The journey to Sanctuary and back didn’t take long, and there wasn’t much to note about the time that I spent there. Nothing more than a few executive matters paired with seeing that those that had accompanied me received the rest that they needed. Once everything was all set at Sanctuary I returned home, anticipating a well-deserved rest. When I arrived back at my house, however, I called for Galaxia. It didn’t take terribly long before she arrived, and with her arrival was her perplexed question. “You called me, Aqua? There doesn’t seem to be anything amiss. Why was I called?”

“I need an answer to a few questions I have.”

“What are you questions?”

“First of all, who else is looking for information about my parents? It became very clear as I talked with Flowing Hammer that I am not the only pony seeking information revolving around me.”

“Who is this Flowing Hammer character?”

“A champion fighter in the arena in the Badlands.”

“What was it that she told you?”

“She said that she needed to find me in order to learn more about herself.”

“I am without inclination or idea as to why she would need to seek you out for information on herself.”

“Was I an only child? I feel almost as if her question revealed that her need to learn about me was a clue that I am an older sister.”

“I do not have an answer for that question, Protectorate.”

“Why not?”

“Because I simply do not know. I cannot divulge information which I do not have to begin with.”

“Alright then, since you don’t know anything surrounding Flowing Hammer, what do you know about the ponies who murdered my parents?”

“What knowledge do you possess currently and what information do you seek to obtain about them?”

“Who were they?”

“A band of assassins, an answer which should coincide with what Bane has already disclosed with you.”

“Granted, but when I was accosted by the one in my room, during the time when I was recovering, she said that I wouldn’t be able to find the one responsible for the order, but that the pony in the pavilion during the arena fights was a member of that group.”

“If they are then it is advisable that you pursue them before they are informed of the leaked information.”

“The assassin that chased me down here is dead.”

“Then I suppose that you have all the time in the world.”

“So you don’t know anything else about the assassins or the circumstances around my parents?”

“No. You will have to discover that information by forcing it out of those that were responsible.”

“Then I should let you be on your way so I can beat it out of them.”

“I wish you luck, Protectorate.” With that, she was gone in a puff of magic. I was left alone in the room once more. I decided to review any plans I had before I set out on the journey to the Badlands.

Ultimately, I decided to touch up a few things regarding the house, such as furniture placement and some decoration. I didn’t have much left after the attack on our house, but I used what I could to rebuild and renovate the interior. It took a couple of days, including the time I spent second-guessing my work and redoing everything. It was, however, finally all set by sunset of the third day. As I was retiring my things to go to bed a brilliant flash emanated from within the room, causing me to temporarily be unable to see. I set myself in a defensive stance and was ready to violently oppose anything that touched me. Rather than something coming into physical contact, I heard a voice. It was the voice of a mare, a little higher in pitch than most, that called out to me. “Relax your stance, drake, I have not come to conquer or kill you.”

“Who are you and what do you intend to do?” My question was just as defensive as the stance I had taken.

“My name is Flare, sister of Galaxia, and I wish to recruit you for assistance in a mission.” My stance finally slacked. I stood in a relaxed pose as my vision began slowly returning.

“If you’re friendly then why in Equestria did you think it necessary to blind me upon entry?”

“Your realm is not accustomed to the brilliance of mine, drake. It is only natural that my entrance is blinding.” My eyes had finally recovered from the flash, allowing me to see the mare in detail. Indeed, her frame was almost identical to Galaxia’s. The similarities, however, stopped there. The mare before me had hide that was a light peach, with hair in colours exhibited by fire; it was mostly orange, and glowing, but also had highlights of yellow thrown in that resembled the patterns of a large bonfire. It almost seemed like sparks emitted from the mane and fell, but by the time they reached the floor there was nothing to show for it. I also could have sworn the hair crackled like a fire, but I could have been imagining things. It did, however, seem to pop from time to time. The mare was adorned in a decorative gold chest plate that went over her back and covered her hips. Red fabric, outlined in gold, clung to her torso wherever the armour did not and draped out past her legs to cover both her tail and her hind legs. Upon the fabric, around where the flank would hold her mark, was what I can only describe as what I would imagine a solar flare would look like. Strings, consisting of the same orange colour as the rest of the speckled, sun-like mark, erupted out of and returned back into the circle in arcs. There were three of these arcs, spread evenly across the mark but with differing heights and widths. It seemed the taller the arc, the narrower it was. Her eyes were an intense, piercing amber colour. Her horn and wings, the same colour as her hide, extended much like any other alicorn’s would. Her presence itself was very commanding, even making one as big as myself feel subject to her. “Galaxia would frequently tell me of your reliability and determination, along with your capacity for getting results from a situation rife with impossibilities. So then perhaps you can help me, drake.”

“What do you need help with? And if Galaxia is a ruler of the voids, then what are you ruler of?”

“I command my own side of an eternal conflict, but that is not important currently. I must speak with you in my realm so that the information remains private. Do you accept?”

“Sure. I can’t think of a reason not to.”

“Excellent. Brace yourself, drake, for it is far brighter there than in this dull realm.” I shot her a look before she began casting her spell. The aura about her horn was almost pure white, most likely because of the sheer brightness of it. I didn’t dare stare into the highly luminescent aura for more than a quick glance for fear of blindness. Within moments, however, we were swept away. Flare was not wrong when she said her realm was much brighter. I spent a few moments squinting in some vain hope of adjusting my eyes to the light. Finally, after around a minute, I was able to see where I was going. Flare was already long gone, perhaps anticipating that I could follow her through the blinding light. What I could see, however, was a very large and imposing, palace-like castle before me. The brilliant, white towers extended far above me by several hundred yards at least. I didn’t bother to count the number of towers, but I would venture to say between two to three dozen pierced the turbulent, dust-coloured sky with their grandeur. The walls were as white as the towers and stretched at least five stories high. The gates were tall as well, but lacked the bridge above it as most castle walls have. They, along with the wall, rigidly jutted out of from the dull, grey-brown rock beneath. At that point, that was all I could really see of the exterior, so I moved closer to get a better look. Surprisingly, it took several minutes to arrive. Accordingly, I discovered that my original estimations were off, nearly halving the height of the walls that stood before me. As well, it seemed as if the walls themselves had a coating of what seemed to be diamond, or some other clear gemstone, that covered the surface of the white-gold metal within. The surface was smooth as glass with no blemish in sight. Not even dirt had managed to mar the beauty of the structure. It was as I was observing this that I heard motion beside me and turned to look. Flare was standing there. “Have you finished your gawking? As impressive as it is, there is still pressing business to discuss.”

“Yeah, yeah, lead the way.” I heard the massive gates begin opening moments before Flare began trotting into the narrow, open gap. I followed after her, the gates closing once I was inside as well. We then trotted towards the main hall of the castle. The structure wasn’t unlike the Main Hall at Sanctuary, but there were distinct differences. The first being the absolutely massive stained glass window in the front. Bright, pure colours formed together, mixing yellows and oranges to create the shape of a sun, while more peach and white colours filled the remainder of the window. The walls of the castle were made of what appeared to be, at first glance, polished marble. The doors to the castle were made of a material that resembled finely polished ivory, although there’s absolutely no way that any ivory was used in a door of this size. Once we were inside the near-shining doors, things were, again, different. The floors, walls, and pillars were all made of the same brilliant stone as the exterior, while the walkways and ceiling appeared to either be made of or supported by that same ivory-like material. All of it was absolutely impeccable, spotless and without as much as a speck of dust. Beneath our hooves was a brilliant red carpet, lined in gold much like Flare’s decorative armour was. The carpet extended forwards, and occasionally broke off into other branches, much like a pathway. Upon this thought I began to look around, as there was commotion within the hall. Suits of armour trotted, or walked if they were some form of bipedal creature, about the hall, maintaining their patrol across the red carpets underneath their hooves, or feet. We trotted our way down one of the paths, branching off into a separate hallway. One of the suits of armour passed us, giving me the chance to truly see what they were like. The full suit of plate armour had white metal that was plated with gold designs; too fanciful of work to be armour for a fighter. The armour itself, however, appeared uninhabited; it seemed like it was a suit of animated armour that trotted past us. I turned to Flare and spoke, asking her about it. “Are all of the suits of armour here animated?”

“They are. It’s a lot harder to cause fear in an inanimate object than in a pony or other creature.”

“The shapes were different, and a lot of them weren’t shaped like ponies, or anything else that I’ve seen in Equestria for that fact. Are there other creatures that exist here and not in other realms?”

“Creatures like you wouldn’t imagine. Equines make up a very small portion of the creatures here, and most of them are beyond what mortals can think of in their holiest meditations. The creatures themselves do a good enough job of keeping the castle protected. Or, at least, their suits of armour prove to be effective guards, more-so than those that had inhabited them before.” I didn’t want to try and imagine what that statement meant, so I dropped the subject. We continued trotting until, at last, Flare turned her attention to a doorway. She opened it and trotted within, so I did the same. Once the door was closed, and a spell placed upon the room, Flare began speaking. “I couldn’t speak as much as a peep of information about this outside of this room or this spell ward, but here’s the current situation: After some recent implications that occurred in the Voids, and the unfortunate fallout caused by it, Erazul has captured Galaxia.”

“He what?” My heart sank immensely.

“I intend to get her back, and for your sake I believe that it would be a good idea to do so.”

“You said you needed my help. How am I supposed to help with that?”

“Erazul wants you, he has ever since he knew that your mother and father had a filly. Bane kept you safe from his agent in the forest until you could grow up. He’s after you particularly now because you’re very quickly approaching a point where he fears that you can resist him.”

“So what does that have to do with this?”

“There are a few different things that I brainstormed in this room. There are three options, actually. The first is a full-frontal assault on his part of the realm. It would incur heavy losses and is a last resort. The second is a mock exchange, one where Bane sets it up. Bane would be offering to trade you for Galaxia.”

“I’m not just giving myself up to him.”

“That’s the thing: you’re not. My forces would be lying in wait. We’d ambush him and ensure that he cannot steal you away.”

“That still sounds pretty risky.”

“There is, as well, the third option.”

“And what is that?”

“If we draw his attention away onto you, as I am entirely confident that you and Bane can handle him by yourselves for the short duration, I could break my way into his realm and steal her back.”

“Those are the three options?”

“Yes. If we choose one of the last two it will exclude the other unless we spend more time than I’m willing to spend.”

“I can distract him.”

“Is that the plan you choose?”

“Yes. Just let me know what I must do and what the plan is.”

“You have to draw him out. Say something bold, make yourself vulnerable, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me. Once I know he’s after you I will stealthily make my way through his realm. Once I find Galaxia, and subsequently free her, the two of us will cause major disruption inside of his realm, forcing him to return. It doesn’t matter if it’s genocide, annihilation, or total destruction. He will have no other option than to return and salvage what he can, leaving you free to recover again. Do you think you can last that long?”

