The Library was silent, as it was most days. The region it had been constructed it had been meant as a center for the city, but it had long since been forgotten and abandoned as Bridgeport expanded ever upward- -and, according to the legends, ever deeper. Despite this, the Librarians still stood sentry to watch over their town. There was not much to see, but they were weary; Aeschylus had informed each and every one of them of Morgana’s intention. There was not one among them who had not heard tales of the War Stone, and the destruction it had wrought throughout history. Few, though, knew what it truly was; that information had long-since been forgotten by everyone save for the eldest of ponies.

So they took their stations, watching over the silent town. The feeling was eerie. As per Morgana and Aeschylus’s request, they had all deactivated any network connections. This left them in silence, and a place that they had thought of as their home suddenly seemed dark and isolating. They were afraid.

For a time, there was nothing to report. Then the sound came. The strongest of the Librarians moved swiftly through the town, attempting to scout for what was approaching. When they saw it, they froze, hiding in the awnings and on the rooves of buildings. Strange things were marching quietly through the streets.

They were innumerable, and their forms were manifold. Many were human. There were soldiers, enforcers, gang members and ordinary people. Blood streamed down from their blank, staring eyes and from their ears, and they staggered strangely. None of them spoke. None of them could.

The humans were not alone. They were accompanied by others: cyborgs of every type, including Delvers and zoonei, as well as a horde of pony and secgen bodies, all of which appeared to have been stolen before a consciousness could even be installed onto them. An army of robots followed in their wake, and although these were of every conceivable type, the most prominent were a trio of Aetna-Cross heavy drones.

The Librarians mobilized quickly. They could not open network channels, so instead they transmitted pure audio as radio transmissions. The language was coded, spoken in Navajo in the code that the ancients had used in the second of the seven world wars, but there was no guarantee that it could not be decrypted and translated- -or that it could not be jammed. The scouts had to return physically to warn their compatriots.

They rode swiftly, and several of them arrived in the main hall of the Library. Their commander was already waiting and prepared, standing alongside Aeschylus.

“Faulkner!” cried one of the Librarians. “We’ve been found! Forces are moving in from the West and South!”

“No!” said another. “From the North and East!”

“We’re surrounded,” said Faulkner. “Any word on who?”

“I saw Aetna-Cross drones! They know she’s here!”

“No,” said Aeschylus. “They no longer belong to Aetna-Cross.”

“Then who?”

Aeschylus’s expression darkened. “They are possessions of the War Stone now.”

“Then the time has come,” said Faulkner. “We will mobilize, defend the Library!”

“NO.” The entire room fell silent at Aeschylus’s refusal. “Do not engage them. Do not approach them, or even glance in their direction. They have not attacked, and I do not think they will. Not unless we interfere with them.”

“You’re joking!” cried Faulkner. “They are invading our Library! Defiling its sanctity- -”

“They have no interest in the library. Only in Morgana.”

Faulkner’s eyes narrowed. “You gave her your word that you would help her.”

“And we have. Far more than she deserves.”

“But if you let them reach her, she will die! And her friends too! Even Twilight!”

“And what would you have us do? We are scholars. Never have we been soldiers, or warriors. We would be slaughter. And that is a cost I cannot allow.”

“Then I will fight them!”

“You can’t,” said another Librarian, stepping forward. “There’s too many. Hundreds. And just one of the Aetna-Cross drones…we don’t have any weapons, not for that!”

“We normally solve problems with our words,” said another. “Is there a chance they can be reasoned with? That we can be friends?”

“There is no reasoning with the War Stone,” said Aeschylus. “It does not differentiate between murder and compromise. No deal can be reached against a being that is in want of nothing.”

“Then I will fight them!” Faulkner stood as high as she could, ruffling her wings aggressively. “If that’s what it takes, I will do it!”

The room suddenly fell silent as it was illuminated from outside. The door had been pushed open silently, and all waiting turned to see the reflections of cybernetic eyes staring in. Then they came. It was not a rush, but they moved quickly and silently- -a horde of machines and humans whose minds had been burned from their skulls.

One of them approached Faulkner. She had been human, apparently a member of a private security firm. She was dressed in the inner parts of her armor; she had apparently been either sleeping or inactive when the War Stone had murdered her. Her four eyes had apparently been clear, luminescent blue at one point; now they were gray and pallid.

Faulkner took a defensive stance, and the woman stopped. She lurched forward, and her jaw opened. Blood spilled onto the floor, as well as the end of the tongue she had bitten off while she had convulsed to death. Then her head tilted upward, and her eyes locked on Faulkner.

“The pony Morgana,” she said, gurgling through the blood and the severed tongue. “I have no access to the schematics of this place. It is not recorded. I need her. Tell me where she is. Tell me, so I can kill her.”

“No.”

The other Twilight’s gasped. Faulkner, though, did not waiver.

“Wrong…answer.”

