~Shae~

The mess hall is the greatest misnomer I’ve come across in a while. The tables, while rudimentary, are well-kept, the plates and crude, wooden utensils are licked clean and then washed in a large, soapy basin, and all the children eat while maintaining a dissettling silence. Not one cough, sneeze, or intake of breath breaks the dense, almost mechanical air around them. The thumps and thuds of spoons in bowls and forks on plates are muffled and indistinct.

I hear Rosemary mutter about something smelling off, but pay no real mind to it. The childrens’ auras have my attention. Every single one, is dull, almost lifeless, and a strange, gray miasma seems to waft about the room.

I huff and then immediately sneeze. A feeling of foreign magic tickling my nose is overpowering the dull scent of undercooked porridge. “Don’t breathe any more than you have to,” I murmur. “There’s some sort of spell in...” I take another whiff as a foal walks past me carrying his own gruel-laden tray. “No...” I blink, and focus on the colt and his food. His aura isn’t as dull as the rest, and there’s the barest hint of a flicker.

He sets down his tray with a small clatter, before he starts eating it. As he chews and swallows, the miasma swirls around him, flowing into him as it chases the porridge. The gray soup gradually slows its advance as his breathing, chewing, and every movement changes to match those of everypony else around him. His aura gives one last flinch before the color dulls and turns solid.

“I’ve... enjoyed the tour so far,” I say to Number SIx, the taste of bile in my mouth, “but—”

“But nothin’!” Tangerine yells, making me flinch. “This whole place feels wrong, like a herd of windigoes had spent the year feastin’ on whatever happiness had clung to the walls before you lot set up shop!”

I’m a bit surprised to see Tangerine stomping angrily towards our three guides, and Rose looks like she’s about as confused that she hadn’t as I am.

“I’ve been settin’ here on me furry arse while yer all blathering all hither’n yon and all around the damned place, and all I want tae know is where are me wee li’l babies?! Where’s me red-haired, splotchy colt with ‘is da’s cute snout?! Where’s me garden-lovin’ creampuff?! Where’re Cinnamon an’ Nutmeg, ya cursed numbers-by-the count tripes?!” Tangerine seemed to be holding herself off the ground with naught but a shaky breath and her motherly fury.

None of our trio of guides give any indication that they’d even heard her, but all at once they turn and start walking away, down a different hallway. “This way,” they chorus, a strange tone added to their usual crisp monotone.

As Tangerine deflates a bit and we all fall into step, I feel all the auras behind us turn and stare. Whatever we’re being led towards, I have the sinking feeling we’ll have to fight them all, or be slaughtered ourselves.

“I’m sorry,” Tangerine mutters.

“We’ll deal with it as it comes,” Wolf River says. “What could happen?” The silence after shows how much we all are dreading the answer.

I find myself feeling more and more trapped as the hallway continues. There are no other doors beyond the one that awaits us at the end. It’s open, but it has the same locks used on the dark room. Soon we get close enough to see what’s inside. It looks to be a circular chamber modeled after Olympian ancestral halls.

“In,” the three children say.

“This feels like a threat,” Rosemary says firmly in response.

“It’s a suggestion,” says Number Six. “A threat would be if we introduced you to Number Five. Do you wish to meet Number Five?”

Rosemary shoots me a sly look. She’s just as tired of this as I am, though not to the extent of throwing a fit. She compares her height to that of Number Ten, the tallest of the trio. She looks between her mother and Wolf River, who give her a nod of approval. She turns to the kids and states proudly. “We would love to meet Number Five.”

The trio step off to the side of the hall, something in their auras giving me the thought that, if they weren’t stone-souled, they’d be giggling, like how Sundance would right before a teacher sat on a whoopie potion. Here and now, every nerve tenses as I’m suddenly not sure we’re equipped for ‘Number Five,’ whoever they are…

There’s a ripple in the Fae. Normally, teleportation is like using scissors to cut a hole in space, then you jump through, and sew the hole shut. The unicorn elite that appears in front of me shatters the Fae like glass, his black aura continuing to pour out from the floor as he rises. He lowers his head and scuffs the ground. "EyahaHAhAhaHaaaa, BYE BYE!!"

The elite’s cry makes my heart stop cold for a moment. His voice, while filtered through the armor and likely several enchantments, was very distinctively a child’s. My heart starts beating again as I dodge his rushing strike, which buffets me with wind. There’s another crack in the air as he teleports back to his starting position.

As he laughs again, I can’t help but wonder if he’s related to that boy in the dark room. I dodge another of his attacks, and bring forth a magical dagger; a scythe would be unwieldy in this tight corridor, packed with allies... He truly does sound like the boy. I raise the dagger and clash with his armored horn.

“I can’t wait until I’m like him,” Number Six says. The first drop of emotion she shows, and it’s admiration for a monster. “It’s what we were chosen for.”

I’m shoved away, caught by Tangerine. Wolf River brings his axe down on Number Five’s neck, but the axe head ends up lodged in the armor. Number Five grabs Wolf River by the foreleg and throws him across the hall, towards me. The force of a few-hundred pound stallion sends me, Rosemary, and Tangerine tumbling into the chamber, with Wolf River not far behind.

“NO!” Tangerine slams her hoof on the ground and charges for the door, but Number Five jumps inside and strikes her upside the head.

