Water Shadow and the others waited patiently for Peridot Glow to arrive. They were under armed guard by a little over two dozen guards. The guards were ultimately pointless, they may have been a threat yesterday here, but yesterday was twelve years ago, and a lot had changed in that time. Either Water Shadow or Sweet Pea could likely overpower this entire unit with ease, and the guard would find Midnight to be a force to be reckoned with as well. It was merely Water Shadow's hopes for a peaceful resolution that kept her waiting politely.

Peridot's claims that she would be right down were a bit of an overstatement. The central base of operation in Night's Heart was a fair distance from them, with Crystal Heart being much closer to their entry point. Even with a high speed transport it would take time for Peridot to reach them. Water Shadow had chosen this location to enter so it would take time for Peridot to reach them. It allowed Water Shadow time to think of what to say to Peridot, and it allowed time for Peridot to actually try to think rationally rather than rush in as she usually did. Water Shadow was well aware of Peridot's typical means of dealing with issues quickly without thought, and hopefully forcing Peridot to have more time to think would work to their advantage.

They had a full audience of guards waiting around them. Other ponies would occasionally pass near, but they tended to avert their eyes. Ponies in Ocid had a habit of trying to not look at what was going on around them, not that Water Shadow blamed them, the action helped them cope.

She looked at her companions to see how the were holding up during the wait.

Sweet Pea was glaring daggers at the guards. The unicorn was clearly itching for a fight. Water Shadow hoped that no such thing came to pass, and this could all be done peacefully. Sweet Pea's hostility was understandable, but worrisome. It reminded Water Shadow far too much of Mera's overprotective nature, and that had led to the worst. She and the Unicorn were going to need to spend some time talking. Sweet Pea might not have the same raw potential that Mera had possessed, but rage could do horrible things to a pony's soul.

Midnight was getting a lot more stares from the guards than the rest of them. The young alicorn seemed extremely nervous, like she was ready to bolt away at any moment. She was sitting, but still fighting in place. On and off her horn would give off a spark, which would get the guards to focus more on her. The spark wasn't anything deliberate, Water Shadow knew. It was just the side effect of being a magic caster with highly stressed nerves and weak control. It was worrisome as well though. It meant it wouldn't take much to bring Midnight into a panic, and a panicking Alicorn was a very bad thing to have to deal with.

Quiet Word seemed equally intimidated by his surroundings. The biggest difference was he regularly let off little sneezes and scrunched up his muzzle. He was the only one of them who had never smelled the stench of Ocid, even Dove had some small exposure at a much younger age. Water Shadow of course would never forget how putrid this place smelled. With her heightened senses she could smell more than the others, and she could smell the Bakery at work, even at this distance. It made her want to gag.

As for the pegasus herself, Dove looked extremely anxious. The almost mare sized filly was constantly checking the gun on her foreleg as she stared at the guard ponies. The guards seemed as much focused on her as they were her mother. It made sense all around. The guards had never seen a pegasus before, they had never seen an alicorn other than Shadow and Sunset, and the filly was not accustomed to ponies outside their close little group; much less ones that were staring at her like she was some sort of monster ready to attack them. Dove needed to calm down or she might start firing off that gun.

"Dove, sooth yourself. We aren't going to let any pony get you here. If any pony tries they are going to find they made a foul up," Shadow told the filly.

"They don't need to keep staring at me like that," Dove muttered loudly. "And they are staring at Ma..Mom too. I don't like it."

Water Shadow suppressed her urge to smile at Dove's attempts to alter her language to show she was trying to be more mature. It wouldn't do to patronize the filly with Dove already uncomfortable. Still, Dove needed to settle down before she did something foolish.

"Just remember your mother is very capable of defending herself if need be. I would be more afraid for these guards if they tried to lay a hoof on you. I am sure Midnight would leave them as blood splatters on the wall if they tried," Shadow said with a hint of mirth.

"You had better believe it," Midnight growled from her spot. She seemed to go from nervous to aggressive in an instant. Motherly instincts and her still present thestral instincts, despite no longer being a thestral, were more than capable of making her go aggressive in a second at the prospect of a threat to her daughter.

