Twilight clutched her saddlebags to her chest as if they were the final, tenuous link to her previous life, a life which, in the space of a few hours, had gone from normality to what felt like insanity.

The unicorn and Rainbow Dash were seated on the upper deck of a rumbling, rattling steam-coach that was ponderously making its way through the higher districts of Geartown, their rumps sat on mercilessly hard wooden seats. They had walked for an hour through the settlement before they had found the vehicle, leaving the confused and disorientated cabbie to make his own way back to Neon Heights, this time lacking his cab.

The coach was gas-lit, the few other occupants aboard the upper deck huddling under thick coats and woolly scarves, doing their best to shield themselves from the frigid blasts of wind that were gusting in from the Outzone that lay beyond Canterlots boundaries. Above the top-most windows of the flanking buildings on either side of the road were monochrome advertisements for brands of soap, bleach, and cold remedies that Twilight didn't even recognize.

She was only a few leagues from Neon Heights, but Twilight already had the distinct impression she was travelling through another world.

"We've got a slight change in plan," Dash muttered to Twilight through the collar of her olive green trench coat, which she had fastened all the way to the top to try and ward against the wind. "After that fiasco on the train, I'm not risking using the rail services anymore, so we'll have to find another way down to Ponyville."

"And how exactly do we find this alternate route?" Twilight asked, her gripping on her saddlebags tightening as the steam-coach suddenly rocked, the sound of a horn and profanities echoing into the night.

"Simple, we take a little trip to the spa-house. There's a stallion there who goes by the name Big Macintosh. He's a friend of Joe's, but associate would be a better description, I guess. He's Joe's right hoof stallion down here in Geartown, looks after Joe's interests round these parts now that Joe can't leave Neon Heights.

"And we can trust this Big Macintosh?"

"Why shouldn't we?"

"In all the conversations I've ever had with Joe about leaving Canterlot, I don't think the name Big Macintosh has ever cropped up in any of them."

"Cutter, trust me when I tell you that Mac's a reliable pony. He won't fuck us over."

Twilight felt slightly more secure after that. If Rainbow Dash, a pegasus who got by in life by suspecting everyone to be her opponent, could consider a pony to be reliable, then Twilight knew that they were in safe hooves. Nodding with acceptance, the unicorn turned to stare the window of the steam-coach, abject tiredness and the vestiges of zone sickness dulling her will to continue the conversation any further. If worst came to worst and she really did have to trust this Big Macintosh with her life then so be it. It was only one step below Rainbow Dash, or Donut Joe for that matter.

Sweet Celestia, she'd never felt so hopeless.

Beyond the grime-tinted windows of the steam-coach, buildings passed by at little more than a brisk walking pace, their architecture not unlike the tenement blocks of Neon Heights. But the lights were orange-brown down here, flickering with the random uncertainty of gas flames, and nowhere was there the cold, harsh electric radiance of television, the pink auroral glow of neon lighting, the brilliant flash of slot-cars of electrical trains.

Electricity existed in Geartown, the continued functioning of Twilights own central nervous system attested quite admirably to that, but the machinery needed to generate and distribute such an energy source on a useful scale couldn't be made to function reliably. Steam and gas based power sources, on the other hoof, were still quite readily applicable technologies.

There had been efforts, Twilight knew, to pump electricity into the zone from Neon Heights, as well as to create machinery that was rugged enough to continue functioning once inside the zone. But all these efforts, along with similar efforts elsewhere in Canterlot, had come to naught.

There was an old adage amongst the ponies of Canterlot: what works, works.

As the steam-coach trundled from block to block, so did the signs of habitation and civilisation grow steadily more apparent. The seedier tenement blocks gradually gave way to long rows of well-maintained facades, each frontage bathed in its own pool of lemony-yellow gas-light that emanated from  the tall iron lanterns that lined the avenues. They passed throngs of pedestrians, all of them going about their business even at such a late hour.

Picking up on recurring trends amongst the pedestrians fashion choices, Twilight mentally concluded that Rainbow Dash had made a fine choice with her clothing: her trench coat had looked unremarkable in Neon Heights, and remained exactly the same down here in Geartown. Twilight herself was dressed in a thick black coat and wide-brimmed hat of the same colouration that Dash had 'borrowed' off of the cabbie before they'd abandoned him, and though it seemed as if her garments were having a similar affect as Dash's, Twilight knew that was more down to coincidence than anything else. With her black coat, black hat, tinted glasses and black saddlebags, Twilight fancied that she came across as some sort of clerical figure, perhaps a minister or some priestess of Faust.

"Cutter, show me the alicorn gun," Dash muttered under her coat.

Glancing about her, Twilight slowly raised her hoof and rolled her sleeve up, exposing the band of matte-silver metal around her hoof. The material of the gun was still warm to touch, but it was now nowhere near the searing heat it had been before. Extending her hoof towards the pegasus, Twilight let the extractor examine the weapon whilst she furtively glanced around the deck, checking to gauge whether they were being watched.

"When it fired, it shot something," Twilight said quietly, trying to remain inconspicuous. "It definitely wasn't any type of energy beam, it seemed to be some kind of bullet."

"Well, whatever it fired, it sure as hell fucked up that ghoul. Must've been some sort of high-explosive munition."

"I don't think there's any intelligence left in it now, not after its metamorphosis. It's probably just inert metal now. It probably won't change anymore, either, and I don't know how much ammunition is left."

"Even if you hate 'em, you've still gotta hoof it to those alicorns. They're possibly the cleverest bunch of fucks to ever walk the face of Equestria, but why can't they just use all of that intelligence to make life better for the rest of us?"

"The alicorns of the Celestial Levels are not as clever as you think, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, choosing her words carefully. She'd already slipped up a few times, mentioning to the pegasus that she'd be living 'down here' for nine years. Dash didn't seemed to have picked up that anything was amiss with her package, but Twilight knew she had to be wary of making any similar mistakes in the future. After all, there would surely be a point in the future when Dash would begin to realise that there was something out of the ordinary with her companion.

"They're good with gadgets, that's true," Twilight continued, though Dash didn't give any hint that she was listening. "They can make some pretty neat toys, like this gun. Sometimes, it even seems like they're made something that's genuinely new, something that hasn't ever existed in this world we call home before. But that's never the case. Nope, all they do is just dig back through the past, hundreds of thousands of years if necessary, and find a solution that someone has already come up with. There's nothing new under the sun, as the old saying goes, and if you were to ask and alicorn about this gun around my hoof, about how it locked with my blood, or about how it morphed into a new shape once we'd crossed the zone, you probably wouldn't be at all satisfied with the answer it would give you."

