This is an eerie place left as-is, abandoned from the ancient district, most of the apartment and shops there are deserted. The factories also are desert since decades.

Surprisingly there's still ponies living there, a bit in the margin of the society. Drug dealers, prostitution and all kind of stuff. In fact, most of them acts like they're out of the system, they're just here to get a cheap pony to fuck, or get their dosage of drugs.

Because there, some can really get you anything, the drug dealers works hand in hand with the cops, or Securitron agents. Smuggling all the best shit for the ponies who are more equal than the others.

The place is just as gloomy as the rest. Just a bit more deteriorated. I'm following Alice on some of these old apartment buildings

After climbing some floors, Alice's opening a door.

“...That's my other house. Hi, Amalthea!”

She's making some kind of prayer in front of a unicorn mare toy. No it's not Celestia, but some other pony with a pink star mark on the forehead. Just an ancient pony who, by the legends, liberated the ponies here at least a thousand years ago... The same star that resembles Twilight's Cutie Mark.

I should tell her it's just a toy, but on the other hand, I think I won't. Strange how I could have been a dick but this blank flank has seen too many bad things in her life. I'm not a monster, even bullies like me have some ethics.

“She's protecting this home. Hey, maybe we should eat something!”

“Thanks, I'm not hungry.. I'm rather tired. We should have plans for tomorrow. They'll find out I disappeared and they're already after us.”

Alice's sitting there in the middle of the room, thinking.

“I know it's weird but my place is here, it's dangerous but it's also important. More and more ponies are joining us. If we don't, we lose. You should go back to Equestria, but I feel like I have something to do here."

“Alice... Oh okay I understand completely. You're courageous. Just for this I'd stay with you and stay on your side. "

I'm taking a look at some books, including a geography book that looks rather modern. They got a COMPLETE map of the world, hell even in Equestria we don't have anything like this. I'm starting to realize how far we traveled.

Also she's pretty well documented on magic and everything but I don't think it's a day, for her to feel like discussing about it...

She's sitting on the bed, levitating a photo of that stallion out of a box she kept under the bed, with a few other stuff in it

“He trusted a stupid mare a while ago. They were together, and things didn't end so well. She changed her side, and gave him to the cops... For some credits... to get some drugs, and here's the result.”

She's moving to the kitchen, looking for anything edible.

“I have some oats left ! Perfect !”

The street lights and the red neon of the whorehouse in the other side of the street are the only source of light for the room, is giving Alice some supernatural, ghostly appearance. She's got something that reminds me of Sweetie Belle, must be her eyes. She's crashing on the bed.

“I gotta change my mind... Do you have a favorite band or something ? A favorite author ?”

“Uh... Not really... Not one in particular. Are the neighbors noisy ?”

“The brothel ? It's completely illegal here, but they don't care much about laws, there's rich directors and administrative members willing to give a lot of cash to fillies just to look at them dancing around a pole, or just poke their pussy.”

So young and forced to sell her body to eat, such is the condition of ponies who are on their own here.

“I hate this place but without credits we can't survive or get anything to eat or bribe some easy cops and dealers. That's all the corruption in here that created this.”

“And there's no risk for you like, I mean... You even went there? I mean, often?”

Alice's grinning, she's picking a baseball cap, put it over her horn as a way to dissimulate it.

“Twice! ...Just kidding, whenever I need some a little service, and I need one again. I think I could arrange something for us.”

I'm following her. We're discretely crossing the streets. Heading to the bar, there, all kind of pony prostitutes are shaking their butt on electronic music.

I'm looking around. Discretely in the background we can see some colt giving a horse some blowjob...

“Kinky. This is the kind of thing i imagined, quite unexpected here.”

“This is good to know because the security guys here actually protect you, this is a no rape zone, I heard. More like protecting the few perverts of the high society coming in here to afford their daily or weekly dose.”

I'm giving her a hoof's up for this one.

“Okay this is fine ! Excellent choice Alice !”

There's a tough zebra's standing there, looking at us. She seems to know him well. She's asking when they could replace the dancer for a show. He's looking at me, and nods.

“What exactly do you feel like doing, Alice?”

“Diamond, ... just look and follow me!”

