Sky sat there in silence for a few moments, panting and whimpering as the pain flooded back into her system. All of the adrenaline from the fight slowly wore off, and it struck her just how much agony she’d been subjected to over the last few days. Her body was bruised almost everywhere, her wounds bleeding anew, and she could barely see a thing. She rummaged in her saddlebags for a moment, withdrawing a little glowstick and twisting it to add some light.

The first thing that struck her was just how peaceful Stronghooves was like this, all slumped over and completely motionless. Broken bone was strewn out all around him, little sparks of dying magic leaping from piece to piece. Stronghooves himself looked peaceful, and for just a moment Sky was reminded of the young stallion who’d slept with her when she was afraid of the dark.

As she raised the glowstick, she caught sight of his head, and she recoiled. His horn was cut clean off, the marrow and shattered bone clearly visible before her. She looked from it to the sword in her hoof, considering her options for just a moment.

I could finish him off… she thought to herself, as his chest rose and fell with slow, long breaths. He’d never feel a thing, and he’d be gone forever.

She rose the sword, looking down at the helpless stallion. He’d done so much to her over the years, taken so very much from her. Her innocence, her little sister, her future, her wing, the stallion she’d thought for just a moment that she’d spend the rest of her life with...Stronghooves had tortured her for years, and in that moment, Sky held his life in her hooves. There was so much she wanted to punish him for, so much hell that he deserved.

Come on, Sky...do it...he wouldn’t hold back if you guys had your roles reversed.

Sky frowned. That, she decided, was the problem.

With a frustrated huff, she threw the sword deep into the ravine without a second thought.

I’m not him. I’ll never be like him. If that means that this motherfucker gets to stay alive, then fine, but I’m not gonna throw away who I am just to get revenge.

Sky sat by him, running a hoof through his mane until he regained consciousness. In time, his eyes flickered open, looking up at Sky curiously. He gritted his teeth, trying to flare his horn to launch another spell at her, but the stump merely sparked and died without ceremony.

“What...what did you…?” he gasped, looking up at where his horn used to be.

“You took my flight, I took your magic,” Sky said simply, shrugging. “Weird how these things can come back to bite you in the ass, isn’t it?”

“But...I should be able to heal…” he whispered. “I’m a super-soldier. I know I can heal…”

“Funny, because you’ve been sitting like that for a good few minutes now and it doesn’t look like you’ve healed at all,” Sky said, smiling just a little. “Sorry buddy, but it looks like it’s permanent.”

“Sky...why...why did you take this from me...all I wanted to do was make you better…” Stronghooves began, but Sky held up a hoof to silence him.

“You’ve never made me happy,” she whispered spitefully. “You’ve hurt me in ways you can’t even begin to understand. You’ve tortured me, shouted at me, made me scared of my own brother. Do you have any idea how fucked up it is to be terrified of your own family, to flinch around them because you know that it’s only a matter of time before they do something horrible to you, before they take something away from you?”

“You’re overreacting. If you hadn’t been such a terrible sister…” Stronghooves whispered.

“Don’t you get it, asshole? I can’t help being a pegasus! I can’t help being who I am or doing what I do! All I can ever do is try my best with what I’ve got, to be the best me I can be, and you won’t even let me have that without hounding me all the damn time!” She growled, pushing his head down into the ground and stepping away. “You, though...you could’ve always stopped what you were doing. You could’ve left me alone, accepted me, been part of my family even though mum and dad hated me. I built a new little life for myself far away from you assholes...and you had to come back just to take it all away from me.”

“Sky, listen, I…”

“NO! YOU FUCKING LISTEN!” Sky roared, making the stallion recoil in shock. “I’M SICK OF YOU! I’M SICK OF YOUR ATTITUDE, YOUR HOLIER-THAN-THOU BULLSHIT, YOUR BELIEF THAT EVERYTHING YOU DO IS FOR A GREATER GOOD AND YOUR DAMN BULLYING! I’M NOT TAKING IT ANYMORE! YOU’RE INSANE! YOU’RE A MESS! YOU’RE A FUCKING MONSTER AND A LIAR AND A MURDERER!”

Sky stopped, watching as silent tears flowed down Stronghooves’s cheeks. She felt a momentary pang of sympathy, but it was quickly dispelled when her recent memories took over. Her body shook, her blood ran cold and her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. It struck her for the first time just how broken she was, just how much had been done to her, how much she had allowed to happen, and in that moment, it was impossible for her to drag herself out of that pit of depression. Shadow was gone, no longer able to snap her out of it. She’d spent half a decade talking to a memory, a little filly who was gone because of the freak in front of her, and it felt worse than she could describe. He had taken her life and livelihood from her, torn her apart and left her suffering for years.

Sky raised a hoof to strike him in the face, before setting it down once more and sighing.

“You’re not worth it,” she muttered, as he looked up at her diminutively. “You’re not worth the trouble. You’re not worth killing, not worth hitting. Hell, you’re not even worth a sleep dart to the balls. Just...leave me alone…”

Sky limped past him, taking the rope dart and hurling it up to the cliff high above. She flapped her damaged wings a couple of times to lighten the load, slowly crawling up the rope towards the surface.

“Sky...wait...come back...please...don’t leave me…” Stronghooves whimpered.

“Leave me alone, Stronghooves,” Sky growled back, clambering up onto the cliff and heading for the exit. “We’re done here.”

“SKY!” Stronghooves screamed after her, as she pulled her hood back up over her head. “SKY! DON’T DO THIS! I CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY! I CAN MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER! DON’T LEAVE ME! COME BACK!”

