Gusty watched as Zeccaran and Bunker rolled onto their backs simultaneously. Both mumbled and laid out on their flanks ignoring what had so firmly grasped her attention, just moments ago.

From a window near the base of one of the palace’s spire’s Stormwalker exploded outwards. Glass rained down past him as he twisted through the air dodging two separate blasts of golden magic. Slamming his wings down he jerked nimbly to the right, as Celestia came bursting from the window shattering the rest of the glass left in it.

The alicorn’s eyes glowed white hot and her horn blazed just as bright. In her magic she held a massive double-bladed axe. She was screaming so harshly that Gusty could not understand her. She shot several balls of flame at Stormwalker, who did not bother to dodge. They hit him and dispersed around his sides like he was the peak of a mountain against clouds. Celestia crossed the distance to the demon-pegasus as the last of her spell blew away. Dipping backward and pumping his wings, Stormwalker jetted away from a swing of her axe, his back facing the ground as he did. Celestia resumed shouting, her voice a deep and bellowing howl, this time close enough to be understood.

“Stand and fight me!” Celestia demanded, lips in a curl.

“Is that what you want? Truly?!” Stormwalker yelled back his voice equally as loud and powerful as Celestia’s.

Curiously, Gusty would note that he did not sound like he did in the cave. His voice was clean, lacking all of its demonic characteristics.

“You will answer for you deception, answer for your lies!” she screamed

Celestia followed up her proclamation by a shoulder-butt into Stormwalker. She continued her assault with a swing of her axe from behind the demon. Gusty watched without surprise as he turned mid-tumble and blocked the blow with his front pair of blades. Stormwalker forced the levitating axe back and slipped his blades behind the axe’s mounting to its pole. He batted his wings down in a sharp motion and executed a full 360 turn and sent Celestia’s weapon flying towards the ground free of her magic. The huge tree-cutter spun end over end and slammed down blade first in between Bunker and Zeccaran, narrowly missing them both. Gusty grimaced in surprise. Like before she noticed that Stormwalker had no reason to do this, he could easily defeat Celestia. However, it seemed that he had no intention of hurting her. This meant Stormwalker was likely trying to manipulate Celestia into doing what he wanted.

Gusty had a perfect way to put a stop to that. Charging the same “truth” spell she had used on the bakers she had first arrived a their home in Hollow Shades. Gusty cast the magic on Stormwalker. It was a divine spell after all and even a demon of Stormwalker’s caliber had to follow the commands of the spell. This time he would be forced to speak the truth. The spell formed in her own gold magic and turned into a faint purple misty beam as it flew to and then hit Stormwalker. If he had noticed her cast the spell he showed absolutely no indication.

“I’ve tried so hard! So incredibly hard to avoid this exact situation! But nothing I’ve done has been able to prevent it!" Stormwalker screamed in anger

Gusty watched as Celestia’s axe floated back up to her. The other alicorn loosed a growl of frustration.

“Then why not come to me? Why not collaborate with both Luna and I?” she shrieked questions at him.

Celestia made a horizontal slash at Stormwalker. The beast caught the swinging blade with his right forehoof’s blade and held it from hitting him. The axe shook violently as Celestia continued to try and force it onto the hovering monster.

“You have control over her don’t you?!” Celestia viciously snarled.

“No. I never have. She simply is not you. She actually listened to me!" Stormwalker answered with what Gusty was sure was a lie, but something about the way he said it made her think her spell was actually working.

Celestia pulled her blade away and fierce fighting ensued. Sadly, Gusty’s white counterpart could not even hit the demon. He dodged and flipped out of the way of her every attack, even her great beams of pure golden energy and the dozen fireballs she fired. The smell of burning plants caught Gusty’s nose and she turned to see that most of the beautiful garden was on fire. Celestia was causing an extreme amount of collateral damage. The sharp clang of the great-axe hitting a nearby fountain and smashing it to rubble drew her attention back to the fight before her. Celestia and Stormwalker had picked up their conversation as if they were not even fighting.

“And you expect me to believe you?! Why would you ever think something so foolish?!” the mare responded mirroring Gusty's thoughts.

“I have to! I want you to listen! I need you to believe me! Now more than ever!” the demon pleaded desperately, his voice straining.

He certainly isn't lying about that. Gusty thought.

Winning over Celestia was crucial to him. He wasn't the sort of creature to just announce his true intentions. Gusty smiled to herself. The spell was working for certain. Now all she had to do was wait for him to blurt out the rest of his plans.

“Then you should have trusted me from the beginning!” she followed up his shrillness with her own.

Celestia’s axe floated back up to her and she swung diagonally at Stormwalker. He caught the weapon with his own two and forced himself closer to Celestia. Sparks flew as his hooves and wings pressed forward to the alicorn.

“I did, and I always have! But this isn’t about just you! It’s about Luna’s safety. It’s for your safety, my safety, the whole nation’s safety! I had to lie to you all these years!" Stormwalker yelled.

Celestia fired another beam of energy at their point-blank range. It split away from Stormwalker and hit the ground. Wherever it touched instantly the grass and even stone burst into flame.

“Look at what you are doing! Why here? Why now? Why over Canterlot?” he balked down at the flames.

Celestia ceased her spell and pulled her axe away from Stormwalker’s blades. The stallion let it go without a fight. Slowly, they floated down to the ground. Shocked he had managed to calm Celestia down, Gusty gawked awkwardly until a cool wind and a midnight blue pony caught her attention overhead.

Luna swooped down and landed next to her sister. From where Gusty sat looking towards the palace, the sisters were on her left, Stormwalker on her right. The pair of siblings met eyes if only for the briefest of moments. From blue-white colored runic portals a dozen ethereal cyan swords came forth. Luna’s horn glowed with her indigo magic and she looked directly at Stormwalker. Her eyes were fierce but sad.

“Stand down, Stormy.” Luna stated. Stormwalker pulled his neck back in surprise and stared at her with his top lip raised in a look of confusion, making his fangs extra prominent.

“Celestia is right...at least when it comes to the danger you pose, I must stand with her. Especially after the Cave.”

The stallion scoffed incredulously. He looked back and forth between the sisters his face in horror and shock. His nostrils raised up in disgust and anger after a moment. He looked directly at Luna.

“How dare you!” he spat.

“You know what happened to me! You know what was taken from me! You were there, you watched! You let it happen!!” Stormwalker growled

Luna offered no response beyond lowering her head.

The Princesses loosed a series of furious attacks. Blades and magic flew at Stormwalker with repetitive whistles of the splitting wind. He batted away the attacks with efficient and deft motions that were not more than blurs to Gusty’s eyes. The sisters finished their volleys to gasp upon seeing him unharmed. The stallion opened his wings to their fullest and hovered off the ground. The force of his wing beats laying the remaining grass around him flat in a perfect circle.

“You think things went the way I wanted?” he chuckled darkly.

“Do you think that I wanted to let them have the sweet salvation of death? When I had the chance to seek the small amount of closure I could?!” His voice was becoming harsh and angry like it did in the Cave.

Even from the distance she sat Gusty could feel his power building into a frenzy. If he unleashed it, the two princesses would not stand a chance. They did not stand much of a chance anyway and he was holding back. Without any real way to help Gusty started looking around the area to try to find something to defuse the situation. Nothing struck her as useful. Clanks of metal and the hissing of the wind being torn turned her eyes back to the fight.

Dodging and zipping between blades Stormwalker shot down to the ground in a flash and landed between the two sisters forcing them to stop their attacks.

“You think that when the rest of my life will have been sinning so others did not have to, I would abstain from this smallest of pleasures?” he asked. His voice was broken and sad.

Stormwalker held the flat of the wingblades out to the sisters’ throats before folding his wings away and closing his eyes. Gusty could tell he was trying to show them they had already lost. Had he wanted to kill them it would have been easy for him to do so simultaneously, his example just now was irrefutable.

Celestia and Luna teleported away into the air on different sides of him. In an impossible hail of colors, explosions, and metal hitting metal the Princesses unleashed their most vicious attack yet. Smoke rose around Stormwalker obscuring him from vision. Where he stood the ethereal blades of Luna continually plunged one after another and Celestia’s axe danced back and forth with dazzling speed. Each alicorn also unleashed spell after spell into the every growing mass of hazy air.

The attacks ceased finally after a full minute of grueling assault. The sisters flapped down from their positions in the air. Both panted heavily when they landed, sweat rolling down their faces and shoulders. The smoke around Stormwalker slowly began to clear and Gusty could make out the stallion.

He had gotten hit by five total attacks. Three of Luna’s cyan blades stuck out from his back, while two other cuts, one on his neck another and on one of his forehooves slowly closed. Minimal blood had sprung from the wounds. In the next moment flames shot out around Luna’s swords and they were disintegrated in an instant.

“You may not listen, but I will defend myself. I am not wrong in my convictions.” Stormwalker said quietly.

Gusty was surprised she heard him from this distance. The sound of bubbling water was quite loud from the nearby broken fountain.

Stormwalker’s trademark inflamed visage burst forth. His eyes glowed bright-red even in the afternoon sun. He clicked his fangs together and unfurled his blazes from his back and dropped into an actual martial stance.

The sisters readied themselves. Their weapons raised high they both loosed a unison battle-cry and charged at Stormwalker.

Desperately returning to her search for something useful Gusty found herself staring at the broken fountain and the shooting water spout. It had to work. Casting a levitation spell Gusty started trapping the water in a perpetually expanding ball. As soon as she deemed it ready Gusty flung the massive orb of water into the fight.

With a splash and the hissing of steam, Gusty watched the sisters stop attacking Stormwalker. Meanwhile the steamcloud was glowing with the still burning flames of the demon-stallion. It was not until that the massive water ball she had dropped on them finished exploding that the fire in the steam ceased.

She ran up to the scene hoping desperately that she could convince them to stop. Gusty had heard enough to know that Stormwalker had the best interests of the two sisters in mind. Even if his motivations were not perfect, he did not intend to hurt them. She still could not trust him, but Gusty felt that the demon would at least keep the innocents of the country safe. In the end he would hold them ignorant of his dark secret so he could enact whatever scheme he had concocted.

Still none of the three attacked each other, seemingly her spell and her patience had worked. Now if only the creatures before her would tell her the rest of what exactly was going on, she would be most grateful.

“Hey, everyone,“ Gusty spoke with resolve.

“What?!” all three snapped back at her.

Stormwalker stepped out of the steam, while Celestia and Luna tried to dry their manes enough to see past them.

"I hate to interrupt but Stormwalker is telling the truth.” she continued.

“Impossible,” Celestia stated, her voice normal but full of disdain. “He is nothing but a monster, his words are meaningless.”

“Normally, I would agree with you, but I cast a spell on him to prevent him from lying at the beginning of the fight hoping he would spill some sort of deep secret,” Gusty responded. "He even blurted out that he needs you to cooperate for his plans to work. That's not something he would just blurt out!" She smiled again.

“And you think it worked? Maybe you haven’t been around him enough but magic doesn’t work on him.” Luna sneered.

Gusty was rather surprised at Luna’s harsh tone. She persisted intent on making her point.

“It’s not just magic, its holy magic,” Gusty emphasized. “It even works on demons like him. Go ahead, Stormwalker try to lie.”

Stormwalker shrugged and gave a look of confused agreement.

“I am a Class Five Composite Shadow-kin. I have a great hunger for other demons and l love Gusty’s freckled face and how her flanks are shaped.” he smirked.

His smile was quickly replaced by a look of complete befuddlement. Gusty found herself blushing and wanting to gag. Stormwalker made a several grunts of amusement.

“That’s super weird,” he mused. “I was trying to say I was a fluffy purple bear who ate chocolate and liked to smell flowers. Yet, I can describe what I was thinking, because that’s not lying? Man, this just strange. I am a grey pegasus-demon. Nope. Can’t lie.” He bit his lips with his fangs, somehow not drawing blood.

Gusty rolled her eyes at him. She was pretty sure the other two alicorns did the same.

“Well, I hate to say this but Gusty may be right. He certainly isn’t trying to attack us now. And based on what he has said...and my experience with him...” Luna cut in.

“LIke that means anything. He is probably just trying to manipulate us. You cannot trust demons like him, Luna. They always have ulterior motives.” Celestia retorted.

“And if I do you will never know them. Even if I can't lie and divulge the 'everything,' it's not as if you could actually stop me. So why not play my game? For once…..might not be so bad, all things considered.” Stormwalker draped on melodramatically..

The sisters sighed in rough agreement.

The group of immortal beings fell silent for a time, none of them looking at any of the others. Gusty decided that she would make this the moment she asked the other question that had been on her mind.

“How did Zeccaran know how to complete that ritual in the Cave? Rather...who is he even?” she asked expectantly.

“That depends. I do not know Gusty Twilight, but Luna does. Sister?” Celestia’s answer was just short of demanding.

“There is much to tell. When it comes to that unfortunate soul. I feel that it is better to show rather than explain. Where has he gone? We will need him for what I have in mind,” Luna concluded.

“He’s over there,” Stormwalker pointed “He’s asleep next to that burgundy fool by the one hedge that is not on fire,” he finished by casting exceedingly disapproving look at Celestia.

“Then let us gather him and go the western conference room,. It should be quite private.” Luna said.

Gusty led the other three over to Zeccaran and picked him up in her magic. The group began making their way back to the palace, with Luna in the lead and Stormwalker trailing behind. Gusty could see a few attendants and Royal guard poking their heads out of windows or peering through holes in the walls of the building.

“Out of curiosity, and not trying to sound too conceited here, but how in the world did they fall asleep in the middle of that fight?” Celestia questioned looking at the floating zebra.

“I think it might have been those blue flowers we tried. I thought they were really great but, those two passed out.” Gusty responded with a shrug.

“Oh! Well…They’ll be fine but those flowers are called Funny Bells. They...are light hallucinogens...and aphrodisiacs….I’m surprised they did not make you pass out too, typically when tried for the first time, they have extreme effects,” Celestia grimaced with an embarrassed smile.

Gusty only snickered and gave Celestia a knowing wink. The flowers certainly had worked well on her fiance, she would have to try some more later. Maybe after a few actual dates.

It took them about five minutes to reach an actual door to the palace and a five more to reach the room Luna had mentioned. Entering from an area behind the throne room, they passed destroyed statues, still burning banners, and tossed about decor. Gusty could hear Celestia’s breathing get short and raspy as the white alicorn no doubtedly felt some strong remorse for ruining her abode. Finally, they arrived at a tall mahogany door. It was embroidered with raised carvings in the alabaster wall that was painted with real gold paint. The inscription in the elegant gilding was marked in black, easy to read, and spanned the top of the door.

“Discussion with open minds creates understanding, compromise, and harmony” stated the engraving in its fine script.

Luna pulled the door open with her magic and revealed a room with similar purple fashion as Gusty’s apartment, perhaps more elegant. It was a square room with a vaulted ceiling, a fine crystal chandelier hung from the high location. The floor was carpeted with a soft rug nearly as comfortable as the bed in Gusty’s apartment. The wall opposite the door was comprised entirely of a massive window that showed the setting sun far off in the Equestrian plains behind the city. The other walls were trimmed up to mid-pony height with the same dark mahogany as the door while above them the stone was painted a calm cobalt blue, ironically about the same color as her skirt. In the center of the room, arranged around a wide coffee table several thick-padded chairs were set, along with a single but incredibly large sofa. All were sewn with a pleasant dark blue cloth.[

Gusty pushed the aloft Zeccaran through the air to one of the plush chairs. She set him down and curled up his body so he would not fall off the seat. Celestia walked past her and selected a chair on the opposite side of Zeccaran. Gusty choose the seat next to her friend and Luna sat down in the position closest to her sister a seat away from her. Stormwalker slowly strode past them all and laid out his full length on the sofa. He took up the entire thing, his body and armor making the piece of furniture creak in protest. Gusty scoffed at his lack of manners and posture. Face on his leg plates, he looked over to her and met her eyes. She looked away refusing to return his gaze, he did not deserve her patience and kindness yet he was getting it anyway.

“Sister are you ready? Gusty?” Luna asked looking between them.

“Don’t wait on me, Luna.” Stormwalker commented.

After looking at Celestia whose face mirrored Gusty’s annoyance with Stormwalker, they both turned back to Luna and nodded. Gusty was unsure what was going to happen but the Princesses possessed incredibly powerful magic, so she expected it to be interesting. Especially since Luna was going to show her some of that very magic now, Gusty thought.

