PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware

The character of Checker Monarch is the creation of ff-net author 'Kendell', and is used with his permission

For any scenes with Checker baring her teeth, remember: in my fic 'verse, ponies are omnivores. So yes, they have "fangs" like we do.

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

-CHAPTER START-

Cake Residence / Sugarcube Corner

Next Day – 10:30 PM

Pinkie snored lightly as a magenta glow surrounded her, slowly lowering her into her bed. Twilight then quietly backed out of the room, softly closing the door behind her. She made her way back down the stairs, finding the Cakes, Rarity, Dash, Fluttershy, and AJ waiting.

"Thank you for helping Pinkie home" Mr. Cake said. "It's been a while since I've seen her this exhausted."

"Well, she did help plan, set up, and participate in five different local parties today" Twilight replied. "I guess she's all partied out at the moment."

"It's weird seeing her with straight hair" Rainbow Dash said. "That happens whenever she's deep asleep?"

Mrs. Cake nodded. "It also happens when she's very sad, or very angry."

"Pinkie Pie sad or genuinely angry?" Applejack said. "I'll believe that when I see it."

Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other. "She wasn't always so happy" Mr. Cake said sadly. "When we first found her, she never smiled, she was always so quiet and fearful, and she both feared and craved affection to a worrying degree. It took several years for her to perk up and become like she is now."

The five girls looked rather curious. "How… exactly did you find Pinkie?" Rarity asked.

Mr. & Mrs. Cake shared a look, sadness on their faces as they remembered. And then, they had the girls sit down, and began to tell the tale.

-FLASHBACK-

11 Years Ago

Outskirts of Ponyville – 10:15 PM

Carrot Cake and Cup Cake, newlyweds, walked with tails intertwined through the park, hanging lamps adding to the Moon's glow to light their way. The night was beautiful, and as the two stopped he gazed into her eyes as they sparkled with starlight. Suddenly, however, they both heard an indescribable sound, low and whirring. They followed to where it was, and as they got close they heard little labored breaths. They looked behind a bench, and gasped at what they saw.

It was a little filly, around six or seven years old. She had white fur, mane, and tail, and was practically covered in bandages. She looked worryingly thin, and her breathing was labored as she shivered in the cool night. The newlyweds looked at each other for several seconds, speaking without talking. The little filly whimpered in pain and fear as Mrs. Cake gently scooped her up and placed her on Mr. Cake's back. The two then made best speed for Ponyville General Hospital.

-Mini-Break-

Half an hour later, the couple sat in the hospital waiting room. They didn't even know who this child was, but they were already nearly consumed with worry for the broken little thing. Their heads perked up as the doctor, an older unicorn stallion, walked out. Immediately the Cakes hurried up to him.

"The poor little thing's in a bad way" the doctor said. "Those bandages were concealing chemical burns – fresh ones, less than two days old from the looks of them. There's some damage to her lungs from inhaling fumes from whatever gave her those burns. She's malnourished and dehydrated. And a scan-spell for brain injuries revealed the telltale brain-chemistry signs of clinical depression."

"What could've done all this…?" Mr. Cake breathed out.

"May we see her?" Mrs. Cake asked.

The old doctor nodded, and he led them through the hallways. They reached a room where the lights were dimmed. In the center of the big bed, the filly looked even smaller. IVs ran into her forelimb, and her wounds had been properly cleaned and re-bandaged. She looked to be asleep, her breathing still a little labored. Overall, she looked so tiny and vulnerable and helpless; it was heartbreaking. Mr. & Mrs. Cake slowly walked over to the bed, standing on either side. Mrs. Cake very gently brushed her hoof along the little girl's forehead.

In response, the little filly took a deep, ragged breath, and her blue eyes slowly opened. As she took in her surroundings, her eyes went wide and her heart rate went up as she started panicking from confusion.

"Easy, sweetie" Mrs. Cake said softly, laying her hoof on the girl's. "You're safe now. You're in a hospital. You're okay. Calm down, honey. You're safe."

Slowly, the scared little girl calmed down; Mrs. Cake holding her hoof helped with that. "Where am I?" she asked in a quiet, raspy little voice.

