They told Twilight to stay out of the room they'd taken in the castle as they worked feverishly to save Trixie. The only one of them allowed in the room as they operated was Luna, for the sole reason that she was the only one that could use the healing device since Twilight's magic had been out of action since the fight with Pearl. A fight that had ended barely two hours ago.

Twilight reached up to wipe some fresh tears away, disturbing the filly that had been leaning up against the left side of her as it didn't have a injured wing drooping over it, "Sorry." The filly grunted, neither caring or annoyed that Twilight had moved. Her own eyes glistened with tears.

"It's fine," she whispered, even when she was far from fine herself. She hated this. A year ago she wouldn't have cared. Now she found herself crying at the thought of losing a pony like Trixie. She hated the thought of losing any of her new family.

She tensed up slightly upon thinking that. She'd been trying to avoid thinking of what the six of them had in those terms, but it had apparently happened anyway. "Crap. That must make Trixie my crazy big sister or something."

"Excuse me?" Fleur said from her leaning place against the wall.

"I just realised I consider you to be like my family. My incredibly unusual and dysfunctional family, but family none the less. I'm guessing that makes Trixie my crazy big sister."

"I'm not mom," Fleur said quickly. "I could live with auntie perhaps."

"But Twilight and Octavia were going to be the aunties. I guess I'll just have to have three aunties then. Summer being my other big sister of course."

"Guys," Twilight said quietly, "please, I don't need this right now."

"Sorry Twilight," Fleur sighed. "Guess even I like having a distraction from all this. I'm sure Trixie will be fine though." Fleur's ears flicked up as Octavia and Summer emerged from another room next door to the one they were gathered at. "How are they?" she asked.

"Nightlight's still not breathing great, and won't be until we either get the healing device on him, or the swelling goes down. Sweetheart should be fine once she wakes up. Physically at least. I'm pretty sure she wasn't expecting to wake up after what she went through." Octavia looked at Twilight and swallowed, "H-how's Trixie?"

"Sawbones, Suture, and Luna are still working on her. We haven't seen them since."

"I see." Octavia sat heavily and leant against the wall, her legs trembling as she closed her eyes. Fleur watched her, but looked away as Octavia opened her eyes again and caught her looking. "I'm fine."

"I didn't say you weren't." Fleur turned away from Octavia, instead watching Summer as she tapped Twilight on the shoulder.

"Twilight, I... I'm sorry about Trixie getting hurt. I'm sure she'll be okay with your healing thingy on her."

"Yeah."

"Wou- Would you like me to take a look at your wing?"

"Alright." Twilight barely even flinched as Summer picked her wing up and manoeuvred it about before deciding on something and pushing the base joint back into its socket. "Thanks," Twilight said as she gingerly folded the wing in. Her eyes didn't leave the door to Trixie's room once.

"I know this is our typical dumb question," Fleur said, trying to keep her voice even, "but are you okay Twilight?"

"No," Twilight answered, quickly and honestly. "I thought I saw her die, and my first thought was to beat the crap out of Pearl and ask why she'd done all this..." Twilight turned to Fleur, fresh tears flowing down her cheeks, "What kind of pony does that? When I died Trixie didn't even look at Filigree once beyond killing him! But me? I'm too busy questioning Pearl that the thought of helping Trixie didn't even figure until she killed Pearl herself!"

"But you thought she was dead," Fleur tried to reason.

"Obviously she wasn't! I didn't even check! I just wanted to kill Pearl! After questioning her apparently..."

"In all fairness," said the filly, "that should've been your first concern. She'd only attack more if you didn't kill her first."

"But to question her? To demand answers for why she's done the things she has?" Twilight shook her head, "I'm an idiot. Even Trixie knew I was being an idiot as I was doing it. 'Last time you got talky, you died.' Even though she was almost dead she was looking out for me."

"Nopony's going to blame you for not being in your right mind after what you'd gone through at that point," Octavia said as soothingly as she could. "I imagine that Trixie wouldn't blame you either. The fact is though that she's alive. If you hadn't got to her when you did she might not have."

"Pearl kept her alive just so she could kill Trixie in front of me."

"Ah..." Octavia pulled a face, "The hubris of that mare is incredible. Seems to have backfired on her since she failed to kill either of you."

"That's not the point."

"Isn't it?"

Twilight stamped a hoof, "Of course it isn't! My point is that I'm a terrible pony because I could only think of getting answers out of Pearl rather than worry about Trixie even though I'd done nothing but fight to try and save her!"

Octavia shook her head as Twilight beat herself up over this, "You can't help being a curious pony Twilight."

Twilight grit her teeth, trying to suppress her anger, "Is that supposed to make me feel better? Because it's failing. I can ignore my severely wounded friends in favour of getting answers to questions I don't need answered? Especially when I already know most of the answers already? How about you stop treating me like I'm being stupid when I'm... I'm..."

"Only a pony?" Fleur suggested.