But Sky was already gone, charging up the stairs as quickly as she could and leaving the screaming stallion behind. She’d left him alive, in spite of everything he’d done. After all, murder was too good for him.

Besides, Sky thought to herself, as she stepped out of the cathedral into the new dawn, I made a promise to never change who I am.

Sky lay on a bed in Sawblades’s clinic as the earth pony recorded all of her bruises and cuts.

“I swear that you’re going to run out of limbs one of these days,” he commented, looking her over and whistling under his breath.

“I’ll just have to hop away from the guards, then,” Sky said with a tired giggle. The painkillers pumping into her bloodstream at least dulled the pain, and she suspected that she’d be there for quite a while. “How long am I gonna be here, anyway?”

“What’s the matter, don’t like hanging out with your ol’ buddy Sawblades?” he asked, grinning and taking her temperature. “You’re going to be out of action for about a week or so. You’re probably not gonna be running and jumping anywhere for a few weeks after that, come to that. We’re looking at a concussion, major blood loss…”

“Poisoning, blunt trauma, et cetera. Yeah, I know,” Sky sighed, smiling up at him. “Still...thanks, Sawblades. I really appreciate this.”

“Well, look, it takes a pretty ballsy mare to take on the captain of the Royal Guard and come out smiling like that,” Sawblades chuckled. “Everypony in Canterlot’s talking about it. They’re saying you single-hoofedly took down Stronghooves and a whole damn defence company.”

“Well…” Sky whispered, looking down at her hooves, “I wasn’t alone. I had a lot of help.”

“I guess that unicorn who came snooping around had something to do with it, huh?” Sawblades asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah...he was a damn good partner…” Sky whispered.

“And Shadow helped, too?” Sawblades asked, replacing her bandages as carefully as he could.

“Shadow’s dead, Sawblades…” Sky said, closing her eyes. “I appreciate you humouring me and everything, but...she’s been gone for five years.”

“Oh, you finally got there, did you?” Sawblades asked, letting out a soft sigh. “Look, Sky, I know it’s hard, but I really did my best, and I figured that keeping you in a good state of mind was the best thing for you...and for all of us.”

“You don’t have to explain anything, Sawblades,” Sky said, shaking her head and taking his hoof in her own. “I know that you did your best, and I appreciate everything you’ve done, for both her and me. Guess you can’t save everypony, no matter how hard you try.”

“That’s the trouble. I do my best, but at the end of the day, there are some ponies who are just too far gone for me to save them,” Sawblades agreed, taking her hoof in his as well. “I’m glad that you’re not one of them, and I guess you’ve at least got the opportunity to recover from what happened to her.”

“Yeah, look, I’ll cope with it. Don’t worry Sawblades, I know she meant a lot to me, but I’m a big tough girl. I’ll be okay.” Sky said, smiling as confidently as she dared.

Sawblades looked at her skeptically before returning the smile, trotting away. “You know, it’s going to be pretty difficult operating without your hideout. Where are you going to live?”

“I guess I’ll head back to my place in the poor district where I raised Shadow,” Sky said, shrugging. “It’s pretty safe and I’ve kept it stocked full of food all these years, so it’s as good a place as any.”

“Great, I wouldn’t want you to end up homeless after all of the mess you’ve been through,” Sawblades said, snorting. “You’re a damn crazy mare, you know that?”

“Hey, I’m a crazy mare with a future, working legs and a well-paying job,” Sky corrected him. “Besides, you love my craziness! Everypony does!”

“There are probably some guards who’d beg to differ,” Sawblades chuckled, sitting down by her side and watching her for a time. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright, Sky?”

The little pegasus looked up at him, grinning with confidence and the same wonderful mischief that she’d always shown.

“Don’t worry, Sawblades,” she lied. “I’m fine.”

Stronghooves rummaged desperately through the rubble of the stronghold, panting desperately as he searched for the remains of that tower.

“No...they can’t be gone...those crystals are in here somewhere…” he whispered, heaving rocks out of the way with increasing urgency. “Maybe...maybe Daybreak and Shield have them...they have to...surely…”

He looked up at the fortress’s remains, a pile of unrecognisable rocks at the end of a forgotten railway track. Surely they were there somewhere.

“DAYBREAK! SHIELD! WHERE ARE YOU?” He screamed, choking back tears. “IT’S OKAY! IT’S ME! IT’S STRONGHOOVES! WE CAN STILL FIX THIS! WE CAN STILL MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER! WE JUST HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER!”

Not a soul answered him, his heartbeat thumping in his ears as he searched even more frantically. The realisation that his friends might not ever answer him crept in, a strange mixture of panic and grief squeezing his lungs and his head.

In the wreckage, he saw a silhouette of a pony approaching him, larger than an average unicorn. He smiled a wide smile. It had to be Shield. It had to be!

“Shield! It’s me!” he yelped happily, scrambling up the fallen rocks towards it. “I’m here! Don’t worry, Sky got away, but we can still recapture her and keep giving her that treatment! Everything’ll be alright, I swear!”

He froze as he saw the pony’s features, flashes of gold on their hooves and neck, and a mane much larger than Shield’s. It spread enormous wings as it advanced on him, an absolutely furious look on its face.

“Pri...Princess…” he whispered, standing to attention as best he could and throwing a salute. “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I can…”

Celestia held up a hoof and he fell silent.

“Captain Stronghooves,” she said severely. “We have to have a talk.”