Come the morning, after Persica returned from bringing Peach Blossom to school, Habeas had himself a look at the spot of the land he was about to work on. It was a medium-sized area right in front of the house, laying in between it and the peach orchard and outlined with a series of picketed sticks. The mild fall wind blew past him, through the trees and rattled their leaves; some of which were just starting to turn from their traditional dark green colors to the bright tints of the season.

Going into the barn and carefully lowering the plow to the ground with the ropes that suspended it, Persica rolled it out and presented it in front of the changeling. He looked it over now that he had the ability to see it up close, and the metal contraption clearly had an aged appearance, but was still very much sturdy and solid.

"It sure is... heavy-looking," he spoke after a minute had skipped by, pointing out one of the more obvious facts to be known.

"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts on this," Persica huffed, cracking a smile.

"No, I'm not," Habeas affirmed, smiling back. "I just thought it looked smaller from where it was on the ceiling." With that, he confidently positioned himself on the front of the old piece of equipment, and Persica, still keeping her smirk, went and strapped him into its harness. After adjusting just a few pieces and taking a final examination of the plow and changeling who was soon to pull it, she deemed all was set.

Without even being told, Habeas started to go along the pathway marked before him. "How's it moving?" he asked after about three minutes of huffing and puffing.

"Swell, so far as I see," Persica said, inspecting the cultivated trail that was forming in the earth. "Think you can keep it up like this while I get to work on my usual things?"

"I'm certain," he assured, stopping for a moment and catching his breath, before going forward with renewed vigor; neatly tilling the ground beneath him. With that, Persica went about her business collecting peaches from the trees in the orchard, checking all of their leaves for any pests that had the chance to be camping out in them, and watering the smaller garden she kept near the house before going inside to make sure everything was tidy enough to her liking.

As four hours passed by, Habeas had drawn to the end of his work. He had gone over the terrain many times in the appropriate way, making the once-rough soil nice and soft; perfect for planting seeds. And as soon as he parked the plow just outside of the tilled field, that's what he did. He happily trotted toward the pile of bags Persica had left for him, all of which contained various seeds of varying species.

So he gleefully went to placing into the ground vegetable (and fruit) seeds of nearly every variety, then inserted small plastic signs beside each spot to designate which was which. Peas, turnips, tomatoes, kale, squash, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, broccoli, celery; all were buried within the dirt with the utmost care by the changeling. If the dirt in some random patches was still not soft enough for bearing seeds, Habeas made sure to fix that with the hoe that was kept nearby for just such an occasion. He proceeded to water them all fairly with the can Persica had left for him, and when that was done and he was happy with all that he had performed, he brushed the remaining dirt off of his good hoof with his handkerchief and trotted over to the edge of the new garden where Persica was also waiting for him.

"Do you think they'll all grow enough to be harvested before winter gets here?" he cheerfully, albeit tiredly inquired as he walked to her side.

"With enough of the special brand of plant food I have, yes," Persica responded with a content sigh. A long bit of silence came between the two as they both looked at the wide bed of dirt with simple fascination and much hope, illuminated well by the golden rays of the sun from the blue sky above. It seemed as though this quiet would last for a while, when Persica could take it no longer.

"Habeas," she finally spoke, her voice as soft as the farmed soil sitting before them.

"Yes?" Habeas asked her, looking her way as she did the same. "What is it?"

The mare gave him a frank smile and looked forward again. "Thank you. Thank you for doing this for me."

The moment these words touched his ears, Habeas wanted to jump up and cheer to the world of his accomplishment, but only barely resisted the urge to do so. To compensate, he stifled a joyous giggle and responded accordingly to the pony in a respectful and calm voice. "You're welcome, Miss Persica."

"I... I tried to help you!" Persica sobbed to the creature lurking in the misty void of darkness that sat like a cloud before and around her; the only barren spot not to be consumed by it being the dead dirt she stood her trembling shape upon. "I tried! I tried! You have to believe me!"

"You failed!" the tortured voice lurking in the all-consuming blackness spat forth like a stinging miasma. "You failed, and now I'm rotting away in the ground! Now, all because of you, the only comfort I ever feel are the maggots that infest my corpse!"

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything!"

"You lie!" the voice howled back, a sense of hatred and betrayal evident in its torn pitch.

Persica could do nothing but listen to these cruel, penetrating words, and both terror and guilt consumed her entire being. "But I am! All I want is your forgiveness! That is all I ever want!"

"Never!" it shouted back, finally emerging from the inky blackness and showing Persica its horrific form. What it revealed was nothing but a hideous, rotting corpse of a pallor as dead as it truly was; animated and shambling forward like a demented drunkard. Persica's heart stopped in her chest, but still she stood there as it continued speaking. "I'll never forgive you."

