When Technical Support is Too Helpful

The Great Icy Peaks mountain range rose above them to the right; they scraped the crimson sky, splitting the black clouds. With Skaea on Astraelle’s back, traveling was progressing slowly. Tannis did not mind, as long as they got to Mount Dios and did not run into any trouble, he was perfectly happy. With the time they were making, he estimated that they would arrive by tomorrow.

Skaea showed no signs of waking up anytime soon. Astraelle was getting worried. Without eating nor drinking, Skaea loss a lot of weight, Astraelle and Tannis worried that she might die of starvation.

Night fell over the land and they set up camp. Tannis got a fire going while Astraelle tended to the sleeping princess.

"Maybe she will wake up with a kiss!" Tannis input.

"Oh, put a sock in it," Astraelle shot back. She sighed and cupped cap fulls of water into Skaea's mouth to keep her hydrated. "If only. . ." her heart thought.

Onyx held up his hand and stopped. Up ahead in the darkness, he saw the lights of torches. The dim fire light illuminated the demonic body who wielded the flame along with seven of his ilk. Several more fiends lay on the ground—dead. There were three prisoners in the middle of the demons; two of which Onyx recognized.

“Once we get closer, Twilight, I will nod my head and you cast a paralyzing spell on the demons. Dash and I will take them out,” Onyx planned.

“Finally, some action!” Dash exclaimed.

“Will do,” Twilight asserted as she readied her staff.

The three crept closer to the group. When they were ten feet away, Onyx gave Twilight the signal.

The demons swarmed them during the night. Tannis was keeping watch and was able to kill three and warn Astraelle, who killed four more, but the two were outnumbered and quickly subdued.

“Tannis,” a demon holding a torch spoke, “why do you kill your own kind?”

“Please,” Tannis scoffed, “we kill each other over bread. What the Hell do you want?”

“Me? I want what Mystin promised us,” he answered irritated. “That is neither here nor there. Lieutenant Maokahn wants the princess and we will give him what he wants.”

“Over my dead body!” Astraelle growled.

The demon unsheathed the sword from his side, “Oh, that is the plan.” Before he could lunge at the valkyrie his body became stiff and unmoving.

A flash of rainbow filled his vision before a bash to his face made him unconscious. The chromatic angel danced between the throng of enemies, and struck them down quickly. Her dance ended when there were no more enemies left standing to be her partner.

Onyx slowly clapped for her, “Great job!”

She bowed to him, “Thank you, thank you!”

“Yeah, spectacular,” Astraelle commented dryly, “Untie us.”

“Astraelle!” Onyx called to her and knelt before her, “How are things going?”

Astraelle rolled her eyes, “Swimmingly.”

Tannis piped up, “What a splendid show! Now, if you could untie me, I would be more than happy to clap for you.”

Dash was about to untie him when Onyx stopped her. Onyx cut off the rope which had the valkyrie bound.

“Can he be trusted?” Onyx asked Astraelle.

Astraelle cast a glance at Tannis who smiled up at her sweetly. “No,” she answered coldly.

His smiled faded and face grew dark, “What?! After everything I have done for you and that worthless lump of meat you dragged—!”

Astraelle kicked the demon to the ground and dug her boot into his throat, “She is my sister!” She twisted her foot and snapped his neck.

Twilight and Dash both backed away from the black clad woman in front of them.

She scanned them with her dark amethyst eyes. “Who are they?” she asked curtly.

“Friends,” Onyx smiled. The blue bundle on the ground grabbed his attention, “What happened to the princess?”

Astraelle bent down to check on her sister. She felt her head and immediately withdrew her hand, “She’s burning up!”

“Twilight, see what you can—”

“On it!” she interrupted him. She knelt into the dust and waved her hand and staff over the princess’ body. She could sense sickness and magic fatigue in her. “She used up too much magic and her body is using her health to restore her mana.”

“I don’t want to know what’s wrong with her! I want to know if you can heal her!” Astraelle demanded.

“Y-yes,” Twilight replied, “I should be able to.” Twilight stood to her feet and outstretched her hand and staff. A bright purple magic engram formed under the princess. She cast the spell, “Equilibrium!”

Green and yellow energies wrapped around the limp body of the princess. She started to levitate off the ground as Twilight funneled more mana and health into the spell. Skaea began to glow brightly and within moments her faded markings returned to her. A bright light flashed and everyone shielded their eyes.

Once the light died they opened their eyes to see Skaea on the floor with her markings and blue hair returned.

Astraelle heaved a sigh of relief when she felt Skaea’s temperature return to normal. “Thanks,” she thanked Twilight as she hugged her sister.

“Happy to help!” Twilight replied.

“I’m glad she is back to normal and all,” Onyx said and held Astraelle’s shoulder, “But you still didn’t tell me how she ended up that way in the first place.”

Astraelle’s wings twitched, “It doesn’t matter. We have to activate the Nature Crystal.”

“Not before the Storm Crystal,” Onyx corrected her, “The plants won’t grow without water.”

“I’ll stay here with Skaea then. Once it starts raining, we will activate the Nature Crystal,” Astraelle spoke as she loaded Skaea into a harness and onto her back.

Onyx sighed; he knew he would not get an answer from the strong headed valkyrie, “Let’s go. I know where the secret entrance is.”

He started to walk away, when the groans of the demons caught his attention. He withdrew his sword and stabbed one in the chest. It let out a gurgle before it died.

"Why did you do that for?!" Twilight asked.

"So they won't come after us," Onyx stated while he cut the throat of a second one.

"They are already out of the fight: you don't need to kill them!" Twilight protested.

Onyx drove his blade into the head of a third, "Killing them takes them out of the fight, permanently."

"No! That's not right! We can not kill them just because they were after our lives!"

Astraelle kicked Twilight to the ground and held her dagger to Twilight's surprised face, "Anyone who threatens my sister   dies."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash interjected and ran to Twilight but Onyx stopped her.

"Dash," he let go of her, "Twilight. Only the Demons who wish to repent of their sins and become good will be spared. The Demons who are pure evil out number the ones who wish to change. Demons. Must. Die."

"How can you tell if they want to change when they are dead!" Twilight challenged.

"You think imprisoning them in stone for eternity is a better option? No. Death is mercy. Imprisonment allows them to fester longer," Onyx explained.

"It allows them time to change!" Twilight voiced.

"You will understand in time," Onyx spoke flatly and killed the other five Demons while Astraelle held Twilight down.

Astraelle got off of her and followed after Onyx.

"They deserved a second chance, right Dashie?"

Rainbow Dash stood quietly in the middle of the cadavers, "I-I dunno, Twi. . ."

"What?"

Rainbow Dash looked up at Twilight with confused, fuchsia eyes, "I dunno. . ." She slowly turned to follow the other two and stepped carefully over the dead bodies.