Chill air blew by me in steady gusts. I suppose it should have felt cold if I could have felt that sensation anymore. To this day it was still strange that I could only determine the frigidness of the air by how stiff my muscles became. And while it was also a bit unnerving it was of little importance at this time. What mattered more was being present for the friend who needed a shoulder to cry upon.

Black Wing could have easily been called a wreck when I pulled her here with my magic. So much so that it had taken the better part of a hour before she was able to compose herself again. But eventually her sobbing abated and her damp face was all that remained as evidence as she sat next to me. But from that point up to now, neither of us said a word while we both stared off of the mountain cliff.

More wind blew by us one last time before Black Wing finally broke the silence. "So this is where you fled to after the siege of Canterlot hmm?" she mused.

"What? Oh yes, I remained here for the better part of a month I believe," I replied as I broke from the thoughtful trance I was in.

"Heh, I can see why you did so. The view from up here is quite splendid. If not for the cold I would have gladly joined you," she commented.

I shook my head and chuckled in response. "I do admit I did not plan my location beforehoof. It was a bit 'spur of the moment' if you will, at the time," I stated.

Black Wing made a simple nod in acknowledgement before the silence once again slipped back between us. However after a few minutes of this my mind had seemed to drift upon a certain thought that I remembered. It was a question that seemed to keep appearing, but I never had to opportunity to ask it. Now I understandably believed I knew the answer to this question, but I had still desired to receive a response to it either way.

So after straightening my back and clearing my throat a few times I finally worked up the nerve to state, "There was something I had been meaning to ask. I...I probably already know the answer, but I desire to hear it from you as well."

She turned her head partially to the left and glanced at me. Puzzlement seemed to be her primary expression before she replied with a simple, "Yes?"

"Why did you make me your Lieutenant General instead of reinstating me in my previous position as Captain? You never in all my years made anypony your Lieutenant seemingly after your experience with Dark Heart. So I respectfully ask again, why did you?" I inquired.

Black Wing's face went from puzzlement to sour in the span of a few seconds. Her mouth moved as if to state something a few times, but nothing ever came out. It was as if she was attempting to locate the correct phrasing of words, probably to avoid offence, but was unable to do so. In turn I decided to respond for her instead.

"You did so because you do not fully trust me, I assume? As it was probably one of the only ways you could keep a watchful eye on me, but hopefully not raise suspicion, again I assume?" I questioned glancing at her to my right.

When nothing but silence returned from her it appeared that I had gotten my answer. I took a deep breath in response and said but one word, "Good."

My reply however seemed to catch Black Wing off guard. It was actually quite amusing watching the normally steely willed general squirm for once instead of me. In turn her sour expression remained on her face as she said "I shall, 'come clean' if you will, on this one. It was the only method I could think of at the time to keep a close watch over you. Though truth be told not many deserve such a position like you do, even if you loathe the title. But I had feared that you would see such a thing as a breach of trust if I revealed my true intentions. And now here you state that such actions were 'Good' and that you agree with me?"

A small grin crawled up my face as I looked at her. "If we are to be honest with each other then I state that it is a good thing for I do not even fully trust myself," I lamented as my grin faded to a frown. Then after I worked up my nerve I added, "I...I have become this...thing...this...Advocate of Death as I am called. Having to deal with my fractured mind and my vampiric urges was trying enough. But now I have this other darker urge to where I somehow derive physical pleasure from draining the life out of living beings. And to finally add to the whole disaster of a mess I found myself in I also talk directly to the spirits of Life and Death themselves in some mad quest to-"

I truly wanted to vent some more but I was interrupted by a familiar voice in my mind. 'My apologies for interrupting your private little conversation, but there is a bit of a problem. A problem that I have to somehow state indirectly to you because-' Death said before also getting interrupted himself by some other voice.

'Heeeelllloooo you two!' the other voice blared in my mind as I squeezed my forehooves to the sides of my head.