“Yes. Shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Don’t underestimate him, Aqua. Just because he’s a mere demigod doesn’t mean he’s anything to take lightly.”

“I don’t have to beat him. I just have to survive. It’s my ability, not his, that’s being tested here.” She shot me a glance but ultimately decided to drop whatever was on her mind. She then spoke again.

“Are you ready then, drake?”

“Yes.”

“Remember: don’t so much as breathe a word about the plan once this spell has dropped, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s do this.” The glow of her horn ceased for a short moment. “I will return you home.”

She then nodded, letting me know nonverbally what was really about to happen. Her horn glowed for a moment, threatening to blind me if I looked, before we were teleported back outside of my house. Flare quickly disappeared, leaving me alone. I knew that I had to either be weakened or injured in some fashion before Erazul would show up. As such, I decided against grabbing either my armour or warp core, hoping to make myself as appealing of a target as I possibly could. I turned my attention to the forest I had grown up in, trotting my way over. If there was somewhere that I could escape, or a place that would boost my chances of survival, it would be nestled amongst the trees of a forest rather than the open air of the plains or a town. With this in mind I set out.

It was as I reached a point a few minutes out from the trees that I got the wisecrack idea to taunt Erazul. My voice rang out across the open field I was trotting through as I openly talked to myself, something that I wouldn’t normally do under any normal circumstances. “It’s interesting to think how far I’ve gotten. I started as a helpless filly, fleeing for my life, and now I’ve become one of the greatest fighters in all of Equestria. That’s not the end of the road though, no. I know that I can get further. Maybe once I figure out the end of my parents’ tale I’ll reach a new capacity, a new level of fighting. I’d be fairly unstoppable at that point. I mean, if I killed the Oracle, MoonDusk, before then, I’m sure I could take on Erazul and win after I learn more of my nature. It’s just a matter of going back, getting my armour, and going in to kill him. Won’t be hard, either.”

Suddenly, I heard magic from behind me. I wheeled around, finding the familiar monochrome pony before me. “Well, well, would you look at what I caught today? Aqua, all alone, without her armour. It really must be my lucky day. Things have turned to the up and up for me after all. With both Aldorn and Galaxia in my possession it shouldn’t be hard to capture you. I was hoping to capture Bane first so you had no fallback options, but this works just as well.”

He materialised a weapon from the air. It wasn’t a sword or an axe, no nothing like that. What he was holding was a whip, one with wicked prongs and enlarged, almost tear-shaped tips. The whip had three cords on it, each of them of equal length. Metal ran across the entirety of the cord, the jagged material plainly showing. I didn’t want to find out what it would feel like, so I wheeled back around and bolted for the forest. I heard the crack of the whip, estimating that it was most likely a hair’s length away from my tail; at most it was a yard away. With near-panic settling into my heart I renewed my determination, very slightly increasing my speed as I hurtled towards the tree line. I could heard Erazul in hot pursuit, so I knew it was working. It was only a matter of time now.

We crashed through the underbrush of the forest for quite some time, the exact amount of time being unknown to me. I turned my head to ensure that Erazul was both following me and not close enough to land the hit of his whip. I found nothing behind me, causing me to stop. I was sitting in the middle of a thicket of thorns, as I came to realise, and was in the only opening thereof. I turned myself around, heading back towards where I had entered. Suddenly, Erazul appeared again. I stopped and prepared myself for the attack that I knew was coming. I ducked underneath the strike of the whip, hearing it crack overhead. I then leaped backwards, stopping only when I felt a thorn pierce my tail. I moved my tail away from the thicket and waited for Erazul’s next move. He, again, tried to use his whip. I jumped over the weapon’s reach, ensuring that my leap was towards him. Before he could recover from his strike I rammed straight into him. I landed as many swift kicks as I could to his head before he blasted me away with magic. I landed directly into the thicket of thorns, feeling the pain of all of those little punctures shoot across my body. Despite this, I arose once more and got a quick read on my surroundings. My impact had lowered the wall of thorns, perhaps allowing me to escape in that direction. I got off of the thorns and made my way back to the clearing. As I didn’t have much room to navigate, however, I was right where Erazul wanted me. I saw his whip extending again, causing me to backpedal as quickly as I could. It was barely enough, the jagged metallic lines of the whip not quite managing to wrap around my neck. Don’t be mistaken, though, the whip still made it around a majority of my neck, but didn’t quite complete a full loop. Instead, the sharp metal left numerous lacerations around the sides and back of my neck, causing pain to ride down my spine. As well, the three heavy, metallic tips nearly caused me to begin hacking when they impacted with the side of my throat. When he pulled the whip back it caused more cuts to form, sending more harrowing pain. As he recovered his strike I turned about. I had one shot out of here, and I needed to take it.

With as much might as I could muster I broke into a three-step gallop before leaping. I felt his whip strike my tail, cutting the flesh as it had with my neck, but it didn’t successfully wrap around the member. I was then left airborne, praying that I cleared the wall of briars. My legs and tail drug across the sharp points of the thorns, causing more pain to radiate up my body. I landed in the backside of the grouping of thorns, forcing me to groan as I pulled myself out of the torturous landing pad. I drug myself through a few more yards worth of thorns before I was finally clear. I took a quick moment to look at myself, finding nothing but a disgusting amount of small, bleeding lacerations that coated my body. If nothing else, it wouldn’t be hard for Erazul to track me. Regardless, I knew that I had to stall for time, so I began trotting my way around the forest once more.

I was being as quiet as possible, hoping to avoid detection. It worked for quite some time, at least until I saw Erazul a few yards off. I ducked behind a tree as quickly and quietly as I could, but it was in vain. I heard his crashing gallop coming over, so I got as low as possible. The whip wrapped around the thick trunk where I had been standing, at about neck level. I snapped upwards, grasping the whip in my mouth. As he tried to pull it out of my grasp, and as I yanked him towards me, I suffered several cuts across my lips, tongue, and the roof of my mouth. The taste of blood welled up inside of my mouth slowly but surely because of it. Regardless of such I whipped my head, yanking him towards me. I turned about, bucking back violently. My hooves connected, ripping the whip from his grasp, as well as yanking my head back and causing more cuts to form in my mouth as the whip slid slightly through my grasp. The pain was enough to force my mouth open as I dropped the whip, but did not prevent me from turning my attention back to him. He was recovering from a hit on a tree, but it appeared as if the impact hadn’t fazed him that much. He quickly recovered and was bolting over towards me. He conjured a sword next, swinging it when he got close. I barely managed to kick the aimed strike downwards, avoiding a hit to the leg. I took the moment to wheel about and peg him with my tail, sending him away once more. I tried to look for the whip that was on the ground beside me but found nothing; Erazul had unsummoned his weapons. He was now trotting casually over towards me. After a few silent moments, while he was still trotting up from several yards away, he spoke. “Still just as slippery as ever, aren’t you? Bane’s not here to protect you from me this time, nor is he here to save you from that presence that stalked you every day while you were a filly. Now you’ll learn exactly what it was.”

He began laughing before his horn glowed a lighter grey than his hide. Suddenly, a cold chill shot down my spine. I felt a presence from behind me, forcing me to roll to the side. I looked to where I had been and found something that I’m not sure how to describe. It was as if it were a creature made out of twisting shadows, but the shadows were palpable and opaque, able to move as a three-dimensional creature rather than as a mere shadow. The roiling flesh swarmed around itself like turbulent water, and its movements were as crashing waves or flowing streams, depending on the intensity of the motion. It was noiseless, only projecting an aura of dread rather than sound whenever it moved. The black-green creature, with glowing eyes of a sickly green and a mouth of similar composition hidden behind fangs of shadow, slowly crept its way over. I heard Erazul’s voice as I backed away from the terror creature. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Years, decades, of nightmares condensed into a fluid monster. It’s gotten bigger over the past decade or so while you’ve been gone. Now it’s time to understand what it was truly made for. Engulf her, terrorise her until she breaks.”

Suddenly, the creature whipped into action, coursing over. I wheeled around and began galloping away as quickly as I could. Rather than hear it crashing through the undergrowth behind me I heard accelerated wilting, the ensuing crackling of dead plants, and felt the pulsating dread and fear with each stride it washed over. A quick glance back revealed grasping hands, probably about six or seven of them, washing over each other as it drug itself along as quickly as I was galloping. I was propelling itself from either the ground or the trees, grabbing whatever it could to launch itself towards me more quickly. The mouth was agape, threatening to consume me if I slowed. With this horrifying image in mind I turned back around, trying to speed up my gallop. Suddenly, Erazul broke from the forest beside me, whip flying. I barely managed to roll underneath the strike, stumbling back into a gallop. The creature was surely closer now, but I didn’t dare look back. I had to escape from the tree line. It was either that or die from exhaustion; being captured wasn’t even an option at that point. I renewed my determination with these goals in mind.

Erazul tried a few more times to disrupt my flight, but he was moderately unsuccessful each time. The light of the outside world soon found an opening in the trees, bidding me to flee to its safety. I did so successfully, breaking out into the open field before me. Suddenly, I felt stinging as the whip wrapped around my hind left leg. I flopped down painfully, face-planting into the grassy soil. When I had recovered, and as I was being drug back, I looked back. The whip had wrapped around my leg, digging deep into the flesh and causing blood to course around each cord. The large, metallic tips were now attached firmly to the rough metallic coating of the cords. I followed the path of the elongated whip to find Erazul reeling me in, the horrid shadow monster waiting, looking almost gleeful in its deranged fantasising. I turned my attention back to the whip around my leg and began trying to buck it off with my other leg. I would strike the whip, knock one of the prongs loose, and then watch as it attracted itself back to the cord. Each strike, each attempt to buy myself freedom, shredded the flesh on my leg and threatened to cut my hoof asunder. I tried, unsuccessfully unfortunately, about four or five more times before coming to the conclusion that kicking it off wasn’t an option. I was a few mere yards away from the forest now, the shadow creature reaching out until the line of light in eager anticipation of the torture it was planning to inflict on me. “Give it up, Aqua, and I might just restrain my little pet here.”

“I won’t submit to you, Erazul.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” He continued reeling me in, so I fired a shot of magic from my pearl, in an attempt to break the whip. It didn’t work, and the bolt merely shot off in some other direction. The whole spectacle made him pause momentarily before speaking again. “I made it resistant to magic just for you.”

