Starlight’s eyes snapped open. The world was blurry for a minute as her mind fought to identify where she had landed. The last moment she had been conscious, she had been in the RV, now she was . . . wherever here was. Soaring spires that looked like they were made out of sand and glass extended upwards to an arching ceiling far above her. A mural of a sun crackling in the sky above an ancient city was painted on the surface.

She sat up, holding a hoof to her head and fighting the urge to vomit. Her mouth was watering, and she had to wipe away some spit that made its way out. Starlight’s gaze traveled across rows and rows of pews with hard benches and felt backs that faced a central pier made out of sandstone and covered in drawings of suns.

“Great, church is just what I need,” she muttered, realizing she was laying on a back pew. As far as she could tell, the church was empty, with the only sign of life being the electric lamps attached to the walls were turned on.

Starlight tried to get up, but a bolt of pain shocked its way through her. She looked down and saw one entire flank covered in bandages. Some had dried blood on them that had soaked its way through. Her stomach did a turn, and she really did almost vomit.

A door opened behind her, and she heard chattering voices that echoed as they walked into the central chamber. They stopped when walked into her field of vision, and revealed themselves to belong to Staten, Red, and a pony she had never seen before. He was a short, stock stallion garbed in soft, white robes that covered him from head to hoof.

“Hey, look who’s up,” Red said, trotting over. “Sleep well, Princess?”

Starlight rubbed her head again. “What happened to me? I remember being in the RV, then . . . nothing.”

The pony in the robes smiled at her. “You were hit by a bullet,” he said in a soft voice. “It nicked an artery, and you ended up losing a lot of blood. Luckily, your friends were able to take you to me.”

“You mean, I was shot in the ass?” Starlight asked.

“The bullet hit your flank, yes. You are very lucky it hit the fat there instead of more of the artery.”

Red snickered while Starlight glared at him. When he had calmed down, he waved a hoof at the pony in the robes. “Starlight, meet my friend, Parish. He’s a priest-in-training here at this Solarist church.”

“My official title is Sol Parish,” Parish said, “but most call me by my name. Welcome to the Church of the Heavenly Solstice, I only wish your visit was more holy than one of necessity.”

“He’s the one who fixed you up,” Red explained. “Some of the hardcore Solarists don’t go for hospitals, so he’s got training in surgery. You should have seen him . . . or maybe not. It was pretty messy.”

Starlight rubbed a hoof over her bandages and shivered a little. “How did you replace the blood?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve heard stories about Solarists, but . . .”

Staten smiled. “We all gave some for you. Hurt a bit, but we managed to get you stable.”

“Well, um, thanks. To all of you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Parish said. “We Solarists believe that we are to spread our light to anypony in need, no matter what they believe in.”

“And I’m glad for it.” Starlight looked around again at the massive, sloping walls and delicate patterns on the ceiling and pillars around the room. She whistled. “I’ve never been inside a Solarist church,” she said. “The Adanas don’t have anything like this place.”

Parish bowed his head and shuffled his hooves inside his robe. “You are lucky to see one of the most unique Solarist churches in all of the world,” he said. “This one was carved out of Skyhall’s mountain, and we have been blessed to have built such a mighty structure as this. Many come in here just to look, even Adanas.”

He waved his hoof in a circle in front of his face, and bowed his head. He muttered something in an old language, then smiled once again. “I can only thank Solaris that you woke up to see the church. To tell the truth, I was not sure if you would. You are a very lucky mare, Starlight.”

Starlight chuckled. “I guess Adana wanted to keep me here for a while longer. Maybe he was in league with Solaris.” She thought that Parish’s eyes flickered for a moment at her little bit of blasphemy, but he didn’t say anything.

Her stomach began to growl, and she held a hoof to it. It felt like her insides were trying to claw their way out, and she was tempted to find out how well the religious books of theirs, the Sol’ar, tasted.

“Is there anything to eat here?” she asked. “I’m starving.”