There’s enough room for me to summon my scythe, but only after I call it to my hooves do I realize what I’d be putting to death if I were to strike this living armor down. More than just an immediate threat, this is a child… My heartbeat rises as I remember the elites we fought on the road to Fillydelphia.

My heart beats even faster when three more suits of armor, these ones with metal wings, emerge from the shadows, eyes red with cold, dispassionate rage.

~Vision End~

Temerity gets out of his chair and backs away, holding his hoof out in protest at the blade of Muramasa. “Tohro, Tohro, now, don’t be rash,” he says shakily. “Just… Put that away.”

Tohro tilts his head and pulls on the hilt, revealing the black blade of Muramasa. It murmurs, making the quiet sounds of a hungry demon. “Hm. Too late. See, I can’t put this thing away until it draws blood. That’s not so much a problem for me as it is for you, because I can’t think of anypony else who deserves to bleed more.”

“This is unbecoming.” Temerity is eyeing the door. “You’re an Imperial soldier. You don’t have power of execution. I have the same right to due process as anypony else, why are you doing this?”

“Surprisingly, torturing and enslaving children strikes a chord with some people.” Tohro spins the hilt of Muramasa in his hoof. The sharp side of the blade reflects the candlelight. “I’m sure Her Majesty would understand. She would likely have you sent to the block for all you’ve done, so I’m just saving time.”

“Tortured, enslaved, liberated, saved and ended..." Temerity narrows his eyes at his old ally, furrowing his brow. "I tapped their potential earlier than usual, so what? They were tiny drops in a drizzle, and I decided to make them into a collective monsoon."

"Drops?!” Tohro yells, knocking Temerity on his back. “Fucking... Not everypony wants to be a soldier! I sure as fuck didn't! But I felt I owed Shokenda my life, and after that it was just one debt after another to repay. Finally, I’ve found what I’ve been looking for. A real purpose. Altruism. A good mate. You don't know what that's like! And you never will! Because all you care about is, 'Hm, what will happen if I tear out this child's sense of wonder and take away his future? Won't that be fun? Isn't that just fucking hysterical?!' Well, I'm not laughing!!" Tohro leans in close to Temerity. “You’re going to die.”

Temerity leers at Tohro as he stands back up, coming face to face with him. "Excuse me, but I haven’t been laughing thus far. I don’t think you don't know what you're trying to talk about."

“I think I do, because I know your kind. ‘The greater good,’ they always say. You think that everything can be justified. Everything you’ve done is part of the greater plan, a plan that thousands of ponies will hate you for. A plan that involves heinous, insane, irreversible acts of cruelty that the Divines should smite you down just for considering. So, Temerity, smartest Blackwing alive, how are you going to justify this? Look me in the eye, and tell me that ruining hundreds of innocent young lives will somehow be worth it. I dare you. I fucking dare you!”

“No.”

Muramasa’s murmurs lower in volume. Tohro is taken aback. “No…?”

Temerity keeps his composure, looking Tohro directly in the eye as he lowers the blade of Muramasa. “Tohro, I never once believed that I was making any sort of necessary sacrifice. I know that I’ve committed atrocities beyond reasoning. Do you think any sane pony would believe creating child soldiers serves some sort of greater good? No. I did it to see if I could.”

Muramasa goes quiet. Tohro no longer feels its pull, its desire for blood. Instead of imagining Temerity as a bloodied corpse, he imagines him rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life, or going to the block among all other threats to the Empire.

“Wow,” Tohro says, turning away from Temerity. “You are truly one of a kind.” He looks at Muramasa’s blade. It wouldn’t look good with unworthy blood staining its blade, and he doubts that it would accept Temerity’s demise anyway.

But the Empire would, in a heartbeat, and they would give Temerity a fair trial. Tohro wishes to curse that as unfair, but he knows that’s not true. He knows that Temerity is just another criminal, and a proper arrest would amount to something more than just a violent murder. It would be justice.

Tohro flips Muramasa around and grasps the hilt backwards, before turning around and facing Temerity. He raises the hilt and brings it down on Temerity’s head. He opens his mouth, wanting to give one last scathing remark, before grunting and frustratedly sheathing Muramasa’s dry blade.

~Caro~

Shokenda thrashes and snarls, her spit and golden blood splattering onto my face, my hooves, and the blade of Excalibur that pierces her flesh. Her face contorts in exquisite ways that continuously surprise me. For a mare known for such a dissonant emotional display, it’s delightful to see that a blade to the chest hurts like hell, even for her.

She reaches for my hooves and seizes ahold of them, but all of the force in the world can’t remove them from the sword that chose me as its wielder, nor can it move the sword itself. It’s bound to me, and I will it to destroy her. I plunge it deeper into her body. Part of me would have relished the squelching and oozing blood draining from the irreparable, possibly fatal wound I’ll be leaving her with, but all I can think about is the damage that has been done to Equestria, and how fixing it starts with her destruction.

“Cloud…” I say, Rasahrel’s control having subsided.

Shokenda looks at me with nothing but rage, but I remain serene.

“You had a good soul. I wish Squall hadn’t tainted it.”

Shokenda blinks, breaking eye contact. She lowers her head, sighs, and braces herself for… something. She grits her teeth and, and with a growl of pain and sheer effort, backs away, removing herself from Excalibur. I’m too surprised to move the blade forward and reopen the wound, not that it isn’t open to begin with. The snow beneath and all around us is soaked with her gold blood at this point.

