Although the island where RD Heavy Industries was located sat far and apart from all others without any connections, many of the others in the Floater District were bound by various means of transportation. Some of those that shared orbit around the Cataclysm were tethered together and linked with gondolas, while others had airship or hot-air-balloon ferries between them. A few Pegasi were even willing to take passengers over in carts.

Rarity, of course, was not permitted to use any of these. Darknight insisted that she walk manually, even when the islands were what felt like miles apart. He continued to do this in what felt to Rarity like an outright sprint, and Rarity had to repeatedly wind herself just to keep up. She desperately wished that she could fly or teleport just so that she could move at her own pace.

By the time she set hoof on one of the larger islands, her legs felt like they were jelly. She collapsed to her knees, panting.

“I’m sweeeatttting!” she cried in horror and desperation.

“I’m not,” said Twilight. She and Starlight, having teleported, were already waiting for them on the other side.

“It’s not fair! You can teleport!”

“She can’t,” said Twilight, gesturing toward Pinkamena who gracefully landed on her feet as she dropped from the sky. “Nor can the robot.”

“You could always grow a pair of wings,” said Pinkamena. “If you had some nice fuzzy feathers, you might actually be a little attractive. Or less ugly.”

“Ugly! You- -” Rarity choked on some mucous in her mouth and coughed. “I will argue with you later,” she said. “Need…air…”

“Well,” said Darknight. “I think you have worked off an adequate amount of mayonnaise. I think you have earned a calorically balanced lunch. Ideally with flavorings.”

“Lunch?” said Rarity, perking up.

“That is why we came all the way over here. Or else you could have joined Sunset or Rainbow Dash.”

Rarity looked around and realized that those two members were missing. “Where did they go?” she asked.

“Knowing Rainbow Dash?” said Twilight. “She’s sleeping. And knowing Shimmer? Whining, probably.”

“Sunset returned to base to analyze some of the data that we both collected.”

“That her and I collected,” said Twilight. “You were just peripheral.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” said Rarity, somewhat defensively.

“It means he did his job. Noncans are good for running basic scans, but they’re just acquisition machines. I was still the one collecting the data.”

“He’s not a machine!”

Twilight laughed. “Wow! You really are from Ponyville, aren’t you?”

“She is not incorrect,” said Darknight, stepping past Rarity. “I would advise against being deceived by my appearance.”

As Rarity followed him, Twilight approached her. “It’s not your fault,” she said. “I’m sorry. I was being mean. You can’t help it if your town doesn’t have a proper education system. I’m sure you know a lot about growing apples or whatever they teach in rural districts.”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Rarity, curtly. “I dropped out of school in the seventh grade. So MNYA!” She stuck out her tongue at Twilight, who looked completely shocked and fell behind.

“Real mature,” said Pinkamena. She gave a very thin smile. “But worth it for the look on her face. Don’t let her get to you. She’s spent so much time reading that she can’t get a stallion to get on top of her unless she flashes a sack of bits to him.”

“I have ears,” said Twilight. “I can hear you.”

“I know. That’s why it’s funny. That, and because it’s true. Or is that what you have Starlight for?”

Twilight frowned. “Cupcake licker,” she swore under her breath.

Twilight and Starlight fell back, although Rarity was distinctly aware that Starlight was staring blankly and unblinkingly in her general direction. Darknight had gone ahead and seemed content to be alone, leaving Rarity with Pinkamena as the group of them entered a rather extensive small city. Compared to Discordalot, it was small and quaint, but Rarity was still careful to stick near Pinkamena. From what she had been told, gravity could be unpredictable regardless of which city she was walking through.

“So,” she said, trying to make small talk. “I’m…well, frankly, this is all a bit overwhelming, and I am afraid I am a bit behind the times, what with having a rather quaint rural life.”

“I don’t care terribly much,” said Pinkamena blankly.

“O…oh…”’

“But you can keep talking if you want. Not a lot of ponies like talking to me. They say I’m a downer.”

“Not at all!” exclaimed Rarity, obviously lying. “But, I was meaning to ask you.”

“Am I single? No. Besides, you’re not my type. I don’t like ugly girls.”

“Ah,” said Rarity, pursing her lips. “Not a downer at all, I see. No. I was just wondering…who exactly are you?”

“I see Ponyville still uses lead paint. I am Pinkamena Diane Pie. We’ve gone over this. Come on. Starlight grasps this, and she’s been lobotomized.”

“But I thought you were Pinkie Pie- -”

“No,” said Pinkamena, harshly. “Don’t confuse us. It’s insulting, and I’m legally allowed to take one of your eyes if you insult me again. Of course, as a Watcher, we’re legally allowed to do whatever we want. So I might do it anyway…”

“That’s not what I meant!” cried Rarity, jumping back and covering her eyes. “No! I was just- -it’s just confusing!”

“We are sisters,” said Pinkamena. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“But…you have the same body?”

“Again, lead paint? Seriously. How did you get to be a Watcher? Oh, I already know that. It’s mostly random.”

“I figured as much,” sighed Rarity. “But if you’re you, and she’s her…then, well, how much of her is in you?”

“A stupid question from a stupid mare. We’re sisters. Do you have a sister?”

Rarity blinked, surprised by the question. “Yes,” she said. “My darling Sweetie Belle.”

“And do you share things with her?”

“Yes, of course. That’s what sisters do.”

“But do you share everything?”

“Well, no,” admitted Rarity.

“Pinkie Pie and I are the same. She tells me some things, and I tell her some, but we keep some things secret.”

