Daemeon set Colgate on the ground and covered his face in his hands. None of this made any sense. Colgate had to be wrong of course. There was no way they could be linked together. There wasn’t even such a thing as magic. Everything could be explained away with logical reasoning and analysis. The only possible solution for something not making sense was the person’s inability to grasp the truth. Daemeon was not a person given to inabilities.

Daemeon’s thoughts were interrupted by Colgate placing her hoof on his bent knee. He looked down at her. She was worried. Her expressive brow was wrinkled and her short, little snout was curled into a pouting frown. She spoke soothingly, “I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this. I don’t know how or why this happened, but it seems clear to me that the reason I am here is because of you.”

Daemeon’s expression grew volatile as he demanded, “Why would you be here because of me?”

Colgate shrank away, and her ears fell back. Daemeon was much larger than she was and far more imposing when he was angry. Her chin shied all the way to the floor with her rump following as she said, “I think it has to do with the reason I’m here.”

Daemeon set his hands against the carpet and brought his face down to her’s to shout, “And just why are you here? Whatever brought you from your fairy world to New York?”

“The-the princess!”

He squinted into her large, terrified eyes and pressed, “What princess?”

Colgate gulped in fear and explained, “The princess sent me here on a journey!”

Daemeon’s anger deflated ever so slightly into curiosity. “What a strange notion,” he thought to himself. “A journey?” he asked aloud. “What kind of journey? Is it some grand quest? Is that why you’re here? Are you on some fairy tale mission? I’ll spare you the trouble and tell you there’s no Holy Grail around here.”

His reference confused her, but she was too scared to press the point. She explained instead, “I’m here to find out who I am.”

Daemeon raised an arching eyebrow and backed away from Colgate, giving her a little room to not be so scared. “What do you mean you’re searching for who you are? Why would you be here to find that out?”

“I don’t know, but now, I think it has something to do with you.” She breathed deeply and lifted herself from the floor saying, “Let me explain it to you from the beginning. Do you remember how I was telling you about my dream?”

Daemeon sat back into a more comfortable posture and nodded his head, “Yes. You told me about the fires and your home town of Ponyville. You were about to say what you did after you woke up.”

Colgate closed her eyes and nodded in response, “Mmhmm. Well, after I woke from my nap, I went to eat dinner with my best friend, Carrot Top. We always meet up at this place called the Hayfield. It’s quite a nice joint. They’ve got comfortable hay seats they change all the time so they’re cushy to sit on. Personally, I prefer The Trough, but Carrot Top insists their food is too bland. She always wants to go to Sugar Cube Corner, but all they have is sweets, and I have to keep my teeth clean. So, we always settle for the Hayfield.”

Daemeon grunted, “To the point please.”

Colgate smiled with a touch of embarrassment and said, “Sorry. Well,” she stopped briefly as she remembered her escapades with Carrot Top’s foulness and went on with omission, “we met up and sat down for dinner and ordered our usuals. While we were waiting for our food, I told her all about my dream.”

“How did she take it?”

Colgate rolled her eyes in memory, “Well, she got all analytical on me and said that my dream was a reflection of something I was feeling.”

Daemeon rubbed his chin with his hand thinking. He had never had a great interest in dreaming. Dreams were a topic which was vested with very few facts and a great deal of pure speculation. Speculation, though, was the first step towards a decent hypothesis and thus the beginning of all science. He had no clue how he would interpret her dream, but he was curious nonetheless, “Do you think it was?”

Colgate looked down at the carpet and wondered absently whether or not it was difficult to put carpet down on the entire floor as these humans did. She confessed, “I didn’t when she first suggested it, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

“What do you think it meant then?”

“Well, after I told her about the dream she said that it might be because of something wrong in my life. I thought about it for a little bit, and I told her that there was something wrong with my life.”

“What’s wrong with your life?”

“Umm,” she turned slightly and showed her right flank to him saying, “it has to do with my cutie mark.”