The boss of the bar looks okay with it. she's climbing on the scene, projectors on her, like this. she's getting upside down, exposing her plot to the public. Also, she don't care, no pony knows who she is and she's good at it.

some fatass start throwing money on the scene

The boss (an old stallion with a cigar, and a glass of whiskey) seems to be talking to me with an undecipherable locution, probably no longer have any vocal chords.

“rrrArre you herrre to starrre at herrr like that or do sumthink?”

“Yeah, I think I'll join her.”

I finally climb on the scene, keep admiring the way she moves, her flexibility and everything. do my stuff, anything. climbing on that vertical bar because, why the hell not.

"Did I told you that I'm a terrible dancer?"

I get what the perverts in there wants to see. So I climb at this thing, and slide my vagina against one of these posts. The ponies start throwing their credit bills at me, even that cute colt I saw earlier looks interested to watch as well.

Alice's following me, she's climbing at the same pole, does the same thing as I do, rubbing her vulva against the metal rod, which eventually encounters mine, but motivated by the rabid yelling from our public, we proceed into frotting eachother.

I know she's enjoying it but I also know why she needed to completely change her mind tonight.

I grab her and look into her eyes, caress her. .. she's holding me too, and we're cuddling.

She's climbing down the scene.

“Hey where are we going now?”

I don't even know if I should pick the tips left from other ponies here. She's jumping on a table, performs some mad choregraphy, chaotic movements more or less following the music ; her mane and tail's waving along the lights into strange forms. Around, everypony's watching us

I'm picking a glass on a table and clear it... fuck, that's strong. i thought this zeroth world shithole only allowed fluoride with some aspartame for the taste, but that's nothing like it.

I just imitate or parody her and do the same kind of show we're doing, like a battle, each of us dancing on our own table

“Gimme another like this!”

The barman nods. Alice's looking at me like, "ow this is a challenge"

Alice's coming down , I'm coming at her, strike our bellies against each other's, bump our rumps, get lower on her, and give her pussy a kiss.

She's running back on the scene again where some mare's shaking her crotchboobs... She almost lost her baseball cap, I pick it and join her, throw it on her head

“Heh, I didn't expect that, Diamond..”

“I'm improvising”

No, I must not be flirting.. that's too much, also our cover's been blown up. The buzz we made just turned out differently as ponies started realizing what she was. One of them was like "we should call the police." and some mare responds "you're a cop. Dumbass"

But most of the crowd doesn't seems to care or have noticed, asking for more, and there's another mare coming to collect the cash they're throwing on the scene

“Where did you learn to do that?”

“Always wanted to be a dancer, later I knew a mare who worked here, after my parents were gone she took care of me until last year, when she got incarcerated, and I had to run away.”

I get down from the scene and move on a table.

“Hey Diamond! It's fine, we got what we need. Untraceable credits for the black market.”

The barman brings me a glass

“I should've kicked you two out as soon you came in, but before, I'm offering you two a glass !”

I'm picking the glass and raise it at Alice.

“Let's toast to our new career! Haha ha! Ahem.”

It's paradoxical to know despite being on a machine-like society, there's a place like this, where all kind of weirdos gets their kink and all. Right after us there's a fat pony shaking her flank on the strobes of the scene on speed techno music.
This place depicts all of the hypocrisy of this world. The ideal society, and the background one. Two extremes, and despite the social bullshit, the selfishness of some ponies still remains present. I'm looking at these, they're executives, controllers, cops, communication experts, military. All the higher class, the elite, they're full of drugs, exploiting the poverty of some ponies for some credits.

These higher class ponies ready to report them for illicit extra-professional activity and get them jailed, or throwing a bunch more of credits to have some nice time with a filly or a colt, because they can. Nothing that happens there will appear on a TV screen. And there's a lot of places like this in Industria.

I wish I had a camera. Or an assault rifle.

There's blue gyro lights outside crossing the street, but unlike the usual, that's a police car flying in the air, just before it's crashing on the middle of the road.

“The fuck was that?”

Some hookers and druggies and ponies are rushing inside, scared.

“holy shit! it's war out there!” “Close the door and contact the cops !”

We can hear some repeated shots fired outside

“Is that a monster or something ?”