“Then let us begin,” Luna murmured, just barely able to be heard.

Luna’s horn lit and she closed her eyes. Gradually, the intensity of its indigo glow brightened to a dangerous dazzling white crescendo. Gusty’s vision was completely overwhelmed by the sight and her vision blurred out to a grey then a black. She promptly felt herself fall asleep.

The feeling of physically falling asleep but remaining conscious jarred her mind into a frenzy. Gusty desperately searched about the empty blackness looking for some indication that she had dozed off not just died instead. Slowly her panic subsided as one of her recurring nightmares started to play. It brought its own panic but it was familiar and welcomed compared the sensation of the Void she had been experiencing.

Gusty watched as one of the shadowy figures of a demon long since slain walked towards her, its phantom appendages making sounds like hooves as it strutted dominantly. It was the only thing with her, behind it was an blank expanse of nothingness that had neither color nor light. Only an ashen floor illuminated by an equally drab light marked her environment.

“Gusty Twilight,” came the voice of a mare. The sound seemingly emanated from the dream itself[

Gusty looked about trying to figure out where it came from and trying to find her sword so she might smite the shadow of her past instead of it eating or torturing her as it usually did.

“Gusty…” clearer now, the voice belonged to Luna.

A vicious shriek echoed in the dark place Gusty resided. She turned to see a shimmering blue mist slowly pulling itself out of the chest of the specter. The shadow withered and flailed about until the fully formed body of a pony was created by the sparkling cloud. A squishy splatter of water and gelatin marked the ghost of her past exploding into dark blobs and landing about the grey floor of the dream.

From the mist, Luna solidified and stood before Gusty. The mare had a look of deep concern on her face as she looked around the dismal location.

“Your dreams are a most curious place…” she remarked to Gusty still peering about.

“Come, we must leave your mind and instead tread into Zeccaran’s...and mine,” Luna whispered seemingly into Gusty’s ears.

A plain white wooden door appeared surrounded by Luna’s magic forming from absolutely nothing. The gilded doorknob twisted with a creak and the portal swung open revealing on an white light that Gusty could not see past. With a small grin Luna motioned for her to enter. Gusty did as the other alicorn wished.

Touching the blankness of the glowing surface Gusty felt her hoof tingle with the sensation of another’s magic. Closing her eyes, she pushed through the portal to reveal an sky blue void that was pleasant and warm feeling. Celestia stood waiting for her legs and wings stiff. The elder princess looked at her with interest and a wry grin.

“It has been some time since Luna has had trouble with somepony’s dreams. You will have to tell me how you keep her out. She is constantly pranking me in my dreams.” Celestia’s posture relaxed as she spoke.

“I didn’t know I was stopping her…” Gusty responded in kind.

She wondered what the princess had meant by trouble with somepony’s dreams. Frankly, the whole mind-walking thing they were doing now Gusty found unnatural and dangerous. One false move could push the subconscious too far and completely destroy the mind of the pony who was subject to the spell. She resolved that she would have to trust Luna.

While she did not know Luna very well the way Celestia spoke of her in such confidence was reassuring. Gusty found Celestia’s word to hold quite the bit of weight, especially since Celestia had been the only other creature that distrusted Stormwalker as much as her. Despising demons went a long way in Gusty’s book. She smiled at that thought.

A slow, low hiss came from behind her along with the dainty hooffalls of Luna marking the mare exiting the portal, enticing Gusty to look at her. The blue mare was humming pleasantly as if she deeply enjoyed her work

She abruptly stopped her humming and her face became serious.

“Well,” She sighed. “What I am about to show you both is…” She paused and pursed her lips. “It was the moment that broke them, when they lost everything they had worked for…” Luna’s voice was sad and guilty.

“Both?” questioned Celestia before Gusty could open her own mouth.

“Yes. Stormy and Zeccaran.” the younger mare answered.

Gusty narrowed her eyes. Stormwalker and Zeccaran had known each other. Why was Zeccaran hiding that? She wondered. Had he known what Stormwalker was the entire time?

“I’ll fill in the gaps as they come. For now let us relive the past....from my eyes” Luna said looking at her.

Luna’s horn lit and a great rectangle of the plain sky blue hollow they were in became the deepest, darkest shades of green. Slowly, the darkness cleared away to show a familiar image. It was the altar from the Cave but this time it was surrounded by two dozen of the cultists in their dark robes. In the foreground of the image several hundred ponies cheered and stomped their hooves in eager anticipation. The room was packed so thickly with ponies it almost gave Gusty claustrophobia.

From behind the altar a young looking Zeccaran strode out. He wore lapis lazuli colored regalia. On the garments a large silver crescent-moon was etched on his chest. The white stripes of his face were painted a deep midnight blue exactly the same color of Luna. Most strikingly his eyes were not the calm purple she had become accustomed to but instead were strikingly unnatural light blue.[

The Zeccaran on the altar waved a hoof commandingly and the crowd was silenced. Gusty could feel their anxious waiting. They did not need to wait long, the faux-Zeccaran spoke.

“Brothers and Sisters! Tonight is the night that we finally get to meet our Mistress!” he declared with a great wave of his front hooves.

The crowd erupted with frenzied cheers.

“The sacrifice has been prepared and soon we will oust the betrayer from the throne and free all the ponies of Equestria!” Faux-Zeccaran continued with a broad smile on his lips.

More screams, even more desperate than before.

He turned to the left and the vision Gusty was watching followed where the false prophet gazed.

The small crowd of the Inner Circle parted to reveal a pair of stallions carrying a very beaten Stormwalker. He lacked armor and was limp when they carried him. While it was clear that he had been tortured, the demon looked as good as he usually did, but he lacked the stronger lines on his face and his body seemed younger. Stormwalker had apparently had aged like a fine wine and was more attractive in the real world. That thought made Gusty want to kick herself.

Stormwalker stared out into the crowd and looked directly at her, or perhaps he was looking at Luna in the memory. Gusty was unsure. It felt as if he could sense through time and space that she was watching him. How extremely unsettling, Gusty thought, But, why is the only thing I feel from him pain?

The real Luna shifted uncomfortably next to her, brushing her side. Gusty could only imagine what it would have been like to be there. Even just watching the memory made her feel the dark energy in the room and the malicious intent of the crowd.

She looked again to Stormwalker, trying to understand.

Gusty only saw the eyes of a broken stallion. There was no determination or rage that she had often seen in those yellow eyes. An immeasurable sadness emanated from him, and the will to live was quite absent from his gaze. He was more than content to die on the altar, Gusty could feel it.

Stormwalker completely lacked the presence he had in the waking world too. It was like he lacked all his power. He made no attempt to struggle as they stallions carrying him laid him on the altar and chained his limbs to the four corners of the platform.

“And now!...It is finally time.” Zeccaran said matter-of-factly.

He produced a sickle from his robes. The very same sickle Gusty had seen him use so many times before. Holding its handle in both hooves, he raised it up so it glinted blue in the light of the full moon from the iron grate above. Stormwalker looked up at the blade longingly.

Without ceremony Zeccaran plunged the point of the sickle into Stormwalkers abdomen just below his ribs. The blade went deep into the stallion’s body easily piercing his diaphragm and stomach, but he showed little reaction. He turned his head back to the crowd and Gusty could see by the look in his eyes that Stormwalker was not even witnessing the room, for all intents and purposes he was already dead. Gusty could not imagine what had brought him to such a lowly state, she didn’t want to either.

Zeccaran began to drag the sickle down the center of his offering while chanting the same incantation she had heard him do when she had been in the very same room not two days before. The incantation was a long one and Gusty watched with gritted teeth as Zeccaran roughly forced the sickle through Stormwalker’s intestines.

I can’t even- That has to be incredibly painful! Gusty pursed her lips in thought while she watched.

To his credit the stallion showed no reaction as his flesh was gradually rent and split with the dull blade. A portion of his innards spewed out to the side of Zeccaran’s hoof but refused to bleed and give, only leaving their red-pink mass to twist up and away from his body. Undeterred the faux-Zeccaran continued cutting open his sacrifice.

Pulling the blade out from Stormwalker he put it back in his robes. Raising his front two hooves to the moon and speaking the final words necessary in a hurried and excited passion. Stormwalker’s blood rolled out from the wound and touched the altar.

The moon turn red and all light in the room darkened away just like before. The seeping form of a Shade fell from portal above. It pooled around the cut and partially formed a toothy smile before being sucked into the wound.

Light returned to the room abruptly. Gusty watched as the light in Stormwalker’s eyes kindled to a look of absolute horror. His shackles tightened as his body stiffened

In her ears the ponies around her whispered in confusion.

“What’s going on?” one said. “Shouldn’t we see the Night Mistress?” another.

The Zeccaran up on the altar turned around, his look just as confused as the rest of the ponies in the crowd.

“No.” came a soft male voice.

The whole room fell silent as they looked for the voice. Gusty didn’t need to search, she knew his voice too well already.

“No...no...no...no….No!” Stormwalker spat violently as he thrashed the chains holding him. “I don’t want it back! Never again! Please just let me die!” He shouted. He looked down at his open wound, with a desperate craze in his gaze.

The deep cut and all his bruises and other injuries healed before Gusty’s eyes.

He started to laugh. It was a cold empty sound. The dark chuckles chilled Gusty’s chest like she had just swallowed a whole pound of ice. The blob of cold sat there frozen as the demon on the table continued his haunted titters.

“Arrrghhh-AHHHH!” the demon screams burst suddenly.

Metal groaned and snapped as he ripped off his chains and stood up on the platform of the altar.

In his full visage of flame and malice he loosed a deep echoing bellow that physically moved Gusty’s chest. Gusty only briefly caught his eyes.

Hurt.

It was the only way to describe the brief thing she saw, but she knew too that he was going to spread that suffering. From what she had seen, Gusty knew it wasn’t the kind of pain that could be held in.

Immediately, the flames of his body shot into the crowd. The acrid smell of burning flesh caught Gusty’s nose and forced her to cover her face with a hoof. This memory certainly was crudely ingrained in Luna’s mind if the smell of burning bodies remained as vile as it did.

The eyes of Past Luna looked left and right as the hundreds of ponies around her were slowly scorched to black crisps. They continued to wail and flail about in total misery as they fell to the ground in droves. Past Luna ran up towards Stormwalker out of the flames. How she had been untouched was nothing short of a miracle. Gusty decidedly that Stormwalker had intentionally avoided hitting her, he probably had something much more base intended for her.

“Stop this! You have to stop this!” She yelled at him, as she ran towards him.

The world dimmed leaving Gusty confused as to what happened.

She looked over at Luna, Celestia on the other side of her sister was doing the same.

“What happened?” Gusty asked her before Celestia could, her face equally as confused Gusty felt.

