"Oh, that is not going to play out like they think it will." Rain told the mint-furred pony.

Lyra wrinkled her nose at the response. She wasn't a fan of violence, but it was difficult to reconcile peaceful acts of peasants with their treatment by the ruling class in the universe they had landed in and were assigned to "fix."

Well, the massive sergal who loomed over her was the one who had a dirty job to do. Lyra was along to document for her superiors.

"Why not? You've...taken care of plenty of people before. Didn't that get results?"

The sergal smirked and shrugged. "There were satisfying moments," Rain reminisced, "but it's not the same for every tyrant. It wasn't the same for me. The hate would have gone on without me."

Lyra knew little about the world Rain Silves came from, other than she was considered enough of a monster that after her death, Rain was doomed to travel through the infinite cosmos in infinite universes to make up for something that could never be paid off.

"Systemic?"

"Yes. And that out there," Rain snarled, and gestured out the window of the abandoned hotel room to a dilapidated cityscape, "Is a special kind of bullshit." Lyra flicked an ear and snorted her displeasure at the swear word. Rain took quiet joy in making her compulsory companion uncomfortable.

Lyra sat at the window. The diminishing light of the encroaching evening was exchanged for lights appearing in the city. It looked impressive, but the pony knew otherwise.

"You off a capitalist goon," Rain commented as she crawled under some scrounged-up bedsheets, "sure, there's outrage and fear, but they know life is cheap, and you're doing the other CEOs a favour."

"How's it stop?"

Rain slid a sleep mask over her angular face. "Destroy what the capitalist cherishes more than life: property."

"Property..." Lyra repeated to herself.

"Makes it more difficult," the sergal continued," to justify severe retaliation. Vandalism is bad, but doesn't seem as bad. Regular people put life over property. Take advantage of that disconnect. Magnify it.

"It's even better when it's anonymous. No spectacle. No terrifying pictures of crowds to scare the home-stayers."

"Just don't get caught."

"Of course. Good night, pony."