//------------------------------// // Through the Flames (Part 3) // Story: The League of Sweetie Belles // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// “Thank you for your cooperation,” Nausicaa told Suzie, Adder, Cryo, Nira, and Squiddy. “You have my assurances we’ll put everything we have towards correcting this vile breach of trust and authority. She will be caught.” Suzie frowned. “Please… don’t be cruel.” “This is the League of Sweetie Belles, Suzie, not the Military Division. Blink won’t be harmed unless she gives us no choice.” “Thank you.” “And I did mean what I said earlier,” Nausicaa insisted. “You aren’t involved with this. No gallivanting off to find her. We don’t need another… incident.” Suzie winced. “Understood.” “Then you’re all dismissed.” Nausicaa scribbled some notes on her data pad and, sighing into her hoof, gestured with a wing towards the exit. Slowly, the five of them filed out into the League hall, the door closing behind them. This particular hallway was empty—not a single Sweetie aside from them was walking the halls. “So… what now?” Adder asked. “You heard her,” Suzie said. “We can’t do anything.” “Bullshit,” Squiddy said. “We’re doing something.” She grabbed Nira by the tail and dragged her closer. “We came here for a reason, go cover the base the others couldn’t. We’re not gonna lay around while someone uninvolved does stuff. Right Nira?” Nira glanced at Squiddy, shocked at the overt display of camaraderie. “Our emotional investment is precisely why she doesn’t want us investigating,” Suzie said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And I’m not disobeying an order.” “We don’t have to disobey,” Cryo said. “Just go talk to Allure, go over Nausicaa’s head. Easy.” “A little rude…” “And Nausicaa’s never used loopholes to get us to do what she wants,” Nira deadpanned. “Nope. Never.” Suzie tapped her foot a few times, pondering the options. What they were considering wasn’t exactly shady, or even illegal, but it was incredibly disrespectful to Nausicaa, and during a trying time for all of them as well. But Nira did have a point—the pegasus had a habit of using her domination of paperwork to get everyone “in line.” That girl liked order too much. “Right,” Suzie said, pulling out her phone. “Allure? We need to talk with you.” “Does this have anything to do with the memo Nausicaa just sent me about ‘please don’t give Suzie special permission?’ “ Suzie glared at the closed door to Nausicaa’s office. “She works fast.” “She’s predicting your movements,” Allure said from the other end. “I’m reading through this report. She’s technically right to bar you from investigation.” “But Allure—“ “Direct investigation. We have other methods at our disposal. Come to my office, we’ll figure something out.” She hung up. “Progress,” Suzie said, pocketing the device. “Nira, direct teleport to the Founders’ offices.” Nira lit her horn. The enchantments within that area of the League tested her for clearance before allowing her teleport to complete, landing them in a round room with a couch, a large screen on one wall, and several doors ringing the walls. Sweetie Bot was currently sitting on the couch, staring at a plate of cheese and crackers like it was the most interesting thing in existence. “…You okay, Bot?” Suzie asked. “Do I really eat?” Bot asked, not looking up from the plate. “I… I don’t know.” “Dilemma level increasing.” “Let her spin her wheels for a while,” Nira said. “She’ll either forget about it or arrive at some conclusion. Either way, we need to see Allure.” She took point, knocking on the doors to Allure’s office. The doors slid open, revealing a somewhat spacious room focused on a large white desk. Allure sat behind the desk while her adoptive daughter, a human girl with black hair and faintly purple eyes, sat on top of the desk, kicking her legs back and forth. She fixed Suzie with an oddly creepy glare. “You’re sad.” “Of course she is, Minna,” Allure said, stepping down from her chair. “One of her friends just betrayed her.” “…That’s terrible,” Minna said, shaking her head. “Can we help her?” “Maybe,” Allure said. “Suzie, I cannot permit you to investigate this.” “Bu—“ “So I will, and you’ll be my assistant.” Allure winked. “And since we can’t have you out in the field, we’re going to do this the somewhat-boring way.” She handed each of them a data pad. “We’re going to hunt down a paperwork trail.” “Uuuugh.” Squiddy groaned. “This is what we have Nausicaa for!” “And she deemed herself too close to investigate either. Remember, Blink was her Agent before she was yours. She has just as much investment.” Allure started scrolling through the files. “So… let’s read everything we can about everything Blink’s ever done. One of us has to find something.” Grumpily, Squiddy grabbed a pad and glared at it. “You’re holding it wrong,” Minna told her. “It displays upright no matter how I hold it!” “You’re still holding it wrong. It shows more text if you hold it this way.” She tilted the pad ninety degrees in Squiddy’s hands. “There you go.” “Why don’t you do it, then?” Minna held up her own pad, raising an eyebrow. “…Allure, your kid’s…” “Delightful?” Allure chuckled. “I know. Now… let’s get to work.” Her smile vanished. “And Suzie?” “Hmm?” “I’m so, so sorry. You don’t deserve this happening to you twice.” “Just my luck…” Suzie shook her head. “Honestly, I’m more worried about Celia. She was in charge when it happened. It’s not easy to push through.” “She’ll be fine. She’s strong.” “Wow,” Adder said, scrolling through some information on her pad. “Blink sure visits Nausicaa in her office a lot.” “She’s her old commander,” Suzie explained. “If I had an office in the League, that’s where my team would visit me. If Rev kept notes, I’m sure I’d have a similar number of visits.” “Ah. Right.” Adder swiped to the side, focusing her attention on other records. ~~~ Sweetaloo stumbled over a rock, falling flat on her face. The cold rock of the mountainous terrain scraped into her check, ensuring that she would gain a very personal understanding of the current temperature. With a groan, she lifted her head from the ground. The silhouette of Blink stood before her, eclipsing the sun. The ghost’s hoof was extended to her. Sweetaloo took Blink’s hoof and started standing up—but then Blink retracted her hoof, making her stumble and fall once again. Blink started chuckling. “Oh, you should have seen the look on your face…” Something’s happened to her. Sweetaloo thought as she stood under her own power. After coming to all four hooves she wiped the blood from her face with a wing. Maybe Nira didn’t get that shadow demon fully out. That’s why she’s acting like this. “You’re doing that thing again,” Blink said, adjusting her shades. “That thing where you try to come up with an alternate explanation, some reason to justify what’s happening.” “This clearly isn’t you,” Sweetaloo said, frowning. “Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that.” “Nobody could hide a side like… this from me,” Sweetaloo said. “Not while I was their counselor for so long.” The dark blue aura of Void pulsed around Blink. “Wanna bet?” Blink gave her a cheesy grin—a grin Sweetaloo had seen on her face so many times before. “Nobody, not even a god-tier Skaian, could keep up a Void shroud indefinitely.” “Clearly not if it was a conscious effort,” Blink said, continuing to move along the mountain path. “But what if, say, hypothetically, I just asked the Void to never go away with regards to a few subtle, minor, inconvenient things. Like, oh, you know, my seething murderous hatred of a dead pony?” “That… was just a remarkable recovery,” Sweetaloo said. “You were strong.” Blink tilted her head and frowned. “You know, that should make me proud. I completely pulled the wool over your eyes. We were worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep you from it, so concerned that we had memory alteration spells on standby. I read those early reports of yours, you were suspicious. I remember it clearly: ‘such a quick recovery is unheard of!’ ” “…Those records are sealed, how did—nevermind. Stupid question.” “You’ve got that right.” Sweetaloo narrowed her eyes, examining Blink closely. I can’t go off facial expressions or instincts here if she really is using a Void shroud on herself. And she can also make things seem unimportant, like standout words, actions, responses… “There’s not a way to see through it,” Blink said. “You might as well stop trying. You’ll only see what’s really going on here if I let you.” Sweetaloo frowned. “But now you don’t have to hide anything. It’s just the two of us, and I have a… vested interest in not betraying your confidence.” Push her a bit, get her to open up. Not everything I know about her is a lie. The specifics may be wrong, but the Void can only hide, it cannot change. “You’re free to act as you wish—you proved that when you dropped me back there.” Blink lowered her sunglasses and gave a predatory smile. “Oh you sweet summer child… you have no idea how restrained that was.” “Ah. You wanted to do more.” She doesn’t have an extreme violent disposition, this is something else. “You have a lot of… hate?” Play up the confusion; get her interested in playing with it. “Let me put it this way.” Blink tilted her head back, grinning broadly. “I’m smart enough to realize you’re manipulating me. Trying to get answers.” “And what’s wrong with that? What am I going to do with answers?” “Get personal satisfaction.” Ah. “And you can’t have that. Because you hate me.” Blink’s smile didn’t falter—at least, not so far as Sweetaloo could see. That Void really is effective. Now that she was looking for the Void effect, she could see signs of it. Responses that should have come didn’t. Words didn’t always match her expression or body language. And that smile looked copy—pasted from an animator’s template box. Sweetaloo knew full well she was only seeing these things because she was actively trying to pick them out; if she hadn’t suspected the Void was being used, the aura of unimportance would have smoothed them out of her perception. Void truly is a dangerous power. Blink had apparently decided she wasn’t going to respond at all to Sweetaloo’s latest observation and she kept moving through the mountain pass. “So…” Sweetaloo said, following her. “Mind telling me what our mission is?” “Might as well,” Blink said with a shrug. “The Beyonders are currently moving directly toward inhabited space on a conquering spree.” “Wh-what?” “That’s not really our concern. See, that’s for the ‘big boys’ to handle, somehow. We’re confident that ka will smooth things out in their favor, and the Beyonders won’t destroy everything. So our mission is to take advantage of the heavy distraction they’re causing.” Sweetaloo tilted her head. “And do what?” “Steal stuff!” Blink jumped into the air and clapped her front hooves together. “I’ve been doing it for a while already. Sparkle Census Reality Anchors, some Fae Nodes... You’d be surprised the kinds of things you can get away with when you’re completely invisible and everyone’s panicking.” “You were the one who tried to steal the tablet.” Blink didn’t respond to her words—continuing on as though nothing had happened. “Now, we are currently inside the Crown Princess’ little experiment, the Capra Coalition, on a planet called Bajor. Our goal… is the Fire Caves.” As they turned the bend in the mountain pass, they came to a wide cavernous opening in the mountain with two humanoid statues on either side, etched into the stone. Blink held out her hoof like a tour guide to the entrance. “Behold! Dun dun duuuuun!” Her joy in the bombastic is still real. “…There’s no fire.” “That’s the fun part. See, in these caves are a bunch of super-powerful entities theorized to be on par with Them and similar energy beings. They’re called the Pah Wraiths, and we’re going to trap them in a box. Don’t worry, they’re evil incarnate, irredeemable, universe-burning creatures; nobody’s going to care if we use them as a battery.” “Merodi Universalis doesn’t go around turning evil monsters into batteries!” Sweetaloo gasped. “We have strict standards!” “And that’s the whole problem,” Blink said with a smug smirk. “The whole…? Do you really think th—“ “Shhh, the caves are treacherous! You’ll want to pay attention so you don’t slip into a crevasse!” Blink skipped ahead as though this were a completely normal mission with the normal amount of friendly banter. “C’mon Sweetaloo, treasure awaits!” ~~~ “This just in: a tragedy has hit the very core of the Capra Coalition.” Cei’s stomach sank as the news broadcast played across the main screen in Kira’s office. The news anchor was a middle-aged woman with star-shaped blush stickers on her cheeks. In Cei’s opinion, she’d have been much better suited to giving happy news, not… this.. “Guild Central was just attacked by a known Class 1 Society, the Beyonders. Details are still coming in, but already the universe is considered a complete loss.” No… “Most of the inhabitants had time to escape through the myriad of available dimensional devices. However, all infrastructure has been lost, and several Coalition warships have been destroyed.” Guild Central was small, it was easy to get out quickly. Other universes don’t have anywhere near that level of dimensional infrastructure. “We have a video taken on-site during the assault. What you are about to see may not be suitable for all audiences, viewer discretion is advised.” Cei recognized who was holding the camera immediately—it was Spinel, the Gem who’d run from the Merodi and found acceptance among them. She was yelling at the top of her lungs, “Everyone through the portal! That means you, Puppy! Get! Move your cabooses!” The video was shaky and blurry, but in the midst of her attempts to evacuate everyone, Spinel made sure to point the camera at the sky. It was blue—and not the sort of blue the sky was supposed to be. This was an artificial blue, the kind one saw on toothbrushes and plastic toys. To the camera, it appeared partially liquid, rippling and rolling in complex patterns; evidence of higher dimensional folding taking place. It was hard to make out, but in the midst of all this swirling was a Beyonder ship, twisting and shifting through many different shapes as it bent space around it, slowly but surely converting the universe to something that suited it better. Bright lights appeared in the sky amidst the swirls—Capra Coalition ships with Reality Anchors pushing against the Beyonder’s new physics. They unleashed torrents of missiles and phaser fire, but the moment their attacks left their bubbles of forced reality, they veered off course. None of the weapons were designed for use in non-Euclidian space. It was only by luck that a couple hit their target and exploded. Even then, they did no damage. “We’re all gonna die!” someone in the video shouted. “No, we’re not! Get through the portal!” The camera panned back up to the sky where the battle was taking place. If you could call it a battle… The myriad Capra Coalition ships were in disarray, many of them already burning hulls only kept up by the zero-gravity. To Cei’s horror, the rippling wave of Beyonders began to shimmer. With a twist, every ship in the area crumpled in on itself, the groaning of metal audible as they began to implode, lighting up the sky like so many terrible fireworks. The telltale flare of escape pods flashed for a moment before those, too, crumpled into metallic lumps. It was like swatting flies. It was at this point the Reality Anchor around Guild Central itself failed. The buildings and structures that had been built up over the last few years were no longer safe. The blue of the Beyonder’s reality flooded the city, twisting and tearing at every wall and every chunk of the ground. The main hall collapsed in the distance, and large chunks of the earth were plucked from the ground as if gravity no longer existed. Spinel finally jumped through the portal, closing it before the blue could reach the new reality. Then the video cut out. “You have just witnessed the Beyonder’s primary form of conquest in progress,” the news anchor