The next week seemed to fly by. After the initial negotiations, Queen Chrysalis and Princess Anonymous—Jeeze, that still sounds weird—were offered a room in the castle. That offer was politely refused. Instead, she was personally going to rally the remnants of the hive and settle them in the agreed upon temporary settlement in the industrial district: a large plaza that was effectively just several blocks of unoccupied land. They did, however stay the night at the very least.

The morning after the meeting, and after they ate some donated love, I watched the mother and daughter duo leave with their escort. After that, I had a lot of free time on my hands. Much of that was spent continuing my guitar practice or playing cards with the guards. I also spent some time teaching Ocellus about bipedal movement, mostly to quell her own curiosity.

What's a mage without her magic to do, after all? I could prototype spells in my dream library all I want, but without actually testing each iteration, there wasn't much point to it. Oh sure, I could request help from some guard mages or students of CSGU's college-level courses, but without casting it myself, I couldn't be certain that it was functioning as I intended. A passion loses the lustre when you're stuck with just theorycraft.

On the third day, Chrysalis returned with every living changeling left on Equus, numbering slightly over two thousand. Honestly, they were in even worse condition than she made them out to be, although that might have been a result of having to relocate from the hive in the middle of the Badlands. It was even more disheartening to find out that they left the hive with a number five thousand strong.

Maybe Biologia Mutabilis left out just how dire the situation was for the changeling race at the time of the Invasion of Canterlot, or maybe it was just a universal difference, but Princess Anonymous was among the youngest of the changeling nymphs that made the journey from the hive. I found out from Ocellus that due to the decimation of their ecosystem, the partial destruction of their farming capacity, and bad yields from infiltrators, Chrysalis instituted strict population control. Following the metamorphosis of the last larva into nymphs, the brooding chamber was converted into an additional mushroom farm.

Then of course, you had the small drama that having a small army of starved civilians marching through the streets of Canterlot's lowest tier created. Disgusted nobles spent the better part of that day complaining to Celestia, according to the night guards that kept me company that night. Honestly, I wasn't surprised, but I was somewhat disappointed that this world's Blueblood wasn't doing so good of a job herding cats as my Blueblood did.

By the fifth night, I was getting absolutely stir-crazy. Ocellus was now spending more time at the camp or acting as a runner for Chrysalis for interactions and requests involving the crown. I seldom got to see my friend, and even then, we were only permitted a quick chat. Cards and music began to lose their shine, and I just had to get out and move.

That was when I got a bright idea; I could go hunting! I'm sure Princess Luna was plenty surprised to have me show up in her night court to petition her for permission to go down to the Everfree Forest and kill the shit out of some monsters, just so I'd have something constructive to do. That was without mentioning the fact that I was having inexplicable cravings for meat, despite the fact that I shouldn't have anything approaching a proper digestive tract.

She was at first reluctant to turn me loose so close to Ponyville, until I reminded her that the night guard was fully under her control. If she wanted to assign some minders to observe me while I went to play in the woods, literally nobody had the power to stop her. Plus, anyone who argued against making the home of the Elements of Harmony a safer place was probably a bad pony who should be disappeared at the early convenience.

Not that I would be so flagrant as to make such an offer in front of her entire night court. Just because I'm piloting a murder robot's body doesn't make me an assassin, right? I don't have to kill anybody. In fact, I'd prefer it if I didn't have to kill any more people.

I'll admit that there was a secondary objective to going hunting as well. On top of figuring out why I had the impulse to eat organic material, I wanted to be able to provide some extra food to the changeling refugees. The bugs were, after all true omnivores on top of their status as emotiphages. Strictly speaking, I've gotten away with eating firewood to make up some biomass for a forced regeneration in the past, like that time I accidentally blew off my leg with a faulty energy storage spell. Starlight was not happy about shooting me up with painkillers so I could unhinge my jaw and swallow three fucking logs. Point being, they could eat any organic matter to make up the biomass required to start filling in their holes.

Incidentally, Everfree monsters like manticores and timber wolves apparently do not know how to react to robots. When I entered the forest with my 'escorts', a pack of timber wolves walked right past me, going straight for the trio of night ponies. That of course only lasted up until I dosed each with the nanite acid. I bet those things didn't know what hit them. The manticore that I ended up hunting—at least, after I made sure it wasn't Fluttershy's pal, Manny—at least saw me. That said, it didn't see me as a threat until it was too late.

I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty sure that I gave those guard ponies PTSD when they watched me clean the carcass. It's so much easier to get the skin off and take guts out when you can literally have knives for fingers. The scorpion tail probably wouldn't have been appetising, and there wasn't enough meat on the wings, so I just left them in a pile with the head.

The heart, though... I still remember the first life from which I'd grown disconnected, the lessons that his mother taught of the ways of the wild, and the rite of passage. Even if it was his bastard sire that led the hunt, it was his mother that imparted the importance of expressing gratitude for the sacrifice made, and emphasising the bond between man and nature. It was a tradition I introduced to the predator club; the one who landed the killing blow took the heart to affirm or reaffirm their connection to the great circle of life.

I didn't have the time to start a fire just to cook the heart right there in the Everfree, but the manticore's sacrifice deserved to be honoured. That was why, without much thought, I took a bite out of it as though it were an apple. I have no real explanation for why the fuck I did it, and it's not like I actually tasted much from it, but the moment the meat and blood slid down into my throat, I could feel my internals doing something with it.

After that, we only stuck around long enough for me to bleed the carcass and wrap it in the tarpaulin from the castle storage that I duplicated and scaled. It was a quiet trip back up to Canterlot, and even dropping the remains off with Chrysalis' quartermaster was a silent affair. Still, that night I accomplished the goals I set for myself. I provided for the changelings, hunted a manticore, and determined that I could eat food to serve an unknown purpose. Who knows, maybe this body has systems designed to convert organics into some rudimentary fuel.

Honestly, I think my biggest source of maintaining my sanity was the regular check-ins with the ponies back home. Just being able to talk with Starlight and Mom gave me something to look forward to when I took an afternoon nap. It was nice to hear about Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich's engagement, or Spitfire's retirement party. Even if it felt like my world was slowly starting to move on without me, that they were keeping me up to date was at least something.

