Author's Notes:

This chapter is directly preceded by Sisterhood Sonata which details how Sonata came to identify as the Nurse. It's not strictly necessary to read it but it does give a lot of context.

Sweat mats my hair down more than usual as I slump against Sonata’s gurney, my breath coming in harsh gasps as I try to stay standing. Sonata’s mind was a mess, or rather it still is a mess, but it’s a manageable one now. I don’t know what the Entity did to her to get her brain like that but it left a mark, that’s for damn sure.

Putting her memories together was not unlike trying to complete a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces keep changing shape and color and are also on fire. My whole body hurts after delving for that long but now I at least know what happened.

Poor Sonata, no wonder she’s so ditzy, who would want to think too hard if that’s what’s waiting for you in the depths of your brain. Well, sorry ‘Nata, but I’m gonna need you lucid for this.

I stand straight and reach out with my magic to grasp onto the newly fitted and stitched up fragments of her mind. Rather than giving her psyche a hard tug like I usually do, I try to be gentle. I try to ease her into my world rather than kick her into it. I’m not sure her fragile mind could handle even that kind of minor trauma at the moment.

I feel the spell kick in, though, and Sonata’s breathing pattern changes, becoming a little more rapid as her body twitches and, a moment later, her eyes flutter open.

“Good morning,” I say with a smirk as I sit back down in the chair I'd brought over.

Sonata blinks drowsily for a few moments before turning to look at me. “Oh, hi Sunset, did I fall asleep?” Her voice is drawn and reedy.

“For a little while,” I reply, turning my smirk to a more gentle smile. “How do you feel?”

Yawning, Sonata stretches and I note how frail her body looks. Her limbs are thin and I can see her cheekbones stark against her face and how her eyes are sunken into her skull. I have no doubt that I’d be able to see her ribs too if she were standing. I wonder if she even can stand, she looks… awful.

“Not so good, Shimmy,” Sonata replied, her voice faint and weak. “I think I’m in a pretty bad way.”

I nod, leaning in a little to pull the covers of her gurney up a little closer. “How’s that? Any better?”

Sonata nods, snuggling deeper into her bed. “A little, you don’t look so good yourself, Shimmy.”

“Yeah,” I reply with a dry chuckle. “It’s been a rough last few weeks if I’m honest. My whole world fell apart, my friends abandoned me, then I tried to kill myself.”

“Did it work?” Sonata asks, and I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the question.

“Uh, all things considered?” I ask, raising an eyebrow and laughing. “Yeah, it kinda did, but it went better than I expected. I made some new friends, and even met up with your sisters, too.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Sonata replied cheerily, in spite of her weak voice I could hear the genuine sincerity in it. “How are they doing?”

“Uh, could be better honestly,” I say with a shrug. “Adagio is a Killer, like you, and Aria is still hanging on but it’s pretty rough.”

“You’ve got a plan though, huh?” Sonata says, rather than asks, surprising me a little. It must’ve showed on my face because she laughs. Her laughter turns into a coughing fit a moment later though and she rides it out before turning back to me. “You’re a lot like ‘Dagi, she’s got a plannin’ face just like you’ve got on right now.”

A plannin’ face, huh? I wonder not for the first time if Sonata really is the ditziest of the bunch. I always got the feeling there was more going on under the hood than she let on. “Yeah, you’re right, I’ve got a plan. A plan that’ll get everyone out.”

Sonata eyes me for a moment before smiling. “What’s the catch?”

I chuckle at that and shrug. “Well, first off it’s basically insane,” I say, holding up one finger-blade. “Second, it requires me to spit in the eye of what’s essentially a god, on purpose,” I tick up another finger-blade, “and third, I have to both play by his rules and cheat several times mid-game all while maintaining a flawless poker face.”

“Sounds like one of ‘Dagi’s plans,” Sonata remarks with a cheeky grin. “I guess you need my help too, huh?”

“Yeah,” I reply, my face falling to become more serious. “It’s dangerous, and if the Entity cottons on to what I’m doing you’ll be in a lot of danger.”

“Are you going to save my sisters?” Sonata asks, her voice quiet and even, and I nod. “Okay then, I’m in.”

I crook an eyebrow at that. “That’s it? You don’t even know what I’m going to ask of you.”

“Doesn’t matter what you need,” Sonata says with a weak but easy grin. “My sisters are in danger and I can help them, so I’m in, and besides you’re a good guy, you won’t ask for anything you don’t really need.”

I shake my head in disbelief. Of all the people I expected to get along with I would not have put Sonata at the top of the list. She always struck me as kind of a ‘Pinkie Pie with less logic’ kind of girl, which even I found unsettling.

But the way she just… decided. The look in her eye the moment I told her the stakes reminded me in no uncertain terms that, for whatever airheaded vacuity I saw in her before this, I’m still dealing with a centuries-old soul here. She prizes her sisters, possibly the last of her kind, above all else, and there wasn’t even a shadow of a question in her mind whether or not she would go along with my plan the moment the stakes were made clear.

“That sounds like a pretty genre-savvy assumption there, ‘Nata,” I reply with a crooked grin. “What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not,” Sonata replies with almost alarming certainty. “Being good is a lot like being crazy, after all. Look at what you’re doing right now, Shimmy,” Sonata says with a smile, nodding at our surroundings. “You call it good, but I’m pretty sure most people would call it crazy.”

I frown. “Hey, that’s… I’m just trying to do the right thing, okay?” I respond, feeling a little unsettled. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Sure there’s not,” Sonata shoots back, her smile never fading, even a little. “If it’s not too hard, or it isn’t risking your life or any of the other stuff that’d make it not worth it.”

“It’s always worth it to do the right thing!” I snap, pounding my fist on the gurney. I pull back a moment later as reign in my temper and I’m about to apologise when a soft touch brings my focus back on Sonata.

She’s pulled her frail, bony hand out from under the warmth of her blanket to touch my cheek. “That’s because you’re a good guy, Shimmy,” Sonata says softly. “You’d go to the ends of the earth to do the right thing,” she continued, waving her hand at the world around us as she spoke, “you’d cross dimensions and spit in the eyes of gods and cheat divine laws and all kinds of other completely crazy things just because it’s the right thing to do.”

I open my mouth to refute her for a moment except she pretty much described a strong ninety-five percent of my plan, even if just in vague terms. After a moment I snap my jaw closed in for fear of flies.