"You're in Ponyville" Mr. Cake said. "Ponyville General Hospital"

"My husband and I were walking through the park together when we found you" Mrs. Cake said. "What's your name, dear? Where are you from? How'd you get to the park where we found you?"

"M-My name is… Pinkamena Pie. It hurts."

"What hurts?" Mr. Cake asked.

"My name. It hurts me."

The newlyweds and the doctor shared a concerned look. The girl took another ragged breath.

"I'm six years old, seven in about a week. I'm from a rock farm out in the eastern badlands, a few hours from Canterlot. Work is all day, every day, tending to the rock fields. No talking allowed, no getting distracted, no enjoyment, no happiness, no love. …I never fit in. I always felt like something inside me was missing. Then one day, a couple weeks ago, there was a brilliant light and a loud bang, a rainbow-colored shockwave that cleared the clouds away. It was beautiful. It filled me with a warm feeling that I'd never felt before. I… I smiled for the first time in my life. And I wanted to bring that smile to others, to my family. So I went to our old storehouse, and I put together a party, to bring some joy and color to my family, just this once. While I was working on it, imagining how it would go, my Cutie Mark appeared. I'd found my calling. So, after everything was set up, I called my family over, my parents and two sisters."

The little girl whimpered, hugging herself.

"Mother and father were… not happy. Instead, they were furious. They tore the decorations down. They spanked me, they… hit me. And when they saw that I'd gotten a Cutie Mark for it, they got even angrier, shouting at me for 'having such a worthless special talent'. I was immediately put back to work on the rock farm. Things were worse now. The feeling of missing something, of not belonging, was back and stronger than ever. All that happiness I briefly had is gone forever now.

"The sadness came back worse than ever. The pain inside me got stronger and stronger every day. I stopped eating, because I… I just can't bear to. W-When I told mother that I felt sad but didn't know why, she got real upset and yelled at me. I… I eventually figured that I knew what was wrong with me. Everything at the farm was dull, greys and browns, even my family's coats. But there I was with, my garish, hideous, bright pink fur."

Looking at the filly's now-white fur, and recalling the chemical burns, the doctor felt concern and muted horror as he put two and two together to guess what ended up happening.

"The pink. The damned pink! It was disgusting and ugly and marked me as an oddity that was to be isolated and ignored. Nothing else on the farm was pink. If I wasn't pink, then maybe my parents and sisters would accept me, then maybe I wouldn't feel so empty. The pink was what made me unlovable. If I could change that, get rid of it, then everything would be okay. The pink was a stain. And… there was one thing mother always used to get rid of stains. In the middle of the night, I drew a bath, and I added a couple jugs of bleach, and I got in, and I started scrubbing the get the pink out."

As she took a few deep breaths, Mr. & Mrs. Cake looked to each other with concern and horror. The burns, the abrasions, and fume damage to her lungs, it all made horrifying, heartbreaking sense.

"I scrubbed, and I scrubbed, but it wasn't coming out. It burned, it felt like a thousand knives stabbing into me, but it still wouldn't come out! I kept going, but at some point I passed out. …When I came to, I was in my bed, covered in bandages. The pink was gone. But the pain, the sadness, the not-belonging-ness was all still there. And it was worse than ever. Mother and father still hated me. They said I was nothing but a burden. I knew, right then and there, that no matter what I said or did, I will never be loved.

"One night, as soon as I was able to move around, when everyone else was asleep, I wrote a note explaining my feelings. And then I snuck out of the house, started walking, and never looked back. A little ways out, I was gonna collapse under a rock and lay there for the night, when suddenly some swirling vortex formed nearby – a leyline gateway. I took the chance and hobbled through."

The unicorn doctor let out a gasp. The two Earth Ponies turned to him in confusion.

"You know how magical leylines crisscross the planet, right?" the doctor asked.

Mr. & Mrs. Cake nodded.

"If you know how and have sufficient magical skill, you can travel along them by creating a temporary portal between two points along the same leyline. However, natural portals can sometimes form from excess planetary mana, but they're extremely rare – about once every 70 years – and never last longer than 30 seconds. This little girl was in the right place at the right time to catch one of those extraordinary occurrences. …It also explains how she got all the way to Ponyville in her condition."