Of course, if they could somehow work out a way for me to send and receive spell schematics between worlds, I could actively work on the problem myself. After all, the only thing better than two magical geniuses working on a problem is two geniuses and the idiot savant they adopted into the family. Even if I wasn't talented in all magical fields like Mom or a prodigy like Star, so long as I could see a spell laid out in its runic forms, I could start putting pieces together. Like, if I could get the spell functions necessary to tunnel through the barriers of reality, it'd be no problem for me to slap together a prototype to send back to them for testing.

It was to that end that they were studying the magic mirror Starswirl created and connected Equestria to that parallel human world. If they could figure out how the damn thing worked, it'd be child's play for us to hack together a solution to refine. Especially if we could work in my dimensional fold spell. Although, that'd require conning a unicorn into creating an anchor stone wherever I was, and if I ended up in a non-magical world next, I would probably not be able to do so.

Honestly, any spell that managed to bring me home would have to be cast from my Equestria. I couldn't trust that whoever I convinced to cast the spell from my side would destroy it when they were done. The last thing I wanted was some dumb-ass adventurer pulling a me and getting stranded somewhere in the multiverse without the chaos and dimensional magic that was conveying me between worlds. I'd feel guilty if my work put anyone else through that.

I was shaken from my slumber by a fully armoured and seemingly battle-ready Captain Shining Armour. He was wearing the same seemingly ceremonial plate he'd worn at every other official meeting I'd seen him in every other time, but this time, he had equipped his helmet, and a sword belt strapped to his side. Despite the helmet, I could see the worry clearly in his eyes.

"Anonymous, there has been an incident at the changeling encampment," he explained, urging me to my feet. "I haven't been down there myself yet, but according to the reports, there was a skirmish between the changelings and the Canterlot Royal Guard. The area's been cordoned off, but..." Unable to meet my eyes, he began leading me out. "This is a nightmare situation. I... I'm sorry..."

Despite the lack of flesh, I felt the familiar icy prickle of fear running down my back. He's sorry? I felt like the fact that he was apologising should have been a big enough of an indicator of exactly what kind of nightmare situation this was, but my mind was still addled from sleep. All I knew was that something catastrophic had happened at the changeling encampment. The entirety of the changeling race was housed there!

I had to run to keep up with his hurried pace through the castle halls. "How many casualties?" I asked, resisting the urge to grab him and force him to look at me. "Captain!" When he still didn't answer, I wrapped my tail around his midsection and dragged him out onto a balcony. "Fine, if you're not gonna tell me, you're coming with me."

"Wha—Anon, no!" He tried to argue, but before he got an opportunity to protest, I deployed and spread my wings, subsequently grabbing him by his plate-mail. "Wait for the rest of my contingent!"

That was the last thing I wanted to do. With the moon high in the sky, it was easy for me to be seen as I rocketed off in the sky with the captive captain, and seemingly without prompting, several pegasus guards followed behind us. At first, there were calls for me to put him down. That lasted only until I made clear that he was coming with me down to the industrial district—to the encampment. Then they were content to simply follow in a wedge formation behind us.

As we transitioned from the upper tier of the city, over the noble quarter, I found myself worrying what the fuck had happened. For over a week, things were calm. Hell, despite her initial plans, Chrysalis had been extended an invitation to the wedding. Even the disgruntled rumblings from the nobility were kept in check by the crown's appointed noble wrangler, Prince Blueblood. What could have changed?

It was when we crossed over down to the lowest tier of the city, and the plaza converted to house the last changelings in the world, that there was a sudden fireball right in the middle of the tent city. No... That's...! Even though there was a surprised shout from the pony I was carrying, he didn't make any complaints when I threw us into a steep dive. The wing of pegasi just matched the pace.

I waited until the last possible moment to pull up from the dive, and before Shining Armour could react, I deposited him in front of the line of guards keeping ponies out of the plaza. There was no point in thinking about where I was going. The dead centre of the changeling encampment was Chrysalis' tent—a tent that was now engulfed in flame from the outside. The answer was obvious. I had to put it out, especially if the changeling queen and her daughter were still inside!

Even as I touched down on the ground, I found my footing unstable, as if I'd tripped over a pile of... of something. I couldn't pay any mind to that right now though; the fire was too bright, and somepony had extinguished all the makeshift street lamps the bugs made. My right and left hands both withdrew into my arms, replaced with the nozzles of fire extinguishers.

In spite of the heat, I put myself as close to the flames as my systems would permit. It was the only way to smother all the flames. It took more time than I'd have liked to extinguish the fire, but to my great surprise, the canvas of the tent was mostly intact. Still, there were presumably bugs still inside that may need help. Gotta make sure they're okay!

With my hands returned to their rightful places, I pushed my way into the tent. "Queen Chrysalis? Princess Anonymous?" I called out. The tent was pitch black, so I toggled night vision. "It's me, Anonymous Fli—"

My body froze up. Thinking became impossible as my sensors flicked over to the infrared night vision package. I knew exactly what I was seeing, but it didn't make sense to me. This was supposed to be Canterlot, the safest city in all of Equestria, the happiest country on Equus. Things like this weren't supposed to happen.

There, lying on the queen's cot were both Chrysalis and Anonymous. At first, the little princess looked to be asleep drool pooling on the bedding beneath her, but she was too still. Then my eyes locked onto the sharpened length of wood that had been driven through her chest. That's not drool, then... That...

Chrysalis, on the other hand was still breathing, although she too had wood rammed into her chest. It was shallow and laboured, and it was clear that she was dying. Her forelimbs were wrapped around her daughter, and I belatedly realised that she was weeping through unfocused eyes. "Chrysalis, I—"

The bug's eyes flicked over, seemingly gaining a bit of lucidity. "A-non, is that..." Just watching her made my chest ache in that horrifyingly ironic way it would, had I actually any heart within. "No, you're the outsider," she hissed, before coughing up blood. Her gaze became sharp. "This trap... was all your doing... The Equestrians..." She spat in my direction, and belatedly I realised there was haemolymph and spittle on my visor. "In the name of the Goddess of the Swarm, I curse..."

