The flowers split down their centers, revealing a set of hidden spines similar to those of a Venus flytrap, except they seemed sharper, stiffer, and were dripping some sort green, syrupy liquid from their tips. A horrifying hiss filled the air as other flowers split, the transformation spreading away from us like a wave. The hollow feeling inside of me vanished temporarily, as for the second time that day, I was beset by the feeling that I was going to die.

“NEVER FLIPPIN’ MIND!” Cam shouted, running towards us and levitating her box with her. “NICE, MY RUMP! THERE IS SO MUCH NOPE INVOLVED WITH THIS PLACE!” With that, she fell to all fours and sprinted to me, scrambling onto my back and jostling my crushed wings, causing me to yelp.

“You just had to jinx it,” I muttered, pain in my voice

“WARP US OUT OF HERE!” Reed yelled, dropping to all fours for the first time since I’d met him and running to my side, dodging several strikes by the flowers. Cam reached out a paw and prepared to slash through the air, but before she could, the bottom dropped out of my stomach.

“WHERE’S TRANQUILITY?!” I screamed. Cam froze, and so did Reed. It was silent for a few seconds. I was almost about to shout her name before the hissing of the plants skyrocketed, followed by an agonized, terrified shriek coming from behind us. I spun around and sprinted towards it, not caring about the danger or pain from my back. Oh no. No no no no no! I barely registered Cam blasting away the plants that lunged at us.

We burst through a tight thicket of the plants, and I gasped, fear coursing through my veins. One of the vines had managed to sink it’s spines into Tranquility’s leg, and had hoisted her five feet into the air. Several other plants were poised to strike. She knew this and was struggling fiercely, trying to wrench free with tears dripping from her eyes, but couldn’t.

Cam stuck out her front paws, and lightning blasted through the stem of the plant that was holding her. She fell to the ground. Cam immediately started to blast the other plants poised to attack while I ran over to Tranquility.

The plant hadn’t released her, despite being literally cut in half. I reached down and pried its jaws off her leg, which she protested with a sharp cry of pain. Blood began to gush from the wound, so I covered it with my hooves, but it didn’t help very much. Reed sprinted over to us, and Cam created another rift, pulling the four of us through it and away from that death trap.

We dropped out of the rift in the middle of an incredibly thick cyan gas, thick enough that it stopped our fall. I was still pressing on Tranquility’s leg, and she was gasping in pain.

“CAM!” I shouted. “Balm, NOW!”

She swam through the air with her box in tow. The second she reached us and got her balm out, I let go of Tranquility’s leg, and she immediately slathered the balm up and down her leg. Within seconds, her gasping faded to whimpers, and in thirty seconds, the wound closed completely. I noticed Reed looking away from us, his face a bit pale.

“Are you okay?” I asked, leaning in close to her face.

She nodded, opening her eyes. “Re wua,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “Yekaruia, ge beail.” She closed her eyes, a few tears leaking out and running down her cheeks. “Reah paraituswa TEICH CAI!” she yelled, trying to stand up, but failing. She ended up swimming through the gas, going about thirty feet before stopping and sitting up. I was about to go after her before I was painfully reminded of my condition… by Cam climbing onto my back and starting to mess with my wings.

“Crap…” she muttered. “Reed, can you set bones?”

“Yeah,” he answered, turning back to face us. “I’ve had a bit of experience with it. Why?”

“I need you over here,” Cam said. “I’ve got some experience with this too, but there’s no way I can do this alone.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, seeming a little shocked. “You’d trus-”

“Reed, get over here before I electrocute you,” Cam hissed, her voice deadly serious and her eyes narrowing into a glare.

“And the magic is gone,” he grumbled, making his way towards us.

“I took that away the first time we fought,” Cam snarked, moving out of his way. “So what do I need to do?”

Reed pulled me closer to him and started to run his paws over my broken wings, sending fiery bolts of pain lancing through my tortured nerves. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make me grit my teeth and let out a low whine of pain.

“It would’ve been better if you’d given him an anti-inflammatory drug, Cam,” Reed commented.

“Excuse me for being more concerned with whether or not he could get out of there alive and non-incapacitated,” Cam grumbled.

