Four Yellow

Chapters

Chapter 1: Rich Manor
Chapter 2: Pick
Chapter 3: Venue
Chapter 5: Bed
Chapter 6: Unicorns
Chapter 7: First Descent
Chapter 8: Diagnosis
Chapter 9: The Horned Mare and the Winged Stallion
Chapter 10: The Only Solution
Chapter 11, Epilogue: The Dance
Chapter 4: Dress Fitting

Chapter 1: Rich Manor

A sweet and almost sickly scent filled the air, blowing across the desert on the hot but rapid breeze. Diamond Tiara’s hooves sank into the moist sand below as she walked through the endless plain of blooms. Colors of every size and shape surrounded her, perched on immense and diverse succulent plants the likes of which had never been seen by any Equestrian naturalist- -or at least any who had lived long enough to record their findings.

Within this alien forest, with its leafless trees and floor more like that of a beach than a desert, Diamond Tiara broke out into laughter. She began to run. Not to anything, nor away from it; her mind was burdened under the weight of happiness that she could almost not bear- -and a happiness that she was distantly aware was not hers.

As she danced alone- -and never alone- -through the plants, she became aware that in the distance, the sun was perched on the empty, unreachable hills of the far beyond. She stopped, and watched as the sky began to change as the sun set, shifting from clear blue to sickly green.

Diamond Tiara’s heart skipped, and she felt the panic starting to flow through her. Unlike the happiness, this emotion truly was hers, and she remembered it well.

Then they came. Diamond Tiara turned around, and saw gray, faceless ponies step forward, their paths unhindered by the cactuses that had suddenly become so much more thorny.

“N- -no!” cried Diamond Tiara, trying to step away from them only to find that they surrounded her on all sides. “Stay away!”

The approaching ponies stopped, but they did not depart. It was unclear if they heard Diamond Tiara, or if they even could hear. They instead surrounded her, a circle of ghostly gray beings. Their faces were impossible to see, but Diamond Tiara could see their mouths. They were speaking, continually whispering.

“What do you want from me?” asked Diamond Tiara. She expected a response, but there was none. “I- -I gave you what you wanted! Why are you still here?”

Their mouths continued to move, all of them speaking directly to Diamond Tiara. Then, all at once, they stopped- -and each unfurled a pair of long, skeletal wings.

Diamond Tiara bolted upright in her bed and immediately regretted it. The sudden motion caused pain to shoot through her skull, a familiar but nonetheless unbearable sensation.

“Buck!” swore Diamond Tiara, reaching for her nightstand. She reached into the small, largely decorative drawer that sat below where her tiara was perched and rummaged through, quickly removing a small and mostly empty bottle of pills. She quickly pulled the foal-safe cap off with her mouth and took several of the capsules. She then backed up against her headboard and rubbed her forehead, waiting for the pain to depart.

The headaches were not new. Diamond Tiara had been living them for six years. They did not happen often, but they occurred often enough to be noticeable. Sometimes they were accompanied by other symptoms. Sometimes there were voices, and sometimes there were dreams. Diamond Tiara had just learned to deal with the pain and live with it.

In the past few months, though, the headaches had increased greatly in frequency. Diamond Tiara attributed the uptick to stress, especially considering the upcoming events.

She sighed and leaned back, looking down at the bed that she slept in. It had been far too large for her as a filly, and it was still to uselessly large for her as a young mare. Everything the Rich’s owned seemed to be. Even her bedroom itself was excessive, an enormous room with expensive paintings that she did not like and expensive fine furniture that she never used. It was so big and so clean that it made her sick to look at it. Sick and lonely.

Celestia’s sunlight was pouring in through the windows, indicating that Diamond Tiara had slept in. Not that it mattered especially much. She just did not particularly like the brightness, especially when she woke up with another migraine.

Eventually, the pain started to dull and Diamond Tiara was able to crawl out of bed. She picked up her characteristic and required headgear and threaded it through her long bicolor mane. As she did, she took note of the fact that the stripe of gray in her hair was beginning to widen.”

“Well,” she said, “at least I’m not Silver Spoon.”

While Straightening her hair, Diamond Tiara made a mental list of what she needed to do on that particular day. Her heart momentarily skipped with excitement and nervousness when she remembered what she was supposed to do later. She made a mental note to take a bath later, ideally with unscented soap.

First, though, was breakfast. Diamond Tiara understood the implications of that- -nothing for a Rich was as simple as “just breakfast”- -but knew that she would have to risk it. If she recalled correctly, Silver Spoon had sent over some scones that were probably waiting in the mansion’s brand-new RichTech icebox. Diamond Tiara just hoped that this time the scones would not be dangerously irradiated.

Diamond Tiara pulled herself off her stool and pushed open the large oaked doors to her room- -which, with a combination of stain and pretentious carving, somehow still managed to look tacky despite their price- -and immediately came face-to-face with one of the maids.

“Oh! Mistress Tiara!” she cried, the linens she was carrying nearly dropping out of her magic as it momentarily faltered. “I was not aware that you were up! If I had, I would have had your clothes prepared.”

“No clothes today,” said Diamond Tiara groggily. “Hey, do we have any of that unscented shampoo?”

“Unscented? If the scent isn’t what you like- -”

“Never mind. I’ll find it myself.” Diamond Tiara wracked her brain trying to remember that particular unicorn maid’s name. “That will be all…Blueberry?”

Blueberry’s eyes widened with joy that Diamond Tiara had actually remembered her name.” Thank you, Mistress Tiara! And when you’re ready, just let one of us know and we can have the bath poured and ready to go!”

“Thanks,” muttered Diamond Tiara. She knew that Blueberry was just doing her job; Rich maids were chosen specifically for being perky and, ideally, at least slightly unattractive. Diamond Tiara had just always found the idea of maids strange and unpleasant, especially since her father required them to wear a certain highly specific uniform. Diamond Tiara herself much preferred drones, but her mother hated them and, as such, did not permit them in the Rich’s Ponyville manor.

The maid went back to her business as Diamond Tiara slowly made her way to the breakfast room through the oversized, overly ornate hallway. It was, as always, completely empty and bordered with closed doors that led to empty but immaculately clean rooms filled with more expensive furniture and fine things that nopony would ever use.

Diamond Tiara suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to ask if her mother had already gotten up. Despite the size of the Rich mansion, avoiding Spoiled Rich was surprisingly difficult. Diamond Tiara did not want to have to talk to her if she could avoid it, especially on this day.

Ahead of her, she spied another servant. This one, oddly, was male. That struck Diamond Tiara as slightly odd; usually, the only male staff were the “butlers”- -really more of bodyguards- -the gardening crew, and an oddly large number of pool colts. This particular butler was an unusually tall unicorn.

“Hey!” called Diamond Tiara. “You there!”

He looked at her with a pair of unusually light eyes, and then turned away, walking quickly down a side hallway.

“I know you saw me!” yelled Diamond Tiara. She broke into a trot after him, but by the time she reached the intersection that he had gone down, she could find no trace of him. The hallways around her were quite long, so Diamond Tiara assumed that he must have broken into a full sprint the moment he saw her. That was unusual- -for her, at least. The help usually only did that when they saw Spoiled Rich approaching. Especially the pool colts. “What the hay,” she said under her breath, feeling a sudden jolt of pain in her head. “What kind of help is Spoiled hiring these days?”

Since the formal dining rooms were generally reserved for hosting, Diamond Tiara elected to dine in a smaller region of the ground floor that was immediately adjacent to the kitchen, a kind of miniature restaurant with a bar and several stylish tables also meant for hosting but much less of an ordeal to eat at.

Diamond Tiara sat on one of the vinyl stools at the bar, nibbling on a scone . It was berry flavored, and she could almost taste Silver Spoon in it. The coffee, meanwhile, was not so good. Silver Spoon knew exactly how to make it, and when the Rich servants tried, they just ended up making it bitter and overly hot.

The servants may not have made good coffee, but they understood Diamond Tiara’s habits well. When she arrived, there was already a copy of the morning paper waiting for her. She quickly turned to the business section to check the stocks. Rich Industries was not publicly traded, so there was no information on it, but it paid to examine the competitors. After checking that, Diamond Tiara would read the main articles in the business section concerning new policies, then cross-reference with the front section to try to predict potential trends. It always took longer, but her private portfolio could attest to the fact that it was more than worth it.

Before she had barely gotten through the list of new incorporations, though, a set of loud hoofsteps brought Diamond Tiara’s attention to the door. She groaned, hoping that it was her father- -but turned to see her mother, as expected.

Spoiled Rich was dressed in a robe and looked up at Diamond Tiara, her teal eyes barely able to summon enough energy to produce a disapproving stare. She appeared disheveled; her hair was unbrushed, her coat looked pale, and from the bags under her eyes, it was apparent that Spoiled had not gotten much sleep.

“You want something to eat, Spoiled?”

Spoiled Rich put her hoof to her mouth and suppressed a retch at the thought of food. “Where are those servants,” she said, her voice cracking from just having woken up.

“Right here,” said a dull-red mare. She bounded out of the kitchen with a tray with a large glass of some kind of unpleasant looking green fluid and a body of pink liquid, which was of course Pony-Bismol.

“You look terrible,” noted Diamond Tiara.

“Well that makes two of us,” growled Spoiled, pouring part of the Pony-Bismol into her grass shake and sipping at it. “It’s the fertility treatments…ohhh…that, and the lack of sleep.”

“I noticed,” said Diamond Tiara. “Remind me to get some earplugs the next time I go to town. I don’t see why you’re putting yourself through this, Spoiled.”

“I’m your mother. Can’t you just call me ‘mother’ like a normal girl? And you know quite well why I’m doing this.”

“I’ll call you ‘mother’ the day you start acting like one. But aren’t you a little- -”

“Don’t you dare say old!” Spoiled slammed her hoof onto the table, causing her drink to shake and herself to become nauseous. “I’m not old!”

“Well,” said Diamond Tiara, already knowing how that conversation would go- -and had gone before. “It’s just that daddy is almost ready to retire. Don’t you think it’s a little late in the game to be dealing with a foal?”

“I’m just doing what I have to,” snapped Spoiled. “If Filthy wants to retire, he’s going to need an heir to take on the company. And since you clearly can’t have a proper son, that means it’s up to me.”

“I’m eighteen. I will have a foal- -a son or a daughter- -when I’m ready.”

“It’s not a matter of timing, Diamond Tiara. It’s a matter of with WHAT.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes narrowed. “Oh. So that’s what this is about. Here we go.”

“Don’t you take that tone with ME. Especially not- -” Spoiled Rich clapped her hooves over her mouth and waited out the sudden surge of nausea. When it passed, she glared up at Diamond Tiara. “We’ve given you everything, Diamond Tiara, and this is how you repay us?”

“I’m not having this conversation, Spoiled. It’s too early.”

“I’ve even gone out of my way to find you a proper husband. The list of stallions prestigious enough to enter our family and sire our heir is not large.” She sighed. “I’ll never understand why you didn’t take to that Blueblood…”

“Um, because he’s twice my age? And going BALD? And a vain, conceited narcissist who treats everypony else like sunbaked road apples. No wonder you like him, come to think of it.”

“Yes, but he’s a PRINCE.”

“Don’t you hate unicorns anyway?”

Spoiled groaned and threw her head back. “Diamond Tiara, you’re almost a mare now, and you STILL don’t get it. It’s the same reason why all of our servants are unicorns. The point is to claim one of their best, to take all that status and glory and take it for yourself.”

“And if you’re ‘heir’ were born as a unicorn?”

“Well, there are certain procedures to correct…cosmetic deformities.”

“You would certainly know a lot about that.”

“You should defiantly consider some yourself. Some liposuction…no, more than some. You’ll never get a husband being that fat.”

Diamond Tiara ignored that last comment. She was not especially fat- -but there was no way she could ever be thin enough or pretty enough for her mother. It had taken Diamond Tiara years to realize that neither of those things mattered especially much, but by the time she had, her relationship with Spoiled Rich had been damaged beyond repair.

Setting down the paper, Diamond Tiara jumped down from the stool and went behind the bar. She reached toward the bottom and removed a bottle of amber fluid. She set it on the counter.

“Still hitting the cider, I see,” said Spoiled. “You certainly are a disappointment.”

“It’s apple juice,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “I’ve been off the cider for two years now. Not that you ever noticed. Or cared either way.”

“Well, the sugar is terrible for your hips. But hey,” she shrugged. “It’s not like you can get much worse than you are now. So, by all means, just be an uncultured slob.”

“You first.” Diamond Tiara pulled the cap off the bottle and took a long sip. It was sweet and refreshing.

“You should at least consider ONE real pony,” said Spoiled. “When I was your age, I already had lists of stallions and their earning potential. I used to lay them out and dream about which one I would marry…” she smiled nostalgically, and then frowned at Diamond Tiara. “And the Pony Prom is coming up. You could invite one of them to go with you. Although, then again, I doubt any truly qualified pony would want to associate with the commoners who will be in attendance.”

“Those ‘commoners’ are my friends,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “And I know the Prom is coming up. I’ve been heading the planning committee. For six MONTHS. And, just so you know, I already have a date.”

Spoiled’s eyes widened. “You didn’t- -”

“I did. And he’s coming today.”

“Diamond, you can’t, if they see you- -and him- -”

“They’ll what? Realize that Equestria’s premier technology company doesn’t actually have an R&D department? That maybe we had HELP getting this wealthy?”

“We don’t need HELP! We got this far because your father’s prudent business decisions and my ability to navigate the social landscape! And if you bring that- -that THING - -”

“This isn’t open for discussion.”

“It is if you’re ruining your life! If you do that- -we’ll throw you out! We can’t associate with a pony that would- -would- -”

Diamond Tiara smirked. “And I’ll just go to daddy, and he’ll let me right back in.”

Spoiled Rich’s natural shade of pink darkened several shades into a shade of light red, and Diamond Tiara jumped down from her stool. “And just so you know, I’ll be spending the next few days in our old house in town.”

“You mean the guest house? But you CAN’T! You’re not a guest! What would they say? And isn’t that where that filthy urchin is staying? You know how much I disapprove of you associating with her!”

Diamond Tiara cringed, and tried to prevent herself from yelling at her “mother”. “You used to love Silver Spoon. She was like a sister to me- -you loved her more than you loved ME!”

“That was when she was at our level in society. Now…”

“It isn’t her fault!”

“No, it was her parents. And she is a product of that unfortunate pairing.” Spoiled tsk-tsked condescendingly. “That’s a problem with old money, Diamond Tiara. When you’ve never had to work for your money, you tend to squander it.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s any less of a pony!”

“Yes. Yes it does. Much less of a pony.”

“No! Not to me. She’s my best friend, and she always will be. No matter how much money she has or doesn’t have.”

Spoiled Rich’s eyes narrowed. “I hope your coltfriend gets her pregnant.”

“Well at least she’d BE ABLE TO!”

Spoiled gaped, and then gasped and sputtered before finally just glaring at Diamond Tiara, who glared back at her. The glaring continued until Filthy Rich entered the room, his hair already slicked back and an extremely satisfied expression on his face. He looked at his wife, and then at his daughter and, still oblivious, continued to smile.

“Is something happening?” he asked cheerfully.

“I was just leaving,” said Diamond Tiara.

“Yes,” hissed Spoiled. “She most certainly was.”

“Oh. Already? I thought we could have breakfast together. We could have eggs. Even if they’re not very fresh anymore.” Spoiled Rich immediately turned her glare on him, and he backed away nervously, not understanding what he had said to offend her.

“Sorry, daddy. I don’t have time. I have a lot to do today.”

“Oh. Okay.” Filthy looked somewhat dejected and took a seat at the table where his wife was sitting- -as far away from her as possible.

“Don’t worry. We can have dinner later in the week.” Diamond Tiara narrowed her eyes on her mother’s. “I’ll even be bringing a guest.”

“You little daughter of a- -”

“You?” Diamond Tiara smirked, hiding her seething rage, and then turned toward the door, compulsively flicking her tail at her mother. These conversations were the reason why she despised Spoiled sometimes. Diamond Tiara knew it was wrong to hate her own mother, and on some level- -an especially deep level- -she actually did care for her, even if the feeling was not reciprocated. Every time they were in the same room, though, things went downhill quickly.

Diamond Tiara took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Her headache had, oddly, decreased greatly. At the same time, her desire for cider had increased. There was no time for feeling angry, though. There was much to be done.

Chapter 2: Pick

Orange and amber leafs rustled in the trees as the autumn breeze passed through them, carrying several from the branches where they had spent their entire lives down to the moist and waiting ground below. Diamond Tiara pulled up the collar of her jacket against the chill of the changing seasons. The traditional Running of the Leafs would begin soon, but until then, the leafs had been for the most part allowed to remain on the trees, their rich shades of yellow, orange and red acting as one last tribute to nature before the onset of winter.

It was already beginning to grow cooler, and the days were growing shorter. The sometimes stiff breeze brought with it the moist smell of the leafs, the strangely sweet scent of freshly harvested straw, and of course the smell of the year’s last apple harvest. This season was always so beautiful- -and for some reason, it always made Diamond Tiara so very sad.

“It’s already starting to get dark,” said Silver Spoon, pulling up her scarf until it was almost over her mouth and marveling at the sky overhead.

“There’s still a few hours left,” said Diamond Tiara, picking up her pace slightly while still being careful to avoid the muddy patches on the path.

“I don’t know why he wanted us to come all the way out here. But I’m kind of glad. I love this time of year.”

“Of course you would. You’re an autumn. You actually match. I just end up looking like a weird pink splotch.” Diamond Tiara sighed. She was pretty sure she knew the reason they were out here, but gave the one that their mutual friend had given instead. “He gave some math reason. Blabbered for most of a scroll about it. I probably still have it. You’d probably like that sort of weird smarty thing.”

“It probably has to do with the interdimensional lay lines. My guess would be he still hasn’t figured out how to come in parallel and has to avoid the castle.”

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. “Trying to grow a horn, Silver?”

“I wish.” Silver Spoon looked up at the leaves and smiled. She, like Diamond Tiara, had grown in the past years. She was now- -to Diamond Tiara’s unending chagrin- -the slightly taller of the two. Her mane had also been substantially shortened, her fillyhood braids forgone for a more utilitarian bob. She still wore glasses, though, and a necklace consisting of a single pearl- -her very last, its brothers all having been sold years before out of necessity.

Silver Spoon giggled excitedly, and for just a moment Diamond Tiara thought she saw the filly that she had once been. “I haven’t seen him in years,” she said, smiling widely and trotting to catch up with Diamond Tiara. “We used to spend every summer together…until your parents stopped inviting me…”

“He’s missed you. A lot. To the point where I actually started to get…you know…a little jealous.”

“Jealous? Of me?” Silver Spoon laughed, and Diamond Tiara frowned. She actually had been starting to become envious of Silver Spoon- -on some level, she supposed she always had been- -and did not like her admission being dismissed so lightly.

Silver Spoon’s expression fell, and directed her eyes downward, as if she were examining the thick roots of the ancient trees that bordered the well-packed path. “I know you want to ask me. It’s okay.”

“If you don’t want to talk about it- -”

“No, it’s okay. Mom’s apparently living with some rich sculptor twice her age, trying to ‘find hersef’. And dad…we don’t know. Nobody does. But there’s a rumor that I have a half-zebra brother somewhere in Prance.”

“And they haven’t written to you?”

“Not at all. It’s like I never even existed to them.” She shrugged. “So what else is new?”

“Well,” said Diamond Tiara, stopping and looking slightly up at her best friend. “That makes them huge, fat, silver-colored jerks, doesn’t it?”

Silver Spoon smiled. “Yeah. They really are, aren’t they?” She sighed, and the pair started walking again. The path was growing rockier, and the trees were growing increasingly large and thick. “I guess I was always just an inconvenience to them. But to be honest, I’ve always been jealous of you.”

“Me?” Diamond Tiara’s mind instinctively went to the place it always went. “Because I have money?”

“Money? No. Of course not. Why would you even say that? It’s because you always had two parents who actually cared.”

“I have a dad who was always too busy to actually pay me any attention and a pink sack of- -”

“Spoiled really does care about you, Diamond. She’s just really, really, really, really, apocalyptically bad at it.”

“You do realize she’s trying to replace me, right?”

“Replace you? With what?”

“Don’t you dare say a pig! She’s trying to have a son.”

“A son? Isn’t she, like, fifty something? Why would she want to put herself through all that?”

“Because apparently she doesn’t trust in my ‘ability to produce an heir’ for the company I should be inheriting.”

“So you aren’t actually producing your own heir, right?”

“No, of course no…” Diamond Tiara paused and her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute…are you saying I look pregnant?”

Silver Spoon’s face scrunched. “No.”

“Good. Because I’m not pregnant, and I’m not fat, and I DON’T LOOK LIKE MY MOTHER!”

“Um…I didn’t say that last one.”

“But you were thinking it!”

“Oh, look at the time,” said Silver Spoon, looking down at her foreleg. “Shouldn’t we…um…you know…”

“You don’t have a watch, Silver.” Diamond Tiara looked down the path. It was barely past noon, but the shadows of the Everfree were already starting to elongate. She did not want to be out here at night- -but more importantly, she was even more excited than Silver Spoon was. More excited, and far more nervous.

The scroll that Diamond Tiara had been sent had a set of coordinates inscribed beneath the prodigious amount of excited mathematical gobbledygook that explained why this particular set of coordinates was required. Diamond Tiara understood the coordinates slightly, but eventually had to rely on Silver Spoon to fully decipher them- -both the numbers themselves as well as the truly horrendous hoofwriting of a begin that had clearly never held a quill before but insisted on trying to do so instead of sending a data-cog like a normal pony.

The coordinates led to a swampy clearing. It smelled disgusting, and Diamond Tiara shied away from the bubbling muck.

“Eew…it’s so wet,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

“That’s what he said,” said Silver Spoon, leaping playfully between the mossy hillocks emerging from the bog below.

“He did not!” protested Diamond Tiara.

“Relax,” said Silver Spoon, taken aback by Diamond Tiara’s sudden outburst. “I was joking.”

“Oh. Well…so was I.” Diamond Tiara sat down in a mossy but relatively dry area and crossed her forelegs in a harrumph. She was not angry at the joke so much but at the fact that aside from being taller, thinner, and prettier, Silver Spoon was also more athletic than her- -and did not even seem to notice. Diamond Tiara knew that Silver Spoon was her friend and that those thoughts were petty, but she could not help it. The lessons her mother had taught her in fillyhood were difficult to erase.

“So,” said Silver Spoon, standing atop the tallest of the squishy, hollow mounds that dotted the bubbling peat below. “When’s he getting here?”

Diamond Tiara barely had time to shrug when a tremendous burst of white light filled the clearing, nearly blinding her. The air seemed to vibrate and then shifted outward in a resounding explosion.

“Whoa!” cried Silver Spoon, rearing up on her hind legs as she lost her balance, spinning her forelegs.

“Silver Spoon!” shouted Diamond Tiara, standing up but moving too slow. Silver Spoon fell over- -and landed directly on top of one of the two ponies that had appeared spontaneously in the clearing.

“Gah!” cried a clearly male but slightly distorted- -and unusually high- -voice. “Something’s on me something’s ON ME! And it’s…oddly soft…”

“Hey, Pick,” said Silver Spoon.

“Silver?” said Diamond Pick. “Did I say soft? I totally meant ‘firm’ and ‘well-muscled’. Eight out of ten would eat.” He poked her flank again. “Actually…this would make a pretty nice rump roast…”

“Ahem,” coughed Diamond Tiara.

“Diamond!” cried Pick- -which sounded odd and ridiculous, considering how they both had the same first name- -jumping to the side and allowing Silver Spoon to fall toward the muck below before she was caught by his much larger companion. “I’m so happy to see you! You look…slightly less firm. But in a good way!”

“And you are almost the same size as a normal pony now. Well, a normal filly.”

Pick glared up at her. There was really no way to tell; his respirator mask was mostly featureless save for the manifold system at the bottom and the two optic ports on either side. He actually had grown somewhat since the last time Diamond Tiara had seen him, but because of his build, it was impossible for him to ever LOOK large. Unlike a normal pony, his body was vertically flattened, giving his legs an almost insect-like appearance. His head, likewise, protruded forward from his body instead of sitting above it as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s- -or really, any pony’s- -did.

Still, he was large enough with the frayed, moth-eaten robes he wore over his much better maintained protective environment suit gave at least part of the impression that he was vaguely shaped like a non-morlock.

“Whoa,” said Silver Spoon, looking up at the “pony” that was now holding her. “When did you get your own drone?!”

Diamond Tiara gave the machine a cursory look. It resembled a traditional pony- -which was odd, considering that it was built by morlocks- -but taller, its body coated in thick but heavily worn anodized metal. Its silvery face was mostly devoid of expression, save for a pair of characteristic dull red and perpetually disapproving glass-like eyes. It looked pretty much identical to the morlock drones that Diamond Tiara had become accustomed to.

“Ever since my sister finally decided to part with one,” said Pick, pulling a long cable out of the drone’s front chest port that connected its core to the circular dial imbedded in the front of his armor. “You have no idea how long it took me to convince her that I needed one…I mean, I may be a complete genius, but I still need auxiliary processing power for the long-range teleports.”

Diamond Tiara eyed him, and he looked away. “Pick, how many tries did it take you to get here?”

“Just two. The first time I ended up somewhere…else. I’m pretty sure the surface-goats there were ACTUALLY goats. And they were not happy. They said mean things to me.”

“I would really think you’d be used to it by now,” said Silver, allowing the mute metal pony to place her gently on another hillock. “Considering, well, you know. HER.”

“What are you talking about? I’m the best fillyfriend that somepony like HIM could ever have.”

“You’re probably the ONLY fillyfriend he could ever have.”

“Hey! That’s not true! Just last week my parents were talking about arranging a marriage for me!”

Diamond Tiara’s heart skipped, and Silver Spoon seemed to notice. “With who?” she asked.

“With…well…with my sister.”’

“EEEEWWW!”

“They didn’t talk about it for very long! And that’s perfectly acceptable in morlock culture! Sometimes! Well, no, not sometimes, but…” He sighed. “My family is weird like that. Frankly, if my sister had asked them to, they probably would have force me into it. I think she’s gunning for at least an eighth-tier prince, though.” He looked up at Diamond Tiara. “And, also frankly, my sister is butt-ugly. You are marginally better looking.”

“You’re not.”

“Wow. I’ve forgotten how much I missed you.” He jumped awkwardly out of the swampy area and hugged Diamond Tiara. It was awkward- -his hugs always were, due to the difference in their body layout- -but the thermal elements of his suit felt warm and he smelled strongly of cinnamon. Diamond Tiara had forgotten how much she missed him, and she just wanted to keep holding on.

“Can I have hugs too?” asked Silver Spoon.

Diamond Pick looked up at Diamond Tiara. She considered for a moment, and then nodded. “One hug. But keep your hooves off the rump roast.”

“Ah, yes. Still preserving the best cuts for yourself, I see.”

Pick and Silver Spoon hugged- -something even more awkward to watch, considering their more substantial difference in height. They then disconnected and Pick looked around.

“I’ve got my parent’s guest house for the next few weeks,” said Diamond Tiara. “Silver’s already been living their while she…manages things. But I’ve already had a space set up for you.”

“Assuming you’ll want to use the separate space,” said Silver Spoon, nudging Pick. Diamond Tiara knew him well enough to know that he was awkwardly blushing under his mask.

“We might have a problem with that, though,” said Diamond Tiara, looking up at the mining drone. “I mean, I know what a drone is. Silver knows what a drone is. You probably do. But RichTech hasn’t even come close to trying to get your family to sell us any, let alone bringing them to market. It’s going to freak some ponies out.”

“I’m not a complete idiot,” said Pick. “Check this out.” He lifted his hoof and turned an element on the dial on his chest. The drone responded, and facets of its body opened to reveal its cube-shaped core. Its surface then seemed to distort, and an image rapidly formed around. The image resolved in color and shape rapidly, and Diamond Tiara found herself facing either an extremely large and disapproving stallion or an extremely large and disapproving but very butch mare.

“See?” he said. “Just like the last time I came, but way bigger. And clearer.”

“Wait,” said Silver Spoon. “You came to Ponyville? When did that happen?”

“Seriously? How could you forget that? We took that baking class, remember? We made a cake, and then found out that sugar makes morlocks extremely ill?”

“It serves you right,” said Diamond Tiara. “After that morlock food you fed me…”

“You definitely enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, until you told me what was in it!”

“What was in it?”

“You don’t want to know,” said Diamond Tiara and Diamond Pick simultaneously.

“Oh wait…I remember that! Yeah, that was when Applebloom was having that whole ‘crisis of faith’ thing. That was you?”

“Yes! Wait- -how did you know that wasn’t me? My early projections weren’t that good. So you thought- -” He finally noticed that the corners of Silver Spoon’s mouth were quivering as she suppressed laughter and realized what Diamond Tiara had already known. “Oh. Very funny.”

“You’re not very bright,” noted Diamond Tiara.

“I’m brighter than the two of you taped together. And shoved in a lantern, I suppose.”

“Weird fantasies much, Pick?” She looked up at the drone, and then at Pick. “Speaking of weird, aren’t you going to change?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he shouldn’t have to,” said Diamond Tiara. “He’s a pony, just like us. He shouldn’t have to hide who he is.”

“Diamond…” said Pick, somewhat surprised.

“If anypony has a problem with you, they can take it up with me.”

“Thank you.”

“We’ve known each other for, what six years now? You’re not a bad pony. Plus, you’re my date for the Pony Prom. Unless you’ve got cold hooves?”

“No, my hooves are quite thermally sufficient. In fact…I’m really excited to dance with you, Diamond.”

“Aww,” said Silver Spoon. “This is so darn cute…and kind of weird, actually.”

“Trust me, you’ll be getting a dance too, Silver.”

“Um…it might be hard considering, you know, the height difference.”

“Not with him. With me.”

“Oh,” said Silver Spoon, her eyes widening. “Oh my.” She giggled slightly, and Diamond Tiara smiled- -only to suddenly reach for her head as powerful pang of pain rain through her brow.

“BUCK!” she cried.

“Diamond!” cried Pick, rushing to her side.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“You’re still getting the headaches?”

“It’s just the stress,” said Diamond Tiara, waving him away. “Ow…hurts like crazy, though.” She groaned and ignored the pain. “I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “We should get back before it gets dark. Tomorrow we have to…” A genuine grin crossed her face despite the pain in her head as devious and terrible thought came to her mind. “Heh heh…oh yeah. We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”

Chapter 3: Venue

High in the mountains, a white unicorn reclined in the shade of an ancient hemlock tree. Ostentatiously, she was reading a book, but had she been asked about its subject, she would have been unable to give a proper response. Her attention was far too heavily devoted to the view before her: across from the grove of the trees and a narrow mountain road, all of Equestria seemed to stretch out beneath the Canterlot Mountains, the leaves of its countless millions of trees ablaze with color. It was breathtaking, the scope of its color and beauty so grand that the unicorn barely even felt the brisk chill of the high mountain air. She found herself humming a tune, and after a few moments set the book down and produced a pad from one of her bags to record the notes that the scenic view had inspired.

Time passed quickly, and when she finally heard the sound of a pony approaching the isolated area, she looked up to find her notepad compressed almost solidly with notation and annotation that would no doubt take hours to actually decipher.

“Sweetie Belle!” called a familiar voice.

“Over here!” Sweetie Belle put her pad into one of her pockets and stood up from the shade of her chosen tree. She stepped out onto the worn road that bordered the rather sheer drop down the mountainside. Down the path, a red-maned earth pony was approaching. She was pale and thin, dressed in clothing that was perhaps too excessive for the relatively moderate chill in the air- -but she was still smiling broadly.

“A’m sorry I took so long,” she said. “You know how the fall season is. And we had an applesauce leak, and it took me an’ Applejack all morning to get it plugged. Don’t think the barn is ever gonna smell quite the same way again.”

“I’m surprised you managed to come at all. You look good.”

Applebloom smiled heartily, and her nearly luminescent green eyes seemed slightly less tired. “Yeah. Ah’ve been workin’ with Zecora. A few modifications to the redox formula, and now the medicine doesn’t make me sick anymore. Or as sick, at least.” Her smile became slightly more forced as she became more uncomfortable. Despite her pride in her potionmaking abilities, this subject was not one that Applebloom liked to talk about. She instead turned toward the road. “Oh golly, would you look at that view!” She approached the rusted metal rail and looked down. “Hey! I can see my house from here!”

Sweetie Belle smiled. As they had grown older, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had tended to take different paths. They did not spend as much time together as they used to, and Sweetie Belle missed it.

“Yeah,” she said, leaning against the rail with Applebloom. “I wish I brought some binoculars or something. Or even some of those weird little opera glasses that Rarity has way to many of.”

“I had no idea we were this high!”

“Well, Canterlot’s only a few miles that way. We’re about as up as we can get.” Sweetie Belle looked down at Ponyville below. It was a little bit larger than it had been when they were younger; there had been more developments around the sparkling crystal castle that had come to dominate its landscape, as well as several new developments, farms, and of course the Rich’s new and oversized McMansion pretentiously set on a hill on the distant outskirts. “I’ve got to wonder. We’re so high up and so far away, we can see all of it. Everything and everypony. But they can’t see us at all. They don’t even know we’re here, watching. It kind of gives you chills, doesn’t it?”

“The only thing that’s givin’ me chills is the chills,” said Applebloom, bundling her jacket around her. She looked around. “Hey, where’s Scootaloo? She wasn’t on the train, so I assumed she got here early with you.”

“I walked from Canterlot. I think she said something about taking the ‘scenic route’.”

“Scenic route?” Applebloom looked perplexed. She pointed out at the awe-inspiring view. “Well, there’s the scenic,” she then pointed at the cracked and eroded path that they were standing on. “And I guess that’s the route. Wait, so she’s going to actually use the old horse path? She’s going to walk ALL the way up THAT?”

“Unless she climbs,” said Sweetie Belle, her eyes widening as she looked down the rocky cliff. That was an absurd thought, but knowing Scootaloo, she would probably try it.

Then, almost on cue, a distant thrumming sound filled the air. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, confused by what exactly could be making such a sound in a relatively rural area with no ponies around.

The sound appeared to be growing closer, echoing off the stone and trees of surrounding area, and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom eventually found themselves turning their heads to look down the road. As the sound grew louder, a vehicle suddenly appeared around one of the bends: a two-wheeled device with more tubing and exposed metal than Applebloom’s family still, its machinery humming and complaining as it pulled the orange Pegasus atop it higher up the hill.

The vehicle approached quickly- -almost recklessly- -and then came to a sudden stop. The spinning and whirring magical device that allowed the vehicle to move cut and slowed to a stop, but as it did, a valve on one of the sides burst open, pouring a hissing cloud of acrid steam into the air.

The rider jumped off and fanned the coolant leak, her heavy swearing fortunately muffled beneath her helmet. She tried her best to intervene, turning valves and adjusting the complicated and sometimes dicey looking machinery until the steam slowed to a dull squeak of hot gas.

Satisfied with the result, Scootaloo stood and removed her helmet. The resulting smell of hair dye was so strong that it forced Sweetie Belle and Appleboom to both take a step back.

“Wow. That’s a statement,” said Sweetie Belle as Scootaloo’s long, rainbow-dyed hair fell out of her helmet.

“What, the mane? Yeah, I know.” Scootaloo put her hoof through it proudly. “It makes me at least twenty percent more awesome.”

Applebloom looked down at the vehicle. “You came up here. All the way up here. On THAT?”

Scootaloo smiled proudly, a smile which quickly became a frown as the coolant fizzled and popped loudly. “Of course. I was getting pretty good speed, too. Still need to work on the cooling, though. It doesn’t like to go uphill.”

“I’m surprised it goes at all,” said Sweetie Belle. “And I’m surprised that even you got onto it. And where did you even get the money for a magic engine?”

“This baby is the sum product of all of those hard summers in the weather factory,” said Scootaloo, patting the vehicle. “It took all of my rainbow money, but it was totally worth it.”

Applebloom eyed the motorcycle distrustfully. “I don’ like it. Horseless carriages, they just aren’t natural. Perversions of nature.”

“Neither is my hair color. But that doesn’t keep me from being the third sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, after this machine itself and Rainbow Dash.” She set her helmet on the handlebars of the vehicle. “So. Why am I here?”

“So you don’t actually know,” sighed Sweetie Belle.

“I can’t pay attention to EVERY detail,” protested Scootaloo.

“We’re here for that,” said Sweetie Belle, pointing to a path that led off into the thickly treed hills from the old road. “Diamond Tiara’s checking out ANOTHER venue for the Pony Prom, and she asked me if we could take a look at it.”

“Why us?” said Applebloom. “Can’t she look at it herself?”

“She says she’s busy,” shrugged Sweetie Belle. “And I’m okay with that. I mean, we’re supposed to help ponies in need, aren’t we?”

“That doesn’t mean we have to do Diamond Tiara’s dirty work.”

“She is our friend,” said Scootaloo. “I mean, she’s helped us out loads of times. She even got me a sweet deal on my cooling system.” As if to punctuate the statement, the broken valve on Scootaloo’s motorcycle released one more strong plume of gas.

“I know it isn’t a pleasant job,” said Sweetie Belle. “But how hard can it be? And we hardly get to spend any time together anymore. After the Prom, I’m going off to college, Scootaloo’s going to work full time, and you’re going to be working at Sweet Apple Acres all the time. I didn’t think one last adventure would hurt.”

Applebloom’s frown slowly converted to a smile. “It isn’t going to be our last, Sweetie Belle. We’re still the Cutie Mark Crusaders, no matter what.”

“Yeah,” said Scootaloo. “Assuming my rotary core doesn’t overheat on the way back down…then you’ll be out a Scootaloo…”

The other two laughed- -apparently thinking that Scootaloo was joking- -and then started for the dark, tree-lined pathway.

“So, what is this place anyway?” asked Scootaloo, looking up at the oversized and strangely threatening trees, their green needles standing in unnerving defiance to the autumn around them.

“Some old mansion, I think,” said Sweetie Belle. “There’s a bunch of them out here. It’s where the rich ponies used to live back when Canterlot was all temples and stuff. Most of them are just ruins now.”

“That’s kind of creepy,” said Applebloom. “Everypony just left? Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess fashion just changed, and everypony wanted to live in the city instead of way out here.”

“You would know about fashion,” said Scootaloo, somewhat sarcastically gesturing toward Sweetie Belle’s elaborate black dress.

“You can’t be Rarity’s sister and not be fashionable. Just like you can’t be Applejack’s sister and not be into apples. Or Rainbow Dash’s sister and not be…you.”

“I’m just saying, it’s a weird choice.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged it off. She liked dressing in black.

The trio continued up the path, and the trees just seemed to keep getting larger. Within a few minutes, the curving of the drive made it impossible to see the street. They were now virtually in the center of a hemlock forest, surrounded by dark trunks and tall trees that swayed slowly and ominously in the mountain wind. All three of them were becoming more nervous, especially with how silent it suddenly was.

“So,” said Applebloom, falling into step with Sweetie Belle. “You both are going to the Prom, right?”

“Of course,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Any idea of who you’re bringing?”

Sweetie Belle blushed slightly. “Who are YOU going to bring, Applebloom?”

“Well I’m not entirely sure…”

“Not sure?! The dance is barely two weeks away! How can you be ‘not sure’?”

“You know how it is. It’s almost impahssible to find somepony in Equestria who isn’t one of mah cousins. Although…” Applebloom giggled slightly. “Tender Taps is leading the list right now.”

“Taps?” said Scootaloo. “Seriously? You do realize he’s basically the dude version of me, right?”

“Yeah, appearance wise, he doesn’t score high,” joked Applebloom. “But he’s sweet. A lot of ponies won’t even get near me anymore, but when he found out I was sick, he actually gave me a hug.”

“Aww.”

“What about you? Don’t dodge the question this time. Inquahring minds want to know.”

Sweetie Belle sighed. “I don’t know either. I’ve gotten so many requests.”

“Must be tough.”

“I’m not trying to brag, but, you know. White unicorn. Every colt and probably about half the fillies want to take me.”

“So which is it?” asked Scootaloo. “Colt or filly?”

“I don’t know. I could go either way at this point…maybe I can do one of each. I’m pretty sure Button would be up for that…” Sweetie Belle blushed again and realized that she was saying more than she had wanted to. “And- -er- -Scootaloo, you’re in pretty high demand yourself, who- -”

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Um…what?”

“You know you’re kind of supposed to take a real date to the dance. It’s trahdition.”

“I don’t care. It has to be Rainbow Dash. Oh Celestia…if Rainbow Dash were a stallion, I would want to have all his pony babies for him. Is it normal to feel that way?”

“No.”

“Defiantly not.”

“You’re a pervert.”

“Oh,” said Scootaloo, somewhat disheartened. “Well…I’m still taking Rainbow Dash. She’s already agreed to it. We’re even getting matching dresses. This Pony Prom isn’t going to know what hit it!”

“You know,” said Sweetie Belle. “Diamond Tiara’s the one who sent us out here and whose putting the whole thing together. Do you think she has a date?”

“What do you think?” said Scootaloo, as though the answer were obvious. “Even after she mellowed out when we were fillies, I have NEVER seen a colt even try to take her on a date. And she doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Ahctually,” said Applebloom. “Silver Spoon was helping out with the fall harvest, and we got to talking. Apparently, Diamond Tiara has a coltfriend.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stopped, nearly tripping over each other. “Wait, what? HER? I mean, HER?”

“That was pretty much my reaction, too. Silver didn’t say much, just that he was some foreigner. There fahmilies have some business together or something. Diamond Tiara’s apparently been real excited about the whole thing.”

“But- -she’s DIAMOND TIARA,” said Scootaloo, still unable to process this news. “I mean, I always figured she’s get with Silver Spoon eventually, but…”

“Well, she’s gotten a lot nicer over the years,” suggested Sweetie Belle.

“Mah family has a saying. You can’t pick up a road apple by the clean end. That and you can’t polish one neither, but that doesn’t apply here, at least I don’t think so.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes narrowed. Of the three of them, she was the one who had grown to tolerate Diamond Tiara the best. She was also beginning to become more nervous in the dark forest now that they were stopped. Something seemed to be moving between the trees, but Sweetie Belle could never lock onto it. It was either too fast or too dark to be seen clearly, but she knew it was there.

“She’s our friend, Applebloom,” she said, somewhat harshly, walking quickly to try to get the group moving again.

Applebloom looked somewhat hurt, and then ashamed. “Yeah, I’m sorry. But she’s just so…uppity. And arrogant. And temperamental. And just plain mean, even if she is trying to be nice.”

“And she always wears that tiara,” said Scootaloo. “You know, I’ve always wondered if she takes it off when she sleeps.”

“She can be a bit…abrasive. But she’s trying,” said Sweetie Belle, her eyes wandering through the trees and just barely catching a glimpse of something large skittering silently through the underbrush. She momentarily had a desire to run right back the way she came, but Applebloom and Scootaloo- -both of whom were more perceptive and athletic than she was- -did not seem to notice or care. Sweetie Belle did not want to worry them, so she just kept walking.

“Hey,” said Scootaloo, her rainbow-dyed mane and tail blowing in the wind while she was gleefully oblivious to whatever was moving around them. “You’ll never guess what I found under my crawlspace the other day…”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders- -though mostly Scootaloo, because her reckless abandon tended to lead to more misadventures- -continued to trade stories, lightening the mood as they made their way toward their destination. Sweetie Belle laughed several times, and she did feel happy- -but she could not shake the feeling that they were being watched. Applebloom seemed to be picking up on it too, continually casting her green eyes toward the trees and sniffing the air fruitlessly. Scootaloo, of course, was oblivious, as often tended to be the case.

When they finally reached their destination, Scootaloo was telling yet another story of something she had eaten recently- -an actually interesting subject, considering that many of the things she put in her mouth were only on the borderline of being classified as food. Sweetie Belle momentarily paused, feeling herself growing even colder in the autumn wind. The building itself was in good shape, even surprisingly good shape, and surrounded by formal gardens that, though overgrown, still maintained their general shape. There was nothing especially frightening about the building itself; in fact, it was architecturally stunning, a prime example of turn-of-the century design.

What made it strange was just how dark it seemed to be. Sweetie Belle was even sure that, for just a moment, she saw the outline of a pony move quickly behind one of its windows.

“Wait, Diamond Tiara wants to have the Prom HERE?” said Scootaloo, looking up at it.

“It certainly looks…big,” said Applebloom.

“I don’t like this,” said Scootaloo, seeming to become conscious of the disconerning nature of the location all at once. “We should go.”

Applebloom blinked, and then picked up Scootaloo’s rainbow-dyed tail and inspected the ground behind her.

“WHOA! Hey, what are you doing?!”

“Checkin’ for the eggs.”

“Eggs? Pegasi don’t lay eggs…I think…”

“No, but chickens do.”

Scootaloo frowned. “Oh, ha ha. It’s not like I haven’t heard that one. Every. Single. Day.”

“It’s just ah house,” said Applebloom, trotting toward the large door surrounded by marble columns. “Ah live in one. How bad can it be?”

Applebloom lifted her hoof to push on the door, and it swung open on its own.

“It can be that bad,” squeaked Sweetie Belle.

“It’s just the wind,” said Applebloom. “Come on, it’s not like we’re gonna find the Olden Pony in there or something.”

“You just had to say that,” whined Scootaloo. “You just HAD to say that…”

Applebloom laughed, and then walked into the darkness of the old building. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other, and then ran after their friend.

“Wow, it’s dark in here,” said Applebloom. “Sweetie Belle?”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” Sweetie Belle focused her mind and charged her horn. It ignited with clear blue light, flooding the room with illumination and long, sharp shadows.

“Wow,” said Applebloom, looking up at the dusty but otherwise grand front hallway. “This place is darn fancy, isn’t it?”

“No,” said Scootaloo. “It’s dark, and cold, and there’s an Olden Pony in here.”

“Actually, I think this place would be pretty cool,” said Sweetie Belle. “I mean, with this big front room, I’d feel like I’m at the Grand Galloping Gala instead of a harvest dance.”

“What are we supposed to do in here, anyway?” said Scootaloo. “I just want to get it done and get out.”

“I dunno,” said Applebloom. “I guess she just wanted us to take a look around, see if everything’s in good condition and all.” She turned back toward Sweetie Belle, and both her friends winced at the unnerving fact that in the dark, Applebloom’s eyes really were luminescent. “Come on, let’s see if they have a ballroom!”

Applebloom trotted excitedly off, and Sweetie Belle- -as the light source- -trotted to keep up. Applebloom seemed excited, and Scootaloo seemed reluctant, but Sweetie Belle was just glad to not be outside where whatever was following them was.

The house was pretty standard for its era in terms of layout: a large front room with stairways that led to the second floor, and a large open area on the bottom, both of which led into a long system of straight corridors that likely formed a large square around an outdoor courtyard. The rocky topography of the mountains shifted the shape a little bit, skewing the layers toward one side, but Sweetie Belle was pretty sure she could guess where the ballroom and dining rooms were on the far side. They were as far away as possible from the front- -a substantial architectural faux pas, actually- -but that really did not matter much for a dance. What mattered was that Applebloom seemed insistent on trekking through the entire abandoned mansion to reach the other side.

As they made their way through the long halls, the feeling of being watched returned to Sweetie Belle. The large wooden halls seemed to tighten around her, amplifying her unfounded terror and causing her light to flicker just slightly.

Then a sound permeated the air. Scootaloo jumped and cried out, even though the sound was not intrinsically threatening. It sounded like a cricket or cicada, a kind of long chirp or buzz- -except much louder. That made it unnerving and strange, the fact that it was impossible to recognize exactly what kind of thing was making that sound or where it was coming from.

Then, all at once, it cut out.

“What…was that?” asked Applebloom, suddenly much more cautious.

“I don’t know,” said Sweetie Belle, restoring her light to full strength and immediately noticing that Scootaloo was abnormally pale, her eyes wide and focused down the hall toward where they had come from.

“Do you think…it had something to do…with…that?” She pointed a shaking hoof down the long corridor.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom turned slowly, and Sweetie Belle felt her breathing stop just as her heart started to pound through her chest. A figure was lurking far at the end of the hall. Not an apparition or a shape- -but a definite silhouette of a pony, standing just beyond where her light could reach. The only part of it that was clear were a pair of reflective, silver eyes.

“Um…hello?” called Sweetie Belle, trying to sound brave. “Do…do you need any help?”

The figure did not respond, but nor did it depart. It seemed to sway slightly as it took a step forward.

“This- -this is private property!” cried Scootaloo.

“It’s probably his private property,” suggested Applebloom, taking a step back as the figure seemed to move closer.

“Not helping!” hissed Scootaloo.

“Are you…are you lost?” asked Sweetie Belle. “If you could just step into the light, we can…”

Sweetie Belle trailed off, realizing the mistake she had just made. Even though she could only see its silhouette, she could tell that it was not shaped like a normal pony. Something was wrong with it, some kind of disease. She did not really want to know what it looked like beneath those shadows.

The figure’s head tilted slightly, its silver eyes glimmering in the bluish light. Then, with a sudden cicada-like scream, it burst forward, rushing unnaturally quickly across the ground toward them.

Sweetie Belle turned and ran, her friends beside her. Scootaloo was crying, and her tiny, useless atrophied wings were buzzing wildly, unable to lift the weight of her body. Applebloom, likewise, was sprinting ahead in complete defiance of her degenerative illness.

There had not been much of a chance for Sweetie Belle to see the monster, but she had gotten a glimpse of it just as it entered her light. She saw the tiny silver eyes, and a mouth full of long, pointed teeth chomping at the air, hungering for the flesh of fillies. It was definitely not a pony, and it did not move like a pony. Worst of all, though, it was much, much faster.

Screaming, the trio of ponies dashed down the hall, Scootaloo leading the way. Being the less athletic of the three, Sweetie Belle was stuck behind the others, and she could feel the monster approaching, its hoof steps growing louder. She could feel its breath and see the devilish orange glow of its chitinous body as it came toward her. Her mind was filled with the thought of those enormous, needle-like teeth, and she could not help herself from expecting it to sink them into her flank and pull her down before coming after her best friends.

A sudden flash of white light filled the hall, and with a small electric-like explosion, the creature appeared in front of them. Its long, pointed teeth, blank, staring eyes, and sickly green skin were apparent to all three of them now. It hissed loudly, spreading a pair of wings from beneath the decaying rags it wore for clothing.

“In here!” cried Applebloom, pulling Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle into a side room. Sweetie Belle looked around and tried to grab the door, but she was too slow. Something heavy and warm landed on her from behind, and she screamed as she felt hooves clawing at her body.

“No! Let go!” she cried, charging her horn and trying to repel it. Her own magic was already weak, but in her terrified state, she should have been able to do something. Instead, the magic seemed to slip, as though she could not fully get a grip on the creature.

Sweetie Belle found herself turned over, and the monster’s face came within inches of hers, its enormous jaws opening wide toward her face and its silver eyes glinting wildly from just beyond the corners of its gaping maw. It reeked heavily of cinnamon, and Sweetie Belle wondered if that would be the last thing she ever smelled.

“No you DON’T!” cried Applebloom. A pair of pale yellow rear hooves immediately struck the creature in the side of the head and its tiny eyes widened. The force of the kick sent it sprawling across the floor, giving Sweetie Belle a chance to clamor away.

“Ow! My face!” it cried in an oddly non-treatening, almos squeaky voice. “My beautiful face! Why does everypony ALWAYS go for the FACE?!”

“Wait,” said Applebloom, the tension filling the room immediately dissipating. “You can tahlk?”

Before the creature was able to answer, a sound of muffled laughter filled the room. Familiar laughter.

A closet on the far end of the room burst open and two ponies spilled out. One immediately fell to the floor in a fit of hilarity.

“Diamond Tiara!” cried Sweetie Belle.

“You- -you should have seen your FACES!” wheezed Diamond Tiara, rolling on the dusty wooden floor in complete disregard for her inevitably perfect pink coat. “You were TERRIFIED! I’m surprised you didn’t PEE YOURSELFS!”

“The symmetric did,” said the monster, rubbing his head. Silver Spoon ran to his side.

“Pick, are you okay?”

“No I’m not okay, I just got kicked in the head.” A small white cloud of magic surrounded one of his teeth, emanating from a circular device in his chest plate- -which Sweetie Belle now saw was not chitinous skin but actually some kind of dark-colored armor. The tooth immediately came out, and his eyes widened.

Diamond Tiara continued to laugh, and Sweetie Belle felt herself seething with rage. Diamond Tiara had put them through a lot, especially when they were younger, but for the first time Sweetie Belle was actually considering hitting her. That is, until Scootaloo burst out laughing.

“Oh wow!” she cried. “I thought- -I thought we were going to DIE! That’s HILARIOUS!”

“Hilarious?!” cried Sweetie Belle. “How is this possibly funny?!”

“Come on, Sweetie Belle, it’s a prank! She got us good! Celestia- -this was even better than when Rainbow Dash put those snakes in my pillowcase!”

“I peed myself!”

Scootaloo serioused slightly. “Right. Right. Diamond Tiara, we are very, very disappointed…in…in…” her mouth began to waver, and her eyes began to water- -and then she broke out laughing again.

Sweetie Belle turned to Applebloom, looking to her more levelheaded friend for support. Applebloom, though, seemed somewhat ambivalent. She was much more focused on the creature who was now standing next to Silver Spoon.

“What, exactly, are you?” she asked.

“An idiot, apparently,” he said. “I don’t know why I put up with this…”

“Because you love me and would do anything I ask,” said Diamond Tiara, crossing the room and passing him a helmet that matched his armor.

“Thanks,” he said, taking the device in his magic and putting it over his head. It meshed perfectly with the edges of his armor, and there was a slight hiss as it reconnected, fully obscuring his pointed but now retracted teeth and dull green coat. “The things I’ve smelled…” He pointed at Scootaloo. “You need to take WAY more showers.” He turned his metal-clad hoof toward Sweetie Belle. “And just because perfume is on sale doesn’t mean you should buy GALLONS.”

“Hey! My perfume isn’t cheap!”

“Well, compared to Diamond Tiara’s,” said Silver Spoon, rolling her eyes.

“If it’s not cheap, you overpaid. Badly. Seriously, vanilla? VANILLA?” he feigned gagging and turned to Applebloom. “And you…you just smell like wood. Which is weird.”

Scootaloo immediately stopped laughing, and her and Sweetie Belle looked at each other. Even Diamond Tiara seemed to realize how awkward the situation had just become.

“Pick…”

“No, it’s okay,” said Applebloom. “It’s not like anypony in Ponyville doesn’t already know. I have lauralanthropy.”

“Laurel- -” Pick turned toward Diamond Tiara. “A laurelanthrope- -you made me chase a LAURELANTHROPE through this place?! The symmetric was bad enough, but HER?! And you didn’t think to WARN ME?!”

“It isn’t contagious,” said Applebloom. “You don’t have to- -”

“I’m not a moron, I know how laurelanthropy works. Putting you under all that stress- -I could have driven you into the acute phase! If I survived, I’d feel terrible for doing that to you. I’m truly sorry.”

“Acute phase?” said Applebloom. “What’s that?”

“You don’t- -no. You don’t want to know. But it’s not something you come back from.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Because wood from a werewoad is the rarest and most prized form of wood of Geoterra. Lord Niobus’s dial uses laurelanthrope heartwood at its core. In ancient times, my kind used to hunt yours when they went into the acute phase,” he said, turning back to Applebloom. “It’s more humane that way.”

“I’m sorry,” said Diamond Tiara, quickly, turning to Applebloom. “I didn’t know- -I didn’t want anypony to get hurt.”

“Aside from me,” muttered Pick.

“You’re a big tough stallion. Well, not exactly big, but I don’t have to worry about you.” She looked back at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “I mean, you guys are my friends. Maybe I’m still not good at this whole friendship thing…”

“Nopony got hurt,” said Applebloom. “If anything, it gets us back for what we pulled on you on Nightmare Night.”

“I still have bad dreams about that,” said Silver Spoon, shivering.

“That one was hilarious too,” said Scootaloo. “And I heard Fluttershy’s managed to find at least sixty percent of the centipedes since then. But this was a real Celestia.”

“Celestia?” asked Diamond Tiara, confused.

“Because it really takes the cake!”

They all burst out laughing at that comment, save for Pick, who seemed to have no conception of who Celestia was. Even Sweetie Belle cracked a smile.

When the laughter died down, Diamond Tiara assumed that introductions were in order. “These three are the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” she said, explaining their identities to Pick. “Applebloom on the right, Scootaloo with the…er…interesting mane color.”

“I think it looks really nice,” noted Silver Spoon. “If it makes you feel any better, Diamond Tiara dyes- -”

“AND the ‘symmetric’ is Sweetie Belle.”

“Symmetric?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“It’s what he calls unicorns,” whispered Silver Spoon.

“Which is because ‘uni-corn’ is a stupid name for your race. No part of you is made of corn. ‘Monohorn’ would be more appropriate, but my dial translates the word for the deformity on your head as ‘symmetric’.”

“Deformity? Did you just call my horn a deformity?”

“Of course I- -no, wait, I…” he looked at Diamond Tiara. “You were right, they are exorbitantly sensitive, aren’t they?”

“And your friend there?” asked Applebloom.

