Luna called Solid Charge away from the Royal Guards and to her side. The minotaur was in a bad mood—they all were—and it had fallen to him to talk with the Royal Guards that escorted the medical ponies, and give them statements. There hadn’t been much left for any doctor to do. They simply had to take the body away, while the guards found out what happened.

“Have you answered their questions to their satisfaction?” Luna asked when Solid Charge stood in front of her. She and Raegdan stood apart from the rest, sitting against the wall of the building and as far away from light and company.

“Yes, Princess, as much as I felt it was necessary for them to know at least. I thought it prudent to downplay your involvement in the stallion’s death.”

“Are you trying to imply something, my commander?” Luna said, her facial expression blank.

“Princess?”

“You seem to be hinting at a certain notion. Am I incorrect?” Raegdan’s helmet moved to the side at Luna’s question while keeping Solid Charge in sight.

“No, Princess,” Solid Charge answered her bluntly. “You’re not. I will be the first to admit that this false idea is entirely founded on my distrust of Raegdan and nothing else. Forgive me.”

“It is already forgotten.” Applejack followed Luna’s head movement, and stared at the grieving siblings.

Stormdrain had barely fallen asleep for scant minutes. By the time he woke up, a devastating return to reality caused by his sister’s screams, he no longer had an older brother. Right now the young colt was all that was keeping Mint from falling apart. Brother and sister had asked to be left alone for a bit, and they had all complied with their request, watching them from afar as they sat together, hugging each other. When they had brought down Tar’s body Mint had turned Stormdrain’s head away while she stared at it with a ferocious intensity, as if trying to bring her brother back to life through sheer force of will.

The medi-ponies closed the ambulance doors and pulled it away. Mint didn’t speak or cry. She buried her hope that it was all a lie, accepted brutal reality, and held the only pony she had left.

Luna’s eyes softened as she watched them. “Solid Charge, I want Drum Beat and Night Lilly to escort the Bearers back to our hotel. It has been a long night and they should rest.”

Rarity interjected before Applejack had time to say what was on her mind. “We can stay and help, Princess.”

“Thank you, but there is no need. Go and sleep. The rest of us will stay here for a while and help Mint gather their meager belongings. We will be done in minutes. Solid Charge and Eventide will bring them to our hotel as well.”

“What about you and Raegdan, Princess?” Solid Charge asked immediately.

“I wish to take a walk. Raegdan will escort me. The rest of you can all go rest after we’re done.”

Twilight stood next to Raegdan. The way he sat down made it easy for her to look him in the eye, or at least Twilight could do so if he hadn’t worn his helmet once again. Applejack didn’t like how putting it on was the first thing he did after coming out of Tar’s room. It seemed to her he was trying to hide.

He kinda proved her right, then and there.

“I didn’t know drugs were—I mean, I knew, but I didn’t… I didn’t actually internalize how big of a problem they are.” Twilight said, sitting next to Raegdan.

Raegdan for his part shrugged. “In larger cities only. Not worth the trouble to transport to smaller areas. Lot of ponies in Manehattan. This is one of the poorer parts. Not everything sunshine and rainbows.”

“Are you ok?” Twilight asked worried, putting a hoof on his arm. “You don’t sound good.”

“Angry. That’s it.”

Twilight nodded. “Are you going to do anything to help?”

Luna’s head swivelled around. “To help with what, exactly?”

Twilight’s hoof made an arc encompassing everything around her. “This. The drugs. Stopping it, at least stemming it a little. Isn’t this why we came here?”

“No, Twilight Sparkle, this is not why we came here.”

“Then—”

Raegdan cut her off, speaking sharply and clipping the words as they left his mouth. “No. Not what we’re here for. We will stay for a day or two, then leave. That’s it.”

“So… you’re not going to do anything?” Applejack asked, making sure.

“Not our problem,” Raegdan insisted.

“Not your—Are you—” Applejack stopped herself from shouting, and glanced guiltily at Mint and Stormdrain. She elected to whisper with a snakelike hiss instead, too angry to talk calmly. “An innocent pony just died in your arms. His sister and brother are right there, crying, and you tell me that you don’t care—”

“Applejack,” Luna said forbiddingly, approaching the young mare. “I have offered the mare a new future, and we tried to help the deceased. What more would you have us do? Stay here and attempt to slay a hydra?”

“Ah would expect you to act like a princess and care for yer subjects,” Applejack countered, snarling.

“You will watch your tone!” Luna commanded. “My sister is already helping those ponies, and the Royal Guard is doing its job well enough I suppose. I have problems of my own that I have to address, and it is my prerogative to whether or not I’ll abandon my plans for a random errand. Is that understood?”

“Random errand? You are a princess! It’s your duty—”

“Do not presume to lecture me about duty!” Luna pointed accusingly at Applejack, then addressed Raegdan. “This! This is what I have been telling you. It is never enough. You need to do more. Still not enough. More, more, more, until I am nothing but a shrivelled husk. What I’ve done already is forgotten, already judged as ‘not good enough’ for them!”

“Ah’m thinkin’ you two have just done about enough if that’s the way you think you help,” Applejack spat. Luna’s head whipped back to her, but Applejack ignored her. She had a bone to pick with Raegdan now, not her. “What did ya do?” she asked the alien that didn’t even dare look at her.

“Applejack, stop this right now!” Twilight demanded.

“Did you kill him?” Applejack asked, straight to the core. Raegdan ignored her.

She took a threatening step towards him, though Celestia only knew what she had that she could threaten him with. “Ah asked you a question—”

“That is enough!” Luna barked. “Tar died through his own choices. Raegdan tried to save his—”

“Yeah, well, the problem is ah’m not sure if he did or that was just an act that he—”

“Applejack, that’s not fair!” Twilight interrupted, placing herself in front of her and trying to block her from Raegdan’s view.

“What ain’t fair is what happened to these two ponies,” Applejack pointed out, “because this... person here wants to play judge, jury, and executioner with ponies’ lives! They’re not ponies to him. They’re things!”

“Say ‘monster’, why don’t you?” Twilight said with a frown and misty eyes. “That’s what you wanted to say, wasn’t it?”

Rarity spoke up. “Applejack, dear, Stormdrain was up there with you. Raegdan wouldn’t do something like this when—”

Applejack turned to Rarity. She didn’t want to look at Twilight’s betrayed expression. “What, because it would hurt the colt?”

“You know he wouldn’t—”

“Newsflash, Rarity. Just ‘cause he doesn’t want to doesn’t mean he won’t. He doesn’t really have much of a good track record so far, has he? Killed Morning Dew’s dad right in front of her—”

“They were trying to kill him, Leaf Stream said—”

“—and let’s not forget what he did to his own daught—”

Twilight’s hoof was stopped from making contact with Applejack’s face at the last possible moment. Applejack’s eyes followed the hand that held off Twilight’s hoof up to his owner’s face, hidden behind the helmet as it was. Strange, it was a piece of metal, but Applejack could almost swear its expression had changed.

It looked furious, downright murderous.

“Girls, I think you should quiet down,” Rainbow Dash whispered. “Mint and Stormdrain might hear you. They don’t really need this right now.”

Pinkie Pie stood aside, looking sorrowful. “Applejack, Twilight, please stop fighting,” she said gently. “You’re friends. Please don’t fight.”