The guards all stepped back a few steps after that declaration. That was probably a rational response to hearing an Alicorn declare they were going to rip them apart if they got on her bad side. Midnight actually looked pleased with herself for intimidating them. Shadow shouldn't have encouraged such behavior, but the reminder to the citizens of Ocid that they were dealing with incredibly powerful beings was probably important.

"All of you do need to keep yourselves as calm as possible. We don't want violence if it can be avoided. We want Peridot to see reason, and murdering her guards and starting a battle within Ocid will almost certainly put an end to that hope," she said to all her companions.

"And if she doesn't see reason?" Midnight asked, she still looking fluffed after her previous declaration.

"We will figure out that afterwards," Shadow answered.

"What we are doing is too important to our survival and to Ocid's long term survival. If they don't see reason we will have to just force ourselves into power. We can't go back out there right now, and we can't let things continue as they were here. Better to just take control," Sweet Pea said as she continued to glare at the guards.

"We aren't here as conquers, and ponies other than just the guards would be hurt if a war broke out in Ocid. We are hoping to relieve suffering, not be the cause of more, remember that, and consider the impact of your actions. Mera once wanted to protect the world from monsters, but became everything she hated in the process. Don't set yourself on the same path," Shadow said with a stern look at Sweet Pea.

"We are nothing like that demon," Sweet Pea said defensively, crossing her forelegs.

"You are far more similar to her than you would believe. Take it from somepony that was there. I will have to tell you her story sometime, the story before what you heard from Midnight. Mera was obsessed with protecting her loved one, a noble goal, but it took her too some very dark seas. It is my responsibility to keep you from sailing into those waters; you, Midnight, Peridot, and any other pony," Shadow said darkly. She would make sure this unicorn didn't go and become a threat herself. Part of the reason that she needed to talk to Peridot was Peridot was far too far down that path, and it was time to start trying to pull her back in before it was too late. The demons had already started coming to tempt Peridot from what Sunset had said.

Thoughts of her friend made her want to sob still. It was best not to think of Sunset and what had likely become of her. It was time to focus on what needed to be done right now. It hurt though, it hurt a lot. She had living ponies she needed to worry about. If she could mend her sails with Peridot and keep Midnight safe and sane she would still have companionship no matter what through the ages.

A transport was coming into view. It was a type that she knew Peridot favored. The crystal pony had indeed made haste to come see them. It came to a stop a short distance away and opened up on the side quickly. Peridot emerged and gave them a quick glance over, before beginning to advance towards them.

"You are very bold to show your face again here, all of you. I hope what you have to say is worth it," Peridot said as she came to a stop before Water Shadow.

"We can talk inside the barracks. I was going to want to talk to you alone, but my companions are very skittish. I prefer they come in as well so no pony does something that we will all regret. I am sure you will want to talk to them as well," Shadow said, giving a gesture at the others.

"We could talk out here fine. Forgive me if I feel a little more comfortable with guns trained on all of you," Peridot said while scrunching up her muzzle.

"Normally I would say there is no harm in that, but I don't think you want any more ponies than already know to know about your sister's current state. Believe me, you do not want that as public information," Shadow replied with lowered eyes.

Peridot just stared for a moment, before glancing again at her guards, and the other companions. She sighed then nodded agreement.

"Good, let's get some privacy. Please remember we are only the messengers of your sister's fate. We mean you no ill will by telling you. You have a right to know though," Water Shadow said solemnly.

Peridot looked uncomfortable, but nodded again. They all filed into the barracks one by one after. Hopefully the news would not bring out the worst in the Ponymother.

Mera wandered the halls of the tomb without being certain of her destination after she entered back in. It was time to plan her next move.

To say Mera was not in a good mood would have been the understatement of the millennia. Talking to Sunset had been both a balm and ripping open an old wound. She didn't know if she wanted to go somewhere and cry, or find some pony to torture in new and exciting ways. Since her pens were still empty that decision was kind of made for her though. She would need to get those pens refilled soon. She was an addict out of her drug with them empty.