“Diamond Pick,” said Diamond Tiara. “A fillyhood friend, son of my family’s primary business partner and…well…my Pony Prom date.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ eyes all widened simultaneously.

“That?” said Scootaloo. “THAT is you coltfriend? Seriously?”

“And what’s wrong with that?” protested Diamond Tiara.

“Nothing,” said Applebloom. “It’s just that…well…is he even a pony?”

“Yes,” said Pick. “Yes I am, thank you very much.”

“How does your mother…you know…feel about this?” asked Sweetie Belle, being the most knowledgeable of the three about that particular part of Diamond Tiara’s life.

“She’s not happy,” said Silver Spoon.

“Spoiled will never be happy. Not until I’m some sort of model-hot mare like Sweetie Belle or you. And it isn’t my job to make her happy.”

“But Spoiled loves me,” protested Pick. “Because I’m adorable.”

“Wait, you think I’m...er… ‘model-hot’?” said Sweetie Bell, embarrassed.

“You are,” said Silver Spoon. “Actually, if you don’t have a date for the Prom…”

“Silver, focus,” said Diamond Tiara.

“Right, right,” she said, somewhat absently.

“Despite how it may seem,” said Diamond Tiara. “I didn’t ask you all up here to scare you.”

“Really?” said Sweetie Belle sarcastically.

“No. Of course not. This is actually the venue I want to use for the Prom.”

“Seriously? This place? It’s all and old!”

“It’s large, grand, and on the Canterlot historical buildings registry. It’s also a bargain for its size, which frees up a big part of the budget for the decorations.”

“A budget that your father is paying for?”

“Just because I secured some…ahem…additional funds doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use them wisely. This isn’t going to be some barn hoe-down. No offense, Applebloom.”

“It only offends me that you would think that offends me.”

“I want it to be formal, elegant, PERFECT. I don’t half-flank things.”

“Do you think we can get it cleaned up that fast?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Of course. Daddy knows a lot of cleaners, and they do good work. Really good work. They’ll have this place up and running in a week. But that’s why I asked you three here.” Diamond Tiara looked up at the group that consisted of almost all of her friends. “Applebloom, you’re the handiest pony I know. This place is historical, but it’s old. Is it too much to ask you to take a look? You don’t have to fix anything, but, you know, just make a note if anything’s really bad.”

“I’m sick, not dead,” said Applebloom. “Ahd be happy to help.”

“And Sweetie Belle, I was hoping that you could perform. I mean, if you want to. I’d hate to make you work on Prom night, but you’re kind of famous in Ponyville.”

“You mean sing? Really?”

“Just one number, if that’s- -”

“Have you seen my cutie mark? I bucking love singing. I’d be glad to. But I’ll have to check the acoustics, the performing area…which I guess is why you called me here, right?”

Diamond Tiara smiled and nodded.

“What about me?” asked Scootaloo. “I know! You want me to make this party AWESOME! Because, you know, as Rainbow Dash’s sister, that’s what I do!”

“Roof,” said Diamond Tiara. She nodded to Silver Spoon, who gave Scootaloo a spade. “The shingles here are real bad. Go strip them.”
“You mean…up on the roof? This place has like, four stories, you know that, right?”
“Don’t worry, Pick will be going with you.”

“Wait, I will?”

“You realize that neither of us can fly, right?”

“I can fly,” said Pick.

All of the ponies turned to him.

“Um…what?”

“Since when can you fly?” demanded Diamond Tiara.

“Since last year. It’s just…really awkward. Morlocks are burrowers, not flyers.”

“Can anypony else here fly?” said Scootaloo after a long moment of pause. “Just so I know?”

“I can,” said Silver Spoon.

“No you can’t,” said Diamond Tiara. She turned back to the group. “Thanks, guys. Everypony’s so busy getting ready, nopony wanted to come all the way out here to help me. I’m sorry for scaring you. Six years, and I’m still not one hundred percent on this whole ‘not being a little batch’ thing.”

“It’s okay,” said Applebloom. “We’re here to help. And I’m sorry I bucked your coltfriend.”

Silver Spoon and Scootaloo both snorted at the innuendo, and Diamond Tiara glared at Silver Spoon.

“That translated badly,” said Pick, turning the dial in the chestplate of his armor. “Could one of you explain the humorous implication? Because I don’t get it.”

“I will. Later,” said Diamond Tiara. “Once we’re back home.”

Diamond Tiara sat alone in a dusty but well-made chair at the venue’s long formal dining table. Through the large windows of the room, it was possible to see that the sun was starting to set behind the now still hemlocks outside, igniting the sky with crimson light. It was beautiful, but the fact that it had come so early in the shortening season made Diamond Tiara even more rushed and more frantic. She had forgotten to bring a crystal lantern, and did not want to have to review her notes while using Sweetie Belle as a lamp.

Strewn about the table were various documents relating to the Prom. What was concerning Diamond Tiara at this particular moment was the guest list. The venue was perfect for what she wanted, but while examining it, she had determined that the dining room was wholly inappropriate. Now, as the sun was setting, she was rushing to try to factor in a way that she could change it from one grand table to a number of smaller ones, accounting for all the ponies who would be attending including both her classmates and their dates.

The math only exacerbated Diamond Tiara’s weariness. She was already loaded down with pain medication, but her headache had been growing steadily for the last two hours. She had intended to finish reviewing the mansion by mid-afternoon, and then take her friends to Canterlot for a late lunch and to discuss their thoughts on decoration. That had not happened, though, for several reasons, the least of which was Scootaloo falling off the roof- -multiple times. Diamond Tiara had not eaten anything aside from the snacks Silver Spoon had packed her all day, and she was beginning to feel the effect of the prolonged hunger.

Diamond Tiara groaned and put her head down on the table. “Why does being perfect have to be so hard?”

There was, of course, no response- -all of her friends were at distant locations in the house. As far as Diamond Tiara knew, Silver Spoon, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle had moved on to check the gardens while Pick and Scootaloo hopefully were managing to remain on the roof.

For a moment, Diamond Tiara’s headache spiked. She winced, and then picked up her head. Almost as soon as she did, she saw a tall and silent figure drift past the open door to the dining room. It seemed to stop, and Diamond Tiara sensed that it looked at her- -before it quickly vanished.

Diamond Tiara felt her blood run cold. The pain in her skull suddenly increased drastically, and she cried out. She reached up to her forehead and for just a moment thought she felt something there aside from her tiara. Something metal. She moved her hoof in a panic, but found that there was nothing there except for her beautiful pink- -and admittedly mildly porcine- -complexion.

Still, she stood up and walked to the door. Far down the long, straight hallway, she could a glimpse of the figure watching before it vanished around a corner. Like before, it was not clear in the dim light. Diamond Tiara could tell that it was a pony, but not much beyond that.

“Come on, guys,” she said, walking slowly down the corridor. “I get that I might have crossed the line a little with that joke, but I apologized.”

There was no response, apart from something like distant hoofteps and an odd buzz, like the kind a broken crystal lantern might sometimes make.

“And, really,” said Diamond Tiara, getting more annoyed. “Playing the same trick that I just did? Are you really that dumb?” She paused. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. Just come out.”

There was still no response, and Diamond Tiara felt herself slowing. Something felt wrong. There was almost no light in the hall, but not for lack of windows. Somehow, the sky outside had suddenly grown black without Diamond Tiara noticing. The air, likewise, had grown cold and strange. She heard the wind buffeting the house, but through the windows, saw that the hemlocks- -their needles somehow looking dark red in the dim twilight- -did not sway.

“This isn’t funny,” said Diamond Tiara, feeling her voice crack awkwardly. Unable to stop herself, she started following the trail of the figure. As she walked down the hall, Diamond Tiara noticed just how dirty it truly was. Before, it had just seemed mildly disused. Now, though, the edges of the hallway seemed to be littered with thick dust, faded and decayed trash, and fragments of stone.

“Hello?” she said, turning the corner where the figure had gone. She was now entering a part of the mansion where she had somehow never been before- -which made no sense. She had checked it several times well before the Cutie Mark Crusaders had arrived, and gone through with Sweetie Belle just a few hours before. Yet, somehow, she found herself in a new hallway.

Her sense of disease grew. This hallway was different from the others. It was dirtier, and larger, and somehow seemed so much older. The rock fragments that had littered the edges of the other hall had been replaced with much larger pieces, blocks of some strange pale stone that appeared to have been cut and carved by pony hooves long ago only to be abandoned. The air had grown damp, and Diamond Tiara smelled moss and something metallic.

“Hel…hello?” she said, edging down the slope of the hallway. “Pick, is that you? Don’t you dare try to scare me, Pick. It won’t work. I’ve seen you naked. You’re ugly, but not THAT ugly. I- -”

Diamond Tiara cried out as the figure suddenly passed within inches of her, somehow riding quickly from behind. It moved silently, and from its size, Diamond Tiara could tell that it was most definitely not Pick.

Instead of getting a clear view, though, her headache suddenly overcame her, causing her to cry out and back away both in pain and in the shock of having a pony somehow materialize out of nowhere beside her. The buzzing sound in her mind grew louder, but this time, it was followed with something else. A dull hissing that thrummed and shifted, resolving into something very similar to voices.

“No!” cried Diamond Tiara, forcing her eyes open against the pain. “You’re not going to get away from me that easily!”

She galloped ahead, jumping over the decayed tile and rotting wood of the hall, pursuing the tall figure as it drifted almost silently ahead of her. It was making noise, now, but Diamond Tiara could not hear exactly what. There was something like hoofsteps, and something like language, but both of them felt more imagined than real.

Then there was a sudden snap, like a small explosion. Diamond Tiara jumped and slid to a stop, barely avoiding falling out an open window. She looked around, confused. The sound, apparently, had been from the unsecured window frame slamming shut in the wind. Looking out the window, though, Diamond Tiara saw that she was on the second floor of the house- -when before, she had been on the first.

Behind her, the hallway was now different. It was one she definitely recognized, and though dusty, there was no debris on the floor. Nor was that branch of the hallway more than ten feet long, when before it had seemed to go for miles.

“What the…what in Luna’s name?” said Diamond Tiara, rubbing her head. The pain had mostly subsided, replaced with a dull ache that was pleasurable in comparison to the migraine of before. “What the buck just happened?”

She looked around, still trying to grasp how she had gotten to the next floor, when she saw something. She reached down and picked up a small object from the floor: a feather. At first, she thought that it could only mean that Scootaloo was the culprit- -until the dim light of the setting sun revealed that the feather was a deep salmon in color. Scootaloo was orange, and did not even have pink in her gaudy dyed mane. Likewise, this feather was far too long to have come from her puny, flightless wings.

For a moment, Diamond Tiara wondered if it could have come from Pick, but quickly dismissed that idea. Although he did indeed have wings, she had spent quite a bit of time inspecting them and knew that they were more of calcified plates than actual flight appendages. He had no feathers, and most definitely not pinkish ones.

“I must be hungrier than I thought,” said Diamond Tiara, dropping the long feather and looking out the open window. Then she turned to go back to where she had been, and almost ran directly into Diamond Pick.

“Gah!” he cried in surprise. Almost as soon as he called out, his wings extended and he took off, buzzing into the ceiling and several walls, crying out in panic the whole time.

“Pick- -what- -calm down! Stop that!”

“Do you think this is VOLUNTARY!” he yelled, bumping off the ceiling before finally landing on his back and spiraling for a moment before stopping. He stood up quickly, trying to straighten his wings and disguise what had just happened. “Don’t just stand in the dark like that! I mean, those EYES! I thought I was about to die!”

“What’s wrong with my eyes?”

“Only the fact that they’re so large that they no doubt consume most of your brain case.” Pick stood tall- -comparatively; he was not much taller than Diamond Tiara- -and tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

Diamond Tiara eyed him for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “You- -you fly like a cockroach!”

“I do not!” squeaked Pick, taken aback by the comparison. “It- -it’s an instinctive reaction! You startled me!”

“Oh wow- -at least you fly better than Scootaloo!”

“You have no idea how embarrassing this is!” said Pick, pulling off his mask and looking up at Diamond Tiara. He was blushing. “It’s bad enough thinking about you makes me chirp, now this- -”

“Wait,” said Diamond Tiara. “You chirp when you think about me?”

Pick blushed even harder. “No.” He was silent for barely two seconds when is wings immediately vibrated, releasing a stifled, cricket-like chirp.

Diamond Tiara smiled, blushing somewhat herself. “Well. I guess it makes sense. I mean, look at me.”

“That’s kind of causing the problem.”

Diamond Tiara laughed and poked Pick in the arm. “Hey, if I had wings, they’d probably chirp for you too.”

“Female morlocks don’t do that…but…I appreciate the thought.”

“So, is the roof done?”

“As done as it is going to get. I don’t know what a ‘Rainbow Dash’ is, but if I have to hear one more story about it I will throw the Scootaloo off the roof a third time. I don’t know why I couldn’t just use the drone for it.”

“Because you’re supposed to make friends. That, and because I want you to be at least as muscular as Silver Spoon. Some exercise wouldn’t hurt, you know.”

“Try to keep your expectations realistic, Diamond.” His silver eyes glinted across the room, finally coming to rest on the window. “Wow. That’s a nice view, isn’t it.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara. “I guess it is.”

Without any prompting, the two of them sat down at the edge of the window and stared out at the final moments of the sunset, where the brightness of the sun faded and the horizon momentarily became a dull but massive rainbow. They stayed so long that Luna’s moon began to rise, and the stars became apparent. Pick watched them in awe; having spent most of his life underground, the sky always amazed him. Eventually he leaned against Diamond Tiara. The thermal units in his suit felt warm against the cold night air, and Diamond Tiara leaned back.

Diamond Tiara could not focus on the view, though, nor on the colt who she had come to care for. Instead, she could not remove her gaze from the single salmon colored feather lying on the floor beside them.

Chapter 5: Bed

Lying on her back, Diamond Tiara stared up at the ceiling above her bed. Nothing about it was unordinary or strange; in fact, it was the same ceiling that she had spent so many sleepless nights staring up at, wondering just what exactly the next day might bring.

Everything had been fine. That whole day, apart from the incident at the boutique, everything had been ordinary. The streets of Ponyville had been filled with happy, cheerful ponies. There had been mares and stallions shopping in town for the freshest of fall produce, colts and fillies jumping into piles of leaves knocked loose by the wind, and foals swaddled in ridiculously overstuffed coats as a protection against the chill of the season. Everything had been bright and sunny and happy- -but Diamond Tiara had still jumped at the sight of every unicorn, waiting for that one freakishly tall one to appear again, somehow feeling its eyes on her, watching, even when she could not see it.

The day had been normal, but Diamond Tiara had not. Whatever it was she had seen had left her shaken. She did her best to hide it, but Silver Spoon seemed to notice. So did Pick to a lesser extent, although he might have been more in tune to how angry Diamond Tiara had become. Her anger was derived from her fear, and how she seemed to be cracking up at the worst possible time.

So now she lay in her bed in her family’s old house in Ponyville, unable to sleep. Down the hall, she could hear Silver Spoon mumbling in her sleep. Outside, she could hear the gentle but chilly wind of the moonlit night.

Pick rustled beneath the blankets beside her. “Diamond?” he said, looking up at her. Even in the moonlight, his eyes were bright silver, set at the sides of a wide mouth filled with pointed teeth. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling him closer. He had removed the external plating from his armor, but retained the internal framework. Without his full clothing, he was actually substantially smaller than Diamond Tiara. In a few places, his soft pale green coat poked through, but much of him was still covered in metal and glowing machinery linked to the slowly revolving dial in his chest plate.

“You know, I don’t mind if you take that off,” said Diamond Tiara.

“At these temperatures? I could die.”

“You did it with Silver Spoon.”

Pick groaned loudly. “You’re not going to let me forget that, are you? I was eleven. ELEVEN.”

“How do your people even reproduce if you have to wear those suits all the time?”

“Carefully.” Pick paused. “Wait…are you saying you want to…you realize I just ate, right? I don’t really feel like losing my dinner- -”

He squeaked as Diamond Tiara pushed him toward the edge of the bed and clung to her hoof. “No, wait! I was joking!”

“You better have been,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “There are literally lines of colts who would give every cent they own to be where you are right now. I’m the hottest pony you’ll ever know!”

“But I know Silver Spoon,” noted Pick. “Also, are you implying that you would accept money to- -”

Pick braced himself, expecting to be fully thrown out of the bed and have to sleep on the floor again, but Diamond Tiara just sighed.

“Diamond,” she said, “do you love me?”

Pick cringed. “You know I don’t feel comfortable answering that question.”

“Not the right answer. Try again.”

“I’m trying to be honest,” said Pick, somewhat annoyed. “You and Silver Spoon are the first ponies I met who were not members of my family. You’re both my best friends. And, well, my only friends. I love you both, I guess.”

“So you’re saying you really do like her better?”

“She is more attractive than you are. But no. I love her, but differently. She’s like a sister to me, except not arrogant, conniving, political, cruel and porkheaded like my real sister. Unfortunately, as a morlock, I am predestined to appreciate those properties. Hence why, although you resemble a pork, I am actually far more attracted to you.”

Diamond Tiara turned to him, her hair billowing on the pillow around her. “You are really terrible at talking, aren’t you?”

“And yet we’re in the same bed.”

“Only because the heater is broken. You’re just here for warmth. And if I feel a hoof go anywhere below the waist, I will beat you so hard your own mother won’t even be able to tolerate your ugliness. Although I don’t even know how she already does.”

“Aww,” said Pick, pulling himself closer to Diamond Tiara. “Your threats of violence make me feel so secure. Which is probably a psychological issue on my part.”

Diamond Tiara reached out and put her foreleg around Pick, pulling him up next to her. He put his head on her chest. He really did feel warm, but the real reason he was there was because Diamond Tiara could not bear the thought of being alone. She knew that there was nothing in the shadows of her old house, but she was not so sure about her mind.

“Would you still feel the same way about me if…if something were wrong with me?”

“Other than your unfortunate color scheme?” Pick looked up at her, and seemed to realize that Diamond Tiara was being serious. “You’re hearing the voices again, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” lied Diamond Tiara. “They’re getting pretty bad now.”

“What are they saying?”

“I don’t know. They’ve never been this bad outside of the desert. Diamond, I think it might be getting worse. A lot worse. And I think it’s going to keep getting worse. It might just be the stress of the Prom, but…if it’s not…I’ll understand if you don’t want to stay.”

“You’ve heard them as long as I have known you. And you are far from the first. You’re not insane, Diamond. Even we do not understand the plants well, but they chose you.”

“But what if it’s not the plants? What if it’s me? What if I’m broken?”

“If something is broken, we fix it. And if it cannot be fixed, we do not part with it easily. That is the way of the technetium miner. I would sooner be fed to the cactuses than to leave you. And I know Silver feels the same way.”

“If only she did…”

“She does. Frankly, I’m actually surprised that you didn’t end up with her.”

“Don’t be gross.” Diamond Tiara shoved Pick’s shoulder playfully. He smiled. It was not a pleasant sight, but Diamond Tiara smiled too. That day had gone badly, but now she felt just a little bit better.

From the quiet peace of the void arose the voices. Diamond Tiara tried to resist, to stay in whatever comfortable nothingness she found herself in, but the voices only became more insistent in their whispering. They were nearly deafening, and yet so close to silence that every word was only just unrecognizable both in origin and in content.

Then her eyes opened. She found herself standing in a river. It ran over her hooves, splashing in absolute silence over the slippery stones below. Even without sound, Diamond Tiara suddenly felt panicked. There was too much water, and she was on the verge of being swept away. She looked hurriedly downstream, but could not see where it went apart from cutting between two banks of ashen, leafless trees. Diamond Tiara knew that if she were to slip and fall, the river would take her away, and there would be no return.

She turned back to where she had been looking, trying to find a way to the shore- -and immediately found the tip of her nose inches from a gray, ghostly face. Diamond Tiara cried out and stepped back, nearly slipping into the rapids, only to nearly bump into another. They were surrounding her now, all speaking silently, all standing in the water with no apparent fear of the current. The water below them, in fact, seemed to be oddly calm- -save for drip of dark fluid from the ponies’ bodies into the river below.

“What do you want?” demanded Diamond Tiara. “I gave you what you wanted! I gave you the water! What do you want from me now?!”

As if in response, the air seemed to hum and buzz. The noise quickly resolved into a female voice, one that Diamond Tiara had not heard in its entirety for over six years.

“Four,” it said, as though that had some meaning.

That voice was familiar, but for some reason, Diamond Tiara panicked. She tried to run, and the river vanished from below her. Now, instead, she was moving sluggishly through a strange and dark hallway. Even running her fastest, she was still not able to move more than the speed of a slow walk. The gray, faceless ponies marched in the opposite direction of Diamond Tiara, progressing toward the thing that she was fleeing from.

Ahead, Diamond Tiara saw a door. She tried to run toward it, but it seemed to only grow farther away.

“No!” she cried. “I have to- -I have to get out!”

She felt her hoof fall on the metal handle, and she flung it open. Almost immediately she spilled into Ponyville- -and cried out, grabbing back onto the door when she saw the yawning black void below her.

There were no ponies, and the buildings of the town seemed to be rotting as though they had suddenly become ancient- -the few buildings that remained, anyway. Most of the town was filled with a ponderous pit, a whole of pure blackness that twisted and roared with an invisible and deafening tempest.

The edges of the town began to crumble and the graying, abandoned buildings collapsed into the void. Diamond Tiara watched as the world she was supposed to know and love collapsed into this gaping mouth, and she saw the edge slowly closing in on her own door.

“There are only four,” said the female voice. “Remember. Remember!”

“I don’t understand!” cried Diamond Tiara.

She looked back into the pit, and suddenly saw something move. Logicall, she understood that the pit was meant to consume. That was what it did; things fell in, and she knew whatever went would not return. But now something did.

A pair of appendages grasped the sides of Diamond Tiara’s face. She could neither scream nor escape as she stared into a pair of glossy red eyes.

Diamond Tiara burst awake. She would have jumped up, but two pairs of hooves tightened around her in response to her sudden motion. Looking down, Diamond Tiara saw Pick clinging to her side, just where she had left him. On her right, however, Silver Spoon grimaced slightly before smiling against Diamond Tiara’s soft coat. It was actually not unusual for Diamond Tiara to wake up with Silver Spoon in her bed, especially when Silver Spoon was afraid. Although she was the type of pony who somehow looked adorable and perfect in her sleep- -unlike Diamond Tiara herself, who looked like a lethargic mess- -but the wet fur around her eyes indicated that she had been crying in her sleep again.

`For a moment, Diamond Tiara just lay in her bed embraced by her coltfriend and her best friend. They may not have known it, but they were exactly what she needed. If she had woken up alone again, she probably would have awoke screaming.

The sun was just barely rising, and the room was filling with dim gray autumn light. Diamond Tiara was not sure what made the light gray like that, but she did not like it or the cold it always seemed to bring. Despite this, she knew that there was no way she would be able to go back to sleep. So, as gently as possible, she extricated herself from her friends.

Neither of them awoke as she stepped out of bed, but they did react to her departure by immediately moving closer together and embracing each other in her absence. That made Diamond Tiara unduly angry. She realized that they were asleep and could not control themselves, but they just looked so adorable and happy together that she wanted to throw cold water on them. Especially Pick, for daring to touch Silver Spoon when she was being so cute.

For a moment, she contemplated just pushing them off the bed, but decided against it. She was a jerk, but she just could not manage to summon that level of vindictiveness this early in the morning. Instead, she quietly crossed the cold wooden floor. She took a robe from the closet and tied it around herself with her teeth, and then approached one of the room’s windows. She picked up a watering can that sat on the floor beside it in her teeth and sprinkled the water on a bulbous, swollen potted cactus.

The cactus squirmed and revolved slowly as it absorbed the water, and Diamond Tiara heard it whisper its thanks. Diamond Tiara sighed and leaned back, looking out at the start of a chilly overcast day. Nopony was out this early in the morning, save Pound Cake on his paper rout delivering the latest copies of the Foal-Free Press along with out-of-town papers to those who ordered them.

Then Diamond Tiara nearly fainted. Standing at the far edge of the one of the buildings in the shadow of its alley was a unicorn, staring up at her, watching. She almost screamed and tried to wake Pick and Silver Spoon- -until the unicorn jumped out and revealed herself to none other than Lyra Heartstrings, once again sneaking away from Bon Bon’s house in the wee hours of the morning.

Diamond Tiara breathed a long sigh of relief, but realized that she did not at all feel relieved. Her hooves were shaking, and her body felt far colder than it should have. Worse, she could still not shake the feeling that she was being watched. She was not sure by what, or from where, but something was out there.

Chapter 6: Unicorns

The clouds flowed quickly overhead, swirling in a high soup-like mixture that seemed to threaten rain at any moment. It was the sky of a much later time of year, an exact copy of the cold and gray skies of late winter. The air at ground level was cold and damp, and Diamond Tiara pulled up her jacket against the cold, regretting her decision to have had lunch in the outdoor seating area of Café Hay.

From what she had heard, an unscheduled weather anomaly was in effect. Diamond Tiara understood weather only to the extent of the equipment her family’s company sold, which mostly involved automated snowflake presses and spectral grinders, but was aware that sometimes especially large storms from the Everfree Forest could break containment and affect the weather in Ponyville. They were usually the worst of storms, though. For ominous clouds to break through was quite unusual.

With all the Pegasi scrambled in response- -and with the sudden onset of the cold, dreary weather- -most of Ponyville seemed oddly empty. Diamond Tiara supposed that having less ponies outside was probably a good thing in that she would not have to explain what exactly Diamond Pick was to everypony- -but then again, part of the whole reason she was not forcing him to conceal his identity WAS to show him off to the town in advance of the Pony Prom.

She looked across the table, and saw Silver Spoon- -looking perfect as always, dressed in a borrowed jacket and scarf that did not look nearly as good on Diamond Tiara- -laughed at a joke that Pick had just told. She did not seem to mind the cold. Pick, who was sitting between them, did not either, but only because his suit was specifically designed to keep him warm. Diamond Tiara had never been to Geoterra, the morlock’s subterranean city- -neither had Pick, apparently- -but she understood that its position in Equestria’s mantle made it extraordinarily warm.

“So then she says ‘but isn’t eating meat cannibalism?’, to which my mother replies, ‘not always, young one. You will learn to enjoy it!’”

Silver Spoon snorted, nearly sending a jet of apple juice out of her nose. Diamond Tiara had entered the conversation late, and she remembered the exact situation that Pick was talking about. At first she did not understand Silver Spoon’s reaction, until, three years late, she suddenly got the joke.

“Oh, wow,” she said, blushing and smiling at the same time. “I can’t believe Pyroxene said that!”

“You were there, Diamond,” said Pick.

“I’ve only met her twice,” said Silver Spoon. “Frankly, your mom terrifies me, Pick.”

“She terrifies me too,” said Pick. “And I hatched from an egg that came out of her.”

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know…do morlocks…”

“No, of course not. I was being sarcastic. Don’t be thick. Although I suppose you cannot help it, Diamond.”

“Well, I’m surprised, then. Surprised she didn’t try to put you back in when she saw what you looked like.”

“I was an adorable foal! But knowing my mother…well…she might have tried…”

“You know, I always wonder if the reason you like Diamond Tiara so much is because you have mommy issues.”

Pick paused. “Actually, now that you mention it, that’s probably right…”

Diamond Tiara elbowed him hard. “Pyroxene isn’t even that bad! She’s what nobility is supposed to be like. Noble, ruthless, aloof…she’s like a second mother to me. Well…at this point, probably a real mother, because Spoiled doesn’t count.”

“Your mother is actually pretty hot,” said Pick. “Well, until she opens her mouth- -” He squeaked loudly as Diamond Tiara shoved him off his stool.

“You know,” said Silver Spoon. “If you think about it, if a morlock thinks your mom looks good, then…”

“Yeah, but he also thinks I look good. Isn’t that right, Pick?”

“Yes,” said Pick, crawling back onto his chair. “Diamond Tiara is best pony. Please don’t push me off my chair again. The ground is so dirty.”

“Kind of like your mom,” noted Silver Spoon.

This time, Diamond Tiara laughed.

“I think that translated poorly,” said Pick, adjusting the mechanism in the dial on his chest. “Also, for the record, Diamond’s father is Filthy.”

“He certainly is.”
They started laughing again- -except for Pick, whose dial apparently could not translate homonyms. Eventually they calmed down, and Diamond Tiara was starting to feel better. Being with her friends seemed to negate the dark sky, her nightmares, and even her hallucination episode from yesterday. She actually felt good for once.

“So,” said Pick. “I can’t help but be wondering…what exactly am I here for?”

“You’re Diamond Tiara’s arm candy,” said Silver Spoon, sipping on a small cup of juice.

“If he’s candy, I don’t even think Pinkie Pie would be able to keep him down,” said Diamond Tiara.

“Wait,” said Pick. “I’m confused. I am going to be eaten?”

“That depends on how well you treat Diamond Tiara,” said Silver Spoon, smiling.

“Silver Spoon! Don’t make me have to come over there!” Diamond Tiara cleared her throat. “You’re here because I’m your favorite pony, and I asked you to be here.”

“Well, yes. But why?”

“It’s for the Pony Prom,” said Silver Spoon.

“Which is?”

“It’s a dance,” said Diamond Tiara. “It’s a celebration held when a class of students graduates. It’s not big in the social circles, but it’s a really important Ponyville tradition.”

“Celebration?” asked Pick. “Why?”

“Why?” Diamond Tiara was momentarily confused herself; the Pony Prom was the only thing that anypony had been talking about for the past six months. Even the adults were excited, talking endlessly about their own Prom experiences and getting their now nearly adult children ready for one last party together.
Then Diamond Tiara realized that Pick really had no context to understand what any of this meant. He had never attended school. “Well, it’s because we’ve been in school together since we were fillies. And now we’re all grown up and going our separate ways. It’s a celebration that we’re starting our real lives now…and I guess it’s kind of sad that way…”

“I see.” Pick paused. “What sort of lives are they going on to?”

“Well,” said Silver Spoon. “The ponies you met the other day? Sweetie Belle is going to college in Canterlot. And Applebloom is going to take over running her family’s farm so her sister can focus on friendship duties. Scootaloo’s going to travel for a bit.”

“And you?”

“I’m going off to the Academy.”

Diamond Tiara felt her breath catch in her throat. “Can we please not talk about this now, Silver?”

“Academy of what?”

“For the Royal Guard. I’ve been accepted for officer training. Of course, it’s hard not to be with an endorsement from a Princess.”

“Silver…” This was not something Diamond Tiara liked to talk about, or even think about.

“The military? You?”

“My parents…kind of used up all of my family’s money,” explained Silver Spoon. “But we actually have a history in the Guard. You should have seen all the old stuff we had before my dad sold it. Swords, armor, stuffy paintings.”

“So your special talent is for- -”

“Spooning. But that’s not the point. I’m good at logistics. And there’s not much else I can do.”

“But won’t that take you away from Diamond Tiara?”

Silver Spoon went quiet, and Diamond Tiara braced for the response, the crux of her opposition to Silver Spoon’s choice. “Yes,” she said, quietly. “I mean, at first. After a few years, I’ll be able to transfer to Twilight’s guard here in Ponyville. Until then, I could be anywhere. Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, or even out on the frontier.”

Diamond Tiara felt herself starting to shake from an emotion that she did not know how to name. Her headache started to return, and she removed some pills from her pocket and swallowed them quickly.

“Diamond, are you okay?” asked Pick, sounding genuinely concerned.

“I’m fine,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “Silver’s a big girl, she can do what she wants.”

Pick looked at her for a long time, but eventually seemed to accept her answer. Diamond Tiara had wanted him to push harder, to get her to talk, to help explain why she felt so bad- -but he trusted her too much. Diamond Tiara looked across the table at Silver Spoon, at her smiling face and perfect hair framing her quaint glasses. She just could not imagine living without seeing that face every day.

Before she could say anything, the waiter appeared from the café. He crossed the patio and then paused at the table, in part because of Pick’s unusual appearance but mostly because of the large and angry-looking drone that eyed him suspiciously.

“Oh heavens,” he said. “They certainly do grow them big these days…”

“Down here,” said Diamond Tiara. “Or am I going to have to eat the flowers again?”

“You know those aren’t appetizers, right?” whispered Silver Spoon.

“Wait, there were flowers?” said Pick, confused. “Wait- -you ate the table decoration? How fat are you?”

“Don’t answer that!” whispered Silver Spoon.

“Um…is this a bad time?” asked the waiter.

“No,” said Diamond Tiara. “Did you come out here to flirt with my drone, or are you going to give us our food?”

“Oh- -yes- -sorry,” he said, putting down the plates: a pair of identical large salads for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and something that superficially resembled a milkshake for Pick. He then backed away from the drone carefully and ran back into the warmth of his café where the other employees were looking through the window.

“He is so not getting a tip.”

“It’s not your drone,” protested Pick.

“Yes it is,” said Silver Spoon. She leaned over to see what Pick had got, but as soon as she got in close proximity, her eyes widened and she recoiled so hard she nearly fell off her chair.

“Oh! What is that?!” she cried, holding her nose.

“I have no idea,” said Pick. “Whatever was rotting in their refrigeration unit, I suppose.”

“You’re kidding!”

Pick twisted his dial again, and then extended a long tube from one side of his mask. He set it in the tall metal cup and began to drain the fluid within. “Surface food is…distasteful. My normal diet consists of various molds and fungi, supplemented with meat. And I am told your people do not tolerate meat well.”

“Wait- -I thought you were joking.”

“He’s not,” said Diamond Tiara. “It actually isn’t bad, though. The meat I mean. Whatever he’s drinking- -no. Just no. You should have seen their faces when I asked them to stock it. But, of course, I’m rich enough that they’ll do whatever I tell them to.”

“Just how rich are you?”

“Way richer than you’ll ever be.”

“Or me,” said Silver Spoon.

Diamond Tiara almost choked, and she had not even started eating yet. “Silver, I didn’t mean- -”

“No, it’s okay,” said Silver Spoon. She smiled, but still looked sad. “It’s not like my life is any different now anyway.”

Diamond Tiara looked away, embarrassed. She felt herself breathing more quickly, and decided to focus on her food instead. She looked down at the late-season greens and small dark croutons in her bowl and reached for the dressing.

She had just picked up the small cup of ranch when she noticed something in her salad move. Confused, Diamond Tiara looked closer. Salad, as far as she knew, was not supposed to do that.

As if to confirm her suspicions, a tiny cucumber ring shook and jumped, pushed from below. Then something emerged from beneath it. Diamond Tiara wanted to scream in disgust at the sight of the enormous worm was it pulled its way from the crevices between her lettuce, but the absurdity and surprise of it held her transfixed, unable to move or even speak.

It was not any kind of worm that Diamond Tiara had ever seen. In fact, as she stared wide-eyed at it, she realized that it was not really a worm at all. It was a long, narrow, segmented creature made entirely out of gleaming metal. Its hair-thin clockwork legs pumped chaotically, efficiently allowing it to scramble over her salad.

The creature- -or device- -looked up at Diamond Tiara with a tiny glass eye, and its mandibles twitched. Then the whole salad seemed to vibrate, and several more emerged from below the greens. Then they started to move toward her.

The sudden appearance of so many of them finally gave Diamond Tiara the impetus she needed to cry out and throw the bowl away, sending the worms scampering across the table haphazardly as they tried to squirm back toward her, leaving sticky dark trails as they moved.

“Whoa, what was that?” said Silver Spoon.

“There was- -there was a worm!”

“Well, it did grow in a field. That just means it’s organic. Although, honestly, I would have preferred the inorganic stuff. Preservatives make you live longer.”

Diamond Tiara looked up to protest, to explain that the “worm” had been some kind of bizarre horror, and to ask why neither Silver Spoon nor Pick seemed especially concerned that the table was now covered in them. But then she saw Silver Spoon face.

Silver Spoon looked across the table with a pair of blank, cataract-covered eyes. Her beautiful mane had been nearly shaved away, revealing a black numeric tattoo in a language that Diamond Tiara could not read. She was pale and thin, with one of her forelegs badly distorted as though it had been severely burned long ago.

“Hey, Pick,” she said, her voice sounding strained and buzzing, as though a swarm of bees were between her and Diamond Tiara. “If there are grape tomatoes, do you think somewhere somepony has tomato grapes?”

Silver Spoon picked up one of the aforementioned fruits- -and to Diamond Tiara’s horror, one of the worms was coiled around it. Before she could stop her, Silver Spoon popped it into her mouth. She chewed for a long moment, but before she even stopped Diamond Tiara saw the metallic creature emerge from Silver Spoon’s nose and crawl across her face into one of her ears.

“No! Don’t eat that!” cried Diamond Tiara, jumping up and pushing Silver Spoon’s plate off the table. “It’s poisoned!”

“It doesn’t taste poisoned,” said Silver Spoon.

“Diamond,” said Pick, are you okay? No. You’re not. Something is wrong.”

Panting, Diamond Tiara looked down at Pick. She expected him to be different, the way Silver Spoon was or the way Rarity had been- -but somehow he looked the same. Nothing about him had changed, save for the fact that he now seemed to have a whitish corona surrounding his body, emanating from the technetium dial in the center of his chest.

It was at that time that Diamond Tiara realized that they were not alone. Standing between Silver Spoon and Pick was a tall, pale unicorn, his large eyes locked on Diamond Tiara.

“Diamond Tiara?” said Silver Spoon, now sounding extremely concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“N- -no,” said Diamond Tiara. “Nothing- -nothing is wrong. I’m not insane.”

“I didn’t say you were…”

Something latched onto Diamond Tiara’s arm, and she yelped when she saw that one of the worms had reached her and was now rapidly progressing toward her head. She knew that if she let it get there, something bad would happen.

With greater speed than she had thought herself capable of, she threw the creature across the table at the pale unicorn. In response, his horn flashed with almost colorless yellow light and suspended the device in the air. It squirmed for a moment, but then condensed into a metallic sphere that he then dropped onto his hoof. He then put it in the pocket of his uniform, all while staring unblinkingly at Diamond Tiara- -until his eyes twitched just enough to look over her shoulder.

Diamond Tiara froze in panic, and then she slowly turned. She had not heard it, or seen it arrive, but when she finally turned her head enough to see what the tall unicorn had been looking at, she saw another one. One that she somehow had always known was there, standing beside her, watching.

The unicorn behind her nodded, and began to drift closer. For the first time, they seemed REAL. Diamond Tiara could smell them- -something like bleach and antiseptic- -and could hear them. They were talking. Or something was.

Diamond Tiara pushed away from the table, shaking with fear. Her friends looked at her in surprise and concern, and the unicorns watched her in ambivalent concentration.

“Diamond Tiara, come back!” said Silver Spoon.

“No- -no! I have to- -I have to not be here right now!”

Diamond Tiara turned and ran. She heard her friends calling after her, but she could not hear them through the electronic buzzing cutting through her mind. She could not turn or look behind her, because she knew that the unicorns would be there, watching and waiting.

All around her, the world seemed to shift. Buildings seemed taller and distorted, their normally cheerful colors replaced with splotches of gray. The light of the sun became painfully bright and cold, and the shadows around became darker and seemingly more angular. She was in the same place, the same town she had grown up in, like the world inside a mirror, and somehow so much more threatening.

Eventually Diamond Tiara reached the center of town, and she stopped. She wanted to call out, to scream for help, but she did not know against what or why or if anypony would even hear her. That was when she saw them.

There were not just two, or even ten. The tall unicorns were everywhere, following and standing beside the happy and somehow unaware population of Ponyville. They were all nearly identical, and all dressed in nearly identical uniforms. Some just followed ponies closely, taking notes on flat translucent plates projected from their horns, moving just slightly out of the way when ponies happened to step toward where they were standing.

Others, though, were doing much worse. Nearby, a Pegasus pony had stopped to have a conversation with an earth pony friend. Three of the tall unicorns had surrounded her and were taking samples from her legs with long needles. Across the way, a unicorn was adjusting the metallic knobs inserted into Golden Harvest’s head as she somehow hummed without a lower jaw, pulling her cart of carrots fresh from the field with badly scarred and atrophied legs.

Several fillies and colts ran by, laughing and playing. One watched them go, seemingly wresting- -save for the unicorn that was looming over him, her magic pulling apart his spine and inserting strange glimmering machinery.

Down the street, a group of ponies appeared. To her horror, Diamond Tiara saw that almost all of them were unicorns, save for two. One was almost unrecognizable, her body replaced almost entirely with steel and black metal. From the color of what little shaved skin she had that was not horribly scarred, though, Diamond Tiara could tell that she was Twilight Sparkle’s quasi-lover Starlight Glimmer.

Standing next to her was Twilight Sparkle herself, and the two were talking. Somehow, though, Twilight looked completely normal. The unicorns surrounded her but never touched her; her body was free of scars or marks and almost seemed to glow. The small and unseen contingent around her seemed to have unparalleled interest in her- -and she was the only one they seemed to show any respect toward.
There was a rush of wings, and a pony landed beside Diamond Tiara.

“Diamond Tiara!” cried a voice with a slight lisp. Diamond Tiara immediately recognized it as belonging to Dinky’s mother, and she turned to see a pair of golden crossed eyes- -and a number of metallic spikes protruding from the open back of her skull.

“Oh!” said the gray mare, her body shaking from the obvious brain damage. “You don’t look so good. Is everything okay? Do you need a muffin for energy? I have several if- -”

“Get- -get away from me!” cried Diamond Tiara. “Don’t- -don’t touch me!”

She backed away, and then ran.

“Do you not like pistachio?” called Derpy, sounding dejected and spitting out several teeth without noticing.

Diamond Tiara ran again- -but this time ran directly into another pony. She looked up to see one of the many ponies in Ponyville that she did not know, a white and green Pegasus. Somehow, she looked as smiling and happy as normal. There were no signs of surgical scars or deformities- -until her image shifted with a silent electrical vibration to reveal yet another pale unicorn.

“Who- -who are you?” said Diamond Tiara. She was beginning to overcome her fear and standing her ground.

He paused for a moment, and then spoke. His voice was almost incomprehensible, in part because of an unusually heavy but unrecognizable accent and in part because it somehow came through distorted.

“We are no one.”

He looked up, and Diamond Tiara turned to see Pick’s drone behind her, its simulated coating removed and one unicorn standing over it, inserting a piece of foreign machinery into its open access panel.

“No you don’t!” yelled Diamond Tiara. She ran up to the front of the drone and slammed her hoof into the frontal release switch. The drone’s pitted armor separated, revealing its cubic core. Diamond Tiara reached in and adjusted the internal alignment, forcing an emergency discharge from the internal reactor.

The explosive force was enough to badly burn her hoof and to knock her backward, but the unicorns fared far worse. The blast of white light reacted with their horns, arcing and reacting with their magic and driving them backward, staggering in pain. The machine that the unicorn nearest the drone had been holding dropped to the ground and shattered into droplets of rapidly boiling silver liquid.

The drone, its internal technetium reactor now expended, slumped to one side and collapsed. Diamond Tiara heard it fall, but she could not bring herself to move. The world seemed to be getting more distant, as though she were falling. She blinked, and for just a moment the sky looked so very different, brimming with bizarre light and suns that had no name- -before everything suddenly stabilized into normality.

“Diamond Tiara!” cried a distant voice. Diamond Tiara stood up and looked around. The village seemed hazy, but everything was normal. There were no tall ponies, and the only unicorns were being helped up by their friends from having their magic momentarily overloaded. Diamond Tiara was just glad that Twilight had already passed; she would not much appreciate an anti-magic detonation in the center of town.

Silver Spoon arrived at Diamond Tiara’s side and helped her up. Pick appeared immediately behind her, and paused for a moment to look at the drone.

“What did you do?” he demanded, angrily.

“I overloaded the main reactor,” said Diamond Tiara, groggily, wincing at the pain from her burned hoof. “I’m sorry…I can pay for a replacement to be shipped- -”

“I don’t care about the drone! It’s an old piece of mining equipment! I care about you!” He lifted her hoof and examined the burn. “You pink idiot, what were you thinking?! You can’t just reach into the cube without shielding while the reactor’s on! You should know that!”

“I needed…to make them go away…”

Pick paused. “Make what go away? Who? Diamond, did somepony try to hurt you?”

“I just…I just…”

Diamond Tiara could not finish her sentence. She grabbed Pick and held him as close as she could while she broke down and began sobbing uncontrollably.

Chapter 7: First Descent

Nopony spoke as they entered Diamond Tiara’s house. Silver Spoon seemed to be waiting for Diamond Tiara to speak first, but Diamond Tiara had no desire to do so whatsoever. As such, Silver Spoon had given her space, allowing Diamond Tiara to sit in the study alone while she went back to help Pick retrieve the damaged drone. Paradoxically, being alone was the last thing that Diamond Tiara wanted- -and yet she could not stand the thought of being around another pony after what she had just done.

So Diamond Tiara just sat in a reasonably uncomfortable chair in front of a glowing fireplace, watching the fire and trying to keep her mind from racing. She was not sure how long she sat like that before the door behind her creaked open and her heart nearly stopped.

“Diamond Tiara?” said Silver Spoon, stepping in. Diamond Tiara turned, seeing Pick lurking behind her.

“What’s the damage?” asked Diamond Tiara.

“Damage?” asked Pick, confused.

“I just decloaked your drone in the middle of town. No doubt ponies saw it. What’s the situation?”

“Well…they saw it. And now…you know…”

“Know what?”

“Well, everypony thought it was a new Rich Tech prototype. The tech magazines are already all over it. There’s more hype than there are muffin trees in Ditzy Doo’s yard.”

“This is exactly what I wanted to avoid,” said Diamond Tiara. “But I’m sure we can leverage it somehow. Maybe I can get daddy to finally take the company public…but I don’t know how I’m supposed to afford a controlling share when the prices are this high…”

The room fell silent, save for the crackling of the fire and the barely inaudible ticking of the clockwork that covered Tick’s body.

“Diamond,” said Silver Spoon. “We need to talk about this.”

“No, no we don’t,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “Nothing is wrong.”

“Nothing being wrong?” cried Pick, entering the room completely. “Do you know how badly you could have been hurt? I realize that surface-ponies are both stupid and ignorant, but you of all should know better!”

Diamond Tiara looked down at her hoof. It was now bandaged, and it hurt badly. Pick had done his best to repair it, but burns from technetium machinery were not like regular burns. There was a chance it would never heal properly. Even knowing that, Diamond Tiara refused to see a doctor- -and regretted nothing.

“Everypony makes mistakes,” she muttered, turning back to the fire. “Nothing is wrong with me.”

“Nopony said- -”

“NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME!”

To punctuate her sentence, Diamond Tiara picked up a glass of juice and shattered it on the mantle of the fireplace. It broke into thousands of expensive fragments, and the contents slid down, some of them boiling as they fell onto the hearth below.

“By the solar rump,” swore Silver Spoon under her breath. She crossed the room and literally turned Diamond Tiara’s chair around to face her. Her pale violet eyes looked into Diamond Tiara’s, and more than anything, Diamond Tiara felt ashamed.

“Diamond,” she said, her voice tinged with a sternness that Diamond Tiara had heard hundreds of times. “Look at me. You’re my best friend. We’re your friends, both of us. And I know you. Better than anypony does now, or probably ever will. Something is wrong. But we’re here for you. Both of us.”

“Seconded,” said Pick.

“Whatever the problem is, you can tell us. You’re not alone, Diamond.”

Diamond Tiara felt tears welling in her eyes. “I’m not insane,” she said. She looked to Pick, half-expecting him to make a joke like he always did. He remained silent, though, and that was more terrifying than anything else. At this point, she hated both of them- -but wanted to wrap them into a tight hug and never let go.

“Something…something is wrong,” admitted Diamond Tiara. “I’ve been seeing…things.”

“Things?”

“I…I don’t know,” said Diamond Tiara, realizing that she actually did not. She cradled her head in her front hooves and compulsively straightened her tiara. “Bad things. Really bad things.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t…I don’t know,” she lied. There was just no way she could have described to Silver Spoon how she had looked, how every pony she knew appeared mutilated and broken, or the strange tall and colorless unicorns that just seemed to watch

Pick and Silver Spoon looked at each other.

“You don’t believe me,” said Diamond Tiara. “You think I’m insane. I’m not. I can’t be. They were THERE. I saw them!”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” assured Silver Spoon. “But…we didn’t see anything.”

“You…you didn’t?” Diamond Tiara was not sure why it came as such a shock. Neither of them had reacted to the unicorns’ presence, and nopony in town seemed to recognize that they were there. “No. No no no. They were THERE. I saw them. That’s why I had to overload the drone. To make them go away. I couldn’t- -I couldn’t let them touch me. Please, you have to believe me!”

Silver Spoon forced a smile. “It’s okay, Diamond. There aren’t any here now. You’re safe.”

“But…but what if they are?” said Diamond Tiara, her eyes suddenly flitting to the shadows cast by the fire, toward the gaudy suits of fake armor that stood guard along the walls. “How- -how would I know?”

“You said…um… ‘they’ got near the drone?” said Pick.

“Yes.”

“That drone used to be a geologic survey unit,” said Pick. “It was designed to scan rocks for high-resolution impressions of mineral deposits. It’s old, but its optics and scanning plates are still good. Do you think it could have recorded something?”

Diamond Tiara felt her mind brighten slightly. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, it might have.” She felt herself growing increasingly optimistic. Diamond Tiara did not really know how magic worked, but she knew machines. If there had been anything to see, a morlock drone would have certainly been able to pick it up. “Can you fix it?”

“Of course I can fix it. You could probably fix it, even with your structurally unfortunate brain architecture.”

Diamond Tiara smiled, and then hopped down from her chair. She winced as she put pressure on her injured hoof.

“Be careful!” said Silver Spoon.

“Do you need me to carry you?” asked Pick.

“What, you? You’re like half my size and have about as much muscle mass as Rarity. You’re so weak, you probably couldn’t even carry Swamp Fever.” She looked down at her hoof and sighed. “Of all the times for this to happen, it had to happen just before the Prom.”

“You could always wear a bracelet,” suggested Silver Spoon.

“Yeah. I guess I could.” The burn, of course, had not been what Diamond Tiara had been referring to. It was the least of her concern.

Pick led them through the house toward the garage. The former Rich home was larger than most in Ponyville, but not nearly as extensive or as excessive as their new home on the outskirts of town. In her youth, Diamond Tiara had always considered it to be too small for a pony of her caliber. Looking back, though, it had always in fact seemed far too large and lonely.

The building itself was old, constructed from the remnants of the shack built decades ago by Diamond Tiara’s grandfather, Stinkin Rich. The garage had been added relatively recently, though; it had originally served to hold the Rich’s family’s several automobiles and the associated tools and space for their private mechanics to perform the ridiculous amount of maintenance that was required for early magical engines to run. Much of the world had since moved on to Rich Tech’s solid-state engines- -which actually consisted of repurposed morlock technology- -and the cars had since been taken to Filthy Rich’s private collection in at Rich Manor.

The garage was now empty, though, save for the drone which sat collapsed in the center. Diamond Tiara had no idea how Silver Spoon and Pick had gotten it in; Silver Spoon was, of course, svelte and athletic, but Pick was an unmuscular weakling and there was no way that Silver Spoon alone had brought it in. At this point, though, Diamond Tiara did not much care.

“Are you going to need any tools?” asked Silver Spoon.

“I think one is enough,” muttered Diamond Tiara.

Ignoring the joke- -and once again leaving Diamond Tiara slightly agitated by his lack of reciprocation in their usual banter- -Pick approached the machine. It was in a sitting position, as though it were resting. The fact that it simultaneously looked like a pony in body shape but not even remotely in texture or content made Diamond Tiara even more nervous. It reminded her too much of what her friends had looked like- -and, somehow, it reminded her even more of how the tall unicorns appeared.

“Right,” said Pick, opening the front access panel on the drone and exposing the cube in the center of its chest. “The damage is not actually that bad. The core is intact. I just need to focus the output…”

He took off his helmet and set it beside him. Blinking in the harsh light, he leaned in and dexterously adjusted the setting on the cube as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched. The process only took a few seconds, at which point Pick attached a cable from his own dial and stepped back.

“Okay,” he said. “It’s set to topographical mode, so this probably won’t detonate. You may want to stand back.”

“How far?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Um…four or five miles should do it. Assuming you don’t breathe the fallout. Ever.”

“Wait, what?”

Pick twisted the dial in his chest, and its shape changed slightly, revealing a different set of cogs than he usually used for daily activity. The drone responded immediately, convulsing slightly from the sudden surge of power. The cube in its chest shifted, pulling its facets apart and resetting them into a different configuration. It glowed, and then a field of blue energy was projected over the oil-stained concrete.

The light shifted and shimmered before rapidly resolving into a holographic image of Café Hay, complete with tiny tables.

“Oh my gersh!” said Silver Spoon, pointing at the occupied table in the center of the hologram. “That’s us! Diamond, you look adorable!”

“Thank you,” said Diamond Tiara and Diamond Pick at the same time.

The image shifted, displaying the recording as the drone had perceived it. There was no sound, but Diamond Tiara could see the tiny translucent model versions of them talking, laughing, and gesturing. It looked almost idyllic, like they must have looked when they were younger and spending their seemingly endless summer together.

Then the situation changed. Diamond Tiara saw the image of herself suddenly stiffen, staring apparently into space.

“This is where it started,” said Silver Spoon, watching tiny Diamond Tiara overturn her salad bowl. “This is where I started to realize that something was wrong.”

In the hologram, Diamond Tiara appeared to throw something- -at nothing. She was still staring into space toward nothing. She looked paniced, and seeing this, Diamond Tiara felt those emotions coming back to her. Worse, though, was the lack of understanding: she had seen a pony there, a tall unicorn standing just to the side of Silver Spoon. In the image, though, there was nothing there but empty space.

Then, slowly, the image of Diamond Tiara turned around and immediately leapt off her chair, causing it to fall over. She ran off screen. Tiny Pick got out of his chair and gave the drone orders, causing it to begin pursuing Diamond Tiara, bringing her back into the picture.

After a few moments, Derpy landed beside Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara had not seen it at the time, but the gray mare looked highly concerned, and Diamond Tiara felt terrible for having been rude to one of the only ponies that could be constantly counted on to be nice to her. Still, the image showed Derpy just as she was and had always been: nothing protruding from her skull, no exposed brain tissue, no scars. Everything seemed normal, save for a very panicked Diamond Tiara.

She continued to run into town, into the square that she KNEW had contained hordes of tall unicorns. In the image, though, there were none. Just regular townfolk going about their days. Nothing was amiss, or wrong.

The only tall pony in the image was Twilight as she moved into the image. As an alicorn, she had grown to be much taller and thinner than normal ponies. When Diamond Tiara first saw her enter the recording, she froze, thinking that she had actually seen one of the mysterious unicorns- -only to see the Princess of Frienship laughing and joking with Starlight Glimmer.

“Oh, hey, there’s Starlight,” said Silver Spoon, pointing. “Sweet Celestia…I would let her take my cutie mark any day, if you know what I mean.”

Diamond Tiara ignored her, focusing on the model, watching her miniature doppleganger run headlong into a Pegasus pony- -one that she was SURE was a unicorn. Except here, somehow, she just looked like a normal and very surprised Pegasus.

“That’s weird,” said Silver Spoon. “That’s Blossomforth. I thought she moved to Cloudsdale ages ago…”

“Wait,” said Pick, fumbling nervously with the cube inside the drone. “I need to rewind…”

The image flickered and reversed almost comically, causing all the ponies to appear to walk backward until the image froze on Twilight and Starlight.

“What- -what is THAT?” demanded Pick. His voice was wavering and nearly cracked as he pointed toward Twilight.

“Pick?” said Diamond Tiara. Her mind momentarily rose from her confusion. Pick did not normally sound like that. For some reason, he was severely agitated.

“Um…that’s Princess Twilight,” said Silver Spoon. “I’m pretty sure we told you about her…”

“You did not tell me that she was THAT!” snapped Pick. “She is…is…” His next word translated poorly. Part of it came out as the clicking continentals staccato of morlock speech, mumbled to the point of nearly being inedible. From what Diamond Tiara heard, it could have been either “sun” or “sphere”. He backed away from the projection.

“Pick, what’s wrong?” said Diamond Tiara.

“Nothing. Nothing you would understand.”

“Diamond Tiara,” said Silver Spoon, looking down at the image and then slowly up at her best friend. “There isn’t anything there.”

Diamond Tiara was silent for a moment as she tried to rectify the recording with what she had seen.

“No,” she said. “No, something’s wrong. The recording must be bad. Pick, what kind of crappy secondhand tech is this?”

“The only kind I can get,” said Pick. “But the drone is fine. Even if it’s old, it can still pick up nanograms of technetium through kilometers of stone. This recording is correct.”

“No, it’s NOT!” shouted Diamond Tiara. The sudden volume caused Pick to recoil in surprise. “I’m not crazy- -they were there! I saw them!”

“But we didn’t,” said Silver Spoon, carefully. “Nopony did. I’m not saying that there’s nothing there- -”

“No, that is exactly what you are saying,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “You’re calling me a liar!”

“No, I’m just saying- -”

“You kind of are, Silver Spoon,” noted Pick.

“You’re not helping!”

“Neither are you!” Pick looked up at Diamond Tiara. “I’m concerned,” he said, simply.

