Tears of Harmony

In the end, there will be no one left, nothing left, but us. Equestria, Equestrians. Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus. Crystal, Thestral, and the purebred. There will be no room for the others. They will be cast aside, their existences forgotten. They will be lost to this world and this universe. I am warned of the countless wars we will endure to fulfill this destiny. I do not take note of these warnings. Equestria will know eternal splendor if only she can endure those few hard years. From this day, until my last day, I am Equestria's first soldier. I will not take leave until we know only utter dominance, or I will not survive the outcome. -TS.

"You're proving to be a major hassle. A living Alicorn would be worth an incalculable sum of money, but even a dead one would net 10 figures, maybe more. I can bear the physical expense of keeping you alive, but I don't see how I could possibly stomach the mental expense of it. I'll enjoy watching you die."

"Sixfour, can you detect any airborne pathogens or elements in the room?"

"Negative, Princess. Reporting all atmospheric readings as nominal. Oxygen levels normal and steady. Air humidity recorded at 0.6%. Background radiation nominal."

"Alright what gives, Tim'mrak? Your little trap fail? I wouldn't be surprised if a brute like you couldn't even rig up a simple drowning trap."

"Suffer."

Twenty minutes earlier

"Down, down quick, quick!" I yelled, pushing Sixfour down into the sewer entrance. We'd ran and ran through alleys and sidestreets, the skyboats on us the entire way, when we'd come across an open sewer maintenance project. The road had been torn away and large pipes stacked nearby to be lowered into place, the old piping long gone. Sixfour cantered down the scaffolding stairs into the pipes and I dove down after him, using my magic to slow my fall and lessen the impact of the landing. The Type X roared over us and turned to give the gunners a shot, and we scurried into the pipe. I turned and blasted the top end of the piping to collapse the tunnel, to give us time in case Tim'mrak or his goons tried to pursue on foot.

"Where are we, Sixfour? Get some maps; we need to find our way out and back to Koss" I said, lighting my horn to provide enough light for me to see. The piping ran down another dozen or so yards before ending, the sewer turning into a much older stone canal wide enough for at least a canoe.

"There are no maps, Princess. No records exist of The Dome's sewer network. Cardinal navigation is still functional, however. Koss' safehouse is 16.87 miles to the Southwest. Our current heading will take us Northwest. Our best bet is to proceed along this route and find a route that will take us to our desired destination" Sixfour explained.

I frowned but nodded. Maybe we'd find an old physical map somewhere, else I'd have to rely on Sixfour's directions, which I trusted enough anyway. We trotted down the pipe and into the canal, the stones here weathered and damp. The canal went on for a bit before being barred off to control the flow of debris, but there were two offshoots on either side. Moving down the left side I peered down the offshoot to find it was clear and I trotted in, Sixfour right behind me.

"Five gems, five gems. We're so close, Sixfour! We're almost there!" I exclaimed.

"Your devotion is admirable, my Princess, but I'm beginning to become concerned over it. It is rapidly becoming an obsession and may lead to your destruction" Sixfour said.

I huffed. "Nonsense. This is our dream. Harmony is everything we ever wanted, Sixfour! It's all I've striven for since escaping Tartarus, all I cared for. I WILL see this through."

"There should be no doubt that I too believe in Harmony. I am beyond grateful for everything you've done for my people, I'd just hate to see you consumed and destroyed by it."

I paused as we reached a junction, an office door immediately to my left, the window of which was dim and dusty. I pushed the door open and glanced around inside. There was a desk beneath the window, a rolling chair pushed into the space. A shelf was in the corner behind the desk, a few books and manuals propped up on it. Everything had a fine layer of dust on it, showing the office hadn't been used in a long time. I stepped in and peeked around the door, finding an old notice board on the wall behind it, a folded map in a receptacle next to it. I pulled the map out and unfolded it, my eyes scanning over it. The lines and passageways depicted on it revealed the labyrinth of tunnels that made up this sector of The Dome's sewer system, but it also revealed there was a control room and pipe interchange not far from where we were, and beyond that there was a much larger 'Master Canal' that ran directly in the direction we needed to go. "Looks like we've got our way out. Let's go" I said, and turned to leave the office. Sixfour stood in the threshold of the door, blocking my exit, and I wished for about the millionth time that Stars could have actual expressions.

