Snow crunched under hoof, and my breath fogged as I exhaled. The forest was quiet, not even a hint of wind to rustle through the pines or a bird call to be heard. This time of the year, many animals were hibernating, leaving the normally active forests almost worryingly peaceful.

Pausing at the base of a pine tree, I took out a waterskin and sipped from it while I stared up at the clear, starry sky. My navigation skills were poor to say the least, so I only recognised a few constellations. Even so, I enjoyed the brief moment of respite under Luna’s heavens. Retying the cap on my water skin, I slipped it back into my saddlebags as I swallowed the last bit of cold water resting on my tongue. I took one last pause to give thanks to Luna’s full, perfect moon before continuing through the forest.

What virtue anyone ever saw in the burning light of day, I will never know.

It wasn’t long before I came to a break in the trees and found myself staring at a midnight-black lake. The panorama of stars I observed earlier reflected on it, glittering like gems beneath its glassy surface. The body of water stretched deep and mysterious, almost a full mile in any direction before me.

My destination found, I smiled to myself and took another drink straight from the water’s surface. Ripples spread outwards from where my lips met the cold, and the icy chill on my face was wonderful, rejuvenating after the effort it took to get here. When I had my fill, I took a step back and sat on my haunches, watching the great mirror of my goddess’s great work.

I don’t know how long I sat there satisfied, but eventually I knew it was time to return. Standing up and dusting the sand of the lake shore from myself, I turned to walk away when my hoof landed on something that slipped out from under it. My agility served me well, and I caught myself before falling, but my heart soared as gravity seized me.

Once I was steady again, I looked down to see what I’d stood on and found my hoof resting atop a leg. A rotting leg.

Backing away with a panicked step, I realised I’d been sitting next to a corpse. It made me yelp, the disgusting, swollen festering mass that rested half in the water, the flesh on its face bloated and hanging off the skull. Some scavenger had gotten into its intestines, and the reek of fermented bile made me clench my throat in preparation of holding down my previous meal.

Barely holding back vomit, I fell backwards another step, only for my hoof to slip in the sand. I stumbled face first into the cadaver. Something from inside croaked and slipped into my mane. I desperately tried to pull away from it, but its flesh stuck to mine. Weightlessly, it fell on me, and my panicked momentum pushed us both further into the lake.

This time, vomit did escape me as I gazed into its empty eye sockets, only my face was under the surface, so whatever I threw up merely stained the water a brothy brown. I tried to swim to the surface, but my legs tangled with those of the corpse, and no matter how I tried to free them, I simply couldn’t get loose. As I tried to pull myself free of this dead pony, I realised I recognised it.

The gore-stained grey fur, the clumped blue mane, the crushed bat-like wings… it could only be her. Before I could stop myself, I screamed, and bile-ridden corpse water rushed into my mouth. I flailed, but my head grew heavier and heavier as buzzing filled my ears. The lights in my eyes dimmed, my sister’s corpse became fuzzier, less distinct, and my kicks weakened to match those of a foal.

Slowly, I drifted free of her hold and sank downwards, away from her outstretched hooves and deeper into the lake. The darkness of the lake battled with the shadows of my mind to see who could rob my sight first, until eventually I settled the argument by closing my eyes
and surrendering to the cold.

I awoke to the aroma of something cooking. Strangely, it smelled good. When I sat up and looked over the side of the wagon, I was surprised to see it was Stray who was stirring the bubbling pot.

“Bad dream, eh?” he asked, giving me a glance.

Tilting my head , I gave him an annoyed look.

He shrugged. “You was rolling around and whimpering and whatnot. I woulda kicked’cha up, but I figured you’da just kicked me harder, right?” He chuckled and kept stirring. “Don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want.”

I didn’t.

Throwing the blanket off of myself, I slipped into my cloak before jumping out of the wagon. My hooves instantly went cold from the snow, and I suppressed a shiver as a breeze blew through our camp, throwing up some of the powder.

I hated winter.

“Hungry?” Stray threw a sly grin my way. “Is’n old family recipe.”

He had a stew over the fire which he occasionally stirred with a battered-looking wooden ladle. It looked like mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions to me. I sniffed at it, but I couldn’t pick up anything that seemed unusual.

Old family recipe? Hardly. I’d made the same on a few occasions.

At my snort of contempt he gave me an annoyed look. “Well it’ll taste different. ‘Sides, are you complaining?”

It was difficult to communicate multiple statements with one look, but I was getting better at it. I believe I managed to convey a combination of, ‘I don’t care,’ ‘I’m hungry,’ and ‘shut up’.

He rolled his eyes and continued to stir the pot. “Girl, you need to putcha ‘ooves up now and then, learn t’like the small things.”

I’ll put your hooves up in a minute. I’m glad I didn’t say that out loud; it sounded foolish to me even as I thought it. Glancing around, I realised I didn’t see Tom anywhere. Not that I cared where he’d gone.

“Said she was at the river, toppin’ up her water skin.” Stray answered the question I didn’t ask, having mistaken my quick scan for Tom as me giving a damn. “Been gone a while though.”

I grunted an acknowledgement. For some strange reason, he started staring at me expectantly. I just returned his gaze with a vaguely annoyed one, which he passed straight back after a second.

“Go find her, yeah? She’ll want some.” He tilted his head at the bubbling stew. “Hate wastin’ good food.”

When I offered a scowl in response, he merely returned it.

“I’m payin’ ya, aren’t I? Guardin’ the two of us?” He knocked his head towards the river. “Go make sure she’s not dead, yeah?”

Part of me wanted to argue with him, but that would mean actually talking, and the very thought of that left me feeling a little drained. The most I’d had to say to the two of them was the occasional threat whenever Tom approached my packs. But I suppose travelling with these two wasn’t as bad as I expected. At the very least they kicked me awake in the mornings, which was useful on the days that I felt like curling into a ball and letting the elements take me.