continued. “They cannot exist naturally in what we consider ‘normal’ space, so they convert universes to suit their physiology. Most of us can no longer survive in the universe that held Guild Central without special equipment.” “It’s all gone…” Cei breathed. “The Coalition Council has survived,” the anchor reported. “Currently, they are mobilizing what forces we have remaining to defend population centers. And—hold on, we just got some breaking news. …Has this been confirmed? Yes, this has been confirmed. Ahem.” The woman, who up until then had managed to keep a straight face, looked downright furious now. “Information has been leaked that the Coalition Council knew the Beyonders were coming and specifically took no action against them.” Kira shut off the feed. “That’s not good.” “It actually benefits us,” TwilAI said. “If they’re busy shouting at the government, the government won’t be able to shout at us for our little plan with the Sweeties.” “Which is what, exactly?” Cei asked. “Cinder’s ‘plan’ isn’t even really a plan, and unless she does something very soon the Beyonders are going to tear apart more worlds, and those won’t be able to evacuate. Too many people.” Kira folded her hands together. “Something will happen. The Prophets won’t just let this happen.” “If the Beyonders come here, I’m not sure they have a choice.” Kira looked like she wanted to argue the point, but at that moment a call came in. Cinder and Celia appeared onscreen a moment later. “I consulted your orb… thing,” Cinder said. “And all it did was show me the same vision I got last time. They didn’t let me talk to them to talk about ‘Replacing’ them or anything. So there goes that plan.” Kira frowned. “The same vision…” “What do you think that means?” Celia asked. “That there’s something in the vision you haven’t picked up on.” Cinder frowned. “…I didn’t understand what they meant when they talked about me being partially linear… And we haven’t found anything out about Blink yet.” She frowned. “Blink, standing on Sweetaloo, surrounded by fire…” Kira started. “First of all, visions are private things…” “They are?” Cinder cocked her head. She pressed her hands together. “Second of all, I have the feeling that vision of fire took place in a cave, right?” “How did—?“ “You need to go to the Fire Caves,” Kira said. “The prison of the Pah Wraiths.” “The what?” “The false Prophets.” Cei, Cinder, and Celia stared at her with blank looks. “There’s no time to explain. We need to get moving.” ~~~ Suzie, Allure, Minna, Adder, Cryo, Nira, and Squiddy were still pouring over documents and records. They had long ago left Allure’s office and moved to the more comfortable location of Allure’s house in Celestia City. Everyone was still heavily involved in the project—even Minna, despite having been told multiple times that she could just go and watch TV if she wanted. Apparently, she did not. However, just because all of them were working didn’t mean they were all being productive. Cryo knew full well that she didn’t know enough to notice anything suspicious. These were just records and files of Blink’s missions and deployments over the years. She hadn’t even been able to notice the connection between Blink’s presence and technology going missing until Suzie pointed it out to her. It was there, all right, but none of the reports ever thought to cast doubt on Blink of all ponies. Even the report on the tablet incident only mentioned that she was released immediately due to the fact that she couldn’t have done it—with no explanation given as to why anyone thought that. Cinder got out due to Sweetaloo’s report, and the others (including Cryo herself) were released due to lack of evidence. Blink could have been considered part of the latter group. Instead, she was singled out. Cryo had to admit, that was suspicious. But no one thought twice about it. Because Blink was one of the good guys. Not every story has those things so clear-cut… Cryo flipped to another document, this time a report in Blink’s own words about their trip to that pony—Stargate universe. It mostly spent time talking about Seren, though, not Blink. Useless, useless… “Hold on…” Suzie traced her finger across a line in her data pad. “I might have something.” Cryo dropped her pad immediately. “What? What?!” Suzie traced her finger over the line again. “I’ve been trying to figure out where she’s been depositing all the things she steals. I finally found a discrepancy—while she was supposedly with us in that Equestria at War, Roxy Lalonde was visiting Jade at the League. She’s the Rogue of Void, she could see Blink as she moved. There’s only one line here about it, but, Blink isn’t Burgerbelle, she couldn’t have been in both places at once.” Allure nodded. “So she went invisible, jumped universes, deposited her machine somewhere in or near the League, and then went back to Swip with no one being the wiser.” Nira frowned. “Since she goes invisible regularly, Swip wouldn’t even have raised an alarm. It’s like when I teleport away.” “Where do you go, by the way?” Squiddy asked. “That is a personal matter.” Squiddy narrowed her eyes. “I give you my word that it is not a betrayal of our trust. There are just certain aspects of my life I’d rather people not know exist so unsavory types can’t take advantage of them.” “…Fine.” Squiddy let it go. Allure nodded in understanding. “Of course.” “Question,” Adder said, raising a hoof. “How come we didn’t notice that before? We were lookin’ for discrepancies like that. Ah thought the only one we’d found was her recent ‘vacation.’ “ Suzie held up her pad. “That’s because this line isn’t in the League’s reports. This is the small report Roxy sent to her superiors about her visit.” Squiddy cocked her head. “Wait, she works for someone? That asks for reports on personal visits?” “Highly classified,” Suzie said, shaking her head. “It’s technically risky to let you all know this file exists, but it’s pertinent information so I believe ‘case by case’ covers us here.” “The spirit of the law…” Allure said with a soft chuckle. “My sister has really done a number on the lawyers with that one.” “Regardless, this brings up a very good question.” Suzie pressed her hands together. “The only report of Blink being in the League is from a source outside the League. But if she’s really been visiting the League to deposit her ‘bounty’—why else would she be there—there should be other sightings of her. We have a lot of Sweeties with powers of Sight, and a few of her timeline duplicates as well, Skaian Witches of Void just like her.” Squiddy rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Right, SBURB and all it’s timeline shenanigans…” “That’s why there’s duplicates of basically every Skaian,” Allure said. “Be careful not to mix the two main Jades up. There’s our innocent little office dog and then there’s… a girl who’s decidedly the opposite of innocent.” Suzie shivered involuntarily. “Yes. And it’s not just other Sweetie Skaian Ghosts that could see her, there are plenty of other Sweeties who would be able to notice or feel something, even when she’s at maximum Void and surrounded by unimportance. Which means there should be some report of her. But there’s nothing aside from Roxy.” “Which means…” Cryo waved her hoof in the air, inviting Suzie to get to the point. Suzie slapped the pad on the counter. “Someone has to be doctoring records.” “So she has an accomplice,” Adder said. “Ah think we could’ve already deduced that.” “Yes, but now we know who it has to be,” Suzie said. “Really?” “There is one pony who examines and checks virtually every document and record that goes through the League, checking them for consistency and managing everything. There isn’t much that escapes her view, and even if something did, something going on for this long wouldn’t have avoided her eye for its entire run.” Allure blinked. “You can’t be serious. Nausicaa? She’s been nothing but a good high secretary for the League for… years.” “And how did she get that job?” Suzie pressed her fingers together. “…Because no one else wanted it.” “Exactly.” Suzie