"Exactly. I make mistakes, and I can beat myself up over them if I want." Twilight sank to the floor and covered her face with her hooves. She didn't even know what her argument really was at this point other than she was an awful pony. "Leave me alone."

"Twilight-"

"Please. I just want to be on my own right now."

Fleur looked to Octavia, the grey mare shrugging in response. None of them really wanted to go, but forcing their presence around Twilight was only going to cause more upset in the long run.

The filly stood and stretched her legs, "Come on Fleur. We've got the rest of the castle to explore. Or... at least the parts of it not full of bodies."

Fleur nodded. She knew there was something she had to see before she did much else. "You coming Octavia? Summer?"

"We still need to keep an eye on ponies here," Summer reminded Octavia.

Octavia nodded, "Summer's right. The ponies here might need our help if some of the wounded take a turn for the worse." Left unsaid was the implication that Trixie was one of those ponies. Also left unsaid was that it wasn't just the wounded that could take a turn for the worse.

"Alright, we probably won't be gone too long."

"Maybe we can find a stick and poke Pearl's body."

"Are you really sure you're okay?" Fleur asked the filly as they made their way through the castle. "I know, it's the dumb question."

"I'll be fine if Trixie survives, which she will. She's too annoying to die."

"So true." They stopped as a trio of unicorns passed, a collection of bodies floating behind them. It hadn't really crept into their collective minds that the battle was over and that Prance was free, allowing them to begin the clean-up process.

"Hello! Prance to Fleur! You in there?" Fleur blinked rapidly and shook her head as the filly waved a hoof in front of her eyes. "There you are! Welcome back!"

"Sorry. I guess not sleeping last night is starting to get to me. I only just sort of realised that we won."

"What d' you mean 'we?' We didn't do a thing, except sit around some fires and throw the occasional stick on for a short lived distraction. Not exactly high in the doing stuff department."

"I meant we as in the rebellion, but sure, have a fit of pedanticism at me if you want."

The filly tapped a hoof irritably, "You're putting this off, aren't you?"

"Of course I am! Last time I saw her before today I was reduced to a trembling wreck!"

"And? She's dead now, so suck it up." The filly started walking again, forcing Fleur to either follow her or stand there on her own like an idiot.

Feeling that being an idiot was a poor choice, Fleur followed, silently, until they were at the doorway that Twilight had battered open. She stopped, her legs feeling like jelly as she started to breathe rapidly.

"Come on Fleur, you can do this." The filly smiled up at Fleur, "I'm right here with you."

"Sorry to say this, but that isn't quite the comfort you think it is." Fleur could almost feel her leg burning again at the thought of having to go in that room and see Pearl. Realistically she knew she could just walk away and take Twilight's word on it that she was definitely dead. But she also knew that Pearl would forever be the boogeymare under her bed if she didn't see this for herself.

"Alright." Fleur forced her breathing to steady, her chest visibly shuddering with the effort to slow down. "Let's do this." She placed one hoof onto the metal floor of the room containing Pearl's body, where it had been left undisturbed since her death. It took her a moment to follow it with another hoof. She entered the room and froze as she saw the body pressed up against the wall, a trail of armour segments leading up to it, and the helmet next to it. Without the helmet blocking the view there was no denying it was Pearl.

Fleur kept expecting her to move, or do something. She'd wanted Pearl dead, but now she could see the body before her, Fleur found herself terrified that this was all a trick, or deception, or something. She kept expecting to hear the sound of Pearl's voice, or her mocking laughter. Anything to say that she wasn't really gone. But all was silent save for the sound of their hooves.

Fleur forced herself towards the body, each step an internal battle between running and crying, but she made it, and close up she could only think that the body didn't even really look like her. It had all the same features, but lying here peacefully, it looked totally different.

The filly moved one of Pearl's forehooves, and jumped as it moved back towards where it had been, rigor-mortis having set in. "This is so weird." The filly looked up, seeing the expression of confused terror on Fleur's face, "Ya alright there?"

"So much of me refuses to believe this is real. It looks like her. Heck, it even smells like her, but it doesn't feel like her."

"It's just a body Fleur. The crazy pony driving it is long gone."

"I guess. I just never thought I'd see her like this, lying here looking so peaceful with her head stuck in a puddle of her own dried-up blood. Less so with a hole in her chest." Fleur silently observed the body for a few seconds, "This is beyond surreal."

"What do you think we should do with her?"

"Huh?" Fleur said dumbly, caught off-guard by the question.

"Her body. What do you think we should do with it?"

"Why should we do anything with it?"

"Because she's been a part of things for a while, and it feels wrong to just toss her in with the rest of the dead." The filly shrugged, "Maybe I'm just being silly, but I kind of think she's just as much a victim of this place as anypony else." The filly tugged at the armour until half of Pearl's cutie mark was exposed, "You said her talent was in jewellery right?"

"Yeah?" Fleur answered, unsure where the filly was going with this.