You curse me, I finished for her as the queen grew still. I... Of course she would blame me for this. And wasn't all of this my fault? I had to go and muddy the order of things... I wanted to give these bugs a better chance at life so that they didn't have to change... I... I did this to them.

Shakily, I backed out of the tent. Already, I could feel a recursive thought building up, but I couldn't nail down which program it was running through. If I could just shut it down, I could centre myself and figure out my next step. I—

My foot caught on something as I backed out of the tent and went sprawling onto the ground. Only now that the fire was out, and I was running night vision, I could see what I'd initially tripped over when first landing, and exactly what made me fall. Bodies... As far as my eye could see, the area surrounding Chrysalis' tent was full of bodies.

Unlike the queen and her daughter, however, these weren't in such good condition. I could see one of the queen's praetorian guards, missing a forelimb and sporting many cuts that matched a sword. Next to him, there was a random drone who looked as though he'd been hacked to death with several blades. The more I looked in the direction I'd dropped Shining Armour off in, the more bodies I saw. Meaning whoever did this would have had to have crossed the guard lines.

Finally, I looked down at the bug I'd fallen over. Despite my inability to physically cry, I somehow felt the tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. No, no, please... anyone but her! Ocellus, the bug I'd befriended in two worlds lay dead at my feet. She still wore the uniform she'd gotten while infiltrating Canterlot Castle, but there was nothing of the surprisingly chipper changeling left... No life in her eyes... Just an ornate short-sword still lodged in her back, and her throat cut.

WARNING

SYS://"../CONSCIENCE_V0.1A" HAS CRASHED
SYS://"../MORALITY" HAS CRASHED
RECURSION DETECTED
ANALYSING... DONE

CRASH LOG

IT'S MY FAULT.
IT'S MY FAULT.
I GOT THEM ALL KILLED.

IT'S MY FAULT. IT'S MY FAULT. I GOT THEM ALL KILLED. IT'S MY FAULT. IT'S MY FAULT. I GOT THEM ALL—

RESTARTING SYS://"../CONSCIENCE_V0.1A"... FAILED!
WARNING: THIS SOFTWARE HAS BECOME CORRUPTED AND CANNOT BE RUN
RESTARTING SYS://"../MORALITY"... FAILED!
WARNING: RECENT UPDATE INTRODUCED DEPENDENCY ON SYS://"../CONSCIENCE_V0.1A"
REVERTING SYS://"../MORALITY" TO PREVIOUS VERSION.

ETA:00h42m07s

Maybe it was the fact that my conscience and morality had failed me, but I felt a great calm wash over me as I looked closer at my murdered friend. Interestingly, there was something caught beneath her hoof. With great care not to disturb her, I grabbed what turned out to be an armband of some sort. I could distinguish no colours with the night vision, but I could make out a vertical sword and a stylised wolf's head on it. It matched none of the coats of arms of the noble houses that I knew of, which meant it was either a noble house or organisation unique to this world that was responsible for this slaughter. Still, I feel like I've seen it before.

It occurred to me as I held the armband tightly in my hand that it was way too quiet. Turning up my auditory sensors only caused me to hear the royal guard surrounding the plaza, trying their damnedest to keep lookie-loos back. It horrified me to think what that might mean. Two thousand changelings...

I don't know exactly what prompted me to wrench the sword out of Ocellus' back and take it with me. This was far more ornate, the detailing on the guard making it look like a cluster of flowers. Some sort of evidence to present to Shining Armour, perhaps? It made little sense to me, but I nonetheless took it with me as I walked the line. Every time I peeked into a tent and saw only murdered changelings, I found my gaze going back to the sword and the armband in my hand.

When I made my way back to the line of guards surrounding the plaza, I flicked my vision back to the regular spectrum. He immediately rushed over, but froze when he saw the blood I was soaked in and the sword in my hand. "The guards cordoning off the area claim the changelings went berserk and started attacking indiscriminately," he started. "They don't know what provoked it, but they claimed to be protecting the citizens of Canterlot. Detect Life reveals nothing alive in the cordon."

Rage blossomed in my chest. "What group does this belong to, Armour?" I demanded in a frigid voice, brandishing the sword and the arm band. He winced at the sheer edge of my tone, and I realised that my wings had extended at some point, revealing all of the razor-sharp blades. I caught sight of my reflection on the blade of the sword, and to my surprise, the projection of my eyes was flickering between their normal green and a pale yellow colour like N, V, and J's own had been.

He took the blade and armband in his magic, and he managed to look somehow paler than he already did. "This is the mark of the Ordo Aconitus," he whispered in disbelief. "This is the crown-sanctioned monster-hunting corps we're talking about. That doesn't make any sense though! Why would they be here?"

"The queen and her daughter were assassinated in their tent, and poor innocent Ocellus was murdered with this blade!" I hissed, turning to glare at the line of the guards. I was seeing a LOT of those armbands along the line of guards. "The answer is obvious as to why they're here! The question that REALLY needs answering is who sent them."

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_trn"

I reached my hand out and pointed at a pegasus soldier wearing both a lieutenant's bars and an Ordo Aconitus armband. The symbol of translate appeared both in front of my hand, as well as wrapped around the guard... or rather his armour. The entire line of guards tensed as I jerked him over to where the captain and I stood, but they had enough sense to not rush us.

"Who sanctioned this action, lieutenant," I asked in a tone that brooked no argument. I didn't have to yell; my systems amplified my voice just fine as it was. "Who sent you out here tonight?"

To Captain Shining Armour's shock, the nameless lieutenant spat in my face and flailed as he tried to reach for his ornate sword. "We act on authority of the Equestrian Crown itself, creature!" he shouted, loud enough to be heard by even the civilians behind the line of guards. "When monsters walk among us, it is our Harmony-given duty to purge them! These monsters plotted an invasion of Canterlot itself!"

My free hand withdrew as I pointed my arm to the sky. A flare shot up to the sky, illuminating the encampment and the slaughtered changelings therein. Several civilians screamed, and even the majority of the guards that weren't wearing the armbands gasped in shock at the reveal. "These people were starving, you scum-sucking bag of fuck! They accepted an olive branch from the crown when they were offered a better way! THESE WERE THE LAST OF THEIR ENTIRE RACE!" I smashed my forearm into the side of his head as my hand slid back into place. "YOU DARE ASSERT CELESTIA AND LUNA SANCTIONED MURDERING A CHILD AND HER MOTHER IN THEIR SLEEP!? THAT THEY SANCTIONED A FUCKING GENOCIDE!?"