Daemeon pointed, “You mean that hourglass picture on your side? I was wondering what that was. You say it’s called a cutie mark?”

Colgate cocked her head and said, “That’s strange. I know I’ve never seen a cutie mark on a monkey before, but that’s also because monkeys don’t talk or form cities. Still though, is there no such thing as a cutie mark in this world?”

“Not that I’ve heard of.” He put a hand to his chest in confidence and reiterated, “Trust me, I would know. So what is it?”

“It’s a mark that everypony gets when he or she grows to a certain age and discover their super special talent.”

Daemeon gave the small blue mare a derisive look and asked, “Super special talent?”

Colgate snorted in laughter at Daemeon’s expression and explained, “That’s what we call it to explain it to foals. I guess it just sticks with you when you grow up. You’re super special talent is that which you are most gifted at doing.”

“Like a skill?”

Colgate nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, only, it's more than just a skill you are good at. It’s the skill that you are the very best at in the whole world.” She gestured back at her flank and explained, “My cutie mark is an hourglass to represent my skill as a dentist. I received it the day I realized that my super special talent was dentistry.”

Daemeon frowned, “I don’t follow. Hourglass equals dentist?”

Colgate sighed and explained, “You’re not the first one to be confused. Usually cutie marks are pictorial representations of what that pony is best at. Like an earth pony with a special talent in cultivating a certain crop well would most likely have a picture of that crop on their flank, or a pegasus that was especially good at clearing a certain type of cloud might have a picture of that cloud on their flank.”

“So how does the hourglass mean you are a dentist?” asked Daemeon still confused. “Did you choose that for some special reason?”

Colgate shook her head violently and said, “No, no, no! We don’t choose our cutie marks. They magically appear when we realize our super special talents. I earned mine when I visited a dentist’s office and learned I could easily manipulate all of the tools very precisely all at the same time. That would have been very difficult even for a pony who is especially good with magic, but I did it when I was young and had no experience.”

Daemeon scrunched his face in confusion and ran his fingers through his handsome brown hair which was much less organized in light of the recent rain and asked, “So you found out what you were the most proficient at in skills by going to the dentist one day and messing around with some tools and a picture of an hourglass magically appears on your flank? And, because you know this to be your special talent, then you know you can pursue that talent and make a job out of it?”

Colgate nodded and stated emphatically, “You don’t just know to pursue your talent. You are expected to. Why would you do any job other than what you are best at?”

Daemeon leaned back to stare at the ceiling and asked thoughtfully, “Well, what if there are already enough people to do that type of job that you are best at?”

Colgate sat back herself and pondered his question. It was odd, but she had never considered that. On reflection though, it seemed like something that should be a problem at some point. Unable to find a good answer, she stated simply, “That just never happens. It seems like there is always a place for everypony to work whatever their super special talent is. At least, I have never seen a pony without work.”

“Fascinating,” Daemeon expressed, leaning forward again, “but what if somebody gets a job they don’t like? Or do all the ponies ‘magically’ like whatever job they get?”

Colgate let out a terrific sigh as their conversation seemed to have come full circle, and she was again faced with the question of just why she was there. “Well,” she said, “that is actually the reason why I’m here.” Her chin fell to the floor, and her entire body slacked some as she said with a certain degree of pain, “The princess, Princess Celestia, sent me here because I said I hated my job. I told my friend Carrot Top about my dream at dinner, and when she pressed me on it, I told her that I might have had it because I hate my job and want a new one. I got angry and made a scene and stormed off. She told Twilight about it and Twilight told the princess and the princess came to me this morning. I told her about how much I hated my job and how all the other ponies hated me and told her that I wanted a new cutie mark so I could get a new job and not be unhappy anymore.”

Daemeon leaned in closer and asked, “All the other ponies hated you? Why?”

Colgate sat up on her haunches and crossed her forelegs in front of her huffing bitterly, “It’s because I have a terrible job. Ponies only come to me when their teeth are bad, and they always hate seeing me because a visit to my office usually means pain for them. It might not be so bad, but they even have to go so far as to pay for the pain, and that makes them all the more bitter.” Colgate’s gaze fell as tears wetted her eyes, “They don’t like me, and they’re never happy to see me. Even my best friend Carrot Top is probably only friends with me because she has impeccable teeth despite all the sweets she eats.”

Daemeon waved a frustrated hand in front of him and said, “That’s all well and good, but that still doesn’t explain why you are here. Why would this princess of yours send you here?”

“Well,” she said, “this is my journey. She said that, if I wanted my life to change, I would have to go on a journey of self discovery. She told me that she had no clue where it would lead me or what I would see. All she told me was that I might not like what I would find, and in the end, my life would change forever.”

He could see where this was going. “So she made some sort of portal and sent you through it, and that’s how you came to be in this world?”

“Yes,” she said sadly, “now you know.”

Daemeon stood from the ground, towering over her, and said, “That’s all a fantastic story, assuming it’s all true, but why on earth would you show up in this city and be ‘tethered’ to me? What do I have to do with any of this?”

Colgate looked up at him thoughtfully and slowly reasoned, “Like I said before, I don’t really know, but maybe you actually know.”

Now Daemeon was really confused. “Why would I know?”

“Well,” she reasoned, “is there anything special about you? Is there any particular reason why I might be sent to you to learn about my place in life?”

Daemeon gasped in epiphany. When she asked him like that, he thought he knew exactly why she would be sent to him and him alone. “Could it be?” he thought. “Could it be that this freakish little horse is to be my protege?” He walked away from her and started pacing with his hand brought tightly up to his chin. Colgate stood up and followed close at his heel like a pet dog, not wanting there to be even the least bit of distance between herself and Daemeon in light of recent events. She looked up at him expectantly as they walked and he thought, “I’m not as youthful as I used to be. While I’ve been fairly successful in spreading the truth, I am nowhere yet near to making my truth known to the entire world.”

He suddenly stopped his pacing and reached down to pick up Colgate. He held her slight, twenty something pound frame aloft in front of him in his strong arms and studied her with an intent eye. She blushed at the handling and asked meekly, “What are you doing?”

“Has luck afforded me a successor to my ideas?” he thought to himself as he looked into her eyes. “Can I truly teach her as I have taught no other? Will my knowledge of the reality of the world survive in her? Will she bring the truth to her own world? Will there finally be some understanding in the midst of all this falsehood?”

Colgate started squirming under his intense gaze, becoming fearful for her life. She begged again, “What are you doing? Let me go!”

Daemeon did not let her go, but he did finally say, “There is in fact something special about me. I actually do know the reason why you are here.”

The small blue mare stopped her squirming and asked hesitantly, “What do you think that is?”

Daemeon set his face seriously, not smiling. The smiling was over. The charade was over. For once, it was in his favor not to lie. If she was to know the truth then it would be better if he explained it systematically. He could cultivate belief through actions, yes. That’s what he always did. But for someone to truly understand, it took careful explanation.

Daemeon took a deep breath and said, “I am probably the only person in this world who truly understands the nature of things.”

Colgate was still scared, but some curiosity was piqued in her as she thought she might finally be getting some answers, “What do you mean ‘the nature of things’?”

Daemeon inhaled deeply. For what he was about to say, he had to organize his thoughts clearly. He walked over to one of the couches in the otherwise empty living room and sat down. He set Colgate down on the couch next to him and crossed his legs in thought. She backed away from him and settled herself against the armrest, not being nearly so eager to be next to Daemeon as his otherwise seemingly cheery demeanor was now plagued with a somewhat contemptuous frown. Colgate noted how the frown completely changed who he was. The result was a scary and foreboding creature.

They sat quietly for a few moments until Colgate shyly stated, “You said you knew why I was here.”