The filly released her hold on the armour, "Then just think how different her life could have been if she wasn't brought up in the situation she was. Her father made her into this. She didn't choose it for herself."

"I guess."

"I think we should find where she buried her husband and bury her next to him. Goodness knows she doesn't deserve it, but it just feels... right, y'know?"

"You know he was probably buried at High Rock."

"I figured, but we can use magic to preserve the body until then can't we?" The filly waited for an answer, but got none as Fleur was staring intently at Pearl's neck. "If you think I'm being stupid with all this you can tell me."

Fleur's horn started glowing and pulled on the thin silver necklace she'd spotted down in Pearl's armour around her neck. An ornate locket slipped out and with some reluctance she opened it. Inside was a small, hoof-drawn, monochrome image of her husband and two kids, a filly and a colt, with an engraving of four words on the opposite side saying with all my heart.

Fleur's chest tensed, and a couple of tears slipped down her cheeks before they were quickly wiped away. "Typical. Even though she's dead she's still playing with me."

The filly peered at the image in the locket, "So she was just a normal mare behind closed doors. Fuckin' a."

"You're right though. I think we should bury her with her husband, if we can find out where he is. Celestia knows she doesn't deserve it, but I think it'll be better for everypony to see her dead and buried properly, just so we can be sure she's gone. And yeah, it does feel right." She tucked the locket back into Pearl's armour before looking up at the ceiling and sighing, "I can't fucking believe this."

"You know, that locket was rather nice," the filly said after a few moments.

"You can't sell it."

The filly held up her hooves, "Not what I was going for. I was just wondering if she had any more stuff like that somewhere. She must've had a room here somewhere, so I was just, you know, curious."

Fleur breathed in through her nose and exhaled slowly. She did need a distraction, or she might have spent the rest of the day next to Pearl's corpse just to make sure it didn't move at some point.

"Alright."

It turns out there was quite a bit more to the castle than the parts they had seen so far would suggest, and it took them over an hour to locate Pearl's room. Not least because it didn't look any more significant than any other room in the castle, and might have been missed if Fleur hadn't caught the scent of Pearl's perfume of choice inside it.

"You're really sure this is the one," the filly asked as they entered the room.

"I'm not going to say I'm a hundred percent sure, but I could recognise the perfume she wears with a bag over my head." Fleur paused at the mental image she got from that, since it had kind of happened.

The filly leant up against the desk to the left of the double bed, and stopped as she saw something that was bound to piss Fleur off immensely. "You might want to look at this. Or not. I can't decide."

"What is it?"

"Just come and look." Fleur did so, not sure what to expect. She certainly didn't expect to find a gold and silver necklace of her cutie mark resting on top of a folded up piece of paper next to a small wooden box. "Weird huh?"

Fleur slowly picked up the necklace, studying it for a moment. The two smaller flowers were done in silver, and were intricately designed, and were linked to the larger golden flower with delicate gold chains. It was beautiful, yet horrible all at the same time.

Was it meant to be an apology? Or was it something Pearl had intended to give her while she was in High Rock. Or was it made for the sole purpose of screwing with her. That at least seemed the most likely.

"Well lookie here," the filly said, disturbing Fleur from staring at the necklace. She'd unfolded the piece of paper the necklace had been resting on, finding a hoof drawn yet detailed map of High Rock keep, with every room labelled.

"What the..?" Fleur turned the map slightly towards her, and was about to ask why Pearl felt the need to give them a map of the Duke's stronghold, when she saw one of the rooms was circled with an arrow pointing to it. She followed the arrow to its source to find a message written at the bottom of the map in an intricate script.

"This is where my kids room is," the filly read out loud. "Please keep them safe. I didn't want them to see me hang." Fleur grit her teeth as anger bubbled up inside her. The message contained neither an explanation for the necklace, or an apology of any kind. Instead there was a request to keep her kids safe. The kids Pearl clearly loved too much to have them see her die. The worst part was that Fleur would probably do it too, and they both knew it.

Fleur moved to fling the necklace across the room, but found that she couldn't actually do it. Instead she bucked as hard as she could, hitting the door hard enough that it bounced straight back open again.

"Rraagh!" she screamed as she bucked the door again, breaking the latch entirely. Then she stood shifting her weight from hoof to hoof as it had hurt rather more that she intended it to.

"Fleur?" the filly said nervously. She wasn't used to seeing the usually placid Fleur like this, and it was a little bit frightening.

"How could she do this to me? How? This is the mare that cut off my horn, hammered nails into my hooves, and went doodling on my leg with a red hot poker! I should be over the moon that she's dead, but instead I'm- I'm... sad! And angry! And definitely confused! Then she asks me to make sure her kids are okay because she damned fucking well knows I'll do it too."

"You don't have to you know. They aren't your problem."

"And yet they are because she made them my problem. Because she knows I couldn't leave them with nothing like we had. Because she knows me better than she should."

