“It’s perfect,” you mutter. “I can’t believe it.”

“Yes, it truly is,” the pretty white alicorn by your side agrees.

Finally, after an entire afternoon of looking at houses, weighing options, and arguing back and forth about their merits, you both stand in the empty living room of what you believe to be the ideal little home. It’s nothing grand, and to be honest it could use a little fixing up. The interior needs a new coat of paint and the yard’s a complete disaster, but it’s nothing the two of you can’t handle, especially if you work together.

It’s a cottage located in a quiet, out of the way place at the edge of town, but it isn’t too far away as to be inconvenient, and it goes without saying that it has the extra bedroom she kept insisting on.

“Look, Anon!” Celestia excitedly nudges you with her nose toward one of the nearby windows. “That path leads to the Whitetail Woods. With the leaves on the trees it should be a bit secluded, so in the spring we could—” Her voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper. “We could go riding together!”

Her cheerful, yet slightly embarrassed tone causes you to smile and whisper back to her as you slowly trail your fingers down the space between her wings, “...Why wait until spring?”

Her eyes widen and you swear you could see the spark of an epiphany shine within them for a fraction of a second. Before you can say anything else, the alicorn adopts a look of unrestrained joy and she begins to circle you, prancing all the while.

“Raven~!”

She’s practically singing her words now, and you can tell that her unusually giddy behavior has her stalwart aide somewhat on tilt.

“Erm, yes, Majesty?”

“I’d like for you to head over to town hall to take care of all the purchasing paperwork. There should still be enough time to complete it before they close for the evening. Empyrean Blaze, please escort her.”

Pyre takes a hesitant step back. “Your Highness, my assigned duty is to act as your guard. If I were to stray so far from your side, I’d be betraying my—”

She doesn’t even pay attention to him as she continues to almost dance with joy.

“That’s~ an~ order~!”

A soft golden aura encompasses both the little ponies and they yelp in surprise as they’re gently pushed toward the door by her magic.

“Don’t worry, by the time you’re finished we’ll be there to meet you. Isn’t that right, Anon?”

You rub the back of your neck while wearing an apologetic smile. “I’ll try to keep her out of trouble. You two have fun together, alright?”

Raven blinks. “Fun? I... I mean no disrespect, Sir Anonymous, but filling out purchasing paperwork and land ownership transfer forms is not really within my definition of ‘fun’.”

“Perhaps not,” Celestia hums, “but remember that you’re not facing this arduous task alone, my little pony.”

Gently, yet gracefully, she approaches you from behind and places her head on your shoulder once again, and on instinct your arm reaches back toward those irresistibly scratchable white ears.

“Yeah, that’s right,” you add. “No matter how much of a pain you think it’s gonna be, you guys’ll find a way to make it fun if you put your minds to it. Trust me, we’re both speaking from experience here.”

Both of the ponies look to one another again; a questioning glance that turns into a soft smile shared between them for a brief moment before they move toward the door together.

“By your leave, Majesty.”

“I shall do my best to watch over her as you command, Your Highness.”

They stand side by side to offer a polite bow to both you and Celestia before trotting outside together, Raven’s magical aura gently closing the door behind them.

Celestia rubs her cheek against your own as you watch them walk down the road to Ponyville from the nearby window.

“I almost feel a little guilty,” you sigh.

“Hmmm?” she murmurs, still savoring the attention of your fingers.

“It feels like we sent the kids away so we could have fun for ourselves.”

The alicorn steps away from you, back to the center of the room, her movements still light and full of barely restrained enthusiasm.

“Like an old married couple, you mean?” She giggles. “It is a funny thought, isn’t it? And there’s certainly some truth to be found there...”

Her horn glows with its familiar golden light, and her crown and torc lift from her head and neck, the magic gently depositing them in the room’s corner.

“Because, we are indeed...”

She stalks toward you, kicking off a single golden horseshoe with each step.

“Going to have...”

She stands bare before you, and her natural beauty almost takes your breath away.

“Fun~!”

And with that last word, she delivers a quick, playful peck on your lips before curling up on the floor in front of you and presenting her back. Those magenta eyes find your own as her tail swishes to and fro with nervous excitement, her expression rendering any words between you unnecessary.

And with an almost herculean effort of willpower, you resist the urge to straddle that back for only a minute more, and instead kneel beside her to gently take her muzzle in your hands and guide her to you to reclaim the kiss she stole but a moment before.