The three adults were interrupted as little Pinkamena suddenly fell into a coughing fit, harsh wheezing coughs wracking her tiny body. Immediately Mrs. Cake was by her side, hoof rubbing her back as she hunched over, struggling to breathe with damaged lungs. After several harrowing seconds, the coughing relented, leaving her gasping and wheezing for breath, tears in her squinted-shut eyes.

"Wh…" she gasped out. "What's gonna happen to me now? Are you gonna let me… keep traveling, try to find someplace, or… a-are you gonna send me back?"

"We will not be sending you back to that awful place, sweetie" Mr. Cake replied. He then looked to the doctor.

"Most definitely not" the doctor said. "First off, we'll keep you here for few days, get you some nutrients, start some treatments to heal your skin and your lungs. Then we'll ask around town, see if anyone would be willing to foster you."

Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked to each other for a few seconds, and then nodded and each raised a hoof. The little filly let out a little gasp, eyes wide with surprise. She looked at them, trying to ask something but too shocked to talk. Mrs. Cake came up and gently hugged her, feeling the broken little girl stiffen up from the unfamiliar gesture, slowly relaxing as the adult rubbed her back and nuzzled her.

"W-Why?" Pinkamena whispered out.

"You don't even know what it's like to be loved" Mrs. Cake replied. "That needs to be corrected. You need a home. You need a family – a real family. You need a place and a way to exercise and embrace your Special Talent, not have it denied and repressed. You need a place to belong… and we want to give that to you. We want to give you a chance at happiness."

"We both understand that you have a great deal of issues to work through" Mr. Cake said. "But we'll help you along every step of the way… If you don't like your birth name, what can we call you? Hmm… Is… 'Pinkie' okay?"

"Y… Yeah…" the girl squeaked out, still in shock, tears forming in her eyes without her knowing why. "P… Pinkie Pie is… alright…"

The tears started to fall little by little, and then as Mrs. Cake held her closer, Mr. Cake joining the embrace, the dam broke, and years of pain came spilling out all at once, the little girl's wails audible out in the hall despite being muffled by the hug she was in.

-FLASHBACK END-

"And that's how we got Pinkie" Mr. Cake finished.

Shock and sadness filled the five listeners. Fluttershy and Rarity were in tears, while Rainbow Dash seemed to be actively fighting hers back.

"By Ouranos…" Twilight murmured.

"I…" Applejack started. "I never knew Pinkie used to be so…"

"A couple days after that, she was allowed to leave the hospital" Mr. Cake said. "A few days after that, we threw her a little Seventh Birthday Party. It wasn't much – a small cake, a few simple presents. But… it had a tremendous impact on her. She cried so hard. After the life she'd lived, being given her first ever proper birthday party, with happiness and colors and gifts… it overwhelmed her, in a good way."

"Pinkie was so fragile for quite a while" Mrs. Cake said. "When her fur's natural color started coming back, and she noticed, she came to us in tears. She was utterly terrified that if the pink came back, her 'bad feelings' would, too. I held her close and assured her that they wouldn't, that we wouldn't let them. It… took months before she was able to sleep in her own bed, without one of us to cuddle her at night. Us teaching her how to bake and cook, how to plan parties, seemed to really help her heal."

"Even so," Mr. Cake picked up, "it took a long time for her to fully recover from the years of neglect. She wasn't really, fully the happy, bouncy ball-of-sunshine Pinkie Pie you girls would recognize until she was about 14 or 15 years old. And she'll be 18 in ten days, so…"

The girls were silent for several seconds as they composed themselves.

"We… should get to work on planning her 18th birthday party" Twilight said. "This'll be her first birthday with the five of us. We should make it special."

"How 'bout a surprise party?" Applejack suggested.

-SCENE BREAK-

Next Day

3:15 PM

Trixie walked down the street that ran past her destination. She had been discharged from the hospital this morning, but she would still be on medications and a special diet to bring her closer to health and up to a healthy weight. She still had bandages on some of her larger wounds – the gash on her side, and a couple of the older wounds that had been infected by the time she was brought in. She would be staying at Twilight & Spike's place for the foreseeable future; she was very grateful to them for that, even though she still felt she didn't deserve it. The psychosomatic block on her magic was still present, and her depression-based Cutie Mark loss was still in effect. Apparently word had gotten out regarding what had happened to her; of the ponies who she'd seen as she made her way along, most gave her looks of understanding, empathy, and pity (and some shock at noticing her cybernetic right eye). A few shot her dirty looks and glares, but they were quickly caught and chastised by those who didn't.

