Frozen trees became a blur in my peripheral as I sped by, loping through the snow more by hopping than by running. Even through my adrenaline induced body heat, I could feel the biting cold wind pierce though my coat.

The voices in my head were screaming.

And I wasn't sure if my own voice was amongst them.

I continued my mad dash through the woods. Even if I wanted to, I could never return to the shack and the safety it represented, as fragile as that safety was.

Occasionally, I thought I heard Celestia's voice calling out, but I couldn't make out what she was saying.

The trees felt like they were closing in, pressing towards me like a mob of angry rioters. Their branches crisscrossed and tightened like a noose, forming a sort of fish net that I was too large to fit through.

Escape by flight was impossible.

What do I do?!

Where do I go?!

How do I get out this?!

The chorus of voices demanding my attention rose.

"Luna!"

My breath hitched and my heart skipped a beat.

Her voice was much closer than I expected.

I threw my wings open, the bones and joints creaking from disuse.

I jumped up, forcing my wings to work despite their protests. In a quick dash through the air, I hid behind the first tree trunk that I saw.

I pressed myself against the tree as I landed, aware of my heaving chest as I gulped for air.

I put my hooves to my face as I tried to stifle my obnoxiously loud breathing.

Snow crunched behind the tree as a quadruped walked.

My lungs ached for air, yet I held onto my breath for dear life.

Air! Need air!

Crunch crunch crunch crunch...

I didn't dare remove my hooves from my muzzle, not even to try and slowly and quietly try and relieve the pressure in my chest.

Crunch crunch crunch crunch...

"Oh Lu... Where have you gone?" The mare behind me quietly whispered to herself.

Leave! Leave damn you! Let me breathe!

"Lu!" Celestia called out. "Please come back to me Lu!"

Wretched mare!

I slowly let my lungs deflate, pushing all of the foul air out. I couldn't keep it in any longer. How Luna had managed to cross the void between stars with a single breath was beyond me.

Silence reigned as Celestia stood still and quiet, presumably listening.

Instead of directly inhaling, I focused on simply expanding my chest cavity as slowly as I dared, letting the natural movement intake a prolonged, yet shallow breath.

Crunch crunch crunch crun-

What was she doing? Was she leaving? Dare I look?

I felt my lungs reach their maximum capacity and slowly reversed the process.

Silence...

What was she doing?

Could I even turn around to look without making a noise?

I slowly turned around the tree, keeping my hooves over my mouth as if I was about to spill out a cacophony of noise at any moment.

Celestia stood over the marks my wings had made in the snow when I took off. Her ears and wings twitching in agitation. She stood there for what felt like hours, listening, yet staring sadly down at the marks as if she were mourning over a tombstone.

I slowly turned back to my hidden position.

I had to get out of here. Now.

But with Celestia standing there, I couldn't move.

So I resolved to wait, and at least get my breathing back under control.

As I waited, slowly drawing breath and balancing my oxygen deficit, I felt a twinge of pain on the left side of my torso.

It was the simulacrum of Celestia's golden spear, Daybreak.

I almost snorted derisively. I had almost forgotten about it. But between fleeing the feds, the raid on the gang, and the weeks spent in the shack in a numb stupor, there just was too many other things and pains to worry about. But here, now, in the presence of the very mare I despised, and ironically during a moment of relative, albeit fragile, calm... It had made itself known again.

I felt like an animal of the Ice Age, hiding from a hunter, with said hunter's spear stuck in my side.

Even if I could somehow pull the imaginary thing out, I knew it would leave a metaphorical scar. How could it not? In more ways than one, I was changed, now and forever more. As Luna, I had been left behind by both history and my sole remaining family. And I could never go back to the simple life of Lucas. Both of them, in their own way, were dead and gone, never to return.

All that remained was me.

The idiot left holding the bill.

I was the legacy of both Luna and Lucas, the sum of their greatest triumphs and their darkest atrocities. An amalgamation of both, entwinned in such a manner that was both horrid and beautiful. Everything they had ever done, was my fault.

Could I blame them? Of course not. Lucas simply couldn't know, and from what I remembered from Luna, she had done her best despite everything.

So where did that leave me? I imagined, if Celestia were to instead ask for Lucas , I would react the same as if she had asked for Luna.

Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch

Was... Was she leaving?

I waited with bated breath for the hoofsteps to fade into silence. When they were gone, I waited some more.

Cautiously, I peered around the tree I had hidden behind.

Celestia was gone.

In the snow, the tracks of a large mare lead out into the trees, and vanished from sight.

I paused, lookingtowards the direction the tracks were headed to see if I could see Celestia through the trees.

I couldn't.

I glanced about, fearing she was circling around.

Nothing.

I fell still again, perking my ears to try and listen.

The only thing I could hear was the wind, and the heart hammering in my chest.

I barely dared to breathe.

Was- was she truly gone? Had she moved on?

Cautiously I got back to my hooves, stepping lightly, prowling, and looking around for any wisp of multicolored hair.

The wind was so slight, that not even a twig twitched.

Gaining a bit of confidence, I started to trot, following my own footsteps and heading back in the direction I came, directly away from where Celestia had vanished.

When I was out of sight of that particular section of woods, I sped up again, this time into a canter.

As I passed, I noticed something peculiar about Celestia's tracks. I stopped briefly and put my own hoof inside the print.

Her hoof was nearly twice the size of my own.

Good. God.

During our fight in Equestria, we had been similar size. While yes, she was a few inches taller, we were not that far apart.

But now?

I must've been too distracted to notice just how big she was. Not in a chubby or body building sense, if anything she looked rather thin. But just how large her proportions had become!

I turned away from the absurdly large tracks.

I had an opportunity to leave, and I needed to take it while I still could.

Once more I picked up speed, this time into a full gallop. I spread my wings as I reached full speed, the bones and tendons still creaking and popping from disuse.

The canopy was still too thick, so I swiftly found myself dodging between tree trunks as I flew. The air and branches whistled as I zipped by.

An opening... Where was an opening?!

The faint smell of wood smoke graced my nose.

The shack!

That would definitely be open to the sky!

The cube shape of the cabin flickered between the trees.

I banked around a copse and pumped my furiously beating wings.

The cabin sat ahead, a veritable corridor of trees framing it perfectly.

I gave my wings a powerful stroke, bursting through the shack's column of smoke and sailing into the grey wintery sky above.

Free.

I banked away from the shack, veering towards the edge of the forest.

Now where was I-

The world suddenly spun violently.

CRACKOW!

The ground became the sky, the sky the ground, and back again.

A pain blossomed along my right shoulder, making me clench my eyes shut in surprise.

I pried my eyes open, the spinning ground approaching wildly.

Come on! I can recover! Come on!

But no matter how hard I beat the air, the world only spun wilder and wilder.

The ground approached frightenly close.

Mayday! Mayday!