Applejack’s eyes veered away from Twilight and the one tear she had caused to run down her friend’s face. Raegdan let Twilight’s hoof go, and she put it down, trembling. That… wasn’t the way Applejack meant for it to go. She hadn’t meant to hurt her friends. She just, she wasn’t sure what she was trying to do. Something. Nothing.

Raegdan got up on his legs, stood high above Applejack, and looked down on her. He looked very angry, though Applejack would be hard pressed to say why she thought that. It wasn’t his stance, it certainly wasn’t his expression that she couldn’t see. It might have been the slight tilt of the helmet, the way the shadows played across it, or simply the fact that she couldn’t see his eyes, only the darkness of that long eye slit. It might have been something else entirely, radiating out of him.

“Want to know what happened?” Raegdan said unexpectedly. His voice was worrisome. He sounded like Rarity had described him the other time: barely making the words understood to her ears and the inflections are all wrong. Applejack realized he had been like this before, only less severe. She had poked a hornets’ nest and now, now she feared he might try something. She glanced at Luna, but her hopes of getting help from her were swiftly overturned.

“You want a reason,” He continued, not giving her time to answer. “Can’t have simply died. Not fair. World not like that.”

“Raegdan,” Twilight whispered. “You didn’t…”

Raegdan ignored her. The helmet stared unmoving at Applejack only. “Wanted drug. Would always want. Never change. Couldn’t change. Not until death came.”

Pinkie Pie gasped.

“Death came. Made his choices, and it killed him. I killed him. Applejack is right.” Raegdan turned from them and stepped away. He addressed Luna as he was passing her by. “Don’t expect they have suitcases. Going to find something for their things. Bags. Be back soon.”

Rainbow Dash gazed up at the starry sky as they walked. “Girls, I think I’ll go fly for a while. I need to clear my head. Can one of you carry Fluttershy?”

“Sure, sugarcube. Give her here,” Applejack offered. With a little help from Twilight’s magic they settled the asleep Fluttershy on Applejack’s back. Rarity used a small handkerchief to wipe off some drool running down her chin.

“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash said before she spread her wings. She lifted off slowly, “I’ll get back to the hotel when I’m done. Don’t wait up for me.” She flew up into the sky, her wing flaps slow and her head looking up and away from everypony else.

Applejack watched her fly until she lost her, hidden from her view by the tall buildings surrounding them. “She didn’t take it well,” she observed, quite unneededly.

“None of us did,” Rarity said with deep sadness. “We expected good news while we were waiting downstairs, not… this,” she finished vaguely. She slowed down so she could walk next to Applejack, and watched Fluttershy with eyes threatening to tear up, in her usual excess. “Poor Fluttershy will be devastated when she learns what happened.”

“Beats being awake and present though,” Night Lilly said. She was supporting Drum Beat as he walked. The young stallion had mostly recovered from the sudden drinking he did, but he still tended to trip every now and then.

“Mah stupid head trying to pick a fight didn’t help either,” Applejack apologized. “Ah ain’t sure what ah was trying to do anyway. It’s how he learned to act. There’s no turning his head around.”

“No, darling, there might not be, but I think it best we forget it altogether for now. We all make mistakes, I think this has become quite clear. We should have prevented—look at me go, ignoring my own advice. I’ll just stop.”

“Do you think Mint will still accept Luna’s offer after what happened?” Twilight asked, her voice a little tetchy.

“What choice does she have?” Applejack answered, though happy that Twilight wasn’t angry enough to stop talking at her. “Stay at the place where her brother died and keep doing what she did? Nah, she’ll take the job, if only for Stormdrain’s sake. At least them two will be ok from now on. That’s something at least.”

“Pinkie Pie, are you ok? You haven’t said a thing.” Twilight asked with some concern, her voice warming up. The pink earth pony hadn’t said a single thing actually, that was true. She had remained silent, and walked—not hopped—next to all of them quietly and sedately. She wasn’t smiling either.

“Just thinking,” Pinkie Pie muttered.

“About what, darling?”

“Stormdrain. I’m trying to figure out someway to cheer him up.” Her head lifted up with the light of sudden inspiration in her eyes. “Hey, Rarity, can you make a doll?”

“A doll? Yes, of course, but I don’t think a simple doll will be enough to—”

“Can you make one that looks like his brother? Like the one they sent to Luna of her and Raegdan?” Pinkie Pie pleaded. “Please? So that he can keep it with him and always have his brother watching over him?”

Rarity took a trembling breath and her handkerchief dabbed at her eyes. “Of course, darling. It will be my pleasure. That- that is very thoughtful of you. I’ll make the template before I lie down, and we can go buy the supplies for it together tomorrow morning. What do you say?”

“Okie dokie.” Pinkie Pie’s walk became a little more lively.

They walked in relative silence for a while. It fit Applejack just fine since she had some thinking to do. She kept seeing Tar choke and struggle to breath, his limbs flailing, his eyes white. She let it play across her mind, not trying to stop it. Better to get it over with here and now rather than when she tried to sleep.

I’m holding him to that promise. That’s what Raegdan asserted.

I’m ending it tonight, I swear. That’s what Tar, well, swore. Applejack shook her head. It made sense, and he admitted it. Her gut had been telling her he was hiding something, and she was right.

She remembered Raegdan’s hand running through Stormdrain’s mane and how he carried the colt on his shoulder. As much as she kept a shimmering resentment for Raegdan after hearing his story… Applejack closed her eyes and almost tripped on a discarded can. She mumbled some choice words about litterers and went back to working out her issues.

He doesn’t hurt kids, That’s what she told herself at one point. She never expected that he would hurt Stormdrain like that, not when the kid was right in the next room. She didn’t know what changed his mind and made him kill the stallion, but maybe—

She gave up. There was no understanding that fellow’s mind. She tried, but she simply couldn’t wrap her head around it. Sometimes, for no reason at all, he would show an unexpected mercy. Other times he would not. She didn’t think there was a pony around who could understand how that worked for him.

Except Luna. Maybe Discord would too. Wouldn’t that spirit of chaos have a field day with him?

“Twilight? Ah’m sorry about what happened. Talking like that to you.” She had to apologize to her friend at least, and the sooner said, the better.

“It’s ok,” Twilight accepted, her voice quiet.

“Ah mean it,” Applejack reiterated. “Ah- Ah know I overdid it back there, and ah’m really sorry. Ah was—”

“Angry. You were angry and you wanted to make him hurt,” Twilight said with certainty, her body shivering for whatever reason.

Applejack wanted to deny this. It didn’t sound like something she wanted to associate with herself, something that she was capable of doing. But… she had to be honest with herself: She wanted to hurt him. She trusted him to save that pony, and then there was anger, and that little bit of doubt and resentment that festered inside her ever since he told them his story flared up, and… and she ended up hurting her best friends instead.

What did she achieve? Tar was still dead, and Raegdan would hide behind the protection Luna provided him as a Lunar Guard. She got him to admit the truth, and now they couldn’t do anything with it. Not without burning down Luna too or hurting Mint and Stormdrain even more.

“Ah did. You’re right. Ah’m sorry.”

“It’s ok, I forgive you.” Twilight, well, forgave, her eyes down on the road as she walked. “It’s easy to get angry. I got angry too. I’m angry with him now as much as you are. I tried to hit you back there. I’m sorry.”

“That’s ok, sugarcube. Ah reckon ah rightly deserved it. Shoot, you might want to sock me one anyway. That was a low blow there, and I ain’t any proud of it. Just get me on the left side if you can because ah’m used to chewing from mah right side.”