pulled up Nausicaa’s files. “She’s not a standard Sweetie archetype. She wanted to do paperwork. And she does it well, so much better than most other Sweeties possibly could. She’s probably the only one who could make a paper trail cover up this close to perfect.” “This logic is a little shaky,” Adder pointed out. “Ah mean, it seems to fit, but Ah’m not sure it’ll hold up.” “I know,” Suzie said. “Which is precisely why we need to go and confront her.” “Maybe we should try to observe her fist,” Nira suggested. “Get this… Roxy to tail her, find out what she knows.” Suzie turned to Allure. “Think we could submit a request for covert investigation?” Allure nodded. “It’s an option. Actually, it’ll be a requirement. If we suspect her we can’t be submitting our reports to her… we’ll need to be sure to get some other accountability or else things could go bad for us, legally speaking.” “The question remains who we go with.” Suzie pressed her hands together. “Roxy’s an option, but we can also go directly to Renee if we want to be more transparent, or Mayor Blumiere…” “None of the above, I’m afraid.” As she spoke, the unimportance aura around Nausicaa was broken. She was currently sitting in one of Allure’s chairs with a cup of tea in her wings—and given the depression she was making in the chair, she had been sitting there for a very long time. Her expression was as calm and slightly-arrogant as ever, and her smile more than a little condescending. Numerous images of eyes dotted her coat, and a strange black collar that pulsed with red circuitry hung around her neck. Cryo recognized the eyes from her time working for the Aid Division in Vision. They were mantles. A lot of mantles. And eyes usually meant one thing—mind control. Nira acted first, summoning her darkness around her and attacking with a burst of shadowy blades. The collar around Nausicaa’s neck pulsed like a unicorn horn. In an instant, all of Nira’s muscles locked up and her face went slack. Her dark eyes were replaced by a flat red color with black pixels of static buzzing across them. Everyone else moved at once, trying to rush her. But all it took was a flash from the collar and everyone’s eyes became red static. No! Cryo shouted to her body. Move, darn you! Move! She screamed at herself to no avail, for her form was locked in place by Nausicaa’s magic. “You were really close to the truth, by the way,” Nausicaa said, walking to a frozen Suzie with an outstretched wing. “But, for the most part, I haven’t needed to doctor any files for a long time. As our little project has grown, so has our ability to precisely wipe memories so such reports are never written. Roxy’s position just made this an impossibility—we would be noticed if we did that.” Gotta… snap… the collar… Cryo visualized a spike of ice impaling Nausicaa, but nothing happened. She felt like her legs were on fire, fire that was made out of tiny squares ripping through her skin like razor blades. “But all of you, well, you’re just Sweeties. And we’ve altered the minds of so many of you. And…” She frowned. “And I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I’m sure I could bring some of you to see the good we do for Merodi Universalis, in time. But secrecy demands things be done with expediency. And so…” Her collar flashed again, funneling energy to the tip of her wing. She brought it toward Suzie’s head. No! You aren’t going to make our struggles useless! Cryo screamed, raging against the power keeping her rooted to the spot. We won’t be defeated by a villain like you! RAAAAAAAAA”AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Cryo’s mouth opened and ice shot out of it. An invisible barrier of some kind around Nausicaa deflected the attack. She didn’t even look surprised by it. “Ah yes, the classic anime ‘burst out of mind control by brute force’ approach.” Nausicaa rolled her eyes, as though it were ridiculous and insignificant. “Your arrogance will be your downfall, villain!” Cryo shouted, surrounding herself in ice. “I am the one variable you didn’t account for! The impossibly plucky and heroic Cryo! I wi—“ Nausicaa’s collar flashed again, encaging Cryo in a ball of red, arcane chains. Her mind may have been active, but her body wasn’t able to move anymore. “Everything can be accounted for.” Nausicaa’s collar lit up again, this time encasing Minna in chains—somehow the girl had been moving under her own power without Cryo noticing. “Even that which, by nature, is inscrutable.” “You’re arrogant…” Cryo growled. “I’m willing to devote all my resources to this nation of ours,” Nausicaa said, a soft smile on her face. “You’d be surprised how many of our innovations come from us subtly re-introducing what we procure into society. The number of lives that have been saved just because we ‘stole’ a few things… it’s staggering.” She lifted her wing, directing it at Cryo’s head. “Allure’s own horn owes itself to us. And when this collar gets reintroduced… well, magic will be free.” With a sigh, she shook her head. “I really do wish I didn’t have to do this, but there can be no suspicion. Not while the political climate is as it is currently. I do have my hopes that Celia and Solicitude might spark a change…” It was at this point Nausicaa realized she was engaging in a small monologue. With a look of distaste crossing her features, she tapped her wing to Cryo’s forehead, and the world fell away. ~~~ All things considered, Sweetaloo had been expecting more fire in the Fire Caves. As it was, it just looked like a particularly large cave system. Blink moved through it expertly, bouncing from one rocky path to another with no issues. Sweetaloo was not and never had been much of a seasoned adventurer, so she kept stumbling and struggling to keep up with the scampering ghost. Blink’s expression and body language may have been impossible to read, but Sweetaloo could tell a few things based on the speed she was moving—just fast enough to make Sweetaloo struggle, but not fast enough to leave her behind. She needs me for something and doesn’t like the fact that she does. Why the need to make this difficult? Why the cruelty? Behind all these questions, however, other thoughts were coming up in the back of her mind. How can I take advantage of this? Behind those thoughts, though, were ones she wished she wasn’t emotionally aware enough to notice. I deserve to be treated like this. The Crusader couldn’t run from herself, no matter how much she might have wanted. “Guess what?” Blink called back. “We’re almost there!” “The seal on the Pah Wraiths?” Sweetaloo asked. “Yep!” Blink gestured to a branching path. “We just turn here and… tah-dah!” The two of them arrived at a ledge that overhung a tremendous drop to a stalagmite-ridden cavern floor. The spikes stretched off in every direction, matching the pattern of the ceiling to give the area the appearance of a megalithic maw. It was impressive, to be sure. But it was still just a cave. “What now?” Sweetaloo asked. Blink opened her mouth and lit her horn, slowly levitating a strange device out of her innards. So that’s how she carries everything. The device in question was made of three concentric black rings with red circuitry lining it. In the center of the rings was a spherical blue crystal, above which was levitating a piece of magitech constructed from an amethyst crystal and numerous green chips. Sweetaloo had no idea what the rings were, but she could identify a TSAB artificial intelligence device, as well as the clear Sparkle Census origin of the integrated amethyst. “You’ve… been doing this a while.” “Allure’s horn exists because of people like me,” Blink said, grinning. “Proper artificial horns were not invented, Sweetaloo. We did that. Before Skaia’s Dream was even added to the fold.” She’s proud of this, looking to gloat. “Let me guess—“ “No,” Blink said. “You’re going to watch.” She set the device in the ground and tapped the amethyst chunk. The TSAB device let out a beep, reciting the phrase, “Stand By Ready!” in a robotic, masculine voice. The rings started to pulse with crimson