She stumbles, but she doesn’t fall. “Cloud’s soul was tainted to begin with… Hers less than others…”

“So, what, you think your soul is pure now? After all the horrible things you did to this world? To my people? My friends?” I flick the blood off of Excalibur. “You don’t know any kindness. If your soul has always been tainted, then what makes you think you’re fit to rule this land?”

“My soul is pure…” Shokenda growls, holding her hoof over her chest. “It’s beautiful…”

I flaunt my sword, letting the sun and snow shine off of its radiant blade. “You don’t know beauty. You’re surrounded by death and suffering.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it…”

I twirl Excalibur and plant it in the snow. I nod at Shokenda. “Well, it’s all for nothing now. From the first moment I decided to rise against you, this is exactly how I wanted it. All of your strength against all of mine, out in the open, among the ice and snow of an eternal winter, with me, a mere pony, standing victorious over you, a false god. And what can you possibly do to stop me?”

I regret saying that the instant the words leave my mouth, but I felt like they needed to be said. Now I’m going to pay the price. Both Shokenda and I know that.

“Stay there and find out,” she replies in a loud whisper. Her horn glows as she calls fire to her hooves. With a yell, she presses them to her gaping, bleeding open wound, and torches it shut.

Ignoring the gruesome smell and sight of burning, cauterized flesh, as well as my aching body, I break into a gallop and shout “WULD NAH KEST!!” I make a leaping slash at Shokenda, only for her to block Excalibur with her gauntlet, her other hoof still welding herself shut.

I feel my body become seized, and not by one of my dragons. Shokenda’s horn is glowing, and I see the tinge of a golden aura surrounding me. She’s caught me unawares, and now I’m at her mercy once again, too impaired to resist.

She presses burning hoof to my neck. A searing sting travels through my nerves as I feel my fur burn and my flesh boil.

“Bear the pain!” Rasahrel yells. “Hold on, Caro! Just hold on!”

Shokenda takes ahold of my right foreleg. Excalibur is forcibly dispelled. My leg twists beyond my control. My muscles grind against each other, creating a different burning sensation. I feel my bones wail in agony, and then become silent. There may have been a crack, but my ears are whistling too loudly for me to have heard.

All I know is that I’m still screaming, until Shokenda lifts me over her and slams me into the ground headfirst.

~Vision End~

~Shae~

I ready my scythe as Tangerine crouches, growling at the newcomers. Wolf River grunts as he manages to pull his axe free of the unicorn elite’s armor, kick it away, and turn to me. “So, what’s the plan?”

Tangerine snorts. “You? Askin’ about plans? I thought your idea of a plan was to thwack ‘em till they drop, and then thwack some more!’”

“Aye, but I tried that. Tyke’s got freakishly strong armor, to not buckle from a blow like that. So, I ask the mage of the group…” He blocks a pegasus elite’s bladed gauntlets and pushes back against it. “What would you have us do?”

The four elites have been spreading out in a by-the-books flanking maneuver. Perfect for small areas such as this. “Stay on your guard,” I say. My voice is just on the verge of wavering. “We have to release th...” I swallow a lump in my throat. “... Release them.”

The unicorn is now looking directly at Tangerine, while a pegasus is getting ready to each charge one of the rest of us. “Release them?” Rosemary sounds like she’s sized up her opponent and failed to find a chink in their defense.

“Their souls are bound to the armor. This… It isn’t a child soldier. There’s no child left.” My voice trembles with regret. Anger stings in my eyes. “A child dies when they become this. We have to set their souls free.”

“Shae…” Rosemary drops her guard, turning off her sword’s flames. “There’s gotta be another way, right?”

I pull up my hood and summon my scythe.

Rosemary is still standing down. “...Right?”

“Do as she says! Raise your weapon, soldier!” Tangerine yells. She raises both her greatswords and brings them down on the spaulders of a pegasus elite. She severs the spaulders from the elite and drags her swords along its body, then slashes at the second one over, tearing a gash through its armor with a warrior’s yell.

With that one stunned, I leap to it and spin my scythe’s blade across the gash, widening it enough to shoot an ice spell inside. The elite draws its black wing blades and makes a swing at me, grazing my chest before I teleport out of the way. As I block the blow of the third pegasus elite, I watch as the second is consumed by my ice, drowning in frost and icicles. It freezes in the middle of an attempted attack on Rosemary, who steps back with a yelp.

She seems to have been convinced that there’s, regrettably, no other way out of this. She takes a quick breath, reignites her sword, and slices upward at the neck of the frozen elite. With the rest of its body frozen, it’s helpless against the heat of her blade warping its metal plating until it can no longer move its neck. Rosemary finishes the job with a decisive swing, cutting its helmet off.

I see the hollow Fae within the armor rise from its physical prison, and briefly take the form of a child before disappearing into the faint glow of the world around me.

As I continue to hold my ground against the third pegasus elite, I hold back tears and say under my breath, “Go in peace.” I let go of my scythe and thrust my hoof at the elite, pushing it back with a mighty gust. It only stumbles enough for me to gain ground on it, but it blocks every pass of my scythe, no matter how furiously I swing it.

Tangerine tries to land an attack, only for the elite to push back against me and buck her to the ground. She quickly recovers and dashes back into action, this time dodging the buck and slashing at the elite’s undercarriage, throwing it off-balance… or so it seems. It spreads its sharpened wings and smacks Tangerine away. When she gets back up again and goes to grab her dropped sword, I see that her eye is swollen and bleeding.

