Colgate was the first to wake.

It could have been a pleasant awakening. She was warm and blanketed in Daemeon’s huge arms. She felt protected and safe. The pain in her chest seemed only a dull ache after not having done anything all night. The beauty of the massive and awe inspiring cathedral would have taken her gaze and contented her soul for a solid hour if Daemeon continued sleeping. No sun had risen yet, and everything was visible only in the lights above. Even in the relative darkness, she felt rejuvenated and pleasantly rested. Despite every positive note that dark morning seemed to be starting on, it only took one unfavorable condition to undo all of its happiness.

Colgate wasted no time in throwing herself into a wild flail while pounding her petite hooves on Daemeon’s chest and shouting, “Wake up, Daemeon. Wake up!”

The mare’s wild flailing instigated Daemeon’s own convulsion as he rocketed into a sitting position and demanded through his grogginess, “What? What’s going on?”

The little, blue unicorn’s answer came from a miserably constricted face and body as she explained in a panic, “I have to go.”

Daemeon shook his head to rid the sleepiness from himself and asked, “What?”

With even more force than she’d offered before, she shouted again, “I have to go!”

Still in ignorance, the disheveled man demanded, “Go where?”

Her answer came in the form of a growl that was one part adorable in light of the little pony giving it and two parts terrifying in the almost blood curdling anger it represented as she slammed her face against Daemeon’s chest and screamed so loudly that even the two white cassocks could do little to muffle her voice, “Where’s the little filly’s room?!”

Colgate’s plea and the urgency that accompanied it were not lost on Daemeon as he shot to his feet and thought aloud, “Oh! Right, the bathroom. Uh, it’s over here.”

“Never mind where it is. Just get me there!”

Daemeon sprinted as fast as his tired legs could carry him. Unfortunately for Colgate, the facilities were all the way on the other side of the huge vaulted cathedral, near the entrance. She could do little other than groan pitifully until they arrived. As luck would have it, Daemeon understood her urgency. He had to go as well.

For the first time in his life, he was torn over which bathroom he should enter. He decided to go for the women’s bathroom in light of the fact that there was no one around to care, and Colgate might need something other than just a toilet. He made his decision quickly for both their sakes, and they soon found themselves inside a stall.

Daemeon extended her to arms length to set her down but stopped midway. She shot him a vicious glare and cried, “Put me down! I can’t hold out any longer!”

Her Daemeon gave a skeptical frown and explained, “The bowl’s too big. You might fall in.”

Colgate grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut while responding, “I don’t care! Just set me on the side and get out. You don’t need to be here for this.”

He carefully set the mare on the wide mawed lid of the public bathroom toilet and turned to leave. Before he could even shut the door behind him however, he heard what he’d feared would come true. A splash was followed by a good deal of flailing and what he could only imagine to be the most colorful pony language she knew. He, of course, rushed right back in to help the poor mare. Without saying a word, Daemeon reached into the toilet bowl and grabbed out the soaking wet unicorn. Balancing her two hind hooves on the seat, he turned his face away from her as she did her business.

In comparison to the screams that had been echoing earlier, Colgate’s soft and ashamed sobs were quiet indeed. To Daemeon’s ears however, they rang painfully loud and made his stomach contract in an odd sort of mutual despair. He didn’t like hearing her cry.

After a few moments, the sobbing stopped, and Daemeon heard his mare whisper, “I’m done now.”

Daemeon nodded and stood up, pulling Colgate against his chest. He reached over and flushed the toilet, taking no note of what she’d left behind. They left the bathroom and stepped back into the cathedral at large. Daemeon stood still for a moment, unsure of what he should do next. He didn’t have to think long as a suggestion came in the form of a silent plea from the little pony in his arms, “Is there anywhere I can wash off?”

Daemeon smiled and answered lightheartedly, “Yes, there is in fact.” He took off into a soft jog down the cathedral back towards the front until he came to a deep fountain built into the side of the building. He glanced around in the waters until he found the first step descending into the pool and carefully set Colgate in with the warning, “It’s cold.”

Colgate shivered in the cold water but felt silently relieved to be in something clean. She closed her eyes and plunged her head into the chilly water. She gave her entire body a good shake below its surface before coming back up to gasp for air. Her eyes were still shut and her wet mane hung over her face when she felt a pair of strong hands come to rest on her back. Rather than tense up at the touch, the little blue mare smiled, her demeanor suddenly improved, and asked with a giggle, “Do you think you could, uh. . .”

Her voice tapered into silence. Daemeon lifted a hand off her back and brushed her soaking mane out of her eyes. Those crystal blue orbs, impossibly huge and captivating, twinkled in the light with a soft smile that was tainted with a red hue cutting through the gossamer fur on her face. Her smile was genuine but pensive, so Daemeon prodded, “Could I what?”

Colgate almost did not answer as the more sheepish side of her began kicking in. She turned away from him to look into the rippling water. Her blush darkened and she was about to berate herself for even thinking about asking him to do something so forward. “But then,” she mused to herself, “he’s been doing it a lot anyways. I’m sure he won’t think it’s weird if I asked him now.”

Her contemplation was interrupted when another face bent down to be reflected off the water. Her ear twitched as Daemeon whispered, “What are you thinking about?”

Colgate’s cheerful demeanor subsided a bit as she answered somewhat seriously, “A lot of things actually.”

“Such as?”

“Well,” she answered bluntly, “for starters, this world of yours sucks.”

Daemeon responded with a peal of laughter that took Colgate, the silence, and himself by surprise. It echoed over and over again with cheer that stood as a sharp contrast to the anguished screams that had reverberated off those same cathedral walls not moments before. It’s mirth was real and pure, unadulterated by any deception or forethought. Like a penitent raising his or her voice to God in absolution, Daemeon laughed openly and willingly. His shoulders were lightened, his heart skipped, and for a brief moment, everything was joyful.

When Daemeon’s laughter had echoed to its end, the pair again found themselves in silence. Always, they seemed to return to that same silence. Their eyes met in that moment between moments and their lack of words said much more than a casual observer could have understood. The dentist flashed her teeth, mimicking the man before her, and stated both softly and simply, “You have a wonderful laugh.” She paused and looked down shyly before finishing, “And a beautiful smile.”

Daemeon chuckled and countered, “I thought I was a bad, ugly ape.”

Colgate frowned and looked away, causing a stir in Daemeon. He reached a hand to rest on her shoulder. He whispered in regret, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything.” He felt her shoulders bob slightly under his hand, causing him even greater agitation. He pressed, “Are you okay?”