light, and space-time began to warp around the machine. Blink looked out over the ledge into the cavern below. “You know, in this universe, there is no method to access them. The Wraiths were locked here, and the key was destroyed. Very clever. But we’ve got technology nobody here is privy to.” “This can’t be wise,” Sweetaloo said. “Ka hates hubris.” “See, we thought that too, for a while. But then we kept succeeding and succeeding, at more daring and daring operations. There must be some other kind of story for us than the folly of hubris. And don’t worry, we’re still really careful. There’s a severe-safety lock—not telling you how to activate it—and a dimensional energy shunter, among other things. We don’t rush into these things blindly. If we did, we would have been caught a loooong time ago.” The device finished setting up, prompting a beam of fiery energy to shoot into the cavern below. As soon as it reached halfway, the caverns erupted in a swirling torrent of flame. It was no natural fire—it was the burning essence of entities crafted from pure hate, malice, and violence. The air around Sweetaloo began to feel scorching on her fur, and the pit itself started to melt, the crags of rock glowing with heat. The teeth of the cavern were now the teeth of a dragon’s maw, ready to belch fire upon existence. But the flames couldn’t leave. They were awakened, but the Pah Wraiths were not free. “Ah…” Sweetaloo closed her eyes and smiled softly. “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?” “You’re catching on.” Blink pulled back her hoof, charging it with some kind of Void energy Sweetaloo had never seen her use before. The smile was unbroken. “Don’t worry, they’ll bring you back. Sort of.” “If I’m going to be a sacrifice, you don’t have to hide behind that mask of yours anymore.” Sweetaloo lifted her head high, giving Blink a clear shot for her chest. “You’ve had that mask on for far, far too long. Take it off. Do this as you know you want to. As Blink, whoever that really is.” As the fire Pah Wraiths swirled around behind them, Blink’s smile remained, the fire glinting off the edges of her teeth. And then, in an instant, the smile was gone. What remained… was both exactly what Sweetaloo had expected, and a far cry from it. There was no murder in those eyes, no mare that took joy in senseless killing. There was a real kindness and deep compassion—and a drive to be true to herself. Beyond that, though, was hate. This was not a general hate, the kind that bled off angry people at every angle. This was a specific, bitter, rooted hate directed at Sweetaloo and Sweetaloo alone. Had that hate not existed, Sweetaloo was absolutely certain Blink wouldn’t have been able to go through with this. “…Why?” “Why what?” Blink asked—her voice significantly more ragged and wavering than Sweetaloo had ever heard it. “Why do you hate me?” “You’ve ruined my life,” Blink said matter-of-factly. “I used to have one before you came along, you know? We were the Primary Sweetie Expedition Team. Exploring, happy, we… we were basically a family. Then Ser took that too seriously; violated me, violated Squiddy, and made a good attempt at violating Nira. And then he died and made everything a million times more complicated, and I. Was. Broken!” “That’s why I came!” Sweetaloo cried. “To help with that!” “But I couldn’t have you helping, don’t you get it!?” Blink threw her hoof wide, stretching her face to its limits as she let out all her pain. “You’d figure out what I was, what I was doing! And my mission was more important than my mental health—I couldn’t be discovered!” Sweetaloo couldn’t help but let out a sympathetic tear. “So you put on the Void shroud. And kept it on. Forever.” “I haven’t taken it off for even a moment since you first arrived until now.” Blink lifted her head, looking up at the fires overhead. “Even when you weren’t around, I needed to be a good agent. I had to be working well under pressure. I had to keep you blind, so I had to keep myself from all the other Sweeties…” She swallowed hard. “I was close to them, you know. I was. I really do care about them, and they’re part of why I do this. To make their lives better, to… but none of that matters anymore! I had to erect a wall and pretend like it didn’t exist!” “Blink, I’m sure it wasn’t all fa—“ “I don’t want your damn psychoanalysis!” Blink took off her shades and threw them to the ground, cracking them in half. Her bare, empty eyes stared directly at Sweetaloo. “I want you to know what you did to me. Because of you, I had to bottle it up. Because of you, I’ve had to scream without anyone knowing. Because of you, my life had to become a lie.” She pulled her hoof back. “I tried not to blame you. But it turns out you killed three little fillies. So it looks like everything’s justified.” Sweetaloo closed her eyes and bowed her head. She’s right, you know. She didn’t feel the attack hit. It made sense—it was Void-based, after all. What she did feel was the burning power of the Pah Wraiths entering her. Death had been a peaceful experience for her. Resurrection came with all the pain of every bone in her body burning with the fire of transcendental spirits. With the pain, however, came power. She opened her eyes, letting out a gasp of agony mixed with enthrallment. A grin crawled up her face and flames licked the edges of her eyes. “You fool… you think you can control the Pah Wraiths!? They are not some mere deity. They are so much more!” She held out her hoof, intending to break every one of Blink’s reality anchors with a thought. The device on the ground intercepted the attack, starting to drain power from Sweetaloo, introducing an entirely different sort of pain to her body. She collapsed to the ground, letting out a doglike whimper. And just like that, Blink’s fake grin was back. “Aww, are the little Wraiths surprised by our ingenuity?” She sat down and clapped her front hooves together condescendingly. “Get ready, the rest of your life will be as a battery!” “You’re killing those fillies too!” Sweetaloo gasped. “They could still live their lives!” “I’ll get the three of them out after this, it’ll make a very effective seal. And I think we both know you’re no longer Sweetaloo, you’re the Wraiths. I’m not going to listen to a thing you say.” “You’re no better than me!” “And that’s Sweetaloo’s fault.” “No, you are responsible for your own actions, ghost.” Sweetaloo managed to shakily stand to her hooves. “You are… a being of cowardice…” “Mmm…” Blink scratched her chin. “Yep! And just about every other terrible descriptor under the sun. Nice try, though.” She patted Swetaloo on the head. “Now be a good little battery and be quiet.” With a ripple of dimensional energy, a portal tore its way into the cavern. Blink, despite her Void-mask, couldn’t keep her smile up when she realized who was coming in. Cinder jumped through the portal. “Blink!” Cei jumped through behind her. “Oh, this looks…” “ENOUGH!” Sweetaloo shouted. The fires in the cavern raged harder, closing the portal before anyone else could come through. Still shaking, eyes burning, she managed to spread her wings. “Cinder… I’ve been waiting for your arrival…” Sweetaloo felt a sneer slowly crawl up her face. “Let’s dispense with all this foreplay and get down to business.” “…Wh-what?” “You are going to burn existence, Cinder. And here is where it starts.” Putting everything she could into her horn, she surrounded Cinder in a telekinetic aura and threw her over the edge. “Burn!” Though Sweetaloo smiled, Cinder’s screams still brought tears to the alicorn’s eyes. ~~~ Nausicaa stepped back from Cryo, shaking the ice crystals off the tip of her wing. The filly was out cold, suspended by Nausicaa’s red chains in midair. The magic dissipated from Nausicaa’s wingtip, telling her the memory alteration spell was successful. When Cryo woke up, she’d think she just fell asleep reading files. The same would soon be true of all the others—and this time they wouldn’t find that Roxy file Nausicaa hadn’t known about. It was impossible to delete the report of someone so high up in the Intelligence division, but cursing the data pads the Sweeties were using was easy enough. Seeing no more reason to keep Cryo up in chains, she removed the spell and turned to the one problematic variable in the situation: Minna. The mysterious child whose origin was unknown to everyone, and was curiously immune to the Red Static. Nausicaa frowned. “I may have to be more invasive with you…” Even with her eyes buzzing with red static, Minna managed a smile. “You just made a mistake.” “I di—“ “HI-YAH!” Cryo shouted, summoning an icicle and driving it right through Nausicaa’s neck. Her ice was completely harmless to the pegasus—but it completely shattered the ring around her neck, removing Nausicaa’s control over her magic. The red static remained in everyone’s eyes, but she wasn’t going to be able to cast the spell again. “Wh-what!?” Nausicaa whirled around to face the filly who was currently standing on her hind hooves with her front legs crossed smugly. “I think you mean ‘NANI!?’ “ “How?” “Well. I’m not exactly sure…?” Cryo rubbed the back of her head. “I think my memory’s been erased or something. But I was cold when I woke up, but felt terrified for some reason, and you were there…” “You were out cold!” Nausicaa spread a wing wide. “I don’t even…” “Oh, that’s what I must have done! Lowered my body temperature so I’d be shocked awake when I stopped maintaining my lower temperature.” She tapped her head. “Now, I have no idea why I’m fighting you, Nausicaa, but I don’t care. I’ve got you trapped, and that necklace thing is toast! I win!” Nausicaa flicked out one of her wings, revealing a hidden blade between her feathers. She put it to Minna’s neck. “I am not fighting you on your terms. That is an engagement I will lose. So you’re going to do everything I say.” Cryo frowned. “Minna, should I do what she says?” “No,” Minna said. “She wouldn’t murder a child.” Nausicaa lifted her head. “She speaks the truth. But I could kill any of the others in this room.” Cryo tapped her chin. “I don’t think you’re close enough to get to any of them before I freeze you solid.” “You don’t know the full extent of my capabilities. I had this hidden blade, what else might I have?” “I’ll just deal with that when it comes up! Because I’m Cryo. The last one standing—the hero.” “Every villain thinks they’re the hero,” Nausicaa said. “Yeah, I don’t know your backstory or motivations right now, so… uh… motive talk isn’t really gonna work here. Maybe you should have thought of that before you wiped my mind!” She let out a series of childish giggles. “Bet you wish y—“ Nausicaa opened her mouth to interrupt—but then she shut it, letting Cryo go on. We’re getting trapped in a monologue feedback loop. That’s a waste of time. Disorganized. No more words: just act. Nausicaa jumped. Although Cryo had already fallen for this trick once today, she didn’t remember it. The shock of someone attacking in the midst of her speech kept her from reacting until it was too late. Nausicaa’s blade was already run through her shoulder, drawing copious amounts of blood. Cryo fell to her knees. “I’ll be sure you get medical attention,” Nausicaa promised. “Shoulda gone for the kill,” Cryo managed. Nausicaa was already jumping back, having expected some kind of minor retaliation—perhaps a self-freeze intended to trap Nausicaa with it. Instead, Cryo moved with an energy that shouldn’t have been possible for someone with a sword through the shoulder. But she didn’t exactly follow the normal laws of physics. She was Cryo. And she focused all her energy into one last attack that wasn’t even aimed at Nausicaa—but the wall of Allure’s house. The icy shards tore the barrier to pieces, opening up the room to Celestia City. Allure’s house wasn’t exactly in the most populated area of the city, but there were still several people on the street outside who could easily serve as witnesses. Too many to deal with, especially without her collar. “Gotcha,” Cryo said, panting heavily. She’s still standing. Of course. With a sigh, Nausicaa nodded. “It looks like you have. You won a fight you didn’t even know about.” “Heck yes.” “I’ll call an ambulance for you,” Nausicaa said, taking out a communication device. “You’re too nice!” Cryo blinked. “Wait…” Too late. The phone had already connected to its recipient. “Breach NB39.” Nausicaa hung up. Before anyone could ask, she tilted her head, activating a microchip implanted in her brain. It all fell apart because I couldn’t kill a child. The last fifteen years of her life were gone in an instant. Including the memory of how agonizing it was to activate the implant and literally shock her brain until it forgot everything even potentially useful. In addition, a temporal exclusion field activated, preventing potential time-travel exploitations keyed to the stability of the primary star of the Equis Vitis system. Nausicaa opened her eyes. She had enough in her to know she was in Celestia City. She immediately let out an “eep!” of terror upon seeing the red static in everyone’s eyes. Upon seeing the blood pouring out of a young Sweetie, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “Nau-si-caa…?” the filly asked. Nausicaa threw up all the contents of her stomach—she’d never done well with blood, she couldn’t imagine ever getting to the point where she could—and passed out. ~~~ Cei tried to grab Cinder with her own magic, but the magical fire around Sweetaloo’s horn was too strong. She began tapping into the energy of the Crown to work around the magical efforts, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Because in that moment, Blink grabbed Cinder. Their hooves clasped. Blink planted her back hooves into the earth, almost falling off the edge herself. With a heave, she sunk her hooves into the ground, embedding herself in the rock. It had to have shattered the reality anchors on her back legs, but no pain creased Blink’s face. If anything, the ghostly Sweetie looked just as thrilled to be in an adventure as ever. At the end of the maneuver, Blink was anchored to the rock ledge, but most of her was dangling over the edge, holding onto Cinder. The flames of the Wraiths below heightened in intensity, enraged that they were denied her prize. “I’d like to know how you’re breaking out of my machine…” Blink asked, struggling to pull Cinder up. Sweetaloo placed a methodical hoof on Blink’s back. “Your machine is perfect. But it did not plan for Cinder.” “Why would it need to? She’s…” “She is what she is,” Sweetaloo said. “And the Pah Wraiths need her.” She raised a hoof to crack another one of Blink’s reality anchors. Cei didn’t know where she stood on Blink right now, seeing as she had no idea what was going on, but she knew evil fire when she saw it. She spread her wings and powered her horn, hitting Sweetaloo dead on with a magic laser. Sweetaloo attempted to erect some kind of barrier—but it was weak. There was too much pain in her body, and too much power drain. Whatever energy she had gained from Cinder’s presence was canceled out by the magic in the Crown. With trembles and loud cries of pain, the pseudo-alicorn collapsed to the ground in a shivering heap, thankfully not on top of Blink. “Whew!” Blink said. “That was close!” “Blink…” Cinder said from over the ledge. “How can you be so...?” “I honestly hope you never understand.” Blink, now free of a Sweetaloo influence, started to pull Cinder up from the ledge. Progress was being made—until Cinder let out a bloodcurdling scream. “Something’s got my leg! Get it off me!” Cei wasted no time: she grabbed Cinder in her magic and yanked her up. Blink and Cinder flung up onto the cliff, bringing with them the thing attached to Cinder’s leg. A blackened skeleton encased completely in the flames of the Pah Wraiths held onto her leg with a grip of death, if it could be called a leg anymore—Cinder’s limb was shredded and bleeding profusely, her immunity to fire doing little against the monster’s raw power. Evaporating the blood from pure heat alone, the skeleton released its grip with a sizzle and stood upright. Now that