Catching a Rainbow

by Damaged

Her Place

Previous Chapter

Landing carefully at the front gate of Twilight's castle, Rainbow Dash stretched her wings a little before finally tucking them back. The tips of her feathers, she noticed, now stretched a little past her plot. Big wings were required on big ponies, but when a smaller frame had them it meant some amazing stunts could be performed. Just as she lifted a hoof to push the door open she felt a tap on her snout to halt her. "What?"

"Ya can go in willy-nilly, but Ah don' think Ah'm tha' welcome." Seabreeze straightened up a little and leaned forward with his hoof. Rainbow obliged her rider, of course, and leaned close enough so that he could knock on the door.

The crystal castle resounded with the three tiny hoofbeats. If Rainbow Dash weren't as well-trained as she was, she would have reacted more than to just step back a pace. A soothing rub against her snout soothed her nerves. "How'd you do that?"

"'twas breezie magi' tha' built dis." Gesturing up at the castle, Seabreeze cocked his ears forward at the sound of hooves coming towards the door. "Ah, 'ere t' come."

Twilight opened the door to her castle and had to look down a little more than normal to see Rainbow Dash. Seabreeze was sitting proudly astride her friend's snout, and if it weren't so serious she would have thought it cute. "Rainbow Dash, Seabreeze. Just visiting?"

"Well, I am." Rainbow tilted her eyes inwards towards Seabreeze. "But I think Seabreeze wants to chat about something." With Seabreeze on her snout, Rainbow's wings twitched, ready for the command to fly.

"Ay, she got t' right o' it." Seabreeze gave Rainbow's snout another gentle, reassuring stroke. "Am Ah welcome or no'?" He did nothing to be unassuming. Seabreeze was the oldest being in Equestria and considered respect should be automatic.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Seabreeze of the breezies, I welcome you into my castle and home as a guest, on two conditions." Studying the laws governing breezies had taken months of reading and more putting them together into a coherent whole, but Twilight was quite sure by the surprise look Seabreeze gave her that she had his attention. "You don't affect anypony with your magic while inside, and while you are here you are not to affect Rainbow Dash at all. That includes riding her."

Seabreeze seemed about to refuse, but cracked a grin instead. "Right'cha are t' take concession." He bowed to Twilight and spread his wings. "Ya be goo'." With one last stroke of Rainbow's snout, he flapped his oversize wings.

Blinking, Rainbow Dash felt a calmness settle on her. With Seabreeze mounted she had been on guard, ready to do what he needed. Without him, she felt more like a pony than ever. Once Seabreeze had fluttered his way into the castle, Rainbow Dash lifted her hooves and started to trot in.

"Get her!" Applejack rushed at her friend and tackled Rainbow Dash to the floor. "Now, Twilight! Zap her back ta normal!" With Rainbow Dash smaller than she normally was, Applejack had a much easier time of keeping her friend pinned. It helped that Rainbow was holding back, not wanting to hit her friend with the same force she had used on the timberwolf.

"Applejack! We decided not to jump on her!" Twilight lifted a hoof up and clopped her own forehead. "Let her go…"

"Ah ain't buyin' it, Twilight!" It was getting harder for Applejack to hold her friend down, Rainbow Dash's longer legs had more reach, and with them she was slowly pushing her way out of the tight hold the earth pony had. "Either zap her back ta normal, or we keep her locked up here until she changes back!"

Twilight turned to her friends, but each of them stared on with similar looks of shock and horror as she herself had first shown. She was almost turned to Seabreeze to ask him for help, but stopped herself in time. Lighting her horn, she did zap Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow was suddenly sitting on the other side of the room without an apple-themed earth pony on top of her. "Thanks Twilight!" Getting her long legs under her, she barely got back to her hooves than Applejack was coming for her again. "Hey!"

When Rainbow Dash's wings pulled her from Applejack's reach, she pulled out a rope and formed a lariat on the end. "Get back here!" Swinging the lasso around, she cast it up at Rainbow Dash's leg.

Met with a target she could lash out at, Rainbow brought both her back legs—now more slender than she had ever had as an adult—down against the incoming rope. A thunder crack sounded, and blue light flared from Rainbow's hooves. The rope wasn't just singed, a good half the lariat vaporized at the power Rainbow Dash put into it.