"I am unsure of how to express the proper concern for you, my Princess. You've been fighting too hard these past few weeks. You're becoming more unhinged, more desperate. You take chance after chance, and it won't be long before you run out of chances. Harmony can't be realized without you at the helm, and Equestria won't get the guidance it needs if Harmony returns and you aren't there. Worse still, the odds of Empress Twilight learning of your return grow larger with every battle, every skirmish, and every creature we meet. Step back, before it's too late" Sixfour said.

I paused. I paused because Sixfour was right. He was right, but I didn't want to face it. I wanted to stop Twilight. I wanted to stop the injustice. I wanted to return us to the way things had been under Celestia and Luna. The Magic of Friendship, Harmony. Balance. Sixfour was right, but I wasn't ready to face it.

"Let's go, Sixfour..."

He stepped aside, and I trotted past him. Directly opposite the door to the office was another passageway, leading down to the control room and interchange. We cantered down a narrow set of stairs and down the hallway at the bottom, fluorescent lights buzzing along the wall. At the end of the hall was a room with a large glass window, through which I could see the control room. Sixfour and I stepped into the room and I saw a door on the left, a solid steel affair. I trotted up to it and pressed on the handle, finding it locked. I frowned and turned to inspect the window. I could probably burn through it, I surmised, but it'd take more than a few minutes. "Let's see if there's another way to the master canal" I said, pulling the map back out. Sixfour and I stood in the room inspecting the map. There didn't seem to be any other way to get to the master canal except by going through the control room, so it was looking like our only option was to burn through the window.

I turned back around to inspect the window and froze, the iron form of Tim'mrak looming on the other side of the glass, leering at me. Before we could dash out the way we had come the door sealed and locked, and we were trapped inside. There was an intercom on the window, and Tim'mrak leaned in to it. "What a happy coincidence this is. I'd figured chasing you down into the sewers would make it easier to hunt you down, but I never would have expected to trap you this easily, and in such a convenient manner. I really must thank you."

"If you think you've gotten me that easily you're sorely mistaken. I won't just give in to you, and you know it" I said.

Tim'mrak smiled and looked down at the control console he was standing before, inspecting it. "I'm sure there's all sorts of ways I can...ensure your cooperation, but really, why go through the trouble? You're proving to be a major hassle. A living Alicorn would be worth an incalculable sum of money, but even a dead one would net 10 figures, maybe more. I can bear the physical expense of keeping you alive, but I don't see how I could possibly stomach the mental expense of it. I'll enjoy watching you die" Tim'mrak said from beyond the thick glass.

There was a soft click and a small hole opened in the wall near the ceiling. I tensed, waiting for the gas or water to pour out, but there was nothing. I looked around, expecting something else to open or shift, but nothing happened. I turned back to face Tim'mrak, and he merely stood with a satisfied smirk.

"Sixfour, can you detect any airborne pathogens or elements in the room?" I asked, keeping my gaze on Tim'mrak, who'd folded his arms over his chest as he stared back.

"Negative, Princess. Reporting all atmospheric readings as nominal. Oxygen levels normal and steady. Air humidity recorded at 0.6%. Background radiation nominal."

"Alright what gives, Tim'mrak? Your little trap fail? I wouldn't be surprised if a brute like you couldn't even rig up a simple drowning trap" I taunted. Tim'mrak grinned like a shark and leaned forward against the control console.

He remained silent, and two minutes proceeded to pass by, Sixfour and I looking about the room as Tim'mrak watched. I was beginning to think he was just planning to starve me to death when Sixfour perked up. His artificial ears perked back and he looked up at the hole, his eye lenses adjusting and focusing. Tim'mrak leaned further forward on the console, propped up on his elbows, his grin toothy and expectant. "Suffer" he simply commented.

"ALERT! RADIATION LEVELS RISING! Current dose measured at 1.0 Roentgens per hour" Sixfour exclaimed.