“I’m right here, you know,” I grunted sourly.

“So what do we do?” Cam asked, completely ignoring me.

“Luckily, I don’t feel any fragmenting, and it seems like everything just piled up nicely, so it’ll be a little like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” Reed said cheerfully. “Except a lot more painful. Truthfully, it looks a lot worse than it is.”

“Grand,” I muttered.

“So, if you trust me, I’ll maneuver his bones back into position and you’ll keep them in place until we can get some sort of splint around them,” he explained.

“Healing balm coated bandages will go on first, followed by a resin-based outer cast,” Cam said. “I’ve been through this before. And yes, I trust you enough to set his bones.”

“Grand,” Reed said. “By chance, do you have any anesthetic?”

“Nope,” Cam answered. A thrill of fear ran through me. “I’ve never needed it, not even when I broke my leg. I’m a tough girl.”

More like completely mental, I thought, starting to go pale.

“We’ll just have to hope he passes out,” Reed said. “By the way, do you want your wings out while they heal or folded at your sides?”

“F-folded,” I said shakily.

“Kay,” Cam said. “Reed, let’s start now.”

“Wai-” I managed to gasp before the most intense pain I’d ever felt in my life hit me.

I passed out. And thank Celestia, Luna, and whatever other deities might be out there and watching over me that I did, because I did not want to be awake for that.

When I came to, the first thing I felt was an agonizing ache in my wings, a persistent fire that seemed to burn and tear at my muscles and nearly made me pass out again. The second thing I felt was a hard casing on the appendages. Guess they set them corectly. I could feel the breaks, but nothing seemed grossly out of place. What’s more, I could feel the ache slowly fading.

The third thing I noticed was that Reed and Cam were in the middle of a discussion.

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not,” Reed said. “It’s a little stupid when you think about it.”

“No, really?” Cam asked sarcastically. “We manage to jump into a safe dimension and the place we land in is the only dangerous place?”

“Yep,” Reed said.

“What?” I mumbled.

“Oh! You’re awake,” Cam exclaimed, rushing over to me with something in her paw. “I’d imagine you’re in quite a bit of pain. We didn’t exactly get it right on the first try-”

“Spare me the details,” I grumbled.

“Okay,” she said. “Basically, we had to shuffle things around a bit more than we initially thought. It might’ve damaged you a bit, so I got you another painkiller.”

“I don’t need it,” I said. “The pain is fading, and I’d like to know exactly when I’m healed.”

“Okay then,” Cam said. “Suit yourself.”

“I’m much more interested in the conversation you two were having,” I grunted, sitting myself up. “Fill me in, please?”

“Sure,” Reed said. “I was filling Cam in on where we landed. We landed in the Peaceful Plains, a dimension that, for the most part, follows its name. However…”

“We landed in the one part that didn’t?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Reed said. “We landed in the Sentient Vines, a subdivision of the Plains that’s nearly killed more than one Mage.”

I sighed and leaned back, the gas providing a cushion of sorts. “We have the best luck, don’t we?” I murmured.

“I blame Reed,” Cam said.

“Hey!”

“I mean,” I continued, “First, Tranquility and I got thrown across Equestria by that storm… then that Wanderer found you and forced you out of your home, Cam… then Reed got kidnapped by us, which is bad luck for both sides of this.”

“I honestly don’t mind too much,” Reed said. “It means I don’t have to deal with Ivy.”

I let out a soft chuckle at that. “Maybe not as bad luck, but it still sucks. We jump through a few more dimensions, and we finally get to something that we can call a home, with nice creatures who welcome us… and I turn out to be one of their legends and the bane of their existence. So we have to fight our way out of that, and I…” My voice caught in my throat, and wave of guilt crashed through me. I killed someone. The memory played unbidden behind my eyes. I saw him grab me, and, as if slow motion, the moment he realized what was going to happen. I could see the fear spark in his eyes, and the shock… and the short moment when the agony hit him. The fear vanished to be replaced by pain… and then he vanished. Another wave of guilt, and this time, horror, ran through me, making me feel nauseous. “A-anyway…” I continued, trying to quash the rush of emotion so the others wouldn’t notice. “We make it o-out and we land in that mess. It’s like someone has it out for us.”