Sonata just grins cheekily again. “See? You’re crazier than me, Shimmy!”

I lean back in the chair and laugh softly. Not very often I can claim to have gotten totally roasted by the most airheaded member of my former worst enemy’s immortal acapella group.

Goddess, my life is weird.

“Alright, I guess I am,” I say finally, raising my hands in defeat.

“Cool,” Sonata replies with a smile. A moment later her face takes on a much more serious cast and mine quickly matches it. “So what do you need?”

“Two things,” I say evenly. “First I’m going to anchor your soul, your whole soul back into your body. An Anima Sutures spell should hold til my plan is done and then either your out of the Entity’s reach or it’s not gonna matter. Then I’ll put you a near-death state and capture your last breath so I’ll be able to summon you when the time’s right.”

“Will I be conscious through it all?” Sonata asked quietly and I shake my head.

“Not really,” I say, “it’ll be like a lucid dream until I release your breath. That’ll bring you back to life fully. I’ll steal your body, teleport it to my realm, and stash it before I leave. Believe me, when I’m done he won’t notice your real body is missing until it’s too late.”

Nodding, Sonata fixes her eyes on me again. “And the second thing?”

I let out a slow breath, here was the real test because I needed her to know the truth. I need Sonata’s warping power specifically, and if she isn’t on my side from word go then this whole thing is going to sink before it even starts.

“The second thing,” I say quietly. “Is that I’m going to need you to keep a secret.”

I step from the twilit coolness of Crotus Prenn to the cold, damp marsh of the Hag’s Realm and I chide myself again as my boots sink into the stinking mud.

This is risky and stupid. It’s got about a ninety-nine point nine-repeating chance of being a total waste of time that I do not have. I should just step back to my basement and pretend to be the good little Killer I am until I’m ready to spring my trap.

I’m not going to, though. I can’t go back. How could I look Tempest in the face again if I didn’t at least try to save the girl she loved. ‘The girl she loves’ my traitorous mind whispers. I clench my eyes and grit my teeth against that incoming wave of feelings. Against that part of me I know is my worse half; the jealousy, pettiness, and spite that characterized me for so long. The same parts that lost me my homeworld, my mentor, and all of my friends.

I push it away and open my eyes again.

I know it’s not fair to hate Summer Wind. I don't even know her. I’m sure she was, gangbanger not withstanding, a perfectly nice girl. Maybe we would have even been friends before all this. Before she became a monstrous Killer with a broken mind.

I don’t necessarily like what it says about me that I’m taking a measure of comfort in the fact that it’s astronomically unlikely that I’ll be able to reach Summer Wind. Except… what about that point-one percent chance?

What if it turns out that I can save her?

Tempest will leave me behind and then…

“Maybe it’s for the best,” I mutter, letting out a slow and calming breath. “Yeah, it’s for the best.”

I reach across the stretches of rotting swamplands seeking the fractured mind of the Hag. If I can give Tempest this then… maybe it will be enough.

Maybe she’ll forgive me one day after all this is over.

There she is, hunched over and scratching in the mud near one of the entrances to the drained ‘pantry’. I grimace but flicker through space towards the mind of my crush’s lost love.

I reappear in front of her but she doesn’t notice me. We’re not really wired to notice each other, though. We hunt like the Entity hunts. We look for fear, despair, and hope, but a Killer feels none of those things. At least, not in the quantities needed to register. I’ve only kept my hope kindled with the power of Equestrian magic.

Light magic.

But the light is fading. My journal is crumbling. It’s why I had to do this now. I don’t have the power to wait out a third trial to come here. I’d risk losing my Journal and I can’t afford that. I have to be frugal.

Alright, it’s the moment of truth.

I reach out for Summer’s mind with my magic. My oneiromancy scratches at the shattered wreckage of her mind looking for a flicker of light. A glimmer of the personality that once belonged to a girl named Summer Wind. I turn over each little mental stone and fragment of psyche but…

“Nothing,” I mutter, pulling my magic away. “There’s nothing.”

Before my spell fully resolves, rescinding back into me, I feel something like a gut punch and double over. Shit. I can feel my body rebelling like something just hijacked my autonomic systems and told them to go haywire in the most painful possible way.

The Entity must have noticed me.

It’s the only explanation since the old stain is the only one who has the master key to my biology. I’m not supposed to be here and I know it, so I’m being punished. This is probably his version of a slap on the wrist. Telling me to stay in my world and leave the Hag to hers.

I’m about to do as he wills, standing up and coughing out a gob of black phlegm, when I feel a tug on my jacket. I look down to see the Hag’s gnarled, shattered hand caught on it. I’m reminded of a old, beaten dog all of a sudden. I still don’t think Summer’s in there but…

Maybe there’s something.

Kneeling down, grimacing against the growing pain, I take her hand. “Hi Summer,” I say quietly, not expecting nor receiving a response. “My, uh… my name is Sunset Shimmer and… I’m in love with your old girlfriend.”

She just rasps out a wheezing breath, cocking her head like an animal. I sigh and shake my head, coughing out another wash of bloody black fluid. Dammit, I have to make this quick; stupid bleeding heart.

“I’m sorry I was too late for you,” I gasp out, tears starting to fall quietly down my cheeks. “I’m sorry I can’t get you home. I know you probably don’t remember it anymore, maybe you don’t even remember Tempest, but she remembers you, and she still loves you.”

The Hag fixes her strange, red gaze on me for a moment before her focus is lost. I give her hand a squeeze to pull her attention back.

“I can’t save you, Summer,” I say, my breath become heated with fever and pain. “But I will save Tempest, okay? I promise.”

I pull away and stand, releasing her hand and wiping my eyes. Summer gives me another cock-eyed look then, oddly, does something that I almost imagine is a nod before going back to scratching at the mud. Maybe something is in there… something more than just a mind. I can’t save it but…

“Good-bye, Summer,” I say in a rasping voice.

I have to get back before the Entity gets any angrier. Before he looks into what I’ve been doing. I have to pull the trigger now.

My breathing is a little clearer and easier, my body isn’t just a mass of pain and broken bones anymore. I don’t feel great but I also don’t feel like I just had Canterlot Castle fall on top of me anymore, so I’ve got that going for me.

“What was the secret?” Tempest asks, holding me close. “The one you told to Sonata.”

I give her my best mysterious smile. “I can’t say,” I reply. “Sorry, but I need to play it all pretty close to the vest. I don’t know how much the Entity can perceive and when, so I can’t risk saying anything that’ll give his Killers an edge.”