“I love you, my pretty pony.”

“And I you, my precious human. Now, and forever.”

In that moment, you’re reunited; a bond only possible between the two of you alone. She stands to her hooves, your familiar, comforting weight upon her back, and you gently take those strands of her ethereal mane in your hands once again. She carries you outside the cottage, through the snow, down the seldom-used trail the two of you saw from the window. Your breathing is visible in the cold winter air as she canters along down the path, head held high, overcome with a joy that can only be captured like this.

You came to realize it later, but to her, to ride together means freedom. Not the freedom she selfishly sought by relinquishing the crown to Twilight to chase her past, but a freedom found in the moment. Just as you described to her about how you were able to capture the feeling of being unfettered by the weight of the world at the mountain’s summit, you recognize that riding is the same for her. Here and now, she can shed the burdens of Princess Celestia for a moment to lose herself in the euphoric sensation of the run, and of carrying you wherever you choose to direct her, all without question, without second thoughts, without doubts, without regrets, without trepidation, without fear...

She wants to carry you, and you want to be carried. That’s the exchange, and through it her joy becomes yours, your joy becomes hers, and the two of you become one.

The trail leading through the woods loops around, and soon you find yourselves standing in front of the little cottage once again. A tug on her mane slows her to a stop some distance away to allow the two of you to admire it in the light of the late afternoon sun.

A hand reaches up to scratch between her ears, and she leans into your touch...

…And as a great column of fire from the heavens rains down to consume the home that the two of you were to share, you begin to wonder whether or not you’re dreaming...

All at once, a wave of heat rushes by you and you shield your eyes for a moment in response. Celestia reacts immediately, horn shining with magic in an attempt to extinguish the blaze and save what’s left of the little cottage...

But it’s no use. The fire continues to burn despite her spell and she jumps back, a beat of her wings putting more distance between the two of you and the blaze.

“Eternal flame...”

The alicorn mutters the words just above a whisper, and you can’t tell if her tone belies the same utter shock you feel, or some grim realization she’s just made. You want to ask what’s going on, but you just can’t find the words as you watch the cottage collapse in on itself and any indication that it was once a home and not some hastily-built bonfire is lost forever.

And surprisingly, even as the next fiery column begins to rain down, this time directly on top of the two of you, your first response is to laugh.

It’s almost comical at this point. Your first house: erased by a screaming clone bomb of Rarity. Your second, the airship she built for you: ruined in order to overcome a monstrous weapon from a forgotten age. And now, what was to be the third: lost because fire suddenly decided to fall on this chilly winter afternoon instead of snow...

It’s almost like the universe doesn’t want you to have a home.

Celestia’s horn shines again, and she teleports you both out of the new flame column’s path. As soon as you reappear, she spreads her white wings and bounds into the air, carrying you high into the sky. Turning back, you witness the fire erase all of the barren trees near the head of the little trail where you once stood.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Celestia screams into the empty air. “If you have words for me, speak them clearly! If you have a grievance, state it openly! There’s no need for this senseless destruction!!”

At first, there’s only silence.

Then, you hear a rumbling from somewhere above. It’s steady but strong, like the roar of a volcano before an eruption takes place. Soon, the tone begins to have a discernable, steady cadence, and you realize that it’s really... laughter?

Celestia ascends even higher as she flies above the large storm front that hangs near the edge of the boundary where the Whitetail Woods meet the Everfree Forest, and upon the top of the great cloud bank is perched a creature that defies imagining...

Sure, you knew they existed here. You’ve met all sorts of mythological beasts since being brought to this strange world. Hell, you’ve even met one of them before, though to be honest he was just a baby, so maybe it didn’t really sink in...

But there’s no doubt. This is a DRAGON, and its presence leaves you in awe.

The great beast is curled atop the clouds, wings closed and tail wrapped around its body, so it’s difficult to get an estimation of its full size. But even from here, it’s easy to tell that one of the creature’s gargantuan claws could crush both you and Celestia in a single swipe. The dull red scales and spikes that cover its body look to be absolutely impenetrable by any weapon you can imagine, and the flames that escape from between the countless fangs of its open maw seem like they could melt steel.

Celestia lands on a smaller cloud nearby and gazes up at the massive creature.

“Agamemnon...”

