Sunset was still asleep when I set her down on the bed. We were currently at Discord’s central safe house. I had carried Sunset to Discord’s Frostfalls safe house after she had tried to attack me. From there we went through the tunnel to the central safe house. Discord was already waiting for us when we arrived. Discord, Applejack, and I decided to wait for Sunset before we discuss what had happened in the Frostfalls.

“How long do you think it’ll take for her to wake up?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered. I put Sunset to sleep by using a command ability I discovered when I was traveling with Calaeno. I don’t know what triggered it, but I knew that Sunset was responsible for it. I used it through instinct.

Sunset would be asleep until I wanted her to wake up, however, I couldn’t let Applejack know that I had done anything to her. I would just have to wait for Applejack to leave before I could command Sunset to awake.

“Ah’ll get Discord to take another look at her,” Applejack said as she walked to the door.

“Good idea,” I agreed. “I’ll stay here in case she wakes up.” Applejack nodded and ran out of the room. I felt the energy surge through my hands. “I have you to thank for this, Sunset. I guess I should wake you.” I put my hand on her forehead and commanded her to slowly wake up. She began to move.

“Wha-“ Sunset tried to speak, but she was unable to just yet. She was still half asleep.

“Hey Applejack!” I called out. “Sunset’s awake!” I could hear two sets of footsteps running in my direction. Applejack and Discord appeared a few seconds later.

“Sunset!” Applejack called as she ran to her. Sunset grunted softly.

“Octavia,” Discord said to me. “We should probably give Sunset some time to breathe. Let’s talk outside for a moment.”

“Alright,” I replied. We both walked out of the room and back into the hall. I closed the door behind me so that Applejack wouldn’d hear. “What’s on your mind?”

“A few things,” Discord said.” First of all, what is Sunset? Applejack told me what you told her, but I want the unabridged version.”

“I’m not sure what she is,” I said. I turned around and began to pace the hall. “I know that she’s not corrupted, but that’s about it.”

“Alright. What are you then?” Discord asked bluntly.

“Next question,” I replied.

Discord rolled his eyes in annoyance. “What can you tell me then?” he asked.

“Discord,” I said with a serious tone. “You have to understand that I don’t know the majority of what happened here. Most of the stuff I do remember was Vinyl and me being held in your company’s prison as test subjects. That’s why I need to talk to Gloriosa. She has answers we both need.”

Discord stayed quiet. He walked over to me slowly. “She’s been experimenting with the X.X.X. Plague. She most likely already integrated it into her body.”

“I figured as much,” I replied.

“That’s why you have Sunset going after the Chimeras isn’t it?” Discord asked. “You want Sunset to overpower her and take what you want.”

“That’s right,” I said, “but I just wanted her to be familiar with the X.X.X. Plague. I had no idea she would absorb abilities like that.” There was no point in denying my original motives. “I have my own powers too, thanks to Sunset.”

“How in the name of God did Sunset manage to do that?”

“She tried to siphon my energy, but instead she stimulated it,” I replied. “I have power now as well as another ace in the hole for my talk with Gloriosa.”

“Well that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Discord said. I looked at Discord in silence. “When you find Gloriosa, you have to take everything you find and bring it here. Every single piece of research and anything you can carry must be brought here.”

“Alright,” I said. I trusted Discord enough to bring him back whatever he wanted me to with minimal details. He wasn’t responsible for the outbreak but still felt accountable.

“There’s one more thing,” Discord said. “We have to find everyone who’s not infected and round them up in one place. We need to find a way to escape the city, because I have a suspicion this town is going to be purged as soon as Gloriosa gets what she’s looking for.”

I figured,” I said. “So how do we escape?”

“Leave that to me,” Discord answered. “For now, you should continue killing Chimeras. Gloriosa will know what you’re up to, and she will try to stop you.” Discord looked thoughtfully to the door. “Can she hear us?”

“No,” I answered. “I implanted a command that slowly restores her super hearing along with her other more dangerous abilities.”

Discord stayed quiet. He looked troubled. “What else can you do?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know yet,” I answered honestly. “Let’s not risk Sunset hearing us.” I opened the door and motioned for Discord to walk back into the room. We walked in to find Sunset awake and talking to Applejack.

“Octavia,” Sunset said with regret in her voice. “I’m—I’m—really—“

“It’s okay,” I reassured Sunset. “I’m okay.”

“No you’re not,” Sunset said with the same regretful tone. “You’re infected with whatever that crazy bitch infected me with.”