Several ponies cried out at that, and even Shining Armour couldn't help but looking at the stallion in horror. Yet, despite their reaction, or denting of his helmet, or the gash on his cheek freely spilling blood, he sneered at me. "Per Order 76, Subsection B, Clause C12, should the Equestrian Crown be compromised by mind control, the Ordo Aconitus is given full jurisdiction to remove that source of mind control with extreme prejudice." He startled to cackle madly. "These monsters were lawful targets, and no longer will they prey upon ponies or warp their minds! I AND THE REST OF MY ORDER HAVE—"

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_rot"

"Doomed this fucking planet," I hissed, clenching my fist as the stallion's armour warped, twisting into a crumpled mass around him and crushing his organs. Blood sprayed from his mouth, coating me in red in addition to the green haemolymph from the murdered changelings I'd previously tripped over. I turned to Shining Armour, allowing the maniac guard to drop to the ground in a deformed, mangled heap. Several of the other guards bearing the mark of that order cried out in rage. I could see myself reflected in his eyes, a large X painted across my visor in place of my eyes, fully locked in that yellow colouration. "Captain, go tell your princesses what their monster hunters have done. Take every non-Aconite Order guard and civilian with you."

He wasn't an idiot; he knew exactly what I was going to do. "Anon, I can't let you do this!" he warned, grabbing me by my forearm. "Murdering these ponies won't bring back your kin!"

I shook my head with a sad smile. "No, it won't," I agreed. "But it'll make me feel better." Without warning, I whipped my arm upward, throwing him into the air and forcing several of the pegasus guards that followed behind us to catch him. "TAKE HIM BACK TO THE PRINCESSES," I commanded, turning my attention to the line of guards. "EVERY ONE OF YOU NON-ACONITE GUARDS, GET OUT OF HERE WHILE YOU STILL CAN. EVERYONE ELSE?" I began to laugh in a way that made the dead lieutenant seem sane. "RUN."

ACTIVATING SYS://"../SUBROUTINES/REVENGE"
RAISING SADISM: 30% > 100%

Much to my surprise, I wasn't the one to fire the first shot. In fact, as I brought my wings up to form a bladed cocoon around me, I had the opportunity to judge which idiot guard fired a series of ice spikes into me. Even as my systems warned of the damage to my torso, I grinned as my temperature began to drop. Thanks!

Several other unicorns followed suit, and soon hostiles were quickly highlighted red in my vision while everyone else broke ranks and ran for the hills. What used to be a line of easily a thousand guards separating the civilians from the site of the slaughter quickly broke down into just four-hundred and fifty. Not great numbers, but also not too bad. I was probably gonna get REALLY beat to fuck doing this, but I had something these ponies didn't: weaponised high explosives.

A pair of targeting reticles popped up in my vision as my hands withdrew to be replaced by the nose cones of a pair of rockets. I leapt into the air, flapping my wings to gain some height, and then locked on to the largest masses of guards. Dumb fucking ponies, you know that magic artillery exists, so why are there so many of you packed tightly!? The two rockets streaked out from my arms, crashing into two clusters of earth ponies and unicorns.

Oh neat, I didn't realise there was a kill counter, I thought as a tally popped up in the corner of my vision, right next to my temperature gauges, indicating that sixty-four hostiles were no longer in play. Unfortunately, that's only gonna work once, maybe twice.

Already, the air was swarming with pegasus guards, several of which were brandishing swords and spears. Rather than fire off any more rockets that might damage nearby buildings or go soaring off into the night, I let a pair of machine guns emerge from my arms. Already, the unicorns and a few earth ponies with crossbows were firing off to fill the role of anti-air, so I started flying and spinning wildly, and and firing off in bursts of what my systems claimed to be 5.56x45mm FMJ rounds.

Several pegasi dropped to the ground, riddled with holes, but several more rushed me. Several spears and short-swords ended up lodged in my body, but for every spear or sword, three ponies lost a limb to the bladed wings. The counter climbed ever higher, even as I swooped down onto the ground and opened fire a blossom of death.

By the time the counter had reached one hundred seventy-five, the Ordo Aconitus got their shit together enough to start hiding behind unicorn shield spells strong enough to resist the caliber of shots I was using. They even started working with the pegasi in the air, opening fire on me when I turned my attention to the aerial attackers harrying me. Then when I was forced to respond to the unicorns and crossbowmen, the flighty bastards would swoop in and take another stab at me.

Growling, I fired a rocket off toward the ground forces and then took my hands back out to start wrenching the weapons out of my body so that regeneration could do its thing. In the meantime, I waited for the pegasi to do their thing. One, two, three! I lashed my tail out, up and to the back, and felt the sting punch through the chest-plate of one of the guards flying in to strike me from behind. Horrible screaming filled the air as the bastard dropped to the ground, and several ponies froze in the air, paralysed by the sight of the nanite acid eating away at his chest plate and his chest cavity.

I quietly started marking targets in the air as a laser weapon emerged from one hand. Just before the ground forces could lower their shields to fire upon me, I began tracing a path with my arm, targeting every pegasus in the sky. A white-hot line traced macabre patterns through the air, and by the end of it, every airborne horse fell to the ground, dead and bisected, or dying from blood loss.

The screams of the dying surrounded me as I looked at the weapons on the ground surrounding me, those that once were inside of me. I've got one good high-powered weapon left, and then I'm better off engaging them in melee. As if to confirm that thought, the masses of shielded guards began to slowly merge, the unicorns pooling their power together to make one unified wall behind which they slowly advanced. Let's see... I got a good scan of Uzi's rail-gun. Let's see how you fucks like that.

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_trn"
ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_edt"

The front half of the edgy drone's custom firearm, complete with the stickers, replaced the laser weapon as I started reconfiguring all of the fallen weapons around me into one ungodly big sword like you might see in a JRPG or an anime. All the cries of the wounded and dying honestly should have bothered me. If I was in my right mind, it probably would have disturbed me; except, with my conscience offline and being all out of pity, I had absolutely zero mercy for these monsters who hid behind the crown and special orders to justify their act of genocide.

