Knight Black Soul ran as fast she her legs allowed. The damaged to her left wing had left her flightless and with two Amaroks closing in she couldn't feel anything, but hopeless. She ran and ran until she crossed upon a tree stump. There was enough space for her to squeeze in, once she got in all she had to do was stay quiet. The ash in the air disrupted the Amaroks sense of smell. The smoke made it hard to breathe and it made it look as if she was in the middle of a thick gray fog. Soul heard the steps of the Amaroks.

The stopped and sniffed; their noses could not pick up her scent. But they knew she was around. They started growling and snarling at once another in frustration. Then they went silent. Soul peeped out of a crack and saw that they were all looking toward one direction. Then Storm came rushing at the Amaroks. Storm went up as an Amaroks lunged at him with its claws wanting to rip him to pieces, Storm mounted the beast behind its head and stabbed it through its skull. They hit the ground and the Amaroks was struggling to break free.

"No you don't." Storm grunted as he drives his sword into the Amaroks head, hearing a satisfying crunch he quickly reset. Another jumped at Storm from side and with his quick reflexes he knocked it on its side and tried to finish it off. The Amaroks swiped at him and left a gash on Storm's chest. Storm fell to the ground. The Amarok jumped to Storm only to have his sword lodged in its mouth. With a twist the Amaroks eyes rolled back and it fell on top of Storm. He grunted as the heavy Amarok laid limp on top of him.

Soul pried her way out of her hiding place as fast as she could, "Hold on!" She said. She shoved the body off of him, "I'm so sorry." She pulled him up.

Storm was catching his breath, "It's fine." He smiled as his eyes met Soul's, "As long as you're alive. I don't care what happens to me."

Soul gave Storm a light kiss, "Thank you." She pressed her head against his for a moment, then said, "All this fighting. And for what?"

"I know."

Soul pulled away, "Where's Dawn? Wasn't she with you?"

"She stayed behind. The Banshees and the rest of the Amaroks have Celestia and the others cornered. What happened to the squad you had?"

"All dead. Luckily, they died rather instantly." She frowned, "Only if I could've helped."

"You're doing the best you-"

A laugh stopped Storm from finishing. The laugh scratched at his head, "My my. What have I found here?" The voice was coming from the south, "Two lovebirds." Lacoden became visible in the thick smoke. She was close. She made a brief "Ha!" and a dart flew the the gray and struck Soul in her left foreleg.

She yelped and fell to the ground, Storm knelt down to her pulled the dagger out. It was silver with a golden trim. He stood back up and trotted furiously to Lacoden. He swung to her neck, she took a step back and countered with a stab to his head with a sword. He blocked, then kicked her away.

Lacoden wiped the dirt off her blood stained white coat. She shrugged and threw it off, revealing her golden skin and long violet hair. The two ran toward each other and collided their swords. Their blows were powerful. Creating sparks of light like a flickering star. Again they ended how they started. Standing directly from each other.

Lacoden teleported to Storm's left and drove her sword into his chest and she said, "Fighting an honorable fight, will be fighting a losing fight."

"I know." Storm reached around stabbed Lacoden foreleg right in her knee. She screamed in pain and pulled her sword out of him, then shoved Storm away from her. He rolled onto his back and the sword came off of his hoof. Soul was close to it so she saw this as a chance to kill Lacoden while she was distracted by her injury. She jumped for the sword, quickly equipped it, and pounced at Lacoden.

"Slay." A wind pushed Soul away and sent the sword flying through the air. She landed on her back and saw the sword coming down to her, but couldn't move in time. It stabbed her just a few inches away from her heart.

Soul saw Storm looking at her. He wasn't too far away. Storm crawled to Soul using his right leg to get him to her. A trail of blood followed him. Storm climbed on top of Soul and spread his wings as if he was trying to hide her.

Lacoden collected her thoughts and suppressed her pain using Hate. She limped toward the pair of flightless birds, dragging her sword behind her. She soon towered over them and raised her hoof and stabbed through Storm's left breast and into Soul's right breast. Making them into a x-shaped cross with a red spot in the middle. Soul groaned, "No....ah!"

"Haha, don't I miss the torment." Lacoden chuckled, she left the sword lodged within the two and took it off. "Oh, are you crying, Soul?" She got closer to Soul's face smiled. Soul spat in Lacoden's face, "How rude." Lacoden stomped on Soul's face, knocking her unconscious.

"No!!" Dawn screamed. She shot a beam at Lacoden that struck her face like swing from a bat. Lacoden's head jerked to the side without her body moving. She centered it and cracked her neck, "Rex, enough!"

"Don't you dare call me that!" Lacoden lunged at Dawn, tackling her to the ground and she pounded away at her face. "Die! Die! Die!" She screamed. Dawn pushed her off, "Slay!"

"Heartbeat!" Their auras glowed and they ran toward each other hitting head first and causing at force of wind that threw Soul and Storm away. Dawn shot a beam at Lacoden and Lacoden returned fire.