“That I’m cracking up, Pick? That you might be dating a crazy pony, and suddenly I’m not good enough and you don’t want me anymore? HUH?”

“That’s not what I said, idiot,” said Pick. “I said that I am concerned. How could I not be?”

“I am too,” said Silver Spoon.

“Well you can take your concern and plot it. I don’t need it, I know what I saw…” Except that she did not- -but she could not accept the fact that it was simply a hallucination. The implication was unthinkable.

Diamond Tiara felt herself shaking. She was not sure why. Seeing the image had only made things worse, and she regretted having asked for it. More than anything, she wanted to be with her friends, for them to protect and comfort her- -but instead, she stormed off, leaving them behind.

Angrily, Diamond Tiara threw down the journal against her desk. She groaned loudly and leaned back in her chair, looking up at the vaulted ceiling of her study- -or, more appropriately, the study that her father had abandoned when he had become rich enough to afford a new and better one.

Stacked around her were a pile of books pulled from the overstuffed shelves that lined the back edge of Diamond Tiara’s somewhat ad hoc library. Unlike her parents, who kept books in the study to look smart but without ever intending to even open a book let alone read one, Diamond Tiara had actually taken a great deal of care in constructing a practical library. Many of the texts were tomes on economics or anthologies of Rich Tech manuals. Many, though, were esoteric and often arcane volumes that Twilight Sparkle would have given her horn just to have even the most perfunctory access to.

Specifically, the books that Diamond Tiara had been furiously reviewing were the journals and memoirs of her fillyhood her, the famed adventure Pith Helmut. Before she had discovered these journals, Diamond Tiara had never had much interest in reading- -but the stories of the suave and confident adventurer had immediately appealed to her as he and his handsome butler Studly Rumpford forged through jungles and ruins and managed prudent and sometimes ingeniously devious business transactions to sell their recovered finds, all while avoiding the annoying and much younger do-gooder Daring Feats and his cross-eyed assistant Morning Dew. Diamond Tiara had gone to great expense to purchase some of the journals from private collectors, and gone even so far as to have many of them published. These stories had gotten Diamond Tiara through some hard times, and she had read them all again and again- -save for the very last one, which she had only read once.

It had been her hope that these journals might once again be her salvation. Pith Helmut had spent almost four decades as an adventurer, researcher, and art dealer, and he had come across a great many things. Ancient spells, curses, artifacts, and all manner of strange beasts both natural and artificial. Diamond Tiara could have sworn that she had read something somewhere about strange, tall unicorns, but so far her search had been in vain. There was nothing of value to her situation, nothing similar that Pith Helmut had encountered in his entire storied career. That had been Diamond Tiara’s last hope, that there was SOMETHING to justify that what she was seeing was somehow real. So far, it had been to no avail.

She continued to look at the ceiling, and then rubbed her eyes. It was late. Pick and Silver Spoon had gone to bed hours ago, and were no doubt fast asleep. A thought momentarily occurred to Diamond Tiara that they could quite possibly be sleeping together. Diamond Tiara tried to push that thought away. Pick was ostentatiously her coltfriend, and Silver Spoon was her best friend. There was no way they would do that to her. But she just could not get the image of them smiling and holding each other out of her bed- -Silver Spoon looking more perfect than Diamond Tiara ever could, and Pick having completely removed his armor just for her. Perhaps they were even doing more than just sleeping.

The combination of the infuriating image and Diamond Tiara’s frustration got the better of her, and with an inarticulate yell she slammed her forelegs against the table and dragged them across it, sending the books and notes flying everywhere.

Doing so made Diamond Tiara feel better, but only for a moment. She then immediately felt even more impatient and angry with herself; many of those books were fragile, and now she would have to pick them up.

With a sigh, she got down of her chair and began to pile them back onto the desk, trying to do so with some semblance of organization. As she did, one book caught her eye, one that she had not taken down herself.

The book was one of Silver Spoon’s. Silver Spoon was a fan of strange, often esoteric pseudo-historical dramas- -the exact kind of story that Diamond Tiara found immensely tedious and pointless- -and this was no doubt one of them. From its age, Diamond Tiara knew that it was one of the possibly centuries old tomes taken from the underground library of her desert summer home. She was not entirely sure what it was about, being that it was written in Old Equestrian- -one of many languages that Silver Spoon had picked up unusually quickly- -but she guessed that it was an early Gluetenberg copy of “Strange Alchemy”.

What was peculiar was the page it had fallen open to. It was an old black-and-white woodcut showing an annoyed looking elderly unicorn and his squat, much younger unicorn wife confronting an earth pony with a conniving smile and a tattooed foreleg. What caught Diamond Tiara’s attention, though, was the character pictured standing behind the earth pony. She appeared to also be an earth pony, dressed as a nun and wearing a blindfold. It was clear that she was intended to be a minor character in the scene, but somepony had altered the image. A glowing yellow halo of light was painted around her head, and the edges of it had been inscribed with complicated letters written in some kind of dark-brown ink in threatening runes that were definitely not Old Equestrian.

“That’s weird,” said Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon had defiantly not added the feature- -she knew better than to harm a book, especially anywhere within a hundred miles of Twilight Sparkle- -and the modification looked far too old anyway.

Not being relevant, though, Diamond Tiara closed the book and set it on the table desk. She looked across the room to where her drone was standing, now mostly repaired and projecting the appearance of an excessively stern blue-green stallion, watching her.

“You know, you’re not helping,” she said.

The drone clicked in response with a code snipped that essentially asked for instructions. Diamond Tiara sighed; it was obvious that Pick had programmed the drone, as it took no initiative. That, or Tourmel Niobus had given him a defective model. Considering it, the problem was probably a combination of the two.

“Help me pick up these books,” she said, carefully adding, “and set them onto the table.”

The drone acknowledged her request, and crossed the room to help her with the books.

“You know, I wouldn’t be in this mess if you could just record properly,” muttered Diamond Tiara. It was, of course, not the drone’s fault. It was just a machine. Like ponies, it could not see the tall unicorns. That was not is purpose here anyway, though. Pick had not sent it to watch for the strange pale creatures, but rather to keep an eye on Diamond Tiara. She was aware of this, but she was just glad not to be alone, even if her only company was made of steel and technetium.

Once the books were returned, Diamond Tiara moved to return to her chair, but the drone stopped her. She turned, and was presented with a mug of steaming liquid.

Diamond Tiara looked at the cup, and then at the drone. It responded with something similar to a smile. “Maybe Pick isn’t a complete moron at programming after all,” said Diamond Tiara. “But you are a moron, Pick. I know you’ll be listening to this later. At least ninety percent moron. And this drone had better not be filming my flank.”

She took the cup to the window of the study and sipped from it. It was apple juice, heated and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. It was good, perfect for a cold fall night, but the combination of warmth and spices made Diamond Tiara crave real cider badly.

Outside, it had started to rain. The falling water was pattering against the glass of the window, and the mist of the rain was visible in the light of the lamps outside. There were no ponies out there in the storm, save for one unicorn standing beneath the glow of the lamp. He had been there for hours, never moving. Somehow, despite standing in the rain, he was not getting wet; and despite standing below the light, he was not lit. As if he just barely existed.

Diamond Tiara was not sure if this was supposed to scare her, but it was actually starting to do the opposite. She wondered if she could just ignore them, whatever they were, at least until the Pony Prom passed. Of course, that hinged on the assumption that their presence was not actually malevolent. And from what Diamond Tiara had seen, they almost certainly were.

After nearly finishing her juice, Diamond Tiara turned back to her work- -when the room was suddenly wracked with an immense explosion. She dropped the mug and was vaguely aware that it shattered on the floor as pain ran through her head and the world shook.

All around her, sound seemed to erupt from everywhere. Detonations were punctuated with intense, deafening electrical buzz and the sound of something tearing, like an enormous sail of fabric being ripped effortlessly in half. The entire world seemed to be collapsing, and Diamond Tiara suddenly felt herself sliding downward.

She screamed, and then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. She was left clinging to the floor, panting and covered in sweat, her whole body shaking while the drone watched over her, mildly confused at her antics. She did not even need to ask it- - it had not detected anything. To it, the only sound was the rain and the crackling of the fire, while to her, she could still hear the distant sound of metal rending from the unseen blast.

She stumbled, and, disoriented, grabbed the edge of her desk. She tried to stabilize herself, and when she did, her eyes fell onto her notebook. It had up until that instant been blank, as she had found nothing of relevance in any of the journals. Now the front page was completely filled, covered entirly with her own hoofwriting. There was no content aside from a single repeated word: “yellow”.
“No,” whispered Diamond Tiara. “No no no…” she stood up, shaking, and went to the desk. She pulled open a drawer and extracted a bottle of pills. Without even caring about the dose, she took them straight out of the bottle, just trying to make the pain and fear stop. When she thought she had enough, she sat down in her chair- -and realized that the pain was not going to go away.

Diamond Tiara opened her eyes. She had not been asleep, but she had not been entirely conscious either. For a moment, she was confused and disoriented, not fully aware of where she was or how she had gotten there. Then the dull ache in her head slowly returned, and she remembered.

Slowly, she sat up, wincing at the stiffness in her neck. Around her, the room had gone dark. The only light came from the dim embers of the fire, lighting everything with a consistent orange glow that was just barely able to illuminate the shelves of books and the stationary drone standing in the corner.

Outside, a bolt of lightning struck somewhere in the distance and white light filled the room. The drone’s holographic shell was momentarily overwhelmed by the bright light and instead of the lie of a pony form it stood as a robotic skeleton for just a moment, its tiny red glass eyes staring lifelessly from its skull-like faceplate.

A blanket slipped down from Diamond Tiara’s neck. She did not know how it had gotten there; perhaps in the pill-induced stupor, she had gone to the linen closet or got it. Or the drone could have given it to her, or Pick, or Silver Spoon- -or somepony else. She could not remember.

The lightning flashed away as quickly as it had come, but the light somehow remained. The world seemed to have been washed in gray shadow, and Diamond Tiara just sat in her chair, staring across the room at the door of her study, half expecting it to open. Somehow, though, she knew that they did not use doors. Nothing as simple as walls of wood and stone would be able to stop them.

A thought suddenly occurred to Diamond Tiara, and she found herself sliding off her chair. She dropped the blanket next to her, ignoring the coldness of the night that the failing fire had allowed to take hold. She normally hated the cold, but now she hardly felt it. She hardly felt anything; it was as though she were watching herself slowly move toward the door in some kind of a movie.

On either side of the door stood two potted chollas, both in full bloom. They whispered to Diamond Tiara, their voice neither a question nor an answer but rather a commentary on the world. Their white, ghost-like flowers were filling the room with an overpoweringly sweet smell. Diamond Tiara momentarily paused between them, considering that smell and knowing that she was forgetting something.

She turned to the drone. “Stay…stay here,” she said, her voice cracking from her tiredness.

It acknowledged her, but not with a standard affirmative. Instead it clicked out the code equivalent of the number four. Diamond Tiara was not sure why it did that, but she ignored it and crossed into the hall.

The expensive oak planking creaked beneath her hooves as she walked through the darkness. This was a hallway she had walked down hundreds of times as a filly, but now, somehow, it seemed different. The walls seemed larger, and everything seemed to be standing at odd angles. The whole world seemed sharper, as though Diamond Tiara were trying to wear Silver Spoon’s glasses. Everything was familiar, but nothing looked right- -and Diamond Tiara had no idea why.

Groggy and still confused, Diamond Tiara made her way toward the bathroom. It was, like everything in this house, exceptionally fancy by normal pony standards. The bathtub was cut from a single piece of marble, and the toilet was made of genuine imported porcelain crafted by a master toilet artisan- -and, of course, it did not match the bathtub at all. Diamond Tiara ignored both of the appliances and instead picked herself up on her hind legs and clutched the sink. For a moment, she wondered if she would be sick. The juice she had drank an indefinite number of hours ago was not agreeing with the pills or with her level of stress.

The nausea cleared after a moment, and Diamond Tiara stared into the mirror. Her hair was askew and her tiara crooked, and large dark circles had formed under her eyes. Instinctively, Diamond Tiara mentally chastised herself in Spoiled Rich’s voice. Spoiled would have screamed at her to see her like this- -shouting at her how a filly of her station should fix her hair, put on makeup to cover the imperfections of her face, and ignore the pain lest the family find itself the topic of the latest gossip.

Diamond Tiara was not sure that she was that strong. All she wanted to do was to make this stop, to live like a normal pony. This was supposed to be a happy time for her, but something had gone wrong. Something had taken that from her.

She focused on her reflection, and then on the pain in her head. Instead of trying to suppress it, she called on it, amplifying it as best as she could. The voices that she always heard on some level immediately responded with frantic whispers that grew louder as Diamond Tiara strained against her mentally-induced pain.

For just a moment, the image in the mirror shifted, and Diamond Tiara smiled. She had been right. She took several deep breaths, and then gripped the edge of the granite sink and summoned all of her will.

The pain increased, but Diamond Tiara pushed through it. In the mirror, her reflection wavered- -and then she saw it for what it truly was. The room behind her crystalized into its pure, gray form, and her face changed in response to the new environment. She was shown exactly what she had wanted to see- -and what she had desperately hoped to ever avoid knowing.

Like the others, she had been changed too. Her skin was sallow, her mane cut closely away to reveal surgical scars and several glimmering metallic implants amongst the pale and damaged flesh. A number was tattooed on one side of her head in a language that she could not read, and the pupil of her eye on that side swam with narrow metallic tendrils belonging to something that seemed to exist within it.

Diamond Tiara looked at the reflection, and reached up toward one of the implants on her forehead. For a moment she saw her foreleg, dotted with scars and ports, the kind meant for needles for quick injection. As she ran her hoof over her skin, she realized that whatever had been done to her was not just visual. It was real.

Her eyes welled with tears. As her mother continually reminded her, she had never been pretty, but she had still been proud of her appearance. To realize that beneath her smooth pink coat was this mess of scars and burns and metal was almost too much to bear.

Carefully, she reached up toward the largest of the implants on her forehead and found that it had some play in its motion. She twisted it, crying out in pain as she felt something inside her skull move. She gasped, not sure she wanted to continue- -but knowing that there was no other choice.

She pulled the needle slowly, drawing it out of her skull. It did not hurt, but somehow, she could feel it- -and worse, hear it- -as it came out. When about four inches had been withdrawn, the air beside her started to distort. The needle hitched slightly somewhere deep in Diamond Tiara’s brain, but she pulled it sharply and the air beside her resolved into the form of a tall unicorn- -the one who had surely been standing beside her the whole time.

His large, pale eyes looked in the mirror, and then down at Diamond Tiara.

“What are you doing?” he demanded. His accent was such that it was impossible to tell the emotion that his speech was meant to covey, but Diamond Tiara could tell that he was not happy. “Stop! That is a critical component!”

“So you can talk,” said Diamond Tiara. The needle was now withdrawn at least six inches, and the world around her was beginning to resolve even better. She could now see that the unicorn beside her was not actually colorless, but in fact a pale salmon color

“I do not know what you are intending to do,” he said, sharply, “I don’t know how you can see us, but you need to listen.”

“Listen to what?” gasped Diamond Tiara, dropping the needle into the sink and starting on what appeared to be its twin on the other side of her forehead.

“Those implants are the only things keeping you stable,” he said, his voice sounding increasingly urgent. Now that Diamond Tiara knew what to expect, she was pulling the second needle out faster. “I put them in you for a reason. It is as of yet unclear what would happen if you- -”

The second needle clattered to the sink, and the unicorn’s eyes widened. Diamond Tiara almost laughed despite the sudden vertigo that overcame her as the second needle clattered into the sink, knowing that she had finally done something that they did not like.

Then, in an instant, Diamond Tiara was slammed to the cold tile floor below. The wind was knocked out of her, and for a moment she was terrified that the unicorn had pulled her down and thrown her against the floor. As her vision cleared, though, she looked up to realize that he was gone- -or perhaps had never been there at all.

Diamond Tiara stood up, shaking her head and trying to remember what she had been doing. The world had seemed to fade out for a moment, and she was not entirely sure why she had just done what she had just done. Once she was ready, she looked back into the mirror.

Except that there was no mirror. In its place was a pitted, ancient-looking brick wall- -which was odd, considering that Diamond Tiara’s house was not made of brick. Blinking, Diamond Tiara tried to figure out what had gone wrong. She looked down at the sink and saw that it, too, was different. It was still granite, and still almost the way it had been- -but it was wrong. Instead of two spigots, there was now only one, and the polished granite seemed rough-hewn and uneven.

Diamond Tiara backed away, and felt her hooves slipping on the mossy tile below. Eventually she bumped into the bathtub, and cried out when she nearly fell into the black fluid that had inexplicably come to fill it. The placid fluid reacted in turn, and something large rippled just beneath the surface.

“Sil- -Silver Spoon?” called Diamond Tiara, now backing toward the door. No response came. “Pick? Pick, are you listening? I know you are- -if you come down here right now, I’ll…I’ll let you touch my tail! And I won’t even kick you this time!”

Once again, there was no response, and Diamond Tiara found herself in the hall outside the bathroom. It was once again dark, but instead of being lit with the gray light of her unusual perception, a strange and threating glow came through the windows- -windows that had not been there before.

The length of the hall seemed to have increased as well as it stretched outward, curving away when it should have been straight. Diamond Tiara started slowly walking down this corridor, her hooves tapping against the enormous stone blocks that made up the floor, trying not to break into a run.

“D…drone?” she called, almost whispering. “I could really, REALLY use some help right about now…”

The only response was of a distant creaking sound from something moving on one of the upper floors. Diamond Tiara found herself walking faster. Then, from behind her, she heard something moving with a sickly wet sound. It was at that time that she broke into a run.

Within seconds she burst through the front door of her house and fell into the street. Still trying to catch her breath, she slammed the door behind her, desperately wanting to avoid seeing whatever was in there.

Shaking, she looked up to the sky, and immediately gasped. Instead of the cloudy, rainy sky that she had awoken to, it was now perfectly clear- -but it was unlike any sky she had ever seen in her life. Instead of Luna’s subtle painted masterpieces, numerous foreign suns and moons floated through the sky, each burning weakly in bizarre and unearthly colors. Many of them were broken, their spherical shapes disrupted and their internal machinery exposed to the luminescent debris field that consumed the sky. In some places, the machinery of the dead stars was ripping away from them and periodically falling, silently plummeting to the earth below and landing in the vast distance.

“Oh buck,” said Diamond Tiara, clinging to the brick wall that made up the ground level of her home as if the colored and damaged spheres that dominated most of the sky might fall down upon her at any moment. “Oh buck oh buck oh buck what did I do?”
She looked behind her, wondering if she should sprint back into the house and get the needles. She quickly discarded that plan, though. Not only did she not want to attempt to reinsert pieces of foreign material into her brain, but she somehow knew that if she went back in there, something terrible would happen. That, and she recalled that there had been no needles in the rough-granite sink. Just a wide dark stain where they had been.

“Okay,” said Diamond Tiara, taking a deep breath. “Okay…I’m fine. I can do this. I just…” Except there was no “I just”. The situation made no sense, and Diamond Tiara could see no recourse or solution for it.

“Well,” she reasoned, trying to calm herself. “I’m still in Ponyville…I think…”

With that thought to reassure her- -even if it only did so poorly- -she stepped away from her house and into the street. The ground was hard, and a few small rivers of clear water trickled past areas where large but unknown things had been buried and only barely penetrated the compacted surface. On all sides, the town seemed strange. Diamond Tiara certainly recognized it, but some things were not quite right. Buildings were just slightly different shapes, or farther apart than they should have been. Sometimes windows were missing, and sometimes buildings sat at odd angles that made no logical sense.

Taken alone, any of those features would be almost unnoticed by anyone except the most observant ponies. Even the combination of errors were difficult to classify completely, but although Diamond Tiara could not point them out, she had lived in Ponyville long enough to feel the overwhelming sense of wrongness around her.

Compounding it was the strange light. The suns- -or perhaps they were moons, it was impossible to know- -were not a normal color. The largest of them glowed a kind of sickly green, and its brighter but smaller twin cast something more like magenta. Taken together, the light was slightly brighter than twilight, but although adequate it was an unnatural color and seemed to flicker with the dying, decaying stars overhead.

The whole place, likewise, had an unusual smell. Instead of the smell of dirt roads, apples, flowers, and baked goods that Ponyville normally held, it just smelled old and moist, like an unusually deep and unusually wet basement. It was not a bad smell, but it was not a smell that anything outside should ever smell like.

The worst part, though, was the overwhelming silence. Diamond Tiara knew it had been night when she had taken the pins out, so she did not expect to see ponies in the street, but the town was eerily silent. There was no sound of crickets, night-birds, or even wind. In fact, the air was perfectly still.

Despite this, Diamond Tiara had the strangest feeling that she was not alone. There were no ponies around her, but she would occasionally catch glimpses of things moving in the shadows of the buildings. They might just have been tricks of the light- -that was what Diamond Tiara told herself- -but sometimes, she would see the motion stop and a pair of reflective eyes staring back from the darkness at her.

“Hello?” she called into the void. “Is anypony there? I need help…I can pay you for it…”

There was no response, apart from a slow and damp breeze that twined between the buildings and crooked picket fences of an abandoned village.

Diamond Tiara kept walking aimlessly until she found herself at the door of Rich Manor. That in itself was strange- -not only had she not been headed there, but Rich Manor had purposely been built a great distance from the town specifically to keep the riff-raff away. Diamond Tiara did not remember crossing through the winding country roads, or even passing through the iron gate that kept her family sealed and apart. She looked over her shoulder, and saw the town in the distance. Somehow, in a matter of minutes, she had walked a distance that should have taken most of an hour.

Slowly, Diamond Tiara climbed the stairs that led to the door. The columns that stood beside it were different than they should have been, and overgrown with thick vines- -or carved to appear as though they were covered with thick vines. It was difficult to tell, as most of the vegetation that Diamond Tiara had seen was dark and strangely colored, as though it might have been somehow fake.

There was no door in the doorframe. Just a gaping, dark hole. Diamond Tiara paused at the threshold. It was her home- -even if it had never felt like that- -so she did not understand why the hair on neck was bristling, or why she suddenly felt so cold.

Ignoring the instinct, she walked in. Whatever light the dying suns outside produced did not seem to obey the rules of normal sunlight; it poured into the house from no apparent source, seeping through tiny holes in the walls and through the frames of the opaque windows like some kind of liquid. Inside was darker than outside, but Diamond Tiara could still see.

“Daddy?” she called. “Are you here?” She paused. “Spoiled? I’d even be glad to see you at this point…”

This time, a sound did come in response- -or rather, Diamond Tiara’s mind was overcome with a loud electrical buzzing. The world flashed for a moment as Diamond Tiara’s headache momentarily returned, and she thought she saw the ghost of several pale unicorns walking amongst her. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

She continued into Rich Manor- -except it was not even remotely recognizable as Rich Manor anymore. It had the same internal shape and probably the same dimensions, but it had been gutted. Where there should have been walls, there was at most a framework of metal supports but usually nothing at all. Instead of the home of the richest family in Ponyville, it looked like some kind of incomplete warehouse, with familiar furniture distributed sparsely through a well as with unusual debris that Diamond Tiara could not recognize.

While walking down the skeletal remains of a now industrial-looking hallway, Diamond Tiara looked into one room and froze. Until that point, every room she had seen had been either empty or filled with bizarre combinations of furniture. This one had a pony.

“Hel…hello?” whispered Diamond Tiara. His back was to her, and his head appeared to be down as though he were grazing. He did not seem to notice Diamond Tiara’s call.

Carefully, Diamond Tiara approached him. On some level, she knew that this was wrong. This was Rich Manor- -or was supposed to be- -and this red-colored pony was no one she recognized. Somehow, though, she needed to make contact, to know that there was someone else here. To get help.

The room seemed to expand around her, although it may just have been a result of the adrenaline. With her head pounding, Diamond Tiara took a breath and called out again.

“Hello? My name is Diamond Tiara. This…this is supposed to be my house. Not that- -not that I’m telling you to leave, but…um…who are you?”

Once again, the red pony did not respond, nor did he lift his head. He just kept standing there.

“Hey, I was talking to you,” snapped Diamond Tiara, her fear rapidly progressing to anger. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

What happened next was not entirely clear. The red pony was suddenly facing Diamond Tiara, even though she had not seen him move- -and it became exquisitely clear that he was not a pony at all.

Diamond Tiara had mistakenly believed that his head was down, but now she saw that he had no head at all- -at least, not in a normal sense. This creature resembled a normal pony, but where a pony’s neck should have risen from his body, its torso terminated into a wide, grinning face. A pair of gleaming, black-colored eyes stared up at Diamond Tiara, the tiny white pupils seeming to glare into her soul.

It did not move, but Diamond Tiara backed away- -which was when she noticed that it was not alone. There were more of them, standing throughout the room and on the high scaffold balconies that the pseudo-industrial architecture provided. All of them were silent, and all were staring at her. Every single one of them had an enormous grin. Diamond Tiara looked up at the ones above, and then down at the first and could have sworn that it had gotten closer.

Suddenly, a burst of olive light shot across the room, striking the floor at the foot of one of the creatures. It looked down and stepped back- -its motion was hideous and unpleasant to look at, and it made Diamond Tiara shiver- -and something heavy sidled up beside Diamond Tiara.

She looked to her side and saw a unicorn, her horn still glowing from the magical discharge, filling the room with greenish light. Otherwise, it was impossible to tell much about her: her entire body was covered in tattered armor and clothing that seemed to have been made from scraps. Even her face was covered by a bulky respirator mask, the kind that ponies usually used for lead abatement but with a dirty visor bolted haphazardly to the front.

“Don’t take your eyes off them!” she cried. Diamond Tiara looked back- -and now saw the creature inches away from her face, its nose nearly touching hers. She cried out and stepped back, where the dirty unicorn caught her and projected a surge of bright light from her horn.

“What- -what do we do?” said Diamond Tiara, terrified at how much her voice was wavering. She felt like she was about to faint.

“Keep looking at them, but don’t look in their eyes! Come on, move with me,” she started walking, and Diamond Tiara was forced to walk backward. “Work with me here! You watch my back, I’ll watch yours!”

“They- -they can’t move when you look at them?”

“Oh, they can. They definitely can.”

“Should we- -should we run?”

“NO! Just move with me. That’s it. Slowly.”

Diamond Tiara kept her eyes on them like she was told. “What…what happens if they catch us?”

“Don’t worry about it. If it comes to that, I’ll snap both our spines before they do.”

The unicorn led Diamond Tiara back toward the door, Diamond Tiara watching the creatures the whole time. She had gathered that they were, in fact, moving. Somehow she was not able to see it most of the time, and when she did, she wished she had not. The way they relocated themselves was wrong on a biological level, like watching a badly operated puppet filmed and played back at the highest possible speed.

Eventually- -after what felt like years- -they reached the door. The unicorn immediately broke into a sprint, her bags and clothing jingling as she went.

“I thought you said not to run!” called Diamond Tiara, pausing dumbfounded before chasing after her.

“I said that then, not now! Now is run time!”

Diamond Tiara tried her best to keep up, but despite all the weight she seemed to be carrying the unicorn was surprisingly athletic. That, and somehow the house seemed to have grown to a hundred times its normal size- -as if the hallways were expanding and curving, trying to keep them in.

“This is not good- -it’s reacting!” cried the unicorn. “Not here, not here! I’m not going to die here!”

“Die?!”

“I’m going to cut a hole! Get ready to jump!”

“Jump? What do you mean jump?”

The unicorn charged her horn, and fired a blast of light at one of the walls. A rectangular shape formed, and the internal contents collapsed into dust, producing a gap. Without hesitation, she jumped through the hole. Diamond Tiara followed- -only to immediately realize that, despite not having climbed any stairs, they were four stories above the ground.

Even though she was almost completely winded, Diamond Tiara screamed. The unicorn grabbed her and projected a magical bubble around them. It dampened the blow when they hit the ground, but the impact was still enough to disorient Diamond Tiara.

The unicorn, however, seemed completely unpassed. She stood up and expanded her bubble, detonating it- -and momentarily revealing a number of pony-like dark figures with reflective eyes who had inexplicably congregated around the pair of ponies. The magic repelled them, sending them sliding or scampering away silently into shadows.

Diamond Tiara slowly stood up, rubbing her head and gasping for breath. She looked around, and found herself standing in a dew-covered field of unnaturally blue colored grass surrounded by unnaturally tall and mottled trees. There was no sign of Rich Manor; just a field.

“We- -we made it!”

Her relief was rudely interrupted by the unicorn pushing her to the ground.

“Hey!”

“What in Celestia’s name were you THINKING?!” she screamed. She reached up and pulled off the mask. A large plume of red hair spilled out, framing the yellow face of an aging mare who had probably once been extraordinarily beautiful. Her large blue eyes locked onto Diamond Tiara. “Were you TRYING to die? Was I trying to die? What were you DOING?!”

The mare suddenly paused, and her eyes widened. “Wait a second wait a second wait a second,” she whispered. She got down on her knees and reached out toward Diamond Tiara, grabbing her face in both hooves and squishing it. “You’re not…no, you can’t be…but you are?”

“I am what?” demanded Diamond Tiara, pushing the mare’s hooves away.

“You’re…you’re real!” She powered up her horn and cast a spell around Diamond Tiara. It tingled, but did not otherwise feel threatening. “You…you’re not a hallucination, like the others. And you’re not one of them- -you’re- -you’re actually a pony! A living, breathing pony! Well, for now, anyway.”

“Of course I’m real,” said Diamond Tiara, standing and brushing herself off. “What else would I be?”

“It’s just that, I been alone….no one else for…for…” her eyes went glassy. “Not…not sure…”

Diamond Tiara looked back toward where her home had just been. “What were those things?”

“Jellenheimers,” said the mare, standing. “Not good. In fact very bad. I did not think either of us would survive that.”

“Why were you in there, then?”

The mare looked at Diamond Tiara, staring for an uncomfortably long time. “The storms brought me out. I saw you. Didn’t know you were real, then, or maybe I did. Saw you go in…I couldn’t let them take you.”

“Well…thanks.” Diamond Tiara paused. “I’m Diamond Tiara. Do you have a name?”

The mare opened her mouth to speak, but then looked panicked. “I- -I don’t- -I don’t remember. I know I had a name once…but it’s been so long…or maybe nobody ever named me no that’s not it. No. She needs a name to call us.” She paused, and then smiled at Diamond Tiara. “I like the name Lucy. Call me Lucy.”

Lucy’s smile suddenly faded. She looked out into the forest, apparently seeing something that Diamond Tiara could not. “Not good. Gathering. Another storm might be coming, or have just come. Not safe here.”

“Then we should get back to Ponyville,” said Diamond Tiara, pointing at the town in the distance.

“What? No, no, no no. No. It’s not Ponyville. Well, yes, it is, but no, it also isn’t. It’s both and neither. Working hypothesis is that it is predatory. It’s not good to go there, not now. Going into the buildings is worse. Some aren’t buildings, not anymore. And some never were.”

“Then where are we supposed to go?”

Lucy paused again, her blue eyes flitting about before falling on Diamond Tiara’s flank. “We don’t go anywhere. Nothing ever goes anywhere here. It only comes.”

As if that were an adequate explanation, she started walking off. Diamond Tiara hesitated, but eventually decided that her only chance was to follow Lucy. She was, at least, another pony.

Even a distance outside of the town proper, the landscape of this bizarre realm still resembled Ponyville on some level. Diamond Tiara recognized some of the structures that stood on the outside of town- -houses, sheds, substations and so forth- -but, like in town, they all looked different. They were gray and empty, abandoned an ominous. Even more eerie was that some of them were buildings that Diamond Tiara did not recognize- -or those from other places in town, now separated and standing tilted and askew in the center of slowly undulating twilight fields.

Lucy appeared to be leading Diamond Tiara toward the Everfree Forest- -or at least, where the Everfree Forest would have been if this had actually been Ponyville. The ominously large non-trees that bordered the silent fields seemed to be growing ever closer, and larger.

For the most part, Lucy was almost entirely silent. She would occasionally mutter to herself just quietly enough for Diamond Tiara not to hear what she was saying, but most of the time she made no sound, not even hoofsteps. Her eyes continually darted around, sometimes widening on mundane objects and sometimes staring seemingly at great distances for long durations.

One strange aspect that Diamond Tiara quickly noticed was that Lucy smelled. That was not unexpected- -with as dirty as she was, she looked like she had probably not bathed in years- -but what came as a surprise was the smell itself. It was not the smell of sweat or dirt, but something strongly floral. It took Diamond Tiara some time to figure out what exactly the smell was, but eventually she realized that it was the scent of carnations. Somehow, Lucy must have managed to acquire some abnormally high-grade perfume.

When they finally entered the forest, the silence became unbearable for Diamond Tiara. She was just too nervous and confused- -and although being around Lucy made her feel somewhat better, being surrounded by the moist and excessively still forest of statue-like trees was to unnerving to be left alone with her emotions.

“So,” she said at last. “Where…um…where exactly are we?”

“Here,” said Lucy, as though she had been anticipating the question and as though that were an adequate answer. “We are here. No, no,” she whispered to herself. “No, she needs a REAL answer. She doesn’t know, needs a name…”

“Are you okay?”

“No. I haven’t been okay in…in a long time. But this place…I don’t think it’s really a place. Not entirely, anyway. It doesn’t have a name. It’s just here.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Lucy looked over her shoulder. “Welcome to my world.” She turned back to an area where the land suddenly dropped off into a steep cliff. Diamond Tiara vaguely recognized this as part of the Everfree Forest, from when she had been younger and stupider and taken a dare to try to get to the Castle of the Two Sisters.

From the vantage, Diamond Tiara was able to look out at the horizon. What she saw was not pleasant. In the far distance, the darkness of the sky gave way to sickly, luminescent fog. Through the mist at the very end of the horizon stood tall things that must have been hundreds if not thousands of feet high, each of which, as Diamond Tiara watched, seemed to be marching slowly across the land.

“What the buck are those things?”

“I never really figured that out,” said Lucy, staring out at them. She looked down at the cliff. “Come on, we are almost there.”

Without any sign of hesitation, she leapt from the cliff, enveloping herself in her magic to slow her descent. Diamond Tiara, being an earth pony, was forced to take a narrow path that had been carved down the side of the cliff. As she moved down the ancient stairs, Diamond Tiara found herself wondering who had made these stairs, if Lucy was the only pony here. That thought gave her pause, because it was terrifying in its own right- - the possibility that Lucy might actually be the only pony alive in this place.

Eventually- -and with some difficulty- -Diamond Tiara made her way to the forest floor below. She looked out toward where Lucy was standing. Beyond her was a substantial depression in the ground, a crater hundreds of yards wide. As Daimond Tiara approached it, she saw that it contained no trees but instead an enormous but incomplete structure consisting of a number of enormous arcs of white material linked in a row on their surface. Lucy, seemingly unperturbed by its enormous size, walked toward a cave in the more convoluted front portion.

Diamond Tiara approached the cave and found, to her surprise, that both its opening and its inside were completely round. Despite its peculiar shape, though, it was large enough to hold at least ten ponies, let alone two.

“You live here?” asked Diamond Tiara, somewhat disgusted by the dirt floor and the total lack of any sort of protection from the various things that seemed to have been watching her outside.

Lucy froze, and stared at Diamond Tiara for what felt like several minutes. “That’s a question I ask myself so much…” she said, possibly not to Diamond Tiara but rather to the room itself. “Am I still alive? It’s not so easy to tell, sometimes.”

She shrugged, as if dismissing the entire quandary, and reached into her bag. She gingerly removed an object that Diamond Tiara could not identify. It appeared to be partly made of some kind of glass, but at the same time it looked highly mechanical. Whatever it was, it was clear that it was badly damaged, and probably a piece of something much larger.

Lucy set the object in the center of the room and ignited her horn. She cast a spell around the device, and it reacted, moving slightly and then suddenly bursting forth with an intense crystalline blue flame.

“Crap!” cried Diamond Tiara, covering her eyes from the sudden blast of light. “What the hay is that thing?”

Lucy once again paused. “You ask a lot of questions that I also asked,” said Lucy. “That either means we might become good friends, or you might not actually be so real after all.” She sat down on the far side of the fire, toward the interior of the cave. Diamond Tiara paused, and then sat down on the side so that her back would not face the opening.

Once Diamond Tiara was seated, Lucy pointed upward. “It was a piece of them. The Spheres. They are old, older than anything. They’re here because they’re broken. Sometimes pieces fall. Sometimes the pieces still work.”

“That thing fell out of the sky?” said Diamond Tiara. She pointed at the object in disbelief. She had, of course, seen meteors in museums- -but none of them looked like that, or produced fire when exposed to magic.

“Lots of things fall down from up there. What we are sitting in, it fell from above.”

“A cave fell from the sky? Really?”

Lucy smiled. “You’re not very bright, are you?”

“Hey! All I’m saying is- -”

“This is an eye socket. This is a skull.”

“A…a SKULL?” squeaked Diamond Tiara, suddenly realizing that the half-burried arches outside looked just like ribs and a spine. “This…this? This?”

Lucy nodded. “This one fell years ago. Possibly from old age but…I don’t think so. Things like this live up there, in the sky. In those rocks. But there are bigger things. Or smaller things that are meaner. You have no idea how long I had to wait for the jellenheimers to get out.” Her eyes glazed. “Actually…neither do I.”

“So the light…it scares the monsters away?”

“Oh no,” said Lucy. She pointed to the mouth of the cave. “Look.”

Diamond Tiara looked, and saw that the light did not behave at all like normal light. Instead of going out into the darkness and fading, it reached just beyond the “cave” and suddenly stopped, creating a hard border between the intense light and the suddenly inky blackness beyond.

“They’re out there. Right now. Some are inches from that border, waiting, watching. They never stop watching. Ever. And the light doesn’t stop them, or at least most of them. They could break through at any moment, if they wanted to. The light just makes it so we can’t see them.”

“Comforting,” said Diamond Tiara, suddenly feeling herself sweating, and not from the heat of the fire. “So how do you sleep?”

“I don’t.”

Diamond Tiara looked toward the darkness again, trying to see what was beyond- -or trying not to. Then she turned back to the fire. Lucy had fallen silent again, but she had not stopped looking at Diamond Tiara. She just kept staring, and she seemed to blink a lot less than a normal pony.

Unexpectedly, Diamond Tiara’s stomach suddenly gurgled. She realized that she had not eaten since the day before- -she had become increasingly paranoid that her food was contaminated with the tall unicorn’s steel worms. All she had for a caloric source was apple juice.

“Do you have any food?” she asked, realizing that it was rude but not caring.

“I will soon,” said Lucy. She did not take her unblinking blue eyes off of Diamond Tiara.

“Oh,” said Diamond Tiara, trying not to contemplate what that meant. She looked up at the top of the bony socket that they were sitting in- -and realized that the entire inner surface was inscribed with complex mathematical and magical formulae.

“What the buck…” she whispered to herself, pulling herself away from the wall to see that it was behind her as well, linking continuously over the whole surface. She looked at Lucy. “What is this?”

“Oh,” said Lucy, her eyes drifting over the surface. “That. That was an old project. It didn’t work. None of them ever did. I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“A project? To do what?”

Lucy looked Diamond Tiara in the eyes. “To get back.”

“Back? Back to where?”

“Do you think I was born here?” snapped Lucy with surprising vitriol. “Do you think I WANT to be here? I’m just trying to get home- -it’s all I’ve ever been- -” She suddenly stopped, and her anger evaporated. Instead, she now smiled. “I’ve spent a long time researching. Trying to find a way out. I don’t know how long, because time doesn’t always work right here. It could have been months, or maybe years…or decades…or centuries. Millennia. Minutes. This place made me alone. I want…I want to go back.”

“Oh,” said Diamond Tiara, backing away. “So you’re a researcher?”

“What? No. I’m pretty sure I was a florist.” She paused, and took her eyes off Diamond Tiara. “I was like you once. Young, beautiful. I had a whole life ahead of me.” She looked into the fire. “I used to live in a place…a town. It looked like the dead-town. I don’t remember what it was called.”

“Ponyville?”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “Yes! How did you know?”

“I’m from Ponyville too,” admitted Diamond Tiara.

“Really?” said Lucy, as though she had suddenly become suspicious of Diamond Tiara. She began to address herself in muttering, “two from the same place…symmetry over cross-translational…no, no, she would have to be…” she looked up. “You wouldn’t happen to be pregnant, would you?”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened, and she blushed. “N- -no! Of course not! Wait, is that a fat joke?”

“You’re not that fat,” said Lucy. “No. That was a legitimate question.”

“No! Why would you even- -my coltfriend and I, we haven’t even- -you know- -”

“You have a coltfriend?” said Lucy. “Waiting…waiting for you…” She trailed off, and Diamond Tiara thought she saw a tear drip down Lucy’s dirty face.

“You had one,” she said. “Back in Ponyville.”

“I had a husband,” said Lucy. “And I had a daughter. I don’t remember my own name, but I remember hers. It’s the only thing I’ve been able to keep with me this long. Little Fluttershy…I miss her so much.”

Diamond Tiara gaped. “Fluttershy? I know Fluttershy!”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “You- -you do? She’s still alive?”

“Yeah! She lives in Ponyville. She takes care of all the animals in town.”

“Takes care of…how old is she?”

“How old?” Diamond Tiara paused. “I never asked. But she’s only a little older than Rainbow Dash…so…late twenties, maybe? Mid-thirties?”

Lucy’s expression fell. “Thirt…thirties? She was less than a month old when my symptoms started…I’ve been here that long? I…” she turned away. “I missed my little filly growing up. Celestia damn it…”

“If it’s any consolation, she turned out great. She’s beautiful, and compassionate, and…well…she looks a lot like you, except with pink hair. And younger.” Lucy smiled, but the significance of something she had said suddenly reached Diamond Tiara. “Wait, symptoms?”

Lucy nodded. “It started out as headaches. Really bad ones. Manifested further as visual disturbances and hallucinations, and intense paranoia. At first I thought it was the strain of being a single mother- -but then I thought I was dying. And then I ended up here.” She paused. “For a long time, I thought I did die. But you disproved that.”

“Me?”

“You! You’re REAL!” Lucy giggled. “An actual, real, living pony! I’m- -I’m not insane! I’m not dead, and I’m not alone! This all- -this all is REAL!” She giggled again, and it rose into laughter. “I always wondered. Always! I’ve been alone this whole time. In this place. But then you came! A real- -” She started to laugh again, but the laugh instantly froze as her expression fell. Her manic eyes went still and focused on Diamond Tiara. “And I’m…I’m so sorry.”

“For- -for what?” Diamond Tiara was not sure if she wanted to know why, but could not stop herself from asking.

“Because wherever this is, there’s no way out.”

“What do you mean?” cried Diamond Tiara, her voice becoming shrill when Lucy said exactly what she expected. “There has to be! There just has to!”

Lucy shook her head. “This spell, and hundreds like it…I’ve tried everything to get back to my daughter, to my life. I never succeeded. The best I have managed to do is survive, and learn, but…I just can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

“No.”

“I really am- -”

“Not that. I’m denying that there is no way out.”

“Diamond Tiara, I checked- -”

“You didn’t check good enough, then. Do you know who I am? I’m Diamond Dazzle Tiara Rich, heir to the largest technology company in all of Equestria. Do you think my grandpa or my daddy ran that company by giving up? Do you think I’M going to give up that easily?”

Lucy stared at Diamond Tiara for a long time, but her expression did not change. “I like you,” she said eventually. “I hope you don’t die here.”

“You don’t need to hope. I’m going to get out. And I’m going to take you with me. I promise.”

Lucy sighed. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I don’t,” said Diamond Tiara. She leaned back against the etched runes and fiddled with the bandages over her foreleg.

“What is that?” asked Lucy.

“Just a burn,” said Diamond Tiara, wincing as she pulled back part of the gauze to find the wound releasing a kind of yellow fluid. It did not hurt much, oddly- -but it was looking worse.

“Let me see,” said Lucy, scooting over beside Diamond Tiara. The smell of carnations was almost overwhelming, but pleasantly familiar.

“It’s fine,” said Diamond Tiara.

“No, it’s a radiation burn,” said Lucy. “You walked all the way here on this?”

“I’m used to pain,” said Diamond Tiara. “That, and the pills.” She paused. “Wait, what do you mean radiation burn?”

Lucy removed one of her front boots and revealed a bandage made of scrap cloth wrapped around a severely scarred foreleg. “From the storms. I know what radiation is. And that wound won’t heal naturally.”

“Great,” said Diamond Tiara. “I guess I will have to wear a bracelet at the Prom.”

Lucy smiled, and charged her horn. Diamond Tiara felt a sudden intense burning as the magic wrapped around her foreleg. She yelped in pain and pulled it away.

“What the buck!” she cried. “You- -you- -” she looked down and suddenly realized that, despite the pain, Lucy had mostly healed the burn, leaving only a substantial but mostly faded scar. “You healed me…”

“You were nice to me,” she said. “Nopony has been nice to me in a long time. I just want us to be friends. If that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara, looking up at her. “Yeah, sure.”

Lucy smiled, and for the first time she looked genuinely happy. She seemed to be about to say something, but then, as quickly as it had come, it evaporated. Her eyes glazed, and for a moment she stared into space. Then she appeared panicked.

“Storm!” she cried. “The storm is here!”

Before Diamond Tiara could even ask what that meant, a jarring and familiar pain rushed through her head- -no doubt the same pain that Lucy was feeling. She cried out, and felt the world shake. Diamond Tiara collapsed to the ground, clinging to it as if the entire world were about to fall away from her.

Through the dizziness and nausea, she saw lights flash in the darkness beyond the cave. At first it looked like lightning, except that it was blue and seemed to twist in long, organic curves. Through the light, she thought that she saw the ghostly after-images of tall, blank-eyed unicorns.

Then the lightning seemed to crystalize into a swirling column just yards away from the opening of the cave. The air rushed around it, humming with a powerful electric roar.

“What’s happening?!” cried Diamond Tiara over the sound.

“I- -I don’t know!” shouted Lucy. “I’ve never seen this happen before!”

Suddenly, something started to pull on Diamond Tiara. She squealed in surprise and pawed at the ground, but she could not get a grip and was sucked toward the swirling vortex of destructive energy.

“NO!” cried Lucy, grabbing Diamond Tiara’s front hooves.

“Help me!”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?!” Lucy dug her hooves into the dirt; whatever was pulling Diamond Tiara seemed to have no effect on the older pony.

For a moment, Lucy seemed to be winning the fight- -but then she slipped, and Diamond Tiara suddenly broke free. For a moment, the world seemed to freeze as she looked up into Lucy’s terrified eyes. Then she accelerated rapidly, drawn into the anomaly.

“Diamond Tiara!” cried Lucy. “DIAMOND TIARA!”

“Diamond Tiara!” cried a different voice. Diamond Tiara blinked and looked over her shoulder. Silver Spoon was standing behind her, her mane soaked by the falling rain.

“Silver…Silver Spoon?”

“Diamond Tiara, what are you doing?! Just step back, SLOWLY.”

“Step back?” Diamond Tiara did not understand. Then she looked ahead of her- -and realized that she was standing inches away from the edge of her three-story roof, the wet and dark ground waiting below.

Diamond Tiara screamed in surprise, and quickly retreated across the slippery clay tiles. The footing was uneven, and her hooves offered very little grip, and after three steps she slipped and fell into Silver Spoon’s grasp.

“I’ve got you!” said Silver Spoon, holding on tightly. “I’ve got you!”

Diamond Tiara suddenly burst into a fit of sobbing. She was cold and soaked, as though she had been standing on that roof for hours. Worse, she could not remember how she had gotten there- -but she could remember where she had thought she had been.

Her tears soaking into Silver Spoon’s already wet gray coat, she looked up at her friend. “Silver Spoon…I need help…please…help me…”

Chapter 8: Diagnosis

Diamond Tiara kicked her feet impatiently. The plush couch she was sitting on was comfortable- -far more so than her parent’s precision selected and horrendously ugly designer furniture- -but she just could not stop herself from feeling agitated and uncomfortable.

She still had no idea what had happened the night before. She did not want to know. It had taken almost six hours of clinging to Silver Spoon and crying- -and throwing things at Pick in embarrassment whenever he tried to approach- -before Diamond Tiara had finally regained her composure and begun to think logical. She had initially agreed to see a doctor, but on further consideration, she had realized that doing so was a mistake. Ponyville General was a small hospital, but had one of Equestria’s finest mental health facilities- -but Diamond Tiara knew that there was no way she could possible go there. The scandal of her being seen entering a hospital for psychological help would be too great. Not only would Spoiled never forgive her, but there was a strong chance that it could ruin her chances of successfully taking on Rich Corp from her father if she was seen as mentally incompetent.

So, she had elected for the next best thing- -and someone who probably could find out what was wrong with her better than any other in Equestria.

After what seemed like forever, the large crystalline door to the waiting room opened. A pair of ponies stepped in. One was a pale pink unicorn with long, bicolor hair; the other was a violet alicorn who towered above her friend.

“Diamond Tiara?” said Starlight, faking a smile and looking at a clipboard suspended in her magic. When Diamond Tiara saw that look, and the way Twilight Sparkle could not meet her eyes, she knew that something was wrong.

“Finally,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “What were you doing back there, making a cake?”

“Science takes time,” said Twilight, mildly defensively.

“Well, I’m a busy pony. Are you going to tell me what’s wrong with me or not?” She realized that she was being rude, but she could not help it. Inside, she was panicked, and the look on Starlight’s face was making it worse.

Twilight and Starlight looked at each other. “Now,” said Twilight. “You know neither of us are doctors.”

“But you are a Princess. The smartest Princess. And Starlight is the only pony better at magic than you are. Apparently. I can’t go to a doctor, Twilight. Not like this, not now.”

“It’s actually a good thing you came to us,” said Starlight. “I don’t think this is something an ordinary doctor would have picked up on.”

She produced an x-ray film and passed it to Diamond Tiara. It was annotated heavily in Twilight’s distinctively overly perfect hoofwriting.

“Am I supposed to know what this means? If I did, I wouldn’t have come to see you two now, would I?”

“It’s your brain,” said Twilight. “We ran a galadonium tracer MRI an contrasted a magic backfield to expand the topographic recognition- -”

“What she means is…” Starlight sighed and put down her clip board. “Road apples…the first time I get to play doctor with Twilight, and I have to do this…” She pulled up a chair and sat down across from Diamond Tiara. This only made Diamond Tiara more agitated. “The scan picked up something.”

“What kind of something?”

“We’re not entirly sure what they are,” said Twilight. “I’ve never seen anything like it, or read about it an any scholarly journal or text.”

“What do you mean ‘they’? What ‘they’?”

“That’s hard to explain,” said Starlight. “The closest thing I can think of is…worms.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. She recalled the device in her salad, the threatening monstrosity that had tried to get to her- -and successfully gotten to Silver Spoon.

“What- -what do you mean worms?”

“They aren’t actually worms. But they’re some kind of parasite. Your symptoms- -hallucinations, paranoia, headaches- -it’s because they are burrowing through your brain.”

“What…what?!”

“And they’re still moving,” said Twilight, darkly. “I back-traced them based on their rate, and…”

“Were you exposed to something? Something unusual, about six years ago?”

Diamond Tiara froze, and she immediately understood.

“The desert…” she whispered.

Starlight and Twilight looked at each other, but Diamond Tiara did not explain further. She did not think it would help her case to describe how as a child she had become telepathically linked to a population of sanguivorous cacti deep in an as-of-yet unnamed desert.

Diamond Tiara looked up at Twilight. “Can you remove them?”

“Well…” said Twilight, looking away. “Yes. I have a spell that could.”

“Then do it. I’ll pay whatever it takes.”

“I wouldn’t charge you, Diamond Tiara,” said Twilight, mildly offended.

“It’s not that simple,” said Starlight. “Whatever these are, they’ve linked to your synaptic pathways. They serve a critical conductive function.”

Diamond Tiara stared at Starlight. “You know, I can see why you live together,” she said. “You two are probably the only ones who can understand each other when you talk.”

“What she means is,” said Twilight, “they are part of you. If I removed them…”

“And you survive the process somehow.”

Twilight glared at Starlight. “…then you would lose a substantial part of what makes you, you. I don’t know if there would be any Diamond Tiara left.”

“What do you mean?” Diamond Tiara looked to them, and neither spoke. “Tell me! TELL ME!”

“It’s progressive,” said Starlight. “You had a psychotic break. And I don’t think it’s going to be the last. I don’t think…”

Starlight could not finish the sentence, but Diamond Tiara already knew. She felt tears of anger welling in her eyes, and looked down at the floor to try to hide it.

“Buck,” she said, ignoring the fact that there was a Princess in the room- -not that it mattered any more. “Buck…”

The electric light hissed to life as Diamond Tiara stumbled into her family’s cellar. She had done her best to hide her tears from Pick and Silver Spoon, but they clearly knew that something was wrong. In the cold and lonely damp of the basement, though, she was free to let her tears run down her face, ruining her obligatory makeup. Not that she cared.

Despite Twilight’s continual insistence that she should see a real doctor, Diamond Tiara knew that there was no use. She was dying. The worms were continually digging into her brain, and she almost feel them, cutting through her and replacing her own mind with theirs- -if they even had a mind. She had always know they were there, on some level, but never once had she realized that what she saw as a minor element of her being would betray her like this.

She felt sick, angry, and confused. She hated herself for allowing this to happen, for being too weak and too stupid to stop it before it had gotten this far. This seemingly perpetual, unquenchable anger toward herself was only overtaken by the profound waves of sadness that occurred to her when she thought about what she was going to miss. She would not last long enough inherit her father’s company, or for Silver Spoon to get transferred back from the Royal Guard, or for her relationship with Pick to finally progress to where she wanted it to- -they would leave her, and she would be alone. The inevitable slow descent into insanity was terrifying, but it was something she could face. The loneliness associated with it was not.

There were too many emotions running through Diamond Tiara’s damaged mind, and she only knew one way to manage them. She paused in front of a rack and stood on her hind legs, pulling down a large bottle of cider. She snapped the cork off with her teeth, and did not even bother to appreciate the smell or taste before downing half a bottle.

This only made her more angry- -the fact that she had resisted doing this for so long, but now was succumbing to weakness- -and she shattered the bottle on the floor. Foamy fluid splashed across the dark stones, and Diamond Tiara immediately pulled down another bottle, opened it, and began to drink as she wept.

Silver Spoon walked through the front room of the house that she had virtually grown up in. Beside her was a red-maned pony who was one of the few in Ponyville that, according to public opinion, was an equal to her in terms of beauty. Not that Silver Spoon really thought of it in this way, of course; physical appearance was important to her, but it had never really been an aspect that she defined herself by.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for tea?” asked Silver Spoon. “Diamond Tiara just got some of the most amazing stuff from YakYakistan, but s he’s more of a coffee mare, and I’ve been dying to use it.”

“No thanks,” said Twist, inadvertently putting slightly too much emphasis on the second word to avoid saying “fanks”. Even with her braces removed, her lisp had remained throughout her teenage years and taken a great deal of effort to control. “I just wanted to bring over the revised seating chart.”

“I’m sorry she wasn’t able to get to the planning committee meeting this morning. She hasn’t been feeling well.”

“Oh, that’s okay. For all the work she’s done for the Prom, she deserves a break. I just hope she feels better, though. She was so excited about this, it would be terrible for her to have to miss it.” She leaned in close to Silver Spoon. “Rumor has it the colt she’s bringing is real exthotic.” She clapped her hooves over her mouth, but Silver Spoon just smiled understandingly.

“Well, thank you,” said Silver Spoon, opening the front door. “And say hi to Snips for me.”

“I will,” said Twist, smiling. As she turned away, she added. “As soon as I convince him to cut that darn mullet…”

Silver Spoon waved, and then closed the door.

“She seemed nice,” said Pick. His cloaking field slowly broke apart and decayed, making him seem as though he was slowly flashing back into existence.

“You know, you don’t need to do that,” reminded Silver Spoon. “Twist is a really nice pony.”

“Yes, but I’m not an idiot. I realize that I appear…unusual to you surface-ponies. And I don’t want to scare a pregnant lady.”

Silver Spoon raised an eyebrow. “You could tell?”

“Of course I can. I can smell everything within a two hundred arshin radius.”

“You can smell when a mare is pregnant?”

“Of course. That ability has saved the lives of a great many morlock stallions. Our mares become a bit, well, cannibalistic when gravid.”

“What does it smell like?”

“Not pleasant. Not much does up here.” He looked to the door. “Still, it’s weird to think that a mare our age is having a child. It’s just…weird.”

“I know, right? But we’re adults now. Well, Diamond Tiara and I are. You’re still seventeen.”

The room fell silent at the mention of Diamond Tiara’s name. Both of them immediately felt the awkwardness of having to face the metaphorical elephant in the room.

“So,” said Pick. “What exactly happened last night?”

“I don’t know,” said Silver Spoon, taking a seat on a terribly ugly red couch. Pick crawled up next to her, a task that was difficult because of his vertically compressed body. “We were sleeping, and I heard a noise on the roof. I thought it was just the storm, but then I went up to check…and she was just there, standing on the edge. Just staring down at the ground. I thought…I swear to Celestia I thought she was going to jump.”

“Don’t say that,” said Pick. “Diamond Tiara would never do that.”

