Wrath.

I can feel it boiling the air, poisoning the earth, and twisting the space around me. I’m far from being spared the torment either; the air in my lungs is turning to noxious gas, and my blood burns as it spoils in my veins. No fury like an otherworldly eldritch horror scorned, apparently. I laugh raggedly as I stagger back into the shrine at the bottom of my realm. It’s shaking; thundering with the manifold rage of its ultimate master.

Good, I need him pissed off. I need him angry. I’ve always held as an indisputable fact of life that the first step to getting stupid is getting angry. The Entity might be a demigod on a scale above Princess Celestia herself, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make stupid mistakes after getting righteously mad.

“What’s going on, mi sol?” Tempest asks, staring at me from where she’s hanging.

I don’t answer, I don’t have time. I race to the cabinet and retrieve the first of the relics I’d retrieved on my little sojourns. Both of them are wrapped, one in a soft, handmade tablecloth, the other in a sack of plain burlap. They, along with my Journal, go to three of the four points of the compass, the fourth point was occupied by myself. My vision is swimming and my whole body hurts. My red skin is inflamed even as the blue in my veins is turning a noxious black.

With one of my bladed fingers, I cut a deep furrow into my hand, deeper than I meant to but I’m barely lucid right now so I’ll deal with that later. I let the blood flow onto the filthy ground. One more stain among thousands.

Holding out my hands, I focus and pull another shard of Equestrian magic into my mind and cast it out to weave together the spell I’d designed over the course of my change. “Sunset’s Sundering Disjunction!”

I bring my hand down on the pool of blood beneath me and conjure the thaumaturgic circle I’d held in my mind’s eye for this moment, my own magic searing the perfect shape with perfect accuracy using blades of superheated gas. Eight circles looped together, one around each hook, and around my hand along with each relic, all enclosed in a ninth, greater containment circle. A second later the sigil erupts in explosive red and gold light and sends a wave cascading out to the very edges of my little realm.

Reality snaps with a sound like splintering glass and the world around me heaves. A moment later the pressure on my body lets up and the unholy vigor and vitality imbued in me when I was changed into this form starts to kick in. My bloodstream is purified, my throat clears along with my lungs, and the minor wounds on my body seal quickly.

“What the hell was that?” Aria asks looking around. She must’ve noticed the change, I certainly do. “What did you do?”

“I just stole a pocket dimension,” I answer blithely with a slanted grin on my face made all the more unsettling, I’m sure, by my sharp and inhuman dentition.

I wave my hand, releasing the Fog manacles. They were a necessary anchor until I’d breached the realm divide. The manacles had kept my friends in a state of flux, captured by the Fog but not taken, to ensure the Entity couldn’t swipe one of them away as I abandoned ship.

A roar that sounds equal parts primordial and metallic tears through the air and I see them all look up, I feel the ground shifting under my feet and as I reach out to assess the state of my realm I grimace as I feel massive hooks being anchored into the edges of them. Not only that, but there are other things approaching from the darkness. Great masses of disconnected earth and stone, like islands floating in the blackness of space after all the stars have gone out.

The others are coming.

“Here we go, ladies and gentleladies,” I say, feeling the weight of my kindreds’ minds approaching. “The Entity has never had a Killer go rogue before so he’s doing the only thing he knows how to.”

Sour Sweet shivers. “Oh no… don’t tell me…”

“Yup,” I nod grimly. “He’s sending in his hunters.”

“Only a Killer can hurt a Killer, right?” Aria says as she stretches, limbering up for what is likely going to be a lot of running. “Those rules haven’t changed have they?”

“No,” I answer, shaking my head. “Can’t change our nature, you guys are still fucked if you get caught. Fortunately, they’re not here for you.”

“Can you even affect them, mi sol?” Tempest asks as she walks up to me, brushing some of the lank strands of hair out of my eyes so she can look at me properly. “Your power… it’s not like the others.”

“I can… but only a little,” I answer truthfully, “my oneiromancy isn’t really geared towards my brothers and sisters. Their minds are… fractured and broken… but don’t worry. I’ve stacked the deck a little, I never go in without a plan, even if it’s an objectively shitty plan.”

“And… Rainbow, and the girls?” Aria starts, eyeing me uneasily. “Are they…?”

I give Aria an even stare, considering my words carefully. Finally, though, I scowl and shrug. “Yeah, they’re here too, caught in the dimensional riptide I created since they were coming back to my realm anyway.”

“Are you going to save them too, mi sol?” Tempest asks and I flinch away from her very pointed look.

“No,” I respond coldly, “but you can, if you want. If you care enough, go for it, but you girls? All of you are my priority,” I state grimly, running a glare over the four of them. “I’m not going to sacrifice one of you to keep them safe, we clear? You wanna save’m then you can try, but I will throw each and every one of them into that old stain’s maw if it means getting one of you out.”

Sour, Starlight, Tempest, and Aria all glance between one another but eventually nod. “That’s fair,” Sour says, summing up their feelings. “But Tempest is right, hurting them is what’s killing you in here, it’s what the Entity wants.”

I shoot a glare at Sour that puts her back on her heel. “Fine,” I agree, showing my teeth in a joyless grin, “then I’ll have to live with having something in common with him, now move out, we don’t want to be down here when the others show up.”

No one argues with that and I carefully herd the four girls up the stairs while taking point. The rumbling was expected, and I know the basic empyreal layout of the Entity’s dimension; a bunch of rocks floating in endless emptiness, subtly connected by his web. He’s not unlike a giant spider in that respect. I just severed the strands holding my realm to his, putting it under my control, and now he’s trying to take it back.

That means anchoring my domain to the other rocks, tying them together so I can’t just float away with his prizes, and then reclaiming it.

Except I’ve already taken control of this place. I’ve removed it from his dimensional grip and the only way he can take it back is by killing me.

Fog sits low on the floors of my halls. It won’t be long before the webbing process is stable enough to allow his hunters to come to my realm. Fortunately, there’s a way out. There’s always a way out of any Trial grounds.

“Alright ladies, one last time,” I say with a grim smile. “Run up those generators while I fight off the small army of psychotic dimension-hopping murderers or else we’ll all be trapped in hell for eternity.”

“No pressure, huh?” Starlight grumbles but shoots me a grin before bolting off.

Sour Sweet and Aria are right behind her, but only for a few moments before they split in different directions, each looking for their own prize to start working on. Tempest lingers, though.

“Mi sol, I’m going to go find the other girls,” Tempest says evenly, meeting my gaze. My feelings on the matter must’ve shown because she flinches before giving me a patient smile. “Please, don’t interfere, I know how you feel about them.”

“How can you?!” I hiss, clenching my fingers so the blades grind against one another atonally. “How can you possibly know how it feels to have the people who called you family, who swore to always stand by you, to help you and to pick you up when you fall, just abandon you?!”

“I…” Tempest starts, but I cut her off.

“You grew up in a gang,” I spit, “no offense, but I’m pretty sure ‘honor among thieves’ has never been anything but a bad joke.” Tempest flinches but doesn’t deny it. “You can’t understand that kind of betrayal because you’ve never had someone like that and… and…” I trail off, staring down at my blades as they twitch. I’m starting to lose it. I let out a deep breath and try to find myself again.

“And… I’m sorry for that,” I finally say.

Tempest crooks an eyebrow. “Sorry that I’ve never been betrayed?”

I shake my head. “Sorry that you’ve never had a group of friends that close to you, I mean,” I wrap my arms around myself and grimace. “Having friends is… wonderful… except now all my good memories of them are like poison.” I reach up tangling my blades into my lank hair. “It’s like they’re all these knives stuck in my brain, reminding me that they were lying to me the whole time. Every smile, every party, every moment we shared feels fake suddenly.”