Wolf River gives her sword to her, then, with a fast spin, throws his axe into the back of the elite’s head. It turns around to face Wolf River immediately, leaving the axe open for me to rip out with a levitation field. It pulls the elite back and makes it stumble. I toss the axe back to Wolf River. He slashes it twice across the elite’s chest, then brings it down into its head, splitting its helm wide open. I levitate the axe blade and pull it down, harder and harder, ignoring the elite’s screams of distress, until the helm and neck are split in half, and the elite falls silent. Another soul disappears into the Fae.

Rosemary pierces the unicorn elite’s chest with her flaming falchion, only for the elite to lift her up by her hooves, the sword dropping to the ground and her getting flung into the wall. I hear a crack as her face hits solid stone, and my heart skips a beat. She gets up, but her mouth is slack and bleeding.

I gallop to her and touch her face, channeling a healing spell to her jaw. I then feel the aura of the elite approach mine, and instantly turn around. I duck under its bladed gauntlets and cast another ice spell upon it, but as the icicles emerge, the elite simply casts them away with a wave of its head, levitating them off and throwing them my way. I erect an ethereal shield and deflect them.

“This isn’t easy, lass…” Rosemary says, massaging her jaw and grabbing her sword. “How do you fight like this?”

“Death is a part of life,” I say, partially for her and for myself. I momentarily do away with my scythe and put my hoof to the ground. The individual concentrated specks of Fae that make up the fabric of this world obey me, and come into my hoof. I feel the strength of the world itself inside of me, and use it to smash through the unicorn elite’s magical blast. I dash to it and land an uppercut into its jaw, then a hit to its forehead, sending it to the ground.

I call my scythe back, leaping onto the elite. I concentrate the Fae I absorbed into the blade, and slice clean through the elite’s torso. The armor is severed in half by the sheer force of the Fae, but the elite’s aura remains. I finish the job by shoving the scythe’s blade into the elite’s head, silencing its screams and releasing the child’s soul.

Rosemary is still stricken with horror, but I’m questioning whether or not it’s from the elites, or from me. I’m scared too. I wanted to believe that I could be more than this, more than a callous witch with an inordinate level of power over the Fae. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to learn about the world. I wanted to be innocent… I wanted my mother and father back.

I never believed in fate, and I still don’t. But, maybe if I did, this would be easier. It would be easier to accept that I’ll never have what I once wanted. It’s not about that anymore. It’s not about what I want, it’s about what I need, and what Equestria needs. Equestria needs me to be an embodiment of Fauste’s divine strength, a deliverer of peace and tranquility.

What makes me cry is the hard truth: today, in this maze of atrocities beneath the decrepit city of Fillydelphia, peace and tranquility comes from putting innocent children to death.

I gallop at the last remaining pegasus elite and slice through it with a single swing of my scythe.

~Vision End~

~Caro~

My consciousness is like a fever dream. Constant pain throughout my body, enough to make me black out, but not enough to send me into shock, waking up and fading away at uneven intervals. I can only see the snowy, icy coast in brief glimpses before the screaming pain of my broken leg and my seared flesh takes it away. Every time I’m able to open my eyes. Fillydelphia grows closer, as does the looming fear of what will happen when Shokenda drags me there.

As the snow-covered earth turns to snow-covered cobblestone, something new enters my little slices of consciousness. I see broken windows and doors opening, dirty townsfolk poking their heads outside to see why their false god dirties her hooves with their city’s filth. And they see me, the stallion they were told is their enemy.

It’s living tragedies like these that break lessers, when the common folk are against you just for being present, but I don’t show any anger to these ponies for shouting praise at Shokenda for what she’s done to me. I can’t blame them, they’re brainwashed. They’ll eventually see the truth… Hopefully I’ll live to see that.

My spots of consciousness are gradually growing longer, meaning that I’ll be able to hold on long enough to form some sort of escape strategy. Or perhaps Rasahrel might have one in mind…

“I’m sorry, Caro,” she says. “There is little I can do with a broken equine’s body.”

I let out a pathetic sigh. “I’m still just an insect to you.”

“You have always been so much more than that, my child.”

My vision goes dark again, but only for a few seconds. Finally, I have some level of recognition for my surroundings. We’re passing the bar where Smart Cookie was captured. That means the crucifix isn’t too far off… Am I going to be the second skeleton to hang from it? Some legacy that would be.

Shokenda lets go of me in front of the crucifix. I see the words once again. Shokenda’s future, our future, began here. I look up at the skeleton that I’ll likely be replacing for the next few decades. Hello, Squall.

Even better, my execution will have an audience. Wouldn’t be the first time.

The citizens of Fillydelphia gather like flies to fruit. I can’t imagine what’s going through their heads right now. If I could read their thoughts, I bet they’d be equal parts admiration and fear of Shokenda, seeing her at her lowest, knowing what she would do to those who defy her, wondering what could push her to the edge… I already pushed her that far, and it wasn’t pretty. I bet she would erase the name Cloud, even just the word, from all of history, if it meant preserving the fear. Those who wouldn’t fear her would end up just like me, broken and humiliated, facing the end of a summoned sword.