Tempest doesn’t look thrilled but she nods. “Fair enough, mi sol.”

“Hey… S-Sunny?” Rainbow’s voice pipes up from where she’s been sitting on the teacher's desk and I shoot her a glare that once again fails to ignite her on the spot. “I know you don’t have any reason to answer me but… can I ask you something?”

I let out a shuddering breath, ever since I disconnected from the Entity the fury that roared to life in me every time I saw Rainbow has been reduced to a dull, painful ember. I can at least stay sane around her now, but… I don’t know if I care to.

“Mi sol…” Tempest leans down and brushes her lips lightly against mine and gives me a look that’s half understanding and half pleading.

After a moment I roll my eyes and nod. “Fine, sure, one question.”

Rainbow breaths out slow, as if gathering her courage. “I know what the girls, the Crusaders I mean, did t’you was pretty much the worst but… why did you have to bring them here? Wasn’t that… too much?”

I narrow my eyes at Rainbow, giving her a deadly look. “What they did drove me to suicide, Rainbow, whether or not they meant to. And yeah, I’ll admit, I was pretty much insane by the time I took them thanks to the Entity but…” I glance up at Tempest, bringing my fingerblades up to gently stroke her cheek. “I had to pay the piper to get my real friends out and they were the ones I decided to use to clear that bill. That’s all, just… a means to an end. I needed a fresh and untainted source of hope to skim from to get the power necessary to cross the barriers between Trials to find Adagio and Sonata.”

Rainbow doesn’t shout or yell or complain, she just looks angry which I guess is fair. “So they were just convenient?” Rainbow asks, accusingly.

“No,” I answer, standing to my feet and getting in her face. “They weren’t just convenient, they were also a great way to work out some issues I had with them.”

“By murdering them over and over?!” Rainbow shouts, standing from her seat and getting in my face now. “So what’re you gonna say to them once we’re all outta here?! Huh?!” She screws up her face in rage and pushes me away. “Is it just gonna be like: ‘Hey kiddo’s no hard feelings about the nightmare-inducing murderfest’, or something?”

My temper slips between my grasp the moment she touches me and I lash out, back-handing her across the room and into several desks that crash to the floor. I stalk up to her as she pulls herself up from the ground and plant a boot in the back of her head, throwing her back to the ground.

“I don’t plan to say a damn thing,” I hiss virulently, spitting on the ground by Rainbow’s head. “Because I don’t plan to speak to any of you fuckers ever again once this is over, capisce?”

The final generator roars to life as I dig my bootheel deeper into Rainbow against Tempest’s protests and my senses immediately inform me where the nearest Exits are. “Alright, Q and A is officially over, so get your ass in gear because we’re on the opposite fucking end of the Trial from the Exits this time and if you lag back I will leave your ass for dead.”

I pull my boot off of Rainbow’s head and walk back to Tempest’s side.

“You’ve got to get your temper in check, mi sol,” Tempest whispers, reaching up to run her hands through my hair in a calming motion. I don’t know how she can stand the texture but I appreciate it anyway. “Rainbow has a point, they’re just children.”

“And you’ll be getting them all out so it doesn’t matter,” I retort, side-eyeing Tempest, silently daring her to take Rainbow’s side again. “Besides, it’s like I told Rainbow… after this is all over we’ll never see each other again so it won’t fuckin’ matter.”

Tempest just sighs and shakes her head. “Fine, we’ll talk about this later though, it’s not good to hold on to this shit, my love.”

I blush furiously at her words chuckle. “Cool it, Casanova,” I say, smiling and bringing her hand up to kiss her knuckles. “You can sweet-talk me later.”

Carefully, and slowly, opening the classroom door, I lean out into the hall and glance left to the corner. Seeing nothing I glance right and…

“Really, Trapper?” I deadpan as I look at the two traps placed in plain sight, staggered to block the hall heading to our left. “They’re right there, I can see them.”

The easiest path to the Exit is to the right anyway. “Trapper-traps to the left, ignore them though, we’re heading right,” I say, gesturing for them to follow. Tempest comes out first with Rainbow taking up the rear.

I take point, glancing around as we head down the hall, moving carefully to give Tempest enough time to detect the heartbeat so we can take a moment to hide or at least brace ourselves for a fight.

We reach the end of the hall and I glance back, making sure there’s nothing creeping up on us. Maybe I’m just paranoid but I didn’t see the Shape die so I keep expecting to turn around and for him to just-

SNAP

“Motherfucker!” I shriek as I turn the corner. I look down to see the brutal teeth of a bear trap biting into my leg, it had been set just perfectly at the blind section of the turn to evade easy notice.

I should’ve known. The Trapper is canny, he gave us two obvious traps to see so we wouldn’t look for the third, hidden, trap. God-fucking-damnit. In an instant both Tempest and Rainbow on either side of me, working to pry the teeth free of my leg. They barely manage to work me loose when both of their heads snap up in unison and meet each other’s eyes.

“Heartbeat?” I ask grimly, already knowing the answer before they both nod. “Shit, why am I such a dumpster fire,” I hiss, rhetorically, as I see the Trapper come around the corner at the far end of the hall from where we started.

He barely pauses to sweep up the two traps he had planted as decoys before continuing. “Alright ladies let’s haul ass!” I roar, taking off in a run with Tempest and Rainbow just behind me.

The Trapper has to know where we’re going. He can sense the Exits just as easily as I can so why is he chasing us this way? Ugh, I hate this bastard, because with him I can’t even trust my own instincts when I’m up against him. For all I know he’s predicted what I’ll do and is just herding me into a trap.

A trap.

My mind makes the connection just moments too late. Too late for me to remember that the Trapper isn’t the only Killer that lays traps.

The ground beneath me splits in a torrent of mud and swamp water, spitting out a screaming simulacrum of the Hag that instantly pulses into her true form. Tempest and Rainbow scatter as the Hag pummels me with her club-like claw, staggering me back. I sweep my own claws out and rake deep furrows on her face in return though, eliciting a harsh, gurgling shriek of pain.

The Hag staggers backward and I dive in to follow up, feeling a slight twinge of regret as I remember Tempest is right near me. Regret or not, I never connect as the Trapper’s bolo machete erupts from my chest, stopping me dead in my tracks.

