“Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve triggered the failsafe! Ruined everything! The subjects will die, and I’ll be stuck here in this hell! Alone!”

Calm.

For whatever reason, I felt strangely calm. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was a soft, yet strangely prickly surface pressed up against my face. It was unfamiliar, slightly moist and oddly tingly, yet still strangely comfortable and relaxing to lay against; like nothing I had ever felt before. I just wanted to lay there and curl up into this strange material forever. Slowly, I lifted my head, my eyes blinking as they tried to adjust to the strangely bright light of the overhead sun.

I was laying on a field of grass. Grass far greener and more vibrant than anything I had ever seen in the- the- wherever it was that I came from. It almost seemed surreal, like an ocean of flowing green hairs.

I leaned down a little, giving the grass a small sniff. I was surprised that it smelt both sweet and sharp at the same time, almost lemon-like in a strange way. Hesitantly, I took a small bite. It tasted good. Really good actually.

Finally, turning my enraptured gaze from the grass, I glanced around the large field. A few trees dotted the grassy expanse, their twisting branches practically dancing with vibrant leaves as they swayed elegantly in the wind. Not all that far away, I saw what looked to be a collection of quaint looking cottages with yellow, thatch roofs, probably some sort of town or village.

I picked myself the rest of the way up off the ground, taking a moment to soak in the area around me. I glanced up, staring in awe at the near blinding blue sky above me. Some strange glowing sphere was hovering far above me, shining warm light down across my face. It took me a very long moment to realize I was squinting up at the sun. It was a perfect day, not a single cloud in sight.

“What is this place?” I muttered to myself, my vision once more dropping down to the village a short trot away. I paused as I thought over my own question. Shouldn’t that answer be easy? I was in Equestria, of course. Where else would I be?

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the clear air around me. The air was refreshing, like water after a long hike, rejuvenating me. I took another deep breath just for the fun of it before slowly exhaling and continuing on my way.

As I slowly got closer to the small, backwater town, my eyes caught on a humble looking sign sticking out from a small flower patch. ‘Ponyville’ the sign read. I smiled. Obviously I was in Ponyville, how had I forgotten that?

Come to think of it actually, I was having trouble remembering much of anything. I knew I was in Equestria, of course, but past that, I couldn’t remember much. What had I been doing in a field? Why did the beautiful clear sky seem so strange and alien to me? Surely it had always been like that? Hadn’t it?

“I must have had too much apple cider last night,” I grumbled to myself, knowing full well that I didn’t usually drink very much. Yes, that must have been right. Just had a little too much to drink and passed out in the field. That must be why I’m so out of it right now.

Ponyville was surprisingly quiet today; not a single pony was out and about. I glanced up at the sun, curious if it was simply too early, but the blinding sun seemed to be directly overhead. Odd, there should have been a lot more ponies outside.

“Hello?” I called out, lonely trotting down the large, dirt path through the centre of town. There was no answer to my call. “Is anypony here?” Again, no response.

I spotted a large bakery across the street and made my way over to it. It was a fairly patchwork looking building, a strange collage between pre-equestrian architecture and a gingerbread house. Multiple chimneys protruded from its slanted, candy covered roof, each one billowing smoke. a wonderful smell wafted from the bakery's windows, making me salivate. Whatever smelled so good in there, I wanted some.

I gave a quick knock on the front door, hoping for somepony to answer. When no pony did, I pushed the door open, clearing the way for me to walk the rest of the way in. I took a second to question why the door hadn’t been locked, only to quickly realize that to do so would have been pointless anyway. It wasn’t like anypony would ever try to steal something here.

The bakery was completely empty. Not a single pony filled its interior. A large stone oven smouldered on the far side of the room, a tray of cookies resting inside, completely unattended, but still perfectly cooked.

“Anypony in here?” I called out, my head glancing around. A waited for at least a minute, before deciding there wasn’t going to be a response. Seeing how there was nopony around to talk to, I waltzed over to the oven and picked one of the cookies up off of the tray with my magic. I looked it over for a second before taking a bite. It really was a perfect cookie.

Leisurely trotting back out into the streets of Ponyville, I let my eyes travel from one house to the next, scanning the windows for any signs of movement or life beyond. Outside a few curtains flowing in the breeze, I saw nothing.

A specific house caught my attention, though house might have been the wrong word. It was more like a large tree, with a house built inside of it. A red door was inset into the tree's front, and a couple of circular windows proved the existence of an upper level higher up. A small, wooden sign beside the front door announced the building's name in whimsical calligraphy. ‘The Golden Oak Library.’

Instantly, my eyes grew wide with excitement. A library! That meant books! I love books!

I paused. Why was there being a library in Ponyville surprising to me? I had lived here my whole life, right? Surely I had stopped by once or twice?

Hesitantly, but with no lack of excitement, I made my way over to the wooden, red painted door that led into the library. Feeling slightly giddy, I raised my hoof and gave the sturdy surface a quick knock.

To my surprise, I heard shuffling on the far side of the door. There was the sound of toppling books followed by a small squeak of surprise, before the door clicked open, giving me a clear view of the room beyond. The walls were lined with inset, wooden bookshelves, completely filled with row after row of old, well read books. But those were far from the only books that cluttered the library's interior. Piles of books spilled across a large, circular table in the centre of the room and piles of books had been stacked in almost every spot I looked, forming a sort of labyrinth of pages within the confines of the library's walls.

And I was loving it!

“I… I've never seen so many books!” I exclaimed, rushing in and staring in awe at the mounds of tomes, completely ignoring the pony who had pulled open the door for me. “There must be hundreds in here! Even thousands!” I started picking books up and flipping through their pages, my eyes rolling over words, but not bothering to actually read through any of the text.

“I, uh… who are you?” The pony that had opened the door for me asked, her voice a mix of surprise and hesitation. I glanced back at them, making out their purple coat and multi toned bangs.

I squinted at the pony, trying to remember where I had seen her before. “Do I know you? You look really familiar…” Before the pony could answer, I gave a small squeak of glee and returned to digging through the books again. “I must have seen you the last time I came to this library. Sorry, I’m a little forgetful today.”

The purple, unicorn mare continued to just stare at me. “Uh, yeah. Me too,” She glanced around, looking suspiciously at her books. “But I’m pretty sure you haven’t been to the library before. I would definitely have remembered that.”

I paused, something suddenly seeming very wrong. I looked back at her, my brows furrowing. “I haven't?”

The mare shook her head. “Not in the last five days at least,” That timeframe seemed significant somehow, but I couldn’t place my hoof on it. “Actually, I haven’t seen anypony in the last five days.”

I turned fully away from the books and faced the mare, now fully aware that something was seriously not right. “I couldn’t find anypony in town either. Which is weird, cause I’m pretty sure somepony was baking cookies in that bakery across the way only moments before I arrived.”

“Arrived?” The mare asked, her ears flopping to the side as she tried to figure out what I was saying. “Where were you before?” Suddenly her eyes widened with excitement and she bounced up and down on her hooves a little. “Wait, are you from Canterlot! I’ve been sending messages to Princess Celestia since I woke up and she hasn’t been answering any of them! Did she send you!?”

The mare was suddenly far too close to me for comfort, her large, pleading eyes looking into mine for answers. I sadly had to shake my head in response to her question. It pained me to see the excitement drain from her eyes. “No, sorry. I’m from… Well, I don’t really know where I’m from... Around here, I guess.”

The mare took a step back and sat down on her rump, her eyes still fixated on me quizzically. “Okay then… you still haven’t answered my question. Who are you?”

I raised an eyebrow at the question. “What do you mean? I’m just me?” I suddenly felt incredibly nervous, but I wasn’t sure why.

The mare’s brows furrowed. “Your name then? I’m Twilight Sparkle? What’s your name?”

I froze. My name? I knew what my name was, right? I glanced across the room, spotting a mirror hanging on the wall. I trotted over to it, looking over my reflection. I had a soft pink mane with a couple of light blue swirls in it, a matching pink coat; pristine and lacking any blemishes from dirt, and a pair of large amber eyes. “I’m, uh…” I shook the cobwebs from my head, roughly banging my hoof against my noggin in an attempt to shove my suddenly scattered thoughts back into my brain. “I’m A- Amb- Ambe- rrr,” I choked out, my head suddenly throbbing. “Ambe-r Au-ra…”

The second I said my name, a wave of pain flashed through me, dropping me to my knees. I screamed, agony flaring across my mind. I felt fire searing at my bones and for a fraction of a second, I felt my pulse go still.

“Sweet Celestia! Are you alright!?” The mare called Twilight gasped, rushing over to me and helping me back up to my hooves. I gave a loud shout of pain as the motion caused another wave of pain to surge through me, sending me once more stumbling, this time crashing into a pile of books, scattering them across the floor. Twilight backed up nervously, unsure what to do as I thrashed wildly.

After a few more moments of agony, the pain subsided and I managed to slow my breathing enough that I didn’t feel like I was about to explode. I slowly staggered back to my hooves, my head whipping around as if trying to find the answer to my troubles. I glanced over at Twilight, my eyes fearful. “What the heck is happening to me!?”

Twilight raised a hoof, gently laying it against my shoulder in a comforting gesture. “Why don’t we sit down. We can figure this out together. I have questions I want answered as well…”

I nodded, sniveling a little and letting Twilight lead me over to a small seating area on the far side of the room next to a crackling fireplace. She left my side just long enough to pour us each a cup of tea before returning and sitting down opposite to me.

“Alright, tell me everything that’s happened to you,” Twilight told me, her voice soothing. “Start from the beginning. You said that you didn’t know where you came from?”

I nodded, taking the tea in my magic and taking a sip. It tasted wonderful! “I, uh… There isn’t much to tell,” I told her, sitting back a little, closing my eyes and trying to shake the memory of the pains that had wracked my body only moments before. “I was out in the grassy fields outside Ponyville, then I came here. I couldn’t find anypony else in town and I like books, so I knocked on your door and you opened up.”

Twilight smiled a little at my mention of liking books, then she frowned. “Okay… so what happened before that?” When I failed to respond, she gave a small nod of understanding. “I’m guessing you don’t remember anything before that then?”

I frowned, but nodded. I sifted through my memories, trying to think of a time before I woke up on that grass field. I didn’t feel like I had amnesia, so why couldn’t I recall anything. “I… no, I can’t. It’s strange. I don’t remember anything, but I feel like this is all just normal.”

Twilight gave a grim nod. “I know. That’s exactly what I felt when I woke up five days ago too. It took me almost two days before I realized something was wrong. But like you, I can’t remember anything from before then. I mean, I have memories of my friends, and my studies with princess Celestia, and my brother and my family, but those memories feel like they were many years ago. I’m not sure how long I’ve been in this town alone, or where everypony else is. And there are other strange things too. I never get hungry, and the bakery and market it always stalked, even though there is no pony around to make the food.”

I licked my lips thoughtfully, piecing together the information. I wasn’t getting very far with it and kept slamming against mental brick walls. “Do you think there are other ponies like us out there?” I questioned, cocking my head to the side a little. “Ponies that woke up with no memory of anything?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not in Ponyville, you’re the first pony that I’ve seen in days, but I haven’t checked outside of Ponyville yet. There might still be some ponies in Canterlot. I thought I saw some flashes of light coming from up the mountain a few hours ago.”

I bit at my lip, my mind racing. “Canterlot? It’s still standing?”

Twilight gave me the most confused expression I had ever seen cross another ponies face. “Uh, yes. Of course it’s still standing. Why wouldn’t it be?”

I opened my mouth to answer, only to realize I didn’t have any reason to think it might be gone. “I- don’t know…” I mumbled, glancing down at my hooves. “I’m… I’m not quite sure why I said that…” I shook my head, trying to keep my mind on track. “So What do you think happened to everypony else?”

Twilight’s face contorted slightly in concentration. “It’s hard to say. When I first realized everypony was missing, I figured that I was the only pony left. But as the days went on, I started to go a little crazy,” She pulled out a notebook and started flipping through the pages, pointing at notes she had been scribbling down over the last few days. “I started to question bigger things, like what if everypony is there, and something happened to me, or if I was even real at all or if I had just lost my mind.”

“You don’t look too crazy to me,” I said, flashing a small smile.

Twilight grinned. “That’s because I remembered an old quote from a philosopher named René Descolt, back in ancient Cloudsdale, during the time of Flash Magnus and the Pegasus Legion.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, curious. “Oh? What’s that?”

“I think, therefore, I am,” Twilight said simply, flipping through her notes before showing off a page that had been completely dedicated to the one phrase. “Essentially, it means that while we cannot prove the existence of anything else in this life, we can, in fact know that we are real, because we think-”

“Therefore, we are,” I nodded, suddenly recalling the quote. “Yeah, I read about that in a book back in my Stable.”

For the second time, a look of sheer confusion passed over Twilight's face. “A Stable? You lived in a barn? Like ponies in the pre-Equestrian era?”

I opened my mouth to correct her when a stab of searing pain shot through my skull. Not nearly as much pain as before, but enough to make me double over, my hooves clutching at my head. “I- I don’t think I should talk about it-” I gasped, clenching my eyes together tight. “Thinking about that hurts my head.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Interesting. Memory of your past seems to have some sort of painful impact on you. That’s a new variable.”

I glanced up at her. “A new variable? What do you mean?”

“I mean that whatever is going on, there is something different happening between you and I,” She explained, tapping her chin with a lavender hoof. “At first glance, we seem to have ended up in the same situation, but for whatever reason, your lack of memory seems to be total and results in physical pain, while I only seem to be missing a smaller chunk of time and have not yet experienced any discomfort,” She tapped her chin again, her eyes darting back and forth. After a second, she stood up, gesturing for me to follow her as she started heading for a set of stairs that led to the floor below. “Come on. I want to test something out.”

“Uhhhhhhh… Are you really sure this is necessary?” I asked, staring at the metal clamps that had been fastened tightly around my hooves and the large, blinking headpiece that has been strapped to my head. “This seems a little extreme.”

“I’m positive,” Twilight assured me, plugging a curly green wire into the headpiece that trailed across the room to connect with a large, blinking device. “This device should monitor your brain waves. It seems clear to me that whatever is going on, our memory seems to be at the centre of it. So now, we can hopefully figure something out.”

I just looked at her blankly for a second before glancing at the machine. “Ooookay… So what does the machine say about my brain?”

Twilight went silent for a moment, reading over the large extent of squiggly lines that the machine seemed to produce. I tried to look over her shoulder at the readings, but none of them were making any sense to me, which was odd, because I was always so good at machines.

The sudden burst of pain that shot through my head almost made me black out. I screamed, slumping against the machine and desperately reefing against the restraints to try and free my hooves. I could feel more than see Twilight frantically rushing over to me, trying to figure out the source of the problem. A second later, the pain subsided.

“Amber? What happened? Did you do something?” Twilight gasped, her magic pulling a quill up into the air as she began furiously writing notes on the readings on the machine's graphs.

“I was just thinking about how it’s strange that I can’t understand that machine,” I grunted, wishing my hooves were free so I could rub my throbbing noggin. “I was always good with-” I stopped, a smaller jolt of pain flashing through me. “I think I should stop thinking about this now…”

Twilight gave me a concerned look before glancing back at the machine's readings. “These readings are strange. I’ve never seen anything like them befo-” Then she froze, her eyes widening as something clicked in her head. “Wait! Actually, I have seen these sorts of readings before… they’re- Sweet Celestia-”

“What? What is it?” I urged, craning my neck to try and make out the gibberish readings. I wasn’t able to get a clear look at them. “Where have you seen those before?”

Twilight was practically trembling as she took a step away from the machine. “But I was so certain… It can’t be…I-”

I groaned. “It can’t be what? What is going on?”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight turned to face me, a weary look across her face. “I-It’s just that… well…”

Knock, knock, knock…

We both froze, glancing up at the ceiling above us. We waited, expecting the sound to have just been a figment of our imagination, but after a few more seconds of waiting, the sound rang out again, louder this time.

Knock, knock, knock…

“Is that…” I said slowly, thinking it almost too good to be true.

Twilight nodded. “There’s somepony at the door,” She took a moment to steady her breathing before trotting over and unclamping my hooves. “Come on! Before they leave.”

Not waiting for me to answer, Twilight spun around and darted up the stairs. Still feeling a little dizzy from the burst of pain, I staggered up the stairs after her, trying my best to keep pace as the purple unicorn rushed to the door and flung it open. I slowed to a stop when I saw the two ponies standing on the other side.

They were two tall, large stallions with shining white coats and adorned in a clanking set of golden royal guard armour. Each one of them held a large, pointed spear and golden helmets rested atop each of their heads, though the apparel seemed more ceremonial than practical.

“Amber Aura,” One of the royal guards spoke, their eyes boring into me as they took an advancing step forwards into the large library. He pulled out an old looking scroll and unrolled it, reading the hoof fool of words that had been written across its surface. “You have been placed under arrest by order of his majesty. You are both to come with us willingly, or we will have to take you by force.”

I blinked, taking a step back in confusion. “Under Arrest?”

Twilight cocked her head to the side, looking back and forth between me and the two, looming guards, her face even more confused than mine. “His majesty?” She gave a loud huff and pointed an accusing hoof at the guard that had spoken. “What about Princess Celestia?”

“We are not authorized to give any information,” The guard replied flatly, both of them lowering their spears in a shockingly insync unison and aiming them at our throats. “Now, you will come with us.”

Twilight and I exchanged a worried glance, a sliver of fear passing through us as we faced off against the deadly looking, golden spears. After a moment of hesitation, we both backed down and lowered our gaze. “Where are you going to take us?”

“We are not authorized to give any information,” The guard repeated, his words echoing from his mouth with the same inflection as when they had spoken them before. “Now follow, or we will use force.”

Not knowing what else to do, I hesitantly trotted forwards, walking alongside Twilight as the two guards led us out of the library, one leading the way while the other took up a defensive position behind us.

“What do you think they’re going to do?” I whispered to Twilight as they pushed us forwards.

Twilight just gave me a calm look. “Hopefully take us to whomever this his majesty pony they spoke of is,” she glanced back at the guard who was trailing closely behind us, their spear ready to stab into us at a moments notice if we tried to run. “Something tells me this pony might have the answers we’re looking for.”

“So everypony but us has gone missing, but there is still a royal guard?” I questioned, trying to make sense of what was happening in my head. “How does that make any sense?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they have something to do with it?”

“Do you think we should ask the guards about it?” I asked, gesturing to the guards.

“Do you think they’ll give us an answer that isn’t them being unauthorized to give us information?”

I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot,” I glanced back at the guard following behind us. “Do you know what happened to everypony and where they all went?”

“We are not authorized to give any information,” The guard replied back in their icy monotone, pushing us ever forward with a small shake of their spear.

“I should have seen that coming,” I grunted. Twilight’s lips smirked slightly. “Oh, don’t give me that look…”

The guards led us through the empty streets of the town. It should have been eerie, seeing such a lively, beautiful town so devoid of life, but the whole area seemed to have a strange sense of calmness to it. It was like walking through a dream where everything was perfect.

Eventually, the two guards had us round a corner, taking us down a dirt road that led to the very centre of town. Ahead of us, I could see a large, circular building in the middle of the village, its pointed, red roof towering high above all the other buildings. In front of the building stood two rows of royal guards, each one adorned in a matching set of the golden, ceremonial armor. A large platform had been erected before the building, its flat surface holding what appeared to be a tall wooden contraption of some kind.

“What the heck is that?” I asked, squinting my eyes as I tried to make out the shape of the large contraption.

Beside me, I could see Twilight start to squirm uncomfortably. “A-Amber… that’s a… a…” She glanced nervously at the guard, her eyes narrowing. “What is going on here?! Guillotines have been illegal in Equestria for over a hundred years?”

“We are not authoriz-”

“Oh dear Celestia, I get it!” I grumbled, cutting the guard off. “You can’t tell us anything… we know! Fuck!” Twilight looked shocked at my language, wincing away slightly.

“Amber… That was a bad word…”

I just gave Twilight a flat look. “Really?” I pointed at the big Guillotine. “They have a big head cutting off device over there and you’re getting at me for bad language?”

“I’ve just- I’ve never heard another pony say words like that before…” Twilight admitted, almost sheepishly as the guards finally pulled us to a stop before the large platform.

I continued to give her a blank stare. “Really? Never? Not once?” I blinked, trying to figure out why that statement made such little sense in my head. “What are you? From Pre-war Equestria?”

Twilight scrunched up her muzzle at the remark. “Pre-war Equestria? Amber? What are you talking about? What war?”

“How do you not know about the-” My mind blanked and I dropped to the ground, a wave of agony flaring up in my mind. I screamed, my hooves thrashing wildly as I tried desperately to put an end to the searing pain. It felt like my very head had caught fire.

“Amber!” my ringing ears heard Twilight screech. She dropped down beside me, trying to help me back to my hooves. “Please! You need to help her!” She shouted frantically, trying to get the guards assistance. “I don’t know what’s been happening to her!”

“Step up onto the platform,” was all the guard said in response, gesturing to a small ramp that led up the the top of the platform.

Twilight stared up at him in horror, her eyes wide and her hooves stilling. “Wait… You want us too… to go up…” She glanced up at the looming guillotine. “Oh Celestia… That’s for us... You’re going to kill us…”

“You have been sentenced to death by order of his royal majesty,” The guard stated bluntly. “Now pull her up and step up onto the platform.”

Wincing through the pain, I crawled back up to my hooves. I glanced nervously at Twilight, making out her two terrified eyes as they looked back at me. I felt myself trembling a little. “What should we do?”

Twilight glanced up at the guillotine. I could practically see a hundred different thoughts flashing through her mind. “I have an idea, but…” She paused, glaring at the guard for a second before looking back at me. “How good are you at running?”

I grimaced. “Uh, I don't know... Kinda fast? I guess? I can’t really remember...”

“If you try to run, you will be killed on sight,” The guard beside us grunted, lowering and aiming their spear. “Now step up onto the platform.”

Twilight gulped as the spear poised itself inches from her neck. She glanced over at me. “Get ready to run.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the next thing I knew, Twilight’s horn flared with magic and I was surrounded by a blinding flash of light.

I hit the ground hard, my head reeling and all my senses disorientated. I glanced up, seeing the guillotine platform now a few yards away from me. I looked over at Twilight as she staggered a little, trying to keep her balance after the dizziness induced from teleporting.

“Run!” She shouted at me, shaking the dizziness from her head and pushing me forward with a hoof. “Run now!”

I glanced back at the platform, making out the sight of all of the guards rushing across the village towards us at full speed. One of them threw their spear like a javelin, the long, pointed stick flashing past my head and embedding itself in the wall of the cottage beside me.

I gave a quick nod of agreement. “Yup, time to run.”

I spun around, my hooves kicking up clouds of dirt as I dashed away down the road beside Twilight. We ran as fast as we could, the quaint cottages making up the small town blurring past us as we raced forwards. Twilight took a sharp turn, leading me down a narrow side alley between two houses before rushing out once more into what I think was some kind of garden. It was hard to be sure with the speed in which we raced by it.

Behind us, I could hear the guards shouting at us, ordering for us to stop in their steady and monotone voice. I was rather put out to find that not a single one of them sounded even remotely winded.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for myself. We had been running for, what? Ten seconds, and already I could feel my breath running short and my hooves starting to ache.

“I… am not… built for… running… apparently…” I gasped out, whipping around a corner after Twilight. One of my hooves tripped on a rock, sending me stumbling forwards a bit before I managed to catch myself and keep running.

“Me… neither…” Twilight gasped, turning only enough to glance at the guards behind us. They were gaining on us fast. Far faster than I would have liked. “Come on! We need to lose these guys!”

“But how!” I wheeze, once again darting around another corner after the speeding unicorn.