Daemeon nodded his head and said, “I do, but you are not going to like the answer. The answer probably won’t make sense to you, but it is the truth. It will be hard to understand at first, but I think you may come to realize it in time.”

Colgate narrowed her eyes in confusion and shook her head asking, “I don’t understand already. What’s the reason? Why am I here? If you know, why can’t you just tell me?”

With steel eyes, Daemeon responded, “I can tell you, and I will. The reason you are here is because you were lead here by random circumstance.”

Colgate stared at him expectantly waiting further elaboration. Daemeon just sat there with his legs crossed, not saying a word. When she saw no explanation forthcoming, Colgate pressed, “Is that it?”

Daemeon nodded, “Yes.”

Colgate balked and said, “So you’re telling me that I just randomly showed up here? You’re saying that I jumped through the princess’s portal just so it would take me to any random place anywhere and tie me to some random monkey just for the heck of it?”

Daemeon’s face showed no emotion as he said, “That is exactly what I’m saying.”

Colgate scoffed and stood up on the couch saying, “That’s stupid. Of course I’m here for a reason! It makes no sense that the princess would send me here for no reason. This is all part of some bigger plan. She said I have to go on a journey, and that journey brought me here.”

“And you believe that, whatever that reason is, has something to do with me?”

“Of course,” she stated emphatically, having raised her two forehooves in front of her. She gestured a hoof first to herself and then to Daemeon saying, “You must have some sort of answer for me. Otherwise we wouldn’t be linked together the way we are.”

Daemeon shrugged his shoulders and asked, “What question are you trying to get me to answer anyways? You seem to think you know how you got here. What else do you need from me?”

Colgate growled and shouted, “I need you to tell me how I can change and stop hating my life!”

Most people might have been impressed with the violent outbreak from the adorable, blue pony, but Daemeon wasn’t. He had already concluded that she was just like any other woman he’d met. She was emotional, predictably volatile, and an expert at seducing others to do what she wanted. The only thing that made her really special in Daemeon’s eyes was the fact that she was inexplicably linked to him through some force he could not yet understand. He’d already decided that it wasn’t magic, despite what the little, blue unicorn insisted. She simply didn’t understand her own power. Everything could be explained, and her powers were no different.

Daemeon could almost smile at her predicament, almost. Smiling was not a part of who he was though. Smiling for one’s own sake would preclude happiness, and he had purged that falsity from himself a long time ago when he’d become truly enlightened. He returned her volatile words with a cool question, “You hate your life?”

“Yes!” shouted the small blue mare in exasperation.

Daemeon leaned back and said simply, “What if I told you that I know how to eradicate all hate from your heart both now and forever?”

Colgate’s ears twitched in curiosity, “I’d say that that is exactly the reason why I’m here with you. What could you possibly do to get rid of all the hate in my heart?”

Daemeon gestured a hand over his chest and said, “You could relieve all the hate in your heart by understanding the nature of things, the nature of the world, as I do. For, I have no hate in my heart whatsoever. There is nothing in this world that can move me to hate because I truly understand how the world works and understanding is the key.”

Colgate breathed deeply and settled to her chest saying, “Okay. If you really know what’s what, then please tell me. I want to go home and leave this awful world.”

“I can teach you, but you must first realize something. Otherwise, you cannot learn, and you will ever be full of hate.”

Colgate rolled her large eyes and said, “Aren’t we being just a little dramatic? Okay, smarty pants. Just what do I have to realize?”

“You need to understand just what I said earlier. You did not come here by some grand design. You ended up here purely by chance. There is truly no reason why you are here. There never was, and there never will be.”

Colgate frowned and shook herself in extreme frustration but curtly conceded the point, “Alright. Fine. Let’s assume you’re right. What does that have to do with anything? If I ended up here by chance, then what does that mean?”