Trixie didn't really care about what they thought, though. She just wanted to see the woman who'd been supporting her ever since they first met.

She walked through the swinging front doors and up to the front desk. "E-Excuse me" she said.

Silent Forest looked up from her romance novel. "Oh, Trixie! You're out of the hospital, I see. Here to see Ms. Tiara, I presume?"

"Yes, ma'am"

"She's over in Teal Ward, Rec Room. She just gave Screwball about an hour at the helm, so she should be good for about seven or eight hours."

"Thank you" the broken young unicorn nodded. She walked down the halls, and soon reached the Rec Room. Upon seeing her, Golden Tiara smiled warmly.

"Trixie! You're finally out of the hospital!"

As the young girl walked up, the motherly mare carefully hugged her, which she returned.

"What brings you here, dear?" Golden asked.

"I… just wanted to spend a little time with you. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is. So how have you been feeling?"

Over the next 20 or so minutes, the two talked about this and that. Unbeknownst to them, however, a dark shadow from Trixie's past was drawing near…

-Mini-Break-

She followed the road, heading for the hinted destination. She'd come to this town to pick up her ordered dress from Carousel Boutique, and while in this little town she'd heard rumors, mentions, that she was here. She nonchalantly asked a few questions here & there, quietly reveling in the fear that ponies displayed upon meeting her gaze, and the clues provided had pointed her in the direction of the local asylum. Stopping outside the door, she cast one of her oldest spells: a life-force tracker, which could be keyed to a certain individual's life-energy signature so long as the caster remembered said signature. It took the form of a translucent arrow hovering over her head, spinning and wobbling like a compass arrow, before then pointing straight at the door. She smirked. Her old prey was in here.

Silent Forest looked up from her romance novel again (damnit, she'd almost reached the first sex scene this time!), to see a new visitor – a unicorn mare, her fur a shade of dull blue slightly darker than Trixie's, with a light-grey mane & tail. She wore a dark grey vest, and as she turned to look around, Forest saw her Cutie Mark – a red heart with three chess pieces in it, two pawns and a queen. Her violet eyes carefully scrutinized everything. Silent felt oddly incapable of speech at the moment, and as the woman's eyes met hers, she felt an inexplicable shudder along her back, and she suddenly felt cold. She felt instinctual relief when the eye contact was broken.

The mysteriously terrifying mare took a few graceful steps further in, walking toward the door to the Teal Ward. She cast her tracking spell again, and the arrow pointed through the door, a little ways to the left.

"U-Um…" Silent Forest spoke up. "I-If you're here to see Ms. Golden Tiara…"

"I am not interested in seeing a broken-minded mud-walker" the mare interrupted; Silent stifled a gasp at the rarely heard and vicious slur toward Earth Ponies. "I'm here to see the worthless nopony of a unicorn who's visiting her."

With that, she walked down the hall, heedless to the staff-member she left behind. As she stared where the scary woman had been, the cogs in Silent Forest's head started turning. This woman looked oddly familiar. And… Trixie had shown several signs of childhood abuse/bullying… Silent's eyes widened as the suspicion took root. Without hesitation, she took off down the employees-only hallway, intent on finding the facility director and the chief of security.

Meanwhile, in the Rec Room, another conversation was wrapping up.

"I've got to go check on somepony" Golden Tiara said. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Trixie. Will you be okay by yourself?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll wait here."

As Golden walked out the door, Trixie let out a sigh, closing her eyes as she basked in the sunlight streaming in from the nearby little window, her tail curled up around her flank (incidentally hiding its present blankness).

"Maybe… if I follow the light…" she thought aloud. "I can crawl out of this pit I'm in."

"Just the sort of false hope to be expected from someone trapped at rock-bottom."

Trixie jumped, startled, hearing the sudden voice from the door to her left. After a few seconds, she realized that the voice was familiar… terrifyingly familiar. 'It can't be her…' she thought. 'It can't be! Not here! Not now! This is a safe place! She can't be here!'

