~Shae~

Keeping my eyes shut, I take in all of Caro’s affection. In fact, aside from my eyes, I’m unable to move in the slightest. I slowly draw them open as reality begins to take its toll on my senses. I can hear the constant shouting of the former prisoners of Sacred Rite, sans me of course, escalating in volume. A warm reunion, no matter how much it means to me, will have to wait.

Caro understands that much as well, letting me go gently. My hooves hit the cobblestone. Finally, for the first time in weeks, I can move freely, but as before, my legs only somewhat cooperate with my requests. I turn what little energy I can spare to my horn instead, but a cruel reminder of the futility of such an act is the brace’s grip on my neck. “I can’t…” Not even the slightest bit of light comes to my horn.

My ears still work, however. I can hear Sacred Rite’s voice growing panicked as control of the situation is taken away from her.

“Damn you all!” The line between her content and livid selves is a thin one, but I can see by the red on her face that she’s becoming the latter. Spit flies from her lips as she yells at her former prisoners. “I will not have a mockery made of me! Least of all by a demented herd of ankle biting, inbred, nature destroying heathens! I’ve had enough!”

“Then we understand each other,” I say, drawing her manic gaze. “How am I supposed to tolerate what you’ve done to me? What you’ve done to all of these innocents?” My hoof travels along the crowd of physically weak but emotionally strong unicorns. I then point to the pit that would have been my undoing. “What you’ve done to Jade?” I step away from Caro’s concerned grip, much to his reluctance. I know he, Rosemary and Tohro are watching me stand up for all of this injustice. “In the time I’ve been here, however long it may be, I remember every silenced scream of a unicorn like me put to death at the teeth of that dragon.”

Almost as if it can hear me, the dragon’s subdued roar makes the room vibrate, though not to the degree of the trap door.

Sacred Rite appears to take my comments in stride, smiling her mossy teeth despite her obvious fury. “Beautiful, wasn’t it?” She says that with laughter, making me cringe. “They weren’t the first and they definitely won’t be the last. After all, I’m gathering followers by the day; ponies young and old who know salvation lies in the destruction of all things witchcraft.”

“Except for fucking enchanted locks!” Tohro yells.

“A means to an end!”

Those words seem physically painful to Tohro. He lowers his head and mutters fiercely to the rest of Dragonrein, “If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s hypocrisy… I’ll let her rant, but the moment she steps out of line again…” He looks to Caro. “I’ll shoot her. After that, don’t hold back.”

Caro licks his lips.

Rosemary steps to my side, looking intent to shield me from any harm with her foreleg over my chest. “You can’t purge magic from this world. If you knew anythin’ about magic then you’d know it ain’t restricted to unicorns. It’s in all of us.” She taps her hind legs to the cobblestone. “I’m an earthwalker. My magic is in my hooves. And this fella over here,” she nods to Tohro, who is loading another bolt into his crossbow, “he’s a pegasus, which means he’s got magic wings! If you’re going to destroy all the magic in the world, then you’ll just have to destroy the whole world!”

So she was listening! As I nuzzle Rosemary, she smiles, thinking she’s torn a gash in Sacred Rite’s genocidal plot. But the hag’s unusually content expression tells me that is simply not the case.

“So be it!”

The unicorns’ uproar resumes with escalation as they curse the very ground Sacred Rite walks on. The limping mare is the only one I can hear clearly amongst all the other voices. “You’ll decimate everything for your selfish vision?!” It’s as if she speaks my mind. “I thought you a lunatic but this is beyond that much! You have no sense of reality! You’re beyond insane!”

“Beyond mortal!”

Her schpiel is one I’ve heard too many times already. Is her insanity brought on by insanity itself, or is it born of a senile mind? Either way, she’s finally crossed my line. I remind myself of that by looking into the shadows of the pit, remembering the last I saw of Jade. She was either crafty enough to find a way out of an imminent demise or the worst happened. Either way, I fear for her.

But I won’t let her disappearance be for naught. I move quickly, now more reacquainted with solid, organic ground, to the stone where my necklace, the Amulet of Fauste, awaits my touch.

“Hello, my sweet,” I say, wearing an admittedly sinister grin. Even with this pendant’s near limitless power, it still can’t break through the brace’s halt on my magic. I curse that fact under my breath and store the necklace in my coat pocket.

Sacred Rite’s rant is still ongoing, accompanying her hooves slamming into the ground. As if that’ll prove a point to the swarming unicorns. They’re all reaching for her like draugr towards mortal flesh, and all the while, Tohro is taking aim at her. “Stand back, you worms! Worthless creatures of filth! You cannot harm me! Not a thing can touch me! Do you know who I am?! I am a messenger of Dragos! She has entrusted me with this task, and I will not let that task be sabotaged by you pitiful, putrid, disgusting—”

“Fah pah tol los ko pruzah for do Saviikaan…” That voice is muffled, yet it makes the floor tremble with every syllable. The dragon has finally spoken, and it doesn’t take a translation from Caro for me to know he is beyond angry. “KOS NAHLOOOON!!”

“Even the dragon wants you to shut up!” the Dragonborn shouts gleefully at Sacred Rite.

Tohro’s shot is lined up perfectly, and the hag cannot see that through all of the mayhem ensuing around her. She’s finally lost all control of everything she’s worked to achieve, and it is beautiful.

But even that moment of beauty falls apart, in a literal sense. The dragon makes an ear-splitting roar that ends the rioting of the unicorns. They, along with me, Tohro and Rosemary, collapse to the ground in unison, covering their ears from the explosive force of the sound. The dragon… It’s not just roaring, it’s screaming.

The chamber has had its last straw with the dragon’s voice taking toll. Stalactites break free from the ceiling and cascade down to split the cobblestone. There’s a rain of dust and pebbles to accent the turmoil. The unicorns are splitting up, gathering in the corners of the room.

I’d expect another rant from Sacred Rite but even she cowers at the dragon’s merciless bellow. She doesn’t seem so immortal now. The assaults of Nahkriin and Hevnodiin were times I felt nothing but fear for my life. I can see that fear on her face now. I never before comprehended the idea of satisfaction at the sound of a dragon’s call.

Nor can I comprehend why Rosemary has gone from brave to terrified in an instant as she turns to me. “Shae!”

I follow her gaze as she looks to the cobblestone. The stress of the dragon’s scream is worse than I thought; fissures are forming along the ground. I scream briefly at the sight of a fissure forming below me.

Rosemary gallops my way, throwing off her robe disguise. But as the fissure expands, I can see that she’s making a bad call. I cast out my hoof. “No! Stay back!”

She doesn’t listen.

The ground breaks, and once again I feel the initial panic of being sent to the mercy of gravity. I reach for something to grapple on to, and I end up throwing all of my weight onto Rosemary’s reaching foreleg. Only this time, Caro and Tohro aren’t quick enough to pull us back up. Rosemary loses her footing, and we fall into the darkness together.

A blessing before death, I suppose...

But... No… I refuse. I can’t die now… I’m here for a reason, and I won’t soon forget it. She needs me...

It happens within seconds, like a vision seen between the realms of wake and sleep. I’m resting on a cloud, bathed in moonlight, watching the still, serene night sky. I’ve gone long enough without seeing it for real, so I’ll take this for all it’s worth.

However, a young face in the moon captures my attention.