Even if I hadn’t planned on it, having other ponies around helped in a way: it forced me to keep my armor up. On the nights that were especially cold and lonely, knowing they would be close enough to hear it forced me to not cry myself to sleep, or at least hold back my sobs. Even when the sight of the perfect moon tarnished by perfection nearly brought me low with despair, I forced myself to keep walking because I couldn’t allow anyone to see me so weak.

Perhaps it was a little late for that, though. That strange Celestian unicorn had already seen how pathetic a state I was left in. Even with my physical wounds healed, I still felt lost, unfocused, miserable and lonely. Each blow that struck down the things precious to me had scarred me at the same time, but I would not be crippled. I couldn’t be.

Not if I had any hope of surviving long enough to free Luna.

Still, for now I could use the crutch of other ponies, because just leaving the camp to find the river drained away my irritation at Stray, leaving me with nothing but my fresh scars. And truly, they were crisp, ripe, and swollen with tears.

It was pathetic to need two thieves like this, but it was less pathetic than seeking company from some naive heathen with Celestia’s collar around her neck and her tail wagging at the thought of licking a stranger’s wounds. I refused to ever need one of Celestia’s dogs ever again.

The forests we were travelling through were actually beautiful in the snow. A thick white coating of the finest paint, splashed over the dried brown canvas of pine needles. Great strokes of dark green, each tree coming to a jagged tip, ready to gouge the eyes from the birds that would occasionally pass overhead. It was usually crows this time of year, politely waiting for someone else to stain the white with red so they could collect their share.

Had Chase been buried? Or had she been left there in that pond, freezing overnight and thawing in the sun, all while the feathered friends came dressed in black to pay their respects and claim their share of her inheritance? Had that one-eyed crow taken hers, thinking to use it to replace what it had lost?

Chase would have asked when I had become a fool, thinking like this.

Tears started leaking down my face, and I wiped them off before they froze there. Was that even possible? In any case, it gave me the excuse I needed to dry my eyes. I needed to stop thinking about this, and focus on finding Cha-

...I didn’t even know how I made that mistake. She and Tom are nothing alike.

It was a short walk, but in the snow it took a long time for me to arrive at the river. Tom was easy to spot in the snow, her earthen coat obvious against the white backdrop. Her back was turned to me and, and she seemed to be doing something with one of her forehooves. She was reaching under herself, and rubbing at something, breathing heavily as she-

I held back a snicker. Well, that explained why she was gone for longer than expected. I smirked as I seized onto the perfect distraction. It was difficult to move quietly in the snow, but I found her hoof prints and crept forward using those. It helped that she was distracted.

I took out my waterskin and lifted the flap from the top. She only noticed I was there when I upended it over her rump, dousing her back half in icy water.

With a squealed gasp, she kicked and jumped forwards, almost putting her forehooves in the river. Turning around, her look of shock transformed into one of outrage at the sight of my smirk and my water skin.

“You godawful bitch!” she screamed, her voice cracking and turning shrill as she flushed with embarrassment. “What in the bloody Pale do you think you’re doing?”

Without deliberate slowness, I put away the waterskin and gave her a blank look. “Breakfast is almost ready. Stray asked me to find you.”

“I don’t think he asked you to do that!”

I shrugged. “He didn’t have to.”

She grit her jaw so hard I thought she might crack her teeth. Seemingly without even noticing she’d done so, she took a step forward like she might hit me. I just raised my eyebrow at her. If she wanted to strike me, she could try it and see how her breakfast tasted when she was lacking a few teeth.

With a glare, she ground a hoof into the snow before stalking past me. “Goddesses, I hate you.”

“There is only one true goddess,” I murmured as I followed after her, but she either chose not to respond or didn’t hear me.

Probably for the best. Chase told me that criminals often have ridiculous superstitions, so I was sure anything Tom would have to say on matters of belief would be painfully foolish, if not outright heathenous.

While I didn’t think much of Tom, I appreciated having her around to some extent. Her open dislike of me was a welcome distraction from my intermittent fits of melancholy, and I’d taken to annoying her whenever I found myself taken by one. Rolling her into the snow to wake her up, taking food from her plate, moving her things when she wasn’t looking, minor things like that. The best part was when she wanted to hit me, but self-preservation kept her from doing so.

The icy silence made the short walk pass by all the faster, and every time Stray glanced back to see my smirk, the day ahead seemed just the little better for it.

“-oody creepy,” she muttered, just low enough that I only caught the end of it.

My pleasure at this statement died a sudden death when we emerged from the trees into our campsite and saw two Celestian pegasi. One had his hoof on Stray’s back, pressing his face into the snow, while the other was in the midst of going through our packs, scattering our belongings . They were both lightly armoured, wearing only a layer of hardened leather for protection from attacks and a layer of warm fur to ward off the cold. They were identifiable as Celestians by the suns sewn crudely over their chests.

At our arrival, the one who’d been throwing Tom’s things across the ground stood up and turned to face us. He watched us for a second, his eyes flicking over her before settling on me.

After a second, Tom broke the silence. “What in the name of Celestia’s rosy shits do you think you’re doing?”

If the pegasus was offended by her slander of his goddess, he didn’t show it. He answered her, but his eyes didn’t leave me, probably correctly deciding I was the bigger threat. “Peacekeeping operations. A number of mercenaries were killed on the road a few days ago.”

I grit my jaw, and only after I’d done it did I hope he wouldn’t notice my reaction.

“Wouldn’t know a thing about it,” Tom spat. “And what does your bloody peacekeeping have to do with throwing my stuff into the snow?”

“Standard search. If we don’t find any weapons, we can be certain it wasn’t you who did it.”

“Why are you shoving my mate’s head into the bloody snow then?”

His eyes flicked over to Stray and his companion, before looking back towards us. “Making sure he won’t interfere.”