It wasn't a light weapon that I'd created. I could just pick it up one handed and swing it, but as it was, I intended to use both hands once I decimated their bulwark. With that in mind, the flat of the blade came to rest on my shoulder and I looked at the battle line. A force of four hundred fifty had been reduced to maybe one seventy-five in maybe twenty minutes. Let's see how you handle this!

I put the targeting reticle over the thickest part of the force and swung the barrel of the rail-gun in that direction. My entire vision began to fill with green light and static as the weapon charged, and when it discharged, it felt like my entire arm went numb. As my sight cleared, I saw their shield wall had collapsed, and two entire columns of troops were just gone. The rest were entirely disoriented, and there at the front, I saw several unicorns whose horns had burst from the backlash of their collapsing shield.

Gripping the big fucking sword with two hands, I sprinted toward the divided army. "If you think your cause is just, then Harmony will let you strike me down! Else, Hunger will see my vengeance righteous and all will fall before me!" I bellowed as I swung the blade to cleave through several ponies. Is it just me, or does my voice sound more robotic than normal? The blades in my wings lashed out, dispatching several more. "Come! Attack me and test your might!"

I tore through their ranks in a whirlwind of blades. A dozen more ponies met their end suffering the effects of the nanite acid, but my action came not without cost. A lucky strike from one pony severed my left arm at the elbow, and after the bakers dozen acid victims, one managed to rid me of my tail. My body was perforated with blades. Even as I reattached the arm, another lashed out at my face plate, as though believing they could get my eyes.

We eventually reached a stalemate. I stood in the centre of a ring of ponies, all far enough to stay out of my reach, heat boiling off my body. I'd dismissed the counter in favour of fighting, so I had no idea how many ponies actually remained. All I knew was that none of them was willing to come close enough to strike, and they'd seen how worthless their crossbow bolts were.

Bright light shone down on me. This wasn't the light of the flare I'd illuminated the sky with before; that had long burned out in the midst of the slaughter. No, this was intense moonlight, and a glance at the sky revealed the moon much closer than it ought to have been. So, they deign to show up at last.

"Anonymous Flicker, stand down!" came the commanding voice of Princess Celestia as she and Luna both touched down outside the circle. Obeying, I thrust the blade into the ground in front of me, before protectively wrapping my wings around my body. I wouldn't put it past these cowards to strike now. Much to my surprise, however, the crowd of guards parted without argument.

Based on the horrified look on her face as she marched through the carnage, noting the dead changelings upon which untold numbers of her jackboots were stacked, she was anything but pleased. It didn't help any when one of the idiot troopers called out, "Now you're bucked, monster!" This was quickly followed up by another cheering. "Yeah! The Princess is gonna avenge all of our brothers and sisters that you murdered!" With each word, more of the cowards began to cheer, and the more cheers that went out, the darker Celestia's expression became.

"ENOUGH!" Luna bellowed, silencing the crowd. Everything went quiet as the two alicorns stopped just before the ring of the guards began. "Why have you done this? Do you realise what it is that you have done, Anonymous?"

Not rising from my position behind the sword, I instead peered around it at them, baring my teeth as I spread my wing-blades enough to be seen. "I have been enacting justice!" I hissed in that too robotic voice. I spread my wings and lashed my tail about, gesturing at the crowd. "Your monster hunters went and decided that you were both brainwashed and murdered Princess Anonymous of the Badlands Hive in her sleep with a stake through her chest, and tried the same with her mother, leaving Queen Chrysalis for dead!"

I climbed atop the blade's handle and then pointed accusingly at them, causing both alicorns to wince. "THEY SLIT OCELLUS' THROAT AND STABBED HER IN THE BACK BEFORE MURDERING EVERYLING ELSE THAT WAS INSIDE THE CORDON," I screamed. My pointer finger drifted to the mass of dead changelings behind them. "THOSE WERE STARVED CIVILIANS, LITTLE MORE THAN A MILITIA AT BEST, AND THEY WERE SLAUGHTERED! THIS WAS GENOCIDE DONE IN THE NAME OF HARMONY."

Nopony spoke for a long while. The remains of the Ordo Aconitus seemed cowed by the presence of the princesses and their horrified expressions. I didn't speak out of concern that I would place this squarely on their shoulders. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna seemed to be almost psychically conversing with one another.

Finally, Celestia stepped forward. "Be that as it may, it is not your place to enact your brand of justice on Equestrian soil, regardless of whether or not you served as advocate for the swarm," the white alicorn growled, her mane beginning to flicker like a flame. "These are my little ponies you have butchered, and those that yet live will face a fair trial." Her horn began to glow, and I could almost feel the magic permeating the air. "As will you."

She's going to try to grab me with her magic, I mused. There will be no trial. The moment I make a move in any direction, she's going to grip my entire body and keep me still while she marches me right into Tartarus. "No," I whispered. "I won't." As slowly and non-threateningly as I could, I stood tall and crossed my arms in front of me, folding my right hand behind my left arm. "I dare say if the Spirit of Hunger had physical form, she might have taken a page out of her brother's book and interfered."

Cold laughter filled the air. "Oh, Anonymous, you do know me well," came the almost purring voice of the living concept. It was a mellifluous voice full of simultaneous playfulness and wrath that I recognised after years of exposure. "Yes, Celestia, I am none too happy with you and your sister. Sister Harmony is rather disappointed in you both as well."

Mentally, I pulled up the read-me for the Absolute Solver. With the momentary distraction, it was the perfect opportunity to plan my escape. There was something, after all, that I remembered reading that was nagging at me... [Hint: What is a spell that Twilight is known for?] Shields were the obvious answer, and I knew I could reflexively use it to react to a projectile if I so wished, but no, that wasn't what it was suggesting. She was known for her expertise with teleportation.

Even as Hunger and the alicorns argued together, scaring the fuck out of the monster hunters surrounding me as their leaders argued with a disembodied voice, I ran some mental calculations through absoluteSolver_trn. It would be possible for me to break line of sight, or perhaps teleport myself beneath the plate of the city, but getting as far as Ponyville is straight out. Before I went on that route, I decided I better consult Hunger. I told those ponies they'd doomed this world in killing off your changelings, Hunger. How do you feel about an entire world being offered up as a feast in your name?