“Luna.”

I sit up, reaching out for the moon, but it’s a meaningless gesture. She’s just out of reach.

And yet, she doesn’t look disappointed in me. I’d expect her to be; I should have found her days, no, weeks ago. I remember. She said she needed somepony, and that somepony has to be me. I’m sure of it. Caro was gone, Tohro was serving the Legion, and Rosemary was Fauste knows where… I couldn’t wait for them.

I don’t know how or why, but more and more, as Luna spoke to me, a hunch grew in my mind that she’d be able to help Celina in some way. If there’s even the slightest, miniscule chance of that being true, I’ll take every risk to make it happen. I’ll endure everything short of death for Celina.

“I’m on my way, Luna… You won’t be alone for long.” I smile up at her, and she returns the favor. The stars begin to shine a little brighter.

Wait, those aren’t stars… Those are jewels. And the night sky is just the ceiling of a cave.

A groan escapes my lips, followed by several coughs. I attempt to speak but it all comes out as gibberish. Something like, “Whaateraghahar…” I shake my head and attempt to get off my back. I’m greeted by a mare I thought possibly dead moments ago.

“You’re welcome,” says Jade.

That brilliant girl… She’s enough motivation for my legs to let me stand. I see she’s airborne, floating on her own pink aura, relaxing as if it were a warm summer day. “You saved me, huh?” I ask.

“I may not be a top student at that fancy academy of yours, but I have plenty of prowess in magic.”

“I do remember you mentioning your skill in levitation, but that wouldn’t have been enough to warrant an escape…” I look up to the gem encrusted ceiling from which I fell. There’s no way I could have lived through an uninterrupted fall from that high up. “You slowed me down?”

“You and her.” Jade lazily points off to a small puddle of water, where Rosemary is washing her face and hat. “She was heavier.”

Rosemary puts her hat firmly on her head, looking at herself in the puddle. “Hello, beautiful.” Then she turns and looks at me. The jewels of the cavern make it look like her eyes are twinkling. “And you…”

What words can I possibly summon to justify my feelings? Should I begin with how wonderful it is to finally see her, along with the rest of Dragonrein? Cry about my many moments of despair where I never thought I’d look upon her again? Or express my eternal gratitude of how she threw aside all caution to come and rescue me? There’s too many things to say and not nearly enough time. All I can do is smile and chuckle like the schoolmare I once was.

Rosemary decides the best way to make this moment complete is to throw herself onto me. I grunt as I fall onto my back again before my laughter comes out louder, mixing with hers. It’s only so brief, though, before she kisses me.

“Oh, I figured as much,” Jade says with a wistful sigh. “A true rescuer’s romance. But with an added twist; we’re all in trouble if we don’t get a move on.”

Her irritation doesn’t make Rosemary’s act of passion any less precious, but it does remind us both of what’s at stake. We’ll have plenty of time to hold each other close when we’ve left this hellhole. Rosemary and I part from our premature kiss and stand up. That doesn’t stop her from sneaking in a little nip of my ear, though.

“Stop it, you…” I giggle.

Jade closes her eyes and focuses. “Clairvoyance!” Her horn flashes pink and releases a soft orb of light. It travels up into the air, floating back and forth across, as if indecisive. Jade grunts. “Come now, don’t leave us stranded…” Despite her desire, though, the orb fades away. “Damn!”

Rosemary chuckles. “Sweetheart, you should know I love magic in all of its forms, but perhaps the best means to find a way out is to think like an earthwalker.” She steps to the wall and taps, pressing her ear against it. She purses her lips.

This seems like a senseless act, but then I think back to our night in the tent. I explained to her exactly what makes earthwalkers so special. I can’t help but beam at her. “You were listening!”

“Well, nothing you say ever goes to waste. I can likely tell where we need to go if…” She trails off. Her eyes travel around the room, eventually falling on a green gem right before her. With a tugging motion, she manages to remove it from the wall and put it in her pouch. “What purpose do you suppose these gems hold?”

Jade is mimicking Rosemary’s actions, but it’s clear that she lacks confidence in earthly abilities. She looks to Rosemary, tilting her head. “Equestria is rich in gems. You of all ponies should know that.”

“I know, but…” Rosemary is adding another gem, a red one, to her collection. It’s my assumption that she’s merely gathering them for trading purposes. “Well, what little we know of dragons, it is common knowledge that they eat gems, yes? And Sacred Rite has had one of the beasties right beneath your hooves this entire time.” As she speaks, her eyes slowly widen. She gathers one more gem, a yellow one, and starts moving quickly as she packs it away. “We’d best go where there are fewer gems. That way, we’re less likely to meet the beastie.” She has that familiar protective look in her eyes as she looks at me. “I ain’t comin’ this far just to get either of you killed.”

“Tol fen ni kroson.”

The dragon’s voice stops Rosemary’s steps, and I start to cower. The dragon likely has the blood of hundreds of unicorns on its teeth. Even with Clover's amulet, even if I can remove my brace, what keeps me from becoming its next dinner?

Unless...

“Dein vahzah wah hin zen ahrk hi fen grind zey pah rinis.”

“Huh…” I pause. Hearing a dragon’s words used to be a fleeting experience for me. I'd usually pass it off as a language only Caro and his Greybeard friends can ever understand. However, having spent many days in a cell, one's mind tends to wander. I began making connections between what I’ve heard from the Dragonborn, and what his arch nemeses say. “I don't think need to be afraid of him.”

“What?” Rosemary and Jade ask simultaneously.

“The dragon, I think it’s docile. Maybe we can appeal to its better nature.”

Of course, I should only receive silence in return. Rosemary purses her lips and looks elsewhere, and Jade looks at me like I've gone insane. “Hit your head on the wrong side there, Shae? Maybe you should lie down," she suggests.

“I’ll carry you,” Rosemary offers, raising her hoof.

“No, it has to be docile.” I tap my hoof for emphasis. “It’s here, isn’t it? It has to be simply gargantuan, if it’s able to tear apart this lair with its voice alone. And now, I hear its words, and all of its malice seems to be reserved for Sacred Rite alone.”

I feel Jade’s aura surrounding my head. “Shae, I mean it, lie down before you hurt yourself further,” she urges, the worry clear as day in her voice.

“Jade, please.”

“Zuk rotkrif. Oo, naal pah seik, bahzim.”

Jade’s aura disappears as she cowers, allowing me more time to speak.

This time, I play to urgency. “I work with the bloody Dragonborn! I can’t pretend I know every detail regarding the dragon’s language, but… I can hazard a guess as to what it’s saying. And I'm guessing it doesn’t wish to kill us at the moment.”

“I don’t know what ends can come of speakin’ to the beastie…” mutters Rosemary. She looks to her falchion and sighs, then approaches me. “Lass. If it does anythin' even slightly offensive towards ya, consider it slain.”

Jade is agape at such an idea, but she begrudgingly goes along with it, lighting her horn in advance. “I’m only following because I know you well enough to trust your judgment. If anypony else had suggested we speak to that monstrosity, I’d have knocked them clean out.”

“This is our best option.” I nod, then turn to where I believe the dragon’s voice is coming from.