“They’re probably mad we’re not dead,” Cam said. “But we don’t care, do we? Because we’re gonna live.”

“True that,” Reed said. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without my voice hitching again.

“And we’re gonna keep going strong,” Cam said.

“Yeah…” Reed said.

Until we all die, I thought morbidly. Another thought occurred to me. “Where’s Tranquility?” I asked.

“She’s still over there,” Cam said, pointing to her left. “Hasn’t moved, not even while we were setting your bones.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly. That’s not right. “I’m gonna go check on her,” I said.

“Be careful,” Cam said. “I don’t want to fix your wings again.”

“I will,” I said. With that, I started to work my way through the cyan gas, trying to get to her. I hope nothing’s wrong.

It was slow going, partially because I had no idea how to get through the air. Eventually, though, I made it to Tranquility and sat down next to her. She didn’t react, so I didn’t say anything. Eventually, after a few minutes of silence, I decided to reach out. “Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey,” she mumbled.

“Rough day, huh?” I asked, leaning towards her. She didn’t lean back, though, so I raised myself back into a normal position, a little disappointed.

“You have no idea,” she whispered, her voice breaking a little bit. This set off a few alarm bells in my head. Tranquility was usually very good at dealing with her emotions, and if she was having trouble speaking, something was seriously wrong.

“What’s going on?” I asked softly, scooting a little closer to her. She didn’t respond, looking away from me. “Tranquility, I want to help. What’s the problem?”

She muttered something under her breath.

“Tranquility, we’ve know each other for years,” I said. “You can tell me what the problem is-”

“You.”

I froze, breaking off in the middle of my sentence. I almost didn’t believe what I heard. I didn’t want to believe what I heard. I didn’t even know what to say. “Wha…?” I murmured dumbly, my eyes going wide.

“You asked, I answered,” Tranquility said softly, turning to face me. “And you are the problem.”

“Why?” I asked, feeling something start to break inside of me. It was bad enough that the day had gone the way it had, but this… it just started to break me.

“Simple,” she said, anger building in her voice. “You are the sole reason that we got thrown out of Symphony.”

And just like that, the broken feeling started to vanish, being replaced by anger. “Now hold on!” I said. “That was not my fault!”

“Really,” Tranquility deadpanned. “So… your singing causing every single one of the Songs to turn against us wasn’t your fault?”

“You know I can’t control it,” I hissed, tears starting to build in my eyes.

“But you could’ve done something!” she snarled, tears forming in her eyes as well. “You could’ve tried to talk them down! You could’ve tried to hold back your voice!”

“How would I have known?!” I shouted, my anger building, and the cracks in my heart spreading. “Moonlight said-”

“I don’t care,” Tranquility hissed, tears starting to run down her cheeks.

“Why is this such a big deal?” I asked, trying to calm down and trying to salvage the conversation. I can fix this, I thought.

That was the exact wrong thing to say.

Tranquility reeled back as if she had been physically struck, her nostrils flaring and her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. “Why is this a big deal?” she whispered, stalking towards me. “Why? WHY? I’LL TELL YOU WHY!” she screamed, shoving me backwards hard enough to jostle my wings and cause me to gasp. “WEH POUREHASTI DU QURI SURAI, WEH POUREHASTI DU ZHAIGAI! KI ZEI UROS ERO PO JEOIA UROS KEIKA REIRAOH! JOR DAE-”

“TRANQUILITY!” I screamed, shutting my eyes. “STOP, PLEASE! Please…” I went limp, curling up in a little ball. “I-I can’t c-control it. Y-you know that… I don’t u-understand w-why you’re so m-mad, or what I did… b-but please stop. Y-you’re not the only o-one hurting…” I gently raised my head to look at her, tears in my eyes. “I-I broke m-my wings. That t-terrible wail hurt me so much…” I closed my eyes, tears starting to flow from beneath my eyelids. “Tranquility, I… I killed someone. I-I actually e-ended a life… and it hurts. I-I see it… It makes me f-feel sick…” I trailed off, not wanting to continue.