The mare turned her teary, crystal blue eyes back to Daemeon. She took a fluttering breath, her skin shivering slightly in the cold cathedral air, and struggled to smile. She lifted her bandaged hoof from the water, droplets splashing in its wake, and set it gently against Daemeon’s distraught cheek. The mare answered, “You’re not a bad, ugly ape, Daemeon.”

Daemeon did not shift a muscle as he bore witness to what Colgate did next. The mare raised her good hoof to one shoulder and brought her bandaged one down to the other. She extended the length of her petite, equine body from the cold waters and brought her lips to Daemeon’s cheek in the single most tender kiss she had ever given anypony. It was brief, lasting no longer than a couple seconds, but that moment between moments was sweeter than anything either the man or the pony had felt in many years. Her lips parted from his cheek only so she could say, “You’re my friend.”

Daemeon crouched motionless in front of the fountain. He looked into Colgate’s eyes but could not think of the words he wanted to say. He could not even bring himself to wonder at what he should say. Her actions were beyond his understanding, and there was nothing he had said or done in the past that had produced in him the same tumult of emotions as what he felt right then. They were so foreign to him that he just couldn’t find a response.

Colgate surprised him even further by responding for him. She brought her forehooves back into the water and said, “I understand if you don’t know how to react. At least, I think I understand. From what you’ve told me, it doesn’t seem like you’ve had a friend before.” Her gaze dropped to the rippling waters beneath her. They scattered her reflection, so she couldn’t see how much of a mess she looked. She was sure she didn’t want to see in any case. With a sigh, she continued, “I haven’t had many friends either. I’ve had a few, but I’ve never been very nice to them. I’m not even that nice to my best friend, Carrot Top. No. I was hardly anything but bitter and rude to her.”

Colgate sniffled and brought a hoof up absently to rub her snout. “I never appreciated any of my friends. I always pushed them away because I thought they didn’t care about me. Since I’ve come here, I know what it really feels like to not have anypony care about you.” She raised her face to find Daemeon’s in a state of contemplation. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she remarked, “But now, I also know what it feels like to have somepony that really does care.

“I guess all I wanted to say is that this world of yours sucks. It’s huge and scary and dark and cold and has been almost nothing but downright miserable. Even with all that though, it doesn’t seem so bad when I’m here with you. You’re my friend. And I’d like to be your friend too, if you’ll have me.”

Daemeon nodded wordlessly.

“Good!” Colgate responded cheerfully. “Now that we have that figured out, do you mind doing me a favor? I wasn’t going to ask before, but now, I don’t think I mind telling the truth.” She suddenly stuck up a scolding hoof and said, “But, before I ask you, you have to realize that I am not your pet. I am a very smart pony. I didn’t get to be an accomplished dentist by lounging around. I had to work hard for ten years as an apprentice to my teacher, Minty Fresh. I’m an adult, and I will appreciate your treating me as such. Do you understand?”

Daemeon nodded again, a smile finally showing back on his face, and answered, “Yes.”

“Good!” she echoed again. She turned away to present the length of her back to Daemeon and asked, “Now, could you pet me please? I have to confess; it feels really good. And I haven’t really had a pleasant morning so far.”

Her man with the beautiful smile chuckled and said, “Sure. I think I can do that. Do you want me to take that off?” he asked, indicating the cassock sleeve still wrapped around her tiny rib cage.

Colgate glanced at the white cloth and nodded. “Yeah. The bite doesn’t hurt so bad now. Besides, it’s getting kind of itchy.”

Daemeon reached down and tried as carefully as he could to undo the knot he’d tied last night. His mare winced in pain as he removed it, and he found himself wincing with her. He felt her pain, but it was not because of the magical connection that tethered their souls together. It was sympathetic pain that he felt, a pain far more excruciating than what the ugly bite on his breast could have afforded. It made him tense up with the realization that the one thing he feared most in the world was happening right before him, and though he was in control of the situation, he could not bring himself to right the problem. He instead found it better to bare the sympathy then act against it.

He discarded the bloodied cloth and very softly slid his hand beneath her soft, wet chest. Colgate moaned in pain but didn’t draw away from his touch as he lightly felt the depth and significance of the two dark cuts. “How bad does it hurt when I touch it there?” he asked in concern.

His mare bit her lip and responded, “It’s still pretty bad, but I can manage. I don’t think I got myself as deeply as I got you. I should be the one asking how you feel. You didn’t bandage yourself up or anything.”

Daemeon smiled at her concern and moved his hand from her chest to the top of her head. In one smooth motion, he slid his hand over her wet and messy coiffure and followed the length of the gossamer fur on her back until he came to the base of her blue and white tail. Her confession had come as no surprise to him of course as he felt her back arch against his hand. He’d always known she’d enjoyed it. Initially, he had planned to use that against her. Now, though, he had no wish to use her. He instead found himself afraid of how easily she could use him. Colgate was not the only one that took pleasure from that contact. Indeed, he had a hard time believing she even took the most from it.

As his hand came back to start again from between her ears, he answered her, “I didn’t need a bandage. You let me hold you against my chest all night. That was better than a bandage.”

Colgate smiled at the response and reveled in the strength of Daemeon’s huge hand stroking the length of her back. It was such a simple thing to do, but she delighted in it more than any hobby she’d ever engaged in. She enjoy it so much in fact that she might have fallen asleep if it weren’t for the cold water swirling around her hooves. The thought of the water brought a question to her inquisitive mind. She asked, “Daemeon, why is there a pool here? I thought this was a place for worshipping. Do humans come here to swim too?”

Daemeon squinted his eyes in thought and answered slowly, “In a sense.”

Colgate turned an eye to her man and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well,” he answered hesitantly, “it’s really very complicated to explain. At least, the reason people use it is complicated. It has a lot to do with this person people believe lived thousands of years ago. The simplest way I can put it is people bathe in this pool once in their lifetime. The people that swim here believe that they go in as one person and come back out as a better person. It’s a lot of hocus pocus really. It’s nothing but a pool of water.”

The mare turned back to regard the water far more seriously. She hadn’t imagined it was anything important. How important could water be? She bent down and took a drink. It was cool and refreshing against her dry throat. It also made her aware that she was pretty hungry. The ice cream hadn’t been enough to satisfy her through the night it seemed. She turned back to Daemeon and remarked, “You humans sure do believe in some weird things.”