And two serpentine eyes consider her coldly as it speaks:

“Vile Herald of the Sun... how disappointing that you weren’t there to greet me and explain yourself when I awoke. You forced me to come find you, and I am not pleased.”

Each word rumbles from the depths of the dragon’s belly like an earthquake, spoken slowly and deliberately. You can tell from his tone and his body language that he holds no fear of the powerful alicorn now before him. Worse still, the slight tremors you can feel running down Celestia’s body as her eyes meet his own are a clue that the same can’t be said for her, and you find yourself clutching her mane tighter in response.

You try to restart your fried brain as Celestia considers her reply. ‘Agamemnon’... there’s something about that name that sounds sort of familiar, but you can’t quite place it...

Wait. Wait a minute. Wasn’t that the name of...?

“My apologies, Great Watcher. I wasn’t expecting you to wake so early, and I—”

“LIAR!” the dragon bellows back, fire escaping into the clear winter sky with each breath. “Liar and thief! Each word that rolls off of your contemptuous tongue is poison! I am no fool; you knew well that your pathetic magic could not hold me beyond the rising of a third new moon...”

The beast’s eyes narrow as he sneers at Celestia.

“To be awoken from the Sleep of Ages by one of the damnable successors; to have my hoard stolen, and a curse of dreamless sleep placed upon me before my flame could fully rekindle... you will explain yourself, and you will return what is mine, along with a tribute to atone for this insult, vile Herald of the Sun! If you refuse,” his gaze shifts to Ponyville in the distance, “I will lay waste to your works until I am satisfied.”

You feel Celestia let out a deep, cleansing breath. She closes her eyes, squares her shoulders, and meets the dragon’s gaze.

“I already offered you an explanation at the time, but you would not hear it. I was in dire need of only a fraction of your wealth; a debt which I fully intended to repay, yet you refused to part with even a single coin. What happened after was... regrettable.”

“Regrettable... but you hold no remorse,” the dragon growls.

She shakes her head. “I do not. I cannot.”

“Very well,” Agamemnon chuckles; a sound that for a moment you mistake for thunder. “Tell me, vile Herald of the Sun. On what did you spend my meager fortune? What is this thing you coveted so much as to risk my ire?”

Celestia smiles as she answers, “It was for a gift for the one upon my back. And though it was eventually lost, the value it held to the both of us was immeasurable. I don’t think I can properly describe why, but if anything, you should understand my intentions well.”

The dragon leans closer, drawing deep of the air as he considers you coldly.

“Hmmm... a strange little thing. Its scent is not of this world. All this... all this for a tribute to some conjured familiar? Is this some sort of joke?”

“Not a familiar,” Celestia states with confidence. “A friend. A dear, precious friend. And no, it isn’t any sort of joke, I assure you.”

The great dragon rears back and laughs, the deep echoes from his throat scattering the birds from their perches within the Everfree.

“Precious, you say? As precious as your trickster god of a brother whom you turned to stone? As precious as the one you called sister whom you banished from this earth? Vile Herald of the Sun, that which you call precious is as ephemeral to you as the dew upon a rose’s thorn. It’s beautiful in your eyes for a time, but then forgotten by the morning’s end. You dare speak to me about what is treasure... about what is valuable? You know nothing! This is nothing more than a further insult!”

The red dragon rears up and flares his wings, and for the first time you’re able to estimate his true size. He’s easily twice as big as an airship or more, and between his size and the fire that constantly spills from his mouth, you have no doubt that his threat to destroy Ponyville was no empty boast.

“Enough of this!” he roars. “I care not for your petty reasons or misguided intentions. Return what was once mine, along with a suitable tribute, and I will ignore your brazen insolence. Otherwise...”

“I fully intend to!” Celestia shouts back. “But you must give me time! Equestria’s coffers have been drained by a recent event, and we need time to recover from—”

“No!” the dragon’s voice booms. “You will pay your debts immediately. There is no negotiation, little pony. If you don’t possess it, then take the wealth from your pitiful subjects like the thief you are, or from among the other pathetic races you abhor; the source is no concern of mine.”

The alicorn shakes her head in defiance. “I will not. I will not allow my little ponies, nor any other innocents, nor even those who claim to be the enemies of my Kingdom to suffer for my own mistakes. I swear upon my crown that I will repay you when I am able, Agamemnon. Not a moment sooner, not a moment later.”

The dragon flashes her a wicked, fang-filled grin.

