament.”

“Then we do this with violence,” said Darknight, drawing his pistols and sword. He braced himself, and then charged forward. Before he even made it three steps, one of the Stonies had met him and slammed her hoof into his chest. His eyes widened as the wind was knocked out of him.

“You can try,” said Xyuka. “If you feel like being shortsighted.”

There was a distant explosion, and something whizzed by Rarity’s head. An orange dome appeared around Xyuka and the large-caliber bullet rebounded off its surface harmlessly, followed by the four more that followed.

Then a much more powerful explosion occurred. Rainbow Dash had charged toward Xyuka with all of the force she could muster. As she screamed with rage and raised her hoof for a deadly blow.

As she accelerated, Rainbow Dash exceeded speed of sound, producing a plume of Rainbows that surrounded and framed her. Xyuka watched for a moment, and then her body glowed with blue radiation as she exceeded the speed of light.

From Xyuka’s perspective, the world seemed to slow to a near stop. She could still perceive motion, but only through the modifications in her brain and suit. Vision was impossible when beams of light themselves were trapped in relative stasis, but Xyuka had alternate methods of perception.

She took a step forward toward where Rainbow Dash was only ten feet from her, her hoof raised for a supersonic blow and her face contorted with rage and tears. As Xyuka walked, the stone below her feet ignited and melted from the sheer energy that she was expending to move. Moving at this speed was a strain on both her body and the suit, but they were both holding against the tremendous force and resistance that she was overcoming as she slowly moved forward.

“You know,” she said, speaking to Rainbow Dash, “for the longest time, it was my greatest dream to be able to move as fast as you could. And now look at me.” She paused and stared into Rainbow Dash’s violet eyes. “But I never learned to fly. After you died…there just wasn’t a point in it anymore. Isn’t that odd? All the things I’ve done…and that’s what I’m most ashamed of. That I never got to fly with you.”

Xyuka paused, and then addressed somepony else. “Although usually when I do this I find myself alone.” She turned toward the void produced by her immense speed. The luminescent white dot on her mask moved to the edge to look at the pale violet unicorn standing beside her. “You were always strong, Starlight Glimmer, but in this version of Equestria you are almost godlike. If you cared to, you could sway this battle. In either direction.”

“I have no desire to,” said Starlight. “I’m only here to observe.”

“And odd case, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s invariable. Whenever a being becomes transcendently powerful, they lose stakes in what us mortals are doing. They dissociate, disconnect. Do you know what the end of that road is, Starlight?”

“No.”

“Screaming, mindless omnipotence.”

Starlight shrugged.

“I can respect your position, though.” Xyuka raised her hoof into the air and put it an inch from Rainbow Dash’s nose, reinforcing the solid state power assist in armor as she did. “And if it counts or anything, I wish you luck. But I prefer to take a more active role.”

Xyuka returned to normal speed, and Rainbow Dash’s face slammed into her hoof at supersonic velocity.

The others entered the fray as well. In their case, though, none of them could engage Xyuka directly. Her assistants rushed forward to protect their master, forcing the group to split. Darknight chose to engage the one that had winded him.

He now had an understanding of their speed. They were faster than normal ponies, even faster than most noncans. He was, however, also a noncan- -a very high quality one. He could not match them, exactly, but he now knew that he had to do his best to dodge and parry.

And dodging and parrying was exactly what he did. In fact, it was just about all he could do. The unit that attacked him did so without hesitation or relent. Not only was her body fast, she found, but her mind seemed to be vastly accelerated as well. Her reflexes were unimaginably fast, and she coordinated multiple complex tasks and attacks without any detriment.

The attacks themselves mostly consisted of using whatever it was that all the Stonies seemed to have installed in their bodies- -although with this one, it was far more advanced. The translucent orange that covered her body was not simple plates of armor, but an amorphous machine that continually shifted and restructured itself as she moved. Whenever Darknight got close, it would morph into blades or barbs; whenever he tried to get to range, it would morph again and attack him with a series of scanning lasers.

He did his best to shoot at it. He did not use the synax bullet, not yet- -he had to first confirm that it was possible to strike. What he found was dismaying. With the speed that both of them moved, he had no chance to get a reliable bead on her. Some of his bullets would hit- -uselessly of course- -but he could not guarantee a strike.

In fact, he was losing- -badly. The Stonie managed to score several hits, cutting him deeply. The wounds burned into him, and seemed to have a lasting toxic effect. It burned, but as a noncan he was programmed to ignore pain. It was quite possible that he would die, but it did not matter. He was not canon; he was disposable. If he could distract the Stonie long enough, it might allow the others to get to Xyuka.