The filly pulled a face as she thought, then concluded it with a shrug, "Do you think she plans this all out ahead?"

"I don't know. I really, really don't know." Fleur sat down and sighed, "Was there anything else on there?"

The filly turned back to the map, "Uh... keep my jewellery box, either for yourself, or to give to my kids when they're older. Up to you entirely."

Fleur picked the box up in her magic and flipped the lid open. Inside was a mass of gold, silver, pearls and jewels that twinkled in the light. Fleur picked a couple out and flipped them over in magic. Each one was hallmarked with a tiny version of Pearl's cutie mark.

The filly dug her hoof in and pulled out a brooch. It was a rose made in silver, and dusted with tiny rubies that glittered in the light. "Wow. I really think Pearl missed her true calling by being a psychopath." She placed the brooch back in the box, "You think we should go tell Twilight about the map?"

Fleur placed the items she'd been holding back in the box, then pulled out a couple more. Then she remembered the necklace. She wasn't sure she wanted to give Pearl the satisfaction of having put it on, but as much as she hated it, she also thought it was beautiful. Fleur wasn't the kind of pony to try and find something beautiful in every pony she met, but for a pony like Pearl, she was at least satisfied in a way that there was beauty in there somewhere.

She put the necklace on, and of course it fit perfectly, having been made for her.

"Fleur?"

"Not yet," Fleur said quietly. "I think I want to look at more of this jewellery."

Twilight jumped as the door to Trixie's room swung open. She watched apprehensively as Sawbones and Suture walked out, both of them looking very sober.

"H-how is she?"

"Alive," Sawbones answered simply. "We've had to rebuild her ribcage by using your healing device and Selene's magic to basically glue each fragment back together, but there's nothing we can do about the punctured lungs or internal bleeding. However, if your device is as good as advertised I dare say she'll make a full recovery in no time."

"Okay. Thank you so much Sawbones, Suture. I mean it, thank you."

"It's your device doing all the work Twilight. That said, there was something that Selene wanted to tell you, so I suggest you talk to her about it. Now if you'll excuse us, we still have plenty to do." Sawbones nodded to her and walked off with Suture in tow, leaving Twilight on her own.

She pressed a hoof to the door and pushed, the door feeling like it weighed a ton. A few lamps illuminated the room beyond, their light mixing with the glow from Luna's horn as she kept a vigil over Trixie's still form, the healing device floating above her. Massive purple marks covered Trixie's body, and Twilight had to watch some time to see her take a tiny breath.

"Oh Trixie."

"She'll recover," Luna said, her voice cutting through the stillness of the room.

"Will she though?"

"I'd bet my immortal life on it Twilight, for the simple fact that Trixie should've been dead moments after Pearl crushed her chest."

Twilight's eyes went wide, "What? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Trixie shouldn't have survived Twilight. Even you or I might succumb to lesser injuries that that. Her ribs were shattered, her lungs punctured in multiple places, and some of her organs were ruptured. She shouldn't have survived, let alone got up to kill Pearl and still be alive now." Luna shrugged weakly, "But here she still is."

"I- I don't understand."

"I'm saying Twilight, that Trixie's injuries should have killed her, but they didn't. Or she's living in spite of them. I don't know, but something sustained her through all this Twilight."

"You mean like our second soul?"

Luna shook her head, "She's not an alicorn Twilight, I assure you, and you can't be slightly alicorn. She is one hundred percent unicorn, for better or worse, and so those injuries should have killed her."

Twilight was starting to lose her already shattered patience, and hearing Luna repeat how Trixie should be dead wasn't helping. "Then what? What could have kept her alive?"

"If I were to guess, I'd say her dark magic did."

"What? That's ridiculous! Dark magic can't do that!"

"Denying a pony the embrace of death to escape a body no longer capable of living sounds entirely within the realms of dark magic Twilight."

Twilight shuddered. Not even alicorns had to suffer that. "But why would it do that?"

"Dark magic has a will of its own Twilight, you know that. Who knows why it does what it does. If I were to say anything about it I'd say it's because it has a purpose for her that requires her to be alive."

Twilight felt sick, "But I thought she wasn't controlled by the dark magic. We destroyed her contract! What could it possibly want with her?"

Luna sighed slowly and shrugged, "I don't know Twilight, and we likely never will until it happens, and it might very well not happen for decades, or it could happen next week. Nopony can fathom the will of dark magic Twilight."

Twilight sat beside the table Trixie was laid on and ran the back of her hoof down Trixie's cheek. "Oh Trixie, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"I wouldn't despair just yet Twilight," Luna said soothingly. "Perhaps we can avert any future disaster by weaning her off dark magic and removing its hold from her."

"But surely this would only convince her that dark magic is a good thing since it saved her life like this."

"I didn't say it would be easy," Luna answered with a shrug. "For now let us at least be thankful that she's still with us."

"What would she become if we couldn't fix her?"