“Hmmm... so this village means nothing to you? Of course it wouldn’t! You, who knows nothing of what truly holds value...”

And then his eyes shift to you, and suddenly you feel really, really nervous.

“But there is something you claimed to be ‘precious’ here, isn’t there? What if I were to claim it... would that sway you, I wonder?”

The gargantuan beast begins to move toward the edge of the storm front and you feel a lump forming in your throat. Celestia shudders underneath you once again as she takes a hesitant step back.

“Stop this! There’s no need to involve him, nor anypony else!” she cries.

“Ah...” the dragon growls in response, “So there is something there after all...”

He spreads his wings and takes to the air, Celestia responds in kind, and the chase is on.

She tears through the skies above the vast Everfree Forest with you upon her back and the great dragon hot on her heels. He moves with incredible speed despite his size, and she banks to avoid the occasional fireball as she attempts to lead the beast further and further from civilization, while all you can really do is hold on for dear life.

A fireball nearly clips her wing as it sails past you into the distance; close enough for you to feel the radiating heat on your skin for a brief moment as it passes. You bring up one hand to check and make sure your eyebrows haven’t been singed off while the other continues to cling to Celestia’s ethereal mane as she flies. Thankfully, both your eyebrows are still there, and several moments without the appearance of any further fireballs give you a bit of hope that maybe this situation isn’t really as dire as it seems. After all, she has her full power at her disposal this time, so how bad could this possibly get?

You risk a cautious glance back, which reveals several things:

1) The dragon is still there.

2) He’s now breathing an unbroken stream of fire, similar to a goddamn military flamethrower, and is using said stream like a lance to try to swat the two of you from the sky at a distance.

You quickly begin smacking Sun Horse’s withers in a panic in order to succinctly express your thoughts regarding this matter.

“A FRIENDLY REMINDER: WE’RE BEING ATTACKED BY A DRAGON, YOU CRAZY FUCKING HORSE!! USE THE BEAM SPELL! USE THE BEAM SPE—”

“It won’t work, Anon!” Celestia yells back as she corkscrews downward to avoid the line of flames. “Agamemnon is an ancient dragon of immense power. When the flame within him is fully kindled, normal magic won’t have any effect at all! We need to lead him into the wilderness where nopony will be inadvertently hurt by this tirade until I can figure out a way to talk him down!”

“Wait a minute... are you saying he’s invincible or something?!”

“Technically, no, but in our current situation he might as well be! We need to find a way to buy time somehow and—”

From out of nowhere, the line of flame reappears, and it’s nearly on top of you. Celestia barely manages to react fast enough to teleport away before it connects, but the sudden action disorients you both after you reappear and she ends up faltering in her flight.

“H-Hold on, Anon, I’m...!”

You grip her mane as tightly as you can as the two of you collide with the tree canopy, countless branches snapping as they buckle under your combined weight. You land with a crash on the forest floor, having been thrown from her back at the last second, and you tumble for a bit before coming to a stop, bruised, battered, but thankfully still in one piece.

“Cel!”

As soon as you get your head to stop spinning, you struggle to your feet and run over to the grounded alicorn. She lets out a pained groan as she opens her eyes in response to your touch.

“C’mon, we have to keep moving!” you say as you shake her awake. “We’re not safe here!”

A roar in the distance only serves to punctuate that statement. “You think to run into the untamed lands? It will not save you, vile Herald of the Sun. I will burn this forest to ashes and smoke you out of hiding...”

True to his word, a column of flame descends from the sky and immolates an ancient tree several hundred feet away from you. Celestia’s eyes snap to attention, her survival instincts overriding any sense of pain or confusion, and she quickly jumps to her hooves, her magic violently lifting you to place you upon her back once again. She gallops off just as the next flame column descends, this time obliterating the tree you were resting under mere moments ago.

She runs. She casts everything else aside and runs. The great forest is eerily quiet now; the animals and insects having long since fled the chaos that’s enveloped this place. The daylight breaks through the canopy in places, painting patterns of shadows on the ground in the areas not yet illuminated by fire. You keep a sharp eye open for any wayward branches that might endanger you as the pony beneath you deftly weaves through the gnarled trees and the brilliant columns of destruction that rain from the heavens.

Another nearby tree explodes into flames, and she leaps to the side to avoid the burning debris. You should be utterly terrified now, and you are. Anyone would be when faced with a situation like this. But strangely, you find that it’s not the great dragon, the burning forest, or even the columns of fire that scare you...

No, it’s Cel. You can feel her fear in her gait, in her every movement. You can feel it as she runs. Not even during the bleakest moments of the Trials of Equus or the battle over Canterlot did she feel such fear; fear which now becomes your own as you ride. It strikes utter terror in your heart, and you’re at a loss as to what to do to silence it...

But silence it you must. It’s become all too clear now. If the two of you hold any hope of getting out of this, you both need to overcome this fear. She just needs a little time, a little reprieve, like she said earlier. You fight back the sense of terror and truly focus your eyes on the surroundings. There has to be something, anything that’ll buy you a few precious moments...

“There, Cel! A cave!”

And it appears. Your boots nudge her sides as you point out the cave mouth in the distance, and at once you feel something shift. You hold a ray of hope now, and it travels through you to her, rider to steed, and you come to understand how the link of emotion you share when riding really works. Your confidence is hers now, just as her fear was once yours, and the change is instantly recognizable as her stride shifts and her head lowers with determined focus.

The forest is burning. Walls of flame begin to appear in your path as the fire spreads, but she leaps them with ease as she swiftly gallops toward the cave entrance. It’s close now, just a little further...

A column of fire blasts the tree directly in front of you into a series of burning splinters, but you don’t turn away at the sight. Instead, you focus on your goal as her horn shines and she teleports the both of you past the burning tree and into the safety of the earth.

Your back rests against the damp cave wall as the two of you pant for breath and try to calm down. You’re close enough to the entrance to still see one another in the darkness, yet far enough to be relatively safe from the raging dragon outside. Your hand finds its way around her withers to offer a comforting touch, and you pull her close.

“Looks like we made it,” you gasp as you attempt to steady your breathing.

The tired alicorn turns and offers you a weak smile in the darkness. “Yes, for the time being.”

She leans back and closes her eyes and you allow the silence between you to linger for a few moments as you listen to the sound of the burning forest outside along with the occasional roaring from above. But like always during times like these, the many questions swirling in your head eventually force you to speak, even if you sometimes don’t want to know their answers.

“So, that’s the dragon you stole all that treasure from, huh? Couldn’t you have picked a, I dunno, a smaller, less unimaginably ragey one?”

She chuckles and shakes her head. “No, Anon. I explained this to you before— Agamemnon is a special case among dragons. As the only living dragon without clan ties, he was the only one I could approach without risking a war.”

“Yeah... I remember. So what’s changed between now and then? Why are you so afraid of him, Cel? You beat him before, right?”

The alicorn leans back against the cave wall and lets out a deep, tired sigh before curling further into your side and placing her head on your shoulder.

“Yes, I did, but the situation is far more complicated than that. Dragons are... dragons are eternal, Anon. Much like ponies like me who’ve ascended, they live forever, because immortality is their birthright. Death is not a natural process for them, and given that fact, one would imagine that our world would be overrun with dragonkind, but that’s not the case. In reality, very few new dragons are born each year, and most of them don’t live beyond five to seven centuries.”

You shift yourself a little so you can support her more comfortably as you trail your fingers through her mane.

“They’re immortal, but they only live for 500 to 700 years? Why? Is it because of war? Disease?”

“No,” she replies. “While those things do happen, they only affect a small portion of dragonkind. Most of them... the vast majority, really, simply tire of living after a certain point. They lull themselves into a deep sleep, and over the centuries their bodies turn to stone as the flame within them is slowly extinguished while they dream. Few know this, but the northern mountains of Equestria, where most dragons reside, are not made of the stone of the earth...”

“No way... are you serious?”

She nods, rubbing her muzzle into your shoulder in the process.

“Yes. Agamemnon is very special among dragonkind. That he is without a clan is unique in itself, but what truly differentiates him is the fact that he’s chosen to keep living. He’s perhaps the oldest creature in this world, far older than even myself or Luna, and so old it’s possible even the Progenitors themselves knew him, yet despite this we’ve never really spoken to one another outside of a few occasions. He’s very reclusive and tends to keep to himself, spending most of his days in a light slumber. Nopony, nor dragon, knows exactly why he continues to persist when all others have not, but we’ve taken to calling him the Great Watcher. There’s even a legend that states that when he stands upon the roof of the world and breathes in the air that collects there, he can hear the voices of all living creatures, though I can’t say if it’s true...”

“You were talking like he was invincible or something back there. Is it because he’s so old?”

Her magenta eyes turn toward the flickering light of the fire dancing near the cave entrance.

“Dragons are powerful creatures of magic, though they don’t express it in the way ponies do. A dragon’s magic is the flame that burns within. This is the source of their fiery breath, as well as the wellspring that allows them to live forever. As they age, the flame burns brighter, and its warmth keeps external sources of magic at bay. As whelps, they hold a small amount of magic resistance. In their adolescence the resistance grows. As adults, they become resistant to all but the strongest of spells. And those who live further... ancient dragons such as Agamemnon... are effectively immune to all magic. To put it into perspective, Equus Island rejects the magic of an alicorn but allows normal ponies passage. Similarly, the island would permit a dragon whelp but prevent an adult or strong adolescent from entering because already their flame would burn too brightly.”

She sighs again.

“When you combine that fact with their great strength, flight, and resistance to physical harm, there are very few things in this world that could hope to stand against an ancient dragon’s fury.”

You swallow hard. She’s not exactly painting an optimistic picture here...

“But... but you put him to sleep before, right? He can’t be completely immune to magic...”

She pulls away from you and shakes her head.

“I did so just as he was waking from a hundred year sleep in response to my intrusion into his lair. At that point his flame was at its weakest and the spell was able to take hold, but now there’s no chance that it would work. To be perfectly honest, I thought we’d have at least another few weeks before he’d be up and about, but I suppose I underestimated him a bit.”

Great. Just gr— wait a minute.

“...You told me the day I came home from Canterlot it’d be 200 years before this’d become a problem. I distinctly remember that.”

The alicorn’s ears fold back and she turns away in shame, retreating slightly into the shadows of the cave.

“I didn’t want you to worry, Anon. What good would it have done if you’d known? I didn’t want you to spend your days in fear of the future...”

“Yeah, instead I’m spending right now in a cave surrounded by a burning forest wondering whether or not I’m gonna die. Fighting and stealing from an angry, magic immune, overpowered dragon... god, Cel, did you think any of this through at all?!”

“Of course I did!” she yells back, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. “When the time came, I fully intended to return to him to make the necessary tribute, or have Luna handle it in my stead! Had it gone as I intended things would’ve been resolved without any need for you to be involved!”

Her words echo in the cavern before eventually fading away, and you hear a sniffle from the darkness as they disappear.

“Do you... do you regret what I’ve done, Anon? Should I have left things as they were back when you took your trip to Canterlot? Should I have just gone away when the money ran out so I wouldn’t be a burden to you any longer? Please, tell me!”

The unmistakable patter of her tears falling upon the stone of the cave floor reaches your ears, and you immediately reach out to pull her to you.

“No... of course I don’t regret it. Like I told you that first morning on the Dawn Star, I just want you to be honest with me so that we can face these things together. That’s all.”

You can feel a smile form on her face as you hug her, and her forehooves encircle your back to return the gesture.

“I will. I promise.”

Another roar echoes from overhead as you part.

“I’m worried about Ponyville,” you say, turning your attention back to the mouth of the cave. “This forest is one thing, but what’s stopping him from going back there and torching the town when he can’t find us?”

The alicorn stands in the darkness and stretches her limbs as she shakes the last of her tears away.

“He won’t do that. Not now. There’s a common misconception held by most other creatures about dragons and their greed, Anon. Most believe that they desire gold and gems because they’re shiny or a source of food, but that’s not really the case...”

She begins moving toward the cave’s entrance and you stand and follow.

“They desire these things because they hold great value to others. And thus, Agamemnon now desires you because you hold great value to me. Ponyville is the furthest thing from his mind right now.”

She curls up near the cave’s mouth and gestures to her back.

“...But I will not allow him to have you, my precious human. He can have this kingdom’s meager wealth, even if I have to dig the gold and gems from the ground with my own hooves, but he can never have you. And if he doesn’t understand that now, I will make him understand. He may not be swayed by my magic, and he may be as immovable as a mountain, but even still I will make him understand.”

You straddle your pretty pony’s back, and as she rises you can feel the determination flowing through her. As you take the strands of mane in your hands, you pat one side of her neck and whisper in her ear, “I trust you, I believe in you, and I’m here with you.”

“I know, and I am thankful,” she whispers back.

And with a deep breath, she gallops into the burning forest and spreads her wings.