Twilight and everypony else giggled at her, and for a few seconds everything was right once more. Twilight looked back at Applejack from her place up front, smiling, and Applejack gave back a big, shining grin of her own.

Yeah, they were good, for now at least. Not completely fixed, but on the way there. One “sorry” wasn’t gonna cut it, but it was a good start. She’d work up from there.

Too bad there was no such fixing for Mint and Stormdrain.

They walked in silence.

Then there was shouting.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Rarity grumbled tiredly. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, switching directions. “But it can’t be good. Come on, let’s go check it out.”

Night Lilly tried to get them to stop by raising her hoof, but almost everypony ignored her. “Hey, hold on. I’m—We’re,” she corrected herself, shaking Drum Beat with a scowl, “supposed to take you to the hotel!”

“You’re supposed to escort us, darling, nothing more, and you might want to hurry and catch up,” Rarity mouthed off quickly as she ran by her. “Toodles!”

Night Lilly’s face fell. “If they get lost or hurt, they’re going to kill me!”

“Both of us,” Drum Beat shakily said.

“I don’t care what they do to you, but more what they’ll do to me. They’ll feed me to that crazy mare! Run, you drunk idiot, run!”

Applejack did her best, and was the fastest of her friends, but she was also carrying Fluttershy on her back. Still, she did manage to catch up, and the reason for the commotion was flaring up right in front of her.

An apartment building was wreathed in flames, lighting up the street. Black smoke, darker than the night itself was rising up like a plume of death. Ponies had amassed on the street, with more of them descending from the buildings around, gazing at the burning building.

Twilight yelled over the crowd. “Has anypony called the fire department?”

“My husband is running there now,” a mare said without taking her eyes off the flames.

“Is everypony out? Is anypony trapped inside?”

“We don’t know,” another pony answered. “We woke up from the shouts, smelled the smoke, and ran down. I don’t know if there’s anypony else inside.”

Fluttershy stirred on Applejack’s back. “Make the noises go away,” she mumbled sleepily.

Applejack shook herself to help rouse Fluttershy faster, and nudged her. “Hey, sugarcube. As much as ah’m glad to know ah make a good bed, is there any chance of you waking up?”

“Applejack?” Fluttershy said drowsily, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing in my house? Where is that breeze coming from? Did I leave the window open again?”

“We ain’t at your home, Fluttershy. Does the name ‘Manehattan’ ring any bells?” Applejack asked while poking her a bit harder. Fluttershy tried to avoid the prodding hoof by switching sides. Pavement ensued.

“My head hurts…” she whimpered.

Pinkie Pie helped Applejack pick Fluttershy up and get her steady, at least relatively, on her legs. “You ok, sugarcube? Can you stand?”

“I’d prefer to sit if that’s ok. Um… what is going o—Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped, spotting the burning building.

“Yeah. Big fire. We’re waiting for the firefighters to arrive,” Applejack summarized.

“The real tragedy is the complete lack of marshmallows,” Pinkie Pie complained. “That, and the complete destruction of all those ponies personal property, but marshmallows seem easier. So, really, why are we not fixing this first?”

They waited, gazing up at the flames, hypnotized by the destruction they saw being wrought before them. Smoke billowed and waved, curling around the apartment building like a cloak. Tongues of fire started leaping out of the windows, each one adding one more shadow and one more reddish hue to the play before them.

“How long until the firefighters arrive?” Rarity asked the mare who stood next to them. “Why does it take them so long to get here?”

The old mare looked sideways at the road to the east, took a deep, deep breath, and started gesturing as she launched into a not-epic telling.

“They closed down the Mareina fire station a couple months ago to cut on costs, the mayor’s councilors are up to something, I tell ya, it’s all about cost cutting lately but it’s all from public services, so the closest one right now is off behind Stableway. Dreadful how the ponies can live there, it’s a good thing it’s almost all commercial there, even if it wasn’t the rent would be prohibitive. It’s quite the prime estate there, you know?

“I have a cousin, she says she knows a mare whose friend had a small studio apartment there, practically a hole, and she made enough selling it to start her own business. They can’t come straight through though because it’s packed with pedestrians, I don’t know how they can stand staying up half the night, poor ponies working there have to endure shifts from tartarus, so they will have to swing around, but there was a problem around the Bridle Bridge, I heard there was an accident, something involving melons, terrible things melons, and—”

“I think I understand your point, ma’am, thank you,” Rarity said quickly, grinning with fear at her friends, silently conveying not to ask this mare anymore questions, and sidling away from her.

One of the windows of the building burst, throwing out shards of glass, the reflection of deep red turning them into molten metal. The crowd surged backwards even though nopony was close enough to get hurt by them. A cloud of fire bellowed out furiously before calming down and kept on burning like the rest of its brethren.

“Whoa nelly!” Applejack cried out.

“Um, girls?”

Drum Beat looked up, impressed, before his cheeks bulged. “Oh Celestia, I think I’m going to hurl again...”

“Girls…”

“Did any of you see something?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I thought I saw a shadow up there.”

“What?” Twilight asked immediately. “Pinkie, are you sure?”

“Um, no…” Pinkie Pie answered cautiously.

“Girls, I saw somepony up there,” Fluttershy said, loud enough to be heard—and noticed—this time.

“Are ya sure, Fluttershy?” Applejack asked doubtfully. “You can’t even stand. Maybe you thought you did—”

“Somepony threw something and broke the windows before the flames puffed up,” Fluttershy said with conviction. She immediately sunk into herself, her eyes wide. “Do- Do you think they’re ok? Did they get hurt?”

Twilight hissed in a breath. “That might not have been an explosion of some kind but rather a backdraft caused by the sudden intake of oxygen…” she said, staring up at the window. She looked down the street, where the firefighters failed to emerge. “Right. I’m going in. If there’s somepony trapped—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa!” Night Lilly yelled, popping her leather wings to fly in front of Twilight and stop her from moving. “Nopony’s going anywhere. You can’t go in there!”

“There could be somepony trapped! We can’t leave them in there!” Twilight argued.

“Ooh, ooh~ I saw it too, I saw it too!” Pinkie Pie cried out, hopping next to her. “Twilight, somepony moved up there! I saw the shadow of a pony.”

“You can’t go up there!” Night Lilly insisted frantically. “I’m supposed to guard you all, not let you run into a fire and get cooked!”

“Are you going to let these ponies die then?” Twilight asked, looking Night Lilly sharply in the eye.

Night Lilly looked back up at the window Pinkie Pie pointed at. “Uh… I’ll go. You stay here. I’ll go get them and—”

“No,” Twilight refused. “I can help with my magic. I’m going too.”

“Ah’m comin too,” Applejack added. “The more of us, the faster we get this over with.”

“Me too.” Pinkie Pie hopped next to Twilight and Applejack.

“Oh, there’s going to be so much soot and ash in there… But I’m coming too.”

Fluttershy tried to get up and stop them. “Girls, you really shouldn’t—oh,” she moaned, trying to stand up in protest, and almost flattened herself up again. Night Lilly grabbed her to steady her, and stared at the row of mares standing decided to throw themselves into the fire.

Night Lilly sighed. “Drum Beat, you take care of Miss Fluttershy here. We’re going to go in and make sure nopony is still up there while we still have time. You all stay behind me, okay? If I say run out, you run out, no excuses or anything.”

