After what seemed to be an eternity of darkness, Relv’s vision slowly begins to return to him. His eyelids carefully pry themselves open, causing an immediate surge of bright light to strike him and temporarily blind him. A small pin of pain promptly follows in the back of his eyes as Relv’s senses soon return as well. Soon, small waves of pain rumble in his chest and a numb feeling at his neck. Soft, cotton cloths are then felt along his back and around his neck, followed by a cold fluid next to his chest pain. Recovering from his blindness, Relv opens his eyes and sees that he’s in a wooden room with a fireplace to his right and a window bringing daylight inside above the head of what appears to be a bed. Carefully, the red pony places a hoof to the numb area of his neck to find it wrapped in medical bandages.

“What the…” he mutters to himself.

A mare’s voice quickly responds to Relv’s groan from the other end of the bed, “Relv! I’m so happy you’re okay!”

“Fluttershy?” The Earth pony pulls his head up from the pillow and sees Fluttershy hovering over his stomach, holding a clear creamy substance in her hoof. His eyes follow the leg to his stomach. It is bruised and covered in dried red and black blood, with three enormous and deep slashes embedded in the middle of the bloody mess. In a second, Relv realizes what Fluttershy has and will do. “No need for that.”

“What? This disinfectant? I’m just going to help you not get infected and bandage your wounds. I already took care of your neck. Those bite marks that monster gave you were horrific. I’m surprised you were even able stay alive after that, let alone taking it down.”

“I acknowledge your efforts of gratitude, but I prefer you don’t. My leaked regeneration will repair the damage in time.”

“But you could get sick.”

“Let me be then, my repaired tissue as well as the rest of me can grow more natural immunity to infections.”

“Please Relv? I want to thank you as much as I can. Just let me have this moment.” The stallion looks up from the exposed wound and into Fluttershy’s enormous and deep eyes, feeling a slight sense of guilt in the back of his mind. “Please?”

“If you so desire.”

“Thank you.” Gently, the yellow pegasus’ hoof presses onto the massive gashes and slowly strokes each of them, letting the disinfecting juices seep throughout all of it. Relv’s face tightens with pain and agony, but remains overall stiff and indifferent throughout the entire procedure. “Sorry if that hurt.”

“No need to worry.” Then Fluttershy flies over behind the edge of the bed and pulls out a roll of medical bandage warps from it. Placing one end at Relv’s side, Fluttershy gracefully starts to wind it over and under Relv’s arched torso. Meanwhile, Relv looks behind where Fluttershy was and sees his harness, still holding his five swords, handing from an open door. “Did you carry my harness all the way back here?”

“It wasn’t easy, that thing is way heavier than is looks. But with a little help from AJ and Rainbow Dash, we managed.”

“I’m impressed.”

“You are?”

“Each of those swords weighs twenty-five kilograms.”

“They look a lot lighter when you hover them. Aw, shoot.”

“What?”

“I forgot the scissors.”

“Allow me.” Quickly, one of Relv’s swords emerges from its sheath and hovers right next to Fluttershy, causing her to flinch.

“Eep!”

“Apologies.” The yellow mare regains air stability and carefully lifts the white roll over the upturned blade.

“This is kinda what I mean…” She then slides the extended cloth down on the sharp edge and slices it apart from the bundle. There she proceeds to tie the new end into the multi-layered wrap around Relv’s chest.

“What are you going to do now? You don’t have to follow orders, don’t have any grievances with anypony else I hope, and not to mention your recovering from the recent battle that nearly killed you. Will you be sticking around Ponyville?”

“Most likely not, both Ponyville and Canterlot require some time to repair before I can challenge it. I won’t be much help with me stabbing a small knife in an already massive slice.”

“So, where will you be going?”

“Not entirely certain. I’ll need to perform some research of today’s times before taking any actions.”

“But you will come back?”

“Depends if I’ll be required to return back here for some reason or another.”

“Would one of those reasons be to say hi to me, or any of our friends?”

“Most likely not,”

“Oh…”

“One thing I am curious about though… How have your friends reacted to all of this?”

“…”

“I see they’re still not happy with you setting me free and that you’re also scared of going to prison.”

“Wait, wha-”

“Your facial movements and how your grip of the bandages has tightened told me everything.”

“Luna said that if the courts don’t have proof that you were completely responsible for your outbreak or catch you, it’ll be a giant sentencing for me.”

“I see… I’ll take care of it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to attack the courts.”

“I’m not.”

“Relv,”

“Yes?”

“What was it like when you unleashed that final power? Nightmare…”

“Nightmare Formation,”

“Yeah,”

“Well, for starts, very painful throughout the entire ordeal, both in transformation and in combat. I also felt very stupid, aggressive, angry, animalistic, being more instinctive in everything I did without any self-conscious thoughts. It didn’t help that all I saw was red and black.”

“Were you scared of going out of control?”

