When the conversation with Nikolosov was complete, Morgana and Roxanne left him together.

“I can’t believe you did that,” hissed Morgana.

“You can’t get information unless your talk to people,” snapped Roxanne.

“That’s what I mean. That was excellent work.”

Roxanne blinked, surprised. “Excuse me?”

“You really should have worked for me.”

Roxanne frowned, her surprise fading. “You already know why I can’t do that.”

“Yeah. I know.”

They were approaching the open bar. “Do you think he recognized you?”

“Hard to say. Probably not. I look identical to every other Twilight Sparkle.”

“Except that you don’t have wings.”

“True. But I think we’re clear.”

“Because the sticks’ shoved so far in he won’t break protocol in a place like this. He’d be humiliated.”

“Exactly.”

Roxanne chuckled. “Rich people are weird, aren’t they?”

“You have no idea. If I had a vod for every time I had to scrape one of them off the sidewalk…”

“You’d be able to buy your Blossomforth an engagement ring.”

Morgana stopped walking. “Roxanne, that isn’t- -”

“Relax. I know. But look at you. I shouldn’t be able to get to you that easily. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

Morgana paused for a moment, and then sighed. “Yeah. This whole thing’s got me wound up tight.”

“Then let’s get it over with quickly.” Roxanne gestured with her head toward where the red-flowering trees were set up. “I’ll go over there. I’ll see what I can get from the people actually paying attention to the damn plants. They’ll probably know a little more than the showboaters.”

“I highly doubt it. Good luck, though.”

“Thanks.”

Roxanne departed. Morgana watched her go, her gaze momentarily lingering on Roxanne’s rear and her long, rainbow-colored tail. She was indeed attractive- -but entirely out of reach at this point. To her, at least. Lilium still had a substantial chance.

Now alone, Morgana approached the bar and sat down. Her back was facing the crowd, but due to her large eyes she was able to see mostly over her shoulders. It was still an uncomfortable position, but Roxanne was right. She needed to try to act as naturally as possible or she was either going to blow her cover or frighten off her contact.

A synth bartender walked up to her.His face was that of a human, but it was clear that he was residing in a repurposed body.“What can I get you, miss?”

“An empty shot glass.”

The synth, being a professional, obeyed immediately and without hesitation despite the strange request. He set the glass down and went to attend to other guests. When he was a good distance away, Morgana produced a flask from one of her suit-jacket pockets and filled the glass with a pale amber liquid.

As she drank the shot, she became aware of someone sitting down beside her. The smell of her was intense and disgusting, as though she had never bathed in her life. Morgana heard the sound of a bottle being slammed against the fine wood of the bar, and then watched as the woman beside her poured a clear liquor into a beer-sized glass before chugging the contents.

“FUCK!” she said as she finished it. “Fucking weak alcohol!”

She threw the half-empty vodka bottle onto the far side of the bar. The synth bartender flinched as it shattered, but did not speak. He instead went to get a broom.

Morgana looked at the mess. “That vodka is worth sixteen thousand vod a shot.”

“So many dollars for absolute shite. Pointless fluid.” She turned her face toward Morgana. Her eyes were obscured by a gray, opaque visor. “What are you drinking? It smells good.”

“Scotch. Diluted with benzene.”

“Benzene. Benzene is adequate alcohol.”

“It’s not alcohol,” said Morgana as she passed her flask to the woman. The woman seemed not to care; she took the flask and took several substantial gulps from it. As she did, Morgana got a good look at her hands. She only had four fingers on each hand.

“You know, they’re eating one of your kind over on the other side of the room.”

The woman put down the flask and slid it back to Morgana. “So?”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“I’ve eaten my own kind. I’ve eaten their kind too. The only thing they bothered me is that they cooked him. Ruined the meat.”

“You like it raw?”

“I like it alive.”

The woman grinned, and Morgana saw that she had several rows of jagged but extremely sharp teeth. Morgana did not flinch. The woman seemed to take note of this, and the two of them sat in silence for a moment.

Finally, Morgana reached into her pocket and produced a cigarette. It lit as she removed it, and she took a breath through it.

“So,” she said. “You have her?”

The woman nodded. “We do. She’s inbound on your position as we speak.”

“ETA?”

“It depends on how she’s feeling. You’re a computer. You do the math.”

“I already have.” Morgana took a drag on her cigarette. “Do you have a name?”

“No. Not much point in having one in this line of work, is there?”

“Jane Doe it is then. Well, Jane Doe, would it surprise you to know this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you?”

“I’m already surprised you came to here. But I’ve never approached you. It wasn’t my job.”

“Not in person, I mean. I saw your picture. You were on the Surface. One of my friends met you. Green pony, earth-style. Red hair. Was dying at the time.”

Jane Doe smiled. “I remember. I thought she was dead. It’s hard to tell with you horses. You smell the same either way. Not like humans. Not easy for me to see…”

“You left a witness.”

“Yes, but only one.”

Morgana paused, and then put out her cigarette and took a shot of scotch. “Right,” she said. “I know you were harvesting natural-born humans. What do you use them for?”