Almost immediately, a response echoed in the back of my mind. "You intend on doing this either way. Your hunger for vengeance for your fallen kin is too strong to ignore," she whispered, and I could swear I felt the caress of a cat's paw on my face. "Yet your hunger will lead to an absence of life, and in doing so, creating an absence of hunger. I want no part in your offering to this Absolute Solver that has left its mark on your soul, yet I will not interfere. If the ponies truly deserve to continue, they will find a means to stop you on their own."

Around me, I could hear the conversation the entity was having with Celestia and Luna. "Unless you offer yourself up to become a new queen and birth a new brood of changelings, my children will have no justice, and we have nothing more to speak of." There was then the sound of a slamming door. The pair's eyes flicked back to me as I waved goodbye.

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_trn"

The world around me flickered, almost like a glitching display, and then I was in free fall beneath the grand stone plate upon which Canterlot rested. Were I feeling more... villainous, I might've had a go at the support structures holding the city up. Although Hunger was right, and I was ready to damn this world for Ocellus, Chrysalis, little Anon, and the rest of the changeling race, I wasn't going to cause any meaningless suffering to do it.

No, I knew exactly how to do it, because I knew how it was done elsewhere. I don't know how I knew, but I knew damn well. Maybe it was some gift from Cyn, or just the Solver of the Absolute Fabric in general, but I knew the exact way I needed to offer up a world to this second embodiment of hunger in my life. It would be very quick, albeit maybe not entirely painless.

I spread my wings and turned towards the Everfree Forest. After all, I had somewhere very special in mind to make my offering. After all, it's not every day you get to doom an entire planet. Nor is it every day you get to say hello to an old 'friend'.

I touched down in front of the cave mouth with a crazed smile spread across my face. I'd had plenty of time to cool down over the length of my flight, but I had been unable to come up with a reason to divert from the course of action I decided upon. Even as my feet carried me into the cave, I knew more than anything else it was due to my morality having crashed. It had to happen...

I should absolutely feel bad for what I was going to do, and I knew exactly what Mom would say... what Starlight would say. Except, short of dying, I could see no other way to get off this damn planet, away from these damn ponies who looked like the ponies I knew—who enabled this travesty. I didn't want to die, but it was like an itch in the back of my mind, driving me, directing me down the needed path.

Up ahead, shrouded in the darkness of the cave, was a great crystalline tree. Black creeper vines were snaking their way up the tree, doing their damnedest to strangle the life out of the tree. I knew from the stories that these were Discord's plunder vines, and that was the Tree of Harmony... The physical embodiment of Harmony in this world. You're not my Harmony, but I still bear a grudge, and I always wanted to find out if I could kill an Embodied Concept.

"Hi, Harmony~," I sang, slowly trotting up to the tree, even as I danced around the vines that attempted to snare me. "Ooh, those nasty lil' vines look awfully painful. How about I help you with that?" I paused, putting on a thoughtful expression as I glanced in the direction of Canterlot. "Don't you tire of this disappointing world, Harm? All your little pieces keep failing at their roles, but your queens won't let me put the broken pieces in the trash where they belong... None of that is very harmonious, is it?"

"You mustn't do this, Anonymous," came the voice of Twilight Sparkle behind me. I turned, and sure enough, a glimmering spectre of my adoptive mother stood, her wings flared and her face a mask of fear. "What you're doing is beyond the pale."

I grit my teeth and extended a gun barrel from my forearm. "You think you're so fucking clever, trying to guilt me by wearing her face, don't you?" Without flinching, I shot the crystalline spectre between the eyes and turned back to face the tree, not bothering to watch the apparition collapse into nothingness. "News flash, Harm, I can't feel guilt right now, and my dumb ass went and made my morality dependent on my conscience, which in retrospect was a really stupid fucking thing to do. I might damn well hate myself when I get my morality and conscience back up and running, but until then, my cyber-amygdala is behind the wheel."

ACTIVATING SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_edt"
PERMISSION FOR SYS://"../FABRIC/absoluteSolver_NULL" HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ADMINISTRATION "CYN"

Huh, so she is still able to reach me.

As I held my slammed my hand—wreathed in the symbol of edit—into the ground, I pictured a hole going straight down to the core of the planet. I watched as the ground flickered and glitched for a moment. Finally, after several seconds, the hole formed, causing the ground to shake violently. Again, the area of the hole flickered, and then something began to go wrong. A strange meaty growth began to form around the opening of the hole, and like a cancer surged down the hole as well.

"Well, that's weird and concerning," I remarked, stepping up to the edge of the hole. I glanced up at the tree and shook my head. "Just pretend I'm just pruning a corrupt timeline. It might make you feel better about your world before the end."

ACTIVATING SYS://"..FABRIC/absoluteSolver_NULL"

Even as the [NULL] sphere appeared over my left hand, I extended a sword from the right. In one fluid movement, I sliced through my elbow joint. I marvelled at the difference in colour in the orb's containment field as both it and the arm tumbled down the shaft to the center of the world. I guess that is how Cyn guarantees I feast in her name, I thought as I backed away from the hole. I should probably get REAL fucking clear of this place.

"Goodbye, Harmony," I cheerfully said as I spread my wings and flew out of the cave mouth. As I rose out of the ravine beneath the castle of the two sisters, I looked toward Canterlot and saw a great ball of fire soaring in my direction. Flying right alongside it, I saw an utter absence of light. Fucking Harmony tattled on me, didn't she? I mused as I chose to fly in the opposite direction from Canterlot. They found out what I was doing and succumbed to their inner demons.

Even with the Absolute Solver at my command, I didn't fancy my odds tangling against a Daybreaker or a Nightmare Moon, never mind both at the same time. There was a reason I avoided trying to fight when the two showed up at the encampment, after all. They could atomise me completely without a thought. Even if I had my own magic, I wouldn't have a good chance.

