The feeling started as a vibration, and continued that way at a growing intensity. Though Rarity cried out and held onto the floor, she felt it swept from beneath her. She expected the shaking and oscillation to rise to a grand crescendo, but instead it continued, growing deeper and stronger until she lost all sense of direction and orientation.

There was a flash of something- -blackness, not light- -and in that tiny frame of time Rarity felt herself go somewhere else- -or cease to be entirely. Then, as quickly as it came, she was suddenly wrenched out of the resonance and dropped onto the cold stone below.

The ritual had not been kind. She tilted her head and vomited. A surprising amount of blood came out along with what little food she had been permitted to eat.

“Ow,” she said. “My fillings!”

“Yeah,” said Sunset, stepping out of the double-arching structure overhead. She had changed clothing, and was now dressed in a heavy mechsuit that obscured the robotics that made up her normal body. The helmet that covered what little skin she had gave her voice some slight electronic distortion. “You’re lucky they didn’t trade places with your IUD.”

“I think they did. At least for a little bit.”

“Well imagine trying to go through that with a body made entirely out of metal.”

“Don’t worry!” giggled Pinkie Pie, bouncing jauntily beside Darknight as Rainbow Dash trailed behind. “You get used to it! Or your bits change places with, well, your other bits, and you end up not caring! You win either way!”

None of them helped Rarity up, so she stood with some difficulty. Her entire body felt numb and was still shaking. None of the others, though, seemed to be affected by the jump.

“Do you do this every time you want to go somewhere?” asked Rarity.

“No,” said Darknight. “Rainbow Dash is capable of sustained supersonic flight. She can be deployed anywhere in mainland Equestria within a matter of hours. She’s just lazy.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault I missed my mid-midday nap! Now I’m going to have wait all the way until the mid-afternoon nap! Or even the early-evening nap, if this takes too long. I get tired being awesome.”

“You didn’t even need to come,” said Sunset. “We don’t need five Watchers. Or four and a half, as the case may be.”

“And miss a trip to the floater district? Heck no. Besides, I know this mare out on the north end. Ugly face, but a great flank. And she’s on my list.”

“The murder list or the other one?” asked Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash considered for a moment, and then pulled out a literal list. “Let’s see…Cherry Jubilee…ah. Both.”

“As I was saying,” said Darknight, “Rainbow Dash can get to places when she needs to. Twilight and Starlight can both teleport.”

“But a word of advice,” said Sunset, “don’t travel with Starlight. Not if you have any organs you want to keep. She doesn’t bother with any dimensional shielding. You’ll come out well-done.”

“It smells realllll nice,” said Rainbow Dash with a sigh. “Although I prefer them rare.”

“But Rarity’s already rare!” said Pinkie Pie. “She’s a white unicorn! And also currently uncooked.”

“The rest of us use chaos tunneling,” said Darknight, completely ignoring the others. “They will get you wherever you need to go. Usually.”

“Usually?” asked Rarity.

“Usually. Yes. There’s a reason you’ve never used one before.”

“Which is?”

“They are almost invariably lethal. The only way to survive is to either be in the presence of a Priestess of Chaos or a Stonie series noncan with a class eight processing enhancement or greater. You can borrow one from the unlaw if you need to.”

“And if I don’t take one with me?”

“Then you go through Chaos unguided. I don’t think it’s appropriate to describe what will happen to you.”

“Yeah!” said Pinkie Pie, putting her face close to Rarity’s. “I’ve seen it! It’s super-gross! You can come out with your insides on your outsides, or your legs on the wrong side, or a hat, or fifty years in the past- -or the FUTURE! Sometimes ponies come out insane, or as a thin oily film, or preggers, or not at all! One donkey even came out…BALD!”

Rarity gasped. “Not BALD!” She swooned and nearly fainted.

“Hence the ‘not explaining it’ part,” reiterated Darknight. He started walking off the teleportation platform, and Sunset joined him.

“Mare’s first, darling,” said Rarity, gesturing to the two others.

“I’d rather take up the rear,” said Rainbow Dash, slapping Rarity’s rump and causing her to release a horse sound.

“Why, I never!”

“Heh heh! Then Cherry Jubilee won’t be the only thing I’m popping tonight!”

“Dashie,” sighed Pinkie. “Come on, now! You know how my sister feels about you flirting with other mares! Besides, Rarity likes colts.”

“I don’t like this conversation,” admitted Rarity. “It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“I had a sweater like that once,” said Pinkie Pie as she bounced forward. “But then I ate it. It tasted bad. And I had to go to the hospital. I died, for like, five minutes. And it didn’t even make me sweat!”

Rarity did not know what to make of that at all, but hesitantly followed Pinkie, feeling Rainbow Dash’ staring at her most tender of meats for the entire duration, even if they were covered in blast-proof fabric and a semi-skirt of mithril.

The teleportation structure was small and built in a larger tower that was open to the outdoors. When they stepped outside, Rarity shielded her eyes and automatically darkened her irises to protect against the suns’ rays.