“Oh,” said Rarity, having some understanding by visualizing herself and Sweetie Belle sharing a body. She shivered, as that sounded like a horrible fate. “Well, it is nice having a sister that loves you, isn’t it?”

“I used to have more,” sighed Pinkamena. “But now it’s just us.”

“Oh my!” cried Rarity. “I am truly sorry? If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

“Pinkie Pie killed two of them, and our parents. I killed Marble Pie.”

“You- -you killed- -”

“Believe me. It was a mercy.”

Rarity fell silent, unable to fully process or comprehend the information that she had just been given. She had been walking with a mare who had killed her own sister- -but somehow the look of deep pain in Pinkamena’s eyes made that knowledge even worse.

So, instead, she turned her attention toward the city around her. It was actually not as unpleasant as she had expected, at least in appearance. It still had a strong tendency toward vastly mixed and clashing architecture, but not to the extent of Discordalot’s ghastly clashing colors and immense buildings fusing into megastructures at odd and impossible angles. Instead, it seemed more like a number of far more sane architects were competing against each other. In fitting with the industrial nature of the district, many of the buildings were dull and brutalist. Others, though, maintained strange gothic elements or even postmodern curves. These often stood next to rather ordinary looking glass buildings or wooden ones, creating what was overall a cheerful if jarring environment.

The inhabitants, though, did not seem to share that level of cheer. There were many, of course. Mares, stallions, fillies and colts of all sorts who were walking up and down the street on their way home from work, or perhaps to work for the late shift. From a distance, they looked as happy as any ponies living throughout Equestria could be. When Rarity and her team drew close, though, the citizens’ expressions would invariably fall and they would retreat down dark alleys or into whatever building was nearest.

“Why are they doing that?” said Rarity. “It does seem terribly rude.” She looked down at her clothing. “It isn’t my choice of outfit, is it? I had a suspicion that violet might be just a little too loud, especially if the light was low!” She closed her eyes and concentrated, changing the saturation of her mane and increasing the albedo of her coat slightly. “There,” she said. “More appropriate for evenings, don’t you think?”

“It’s not your clothing,” said Darknight from ahead of her. “They’re afraid.”

“Afraid? But we’re not scary! Well, Pinkamena a little bit…”

“I try,” said Pinkamena, shrugging.

“We are,” said Darknight. “Our faces are recognized throughout Equestria. Even mine. And we do not have the same luxury that you do.”

“Luxury? Well, I certainly do appreciate finer things, but I can’t say that I really understand what you mean.”

“You can change your appearance. You are the only one of us who can escape their hatred.”

“You also might be the only one who would want to,” said Twilight, suddenly appearing next to Rarity.

“Excuse me?”

“Take my advice. Don’t bother with other ponies. Their pointless. All social interaction does is distract a pony from things she might actually enjoy. Which for me is my work, and for you is…well…getting ogled by stallions, I suppose?”

“We’ll be lucky if we can even find somewhere to let us in,” said Darknight. “All the money in the world, and it’s so hard to find somepony to take it.”

“Go for the one on fourth and G,” said Twilight, smiling mischievously.

“That’s where I’m going,” said Darknight.

There was a sound near Rarity, and she turned sharply. It had been something like an electrical discharge, or the rush of air produced by a small explosion. Looking around, though, Rarity saw nothing- -which she quickly realized was the surprising part. Twilight was gone. Only Starlight stood behind her, drooling and making low wheezing sounds as she walked.

“Oh my,” said Rarity. “Where did she go?”

None of the others answered, as none of them seemed to care. Even Starlight seemed not to have noticed that her master was missing, although that was likely to do the brain damage.

So they continued, and as Darknight led them down a few more blocks and around a corner, Twilight appeared once again. This time she was stepping out of the door of a café, the bell jingling as she exited. For just a moment, Rarity was sure she saw Twilight tucking a small red-brown into one of her many pockets.

“What did you do?” demanded Pinkamena.

“I had a talk with the proprietor,” said Twilight, still smiling with the same devious smile as before. “And we came to an agreement. We’re good to go. Except you, Pinkamena. You have to eat outside.”

“Bite me,” said Pinkamena, shoving Twilight out of the way. “I bet I taste like frosting.”

“More like sour cream,” said Twilight, holding the door. She did not attempt to stop Pinkamena, but she did hold up a hoof when Starlight tried to enter. “You really do need to stay outside. I can’t stand to look at you when I’m eating.”

She then promptly closed the door in Starlight’s face, hitting her nose with it in the process. Starlight barely seemed to register any kind of pain, although her eyes were now locked on Twilight through the glass. Twilight stared back for a moment, and then closed the blinds.

“Don’t you think that was a little harsh?” said Rarity.

“No, I was very careful. She doesn’t have the capacity to feel rejection. I have spent a significant amount of time studying the pony brain, after all, and hold several medical degrees.” She shrugged. “Besides. She can’t eat on her own anyway, and I’m not about to spoon feed her. It’s gross.”

“But you can’t just leave her out there!”

“Why? She’s not going to wander off. She never does.”

Twilight chuckled to herself and then walked to a table where Darknight was already sitting. Pinkamena had walked to the far side of the room where there was a self-service bar for tea, and has paused at a large metal container of hot water to pour herself a mug.

As Rarity approached, Darknight’s horn ignited and her chair automatically pulled out for her.

“Oh! Thank you! So very gentlecoltly!” she said, taking her seat.

“It’s just standard programming,” said Twilight.