Twilight looked around, her head whipping back and forth as she looked for anything to help us. Even from a few steps behind her, I saw her grimace. “I have a plan, but I don’t like it!”

“Anything is better than this!” I shouted back, ducking a little to the side as another spear was sent hurtling past my head.

Twilight gulped, her hooves suddenly shifting direction and taking her another direction. “Then follow me! We’ll lose them inside the forest!”

I nodded, shifting my momentum to shoot after her without losing speed. I heard one of the guards give a shout of annoyance as they had to swerve to avoid crashing into a building and keep following us.

Not far ahead, I saw the forest that Twilight was talking about. A massive, sprawling wall of twisting vines and dense bramble had burst from the ground around the edges of the town. A deep stream of raging rapids separated us from the massive forest, a small bridge nearby to a cozy looking, leaf topped cottage, being the only thing connecting us to the far side.

Biting down hard on my lip, I put on a burst of speed, finally falling in step with Twilight. I could feel my energy draining fast with each pounding step of my hoof as I powered head first towards the bridge.

“Stop them! Don’t let them get into the woods!” I heard a lead guard shouting, another spear flashing past us.

Damn, so they had already caught onto our plan.

Twilight and I reached the bridge, neither of us daring to wait a single second before climbing up onto it and rushing for the far side. I only got about half way when I heard a loud shout, followed by a pair of strong hooves reaching out and wrapping tightly around my hind hooves.

I crashed to the ground, twisting around to make out the guard that had leapt forwards and tackled into me. I flailed my hooves, kicking at him and trying to pull myself free. My efforts were in vain as the guard pulled themself back up to loom over me, their grip tightening.

Twilight spun around, her horn glowing and wrapping the guard assiling me in a field of magic. The guard gave a shout of surprise, their hooves loosening on me as they instinctively reached for their spear.

With a loud shout, Twilight sent the guard flying backwards through the air, his body clearing the bridge and slamming into another guard. She rushed over to me, quickly helping me back to my hooves.

“Thanks,” I said, breathing heavily as I tried to force air back into my lungs.

Twilight gave me a small grin. “Don’t mention it.”

A spear flashed through the air towards us, its razor sharp end jabbing into Twilight’s forehoof. Twilight screamed, dropping to the bridge's cobblestone surface with a loud thud, blood spilling down her leg from the wound and seeping out across the floor.

Gritting my teeth, I wrapped the purple unicorn up in my magic and threw her over my back, my legs aching as I tried rushing across the rest of the bridge while carrying her weight. I staggered to the side, trying to avoid another flying spear that was sent my way.

“Almost… there…” I grunted, my whole body trembling under the mental and physical exertion.

Behind me, I heard the pounding of hooves as three more guards rushed up onto the bridge after us. I didn’t bother looking back at them, my chest heaving as I dove for the far side of the bridge, Twilight bumping painfully up and down on my back.

I heard the telltale sound of magic as Twilight charged up her horn. I was going to ask what she was doing, but the second I stepped off the bridge, she gave me my answer. A massive beam of purple light lanced out from the tip of Twilight’s horn, slamming into the bridge and sending huge cracks shooting across its stone surface. The guards on the bridge reeled back, trying to move to safety as a large section of the bridge started to fall away.

“Get off the bridge! Now!” I heard a guard shouting, followed by the clopping of hooves as the frantic guards quickly stumbled back to safety. A second later, there was a tremendous crash as the bridge collapsed, large chunks of stone crashing down into the churning water below.

I let a loud whooping sound escape my lips as I watched the surging waves consume the crumbling bridge. “Hell yeah Twilight! That was awesome!”

Twilight gave me a weak grin from atop my back. “Thanks…”

One of the guards launched their spear at us, the long, pointed rod sailing clear over the stream and embedding itself deep into the ground right beside my hoof. I flinched back, the deadly weapon coming close to impaling me.

“We should probably get moving, shouldn’t we,” I gulped, pushing through the pain and continuing the last little stretch of the way to the forest. “Come on. We need to find something to patch you up.”

I gave a loud grunt as I finally slowed to a stop and set Twilight down against a large tree. Wincing at my sore hooves, I crouched down and looked Twilight’s bleeding hoof over. There was a lot of blood.

“That looks like it hurts,” I grimaced, applying a bit of pressure to the wound. The blood seeped over my hooves, soaking my pink coat crimson.

Twilight bit her lip, trying to bite back a whine of pain. “I-I’ll be okay. Really. I think I know a spell for this sort of thing anyway,” her horn glowed for a second before abruptly tapering out. She looked up in surprise as the last bits of glow around her horn died away. “Or… not? I guess I overexerted myself with that last spell more than I thought...”

“You’re probably going into shock,” I said in as soothing a voice as I could muster, trying my best to stay calm. It was shockingly difficult and I could feel my whole body trembling. “You just hold tight. I’m going to find something to wrap your hoof in.”

“I have a friend out here,” Twilight said quickly, reaching out to stop me before I could pull away. “She’s a healer. She can help us.”

I raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously. “Do you think she’s still around? What makes you think she hasn’t gone missing like everypony else?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t know. I hope she’s still there. If not, there should still be plenty of healing supplies in there. I’m sure she won’t mind us borrowing them.”

I felt the smallest of grins sneak onto my face. “Scavenging for supplies. I can do that,” I leaned back down and hoisted her back onto my back, gritting my teeth a little as her weight bore down on my weary hooves. “Lead the way.”

Twilight glanced up at the sky for a second, before pointing to our right. Nodding, I began trotting in the direction she was leading me. For a few moments, we walked in silence, neither one of us really knowing what to say. After a moment of awkwardness, I spoke up. “Twi… you said you didn’t like the plan of hiding in the woods. Dare I ask why?”

I could feel Twilight's body stiffen across my back. “This is the Everfree forest. This place is dangerous.”

Oh perfect, a dangerous forest. Just my luck. I gulped, glancing around. “What kind of dangers are we talking about?”

“Timberwolves, Manticors, deadly plants, uncontrollable weather,” Twilight summarized, pointing me another direction as I weaved my way through the dense foliage. “Essentially, there are a lot of things in here that want to eat us for supper.”

I nodded, though I could feel my confusion growing. “Wild animals, huh?” I slowed my pace a little, my ears swiveling as I tried to hear the telltale signs of anything approaching us in the thick woods. I heard nothing. Now howls, no snapping twigs, not even the chirp of birds. The forest was dead silent. “It doesn’t sound like there are any strange creatures in the woods with us…”

Twilight let her ears perk up as well, listening carefully to the woods around us. She heard little else but wind whistling through the branches. She gave me a skeptical look. “Maybe they are gone like everypony else.”

I nodded. “For once, I sure hope so.”

I had only gotten a few more steps when Twilight spoke up again. “Amber, can I ask you a question? And uh… it might sound a little odd.”

I gave her a small nod. “Sure, shoot?”

Twilight bit her lip for a second, rolling her question around in her head. “Back with those guards… you mentioned a war… Specifically the words pre-war, as in one that happened in the past... What did you mean by that?”

I paused, slowing to a complete stop in the middle of the woods. “I, um… I don’t know…” I furrowed my brows, suddenly finding it strangely hard to even remember the conversation Twilight was referring to. “I think… the one between… uh…” I blinked again, trying to make sense of the jumbled thoughts in my head. “The one between ponies and zebras.”

Twilight gave me a worried look. “Amber… There is no war between ponies and zebras. At least not one that I am aware of.”

I ruminate on that for a second, trying to think of more details of this supposed war I was referring too. “I, uh… I guess I’m just feeling weird today,” I finally said, continuing my trot forwards. “Maybe this whole forgetfulness thing is making me have weird thoughts as well.”

Twilight shook her head. “Maybe… But those brain scans… I think you might be thinking more clearly than me…”

I turned my head back to look back at Twilight from over my shoulder. “What do you mean? What did those scans even say?”

Twilight paused, trying to think of the best way to phrase what she was about to. “I’ve only seen readings like those once before, and it was in a study on brian activity while in a state of REM. Your scan was almost exactly the same.”

“A state of REM?” I questioned, rolling those words around in my head. “As in like… I’m dreaming right now?”

Twilight gave a hesitant nod. “It would seem so. But unless you are the most coherent sleepwalker in Equestria, that doesn’t make any sense, unless…”

“...Unless this is all just my dream,” I finished for her, coming to the obvious conclusion myself. I looked back at her again. “So then… what? Are you not real either?”

Twilight trembled a little on my back. “I- I don’t…” She closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. “I was so certain that I was real. I can think, feel things… I did a scan of my own brain yesterday and everything seemed fine…”

“But now you don’t know,” I concluded, frowning a little. “Because nothing makes sense and the only logical solution is that this is all just inside of my head.”

Twilight gave a slow nod. “You keep saying these things that don't make sense. You live in a stable, there was a war between ponies and zebras. None of that is like anything that I can remember seeing or even reading about,” She shook her head a little, glancing up at the sky. “But there are things that don’t make sense about that theory either. Why the loss of memory? And if this is all your dream, why would I have shown up here five days before you did? Wouldn’t all aspects of a dream start at the same time?”

“Well I’m pretty sure that I’m real, so...” I let my thoughts taper off slowly. “Sorry, Twi. Never mind.”

“Amber, listen to me,” Twilight said, her voice sounding strangely commanding, yet with no lack of fear. “I am real. You have to believe me.”

I took a slow breath and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I believe you. Something tells me that there is more to all this than just my brain being weird.”

Twilight gave me a small smile. “Thank you… If you didn’t believe me, I think I might have lost it… It’s been- well, it’s been hard trying to keep sane in a world where you’re the only pony.”

I opened my mouth to respond, only for my eyes to spot two dark shapes flashing towards us from above. I gave a startled yelp and ducked behind a tree, moving behind cover as quickly as I could. Twilight gave a surprised “eep”, her hooves clamping down over her mouth to keep from screaming as I abruptly jerked her about.

Slowly, I peaked my head out from behind the large tree trunk, my amber eyes sweeping the sky. I spotted the shapes almost at once, their forms rapidly drawing closer and closer to us. They were two of the royal guards, these ones pegasi clad in heavy gold armour. Each one was carrying some sort of magically enhanced lance.

I quickly pulled my head back as the two armoured pegasi came in for landing. I hear the loud clunk of their metal clad hooves as they touched down. I held my breath, not daring to make a noise as the two guards began fanning out, undoubtedly searching for us. Beside me, I saw Twilight do the same. Her whole body was trembling against me as she tried to curl up and make herself look as small as possible.

The sound of hoofsteps grew closer. Each stomp of the approaching pegasus guards hoof seemed to thunder around us, their rhythm seemingly mechanical. I saw the tip of a spear out of the corner of my eye as one of the guards walked up beside the tree we were cowering behind. I could practically feel the guards' chilling breath as their icy gaze swept the forest.

After a second, the guard withdrew, the sound of wings flapping being the only indication that they had taken to the air. I felt myself curse under my breath, realizing that meant I would have no way of telling where they were.

Goddesses, winged enemies were so unfair.

Seconds passed, maybe minutes. Each passing moment I could feel myself going into a deeper state of paranoia. Were the guards gone? Or were they still waiting for us right outside of our line of sight? Finally, I managed to work up enough courage to slowly peak back out and look around. Both guards were gone.

I let myself exhale, the tense muscles in my neck releasing. “Okay, they’re gone,” I told Twilight, slowly pulling her back onto my back.

“You think they were looking for us?” She asked, pushing with her hind legs to help me pull her up.

I gave her a flat look. “What do you think?”

“Sorry, dumb question.”

With Twilight once more on my back, I began trotting forward. “Alright, which way now?”

Twilight pointed off to our left. “That way. We’re almost there. It should be just over that hill.”

Nodding, I trotted in the direction she suggested, using my magic to brush aside the overgrown bramble that moved to block my path. After a few moments, I heard Twilight give a sigh of relief. I looked up, my eyes making out the large hollowed out tree in the middle of a small clearing. Strange lanterns and multicoloured masks hung from the tree branches and a large door had been carved into the tree's front, creating a small entrance into the building beyond.

“Your friend is a… zebra?” I asked, my eyes lingering on the coloured, wooden masks.

I felt Twilight stiffen atop my back at that remark. “She is… yes. I know that you think there was some sort of war between ponies and zebras, and maybe there is, but Zecora is nice. And if you are going to hate her simply for being a zebra, we are going to have to have some stern words.”

I didn’t know why, but something about that statement I found to be incredibly amusing. “Don't worry. I don’t hate zebras,” I replied with a small chuckle. For some other reason that I didn’t fully understand, I felt myself blush. “I think they’re stripes are kinda pretty actually.”

Twilight’s muscles relaxed at that. “Oh, good. I’m glad.”

As we got closer to the hollowed tree, I spotted a small farm of some kind being grown a few feet away from the cottage. It was small, clearly not intended to feed any more than one pony.

“That’s new,” Twilight remarked, her eyes fixated on the small area of crops.

“How so?” I questioned, following her gaze. “I’d imagine that this Zecora would want to grow food, right? I mean, there isn’t really a grocery store out in the woods, is there?”

Twilight shook her head. “Well that’s just it. Zecora usually came into town to get food. I asked her about it once, and she told me it was her way of keeping in touch with the ponies of Ponyville. Why would she start growing food now?”

“Maybe it’s a sign she’s still here, and she had to grow food because everypony else is gone?” I suggested. It was a rather lame answer, but it was all I could think of.

“Maybe,” Was all Twilight had to say in response.

We slowly moved up to the wooden door. I stole myself for a moment, before lifting my hoof and giving the door a quick rap.

Silence.

I sighed. I suppose it was too much to hope they weren’t missing too. I guess that ruled out my crop theory then. I knocked once more just for good measure, before gently pushing the door open with my magic and moving into the hollowed tree.

The inside of the tree was just about what I had expected considering its appearance on the outside. The large room was lit solely by candles and lanterns, giving the whole area a cozy, warm glow. The curved walls held more colourful masks and rows of shelves, each one holding up collections of potions, ingredients and old scrolls. A large cauldron bubbled in the middle of the room, its contents emitting an eerie looking green glow.

“Was this zecora some kind of witch?” I questioned, my eyes rolling over the ritualistic contents of the room. “I’m pretty sure most zebra’s aren’t this… uh… mystical.”

Twilight giggled a little. “Zecora is a little strange and not like a lot of other zebra tribes that I have read about, but she is really nice,” Her face fell. “Or she was. It looks like she isn’t here either.”

Laying Twilight down on a bed on the far side of the room, I began skimming the shelves for something to patch her leg up with. I found most of the potion bottles unlabeled, making gauging their contents to be incredibly difficult. Seriously, one could very easily mix up potions in this place if they weren't careful. To my relief, I found a large wad of gauze, which I quickly swiped off the shelf before returning to Twilight’s side.

“Hold still, I’m going to wrap up the wound,” I told her, stating the obvious. Twilight gave me a small nod, her teeth biting down on her lower lip as she tried to keep quiet as I began wrapping the thick gauze tightly around the gaping hole. “It doesn’t seem broken,” I said, only somewhat cheerfully. “So that’s a bonus. Give it a day and your leg should be fine.”

“You seem to know a fair bit about medicine,” Twilight remarked, watching over my work as I began triple wrapping her leg. “I was going to instruct you, but you seem to know it fairly well already.”

I shrugged. “I know the basics. I’ve had lots of practice, I guess,” a small throbbing in the back of my skull warned me not to dive down that train of thought any further. I pulled tight on the gauze, getting a small whinny of pain out of Twilight before biting it in half and sitting back. “That should do it.”

“Zecora usually kept some healing potions around,” Twilight told me, stretching her leg out a little. She winced as she bent her joint. “Most ponies that she would meet in the Everfree usually needed some.”

I gave a quick nod. “Healing potions, got it,” I stood up, my gaze once more scanning the cluttered shelves. “Just rest your leg. I’ll see if I can find anything.”

The shelves seemed to have been very methodically organized. Unfortunately for me, all the labels, what few there were anyway, appeared to all be written in zebra glyphs. I groaned, squinting as I tried to make sense of the runic like figures that had been carved into one of the shelves. “Damn. I wish I had asked Xayah to teach me zebra,” I muttered, not really knowing who this Xayah I was talking about was. Probably another one of my weird past things that would make me feel like I was on fire if I thought too deeply into it.

My eyes landed on a hat that was resting on a shelf a few rows down from me. I narrowed my eyes at it, something about the article of clothing feeling wrong. “Hey Twilight?!” I called back, trotting over to the hat and lifting it up. “Did this zecora ever wear a hat like this? It looks kind of out of place with all the mystic masks and potions and stuff.”

Twilight squinted at the hat from across the room. It was a battered looking, wide brimmed fedora with two small holes on one side of the brim that appeared to be bullet holes. “I don’t think so,” She responded, clearly wanting to walk over and look the hat over more closely. “I’ve never seen her wear anything other than her jewelry… And that kind of hat is a little out of fashion. Rarity would be devastated,” Twilight paused. “Or maybe she would appreciate it as a throwback to fashion history. Always hard to tell with her. Either way, not many ponies wear a hat like that. Not unless they’re in Manehattan. I think it’s still fashionable over there.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t keep up much with fashion, do you?”

Twilight gave a coy smile. “Not in the slightest.”

Bang!

We both practically jumped out of our skin as the front door was violently slammed open, two pegasus guards barging into the room, their sparking lances already aimed at our throats. “Twilight Sparkle and Amber Aura, you are to surrender immediately or you will be executed!” The leading guard pony ordered, planting their hooves firmly down on the ground in front of them and standing stoic before us. “Resistance will be met with extreme force!”

I nervously glanced back at Twilight, my knees trembling. Shit, I hadn’t expected them to find us so fast. I backed up, my hind fetlocks bumping up against the back wall of the cottage.

“A-Amber… do you have a plan,” I heard Twilight squeak nervously as she tried to pull herself up to her hooves. Her wounded fore hoof gave out from under her and she staggered back onto the bed.

My eyes darted back and forth, looking for some way out. My eyes landed on the window, only to see another guard standing guard outside of it.

“Surrender now, or be executed!” The guard ordered again, this time stomping towards us. The guard beside them taking an advancing step of their own.

My gaze landed on the large stirring stick that was protruding from the glowing cauldron in the centre of the room. Not daring to second guess myself, I wrapped my magic around the large stick and flung it forwards, ramming the end of it into the leading guard's head.

The guard stumbled back with a roar of pain, only for them to quickly regain their balance and lunge forwards, their magically enhanced lance flashing towards my chest. I gave a yelp of fear and dove back, the armoured guards attack sailing over my head and shattering a bunch of the potion vials on the shelf behind me, causing glass and multi-coloured fluids to go flying in every direction.

The other guard rushed forwards, their own lance aimed at Twilight. Twilight’s horn flared, quickly erecting a magical shield between herself and the assailing guard. The lance bounced off the magical barrier, leaving Twilight herself unharmed, but the magical shield itself exploded, the guards magically enhanced weapon sending magical sparks of its own flashing across the magical constructs surface.

I jumped back again, only narrowly avoiding having a sparking lance stabbed straight through my face. I spun around and bucked back, my hind hooves kicking out and pounding heavily against the attacking pegasus’ chest. My kick did little but annoy the guard as my hooves bounced harmlessly off their thick armour, knocking me to the ground.

“Wow, you’re like… strong, huh,” I grunted, rubbing my head with a hoof as I looked up at the looming guard. The guard’s only response was to lunge again, their wings beating rapidly at their sides as they flashed towards me with unparalleled speed. I gave a yelp of fear and scrambled out of the way, their lance skewering the spot I had been only seconds before.

Twilight rolled across the floor, the gauze wrapped around her leg already red from the blood seeping through the bandages. The armoured pegasus rushed after her, moving far faster than Twilight was able to dodge.

Twilight’s leg faltered, sending her sprawling across the floor. She rolled over, looking up just in time to see the armoured guard rear up above her, lance poised to spear her heart.

Bang!

Blood burst from the bullet hole between the rearing guards eyes as a loud gunshot rang out. Twilight screamed, her whole body flinching as her face was splattered with the guards blood.

The guard attacking me looked up in surprise, only for another shot to ring out. The bullet once more pierced the guard between the eyes with near impossible accuracy, blood and brain matter spewing out the back of their head and coating the walls and floor in crimson. But the bullet didn’t stop. It carried through the guards head, shattering the window behind them. A second later, the guard dropped to the ground, dead.

I took a deep breath, my chest heaving as I rolled back up onto my hooves. I glanced at the broken window first, making out the blood splattered glass shards and the now dead guard that had been shot down outside. Whomever our savior was, they were a damn good shot.

Shaking a little, I turned to face the doorway where a shadowed figure stood. They were a beige stallion, only a little taller than average, dressed in a long brown trench coat that hung around their mud soaked hooves. His dusty brown mane was unkempt and a smoking .44 revolver was held tight in his mouth.

Slowly stepping into the warm light of the cottage, he spat his revolver into a holser secured to his left forehoof and trotted over to the large mess of broken potion bottles against the far wall. He paused, looking the shattered potions over for a moment before leaning down and scooping the wide brimmed fedora off the ground and tossing it lazily onto his head.

He turned, his eyes looking Twilight and I up and down as if questioning if he should shoot us as well. For a very uncomfortable amount of time, we all just stood there, not quite sure what to do.

Finally, Twilight was the one to break the silence. “Uh, thank you for saving us.”

“You’re welcome,” The mysterious pony answered bluntly, still looking us over with an appraising eye. “How did you find me?”

Twilight and I exchanged a confused glance. “We were hiding in the forest from those royal guards,” Twilight eventually answered honestly. “We didn’t think any other ponies would be out here. We were hoping to find Zecora, but it seemed she has gone missing too.”

The mysterious stranger cocked an eyebrow. “Missing?”

“You know, vanished. Disappeared,” I tried to explain, waving my fore hooves in exasperation. “Like how everypony in Ponyville is mysteriously missing save from these crazy killer guards!”

“I understand what the word means, but to say everypony is missing is to imply they were ever, or should ever have been here,” The mysterious Stranger said stoically. After a moment, he took a step towards me, his eyes suspicious. “Surely, you understand where we are, Amber? What all of this is?”

I took a surprised step back. “Y-you… you know my name?”

Again, the mysterious stranger seemed surprised. “Did you expect me not too?”

“You seem to have a pretty good idea of what is going on here,” Twilight butted in, her voice almost accusing. “Why don’t you try to fill us in?”

The stranger nodded. “I have had a decent amount of time to figure things out, yes,” his gaze turned to stare at Twilight directly. He glanced down at her bleeding leg for a second before turning and starting to comb through the shattered potion vials on the floor. “What I do not know, however, is what you are doing here, Twilight Sparkle.”

Now it was Twilights turn to take a surprised step back. “You know who I am too?”

For the first time since appearing, the mysterious stranger cracked a small smile, and with no lack of amusement, he replied, “Who doesn’t?” He picked an only slightly cracked potion bottle off the floor and hoofed it over to Twilight. “Here, this will help with your leg.”

Twilight gingerly took the healing potion, looking it over skeptically before gulping down it’s contents. “Uh… thanks.”

The stranger nodded before turning back to face me. “So you do not recognize me, or know how you got to this place?”

I shook my head, still feeling a little unsettled that this complete (seemingly complete) stranger knew so much about us. “I just woke up. Don’t remember a thing about what happened before.”

The mysterious Stranger nodded. “Curious. Perhaps the Utopia program is trying to protect you from remembering what happened to you.”

I furrowed my brow at that response. “The Utopia program? What happened to me?”

In response, the mysterious stranger turned and started walking out of Zecora’s hut. “Follow me. I will do my best to explain everything while I tend to my crops.”

“So those crops were yours then?” Twilight asked, limping beside me as we followed the stranger out.

