When Sharp Wing woke up, he was lying in a bed. It was actually a nice modern bed, with a headboard, a pillow stuffed with pegasi feathers and sheets, which was entirely out of place inside the tribal hut it was in. Everyone who had come with him from Equestria was gathered around him as well. When Sharp Wing tried to move he noticed white bandages wrapped around his neck, his leg, his wing and his torso.

"Ow," he muttered.

"You're alive!" squealed Pinkie Pie as she wrapped her fore legs around him in a brutal hug of torture.

"Ow!" screamed Sharp Wing with a considerably larger amount of volume than a moment before.

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight Sparkle protested as she magically pulled the overzealous earth pony back.

"Are you okay?" inquired Fluttershy, her eyes wide with concern.

"Not really," Sharp Wing croaked, remembering just in time to keep his sarcasm in check when talking to Fluttershy.

"I'm glad you're not dead." Night Mist said dryly.

"I'm glad you're glad I'm not dead."

"Ya cain't be feeling too bad if yer still making yer snappy comebacks," remarked Applejack.

"I always make snappy comebacks," Sharp Wing replied.

Then he remembered something.

"Hey, where's Fraz?"

"Right here," answered Frazzle Spark from outside a window.

"Didn't you get tackled by Typhoon?"

"Sure did."

"Did you beat her or something?"

"Sort of, she was kind of winning but I told her Duma was a trickster and that he had offered me treasure too. He had shown her where his village was as collateral, but when we went to get a closer look it turned out it had been abandoned for years. By the time we got back it was over."

"Where is she now?"

"Don't know, she just left after that."

"What about the cheetahs?"

"They left as well," chimed in Twilight Sparkle. "After you killed Duma the one with an earring announced he was the new leader and that hunting intelligent animals was a waste of time. Turns out Duma was the only one who got a kick out of it. Well, that's what Zecora said he said. I couldn't understand him."

Sharp Wing would have preferred the cheetahs had moral objections to hunting intelligent animals, but he wasn't picky.

"Well, I guess everything turned out okay then, right?" asked Rarity.

"I'm a stallion again, and I'm not going to lose my mind, so yeah, I guess it did," decided Sharp Wing.

"It was kind of cool when the bath mixture finally kicked in and you glowed and stuff," recalled Rainbow Dash.

Sharp Wing blinked. Did they still not believe in the ghosts?

"Why would it take so long to kick in?" he asked carefully, not wishing to look insane by mentioning his ancestors.

"It's basic science of course. You got a heavy dose of Poison Joke because you were lying in it for hours. That's why it took longer to for the bath mixture to run through your system." Twilight Sparkle explained.

It became clear to Sharp Wing then that they had all dismissed his rant about his ancestors completely, most likely because the was stressed out of his mind at the time.

"Oh, that makes sense," he lied, "I was wondering why it happened when it did. I suppose we're going home now?"

"If you're up to it, can you get up?" asked Night Mist.

Sharp Wing got up from the bed.

"I'm sore, but I think I can manage." he said.

"Great! Don’t worry about helping us pack up, we'll take care of it." Twilight Sparkle said generously.

After saying goodbye to the zebras and Zecora, who would be taking a boat back to Equestria later, the band of ponies and the two dragons starting making preparations to head home. Having been forbidden from helping, Sharp Wing had decided to just watch. After of few minutes of doing just this he felt a tap on his shoulder, causing him to turn around.

"Oh hey, Spike, what's up?" he asked the tapper.

"I uh, fetched your swords for you," Spike said awkwardly, holding out the weapons.

The sight made Sharp Wing stiffen. One sword was clean, but the other was coated in blood. The blood of an intelligent, living, breathing animal who was now dead, gone forever. Sharp Wing knew he had had no other choice but to kill Duma, but it still hit him deeply.

"Can I ask you something?" Spike asked abruptly.

"Um, sure."

"What does it feel like to kill someone?"

Sharp Wing suddenly felt very tired.

"I dunno, I guess it depends on why you did it. I don't really feel happy because Duma is gone. I'm really just relieved, and sad that there wasn't any other way to make him stop eating intelligent creatures. I would think that if you ever took pride in taking a life, you're not doing it right."

Spike stood there awkwardly for a moment, processing what he had just heard. Then he gave the swords to Sharp Wing and went off to go help pack. Soon the packing was finished and everyone got aboard Frazzle Spark. With his smoothest take off yet, he took to the skies.

"Zebrawbway is a very beautiful country from up here," observed Rarity as they all flew homeward.

"Bye Zebrawbway!" squealed Pinkie Pie.

"Worst. Country. Ever," huffed Rainbow Dash. "Good riddance."

"Can't say much for the culture," agreed Twilight Sparkle.

"Hey, Spike, when we get home we should find a lot of gems and eat them all." suggested Frazzle Spark.