Contrary to Rosemary’s expectation, the sound was loudest from a tunnel stark of any gems. The path ahead is dark and cramped. Tohro wouldn’t be able to stand it here, if his behavior in Beak Falls Barrow speaks for anything. Wait a moment…

The gears in my head turn, as if I were simply resting in my dormitory, doing schoolwork. The facts are coming together. “Even before I saw them with my own eyes, I’ve always figured that dragons are just like any other intelligent animal at the core. They can think and plan, and it’s clear to me now that they also have ideals, fears and desires. This dragon has been down here for a very long time, being fed one unicorn after another.”

“What’s this leadin' to?” Rosemary asks.

“Dragons aren’t dogs.” I smile at that notion, despite the growling of the dragon growing louder by the second. I stumble over a slippery set of rocks, but as per usual, Rosemary leaps to my side to steady me.

“Careful.”

“Thanks… My point is, I don’t think this dragon is here willingly.”

Jade repeats those words under her breath. She seems to be dismissing them as ridiculous, or just plain asinine, and I cannot blame her in the slightest. However she intends to curse my logic is left unsaid as she stops walking and looks up, eyes wide and mouth agape. “Divines…”

“Hephaestus...” Rosemary whispers, with much of the same expression.

There it is. The dragon beneath my hooves that has tormented my every waking hour with the threat of devouring me limb from limb at the behest of a mad mare. In my nightmares, I saw it as a black demon with a fierce and jagged body; an epitome of death with a bottomless stomach, showing teeth like freshly sharpened steel blades.

I’m far less afraid of the malnourished, wrinkled, dirty and blood coated grey dragon before me, illuminated only by the daylight pouring through the ceiling.

If it truly were a dog, it would be whimpering. I’ve never heard a dragon whimper before. Its arms and legs are bound by rusted shackles, which connect to large chains bound to the stone wall. In its neutral, sitting position, the dragon’s limbs can hardly budge. The chains and shackles tighten around patches of eroded scales as it makes an attempt at moving towards me.

“Dii…” It chokes on its own words as it takes in the pain of its restraints. “Dii for los Sahvot. Zu'u los ni hin hokoron.”

Jade looks to me expectantly. “Do you know any of that?”

“I think that was its name... Sahvot, is it?” I ask it.

“Geh.”

“That means yes.” I clear my throat and speak a little louder to it… Sahvot. “May I approach?”

“Hi aal. Zu'u fen ni arx hi,” it says. I can’t piece those words together, but at the very least, they don’t sound malicious. If Sahvot had any intent to hurt me, it… No, he would have spoken with greater threat.

“Careful, love…” Rosemary says as I take a few steps forward.

I move slowly. Startling Sahvot is not in my best interest, nor is it to step in any errant unicorn remains. I step over a severed horn and several splotches of blood, then speak again. “I am prepared to trust you, Sahvot. Is there any way in which we can help you?”

“We?” Jade whispers. I hear Rosemary hiss at her, and that makes her quiet.

“Hi nis jahr krunaar dii tinvok, ful Zu'u fen ni nev hin tiid voth rot.” I think he said something about his language… “Hel zey stin...”

Those words are just nonsense to me, which makes me shake my head in frustration. “I don’t follow…”

Sahvot bows his head, pursing his lips. He groans, a shudder coursing through his body, and strains his mouth to open in a wide and awkward fashion, like he’s trying to say something unpronounceable. “Sssset… me… free…” He sighs and drops his head to the ground.

It still brings me to tremble a little, but I approach the dragon’s hand and brush my hoof over it without hesitation. I’m lending my full support to Sahvot and I want him to know that even if I’m afraid of him, I’m willing to trust him. “Okay.”

I don’t need to look back to Jade and Rosemary to know they’re both shocked I’d be so quick to make that sort of decision. I can sympathize with them. I never imagined something like this happening. It's something only a child would dream of. But I’ve been dreaming a lot lately, and I’m willing to believe in the impossible. Luna has already taught me that much, and she isn’t even here yet.

“Somepony important is waiting for me. I’m willing to do anything to—” I fall silent as Sahvot pulls back his hand for an instant. I gag when he forces his claw up against my throat.

“SHAE!” Rosemary and Jade scream simultaneously.

Sahvot’s eyes, much like the eyes of other dragons, are like a concentrated inferno, making the skin beneath my coat crawl. “Ruz mu los nu koriid.”

I would translate if I could speak, but I’m too petrified to do so. One single flex of his claw and my neck will be severed from my body.

I flinch when I hear a single slash rend the air, but all I feel is the tension around my neck disappear. I open my eyes to see that all he cut through was my inhibiting brace. The metal falls from my neck and clatters on the floor in a broken heap.

“Huh.” I feel my eyes come alight with my magenta aura, breaking through the darkness of the cavern. The rest of my body is filled with a gentle yet very apparent flow of what can only be the Fae. After weeks of grey, depressing sterility, my magic has finally returned.

I feel warm. Perhaps it’s the Fae within me, or it’s Rosemary’s determination to squeeze it all out of my body with her deathly strong embrace. I crane my neck to see her face; she’s both amazed and terrified at the same time. She spins me around in a circle, rendering me a little dizzy when my hooves touch solid ground again. With that done, I feel that I have a debt I need to repay.

I step up to the dragon and bow, another action I never dreamed of doing for his kind. What’s more, he bows as much as his shackles allow in return. “Nox hi,” he says.

I raise my head, channeling the Fae through my now functioning horn. As my magenta aura surrounds my body, I bring it to bear on the shackles wrapped around the arm that only just recently severed the brace that prevented my own freedom. With a churning of rusted metal, the shackles shatter under the strain of my magic.

Sahvot unleashes a triumphant roar, one that I’m not afraid of for once. I look back to Rosemary and Jade with a smile, which they both return. Jade has finally let her doubts go. “We’re going to make it…” she whispers, as if in disbelief.

“Geh,” says Sahvot.

Jade looks at me quizzically. “Does that mean yes?”

“Yes.”

~Vision End~

“TOHRO!” Caro shouts. He grabs the cultist by her hind leg, dragging her away while she reaches helplessly for her dagger, then turns to face the pegasus. Tohro is airborne when he and Caro make eye contact.

Caro lifts the cultist over his head and throws her to Tohro. With no hesitation, he sweeps a blade along her neck. She tumbles into the wall, leaving behind a trail of blood. He then leaps to stand flank to flank with Caro, readying his crossbow. “I have two bolts left.”

“Ah, knowing you, that should be enough for at least six of these bastards.” Caro grins maliciously as he pans his gaze along the crowd of cultists. They’ve taken up battle positions along the entire length of the chamber. The dust polluting the air makes it seem as though there’s an entire army’s worth of them, even though Caro counts twenty at the most. He accidentally inhales a bit of dust and ends up coughing.

Tohro brings his hooves to Caro’s head and forces him down, a cultist’s sword just barely missing him. Tohro leaps onto the sneak attacker and plunges his hidden blade into his throat. Two other attackers rush him. Anticipating that, he flares out his wings and sends waves of dust into their faces, stumbling them enough to allow him to plant his hooves onto their heads, knocking them out cold.

He helps Caro to his hooves. “Sorry about that, mate.”

Caro himself is shocked at not feeling offended in the slightest at Tohro grabbing ahold of him so suddenly, but his attention is immediately brought to the surrounding cultists.