The Stonie jumped back suddenly, pirouetting in a way that only the most lithe and flexible ponies were able to. An unexpected blast shot from her armor, something that was not a laser precisely but more like a mobile blade. Darknight dodged, but the blade did not move in a straight line. Instead, it turned and began to track him.

His angle was wrong for a second dodge, so he projected a shield spell, knowing that it would not be strong enough to block the projectile completely. He did not have to block it, though. Rarity intervened, throwing her mithril-coated body between the projection and Darknight.

She was knocked back, but the blade did not penetrate. Instead, Darknight was forced to catch her.

“Oh my,” she said. “Do you need some help?”

“Fall back!” ordered Darknight.

“I’m not completely helpless,” said Rarity.

The Stonie attacked, and Darknight pushed Rarity away just in time for both of them to avoid the strike. Rarity drew her pistol, and the Stonie saw it. She dodged, but Rarity moved with her. Darknight saw a flash of something between them, and realized that there was a small thread connecting Rarity’s clothing to the Stonie. It had been tied around her hoof. When she moved, she dragged Rarity with her.

The Stonie seemed to realize this, and took advantage of it. She wrenched Rarity forward into the spinning mass of toxic projections that coated her body. Rarity went toward it without hesitation or fear, spinning the delicate cylinder of her revolver with her magic until it sat on the last chamber. Then she fired.

The Stonie’s armor condensed, forming a sheild around her body- -but the bullet ignored it. It struck with a small explosion of plaid, tearing through the orange energy as though it were butter, and it went directly through the Stonie’s black faceplate. Her head was knocked back and her shield collapsed, but she did not fall.

Darknight did not question why she was standing. He drew his blade and took the opportunity. Part of the Stonie’s shield sputtered and ignited, blocking the sword. The runes on the sword glowed and sparked as Darknight forced it forward with all of his might. The damaged sheild resisted at first, and Darknight’s magic strained, but he did not give up.

Then it gave way. The sword slid forward into flesh, penetrating the Stonie’s side and slicing through her heart. She shuddered, and Darknight drew out the sword. The Stonie took one step toward him, and then fell. She had been killed.

The fight with the other one was going better, but the result was not yet as decisive. Sunset did not need to worry about injury; her body felt no pain, and received little damage. Despite her size, she was far faster than a normal pony, as well as far stronger. Most importantly, though, her experience with combat was far greater than the Stonie’s.

Or at least, it should have been. This was just a machine, something that Xyuka had built. It had been programmed in a tank. And yet, somehow, it reacted and operated in ways that only a veteran combatant would be able to replicate. There was an attitude about it, a confidence and creativity that went beyond what a machine should have been able to accomplish. But there was something else. Part of the way it moved and fought was identical to the way Sunset did. It not only knew her style of behavior, but used it as well. It was as though it had been alive in the era where she had learned how to fight, even though that was impossible.

This forced Sunset to rely more heavily on her body. This was not a problem.

She raised a hoof and opened fire with a stream of automatic gunfire. The Stonie responded predictably, generating a shield. Sunset immediately shifted behavior, firing a low-frequency laser instead. The laser cut through the bullet-optimized shields, striking flesh underneath and forcing a minor retreat. The Stonie returned fire with its own laser, but Sunset activated her jets and moved to the side. As she did, she deployed a pair of rockets from her side.

The Stonie was able to take down both of them with its own defensive lasers, but the resulting plume of fire and smoke gave Sunset the cover she needed to surge forward and slam her robotic hoof into the noncan’s face. It was like punching steel, and her scans had already indicated that these Stonies had no organic brains, but the creature still reeled from the immense force of the blow.

Sunset struck again, this time deploying a blade. The blade concentrated the force of the second punch, forcing the stony to compensate- -only to be struck in the head by a two-hoofed buck. She was send backward again.

She righted herself, but her body then suddenly sparked as a pink-violet spell formed around her, entangling her in something that closely resembled magically assembled thorns. It cut into her armor, and found any holes it could, digging into her body. Sunset looked over her shoulder to see Twilight casting the spell.

“Sunset! I can’t hold her forever!”

Sunset nodded and raised her hoof. The automatic internal system loaded the synaxium bullet, and she fired. It struck with enough force to cause a small explosion. The effect was immediate; it overloaded the Stonie’s shield, but also dispelled Twilight’s spell. It probably would been a lethal impact, but the noncan just barely managed to force herself to the side enough for her to dodge the full force of the bullet. It cut her though the shoulder instead of the heart, and she shook and fell to her knees.