“SUNSET!” I hear Tempest’s voice just barely over the roaring pain that’s threatening to deafen me to the world. She’s standing alongside Rainbow just down the hall.

I vomit up a torrent of bile and I let out a defiant howl of rage as I twist around in time to see Trapper pulling me back. I don’t give him the chance to get his big stained paws on me before I swing my left hand back and sever his hand at the wrist.

The ground meets my knees with a crash as I drop, the machete still sticking out of my chest. Thank the Goddesses my anatomy isn’t mortal anymore or I’d be dead several times over by this point. Unfortunately, I can feel even the unholy furnace of my regeneration laboring to keep me alive under this kind of punishment.

Killers were never meant to fight their kin.

A fist strikes the side of my skull with bone-jarring force as the Hag, recovered from her wound, comes in swinging at me and I collapse to the ground. I lash out blindly at her and hit something meaty. I grin viciously as I’m rewarded with another scream of pain from the Hag.

My bleak joy is short-lived unfortunately as I feel a hand grip me by my hair and pull me roughly into the air, weakly flailing. The Trapper seems a lot less perturbed by his lost appendage than the Wraith was. The enormous, brutal Killer has his fist bundled in my hair, holding me at arm's length and shaking me like a rag doll anytime I try to swing at him with my claws. He’s not taking any risks at me disarming him a second time, apparently.

“What’re you gonna do with one hand, big man?” I scream, swinging half-blind at him as he shakes me. “You can’t exactly-”

I find out exactly what he’s planning to do when I feel him take a much harder grip on my hair and then swing me, hard, at the wall of lockers. I take the hit on my side and feel the cheap, rusted metal crumple against my body and I cry out in agony as the hit jars the machete in my guts.

Then he swings me again, this time at the opposite wall and I do my best to curl my body against the blow, taking the hit on my other side. Next verse, same as the first. I vomit again, I’m not even sure what I’m throwing up anymore but I’m a strong seventy percent sure it should probably be staying inside my body.

I swing back and forth like a hypnotist’s watch in his grip, I’m in too much pain to flail or attack and as I look up I see the Hag loping towards me. The Trapper is holding me out like bait to a rabid dog. He just wanted me stunned so the Hag to finish me off for good.

God damnit. I was so fucking close. Maybe it makes me a coward, but I can’t watch. I don’t care what happens to me but the moment I’m dead this whole realm collapses and takes all of my friends with it.

Fortunately, I don’t need my eyes open to hear the sudden lullaby from down the hall.

Adagio’s hatchet comes hurtling in with deadly force to slam into the Hag’s back and send her careening to the ground. The once and former Huntress is stalking down the hall with Rainbow and Tempest at her side. The Trapper looks up and for once I actually feel something from him… I feel alarm.

I feel fear.

Gathering a surge of magic, whatever I can scrape out of my failing body, I throw my spell into his mind and latch onto that fear. Maybe he is the first. Maybe he is the Entity’s favorite son. His high priest.

I don’t care.

My name is Sunset Shimmer and I. Am. The Nightmare.

He staggers, dropping me to the ground as his stained and dark sorcery-riddled mind is sent screaming into my dream world. I drink deep of the chaos of his mind, dredging out any sips of magic I can to heal my wounds as I scramble away from him. He roars in pain and madness as visions assault his sense and he lashes out, slamming into the wall and the floor like they’re his sworn enemies.

I wonder, for a moment, what my nightmare spell is making him see.

“Sunset we’ve got the door open!” Adagio calls, drawing out another hatchet and sending it hammering into the Hag’s back to keep her on the ground. “Sonata’s ready to start the delivery!”

“Good,” I rasp, “we just need to get rid of these bastards.” I gesture to the Hag and the Trapper who’s still attacking phantom enemies. “Tempest-”

I feel Tempest rush to my side and gingerly put her hands on me. “Dios mio, mi sol… how are you even moving?!”

“Who care’s how she’s moving!?” Rainbow calls out. “You’ve got a seven-foot-tall murderer having a freakout on your six so just MOVE!”

Ugh, I hate to admit it but Rainbow is right. I push myself to my feet and start drunkenly staggering away from the Trapper who is wildly attacking everything and nothing in arms reach. Tempest gives the Hag a sorrowful look that lasts only as long as it takes to shepherd me past her.

“Sorry, hon,” Adagio says bitterly as she steps forward, hefting her enormous wood-ax, “but you can’t save’m all.”

I whisper another apology as I hear Adagio’s ax come down with battering force and try to tune out the sound of Hag’s rotten skull splitting like a log. With any luck, she won’t come back this time. I do glance back to check on the Trapper, though.

He’s snapping out of my spell, but more than that… I almost do a double take as I see him hold out the mutilated stump of his severed hand. Surrounding his hand is an aura of dark magic and a gel-like substance begins congealing around his ruined wrist. A moment later it forms into a coherent hand and in another moment it’s taken on the exact look of his old hand.

The hand that is still, might I add, gripping the machete in my guts!

“Well that’s not fucking fair,” I mutter as I turn away. Damn, but that thing must be more dark magic than man to be able to just regenerate like that.

Adagio follows on our heels, turning and covering our backs as pass row after row of lockers and empty classrooms. We’re getting closer to the Exit and I feel a surge of hope. With only the Trapper left and with Sonata’s help we’re almost out of this hell hole.

It’s only as I’m turning my head back to call out to Adagio that I remember something.

Something very, very crucial.

The Trapper is not the only Killer left in my realm.

I only remember this fact as Adagio passes one of the classroom doors and it swings open, silently, and the Shape emerges. Smoke is still curling faintly from the eyes of its mask and with electrical burns all over its body. It looks like it was repeatedly and viciously struck by lightning as if it somehow had managed to simultaneously piss off both Zeus and Thor.

Not that the damage seems to be impeding it in the slightest.

Just like always, at the instant the kill is assured, its body erupts into a furious avalanche of motion and it buries its knife into the back of Adagio’s skull with a dull thunk. I see her eyes cross almost comically as she staggers forward and then collapses on her face.

“Oh shit! ADAGIO!” I scream, as the Shape stalks past her prone, twitching body and carelessly rips the knife from her head.

Rainbow Dash barely has a chance to notice the danger before it brutally backhands her into the nearby lockers and she collapses with a wracking cough. Tempest lets out a half-feral roar of rage, pushing me forward and charging at the oncoming dreadnought. Despite her height and mass, Tempest barely gets within arms reach of the thing before it fires out its empty hand like a piston to grab her by the side of her head and slam her into the other wall with bone-rattling force, leaving a bloody imprint of her face on the metal locker, before casting her aside like a broken toy.