“Then why didn’t he do it for you, hmm?”

“Because my etiquette hierarchy ranks you two differently,” said Darknight. “There is nothing deeper to read into it.”

A waiter approached them. He was a grayish pony with blue hair and a thin moustache. What Rarity could not understand was why he was shaking and sweating so badly as he approached them.

“M…menus,” he said, passing them to Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkamena, who was returning with her tea, her long straight tail swishing behind her as she walked.

“Why thank you,” said Rarity, giving him her best smile. This only seemed to make him panic more, and he let out a stifled yelp as he took back. This caused Twilight’s gaze to slide toward him.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked slowly.

“N- -no! No! Nothing is the matter today! We have a special on- -as special on…” He started breathing heavily, and tried to regain his composure.

“Darling,” said Rarity, “you don’t look well! If you need to sit down for a bit, I’m sure we can manage.”

“Have you ever received a blood transfusion?” asked Twilight.

“Wh- -what?”

“Or have you ever had iodine poisoning? Thyroid problems? How much magnesium do you eat on a daily basis? Manganese? They’re not the same!”

“I- -I don’t- -I don’t- -”

“Because it effects the quality,” said Twilight, all joy fading from her expression, “of the INGREDIENTS.”

The waiter gasped, but to his credit, did not flee. “Of course. I’ll be…I’ll be back in a moment to take your orders.”

As he left, Pinkamena sipped her tea and groaned. “Discord’s wumps, Sparkle, were you trying to get him to piss himself?”

“No.” Twilight looked at the ground where the waiter had been standing and pointed. “But I did anyway.”

“You don’t have to be so mean!” said Rarity.

“No, but who’s going to stop me?” Twilight shrugged and laughed.

Rarity just sighed. She understood that Twilight was substantially her senior in this organization, and that it would be rude to question her elder’s motives. Especially since she did not yet know exactly how prone Twilight was to violence. She seemed odd, but only in habit.

So instead she just looked around the room. The restraint was hardly formal, but it was a bit fancier than she had been expecting. Not a café or diner, but something just a little nicer. The décor was nice and homey without being excessively rustic, and there was definitely a level of care taken with the interior design. The only strange thing about it, though, was how empty it was. Most of the ponies inside had left, except for a few that were cowering at only the most distant of tables.

“Well, this place looks nice,” said Rarity. “To be completely honest, I have always had an interest in fine dining. There are not terribly many establishments in Ponyville, unfortunately.”

“There are many fine restaurants in Discordalot,” said Darknight. “And you are of course welcome to visit them in your time off.”

“Really?” said Rarity, leaning closer to him. “Well, I don’t think it would do if I went alone, and I hardly even know where they would be. If somepony could go with me…?”

Darknight looked to her. His eyes met her, and Rarity fell silent. There was nothing in those eyes, not even a glimmer of comprehension. “Then I recommend taking Pinkamena, when she is available. She certainly needs to get out more.”

“Oh…oh,” said Rarity, going back to her normal sitting position and picking up her menu in the most dejected way possible. “Well, if that’s what you recommend…”

She flipped through the menu, but barely read anything. That was when she noticed that none had been given to Darknight. “He didn’t give you one,” she said. She held out her own. “Here. You can use mine.”

“No,” he said. “I do not need a menu for the same reason I cannot go with a restaurant to you. I am here only for the sake of inclusion. Soylent is a controlled substance. They do not sell it here.”

“Oh. Because it is made of…” Rarity looked from side to side, and then whispered, “ponies?”

“It’s not actually a secret,” said Pinkamena, taking another sip of her tea. “Actually, it’s pretty common knowledge. And it tastes super-gross. Like glue. And not even good glue. The crappy stuff.”

“It is not restricted because of its source,” said Darknight, “it is restricted because it is all that noncans are able to eat.”

“That sounds terribly dull. Not even a little taste of something else?”

“No.”

“Oh,” said Rarity, sounding disappointed. She looked at Darknight for a moment more, wondering if the others really were right. The more she learned about him, the more she began to believe their assertions that he was not a pony at all.

It was then she realized that none of the others had even picked up their menus. None of them seemed to even have an urge to. Twilight was just sitting quietly, drawing strange lettering on a small scrap of paper with a thin brown quill. Pinkamena was slowly sipping her tea, and Darknight seemed to be doing nothing at all.

“I…suppose you already all know what you are going to order?” said Rarity.

“Pinkamena?” said Darknight, his pale turquoise eyes tilting toward her.

“Yeah. I feel it. My tail’s been twitching ever since we got in here.”

“Any idea about the receiving end?” asked Twilight, now folding the piece of paper she had been doodling on into a tiny paper airplane before looking over her shoulder at Starlight, who was staring at them through the window.

“Not sure,” said Darknight. “Let’s find out.” He looked to Rarity. “Rarity, could you do something for me?”

“Of course, darling. What do you need?”

“Move your head to the left about three inches.”

“Like this?”

A loud noise suddenly erupted. The explosion caused Rarity to jump and to nearly go deaf, but her hearing was not impacted enough to stop her from hearing the zipping sound of the bullet as it traveled from Darknight’s pistol past her head, or the sound of several pieces of her hair snapping as it cut through them.

Rarity cried out, jumping out of her chair and staring aghast at the pistol levitating at Darknight’s side. She then heard something slump to the floor, and turned around to see their waiter collapsed and gasping for breath as silver fluid poured out the fatal wound in his throat. As he fell, the pistol he had been carrying clattered to the floor.