“Fine, yes,” Twilight agreed impatiently. “Let’s go, the fire is only getting worse!”

“Girls, please don’t!” Fluttershy shouted behind them.

They all ran together, right behind a cursing Night Lilly who led the way, through the open doors and into the burning building. The air inside was sweltering and thick with smoke. They all kept their heads low, doing their best to see through the hovering ashes.

Pinkie Pie pointed at the stairwell, coughing. Night Lilly headed for them first, her leather wings flapping, trying futilely to blow the smoke away from her. Twilight followed right behind her as they climbed on.

“Fourth- Fourth floor I think,” Twilight reminded them. Her eyes were already tearing up, but she was able to see Night Lilly nodding.

“Can I ask you something very important?” Night Lilly asked Twilight as the group was reaching the first floor. A part of the ceiling had burned out and fallen off. They circled around it, and carefully climbed on the next stairwell, tongues of flame licking it as well.

“Of course.”

“What does your mother… do?”

Twilight stopped moving, caught in surprise, and Rarity had to prod her to keep climbing up the steps. “My mom? She’s a kindergarten teacher.”

“She’s… really? Kindergarten teacher?”

“She’s pretty good actually. The foals really love her,” Twilight praised. Applejack was bemused to see how Night Lilly’s jaw worked in disbelief.

Rarity started coughing harshly. The smoke was getting thicker as they climbed and it was pretty hard to breathe at this point. Seeing wasn’t easy either. They had started sweating profusely, dust and soot collecting on their matted coats. The crackling of fire in their ears was getting stronger, from the distant whisper it had started as, to the roar of crashing waves, filling them with fear.

“Twi, can’t you do a spell to clear up the air a bit?” Applejack asked, spitting on the ground. She grimaced in distaste when she saw her saliva was grey and thick.

“Uh… hold on, I think…” A violet dome of energy surrounded them. “There. It’s a shield spell that should work as a filter, but we have to move quick. I can’t hold it for long. Shield spells are meant to be static,” She explained, her voice straining with effort already.

“We should hurry either way,” Night Lilly said, eyeing the wall around them. They had reached the third floor, and there were flames everywhere.

They moved for the staircase, but their progress was cut short. A part of the ceiling had collapsed right in the middle of it, taking out a few of the steps.

“Can we jump up? Or is that too dangerous?” Rarity asked.

“Hold on, ah got another idea,” Applejack said. “Pinkie, come here and help me.” With Pinkie Pie’s help it was a matter of minutes to rip off an apartment door off its hinges and make a temporary bridge for them. “Here we go. The whole stairwell doesn’t look very steady though. We will have to go up one at a time.”

They reached the fourth floor. They all stared down in different directions to look for any sign of survivors. Pinkie Pie started yelling and the rest of them copied her.

They were answered as a young voice called for help. They rushed down a corridor surrounded by flames and smoke, Twilight’s barrier adding its own purple glow to the yellow and red colored shades around them. Applejack kicked down the door where the pleas for help were coming from.

A young earth pony colt, no more than fifteen at best, had covered an old unicorn in a blanket and was trying to drag him out of a collapsed room. “Help,” he yelled hoarsely, his young voice breaking in hacked coughs. “I can’t- I can’t pull Mr. Patter out!”

Applejack didn’t try to pull on the blanket. The old pony had a pretty big beam fallen on him. They would need to lift it up first. She knelt down beneath the edge of it, wary of the flames, and Pinkie Pie pushed to fit next to her. The two earth ponies were able to lift the large wooden beam off, and Night Lilly and Rarity dragged him out.

“Are there any more in here?” Twilight asked the colt.

“I don’t think so,” the colt answered, breathing the cleaner air of the shield with relief. “I haven’t heard anything.”

“Then let’s go!” Night Lilly shouted, anxious to leave.

“Wait, did you hear that?” Applejack said, standing in place. Her ears flicked, pinpointing the sound. Somepony was hitting on something. She pointed deeper into the corridor. “There’s somepony else still in there!”

“Son of a—” Night Lilly barely held herself from swearing, glancing at the colt. “Ok, you wait here. I’m going to check it out.” She rushed along, and paused, staring at a door.

“Anypony in there?” she shouted, leaning her face close to the door. The door thumped in answer. “Hold on, I’m coming to get you!” The thestral turned around and kicked the door, her well exercised muscles overpowering the frail hinges.

“Can you come—” Her sentence was cut short. A blue coated unicorn dashed out of the apartment as soon as it fell, crashing on her and throwing her down.

The unicorn looked around at the flames, gasping with fear. His pupils were pinpoint-sized and staring everywhere with terror. He ran for the stairs, screaming, not paying attention to the mares that came to aid him. Applejack noticed a small splatter on his head, but wasn’t able to see what exactly it was in the flickering lighting and the blur of the unicorn’s speed.

Twilight called out to the thestral. “Night Lilly, he’s out, come on! I can’t hold the shield forever.” The mare didn’t answer. She laid on the floor, her front legs moving erratically. “Night Lilly?”

“Twilight, ah think she’s hurt,” Applejack said, and she left Twilight back with Rarity. Pinkie came along with her as she ran to Night Lilly’s side.

“Lilly, come on, we hafta… oh Celestia, no!”

Blood pooled beneath Night Lilly, running like a river from her throat. Her white mane had turned red where it touched the floor, and her coat was swiftly turning a dark indigo. Her throat had been torn open in a gnarly fashion, oozing dark red. The mare was trying to stop the blood flow with her hooves, barely making a dent at the rate her life was draining from her.

“Hold on, Lilly, just hold on—Twilight, we need help!” She tried to use her own hooves to stop the bleeding. It was a large gash on her throat, that unicorn’s horn had accidentally ripped it open like a blade and her hooves just couldn’t enclose the savage wound enough.

Pinkie Pie tried to help too. Her hooves tried to fit in the tight space, an impossible task, hoping that her aid would be enough. Night Lilly gasped, trying to breathe and her lungs filling with her own blood instead. Her eyes locked on Pinkie Pie and her front legs pushed Pinkie Pie’s hooves away from the futile effort of helping her.

Pinkie Pie cried out. “Stop, please, let me help—ah.” Applejack glanced up. Night Lilly was crying silently. The young mare—She’s younger than me, Applejack thought in despair—had managed to move one of her front legs around Pinkie Pie’s neck and pulled her close with the last of her strength.

Night Lilly hugged Pinkie Pie, seeking comfort in her last moments.

Twilight arrived. It hadn’t taken her more than four or five seconds to cover the distance through the erratic flames since Applejack called for her.

Night Lilly died, still holding onto Pinkie Pie, before Twilight had time to do anything.

Applejack and Twilight had to rip Pinkie Pie away from Night Lilly’s body because she didn’t want to let it go, sobbing and hugging with surprising strength. Still crying, she clung onto Twilight who felt how weak her grip had become.

Night Lilly’s eyes were still open, staring at something 1,000 yards away. Applejack closed them, hating herself for the admission of giving up on her, no matter how nonsensical it was. There was nothing she could do. Maybe she could have. Maybe she should have gone for the door first, without saying anything. Maybe she should have gone along with her.

Maybe she could have done a lot of things differently that didn’t end with her closing Night Lilly’s eyes.