We're looking through a discrete window offering a view on the street. There's a cop pony levitating, with a typical magic aura around him. I'm looking around, and below him, I recognized her immediately.

It's Nyx, holding him. The cop's shitting his pants as he just discharged his weapon on her, without a single bullet reaching the young alicorn.

She's staring at him, dominating the large and tough pony in uniform despite being much smaller.

“I'm not here for you but if you stay on my path, I will make no distinction between allies and enemies as long you stand against me.” she shouted, before letting the cop fall on the floor.

The barman's picking his rifle, yelling

“Yo, turn off the lights!”

As other ponies screams frantically

"It's a fucking unicorn! Holy shit what just happened? That car just flew in the air!" "She's closing in! SHE'S CLOSING IN WE'RE DEAD, HORSE !"

“HAHA! Look at that, Alice! She's the friend I told you about, it's Nyx, we're saved!”

Alice wasn't listening, and actually looked rather terrified

“I have a very bad feeling, let's run away from here!”

I'm trying to get outside and reach her

“Where are you going? I swear to Celestia I know this filly, they kidnapped her with me and brought her in, she's certainly looking for us, she's ...”

“Diamond No ! I sense a lot of dark energy from her. She's no longer your friend even if she were. We can't stay here !”

Nyx's coming inside the club as the cop's car explodes.

In spite of what just happened, the security/doorkeeper zebra's not moving. Doing his job til the end. “Yo, this is a private club here.”

Nyx ignores him, using a spell, making the big, tough zebra choke to death.

On her forearm, she's wearing an insignia, (a sword circled by a gear). And a headset. Did she steal that uniform from a Securitron guard? Alice insisted that we're hiding behind the bar.

Something really changed in her. She looks weirder than usual, her eyes looks all crazy. I don't like this.

Some horse's picking a table. crashing it on Nyx. There's like a magical shield around her, it's bumping, protecting the alicorn filly.

She's putting it back, picks the head of the stallion and smashes his head against it, bouncing him repeatedly.

“Hello! Can I have your attention please? I'm looking for a young unicorn and a filly. Anyone who co-operates or deliver any information will not get in trouble.”

The barman pony knows his rifle won't do shit to her

“They're gone about ten minutes ago. They picked a cab. What are you going to do now ?”

Some pony's whispering

“fuck you, you're gonna get us killed moron!”

Nyx is walking among the crowd. I'm about to get out and ask what she's doing here but Alice keeps holding me back

there's a drunk cop picking his gun, regaining his spirits

“FUCK THIS SHIT YOU'RE UNDER ARREST, YOU CORNED-CUNT!”

He's discharging his firearm at her, her shield's stopping them all, except one who hit a pony behind her

“STOP OR I SHOOT!”

The foolish horse keeps doing it til he runs out of ammo, Nyx looks obviously immune to these primitive weapons. Lot of unicorns actually master this kind of shielding.

“Your gun's defective, officer. Look closer at the target select switch”

the cop is looking at his gun thinks there's something wrong with it. There, Nyx is using her levitation spell that smashes his face on it on the table, with the gun inside of his head.

She's laughing smiling as ponies are screaming in horror again, most who can are deserting the brothel.

Nyx is capturing one of them, a young colt.

“Come here you! Perhaps you could tell me more about an unicorn and”

Alice looks worried

“She's not gonna stop. She wants me.”

Alice's got enough and decided to stand up.

“Hey you! What do you want? Do you plan to kill everypony in this room? Just stop, if you're looking for me, I'm here!”

Nyx's releasing the colt pony, and the remaining ponies in here realized Alice was a unicorn "I told you that filly was one of them!"

I had to intervene, and I feel dumb.

“Hey Nyx! It's me Diamond, just chill, she's with us ! We're fine, we're here really..."

Alice's standing between Nyx and me “What do you want... Nyx?”

Nyx is looking at us...

“So your name is Darlene Tomska now? I checked your info from the Territorial Information Intelligence Services. Congrats! You're a citizen of Industria now. Celestia should be proud of you...”

“No, Hey! That's not my name and you know it. These losers want to use me as a demonstration for their society, testing brainwashing, but it didn't work!”