Red and Staten had gathered some food from a small kitchen inside the church and spread them out on a blanket in front of the pews, on the same platform as the pulpit column. Starlight had managed to walk up there, but it had left her sweating and her flank aching. She lay down on the blanket eagerly and gnawed at some fruit and noodles in a can.

Sitting next to her was Red, chewing silently on a peach. Sunrise and Staten sat with Parish on the other side of them. Starlight had thought about saying something to him, that he didn’t have to feel guilty, but she thought better of it. She admitted to herself that she almost liked having him next to her.

“I see you’ve all been through a lot,” Parish was saying as Staten told him their story. “Far beyond what even I have experienced. I am happy to see you are all here and well . . . barring present company, of course.”

Starlight nodded to him. “Hey, could be worse. We could be in an IS spinner right now, headed for Lupine Falls to be thrown in a dungeon somewhere.” She slurped on some noodles, spilling juice all over her face. “I’m sure my parents are already in there too, and I’m not so hot to want to join them.”

Parish looked grim. “That doesn’t sound much like the IS I’ve known,” he said. “They never seemed the villain type.”

“Maybe they’re just scared,” Staten said. “They’re confronted with something they neither understand or control, and it terrifies them. I can understand them wanting to gather together everyone with some control over the Crystal Heart, just to make them feel on top of things. Power is a funny thing.”

Red snorted. “Or maybe they’re just flankholes.”

Sunrise was quiet, and pushed around his food. He kept looking at Starlight, then looking away with his ears pressed flat against his head. Red watched him too, and coughed.

“Got something to say, Sunrise?” he asked.

“It’s nothing,” Sunrise said. “Really, it’s . . . nothing.”

“You know, if there were ever a place to confess, it would be in a church,” Parish said. “We’re all friends here, I believe.”

Sunrise looked down. “I gave the order to drive off to Staten. We could have waited, and then Starlight wouldn’t have gotten shot. She almost died because I got jumpy and wanted to get out of there.”

“It’s not your fault,” Red said. “We’re the ones that brought everything down on top of us.”

Starlight hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah, anything could have happened. I was just in the wrong place. And besides, I’m alive now.”

“Plus, it was Sunrise here that gave the most blood,” Parish said. “He made sure you pulled through, Starlight.”

“See, there you go.”

“I guess,” Sunrise said, though he did so quietly while flicking his tail. Starlight wanted to say more to him, but it was clear he was just going to keep on feeling guilty about the whole thing. So, she dropped it.

Staten swallowed the rest of his food, then waved to everypony gathered. “I think it might be time we all get some sleep,” he said. “It’s been a long day on top of many long days, so a little sleep won’t hurt any of us. Especially you, Starlight.”

“There are plenty of extra beds in the basement,” Parish said. “This church is also a disaster relief center and a home for the poor if they need it. Feel free to find one and use it tonight.”

“Will do,” Red said, then brushed against Starlight. “I’ll help you get downstairs. I don’t imagine it’ll be easy with that leg of yours.”

Starlight smiled. “Thanks.” She offered a hoof to him, and he helped her hang on to his shoulder and lurch along next to him. They made their way down the aisles and turned a corner toward the basement. Staten left with Sunrise, leaving the cleaning to Parish.

Parish sighed, then set about cleaning everything up. The church had a small cell for the priests, and it came with a kitchen. He carried the dishes back to it, and washed them before heading to his bed. He flopped into it with a tired groan, and was asleep within minutes.

The problem, however, is that it seemed he could only get to sleep for a few minutes at a time. Parish tossed and turned on the rough hammock the church had given him. He held his tongue, but felt like cursing his idea to be a priest rather than a drug dealer with a feather bed. After a few hours of tossing and turning, he gave up and pulled himself out of bed.

Parish poured himself a glass of milk and gulped it down, then walked down the stairs from the upstairs rooms to the worship to see if there were any late-night ponies come to pray. He had turned off the outside lights to discourage anypony getting caught up in the affairs of Reddington and Sunrise, but he didn’t know if it would keep out the most faithful.