“Good,” he said, standing from his seat. He proceeded to walk about in a circle around the empty room as he spoke in a rant that did not seem to be directly aimed at Colgate, “Understanding that this incident was the product of chance is one stepping stone to your removing hate from your heart. It is only a step though.”

Colgate watched Daemeon as he paced. He was speaking but it didn’t seem like he was speaking directly to her. It was a little unnerving to the small blue mare as she began to question the monkey’s sanity. She thought, “Maybe this creature is mental?” She dismissed the thought though as she was certain that there must be something she could learn from him. She asked instead, “If that’s the first step, then what’s the next step?”

Daemeon brought his hand up to his chin in a pensive stance as he walked. He spoke aloud, but he wasn’t really talking to her. His discourse was to everything and nothing. Usually, his only audience was himself, and he was his own interlocular. It had been so long since he’d had a serious conversation with anyone other than himself that he did not even realize the peculiarity of what he did. He spoke to the wall, to the ceiling, to himself, to everything, “The next step can be a million different things. The next million steps can be one thing. They all lead to the same conclusion, the conclusion of step one. You can have as many steps as it takes for you to understand the reality of each step. Once you realize the reality, then we can move on.”

Colgate bit her lip and shouted in frustration, “What are you saying? You’re talking gibberish! Are you crazy or something?”

Daemeon stopped his pacing and set a dreadful stare towards Colgate, very much making her wish she hadn’t spoken. He asked, “Your coat is blue?”

Colgate’s chin fell to her forehooves as she stuttered, “Ye-yes.”

“Why is your coat blue?”

Her face screwed up in confusion as she said, “I don’t know. I guess probably because my mother’s coat was blue.”

His stare continued. “Was it the same blue?”

Colgate’s eyes rolled back thoughtfully, “Uh no. Her’s was a little darker I think.”

“What about your father’s? What color was his coat?”

“Grey.”

“So your coat could have been grey like your father’s?”

Colgate looked at him thoughtfully, trying to fathom what he was getting at, “Well, yeah. I suppose so.”

“Or it could have been a darker blue like your mother’s?”

“Yes.”

He took a step forward and pressed, “So why is it the shade of blue that it is?”

Colgate shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know. It just is.”

“Yes, but why?”

“Just chance I guess.”

“Good!” Daemeon resumed his pacing saying, “You’ve completed step two with flying colors. Now we can move onto step three.”

Colgate stood back up and questioned, “That was step two? I don’t get it. What’s step three then?”

Daemeon’s voice returned to a rant as he wound on, “Step three is a good one. Maybe step three will help you realize. It’s a bit more complicated, but I think you might get to the correct conclusion. You are learning quickly after all. You want to know the truth and the truth we shall find. So then we move to step three. But what will step three be?” Daemeon’s head turned all about the room for a quick instant until his eyes rested on the couch that Colgate sat on. He beckoned, “Little horse, what is the color of the couch you’re sitting on?”

Colgate scowled and said, “I’m not a horse.” When she received no response from Daemeon, she sighed and looked down at the sofa and said, “It’s white.”

“Good!” he said emphatically, as though she had just answered a very difficult question. “Now, why is it white?”

“How should I know? I didn’t make it.”

Daemeon waved his hand dismissively at her without actually regarding her and said, “None of that now. If you want to learn anything, you’ll have to humor the question. Give it your best shot. What do you think could be the reason it’s white?”

Colgate sighed in exasperation and said, “Well, I guess it’s probably white because the carpenter wanted it white.”

“Good! That seems perfectly reasonable. Now, why would he want it to be white?”

Now Colgate was really getting annoyed. “That’s impossible for me to know! Why would you even ask that?”

Daemeon stopped his pacing briefly and shot her a glare saying, “Pretend you know! What could be the reason?”

Colgate growled and said, “Fine! It’s his favorite color. Now what?”

“Why is it his favorite color?”

“Ah hayseed, how should I know?”

“Guess.”

“What if he doesn’t have a reason? What if he just likes the color is all?”