it was easily visible, Cei could see that it was a humanoid creature with a skull that sported two ridges and a spoon-like formation on the forehead. A Cardassian, Cei recognized. The first thing the skeleton did upon landing was crush Blink’s device, severing its connection to Sweetaloo and the Pah Wraiths. Sweetaloo stopped twitching from the constant pain of being drained, but otherwise she didn’t move. “An unworthy sacrifice,” the skeleton said with a loud but emotionless voice.. “But there is one so much better…” It turned to Cinder. “The Cinder’s death is imminent. The Cinder’s continuation is eternal.” Cinder, despite having a useless back leg, stood her ground. “Just try it.” With a wave of its bony fingers, Cinder was suddenly levitated into the air, her neck forced into its hand. The flames did nothing to Cinder, but it made sure to squeeze her neck as hard as it possibly could without actually killing her. “Get away from her!” Blink shouted, driving her hooves into the skeleton’s skull in an attempt to completely Void its thoughts. In response, the skeleton backhanded her, destroying a third reality anchor. Blink flew away so hard she made a small crater in the cave wall. Cei stood up, surrounding the skeleton and Cinder in a cube of shimmering white magic. “I won’t allow this.” “We can make your dreams a reality,” the skeleton said. “The Crown Princess can have her empire.” “Screw the empire!” Cei shouted. “I’m done with that! And I don’t even care who or what you are, Wraith-thing! Die!” She summoned dozens of hard-light constructs from the ceiling and the floor, skewering the skeleton’s bones in several places, filling her cube of light with bony dust. The skeleton tried to ignore her—using its one remaining leg and arm to punch through the cube and hurl itself over the edge of the ledge with Cinder in it’s hand. “No you don’t!” Cei shrieked, grabbing the skeleton and Cinder with her magic. She quickly created a cleaver to hack the skeleton off at the wrist, dropping the majority of the bones into the fiery Wraith-stew below. When Cei brought Cinder back, the hand was still around her neck, choking her. With a quick teleport, Cei separated the two. She used a few healing spells on Cinder and stomped the hand into bonemeal with her hoof. “Take that!” Cei shouted at the fires over the edge. “Know that I, Cei, took out your little plan! I, a corporeal, linear entity! Hah!” “Whew!” Blink said, wiping her brow. “Looks like my work is done!” Cinder gawked. “Blink! That’s not h—“ “You don’t want me to stick around, and you don’t want answers,” Blink said, winking. “It’s better this way, trust me.” She turned invisible. Sweetaloo—still alive and burning with the fire of the Pah Wraiths—stuck out a hoof at a seemingly random spot and grabbed Blink, forcing her into a visible state. Blink was helpless as the power of the Wraiths lifted her into the air by her single remaining reality anchor. Blink looked scared—but the smile was still there. “This isn’t how it ends.” The fire around Sweetaloo’s eyes lessened slightly. “No… it isn’t.” She slammed her hoof into the ground, bashing Blink’s skull so hard against the earth that the ghost passed out. But her reality anchor remained. “Sw-Sweetaloo?” Cinder asked. “I don’t have long,” Sweetaloo said, breathing heavily. “They were so focused on the skeleton that they forgot about me. But they’ll take my mind back…” She fixed Cinder with a careful look. “Blink’s dangerous. She tried to sacrifice me to use these entities as a battery. She’s been using her Void to hide her true intentions. Lock her up, figure out what she knows.” Cinder walked up to her. “Sweetaloo…” “I…” Sweetaloo let out a wince as the fires around her increased in intensity. “Cinder, I have to go. I need to seal the Pah Wraiths away. Tell everyone… that I’m sorry for lying. I’m sorry for ruining Blink’s life without even trying. I’m sorry for… taking the lives of three fillies for my own. It was wrong, and I deserved terrible things for it. But I—“ She broke down, falling to her knees and heaving with pain. “I can’t… But I can… thank you, for giving me a family I never had…” “You don’t need to say any more,” Cinder said, pulling her into a hug. “…I’m just glad I actually got to say goodbye.” With harmless flames wrapping around the two of them, Sweetaloo surrounded Cinder in her wings. “I am too. Goodbye, Cinder. Whatever you really are… you came into our lives and made everything better. They don’t need me anymore. They need you.” Sweetaloo could wait no longer. It had to be now. With a scream of agony, she used the very power of the Pah Wraiths on herself—to sever their connection to the sacrifice. With that much power and the memory of being separated fresh in her mind, it was a simple matter to separate her into her components. Three lives that had not been sacrificed to the Wraiths. Three lives that gave them no connection. Cei and Cinder could hear as the fires in the cavern shrieked in rage as their prize was taken from them. The caverns thrummed with one last desperate attempt at escape, the cavern air boiling… and then, with no sacrifice, no body to connect to, and no device to keep their prison door open… the fires vanished, returning the cave to its dark state. And, subsequently, lifting the dimensional lockout on the location. To Cei and Cinder’s visible relief, a portal opened, depositing Celia, Seren, Burgerbelle, and Kira in the caves. “We… took care of it,” Cei said, taking a moment to sit down. “Blink’s over there.” “My…” Celia approached the downed form of the Skaian. “How did you catch her?” “Sweetaloo did,” Cinder said, getting up from the three terrified fillies next to her. “…She can never come back, now.” “I…” Celia blinked a few times, checking that the three Crusaders were, in fact, Sweetaloo’s components. “You’re going to have to catch me up-oh my stars, Cinder, your leg!.” Cinder paused, glancing and then double-taking at her thoroughly shredded leg. She opened her mouth to scream, only to be snapped into unconsciousness by a timely stun spell from Seren. With a tsk, Seren looked over the decimated limb and placed it in a stasis spell, barely reacting at all to the macabre sight. “It’s amazing how much damage you can ingore in the midst of chaos.” “I still can’t believe it,” Seren said, approaching Blink. “…Blink…” Blink didn’t respond. Seren encased her in seven separate layers of magic bubble to ensure her imprisonment. “We’re done here,” Cei said. “Let’s leave the Pah Wraiths to their brooding. We have other things to deal with.” ~~~ Blink woke up in a straightjacket with enchanted locks, three limiting rings attached to her horn, nineteen layers of magic bubble surrounding her, and a traditional forcefield on one of Deep Space Nine’s prison cells. Cinder was on the other side of the forcefield. Otherwise, they were completely alone. Blink tried to put on a smile, but found that her Void had been removed. She wondered how they’d done that, for even usual magic limitations did nothing to her Void abilities. Seren had probably come up with some clever spell. “Sweetaloo’s gone for good, now,” Cinder sighed. “If she reforms there’s a chance the Pa Wraiths can still use her.” Blink lifted her head and looked Cinder right in the eyes. “Good riddance.” Cinder reflexively took a few steps back. “I told you…” Blink shook her head. “I told you it would be better if you just let me go and didn’t get to see this. I liked you. I really did. You deserved better than… this.” “You should have done better!” “I did what none of the rest of you could see was right!” “You sacrificed Sweetaloo!” “She was already dead!” “That’s just an excuse and you know it!” “Fine!” Blink smacked her lips. “I hated her with a burning passion and wanted to see her suffer for making me live a lie so I could keep a secret from her.” “And that’s why it was wrong,” Cinder said. “It wouldn’t be wrong if I was working as a Merodi spy to take down the Beyonders. Acting like one of them, gaining their trust, all so I could save lives.” Blink narrowed her