“He hit me, quite hard...in retrospect I probably should have seen it coming. I don’t know why I thought I could stop him, but I had to try. He was my friend after all, or at least he had been…” Luna explained. “Here,” Luna’s horn flashed. “I came to right... here.”

The memory cleared up and it showed two Cultists of the Inner Circle looking between Luna and something out of her field of vision, obscured by her blue-starry mane. One of them lowered their hood to reveal a much younger and healthier looking Chrysanthemum. She grabbed her comrade pointed to the area out of view again and ran towards it.

Curiously, there was no sound to this portion of the memory. Gusty theorized that was because Luna had likely hit her head on the altar before sliding down to where she had been laying.

With a shhooowishhh, sound suddenly returned to reveal Stormwalker laughing over the top of the all the dying ponies in the room. This time his merriment was malicious. The hoarse giggling made her chest tighten in fear. Past Luna turned her view to find Zeccaran laying on the steps of the raised platform slowly trying to back away from a gore covered Stormwalker.

The demon was holding a partially alive member of the Inner Circle in a wing by his legs. Slowly and deliberately the flesh on the cultist’s limbs were charred to a hideous black. The demon hefted the stallion up in the air and slammed him into the ground where he continued to writhe and scream in a heap. The blacked portion of his limbs remained stuck in Stormwalker’s wing.and immediately the smell of scorched tissue returned even stronger. Past Luna looked down to the stallion on the floor to see bare blackened bones in place of all of his regular legs.

Stormwalker strode over to the stallion, the flesh in his wing turning to ash as he did. Rolling the ashes of the stallion’s legs into ball with his ethereal appendage the demon stuffed the mass into the open and wailing mouth of the poor fellow. A harsh sizzling noise silenced the stallion and Stormwalker laughs intensified.

Upon seeing the stallion’s mouth cauterized shut, Past Luna turned from the scene and vomited onto the carved stone floor.

If she not had not been in the dream world Gusty would have turned and done the same. She might even still once they left this place. It had been an incredibly long time since she had seen such horrors. They had been wrought by the same type of demons too. Gusty decided to hold that thought for later, the memory continued while she regained her focus.

Past Luna looked back up after grunting and beheld Stormwalker standing over Zeccaran. The zebra only lay there his mouth open and his eyes locked open in disbelief and terror.

The demon began to beat him. He did not burn him, he did not bite him, he used only his front hooves and his weight. Again and again he hit different parts of Zeccaran’s body, none of it lethal. It was clear that he meant to cause as much pain as possible, perhaps not even planning to finish the zebra. After a minute or so Stormwalker had worked his way to Zeccaran’s face and was hitting him with glancing blows, cutting the zebra’s face and smearing away the blue paint.

“Now we go even deeper, into Zeccaran’s mind...” The Luna on her left said.

The edges of the vision Gusty was witnessing gradually faded to a gray. The bland pigment fully overtook the entire scene after a time and Gusty was left wondering if this is what Zeccaran’s mind was like the achromatic expanse before her.

However, at the furthest distance she could see within this dream or mind or...

Gusty had completely lost track of how deep she had been brought into the astral layers of these memories.

She found herself questioning what was right. Stormwalker had not always been as he was now, dark and brooding, a monster and, Zeccaran used to be a Cultist! After everything it would seem that somehow Stormwalker had ample motive for revenge. Whatever had happened before the scene she had witnessed must have been truly terrible to make a stallion wish for death like the way Past Stormwalker had. Then fate denying him the mercy of release painted a clear picture of an angry empty monster motivated only by revenge and his own self-destruction. It did not condone hurting Amethyst but made the other things had done much more reasonable. Gusty felt the shiver of the glacier in her chest return, agreeing with a demon’s motivations made her feel dirty. A speck appeared at a distance and drew her attention away from the small identity crisis she was having for herself and the two stallions in question.

The dot grew to the size of a pony rapidly: before her Zeccaran stood placidly. He peered off to nowhere, his face an empty calm she had never seen him wear.

Images of a striped foal being taken up into the hooves of a cloaked pony overtook Zeccaran. The foal was crying while the long snout of the shrouded character was smiling gently.

“No need to cry little one. You are safe with us.” an unfamiliar mare’s voice cooed.

Next, flashes of the same cloaked pony showing a young colt magic and books. They booth seemed happy and eager in each others’ presence.

“All this knowledge and skill are yours, my little devotee. With them you will help free Equestria from the clutches of Nightmare Moon who masquerades as our precious Princess Luna, the True Night’s Mistress.” The voice this time was coming from the cloaked figure.

Then those images blurred away and Zeccaran stood dressed in the same outfit Luna’s memory had shown him. He and Chrysanthemum were huddled around the hooded mare each holding a hoof. They were young adults in this much more clear image.

“All that I have sacrificed, all that you have both sacrificed...don’t let it go to waste.” the mare croaked. Her voice was old and haggard.

It was rather unsettling to hear her as bereft of life as she was, but Gusty found it even more unsavory that Zeccaran and Chrysanthemum were crying.

“You can fulfill the Prophecy. I know you can….” The old mare coughed. “My only regret is that I won’t be there to see...it….” her legs relaxed in her attendees’ hooves.

Unlike the rest of the events, these faded away to grey to reveal Zeccaran still standing there in the emptiness of his mind. His calm look had left him but nothing else was different.

Gusty turned away from the image. She was beginning to develop a headache from what she witnessed. She gazed at Luna who had not moved even an inch from her position last time Gusty had spoke to her.

“Luna, what was all of that, memories?” she asked trying to make sure what she had seen and heard were real, or at least as real as someone else’s memories could be.