This was the chance Sunset had been waiting for. She stepped forward and struck the Stonie in the face. There was no brain inside her skull, but whatever he had instead received substantial force. She shuddered and collapsed, still breathing but inert.

Sunset raised her hoof to finish the job. That was when she suddenly became aware of a single white light on a black featureless mask, both belonging to a pony that was standing less than a foot away from her.

“You know,” said Xyuka, her single eye tracking across to the edge of her mask. “I rather like that leg.”

A beam of red light shot out, and Sunset cried in pain. She jumped back and attempted to brace herself, only to find that she could not stand properly. Her balance was wrong. A familiar feeling of nauseating disbelief washed over her when she saw her limb lying on the ground.

Xyuka approached it. She extended her own right hoof, and two small tetrahedrons circled it, projecting a pair of red beams. In a matter of seconds, her own hoof fell to the ground. She then picked up Sunset’s arm and put it on the stump. Her body accepted it immediately, and it began to change. The metal shell of the leg was eaten away and the internal skeleton rebuilt. When Xyuka was done, all that remained was a skeletal claw. She looked at it and flexed her new hand.

“I like it,” she said, watching as her own original hoof dissolved into a silvery liquid and then disappeared entirely into a thick foul-smelling smoke. “I think I’ll keep it.”

“Sunset, move!”

Sunset dodged and a beam shot from Twilight’s horn. It struck Xyuka in the chest- -and had no effect. Xyuka seemed to notice, though, and turned her attention to Twilight.

“You- -you broke my spell,” said Twilight in disbelief. “But you’re not even a unicorn!”

“No. I’m actually a Pegasus pony, if you have to know. But I have far more experience with magic than you ever will.”

Insulted, Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Oh really?” she said. “Well than how about this?”

She pressed her left hoof against the ground and a red pentagram appeared around her.

“Verminis!” she cried. “I call upon the many segmented one to- -”

Xyuka turned arouond and kicked the pentagram with one of her rear legs. Despite her armor, the glow of the arcane runes burned into her skin showed through, and the circle shifted. The pentagram became something else entirely- -an asymmetrical seven-sided shape- -and it backfired into Twilight. She screamed as it exploded and as magic poured through her body. She collapsed in the center as the spell vanished.

“The first portal I ever generated was to Tartarus,” said Xyuka calmly. “I was twelve. And don’t think I don’t know what that type of spell is REALLY for.”

She jumped back suddenly, easily dodging Darknight’s sword. He twisted and struck again, and Xyuka dodged again.

“A Dark series,” she said. “Ironic.”

“Stand still!” he cried.

“Fine.”

Xyuka stopped dodging. The next blow landed the rune-sword directly against her neck. The runes sparked, and the blade shattered instantly on her armor.

Darknight did not hesitate. He drew his gun, already loaded with the synaxium bullet.

“Failsafe override,” said Xyuka. “Code: twenty percent cooler.”

Darknight’s eyes widened, and he suddenly stopped. His gun stayed where it was, suspended in his magic, but it did not rise toward Xyuka, nor did any part of Darknight move. His body had been paralyzed.

“So I see the internal programming still works,” said Xyuka. “And that they kept the old code.”

Darknight closed his eyes, and the gun shook as he struggled against his innate programming. Xyuka watched. “Interesting…” she said. “Resisting the failsafe is usually either impossible…or fatal.”

She raised her left front hoof and extended a blade. “No point in having you suffer, though.”

Before she could do anything, she was blindsided by a blue object tailed by a rainbow contrail. Rainbow Dash had recovered from the blow to her head, and was back in the fight.

Xyuka was thrown back with considerable force, and Rainbow Dash did not let go. She tackled her to the ground, attempting to strike at her face.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” she screamed.

“Really?” said Xyuka, as neutral as ever. Despite receiving a beating, she had terribly little investment in this fight. So far, none of them had managed to interfere. The process was nearly complete.

“You killed her! You killed her! I loved her and YOU KILLED HER!”

“I’ve killed a lot of ponies. I don’t remember the one you are speaking of.”

This only enraged Rainbow Dash more, and she screamed, drawing a large caliber pistol from her side. Xyuka’s scanners detected the synaxium bullets inside, and she reacted as she deemed appropriate by producing a powerful electric field through her armor.