“I’m about to bloody well interfere!” Tom snarled, stepping forward aggressively.

“What do you plan to do when you find the killer?” I asked, moving forward to stand between Tom and the Celestian.

The pegasus was silent for a moment before he shrugged. “How’d you know there was just one killer?”

Damn it. “Killers, then,” I corrected, looking past him to the one holding Stray down.

“Take them in for questioning.” His eyes narrowed on me while his lips twitched into what might have been a smile. “Depending on how that goes, maybe give ‘em a hanging.”

The way he was sizing me up… that look of savage glee lurking behind his eyes… did he want to fight me? I barely even noticed my forehooves slide apart, as I lowered myself slightly, ready to react the moment he twitched.

The wind rustled through the trees, stirring up a little snow and few strands of his powder-blue mane. If he seemed surprised by my blatant challenge, he didn’t show it. One of his hooves slipped into his pack and came out a second later with a short hoof blade on it, which he then slowly strapped to his leg with his teeth.

“What are you doing, Blaze?” his companion interrupted after a moment. He cuffed Stray over the back of his head and harshly ordered, “Stay down,” before standing up and turning to face his friend. “You know what we’re supposed to do if they don’t cooperate with the search.” He glanced at me, then looked past me to Tom. “You don’t plan on cooperating, do you?”

“Bite me.”

He snorted at that, then turned back to Blaze. “Come on, don’t be stupid.”

The pegasus gave a grunt of disatisfaction and stood up straight again, though he didn’t unstrap his hoof blade. “I can take ‘em.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He was taller than his friend, his coat a charcoal grey that was more common on an earth pony than a pegasus. Looking over the two of us, he coughed into his hoof once pointedly, before spreading his wings and taking to the air.

With a frustrated huff, Blaze gave me one last dissatisfied look before turning around and flying after his friend.

“What in the Pale was that?” Tom shoved me in the shoulder, but it wasn’t hard enough to make me move at all, let alone stumble.

“He wanted to fight me,” I replied after a moment, turning to face her.

“Fight you?” She rolled her eyes. “You’re so damn dense, he wanted to fuck you, moron!”

...What?

“Oh, don’t give me that look.” She rolled her eyes at my incredulous stare. “Bet he was hoping his friend would hold you down while he spread your legs.”

“I… he… what?” I found myself swallowing dryly at the idea.

“Wait, you actually thought that he…” She sounded disbelieving. “Why would you?”

“He mighta wanted a wrestle in the snow, girlie, but not the kind you were thinking of,” Stray piped up, already packing our scattered things back into the packs. “Now come on, we need to get moving before they come back with friends.”

Tom brushed past me and started to help him. “We’ll eat on the road to save time.”

That… disgusting little Celestian wanted to… with me? My jaw tightened, and I promised myself I’d make him pay for ever thinking of such things the next time I saw him, but the unsettled rolling in my stomach took some of the vindictive thunder out of my unspoken vow.

Shaking my head clear of such thoughts, I quickly searched for my saddlebags and was relieved to find he hadn’t had the chance to search them yet. I strapped them on, then turned and helped Stray and Tom break camp.

Truly, it was futile trying to outrun pegasi on hoof, especially in the snow. By the time the sun was setting, leaving behind the chill of night, we’d only barely managed to travel the same distance as we would’ve at a more relaxed pace in fairer weather. It was all we could do to find a copse of trees to settle under and sleep bundled together in the wagon for warmth. Or at least try to sleep. There was no way I could rest with my back facing the two of them, lest they touch my wings and realise they were but illusions. Worse, peace was near-impossible for Tom and myself, with barely a few inches separating our faces.

“Your breath stinks,” Tom muttered after a few minutes of silence that, given how cold it was, were both literally and figuratively icy.

“Your face is just as disturbing,” I assured her, closing my eyes and trying to pretend I wasn’t in this situation.

I heard her growl for a second, shift a little to find a more comfortable position in these close confines, then give up and let her head bang against the wagon floor.

“Will you ladies knock it off?” Stray groaned from the other side of Tom.

“Why do I have to be squished between you two?” Tom moaned.

“Because she threatened to kill us both if she was in the middle, and I’m a married sod so I can’t go sleeping ‘tween two mares.”

I love it when I win an argument.

“I hate you both!” she snapped, lashing out with a hoof and catching me in the stomach.

Grunting, I returned the favor with a head butt.

“I said knock it off!” Stray shouted, sitting up and throwing all our blankets into disarray, leaving us exposed to the cold. “Oh, that’s icy.” He shivered, let out a foggy breath and lay back down immediately.

Tom took the opportunity to send me one more hateful glare before closing her eyes. After a few seconds, I did so too. With any luck I’d have another nightmare, and kick her awake while I slept.

We managed a peaceful almost-slumber for a good while, not quite getting to sleep, but I did feel the first gentle caresses of the never-never. The still of the night was incredibly peaceful, with only the faint hint of wind, and the small canvas we’d set up over the wagon would keep us safe from the snow. If we were lucky, we wouldn’t need it, though.

Of course, I could never really rely on my own luck, even if it wasn’t the snow that eventually found us.

The muffled slap of wings on air pulled me back from the edge of unconsciousness; the long weeks of survival training under Victory were serving me well again. When I heard a second pair of wings and the crunch of hooves in snow, I shadow-walked twenty meters away onto a nearby tree branch.

On an overcast night like tonight, shadows were everywhere, and I could have shadow walked as far as I liked in any direction, even on top of the trees if I was ever seized by a particularly demanding bout of stupidity. My nightkin eyes served me well in the dark, and I watched as over a dozen pegasi landed around the wagon where I had been trying to sleep. They lit torches that would have been blown out midair and started to surround the wagon. Among the pegasi, I spotted a couple of Celestian suns and the powder-blue mane of the stallion from earlier today.

Scum. They’d hoped to surprise me in the dead of night.