Then she felt like something had punched her from the side, and in her unbalanced state it hit hard enough to knock her to the floor. She heard the metallic sound of something striking her mithril armor, and felt hot flecks of metal on her cheek. As she fell, she realized that she had just been shot.

The bullet had been stopped by the armor, but Rarity hit the floor hard. She managed to turn in time to see a yellow colored mare that she had initially taken for a patron of the restraint raising a pistol, this time aiming for Rarity’s head, which was unarmored. Before she could fire, though, a tiny paper airplane soared through the air and stuck into her mane.

The airplane exploded into flames, and the spell it contained took the rest of the mare it was attached to up with it. She screamed as she immolated, her eyes boiling and her flesh melting off as she fired wildly. Rarity screamed and ducked, covering her head as several more bullets rebounded off the metal scales that covered her body.

` As she did, she looked up at Twilight. Twilight just smiled, and then vanished in a plume of electric-like violet magic as she teleported away.

“Move!” called Darknight’s voice. “GET TO COVER!”

Rarity tried, but her whole body had gone numb. She could not bring herself to move. More explosions were going off- -Darknight was returning fire. The ponies who had attacked them had not just been the pair. More were rushing in with rifles and bladed weapons and the glow of magic. Many wore armor, all of it painted with a strange image of a circle consisting of one blue and one white pony. From the look in their eyes, Rarity knew that they had come to kill.

“Rarity! MOVE!”

Rarity suddenly felt herself picked up by magic and literally tossed across the room. The landing was harsh, but she fell into a place where the shape of one of the restaurant’s counters prevented the attackers from seeing her. She covered her ears as more bullets whizzed overhead, and she started crying. It was all too much for her.

Then she heard hoofsteps, and looked up, hoping to see Darknight or even Twilight coming to save her. Instead, a pair of stallions wearing the two-pony colors appeared on the edge of the counter. One bore a rifle, and the other a long and clearly poisoned sword.

“There she is!” cried the one with the sword. “Shoot her in the head!”

The pony sat on his haunches and raised the firearm to his shoulder. “Such a waste,” he said. “This one’s so pretty.”

“No, wait, don’t!” cried Rarity. “You don’t need to- -”

The stallion with the rifle suddenly screamed. His front legs bent back suddenly, causing the rifle to fall to the floor. Then there was a horrible cracking sound as they twisted and broke in several places. His eyes bulged and he screamed even louder as his lower body suddenly began twisting and as his ribcage started to implode.

“Pokey, no!” cried his friend, who suddenly stopped as his own eyes widened and his limbs all twisted simultaneously, the bones shattering as they curled in on themselves. He began screaming as well, and Rarity was forced to watch as the two were forced into smaller and smaller shapes, their flesh tearing as fragments of bones poked through and as muscle and sinew twisted and snapped. It was the most horrible thing she had ever seen, the way their bodies just seemed to deform and break in response to the violet energy that surrounded their bodies. Worse by far, tough, was the look of fear in their eyes, which continued even after their throats had been pulled free of what they had left of bodies. They were still alive and in pain to the last.

Then they were not. Their bodies imploded, and all that was left of each pony was a small red-brown cube. Both of these dropped to the floor, making a tinkling sound like glass against silver as they landed in the pools of blood below, each still steaming with violet energy.

The process had only taken seconds, even if it had seemed to go on for hours to Rarity. When the cubes fell, Rarity was able to see Twilight standing behind them. She was smiling as she picked up the cubes and tucked them into her pockets.

“Transfiguration magic,” she said. “Always impressive to watch, isn’t it?”

A pink-violet bubble appeared around her as several bullets sailed in. They ricocheted off it, and Rarity cried out and covered her head as the shrapnel landed on her.

“Come on,” sighed Twilight. “Like bullets can even- -”

She suddenly cried out and a plume of silver shot out of one of her shoulders. The shield collapsed and she dropped to her knees.

“Twilight!” cried Rarity, moving to her side.

“Bloody heck,” swore Twilight, clutching her shoulder. “That one had a phasic curse on it. So these guys aren’t total amateurs after all.”

“We have to stop the bleeding! Here, let me help- -”

Twilight shoved her away. “Don’t touch me! This isn’t the first time I’ve been shot!” She pulled her hoof away from the bleeding wound and charged her horn. She winced as the wound hissed and as the flesh and armor around it regenerated in response to the spell. “But if you get hit with that? The phasic will liquefy your organs. I highly doubt you know the counterspell sequence.” She then stood up, and directed her horn at her enemies. Rarity poked her head over the counter just in time to see a pony advancing with a knife in her teeth get struck by Twilight’s spell. Her mouth burst open as her jaw dislocated and to Rarity’s horror her skeleton attempted- -and mostly succeeded- -to crawl out of her mouth. It only got half-way out before she died and Twilight stopped animating it, leaving the half-boneless corpse to fall.

Across the room, Darknight was engaged in direct combat with the attackers. He moved quickly and gracefully at almost impossible speed in an almost mechanical way, firing the two pistols he carried as he moved to dodge attacks. Unlike Twilight, his combat magic seemed to consist of little more than the ability to hold objects, and unlike Rarity his armor was not designed to withstand repeated direct hits from weaponfire. He did not seem to need either, though, as he had not been killed. In fact, the bodies were beginning to pile around him, and the attacking ponies seemed to be losing their conviction. When Rarity saw Darknight’s face, she understood why. There was not even the slightest hint of emotion. His eyes were as blank and empty as ever.