Unfortunately, my body was not designed to go at supersonic speeds. Alicorns turned evil, on the other hand, had no problem whatsoever breaking the sound barrier. I don't actually know which one slammed into me from the front when I turned to look at them. All I felt was the painful jostle as they drove a trench through the Everfree's canopy, and then the ground. Even as my legs and wings were sheared off and countless errors flashed in my vision, I was unsure of who hit me until I felt the heat draining from my body. That absence of heat, it could only be Nightmare Moon, the void incarnate.

"WHAT HAS'T THEE DONE, ANONYMOUS?" she screeched with such volume that it was peaking my auditory sensors and adding a nasty crackle to everything. "HARMONY WEEPS, AND THE WORLD ACHES. DISCORD DID FREE HIMSELF FROM HIS STONE IMPRISONMENT AND BADE US FLEE."

A flaming blade swept into my field of view, pointed at my neck. "Speak Anonymous, and be quick so that we might fix whatever it is that you have broken." Daybreaker sneered down at me, her golden irises and black sclera flickering with intense power. "Don't make us regret putting our faith in you more than you already have. There is still time."

I shook my head and began to laugh. "No, there isn't," I whispered. The ground began to rumble, and a pillar of light shot through the sky from whence the Castle of the Two Sisters stood. Gravity began to malfunction as we all began to rise off the ground. "Goodbye."

A wave of energy surged towards us, tearing up the ground as it went. Nominally, I would be protected from the brunt of the blast by the fact that I was in a rather deep trench in the ground, and had two demigoddesses standing over me. Still, better to shut myself down and let the blast pass me by than risking an emergency heat shutdown.

NOTICE

END OF THE WORLD SCENARIO
WRITING MEMORY TO SYS://"../MEMORY_DATA"
BOOT SCHEDULED BY ADMINISTRATION "ANON" ETA: 00h30m00s

SHUTDOWN INITIATED BY ADMINISTRATION "ANON"

Once more, I found myself in the void, just as I had the last time I jumped, and like I had when I rebooted the time before. There weren't any ponies talking around my unconscious body this time, however. There was just a pony humming nearby. It was kind of nice. Certainly it was relaxing after the week I'd had.

I could almost recognise the voice, but the name wasn't coming to me. She had to be one of the nursing staff. But was it Redheart? Tenderheart? Or maybe it was Nursery Rhyme. Or they were a member of janitorial staff. Either way, my point was there were worse ways I could spend a half hour.

SYSTEM BOOT

SCHEDULED BOOT INITIATED BY ADMINISTRATION "ANON"...

PARSING DATA: SYS://"../MEMORY_DATA"
PARSING DATA: SYS://"../MEMORY_DATA_(EQUESTRIA)"
PENDING REPAIR SYS://"../CONSCIENCE_V0.1A" HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM START-UP
INTEGRATING IDENTITY
RECOMPILING KERNEL... DONE!

SERIAL DESIGNATION: I - 0X00110111 | "ANONYMOUS FLICKER"

STRING "ABSOLUTE SOLVER" ALLOWED BY ADMINISTRATION "CYN"
SYSTEM NOTE: "I HOPE THIS FUCKING WORKED."
REBOOT COMPLETED
MEMORY INTEGRITY: SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
MENTAL STATE: "OHSHITWHATDIDYOUDO"
LOADING //CHAR TRAIT: BUG-PONY IN MURDER-BOT BODY//

REESTABLISHING CONNECTION (ERROR, ERROR)

I looked around as my visual sensors came back online, just in time for a stone to bounce off my faceplate. I was surrounded by various debris. Stones, rocks, chunks of a castle, and a pair of skeletal alicorns floated around me—it was impossible for me to tell which was which, because bones and ice were all I saw of them. Far below, I could see the hollowed out planet; the shattered crust had been blown into hemispheres that were caught in equilibrium between trying to fly off into the void and getting pulled into the massive black hole where the planet's core used to be.

Well... I've blown up an entire planet now, I thought as I watched my limbs slowly beginning to regenerate. A small countdown popped up in the bottom left corner of my vision, estimating time until fully repaired at five minutes at most. I didn't pay it any mind though; with the rollback of my morality software, I was conscious enough of the fact that I should feel bad for what I'd done. No amount of rationalising would excuse the innumerable deaths that were now on my shoulders. Even if I was acting out of grief for an entire species after my conscience and morality software crashed, I couldn't even say this is what any of them would have wanted. Chrysalis might've, but I don't think Ocellus or little Anon would've put the price of justice at an entire planet.

At least it was silent out here in space. The only sounds were my own internal systems running as I floated there with the two kinda spooky-lookin' alicorn corpses, and the occasional piece of debris bouncing off of my chassis. Oh, and the sound of someone munching popcorn. What.

I turned my head to the right, and frowned. There, sitting on a chaise lounge that probably once belonged in Canterlot Castle before the world ended, was this universe's Discord. Sure enough, he had a big bag of popcorn that was freely spilling into the void and beginning to orbit him due to the lack of normal gravity, not that it stopped him... Somehow, against all reasoning, I could hear the draconequus as he grabbed fist-fulls of the stuff out of his orbit and stuffed his face.

Floating behind him was that goddamn crystal tree. That fucking tree, which was at ground zero, was completely untouched, while the two allegedly immortal alicorns were naught but frozen skeletons floating beside me. I went to facepalm, and ended up throwing myself into a rotating fit... at least until Discord snapped his fingers and I was suddenly sharing his chaise.

"You're quite the character, you know," he commented as he looked at me. His voice carried to me as if there was air for it to travel through. "You managed to circumvent your own programming in such a way that the catastrophic failure that followed created the most chaos possible for that short period of time." Weirdly enough, he had this thoughtful expression on his face, as though he was genuinely enjoying himself. "You should have seen the looks on the faces of those fuddy-duddies when I broke free. They were all 'Discord!' and I was all 'Run while you still can!' and then they were all 'Raaaagh!' Ha, ha, priceless. I could spend an eternity reliving that moment."

As he wiped away a tear, I grabbed a handful of the floating popcorn and popped it into my own mouth. This tastes like scrap metal. Huh. "You know, you're taking this awful well," I murmured, glancing from him to the to skelicorns and the loathsome Harmony tree, which had orbited around the chaise so that it was in front of me now. "Sure, I created the maximum possible chaos output for a moment, but all of this... this is the polar opposite; it's order of the coldest kind. Plus, I effectively tried to kill both you and Harmony."