'Discord? How in the void are you doing this?! This telepathic link was established only for Blood Moon and myself! I am not sure how you did so, but you are not welcome in the mind of my ADVOCATE!' Death's voice boomed in my mind causing my physical ears to ring slightly.

'Tisk tisk Death, breaking the rules is what I do for fun! Nopony can keep out the embodiment of Chaos. And it was such the easiest thing in the world to hijack your little chat and besides, I bring news. Good or bad depending on whose side you belong to that is,' Discord snarked.

'Speak your "news" and begone Discord...' Death growled.

'Well you see it appears the princesses and the others are in for some trouble. Gore Gash and her lycan horde I guess got it in their heads to somehow ambush them while they're in the Everfree next to their most delightful zeppelin crash site. Now you've got me how she arrived at such an idea but you may want to deal with her," Discord replied.

'And how did you come by this information? Ahh let me guess you attempted to seduce Gore Gash into following your commands again and she defied you once more? What is the matter Discord? Afraid she is becoming better at your "job" than you are, hmm?' Death commented in a knowing tone.

'Ooh hohohohaha oh Death, always with the biting wit hahahaha...maybe...' Discord replied with irritation in his voice at the end.

'Well Blood Moon, it seems I do not need to convey anything further. However I would advise acting with haste in this matter. In the meantime I will purge Discord from this link and prevent future mental intrusions' Death replied before I felt both of their presences leave my mind.

I could not even gather enough mental energy to respond. The horrible experience of those two talking in my mind seemed to tax me greatly. The only thing I was aware of afterwards was Black Wing hovering over me and dabbing my nose with a piece of cloth.

"Are you alright Blood Moon? You slipped into some sort of seizure and your nose started bleeding," Black Wing stated in a voice full of worry.

"Not...important...now...princesses...danger...need to...go back," I croaked out barely able to form words together.

"What?!" was all that was said by Black Wing before I gathered what focus I could muster and opened a deathgate under us.

What followed was of course a mixture of both good and bad. The good part was the fact that even in my dazed and partially unfocused state I remembered where we had originally teleported from in the Everfree. And of course the fact that we both appeared in one piece was also a positive. However this is where the bad part comes in. For you see the memory I had used for teleportation was us being on board a barely floating crippled zeppelin called "The Night's Eternal". Or Luna's flag ship to be exact. A ship that was at one point several hundred meters in the air. A state that it no longer was in, but we certainly were. To put such things plainly we appeared where the ship used to be and we were now screaming towards the ground at near terminal velocity.

Needless to say there was little in the way of coherent words coming from my mouth as I screamed my lungs out. Clouds blew past me and the fast moving air screeched in my ears while I continued to plummet. And while my adrenal glands had kicked into overdrive my mind could not seem to focus to do anything of use. However, just before I became a small black stain on the ground below I felt a hard jerk on my forelegs and I immediately ceased falling.

Confusion overtook me until I heard heavy breathing and several grunts of effort. And just when I realized what was happening I heard Black Wing behind me state, "By the stars...above...Blood Moon. You truly...need to reduce...your moonlight snacking," while her webbed wings flapped for all they were worth.

Me on the other hoof merely scrunched my face up in response. "If you desire to go to such topics, then I too have gazed upon you in times past enjoying your own frequent midnight stress eating, respectfully...General" I retorted.

Black Wing snorted at my comments. "Easy with...your words...Blood Moon. I can still...drop you...you know," she replied after several more grunts of effort.

"What? And lose my entertaining commentary?" I said after swallowing hard.

"Yes, as...amusing as...such things...are...you are...indeed...not very...light. If you...could please...get us...onto the...ground...before I...lose my...grip?" Black Wing groaned.

It did not take much convincing as I figured falling to my doom would be quite the unpleasant experience. So I focused what little will I could and opened a deathgate below us. Black Wing's grip let go shortly afterwards and we slipped through the portal...and crashed on top of some very unfortunate solar guards.