Sweet Celestia... I thought. I understood only very little about radiation, but I have to admit to having been more than a little scared. I would slowly and silently be poisoned and burned from the inside out, and Tim'mrak would just stand and watch it all. "Radiation poisoning? That's how you're going to kill me? Imaginative, I admit, but who would pay for a dead Alicorn whose DNA has been twisted beyond recognition?" I said.

"That's the beauty of it: who'll know? No Alicorn, living or otherwise, has been examined or studied in nearly a thousand years. They won't even be able to recognize your DNA is hardly Equestrian any more, because the mystique of your being will blind them. I can only imagine what 'facts' they'll glean from studying your twisted, scorched remains" Tim'mrak explained.

"ALERT! RADIATION LEVELS RISING! Current dose measured at 3.6 Roentgens per hour."

Not great but not terr--

"RADIATION SPIKING! Current dose measured 50 Roentgens per hour and increasing by three Roentgens every thirty seconds."

I reflexively took a step back from the window and looked around the room. There was the door we'd come through originally, directly opposite the window, now locked, and there was another door to the left, also locked. The glass was several inches thick and there was a heavily armed Minotaur on the other side, not to mention however many fighters he still had down here with us. We needed a way out, fast.

"Tell me, who are you planning to sell my body to? Another group of Minotaurs? Griffons? I know you won't sell me to the Empire, although even if you did Empress Twilight would have you all killed to erase all evidence of my existence" I said, trying to do...something. Distract him, buy time, I'm not sure what.

"There are a few groups I have in mind. Those fucking cultist monks out in the mountains will pay in...material goods, but quite honestly I wouldn't even set foot in their temple, much less talk to them. There's the Order of the Iron Will, which I'm sure would be delighted to experiment on you, those anarchist ponies over on the planet Chimera would give me their entire planet to even LOOK at you, and so on. Really, though, all I want is money. I could buy five planets with what I'll get for you. Entire worlds would clamor for the privilege of buying your corpse. I'd be the King of the entire Serpent system. I'd amass such a following and fortune that the Empire would come to the negotiating table before I could even make a move on them, and they would agree to anything I'd demand of them. I would be GOD" Tim'mrak growled.

"And t-then what?" I asked. I tasted metal and my face was tingling, and I was beginning to panic.

"RADIATION RISING! Current dose measured at 100 Roentgens per hour. My Princess, we need to escape!"

"Oh but there will be no escape, Star. Your Princess will die here, and you'll be able to do NOTHING! Shortly after that, the rads will burn you out, and I will toss your hull in an incinerator. Both your lives will end here, in this cold, damp chamber. Her fur will fall out by the fist-full, her skin will melt, her blood vessels will expand and burst, her bones will weaken and her organs will fail. She'll writhe around on the concrete and beg you to kill her, and you might even do it. When she is dead, the rads will continue to rise. Your systems will start to glitch, your circuits will short, and you will shut off like a light switch. You might even 'feel' it, if your AI is good enough, but you will never truly feel ANYTHING. I wouldn't even use you for parts."

My breathing grew deeper and I sat down on my haunches. This was how I was going to die. I was going to fall apart and wither away in this death trap. I would never see Harmony return. I'd never see all the wrongs of our species righted. I'd never see Moondancer or the Pie sisters again. I'd die a cruel, agonizing death on some heartless planet at the hands of some heartless creature.

"RADIATION RISING! Current dose measured at 200 Roentgens per hour. PRINCESS FLURRY HEART, what is the PLAN?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I screamed. I was dead, there was no escaping it. At the least, I wanted to die in peace. "It's over, Sixfour. It's over. This is the way it ends" I said. I folded my hooves under me and lied down, my vision blurry. I heard Sixfour open fire on the windows, and TIm'mrak laughed on the other side, the glass merely scorched by the magical energy.

"That's it, then? You're just going to give in? Princess Flurry Heart, the envoy of Harmony, and one of the last living Alicorns, is going to lie down on the concrete and give up? GET UP!" Sixfour shouted, kicking at my hooves. I looked up at him, his eye lenses red. "You've still got time! Get UP and fight!"