Hope was quickly fleeting as I drew near to the appendage of the shadow. With ill intent I gazed at the cords drawing me in. I saw my shadow reach up to them, writhing their way inside of the metal plating. Suddenly, the cords snapped. I didn’t take the moment of surprise that begged at me but rather arose and bolted as quickly as I could. I heard Erazul cry out in anger before he began pursuing me. I was moving as quickly as I could, but the injuries I had sustained from all of the thorns and whip strikes were slowing me down. It became apparent that Erazul was catching up, so I turned about to face him. I was panting at this point, tired out from the flight and injury. Erazul conjured a sword and swung upon arrival. I leaped out of the way of the strike, and the next four as well. He grunted in frustration as he swung once more. I parried the strike with my hoof, knocking the blade down into the dirt, before leaping backwards again. He let go of the sword to conjure the whip again, lashing out in fury. I tried to dodge, but the cords contorted in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. I took the shot from the enlarged and heavy metal ends straight to the side of the face, knocking me off of my hooves and leaving my head spinning. I shook myself and arose as best as I could. When I focused again I saw Erazul charging with the sword. I did my best to get out of the way, but my best was nowhere near good enough. The blade sunk deep into my front left leg, leaving a gash down to the bone. He ripped the sword out as I lost my balance and fell. He went to swing again, so I rolled away to the side. Twice more he tried to strike my other leg but to no avail. As such, he tried a horizontal swing. It was here that I rolled underneath the blade, closing the gap between us. I saw his eyes shoot open wide mere moments before I bucked him in the chest as hard as I could. The force was enough to cause me to slide back a small distance. Meanwhile, Erazul was catapulted away from me, flying a long distance through the air before bouncing into a roll. I got to my hooves and turned my attention towards town, which was off on the horizon. If I could get to my armour, I thought while limping heavily, I could possibly survive for longer. With determination I crept my way along.

It wasn’t long before Erazul had caught up, whip at the ready. I heard the crack before I heard his approach. As such, I turned about to face him. He was still a few yards off, but the reach of the whip was within inches of my face. With another crack of the whip he tried to hit me in the muzzle, but I successfully dodged to the side. I continued limping backwards towards town as Erazul closed the distance, attempting to whip me all the while. At one point, while he was a couple of yards off, I hatched another plan that could possibly buy me time. The next time he went to whip I reared up onto my hind legs, intentionally placing my moderately injured front right leg in the path of the coils. The jagged metal wrapped around the leg, lacerating it as the whip wrapped time and time again. Three times it coiled around, threatening to cause more serious cuts with each wrap. I then yanked my hoof, using so much force that it threw me off balance. I landed on my left shoulder, but the pull had its intended effect. I quickly stamped a hoof onto the remaining length of the whip before Erazul had a chance to tear at my leg again with the vicious cords. I rolled my way into a standing position, Erazul a few mere inches away from me. I lashed out at him with the leg wrapped in the metallic whip, striking his face hard with the jagged metal. I swung twice more, landing it only once, as he reeled and let go of the handle. I then used the whip backwards, the twisting and grinding of the coils around my leg eating away my flesh. I landed two strokes of the handle upon Erazul before he managed to banish the weapon he had summoned. Blood freely ran from his gashed face, dripping rhythmically from his muzzle. I remained on my hind legs, mostly out of necessity, as I slowly backed away from him again. He was recovering, standing once more, while he spoke his frustrated retort. “What kind of persistent creature are you? You’ve probably lost half of your blood from all of those injuries and you still possess the strength and drive to beat me with my own weapons after wresting them from my grasp. Are you not exhausted yet?”

“I will never concede defeat to the likes of you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m not, but I’ll cut you a deal. If you give up, I’ll just let you roam my realm. You’ll be free to recover your injuries and leave at your leisure.”

“Not a chance, Erazul. I know of your conniving ways. You’ve tried to kill or capture Storm and I far too many times for you to be able to play on some kind of suppressed naivety in me.”

He spat a mixture of blood and saliva onto the grass beside him before speaking again. “So be it, then. I guess we’ll do this the hard way.”

The next item he conjured was a flail, a wicked rod with dull spikes adorning the end of the chain. He charged in, swinging violently. I dodged the first strike, but it was clear that my speed was too far handicapped to be able to dodge his strikes for very long. After deflecting the second and third swings I had to block the next hit with my leg. Using my front left hoof I tried my best to deflect the blow, but rather than redirecting it in a direction that I needed to, I miscalculated the angle, winding up taking the shot in the shoulder. An audible snap echoed across the field as I collapsed in pain, falling from my bipedal stance. I struggled to a three-legged stance, barely managing to do so over the pain echoing from my flayed and tattered front right leg. He swung again, from the same side, forcing me to roll onto my right side. The flail narrowly missed my face in the process, a shot that surely would have killed me. Erazul took the chance while I struggled to my hooves again to bolt around me. He swung his flail as he did so, landing the spiked rod between my right hip and my back. There was no crack this time, but it made me collapse all the same. I grunted and began attempting to rise to my hooves again, only to be met with a flail hit in the leg. It swept me off of my stance, landing me painfully onto my broken left shoulder. I let out a cry of pain with the impact before seeing if I could arise once more. My body screamed out in protest and refused to arise. Erazul finished his lap, standing at my face once more. He unsummoned the flail before he began his approach. When he arrived he placed a hoof under my chin, drawing my face close to his. “Well, defeated at last, it seems. Not so tough are you? So, are you ready to see what my realm looks like?”

I spat in his face, causing him to recoil and drop mine. “Eat filth, swine!”

He wiped the bloody spittle off of his face before responding. “You know, I was going to let you get off easy, but you just made me change my mind. What if I shattered your jaw so you can’t spit those kinds of remarks at me anymore, huh?”

He summoned the flail again. “You can certainly try, pig!”

He approached me, swinging the flail in preparation to strike my jaw. I sat in apprehension, begging my body to allow me to move. Suddenly, Erazul stopped. His flail clunked heavily into the dirt before he began gazing off into the distance, as if trying to tell if something was there. It gave me the chance I needed to start raising up. He took note and began trotting over menacingly. “Well, it seems like it’s your lucky day. It would seem a siege has begun on my realm and I must tend to it. I cannot, unfortunately, let you attend the reunion there while it’s so dangerous, so I’ll leave you with a parting gift.”

He trotted over, swinging the flail one last time with as much effort as he could. I did what I could to get out of the way, but my body was too battered to respond as I needed it to. The flail connected with my tail, roughly near the hip. There were a few cracks as pain shot up my spine, forcing me to fall down once more. The collapse landed me on my left shoulder once more, forcing me to groan in agony. Erazul then left, disappearing without a trace. The pain unwittingly drove tears to my eyes as I sat trying to recover. I called out any and all names that I could think of; I needed serious help or I would die out here. Storm, Ajiin, Bane, Galaxia, Flare even, were all names that I cried out in agony. All I could do then was wait. I began to feel numb, realising that I would soon fall under from the pain. Sure enough, the overwhelming blackness consumed me.

When next I awoke it was inside of a cave. It wasn’t any ordinary cave, no. It was outlandishly bright to be a cave of rock or a den of metal. What I was situated in was a cave of crystal, pure and brilliant. I groaned as I sat up, trying to get a sense of bearings. It was then that I felt the overwhelming cold that prevailed in the cave. I looked around to see what I could find to keep me warm. There was a heavy blanket beside me, so I did what I could with my mouth to drape it over my body. It was after the third attempt that I gave up, frustrated and tired. It was then that a thought struck my mind, one that terrified me. It was a question, specifically. Who brought me here? With that thought in mind I began looking around anxiously, fearing for my life. I heard hoofsteps coming from the mouth of the cave. The sound forced me to begin searching for somewhere to hide. There was nowhere, as I quickly discovered, so all I could do was face the incoming pony. I got into whatever stance my body could manage, pain shooting up my body from the numerous injuries I had sustained. The pony rounded the corner and my stance relaxed as I let out a sigh of relief. The blue hide of Bane appeared, although heavily covered in winter gear. He spoke in a surprised tone when he saw me standing there. “Oh, Aqua, you woke up. That was a little earlier than expected. How do you feel?”

“I prefer not to at this point.”

“Fair enough. When I found you in the grass I was wondering if you had died. When Sparky found that you still had a pulse she instructed me on what I should heal. I refrained, deciding it might be best for Erazul to believe that you had died for the time being. I’m just glad you survived the journey up here.”

“So where am I and why am I here?”

“Welcome to the Crystal Mountains, Aqua. It’s a desolate, snowy landscape of pure barrenness. Detecting anything, any kind of magic, through the blizzards of the frigid north and especially with the properties of these caves, is nigh impossible. If any other unicorn within about a hundred mile radius casts a spell it all but cloaks any magical signal coming from in here. That’s why I pulled you here, as there are a few ponies that excessively use magic from within that circle. As such, I could effectively heal you while keeping Erazul in the dark.”

“What became of the mission? Erazul abandoned me there because he said there was a siege on his realm.”

“Flare successfully recovered Galaxia, and the two exploded about half of his kingdom by combining their magic into a singular, potent spell. He’ll be distracted for quite some time with rebuilding his kingdom, so you’ll be safe for a while. They couldn’t have done it without you, Aqua.”

“I’m just glad we moved when we did. Erazul said you were next on his list of targets to capture, but turned instead to me when I made myself alone and vulnerable.”

“Aqua, never do that again. I don’t care who asks you to, just refuse to do it. That’s the worst I’ve seen you messed up. I did what I could, but it’s still going to take you several weeks before you can do anything more than limp or trot.” Considering how I was normally up in a few days, that was fairly alarming. “How do you even manage to get that many cuts on you? That was an absurd amount.”

“Briars and a jagged metal whip.”

“Well, that might do it.”

“Question, Bane.”

“I should have an answer. What’s your question?”

“How long do I have to be up here in the mountains?”

“It would be best if you were here until you fully recovered.”

“So several weeks?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Then you’re going to need to give me some source of warmth.”

“There’s the blanket to start.”

“I can’t even pull it over myself, Bane.”

“I can help with that. Meanwhile, we’re rallying supplies in order to keep you up here. We just called it ‘Drive for the Mountainfolk’, so that Erazul wouldn’t know where you were. Helps keep you secret.” He trotted over, draping the large blanket over me. It was actually surprisingly warm.

“Thanks.”

“Your order has pitched in a bit, and Storm’s group is helping as well. We haven’t been able to reach out to the group that Lazuli is in yet.”

“That’s fine.”

“There’s one other thing.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll be the only pony up here, and it won’t be frequently. Erazul’s going to be trying to find any suspicious activity now, since he is on high alert after his castle was hit as hard as it was.”

“I’ll manage. I did so for how many years as a filly?”

“Fair point. Just try not to overdo it while up here, alright? Any exertions you make are going to delay your recovery.”

“I’ll do my best.” He shot me a glance before heading out. When I was all alone I curled up again on the cold crystal floor. I wrapped the blanket around me as best as I could, trying my best to stay as warm as possible.