To his relief, only one pony was in the worship hall, and he recognized the sitting form of Red from the back of the pews. Parish trotted up the center aisle toward his old friend, and came to a stop beside him. Red was sitting on the ground, polishing an assault rifle with an oily rag.

“Evening, Red,” Parish said.

“Evening, Sol,” Red said.

Parish eyed the gun. “Did you feel like you needed to bless your weapon?”

“Nope.” Red looked up at the religious tapestries above him. “Just liked the company in here, I suppose.”

“You worship Adana, if I recall.”

“The way I see it, Adana could be Solaris and Solaris could be Adana. Doesn’t bother me none. In these recent days, all this seems to be the only thing that makes sense.”

“Faith?”

“Yeah, that.”

Parish sat next to him and breathed in the smells of the worship candles he had lit around the hall. “I admit, I took Sunrise’s wings better as a Sol than I would have a few years ago,” he said. “Faith makes these sorts of things easier to take.”

“Yeah, but blind faith isn’t the best idea,” Red said.

“I didn’t say it was blind.” Parish smiled. “When I enrolled to be a Sol, my life was almost at an end. I thought I had nowhere to go, that I could accomplish nothing, that I would die young. Now, I am next in line to take over as Head Sol for this church. Faith isn’t my means, it’s my foundation.”

“I suppose that’s something along the lines of what I’ve got,” Red said, checking over his gun. “I gotta tell you, Parish, sometimes it gets hard with all this going on to keep believing. I don’t understand the half of what I’ve got into, and it’s too easy to get lost.”

“If belief were easy, we would not need faith. It’s trying times like these that we are tested the most, and it’s who you are in the dark that shines brightest in the light.”

Red stared at him. “You’ve really been buying into the Solarist thing, haven’t you?”

Parish smiled and stood up. “Well, they way I see it, I can ‘buy into’ Solaris and have something to believe in, or try to go back to my old life and buy into drugs again. Somehow, one is more reassuring than the next.”

“I’m just going to try to find something worthwhile in this whole crazy trip,” Red said. “I agree to one easy job, and now I’m polishing an assault rifle in a church in case the IS comes bursting through that front door. I’d leave if I could, honest.”

“Really?” Parish chuckled. “I can hardly imagine you doing that.”

“Why not?”

“That girl.”

“Oh, and why is that?”

Parish rolled his eyes. “Come on, Red, we’ve known each other too long for you to play dumb. I won’t tell you that you like her in that way, but you’ve at least made yourself her protector. You’re the one who sprinted in, cradling her in your arms and wouldn’t leave until you knew she would live.”

“I just didn’t want her to die,” Red said, looking away.

“No, you didn’t,” Parish said, “but knowing you, it’s because you’ve gotten yourself thinking you’re her guardian. Kind of sweet, really.”

Red put down the cleaning cloth and slung the assault rifle over his shoulder. He stepped up behind the pulpit and looked at the baptism sand pit that stood beneath a massive mural of the coming of Solaris. Parish joined him, after a moment, and didn’t even complain about the gun.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, alright?” Red said.

“Not many of us do,” Parish said. “The best we can do is to keep going, and pretend like we have a grip on things. You’re tough, Red. You’ll make it.”

Red shook his head. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

“She’ll be fine, you’ve all just got to be more careful.”

“You say that like it’s easy.”

“Is anything?”

Parish flicked his tail and went to attend to one of the candles that was flickering out. He snuffed out the dying flame, then lit again so it burned even brighter. He smiled, but when he turned back, Red was gone. Parish sighed, but didn’t go after him.

He went around the worship hall, relighting candles and giving occasional glances up at the paintings of Solaris on the wall. He muttered prayers under his breath and tried not to feel so exasperated.

Downtown Skyhall wasn’t a very active place after dark, so Noctilucent, for the most part, had the sidewalk to himself. He walked between spindly skyscrapers that stretched above the mountain peaks to watch over Amperdam in the valley. Many of them had lights flickering inside of them, even if they were empty of ponies.