Tom and Stray, on the other hoof, were very surprised when the wagon was tipped over and they were suddenly thrown into the snow.

“What on-” A gag was shoved into Stray’s mouth before he could even start to profane, and two of the larger pegasi pressed him down into the snow. Tom was pinned down by three of the Celestians at once, twisting and biting at her captors until she was silenced too.

The charcoal pegasus scout turned to a short mare in a tufted officer’s helm. “One of them is missing, ma’am.”

“Yeah, the big bitch.” The other scout from this morning, Blaze, turned to Tom. “Where is she?”

Stray quieted down, glancing around for me, but in the dark there was no way he could see me in my hiding place. Neither of them answered the question, just settling for glaring hatefully at their captors.

“Search their things,” the mare in charge ordered. Several of the pegasi converged on our possessions. “Find out what they were hiding.”

The feathered drones descended on the group possessions, tearing open packs and scattering our rations and clothes into the snow. From my spot, I had a good view as one Celestian uncovered Stray’s case of smuggled drugs. “Opium, ma’am.”

The commander didn’t look surprised. “That would be it.” Stepping forward, she pawed through it for a moment before snorting disdainfully and turning to face her captives. “I believe the punishment for this is hanging under Celestia’s rule and the Council of Hoofens.”

Tom let out a muffled shout and started struggling harder, but it was clearly hopeless.

“Well then, all that’s left is to find their friend and take the three back to-”

“M-ma’am?” One of the pegasi interrupted, sounding… awed? I grit my jaw when I realised why. He’d been searching through my pack, and delicately perched on his hoof was the Element of Loyalty, almost as if he was afraid to damage it.

The commander started, as if she could scarcely believe what she was seeing. She stalked forward and took it from his hoovers. “This is… where did you get this?!” She snapped, twisting to face the two captives. “You two can’t have been… who gave this to you?”

I ground my jaw as the pegasus who’d been desecrating my things discarded my pack, dropping it the snow and sending one of the hoof-blades rolling out of it. Damn it. If I didn’t do something, they’d take all my things: my food, the Blue, Chase’s Green, the Element, the strand of Luna’s hair and even the journal.

Goddess damn it.

I could follow them back to their camp and steal them back there… but then they’d be under lock and key, and Honesty would soon find out that I was in the area. Not to mention how many pegasi there might be at the camp, making sneaking in difficult. Worse, what if Honesty was already there?

...Waiting wasn’t an option.

Now would be my best chance to fight these Celestians, separated from their blasphemous powers of Harmony, alone with me on this pitch-dark night. The snow was powdery and reasonably thick, so their hoofwork would be slow and clumsy, and taking to the air to fight among the trees was almost as limiting. These were the ideal conditions for me.

First though, I needed a weapon.

I fell through the darkness that enveloped me and out into the shadow cast by their torches on the wagon. From there it was only a few steps until I picked up the ghost blade that had fallen from my pack and began to strap it on.

“Tell me where you got this!” The officer mare growled. She crouched down in front of Stray and untied his gag.

“I didn’t even know we had it!” he answered quickly. “I hired a mare named March as a bodyguard a few days ago, it’s hers!”

I suppose there is a saying about loyalty among thieves. Heh.

“Tell me where she is, and only one need die tonight,” the commander growled.

“One?” I said aloud, tightening the last strap on the ghost blade. Raising my head, I quickly numbered all the pegasi. They stared at me in surprise, shock overriding their features, and they instinctively spread their wings. Standing on my hind hooves, I threw off the dark cloak I’d been wearing and took the copper circlet off my head. The illusion of a white pegasus faded away, replaced by the potent nightmare of one of my kind only half lit by flickering torches. A savage grin alighted my face. I ignited the blade.

“I count twenty.”

And then I stepped back into the shadows and appeared on the other side of the group. A trick with the dark under my hooves allowed me stand above the snow rather than on it, and there was no crunching of powder as I darted forward to shove my ghost blade into the unarmoured joint at the back of a torchbearer’s neck.

Green, I realised dimly as it emerged from the front of his neck. I was using Chase’s blade.

Stepping back into the dark before the wounds from the ghost blade could set in, I reappeared just in time to slay another pegasus at the periphery as blood exploded from the first pony’s neck.

Then I retreated, stepping back onto the branch as the pegasi in the clearing started to panic. Good. If they scattered among the woods, they’d be that much easier to pick-

“Form up!” The mare bellowed. “Put your backs together and watch the shadows!”

Damn it. And she was standing in the middle of the group too, where the torchlight was thickest. I could step in to strike at her, but I’d have to cut my way through a few to get at her.

I only managed to catch out one more before the seventeen of them clustered together tightly, peering into the shadows fearfully. Stray stood up and untied the gag from Tom. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he should flee into the night or join the ponies in the ring for protection. He was irrelevant for the moment, so I refocused on the soldiers.

Hm… how to scatter this formation?

After a moment, I stepped into the canopy above their head, but the branch rustled and a pegasus below saw me. “It’s in the trees!” The mare’s voice rang out. “Watch the trees!”

Huffing in frustration, I shadow-stepped just outside their ring of torchlight. What I really needed was to take out their torches and that damn mare. They’d be easy pickings without guidance from light or orders.

The shadows underneath them weren’t thick enough for me to step out of, but I could still use them. Concentrating, I solidified the dark under their hooves, creating a thin, icelike coating over the ground they stood on, making them slip and stumble. It was a trick I’d used before, but never on so many at once; I had to fight the urge to cough on the black smoke that formed in my lungs.

I darted out of the shadows before they could get used to the new surface and charged straight at the mare in the officer’s helm. She saw me coming and raised her hoof blade just in time to bury it in my shoulder, while my own ghost blade bounced clumsily of her chain mail armour.

The pathetic strike may have cost me, but even as I hissed in pain, I used the chance to tackle her out of the middle of her soldiers and into the shadows outside her ring of light. Stepping once more and taking her with me, I moved us a dozen meters away from her friends and any help she could receive from them.