I wasn’t sure how to reply. Discord and I both knew that that statement was true. We had both compared our notes on the X.X.X. Plague and on Sunset’s infection. None of them were consistent with me. I was different. I couldn’t have been infected by Sunset, but I wasn’t sure if telling her the truth would make things better or worse.

“It’s okay,” I finally replied. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.” I didn’t want to flat out lie to Sunset, but I had no choice. Sunset rubbed her eyes as if to break eye contact with me.

“What exactly happened?” Sunset asked.

I raised my eyebrow. “You don’t remember,” I said in surprise. I looked at Applejack. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Tell me what?” Sunset asked with authority in her voice.

“What do you remember?”

“I remember going into my celestial warrior trance and fighting the Frostfalls Chimera and—“ Sunset’s eyes widened. “I remember having a thirst to take his power— and then yours.”

“Do you remember draining the Chimera?” Applejack asked.

“No,” she replied.

“In the middle of the fight, you let him strike you with those ice shards,” I explained. “You used your power thing to melt most of the tips, but only enough so that they would still stick out of your chest without hitting anything important.”

“How do you know that?” Applejack asked.

“I examined the cuts on her chest,” I replied. “They’re all significantly shallower than they should be.”

“Since when do you know how to examine cuts?” Sunset asked.

“Since, shut up,” I replied not wanting to give Sunset a real answer.

“Anyway,” Discord said clearly irritated. “How do you feel?”

“I feel tired,” Sunset replied. “That’s about it.”

“You don’t feel like killing me anymore?” I asked.

“No, did I hurt you?”

“No, I stopped you before you could touch me.”

“How?”

I shrugged. “It was reflex,” I lied. “I just knocked you out.” Sunset didn’t look like she believed my story.

“There are other matters to discuss,” Discord said. He explained his thoughts on how Gloriosa was going to clean up Canterlot. Sunset and Applejack exchanged looks of horror.

“Oh mah God,” Applejack said slowly.

“Yeah,” I said. “But standing here in shock wouldn’t help anyone. Sunset and I are going to find Gloriosa and make sure everyone is out of the city before she destroys it.”

“We can’t let her destroy the city, it's our home!” Applejack protested.

“We can’t just let the X.X.X. Plague roam free either,” Sunset said.

“Sunset and I are going to the Electric Fields to find their Chimera and hopefully get Gloriosa’s location from them,” I said. “Meanwhile, you and Discord can round up all of the survivors into one place and find a way to escape.”

“That sounds good,” Applejack said unsure.

“I don’t think I should go,” Sunset said. “I almost got you killed last time.”

“We don’t have a choice,” I replied. “Unless you have a better idea.” Sunset shook her head. “Then Let’s get going.”

Sunset, Applejack, and I traveled back to the police station after getting Sunset her strength back. When we arrived, we saw that the cop car I had been using was outside of the police station’s gate already prepped for me. Sunset and I got into the car as Applejack walked into the police station. I turned on the car and was about to leave when suddenly I heard the police station’s gates reopening and closing. ”Wait for me!” I heard Twilight shout.

“Oh Celestia,” I said half amused. “This trip just got more interesting.”

“I’m right there with you,” Sunset said with her head buried in her hands. “This won’t end well.”

“Hey there you two,” Twilight said as she entered the car. “You guys didn’t think you were going to the Electric Fields without me did you?”

“We were kind of hoping to take people who can handle themselves,” Sunset said and I started the car and drove off.

“I can handle myself,” Twilight said bitterly, “and besides, Octavia can barely handle herself.

Sunset and I exchanged smiles. “I’ve gotten a lot stronger than when we were in the Infernoland, and so has Sunset.” We spent the next few minutes telling Twilight what had happened in the Frostfalls.

“Wow,” was Twilight’s only reply.

“Yeah, it’s actually an amazing trip,” I said.

“So that white aura thingy came back?” Twilight asked.

“Back and stronger than before,” I replied. “This time instead of just covering her hands, it covered a bunch of different places of her body. It was truly amazing.”

“I tried to kill you,” Sunset said negatively.

“Yeah,” I replied, “ it would have been an amazing death.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

“The Electric Fields are pretty far away,” I said. “You two should get some sleep, and we’ll be there in no time.”

“No. I’m tired of sleeping,” Sunset said. “I’ll rest when we get to the safe house Discord has over there.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again with all this happening.”

“Not me,” Twilight said. “I’ve been awake for too long. I could use sleep.” Twilight yawned and placed her head down against the door. She was out in seconds.

