The worst part of this entire war, short lived as it was, turned out to be a bath. In particular, I was obliged to stand guard, keeping my eye on the prisoner lest he try something, while the yak prince denuded himself and thoroughly scrubbed himself until every last vestige of the war paint he had been marked with was gone. Unfortunately, I suffered from my own competence, being the best suited to fight back if the prince chose to unsurrender and attack while he still had the protection it gave from conventional forms of magic.

The yak was not a good looking creature to my eyes, and having his fur matted down with the bath water, blue running down it in rivulets, while the room began to fill with the wretched scent of wet yak fur did nothing to improve my opinion of him. On the other hand, I will give him credit for the quiet dignity with which he comported himself as he prepared to be presented to the Princesses of the realm he had just besieged. I wasn’t sure if he was confident in Celestia’s mercy, or merely resigned to his fate.

After far too long, he was groomed, restored to his freshly washed and even repaired garments, and adorned with the horn rings that appeared to serve as a sort of crown. His other jewelry was kept away from him, though I did not know if that was because they held some magical capacity or merely as a minor slight to help put him in his place. He was, after all, a prisoner, even if he was being shown some amount of leniency as a prince.

As we entered the court, and began our approach to the throne, another couple of ponies were currently addressing the diarch. One was an uncommonly large unicorn stallion, white furred with a shield cutie mark. He seemed to be struggling, which was apparently the topic of conversation. The other, a pink alicorn mare I didn’t recognize, addressed the Princesses. “Please, you see how he suffers so. Maintaining such a large shield is straining, even with his talent. He has such a terrible headache. Let me take him back to our rooms, and I’ll take good care of him. He isn’t fit to attend this meeting.”

“Very well. Miss Strife will be present to deal with any immediate dangers. Take your fiance and take good care of him. We will need our captain back in good condition,” the solar diarch said.

“Oh, I will,” the pink alicorn assured, before turning and beginning to leave. Our eyes met briefly as she turned to leave, and her countenance seemed to shift for a moment, studying me with a brief intensity before refocusing on ushering her spouse to be out of the room. I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though.

“Prince Rutherford of Yakyakistan,” Princess Celestia greeted firmly.

Before she could continue, however, or he could answer, Princess Luna lept out from behind her, assuming a somewhat daunting stance, horn aglow. Her demeanor reminded me so much of Nightmare Moon it took a while to realize I was imagining her with the coloration and armor she had when I first met her on that fateful night. Her voice rang out through the room with a force that threatened to bowl us both over. “You stand accused of unprovoked assault against our kingdom, besieging our capital, destroying our subjects’ homes and endangering their health and lives! Defend your actions, if you can!”

Celestia’s horn glowed and the power wrapped around her sister and dragged her bodily back to be even with her, even as she spoke firmly but much more quietly. “That is enough, sister, give him a chance to explain his side.”

“Yakyakistan built on culture of perfection,” Prince Rutherford began, ironically given his imperfect grammar. “Everything must be perfect. Yaks get mad when things not perfect. But Princesses make sky not perfect! Three days without sunset!” he pointed his hoof at Celestia accusingly, before doing the same to Luna. “Three days without moon and stars!”

"I apologize, on behalf of myself and my sister,” Princess Celestia said. “We were drawn into a conflict with one of our other adversaries, one we had imprisoned long ago, but who was able to free himself recently. As a result, we were unable to perform our duties for a time. Will you forgive us?”

While the prince seemed to carefully consider this, Luna and I looked at each other in exasperation. After that siege, we were the ones apologizing?! Luna’s eyes darted a bit. I wasn’t sure if I was tracking them right, but it looked to me like she was glancing at my sword, then over to Rutherford’s neck, and slowly across it. Maybe I was just imagining it though. Besides, a bout of wishful thinking aside, I was a soldier, not a murderer. If he hadn’t surrendered, or we hadn’t been able to slip into position to threaten him so ‘perfectly’, I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him in the heat of battle. But here in the throne room it wasn’t happening, not unless he were foolish enough to actually start something.

Finally, the prince smiled. “Yes, I will accept your perfect apology. Yaks and ponies friends for a thousand moons!”

“Excellent!” Celestia said with her own smile. “Now there is just the matter of your country’s reparations payments to discuss.”

The Prince frowned, then looked over at me and my sword before meeting Luna’s steely gaze. He gulped slowly before nodding, and beginning the negotiations.