“Indeed,” The mysterious pony replied simply. “We don’t need to eat in this place, but it helps me pass the time. It can get lonely here without others,” he picked up a watering can that rested against the side of the cottage. “Now… where to begin. It all began with a pony named Silver Ace…”

I stared at the water seeping into the fertile soil for a long moment as I tried to let all of the information the mysterious stranger had bestowed upon us sink in. I furrowed my brow as I tried to piece all the information together in my head. I wasn’t doing a very good job.

“Okay, so let me try and get this straight,” I finally started, rubbing my forehead tiredly with a hoof. “A pony named Silver Ace was working for a stuck-up aristocrat named Pureblood to create a giant world simulation inside of a massive memory orb made up of the memories of six ministry mares so that he could recreate Equestria in his own, deranged, purist vision? And to do all that, they had to manipulate a secret government organization consisting of changelings called the Institute that was run by Twilight here and some business executive named Scootaloo? And now, two hundred years later, I, for reasons you refuse to tell me, was trying to stop Pureblood, who’s now a brain robot thing, from launching the Utopia Program, failed, then jumped into the Utopia Program myself and this is all some sort of memory inside said program?”

The mysterious stranger just stoically nodded and continued to water his plants.

“That’s insane!” Twilight blurted, waving her hoof at the stranger insistently. The stranger didn’t even look up at her. “Ignoring the fact that technology is not even remotely advanced enough to create memory orbs that last longer than a minute at the most, let alone hold an entire virtual, growing existence, I think I’d remember doing something as absurd as that, or if I was in charge of a secret government organization with changelings,” she stomped her hooves a couple times in agitation. “And and and, I don’t know! None of this makes sense… what you’re suggesting… This- this apocalypse! Something like that could never happen to Equestria! Princess Celestia wouldn’t let it!”

At that, the mysterious Stranger jerked his head up and glared at Twilight, almost venomously. “Celestia would,” the stranger spat. “When Equestria needed her most, Celestia stepped down! When Equestria was on fire and balefire rained from the skies, where was the great Celestia? No where! She fled! She let Equestria burn!”

Twilight scowled. “No! You’re… you’re wrong! She wouldn't do that!”

“Twi, I- I think he might be telling the truth,” I said softly, a strange, hollow feeling opening up in my gut.

Twilight spun on me faster than I expected. “What would you know! You don’t even remember past an hour ago!”

I took a step back, surprised by her sudden hostility. “I- I don’t know… It just… it feels right. Like I already knew all of this… somehow…”

Twilight scowled. “Feels right?! Nothing about this feels right!” She took a step back, closing her eyes and putting a hoof to her chest. Slowly, Twilight exhaled, her enraged expression softening. When she opened her eyes, she seemed a lot calmer. “I-I’m sorry. This is all just so much. Five days ago I was having a picnic with my friends, now… Now I’m being told that that was over two hundred years ago and that the world I love has been rendered to a wasteland…” She sat down hard on her rump, staring forlornly at the rich soil. “It can’t be true… It just can't…”

A bit of the venom in the strangers' eyes subsided. “My apologies for my outburst,” He said, his tone hardly fitting for an apology. “I came to terms with this many, many years ago. This must all be very strange and upsetting for both of you.”

“Okay, so you’ve told us about the Utopia program,” I stated, trying to drag our derailed conversation back on track. “But you refused to tell us anything about why I was trying to stop this Pureblood character. You seemed to suggest you knew why my memories are gone, but you refused to say anything about it.”

The stranger was silent for a bit as they thought that over. “I refused to say anything because I do not know the full nature of why your memory is gone,” He finally answered, turning back to his crops as he began watering them again. “But I have my suspicions.”

“Okay… can you elaborate upon those?” I pushed, feeling a little put out by his avoidance of the topic.

The stranger nodded. “I can. You see, a pony shouldn’t lose their memory when entering the Utopia program. Not unless the pony in control of the program wanted you to lose it. So I have reason to suspect that your lack of memory is from something else. Tell me Amber, do you remember how you entered the Utopia program?”

I scrunched up my muzzle in thought as I tried to remember. It was like trying to remember an event that you weren’t present for. I was very much unsuccessful. “No. I don’t.”

“And that’s probably for the best,” The stranger grunted. “Normally, entering the Utopia program is a perfectly safe and painless process. Robots can download themselves into it, ponies can put themselves into stasis pods in the Institute that will transfer their minds into it. Certain tech such as the Enclave’s hellhound headpieces can lock onto Utopia’s frequencies. Most commonly, the pony in control of the Utopia program can bring the consciousness of anypony they want into the Utopia program at will. You did none of those things.”

“What did I do?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“You threw yourself head first into the Utopia program itself,” the stranger grunted bluntly.

I glanced around, expecting the significance of that to make sense at any second. It never did. “Oookay… Well that doesn’t sound so bad.”

The mysterious stranger just stared at me with a flat, almost disbelieving look. “The Utopia program generates an unbelievable amount of heat. You practically threw yourself into a miniature sun.”

I felt myself wilt a little. “Oh…”

The stranger whinnied. “Oh, is correct. I doubt that outside of this simulation, you exist as anything more than a charred pile of bones. The mere fact that you managed to survive long enough to trap your mind in the Utopia Program is a miracle. Your lack of memory is likely the Utopia Program doing its best to keep your mind from completely fracturing apart. How it managed to do so on its own fruition however, I don't know.”

“Oh…” I breathed again, this time with a little more fear in my voice. I could feel a shudder running down my spine. “So when I try to remember my past and everything starts hurting and I feel like I’m on fire…”

“You’re likely reliving the pain of what happened to you when you dove into the Utopia Program, yes,” The stranger finished for me.

“Wait, but how do we know this Pureblood didn’t just wipe Amber's memory instead?” Twilight asked, finally looking up from the ground to join in on the conversation. “You said that whoever controls the Utopia Program would be able to wipe the memory of anypony that enters it. What if that was why Amber is missing her memory?”

“It’s possible, I suppose,” The mysterious stranger grumbled. “The pony who controls the Utopia Program is granted near unlimited control over a ponies' minds, and not just the ponies inside the Utopia Program either. They have control over every creature's mind that is within the Programs range of effect. Wiping memories, implanting memories, creating false memories, even mind control.”

“And just how big is the Utopia Programs range?” I dared myself to ask.

The stranger gave me a grim look. “It was designed to reach as far as the zebra lands, so no pony in Equestria is safe from its influence.”

I gulped. That was bad. Really, really bad.

“Well, if what you say is true, then Pureblood would have known that Amber was coming after him. So maybe he wiped her mind to try and stop her?” Twilight pushed. “That means there’s still hope Amber is alive outside of the program,” Something in her words sounded desperate. As if she needed for me to be alive. It hit me that Twilight was likely realizing she was in a very similar situation to me, except she was long dead outside of this program. There was no hope for her once all of this was over.

Unfortunately, the mysterious stranger shook his head. “As I said, that is a possibility, but I find it to be an incredibly unlikely one.”

“And why is that?” Twilight pushed, sounding a little defensive again.

“For the same reason the Utopia Program isn’t currently filled with life,” the stranger shot back, watering his last plant and placing his watering can by his hooves. “Pureblood wants to control the minds of everypony in the wasteland. He wants them to serve him eternally, here, in his own personal utopia…”

What the stranger was saying finally caught up with me. “Which means this Pureblood doesn’t actually have control of the Utopia Program yet! Otherwise, he would have just pulled everypony into here with us,” I blurted. Then I hesitated, remembering the guards that had chased us in the name of ‘his majesty’ or whatever they had said. “Or at least, he only has a little bit of control.”

The stranger nodded. “Indeed. Something is blocking him from taking complete control of Utopia, even now. He likely has a moderate amount of control over the program’s more basic functions, but if he was in complete control, we would know by now.”

“Then there’s still time to stop him!” I exclaimed, feeling a rush of excitement. “We still have time to fix all of this!”

Without thinking, I reached forwards, moving to give the stranger a friendly punch on the shoulder. Faster than I could react, the mysterious stranger leapt back, their revolver flashing up and aiming at me before I could do so much as touch them. I took a surprised step back, cringing away as I came face to face with the barrel of the deadly firearm.

“Do not touch me,” The stranger scowled around the grip of his gun, his eyes narrowed into slits. “There are things about me I do not wish for you to see,” I gave a quick couple of nods, taking another step away from the loaded gun. After a long moment, the stranger holstered his revolver again.

“Don’t want us to see?” Twilight echoed questioningly, her eyes lingering on the tucked away revolver. “How would touching you show us things about you?”

“We are inside of a memory,” The stranger answered flatly, his voice strangely defensive. “Touching another pony will… Show you things… like viewing a memory orb. I don’t know what it will show you if you were to touch me, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“And who exactly are you?” Twilight pushed, crawling back to her hooves and glaring at the stranger. “You’ve told us an awful lot about this so-called Utopia Program, and you’ve told us some stuff about Amber and myself. But we don’t even know your name, or how you know who we are?”

“I know you because everypony knows who Twilight Sparkle is,” He said flatly. “You’re Princess Celestia’s protege. You are the pony who stopped Nightmare Moon and defeated Discord. You’re the leader of the Ministry of Arcane Science, even if you do not remember it. There isn’t a pony in Equestria, before or after the war, who doesn’t know who Twilight Sparkle is,” He frowned. “But like I said, I have no idea how you ended up in the Utopia Program. I’ve been in this place for years, and I’ve never seen you here before.”

“And me? How do you know me?” I asked, stepping forwards.

“You do not remember, but we have met many times in the past,” the stranger answered. “I have a synthetic body inside of the Institute. It took time, and a lot of energy, but for a while I was able to temporarily transfer my consciousness from the Utopia Program into that synth body for a few minutes at a time before the Utopia program would pull my mind back in again. I would use the teleporters in the Institute to teleport around the wasteland. For a while, I followed another companion of yours. Mirra. A small changeling that I saw a lot of myself in. Then she told me to look out for you, so I did.”

“For a while? What happened?”

“You got yourself into a very rough situation with a group that calls themselves the True Steels,” the stranger informed me, glancing up at the blue sky above us. “I was able to use the Institute's teleporters to get you and your friends out of there, but to transport so many of you such a distance cost more power than I was able to give. When my synthetic body returned to the Institute, I was too weak to avoid capture. The snake, Glasswing, had my body placed into stasis and my mind was once more stuck inside of the Utopia Program, this time more permanently.”

“You sacrificed yourself to save me and my… my friends? Why?” I asked, feeling a little hollow that I would have allowed him to sacrifice himself for me in such a way.

“What else was I to do?” He smirked, finally dropping his stoic demeanor. “Grow potatoes that I don’t even need to eat? Wander an empty world with nothing but my thoughts? Practice my aim eternally on targets that will never exist? I promised Mirra that I would keep you safe. In doing that, I managed to keep both of you safe.”

Twilight nodded, a lot of the suspicion that had been held in her eyes now gone at his words, though I could still see a mix of uncertainty and panic. “And your name?”

“You don’t need to know my name,” the stranger responded, once more switching to his low monotone. “I haven’t used it in almost two hundred years. And my name comes with memories, memories that I deem are best left forgotten.”

Twilight rolled her eyes a little. “Well we need to call you something. Unless you would like us to call you the mysterious stranger.”

The stranger chuckled. “I suppose that wouldn’t do, would it. Very well. Call me Farmer. That is all that I have done for the past two hundred years, so I find it fitting.”

I nodded, accepting the name. “Alright Farmer. One last question. What were you doing out here at Zecora’s hut?”

Farmer glared at me. “You ponies really do have some strange obsession with making me talk about things I would rather not talk about, don’t you?”

I gave him a smirk and a shrug. “Would you not be asking questions in our position?”

“I suppose you are correct…” Farmer sighed. “If you must know, I was a detective for the MOM back before the war. I had been assigned to investigate a group of supposed zebra sympathizers that called themselves Four Star. For the first few years I spent in the Utopia Program, I tried to carry out my mission. It was all I could do to keep sane. I had heard of a zebra living in the Everfree forest that had ties with the MOM and theoretical ties with Four Star, so I came here. Eventually, I started living here. Out here in the woods, it's easier to forget you’re the only pony in the world.”

After that, we were all silent. None of us really knowing where to continue from there. Finally, I decided that we had waited long enough. “Alright then. So we still have time to stop Pureblood. How do we stop him?”

“It won’t be easy,” Farmer drawled. “I am unsure how much power he has over this world, but considering the guards, I would imagine that he does indeed have some amount of control. I doubt we would be able to just go up and shoot him. You can’t kill a memory.”

“And we would have to find him first,” Twilight noted, looking out at the swaying trees around us. “If this Utopia program is as advanced as you claim, he could be anywhere in all of Equestria.”

I exchanged a quick glance with Farmer. “Actually. I think I know exactly where he is,” I said, lifting my gaze to look past the thick canopy of leaves.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at me in surprise. “You do? Really? Where?”

“Right there,” I raised my hoof, pointing out in the distance at the looming mountain that towered even above the towering trees. “Where else would somepony like Pureblood go? Canterlot Castle.”

I gave a loud grunt as I pulled myself up onto the icy ledge. Knife-like wind battered at my face as I pushed myself up as close to the rocky mountainside as possible.

Behind me, Twilight struggled frantically with her hind hooves to push herself up onto the ledge with me, her muzzle red from the cold and her multi toned mane frazzled from the whipping winds. She gave a small grunt of her own, the muscles in her forehooves tensing as she hauled herself a little bit higher onto the outcrop.

Bracing one fore hoof against a snowbank, I leaned forwards, extending my free hoof for Twilight to grab. With a huff, she reached forwards, her hoof curling around mine as she allowed me to yank her the rest of the way up.

“Thanks,” Twilight breathed, shivering a little as another freezing gust of wind ripped through us. She took another deep breath, this time letting her horn glow a little. I felt her magic aura surround the two of us and a little bit of the freezing cold get dispelled. “There. That should help with the cold a little,” Twilight soothed with a small grimace. “Sorry I can’t do more. My horn still seems to be on the fritz since the bridge.”

I gave her a quick smile. “Don’t worry about it. It helped.”

“Come on. There is no time to stand around talking,” Farmer’s voice echoed down from above us. I glanced up to see his beige head peering down at us from a rocky ledge a few feet above. “Every minute we waste gives Pureblood another minute to take full control of Utopia.”

I gave a low scowl and turned to face the icy rock face behind me, reaching out and finding the first hoof hold in the rough surface. “If we were in such a rush, maybe we should have taken the train. Or, you know, a path instead of scaling the side of Canterlot mountain.”

“If we had taken the normal route, Pureblood’s royal guards would have found us in seconds and you know it,” Farmer snarled back, ducking back out of sight. “Besides, I know a secret entrance into the city.”

“And you know about this entrance, how?” Twilight asked skeptically, slowly scaling the wall behind me as the two of us began to climb.

“I’ve been stuck in the Utopia Program for over two hundred years,” Farmer snapped back, not bothering to look down at us this time. Amazingly, his voice was still audible over the howling wind.

I reached for another hoof hold above me, only for the rock to chip and crumble away from the wall. A panicked scream escaped my lips as I felt my body fall backwards, my grip on the cliff face slipping. I thrashed frantically with my hooves, trying to find purchase on the steep rock wall, but my hooves came up empty. Then I was falling. The disorienting feeling of free fall lasted all of one second before Twilight’s horn wrapped me in a violet glow and hoisted me back up into the air, laying me down on the outcropping ledge above.

I lay on my back with panting breath, trying to calm down from the sensation of plummeting to my death. A second later, Twilight pulled herself up next to me and dropped to the ground like a brick that had just been thrown off of a building, exhausted.

“Th-thanks,” I stuttered, unsure if the stutter was from the shock of nearly dying or the biting cold.

“Don’t… Don’t mention it,” Twilight breathed, her chest rising and falling as she tried to pull more air into her overexerted lungs. She lay there for a few more seconds, trying to regain her strength. After a second, she looked over at me, her voice lowering into a bit of a whisper as she spoke. I could barely hear her over the whipping winds. “Amber, can I ask you a question?”

I glanced over at her, my brows furrowed. “Yeah, of course?” I kept my voice low as well, not quite sure why we were whispering.

Twilight glanced back upwards at the ledge far above that Farmer had already managed to scaled too. “Do you trust this Farmer pony?” Before I could respond she elaborated. “I mean, we don’t know much of anything about him, or even his real name. What if he just made all that crazy stuff up to get us to trust him? What if he’s working with this Pureblood pony?”

I let those ideas float around in my brain a little bit before responding. “If he was working for Pureblood, it would seem weird to tell us about Pureblood and his plan, not to mention save us from his guards. Plus, if Pureblood is real, wouldn’t that mean that all the other stuff is too?”

Twilight bit her lip, her eyes darting around a little as she processed that. “Maybe. It just seems… I- There has to… I think..." She paused, her breath catching in her throat. "I think my friends are all d-dead Amber… and Equestria… Spike… me… This can’t all be real…”

I put a hoof on her shoulder, rolling over in the snow to face her. “We’ll figure this out, alright. We’ll see what’s up with this Pureblood and then once we've dealt with him, we’ll figure this all out.”

Twilight nodded, pulling herself back to her hooves and glancing up at where Farmer was standing far above. “Farmer knows things he’s not telling us. And not just stuff he’s worried will destroy your mind because of that weird, Utopia Program mind wipe. There’s something bigger he doesn’t want us to know…”

“I mean, who doesn’t have secrets,” I groused, wincing as I pulled my own self back up to my hooves.

“And what was with that whole no touching thing?” Twilight continued, her eyebrows furrowing. “That part doesn’t make any sense.”

“He said it was because he didn’t want us to see his past,” I replied slowly, restating what Farmer had told us just an hour earlier.

“Yeah, he said that, but it doesn't make sense,” Twilight mused, her gaze still locked on Farmer far above. I opened my mouth to question her on that, only for Twilight to reach out and place her hoof on my chest. “Nothing. We’ve been in physical contact multiple times. Not once have we seen a weird flashback thing.”

I paused, glancing down at her hoof on my chest. “Oh… Yeah. you’re right,” I glanced back up. “Maybe our lack of memoir is stopping it from happening?”

“Maybe,” Twilight muttered. “I hope so…”

“What is taking you two?” I heard Farmer snap, his head once more poking out from above us, urging us to keep moving. “Come on.”

Taking a deep breath, I shuffled over to the rockface and once more began to climb. “As I said, we’ll figure all this out,” I assured her, not feeling very sure myself. “With any luck, this Farmer guy really is on our side.”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed, pulling herself up next to me on the wall. “I really hope so too.”

A few moments later, the three of us found ourselves standing before the mouth of a small cave inset into the mountain face. Upon seeing it, I quickly ducked inside to get away from the cutting wind, Twilight fast on my heels. Farmer trotted in slowly behind us, seemingly unfazed by the biting cold.

“I lived and explored all over Canterlot as a filly,” Twilight said, looking around the cavern. Bits of snow that had been blown in by the wind covered the rocky floor and large icicles hung menacingly from the ceiling. Large crystal formations jutted from the walls, giving the cavern a jagged feel. “This looks to be connected to the closed off crystal caverns below Canterlot. How have I never even heard of this before?”

“The area isn’t somewhere I’d suspect fillies would have been allowed to go,” Farmer grunted. “Besides, last time I was here, I recall finding signs that this location was the home of a dragon. Naturally, there’s no dragon here now, like all other living things, but back in your Equestria, I doubt Celestia wanted anypony to simply stumble across them.”

Twilight gave him a confused look. “A dragon? Not knowing about a cave is one thing. But if there was a dragon living right underneath Canterlot, I think I would have definitely known that.”

“I think you’ll find that there was a lot Princess Celestia never told you,” Farmer told her, trotting farther into the cave. “Now hurry. I don’t know how much time we have.”

Following behind Farmer, we made our way through the cave. What started out as a freezing cold cave, quickly changed to that of a much warmer one as we navigate our way deeper into the cavern. The once huge icicles the size of my whole body at the caves entrance began to melt away the farther in we got, subtly at first, though quickly changing to one's much smaller in size. The area around us was filled with the sound of a slow and methodical dripping the seemed to echo from every direction all at once.

I also began to notice that what Farmer had said seemed to be true. The farther we walked, the more signes I saw of a dragon having once lived here. Claw shaped grooves in the rough floor, mounds of gold coins, even a large area that looked like it was intended for laying particularly large eggs.

Eventually, Farmer led us up a large rocky ramp that lead to what appeared to be a wall of smooth white marble protruding from the rock wall.

“This looks like it,” Twilight muttered, running her hoof across the smooth surface. “I’d know these walls anywhere. We’re likely somewhere below the Canterlot Library,” She turned to glance at Farmer who was currently running his hoof along the cave's stone wall. “How do we get in?”

Instead of answering, Farmer’s hoof collided with something hidden amongst the rocks and he gave it a quick tug. The loud sound of gears grinding against each other filled the cavern and very slowly the marble wall began to slide away.

Twilight and I took a step back, looking up at the massive secret entrance as it pulled aside, letting the flickering firelight from the vast room on the other side seep into the cavern.

“Rainbow would have loved this,” Twilight breathed, her eyes traveling along the frame of the sliding door. She glanced back at Farmer. “How did you know all this was here?”

“I told you,” Farmer groused, walking past us and through the large doorway. “Two hundred years is a long time when you have nothing to do.”

Stealing myself for just a moment, I trotted after Farmer, following him into the room. As my eyes quickly adjusted to the new light, I began to take in the area around us. As Twilight had suggested, we were in the Canterlot Library. I could feel my eyes go wide as I took in the rows upon rows of beautiful books that lined the walls. Looking up, I could see a massive dome ceiling made of glass, giving me a clear view of the blue, sunny sky above. My mouth dropped open as I practically salivated at the innumerable amount of tomes.

“Wonderful, isn’t it,” Twilight grinned, seeing my reaction. “I spent most of my life in this place. I’ve read almost all of them.”

I didn’t really have much else to say to that except. “I really like books.”

Twilight’s grin widened. “When this is all over, we should read together sometime.”

I allowed myself to look away from the books long enough to give her a smile of my own. “Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice.”

Across the room from us, I saw Farmer pull out his revolver with his muzzle and peak out the doorway of the library into the street beyond. A second later he pulled back, ducking behind the wall. “We got a problem,” He grunted, gesturing us over with a hoof.

Feeling a sense of urgency from his words, I slinked over to him and glanced out the door myself. I grimaced as I saw the five guards standing guard outside. “Shit. Is there a way to get past them?” I asked, glancing over at Farmer.

Farmer shrugged. “Maybe. The city is likely crawling with those guards. If we need to sneak past all of them, we could be at this for hours.”

“Can you just… you know…” I gestured grimly to his revolver. “...Shoot them?”

“Amber!” Twilight gasped, giving me a sharp look that was somewhere between horror and outrage. “We can’t just go killing other ponies!”

Farmer turned to her sternly. “We aren’t in your perfect Equestria anymore, Twilight. It may look like it inside the Utopia Program, but this world is not the one you claim you know. If we let every pony that tries to kill us live, then we’re going to end up dead really fast.”

“Well, maybe if we showed a little bit of kindness then we would still be in my perfect Equestria,” Twilight snarled back, furrowing her brows a little.

Farmer’s frown became a snarl of his own. “You haven’t seen the things Amber and I have gone through, girl. There are ponies and zebras out there that are not worth your mercy. Besides, those guards out there aren’t ponies. They’re constructs. Fabrications of a vile, twisted ponies fantasies,” Twilight seethed a little in turn, though she didn’t have an immediate response to that. Before she could say anything else, Farmer turned back to me. “And unfortunately, no. I can’t just kill them. If I fire off a shot, it will likely alert all them to our presence. The last thing we want is to have hundreds of those armoured freaks breathing down our necks.”