Although Sacred Rite is long out of eyeshot, her voice is still annoyingly audible to Caro and Tohro. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she gloats, obviously amused by the battle. “Amazing how some ponies will go so far to pursue their cause, even if it means staring death in the face. You know it as well as I do, heathens. You came this far; you expected a chance of dying, but you came this far anyway. We all have causes, you see, and no cause is more just than any other.”

If Tohro had Sacred Rite in his sights, he’d use both of his bolts at once upon her. He yells at the ceiling. “My friends have suffered for your ‘cause’, you sick fuck! You’re just a narcissistic psychopath who pleasures herself to the blood of innocent unicorns!”

Another mare throws herself around Tohro’s back, blindly thrusting twin knives at his underside. “Insolence! You insult the mistress!” When she draws blood from Tohro’s chest, he growls and grapples her forelegs, leaning forward and landing her on her back. Caro plunges his sword into her chest and twists it for good measure.

“Then what is your cause, my violent pegasus and earthwalker?” Sacred Rite asks, completely unfettered.

Caro removes the sword from the mare and throws it at the nearest cultist. It lands by the tip in the cultist’s hood, unleashing a spray of blood and screaming. Caro gallops up to the cultist and coldly removes his sword, letting his victim fall dead. He deems it for the best nopony sees what’s beneath the hood.

He turns to the voice of Sacred Rite. “To stop ponies like you!”

Tohro speaks at the same time. “To protect each other!”

The two face each other with blank expressions before nodding simultaneously. “Both?” Caro asks.

Tohro nods again. “Both.”

“Both is good.”

Sacred Rite laughs once again. Her voice is clearer than before, getting Caro’s attention. He looks to her walkway and sees that she has returned from hiding. Having expected her to be furious beyond all reasoning, Caro and Tohro both blink at her smile, which is unusually calm. It’s more disarming than her mossy grin and dissonant from her torn and filthy robes. “It seems we are at odds, then! But we both knew that to begin with.”

“Why are you so content?” Caro growls. “Get angry.”

Tohro doesn’t hesitate this time, immediately lining up the sights of his crossbow with Sacred Rite’s head.

“I won’t give you the satisfaction," she gloats. "In fact, I do believe I am so unbelievably upset that I’m past any sort of rage.” She gives her followers a commanding wave of her hoof. “Which is why you fools should be bringing me their bodiiiies!~” she orders with a tune and a childish dance.

Caro leaps away from an earthwalker's thrusting halberd, feeling Tohro land beside him after dodging an expertly thrown dagger. For cultists, these ones put on the guise of fairly well-trained assaultists. The two look at the surrounding throng warily, a multitude of mismatched weaponry cutting into their breathing room.

Tohro purses his lips. "Well, shit."

"Fly," Caro calmly murmurs.

"Yes." Tohro leaps into the air, slamming his hooves into a few spears and javelins thrust beneath him, while Caro swings his sword about, leaving the attacking weaponry bladeless. "Now!"

Caro jumps up as Tohro snaps his wings down, wrapping his forelegs around Caro's midriff and tumbling into an improvised roll.

The now-weaponless ponies are scattered by Caro's blade. Blood splatters his and Tohro’s bodies as they spin about. After ripping through five of the cultists, Caro drops to the ground and hefts his hind legs.

"Tear ‘em apart for Jade," he mutters as he kicks backwards with all his might, propelling Tohro into the two cultists behind them. Tohro's wing blades shred through them as he streaks past, and they drop dead a few seconds later. Tohro swaggers past their bodies with unparalleled presumption.

With most of the group now on the floor, either dead or getting there, and the remaining ones faltering in their place, Caro grins fiendishly at the still smiling Sacred Rite. "Alright, you grungy, idol licking fanatic!" he yells with a guttural snarl. "Who's next?!"

Tohro and Sacred Rite slam their hooves over their ears as a sizeable chunk of the wall is brought to pieces, dust and stone coming down like a waterfall and coating the floor of the chamber. A cultist screams as his hoof is crushed from a falling chunk of rubble.

From the dust comes the blistered claws of a famished grey dragon. Caro immediately turns all of his adrenaline and rage towards it. “Pruzah...” he whispers sinisterly, looking over his bloodied blade. He approaches the dragon, meeting it in the middle of the chamber.

“What is this?!” screams Sacred Rite. Her hoof collides with the ground in unison with her words. “What in the hell is this?!”

Her question goes unanswered as Caro strafes around the dragon. It stares down at him, and he stares back with nothing but malice. “Meyz. Sate my appetite.” He eyes the dragon’s tail and takes his sword in his teeth, preparing to make the cut. He takes his first step, but he stops moving as his hoof is held back by a magenta aura.

“Caro! Wait!”

Tohro looks up, his mouth widening as he witnesses an implausible sight. “Divines…”

Shae straddles the back of the dragon, held tight at her haunches by Rosemary, who is in turn being held by Jade. Caro doesn’t drop his guard, but he does remove his sword from his mouth. “Shae! You… mounted a dragon?!”

“Waan nunon dahik Zu'u gelaad nii,” says the beast.

“Allowed it?” Caro asks, completely dismayed. “What are you talking about?!”

Shae leaps from the dragon’s back, magically slowing her descent until she smoothly touches ground. She gallops to Caro, foregoing the use of levitation to relinquish him of his sword. It’s only because of her gentle nature that he lets her take it away. “Caro, Sahvot does not wish to fight you.”

Caro immediately snorts at the idea, watching as Rosemary and Jade disembark the dragon. “Listen, I’m more than relieved that you are all well, truly I am. But you can’t honestly—”

“He can barely speak our language!” Shae interrupts. “He doesn’t serve Saviikaan. I… I wasn’t able to understand everything he said, but I know for sure he hates Sacred Rite as much as I’m sure you do.”

Caro is about to protest further, but Sacred Rite’s screaming cuts into his thoughts. “ORDER! I! DEMAND! ORDER!”

The surviving cultists are scattered. Deserters ignore Sacred Rite’s pleas, leaving their arms behind to gallop through the double doors, or to the exit. The ones with the courage to stay and fight direct all of their attention towards Sahvot, taking up position around him. He reacts with complete indifference to the small number of threats.

“Daar los fos hi vis lahvraan mindin pah hi raal zey zeim?” He sweeps away two cultists with a single swing of his tail.

Sacred Rite casts her hoof out at Sahvot, clearly believing herself to be on his level. “I knew I should have muzzled you! You’d best lie down now and make this easier for yourself!”

“Au daar sul, Zu'u shur stin.” Sahvot’s eyes flash with gold when he sets his sight on the raving zealot. “Ahrk hi fen kos kii.” He extends his arm.

“You disrespectful—” Sacred Rite recoils as the dragon’s claws dig into the wall, shredding solid rock with one swipe. She quickly reaches into her robe and recovers a tattered scroll, laying it at her hooves. Under her breath, she reads off the parchment. A white light emits from the scroll, forming an ethereal shield around her perch.

Tohro is absolutely seething. “Fucking hypocrite...”

Sahvot roars at the cowardly act and swipes once again, this time piercing the shield with his claws. The shield forces his hand away, leaving it scratched and burned. “Dur hi!”

Shae sets down Caro’s sword and faces Sacred Rite, her horn aglow. She levitates her black and red amulet out of her coat. As she wraps it around her neck and locks it, her aura becomes a harsh, demonic red.