The sky on this particular day was a brilliant lime green, with thick red stripes in the eastern sky. Several of the variously colored suns had been raised, and a few of the smaller ones were chasing each other around the larger. The moon, as always, sat in the exact center of the sky. Rarity looked up at it and realized that the view was actually quite good; she was able to see the outlines of craters that formed the profiles of two mares.

“So pretty!” cried Pinkie Pie. “I threw up these colors a few days ago! They were so pretty then too that I ate them again! That was a mistake, though, they weren’t as pretty the third time. Or the forth.”

“How about the fifth?” called Rainbow Dash.

“Fifth was…meh.”

Rarity mostly ignored them. Instead, her nose was turned to the air. It smelled strange, with an odor that was infinitely familiar to her but at the same time completely indescribable. Had she been asked, the best approximation she could think of would have been the scent of something electrical combined with many candles burning. It was the smell that always came before the Chaos storms that ravaged Ponyville, as well as most of Equestria. Except here it was far stronger than even the worst tempests that she could recall in recent memory.

“I don’t mean to appear unworldly,” said Rarity, “although in all honesty I do believe I am. But, where, pray tell, are we?”

“Take a look,” said Sunset, pointing down.

Rarity looked down and screamed. She jumped back several feet, forcing Rainbow Dash to dodge- -although not before copping a flank-feel. Rarity hardly noticed. The rocky moss-covered ground that she had been ambling across had suddenly and inexplicably ended. If she had not stopped then and there, she would have gone over the edge and plummeted down a cliff.

She took a step closer again and looked down, and to her horror realized that it was not even a proper cliff at all. Yes, there was a rocky precipice, but it only went down a few hundred feet before terminating- -even though the ground was still thousands of feet farther down.

Rarity slowly looked out and gasped at the sight before her. In its own way, it was stunning- -but clearly as hazardous as it was beautiful. The group was standing on the smallest of a number of floating chunks of rock. Many of them were as large as small oceanic islands, complete with forests or structures. Enormous Chaos pipelines ran past some of them, linking them to each other and to the craterous ground far below. All of them seemed to be orbiting an area that appeared at the very edge of the horizon: an impossibly massive calendar of bright, shifting light and blasts of energy that could be heard like thunder in the far distance.

“What…what is that?”

“The Cataclysm,” said Dark Night. “Pray to the Madgod he never forces you into it. But it is not our concern right now.” He projected a construct over one of his eyes, and text scrolled by. He scanned the sky, and then pointed. “That island there. That one is the center of the magical disturbance.”

“Alright,” said Rainbow Dash. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere. And it’s on my way, too!” She spread her wings. “Maybe I will be able to get my nap!”

With a sudden blast and a rainbow-colored contrail, she vanished. Rarity blinked and coughed against the dust, and looked up in time to see a tiny blue dot arcing toward the distant floating island.

“I’ll meet you there,” said Sunset. The outer surface of her mech armor shifted, opening a set of baffles on the sides, and Rarity barely managed to jump out of the way in time to avoid a jet of blue flame as Sunset slowly lifted off the ground and as her machinery propelled her through the air.

“Not if I get there first!” cried Pinkie Pie. She raced toward the edge and leapt- -only to plummet straight down.

“Pinkie!” cried Rarity, rushing toward the edge.

Darknight stopped her. “Let her go,” he said. “It’s just how she does things.”

They both watched her fall until she was out of sight, hearing only the sound of an ever-fading “Weeeeeee!” as she went.

“So,” said Darknight after what felt like several minutes. “Can you morph a pair of wings.”

“No. It’s just color changes. I don’t even know any flight spells!”

“Then how about we take the stairs?”

He gestured out over the drop, and Rarity watched as his horn glowed and several perfect plates of magically constructed hard-light appeared before them, generating the start of a staircase.

“I- -I have to climb on that?”

“Unless you want to try to go the way Pinkie Pie went. But I don’t think you’ll be as successful.”

“But…”

“I won’t drop you,” she said, meeting her nervous eyes. “You will die as a Watcher. But it will be by your own failure. I promise that. And although you may not realize it, the promise of a noncan is rarely given lightly.”

He hopped out over the edge and onto one of the constructs. He then hopped to the next, and the one after that. Rarity hesitated, but then took a deep breath. This was going to be the least of her challenges, after all. She jumped, and followed him.

The going was not easy. Darknight moved quickly and without tiring. He seemed to have almost superequestrian endurance. Rarity, meanwhile, did not. She would have slowed to a trot, but if she allowed Darknight to get ahead, the constructs behind her would start to fade more quickly. She was forced to keep pace or risk falling to her demise.

When she did finally reach the top, she was both sweaty- -itself a horrible state- -and winded. She collapsed into the manicured moss, gasping.

“Why did- -you have- -to go- -so fast!” she wheezed.