She heard Rarity cry out for a second, before choking it out. She had apparently realized what happened. Wouldn’t take a genius to do so.

Applejack looked at her front hooves. They were soaked.

“Girls? Girls, we have to get out, okay?” Twilight ordered, choking down her own tears. “We can’t stay here anymore. We’re in greater danger the longer we stay.”

“Ah’ll- Ah’ll bring Night Lilly,” Applejack said, swallowing her own sobs. “Ah’ll be right behind y’all.”

Twilight nodded. She pulled at Pinkie Pie and they turned towards Rarity and the exit.

This hellish building wasn’t done with them though, not yet. Manehattan buildings, for all their looks, relied on wood much more than the buildings in Canterlot did.

The wooden beams that supported the structure were thick. It would take the fire a long time to burn completely through them. Although, It wouldn’t take that long to burn through a portion of them. The weight bearing down on them did the rest.

More of the ceiling, the upper level’s floor, collapsed. It fell right on Rarity.

Applejack didn’t know how, but suddenly she was right there, her mind too overtaken by fear and shock to record the short distance she covered. The colt they had helped was already there, trying to pull Rarity out.

She was alive and breathing, as hard as it was to in the dense smoke. She had ducked and covered in instinct, and that was, miraculously, enough to save her. Wood and stone had piled on her, pressing her down almost hard enough to crush her, and fire was encroaching on her from all sides.

The violet dome around them vanished and remade itself around Rarity. The rubble groaned as the shield took their weight instead of the white unicorn’s body, and the flames gnashed their teeth on the magic construct instead of on Rarity’s coat.

Twilight grimaced with pain as if the fire was eating on her. “We- We gotta get her out. Can’t hold it for long…”

Applejack found a good place she could put her back against, and tried to move one of the wooden beams up like she did before. It didn’t budge. It was too heavy and was weighed by everything else that had piled together.

Pinkie Pie aided Applejack again. The colt tried to help as well, and the old unicorn had regained consciousness and his magic was wrapped around the beam, helping as much as he could.

The beam groaned. It lifted up for a second and got blocked by the wall, just scraping it enough to stop it from going any further. They couldn’t budge it any more than that.

“Just a little more!” Applejack encouraged them. “A little more and we can pull her out!” They tried again, but it was useless. They couldn’t lift it high enough, and every time they stopped the rubble plopped back on the shield. Twilight grunted as she had to endure the sudden return of the massive weight.

“Girls…” Rarity began, scared. “Girls, maybe you should go.”

“No way, sugarcube. We ain’t leaving without you. Come on, Pinkie, put your back into it!”

“Y- You might have to,” Rarity stuttered.

“We’re not leaving you,” Pinkie Pie grunted as she gave everything she had to one more attempt.

“Don’t try to be the brave pony, Rarity,” Twilight admonished. Her legs shifted and she whimpered in pain as the fire flared around the shield, but smiled encouragingly at her friend. “We’ll get you out.”

“I’m- I’m not being brave. In truth, I’m… I’m terrified, darling,” Rarity admitted, tears flowing freely now. Her lips were trembling and it was obvious she was doing everything she could not to start sobbing. “The firefighters must be on their way. Just… go out and get them. I’ll wait.” Her smile wavered, but she kept it on nevertheless.

“No way! We. Ain’t. Leaving!” Applejack insisted, pushing up again. The walls around them were entirely wreathed in flames now, the smoke thick enough to almost block their view from seeing each other, and breathing without coughing their lungs out was almost an impossibility. Applejack didn’t care. She wasn’t going to see another pony die tonight, and certainly not one of her best friends. Rarity was coming out with all of them them.

“You have to!” Rarity protested. “I love you all, and if you love me back you will leave right now! Please! I don’t want to be the reason my friends got hurt.” She looked at Twilight and whispered, “Please… go.”

“Rarity…” Twilight whispered, starting to cry. “Rarity, you—”

“You stupid fuckers!”

Applejack turned just in time to see Raegdan and Luna grab the large beam they had been trying to push. The helmet turned to her, the eyes in it glowing red with the fire’s reflection. “What the hell are you looking at me for? Push!” he ordered.

They did. Raegdan crouched beneath the edge of the wooden pillar, putting his shoulder against it. His legs pushed against the floor, rising slowly and inexorably. Luna pushed the colt aside and took his place, her superior height and strength making a vast difference. The beam rose up, reached the pinnacle they had barely been able to make it to before, and with the sound of breaking mortar, breached through the wall, the rubble shifting.

“Twilight Sparkle, pull her out, now!” Luna ordered.

She did. Rarity’s usually pristine white coat was now a heavy gray at best, and her side was already turning purple, but she was alive. Twilight went to hug her but Raegdan’s hand grabbed her by the mane and twisted her around to look at him.

“What the hell were you doing?” he roared at her face.

“There were ponies trapped in—”

“That’s what you were trying to do? Die like a hero again? Is that it?”

Twilight scowled. “I was trying to help—”

“You stupid—gaah,” Raegdan raged, letting Twilight go. “You think I care? You think that’s a good reason?” He grabbed her by the sides of the head. “What if you died? What was I supposed to do then? What am—” A weird sound, like he choked, came from the inside of his helmet.

He stabbed a finger at Rarity. Applejack was helping her stand up, supporting her, even brushing off some of the dirt on her as it seemed to calm her. “This,” Raegdan seethed, his arm shaking. “This is what happens to heroes. Is this what you want to happen to you? To your friends?”

“I couldn’t stand aside when I could help.”

“You should have! I am not going to lose—”

Twilight leaned on him, quieting him. “My sister would have agreed with me,” she stated in a low whisper.

“Your…?” Raegdan’s fingers touched the forehead of his helmet, trembling. “Yes. Yes, she would.” He looked around. “Where’s Night Lilly? Did she leave you in here?”

Twilight clung on his chest, knelt down as he was. Pinkie Pie joined her, both of them starting to sob into Raegdan’s steel breastplate. The biped’s head turned towards Rarity and Applejack, the movement relaying the question.

Applejack couldn’t say the words. She tried, but her tongue refused to move. She pointed instead. Luna’s eyes spotted the fallen mare, and her star-maned head fell.

“Another one to the flames,” Luna whispered, looking away.

“How did you know we needed help?” Applejack couldn’t help but ask, despite the trouble they were in.

“Fluttershy,” Luna said, raising her head up and staring at Night Lilly’s corpse at the end of the corridor. “She tried to find us. Rainbow Dash spotted her flying, and she was able to come warn us, though not fast enough. We saw the smoke and were heading here anyway to take a look. Raegdan, we have to get them out. The stairwell has collapsed. We can’t go back the way we came.”

“Yeah.” He pulled the two crying mares out of his arms. He patted them on the head, trying to calm them. “It’s going to be alright. Calm down, Twilight. You too, little pink. We’re here. Everything will be all right now. It’s over. Twilight, I need you to teleport them all out. Then—”

“I can’t,” Twilight said, hiccuping. “I don’t know if I have enough magic. I’m not sure if I could even teleport myself. I- I don’t think I could either way,” she said, shivering. “I can’t- I can’t focus.”

Raegdan held her cheek and pulled back into a quick hug. “Okay. OK, we can work through this,” he said, watching the flames come closer around them. “Luna, can you teleport them all out?”