A car rolled by, coasting on its brakes as it rolled down one level of the city toward another one. Noctilucent kept his face hidden from whoever was in the car, though he wasn’t sure why. Then again, he wasn’t sure why he was out of the hospital. He kicked a can away from path and kept close to the walls of office buildings and shops that stood next to the sidewalk.

He hadn’t been able to stand being in that hospital for a minute more, and had had to go somewhere else. He hadn’t cared much where he was going, and still didn’t. Skyhall was an unfamiliar city, but Noctilucent preferred it that way.

A spinner flew overhead, hovering a moment before heading on to the hospital. The place was crawling with IS agents who barked at each other and shoved ponies aside to try to keep their control tight on the building. It made Noctilucent sick to his stomach to see them acting like that in a place with so many ponies hurt or dying.

There was only one building in the whole district he was in that drew the eye. A massive church was built into the rock of the mountain, and its sharp towers rose above the smaller buildings around it. The lights were off, but that didn’t mean it was closed. Noctilucent hesitated, but was drawn to it like a moth to flame. He felt like the church was calling him, in a way few had in the past twenty years.

He pushed open one of the large doors of the church and walked inside. As he had expected, the inside of the Solarist Church was covered in lit candles in addition to the electric lights in some of the corners.

“Hello?” he called.

There was a moment of silence, then a pony stuck his head out from behind the pulpit. He was dressed in a long, white cloak and looked at Noctilucent with interest. “Yes, hello!” he said. “What brings you here?”

Noctilucent looked up and shrugged. “The same thing that brings anypony to church?”

The stallion smiled and hurried down the steps and front aisle toward Noctilucent. The cloak he wore fluttered as he went, and his eyes were bright. “Welcome to the Church of the Heavenly Solstice,” he said when he had reached Noctilucent. “My name is Parish, and I’m a Sol in training. Do you have any questions?”

“Is it okay if I sit in a pew?” Noctilucent asked.

“Yes, of course,” Parish said. “Might I ask if you need some help?”

“I’ve been a Solarist for ten years,” Noctilucent said. “I’ll be just fine, Sol. I just need a little quiet, is all.”

“Of course. Just call if you need help.”

Noctilucent nodded and walked to a pew in the back row. The seats were as hard as they had always been, but he ignored them. He bent his head down and leaned forward in the pew, like he was praying. The problem was, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew he should pray, but his mind wandered no matter how he tried.

All he could think about was Starlight, and where she could be in the city. None of her friends had come to the hospital, and in a town as big as Skyhall, the chances of finding her were slim. His stomach felt like ice when he thought how close he had been to finding her again, but how she had just slipped from his grasp.

The church certainly felt much cooler to him when he thought about Starlight. It was like the thought of her sent icy chills down his back. Whether it was because he wasn’t able to find her or because he started to think she didn’t want to be found, he didn’t know.

Noctilucent kept his voice low and head bent. “Just let me find Starlight,” he said. “Please, if you’re there, help me find her. She’s a good girl and I . . . I screwed up with her. If you’re there, just help me find her.”

He wasn’t sure if he felt better, but Noctilucent at least felt satisfied, done. He stood up from the pew and began to shamble out. The church had a thick, stuffy kind of air to it, and he could hardly stand it for too long. He walked out of the pew and headed for the doors.

Before he did, however, he saw a pony emerge into the worship hall out of the corner of his eye. The tan pony caught his eye, but he wasn’t sure why. If the stallion had seen him, he hadn’t done anything about it. Noctilucent dismissed it, and walked out of the church. The world outside seemed comparatively bright, and he appreciated the cool air.

It wasn’t until Noctilucent was halfway back to the hospital that he began to get a bad feeling about the pony he had seen in the church. He racked his mind for why that pony had seemed familiar to him, but the answer seemed to elude him. Then, just as he reached the hospital, it hit him.

When it did, Noctilucent’s stomach dropped and his heart felt as cold as ice. The reason that pony had seemed familiar was because his face was plastered on wanted posters all across Teton. A familiar face of the smuggler traveling with Professor Staten and Starlight.