Even as we spilled out of the dark, I tried to separate from her, but she latched onto me and started sawing the half foot of steel she already had inside me. I screamed with rage and twisted, throwing us both down into the snow and dislodging her weapon. She knew if I got away from her there’d be no way she could track me in the dark, so she clung on for dear life, wrapping her hoof around my neck and trying to choke me. I smashed my head into her nose and knocked her tufted helmet loose, but she didn’t let go. When I tried to stab her through the face with my hoof blade, she twisted her head aside just in time for me to bury the full foot of it into the snow beside her.

My head was swimming and spots were forming in my vision as I reached forward and grabbed her helmet with my mouth.

“Die, demon!” she hissed, only to gasp as I smashed the helmet into the side of her head. Her grip on my throat didn’t let up until I hit her a fourth time, and she fell slack in the snow, concussed.

I took the time to gasp in one breath of icy evening air, before I moved to take her head. I overbalanced as I cut, tripping over her body. Her head still came off, but only because my blade slid through her neck as I fell. I gave myself a minute’s rest, taking in deep breaths and expelling as much smoke as I could, before pushing myself to my feet.

Say whatever you will about Celestian officers being vile, greedy, murderous and blasphemous:, they certainly knew how to put up a fight. I winced as I touched my wounded shoulder, then limped through a shadow to face the leaderless pegasi.

Without their leader, the remaining sixteen were arrayed less effectively: still clustered together, but not as tightly. I patiently waited them out, leaping out of the dark to strike at the hoof of any pony who stepped a little too far out of line.

It was slow going, but I took the limbs of three of them and left them bleeding into the snow and clutching at stumps. I’d taken the foreleg of the charcoal pegasus scout, but his friend with the blue mane panicked and tried to flee into the night. My blade went through the back of the head of that scum, Blaze.

That was when the group broke. They scattered into the dark and spread their wings, but I shadow walked, well, shadow limped really, to meet them where their backs were turned. It was grueling work, and I was wounded twice when one pegasus slashed me across the nose, and another stabbed me in the cutie mark. Eventually though, all were dead by my count, though I suspected I hadn’t kept proper track of their numbers. Black smoke was streaming out of my mouth, and I wasn’t in any position to chase down the few remaining stragglers, if there even were any.

When I returned to the little copse of trees, I found the wagon righted, our scattered possessions gathered, and Tom and Stray missing.

I didn’t find it in me to care that they were gone until I realised my saddlebags were gone as well. The only thing of mine the pair had left behind was my cloak and illusory circlet.

“Thieving scum!” I hissed. I wrapped the cold wet cloak around myself and affixed the lie upon my head.

After taking a moment to determine which wagon tracks were us arriving and which was leaving, I set out into the night after them.

How did I ever have any affection at all for the winter? My muscles burned from the added effort of moving through the snow, I constantly found myself tripping as I limped, and I wasn’t even sure if the blood running down my right foreleg had dried there or simply frozen in place.

Goddess-damned thieves. I couldn’t wait until I caught up to them, and not just because it would mean this miserable death march would finally stop.

The wagon tracks had led me to a road, which I had followed for a bit over an hour, and now finally the end was in sight. A village, or maybe a small town, I wasn’t sure the specific difference between the two. I didn’t care. All I knew was that this had to be the place where those two criminals had stopped tonight.

Even as wounded as I was, I knew they would have to be almost as exhausted as I was. The body had to burn twice as much energy to stay warm in the cold, and neither of them had gotten a full night’s sleep either. They’d have to stop soon, I knew I did, and this was as good a place as any. Even if they hadn’t stopped here, I could pay for a room for the night and resume tracking them in the morning.

The town seemed to be fairly poor: most of the buildings were rather worn and had wooden shutters instead of the more well-to-do glass. The roofs were thatched and rough, providing decent purchase for patches of snow here and there, like the spots of white froth clinging to my cheeks after the night’s exertion.

The double lines of the wagon wheels stopped right where the wagon itself was left unattended in the middle of the street. A growl left me as I realised they’d abandoned it there, probably hoping to make it harder for me to follow them come the morrow. Fools, that wouldn’t save them. It’d just make the burdens they carried to their grave that much more literal.

For now though, it was time to find an inn and… beg for a room or a spot on the floor? Damn it, they’d taken all my gold when they fled.

I found a likely building, but the doors were locked when I tried them. At first when I tried to speak it only came as an exhausted croak, but after a moment I worked some spit into my throat to relieve the dryness. “Let me in!” I shouted as I knocked. There was silence for a few moments, before I kicked the door again. “I need a place to rest tonight! Open the door!”

“We’re closed!” a mare shouted back after a moment. “And we’re full!”

I grit my jaw for a second and headbutted the door in frustration. “Let me in before I kick the door down!”

“Try it, you’ll only hurt yourself, dearie!” the mare replied. “Try the church down the road, they might help you.”

Vowing to return in the morning and show her the inside of her own skin, I limped off down the road with all the most vicious curses I could muster for her, her ancestors, and her descendants. Goddess damn it, I hated this town already.

The church looked as all other churches of Luna do. Tall, dark granite, speckled with flashing minerals like stars in the sky. Tall, majestic, beautiful, and all the other things about it that I couldn’t care for right now. I was uncultured at the best of times, and this was far from that.

Again, the door was locked when I tried to enter, but the moment it rattled, a voice from inside called, “Who goes there?” A stallion by the sound of it, rather old.

“A traveler seeking shelter!” I answered after taking a moment to lick my lips. “The inn down the the road said you were taking ponies in!”