"Hello, Trixie" the voice said again, dripping with smugness. "It's been a long time, hasn't it cousin?"

Trixie's blood ran cold, and she began trembling. Slowly, she turned her head enough to see who it was, and she felt panic welling up deep within her as her worst fears were realized.

"Ch… Checker…" she whispered/squeaked.

"Trixie…" Checker Monarch purred/hissed in a way that could only be described as predatory. "Fancy meeting you here."

"W-W-What do you want?" Trixie tried to sound brave and unfazed, and failed miserably at that.

"Oh, just checking up on you~" Checker replied with blatantly, transparently false innocence. "I heard you'd messed up again, and I wanted to see just how far you'd fallen." She took in Trixie's unhealthy thinness and the few bandages she could see on the mare's left side. "Rather far, from the looks of it."

"Please, Checker, j-just leave me alone."

Checker scowled. "Are you trying to tell me what to do, Trixie?"

Trixie's eyes widened as fear gripped her heart. "N-N-No! O-Of course not!"

"And yet you don't even have the decency to face me head-on, instead looking at me from the side, out of the corner or your left eye. How disrespectful…"

Checker began to step towards Trixie, who scooted away, still keeping her tail over her flank. Trixie then let out a short scream as she was suddenly telekinetically spun around, her right side now facing Checker. She managed to move her tail to cover that flank in time for Checker to avoid noticing it, but she couldn't hide the bandages that covered the large gash along her right side. Checker looked at her right eye, currently held shut with a fresh scar over it. The eyelids then opened, revealing an obviously-cybernetic eyeball, the very faint sheen to the purple iris surrounding the artificial pupil that contracted slightly like a camera lens. Checker smirked.

"Goodness" she said. "Something certainly did a number on you. …I admire the sophistication of that artificial eye, though; it looks very advanced."

"P-Please leave me alone" Trixie stared at her with an imploring look.

"Why don't you make me? Use that magic of yours to feebly attempt to hold me off. You must've gotten stronger with age; I bet it'll take me almost six seconds to break free of your Bind spell and come at you rather than the old two-and-a-half."

Trixie gulped, and then concentrated, trying to pull up magic. A few sparks raced across her horn, but suddenly she yelped as a blinding pain radiated through her skull. She curled up, head clutched between her forehooves, squinting her eyes and gritting her teeth and trying not to cry out. After several seconds, she opened her eyes… and found Checker's face right in front of hers, horn glowing with a scanning spell. Trixie let out a short scream and backed up against the wall. Checker smirked again as she mentally processed the scan results.

"A psychosomatic total magic block? So your mind's as broken as your body. And…"

Her eyes traveled to Trixie's flank, still covered by her tail. Trixie barely had time to realize what she was looking at, eyes widening in panic, before Checker's telekinesis grabbed hold of her tail and roughly yanked it aside, revealing her bare flank, the faintest, nigh-invisible outline of where her Mark used to be.

Checker laughed openly. "Oh, this is brilliant!" she said. "I always knew you were talentless. And now I've got visual proof! What's the matter, little cousin? Were you wearing a fake Mark all this time? …Or, more likely, did you lose your Mark when you finally realized how worthless you really are?"

The unshed tear that formed in Trixie's eye answered Checker's question. The other mare grinned, her canine teeth bared in a predatory display. She walked forward, and shoved her forehooves against Trixie's injured side, knocking her into the wall, causing the girl to cry out, the impacts making her wound and her malnourishment-fragile ribs ache terribly.

"I always knew, just as you always knew…" Checker said "that you would never amount to anything more than my plaything."

Trixie closed her eyes, whimpering, more tears building in her eyes, pressing herself against the wall in a vain attempt to get away from her monster of a cousin.

"Hey!"

The two turned to the other door, finding a purple-furred Earth Pony mare standing there, glaring at Checker Monarch with cold fury. Trixie immediately bolted for Golden Tiara's side, hyperventilating a little, heart pounding with terror. Golden held the girl close, one hoof rubbing her back in a soothing manner, as her icy stare never left Checker's eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Checker asked.

"My name is Golden Tiara – wife of Barnyard Bargains CEO Filthy Rich, and one of the ponies unofficially in charge of Trixie's recovery. And I know full well who you are, Checkmate Monarch" she said the name like it were a vile curse.

