Author's Note: This story is a sort of spinoff story from Melancholy Days, itself a sequel to What Separates. Neither story is required reading for this one (the prologue covers any relevant details, though it also spoils details from Melancholy Days).

Four hundred years ago the city of Canterlot was nearly destroyed, saved only by the self-sacrifice of a Royal Guard named Prideheart. But he suffered physically and emotionally for his heroism. Furious with Princess Celestia for having failed to defend the ponies of Canterlot like she had promised, and decrying magic itself, he took those he loved most with him into voluntary exile.

Afterward, he was forgotten almost completely. In some ways even by those who had departed with him.

Where the broken hero eventually went, and what became of him, was a mystery to those few who still cared. 'Time heals all wounds,' they say, but do wounds in time change the soul in turn?

Cover art by Blue (DeviantArt Links: artwork, artist)