“Is it me, or is Twilight eerily chipper for someone in the middle of a Xenomorph apocalypse?” Sunset asked.

“Well technically it’s not a Xenomorph apocalypse,” I replied, “but I see your point.”

“I don’t even know how she can sleep. Everything’s falling to Tartarus all around us. Not to mention the backseat of a cop car looks pretty damn uncomfortable.”

“Twilight spent almost all of her summer vacations asleep,” Sunset said. “She’s slept in the most awkward positions, so I’m not surprised she’s sleeping now.”

“Actually I’m a little tired too,” I said. “Do you mind taking the wheel?”

“No I don’t mind,” Sunset replied. I stopped the car near an empty gas station. Sunset and I switched seats. With Sunset around I would be safe. I fell asleep as soon a I closed my eyes.

I had been driving for a long time now, and I wasn’t sure wether or not I was going the right way. Octavia was the one who was good with directions, but I couldn’t ask for her help mow that she was asleep. I continued driving through the streets until I saw a familiar sight. It was PON-3’s Turf. The bar my friends and I were in when we first heard about the corrupted wolf. It looked untouched by lotters. It almost looked inhabitable. I knew that wasn’t the case though. Now the bar was just a reminder of the last day of fun most of my friends had with me. It was also possibly the last place I would ever see more than a few of them. I watched it as we began to pass.

I looked back to the road in time to a massive elephant in my path. It was one of most horrifying animals I had ever seen. It still kind of looked like an elephant, but I could see all the xenomorphic deteriorated skin, and it seemed to be twice as big as an elephant should ever be. There were sections of damaged skin on his body. The left side of its ribcage was slightly exposed along with the top right part of its skull. He had no visible eyes on his head which gave me a clear indication that it was indeed a Xenomorph.

I quickly swerved out of the way and drove straight into PON-3’s Turf. The crash woke up Twilight and Octavia. “What the hell, Octavia!” Twilight yelled while rubbing her head. “I can’t even take a fucking nap because of your—“ Twilight stopped mid-sentence. She stayed completely quiet in shock.

“Is that an elephant?” Octavia asked almost matter-of-factly. The elephant advanced slowly towards us. “We should run.”

The three of us ran out of the car and away from the elephant. It saw us a moment later and charged for us.

“We can’t run together,” I said loud enough for Twilight and Octavia to hear. “We need to split up.” Twilight and I ran to the right of the street while Octavia ran left. The elephant followed Octavia. She ran faster than I had seen her run before, but the elephant easily kept pace. They were heading towards the zoo.

I shot magma balls and ice daggers towards the elephant, but he was too quick and didn’t stay in one place long enough to get hit. I suddenly had an idea. I aimed for Octavia and began firing. Most of the shots hit the elephant’s back legs. My attacks only seemed to aggravate it further.

Octavia led the elephant to the zoo entrance and quickly rolled out of the way to avoid being trampled. She quickly ran back towards the car. Twilight and I followed Octavia after realizing that the supply bag was still in the car. Octavia reached the car before us and pulled the supply bag and a map from the wreckage. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Octavia exclaimed.

The thunderous sound of the Xenomorph elephant shook the earth, but this time it wasn’t coming back alone. I could hear other animals running towards us too. Twilight, Octavia, and I ran into another alley and hid near its end. “Please tell me you can get us out of this?” I asked Octavia.

“I don’t really know this part of town,” she replied.

“Oh great, the one time you don’t know where to go is now,” Twilight said in disbelief.

“There,” Octavia pointed to a fire escape. “Let’s start climbing.” The three of us took turns climbing the fire escape with me being the last to climb. I glanced to the opening of the alley and saw a corrupted lion. It was just as hideous as the elephant. It was bigger than a normal lion, and it moved with a grace I wouldn’t have expected it to have. It was quickly closing the gap between us. It can’t get up here, I thought to myself. It’s too high for him to reach. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I began climbing even when Octavia was still near.

“Hurry up guys,” I urged. “There’s a fucking Xenomorph lion following us!”

Twilight stopped climbing to look down. “He can’t get to us, Sunset,” Twilight assumed.

The lion jumped up and grabbed part of the railing of the fire escape. “Goddammit! Hurry up Twilight!” I yelled. Twilight and Octavia rapidly climbed the fire escape while the lion struggled to regain balance. I shot the lion with as many magma bolts as I could. Four of the shots were direct hits. The lion seemed to become faster as if hitting it only angered it more. It jumped from the fire escape onto a nearby rooftop and then jumped higher up onto the fire escape. I couldn’t let it get any closer, so I began freezing the areas below me. The lion struggled to balance itself on the frozen areas until it finally slipped and hit the ground. Thump! I sighed in relief and continued climbing.