“Yes, the bits that I left him anyway. The other parts I purposely destroyed, so perhaps he could have a second chance.” Luna met her gaze as she spoke. “I think he puts it best. When I entered his mind that day...he was exceedingly repentant.”

Gusty raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? What has he done?” she questioned.

“Honestly, for the sake of the pony he has become now, I cannot tell you. Know that his actions were as terrible as they were multitudinous. His remorse….let him describe.” Luna spoke. She turned away from Gusty and looked back at the still frozen Zeccaran.

Crrrsnap! Popped Luna’s horn and instantly Zeccaran took to screaming and crying.

He fell to his stomach and pounded his forelegs onto the blank ground. His face bowed to the grey dirt in humiliation and distress.

“How how how, how?! Why why why, why?!” he chanted swapping between them in perfect sequences of four.

A pool of tears comically formed on the grey floor as Zeccaran continued his barrage. Gusty wanted to laugh but felt too much pity for Zeccaran and restrained herself. The zebra stopped pounding the ground and chanting and instead merely sobbed into the surface. His breathing was haggard, like he had just run a marathon.

Slowly he looked up at Gusty. Well, looked up to Past Luna was the more accurate description. His eyes were their normal purple and his face was taut with horror.

“Princess Luna….If you are here. Here in my mind…” he started before turning away. “Then...that that means the ritual failed.”

He continued, “If the ritual failed then that means...it means that they have been lying to me...for all these years….that-that, that….!” Zeccaran covered his face with his hooves.

“I summoned Nightmare Moon…..that I’ll I’ve done has been for some great evil I didn’t understand!” Zeccaran frantically spoke. He looked directly into Gusty’s eyes, like Stormwalker did, through time and the separate planes.

“I’ve done...so many terrible things….all...all those ponies I practiced on...they told me that they couldn’t actually feel anything….that everything was a perpetuation of Nightmare Moon, that she was the one who returned all those years ago and ...and now controlled all the minds of the populace…”

“But...but it was all lies… and I believed it... the day that old mare took me in...I listened to her -and-and followed everything she said….I sh-should be killed for what I’ve done!” He started to yell.

Zeccaran’s tears flowed readily as he kept trying to speak to Past Luna. His anguish was palpable even through the multiple levels of dreams, Gusty shuddered trying to ignore the sensation.

“Not even killed! I-I should be tortured! Slowly! Oh princess...all th-the innocent lives...all the blood I have on my hooves! Please! Please! End me! End me, now!” Zeccaran demanded, his face in a deep unmoving scowl of torment.

“I’ve seen your mind, Zeccaran.” Past Luna’s fine voice said. “And I know what you say is true.”

“Then please...If you cannot punish me, then let the monster I created finish me off, I deserve whatever he does to me…”Zeccaran pouted, his eyes locked on the ground.

“No. I cannot let you die. I cannot let him harm you.” Luna said.

Zeccaran looked up at her in pain. His hurt was so great that if one was to count all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet only to lose count on the last piece and the great realization of wasted years of life and burned and cracked hooves came crashing down in that single moment it would not make up one millionth of the suffering Zeccaran’s face expressed. But, such was his fate.

“W-w-why?” the zebra meekly asked Luna, his voice empty and dead.

Luna bent down to where Zeccaran sat and pulled him into a hug. Kindly, pulling him into her wings and meeting his face, Past Luna answered: “Because everypony deserves a second chance, my dear zebra. And I know there’s good in you.”

Zeccaran ‘s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp in Luna’s grasp

“And maybe...this way…Stormy can have one too,” Luna sighed.

Crrrsnap! Crackled Luna’s horn once again and the vision Gusty was watching blurred into a myriad of intense colors and patterns. The world seeming blurred away in those colors until abruptly the Cave’s altar room returned. Gusty blinked trying to make the image she was seeing more acceptable. She was unsuccessful. Before her Stormwalker loomed over Zeccaran, the sight flickered viciously in all its mangled glory.

“Beg! Beg for your life, you cretin!” boomed the demon-stallion as he tossed Zeccaran against the raised altar.

Gusty could hear the audible draws of Luna’s scared lungs. The mare’s vision moved closer to where Stormwalker approached the still frozen-faced Zeccaran

“I want you to plead! Suffer! Endure all the pain I have!” Stormwalker screamed. His voice was not more than the harsh grating of metal Gusty had heard in the very same room she now watched.

Zeccaran made no reaction to Stormwalker’s demands. His face was empty, his mind no longer capable of comprehending his sensory input.

Luna shouted something that Gusty did not understand. The name, perhaps, was obscured by the dream. Either way, her proclamation drew Stormwalker’s gaze. It was then that Gusty finally saw the twisted and crazed look the demon-pegasus had become memorable for.

He growled menacingly at Luna. His eyes dripped with dominance and cruel desire, Gusty was glad to not be on the true receiving end of that eye-contact, still she shuddered with disgust and fear. But,Stormwalker turned back to Zeccaran ignoring Luna’s cries, his fanged mouth drew into a too-wide smile and he chuckled darkly.

“If you will not fulfil my demands then you shall suffer,” he clicked arrogantly. “Suffer and pine for rest of your miserable life!”

“Your actions shall prove fruitless. Your heart will know no peace. None shall pity you, none shall offer you even the smallest mercy. And for any happiness you manage to briefly touch, you shall be rewarded twenty-fold in pain and strife. Your very life shall be a constant nagging at your mind, eroding your will, destroying your joy. Those that love you shall use you as a tool and your heart shall be forever a servant to misery. Such shall be your punishment for denying and destroying my happiness. Now live and rue your existence, you scum!”