“Diamond Tiara... They gave you the same chance to start over, as they did with me. and you're destroying it. Like you did with me. Ponies like you are really... disgusting me.”

"Holy shit, what?"

“I had no other choice, we can go back to Equestria, we'll find a way! Nyx? ...Come on! What have they done to you? We're friends!”

Nyx looks at me like if I insulted her. She looks really pissed.

“Friends? Heheh. HaHAHAHAA! You're the one who wanted to keep me captive in the clutches of Twilight Sparkle! You still do want to take me back to Equestria ? I'm free, now. and owe a lot to this country. And you, I find you..in this place, helping the enemy of our society ?”

This is just tearing my last hopes apart. A pony who's so familiar being now so distant.

I noticed a bottle hidden among others on the bar. This one comes from Applejack's farm. 'Sweet Apple Acres Distilled Cider'

I wonder how much they spent to illegally import it there, but it's surprising.

“Silly filly. This government is murdering unicorns, and pegasus, and they'll do the same to you, really! You, You're being manipulated. Come on and take a seat !”

I filled a glass and enjoy it. That taste's brought me back home already.

“All they want is power, and a total control over the world. And they're using you as their puppet. Go back to reality, Nyx. You're an alicorn, not the servant of their ideology.”

Alice's standing away, and remains silent. Nyx is walking around me.

“No, Darlene you don't get it! They helped me recovering my memory, and I know myself better. I'm not from Equestria. I'm not even from this world. I'm the energy that once was bind to Nightmare Moon, and became an entity of my own. I'm more than an alicorn! I'm a force of nature, and I needed a goal in my life, a purpose. If Discord exist, I'm the opposite.”

She's walking and explains her vision, her ideas

“They helped me reaching and expending all of my potential ! What has Twilight, her friends, Anon or you have done for me? Nothing, because they feared, they hated my true nature ! I don't even need Luna or another alicorn to fuse with. I am one, with this world ! And this world needs order. This won't come from Equestria, neither... This place... Or its enemies.”

Okay, this sounds really like bragging, she's like, repeating a perfect promotional slogan.

“And you still decided to side with this how is it called.... Social, egalitarian regime ?”

“Of course, they needed me. Not you. You helped this filly escaping from the authorities, it's my job now to eliminate this threat. ”

Is she serious ? she's pointing her horn at Alice. I rush in front of her. She's pissed.

“I... I'm giving you one last chance to escape Diamond. Leave her to me and go back to the stable ! You and me, it ends there.”

“I Can't let you do this. If you're so powerful, why are you following the orders of these ponies? Nyx ! How can you, a superior being accept being led by basically; earth ponies? A magic-less society? You should be the leader!”

She's smiling. I see she's charging her energy, yet hesitating. I bet she won't shoot. It's not like I could avoid her. Unless...

“That was my last warning, DARLENE!”

I buck the table behind me, catapulting the bottle of (illegal here) distilled apple cider from Sweet Apple Acres, flying in the air across the bar...

Alice's actually using her magic to correct the trajectory placing it in the middle of her sight. Nyx's attack is hitting the bottle, diffracting the rays in all direction, the quarter second I needed to take cover before it's exploding into a fireball.

That was nothing of course but just enough allowing us to escape from here, jumping over the tables, the couch and everything.

I think she's got temporary blinded, but I feel more guilty for destroying Applejack's hard work. We're rushing by the backdoor, straight into a narrow street full of garbage cans.

There's now helicopters patrolling over the buildings, some are probably broadcasting this to the news channel.

Alice's galloping on my side

“I had no idea what I could do, Diamond”

I noticed a car parked there. I'm breaking its window

“no time to chat we did our best. get in!”

“Hey! Wait I know how to start these... A little bit of magic, et voilà !”

Alice used her magic to start the car, all kind of buttons illuminating like a christmas tree, and we're rushing away on the lane. I'm a terrible driver but at this point I don't care, they're easy to control, just what we needed to leave the district.

Nyx gets out of the night club, looking at two trails of light disappearing on the road. Her radio's screeching infos from the helicopters engaging the pursuit of the vehicle.

“Silly Diamond... You think you can run away from me ?”

On the helicopter, ponies are already tracking us on the road.