Caro’s eyes widen as he watches her step forward. “Shae...”

Shae's new aura travels from her horn to her forelegs. “She was wise to take away my magic.” Standing on her hind legs, Shae raises her hooves and flourishes them at Sacred Rite. A ray of red light flies from her hooves, colliding with the shield.

Shae chuckles triumphantly as she returns to all fours, watching as the shield begins to fade. The white light dwindles into nothing, leaving Sacred Rite entirely exposed. She only realizes what has happened when her scroll erodes away right before her. “No…” Sacred Rite cries out for only an instant before the razor sharp claws wrap around her and drag her away from her perch.

The dragon opens his hand to get a good look at Sacred Rite. As she realizes she’s still alive, she kneels upon Sahvot’s scales, looking into his eyes. His lips part to reveal grinding teeth. He appears intent to eat the weak, decrepit pony in his grasp.

However, his gaze falls aside. He looks at Shae, then to Jade, and finally at the Dragonborn, who stands fiercely protective of both unicorns.

Sacred Rite is still begging, having lost all of her ego as golden eyes stare her down. Sahvot opens his mouth. “I…” He closes his claws around Sacred Rite once again. “...am… n…not…” He brings his hand down. “...your… tool...” His claws tighten around Sacred Rite, sounding out a sickening crunch throughout the chamber. He cocks his arm back, then thrusts it forward, throwing the hag away.

Sacred Rite is now a broken heap. She lies on her back, unable to move from her many bruises, bleeding profusely from claw induced gashes all across her body.

“Dreh fos hi hind,” says Sahvot. He turns his attention to the remaining cultists. They have been too aghast by the events occurring before them to even move. Only now do they reluctantly take their battle stances. Sahvot lunges at them, smashing into the wall and bringing on another cascade of rocks and dust. The dragon swipes his claws and tail at any cultist to come his way.

“What was it he said?” Tohro asks Caro.

“He said, ‘Do as you wish.’”

Caro looks upon Sacred Rite. Her breaths are long and labored, and she’s muttering incomprehensible words. She reaches out to Shae, letting out a loud, angry moan. From her robes, she procures a dagger. She turns over onto her stomach and starts crawling, leaving a trail of blood behind her.

“This is pathetic.” Tohro sighs, waving his hoof dismissively at Caro. “I gave you permission. Get it over with.”

Reaching for his sword once again, Caro starts to approach what’s left of Sacred Rite, but he stops as Shae crosses his path.

~Shae~

This is it… I can end all of the suffering she put me and my fellow unicorns through. I can avenge those she’s fed to Sahvot. I can prevent her from ever hurting anyone I love. This will be in the name of everypony at Wintercolt Academy.

I reach out with my levitation and yank the knife from her weak grip, tossing it away from her. I extend my own foreleg and coat it in ethereal light, which I mold into a blade. It’s not as extravagant as any scythe, but it’s all I need for this.

I grab Sacred Rite by the hood of her robe and pull her over so I can look her dead in the eye. She has the same look of loathing I saw every day as she looked into my cage. She could have saved herself so much trouble if she had simply killed me in Everfree. A shame she never had any liquid glass at her disposal, otherwise she could have foreseen this possibility.

I bring my ethereal blade to her neck. Just one fell thrust. That’s all it will take to end her.

“It’s so simple, isn’t it, Shae Sparkle?” asks Clover the Clever, who looks up at me with disappointment.

~Vision End~

“What are you waiting for?!” Caro yells at Shae. “Finish her!”

Shae is still leaning over the what is left of Sacred Rite with her ethereal blade inches away from her neck. Over several seconds of immobility, her furious expression fades and her blade disappears. She sits up and looks at Caro, revealing a face stained with tears. She shakes her head slowly as she removes herself from Sacred Rite.

“Let’s…” She solemnly trots up to Caro, Rosemary, Tohro and Jade. “Let’s just go…” She looks back at Sacred Rite. “She’s already gone.”

The hag hasn’t let staring into the face of death stop her. She still crawls, even without a knife on her. Blood falls from her lips as she sputters out more unintelligible words.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think she was much of anything to begin with,” says Tohro.

Shae takes the lead, with Rosemary, Jade and Tohro following behind.

Caro, however, lingers in the chamber. He approaches Sacred Rite and raises his hoof over her head. Shae can’t do it, but I sure as hell can… he thinks. I have no reservations… Tohro gave me permission…

He drops his hoof at the sound of Sahvot’s mighty roar. The dragon has already torn through every cultist to stand up to him, leaving countless corpses and limbs in his wake. Now he carves into the wall, taking clumps of gems and eating them by the handful. Surrounding carnage aside, he seems completely harmless.

Still, what makes him different from any other dragon? There is no stopping him from hurting other ponies when he leaves… Even if he isn’t allied with Saviikaan, it has to be in his nature! I should draw my sword and end him now…

And yet, Caro’s desire for blood doesn’t allow him to step forward. Instead, he feels something he can’t quite comprehend holding him back. Perhaps it’s the scathing words Tohro gave him in Baltimare still echoing in his mind. Perhaps it’s the scent of Malyol’s melting flesh in his nostrils.

Sacred Rite wraps her hoof around Caro’s leg. He gasps and steps away from her. She spits out more puddles of blood. All of the anger in her moaning is gone. It sounds pathetic and desperate.

“Kill… me…”

Caro’s heart races at the sound of such a request. A fresh kill laid before him, fully willing to accept his blade. He reaches for his sword.

“Does that sound like a hero to you?”

The Dragonborn growls as, once again, he’s denied the ability to take a life. Instead, his greater conscience forces him to leave Sacred Rite. “No,” he says.

The remains of Sacred Rite, her cult and the lair are left to the mercy of the dragon.

Caro’s welcome to the outside is a strong gust and a faceful of snow. He wipes his muzzle clean of powder as he steps out of the darkness of the cavern. He looks up, noticing that the sky has a very unusual look to it. For the most of it, dark clouds blanket the land with snow, but a large patch of the sky is like a passage to the full moon and its surrounding stars. In fact, it’s as if the moon itself is deliberately keeping the clouds away.

Jade shivers from the cold, something Tohro is quick to notice. He smiles, amused at how he’s still clad in cultist robes. He removes them and drapes them around Jade. “I know it’s somewhat of an insult to have you wear these, but it’s frigid out here.”

Jade pulls the hood over. “It’s the cloth of a dead cult. So long as it keeps me warm, I care little.” She lowers her head, letting a few tears fall.

“Thankful to be out of there, are you?” Tohro asks.

“I had given up… I actually thought I was going to die…” The grey unicorn wipes her eyes, to no avail. “Part of me is reluctant to believe this is even real. How do I know I’m not dreaming?”

Tohro’s response is a kiss on the cheek, which makes Jade step away. “I think that’s proof enough.”

“Well, I do owe you thanks… Honestly, Tohro. You assume too much.”

Caro taps Jade on her wither, making her turn his way. “Um…” He wishes to speak to her of how her abuse at the hooves of Pyro and Ember have been avenged, but the proper words to say don’t come to him.

Jade, still drying her eyes, sizes Caro up, taking in his impressive size and muscle. She wears a grin as she steps toward him. “Ah, yes. The legendary Dragonborn. I heard many a tale about you from passing guards within my cell.”