Rainbow Dash's heart thudded in her chest, and she looked down at Applejack's shocked expression. "Give it up, you can't stop me flying if I don't want you to." For good measure she stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry.

Applejack looked around at her other friends. "What're y'all standin' around for? She needs our help! Can't you see the breezies have her all messed up in her head?" Her attention focused mainly on Twilight. "Why'd you help her get away fer?"

"Because Seabreeze promised he wouldn't affect her while he was here." Twilight turned to the breezie. "And the one sure, absolute thing I found out about breezies is—"

"We don' break our word." Seabreeze's tone brooked no wriggle room so far as the topic went. He turned to Applejack specifically. "Ya from an ol' line, li'l filly. Ah see some o' t' ol' hints in ya, an' new ones from t' Elements."

Seabreeze's grin at the last surprised Applejack, it was more open than she had any right to believe he would be. "Ah still don't like it. He did all this," she waved her hoof up at Rainbow Dash, "to Rainbow without her say-so. Then he spends a year makin' her think she wanted it all along!"

Rainbow's mental chiding of Applejack halted dead in its tracks. Tucking her wings in, she dropped and hit the floor, landing on her long legs like they were giant shock absorbers. "Whoa!" She backed a step up when Applejack moved towards her. "Just calm down. You are right in a few things."

"She is?" The question was chorused by Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight.

"A' course she is." Seabreeze fluttered closer to the two ponies in contention, but kept from his usual roost of Rainbow's snout. "'er punishmen' was t' feel like an animal fer a year an' a day." He turned to Rainbow Dash and gave the mare his proudest smile. "An' she took 'er licks."

"Then why do you still let him ride you like that?" Applejack gestured at Rainbow's face. "You're a pony, Rainbow Dash! Why do you let him ride you and do all this crazy magic on you?" Her confusion was plain on her face, but it was mixed with determination and love for her friend.

"Look at me, Applejack." Rainbow Dash spread her wings out—careful of Seabreeze. "He made my wings bigger, my body smaller. I am faster than I have ever been!"

"Yer his pet! He trained you like a dog!" Applejack stomped a hoof in frustration. She glared at Seabreeze with anger in her eyes and fire in her heart.

"You trained Winona." Fluttershy hid herself behind her hair the moment she said the words. Only able to tell Applejack had approached her when she felt her friend's hoofsteps through the stone, she felt herself shaking.

"Fluttershy…" Applejack saw the mare she cared so much about hide from her. "Ah'm just trying to get her to see it isn't right to train a talkin', thinkin' pony." She reined in her anger at the situation Rainbow Dash was in to comfort Fluttershy.

"B-B-But, you trained Winona, and she talks to me all the time." When her words tripped Applejack up, verbally, Fluttershy wanted to hide again. "That is, I mean… eep…"

"I'm not an animal, Applejack." Rainbow Dash walked over to wrap a huge wing around Fluttershy, managing to half-hide the bigger mare under the big, translucent feathers. "But I kinda deserved a bit of payback. It wasn't like the breezies were the first ponies I pranked that day.

"What I am trying to say is, I deserved what they did, and what Seabreeze did. All those pranks weren't very nice, and all of it was just to make me laugh." Turning her attention to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash pressed her cheek against her best friend's. "I have a new job to do, Fluttershy."

The change in conversation derailed Fluttershy's panic, and she lifted her head out from behind her mane. "A new job? But what about the Wonderbolts, and looking after the weather?"

"Yeah, Rainbow Dash. What about your lifelong dream of bein' in the Wonderbolts?" Applejack seemed determined to keep the original topic going.

Rarity cleared her throat. "Darling, don't you think this is a bit much? We agreed not to push this right away."

Seeing her chance to wade in on the topic too, Pinkie Pie walked up so that she stood nearly nose to nose with Seabreeze. "You know the trolls?" Her question got a surprised nod from Seabreeze. "Thought so. They used to talk about the 'little folk of central Equestria,' and I thought to myself, 'Pinkie Pie, breezies are little, and they are definitely folk, annnndddd they live in—"

"We got it Pinkie." Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself smiling along with Pinkie, the irrepressible pink pony could laugh in face of literally anything. Looking back to Applejack, she shook her head a little. "The Wonderbolts can survive without me." Rainbow Dash's voice held sufficient serious tone even to keep even Applejack from interrupting. "I… I promised myself I would take care of all of you. That is literally what loyalty is all about. I should know, I was the Element Bearer of Loyalty after all."