"I honestly cannot tell you Twilight. Maybe it only saved her because it knew we could heal her. If you wish answers Twilight, you shan't get them from me. All I can provide are guesses and speculation." Luna stood and stretched her back before sitting again, "I'm not sure how long I can keep doing this Twilight. I'll keep going as long as I can, but once I'm out of magic we can only hope she has the strength to hold on herself."

"She will. It seems that like us she doesn't have a choice."

Luna rolled her eyes, "Is this part of the usual session of beating yourself up?"

Twilight tensed her haunches, "Why does everypony get on my case about that? I should've been the one to fight Pearl, not Trixie, but Pearl had other ideas."

"So you think she would've fared better against all those soldiers?"

"Yes, by a long way." Twilight tried to relax herself again as getting angry wouldn't help anything. "It doesn't matter now anyway."

"Indeed not." Twilight didn't say anything further, instead choosing to rest her chin on her legs as she watched Trixie, the only sound in the room being the hum of Luna's horn. At least until Luna cleared her throat.

"I know you're distracted Twilight, and we can talk about this later if you wish, but there was something else I wanted to discuss with you."

"What's that?"

"The fact that you ran out of the castle screaming my name, my real name, in front of a large number of ponies, up to and including a significant amount of thestrals. Not to mention you called me Luna in front of the Wonderbolts."

Twilight felt herself cringe, "Ah..."

"I'm not angry Twilight, given the circumstances, but it does seem as if my identity is something we are at least going to have to address at some point soon. At the very least we will have to tell the thestrals and Wonderbolts who I am if nopony else."

"I guess." Luna waited for Twilight to say more, but the purple alicorn just clutched onto Trixie's hoof and remained silent to the point that Luna gave up.

"Let's not worry about it for now. Perhaps we should worry that the leader of the rebellion is currently here holding the hoof of a wounded pony when there is still much to do?" Luna again waited for Twilight to say something, "Yes? No?"

"Snowbright can handle it."

"That's good, because apparently you can not."

Twilight looked up at Luna sharply, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means Twilight, that you shouldn't be here. I appreciate that Trixie's your friend, but there are plenty of other ponies here that have dead and wounded friends, and they're still getting on with what they need to do. Octavia and Summer are getting on with their duties for example."

Twilight closed her eyes and looked away. Naturally Luna was totally right, and Twilight knew that before it had to be said. If she wanted to make herself feel worse she'd say it was selfish to expend so much effort on saving one pony when there were plenty more wounded in need of their healing device.

Actually she did feel worse now.

"Fine. You're right." Twilight stood, but her sight lingered on Trixie for several moments before she was able to pull herself away. "Take care of her."

"Of course Twilight."

Twilight trotted up to Snowbright slowly after having finally tracked him down to just inside the main gates. "What's going on?"

"So, our noble leader reveals herself at last."

Twilight winced at his words, "Sorry, but I couldn't-"

Snowbright held up a hoof to stop her, "Honestly Twilight, it's fine. I figured you would need a little time after what happened. How is Trixie?"

"Luna says she'll keep healing her for as long as she can, but hopefully Trixie 'll be fine."

Snowbright nodded, "That's good. I do have to ask about this Luna business. It's not the first time I've heard that name today, and the only Luna I could think of is the one of princess type fame in Equestria. I'm fairly certain she was supposed to be an alicorn like you though."

"She's in disguise," Twilight admitted in a tiny voice. Seemed the cat was really out of the bag now.

"As Selene?"

"Selene's just a cover. She's always been Luna. I'm curious... how do you know about Luna? I thought she was almost unheard of in Mareitania."

"Between you, your friends, the other ponies from Equestria, and mostly the thestrals, I've picked up a pretty good idea of who she is. I just wasn't expecting to find her under my nose. Any other Alicorns I should know about?"

"Here? No. And I would appreciate you keeping Luna's identity quiet for now. I imagine the thestrals would flip if they found out she was really here."

"Not just the thestrals."

Twilight frowned, "Well, I suppose I few other ponies might get excited but-"

"How do you think the followers of our dear Lady are going to react when they find the sister of Celestia, who's the supposed daughter of the Lady, therefore also making Luna the daughter of the Lady, is here, and also an alicorn?"

Twilight bit her lip, "That wouldn't be good. She'd never get them to leave her alone."

Snowbright shrugged, "That, or they'd burn her for heresy or something. You can't just introduce something new like that into a thousand year old story." Twilight groaned with frustration. She really didn't need this right now. If only she'd kept her big mouth shut none of this would be a problem.

"Fine. We'll tell the thestrals and a few others, but that's it. We'll have to do our best to keep it secret from everypony else. That also means you have to keep it a secret."

Snowbright shrugged, "Fine by me. The less Equestrian princesses we have the better."

Twilight's mouth hung open for a second before shutting with a click as she narrowed her eyes at Snowbright, "Meaning?"