Daemeon frowned and sighed somewhat morosely. ”She’s right,” he mused to himself. “People always want to believe in something more meaningful than themselves, even if what they believe in can’t be true.” He responded to her, “Yes. People can believe stupid things. I find ignorance to be the most terrible and dangerous problem in existence. That’s why I have devoted my life to seeking truth.”

Colgate frowned and turned herself full towards him. She sat down on her rump, causing her tail to disappear into the water, and said very seriously, “I don’t think you’re on the right track if you’re looking for truth.”

Daemeon withdrew his hand from Colgate’s back and crossed his arms over his bloodstained chest, wincing slightly as he grazed the bite. He returned the mare’s frown with one of his own and responded, “I’m a lot closer to the truth than any of the fools that come here.”

Colgate’s frown was washed with concern as she pleaded, “Are you so sure? You think the world is ruled by chaos, but I know in my heart that simply cannot be the case. In Equestria, ponykind has defeated the forces of chaos and subdued Discord. We live in harmony because of it. I know you might make a compelling argument, but there’s simply no way that you’re right.”

“But Colgate, if I’m not right then why are you here? You said you must have come here so you can learn something, and you believe I can teach you. You said there had to have been something special about me that brought you here. Well, the only thing that’s really special about me is that I know the truth of the world. We are victims of chaos, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Anything we do to try only aggravates the process and creates more chaos than before.”

“But Daemeon,” she begged, “what does knowing what you do help anything? Assume you’re right, and everything is just chaos. What do you do with that information? Do you just sit on it and be bitter? I never even saw you smile until just a moment ago. Maybe that would sound less impressive considering we’ve only known each other less than a day, but every moment of that was spent together.”

The mare stopped for a second to take a deep breath. The frown Daemeon wore was sad and seemed to cut her emotionally. She didn’t like seeing him sad. “I am your friend,” she continued, “and as a friend, I want to help you. I may not have much to offer besides whatever I think to say, but maybe that’s all you need. Please tell me, what did you do before you met me. What do you do with your life?”

Daemeon’s frown grew more severe and he suddenly turned his back on the mare. He rested against the side of the fountain and bit his lip in worry. He had prepared for this moment. He knew sooner or later the little, blue pony would pry into his life. He’d even spent some time working on a feasible backstory. With her not even being from this world, almost any story might have worked. Things were different then though. So much had happened to turn his life upside down.

A small pair of hooves came to rest against his back and a soft, beautifully feminine voice whispered into his ear, “Whatever it is, you can tell me. It’s not like I can leave you.”

“Damnit Daemeon!” the man screamed to himself as his jaw clenched in self loathing. “Why did you do it? How could you let the stupid girl in? You know what women do. You’ve read it in all the books. They crowd you and steal away your space and good intentions. They make you disregard your life’s work and reduce you to a beast. Things that don’t matter suddenly become important and you leave the pleasure of your work for a lie that only fuels the monster. They’ll turn you into the monster you’ve been fighting your whole life!”

“Daemeon,” Colgate whispered as she reached over to press her cheek against her man’s, “why are you afraid to tell me? I’m pretty sure you’re not looking for a lie. So, why are you quiet?”

Daemeon reached a hand to the mare’s face and touched the soft fur of her cheek. All the thinking in the world wouldn’t solve his dilemma. He was caught in the ugly trap of his own emotions, a trap he had eluded for over thirty years. He was not ashamed of who he was. He lived for his work and stood by its importance, but there was a specific reason why he didn’t have friends. It was not a manifestation of some inability to form intimate relationships with other people. In fact, he craved friendship over almost anything else. And, now that he had it, he did not want to lose it.

“I know you can’t leave me, Colgate,” he began, “but if you knew what I did with my life, you would not want to be my friend. Therefore, it would be better if you didn’t know.”

“You can’t afford to keep me in the dark, Daemeon,” the mare countered sternly. “I’ve already had to save your life once because you’ve apparently done some bad things. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but keeping me in the dark will only harm us. I want to be your friend because I believe, underneath all that lying you seem to be so fond of, there’s a kind and caring person. And besides, even if you really are as bad as you say you are, I’d still be your friend if for no other reason than to protect myself. The situation is a little beyond our personal feelings.”

Daemeon pulled away to face the mare once again. Again, as almost every time before, those crystal blue eyes captivated him. They alone were enough to express powerful emotions from anger to disappointment to love. At that moment, Daemeon saw seriousness and he took comfort in their conviction. “She’s right,” he mused to himself. “Nothing good can come from not telling her. If I don’t tell her, then she can’t learn. What would be the good of that? You just don’t want to lose her feelings because you’ve given in.”

The man with the wonderful laugh sighed submissively and said, “Okay. I’ll tell you. But you must let me explain everything before you make a judgement. I have to first tell you what I do, but then I must have the opportunity to explain why I do it. Can you promise to listen to both?”

Colgate smiled softly and promised, “You have my word. But first, do you think you could let me out of here and give me something to dry off with? It’s freezing in here.”

Daemeon nodded and reached in to grab out the wet, little pony. She suddenly evaded his grasp and jumped onto the ledge herself saying, “On second thought, just give me something to dry off. You don’t need to be handling me all the time.”

Her man smiled and stood up thoughtfully for a moment. An idea came to him and he reached down to pull off one of the cassocks. The garment was fairly ruined with a sleeve missing and a large bloodstain on the front. “I certainly can’t come back here ever again,” he thought to himself. “These things are like $500 dollars a piece. It’s too bad the church is hardly worth the effort. Robbing and vandalizing a church only brings in sentiments and money. The pope would be lucky if it were done more often. I do much worse just by ignoring them and letting their false teachings and lies die out slowly as people of the world slowly learn better than to put their faith in a figment of their collective imagination.”

Daemeon bent down to towel the mare off, but the cloth was seized in a blue light and forced from his hands. He was struck in silent awe as the garment swam into a ring and floated gently down to encapsulate the mare before constricting around her. The movement was oddly tantalizing as it seemed every fiber moved independently of the other, yet they all followed the same purpose.

When Colgate finished toweling herself off, she looked up at Daemeon’s mesmerized face with a smile and explained, “The last time I let you do it, you assaulted me with it.” She absently brought a hoof up to her mane and grimaced at how much of a rat’s nest it felt. “You wouldn’t happen to have brought that manebrush with you by any chance?”

Daemeon chuckled, an act that seemed to come more fluidly every time it occurred, and reached down. Mindful of the bite on her chest, he wrapped a hand under her hindquarters to pick her up and lifted her to his chest. She snuggled in, seemingly unperturbed by the dried blood that was a good deal more evident on the inner alb than it had been on the outer. He carefully began raking his fingers through messy white and blue mane while asking, “Are you hungry?”