Jane Doe continued to grin. “No.”

“No?” Morgana turned her head slowly. “Don’t play with me. I came all the way out to this place because you called me. I’m not in the mood for games.”

“And do you think I like being in a room full of pretentious walking meat?”

“Then tell me what I want to know.”

Jane Doe picked up Morgana’s flask and drained the rest of it. “No,” she repeated. “I won’t. Because I can’t. Because I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s technical.”

“But not so technical that you don’t understand it. I watched your kind evolve. Screaming mindlessness doesn’t preclude intelligence.”

Jane Doe frowned. “I’ve decided that I don’t like you.”

“I don’t care.”

The frown on Jane Doe’s face suddenly became a smile. She chuckled. It was an unpleasant, gravely sound. Despite her ability to mimic human speech reasonably well, her vocal organs were not well optimized for it. “I’ve worked in procurement, yes. As an escort. But they’re very particular. They like the heads removed in a certain way. They don’t like when you chew through the throat.”

“You keep saying ‘they’.”

“Is it the wrong word?”

“No. But it implies that you’re not one of them.”

“Do I look like one of them?” Jane Doe gestured to herself. She was wearing a long black coat and what appeared to be shoulder-length gloves. It was not remotely the sort of clothing that would be considered appropriate for this venue, but she did not seem to care- -and neither did those around her. Their response seemed to be to ignore her rather than reject her.

“I don’t know,” said Morgana. “I don’t know what ‘they’ look like. But judging by the fact that you can talk, I’m going to assume that ‘they’ made you.”

Jane Doe laughed suddenly. She gave up all pretense of sounding human; the noise that came from her was a ghastly hiss. “‘Made’? You think they ‘made’ me? No one made me. Except my father fucking my mother and my mother failing to stomp me to death when I finally came out. No genetic engineering. No cybernetics. I am natural-born. The Cult? They don’t make things like me. Or use us for anything except killing.”

“Then what exactly are you to them?”

“The same as the whining ghost. We are employees.”

“Then they sent a representative to deal with me. Fuck. That figures. They couldn’t even be bothered to talk to me themselves?”

Jane Doe shrugged. “They don’t really want to talk to you. I don’t mind. This place is boring for now.”

“Then why call me all the way here?”

Jane Doe looked through her visor. Although it covered her eyes, Morgana knew what they looked like. Staring at her: large, almost iridescent blue irises and vertical slits for pupils. “Because it isn’t really you she wanted to talk to.”

Across the room, Valla approached Elrod, who was standing at one of the food tables.

“Hey,” she said. “Have you seen this stuff?” She lifted up a thin glass that she was holding full of reddish liquid. “I think this is wine. Like, real, actual wine. Like in books.” She lifted the glass and took a sip. As soon as the red liquid touched her tongue, she very nearly spat the entire contents of the glass out on Elrod. “Oh fuck, that’s nasty! People drink this shit?!”

Elrod slowly turned away from the table where he was getting food. He looked up at Valla, and her body grew rigid when she saw his face. It was almost like hers, but his mouth was open- -revealing an unnatural number of long, sharp teeth. Valla had been sure that his dentition had been normal before, and had changed. Several long strips of meat were hanging from Elrod’s mouth, and when Valla looked at his plate she froze and felt incredibly sick. A four-fingered hand and part of a forearm lay on the fine china. Elrod was had been in the process of very aggressively devouring it when Valla had found him.

“What the fuck- -” Valla looked at the table nearby, and to her horror saw a naked and almost completely butchered human lying face-down. He was not only dead, but had been cooked and garnished. That was where Elrod had gotten the hand. “That- -that’s a person!”

Elrod looked at the table, and then at his plate. “Oh,” he said. “I guess it is.”

“You’re- -you’re eating a person!”

“So are they.” Elrod pointed at the other various rich people in the area, all of whom had small plates with portions of the butchered man on them. “It’s good. Do you want some?”

“That’s- -that’s cannibalism!”

Elrod shrugged. “Not for me.”

“You- -you don’t see anything wrong with this, do you?”

“No. My body requires nitrogen. I am fully capable of deaminating protein when I can’t find any fertilizer. My metabolism tolerates this.”

“That isn’t what I mean…” Valla put her head in her hands, not wanting to look at the human-shaped meat. To her horror, she realized that it really did smell delicious. “How the hell did I end up here…what the hell am I going to do?”

“You can have some meat,” suggested Elrod. He looked at the hand. “I wonder if my metabolism can handle bones…”

As Elrod contemplated this, Valla felt a tap against one of her legs. She looked down to see Roxanne standing beside her.

“Hey,” she said. “Having a good time?”

“Not exactly my kind of party.”

“Mine either. I mean, seriously. I don’t think I could be more uncomfortable.”

“You could be wearing transparent clothing,” suggested Elrod. He pointed at a pair of women in dresses made of transparent plastic. “Like them.”

“Eew.”

“Trust me, you would get used to it,” sighed Roxanne. “I’ve been to a LOT of naked parties. Still more fun than this.”