The weeks crawled by slowly as I rested in the cave. Bane came back thrice in that time, carrying large saddlebags filled with supplies. He would drop off the supplies before leaving again. When the time came for my departure I was ecstatically thankful to leave the cave. Despite the beauty of both the cave and the snowy landscape surrounding it, I had things I needed to do; I couldn’t bear it much longer as the idle thoughts ate away at me. Before long I was back home again. I opened the door to find Storm sitting there. He quickly got up and came over. “Aqua, you’re alive!”

“I am.”

“I was starting to wonder with how much Bane was avoiding the question.”

“It was to protect me. Erazul needed to believe that I was dead, or at least gone, until I could recover fully.”

“So you’re all better then?”

“Yes, but I don’t have time to lose. I need to find out the answers to my questions about the arena, my parents, and Flowing Hammer.”

“Flowing Hammer? What’s that?”

“A mare in the arena. She said she needed to find me in order to find out more about herself, so she has to have some kind of tie to me.”

“So you’re heading out now?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Did you want to eat first?” I looked at him for a moment, a pleading look on his face begging me to stay.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” He perked up.

“Alright. Just wait here for a little and I’ll get something prepared.”

“Ok. Take your time.” I closed the door behind me and trotted over to the couch. I sat down, letting out a sigh as I did. I still felt a little tired from the trek down the mountain. As much as I wanted the information that I was after, I decided that I should probably rest a little before heading out again. The final decision came to my mind with clarity as Storm trotted out of the kitchen with a small platter of prepared sandwiches balanced near-perfectly. As he approached I spoke. “I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?”

“I’ve decided to stay a few nights before heading to the arena.” Now his face really lit up. He almost couldn’t contain himself.

“Really? What caused the change?”

“I realised I’m still kind of tired from the trek back.”

“Back from where?”

“The mountains to the north.”

“Oh, yeah, that might do it. Why were you up there?”

“Recovering from the fight.”

“The fight?”

“With Erazul. I’m sure somepony has told you by now, right?”

“Not really, no.”

“I was a distraction so they could rescue Galaxia. I did my job well enough, and thankfully I’m alive on top of it all.”

“You can say that again.”

“Just proved to me that a fight with Erazul will have to be on my terms if I’m ever going to beat him.”

“It never will be.”

“Yeah, but I can at least have armour or some form of teleportation before going into the fight. That would help out quite a bit.”

“True.”It grew quiet as we finished the meal. Once things were all set we went about the rest of the day as usual.

Night came and passed, as did the following few days. At last the day of my departure arrived. Storm found me suiting up when he came down from the room. “So, heading out already?”

“Well, it has been several days.”

“Now, are you sure about this, Aqua?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“Just be careful, alright? I don’t want you coming back with splintered bones in your legs again.”

“Well, even if I did I don’t think I’d be attacked by assassins or Erazul in my down time again.” He chuckled slightly, but I could tell there was still some worry in his tone and face. “Look, I’m just going for information. It shouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“If not, then why use the armour?”

“For getting there. It also makes me feel safer.”

“Alright. Well, good luck, dear.”

“Hopefully, I won’t need luck.” I began trotting towards the door, my hoofsteps amplified by the weight of the armour on me. I closed the door behind me as I turned my attention towards the train station.

From the experience I had earned before, the journey was easy. The train rides went smoothly, and after disembarking and trotting a ways I found myself in that verdant glen. As much as I wanted to stay and enjoy the flourishing nature around me I knew that I had a mission to accomplish. Due to this, I trotted through unhindered and with determination. I eventually found the settlement of desert boat ponies again. I approached them, receiving a bit of a warmer welcome from them this time. “You have returned, outlander. What has caused such?”

“I need to go back to the arena.”

“Again? What for?”

“There’s information that I’m after, and a pony there has it. I don’t plan on murdering them, before you ask. I just want to ask them some questions.”

“Alright. Climb aboard the skimmer and we will drop you off outside once again. Sound good?”

“Yes, thank you.” The pony bid me follow onto the wooden platform of the skimmer, so I did. Before long we were off, skimming across the dead floor of the Badlands.

When the city was on the horizon they, again, ordered me off. I obliged and left them to depart. I turned my attention back to the city, trotting at a steady pace until I arrived. A few of the husks gathered about the edges of the alleyways, perhaps seeking to rough me up. A quick glance over, a slight tilt of the head, and they retreated into the shadows like dogs with their tails between their legs. Perhaps they had learned from the last husks that tried to accost me. Either way, it made the path clear and free of confrontation. I made my entire journey to the arena like this. As I approached I began noticing that the sun was approaching the horizon during a couple of my glances up to the sky. Not wanting to be caught by whatever those ‘changeling’ creatures were that the townsfolk spoke so fearfully of, I entered the underbelly of the arena. The brown pony from before came trotting over, stopping only when he realised that it was me. “Oh, would you look at that. You’re back. Guess I have to tell the other team to not send all of their ponies to be murdered by you again.”

“That would leave me fighting Flowing Hammer, would it not?”

“You would be correct to assume that, yes. I’m surprised you managed to guess that. So are you ready or what?”

“I’m ready.”

“Good, because you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. There are already two fights booked and night is coming. I’d rather not get all of the ponies here murdered or turned into those freakish creatures. Hell knows we’ve lost enough to them already.”

“So then do I just camp it here?”

“If you don’t care about sleeping in dirt like some kind of wild animal. Otherwise: find a room. There ain’t none here, though.” I nodded before settling down in a seated position on the floor. It was a waiting game at this point. As such, I decided to get as comfortable as I could on the rough dirt floor.

I watched the two combatants return, the one alive and the other mangled beyond recognition. Once the second came back, nearly in a basket more than anything, ponies began leaving. It didn’t take long before the brown pony was the last one in the room. As he trotted by he spoke. “Don’t steal anything.”

“With as piss-poor as your gear here is, the only reason that I would steal it would be to fix it.”

“Aren’t you funny?” His tone dripped with sarcasm as he left. Soon I was alone in the underbelly. It was almost peaceful down here now, regardless of the blood that soaked the dirt floor where the bodies collected throughout the course of the day. They would be removed at night, as I discovered, but they still merely sat there in a pile until their removal. Once the removal had occurred it was, once again, completely silent. The only noise to be heard was the shifting of the plates of my armour. The sound eventually, after long enough, helped to lull me to sleep rather than keep me awake.

Morning found me. Specifically, the brown pony found me and forced me to wake up. Once I was on my hooves he spoke. “Alright, so here’s the deal. The fight between the two of you is going to be the first battle. There’s an entire arena that’ll be jam packed with spectators, so don’t let them down. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. They’ll be eager for blood. Give it to them.” I had no plans on doing such. Perhaps a light spar to begin with, but I wouldn’t murder the pony from which I needed information. Thankfully enough, my answer was good enough for the stallion, as he began trotting away. It wasn’t too long after he left that they came to retrieve me for the fight. I trotted up eagerly and waited in the penned-in corner of the arena. The announcer’s voice soon echoed out, quieting the crowd.

“Ponies of the city, we have gathered again the two massive fighters from both sides of the underbelly. The judge had determined that another fight was in order, and you’ve been begging for it, so here it is! Let’s let these two vicious fighters know that we have been waiting for this day!” Suddenly, the arena erupted into near-deafening noise as ponies and husks alike stomped their hooves in the stands in applause. The gates soon lowered, perhaps announced by the voice that rang out, but I couldn’t hear it over the noise. Regardless, I charged out in a full gallop, finding Flowing Hammer doing the same. She was swinging her hammer, though I could tell it was restrained. I reacted accordingly, deflecting the blow without causing harm to either of us. I drew my blades and reared up. When she swung the hammer next I parried, the gentle blow of her swing being easy to catch. As we struggled, as loose of a term as it was in that situation, she spoke.

“I’m not going to kill you. I need to find out more about you.”

“Same.” I broke the grapple, waiting for the next chance to start it again. This time, however, I clasped the hammer in between my hooves and made it look like we were struggling again.

“You’re my key to figuring out who I really am.”

“And if that’s the case, then there’s information I need regarding you so I can find out who my parents were.” She shoved me back as I finished my phrase, causing me to stumble. I recovered in time for her next swing. I decided to roll out of the way, landing back on my hind legs. I swung my swords, letting her parry it with her hammer. She held the parry for a little while.

“Who were your parents?”

“I don’t know. They were murdered. Yours?”

“Murdered. A mare and a drake.” I blinked, falling backwards when Flowing Hammer broke the grapple.

“What?!” She paused momentarily, confused at my sudden outburst. Hopefully the other ponies saw it was my disbelief because I was outmatched in that struggle.

“What do you mean ‘what’?”

“Unless there was another drake I haven’t been told about, you have the same story as I do.” She approached, causing me to roll to the side so I was standing once more. We went to continue our fake spar when we heard a voice from the stand. The excessively loud clearing of a throat drew our attention. We both turned our attention to the origin of the sound, finding the judge standing on the precipice of the shadows. He spoke when he believed that he had our attention.

“This ‘fight’ of yours is the most pathetic display of fraud I have seen in my life. Either you two begin murdering each other or I will call upon the champion of the arena to murder you on your own behalf.” Flowing Hammer and I both looked at each other for a moment before turning back to him. My voice rang out before hers could.

“We will not fight.”

“Good. I was hoping you’d say as much. Send in Volt, Brawn, and Crusher!” The arena grew deathly silent for a moment. Not long after the order was given three ponies, entirely coated in armour, arrived from the underbelly. I couldn’t tell any aspect of their appearance because of the sheer amount of armour that adorned each one. One of them carried a blade, another a large hammer not unlike Flowing Hammer’s weapon, and the last one had spikes that extended downwards from the sides of all of his hooves; the spikes of the third dug into the dirt and flicked it behind him with each step. From their stature alone I could tell that all three were stallions, and very large ones at that. “Two on three. Fair enough for rats like you. Let the fight commence.”

As he retreated back into the shadow of the pavilion and sat down once more, the crowd burst into an absolute uproar of approval. Flowing Hammer and I glanced at each other before moving closer to each other. The three stallions began trotting around us in a circle. The one, whose weapon had not been drawn yet, spoke. “Well, two similar ponies that don’t want to fight. Looks like we’ll enjoy this one, boys. I’m sure you two will enjoy it as well. You see, Brawn here kicks so hard that his spiked greaves puncture any suit of armour. Well, it pierces it after the armour has already pierced the wearer, at least. Crusher, here, does what his title tells you: he swings his hammer with force enough to crush any of the bones in your sorry little body. As for me? They named me Volt for my weapon. You’ll learn soon enough why that is.”