He snorted and waved it off. "Pfft, who hasn't tried killing us once or twice?" he said with an amused twinkle in his eye. "Besides, it's not like any of this matters in the grand scheme of things."

I stared at him, and then down at the singularity that I'd created. When I looked back at him, I emoted a raised eyebrow and brought my hands up to clutch my head. As if to mock me, a crystalline copy of Ocellus, maid outfit and all, appeared on the other side of me. "That is hardly the lesson she should be taking from this, brother," Harmony chided, fixing me with an even look. "While it is true that Fate, Time, and Reality will not allow divergence to this extreme degree, the lesson you should be taking from this is to not meddle with your systems so readily, and not to be so quick to please this Absolute Solver you're bound to."

Won't allow... What? Before I could ask what any of that meant, Discord grabbed my shoulder and pointed at the planet. "Look! It's starting!" Slowly, everything drifting around us began flowing in reverse, down towards the planet. The rocks, the dead alicorns, even the Tree of Harmony's physical body... Everything but me, Discord, and Harmony's phantom. The hemispheres of the world's crust came together to ensconce the singularity. Frozen oceans began to melt, and the ground began knitting itself together like healing flesh. Even the atmosphere and the lush greenery returned. "I do so love watching a good retcon."

I sat transfixed as the sun and moon began rotating in reverse around Equestria. Time is literally turning back the clock, I realised by the time a whole nine revolutions passed and things started moving normally. This would put it a day or two before I arrived in this world, then...

Discord clapped quietly to himself. "There, now none of that ever happened, and you don't have to worry about Hunger's pets," he announced as if it was to put an end to the matter. "Now all that matters is getting you all set to go on your next adventure." With a snap of his talons, the Victim's Guitar, my WDF Aviators, and my Shapeshifter's Parasol appeared on my person exactly as I usually carried them. Of course, there was also a big fucking video game sword on my lap, too. "Can't be having you leave your artefacts all over our world, can we?"

If I end up in a human world next and I'm seen wandering around with this fucking thing, I'm gonna get shot. Almost as if reading my mind, he had a look of realisation on his face. "Oh, I suppose with all the souvenirs you'll be getting on your journey, keeping track of all this mess is going to be a real bother," he murmured, rubbing his chin with his lion's paw. Harmony simply rolled her crystalline compound eyes and shook her head as he reached out and poked me with his lion's paw. "This should help. Consider it thanks for going to bat for me with ol' Skelly-Celly."

WARNING

NEW SOFTWARE INSTALLED BY CHAOS GOD "DISCORD"

SYS://"../CHAOS/INVENTORY"
ANOMALOUS SOFTWARE DETECTED!
ATTEMPTING QUARANTINE... FAILED!
DISCORD NOTE: "TO STORE, TOUCH AND EXECUTE 'INVENTORY -PUT [ITEM NAME]'"
DISCORD NOTE: "TO RETRIEVE, EXECUTE 'INVENTORY -GET [ITEM NAME]'"
DISCORD NOTE: "TO LIST STORED ITEMS, EXECUTE 'INVENTORY -LIST'"

A moment after he somehow wrote and uploaded software directly to my system, my body pulsed the colour of my personal magic: azure blue. "Better hurry up and put that stuff away, lest you lose it," he warned. "Looks like you're gonna be taking a quantum leap soon."

EXECUTE SYS://"../CHAOS/INVENTORY" -PUT [THE VICTIM'S GUITAR]
EXECUTE SYS://"../CHAOS/INVENTORY" -PUT [WDF AVIATORS]
EXECUTE SYS://"../CHAOS/INVENTORY" -PUT [SHAPESHIFTER'S PARASOL]
EXECUTE SYS://"../CHAOS/INVENTORY" -PUT [BITTER REMINDER]

I did exactly as his notes instructed, touching each object and executing the commands as I went. Each time I executed the command, the object in question broke apart into cubic motes of azure light. Against my better judgement, I even added the big fucking sword, which my system automatically named Bitter Reminder. An apt name, since it would serve as a reminder of the horrors I committed.

My body pulsed with light again, and Harmony put her hoof atop my hand. "Do not be so quick to assume you must change the worlds you enter," she offered in a sad voice. "Even the greatest kindness can be corrupted, and the more you try to force inorganic change, as you did here with Chrysalis and her hive, the more likely that reality is to fight back. Be one with your host world and go with its flow, and let it take you where it will."

More and more my body pulsed with that azure light. My last moments in this universe were spent staring at Harmony's avatar with surprise... and reluctant admiration. See, in that moment—in that simple exchange—she not only told me the lesson I should have learned from all of this, but I'm pretty sure she inadvertently gave me the hint I needed to find my way home.

I was brought here to learn a hard lesson and a painful truth about this journey, but each world is likely to have some experience to learn from. Copper-9 was... Okay, Copper-9 was not a good example, given that I bartered with Robo-Satan and killed myself to save my friends... Unless that lesson was that sometimes, self-sacrifice is the only option. Only when I learn that lesson will I be free.

My vision filled with blue, and then space, the chaise, and Discord all vanished.

Friendship Lost!

Item Get!

Software Get!

Friends

N, Disassembly Drone - COP9AU
Uzi, Worker Drone - COP9AU
Ocellus, Unreformed Changeling - EQUS78Σ *DECEASED*

Items

The Victim's Guitar - COP9AU
WDF Aviators - COP9AU
Shapeshifter's Parasol - EQUS78Σ
Bitter Reminder - EQUS78Σ *NEW*

Software

Conscience_v0.1a - COP9AU *DAMAGED*
absoluteSolver (?) - COP9AU
Inventory - EQUS78Σ *NEW*

2 extra lives remaining

Author's Note

The scene where Anon makes her way through the refugee camp and her subsequent mental break is inspired by the Village Massacre from Re:Zero's 14th episode. Unlike the time-loop cursed Subaru Natsuki, however, Anon succumbs to her despair in a slightly different way. Theater D was definitely a backing track I had in mind when writing the scene and Keeper of Lust for the subsequent fight, or maybe F.O.E.