"So basically, alicorns are just as dumb as the rest of us, except they've got some shinier toys?"

"If you want to say it like that, then yes, yes they are and yes they do."

"You ever been up there, Cutter?"

"All the way up to the Celestial Levels?" Twilight was surprised by the blunt directness of the question, and she found it more than just a bit unsettling. "No, I've had no cause to ascend."

"Never been sick enough to need their medicine then?"

"Dash, I may look like nothing but skin and bone, but I'm healthier than I look." Twilight rolled her sleeve back down to cover the gun, glancing sideways towards Dash. "What about you, have you ever made the ascension?"

"Nope, ain't ever needed their medicine. If I did, I'd spit it back in their faces is what I would do. I'd rather die before I let any of those fuckers tinker with my body."

"And does Joe share this view with you?"

"You know him well, Cutter. Why do you just go and ask him yourself?"

"That's not really an option for me right now."

"I guess it isn't. But still, you knowing him for as long as you have... exactly how far do you two go back?"

"Rainbow Dash, don't tell me you've suddenly actually developed a real interest in me. I thought you preferred not to get to close to the package?"  

Dash grunted before replying. "I'm interested in Joe's past, what really happened to make him quit the force when he did. You're just a piece in the puzzle, Cutter. A piece who knows more than most, but still just a piece. You're one of his anitzonal suppliers, or one of them at the least, I've managed to figure that much out. But that still makes me wonder; how exactly did you get mixed up with a stallion like Joe? And what has he got on you that keeps brining you back?" Dash gave Twilight a long look, her brows furrowed slightly in concentration. "So what's the deal, did he fuck you or something, you two got some little foal together?"

Twilight grimaced, though she expressed it more than she would have liked to. Exactly how much did Dash really know about her past and heritage? She had no real idea about how much Joe had informed Dash, only that he'd supplied her with the bare essentials in order to help her with the job. Twilight knew that if Joe had told the pegasus anything else it would have constituted as a grievous betrayal of trust between them, one that would be unlikely to fix.

"I'm guessing from your earlier comment that you know about Joe's old line of work?"

"Him being a detective in the force? Yeah, I know that, a lot of us extractors do. Besides, it's not exactly the biggest secret in the business, especially since Caramel keeps his badge hung up behind the bar like some kind of trophy. You two meet during one of his cases?"

"Something like that." Twilight sighed, knowing that such a thin sliver of information would not be enough to prevent Dash's probing. The pegasus seemed to be inquisitive by nature, a fact that Twilight wasn't very keen on. "Joe was working on a murder investigation, one that had been dropped by the rest of his department after they been unable to find any evidence. A body had been found in an elevator shaft in a pharmaceuticals warehouse in Second District. I happened to be a feature in that investigation."

"Suspect, or witness?"

"Both. I didn't kill the mare in the elevator shaft, but Joe was right to have his doubts about me. After all, I had killed two ponies." When Dash made no reaction, neither dismissive or admiring, Twilight coughed and carried on. "But I only did so because they had killed the mare. Somepony who had mattered a lot to me."

"And Joe found all this out?"

"He'd worked out what had happened. I stated my case, explained my motive, and from then on it was really just the two of us. No one else knew how far he'd carried the investigation, Joe wasn't the type to file reports if someone else could do it for him.

"You think about killing him?"

"There'd been enough killing already." Twilight gave her companion a serious look. "I'm a doctor, Rainbow Dash, a healer. It's my job to patch thing up, put lives back together, not end them."

"Which's why you were so keen to keep your hooves on that nice shiny toy of yours."

"In case you didn't notice, I didn't really have a lot of time to properly think things through. If I made the wrong decision by keeping the gun, I apologise." Twilight waited for a moment, in vain, for Dash to at least give her some crumb of acknowledgment before she continued. "Joe quit the force soon after. When he started expanding his activities, so to speak, he found he had to start making transitions into other zones more than usual. I was able to supply him with industrial strength Morphax-55, a lot more stronger and purer than anything he would have been able to acquire off the street."

"So that's all you've got. It's a protection racket, just like a said. You fleece him the drugs or he turns on you."

"No." Twilight said slowly, composing her thoughts carefully. "There's more to it than that. Joe helped me at time when there was no one else, and he's continued to help me. I owe him more than just my freedom, that's why I came to him when I needed help."

"Helped you how?"

She couldn't tell Dash about the wings, that much was clearly obvious. She couldn't tell Dash how Joe had cut them away, or stitched the wounds closed whilst the pain of the surgery, which could only be performed with weak local anaesthetics, caused her to writhe and thrash on the grimy operating table where Joe performed his knife-work. Or how, through the whole procedure, she was haunted and tormented by the knowledge that the wings would almost instantly begin regenerating, and that the whole painful process would need to be carried out again in only a few months, and that the intervals would continue to grow shorter and shorter.

No, she couldn't tell Rainbow Dash any of that.

"He's helped me stay ahead of the ponies who are after me, that's all he's done."

"Sounds like he got the good side of the bargain."

"Trust me, he didn't."

They exited the steam-coach a few blocks further on, Dash leading them through what appeared to be a bustling red-light district as revellers, drunk and intoxicated with the entertainments of the night, spilled out of bars and bordellos and gambling dens. The pegasus seemed to have no issue with making her way through such a lively crowd, barging aside any who got in her way and delivering more than one eye watering buck to the crotch of anypony who then had the gall to complain.

The whole while Twilight followed in her wake, watching as jugglers and fire-breathers dazzled the crowd with the spectacles whilst a group of mares laced up in clothes that were far too tight and who were wearing far too much makeup stood on a calliope nearby and shouted bawdy songs to the tune of a steam organ. The calliope was wheeling its way down the street on four iron wheels, the organ piping its way through a punch-card whilst the mares on top flashed their flanks and the operator at the back shovelled wood chips into the boiler beneath, stoking the engine to keep both the contraption moving and the organ playing.

More than one besotted stallion followed in the machines wake.

It took Twilight a few moments to realise that she recognised the song as belonging to the artist Vinyl Scratch, but when she pitched the idea to Rainbow Dash the pegasus snorted in derision.