As he finished his statement he drew the weapon on his back. It was a bastard sword in size, with a thick handle that appeared well-worn. There were spaces in the middle of the blade, which I wasn’t sure the purpose they served at first, that eventually began conducting small jolts of lightning between the two sides of the blade. I reared up onto my hind legs and drew my own swords in anticipation of the fight. Suddenly, they charged in. Flowing Hammer and I separated as they did, picking our battles. She had the one with spiked greaves, Brawn, while I had to hold off the ensuing onslaught of strikes from Volt and Crusher. It was the massive morning star-looking warhammer that frightened me more, if I were to be honest. I was barely able to deflect the hefty blows.

Strike by strike the two tried to whittle me down. The jolts of electricity would flow from the sword into my armour wherever it came close to contact. Meanwhile, ducking and rolling were about my only two options for evading the relentless pursuit of the bludgeoning nightmare. As he went to strike I managed to sink my blade into the ball at the end, being extremely careful to not break my legs like the last time I pulled a stunt like this. I quickly sunk my other blade into the other side before hefting the entire mass upwards. The pony didn’t let go, instead hoping that his mass was enough to prevent my action. It wasn’t, thankfully, so I flipped him over top of me, plastering him to the ground. I quickly turned my attention to the other pony before me, narrowly parrying a stab directed at my chest. I retaliated as best as I could, ending up more slapping him with the blunt end of the sword than anything. It worked in forcing him to a safe distance from me. It was at this point that I realised the error of my fighting, as I now had them on separate sides of me. I tried to manoeuvre out of the situation as best as I could, but Volt was on top of things faster than I could be in my upright position. I either had to sacrifice my defense for speed or hope that I could keep up with strikes from both sides. Right as I went to sheathe my blades Volt charged in again, forcing a decision on my part. I blocked his strike, capturing the sword between my two blades. Despite the overwhelming flow of energy I began attempting to wrest control of the blade from his grasp. With twists and flails we battled for supremacy of the sword until a hefty impact bowled me over from behind. The pain was heavy but nothing shattered from the impact. I used the momentum to force a couple of rolls before finally rising to my hooves again. The two were both already coming at me with vengeance, so I had to simply roll under the strikes. I lashed out at one while executing my final roll. The hit landed, slicing open the hind leg of Crusher. He grunted as I did, letting me know that the non-aimed strike hit any target at all. As I recovered, disoriented from all of the rolling, I saw the morning star hammer headed directly for me. I tried to block it but was not quick enough. The weapon collided directly with my side, launching me across the arena and sending throbbing waves of pain through my body. I got up as quickly as I could, taking a quick moment to glance at Flowing Hammer. Her fight was going far better than mine, as she was about to fully win the match of dominance. She had vastly overpowered the pony fighting her and would soon end his life. I turned my attention back to the two approaching me, hoping to hold their attention until Flowing Hammer was done. “You call that a hit? Hah, I barely felt it.”

The two ponies charged in once more, arriving right when I had reared up again. Using both of my blades was the only way I could manage to parry both of their concurrent attacks. As the ferocious exchange continued I could tell that I was tiring. I tried my best to keep up with the relentless assault, but it was starting to prove futile. Eventually, my guard slipped. Unfortunately, it was for the wrong attack. Rather than the crushing, launching force of the morning star, I felt the stinging of a sword. Whereas Volt had struck my armour several times before, this shot was aimed. He landed the thrust between the plates of my armour, allowing the blade to sink deep into my midsection. I grunted from the pain, but it was only the start. Electricity surged through my body, causing me to seize up. Volt held it for a moment before driving the blade further. He then attempted to twist the blade, finding his efforts unsuccessful. Accordingly, he pulled the blade out and watched me drop. Weak convulsions rocked my body as I tried to recover. Volt was coming back over, blade prepared, when he suddenly hit the ground face-first. He was then yanked away, thrown to another part of the arena. The other one was upon me with his heavy morning star, swinging it in a hope to kill me. I barely managed to evade the strikes despite my impaired movement. Before long I was able to stand again, my muscles finally cooperating. The pain in my midsection tried to halt me, but I bit my way through the inconvenience and rose to my hind legs once more. In anger, following another missed strike, Crusher screamed out. “Hold still, slippery little whore!”

I readied my blades as he rushed back in. With just the one pony assaulting me it became exponentially easier to defend myself. I played very defensively to start, waiting for him to strike before parrying. After seeing the ease I had with this tactic I decided to press the envelope and try to become more aggressive. I began applying my commanding presence and overwhelming strength. It very quickly became apparent that the pony before me was going to lose. Upon seeing this, he tried to turn tail and run. Due to my stance I was unable to chase him down, so I activated my warp core to teleport in front of him. He tried to skid to a halt and turn away, but I was far too close. I shoved my blade straight through his muzzle, jabbing it out of the other side of his head. He quickly fell limp as the sizzling sound of his head cauterising around the blade emitted faintly. I retracted the blade and let the body fall to the ground. I then turned my attention towards Flowing Hammer. It was then that I noticed the bloody pulp that used to be Brawn. Honestly, there was nothing left of the body; Flowing Hammer had continued to beat a dead horse until it was no longer a horse. With a chuckle resembling more of an exhale than anything I turned my attention to Flowing Hammer. My heart sank when I saw the scene. Volt’s blade was keeping her at bay, threatening to end her life if she slipped up once. I sheathed my blades and dropped to all four hooves again, galloping over as quickly as I could manage. As I was booking it over the slip up occurred. Volt landed a strike on the exposed part of Flowing Hammer’s shoulder. The blade sunk in sideways, electrocuting her leg. I picked up the pace as he pulled the blade back. He thrust the blade as I tried to tackle her out of the way. I was stopped suddenly when the blade pierced through the plates on my right shoulder. I don’t know how deep the blade sunk, but my guess was at least as far as a vital organ. As the electricity coursed through my body it became hard to breathe. In one colossal effort I turned around, ripping the sword from his grasp. I fell over, unable to remain standing any longer, and landed on my right side. The blade sunk further, causing me to try and take a deep breath of agony. Rather than a deep breath, though, what I got was a feeling of drowning. I hacked out whatever it was in an attempt to breathe, getting the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. I folded back my helmet to spit it out before equipping it again. I could feel Volt attempting to roll me over, but I resisted as much as my convulsing body would allow. I soon heard him get dragged away again, leaving me to suffer.

It took quite a while before the electricity stopped. By then, however, I was entirely numb. I had folded my helmet down to allow me to hack blood out of my lungs as much as I needed to, but I refused to roll over and allow anypony to touch the blade. I could faintly hear the sounds of combat, but my eyes never managed to focus on it. The world was a blur, and showed no intentions of changing. The figures of Volt and Flowing Hammer fighting were little more than blobs, though they were but a yard or two off. In a grunt of effort I began focusing, forcing myself up. I could not die here; I had things I needed to do and ponies I wanted to see again. Once I was on my hooves, perhaps from the effort of concentrating, I could focus more intently on the world around me. I heard voices now, though muffled. Volt’s voice rang out more than any other, and his line was startling. “I killed your sister; I’ll kill you too!”

I was too out of it to truly understand the significance of his statement at the time. I was barely keeping myself stable at the time, but was doing everything I could with magic to keep myself conscious. I noticed that Volt was starting to beat Flowing Hammer, landing more and more strikes successfully. She succumbed to the battering, eventually dropping. When she got up he would simply beat her down until she stopped moving. He wasn’t content with just that, though, and brought Crusher’s hammer up for a killing blow to the head. Realisation struck me about as hard as that hammer had, forcing me into what action I could take. In desperation I focused what magical affinity I had left, wishing death upon him with whatever I could muster. Suddenly, a shadowy tendril shot out of the ground, piercing his midsection and threatening to rip him in twain. He dropped the hammer fruitlessly and let out a gasp. I focused as much as I could, forgetting the idea of stabilising myself. More and more tendrils erupted from the ground, piercing him in different areas. Eventually, when a fair number had been summoned, they turned inwards and began to rip the pony apart. Screams of agony tore through the colosseum as the tendrils hurled scraps of flesh and bloody muscle across the arena. Aside from the terrorised voice of Volt the arena was silent. Eventually, all of the meat had been torn from the skeleton, which tumbled bone by bone to the ground as it was freed from its living cage. Once the grisly deed was done the blood-soaked tendrils retreated into the ground and returned to me. As they returned I reeled and fell over, landing on my right side. I heard cheering as the announcer broke the stone-cold silence that had prevailed. I was unable to focus on his words, and barely noticed Flowing Hammer limping over. I wasn’t able to keep my eyes open. They eventually closed and darkness surrounded me.

When next I struggled awake I found surroundings entirely alien to me. It was dark in the room, but the dim candles kept it light enough to determine what was around me. The room was fairly plain, hardly containing any furniture. Thinking on it, the only furniture I remember was small cot I was resting on and a table off to the side with the candles. The walls were plain, as sandstone in appearance, and entirely flat. The windows were almost entirely filled, aside from a small space closest to the interior, by wood. Each of these had a thick metal rod placed inside of a holder. Occasionally, there’d be a thunk or two on the windows, but nothing else. I heard the opening of a heavy wooden door, the metallic knocker on the front clanging against it. I turned my attention there to find Flowing Hammer. She still had a slight limp, and was wrapped in a few small patches of bandages, but seemed fine overall. She spoke when she noticed me sitting up. “Ah, so you’re awake.”

“For the most part.” She chuckled before responding.

“Well, that’s good. You’re tougher than you look, Aqua.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“How together are you right now?”

“What?”

“How aware and conscious are you?”

“I’m doing fairly well. I’m just tired, is all.”

“Well, you did just wake up after being down for about a week.”

“…what?”

“What?”

“I was down for a week?”

“Yeah, your body had to recover from all of that electrical shock to the heart and lungs. Your lung was pierced, but I found a unicorn who could fix it. Nice fellow with blue hide. Haven’t seen hide that perfect in years.”

“Blue hide?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he have yellow or gold eyes?” My question was asked with an idea already formulating in my mind; I knew who the pony was, but wanted to confirm my suspicion before saying anything.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Because he saves my life a lot more than I’d like to admit. His name is Bane.”

“Well, it was very kind of him to drop by, because I have questions I need to ask you. Being dead makes it hard to answer.”

“Well, then, fire away. I mean, I’m not going anywhere, right?” We both chuckled in response to my statement.

“Volt called you my sister. What do you know of that?”

“I could ask the same thing of you. I thought I was an only child. Well, an only orphan, I guess.”

“You did say your mother was a pony and your father a drake, right?”

“Yup. Didn’t you say that too?”

“Yeah. I think I’m starting to piece things together, but that still doesn’t explain why you ended up with hide and I wound up with this chitinous stuff.”