“Eagle 04 to Niorun, we localized a service car heading to the speedway A27 southwest sector 304, over”

“I'm on it Eagle 04”

She begins trotting towards the other street, galloping, and using a levitation spell, hovering over the road after Diamond and Alice, towards the motorway.

There's some trucks on the road, I'm maneuvering to avoid them,.

In the car, Alice can feel Nyx's force.

“She's after us”

“I know. If we reach the highway we'll loose her in the traffic.”

“If things went bad, Diamond.. I just want you to know you've done a lot for me... I hope you'll go back to Equestria safely...”

I'm trying to focus on the road, we're distancing from the city. It might be the second or the first time in my life I'm driving a vehicle, especially at such speed.

“Don't say that, we're gonna make it, I promise... I hope.”

“I just... really have a bad feeling, Diamond...”

There's gyros blinking behind us, I need to find an exit as they're closing in.

I'm taking an exit over a gate, a rather empty road, which on top, a roadsign says

[DEAD END]

“what. WHAT ?”

I hit the brakes with my two hooves. The car's gone drifting, hits the gate's wall right before the emptiness, just one wheel out. It's dark down there, lights of cars on many levels of motorways.

“Railroads, metros, buildings, and even roads now aren't complete... SWEET CELESTIA IS THERE ANYTHING EVER FINISHED IN THIS DAMNED COUNTRY?”

The car is just irremediably stuck, as we contemplate police units being deployed on our direction.

The helicopters are closing in, illuminating the whole scene with projectors.

Another one is coming, tracking Nyx, then landing on the other side of the road. Standing in the middle, A squadron of the Securitron is now barring the road behind her. An impressive teamwork, all for us.

She's really on their side, but it's like she wants us two just for herself alone.

Alice's running outside the car, looking for a way to escape from this trap, peeking at the other side.

“Nyx ! I won't let you harm her. Things could be different! She's done nothing to you, wake the fuck up!”

Alice looks depressed

“Mom. Dad. Trey...”

Nyx is slightly levitating, closing to me, looking at me with insanity in her eyes

“Nothing is different, Darlene !”

“I'm not Darlene. I'm not your enemy! Alice isn't your enemy either or a threat at all, come back to earth !”

She's shooting a beam of magic at the car, destroying it more than it is, forcing us to step awyay in the middle of the bridge, closer to the edge

“You, her, and too much ponies are opponents to a greater project. A better world. Nothing has to stand in the path of what we're trying to build, here. Your obsession for Celestia, you're irredeemable.”

I'm trying to win some time with her, so maybe Alice could find a way out, who knows...

“I was wrong finally. If it was not about Twilight's plead to spare you, the alicorns would have killed you years ago! Why are you not doing the same?”

“I'm not Twilight. I don't dream of becoming an alicorn princess. I'm doing my duty here !”

She's shooting a burst of magic between us. Alice is terrified, she knows it's her turn

I don't know if I should step away, or rush on Nyx... Anything but this!

“No Don't do that!”

She shot her. Alice's screaming in pain. as a trail of blood splatters the road

“ALICE!!!”

The unicorn filly's crawling on the concrete, vomiting blood, I'm rushing to rescue her. And once again, Nyx's shooting at her again, not even just to kill her a clean way, but to destroy her alive the most painful way.

There's nothing I could do but contemplate her lifeless body on the road. Screaming my rage uncontrollably at that vision of pure savagery.

Instead, I rush on Nyx and start punching her, attacking her with all my rage, anything I got left in me. I think managed to buck on her face through her magic shield, burning my hooves everytime.

“DIE! FUCKING FILTH! DIE !”

I don't know hat happened. she's levitating me away, bucks me at the edge of the gate. Nyx's nose's bleeding.

“That was pathetic.”

She's bucking me away, I'm bouncing on the road, kind of pissed, how can this small filly be so powerful, that's not right... She threw me on the edge, and I'm seeing everything around me becoming dark. Holding to what I can, the last thing I see is her grin, before I fall down.

Yep she got me. It's like that fall never ends.

Now I want it to end faster as I dive between the gates, the motorways, like a kaleidoscope going darker and darker as I'm falling to my own death.

It's gonna hurt.

Author's Note

..to be continued.