Tempest steps closer and wraps her arms around me, pulling me tight. I don’t know how she can stand to touch me like this. I’m horrifying, objectively speaking, I really am. I literally look like some Neighponese horror movie specter crossed with a slasher villain. I can’t even imagine what I look like to someone… normal.

“You’re right,” Tempest says, “I can’t imagine it,” she runs her fingers through my matted hair and I cringe, knowing it must feel awful. At the same time though, it’s… comforting. For a moment, just a brief moment, I lean my head against her chest and let myself feel safe. “But I’m not going to save them because they deserve it, because they don’t. Trust me when I say, mi sol, that I’m tempted to leave them here too after how they hurt you.”

“Then why?” I mumble in her vest. “Why would you risk yourself for them.”

Tempest brings two fingers up and under my chin, lifting my gaze to hers. “Because I’m not doing it for them, remember? We all told you, if you leave them here then part of you will die too. You’re not… this,” she gestures to my body. “You’re not one of his Killers, and when you’re free you’ll remember that. I don’t want you to regret damning them.”

I shake my head, smiling softly as I lean up and press my lips to hers, careful not to prick her with my teeth. Tempest smiles and kisses me back, looping one hand around to the back of my head and the other down to my waist to pull me closer. In this moment I let myself forget what I look like, what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it. I forget that I’m about to go fight a half-dozen creatures literally forged from the depths of madness and despair for the sole purpose of hunting and killing. I forget that I’m one of those Killers.

“Maybe it’s the adrenaline and the fact that we’re probably all about to die,” I say, as I pull away, still staring up into Tempest’s cool, bright eyes. “But I think I might love you a little bit.”

Tempest’s face flushes bright red, and I grin as I step away and I swear I laugh, I don’t giggle, fearsome murderers don’t giggle, as I nod towards the hall.

“No regrets, mi sol?” Tempest asks, still a little red in the face.

I start to shake my head, then stop and shrug. “Well, one, but uh…” I hold up my fingers, “these fingers are pretty much only made for one thing unless you’re a lot freakier than I think you are.”

There’s that blush again. Tempest is way too much fun to tease.

“Classy,” Tempest responds after a moment, then her face turns serious again. “Be safe, mi sol, and come back to me.”

I smile at her, I told her I love her a little bit. I lied. I love her a lot, a whole damn lot. Looking at her, even when I’m in this form, with all the fury and impulses of a Killer hard-wired into my reforged brain, I feel human again. I feel a little bad that I lied about exactly how I feel but I needed to tell her something. I feel even worse now when I lie to her again.

“I will.”

She nods and sprints down the hall. We shouldn’t have wasted that much time, but I don’t care. I needed to say those things and so did she. I wanted that moment, as selfish as it sounds, because even if everything goes right… I can’t promise or know for sure if I’ll have a chance later on. They will but…

I close my eyes and reach out, shutting away the intrusive thoughts. No time for that now, if I get hung up on that shit I won’t be functional. Time to save the girls, all of them apparently.

A dull crash echoes from outside the school and I grimace. It felt like I just barked my shin against a hardwood table. I’m connected to this little slice of reality now and when it gets damaged I feel it. I focus my senses, reaching past the pain towards the edge of my Trial grounds to where the damage came from. That’s when I feel something else.

Boots hit the ground and I taste rust and coal mixed with blood and sweat. I taste the fear and terror soaked into metal teeth that hang loosely inside of a stitched bag and gripped by a hand stained red.

Another jolt of pain crashes through me, sending a shiver of pain through my body. This time I taste oil, engine oil, and that peculiar flavor of crushed metal saturating the air. I feel the light step of… something, move into my realm. It’s so faint that I lose it almost immediately.