There was a pause, and I could see the glow of magic under the door as somepony put key to lock. “Aye, we are doing that.” The entry swung open, and a stallion stood there, wearing the black robes of one Luna’s servants. “Come in, come in-” He cut off as he caught the state I was in. “What happened to-”

I barged past him and into the brightly lit service room, waiting for my eyes to adjust after wandering through the dark for so long. “Many things happened, priest. Right now, rest needs to be happening instead.”

“A-aye,” he agreed after a moment. “There are other guests here tonight, though, so I’d ask you to keep your voice down.”

“Would they be an earth pony stallion and mare, he about twice the age of her?” I muttered.

“Uh… no.”

“Pity.” I, gestured for him to lead.

After another moment’s hesitation, he turned around and led me past the rows of pews, almost as empty now as the shrines and epitaphs they were facing. Luna wouldn’t be answering any prayers in the days and weeks to come.

He held the door open for me, and I stepped into a room of bunks and cots, mostly occupied by… of course, what else could it be? Pegasi. The Celestian suns on their armour now strapped together and left next to their beds, flashing in the dim candlelight cast by a unicorn mare sitting at a desk with a book in her magic. Goddess damned winged rats.

The unicorn glanced up as I came in, and her gaze settled on me. She had exhausted black bags under her eyes. There was a bulge under the shirt around her neck, high collared and hiding whatever it was. Her light grey mane had been brushed straight, and it fanned down over her burgundy-coloured fur. She gazed at me for a moment, then gave a tired sigh and turned back to her reading.

A church of Luna, seemingly providing shelter, but packed to the lip with murderous scum? All it needed was an overeager unicorn healer, and this feeling of Déjà vu would be complete.

“...Can I get a private room?” I asked after a moment. I needed a place to sleep more than I was afraid of anyone discovering my secret, but if I couldn’t at least get a wall separating me from these Celestians, then I’d have to find somewhere else.

“Well, there’s a one in the back, but that’s been taken by Miss Light there.” He indicated the reading mare with his horn. “You’d have to ask her if you can-”

“She can have my bed,” Light interrupted before the question was even asked, flicking a page over, and not looking up. “She obviously needs it more than I do.”

Excellent.

Without another word, I limped across the room and pushed through the door, awash with relief at the sight of a soft, unoccupied bed. Wasting only the time it took to hang up my cloak, close the door, and move the circlet from my head to my leg, I threw myself into the bed and instantly fell asleep.

No nightmares prevailed that night, a sign of how exhausted I really was. Sitting up in the bed, I checked my wounds. The superficial scratches seemed to have healed, but the gash in my shoulder still pained me. Thanks to my lady’s blessings, my muscles weren’t even a touch sore from yesterday’s work.

Nothing like a good sleep.

Getting up from the bed, I moved the circlet from my leg back to my head, then moved to put my cloak back on. There I hesitated as I saw the dried brown blood where my wounds had rubbed against it. It reeked of sweat and dirty work, and it clearly needed to be cleaned soon.

Still, it was better to be smelly than to walk around with Celestia’s sun where my cutie mark should be. One would raise noses, the other would raise questions.

I cautiously opened the door, peeking through to find that the pegasi inside were getting up themselves, strapping on their armour in preparation for leaving. A nervous tingle went through me, but I stepped out of the room and tried to walk through them as if I wasn’t a thinly disguised nightkin in a room of depraved killers.

And then it became two weeks ago. Honestly, what were the chances of encountering the same unicorn healer at two churches in a row surrounded by over two dozen enemy pegasus? Evidently, rather high.

“Slight?” Summer Song asked, looking at me from where she was crouched with an expression that was probably only half as shocked as mine. She flicked her mane, throwing her brunette braid over her other shoulder, then stood up and approached me with a smile. It faltered after a second when she noticed I wasn’t pleased to see her.

What was she doing here? I swallowed, looking around, telling myself that it was impossible someone might recognise me. I had gone unnoticed by all the pegasi in the room, except the unicorn who’d been reading at the desk last night who was now staring at me.

And there was an Element of Harmony around her neck.

Oh, Goddess damn it.

I looked back ahead as quick as I could, plastering a smile onto my face and trying to act like nothing was wrong when there was one of those things in the room. Summer’s face dipped further when she caught my fake smile. “Summer Song.” I nodded politely. “Glad to see you.”

“...Are you?” She frowned. She glanced over my shoulder at the Element Bearer. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, now if you’ll excuse me I need to-” I started to brush past her, but she stepped in front of me, a concerned look on her face.

“You have blood on your coat,” she huffed, her magic tugging at my cloak. “Were you hurt? Do you need-”

“I need you to move!” I hissed at her, shoving her back a step.

She blinked at me, looking hurt. “S-sorry, I was just trying to help.”

Stepping around her, I had the perfect view of the door when the awful situation got even worse.

Faced with another awkward reunion, it was all I could do to not to stare in disbelief, when, missing foreleg and all, the charcoal pegasus scout from yesterday morning and last evening was helped through the door. A bloody bandage was wrapped around the remaining stump of his limb, and he was shivering from the cold, seemingly on the edge of death.

But he was conscious.

The moment he saw me, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and he opened his mouth to scream. He pointed his hoof at me, air drawing into his lungs in preparation for the desperate cry that would no doubt start in ‘f’ and end in ‘ade’. I was already diving forwards with the knowledge that surprise was the only advantage I had. Kill him, kill the pony carrying him, get into the village and run.

There was no way I could fight this many ponies in these well-lit confines, and whatever horrifying powers the mare with the Element of Harmony had, I wasn’t eager to find out. I needed to run, fast.

But first, this one had to die before he could alert the others.

And then something hit me, hard enough to throw me off course and slam me into a wall. The thing that struck me into the wall held me there, and there was this pain in my stomach. Gnashing my lips, I tried to break free of the restraints. Blood ran freely down my legs. I froze when I glanced down; no doubt my stomach would have dropped if it hadn’t been pinned in place.

I was impaled.

