There was a time in her life, very recently, that the thing Midnight Glow worried most about was getting to work on time. Yeah, the failure to make it to work on time consistently was getting put into the Bakery, but in the last day that felt like a much preferable thing to worry about.

She was now desperately trying to hide herself and her filly behind the ancient ship that was in the tomb. Beside her cowered Sweet Pea as well. They were doing everything they could to stay out of sight and out of mind. They were both still armed with their guns, but those weapons meant nothing in this fight.

Standing at the entrance to the room was a creature of pure nightmare. Midnight was sure this was the Mare of Shadows herself, come to take or kill Dove, and slay the rest of them. Calling the monster that was attacking bloody was a massive understatement, the creature was blood without flesh or muscle. Just a shifting mass of gore draped over a skeleton. She had seen plenty of undead on the monitors back in Ocid, this thing was no mere undead, this was a thing that only existed in her worst nightmares.

There was but one positive at the moment; that was that the monster was completely focused on the two alicorns. So focused that it couldn't be bothered by lesser beings such as herself and Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea had tried at first to take advantage of this fact and sent out many shots at the thing's head. Unfortunately those shots didn't seem to do anything to the creature, not even annoy it, as it didn't even seem to notice direct hits. Now all there was to do was hide behind the ship and hope the two alicorns could hold it back till full sunrise.

Midnight glanced at the massive mirror behind her. It was getting lighter in color. Water Shadow had said the thing would light up brightly when the sun was fully up, but it was certain death up to that point. Midnight stared at the reflective surface for a long moment wondering if going through it was a risk worth taking or not. Surely anything beyond it was better than the situation they were in right now.

"Alicorns, simply give up and allow me to deliver you to my mother. She wishes that I only deliver you to her," the monster shouted. It sent another wave of magic that bombarded the combined shields of the two alicorns. Midnight could see the fight dimly reflected in the dark surface of the mirror, and she could feel the magical backlash.

"I don't particularly feel like trading possibly being killed by you for getting whatever treatment your mother has in store for us. Nor will I willingly surrender the foal into the care of the Elder Gods. Anything that the Elder Gods want I will fight tooth and hoof to deny," Sunset yelled back to the monster. As soon as the monster's magic faded briefly she fired off a beam of liquid fire at the thing, but fire died uselessly as it hit the shield that the monster had created.

"You will cause me to fail my mother. Why do you want me to fail my mother?" The thing demanded, sounding like it was whining.

"If you can't figure that out then she didn't make you very intelligent. How about you go back outside and think about it like a good little foal!" Sunset snarled back, then quickly braced her shield spell again as another wave of smoke and green flame poured down on it.

Midnight kept watching the mirror, hoping that it would soon light up. The fight seemed a stalemate at the moment. The two alicorns were putting up enough defense that the monster couldn't get them, but they were unable to do anything to actually defeat the beast or force it back. She kept expecting the thing to change targets and go for Dove. Dove was what the thing was here for after all.

As she continued to watch the fight, with the mirror slowly getting less dark, she wondered what she had to offer her daughter if they got out of this alive. She had been trying to prepare Dove for the life she thought Dove would have. She had been trying so hard. However, it seemed the thing that Dove needed to know now was how to defend herself against monsters like this, and Midnight had no clue how to do that. What could she possibly teach Dove that would be helpful in this kind of situation? Hide or your dead? She couldn't do anything for Dove, and it left her feeling a failure as a mother.

"My mother will be here soon with my sisters. There is no hope for you to avoid being captured," the monster announced. "I simply want Sunset Shimmer and the filly, surrender those two and the rest may flee safely. Is it not better to sacrifice two so three may live, rather than sacrifice none and see all die?"

The monster's perverted logic felt far too similar to the logic Ocid operated on for Midnight's liking. Even though they had been forced to flee Ocid she was now starting to feel she would have wanted to have been gone from the place anyway. The price for safety should not be so steep. They shouldn't be forced to sacrifice so many just to pretend they were safer that way. Ocid was no better than the necromancer.