Luna looked at all of them. There were seven of them, and she bit on her lip for a moment. “I... I can. It will drain me completely though, and I can’t teleport you. I won’t be able to return to—”

“You won’t have to. I can get out on my own easy enough, there’s no need to come back. Alright, everyone gather around Luna. Come on, little pink. Just hold on for a little while longer and this will be all over.”

Pinkie Pie did as told, literally. “No, no, come with—”

“I’m going to be fine, little pink. I’ll be out in minutes, I promise. Go next to Luna and wait. I’ll be right there.”

The colt and the old unicorn approached the Alicorn, staring at her with a mix of fear and awe. “Is everypony ready?” Luna asked when they had all gotten close enough. They nodded, and Luna’s horn glowed.

A moment later they were gone.

Raegdan looked around for an exit. He approached the fallen stairwell, estimating the distance he would have to fall and whether he could reach a solid piece of landing instead of falling to his death. He grabbed his hammer, turning it hook side out, weighing in his hand and staring at the wall, calculating. He crouched slightly, getting ready.

Then he looked back.

“There’s nothing there. Just a corpse,” he said to the emptiness. Flames had covered the corridor already. “Don’t mind it. Her. It.”

“Gone,” he stated, turning back to his goal. “Dead. Nothing there. Just meat.”

“Doesn’t matter. Never did. None of them does.”

He hung the hammer back on his belt with the small ring on its side, attached there just for this purpose.

“Damn it all to hell,” he whispered.

He ran back into the tunnel of flames.

Luna almost collapsed, her eyes rolling up her skull as soon as they teleported out on a side street, a corner away from the crowd and thus a safe landing.

“Twilight, what—”

“She drained most of her magic too fast,” Rarity explained. She blushed, and helped them pick up Luna who had fallen on her back and barely registering her surroundings. “I’ve gone a bit overboard a couple of times when the muse takes me. She’ll be up and about in a few minutes, but she needs to rest.”

“Here,” the old unicorn said, presenting the blanket he had still held on. “For the princess.” Twilight picked it up and covered Luna with it, Rarity using her magic to clean it up as much as possible.

“Should I go call for help?” the colt asked, looking frightened.

Applejack pointed towards the corner, behind which she could hear the crowd and fire sirens. The firefighters finally made their appearance. “There should be another thestral back there, along with two pegasi mares. Go tell them to come here,” she instructed the colt. The young stallion nodded and ran off to do as she asked.

The old stallion assured them that he was able to walk on his own and left as well, seeking a doctor to help him, stumbling through repeating thanks and bows. A few minutes later Rainbow Dash arrived, using her wings to hold two -still very dizzy- ponies.

“Thank Celestia, you are all ok,” she said. “What’s up with Luna?”

“Magical exhaustion, dear. She will be fine—ow.”

“Rarity? Are you ok?” Applejack immediately asked.

Rarity searched for a clean spot to sit, before giving up and setting her rump down right where she stood, wincing. “A little bit of bruising. I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep. Oh wow, sleep. I don’t think it ever sounded like such a good idea to me before.”

Rainbow Dash whistled, impressed. “Wow, you guys really had an adventure in there, huh—Oh Celestia, Applejack, your hooves! Pinkie Pie, you—Hey, where’s… guys, where is Night Lilly?”

“Here,” a voice said behind her.

Raegdan walked up to them out of the alley. Applejack guessed he must have found a way out through the back somehow. He was limping a little, and his armor was covered in a thick layer of soot with the particular grunge of burnt metal at spots. In his arms he carried Night Lilly. Shards of glass gleamed on his shoulders and over Night Lilly’s body.

He gently laid the body on the ground, and moved to Luna’s side to check on her, speaking to her in a soundless whisper, while Pinkie Pie and Twilight sat next to Night Lilly, staring down at her face, sniffling. Drum Beat, stunned and moving very carefully, much more than he did before, joined them. A high pitched screech almost made it out of him before he clamped his mouth shut.

Raegdan addressed them, nodding towards Night Lilly. “Tell me what happened.”

They did. Applejack mostly. Twilight tried to help a couple of times, but she couldn’t control her voice. Applejack could. She had to. She told him about the disagreement, how Night Lilly tried to stop them from going in. How they got the colt and the old pony out. She told him about the trapped unicorn.

She told him how Night Lilly died.

Applejack looked down at her hooves. She had forgotten about the blood. The thought of washing up, of watching Night Lilly’s blood go down the drain, sickened her. It was a part of her, it was what kept her alive, and laughing, and her, and now it was just… dirt to wash off.

“Where did that unicorn ran off to?” Raegdan asked Drum Beat.

“I… I don’t know,” the thestral stallion answered, his eyes glued on his dead friend.

Raegdan’s hand closed around his neck, violently lifting him up. “You listen to me, you little piece of crap,” he hissed. “You let them go in there. You didn’t even try to get us, Fluttershy had to come on her own. The only reason I’m not ripping your throat out is because ultimately you’re not the moron whose fault this is. I asked you a question. Where. Did that unicorn. Go?”

The thestral struggled, flapping his wings to relieve some of the pressure on his throat. “I don’t know! I didn’t see him! I wasn’t paying attention!”

“You stupid—” Raegdan threw the stallion down and turned his back to him as if he was no more than a piece of trash. “Rainbow Dash, go get some of the others to come escort you and pick up Night Lilly. The rest of you, don’t try anything else as stupid. Luna, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Where are you going?” Applejack asked.

“Hunting.”

Tar was being choked.

It wasn’t his body conspiring against him, it wasn’t a seizure or anything like that. It was a hand, dressed in leather, squeezing his throat. The stallion’s irises had climbed up into his skull. There was no noise, apart from a painful wheeze and the dry crinkling of leather.

Applejack ran for him, attempting to save him, to hold off his killer somehow. She had almost reached him when a pony got in her way. They crashed, and Applejack fell down on the ground. She opened her eyes, shaking her head, and the first thing she saw was her bloodied hooves. Something tickled her eye as it trickled down from her forehead. She tried to wipe it out, and felt a bony protrusion on her head that shouldn’t have been there.

The mare across her opened her eyes. She struggled to breathe through a torn throat. Applejack rushed to her side to help, doing her best not to see the accusation in Night Lilly’s eyes.

The thestral was sobbing and crying. Her hooves reached for Applejack and pulled her close. Applejack hugged her, at a loss of what else she could do. She could feel Night Lilly’s heartbeat, each beat weaker than the last, and her own heart shattered for Pinkie Pie’s sake. Night Lilly’s lips went to her ear, and she whimpered, her every word a fear-filled struggle.

“I don’t want to die.”

Applejack woke up. She didn’t jump up from the couch she laid on, and neither did she make a noise. She was asleep, and then she was awake. She knew it was a dream. She thoroughly and completely knew it, but it didn’t make things any easier for her. She remembered the dream so vividly, but still not as vividly as the truth.

She remembered how her hooves slipped while trying to help in vain. The sticky feel of blood on her coat. She remembered Pinkie Pie’s crushed spirit in her eyes. She remember the faint rattle of Night Lilly’s last breath. The dream was horrible, but it had nothing on reality. Nothing.

It hadn’t been half a day yet, and the guilt was killing her. No wonder Rainbow Dash had been so quick to accept Raegdan’s show of killing that stallion himself. Heck, no wonder he was borderline proud of not feeling guilt himself.

Who would want to feel like that every second of his or her life? What kind of miserable life would that be?

She didn’t want hers to be like that.