“Because you do indeed have the muscular consistency of a marshmallow, and I don’t want the soylent I make out of you to taste like mayonnaise. Consider this a fitness exercise.”

“You don’t have to be so mean, Darknight,” said a voice that Rarity did not recognize. “Not all of us were manufactured to perfect physical specifications, you know.”

Rarity looked up. She saw the others- -minus Pinkie Pie, who she suspected was probably a bloody smear by this point- -but also noticed two other mares standing not far from her. The closest one- -the one who had spoken- -was a deep violet unicorn. She wore a silver-rimmed hood, signifying her identity as a mage, and had long bicolored bangs. Her shoulders were covered in something similar to a short cape or a shawl, but her overall body was covered in a rather conservative outfit that seemed to focus on pockets more than any sort of armor. Although she wore high boots that left her knees to shoulders exposed, her front left foreleg was completely covered with no flesh visible.

The other mare could not have been dressed more differently. She was almost completely naked, with her entire light-violet self exposed save for her neck. That, as well as parts of her shoulders, was covered with a heavy collar with a large blue gem placed in the center. This mare, like the first, appeared to have bicolor hair- -or would have, had it not been shorn to a length of barely millimeters. In the light of the multiple suns, Rarity could see the remains of precise surgical scars across various portions of her skull and near her horn. Even stranger was this mare’s eyes. She seemed to be looking in Rarity’s general direction, but her gaze was distant and blank. Her mouth was partially open, and a thin line of drool was dripping from one side.

“Now we certainly have too many Watchers,” said Darknight. “I assume Pinkie Pie contacted you?”

There was an approaching sound of a long “Weeeeee!”, and Rarity watched as Pinkie Pie plummeted from the sky above and landed on the rocky soil with a sickening thump.

“Nope,” she said, sitting up and brushing herself off. “Wasn’t me.”

“How did you- -when did you- -but that was lower, and now- -” Rarity sputtered, confused

“Don’t overthink it,” said Sunset. “In fact, doing that can literally make your brain come out. Trust me, I’ve seen it.”

“I didn’t need to be told,” said the mage-unicorn. “I sensed the blast. Half my instruments were damaged before I could seal the breakers, and it took twenty minutes to get Starlight to stop screaming. Did you really think I wouldn’t be investigating?”

“I don’t know if we need to all be here.”

“Seriously? You have no idea the implications of what just happened! The magnitude, the vectors! Something that powerful, the implications- -” She stopped and then sighed. “But why am I explaining this to a robot? You don’t care.”

“Not about the specifics,” admitted Darknight. “Only the implications, and the cause.”

“That’s the problem with noncans. No creativity, no inspiration.” She turned toward Rarity.

“Hello,” said Rarity, “I’m- -”

“Rarity, I know. There was a memo. I read it. New Watcher, morphic mutant, from Ponyville. No combat experience, probably going to die, skin valuable for research.”

“Skin? What do you- -”

“Yes. You won’t mind if I take it. When you die. Probably.”

“I think I might- -”

“No. I already claimed it. It’s mine now. Also, I’ll be taking your horn. And…your eyes. I want those too. Darknight, you can have the rest.”

“She has a chaos management implant,” noted Darknight.

“Don’t care. Mine are better. All six of them. So are Starlight’s.”

“This is Twilight Sparkle,” said Sunset. “In case you didn’t know.”

“Oh,” said Rarity. “Darknight mentioned you. I’m very pleased to meet you.”

“Don’t care. Do you moisturize? You should. Got to keep that morphic skin supple. I wonder if I could make a cloak out of it?”

Rarity shivered. She turned to the other unicorn, and approached her. “And you must be Starlight Glimmer. I’m Rarity of Ponyville. Charmed, I’m sure!”

She held out her hoof, and Starlight looked at it- -or nearly at it. She did not react immediately, though, and after a few seconds opened her mouth and released a horrible sound.

“Aahh! Ahhk- -ahhhhh!” she shouted, sending a small spray of spittle toward Rarity.

“Yes,” said Darknight, ushering Rarity past Starlight. “She is not able to talk. It is best if you avoid speaking to her. Or standing too near her.”

As Rarity was led away, a rainbow contrail appeared and Rainbow Dash dropped to the ground.

“Dashie!” said Pinkie Pie, jumping over. “You’re here!”

“Yeah, I know,” said Rainbow Dash. “While we were waiting for the slowpoke and the slowpokier, I went and dealth with Cherry Jubilee.”

“I can tell,” said Pinkie Pie, pointing at her own face. Rainbow Dash looked down to see a large amount of red liquid smeared on the side of her face.

“What- -what is that?” asked Rarity.

“It’s ‘cherry juice’,” chuckled Rainbow Dash, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “I stripped her cutie mark, too, if Starlight wants it.”

Starlight seemed to recognize her name, and she smiled. “Ahhh! Eghhe!”

“Later,” said Twilight, causing Starlight to frown. “First the job.” "�|�E