Why was her filly's life so important to every pony? Ponies were born all the time. Dove hadn't done anything wrong, she was just born. She hadn't asked to be a pegasus, she didn't ask to be born with a cutie mark. She was an infant, she couldn't even comprehend what these things meant or that she was different. She couldn't even understand language yet. Living wasn't a crime. Why couldn't they just punish Midnight for giving birth to her, at least she had done something, even if she didn't mean to. She would submit to anything if it meant they would leave Dove alone.

Midnight screamed in fright as the ship suddenly lurched behind her, breaking her out of her train of thought and silent observation at the mirror. The monster clearly knew Dove was over here. It was trying to either crush them, or force them out into the open.

"Bah, I have more than one target to capture here. I will give my mother what she wants. If I must wait to claim you, alicorn, then I will go for the other target for now," she heard the creature announce with an annoyed tone.

"Let's move farther away from this thing before she crushes us with it," Sweet Pea whispered as she crawled a little further away from the ship, but still kept the ship between her and the monster.

"The Mare of Shadows is going to get us," Midnight weeped. "She is turning her attention towards us now. She wants Dove and is going to take her from me."

"That thing isn't the Mare of Shadows," Sweet Pea responded in a harsh whisper. "Haven't you been listening to it? That is a foal in a monster's body trying to make her mommy smile. I have dealt with enough foals now that I recognize a foal eager to please its mother. That thing can be outwitted though because of that. Foals aren't stupid, but they are ignorant, and I have a feeling that thing has far less experience with things than most foals. Just keep the ship far enough away it can't crush you and keep moving with it. I am sure the creature will get confused. It won't understand why it can't get you out or see you, just like an infant playing peekaboo."

Was it really that simple? Was the thing really as easy to fool as a young foal? What happened when it finally got mad enough to throw a temper tantrum then? Midnight shivered not wanting to find out what a creature like that could do if it threw such a fit, but the idea that she was dealing with some newborn and not the Mare of Shadows herself gave her some small hope, and she nodded back to her friend.

The ship moved again as the thing fired on the ship. The two mares moved with it as it lurched. The creature cried out in frustration as they were still not revealed and it had to forced to stop in order to ward off more blasts from the alicorns.

"What do we do when its mommy comes?" Midnight asked in a quaking voice.

"Let's hope its mommy is not here by the time that mirror lights up," Sweet Pea said quietly, panting with her own barely contained panic. Her eyes hardened after that as a thought seemed to occur to her. "I'd like to give her a piece of my mind for sending an infant to do this kind of thing. I don't care if that thing is a monster, it is still a foal. Foals shouldn't be used this way. It is horrible."

"I know you feel passionately about foals, but I think this is one time your caring is severely misplaced," Midnight said more harshly than she intended. "Don't forget that foal is trying to get mine, not to mention kill us!"

"I know," Sweet Pea whispered while giving Midnight a sympathetic gaze. "I am just adding this to my reasons I hate the necromancer. First she demands the sacrifice of foals, then she uses them as weapons. Why does the world have to be so horrible that even foals aren't innocent? I'd want to think that at least foals would be outside all this."

The ship lurched again, and the two friends had to run quickly to make sure they weren't crushed by it as it went further than it had before. Now they were at a point that they couldn't run any further in the same direction. They were nearly pinned against the now silvery mirror. It wasn't fully lit up yet, but it was almost to there. Almost, they had been stressed, was simply not good enough. However, they were at the point that if the ship took another such blow they would either be crushed, have to run into the open, or risk the mirror.

The monster screamed with rage that it still had not driven them out of hiding. They couldn't get a good look at it in the mirror from this angle, they were too close to the mirror to see much more than their own reflections and the reflection of the ship. However, they could tell that the temper tantrum was starting now, if the creature's screams of rage and frustration were any indication.

The whole room shook with the waves of power that were coming off the thing. They could see dust and chunks of rock falling from the ceiling as the creature shook the chamber with its anger. It was just raging, it most likely wasn't even doing this on purpose. It was an angry demigod blindly lashing out with power.