At no point does the Shape’s empty, hollow gaze ever drift from me and suddenly I know exactly how Rainbow Dash felt when I was after her. Guess it took my ‘little sister’ illusion spell personally… I try to limp away even though I know it’s pointless. It’s on me in an instant, hammering its knife into my shoulder and forcing me to my knees before forcibly turning me around.

I see his eyes in that instant as he’s kneeling over me; cold, dark, and dead as he pulls his knife free of the meat of my shoulder. It wants me to be looking at it. It wants to see the light leave my eyes when it finally kills me. Its ice-cold hands go around my neck, gripping hard as it starts to lift.

A meaty crack causes it to stagger to its knees and drop me.

“Get your fucking hands off my friend,” I hear Rainbow’s harsh, furious voice and stare over the Shape’s shoulder.

She’s hefting Adagio’s ax and the Shape barely has a chance to turn before Rainbow takes a hard grip on the haft, heaves back, and swings the smile of the ax right into the Shape’s neck with all her might.

The Fog-forged blade cleaves through the Shape’s flesh. Not easily and not well, less like a knife through butter and more like a serrated Bowie knife through leather, but it does the job. A waterfall of blood spills from the under the mask as the Shape tries to stand, to move, to force whatever unholy will drives it to continue to animate its ruined body.

It fails as Rainbow rips the ax blade from where it came to rest three quarters through its neck. Rainbow looks a little green around the gills but the fury painting her face is the real deal. The Shape finally topples over, but Rainbow barely lets it hit the ground before she hefts the ax and brings it down one more time, severing the Shape’s head completely.

Finally, it’s body fades, almost peacefully. As if reality only had a tenuous hold on it, to begin with. Rainbow smiles tiredly down at me, rest the ax on her shoulder.

“That thing,” she says raspily, “makes me less scared of ghosts.”

I smirk, and I’m about to make a smartass comment back at her, feeling in that moment almost… almost like things were the way they were before, but the words die in my throat.

A huge, red-stained hand lashes out over Rainbow’s shoulder to grab the ax and rip it out of her hands, sending it sailing away down the hall to clatter to the floor far out of reach. The Trappers other hand slams into Rainbow’s throat and grips, and I swear I hear her neck crackle as he lifts Rainbow from her feet.

“Fuck your traps, puta!” Tempest screams as she launches herself up from the floor onto the Trappers back. I’m about to scream at her for doing something so cataclysmically stupid when I see what’s in her right hands.

My finger.

Specifically the one I snapped off and gave to Rainbow as a ‘goodbye and fuck you’ gift.

Angling the blade down and to the right, as the Trapper lets out a grunting, animalistic roar of frustration, shaking its back like bull moose, Tempest thrusts the thin, impossibly sharp blade down and slams it into the Trappers right eye then jerks it up and forces it out of his left.

Even I wince at that.

The Trapper screams for the first time, ever, and I shudder as I hear the deep, baritone howl of manifold rage rattle the walls of my realm. He drops Rainbow to scrabble at his face as Tempest lets herself be thrown free, but his enormous hands can’t find purchase on the tiny bits of the blade sticking out of the holes in his mask.

Coughing, I stand up and draw up what little reserves of strength I have left. I reach behind me and pull the machete free of my torso, coughing up blood, and shake the blade to get the disembodied hand off of the hilt as I walk up to the flailing Trapper.

Ducking under one madly thrashing arm I swing the machete and split his kneecap, sending him down on one leg. I move under another swing and take his other one, dropping him to his knees. He reaches out, grasping violently for me and I weave out of his reach.

“One last nightmare,” I say softly, even though I doubt he can hear me over his own bellowing roars. “Good-bye, cousin, I know it’s not likely but I hope that you and the others never wake back up.”

I dive in between his arms and drive the machete, tip first, through his neck right under the chin of his mask, and he lets out a strangled grunt as his roars suddenly cut off. Black fluid spills viscously from between the grinning teeth of his mask. I jerk the blade to one side, then the other, then rip it out and drive it into his heart.

Something goes out of him with that strike and he slumps against me, his hands still weakly grasping for me like the claws of the Entity.

“Sleep,” I say softly, as his masked head rests on my shoulder. “From one monster to another, no more nightmares.” I bring my hand up to cradle his head and push a spell of slumber into his failing mind. “This time just… sleep.”

I hear something like a sigh issue from his lips, a death rattle that sounds far too peaceful for something that looks like him. I push the Trapper’s body off of me and it’s barely hit the floor before it starts to rapidly decay. I watch him fade, the first and the last Killer, and let out a slow, calming breath as I reach out to my realm. I can feel the Entity’s hooks digging into the flesh of my world and, with a thought, I sever them.

This is my world and without his Killers here he has no power over it anymore.

Quickly, I walk over to Tempest and pull her to her feet as she gives me an embarrassed grin. “I’m really glad that worked, mi sol, or I’d have looked very stupid.”

“And we all would’ve died,” I remark, pointing a fingerblade up at her. “Don’t forget that.”

A hacking cough comes from the floor and I look down to see Rainbow breath hard and massaging her bruised throat.

“Don’t mind me,” Rainbow says in a dry, hoarse voice. “Just choking to death.”

“Oh get up you big baby,” I reply with a faint laugh before turning to Adagio who’s starting to stagger to her feet.

Unlike me, she couldn’t just pull power from the ground around her to heal. She had to wait for her weird Killer physiology to do it the slow way.

“You alright, ‘Dagi?” I ask as I stop in front of her.

She shakes her head, then smacks it to uncross her eyes and nods. “Yeah, dammit, that was sloppy. I hate that thing,” Adagio gripes as she walks back down the hall to grab her ax. “It’s way too quiet.”

“Ready to go back home?” I say, more than ask, with a grin and Adagio returns my smile. “Good, let’s go.”

We gather up and head back to the exit gate, I can feel the cool wind of the space beyond my realm blowing towards me. The gate is wide open and standing in front of the terminus of my dimensional realm are the three crusaders, flanked by Aria, Sour Sweet, and Starlight Glimmer. Laying out in front of them, wrapped in a burlap blanket, is Sonata’s comatose form that I may or may not have hastily teleported into one of the lockers in my basement before I left Crotus Prenn.