Rainbow Dash screamed and fired a bullet, but not at Xyuka. It landed harmlessly in the ground. She was thrown back, stunned, but Xyuka’s orange field persisted around her weapon. She forced it to fire again, and again, and continued until it was empty of ammunition.

Xyuka then stepped forward and raised a blade over her head, preparing for a lethal strike. Rainbow Dash looked up and stared at Xyuka defiantly, knowing that there was nothing she could do. She had excepted her own death.

Except that Xyuka did not strike. Her hooves shook, and she could not bring herself to strike.

“Coward,” hissed Rainbow Dash. “You’ve never killed anypony, have you?”

Xyuka let out a dry, hideous laugh. “No. It’s just the Rainbow Dashs. After all this time, I still have trouble killing the Rainbow Dashs. But I can’t have you interfering.” She reached out with the claw at the end of Sunset’s stolen arm and grasped Rainbow Dash’s wing. Rainbow Dash let out a scream of terror and pain, far worse than anything she could have produced if her life alone were in question.

“No, please!”

“I’m sorry, sister.”

Xyuka pulled, and tore the wing free of Rainbow Dash’s body. Rainbow Dash let out a blood-curdling scream that made the other pale in comparison, and then stepped back. Unable to balance, she fell on her side bleeding badly. Xyuka threw down the severed appendage.

“Now you’re like me,” she said. “A Pegasus who will never fly. I’m sorry.”

Xyuka then turned in time to knock back Sunset Shimmer, who had attempted to ram her. Doing so was not difficult; she was far stronger than the far more primitive cyborg. As she did, though, Xyuka felt a blade glance of her armor. She turned and cut, and then watched as the final Watcher jumped back.

“Rarity,” said Xyuka, recalling the name distantly.

“Yes,” said Rarity. “We’ve met.”

“I’m surprised you’re here. I’m surprised you’re a Watcher. You should be back in Ponyville, making dresses.”

“If only. But it looks like I’m the last one still standing uninjured.”

“I would rethink that.” Xyuka pointed at Rarity’s side.

Rarity looked down and her eyes went wide. She seemed to start to swoon when she saw the deep gouge through her mithril, and the silver fluid pouring out as though the armor itself were bleeding.

“My clothes!” she cried. She looked up at Xyuka. “How- -how did you- -”

“Mithril is the seven hundred and ninety sixth hardest substance I have yet encountered. Over two hundred of those do not even occur in this universe, naturally or unnaturally. A beautiful as your armor is, mine is harder.”

Rarity frowned but did not fall. To her credit, she drew her sword and gun and took a defensive stance. Xyuka detected an unusual magical field, and watched as the bleeding from Rarity’s side began to slow and finally cease.

“I’m not going to fight you,” she said.

“Because you are worried you would lose?”

“No. Because you can’t really do any harm to me. None of you can, but especially you. But that’s not the real reason.”

“No? Then what is?”

“Out of respect. For her. Her name…I can remember it. So long ago. Sweetie Belle.”

Rarity inhaled sharply and seemed to become even more aggressive. “How dare you threaten mys sister!”

“I’m not threatening her. I once loved her. She was one of my two best friends. I had forgotten…but I can’t forget that, can I?”

“You’re insane. That’s not possible! There’s no way you’ve met my sister!”

“True. On the second part. I assure you, I am apathetic but quite lucid. But also false. I have met her, but a long time ago. More years than you can comprehend. Than anyone can. Even me.”

Across the stone plaza, Sunset stood up. The blow had been surprisingly forceful, and several items within her body were either completely nonfunctional or miscalibrated.

Twilight was nearby, and Sunset limped to her side.

“Are you dead, witch?”

“No,” moaned Twilight, standing up shakily. “A proper mage never uses a spell that can kill her if it fails.” She looked out to the battlefield. Xyuka seemed to be having a casual conversation with Rarity, and Darknight was standing stupidly, apparently just watching with his gun aiming at nothing. Rainbow Dash was lying nearby in an expanding pool of blood.

“What is he doing?” she asked.

“She used a failsafe code on him.”

“Those still exist?”

“Apparently.”

“Well, shoot her! While she’s distracted, shoot her!”

Sunset gestured to where her leg once had been. “My ammo was in that arm. I can’t shoot!”

“Well, that’s not a bucking buck of a design flaw, now is it!” Twilight looked back to Xyuka. “We’re out of options. I’m getting us out of here.”

“No,” said Sunset. “There’s still one left. The nuclear option.”

“What the buck is that?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like.” Sunset gestured to her chest. “My primary reactor is based on an atomic slug. Twenty megaton yield.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious! An atom bomb- -you’d kill us all!”