“Oh, well…” Caro takes a few steps away, taken aback by Jade’s close proximity. “I pray you haven’t heard all of them.” He looks past her, seeing Tohro’s grim expression. Despite his frown, he nods approvingly.

“I only care about the ones that matter," says Jade. "I hope that assisting a mage of the Blackwings such as myself doesn’t become a stain on your good fortune with the queen.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Tohro clears his throat and waves his hoof between him and Jade. “I don’t anticipate that Shokenda would be as willing to invest any lenience between you and me. I think it’d be for the best that your cooperation with a soldier of the Imperial Legion is kept in the dark.”

“Oh…” Jade brings her hoof to Tohro’s cursed eye, just as Half Pint did. “I see how it is…” She looks genuinely disappointed. “Tell me about this.”

“Walk and talk, ya dunders!” Rosemary announces. “We’re gettin’ clear of this place! I don’t want anypony near it, especially if it comes crashin’ down!” She waves to Jade and the rest of Dragonrein, pointing to a slant leading further up the spire.

“Why are we moving to higher ground?” Tohro asks. “We have Shae. We have Jade. Let’s move our flanks to Everfree.”

Rosemary shrugs and starts moving. “I’m just followin’ Shae’s orders, lad.” She gestures to the lavender unicorn, who does little but stand there, staring at the moon.

“Odd…” Jade says. “I think I’ll stick with you lot a little longer, at least until…” She looks around the area. “Wait, Half Pint was with you. Where did she head off to?”

As if on queue, the petite unicorn appears from a small flash of green, immediately swooping in to give Jade a mighty embrace. “Sister! You’re alive!”

Jade stumbles from the force of Half Pint’s hug. She holds her sister close and brushes her short mane with a hoof. “I’m well aware of that, Pint. You’re a clever one, aren’t you?”

“Honestly, I barely had anything to do with this. I couldn’t have done anything worth a damn to help you if this group hadn’t happened along…” She looks to Caro, then to Tohro. Her mouth curls into the widest smile either of the stallions have ever seen. “Whee!” She leaps from Jade onto Tohro. She crawls onto his back. “Onward, mighty hero!”

Jade rolls her eyes. "My older sister, everypony.” She starts walking after Rosemary and Shae, with white pegasus and Dragonborn in tow. “Now, Tohro, I want you to tell me exactly what events lead you into the company of such colorful adventurers."

As Dragonrein, Jade and Half Pint step onto the slant, Tohro chuckles and dashes to Caro's side. "Well, as you may or may not know, this lovely ball of sunshine was that bloke Shokenda wanted to rescue. If he isn't the spitting image of a knight in shining armor, I don't know what is."

Caro hip-checks Tohro, who flaps his wings to keep his balance.

"As I was saying... After the two of us escaped from the fair General Tangerine and had ourselves a talk with Jarl Drake, we ran into your new unicorn friend as she was being harassed by bandits. Many battles transpired, Caro discovered his lineage, a few dragons died, Rosemary came along in a mad chase for Shae’s heart, and now here we are, two months after our period of separation."

“Huh.” Jade looks ahead, watching as Rosemary steals a kiss from Shae, who turns away and blushes. "Well, aren't you all just a ducky little family. Traded your old for a new, have you Tohro?" she quips. "I kid, of course. I've never seen you so happy. When we had our time together as Blackwings, I sensed a mien of... I think I'd call it self-loathing. It seems you've found a new reason to fight the challenges of the twilight age."

"Dawn approaches those who see hope in the night, yeah? I have decided that everything I do is to ensure Equestria is a better place to live. Not in the name of a higher power, but simply because that’s what I and many others want.”

Half Pint nudges Tohro’s barrel. “Um…” she says, a worried frown on her muzzle. “Not to rain on your parade, but how does your joining the Imperial Legion come into that plan?”

Jade stops in mid-step. “Yes, that too...”

“Look alive, you lot!” Rosemary shouts, once again bringing the reunion to a screeching halt. The traveling group has arrived at the highest possible point of Dragon Tooth Spire. At first glance, it’s nothing more than another collection of rocks and snow, but it’s the view that makes it significant. All of the adventurers are taken aback by how small Equestria seems from such a height. “Mercy me…” Rosemary is on her haunches with her hooves in the air, her red mane and coat flying in the breeze. “See, this is exactly why I left the villa! This is incredible!”

Shae steps to the crest of the rock formation, where a broken statue of a female equine stands. Only a single wing remains, her right foreleg is missing, and her horn is broken. Despite this, she has a perpetual radiance to her. “Fauste…” Shae murmurs. She looks past the statue to the bipolar sky. “It’s as if you can touch the moon.”

“Bloody romantic, it is.” Rosemary drops her bags. “Lassie, help me set up some tents, huh? I think three should account for all of us.”

“Huh?” Shae blinks several times as she looks away from the moon. “Oh. Certainly, Rose.”

Rosemary proceeds to nail down a tent cloth with her hooves alone. Shae levitates the braces into their proper positions, pulls the cloth over, and tosses the fur comforter on top.

“Thirty seconds,” says Rose. She snickers as she lays out another cloth and prepares the nails. “Oh, darlin’. That just reminds me of how lost we were without you.”

Shae performs the same levitation act without so much as blinking an eye. She doesn’t even watch her actions as she speaks. “Lost without me, or my magic?”

“Well, ah… I’d be filthy lyin’ if I said Dragonrein could do without your magic… But that doesn’t change facts. You can’t imagine how much we feared for your life. I had nightmares of Sacred Rite doin’ the worst to you. I even gave up sleepin’ entirely for a while just to focus on findin’ you.”

“What?” Shae approaches Rosemary and looks at her field green eyes. At least, what lies beneath them. The earthwalker’s face has begun to wrinkle. “How long have you been awake?”

“Two… Three days?”

“Bloody hell, Rose!” Shae levitates Rosemary by her forelegs and lifts her into the tent. “You just can’t do that!”

“Lassie, at least let me set up the third—”

“We’ll make do with two tents! You get to bed!”

“Okay, you win.” Rosemary doesn’t protest any further, but she does poke her head out of the tent flaps, smiling weakly. “Hold on, though. I forgot to give something back to you.” She presents a small envelope and reveals its contents.

“My glasses.” Shae takes them from Rosemary’s hooves and levitates them onto her muzzle. She has to fiddle with the slightly bent bridge to make them fit. “Much appreciated, Rose.”

“Have you been able to see fine without them?”

“These are mostly for reading,” Shae says. She opens her mouth, but an involuntary memory catches her by surprise.

She remembers being clad in black funerary robes, curled up on her bed. The sheets were drenched in tears. She didn’t look up at the sound of her door opening, but she knew who it was anyway. Sundance crawled onto the bed with her, presenting a small envelope of bequeathal.

She still remembers the words written upon the letter. She had read them through her new set of glasses.

For you, my little mage.
May the path ahead be clear.
I will always be with you.

Shae turns to Rosemary. “They were my mother’s…”

Rosemary, noticing the sadness in Shae’s eyes behind the glasses, touches her foreleg and gives her an assuring brush. “Lassie, I hope you know that your life means more to me than a few lost hours of sleep. I can rest easy now that you’re safe.”