In turn their shrieks of surprise made everypony around them aware of our presence immediately. Needless to say, Twilight, Luna, Celestia and the rest managed to locate us with among the partial chaos we created. And while they were all more than glad to know that we were safe, especially Twilight and Cloud Streak in my case, something was wrong. A somber tone had overtaken the entire area and it did not spare any of them. It was not until I pushed passed them that I discovered the source of their gloom.

I was not sure what had happened after I had left with Black Wing for over an hour, but I could easily guess. The Night's Eternal had seemed to have taken such a significant amount of damage that it appeared to have crash landed. Just like Discord had mentioned before. And to put the sight in the most accurate of terms, the massive heap that stood before me could barely be recognizable as ever being an air ship. Or should I say two air ships as the former rogue vampire capital ship was equally part of the shattered wreckage. But that horrid sight was by far not the worst of it. No that description belonged to what laid next to it...graves...scores of them.

Words escaped me as I bore witness to that grim sight. It was not until the others had come over did the silence surrounding me break. "So this was the cost of defeating the rogue vampires? So much destruction. So many lives had been lost already and now even more followed," Black Wing stated as she shook her head and then added, "Does anypony know our status?"

"The Night's Eternal has been completely destroyed with little to no possible chance of rebuild. Worse even in that over three fourths of those on board had perished. Though we are not certain of the true death toll as several remain unaccounted for," Luna lamented.

"Most that were on board the Solar Siege are still among us. But the process of burying the dead whether friend or foe has become a never ending task. I've even delayed the rising of the sun in the slim hopes of still finding any missing lunar soldiers alive," Celestia added with an equally saddened tone.

Black Wing gritted her teeth and stomped the ground. "Damn it all to Tartarus! I should have been here! Instead I went and bawled my eyes out like a lovesick little filly! Who knows how many perished because I was not here to aid them! This disaster...this grand folly is all my faul-" Black Wing bellowed out but stopped in her tracks when we all heard something from the surrounding forest. It started off quiet, like a subtle far off snarling but turned into a long bone chilling wolf howl.

"Please tell me that is not what I believe it to be!" Luna blurted out.

"It is! I will tell you later how I know this, but we need to get out of here now!" I yelped in reply.

Without a second thought Celestia setup a portal to the Solar Siege and sent out the evacuation/alarm signal with her horn. Though it proved to be too late. Rogue lycans poured in from the forest in all directions and the screams of our soldiers soon followed. But to make matters worse, at the head of the horde charged Gore Gash herself, also just like Discord had mentioned before.

However right before me and the others were about to initiate a counter-attack I heard Luna state something behind me. The only words I caught were, "Stars above forgive me for what I must do," before I saw blue aura surround me and I was forcefully thrown through Celestia's portal.

Black Wing, Twilight, and the others crashed on top of me probably from a similar experience. My vision swam but I could make out two figures walk through Celestia's portal before it slammed shut. My eyes widened in response as I sputtered for something to say. I just could not believe what had happened. We were the only escape point for any other soldiers on the ground. Without the portal open anypony still down there would be slaughtered.

I shuffled out of the squirming heap that was my friends and fellow soldiers and stood up. "What in the pits of Tartarus are you doing?! There were other soldiers down there!" I screeched.

Celestia and Luna sat down where the portal had once been and took off their helmets. However they merely lowered their heads afterwards and said not a word.

"What are you two doing?! I said-" I begin to yell but was interrupted by Black Wing.

"Be silent Blood Moon! There is but one reason why they would have done what they did!" she shouted as she walked by me with a quick leer before adding, "None of the others signaled back did they?"

Celestia lifted her head with tears flowing down her face. "Not a single one," she replied in a voice just above a whisper.

Then without warning Luna shouted a curse into the sky. And before it ended she picked up her helmet and slammed it into the flight deck until the board underneath it shattered.

But after Luna's rage filled display Black Wing merely lowered her head and closed her eyes in response. "So even more follow the ones already lost. When will such madness end?" she questioned. But the only reply was the roar of Solar Siege's engines as we headed back to Canterlot.

Next Chapter: Chapter 45: On The Setting of The Moon, A Curse Shall End: Part 2 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes