High Moon Ch. 44:

Of Talks and Memories

The flight back to High Moon was far shorter than Quill would have liked as she landed right outside the temple doors. Her mind was still trying to understand Rarity’s rash actions and where all of it came from. However, nothing could began to rationalize it. Nothing she could think of would make sense.

Why now? Of all times to do something like this, why now? Why make a desperate move like this when Spike wasn’t even there? Was it because she was still too weak to do what she needed to do? Why did she even give it back in the first place? What was the meaning of all of this?

“Damnit Rarity,” Quill mumbled to herself, her fists tightening at her sides while Cinder landed on her shoulder, a concerned look in her eyes. To get some kind of response from her master, Cinder nudged Quill’s head with her own to get her to snap out of whatever thoughts that were running rampant in her head.

Quill turned to her bird with a tired look on her face. The look was something that Cinder truly hated to see on her face but, oddly, the bird had a feeling that it was going to get worse before it got better. “Go on in girl,” Quill said, puffing out a cloud of dark-gray smoke towards the stone ground. “I’ll be in, in just a sec.”

Having no choice, Cinder flew off of Quill’s shoulder, and flew up to a perch in front of a hole that she and Peewee had been using as an entryway. However, before Cinder cawled into the opened space, she looked back down at Quill to see her staring straight at the door.

Cinder knew that Quill’s thoughts were focused on what happened with Rarity and the thing that she’d given the young dragoness. But there wasn’t much she could do about it now, so Cinder thought it best to hop in the hole to head back to Blaze’s work area.

“Rarity, what are you doing?” Quill questioned, stepping towards the arcane-door to move it out of the way with the fire-stones on her wrists. Once it opened, Quill started to make her way down the dimly lit stairs that grew darker as she descended. Much like her thoughts.

A part of Quill wanted to hide or get rid of the necklace and just lie to Spike’s face. However, lying to her brother wouldn’t be a smart idea at this point in their lives, and she wasn’t so sure if she could anyways. Lying to her twin about something this important wasn’t something she was sure she’d ever be able to do. Still didn’t make it any easier, though. Giving the ruby to Rarity had meant a lot to Spike, letting her keep it after everything that had happened had meant even more.

How was Spike going to react when he learned that Rarity gave the necklace to Quill, only for her to deliver it to him?

“I dunno anymore,” Quill sighed as she reached the second arcane door, opening it so she could head back towards the greenhouse construction site via Blaze’s work area. Upon walking in the dimly lit room, Quill saw Cinder standing on top of Blaze’s work table, with the mare herself sitting in a chair next to it, while Cyclone was half-laying in another chair so she could rest her head in Blaze’s lap.

When Quill’s eyes found Blaze, she began sensing something off about her. It was the same way that she’d felt with Pipsqueak, but different somehow. Definitely stronger, and far more mature in comparison. However, the moment she started to step towards them, the feeling was gone, and Quill waved it off as her imagination getting to her after a day of flying around Ponyville.

“Blaze, I’m back,” Quill said, walking to Blaze and Cyclone as she got ready to drop off the duffle bags so she could just take the plastic rolls to the city ruins. “I got the plastic rolls, and uh, a few other things that might help out around here.”

Quill started to take off the purple duffle bag off her back while Blaze kept rubbing certain parts of Cinder’s beak and neck, seeming to be unresponsive to whatever she said. A piece of Quill was happy that the mare couldn’t pick up on her emotions like Frost could, but that didn’t stop her from having a feeling that the mare somehow knew something was up.

“Quill.”

‘I knew it. I just fucking knew it.’ Quill froze at Blaze’s low tone of voice, using the same flat and dark tone from when she and the others were taking their tests. Something in that voice told her not to even dare moving without Blaze’s permission. Something in that voice scared her a more than a little, yet at the same time still held the compassion that Blaze was known for.

All Quill could do was silently remain behind Blaze for a moment, that moment seeming to extend longer than should have. As Blaze continued to pet Cinder, Quill started to get an eerie feeling of what the mare was going to say next. “Cinder here tells me something happened in your old home.” Blaze finally looked over her shoulder at Quill, making Quill incredibly tiny when she saw the powerful look in Blaze’s passionate red eyes.

“Y-yeah...something did,” Quill sighed as she dropped the two duffle bags against the table and stood back up to meet Blaze’s crimson eyes. One look in the radiating red eyes was all Quill needed to tell that Blaze wasn’t going to take a half answer like that. “I-It wasn’t anything bad or something like that, just... messed up is all.”

“You want to talk about it, sweetie?” Not giving the dragoness a chance to think of something to say, Blaze sparked her horn to pull one of the other chairs from the dinner table over to a spot right across from her.

Taking the hint, Quill walked around the chair Cyclone was using to rest her legs in, and sat down in the empty chair across from Blaze. “Hey Cyclone,” Quill sighed as she caught Cyclone’s shining eyes staring half-open towards her.

“Hi Quill,” Cyclone answered back as Quill folded her arms over Blaze’s table and placed her head in them. It was then Cyclone thought that it was time to get up from Blaze’s soft and warm lap. Cyclone had noticed the change in Blaze after the phoenix had flown in as well, scaring her after the light-hearted day the two had spent together.

When Cyclone started to get up, Blaze took her hands from the white dragoness’ head and moved one of them on Quill’s shoulder gently. Blaze waited for a moment until Quill looked up from her arms and back into her eyes. “Quill please, tell me what happened.”

Another sigh left Quill’s lips as she sat back in her chair, causing it to creak in complaint while she reached into her pocket to pull out the golden-chained Fire Ruby necklace. The moment she felt the necklace in her hand, Quill pulled it from her pocket, and dropped it on the table without saying anything.

Both Blaze and Cyclone’s eyes widened at the sight of the rare red gem inside the pure gold necklace. Cyclone looked at the gem with an instinctive want from her dragon heritage, while Blaze, having the same look as Cyclone, knew that the ruby held more value than the fire-stones she had accumulated for use around High Moon.

However, the both of them were able to maintain control over themselves, even when Blaze picked it up in her hands and brought it closer towards them. “Quill, it’s beautiful,” Blaze breathed, still taken aback by the sight of the bright red ruby in her hands. “Fire Rubies are extremely rare, and hard to come by,” she continued as she ran her fingers over the polished gem. “And this shape…”

As Blaze and Cyclone continued to examine the ruby, Quill sighed again and went back to her same slouched posture on the table. Once Blaze finally looked up from the ruby to Quill, she then remembered Spike had told her that it was a Fire Ruby that started his and Quill’s greed-growth a couple of years ago. “This wouldn’t be the same necklace that triggered your and Spike’s greed-growth, would it?”

Quill wordlessly nodded her head while a small line of light-gray smoke seeped out through her nose. “Spike was going to eat it on our birthday as a present to himself,” Quill said with a small laugh before a frown returned to her face at the memories behind the necklace started to resurface. “But instead, like the overdramatic drake he is, he gave it to Rarity a few days before.”

Cyclone tore her attention away from the alluring ruby to the conflicted expression on Quill’s face. “Why on earth would he give it to her?” she asked, scowling. She remembered the confrontation she had with Rarity the other day, and how insistent the white mare had been on getting Spike to go back to Ponyville. “But that would mean…”

“Mean what, dear?” Blaze asked after Cyclone’s face took on a look of pure shock, a small tint of jealousy glinting in her eyes.

“Teenaged drakes often give their best gems to someone they wanted, it was a way of showing their love for them,” Cyclone added, using the memories of her childhood in a traditional dragon clan. For a moment Cyclone’s expression turned into one of worry before snapping back into anger at who the recipient of the gem was. “But I mean...her? Really, Spike loved her? Enough to do all that? It didn’t seem like...” Cyclone broke off, remembering what she had told the drake about their encounter with Rarity.

“Ha, yeah he loved her alright,” Quill laughed in a mocking tone of voice as the lines of smoke became darker. She seemed to not have noticed Cyclone’s near-slip. “He loved her enough to allow himself to be used as a pin-cushion. Loved her enough to be her personal garbage-drake. Loved her enough to listen to her whine about her troubles while he was still dealing with his own.”

Quill’s expression continued to darken along with the near pitch-black smoke lines coming from her nose. Cyclone started to worry for the younger dragoness, thinking back to times when Veil was acted in a similar manner. “He...h-he loved her enough to fight for her. Enough to dream of being with her every single night...he loved her so much that it’s going to kill him.”

“Quill, that’s enough,” Blaze said sternly, not liking the way Quill was speaking, or the thoughts that must have been going through her head. “I know you’re worried about your brother, Quill, but you have to admit that he is much stronger and smarter than that.”

Quill started to blankly nod her head before wiping her face with her hand to snap her out of those depressing thoughts. “I know, I know, it’s just that...s-sorry,” Quill sighed again as she again tried to find some comfort in her own arms, failing to her displeasure. “I’m just tired and frustrated I guess. I haven’t had to think about that day for two years now and I still can’t remember all of it. But Spike sure can.”

“Quill, I know it’s hard for you,” Blaze started, placing the necklace in front of Cinder, moving her hand back onto Quill’s shoulder afterwards. “But please, we can’t help you if you don’t tell us what is wrong.” Again, a wordless nod came from Quill as she seemed to be trying to straighten herself out. “Now, why don’t you start from what you can remember, sweetie.”

“Okay, okay,” Quill started, sitting up in the chair, and dragging her hands down her face before looking upwards to the stone ceiling. “The first thing I can remember was Spike polishing that thing, about...a week before our birthday.”

Blaze nodded her head as she plucked the Fire Ruby necklace from Cinder’s beak. “Good, dear, can you remember anything else? Maybe something that may have caused your own greed-growth?” Quill closed her eyes to remember the few days before hers and Spike’s greed-growth.

“I remember...us talking about something…something important.”

Celestia’s bright sun was already high above the small town of Ponyville, a quiet earth-pony town; a place where one could escape the hussle and bussle of the big city life. Home to some of Equestria’s many living wonders. The Elements of Harmony. The Dragul twins.

It had been close to two full years after the emergence of the Elements of Harmony, and a year after the crowning of the Lunar Goddess in the Lunar Republics. Though it wasn’t as though the Elements or the Goddess were in Ponyville, unlike the Dragul twins. They were deemed too young by their caretaker, the Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle, to partake in the battle with Nightmare Moon or even attend the crowning ceremony in the Republics. To top this, they were with the ones responsible for watching after the library in their caretaker’s absence, which happened often.

Both were upset about this in their own way; one wanted to help defend Equestria from Nightmare Moon while the other scolded himself for falling asleep. However, that had been over a year ago. So there was no reason to pout about it, especially with their birthdays coming up in less than a week.

“Spike, what in the world are you doing over there?” Quill asked while she was laying down on the large reading couch in the main lobby of the library, reading the latest issue of her favorite comic book. While Quill was ‘happy’ that their birthdays were coming up, Spike was a bit more so as he had something extra planned for himself. “You’ve been huddled over in the corner for a few more minutes than I’d like to think about.”

“I-It’s not what you think,” Spike quickly said as he stood up from the corner of two bookshelves with his hands held behind his back, sweating bullets down his face.

Quill continued to stare at her twin brother as he sweated worse than he had ever before and was easily able to see past his cheesy smile. “Yeah right, coal-head,” she started, hopping off the couch with her comic rolled up in her right hand. “And I’m going to win a million bits so I can finally have a place to myself. What’s behind your back?”

“You’re still not thinking of leaving me and Twilight, are you Quill?” Spike questioned as the trails of nervous sweat ended upon hearing the same type of conversation that he and Quill had been engaged in for the last few months. It had started out as nothing but a joke before they began looking into when and how they could find a place of their very own.

Quill wanted to leave right away; the moment she had a plan for everything. Spike wanted to wait until they at least had Twilight’s blessing before trying to live on their own. It was from this that the twins were given reasons to attempt to leave anyways, especially when tensions ran high.

“Come on we’ve talked about this, I thought that we-” A rolled up comicbook pressing against Spike’s nose silenced him as he caught the heated glare in Quill’s purple eyes. Tack that onto the small wisps of purple embers coming from Quill’s nose,

it was easy to tell that Quill wasn’t happy.

“And we’ve also talked about not stepping on each other’s toes any more, right?” Quill fakely asked before she turned back to the couch so she could flop right back down to continue reading. “I have my plans, you have your own, but that doesn’t answer what’s behind your back.”

“Fine, no sense of trying to hide it from you, at least,” Spike said, following his sister to the couch and taking a spot on an empty cushion. Quill shifted around on the couch, resting her lower back while she kept her feet on the couch, in spite of Twilight constantly telling them not too. Spike on the other hand sat up against the back of the couch as he fiddled with the object in his hands. “You promise not to tell anyone?”

“Spike, no one else is here,” Quill started in a flat tone, still miffed about the note Twilight left behind saying that she’d be back from Canterlot after taking care of some ‘business.’ Business that would take three days to finish. She hadn’t even told them in person! “And I don’t have any reason to tell anypony, so what is it Spike?”

Spike took in a deep breath before turning towards Quill and opening his hands. The moment Quill saw the red ruby in his hands she started drooling. Of all the gems and crystals that she and Spike had eaten before, that one ruby had to have been the biggest one she had ever seen.

“Sp-Spike, where did you get that thing?” Quill asked in a somewhat breathless tone of voice as she gazed back at her reddish reflection in the ruby. “Wait a minute, is that what’s called a Fire Ruby? Dude, those thing are rare as crap. How did you find one?”

Spike began chuckling at his sister as she beheld the ruby in his hands with pride and a smug grin on his face. “I try telling you to come with me and Rarity to dig for gems, but no~” Spike said, sticking his nose in the air with his eyes closed while he cuddled the ruby. “You’ve got to hang out with Rainbow Dash all the time.”

“Hey, you leave Rainbow out of this,” Quill snapped, shooting an angry glare towards Spike with a slight flex of her newly grown wings. “You have no idea what she goes through, and what I do in my spare time is my business!”

Spike moved back away from Quill once she started shouting at him. “Geez, calm down Quill, I was only joking,” he said with a small ping of fear from his sister’s sudden anger and aggression. After a moment passed, Quill calmed down enough to where her wings weren’t flexing outwards as attempt to scare Spike. “I knew you and Rainbow were close, but geez, did you have to try and bite my head off?”

“Sorry, Spike,” Quill sighed as she rubbed her hands down her face, feeling bad for yelling at her brother for something he didn’t know about. He was right when he said that she and Rainbow were close. However, with that closeness, came knowing secrets that were best left hidden from the world. “It’s just that...let’s not talk about Rainbow, m’kay?”

Spike meekly nodded his head, still having a look of fear and worry in his eyes. “Yeah… so anyway, you got that from helping Rarity?” Quill asked to get the conversation moving since they didn’t have anything to do for the next three days. “What, she gave you that as a treat?”

“Quill, please!” Spike hissed with a disapproving tone of voice with his own angry glare. “It isn’t like that, and you know that,” he said with a mild growl, which Quill overlooked. “I thought you said that you were through with her.”

“I am through with her Spike,” Quill quipped as she went back to her reading to keep her from arguing with her brother again. “If you want to waste your time with Rarity, be my guest. Just don’t come to me when you need needles pulled out of your scales again.”

“Come on Quill, she couldn’t find her pincushion,” Spike said, waving the ruby around in the air before going back to tending to it. “Anyway, I found this while helping her. It’s not a treat. It’s a birthday present to myself for all the hard work I do. I’ve been waiting for weeks for this baby to be ripe, and it’s almost ready.”

Quill looked up from her comic book to see Spike licking his lips as he stared at the gem with a hungry look in his eyes. “All the hard work you do, really? And it’s a birthday present to yourself? Fine, whatever, guess you’ve earned it,” Quill said before going back to reading her comic book so she could finish it already. “What with you being Rarity’s pack mule.”

“I am not Rarity’s pack mule!” Spike shouted in anger, this time taking on a more menacing glare in his eyes. “I’m her friend, and friends help each other out Quill. Something you don’t seem to get yet.”

“Oh, oh, I don’t get what it means to help someone out,” Quill snapped back again flexing her wings in anger towards her brother while embers of purple flames left her nose again, only to be matched with Spike doing the same. “There’s a difference between helping someone, and letting them use you, Spike. When are you going to get that?”

Both twins continued to glare at each other, growing more angry with the other by the moment. Quill couldn’t believe what Spike was saying to her. She didn’t know what it meant to be a friend? No, he just didn’t know when someone was using him or not.

“Rarity is not using me, Quill!” Spike roared, waking their pet phoenixes up from their naps. “I’m choosing to help her, Quill. That’s what friends do!” Quill rolled her eyes at Spike, knowing all too well that he wasn’t helping Rarity because he wanted to be only ‘friends’ with her. “What would you know anyway? You’re just still mad that you can’t have her!”

“When are you going to get it, Spike?!” Quill shouted, still glaring at Spike while her fists tightened by her sides. “Rarity isn’t ever going to love you. She is just going to keep on using you until she’s able to find someone else to drag around.”

“N...n-no she won’t, you take that back!” Spike roared in a weak and cracked voice while tears started to form around his eyes. “Rarity does love me, she just don’t know it yet. You’ll see, I’ll win her heart! I’ll make her mine!”

Quill continued to intensely stare into Spike’s tear filled eyes for a moment before sighing, as she closed her eyes to calm herself down. “Fine, you’ll show me alright. You delusional idiot,” she said before hopping off the couch and walking towards the door. “Cinder, come on.”

Spike watched as Quill’s pet phoenix flew from her shared perch with Peewee and onto Quill’s shoulder as she quickly approached the door. “Quill where are you going?” Spike questioned from the couch. Quill stopped at the door to look back at the look of confusion on Spike’s face for a moment before she turned around again. “Quill, Twi said not to leave the library. Quill wait what are you-”

“Out, Spike,” Quill cut in as she grabbed the door knob to open the door. “Me and Cin are going out for some fresh air okay? You can live with being by yourself for two minutes, right? If you really need to know, I can’t be locked up in here arguing with you all day,” she continued before stepping out, but stopping to say, “We’ll be back.”

She didn’t come home until after sunset.

Quill rubbed the side of her head after she finally finished the story of when she first saw the Fire Ruby and the first, and last, thing that she could rightfully remember. Afterwards, the days seemed to have blurred together to the point where she couldn’t recall much of them.

“After that,” she started, still rubbing her head as though she was suffering from a slight headache. “Me and Spike didn’t talk to each other much until Twilight came home. Even then it was still hard for me to look his way.”

Blaze looked at Quill as she continued to rub her head with a pained expression on her face. She then turned to Cyclone, who was toying with the necklace with a mixed look in her eyes. It was easy for her to see the hunger in Cyclone’s soft pink eyes for a gem of that quality, yet she also seemed back and forth from jealousy to disgust, and back again.

However, there was no time for her to think too heavily on the white dragoness’ warring emotions for the moment. “Cyclone, dear,” Blaze softly started to get her attention, and to not further the pain in Quill’s head. “Would you be so kind as to retrieve a lime-green vial from my chest over there?”

Cyclone sat up in her chair to look over her shoulder, quickly spotting the large dark-wooden chest on the other side of the dimly lit room. She then turned back to Quill, who was still holding her head with a growing pained expression on her face. It wasn’t hard to tell that Blaze had something planned to help relieve Quill of the pain, that something was locked inside of the wooden chest.

“Yes Clan-Mother,” Cyclone quickly said as she moved out of her chair to walk over to the chest on the other side of the room. Upon hearing the sound of Quill groaning, she quickened her pace so that she could do what she could to help. Once at the chest, Cyclone opened it up to find a large treasure-trove of potions, artifacts, cloths, and elixirs that Blaze kept in storage.

Most important at the moment, though, was a small lime-green vial standing out from the rest. “Cyclone dear, please hurry.” Cyclone quickly snatched the vial out of the chest, closing it before running back over to the other two.

Blaze quickly sparked her horn to take the vial out of Cyclone’s hand, popping the top and moving it over to Quill. “Quill, drink this. It’s an herb that’ll make you feel much better.” Quill reached out for the small vial with another slight groan leaving her lips. When Quill brought the vial closer, she caught a heavy wave of a foul smell reached her nose, forcing her to cringe in disgust. “Be sure to drink all of it.”

Having no choice, Quill brought the vial to her lips, and threw her head back to force herself to drink all of the elixir without having to taste in on her tongue. Once it was empty, Blaze again sparked her horn to take the vial away from Quill’s hands, while the purple dragoness again laid her head in her arms on the table.

Sound of incoherent mumbling started to come from Quill along with a few trails of steam from her head. “Clan-Mother,” Cyclone started, getting Blaze to slightly turn her attention towards her. “Wh-what’s wrong with Quill? Why is she suddenly acting like she is sick?”

“Quill is fine, dear,” Blaze started, rubbing Cyclone’s cheek with the back of her hand, and smiling at her. “She is just a little tired and confused. A lot has happened to her today, she just needs a moment to ‘cool off’ as it were.”

Cyclone looked back towards Quill as she was starting to shake and shiver a little, with the same amount of steam coming from her. “Okay Clan-Mother, is there anything I can do to help?” Blaze’s soft smile grew at the sound of Cyclone willing to help in any way she could; a sign that their pack was growing closer.

“Yes dear, could you and Cinder head out to the city ruins to go fetch the others for me?” Blaze asked in a soft voice, sparking her horn to teleport an extra fire-stone from her bedroom to give to Cyclone. “Be a dear and tell Spike and Frost to come here for a moment so we can see about this whole necklace thing.”

Cyclone took the fire-stone out of Blaze’s magical grip, feeling powerful pulses throbbing from it. “Alright Clan-Mother, I’ll-”

“Wait,” Quill suddenly started, lazily turning her head over to look at the two, and taking a deep breath to get what she need to say out. “T-the green duffle bag, i-it has the p-plastic rolls in them. Ta...take that too.”

Blaze gently placed her hands on the top of Quill’s head to push the dragoness’ head back into her folded arms. “Quill, you’ll feel much better after you take a little nap, alright?” Blaze soothed while rubbing Quill’s shoulder as she took hold of Quill’s arm. “Cyclone will get the plastic to the others, you just rest.”

While Blaze tended to the dragoness, Cyclone looked behind Blaze’s chair to see the duffle bags that Quill was talking about, and picked up the green one, surprised at how light it was. “Quill, do you want to me to take this too?”

Quill moved her eyes off the stone and wooden table to look at Cyclone holding the Fire Ruby in her hands. “No, le-leave that h-here,” she said, turning her head over away from Cyclone and Blaze. Cyclone then turned to Blaze, but only saw the mare shaking her head a little. “Just tell S-Spike I got to talk to him. Nothing el-else.”

“Alright Quill,” Cyclone said, only getting a groan of light-gray smoke from Quill. She sighed at the dragoness, worried to death about her sudden change. When she looked over at Quill’s bird, she quickly saw that even Cinder was worried for her. “Come on Cinder, let’s go and get the others.”

Cinder continued to stand on the table, watching her master groan in pain, ignoring the newcomer’s command. She was far too concerned for the one that had given her a home, fed her, and played with her all these years.

“Cin,” Quill spoke, sounding even more tired than she did before, having to take a longer breath of air. She then turned her head to look Cinder in the eyes, getting the bird to flinch when she saw that her eyes had an undertone of silver outlining them.

Cinder was snapped out of her shock when Quill reached out with her hand to pet her head. “Go on with Cyclone already, girl,” she said with a droopy and soft smile that Quill wasn’t particularly known for. “I’ll be fine, Blaze knows what she is doing. Right Blaze, everything is okay, right? I-I’m going to be fine right, tell Cinder that-”

“Rest Quill, you really must stop talking for now,” Blaze said, placing a finger on Quill’s lips, and gently rubbing her head to calm her down. “Yes you are okay, but you need to rest for a bit.” In her delirious state, Quill couldn’t help but listen to Blaze’s calming words, and soon closed her eyes to get the rest she didn’t know she even needed.

Once Quill’s eyes finally closed shut, Blaze moved her chair to be right next to Quill so she could lay her arm around the sleeping dragoness’ back. “Go on with Cyclone, Cinder,” Blaze said, looking towards the purple and black phoenix with a growing maternal smile. “I promise that everything is alright, she just needs to rest for a bit.”

After looking into Blaze’s eyes for another moment, Cinder hopped over to Quill to give her a quick nuzzle before flying off to Cyclone’s shoulder. “I love you Cin,” Quill mumbled in her sleep with a wide smile growing on her face. “You are...my closest...friend.”

“Hey, ow,” Cyclone suddenly winced when Cinder’s talons started to dig into her scales as her body tensed up. “Cinder, ease up will you?” Cinder shook her head and blinked several times, seeming to be confused, or not having fully heard Cyclone’s words after what Quill just said. However, Cinder did start to ease her body a little, taking on a slightly pained expression.

“Hey Cinder, are you okay?” Cyclone asked, seeing that the bird had to have been completely worried about Quill. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.” Cinder turned her head a little to meet Cyclone’s soft pink eyes for the first time and somehow found some kind of peace within them, enough so to nod her head in soundless answer.

Cyclone again turned to met the crimson eyes of one she was beginning to look to for guidance. “She’s right, Cinder,” Blaze said, catching the lost look in Cyclone’s eyes, and knowing that she didn’t know how to fully approach the bird just yet. “You don’t have to go with Cyclone, you can stay here with Quill and I.”

Cinder slowly shook her head as she knew that she could trust Blaze with the one she cared for the most. “Well, alright girl, if you really want to.” Still slowly, almost not wanting to, Cinder nodded her head while her eyes were trained on the sleeping Quill. “Okay, Cyclone, go to the city ruins. You should be able to find everyone if you leave throughout the double doors in the mansion. Cinder should be able to guide you.”

“Okay Clan-Mother,” Cyclone said as she secured the green duffle bag on her back and started for the arcane slab-door with Cinder resting on her shoulder. Once there, Cyclone moved the fire-stone towards the stone door, and waited for it to move aside.

The large circular slab started to hum as it began emitting a violet-red light, the same as the fire-stone, before it moved with the sound of stone grinding on stone. Cyclone again took a look back to Blaze, who was gently rocking Quill in her sleep while she hummed the same soothing melody as she had for Cyclone.

“We’ll be back soon Clan-Mother,” Cyclone softly said, so as to not wake Quill up from her fevered sleep. Blaze turned her head over to Cyclone, smiling softly. “I promise, I won’t let you down.”

“I know dear. You never could,” Blaze said with a soft singing voice before she turned her head around to lay it against Quill’s. Cyclone nodded her head with a determined smile before she started out of the room before the slab door could close. Once the dragoness was gone, Blaze resumed her soft humming to help further ease the pain Quill was going through right now.

“You’re growing so fast, dear,” Blaze whispered in the same singing voice that she’d used to say farewell to Cyclone. And just like with Cyclone, the maternal dragoness instincts inside of Blaze’s dragon’s soul was forcing her to succumb to its influences. “Growing so powerful in a matter of just two months,” she continued as she moved her right hand down the side of Quill’s body, tenderly rubbing it through her black shirt. “You’ll be fine dear, whoever thought it best to mess with your memories will pay dearly.”

Slowly, the black markings on Blaze’s body began emerging at an increasing pace as she continued to softly hum against Quill’s head. Blaze briefly opened her eyes to reveal that her irises had turned into two black slits while her eyes were shining with a bright crimson light. “I’ll see to that myself. No one will harm my children and get away with it. However, for now, rest my sweet Quill, you deserve it.”

Blaze soon closed her eyes again as she went back to humming her soft melody along with her gentle rocking. Quill wasn’t the only one that had been through much these past few days, everyone in High Moon had been busy doing something or another, and it seemed that the strain was starting to catch up with some of them.

“You’ve all done so well. I’m just so proud of all of you,” Blaze cooed into Quill’s ear as the dragon markings lightly pulsed with a dull blood-red light on her body. “All of you have something to be proud of. You’ve all done so much, and you all will continue to grow and support each other.”

Blaze removed her head from Quill’s to look down at her with lowered eyes, which were still shining a vibrant crimson. The soft smile on the dragoness’ face told her that Quill was no longer being haunted with memories that she couldn’t even remember.

“Rest easy, my child,” she said to her. The same thing that Blaze had silently spoken to both the twins over the last two months. Blaze then turned her attention towards the Fire Ruby necklace that had triggered Quill’s sudden condition.

Sparking her horn, Blaze brought the necklace closer to her, gazing into the bright blood-red ruby with a sense of abhorrence. Of course, she didn’t hold any anger towards the actual necklace or the ruby trapped inside, but instead towards the ill memories that the twins have of it.

Whatever they may be, Blaze was sure that it would cause some kind of conflict between the twins, but she’d be there to end it. “They are stronger than you,” Blaze began, shooting the ruby daggers of hate, letting it fall back to the table.

The longer Blaze stared down at the ruby necklace, the more she could feel the dragon’s soul inside of her reacting, forcing waves of maternal dragoness instincts to cloud her mind. “They are smarter than to fall for your tricks. They will overcome the hardships you dare throw at them. You will no longer exist in their world.”