Twilight and Octavia had already reached the top. Octavia extended her hand to me and helped me reach the roof; the three of us walked to the edge and peeked down into the streets. We stared at groups of animals running out of the zoo. There were many different types of them, but they all were just as alien looking as the lion and the elephant we had seen.

“My God,” I said. “They look terrible.”

“Sunset?” Octavia got my attention. “Remember that other corrupted animal we saw before?”

“Yeah. It was a wolf,” I replied, “but it wasn’t as xenomorphic looking as these animals are. He was healthy and strong.”

Octavia stayed silent. She looked like she was pondering the information. “You don’t think these animals can be Chimeras too do you?” Octavia finally asked.

Twilight and I stayed quiet. Up until now I only thought that humans could become Chimeras, but the possibility of an animal Chimera was just too much to process. “We’re fucked if animals can be Chimeras,” I said flatly. “The X.X.X. Plague just keeps getting stronger. My abilities aren’t even close to a Chimera’s level, and the only ability that will likely get Octavia killed.”

“I really don’t like being killed,” Octavia said to ease the tension. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For now we should continue heading for the Electric Fields.”

“How are we going to do that?” Twilight asked. “There are packs of animals down in the streets, and unless you know a way to fly us over, we’re screwed.”

“I could try to make an ice bridge over the buildings.” I suggested.

“That might work,” Octavia said.

“Let me test out the strength first,” I said as I manipulated the water in a water container out into the open air and froze it between two buildings. I walked on the bridge to see if it could hold. It felt a little unstable, but I was sure it would hold. “Let’s go.

Twilight and Octavia followed shortly after I finished walking across the bridge. Twilight seemed a little nervous, but Octavia didn’t seem to care that the bridge was a little wobbly. She walked forward as she looked at the streets instead of on the ice below her. She only tore her eyes away from the animals below once she was done walking on the bridge.

“That’s a really cool power,” Twilight said. “You’ll have to show me what else you can do after you kill the last two Chimeras. This is going to be fun.” Octavia liked at Twilight with uneasiness in her face. I wasn’t all too thrilled at how lightly Twilight was taking this mission. In fact, Twilight seems oblivious to both our uneasiness.

“You okay there, Twi Twi?” Octavia asked.

“Don’t call me Twi Twi,” Twilight said in an annoyed voice. “I hate it when people call me that.”

“Alright,” Octavia said, “but are you good? You seem a little off.” I agreed with Octavia. I always knew that Twilight was a little on the darker side when it came o morals, but I never expected to see her so excited about doing something so big.

“What do you mean by off?” Twilight asked.

“Never mind,” Octavia said. “I guess it’s just in my head. Let’s get going.” Octavia sounded like she regretted what she had asked. The three of us continued moving forward. I created another ice bridge which seemed slightly more stable than the last. We all crossed it with ease. I continued making bridges until Octavia finally stopped me. “Wait.”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“The Electric Fields are nearby,” Octavia said, “look over there.” She pointed towards the sophisticated section of Canterlot barely in view. It was covered in a fog.

“Are those the Electric Fields?” Twilight asked.

“That’s where it’s supposed to be,” Octavia answered, “but I’ve never seen it before so I could be wrong.” I continued creating more bridges that led to the Electric Fields.

We walked closer together through each rooftop we passed. I was beginning to feel exhausted by making the bridges. I could barely move the water that I needed to the proper location.

“Sunset, are you doing alright?” Octavia asked. Either Octavia was more receptive than I knew, or I wasn’t hiding the exhaustion as good as I thought I was.

“I’ll be fine Tavi,” I assured Octavia. “I’m just a little tired from making the ice bridges.”

“Then we’ll just have to climb down and get inside the Electric Fields the same way we’ve gotten into every other place,” Octavia said. Neither Twilight nor I disagreed. We climbed down another fire escape back to the street. There were no animals or anything that were an immediate threat. The three of us headed for the entrance of the Electric Fields.

“Another Chimera is going to die to and I’m going to do it,” Twilight said confidently. Octavia threw another glance towards Twilight and then focused back to the barricade in front of us. We climbed the wall together.

When we reached the top, Octavia said almost the exact same thing she had said in the Infernoland and the Frostfalls. “Welcome to the Electric Fields.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 13: Le Veltronics Cometh Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 28 Minutes