“You didn’t see her. The look in her eyes…I’ve never seen her like that. Not even when she was on the cider.” She looked at Pick. “I thought your drone was supposed to be watching her,” she snapped.

“It was,” said Pick. “But somebody reprogrammed it.”

“Reprogrammed?”

“It was set into standby mode. Just scanning the same spot, over and over again. It was manually reset.”

“Manually? By who?”

“There are only two ponies within a five thousand mile radius who would know how to reprogram a morlock drone. And I didn’t do it.”

“You can’t be saying…”

“She’s the only one that knows how.”

“But why would she do that?”

“Why would she climb up onto the roof during a thunderstorm?”

Both of them fell silent, knowing that they had answers to neither question.

“I’m worried,” said Silver Spoon. “But I guess I always am, aren’t I? Because I’m the only one who’ll actually bother to worry for her. But this…”

“I’m worried too,” said Pick. “But she’s Diamond Tiara. She’s the strongest pony I know. She can look my mother in the eye without flinching, and you saw her during the incident back when we were kids.”

“And I’ve seen her crying into her pillows when she thinks nopony’s watching. Or when she took a bottle of cider every day just to get out of bed and her parents didn’t even care. She is strong, more than I ever could be, but…I still worry.”

Pick leaned close to her and wrapped Silver Spoon in an incredibly awkward hug. Silver Spoon could not help but release a small snort of laughter. “What are you doing?”

“I have been told that hugs make everything better,” said Pick. “At least for you surface-ponies.”

“You’re really bad at it. But…thanks.” Silver Spoon hugged him back, and found that it did make her feel a little better.

“I knew it,” hissed a voice from behind them. Both Silver Spoon and Pick turned sharply to see Diamond Tiara standing in the doorway to the front room. Her hair was disheveled and her tiara askew. In one hoof she held a nearly empty bottle of cider, and from the red in her eyes, Silver Spoon could instantly tell where that cider had gone.

“Diamond Tira,” said Silver Spoon, pushing Pick away. “You’ve been drinking…”

“What were you doing with Silver Spoon, Pick?” said Diamond Tiara. “What did I tell you about touching her?”

“Touching her- -we were just hugging!”

“I’ve heard that one before.” Diamond Tiara stumbled into the room, bringing with her an intense scent of apples. “Just hugging, just sleeping, no. I see the way you look at her. The fact that I’m fat and ugly and look like a pig, and she’s the one you really want. Don’t think I can’t tell.”

“Diamond, what’s wrong with you? Why would you say that?”

“That’s not her talking,” said Silver Spoon. She could tell that Pick was hurt- -despite how he acted, he actually took his relationship with Diamond Tiara very seriously. “It’s the cider.”

“Luna’s rump it’s the cider,” swore Diamond Tiara. She approached Pick, holding the bottle out in front of her. He responded by climbing a wall and taking refuge on the crown molding, out of her reach. “I can’t believe I trusted you. I loved you, Pick!”

“You- -you what?” said Pick, his eyes widening. “Diamond, I- -I love you too- -”

“My own shi- -”

“Diamond Tiara!” cried Silver Spoon, stepping forward. “Pick is our friend! I’m your friend! What happened? I don’t understand why you- -”

“SHUT UP!” screamed Diamond Tiara. She punctuated her statement by hitting Silver Spoon hard in the face.

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened, and she stepped back, as if she was not sure what she had done. Pick dropped from the ceiling, interposing himself between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. His technetium dial shifted into a defensive format, glowing with white energy. “Now you’ve gone too far,” he said. He was not yelling, but the tone in his voice was somehow far worse. “You do NOT hit friends! Not Silver Spoon!”

“It’s alright,” said Silver Spoon, standing up and rubbing the already growing bruise on her face. “It’s not like I can’t take a punch.”

“That light…” said Diamond Tira, staring at the glow of Pick’s dial. Her eyes widened and she jumped back, terrified. “No…it’ can’t be…”

“Diamond?” said Silver Spoon.

“You- -it was you!”

“Diamond, what’s wrong!”

“It was you all along…the unicorns couldn’t touch YOU. You- -you poisoned me!”

Pick and Silver Spoon looked at each other, and then at Diamond Tiara.

“It all makes sense now,” said Diamond Tiara, her words becoming so fast and frantic that they ran into each other. “You- -you wanted me out of the picture so you two could be together!”

“You’re not making any sense!”

“YES I AM!”

“Come on, Diamond,” pleaded Pick. “You’re scaring me! We’re your friends!”

“No- -NO! You’re not! Get- -get away from me!” Diamond Tiara fumbled across the floor toward the door, and then struggled to open it before sprinting out into the road. Pick immediately moved to chase after her, but Silver Spoon held him back. He looked up at her, and then buried his face into her shoulder. This time, he was crying.

Overhead, the gray clouds continued to slowly drift. The wind was cold and damp, and Diamond Tiara hardly noticed. She was not even wearing a jacket, but she did not care. The cider had made her numb to the ending of the fall season and the oncoming winter. That and her sadness.

She was sitting in the moist grass, leaning against an old stone building. This particular building, as she understood it, was an equipment shed for the town cemetery. Few ponies ever came out to the cemetery, and even the pair of gravediggers never seemed to use this particular shed. Diamond Tiara had discovered years ago that nopony ever came here. When she had been younger, it had been where she had come to sneak cider where ponies would not see her and start to talk, and where Spoiled would not be able to scream at her for giving the family a bad name.

Now, it seemed to serve the opposite purpose. Diamond Tiara had run out of cider, and the empty bottle sat among the foggy and half-buried remains of its predecessors that nopony had bothered to ever clean up. As the high from the sweet, fizzy drink began to fade, so did Diamond Tiara’s paranoia. She was still panicked and confused, but she realized that she had done something horribly wrong. More than anything, she was ashamed for having slipped again- -and, worse, for having hit her first and for a long time only friend.

In her mind, it was still likely that Pick and Silver Spoon had been together, perhaps since the very beginning. Perhaps they had only been humoring her; she certainly did not deserve a relationship nearly as much as Silver Spoon did. The fact that she was not worth loving had been a fact she had internalized long ago when she had just been a filly.

Now, they almost surely hated her. But, perhaps, it was better that way. That way they would not miss her when she was gone, or have to watch this madness slowly overtake her. They did not need her, and when she was locked in the best mental asylum that money could buy, they would at least have each other.

She looked out for a long time at the treeline of the Everfree Forest, watching the fall wind blow the fading leaves free from the overnourished and enormous trees. She was not sure how long she just stared, wondering what would happen next, until she realized that it did not really matter. Nothing did anymore.

Diamond Tiara shivered, and then put her head down into her front hooves. As she did, her heart suddenly thumped into her throat. Her eyes widened as she looked down at her right hoof and saw that the radiation burn she had received the day before was now completely healed- -just as it had been from Lucy’s spell.

Almost instantly, Diamond Tiara smiled. Then, as quickly, she broke into laughter, standing and cackling to the cold cemetery and empty field between her and the forest. Her laughter rapidly decayed into something that was just as much happiness terror, and as the tears rolled down her face the implications of what that meant surfaced to her mind.

That was it. The solution. A way out. If what she had seen was real- -the unicorns, the implants, the strange landscape, Lucy- -then it meant that she was not insane, and not dying. Of course, that was much, much worse in some ways. Insanity was a desperate state with no way out, but it had been a convenient escape, a way to rationalize the world. If what she had been seeing had been real, that insulation would vanish.

The choice was not especially good, but it was the only one. She just needed to prove it, to justify that she was not insane. Exactly how to do that, though, was unclear.

Looking into the Everfree Forest gave her the necessary inspiration. It stood to reason that it wherever Lucy was had a Ponyville, then features of her world might reflect back to the real one. She had to find the skeleton of the unfathomable sky-beast, the one Lucy had shown her. She was not sure what she might find in that place- -a skeleton, a crater, something else- -but she knew that she had to go, to try to discover what was actually happening to her.

She turned back, setting her course to her house- -and realized suddenly that she could not possibly go there, not with what she had done. There was no way Pick and Silver Spoon would even look at her; in fact, they were probably making out right now. That left Diamond Tiara in a difficult position; even as a full-grown mare, entering the Everfree Forest was a dangerous proposition. There was no way to go alone safely. She needed to bring somepony with her, and her friends were running in short supply.

Several hours later, four ponies approached the Everfree Forest, two walking in the front and two bringing up the rear. In the front, Sweetie Belle looked to Scootaloo.

“You sure look happy,” she said.

“I am,” said Scootaloo, her words paced as though she had been waiting to tell her friends all about her day so far. “Guess who came from Rainbow Dash’s dress fitting?”

“Um, Applebloom?”

“What? No. Me. ME. Scootaloo.”

“Yeah, I know that. I was joking. My sister does good work, though.”

“Definitely! You should have seen her! Even incomplete…she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I almost cried, except I would never cry in front of Rainbow Dash.”

“That explains your wings. I figured they were stiff because you were trying to fly again.”

Scootaloo looked back at her atrophied, useless wings and blushed when she realized how erect they had become. “Crap…I hope Rainbow Dash didn’t see that. Or do I…?” She smiled. “You know, I think I’m going to go for it.”

“Go for what?” said Applebloom, stepping forward from the rear.

“Well, you know what they say about the Pony Prom,” said Scootaloo slyly. “The dance is great and all…but the real fun happens after…”

“Please no,” said Sweetie Belle. “Scootaloo, you can’t be serious…”

“It’s Prom tradition! I’m totally going to taste that rainbow. What about you two?”

Applebloom blushed, her unusually colored werewoad blood rendering her face an odd color. “I- -I don’t thing mine and Tender Taps’s relationship is to that point yet. I mean, I know I kind of need to hurry, but…I don’t know…”

“Trust me, it’s not that great,” said Sweetie Belle. “Don’t rush it.”

“How would you know?” asked Scootaloo, poking Sweetie Belle in the shoulder.

“I- -um- -I- -” sputtered Sweetie Belle. “I- -Rarity told me!”

Applebloom and Scootaloo stopped walking and looked at Sweetie Belle suspiciously. They then shrugged. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

“She certainly would know.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What about you, Diamond Tiara?” asked Scootaloo.

Diamond Tiara continued to walk behind them, but it was obvious that she had not been paying attention. She was pale and disheveled, as though she had not slept or eaten in days. Her eyes were darting around, almost always looking to the same spot, and periotically looking over her shoulder and muttering to herself.

“Diamond?” said Applebloom. “Are you okay?”

“Not real they’re not real…” whispered Diamond Tiara. Then her eyes immediately flicked toward Applebloom. “What do you want?”

“You’re the only one here who actually has a coltfriend,” said Scootaloo. “I was wondering if you’re gonna- -”

“I don’t have a coltfriend. Not anymore,” snapped Diamond Tiara. “And I’m not going to the Prom. Not anymore.”

“But Diamond Tiara!” cried Applebloom. “You put so much work into it- -”

“Not. GOING,” hissed Diamond Tiara. She pushed past the others. “I don’t even care. I only set up the prom to maintain my social standing. It’s not like I was actually looking forward to it or anything.”

“But my sister was working on a dress for- -”

“Have her scrap it. I’m not going to need it anymore.” Diamond Tiara looked immediately over Applebloom’s shoulder, and her eyes widened. “Now are we going to keep talking about pointless stuff, or are you going to help me?”

“With what, exactly?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“There’s a spot. Near the Castle of the Two Sisters. I need to get there. As soon as possible.”

“Why?” asked Scootaloo.

“She doesn’t have to explain if she doesn’t want to,” said Applebloom. Her sudden defense of Diamond Tiara shocked the others slightly, but the acquiesced to her will. Together, they entered the forest. “I need to go to Zecora’s anyway,” said Applebloom, mostly to Diamond Tiara. “I don’t keep mah skin this soft with apple-butter alone if you know what I mean.”

“You actually cover yourself in apple-butter?” said Scootaloo, looking over her shoulder.

“Yeah. So what?”

“Didn’t know you had it in you,” snickered Sweetie Belle. “And I didn’t know Tender Taps was into- -”

“Do not make me come over there!” threatened Applebloom. “I will bite you! Hard!”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo laughed as Applebloom playfully lunged forward toward them. Scootaloo’s useless wings buzzed loudly beneath her long rainbow-dyed mane as though she were trying to fly away.

Together, they entered the forest and proceeded deep amongst the dark trees. They kept laughing and joking, mostly to offset the uncomfortable ominousness that always came when entering the forest. Here, the clouds moved much faster and the ground had a much more potent smell as the world operated by default without pony intervention.

Eventually Applebloom fell back from the others, walking along side Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara did not appear to notice; instead, she just kept staring at the same spot between the trees. Applebloom looked at the same spot, and although she did not see anything there, something felt off. That had been happening a lot since she had first gotten sick. Sometimes things that should have seemed ordinary just felt wrong.

“Hey,” she said to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “You two go on ahead. Diamond Tiara and I’ll catch up.”

“Do you need to rest?” asked Scootaloo, clearly- -like many- -not entirely aware that werewoadism actually worked in quite the opposite way.

“No,” said Sweetie Belle, ushering Scootaloo forward. “This way, Scootaloo.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle walked down the overgrown path and disappeared around a bend. Diamond Tiara looked up. Although she had not been focused on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she was aware that the nature of the group had just shifted.

“Why did we just stop?” she asked.

“Because I need to talk to you,” said Applebloom.

“No, we need to find the skel- -the thing I need to find.”

“Diamond Tiara, I know about what’s happening to you.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. “How did- -”

“Because Twilight asked me to talk to you.”

Diamond Tiara swore under her breath. “I knew I should have gone to a real doctor…no confidentiality with a Princess…she’s probably told half the town by now…”

“She’s just trying to help.”

“By ruining my reputation?! Nothing’s wrong with me. I’m fine.”

“No. Something is. I can tell. I think we all can.”

Diamond Tiara stared into Applebloom’s mildly luminescent eyes. “It’s not your problem.”

“You’re our friend. It’s all our problems.”

“So, what? What do you think you can do for me?” Diamond Tiara could feel the sarcasm creeping into her voice. “Go on some little adventure, maybe, learn a little lesson and, oh, I don’t know- -get the parasites that are eating my brain out?”

“No,” said Applebloom, slightly hurt. “What I mean is…you know the reason Twilight asked me, right?”

“Because Applejack was too busy?”

“No. Because I know what it’s like to have a terminal disease.”

“Terminal?” said Diamond Tiara, momentarily rising from her single-minded stupor.

“Yeah. I don’t make a fuss about it, but I’m dying. Not quickly, but I probably won’t make it to thirty. The potions stop me from getting sick, but…I’m getting worse. It can’t be helped. At first, you know, I was angry. Angry and sad, and afraid. It just wasn’t fair, why this was happening to me. It just wasn’t right, and I tried to figure ways out of it. But there ain’t none.” Diamond Tiara looked away, and Applebloom took that as a sign of understanding. “But you know what? I accepted it. It’s not okay. It never will be, but I still have mah sister and brother, and mah friends…and I just try to live every day the best I can, to enjoy it while I can. I’m sorry this happened to you, but- -”

“I’m not sick,” said Diamond Tiara, her voice dripping with fury. “NOTHING is wrong with me. I’m not like you.” Diamond Tiara turned away, moving toward where she fully intended to prove herself correct. “I’m going to be fine. I won’t die. I won’t let myself.”

“Some things just aren’t in your control…”

“No. Some things aren’t in YOUR control. But this is in mine- -I don’t care what Twilight says, I’m right, and I’m not insane or broken. I’m FINE!”

Applebloom frowned. “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove,” said Applebloom, her compassion partially replaced by annoyance. “You’ll deny it. I know. I did. But you can’t escape it. And you can’t do this alone. You have friends, Diamond Tiara! Let us help you!”

Diamond Tiara spun around, a retort planned involving how she did not actually need friends- -but the world around her suddenly seemed to shift and buzz, flickering slightly before collapsing away completely. Diamond Tiara immediately found herself somewhere else.

It was dark, and the sun was hidden behind a thick canopy of ancient trees. For a moment, Diamond Tiara thought she had gone again to Lucy’s world, but realized that it was not quite right. The world was dark, but she could see gray clouds through the blowing leaves of the trees above. The darkness was not intrinsic, but a property of this grove somewhere deep in the Everfree Forest.

Diamond Tiara stepped across the mossy, damp ground, and realized that something smelled strange, like mixture of herbs and metal. She lifted her hoof, and realized that she was covered in a thick, stinking fluid.

“Eew! What the hay is this stuff?” she said, trying to brush it off of herself.

That was when she saw the figure lying in the center of the grove. A small, inanimate body with a pale yellow coat and red hair.

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. “Ap…Applebloom?”

There was no answer. Applebloom did not react, or even move. In fact, she was not moving at all. Diamond Tiara could not see her breathing.

All Diamond Tiara wanted to do at that point was to turn and run as fast as she could away. Instead, though, she found herself walking toward Applebloom robotically. She felt herself breathing faster, and when she finally got close enough to see the state that Applebloom was in, Diamond Tiara realized what the sticky substance that covered her forelegs and chest actually was: Applebloom’s equivalent of blood.

“No!” cried Diamond Tiara, picking up her friend. Applebloom was cold, and Diamond Tiara could feel where parts of her skin was converted into hard, bark-like plates. She did not move, and continued to stare into the distance with blank eyes. “Come on Applebloom, this isn’t funny!” Diamond Tiara put her hoof against Applebloom’s neck, and did not feel a pulse. She was not breathing either. “No, come on! COME ON!”

Diamond Tiara did not know CPR, but she started to shake Applebloom as though doing so would wake her up. It failed, and Diamond Tiara set her down. “You…you weren’t supposed to…to do this. Not yet, even if you are…”

She looked around, trying to find Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, hoping that maybe if they got Applebloom back to Ponyville in time, they might be able to do something- -but she had no idea where she was. Somehow, she had moved impossibly deep into the forest, to a place where no pony might ever find her.

A terrible thought suddenly occurred to her. She had no memory of how she had gotten here, or how she had become covered in Applebloom’s sap. That meant that there was a possibility that she had- -

Diamond Tiara shook her head. It was the only logical conclusion, the only one that made sense, but Diamond Tiara refused to accept it. She was now panting and sweating, and the only sound that came from the numerous moisture-rotting trees was the sound of her own heart throbbing in her ears.

“I didn’t- -I didn’t mean to,” she said, trying to apologize to Applebloom, even though it was obvious that she could no longer hear. “I- -you were just trying to help me.” Tears started to flow from Diamond Tiara’s eyes, and she could not tell if they were from sadness or fear. “And I did this. I DID THIS. I’m sorry, Applebloom, I’m…”

She could not take the strain anymore. Her fight or flight response was running at maximum, and there was no way to fight something that had already happen. Crying, she turned and ran, leaving Applebloom’s still body lying in a pool of green-brown werewoad sap. On some level, she wished she was brave, that she could have taken her back and admitted it, to have let the Apples lay her to rest properly beside her parents- -but then they would KNOW. All she knew was to get away.

So she ran, as fast as she could. As she did, the world seemed to flash by her- -and started to flash differently. The trees would sometimes seem so much straighter and more orderly, and sometimes, she caught glimpses of what looked like snow- -except in reality, all that surrounded her was the blowing limbs of the dark trees, judging her silently as they passed into their cold dormancy.

The throbbing in her head began to become painful, and the color seemed to seep from the world until everything became as bland and dark as the now tempest cloudy sky overhead. The cold fall wind whipped through the trees, and Diamond Tiara could have sworn that she heard voices on it, speaking as though they were standing behind each tree.

Then, suddenly, Diamond Tiara broke into a clearing. She had never been to this part of the forest before, but somehow she recognized the area- -and realized that it had been something that Lucy had taken her through on the way to the skeleton. This time, though, it was not simply a clearing surrounded by trees. It was quite occupied.

Standing in the center was a single, monolithic structure. It was large, extending higher than the surrounding trees, and its material seemed to be somewhere between metal and stone without being especially similar to either. Its form seemed nearly organic, but at the same time brutally utilitarian toward some unknown purpose.

Diamond Tiara stopped running and stared, slowly approaching the object. There was no telling how long it had been there. It could have been ancient, something left behind millennia ago in this area of the forest where no plants seemed to grow.

Then she froze. Standing around the base of the object was a circle of ponies. All of them were pale and tall, their bodies surrounded by colored displays of magic suspended in the air, relaying strange messages and information in a complex and unreadable language.

They did not initially seem to notice Diamond Tiara; they were too focused on the object that they surrounded, and the spell they were performing. Slowly, Diamond Tiara stepped backward, trying to return to the tree line.

Suddenly, the unicorns closed their spells. Diamond Tiara stopped walking. They all turned toward her, slowly and simultaneously, until every one of their unblinking eyes was on her. For a long moment, they just seemed to stand there, watching Diamond Tiara as she watched them.

Then they moved, and Diamond Tiara screamed. She was already shaking and tired from having fled Applebloom’s remains, but once again the adrenaline surged through her body and she shot into the forest once more.

She leapt over fallen logs and stumbled through the mossy ground, completely ignoring where any sort of path might have been and sprinting aimlessly though the weeds and vines beneath the oversized trees. Thorns scratched her legs and tore into her hair, and she was getting covered in mud, but she did not care. All she needed to do was get away.

The unicorns were persistant, though. When Diamond Tiara would look to either of her sides, there was just enough light left in the forest to see them moving behind the trees. While she had to keep her eyes on the ground to avoid rocks or gulley drop-offs, they never looked away from her. Likewise, although she was thumping and splashing loudly in her rush, they were perfectly silent. Their motion made no sound, not even hoofsteps, and the thick trees did not seem to impede their motion at all.

Something passed overhead, casting wide shadows on the ground. Diamond Tiara squealed, not wanting to look up and see whatever that was. She twisted, hurting her ankle badly but managing to avoid a rocky area and cutting to the side to try to escape.

In her mind, this seemed to confuse the unicorns- -and for a moment, she got past them.

She felt a slight glimmer of hope, and looked back to see if they were still following. Then she turned back to where she had found a path- -and several ponies dropped from the sky directly in front of her. Diamond Tiara skidded to a stop, and watched in horror as the what she had thought had been unicorns retracted their wings beneath their uniforms. It was only then that she saw the similarity, how they looked so much like thinner, paler versions of Princess Twilight.

More appeared beside the ones who had cut off Diamond Tiara’s escape. They did not seem to arrive from where they had been running, but rather seemed to emerge from ether around their comrades. In seconds, Diamond Tiara was surrounded.

One of the closest ones turned toward another of them, his dead eyes never looking away from Diamond Tiara. He spoke, and Diamond Tiara winced at the sound. It seemed to buzz, and what came out seemed to be both Equestrian and something else that Diamond Tiara could not even hope to understand.

“I think she is cognizant of us,” he said- -or possibly she; his voice was very nearly female-sounding.

“That should not be possible. The most recent surgery should have corrected the perception flaw…”

“Surgery?” asked Diamond Tiara, trying to sound brave. “What- -what did you do to me?!”

The alicorns’ eyes widened. “I think she can hear us.”

“This is unprecedented.”

“She must be retrieved.”

The alicorns looked toward each other, then paused before slowly turning back toward Diamond Tiara. “Confirmed.”

They started to move forward, and Diamond Tiara tried to back away- -only to realize that she was surrounded.

“You- - you stay back!” shouted Diamond Tiara. “Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Diamond Dazzle Tiara Rich, born to Filthy Stinkin’ Rich and Spoiled Rotten-Rich on January sixth year 994 at Canterlot Private Hospital,” said a salmon-colored alicorn. “Of course we know. We were there.”

“You do not need to fear us. Further surgery is required. It is best if you understand that we are not real, but hallucinations caused by your current illness.”

“No- -NO!” cried Diamond Tiara.

The world suddenly seemed to shake, and something loud rumbled in the distance. The alicorns seemed surprised and stepped back. Diamond Tiara screamed as her head started to ache unbearably, and the world seemed to shift around her, its colors and lines merging and being driven apart by the sudden migraine.

“She’s in flux,” said an alicorn, sounding suddenly frightened. There was a flash of light as his magic interface appeared around him.

“This close to the pylon? That’s not possible.”

“What- -what are you doing to me?” moaned Diamond Tiara.

“Divert more power. Bring her back.”

“I can’t. We’re losing her.”

Their voices drifted away, and suddenly Diamond Tiara felt herself falling. For a moment, she was not sure where she was or what was happening- -but then the world instantly flashed back into crystalline perfection as Diamond Tiara splashed into a pool of water.

She gurgled and splashed, and then immediately pulled her head above the liquid and gasped, spitting the foul-tasting fluid out around her. She looked up, and her heart fell as she saw the blackened sky filled with dying, multicolored worlds. Towering out of the black water around her were tall stone buildings that Diamond Tiara did not recognize, their stone bricks appearing as ancient as their structures seemed precarious.

“Where…what happened?” asked Diamond Tiara. Of course, nothing answered. The only sound was the distant trickling of water coming from an unknown source.

Diamond Tiara looked down at the murky pool surrounding her. It partially reflected the sky, but was otherwise nearly opaque. She could not see the bottom, but could feel it beneath her hooves. The water did not appear to be especially deep, but something about being inside it made Diamond Tiara extremely nervous.

As far as she could tell, her pursuers had vanished. In fact, she was now quite alone. Or should have been alone. Somehow, she was not so sure.

So, she began to make her way through the water. Ripples passed out from her across the dark surface, rebounding of the waterlogged and mossy bases of the stone-brick towers and the few ancient drowned trees that accompanied them. Doing so was not easy; the surface beneath Diamond Tiara felt like it was stone, but in some places it dropped off suddenly or became silt and she would fall slightly and be forced to swim.

As she moved, the became conscious that the towers were assembled in such a way that she was probably passing down a street. At the same time, she was becoming increasingly agitated by the silence surrounding her. Something seemed wrong in the way the water moved, and how its inky darkness would suddenly shift in unusual ways. Something was wrong.

Diamond Tiara suddenly bumped something wet and bloated floating in the water. It was cold, wet, and large, and for a moment responded only by slowly drifting away just long enough for Diamond Tiara to wonder what it was- -before it quickly vanished beneath the surface of the pool.

Now Diamond Tiara was sure something was wrong. She started running, which in torso-high water only resulted in her flailing. Bristly lake-weed rubbed against her lower limbs as she passed a final drop-off and was forced to swim. It felt gross, and every time it touched her she wanted to scream.

Behind her, something rippled in the water as something large nearly broke the surface. Diamond Tiara let out a short cry that was quickly interrupted as what she had taken for plants suddenly gripped her and dragged her struggling beneath the surface.

The suddenness had given Diamond Tiara barely enough time to take a proper breath, and the instant she was taken below the surface she was sucked into impenetrable darkness. Some of the water entered her mouth and nose; it tasted disgusting, like rot and metal.

More things reached out for Diamond Tiara, grabbing her and pulling her deeper into the hidden structure of whatever ominous submerged structure leant its support to the towers above. Although it was impossible to see anything at all, whatever was grasping Diamond Tiara felt familiar- -like hooves.

Then, around her, lights began to appear. White beams that cut through the darkness, leaving trails of light. Diamond Tiara struggled, but she was already running out of air and did not even know where the surface was. Her lungs were burning, and she suddenly took a breath.

Water flowed into her throat and lungs, and Diamond Tiara immediately coughed. It took all her will to try to keep some air in, but she knew that she was drowning. She was surprised by how much it hurt.

Just when her body was beginning to grow weaker and she was seriously considering taking just one more breath, Diamond Tiara felt one more set of hooves on her front leg. These, though, felt far softer, and pulled in the opposite direction.

Diamond Tiara opened her eyes, wondering who had reached her- -and an immense beaming pair of blood-red eyes stared directly back at her.

Then, suddenly, Diamond Tiara toppled to her side into a pile of damp leaves. She coughed hard and spat a reddish-brown fluid into the leaves that both looked and tasted like rust. For a long time, she just continued to cough and gasp beneath the darkening gray sky. Something inside her felt wrong. It was more than just the drowning- -making the jumps was destroying something inside her, and she was not sure just how many more she could do.

Slowly, she sat up and looked into the distance. She was at the edge of Ponyville, lying in a field beyond the town where children had likely been playing until they had been called home for dinner or had just gotten too cold and went home. Diamond Tiara stood, trying to stabilize herself. She was soaked, but it was impossible to tell if it was from the wetness of the leaves or from the pool of dark water elsewhere under a different sky.

Either way, she felt horrible. Reality seemed to be pulling itself apart in her mind. She could no longer tell what around her was real, or exactly how to predict how the world would operate within even the next few minutes.

It was not clear to her just how long the world would last, or her within it, and she was not sure what had happened in the Everfree Forest- -but she was all-too-clear on one thing that she had done. Slowly and limping, she began to make her way into town.

The sun had already gone down when Diamond Tiara reached what had once been her house. She had considered returning to Rich Manor, but had become too weak. Never before had she actually thought of that enormous mansion as a place of sanctuary, but at this point, it was surely just as welcoming as the house where Silver Spoon and Pick were no doubt enjoying each other’s company.

She knocked on the door with her radiation-scarred right hoof, and then leaned against it. For a moment she hoped that there would be nopony there, and that she could just collapse on the stoop in peace. Instead, though, the door opened after several minutes. Diamond Tiara looked down to see Pick staring back up at her through his helmet.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said, trying to sound snide- -before collapsing on him.

“Diamond!” he squeaked, nearly being crushed. “You- -you’re so cold! And moist!”

“Don’t act like you care,” said Diamond Tiara. She did not try to get off him, though, and let him help carry her into what should have been her house.

Silver Spoon entered the room. “Pick, who was at the- -Diamond Tiara!” She cried out and immediately moved to help Diamond Tiara

“I’ve got her,” said Pick. He was not nearly strong enough to hold her, but made up for his lack of strength using the energy field from the technetium dial in his chestplate.

“What, no fat joke?” muttered Diamond Tiara.

Pick did not respond, and instead moved Diamond Tiara to the front sitting room. He set her gently on the floor in front of the fireplace and adjusted his dial. A concentrated beam of energy burst forward into the wood of the fire, igniting it instantly. Behind him, his drone appeared carrying a blanket and a towel.

The heat of the fire reminded Diamond Tiara of just how cold she was, and she started to shiver violently.

“Diamond Tiara!” said Silver Spoon, her voice nearly cracking. “What happened?”

“Oh like you- -you care.”

At that time, two more ponies entered the room. Diamond Tiara looked up to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. They were initially drawn by the sound in the front room. Diamond Tiara looked over her shoulder and remembered what she had done to Applebloom. Seeing just the two of them made her burst into tears

“Diamond Tiara?” said Sweetie Belle, realizing something was wrong while Scootaloo still remained largely oblivious. “What’s wrong?”

Diamond Tiara did not know how to respond, but she did her best to suppress her sadness, trying not to think of how their trio would now always be a duo. She wiped away any tears she had produced and looked up at Sweetie Belle, who was about to no longer be her friend.

“It’s Applebloom,” she said. “I…she…”

“I what?”

Applebloom appeared behind the other two Crusaders, her pretty green eyes smiling as she heard her name. Diamond Tiara gaped. Although Applebloom was wearing a jacket indoors, the injuries that Diamond Tiara had seen on her were gone. They were not just gone; there were no scars or bandages or marks of any kind. The injuries were gone completely.

“You- -you- -you,” stuttered Diamond Tiara. She could not bring herself to say that Applebloom had been dead, but she HAD BEEN. It was not an illusion or a hallucination; Diamond Tiara had held Applebloom’s cold remains in her hooves. She had even been covered in Applebloom’s sap-blood, although it had now all been washed away by her near-drowning.

Applebloom immediately looked concern when she saw Diamond Tiara’s shock, and the look of terror on her face. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said.

“What happened?” said Pick.

“We got separated in the forest,” said Applebloom. “I came back here to get help, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle spent the better half of the day looking for you. We thought you were lost, and were about to round up a search party- -”

“You were dead.”

Applebloom blinked, and the ponies all looked at her. “Ah don’t feel dead,” she said, dumfounded by the accusation.

“I saw it! You- -you- -”

“She’s been here,” said Silver Spoon. “She’s been here the whole time.”

“How- -how…” Diamond Tiara trailed off, and then slowly turned back to the fire. “Of course,” she said. “Of course.”

The ponies looked at each other again. “Diamond?” said Silver Spoon. “Something is wrong. Do you need anything?”

“How many?”

“Excuse me?”

“How many ponies are there in this room?”

No living soul answered, apart from the drone. It clicked out the number seven.

“I thought so,” whispered Diamond Tiara, staring into the fire. The glowing radiant heat covered her body, but she did not feel warm. She doubted she ever would again.

Night fell once again, and once again, Diamond Tiara did not sleep. She retired to her study, where she simply sat in an armchair, staring into a new fire as it crackled and glowed. Her fur had dried from the hellish water she had nearly drowned in, and now she reeked of something like ammonia and ash. She could smell it, but at this point, she did not care.

Beside her on a table sat two containers. One was a glass bottle of cider, the other a plastic bottle of pills. Both of them were nearly empty. Beside them sat her tiara. None of them were helping.

The light cast by the fire produced long shadows on the walls. These shadows deepened strangely, extending far longer than they had any right too. In their dark wake, the room was beginning to tear, its walls breaking open just enough to partially reveal whatever was beyond. Sometimes the shadows grayed, and sometimes things seeped through, pooling invisibly but perceptibly upon the ground or attempting to writhe their way though. Diamond Tiara could see them, but ignored them. They either were not real or did not matter. Instead, she stared blankly into the fire.

There was a knock on the heavy wooden door. Diamond Tiara had already crossed the room before she realized that she had risen from her chair; it felt as though her mind were lagging a substantial distance from her body. For a moment, she paused, waiting for her body to catch up. Another knock fell on the door. It was soft and almost imperceptible, but at this point, it was one of the only real things in Diamond Tiara’s life that bound her to the true Equestria.

She crossed the remainder of the room, her hooves creaking on the wooden floor. Then, slowly, she opened the door. She had expected to see Silver Spoon or Pick, or even one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, even though they had returned to their respective homes hours earlier. Instead, there was nothing save for a cold, dark hallway.

Diamond Tiara stared for a long moment, and then shut the door. She turned away, only to hear more knocking on the door. This time, the force was so great that it seemed about to tear the door off its hinges. Whatever it was did not click like the sound of keratin against wood; whatever was knocking was not doing so with a hoof.

Somewhere deep inside herself, Diamond Tiara felt afraid. She knew that she should not open that door, that if she let what was on the other side through, she might not be able to return it. Despite this realization, she found her body moving toward the wall as her mind waited indecisively in the center of the room.

This time, she opened the door even more slowly, and this time, there was a pony standing behind the door. Inches away from Diamond Tiara’s face was the half-formed face of Pick’s drone. It stared at her with its two reddish glass eyes and its half-machine face. It was clicking out data, but not anything meaningful. It was simply repeating the programming equivalents of the number “four” and the color “yellow”.

Other than clicking, it was doing nothing. As such, Diamond Tiara stared at it for a moment and then slowly closed the door. She paused for a moment before speaking.

“How long have you been there?” she asked the living darkness.

“We’ve always been there. Since the beginning. And before,” said the salmon colored alicorn standing back-lit by the fire.

“If you’re trying to scare me, you’re not good at it,” said Diamond Tiara, not turning to face him. “Running around invisible? Please. It’s not like I haven’t dealt with that before. My coltfriend does it all the time. Saves me from having to look at his ugly face.”

“I’m not invisible,” said the alicorn. The cadence and accent of his voice was strange, as though he only had the vaguest idea of how to speak. His words lacked much of the electric buzz that they had held before, but hearing him speak made Diamond Tiara’s head ache. “None of us are. Rather, your kind are simply unable to see us. Usually.”

“Usually?”

“Sometimes there is pain. During the more invasive surgeries. Strange, sudden, inexplicable. Most ignore it. Some die.”

Diamond Tiara turned around. The alicorn was still standing perfectly still. In a way, he really did look something like Twilight, although his features were even more pronounced. He was taller and thinner, reminding Diamond Tiara of the one time she had seen Princess Luna, except that he was nearly skeletal with substantially larger eyes. He was coming in much clearer than before, and Diamond Tiara was able to better see the black uniform that covered his wings and narrow torso. It was unusually harsh in appearance, as though it should have been uncomfortable- -and probably was for any other pony save for one of his kind.

“Who are you?” asked Diamond Tiara.

The alicorn paused for a long moment, and then released a tiny sigh through his nose. “A predictable response.”

“Answer me.”

“It is not a question that can be easily answered. I am Harvestor.”

“What kind of a name is that?”

“It is a shortened version. My actual name is much longer and involves designation concerning my rank and parameters of my creation, but I do not believe that those elements of my identity are critical with regard to the current situation.”

Diamond Tiara looked at the alicorn. As far as she could tell, he did not blink. Since he had started talking, he had not moved. Even his mouth only barely moved when he spoke, even though his words reached her clearly.

“Why are you here?” she asked at last. “Why me?”

Harvestor paused, considering his response. “I am here because it was determined that intervention was required, and as the researcher assigned to you specifically, I was tasked with first-contact. As to why, you, specifically, are failing, we are not currently aware.”

“Failing? What do you mean failing?”

Harvestor’s eyes shifted just slightly. “It may have been a mistranslation. Your language is comparatively primitive and difficult to speak.”

“You’re not actually speaking it, are you?”

Harvestor’s pupils narrowed. They were not completely round. “You are perceptive. No, I am not.”

Diamond Tiara looked up at him, and then crossed the room. She took a seat in her chair and grabbed the bottle beside her. She took a long swallow, and Harvestor waited patiently. Diamond Tiara knew that her hair was a mess and not adorned with her appropriate headgear, especially since by Equestrian convention Harvestor was probably royalty. At this point, however, she did not give a buck.

“So,” she said. “You’re assigned to me?”

“Yes. My genetic code has been rewritten to be twenty percent similar to your own.”

“Why?”

“To ensure genetic compatibility. That is not important.”

“You’re an alicorn.”

“That is your word for us, yes. I am.”

“Does that make you a Prince?”

“No. I am Harvestor.”

“And the others? How many of you are there?”

“There are thousands of Harvestors. Or, if you mean my kind, we outnumber your population one hundred to one.”

Diamond Tiara gaped, but tried to suppress her surprise. “You mean for every pony in Ponyville- -”

“No. I mean for every pony in Equestria.”

The room fell silent, save for the crackling of the fire. Diamond Tiara could hear her own breathing. Harvestor did not seem to breathe. “That’s not possible.”

“I assure you, it is.”

Diamond Tiara looked him in the eye. “There are only five alicorns in this world. Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Cadence, and Flurry Heart. If you’re right- -”

“Your alicorns are unique. They do not originate in the Blue Glow. They were created by artificial means, save for the Newborn. They are the primary objects of our research.”

“Artificial?”

“Another mistranslation, perhaps. All alicorns are artificial. None of my kind have ever been born. As are the alicorns in your world. Or, at least, so we thought…”

“Then where did you come from?”

“We were manufactured.”

“You’re a liar.”

Harvestor looked confused. “You would not know that.”

Diamond Tiara lifted her hooves and focused. The space around them grayed and shifted painfully until the scars and implants appeared- -except, strangely, on the hoof that Lucy had healed. Not only had the radiation burn vanished, but so had the metal that had been imbedded in it. This time, though, Diamond Tiara could truly feel the metal cutting into her skin. It hurt, badly.

“You did this to me, didn’t you? You weren’t just researching alicorns. You were doing things to us. Experimenting.”

“Correct.”

“Why?”

Harvestor paused. “Because you intrigue us. Your society is a microcosm of our own, and your biology unique.”

“You mutilated me,” said Diamond Tiara, leaning forward, calmly. “I don’t even care that much…but you did it to my Silver Spoon. I can’t forgive that.”

“The modifications are not made directly to you. Rather, they exist in the same space as you. It is not something you would have the capacity to understand.”

“Oh really?” said Diamond Tiara, smiling. She clicked her hooves together and the space beside her distorted. Pick’s drone flashed into existence, summoned by her call, and dropped to the ground. For the first time, Diamond Tiara saw Harvstor take a step back. The white corona of morlock energy that surrounded the drone was apparently harmful to him.

“Now,” said Diamond Tiara, “I don’t know what you are. For all I know, I’m brain damaged and hallucinating you. This drone can’t see you, but I can. And I’m not in a good mood.”

“Again, a predictable response. I would not be here unless we intended to communicate with you. This is actually unprecedented. The last mortal to be aware of our existence died over one thousand years ago.”

“Died? Of what?”

“That is not important.”

“Okay, then.” Diamond Tiara was speaking slowly and cautiously; she was not sure if she was speaking to a hallucination or not, and was almost certain that Harvestor was at least somewhat hostile. The way he did not move or blink was unnatural, and the accent in his voice was just inconsistent enough for Diamond Tiara to believe that he was using it to hide the peculiar and oddly threatening monotone that made up his true voice. “You clearly went through a lot of trouble to talk to me. I realize that I’m the most important pony in Ponyville, but if you could just hide- -”

“We cannot. And you are not. You are, however, unique.”

“I don’t know if I want to be unique. I just want you to leave me alone.”

“That is not possible.” Harvestor’s eyes tilted just slightly. “At present, your settlement is currently undergoing a dimensional collapse.”

“And I’m supposed to know what that means?”

“No. If you were expected to know, I would not have to be here.”

“Then what is it?”

“We believe that increased traffic into your region in response to the birth of Protothebe- -”

“Proto what?”

Harvestor’s e pupils narrowed again, and his voice dropped. “Don’t interrupt me,” he hissed, his tone changing completely.

“I will interrupt you if I want to. This is my house.”

“No, it is not. Primitives like you cannot truly own property. You and this house belong to ME.”

Diamond Tiara leaned forward and did her best to pronounce the morlock audio commands that allowed Pick’s drone to operate. It was just a scanning unit, and not really designed to fight, but Harvestor did not seem to know that. In fact, he seemed rather afraid of it.

“You don’t like this, do you?” said Diamond Tiara, smiling. “Or…yes. Maybe being HERE is what you don’t like. A little afraid, maybe, now that I can see you?”

“Perhaps,” admitted Harvestor emotionlessly. “But I suppose it is not of consequence.”

“Why?”

“Because Ponyville is collapsing.”

“Collapsing? What does that even mean? Where is it- -” But she already knew.

“We do not know. We have constructed systems to use the energy of the Blue-Lit Machine to stabilize the gap, but it is failing. We do not know why you, specifically, are sensitive to the phenomenon. We posit that you were exposed to something esoteric and not native to Equestria. You are in a state of flux, and despite our best attempts, we have not been able to stabilize you.”

“Can you stop it?”

“Yes. However, you would not survive.”

Diamond Tiara paused and looked up at the alicorn. He had no inflection and had shown no sign of emotion except when he had apparently grown angry. It was quite clear that he was not joking.

“If you think you can take me, bring it. I don’t care if you’re Celestia herself, I’m not going to- -”

“I do not like being compared to her. Not that it matters to you. But no. I- -and we- - have a substantial investment in you.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

Harvestor’s eyes moved up just slightly, looking at something beyond Diamond Tiara. “Hopefully this new surgery will pacify you better than the last.”

Diamond Tiara looked up to where Harvestor looked up, and realized that she could not move. She thought she had been reclining in a chair, but now realized that she was held into place. Dark shapes moved behind her, and she saw that Harvestor had never been alone. She could not see what they were doing, but she could feel the grinding of their picks and tools against the inside of her skull and hear the sound of their drills.

Then she awoke with a start. She was not lying in a chair, or in her bed, but beneath her kitchen table. Her fur was matted and hard from the pool of semi-dried vomit and tears that she found herself lying in.

Chapter 9: The Horned Mare and the Winged Stallion

The next day was colder, but slightly less cloudy. The Pegasi seemed to have gotten the weather partly under control and stabilized it for the time being. The morning had been chilly and damp, and the smell of decomposing leaves was almost overwhelming. Ponies in town were busy raking up the debris from the last few days’ storms, and others had filled town square to sell largely inedible fall-themed produce like gourds, pumpkins, and colorful corn.

Diamond Tiara largely ignored these. She had not, as far as she knew, slept in two days or eaten real food in three. Her mother would probably have looked approvingly upon the latter, although of the two conditions, it was the one affecting Diamond Tiara the worst. Sleep was not really an issue; if Harvestor was real, whatever he had done to her mind had made her less tired. The world seemed much more orderly and bright, and even pleasant- -but deep down, Diamond Tiara knew that it would not last.

So she marched through town, her drone-servant in tow. She had taken the time to prepare herself, setting her freshly polished tiara on her well-combed hair and putting on a jacket that cost more than most ponies in that town would make in a lifetime. At the same time, she wore thick glasses despite the partly cloudy skies and applied heavy makeup to disguise how fail and sallow she was becoming.

For the second time in two days, she made her way toward the Palace of Friendship. This time, though, she was not interested in more lectures from Twilight or Starlight. Her target was instead the library.

As per tradition, the doors to the lower levels of the castle were not locked. Diamond Tiara easily made her way into the inner area, and was glad that Twilight was likely engaged elsewhere. Despite not having a number of rare books, Twilight’s library was legendarily extensive, with only Celestia’s private library of forbidden magical tomes rumored to be more extensive. That was exactly what Diamond Tiara needed.

Usually, the library was filled with at least a moderate number of ponies. Now, though, it was completely empty; students had finished their exams and projects and were preparing for the prom, and others were engaged with winterizing their homes and preparing for the oncoming cold season. The only ponies present were some of the many generic-looking Ponyville citizens that Diamond Tiara had never bothered to learn the names of- -citizens who looked over their books at Diamond Tiara with unusually dead looking, unblinking eyes.

Diamond Tiara ignored them. Her first task was to locate a number of books on various subjects. Her original objective had been to research the nature of interdimensional travel, something that Twilight was apparently unexpectedly well versed in. Twilight had written a number of treatises on the subject, and many of them referenced work by Starswirl the Bearded. Diamond Tiara consulted his work, but quickly found not only that it was written in Old Equestrian, but that his math was exponentially beyond her understanding or that of her drone. None of it was useful, not even the pictures.

That was actually to be expected. Diamond Tiara quickly left those musty books behind and moved into what was the equivalent of the library’s basement. Years ago, before Mayor Mare had retired and the Ponyville town hall become the Ponyville museum, the town records had been moved to the Castle of Friendship in preparation for it taking on a role as the town’s administrative center. The records were stored below the main library.

The space down there was cramped and smelled like old, slightly moist paper. The light was wholly inadequate, but fortunately the drone came equipped with a light source powerful enough to provide a modicum of illumination.

Despite the heavy disorganization, Diamond Tiara was able to find a set of files. Assuming that Fluttershy was in her early thirties, she looked at records from that era, specifically at criminal reports. There were not many; Ponyville was not known for crime.

There was not much information. Fluttershy had not been born in Ponyville, so there was no record of her birth. There was, however, a reference to a pony named Carnation Bloom who had taken up residence around that time and obtained a permit to set up a florist shop on the east side of the town. That was itself not unusual, except that she stopped paying taxes only a few months after arriving, meaning that she either moved…or vanished.

This was not much information to go on, but Diamond Tiara packed it up into neat folders and put it in the drone’s saddlebags. She was intending to cross-reference it with the microprint article recorders upstairs, or to medical records if she could manage to bribe them out of one of the less ethical town nurses if she had to.

On her way up, she passed once again through the crystal stacks of seemingly endless books. This time, she was alone, save for the drone and for one blue-colored pony ignoring the mobile ladders and instead flying to the top shelves by the power of her own wings.

“Rainbow Dash,” said Diamond Tiara, briefly startling the rainbow-maned Pegasus pony.

“Hey…you,” said Rainbow Dash, turning and smiling but also clearly forgetting Diamond Tiara’s name. Diamond Tiara sighed. Rainbow Dash’s reaction was somewhat to be expected. The two of them had very rarely had dealings with one another. Diamond Tiara had generally considered her to be loud and just arrogant enough to be annoying. “You’re one of Scootaloo’s friends, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Diamond Tiara, with some hesitation. She had not always been that way; in fact, when she had been younger, she had been quite terrible toward the three ponies that were now some of her last friends.

Diamond Tiara looked at a the section that Rainbow Dash had been peruising, and noticed that it was adventure fiction.

“Looking for the latest Daring Do release?” she asked.

“Oh no, of course not. I get those on pre-order, straight from the author. We’re, like, pretty much best friends at this point. No, I wanted to get a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Black Flock’ for Scoots. She’s still trying to catch up on the series.”

“Of course,” said Diamond Tiara, knowing full well that Scootaloo actually detested adventure stories but was, in fact, probably reading them anyway for Rainbow Dash’s sake.

“Who’s your friend there?” said Rainbow Dash, eyeing the mute drone that was following Diamond Tiara. It eyed Rainbow Dash wearily, and even in its pony-hologram form it still looked slightly threatening and strange.

“A servant,” said Diamond Tiara, oversimplifying.

“Wow. What is it with your family and hiring huge dudes?”

“Rainbow Dash, I have a question.”

“Oh. Okay. Shoot.”

“Fluttershy. Was she adopted?”

Rainbow Dash frowned. Her exceptionally energetic cheerfulness seemed to collapse, and she landed, looking Diamond Tiara in the eye. “Why would you ask me that?”

“You grew up with her. I assumed you would know.”

“I do know. But that’s not something you just ask a pony.”
“Is it true or not?”

“Yeah. It is. But I’m only telling you so you don’t go and try to ask her. It’s not something she likes to talk about, or even think about. She never knew her biological dad, and her mom abandoned her as a foal. Fluttershy never really forgave them for it.”
“What if her mother didn’t abandon her? What if she- -”
“Sent a letter? Called? Showed up even once? She never did. Trust me, kid. Her adoptive parents are her real parents. They actually loved her.”

“Must be nice,” muttered Diamond Tiara.

“What’s that?”

“Never mind. Just go back to whatever it is you were doing.”

“What I was doing was being awesome,” said Rainbow Dash, floating off the ground. “It’s all I ever do. And don’t bother Fluttershy.”

“Trust me, I have my own problems to deal with.”

The microfilm was not especially helpful. Diamond Tiara spent hours looking at it, flipping through various articles and newspapers that were all over thirty years old. They were comparatively complete- -apparently, some unfortunate pony had had the unfortunate special talent of converting newspapers to film at some point- -but most of the newspapers did not bother with covering disappearances. They preferred to focus on the latest gossip- -now all thirty years out of date- -or on recipes or whatever the royalty was doing. Diamond Tiara had seen more pictures of baby Blueblood than she had ever wanted to, but nothing about Carnation Bloom.

When that line of inquiry went nowhere, Diamond Tiara left the library and returned outside. She had taken some copies of the information with her, as well as several books on interdimensional travel that she had no way to translate, all stored in the drone’s core memory. She was not sure if it would be helpful or not, but it was worth taking.

Outside, it was early afternoon. The trees lining the leaf-covered green hills had been oranged perfectly, and the cleanup crew had been mostly replaced with laughing children and townsfolk. Diamond Tiara could not help but feel mixed emotions about this: she wished that she could be like them, free and happy, and hated them because she could not. Not until she found a way to fix herself. She knew that jealousy was wrong, but she could not stop herself from feeling it.

The Castle of Friendship largely overlooked the town, standing at the end of what was rapidly becoming the new central street of Ponyville. It was filled with all kinds of shops and restaurants, as well as quaint Ponyville homes. This time of year, it was beautiful, but Diamond Tiara decided to avoid it. There were too many ponies- -or, as the case might have been, too few. Instead, she took the paths that led behind the castle into a park that had come to be accepted as the Castle’s main grounds. There were still ponies there, especially children, but few enough that Diamond Tiara had time to think.

After several minutes of walking though the winding paths, Diamond Tiara found herself in a relatively isolated area. Though no ponies appeared to be around, however, Diamond Tiara became aware that she was not alone. An unusual scent of cinnamon filled the air, and she heard a soft ticking following just behind her.

She suddenly stopped and turned to where the leaves were blowing behind her.

“Come on, Pick. What do you think you’re doing?”

The dirt path behind Diamond Tiara remained blank for a moment, and then the air seemed to distort as Pick’s invisibility field collapsed.

“But I was invisible…how did you know I was there?”

“Because I’m not an idiot. And because I know you. You’ve been pulling the same trick for years.” Diamond Tiara turned around, facing Pick. The drone watched on, as if mildly amused. “What do you want? Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be snuggling Silver Spoon right now? Or did you move on to the whole CMC?”

“Eew. No. Frankly, I’m surprised they managed to get dates to the Prom…well, not Silver Spoon. She’s actually attractive. I suppose the werewoad would be, too, if she did not reek of impending death.”

“Buck you,” said Diamond Tiara, turning around. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”

There was a flash of light, and Pick teleported in front of Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara looked down at him. He seemed so small, but looking at him made her extremely sad. “Get out of my way, Pick.”

“No. You asked me why I’m here, didn’t you? Well, I’m here for you.” Diamond Tiara just glared at him, but did not order the drone to force him out of the way. She doubted it even would if she had asked it. “I’m scared, Diamond. You probably can’t tell because of the mask but I’m quaking in my high-grade steel-toed boots.”

“Why? Did Silver Spoon finally give you the swamp fever?”

“Can you take me seriously for one second?” snapped Pick. “I get it, I really do. I’m not blind. I know that to you, I must be some kind of monster. That you probably can’t even stand to look at me. I know I’m not pretty, and I can’t even touch you without my support architecture to keep me alive. You probably only agreed to be my fillyfriend because your parents forced you into a political relationship to connect our family’s industries.”

“Pick, I didn’t- -”

“But I really did love you. I do love you. Every day I wish to the Underking that I could take this suit off and look you in the eye like a normal pony, but I can’t. But it’s okay that you don’t love me. I can stop loving you if I have to, but please…you were my first friend, I can’t lose that. Somethings wrong, and you won’t tell me, and you won’t tell Silver Spoon…I’m afraid, Diamond. I don’t want to lose you.”

Diamond Tiara stared at him for a moment. The manifold valve on the lower part of Pick’s mask was clicking more than usual, indicating that he had winded himself saying his peace. Diamond Tiara chose to let him stew just a bit longer. Then, without any sort of explanation, she climbed a nearby berm to where a large beech tree had been planted.

Pick, confused, followed her. Diamond Tiara pointed to the grass below, where it combined with the three’s roots. “Sit,” she said.

Pick obeyed, sitting down in the grass. Diamond Tiara sat down beside him and leaned against the tree. They were overlooking an uneven field where several large trees were surrounded by grass. Some fillies and colts were running, chasing each other. Another was flying a kite. Several couples sat on benches or on blankets, oblivious to the world around them. In the distance, standing beside one of the trees in plain view, stood Harvestor, watching. Diamond Tiara ignored him.

The pair of them sat there for several minutes, just watching the ponies go.

Diamond Tiara pulled up her collar against the autumn breeze. “So,” she said, not looking at Pick. “You’re saying you never touched Silver Spoon.”

“No more than you have.”

“Fair enough.” Diamond Tiara paused. “Who felt better?”

“You have less developed muscle mass, and therefore are softer to hug or otherwise embrace. As I have previously stated, I prefer you.”

“At least you don’t have to hug metal,” said Diamond Tiara, leaning against the tree. She looked up at the drone, which was waiting patiently. “Ieiah, diey’hie eiaihiea ieh,” she said, trying her best to replicate the necessary command inflection.

The drone responded by turning around and walking off.

“You gave it coordinates,” said Pick. “What did you just do? Why did you do that?”

“I ordered it to go to the spa and reserve my usual,” said Diamond Tiara. “Except for two.”

“Spa? I don’t understand. Why would you…” There was a literal click as the translation dial in Pick’s chest fully translated what she had just said. Diamond Tiara could almost see him blushing, even though his face was covered in metal to protect him from the temperatures of surface environment. “You don’t mean- -”

“Yeah. I do.” She reached out and awkwardly pulled him toward her. Being smaller, he leaned his head on her shoulder and fell silent as the pair of them looked out over the beautiful autumn landscape. For the first time in days, Diamond Tiara actually felt good. A familiar feeling crept over her, and she found herself wishing for the same thing she had always wished for since as long as she could remember. Her parents had drilled into her that all that mattered was wealth, power, and social station, but all Diamond Tiara had ever wanted was to be normal. To have a normal life where she did not have to pretend to be better than everypony else, to have a normal coltfriend, to not have her sanity slowly shattering around her. This was as close as she had come to that ideal- -and she could feel that whatever Harvestor had put in her head was fading, and that this would not last.

“I accept your apology,” she said. “I’ve been having…problems. I’m sick.” She looked down at him, and his optics flicked up at her. “I don’t know if I can get better, either. Are you sure you want a lover like that? Even if I don’t make it out of this?”

“You will. You’re Diamond Tiara.”

“Don’t dodge the question.”

“Of course. You are my best friend.” He gestured toward the slowly revolving device in his chest. “It is your diamond that clicks in my second heart. I have stuck with you since you were a child, and I do not intend to leave you until the day you choose to send me away.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara, holding him closer. He was warm against the cold wind. “I’m pretty much the best you can do, aren’t I?”

“Unless your mother gets a divorce, yes.”

Diamond Tiara jabbed him in the shoulder. He reacted as though it hurt, even though it was almost impossible for him to feel anything through the armor that kept him alive. The world really did feel normal.