Rarity's eyes went wide, and a pure white handkerchief appeared by magic. "You gave up your dream for us?"

"Ah didn't ask you to do that…" Applejack scuffed a hoof on the floor, a little of her anger turning to shame at her outbursts.

"A friend doesn't need to be asked. Seabreeze told me I had a boon from him." Pointing at the breezie in question, Rainbow Dash gave her best, lop-sided grin. "I told him I want to protect everypony." A memory tickled Rainbow Dash's thoughts and she pointed at Twilight. "And can you believe he offered to make me an alicorn? What do I know about magic? I wanted to go fast, to hit hard, and look awesome doing it." Rainbow nodded to all three points.

"But he already had his hooks into you, Rainbow Dash." Applejack was like a dog with a bone. "The Wonderbolts was everything to you!"

"The Wonderbolts was the dream of a little filly! She grew up and did everything she dreamed of, even joining the Wonderbolts. I'll never forget my time there, and if they will still have me after…" Rainbow gestured to herself, "after this, then I will happily be there for them. But I have a bigger dream now." She gave Fluttershy a little squeeze and started to turn to look at all her close friends. "I want everypony to be safe."

"I remember those words well, Rainbow Dash." Princess Celestia's voice was soft, but held a sympathetic note that few in Equestria could have matched at that moment. "And I traded away more than a year to get it." Her vision, half obscured by her mane, turned to Seabreeze. "Dedication and loyalty are not traits to be shunned." Smiling suddenly, she took a deep breath and let it out. "But let's not argue out here. There is tea and cakes waiting."

Seabreeze almost instinctively flew towards Rainbow Dash before remembering his pledge. He fluttered in the air a moment ins shock at his impulsiveness, until he remembered the binding. Life was a whole new animal for the breezie to explore, and giving his wings a determined swish, he sent himself after Princess Celestia. "T' castle's fine. Need' more roosts, t' be honest."

As the group filed into Twilight's castle's dining room, they found a huge spread of cakes and an immense dinner service. Spike waddled around on his little legs, making sure the cakes were all organized properly by taste, color, and smell (in that order), before he took his seat beside Twilight.

Celestia moved naturally to sit on one of the ordinary seats, and floated a cupcake from one platter over and took a bite from it. Her face split in a huge grin, and passing the sweet cake across the table, she set it before Seabreeze. "Let's dispense with all the formality, for now, and get to the important things. I do plan to enjoy at least one of each plate that Pinkie Pie has prepared for us." She gave a warm smile to the baker.

"They're all really good!" Pinkie reached a hoof out to a green-iced cake and, tossing it in her mouth, trembled in bliss. "Cream and lime juice, my favorite!"

Color drained from the faces of nearly every other pony in the room, but Seabreeze laughed at the display of fortitude. "Cordlin' as qui' as eatin'!" He chortled in delight at the intimate atmosphere with ponies that he didn't have to guard against. "Ya got questions."

"You have done a lot to Rainbow Dash, what was her bargain?" Princess Celestia clearly avoided the tray Pinkie had pointed out to be Insta-Curdle-Deluxe cupcakes, and hoped to the sun that there were no other booby traps. "What did she promise?"

"She di' more 'n promise. She saved a breezie." Seabreeze saw the shock on Celestia's face. "She saved a few o' us. So ya see, my life and other need' a balance." He munched on some more of the soft vanilla cake that Celestia had tested for him in advance.

Celestia turned and looked at Rainbow Dash, who was stuffing her mouth with a cupcake. "You saved his life?" The pegasus just nodded, mouth full. "And what did you ask for?"

Gulping down the food in her mouth, Rainbow Dash grinned. "To be more awesome. He wanted to do the whole horn and wings thing, but I was all, 'Nah, I just want to fly really fast so I can protect my friends.' "

"An' don' forget t' lifespan. Eternity for eternity." Seabreeze nibbled a little more cake.

"I totally didn't ask for that!" Rainbow pointed a hoof at the breezie. "That was all your idea, not mine."

Seabreeze grinned widely. "Ya din' say no."