Sunset seemed dead set on trying to redeem her. It was stupid to think there was any redemption for her. She was damned the moment she killed Pearl, and all she could do is wallow in her damnation so she could numb herself to the fact she was a monster. Monsters weren't supposed to care about how vile they were. As soon as she did some more killing she could drown out that caring with the bliss that came with the suffering of her victims.

Her familiar path went on for many minutes until she reached the central tomb chamber. Her eyes fell upon the stone casket and she resisted the urge to avert them. There were no victims in the tomb to make suffer aside from her dogs, and they were needed for other things. That meant the only pony that could suffer right now was herself. It was time for some punishment.

With great care she moved the lid of the casket with her magic, careful not to damage anything, and set it gently to the side. Letting out a sigh she walked over to it and looked inside at its most sacred of contents.

Pearl's body was there as it always was. Time and decay had no effect on it, leaving Pearl looking like she was just sleeping. No breath of life moved in her chest nor any bodily action take place. Pearl was dead as dead could be, and it was Mera's fault. Some sort of residual magic from Pearl kept the body preserved, but the mind and soul were not there.

Mera had sighed that mind dry, and had all of Pearls memories ready to call upon on command. Rarely had she ever done such a thing with another pony, but she had taken it all from Pearl. She hadn't taken the soul as she did with so many ponies after, she didn't have that kind of power at the time. She wondered what Pearl's soul was experiencing now, wherever it was. Not for the first time did she wonder this.

Looking at Pearl's body was two reminders. It was a reminder of Mera's sin, and a way of punishing herself for it. It was also a reminder of what she was working towards, the hope that Pearl would live again. Pearl would lead the newly reborn world right, make it a better place than this ever was; Mera would give Pearl not a single foal, but all of life.

Mera knew that this was an overly optimistic view of things, but she wanted to believe that Pearl would do a better job at giving a guiding hoof to the world than the Alicorns ever did. Pearl wasn't some almighty being, she was a regular pony, and that is what made her better qualified. A regular pony would understand regular ponies better, and care more. Pearl would do better at making this world a utopia than those blasted alicorns ever did. Peridot might not have been up to the task, but Peridot had to contend with Mera. Pearl would have a world free from monsters.

These were all the crazed thoughts of a madmare, and Mera knew it. They were what she had to tell herself to make her peace with it. She was committed to her path whether she wanted to be or not. She needed to believe in something, no matter how unlikely it would be. She had always believed in Pearl, and it was the easiest thing to keep believing in.

Mera dropped her shadow and let herself just be her crystal pony form again. She then hopped into the casket next to Pearl and cuddled up close to her wife's cold body. She needed the scent and smell of Pearl close to her.

She ran a hoof over her wife's mane. How many times when Pearl was distraught had Mera run her hoof over Pearl's mane in such a way to try to sooth her? There had been a brief time, after a terrible thing had happened when she had done this multiple times a day every day. Pearl had been such a mess after the rape, and Mera had learned hate for the first time in those days as Pearl suffered from the trauma of what her rapist had done. Mera still was angry she was never the one to murder Rose Thorn. Luna had taken Mera's rightful kill, and Mera had made Luna pay dearly for it years later.

Her hoof brushed down and came near the bases of Pearls wings. Mera smiled at the memory of the day she had taken thestral form for the first time, and Pearl had taught her what sexual delight could be felt with just the right touch at the base of a wing. She ran her hoof over each of them now, imagining she was giving that delight to Pearl now, and leaned over and kissed Pearl's muzzle.

Oh how she longed to feel that kind of joy with Pearl again. She laid another kiss on Pearl's neck, and worked her way down Pearl's body with kisses. She ran her hoof over the base of Pearl's tail, another sensitive spot, and then briefly touched Pearl's feminine flower. If only she could make it wet again.