"I prefer Checker" the other mare replied. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Spare the theatrics, Monarch. I know full well the damage you've dealt to this child."

"Hmph. That's what one is supposed to do with toys – play with them until they're too broken to be of any further entertainment, and then throw them out."

"You treat a living pony as a toy?"

"All living ponies are my playthings, whether they know it or not. Manipulation is such fun, and so easy for me. It is my Special Talent, after all."

"You're a certifiable sociopath."

"Sticks and stones, Ms. Tiara."

Golden stepped forward, placing herself between Checker and Trixie. "I will not allow you to cause Trixie any further harm, physical or emotional. She is under my protection."

Checker chuckled. "And what good does that do? You're a madpony, locked up in an asylum. You can't protect her everywhere all the time. And even if you tried to do anything, tried to report anything… well, whose word will the people take – that of a backwoods madwoman mud-walker, or that of one of the most influential and terrifying mares in all of Canterlot?"

Golden Tiara took a few more steps forward, and then stopped, holding her ground. Checker glared at her, unleashing the gaze that left most ponies terrified wrecks, but Golden matched it. A battle of wills took place, the two participants not noticing as Silent Forest and the facility's director walked in, watching it play out, Silent helping Trixie.

"I have all the power here" Checker said. "I have the prestige, the influence, the money, the intelligence and experience. You, on the other hand, are nothing, just like Trixie. You actually think you can protect her from me?" She laughed as she got right up in Golden Tiara's face. "What could you possibly d-"

Outside, a few ponies were walking up toward the facility. Marie looked at Diamond Tiara and Erika, who both smiled back, as Twilight and Filthy Rich walked beside them. They began heading for the door…

*BAM!*

Suddenly, something crashed through one of the walls from inside, thick old wood splintering under the force as the figure tumbled out for several meters, landing in a cloud of dust amongst some bushes. After a few seconds, there was a surge of magical energy that bore an energy signature that could only be called evil, a dark-purple aura blazing around a very, very angry-looking unicorn mare. Her teeth were bared in a snarl, blood dripping from her nose which was quickly magically realigned/healed. Seconds later, another figure calmly walked out through the new hole. Golden Tiara's body was surrounded by a green miasma of energy, her eyes glowing green.

"How dare you…" Checker growled. "How dare you mar my face, you insolent mud-walker?-!"

"Put up or shut up, you heartless, sociopathic bitch" Golden Tiara replied with deceptively calm anger.

Checker conjured several long, thin metal javelin-spikes and then launched them straight at Golden Tiara, already going for a kill. But Golden held her forelimbs out in either direction, and a spherical green barrier encompassed her, which the projectiles bounced off of. She then threw her arms forward, launching the barrier as a focused shockwave that rapidly closed the distance and crashed against a Shield Spell conjured by Checker, knocking her a few steps back.

Checker quickly picked herself up. Her formerly-immaculate hair was wild, and the cold, analytical look in her eyes had been replaced by animalistic rage. Her horn glowed a dark purple, and her entire body was then crackling with Lightning magic, dark-purple sparks arcing across her. She charged, and Golden Tiara rushed forward to meet her. As they got close, they lashed out, forehoofs shrouded in their respective energies as they clashed, making the rocky ground beneath them shatter.

As the two got into a close-combat brawl, the newcomers stared, slack-jawed.

"H-Holy crap, mom…" Diamond Tiara whispered.

"Who is that other mare?" Twilight asked.

"From what I can tell," the mental health facility's director said as he walked up, "she's Miss Trixie's ruthless, black-hearted, sociopathic monster of a cousin, Checker Monarch. She came here via a tracking spell, cornered Trixie and started in on her. Ms. Tiara jumped in to Trixie's defense. After one too many insults, well…"

After a few seconds, one part of that sentence worked itself past Twilight's shock and awe at the fight and into her brain. She turned to the director. "Is Trixie alright? How bad is it?"

The director gestured over to the hole in the wall, where Trixie was being tended to and comforted by Silent Forest and the chief of security, even as all three watched the battle. Meanwhile, watching Golden Tiara's actions, movements, and abilities, Marie's eyes widened.

"Could it be…?" she muttered.