Shae snaps out of her wistful trance. “You’d best, if you value your abilities,” she advises. “My mother had a fit if I stayed up past sundown. She said it wasn’t healthy for a developing mind. I can count only a few times she let me stay up past…” Her eyes widen as she turns back around. “Midnight.” She trots back to the broken statue of Fauste and resumes watching the moon.

Rosemary doesn’t see any reason to question Shae’s behavior, so she settles for following her sage advice and tucking in. It’s only after she lies down that she realizes how tired she truly is. “Lookin’ forward to some nice dreams from now on…”

While Shae is occupied with her moongazing, Caro watches in silence from beside his tent. He fears that if he looks away for even a second, something else, perhaps an oversized bird, will swoop in from above and take her away once again.

Jade comes into his line of sight, blocking Shae from view. “Dragonborn.”

“Yes?” Caro replies, trying to look around her.

“I remember seeing your desire to save me from the Imperials upon my capture… I thank you for that, as well as your coming to my aid today, even if I wasn’t your intended rescue.”

Caro shrugs. “A lot of ponies went free today. I’m thankful you were one of them. In truth, I wish I could have saved you from a cell in some Imperial keep…” A sudden thought occurs to him in mid-sentence. “Wait a moment. If you were imprisoned by the Imperials, how did you end up at the mercy of Sacred Rite?”

“Ugh. Those fucking cultists purchased me from a corrupt guard," Jade curses. "The bastard is selling prisoners off to anypony who waves a large enough coinpurse to his filthy mug. One morning he opened my cell, coin purse in hoof, and let the robed codgers inside. They put a knife against my back. I couldn’t fight back or call for help.”

Caro’s eye twitches. “And Queen Platinum isn’t aware of this?” he asks, his voice bitter with quiet anger.

“No.” Jade looks just as angry as him. “Interestingly, I do recall the guard selling off a few captives to some undercover Blackwings I recognized. I assume they were either seeking recruits in odd places or buying back lost comrades… I can't be certain. The guard’s name is Fade.”

“He will be dealt with. I’ll have Tohro speak to Queen Platinum for an investigation. Corruption in the Imperial Legion cannot be tolerated.”

“Which is why, if you really are Tohro’s best friend, you might know a good reason why he joined the Imperial Legion,” Jade says. Her voice sounds a little strained, as if she’s trying to hold back some sort of strong emotion. Caro detects something that’s either anger or sadness behind her words.

“He joined the Thieves Guild, too…”

“I don’t give a shit about that,” Jade snips. “Tell me why he signed on with my enemy.”

Caro remembers every word of Tohro’s confession. On their way to the Imperial camp in Baltimare, they spoke for some time about the pegasus’ long and difficult internal conflict over joining the Legion. Caro was a little off-put by such a decision, both for his own personal feelings towards the Legion and Tohro’s history with the Blackwings. He has a feeling that Jade is experiencing the same thoughts he had at the time.

“During our time together, circumstances put us in Everfree. It wasn’t Tohro’s intention to sympathize with the people he once fought against, but he, Shae and I fell into Her Majesty’s good favor.”

Jade makes a very deliberate snort. “The good favor of an old bag of bones who can’t allow for the downtrodden to have what they're owed?”

Caro holds his hoof up to Jade’s muzzle. “No. The good favor of a heartbroken mare who has become disillusioned to the harmony she once saw in Equestria. That so-called 'bag of bones' is a person, Jade, and she's as confused and hurt as any given Blackwing. Tohro feels he owes her a debt, since he was just another cause of grief for her, having slain so many Imperial soldiers.”

“You’re telling me the honest truth?” Jade asks. She shakes her head. “No. That can’t be the only reason. Tohro may be quick to jump into bed but he’s never one to make a decision like that on a whim. You don't fulfill a debt by signing on with your sworn enemy. There has to be something else.”

“You mentioned you sensed his self-loathing when you worked together. You sensed right. He told me that he had also become disillusioned. When he had signed on with the Blackwings, he was intent on bettering Equestria so that nopony would have go through what he did, growing up without parents in a harsh land and all… I get it. This is an unfair world we live in, and we haven't been given the harmony the founders promised us. Tohro fought to change that, but under Shokenda's influence, his free will began to dwindle. It's hard to think when you're leg-deep in blood, sex and alcohol.”

Jade tilts her head. “This is all news to me…”

Caro looks around Jade. Shae is still watching the moon with fervor. “He realized who he was serving at just the right time. When Tohro was told to kill Shae, along with somepony else he had grown to know, he realized that he had forgotten his reasons for fighting. He lashed out at Shokenda and was marked for death. For some time after, he walked without any army, until he determined that the only way to wash away the stains of his past was to start walking his own path. The Thieves Guild and Imperial Legion are part of that path.”

“He stood up to a direct order from Shokenda? He's even braver than I thought... Why would she want Shae dead?”

"Because she's a threat." Caro, still unafraid of Shokenda, finds Jade’s stunned expression more humorous than anything else. “You have to understand. Tohro found himself. Serving Queen Platinum to make Equestria a better place is his choice to make. No one can sway him. I can't, and you can't either.” His eyes emit their signature golden glow, making Jade lean back in fright. “And if you try to take him away from me—”

“I won’t!” Jade looks away from Caro. “I… I never planned on it. It doesn't matter whose colors he bears, Tohro is precious to me. Even though his new faction rivals mine, I’m not about to do away with him.”

“Good” Caro’s eyes return to their regular state.

There’s a sound of two hooves clopping together behind Caro. He turns his head to see Tohro, who applauds while hovering above a giggling Half Pint. “Truly a speech from the bard college, mate. That was beautiful.”

“Jade, I am disappointed in you.” Half Pint clicks her tongue. “What does it matter in the long run if Tohro is part of the Legion? He’s still the lovely stallion we know. Hell, I think he’s more of a stallion now than when he was before. I’d say going rogue is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”

Jade looks away, obviously feeling guilty for having any doubts about Tohro. “You’re right, sister.” She peeks up at Caro from behind her overly long bangs. “And so are you.”

Tohro flies up to Jade. He touches her cheeks and shows her a confident smile. “If you’re going to apologize, don’t.”

“I wasn’t.” She accepts his touch, holding one of his hooves closer against her. “Even if I can’t entirely understand your choice, I will support it.”

Half Pint leaps into the air with glee. “Hear hear! Whether the war ends for the Blackwings or the Empire, our companionship will forever remain.” She dashes up to Tohro and Jade, joining the embrace.

Tohro chuckles. “I’m feeling rather nostalgic… How about a shag?”

Jade and Half Pint share the same malicious grin. Their horns come alight, with their auras wrapping around Tohro’s forelegs. They lift him into the air and start trotting, happily dragging him into the unoccupied tent.

~Shae~

I see myself holding a small filly to my breast…

My eyes draw open in tandem with my gasp. My fur is crawling with small bits of frost. I wipe them off and pull my coat tighter over my body. If only I had taken on more layers before I left the Rainbow Palace, then this would be a more comfortable effort.

I look up. The full moon is still on high, with Fauste’s broken yet unmistakable likeness watching over me. “Did I doze off?” I ask aloud.