Noctilucent galloped into the hospital, and headed right for the break room that Fresco had taken up residence in. His heart beat fast and sweat ran down his head, but the stallion didn’t pay attention. He was going to save his daughter.

Starlight couldn’t sleep. She lay on her side, careful to keep her damaged leg up, on a hard cot in the basement of the church. The sheets were starchy and the pillow might as well have been cardboard. The big dark room was devoid of anything interesting other than a window that was more of a slit near the back. It let in some moonlight, but only just enough to see with. Sunrise snored gently somewhere across the room, but Starlight couldn’t tell where. Staten was quiet, and was sleeping about three rows away.

She turned on her back with a sigh and stared up at a ceiling she couldn’t see. The whole place felt damp, like the air had been soaked in a dish rag before being dumped in the room. Starlight took long, deep breaths and grimaced after every one.

A door at the top of a set of rickety stairs opened and Red stood, silhouetted in the doorway. He looked around, and trotted down the stairs and over toward Starlight. He placed the assault rifle slung over his back next to a cot beside Starlight’s, and then jumped into the bed. He didn’t say a word to Starlight, and nor she to him, but she felt like something had been said between them nonetheless.

Clouds raced to cover up the moon, and Starlight finally began to find a little bit of sleep in the dank basement. Her eyes began to flutter shut, and her breathing slowed. Then, just as her mind was ready to drop off to sleep, she heard a bang from upstairs.

Starlight’s eyes shot open, and she sat up. She looked around, hoping it was nothing, but the bang came again. It was the bang of something heavy hitting on wood. Her stomach sank.

“Ugh, what is it?” Sunrise asked from his cot. “Can’t ponies wait until it’s day to come worship? It’s not eve Sunday!”

There was a pause, then the banging came again, louder this time. Red was already up and with the assault rifle once again over his shoulder. Starlight couldn’t see much in the dark, but could almost hear his grimace.

“Something’s not right,” he said.

The door at the top of the staircase burst open, and Parish switched the lights on. Everypony covered their eyes and grunted as white light flooded their visions, and by the time they could see again Parish was already rushing down toward them.

“The IS,” he said between breaths. “They’re here!”

Everypony was out of bed now. Red ran to the corner where their bags were packed and rifled through them. He pulled out extra ammo and slammed them into his gun before throwing a couple saddlebags on his back.

“Time to leave. Now!”

Starlight fought to get up, but her leg still ached. She bit her lip and tried to keep quiet, but Red had to rush to her side.

“I got you,” he said.

“I don’t need your help,” she said.

“Right now isn’t the time to debate this, Starlight. I can help you move, but we have to go!” He turned to Parish. “Is there a back way out of here?”

Parish nodded. “Yeah, but you’ll have to cut across a street filled with IS cars.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Red said. “We have to go. Stall them as best you can, will you?”

Parish muttered under his breath, but agreed. He pointed to a wooden door at the far end of the basement. “That way is to the alley behind the church. You’ll have to sprint across the street to get to your RV.”

“Right,” said Red. “Thanks for the help, Parish . . . good luck.”

“You too, Red.”

Parish ran back upstairs while the crew in the basement made their way toward the door. Red dragged Starlight along, careful to keep weight off her bad leg. He had to hold her with one hoof and the gun with the other, so he burst through the wooden door by ramming it with his shoulder.

The door took him into a narrow alley outside that stank with mold, but was hidden from view of the IS. He could hear them burst through the front door of the church and begin shouting. Red turned right and began to head down the alley toward the open street, and the RV parked under a tree beyond.

Starlight was breathing hard, and Red had to hold her tight to keep her from falling down. “Almost there,” he kept telling her. “We’re almost there, just hold on.”

She nodded and used her three good legs to keep up with Red’s steady trot, but just barely. Sunrise and Staten rushed behind them, and soon they burst out of the alley. The street, as Parish had said, was swarming with cars. Most of the IS faced away from them, and they could see a clear avenue to the RV on the other side of the street.