I looked at Sixfour in wonder and shakily got to my hooves. I'd never seen him express such zeal, such tenacity. He was changing, evolving. I stood up straight and looked at the window and Tim'mrak, who had his arms folded over his chest. Igniting my horn I conjured up my shield and approached the window. Predictably, my shield flattened out where it met the glass, the structure too rigid to be moved by it. I pushed forward, straining against the glass, but it wouldn't budge. Tim'mrak laughed again, and I gritted my teeth, pushing harder and feeding more magic into the spell, but it wasn't enough. The spell failed and my shield collapsed, and I exhaled. "Admirable, but futile. You're going to die painfully and slowly, so you might as well tire yourself out already. It might speed it along" Tim'mrak said.

My eyes fluttered and I hung my head, wanting to give up as he suggested. I flinched when I felt Sixfour's hooves on my flanks, and I looked back at him in surprise. He was standing on his hind legs, propped up to push me. "Try it again, my Princess. It's our only hope. I've got your back."

"As soon as the shield goes up you'll be pushed away from me."

"Cast it from above us, Princess. Please, you must try."

I turned back to the window and did as Sixfour suggested. I calmly lit my horn, and directed the magic to envelop the two of us from above. We were slowly wrapped in the shield, Sixfour keeping his hooves on my flanks. I pushed into the window again, Sixfour pushing me from behind. I grinded my teeth together as I strained, the shield humming, the tone rising in intensity. It changed colors as I fed more and more power into it, going from light pink, to deep purple, to a purple-black mix. I screamed as I pushed harder and harder, my horn sparking and glowing. I pushed with all my might, and Sixfour did the same, the magic of the shield biting into the glass. If Tim'mrak ever said anything, I'll never know, as I couldn't hear or see anything past the shield. The matter of the window bent and warped and the shield popped into it, the displacement causing the glass to instantly shatter, the bricks of the wall supporting it crumbling to dust and falling away. I staggered forward into the control room and the spell destabilized, the magic exploding and bursting the pipes in the room, melting the control console, and sending me to the floor. I looked up and saw Tim'mrak pull his gun, unable to fire before he was hit by Sixfour's own weapon. He howled a roar I couldn't hear and I got to my hooves, trembling as I stood. I threw up, oblivious to the battle unfolding around me. I looked up in time to see Tim'mrak punch me in the face, and I stumbled back, the taste of blood overriding the taste of metal from the radiation. He grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me into the air, and all I could do was weakly look him in the eyes.

"It's TIME to die, fucking pony bitch." He pressed the muzzle of his gun into my throat and I gritted my teeth. With the last of my magic I grabbed his gun and dropped the magazine free, racking the slide to eject the chambered round. Over TIm'mrak's shoulder I saw Sixfour standing up, his jawline shattered and the servos bent. His left eye was cracked and dim, and his gaze bore into Tim'mrak. He shot Tim'mrak in the back and he dropped me to the floor; he howled in fury and pain and turned back around to kill Sixfour and never got the chance. The pipes, ruptured from the explosion of magic, and overloaded with steam, burst and exploded, hammering my abused ears with such a force I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed. My muscles screamed at me for attention and I threw up again, a heave dry of everything except for blood. I struggled to remain standing as I looked around the room, watching it rapidly fill with steam. I saw Tim'mrak stumble away, covered in blood, and I hobbled away from him towards the door that led out to the master canal. With trembling hooves I pushed it open and fell out onto the stones, feeling cold steel hooves grab me around the barrel and stand me back up. I blinked and forced my eyes wide open, leaning on Sixfour as we staggered away from the radioactive steam of the control room. With burning muscles and weak legs I began to run, cantering away awkwardly.

"Run! Just run, Princess. We've got to get out of here!" Sixfour yelled, trying his best to support me as we went. I wanted to cry, I wanted to die. I was sapped in such a way that only a magic-user could understand, I was irradiated, I was partially deafened, I was nauseous, I was spent. If Sixfour hadn't been there I'd have just collapsed on the stones, unable to move a muscle. I'm not sure how we managed it, but we made it down the canal to a point we felt was safe, where we fell to the ground together.

"We... We gotta keep going... We gotta get the fuck outta here... W-Where's... Where's the map..." I breathed, writhing around on the floor as I groped around my cloak for the pocket that had the map in it. I weakly pulled it out and it immediately fell to the floor, and I struggled to grasp it, let alone unfold it to read it. Sixfour picked it up and turned it around, spreading it open on the floor.