Looking up, Diamond Tiara saw that Harvestor had moved. He was now closer, standing roughly in the center of a playground as children played around him, each one instinctively avoiding the space where he was actually standing. He continued to stare unblinkingly. Diamond Tiara held Pick closer; she was not sure if it was because she was afraid, or as a taunt to Harvestor, who could not approach morlock technology.

“Hey,” she said. “I did have a question, though.”

“Yes, hybridization between morlocks and surface ponies is possible.” Pick looked up. “Oh. That wasn’t your question.”

“Eew. Stop trying to ruin the moment.” She sighed. “No. It’s just that, when we looked at that hologram, you saw Twilight, and you said something.”

“What I said is not important.”

“It is to me. It was when you saw that she was an alicorn. Why?”

Pick released a low hissing sound, his version of a sigh. “It’s nothing, really. A minor mistake.”

“I don’t understand.”

Pick looked out into the distance. He paused for a long moment. “Do you know why my family is unique, even among morlocks?”

“Aside from the inbreeding?”

“We’re not that inbred. No. It is because we are and have always been the only family to live above the Upper Shield.”

“I remember,” said Diamond Tiara. It had never been something critical to her knowledge of morlock society, just something mentioned in passing. “It protects Geoterra.”
‘ “Yes. But it’s not just metal, or a wall. It was built before anypony can remember, even the elders, assuming they are still alive. None of us even know how it was created, or how it works. The technology was lost to us.”

“Why? To protect you from the plants, the ones that almost…” Diamond Tiara trailed off.

Pick shook his head. “As far as any of us know, it was built before them. At that point, it becomes legend. They say that the ancients built it to protect us from a great threat. Exactly what is lost to history.”

“And you think alicorns have something to do with it?”

“No. Of course not,” said Pick. “That’s the misunderstanding. The phenomenon that the Upper Shield was built for roughly translates to Red-White Sphere. In our language, that is a homophone for bisymmetric, or alicorn. I was just confused.”

Pick was surprisingly good at lying. It was one of the reasons why Diamond Tiara admired him. Still, he was not good enough at it to fully fool Diamond Tiara. He was not lying outright, but she could tell that he was not telling the truth- -but she decided to let it go. He was telling the truth about Silver Spoon. On some level, she had always known that.

So she let the conversation trail away. There was no need for it to continue. Instead, they just sat there, watching the world go by but doing it together. This was the happiest Diamond Tiara had felt in a long time, yet, somehow, she still found tears rolling down her cheeks.

The decay continued. The boundaries were breaking down. Time passed, but Diamond Tiara was beginning to lose the ability to tell exactly how much. She knew it had not been more than a week, but it was not clear if she had passed through hours, minutes, or days. Whatever was in her head seemed to always be producing a strange buzzing sound, and sometimes she would realize that she had forgotten to do anything except stare into space for indeterminate amounts of time.

For the whole time, Diamond Tiara could not remember if she ate or slept. It was becoming increasingly difficult to tell at any point if she actually was asleep or awake, or had eaten. This did not mean she did not try, though. The world seemed to be collapsing around her, but she still held on. A number of interpersonal interactions passed by her in a blur, and she had the impression that she was at least partially mimicking what it meant to live a real life.

Eventually she found herself in the Ponyville Spa. Being inside was easier for her, and this place was almost normal, perhaps because it was one of the few places that she had been to enough for it to become completely familiar.

Her perception finally stabilized- -mostly- -as she was walking through a long hall. She was accompanied by two earth ponies. They were the twins that owned the spa- -or at least Diamond Tiara had always assumed that they were twins- -Aloe and Lotus. Their unusually bright and contrasting colors gave Diamond Tiara a headache, but the sweet smell of the spa made her feel just a little bit better- -even if it was tinged with a sour, rotting wet smell that had never been there before.

“Business has been booming recently,” said one of the twins. Her voice, like the voices of everyone in her family, was heavily accented. Diamond Tiara had no idea where they were from that would produce that kind of an accent, and had actually come to think of it as a chosen affectation more so than an actual part of their normal speech.

“But most of eet has been with preparing the hairdos and thee hoofs for the Prom. Not many are using the sauna.”

“Which is terrible waste, considering the weather. But this is a good thing for you! You should have the better part of two hours.”

“Good,” said Diamond Tiara, eyeing the walls. She could not remember what they had looked like, but for some reason they now appeared to be peeling, painted brick. Out of the corner of her eyes, she was becoming conscious of the modifications made to Aloe and Lotus’s bodies, the perfectly symmetrical mutilations and protruding metal. Diamond Tiara did her best to will the image of living rot out of her mind, until she could only sometimes see the glint of steel in the spa pony’s spines or the outline of the ports in their sides. Even that was enough to be horrible, though, because Diamond Tiara knew that even if she refused to admit their existence, those modifications were real.

Diamond Tiara shook her head, trying to clear the image. “I’ve been terribly stressed recently.”

“Oh, of course.”

“Considering all the work you have done for the Prom.”

“We have heard you selected an absolutely stunning historical venue near Canterlot.”

Then, in unison. “Our Prom was at Sweet Apple Acres. It wasn’t exactly…our thing.”

“Right,” said Diamond Tiara. She adjusted the towel over her hair. “Also, I’m expecting a guest.”

“Ah, yes,” said Lotus- -probably- -“We will prepare little Silver Spoon’s favorite oils and have them brought to- -”

“It’s not her. Expect a colt.”

Aloe and Lotus’s respective eyes widened, and they looked at each other.

“Is something wrong?” asked Diamond Tiara.

“Well, it’s just that…”

“You are one of our best customers, second only to Rarity, but…”

They frowned to each other uncomfortably, then looked at Diamond Tiara. “Having a mare and a stallion in the same sauna…it’s something we usually frown on, because…”

“You know…”

Diamond Tiara sighed, and produced a small back stuffed completely full of bits. Aloe and Lotus’s eyes immediately zeroed in on it, their ears pricking to the sound of jingling coins. “I am willing to pay a bit…more.”

Lotus snatched the bag away quickly.

“Of course!” said Aloe, now smiling widely. “We will bring him right in!”

Lotus mumbled something through her mouth full of bits. Aloe looked at her, translating her sister’s muffled words effortlessly. “And for such a generous customer would you like us to give him anything…else? A special massage, perhaps, if that is something he would like?”

“No. Just bring him to me, and then make sure nopony disturbs us. Also, I’m sure you two understand the value of discretion.”

Lotus mumbled.

“Oh, yes,” added Aloe. “If there’s one thing we understand, it is value!”

At about that time, they reached the door of the spa. Lotus spat the small sack of coins out of her mouth- -appearing for a moment that she may have swallowed at least one of the coins- -and pulled open the door, releasing steamy air that almost felt like a wall of warmth. Her sister checked the gauge that controlled the steam, and finding it in working order, gestured for Diamond Tiara to enter.

“Just tell us if you need anything. Anything at all.”

“And we do mean ANYTHING.” Lotus winked.

Diamond Tiara entered the room, and they closed the door behind her. The sudden change from the relatively cool, fall-scented air of the spa to the heat of the sauna was quite jarring, but not uncomfortable. Diamond Tiara’s headache had been growing steadily for days, and despite the number of pills she had been taking this heat was the only thing that had even been remotely able to assuage it. Likewise, the implants in her body had started to feel unusual- -or feel at all, despite Harvestor’s previous insistence that they were generally painless. The steam made them feel better too.

The sauna itself was a mostly round room made from benches of hardened local oak. Even with updates having been made to it in recent years, it had been kept relatively traditional in design. Next to the door was a valve system that controlled the level of the steam, and in the center of the benches sat a small bowl of hot stones suspended over a fire. A ladle and been provided to pour water on said stones, even though that was technically redundant considering the external steam source.

Diamond Tiara immediately adjusted the controls, driving the temperature as high as it could go. Once she was satisfied, she sat down on the nearest of the benches. She hesitated for a moment, closing her eyes and trying to clear her mind. The world was breaking apart around her, but in here, everything seemed even and stable. The benches never moved, and the air could be controlled by a valve on the wall- -there was nothing more to it. After a few moments, Diamond Tiara began to feel somewhat calmer. The buzzing in her head even slowed down to a dull and almost musical hum.

Then she opened her eyes, and hesitantly removed the towels that were covering her. She knew, obviously, that ponies were normally naked almost all of the time. Cultural decorum, however, dictated that a pony should always wear her towel when in the spa. It was even harder for Diamond Tiara because she had left her tiara in the locker room; without it, she was substantially more naked than she usually was.

She eventually decided that she just could not managed to do it. She removed the towel from her head, but kept the other around her body. Despite the sauna calming her down, her heart was beating quickly.

After being left alone with her thoughts, eventually, the door slowly slid open. Diamond Tiara’s heartrate- -which had been slowing- -suddenly accelerated. She looked through the door to see Pick awkwardly standing in the gap- -and Harvestor watching silently over his shoulder.

“Are you going to come in or what?” said Diamond Tiara to Pick. “Close the door before you let something in.”

“Sorry,” said Pick, closing the door behind him. He immediately paused. “Oop. My optics just fogged.”

“I’m surprised the twins let you in here with that suit on.”

Pick looked down at his armor. The ragged cloak-like garment that he normally wore had been removed, but otherwise he was still plated in dark-colored shielding. “Yeah, they were unhappy,” he admitted. “But I don’t think they wanted to see what I look like under here.” He looked up. “Wait, twins? How can those two be twins?”

“Um…because they are?”

“But one was actually rather pretty, and the other just so…homely. I don’t know how two ponies so different could be related.”

The room fell silent, and Diamond Tiara and Picked stared at each other awkwardly.

“Well?” said Diamond Tiara. “Are you going to take off your clothes or not?”

“Oh…right,” said Pick. He prodded the dial in his chest. “Oh, wow. It’s warm in here. That explains why you are so sweaty.”

“I am NOT sweaty!”

“Yes you are. Is this temperature safe for you?”

“Is it for you?”

“It’s a little low, but it should be okay. Hold on.”

Something clicked inside his armor, and his dial rotated as the interlocks in his armor opened. He stepped out of it from behind, leaving it standing exactly where he had left it. Even then, he had only removed the surface coating. His internal support system was still connected to his body.

Pick took a deep breath. “Yeah. I can breathe this. This will work.” He looked up at Diamond Tiara, who was staring intently. “It does make it harder that you’re ogling me, though.”

“Hey, I paid for this. I’ll ogle as much as I want.”

Pick grumbled, and then disengaged the interlocks on his internal armor. There was a slight warning tone as the metal fell away and Pick stepped out. Diamond Tiara had only seen him unarmored once before, when they were much younger. He was bigger now, but not by much. Without his armor, he looked relatively similar to a normal pony. His relatively sparse coat was pale green, and his mane and tail both straw-colored. Although his proportions were different from a normal pony and his features a bit different- -including his wings, which were the only part of himself that he generally left exposed- -but he really did look at least mildly attractive in an insect-like sort of way.

Seeing him without armor, though, made Diamond Tiara feel strange. Again, she knew that ponies were almost always naked. She had seen everypony she had ever known naked before; it was not unusual. With Pick, though, it felt strange and new.

Pick removed the dial from his internal armor, causing the thermal elements to cease glowing. He placed it on his chest, where it attached like a broach.

“You’re not going to leave that behind, are you?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t. It’s part of my duty as a noble.” He crossed the sauna and pulled himself next to Diamond Tiara, folding his legs underneath his body and sitting like a loaf. “I’m pretty lucky, though. I can still take it off if I want to.”

“Why wouldn’t you be able to?”

Pick’s small, yellowish eyes flicked up at Daimond Tiara. Even in the low sauna light, his pupils were compressed tightly into slits. “Technetium mining is hard on a pony, even a morlock. Those exposed to it directly…well, they’re not entirely ponies anymore.”

“And you?”

“I’m a redundant sibling. A reject. Although I would say I am most definitely an adorable reject. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“You’re really small without your armor on. I kind of feel like a pedofilly.”

“I’m seventeen. You are.”

Diamond Tiara jabbed him in the shoulder. It was surprisingly soft, and from the way he winced, Diamond Tiara realized that she may have actually hurt him. Her towel slipped slightly, and she squeaked in surprise.

“Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” mused Pick, even as he was shielding his own body almost entirely with his overly large, plate-like wings. He shrugged. “Probably better for me, though. Without the polarization matrix on my lenses, you’re color is really quite jarring. I mean, seriously, pink? PINK? That and the cellulite…”

“Oh, really? Like green is any better. Actually, why don’t you go and put your clothes back on? It’s not like looking at an evolutionary reject is my idea of fun, you know. Or should I just put a bag over your head?”

“I actually brought one. I intended it for you, though.”

“Only an uncultured moron would want to hide this perfection. You should be begging me take this towel off.”

“I don’t beg. If I really wanted to see you naked, I would either visit your werewoad friend’s farm to view porks or I would offer to pay you, as your father did for your mother.”

“You would be thinking about my mother right now, you perverted freak!”

Unable to control herself, Diamond Tiara tore off her towel and leapt onto Pick. He initially squeaked and chirped as he tried to scramble away, but Diamond Tiara gripped him tightly before he could escape. Despite his appearance, he was amazingly soft, like velvet.

After overcoming his initial fear of pony contact, Pick held onto Diamond Tiara tightly in the most awkward possible way. At this point, Diamond Tiara was not really sure what she wanted to do, so she started kissing him. Doing so was actually somewhat difficult; his mouth was far wider than a normal pony’s and full of several rows of lethally sharp teeth. He seemed to respond well to it, though, and submitted easily to Diamond Tiara’s will. That was somehow unsatisfying, and Diamond Tiara came to wonder if he was just incapable of lifting her off of himself without the power assist in his suit.

Something felt strange, though. Diamond Tiara felt her heart beating faster, in part because of the audacity of what she was doing and in part in anticipation of where this might go- -but something else seemed to be growing inside her. She felt sick, and a ringing sound was growing in her head, a single and inescapable tone. It drove into her skull and spine, bringing searing pain with it. Diamond Tiara ignored it, trying to focus on what she was doing, knowing that it very well might be her last chance.

Then, in an instant, the entire world seemed to shatter around her. It was not so much an explosion as an absolute collapse of every assumption that allowed her mind to have any bearing in the real world. She screamed- -or thought she had screamed- -and felt herself falling.

She struck the stone floor of the sauna with substantial force, and the wind was knocked from her lungs.

“P- -Pick?” she said, standing shakily. Now she was afraid, and wanted to hold him far more than she had before. She reached up to take hold of him- -and found him gone, replaced by a dark stain on the moldering wooden bench.

Diamond Tiara backed away in shock, feeling cold sweat running down her naked body. It was then that she realized that she was, in fact, horribly cold. There was no heat, and no humidity; it was as though the sauna had been turned off, and not recently. She turned to the pipes on the wall, and saw that they were incomplete- -and at the same time, oxidized and corroded by what appeared to be centuries of use.

The sauna, likewise, was no longer empty. Sitting on the benches above where Diamond Tiara and Pick had been making out were several pony skeletons, their bones blackened and overgrown by the fungoid growths that populated the cracking and unwaxed wood.

Many of them seemed to just have collapsed, slumping over sideways. One, however, stood near the door, collapsed. A thin red-brown trail lead from his remains to the bowl in the center of the sauna, which instead of holding coals now held nothing but dust and stains. The material that had been stored there had apparently been used to write on the wall; wherever the strange ink had touched now appeared blackened, showing a combination of symbols and foreign lettering that Diamond Tiara could not even hope to recognize.

Diamond Tiara shivered. She was nude, alone, and cold, and she did not know where she was.

“H…Harvestor?” she whispered. “Anypony?”

The only response was a high, distant warbling that was almost a voice that drifted in from the partly open door. Diamond Tiara froze, wonder what exactly that had been, but not wanting to find out. Slowly, she stepped across the dirty stone of the floor and started to push on the door. It was badly rusted, and did not initially move. When it finally did, it made a horrible creaking noise that echoed throughout the perfectly silent spa.

The hall outside was long, far longer than it should have been, and made of dirty painted brick. The floor was dirty, covered in dust and debris. The air was cool, if not cold, but smelled strange. Somehow, Diamond Tiara had the impression that she was underground.

Perhaps more ominously, the hallway did not terminate where it should have. The spa was not especially large, but in this version, instead of ending up back in the front lobby, the brick hallway took a sharp turn and continued. Diamond Tiara paused at the intersection, noticing how the bricks now looked just a little bit different, a little older- -but had nowhere else to go. She started walking slowly into the older section.

This continued, and Diamond Tiara became acutely aware of the progression. At first, she just seemed to be wandering a maze of cold, nearly industrial hallways, sometimes passing doors that would not open or empty, perfectly square rooms. After a time, though, the nature of the hallways seemed to change. The bricks became less brick like, and more as though they had been carved from a single substance. They became thickly coated in moisture, and more uneven.

The floor and walls became increasingly organic looking, and what had formerly been debris was now imbedded into them in a way that made the shards of glass and shards of building materials look oddly like teeth. At the same time, the thick and unpleasant smell that Diamond Tiara had first detected upon exiting the sauna had grown much more intense as the air had grown warmer and more moist. That, and somehow, Diamond Tiara was sure she could feel it oscillating. As though something large was breathing deeper within.

Worse, Diamond Tiara was getting increasingly lost. Her sense of direction was normally good, but nothing here was logically constructed. Hallways backtracked on themselves, or turned gradually in long spirals that were almost imperceptible. Sometimes, Diamond Tiara found herself passing places that she had been before even though it should have been possible with the path she was taking.

She was beginning to grow more desperate and panicked when she noticed something unusual on the calcium-thickened walls. Carved into the dark grime at one corner was a system of symbols. Diamond Tiara approached, expecting to see another random array of runes, but was surprised to see that it was actually written in Equestrian.

Diamond Tiara lifted her hoof and wiped away some of the material covering the markings. It was thick, and the marks had been eroded by time and moisture, but they were still mostly legible. They appeared to rudimentary map, as well as directions. Many of it had been crossed out and re-drawn, apparently being painstakingly carved with magic.

Whoever had made it, despite being careful, had apparently been as terrified as Diamond Tiara was slowly becoming. There were parts where the information trailed off, or where it could not be read, either because of erosion or because of whoever made it had been distracted by something. The map seemed good, though, and Diamond Tiara did her best to commit it to memory.

Once she thought she understood the instructions clearly, Diamond Tiara followed them. Slowly, the hallways began to change back to the way they had been. There were more markings, too; other incomplete maps, or arrows and notes burned into the walls, including some that apparently had nothing to do with the building. They were just ramblings.

The only time Diamond Tiara slipped up was when she took a wrong turn, misinterpreting a map segment that had apparently been drawn inverted for some reason. That almost cost her dearly- -she ended up in an area where the hallways widened vastly and the light inside them vanished completely, leaving them large and dark. The breathing sound had been almost deafening, and Diamond Tiara only barely stopped herself in time when she heard the sound of things moving in the void.

Eventually, though, she returned to the correct path and, in time, found her way out. The final door was hanging askew on its hinges, but for some reason took an immense effort to open. It slid silently, and though it resisted, Diamond Tiara eventually got it open- -and found herself under a familiar sky.

“No, not this again…”

Once again, she found herself in a twilight version of Ponyville. The spa stood behind her, looking almost like it did in the real world but darkened and strange. The rest of the town stood similarly ominous and sterile in abject silence.

“Hello?” called Diamond Tiara. As expected, there was no response, and she took to the street. The only sound as she moved between the buildings was her hooves clacking on the wet and uneven cobblestone streets. She remembered what Lucy had said, that the town was a bad place, and being in the shadow of those crowding buildings, Diamond Tiara knew that it was true.

Suddenly, the dim light of the unnamed and collapsing suns overhead was replaced by a bright surge of blue. Diamond Tiara shielded her eyes, and looked up to see lightning streak across the sky. Or, at least, lightning was what she thought of it as. It did not operate remotely similar to the way lightning traveled in the real world; instead, it slid horizontal across the sky, dividing and recombining as it traveled.

Then, instead of collapsing into thunder, the lightning remained, illuminating the sky in silence for an extended duration before erupting into an array of fractal curves that bathed the land in blinding blue light. The rapidly expanding energy did not produce thunder per se, but rather an electrical vibration that seemed to bored into Diamond Tiara’s skull. She cried out in both pain and shock- -and fear at the bizarre things hiding amongst the buildings that the burst of energy had suddenly illuminated.

Diamond Tiara closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the town lay in ruin. She blinked, confused. There had been no sound of an explosion, no flying debris or fragments. On close inspection, Diamond Tiara saw that the damage was, apparently, not at all recent. Buildings were crumbling and rotting, overgrown with mold and stone-like vines, and from the look of them had been for decades.

The air grew increasingly cold, and Diamond Tiara shivered as the sky seemed to darken. Then, as the lightning overhead began to fade and separate into independent decaying lights, she saw movement in the town.

Spectral ponies emerged from the void. Their bodies were incomplete and translucent, without facial features or clear identifying marks. They moved slowly and without sound, trudging through the debris and falling embers of lightning. They moved as though they were actual ponies walking through town on their daily business, but they had none of the joy that normal ponies did. They did not prance or smile, and none of them interacted with each other. They just seemed to drift.

Diamond Tiara backed away, not understanding what was occurring. They did not seem to be threatening, but at the same time, they did not seem safe to make contact with. The way they ambled slowly, or turned their faceless, incomplete heads toward Diamond Tiara as they passed was unnerving.

“Ghosts,” said a voice. It was not a loud voice by any means; in fact, it had spoken quite softly. But in the populous silence of the tattered remains of this alternate Ponyville, it was deafening.

Diamond Tiara jumped and squealed, turning as she came back down to see Lucy standing approximately behind her.

“You- -it’s you!” she said, putting her hoof to her chest. As relieved as she was to see Lucy, the sudden surge in her heart was almost more than she could take.

“Some days, yes,” responded Lucy. She ran her hoof through the part of her long red hair that emerged from the hood she was wearing. “But some days…I don’t know.”

She stepped forward and, after a long hesitation, wrapped Diamond Tiara in a hug. The familiar smell of carnations once again surrounded Diamond Tiara, and as strange as it was, Diamond Tiara hugged back. It made her feel a little better.

“I thought I had lost you,” said Lucy. “I was alone again…I don’t know for how long.”

“It’s only been a few days back in Ponyville,” said Diamond Tiara. She looked up and realized that Lucy was genuinely crying.

Lucy’s eyes widened. “You- -you went back to Ponyville? How?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Diamond Tiara.

Lucy’s expression fell. “Then I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have come back. Not to this place. Not here.”

“I didn’t really have much of a choice.”

“I’m so glad to see you, but…no, this needs more thought. Conclusions cannot be reached at this time.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara. “I know the feeling.” She looked out at the town, and then up at Lucy. Lucy looked down at Diamond Tiara, and then away. She smiled, but it was a sad smile. “So you were here, what, waiting? I thought you said the town was a bad place?”

“They are. But not always. Things are cyclic. Except when they’re not. I was waiting. For you. For myself, perhaps. I don’t know.”

“Waiting? How long?”

“Months? Perhaps years. Time…time doesn’t work well here. Sometimes it runs…strangely.”

“Is that what these are?” Diamond Tiara pointed out at the ghosts that were now surrounding them, watching.

Lucy nodded. “Yes. I don’t really know what they are, but I think they were ponies. Or perhaps will be. Some part of them. A shadow, or a mirror. Of ponies that are, were, or will be.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Not sure. They’re new. I think they’re okay, though, as long as there’s not a lot of them.”

“Why are they looking at us?”

“For the same reason we look at them.” Lucy seemed slightly nervous. She looked up at the sky, where distant lightning was forming. “Come on,” she said. “We should go.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara. “I don’t like it here.”

The two of them started to walk, being careful to avoid the ghosts. Lucy seemed to know her way through Ponyville, but she did not take a logical course. She seemed familiar enough with the idiosyncrasies of this version, but would occasionally stop on wide roads or pathways that should have been open to travel and turn in a different direction. Diamond Tiara thought this was strange, but Lucy seemed to know what she was doing.

“We need to get inside,” said Lucy, looking up at the sky. “The storms are getting worse.”

“Inside? No, we’re not doing that. I thought you said the buildings were dangerous?”

“They are. But not all of them. I’ve been inside most of them. Almost died in some, found my way out of others. Except that one time…” Lucy paused. “Oh, wait. I made it out of that one too. I forgot I survived that.”

“The markers,” said Diamond Tiara, turning back to the hulking wreckage of the spa. “You made them, didn’t you?”

“I’ve made a lot of things. But yes.” Lucy frowned and stopped abruptly. “Wait, you saw markers? I only leave markers in the ones that change. Those are the worst, because they’re not really buildings. You were inside one?”

“Yeah. I was in the spa in Ponyville, then the one here.”

“Oh. And you got out?”

“No,” said Diamond Tiara, sarcastically. “I died.”

“Well that’s unfortun…oh.” Lucy smiled. “You are more tenacious than I initially expected. I admire you slightly more. You will do well here, I think. Perhaps better than I did.” She looked down at Diamond Tiara, and then out at the town. “There,” she said. “That one. That one is safe, usually.”

“Usually?”

“Certainty is a precious luxury.”

Lucy led Diamond Tiara across a rocky area toward a building on the edge of town. Unlike the others, Diamond Tiara did not recognize this one- -at least not at first. It was somewhat larger than the others, and more angular, built in a style vastly different than the one that was aped by the deformed and now destroyed buildings of the false-Ponyville. It seemed more angular, and stone-like, and the rocks that had been used to construct it seemed old. Also unlike the others, it was not built on the land so much as half submerged into it, tilting and partially sunk in the damp and jagged rocks below.

Diamond Tiara initially did not know where she had seen it before, but then it occurred to her. The last time she had been here, when she had almost drowned, she had seen buildings like it emerging from the black water- -and had the impression that those were just towers of a much larger structure that had been lost to time beneath the contaminated sea below.

“What is that?” said Diamond Tiara.

“I don’t know,” said Lucy. “I never did. It’s one of the older things here.”

“I’ve seen something like it before.”

Lucy nodded. “There are many. Most are buried, sometimes very deep, and a number of them are infested, badly. They make me wonder if there were others here, at one point. Someone who built them. But that must have been so long ago. Or…these could just be the dead ones.”

Diamond Tiara shivered, looking back at the town behind them. The ghosts had now mostly congregated on the edge, watching Diamond Tiara and Lucy go silently from the edge of their town. Lucy seemed to largely ignore them, instead focusing on the growing disturbance in the sky. A sound like distant thunder was approaching, and Diamond Tiara thought she could see something like clouds on the horizon.

The building did not have doors, but Lucy quickly ducked through a narrow gap where one might once have hung, lighting her horn as she entered. Diamond Tiara followed, and tried to maintain her balance on the slanted and rotting floors. She quickly realized that although the building was somewhat strange on the outside, it was not much different from the buildings in Ponyville. It was spacious, but otherwise quite ordinary.

Lucy climbed across the floor toward the high side of a wide and empty room toward a dirty window. She looked out and up at the sky, which was rapidly growing thicker and brighter from the increased lightning. Fragments of light were beginning to fall from the sky from the decaying arms of the storm, and Diamond Tiara could smell the scent of oncoming rain.

“The storms have been very bad lately,” said Lucy.

“What are they?” asked Diamond Tiara, awkwardly ascending the wooden floor to stand next to Lucy. Outside, the strangeness of the now web-like network of energy discharges was beautiful but at the same time clearly ominous. Visibility was decreasing quickly, though, as though night were falling.

“Roots. No. Folds. Yes. That’s better. They are disruptions. Or connections.” She looked down at Diamond Tiara. “Sometimes, things fall through them. Like I did, and you did. And sometimes they dredge up things. Things best left buried.”

“Like the ghosts.”

“And the shifts. And…other things.”

Lucy backed away from the window and ascended a narrow staircase. Diamond Tiara paused, and then followed her as well. Climbing the staircase was difficult because of its strange angle, but Diamond Tiara managed. As she did, she noticed that the stone-block walls of the stairwell were covered in deeply engraved runes and spell construction. They looked extremely similar to the ones that were in Lucy’s cave out in this world’s version of the Everfree Forest.

“What is this?” she asked.

Lucy looked back, and her blue eyes looked to the marks. “More plans. More failure.”

“It looks like a spell.”

“It was. And is. Part of a network of them. I built it…a long time ago. To create my own storm, to get out. It failed. I almost died.”

“You’ve been trying to escape.”

“No. I stopped a long time ago. There is no way out of this place.”

“I seemed to manage it.”

Lucy smiled, but it was a very sad smile. “You did.” She reached into her bag and removed the device she used to produce her equivalent of fire. She also removed something made of cloth. “Here,” she said, levitating it toward Diamond Tiara.

“What is this?”

“Clothing. You were shaking when I found you. The artifact generates light, but not much heat. And sometimes whatever is on the other side of the storm makes it very cold here.”

Diamond Tiara took the garment in her hoofs. It was made of rough, somewhat dirty fabric that looked like it had been salvaged from several sources but sewn together with great care. It was, essentially, a cloak, but with a part that would extend down over its user’s chest like a shirt. It was not unlike part of the far more complex system or armor and multiple layers that Lucy wore. Notably, though, it appeared to have been fit for Diamond Tiara, who was slightly shorter and wider than Lucy.

“Thanks,” said Diamond Tiara, sliding the cloak on. If somepony had tried to give something like that to her in Ponyville, she would never even have looked at it for more than the time needed to make a disgusted expression and perhaps berate the pony trying to give it to her. Here, though, she was actually starting to grow cold, and it was better than nothing.

Lucy laid out a thin cloth mat, and then set her star fragment on it. She lit it with her horn, but did not charge it as powerfully as before. The room was lit with a pleasant dim light that seemed to pulsate slightly, almost as though it were from a real fire. Lucy then reached into one of her saddlebags one more time and removed to cracked glasses and a small bottle.

“Here,” she said, pouring out some of the contents into what appeared to be the remnants of a measuring cup. Diamond Tiara immediately recognized the appley smell. “I don’t get a lot of this. It’s heavy, but I haven’t been able to get rid of it. Perhaps you would like some?”

“Cider? Sure, why not.” Diamond Tiara took the measuring cup as Lucy poured some for herself into a dirty jelly jar. Diamond Tiara immediately drained half of her portion. It was sour and slightly oxidized, but it did its job. She then took the cup between her hooves and resolved to drink the rest more slowly.

Lucy sipped her own, levitating it in her olive-green magic. “I remember when I first came to Ponyville,” she said. “It was the autumn, before I got sick and…well…came here. There was a couple out on the edge of town who used to make fresh apple cider. I’d always had cider when I was younger, but that cider…there was nothing like it.” She looked into her cup at the vastly lower quality fluid that it contained. “I wonder if they still do that. You know, they had a son. He was just a little bit older than my Fluttershy…he’s probably a grown stallion by now…”

Diamond Tiara looked down into her own drink. She then looked up at Lucy, and was once again surprised by how much she looked like Fluttershy. Her coat color was a few shades darker, and her hair was red instead of pink, but the resemblance was uncanny.

“I was looking for records of you in Ponyville,” she said, after a long pause. “Do you know the name ‘Carnation Bloom’?”

Lucy immediately frowned, and seemed to become agitated. “No no no no no…That’s not my name. It…I remember it, yes, but…that’s…” She paused, trying to regain her composure. “Yes. That is what I was called when I was young and pretty, like you. But it’s not me, not anymore. Whatever is left of me is not the same. I don’t want to think about…about what might have been.” She looked over to one corner of the empty room, and shifted where she was sitting. “But…”

“What?”

“You had a chance to go back. Even if you didn’t, you’re still so new. Which makes me very sad. But…Fluttershy. My Fluttershy. How is she?”

“She’s happy,” said Diamond Tiara. “She has lots of friends, and animals.” She looked up into Lucy’s blue eyes. “And she misses you.”

Lucy smiled. “You’re a bad liar.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Not about the first part, no. But the last part…I can tell. How could she miss me? How could she love the mother who was never there for her? She must hate me.”

“But none of it was your fault!”

Lucy shook her head. “Do you think that matters? I failed her. And it is better this way. If she hates me, she will not miss me. I’ve already missed so much of her life…and I’m going to miss the rest too.”

“You’re an idiot.”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “I am?”

“You’re really just going to give up like that?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Diamond Tiara was about to retort, but then realized that what Lucy described was exactly what she had been doing all along. “No,” she said, again lying.

“Something is wrong. Is something wrong, Diamond Tiara?”

Diamond Tiara nodded. “They say I’m dying. That I’m going insane. I can’t tell anymore. I just…I don’t know…”

Lucy nodded. “I’ve been insane for years. A product of being alone for so long. There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s by no means fun, but you can live with it. Most of the time.” She paused. “Sometimes I wonder if any of this is even real…”

“I’m real.”

Lucy looked up. “But then am I?”

Diamond Tiara shivered slightly at the thought, and tried to change the subject. “In Ponyville, I’ve been having hallucinations. At least, I think they are. I don’t know anymore.”

“Of what?”

Diamond Tiara laughed, even though it was anything but funny. “Alicorns. One named Harvestor…doing experiments on all my friends. Did you ever see them, when you…were like me?”

Lucy shook her head. “The only alicorns I know are the four Princesses. And I’m pretty sure they have forsaken us.”

“They’re Princesses. Not helping is kind of their thing.” Lucy smiled and let out a small giggle. Diamond Tiara had not known her very long, but it seemed like the first time in a long time that she had done something like that. “Besides. I tried talking to Twilight. She just said I was insane. And to be honest, I think I might be.”

“You seem pretty normal to me.”

“Yeah. Considering you just admitted to being bat-butt crazy yourself, that doesn’t mean much.”

“Of course it does. I know madness better than anypony. I’ve been staring it in the eyes for a long, long time.” She paused, and her expression fell. “I think…I think I will be looking at it forever…”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “Now THAT is annoying.”

Lucy glanced up. “What?”

“How you just give up like that.”

“You have no idea how hard I’ve tried to get out of here,” snapped Lucy. “The things I’ve had to do just to stay alive- -”

“Well, clearly, you didn’t try hard enough. Or else you wouldn’t be here, now would you?”

Lucy’s eyes narrowed and she suddenly stood up, glaring at Diamond Tiara. For a long moment, she just paused unblinking in the slowly pulsing light. Then her horn charged, and a beam shot out.

Diamond Tiara squealed and covered her head, realizing that she must have sounded just like some kind of pig. The beam missed her, though, and she looked down beside her to see a half-destroyed crab or spider-like creature shrieking as it pulled itself back into the floorboards by flailing its exorbitantly long hooked legs, trailing flaming and fragments of its body behind it as it escaped.

“What- -what the buck was that?”

“Best not to ask,” said Lucy, shrugging. “Apart from that, though, you may be right. It’s been so long, maybe I’ve gotten complacent with my torment. Also, don’t breathe the smoke off that thing unless you want your lungs to be on the outside of your lung-hole.”

Diamond Tiara moved several feet away from where the spider had escaped through a hole between the dry and nearly petrified floorboards. Lucy sat back down, and her expression had changed. She seemed more lost in thought, sometimes looking at an area of the room that was empty, as though something was there. At the same time, though, Diamond Tiara had the impression that she seemed happier than before. Hopeful, perhaps.

They remained awake for what felt like several more hours. Conversation with Lucy was by no means easy. She would occasionally stop in the middle of conversations and stare, or diverge completely onto a different topic or into manic, rapid-fire assertions that made next to no sense. When things like that happened, though, she usually realized it and corrected herself, or Diamond Tiara would just listen and sip her cider. She was not a pony that Diamond Tiara would normally have ever associated with in Ponyville, but she was actually surprisingly charming. Talking to her was fun.

The conversation began to slow as the wind outside seemed to grow. Through the window, Diamond Tiara saw that the world had gone almost completely black, save for the numerous small glowing fragments of expended lightning that swirled around the building. The sound of the wind and what might have been rain- -and a bizarre third sound, one that was almost like distant voices that Diamond Tiara did not want to contemplate too deeply- -caused Diamond Tiara to slowly realize just how long she had gone without sleep.

Noticing this, Lucy set out a blanket for Diamond Tiara. She herself did not sleep, but did not mind dimming the flame-like light generating device enough for Diamond Tiara to at least try to sleep. The blanket was relatively crude and dirty, but as soon as Diamond Tiara pulled one end of it over herself, she immediately dropped into sleep.

The dreams started almost immediately with a vengeance. Diamond Tiara immediately found herself standing in the middle of a familiar desert, surrounded by numerous plants that sprung forth from the rocky, sandy soil, drawing water from some deep and unseen source.

Except this time, there was a structure on the horizon of the desert. Diamond Tiara approached it slowly- -painfully slowly, and yet somehow quickly- -and quickly recognized it. The enormousness of it, combined with its variable structure formed from eternal additions built onto an ancient fort for over one thousand years- -some of which Diamond Tiara had designed herself. It was where she had spent her last seven summers, and where she had met Diamond Pick- -and where she had acquired the worms that were destroying her mind.

In the distance, the sun started to set quickly, turning crimson as it approached the horizon and the crystalline white glow of the crescent moon began to approach from the opposite end of the sky. The world was cast into shadow, and every plant bloomed in unison, filling the air with a heavenly scent. With the smell came the voices. Diamond Tiara could hear each and every one, all speaking in different voices but saying the same thing, a phrase or message that she could not fully understand.

Then, slowly, the pain washed over her, small and distant at first but growing rapidly into piercing pain between her eyes. Around her, the world suddenly seemed to collapse and rupture- -and from the desert arose a new landscape.

Suddenly, Diamond Tiara found herself shivering against the cold as snow fell in the shadows of Cyclopean concrete structures. Stained and enormous brutalist towers appeared around her, gray and cold like the drifts of snow that formed against their sides. Though enormous beyond anything built by pony hooves, their stony and jarringly practical facades were all that surrounded Diamond Tiara. There were no ponies, no voices. The only sound was the muted crackling of the snow falling around her.

Diamond Tiara looked up through the storm, and saw that the sky had no true sun- -but instead was lit by a hideous blue light. High above stood something, but what it was nearly escaped description. At times, it appeared to be a flower, and at others, a writhing mass of silver tentacles, and always hemorrhaging frigid dark-blue light.

“Diamond Tiara,” whispered a voice. Diamond Tiara turned to find herself staring up into the blank, narrowed pupils of an enormous gray alicorn, his cracked skin leaking blue light from within.

“Diamond Tiara!”

Diamond Tiara awoke with a start and found herself staring into a pair of blue eyes. She was about to protest, to wonder why Lucy had woken her up when she was finally able to sleep- -but then she saw the terror in those blue eyes, and knew something was wrong.

“What- -what happened?”

“We’ve been compromised! We have to get out! NOW!”

Diamond Tiara stood up, groggy and confused. The storm was still raging outside, but the room looked normal. Nothing looked wrong, and for a moment Diamond Tiara wondered if Lucy was having some sort of a break from reality. With all she had been through, that was not unlikely.

Not understanding, Diamond Tiara reached down for the blanket she had been sleeping on.

“NO! LEAVE IT!”

It was too late. As soon as Diamond Tiara’s hoof touched the edge, the blanket suddenly shifted, pulling up off the ground. The blanket rose quickly, and in seconds something was standing beneath it. Something tall and narrow that towered over Diamond Tiara, its form and nature completely obscured by the blanket that covered it.

Whatever was beneath moved, turning with the most delicate subtlety, and Diamond Tiara became aware that it was facing her. She felt magic swirl around her, and Lucy pulled her back.

“What is that?!” cried Diamond Tiara as she was thrown down the stairs.

Lucy did not answer. She was instead mumbling to herself rapidly. She held up one of her hooves, where a metal band was inscribed with various complex runes. As she spoke, the runes began to glow.

“Hold on,” she said. “I’m going to try something!”

Without any more warning, she leapt on Diamond Tiara, tackling her to the ground. As they fell, Diamond Tiara saw the thing beneath the blanket standing at the top of the stairs, watching. Then, there was a sudden feeling of floating that was all too familiar. Diamond Tiara reached out for something to hold onto, but only found Lucy. She held on tight as the world seemed to vanish with a loud whooshing sound- -and then slam back into existence with a loud thundercrack of magic.

Immediately, Diamond Tiara felt the familiar distortion of recent teleportation seep into her mind. Distantly, she was aware of darkness and cold wind, and that her clothing was slightly singed. Lucy lay on the ground beside her, not moving.

“Lucy?” said Diamond Tiara, standing up and nearly falling over. She had only teleported a few times in her life, and every single time Pick had been the one doing it- -and every single time, she got sick.

Lucy stirred, and slowly stood.

“Oh, wow,” she said, looking down at the metal ring over her left hoof. The runes were still glowing red from the heat of the reaction. “That was not a good idea.”

“No, yah think?” Diamond Tiara reached down and helped the older mare to her feet. Lucy seemed shaky and groggy from the spell, even more so than Diamond Tiara. “Have you even teleported before?”

“No.” Lucy winced and doubled over, grabbing her chest. “Oh wow…and I think I might have left some of myself back there.”

“Do we need to go back and get it?”

“That’s not how it works. Besides, if I can still talk I didn’t need it.” She stood up, ignoring the pain, and looked around. Diamond Tiara did the same, bundling her cloak around herself against the wind. She was glad that Lucy had given it to her, but it was not completely adequate for the strange wintry air that drifted downward from the electrical storms above.

“This doesn’t look good,” said Diamond Tiara. “We probably would have been safer with the…um…”

“Not much here has names. I sure don’t have the time to come up with them. Probably a vug.”

“Is everything here trying to kill you?”

“Oh no. Almost nothing is. That’s the problem.”

“Well, this storm’s going to do it for them if we don’t do something.” Diamond Tiara looked around. “Where the buck are we, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” said Lucy. “I can’t see- -hold on.” She lit her horn, and cast a shield spell around them. The wind immediately calmed, and though the air was still cold, Diamond Tiara felt some relief in the warmth of Lucy’s horn.

Lucy looked around, her eyes slowly scanning across the darkened landscape. “Yes,” she said. “Yes. I know.”

“How can you see anything in this?”

“I can’t.”

Lucy stepped forward, and Diamond Tiara followed- -and then the storm was behind them. Diamond Tiara looked back to see its edge in the distance, as though in a single step they had crossed hundreds of yards. Lightning and energy sparked overhead, swirling in an enormous vortex upward. Out where they now were, the wind was still present, but weaker, and the visibility was slightly better.

Diamond Tiara did not even bother to ask how they had moved so quickly, because she already knew that they had not. Space and distance, like time, were strangely malleable in this world.

They now found themselves on the edge of a grove of strange trees. These trees were not like those that created the endless forests of this realm; instead of being massive, decaying carving-like structures, these appeared to be actual trees. Instead of leaves, though, they had a number of perfectly straight limbs, all facing exactly upward. They did not look like any trees that Diamond Tiara recognized, but the setting did.

“This…this is Sweet Apple Acres,” said Diamond Tiara, looking across the fields of grass that waved contrary to the wind toward an old collapsed house in the distance.

“No. It’s not,” said Lucy. “Not yet…or not anymore.” She looked at the trees and sighed. “We’ll be safe from the storm in there.”

“It’s not the storm I’m worried about. Actually…” Diamond Tiara turned back and looked at the storm. It appeared to be moving away from them, but there was no way to know if that meant it was approaching or departing. “Couldn’t we just use it to get back? I mean, I came through it- -”

“NO! No- -I’m sorry,” said Lucy. “But that’s a bad idea. A really, really bad idea.”

“No it isn’t,” said Diamond Tiara, defensively.

“Yes it is. I don’t know exactly what causes the tempest, but I know that a great many of the holes do not go to Equestria. Sometimes the strangest things come through. Sometimes things that can’t have been made in habitable places.” She started walking toward the thick grove. “Come on.”

“Come on? What do you mean ‘come on’? I really don’t want to go in there!”

“Well, too bad, because that’s where I’m going, and so that’s where we’re going.”

“Is it even safe?”

“No, of course not. But sometimes I come here for food that’s not, well, me.” She looked back, over Diamond Tiara’s shoulder. “That, and the storm is not nearly done…and even when it is, well, we have to deal with the things that washed up from the bottom. And you don’t want to be out in the open when they come. Look.” She pointed, and Diamond Tiara looked out at the grass between her and broken house in the distance, and noticed the gleaming eyes of jellenheimers emerging from just over the top of the grass. Worse, the silhouette of something strange appeared in the growing fog, towering over the remains of what must have only marginally resembled Applebloom’s house.

“Does this place ever stop?” groaned Diamond Tiara.

“Oh, yes,” said Lucy, cheerfully. “As soon as you die. I think. Actually, don’t quote me on that.”

With that, Lucy vanished into the trees. Diamond Tiara looked back at the horde of smiling faces, and then quickly followed Lucy into the trees.

Diamond Tiara was not a farmer, but she knew apple trees well enough to know how to recognize one- -and she could immediately tell that these trees were most definitely not apple trees. They were not even pear trees. Aside from having no leaves, their bark was rough and nearly black, and coated with moss that connected to the ground, which was not so much dirt as it was mostly flattened cut stone. They did have fruit- -at least Diamond Tiara thought that it was fruit. Swollen, ball-shaped objects hung from the upward bends of some of the tree branches on long, narrow tendrils. They did not look edible.

Despite the disgusting appearance of the fruit, Lucy reached up with her magic and pulled one off. She immediately bit into it, and a thick yellow fluid ran down her chin.

“You want one? It tastes like…well…what it is, I guess.”

“Um, no,” said Diamond Tiara, feeling nauseous.

“More for me,” said Lucy, shrugging. She finished the fruit and dropped the stem on the ground.

“Where exactly are we going?” asked Diamond Tiara.

“Deeper.”

Diamond Tiara looked back, and realized that they were already a substantial distance into the grove- -she could no longer see where they had come in, or even where the path was supposed to be. The orderly rows of the trees seemed to be vanishing as well, replaced with a random mass of much taller specimens that blotted out much of the dim light from above. Lucy was forced to light her horn to illuminate the way, causing the trees to produce long and strange shadows that moved as the pair of mares walked amongst them.

“You know,” said Lucy. “Somewhere in there, there’s a werewoad tree.”

“A werewoad?” Things just seemed to keep getting worse. “You mean there’s actually a wearwoad in HERE? Why the buck did you take me in here, then?”

“I said a werewoad tree. Which I guess is still a werewoad. Just…old.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“You ever seen a wearwood? Terrifying things. They start out okay, like normal ponies. Then one day they just snap. Agonizing pain and all. Usually in a crowded place. Anypony who makes it out alive with a bite gets sick. Then, after a few decades, the werewood just takes root. The one here must be thousands of years old, if not older. I’ll show it to you sometime. I wish I were a werewoad.”

“No, you don’t.”

Diamond Tiara looked around. Almost all the trees by this time seemed identically huge, and Diamond Tiara wondered what exactly that strange tree must have looked like, or where it was- -or how Lucy somehow managed to memorize its location in this place. Worse, though, was a nagging suspicion. They were in this world’s version of Sweet Apple Acres, and somewhere on the grounds stood the arboral remains of a werewoad. It was impossible for Diamond Tiara to just dismiss that as a coincidence.

While considering this, Diamond Tiara’s attention was suddenly drawn toward a strange flash of light in the far side of the trees. At first, she dismissed it, either as a fragment of lightning that had blown in from the storm or some alternate and probably carnivorous version of a firefly. When it happened a second time, though, Diamond Tiara stopped.

She looked between the trees where they formed a network of tall trunks. Beneath their leafless canopy, the darkness was so thick that it was almost impossible to see very far- -but in the distance, moving behind the trees, Diamond Tiara suddenly noticed the hazy images of ponies.

“We’re not alone,” she said.
‘ “Yes we are. Or you are, perhaps. This is a ghost storm.”

Diamond Tiara took a step toward the trees, to where numerous ghosts now seemed to be walking silently, all in the same direction. Lucy put a hoof on her shoulder. “You don’t want to do that. It’s not a good idea to get near them.”

“Why?”

“Just trust me.”

Diamond Tiara almost did, but then pushed Lucy’s hoof away. Lucy seemed to tolerate it, and followed Diamond Tiara through the grove. Apparently, approaching the ghosts was not a fatal kind of mistake.

Approaching them, however, proved to be more difficult than expected. They were consistent, but surprisingly ephemeral. When Diamond Tiara approached, she would suddenly once again find no ghosts in her immediate area. It was like standing in the center of a fog bank and trying to reach the edge.

What quickly became apparent, though, was that these ghosts were not like the ones that Diamond Tiara had seen in the ruins of the false-Ponyville. They were clearer, and the few times Diamond Tiara could get close enough to see them semi-clearly, she saw that they actually had some semblance of faces. More telling, though, was the fact that they did not move like normal ponies. They drifted as ghosts were apt to do, certainly, but as they walked their legs splayed out to the side from their vertically compressed bodies.

Then, just as Diamond Tiara was about to give up, one of the ghosts passed within inches of her, and she realized her suspicions were true. Even with a translucent, poorly-defined body, it was immediately apparent that these were the ghosts of morlocks. Hundreds of them.

They all walked silently through the forest, all in the same direction. From what Diamond Tiara could see of them, they were all dressed in the remnants of both cloth and armor in unfamiliar styles. Almost all of it was badly broken; it appeared burned or torn. Helmets were smashed in, and exosuits were ruptured, exposing the sallow and ghostly skin and faces of the ponies within.

Another one passed close to Diamond Tiara. Her face was exposed through a half-fractured helmet, and the remnants of what must have once been an elaborate dress worn over her armor trailed behind her, singed and burnt. Although it was difficult to tell, Diamond Tiara was pretty sure that the morlock mare had no eyes. Just blank, staring holes.

That was not what drew Diamond Tiara’s attention, though. In the center of her chest plate, the morlock held a far more important hole. She had no technetium dial. None of them did.

The morlock mare seemed to slow, and then looked down at Diamond Tiara for just a moment before continuing her march toward the west. Hundreds more surrounded her, walking with her through the grove: mares, stallions, fillies, colts- -all walking in a never-ending line.

A sound slowly began to fill the air, like a weak and distant song.

“What is that?” said Lucy, her ears pricking. “I’ve never heard something like that before.”

“It’s morlock,” said Diamond Tiara. She looked around quickly. It was clear that there were multiple voices speaking from all sides, but they were all nearly silent- -it was coming from everywhere, but no specific morlock.

“You mean that’s a language? Seriously?”

Diamond Tiara nodded, shushing Lucy and trying to listen. “Iei’aiei…ie…ueyiheia’a…iyuihaeie…”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s hot…it hurts…why does it hurt?” said Diamond Tiara, shivering at her own translation. “The light, it hurts so much…and a word I don’t know. ‘C’e’ia.” Diamond Tiara paused. That word sounded familiar. “They just keep repeating it. The same phrases, over and over again.”

“The poor souls. They remember…”

“Remember what?”

“The reason they’re here. Trapped.” Lucy looked at the direction that they were walking. Diamond Tiara did too.

“Where are they going? What’s that way?”

“It goes on. Forever. For all eternity. I have tried to walk it. Spent years…decades…longer…walking in one direction. It’s not all like this. The forest gives out, and becomes desert. Where the tall ones walk, and the world runs out long before it continues farther. There is a reason I stay here. Where they are going, it is not a place meant for the living. Not even the dead.”

“You mean…”

Lucy nodded. “These ones are. And from the look of them, something terrible must have happened.”

Diamond Tiara realized that Lucy must have been right. She watched the ghosts go, and then suddenly noticed that a thin colt was standing at the edge of her range of sight. When Diamond Tiara looked up at him, he looked back just slightly, and then slowly turned to look at something off in the distance to Diamond Tiara’s right. Then he turned back and started marching silently back toward oblivion.

“Did you see that?” said Diamond Tiara.

“It depends on what it was,” said Lucy, now looking up at the trees. “Because I definitely saw something up there…”

“No, over there.” Diamond Tiara looked around, and then walked toward where the ghost had stopped to stare. As she did, it occurred to her that the trees in that area were different. They were the same species, but they were more gnarled and sickly, like something had badly contaminated the area around them.

After a few moments of searching, Diamond Tiara reached a small clearing. At first, it did not appear that there was anything unique about that area except for a nearly bare spot with a few uneven and unhealthy saplings- -until a glint of metal caught Diamond Tiara’s attention.

“Diamond Tiara, please don’t wonder off,” said Lucy, galloping up behind her. Diamond Tiara ignored her and knelt by an area overgrown with vines. She pulled them away, feverishly digging for the metal object that they obscured.

When Lucy saw what it was, she stepped back. “What…what is that thing?”

Diamond Tiara smiled, and then laughed. Not because anything was funny, but because for the first time since being here she had seen something that she instantly knew was actually real, something she recognized. Half-buried in the dirt and stone were the remains of a badly damaged morlock drone.

“It’s…it’s a drone!” laughed Diamond Tiara, pulling away more of the tough vines. She did not know why she was so happy. The drone seemed to have been lying out for an impossibly long time. It’s metal body was not only covered in vines and moss, but corroded and pitted from exposure. There was no chance that it could possibly be operational, but somehow, that did not matter.

The drone itself was unusual, though. Diamond Tiara had dealt with a number of the Niobus family’s drones, including the one that Pick had brought to Ponyville. They staffed her family’s desert house, and were an integral part of Pick’s family’s profession of mining. Diamond Tiara had seen numerous different types, but they all looked close to the same. This one, however, was remarkably different. It was much larger, and instead of being covered in exposed metal and ceramic plates it was fully armored in interlocking plates of a goldish metal. The shape was also off too; unlike traditional morlock drones, it was less pony shaped. This was most noticeable in the head, which was reduced and flattened and covered in numerous sensory apertures. There was also some evidence that it had at one time possessed numerous effector arms held folded inside its body.

“It looks like a statue,” said Lucy. “There’s a lot of statues here…but none like that.”

“It’s not a statue.” Diamond Tiara ran her hooves over its metal surface. As she wiped away the semi-organic crust and sludge that covered it, she noticed that its surface at least was in quite good condition. An idea occurred to her, and she started searching for its manual release.

“What are you doing?” said Lucy, sounding increasingly panicked. Her eyes were darting around quickly, scanning the darkness. Diamond Tiara was so focused, she did not notice that the ghosts had vanished.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to open it up. There should be a memory core in here- -there we go!” The front plate of the drone pulled open.

“You…you can do that?”

“Of course I can. I’ve been working with these things for most of my life, I think I can…oh sweet Celestia’s thunder-thighs…”

Diamond Tiara finally saw what was inside the drone, and realized that she might have been in over her head. This drone was infinitely more complicated inside than anything Pick’s family could even dream of having. Every bit of clockwork and circuitry was impossibly minute and packed into the drone’s body at bizarre and oblique angles. It made what Diamond Tiara knew of morlock technology look absolutely primitive.

“Wow…why don’t I have one like THIS?” complained Diamond Tiara. “Imagine what this thing must have been able to do…”

“I’d rather not.”

Despite the complexity, Diamond Tiara figured that she should at least try to get to the internal cube. She started pulling and pushing the parts to get at it.

“Diamond…” said Lucy. “We need to go. Right no.” She looked around frantically. “I think I made a mistake again…”

“I’ve almost got it,” said Diamond Tiara. “I wish I had some bucking tools, though…”

An echoing cry rang out through the trees. It did not sound animal in origin, but rather almost like some kind of large string instrument played poorly and quickly. Then a second sound came as the branches of the trees began to move- -even though there was no wind.

“Diamond Tiara….”

“Hold your self,” said Diamond Tiara. She had now nearly accessed the cube, but it appeared to be stuck by some kind of an internal safety locking mechanism. There was surprisingly little technetium in the internal circuitry, but Diamond Tiara knew that she was exposing herself to more than her fair share of radiation. It did not matter, though. She needed that core.

She looked up, and all around her the forest suddenly illuminated with golden light. The tree branches began to wave and pulse, and their tips glowed intensely. The sound grew louder as it echoed throughout the forest.

A fruit, still attached to one of the trees, dropped in front of Diamond Tiara. It shifted, and then split open down the center as the back of it pulsated and throbbed. Inside it was a large, bloodshot eye that twisted around, first taking account of Diamond Tiara, then Lucy, and then its surroundings. Higher in the trees, the rest of the eyes flicked open as well.

“DIAMOND TIARA!”

“Got it!” Diamond Tiara fell backward as she pulled the core out sharply with her teeth. She spat it into her hoof, and saw that it was surprisingly small and impossibly ornate, made out of an ornate and technologically florid pattern of gold and technetium. It was obvious that, like the drone it had come from, this was something far more advanced than Diamond Tiara was used to.

Diamond Tiara stood up and looked at the plants. “You’re worse than your daughter. It’s not like I haven’t dealt with an army of living plants before.”

“What, the trees? No! They’re not dangerous, but the light- -when they make the light, it’s a defense mechanism!”

“A defense mechanism?” Diamond Tiara looked up at the lights. They were bright, but not otherwise harmful. She started walking toward the trees to get a closer look. “Against what?”

It was at that time that she realized that something really was wrong, although unfortunately not on a conscious level until it was already too late. She had approached a small group of trees that appeared not to be lit, and found herself standing amongst a surprising amount of darkness. She looked up into the shadows, and realized that the trees had not turned off- -they were just dim. Or, rather, they were shrouded in shadow.

“NO! STOP!”

Diamond Tiara took one more step, and her hoof landed on the hard border of the darkness. She shivered, because it seemed to have a feeling. As if it were squirming beneath her weight.

Then, suddenly, two intense white lights erupted in the center of the darkness, a pair of eyes that opened with an intense electrical fizzling sound that was only audible in Diamond Tiara’s head. Both she and Lucy cried out in pain, covering their ears, even though the forest itself was perfectly silent.

The luminescent white eyes beamed down at Diamond Tiara, and more flashed open in the darkness between the trees of the grove, each producing the same sound as the shadows awakened. They began to advance between the trees, trailing silent darkness as they moved. They had no apparent substance, but when they touched any tree that was not sufficiently lit to defend itself, it dissolved and corroded in their presence.

Diamond Tiara jumped back, but it was already too late. The shadow closest to her extended outward, surrounding her. Then it closed in and, before she could even try to figure out a way to stop it, climbed up her legs toward her face.

The effect was sudden and intense, and Diamond Tiara found herself screaming- -but the volume she could produce was nothing like the noise that was suddenly rammed into her mind. As the mycelium of the shadow crept into her body, cutting into her, part of its mind was relayed to hers. She saw endless images of violence and war, of a dead world of crystal and a very different world consumed in fire. She saw battles, and felt the pain and sorrow of endless ponies sacrificed with no meaning. Within her mind, she found herself staring into the well of souls itself as they swirled in eternal torment.

Within it all, there was a voice. Something was speaking, but it was too loud and fast for Diamond Tiara to understand. The shadow was not consuming her, but it almost seemed to be trying to speak- -and that attempt at communication was killing her. The force of its consciousness was tearing hers apart, to the point where she could no longer remember exactly who she was, where she was, or why any of it mattered.

The only thing that saved her was a different voice, one that belonged neither to her nor the shadow. It came from within, pushing back the psychic tempest of the shadow and protecting what it could of Diamond Tiara’s mind. It was strong, but already losing its grip when Diamond Tiara felt herself suddenly thrown aside.

She hit the ground painfully, and the wind was knocked out of her. The world swam, and although the sound in her mind was gone, she was still confused and disoriented. Through this fog, though, she saw Lucy being slowly lifted off the ground. She had pushed Diamond Tiara out of the shadow’s grasp, but in doing so had taken her place.

Lucy screamed and struggled as the shadow lifted her to eye-level and stared unblinkingly at her. Lucy suddenly lit her horn, and the shadow lurched back from the magical light, dropping Lucy. She strained, and increased her light- -but in doing so, only made her own shadow more intense. That was where the shadow struck, swirling behind her and connecting to it.

There was a sudden surge of red mist around Lucy as the shadow attacked her, tearing into her. Lucy cried out and her light faltered. The other shadows seemed to understand, and silently moved forward.

Diamond Tiara’s mind had cleared enough to realize that she needed to do something. She was not a unicorn, though, and had no spells that she could use to save her friend. So, instead, she looked around- -and saw the broken and half-buried drone.

She scrambled across the ground and grasped some of the cables that were protruding from the drone’s open access panel in her mouth. At the same time, she pulled out the core she had salvaged and, with shaking hooves, began to quickly reconnect them.

“Come on, come on,” she said through a mouthful of wires. “A mining laser! You had better have a mining laser, or whoever built you is a COMPLETE IDIOT!” The cube connected, and without looking up to see if Lucy was even still alive, Diamond Tiara manipulated the facets of the cube. The internal systems of the drone glowed and revved as she took command. “Hold on hold on- -THERE!”

Diamond Tiara twisted and locked the cube, and the front half of the drone split apart to reveal the aperture of whatever minor defense system it had installed. Diamond Tiara looked at it, and for a moment wondered why the structure inside the drone did not look like a normal mining laser, or why it was so large.

This, as it turned out, was a mistake. The laser fired, and Diamond Tiara was instantly blinded by the intense white light. She closed her eyes and covered them with her foreleg, and at the same time, she felt herself being picked up by the blast and thrown across the grove. Through what little of her vision remained, she saw the shadow holding Lucy suffer a direct impact and disintegrate completely, save for its eyes. Lucy was thrown from its grip and tumbled through the air, striking her chest against a tree with an audible cracking sound.

Diamond Tiara was thrown against the rocky ground and knocked unconscious. She was not sure exactly how long, but it only felt like a few seconds. For a moment, she opened her eyes and groggily looked around the field outside of Ponyville where she was lying- -and then blinked and found herself staring at a grove of now dark alien trees.

Her vision was still cloudy, but managing to return slowly. Through the foggy mass in the center of her vision, she saw the drone, now sparking with dissipating energy. On the other side, she where there had used to be trees. Now, instead, there was a thirty-foot wide hole torn through the grove in a perfectly straight line as far as Diamond Tiara could see. Even the ground had been cut away, leaving a semi-circular trench where the rock was still glowing and slowly dripping into the bottom.

“Okay,” said Diamond Tiara, wincing as she sat up. “Definitely NOT a mining laser.”

She crossed the clearing slowly, finding that she had hurt one of her ankles in the impact. She quickly picked up the cube-core, disconnecting it from the now mostly destroyed drone. “What the hay is this thing?”

The only answer that Diamond Tiara got was a low moan from behind her.

“Lucy!” cried Diamond Tiara, becoming fully conscious of what had just happened. She turned and raced to Lucy’s side. “Are you- -are you- -”

“Dead? No,” said Lucy. “I hope not, at least.” She tried to stand, and then collapsed back into the pool of fluids below her. “Buck…I’m messed up, though.” She coughed, and wiped away the resulting blood with her hoof. “Those shadows, they get in your clothes and…it’s bad. And I’m pretty sure the tree broke a few of my ribs.”

“I don’t know what to do- -do you have a first aid kit or something?”

“Are you a doctor?”

“Do I look like a doctor to you?!”

“I don’t know. I actually have no idea what you do.” Lucy tried to stand again, and fell again. “I have materials for this…some. A stockpile, near here.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Diamond Tiara knelt down and picked up Lucy, helping her stand. “Eew…you’re totally staining my coat!”

“I’m actively trying to bleed less. I kind of need that blood. For blood things.”

“Just point the direction.”

“Right…” Lucy pushed forward, leading Diamond Tiara back into the grove. She was badly wounded, and Diamond Tiara was limping, but together they were able to move with some efficiency.

Before they vanished into the trees, Diamond Tiara looked back behind her. In the distance, she could see hundreds of white eyes standing amongst the trees. They were not advancing, or menacing. They were just watching in silence.

The distance to Lucy’s outer base was not far, but getting there felt like an eternity. By the time they finally reached it- -a large tent built into a rocky outcropping amongst dribbling, moss-infested streams- -Diamond Tiara was covered in sweat and exhausted. She was so tired, she essentially dropped Lucy into the tent and promptly collapsed.

“Oh wow,” said Diamond Tiara. “You’re heavy.”

“No. You are out of shape. Clearly you do not have a job involving manual labor.”

“I’m Filthy Rich’s daughter.”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Explains a lot.” Lucy turned over with a moan and started to unlatch the various straps and buckles that held on her armor. “You might want to look away for this part.”

“It’s not like I haven’t seen a mare naked before.”

“Oh,” said Lucy, pulling off one of her boots. “I didn’t know you went that way.”

Diamond Tiara blushed, but continued to watch Lucy disrobe, mostly out of curiosity to know what she actually looked like. As Lucy continued to remove her makeshift warning, though, Diamond Tiara wished she had taken the warning.

The wounds that Lucy had suffered were severe and deep, but not life threatening. What was more surprising- -and more disturbing- -was the number of already healed injuries she had. Despite her age, her body was amazing, looking at least thirty years younger than Lucy actually must have been- -or would have been beautiful, had it not been for the scars that covered her body. Old burns, lacerations, and cuts covered her body and legs- -including some that were too deliberate to have been made by accident. The scariest part, though, was what those scars implied: the life that had given them to Lucy was the life Diamond Tiara was slowly realizing that she would soon be facing.

“Behind that rock,” said Lucy, rummaging through her bag and removing her light source. “Wrapped in a tarp…I need that.”

“Sure,” said Diamond Tiara, having difficulty taking her eyes off Lucy. She went to the rock and retrieved the package, and as she did looked behind Lucy and saw that her cutie mark was a flower, as was expected, although the center of it looked curiously like an eye.

Lucy took the supplies in her magic and began applying them. Diamond Tiara moved the light generator into position, and Lucy lit it.

“There we go,” said Lucy, applying bandages around her torso and casting spells to the best of her ability to heal herself. She giggled. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“Just did that- -are you insane? No, wait, I already know the answer- -we almost died! YOU almost died!”

“I’m always ‘almost died’. But if I had been there myself, I would have been WHOLE dead. That thing you did with that statue thing- -that was amazing!” In her excitement, she over-strained herself and coughed. “Oh. Wow. Need to watch that. But looking at it, I’m not even that bad off, considering. And you got out with what, a twisted ankle? From the SHADOWS.”

“What were they?”

Lucy paused, considering her answer. “They’re like the ghosts, but different. Ghosts are kind of like ponies, and the shadows are like…something else. That’s all I know, except that they’re sometimes the worst thing here.”

“Sometimes?”

“If they attack you, you die. Horribly. I’ve seen beasts the size of a building stripped clean in seconds. But they don’t always attack. I think they might have some modicum of intelligence.”

“And the storm brought them?”

Lucy shook her head. “No. They’re not from here, I don’t think, but they’ve been here a long time.”

“When it touched me, I saw things…”

“It’s best not to think about those. Seriously. It produces progressive madness. Contaminated memories.”

“But it felt like it was trying to say something…”

“To me, it just felt like pain.” Lucy looked down at her wounds, which seemed to have largely stabilized. “Although it’s not like I’m not used to it.”

“What happened to you, Lucy?”

“I survived. That is all. That is all I have ever done.” She looked Diamond Tiara in the eye and smiled. “But…for so long, I survived because of ME. There was nothing but me, but today it was YOU. You saved me.”

“You saved me.”

“You watch my back and I’ll watch yours. I think I said that once. It was the first time I ever had a chance to say that to somepony.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara. She sat by the artificial fire, and suddenly found herself thinking about Silver Spoon. “You’re my friend. The only one I’ve got here. I didn’t always appreciate other ponies, but I think I do now. Thank you.”

Diamond Tiara lifted her hoof, and saw that it was shaking. She realized that she was terrified. It was not the same kind of fear that came with the monsters, the sort that motivated her toward survival. Instead, it was something deeper and more pervasive. A more cerebral fear that came with the slow realization of her situation.

“Lucy,” she said after a long pause. “Do you think that any of this is real?”

“Every day. And every day I come to the same conclusion: that it does not matter.”

“I wish it was that easy for me.” Diamond Tiara sniffled, and once again found herself thinking about her friends, and about how she had treated them- -and about how Lucy was right. Either way, there was a good chance that she would be forced to leave them behind.

Unable to control herself, Diamond Tiara suddenly burst into tears.

“Diamond- -”

“It’s just not FAIR! Why us? What did WE ever do to deserve this? I don’t want to be stuck here! I just want my life back! A normal pony LIFE!”

Diamond Tiara’s momentary anger collapsed into sobbing, and Lucy looked at her awkwardly. Then she sighed and scooted across the stone floor and put her foreleg around Diamond Tiara and laid her head on the younger pony’s shoulder.

“I’m just so afraid,” said Diamond Tiara. “Every second, I’m more terrified than I’ve ever been- -and I’ve been through a lot. I just can’t take it. I can’t take it!”

She wrapped her hooves around Lucy and cried into her shoulder.

“I know the feeling,” said Lucy. She paused, and let Diamond Tiara cry. Then, after a few moments, as Diamond Tiara began to slow, spoke again. “You know…I think I’m a terrible pony.”

“You’re not,” said Diamond Tiara, her head buried in Lucy’s now tear-soaked shoulder. She sniffled and smiled. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…if anypony saw me like this…”

“But I AM,” said Lucy. “When you came here- -you probably couldn’t tell. When I first saw you, I didn’t think you were real- -but you ARE. I was so happy. Ecstatic. I’ve been alone so long. I resigned myself years ago to the fact that I would never see another living pony for as long as I lived…you don’t know what it’s like to have to accept that. That you will never have a friend again. That you will never be loved.” Lucy sighed and wiped her own eyes with one of her scarred hooves. “But that’s wrong. It’s selfish and wrong. Because you don’t deserve this. You had a whole life ahead of you…and if I could go back to being alone- -if you could go back- -I would.”

“Lucy…”

Diamond Tiara looked up at Lucy, and the older pony down at her. Lucy smiled weakly, and then looked off to the side. “Diamond Tiara…there’s something I want to do, but I’m not sure if I even should…and I don’t know how you’ll feel about it…”

“What?”

Without warning, Lucy leaned forward and pressed her lips against Diamond Tiara’s. Diamond Tiara was immediately taken aback, and too surprised to pull away. After a few seconds, though, she found herself letting it happen- -and then kissing her back.

Diamond Tiara allowed herself to be pushed onto her back and Lucy started helping her remove her clothing. Once again, Diamond Tiara allowed it. She knew that this was wrong, but the way Lucy was holding her so tight made her fear lessen greatly. Despite her age, Lucy was surprisingly strong, and Diamond Tiara felt secure in her strong and protective grasp.

Lucy rolled, putting Diamond Tiara on top, and Diamond Tiara managed to pull her head away. She gasped, and found that her mouth tasted exactly like carnations.

“I can’t do this,” she said, sitting up. Lucy joined her and continued kissing Diamond Tiara’s neck. “I…I have a coltfriend…”

“I know,” whispered Lucy, putting her hooves around Diamond Tiara’s back.

Lucy continued what she was doing, and Diamond Tiara did not stop her. There was a long moment where Diamond Tiara paused, and wondered what to do next. She looked out at the darkness surrounding them, into this strange and infested world. She felt afraid again, and once again secure with Lucy. With her heart beating even faster, she gently pushed Lucy back to the ground and started kissing her again. She held her tightly, because she was afraid to let go.

The light from the fragment of a star flickered in the darkness, illuminating the scavenged cloth walls of the tent with long shadows. Diamond Tiara sat in the light, slowly twisting the sides and apertures of the morlock core.

She looked back behind her, to where Lucy was apparently asleep. Based on what Lucy had told her, this was the first time she had slept in years if not decades- -because it was the first time she had had somepony else to watch for the monsters. Looking at her, Diamond Tiara could not help but think about Silver Spoon, the only other pony she knew that looked nearly perfect while sleeping.

Which was not to say, of course, that Diamond Tiara actually found Lucy attractive. On some level, she probably was, but Diamond Tiara was not attracted to mares- -and the only emotion she felt after what she had done was regret.

She had allowed it. It had felt good while it was happening, but now she just felt dirty and ashamed. It was not Lucy’s fault, though; Diamond Tiara was acutely aware that the responsibility was hers and hers alone. Normally, this would be a time when she would drown the bad emotions with cider. Not having any cider, though, she busied herself with attempting to figure out how to use the morlock cube, or to get it to do anything at all with its body no longer intact.

Lucy whimpered slightly, and her legs started to twitch as though she were chasing something- -or running from something. Admittedly, that was adorable, but the sudden motion put pressure on her broken ribs and she winced. She then looked around, somewhat confused, and smiled when she remembered what had just happened.

She sat up and put her front legs around Diamond Tiara and kissed the younger pony’s neck. “Hey,” she said.

Diamond Tiara gently pushed her away. “Stop. Don’t do that.”

“Oh,” said Lucy, seeming to understand. She sat back on her haunches. “Sorry.”

Diamond Tiara groaned. “I can’t believe I just did that…with Fluttershy’s mom…”

“It wasn’t good?”

“It’s not that, it’s just- -you’re a mare! And old enough to be MY mom!” Diamond Tiara winced. “Crap, Pick was right. I do have mommy issues…” Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened, and she nearly dropped the cube she was holding. “Pick…how am I supposed to look him in the eye after this?” That thought made Diamond Tiara want to cry again.

“I’m sorry,” said Lucy, backing away. “I didn’t…crap. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I was coming down off a near-death experience and I guess I got…carried away…” She sighed. “That makes it sound to simple…I messed up. It won’t happen again.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Well, not entirely. Just…” Diamond Tiara paused and stared into the cube. She considered just ignoring Lucy, but that would not help. “We’re just friends. Alright?”

Lucy nodded. She paused, staring at Diamond Tiara’s flank, and then looked up at her face. “If it’s any consolation…no, it isn’t, I guess, but your coltfriend is a very, very lucky stallion. Is he a unicorn?”

“No.”

“A shame. You have a talent for hornwork. Even more so than…” her face froze, and then her expression fell. “Well, you know.”

“Your husband.”

“Yeah.” Lucy paused. “Sometimes I miss him. Really bad.” Her eyes flicked up at Diamond Tiara. “Not that I was using you as a surrogate. I was just…can you forgive me?”

“If we can avoid talking about it, probably,” lied Diamond Tiara.

Lucy smiled, and sat down next to Diamond Tiara while keeping a respectful distance.

“So,” said Diamond Tiara, trying to change the subject. “Your husband…Fluttershy’s dad?”

“Who else would her father be?”

“Well, sorry. There’s no need to get snippy.”

“Sorry, sorry. Defensive. Odd, I haven’t been defensive for a long time. In conversation at least. Newish. But yes. My husband. The first colt I ever loved. He was…” She struggled, as if trying to remember. “Yes. He was an all-white unicorn. His name was Avalon.”

“And Fluttershy came out a Pegasus? That’s kind of weird.”

“Yeah,” laughed Lucy. “It was quite a surprise, and you have no idea how much it hurt to give birth to a foal with wings. But when she came out…they were so tiny, and so soft…”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Diamond Tiara absentmindedly- -but then she blushed when she realized that that actually conceivable COULD be something she would need to concern herself with. Or would have, it she still had any chance of living a normal life after this.

“And your coltfriend?”

“Diamond Pick. A little effeminate jerk.” Diamond Tiara twisted the cube harshly, and then paused. “No…I don’t mean that. The effeminate part, at least. And really insensitive, and just…” Diamond Tiara sighed and tried to hold back her tears. “I really wish he was here…”

“A Pegasus?” said Lucy, trying to keep the conversation on track. Diamond Tiara was grateful, and shook her head.

“No. Morlock.”

Lucy’s expression was largely blank. “I don’t know what that means.”

“Those ghosts? Like one of them. Except way smaller, and alive.”

“Wait…” Lucy pointed out into the darkness. “Those are actually REAL THINGS? And you- -” She shivered. “You actually…eew…”

“We’re childhood friends!” snapped Diamond Tiara. “And our families are in business together. And it’s not like…not like he’s unattractive. He’s definitely no Silver Spoon, but I can work with what he’s got…”

“Ah, I see.” Lucy looked down at the object that Diamond Tiara was holding. “And that…that’s something that fell through. It’s something his people made?”

“I think so,” said Diamond Tiara, biting the edge of it. “I mean, it’s like the ones I’m used to. He showed me how to use those…although I’m way better at it than he is…but this one is different.” She spat it into her hoof. “I just don’t know…it’s like its way more compact, and defiantly heavier. It’s like it’s more advanced or something, I don’t know.”

“And you are trying to open it because…?”

“Why? Mainly to get my mind off cheating on my coltfriend with a probably insane old mare…”

“I thought you said we weren’t supposed to talk about that. Unless I hallucinated that part. I hallucinate a LOT. Also, if you’re right about the timeline, I’m barely in my fifties.”

Diamond Tiara cringed. “Yeah, there goes my self-esteem. You’re just lucky you smell so good.”

Lucy looked suddenly shocked. “S- -smell? What do you mean smell?”

“You know, like you just rolled in a barrel of flowers or something. Carnation I th- -”

The cube that Diamond Tiara had managed to mostly open suddenly lurched in her hoof, slamming shut and bursting outward with a surge of light. Diamond Tiara cried out, and Lucy ducked behind a rock with surprising speed. The white light splashed over the area, causing the light source to flicker and die out. Then it pulled backward into the cube, and a bluish beam shot out over the center of the tent. It shifted and widened, and within seconds resolved into the life-sized image of a female morlock.

Diamond Tiara blinked and looked up at her. She was translucent, but not a ghost- -in fact, she looked almost identical to a much larger and much better resolution version of the drone-recorded hologram that Pick had shown her days earlier.

The morlock, however, was very different from any that Diamond Tiara had ever met. Her body was, roughly, normal for a morlock mare, although slightly larger. Her armor and clothing, however, was much more extensive. It was disproportionately thick, making her look much wider and imposing than she likely actually was, and draped with ornate cloth constructed from a system of hexagons. In her chest sat a triad of circles that Diamond Tiara realized must have been some version of technetium dials.

“What…what the hay is that?” said Lucy, peeking out from behind her rock.

“Language recognized,” said a voice from within the cube. Oddly, Diamond Tiara recognized it. It was the uniform, mechanical voice of the drones- -except instead of a system of mechanical encoded clicks, it came out as actual words. “Translating…running…”

The hologram shifted, and the dials in the morlock mare’s chest suddenly started ticking. She started moving, stepping forward and staring at Diamond Tiara with her four optical apertures. Then she spoke, her voice perfectly recorded within the cube.

“Date 7789.65. I am Yttros Xenotime, First-Tier Princess of the Mantelic Empire,” she said, her voice measured and almost military. It was clear that she was not addressing a pony specifically, though. “I am creating this recording to document my situation. Perhaps, in time, this will stand as a grand historical artifact to our people of our most trying time.” She paused. “But…I know that it will not. It can’t. Not anymore.”

There was a long pause. “The recordings are unambiguous,” she said at last. “Every city has been identified and confirmed as lost. They’re gone. All dead. It…it shouldn’t be possible, but I was THERE. The only unconfirmed loss is the research station Geoterra. I lost contact with them shortly after the disaster…and I pray to the Underking that the experimental shield array was completed in time.” She took a long, gasping sigh through her filter manifold. “But I cannot hold out hope. I am quite possibly the last burrowing-Pegasus in existence. I am alone.”

There was another pause. The morlock in the image did not seem especially emotional, but Diamond Tiara was able to see through that easily. Female morlocks, especially those higher up in their convoluted and draconian hierarchy, were not expected to show emotion. This mare- -this Xenotime- -still had far more composure than any pony Diamond Tiara had ever witnessed, assuming what she said was true.

Xenotime continued. “Which brings me to my current situation. I was on an assault mission in the region of the Tree of Harmony when I was ambushed by White-Sphere forces. I successfully defeated many, but was overrun and unable to retreat. Which was when I received the transmission…that the Red-Sphere had attacked us. No. Not attacked. Massacred. As if…it was as if we were nothing. As if all of our civilization, as if countless millennia of culture and technology were…nothing. Nothing in the face of magic…

“I had no choice but to open an interdimensional rift. I escaped, taking on heavy assault drone with me. Only…I am not sure where I went. This area appears to be an independent basin-dimension, and there is no way for the Red or White Spheres to reach me here…but…” She paused and looked into what Diamond Tiara interpreted as being her drone. “The method I used to get here was experimental. I reached this location, but there is no egress. I cannot manage to escape. Not with my current armament.

“However…I am the First Princess. I do not know what this place is, nor do I care. I do not intend to stay here long. I created the system that brought me here, and I can create a system to return me to my world. It is my duty as the last of my kind. The Underking’s Incarnation was not completed in time to defend us, but I doubt the Red-Sphere was able to reach it. I am the only one capable of completing my species’ work. I will escape this prison, and the Underking WILL rise. The Red-Sphere will be extinguished, and the Demon-Queen Celestia will perish for her crimes against us. We will have our vengeance. This, to this lonely drone, and to myself, I swear.”

The recording flickered as it ended, and the image faded, retracting back into the cube. With the morlock field diminished, the magical light-source reignited, if only partly, filling the room with a much darker blue than it normally did.

Diamond Tiara looked at the cube, which was now terribly cold in her hoof and slowly frosting over. She then turned to Lucy, who was staring back at her wide-eyed, still clinging to the back of a rock.

“What…the actual buck…was THAT?” she asked in a whisper.

“I…I don’t know,” said Diamond Tiara, looking down at the icy cube. “But I think I must be some kind of a genius. Oh, who am I kidding- -I AM a genius.”

“Indeed,” said Lucy, eyeing the cube suspiciously. She looked back to where the cube was, and then increased the intensity of the light. “She…she was here,” she said in awe. “Maybe she still is…maybe there are more. What if…what if there are?”

“I don’t know,” said Diamond Tiara. “But I think there might be more.” She reached down to the cube and tried to shift it. Most of the facets were now frozen closed, but they were starting to have some give to them.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” said Lucy, suddenly. “I don’t…I’m not sure if…things here, nothing is what it supposed to be, and she doesn’t- -”

Diamond Tiara suddenly froze, and Lucy’s voice continued to drone on unintelligibly, as though it were coming from deep under water. The light around her seemed to dim, save for the suddenly apparent glow of hundreds of white eyes staring from beyond the edge of the false-fire’s glow. An agonizing wave of pain shot through Diamond Tiara’s head, and the world swam. Distantly, she felt herself falling forward, the cube dropping from her hoof and clicking across the rocky floor.

She felt the world seeming to move slowly for a moment, and then saw Lucy crossing the ground near her.

“Diamond Tiara!” she called, sounding as though she were on the other side of a wall. “Diamond Tiara- -”

“- -know. I did. But you can’t escape it. And you can’t do this alone. You have friends, Diamond Tiara! Let us help you!”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes snapped open, as though she had taken an unusually long time to blink. Her head was still throbbing, but not explicitly painful. Lucy was gone- -as was the world where she had been. Instead, Diamond Tiara found herself standing in dim, mottled light of the Everfree Forest, the leaves of the enormous trees whispering in the fall wind overhead.

Confused, Diamond Tiara turned and saw Applebloom standing beside her- -and then the memory clicked. She knew where she was.

“Oh no no no no,” she whispered, stepping back from Applebloom. Confusion seemed to wash over her. “This- -this isn’t right.”

“Diamond Tiara?” said Applebloom. “What’s wrong?”

“This- -no. I can’t be here!”

“You’re the one who asked us to come out here,” protested Applebloom. “Diamond, I was trying to have a serious talk with you. This isn’t some kind of joke, is it?”

“Yeah, I heard,” said Diamond Tiara. She had heard it close to three days ago- -just before she had woken up over Applebloom’s shattered remains. She did not remember this part, though. “We need to get out of here!”

“Hey!” cried Applebloom as Diamond Tiara grabbed Applebloom and pulled her off the path and into the forest around them. She was not sure where she was going, but she knew that she needed to get out.

Panicking, Diamond Tiara sprinted through the trees and underbrush. It scratched along her body, and as much as it hurt, she just kept going, driven by adrenaline that came from a powerful foreboding fear of something completely unknown. Applebloom followed effortlessly, the branches having no effect on her covered skin- -skin that Diamond Tiara knew was hardened into bark-like plates, a fact that she should not have known.

It occurred to her that perhaps she had been wrong- -perhaps the illusion had convinced her of its reality. It must have been a hallucination, all of it- -every second of it. It had all felt real, but none of it could have happened- -except that it must have happened. There was a distinct possibility that there really was no Lucy, and no Harvestor, that it had all been produced by Diamond Tiara’s mind in a fraction of a moment. Diamond Tiara forced herself to accept that possibility, but she could not dare accept the thought that she had gone absolutely insane.

“Diamond Tiara, wait! I don’t understand!” cried Applebloom, sauntering up beside her. Diamond Tiara was galloping at full speed, but Applebloom did not even need to try to pass her. “What’s wrong?!”

“I know it sounds crazy,” gasped Diamond Tiara, “but I’ve lived this before- -and you’re going to…” she could not finish the sentence. “We just need to get out of the forest, or something bad is going to happen!”

Diamond Tiara looked to the side, and she saw Applebloom’s face. Perhaps Applebloom tried to hide what she was feeling, but she did it poorly. Diamond Tiara remembered the conversation that they had been having, about the worms burrowing into her brain- -about her slowly going mad. Now she knew that Applebloom truly believed it.

In her undefined terror, Diamond Tiara did not watch where she was going. She tripped over a root and smashed into the ground hard. Something in one of her ankles popped, and a sharp pain slashed through her leg- -the exact same pain that she had experienced in a different world days in the future when she had faced the living shadows in Lucy’s world.

Applebloom cringed. “Diamond Tiara…are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?” Diamond Tiara lifted herself out of the mud and tried to straighten her tiara. “I just…” She trailed off when she looked into the woods. She had been running toward what she thought was the border of the forest. The Everfree Forest was a confusing place, though, and instead of a shortcut back to Ponyville, Diamond Tiara had actually gone far deeper into the trees- -to the exact place she had been trying to escape from.

“Oh Celestia, no,” said Diamond Tiara, watching as wisps of blue light started to creep in the cold darkness beyond the trees. “No no no not here!”

“Diamond, for the last time, I think you need professional help! This isn’t- -”

Pain suddenly shot through Diamond Tiara’s head, and the ground shook beneath her. This time, though, it was not an illusion. Applebloom cried out and gripped a nearby shrub. “What- -what’s happening?!”

“Applebloom, please!” cried Diamond Tiara. “We have to get back to Ponyville! I- -I couldn’t save you last time, and I don’t know if I can now either!”

Applebloom nodded, and tried to help Diamond Tiara up- -but was immediately thrown back as a flash of curving blue energy struck the nearest tree, detonating it into a blast of blue energy and splinters.

“Applebloom!”

“Ahm alright,” said Applebloom, standing up and rubbing her head. A thin line of greenish liquid ran down from her hairline. “Come on, we need to…to…”

The storm suddenly went silent, and the forest around them darkened. Strange light crept through the trees, and Applebloom backed away from it. To her, it must have been alien and terrifying. To Diamond Tiara, though, it was all too familiar.

There was a final surge of blue light, and a few yards away, something heavy and wet fell against the ground. The forest suddenly went silent, save for the electrical sound of the remaining and weakening sparks of energy. There were no bird songs, and no insects. Diamond Tiara and Applebloom froze, looking toward where that last surge of light had been. It felt like they stared for a long time, hearing nothing but the sound of near silence. Then total silence. Then, slowly, the sound of a long croak like splitting wood- -and slow, wet footsteps toward them.

“Diamond Tiara, I’m going to need you to run,” said Applebloom.

“I can’t just leave you here,” snapped Diamond Tiara.

“Ah can take care of myself.” She looked down at Diamond Tiara, who was still lying in the mud. Applebloom’s infected green eyes were more serious than Diamond Tiara had ever seen them. “I couldn’t forgive mahself if I let you get hurt. So MOVE!”

Diamond Tiara resisted for a just a moment, but then nodded and stood- -only to fall back down. “My- -my ankle,” she said, realizing with sickening terror that it was likely broken. “I- -I can’t run!”

There was another croaking sound. This time, it was closer- -and behind them. Diamond Tiara turned toward the trees just in time to see something tall standing behind them, just barely obscured by the trunks. She shrieked in surprise.

“What- -what is that?” asked Applebloom, backing away but not leaving Diamond Tiara alone.

“I- -I don’t know! They were…they were always in the shadows, I never saw- -” Diamond Tiara realized that, instinctively, she really did know what it was. That the portal worked both ways.

Then it moved. Diamond Tiara almost vomited when she saw it more clearly as it stepped beyond the trees. It was pony-like, but only in the vaguest sense. It stood on four legs, but the legs were long and narrow, supporting a tiny torso. It did not have a clear head, but rather something else in its place, but it was moving too fast for Diamond Tiara to tell. Its skin appeared to almost liquid, a slimy substance that dripped from its body in chunks, and further extraneous appendages writhed close against its body.

What was worse than its disgusting appearance, though, was its gait. It did not move like any living creature in Equestria. It did not follow a logical pattern, but rather seemed to lurch and spasm its way across the forest floor with excessively exaggerated movements and lethal efficiency.

It stopped and stood perfectly still, its body dripping and several breathing sacks slowly inflating and deflating. A pair of bloodshot eyes looked down at Diamond Tiara, and then shifted to Applebloom.

“You have to go!” hissed Diamond Tiara. “It won’t hurt me, but- -”

“Like HAY!” shouted Applebloom. She stepped forward toward the creature with a level of confidence that perhaps only a dying mare could have. She looked up at it. “I don’t care what the buck you are, but you’re NOT going to hurt my friend!”

“Friend…” gurgled the creature, mimicking Applelboom’s voice almost perfectly. It focused all of its attention at her, and then suddenly froze completely. It did not even breath. Then it lurched forward.

Applebloom did not back down. Instead, she took a defensive stance and bared her unusually sharp teeth. The creature jumped at her, but quickly grabbed the ground and nearly fell to its side. It released a high scream of agony, and stepped back. Its torso writhed, and it tried to claw at itself futilely with its exorbitantly long legs.

Then, suddenly, it vomited a plume of dark-colored, reeking fluid. Applebloom jumped out of the way, but several drops of the substance spilled onto her, fizzling through her clothing. She winced, but the acid did not seem to be able to penetrate her wood-like skin.

Diamond Tiara tried to stand up, not sure if she was going to run or try to fight- -but she found herself unable to do either. Instead, she looked up at the creature and saw that it was bleeding something pure black. The substance poured out from cracks and fissures in its body, but did not drip or run. Instead, it moved over its body, and wherever it touched the creature’s flesh seemed to corrode to the bone, replaced with darkness. Then a pair of white eyes flashed open from the shadow, and another, and several more- -and Diamond Tiara understood.

“Applebloom! Don’t let it touch you!”

“What do you mean ‘don’t let it touch me’? What the buck will happen if- -”

Applebloom had her head turned toward Diamond Tiara, and did not notice the creature’s leg come swinging toward her. The force of it was surprisingly great, and it picked Applebloom up off the ground and slammed her hard into a tree. It was unclear if the blow had been a deliberate attack, or if had simply been from the creature thrashing in its alien version of pain its body was slowly consumed. As soon as it attacked Applebloom, however, all of its attention seemed to turn toward her. It roared in agony, and then sprinted toward her.

Diamond Tiara was powerless to stop it. Before Applebloom was even on her feet, the amalgam of shadow and rotting flesh picked her up and slammed her into another tree. The wind was knocked out of her, and she bit down hard on its leg, tearing off a chunk of decaying flesh. The creature did not seem to notice and threw her into the ground. It then leapt on her, slamming its front legs against her, striking again and again, tearing into her as it screamed.

The shadows did not seem to react much. They simply watched, content with the meal that they were enjoying- -and knowing fully well of the one they would soon have access to. Except that they did not seem to be terribly interested in Applebloom. Instead, their unblinking luminescent eyes were focused entirely on Diamond Tiara.

There was nothing Applebloom could do. Her werewoad body was stronger and more durable than that of a normal pony, but the creature was far stronger. It kept tearing at her and slamming its full weight against her, screaming as it did so. Diamond Tiara watched in horror, unable to intervene and unable to look away.

Finally, the creature- -which was now quite thoroughly dead, but retained its animation by the strength of the parasitic shadows alone- -picked up Applebloom. She was bloodied and broken, but still was able to turn her head toward Diamond Tiara.

“Just…run,” she said before passing out. The shadows saw their opportunity, and swarmed over her as the creature dropped her.

Diamond Tiara was now crying, and the creature seemed to suddenly notice her. It convulsed toward her, watching, prepared to repeat what it had just done. There was nothing Diamond Tiara could do to escape, and on some level, she knew that it would be better if she just let this happen.

The creature raised its legs and brought them down. Diamond Tiara braced for the pain, but a solid ball of translucent blue magic formed around her, incinerating the creature’s legs as they attempted to pass through it.

To her left, Diamond Tiara looked up and saw a tall salmon alicorn standing beside her. On some level, she realized that he had been there the whole time, almost beyond her range of perception, just watching the events unfold with mild amusement.

The creature screamed in pain and pulled itself backward on its rear legs and the stumps of its front ones. The shield faded, and Harvestor stepped forward, looking up at it as though he was bored.

“Gloame wraiths,” he said. “Interesting indeed, and most unexpected. I will have to take a sample for- -”

The creature promptly vomited acid onto him. Diamon Tiara jumped back, but Harvestor did not even try to dodge. At first, Diamond Tiara assume that he was resistant to the corrosive material like Applebloom was- -but that was far from the case. As she watched, half of Harvestor’s body fizzled and burned, liquefying off his frame and revealing the white bone and innumerable steel implants beneath his skin.

Harvestor did not seem especially perturbed, or to show any signs of pain. He lifted one of his now stripped hooves and contemplated the slowly dissolving musculature. “Well…this is unfortunate.” He turned his attention toward the shadow-covered creature, and the tip of his horn glowed with blue light. There was a thunderous blast as the space around the creature imploded, compressing it into oblivion and creating a surge of magic that vaporized all remaining shadows.

Like that, the threat was over. Harvestor did not seem especially phased by it, even with half of his body missing. He just seemed somewhat bored. After several seconds, he seemed to notice that he was damaged. His horn glowed again, and new flesh sprang from his wounds in tendinous ropes. In seconds, he had repaired himself. Even his uniform knit itself back to completion, keeping his long wings covered with official stiffness.

Diamond Tiara froze in shock for several moments, but then crawled toward Applebloom. She was sunk deeply in the mud, and Diamond Tiara already recognized what she had known from the start, even if she refused to accept it.

“No,” she said, picking up Applebloom’s limp body and feeling her sap seep into her coat. “You can’t be- -I could have saved you- -Applebloom, please! Don’t do this!”

There was no response. She did not breathe, or move, or react in anyway. Even her bleeding had slowed, and she smelled strongly of fresh-cut wood. Diamond Tiara started weeping. Applebloom and her had never been especially close, but they were friends- -and having to witness this a second time was too much.

Over her shoulder, Harvestor walked closer, watching the scene unfold. It was the first time Diamond Tiara had ever seen him walk before, and it was strangely similar to watching the creature he had just vanquished moving.

“You!” she said, looking up at him, her makeup running down her face. “You have to do something! She- -she has a family, a life, it can’t- -it can’t happen like this! Not because of me!”

Harvestor stared at her for a long moment. “I find it interesting that you blame yourself for this,” he said at last. His horn glowed, and several translucent interface panels opened around him. “However, this is in fact our fault. We anticipated that the anomalies might have lethal interactions with the native population. Since this death is due to an error on our part, we will reset her to a previous save-point.” He looked over his screens. “However, we have no intention of affecting her laurelanthropy.” He clicked at the panel with his magic, and then closed it. “Done.”

“You- -you can do that?” gasped Diamond Tiara, still hugging Applebloom’s body. “Just…just like that?”

“Of course. We recognize that you mortals are not as durable as us. Resurrection is a relatively trivial task. For most of you.”

“Most of us?”

“The alicorns of this world are irreplaceable. And you have become too corrupted to repair. I advise you to avoid dying.”

“But she’s…she’s still here.” Diamond Tiara cradled the remains, coating herself in more sap. Applebloom looked almost like she was sleeping, despite her injuries. Still, she was growing colder by the second.

“Yes. She just died. A different one is on her way back to Ponyville, confused as to where you suddenly vanished to. I should not need to explain this.”

“This- -this is how it happened,” said Diamond Tiara, setting down Applebloom and stepping back. “When I got back- -she was there, alive- -that was YOU.”

“Yes, it was.”

“But that was three days ago!”

“Yes, it was.”

“But how- -”

“Time is destabilizing. This is an indication that the barrier is further decaying, and I’m afraid there is nothing we can do to stop it.”

“But you’re here.”

Harvestor looked down at her. “We already operate on a curvilinear timestream. I synchronized myself to you. Since I am genetically nearly your sibling, it was not a difficult task.”

Diamond Tiara vaguely understood what he was saying- -but could not help wonder if she was just slipping back into her madness. Either way, she was tired. She looked back at Applebloom’s body. “We can’t just leave her here. Not like that.”

“You already have,” said Harvestor.

Space flickered, and suddenly Diamond Tiara found herself in a different location. She looked around, confused, and quickly realized where she was- -and where she had perhaps been for a long time. She was standing on the edge of a grassy hill, looking out toward the remains of a long-abandoned, decrepit castle.

“The castle of the two sisters,” she said, looking up at Harvestor, who had appeared beside her. “How did- -how did we get here?”

“Such strange questions. I did enjoy our relationship better when you could not talk.” Harvestor lowered his horn to Diamond Tiara’s ankle, and a blue glow surrounded it. The pain mostly vanished. He then looked at her, holding one of his enormous yellow eyes with its not-quite-round pupil uncomfortably close to her face. “Come.”

Diamond Tiara initially wanted to resist, but realized she probably did not have a choice. She started walking. Beside her, Harvestor’s hooves lifted off the ground and he slowly floated beside her. It was eerie and strange, because he was not using his wings so much as levitating himself. For his unusually thin body, though, it actually made more sense for him to drift silently instead of walking. It was like he was a ghost.

“Why are we here?” she asked, eyeing the rickety rope-bridge across the deep gorges that rimmed the area around the castle.

“You need more modifications. More than I can do alone.”

“So, what, you’re leading me to an abandoned castle? Why not just drive up in a dirty van or something at that point?”

“I assumed you had some minor level of intelligence for a mortal. It’s one of the reason we bothered to put so much of our resources into a simple default-pony like yourself. Your mind is trapped in flux, yet you insist on seeing only what you find familiar.”

Diamond Tiara looked out at the castle, and she understood what he meant. She blinked and focused, and the world shifted. Suddenly the fall day grew deeply cold, and Diamond Tiara shivered. She realized that she was walking through deep snow, and more was falling heavily from the blue-lit sky overhead. The only sound was the quiet white noise of the snow falling. Diamond Tiara looked behind her at the forest of frozen, dead trees, and then forward toward the castle.

The ruins of the former home of Celestia and Luna had vanished. In its place stood a massive brutalist pyramid, hulking from the snow and obscured by the windless blizzard.

“This…this is your world.”

“No. The flux between realities is between Equestria and an unnamed basin dimension. The Blue Glow remains unaffected. It is impossible that anything from either would be able to reach or perceive our reality. This is something in between.”

“And it’s just been here? For how long?”

“Since we first became aware of the existence of your world. Centuries. Barely a blink in time for an alicorn. And yet in such a short time as one thousand years, we have gotten so much done. So very much.”

Diamond Tiara approached where a rope bridge would have been in her own reality. Here, there was nothing but a gap. Harvestor went ahead, lighting his horn and projecting a translucent magical bridge. Diamond Tiara took a step onto it hesitantly, and found that it had roughly the texture of glass. Realizing that it was sturdy, though, Diamond Tiara quickly followed Harvestor.

“Your response is interesting,” said Harvestor. “I have spent a great deal of time studying you, and based on your personality, I would have expected you to distrust me.”

“Who said I trust you? Look, the only reason I’m even bothering to talk to you is for answers. And that’s not a request. I expect you to tell me what in name of Celestia’s flowy vanilla-scented tail is going on here!”

“It is not actually scented of vanilla. We checked. But of course, I can respect the desire to ask questions. In that sense, you and I are alike. It is one of very few such senses.”

“So you’ll actually answer me if I ask you something?”

“If it is reasonable. If not, then no. I will refuse, or erase that section of your memory so that you do not know you asked it. I have already done that six times so far in the past minute alone.”

“Okay,” said Diamond Tiara, stopping short of the edge of the bridge. “Don’t do that.”

Harvestor looked back at her. “You are not really in a position to bargain with me, Diamond Dazzle Tiara Rich.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do? Drop this bridge? Let me fall and break every bone in my body on those rocks down there?”

“No. Of course not. I’m not programmed for cruelty. Well, not explicitly. Besides.” He lowered his head, and suddenly flashed to being within inches from Diamond Tiara’s face. “I’m an alicorn. I have enough magical power to erase every one you ever knew from existence with a thought. If I wanted you gone, I would make you gone.”

“Go. AHEAD.”

Harvestor paused, and then a thin smile crossed his face. “This, this is why I like being assigned to you. I like you. Quite substantially. I suppose, in a sense, it is an honor to at least partially be you.” He floated back into the air and continued on his way. “I can’t actually do that, though. My rank is not adequately high.”

Diamond Tiara stood her ground for a moment, but then, seeing that Harvestor appeared to be departing without her, chased after him, bounding through the frigid snow drifts.

“What actually happened back there? You said Ponyville was collapsing- -how? To where?”

“This region is currently in flux. Matter occasionally transitions between here and…elsewhere.”

“Where? I’ve been to that other place- -it’s the place that THING came out of. And there’s more there. A lot more.”

“That is what we have been trying to determine. We don’t know, apart from the fact that the region immediately adjacent to Ponyville is attempting to merge with this so-called ‘elsewhere’.”

“I’ve seen it. On the other side. Storms, like curving lightning…sort of…”

Harvestor looked down at her. “Yes. That is residual arcing from our pylons. It stabilizes the broad area, but at the cost of strong local anomalies.” He looked up at the sky, and so did Diamond Tiara. For a moment, the snowy winter sky flashed to a gray, nearly stormy autumn one. “Including your world’s weather.”

“But it’s failing.”

Harvestor nodded solemnly. “Further, the disturbance seems to have a focal point. On you.”

“Why me?” It was the question that Diamond Tiara had most wanted to ask.

“Why? Frankly, it could be random. That is unlikely, however. There is something unique about you.”

“There are worms, in my head- -”

“Yes, we are aware of the symbionts. But they are just that. They do not have the capacity to cause the level of dimensional damage that we are currently seeing.”

“No, but they could have driven me completely insane. This could all just be a bizarre hallucination.”

“True.”

“You’re not helping.”

“My job was never to help you. I thought you would know that by now.”

They had by this time reached the edge of what should have been the ancient, crumbling walls of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Instead, looming overhead was the gray, hulking mass of a silent concrete pyramid. The long gray stains on its sides were the only evidence that it had stood unmoving and unchanging for longer than all save two ponies had been alive.

“Harvestor,” said Diamond Tiara, suddenly realizing the implication of that thought. “How old are you, exactly?”

“Eight months.”

“Eight- -eight months?” Diamond Tiara had been expecting something far more grand, like an entire immortal lifetime of stories and experiences. Instead, he had only been alive since January.

“I am an alicorn,” he said slowly, as if he were explaining it to a foal. “We are not born from mothers. We are created. All the skills and knowledge we need are ingrained the instant we begin consciousness.” He shrugged slightly. “That probably seems strange to you. It shouldn’t.” He looked up at the door of the pyramid, a vast and gaping square hole. “Shall we enter?”

“S…sure,” said Diamond Tiara, following him into the silent darkness.

Inside the structure was not much different from the outside. It was still concrete, rimmed with oxidized metal that was possibly aluminum. There was no clear source of light, yet, somehow, the area was well lit with a kind of gray, empty light. The air inside was just as cold as outside, if not colder. Harvestor did not seem to notice, or to care, but Diamond Tiara was beginning to shiver.

Hervestor’s eye flicked toward Diamond Tiara, and she suddenly found herself covered in a liquid blue light. It coated her rapidly, providing her with warmth like some unseen blanket.

“Thank you.”

“It was not an act of altruism.”

“I know. I may not be an alicorn, but I’m not an idiot. You were scanning me.”

Harvestor’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”

“Because you’re researching me. You’re researching all of us, doing weird experiments. Like I said, not an idiot.”

“No,” said Harvestor, almost to himself. “No, indeed you are not.”

“But I just want to know, why? Is it all to prevent Ponyville from ‘collapsing’? Because I don’t think it is.”

“No. Of course not. This is a relatively recent development. We are not.”

Diamond Tiara looked down the wide hallway. She saw motion, and on the edges of it, saw tall alicorns floating by or standing. They all looked identical to Harvestor, although their colors seemed to vary. They all looked washed out and grayed, as if they were only just barely there. They were all watching the pair, and some moved to make way. “You’re alicorns. Why do you even care about us?”

“Your statement is an oversimplification. You could not understand why we do what we do.”

“Oh really? Why don’t you tell me that to my face? That just means YOU are bad at explaining.”

Harvestor smiled again, and dropped to his feet. His hooves echoed through the long hall as they touched the concrete. With motions that were just as graceful as they were unnatural, he walked beside Diamond Tiara. “Perhaps you can know. Maybe you can understand.”

“Not if you keep evading the question.”

“Simply put, your world is better than ours.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“If you had seen our world, it most likely would. Our reality, the Blue Glow, is entirely uninhabitable. Nothing whatsoever can possibly dwell there.”

“Clearly not. I mean, look at all of you.”

“We are alicorns. Immortals. We are not alive, not really. We only persist because it is the will of the Blue-Lit Machine. It is, I suppose, our equivalent of your Celestia.”

“No, it isn’t,” said Diamond Tiara.

Harvestor paused. “No. I suppose not.”

“A giant machine that fills up the whole sky,” said Diamond Tiara as though she were reciting something she had memorized long ago. “Metal and light, squirming and shifting, like a flower- -but not a flower, watching, willing, but never participating.”

Harvestor stopped walking. His eyes widened and his pupils narrowed. “How did you know that?”

“I just do,” said Diamond Tiara. “It’s true, isn’t it? That you came from it, that it made you?”

“Yes,” said Harvestor. He started walking again, but slowly. “It gave us life, and magic, and knowledge.”

“Then why come here?”

“Because that is all it gave us. Imagine our surprise when we came to this word. A world with real trees instead of lab-grown failures, with animals. Birds. Fungus. Moss. THINGS. And you.” He looked down at her. “Not you specifically, but your kind. Ponies. Ponies who live beyond the will of a silent god.”

“So, what? You fall in love with us and then start poking us full of holes?”

“We have to understand. We have to know how you work, to watch your world and understand how it came to be. My kind, we do not have history. We simply came into existence one day and silently built a civilization in a matter of weeks. Everything is the same. We cannot change. But you can.”

“But you have everything.”

“We have NOTHING. We believe that your world is critical to our evolution. That your genetics will allow us to build a better alicorn.”

“Our genetics…” Diamond Tiara froze. A thought had suddenly occurred to her- -a terrible though. “Harvestor,” she said. “You were born in January…”

Harvestor stopped walking and looked back at her, and she saw in his eyes that he knew what she was going to say next. He did not normally show emotion, but now, he looked ashamed. “Yes,” he said, simply.

“My birthday was in January. My eighteenth birthday. You were- -you were trying to- -”

“Ms. Tiara. Please calm down. The situation is logical if you- -”

“You’re trying to BREED WITH US!”Harvestor cringed slightly, either because he had been interrupted or because of his shame. “You- -you were going to bred with ME! You might already have- -you sick son of a- -”

“It isn’t like that!” snapped Harvestor.

“Then what is it like?!”

Harvestor sighed. It was an oddly rasping sound, and the first one he had actually made with his mouth that Diamond Tiara could remember hearing. “I will not lie to you. Yes, we do attempt to breed with your kind. And yes, you are on our rotation. But we have not attempted you, specifically, yet. Admittedly, though, we have made numerous attempts with your mother.”

“Don’t you dare touch my mother!”

“Do you think this is some kind of fetish? Look at me. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a stallion. Nor am I a mare. I don’t even have genitals. None of us do. Alicorns are by definition sterile. Or so we thought…”

“You mean Flurry Heart.”

“Mi Amore Cadenza is the only known fertile alicorn, even in your world. She is absolutely priceless, and we cannot simply go and experiment on her.”

“But you can on us? Us REGULAR ponies? Is that what you’re saying?”

Harvestor seemed to be getting more frustrated. “You would not even be conscious of the failures. Remember, your people do not even know that we exist. Even if we had succeeded, it would just look like immaculate conception to you primitives. Or you would think it was one of yours. It is not as though you have genetic testing technology yet.”

“And how do you think I would feel if you succeeded? If I just popped out an alicorn baby one day, when you didn’t even ASK?”

“You mean instead of the morlock halfbreed you were attempting to make?!”

“How dare you,” hissed Diamond Tiara. “I will have a foal with whoever I want. It’s MY choice, not yours. I’m DONE. I’m going home. Maybe I’ll ACTUALLY make that ‘halfbreed’ foal, and I’ll raise him better than the defective machinery that made you. Assuming I’m not already pregnant with one of your bastard mutants!”

She turned to leave, but found that there was no longer any exit. In fact, what should have been a hallway as now a wide, circular room. The edges were shrouded in shadow, but as Diamond Tiara looked around in confusion, she saw numerous washed-out alicorns arise from the darkness.

“You seem to have misunderstood the change in paradigm,” said the largest of them. Like Harvestor, he did not move his mouth when he spoke. “Your status has changed.”

Diamond Tiara suddenly found herself being lifted into the air, suspended with her front legs outstretched. She tried to resist, but found that she could not move. Behind her, there was a sound of saws and drills, and she felt something drop away from the back of her head.

“Harvestor- -what are they doing to me? What are you doing to me?”

“Modifications,” said Harvestor, simply.

“You’re trying to stabilize the collapse,” said Diamond Tiara, feeling the distant pain as numerous implants penetrated her body. “You’re trying to stabilize it with ME.”

Harvestor looked at her, and then away. “No.”

“We no longer desire stabilization of the dimensional barrier,” said another alicorn. He- -or she- -sounded exactly like Harvestor. They all did.

“What?” demanded Diamond Tiara. “What do you mean you no longer want to stabilize it? If you don’t, Ponyville will- -”

“Collapse into the basin dimesion, yes. Quite possibly. Or the issue may resolve. We do not know.”

“You are unique, Diamond Tiara,” said Harvestor. “And because you are unique, you are valuable.”

“What are you doing to me?!”

“We are accelerating the fluxion. You will act as an antenna, a catalyst to accelerate the dimensional interaction.”

“There is so much we can learn,” said another alicorn. “So much about physics that we did not know.”

“It might allow us to perform successful interdimensional travel.”

“To open a new world to conquer.”

“To allow us to form our bodies in this world completely.”

“You- -you want to take it for yourself,” said Diamond Tiara. She glared at Harvestor, the only one of them she could see clearly. “You lied to me!”

Harvestor directly at her. “Did I?”

“But if this works- -you’ll lose Ponyville!”

“We are equipped to evacuate the Protothebe if it is required. She is the only one of true value. The remainder are expendable.”

“I’m expendable, then?”

At that, Harvestor was forced to look away. One of the others spoke for him. “If the area survives, it will have been successfully stabilized. He will be stripped of your DNA and reconfigured for the one called Silver Spoon. Her personality is not ideal, though.”

“Most likely,” said Harvestor, his voice heavy, “we will attempt to breed her with the morlok.”

“You’re sick. You’re all sick!”

“No. We are correct. You are overreacting.”

“Overreacting?! Don’t try to gaslight me! I’ve been to the place you’re trying to drop Ponyville! They won’t make it there! The ponies- -”

“There are over three million ponies in Equestria. Ponyville has a population of less than six hundred. The expense will be minimal.”

“But those are my friends!”

“I know,” said Harvestor. “I know.”

The surgery completed. The saws stopped, and Diamond Tiara was dropped roughly onto the ground. The other alicorns, now silent, began to walk away, returning to their duties.

Harvestor looked down at her. “The next time you generate a stabile flux, there will be no coming back. It will be your final transition, and it will be permanent. You will never be able to return to Equestria.” Then, perfunctorily, he added, “I’m sorry.”

“No your’re not.”

“You are correct. No, I am not.”

Diamond Tiara lunged at him. She did not know what she expected to happen- -except maybe to touch him, and know that he was real, and if he was hurt him for what he was doing to her. Instead, though, she passed through him as though he were not there and landed hard on a cold tile floor.

Looking around, Diamond Tiara realized that she was no longer in the pyramid. Instead, she was in her Ponyville home, lying on the floor of the foyer. The air was warm and smelled sweet, like Applebloom’s family recipe for apple pie but tweaked just slightly by Silver Spoon’s modifications to the amount of nutmeg.

“Damn you, Harvestor,” swore Diamond Tiara. She stood, shaking, and noticed that a dark pool had spread across the tile beneath her- -and that it was quickly vanishing, evaporating into unseen space, save for a slight yellow discoloring of the grout. Her body ached from what they had done to her, the final preparations for her final journey. Despite this, Diamond Tiara ignored the pain and stood.

“Diamond Tiara?” said a voice. Diamond Tiara turned and glared at the owner of the voice, who she quickly saw was Silver Spoon, attracted by the sound of a pony in the entranceway.

“Diamond Tiara?!” cried a different voice from farther behind Silver Spoon. There was a scuttling sound, and Pick appeared. He poked his head out from around the entranceway and moved to give Diamond Tiara a hug- -but stopped when he saw the expression on her face. “Diamond? Is something- -”

“How long?” demanded Diamond Tiara. “How long was I gone?”

“Gone?” said Pick. “I- -I don’t know. I just got back from the spa five minutes ago. So, maybe thirty minutes?”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. “The spa. Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah, mostly. We were…” he looked at Silver Spoon. “Well, you know. And then something happened- -”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Silver Spoon. “A lot of colts have that prob- -”

“WHAT HAPPENED?” snapped Diamond Tiara, her desperation beginning to creep into her speech.

“Eep! I- -I don’t know! I- -I can’t remember! They told me there was some kind of chemical leak, something from the boilers! It’s blurry, and…the last thing I remember was being led out by one of the employees. He said the air was contaminated, but my dial didn’t detect- -”

“He?”

Pick nodded. “Yeah. Not the pretty mare, or the ugly one. A really big stallion.”