“All this time, debating with myself… Not knowing if you were strong enough to be my ally, or insolent enough to deserve death… I think it’s time you made the decision for me.” Shokenda raises the blade to my neck. The edge cuts at my fur, slowly grazing over my burnt skin. “Do you choose safety in servitude? Ruling with me, preserving this holy land’s dignity, as well as the lives of your allies? Or will you face death in defiance of a higher power? Will you be a martyr for the selfish thieves, both in the shadows and in the public eye, who blemished this soil with their mere presence?”

I say the first thing that comes to mind, and even I’m surprised at what comes out of my mouth. “I choose life.”

The blade moves away from my neck, giving me room to breathe. Shokenda actually sound surprised. “Well… That’s not quite what I was expecting. If I had known you would choose to join me, I wouldn’t have bothered with this.” She does away with the blade and walk in a circle. “You’re a queer one. But at least you won’t bore me when we share the throne.”

“Were you listening, you dull child? I said I choose life!” I yell, turning and staring stiffly at Shokenda. “For a long time I thought that all of my problems could be put to death and they would be removed from the world, but only the scum of Equestria truly believes that. I wanted to rise above that. I wanted to rise above you. I’ve realized that…” I grunt and stand up slowly. “...when I take my blade to a Blackwing, or slay a rampaging dragon, I’m not a harbinger of death, or a worshiper of blood. I’m fighting for the very thing you despise. I’m fighting for the downtrodden. I’m fighting for those who believe I can save them from corruption, cruelty, and death. I’m on the side of life.”

Shokenda turns her head like an owl.

I look to the crowd, to those who would bear witness to my execution, and see how stunned they are at my defiance. It’s not a look of horror, but confusion. I will make things clear to them. “Life is when you have a choice,” I say, both to them, and Shokenda. “Life is… when you can move and talk and think as you wish, without fear. When you can experience love. Love for a partner, a friend, or just someone that makes you feel whole.” I take a deep breath and raise my voice for the people of Fillydelphia. “Does Shokenda make you feel whole?!”

Shokenda returns to me. “Stop talking or I will remove your tongue,” she says, her voice shaking. “Along with everything else you hold dear.”

“No,” I state firmly. “Cloud, I’m sorry for what your father did to you, but that excuses nothing. He’s gone now. You were free of his grasp, and instead of taking ahold of the life you always dreamed of, you threw it away for a selfish, angry crusade! You could have been a princess! You could have filled the void in Queen Platinum’s heart! She needed somepony like you! You could have taken the throne someday, and become the ruler Equestria needed, without all of this bloodshed!”

“You know less than you think, if you believe that ever could have happened…”

“In my heart, I know I’m right about this. Squall was ignorant and selfish, but as you are now, you’re only doing him justice. Please don’t make Equestria suffer for his mistakes. Please let it go…”

She glares at me, and starts advancing.

“If you don’t think you can do that, at least try to be what these people think you are. Give them a life worth living. The one you should have had. The one I… wish you had.”

Shokenda stops, and not in the way of a pony who gives pause; it’s like her whole body has been removed from the progression of time. The only parts of her that move are her mane and tail, which flow in front of her face like curtains. Amidst a flurry of arid white hair, I see one of her eyes begin to tear up. Just the one, if only for a moment.

But that moment is not enough. She closes that eye, and the tears evaporate under the mercy a harsh glow. She puts on the face of a cold, unfeeling monster who could never believe in what I do. With one foreleg, she gestures to her masses and says in a harsh, hushed voice, “What has any of your kind ever done to deserve life?” In that foreleg, she recalls her executing sword.

As the arc of the sword cuts through the air, and the falling snow, the world slows for me. Flashes in the corner of my vision. Draconic words disappearing as quickly as they appear. The words of a peacekeeping shout a little zebra taught me, and a new word, one I never considered until now.

Laas. Life.

I ignore the pain. I stand up, step out of the way of Shokenda’s execution, and shout “LAAS DREM OV!!”

~Vision End~

~Shae~

I see the wisps of the Fae dance around me, coalescing into the unmistakable forms of children. Four of them. If they had eyes, they’d be fixated on me, but I don’t know what feelings they would hold. The Fae, for all of its beauty, is a limbo, where magic is all, and nothing else. Only when a unicorn channels it do emotions play a part. Anger, happiness, sadness, all powerful emotions that bring out a unicorn’s power.

Where they fail is in complete and utter misery. As the children’s spiritual forms circle me, my adrenaline fades and I finally collapse, gripping the shaft of my scythe, holding onto it for dear life, while my silent tears fall to the cold stone floor in torrents. This is the most dignified I can be. If I weren’t being watched, I would lie down and cry out in agony.

“I’m sorry…” I whisper to the children. “I’m so… so sorry…” I muster the courage to look up at one of them, who kneels down to meet me at eye level. “I wanted to save you…”

The child nods, stands back up, and turns away. The other children follow them, forming a small herd that walks off into the void. Their collective wisps disperse and rejoin the others that make up the gentle ethereal world that only I can see. As they do, I hear their combined words echoing throughout the void. The sound is not at all like the dull, lifeless unified voices of the child soldiers, rather being a gentle, combined sentiment.

“Thank you, Fauste,” I hear them say.

“Fauste…” I whisper, still holding tight to my scythe. In my peripheral vision, which is finally becoming unblurred after so many tears were shed, I see both Rosemary and Tangerine kneeling with me, hooves clasped together in prayer. Wolf River does not kneel, but he lowers his head, eyes closed, sighing with remorse.