In my defense, I’ve been teleporting since I was eight. It was perfectly safe.

I hold out my hands and gesture for the last three to come to me and they do. Aria is the first in my arms, wrapping herself around me and pulling me close in a tight hug. I’m careful to keep my hands away from them as Sour Sweet and Starlight join the embrace and Tempest comes up behind me to wrap her enormous arms around all of us.

“It’s over,” I whisper to each of them, tears falling down my face as I let them bury me in their affection. “I did it, girls, I really did it.”

“Yeah ya did, Shimmer,” Aria says, her voice choked and soft. “You saved us, you saved my sisters, you saved everybody.”

“You’re a hero, Sunset,” Sour says, her voice for once lacking any trace of acidic wit. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I go home but… I'm going to try.”

Starlight hugs me all the tighter and nods. “Same here,” she says quietly. “I’m gonna get free of my stupid parents and live on my own terms, crazy and all. If I can survive here how hard can it be?”

“Maybe we can all find a place together, eh amigas?” Tempest chuckles as she gives all another squeeze and pulls away. “I think I’d like sticking around you girls.”

“Yeah, me too,” Sour responds, smiling up at Tempest. Starlight nods as well and, after a glance at Adagio and Sonata who both smile at her, Aria nods too.

I feel my heart break as I nod. “Sounds like a hell of a plan,” I say, “just… one more thing.”

Stepping around my friends, I stalk forward and stop in front of the crusaders, staring down at them as they cower under my inhuman glare.

I take a deep breath and I try. I really, really try.

Finally, after several quiet minutes, I shake my head.

“I can’t forgive you three,” I say somberly as I open my eyes, and I see them flinch away from me. “If this hadn’t happened you’d have all found my body pulverized on the concrete in front of the school. You three took everything I loved away from me, stole it out of… some stupid jealous spite, I guess?” Applebloom starts to open her mouth, maybe to explain, but I silence her with a look.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I say, “the why doesn’t matter and it never will.” I cross my arms and shake my head. “I’m sorry I brought you here and I’m sorry you suffered, even if part of me feels like you three deserved it. You’re still kids and you’re all idiots, so… I can’t forgive you and I don’t care if you forgive me, but maybe now…”

I sigh, letting the last words die unspoken.

Maybe now I’ll be able to rest in peace.

“Take them,” I say, looking up at Sonata. I don’t want them to see this next part. I’d rather no one see it but needs must. “Just let me connect to the portal.”

Summoning up my Journal I reach through it one more time and, to my surprise, it doesn’t quite crumble. Good, I guess I’ve been frugal enough. I snap out a line of magic and connect the blind emptiness beyond my gate to the one other source of interdimensional travel I know of on their world.

The portal at Canterlot High School.

Sonata nods, floating up behind them and putting her hands on Applebloom and Scootaloo’s shoulders, with Sweetie Belle in the middle.

“Hold on tight, girls,” I say, before nodding to Sonata who guides them through the gate and past the terminus into the darkness.

There’s a twisting of space, a scream, and Sonata and the girls are gone. She’ll be back, though. She’s the only one who can traverse the distance safely at the moment.

Turning away from the terminus and back to Rainbow I just shake my head again and she grimaces. “No forgiveness for me or the girls either, huh?” she asks, mostly rhetorically.

I shrug. “I don’t hate you because you abandoned me, Dash,” I say walking up to her. “I hate you because you’re the second person I’ve loved who abandoned me the moment I stepped out of line.”

Rainbow Dash tenses like I’d just swung a physical blow at her, but she nods.

“I… I thought I was forgiven but…” I feel my own tears threatening as I push through. I can’t stop though, I have to say this now. So, I let the tears fall. “You all said I was your family, you said you forgave me! I wouldn’t have cared if you’d all just hated me from the beginning, or if you’d treated me like a chore you were handling for Twilight but…” I sob, wiping my tears on the sleeves of my jacket. “But you didn’t! You treated me like a friend! My first real friend, Dash! You gave me a family! I loved you girls more than anything else in the world and I loved you most of all!”

“I know,” Rainbow sobs, “and I’m so fucking sorry, Sunny…” Her voice is choked with emotion but I just… can’t find it in me to comfort her. To get any closer to her.

It just hurts too much.

“I know you are,” I reply, gritting my teeth against a sob. “But… it happened, and I can’t… I just can’t look at you girls the same ever again. I can’t see my friends anymore, all I can see is… pain.”

Another scream splits the air telling me Sonata’s back, and I turn around to wipe my eyes again. “Okay ‘Nata, you, Aria, and Adagio next,” I say, gesturing to the three of them, “Or, your body at least… you know what I mean.”

Sonata nods silently, making a small choked chuckling noise as she did. Adagio and Aria situate themselves on either side of Sonata’s prone, true body, and lift her up, one of her arms over each of their shoulders with Adagio kneeling a little to compensate for her height.

As they start to move towards the terminus, I call out. “Adagio, Aria, wait…” I snap my fingers and a wooden mask appears in my hand. “I almost forgot I promised to give you this back,” I say handing the Hare mask over to Adagio who grins and takes it back.

Aria shakes her head. “That thing is still creepy, ‘Dagi, I can’t believe you made it for a friggin’ kid.”

“Hush, you,” Adagio snaps playfully, and I grin as I turn to Aria.

Without warning, I step in and wrap in her in a hug that’s a little awkward with Sonata’s unconscious form half between us. Aria takes it in good humor, chuckling as she wraps her free arm around me and hugs me back.

“What was that for, Shimmer?” Aria asks, giving me a crooked smile.

I just shake my head. “Nothing,” I reply, smiling. “Just that… I think if I ever had a sister I’d have wanted her to be just like you.”

Aria stares at me in shock and I smile as I see her cheeks redden before she just shakes her head and laughs. “Well, shit, girls, what’dya think?” Aria asks as she turns her head slightly to regard her sisters. “How’s a quartet sound?”

Adagio and Sonata share a silent glance and then nod. “Sounds good to me,” Adagio replies with a grin. “You’re welcome with our family, Sunny, though, disclaimer: sanity is not included, I’m afraid.”

“Somehow,” I say, chuckling as I feel a few more tears slide down my cheeks, “I think I’ll be able to stand it, now get home. You’ve all been here way too long.”

Another scream, another trio vanished from the Fog forever and back in their rightful place. Or, semi-rightful since it’s the Sirens, I suppose.