Out of Rarity’s site sat Pinkamena. Unlike the others, she had not entered the fight. In fact, she had not bothered to react. She was exactly where they had left her, still sitting quietly and drinking her tea. As a Priestess of Chaos, she was not a soldier or a warrior of any sort. Fighting was simply not what she did.

This initially confused the attacking ponies, but those that did not want to risk trying to take down the noncan or be reeved apart by forbidden magic decided that it would be easiest to take down the soft pink pony.

“Too easy,” said one, raising his gun and pointing it at her head.

It was that exact moment that a weld spontaneously broke on the hot-water tank on the tea counter. The entire metal container burst open, sending a plume of boiling water directly toward Pinkamena. Because of the shape of the splash, though, not a single drop touched her. Instead, most of it landed on the pony who was about to kill her.

He was blinded instantly, and screamed, dropping his rifle and immediately tripping over it. He landed on a table, causing it to tilt upward. Another pony had fired her pistol toward Pinkamena, but one of the metal legs of the overturned table stopped it before it could reach her. It ricocheted and went through the now burned and blind eye of the scaled pony, leaving out the far side of his head and imbedding itself in the lower spine of a pony behind her. That pony screamed as her lower limbs went limp.

The table had not been empty. It had contained several long, sharp knives, the sort that came with hayburgers sometimes. One of them struck a large Pegasus pony in the neck, and his entire body stiffened as it imbedded in his upper spine. Although he had been killed, his wings extended, triggering a pair of automatic weapons that he had been concealing beneath them. Bullets poured out, and as he fell he twisted, dragging the barrage across his comrades who had gathered in an arc around Pinkamena. Pinkamena was not struck; the rate of the bullets and the speed at which the stallion fell caused them to shoot on either side of her into two unfortunate advancing ponies.

In only a few seconds that entire restaurant had been killed. The only survivor was the half-paralyzed mare, who was weeping and trying to escape by crawling over the bodies of her beloved comrades. It was indeed a pitiful sight.

Pinkamena sighed. “All I wanted was some green tea and tofu. I didn’t even want sauce.” Her mouth twisted into a horrid smile, and she suddenly started giggling. As she did, her long and straight hair was pulled upward into tight curls. The giggling rose to manic laughter, and Pinkie threw her head back at the hilarity that surrounded her. “TOFU!” she cried. “That’s such a funny word!” She took a sip of Pinkamena’s tea and spat it out. “YICK! Unsweetened? So gross! The things Pinkamena puts into our body.” She shrugged, but then chuckled. “Or the things she lets Rainbow Dash put into our body! Insert rimshot here!”

She stood up suddenly, causing her chair to fall backward. Then, humming a jaunty tune, she bounced through the piles of corpses toward the mare who was trying to pull herself away as her rear legs dragged behind her.

“Oop! Look at that!” said Pinkie, pointing at the trail of red she was leading. “A streak! You’re streaking! So naughty! Well, it isn’t a REAL party until somepony streaks!”

She laughed loudly and reached the pony.

“Please!” she cried. “Have mercy! I have children!”

“Really? Well I guess that explains why you’re pregnant!”

“I’m- -I’m what?”

Pinkie Pie flipped her over. “Or were. Until about forty three seconds ago. You know, the bullet? You got a paralizbortion! That’s being paralyzed, AND an abortion!” She giggled, and then brought her face close to the mare’s. “But as for mercy, that’s my sister’s my sister’s thing. And she’s asleep right now. My job is FUN.”

“N- -no! Please no! NO!”

Across the room, Rarity heard the sound of a scream so horrible that it made every hair on her body stand on end. She hardly had time to notice, though, as the situation around her was changing rapidly. She squeaked audibly as Darknight jumped over the counter and into cover with her.

“Are you injured?” he asked as he reloaded.

“No, I’m- -Darknight, your eye!”

“I know,” said Darknight. One side of his face had been badly cut, and his eye had been completely removed. “Minor injury. It’s why I have two. I’ve also been shot at least twice, but my armor absorbed one of them.”

“And the other?”

“Already cauterized. I can sustain combat, but not for much longer. I require assistance.”

“But I can’t do anything! I don’t have any weapons, and I don’t know any spells for this!”

“No, but you are coated in mithril. I need you to absorb bullets so I don’t have to.”

“Excuse me? You’re asking me to get shot for you!”

“We’re a team. And if you are going to stay on this team, you are going to WORK.”

Rarity almost protested, but instead she found herself taking a breath and nodding.

“Good. Keep your head covered. You really should have built a helmet.”

“Darling, I just couldn’t bear keeping a mane like this under something so…practical.”

“Well, let us see if good hair stops bullets.”

With that, he forced her out of cover. The restaurant on the other side was in shambles. All of the charm and sweetness and care of its design had been replaced with damage and corpses, with the darling color scheme of the walls replaced with stains of red and silver. The bodies of the attackers lay mixed with those of guests and waitstaff who had been caught in the crossfire, many of whom still had violet-smoking holes in their foreheads.

There were only a few left, and they seemed to be the toughest. Those that had guns opened fire, and Rarity began to cry as she served as a pony shield for Darknight. A few of the bullets whizzed through her hair, but most of them struck her in the body. The pain was quite intense; every blow was like getting hit by a hammer, and each one pushed back with enough force to nearly knock her over. Inside, she knew that she was being badly bruised, and there were a few agonizing snaps that she was pretty sure were ribs.