The thing that had pinned me to the wall was a spear, held in place by a purple magical aura. The Mare of Harmony approached me, a similar magical aura tying her light grey mane into a ponytail, armour plates affixing themselves to her burgundy-coloured body, another spear floating in her grip.

I didn’t want to die.

My ghost blade cut through the wooden shaft sticking out of my stomach, and I ducked to the left just as her next spear went straight at where my head had been. Falling to the floor, I rushed forward and brought my blade around in a perfect arc to cleave through her neck.

Then I froze in place, my sword inches from her neck. Her grey eyes were in front of me, piercing my soul, holding me in place. All I could see in them was resignation, a strong desire to not have to do a foul task, but also an understanding that it couldn’t be avoided. I wanted to move, scream, fight, flee, anything, but I could only do nothing. She levitated a short spear in her magic, and tears formed in the corners of my eye as she floated it under my chin, ready to lance up through my jaw, through my brain.

I didn’t want to die. Sweat beaded on my face, and I couldn’t wipe it off or save myself, no matter how much I didn’t want sweat in my eye or didn’t want die. I looked away from that spear, back to the mare’s face, lit softly by the glowing pink crystalised evil on her neck.

I was going to die.

“Wait!” Summer screamed, pushing herself between me and the Mare of Harmony. “Don’t kill her!”

The Mare glanced between me and her, hesitating for just a second.

“Please!” Swallowing, Summer almost whispered, mostly whimpered, “She’s my friend.”

The mare stared at her for a second, then sighed, looking back towards me. The gem around her neck flashed brightly, and someone stuffed warm cotton into my skull. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I only dimly felt my head slam into the ground as my consciousness fled. I wished it would take me with it.

By the Goddess was it cold. No one knew this better than I did, being naked, alone, and knee deep in snow for what felt like the tenth time in so many days. I didn’t even have my cloak or circlet. Storm clouds twitched overhead, perched impossibly on the verge of thundersnow, something that I’d heard of in stories but never experienced personally.

I didn’t want to be here when it struck, trapped in the middle of an empty white expanse stretching as far as the eye could see in all directions but one. Ahead of me was a lake, the only feature in this condemned landscape. At least, I thought it was a lake. For all I could tell it might have just been a miraculously large pool of volcanic glass. Perhaps it was some kind of mirage brought on by overexposure to cold.

But there was nothing for it. To my left was nothing, to my right was the same, and behind me was… everything.

All that was left was the trudge forward to that black mirrored pool. I didn’t know how far I had to walk, I didn’t know what awaited me at my destination, but there was nothing else left, and it was all that waited for me.

So I marched onwards, until the numbness took my limbs, my blood growing cold and thick in my veins. Until lather coated my flanks and I had to carefully peel my eyes open from frozen tears of exertion. Until fever overtook me, until my mind swelled against my skull and beady grains imposed themselves over everything I saw. Until I fell face first into the snow, a buzzing filling my ears.

Chase caught me as I fell, holding me in her hooves as she stroked my mane and whispered, “What a trooper.” I wrapped my hooves around her and sobbed into her shoulders.

Then I shifted my grip, Stern Conviction writhing in my hold as I bent his foreleg backwards. Too far backwards. His shoulder came out of its joint with a loud pop. He screamed, and I let him fall, the fight won.

I raised my hoof, ready to strike, to crush the pathetic mewling thing on the ground before me, but then she looked up, tears in her orange eyes. “I don’t want to die.”

And I realised she was right. “I don’t want to die,” I mumbled.

Summer blinked in surprise, then smiled as she looked down at me. “You’re awake?”

Swallowing dryly and willing the buzzing to leave my head, I stared up at her blearily. With a groan, I raised a hoof to my head, and then I winced as I felt pain radiate through my abdomen. I carefully lowered my hoof and patted the bandages around my stomach. It still hurt, a lot.

“You didn’t heal me?” I asked, barely louder than a whisper.

“I tried to,” she admitted as if embarrassed, “but… I couldn’t.”

I sighed at that. “It was beyond you?” I imagined impalement to be rather tricky to heal.

“Oh, no, I just… couldn’t,” she explained lamely. “I stopped the bleeding and bandaged the wound, but my magic just wouldn’t take.”

It took me a moment to realise why. “Harmony,” I growled, laying my head back down against the pillow. No doubt the ability to inflict wounds that couldn’t be healed was one of the abilities of this particular Element Bearer. “You convinced her not to kill me.”

She smiled at me brightly. “I did.” Then she kept watching me, as if expecting something.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. “What?”

She blinked at that, before pouting and standing up to get me a drink of water from a pail near the door. “Are you thirsty?”

I swallowed dryly and nodded. Using her magic, she floated a drink of water towards me. She tried to maneuver it to my lips herself, but I grabbed it with my hooves and drank it under my own power, despite the pain in my stomach and the slight huff she gave.

“You shouldn’t be moving so much.” She frowned at me.

Funny, I very much thought I should get moving. I let out a tight grunt of pain as I rolled out of my bed and landed on my hooves. Summer gasped as I did, stepping forward to support me even as I tried to push her away with my wings.

“What are you doi-”

“Where’s my blade?” I cut across her and then noticed something slightly odd. My hoof went to my ear, and I realised something was missing.

“Just lay down and I’ll-”

“Where is it?” I hissed, glaring at her. My instinct was to tackle her, press my hooves to her throat, but when I took a step to do so, the pain was so much that I actually fell into her. She managed to brace herself enough to stop us both falling to the floor, but I was heavy enough that she was clearly struggling. “Where’s Chase’s ribbon?”

“On the table!” She answered with a grunt, using her magic to try and lift me off her. “Get back in bed and I’ll-”

The door swung open, and the Mare of Harmony stepped into the room. She blinked as she saw what we were doing, then raised an eyebrow. “Am I interrupting something?”

