Sharp Wing flinched back to avoid another thrust from Duma's spear. This wasn't what she had planned. No one else was supposed to die except for her and Duma. Frazzle Spark and Typhoon were out of sight. Doubtlessly the large red reptile was getting killed right now. Sharp Wing slashed out with her sword, which Duma evaded. Why was it so hard to hit that stupid cat? Spear met on swords, and suddenly the two warriors were in a lock. Then, Sharp Wing's powers of improvising came into play as she threw herself onto her back, used her swords to rip the spear out of the cheetah's tail and knocked Duma back with a powerful buck of her hind legs.

"There, I win," she growled as she discarded the spear over the heads over the crowd.

"It's a fight to the death remember?" Duma reminded her as he held up a paw and extended his claws.

"Are you serious? If you try to attack me with your claws you're just going to pull back bloody stumps!" Sharp Wing pointed out.

"We'll see."

"How about you just give up and escape with your life?" Sharp Wing offered.

"Why the sudden generosity? I though you really wanted me to die."

The comment gave Sharp Wing pause. She did want the cheetah to die didn't she? The world would certainly be better off without him. If Sharp Wing killed him now everyone would call her a hero. It was the right thing to do wasn't it? Did it really make any deference that she still hated him?

But maybe it was deeper than that. Perhaps when one faces evil, there are two kinds of hatred. Hatred for the embodiment of that evil, and hatred for evil itself. One hatred was right, and the other was wrong.

At that moment, something changed in Sharp Wing. Perhaps it was because fighting and winning had cleared her mind. Or maybe her brain really had been altered by the transformation, like doctor Cold-Hooves had thought. Either way, she knew what she had to do.

"I changed my mind. I'm going to kill you," she said coldly.

"By all means, let’s finish this properly."

"But not because I hate you."

Duma blinked in surprise.

"I don't have to hate you to kill you," Sharp Wing pressed on, "I'm killing you because it’s the only way to stop you. You're a sick, disturbing, sociopath that's too dangerous to stay alive."

"What difference does the motivation make if the act is the sa-" Duma suddenly stopped and stared at Sharp Wing.

Sharp Wing glanced down and saw why. Her body had started glowing a yellowish gold.

"What the hay?" she swore.

A hum of pure energy filled the air as the light increased in intensity. The sound rose to an almost ear-splitting pitch, and as quickly as it had appeared, it suddenly stopped. Sharp Wing looked down again. Her legs had gotten longer and thicker.

Duma and the entire crowd stared at Sharp Wing as he let out a whoop of delight and started to do the moon-trot.

"Well, now I've seen everything," remarked Duma.

"Consider yourself lucky you got to witness my true form," smirked Sharp Wing as he stopped to admire the muscles on one of his fore legs.

"I do. Now when I kill you I'll have a bigger meal then before," smiled Duma.

"I've got two blades. You've got nothing."

"On the contrary, I've got eighteen blades, not counting the ones in my mouth!" laughed Duma as extended all of his claws and sprang forward with lightning speed.

Sharp Wing launched himself sideways to the right with a skip and a flap of the wing, but it wasn't fast enough to prevent the cheetah from razing his claws over his left wing. The result was a pain so excruciating he dropped the sword his left wing was holding.

"I'm not sure how you changed like that, but clearly it doesn't make any noticeable difference in your fighting abilities. But after I kill you I suppose I could always ask one of your friends how you did that before I eat them," quipped Duma.

"I thought you only wanted one pegasus to eat," said Sharp Wing with a grimace.

"Toying around with you has only made me work up an appetite," Duma informed him as he sprang forward in another attack.

Sharp Wing suddenly found himself giving ground in an effort to prevent the cheetah from tearing him to shreds. Since Sharp Wing had been a stallion for ninety nine percent of his life, it would make sense that he would be better at fighting in that form. However, the transformation had changed things. Now he had a life to look forward to if he survived this battle, and that took away the slight advantage of having nothing left to lose. Duma proved to be too fast again as he sliced Sharp Wing's side. To make matters worse, he was starting to feel faint from loss of blood. Out of nowhere a crazy idea came to Sharp Wing.

Sharp Wing dropped his remaining sword in the dirt, wobbled on his hooves and keeled over, pinning his good wing down with his body.

"Sharp Wing!" hollered Night Mist.

Sensing the golden opportunity, Duma opened his mouth wide and went in for the kill. His victory was cut short by a stab through the heart. Duma glanced down.

"I dern't hate you, I jest hed to shtop you," said Sharp Wing from below, his words garbled by the sword hilt he clenched between his teeth.

Duma slowly raised his head again and stared blankly ahead.

"Those ponies behind you," he whispered softly, "Where did they come from, and why are they so tall?"

His vision hazy, Sharp Wing only had time to twist the sword in Duma's heart before everything went dark.

When Sharp Wing opened his eyes again he was standing in a white void. No one else was around except for two very tall ponies, a dark orange elderly looking unicorn with a white mane and blue eyes, and a younger looking white pegasus with a black mane and purple eyes.

"Please tell me I'm not dead." Sharp Wing requested.

"You're dead," said Ghost Sharp Wing.

"You're not dead," Steel Horn corrected, glaring at the younger ghost, "You've simply passed out from loss of blood."

"If I'm not dead why can I see you guys?"

"You're still close enough to our graves for us to communicate with you. This is all in your head." Steel Horn explained.

" Oh, um, okay. So what made you decide to change me back?" asked Sharp Wing, gesturing towards his one hundred percent male body.

"We didn't do anything, you simply just met the conditions of the spell," clarified Steel Horn.

"Conditions? What conditions?"

"That the spell would only be lifted if you made the right decision about the act of taking a life."

"But I just murdered someone."

Sharp Wing heard his own words, but they sounded foreign to him. He really had murdered someone, but it seemed surreal.

"No, you killed someone, there's a difference." Steel Horn corrected.

"And that difference is what exactly?"

"The reason for the act. You did what was necessary without succumbing to the wrong kind of hatred. That's not an easy thing to do in the heat of battle."

"Well, it’s like I've said before, I'm not about to let a monster get the best of me, ever," Sharp Wing said with a shrug. "But just because I agree with you now that doesn't mean I'm not mad you tried to blackmail me into it."

"That's understandable," Steel Horn said evenly, "In that case you'll be happy to know this is the last time we'll ever talk with you."

"Wait, so this is goodbye, forever?" asked Sharp Wing in shock.

He had actually started to get fond of his ancestors, as irritating as they were.

"We acted because we wanted to prevent history from repeating itself. Nothing good has ever come out of a Featherblade going corrupt. Now that you've realized the danger of the wrong kind of hatred our mission is accomplished," explained Steel Horn.

"This is your life to live, the legacy of the Featherblades is on your shoulders," added Ghost Sharp Wing. "Wouldn't be fair to keep interfering with your life."

The void began to glow brighter as the ponies of the past started to grow dimmer.

"Farewell, Sharp Wing Featherblade, perhaps one day you'll do something great, or maybe your descendants will, and our name will no longer be as blemished as I made it," Steel Horn said sadly.

"I'll change it! I will! I'll make you proud!" Sharp Wing said frantically.

The last thing Sharp Wing saw was the smiles of the two tall ponies before the light blotted out everything.