Of course, she did as she was told, and tried to force herself to stand and keep her head down. Because of this, she barely noticed the large stallion charging her until she had already been thrown back and pinned to the floor.

“ACK! Darknight, help!” she cried as the Pegasus pony tried to bite at her face.

“The Two Sisters will rise again!” screamed the Pegasus as he foamed at the mouth.

“Rarity, here!” cried Darknight, tossing her one of his pistols.

Rarity grasped it in her magic, and then shoved it in the Pegasus’s mouth. She saw his eyes go wide, but she did not hesitate. She pulled the trigger, and was surprised by how much it kicked back as the rear of his head exploded in a plume of skull fragments and gore. He immediately quivered and collapsed limply on top of her.

She pushed him off, only to find that he had been the second to last. The final one, now finding himself alone, suddenly grabbed a small filly who had been hiding near her parent’s bodies where they had been having a meal just minutes earlier. He held her in front of him like a shield, and as she started crying and he held a knife to her throat.

“Don’t move or she- -”

There was a pop as Darknight fired without hesitation or remorse. Then the final enemy fell, dead. The filly gasped for a moment, seemingly confused by the bullet hole in her chest, and then expired quietly on the floor with the rest of them.

With that, every pony in the room save the Watchers was dead. Darknight stood across the room, his dark colored blood dripping onto the floor as he panted from exertion. Twilight, meanwhile, was picking through the corpses and the still living, occasionally stopping to gut them or pull them apart with her magic to get at eyes and horns and other things that Rarity dared not conceive of.

Pinkie Pie bounced across the dead, humming to herself. “Oh wow!” she said. “We really partied hard! You could say we…painted the town red? Eh? Eh?”

“Now is NOT the time for jokes, Pinkie!” cried Rarity.

“No, it isn’t,” said Darknight. “I’m detecting more forces converging on our location.”

“Excellent,” said Twilight. “I’m still low on my D’Nixus acid quota. If you could try to shoot more in the liver and let them bleed out, that would be really helpful.”

“Or you could do your job!” cried Rarity.

“I am,” said Twilight, pointing to several jars and containers of things she had collected from those she had killed or who had been killed for her. “Look at all these reagents!”

“I think I got some reagent on my shoes,” said Pinkie. “So nasty. So good.”

“Why are they attacking us?” asked Rarity. “How- -how did they find us?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Darknight. “Many oppose the will of the Madgod. It is our function to eliminate them.”

“Ah!” said Pinkie. “So this is a working lunch, then!”

“Work indeed,” said Darknight, approaching the door. “I can sustain sixteen more minutes of combat. That should be more than enough.”

“I could do this all day if it wasn’t so boring,” sighed Twilight. “There’s nothing good here. Just generic stuff. But I guess it’s still useful in its own way.”

Rarity followed Darknight, even though she knew that she could do very little to help aside from act as a sponge for lead. Her body hurt, but the adrenaline from the experience was providing some numbness against it. With the lull in the fighting, though, her battered body was beginning to ache badly.

Outside, Starlight had apparently not noticed anything that was going on. She was instead staring slack-jawed at the sky. Rarity looked up to see a kite being flown in the distance, probably from a park elsewhere in the city. Starlight seemed completely engrossed by it, which was probably for the better. As useless as Rarity was, she had no idea what good a lobotomized unicorn would be in a fight.

That was when she saw an enormous stallion bolt across the street, his cloak falling to reveal his armor and the two-pony crest he wore. She also saw the axe he was wielding, and the murderous look in his eyes as he roared in fury.

“Starlight, look out!” screamed Rarity.

Starlight barely had the mental capacity to recognize her own name, but turned slowly toward Rarity. As she did, the stallion brought down the axe into her unarmored side. Starlight just continued to stare blankly, and then slowly turned. As she did, Rarity gasped when she saw that the blade had not even left a mark. Instead, a thin flicker of electric blue light arced through Starlight’s coat and against the blade.

The stallion did not seem to understand why he had not been able to cut what to him looked like a mostly naked mare. He did not have long to question, though. The tip of Starlight’s horn ignited with blue light, and the stallion’s flesh bubbled and erupted from within as his body was torn apart into a plume of bones and streaming entrails.

“It isn’t a party without STREAMERS!” cried Pinkie Pie, dancing as some of the boiling remnants sailed through the air. “Or steamers, as the case may be!”

There was a loud and distant explosion, and Starlight’s head suddenly cocked to the side. An enormous piece of deformed lead dropped from her temple, indicating that she had just been shot with an immensely large bullet.

“Sniper!” cried Darknight, taking cover under the café’s awning.

“That’s the least of our problems,” said Rarity. “Look!”

The troops that Darknight had warned them about suddenly seemed to appear, either pushing their way through the crowds of civilians and emergency responders or pulling back cloaks to reveal their armor and insignias. Gunfire rang out, and Rarity dropped to her knees, covering her head.

None of the bullets struck her, though. Instead, she looked up to see herself and Darnight encased in a violet bubble of energy.

“You both are going to need this,” said Twilight. “And here I was expecting to get more reagents out of them…”

Through the translucent sphere, Rarity saw Starlight step forward. Most of the bullets seemed to be directed at her now, including the enormous rounds that the sniper was firing. None had any real effect, with all of them deforming and dropping off her magically reinforced skin. She seemed barely to notice any, except where an especially strong blow would stop her for a moment.

Then she stopped and raised her horn. Rarity saw her grimace, and suddenly Starlight cried out with primal rage. Her entire body seemed to be engulfed in an explosion of magical force, and even through the bubble Rarity felt the ground shake.