"You've got rump over tit, Cutter. That tune there has been doing to rounds here in Geartown for years now, way back to when I was just a little filly. Vinyl Scratch has just picked it up, turned it into electricity and then blasted it out of a pair of speaker so loud that it sounds like someone is breaking a window with a box full of rusty nails."

Twilight smiled at her own ignorance. "I'm sorry, Dash, I didn't realise."

"This city's more complicated than ponies figure. It ain't just shit and bricks that gets moved between the zones. If you spend some time going around the zones and seeing all the sights you begin to realise that Canterlot's more of a living thing rather than some giant spike. Things are moving in all sorts of directions, even I don't think I have to tell you how muddled up bodies get on the inside."

"No, you shouldn't," Twilight agreed, following closer behind as she felt somepony pinch at her rump through the padding of her coat. "You like here, don't you Dash. In Canterlot, I mean."

"Damn right I do. I've left this shit-hole more than a few times, so there's got to be something that keeps dragging me back."

As Twilight watched, the calliope came to a rolling halt before a building, the occupants aboard jumping off and entering inside, drawing their crowd of suitors with them. The building itself was built of wooden boards that had been painted a faded shade of emerald green, and elaborate portico set at the front whilst many purple painted balconies jutted from the upper stories.

Chains of pastel coloured lanterns, each with a set of complicated shapes of indeterminable nature, illuminated the front of the building, whilst a carved serpentine dragon lorded over the entrance, entwined around a sign that identified the premises as the Purple Dragon Spa-house. Evidenced by the lights that were on inside the windows, and the amount of smoke that seemed to be seeping from just about every crack in the building, the spa-house was still open for business.

"This is it." Dash said.

"How do you know Big Macintosh is going to be inside?"

"Mac's always in. Being in is what Mac does. It's sort of his... party trick." Dash chuckled darkly to herself on that last part being turning to Twilight. "You got a strong stomach, Cutter?"

"I'm a pathologist."

"Enough said. Let's roll."

Dash walked up the wooden steps to the entrance and spoke a quiet word with the burly stallion standing guard under the portico. The pony gave Twilight a quick glance, his face scrutinizing, before he gave Dash a quick nod and stepped aside, admitting them into the establishment.

Once inside it was more than clear that Dash knew her way around perfectly well, leading Twilight down several long and winding corridors that branch off into various steaming chambers, bathing rooms, and changing rooms. The air was humid, oppressively so, and reeking with scented oils and perfume, most of which seemed to stink of lotus flowers. Twilight already felt stifled by the heat under her thick coat, sweet beading on the back of her neck and on her brow. She removed her glasses, wiping the condensation from them and returning them to place before Dash had a chance to look her in the eye.

Every now and then they passed by a towelled patron, usually a stallion, amiably making their way from one room to another. Every single one of them was accompanied by at least three mares, themselves garbed in long silk dresses, their manes pulled back from their eyes and fixed in place with jewelled pins. The mares always seemed to be giggling, their tails, braided through with what could either have been real or fake flowers, constantly swishing from side to side in excitement.

"I'm guessing that this establishment has other functions as well as being a spa-house." Twilight said after they'd passed yet another group of mares, all of them reeking of lotus perfume.

"Hit the nail on the head with that one, Cutter. Aloe and Lotus own some of the best damn girls you can get in the whole of Canterlot. Mind you though, I found this place up in Circuit City that comes pretty close, and they got boys as well as girls." Dash smiled to herself. "Circuit City's a great place, especially with the whole 'personal realisation' thing they've got going on."

"I have been told they're a free society."

"Best legal excuse for an orgy, ever."

Eventually the seemingly endless twisting and turning terminated in a lone wooden door, this one paint a deep, rich purple and decorated with a carving of a dragon that had been etched into the border, circling the whole construct as it devoured its own tail. From behind the door emanated the sounds of activity, and although Twilight couldn't clearly discern what was going on beyond the portal, the obvious sexual tone of the noises told her that something rather... intimate was going on.

"Sounds like Aloe and Lotus are at it again." Rainbow Dash chuckled, after one particularly loud shriek made itself audible to them. "Sometimes I think those two could run the whole place by themselves, given how much business they bring in."

Another round of moans made it past the door, causing Twilight to cringe slightly. "I'm guessing we should come back later?"

Dash gave her an incredulous look. "Watch out there, Cutter. Your virgin is starting to show through." The pegasus grinned as a blush made its way up Twilight muzzle. "Nahh, let's see who they've dragged in this time." Twilight barely had a moment to steel herself before Dash gripped the handle of the door and pushed it inwards.

In an instant the whole scene was laid bare.

On a desk over by the far wall of the luxuriously decorated office, a mare with a pale-rose coat and a cerulean mane lay flat on her back, hindlegs spread and eyes closed as a familiar pegausi stallion, possessing a granite grey coat that bordered on black and a short cut mane streaked with white and some shade of light blue, shoved his muzzle into her sex. On a chair beside the desk another mare, this one with a cerulean blue coat and a pale-rose mane, smoked on an elaborate pipe that was connected to a bubbling contraption made of delicately wrought glass with gold inlays.

All three of them failed to notice the two mares standing in the door way until the door that dash had opened made contact with the wall, the slamming of wood on wood loud enough to capture their attention. The mare on the table opened her eyes slowly, a faint smile flickering on her lips as she spotted Rainbow Dash, whilst the mare on the pipe simply continued to puff away, her bedraggled mane plastered to her neck.

"What the fuck's going on?" the stallion began as he raised his head from between his partners hindlegs, a look of serious annoyance on his face. The expression, however, faded away once he made eye contact with Twilight. "Twilight?" the pegasus managed, his voice sounding more than a little bit confused.

"Thunderlane?" Twilight replied, feeling equally confused. Dash turned to Twilight, a look of confusion on her face as well.

"You know this guy?" she asked. When Twilight nodded the pegasus looked back to Thunderlane with a much more serious expression in place of her confusion. "You little shit. Sleeping around, are you?" Dash began to reach into her coat, her teeth bared.

It didn't take a genius to know what was coming next.

"Dash, no!" Twilight shouted, grabbing the mares hoof before she had time to withdraw one of the myriad weapons she had in her possession. "It's not like that, not at all. Thunderlane just does deliveries for the morgue!"

At that Dash paused, her brow still furrowed towards Thunderlane, but she slowly withdrew her hoof from her coat, Twilight sighing in relief when she saw that the mare wasn't holding a gun.