“Not if it were directed.” Sunset moved herself between Twilight and Xyuka, who was at a distance of about fifty meters. “Twenty megatons focused into a single point. Nothing could survive that. Not even her.”

“But you’d die.”

“Not if you keep the blast away from my key systems.”

“Wait, ME?”

“Yes, you! You’re the only one here with a horn, aren’t you?”

“But- -twenty megatons! There’s no way I can do that! Starlight could, but I can’t!”

Sunset grabbed Twilight by the shoulder. “Are you seriously saying that a lobotomized freak is stronger than you are? Come on! You’re supposed to be the premier mage of Equestria! If Luciferian had heard you say that, he’d have spit in your face!”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed in anger. “I AM the best mage. The BEST Twilight.”

“Then prove it!”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then we die here. All of us except you.” Sunset pointed at Xyuka. “And she comes for you when you don’t have a nuke at your disposal. All alone. She’ll kill you too, Twilight.”

Twilight looked at Xyuka, and then at Sunset. “I can’t make any promises.”

“Well if you fail, we all die. But I’m willing to take that risk.”

“I guess I am too. But there won’t be anything to recover- -”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Sunset, taking a stance and beginning to disassemble the failsafes around her primary reactor.

“Alright,” said Twilight, charging her horn.

“Just keep the blast away from me,” said Sunset. “If I burn up, I won’t be able to keep the reactor intact. We’ve only got one shot. After this, I’m on auxiliary power only.”

“I’m more concerned about, you know, the nuclear blast. But hey…” She looked down at her gloved hoof. “Who wants to live forever?”

Xyuka suddenly detected an anomaly. Her attention turned toward Sunset Shimmer and Twilight. Her scanners indicated an extreme surge of radiation.

“You’re attempting to defcon me,” she said, almost amused. “Hmm. In my current state, that might actually work. Although at that insignificant level, I should be able to block it.”

“Hello?” said a voice that suddenly made Xyuka’s various circulatory fluids run cold. She turned her electronic eye back to Rarity- -or to where Rarity had been standing. Now, there was a different pony in her place. She wore the same armor, but her hair was different, as were her eyes. A fluffy, slightly curled pale violet mane, and similar violet eyes. She was an adult, not a filly like Xyuka remembered, but she recognized that face. It was one she could never forget.

“Sweetie Belle,” she said.

“Why are you doing this?” Sweetie Belle looked in panic to where Rainbow Dash was quivering in her own blood. “I don’t understand! Why are you hurting these ponies?”

“Sweetie Belle, I’m sorry,” whispered Xyuka. “I’m so sorry…”

“You don’t have to do this. Please, stop. Just stop fighting. Come with me.”

“If only I could…”

“But you can. Please! It’ll all be okay, Xyuka. It will all be okay!”

At the sound of that accursed name, Xyuka felt her mind harden. “I remember,” she said. “Every day, every year, ever millennium I have to be alive, I remember you, Sweetie Belle. You and Applebloom. I’ll find you. Someday I’ll find you, I promise. I’ll get back home. If I have to burn a hundred thousand universes, I will be back. And you’ll look just like that. You’ll be so beautiful…” She sighed, and then activated several orange domes around herself. “But I can tell a morphic replica when I see one. Not real. None of it is real…”

The nuclear blast began to fire. Xyuka did not much care; her several shields were more than adequate to absorb the impact harmlessly.

Then there was a pop, an insignificant pop. Something struck the shields, but instead of bouncing off them, it sliced through. Each one it touched shattered as the synaxium bullet crushed through. Xyuka turned in shock to see Darknight, his pistol pointed at her, shaking from the immense strain. He had raised it, and managed to bring down her shields. Xyuka could not help but wonder why part of his blue coat had started to darken to black, or why his turquoise pupils had begun to narrow into slits.

Xyuka did not have much time to reflect on just how intriguing that was, or the implications of it on a larger scale. The beam tore through her. Without her shields, she was defenseless. Her armor was vaporized, and the skin beneath it. To her, it was an intense flash, and then nothing.

Rarity ducked, feeling the searing heat of the beam as it flashed by. She cried out and covered her head, terrified by the noise of the ionizing atmosphere and the atomic glow of the beam as it passed.

Then, as soon as it came, it was gone. Rarity looked up to see what had happened, and wished that she had not. Xyuka had indeed been killed. The beam had cut through her body, and her head, neck, and most of her back were now missing entirely. All that remained was most of her torso and her legs, and that horrific remnant immediately slumped forward and collapsed.