Our quiet reflection on what was saved, and what couldn’t be saved, is put to an end by a sudden loud knock on the chamber door. I ready my scythe again, but through the Fae I see the gentle, composed aura of an armored mare, along with several other auras that don’t give off a hostile mien. I dispel my scythe and motion to everyone else to stand down. “I think we have friends.”

The door opens, and from the hallway emerges a light blue pegasus in thin black armor, a hood, and a cape. It’s Mistral.

“Shae, Rosemary,” she says with a small gasp. She hovers into the room and shows us a welcome smile. “Thank Hephaestus, you’re okay… I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to collect you when you arrived, ”

“‘Okay’ is a relative term,” Wolf River says defensively. “You have no idea what we just had to do.”

“Yes, I do, and I am so sorry it had to happen.” Mistral paces around the ruined armor of the elites. “The Nightingales and the Thieves Guild deal in subterfuge and retrieval. Combat is not our strongest suit. Dragonrein, however, has the strength of an entire army packed into a table’s worth of ponies.” She points at Wolf River. “And a horse?”

“Pony,” Wolf River says with a derisive snort. “And you should have tried. Called in as many soldiers as the Nightingales and Thieves Guild could spare. You could have saved the children before...” He looks at me. “Point is, you should have called in the dogs.”

“Any while we’re at it, let’s armor them all in glass and send them across a riverbank of wet mossy rocks. Sorry, friend, but this was a delicate operation. I only called in the muscle I needed, and that’s you. Now I can do my part.”

I approach Mistral. “How long has the Thieves Guild been looking into this conspiracy?”

“Not as long as I’d wish. We like to be proactive, but it was a small pack of Blackwings who approached us first, shortly before the Imperial Legion occupied Baltimare. These fellows, actually.” Mistral leads us to the other six ponies among her, all of which are friendly seeming Blackwings. While their condition is still rather ragged, their relaxed smiles make them come across as surprisingly pleasant.

“Hi. Lone Digger, alchemist for the Blackwings,” says the stallion in the front, gesturing to himself. I recognize him as the stallion who tossed the malcontent filly into the dark room. “Sorry for the unpleasant scene I made earlier. I couldn’t afford to break cover, so…” Judging by his shaking aura, he’s just as disturbed as I was. “I swear, I will never complain about bratty children ever again.”

“So, you and your friends are…?” I start to ask.

“Rebels against rebels, yes. We were obedient soldiers, wanting to improve Fillydelphia’s lot along with everyone else’s. Temerity trusted us enough to involve us with the project, but from day one we knew we weren’t okay with this. Kind of… woke us up, so to speak. I personally want to stop this nonsense and go back to working on my brother’s farm.”

The stallion next to Lone Digger speaks up. “I was having doubts about the Blackwings from the day Tohro left us. Considered this child soldier project the final nail in the coffin. I was the first to start smuggling children out, and everyone else followed.”

A unicorn emerges from behind them. He has bandages over one of his eyes, and has far too many wrinkles for such a young soul. His aura is tainted with black splotches. “They made me read th’ Elder Scroll what did wrong to those poor ‘uns.” He removes said scroll from his pack and gives it to me. “Didn’t matter how ‘ard I yelled, they wouldn’t let me stop. It hurt so much. Can’t even do magic no more. ‘S better in your ‘ooves, Shae Sparkle.”

“It’s not good in anypony’s hooves, but thank you.” Just seeing the Elder Scroll’s black aura makes me angry, even if it’s harmless in its parchment prison. “You’re good ponies, all of you.”

“Not good enough,” says Lone Digger. He waves us forward and leads me, Mistral, Rosemary, Wolf River and Tangerine back down the hall. “We should have stopped this before it started.”

Outside the hall, back in the many chambers of these illegal barracks, I see hundreds of auras, all dim and lying on the ground. Blackwings and children alike like flat and still, breathing softly, as if they had all just fallen asleep on the spot. A faint, tangy smell invades my nostrils. “It smells like citrus in here… with a hint of dry flour?”

“It’s what’s left of the sleeping bombs we tossed into every room,” says Mistral, kicking an empty wooden sphere aside. “Courtesy of Lone Digger, and about a month of secretive development. Unless your metabolism is through the roof, a whiff of a fresh batch will knock you out in ten seconds flat, and you won’t wake up. Unfortunately, it does not work on elites. That’s why I needed you.”

“Oh. Sorry I was so shortsighted,” Wolf River says, admiring the lake’s worth of unconscious Blackwings. “I’m glad to know that we all had a role to play here… I’m guessing you’ll need someone to carry the children out of here?”

“Them and the Blackwings.”

I turn around and see a welcome, half-scarred face. Tohro is at the entrance to the mess hall, with Temerity in chains. Temerity has several cuts, as well as a nasty bruise on his head.

“He’s concussed,” Tohro says, tapping Temerity on the bruise, evoking pained grunts. “Do not let him pass out like the rest of his ilk, I do not want him going into a coma before he confesses everything to Queen Platinum herself.”

“Do what you must, my duty is fulfilled.” Temerity chuckles through his exclamations of pain. “I’ve already created hundreds of elites. They’re out there, wandering Equestria, doing what must be done. The Blackwings will live on forever, thanks to me.”

Tohro taps him on the bruise again. “And you, my friend, just made a confession worth hundreds of life sentences. Or execution. Who knows? There’s a world of possibilities for people like you.”