"Meaning exactly what I said. We don't need any more Equestrian princesses here muddying the water when we're so close to ending this, so if she wishes to remain hidden, that's fine by me."

The side of Twilight's mouth pulled back as she scrutinised Snowbright, but either he was hiding what he meant, or he actually meant what he said. That, or Twilight wasn't as good at reading ponies as she liked to think, and what she was thinking was that Snowbright had an issue with Equestria. Unfortunately that didn't mean he was wrong as ponies would likely try put Luna into a similar role as herself, which wasn't needed or wanted.

"Okay... putting that aside, what's going on here and now?"

"Clearing the dead, treating the wounded, watching the prisoners, and... and that's it really. I've sent a flier to Daybreak to get him moving supplies up here, so that's pretty much it. We'll have to work out what to do with the prisoners soon as well."

Twilight tapped her horn, "And I've got no magic, so most of those options are closed to me. Flying too since my wing still hurts."

"You can pull a cart, can't you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?

"You didn't think we were carrying the dead out one by one did you?"

"Summer, how exactly do you wake a pony up after this long?"

"I was just going to poke her in the side until she woke up."

"I suppose." Octavia watched the gentle rise and fall of Sweetheart's chest, the pink unicorn showing no signs of having almost died on a gallows a few hours earlier.

"I'll do it if you want," Nightlight rasped from a bench nearby.

"No thank you," Octavia admonished him. "You stay there and focus on breathing."

"I can breathe fine. Why don't you worry about them instead of worrying about me." Nightlight gestured to the twenty other ponies in the room. All of them were in need of healing, but due to Trixie needing it more, and Twilight's horn being out of action, they were having to wait. That also meant that Octavia and Summer were given the fun task of keeping them alive. Easier now than it was earlier now the excitement had died down.

Octavia walked up to Nightlight and pressed a hoof to his side, taking a short moment to admire how well toned he was for a unicorn, "It's our job to worry about all of you Nightlight, now sit there and breathe, because you'll regret it should you find you suddenly can't."

Nightlight grumbled to himself as Octavia returned to the task of what to do about Sweetheart. Her eyes stopped on the unicorns horn, and she wondered how exactly these two had managed to escape having their horns removed when all the other native unicorns she'd seen were definitely lacking in the horn department. Then she shrugged and flicked the horn as hard as she could.

Sweetheart jumped into wakefulness, and her hooves shot up to grab her horn. Then she froze, her eyes going wide as the lack of termination of her life seemed a thing worth noting. She scrambled backwards until the back of her head hit the wall and stayed there, each sharp breath she sucked in ending in a little shriek until Octavia clamped her hooves over Sweetheart's mouth.

"Quiet, please." Octavia could feel Sweetheart try to shout through her hooves, "I don't mean to hurt you, but there are wounded ponies in here, and we need it to be quiet." Octavia frowned as Sweetheart's eyes darted about desperately, "Look at me," she commanded, and Sweetheart's eyes fixed on her. "You need to stop screaming, please. When I release you I want nothing resembling a scream to come out of your mouth, understood?" Sweetheart gave a series of small but rapid nods, "Good."

Octavia released the mare, and much to her credit she remained quiet, although her breathing was still rapid. Octavia asked her to slow her breathing, and eventually Sweetheart managed to bring herself under control long enough to blurt out a question "Where am I?"

"You're in the castle," Octavia told her. "You were brought here to recover after you... after you were, well, hung."

Sweetheart's eyes went wide again, and her hooves rubbed around her neck, "I'm not dead! How am I not dead?"

"They didn't weigh us down," Nightlight explained, his voice croaking. "They wanted it to be slow. The rebels got there in time and saved us."

Sweetheart scrambled to her hooves, "Nightlight! You're okay!"

Nightlight smiled crookedly, "Yep, still here yet."

"Don't be like that, I'm glad you're here." Sweetheart looked about the room as though she was searching for something, "Where are Flip and Mash?"

"I think they went out to help the rebels clear up since they weren't as bad as us by a long way. Guess that's earth ponies for ya."

"Yeah..." Sweetheart rubbed her neck again, "Wait, how come I feel fine? My neck doesn't hurt or anything."

"You were almost gone when we found you," Octavia explained. "We had to use healing magic to save you, which is why you don't have any injuries."

"Healing magic? Is that possible?"

"It's more of a healing device powered by magic, but yes, it's possible."

"Oh." Sweetheart felt around her neck again, her eyes becoming glazed over. Octavia thought they were going to lose her for a moment when her eyes focused again. "Huh... so... now what?"

"Whatever you want really. You can stay here and help out a bit if you want?"

Sweetheart appeared to think about it for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose that's the least I could do."

"Great! Summer can teach you-ack!" Octavia jumped as the door was slammed open by Fleur, who seemed just as surprised it happened.

"Sorry. Guess my magic's still a bit... fluctuatey. Oh hey! You're up!" she said to Sweetheart. "You had us real worried there for a while."