Wracked with sickened agony, she tried to at least twist her head away from the terrible sight, and the creature saw this action right off. "Look at me!" it demanded in a harsh voice through its short snout of worm-eaten and bleached bone; its blank, rotted eyes looking at nothing but focused solely on her. "Look upon me and see all that you caused!"

"I didn't do it!" she cried, her throat becoming sticky as the unkempt tears falling in a river from her face began to blind her. "I d-didn't do it... You know I didn't..."

"Yes, you did..." it growled, leaping forth and effortlessly slamming Persica to the ground with a violent strike from what was left of its right hoof, leaving a red, festering welt on her hide.

"P-p-please! S-stop this, I b-beg of you!" Persica cried out desperately, paralyzed and unable to do anything as the creature began to crawl its withering form over hers. Instead of obeying, it dropped its head down, placing the remains of its foul mouth on the side of her head.

"You don't even deserve to be alive! You don't deserve to raise that filly you call your daughter! You let that creature do this to me! You killed me! You! You! You! You!" it screamed into her ear, over and over again in a hellish cacophony as it savagely ripped at her body and mercilessly tore her throat out with its bare teeth.

Persica awoke with a gasp; the once hot-feeling of what she dreamed was her blood spilling about turning cold as ice as the night air touched her fur-covered flesh. Thick beads of sweat fell from her forehead and landed in dark droplets on the white mattress she laid over. Her red-and-blue sheets had been kicked back during the nightmare she had suffered through, and now sat in a messy and mismatched pile at the foot of her bed.

Placing both hooves through her disheveled brown mane, the mare unleashed a loud sigh as she started to calm down. Turning her head to the clock on the wall beside her bed, she could see it was only fourteen past eleven. As usual, her much-needed sleep had been lost to the night terrors she seemed to have been cursed to suffer with. Stretching her legs for a brief instant until her mind was no longer hazy and blurred, she slowly left her bed and entered the hall outside her room. Carefully tiptoeing past Peach Blossom's room, she walked down the stairs with as much noise as a draft of wind and came into the living area.

In it sat two large, rectangular glass cases laying adjacent to each other, both of them holding matching sets of dark, heavy armor on frames of metal meant to imitate the basic shape of a pony. Walking up to the case on the right, Persica pulled on the handle of it and opened it. Staring at the armor inside as though it were a person, she put on a thoughtful, but very dejected face.

"Hey, Chantilly," she murmured with a saddened smile, stroking a hoof over the side of helmet with the gentle intimacy of a lover. "Is it that time again already?"

As it always did, the armor did not respond to her question. Smirking again, Persica shook her head at her sentimental foolishness before removing the helmet from where it rested and placed it over her head, followed by the other parts of the set. When all the pieces were donned upon her muscular body, Persica went to the ornate weapon case laying just a few feet away and silently lifted it. Upon looking at the well-crafted spear for a few minutes, recollecting on all the times she used it with both pride and horror, she lifted it into her hooves.

With it all her gear set and ready, she left the place as quiet as a mouse. Passing through the front door like a phantom, she strolled along the trail that left the house, passing the barn in the process. She certainly had no intention of awakening that changeling sleeping inside of it, and so the warrioress took soft steps. When she knew she was in the clear a few minutes later Persica continued her walk, but at a much faster pace; now unhindered by caution.

However, unbeknownst to the mare, she did awaken him.

The rattling sound of metal coming from just outside of the barn might have been quiet, but it was just loud enough to arouse Habeas from his slumber on the mound of hay where he slept on inside. Licking his lips, his teal eyes opened groggily before coming to full attention. When he had just gotten to his three good legs, it was when the noise was just beginning to stop, but the changeling was active and desiring to know what it was that awoke him.

He hobbled up to one of the barn's windows - the one facing out into the direction where he distinctly knew this strange noise originated from - and peeked out just in time to catch a dark, pony-esque shape covered in dark armor disappearing into the moonlight-cast shade of a tree that stood over the wide path leaving this pony's property and connecting to the main road.

What in the name of Queen Chrysalis? he thought to himself. That shape he saw was clearly wearing a familiar set of gear that rang more than just a bell in his head, and because of this he soon realized who it was. Persica, what are you doing?

With this information snapping him to full attention, he immediately went to the entrance of the barn and passed out through the two large doors. He looked out to the road with a squinting gaze but could no longer see the mare, but his curiosity overrode anything else at the moment. He knew that if he hurried, he could catch up to her in his weakened and sore state and find out what exactly she was doing at this ungodly hour.

Hoping with all of his heart that what he was attempting wouldn't lead him to too much trouble, Habeas quietly began to follow the fresh tracks in front of him as quickly as he could manage.