Valla winced, and then drained her entire glass of wine. “So,” she said when she was done. “Did you find anything?”

“Just a bunch of trees. They’re pretty, I guess, for plants. Flowers aren’t exactly my thing. Seems like I was the only one looking at them though.” Roxanne sighed. “I don’t like it much, but Jade would love this…”

“Would,” replied Valla. “But right now her brain’s so scrambled, she can’t even remember who she is. Let alone if she loves trees or hates them.”

“Wait,” said Elrod. “I thought the point of this whole thing was the flowers. Or did I miss something?”

“I don’t know what it’s for,” sighed Roxanne. “For all I know? Those people after Morgana are the ones who called it in the first place. I mean, why bother with all this?” She shook her head. “It’s just so stupid…but, you know, kind of fun.”

“I don’t see how.” Valla grabbed two glasses of wine from the tray of a passing waiter and started sipping from both of them, wincing at the disgusting taste as she did so.

“I feel like I’m a spy. Like in a movie or something.” Roxanne looked around and stepped closer to Valla and Elrod. “And, actually…I think I found something.”

“What?”

“All the people I talked to? None of them know who called this meeting.”

“I thought it was the Bottlebrush Society,” said Elrod, his mouth full of semi-human flesh.

“Yeah. But that’s the thing. Nobody knows who Bottlebrush is. Just that they make the plants. Not who funds them or anything, or where they’re actually out of.”

“Like a conspiracy?” asked Valla.

“Or they just never bothered to question it. To be honest? Most of these folks are really thick.”

“I didn’t notice,” said Elrod.

“Because you haven’t talked to anyone,” pointed out Valla. “Actually, you probably shouldn’t.”

“Why? He fits better here than either of us do.”

“I don’t understand…”

Roxanne tilted her head upward. “What about you, Val? Did you find anything out?”

“Not really,” she said. “But I’ve been watching the guards. I mean, I guess them and I kind of have the same job, you know? Except this place is way more tame. But they’re doing what I would do.” She pointed, still holding one of her mostly empty glasses of wine. “Look. They’ve gone up to the exits, and the robots have all taken higher areas with good lines of sight. So they can see everything, you know?”

“I didn’t notice,” said Roxanne. “To be honest I kind of forgot they’re around. They just sort of blend in.”

“I think they’re supposed to. But it freaks me out that there’s so damn many. I mean, have you seen a fight in here yet? Or even a hint that there might be one?”

“No,” said Roxanne. “And the tall humans can’t get drunk. It’s part of how they’re built.”

“Shit. That’s horrible.”

“You can’t get drunk either.”

“Not with this crap, no. I mean, what point does this even serve?”

“The murder of helpless grapes?” suggested Elrod.

No one laughed. Instead, Roxanne looked through the windows. “Right. Morgana told me not to try this, but…let’s see if I can remember how…” She closed her eyes and focused, picking up the end of a technomancer thread. Roxanne’s central processor was not optimized for computer work, and the process was difficult until a second consciousness took up the other side of the transmission.

“This is Lilium. Hello Roxy.”

“Roxy!” laughed Valla. “Damn! You two really did it, didn’t you?”

Roxanne did not blush, but she was sure that Lilium was.

“Oh. Valla. Hi,” said Lilium, transmitting through the computers in Valla’s brain. “I didn’t know Roxy- -I mean Roxanne linked you. And for reference, please try to speak with your mouth closed. Otherwise it looks like you’re talking to yourself.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?!”

“Just let me handle it,” said Roxanne, speaking telepathically. “You can see us?”

“I can see everything,” replied Lilium. “The Librarian eyes are really good with this visor.”

“What’s our situation?”

“The building is six hundred by four hundred eighty meters in dimension. At present, I’ve spotted one hundred eighty seven humans, twenty three ponies including yourself and Morgana, eight synths, sixty security drones, and thirty eight mercenaries. A few of them might be zooneii…”

“That’s a lot of security,” noted Valla.

“Again. Please talk with your mouth closed.”

“I don’t know how to do that!”

“Then just stay quiet,” ordered Roxanne. “Lilium. Anything else?”

“The windows are bulletproof. Forth says she has some bullets that can get through, but not a lot. I can’t get in contact with Lynnette, so I don’t know what she has.”

“Damn it. I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Neither do I. But it’s the way things are, so we just have to deal with it for now.”

“And anything unusual?”

“No. I’ve cross-referenced most of the people there. They’re all pretty public figures. But I don’t know what I’m supposed to look for.”

“Me neither.” Roxanne looked around the room. “Where is Morgana?”

“My guess would be the bar,” said Lilium. “It’s close to the center, but kind of obscure, so I can’t see it. I actually can’t see you right now either.”

“Damn it…I like that even less. Do you have a map or something?”

“I have a predicted floorplan.”

“Use that. Guide me over there.”

“I can do that. But first, you need to talk to Elrod.”

“Why?”

“Because he can’t hear us talking. He’s probably so confused right now.”

Roxanna and Valla looked at each other, and then at where Elrod had been before- -only to find that he had vanished.