Their beams of magic connected and created an intense glow of light. It blinded Soul and could be seen through the layers of smoke. Lacoden screamed to exaggerate her strength and her golden light got closer to Dawn. Dawn was slowly pushed back, she dug her hooves into the ground. She looked through her memories to find the strength to defeat Lacoden. She found a memory.

The time when her mother, Starflare the Warm-Hearted, taught her how to teleport an object. At the time she was only a filly, but it was an amazing accomplishment at the time. Though she only moved a flower from the ground into a vase, the product wasn't what made the memory so valuable. It was the process. Starflare telling her to focus on what you wanted accomplished. Nothing else.

Dawn took that advice and placed it into action. She shut down the memory. Shut down her aches and pains. And even her worries for her father, who was dueling Garren. She relaxed her breathing as if she was trotting through a field with the moist grass beneath her steps. Her glow grew brighter and trudged it ways to Lacoden. Inches away from Lacoden's face there it was. Lacoden grunted and forced herself to fight harder and harder. She did not go through everything she had to lose one of the most important fights of her life. Unfortunately for Lacoden, she was to drowned in her grief and anger that she had lost.

The beam touched the tip of Lacoden's horn and sent her flying into the ground. She tumbled like a ball thrown down a rocky mountain.

Lacoden brain felt swollen. Her vision was like opening her eyes in the murkiest of water. Her lungs felt collapsed. She laid on her stomach and tears started to come out her empty eyes. "Time I took control." A voice in her head said.

Rex curled in a ball and cried, "No.....this body is mine." She no longer felt her aching leg, her bruised horn. She fell into a dark hole.

Dawn dropped to her knees and could barely catch her breath. She rolled onto her side and felt a sense of victory. She saw Soul walking toward her, "You did it." She said, tears rolling down her face.

"I'm sorry....I couldn't save him."

"It's alright, Dawn." Soul helped Dawn up to her hooves and hugged her, "You did all you could."

Dawn looked over Soul's shoulder and saw that Lacoden was struggling to get up, "Look."

Soul turned and frowned, "That bitch." She stomped to her.

"No wait, Soul." The words couldn't reach her and she soon stood over Lacoden and kicked her in her head, knocking her unconscious. "Soul don't!" Dawn caught her, "Don't." Dawn knelt over Lacoden, "I'm taking her back to Share."

"What?! You can't possibly be stupid enough to do that!" Soul thundered.

"You don't understand. Rex, has been in con-"

"I understand very well, but that still doesn't change the fact every time we see her we will see the horror in her eyes, Dawn." Iril, Fyn, Seng and a few others appeared from the smoke, "You carry her yourself." Soul walked away and to Fyn and Iril who were grieving over Storm. "Come on. Let's get back to the ship."

Seng stayed behind and spotted Dawn, "What're you doing with her?"

"I'm taking her back to the ship." She levitated Lacoden onto her back.

Seng rolled his eyes, "Fine, but not by yourself now. And all because I'm doing this doesn't mean I'm ignoring what she has done." Seng took her. "We'll switch off. And if she tries to stab me or something I'm dropping her." He chuckled.

"How are you holding up?" Dawn smiled and they started walking, "How are the princesses?"

"I'm fine. Just a few scrapes. And as for the princesses they are doing well actually. Luna is more combat orientated than we first thought."

"Ah, that gives me relief. And our friends?"

"Fine. We got cut down by those Banshees, but Longbeard helped us kill a few." He sighed, "I don't know if you noticed, but we only have a few more hours of sunlight left. Looks like we are going to drag on this fight to tomorrow. The remaining Banshees and Amaroks aren't as active. Same with Excaelum and Shadow. The Changelings however are still in the hundreds. We can hold them off for a night though. They aren't much trouble."

"How many dead?"

"I don't even know, Dawn. We had too many carried away by Amaroks in so little time it's hard to keep track. We are gonna do a head count when we get back though." There was silence for the next fifteen minutes. They trotted and listened for anypony that might've been tailing them. Seng than said, "How is Lacoden?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why isn't she dead?" Seng looked over to see if Lacoden didn't hear.

"I wouldn't kill my friend. I don't feel an evil presence within her anymore. Seems to have gone away. To be sure I have to put the evil of Lacoden, Rex, back into a doll my mother made for her."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"I wouldn't know what to do. Luckily, Lacoden could sleep through the process, so at least," she sighed, "she could pass in a dream if need be."

"Don't worry. I'm sure it will."

Night came and Lacoden was in the brig. The whole crew, except for Dawn, was on edge. No pony didn't even want to stand guard in front of her cell. Dawn couldn't blame them though. Lacoden was still sound asleep; Dawn gave her her own blanket and pillow.