“That must have been Bulk Biceps,” said Silver Spoon. “He works there. Gives one heck of a massage. Big, white Pegasus? Scootaloo-esque wings?”

“White? No. I can’t see color properly, but I know he wasn’t white. And he wasn’t a Pegasus either. Nor was he bulky. In fact, he was- -”

“Really tall and thin,” whispered Diamond Tiara. “With a long horn and a black uniform.”

Pick stared up at her through his optics. “How did you know that? Did he pull you out too? Diamond Tiara, I was so worried about you. I didn’t know where you were, and I couldn’t find you, so I came back here to see if you returned, but- -”

“Is Applebloom okay?”

Pick stopped talking, and Silver Spoon blinked. “Um, yes?” she said. “I just passed her in the market. She’s as fine as she ever has been. What does Applebloom have to do with this?”

“What do you think I’m covered in, Silver Spoon?”

Silver Spoon and Pick looked down at Diamond Tiara’s chest, then back up at her. “Um, what?”

Diamond Tiara looked down, and realized that she was perfectly clean. There was not a drop of sap on her coat, or traces of anything, really. She did not even have a detectable smell.

“No, he didn’t, he couldn’t have- -but wat if, no, no it couldn’t…” Diamond Tiara started mumbling to herself, and then looked up at Silver Spoon and Pick. She realized that she was sounding more and more like Lucy. Thinking about Lucy, though, caused another memory to surface. Diamond Tiara looked at Pick, and then looked away. The shame was overwhelming- -unless it really only had been nothing more than a bizarre and feverish dream.

“Diamond,” said Silver Spoon. “I love you. More than literally any other pony I know. And I’m saying this as a friend. You’re not well. You need help.”

“Like you could possibly understand.”

“No, I can’t. None of us can, because you won’t TELL US ANYTHING!”

“Diamond Tiara,” said Pick, more calmly. “We’re just worried. You don’t- -you don’t need to do anything you don’t want to. But you’re scaring us.”

“Pick…” Diamond Tiara’s expression hardened. “I don’t need help. Just get me the drone. I have to go through.”

“Records? What records?”

“The records I stored in the drone. You know, when I went to the library. I need to look up a pony named Avalon…”

“The drone doesn’t contain any records,” said Pick.

The room went silent.

“What did you just say?” asked Diamond Tiara.

“I- -I checked it. There isn’t any stored data, apart from the visual longs…and…”

“What?” said Diamond Tiara. “WHAT?”

“Please don’t YELL AT ME! I don’t like it!”

“JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION!”

Pick backed away, and fumed for a moment. Then he looked up at Silver Spoon, and she nodded. “It’s you. The visual record records you. In the library, yes, but just…sitting there. Scrolling through microfilm recordings…or trying to…”

“What do you mean ‘trying to’?”

“They’re blank, Diamond Tiara,” said Silver Spoon. “You spent six hours scrolling through empty pages. There was nothing there.”

Diamond Tiara just stared. “You…you’re lying.”

Silver Spoon did not need to respond. The look in her eyes said everything. She was telling the truth.

“Oh,” said Diamond Tiara. “Never mind. I guess…I guess I’m just tired. Yeah. I need to go to bed, I think.” She pushed past the others, not sure if they would believe her even if she was able to tell them- -or if they were actually even real.

“Diamond- -”

“Just…leave me alone. And…I’m sorry.”

Diamond Tiara took one last look at them, and walked past them, leaving her friends behind.

Chapter 10: The Only Solution

Pick entered the front room, stepping between the two potted, flowering chollas that framed the door to the rest of the house. He closed it gently, being careful not to disturb the pair of tall shrubs. Across the room, Silver Spoon was pretending to read a book and reviewing some notes that were placed on the coffee table.

“How is she?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Well, the first lamp missed but the second connected pretty hard. So at least she still has her aim.”

“You know, you really shouldn’t let her hurt you like that. It’s kind of abuse.”

“It’s not like I can feel it through my armor anyway. That’s kind of a big problem in our relationship.”

“Still,” said Silver Spoon. She got down off her couch and approached to where Pick was standing, but stopped suddenly and held her nose when she came in range of the large white flowers that adorned the cactus plants. “Oh, sweet Luna’s lumps! That smell!”

“I didn’t think I smelled that bad.”

“No, not you. The plants! Ugh, I don’t know why Diamond Tiara lets them bloom. They smell like a dead body that’s been exercising. Hold still.” She reached out with her mouth and hoof and expertly unlocked Pick’s helmut interlock, pulling out the front cover.

“Hey!” cried Pick as Silver Spoon put the helmet over her own head, breathing through Pick’s filter. “I need that to breathe!”

“No you don’t. I think you’re just afraid of intimacy.” She took off the helmet and gave it back to Pick, who did not immediately put it back on. The flowers just smelled like food to him.

Silver Spoon went back to the papers she had been sorting, and put her hoof on them as though she were about to start flipping through them. Instead, she just sighed. “Pick, this is bad. We have to do something.”

“I don’t know what we can do. You know how stubborn she is.” He looked back toward the door. “Frankly…I can’t help but wonder if it’s my fault.”

Silver Spoon looked back at him. “Your fault? How could this possibly be your fault?”

“Oh come on. You can see it as well as I can. She’s ashamed of me. She’s the richest filly in Ponyville. She could have anypony she wants. She could have YOU. And instead, she gets stuck with me.”

“It’s not you. I’ve never seen her like this, Pick. Something is seriously wrong. It’s bad. Trust me, it takes a special pony to love her. We’re few and far between..”

“I wish that was not the case. And I wish I could do SOMETHING for her. I’m the colt in this relationship, and I’m supposed to be the strong one, at least sometimes…but I just feel so insignificant.”

Silver Spoon smiled. “You’re not insignificant. She’s pushing us away because she’s scared. She’ll never show it, not to us, but she is. I think all we really can do is be there for her when she’s ready.”

“Will she ever be ready?”

Silver Spoon turned back to the papers, facing away from Pick. “That I don’t know.”

“Can I do at least something? Something small, even?”

Silver Spoon picked up the papers. “Well…I know that at this point, there’s pretty much no chance she’ll make it to the Prom, but she would want to make sure it’s completed. There was a mixup with the catering and the band, and it would help if you could take these over to Twist. I think I need to stay here with her.”

“Of course,” said Pick, levitating the papers and rolling them into a tight package.

“I’m sorry you won’t get to go to the Prom.”

“The Prom can…how do you surfacers say? ‘Plot itself’? I don’t even like dancing. I only came here because she asked me to.”

Silver Spoon smiled. “Oh, and also, stop by Sugarcube Corner on your way back. I don’t know if it will help, but their fall pumpkin always made Diamond Tiara feel a little better when she was younger. You know, from the public berating by her mother and the chronic loneliness.” Silver Spoon paused, and leaned in. “Also…if you could talk to Twilight. I don’t know what she said to Diamond, but if anypony can help, it’s her.”

“You mean the bisymmetric.”

“Oh. I forgot, you don’t like alicorns. Well, I can- -”

“No. For Diamond Tiara I would stare down the barrel of the Red-White Sphere itself. Assuming it had a barrel. Nevertheless, my romantic assertion stands! I shall speak to Twilight Sparkle!”

“Hurry back. And be careful, there’s a cold going around Ponyville right now.”

“I will.” Pick placed the papers in one of his pockets, and made his way toward the door. Just before he reached it, though, it slammed open. “Squeeek!” cried Pick as his wings instinctively unfolded, causing him to buzz into the air and bump into several objects before coming to a rest on his back, wings still buzzing, where he spun around for a moment. “Noooo!”

Silver Spoon helped him up, and looked over to the door to see a familiar but unwelcome pink visage entering the home.

“Well,” said Spoiled Rich, turning up her nose at the mostly redecorated front room and at the ponies it currently contained. “This place smells…awful.” She pulled off her scarf and jacket and tossed them to her elderly butler, who caught them with some difficulty. Spoiled herself looked somewhat off. Her makeup was thicker than usual, and she seemed to move more slowly, as though she were tired.

“Can I help you, Mrs. Rich?” asked Silver Spoon.

“Where is my daughter?”

“She isn’t feeling well right now. I can take a message- -”

“I’m her MOTHER. I can see her whenever I want to.” She sighed. “Sweet Cadence- -what does she pay you for, anyway? If I wanted to deal with incompetence, I would have stayed at the hospital.” She rubbed her flank.

“Are you hurt?” said Pick, actually sounding genuinely concerned.

“Do I look hurt? No. It was for a pregnancy test. That quack…he took FOREVER to get to me, even though I was the most important pony there. Dealing with all those ‘sick’ ponies who are probably just faking it for attention. What can I expect from a UNICORN, though. I seriously need to consider getting another doctor. Ideally one with smaller forelegs.”

“You’re trying to get pregnant?” said Pick. His wings vibrated and released a loud chirp.

“Eew,” whispered Silver Spoon. “Gross!”

“Of course I’m trying. Why else would I be spending forty thousand bits a visit on fertility treatments? All that work, and I don’t think Filthy is even TRYING.” She paused, and seemed to realize that she was venting about something extremely personal, at which point she blushed profusely. She cleared her throat. “But that’s not the point. I need to see Diamond Tiara NOW. Take me to her, servant girl.”

“I’m not a servant,” said Silver Spoon, struggling to keep her composure.

“Aww,” said Spoiled in a heavily patronizing way. “Isn’t that cute? You actually think she’s still your friend! Even though you’re a worthless, moneyless failure! Aren’t you just adorable!” Her ironic smile vanished. “You’re her maid. Now do. Your. JOB.”

“Madam,” interjected the butler. “Perhaps mistress Tiara truly is ill at the moment. Indeed, might I suggest that we return when she is feeling better? You know how…taxing your interactions can be for the both of you.”

“Are you talking back to me? ME?” Spoiled loomed over the aged Stallion. “It’s like you’re just ASKING for the sorry-stick.”

“P- -please, madam, not the sorry-stick! I- -I truly do apologize for having overstepped my boundaries!”

“I’m not making a second trip all the way out here.”

“It is true, Mrs. Rich,” said Pick, stepping forward. “Diamond Tiara really is ill. It’s that cold that has been going around Ponyville, and I would hate for it to spread to you, especially in your current situation, what with the fertility treatments. I would be happy to sit with you, though, if- -”

“You filthy little wretch! She’s probably only sick because of a disease YOU gave her!”

“What is THAT supposed to mean?” snapped Silver Spoon.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been doing,” said Spoiled, ignoring Silver Spoon. “Just the thought of you pawing all over my daughter- -it makes me sick! I should have squished you when I had the chance.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Rich, what Diamond Tiara and I do together is none of your business.”

“Yeah,” added Silver Spoon. “Because some ponies don’t just walk into a room and start talking about what they do with their special somepony. Because that would be RUDE and GROSS.”

“Oh please. You’re one to talk.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

Spoiled assumed a real smile- -but not a caring one. It was the kind of smile she was about to be especially nasty, a self-assured grin at having trapped a pony into an impending verbal lashing. It was one of the only smiles she ever gave to Diamond Tiara.

Spoiled reached out and gently lifted the one pearl that remained on remained on her necklace. “Aww, you’ve only got one left. I can only guess you hocked the remainder. I’m terribly surprised.”

“I did what I had to.”

“Oh, not that. I know your family, little Silver. They’ll sell anything that’s not nailed down, just so long as they can fund the next party. No, it’s not that. It’s the fact that you never got a new one. You know, with all the stallion in town lining up to give you a new pearl necklace.”

Pick twisted the dial in his chest. “Oh wow. That translated perfectly.”

“Do you really think I don’t know how little whorses like you work?” asked Spoiled. “That cold isn’t the only thing that’s been passed all over Ponyville?”

“Your husband didn’t seem to mind.”

That retort was unexpected, and it hit hard. Spoiled Rich just blubbered for a second, confused, sputtering, and darkening by several shades of pink. Her butler lifted his hoofkerchief, pretending to caught to disguise his laughter.

“You- -you didn’t!”

“Oh, come on. It wouldn’t have been the first time one of you rich ponies ‘cleaned the windows’ with a ‘maid’, would it? Or… ‘maintained the pool’?”

“You- -you little- -” Spoiled raised her hoof to strike Silver Spoon, and Silver Spoon stood defiantly to take it. Pick intervened, though, coating Spoiled’s hoof in projected energy.

“Please don’t hurt Silver Spoon,” he said. “Watching her get hurt makes me cry. I mean, look at her, she’s adorable.”

“And I didn’t even need four pounds of plastic implants to get that way.”

“Oh, sure,” said Spoiled. “You talk real tough when your little client is here to protect you, but just you wait. Even if somepony doesn’t knock those stupid glasses off your face, you’ll get old, like I did. Except you won’t have any money to get it fixed.”

“You don’t look old,” said Pick. “Actually, you’re really, really attractive. If I wasn’t with your daughter, I would consider- -”

“Finish that sentence, and I will crack your helmet like an egg,” said Silver Spoon and Spoiled Rich simultaneously.

Spoiled and Silver Spoon looked at each other. “Just- -just get out of my way,” said Spoiled, shouldering past Silver Spoon. “I’ll just find her myself.”

“I told you, she- -”

“It’s MY house. If you get in the way, I’ll call the guard and have you both thrown in jail.”

Spoiled passed by, followed by her butler. Pick turned to Silver Spoon and whispered. “You didn’t actually…with Mr. Rich…”

“No, of course not! Filthy is like a second father to me! Or, really, an ACTUAL father to me. But did you see the look on her face?”

“Not really. The contrast between her shirt and coat color is really jarring to my sensors.”

“Trust me, she jars them just as much without it.” Silver Spoon whispered even more quietly. “Just think, that’s what Diamond Tiara is going to look like eventually.”

“I sure hope so. If Diamond looks like that in her sixties, rest assured, she will not be having fertility problems.”

“I’m forty two!” called Spoiled Rich from the edge of the room. “And I’m not deaf!”

“No, but apparently colorblind.”

“This shirt cost more than you will make in a LIFETIME! You can’t comment on taste when you and your little- -”

“What do you want, Spoiled?” whispered a voice from the shadow between the two cholla trees.

Every pony in the room jumped in surprise. None of them had heard the door open, and none of them knew exactly how long Diamond Tiara had been standing in the darkness. Diamond Tiara did not usually enter rooms silently and without fanfare, but to Silver Spoon, this thing standing in the doorway looked like little more than a shadow of her best friend.

Diamond Tiara had already looked off when she had come back from the spa, but Silver Spoon had dismissed it as her having walked through the cold without a jacket. Now, though, in the contrast of the dim light, the changes in her person were far more pronounced. Where Diamond Tiara was normally a healthy pink, she had now faded to almost gray, and seemed to have grown immensely and unhealthily thin. Silver Spoon suddenly realized that she had not seen Diamond Tiara eat anything at all in almost a week.

Worse, though, was the expression on her face. She no longer seemed interested in anything in particular, and held no expression apart from one of immense exhaustion and apathy. Her eyes, now nearly gray and pale, seemed to stare out far beyond the room without looking at any pony in particular. Even her Tiara was missing.

“Diamond Tiara!” said Spoiled Rich disapprovingly. “I knew I was getting here just in time- -look at the state you’re in! You’re not even wearing your tiara makeup, and your STILL letting ponies see you like this?!”

Slowly, Diamond Tiara’s eyes moved up to her mother. Facially, though, there was no response. She did not cower in fear and submission as she had as a filly, nor did she attempt to resist and retort as she did as an adult. Instead, she seemed to barely recognize that Spoiled was even there. Silver Spoon realized that something was terribly wrong.

“Just answer the question,” said Diamond Tiara, somewhat harshly but with surprising lack of emotion. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here because I’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors around town. Do you have any idea that damage you’ve done to our family reputation? First you go parading around town with this, this insect-mutant, and I thought I could just DIE. But then I have to hear that your sanity is now in dispute. I didn’t believe it, but looking at you now…” Spoiled looked down her nose at Diamond Tiara. “Well, just look at you!”

The Diamond Tiara that Silver Spoon knew would have said something and tried to defend herself. Silver Spoon was holding her breath waiting for it, but Diamond Tiara did not even seem to notice. Her eyes slowly drifted, and then focused hard- -but not on Spoiled. Instead, she seemed to be staring at an area of the room that was curiously empty.

“So you came to watch me fail? Typical.”

“Fail? You’ve already failed, Diamond! Look at you! LOOK AT YOU! Just when I didn’t think you could be MORE of a disappointment!”

“Yeah,” sighed Diamond Tiara, as if she did not even hear what Spoiled was saying.

“I took time out of my schedule because, apparently, you can’t be left alone. I’m here to take you home.”

“That won’t do any good. None of it will do any good.”

“Of course it will. We can’t- -we simply CAN’T- -have you walking around town like this. We can’t have the ponies talking about this, ruining our reputation- -just think of how much harder it will be to transfer the company to your brother when the board of advisors realizes that his sister is INSANE.”

“I’ve met my brother. He doesn’t care. And he won’t be my brother for much longer. Oh Harvestor…”

Spoiled’s expression changed, and she took a minute step backward. It was enough for Silver Spoon to realize that Spoiled was beginning to see what she had already realized. This was not simple changes in behavior, or stress, or a breakdown. Something had changed, and Diamond Tiara was cognizant of it.

“It’s worse than I thought,” said Spoiled. She reached out toward Diamond Tiara. “Come on, Diamond Tiara. We’re going home!”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes flashed toward her and for the first time focused on Spoiled Rich. The two cholla trees beside her immediately reacted, pushing out their spines and bending forward to block Spoiled’s path.

“Diamond Tiara!” said Silver Spoon.

“Worms…in my head. That’s what they told me. Eating my brain…but I don’t think they were the problem. I can’t tell, but I don’t- -I just don’t know anymore. I don’t care, either. I think they were trying to warn me. Even now, I can hear them screaming…”

“Diamond Tiara! How dare you! I’m only doing this for your own good!”

“My own good? Nothing you have ever done was for my good. You hated me, from the moment I was born. Every time you see me, you see a disappointment. Even when I was perfect, even when I still had a chance, everything I did was a failure to you.”

“That isn’t true! I was just trying to make you a better mare!”

“No. I was just an accessory to you, a toy. Take my advice, ‘mother’. Don’t have another kid. Because she’ll just be a ‘failure’ too.” A dry and humorless smile crossed Diamond Tiara’s face. “Unless Harvestor succeeds this time. Then you’ll get exactly what you wanted.”

Spoiled now seemed to actually grasp the gravity of the situation, and her demeanor changed completely. “Diamond Tiara, we can get you doctors. The best money can buy, we can get you better!”

“I don’t think you would even bother. But then again, I don’t even care anymore. Besides…” Diamond Tiara winced and dropped to her knees. She coughed, and wiped something dark away from her mouth. The trees at her side responded by retracting, allowing the other ponies to get to her. “At this point, the liver damage is irreversible.”

“D- -Diamond!” cried Silver Spoon, racing forward. “What did you do?”

Diamond Tiara produced a sad smile. “I won’t let them use me. I won’t let them take me. I won’t go. I’ll stabilize the rift myself. I’ll do it on my own terms!”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Diamond Tiara’s smile faded. “I just took five bottles of pills. I’m sorry, Silver Spoon, but if they had succeeded…” Diamond Tiara lay down on the floor. “If they had…just take care of Pick for me…”

The world became something of a blur. Diamond Tiara felt herself moving in and out of consciousness, as though time were jumping around her.

At one point, she opened her eyes just enough to see ponies around her. There were lights overhead, and they were moving. Diamond Tiara realized that she was moving, rolling on a gurney. It felt like she was floating.

The ponies looked panicked, and a blurry unicorn doctor spoke to his nurses. “I need three doses of acetylcysteine, STAT!”

“We’re losing her!” said one of the nurses in a panic.

“Sweet Celestia- -get me a second unicorn! Prep her for surgery!”

Diamond Tiara closed her eyes. She was sad for making everypony worry so much, but it needed to be done.

Then she opened her eyes, and saw a silent, still room. Numerous ponies were standing around her, watching from the shadows. A light suddenly flashed on, and their unblinking eyes narrowed into horizontal slits.

Several of them leaned forward, strange machines held in their magic. One of them leaned in closest. His coat was gray, and his eyes pale purple- -but Diamond Tiara recognized him from his sickening smile.

“Diamond Tiara,” said Harvestor, “I did not give you PERMISSION to die.”

The image shifted again. Diamond Tiara felt herself being dragged. Above her, she saw a darkened multicolored sky. Then there was pressure on her chest, and Lucy came into view, tears streaming down her cheeks as she performed CPR.

“Come on, Diamond!” she pleaded, on the verge of breaking down. “Don’t give up on me! Not like this! Please don’t leave me!”

Then, all at once, the world collapsed to black. Diamond Tiara found herself floating, and she was not sure how long, but she eventually settled through the infinite space and found herself standing on a surface.

She looked beside her, and saw the face of a kindly pale horse, an all-white unicorn.

“Did it work? Am I…am I dead?”

He smiled, but it was a sad smile. “I don’t know. Dying is the one task I am never allowed to complete. She won’t allow it.”

“She? Who is ‘she’?”

“The one I love,” he said, simply, as though that were enough of an answer. He gestured forward, to where a light was developing in the distance. Diamond Tiara knew that this was the end, and she followed him toward it.

Then, suddenly, something wrapped itself around Diamond Tiara’s rear leg. She shrieked as she was pulled backward by an unseen force, a tentacle that she understood to be arising from a place filled with something strange and horrible.

“Help- - help me!” she cried to the Pale Horse.

He did not smile. Instead, he only looked ashamed. “I can’t,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. But a word of advice: listen to what they are saying this time. And…if you see Fluttershy, tell her that I love her.”

Diamond Tiara did not understand what he meant, but he was rapidly growing smaller as she was pulled away from him deeper into the darkness. In her fright, she made the mistake of turning around to face whatever it was that was attacking her.

There, in the void far below, sat a pair of impossibly large red eyes.

With a gasp and a start, Diamond Tiara awoke to a bright gray sky. She shivered in the wind, and looked around to find herself in the middle of a field somewhere outside of Ponyville. For a moment, she wondered if she really had died- -but she felt cold and sore, and knew that she had not been so lucky.

Looking down, she realized that she was dressed in a mud-stained hospital gown. An IV line was placed in her left foreleg, still attached but with the tubing charred and melted. Diamond Tiara had come from the hospital, but as far as she could tell, she was on the complete other side of town. She had no idea how she had gotten there.

With her teeth, she reached down and tore the IV out. She then stripped away the gown, intending to leave it there in the field. As she did, however, she realized that something was wrong with her right foreleg. She looked closely, and there, amongst the burn scars, were letters scratched lightly into her skin. At first, she could not read them. They were not in Equestrian, or really any language she recognized. Then, somehow, she realized that they made sense- -at least to the extent that she could read them. The phrase, however, had no meaning: just the words “yellow-red-eyes” written again and again into her flesh.

As Diamond Tiara contemplated this, the whole world suddenly seemed to shift. Everything came into sharp focus, and the ground seemed to shake. Diamond Tiara realized that, since she had failed, the end was coming. There was not much time left.

It was night by the time Diamond Tiara reached her house. Overhead, thick, dark clouds were swirling, lit with occasional flashes of blue light and an unearthly colored glow from just beyond. The whole way, the world had been shifting just slightly, trying to pull Diamond Tiara away. She had managed to make it back mostly through a combination of sheer luck and willpower. The effect was growing stronger, though, and the transition was becoming increasingly inevitable.

When she reached the door, Diamond Tiara paused. She was not entirely sure if she wanted to enter. Still, she realized that this would be her last chance, so she pushed the door open.

The house was dark inside, lit only by the glow from outside which itself might very well have only been imaginary. For a moment, Diamond Tiara wondered if nopony was home. Perhaps they had finally given up and gone their separate ways. The voices in her head denied that image, though. There was still living moisture in this house.

So, Diamond Tiara moved through the shadows, led by instinct and a light that only she could see. It did not take her long to find her friends. They were sitting together in one of the inner living rooms, Pick slowly sobbing into Silver Spoon’s shoulder.

When Diamond Tiara entered, Silver Spoon looked up and her eyes widened as though she were seeing a ghost. Pick, in turn, looked up in disbelief. Diamond Tiara said nothing, because there was nothing that she could say. There was no way she could apologize for what she had done to them, especially to Pick.

They stood in silence for a moment, and Diamond Tiara finally looked away. She once again considered leaving, but before she could go, something buzzed toward her across the ground and a pair of forelegs wrapped themselves around her.

“Diamond Tiara!” blubbered Pick, the sound of his weeping barely audible through his helmet. “Diamond- - Diamond Tiaaaara!”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara at last, her voice cracking. She put one hoof around Pick. “Yeah, it’s me.”

She looked up to see Silver Spoon approaching her, wiping away her own tears. “The doctors told us…they said you were brain-dead. That you wouldn’t ever wake up.”

“Yeah. I thought I wouldn’t either. Apparently I can’t even die right.”

“Why would you- -why would you do that?!” wailed Pick, followed by sputtering choking sounds as his helmet started to fill up with tears. His grip had become somewhat crushing, as though if he were to let go, Diamond Tiara might leave him again. “WHY?”

“Because that was my last chance.” She turned to Silver Spoon. “I’m sorry. I really am. But I had to. Now…Silver Spoon, you need to get everypony out of Ponyville.”

“What? No.”

“Silver, you have to listen to me. There isn’t much time- -”

“No.” Silver Spoon stamped her hoof against the floor. “Diamond Tiara, do you have any idea what you just did? To me, him- -for Celestia’s sake, to yourself?! Do you know what it was like to lose you, what that felt like? I’m sorry for being selfish here, I really am, but you at least owe us an explanation!”

“There isn’t time. You need to- -”

“I’m not doing anything until talk. Tell me, do we really mean that little to you, Diamond Tiara?”

Diamond Tiara looked up at her. Silver spoon was crying, and Diamond Tiara felt tears running down her own face. Diamond Tiara sighed, and then explained. At first, she only wanted to give a brief summary, just enough to placate Silver Spoon. Once she started, though, it all came out. Every insane thing she had experienced- -the alicorns and Harvestor, the other realm and Lucy- -leaving out only the part she was to ashamed to tell Pick- -and everything else.

When she finally finished, Silver Spoon and Pick- -now without his helmet- -were listening with rapt attention. Diamond Tiara saw the expressions on their faces, though, and knew what they were thinking.

“You don’t believe me,” she said. “I knew you wouldn’t. I don’t even believe me. Now you probably think I’m insane. I would understand if you just want to take me over to the Ponyville psychiatric ward and just leave me there.”

“No,” said Silver Spoon. “There’s only one thing I want to know.”

“What?”

“How do we help?”

Diamond Tiara paused, finding herself wholly unprepared for that reaction. Then she burst into tears.

“Silver Spoon!” she wept, “I don’t- -I don’t know what’s happening to me! I don’t- -I don’t want to go! I never did! I’m sorry! I’m SORRY!”

Diamond Tiara continued to cry for what felt like a long time, until a sudden vibration pierced the night. The other side was calling.

“Silver, Pick, there- -there isn’t much time! You need to get everypony out!”

“But what about you? If you’re right, even if we make it, you’ll be trapped on the other side!”

“It doesn’t matter! Forget about me, YOU need to get out of here!”

“Wait,” said Pick, his ears perking up. “I have something that might help.”

There was a flash of white light, and Pick vanished. Then, a few seconds later, there was a second flash on the other side of the room and he reappeared, now holding an ornate box.

“I was going to give this to you at the Prom, but I think you could use it now.”

Pick brought the box over and opened it. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon both gaped at its contents. Sitting inside, surrounded by felt, was a hoof-sized round object, a sleek disk of glimmering technetium and plated with white metal.

“This- -this is a dial. For…for me? You’re giving this to me?”

“What else would I be doing with it? Take it. I built it for you and you alone.”

Diamond Tiara picked it up, her hooves shaking. It was surprisingly heavy for its size, and it was obvious that it was well made- -even more so than Pick’s own.

“Oh my gersh,” said Silver Spoon. “This is beautiful.”

“There’s only one problem, though,” said Pick. “I didn’t intend for it to go into immediate operation- -it doesn’t have a crystal!”

Diamond Tiara winced from a sudden pain in her head, and the world momentarily flashed dark and strange before Pick and Silver Spoon reappeared. Time had run out.

She reached up toward her head, but found that her tiara was missing. “I- -I don’t have any!” she cried.

“Will this work?” Silver Spoon slid off her necklace and snapped it with her teeth. She slid off the one remaining pearl into her hoof.

“It should,” said Pick. “Nopony’s ever tried to use a pearl in a dial before, but- -yes. Yes, it will work.”

“But, Silver Spoon,” said Diamond Tiara. “Your last pearl…”

“It doesn’t matter. If it will help you, there’s nothing I would rather use it for. Take it.”

Silver Spoon held out the white sphere, and Diamond Tiara looked down at it. She hesitated, but then took it. She twisted the rim of her dial, and thousands of intricate mechanical parts burst forth, including one long silvery needle. Shaking, Diamond Tiara slid the threading hole of the pearl over the needle. The dial responded immediately, moving clasps into position as it retracted the sphere into itself. Once it was closed with only the upper rim of the sphere exposed, it hummed to life and began ticking.

“Thank you,” she said, holding the dial close to her chest. “Thank you both. Thank you- -”

The room went silent, and Diamond Tiara found herself standing in a field of ancient, eroded rubble beneath a darkened sky. “So much…”

Now alone, Diamond Tiara just stood still and cried in silence for a moment. Her clothing- -the cape and armor that Lucy had leant her- -had returned, and blew around her. Finally, she sat down against the half-carved marble blocks and stared up into the heavens, at the countless broken spheres, their dim light, and their remnants collapsing down to oblivion below.

It did not take long before a voice called out from behind. “Diamond Tiara?”

Diamond Tiara quickly slid her dial into one of her pockets and turned to see Lucy standing tall on one of the larger blocks behind her.

“Lucy.” Diamond Tiara stood up and turned to her friend. “You came.”

“Of course.”

Diamond Tiara slowly approached the older pony. Lucy jumped down from her block, and once they were close enough, Diamond Tiara hugged her.

“That was the last time,” she said. “My last chance. I won’t be able to get back. I’m like you now.”

“I’m sorry,” said Lucy. “I’m so sorry…”

Once again, Diamond Tiara found herself sitting outdoors around a bright artificial light. Behind her, Lucy was rummaging through a saddlebag.

“Are you sure you don’t want any?”

“No thanks. I’m not hungry.”

“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. Not literally. Hopefully. Not again.”

Lucy removed a jar of something from the bag and smiled. She walked over to where a slightly alive log was sitting near the “fire”, brushing past Diamond Tiara as she went. Her smell was still as incredibly sweet as ever.

“Here,” said Lucy, dropping a small cube into Diamond Tiara’s grasp. “I was told this was yours.”

Diamond Tiara stared at the morlock cube, and then looked up at Lucy, who was gnawing at the lid of the jar she had gotten out.

“You know you have magic, right?”

“Yes. I have magic. But this yelly also has the flammable. And I want to eat it, not add more scars to myself. Although, scars are sexy, right?”

“Not really, no.”

“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Lucy finally managed to pop the top off the jar, and a hideous smell filled the air.

“Oh, buck!” cried Diamond Tiara, holding her nose. “What the hay is that?!”

“Food. Probably. Well, I eat it.” Lucy dipped her hoof into the gelatinous black fluid and licked it in a way that seemed calculated to be seductive but had the complete opposite effect.

“Is it supposed to smell like that?”

“Yeah. That’s how you know it is good. You have to ferment it to get the toxins out. Can’t cook. Tried it once, things came up from the ground to steal my fennel. Fire is a bad idea in this place.”

“Yeah, well, I’m now even less hungry than I was before.”

“Suit yourself. It tastes great.”

“More like you scraped it out of a grate,” muttered Diamond Tiara, picking up and examining the cube. It was no longer cold, and the facets had far more give than before. “Thank you for keeping the cube.”

“I keep a lot of things. But that cube is something special. I’ve seen a great many things fall through the storms, but never something like that. Got half a VCR once, though.”

“What the hay is a ‘VCR’?”

“I have no idea. Couldn’t eat it, though. At least not most of it.”

“Do you just eat anything?”

“I think you know the answer to that one.” Lucy winked awkwardly, and Diamond Tiara shuddered.

“If you do that again, I will hit you. I don’t care if you’re old, or Fluttershy’s mom. Don’t do that.”

“Sorry, sorry,” said Lucy. “And I don’t think I’m that old. I mean, I’m still pretty, right?”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “Yes, you are, but not in that way.”

“Aww, thanks.” Lucy looked over at the cube that Diamond Tiara was holding. “I tried opening it, but I couldn’t even get it to move.”

“It takes a certain amount of finesse.” Diamond Tiara easily shifted one of the sides into place.

“Do you think there’s more in there? More of…her?”

“There are. It’s in really good condition, it’s just- -hold on- -”

The cube opened, and released another blast of blue light. This time, Diamond Tiara managed to control the output and directed it outward, away from the light source. Once again, the image resolved into a translucent blue morlock mare. This time, her helmet was removed, and Diamond Tiara was surprised by how young she looked. Yttros must not have been much older than Diamond Tiara when she had made these recordings.

“Date is 7794.03,” she said. “Log entry number seventy two, Yttros Xenotime. Progress has been vastly slower than expected, stymied by the limited resources present in this world. I have been forced to fabricate all parts manually, which is in itself time and energy intensive. The far greater problem is the dearth of technetium. I have been forced to build my supply through biomagnification. Fortunately, viable game is plentiful here. It tastes…adequate. Reminiscent of fresh thestral veal.

“After much surveying, I have finally settled on a sight to repeat the experiment that I lost two years ago. That was a significant setback, but the new location should be relatively insulated from temporal sheer. “ One of the dials in Yttros’s chest clicked to the side suddenly, and an image appeared beside her. It was mostly an abstract diagram written out in morlock writing, filled with readouts and statistics.

Diamond Tiara suddenly froze the image. “Lucy…do you see that?”

“I see a lot of things, so…maybe?”

“Those are coordinates.”

“It just looks like a bunch of lines to me.”

“No, no, I know what it says.” Diamond Tiara set the cube on the ground and picked up a small stick and began scratching notes into the dirt, attempting to perform the calculations necessary to covert the numeric morlock written language into the phonetic Equestrian one. “Lucy, do you have a map?”

“Do I have a map!” Lucy laughed, and then suddenly became incredibly serious. “You bet your sweet filly flank I have a map.”

Lucy jumped up and sauntered over to her bags, which were propped against a tree. She rummaged through again and removed several rolls of various materials. She pushed the log she had been sitting on and laid down several of the sheets of material. Some were cloth, and others paper. A few were a smooth, dark material that Diamond Tiara did not recognize. All of them were covered in incredibly small hoofwritting, and several pages appeared to move against each other to shift the map in various ways.

“There’s a reason I never get lost,” said Lucy. “Well, not often. Not sometimes. Many, or few.”

“You’re really excited.”

“I never get a chance to show somepony my maps! And I worked so hard on them!”

“I can tell,” said Diamond Tiara, momentarily losing hope upon seeing just how indecipherable Lucy’s “maps” were. She was aware that there was actually a strong possibility that whatever Lucy had written was less cartological and more the ravings of a madmare.

After several hours of looking and Lucy attempting to explain what the various symbols and foldouts meant- -along with the pages and pages of supplemental mathematics- -Diamond Tiara did managed to finally get the most basic understanding of what the map meant.

“So,” said Diamond Tiara, checking her own math. “If the pink sphere is in retrograde- -”

“No, no. If the pink sphere is PINK. If the pink sphere is in retrograde, it turns kind of a burnt sienna and this panel would be over here.”

“Oh…well, that would mean that the latitude would be here…and the longitude- -”

“It would be at a diagonal, because that way is second west.”

“So Yttros’s coordinates would be…here.” Diamond Tiara put her hoof against a largely blank portion of the map, and Lucy’s eyes widened. Lucy suddenly stood up and backed away from the map.

“What’s wrong?”

“No no no no no,” said Lucy. “That place, no. Just no. Not there.”

“What is it? What is in that place?”

“She doesn’t know- -that place is a bad one. One of the worst. I’ve never even been there. The storms…before these storms, many were there. Many bad things came out of those storms, things that don’t ever survive long outside of where they came from.”

“That’s a good thing, then. It means we’re on the right track.”

“Wh- -what?”

“The storms.” Diamond Tiara looked back at the frozen image of Yttros, who appeared to be watching them silently. “Yttros was building a machine, a gate back to Equestria. I don’t know when she made these recordings or how long it’s been, but…” Diamond Tiara shivered at the thought. “What if she succeeded?”

“Succeeded?”

“What if the gate worked? The storms mean that something is there- -what if it was her machine?”

“Worked? You mean…you’re saying she got back to Equestria. That’s impossible. It just- -it just is!”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

“No, no, NO. You can’t be serious. You actually want to- -to go there? THERE? NO. No way in, well, here.”

“But what if I’m right? What if it IS a way out?”

“A…a way out?”

“You’ve been trying for thirty years. To get out. What if you could?” Diamond Tiara looked up at the sky. “As far as I can tell, Ponyville hasn’t fallen in yet. It’s still there. Fluttershy is still there.”

“Fluttershy?” “My Fluttershy?”

“Just imagine. What it would be like to see her. To be able to explain what happened to you, how she’s grown. To give her a hug. I hear she’s really soft. I know it’s a risk, but doesn’t that make it worth it?”

“I could…I could see my daughter again…”

“And I could get back to my friends. We could both have our lives back.”

“Mines too far. I don’t- -I don’t know if I could go back to living the way I did. Not after this.”

“Trust me, you will. I have a spare house. You can live with me until you get back on your feet. I can help you, Lucy, but I can’t get to the portal alone. I need your help. Please.”

Lucy looked down at the ground, and seemed to struggle with the thought. Then, finally, she looked back up at Diamond Tiara. “Arhg! Fine! You would probably go on your own anyway! At least I won’t have to die alone. But the spiral tangent ration of that area is really big. It will take us a while to get there.”

Diamond Tiara smiled. “Thank you.”

“No. You can thank me when we don’t die. Assuming we don’t.”

“I’ll do one better. I’ll thank you when we get back to Ponyville.”

Diamond Tiara went back to where she had set the morlock cube and picked it up. The image of Yttros Xenotime faded, and diamond Tiara put the device in her pocket. As she did, she patted the other pocket where her dial was slowly clicking. She did not actually know if Yttros had ever finished her machine, or if it would truly freed her from this place- -but she held out hope that she would return and see her friends again.

The journey indeed was long. How long, though, it was impossible to tell. The more time Diamond Tiara spent in this place, the more she began to perceive the world as Lucy did. Distances became less relevant than imperceptible parameters that were first impenetrable but that quickly became intuitive; time seemed to flow strangely, doubling back or slowing as it saw fit. Those changes in themselves were almost maddening, and if Diamond Tiara had not been with a pony who had already experienced it and survived, she would have sworn that she was losing her mind.

The scenery began to change. The area that Lucy preferred was mostly dark forest and wide, flowing fields. As they passed into less well-traveled territory, though, that began to change. The light in the sky became increasingly red, and the trees became remarkably evenly spaced and eventually were reduced to leafless, blade-like shards, all planted at an identical diagonal angle from the sandy clay below. Even stranger, out here, there were roads. They were ancient and overgrown with various unfamiliar grasses, but they existed- -meaning that they had been built by somepony at some time.

Some of these grasses, as it turned out, were in fact edible. However long passed, Diamond Tiara eventually started to become weak from hunger. Lucy showed her which ones were edible, although Lucy’s definition of “edible” was loose at best. They tasted horrible, like sulfur and blood, but Diamond Tiara choked them down. However bad they were, they were not nearly as bad as the rotting meat that Pick and his family tended to dine upon.

They stopped at several points along the way. Lucy, it seemed, needed neither rest nor sleep, but Diamond Tiara did. Every night, though, she would attempt to access more of Yttros’s recordings. Most of the times, she was unsuccessful. Sometimes it worked, but the result was nothing more than her taking notes and describing details of the machine she was building. Most of it was so technical that no pony short of Starswirl the Bearded likely could have understood what she was referring to. Even Diamond Tiara, who had the most knowledge of morlock technology of any pony short of a morlock, had no idea what she was talking about.

On one night, though- -the forth, if Diamond Tiara was counting correctly- -she unlocked a very different file. She had been sitting around the fire, leaning against Lucy who was lying down, apparently resting even though she did not need to. The image opened as it had before, and Diamond Tiara felt the exhilaration of having succeeded once again.

Yttros appeared once again. Her armor had changed since the earlier recordings; now instead of being new and clean, parts had been replaced and repaired. Some had been improved, but it was clear that Yttros had been working on limited material.

Likewise, her face looked different. Diamond Tiara was startled to see that she was no longer a young mare. In her place stood an aged morlock, the signs of her difficult life readily apparent on her face.

“7842.91. Log entry…I don’t even know.” She took a long breath, and then sighed. “Once again, the firing tests have failed. Even after all this time, I still cannot get the parts…and I still cannot reach my home.” She hung on the last word, and then looked at Diamond Tiara- -or rather, her drone’s camera. “But that’s nothing new. I won’t stop. It may take a few years, but I will rebuild what I’ve lost and try again. Because apparently that’s all I can do anymore. That’s not what this log entry is for, though.” She paused, and seemed to hesitate about what she was going to say next.

“I have had time to think. So, so much time. And I never stop. There’s no ponies here, no one to talk to. All I can do is think. And sometimes I think about myself. And I realized something. This whole time, the only thing that has kept me going has been the thought of vengeance. To do to Celestia what she did to me. But now…now…

“I helped build the Underking’s Incarnation, but I did not design it. Yes. Were I to return, I could complete Him. I could let the Underking loose upon Equestria and have my vengeance…but there is no way I could control Him. The weapon would be entirely unregulated. The entire world would perish. The entire world, save me.

“And when I was young, that was enough. I wanted that. But now…it’s been fifty three years. Those White-Sphere soldiers who drove me here, they were just colts back then…but now they’re old stallions, or dead. Does anypony even remember what the burrowing Pegasi were, what we had accomplished? Does any of it even matter anymore?

“I have decided. I can’t…I can’t do it. I can’t be like the Demon-Queen. I just…I just can’t. The Underking must not rise. He was meant to protect us, but there’s nothing left to protect. We lost. And when I finally return, I vow to destroy our last weapon. We don’t need it anymore. We haven’t needed it in fifty three years.

“And…there is something else. I have a new plan. As a First Princess and member of the Yttros bloodline, I am an incomplete parthogen. Perhaps this was destiny, that I would be my people’s failsafe. I am one of very few who can produce foals without male intervention. My attempts here have been…catastrophic. As though nothing with a proper soul can be born in this place. But in Equestria, I could repopulate the morlock race. In ten generations, my daughters could once again fill our cities. I have to return. I have to- -I’m our last chance.”

She paused, and Diamond Tiara thought the hologram would end- -but then Yttros added a further statement. “But…I don’t know how much time I have. The voices are getting louder, and…the shadows. They’re getting closer. The ones with white eyes, I can fight them. I always have been able to…but now there’s something else.” She appeared to look Diamond Tiara in the eye. “There is a shadow out there with red eyes. Her…her I cannot fight. The mother to the others…and I cannot help but wonder why she is watching me. I can’t help but believe that my time is growing short.”

The hologram closed, and the cube began to ice. Diamond Tiara turned to Lucy.

“Red eyes,” she said. “Lucy, have you ever seen something like that?”

Lucy looked up at her. “Something with red eyes? No. No I haven’t. But if little Xeno was afraid of it, I don’t think I want to. Although…” She looked at where the hologram had been. “She’s not so little anymore. She’s as old as me. Diamond, do you really think she made it out?”

“Of course. She had to. She just had to…”

In time, the forest ran out completely and was replaced with desert. Rocky, mossy soil gave way to endless dark sand and sterile stone. Even then, it was unlike anything in Equestria. The dunes were taller, and the rocks strange and jagged. Even stranger, there was something beneath those dunes. Sometimes it would groan and roar, and when standing atop them, Diamond Tiara could sometimes see a dune shake off its sand in the distance and wander across the desert or dive beneath the sand. Lucy was very hesitant to climb those dunes.

The sand itself was not empty either. Occasionally, Diamond Tiara would spy segmented black tentacles rising from between the stones, reaching out toward her and Lucy. Lucy, though, was prepared. When a tentacle would rise, she would extend her magic and grasp it and then bite it free with her teeth. They released a profoundly chemical-smelling clear solution that apparently contained water. The desert was not hot- -in fact, it was generally quite cold- -but Diamond Tiara was still thirsty, so she drank the water that Lucy gave her. It tasted bad, but Diamond Tiara was rapidly growing used to eating unpleasant things.

This continued for a long time. Diamond Tiara would have lost hope, had it not been for the storms gathering overhead. A vast, swirling cloud with solid blue lightning occasionally piercing through its dark mist meant that they were getting closer.

At one point, they reached the top of a dune and Lucy stopped Diamond Tiara.

“See that? That right there?” Lucy pointed at a generic spot in the desert.

“No.”

“Of course not! Because you can’t! But that’s the border. Beyond there, it gets hairier than Luna’s unshorn fetlocks.”

“It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, we can face it together.”

Lucy smiled. “Yes. Yes we can. You watch my back…”

“And I’ll watch yours.”

Lucy nodded. “I’m going to scout ahead first, try to find a clear path. It’s easier for me because of my magic. You just wait right here and try not to make any sudden movements while I’m out there.”

“What will happen if I make a sudden movement?”

“You’ve seen the tentacles, right?”

“Considering I ate one, yeah.”

“They don’t like sudden movements. Or like them a whole lot. It’s a matter of perspective. So don’t do it. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.”

“Fine. Just don’t get yourself offed.”

Lucy smiled as she descended the far side of the hill. “I haven’t yet, I don’t think I will today.”

Lucy continued down the hill, and diamond Tiara sat down in the gravel. Several tentacles peeked out from beneath nearby rocks, as though watching her.

“What are you looking at?” she said, causing several of the smaller ones to retreat into whatever burrows they dwelt within.

While she was waiting, Diamond Tiara removed Yttros’s cube and began to adjust it again, mostly out of boredom. The last recording at fifty three years had been the last one she had found, and as far as she could tell, there were not any beyond that. Since then, manipulating the cube had become more of a habit.

After several minutes, an idea suddenly occurred to Diamond Tiara. Cautiously, she looked around. When she saw that nopony was around, she removed her dial from her jacket pocket. She was not entirely sure why, but she had never shown Lucy the dial or told her about it. There was no particular reason, at least consciously. Something told Diamond Tiara that showing Lucy the dial was a bad idea, and she had no reason not to listen.

Diamond Tiara opened the dial and reconfigured it. She had handled Pick’s dial before, but never terribly extensively. The infinite mechanical versatility was somewhat surprising. It was even more surprising that Pick had given her something this special. From what she had come to understand, the vast majority of morlocks used external machines. Technetium dials were something extremely rare, a pure distillation of morlock technological prowess reserved only for nobility or those with enough scientific prowess to construct their own.

The edges of the dial retracted to produce four leg-like clasps, and Diamond Tiara picked up the cube in her mouth. She inserted it into the waiting clasps, and the dial shifted in response to accommodate the newfound technology.

At first, nothing happened apart from wild clicking and whirring as the dial tried to interface. It seemed to know that what it had been combined with was morlock, but it was having trouble keeping up with the vastly more advanced technology that Yttros seemed to use. Then, suddenly, it stopped.

A hologram flashed out in front of Diamond Tiara. At first, there was nothing except static. Then it slowly resolved, and the image of Yttros stepped into view.

Diamond Tiara gasped and backed away in horror at what she saw. Yttros was no longer an old mare- -she was hardly even a mare at all. Her armor had grown increasingly extensive and ragged, only to be rebuilt again and again until it no longer seemed to make any logical sense. One of her technetium dials was missing, and another seemed to have hemorrhaged, covering the left side of her body with a wild overgrowth of machinery that seemed to replace most of the flesh below.

Yttros looked at the camera, and the mechanical pupil of her one remaining eye narrowed.

“I…it can’t be right,” she hissed, her voice cracking and distorted. “But is has to be. My chronometer reads that the year…the year is 11045.I didn’t…I didn’t feel the time pass. I didn’t notice. But now…now I understand. Oh how I understand.

“The voices, the voices became overwhelming,” she said in a sudden non-sequitor. “As such, I removed the offending organ. My sanity has been partially restored.” She tilted her head, and Diamond Tiara nearly vomited when she saw the hole where Yttros had hollowed out her own brain. “The voices stopped. I made them stop. But now…

“It’s too late for me. There’s nothing left. My body…I’ve been dead. Oh sweet gods, I’ve been DEAD FOR CENTURIES. I just didn’t notice. She…she did this. I don’t know why. I don’t know WHY!” She burst into tears, which rapidly decayed into laughter. “But it’s nearly complete. The irony. It’s nearly done, after all these years, after all this time- -but there’s nothing to send back! I don’t even remember why I built it, what I was trying to do in the first place. Just that I needed to finish the machine. If I did go back, what would the world even look like? Would I recognize it? Would it recognize me? I guess I’ll never know.”

“No, Yttros,” said Diamond Tiara. “Don’t say that…”

Yttros faced the camera. “It’s not that I could even use it anyway. The system, the failures…it all points to the same conclusion. I do not have the parts to finish the device. I require a core, a catalyst, and I neither have one nor can make it. And the machine…it requires two, but can only send one. And I am only one…the last one…

“But I will still finish. By the Underking I created, I WILL FINISH! I- -I wasted my whole life on this machine, dedicated every waking minute on its completion. Everything I could have been, could have done…that is lost to me. There is only this. My life’s work. And I must finish. I must complete it.”

She paused, and a tear rolled down from her eye. “This is…this is my last recording. When it is done, I will send my drone out to carry it away from this place. No one will ever find it. I know that. I’ve accepted it. But…if they do…then it means you are the one who has found me. I don’t know what you are. I encrypted this last message. It can only be played with a technetium dial. So you are either one of my kind- -a survivor, a clone, or a remnant like me- -or perhaps you are a pony from the new age who remembers us. I don’t know. But I’m sorry. Sorry I couldn’t be there for my people. Sorry I failed. But…” She looked directly at Diamond Tiara. “Heed my warning. I complete my final task with the knowledge that it will never be used- -and I pray that you consider the consequences of its activation, and know that there was more to its design than you could ever realize. More than I ever knew, until now. May the Underking have mercy on your soul.”

The hologram returned to static, and continued that way for several minutes. Yttros was gone.

“Diamond Tiara?” called Lucy from the other side of the hill. Diamond Tiara sat up with a start and fumbled to separate the cube from the dial. She slid the dial into her pocket just as Lucy crested the hill. “Oh,” said Lucy. “Still trying with the cube? Did you find anything new?”

“No,” lied Diamond Tiara. “Nothing.”

“Oh. Well, hey, you’ll never guess what grabbed my leg down there. Also, I found a good path. If we take that hill over there, it’s a half-day walk to the Structure.”

“Structure?”

“You’ll see. Hopefully. We’re almost there.”

Lucy lead Diamond Tiara down the hill, toward what Diamond Tiara was coming to increasingly envision as a vast spiral pit in the ground. As their elevation decreased, the air seemed to change. It began to feel as though it were charged with electricity, and smelled strongly of ozone. At the same time, it started to feel thicker and somehow heavier- -and that combination of factors made Diamond Tiara increasingly reluctant to continue.

Then, finally, the area leveled into a broad plane. “This is it,” said Lucy as she walked across the sand. “This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to it. There are just some places we were not meant to go. This is one of those places.”

Diamond Tiara looked out across the desert. The sand swirled around them, obscuring the area in front of them. As Lucy led her forward, though, the shape of a structure began to resolve from the dust. Then, as they got close enough for it to be seen clearly, Diamond Tiara gasped.

“No,” she said. “It can’t be…”

Except that it was. The architecture was different, but it was all still there. The structure was a massive stone fort, crooked and half-buried in the sand that had surrounded it for millennia. It was smaller than Diamond Tiara remembered it, because here, the additions had never been added. There had been no will to so. It remained as it must have been when it had first been constructed in a distant era lost to history.

“What is it?” said Lucy.

“This…this is my home,” said Diamond Tiara.

“It can’t be. You’ve never been here before.”

“Yes I have! In my world!” She looked around. The mountains in the distance were not quite the same; they were taller and more jagged here, but they were still the same mountains. “This…this is where I met Diamond Pick. Where the worms first got into my head. It’s…it’s my home.”

“No. It isn’t. It is…a reflection. Just an image. You can’t trust it. Look up, at the sky.”

Diamond Tiara did. The sky was perfectly clear, but only in a circle, a vast eye centered over the highest towers of the structure. Beyond that, a seemingly infinite vortex of intense lightning and clouds buzzed through the air, spewing out material in broad spirals throughout the desert.

“This is an area where space is thin,” explained Lucy. “Things can fall through easily, or they can come through easily.”

“That must be why Yttros built it here.”

“Or the effect of her activities. This is unholy, Diamond Tiara. I don’t like it.”

“It’s our only chance, Lucy. If you want to go back, you can. I can take it from here.”

“I’m not going back. I’ve come this far. I’m not leaving. Regardless of the outcome.”

“Right,” said Diamond Tiara, nodding. She took a deep breath, and continued through the storm toward the structure.

As they drew closer, the land began to change. All around them stood the remnants of trees and plants. Many of them were the netlike skeletons of chollas, hundreds of times larger than any that grew in the real world. All of them were stripped of their flesh and mostly knocked over. Nothing was alive, and Diamond Tiara could not hear their voices. She could not help but be reminded of some kind of a battle; the way the trunks and dried cactus husks stood, it was as though they had been laying siege to the castle before them. Except, unlike in Equestria, here they had been vanquished before they ever even reached the gate.

The dust became increasingly thick, and both Lucy and Diamond Tiara were forced to don masks as they made their way toward the castle door. When they finally made it through, Lucy charged her horn and slammed the oversized door closed. The pair were immediately shrouded in darkness until Lucy lit her horn.

“Did you see them?” she asked, pulling off her mask and shaking the sand out.

“See what?” Diamond Tiara pulled down the cloth that was covering her muzzle.

“Then you didn’t. Good. Let’s hope we don’t have to go back that way.” Lucy looked around at the vacuous stone room that surrounded them. “Wow. Is it this big in Equestria too?”

“No,” said Diamond Tiara, crossing the cracked and dusty stone tiles that led deeper into the ruin. “In my version, it kept getting built up every few decades. You can’t even really tell where the old fort used to be, except in the middle. It’s all buried now.”

“Fort?”

“Yeah. Apparently, it used to be a base of operations for Nightmare Moon’s troops.” Diamond Tiara paused, and them muttered to herself. “If the Red-Sphere is Celestia, then the White-Sphere…”

“You are not reassuring me. Reassure me, Diamond Tiara.”

“It’s not that bad. But…I don’t think it’s true.”

“What do you mean ‘not true’? So there weren’t really hundreds of soldiers of darkness wandering around doing all sorts of evil things in here?”

“Oh no, there were. But I don’t think the fort was built that late. I’ve overseen some additions on it myself. For reasons. Some of the stuff we hit when digging…it’s older. That’s what I’m trying to say. I don’t know what it was before then, but something was definitely there a long, long time before Nightmare Moon ever got there.”

“And now we’re here. Great.”

Now, Diamond Tiara took the lead. Lucy followed behind her, casting pale green light that caused Diamond Tiara to cast a long and irregular shadow down the stone corridors. Even with Lucy’s light at full, though, the corners of the hallways remained darkened. Diamond Tiara noticed that they seemed to be built to a much larger scale than she was accustomed to, but that was not entirely unexpected. The parts of the fort she was accustomed to were over a thousand years old. Many had been lost, replaced, or disassembled. This area was similar in terms of architectural theme- -which was, apparently, ‘crypt’- -but otherwise new to her.

“I don’t like this,” said Lucy.

“Well, we haven’t seen any jellenheimers yet,” said Diamond Tiara, peeking past one of the stone arches into one of the pitch-black rooms beyond. “That’s a good thing.”

“No, no its not. Everything here is infested…but this place isn’t. There’s nothing here. No sound, no life. It’s a dead place.”

“I know,” said Diamond Tiara, suddenly realizing that Lucy was right. “And to think…Yttros must have spent her whole life in here.”

“Until she finally escaped,” added Lucy.

“Yeah. When she finally went back to Equestria.”

“That must have been a huge relief. I don’t like this place.” Lucy turned her head, causing her light to shift. “I can’t believe you lived here.”

“Again, it looks different. I’ll show it to you when we get back.”

“No thank you. But hey, if you know the layout, then which way- -”

Before Lucy could finish her sentence, something suddenly ignited with blue light far down the long hallway. Diamond Tiara cried out and tried to jump out of the way, but the surge of light was too fast. It struck her with tangible force, and she felt space ripple. She immediately felt terribly nauseous and collapsed to the ground.

Then the sensation faded, and Diamond Tiara stood up. Lucy did the same behind her, her horn momentarily deactivated by the shock of whatever had hit them. The world seemed to swim, but resolved- -into something very different than it had been.