Golden and Checker jumped back from each other. Golden turned to look at a nearby boulder about half as big as she was. She pointed a forehoof at it, and her eyes and hoof glowed green. The rock was enveloped in the same green glow, and when she raised the hoof up the rock floated up with it. She then looked at Checker and threw her hoof forward, launching the boulder at her. Though quite surprised by an Earth Pony apparently displaying telekinesis, Checker shot the offending rock with a focused bolt of lightning, blasting it into pebbles. She then fired a few more bolts at Golden, who dodged some and blocked with a Barrier against others. Golden made an upward sweeping motion with her forelimb at Checker, and a rapid-fire chain of shockwave-blasts raced across the ground toward her, sending her flying several feet before she could react. Checker landed on her hooves, and her body crackled with Lightning magic as she charged again, zigzagging to dodge a few Throw attacks. She got in close, and the melee began again.

However, as the fight went on, it became increasingly clear that Checker Monarch was outmatched. She may have had the skill to defend herself against petty thugs or rough up helpless victims, but against a trained spec-ops soldier, even one who hadn't fought in four years, she was outclassed. Golden Tiara, having picked up on this woman's fighting style, was now easily countering her attacks, dodging or blocking or redirecting, and then dealing her own blows. Checker became increasingly angry as it became increasingly clear she was losing, but there was nothing she could do; Golden was just too good. Finally, Golden landed a series of punishing blows, finishing by enveloping her forehoof in her green energy and backhanding Checker hard enough to send her tumbling several feet.

"Give up, Monarch" Golden Tiara said as her opponent struggled to her feet. "You can't beat me."

Checker snarled like a vicious animal as she took a stance, despite her various aches and wounds. "I will not lose" she said. "I never lose!"

"I have eight years' experience as part of Equestrian Special Ops. You're little more than a bully. It's not hard to figure out who wins in such an engagement."

"I'll have you locked up for the rest of your-"

"There are security cameras throughout out facility" the security chief interrupted as he walked out. "With video and audio. And the one in the Rec Room caught your unprovoked attacks on Trixie. No court would convict Ms. Tiara for defending that girl from you."

Twilight and Marie walked up to either side of Golden; Marie's wings flared, and Twilight's horn and eyes glowed with ready magic. Checker suppressed a look of surprise as she recognized Celestia's personal student, one of the most powerful unicorns on the planet, ready to fight her.

"Leave this town," Golden Tiara said, "and never come back. And if any of us ever catch you near Trixie again…"

Twilight took a step forward. In response, Checker telekinetically launched a stone at her face, and then channeled her magic around herself. With a crack of magic, she vanished.

"Teleportation…" Twilight muttered. "Less than 20 unicorns on the planet can pull that off, and most are old masters with decades of experience."

They headed back to the facility, through the hole in the wall and into the Rec Room where everyone else was waiting. Trixie immediately latched onto Golden with a hug. No sooner had she let go then Diamond was right there, gushing about how amazingly cool that had all been. The director, meanwhile, was trying to work out how they were gonna fix the wall as he waited for his turn to congratulate the elder Tiara. And Marie had her own questions to ask the woman…

Several minutes later, as everyone had gone back to their duties, Marie pulled Golden Tiara aside; Trixie, Twilight, Erika, and Diamond were listening in.

"So, those abilities you used in that fight…" Marie said. "Do you know what they are?"

"Um… Not really, actually" Golden replied. "I've had them for a while now, and I've trained with them, but… I don't know what they are. It's not magic, I know that much. And… Celestia thinks it might be linked to this substance that's spread throughout my body. It's from something I was exposed to while in the womb, they think."

Marie brought Charon up, running a scan, and finding several nodules throughout her body, containing a substance that bore a very unique energy signature… and an atomic weight of zero.

"Eezo…" she muttered.

"Pardon?"

"Ma'am, I know what your powers are. You're a Biotic."

"A what?"

"Let me explain. In this one game I like, there's this substance called Element Zero…"

As Marie's explanation went on, shock and surprise filled the listeners. When the visitors left a little while later, Golden Tiara was left to mull over the facts revealed to her. …But first, she needed to eat; whenever she used her 'Biotics', she was always really hungry afterwards.

-CHAPTER END-

Next Time: the enemy finds Equestria