Applejack had fallen asleep in Luna and Raegdan’s room in the hotel. On the living room’s couch to be exact. She had claimed to need to talk to Raegdan as soon as possible. Luna wordlessly let her stay there and wait, and Applejack kept quiet while Luna stayed in the bedroom. Applejack was almost certain that the Alicorn had forgotten her completely after a few minutes.

She didn’t lie to the princess, not exactly. A major reason she wanted to be here was because she couldn’t stand watching all that grief and misery. Mint and Stormdrain were given a room to rest in. In the silence of the night, they could hear all too clear Stormdrain crying, calling out for his brother. They could hear Mint trying to shush him, to get him to sleep. Applejack couldn’t keep listening to them for one second longer. She couldn’t.

She should have stayed inside that room. She shouldn’t have left when Raegdan told her to.

The thestrals were grieving too. They took Night Lilly’s body into their room, stoic and proud in the way they talked, grinning proudly for their sister who did her best.

They could hear the drowned wails and whimpers when they stood out of the closed door. They were proud, and they were not willing to share their pain. They tried to keep their grief personal, to hide it from the rest of them.

They were so young, all of them. Thank Celestia for Eventide. She was all that was holding the rest of the thestrals together. The older mare made herself an example to them, bearing the weight of their sorrow.

Applejack wondered what Eventide would say if she learned that Applejack let Night Lilly go to that door on her own. That when Night Lilly fell down, she didn’t immediately run to her to make sure she was alright. That she stayed where she stood, watching her struggle on the floor before realizing she was in trouble. That if she had gone there immediately she might have staved off her death long enough for Twilight to help somehow. Five seconds more, that’s all she might have needed. Applejack didn’t give her that.

Pinkie Pie was drowning herself in her own tears, as was Twilight. Rarity, brave Rarity, was doing her best despite what happened to her and having gone through the same experience. Rainbow Dash, and to her amazement, Fluttershy, were holding up better. Might be a pegasi thing. Might not. Maybe they just didn’t let themselves break when their friends needed them. Not loyalty, and certainly not kindness. Their friends needed a shoulder to cry on, and the two fliers wouldn’t shirk from what they considered their duty.

Applejack did. She didn’t feel herself worthy of giving any comfort or receiving any. Not when it was all her fault.

Solid Charge was prowling the corridors, lost. He considered Night Lilly’s death partly his own responsibility. Luna had named him Commander of the Lunar Guard, and the minotaur had taken that role seriously. He ordered everyone else to rest, and took to guarding the floor on his own. Cast Iron didn’t let him, not alone. Neither did Leaf Stream.

Applejack didn’t join them, even though she should have. She should have gone there, and told Solid Charge to go rest, that she should be the one staying up all night, that she was the one responsible. She didn’t.

She stayed in here instead, waiting, and in waiting she fell asleep. She did need to see Raegdan. She needed to talk to him, she needed to learn from him.

She needed to learn how to make the guilt go away, otherwise it would kill her. She couldn’t stand it. She didn’t want to spend her life watching Night Lilly die. She needed to find out how Raegdan did it, how he kept the nightmares away, how he managed to shake off everything horrible he had ever done. She needed to learn how to do the same, before she went home, before Granny Smith looked into her eyes and saw the guilt. She didn’t want to have to tell her family she let a pony down, that she got her killed because she didn’t think, because she didn’t walk a few meters with her.

So here she was: awake with one of her eyes slitted open very carefully. She realized what had woken her up. A door slamming shut. She heard heavy footsteps, angry ones, as if their owner was trying to hurt the floor. She barely got a blurry glimpse of Raegdan before he gone into the bedroom.

She decided to wait for him to come out. He didn’t feel… happy.

He left the door to the bedroom half open, letting Applejack see inside. Luna was sitting on the bed, looking out the window. She turned towards him as he sat down on the bed, next to her.

“You have not found him, have you?” Luna said after examining him for a moment.

Raegdan didn’t answer immediately. He got up again, stalking across the room. “No,” he answered after a while. “No, I didn’t,” he repeated, growling. He was suddenly a blur of motion. “Damn it!” An end table broke apart at his kick. “Damn it all!” He grabbed a dresser and threw it down, burying his hammer into the soft wood. “Fucking hell!” he roared.

The hammer came down on the piece of furniture again. He kicked and shouted, lost in the roars of his own language, angry and furious. Applejack flinched with every strike. His hammer came down on everything in range, as did his legs and fist. It went on for a while, and Applejack was amazed nopony came to check what was happening. She could only guess that Luna had managed to put up a spell over her room that accidentally included Applejack as well.

Raegdan more or less fell, rather than sat, on the ruins of the dresser, exhausted. “I liked her,” he said in surrender. “She… I couldn’t find him. I searched all night, no one saw him clearly enough. All I had was that he was a unicorn and had a blue coat. I don’t even know which direction he went,” he said in despair.

He took off his helmet and stared at the metal face for a moment. He threw it against the wall with another cry of anger. “She shouldn’t have died like that!”

“I know,” Luna said, her head bowed low and her voice sad. “I… failed the thestrals once more. I should have never accepted them. I promised myself, Raegdan. I would never hurt or kill another one of them. I failed, I—My actions killed Night—”

“Oh, shut your mouth,” Raegdan said, sounding sick. “Where the hell did you get the idea that you’re to blame?”

“I should have agreed with Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, looking away in shame. “I should have considered her request at the very least. I did not. I believed myself to have done enough, that I owed no more. If I had listened to her for a few minutes more, if I had allowed her to convince me…”

“Oh, we’re playing the ‘if’ game? Alright, let’s do that, I can top you,” Raegdan spat, getting up and standing over Luna. “How about the fact that what you’re saying is crap? I’m the one who got her killed. You know it, and I know it.”

“You didn’t—”

“Oh, shut up.” He sat next to her again, his middle bent forward as much as his armor would allow him, supporting himself on his knees. “I fucked up all night long. I… I shouldn’t have killed that stallion.”

“You didn’t. We did our best to save him.”

Raegdan snorted in derision. “I was going to kill him. If that wasn’t enough to overdose him, then a little help from me would be. But then I thought, why not just take him to that clinic, throw him there, and let them sort him out after I let him have only some of his crap? Twilight would have liked it better that way, and… what was it going to cost me? A few minutes of dragging him across town?”

Luna stayed silent, and Applejack was glad for this. Her ears were straining to catch every last word, and it was hard enough the way Raegdan mumbled through his helmet. She felt a drop of sweat run across her cheek.

“Then, he starts choking. I—” He sighed, and took off his helmet from the ground. “First thing that went through my mind? Problem solved. So… I let him choke.”

“You called for help,” Luna reminded him.

Raegdan nodded. “Too late. I stood watching him die too long. Five seconds. Maybe six. He bit his tongue, almost swallowed it.” He threw his helmet behind his back and on the bed, the sharp spikes tearing up the sheet where it landed. “Same mistake. The exact same mistake. I hesitated for too long. So now there’s another kid that lost its family because of me. I’m starting to lose number of how many of them there are. So we split up because of that, and what happens? Night Lilly died because of me. She stood in front of a door, and a unicorn gored her. How fucked up is that? All because of me.”