Thunderlane looked equally relieved.

"Right, clear out, Crotch Stain. Mommies got some business to discuss."

Thunderlane didn't need telling twice. wiping his muzzle with the back of a hoof, he quickly gathered up an old jumpsuit that had been hurriedly thrown over the back of another chair and made a swift departure, sparing Twilight a quick nod as he passed Rainbow Dash and then disappeared round the bend at the end of the hallway.

"Come back soon," the mare on the table called after him, her voice soft and breathy after her previous exertions. languidly, she rolled herself off her back and got down behind the desk, seating herself in the padded chair behind the desk. Her face was flushed and she continued to pant slightly, her eyes half-lidded as she slowly tidied up her mane and put on a white head band to keep it in place.

"Keeping busy then, are you?" Dash began, stepping into the office proper and leaving Twilight to close the door behind them. The mare behind the desk simply giggled, the flush on her cheeks rising slightly.

"Oh, of course we are, Dashie, my dear," she answered, leaning back into the soft padding of her chair. "After all, being an owner and operator of this venture, I have a responsibility to make sure our clientele are worth my girls time."

"Aloe, you and I both know that's bollocks."

"As judgemental as ever, I see." The mare named Aloe shook her head, the smile never leaving her face. "But, it is good to see that you are in good health, Rainbow Dash, despite your habit of threatening my customers and make an annoyance of yourself. I know I speak for all the girls when I say that your charming presence has been missed around the establishment."

The second mare, whom Twilight assumed to be Lotus, took a puff on her pipe, the elaborate network of glass tubes and beakers that it was hooked up to gurgled loudly. Exhaling a cloud of scented smoke, the blue coated mare gave Dash a tired look before her eyes settled on Twilight, her expression placid, and unmoving.

"Who's your friend?" she asked, taking another puff on the glass pipe. Twilight had the sudden impression that this mare was one to watch out for, something about the way she seemed so... apathetic pointed her out as clearly the brains of the operation.

"Name's Twilight," Dash answered before Twilight had time to.

"And is he on his way up, or down?" Twilight felt under the impression that the mare was scrutinising her carefully. "Down, I believe; this mare certainly doesn't look as if she's come from the Outzone, especially with a pair of saddlebags that nice. You may remove your hat now, Miss Twilight, and it must be awfully hard for your to see with those tinted glasses on, especially in a building as steamy as this."

"I'm fine, thank you," Twilight responded, though she did reach up and remove her hat, giving her mane a quick shake to clear her head. As for Lotus, she simply gave an imperceptible nod, as if she had already found out everything she'd needed to know.

"As you will."

"Look, as much as I love the catch up talk, me and Twilight need to speak to-"

"Macintosh, of course." Aloe spoke, interrupting the pegasus midsentence, much to Dash's chagrin. "Why else would you grace our humble abode, unless you and Miss Twilight would like a quick soak before you continue on with your journey?" Aloe turned her gaze to Twilight, the contented smile on her face picking up at the corners to give her expression an almost lavacious look. "The girls here are rather skill, I think you'll find, Miss Twilight. We ensure that they are properly trained, of course. Why not try a massage? One touch of their hooves and you'll find all your problems just... floating away."

The mares smile became more devious. Twilight gulped and backed up slightly, unsure what to say until Dash came to her aid.

"Keep your head band on, Aloe. Me and Cutter have a long way to go and not a whole lot of time to get there, so let's skip fucking each other's brains out and save that for when I get back?"

Aloes smile was definitely devious by now, her eyes turning to Rainbow Dash with obvious longing. "Have it your way, Dashie. I'll have a room made up for you for when you return." Aloe pointed to a door behind and to the right of the desk. "You'll find Mac down in the boiler room as always."

"Cheers."

They crossed the room, Twilight uncomfortably aware of Lotus scrutinizing gaze still following her, not to mention the unsettling attention of Aloe, who seemed fixated with her flank. Dash pushed the door inwards and descended down the flight of stairs beyond, disappearing into the gloom of the weak gas lighting. Twilight made to follow after her, but a delicate feminine cough made her turn her attention back to the two spa ponies.

"I hope you have a robust tolerance for profanity, Miss Twilight, if that is your real name." Lotus informed her, examining her well manicured hoof as she took another puff on her ornate pipe. "Dash has quite the uncouth tongue, though I will say in her defence that she was not always that way. Once she was actually able to function in polite society, if you'd dare to believe it." Lotus sighed, shaking her head before looking back to Twilight. "Of course, all that was before her beloved died. Such a terrible tragedy. Though, I must say, it's a pity really." Lotus lowered the pipe and returned it to a holster on the glass work, her eyes fixed on Twilight's as her voice lowered to an almost conspiratorial whisper. "She's hated alicorns ever since."

Twilight felt part of her brain seize up with fear. Had Lotus worked out what she was already? No, it was impossible, alicorns hadn't even been part of the conversation. Knowing that any hesitation would show Lotus that her suspicions were right, Twilight goaded herself into action.

"Duly noted, I'll remember that well." Twilight turned away and began down the stairs, but as she closed the door behind her Lotus's voice sounded out once again, though this time, the words delivered seemed more ominous than they had any right to be.

"Have a safe trip, Miss Twilight."

≤ΘΘΘ≥

"What the fuck kept you?" Dash asked when Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs. They were in a dimly lit corridor that ran both to the left and the right of the stairs. Overhead, tallow candles set into small alcoves in the wall provided flickering illumination, causing shadows to pool at the intervals between each alcove.

"Lotus was just wishing me good luck," Twilight answered, but it seemed as if Dash wasn't paying her any attention. Instead she was briskly striding down the right-hoof corridor, forging ahead despite the lack of light.

"Yeah, yeah. Cool story bro, tell it again."

Two rights turns, two left turns, and three flights of stairs later, the two ponies found themselves standing in front of a heavy looking metal door, adorned with hazard symbols that Twilight didn't even recognise.

And she'd worked with some lethal stuff too.

Overhead the gas-light seemed even weaker than it did on the surface, as if the weight of the building above them somehow compounded the darkness, increasing its intensity to an unnatural degree. The humidity was intense as well, far more oppressive than up in the office. Regardless of it all, Dash trotted across the raw Mega-structure of the floor and hammered on the door with a hoof, each blow deafeningly loud in such cramped confines.

"Macintosh, you ugly fucker! Get over here and open the bloody door!"