A large chunk of rock came crashing down from the ceiling next to Midnight, and she flinched away in fear and shock. As she did her wing brushed up against the mirror for just the briefest part of a second. She felt something extremely wrong about the mirror that she couldn't describe, like it hungered for her. When she pulled her wing away it was numb and bleeding, though nothing should have cut it. She tried to push herself a little further away from the mirror, though that was near impossible. She was now convinced of Water Shadow's warnings about it. There was something waiting in the dark within that mirror, and it would only go away in the full light of the sun. That smallest touch of the surface had been more than enough to convince her that the mirror was still too dangerous.

"Sunset Shimmer, it has been far too long. Thank you for finding her my hunter, you have served me well," came a new voice from across the chamber. Midnight's blood went cold as she thought No, no, no!. The Mare of Shadows had arrived.

"Oh, and that is interesting to see. You have a mirror here. I didn't think there were any other than Grogar's left. Hadn't Pinkie Pie destroyed the last other one herself not too long before she went off the deep the end? I will make use of this mirror. I promise it won't go to waste," the voice continued. "Sadly for you it doesn't seem to be active right now, they all had their own rules about when they open; I guess you were either too slow or too early to use it, so sad."

A sudden new thought of dread entered into Midnight's head. Even if the mirror lit up, as it surely would any second now, what was stopping the necromancer from just following them right in? Water Shadow hadn't said that there was anything from stopping that, only assurances that they would be safe.

All these thoughts were cut off as the mirror flared to life. The entire surface brightly lit up all at once, and a light rainbow spectrum refracted off the surface of the mirror. It was impossible to actually see any sort of reflection off the mirror now, it was just a wall of strong light. Surprisingly it somehow didn't hurt her eyes, it actually felt gentle on her eyes and she could look directly at the mirror with no pain.

This capability to look directly at the mirror was not shared by the Mare of Shadows or her abomination. Both could be heard screaming in pain, and after a brief moment both could be heard making a quick retreat up the ramp to the surface. Midnight allowed herself a sigh of relief as it seemed that the unholy creatures couldn't follow.

"All of you near me now! We must all enter at the same time or risk getting separated by hours or days. Time is of the essence, every ten seconds we lose about a day's worth of peace," Water Shadow shouted to the party.

Midnight and Sweet Pea didn't hesitate. They quickly got back to their hooves and hurried over to the alicorns.

"Waaboo!" Dove said excitedly as she looked at the mirror, clapping her little hooves together. The little filly had been extremely quiet during the entire encounter, not uttering a peep. She had likely been terrified, but hadn't cried as a normal foal would. It was something Midnight could wonder about after they were somewhere safe. The ones who wanted Dove dead were still just outside and likely trying to figure out how to counteract the light.

The alicorns moved to stand to opposite sides of the two younger mares, and stretched a wing out on each touching them. The entire party lined up in front of the mirror next to each other.

"On the count of three step forward. Ready? One, two, three," Water Shadow said quickly.

They all stepped forward into the mirror together and were enveloped on the light.

The Mare of Shadows silently raged at herself as she angerly paced back and forth outside the tomb. Looking down within she could still see the light, but she was far enough away from it now that it wasn't hurting her. She apparently had to have it shinning directly on her to feel the pain of it. It had not impacted any of the ponies she had been after so it must be some sort of adverse effect on beings filled with necromatic magic.

This was all her fault and she knew it. She had been arrogant and sat there talking rather than taking action. Her prey had been hopelessly trapped as she understood it. The two alicorns together might have been able to hold her hunter at bay, but they would have been quickly crushed by her if she had just taken action. Now they were in some other world and she couldn't even get near the mirror to chase after them. This is what came from being low on bliss, too much eagerness to talk rather than kill right away, and it had cost her dearly in this situation.

She considered whether she could possibly get through if she armored herself up somehow, something to keep the light off her. That might work to get down in the chamber, but she was not sure it would work for actually trying to pass through the mirror.

Another option was to simply destroy the mirror and leave them stranded in whatever world they had retreated to. She was fairly sure that would count for having dealt with the pegasus filly, but it would leave two more alicorns beyond her reach. Plus, they might somehow find a way back across despite this mirror being destroyed, as she really had no clue what manner of world they had escaped to or its capabilities. Further, she really desired to add the last two to her collection, and make Sunset suffer. If she destroyed the mirror she was surrendering the filly's magic as well. These were all outcomes that might satisfy her masters, but were unacceptable for her.