Bolts of light shot from her horn. Not just one, but several. Each one struck one of the oncoming ponies, slicing through their armor effortlessly and cutting into the ponies within. Their bodies stayed stable only long enough for them to look down in shock and pain before they detonated into plumes of organs and burning flesh.

Whatever spell this was- -if it even was a spell at all- -was not directed. It did not differentiate between friend and foe. Civilians on the street were torn apart as well. Stallions, emergency personnel, even mares who desperately but futilely tried to shield their foals from the streaks of death. None of them survived.

Then the number of beams increased. Twilight grimaced as hundreds of them seemed to strike her bubble, and the spell began to crack slightly before being reinforced with some kind of strange red-colored magic. Outside, the beams tore into the buildings around the street, ripping them apart as they tore through steel and concrete indiscriminately, killing any pony that they encountered either by direct injury or by leveling the structures that they were in.

Then Rarity was forced to close her eyes by a blinding surge of blue light. When she opened them, Twilight was in the process of lowering her shield. Starlight now stood amongst the waste of a destroyed city block, staring as blankly and emptily as she had before, even with her body arcing with blue light. She seemed to have expended almost no energy, and did not look tired in the slightest.

“Impressive,” said Pinkie, who was standing on a small island of sidewalk that was mysteriously intact. “Kind of makes me feel inadequate, though. I want to shoot death beams too!”

Pinkie may have meant that as a compliment, but Starlight did not hear it. Instead, she just stood there drooling vacantly.

“What was that?” said Rarity, softly.

“The reason I took her frontal lobe,” said Twilight, as though that were an explanation. Rarity was about to ask more, but Twilight suddenly seemed intrigued by something that she saw down the street. Rarity looked, and saw a flickering dome of blue light. The spell was badly cracked and damaged, and it dissipated as they watched, but the two ponies that spilled out were still breathing as they fell to the floor.

“Well,” said Twilight, licking her lips. “It looks like we have some survivors.”

Twilight approached them quickly, with the others allowing her to take the lead. Rarity stayed close, though. Starlight’s blast had been dangerously powerful- -impossibly so, even- -and any pony who could have survived that was likely powerful indeed.

As soon as the survivors were visible, though, it was apparent that that they were in no condition to fight. Their shield spell had not been as advanced as Twilight’s, and they had paid dearly for it. Both were badly burned, and their armor, despite being of very high quality, had been damaged. Rarity was surprised to see that both were white unicorns like her. One was a tall and beautiful female, and the other a stallion with long blue hair tied back behind his head and a broken monocle over one eye.

“Excellent,” said Twilight. “And here I thought I wasn’t going to get anything.”

“You’ll never get anything out of us,” said the mare in a thick accent.

“I won’t stop because you don’t consent,” said Twilight, her magic closing tightly around the mare’s neck and causing her to gasp.

“No!” said the stallion. “Please, stop!”

Twilight did not. She lifted the mare off the ground so that they were eye-level. “That’s quite a long horn you have, isn’t it?”

The mare’s eyes suddenly narrowed, and she flicked her horn. A surge of blue light flew out from it. Instinctively, Twilight raised her left front leg, the one she kept completely covered. When the blue magic struck it, there was a small explosion of deep red light and the mare screamed as the magic feedback struck her horn.

Twilight looked down at the damage to the covering over her hoof, and Rarity thought that she saw something red glowing form within. Twilight’s eyes narrowed.

“Okay. So you want to forgo mercy, then. Fine. I have protocols for that.”

She picked up the mare again, but this time acted before she could resist. Twilight’s magic clamped down around the mare’s horn. The mare screamed and tried to resist, but her weak blue magic was easily overpowered by Twilight’s pink-violet.

Then the mare’s horn began to twist. The mare’s eyes went wide, and her limbs flailed as she struggled against Twilight’s grasp. The scream was not normal. It was high and filled with fear and pain beyond anything that Rarity could even hope to understand.

Then, as she watched, Rarity saw Twilight tear the horn free of the mare’s head, even taking the deep fleshy root with it. Rarity immediately vomited, and nearly fainted. Killing was one thing, even the way Twilight did it- -but this was just too much. As a unicorn, she understood what the horn meant, and how it was both incredibly sensitive and critical to a unicorn’s sense of self. That another unicorn could even conceive of so violently taking that most precious of organs was beyond disgusting. Seeing this, Rarity had never realized how deeply she now hated Twilight.

And then, of all things, Twilight laughed. “Excellent!” she exclaimed. “The horn-marrow of a pure white unicorn! Finally something worth my time!”

The magic around the horn she was holding changed, and small lines erupted on it as Twilight dissected it, pulling the bony exterior away from the soft nerve-filled pith within. She filed the pieces with perfect precision and organization into several small containers.

“Now, Ms. Earth-Pony, could you please tell me who sent you here?”

The mare, gasping and bleeding heavily from her wound, looked up at Twilight with tear-filled but defiant eyes. “Never,” she whispered.

“Okay,” shrugged Twilight. She turned to Starlight. “Starlight, strip her.”

Starlight seemed to recognize what this meant, and she smiled, giggling gleefully. Twilight turned the mare on her side, and Starlight approached her. Before the white stallion could do anything to stop her, Starlight lowered her head to the mare’s flank, directing it at her cutie mark.