With a flick of her tail, she responded, “Yes, actually. Do you have anything to eat?”

“Just a bunch of dried flat bread wafers,” he answered, grabbing up the discarded robe and sleeve before walking back towards the pew they’d slept on near the altar. “They don’t taste very good unless you have them with the wine. I guess we could raid the cellar if you want some, but I don’t touch it myself.”

“Umm,” she mumbled, “what’s wine?”

Daemeon had to stop his walking and hold the mare at arm’s length to address her in surprise. “You don’t know what wine is? That’s absurd! You must use alcohol in your profession as a dentist for sterilization. Don’t you?”

Colgate nodded, shivering a touch in the open cold, and explained, “Of course I do. I don’t live in the Paleopony period. To what alcohol are you referring; ethyl, methyl, or isopropyl?”

“Oh,” Daemeon mumbled in surprise, “I didn’t realize. . .”

The mare rolled her eyes while flicking her tail to snap at his nose and said, “Stop assuming I’m stupid. Just because I don’t know the weird words you humans use for things doesn’t mean I don’t know what they are. So, what’s wine?”

“Well,” he answered while pulling her back to his chest and resuming his slow paced walk, “it’s made from taking the juice of a fruit and subjecting it to yeast bacteria to create ethyl alcohol.”

Colgate snorted and muttered, “You ruin perfectly good juice doing that. Why would you want alcohol in it? That would make it taste awful.”

“That’s a less popular opinion among humans unfortunately. Every child’s first sip is sputtering and accompanied by a look of distaste to match. But men and women alike keep drinking it until they grow used to the taste and learn to enjoy it.” Daemeon sighed and moved his raking hand from her mane to her tail before continuing, “It might not be such a problem. Enjoying a simple pleasure is not too much of a burden to bear, but people tend to enjoy the beverage in excess.”

“Doesn’t that poison them?” Colgate queried. “I mean, I know ethyl alcohol isn’t toxic per se, but it should cause problems in too great an amount.”

“You don’t even know what it does?” Daemeon asked skeptically. “Your world grows more charming every time you say something about it. Yes, it is poisonous. If you drink enough, you can kill yourself. If you have it in the proper amount however, you can lose track of your thoughts and inhibitions, so you can do things you normally wouldn’t without worry. People use its mind numbing effects as a sort of pleasure. I’m surprised you ponies wouldn’t know about this. Mankind was brewing alcohol before we could even begin to understand what it was.”

“I see,” Colgate began. “That would explain why I don’t know what it does. Creating concoctions that inhibit the abilities of the mind is illegal in Equestria unless they are carefully administered for pharmaceutical use. It’s illegal to create ethyl alcohol without permission and even then only in small amounts.”

Daemeon’s walking ceased as Colgate finished, and he whispered, “Interesting. It sounds like utopia comes at a price.” He took a seat in the pew they’d left and set the mare down beside him. She watched her man intently as he grabbed up a box of wafers from the floor and tore into them. He pulled out a long package of a hundred and pulled it open, spilling its contents on the padded pew. Being hungry himself, he snatched up a handful and popped them in his mouth saying, “Have some.”

Colgate frowned at Daemeon’s uncouth use of his mouth in both speech and eating. Her horn flared with a shining blue glow that brought a wafer gingerly to her mouth. Her already lowered standards of how it would taste based on its looks were driven even further down as she chewed. “He wasn’t kidding. These kind of suck.” Instead of voicing her discontent, she said pointedly, “You were going to tell me about yourself.”

Daemeon swallowed the food slowly and dropped the remaining wafers in his hand back into the pile. He took a deep, shaky breath, feeling genuinely afraid and apprehensive. He knew that his chances of being friends with Colgate would likely end, but that was technically a good thing. Her friendship was what was causing him all his grief in the first place. “And yet,” he thought to himself, “I know it’ll be even worse afterwards. It’s the pit I’ve dug myself into. Just as the physical pain of losing a limb is secondary to the reality of living without it, so losing her will be worse than having had her in the first place.” He concluded his thought by whispering under his breath, “It’s all for the best though.”

“What was that?” Colgate asked, her ears perked intently.

Daemeon ignored her question. He instead launched suddenly into his explanation before he lost his nerve to do so, “I don’t have an official job.” One sentence in and he was already forced to take a steadying breath before continuing, “Most people find what they are good at in life and make a job out it. Unfortunately, you also have to be able to make a living, so you can’t always do what you like. People compromise their beliefs and desires for money because we have to feed ourselves before worrying about anything else. Like most other men, I eventually learned what I was best at in the whole world. It took time, experience, and contemplation for me to understand, but I discovered that my quick mind, my mental faculty to connect things in my head, and my innate ability to act quickly on what I have learned brought me to the realization that my perfect profession in life would be that of a teacher.”

The mare could feel her head bobbing along with the confusing tempo of his speech. It seemed to her that Daemeon was trying to talk around his confession, putting off some dreaded moment. Instead of soliciting a reason, she merely prodded, “So, you’re a teacher but not officially?”

“Exactly,” he answered with a nod. “You see, I discovered what I am good at, but unlike most men, I was not willing to compromise my beliefs. I am a brilliant teacher, and many have gained knowledge through my education. The problem is though that I will not waste my life teaching anything other than what I believe people need to learn. Unfortunately for me, there is no education center in the world that would hire me to teach the lessons that I teach. In fact, it would be quite impossible to teach what I do in the context of a school, not just practically but in theory as well.”

“And just what does your Mr. High and Mighty teach that no other human does?”

Daemeon rested his hand pensively against his chin, ignoring her teasing jibe. He explained slowly and simply, repeating the infamous question of mediocrity and bewilderment, “I start by getting a man to ask himself the simple question, ‘Why is the couch white?’”

A voice in the mare’s head immediately screamed, “Not this again!” Colgate knew better than to give the reaction any force however and was quite proud of the fact that almost no frustration slipped into her stern visage. She could not help but ask though, “You don’t literally go up to people and ask them why the couch is white, do you?”

Daemeon chuckled at the innocence of her misunderstanding. Had anyone else asked the question, he wouldn’t have found any humor in it. It would have represented the monster of ignorance Daemeon worked every day to defeat. With the little mare however, he was beginning to think that the world she came from didn’t need the lessons he was teaching. It seemed that maybe, just maybe, they had learned to cope with their problems. This lesson might be lost on her then, as calculus to a child. “Then again,” he mused to himself, “I’ve underestimated her intelligence before.”