“Here, let me show you to your rooms,” the guard said.

“Thank you, ummm… sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” I said rubbing my temples. It had been a long day in court, and exceptionally trying for me. I was obliged to be present and at least somewhat on guard, even though the war paint was gone and he was no longer a serious threat to the princesses or their guards. I didn’t really have a direct role to play, however, in the negotiations, so I got to spend the whole time being increasingly annoyed at the Prince’s audacity. While Princess Luna seemed to share my opinions, Princess Celestia made a lot of conciliatory gestures expressing her sympathy for the yaks’ plight, even as she demanded what sounded like entirely unreasonable sums of various things from them. Of course, with how much damage the attack had done, perhaps the numbers were all quite reasonable. I didn’t have a good sense of the scale of things at that level.

I realized, after a while, that Luna and I were actually there to look angry, annoyed, and on the verge of turning violent. Celestia was playing off of it, in a somewhat more subtle variation of the classic ‘good guard, bad guard’ routine. Making it seem like we were forcing her hoof, not letting her accept anything too little. Luna played into that more than I did, as she had the perspective to get offended by the Prince’s attempts to negotiate things down, or demand concessions of his own. Once I realized what was going on, I kept an eye on the lunar diarch better, using her for cues of when to finger the handle of my sword, look cross, or otherwise dial up the intimidation I represented.

“Flash Sentry,” the guard introduced with a friendly smile, as he led the way through the palace halls. “Of course, I know who you are, Cloud Strife. You’re pretty famous, even aside from being the only human in Equestria. I’d love to meet your friends, if you could introduce me.”

“Perhaps some other time,” I deflected. I needed some peace, and suspected they did as well.

“Just as well, I’m on duty until sun down,” he remarked. “Here you are,” he said as we arrived at a door, which he helpfully opened for me.

I nodded politely before striding in, closing the door behind me. Apparently we had been granted a suite with multiple bedrooms connected to a common chamber adorned with several couches. Rainbow Dash rested on one, her injured wing in a cast and bound to her side. Rarity and Twilight shared another at the moment, while Pinkie Pie and Applejack sat on a third.

“Where’s Fluttershy?” I inquired as I took a seat by Rainbow Dash, stroking her neck lightly as I did. It might have been taking liberties I shouldn’t, but she didn’t object.

“She’s in the room,” Dash said, pointing with a nod to clarify which one. “We’ve all tried to comfort her, but I think maybe you’re going to need to be the one to do it.”

“I will… in a little bit,” I postponed. “How are you holding out?”

“Me? Pssh. This is nothing,” Rainbow insisted. “You actually look like you’re worse for wear than I am. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine… I just do not enjoy politics,” I dismissed. “I’m hoping I won’t be dragged in for another day of this. But that may be wishful thinking.” I let the room get quiet a moment while I looked at each of the ponies. “I’m really proud of the job you all did out there. We’ve trained long and hard, and when it came down to the wire you all showed what you’re capable of. And in the end, we were able to break the siege with no casualties on our side, and remarkably few on the other side.”

“Thank you, darling, but even a few casualties feels like too many,” Rarity said. “I may not be taking it as badly as Fluttershy, but I would quite prefer if we never had to do anything like that again.”

“I’d love it if we lived in a peaceful world where no one had to be ready to stand up and fight,” I said. “But we don’t, and from what the princesses said about the Tree of Harmony… it’s likely to get worse in the days to come. So we have to be ready.”

“Isn’t that what the guards’ are for?” Twilight inquired.

“It is, but as we saw today they’re not always enough,” I said. “We have power, we have equipment, training, and skills. We have a duty to use those to protect those who are weaker than we are from the dangers of the world.”

“Yer darn right,” Applejack said emphatically. “Y’all saw what the yaks did out there. That rubble had blood on it. That means somewhere there’s hurt ponies who were just minding their business when the yaks attacked them. And for what?”

“Because of our failure,” I said somberly.

“Say what now?” Applejack questioned. “How are we to blame, of all ponies?”

“It took us days to recover the Princesses, and longer for them to recover enough to do their duties. The yaks attacked because the day and night cycle was ‘not perfect’,” I explained. “I’m not saying their reason is enough to justify what they did, or that we didn’t do our best. But if we had been able to overcome both Discord and the Plunderseeds in the same push, we could have prevented this from ever happening.”

“Look, I get what you’re saying, but one long day is hardly reason to-” Applejack began.