“I don’t have an answer for that. As for the parent situation, though, I might have a way to find out.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you, not just yet at least.”

“How come?”

“I have to do this alone so that it’s easier to manage.”

“I’m not sure what difference it would make, but alright.”

“Return to the arena like normal. You’ll probably have fights and stuff lined up. Winning that fight would have made you champion, right?”

She sat for a moment before responding. “I guess you’re right.”

“So go and do champion things while I figure this out.”

“But wouldn’t you be a champion as well?”

“This isn’t my place. Even if I was one of the champions of the arena I wouldn’t be able to stay and hold the title. I have an organisation to run.”

“What organisation?”

“The Order of Protectorates. We’re a group of ponies that swear to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

“Sounds noble enough. I guess I can only wish you luck, then.”

“Thanks, I might need it.” As my words drifted off the room grew silent. Eventually, Flowing Hammer spoke.

“Want something to eat?”

“After being out for a week, I think it might be a good idea.” We both chuckled as she trotted to the door.

“Alright, sit tight. I’ll whip something up.” She left, leaving me alone in the room. I waited patiently for her return, which didn’t take more than a few minutes. She had two bowls on a tray that she carried in her mouth. She set it down and gave me one of them. It appeared to be no more than wet oats, if I had to take a guess at what the dull paste in the bowl was supposed to be. I looked over at her for a moment. “Sorry that it’s nothing glamorous. The land out here is dead. We’ve tried growing crops, but they either wither due to the lack of nutrients or the changelings steal them. The only other option, if you wish to lose your sanity to bloodlust, is what the husks eat.”

“And what is that?”

“Horse.” It grew silent. I simply stared at her. After a moment she spoke again. “How else do they get all of the blood and bones they decorate and arm themselves with?”

“I guess you make a fair point, but that begs the question of how can they even manage to eat meat.”

“A mystery to us all.”

“That’s messed up.”

“The whole town is messed up, Aqua, and it shows no signs of improving.”

“Is there any-?”

“No. Everypony here has already tried everything we can think of short of restrained genocide.”

“Hm.” Again it grew silent as we continued to eat the bland paste.

“We’ve been trying for a while to fix things here. Planting crops is out of the question, as I have already explained. Building the arena to rid ourselves of the husks backfired; regular ponies like me are drug in there. The husks enjoy watching ‘creative fighting’, as they sometimes call it.”

“What do you mean ‘creative fighting’?”

“Fighting that’s more than two ponies with sharp sticks galloping straight at each other, swinging it around mindlessly, and hoping that the enemy dies. They love our tactics but lack the dedication and desire to ever learn them, no matter how simple. Try to teach them and they try to kill you.” She set her bowl down, having finished the liquidised oats. “So we wait for something to rescue us.”

“Well, maybe-“

“No, Aqua, you won’t be able to. We need more than just a singular pony. We need some kind of calamity or uprising. That won’t happen, though, because our spirits are broken, so we simply submit. And there’s nothing to rally us, Aqua. They don’t know you, and I’m stuck in the arena. Until something happens there, nothing will happen out here.” I nodded, surrendering my response to the depths of my mind, before setting down the finished bowl of food. She took the two bowls and headed for the door. “Hey Aqua.”

“Yeah?”

“Think you can move?”

“I should be able to.”

“Let me know if you need help.”

“Alright.” She left. I turned my attention to getting out of the bed. It was true that my shoulder was sore, the shoulder that had been stabbed, but I was generally ok. I was at least mobile and mostly unhindered, at least. I trotted to the door, eventually making my way out. The room that I trotted into was far more furnished than the one I had been in. There were chairs, mostly made out of sandstone, surrounding a table, which was also made of sandstone. There were banners on the walls, their vibrant colours contrasting the otherwise dull appearance of the interior. Small lamps burned in various places, dimly illuminating the place. Before I had much more chance to look around, however, Flowing Hammer came out of one of the side rooms.

“Well, seems like you’re doing just fine.”

“Just about, yeah.”

“Well, just in time for sleep. We’ll wait until dawn before opening either the doors or the windows.”

“Yeah, that sounds like an intelligent thing to do.” A sudden realisation hit as I contemplated our departure. “Wait, where’s my armour?”

“Bane managed to get it off of you. Should be sitting in the corner of the room that you were just in.” I made my way back to the room, looking in each of the darkened corners. I found it resting, packed up, against the corner of the wall with the door and the wall with the window, the side oriented to the right of the entrance to the room. I let out a sigh of relief before returning. “Did you find it?”

“Yeah. All’s good in the world again.”

“Alright. Well, I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

“Goodnight, Flowing Hammer.” I began trotting towards the room.

“Goodnight, Aqua.” As she finished the phrase I closed the door behind me and made my way over to the bed. I curled up onto the small cot, barely fitting on it. From there I let my eyes droop and sleep overtake me.

The morning came when Flowing Hammer woke me up. Had it not been for that, I would most likely have continued sleeping in the near-pitch black room. She prepared the very humble meal once more, over which we discussed a little more of her situation as the new champion, before we set out. She made her way towards the underbelly, but I decided to hang back a little. When I entered the underbelly I simply put my armour in a corner and changed forms when nopony was looking. Once I was my smaller form I snuck out and made my way into the crowd. I entered the stands of the arena, making sure to sit as close to the pavilion as I could. Now all I had to do was wait until the end of the day.

The day was bloody and violent, but thankfully I was not a part of it that time. I watched a battle or two from Flowing Hammer, which were short and brutal. She won each in a few minutes or less. This made the day progress quicker, so the wait for sundown didn’t feel like it took as long as it would have otherwise. When the sun set the crowd began to disperse. I made sure to follow the pony in the pavilion with my eyes very closely and track from many body lengths back, some several dozen yards. We left the arena stands and began trotting about the town.

Night was about to fall by the time the pony was alone. I quickly began closing the gap as he worked to get into his home. As he entered I changed forms, breaking into a full gallop. A split moment before he closed the door I barreled through it, knocking him back. I then quickly made sure the door was closed, placing the bar down. I turned back around to find him lunging at me with a dagger drawn from his attire. I used my tail to pelt his face from the hilt-bound side, launching both him and the dagger across the room. He hit the wall with a thud, giving me enough time to charge over. As he reached for the dagger I pinned him to the wall. Once he saw that he was helplessly stuck he spoke. “What do you want from me?”

“Information. You’re going to talk.”

“What do you want to know? What could possibly be so important that you assault me in my own home?”

“What do you know of my parents?”

“I don’t even know who you are! How am I supposed to know who you came from?” He was playing me, but I didn’t buy it.

“You ordered me to murder dozens of ponies against my own desire. A simple gesture and their life was forfeit.”

“So you’re a fighter in the arena. Big deal. We get lots of those.”’

“Champion, actually. You ordered Volt, Crusher, and Brawn to murder Flowing Hammer and me in the arena when we refused to fight. That doesn’t matter now, though, because I’m here on the brink of murdering you.”

“And what of it? What do you hope to gain from it?”

“Like I said: information.”

“I can’t talk if I’m dead.”

“Oh, you’ll wish you were dead.”

“What’s the worst you can do to me, huh?”

“Flay you alive.”

“That’s it?”

“Oh no, that’s just the start. Now tell me, before we waste any more of the night, who killed my parents? It was a drake and a mare.” I could see some kind of recognition on his face; he knew who I was referring to.

“I can’t tell you who killed two vague ponies in a town centered on fighting. Ponies die every day here.”

“You know exactly who I’m talking about.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Then perhaps this will help you to remember.” I focused on him with ill intent, extending the shadowy tendrils. He looked fearfully at the approaching extensions until they touched onto his body. They wormed their way into his hide before they began writhing about. His face instantly shot to one of agony as he cried out against the onslaught of pain. As it continued, and in order to allow him to hear me, I shouted out. “Who killed my parents?!”

“Gah! I don’t know!”

“You lie!” The torturous pain continued for a few more moments before his voice cracked out.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you, just make it stop!” I withdrew the tendrils, a tinge of disappointment startling me.

“So who did it?”

“The organisation I’m in. We’re assassins.” He was panting, the pain wearing heavily upon him.

“I already knew that. Who, specifically, killed my parents?”

“It was a team job; everypony had their hoof in it.”

“And how many is that?”

“Aside from the mare that went missing, there are seven more.”

“The mare you sent to murder me while I was recovering.”

“I didn’t send her. She went of her own volition.”

“Either way, it doesn’t matter. What matters is you identifying those ponies so I can exact justice.”

“There’s no way you’d be able to find them. The fact that you found me means that somepony told you exactly where I was every day.”

“The mare.”

“I knew we should have stopped her.”

“So I can’t locate them, then?”

“No, not a chance.”

“Then you’re going to rally them all together into the arena.”

“No, there’s absolutely no way I would betray them like that.” My face changed to a scowl, forcing him to react in fear. The tendrils reached back up and began making their way underneath his hide again. After several moments of him gasping, squirming, and screaming he cried out again. “Alright fine! I’ll bring them together!”

“That’s a good pony.” I dropped him, letting him hit the floor as the tendrils withdrew once more.

“But then what are you going to do to me afterwards?”

“If you prove useful enough in gathering them and keeping them in the dark about it I might just let you live.” He swallowed hard, nodding. “Now, I expect them in the arena tomorrow by sunset.”

“What if I can’t get them all there?”

“Then your hide will complement the red tint of my armour as I wear it like a cloak.” I saw the terror in his eyes. My intimidation had worked. Hopefully he carried through with it, because I knew exactly where he’d be otherwise. I trotted over to the door and left, not hearing a peep out of him.

I trod carefully, dodging through alleys as I avoided the buzzing sound above me. I caught a few glimpses of what I assumed to be the changelings, although their black, chitinous hide made it difficult to tell. It was a risky move, I had to make it to the underbelly and retrieve my armour; that much was certain. And so, with measured steps I made my way.

I was trotting through an alley, on the verge of emerging, when a changeling suddenly whizzed by. I quickly ducked back into the dark corridor. I slowly backed up, trying to remain as quiet as possible. I hit one of the crates with my hoof, sending the moderate sound echoing up the narrow passage. I froze momentarily before turning and quietly cantering further down the path. I hid behind a stray barrel that had fallen over. I barely peeked my head around the corner in time to find a silhouette enter the alley. I ducked my head back behind the barrel, hoping that I could remain hidden. I heard the sound of hissing as the creature approached. I did my best to quiet my frightened heart as the breathing of the creature and the buzzing of its wings echoed in the alley. It sounded close, too close for comfort at least. Eventually, the alley became quiet, the sounds of the creature disappearing as if around a corner. I peeked my head back around to find the alley clear of enemies. Regardless, I took a different path, making sure to avoid the main road again.

I continued my way for as long as I could down the side alleys and pitch-black corridors therein. I found an opening to the outside once more and decided to investigate. It seemed as if it led directly to the arena, so I banked upon it. I heard a sound behind me, but figured it to be nothing more than a shuffle, perhaps from one of the husks. As I broke into the clearing it became apparent exactly what had made the shuffling sound. It was also apparent that they had found me. I heard the familiar hissing sound behind me. I would have frozen in dread if I hadn’t already broken into a full gallop by the time I heard the sound. I was making good progress when I suddenly felt something hit my tail. I was stopped suddenly, falling forwards onto my face. I picked my face up out of the dirt and looked back, finding a viscous green fluid pinning my tail to the ground. With a bit of effort I drug myself forwards and lifted my tail. Sure enough, I popped the sticky substance off of the loose dirt road. I continued my path, feeling another glob strike my hip as I rounded the corner of the entrance. I bolted, nearly leaped, down the stairs, forcing the door open and quickly entering. I slammed the door closed behind me before quickly making my way over to my armour. I knew that the plates were going to become plastered to my tail and hip as soon as I equipped the armour, but it was a price I was going to have to pay. I heard the expected slapping as the fluid stuck to the plates that folded over my body. I shuddered at the thought, but managed to remain still enough for my armour to fully equip. From there I decided that the best course of action was to wait for morning.

The creature never came down and attempted to open the door, surprisingly enough. My sleep was undisturbed until the brown pony from before woke me up. His gruff tone rang out as he got me to stir. “What, are you homeless or something? Got nowhere else to be?”

“Got caught outside too late. Had to duck into here until morning.”

“The sun’s a pretty big clock, you know. Not hard to miss what time it was.”

“I had matters to tend to.”

“Whatever. Are you here to fight?”

“Yeah, I can do a few matches. Got nothing else to do.”

“Good. The ponies have been thirsting for your brutality. Don’t disappoint them, alright?”

“You got it.” He snorted and trotted off, leaving me alone. There was a meagre meal shared between the fighters that were there before the day began. From thence we simply waited for the combat to start.

The day couldn’t have drug on for any longer than it did, but sunset eventually found us. The arena had cleared by that time, predictably, so I awaited the arrival of the assassin. It wasn’t much later than when the last spectator had left that the group came trotting in. I could see the group getting into aggressive stances, so I called out to them. “There’s no need for that. I wish to discuss a matter with you.”

Their stances relaxed, but it was easy to tell that they were still on edge. Once they had all settled into their positions one of them spoke. “So what did you want to discuss, horse?”

“There were two ponies of interest that I was hoping for some help with.” They almost perked up.

“You got coin?”

“I have sufficient.”

“Who are the targets?”

“’Who were the targets’ would be a better question.” Now they were showing signs of confusion. “Now, will the pony that I talked with please come towards me.”

Again were they confused, but one stepped forwards and away from the group. Once he was clear I focused the fury that was slowly building inside of me. Tendrils shot out of the ground underneath each of the seven. They began crying out in fear, rage, and concern, though not pain just yet. “Enough!”

My voice, paired with the vice-like grip the tendrils adopted when I shouted, caused them to silence themselves and turn to me. “Now, you’re going to answer my questions. Do I make myself clear?”

“Why do we have to answer to you?”

“Because I can snap you all in half like twigs right now if I really wanted to. That would be the merciful outcome.”

“What’s the worst you can do? Spit on us?”

I turned to the pony who was now standing beside me. “Care to explain to them what it was like?”

He shook his head, terrified at the thought of the pain he had endured. One of the assassins, a mare, cried out. “What did you do to him?!”

“Well, the pain of being flayed from the inside out is not too comfortable. If you want, I can dislocate every single joint in your body, snap every bone in half, or grind your organs into pulp, all in addition to flaying you alive. So answer my questions or live in bitter agony for the rest of your miserable lives.”

“Then what are your questions?”

“My parents were a mare and a drake. Why did you murder them?”

“They housed our target, so we had to get them out of the way.”

“If he had already left, was it still necessary to hunt them down to the ends of Equestria and butcher them?”

“They knew too much.”

“As you know too much of me.” I could see fear enter their eyes. “Regardless, Volt called Flowing Hammer my sister. Why? Care to explain?”

“That’s insane. Just because you look similar doesn’t mean you’re instantly related.” I began to constrict the tendrils around the pony that answered, receiving his pained grunts in response.

“With as many similarities as we have, it’s pretty hard to deny that we are, at least in some distant term, related. So I’ll give you another chance; if my mother was murdered shortly after my conception, how do I have a sister?”

It grew silent in the arena. After a minute or two I decided that I was done with waiting. “Alright, looks like I’ll have to wring it out of you.”

I began to constrict all of the tendrils, threatening to outright crush the ponies before me. Their cries again echoed out. It persisted for a few moments before the pony beside me spoke. “I can explain.”

In surprise I slacked the grip, allowing the ponies to breathe again. “Oh?”

“When we found your mother we thought that they only had you and that was it. As I observed your family prior to moving in I noticed just the slightest bulge around your mother’s torso, a bulge only explainable as being with foal. So when the others went to move in, I preemptively warned your mother. She took her, you, and your father and left. I carefully tracked their movements while my cohorts burned the cabin to the ground. When I saw that they were quickly gaining ground on your family I warned your mother. She hid you in a bush off the beaten path. She tearfully whispered goodbye as she left you there, hoping against hope that you’d be protected by something, anything. She then caught up with your father as they continued. The problem is, a pregnant pony can’t run as fast as a normal one, especially not as fast as ponies trained in strength, speed, and endurance. Your father turned about to delay the others while your mother continued on. I covered her tracks to allow her to escape. Once my colleagues had left I quickly tracked her down. The only safe place she had was hiding in plain sight, so I took her under my care, used my skills in alchemy to change the colour of her hide and hair, and threw together a story of who she was, or wasn’t, technically. They bought it, but only until the foal came. With a tail like the one she had it was a dead giveaway. They executed her, nearly executed me, and forced the filly to be adopted by the pit master of the side opposite of yours in the arena. From there I volunteered to be the judge so I could watch her grow. It had to be the alchemy that changed her hide, that made it different from yours in such a radical way.” I was without words, trying to process what I had just heard. “Your father was always ferocious. He killed over half of our guild by himself, even after the poisons had been successfully injected into him. I’d take the operation back if I could, save your parents, but what’s done is done; I can’t change the past.”

“No, but I can change the future.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can finish what my father started in those woods all those years ago. I have the rest of your guild right here, and it will be here that it ends.” I saw the fearful expressions of the ponies in the tendrils. They were begging for their lives, promising change. The fury and rage had eaten a hole in me so large that it was wholly irreconcilable. With the fury of a sun I lifted them up from the dirt. The tendrils began to dig into their skin, whirling about and stripping the flesh as thick drops of blood began to seep out of their bodies. Screams echoed through the colosseum, most likely pouring out onto the streets outside. With the first that I turned my attention to I focused mostly on what the tendrils were already doing. They worked furiously, eventually separating all of his hide from the muscle beneath. It then burst out of his back, ripping the skin off as he spiralled out of his own hide. He hit the ground with a thud, wailing as a damned soul and writhing about in agony before ultimately succumbing to his injuries.

I turned the free tendril upon the next pony, a mare, and began violently beating upon her chest with it. After several dozen hefty impacts that shook her whole frame I heard cracking. I kept at it until the tendril burst through the shattered ribcage. It then tore her chest open and ripped her organs out through the cavity. She fell limp, her screams ending long before then, so I dropped the emptied carcass. The blood from her corpse had pumped out of her vitals across the dirt, spurting and splashing over the thirsty soil until there was no more blood to bleed.

I then turned the tendrils to the next, grabbing her by both ends and pulling. Her agonised screams hurt to listen to, and not from the decibel level, as her spine continued to stretch to unnatural proportions. Eventually, there was a snap, a crack, and a sickening, wet suction noise as she began tearing in half. Not much longer after that, her blood and entrails were strung out between her two halves before I ultimately threw them to two separate parts of the arena floor.

I wrapped one of the tendrils around the next stallion’s neck, squeezing it tightly. As it constricted and worked its way up his neck I wrapped the other tendrils around the remaining hide, making sure they wrapped up underneath his jawline. He was hacking and gagging, his constricted airway not letting any air through. As it continued to wrap about it I could see the pain build on his face. Blood began to seep through the cracks in the tendrils. Before too long, his face lost all of its emotion, dropping to a dead look. The tendrils constricted further, eventually pushing his body and head apart from each other. I released the body, finding that the only thing that remained of his neck was his dislocated spinal column and whatever bloody pulp hadn’t been stripped away.

With the next, I wrapped the tendrils around each of her legs, yanking them outwards. After a short delay, and the emittance of several sickening sounds, her legs tore out of their sockets. The flesh and muscle began tearing asunder as she screamed for mercy, but I did not relent. When the limbs came free I dropped them around the body as she ceased flailing whatever was left of her. Before too long she stopped moving, the blood welling up around her body.

Once free, the tendrils began shoving their way into the mouth of the next stallion. His eyes opened wide in fear, his jaw being forced open. The tendrils began shoving their way down his throat, the bulging shape writhing about almost unnaturally within his neck. Before too long I heard a few cracks just before he began screaming into the tendrils in agony. The hide around his lips began tearing open, eventually tearing all the way down to the joint of his jaw. Blood seeped down the jawline, dropping from his dangling chin. With another push the entirety of the jaw popped off, leaving his tongue to loll out of where his throat began. Again the blood dripped, but from the remaining hide on the upper part of his jaw. Regardless, the tendrils continued to course into him, causing the skin on his neck to begin splitting from the strain. His belly had been bulging immensely and, before too long, burst entirely. Blood mixed with bile poured out onto the dirt below with a splash as the tendrils writhed about in the opening it left. I retracted the appendages, letting him drop into a pool of his own fluids.

With one more to go I turned my tendrils on her. I swung the appendage with great force directly at her face. The tendril adapted to the intention moments before colliding with her face. When it did it cleaved right through her, splitting her body in half from muzzle to tail. Using two tendrils I yanked the body into its respective halves and threw them against the ground. They bounced, flinging blood a little farther than it would have otherwise travelled due to the whipping of her organs, before retracting the last of the tendrils back to me. Once they were contained I turned to the pony beside me. He was trembling mightily, shrinking from before my gaze. His ears were back as he assumed a terrified and cowering position. “Be thankful that you cooperated and assisted my parents. Otherwise your fate would have been the same. Your organisation is demolished, so don’t create a new one. Perhaps being judge of the arena will pay you well enough.”