eyes. “The things I steal… that we steal… they’ve done so much. Artificial horns, magic processing—“ “The ends don’t justify the means!” “You’re on a Sweetie Exploration team, Cinder!” Blink shouted. “There are always times when we say the ends justify the means!” “…Suzie didn’t say so.” “Suzie was a hypocrite and she knew it.” Cinder shook her head. “No… no. You’re wrong. If keeping our society safe relies on lies, deception, and pain, safety isn’t worth it.” “And why not do evil that good may result?” “Excuse me?” Blink shrugged. “Something Suzie told me once. Granted, it was a quote of something not to do…” She tried to shrug, but the jacket made it hard. Then she sighed—she just didn’t have it in her. “…I kept secrets, but I still cared for you all. You especially, Cinder. You… you really were my best friend.” Cinder couldn’t stop the tears. “That’s why this hurts more than anything. You’re not lying right now. You really did care for us, for me. And… and that wasn’t enough to stop you. You cared more about your mission than us.” “I stuck to my principles,” Blink said. “…Keep telling yourself that.” Cinder shook her head. “If it lets you sleep better at night.” Blink grimaced. “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since Ser died.” “…Do you… want to tell that story?” Blink frowned. “I… not really. It’s so hard to know what to think of him.” She paused for a moment. “I was taking things before he made his moves anyway. He just… made it worse. Then Sweetaloo made it even worse. And now, here I am, a mare who’s been using what amounts to magic drugs to keep her secrets. And it all came crashing down.” “You could have seen this coming. You could ha—“ “I did,” Blink said. “I knew from the moment you started tapping into that ‘intuition’ of yours that I was going to crash and burn. I was so sure that, one of these days, you’d just piece it together. But I still did it anyway, because it was right.” Cinder shook her head. “I never knew you.” Tears welled up in Blink’s eyes. “You got that right.” Sagging, Cinder turned her back to her. “I can’t do this anymore. Goodbye, Blink.” “Goodbye.” When Cinder walked out, Suzie walked in. Blink tried to wipe her eyes and found there was no way to do that in her state. She settled for a hard stare instead. “What are you doing out of Merodi space?” “Personal request to visit you,” Suzie said, pulling a chair away from the wall and sitting in it so she was eye level with Blink. She was silent for a few minutes after this, examining Blink slowly. Blink didn’t dare say anything. “You know, I can’t decide if I’m to blame for this,” Suzie said, eventually. “Clearly, you were doing this before you were even placed on my team. Literally no one could have seen through your deceptions without already suspecting you. And yet, I was your commander. It was my job to know my crew. Turns out, two of them were going to be traitors.” “I didn’t suspect Ser, Suzie,” Blink said. “And he didn’t know anything about me.” “Still… he was a narcissist. People were his pawns.” Suzie folded her hands together. “You actually cared.” “I…” “I didn’t prosecute him because of you!” Suzie shouted, standing up so quickly the chair flew out from under her. “You came to me, poured your heart out about your very confused feelings, and convinced me not to hand him over to the authorities! I did that for you! Squiddy and Nira wanted him to be run through the ringer, but you didn’t! I stuck my neck out for you! And this is how you repay me!?” “…I repay you through Merodi Universali—“ “Cut the crap!” From the way Suzie was leaning against the doorway, sweating heavily, gripping the edges like her life depended on it… Blink sensed U-Catastrophe was out. The Stand probably couldn’t pierce all the protective barriers around Blink, but that did little to comfort her. Although, getting ripped into nothing by the Stand might be preferable to what was happening now. Blink set her jaw. “Suzie. Captain. I respect you and am honored to have served under you. But my final loyalty was never to you.” “Who was it?” “I’m no—“ “It was Nausicaa,” Suzie breathed. “We caught her. She’s wiped the last fifteen years of her memory, but we’ve got her.” “Oh.” Blink looked down at the ground. “She won’t even remember me.” “No, she won’t.” Suzie crossed her arms. “So she’s gone. Who are you loyal to now?” “Nausicaa,” Blink repeated. “And the vision she gave us.” “You’re going to be grilled by Intelligence later.” “I know. You’ll find Nausicaa was the one who knew the stuff, I don’t know much.” She forced a smile. “We were clever that way.” “What did you even call yourselves?” “We didn’t have a name. Harder to be traced that way.” “We’ll come up with one for you.” “We won’t use it.” Suzie leaned back from Blink. “I trusted you.” “You could have trusted me to save your life,” Blink said. “I would have taken a bullet for you.” Suzie clenched her jaw, clearly unsure of where to go next. Blink was not surprised when she fell back on policy. “You will be getting life for this, barring special circumstances. They want you on treason, conspiracy, illegal espionage, attempted murder... There is a chance you will be released from the system pending ‘redemption’ review, but you will never hold a position in the government of Merodi Universalis ever again. I will see to that personally.” Blink shrugged. “Figures. And it’ll all be suuuuuper maximum security given what I am. Unless the removal of my powers goes through the legalese. That’ll be fun!” Suzie grimaced. “If this had just been once, Blink, I would have fought for you. Heck, if it had been multiple times, I still would have. But… the entire time I’ve known you?” “Ay, I’d be mad too, unless I was convinced by my arguments. But it didn’t work on Cinder, and it definitely won’t work on you.” Blink cocked her head. “Having too strong of a moral code hurts you and everyone around you.” “Then being unharmed isn’t worth the price of admission.” “Cinder said something similar. I think she learned it from you.” There it was—the hint of a smile on Suzie’s face amidst all the pain. “Blink… I’ll try to remember the good times. But I don’t think any of them will ever feel the same.” “I know.” “I—“ “And we’re out of time!” Celia shouted, running into the room. “The Beyonders are converting Hexalin as we speak, people are dying, we need to move!” Cinder scrambled back into the room, a look of trepidation on her face. For some reason she was avoiding looking at Blink. Suzie let out a sharp breath. “All right… let’s do it. Blink, I take it you know what Cinder is?” “Some kind of Replacer,” Blink said. “Yes,” Celia confirmed. “And she’s currently got a direct connection to the Infinity Train we can force her through. But as she is now, she won’t be able to do much without the Beyonders tearing her little body to shreds. So we need her to be something else. Something… stealthy that might do what needs to be done to stop the Beyonders.” Blink paused. “You’re going to turn her into me.” “Precisely. So I need you to kill her.” “I’m not going to k—“ “We don’t have time for this,” Celia said. “We need your cooperation now. Suzie?” “…Do it,” Suzie ordered—but she refused to look Blink in the eye afterward. “You can’t j—“ All the forcefields and magic bubbles vanished at once. Blink’s physical restraints remained, but she could have gotten out of those. Would have, had Celia not grabbed hold of the ghost’s mind and removed all free will from it. Blink tried to resist, but she was already low on willpower and exhausted. She put up about as much resistance as a banana peel in keeping a ravenous animal away from the delicious interior. She was vaguely aware of being untied and released. Stumbling forward, she marched right to Cinder with a blank look. Cinder was scared. Not of death—she knew that wasn’t coming. But of pain. I don’t want to do this. Blink hesitated when Celia gave her the knife and commanded her to plunge it into Cinder’s heart. Celia insisted. There was no disobeying. But Blink still Voided Cinder’s nerves before plunging the knife into her.