With a clank, a slit in the door that Twilight hadn't noticed before suddenly flipped open, leaving a black gap in the rusted surface. Beyond the viewing-slit came the noise of what sounded like a pair of bellows wheezing on and on, and when the figure raised a lantern to the slit, she got the impression the pony holding it was large, very large indeed.

"Well ah'll be. Ah wasn't expectin' yah to pay lil ol' me a visit tonight, Miss Dash."

Twilight instantly recognized the as belonging to Geartown, especially given the lilting tone with which it was uttered. It was softer, and much slower, than the dialect of the residents for Neon Heights.

"Shit got fucked up and we had to make some different arrangements," Dash explained. "Now are you gonna let us in, or not?"

"Do ah have a choice?"

"That depends on whether or not you wanna keep yourself on Joe's good side."

"It's always an idea."

The speaker slid the viewing-slit closed with another clank and pulled the door open a fraction, a small chain jingling between it and the frame. A face, sinisterly under-lit by the light of the lantern that the figure held between its teeth, hovered in the darkness. Twilight caught sight of one emerald green eye directed straight at her, the colouration fierce in its intensity. As for the other, it remained lost in the shadows. The rhythmic sound of bellows, which she had originally assumed was the stallion breathing, she now realised to be nothing of the sort.

It was definitely coming from the stallion but it continued even as he spoke.

Big Macintosh scanned both of the mares before grunting and closing the door once more. For a few moments there was nothing, and then the chain was pulled loose with a faint tinkling and the door swung open, creaking loudly on rusting hinges.

"Come on in, ladies. Make yerselves comfortable."

The heat was even worse in the boiler room. Through the steam, Twilight could make out the hulking shadow of the boiler, a squatting black behemoth the size of a small house. The shadow it cast reminded her of some absurd dragon, a monstrous, devouring creature that could never be truly sated, no matter how much material was stuffed inside it. Above the construct, a labyrinth of rusted tubes and stained pipes branched out up to the ceiling, distributing steam to all corners of the Purple Dragon spa-house.

Macintosh closed the door behind them as they stepped in, the steam blocking off Twilight's view of their new host.

"Ya'll been busy tonight?" Macintosh asked, his voice flat and monotonous, and above all slow.

"Now Mac, what could possibly give you that idea?"

"It's all over town, Miss Dash. Somepony done found a body on the train, and ah've been hearing talk 'a some kinda ruckus goin' on at the station on the other side 'a the boundary."

"Fancy that."

"Ya'll 'r telling me that ya had nothin' ta do with it?"

"Alright, we may have killed a few ponies, but nothing too serious. Let's just say me and my companion ran into... unforeseen difficulties."

The emerald eye focussed on Twilight. "Ya'll mean this mare here?"

"Yep, Cutter here has half of the Celestial fucking Levels riding up her plot."

"Ahh, a special customer." The eye glimmered approvingly. "What's a lil thing like this done ta get on the wrong side 'a the alicorns?"

"You should ask her that, Mac. These aren't your average Post-equine fuckers we're dealing with."

"Ah've dealt with a few 'o the stranger variants in mah time," Mac spoke as he led them past the boiler, a fierce heat bleeding off it even though the stoking hole was currently shut. The stallion paused and reached up with a hoof to tap against a pressure valve until the phosphorescent dial above it quivered back into position. Twilight noticed the hoof made a dull noise with each tap, as if it were wood on metal. "But that was a long time ago."

"They're infiltration units," Twilight told him, feeling a prickly uneasiness run up her neck. "That's my understanding of them, anyway. From what we've seen, they appear to have been modified to be able to function beyond the boundaries of the Celestial Level. As far as I can tell, they don't seem to have any machines in their blood, and all of the ones me and Dash have seen have had their wings and horns removed as well. It seems they are unable to remove one without needing to remove the other. Unless you manage to get up close and take a proper look at them, they appear normal enough to be able to blend in." Twilight paused and swallowed, her mind suddenly back tracking to Big Mac's last statement. "You said you've had experience with dealing with alicorns?"

"Ah've fought and killed a few in mah time," Big Mac said off-hoofedly.

"You were some kind of soldier?"

"A kinda soldier," Big Mac echoed. "Ah'm guessin' that Miss Dash here hasn't exactly filled ya in on the details about me?"

"Not exactly, no."

Macintosh chuckled to himself. "Don't ya'll fret now, Miss Cutter. Ya'll get the full picture soon enough. Mind ya'll don't trip over the cable."

"What cable?"

"That there cable that's comin' outta me."

Big Macintosh led them out of the boiler room and into a separate annexe that seemed to serve as his personal quarters. He swung the door closed behind them, but didn't shut it completely, leaving a thin gap. He took the lantern from between his teeth and placed it on a table in the centre of the room, before lighting a slightly brighter on that hung from the ceiling. The filament flared brightly, doing a little to dispel the gloom.

Beside the lantern, on the table, there sat what looked like a pack of cards, arranged in the depleted rows of an unfinished game. accompanying them was a glass and a tall bottle of liquor with a sepia label that Twilight couldn't quite make out. The room was fractionally cooler then the boiler room, aided by a small, steam driven ventilation fan on the ceiling that rotated in slow circles. There was a serving hatch in one corner that presumably led to the spa-houses kitchens, and a neatly made bed sat in the other.

"Mah humble lil abode," Big Mac told them, a faint smile on his face. "Please, take a seat."

"Mac, we don't have a lotta time to talk," Dash began. "If me and Cutter are gonna make the next connection to Ponyville we–"

"Have a seat anyways." The eye turned to fix itself on Twilight. "You too, Miss Cutter. Ah wouldn't have it be said that Big Macintosh didn't act the gentlecolt to his guests."

"It's Twilight, actually," Twilight told him as she sat down, slipping off her saddlebags and setting them down beside the chair. Her mind was reeling at the fact she was sitting opposite a genuine alicorn killer, but she tried not to let the consternation show on her face. Meanwhile, Macintosh had made his way over to the serving hatch, and as he returned he was accompanied by the chinking of glass on glass. Taking a seat opposite Twilight and Rainbow Dash, he lined up all three glasses and began to pour shots of whatever liquor was in the bottle.

"Line of work, Miss Twilight?"

"I'm a doctor, a pathologist from the Third District Morgue in Neon Heights."

"And how did a doctor get all mixed up in somethin' that'd mean she'd have to get her lil tail outta Canterlot?"