“No,” Daemeon continued, “they aren’t subjected to the watered down, skin and bones explanation I gave you. I lead them not to that question, but to any number of questions like it. Every single question is formed from different words expressing different meanings, but they are all ultimately seeking the same answer to a more encompassing question. I don’t ask them the question myself as I did for you. I instead initiate events that cause men and women to ask the question themselves. Why the couch is white is just one such question, a piece of the bigger question.”

“If that’s the case,” Colgate pleaded, “then just what is the bigger question?”

Daemeon shifted his gaze from the mare to the altar. He noticed that the contrast of the light seemed less significant than the night before. He glanced towards an eastern wall and noticed the slightest tinge of blue permeating the previously indistinguishable stained glass windows. The dawn was almost upon them, and Daemeon knew they had to bail before the morning retinue arrived. They still had time however, so he answered the expectant mare, “The question itself can sound stupid at first until you realize that there is an answer. Why does anything happen?”

Colgate sighed and hung her head. She hardly had to go as far as adding two and two to know where he was going. She answered the indirect question with some annoyance, “You came to the conclusion that everything is just the result of the chaos in the world around us.”

Daemeon wagged a scolding finger at the mare saying, “I didn’t put the words in your mouth. You came to the conclusion by yourself when we objectively analyzed not just one but several different situations. I know you have problems with that line of thought, but can you put those aside until I finish explaining myself? We are talking about my life at the moment anyways.”

“Fine,” she agreed, “but what does all of that matter? What would knowing the world is nothing but chaos help anything? It seems to me that it could only make the world worse and make ponies afraid.”

“It does actually,” Daemeon pointed out, “but we’ll get to that point in a bit. You must first understand the implications of chaos.” He stopped to take a deep breath and run his fingers through his unkempt, brown hair before saying, “Men, and I would presume ponies, are prone to hatred. Yes? We discussed this before. We hate things as a reaction to loving something.”

The mare nodded, “I remember.” Colgate felt herself shiver at the memory of the previous night, at the horrid conversation that had resulted in what would probably end up being pretty ugly scars. She looked away from him and lifted her injured hoof to the bite on her chest, wincing at her own touch. “I’m not certain I agree with you, but what you said makes a lot of sense. What of it?”

“Well,” Daemeon continued, “then you realize that we feel the desire to take action against the things we hate that harm what we love. That’s the very reason you bit me. That’s why it felt good to bite me. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Now, Colgate,” he said anxiously, turning fully to the mare, “this next question is very important, and I can only hope its significance is not lost on you. How would you react if you were harmed through some force you could not begin to control? If you suddenly found yourself caught in a storm you didn’t know about and got injured from some flying debris, who would you hate?”

“Nopony of course,” Colgate scoffed. “It wasn’t a pony who caused my problem. Like you said, it would have been beyond my control.”

“So where would the hate go then?” Daemeon pleaded.

“It wouldn’t go anywhere,” Colgate countered. “There wouldn’t be any hate because there’s nothing to direct any hate towards.”

“You were hurt in both cases though. Your existence, which you love so much, was put into jeopardy both times, but only one of them caused you to hate. What’s the difference between the storm and myself?”

Colgate explained simply because the answer seemed obvious, “You meant to hurt me. The storm doesn’t have a mind to hurt me with.”

“So,” Daemeon stated loudly and emphatically, drawing out the word to add to its significance as he had a time or two before, “the soul of our hate rests squarely with intent then? It is not action alone that should fuel hate. A storm hardly intends to harm you, and a lion would be going against its nature if it refused to eat you. You never hate the action itself. You hate what precipitates it. You hate the moral monologue that caused it. It was the intent that caused the action, and it’s the intent you hate.”

The mare was impressed with the power and conviction Daemeon spoke with. It seemed like every ounce of his being was given over into the importance of his words. It caused her a mixture of awe and fear. It was not the fear that she’d felt for her life the last time they engaged in such heated conversation. It was the unsettling fear that anypony could believe something so vehemently. What was even more terrifying was that his ramblings made more sense than she would have ever believed. That fear echoed in her voice as she stated with no degree of uncertainty, “That’s how magic works.”

It was Daemeon’s turn to express confusion as he asked, “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Colgate returned quickly. “It’s just that your division of intent, cause, and effect is the same way magic works. You remember what I told you right?”

Daemeon frowned and thought back as carefully as he could, “You said that magic functions from a point of provocation, through a focused energy, on a target subject.”

Colgate smiled and remarked, “You have an amazing memory.”

Daemeon could not bring himself to share in her smile. “It has served me well. I use it to help in teaching people. But, let’s come back to what you said. What does your magic have to do with anything?”

“Well,” she explained thoughtfully, “your explanation of how hate works is oddly similar to how magic works. Remember how I said that a spell can’t take effect unless every component is present? If I want to levitate something, I have to act with intent on it. A spell simply isn’t a spell unless I focus my will. An action without intent is just an action. In the same way you say intent is necessary to cause hate, intent is needed for magic.”

Daemeon nodded slowly as he followed her parallel. “It’s intriguing. I can’t say that I understand your magic very well yet. I’ve never experienced anything like it before in my life. But, I am inclined to believe that our worlds are very much alike even with their differences. Thus it would only make sense that they would work the same way.”

“Okay.” The mare lowered her chin to the pew while waggling her rear in what was her most pensive pose. “I get you so far, but where are you going with this? What’s the significance of my hating you but not the storm?”

“To answer that, let me propose another scenario,” he began. “Would you still hate me if you knew that I was forced to hurt you by someone else lest I die?”

“Do you mean that you would die if you didn’t hurt me?”

“Yes.”

Still in her doubled over position, Colgate answered, “Of course I wouldn’t hate you. At least I wouldn’t only hate you. I might still dislike you for trying to hurt me, but it wasn’t your intent alone that lead to me getting hurt. It was mostly the intent of the other human. I guess it would be better if I were to hate him instead of you.”

Daemeon nodded intently and prodded, “As we have once before, may I lead us another step back in this situation to get a bigger picture?”

The mare lowered her rear and crossed her forehooves under her chin, noting with discontent the sogginess of the gauze around her injured hoof. She stood back up and lifted her hoof to undo the wrappings but instead presented it to Daemeon saying, “Yes, you can continue, but could you unwrap me while you’re talking? This is useless now.”