"We n-need to proceed along this route for several m-m-milessss..." Sixfour said, his speech glitching. He'd disabled the jaw servos after they'd been damaged and was speaking with his mouth closed through the speaker in his throat. His eye lens was flashing numerous system warnings and errors, but he was still standing. He was still there for me.

I was about to get back up when I heard gunfire, and looked back to see Tim'mrak stumbling down the tunnel after us, gun out. "Sweet Celestia will he ever f-fucking die..." I said, getting to my hooves, some of my strength recovered. We left the map where it lie as we hobbled away, bullets sailing by and hitting the walls around us.

"RuuuUUuunn, Flurry-ee-yyy Heart..." Sixfour said, his joint servos whining and grinding as he went. We desperately shambled down the tunnel, knowing that we'd never make it. I saw what looked like a flood-control bulkhead ahead of us, the control switch for it on the other side of the threshold. If we could make it there, we'd be able to keep Tim'mrak from chasing us. We just had to make it, to take that chance. I felt the muscle in my left hind leg tear and I screamed in pain and resentment, willing myself to make it that last few feet to get to the control panel. I scrabbled at it, my hooves looking for the switch that would lower the bulkhead, and at last I found it, throwing it so hard the switch broke. The bulkhead began to lower and I heard Tim'mrak howl as he fired his last remaining shots. The bullets flew wide, but one last one found its mark. It sailed into Sixfour and punched through his barrel. He stumbled over and whirred, scraping against the wall for support as the door sealed.

"N-No... Sixfour..." I said hoarsely, and crawled over to him. He was heavily damaged, sprockets and circuits dangling from the damaged areas of his torso. His rear leg servos failed and he fell to the floor, and I collapsed next to him, my hooves grasping at his hull. His good eye focused on me and I watched as it flickered. "S-Stay with me, Sixfour. Don't go, please don't go."

"Y-Youuuuu mmade it... My Prin-- Prin-- ERROR! Unit in need of serv--" he choked out, his pitch fluctuating. "ERROR! Unit in need-- S-Shut up... Shut up that ss-ssss-ysstem... You maaaaade it, Prince-e-e-e-ss. My P-Princess..."

I nodded weakly, my eyes damp. "We made it, Sixfour. The two of us. One step closer to Harmony. We'll make it, we just have to keep going."

Sixfour stuttered a laugh, and his front legs pushed against the stones with all he had as he struggled to stand back up. His hind legs kicked back into gear, and he got up, staggering around like a drunk pony. "Y-Y-You made it... That's-- That's all thaaAAAaat matt--mattered" he said, stumbling forward. He bumped into me and I held onto him as he looked up into my eyes; I could barely see him, blurred as my eyes were by tears. I gritted my teeth and held him as tight as I could, but I could feel him slipping as his joint servos started to fail again. "It'ssss all that ev-ev-ev-- Ever... Mattered."

With that Sixfour's eyes went dark and he shut down, sliding from my grasp and collapsing to the floor with a clang, parts popping off and components spilling out. His body tumbled against a run-off pipe and, before I could do anything, he fell into it, disappearing from sight as the clangs of his body bouncing around the pipe echoed back up to taunt me. I collapsed back to the floor and sobbed uncontrollably, writhing in pain from a thousand different ways. I was in such a terrible agony that all I could do was cry and cry, my wails unheard by any save for maybe Tim'mrak, sealed off from me by a foot of steel. I imagine he greatly enjoyed hearing my sobs as they went on, the expression revealing only a glimpse of the state I was in emotionally, mentally, and physically. I wailed and screamed and shrieked in anguish, splashing in the shallow, dirty water. It was a long time before I calmed down and recovered enough to shakily stand and hunt down the nearest ladder to the surface, my body begging me to grant it sleep, my muscles strained and pulled and torn, my head throbbing. My vision blurred and spun, and I nearly collapsed and fell off the ladder as I pushed the entrance cover off, my body threatening to give up. I pulled myself up and out of the sewer and collapsed on the street, my limbs splayed, and I passed out.