It seemed her only option was to set up a guard around the mirror for when, and if, they all returned. She would try sending one of her hunters in after the other two arrived and see what happens. It would need to be armored, so it could reach the mirror, but she could deal with that once she had calmed down a little more. She would consider the filly dealt with until it returned to this world. If it didn't ever leave that world she would have to count it as good riddance. Her contract only involved killing all the ponies of this world, not ponies in the great beyond. Let them do whatever they liked if they stayed off this one, it was no concern to her beyond her drive to gain more power. Though this could be an interesting loophole in her contract down the line that would play well with her plans, she was already planning on exploiting loopholes where she could. The contract had to be followed to the letter, not the intent.

The Mare would need to go to sleep soon. She had to attend to Peridot since the Ponymother had failed to deliver her the foal. She still had no intention of actually destroying Ocid yet, but they didn't know that. She would have to balance the situation carefully. She couldn't push on Peridot too hard at this point or the Ponymother would break, or possibly start thinking. Peridot was fragile as it was, and needed to maintain some semblance of sanity if she was going to stop Ocid from completing the Mare of Shadows contract prematurely by imploding on itself. Perhaps she could allow the ponies more freedom in return for some pony sacrifices. Something to ease the tension of the place while still keeping her still saturated in bliss.

At some point Peridot would start thinking though. The leader of Ocid always was one that couldn't see the forest through the trees. A regular raging bull that just charged straight forward. That didn't mean she couldn't figure things out eventually, the crystal pony was slow to think, but she could do so if you rubbed her muzzle in things too much and gave her time. She must coerce Peridot into doing things before Peridot had the downtime to actually consider them.

She worked to calm herself and prepared herself for sleep.

Night Mist lay in the pens waiting to be taken to be processed. Around her were numerous other ponies who were also in line to meet their fate today. She couldn't really do much to look around, her body didn't work, but she could hear still. There were ponies weeping, pleading with the guards to please let them go, and a few sang quiet songs to themselves. The vast majority likely sat silently, but she wasn't able to really tell. Within the hour many of them would be meal bars, and all of them would certainly be before the day was out.

She heard a commotion coming from the direction of the door. The guards were either adding a new pony to the herd or taking one away to be processed. She saw the guards pass by her and pull away a pony from the far end of the room, it sounded like a young stallion by the wails, but she really couldn't tell. There was a great deal of yelling, and she could hear a lot more crying going on. After a moment she heard the door slam shut again, and the room went quiet except for the silent sounds of crying.

"Night Mist?" a voice questioned her. It took her a moment to place the voice, but it came to her.

"Hello Sweet Eclipse <cough>, I would raise my head to look at you, but Peridot got kind of rough with me," she replied back with some effort. Sweet Eclipse was a thestral mare in her forties who was one of Water Shadow's acolytes.

"What in Tartarus did she do to you?" the other thestral mare said with concern.

"She threw me hard against a cell wall and snapped my back. I kind of goaded her into it, and I have no regrets. It just means I won't feel it in most places when I get taken away. I was shot in the hoof before that, and definitely glad I can't feel that anymore," Night Mist answered indifferently.

"I am so sorry that happened to you. Did Cotton Tail and my mistress get away safely?" Sweet Eclipse asked quietly.

"Yes, they did, along with Midnight Glow, her filly, her unicorn friend, Moon Fury, and my mistress. That drunken brute didn't get them. They aren't safe still, there is still everything outside to deal with, but they aren't going to die in here," she replied back with a small sigh. "Is Spiral Flow here too?"

"He is over in the corner, not talking, not acknowledging anything said to him. I think he is suffering from shock," Sweet Eclipse responded. "I am too I think. I should be upset or panicking, but I just feel emotionally detached. Like I am not about to die. It just all happened so suddenly and I don't think I have processed it yet. Guessing I will be actually processed before my mind catches up to the idea."

"I am at peace with what is coming. I even told that bitch off like I always wanted to, before she snapped my spine. It felt liberating to finally do that," Night Mist tried to laugh, but wasn't able to get it out.