“So then what’s the game plan?” I asked, looking back out at the five guards patrolling the area.

Farmer grimaced. “Knowing Pureblood, he’s likely holed up in the throne room. I doubt he would opt for anything less to be his command station,” his eyes darted around, as if trying to spot something. “But I’m not sure how to get there. Not past all those guards.”

Twilight glared at Farmer for a few more seconds before taking a deep breath and standing up a little straighter. “Thankfully, I know the Canterlot Library like the back of my hoof. There’s an exit that I used to take to get in when I was grounded from the library. It won't take us right to the throne room, but it should lead us into the main castle.”

“Your parents grounded you from the library?” I asked, raising one eyebrow.

Twilight blushed a little, glancing down at her hooves awkwardly. “Yeah. They kept telling me I should try making a friend that wasn’t a book.”

Farmer gave her an emotionless chuckle and a small nod. “Alright then. Lead the way.”

Nodding in return, Twilight turned and led us up to the second level of the library. She trotted quickly over to a bookcase against the far wall and glanced up at the glass dome ceiling just a few short feet above us. After a second, she glanced back at me. “Amber, can you give me a lift?”

I quickly moved up beside her, crouching my forelegs so that Twilight could more easily step up onto my back. I grit my teeth a little as her weight was applied to my back, but I managed to hold her up as she climbed the rest of the way on. Wobbling on my back for a moment, Twilight stood up on her hind legs and reached up, wrapping her fore hooves around the top of the bookshelf before heaving herself up with a small huff. Once on top of the shelf, she tapped on one of the glass panels making up the roof for a second, checking to make sure it was the right one, before pushing against it and lifting it from its spot, allowing her a small hole in which she could climb up on out and onto the roof.

She turned back around, careful to not lose her hoofing while atop the shelf and extended a hoof to us. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”

Moving up to the shelf, I stood up on my hind legs and reached up, wrapping my hooves around her outstretched ones. She quickly hauled me up, placing a hoof over my withers to help balance me. A few seconds later, I turned around and reached out with Twilight to help hoist Farmer up with us as well. Farmer instead just cast a hollow look at our outstretched hooves before ignoring them all together and climbing up himself. Without our assistance, it took him a little longer to scale the shelf, but he didn’t seem to have too much difficulty.

“Come on,” Twilight urged, gesturing us onwards with a hoof and keeping low as she crawled her way out of the hole in the glass ceiling and onto the roof. “The castle isn’t far from here.”

I squeezed out behind her, ducking down and creeping over to the edge of the roof. I glanced down at the streets below us, my eyes flicking back and forth as I tried to spot potential dangers. With a gulp, I realized that it had been a very good idea not to just go guns blazing to get past the guards.

From up here on the roof, I could make out a lot more than just the five guards stationed outside the library. There were hundreds of them, at least five at every entrance around the city. Some of the larger buildings had upwards of ten guards all standing stoically at attention and I could see small squadrons traversing the streets in a robotic, militaristic fashion.

There was a small popping sound as Farmer finally managed to wiggle his way through the hole, his larger size making squeezing through a little harder. I cast a glance back at him as he quickly brushed off his trench coat and adjusted his hat.

Twilight led us across the rooftop to the far ledge. Upon reaching the edge of the roof, Twilight waited less than a second before hopping the small gap between the library and the building beside it. Touching down on the far side, she turned around and waved us across.

“You did this as a filly you said?” Farmer monotone, following behind her as he too jumped to the next roof, me jumping shortly after him. At Twilight's nod, he whistled. “My respect for you is growing.”

Twilight gave him a small smile before continuing to lead us onwards. We jumped across two more roofs until I finally saw it. Canterlot Castle was massive, towering well over all of the other buildings, which were all already massive in their own right. It was a massive white spire, topped with curved purple roofs and conjoining golden towers. Gold archways extended from its sides, connecting the castle to smaller structures of similar design. Large windows, gold themselves, line the marble walls and three large arching doors stood proudly from the second floor, two massive sets of curving stairs reaching up from the beautiful courtyard below to allow access to the interior of the massive building.

“Pureblood is definitely inside,” Farmer stated, his eyes looking down at the flowery courtyard. I followed his gaze, making out the forms of hundreds of guards standing sentinel below. Farmer cast a worried look at Twilight. “Please tell me this entrance of yours doesn’t involve us going through all of that?”

Twilight gave a small grin and a shake of her head. “Nope, we’re going through the Starswirl the bearded wing,” She answered smugly, pointing over at one of the conjoined towers only two rooftops away. She gave me a smile. “If you thought there were a lot of books in the Canterlot Library, wait until you see the castle library.”

Farmer glanced at the tower for a second before his whole face went pale. “No. Not in there. We need to find a different way in.”

I glanced up at him in confusion. “What? What is it?” I looked at the smaller tower Twilight had pointed at, my eyes scanning the area looking for any dangers Farmer had spotted. I saw nothing.

“Farmer, I’ve been in there hundreds of times,” Twilight assured him. “It’s perfectly safe.”

Farmer just stared at the tower for a long moment, his body trembling. “No. There has to be another way in… The last time I was here. When I entered that place… I saw things in that tower… We need to go somewhere else.”

I felt my heart rate quicken and my eyebrows scrunched together in concern. “Things like what? Farmer? What’s in that tower?”

After another long moment, Farmer just shook his head. “I… I don’t know… But I don’t want to see it again… whatever it was.”

“Well then what other options do we have?” Twilight pushed, her gaze darting down to the guards below. “We can’t fight or sneak our way through all of those.”

We were all silent for a moment, trying to come up with a different plan. None came to us. After a long pause, I sighed. “Well we can’t just wait here. If that’s the only way in, that’s where we’re going to have to go.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “You said so yourself, Farmer. The longer we wait, the more time this Pureblood has to get full control over the Utopia program. This is the only way that we’re getting past all those guards.”

Farmer snorted. “Fine. But don’t touch anything, and if I say run, we run.”

Both Twilight and I gave him grim nods, neither of us having any idea of what horrors Farmer spoke of from within the walls of the tower. But whatever it was, I knew it must be bad. Farmer didn't seem like the kind of pony to get spooked easily.

We began making our way across the rooftops, still keeping as low as we could to avoid detection from the guards below. We made it halfway there before Twilight gave a small eep of surprise and shoved Farmer and I back behind a large chimney stack with a quick burst of her magic. She ducked back with us, her head ducked as low to the ground as she could. I didn't need to ask her what it was, as a second later, three small shadows passed over us as a small squadron of pegasus guards flew overhead. A few moments passed before we dared to move again and shuffle the last few feet to the tower.

Twilight moved up to the tower first, silently pulling the closest window open with her hooves and shimmying inside. I followed closely behind her, a small grunt escaping my lips as I shoved my way through the window and into the pitch black room beyond.

I landed on the floor of the room with a small thud. I took a second to catch my breath before I stood up and glanced out the window at Farmer who was still crouched down on the rooftop outside, staring at the tower with disdain. “Come on, Farmer, it’s fine,” I assured him, beckoning him on with a hoof.

Farmer just looked at the tower for a long second before sighing and squirming his way through the doorway after us. “We need to get moving,” He ushered us in a hushed tone as soon as he was through the window. “I don’t want to be in this tower any longer than I need to be,” He glanced around again, trying to spot any dangers in the gloom. “Be as quiet as possible, and no sudden moves. I don’t want to attract any attention to us.”

Twilight and I nodded, keeping our mouths shut. It was strangely eerie in here for some reason, not to mention dark. Everywhere I had seen so far within the Utopia Program had been so cheerful and full of life. Even the crystal cave had been strangely well lit with the sun strewing through the large entrance and the sparkling crystals on the cavern walls.

We began following Twilight as she began making her way around the outside of the dark room. The room was a large circular chamber, with towering walls of bookshelves creating an almost labyrinth-like layout in the centre of the room. On the walls hung massive ancient tapestries that seemed to date back to times far before the castle was even constructed.

I paused for a second before one tapestry, my eyes squinting to make out its details in the darkness. It seemed to depict a light scarlet, almost beige coated pegasus mare with a blue and turquoise mane. The mare seemed to be wearing a strange blindfold over her eyes and held a long wooden pole in her forehooves. What really caught my attention though was the massive beast the mare was facing off against. Before her stood what appeared to be a massive purple sphinx, with leering fangs and feathered wings splayed out before the light of a streaming red sun.

“Amber, get moving,” Farmer scowled between clenched teeth as he saw me stop. “Now…”

“That sphinx... She looks familiar,” I whispered back in a hushed tone, my eyes still transfixed on the image. A sudden bolt of burning pain shot through my body, making me stagger back. I dug my teeth deep into my tongue, drawing blood and biting back the pressing urge to scream. My hooves beat frantically at my head, trying to beat the pain from my mind. It didn’t work.

“Shit. Calm down,” Farmer hissed, his eyes darting nervously around the gloom. He took a step back, his whole body trembling in anticipation as he waited for something to lunge at him from the darkness.

Twilight rushed to my side, pulling me into a tight embrace as the burning pains slowly subsided. I shivered for a moment, trying to forget the feeling of fire racing across my body. Twilight ran her hoof through my mane reassuringly as I shook, doing her best to calm me down.

Alright, no more talking or thinking about sphinxes. Apparently that was part of my forgotten past too.

After letting myself calm down, I lifted my head from Twilight's shoulder and glanced around. Farmer still stood stone still a few feet away, his eyes darting about for danger, but other than that, I still saw nothing amongst the gloom.

Hesitantly, I stood back up, leaning a little against Twilight for support. “Are you sure this place is dangerous? I still don’t see anything. Maybe the thing you saw left? Or it’s a different tower?”

Farmer just shook his head. “I know what I saw,” He hissed back, his tail flicking in agitation. He paused again, looking around. “But I don’t see anything either… Just… Let's still be cautious, alright.”

I nodded. Turning back to Twilight, I gestured for her to continue leading the way. With a hesitant glance up at the sphinx tapestry, Twilight once more began leading us around the edge of the chamber before coming to a stop before a set of massive double doors. Twilight reached out, wrapping her hoof against the ornate door knobs and giving them a hard tug.

Nothing. The doors remained unmoving.

Frowning, Twilight tried again, arching her back a little as she reefed on the golden knob. Again, the door didn’t budge.

“Locked,” Twilight grunted, taking a small step away from the door. She shook her head for a second, deep in though, before gesturing for us to follow her. “Don’t worry. I know where Celestia leaves the keys.”

“You don’t have an unlocking spell?” Farmer snarked, though there was a tremor in his tone.

Twilight gave him a scolding look. “I do, actually,” She rebutled. “However, aside from unlocking spells being incredibly immoral, Celestia put a powerful spell on all of the doors in the castle as a security measure. So the spell won't work.”

“Figures,” Farmer grumbled. Taking his revolver into his mouth, Farmer followed after us, his head whipping back and forth for trouble.

Slowly, Twilight led us deeper into the labyrinth of bookshelves, bringing us closer and closer to the centre of the room. The farther through we went, the older the books became. I even noticed one tome dating all the way back to the pre-Celestia era, an ominous looking green bell depicted on its chained up cover.

“She usually leaves them in a locked chest just over here,” Twilight stated, finally trotting out of the bookcases and into a circular clearing in the center of the chamber. She pointed at a chest on the far side of the clearing. “Here we are, just as I-” She paused, her eyes glancing around. “W-wait? This isn’t right?”

Farmer’s body went rigid. “What? What’s wrong?”

Twilight continued glancing around, her ears folding back against her head as she tried to place the issue. “The room is wrong… There should be a large hourglass in the centre there,” She pointed a fore hoof at the very centre of the chamber where I could make out a strange looking symbol engraved on the floor through the darkness.

I took a step forward, narrowing my eyes as I tried to make sense of the large glyph-like shape Twilight was pointing at. The symbol looked somewhat like a horseshoe, with three, spike-like lines protruding from each side at various lengths. The horseshoe itself surrounded a central circle that housed what appeared to be the sinister looking face of a unicorn with a long horn and white eyes.

I felt a stab of pain stab through me as I looked upon the symbol, though I quickly shook it off, daring myself to take another step closer. “I’ve… I’ve seen that symbol before,” I muttered, my words sounding strangely distant in my mouth. I took another step forwards, my motions feeling almost trance-like, as if I was no longer in control of my own body. It was a strangely calming feeling.

“Amber, get back,” I heard Farmer hissing, though his voice sounded like he was a hundred miles away. I took another step forward, unable to fully register what Farmer was saying. “Twilight, get the key, now! Amber! Get away from that!” I could hear panic starting to rise in Farmer’s voice. I tried to look back at him, but my gaze was transfixed on the strange symbol on the floor.

A new whisper started filling my ears, slow and chant-like, calling, beckoning me closer. I raised my hoof, slowly reaching forwards to touch the symbol. The painted white eye of the pony in the centre began to glow and pulse with an odd light.

Farmer stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the symbol. “Amber, stop! Get back! Move!” I hardly heard him. Slowly, I took another step forwards, my hoof reaching closer to the symbol. Farmer moved aside, doing his best to block me without letting my hoof touch him. “Amber, look at me! Amber!”

Painfully, I managed to rip my gaze away from the symbol, looking over at him with a confused look. “Wha-what’s happening?”

Farmer stared at me with wide eyes, his revolver trembling in his mouth. “Take a step back,” He begged me, urging me to move away. “Take a step away right now!”

I suddenly felt panic grip me as I realized I couldn’t. I tensed my muscles, doing all I could to pull myself away from the now glowing symbol. It wasn’t working. My whole body started trembling as I put everything I had into trying to move away. But I couldn’t. It wouldn’t let me. Whatever it was…

The strange chanting in my ear began to grow, becoming almost overpowering. Urging me to take one more step. To place my hoof upon the symbols surface. I could feel my hoof shaking, threatening to just plunge down towards the cool surface.

I glanced up fearfully at Farmer, my whole body shaking with fear. “I… I can’t move… Farmer… Help me!”

“I got the key!” Twilight called out. I glanced over at her, seeing her holding the key up from where she stood beside the now open chest. Apparently Celestia hadn’t put any spells protecting the chest from being opened.

A stab of pain shot through my hoof, forcing it a little closer to the glowing symbol. I let out a scream, unable to hold back as the flesh on my hoof began to sizzle and burn.

Farmer flinched at the sound of the scream, his head bolting back and forth as he wildly aimed his revolver at the darkness around us. To my horror, I could feel the darkness shifting, swirling and closing in on us. The darkness held weight, and it began to push down on my hoof, once more bringing it closer. It was so close now. Just an inch more and I would be touching it.

I shut my eyes tight, trying to fight through the pain. It didn’t work. I could hear both Farmer and Twilight now as they screamed for me to back away. It was no use.

My hoof touched the cold surface.

A shiver passed through me, up my hoof and down my body. My hair stood on end, a gripping cold wrapping itself around my heart. I stumbled back, falling to my rump as I clutched at my burned hoof as the burning pain was replaced by the feeling of creeping ice.

The large circle in the centre of the symbol began to shift, sinking deeper and deeper into the floor, revealing a long, dark pit that descended far past our line of sight. I craned my neck, trying to get a clear view of the pit. I saw something slowly rising from it’s depth, small and round, but glowing with a pulsing light that matched what the image of the black ponies eyes had done only a moment before.

The small orb slowly emerged from the pit, hovering before us in the air ominously. The pulsing light illuminated the area around us, slowly pushing back the darkness for a brief moment.

I pulled myself up to my hooves, my wide eyed gaze locked on the glowing orb. I had never seen anything like it in my short amount of time in this Utopia program thing, but my mind instantly put a name to the alien object. It was a memory orb.

A very strange, very haunting memory orb.

I saw strange images flashing inside of the orb, likely the memories that lay within. I saw rocks and darkness, then the sky being blotted out by dark clouds. I saw a circle of stones, each one looming behind six strange ponies holding assorted items up before them and towards the darkened sky. For a fraction of a second, I saw the dusty bones of an ancient dragon, glowing blue glyphs carved into its thick periosteum, break free from the surface of the earth, rocks and debris raining down around it.

Then, tendrils of inky blackness surged from the depths of the pit and consumed the dim light of the orb, casting us all into complete, unnatural darkness. I heard Twilight scream, though I couldn’t pinpoint where she was in the supernatural gloom.

A pulsing white orb blinked open right in front of my face. I could feel it staring into me, scanning me over. Then another white orb opened, completing the glowing set of pale white eyes.

I staggered back, fear gripping me. My body froze, locked in a sudden, fear induced paralysis. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I tried to ignite my horn, to blast away the iniquitous creature, but my horn failed to do so, much as make a spark.

The monster loomed closer to me, its pearl-like eyes boring into me. I saw a maw of twisting fangs open wide, oozing with sludgy black filth. The dark tendrils wrapped around me, dragging me to the ground and holding me still before the monolithic beast.

“Kamari…” The beast hissed, it’s voice echoing around inside my head. The word sent another wave of pain burning through me, threatening to send me into another fit of spasms. “Are you Kamari…?”

I lay frozen, paralized by fear and immobilized by its squirming, black tendrils. I tried to respond, but I had no answer to give. It loomed closer to me, its ragged, putrid breath rasping across my trembling form. “I… W-who is K-Kamari?” I stuttered, my hooves trying helplessly to pull myself free from the creature's grip.

“My most faithful acolyte… The one who found me… Who took me from the wretched place…” The monster hissed, bearing twisted, dagger-like fangs. Darkness drooled from its maw, pooling in puddles of blackness around me. “The one who put me in this place. Helped me regain my strength. He said he would be here. That he would free me in three moons from tonight… When the stars align and the night is set free from its chains…” The beast moved even closer, its shadow-like body slithering across the floor towards me like a snake. “Are you him? Am I finally free?”

A dark form lunged between me and the vile creature. I flinched back, only to make out the silhouette of Farmer standing shaking before the shining, pale light of the beast's pearl eyes. His revolver was up in a flash, its muzzle flaring with blooms of fire as he sent six rounds directly into the created face. The shadow monster recoiled, its shifting, incorporeal form swallowing the bullets as if Farmer were shooting into a pool of dark, murky water. The monster howled, its jagged maw stretching far wider than what should be possible as it let loose an ear piercing scream. I could feel blood dripping from my ears as the chilling noise ruptured my ear drums.

I felt the writhing, inky black tendrils loosen ever so slightly, letting me wiggle free from its vice-like grip. I stumbled back, desperate to get away from the terrifying creature. Farmer stumbled back with me, already trying to desperately reload bullets into his gun.

“Run Amber! Run!” Farmer shouted, his voice flaring with panic. He snapped the chamber of his gun closed and fired six more shots into the creature's face. Again, the creature’s form swallowed up the shots, doing nothing as the beast flashed towards us, maw outstretched. “Amber! I said run!”

But again, I was frozen, unable to move as I stared into the creature's eyes. It’s pupil-less white orbs flickered back to face me, and for a second, it almost looked like it was pleading with me. “Please… Please tell me that I’m finally free…”

With a shout, Farmer threw me across his trenchcoat covered back, his hooves pounding hard against the ground as he rushed for the exit. Up ahead, I heard Twilight yelling something, though I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

Farmer staggered, his side slamming against one of the bookshelves as he rushed around a sharp turn in his desperate dash towards the outside of the room. The dark creature drew closer, it’s hollow eyes never leaving me. It's dark tendrils reached out, clawing at the air as it tried to drag us back into its darkness. Farmer stumbled out of the labyrinth of books, rushing as fast as he could to the doorway out. I saw Twilight a few feet ahead of us, fumbling with the key as she tried to insert it into the door’s lock with shaking hooves.

“Twilight! Get that door open! Now!” Farmer screamed, his voice catching in his throat as he forced himself to hold back his abject terror.

“I’m trying! I’m trying!” Twilight shrieked, her trembling hooves finally inserting the key into the lock and twisting. The door creaked open a bit, allowing a little bit of light to seep into the room. No sooner had the light entered than it was quickly extinguished, going dark against the inky blackness as if the light from the hallway outside had been nothing more than a candle that had been caught in a windstorm.

“Get out! Get out now!” Farmer urged, trying to push Twilight onwards.

I glanced back, making out the looming beast behind us. It reared up, the top of its warped horn scraping across the top of the ceiling. It’s maw opened, its black tongue lolling from its vile mouth. The darkness around us began to pull into him, forming grotesque wings that seemed to sear themselves into my very vision.

I felt my trembling body scream as I looked upon the horrific pony of shadows. I forced my gaze away, burying my face into Farmers shoulder in fear, my hooves wrapping tight around his neck in terror.

Farmer’s muscles tensed up at the touch, panic flashing through him. “No Amber! Don’t touc-”

Then I was swirling away, my mind spiralling into memories that didn’t belong to me.

I felt myself turn my head to look at the pony that was sitting across from me, a large blue buck dressed in a suit of clean, pre-war combat armour. I seemed to be in some office-like room. From the large window leading outside, I could tell that I was in Canterlot somewhere. A large sign hung above the window reading ‘Ministry of Moral - detective offices’.

“-and she’s positioning you where?” The buck chuckled, propping his hooves up on the table and looking at a pair of two cards that he was holding in his hoof.

“That new Four Star Apartment building,” I heard myself state. I was surprised to find my voice was Farmer’s voice, less stoic and much younger sounding, but still very clearly his voice. I suppose Farmer hadn’t been lying after all. I would indeed see his memories if I touched him.

The blue buck shook his head in response before tossing a blue poker chip onto the table. “I’m telling you, Pinkie’s losing it. Your bet.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” Farmer snorted sarcastically, tossing a blue chip of his own down. “I’m tired of going out to the middle of fucking nowhere to follow up on Pinkie’s wild theories.”

“On the bright side, she’s always right,” The buck noted, flipping one of the cards in the middle of the table over and placing it next to an already flipped card before tossing another chip of his own onto the table. “I don’t know how she does it, but if Pinkie says there are zebra sympathizers somewhere, there probably are.”

Farmer scoffed, matching the bucks bet. “She can’t be right all the time.”

The buck gave a wide, leering grin. “Why? You want to bet on that again?”

Farmer growled at him. “What, like the last five times? Everytime I bet that one of Pinkie’s hunches is wrong, they always end up being correct. I’m not falling for it this time.”

“Oh come on, fifty bits says she's right,” The buck smirked back. “You said yourself, Four Star seems clean. You could do with some extra bits, eh?” He flipped three more cards over next to the first two before betting again. “Your bet.”

I could feel Farmer grit his teeth for a second before sighing. “Fine,” He raised the buck by a chip and leaned back into his chair. “Raise and deal. Fifty bucks says nothing is going on at this new Four Star Apartment building.”

The buck smirked at him, matching the bet. “You’re on,” He splayed his cards out on the table for all to see. “Flush by the way.”

Farmer grimaced. “Fuck me.”

“Inspector Saddles?” A chipper voice piped up. “Are you in here?”

I expected the blue buck to respond, but instead, Farmer lifted his gaze to face the doorway. “Yeah? Is it time?”

In the door stood a taller, lanky looking light orange stallion with a curly brown mane and a bright yellow shirt. He gave Farmer a contagious looking smile, but I could feel a little hollowness underneath it. This was not a happy meeting. “Are you ready?”

“Cheese? Yeah, are we leaving already?” Farmer- er… Detective Saddles groused, pulling himself up from his seat as his friend started counting his earnings.

“Yup indeedy,” Cheese Sandwich said in a surprisingly chipper tone. “Pink wants me ta do some sleuthing of my own out in Manehattan, so I’m going to be joining you on the trip there. We’re both gonna be there for a while.”

“Don’t need to remind me,” The pony formerly known as Farmer grumbled, turning back to look at his buddy. “Looks like I’m off. See you around mate.”