“Actually... “ Twilight interrupted. “I’ve taken a moment to read up on Yakyakistan as best I can. A lot of their exports require sustained low temperatures. Enchanted ice, certain arctic plant life, and so forth. With the extended day, they would have had a nation wide melting that would have resulted in industrial and crop failures throughout their country that would threaten their economy and make it challenging to afford to even feed their people in the days to come.”

“Oh… I hadn’t thought of that,” Applejack said.

“I’m sure they’re not the only ones who were impacted,” I pointed out. “Twilight, didn’t you say unicorns used to manage the sun? Maybe it’s time the Princesses train understudies to be able to cover for them, or even take over eventually, if anything happened to Celestia and Luna.”

“I’ll bring up the idea in my next report to them,” Twilight said. “It took a whole team of unicorns in the days before Celestia, so they’ll have to train them as a group.”

I nodded, before rising from my seat. “Thanks, Twilight. Now, I’m going to go check in on Fluttershy.”

The pony in question didn’t look up at me when I entered the dimly lit room she was in. There was a pair of bunk beds, and she had claimed the lower one for herself. I gently placed a hand on her back as I sat down on the bed. For a few minutes I simply sat there while she sobbed quietly, before she finally spoke.

I had to ask her to speak up, as mumbling softly into her hoof was too hard to make sense of even when paying absolute attention in a quiet room like this one. “How do you get the faces of the ones you killed out of your mind?”

“You don’t,” I replied. “They’ll be keeping Diamond Dust and John de Lancie company in the nights to come. I have to live with the lives I’ve taken, and think about why I did, and what I can do in the future to make sure it’s necessary or it doesn’t happen. War is hard. When you’re fighting one pony, or one yak or whatever, you can disable them, harm them or scare them enough that they give up without ending their lives. But in a war, if you take too long making sure your enemy is taken down safely, their comrades will catch up to you and attack you, and by the time you’ve dealt with them, the first enemy could be back on their feet, attacking you from behind.”

“They never even had a chance to surrender,” Fluttershy said. “The swarm was just on them and then…. That was it. But, I can’t blame the little guys. They were just hungry. I’m the one who… who…”

“I know,” I said. I started rubbing her wings in a way that always got Rainbow Dash to relax. It seemed to be working fairly well on the more timid pegasus. “You saved Rainbow Dash, and spared Canterlot from being hit with those boulders. The defenders barely held them off as it was.”

“I know, but wasn’t there another way?” Fluttershy asked. “I couldn’t think of one in the heat of the moment, but…”

“Then don’t beat yourself up over it,” I said, as she moved into my lap so I could reach her easier. The rubbing was starting to get some of the tension out of her muscles, at least. “We do our best in every situation. Sometimes we can drive off the enemy without killing them, or even convince them to be friends instead. I have no doubt that you, out of all of us, will take every opportunity to be merciful. So you have to forgive yourself when you can’t find that opportunity, and the enemy forces your hoof. You did the best that you were able to at the time, and you’ll do your best next time.”

Fluttershy was quiet for a while, closing her eyes and thinking it over. “Thank you Cloud,” she said at last. “For the words and the touch… you aren’t getting any ideas though, are you?”

“No… you’re a fine mare and a good friend, but I’m not looking to date anypony right now,” I answered. “Have you been paying too much attention to Pinkie’s charts?” I joked.

Fluttershy giggled at that. “Maybe a little. Mmm, a hug wouldn’t be too far though, would it?”

I shook my head, and soon we were sharing an embrace. By the time we parted, she had recovered significantly from how I found her when I entered the room. “If you ever need another hug, or someone to talk to, especially about this… I’m here for you anytime. The rest of your friends are too.”

“I know. But, thanks for reminding me,” she said.

I was in a cell. It didn’t look like a pony cell. The style, the materials… it seemed like Shinra tech to me. I was a man again, I noticed, moments after noticing the door was ajar. Was this a dream? A memory? No, I hadn’t been here. Was I supposed to?

I looked outside. Blood. Gore. Someone had come through here and killed. As I explored out the end of the hall, I find more remnants of the guards who were supposed to be protecting the cells. Slash marks had dug into the walls. Single slash marks: a sword, rather than claws. But to have cut so deep? I only knew one sword that could accomplish that. I only knew one swordsman who could accomplish that.