The hall was now reasonably well lit by high sconces that produced the cold blue-white glow of the artificial crystals they contained. The stonework was now no longer dusty and crumbling, but instead fresh and new, draped with tapestries and banners. All of them were in shades of black and dark blue, covered in elaborate, early versions of the insignias that Diamond Tiara had learned as a filly to associate with Nightmare Night.

“No way,” muttered Lucy, pressing against Diamond Tiara’s side. “This…this is…”

“What it must have looked like,” said Diamond Tiara, looking around the hall. “Back then, a thousand years ago.”

The scenery changed again. Air near the walls seemed to condense and gain solidity, and then numerous ghosts appeared. They were not like the ghosts that Diamond Tiara had seen before, though. They were still partially translucent, and partly grayed, but only slightly. Otherwise, they looked almost completely solid, complete with facial features and detailed Nightmare-Era armor.

Lucy and Diamond Tiara were suddenly surrounded by the images of Nightmare Moon’s followers. All around them were menacing looking bat stallions and seductive bat mares walking amongst sallow, robe and hood clad unicorns. Strangely, though, despite being almost complete, the ghosts still behaved as ghosts. Not one of them spoke, and none of them seemed to notice the two out-of-place mares standing in the middle of their castle.

“Damn,” said Diamond Tiara. “Silver Spoon would love this.”

Then, all at once, another wave hit and space suddenly became lighter. The trappings of the hallway vanished. The ghosts collapsed, in their place burst forth with skeletons. Lacking any source of animation, the bones clattered to the floor, scattering across the stone at Diamond Tiara’s feet.

“Oh BUCK!” cried Lucy, holding Diamond Tiara tightly. “Those- -those weren’t there before! How did- -how did they- -”

“It’s just illusions,” said Diamond Tiara, kicking the smashed-in remnants of a bat mare’s skull out of her way. “Just echoes. It isn’t even real.”

“But ghosts- -they’re supposed to be hollow! They don’t- -they don’t work like that!”

“I don’t think this place follows the normal rules. It’s no wonder Yttros went insane. But I think it means we’re close.”

Diamond Tiara continued on, pressing her way through the collapsing ruin. Lucy followed her, providing light but jumping at the shadows of her own creation. Diamond Tiara had not known Lucy long, but she had never seen her act quite like this before. Lucy’s nervousness only made Diamond Tiara more frightened- -and that fear made her stronger. This time, she was supposed to be the strong one. Her resolve was as unwavering as the slow ticking she felt against her breast.

In time, they ascended higher into the fortress into the complicated walls and ramparts above. Through the empty holes of windows, more light filtered in from the suns floating high above the eye of the eternal storm overhead.

“What exactly are we looking for?” asked Lucy.

“I don’t know,” said Diamond Tiara. “Knowing morlocks, it will probably be big and make a lot of machine sounds. But I don’t know, I guess it could be tiny too. It will definitely be made out of metal.”

“This place is larger than Celestia’s rump. How are we going to find it?”

“I’m guessing she put it in the middle. That’s what I would do. There.” Diamond Tiara pointed at the central tower. “That structure is kind of hollow, and it goes pretty deep. I’m betting she put it over there.”

“Can we even get there from here?”

“I think so.” Diamond Tiara looked down the long, wide hallway before them. “Yes. Yeah, if we take where the kitchen used to be…”

As Diamond Taira stopped to consider the path she needed to take, the air suddenly seemed to thicken. Now that she knew what was coming, Diamond Tiara dropped to the floor and held hear breath. As expected, another wave of blue light shot up from the long hallway before them and quickly swept through the air.

The nausea hit, and then passed. This time, Diamond Tiara could already sense the change from the smell. Whereas the ancient fort usually smelled like old stone and dry wood, now it smelled strongly of camphor and antiseptic.

Slowly, Diamond Tiara raised her head and saw that the long hallway was now clean and white, lit with bright sterile sunlight through the large glass windows on either side. The floor and walls had been pained and coated, and the emptiness had been filled with simple beds.

The air condensed, and ponies formed. Numerous mares seemed to emerge from the air, walking, some pushing small carts filled with surgical instruments and bottles of medication. All of them were dressed in long, starched white robes and habits. Diamond Tiara realized that they were nuns.

One of them slowly pushed a cart toward Diamond Tiara, and seemed to turn and smile. That was when Diamond Tiara realized that their faces were beautiful, but wrong. For a moment she almost panicked, until she realized that they were wearing porcelain masks with identical faces painted onto them.

“What…what is this?” squeaked Lucy.

“This is…this must be where the south ward used to be…”

“Ward?”

Diamond Tiara nodded. “About…about sixty years ago, this used to be a sanitarium for glanders patients. It was run by some weird order of nuns, Sisters of the Veil or something. This must be them.”

“Why does this keep getting worse?”

“It’s not worse. They’re just nuns.”

“No, they’re ghost nuns in creepy masks. I hallucinate this stuff, and it’s not FUN. And they’re not going AWAY.”

“Yeah, but they’re not IN the way. We can just walk past them.”

“But I don’t…I don’t want to.” Despite that statement, Lucy stood up and followed Diamond Tiara down the center of the hallway. As they did, Diamond Tiara tried not to look at the nuns, or their patients- -but it was inevitable. Antibiotics had rendered glanders largely eradicated in the latter half of the tenth century, but Diamond Tiara had still seen pictures in books. It did not compare to real life.

The ponies that lay in beds were largely bandaged, their faces and legs covered in gauze, some of it flattened in areas where there should have been noses and ears. A few of them were still exposed, with the nuns slowly changing the bandages or dabbing at the wounds with useless medicines as the patients’ bodies slowly rotted away from infection.

The nuns seemed to make it worse. They all looked the same, all with the same sculpted smile, the same glaring and unblinking eyes. Diamond Tiara was not sure why they wore the masks, and she did not want to know. Even though the nuns had been relatively recent historically, very little record remained concerning them or what they did. From what few records remained, though, Diamond Tiara had realized that they were one of the more malicious things that had dwelt in her home throughout its long and storied history.

What made it worse was that unlike the ghostly images of Nightmare Moon’s soldiers, the nuns seemed to be at least vaguely aware of Diamond Tiara’s presence. They turned, slowly, watching her pass.

Diamond Tiara watched them, and momentarally took her eyes off of the path ahead of her. Almost as soon as she did, Lucy cried out.

“Diamond Tiara! Watch out!”

Diamond Tiara looked toward Lucy, only to see a ghostly shape barreling toward her. Silently, it leapt up- -and connected. Diamond Tiara almost screamed when she realized that it had weight and mass, or at least seemed to. As she looked down at the figure, though, her breath caught in her throat. The figure that was holding her tightly was a morlock.

At first, Diamond Tiara thought that it was Yttros, somehow. Almost immediately, though, she recognized this morlock even though they had never met. She looked almost identical to Pick.

The morlock stared directly into Diamond Tiara’s eyes, and Diamond Tiara saw that she was panicked, terrified beyond belief. She had been stripped of her armor, and it had been replaced with an old-style hospital gown. Fresh surgical scars dotted her body, and one now-blind eye was heavily blackened.

“Iee’hii,” she whispered.

“I don’t- -I don’t understand!”

The morlock looked behind her, and then disengaged from Diamond Tiara, running down the hall as the image faded. This time, no bones fell from the ghosts, especially the morlock- -because, as Diamond Tiara already knew, she had survived. The only thing that remained were the beds, now rusting and covered in badly-stained, moth-eaten blankets.

“That was- -that was one of THEM,” said Lucy. “Was that little Xeno?”

“No,” said Diamond Tiara. “I think…I think that was Pick’s grandmother.”

“What did she say?”

“It…it doesn’t translate literally.” That, of course, was a lie. It translated directly and unambiguously to “the red eyes”. With the inflection tone, it had been meant as a warning- -but beyond that, Diamond Tiara was not sure what she meant.

“I think…I think we’re almost there,” said Lucy. “Do you want to finish this?”

“More than anything.”

“Then let’s do this. I’m so tired of this place. The last thing I want to do is stay here a minute longer than I have to.”

Diamond Tiara nodded, and they continued on their way.

The structure of the central tower was, in fact, different than it was in the real world. In Equestria, it consisted mostly of a segmented group of rooms with curving walls, complete with tall spiral staircases that led to the ramparts overhead. In this world, however, it had been completely hollowed.

When Diamond Tiara finally managed to find her way to it, she immediately knew that it was the correct location. There were no lights, but even from the smell and sound alone Diamond Tiara could tell. It smelled like metal and technetium, and there was a perpetual hum of machinery. This was the right place.

The room was initially dark, but when Diamond Tiara entered, the cadence of the machinery changed in response to her presence, whirring to life from an indeterminate slumber. The metal grates that covered the floor shook and vibrated, and high above her the lights flashed on one by one, revealing the room in which Diamond Tiara and Lucy now stood.

The center of the ancient fortress had once been a hollow tube, but was now filled with extensive morlock machinery. Millennia of work stretched out before Diamond Tiara, a mixture of endless cogs and conduits and synthetic crystal. It occupied nearly all the space it was given, clinging to and penetrating the stone walls of its housing with long tubes and channels that no doubt led to far deeper remnants. It’s magnitude alone was terrifying, but at the same time stunning.

“She…she built this,” said Lucy. “All alone…”

“She did,” said Diamond Tiara.

“It makes me feel…bad. All this time, and I’ve barely been able to survive…and she made THIS.”

“You’re not a morlock. Have you ever met a morlock mare? They are persistent little freaks.”

Diamond looked around at the machinery, trying to determine exactly how it was meant to operate. Finding it, she knew, was only part of the battle. Even the lesser part. Morlock technology was meant to be intuitive- -for morlocks. Diamond Tiara had a reasonable grasp of the basics, but something of this extent was far more complex than anything she was familiar with. She doubted that even modern morlocks could even come close to building even a fraction of this technology- -which only made it even more impressive that a single ancient morlock had built it in a single if technologically enhanced lifetime.

As Diamond Tiara approached the center of the room, the machine suddenly shifted. Part of the mass of gears and mechanisms began to reconfigure themselves, drawing out a form from what should have been solid material, assembling itself before them.

Lucy charged her horn, preparing to defend herself and Diamond Tiara from whatever it might be. The mass of machinery seemed to ignore her stance, and instead fully separated itself from its source, resolving itself into a single shape.

“Stand back, Diamond Tiara!” said Lucy, pushing Diamond Tiara away.

“Wait!” Diamond Tiara pushed back Lucy, and looked closer at the now pony-shaped machine standing before them. She gasped when she realized what it was. Imbedded in the mass of technetium and scales of armor was the remnants of a dry, white morlock skull- -and in its chest, a still ticking technetium dial.

“Celestia no,” whispered Diamond Tiara. “It…you didn’t…” She stepped toward the form, and its mechanical eye traced her path.

“What is that thing?” said Lucy. “Diamond Tiara…tell me what that is!”

Diamond Tiara looked up into the remains of a morlock standing before her. “Xenotime…is that you?”

The dial in the construct’s chest shifted, and it released a series of drone-programming ticks, indicating that it was awaiting orders.

“That can’t be her,” said Lucy, her voice accelerating from the realization. “She…she did it! She got back to Equestria, and she had a family, and she was okay! She didn’t- -she didn’t- -”

“She turned herself into a drone,” said Diamond Tiara, flatly. “She became part of the machine.”

“But you said she was okay!”

“I didn’t know if she made it out or not!” snapped Diamond Tiara. She turned back to Yttros’s remains. “I knew she was persistent, but this…she used herself to complete it. That must be what she meant…”

Lucy stepped forward. “Xeno? Is that…is that you? Are you in there?”

“She can’t hear you. There’s nothing left. Nothing except her dial. She’s no different than one of the ghosts now.” Diamond Tiara turned to Xenotime. “You’re supposed to be an interface, I’m guessing?”

Xenotime nodded solemnly.

“The machine. You finished it. Does it work?”

What was left of Xenotime did not respond. For a moment, Diamond Tiara wondered if she had asked too much, exceeding the capacity of what was essentially just a dial ticking down a final program. Then, responding silently to Diamond Tiara’s request.

The drone led Diamond Tiara and Lucy through the machine, toward its center. Although the machine was large, the main operating center seemed to be relatively low, a podium that stood with a clear view of the surrounding walls. In it, connected to numerous dusty and ancient tubes and conduits was what appeared to be a kind of harness, like the sort of device that might be used to restrain a resistant patient in a mental ward.

Xenotime’s drone stopped at the base, and seemed to gesture toward the chair.

“This is it,” said Diamond Tiara. She climbed the remaining several steps toward the device and turned back. Lucy was behind her, but had paused at the base of the stairs, her large blue eyes focused completely on the harness.

“There’s only one,” she said. “Diamond Tiara, there’s only one.”

“Lucy…”

Lucy looked up at Diamond Tiara. “You knew, didn’t you?”

Diamond Tiara winced, and felt her heart breaking. She had known, but had hoped that Yttros had been wrong, that there was a way to get past it, a loophole of some kind, a way to make it work. She had wished as hard as she could that she would not have to explain the truth.

“While you were checking the path…I found one last recording,” admitted Diamond Tiara. “Yttros died completing this machine…but she could never use it. She was too far gone by the time she finished.” Diamond Tiara looked up at what was left of Yttros, and the drone stared back blankly with no emotional recognitions of the trials that its former self must have gone through. “But it’s more than that. From what she said…I think the machine needs two ponies to work, but only one can go back.”

“Only one?”

Diamond Tiara nodded.

“Oh,” said Lucy. “Oh. I see. I understand, Diamond Tiara.” She looked down at the ground. “I get it.”

Diamond Tiara stared at Lucy for a moment, and then at the machine. It hurt so much, more than any of the headaches or injuries she had suffered during her ordeal- -but she turned back to Lucy. “Well?” she said.

“Well what?”

“Are you going to get in or not?”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “M…me?”

“Well I’m certainly not talking to the tech-zombie.”

“But if I go, you’ll be trapped here. What about your friends? Your coltfriend?”

Diamond Tiara shook her head. “I’ll be fine. This place isn’t that hard to deal with, I’ll get the hang of it. I’ll find another way back. I’m Diamond Dazzle Tiara for buck’s sake.” She smiled. “I’ll probably be out in a week, a month tops.”

“Diamond- -”

“Besides, it’s only fair. You’ve already spent so much time here. You deserve it. To go home. Fluttershy needs you. I’m just sorry I won’t be there to help you, but if you find my best friend, Silver Spoon, she’ll do what she can.”

“But I can’t- -”

“Just go!”

Lucy took a step back, surprised by Diamond Tiara’s sudden exclamation, and then nodded. She climbed the stairs and approached the harness. Diamond Tiara looked away. She felt terrible; she wanted to be the one to return more than anything, and she knew that she SHOULD have been shoving Lucy out of the way to get it. But Lucy was her friend, and this was the right thing to do.

Before Lucy reached the machine, though, she paused. She seemed to consider for a moment, and then groaned angrily. “I can’t,” she said. “I just can’t.”

“You have to,” said Diamond Tiara.

“How can I? I can’t leave you here, Diamond. I just can’t.”

“Yes you can. And you are going to.”

“But why? I want to go…but at the same time I don’t know if I can.” Lucy pointed back toward the drone. “I think…I think I’m more like her than I’m like you. This place…I’m more this place than I am me. I don’t know if there’s enough left to send back.”

“There is. You’re a good friend, Lucy. You’re caring and selfless to the point of idiocy.”

“But I’m old. I burnt out my whole life here…and you have your whole life ahead of you. I watched mine vanish, I saw what I became, and I- -I just can’t. I can’t do that to you. I can’t let you become me.” Lucy stepped back from the machine. “I’m not going. I’m just…not. Either you take it, or we both walk right back out of here. There’s just no way.”

“You stubborn mule! Get in that chair and get out of my dimension before I MAKE YOU!”

“It’s not yours,” said Lucy. “If anything, it’s mine. And I know I’m not your mother…but I am A mother. Do you think I would be able to look at my own daughter knowing I did this to you? I guess it’s whatever’s lest of my maternal instinct. Just go, Diamond. Just go.”

Lucy leaned forward and kissed Diamond Tiara on the lips. She then hugged her, and slowly walked down the stairs to stand next to Xenotime. “It’s really your choice,” she said. “Take the trip, go home, or walk back down those stairs. I won’t stop you. But we lose everything- -everything I’ve done, everything WE’VE done, if you waste this chance.”

Diamond Tiara looked down at Lucy, and felt herself crying. She wiped away her tears, and then finally nodded. She turned toward the harness and walked toward it. Her hooves felt heavy, as though she was just watching herself march toward the mass of metal and sensors. The feeling persisted as she lowered herself into it, and felt the device automatically lock around her torso and legs. The machinery began to whirr, retracting the platform from beneath her and moving her into firing position.

“I’ll tell Fluttershy about you. I’ll tell her everything!” promised Diamond Tiara. “And I’ll try to get you back. I’ll do everything I can!”

Lucy just smiled. “Just…have a good life.”

Diamond Tiara leaned back in the machine, waiting for it to charge- -when suddenly she noticed something. From her vantage point, she was able to see the opening of the door that they had just come through. It was an arch-shaped hole in the stone blocks that made up the majority of the castle, and like the rest of the area the stone was all identical- -except for the stone directly over the door. Somepony had hastily written something there in large, light-colored letters. It read “There Are Four Princesses”.

For a moment, Diamond Tiara just wondered how that had gotten there and who had written it- -but then her blood ran cold.

“Lucy,” she said, looking down at the yellow pony.

“Yes?”

“I just thought of something. Do you remember, back when I told you about the alicorns?”

“Of course. I remember lots of things.”

“I asked you if you had ever seen them, and you said no. You said that you only knew the four Princesses.” Lucy continued to look up, confused as to the significance of what Diamond Tiara was saying. “But…you’ve been here for thirty years. Twilight only became a Princess eight years ago.” Diamond Tiara felt herself breathing quickly. “How could you have known that?”

Diamond Tiara continued to look down at Lucy, desperately expecting an answer, some logical story that allowed that to make sense. Instead, Lucy remained silent- -and then smiled. The smile stretched much farther than a normal Pony’s face would have allowed, and Lucy’s lips parted to reveal a number of viciously pointed teeth.

“L- -Lucy?”

“I love it when they wait until the very last moment to get the hints.”

Lucy’s body shifted. She seemed to swell, and her skin burst open from within, rotting away and corrupting as it fell from her body. As her face was torn apart, a hoof reached through her open, screaming mouth and a new pony pulled itself from the shell.

As the remains of Lucy and her armored clothing fell to the metal grate below, Diamond Tiara watched as the new mare brushed herself off. Diamond Tiara was not sure what she was seeing. The new pony looked like Lucy, at least in some sense, although she was taller, much like the tall unicorns of Canterlot- -even though she was ostentatiously an earth pony. Her long red hair seemed to have grown far longer and silkier, but it was still styled in the same way that Lucy’s had been. In fact, the new pony looked almost identical to Lucy, although immensely more youthful and beautiful- -save for her eyes. Where Lucy had possessed beautiful, kind blue eyes, this pony- -this creature- -had glaring red, pupilless eyes, like those of an albino rodent.

“Lucy…WHAT DID YOU DO TO LUCY?”

The pony feigned being hurt. “But, Diamond Tiara,” she said. “I AM Lucy. Don’t you recognize me?” She smiled in a way that was supposed to look adorable, and would have had it not been for the several forked tongues that emerged from between her teeth.

“What…what are you?”

Lucy smiled wider. “I am the most beautiful pony.” She turned to the area behind her, and the walls vanished, revealing the remainder of the machine. Diamond Tiara gaped, not realizing how she had never seen it before. Instead of blank walls, the stone was instead covered in thousands of complicated symbols. Even as strange as that was, it was what was spaced evenly amongst those symbols that was truly terrifying. There, crucified to the structures built into the wall, were unicorn mares. Some of them even still had parts of their masks still attached, and they looked up at Diamond Tiara, barely registering that she was even there through their torment.

The crucified ponies were overgrown with what appeared to be tendrils of some enormous fungus. It covered them, writhing and penetrating their bodies and emerging from their gutted bellies. Diamond Tiara could hear at least one of them weeping quietly.

The tendrils of mold reached out toward Yttros’s machine, growing into and merging with it, producing its own structures as the organic interfaced with the technological. Even part of Diamond Tiara’s harness contained them, and she felt them slowly crawling over her body, seeking an area of her coat where they could enter her.

Higher above the unicorns, Diamond Tiara became aware of several enormous and seemingly out-of-place stained glass windows, and her eyes widened when she recognized them.

“It- -it’s YOU,” she said.

Lucy suppressed a laugh. “It has ALWAYS been me.” She walked along the circular platform, passing Xenotime, who appeared to be observing the world with an identical level of distdain as she had before. Lucy did not really look up at Diamond Tiara, but her cutie mark- -now wide, narrow-pupiled eye- -shifted in its socket, looking up at Diamond Tiara as its owner moved. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, my little Diamond Tiara,” she said. “Ever since I saw you, I knew you were something special. Admittedly, you are…unattractive. I normally prefer white unicorns, but I made an exception for you.” She sighed. “Oh, but you have no idea how hard it was for me to resist going all out on your little virgin body. Well…” she giggled. “Formerly virgin body, I mean.”

“Lucy, why? Why are you doing this? I know you’re still in there- -”

Lucy’s expression hardened. “Are you really that thick? Do you really think that there ever was a ‘Lucy’? That any of this is even real?”

“But…but she was my friend. You were my friend!”

“Aww, isn’t that adorable.” She turned toward Xenotime. “Well, little Xeno, I think I’ve waited long enough. Start the machine.”

Xenotime looked at Lucy, not seeming to recognize any difference in her at all. Then she nodded, and put her hoof against the machinery. It shifted, consuming her body until there was nothing left save for her dial.

“I haven’t actually been waiting that long,” said Lucy. “I mean, comparatively. Three thousand years for the morlock to build my machine for me, and then another two thousand to finally get the parts.” She looked over her shoulder at the mares hanging from the wall. “And even that wasn’t enough.”

“The nuns. Those are the nuns.”

“Yes. My nuns. My beautiful priestesses, who swore their bodies and souls to me for my own personal use. But even they were FAILURES!” The nuns recoiled as she screamed at them. “The fools attempted to summon me into your world. They thought they could control ME, the ONE TRUE GODDESS OF EQUESTRIA!” Lucy’s anger suddenly faded, and she smiled. “Of course, that’s not where they failed. Their magic powers the machine, but they aren’t enough. Not nearly enough.”

“You still need a catalyst.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “See, this is why I’m glad I picked you. You’re actually helpful. And I really did enjoy spending time with you, Ms. Tiara. You really are a dear friend to me.” Lucy’s body suddenly seemed to shift, and for a moment Diamond Tiara was looking at a festering corpse instead of a beautiful mare. As she stepped back toward Diamond Tiara, the shift ended as quickly as it had come. Once again, Diamond Tiara was overwhelmed with the smell of carnations- -but it was different. As though they had been left to rot underwater for a long, long time.

“Please forgive my sarcasm, though. You actually weren’t the first one I attempted. Of course, we both know how it turned out for poor Pith Helmut.”

“Pith…you didn’t- -” Diamond Tiara suddenly shivered, remembering a room in her summer home that she had only ever been to once. A room that contained a skeleton, a magic circle, and an idol that she had only ever willed herself to see once.

“I did. Unfortunately, he was too smart for his own good. He managed to control my power at the cost of his own mind and body. Of course, it’s because of his actions that I found you, my little squishy Diamond.”

“YOU were the one who did this to me!” shouted Diamond Tiara. “It wasn’t the worms- -YOU brought me here! YOU DID THIS!”

Lucy smirked, as though proud of herself. “Now she finally figures it out.”

“It was all you, from the start!”

“From the moment you approached my idol, your soul belonged to me and me alone.”

“And you’re- -you were grooming me the whole time, trying to get me into this machine!” Diamond Tiara looked up at the towering mass above her, then at Lucy, who seemed to be waiting, savoring every moment of Diamond Tiara realizing her betrayal. “You…you want to get off this world! You’re using me as a catalyst to get to Equestria!”

At this, Lucy burst out laughing. “You really are thick!” she said. She glared up at Diamond Tiara with her red, blank eyes- -eyes that Diamond Tiara had seen more than once before. “Firstly, I’m not trapped on this world. I can leave anytime I want to. I BUILT this world. Everything here, I constructed it. Even this machine. It was my divine inspiration that caused Xenotime to finish it. This entire world is the smallest fragment of my true being.

“And, second, I’ve already conquered Equestria. I WON. When a pony dies, where do they go? They go to ME for their eternal torment. The righteous, the sinners, I don’t care. They all belong to ME.” She smiled, showing the fact that she had several enormous fangs. “Besides…when my daughter finally realized her true potential, Equestria will fall into an eternal era of torment and debauchery. And oh, how I do so love debauchery. But you already know that.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I believe you already know that.”

“The alicorns!”

Lucy nodded gleefully. “Oh yes. You are a good choice. A mind complicated enough to actually comprehend what I’m doing, but simple enough to be manipulated perfectly every single time. I love you, Diamond Tiara. I want to have your pony babies.”

“Buck you!”

“Well…” Lucy suddenly appeared inches from Diamond Tiara’s face, her unblinking red eyes staring directly into Diamond Tiara’s eyes and her carnation order chokingly thick. “If you insist…”

Before Diamond Tiara could stop her, Lucy pressed their lips together and shoved her numerous lounges into Diamond Tiara’s throat. Diamond Tiara choked and coughed, her mind immediately panicking. Enraged, she bit down, and one of the tounges burst open, filling Diamond Tiara’s mouth with an acidic, foul fluid.

Lucy pulled herself away, and Diamond Tiara chocked and vomited.

“Oh, YES!” cried Lucy, pushing her body against Diamond Tiara’s. “Hurt me Diamond, hurt me!”

Diamond Tiara tried to move herself away, but she was held immobile by the harness. Only her right hoof had some give, and it was not very much.

Fortunately, Lucy did not persist any farther and pulled herself away. In a flash, she was once again down on the platform below. “Oh Diamond…I do so wish I could keep you. Such fire, such hatred…and such a fat little pig body. I think we would have so much fun. But...” she shrugged. “You’re probably not going to survive, this, so…”

“You won’t succeed,” said Diamond Tiara, spitting the remaining contents of her mouth at Lucy. “There’s millions of alicorns, and only one of you. If you even get there- -”

“I probably could not care less about the alicorns.”

Diamond Tiara blinked. “But you just said that’s what you wanted. The alicorn souls- -”

“Don’t be an idiot. Alicorns don’t have souls. They literally don’t. Becoming an alicorn is the single most destructive process a mortal can undergo. It destroys the one truly immortal part of them. In that sense, I suppose, alicorns are actually really just the most perfect possible mortals.” Lucy paused, amused by that thought. “But that means they are useless to an immortal like me. I should be able to exterminate them within a matter of seconds. No, it’s not them I want. It’s Dagon.”

“The machine in the sky…”

“The last of its kind. You’ve seen it. I know you have. I want THAT. I want it inside me. I want it so bad…and you are going to help me get it.” Then, with a smirk, she added. “Of course…assuming any of this is real.”

“What do you mean by that?” snapped Diamond Tiara.

“Oh, come on. You’ve surely realized that you are quite insane. All of this? Guess what? It isn’t real. None of it. It never was. Not me, not this world, not even the alicorns. It’s all a hallucination. It always has been. Which puts you in a really special situation.” Lucy pointed at the machine. “Who knows? Maybe this device will cure you. Maybe you’ll wake up in the arms of your loved ones…or…maybe it will pull you so far down the rabbit hole you’ll never find your way out.”

“And if this is real?”

“Then the alicorn implants in your body and my gift of dimensional flux will tear through Equestria and rip a hole clear into Dagon’s realm…and I win. Again. But that does, in effect, the same thing. Once every part of you is gone, your disease will be cured.”

Diamond Tiara struggled against the harness that was holding her, but found that she could not escape. Lucy crossed the platform to where Yttros’s dial sat. “Lucy,” pleaded Diamond Tiara. “Please. Don’t do this! I know you’re still in there, somewhere. I’m your friend! I can help you!”

“Yes,” said Lucy, smiling up at Diamond Tiara. “Yes you can.”

She drew back her hoof and slammed it into the dial, shattering it. With the last fragment of Yttros Xenotime destroyed, there was no longer any force left to stop the machine from activating. The crucified unicorns screamed in agony as their innards began to escape from their chests and their horns were forced to glow with an identical crimson light. The machine began to hum louder and move, awakening after millennia of slumber.

The harness tightened, and Diamond Tiara cried out as several large needles rammed into her spine. Red light surrounded her, lifting her into the air. The supports that held her chair in place atomized as she was lifted upward in the column of the machine. High above, the pylons and spires of the machine began to spark with red-tinted lightning. Space began to shift.

Then came the pain. It was worse than anything Diamond Tiara had ever experienced, and worse than anything she had even thought was possible. She screamed as the energy of the machine flowed through her and her body was spread thin across three separate realities.

As the waves of agony partially abated, Diamond Tiara was able to open her eyes. Through the tears, she saw the white-eyed shadows clinging to the walls, watching her from the walls beyond, thinking whatever silent thoughts they had always thought. Perhaps they were wondering why Diamond Tiara had not accepted their warnings.

Then Diamond Tiara looked up and gasped. The machine was now fully charged, and where there had once been a ceiling, there was now a swirling mass of air, a vortex of energy rising up and around Diamond Tiara. The stone ceiling of the castle was torn apart by the vortex, shattering and separating into infinite pieces of material that burnt away to ash as they swirled about.

There was a flash, and Diamond Tiara saw it- -the world of the aliconrs. Blue light flooded the room, and high above her, Diamond Tiara saw the edges of the immense and empty brutalist concrete towers stretching up almost endlessly. Snow began to fall through, and high in the sky, Diamond Tiara saw it- -the Blue-Lit Machine. It seemed to look down at her, and it seemed to know.

Below, Lucy stepped through the vortex. The extreme heat seemed to have no effect on her, apart from momentarily revealing something horrible beneath her beautiful veneer. She slowly marched to the center of the vortex, and looked up past Diamond Tiara. The smile on her face was horrific: a wide, hungry grin like a beast finally looking its wounded, bleeding prey in the eyes.

“I’m coming for you!” she called. “After all this time! YOU ARE MINE!”

Diamond Tiara summoned the remainder of her strength and tried to break free one more time. The straps were still too tight to release her body, but her sudden burst of motion was enough to dislodge her right hoof. She hoped that would be enough.

“Come on Pick,” she said, reaching into her front pocket. “Please be as smart as I think you are!”

She reached for her technetium dial and felt Silver Spoon’s pearl in the center. With one swift motion, she twisted it, hoping that it would do something.

It did. As soon as it was activated, the dial burst with white energy. Diamond Tiara was thrown to one side, and her harness was knocked partially free. The remainder of it struck the edge of the vortex and was incinerated instantly.

“What are you doing?!” cried Lucy. “What is that?!”

“Tracking,” said Yttros’s voice through Diamond Tiara’s dial. “Integrating…new destination isolated. Changing coordinates.”

A new vortex started to form, a spiral of white light within the tempest of the larger vortex. It surrounded Diamond Tiara, and she braced for more pain- -but this time, none came. Instead, a second portal opened overhead, a smaller and more narrow one. Diamond Tiara felt a warmth, and for a moment she thought she smelled the scent of cinnamon and the cool, clean smell of Silver Spoon’s mane.

Diamond Tiara laughed, and clung to her dial, lifting herself toward the second vortex overhead- -a channel produced between her dial and its twin, the one that Pick held. She had won. She was going home.

A yellow tentacles suddenly reached out and wrapped around her ankle. Diamond Tiara was suddenly jerked backward, and looked down. Below her, she saw Lucy- -or what she had always though was Lucy. The being had now mostly shed its pony veneer; bits of yellow coat still remained, but the figure was swollen and grotesque as the rotting skin and sinew stretched, barely managing to maintain a physical form.

The worst, though, was what was inside- -what always had been. A pair of red lights stared up at Diamond Tiara, their horrible glow pouring out through the illusion of Lucy. Diamond Tiara felt herself screaming as those lights cut into her mind, tearing her apart from within.

“I will not fail,” said Lucy, her voice perfectly clear even with her body destroyed. “I will have what I want, Diamond Tiara. I’m your friend, don’t you remember? I LOVE YOU! DIE FOR ME, DIAMOND TIARA!”

There was a sudden explosion, and something flashed past Diamond Tiara from above. The monster below her was knocked back as an alicorn suddenly struck Lucy, impaling her with his horn and driving her back. There was a second explosion and another magically propelled alicorn hit- -and then two more.

“NO! GET OFF ME!” Lucy tore at the alicorns, destroying one completely. The others were unfazed, and more struck her from above, driving her back.

Diamond Tiara looked up, and saw a gray, purple-eyed alicorn descend from above, his wings spread as he pulled himself free of his own reality.

“Harvestor!” called Diamond Tiara.

Harvestor looked at her, and then away. He charged his horn and produced a beam, striking the tentacle that held onto Diamond Tiara’s ankle and severing it.

“Go,” he said. “We will hold her here.”

“You can’t- -you have no idea what she is, what she can do!”

Harvestor looked up through the vortex at the strange world’s sky. “I will stop her.”

“How?”

His horn charged, and for the first time Diamond Tiara saw him visibly strain. His blue magic flashed with green energy, and his gray coat began to shift to dull salmon. “This world has a sun, doesn’t it? I’m going to set it- -right on top of her!”

Far above, the largest of the dying stars began to move. The remains of the green sun began to grow larger as it descended.

“You can’t!” cried Diamond Tiara. She held out her hoof. “Harvestor! Come with me! We have to get out of here!”

“Nothing can survive a direct solar impact. I will be destroyed in the descent,” he said, calmly. “And nothing of value will be lost.” His eyes shifted to Diamond Tiara. “But only if you get back. Please. I am…sorry. For everything.”

He reached out and kicked Diamond Tiara toward her portal home. She tried to swim through the air back toward him, and toward where Lucy had now torn apart the remainder of his comrades. The entire machine was suddenly bathed in bright and intensifying green light. It was no use, though. Diamond Tiara was pulled into the vortex, and the machine began to decay, tearing itself apart from the strain of bearing too many portals. In one last desperate attempt, Lucy reached out toward Diamond Tiara- -and was swallowed in an explosion of green light.

Then, finally, the portal sealed, and Diamond Tiara felt herself drop onto the damp ground below.

Chapter 11, Epilogue: The Dance

Diamond Tiara looked out from the mezzanine at the ballroom below. The band played a lively tune, and ponies danced across the floor, a swirl of colorful long dresses and suits with smiling faces and laughter.

From above, Diamond Tiara spied Applebloom laughing as she danced with a smiling orange stallion who looked not unlike a male version of Scootaloo. He was clearly a far better dancer, but neither he nor Applebloom seemed to mind she could not move as gracefully, or that the other ponies kept a significant distance between themselves and Applebloom.

On the other side of the room, Diamond Tiara saw Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, both wearing dresses that were not so much matching as they were complimentary. Both were looking around nervously as they took sips from a secret bottle of cider, thinking nopony could see them. Diamond Tiara could not help but smile at how wide Scootaloo’s eyes were, and how nervous she seemed to be, no doubt for what she was going to try to ask later.

Nearby, Twist was taking a break from the festivities and laughing as both Snips and Snails danced with Snails’s date, an older, brown-colored, green-haired unicorn mare with an obscenely short dress. Diamond Tiara knew that particular mare, and knew that Snails must have saved his allowance for a long time to be able to afford her. At the same time, Diamond Tiara nervously wondered if she had paid for enough fire insurance to accommodate that particular individual.

Finally, Diamond Tiara’s eyes settled on the scene that made her most happy. In the center of the ballroom, both wearing equally beautiful dresses, Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle swirled together past crowds gawking Sweetie Belle-suitors. Neither of the mares seemed to care, and even though the song was not quite a slow dance, they still held each other close and kept time to the beat.

A voice spoke from behind Diamond Tiara.

“Wow. That dress makes you look terribly fat.”

Diamond Tiara turned around to see Pick, who seemed to have silently snuck up behind her. Unlike most of the stallions, he was not dressed in a suit or tuxedo. Instead, his armor had been reconfigured with gleaming white plates and draped with a cape covered in tight, pale-blue geometric patterns. Rarity had even reconfigured his helmet; the top surface was now partially domed and mirrored in gold just enough that Diamond Tiara could see the bright reflections of his eyes beneath.

The dress that Diamond Tiara wore had been designed to match. As much as it has strained Rarity to meet her requests, Diamond Tiara had been very clear on what she had wanted. The majority of the dress was white, with the skirt made in the same pattern as Pick’s cloak. The center around her torso, though, was fit more like a traditional morlock garment, including a highly visible pauldron which prominently displayed her technetium dial.

“No,” said Diamond Tiara, “I look like your mother. And that turns you on because you’re a sick pervert.”

“It’s true,” said Pick, joining Diamond Tiara in looking over the rail at the party below. “But my mother is hot. Not nearly as hot as yours, though. Maybe I can have her as a second wife, part time.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara, feeling a spark of excitement and uncertainty cross through her heart. She paused, not looking at Pick. “So…is there supposed to be a ceremony or something?”

“There can be, if you want it.”

“There had better be. And it had better be BIG. Because I deserve it.”

“Ah. I see. I am not sure where we will find an adequate buffet for you and your mother, though.”

“One more of those, and I throw you in the punch bowl.”

“But I’ll stain!”

Diamond Tiara sighed and looked down at the happy ponies below. “So…I’m guessing your family knows.”

“You misunderstand.” Pick gestured toward the dial in his chest. “Do you know what it means to give a morlock stallion a gemstone?”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean- -”

Pick nodded. “In my family’s mind, we have already been married for six years.”

“Crap…you know, you could have told me.”

“I didn’t want to pressure you. I still don’t want to. If you don’t think this- -”

“Are you doubting me?”

“N- -no!” sputtered Pick. “I just- -”

“Good! It’s my decision, and I’m doing to stick to it!” Diamond Tiara paused. “But what this is going to do to my mother.”

“I’d rather not be there when that happens.”

“Oh, you will be.”

“But…but she’ll try to squish me again…”

Diamond Tiara let Pick trail off. Her heart was beating quickly. Then, finally, she forced herself to admit what she had considered keeping secret from him for the remainder of her life. “Pick, I may have cheated on you with the devil.”

“And I may have cheated on you with Silver Spoon.”

“I will geld you.”

“NO! No! Wait! I was joking!” Pick looked at Diamond Tiara, and saw that she was serious. “Well…in morlock culture, it isn’t considered cheating if it was with a mare or a blood-relative.”

“I didn’t say the devil was a ‘she’.”

“Oh. No. I mean, I assumed that you being you, that, well, you know, the devil must be a sibling.”

“You still don’t believe me. You don’t believe any of it.” Diamond Tiara was not even sure if she believed any of what had happened to her. Nopony had seen any of the things she had seen. Certain features still remained inexplicable, but everything had happened to Diamond Tiara and Diamond Tiara alone, and nothing at all had happened since she woke up in a remote orchard field in Sweet Apple Acres.

“I don’t know what I believe,” said Pick. “Apart from you. And I know that you’re better now, right?”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara. “Yeah, I am.”

“You’ve certainly put on some weight, that’s for sure.”

“I’m sure you would too if your taste in food wasn’t uncultured and terrible.”

“Me uncultured? Look at this color scheme! It does not match the antique tone of the wood at ALL!”

“You can’t even see color!”

“I don’t need to! It is that bad!”

“You didn’t seem to be complaining when we were dancing.”

“Because I was too busy trying not to get crushed under your ungraceful girth!”

Diamond Tiara turned suddenly, flicking her tail up and into Pick’s intake manifold. He coughed slightly as the heavily styled bicolor poof surrounded his helmet. “Come on,” she said, gesturing toward one of the halls that ran back into the venue.

“But we’ll miss the crowning of the Prom Princess!”

“Trust me, it’s Applebloom. I helped count the votes.” Diamond Tiara leaned in close to Pick and whispered to him. “Now listen here, you grotesque insect. You are going to come back to one of the spare rooms with me, and you are going to do every little thing I say until I make you squeal like the pork you are. You’ve got that?”

Pick said nothing, but his wings chirped loudly beneath his cloak. “But…Diamond…”

“Oh come on. You gave me this dial. You knew you were going to have to do this eventually.”

“But…”

Diamond Tiara entered the threshold to the hallway. “Are you coming or not?”

“Yes,” squeaked Pick, who awkwardly followed her.

Diamond Tiara pulled Pick through the darkened back hallways. There were a few couples back there, mostly standing in the corners and kissing. At one point, Diamond Tiara thought she caught a glimpse of a rainbow-colored tail pass by, followed by Scootaloo’s muffled giggling. She herself was going farther back, though, to find a specific room she had already picked out.

As Diamond Tiara turned a corner, though, she suddenly slammed into a pony crossing from the other direction.

“Hey!” she cried. “Watch it!”

She looked up at the pony she had ran into, and then froze. Standing above her was a far taller than average unicorn, his coat a mixture of gray and salmon.

“H…Harvestor?”

Harvestor looked down at Diamond Tiara. The expression on his face was of pure terror, and blood was running from both of his eyes and ears. He was quivering in fright, and for some reason, dressed in a formal tuxedo.

“Oh,” said a familiar voice behind Diamond Tiara. “Please excuse my date.”

Diamond Tiara knew that voice, and could not stop herself from turning around. There, standing behind her, wearing a thin red dress, stood a tall yellow pony.

“N…no…”

She lowered her unblinking red eyes level with Diamond Tiara’s and gave a soft, perfectly feminine smile. Diamond Tiara wanted to strike her, or to scream, or to run, but she could do nothing except stare into those gleaming scarlet orbs.

Then the red-eyed pony spoke, directly and unambiguously to Diamond Tiara.

“I. Still. WIN.”

Chapter 4: Dress Fitting

The metal dug into Diamond Tiara’s soft flesh, and she cried out in pain.

“Ow! Hey, watch it!”

“Oh, I’m certainly sorry,” said Rarity, sincere even through her frustration and a mouthful of pins identical to the one that had just attached part of an incomplete dress to Diamond Tiara’s flank. The white unicorn removed the pin and added it to a number of objects floating in her magic, including measuring tape, bits of cloth, and several notepads.

“I thought you were supposed to be good at this?” snapped Diamond Tiara.

Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “I AM good at this, darling. And I use that term of endearment very lightly. I’ve made dresses for all of Equestria’s elite for all occasions. Why, I even made Princess Cadence’s wedding dress!”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it. It was somehow simplistic and gaudy at the same time.”

Rarity gasped, nearly inhaling several pins. “How dare you?” she said, dropping her equipment. “I’ll admit that it was and…early work. And I also know that your father is paying me quite substantially for a private fitting- -but this time of year I always have considerable work to do. I even had to bring in poor Coco Pommel all the way from Manehattan! This is a favour, as I’m sure you are aware.”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “I know, I know. I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath, and looked across the room to where Pick was lying on the floor flipping through a magazine despite the fact that he could not read Equestrian and was nearly blind with his mask on. Still, Diamond Tiara could not help but feel a pang of jealousy. All of Rarity’s magazines were filled with the most beautiful of fashion models, who were all white unicorns and Fluttershy- -and all taller, thinner, and prettier than she was.

Diamond Tiara looked back to Rarity. “It’s just that this is our first public appearance together. As much as I’d like to say it doesn’t matter, it does. Especially for a Rich. Everything has to be perfect.”

Rarity’s expression softened, and she picked up her materials again. “Of course, darling. I know how much scrutiny high-society can place on a pony, especially a mare barely out of fillyhood with your social standing. But you have nothing to worry about. I simply do not do subpar work. You and your…er…” she looked at Pick. “Coltfriend…” she whispered. “He is a ‘he’, right?”

“Are you going to want to be checking?” said Pick from across the room. Rarity jumped, being unaccustomed to morlock hearing.

“I’m right here!” said Diamond Tiara, turning sharply and accidentally knocking down a piece of the dress that was being fitted to her.

“I can see that,” said Pick. “It’s hard not to. Or are you implying that I was hitting on the symmetric? You realize she’s twice my age, right?”

“Ahem,” said Rarity. “I’m not actually that old- -”

“Admit it! You would rather be taking a unicorn! A nice fat white one!”

“I’m not that fat- -”

“You know how I feel about symmetrics! Those hideous growths on their heads, and that ‘magic’! It just isn’t natural!” The dial in his chest turned, projecting a white energy field that pushed away the magazine he had been ‘reading’. Still lying down, he turned to Rarity. He pointed at Diamond Tiara. “That’s not going to be enough fabric,” he said. “You’re going to need a LOT more to let that dress out.”

“Well at least I don’t need to wear a mask over my ugly bug face!”

“Have you looked in a mirror? I’d prefer if you did!”

Rarity looked between the two, feeling intensely awkward. “Oh dear. This…this is not good, is it?”

“What?” said Diamond Tiara, confused. “No, this is about par for the course.”

“You mean…you’re not fighting?”

“Oh, we are. But at this point I’m two inches away from going over there and peeling him.”

“She’s not smart enough to figure out the interlocks,” admitted Pick.

“I wouldn’t mind taking that ‘suit’- -if I dare to use such a word for such a travesty- -off him myself.”

Both Pick and Diamond Tiara looked at Rarity, Diamond Tiara glaring. “What did you just say?”

“I mean, look at it!” said Rarity, prancing across the room- -angry prancing, of course, something only Rarity could accomplish. She picked up one of the torn and dirty shreds of Pick’s outer cloak in her magic. Pick immediately jumped to the side, clinging to a wall to escape the blue glow. “This- -this is not acceptable! Not even for wearing around out of doors!”

“What are you talking about? This is top-of-the line fashion! The distressed look is totally well-accepted!”

“Distressed?” Rarity nearly fainted. “DISTRESSED? That’s a crass, inelegant sty- -I can’t even CALL it a style! It’s hideous, uncultured, and UNCOUTH! So very, very uncouth!”

“No it isn’t!”

“Diamond,” said Diamond Tiara, “you live underground. Without light. Have you ever even seen your clothing?”

“No. But that’s not the point!”

Rarity turned away with a loud harrumph. “Diamond Tiara, I realize who you take to the Pony Prom is your own choice, but I cannot help but wonder if you’re trying to kill poor Spoiled. Honestly, that you would choose a pony so...dissimilar from your status. Though, honestly, I can relate- -”

“You do realize he’s nobility, right?”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Yeah. His mother is a princess, and his dad’s a lord. If anything, he’s a few steps above me.”

Rarity turned toward Pick, unable to comprehend what she was being told. “Y- -you?”

“Technically, she’s an eighth-princess. It’s similar to what you might call a duchess. Not really, though. The morlock hierarchy is…challenging. But mining is considered a noble pursuit, so, yes, I have a title- -”

“That’s IT! I can’t DO THIS!” cried Rarity, throwing down her materials and grabbing Pick. “I cannot allow this crime to continue! I am going to dress you, and I am going to DRESS YOU PROPERLY!”

“No!” cried Pick, his voice going squeaky as he clung to the wall. “Diamond, help!”

“She can’t save you now! You’re going to look good if I have to work my hooves to the BONE!”

“Can it- -can it at least be paisley?”

Rarity nearly spilled her oats on the floor at the thought. Diamond Tiara could not help but smile. She had paid for a private session with Equestria’s premier dressmaker- -not with her father’s money, as she led everyone short of Silver Spoon to believe, but with her own- -but fitting Pick with proper clothing was also essential. They both had to look perfect if their pairing was to be accepted by pony society.

As she suppressed her laughter at watching Pick be “stripped” by Rarity- -his dark, armored intrinsic suit was locked onto his body too tightly to remove- -a shadow crossed across Diamond Tiara’s vision. She turned toward one of the corners of Rarity’s boutique and caught the tail end of a pale pony crossing into the next room.

“If she’s not too busy, Coco can take the measurements,” said Diamond Tiara.

“She certainly could,” said Rarity, holding Pick’s rags out of his reach with his magic as he tried to jump and take them back. “But unfortunately she is helping Sexy- -I mean Sassy Saddles in Canterlot with the fabric selection. You would not believe how much silk all these prom dresses take- -NO! You can’t have it! You are going to wear BLUE!”

“Not blue! Anything but blue!” Pick paused. “I don’t see color, so I don’t know what ‘blue’ is!”

“What?” said Diamond Tiara, to herself. She shook her head. “I must be tired or something.” She shrugged, and then looked up Rarity’s stairs- -only to see a tall, narrow unicorn looking down them back at her.

Diamond Tiara jumped in surprise. She had lived in Ponyville her whole life, and she knew everypony there. Never before had she seen that unicorn, or really any unicorns quite like him. In fact, she had never seen a pony with such a cold and intense gaze. Worse, Diamond Tiara was standing within sight of the boutique’s door. It had not opened for nearly thirty minutes. Which meant he had been in here the whole time, watching.

He blinked, and then turned. Diamond Tiara felt a sharp surge of pain in her head, but ignored it. She watched the unicorn slowly retreat into the upper floor, and she saw that he was wearing something over his midsection, like some kind of uniform.

Diamond Tiara turned back to her special somepony, who had been pinned by Rarity and was having a new robe assembled around his body while he continually clicked out horrendous insults against Rarity in untranslated morlock. They both seemed busy, and for some reason, Diamond Tiara found herself ascending Rarity’s staircase.

Something was wrong. She knew that she should not be doing this, that going up there was a mistake. Something was off, but somehow, it just did not seem off enough to warrant bothering Rarity. Diamond Tiara’s curiosity led her forward, even while her heart and head were both pounding.

The floorboards gently creaked as Diamond Tiara reached the top of the stairs. Distantly, she was aware that the sound of Rarity and Pick arguing had stopped. There was now no sound at all, save for her rapid breathing. Then, slowly, something else began to become apparent, something beneath the silence. A buzzing, or electronic hiss. It was almost impossible to hear, and for some reason Diamond Tiara could not tell exactly which direction it was coming from or how far it was.

Slowly, she pushed open the door to the largest of the upstairs rooms. On the other side was what she imagined was Rarity’s bedroom. It was nearly circular- -an odd choice- -with a large bed in the center and a number of mannequins waiting to be dressed around the edges, their prancing and cavorting frozen in mid-leap, their blank and glassy eyes staring at Diamond Tiara without seeing her.

Something was wrong with the room. Everything seemed to have grayed and yellowed, and for some reason, Diamond Tiara could not focus on anything. This left the furniture oddly hazy, but at the same time in sharp contrast that made everything seem far wider and longer than it really was.

“Hello?” called Diamond Tiara, stepping into the room. As far as she knew, this was the only room on the second floor- -the pony she saw must have been in here. Her eyes moved quickly between the mannequins, each one blurring in her vision when she looked directly at it. They were all inert, though. There was no unicorn among them.

Diamond Tiara clutched her head. The pain was growing, pulsing in response to the buzz that seemed to fill the air. The eyes of the mannequins stared back, ambivalent to her pain, and Diamond Tiara realized that in all the times she had come to Rarity’s for dress fitting, she had never once seen a mannequin with eyes.

This only led to Diamond Tiara panicking more. She knew she had seen- -and was seeing- -something, but as far as she could tell, nothing was there. Nothing except buzzing and pain.

A voice from behind her made Diamond Tiara jump.

“Oh, darling,” said Rarity. “So this is where you went. Oh my, as much as I would like to show you my works in progress, you really can’t be up here.”

“Yeah,” said Diamond Tiara, somewhat relieved but still looking around the room, her mind trying to piece together exactly why it was different than what she presumed normal would be. “I’m sorry. I just thought I saw something.”

“Something? Like what?”

“A unicorn, of all things. How weird is- -”

Diamond Tiara turned toward Rarity and screamed. She immediately backed across the room, trying to get as far away as possible. Rarity’s face, once so beautiful, had become covered in surgical scars and protruding metal. Her perfectly coiffed mane had been brutally shaved away, and a large glimmering lesion had formed next to her horn, leading into one dark and mostly empty eye socket.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” said Rarity, her remaining eye seeming genuinely concerned. She took a step forward- -her body was pale, thin, and discolored.

“St- -stay away from me !” cried Diamond Tiara.

Rarity’s concern seemed to increase. She realized that something was wrong, but somehow she could not see the scars or the implants or the dry, pale dead tissue that surrounded them.

“Miss Tiara, is something the matter? I simply cannot understand why you are acting this way, but I’m sure we can talk about it.”

“Your- -your face! Rarity, what- -”

Before Diamond Tiara could finish her sentence, something leapt down at her from a high shelf. Diamond Tiara screamed again: this creature was far worse, if only because of its size. Something hairy and white, a split in its face revealing a large and perpetually roving lens. The creature looked up at Diamond Tiara and then bore its fangs, hissing loudly before clicking off toward Rarity on mostly mechanical limbs.

“Oh, Opalescence,” said Rarity. “You really do insist on frightening out guests, don’t you?”

A warbling near-speech came from the monstrosity. Rarity just laughed, and turned toward Diamond Tiara. “Oh, you don’t have to worry. Opalescence can be…aggressive…but she’s not going to hurt you. She certainly scratched me quite hard earlier today.” Rarity lifted her hoof, and Diamond Tiara nearly vomited when she saw the massive, open surgical wound that exposed both bones and silvery wires. “But I deserved it, I suppose. I did try to touch her.”

“Rarity I don’t- -I don’t understand!” Diamond Tiara was screaming now, but all that seemed to come out of her was a whisper. The walls around her seemed to be closing in, and her eyes flitted across the various gray objects until they fell on the window. She immediately raced toward it.

“Diamond Tiara! No! What are you doing?” cried Rarity, limping forward.

“I- -I have to get out,” said Diamond Tiara. She did not understand how that would help, or why it was necessary, but that was what her instincts told her. She could not let Rarity get any closer.

Then she turned back, and immediately froze. She gasped: now, standing immediately beside Rarity, was another pony: a tall unicorn, his torso covered in a strange uniform. His piercing gaze was directed down at Diamond Tiara, and she could not tell if he looked amused, disgusted, or frightened. For a long moment, he just seemed to observe Diamond Tiara. Then he started speaking. Whatever he said, Diamond Tiara could not hear it.

“No- -NO! You stay back! Don’t get near me!” She lifted her hooves against the intruder, and her protests caught in her throat. Beneath the tatters of her unfinished dress, part of her foreleg was exposed- -and she saw to her horror that it was covered in metal and surgical scars, some of them still fresh.

“N- -no,” she said, looking down at her hooves. She looked up, and across the room spied a large mirror. Never before had she feared something so much as the thought of what she might see in that glass. She wanted to run away- -but instead found herself running toward that surface.

Unable to stop herself, she leaned over the glass, her eyes closed at what she knew she would see. A thought occurred to her that she could just keep them closed, to refuse to see. Everything would go back to being the way it was if she just refused to look at it.

That was not how she wanted to live, though. She had to know. So she opened her eyes.

The pony who stared back at her was entirely ordinary. Pink, with slightly frazzled bicolor hair topped with a now crooked tiara.

“Wh- -what?” she said. She picked up her hooves again, and saw that although rather sweaty, they were still the same as ever.

“Darling?” said Rarity, nervously. She came into the field of view of the mirror, but now she looked as beautiful as ever. There was no metal, and there were no scars. Diamond Tiara turned around quickly. “I- -the scars- -the- -”

The room around her was now bright and colorful. A slightly overweight Persian cat jumped onto the bed and eyed her with almost the exact same look that the tall pony had before lying down and going to sleep. As for the tall pony, he was nowhere to be seen. Even the memory of him was fading; Diamond Tiara could no longer even recall what color he had been.

“The unicorn- -the- -how did I- -”

“Darling, are you alright?”

“Diamond?” said Pick, poking his head around the corner of the doorframe. “I heard noises, and some screaming. Is everything alright?”

Diamond Tiara looked at him, and then at Rarity. She then did exactly what she had been conditioned to do by her mother for almost all of her life. With a deep breath, she suppressed her emotions and stood tall. “No. Nothing is wrong.”

“Are you sure?” said Rarity, looking genuinely concerned.

“Yes,” said Diamond Tiara harshly. “I’m fine. I just had a sudden migraine.” What she wanted to say was ‘I’m not insane’, but refrained from that because she was not.

Diamond Tiara pulled off the parts of her dress and crossed the room to Diamond Pick. “Rarity, I really hate to do this to you, but can we schedule this to a different day? I’m really not feeling well.”

“Oh…well, of course. I know how severe a migraine can be. I am friends with Pinkie Pie, after all. That will give me a chance to catch up on my backlog of hats…and, actually, I want to prepare you a concept sketch of something a little more extreme that just might work for you.”

“Fine,” said Diamond Tiara, disguising how much she was shaking. She turned to Pick, and allowed some of the discomfort in her voice to become apparent. “Take me home, please.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Pick. He did not ask what was wrong, as if he knew that if he did he would get no answer. “Do you need to be carried? I can call the drone.”

“No, no. Nothing is wrong with me. I just…I just can’t do this right now.”

Pick nodded and led Diamond Tiara out of Rarity’s bedroom. Rarity came to the door to see them go. “I hope you feel better soon, dearie. It would be a terrible tragedy to be sick on your prom night!”

“Thanks,” said Diamond Tiara. She turned back to wave- -and for a moment she saw just the finest remnants of stitched scars over Rarity’s face, just barely visible beneath her white coat in the strangely dim light.