The woman raised a heavy-caliber quad barrel rifle at Faulkner’s processor core. Faulkner still did not flinch. “My mother has ordered me not to engage you. None of the others will stop you. Nor will they help you.”

“And you?”

“I will challenge you!”

Before the others could stop her, Faulkner threw open her connections. She pressed forward with an offensive attack, attempting to gain a foothold into the programming that had overcome the army that surrounded her. She had no weapons, save for her mind- -and it was the one she intended to use to protect her friend.

The War Stone’s victory was instantaneous. There were no footholds, and no holes that Faulkner could ever have hoped to exploit. She screamed as the War Stone penetrated her mind, entering every portion of it and integrating herself into it. Faulkner was forced to drop to her knees; she had lost all control of her body.

“Now tell me,” said the woman. “Why…should I not incinerate your mind right now?”

“I will not beg, and I will not bargain.”

“An adequate answer. I did not intend to leave any of you alive anyway.”

The army of corpses laughed in unison, save for one. It had been a man, a low-ranking Aetna-Cross agent. Instead of laughing, he convulsed, his mouth opening and closing rapidly. Then he tilted backward, and raised a .223 pistol to the head of the woman standing over Faulkner. He pulled the trigger, and her brain splattered outward over the Librarians.

They screamed, and the entire room broke into panic at once. A wave shot from the man, temporarally clearing the network in the area and freeing Faulkner.

“You fucking idiot!” he said. “Don’t ever do that again! Aeschylus! Run! Get them out of here! I’ll try to hold them off!”

“Morgana?”

“I SAID RUN YOU FAT FUCK, RUN!”

They did, and the body Morgana was controlling was quickly torn apart by the others, only for her to manifest in a pair of women. They picked up the guns that the others had dropped and began firing into the crowd, tearing through them as well as they could before falling themselves. There was no way Morgana could stop the oncoming forces, but she could buy time- -both for the Librarians and for herself.

Forth’s ears immediately pricked up at the sound of gunfire.

“Something’s happening!”

Elrod sat up suddenly. “Huh? What?”

Forth focused her forward sensors, triangulating the sound of the weapons and identifying their caliber. There were many, indicating that there was either an army above or one person with a great many firearms.

“We’re under attack,” she said. “Mean predicted number of infidels is eighty seven…ninety four…one hundred forty six…” The number just kept increasing.

“I hear it,” said Elrod. “Oh crap…”

Forth looked at him. “I need to get you out of here. Now.” She stood up and galloped to the main door. Elrod stood as well, but he did not leave the center of the room. “Elrod! You have to go!”

“I can’t just leave them!”

“Yes you can! I don’t have the firepower for that many enemies. We’ll be surrounded. You will die. I can’t let that happen. I have to save you.”

“And fight them all yourself?” Elrod drew his .700 pistol. The suppressor was still attached. “I’m not leaving you here all alone, Forth. And I’m not leaving them.” He shrugged. “Besides. The area is sealed.”

“I can open it.” Forth connected the door access panel to her hardline port. As soon as she did, though, part of the massive door began heating from the other side. Forth looked at the glowing metal in shock, and then looked over her shoulder. “They’re trying to cut through!”

“Then I was right. We’re going to have to fight.”

“No. You can’t. Not with just one gun.”

“Who says I only have one?”

Elrod slid off his coat. Then, as Forth watched, he inserted his hand through the material of his chest. His clothing apart from the coat and his skin seemed to be made of the same fleshy substance, and with a cracking sound he was able to tear himself open. Then, from within, he pulled an entire pile of pistols and a pair of carbines.

“You…you were hiding weapons inside your own body?”

“Yeah. I don’t have internal organs, so there’s space.”

“I think I love you.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Forth turned toward the door. “If you wish to fight, so be it. But you will be the second line. I will not let them hurt you. Until I am dead. Then I will be unable to stop them.”

“You’re not going to die, Forth!”

“At this rate, yes, I am.” She slid off her dress and stood before the door nude. “But if I end here, I intend to take as many infidels with me as I can.”

She unfolded her body. All of her limbs split, the skin and zinc-alloy armor retracting to reveal every gun and blade she had. Then her torso separated, splitting and opening to position her tiny processor to the rear of the heavy weapons and napalm canisters that made up the center of her body. Even her head split, separating to expose the weapons that it contained. When she was done, there was nothing about her that resembled a pony- -only a weapon. With her entire body active, she would not be able to move rapidly, but she did not need to. She would hold the line. She would protect Elrod.

A strange fear crept into her mind, though. It was indeed a strange sensation: throughout her short life, Forth could never recall having ever been afraid. She was suspicious of some things, but true fear evaded her. Not even death was frightening. There was no reason for it to be; her sole purpose in life was to be slaughtered on the battlefield again and again, resurrected infinitely to continue the genocide of infidels. Instead, what she feared was that Elrod would see her naked like this, and he would not think she was as adorable as when she looked like a real pony.