Two more crashes almost at the same time send me to my knees as I grunt in pain. The first one tastes like woodsmoke and cold, Siberian winters as bare feet strike the ground and begin moving quickly and carefully towards the school. The other has the taste of sweat and bodily excretions combined with the feeling of unhinged minds. I feel like I’m choking for a moment as I feel its owner pass into my realm and then the sensation passes.

Another crash, I grimace as I bite my lip. I didn’t realise his opening volley would hurt this much. I’m just weathering the hits for now and hoping I’m in a condition to fight those things. I jolt in place as the next one enters my realm and I shiver. I know that feeling. That faint spark of electricity that rolls through me, trying to attack the meat of my brain and peel my reality apart.

I’m so focused on that I almost miss the next one. There’s no crash, no pain, more like… a connection. I blink in confusion for a moment before I realise why, and I shudder. I feel him coming… its steps are mechanical; heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe, with the reliability of a metronome combined with the naked will to end life bleeding off of it.

Two more impacts, these ones as bad as the others and I cry out. A wash of blood spills from my mouth and I taste rotten vegetation and the overwhelming stench of decay from both of them. Even from here I can hear it… the revving of a chainsaw, which means the other one is her.

“Sorry, Summer,” I mutter as I stand. “But I did try.”

That was the last of them, they’ll all start making their way in now, I’m surrounded and the only way out is to breach the Exit Gates before we all die. I can’t intercept them all, but I can tie up a few of them… plus now my plan is in full swing. I felt them connect, meaning the Entity hasn’t wised up to what I did. I can’t help smiling a little because even if we lose this is gonna really piss him off and that just tickles me pink.

I take off towards the cafeteria entrance, one of the girls will have gone there almost guaranteed and I need to make sure they don’t get hit first. It’s a ‘safe’ generator, but that only goes so far. All the rules have changed and nothing is really safe anymore.

Passing through the doors I scan the area, listening carefully for the sounds of my friends. As I close in on the kitchen I grin as I hear the crank and twist of gears. Sure enough, they’re here and for once I’m irritated that I can’t hear the heartbeat. The dull thunder of a Killer’s heart, the only thing that really moves them, as they pursue you and drive you to the ground.

I look around, no sign of anyone… that’s odd. One of them would’ve come in here. We can all see the generators since they’re not part of our realm originally and this generator is relatively isolated, so…

My eyes widen and I sprint into the kitchen. There’s only one Killer that could’ve made it past me like that and I burst into the back kitchen where I see Aria working on the generator just as I hear the sound that confirms my suspicions.

A bell tolls dolorously through the air.

“Keep working!” I shout as I bolt forward, my blades flashing in the low light.

I see Aria tense and ready to run, but she doesn’t. She stays and works… she’s trusting me. I hazard a guess and swing my hand up, reaching out with my sorcery to find the mind I know is in the room.

There! I grip the shattered sapience I find just as the Wraith bleeds into existence and drag it into the dream world. I can’t manipulate it like I can with survivors, the Wraith’s mind has more in common with a mad dog than it does with whatever human it used to be. It’s a hunting beast, no more or less, and the simplicity of its psyche inures it to most of my magic.

No matter, the Wraith still staggers, stunned for a moment by the transition and I use the brief window to drive forward, slashing my blades down into its wrapped chest and sending it backward with black, viscous fluid flowing from the wound like rotten molasses.

It lets out a dull, shrieking roar and swings its scythe up but I deflect it, spoiling the slash with my claws. The impact sends me staggering back, though. He’s much stronger than me. He starts to swing just as I blink from view, and I grin as his scythe goes wide.

“This is my world, bitch!” I scream, reappearing behind him and slamming my blades into the back of his skull. It feels like punching through ironwood, but it doesn’t stop me; my blades are forged from the Fog.

The Wraith staggers as I rip my hand free. Screaming again he swings wildly behind him. I duck but I miss his follow-up and he slams the weight of his bell against my skull, sending me staggering back and spitting blood to fall on my ass. The Wraith stands, raising his scythe to bring it down on me. I try to get to my feet but his bell rung mine pretty good and I slip.