“For a little bit,” Caro replies. He’s pacing the rim of the campsite, as stoic to the cold as ever. With his efforts to rescue me still fresh in my mind, along with the wind causing his mane, fur and overcoat to trail in the wind, he looks even more like a hero than he ever has. For that notion, it bears little surprise that he sees no issue in removing his overcoat and draping it over me.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know.” He ensures that the exposed parts of my body are covered entirely before resting against the base of the statue. “Rosemary is still resting.”

That’s good to know. I can’t stand to see her suffer for my sake. “Is Tohro done entertaining his paramours?” I ask, looking over to the tent he was pulled into. “...I guess not. You think they’d have finished by now. What has it been, an hour?”

“Well, Tohro is a cuddler.” As Caro says that, his cheeks are unusually red. He notices my smirk and turns away. “I-It’s... cold.”

“I know.”

Under any other circumstance, I’d desire a solitary, peaceful nap after all I have endured. Even more, I’d enjoy one with with Rosemary. I just can’t. Sleep is the last thing on my mind at this moment. I can, at the least, let my guard down. I rest my head against Caro’s wither. He doesn’t resist in the slightest, bringing a foreleg across my back and holding me closer. His forest of fur makes for a wonderful pillow.

“I promised I would protect you…” Caro murmurs.

“Oh, stop. You keep obsessing over that promise as if your life is tied to it.”

He shakes his head. “It’s not. But your life is. Shae, when we met, I had no faith left in ponykind. From the day I was thrown in prison, I felt nothing but distrust for all I encountered, even for Tohro. The reason I promised I would protect you is because you were unlike the rest. You were young and innocent, reaching out for help that I was willing to give.”

That is more hilarious to me than it should be, and I show that with a triumphant laugh. “Goodness, was I truly helpless at a time? I changed quickly. I’m hardly a student anymore.”

“You're so full of love, don’t you know?”

“Hm, am I?”

"Of course you are. Why else do you think Rosemary fell for you?"

"Pity?" I say with a mock pout.

Caro doesn’t seem to understand my sarcasm. "Stop deprecating yourself. You know you're so much more than anypony can hope to be. Having so much love to give is a blessing in the twilight age. That's why I feel so awful when I can't keep you safe."

"You've done your part enough. I can protect myself when I have to. But I'm not about to take your support for granted. Even if you can be a bit naive." I hold the sides of Caro’s head. He closes his eyes and accepts my kiss on his forehead. A familiar smell enters my nostrils. “Uh, is that my perfume?”

“No… Yes.” Caro sighs and rests his head on base of Fauste’s statue. “This is a joke. I came to save you from the clutches of an insane genocidist and I’m the one thanking you..." He looks confused. “Another thing has been eating away at me. I’m sure you have a good reason, but why did you come here to begin with? Everfree is under a perpetual dark cloud and its citizens are miserable. Celina, even if she may not show it, needs you more than ever.”

My gaze falls on the moon again as I try to conjure up the words that will make my reasoning not sound insane. Before I can, Jade steps out of the tent, with Half Pint straddling Tohro. The Blackwing mares are clad in light leather armor, with blue scarves around their barrels. Tohro is in his Imperial armor.

“It’s not the quality of Blackwing apparel, but your donation is much appreciated. Among other things…” Jade's afterglow is practically lighting up the night, and it’s made all the brighter by Tohro continuing to smother her with kisses and nuzzles.

“Don’t go yeeet…” he whines. “Come now. As far as Shokenda is concerned, you’re still in a cage wasting away.”

“We don’t know that for certain,” says Half Pint. “We’d rather not risk her becoming more upset with us than she might be. I’m sorry, but our next destination is Fillydelphia.” She floats down from Tohro’s back and rejoins her younger sister. “I suppose the next place we meet will be the battlefield,” she says, looking a little less chipper.

“If that does happen,” Jade begins, “you can just fly away, right?”

Tohro nods. “As far as Shokenda is concerned, we are never seeing each other again.” He beckons to the two mares, and they both wrap their forelegs around him a loving embrace, the kind only true comrades can give. “I love you both.”

“The feeling’s mutual, Tohro,” says Jade. “I wish you and your new family nothing but success.”

The Imperial pegasus watches as his two Blackwing friends trot down the mountain. He doesn’t stop waving until they disappear from sight.

In watching such a heartfelt display, I still haven’t been able to think of how to properly convey my reasons for being here. Jade didn’t fully understand; out of fear of revealing what Celina is to the Blackwings, and Shokenda in the process, I had to keep the details obscure.

But I do remember that Caro and I have something in common. As I stand, looking at the moon once again, I speak to him. “Caro, I recall you mentioning some odd dreams you’ve been having?”

He looks up at me, the confusion clear on his face. “Yes.”

“What appears in the dream changes often, yet at the same time remains very consistent. A night sky, stars and the moon. But most important of all, there is a child, a filly, calling out to you. And you cannot shake the suspicion, the belief, that this is much more than some dream. It’s real, Caro. This dream child is real.”

“I know…” Caro says, aghast. “You’ve had the dream too?”

“Yes. Every single night since Celina realized her immortality and fell into sadness, this dream child has appeared to me.” I trot to the highest point of the peak, where only clouds and the sky itself separate me from the moon. I continue to speak as I reach out to the moon with a hoof. “She’s more than a mysterious vision. She gave me hope.”

“Well, then I must be the mad one. I haven’t any recollection of a dream like that.” Tohro approaches us. He appears distinctly sad and happy at the same time. “Caro kept talking about this dream filly. I assumed the visions to be born of trauma, but they kept occurring. I began to believe the child was real.”

“She is real, Tohro,” I state.

The moon sparkles. It glows even brighter against the black sky than before, as if it were its own star.

I'm well-conscious of what is about to happen. I saw it in my dreams. I speak loudly, hoping that the even the Divines are able to hear me. “I watched as the black claws of despair took Celina away from me. She is constantly plagued with fear of living forever. I wept for her, wishing with all my heart that something would help her. Something to make her happy. Something to make her so much as smile. I wished, and a child appeared to me. She showed me a vision of this spire, and thus I came. I know this child is the key to Celina’s happiness. A legendary alicorn, just like her, who can be with her through eternity when nopony else can.”

Caro and Tohro’s eyes are equally wide and their mouths are held open. A touch of of fiery red mane catches my attention; Rosemary has emerged from her tent. She watches my theatrics, smiling broadly.

“And now the time has come at last.” I raise my forelegs up high, facing the moon as its light shimmers through the entire sky. All clouds wane and disappear in the shimmer’s wake. “Come to us, child,” I gently whisper to the moon. “It’s okay.”

I see a twinkle on the moon’s surface. After a few seconds pass, a streak of light comes into view, falling fast from the sky. It’s coming towards the peak. To me.

The light dwindles as it comes closer. As it fades, I see what it contains. A sleeping alicorn filly. Her long fall slows into a gentle drift, as if she's descending through water.

My hooves touch her back. I slowly lower my forelegs and let her roll into my embrace as I fall onto my haunches. I support her by her legs while my other hoof gently strokes her back.

I get a good look at this alicorn filly. She has a long, wavy mane of turquoise, and her coat is the blue of the most peaceful night, blemished only by black spots on her flanks. She slowly opens her eyelids, revealing irises colored the same as her mane. She utters weak, wordless sounds as she looks around, wondering for the life of her where she is. As she peers up at me, her little lips curl into a smile.

I smile back at her, running my hoof through her silky mane. “Hello, Luna.”