“Tohro, so good to see you after all this time,” says Lone Digger. He and the other traitorous Blackwings salute him, to which he salutes back. “Mind if we join you on your way back to Everfree?”

“Hm. While I personally would like that, it might be a one-way trip for you. You are still Blackwings, by all accounts, and you might be charged for participating in… all of this.” Tohro gestures to the room, and the entire bunker by extension.

“Unwillingly,” Lone Digger adds.

“Just a possibility. I’ll escort you to Everfree as free ponies and vouch for you. Hell, I’ll even give you credit for Temerity’s arrest.”

“Sounds good to me. And besides, even if we’re locked away…” The unicorn with the bandages shoots a vengeful glare at Temerity with his single eye. “With any luck, we’ll share the same cell as him.”

Temerity snickers, much to the chagrin of every conscious pony in the room. His aura is putrid.

“Hey!” Tangerine steps forward and advances on Temerity. I’m surprised she’s held this in for so long. In her place, I could picture myself pouncing on Temerity on sight. “What’s so funny, ingrate?” she asks, giving off a quiet, intimate rage.

“Who are you?” Temerity asks dismissively, before realizing who he’s talking to. “Oh, the late general’s wife.”

“How dare you?!” Wolf River shouts. Tangerine signals for him to stand down.

“I suppose you’re here for your children,” Temerity guesses. “Numbers One and Two. You should be honored to know that I had those titles reserved for them the instant I began this project. I knew that the children of Oregano Von Spice would make for fine examples for the other recruits—”

“Prisoners,” Tohro interjects.

“—given their family’s wartime history. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. They could barely pick up weapons. They combined had the combat capabilities of a retarded mule.”

“Good!” Tangerine yells, striking Temerity across the head. “I don’t want them to have the life Oregano had, or the one I’ve chosen to lead! They deserve to bask in the comfort he and I fought for. The kind that you and your fellow Blackwings destroyed when you invaded my home.”

“You owe me a few soldiers, by the way,” Temerity says. He glances at Rosemary. “Your housemaid killed most of the ones I sent.”

“That’s my daughter!” Tangerine puts out her foreleg protectively as Rosemary comes forth.

“Huh, is that so? Then I guess the life of a soldier came to everyone in your family, no matter how hard you tried to stop it… Well, I say that, but in truth, your wants were well-placed. Number One and Two, I must confess, were not fit for any of this.”

“So where are they now?” Rosemary asks.

Temerity spits at Rosemary and Tangerine’s hooves. “Why would I tell you—”

“They’re in the dark room,” Lone Digger says. “I’m sorry, Lady Tangerine. I didn’t realize One and Two were yours. If I did, I wouldn’t have put them in there…”

“I di’n’t even wanna make that dark room in th’ first place!” the Blackwing with one eye exclaims. “The Elder Scroll I read revealed a complicated rune that would summon dark clouds from Tartarus itself. By the time I wanted to go turncoat, I...” He touches his horn. “I couldn’t do nuthin’.”

Rosemary turns to me. I can see her aura ripple, boiling like hot water, but she remains composed on the outside. She then looks at the unicorn. “Shae can dispel those runes and clear out the darkness. Can’t you, lass?”

“Absolutely,” I say with confidence. “Lone Digger, lead us to the dark room.”

~Vision End~

~Caro~

Shokenda’s eyes stop glowing. She looks up at me with an expression I’ve never seen from her, one that I never thought I’d see from her. She looks almost pained as she falls back onto her hindquarters. Beyond her gaping wounds, I see genuine anguish that she’s never displayed before. Something is clearly wrong.

"Are you there…?” she whispers, her voice having lost all its malice and dominance. “Are you…”

She’s not speaking to me. I don’t think she’s aware I’m here anymore. I’d go so far as to say she doesn’t know where she is at all. As she looks over herself, fixating on her own hooves and looking at them with horror, she lets out a noise that I’d expect to hear from a wounded child. I start to think she doesn’t even know what she is.

But this can’t be right. She shouldn’t be horrified at herself. I saw everything in that memory orb. She summoned the power of an Elder Scroll to become an alicorn, didn’t she? She can’t have done all of this unawares, which is why it’s all the more confusing that she keeps letting out cries of confusion and distress.

“W-what's happening?!” she screeches. “I... I don't want t-to do this anymore…” She keels over, seizing her head. She screeches like it’s about to split open on her. “I-I-It hurts, please s-stop..."

She lurches forward as if being pulled by strings. Her eyes glow again, so bright that I can’t even look at them. As I turn away and shield my face from the searing light, I hear a bloodcurdling roar escape Shokenda’s mouth. And then I hear a voice that makes my skin crawl and my heart stop. "Cloud! Be silent!"

~Vision End~

~Shae~

Lone Digger takes a deep breath as his hooves take ahold of the gate’s handle. The dark room lies beyond, with none of the Fae to be seen within it. “Epona knows how many times I’ve sent a child in there to an unimaginable fate…” Lone Digger says. “It’s comforting to know that this is the last time I’ll open this door.”

The gate slowly opens, revealing a chamber of infinite darkness to me and everyone else. Only Temerity is unperturbed by this. “I took a step in there myself, for curiosity’s sake,” he says. “I couldn’t see, hear or smell anything. By the time I walked out a few minutes later, a week had passed.”

“You should have stayed,” says Wolf River. “As if brainwashing children wasn’t enough, you’d deprive them of their birthright senses?”