"That just means he has his hooks in you forever!" Applejack had been waiting for the catch. At the groans that accompanied her outburst, she shook her head. "Ah just don't get why y'all ain't as angry about this as Ah am! Particularly you, Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash shrank instead of standing up for herself, and it had every eye in the room on her as a result. "What?" Her hackles were up with her back pressed to the chair.

"You are acting really weirdly, Rainbow darling." Rarity's tone held worry for her friend.

Fluttershy looked at her best friend since foalhood. "You… You do seem to be not quite yourself."

But it was Pinkie, giggling around her latest cupcake of gastronomical distress, that answered their questions. "Pfft, you silly billies. Rainbow Dash likes being treated like that. Anypony could tell that." When silence met her reasoning, Pinkie gulped down her food. "What? Anypony could! It's as obvious as the feathers on her wings… although those are both more and less obvious now."

"Is this true, Rainbow?" Rarity had to reach across the table with her magic and gently tilt Rainbow's jaw up so she could look in the mare's eyes. "Oh darling, there is no reason to feel embarrassed."

"If Ah 'ad known ya would treat 'er like this, Ah wouldn' have made that bargain to come in." Seabreeze left his snack and trotted across the table to Rainbow Dash, one hoof reached out to stroke her nose. "Tha tha." Rainbow Dash's worry eased almost immediately and she pressed her snout against the attention a little more. "Ah'm goin'. Ah see how you trea' ya frien's."

"Wait." Rainbow Dash, her mind having relaxed under the care Seabreeze had shown, jerked her head up. "You can't do that, Seabreeze. The only reason they are doing all this is because I am their friend."

"Too right we are!" Applejack stomped a hoof on the table. "Ah ain't leavin' my friends ta the likes of you!"

Seabreeze turned to look at Applejack. "Tha' right is it?" He looked towards Princess Celestia and saw the same calm look she had always worn. "There were a litt' filly. 'Er gran were the greatest witch in t' land. But when 'er li'l filly was of age ta teach the ways, she up an' left."

"What 'n heck are you talkin' about?" Applejack squinted at Seabreeze a moment as her brain put together his hard to follow words. "Are you accusing Granny Smith of being a witch? Witches aren't even a thing!" If somepony had dropped a pin, Applejack would have heard it. "Right?" She turned to look at Princess Celestia.

"Witches are real. They are one of the manifestations of fey magic within ponies, specifically earth ponies." Princess Celestia looked at Applejack and studied her face carefully. "I think you need to talk to Granny Smith about this."

Seabreeze cleared his little throat, getting the attention of Applejack again. "An' ya brother."

Applejack just stared past Seabreeze, her mouth working without any words coming out. She turned to look at Celestia, then back at the breezie. Slumping back in her chair, she kept any further words to herself while her mind turned over the implications.

Silence descended, and the longer it was upon them the heavier it got. Even Pinkie Pie found it hard to crack the boulder of reality that had crushed the conversation. At last, however, Princess Celestia finally cleared her throat. "So you aren't leaving right now?"

Lifting his snout from the tasty, frosted cupcake, Seabreeze shook his head. "Ah like it 'ere now; it's much quieter." He gave a brief nod to Applejack before turning his attention back to Celestia. "Ah 'ad ya fer a hun'red turns an' ya didn't learn ya lessons near half as good as Rainbow."

Celestia blushed hotly at the derision, but though Seabreeze had used a jovial tone of voice, she couldn't help but look at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash looked directly back at Celestia, a blush of surprise on her own cheeks. Inside the mare's head, a little voice pointed out that she was a better mount than Princess Celestia. Rainbow Dash was a moment from looking away in embarrassment, but Celestia beat her to it.

"Why did you take the Elements of Harmony away?" Twilight's voice cut the awkward moment like a hot knife in butter. "Not that I don't appreciate what you did with the castle, but—"

"Luna broke 'er word. She 'came tha' which needed t' be defended fro'. We too' back t' reward tha' 'er promise 'ad gained. Balance." Seabreeze pointed a hoof at Twilight. "Ya too' 'er task up, 's why ya look so gran'." Looking around the table, the breezie wore a satisfied look.

"B-B-But if Twilight is paying for them, why don't we still have the Elements?" Fluttershy tried to hide the moment she finished talking, her pink mane ever the best defense she had against the world.

"Twilight Sparkle is paying the price, but has not made a deal." Princess Celestia looked to Twilight. "Just how we practiced, it is up to you, Princess." Pride in her student built within Celestia, and she smiled widely and gestured at Seabreeze.