She brought her hoof back to her own nether region and rubbed, imagining it had Pearl's juices all over it and she was mixing them in with her own. She gave Pearl more kisses, and gentle love bites. She was getting so hot, despite the cool off the tomb.

With her massaging hoof now wet from it's work in between her hind legs she brought it back around to Pearl's area and rubbed the sticky cum into Pearl's dry waiting area. She could get Pearl wet in other ways after all. If only Pearl could really feel this, and know how much Mera loved her.

This would all never be possible, but for right now it was comforting to pretend. Mera kept on giving her wife overdue attention.

Shadow Quartz sighed as she left work. It was going to be her day off tomorrow and she wanted to savor every moment of it. Maybe she would go by the brothel and spend the day there drugged up and enjoying the mares there. She didn't normally think about sex at all, with mares or stallions, but it was so easy to just let herself go with some lustwort and cuddle up with a prostitute. It let her forget her life, at least for a little while.

She glanced at her foreleg's display. The countdown was still going for getting pregnant too. She had lots of time for that still. She had only been suited for six months, so she still had years to go.

These six months felt like they had been an eternity. Her job had given her next to no training before she had been responsible for performing the tasks on her own. Personally she would have rather been put in any other job; prostitute, factory worker, teacher, Foal Services, mechanic, farmer, guard, shopkeeper, driver, air conditioning technician, bartender, heck give her a job scrubbing floors with her tongue and she would have taken that first. No, she was one of the most unlucky ponies in Ocid, she was an overseer of the Bakery.

Ponies wouldn't come willingly near her as she walked down the street. Her suit all but screamed what she was. Suits were reused time and time again, and despite being stain resistant there were bloodstains on hers from generations of ponies. She had to spend every day of her life walking around coated in the blood of Ocid. Ponies would give her extra distance between themselves and her, sometimes so much they plastered themselves against the walls. They treated her as a monster. She wished sometimes she was, so she wouldn't feel like as isolated from other ponies. Her mother had tried to be there for her, but the thought of dealing with a Bakery overseer was too much even for her after a month.

So Shadow Quartz had turned to the brothels, because prostitutes would spend time with her if she had the credits for it. Even the other overseers didn't want to spend time with each other, it was too much of a reminder of the Bakery.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. The Old Fart would probably spend time with her, but that pony was a sick sadist. He had been an overseer for years, longer than all the others put together. None of the other overseers wanted anything to do with him, they didn't even know his true name. Some small part of herself envied The Old Fart though; to just be the monster that other ponies saw her as, but she still was as much disgusted with what she did as any decent pony would be.

She came up near one of her most frequented brothels as she walked. There were a few prostitutes standing outside, and they looked at her coyly as she came near. They knew her schedule by now, and knew what she would be wanting.

"Ready to have some fun?" Soiled Satin said to her. She had screwed with Soiled Satin plenty of times before, and the mare knew all the right ways to touch her and just the right amounts of lustwort to get her really horny. Soiled Satin was an expert at her job.

However, Soiled Satin was also slowing down on her pregnancy rates. A prostitute that couldn't get pregnant was one that was due to be serviced by Shadow Quartz soon enough. Shadow Quartz didn't know how long Soiled Satin could go without producing a foal that would put her in danger of the Bakery, but the thought of having to watch the unicorn be put through the processing was an unnerving one. It was probably best not to spend too much more time with her in bed.

"Tomorrow I will be by for sure, but for tonight I think I just want to go home and wash the stink of work off me, and try to just sleep," Shadow Quartz replied in a tired voice. She didn't even need to take the weariness, she was exhausted in ways far beyond lack of sleep.

"Tomorrow then, Little Gem. Did you want some lustwort for yourself for tonight?" Soiled said with a smile. Little Gem was what a lot of the prostitutes called crystal pony mares. Soiled was clearly looking for every bit credit she could in asking about the lustwort, but Shadow Quartz really didn't mind; she needed her escapes.

"Yeah, just a few joints for tonight," she answered. She had been such a good filly growing up, the thought of giving into drugs would have been alien to her younger self. Her younger self didn't know that she was going to be working in the Bakery though.