Her man smiled at the petite hoof she presented and said, “Certainly.” He lifted his hands, both bandaged and bare, and undid the wrappings as they dripped over the pile of wafers. As he worked, he continued, “Let’s look at the motivations of this man who is forcing me to hurt you. Would your hate for him be the same if I said that it was not his will alone that I should hurt you? Would it be the same if he was being forced by a group of fifteen other individuals to make me hurt you?”

Colgate gazed intently as Daemeon undid the last piece and the gauze fell way. She didn’t immediately retract her hoof, instead letting her man lift it to his nose to check her progress. He very gently slid the tip of his thumb over the cut and she was elated to notice that it hurt significantly less. Her smile was somewhat dampened however as she said, “I guess it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to hate that man then. I think it would be necessary for me to direct my hate towards those fifteen that forced his hand since it was their intent that lead to me being hurt.”

Daemeon withdrew his hands from her hoof and folded his legs beneath him. With a shadow of a smile, he indicated his lap to the mare. Colgate acquiesced and shuffled over to recline in his lap. Daemeon spoke, “I noticed a hint of hesitance in your submission. If it’s appropriate to hate the intent that ultimately lead to your harm then there should be nothing wrong with your answer.”

Daemeon began petting his mare again and she felt herself melt into the touch. The physical comfort clashed with her mental discomfort and made her feel unsettled. “You’re right,” she answered. “It’s just that it’s harder to hate fifteen humans I’ve never met than the one that actually harmed me. I guess I could still hate them though. It is because of them that I got hurt after all.”

“As you say though, it’s harder to really hate them. You don’t know them personally, and they probably don’t know who you are. Perhaps then, we need to focus the hate on something bigger than them?”

“Hmm,” the mare mused aloud, “that might work better. I should think that they have a reason to hurt me that goes beyond their personal desires. Otherwise, one of them would have just hurt me directly. Maybe it would be better to hate the reasoning that caused them to hurt me.”

“You mean their intent?”

“Yes.”

Daemeon stopped petting the mare and began undoing his own bandage. He figured that his cut must be doing well if her’s was. Colgate turned her eyes up curiously and rolled onto her back, shoving her four bare hooves in the air as she had the night before. Though it was the same action, Daemeon saw it in a far different light. Where before it had meant nothing, now, it was suddenly a very pleasurable sight. It caused him to smile so wide that his face struggled to accommodate the unusual action. He finished unwrapping his hand quickly and brought it down to Colgate’s belly. She eyed the hand curiously, completely unaware of what he intended. She wished her curiosity were traded with caution as Daemeon’s fingers began to dance over her belly in an assault that caused her to scream.

Hysterical laughter overtook the halls as both the man and his mare made no effort to contain themselves. Daemeon laughed so hard at Colgate’s rapidly kicking hooves and her feeble attempts to stop the tickle assault that he almost came to the point of hyperventilation. The little, blue unicorn was lucky that Daemeon could not keep himself coordinated enough to continue the task. It took a full five minutes for her to catch her breath enough to say, “That wasn’t fair. I’m too ticklish for this.”

Still panting himself, Daemeon responded, “I couldn’t contain myself. The thought of you laughing was simply too much for me.” Daemeon slid his hands under the back of the breathless mare and pulled her into a firm hug. Her four hooves pressed into his chest, and her hot breath ran down the nape of his neck as her chin rested on his shoulder. His left hand slid over her ribs to stop just under her bite. He took immense comfort at the feel of her rapidly palpitating heart. It was small, but it thundered with life and the blissful reality of that moment.

Daemeon was not alone in his joy. Colgate melted into the embrace bearing a giddy smile that would surely have been accompanied by further giggling if she’d had the least bit of strength left. She contented herself with the smile and a familiar lullaby. That is, if Daemeon’s huge heart beating loudly could be likened to a lullaby. It certainly seemed like one to her as her eyes drifted shut, and she dreamily listened to its rhythmic thumping.

They sat in relative silence for several minutes, with Daemeon only opening his eyes to occasionally peek at the windows and the glow that was becoming more apparent. They would have to leave soon, but Daemeon wasn’t ready for that moment to end. A part of him wanted to live in it forever, basking in that fleeting but beautiful delight he took in his friend.

His friend.

“She’s my friend.”

It took every ounce of Daemeon’s willpower to keep from showing the emotion he felt right then. He kept his breath steady, his body still, and his lips from trembling. He could not however retain the moisture that flooded his eyes. It was almost as though he’d sprung a literal leak and salt water poured freely from his eyes. A river delta formed on his face as streams from both corners of each eye trickled down his cheeks to connect in the dimples born from the still present smile. Those two streams then followed the contours of his jaw until they met at the base of his shadowed chin where they formed a small waterfall that echoed the conflicting sadness and joy Daemeon felt in that moment between moments. That waterfall trickled unnoticed onto the gossamer blue coat of his friend, his mare, his little Colgate.

Perhaps it was exhaustion from the excursion. Perhaps it was because her coat was already a little damp from the pool. Or perhaps she merely chose to let the moment pass with the understanding that Daemeon might just trust her enough to tell her when he was ready. In any case, the minutes rolled by uninterrupted until the mare finally asked unexpectedly, “Is it better to hate the reasoning than the fifteen, Daemeon?”

Her man with the beautiful smile tensed slightly at the question, not ready to let the innocence of the moment be disturbed by concluding his explanation. In fact, he feared for more than just the moment. “You can’t tell her.” Daemeon could feel his teeth grit together in anger directed inward. “You let her in! Daemeon, you fool. You stupid, insignificant fool. You have the opportunity to teach her, to make her really see, to bring her beyond the blindness and ignorance of faith. If you were really her friend, you would tell her, save her. But no. You let her in. You let yourself care about her, and now you’re doing exactly what you told her you refused to do. You’re compromising your beliefs just so you can be with her, just so you can touch her and enjoy her.”

“Daemeon?”

“Look at what you’ve done! You’re taking what you want from her instead of giving her what she needs. You’re using her. You’re using her like so many people before her. Only now, you’re making her your plaything instead of using her to undo the lies. You’re using her to spread the lies and becoming the very monster you’ve been fighting all this time.”

“Please don’t ignore me, Daemeon. Please talk to me.”

“What is she now but your whore? Is that all you want? You want a whore like mommy? You want to give up everything you worked so hard for, everything your life represents, just so you can be a stupid, ignorant child again, just so you can pretend not to know knives are sharp?”

“Daemeon!”