Gusty gaped at the Stormwalker’s monologue. It was classic villain material, but something felt off. She could almost swear she felt real magic being woven by his words. It was a power almost no creature could possess, but the signs were there. The righteous anger, the unadulterated hatred, the pure, dismal suffering, Stormwalker had them all. What was worse, whatever Zeccaran had done, he probably deserved the curse, if it was real. Gusty doubted it was though. The sensation she had felt had come from Luna’s fear and muddled memories. Similar things had already happened so Gusty let the thought go.

Stormwalker turned away from Zeccaran with a flourish of his fiery cape and stared directly into the point of view.

The vision of the past shook as Luna looked back at the abomination. He spoke at her with a sneer.

“What are you staring at, hmm? You want him alive don’t you?” he snarled.

Luna’s shaking stopped. She blinked rapidly but remained eyes locked with those deadly, red orbs of the demon.

“H-how did y-you kn-know that?” she asked her voice doing the shuddering for her

He strode up next to her and backed Luna on to her flanks. Her breathing became even more haggard and scared than before. At this distance Gusty could even smell the demon’s sweat through the dream. How the memory conveyed such amazing detail was beyond her. Frankly, she wished it would remain sight and sound only, instead of throwing in these thick smells of desperation.

Luna’s view looked down to see Stormwalker tracing a hoof up her chest and neck, before forcing her to look back at him.

“Oh my sweet moony mare, there is so much about you I know...perhaps more than yourself.” he purred, whilst licking his fangs.

“Do what you will with him. His lack of reaction has made him the most boring of toys. Come to think of it...I have run out of things to play with except...for you.” A dark grin spread his mouth too wide.

Gusty found herself swallowing nervously for Luna.

“Enough!” Luna proclaimed standing. “Y-you have had your fun. Now cover yourself. The reinforcements I s-summoned will be arriving very...soon...and-and-and. I-uh...I-uh we can’t have you looking like that!” Luna stammered out. The whole memory shook while she tried to act confident in front of what must have clearly felt like her doom.

Gusty would have to commend her later for her bravery. She had been under the impression that only she, herself was unafraid of Stormwalker. Gusty eagerly waited to see what said demon would do after being scolded like a child.

Luna looked back into Stormwalker’s eyes and held his gaze.

He looked back but it was like he was not looking at her. His gaze saddened and darkened and he lowered his head. His breathing became shallow and rushed as he turned away from Luna and picked up the oversized cloak Zeccaran had originally been wearing at the beginning of the memory.

He tossed it over himself. It completely hid his face save the end of his snout and seemingly made the flames of his body disappear. Gusty surmised the garment was magical, as she was shocked that it both was not on fire and not emitting any light from the unnatural flames beneath it.

“That’s right...I...It's like I’ve gone back fifteen years…” He mumbled his voice barely audible.

Luna turned away from him and rushed over to Zeccaran. Slowly, the memory faded to a deep impenetrable grey and was no more.

Gusty shook her head as the astral plane of Luna’s mind returned in its twinkling sky blue. It was so starkly pleasant compared to what she had been experiencing it disoriented her.

She looked over to the sisters. Luna merely stared at the sparkling ground her eyes showing no emotion. Her body was rigid and she stood tightly. Celestia’s mouth hung partially open and she looked to a distant point off to Gusty’s left. Her face was shrouded in what was best described as guilt, Gusty had no idea why, she would have to ask later.

Gusty herself rolled her shoulders in attempt to shake off the horrors she had witnessed. It did nothing to help. She turned to talking.

“So...that was...terrible...if that even sort of scrapes the surface.” She said.

Celestia and Luna both remained silent.

Gusty grimaced. She had been hoping for more, especially from Celestia.

She wasn’t sure how to feel about Zeccaran, he wasn’t the same pony as he had been. What Luna had done and truly given him second start if she had erased his older memories. How ethical that was she did not know how, but Zeccaran legitimately wanted to do good so she could not count it a bad decision.

However, she had to admit to herself, she did feel strong pity for Stormwalker. He had not always been such a monster. There had been a stallion that was willing to fight and die for what was right hidden in him the entire time. Perhaps that was why he had not chased them down after the Shade. Maybe he had truly had a change of heart, those sad eyes of his made her actually wonder. Gusty had seen no other pony have such clear, dismal eyes.

No! He’s a monster, not a pony! He did not have to turn into what he is now. You can’t show him mercy, you have to end him. If he lets you, then easier the task shall be! Your pity will be a swift end to his unnatural life! a voice inside her shrieked, she found it disturbingly convincing.

Gusty cleared her throat, solemnly agreeing with her errant line of thought. She would give it all her faith and help him the only way she could.

Luna loosed a deep sigh and relaxed.

“I truly despise reliving that memory, but it had to be done. I hope that it explains everything.” She breathed.

“It does...and leave me feeling like I need to apologize, especially with how close we used to be.” Celestia chimed in, striding up to her sister. “What of you Gusty?” she asked.

“I will do what I must. It matters who you are in the present not the past.” Gusty stated.

She wanted to appear strong in the face of such trials. What she was going to do next required it. This time Gusty swallowed nervously with intention. Her heart was already beginning to race with anticipation.

“Shall you take us back to the waking world Luna? I have a demon to purge from an exceedingly unfortunate stallion.” she ordered with gusto.

Luna gave her a quizzical look but her horn lit up anyway. The dream world started to fade away and Gusty felt herself waking up. It was a slow and arduous process. Gusty was unsure how long it would take or if it would take any real time at all.

Official Update: 10-16-2017