"I wish I could have done that too. She was always spying on us, never seeming to care about anything that goes on, drunk more often than not. She didn't seem like she was ever there when she was there. But yet she is in charge of Ocid somehow," Eclipse could be heard sneering out each crime.

"I am told she was once much more attentive and actually put in effort. Think it all just got too much for her. It wouldn't have been that bad if she would have just stepped down and let our mistresses take care of things, but she held onto her power like a foal holding on to its favorite toy. Most ponies aren't cut out to do that kind of job, and most ponies aren't cut out to be immortal, she is bad at both. It is outside our need to care anymore though," Night Mist observed. "I hope they come for me next. I don't want to keep hearing this weeping for too long. Just finish me off, don't keep me around all this misery."

The sound of the door opening again could be heard. There was another uptick in the crying and whimpering in the room as ponies dreaded that there time had come. Night Mist heard the hoovesteps advancing and stop near her, she could in fact see one set of hooves right in front of her muzzle. It seemed that her wish was granted, it was her turn now.

"I'll see you in whatever afterlife awaits Eclipse, it's been a good run," she said as the guards hoisted her up on the back of one of their number.

"I'll say a prayer to the alicorns of old for a peaceful rest for you. May Twilight Sparkle take mercy on you in the afterlife," Eclipse responded back quietly.

She was taken out of the chamber and out onto the factory floor. She was tossed down near the binding mechanism like a discarded bag. Her head came down hard on the floor and bounced, causing her to wince in pain. Sadly she still felt pain in one region.

There was some sort of argument was going on between the technician and the guards. She couldn't make out the details, but the tech seemed to be outraged about something. Perhaps the tech didn't like the idea that Night Mist wasn't getting euthanized. It wasn't like these ponies were completely heartless. They were just ponies doing their jobs.

"Can we get on with this? I don't want any pony getting into trouble for not working efficiently," Night Mist said as loudly as she could manage. She wondered how they were reacting to that, if they even heard her. She couldn't be the only pony to ever just want to get it all over with at this stage.

She heard a several sets of hooves come over near her, and she could see out of her periphery vision ponies strapping her up for processing. They strapped each of her hooves, even the mutilated one, in a spread eagle position around a large steel hoop. They took her wings likewise and spread them out to full extension within the hoop. She had never actually watched this being done before, so now that she was in a position she could make out what was going on she tried to take in as much as she could. This would be the last thing she ever learned about after all.

A younger crystal pony mare, who couldn't have been in her job position long, approached her after the steel hoop was raised so she was now hanging erect. The mare kept shooting glares at the guards, but looks of sympathy at Night Mist's direction.

"I do apologize, I really don't want to have to do this for you, but you will be withheld the normal drugs that would have you dead before what is about to happen. They are making me use some other thing on you that will keep you awake. It is an even more monstrous thing than normal to order such a thing. I just wanted you to know I wanted no part of this, I just have no choice," the crystal pony mare pleaded her case. She looked extremely uncomfortable and ashamed. Night Mist wondered what having this for a job did to a pony. What was it like to get dragged away when you were just seventeen and get told your job for the rest of your life was to kill ponies so they could be eaten?

"I understand, sweetie. Just do your job," Night Mist replied.

The mare looked surprised, and perhaps grateful for the response. The overseer then went back to her terminal and set things in motion. The hoop was raised up in the air further and from the ceiling descended a large mechanical arm with two needles sticking out of it. She knew what this was for, as she knew the procedure, but it was an intimidating thing to actually look at. She was glad once again she wouldn't be able to feel those needles go in.

The arm went up to her and stabbed the needles straight into her mid-section. One of the needles began withdrawing her magical essence, which would be used for what little power it could provide. The other needle was usually the one that would simply kill her with the drug that it injected, she guessed it had been reloaded for this run with whatever it was that was keeping her awake through all of this.

She watched in fascination as a glowing essence passed through the first needle. Despite not being able to feel anything she still felt like she was getting weaker, kind of light-headed. Her color faded a somewhat as more of the glowing essence went through the needle. Without being able to see it she knew that her cutie mark was now fading away, and would still be gone. It was like the machine was stealing part of her soul. The other needle began pumping whatever it was injecting in and she suddenly became much more alert. After what felt like forever the arm withdrew from her, and then retreated back into the ceiling.