"Ooh, let’s fill up a whole cave with gems!" Spike agreed enthusiastically.

Night Mist and Twilight Sparkle exchanged a worried glance.

"You're really going to stay as a dragon?" asked Fluttershy nervously.

"Absolutely, it's flaming awesome."

"But who is going to run your store if you remain a dragon?" reasoned Twilight Sparkle, ignoring the new dragon phrase.

"Don't need it. I'll live off the land and find a cave near Ponyville to live in. That way I can visit you guys and you can visit me."

"But I thought you loved running your firecracker store!" protested Sharp Wing, dismayed by the idea of his best friend moving away.

Frazzle Spark didn't answer.

Sensing he was on the verge of changing his friend's mind, Sharp Wing flew out of his saddlebag so he could talk face to face with his friend.

"We won't be able to do hang out anymore because you won't fit in any building," Sharp Wing argued.

Frazzle Spark was about to respond when suddenly he coughed, blinked in surprise, and rapidly shrank down and morphed back into a unicorn.

"Oh fang," he swore as he and all the passengers who were now inside saddlebags strapped to nothing fell screaming into the ocean.

Rainbow Dash managed to get out of her saddlebag and shot back up into the air. Without hesitation both she and Sharp Wing dove into the water to save the others. Sharp Wing knew Night Mist could swim, but Frazzle Spark couldn't. He wasn't sure about the others. The salt water stung his eyes, and made it next to impossible to tell one pony from another. Sharp Wing went for the first pony shape he could see, grabbed him or her, and pumped his wings to fly back up. When he broke the surface he saw that it was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash shot of the water holding Rarity.

"Can you swim?" Sharp Wing asked Pinkie Pie with urgency.

"I can swim!" Pinkie Pie gasped with wide eyes.

Sharp Wing dropped her and went back into the water as Fluttershy came out holding Spike. This time he spotted a dark red blur. Sharp Wing tore through the water and snatched up Frazzle Spark before surging up again.

Night Mist came up with a gasp with Twilight Sparkle across his back, struggling hard to stay above water. Applejack appeared as well, and swam towards them to help carry Twilight Sparkle, as did Pinkie Pie. Sharp Wing did a head count. Everyone was either treading water or being held up by somepony else.

"What now?" inquired Rainbow Dash, still flapping her wings hard to hold her own weight and Rarity's.

"One sec," requested Twilight Sparkle as her horn started to glow in a bright pink light. With a flash of magic a large wooden row boat appeared in the water. "Okay, everypony in," she wheezed.

Nine very tired ponies and one dragon got into the boat. For a while no one said a word.

"Could somepony please explain to me why I changed back?" begged Frazzle Spark.

"I get the feeling you changing back was part of the prank the Poison Joke played on you," Twilight Sparkle said thoughtfully. "Instead of messing with some part of you that you were fond of, it gave you something you became fond of and took it away forever."

"But that's cruel!" protested Frazzle Spark.

"More than cruel, we're stranded in the middle of the ocean. Do you think you could conjure up some oars too, Twilight?" asked Rarity.

"It'll take forever to row all the way back to Equestria," pointed out Night Mist.

"And we lost all of our supplies," added Apple Jack.

There was a brief pause as everyone considered this predicament.

"I've got an idea," announced Rainbow Dash with a grin.

Moments later the Equestrians were zipping over the waves at breakneck speed as Rainbow Dash pushed the boat from behind.

"Woohoo! This is awesome!" Spike laughed, squinting into the wind to see ahead.

"We'll be back in Equestria in no time at this rate," figured Apple Jack.

As the Equestrians zipped home they broke down into idle chatter, talking about the dangers they had faced, and what they would do when they got home. Not a word was spoken about Duma's death. But Sharp Wing wasn't really listening to the others, for his mind was elsewhere.

Sharp Wing knew now he had been in the right when he killed Duma, but the fact of the cheetah's death at his hooves, or rather, his wings and then his mouth, felt like a burden. Sharp Wing figured it would be with him for the rest of his life. Well, that and the knowledge that ghosts were real. But perhaps the biggest change of all was the knowledge Steel Horn and the original hero Sharp Wing had given him.

Evil did more than just corrupt a single pony, it could cause a chain reaction that could pass on to others, and future generations. Emperor Sharp Wing had been the product of this. His son of the same name had altered Equestria's history by choosing the path of good, which started a new chain reaction. Yet the legacy of the Featherblades was still tainted by four generations of evil. Five, counting the older brother of the second Sharp Wing. Perhaps this Sharp Wing could change that. Maybe by making the right choices he could finish the job that the second Sharp Wing had started. Maybe one day, when ponies thought of the Featherblades, they would think not of villainous tyrants, but of heroes.

-The End