I turned and left, contemplating the numb tone I had adopted in that moment. I set my heading for the underbelly, hoping to spend the night here. Instead, upon leaving the front gate of the arena, I turned my heading for Flowing Hammer’s house.

It took a while for me to find it again, as I had only been there once before. The fact that the houses all looked nearly identical to each other certainly didn’t help. Eventually, as the buzzing overhead began, I ducked into the alleyway where her door was. I knocked, waiting patiently for her to arrive. A small sliver of the door opened up, from where her eyes gazed out at me. Her voice echoed through the gap shortly thereafter. “Aqua, is that you?”

“Yeah.” She closed the sliver of the door before opening the entirety of it. She beckoned me inside, which I happily consented to, before closing the door behind me. When she had secured the door she turned to me.

“I didn’t hear about any of your fights today, and none of the ponies came back in any kind of shape that you would have left them in. What happened?”

“I set my sight on a different fight.”

“Aqua, what did you do?”

“I learned new information.”

“Your tone is different. You’re talking really flatly right now, like you’re distracted by something. What did you find?”

“Well, first and foremost, we are, indeed, related. We’re sisters, you and I.”

“World shaking information, but not enough to rock a pony to the extent that you’re shaken currently. What else?”

“I found the organisation that killed our parents.”

“And what about it?”

“It doesn’t exist anymore.”

“How so?”

“They’re all dead is how.”

“Well that’s nothing to be ashamed of or to feel guilty for. You killed off bad ponies, so why the glum tone?”

“I’ve never been this barbaric in my life, Flowing Hammer.”

“What did you do to them, exactly?”

“Their bodies will still be in the arena by morning unless the changelings and husks get to them first. Whether you find them or not, I can’t stay here. I have to leave town.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Completely butchered. Eviscerated beyond recognition. I’ve never been this angry before. I don’t know what it is. I just couldn’t control myself, I couldn’t stop. The only thing I could do was hurt those that had hurt me, and to do so in the worst possible way that I could imagine.”

“You need to get back to Equestria where there’s more peace around. You’re not used to this much fighting.”

“But fighting is what my life is, Flowing Hammer. I’ve trained since I was a filly. I’m no stranger to death or war, so why do I feel this way?”

“There’s a different air here than back home for you. Aggression bleeds in the air here, but it’s peace and wellbeing that emanates throughout where you’re from I believe. Go back home and recover, and that’s not a suggestion.” I nodded blankly. “Want something to eat, at least, before the night ends?”

“No, I’m not hungry. Not after that, at least.”

“Alright. Maybe you should curl up and try to get some sleep.” Again I nodded emptily. I trotted towards the room, entering and heading to one of the corners. I went to take my armour off, but found it stuck around my tail and hip. I tried to pull it off, but it only caused me pain as I did, so I stopped. I sat for a moment before resigning to my fate and fully equipping my armour again. I shifted about a bit, seeing if I could get comfortable in the plates. It must have been because of the sound of my armour sliding across the ground, but Flowing Hammer entered the room. She looked at me, and I at her, for a moment before she finally spoke. “Need help?”

“It’s stuck.”

“Where?”

“I got some of that green goop on my flank and tail and now the plates of my armour are stuck to it.”

“I’ve got some solvent for it. Give me a second.” She left the room again, leaving me alone. I sat speechlessly, the thoughts of the brutal murders still swirling about in my head. It wasn’t until Flowing Hammer returned that I was able to break from the haunting replay. She set the bottle of solvent down on the floor, freeing her mouth to talk once more. “Alright. I’ve got it here.”

“So how does this work?”

“I simply have to pour it onto wherever the mucus is plastered and it’ll dissolve it right off of you.”

“This is safe, right?”

“Yup. We developed it for obvious reasons, so we had to make sure it wouldn’t melt somepony’s hooves off.” She chuckled before speaking again. “So, where was it that the armour was stuck on you again?”

“Well, the hip and tail, but it’s not going to be able to go through my armour with that. The solvent, I mean.”

“Not even through the plates?”

“No. It’s basically airtight.”

“I see. Well, that complicates things a bit.”

“Maybe if I could pull the armour off far enough-”

“I’d be able to pour the solvent on the edges, working it off little by little until we got you freed.”

“That might work.”

“Alright. Let’s try it.” I nodded, powering down my armour. It, predictably, got stuck on the plates around my flank. Flowing Hammer retrieved a cloth and poured a little of the brown liquid onto it. She then wiped the edge of the armour, right where it met my flank. Sure enough, it was as if the green, viscous mucus was erased from existence. There was no trace left, neither on my flank nor on the cloth. Not even the armour’s exterior had any residue. From here, however, started the difficult process. Flowing Hammer had to pry back the armour plate with whatever she could manage, and I did what I could to help her. Granted, my assistance was little more than simply positioning myself so she could reach the next spot to wipe, and to maintain some kind of height that she could reach with relative ease. We eventually worked out a system, and from there it was little more than a waiting game.

It took until dawn to free me from my armour. The only indication we had of such was when Flowing Hammer left for another break. She returned with the news of daybreak right as I was trying to shake the last plate off of my body. She stilled me and finished her work, making sure I was entirely clear of the ultra-sticky substance. She also had me unfold my armour to ensure that she had cleaned all of the mucus off of the plates. I was glad she did, as there was a little left on the inside. I would prefer to not have to pry my armour off of my body once again, so I was grateful for the help with that. Once she had taken care of the armour she picked up the now half-empty bottle that was resting on the floor, taking it and the rag into the other room. She poked her head back in and wished me a good night. Once I had returned the sentiment she closed the heavy wooden door, leaving me alone with the few small, flickering oil lamps that dotted the room. I made my way over to the cot that had held me before and climbed onto it. I curled up, closing my eyes. All I could do was wait and hope that sleep would find me.

It didn’t. I was kept very much awake by the haunting vision of what I had done to those ponies. The horrific images replayed time and time again at full speed, with no intention of stopping, for the entirety of the night. When Flowing Hammer entered the room to signal the arrival of the noonday sun she found me restless and exhausted. She gave me a gentle shake to make sure I was awake, and alive, as she had approached me from the back. I turned over and looked at her. My restlessness must have been fairly apparent, as she almost immediately cocked her head and asked a concerned question. “Everything alright?”

“Not really, no.”

“Does it have to do with those ponies?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you manage to get any sleep?”

“No. I was plagued by the streaks of vile blood that coat my hooves now.”

“Do you regret killing them off?”

“No, but I regret the way I did it. It wasn’t natural; it wasn’t humane. No, not in the slightest. It was barbaric and cruel; that’s not me.”

“You did what you had to.”

“I didn’t have to eviscerate them, Flowing Hammer. I could have just cut them down fast and easy. Torture isn’t even a strong enough word for the atrocities I committed in that arena yesterday.”

“Perhaps it’d be best for you to take some time off and come to terms with yourself, Aqua. The experience has you shaken, and you can’t properly fight while you’re shaken.”

“But to what end? I can’t even rest.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you to rest. I told you to come to terms with yourself. Figure out who you are and what you stand for, and if what you did in there was defining of you or an outlier experience.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“It’s just experience talking.”

“You’re awfully mature for where you are in life.”

“That sounded like an insult, but I’m going to take it like a compliment. It’s the responsibility of being a kind of unspoken hero to the ponies around here. They need somepony to look up to, some hope against the husks.”

“I feel it. I have to be an example for the Protectorates, but with instances like this, I’m not sure that-“

“Aqua.” I silenced for a moment, looking at her. “Go home, spend some time thinking. Not about what you did, but about why you fight and why you stand for what you do. Don’t think about the ‘what’ of this, but the ‘why’ of it, the reasoning behind killing them. Maybe a few weeks will be enough time for you to realise where you really stand. If nothing else, it can’t hurt.”

I nodded, which she took as a sign of victory in a sense. “Now, put your armour on and head out. When they find the bodies they might treat you differently.”

“Good idea. Thank you, Flowing Hammer.”

“The pleasure was mine; I finally got to meet my sister, the only family that I might have left.”

“I’ll make sure to visit from time to time.”

“Good. It gets kind of lonely around here.” She left the room, so I arose and trotted over to my armour. After equipping it I made my way for the front door. Flowing Hammer wished me goodbye and good luck as I left, a sentiment which I returned. Once the door was closed I set my aim towards home.

As I was trotting through town it very quickly became apparent that news had spread about the events that had transpired the night before. It was also clear that the demolished corpses had remained through the entirety of the night, allowing them to find the atrocity in the morning. They put two and two together, and the aftermath was more than apparent. As I trotted down the main boulevard both pony and husk alike would violently veer away from me, tucking away into whatever corner they could find. They wouldn’t reemerge until I had distanced myself by several dozen yards. This continued for the entirety of the boulevard, leaving a bubble of disdain-filled anxiousness between them and me. I held my head up, trying to appear as if nothing had happened, despite the fact that the only thing I wanted to do was hang my head in disgrace.

Once I had broken free of the periphery of the city I began making my way across the dead, barren ground of the Badlands. When I was sure that nopony was watching me I hung my head down and sighed. It was a pained sigh, a noise I couldn’t recreate if I wanted to. The thoughts and memory of the recent murders rested heavily upon my mind, occupying almost all of the space therein. I managed to keep enough of myself together to point my path in the direction of home, but it was hard to substitute all of my thoughts across the open, barren landscape. There’s only so much that one can use to distract themselves with while trotting across an open field of dead, dry rock and heat distortion. I found myself constantly returning to those scenes as I continued on.

I eventually made my way to the glade in the valley, finding temporary respite from my thoughts therein. It was almost unnatural, in a way, how the glade could erase worries and cares. I went directly from being tormented by the sickening images of my own brutality to a sense of serenity so profound that I wanted nothing else than to forget my name. I was a welcomed respite, a greatly appreciated break from the onslaught of my own making. Because of this, I ended up tarrying for quite a bit longer there than I had intended, as the setting sun snapped me back to my heavy reality. I arose, making sure that I had everything with me still, and left the tranquil passage. The dead landscape of the south certainly weren’t an inviting sight, moonlit or not. After the first few steps, I wanted nothing more than to simply return to the green, lush paradise that I left behind, but I knew that I had matters to tend to. First, there was my rest and recovery. It wasn’t recovery from any kind of physical injury, no. I also had to see to matters in the order. As such, I continued making my way towards the train station of the nearby town.

Once aboard the train, and once it was in motion, I found the most secluded seat that I could. Once seated, I let my heavy thoughts wander, staring down at my hooves. At the moment, it seemed as if they were drenched in blood, the vivid sight of the sanguine fluid dropping to the floor still etched upon my mind. I snorted out and looked out the window, trying to distract myself from the very real hallucination. Despite looking back several times, I did what I could to distract myself from the reality of it all. It was all I could hope to accomplish as the train ride drug on.