Soiled pulled a few out of a pouch and passed them on to Shadow Quartz's saddle bag. They held out their respective forelegs and bitcredits were exchanged.

"Pleasure doing business with you. Ocid survives," Soiled said with a smile.

"Ocid survives," she replied back quietly. All of Ocid could go screw themselves.

Shadow Quartz resumed her walk home. She dragged her hooves through the grey dust of the streets, kicking up little clouds as she went. She contemplated going by the store and buying some booze. Maybe she could pick up some pipe weed and a pipe as well, that stuff was supposed to relieve stress, and she could use that during the actual work week without interfering with anything. What was one more drug to make life bearable? She supposed that could wait on that till tomorrow evening, she had her indulgences for tonight after she washed. She wouldn't be really getting the impact of anything new tonight. Tonight she would be busy humping a pillow to her heart's content, new stuff could wait.

She came up to her building. The place was a dump, but every place in Ocid was a dump. The worst thing they taught you in school was how things used to be. She wouldn't know how crappy the place she lived in was if they hadn't bothered to show the homes that ponies used to live in. Now she couldn't help but notice the piss stains on the ground, the manure in the corners, and how everything was stained from floor to ceiling. How did you even get stains on the ceiling? Did thestrals rub their butts along it after taking a crap in the corner? She hadn't ever seen such a thing happen, but that is what it looked like. Schools shouldn't ever teach about how houses looked before, that way ponies could be happy with their shit stained ceilings.

She walked into the hall. There were foals playing in it. She didn't mind foals too much, at least the younger ones. They didn't realize what she did for work, or didn't realize what that meant yet. That meant they didn't typically start running in terror of her until their parents started telling them about how they needed to keep as far as possible away from her as they could get. She didn't recognize these foals, which was a good thing, they shouldn't be terrified of her.

She walked slowly down the hall to the elevator at the end. When she passed by the foals the moved politely out of the way, but not in any sort of fearful way. That brought a smile to her face. It was amazing that such a little thing as some pony not being afraid of her feel better.

She waited patiently for the elevator to descend. It was a tall building, nearly thirty stories, and it looked like the elevator was coming from the top. That made her a bit anxious, it was more opportunity for some parent to come into the hall and react badly to the sight of her.

She looked at the foals as she waited. Maybe what she needed to do was hurry up and get pregnant. Taking care of a foal would give her something positive to think about outside of work. Additionally a foal of her own wasn't likely to ever be afraid of her. She could clean up her recent behavior a lot for the sake of some pony that actually wanted to spend time with her. Maybe it would help her reconnect with her mother if she had a foal. Her mother would want to know about her grandfoals after all, and that might be enough to let her mother tolerate the fact Shadow Quartz worked in the Bakery. It wasn't Shadow Quartz's fault that she got stuck with that job, her mom had to be able to come to understand that.

As the elevator was coming near the bottom a huge bang echoed through the hallway making her jump. She looked towards the entrance of the building to see the entire entryway had been leveled. Standing among the rubble was a pony, at least she thought it was a pony. He looked like a Thestral, but he was half metal, and wore no suit at all, and he was glaring at her.

Her breath caught as she recognized him. He was one of the ponies that the Ponymother had forced her to withhold the euthanasia drug from. She didn't remember his name, but she couldn't forget the faces of those ponies. The first one of them had been strangely kind to her. This one had struggled violently the whole way though. He should not be here, he shouldn't be even alive. All that should be left of him should have been meal bars.

The foals had run away immediately. The fact that this pony had just destroyed the entrance to the building was enough indication that this was not a friendly pony. Shadow Quartz looked at the location of the elevator quickly and saw it was still a floor away. She silently begged that it would get to her before this monster did.

"You..you hurt me," the half monster thestral said haltingly to her.

"I didn't want to, I was just doing my job. I didn't have a choice. Please don't hurt me," she begged in a trembling voice.

"You hurt many ponies," the thing said in answer, and began to slowly advance.

