Sweet Heart trudged over to Dash’s body. Tears streamed down her face as she looked down on her deceased sister. She had lost her and War Heart all at once, in the blink of an eye. She noticed everyone was just gawking. She turned to the crowds, her face red from holding back her sorrowful sobs. She wiped the tears from her face and walked away from the body to Sugar Cube Corner, where she lived with Pinkie, her best friend. She opened the door to the pastry shop to be greeted by none other than Mrs. Cake.

“Hello Sweet Hea-…”, Mrs. Cake paused on account of Sweet Heart’s normally blissful expression was missing, “What’s wrong, Dear?”

Sweet Heart’s lip trembled, she didn’t know if she could admit it to anyone else. She didn’t want to accept the truth of what happened to her brother and Dash. She cleared her throat, “I… lost my brother… and my sister…”, she didn’t want to say the ‘D’ word.

Mrs. Cake’s expression turned to one of pity, “Oh no… Are you okay, Sweet Heart?”

Sweet Heart shook her head slowly, “No… I think I have to go lie down…”, she said as she headed for the stairs.

“You can have some time off. I hope you’ll feel better, though.”, Mrs. Cake went back to working at the counter as Sweet Heart went up the stairs.

Sweet Heart entered her room that she shared with Pinkie and collapsed on her bed, face into her pillow. Her tears soaking into the fabric as she started to sob alone in the empty room.

Hours later, Pinkie opened the door slowly. She poked her head inside the room, “Sweet Heart, What’s wrong? Mr. Cake said you were upset.”, Pinkie had no idea of what happened.

Sweet Heart knew that Pinkie and Dash were best friends, she didn’t want to be the one to tell her. She took a deep breath, trying to stop her own sobs. She sat on her bed with back against the wall, “Something terrible happened…”, she patted a spot next to her, indicating to Pinkie that she should sit next to her.

Pinkie was understanding that Sweet Heart needed someone there for her. She took a seat next to her, “What happened, Sweet Heart?”

“It’s about War Heart… And Dash… I was in the market and I saw them walking together. I was trying to get over to them and talk to them but there was a crowd of people in my way. I saw Dash push War Heart over as someone ran over and tackled into her. Next thing I knew: War Heart screams and takes the other person apart in front of everyone. Dash…”, she took a breath before letting out what happened, Pinkie’s heart sank as she realised what was to come, “Dash is… gone… So is War Heart…”

Pinkie’s bright blue eyes welled up with tears immediately, the loss of Dashie hitting her like nothing had hit her before. She felt Sweet Heart wrap her arms around her, something telling her that they both needed a hug. She hugged Sweet Heart back, she was very open with her tears and cries of sorrow.

Orion had been working in a room of the town hall with a man who wore a full black coat with a hood; as well as a mask that was exactly the same as the ones on the guards of the town other than the eyes of the mask glowed bright blue. Orion had been working with this man on a project for the last few days. The man found this metal that had curious reactions with magic.

A small red light blipped on the wall, a small electronic beeping sounding off in sync with the light. The man walked over to the light and pressed a button next to it, “Yes, what is it?”, his voice was deep and digital.

“Prototype SB-7 has been destroyed.”, a speaker next to the button let out another digital voice.

“How?”

“Combat.”

“Ridiculous, the Prototypes can withstand massive amounts of damage. Do you have an ID on the one who destroyed SB-7?”

“Negative.”

“Describe them.”

“Tall, muscular, black wings, red eyes; red and green hair.”

Orion turned to the speaker, “War Heart?”

The man turned to Orion, “You know him?”

Orion nodded, “Yes, we’re friends.”

“He destroyed one of my prototypes.”, the man informed Orion.

The speaker let out more sounds, “Confirmed casualties of seven GearGuards.”

Orion was confused, “Why would he just attack your guards?”

The man turned back to the speaker, “Give me the details of what happened prior to SB-7’s destruction.”

“No GearGuards were witnessing the event before.”

The man spoke again, “Fine, bring me the remains of SB-7.”

“Affirmative.”, the red light on the speaker went out.

Orion looked at the man suspiciously, “Deus… what is going on?”

Deus looked back to Orion as he walked back to their worktable, “I suppose I can’t hide this from you. However, I will not allow you to relay this information to any others. I’ll have to show you what is going on when the remains get here.”

“You told your guards to bring you a corpse?”

“In a way I guess you could call it a corpse.”

They waited for a few minutes before three GearGuards walked inside with the remains of Sweetie Belle, broken and leaking black fluids.

Orion grimaced at the sight of the young woman beaten and broken, “She just a girl… How could War Heart do this?”

Deus had the guard lay her down on an empty worktable. He walked over to Sweetie and spoke, “Reinitialize, code 1406. Replay latest memory before functions ceased.”

“Affirmative.”, The broken and battered Sweetie drone in the digital voice. Her eyes glowed green as a holographic image showed up in the air above her. The image moved and played out the events from her point of view. Her vision was focused on War Heart, the data pulled up on him showed he used to be an Alicorn and that she activated her assassination protocols.

Orion was already surprised at the floating images, but even more surprised at what he was watching, “She thought War Heart was an Alicorn…? So she tried to kill him?”

Deus kept his gaze on the image, “I set parameters to sort out targets. Those who have wings are obviously Winged Ones, those who show magic are Glows. If they ever so happen to have wings and performs magic, they are labelled as Alicorns. I only set this parameter after I took over the town and the signal only goes so far. She must have witnessed him perform magic at some point.”

“But why would that make her want to kill him?”, Orion questioned.

“I have seen much… I will not let the Alicorns destroy this world because they believe they have a born right to rule.”, Deus explained a tone of hidden anger in his voice.

“That doesn’t give you the right to kill them on sight… especially when…”, Orion turned back to the image in time to see Sweetie had killed Rainbow Dash. He gasped, “Now I know why he destroyed her… You killed his wife… They had a family together.”

Deus put his hands on the worktable, he looked down to the floor and sighed, “I didn’t want this to happen… Where is he now, though?”

One of the GearGuards spoke up, “Witnesses report that he fled the town.”

Deus shook his head, “and he will never know now…”

Arcana waited at home reading for hours. She just finished her last book. Looking on her pile of six books, she sighed, “It seems I must set out to the library again…”, she whispered to herself. She stood up and grabbed her messenger’s bag from her room and packed the book inside. She opened the door and walked outside, closing the door behind her. She walked into town and to the library, nothing very interesting happening on the way there. The marketplace was crowded as usual so she paid no attention to them. She soon arrived at Twilight’s tree which still served as the town’s library. Walking inside she saw spike putting books back on shelves, “Greetings, Spike.”

The baby dragon, who was still his original size since his greed was kept in check, looked over at Arcana and waved, “Hey, Arcana, finished with those books I guess?”

Arcana nodded, she was rather familiar with Spike, seeing him every week. She was glad for it too, for she could not stand how dull life could be without reading but being familiar with Spike also meant that she did not need to see Twilight, who she despised with a passion over what she did. She began to pull out the books she had in her pack, setting them on a nearby table and wandering the shelves for new ones.

Spike walked near her on his way to put away the books Arcana brought back, “Still mad at Twilight?”

“Very…”

Spike sighed, “I think she really regrets doing it. She barely comes out of her room, I walk in there and notice she’s been crying sometimes.”

“I don’t care, she betrayed my mother.”

“She still sees you as her student… she still cares for you.”, Spike told her as he walked to the other side of the room.

Arcana was put in a foul mood from thinking of Twilight again, she clenched a fist as she just imagined Twilight running away with her father to leave Dash alone and in despair. A thought of what could have been if Twilight had her way. She tried to avoid thinking about it as she skimmed through some works of fiction, absorbing herself into the first bits of the stories. She eventually picked out a few and left the library, taking a deep breath as she stepped outside. She walked back to her home on the edge of town. She reached the door and opened it. She walked in to see Air Heart in tears and her aunt Sweet Heart sitting at the table with a hand on Air Heart’s back. Arcana looked at them oddly, having no idea what had happened.

Sweet Heart looked as if she had been crying. She turned to Arcana who just walked in, “Arcana… I have something to tell you…”

War Heart landed far from the town, he collapsed to his knees upon landing. He knew he could not go back to that place. He saw too much there that reminded him of her, it would kill him to stay, slowly choking what was left of his sanity. He looked at his hands that resembled that of some creature that was born to hunt and tear other creatures apart. He shook his head, “How could this have happened…? The kid attacked me… killed her… I killed her now… nothing is better…”, he mourned over Dash in tears among the trees of the Everfree Forest. He heard someone approach and quickly stood up, spreading his wings and putting on a violent expression. He looked towards the one that approached him to see a familiar face. He gasped before speaking, “Dash…?”

Sweet Heart spent the night with her nieces, knowing they had to have someone look after her now orphaned relatives. She sat with them as they cried themselves to sleep, she knew she would have to become their guardian now and with spending so much time at Sugar Cube Corner she’d have to find someone to look after them while she was at work or find some other means of getting the money to support them. She heard a knock at the front door, she got up and quietly crept over to the door and opened it to find nobody there. She looked at the ground and saw a small box. Sweet Heart picked up the box curiously and opened it to find a small wooden heart pendant, “This was mother’s… She gave it to Dash…”, she pulled out the pendant and looked at the bottom of the box had a large sum of paper money that was put in effect since De Machina took over the town. She looked around for the generous one who left such a thing for her and her nieces. Sweet Heart saw nobody but clutched the pendant, holding it close and smiling slightly, “Thank you…”, she whispered as she walked back inside.