The blue buck only gave him a sly smile. “You bet I will. You and fifty bits.”

Then the world swirled away again, ripping my mind from Farmers and into a temporary oblivion. I had hoped that I was being sent back into my body, but instead, I found myself once more looking through Farmers eyes, this time I was inside some sort of apartment building. It was a small room with an even smaller gray bed pushed up against one side. The room looked familiar for some reason. No doubt I had seen it before, before I had lost my memory.

Farmer was in the middle of typing something into a terminal sitting on a desk in front of him. His hooves moved slowly, typing each word in methodically as if his life depended on making sure each and every letter was right. After a moment, he pushed his seat back with a groan, looking up at the boarded up window above him.

“Fuck, I need air,” he grunted after a moment, his eyes watching as a small piece of dust floated through the air, visible only through the thin beam of sunlight that shone through a crack in the boarded window.

He stood up from his chair, spinning around and stalking towards the door of his room. His hoof reached out and swiped his coat off his bed before draping it over his shoulders. A second later, he picked his hat up off the bed as well and adorned his head with it.

Reaching now for the door, he let the door swing open, revealing the dull hallway on the other side. He stepped through the door, letting it swing shut behind him before he carefully locked it.

Giving another long sigh, he began trotting down the hallway to a steep set of stairs at the end of it. He had almost reached the steps when a cloaked figure stalked their way up the steps before them, their hood pulled over their head in a way that it complete obscured their face.

Farmer stopped, their eyes lingering on the cloaked pony, before he glanced down at their hooves. Notably, their white and black striped hooves.

The cloaked pony stopped as well, noticing Farmer’s gaze. The two just stood there for a long moment, eyeing the other up, unsure who should dare make the first move if any at all. Finally, the cloaked figure spoke first in a terrible, commanding voice that sent shivers down my spine. “I do not believe that we have met. Who are you?”

Farmer glanced up from their striped hooves for a second before glared at them. “Doesn’t matter. Who are you?”

The cloaked figure glanced down, seeing their exposed hooves. They glanced back up at Farmer, this time leaning a little forwards so that their face could be seen just slightly through the shadow of their hood, revealing a set of dazzling blue eyes and strange spiral stripes more akin to star maps than zebra stripes. “My name is Kamari, and I have business with an associate of mine here. Is that a problem?”

Farmer gulped, his eyes following along the strange stripes on the sinister zebra's face. “No. I suppose not… As you were.”

Kamari gave Farmer a snide grin. “Indeed. Enjoy your day,” and with that, Kamari swept off down the hall, seemingly gliding save for the sound of clopping hooves.

As Farmer turned to once more face the stairs, my mind was sent spinning away again, once more getting ripped from the memory and placed into another. When my vision reformed, I was once more sitting in Farmer’s apartment, clicking away at his terminal.

“-Said something about Steel Rangers in balloons. Won’t that just be grand,” Farmer mumbled to himself as he typed the corresponding words into his terminal entry. “This is Inspector Saddles, signing off for the last time.”

He ended the sentence on a period and leaned back, taking a deep breath. “Can’t say I’m going to miss this place,” he slid his hoof along the top of his desk, as if giving it a loving stroke. “It’ll be nice to be back in Canterlot for-”

There was a loud knock on the door. Farmer groaned. “Yeah yeah! I’m coming,” He pulled himself out of his chair with a slow grunt and trotted over to the doorway. As he got closer, there was another loud knock, this time more akin to a pounding. “I said I’m coming, calm down…”

Slowly, Farmer pulled the door open, only for something heavy to lash out and slam across his forehead. Pain shot through his head as Farmer collapsed to the floor with a scream, blood dripping down his forehead from where he had been struck.

Farmer quickly rolled onto his back, pushing away from his attacker desperately as the intruder stomped their way into the room. They were a bright red unicorn stallion with a short cropped blue mane. They glared down hatefully at Farmer, one hoof quickly cleaning the blood that now stained the grip of their revolver.

“W-what are you-” Farmer stammered, only to be cut off as the red buck brought the grip of his revolver down hard on his head again, knocking him back fully to the floor. Farmer recoiled, kicking with his hooves to try and get away. He reached out with a fore hoof, grasping for a revolver he had tucked away under his bed.

The unicorn was on him in seconds, knocking Farmers gun away before pinning him down and pressing his own gun against Farmers chest. “Did you really think we didn’t know you were onto us?” The buck hissed, bearing his teeth and giving Farmer a scowl. “Did you really think we would just let you walk, knowing what you do about Four Star?”

Blam!

A bullet ripped through Farmer's stomach. Farmer screamed, blood burbling into his mouth and tears streaming down his face as he thrashed helplessly to try and break free from his attacker's grip.

Farmer reached desperately for his gun again, only for the assailing unicorn to fire two more bullets into Farmers gut.

“Help! Help!” Farmer wailed, his hooves desperately beating at his attacker's side.

“No pony is coming you fuck,” The unicorn leered, his hoof flashing out and smacking Farmer across the face. “Everypony in this tower works for Four Star. You were set the fuck up.”

The pony pulled out a strange headpiece looking device from his saddlebag and forced it down atop Farmers head. Farmer swung at the device to bat it aside, but the pony simply knocked him back down with a rough kick to the jaw.

Farmer screamed again as he saw the ponies horn begin glowing. The pony continued to pin him down, his magic slowly pulling a glowing memory orb out of his saddlebags as well. Farmer panicked, bucking backwards with his hooves and knocking the memory orb out of the pony's grip and sending it skidding across the floor.

“You bitch!” The pony roared, one hoof reaching for the fallen orb while his other continued to try and hold Farmer’s flailing form down. Farmer took his chance and bit down hard on the bucks hoof, his teeth ripping hair and flesh from his lower leg. The pony howled, reeling back in pain and surprise.

Frantically, Farmer rushed forwards, reaching out and wrapping his forehooves around his gun. He spun around, one hoof clutching his bleeding stomach while his mouth tightened around the grip of his trigger.

A white aura of magic wrapped itself around his gun before Farmer had the chance to fire. The gun was ripped from his mouth and sent spinning away, skidding across the floor where it came to a stop at the hooves of an older looking earth pony that had just trotted into the room.

The Earth pony tapped a talisman that had been clipped to his vest, a magical aura glowing around it before it shot out and surrounded Farmer. Farmer squirmed, suddenly finding himself immobilized by the powerful magic.

“I do hope all this is necessary,” The silver stallion stated sadly, his eyes never leaving Farmer.

“Don’t worry Silver Ace, it is,” The red buck responded, straightening back up and holding out the memory orb. He glanced over at Farmer with a scowl before letting his horn glow and surround the memory orb.

There was a strange jolt, and suddenly I was being ripped away from Farmer's body. But this wasn’t like the other times I had shifted memories. It felt more real. As if the shift in reality was a part of the memory itself.

When my vision began to clear, I found myself surrounded by glowing lights. Was I… inside the memory orb? I couldn’t think of any other explanation. I could still hear Silver Ace and the red buck talking back and forth, though their voices sounded muffled.

“Good. Take his memories back to the Institute. See what he knew and what he let slip to Pinkie Pie,” I heard Silver Ace’s voice order.

“Of course, I’ll-” The red buck started, but he was cut off as a strange, haunting sound began to echo around us. “What the fuck is… is that… Goddesses… Is that the Balefire siren!”

The blaring siren began to fill with the sounds of distant screams. A tinny voice boomed out, clearly audibly even from within the memory orb. “Please get to the safety of your designated Stable! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!”

“They’re early… This wasn’t the plan!” I heard Silver Ace gasp, his calm demeanor shattered by the abrupt threat of total balefire annihilation. “Get to the Institute! Now!”

“What about you?”

I could practically hear Silver Ace grimace. “I have a quick meeting with Pureblood on the upper floor. I’ll be right behind you. Now go!”

With those words, I heard a loud sounding zap, followed by the already swirling lights around me to merge with strobing blue ones. Then once more, I was swirling away, my mind dissolving into nothingness.

I jolted up in surprise, my hide coated in a thick layer of sweat. My head darted about, trying to make sense of the area around me.

I was propped up in the corner of a small room. The marble walls covered in ornate golden and purple designs gave me clear evidence that I was still somewhere inside of Canterlot Castle. Across from me, I saw Twilight and Farmer bickering back and forth as they each peaked out the door and into the hallway beyond.

At the sound of me waking up, they both turned to look at me, both with relieved looks across their faces, though Farmer seemed a little nervous as well. Twilight quickly rushed over to me, helping me back to my hooves.

“Amber, you’re alright,” She grinned, giving me a quick hug.

“I told you she would be,” Farmer monotone, trotting up behind us and looking me over with an appraising eye. “What did you see?” He asked me bluntly, his voice low and stoic.

I glanced up at him, trying to register the memories that had just flashed through my mind. “I saw… uh… parts of your life. You got stationed somewhere called Four Star apartments. Somepony named Pinkie had you investigating for Zebra sympathizers?” I paused, trying to remember the finer details before looking back up at him. “Inspector Saddles?”

Farmer visibly flinched at the mention of his old name. “Yes, that’s what I was called once,” He groused, his eyes looking sad and distant. “But if you would humor me, I’d like it if you kept calling me Farmer. Inspector Saddles died in the Four Star apartment building two hundred years ago,” he sat down on his rump, staring at his hooves forlornly. “There was a time, twenty years ago, when I built up enough courage to teleport my synth self to my old apartment building. I thought it might help me deal with my problems… I found myself, or at least what was left of me. A charred pile of bones, curled up in some corner below the words, ‘I can’t remember anything’ written before me in dried blood. My blood... I would rather imagine I was someone else.”

I gave a hesitant nod, letting that sink into my mind. After a second, I glanced up at him, my eyebrows raised. “That Silver Ace pony you mentioned. The one that designed the Utopia Program… He was working with Four Star?”

Farmer frowned, his expression distant and forlorn. “Ah… You saw that memory…” He paused for a long moment, deep in thought. “I don’t know. This Silver Ace, he’s at the centre of everything. Like a spider in a web. Twilight thought he was loyal to the princesses. Pureblood thought he was loyal to him. My investigation showed that he had ties with Four Star and that Four Star had ties to the Institute. It’s like trying to put together a puzzle with pieces from a hundred different types of puzzles all at once.”

“But… Wasn’t the whole point of the Institute to fight against zebras?” Twilight muttered slowly, looking a little confused. She scrunched up her muzzle in distaste, as if the words themselves tasted disgusting in her mouth. “In that big war you mentioned, I mean.”

Farmer nodded, his gaze still locked with mine. “Indeed. Which only makes things all the more confusing," He took a step closer to me, his eyes narrowing. "How much of what is happening do you really think you understand? About the Institute? The Utopia Program? Silver Ace? I assure you, by the end of this, everything we think we know will have been proven to be wrong.”

Neither Twilight or I dared say anything for a few moments after that. We just sat there, not sure how to properly respond. After a moment, I looked around again, not able to bear the silence and uneasy feeling that had formed in my gut. “So… uh… Where exactly are we? What happened? I mean, Canterlot Castle, obviously, but…” I trailed off, my eyes rolling across the ornate roof.

Twilight grimaced at the question. “We managed to drag you out of the Starswirl the bearded wing and away from that… that thing…” Twilight paused, a shiver rushing down her spine at the mention of the horrific shadow pony. “Whatever that was, it didn’t seem able to leave the castle library.”

“Unfortunately, Purebloods guard constructs heard the commotion,” Farmer picked up for Twilight after a second of silence. “We carried you for a while and hid in here. They don’t know where we are at the moment, but now the Castle is on full alert. More and more guards keep pouring in through the front doors. Pureblood knows that we’re here now. I doubt he’s going to make it very easy for us to make it to the throne room.”

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, turning my vision to the closed door across from us. “We can’t leave the castle and wait this out. That… thing… is blocking our only clear way out of here…”

Farmer opened his mouth to respond, only for the door to abruptly slam open. I staggered back as several armoured guards stormed into the room, their deadly spears already drawn. The second their eyes landed on us, one of them spun around, calling to somepony down the hallway. "They're in here!" The turned back to face us, scowled etched across their faces. “Amber Aura, you are-”

The guard speaking was cut off as Farmer's revolver flashed up into his mouth and fired off six shots, each one striking down one of the charging guards. Six guards fell, blood spilling from the deadly shot that had pierced them between the eyes. But it wasn’t enough. Five more had already rushed into the room, their focused gaze burning into us as they pulled their spears back to attack.

Twilight's horn light up as Farmer stepped back to reload, forming a magical, violet shield around us. The first wave of guards slammed against the shield, their spears pounding against the magical barrier. Twilight winced, her horn sparking as she tried to repeal the lethal attacks.

“Damn it! Twilight, how long can you keep the shield up?” Farmer spat, clicking the chamber of his revolver back into place and re-aiming. “Can you move while keeping it up?”

Twilight flinched as another spear stabbed at the magic shield. “Not long. And no. I’m not going anywhere like this.”

Four more guards rushed into the room, their weapons drawn as they approached us. One guard in exceptionally extravagant looking armour stalked in behind them, a large, impressive looking sword held aloft before him in the golden glow of his magic.

“Well we got to come up with something fast,” I noted lamely, cowering behind Farmer as the guards quickly moved to surround us. I saw two more guards rushing in to block off the door. There would be no getting out that way. I glanced behind me, making out a narrow window inset into the wall about a foot above our heads. I hastily pointed to it. “Think we can get out there?”

My question was quickly answered as the sound of wings signalled the arrival of several pegasus guards that swooped towards the window to block that off too.

“Fuck. We’re going to have to fight our way through it,” Farmer scowled, the muscles in his legs tensing in anticipation. I could see his mouth trembling as he prepared to bite down on his guns trigger. “You two ready?”

I balked at him. “Wh-what? Fight through it?!” I glanced around, my eyes wide with terror as I took in the guards. “I don’t have a weapon! I’ve never been in a gunfight before!”

Farmer cast me a cool, amused look. “Not one you remember. But the Amber Aura back in the wasteland has killed hundreds.”

I bit back the urge to snarl at him. “I… I don’t want to be like that though.”

“Trust me, neither does she,” Farmer smirked. “Twilight, you ready?”

Twilight shivered. “No…” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “Get ready…”

I took a small step back, my whole body tense as I awaited Twilight's shield to fall. In front of me, I could see Farmer's tail swishing back and forth as he looked back and forth between the guards, his eyes narrowing as he picked out his targets. I could see one of his hooves already resting in his coat pocket, no doubt readying to reload the second his gun runs dry. Beside me, I could hear Twilight grit her teeth.

When Twilight spoke, her voice was so quiet that only Farmer and I could hear her. “Now.”

The shield fell.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Farmer’s revolver boomed as he fired shot after shot into the wave of guards that suddenly pushed in on us like water from a broken dam. I side stepped, narrowly avoiding a hurtling spear before spinning around and bucking an approaching guard with my hind hooves. Beside me, Twilight fired off a beam of magic from her horn, sending two guards tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

The large, armoured guard swung their sword at me, the massive blade missing my neck by mear inches as I staggered back. No sooner had I evaded his first strike, than I was forced to roll to the side, his sword once more slashing at my chest.

The clattering of bullet shells on the ground signaled Farmer’s gun clicking on empty. He backpedaled, his hooves working frantically as he reloaded his gun. A guard struck out at him, their spear poised to skewer his heart. Farmer clicked his gun's chamber back into place just in time to splatter the guard's brain across the wall behind him, but not before the guard sent their spear through their leg.

Farmer screamed, collapsing to three knees as his right fore hoof went limp below him, the guard's huge spear piercing through one side of his leg and out the other. Twilight moved over to help him, only for three guards to move between them.

I ducked low to avoid another swipe of the huge guards sharpened sword. The guard gave an annoyed grunt as his attack once more sailed over my head. Gasping for breath, I rolled forwards, my magic reaching out to wrap around the spear of one of the fallen guards. I rolled onto my back, the spear lancing up with a swift thrust of my magic as the large guard rounded on me.

The spear flashed upwards, it’s sharpened point piercing the underside of the guard's jaw and slicing up into his brain. The guard screamed, his mouth only able to open fully as the strong spear held his upper and lower jaws together. Blood and viscera dripped down his front, staining his white coat and golden armour crimson red.

I lay there, shaking as I watched the drizzle of blood pour down upon me like a shower. The guard toppled to his side, more blood pooling around his fallen corpse and soaking my hooves. I opened my mouth, wanting to scream just as the guard had. I had just killed a pony.

I shut my eyes tight, trying to ward off the image. “It’s not a real pony… It’s not a real pony…”

Two pegasi guards swooped down, their hooves grappling onto me and holding me in place as I shook. My eyes flashed open, panic flaring through me as I saw a guard readying to skewer my immobilized body with their spear.

Across the room, I could see Twilight and Farmer pinned down as well, multiple spears aimed at their necks. I could see a large gash across Twilight's forehead that poured hot blood down into her eyes.

The guard aiming their spear at me narrowed their eyes, their fore hooves pounding at the ground as they prepared to lunge. I twisted in the pegasi’s grip, trying to break free, but to no avail.

With a grunt, the guard leapt forwards, spear positioned to lance through my heart. My eyes clenched tight, my mouth finally able to produce a scream of terror.

Then everything went still.

I cracked an eye open, looking around the room. Every guard had frozen in place, their spears only inches away from our necks and hearts. I saw Twilight and Farmer looking around as well, their faces filled with confusion as they tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

“Amber Aura,” I almost jumped out of my skin as the nasally voice filled the air, raspy and cold, echoing around us and down the hallway outside. “I should have known that you would find your way in here somehow. That even in failure you would persist.”

The two pegasi holding me dropped me to the ground, allowing me to stand on my own accord. “You must be… Pureblood…” I stumbled, putting the only name I could imagine to the vile voice.

The voice gave a loud snort of disdain. “Who else? Do not bore me with stupidity, Amber Aura. We have both come far too far for that now,” His voice dropped to a slightly lower octave. “As I’m sure you have figured out, I do not yet have full control over the Utopia program like I had planned. Worry not, this is soon to be rectified. Until then, we have business, you and I. My guards are standing down. Let’s talk…”

At that, the guards pulled away from us, standing at attention in a robotic and militaristic fashion. Their spears raised, pointing skywards and away from us, giving us a moment to catch our breaths. Their eyes never left us though.

I cast a nervous glance across the room at Twilight as she helped Farmer back to his hooves. “What do we do?”

Farmer gave us both a grim look. “Well, we were trying to get to Pureblood, right?” he slotted six more bullets into his revolver and snapped it shut. “I say it’s about time we meet with Pureblood.”

Together, we slowly pulled our way out of the small room and into the hallway beyond. To my horror, the unbelievably long hallway was lined with fully armoured guards all the way down, each one wielding a sharpened spear and standing at attention. The only signs of life they gave were the slow rise and fall of their chests and their eyes as they slowly watched us trot down the hall.

Cautiously, we made our way down the hall, past the guards. Twilight and I led the way while Farmer slowly trotted behind us, limping painfully on his wounded leg. I offered to give him some support, but he just shook me off. “Last thing we need is you getting stuck inside my head because you were stupid enough to touch me,” was all he said.

After a few moments of walking, we came to a large ornate door. It towered far above my head, nearly standing twenty feet in height. It was covered in golden designs and large sapphires, each jem seeming to glitter with unnatural light. The door to my left held a golden engraving of a shining sun, while the other held a glistening full moon.

I took a long moment to steal myself before I reached forwards, my fore hoof reaching out to push the grand door open. Before I could, however, there was a loud creak, and the massive doors began to swing open on their own accord, giving us a clear view of the huge chamber beyond.

The throne room was a massive, rectangular chamber, with a massive curving roof that appeared to have been painted to resemble a twinkling night sky. The pristine walls, lined with marble pillars hanging golden baskets of fresh lavender, held dozens of awe inspiring stained glass windows, each one depicting a different major events from all across Equestria’s history. A red, velvet carpet ran down the centre of the room leading to a set of marble steps ascending to an elevated podium holding a massive golden throne. Small fountains adorned the large throne, water cascading down meticulously placed ramps along the steps, and atop the throne's velvet pillow sat Pureblood.

The second I saw Pureblood, I kneeled over and broke out laughing. I rolled onto my back, clutching at my stomach with my hooves as I did all I could to try and contain my giggles. Twilight and Farmer stared down at me in shock, their eyebrows raised as if questioning if I had completely lost my mind. But I couldn’t help myself. I laughed like I had never laughed before. Pureblood looked absolutely ridiculous!

Pureblood stormed to his hooves, glaring down at me from across the room with so much disdain I felt like he might melt me with his stare alone. “How dare you laugh in my presence! How dare you!”

I let my giggles subside a little, wiping a small tear from my cheek as I rose to face him again. I opened my mouth to respond, only for another wave of giggles to rush through me. I clamped my hoof over my mouth, doing all I could to keep my composure. “Sorry, sorry… It’s just that… I thought you were a unicorn before you were a brain in a jar. Not… well…” I gestured to his body with my hoof. “Not whatever you call that!”

Pureblood was a tall, gold coloured stallion, clad in a royal blue robe that held what I could only assume was an attempt to look godly. His hooves, each one clad in golden royal horseshoes, glimmered as if polished and a gaudy looking necklace adorned with rubies and emeralds hung around his longer neck. His head was a whole other thing to behold entrily. A curled mustache rested upon his upper lip and his horn, almost comical in length, protruded from between flowing gold hair that matched his coat. A crown, fully and ludicrously bedazzled like the rest of his ensemble, rested atop his head. What caught my attention the most however, were the two massive wings that he had flared out at his sides, slightly larger than they had any right to be.

“You’re an alicorn?” Twilight said, her mouth opening wide to allow her astounded gasp to escape her lips.

“You’re an alicorn?” Farmer groaned, one eyebrow raising in disbelief.

“Pffft- You’re an alicorn,” I affirmed with a thoughtful nod of my head, my mouth twisted into a goofy grin. “Of course you’re a fucking alicorn. Because why the fuck not at this point…”

Pureblood regally strode from his place atop his throne, approaching us with his chin held high. “Of course I’m an alicorn! When I entered the Utopia program, I made certain that my appearance was one befitting of the ruler of all pony kind.”

I snickered. “Oh wait… so you actually chose to look like that?” I bit down on my lip, fighting back another wave of giggles. “Please tell me you’re at least a little aware of how silly you look?”

Pureblood scowled, his teeth morphing into fangs. “You will treat me with respect, Amber Aura. In this place, you don’t want to be on my bad side.”

“You do look like a bad fictional character a foal would make up,” Twilight noted factually. A second later she clamped a hoof over her mouth. “Oh my gosh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come out…”

Pureblood’s gaze shifted to Twilight, his expression changing to one of surprise. “Twil- What are- How are you even here? The last I heard you were fused into the goddess and blown apart by the Lightbringer out in Maripony.”

“I’ve been asking myself that since I found her,” Farmer stated glumly, still staring up at Pureblood in disbelief.

I took a deep breath, pushing aside the last of my giggles and taking a step forward. “Well Pureblood. You wanted to talk. We’re here to talk. What do you want?”

Pureblood stared at Twilight in confusion for a second longer before letting his gaze move back to me. His fangs returned back to normal teeth as he gave me a charismatic smile. “I need assistance taking full control of the Utopia program, and you are going to give it to me.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, still trying not to laugh. “First of all, what the hell do you need me for? I don’t even understand how the Utopia program works. Second of all, why the fuck would I help you take control of it? I think we’ve made it pretty clear at this point that we’re trying to stop you.”

Pureblood sneered. “I have ways of making you comply. In this place, I am a god. I could have you and your friends ripped apart, piece by piece, atom by atom, before putting you back together and starting all over again, but I have learned that you are not to be underestimated. The fact that you have made it this far, to stand before me defiantly even at the end of all things, you have proven that you are a greater asset than foe. So, I bring an offering.”