“Before, yes, during the fight however, the thought never slipped into my train of thought. Fortunately that beast gave a worthy enough fight for me to quench my bloodlust long enough for the power to wear off.”

“What if you did go out of control?”

“As Nightmare Relv, I wouldn’t be able to stop, not for thousands of years until something stronger came along and destroyed me. But by then, all that suffering and destruction I would’ve brought, ponykind probably wouldn’t have lasted. As my normal self, I would be destroyed, ashamed at myself for letting this happen, and feel complete sorrow for every life I destroy.”

“Well, at least you didn’t right.”

“Perhaps, however, maybe somewhere out there. Out there in another world a lot like our own, I didn’t stop…”

“Don’t beat yourself up for something you didn’t do. Be happy with what you actually did.” A loud banging on the houses from door is then heard by the duo. “Oh no…”

“What?”

“It’s them, the few guards remaining to take me away. Stay here and heal while I sort things out.” Frantically, Fluttershy flies down to the front room and opens the door. Immediately, she is greeted by two large white stallions in their golden armour. “Can I help you?”

“By order of the royal courts,” one of the sentries proclaim, “we have come to take you and Relv to prison for your treason against Equestria.”

“I didn’t mean for something bad like Relv’s attack to happen.”

“We’re sorry,” the second guard sternly scolds, “you can tell it to the judges. We don’t make the declarations, we enforce it.”

“Well your enforcements are some of the poorest I have ever seen…” A stallion’s voice calls from the corner of the front room. The three ponies at the door look back to see Relv, with his harness back on his body, slowly walking up to them.

“Excuse me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? This mare’s merely been a pawn that I controlled in my escape, much to Celestia’s idiocy. Behold… Unleashing Power #27: Telepathy!” Relv, now standing right beside Fluttershy, dramatically turns to her and raises a hoof to her forehead, shaking it in the process. Fluttershy gives an awkward look in response to Relv’s movements.

The first guard suddenly exclaims, “He’s mind controlling her! I can sense it!” Relv then breaks from his gesture and slaps the first guard with the back of his hoof, dizzily knocking him aside. With the wide gap now between the two stallions, Relv runs right between them and runs out into the Everfree Forest.

“Quickly!” the second guard commands, “After him! Notify the courts that it’s all Relv’s fault!” Quickly, the two sentries follow in pursuit of Relv into the forest and out of Fluttershy’s sight.

Confused at what just happened, Fluttershy takes a step back to the door and thinks, “Relv wasn’t mind controlling me. Twilight said telepathy doesn’t work like that. So how did that guard sense… Oh… Relv, you clever stallion.” The mare then looks back out the door to where Relv disappeared into the thick of the forest. “Well, goodbye Relv. I hope we can meet again as friends.” Fluttershy soon starts to feel her eyes water as she continues to stare out, imagining seeing Relv run away. “Good luck friend…”

“Luna told me what happened out there in Ponyville. She told me in great detail of you becoming some super-creature and fighting the Hades Timberwolf, saving Ponyville as well as most of Equestria. I’m happy for you Relv. I’ve had my own encounters with several great beasts, I told you that for certain. Now knowing what that final power is, brings both great joy and despair in my heart. I fear that you may use it and inadvertently destroy innocent lives, yet I know that you’ve learned never to take it likely from the first time you used it. At this moment, you may be running from the law as of this moment. Do so, I have come to understand what you want. You want to keep us vigilant, to advance our efforts to end the true, ultimate evil and suffering of all and bring joy and prosperity. I may not agree with your views at times, but that’s what you want. Because you’re the evil Equestria deserves, the evil for us to pursue. So the law will continue to hunt you because you want to take the hunt, you want us to try harder, and advance us all as one. You either die a hero now or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. You intend to act as the latter, but never bring harm to the truly pure and innocent. So in the end, what are you? Are you a hero? Are you a villain? Or are you something else? A while ago, I kept asking myself why I didn't end you. And now I know the truth is, I let you live, because of you. Because I believed in you, deep inside, that you were still a good friend and companion to be at my side for the ages. Though false as I come to see it, however, I realize what I was coming to understanding you. Now I realize that the only way we can be together is if we’re enemies. But we see ourselves enemies with a common goal, a goal to help the world we live in. I didn’t know how to accomplish it before when I became the ruling princess, I was put in charge of a kingdom filled with ponies of all shapes and sizes, and I couldn’t change them anymore than I could’ve changed this kingdom greatly for the better and bring honour to my family. At least, that's what I used to think, until you fought me, all of those times throughout the ages. Maybe... Maybe I can give them something to strive for to help this kingdom. Maybe you can give them something to strive for. You’re not our hero. You’re not our villain. You’re a silent guardian. You are a watchful protector, a paladin of darkness to counter the light. May we clash together as the centuries come and go, fighting as one against each other. Relv, the Black Paladin.”