“Raegdan—”

“Do you know what Twilight said while you were unconscious back in Baltimare? She asked me why did we even bother with the Lunar Guard when we didn’t even try to teach them anything. She was right, and I ignored her. So now Night Lilly is dead because I never told her or anyone else to never stand in front of a door when opening it. I didn’t teach them a single thing. Not even the basics. All they know is to charge and die.”

“These are as much my failures as they are yours,” Luna argued. “I should have joined you when you talked to Tar, and I should have trained my guards.”

Raegdan kicked at the wall half-heartedly. “She shouldn’t have died. She wasn’t supposed to die.” He ran his hand over his face and let stay there, hiding his eyes. “I heard the kid crying when I came in…” he whispered.

Luna gave him a little smile that went unnoticed. “I am waiting for him to fall asleep. His dreams will be restful, and he will have a chance to say goodbye. Are you perhaps rethinking your stance on the opinion that you and the rest of them are expendable?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s not like I thought it would be. They’re…”

“You like them. I like them too.”

“We shouldn’t.”

“Raegdan,” Luna said hesitantly after a while. “Do you think that we might be making a huge mistake?”

Raegdan ran his palms over the top of his covered head. “...Yeah. I’ve been thinking something along those lines. A lot, lately. But what are we supposed to do?”

“Stop. Raegdan, I wish to put a pause to our plans.”

“What?”

Luna lift her head up and they looked at each other, instead of talking to the opposite wall. “Things are not as they used to be. Celestia might have been right. They… They sent me gifts in Baltimare!” she said with awe. “They welcomed me here! With you at my side, and with them… Perhaps I can do a better attempt. Perhaps I won’t break this time.”

“And what about the rest? What about our plan? What if it was real?”

Luna shrugged. “We do not know for certain. We will prepare. I will watch over you, as you shall watch over me.” She smiled. “You do play the if game, but only when it suits you.”

Raegdan stayed quiet for a while, thinking. “Fine. You’re the princess. But I’m delivering the rest of the letters at least. It won’t hurt to keep our options open.”

“Agreed.”

“Right,” he said. He opened the window, and Applejack could feel a light breeze reaching even her position. “Velvet liked to poke fun at her. She won’t like the news.”

“I know. I believe she had hinted to Night Lilly that she would be waiting for her in Canterlot.”

Raegdan laughed. “Oh, I saw that. Whispered it in her ear. She acted all sweet and it terrified her.” The laughter died off. “She’ll never find out Velvet was making fun of her though.”

“No. She won’t.”

“She got me fries. Just… out of her own as soon as she noticed the menu. She simply… did it.”

“I saw. She was quiet, but thoughtful. I remember when she served us our dinner. There was no judgement in her eyes, unlike everypony else.”

Applejack had heard more than enough. She carefully slipped off the couch and made her way to the door, careful to walk on the thick carpets and only with the utmost attention. There was nothing she could do here.

She had guessed at it before, but couldn’t be sure. She knew now how Raegdan and Luna could shrug off all these horrible things. Too bad it didn’t help her at all. She couldn’t do the same. She never had been a good liar.

She would never be able to lie to herself as well as they did.

Applejack reached the door, and stopped before opening it. She couldn’t leave, not yet, not like that. She closed her eyes and thought back to the whole night.

She could sneak out, and then… then what? No. No, she wasn’t leaving yet.

She turned back, unwary of the noise of her hoofsteps. She wanted them to hear her. She reached the bedroom’s entrance and knocked on the wall, announcing her presence.

“Applejack, my apologies,” Luna said. Applejack noticed that Raegdan was now wearing his helmet again. Her hoof reached for her own hat, and wondered if it made him feel safer by hiding behind it. “I forgot you were here. Did we wake you?”

“No, princess. Ah woke up a moment before Raegdan walked in.”

“Ah,” she said, sharing a sideways glance with Raegdan. “I suppose you have something to say.”

“Ah do.” She walked in, and stood in front of Raegdan. “Ah’m sorry for what happened. Ah shouldn’t have done that.”

Raegdan’s helmet tilted sideways. “What exactly do you mean?”

“Blaming you for Tar’s death. Ah shouldn’t have done that.”

“... Why?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Applejack frowned. “Because it was wrong.” She lifted her hoof to stop him from interrupting her. “Ah heard what you said. Ya know, ah was thinking the exact same thing: that if ah had reacted a few seconds faster, then Night Lilly might have been alive. Ah’m starting to think that maybe we’re all blaming ourselves for something that ain’t really our fault.”

“The difference, little apple, is that I’ve made this mistake before. I’m older and far more experienced. What happened, happened because I chose for it to happen.”

Applejack shrugged. “Maybe. Rarity said earlier tonight that we all make mistakes. Sometimes they’re old ones. Solid Charge told us a story of how he made a mistake before. He was determined to not do it again, but he did. So now he tries harder.”

She put her hoof over his knee, mindful of the wicked spikes. “Ah made a mistake by accusing you without knowing what had really happened, even when what ah saw was you trying to help. Ah’m sorry.”

Raegdan kept looking at her for some time without answering, long enough to make her feel awkward. Finally, he got hold of her hoof and pulled it away from his knee. “There’s no need for an apology. I never blamed you for that. You never have to say this to me, for anything.”

“Ah’m still sorry,” she repeated. She turned towards Luna. “Princess. Luna. Ah wanted to say thank you.”

“For what?”

“For a lot of things. Coming to save us for starters, both of ya really, but what I really want to thank ya for is helping Mint and Stormdrain. Ye’re right. You helped a pony without knowing her, when none of us even thought to ask whether she needed help. You cared to find out and give help, and all ah did was demand of you to do more. Ah’m sorry.”

“I…” Luna was blushing and gapping, trying to form words. She looked at the room around her, as if unsure of where she was standing. “I’m… Thank you. For- For the apology. And… and everything else,” she finished awkwardly, drawing back and away from her.

“Ah suppose ah should be leaving to let you rest. Goodnight, both of ya.” She turned around to leave, determined to wait for Twilight to wake up and apologize to her too.

“I’ll head out again. Keep searching, might get lucky,” Raegdan said without hope, standing up and grabbing his weapon.

“Wait. Applejack, you too,” Luna called hesitantly, before they left the ruined bedroom.

“Yeah, princess?”

Luna stood up, stalling for a few moments before coming to a decision and continuing on. “Please inform your friends that we will be staying in Manehattan for a couple more days. If you do wish to leave earlier, you are welcome of course, but I believe there is one more thing I should do before that.”

“We are staying?” Raegdan asked, shocked. “Why?”

Luna pointed at him with her hoof with a stern and commanding expression. “You will cease your search. You have one day to make sure that our guards know how to storm a residence using the tactics you told me about. At least make certain they know how to cross a threshold and watch each other. We will do most of the work, but this will be a good experience for them.”

“Ah’m confused. What are we doing now?” Applejack asked.

“You asked me to do something about Manehattan’s drug addicts. Removing the problem entirely is out of our reach, but perhaps we can make an example to cow them back in my own way,” Luna said with a predatory smile. “A curious thing, dreams. All you need to do is nudge, and the mind surrenders all the information you seek of its own will, anxious to fill in the void. I believe I can make good use of this talent of mine for our purposes.”

Luna sat back down, smiling sadly. “I propose something to be done in Night Lilly's honor, so to let the ponies of Manehattan know that she lived and died here, at least for a while.”

Raegdan unhooked his hammer off his belt and hefted it in his arm, lost in thought. “I wouldn’t mind breaking a few bones. I’m in.”