Pureblood stepped back, sweeping one of his hooves grandly to gesture to a large doorway to our left. The door pushed open, making way for two royal guards to walk in, pulling a strange looking changeling behind them by chains.

The changeling was a dark gray, almost black in colour with a set of deep violet eyes that glared at all of us with a seething hatred. His tattered insectoid wings buzzed helpless at his sides and his curved horn had been shattered. I felt a spike of burning pain as I looked at the changeling. I forced myself to look away, not wanting to feel the pain any longer.

“Well?” Pureblood asked expectantly, giving me a smug smirk. “What do you think?”

I gave a quick shake of my head to dispel the burning pain before giving him a confused look. “I don’t get it?”

Pureblood blinked, as if expecting me to confess to having just made a really bad joke. “What do you mean you don’t get it?” He seethed once he realized I very much was not joking. “It’s Azar! Your enemy? The changeling that slaughtered your people in Stable 25!?”

I just kept staring at him in confusion. “I, uh… Sorry. You’re going to have to give me more than just that.”

Pureblood was practically raving with annoyance. “What else is there to get!?”

Farmer stepped forwards, his expression displaying his amusement. “You’ll have to excuse Amber if she’s not quite how you remember her. She lost all her memories, you see. I think it has to do with the Utopia Program trying to keep her mind from remembering how she died.”

“Fascinating,” Pureblood soothed, his more frantic, hostile tone dropping to a calmer hiss. “I gave the Utopia Program no such order to do that… Unless-”

I furrowed my brows in anticipation. “Unless what?”

“Unless the Utopia program is somehow making decisions independently,” Pureblood thought aloud, starting to pace back and forth before us. “Now that is interesting. Just when I think I understand what Silver Ace and Twilight have done, they continue to surprise me,” he turned back to look at me, his smug grin once more prevalent on his face. “Azar was my first gift to you, but perhaps allow me to give you a second one.”

Purebloods elongated horn glowed a blinding gold before a beam of light shot out and wrapped around me. I was sent flying back, my hooves grasping at my head as pain suddenly flared across my whole body.

I heard screams, they might have been my own. Then I was falling down a dark pit and towards a blazing ball of flaming light. Searing heat scorched my body, my flesh sizzling and burning away. Fire spread across my form, burning away my hide and melting my flesh from my charing bones.

Agony raced through my body, each passing second growing more and more painful the closer I got to the blazing orb. Then my shriveled corpse plunged into the blinding light and my vision began flaring with other things as well. My life in Stable 25, meeting Brisk, my journey across the wasteland. Everything flashed before my eyes, filling my memories full of every experience I had ever undergone.

The process lasted only a few seconds, but in those seconds I relived my whole lifetime.

My vision cleared and I found myself lying curled up on the floor of the throne room, my whole body trembling as waves of burning pain washed over me. I screamed, my hooves clawing at my hide as I desperately tried to rid myself from my flesh in the hopes to escape the feel of being consumed by fire.

Twilight was standing over me, frantically doing her best to comfort me as I writhed. “Amber! Amber, what’s happening! Are you alright!” Her voice was rising with panic.

“Are you insane! Do you have any idea what giving her her memories back is going to do to her!” I heard Farmer screaming, his eyes glaring daggers into Pureblood. “The amount of pain it’s going to put her in! She’ll die!”

Pureblood stared down at me coldly, a small grin etched across his face. “Amber Aura is of no use to me without her memoirs,” Pureblood cooed, not bothering to look back at Farmer. “If she wishes to live she will do as I tell her,” After a long moment, he let his horn glow, wrapping me in his magical aura. A second later and the pain slowly faded away to an unpleasant hum. It felt like my whole body had pins and needles, but the pain was at least bearable.

I let my head raise up from the ground, looking up at Pureblood with wide, tear filled eyes. “What the fuck was that?”

Pureblood smirked. “I gave you back your memories. I think you’ll find that things are a lot easier to remember now.”

I slowly pulled myself back to my hooves, letting Twilight give me a support to lean on as I rose. He was right, I suddenly could remember everything, as if this whole ordeal within the Utopia Program was just a bad dream and I was finally waking up. I let my mind wander through my newly regained thoughts for a moment before snarling at Pureblood. “You killed Fluer.”

Pureblood nickered. “I’ve killed many ponies. She was far from the first. And she was far from the least deserving.”

I growled, taking a threatening step towards Pureblood. Before I could get far however, the magical glow around Pureblood’s horn pulsed and a sudden wave of pain flashed through me, sending me staggering a few steps back.

Pureblood gave a snide smile at my pain. He tapped his horn mockingly with a hoof. “I told you, Amber Aura. In this place, I am a god. Right now, I am the only thing keeping your mind from fracturing apart into a million pieces. You are at my mercy, so if you want to keep breathing, you will do what I say,” At his words, I stepped back, though I didn’t stop glaring at him. “Now, onto the real business,” Pureblood restarted, gesturing to where the two guards held Azar. “This is my gift to you. Do you remember him now?”

I looked over at where the Changeling general stood shivering, the metal chains around his neck looking tight enough to squeeze the very life out of him. Just looking at the changeling made my insides twist with rage. “Yes,” was all I could manage to get out.

“You could imagine my surprise when I found him inside the Utopia program,” Pureblood said, trotting over to Azar. “Like you, he was thrown directly into Utopia, though he did not have the good fortune of having his memory erased. He’s completely mindless now, just a shell of his former self.”

“So what does he have to do with us?” Twilight asked, her eyes wandering over Azar’s trembling body mournfully.

Pureblood gave her a kind looking smile. “This changeling killed all the ponies that Amber Aura grew up with. I figured as a show of good faith, I would give this traitorous wretch his just rewards.”

Before any of us could say anything, the two guards threw the trembling changeling down before us into the centre of the chamber before Pureblood. Pureblood loomed over him, his wings flared and his horn glowing. A beam of light shot from Purebloods horn, enveloping Azar in a ghastly red light.

Azar began to thrash, un-pony-like screams bursting from his lips as he clawed desperately at the chains that had been wrapped tight around his neck. Tendrils of red magic pried his dark carapace shell from his back, pulling with it bloody flesh and muscle sinew. I saw the metal clamp around his neck grow red hot, burning away at his thick shell and flesh beneath.

“Wha- What do you think you’re doing!” Twilight screamed, her eyes wide with horror as she watched the torture ensue. “Stop it! You’re hurting him!”

“Hurting him no less than he deserves,” Pureblood smirked, his intense gaze never leaving the thrashing changeling. “Ask Amber. She will tell you just how much this traitor deserves this.”

Twilight spun around to face me, her eyes wide. “Amber, tell him to stop this! Please!”

I stared back at her for a moment, letting myself cast small glances at Azar’s writhing form. “I, uh… He wasn’t very nice, Twi.”

Twilight just stared at me in disbelief, her jaw slack. “So you’re… just going to let Pureblood torture him?” Her voice was so quiet that I could hardly hear it over Azar’s screams. “You’re just going to stand back and watch?”

“Perhaps you didn’t get the chance to meet Amber Aura as she really is,” Pureblood snickered, his powerful magic slowly peeling back a layer of muscle tissue to reveal the bloody bones beneath. “Perhaps without her memories, without all the things that shaped her, Amber is different. But this Amber? She has walked the wasteland. She has killed more ponies than I could ever dream of. She understands that sometimes great horrors are needed to bring about victory. Even here, without the memories that shape her, she has resorted to killing another to make her ends meet, even if that pony was simply a mental construct.”

Twilight glared back and forth between Pureblood and I, her eyes a mix of hurt and shock. Finally her gaze settled back on me. “Amber, stop this right now. This isn’t you.”

Those words stug. I furrowed my brow, the words cutting into me like a knife. Wasn’t this me? I had sat back and watched Silver Ace get tortured at the hooves of Pureblood not all that long ago. I had sided with raiders to get what I wanted. I had even made the decision to let Fleur kill foals by fire so that I could keep the A.A.S.S. out of her and Purebloods grasp. This was me. I knew it was.

But that wasn’t what stung the most. Perhaps it was because I could suddenly so starkly contrast who I am with who I was, but I suddenly felt an unbelievable pang of guilt. The pony that had woken up in the Utopia program without her memories had scaled a mountain and fought against armoured guards and horrific shadow beasts. She had never even dreamed of hurting a fly. That had been me once too. A long time ago, before the wasteland twisted me into a monster.

I had fallen so far, been twisted so much from what I had once been, that I had forgotten just what I was all about. Morality. The hardest of virtues. How does one gauge morality? Through doing the nice thing? The heroic thing? Or is it just doing what must be done to make things better, no matter the cost?

But the worst part was that I realized that the Amber Aura that had awoken within the Utopia Program had come so far anyway. I had been twisted and diluted, forced to march down a path that had never been meant for me to trod. And I should have stayed true to myself the whole time.

“Stop,” I finally growled, stepping past Twilight and glaring at Pureblood. “I think Azar has suffered enough,” I could practically feel Twilight smile at me with relief.

Pureblood growled. “You would have me release him? After everything he’s done?” Another surge of magic traveled through his horn, yanking an inch of Azar's intestines from his lashed upon stomach.

“I said stop,” I asserted, more forcefully this time. I stomped my hoof down in front of me, my eyes narrowing. “He has suffered all he needs.”

With a sigh, Pureblood let go of his magical grip on Azar. The changeling general slumped to the ground, blood spilling from his body as he went limp. Weakly, Azar lifted his gaze, his whole body trembling as he tried to hold up his head. He squinted his eyes at me, as if trying to recognize a face he had seen a long time ago.

“Thank you…” Azar breathed, his voice coming out in a slow, pained rasp. His body shuttered and he collapsed to his side, his violet eyes rolling back slightly as he died.

“Hmmf,” Pureblood huffed, his guards marching past him and dragging Azar’s body away. Twilight watched with a pale face as his mangled corpse was dragged out of sight. “There. His torture is done and he has been given relife. Are you satisfied?”

“Very,” I nodded, glaring up at him. “Now, how about you do what you said you wanted to do from the beginning, hmm?”

Pureblood scowled. “Very well, Amber Aura. Let’s talk,” His horn pulsed and suddenly both Twilight and Farmer collapsed to the ground, magical chains shooting up from the ground and wrapping around their bodies. They gave shouts of surprise as the golden chains hoisted them up into the air, magical clamps slammed tight around their muzzles, muffling their startled cries.

I took a step back, too stunned to jump into action. “What do you think you’re doing!” I shouted, my own horn charging up to attack.

Pureblood just smirked at me. “I said that we should talk. Your friends are of no use to me.”

“If they die, I will never help you,” I pointed out, glowering at him.

“Kill them?” Pureblood practically looked repulsed at the idea. “I have no intention to kill them. At least for now, anyway. But cross me, disobey me, and you’ll find their necks snapped,” The magical chains coiled around Twilight and Farmer’s throats, constricting tightly around them and making them choke. A chain lashed out, knocking Farmer’s revolver away from him and across the floor.

“What ever happened to talking!” I blurted, my eyes going wide as I watched Purebloods magic strangle them.

“Like you have any intention of listening to reason,” The golden alicorn scowled, looming over me and glaring down with dagger-like eyes. “Do you truly expect me to believe that you would sit down and listen to my side of the argument? Give what I have to say even the smallest benefit of the doubt? My instinct tells me no. You are far too far gone for that now.”

I had to admit, he was right about that. I had come here to stop him. I doubted anything could change my mind at this point. But then again…

“And could you say the same about yourself?” I blurted, my words clearly catching Pureblood by surprise. The magical chains around my friends' necks loosened slightly as Pureblood paused.

“I beg your pardon?” Pureblood growled, his head arching down so that he was eye level with me. “Choose your next words very carefully.”

I gulped, taking a small step back. “Do you have any intentions of listening to reason? Or are you yourself just everything you accused me of?”

Pureblood paused, thinking that over. “Why should I need to consider what you have to say?” He pointed out, his large wings flaring out a little bit. “I have Equestria’s best interests at heart. It is only through me that Equestria and the ponies that live in it have any chance of salvation. Why should I listen to you who would do everything in their power to stop this?”

“Because I’m trying to do the exact same thing,” I smirked, suddenly feeling a little more sure of where I was going with this. “So clearly, somewhere there is a contradiction. If you are so noble and truly doing what needs to be done for a better future, why am I here trying to stop you?”

“Because you are short sighted,” Pureblood quipped. “You lack my great understanding of the Utopia Program and jumped to brash delusions of heroism.”

I only smirked in response. “Prove it.”

Pureblood hesitated, suddenly unsure how to proceed. After a long second, he stepped back, looking me over with cold, calculated eyes. “Very well. We will talk as you desire,” His horn glimmered and a mahogany table shimmered into view, holding rows upon rows of foods the likes of which I had never seen. Pureblood trotted over to the table, taking a seat at a large throne sitting at it’s head. He lifted a glass of what appeared to be very, very expensive whiskey up and gestured for me to take a seat beside him. “Come now. There is much to discuss between us.”

Casting one last look up at where Twilight and Farmer still dangled helplessly above us, I moved and sat down at the table. My rump sank deep into the velvet seat cushion and I let out an involuntary sigh. It was a very comfy chair.

Pureblood levitated another glass of whiskey over to me. I shook the glass off with a hoof. “I, uh… I don’t drink that stuff,” Pureblood glowered at me for a second before his horn pulsed and the glass morphed into a wine glass, full of a dark red liquid. I grimaced, remembering my drunken experience in Friendship city. “Can I just have a Sparkle~Cola?”

Pureblood gave a low groan and roll of his eyes. “For my great descendant, you truly are lacking in class,” the wine glass shifted, this time becoming a glowing bottle of Sparkle~Cole Rad. I gratefully took the bottle, popping off the cap and taking a sip. Well fuck me, that tasted a lot better than just normal Sparkle~Cola.

“Alright, so…” Pureblood started, taking a small sip of his whiskey. “You've gotten me to talk. Where do we begin?”

I thought about that for a second. Where did we begin? I had finally gotten Pureblood to sit down with me, but I had no idea where to go from there? “Alright, I guess I’ll start by asking what Project Redirect is,” I finally started. “That project that Silver Ace was trying to access out in the Steel Ranger base in Fillydelphia. You seemed pretty upset about it. What does it do?”

Pureblood scowled. “Project Redirect was a failsafe Silver Ace and I started designing shortly before the zebra’s destroyed Equestria. Until you brought it to my attention, I had not realized that Silver Ace, or Leaden Excellent as he was calling himself, had completed it.”

“But what exactly was its function?” I pushed, unsatisfied with the answer.

“It did as the name proposed,” Pureblood cooed. “It Redirects. If activated, Silver Ace or I could use the Utopia Program from a designated remote location outside the Institute. Silver Ace no doubt intended to take control of the Utopia Program from behind my back.”

“A designated location?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Where?”

Pureblood smirked at me. “Oh, you will love this. Why in a secret chamber in the Overstallions office of Stable 25, of course. Why else do you think that Stable was Scootaloo's first choice to hide the A.A.S.S.” Pureblood watched my shocked face with satisfaction before taking a sip from his glass. “But this is all irrelevant now. So long as I am in control of Utopia, Silver Ace can do nothing. We are here to talk reason, are we not? Not to ask pointless questions.”

“Alright then, I suppose I’ll point out how stupid your plan is then,” I finally said, a small realization passing through me. Pureblood arched an eyebrow at me, prompting me to continue. “Your plan is to bring everypony’s mind into the Utopia Program, where their minds will live in here while they’re bodies, under your control, rebuild Equestria from the ground up. But that’s stupid. If everyponies mind is in here, how the fuck are they supposed to eat? Everypony will just starve to death.”

Pureblood smirked at the question. “You forget about the A.A.S.S. The very thing you spent so long trying to keep from me,” He twirled his glass in his magic, watching as the Amber liquid swirled around. “I wouldn’t have dared activate the Utopia Program otherwise.”

“Sure the A.A.S.S. will keep you alive inside of the Utopia Program, but not the rest of Equestria,” I rebutted, pointing a hoof at him. “The A.A.S.S. was only designed to keep a Stable full of ponies alive, and Stable 25 had a whole ventilation system designed specifically to dispense the A.A.S.S.’ vapours through the Stable. It’s not even remotely strong enough to feed the entire wasteland, let alone even reach the whole wasteland.”

“And that is where the Institute comes in,” Pureblood soothed, sitting up a little straighter. “Now that the A.A.S.S. is in my control in the Institute, the vapours that it produces can be mass produced and distributed-”

“But then you just run into the other problem,” I said, cutting him off. “How are you supposed to get those vapors to everypo-”

Purebloods' hoof slammed down violently on the table, making me jump. He snarled at me, his teeth once more shifting to fangs. “Don’t you dare interrupt me again!” His horn pulsed and waves of burning agony shot across my body. I dropped my drink, pushing back in my chair as I spasmed. After a second, his horn glowed again, and the pain subsided. “Had you let me finish, you would have received the answer to your question. Now shut up you ungrateful bitch!”

Whipping tears from my eyes, I gave him a fearful nod and promptly shut up, not wanting to risk another wave of pain to surge over me.

Taking a second to compose himself, Pureblood sat back into a more relaxed position. “You have seen the Sprites in the Institute, yes? Millions of tiny drones that can be deployed anywhere that I wish. While everypony's mind is in the Utopia Program, my Sprites will be sent out to distribute the A.A.S.S.’ vapours to every corner of the wastes.”

I hesitated for a moment. I hadn’t been expecting that response. “Sooo, you can cure hunger? Just like that?” I said slowly. Until then, that fact had never dawned on me. “If you take control of Utopia, then no pony in the wasteland will ever go hungry again.”

Pureblood smiled. “Of course. That alone is a noble enough goal, is it not? Do you really consider yourself to be the hero so much, you would stand between the Wasteland and that?”

I had to admit, that despite everything, that specific aspect of Pureblood’s plan sounded good. “Alright, then what about what happens to their minds?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little less sure of myself. “Once you bring them into the Utopia Program, what happens to their minds then?”

“Then they would get to live out the rest of their days in Equestria as it should be,” Pureblood replied smugly. “You have now walked both the wasteland and the plane of the Utopia Program. This is a world without crime, without rape and violence. Free of radiation and wasteland horrors like hellhounds and alicorns. No pony would ever need to suffer again.”

Admittedly, this world did feel more alluring than the wasteland. “But they would all still serve you? And only ponies?” I questioned. “What about all the other races? Like zebras and griffons. Even hellhounds and Alicorns for that matter. Not all of them are bad.”

“Of course they would serve me? I would take Celestia’s place as the new ruler of Equestria. The divine king of all ponies. And yes, Equestria was always a land intended for ponies,” Pureblood said calmly, though I noticed a sharp edge in his voice. “The other races will be put to work, made to aid in Equestria’s reconstruction, though they will not be given a place in Utopia,” I opened my mouth, but Pureblood cut me off before I could respond. “I am aware that you have found some fondness in that zebra companion of yours, as well as in a small changeling filly. I, of course, could be persuaded to let them join us in Utopia, if you do what I ask.”

I held up a hoof. “Not yet. We still have things to talk about,” Pureblood scowled at me, but remained silent. “And all the bodies of ponies that you have dragged into the Utopia Program that are left in the real world, you would have them rebuilding Equestria?”

“Indeed,” Pureblood nodded, taking another sip of his whiskey. “For the first time since the bombs fell, every pony and creatrue would play their part to rebuild our once great nation to its former glory. Earth ponies will rebuild infrastructure and re-till the land, while pegasi and unicorns work to clear away radiation and taint. Many of the mares will of course be designated to breeding, to ensure that we maintain the population while inside the Utopia Program. The work will be long and hard, and many ponies' lives will unfortunately be lost in the process, but you have seen first hoof how much progress is being made out in Fillydelphia. Imagine that, spread across every inch of Equestria. It might take another hundred years, but perhaps our grandchildren would be able to see Equestria as it once was once again.”

And there it was. I sat back, letting all of that sink in. I understood where he was coming from, but still... “I have seen Fillydelphia,” I nodded, my voice lowering to a quieter hush. “And if you truly think that a world like that is one I would want to see, then you’re more mad than Red Eye was.”

Pureblood gave me a ghastly looking smile. “Ah yes, Red Eye. Of course he factors into this greatly as well. You see, Red Eye is the true mastermind behind all of this. My great benefactor. Even when he found me as a young colt in Stable 101, he was a visionary. While I control over the minds of ponies in Utopia, he will control the real Equestria as a god through his control over the Single Pegasus Project. Under his leadership, the sky will be cleared, the Enclave eradicated, and the sun will once more be returned to pony kind.”

I felt myself smirk. “I hate to break it to you, but Red Eye is dead.”

Pureblood’s face went pale at my words instantly, his smug expression changing to one of disbelief. “What… He’s… dead…” Pureblood suddenly recoiled as if he had been struck in the face. “Impossible! You lie! Where did you hear this information!?”

“The Enclave got him,” I grinned, leaning back in my chair and folding my fore hooves in front of me. “They burned him and his Cathedral to the ground.”

Pureblood glowered at me, seething. “How dare you lie to me! I- I-”

“If you’re all powerful in here, why don’t you just check for yourself?” I smirked. “Surely you have some way of seeing into the real world.”

Pureblood stared at me for a little longer before leaning back. His horn pulsed and for just a second, his eyes flashed a pale white. When his eyes returned to normal, he looked back at me with a stoic expression. “So. You spoke the truth. Red Eye is gone…” He shook his head slowly, his voice so quiet I had to strain my ears to make out his words. “It doesn’t matter. Once I take control of the Utopia Program, I will have control over every pony in the wasteland. I can continue IMP experimentation, find a new way to get into the SPP,” His eyes locked with mine. I held back a sudden gasp as I saw a strange madness creeping into his expression. But it was more than just madness I saw, there was something else twinkling in his eye as well. Was it excitement? “Why not you? Hmm? I could do it to you?”

Pureblood suddenly pulled himself up to his hooves, stalking towards me. Startled, I stumbled from my seat, backing away from him. “W-what about me, what are you talking about?” I could feel a bit of panic rising up inside me as I saw his manic gaze start rolling over my body.

“You have a strong will, maybe just as strong as Red Eyes was. I studied your time across the wasteland. I know you survived taint experimentation at the hooves of an alicorn drone down in the Manehattan metro system,” His horn flared and a wave of agony washed over me, dropping me to the ground. I looked up, making out Purebloods' menacing form as he loomed over me. His head bent down, glaring into my eyes with a strange madness I had never seen from him. “This is good. Yes, this is very good. With Red Eye gone, at last it is my time to be the true ascendant. Not him! Me! I will complete Red Eye’s unity with you! Then, once you have become like the goddess, I will use Utopia to control you. I will live as a god, both inside of Utopia and in Equestria.

I tried to pull away from him, but his magic pinned me to the ground. “Get away from me!” I shrieked, thrashing as golden chains hoisted me from the ground. I glanced back, looking up at where Twilight and Farmer were watching in horror from above us, still tied up in chains of their own. I reached out, trying to push him back, my hoof barley reached him, only lightly brushing across his face.

The instant my hoof made contact however, a strange shock traveled through my hoof and down my body, my vision swirling away as I was suddenly swept into Purebloods memories. The last thing I saw was Pureblood eyes go wide, fear shooting across his features.

I found myself standing in a grand looking living room. The marble walls, a clear indication we were somewhere in Canterlot, were covered in expensive looking paintings and portraits. A massive chandelier hung above my head, dangling hundreds of tiny crystal shards, and a huge fireplace rested before me, the wood inside slowly burning away and filling the otherwise cold chamber with a small warmth.