The generator roars to life just as his scythe comes down and I brace myself for the hit. A scream tears through the air as Aria bolts in front of me, taking the hit on the shoulder. It was off center and the Wraith’s weight wasn’t put behind it right, but it must’ve still hurt like a bitch.

Aria slams into the wall just as I hear the door to the cafeteria slam open and a soft lullaby fills the air. Aria turns pale at the sound.

“Shit, now we’re fucked,” Aria curses as she glances at me with terrified eyes.

I fade from existence, blinking in and out of reality as the Wraith tries to decide on a target. I try to draw his ire by taking a swing, but he deflects it off of his bell, raising it like a shield before moving towards Aria. His instincts as a Killer are too strong to ignore the wounded survivor.

“Move!” I scream.

“But out there is-!” Aria starts but I cut her off.

“Just trust me!”

Aria doesn’t hesitate, she nods and vaults out of the kitchen towards the Huntress and the Wraith follows. He’s there in moments, his scythe rising for the killing blow as I trail behind him, just as the Huntress rounds the corner into the kitchen trapping Aria between them with her throwing hatchet raised high.

The Wraith swings in at Aria just as the Huntress hurls her own weapon and I pray I’m right.

I am.

The hatchet buries itself in the Wraith’s skull with a sickening crunch just as I swing in from behind. His arms fly wide as the force of the blow drives him back, and the Wraith’s unnatural body jerks spasmodically as it tries to overcome the grievous damage it just suffered. I make it harder by slicing off the hand that carries his bell. He shrieks in pain as he tries to right himself, and bring his own weapon to bear but can’t before the Huntress stalks past a stunned Aria to swing her own massive wood-ax down to sever his other arm.

The Wraith falls to the ground twitching, shadows pooling around him as they try in vain to knit his shattered form. Eventually, the magic keeping him coherent fails, though, and the Wraith crumples, his body rapidly rotting and bleeding away. What I took for viscous blood I realise is actually tainted engine oil as the stink fills the air.

Huntress, no, Adagio, turns to Aria, her face bare for the first time in a very long time as she smiles. “Good to see you again, little sister,” she says, her voice raw but real.

Aria lets out a choked cry before launching herself forward to tackle Adagio in a hug, showing the first naked affection I’d pretty much ever seen from the stoic girl. Adagio drops her ax and wraps her arms around her sister, pulling her tight.

“I know, I know,” Adagio whispers softly. “I’m so sorry I lost hope. I’m sorry I left you all alone.”

“I don’t care!” Aria cries, burying her face against Adagio’s shoulder. “I missed you so much! I don’t care what happened! I don’t care that we lost our powers and our magic! I just wanted you two with me!”

“I know,” Adagio replies, petting her stained hand down Aria’s hair. “We’re together now, though, thanks to Sunset.”

Aria nods as she pulls away from Adagio, not far enough to get out of her embrace though. I think Aria was putting on a much braver face than she let on. The second-born siren rubs the tears from her eyes as she looks at me and asks the question I know burned in her heart

“How?”

I grin. “Funny story, I’ll tell you but we need to do it on the move. The Entity knows that it’s at least one Killer down, maybe two if it realises that Adagio here has gone turncoat.”

“Yeah, right,” Aria agrees, pulling away from Adagio fully and shaking her head, trying to regain her composure. “Let’s go, run and talk Shimmer, I wanna know how you got me my big sister back.”

We start moving. “Adagio happened right after I dragged the brats and Rainbitch here, remember when I left the basement?”

“We wondered where you went,” Aria says, her eyes wide. “So you went…”

“Yeah,” I answer with a sharp nod and a glance to Adagio. “I went to see my old enemy in her cabin.”

I step out of the dimensional rift I sliced and onto the hard dirt of another realm, one belonging to one of my comrades-in-murder. The trees stand tall and ominous in the moonlight and I weave between them and the standing stones as I advance towards the cabin in the center.

It’s quiet, good, I would’ve hated to interfere with an ongoing Trial.

Especially as that would definitely attract notice and I really couldn’t afford that right now, not when I’m so goddamn close.

As I approach the cabin, I hear her. That voice, the lullaby, lilting through the air. I go to the door, no reason to enter through the window like a savage. The whole cabin has the scent of home to it, there’s something different about it right now. As if the presence of the survivors and the Killer’s will to murder affects it.

Right now there are no survivors, there’s no trial. There’s only the cabin and the woods and the soft song. The little dining room is set, the table laid out for three and one of the chairs is a little taller than the rest. One of the plate and utensil sets is just a little bit smaller.

At the head of the table is the one I came to see, singing softly while sitting alone. I feel a pang in my heart. I feel how lonely she is, so much so that it’s… maddening.

I let out a low breath, it’s time to test my theory. Reaching out with my magic, I slip into her mind and gasp. It’s like falling into an ocean. Vast and deep and limitless. So this is the mind of an immortal. Even the tainted patch of black water that makes up her existence as a Killer is dwarfed by the sheer size of her lifespan.

It’s exactly what I hoped for.

“C’mon, ‘Dagi, I know you’re in there…” I mutter as I fish around. I cast my mind deeper and deeper and until I hit on something… solid. “What the…”

The ocean heaves and I almost scream. Her mind is… enormous. Titanic. It’s a leviathan of mental presence the likes of which could only result from being so. god. damn. Old. The simple weight of her memories is enough to lend her the inertia and mass needed to withstand the mental maiming the Entity inflicts.

Good.

I grip those memories, that personality, and pull.

The Huntress staggers and her lullaby cuts off. She’s asleep. Or at least… part of her is. The part I need to talk to is wide awake, finally.

“Sunset?” Adagio’s voice comes through, muffled slightly by the mask. Slowly, carefully, her hand rises and grips the mask. Pulling it free from her face for the first time in what I suspect has been a very long time.

The mask clatters to the table and she looks up at me, stunned.

“Hey, ‘Dagi,” I say with a smirk, “been a while.”

Adagio looks me up and down, grimacing. “It must have, how did you end up in this shithole? Especially like that?”

“Long story, short,” I reply, scowling. “You were right, my friends weren’t really my friends. They kicked me to the curb, pretty much destroyed me, so I opted to finish the job from the roof of Canterlot High.”

“Oh,” Adagio replies, shock writ plain on her face. “And… that’s when you were taken, I suppose, hm?”

I nod. “Yeah, from there I met a few others, Tempest, and Aria too.”

Adagio grin widely. “She’s still in one piece then? Good, and… Sonata?” I shake my head. “I see… is she…?”

“Like you,” I answer and Adagio grimaces.

“Can I ask you something?” I say, taking a seat to her right. Adagio looks at me thoughtfully for a moment before nodding her assent. “What is this place?”

Adagio smiles warmly. “It’s the only place I’ve ever called home outside of Equestria.” She gestures around her to the wood walls. “My house, where I lived for a time with my husband and my daughter.”

My eyes practically bug out of my skull. “Daughter?!”

My former enemy’s smile just grows warmer, and she nods. “Yes, my daughter, I might look young, Shimmer, but I’m on the same scale of age as your vaunted Princess Celestia, remember? She’s had her share of offspring too, I imagine.”

“How?”

“It’s… a long story,” she replies with a sad smile. “And a tragic one.”

I glance around, extending my senses out and testing the waters. The Entity is still distracted and likely will be for some time. I turn back to Adagio.

“Well, I’ve got some time,” I reply, settling into the deceptively comfortable wooden chair.

Adagio just shakes her head and sighs. “Very well, it began with the three of us… parting ways for a time. Almost, oh, three hundred years ago now…”