“You can’t go back. You can’t unlearn the truth. You can’t keep the truth from her. She’ll find out. She’ll find out, and you’ll lose the only friend you’ve ever had.”

“Look at me!”

“If you could just tell her then you wouldn’t have to live a lie. She wouldn’t have to live a lie. You’d be losing her, but you’d also be saving her.”

“Daemeon!”

“But you can’t. You’re nothing but scum, just like the rest of them.”

“Daemeon!”

The shrill scream pulled Daemeon from his inner turmoil. He was not aware he’d closed his eyes until they opened to reveal a panicked mare with desperation and tears brimming in her eyes. Her injured hoof was prodding at his face, and her entire body seemed to be shaking with worry. She voiced her grief with unexpected anger and authority, saying, “Whatever you’re thinking about, stop it!” She reached behind her ear to pull her messy mane over her face and pressed her hair against Daemeon’s cheek. “It’s not worth crying over.”

Daemeon snorted loudly and cleared his throat. He reached a hand up to wipe his eyes and said in a surprisingly calm and steady voice, “I’m sorry, Colgate. I just don’t want to answer your question right now.”

The mare pulled her face away from Daemeon’s and settled a hoof over his lips to purse them shut. She smiled hesitantly and said, “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to. We’ll wait until you’re ready. Okay?”

Her man responded with his own shaky smile and answered, “Okay.”

Colgate nodded and glanced at the eastern walls. The rows of brilliantly colored stained glass windows were clearly lit up with a notable blue. The sun was just about to rise. The mare turned back to Daemeon and asked, “Didn’t that other human say we have to leave by now? It’s getting pretty bright out.”

Daemeon sniffled again and wiped his face with the sleeve of his remaining cassock saying, “Yeah, we’ve got to go. We have to find something else for me to wear though and something for me to carry you in.”

“And,” Colgate echoed cheerfully, “then we can find something good to eat. Those wafers weren’t very good.”

The man with the unkempt hair nodded in agreement and stood, stretching his arms and legs. Sleeping on a pew wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience, but he was used to worse. He reached down to grab up the little pony from the pew, but she dodged his grasp and jumped onto the stone floor saying, “I’d like to walk for a moment at least. It’s nice being held, but I need to stretch out too.”

Daemeon smiled knowingly and began gathering up the uneaten wafers. He slid them back into their wrapper before replacing them in the box. His hands gathered up the cloth draped over his knees and pulled the long, white garment over his shoulders. He took a deep breath, glad to be rid of it, and glanced down in disappointment at his chest. First the jacket and now the shirt were ruined. The blood stain on the front was larger than he’d imagined. He knew it was mostly his fault for not applying pressure on the bite right away, but he was still impressed that the little, blue pony had gotten him so badly.

Colgate was less impressed and more disturbed by the sight. She watched intently as Daemeon undid the buttons on his shirt one by one. She found herself somewhat curious as to the anatomy of the hairless ape but knew better than to ask any questions of exploration. “He said they have shame and don’t like being naked except around their mates.” She thus averted her eyes and turned towards the rows of stained glass windows, studying them intently for the first time.

If the cathedral could have seemed any more remarkable to the mare it was then as she followed the heights of those towering, glowing windows. Millions of pieces of colored glass flashed impressive figures of humans that Colgate could only assume were quite famous. They were beautiful but a few specific features about a couple of the ones shown caught her eyes and made her ask, “Daemeon, who are those two humans shown in those two windows that are side by side?”

Daemeon clutched the discarded cassocks and bloodied, Armani dress shirt to his chest and followed the direction of the mare’s pointed hoof. He answered her simply, “All the windows of this cathedral depict angels and saints. The window on the left there shows the angel Gabriel descending from Heaven with important news. The one on the right is of saint Francis with a wolf.”

Colgate absently trotted a few steps closer to the windows and asked, “Why does Gabriel have wings? Are there humans with wings on this planet? I haven’t seen any so far, but I haven’t really been looking.”

“No,” Daemeon answered, coming up to stand behind the mare, towering over her as the windows did. “The people who come here and worship God believe in these mythological creatures called angels. They’re no more real than God. They’re supposedly the harbingers of God, coming down to Earth to impose its will on mankind. They are said to share in its divine providence and reside with it in its celestial temple.”

Colgate nodded her head slowly and begged, “What about this Francis? He doesn’t have wings. Is he a regular person like you?”

“If he ever actually existed, I should believe so.” Daemeon snorted derisively before continuing, “That’s not how he’s remembered though. He, like all the other saints pictured here, was believed to have been endowed with special powers that allowed for him to perform miracles. These miracles are believed to be extensions of God’s power manifested in chosen people who put their faith in it. I would sooner believe that all the miracles men such as him played were tricks, illusions, or stories that superseded anything they ever did. Their powers are about as real as God or angels are.”

The mare continued to stare intently at the beautiful stained glass windows for a few moments more before she turned to Daemeon with a broad smile and said, “I believe in them.”

Daemeon pursed his brow skeptically and asked somewhat dramatically, “How can you believe in angels and saints? You don’t even know anything about this world. I think you can trust me when I say that not I nor anyone else in this world has seen angels or miracles.”

Colgate’s smile did not diminish at her man’s words. Rather, it increased as she felt certain in her belief. She answered, “You may not have seen them, but I’ll bet anything that they’re real.” She reached a hoof to her face and tapped the firm, swirling contours of her horn saying, “Like I said before, I think you humans believe in this god thing because you don’t have a very clear understanding of magic. You work hard and study all your lives to harness it but can’t. In Equestria, only unicorns can harness magic through understanding and the power of our horns. Only pegasi can fly and roam our celestial skies. Those without wings or magic toil the ground as ponies of the Earth. Together, we create a society that is full of happiness and near perfection.”

Somewhat mystified by her descriptions, Daemeon asked, “So, you’re saying that you believe saints and angels are real because your world has them? And you’ve seen them?”

“Mmhmm,” she hummed. “You must understand though, we weren’t always like that. Equestria wasn’t founded until the pegasi, unicorns, and Earth ponies found each other and learned to value each other. Divided, we were hardly more than beasts. Together, we created what you called utopia.”

Daemeon turned back to the two windows. They were the same as before, a false man and a creature of myth. For just a moment though, a mere moment between moments, her ideas didn’t seem so far fetched. “Maybe there is something more that we don’t understand. Perhaps there are such things as miracles.”

As said before though, it was only a moment between moments. Daemeon shook the silly thoughts from his head, for surely they were nothing but silly, and lightly tapped his foot on Colgate’s rear saying, “We have to go. The ministers for the morning worship will be here any time I’m sure.”