Red let Starlight get off of him. “I’ll provide cover,” he said. “I’ll take Staten across and start the RV, then you and Sunrise get over there and get in, okay? We have to get out of here as fast as possible.”

Starlight nodded, and Sunrise slipped a hoof around her to keep her upright. She watched Red raise the assault rifle to his shoulder, while Staten clutched a pistol in one hoof. They looked both ways, then dashed across the street. If the IS saw them, they didn’t make any indication of it.

Staten and Red climbed into the RV parked under a tree on the street, and a few moments later the vehicle started up. Sunrise nodded to Starlight, and they began to lope across the street. Starlight’s leg burned, and she bit her lip until it began to bleed. Her muscles complained and tried to shut down on her, but she was determined to stop them.

Halfway across the street, though, they gave out and Starlight tumbled to the ground. She let out a cry and writhed on the ground, holding on to her bandaged flank. Sunrise looked down at her, not sure what to do. She could hear Red yelling at her, and then yelling from the direction of the IS.

From the corner of her vision, Starlight could see IS agents start to move toward her. Cautious at first, but then faster when they realized what was happening. The sound of a rifle split the night, and bullets sparked at the hooves of the IS agents.

Red was firing away at them, giving them cover fire. The IS agents, however, were not so easily taken. They pulled guns and began to fire back at Red and the RV. Their attention, however, was shifted when Sunrise began to pull Starlight across the street. They yelled at him to stop, then shot above his head. Starlight was staring up at his face, twisted in concentration as he dragged her. She could hardly hear anything, but she could definitely see when he got shot.

His body seemed to shudder, like there was something not quite right with it and it was trying to figure it out. Then another bullet hit him, and Sunrise spun like a top and fell to the street. He lay there, moaning and bleeding next to Starlight. Red tried to move toward him, but concentrated fire from the IS threw him off. It was all he could to keep them pinned down, now behind some of their cars.

Starlight was tired. More tired than she had ever felt. She was tired of the shooting, of the yelling, of the fast-paced chases away from everypony, from a government that was hellbent on capturing them no matter what they had to do.

Starlight was tired.

She crawled over to Sunrise and lay on top of him. He was breathing, but in small, little breaths. His mouth hung open and his eyes stared up. He was dying. Starlight pressed herself over his wounds, and closed her eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks as she stooped low over him.

Starlight had never been a pony to pray, but she did now. She prayed for all of the bad to go away. For the IS, for the bullet wounds, for all the terror and pain to disappear and for her to just be with her friends in peace once again. She wanted it more than she could have ever known, and she found that she was yelling them out.

She prayed and prayed, while bullets flew over head. She prayed hard, prayed for peace. And then, suddenly, it came true.

Like a switch had been turned, the RV, Red, Staten, Starlight, and Sunrise just . . . weren’t in Skyhall anymore. It was if one second they were, and the next they were gone. Where they had been on a rough street a moment before, suddenly there were in a small patch of forest, standing within a large, smoking circle of burnt grass and leaves. The smell of ozone danced through the air as Staten and Red put down their guns and looked around. The only sound was that of the rumbling RV engine.

Starlight opened her eyes, and blinked as she adjusted to the light glinting through the leaves overhead. She was still lying on top of Sunrise. A Sunrise who was, in fact, breathing normally once again. She ran her hoof over his chest where the bullet wounds had been, but only found smooth skin. Her throat caught, and tears came once more as she lay on him and cried, in joy and relief and a dozen other emotions she didn’t know she had.

Red saw her leaning over Sunrise, and rushed over to her. When he was next to her, however, he slowed and stared down at her. In utter silence, his mouth opened, then shut again.

Starlight looked up at him. “What?”

He wordlessly pointed to her forehead, so she brought a hoof up and patted her head. At first she found nothing, then she felt like she suddenly had a small pipe sticking out of her head. A pipe that ended in a point.

A horn.