"It's a long story."

"Nopony's going anywhere any time soon." Mac pushed one of the glasses towards Twilight and the other to Rainbow Dash. "Drink up now, ah'm sure you two could use a stiff drink."

"I'm afraid we can't, we've both taken antizonals," Twilight explained, even as Dash downed her drink in a single gulp.

"So am ah. The liquor ain't gonna kill you." With some menace, Macintosh added. "Bottoms up."

Big Mac pulled out his own chair and sat opposite them, giving Twilight her first chance to get a proper look at him. She controlled her reaction as best as she could, but Big Mac wasn't something for the faint hearted.

Mac was a big stallion, and clearly older than Twilight or even Joe. His coat, a rich red tone, seemed to be slightly grimed and sooty, probably from all his years working with the boiler. Atop his head sat a short cropped mane of ginger hair, and his eyes, or more rather eye, were a fierce emerald green, though only one was visible, as the other was hidden behind a patch of black metal that looked as if it had been bolted straight into his skull.

The patch extended across Big Mac's muzzle, reached down his right cheek and up to his temple, studded through with large metal bolts. On either side of his skull were metallic plates of the same black metal, held in place with screws. Only his right hoof was made of flesh and bone, the other was a mechanical prosthesis connected to his body by a heavy shoulder harness of wood and metal. The prosthesis was hoof shaped, but it terminated in a set of five digits arranged in a ring at the top, with tensioned wires running along the length of each through a set of grooves that had been carved into the wood.

Mac wore a white blouse shirt, unbuttoned half way down his chest. Covering up most of his barrel was some kind of apparatus that, like the patch and the rectangular plates, seemed to bolted straight onto his body. The construct was made of a metallic chest plate mottled with rust and peeling red paint that was roughly the same hue as his coat. Across its surface was a set of steam pressure dials, needles flickering and twitching under thick layers of protective glass.

The sound of bellows, Twilight now realised, was coming from inside the machinery. A thick, segmented copper hose emerged from his right flank roughly where his cutie-mark should have been, and trailed off across the floor and out of the gap that stallion had left in the door way.

Twilight swallowed once and regained her composure. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to you?"

"Take a guess, Doctor Twilight."

"If I knew nothing about you, I guess my first speculation would be that you were the victim of some sort of industrial accident. But that wouldn't account for the symmetry of the metal plates on either side of your skull, nor the fact that you mentioned that you'd killed alicorns before. You said you were a soldier, Big Macintosh?"

"What do you think, Doctor."

"It's been generations since anyone went to war with the alicorns, centuries even. But still, even then it was only one or two of the Cyborg Polities, and that was a long, long time ago. But they say that cyborgs live nearly as long as alicorns. Is that what you used to be, Big Mac?"

"Speculate, Doctor."

Twilight reached for her glass and took a sip, leaning back in her chair. "You probably would have been neurally integrated into your battle armour, with the majority of your nervous system directly hardwired into the armour's sensory interface. Those plates in your head are probably covering up the primary input sockets were the data-feed cables would've fed straight into your cerebral tissue. The missing eye might just have been some sort of injury that was never fully repaired, but if I had to guess I would say that you had your organic eye replaced with some sort of cybernetic targeting system. I don't know how you lost your hoof, whether or not it was an injury or amputated purposely to be replaced with an augmentation. What I do know, however, is that your internal organs would have been extensively modified, with your heart and lungs replaced with a more efficient, artificial oxygen-exchange system whilst the rest of you was bonded with the armours recycling system. Inside your battle armour you would have been able to live indefinitely, but without it you'd be dead in seconds, even in the polities."

"Ah seem to be clingin' on prutty well."

"Only because somepony was very ingenious. Someone found away to keep you alive, made even more impressive by the fact you exist in a zone where even the simplest electrical device is unable to function for very long. From the look of the tube coming out of your flank, I'd say that your internal systems are running on steam from the boiler."

Macintosh smiled, a lazy, sleepy smile. "Ah like this one, Miss Dash. Ya'll should associate with more like Doctor Twilight here." The stallion leaned back and began to unbutton the rest of his shirt. "Would ya like a closer look, Doctor Twilight, see what really makes me tick?"

Dash make some sort of wrenching sound inside her mouth and looked away. "No offense, Mac. But you're hard enough on the eyes as it is, I don't really need a guided tour of your guts."

Twilight nodded and raised a hoof. "Dash is right, this isn't really necessary."

"Come now, Doctor. With ya'll bein' a mare 'a medicine an' all, ah thought you'd 'a jumped at an offer like this." Mac finished undoing the last of the buttons and pulled his shirt open, exposing a rusted inspection panel that curved across his barrel just below the dials. He reached down with his prosthetic hoof, the digits beginning to undo the catch. "Ah ain't ashamed 'a what ah am. Ah was proud to be a soldier, proud 'a bein' given the honour 'a defendin' the polities against the alicorns. So what if war took half mah body away? Ah earned these scars, make no mistake."

"I really still don't need to see inside you."

"Not even a lil bit curious?"

"Of course I am. I would help you if I could. But I'd have to examine you properly, and there wouldn't be any point in doing that until I've returned to Canterlot. At the moment, these saddlebags contain all the medical supplies I've got." Twilight paused, realising she was about to broach a delicate matter. "I take it you've been like this for a while now?"

"Longer than ya'll would think."

"Then you're probably not going to catch anything before I get back."

Macintosh nodded, his digits refastening the catch and beginning to button his shirt back up. "Ya'll would do that for me?"

"You're a friend of Joe's. That's all the recommendation."

Mac's eye glimmered with unveiled amusement. "Friend, is that how ol' Joe described me?"

"That's what I said," Dash butted in. "Cutter's just repeating what she's been told."

" 'Underlin' woulda been a more appropriate term to describe mah relationship with Joe. Wouldn't ya think, Miss Dash?"

"That's between you and the colt upstairs."

"Ya'll shouldn't speak 'a Joe as if he's Faust," Macintosh said disapprovingly. "Especially you, Miss Dash, bein' as religiously inclined as ya'll is. She's never without her Testament, Doctor. Carries the thing around with her everywhere, if ya'll would believe it. Ya'll would never think it, would ya, with a tongue as filthy as hers?"

Twilight thought about saying something, but then decided better of it.