Dawn walked into the cell alone bringing along the doll Rex, "One way to find out." She said to herself. She sat in front of Lacdoen and placed Rex in front of her. The planks did not sit Dawn very well, but she did her best to ignore it. "Heartbeat." Moving parts of somepony's soul to an inanimate object was extremely difficult, but if Lacoden could do it at such a young age then Dawn can do it now. Dawn saw golden streaks flowing, like a stream, out of Lacoden's mouth and into Rex. It was so much work for so little results, Dawn knew this process would take hours or even days.

Shadow touched down on Share's deck with a few open wounds. Fyn greeted him by taking his sword, "Gee, are you all right?" She asked.

"Yeah yeah, all my adrenaline just kinda numbed it." He said with a slight frown, "Everypony seems to be holding up well."

"Yes we are. And how are you? You need to rest." Fyn walked him over to the stairs. "Let me patch you up." Fyn had some gauze and clean warm water. "All these wounds are clean. And no stabbings. That's a relief. Easy fix."

"Fighting Garren was so exhausting. Luckily, Excaelum came when he did. Or I would've been dead. And Orcusin. So much power in that dragon. Never seen anything like him. I hope Excaelum is okay."

"I'm sure he's fine." Lancer said. He was leaning against the railing.

Shadow stood up, "Thank you, Fyn." She nodded and he asked, "Where's Dawn?"

Iril walked up to Shadow and grabbed his helmet, "Believe it or not, in the brig with Lacoden." She said sourly.

"Oh I believe it. And why I might ask?"

Fyn Cour answered, "She is in the process of some sort of cleansing of Lacoden. We should've just left her to die." She frowned, "I don't see how you're okay with this, Shadow."

"All of you feel this way?" He looked and saw the anger on everypony's face. "Look, I know Lacoden has done horrendous and unspeakable things. She would've killed Lacoden if she saw it was the only option. She's saving a life of her friend," and he paused, "and also mine. Act how will you will, if Lacoden is saved and I see no reason she couldn't be among us she's staying. If any of you, then try to harm her, you will answer to me." Shadow marched down below deck with Soul following close behind, once down below deck Shadow stopped, "Look Soul," he turned around, "I meant what I-"

"You're going to defend her...after all she has done. Killing the princess, killing our friends in Dry Desert, Saddle Arabia, Canon...." Shadow didn't respond, "After she stabbed me. And after she killed Storm."

"Storm is..." He uttered under his breath.

"You still defend her." Tears ran down her face. "Shadow, there's a fine line between nobility and stupidity."

Shadow walked closer to Soul, "I'm sorry." And hugged her.

Soul felt her eyes get heavy, harder to keep open. She silently sobbed into Shadow's chest. "There was nothing I could've done to save him, and he died protecting me." She cried and Shadow felt droplets of her tears fall onto his hooves.

Shadow sighed and held her closer, "It isn't your fault, Soul. He would be happy to know that you're alive. Right?" Soul calmed down, "Look." Shadow separated himself from Soul and looked her in the eyes, "What's done is done. He didn't die in vain." She wiped away her tears, "I have to see Dawn. Want to come along?"

She uttered, "No no. I'll just go on up." She turned around, "I'll talk to you soon, Shadow." Soul felt relief after that small talk. Shadow was right. She smiled a little, then went back to a frown. She waded through the RAK who were laying on the ground and found an empty space on the stern of the ship. She listened to the water. "Only memories are left now, Storm." Relaxation was present in her muscles and mind.

As Shadow walked closer to the brigs, he heard a sort of humming. It was a pleasant humming. He got to the cell and saw that it was Dawn humming a little tune. He saw the golden stream coming Lacoden. He had an idea of what Dawn was doing. He didn't interrupt her, he watched quietly. "Flare." He whispered. He hummed along with Dawn and the stream flowed faster.

By the time their humming ceased and the process was over, the moon was beginning to sink into the ocean. Shadow entered the cell, "Hey." He said.

Dawn remained sitting down, "Hey, dad."

"Mind if I sat down with you?"

"Oh no. Go right ahead." She replied sounding sad.

Shadow took his place on Dawn's right, "I'm proud of you."

Dawn leaned her head against Shadow, "Thank you for helping."

"Anything for you." He saw that Lacoden was peacefully asleep, then he peered down at Rex, "It's done right?"

"Mhm. I took out enough of Rex so that she wouldn't completely take over Lacoden's body again and put it back where it belongs." She addressed the doll. "I left a part of her in Lacoden though, I figured that they would be quite the team." Dawn yawned, "Rex with her strength and Lacoden with her reasoning."

"And the doll?" Shadow scoped it up with his wing, "I remember this."

"I'll keep it safe." Shadow leaned his head on top of Dawn's, "You think we can save Garren?"

"I don't see that happening, honey. I'm sorry."

"Oh..." Her eyes were shutting.

"Get some rest. Don't worry about the ship." He stroked her mane.

"Goodnight, dad." Dawn quickly fell asleep moments after.

Shadow kissed her head, "Goodnight, Dawn."