As I explored further, I came to recognize Shinra headquarters. I had only seen a few of the lower levels before, but the distinctive double elevators on the outside, currently inoperable, were easy to recognize.

When I reached the top floor, I approached the throne room. There, before the throne, Luna lie dead, masamune thrust threw her body, pinning her corpse to the floor.

“Something terrible is going to happen, if you don’t stop it,” Aeris said, from behind me, to my side.

I turned to her. “What do I need to do?”

“Wake up.”

I woke up with a start, sitting up in my bed fast enough to get a bit of vertigo. The nightmare was still swirling in my memory for the moment, becoming more jumbled as the waking world reasserted itself.

I didn’t know if it was somehow prophetic, or my subconscious picking up something my conscious mind had missed, or just my fears going wild. But I got dressed, gathered my gear, and quietly headed out of the suite. At least there were no trails of blood here.

The thestral standing guard by our door saluted. “Miss Strife?”

“Bad dream,” I said dismissively. “I’m going to go for a walk, calm my nerves. Keep up the good work.”
She saluted again, and went back to guarding. Good. She could keep everypony I cared about safe, while I went looking for trouble. I found it, in the form of Flash Sentry crumpled in a heap in a corner, near a stone stairwell leading under the castle. I stopped to check on him, finding he was breathing, enough blood still on the inside to keep him alive for the moment.

“Prince… escape…” the guard managed.

“Hush…” I told him. “Guards! Medic!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Someone help. Somepony help!”

Luna was the first to arrive, and I had to blink at her in disbelief for a minute, the vision from the dream coming back to haunt me. As soon as she had organized the help that would see to Flash’s health and begin the search for the missing Prince, I came to her.

“Did you see my dream tonight?” I asked.

“I did not. Was I in it?” she inquired, my town inspiring a bit of worry in hers.

“Your corpse was,” I said. “I hope it’s nothing, but something is telling me you’re in danger. Maybe the Prince is up to more than just escaping.”

“We will be cautious. Will you stay by our side?” she answered.

The night was tense, as we joined the guard in search the castle high and low, but the yak was nowhere to be found.

What we did find, minutes from dawn, was Flash Sentry, asleep in his bed in the barracks. Uninjured.

“What… how can you be here?” I asked him.

“Whuh… where else would I be?” he asked groggily.

“You were in the infirmary just a few hours ago, half dead. I know pony healing magic isn’t that good,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” Flash insisted.

“The attack. Prince Rutherford,” I prompted.

“Look, I’ve been in the barracks since the bat ponies-” he began.

“Thestral,” an annoyed bat pony interrupted.

“-came on duty for the night. I don’t know anything about what’s happened with the Prince since then,” Flash insisted.

“Cloud… it has been a long night, and you are not accustomed to being awake through them,” Luna said gently. “The guards are often difficult to tell apart, especially in their armor. It must have been a different solar guard.”

“All pegasi look alike?” I asked dubiously. “Alright… I don’t know you very well, Flash. So… I admit, it must have been another pony, who just reminded me of you in the darkness. I’m sorry I woke you,” I mumbled.

I headed for bed, exhausted. And worried that whatever horrible thing I needed to stop had already happened despite my efforts. Or perhaps was still to come.

"Oh my, such delicious chaos," John said.

"I suppose you know something about all this?" I inquired. I was sitting on the water tower in my dream Nibelheim, as closed to a 'happy place' as my mind seemed to have.

"Only that your mind is quite wonderfully turbulent, which is quite fortuitous for me. I had worried I'd get bored, being stuck in here for the rest of your life, but now I'm thinking it might not be so bad," he answered.

"Great. So nothing helpful then," I groused.

"Have I not been helpful as a summon?" he asked, sounding hurt, which was obviously exaggerated.

"You... have, actually. I'll give you credit where it's due. But what about this... nightmare?" I inquired.

"Well, assuming it's prophetic, which is just an assumption mind you, it means a Princess is going to die, and it's because you messed things up with your presence here," John offered. "If was assume instead it's just your subconscious, it means you feel trapped in that suite because of something that happened back in your Shinra days, and stalking the halls all night with a sword feels safer to you than the bed the Princesses provided you. And if we assume it's just your fears; you're afraid of bad things being your fault. Especially when it wasn't your intention, just something you failed to intervene in. Like your take on the war as a whole."

"Great... so which one is it?" I inquired.

"Ah, now that's the greatest assumption yet," John said.