"Joe's been good to you," Dash said, her eyes narrowing into a glare. "He set you up down here, didn't he, when you became an embarrassment to your own polity? He gave you a nice, cosy place to hide, and plenty of steam to go with it."

"He gets his cut from Aloe and Lotus, that's about as far as his philanthropy goes. Do ya see him payin'  me any visits, checkin' in on mah welfare, askin' if there's anythin' else ah'd rather be doin' with the rest of mah time in Equestria then just shovellin' coal for a bordellos boiler?"

"You know he doesn't get out any more than you do, Mac."

"At least Joe gets outta the basement every now an' again."

Twilight finished her drink and put her glass back on the table before turning to Rainbow Dash. "We shouldn't really be taking too long before we move on, should we?"

"Oh, don't ya'll mind us, Doctor Twilight," Mac said, breaking out into another of his lazy smiles. "Miss Dash an' ah fight like barnyard animals over prutty much anythin'. But don't let the act fool ya, us two go back a long way."

"Although sometimes it starts wearing thin," Dash said through gritted teeth, eyes glaring balefully at Mac.

"Calm down, Miss Dash. Ah've just had a bad day is all. We're down a consignment 'a wood, which means that steam pressure for the boiler has done dropped. That hurts me as much as it hurts the spa-house. Ordinarily ah'd just send out the boys to go round us up some more, but it's not like anyone else is rollin' in the timber. Been like this all winter. Supplies are runnin' low, havin' to be dragged in from further and further away, and what ya get ain't exactly best quality either." Mac shook his head, a disapproving 'tut' making its way past his lips. "They've gone an' cut Everfree too far back. Used to be a full three leagues 'a forest between the base 'a the city and the Abstraction. Now it's down ta less than a league. Firesap's startin' to be in short supply, and the winter ain't exactly mild either. Things are only gonna get colder, ya'll mark my words. You'd think ah don't feel it, livin' down here like ah do, but ya'd be surprised." Mac gave a philosophic shrug, as if this were a point he'd pondered on meticulously, but had yet again failed to reach a conclusion on the matter. "Still, it's good for business. But mind yerself, Doctor Twilight, if ya think this is cold, just ya'll wait til yer in the Outzone." Mac's eyes looked over Twilight skinny frame. "Ah hope ya'll got the constitution for it. Down there in the Outzone, the windigos always take their toll."

"Speaking of leaving," Dash said. "I don't think it would be a very smart idea for me and Cutter to take the train any further.

Macintosh nodded in agreement. "Eeyup, after all the trouble ya'll caused last time, there'll be more than just alicorns on yer tails. The police force up in Neon Heights will have already telegrammed down a description of the culprits down ta the Geartown constabulary by now. They're probably got every station from here to Saddleback scoped by now."

"Then we'll have to take one of the alternatives. Is that an option?"

"Ah'll sort somethin' out, don't ya fret. In the mean time, given the amount 'a ammo ya'll probably used up on yer way down, yer welcome to restock yer supplies." Mac stiffly jerked his head backwards. "Through the backdoor, ya'll find what yer lookin' for. Take what ya need and leave anythin' that ya don't."

"Cheers, Mac."

"Don't forget ta get yerself some new watches. Ya'll good for antizonals?"

"We have all we need," Twilight said, patting her saddlebags.

"Fine then." Big Mac refilled his drink before offering the bottle to Twilight, who politely declined with a small shake of her head. "While yer in there, there's some medical issues ah'd like ta discuss with Doctor Twilight." Mac said over his shoulder, as Rainbow Dash's tail disappeared through another door on the other side of the room.

"Too much information!" Dash called back.

Mac chuckled slightly, waiting in silence until Dash was definitely out of earshot before leaning forward on the table, his lazy smile fixed in place. "Yer good at hidin', Doctor Twilight, ah'll give ya that."

"Good at hiding what?"

"Good at hiding what ya really are. Unless ah'm wrong, Miss Dash ain't got the darndest clue 'a what she's escortin' outta Canterlot. Probably better for ya that way. Miss Dash ain't so keen on alicorns, Doctor Twilight."

Twilight coughed slightly. "I'm sorry, Big Macintosh. But you seem to be under some sort of misapprehension."

"Eenope, ah don't think so. It's all about the smell, ya see." Mac tapped a wooden digit against the side of his muzzle. "Ah could smell an alicorn from across the street, don't matter what they look like. Sure, yer made ta look like one 'a us Pre-equines, and prutty damn well, ah'd have ta say. But they didn't get it quite right, did they? Because ya reek 'a alicorn, Doctor Twilight, ain't no mistaken it." Mac frowned, his smile slipping away as a grinding sound emanated from the patch in the side of his skull. "Tell me, did Joe know what ya were when he set up this extraction? Oh, horse-apples, what am ah sayin'? of course he knew, how could he not know?"

Twilight looked down at her hooves. Part of her wanted to continue her denials, but a shrewder part of her mind knew that the gig was up, and that there was no point in denying it any further.

"Joe knew," she answered quietly.

"What ah figured. And Miss Dash?"

"Not as far as I'm aware." Twilight stiffened in her seat, every fibre in her being simply screaming at her to shut up. After all, she was sitting directly opposite a genuine alicorn killer, and although Mac looked like her was in bad shape, Twilight knew she wasn't exactly in her physical prime either. "I'm sorry that we've ended up in this position. No deception was intended, I assure you."

"Yer a walkin' deception."                    

"What good would it do for the truth to be revealed? I'm running from alicorns, this cover is the only form of protection I have. Do you think I'm going to walk around advertising what I am?"

Mac paused for a moment, contemplating the information set out in front of him before nodding. "Ah do understand yer situation, but, Doctor, a word of advice." Mac reached for the bottle and began to pour himself and drink. "Let me tell ya about Miss Dash. She weren't always like the way she is. She likes mares, that's her thing. Ah ain't makin' any judgements or nothin', just telling ya how it is. Once upon a time, there was somepony special to her, somepony that she really loved. But that mare... she got sick with somethin' they can't treat down here, or even in Neon Heights."

Macintosh took his now filled glass and leaned back, staring at the brown liquid inside as it rolled about. "But the alicorns? Maybe. They can work wonders up in the Celestial Levels, yerself being livin' proof, Doctor. So 'a course they petitioned, we got channels fer stuff like that down here, and asked the alicorns for consent to see if they'd fix this mare up, make her better. They do that, ya know? Take a couple of deserving cases each year, just like the same way it works on Ascension Day." Mac paused, a solemn yet angered expression on his face.