A silence stretched on for a few more seconds before Tranquility let out a heavy sigh. “Weh pourehasti du quri surai, weh pourehasti du zhaigai,” she murmured. “It means ‘the crumbling of fields established, the crumbling of lives.’ It’s supposed to symbolize that, without a home, a life will deteriorate and crumble. That’s why I’m so mad… it’s proving to be true. I suppose that it isn’t your fault we got kicked out of Symphony…” My heart leapt in my chest. “But…” And it fell just as hard. “You’re the easiest thing to blame for it. I’m in alohaidurast. My head knows you’re not to blame, but my heart… doesn’t. Because of that… I think you just need to leave me alone for now.”

And just like that, what little resolve I had left in me crumbled, and my heart shattered. Tranquility, my best friend, my crush, my pillar of support in rough times… was telling me to go away and leave her alone. A lump formed in my throat, and I fought the urge to break down in tears. “How long?” I managed to choke out.

“I don’t know, Fall… I really don’t know,” she said, turning away from me.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Okay…” When she didn’t respond, I got up and turned away from her. “I-I’ll go now…” And I did.

I didn’t really think about my destination, wandering through the blue air for a short time. I just had to get away, to keep moving, to not think… but eventually, my heart caught up to me. I stopped moving entirely, letting the gas support my body. For a moment, I stared blankly ahead, an emptiness filling my heart and soul, before it all came crashing down on me.

It was my fault, despite the fact that I couldn’t control my voice. If I hadn’t been there, Tranquility and the others would have been fine. And now, I was reaping the consequences.

My best friend was mad enough at me that she told me to leave her alone, something that had never happened before. I’d somehow hurt her deeply enough that it came to this. Some people might call it an overreaction, but I felt that it signified that our friendship might be coming to a close. And… that hurt. It really, really did.

What’s more, I blew our only chance to be safe, probably shortening our lifespans by at least four decades. The others might’ve laughed and joked about it, but now, it dug into my heart like a rusty knife, tearing at my resolve and my will to live. And what was worse…

I had killed that poor Song.

Words can’t describe the rush of pure pain, regret, guilt, and shame that rushed through me as I thought about it. Because of me, something was dead. Because of me, a future was cut short. Because of me… the world no longer had something it probably cherished. I gasped as if I had been physically struck. I was a murderer. And I would live with that burden for the rest of my life. Nothing could erase that stain upon my soul. And what’s worse, I didn’t have Tranquility to help shoulder my burden anymore, and even if I did, she probably would have started to drift away from me because of the fact that I did that.

It’s all my fault, I thought miserably. That realization was too much for me to bear, and I did the only thing I could.

I started to cry.

Once the tears started, they didn’t stop. It all came out in a blubbering mess as I broke down completely. I wept for our situation. I bawled for what I had caused. I wept for what I had done to the others. I wept for the life that I had taken. I wept for my shattered relationship with Tranquility.

But most of all, I wept for my broken heart.

At least I wasn’t the only one.

Author's Note

It was a normal day at the author's household. He had several of his friends over, and they were playing Mario Kart together peacefully. They were, at least, until a heavy pounding on his front door echoed through the house.

"I'll get it," one of the friends who wasn't currently playing said, getting up from his position on the couch and walking to the door. Meanwhile, the poor door started to shake on its hinges, scaring away the cat who was lying in front of it. It was truly impressive that the cat was frightened, because he had been deaf for some time. The friend looked out of the small window on the side of the door and whistled.

"Who's there?" the author asked.

"A whole bunch of people," the friend said. "Did you invite them?"

"No, I only invited the people who are already here," the author responded. "What do they look like?"

"Well, I don't recognize them, but they've got pitchforks and torches, and they look pissed," the friend said. To his surprise, the author let out a booming laugh. "What's so funny?"

"It's probably my readers," the author explained. "I'd imagine they'd be mad after what I did in the last chapter of one of my stories."

I'm not sorry, by the way.

Now do you understand what I meant when I said that this mini-arc was gonna be hard to write? Believe it or not, I get emotionally connected to my characters, so this is gonna be difficult for me, too. But I urge you to keep reading.

Thestral Language Guide

~Pyrepinna

Please don't kill me.