The mare’s eyes widened, but all that she could do was release a high squeak of anguish as the skin on her flank bubbled and distorted. Then, before Rarity’s very eyes, her cutie mark- -three fleur de’lis- -separated from her body. The skin had not been removed; although it was scarred in the shape of two parallel lines, the cutie mark was not flesh at all, but rather some kind of energy.

Starlight finished pulling the mark away from the mare, and held it gingerly in her magic. Then she grinned sadistically, and her magic suddenly tightened. The cutie mark was crushed easily, disintegrating into specks of light that quickly faded to dull gray ash before disappearing entirely.

The mare, now more gray than white, flinched and then slumped, still breathing but unable to resist further.

“What- -what have you done?” cried the Stallion.

` “It’s a spell that Starlight specializes in,” explained Twilight. “Your friend- -or lover, I don’t care- -has been stripped of her cutie mark. Her destiny has been removed. Her future is gone, and her passion excised. A fate worse than death.”

“You- -you’re a monster!”

“‘Monster’ implies that my actions are immoral,” said Twilight. “But you and I both know they’re not. Discord purged that obsolete concept from Equestria one thousand years ago. My actions are my own, devoid of moral or ethical context. With that said…”

Twilight once again lifted the mare. She did her best to struggle, but was now far too weak to resist. From under her short cape, Twilight produced a long steel needle. With exacting precision, she pushed it through the corner of the mare’s eye. There was a slight crunch as it entered her skull, but Twilight stopped before it reached the brain tissue.

“Now,” she said. “You are going to tell me what I asked, or I am going to push this needle just a little bit further. Just like I did with her.” She pointed at Starlight. “And then she’ll be just like that. Alive, but not really. No memory, no thoughts.” She shrugged. “I might make her a servant at my castle. Or…I can sell her. There are a lot of stallions who would pay for a mare this pretty who doesn’t try to resist.”

The stallion glared at her, but then spoke. “The Two Sisters will rise,” he said, repeating the phrase that the Pegasus pony before had screamed at Rarity. “And the Madgod will fail, and fall. Peace and Harmony will be restored as Chaos dies. You seven will burn in Tartarus for- -”

His eyes suddenly widened and he gasped. Clearly in pain but in greater confusion, he looked down to see his flesh slowly disintegrating. Coat, skin, muscle and bone faded away, streaming upward into spirals as their constitutive alchemical elements were pulled into Twilight’s magic.

“I think I’ve heard enough,” she said, pulling his basic elements into several jars. “You won’t mind if I sacrifice you for the greater good. Think of what you’ll contribute to science!”

The stallion gasped, and held up his hooves only to see that they had been reduced to badly pitted bone. He tried to crawl toward the injured mare, who stared at him with tears in her eyes as she watched her mate die from where Twilight had dropped her. Of course, the stallion did not get far before he collapsed. His entire body had been extracted, and all that remained intact was his head and a long bloody portion of his spine.

“Fancy Pants!” wailed the mare, crawling to his side and wrapping her front legs around what was left of his body. Much of it disintegrated under her grasp, which only made her weep harder. To Rarity, it was a touching site that made her feel like the most terrible pony who had ever lived.

The others seemed not to care. “I’m done with her,” said Twilight. “Darknight?”

Without a word, Darknight raised a pistol and put a bullet through the back of the mare’s head. She stiffened for just a moment, and then collapsed onto the stallion’s body.

“How romantic,” said Twilight. “It makes me almost sad that I’ll never fall in love. Oh well.” She shrugged, and Pinkie Pie appeared at her side, eating a bunned carrot.

“Where were you?” asked Darknight.

“Getting lunch, silly. It’s why we came here, isn’t it? Besides, my presence would ruin the gravitas of that whole moment. That said, Fancy Pants is a super-dumb name. I mean, I’m named Pinkie and I think that’s stupid. Also, what’s that beeping?”

The ponies looked at each other, and Rarity realized that she really could hear something beeping. Twilight looked down at the dead mare, and pushed her off her lover. A spherical device rolled out from beneath her to Rarity’s feet.

“Ah,” said Twilight. “It would appear to be a shrapnel grenade. She must have triggered it before she died.” Her horn glowed, and she projected a pink-violet bubble around herself. “Good think a shield spell is one of the most basic systems covered in any competent magical education.” She said this looking directly at Rarity and smiling.

“But- -but I don’t know how to cast one!” cried Rarity.

“Oh,” said Pinkie, also apparently unperturbed by the explosive. “Yeaaaaaah, we’re going to have to rename you Leroy Jethro. Because you’re about to be gibs.”

Rarity knew that she was right. She did not really fully understand what a shrapnel grenade was, but she had an impression that whatever it did would not just be targeting her upper body. Her legs were still vulnerable in some places, and her head was completely uncovered. An explosion at close range would at the very least maim her, even with the mitrhil.

Unless she did something about it, of course. Which, for some reason, she could not. All she found herself doing was staring stupidly at the bomb, not knowing what to do. A million ideas passed through her head- -she could attempt to run to cover, or duck and try to cover her venerable portions, or even throw herself on the bomb and hope that the mithril could absorb the blast. Even with all these ideas in her head, though, her body did nothing, even as the bomb suddenly stopped beeping and the orange light on its side changed to vermillion.

Rarity was immediately thrown back, but not by the blast. It still went off, and the air was filled with tiny blades of steel and balls of lead- -but none of them struck her. Instead Darknight- -the one who had tackled her to the ground- -took the majority of the blast to his right side.

The two of them hit the ground, and Darknight slumped over. He did not move. ��X1OM