I noticed that I seemed to be in the body of a foal, everything in the room seeming to be notably larger than it would have looked normally. My host glanced down at their hooves, letting me get a quick glance at their golden hide. I was in Pureblood body no doubt, some memory from his childhood by the looks of it.

An ornate door on the far side of the room cracked open and a stallion with a thick moustache and dressed in a black tuxedo stepped out, quietly closing the door behind him and standing almost motionless before me. "Master Pureblood," The butler started, bowing his head slightly. "Your father is here to see you."

I could feel a slight tremble run down Pureblood leg at the mention of his father. I could feel fear clutching at his gut, though his mouth forced itself into a gentle smile. "My Father? He is back from Manehattan already?" I was surprised to find that he voice wasn't as nasally and raspy as I had come to expect from him.

The butler nodded. "Indeed he is. And he is quite adamant that you see him at once. I would not recommend keeping him waiting."

Nodding in return, Pureblood quickly trotted over to the large door, pausing just at its threshold as if dreading what he was going to see on the far side. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and pushed open the door, stepping into the large room beyond.

The room we entered was a massive looking dining room, with a long table that looked large enough to seat a small army. A bronze coated unicorn sat at the head of the massive table, taking slow sips of an expensive looking whiskey. The stallion didn't bother looking up at Pureblood, seeming far more interested in his drink.

"Father, I was not expecting you to be back so soon," Pureblood stated curtly, not daring to step any further into the room. "How was your trip?"

"Successful," The bronze stallion grunted flatly, still not looking up. He raised a hoof, beckoning for Pureblood to approach. "Come closer."

Pureblood took a long, deep breath, before taking a step forward, then another. I could feel the developing muscles in his withers tensing more and more with each step. At last he came to stand only a few feet away from the much larger stallion.

"You wanted to talk to me father?"

Slap!

Pureblood was sent flying backwards, his head flaring with pain as it was slammed roughly against the cool floor beneath him. His father loomed out of his seat, his stoic expression filled with anger. "You disobedient shit!" His father boomed, his fore hoof swinging out and knocking Pureblood across the back of the head again.

Pureblood scrambled back, clutching at his head. "W-hat... No father... Please!" He bit back tears, his cheeks already wet. "I have done nothing to disobey you!"

"You've been hanging out with that lower class wench again, haven't you," his father seethed, his hooves reaching down and wrapping tightly around Pureblood neck. Pureblood choked, gasping as he tried to get a breath of air. "I can smell her vile filth all over you! You were with her! Weren't you!"

"N-no..." Pureblood wheezed, his face going blue as his fathers chokehold tightened. "Please! I-I-I..."

"Stop lying!" The large stallion scowled, finally releasing Pureblood and letting the small colt drop to the floor. His father took a few steps back, looking the whimpering colt over with distain. "This is the last straw, Pureblood. I'm going to need to teach you a lesson..."

Slowly, his father trotted over to a small side desk and picked a large sock up off the table top. A second later, he was rummaging around inside the desks drawers, pulling out a sharp looking paper weight. He gave Pureblood a sly smile, slipping the heavy object into the sock. "Come here boy," He soothed, raising the sock in his magic and slowly giving it a few fast spins. Pureblood cringed away, his eyes locked on the homemade flail mace. "You need to be punished..."

The world shifted and I found myself standing on a large balcony, overlooking the city of Canterlot far below me. I was still inhabiting Pureblood body, that much was obvious, though now I seemed to be quite a few years older and dressed in a dark blue suit. The sound of hoof steps echoed out from behind us and he turned his head to see a smaller mint green earth pony mare with a charcoal mane trotting out onto the balcony towards him.

"Pureblood?" The mare asked, her voice sounding uncertain. "I... I didn't think I would ever see you again..."

Pureblood sighed, his younger voice having an almost beautiful, deep sounding hum to it. "Belle, I'm sorry. I was afraid that I would never get the chance to see you again either."

Belle trotted up beside him, looking out at the city below. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she dared to speak up. "Why then, after all this time have you chosen to meet with me?"

"Because..." Pureblood had to bite the inside of his lip to stop from smiling. "I left you because my father never would have allowed us. I mean, you are a baker from Ponyville, it is hardly orthodox for somepony of my standing to fall in love with somepony like you," Belle recoiled a little at the comment, only for Pureblood to take her in his hooves and stare deep into her eyes. "But that doesn't matter anymore. My father has passed away. He cannot get between us anymore. And despite everything, despite our class and the ponies that would see us apart forever, I would fight to be with you," He paused, giving her a kind smile. "Because I love you."

Belle blinked at him, as if trying to figure out if the words she was hearing were real. "I am sorry to hear about your father," she said, her tone cautions. She kept her face stoic, making reading her expression very hard.

"Don't be," Pureblood soothed, finally releasing his teeth from the inside of his jaw and letting himself smile. "He was terrible to me as a child. To me, his passing means nothing but that I can be with you again."

"Pureblood... It's been years since- I mean... I don't-"

Pureblood put a hoof to her lips, silencing her. "Please. Just give me a chance."

After a second, Belles lips twisted to match his smile. "Alright..." She paused, blushing slightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Again, I was ripped away from the memory, my mind swirling up above the streets of Canterlot before flashing many years forward in time. This time I found myself in a hospital room. Belle, quite a few years older now, lay still on the hospital bed, her chest slowly rising and falling with pained breaths.

I looked down, my hoof stroking the mane of a small white colt with a blond mane that I appeared to be cradling in my hoof. Blueblood as a foal, I quickly presumed.

A small knock on the door drew my attention upwards, where I spotted a doctor standing sadly in the doorway. "Master Pureblood. I'm afraid there is little else we can do for her," The doctor said, slowly trotting in and resting his hoof at the base of the bed. "Her family simply cannot afford the treatment, and even if they could, her blood type is very rare, the cost to buy a new lung would be very-"

"I'll pay for the treatment," Pureblood scowled, pacing the young Blueblood down on the chair behind him and standing up to loom over the doctor. "I'll pay for the treatment and donate my own lung if I must. We share blood type. It would work."

The doctor took a step back, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "Master Pureblood, are you certain? It is very costly, even for you... and the procedure is risky. There's a good chance that you would have to live the rest of your life with-"

I said I'll do it!" Pureblood practically howled, glaring down at the doctor. "Now do the surgery! She has to get better! She simply has too!" He turned, looking down at Belle's frail looking form on the bed. Behind him, Blueblood began to cry. "Please... she has to get better..."

My vision shifted again, ripping me from the memory before violently throwing me into the next. The moment my vision began to form, pain seared up my front and I found myself bolting up from a hospital bed, blood soaked blankets falling from me and scattering across the floor. My ears rang and a loud beeping blared from a nearby machine. A doctor rushed to me, gently trying to push me back into the bed.

"Pureblood, lie back down!" They ordered, their hooves drenched in blood. "There's been an accident with the procedure, you need to stay calm."

Pureblood glanced down, his eyes locking on the massive incision in his chest. Through his opened flesh, he could see his bloody ribcage and his now singular lung working away frantically, leaking blood from a small slit that clearly wasn't supposed to be there.

"Belle! What happened to Belle!?" Pureblood wheezed frantically, his voice coming out in a dry, raspy voice. When the doctor failed to answer, Pureblood lunged forwards, wrapping his hooves around the doctors throat. "Is she alright!"

"I... I'm sorry Pureblood," The doctor soothed, pushing him back and running a hoof through Pureblood sweaty mane. "There... The surgery didn't work..."

before the doctor could react, Pureblood pulled himself from the hospital bed, blood spilling down his front as the few stitches that had been poorly holding his chest together ripped open. He screamed, staggering around as he placed a hoof to his chest, trying to keep his insides from spilling across the floor.

"Pureblood, please!" The doctor shouted in surprise, rushing forward to lead him back to the bed. "You aren't well, you need to-"

A burst of magic shot from Pureblood horn, sending the doctor slamming back into the wall. Their head cracked against a desk, their body falling limp and blood spilling across the floor.

Gasping for breath, Pureblood staggered forward, leaning heavily against the wall as the flaring pain threatened to knock him over. He screamed, blood surging up his throat and burbling from his lips. He stumbled out into the hallway, his open chest leaving a trail of blood behind him as he desperately limped onwards.

He heard some pony scream behind him and the sound of hooves rushing around frantically. "Somepony get a doctor! Hurry!"

Pureblood ignored their screams, using his little amount of strength to reach the door at the far end of the hall. His horn glowed, yanking the door open violently.

The words reached his ears before his blurring eyes made out the scene beyond. "-time of death 2:34 am, Belle Blood, deceased," The doctor looked up sadly from his recording device, his eyes locking with Purebloods. After a short second, his eyes widened. "P-pureblood... What are you doing here! Security! I need security in here right now!"

I felt strong hooves grab onto Pureblood shoulders and begin pulling him away. Pureblood didn't resist, simply staring in horror at the limp figure of his beloved on the bed. Then I was sent spiralling away again, pulled away from that horrid nightmare and into another.

I was sitting in the large living room again, staring stoically into the flickering firelight of the large fireplace. One of my hosts wrinkled, golden hooves raised, shakily tracing along the silver scar that raced down the front of their chest.

Pureblood let his horn flicker to life, a field of his magic raising a small picture of him and Belle. The photo was old, stained by time and showing them as young foals. His eyes lingered on the photo for a while, his gaze resting on Belles form. Then, as if possessed by rage, his magic ripped the small picture in half, tearing the two lovers apart. He cast the pieces into the fire, watching emotionlessly as they shrivelled up and burned, firelight glinting off his emotionless, hollow eyes.

The door behind him swung open, making way for a much older looking Blueblood as he stalked into the room. Through the now open doors, I could hear the sound of a foal wailing. "Father, somepony is requesting your-"

Pureblood swung around, his hoof slapping Blueblood roughly across the face. Blueblood staggered back, clutching at the rapidly forming bruise. "What have I told you about knocking!" Pureblood seethed, his voice raspy and nasally, like nails on a chalkboard. He coughed, hacking as his lungs flared with pain. His hoof flashed out again, once more sending Blueblood staggering back. "How many times do I need to tell you to do things before you listen!?"

"I-I'm sorry father," Blueblood gasped, taking a few steps back. "I-It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Pureblood growled, his eyes never leaving Bluebloods. "You should be thankful you know. My father would have done much worse that that."

Blueblood bowed his head, the corners of his eyes moist from tears. "Of course, thank you father..." He looked up a little, his pupils trembling. "Th-there is a pony here to see you. He said he was from Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns."

Pureblood scoffed. "I have planned for no such meeting. Tell him he can wait like every pony else."

"He, uh..." Blueblood glanced around, his jaw clenching as he built up the courage to talk. "He is very insistent. And he has the royal seal with him. Celestia ordered this meeting..." He winced, as if expecting Pureblood to strike him again.

Instead, Pureblood let a small smile form across his lips. "Celestia sent somepony? Why didn't you say so. I will see what they want at once," He trotted past the still cowering Blueblood, heading towards the front door. Pureblood ear twitched at the high pitched sheiks of the foal in the far room. "And shut Goldenblood up. I tire of his constant wailing."

Making his way to the front door, Pureblood gestured for an elderly looking butler to pull the door open for him. Standing on the other side of the door, stood a tall silver earth pony, seemingly a few years older than Pureblood, dressed in a nice looking vest and tie. A strange talisman was clipped to his vest and his cutie mark seemed to be a singular black spade.

"I was told I was meeting somepony from Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns?" Pureblood stated in a grunt like tone, his eyes lingering on the stallions notably hornless head. "Excuse me as I confess to having been expecting a unicorn."

The silver Stallion smiled. "Yes, I get that a lot," He extended a hoof, which Pureblood promptly shook. "My name is Silver Ace, and I am here on behalf of Celestia to negotiate funding for an expedition to the Zebra Homelands."

My mind flashed back to reality, just in time to see Pureblood blink back at me with a confused expression. "What just-" He muttered, his expression a little distant. "What happened?"

I looked him over for a moment, uncertain how to proceed. "You... Lost some pony very dear to you," I said cautiously, uncertain of what old scars I was about to rip open. "I, uh... I'm really sorry about Belle..."

Pureblood expression hardened, his eyes flashing with anger. "Don't mention her name... I... I don't know how you know about her, but mention her again, and I will flay your flesh from your bones before putting you back together."

I grasped at Pureblood magical chains that were still suspending me, trying to break myself free form them. "Pureblood, you weren't always like this... There was a time... A time when you risked your own life to save somepony else... It's admirable."

Pureblood hissed, his face inching closer to mine. “I stuck my neck out for another and look what that got me! Nothing! A missing lung and a son without a mother!" the chains tightened, making me yelp out with pain. "Now enough of all of this. We have been dancing around the inevitable for long enough! You will help me access the Utopia program right now, or your friends will die!”

“I don’t even know how to access the Utopia Program!” I shouted back, struggling against his powerful chains. It didn’t matter what I did, I was unable to break free. "I don't even know why you think I might have even the smallest idea of where to begin activating it!"

“LIAR!” Pureblood howled, his magic flaring and causing another wave of searing pain to burst through me. I screamed, the magical chains constricting around me suddenly feeling like they were scolding hot metal. My hooves flailed, bits of my hide being burned away. “When we replaced you with a synth, I wanted to simply have you permanently frozen, but Silver Ace insisted we give you a synth body. Silver Ace was plotting against me! Planning to use the Utopia Program for his own purposes behind my back! He must have needed you alive for something! I don’t know how or why, but you know the key to activating Utopia! You have too!”

The chains twisted and sent me violently crashing across the room. I heard Twilight and Farmer give out muffled cries of alarm as they watched me get brutally thrown against one of the marble walls.

“I don’t know!” I shouted at him, blood dripping down my face from a large gash where my head had collided with the hard surface. “I don’t fucking know how it works!”

The chains coiled around me again, reefing me back to float before Pureblood. Pureblood’s hoof struck out, slapping me roughly across the face. My head snapped to the side, a large bruise already forming.

“Stop lying to me!” He struck me again, knocking me back to the floor with a loud thud. He loomed over me, his horn blazing with light. “The Utopia Program requires you to take control of all six of the memory orbs comprising it! But I’ve done that already! it isn’t working!” His horn shimmered and six floating memory orbs materialized around us, filling the room with a strange, multicoloured light. Each memory orb was a different colour, purple, pink, blue, orange, yellow and white, no doubt colours belonging to the ponies that the memories within had once belonged to. Pureblood glared at them loathfully for a second before letting his murderous gaze shift up to look at where Twilight was wriggling helplessly, suspended by his magical chains. “But that bitch Twilight did something! She put some sort of security measure on the Utopia Program, and I can’t get fucking through it!”

The chains around Twilight shifted, pulling her away from Farmer and down to our level. Pureblood glowered at her, his magic releasing the metal clamp around her mouth. Once the metal clamp fell away, Twilight let out a loud gasp, blinking back tears. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she sputtered, clearly on the verge of some sort of panic attack. “I’ve never even heard of the Utopia Program until today.”

Pureblood’s upper lip trembled for a moment, his face drawing only inches away from Twilights trembling one. “So you are like Amber? Loss of memory?” Twilight tried to respond, but the chains tightened around her neck, choking her and letting her do little more than nod. Another chain shot from the ground, this one bearing a jagged looking hook on the end. The hook dug deep into Twilight's flesh, hot blood spilling down her side.

I pushed against the chains, trying to lunge at Pureblood. “Don’t hurt her!” A flick of Purebloods horn sent me crashing across the room, skidding across the floor where I came to an abrupt stop against the base of the large thrones staircase.

Not bothering to look back at me, Pureblood gave Twilight a sinister looking grin. “Then allow me to jog your memory as well. Perhaps then you will be more able to tell me what it is you have done!” his horn pulsed and wrapped Twilight in its golden glow.

Nothing happened.

Pureblood brow furrowed, his eyes darting back and forth. He leaned in closer, his muzzle twisting into a scowl. “Why didn’t it work. What are you?”

“I don’t- I don’t know what you want!” Twilight cried, struggling harder against the chains. “I don’t know what I’m doing here!”

Pureblood scowled. “If you are unable to tell me what you have done, then you are of no use to me,” The chains around her neck tightened, snapping upwards into an impromptu noose. Twilight gasped, the last bit of air in her lungs being forced out as she was stung up, her hooves desperately scratching at her neck as the chains coiled ever tighter. Pureblood smiled at her almost sweetly. “Oh how I have wanted to do this for so long.”

“Wait!” The words escaped my mouth before I could think them through. “Don’t kill her. I’ll help you activate the Utopia Program.”

Pureblood glanced back at me, Twilight still struggling in the air above him. A second later, his horn pulsed and Twilight dropped to the ground with a loud gasp. Pureblood turned, slowly stalking over to me, his metal horseshoes clanking against the pristine floor.

“And once again, you have only proven me right, Amber Aura,” Pureblood soothed, his nasally voice making my skin crawl. “You never would have listened to reason. It is only through your friends, when you will lose something of great value to you, that you finally comply.”

“I listened to you,” I shot back, slowly climbing back to my shaking hooves and glaring him down. “You attacked me.”

Pureblood nickered. “Irrelevant now. You have seen what I am capable of and that you are helpless to stop me. Now you will help me access the Utopia Program, or your friends will die. First the bitch Twilight, then the pony in the hat.”

“Amber, don’t! We ca-” Twilight was cut off as the metal clamp flew through the air towards her and once more slammed shut around her mouth. The chains snapped back, pulling her back into the air beside a still struggling Farmer.

Gulping, I trotted across the room and looked the six memory orbs over. One orb for each of the six ministry mares. Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity. “And all you need to do is control all the orbs to control Utopia?” I asked, rephrasing what Pureblood had told me as a question.

Pureblood nodded. “Indeed. This entire world is composed of the massive amounts of memories that exist within these orbs. Every book Twilight has read, ever food Pinkie’s tasted, every party she has thrown, every town and trail Applejack has traveled in her deliveries, every blade of grass, cloud and tree Rainbow has seen as she soared across Equestria, every bit of flora known by Fluttershy. And, of course, every cranny of high society learned by lady Rarity,” his horn shone, igniting each orb as he mentioned them. “These memories create every aspect of this reality. Control the memories, control reality. It’s honestly quite a simple, elegant design really.”

I stared at the six orbs for a long second before I let out a laugh. Of course Pureblood hadn’t been able to take control of the Utopia Program. He had been right. There was something that I knew. Something only three beings in existence had ever known. Myself, Kamari, and of course, Silver Ace.

“I don’t know what security measure Twilight placed on the Utopia Program, but whatever it is, it isn’t your problem,” I laughed, looking up smugly at the glowing orbs around me. “You don’t have control of Utopia because you don't control all of the orbs. There’s a seventh.”

Pureblood stared at me, his expression twisted into one of confusion. “A seventh? Seven memory orbs? How? Whose? Who else had their mind placed within Utopia? Silver Ace?!” He had to spit Silver Aces name out with venom.

I felt my heartbeat quicken. I had seen what kind of monster the seventh orb contained. “I… I don’t know its name… or if it even has one…” I said, a shiver racing down my spine. “But there was something… some being that Kamari unburied in the depths the Hollow Shades...”

“Kamari?” Pureblood snarled, his lips curling back to reveal his teeth. “What does that vile wretch have to do with all of this?”

“Kamari was working with Silver Ace. They put a seventh memory orb into the Utopia Program in secret. I think I saw it. In the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Castle,” I could practically feel the huge shadow ponies insidious, inky tendrils wrapping around me and pulling me into its blackness as I spoke. “I don’t know what they were doing, but that thing is-”

“The Starswirl the Bearded wing?” Pureblood soothed thoughtfully, cutting me off. His horn once again glowed and his eyes flashed white. “Yes, I can feel it there. You speak the truth,” His lips twisted into a smile that sent a chill through my whole body. “Thank you Amber Aura. That was all that I needed from you.”

A strong wall of magical force burst from Purebloods horn and slammed into me, sending me crashing backwards through the air. I heard Twilight scream, her own body getting flung back as the massive surge of power exploded from Purebloods horn. Above us, the magical force rippled through the air, ramming into Farmer, knocking him down next to us.

With a smirk, the glow around Pureblood horn faded, and I felt his field of magic around me fade, letting the tidal wave of burning agony once more rush through me. I screamed, thrashing back and forth as I tried to lessen the unbearable pain. I could feel fire racing through my body, burning me up from the inside out. Pureblood smirk only widened as he watched me thrash about. "You are no longer of use to me, Amber."

Pureblood’s horn shone, light streaming out of it in all directions. The whole room began to shake, the beautiful stained glass windows around us shattering, their broken shards scattering across the floor.

Before me, in the centre of the circle of memory orbs, a blinding light began to rise out of the floor, white at first, but rapidly changing to a sinister looking black. The strewning lights from the shattered windows seemed to get absorbed into the new dark light, making the edges of the room go dark with shadows. A memory orb slowly floated out of the shroud like light, hovering before Pureblood.

Pureblood stepped back, taking in the pulsing, dark orb with wide eyes. A smile crept across his lips and a look of determination crossed his face. Slowly, he reached out, his hoof extending towards the ominous sphere inch by inch.

“Pureblood! Don’t do this!” I screamed between gritted teeth, trying to fight back the searing pains. Tears streaked my face from the sheer effort it took not to just throw myself out the window and off of Canterlot Mountain to put an end to the pain. “The thing in that orb! It’s evil!”

But Pureblood ignored me, his hoof growing ever closer to the ball of dark light. The shadowy light flickered across his face as he got closer, the whites of his eyes slowly turning pitch black. “At last, after all this time!” He chuckled, his voice echoing around the large chamber. “Utopia is finally mine!”

“Amber! What do we do!” Twilight shrieked, her expression filled with horror. “There has to be something we can do?!”

I looked back at her hopelessly, tears still streaking down my face. “I… I don’t-” I muttered helplessly, a surge of pain lashing through my skull. I fell backwards, my hooves clutching desperately at my head. “There’s nothing we can do…”

I saw something slithering around inside the central orb, slamming against the memory orb's inner walls as if trying desperately to break out. Two pairs of pearl white eyes glared out at me from the orbs dark surface, staring straight through me and into my very soul.

My eyes shifted from the dark orb to locked on the glowing purple memory orb. Twilight’s memory orb. For just a second, I felt the searing pain fade away as a memory tugged at the back of my mind. “Five days,” I breathed, my words so quiet that I hardly even heard them.

“What was that?” Twilight frowned, her eyes perking up at my voice.

I glanced back to Purebloods hoof, so close now to the memory orb. “When I first met you, you said that you woke up without memories only five days ago. That specific amount of time seemed important even then, but I didn’t have the proper memoires at the time to put my hoof on its significance. But now I do. That would have been close to around the same time Pureblood launched the Utopia Program,” I rolled over to face her. I could feel the burning pain rapidly washing back over me with each second. “But that wasn’t the only thing that happened five days ago. Five days ago was the day Littlepip destroyed the Goddess,” my thoughts clicked together in my mind, and I let out a small gasp. “Pureblood said you were a part of the goddess! Twilight, what is your mind doing in here!”

Purebloods smile twisted, becoming more and more deranged. His pupils went dark completely, swallowed up by the inky darkness of the orb entrily. His hoof drew ever closer. It was so close now that an inch further and his gold clad hoof would reach it.

The strange writhing within the dark orb increased, rapidly becoming a violent thrash. The orb began to shake, threatening to smash upon at the slightest touch as the creature within slammed against its inner walls.