“We…we did it?” she said to herself, turning to Darknight, questioningly. He looked at her, and then winced as he took a great effort to lower his pistol and take a jerky step forward. The second step came easier, and he managed to speak.

“I’ll get to Rainbow Dash,” he said. “You get to Sunset.”

Rarity nodded. “Right.”

She stood up and ran on her shaky, jelly like legs, ignoring the broken scales of mithril that tinkled to the stone floor below. As she approached, she saw that both Twilight and Sunset had collapsed. Twilight was vomiting blood and bleeding heavily from her eyes and ears. Sunset, meanwhile, had collapsed on her side.

“Sunset?” cried Rarity, approaching her.

“Oh sure,” said Twilight, wiping her mouth. “Of course it’s Sunset.”

“I’m fine,” said Sunset. “But I can’t move. My reactor is drained. I have life support but- -”

Rarity suddenly felt herself pushed out of the way. She saw an armor-clad hoof and a metallic claw reach down and take Sunsent by her neck. There was a sound of rending metal as she was lifted suddenly, and her body flew through the air, tossed like a doll.

It all happened so fast that Rarity did not have time to understand. But then she looked up, and she saw it. Xyuka’s body, headless, but still standing, now held Sunset’s severed head, part of its mechanical spine still dangling from its broken neck.

Without hesitation, the torso violently slammed the head into the ground. It’s skin tore and broke with each blow, and the stone cracked beneith it.

“STOP!” shrieked Rarity. “STOP IT NOW!”

But Xyuka’s body did not stop. Not at first. Only when she was done. Then she tossed the head aside and turned to Twilight.

Xyuka’s injuries began to change. Blood swept into them, but it changed from red to a strange animated silver fluid. Metal grew like crystals, reforming and regenerating. Flesh followed, assembling itself over the mechanical innards like the shell it was.

By the time Xyuka’s back armor had healed, her neck was already starting to regenerate. Rarity watched in horror as a skull began to form, starting with the base. It quickly filled with a system of coils before closing around on itself. Bone, muscle, silicon, metal, plastic and skin grew over what was left.

In a matter of seconds, Xyuka was staring back at them. Not through her mask any more, but with her real face: her violet hair, her orange coat, and her fiery-dead violet eyes.

“But that- -that’s not possible!” protested Twilight. “Your brain! Your brain was destroyed!”

“You overestimate the importance of a brain,” said Xyuka. “It is not a critical organ. I had mine removed two hundred and six realities ago. It’s just tesla coils now.”

“But you…you…”

“I do not have the luxury of dying. Live long enough, and you lose even that.” Xyuka suddenly lifted her head into the air. “It is done,” she said. “If you had come twenty minutes later, you might all have left alive.”

Her transmitter- -left intact and undamaged, as none of the Watchers had thought it had any relevance- -activated. A pale green beam shot upward, filling the air with the screech of its unique and atypical energy. It target the fractal moon above, and reached it within seconds.

Xyuka once again accessed the systems of the moon, and above, the billions upon billions of tons of ancient machinery shifted one more time. The fractal expanded, becoming circular. A hole opened in the center, and it lit the sky with a horrible silver light. Somewhere far in Equestria, Luna began to scream.

“It is done,” said Xyuka, staring up with a thin smile of relief on her face. “The portal is open. Seventeen thousand years in this Equestria, and I can finally move on.” She took a step forward, and then turned to the other ponies, specifically to Rarity. “I don’t know if I have any right to ask a favor of you,” she said, “but I will anyway. If you survive this…and she survives it…there is a girl. Probably an orphan. A little Pegasus filly, from Ponyville. Her name is Scootaloo. Find her. Make sure she grows up safe and strong. Or kill her on the spot. Just make sure she does not become me.”

With that final remark, Xyuka walked slowly to the beam. Those among the Watcher who were still conscious watched her go. None tried to stop her- -and all were too engrossed to see the black face plate on the one surviving custom Stonie unit flicker and light with a single white circle, or to stop her as she stood up, projected a portal, and fled.

Xyuka climbed the podium to the beam. She turned back one more time, and looked at the ruined ponies before her. They were not real. None of them were real. None ever were.

She then stepped into the beam. Her body was immediately shredded into fragments and shot upward and incomprehensible speed, pulled upward toward the vast portal overhead. In less than a tenth of a second, she had departed. She would never again return to this version of Equestria, and had she been asked, she would likely have considered it no significant loss.