I made to push Summer aside and lunge at her, but accidentally made Summer bump my wound with her hoof. The pain of it was enough to knock the wind out of me, and I barely managed to stay standing as Summer moved back a step and put a hoof on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” she started to babble, but shut up when I glared at her.

“Would you like to take a seat?” Harmony asked after a moment. “You really shouldn’t be standing if it hurts that much.”

By the Goddess, this was humiliating. It was all I could do to refuse to answer and turn my glare to her, making it as sharp as I could.

In response, the Element just gave a small sigh. “I’ll take a seat of my own then.” The idea that she found me so unthreatening that she’d calmly sit in my presence was galling, but honestly, with the state I was in, it may have been a fair assessment.

Silence reigned for a minute as I tried to stab the Bearer with my eyes, while she just calmly watched me. Summer kept glancing between the two of us, as if she thought she should do something. Her mouth opened for a moment, but then she shut it and took a step back. The pain in my stomach grew while I was standing there, staring silently, and eventually it grew enough that I had to sit on the bed. It still hurt when the weight of my upper body was being propped up by my gut, so I had to shift again to lay flat on my belly.

“Summer, give me the ribbon,” I said after a moment, glancing at her.

She gave me a quick smile, floated Chase’s ribbon from the dress stand and tied it around my ear. Then she watched me expectantly, as if waiting for something.

What did she want? I raised an eyebrow at her.

She just returned the look, confused.

With a small huff, I gave her a curt nod, and she broke out into a bright smile that caught me off guard with its genuineness. What had I done?

“Now,” the Mare of Harmony said, and both our gazes turned to her. If she thought anything of our little exchange, she didn’t say it. “Summer, if you’d give us a moment, please?”

“Oh, of course.” Summer tilted her head a little at the mare, before giving me another smaller smile and leaving the room. I stared at the door as she swung it shut behind her with magic, once again feeling slightly confused.

“Strange foal.” The other mare commented after a second, before turning her gaze to me.

My eyes narrowed at the her comment. Insulting her subordinates? I’d expect no less from scum like her. Summer wasn’t even that odd.

She met my eyes for a moment, then let out a breath and introduced herself. “My name is Shining Light.” Then she paused, expecting me to fill the gap with my name.

I didn’t.

She continued anyway. “Summer says your name is Slight?” I grit my jaw slightly, but didn’t answer. Light nodded anyway. “I’d like to apologise for your wounds… I wasn’t aware of who you were at the time. I saw you rushing at my subordinate with the intent to kill, and… intervened.”

I blinked in confusion and opened my mouth to ask what she meant by that, but I closed it again.

“I see I’ve confused you,” she continued, breaking eye contact and glancing at the floor. “Is it really so surprising the Bearer of the Kindness would not wish to kill the last member of a species?”

“I’m not the last,” I growled at her.

She looked back at me, a sad look coming into her eye. No, not a sad one. A pitying one.

“I’m not!” My hoof trembled. I was not going to cry in front of one of those damned Bearers. “It’s impossible; you couldn’t have tracked all of us down in so short a time.”

“...” She didn’t deny it. Part of me wished she did.

“...I’m not.” Swallowing, I couldn’t meet her eyes any longer and gazed at the floor. “I can’t be.”

Silence draped across the room once more, complete enough that I could hear the creak her chair made with every minute movement. After a moment, she continued, “I’m going to let you go once night falls. Summer will have to help you for the first few days of travel, but the effects of my magic should fade once you get far enough away.”

“You…” I hesitated, before continuing. “You’re going to let me leave?”

“If I kept you as my prisoner, you would be executed, and if I were to let that happen I might as well kill you here. I would certainly make less of a spectacle of it.”

“Wha- Why-” My jaw grit as I organised my tongue. Before I could speak my question, she answered it for me.

“I… objected to the attack on Blackrock. There was nothing kind about Starswirl’s plan to end the war.” She met my eyes, and I was shocked to see tears forming in the corner of her’s. “I’m… sorry for the role I played in the death of your kind. I… wish more than anything else I could undo it.” Wiping the water from her eyes, she looked out the window. “I didn’t disagree as much as I should have when Starswirl proposed his plan, didn’t fight it hard enough, because…” She drew a shuddering breath. “Because… I was tired, I hadn’t seen my family in years… I… just wanted the war to end.” Covering her eyes with her hooves, she strained in a few short, pained gasps of air.

“Shut up,” I whispered. I had to fight to keep my lower lip from trembling.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Stop it.” I ground my teeth together and turned my gaze to her. “Don’t you dare-”

“It... it was the foals that made me realise it.” She held her hoof to her chin. “When we took them from the cells downstairs and tried to lead them from the castle… they saw them.”

I didn’t say anything. At that moment it was all I could do not to start shedding tears as well.

“The bodies of all of your kind, all of their parents and brothers and sisters… We hadn’t buried them or moved them yet. And the foals… they saw their loved ones like that, dead… bleeding, and we… we were the ones that killed them. B-because we were trying to save them.” Then she looked at me, her lower lip trembling, as she whimpered, “It was when I felt what they felt that I knew that I’d done something evil.”

“...It took that for you realise it?” Now there were tears in my eyes too, and I fought back a sob before I let it out. “You had to see them before you could realise we were… we were… real? That we weren’t… your Goddess-damned Fades, but… just… alive?! To see that we were alive too!?”

She wiped some more tears from her gaze. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’d never ask you to forgive me for-”

“Shut up!” I cut across her. Jabbing my hoof at the door, I bit my lip as I said, “Get out.”

She nodded and stood up without another word. The door swung shut behind her, leaving no one to see as I curled into a ball on my bed.

How dare she? How dare she be… be… regretful. What gave her the gall to come in here and try to… apologise to me for what happened? What did she know?

She was one of them! One of those twisted Bearers that destroyed my home, and killed my kind, and did nothing but hurt and hate and steal from me the few things that I loved. What gave her the right to… to… not be…

A monster.