"I don't have a choice! It is my job! I didn't want this job, no pony wants this job!" She screamed back. Behind her she heard the elevator reach the the ground floor. She began pounding on the door before it opened.

"Should have walked away from job," the thing growled. It was still advancing, and was now halfway down the hall towards her.

"They would kill me! Some pony would be doing the job anyway. I had to do it or I would be a meal bar too!" The door opened behind her and she darted into the elevator and began pounding on the button for her floor and the button to close the door.

The monster continued to advance as she sent a silent prayer to any higher power that could hear her. It didn't matter who answered; the Spirits of Harmony, the Elder Gods, the Lord of Tartarus, the alicorns, the Ponymother, it could be a freaking god of fleas for all she cared, just something that would save her. She wasn't ready to die.

The door shut with the creature still slowly advancing. It didn't seem to care that she was getting away. She didn't know if that disturbed her more or less than if it had tried to force itself in before the doors closed. As the elevator started to ascend a dreadful truth occurred to her. She was still cornered as she went higher into the building. The thing could still come for her. Her only hope was the guards would come and take the thing out before it could find her.

She looked up at the elevator's camera and her panic rose higher. The camera had no light on it, it was out of order. She was sure she had seen it working this morning when she left for work, she had been sure she saw its light on. Why did it have to choose now of all times to go on the fritz? The guards needed to know she was here, and that she was in trouble.

She tried to calm herself and think reasonably. That was just this one camera, there were cameras everywhere, and they had to have picked up that monster ripping through the entrance to the building. The guards had to already be on their way. All she had to do was hold out until they arrived. She could do this, she could buy herself time. Once the do it opened she would go and hide in some other pony's apartment. They had to let her in, no pony could turn away any pony, no matter what they did for a job, that was in this dire a need.

The elevator suddenly came to a lurching stop. Shadow Quartz looked up at the floor indicator and saw she was no where near her floor yet. Why had the elevation stopped now? Was that thing waiting just outside the door for her? It couldn't have gotten up that many floors so fast by staircase, could it?

She had to trust that it hadn't. If she didn't get off this elevator she was just waiting for that monster to arrive without being hidden. She hit the button for opening the elevator door, but got no response. She let off a cry a she began pounding on the elevator door, trying desperately to get it to open.

"I am very sorry about this happening to you. I really am," came a voice from behind her.

She spun around to face the voice. Sitting there was something that was definitely not a pony; a strange, bearded creature with a serpentine body, and mismatched limbs. It sat there watching her.

"That is one of the unfortunate things about chaos and doing things on impulse. You never really know how things will turn out. It seems you will be on the receiving end of one of those more unfortunate ways it has settled," the creature said. It pulled a paper container out of nowhere that was filled with strange little white things, and began stuffing some into his mouth.

"Please, you have to save me," she begged the thing, sobbing.

It looked at her in a way that she could only interpret as annoyance.

"I don't have to do anything. I already went and saved multiple ponies in the last day or so, it is getting old and predictable. I am just being nice by coming to tell you I am sorry about what is about to happen to you. You ponies are oh so demanding. Oh Discord, please save me! Really, have some pride in your final moments, it is really one of the most depressing things to watch when I have to see a pony cry. Of all the ungrateful creatures, ponies must be the worst. I go out of my way to express my sympathy and they just go and cry and beg me for favors. Of all the nerve," the creature growled with rage. Then he snapped his claws and he vanished as if he was never there.

Shadow Quartz just laid down and wept. She had called up in a higher power, and that higher power had come; only to dismiss her and condemn her to death. That was what was going to happen, she was going to die.

She jumped back against the wall, whimpering in terror, as the elevator lurched again. The middle of the floor of the elevator bulges upward as it was repeatedly struck from belong by something with super pony strength. The metal bulge began to tear in the center and the monster forced its way into the elevator through the hole.

"I don't want to die! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry," she blubbered from her position against the wall.

"You are now," the thing hissed.

The last thing that she would ever know was the vision of the monster lurching one final time towards her, and the pain as her body was ripped to shreds.