I turn back to Starlight and Sour Sweet. “Are you girls going to be okay? You came from some pretty shitty families…”

Sour and Star just nod. “We’ve got each other,” Sour says, putting her hand on Starlight’s shoulder. “And I’ve still got some friends in the real world. Actual friends, not fake ones… no offense, Sunny.”

“None taken,” I say, laughing a little dryly at the bitter humor that lines calls back to mind. “But good, because I would hate to just let you end up back here or something.”

“We’ll be okay,” Starlight says, stepping forward and hugging me. “Thanks… for saving us, and for everything else. I’m still… I’m sorry I-”

I pull away and put a bladed finger to her lips. “Don’t,” I say, shutting her up with a smile. “I forgive you, just get the hell out of this shithole, okay?”

Sonata snaps back into existence and drifts over to us, and I usher Sour, Starlight, and a despondent Rainbow Dash to her.

“See you on the other side, Sunny!” Sour says with a wild smile and a wave of her hand as Sonata grips them tight.

Another snap and a scream and they’re gone.

Here we are at last.

I turn to Tempest,

“So…” I say a little shyly. “Come here often?”

Tempest stares at me for a moment before breaking into half-choked laughter that lasts about a minute too long and leaves her gasping for air. “R-really? Mi sol? Did you just try a pick up line?”

I laugh a little, my clawed right hand coming up to rest on my left arm and nervously rubbing it. “It was all I could think of, okay?”

“It was pretty awful, mi sol,” Tempest responds, still laughing. “But I love you anyway.”

“Even though it’s probably just the adrenaline high talking?” I ask, almost hoping she agrees.

She doesn’t. “I don’t think so,” Tempest says firmly, crossing her arms and fixing her eyes on me. “Honestly, how could I not to fall in love with a girl like you, mi sol? You’re brave, resourceful, and beautiful… you tricked a god, you saved the souls of almost a dozen people and brought them back home…”

“I was lucky.”

“Surviving death once is lucky,” Tempest responds sharply, her face stretching into a wild, passionate grin as she steps close to gather me up in her arms. “You were incredible.”

Don’t do this, Tempest. She’s making this so much harder… and I let her as she pulls me into a kiss. I wrap my arms around her, letting my weight rest on her broad shoulders as she holds me up. I’m so tired… I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years but this moment is all I have, so I relish it. I let my tongue lick over her lips, then dart into her mouth. She meets me in kind, grinning as her hand moves up to gently cradle the back of my neck as my hands travel up and down her legs, sides, and everywhere else I can reach, savoring the feel of her body against mine as Tempest pulls me as tightly against her as she can.

One moment stretches into a million. My own little slice of infinity that I hold on to with all my flagging might, and through it all my heart feels like it’s cracking in half.

It’s worth it.

We part and I smile up at her, taking one more moment to get lost in her eyes. Yeah, maybe it’s the heat of the moment or whatever but I swear…

I love this girl.

And I’m so sorry, Tempest.

As soon as I hear the snap and scream of Sonata’s return I grip Tempest’s right arm, turn, knock her feet out from under her and leverage her weight to my advantage, putting all of my unnatural strength behind my throw as I pitch her bodily down the hall and through the terminus.

I wince as she lands roughly, though Sonata does her best to break Tempest’s fall. “Sorry about that, babe,” I say, walking down the cobbled stone path. “But you wouldn’t have gone any other way.”

Tempest gets unsteadily to her feet, giving me a confused look. “Mi sol, what are you-”

I reach the edge of the terminus and the wall of barbs fires up like a thousand striking serpents. Sonata just gives me a terribly sad look as it happens and Tempest looks like I just nailed her in a gut with the Trapper’s machete.

“W-what?” Tempest’s words come out in a stunned mumble as she stumbles forward, reaching out to put her hands on the unbreakable bars that now separate us. “But… but Adagio… and Sonata! They made it through!”

“The Entity lifted the restriction on them temporarily,” I explain, sliding my fingers through one of the wider spaces of the bars. I just want to touch her one more time before… “They had to be able to pass through the terminus enchantment in order to reach my realm, it would have re-engaged the moment they returned to theirs but…” I shrug, giving Tempest a brittle smirk, “they never did.”

“But… but you…” I see the coin finally drop as she turns to Sonata, staring at the ghostly girl in horror. “The secret you had to keep?”

Sonata grimaces and nods.

“I needed her to know the truth,” I clarify, swallowing thickly. “She was the only one who could safely deliver everyone out of here, it’s one of the reasons why I spent so much time and magic putting her back together. My plan literally wouldn’t work without her because I needed her to help me get everyone out while saving me for last so…”

“So no one would be here to stop you,” Tempest finishes, her voice taking on a dark, stormy tone. Tears start to track down Tempest’s face as she stares through the bars at me.

“I’m so sorry, Tempest,” I choke out, “I’m so, so sorry… I love you, I do. I needed to get you out of here and I was afraid that if you knew…”

“Then I wouldn’t leave?” Tempest finishes my sentence again, and I nod as she laces her fingers through the thin barbs of the bars and sobs, sagging against the wall. “You’re right, I wouldn’t have.”

“I know,” I reply, pressing up against the bars myself, leaning my forehead against her fingertips. “And I love you for it.”

Lifting my head I kiss her fingertips and smile through the bars at her, or I try. It’s a broken, brittle thing, but I try. “I was never going to be able to get out, Tempest. It was never a part of the plan because it was never possible.”

Tempest just nods, sobbing brokenly as she scrapes against the bars, trying to find a hole large enough to fit more than a few fingers through to reach for me one more time. I kneel, slipping the blades of my fingers through to reach for her too, even though I know it’s pointless. Tempest’s sobs break down into wails of grief and I can’t help but cry alongside her.

I cry for the love I almost had. For the life I might’ve lived.

For all of the friends I’ve lost.

Our moment is disrupted by a rumble of stone and a wash of dust falling from above. It startles Tempest out of her heartache and she looks up, panicked. “Mi sol,” she looks at me with worry, “what’s happening?”

I give her a strained smile, ruined entirely by all the tears. “The realm is crumbling,” I say, “the Entity maintains them with the endless magic gained by his ritual trials… magic that I just don’t have, and soon it’ll fall apart.”

“What will happen to you?” Tempest cries, crashing against the wall, trying with renewed vigor to find a way through.