“So,” Daemeon stated expressively, “he just likes it is all. How would you describe the carpenter’s choice of color then?”

“I guess I would describe it as being by chance if he has no reason beyond just liking it.”

Daemeon gave her a mock smile and said, “Fantastic! You passed the third step. Now let’s move onto the fourth.”

“Wait, what?”

Daemeon fell to his knees before the couch, scaring Colgate into a corner, and beckoned, “Now, assume he has a reason for liking white. What could be the reason?”

Colgate’s answer came faster than the ones before as she was getting used to the verbal game. She proposed, “Maybe he likes it because he had a stuffed animal he loved that was white.”

Daemeon could almost smell revelation just around the corner. He pressed on, “Good. Now, why was the stuffed animal white?”

Colgate thought for a moment to consider animal that were white. Applejack’s farm rolled through her mind and she offered, “Because the animal it represents is white. Like a sheep!”

“So,” Daemeon expounded heavily and deliberately, drawing out the word so as to create as much meaning as possible, “the couch is white because sheep are white?”

“Well,” she stopped and thought back carefully through the conversation, “yeah. I guess it is white because sheep are white.” She brought a hoof up to her chin and pondered aloud, “That’s odd.”

Daemeon gave her an innocent look and asked, “Is something wrong? I thought you said that the couch was white because the carpenter made it white. Do sheep have anything to do with the couch?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” she said mostly to herself. “They seem to have everything to do with the couch. And yet, sheep have nothing to do with couches. It’s like there’s no good reason why they would be connected at first, yet they are.”

“So how would you describe their connection? How are they connected?”

“Well I suppose they’re connected through a series of events. One reason leads to another and so on.”

“Could these events and thus, the connection, have been predicted? If you did not know every event one after another perfectly, could you still say with any accuracy why the couch is white?”

Colgate’s answers had long since lost their curtness as his questions started to baffle her not into confusion but wonder. She was starting to see a pattern and was becoming keenly interested in where it might go. She looked down at the white couch which had meant nothing to her only a few moments ago. Now it seemed to have a great and massive story to it which went almost beyond her imagination. The story had been completely of her own design, but it had followed logically. Even as it followed logically though, it seemed so random and chaotic. She answered Daemeon’s question slowly, choosing her words carefully, “I don’t think you could have predicted the connection. The carpenter could just as easily hated his stuffed sheep or was maybe forced to make the couch white. He maybe even did it just for money because white couches sell better. There’s an infinite number of reasons why the couch could be white. Even if you look back from reason to reason, you just work yourself into an endless search for an answer that will probably never be found accurately.”

Daemeon nodded his head slowly, gravely, and said, “So I ask you again; why is the couch white?”

Colgate set her head high and said with determination, “It’s white because it is. It just happened to be that way.”

“So it could have been any other color?”

Colgate nodded her head slowly as the weight of her realizations began to set in, “Yeah. It could have been any color really. Anything along the line could have changed what it is.”

"Now for the key question." “Does the fact that it could have been any other color matter?”

Colgate shook her head resolutely and said, “No.”

“Why not?”

The small blue mare stroked her good hoof softly over the fabric of the couch. It was quite comfortable, and she would have loved to own it. She once again found herself absently wishing she were back home in her warm, comfortable bed at home. The fact of the matter though, was that she wasn’t there. She was stuck in this new world until her journey was done. She sighed at the thought and answered Daemeon in a whisper, “Because it’s white.”

Daemeon leaned in closer and said, “What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

Colgate looked up from the couch and stated louder, “It doesn’t matter what color it could have been because it’s white. No amount of wondering what it could have been will change what it is. Whatever the reasons might have been aren’t important because knowing them doesn’t change the fact that, through some series of events we can’t really hope to follow, the couch is white.”

Daemeon stood up from his knees and sat down on the couch next to Colgate. He placed a hand on her back and asked, “Do you think you could view most things as you view the couch?”