Twilight stared back at me, her expression confused and fearful. “I… I don’t under-”

“The Utopia Program erased my memory to keep me alive!” I shouted back, now certain of what was going on. “It’s acting independently! Pureblood thought that the security measures you put on the Utopia Program two hundred years ago were what was keeping him out, but it wasn’t! We haven’t even seen those security measures yet!” Fighting through the pain that threatened to throw me into unconsciousness, I pulled myself to my hooves and rushed to Twilight. “Don’t you get it! The Utopia Program pulled your mind into here as soon as you were free from the goddess! It thought that in doing so would make your mind whole for some reason… Why?”

Twilight shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “I… I don't…

Pureblood hoof dove into the memory orb, dark light twisting from the orb and wrapping around his outstretched hoof. Pureblood laughed, the strange energy swirling around him and seeping into his flesh.

I placed my hooves on Twilight’s shoulders, staring deep into her eyes with my own. “Twilight… Do you trust me?” Twilight stared at me for a long second, unsure. Finally she nodded. I sighed. “Good. Sorry…”

Gritting my teeth, I shoved Twilight backwards, sending her toppling into the glowing purple memory orb. Twilight gave a shout of surprise, her eyes wide as she fell backwards. She collided with the glowing sphere, purple light shooting out in all directions. I covered my eyes with a hoof, shielding myself from the blinding lights.

I heard Pureblood scream in rage. A powerful field of violet magic shot out around the black memory orb, sending Pureblood stumbling back a step. The violet magic flashed out, lashing at the dark tendrils of energy that had grown from the orb, forcefully absorbing them back into the seventh memory orb. Pureblood screamed, angrily slamming his hoof against the magical barrier, only for the shield to repel him again, this time sending him staggering back a few feet with a powerful burst of sparks.

“No! What is happening!” Pureblood roared, his face flaring with rage. His wings flared out, his horn crackling with energy. “Why can’t I activate it! Why! Why! Why!” he rushed forwards, his wings flapping rapidly as he lunged at the glowing orb. Seconds before he made contact with it, the violet light flashed up again, once more sending the golden alicorn staggering back.

The violet light around the central orb seemed to grow brighter, swirling up into the air and flowed back into the memory orb belonging to Twilight Sparkle. The light pulsed, then flashed, strobing faster and faster before our eyes. Then, as if being drawn in by a magnet, it shot towards Twilights collapsed form, seeping deep into her skin.

Farmer and I were sent tumbling back, knocked back as a powerful blast of energy rippled out of Twilight's body. Slowly, Twilight began to pull herself to her hooves, her body suddenly sparkling and pulsing with a strange light. I looked up at her, squinting as I tried to see through the blinding lights that were flashing across the room. “Twilight?” I toppled over, blood and bile spilling from my lips as another wave of pain flared through me. The sensation of the hide on my face burning away filled my mind, an animal-like scream bursting from my lips.

A hoof gently laid itself across my shoulder. I looked up, the pain in my body suddenly going null. Twilight stood above me, her glowing body almost blinding. “Be at peace,” Twilight soothed, her voice sending a strange feeling of calm through me.

“What is happening! What are you doing!” Pureblood screamed, slamming his hooves down on the ground. The whole chamber shook as his armoured hooves shattered the thick marble beneath him.

Twilight all but ignored him, trotting over to Farmer and placing a hoof on his shoulder as well. Purebloods magical chains fizzled away, allowing Farmer to scamper back to his hooves and let out a gasp of breath.

“No! How are you doing this!? That isn’t possible!” Pureblood shouted, backing away as Twilight’s glowing form finally rounded on him and slowly began trotting towards him. “You can’t dispel my magic here! I control the Utopia Program! I do! Me!” his horn flared and fired a beam of light towards Twight. Twilight's own horn glowed violet, her magic easily deflecting Purebloods blast.

“I remember now,” Twilight said coldly, his voice taking on the strange echo that Purebloods had held only moments before. “I remember everything.”

Pureblood backed up, another blast of energy lancing from his horn towards Twilight desperately. Again Twilight deflected it. “Stop! Stay back!” he screamed, his hind hoof bumping up against the bottom step to his throne. “Stay away from me!”

“Twilight… I… Put a security measure on the Utopia Program to ensure that no pony could use it for their own gain, not even me,” Twilight said, her own horn shone with light as her magical aura ripped Pureblood off his hooves and pulled him up in the air before her. “I knew that no simple security measure would be enough. Not against ponies like Silver Ace. All codes can be hacked, all passwords can be guessed or learned. I needed something no pony could predict...”

Pureblood struggled in the air, his eyes wide with panic. “What- What did you do?!”

“I created an AI,” Twilight soothed, her eyes beginning to glow with light. “I put as many memories of my own into the Utopia program, enough to create a complete copy of my mind. However, I did not succeed. I never completed the project… Until…”

I pulled myself up, Farmer quickly moving to retrieve his revolver behind me. “Until Littlepip destroyed the goddess,” I said, slowly taking a step towards where Twilight and Pureblood were facing off. “Five days ago was when Maripony exploded. The memories you placed within the program could sense it. You dragged whatever fractured part of your mind that still existed within the goddess into the Utopia Program… You were trying to make yourself whole again. A complete collection of memories.”

Twilight nodded, looking back at me. Her glowing eyes dimmed for a second as she smiled at me. Then they began to once more glow with light and her smile faded away. She turned back to Pureblood, her magic constricting around him tighter. “The memories I had put into the Utopia Program two hundred year ago weren’t enough to create any true security measures. Had it been, I would have stopped you the moment you entered Utopia. But when I felt my mind get freed from the goddess, I reached out, dragging my scattered mind here, into the Utopia Program. With all of my memories, now freed of the Goddess and together, my security measure is finally complete.”

“So, you actually understand what’s happening right now?” Farmer grunted to me in a hushed whisper, his revolver once more loaded and in his grasp.

I gave a hesitant nod of my head. “I think so. Twilight put a whole bunch of her memories into the Utopia Program to create a living, thinking security system,” I responded back, not bothering to take my eyes away from Twilight's glowing form. “But she wasn’t able to finish it until Littlepip killed the Goddess and set the rest of her consciousness free.

Farmer sighed sarcastically. “Of course she did. How silly of me for not realizing that sooner.”

“But you were without memoires! It doesn’t make sense!” Pureblood scowled, his hooves still failing desperately as he tried to free himself. “If the memories Twilight placed in the Utopia program pulled you in here, why did they not merge with you then?”

“Because I am here to stop more than just Silver Ace and you from taking control of Utopia,” Twilight declared, taking another step closer to Pureblood. “I am here to prevent anyone that would use it for evil. Even myself. I couldn’t allow my mind to take full control of the Utopia Program. If I had, then I might have tried to save Equestria as you have tried myself. Who knows what would have happened then. Perhaps, had Amber not brought me here before you, where I could bear witness to your intentions, I would have been unable to stop you, even now. Thankfully for everypony, she has.”

Pureblood’s face twisted into a growl, his horn glowing as he tried to ward off Twilight's powerful magic. “So then, what now, Twilight Sparkle?” He seethed, finally letting his legs go limp in her magical grasp. “You have clearly defeated me. Are you going to kill me?”

Twilight paused, looking him over with a cocked head and raised eyebrow. “A good question. No. It is not in my design to kill. I am, in fact, unable to do such and action. My purpose is to maintain Utopia. Killing you would be counterproductive.”

Pureblood let a small smirk from across his face, his wings rustling at his sides. “Then release me at once. I demand you to obey me!”

Again, Twilight shook her head. “No. I cannot risk you taking control of the Utopia Program. You will be ejected from the Program, and returned to your reality.”

I could see Pureblood smirk widen from here at that. “Of course. You are too kind,” He rasped, his face twisting into a smile. “But… If you do that? How will you ever protect the ponies of Equestria?”

Twilight frowned, narrowing her eyes at Pureblood. “What are you talking about?”

Pureblood simply shrugged, raising his chin a little to look down upon Twilight. “You see, our dear dear Amber Aura has presented me with an ultimatum. Eject me from the Utopia Program, and I will detonate the Balefire bomb she so carelessly decided to leave a few feet from my body. I will activate it in the heart of the Institute, eradicating the city of Manehattan and everypony that lives there,” He finally pulled himself from Twilight's magical grasp to stand before us all defiantly. “Then, with the Institute's synths still at my control, I will sweep across the wasteland, killing everypony else until there is nothing left!”

“But why!” I screamed at him. “What would even be the point!”

“Proof!” Pureblood retaliated, his voice raising to a booming octave that shook the entire chamber. “Proof that I am not to be denied! The Utopia Program cannot be destroyed. You would all be forced to watch helplessly as everypony you care for is executed!” His neck snapped to the side to glare at Twilight, his mouth twisted into a hateful snarl. “Would you wish to stop me from saving Equestria so much that you would allow me to destroy it? What would Twilight Sparkle do? Not this AI fake, but the real Twilight. I think you’d find she would step aside and give me access to Utopia.”

Twilight took a step back, her eyes darting back and forth. “I… I will not let you kill everypony in Equestria. I am here to prevent as many deaths as possible.”

“Then…” Pureblood advanced towards her, looming over her and staring down at her with vengeful eyes. His voice dropped down to a low, rumbling purr that clashed terribly with his nasally voice. “...I would advise that you step the fuck aside, cunt.”

Hesitantly, Twilight took another step back, not getting out of his way, but giving him enough room to advance a little closer. She glanced back at me, confliction prevalent across her face. She was asking me for advice. She didn’t say it, but I could practically hear the question in my mind. “What do I do?”

My gaze dropped to a pool of blood on the floor. Not all that long ago, Azar had lain there, his insides being ripped apart by Pureblood for the sick bastard's amusement. Something Pureblood said echoed in the back of my mind. “Like you, he was thrown directly into Utopia, though he did not have the good fortune of having his memory erased. He’s completely mindless now, just a shell of his former self.”

My head shot up, a small smile on my face. “Twilight, the Utopia Program already erased Azar's mind on it's own, right? So I figure that Twilight probably didn’t design you to be unable to simply erase his mind, did she?”

Pureblood’s face went pale. He looked over at me, a look of sheer horror scrawled across his face. Then, his expression turned to burning rage. “You little bitch! How dare you suggest such a thing!” His wings beat at his sides as he lunged at me, his fore hooves reaching for my throat.

He didn’t make it a full foot before Twilight’s magic flashed out, ensnaring him in the violet glow of her magic. She looked over at me, her expression sad but determined. “No. I am perfectly capable of doing such an action.”

Purebloods' hooves flailed, trying to break free of the magical grip. “No! NO! You can’t do this to me! I am the rightful ruler and savior of Equestria! Head of the Canterlot High Council and second in line for the Throne of Equestria!” His horn blazed with light and beams of deadly energy lanced out across the room. I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast that scorched the ground beside me. “I will not be taken down this way! You can’t do this to me!”

Twilight's horn grew brighter, I could feel the very air around us getting hotter as more and more power began to build up in her horn. Her pupils dilated, then disappeared, obscured by the blinding white lights that shone from her eyes.

Farmer and I staggered backwards, both of us covering our eyes as the strewning lights became near unbearable. Farmer pulled his hat down a little over his face, obscuring his eyes.

“As Director of the Institute, I order you to stop!” Pureblood howled, the dancing lights of Twilight's horn flashing across his features. “You are dooming Equestria to forever be a wasteland! Dooming it to forever be run by raiders and rapists! I can make Equestria beautiful once again! Restore it to the perfect utopia it is meant to be! You are making a grave mistake!”

Squinting my eyes against the light, I strode towards him, a growl across my face. “It’s ponies like you that keep the world a wasteland, Pureblood. Slavery and violence is not the answer to salvation. We already tried that, and it ended in balefire. You aren't thinking right. Just use your head. What would Belle have thought of all this? Of what you're doing...”

Pureblood scowled at me, his blazing eyes staring at me with murderous intent. “She would have been able to love me! In my Utopia I can make a world where no pony needs to watch their loved ones die again!" He spat at me, his spittle splattering across the floor between us. "You stand there so certain, so arrogant and full of your own grander. A part of me dares to think you actually believe that you are truly helping the Wasteland. But don’t be so certain, Amber Aura. The wasteland remains a wasteland because ponies will never agree. You may fight to your dying breath to make the wasteland a better place, but so long as ponies fight against you, you will never succeed,” He let the light of his horn die down as he stared at me, his muzzle twisted upwards in disgust. “You aren’t the solution, Amber Aura. You never were. You’re just another murderer. A raider. You call your quest just, but you’ve killed far more ponies than I ever will.”

I stuck my muzzle in his face, anger flashing across my eyes. “I am not a raider.”

Pureblood smirked at me, his nasally voice dripping with sarcasm. “Of course not killer... See you in hell,” he wheezed, a loud cough escaping his lips as, his body spasmed, wracked with pain as the intense power choked his damaged lung. He turned his head, glaring at Twilight defiantly. "Very well. You have chosen to let your world fall to ruin. But I will not go in shame. Keep your world, your kingdom of ash and desolation! I am Pureblood, head of the Canterlot High Council and Director of the Institute of Arcane Technology, and I release you all from my glorious protection!"

Light flared from Twilight's horn and Pureblood fell to the ground limp, sprawling before us like a sack of bricks. A small drizzle of droll rolled down his golden chin, his expressionless eyes staring emptily at the world around him. His chest rose and fell in slow, wheezing, pained breaths.

I took a step back, suddenly feeling a little sick as I stared at his motionless body. “Did you… Is he…?”

Twilight nodded, looking his limp form over with her glowing eyes. “Yes. I have erased his mind. He will live eternally here in Utopia, but he will remember nothing. He will spend the rest of his days like this. A shell of himself,” she blinked a couple times, the glowing light fading from her eyes. Suddenly, she looked a little ill herself. “I, uh… What happened? I mean… I remember what happened, but…” She put a hoof to her forehead, her body wobbling a little as if dizzy. “Whoa… I don’t think I want to do that again.”

“So is that it?” Farmer asked, trotting up to us and holstering his revolver. “We actually did it. Pureblood is finished and the Utopia Program is safe?”

I opened my mouth to respond, only for another voice to echo out around us. “I wish I could say that it was. Unfortunately, that is not the case.”

I spun around, trying to pinpoint the location of the speaker. I knew that voice anywhere. “Silver Ace! Where are you?”

“Far enough away, don’t worry,” Silver Ace's voice chided. “I wouldn’t dare get so close to Twilight Sparkle right now.”

Farmer’s eyes narrowed as he glanced around the room. “What do you want? What are you even doing in here?”

“Observing,” Silver Ace’s voice replied simply. “That was, after all, the whole point of letting Pureblood come so close to achieving victory. The same reason I let Amber live when Pureblood would have had her cryogenically frozen.”

My ears perked up and I scowled. “Wait, all of this… Everything I have gone through to stop Pureblood… Was just so you could figure out what kind of Security measures Twilight put on Utopia?”

“Of course,” Silver Ace cooed. “And I am glad that I did. Thank you, Amber. Really. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Silver magic flashed around the room, sending all of us skidding back. I looked up just in time to see the silver magic surround the purple Twilight Memory orb. Twilight screamed, purple energy being ripped away from her body and being violently pulled back into the memory orb. My eyes shot wide as I realized just what Silver Ace was doing.

A magical silver barrier formed around the Twilight orb, blocking all of us off from reaching it. I rushed forwards, slamming my hooves against the barrier, praying to Celestia that I could get through. Instead, a bolt of energy lanced out, shocking me across the hoof and sending me crashing back to the floor.

Twilight lit up her horn, only for her magic to go dead. “My magic! It’s gone!?” She shrieked, stumbling back as she tried to get her horn to light up again to no success.

A silver flash of light drew my attention to the far side of the room, as Silver Ace materialized, slowly trotting into the room, his eyes darting back and forth as he scanned for any potential threats. Now in the Utopia Program, I saw Silver Ace as he had been before the war, not the looming silver Brainbot I had come to know him as. He was an older looking earth pony, admittedly a little younger than I remember him being in the many memory orbs I had seen of him, with a silver coat and matching mane. His magical talisman was clipped to his vest and the dark bags that had formed under his gray eyes seemed to have lessened somewhat. “So this is the Utopia Program,” he breathed, his eyes widening a little with wonder. “I have always dreamed of one day getting the chance to be in this place…”

I glowered at him, taking an imposing step forward. “What are you doing?” I gestured to the glowing magic around the Twilight memory orb. “How are you even doing this?”

Silver Ace took a long moment to look at me, his gaze fixed on the majestic castle walls of the throne room around us. “The plan was Kamari’s admittedly. We were well aware Twilight had put some sort of system in place to prevent us from activating the Utopia Program, but we had no way of figuring out what it was and how to negate it without going into the Utopia Program ourselves,” He gestured to where Pureblood still lay limply on the ground. “Naturally, Pureblood was our solution. Had his own ambitions and reasons to enter the Utopia Program, but was arrogant enough to not know we were setting him up for a trap.”

Farmer stepped forwards, staring at Silver Ace with an unbelievable amount of hate. “But why. Why do you need the Utopia Program?” His eyes narrowed even more. “And why are you working for Four Stars?”

Silver Ace flinched at the remark, his gaze honing in on Farmer. “Where did you hear that? Whomever told you, lied.”

“You’re lying,” Farmer scowled, taking a step forward. “I suppose you forgot about me after two hundred years then? Forgotten what I have seen.”

Silver Ace just continued to stare at him in confusion. “I’m afraid that I do not remember you, no. Though considering where you are, I’d assume you caused me a fair amount of trouble,” He took a step forwards, taking in the seven floating memory orbs. “Regardless, I will not take up any more of your time. There is much to do.”

Silver light flashed out, magical clamps pinning us to the walls as Silver Ace rushed forward, heading towards the memory orbs. I squirmed against my bindings, trying to break free. Across from me, I saw Twilight and Farmer trying to do the same.

Silver Ace didn’t wait, he tapped his magic talisman, all seven of the orbs being wrapped in his magic. A bolt of energy flashed through him, sending him staggering back a foot. Slowly, he straightened up, turning to look at me with glowing eyes. “I’m sorry, Amber. If I didn’t know you would try to stop me, I would let you live. Forgive me for what I need to do.”

A beam of silver energy lanced out from his talisman, slashing straight into my chest. I screamed, pain searing my front as the deadly beam corroded away at my hide. I could feel my body start dissolving, bits of flesh peeling from my form and crumbling away in clumps of ash.

Silver Ace stared at me sadly, his eyes cold, but with no lack of regret. “I wish I could believe you would do otherwise,” He said, giving me a sad, parting smile. “But I know you far too well for that.”

“NO!” I heard Twilight scream. I saw violet light burst out from where she had been suspended on the wall. Twilight's magic washed over us, and I felt what was left of my body shift and warp, swirling upwards in the tight grip of a teleportation spell.

A second later I crashed to the floor, half my body already rendered to ash. I glanced up, Making out the forms of both Twilight and Farmer standing beside me, the open door of the throne room only a foot away. Through the door, I saw Silver Ace turning towards us, a look of surprise across his features.

“Farmer, shut the door! Shut it now!” Twilight ordered frantically, rushing over and propping me up. Farmer complied, rushing over and slamming it shut. “Amber, are you alright?”

I groaned, my whole body feeling weirdly numb. I looked over at my right forehoof, finding that it had been completely turned to ash. I shook my head, feeling a little dizzy. “I don't… Silver Ace planned all of this. Far better than I could have expected. I don’t know how to stop him. Fuck, I don’t even know what he’s trying to do!”

The door to the throne room trembled, a powerful blast of Silver Ace’s magic basting a large hole in its centre. Farmer gave a loud grunt, bracing his back up against the door to keep it from flying open under the pressure.

Twilight placed a hoof on my chest, feeling my slowing heartbeat through my skin. “I don’t know either, but you have to find out. But you won’t be able to do that here. Not with Silver Ace in control of the Utopia Program.”

“But it won't matter!” I protested, the severity of everything suddenly catching up to me. “If Silver Ace controls Utopia, how am I supposed to stop him? He can just pull everyone into Utopia, or wipe their minds, or-”

I was cut off as Twilight put a hoof to my lips. “But he doesn’t control Utopia yet. He can’t gain access without taking control of my memory orb.”

I blinked in surprise. “Wait, he doesn’t have control of…” I trailed off as I saw Twilight slowly nodded. My eyes widened a little as I realized what she was saying. “He had to block all access to it to keep you from your power, didn’t he.”

Twilight gave a grim nod. “So long as I am here in the Utopia Program, he can’t take control. But you can’t stay here. You need to find a way to stop this. With your real friends.”

“But what about you and Farmer?” I could feel more and more panic flaring up inside me.

The door shook again, knocking Farmer to the ground, another large chunk of the door being blasted away. Farmer pulled himself back up, shoving his shoulder against the door. “We’ll be fine! I’ve been in the Utopia Program for a long time, I can make it a little while longer,” He grunted, trying his best to keep the door shut.

I looked from Farmer back to Twilight, my cheeks glistening with tears. “But… I don’t even have a body to go back to. It was destroyed when I entered utopia. If I leave here, I’ll just die!”

Twilight closed her eyes, her horn glowing as a strange calm seemed to pass over her. After a second, she opened her eyes again and looked down at me calmingly. “That's not fully true. We’ll meet again Amber. Goodbye.”

There was a blinding flash as the doors burst open, sending Farmer flying backwards, crashing into the wall behind us. Silver Ace strode out, his talisman already glowing as he prepared to blast us apart. Twilight looked up at him for a moment, before letting her horn glow, wrapping her magic around me.

I locked my gaze with Silver Ace, my Amber eyes hardening. “I’m going to be back, Silver Ace. This isn’t over.”

“It never is with you, is it?” He replied, a sad frown across his face. "I'll see you soon."

Then my vision flared with violet light as Twilight cast her spell, and I was sent swirling away into oblivion. Just before my vision fully faded to black, I once more saw the image of the dark horn pony, surrounded by the image of the Stable-Tec Logo. The shadow ponies glowing eyes turned to look at me, its pearl eyes digging deep into my soul.

“Kamari promised…” It hissed, its long tongue slithering between its jagged fangs. “In three days time, he will free me…”

“Kamari’s dead,” I shot back, my body dissolving into nothingness. “I killed him.”

The shadow pony just stared at me, before opening its jagged maw and grinning. “And yet nothing will change. What has been put into motion, cannot be undone.”

Then I was spiralling away, my mind consumed by the darkness around me as I was cast from Utopia.

I jolted awake, or at least I thought I did. I looked around, trying to make sense of my surroundings. It was still dark, a black mist so thick surrounding me that I could hardly see my hoof in front of my own face. I climbed back to my hooves, my eyes sweeping back and forth across the dark expanse.

“Where the hell?” I muttered, taking a small step forward. The floor felt strange, clearly solid, but paired with the strange sensation of floating. It felt oddly familiar, as if I had been here many times before, in a dream. But why was I here? Where even was here?

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

I spotted something in the gloom. A large shape, seemingly metal in texture, crouching over top of something. Uncertain, I drew closer, lighting up my horn as I tried to make out what it was.

Another light flickered out of the hunched over shape, illuminating a little bit of the darkness around it. I felt myself gasp, taking a quick step back as the sudden burst of firelight gave me a clear glimpse of what stood before me. I suddenly had a very good idea of where I was.

The monster before me pulled themselves up to their full height, a vile sneer etched across their metallic face. Their glassy eyes blinked to life, casting beams of ominous red light streaking through the thick darkness. They took an imposing step forward, their bladed tale sweeping across the mangled form of the cyber alicorn beneath them.

“Hello, Amber Aura,” Inferno chuckled, his huge flamers flickering with life at their ends. “I was wondering when you would be back.”

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Holy smokes. I feel like my authors notes are turning into broken records at this point, but sorry for the long wait between chapters yet again. Life has been crazy busy and obviously this was a really long chapter. Also sorry the chapter is so long, that's just becoming a running theme in this fic. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and have a great day!

Fallout: Equestria belongs to the wonderful Kkat