"No thanks to you," Nightlight said sharply.

"Excuse me?"

"Madam Pearl told us all about it, how you grassed us all up to try and save your own ass."

Fleur rolled her eyes as Nightlight glared at her, "Yeah, that sounds like something she'd say. How long ago did she take you prisoner?"

Nightlight stared at Fleur dumbly until Sweetheart answered for him. "A couple of weeks ago."

"Just after the thing that happened with the pegasi," Fleur said quietly. Louder she asked, "How long ago was I captured here?"

"Months ago," said Octavia.

"Exactly. If I was the one to rat you out I would've done it before now. Fact is though, they never even asked me about you, or anything really." Fleur closed her eyes as she remembered what they did do to her, but opened them again as the filly pressed up against her. "Pearl knew about you before I even came to Prance and met you. They just never did anything because you feeding ponies was actually helping them."

"That's bullshit!" Nightlight shouted, while Sweetheart seemed thoughtful. "Why take us prisoner when they did then?"

"Why take you prisoner at all? Did you ignore the message we sent telling you to go to into hiding because they were onto me?"

"What message?" Sweetheart asked. "We never had any message from you."

"But I asked See- Shit..." It occurred to Fleur that poor brainwashed Seeker had likely never delivered the message. If anything, she was probably the one to sell them out. A glance at the filly told Fleur she'd came to the same conclusion. "My point is I never sold you out. So there."

"It does kind of make sense Nighty," Sweetheart said to the grumbling stallion. "There is a pretty big time gap there." She stopped and stared at the bandage on Fleur's leg until Fleur moved the leg out of embarrassment. "Sorry, I was just wondering why you had that on. You don't appear to be injured."

"It's hiding the gift Pearl left me with."

"Along with that sweet necklace she's wearing," the filly interrupted happily.

"Necklace?" Octavia saw the necklace and raised a hoof to hold it as she looked, "Pearl made this?"

Fleur gave a small nod, "She did."

"I hate to say it, but it is very well made. I'm a little confused as to why you're wearing it since it was made by her."

"Because it's too nice not to." Fleur held the jewellery box in front of her and flicked the lid open, "There's plenty more if you want one. You too Sweetheart. Pearl said to do what I want with it."

"Maybe later," Octavia said while Sweetheart dove in. She stumbled over her thoughts for a second, "Wait, what do you mean 'Pearl said?'"

"There was a small letter written on a map of High Rock keep, along with a request to keep her kids safe." Octavia stared at Fleur with her eyes wide, "Yeah, my thoughts exactly."

"And she hoped to buy your... compliance with that necklace?"

"No idea. The necklace wasn't mentioned in her letter at all, so I have no idea why she made it." Fleur grinned weakly, "Let's just say I have very mixed feelings about all this, and it's typical of her to leave me guessing."

"Should we show this to Twilight?"

"Yeah, but I think we should wait until Trixie's recovered a bit and Twilight's head's a bit more together." Fleur watched as Sweetheart pulled out a pair of ruby earrings and put them on, "There's certainly plenty of other stuff to keep us busy for a while."

In the end Twilight was thankful for the simple yet distracting work that left her with only every other thought being consumed with worry over Trixie, instead of sitting around moping. It had also left her feeling extremely drained, and her hooves dragged as she made her way back to Trixie's room.

Luna was gone when Twilight walked in, but the steady rise and fall of Trixie's chest told her enough that Trixie was at least sustaining herself. The bruising had gone down, but there was still enough of it to suggest that she was still far from healthy.

Twilight decided to not worry about that right then. Instead she focused on the fact that Trixie was still here, even if she technically shouldn't have been. It was still a miracle even if its source was undesirable.

Again Twilight shoved those thoughts aside as she sat by the table and picked up Trixie's hoof in her own, holding it as she watched Trixie breathing. She adjusted herself to get more comfortable, and never even noticed she'd fallen asleep until she shivered hard enough to wake herself up.

She opened her eyes and saw her breath turn to mist before her eyes. The room was freezing, and what little light the lantern threw out seemed to be swallowed up by the shadows in the corners of the room, and yet Trixie seemed unaffected, lying as she was, sleeping peacefully.

Twilight used her magic to try and turn the lantern up, the weak spark of magic she conjured being more than enough for the task. She was about to turn the knob when the shadows shifted despite the light not changing, and she swore she could feel herself being watched.

Chills crept down her spine as the shadows seemed to take an interest in her, and she almost gasped with relief as they released her from their icy grip a few seconds later and moved their attention elsewhere. She blinked, and in the split second her eyes had closed for, they had gone. The room was back to normal, no longer chilly and the shadows no longer threatening.

She kept watching the corners of the room for a while, trying to work out what had happened, or even if it was just a figment of her imagination. It felt too real, and the memory of her being scrutinised so thoroughly was too vivid, like she was nothing more than a bug, totally beneath their notice. An interesting one perhaps, but still a mere insect. Not enough to hold their interest for long, whoever they were.