“It was the only way they’d learn,” Temerity replies. At this point, I doubt the destruction of the world around him could phase him. “Of course, a properly disciplined child would learn to cope with sensory deprivation, knowing it to be a temporary loss, but… Mmm, why spoil the surprise? Go on, dispel the runes. Do as you please.”

Tangerine furrows her brow. “I don’t like your tone. What are you playing at?”

Lone Digger answers for Temerity. “It wasn’t a matter of how long the children would wander in the dark room. It was a matter of who wanted out more.”

As those words wash over me, the whole world becomes just as black and oppressive as the dark room, which makes it all the easier to run inside, despite Rosemary’s pleas for me to hold on a moment. The instant I step into the void where the Fae doesn’t exist, it’s like being cast back into that bed, in an infirmary on the outskirts of Ghastly Gorge, with nothing to see but darkness and memories. It almost makes me stop, but looking down at myself reveals that the Fae within me remains, untouchable by the darkness.

I call upon the Fae, summoning a good portion of it into my horn, and let it burst outward like a firework. Most of it dissipates, but some of it settles on two glowing, smoking, demonic runes to my left and right. Both of them emanate an offensive amount of dark magic, more than most unicorns would ever wish to see in their lifetime. Now that I know where they are, I summon more of the Fae within me and cast out two beams from my hooves, both of which collide with the runes and begin to erode them like old paint. After a minute of concentrating on my dispelling beams, the runes are damaged beyond effectivity. Their black aura disappears, and the flowing darkness stops.

I use the rest of my immediate power to create another burst, this one of purifying light, which burns the darkness away and returns the Fae to this room, and restores sight to me. I can see the auras of dozens of children. The faint, dwindling auras… of…

Dozens of corpses. Piled on top of each other.

The first thing I notice is the stench. I back away from it, towards the auras of my allies, while covering my nose and trying not to scream, or run in terror, or faint on the spot. On the way, I stumble into something small and moving. A filly who yelps in terror as I accidentally step on her tail.

It’s the same filly who was thrown in here earlier, and the distant colt who refused to fight her sits at her side, holding her hoof. “Hm?” He looks up at me. “Oh, it’s you. Are we free to go?”

I don’t open my mouth. I fear what would come out if I did. I merely nod at the colt and wave my hoof towards the door. He helps the filly up and takes her there, where Lone Digger is the first to greet her. His stoic demeanor breaks as he falls to his hindquarters and hugs the filly, holding her close. “I’m sorry, sweetie, I’m so… so sorry…” he mutters.

As the rest of the Blackwings, along with Mistral, shy away, Rosemary, Tangerine and Wolf River step into the room, looking upon the carnage with the horror one would expect. Shock. Disgust. Fury. Sadness. Disbelief. I see it all in their rapidly changing auras, and if they could see mine, it would be doing the same.

And Temerity doesn’t care at all. He displays a solitary smile. “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and—”

Tohro seizes him by the neck in a chokehold, eyes wide, tears falling, not saying anything. He doesn’t relinquish the chokehold until Temerity falls unconscious.

Finally, someone who isn’t the scum of the world speaks, and it’s Tangerine, whose aura is the most ruptured of all. It seems that she too had a wall she needed to let down. “Nut...meg? C-C-Cinnamon?” she calls out, her voice weak and shredded. She swallows her tears, instantly breaking into a scream. “NUTMEG! CINNAMOOOON!!”

“Mum…” Rosemary wraps her foreleg around her mother’s barrel.

“COME OUT! THAT’S AN ORDER!” Tangerine traverses the piles of dead children, spinning about, nearly tripping over her own hooves. “COME ON OUT!” Amongst her shrieking, I hear nervous laughter. “COME TO MOMMY! Come to...”

“Mum.” Rosemary jabs Tangerine, getting her attention and pointing to Wolf River.

Wolf River already had Nutmeg and Cinnamon’s scent. He found them.

~Vision End~

~Caro~

I back away in shock. I’ve heard this voice before, once. Despite having every reason to doubt it to be true, somewhere deep within me I feel a single thought pass between every single dragon I’ve killed. Several voices on the surface of my mind, all speaking a single name.

“Go away… SAVIIKAAAAAAAN!!” Shokenda screams, her eyes losing their glow once again.

No. No, no, no. That’s not… I back away from her, shaking my head.

Shokenda is shaking her head too, thrashing her limbs, trying to rid herself of something that can’t be felt. "I-I don't like this anymore! Please stop touching me!"

Just as before, that demonic voice makes my heart stop. "Stay with me, Cloud… STAY WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Shokenda screams, her voice weak and broken. “NO! NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“YOU BELONG TO ME!!”

Shokenda lets out a piercing bellow that forces me to cover my ears and turn away again. The ground trembles, cracking all around her, until there’s an explosion of stone and mortar. The crucifix collapses, and the skeleton upon it falls to pieces.

The dust settles on me, and the unsettled civilians. I can’t imagine what’s running through their heads as they see… whatever is happening in front of me. I can barely believe it myself.

We all look upon the atrocity of an alicorn who claims to be a god, seeing that she has composed herself, though not entirely. She remains still in the pit she has created, looking up at me and her subjects with, dare I say, horror. For a while, I might have believed that she was some sort of god. But now I know it was all just a lie, much like everything else she’s ever said. What he has said with her voice this whole time.

To think he was right in front of me all along...

“Saviikaan.”