There was nothing inside. It was empty. Xyuka’s entire complex was devoid of anything at all, just a shell of concrete built on a collapsed island.

All the machinery had vanished, gone by some unknown means- -if it had ever been there at all. To Rarity, this was frightening in its own way. Not threatening like Twilight’s castle, but lonely in a way that made her feel desperate and isolated rather than paranoid of some nebulous and undefined danger. It was so big that it felt suffocating, and yet, somehow, Xyuka had called this place home.

Darknight entered the room where Rarity and Sunset’s head were waiting, and Rarity jumped from the surprise- -but was glad to be less alone, even if she still felt horrible in a distant, unclear way.

“Did you find anything?” she asked.

Darknight shook his head. “No. Nothing. It’s all empty. But…”

“But what?”

“But I think it goes deeper.”

“Deeper? Darknight, it’s on an island! It can only get so deep!”

Darknight looked at her, his eyes wide with awed confusion. “But it does. There are doors…and places. Places that aren’t right. I couldn’t get them open. I don’t think I want to.”

“You couldn’t anyway,” said Sunset. “Those areas were mentioned in the Stonie unit’s memory. Only partially, though. She could probably have opened it. But I can’t. No one can.”

“There have to be tools somewhere,” said Rarity.

“The only place I have not yet searched is her office.”

“Then we will go there.” Rarity turned to Sunset. “You can come with us.”

Sunset’s eye looked at Rarity, and stared for a long time. Then she spoke. “What do you need tools for?”

“To fix you, of course. You can’t simply exist as a head! How would you ever wear that beautiful dress I made you?”

“You made me a dress? Why?”

“Well, because I thought you would like a chance to dress up for once.”

Sunset’s eye refocused. “Thank you,” she said, her voice oddly strained. “I just wish…I wish so much that I had had a chance to wear it.”

“You still do, darling! We just need to reattach you to your body!”

“You can’t.”

“Oh. Well, perhaps. Neither of us are especially experienced with…that sort of thing. But I’m sure we can find somepony who can!”

“No. You don’t understand. You can’t.”

Rarity was beginning to grow concerned. “What do you mean we can’t?”

“That body was already barely functional. It can’t be salvaged.”

“Well, then we’ll get a new one- -”

“But that’s not the problem. When she pulled my head…there was damage. Deep damage. The kind that can’t be repaired.”

Darknight now looked concerned, perhaps even more so than Rarity. “Sunset, what are you saying?”

“My nervous architecture was irreparably harmed,” she said. “My effector nerves are…well, that’s a technical aspect.” She paused. “I…I can’t be attached to a body. Ever again. My brain is to damaged. I would never be able to move it.”

Rarity stared at her. Then, of all things, she laughed. “Darling! Don’t joke about something like that!”

“I’m no joking,” said Sunset, and from the tone of her voice Rarity realized that it was true. “I will never be able to walk again…move again. And I’m still decaying. I’m not designed to subsist as a head alone. My brain is beginning to break down. I’m starting to…forget.”

“Well then we need to do something!” cried Rarity. “We have to! Right away!”

“There isn’t anything you can do.”

“Of course there is! We can find an expert, a doctor, a mechanic!”

“I am Equestria’s expert in this subject. And I already know the outcome.”

Darknight and Rarity looked at her, and she looked back. “Then what do you need?” asked Darknight, his voice shaking.

Sunset took a long time to answer. “In the back of my skull,” she said, “there is a port. It’s meant for emergency dialysis. It connects to my cerebral circulatory system. I want you to remove it.”

“What- -what will that do? Sunset, what are you saying?”

“My blood will come out. I don’t have very much. My brain will lose oxygen. I will lose consciousness. And then…” She could not bear to finish the sentence.

“N- -no! We can’t! Absolutely not! This is out of the question!”

“Please, Rarity,” begged Sunset. “I can’t live like this. I just can’t. I was once a soldier. Proud. Beautiful. Now…nothing. Nothing is left of Sunset Shimmer. Just this ghost, this remnant. I’m already a corpse. Just shut me down.”

“No! You’re my friend, I can’t do that to you!”

“If her brain continues to progress,” said Darknight, his voice distant, “with the decay…the necrosis will set in.”

“So what? SO WHAT?”

“Pain,” he said, turning to Rarity, his eyes wide with sorrow. “She will be in pain. Agony as she dies. Forgets. Until there’s nothing left.”

“Then we have to fix her! If Luna could fix Starlight- -”

“You’re grasping,” said Sunset. “That won’t work, and you know it. Please. He’s right. Please, just let me go.”

Darknight looked at her, and Rarity looked at him. “You can’t be serious!” she shouted. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“I am a noncan,” he said. “My kind…when we are damaged or old, we are retired. Euthanized. Converted to soylent. We consider it a blessing. To have lived that long. To depart before our bodies are overrun with tumors, or we are unable to perform our function.” He shook his head. “I never expected to live to retirement. I always hoped though…”

“You hoped that someone would kill you? That’s sick!”

“To you. To somepony who has the luxury of a natural death.”

“I don’t get to choose,” said Sunset. “I’ve kept myself alive too long…five centuries, Rarity. I’m old, older than any pony should be. And…” She paused. “I don’t want to die alone. Unable to see and hear. But I can’t force you to do this, either. I can only ask.”

Darknight had started crying, and without warning he reached forward, turning Sunset’s head over with shaking hooves. Both him and Rarity saw the port she was speaking of.

“No!” said Rarity, pulling his hooves away.

“Rarity…”

“I will do it,” she said.

Darknight’s eyes widened. “You?”

“I have seniority here, don’t I? I’m the oldest pony here.”

“In a technical sense- -”

“And I will be…I’ll be assuming leadership of the Watchers,” she said.

Darknight looked at her, having not realized this before. The ne nodded slightly in agreement. “You will,” he said.

“Then it is my duty,” she said. She looked down at Sunset, who’s one eye was looking obliquely up at her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

Rarity snapped the valve off.