The weight of the hand on her back was comforting. She wasn’t sure if he meant it to be that way or not, but she liked it nonetheless. She didn’t arch her back to it as she had before though. She felt a nervous knot in her stomach as questions began to arise in her mind on the implications of what Daemeon was asking her and the answers she was giving. They were such simple questions with equally devised answers, but they had gotten her thinking in a way she had never thought before. Could most things be seen this way? Could everything be just the result of untraceable chance and circumstance? It hadn’t seemed that way at first, but now, she was starting to wonder.

Colgate sighed and buried her face into her hooves saying, “I guess you could.”

Dameon shifted closer to Colgate and pulled the small blue mare against his hip and asked, “Does that mean that everything, even things you think you have control over, are really the effects of purely haphazardous chaos? Is the world ruled by chaos?”

Chaos. As soon as the word left his lips, Colgate tensed. Her eyes went wide and her stomach turned inside of her. She bolted out of Daemeon’s comforting grasp and onto the floor. She turned to him and gave a violent glare while shouting, “No! No chaos! You’re a bad ugly ape!”

Daemeon’s eye twitched as he tried to comprehend the outburst. She was volatile, yes, but he was sure he had her. His face was red as he opened his mouth to say something. No coherence came forth as he shuffled back from surprise to anger to indignation. He finally rested on the latter and sputtered with a seething tongue, “I’m not ugly!”

Colgate stuck out her tongue and said, “Yes, you are. You’re a bad ugly ape and an agent of Discord! What are you trying to trick me for? The world isn’t chaos. I was sent here for a reason. It’s not just by chance. You’re just mean and ugly, and I hate you.”

His rational, plotting mind left him. There was no plan now. He wasn’t trying to get her to see his way anymore. She had gotten him angry, a feat no person he’d met had achieved in a long time. She wasn’t going to enjoy his anger. She was going to pay.

Daemeon surged from the couch, arms out before him, and reached for the unicorn. Colgate’s ears fell back, and she jumped out of his way, narrowly escaping the giant hands. Her heart raced as she sprinted from him as fast as she could. She was quickly met with one wall and another. She could hear Daemeon over her shoulder, but she didn’t dare turn to look as she desperately searched for an escape. She caught sight of the entry door and stopped so she could work her magic and turn the knob. The door was just beginning to open when she felt a pair of massive hands clamp cruelly around her chest.

Daemeon lifted Colgate before him and turned the writhing mare over in his arms so he could see the fear in her eyes. Colgate looked at him with wide mouthed horror as she tried her best to flail away, but Daemeon’s strong hands did not allow her to flee an inch. With a certain sense of satisfaction, an emotion he was well prepared to indulge, he squeezed his hands together on Colgate’s diminutive rib cage.

Colgate screamed in panic. She saw the cruelty in Daemeon’s gleaming eyes and saw her own death impending. She tried to think of how she might use her magic to stop him, but no direction came to her as she felt herself swept up in debilitating fear and pain. She felt herself lost in such delirium that she didn’t notice the sudden change of expressions in Daemeon’s face as his violent sneer twisted into a grunting look of despairing pain.

Daemeon’s grip on Colgate lessened as he felt a force he could not see catch him in a vice. Even as he squeezed Colgate, he felt himself being squished and found it fairly impossible to breathe. He immediately came to the conclusion that it was Colgate using her magic that was harming him, and he retaliated by redoubling his efforts and squeezing harder. His eyes started to lose focus though as it seemed the harder he tried to stop her, the harder she fought back.

Just when he felt he could no longer hold her or even remain standing, Daemeon loosened his vice grip and pulled Colgate in a wide sweep over his shoulder. With blurred vision, he extended his arm and threw the little blue unicorn as hard as he could against one of the walls. The pain he felt that followed blackened his vision and caused him to crumple to the floor just as Colgate did.

Darkness consumed them both.