The hoop now started moving through the air towards the next stage of the Bakery. She knew what was coming, each tribe had their own route through the Bakery, with their own procedures that would be done. The next stage for her would involve the severing of her wings. Wings didn't have enough meat on them to be useful for food, but their leather could be used for other things. They would cut off the wings to be processed separately from her.

The movement came to a halt over a large pit. She assumed that was where her severed wings would be dropped down to be processed. She could see on the edge of the pit blood splatters that indicated that a lot of blood was shred right above it. If some pony was responsible for cleaning that daily she didn't envy them their job. She couldn't imagine any pony being able to keep themselves sane through doing such a thing long. Actually this whole facility might have a high turnover, the tech that had spoken to her was young after all.

Being at complete peace with the fact that you were about to die definitely makes the mind go strange places. Night Mist thought to herself as she waited the next piece of horrific equipment to come.

There came the machine. This one was two long buzz saws that would simply saw off her wings. Maybe she would get lucky and die of blood loss from this before she got to the skinning. She was not looking forward to that at all. She had fur in spots she could still feel sensation, so that was going to be painful. She should be terrified, but this would all be over in a few minutes. She was a grown mare, she could deal with a few minutes of pain.

The blades connected with her wing bases. Night Mist watched as they began cutting through her flesh. It was surreal knowing that she was in the process of losing two of her limbs and not being able to feel it. Technically she could have counted them already lost when Peridot had made her lose all sensation below the neck. She was nothing more than a head already if you thought about it that way. She was forced to shut her eyes though because the blood was spraying everywhere. She could feel it hitting her face, getting into her nostrils and leaking into her mouth. Little tiny bits of her own flesh splattered across her face with the blood. The saws could be heard grinding through the bone.

In seemingly no time at all the sound of the blades and the splattering stopped. She opened her eyes just in time to see the steel hoop release her wings from their bindings to fall into the pit below. She had already lost use of them before this, but seeing them detached and dropped into the pit below made her want to sob. She wasn't as completely emotionally detached as she had just thought.

Only one more real stop left now. The next part was the processor. It would skin her and then start ripping every piece of meat from her body. Her bones would be then taken and ground up for other use. Her fur would be taken for leather. The processor was a big machine with massive screens to guard against getting the blood everywhere. It wasn't just a messy ordeal, it was one even the most hardened workers here likely couldn't stomach to watch. She would get to die with some privacy at least.

Thinking of privacy she tried to glance around as best she could. Where how many ponies were out on the Bakery floor? She had some idea of how much workforce the Bakery had from her reports, and understood the basics of how it operated, but had never seen the place in action until now. Looking around was something to focus on rather than her impending meeting with the processor. She could keep herself calm as long as she didn't think about what was happening too much, just like she would if she were getting a shot from a nurse, except more extreme.

Her eyes became glued on just one pony below and wasn't able to really look around. Peridot Glow was down there watching. The Ponymother had the defense of Ocid to concern herself about in the face of a possible attack, so of course she was not doing that in favor of watching some pony get what was coming to them for crossing her, the stupid bitch. She wanted to tell off an insult at the large crystal pony, but didn't have the strength to do so.

"Every pony look and see what happens to those that betray Ocid," the Ponymother shouted out. Night Mist groaned internally at how extremely dumb their leader was. She had known it for years, but Peridot was really pushing her normal stupidity and vindictiveness today.

It wasn't her problem any more though. She was now approaching her final destination, and had just seconds left to live. Whatever afterlife there was had to be better than concerning herself with that overgrown mare-foal.

She drew near the processor and could see within the skinning knives ready to start operation. The things were still soaked with the blood of all of today's victims. How many different ponies blood would her blood be mixed with?

She entered into the processor and the knives went to work, starting with her mid section. She saw them go into her flesh and begin cutting. She then closed her eyes both because she couldn't bear to see this, and she wanted to brace herself when they reached her neck and head. She would no doubt be screaming in a second as the knives reached nerves that were properly attached.

It had been a good life, but now it was over.