"Go on," Twilight urged him.

Mac smiled again, but this time his smile seemed more... sad, the flair of laziness about it was gone. Taking a swig of his drink, Mac took a moment to compose his thoughts before continuing. "But the mare, her name was... Fluttershy, she couldn't afford to go all the way up on her own, and neither could anyone else around her." A dark look crossed Mac's face as he paused and finished the rest of his drink. "The alicorns said they couldn't help: they weren't really interested, ah think. They suck out yer soul up there, read yer mind and find out yer secrets, but that's only 'a use to them if yer mind hasn't already been half eaten away."

"So, Fluttershy got worse. Miss Shy's friends tried to find some means 'a gettin' her up there, but by the time they'd scraped enough together, it was already too late. They dosed her up with plenty 'a antizonals, but it just weren't enough, she didn't get any further than Circuit City. Miss Dash was there. Died in her hooves. That's why Miss Dash don't take kindly to alicorns. That's why Miss Dash won't take kindly to you is she finds out." Macintosh was silent for a few moments as he studied Twilights reaction. "So, what do ya thinks' gonna happen now, Doctor Twilight?"    

"I... I have no idea."

"Take a stab at it."

"Perhaps you're going to kill me, or reveal my true nature to Dash, or hoof me over to the authorities, or keep me hostage until you can hoof me over to the alicorns."

"An' get on Joe's bad side? Ah'd have ta have a screw loose ta do that. Joe would end me if ah betrayed him, ah can't deny that. Even if he is a stupid, unimaginative fuck of a unicorn who wouldn't recognise opportunity if it snapped his horn off."

"He's been good to me," Twilight murmured.

"Then we're both in the same boat, aren't we, Doctor Twilight? Both hidin' from somethin', both owin' Joe our lives. Ah'll admit, there are few things ah'd rather do than reach across this table and strangle ya with my bare hooves. But as the old sayin' goes, the enemy of mah enemy is mah friend."

"But there's something you need to understand, Mac. We're not all monsters up in the Levels. I made my enemies purely because I refused to countenance an evil deed."

Mac looked over his shoulder towards the back room, where Dash still seemed to be busy rifling through the ammunition stock pile. "What kinda deed?"

"There was an experimental programme. The stated intention of the operation was to modify alicorns to be able to function under conditions similar to those of the Neon Heights zone. The theory was that we'd be able to artificially engineer a higher degree of resilience to act as a barrier against future zone shifts, so that, should an event similar to a catastrophic zone shift occur, the alicorn race wouldn't face extinction."

"So, the alicorns 're nervous as well."

"About what?"

"The big one. Ah'm sure ya noticed the signs? Ponies round here are gettin' more 'n more jittery by the day."

"It might not happen for a hundred years, or a thousand, even."

"Well, some folks seem ta be thinkin' otherwise. Yer alicorn programme suggests that more than a few in the Celestial Levels have grounds for concern."

Twilight leaned forward in her chair, her voice lowering even as she spoke with more urgency. "That's the point though: the programmes stated objectives were nothing more than another deception. We were sent to Neon Heights to test our ability to survive inside a different zone, with only the simplest medical assistance to support us. Obviously those conditions couldn't be simulated up in the Levels: it had to be done covertly. I understood that, just as I understood that we needed to maintain maximum levels of secrecy at all times. But there was more to it than just a proof of concept. The ultimate purpose of the programme was to design and create an occupying force, a division of zone-tolerant alicorns who would be able to conquer the rest of Canterlot, or at least as far down as Neon Heights. There were four members of the infiltration party, myself included. Two of us didn't know anything about the projects ulterior motives, but when one of us found out... the other two had no choice but to silence her, but by the time they had done so she'd already shared her worries with me They'd have silenced me eventually, but I chose not to give them the opportunity. I killed both of them, using the drugs I'd been given to keep them alive. That's why I'm hiding down here, Macintosh, because I'm not a monster."

"At least yer built for the terrain," Mac said with a shrug.

"It's been a lot easier for me than it must have been for you. But there's something else you need to understand. When they sent me down to Neon Heights they equipped me to live undetected. They suppressed my real memories with psycho-surgery, and replaced them with those of somepony who had been born and raised in the Heights. I've been wearing that mask for nine years now, long enough that it's actually begun to feel like a part of me. I still care about the Celestial Levels, but I also care about Neon Heights, and the rest of Canterlot for that matter. If there really is something big coming, then we should be uniting together, not fostering divisions between our different enclaves."

"An' if ah kill ya, or turn ya in, that's what ah'll be doin', is it?"

"All I know is that the knowledge I carry, at least the knowledge I'm told I carry, could be a force for good, as well as for evil. I really don't care about my own life anymore, existence has long since lost its savour for me. But I do care about Canterlot, and if my continued survival benefits it, then I have a moral obligation to see to it that I remain alive."

"This mare that they killed, the one who got too close to the truth, she wasn't just a colleague, was she?"

"No," Twilight said, shaking her head slowly. "No, she wasn't."

"She have a name?"

"Redheart. That was her cover. I don't remember her real name anymore."

"Ah lost somepony special once. Ta the alicorns, as well. Ah don't know if that means ah should empathise with ya or hate ya even more."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there."

Big Macintosh leaned back, only the wheezing chuff of his life-support systems filling the silence. After a few moments Mac reaches up with his prosthetic hoof and tapped a wooden digit against one of the dials, gauging its reaction. "Ah better put some more wood in the boiler soon, the needles beginin' ta drop."

"Does that mean you've made your decision?"

Dash came back through the door, her trench coat hanging visibly heavier over her small frame. Twilight imagined very one of her pockets to be filled with some implement of bloody death and dismemberment. Somehow she didn't think that the pegasus had lingered overly long on the watches.

"What decision?" She asked, a metallic clinking emerging from her coat with every step she took.

"About when ah should see ya off," Mac said breezily. "Ah was just tellin' the good doctor here how we get the wood for the furnace." Mac's face darkened with an eerie smile. "An' what we send back down in the empty hoppers."

"Right," Dash said, nodding with disinterest. She dropped six clockwork watches loudly on the table, one of them rolling over to Twilight. "So, we're taking the bloody meat-wagon again, are we? I can't tell you just how fucking delighted I am about that!"

Next Chapter: VI: In the Celestial Levels Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 16 Minutes