“I don’t know,” I respond. “Maybe I’ll just.. fade away? Who knows, but I don’t belong to the Entity anymore and that’s all I care about.”

Tempest sobs again, dropping to her knees. “But how will I find you again? You can’t just… go away.”

I sit down on the other side of the bars from her and smile. “Who knows?” I say, “you found me first, maybe this time I’ll be the one to find you.”

“But how?” Tempest cries. “How?!”

“Dunno,” I respond, wiping the tears from my cheeks as I look up at the crumbling stone pillars around me. “But I’ve done the impossible before, babe, maybe… maybe I can do it again.”

Standing up, Tempest holds out her hands for me and I fit as much of my fingers through as I can. Lowering herself a little, she plants a soft kiss on each finger before looking back up at me.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Tempest says, her eyes fierce and filled with fire. The cruel and jagged scar only adds to that ferocity. “And I will never stop looking for you, mi sol.”

I really wish she would but I’m not about to tell a girl who survived goddess knows how many Trials to give up at something. Waste of fucking time, that’d be.

Instead, I just nod. “I know,” I say, then snap my eyes back up to Sonata. “Now go, I can't keep the realm intact any longer.”

Sonata nods sharply and grabs Tempest who instinctively tries to throw her off but to no avail. The grip of Killer, even a redeemed one, is ironclad. “I’ll find you! I swear I’ll find you!”

Her hands reaching for me are my last sight of Tempest, and Sonata, as she vanishes with a shriek of misery. With a single thought and an impulse of will, I sever the link between my Realm and Canterlot High Portal. No need to catch it in the backlash of a collapsing pocket dimension. I linger by the Terminus for several moments as the world literally crumbles around me staring into the darkness and imagining I can still see her face.

Tempest Shadow, the girl from hell.

“Well,” I say, finally turning around and staring into the school. “I guess this is how it ends, right? How ‘bout one last stroll through these crappy halls, eh Shimmer?”

Talking to myself. Probably not a good habit to get into but I imagine I won’t be around long enough to suffer any of the usual detrimental effects of a worsening mental state. Yeah, my mental health is not my main concern right now.

Slowly, I walk into the crumbling halls and, on a whim, I reach out magically and nudge the static-filled P.A. system to life and a song filters through the air, a little tinny at first but it gets stronger as the voice swells.

Almost he~aven, West Virginia… Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah Ri~ver… I close my eyes as I walk the familiar halls towards the front entrance letting the music wash over me with its nostalgic tones. Life is old he~re, older than the~ trees, younger than the mountains blowin’ like the bre~eze!

I never liked this world’s country music, I never liked much of this world’s music in general actually, except jazz, I love jazz. But this song… I didn’t know why in the moment, but the first time I ever heard it I cried. I remember it so clearly… Sophomore year at CHS had barely begun and I was lying on my cot, just waking up for the morning, and my clock radio started playing it. I listened, mostly because I was being lazy and didn’t want to get up quite yet, but this song…

Country ro~ads… take me ho~me… to the pla~ce… that I belo~ng! West Virginia! Mountain mama! Ta~ke me ho~me, on country ro~ads...

My throat closed up out of nowhere and suddenly I was bawling, curled up in my sheets with my head buried in my pillow and just sobbing my heart out. It hit me all at once like a freight train.

I missed home so much. The green fields and white clouds in skies so blue they were a mirror of the ocean… the beautiful mountain ranges capped with snow, the soft dirt roads that always lead the shining city of Canterlot no matter where you started from.

My home… even if it didn't want me, it was still mine.

Equestria.

I listen to the song play out as I reach the front doors and swing them open. The pavement and asphalt are already tearing apart and floating off into the darkness of non-existence, their pseudo-magical nature as a summoned construct slowly melting away back into raw magic and then dispersing into the ambient field.

The ambient field.

My eyes widen as I quickly scan the area, my attuned senses giving me a perfect diagnostic on the state of my realm. It’s crumbling, I know that, but the ambient field is still stable! It’s acting like a filter to disperse the raw magic of the faltering construct that makes up my little slice of hell!

Normally that would mean nothing, of course. An active ambient magic field just means that someone with magic can actually use their magic. Earth has such a weak ambient field that it’s all but impossible to form a stable spell matrix, or was until just lately, without a significant magical source to draw from. But this is my world. I’m tied inextricably to it. It’s as much a part of me as my clothes or my claws!

That ambient magic field and everything in it is mine.

I can’t hold this place together, no… and I can’t leave it either but maybe, just maybe I can do something else just as crazy. Reaching into the ambient field I find the massive river of magic that’s slowly filtering through it like the gates of a canal or a dam. That field is the only thing keeping my world from crumbling completely in a single instant.

With a surge of will, I violently kick those gate wide open and, at the same time, drink deep of the flow of that river of magic. My world heaves and rocks as it begins disintegrating as if it were made of sand. My whole body burns with the power of this realm and just when it starts to feel like my skin is about to ignite I cast a drastically overcharged spell of summoning I learned as part of my Conjuration curriculum.

A twisted variant of Starswirl’s Superlative Shelter.

The realm around me, just in my small and immediate area, begins to rebuild itself. I can’t maintain that huge realm the Entity built but I can certainly maintain a much small scale one. So long as I keep the ambient field stable, my own magic should be more than enough to maintain it indefinitely.

I slump to the floor as the spell engages. My attention is no longer necessary since it has the template to work from; an exact facsimile of my wretched little basement home in the Canterlot Railway Offices.

It might not be much, but it’s mine.

The cold concrete feels wonderful on my fevered flesh, and for a few minutes, I just lay there as the spell completes itself. Reveling in the knowledge that I’ve managed to kick death in the teeth one more time. Of course, I’m still stranded in the depths of what might as well be space but… it’s livable.

After finally relaxing for a bit, I stand and walk over to the stairs, go up, and open the door to step out on to the front landing.

The landing extends only a couple of meters before tapering off into nothingness with only the illimitable blackness of nonexistence stretching out infinitely.

Out there in the dark, I fancy I can see the old stain, writhing horribly, twisting eternally in on itself like a vile tesseract.

And I get an idea.

It's a bad idea.

Oh it's such a fucking terrible idea.

I feel my lips twist up into a grin as I start calculating the odds. They are not good but that has literally never stopped me.

Taking a deep breath, I grab the leash my little floating mass of summoned crap and steer it forward. I don't how long it’ll take me, but I will get home.

Wait for me, Tempest. I’m on my way.