Twilight closed her eyes and breathed in and out slowly. She was about to put the whole experience down to her over-tired mind, when she looked down and shrieked. Between her hooves were three words scratched into the surface of the table, She is ours.

"Luna!"

"I don't know what this is Twilight," Luna admitted to the distraught purple alicorn beside her. "Never have I seen such a thing. Not with Sombra, and not with my own stint in the darkness. If anything this only proves that the darkness does have plans for her."

"Then how do we stop it?"

"Can we?" Luna frowned at the message cut into the table, "This is well beyond our knowledge Twilight. I've never seen the darkness manifest itself outside of a pony. I didn't even know it was possible for it to do so."

"But we can't just let the darkness turn Trixie into their- their... puppet!"

"Their?"

"It definitely felt like there was more than one of those things watching me."

"I see." Luna's horn started to glow as her magic probed the corners of the room, but there was nothing. If it wasn't for the message she might have dismissed Twilight's experience as nothing more than an nightmare brought on by stress. She kept testing the surroundings, but never found a trace of dark magic save for that within Trixie on the table before her.

"I don't know Twilight. I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't."

"But what about Trixie?"

"I'm afraid we may have to let her be for now."

"What? You can't be serious!"

"I wish I weren't," Luna sighed, "but to try and stop Trixie now she's so close to her goal would only be counterproductive, and would likely make her lash out against us. All we can really do is hope to reason with her once the Duke is dead at her hooves."

Twilight groaned and clutched her head in her hooves, "This is so messed up. Couldn't the Elements do something for her?"

"Maybe, but the Elements aren't here, are they." Luna placed a leg across Twilight's back, "Have faith in Trixie Twilight. I still believe she's her own pony yet."

"Based on what?"

"Based on who she is. There's still a lot of good in her Twilight, and wouldn't be here before us like this if she hadn't decided to help those ponies Pearl had taken hostage. Let us also not forget that her contract with the darkness was destroyed. She might have the darkness's interest, but I don't think she is under their control."

Twilight nodded weakly. She could only hope that what Luna said was true, despite the evidence scratched into the table in front of her. "Should we tell Trixie?"

"Perhaps it best she not know for now, lest the worry of it deliver her further into the darkness's grip." Luna's magic carved a swath of wood out of the table, taking the message with it. "If you should tell her though, that is your choice." Luna raised a hoof to her mouth to stifle a yawn, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed once I burn this. Inform me if anything more happens."

"Okay. Goodnight." Twilight stared blankly at the now blank spot on the table. This had quickly turned into something worse than she had thought possible. Her joy that Trixie was alive was being swiftly smothered by a horrible sense of dread.

Twilight spent most of the rest of the night watching over Trixie, leaving only once to go to the bathroom and fetch another lantern. Thankfully nothing happened while she was gone, which was more of a relief than Twilight really wanted it to be.

The light of dawn was starting to creep in through the window, and Twilight was just starting to doze off again when Trixie suddenly drew in a sharp breath and groaned.

"Ngghh... agh."

"Trixie?"

Trixie's face screwed up in pain and her eyes fluttered open to look at Twilight. "Hurts," she gasped through clenched teeth.

"Okay, hold on." Forcing her magic to get its act together, Twilight cast the anaesthetic spell. Trixie relaxed as the spell took her pain away, even as it added to that in Twilight's horn.

"Better." Trixie blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the light. Once they seemed to be working they fixed on Twilight, "What happened?" she asked, her speech a little slow and slurred.

"You were hurt pretty bad fighting Pearl. We were able to save you though."

"How bad?"

"Broken ribs, punctured lungs, ruptured organs..."

"How am I not dead?"

"You almost were," Twilight lied, "but we were able to get you under a healing device quick enough to save you."

"Mmhmm." Trixie closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing for a while.

"You did it though, you killed Pearl."

"I know, I remember. I'm guessing we're in the castle?"

Twilight nodded, then remembered Trixie had her eyes closed. "We are."

"'kay." Trixie wrinkled her nose, then pulled a hoof up to feel her face. Although it didn't hurt thanks to the spell, Trixie could still feel the bite mark on her muzzle, as well as the cut on her cheek. "Oh come on... you could've healed my face at least."

"They've healed a bit. I think they were focusing on the more important bits, like the stuff that keeps you alive."

"Fine," Trixie grumbled. "How long was I gone?"

"Not even a day, so you haven't really missed anything."

"Uh-huh.

"Doesn't matter though. You're not doing anything until you're better, which means a lot more healing."

"Greaaat. Can I make one small request then?"

"Of course," Twilight said brightly, her relief pushing her thought's on Trixie's situation away.

"Can I have a bed? This table's fricking hard."

Author's Notes:

Don't let the title mislead you. Trixie doesn't wear sleeves.