Colgate was not so eager to leave quite yet. Her eyes were absorbed by the creature standing beside saint Francis. She lifted her hoof and demanded, “Why is there a wolf next to Francis?”

Daemeon might have been annoyed at her question if he didn’t find any dialogue with the mare to be pleasurable. Rather than chide her, he decided to answer, “Saint Francis is credited with being a steward to the animals of the Earth. The wolf was said to be a monster that terrorized a small village in a nation called Italy. Saint Francis calmed the creature by speaking to it with kindness and it listened even though it does not have the capacity to reason. This is one such example of a miracle.”

“Oh?” Colgate marveled before chuckling to herself and saying, “He’s just like Fluttershy. I wonder if he was as timid at heart.”

“Who’s that,” he asked blandly.

His mare snickered to herself and responded, “It’s just somepony I know.” She turned away from the windows and said with finality, “I’m ready to go.”

“Good!” Daemeon cheered with false enthusiasm. “I’m sick of this place anyways. Let’s go back to the sacristy. I gotta throw these things away and find a shirt or something.”

The pair turned and cantered onward. Daemeon was stunned by how precious the sound of Colgate’s hooves striking the stone floor sounded. He smiled as she trotted at his feet. She had to keep a quick pace just to keep up with his walking, and he was glad to note that she didn’t seem to be having anymore difficulty with her hoof. They had passed over that bridge at least.

They entered the sacristy, and Daemeon immediately shoved the two ruined cassocks and shirt into a garbage bin in the corner. The box of wafers he shoved back under the sink cabinet. The mare sat intently as Daemeon fell to rummaging through the many different cabinets in search of a shirt. With his shirt off, Colgate could finally see that he was more or less hairless save for intermittent sprigs that couldn’t possibly serve to keep him warm. Humans were nothing if odd specimens to her. If Daemeon was as handsome as he claimed he was, they were certainly an unattractive race.

Daemeon’s shuffling stopped and he extolled, “Lady luck is with me again!”

Colgate’s ears flicked forward and she asked curiously, “Who’s she?”

“It’s just an expression I like.” He withdrew his head from a closet and pulled with him a clean, black dress shirt to replace his white one and explained, “It means that the chaos of the world happened to work out in my favor. Look, I found a shirt. It’s probably an extra for the bishop. I hear he sweats up a storm during his services.”

He laughed and put the shirt on. As he buttoned up, the mare trotted to the base of his feet and peeked up at him with huge, pleading eyes to ask, “Are we going out to eat after this?”

Daemeon laughed again and answered, “Of course we are! We can go out for anything you want. At least, I think we can. Do you ponies eat anything other than grass and ice cream?”

“Well,” the mare mused aloud, “I could go for some pancakes and syrup. I haven’t had those in years. Do you have those here?”

Her man finished buttoning up his shirt and reached down to scoop up the mare. She came up willingly and flashed a hopeful smile. Daemeon stared intently at that smile and exclaimed, “Of course we have pancakes! I know a great place for some. They serve them with any fruit you could want and stuff like chocolate and peanut butter. And of course, all the syrup you could want.”

The ex-dentist flashed her perfect white teeth and rubbed her hooves together with a grin that clearly showed her devious desire to stare her career inhibitions in the eyes and tell them to hit the road. Cavities be damned, she was going to enjoy something sweet. She leaned forward and nuzzled into Daemeon’s chest with the thought, “Then again, this is sweet too.”

Daemeon dug back into the closet and pulled out decent sized cloth bag that bore the name of the cathedral. “So much luck,” Daemeon mused to himself. “I couldn’t have asked for something that was a more perfect size.” He strolled out of the sacristy with the mare and bag in hand wishing he didn’t have to stuff her in it.

Just when he thought they had put those huge halls, beautiful windows, and simple altar behind them, nature called, and Daemeon was forced to make a pitstop at the men’s restroom. He set the mare and bag on the counter and slipped into a stall alone.

Colgate looked at her reflection in the mirror. It had not even been a day since she’d last stepped out of her bathtub at home and groomed herself to perfection, but now, it almost looked like she had been through a rodeo. Her mane and tail were hopeless wrecks, and the ugly bite on her chest stood out as a painful contrast to the beautiful gossamer blue of her coat. She’d never thought much of her own looks, but she’d at least been careful to always look decent. Musing over her looks caused her to sigh sadly and think to herself, “It’s not like anypony would care anyways. I don’t have a stallion to look pretty for.”

Hearing her sigh, Daemeon asked from the stall, “Are you okay?”

Colgate was silent for a moment before turning away from the mirror and lying, “Yeah.” She tapped her hoof absently against the ceramic of one of the small hand basins and said, “I didn’t, uh. I didn’t really thank you for, you know, what you did for me this morning.”

Daemeon answered lightheartedly and dismissively, “Don’t worry about it. Nothing happened.”

His mare winced at his tone and stated emphatically, “It did happen though. It was . . . embarrassing to say the least. I just want you to know that I appreciate your being kind to me. This isn’t a fun situation to be in. In fact, it’s really a gross and unpleasant situation, and I forced it on you without you ever having asked for it.”

Her words were concluded by a toilet flushing and Daemeon exiting the stall. He hunched over a sink and fell to washing his hands while stating almost as emphatically as she, “You didn’t force anything on me. I told you. You’re here just because you are. We’re all just pawns of chance and circumstance. Your will had very little to do with your being here.”

He finished washing his hands and grabbed up his mare in a soft hug, one of comfort that soothed them both. Neither of them could really remember enjoying anything more than each other’s company. It was the company of friendship, honest friendship in its first bud of life. Daemeon whispered soothingly into her ear, “Besides, as big a burden as you may be for such a small pony, it’s been more than worth the pain to have your company.”

As much as he wanted to dawdle, he knew they had to leave or they would get caught. He reached down and opened the cloth bag and placed his beautiful mare in. She curled into a ball and allowed him to close the bag around her and hang over his shoulder. He stopped to look in the mirror himself. Colgate wasn't the only one who looked haggard. His hairy chin undid the deceptive youth he tried to claim for himself. His usually perfect hair was muddled and dirty. He might even swear that he saw worry lines appearing on his face from all the unusual emotions he was expressing. He did look a bit better with the hand wrappings and bloody shirt gone. In fact, he was almost presentable. Almost.

Daemeon left the bathroom and exited the cathedral then, his sweet, little Colgate in tow.