To her great relief, though, Elrod watched impassively. He did not have the capacity to differentiate between the forms, or was perhaps too concerned with loading the pistols and rifles that he had now slung over both shoulders and stuffed into every pocket he had. From Forth’s perspective, his effort was valiant- -but doomed to failure.

From Elrod’s perspective, however, the situation was terrifying. There was no escape- -he had already checked for exits. Morgana was holding the doors closed, assuming she had not outright disabled them. Even if there had been a way to escape, though, Elrod would probably not have been able to force himself to leave. He could not leave Forth behind. Morgana mattered less- -he did not fully understand her goal, or care to- -and the new Twilight was somewhere intermediate.

So he took up arms as he watched Forth transform. In a way, he found himself feeling jealous. She was so powerful compared to him, and so elegant of design. Elrod supposed that he himself was as well, in a sense, but not in a way that he was able to appreciate. Still, as weak as he was, he chose to help.

As he was loading one of his carbines, though, something stopped him. He heard a sound coming from the uplink. It was some sort of alarm.

Forth heard it to. “Elrod! You have to get to cover!”

“No, I think something’s wrong!” He picked up his mask, fumbling to put it on. As soon as he did, the interface for the uplink appeared before him. It was dark red and flashing, as well as alarming loudly. Elrod felt whatever he had in place of a heart sink. Quickly, he did his best to comprehend what it meant.

“Critical overheat? What the hell is a critical overheat?!”

It was only then that he saw the puddle of quickly evaporating coolant on the floor, and realized that one of the fluid lines leading to Morgana’s body was cut. Without cooling, her processor was heating up too quickly. She was on the verge of burning out.

“Oh fuck- -”

Something heavy slammed against the door, causing the whole room to shake. Something metal poked through the mostly melted portion of the door where the unseen enemies on the far side had been cutting, and when it was retracted, small robots began to pour through.

Gunfire erupted as Forth attacked them, firing both at the small machines that were entering the room as well as through the hole they had come through. Elrod ducked, thinking that he would soon be getting shot at. As he did, Morgana grimaced. Then her body suddenly shifted. Things from beneath her skin tore through it: white-hot cooling coils. She vented with a loud hiss, covering Elrod in scalding steam.

“Crap!” He leapt back, his skin already regenerating from the burns. He could see that despite the vents, Morgana was starting to seize- -but that was not the largest problem.

“Leave her!” cried Forth. “There’s nothing you can do!”

“It’s not her I’m worried about! Her body is vented- -it’s HER!” He pointed at Twilight. Her body was still, but the temperature indicators showed that without coolant her body temperature had risen to be dangerously extreme. Her body was not manufactured by MHI; it had not been intended to survive situations like this. She was dying.

Elrod looked around in a panic. He was not trained for this; in fact, he was not trained for much of anything at all. His role at Monsanto had been as a scientist, and his role in life had been a scavenger. Now, though, his friends were dying and had to do his best to save them.

“Fluid,” he said. “I need fluid!”

He looked around, and just as he was about to give up hope, he spied something: in the ceiling, a fire-suppression aperture. Elrod burst out laughing when he saw it. Quickly, he searched his pockets. There were many things inside, but among the small fragments of metal and especially pretty stones he found a mostly depleted role of sealing tape.

A loud thud came again, this time from the other side of the room. Another of the doors was forced open, and Forth immediately began shooting toward the opening, driving back those who were trying to get through in a plume of red mist. Elrod ducked, but still managed to wrap his tape around the breach in Morgana’s coolant tube. Then he unlatched it from the uplink unit, setting off an entirely new surge of warnings.

Several bullets passed through his body. He ignored them; they were of no consequence to him. Instead of ducking for cover, he lifted himself onto the uplink and climbed its arms toward the fire suppressor. More sounds came from below, followed by an explosion. Another door had been breached, and Forth responded by firing several missiles in the direction of the dark hole.

“I can’t keep this up!” she cried.

Elrod reached onto his belt and took his pistol; he leveled a shot and fired. The pistol was immediately knocked from his hand, although he was pretty sure the bullet had completely removed someone’s abdominal cavity. That was a plus, and he drew a .308 pistol and continued to fire as he climbed, doing his best to cover Forth. She was taking damage, but surviving- -and Elrod knew that he needed to hurry.

He reached the top of the uplink and reached out toward the fire suppressor. Fumbling with the connection, he managed to link the fluid-coolant line to the vent. Then he slammed his fist into the sensors. A klaxon immediately blared, and the coolant tube lurched as nonconductive fluid poured through it. Elrod slipped and fell, landing hard in the puddle below.

Through his mask, he watched as the temperature changed. It was still dangerously high, and rising- -but he had managed to slow its rise, at least for a little while. Hopefully for long enough. “I’m not ���EQZ