With a nod to Princess Celestia, Twilight turned to face the tiny being that could twist ponies around his hoof. "Seabreeze. First, any deal I make that requires payments are made by myself only. Equestria, my friends, possessions, and offspring are all subject to their own deal."

"Ya been studyin'." Seabreeze nodded his head. "Alright."

Twilight smiled. "I pledge to serve Equestria as its protector." Heart racing, Twilight made sure to watch her words. "What would the breezies pledge for this protection?"

"Ya're already its protector, but I get ya point. Ya got ya power." Seabreeze gestured to Twilight's wings with a little hoof. "An' that has bee' granted too. Luna Duskdancer turned down 'er role as protector, ya can 'ave it."

"What—" Twilight slammed a hoof over her snout quickly. She rushed through her lessons in her head again: asking for a completely true answer was a boon in and of itself to the breezies. "I am not aware of the full details of your deal with Luna…" she blinked a few moments at having learned Luna's full name, "… Duskdancer."

"Luna made two deals with Seabreeze." Celestia's words broke a little of the tension. "Her first was to serve Seabreeze for a hundred years, in payment to be an alicorn. I paid a hundred years too, for my own horn." She let the truth of her words settle in. "Her second deal was to protect Equestria for all time, and against all threats, in exchange for the Elements of Harmony. Seabreeze took them because she broke her deal."

Armed with new knowledge, Twilight turned back to Seabreeze. "You have taken your payment before making the deal, which means you are at a disadvantage."

Seabreeze's eyes went wide, but he threw his head up in a laugh. "Right ya are."

"Then it is simple. All the power of the Elements of Harmony, and I will spend eternity, as the protector." Twilight knew full well she was leaving something out, as did Seabreeze. She locked eyes with the breezie, and held his gaze for what felt like eternity, but was probably no more than a few minutes.

"An' Ah suppose ya bein' an alicorn is the disadvantage?" Seabreeze lifted his tiny hoof up and rubbed his chin. "Ya, this can work. Bu' t' gems are gone." Walking across the table, Seabreeze got right to the edge of the table fore Twilight. "T' power'll hafta be in ya. All o' ya."

Twilight's eyes widened, and she looked around at her friends. "I need to discuss this with my friends." She looked around at her closest friends and read a mix of excitement, worry, and outright refusal from various members of her clique.

"This sounds exciting!" Pinkie Pie bounced in place. "What will the power do to us? Make us like Rainbow Dash?" Somehow, the pink mare managed to make her limbs thin, and her mane and tail resembled huge wings.

Seabreeze looked to Pinkie Pie for a moment before grinning. "T' trolls're more open wit' questions. So I'll gi' ya a pass. There's many way' breezie magic can take a pon." He gestured to Rainbow Dash. "Could ya imagine 'er as anythin' but fast?"

Pinkie blinked owlishly at Rainbow Dash for a moment. "Nope!"

"Ya already 'ave t' strength a ten pon, an' can do amazin' things. But Ah can see ya bring happiness whereva ya go." Walking right up to Pinkie, flapping his wings to reach her face, Seabreeze reached a hoof out and gently tapped her snout.

Everypony's attention was glued on Pinkie, and they watched her eyes widen impossibly huge, and a massive smile cleft her face. Not a pony in the room could keep their own smiles from growing at their immensely happy friend.

"Who' next?" Seabreeze looked around the rest, his eyes falling first on Rainbow Dash. He grinned at his breeziemount and looked on. Another pegasus, yellow of fur and pink of mane. Fluttering his wings, Seabreeze made his way over to land before Fluttershy. "Ya don' wanna go fast."

"N-N-No…" Fluttershy knew she couldn't really hide, but it didn't stop her trying to deflect as best she could. Turning her head slightly, she managed to get Seabreeze completely out of her line of sight.

"Ah've seen t' care ya show the beasts. Ya can speak t' 'em, an' un'erstan' 'em. But t' truth is ya love all t' forest. Ah can let ya speak t' trees, flowers, an' even t' forest itself." It wasn't hard for Seabreeze to see Fluttershy's entire demeanor change. He had something that was burning in the mare's heart, and was waving it before her snout. "Ya can 'ave ya Element back, an' it'll come with those changes. A druid it'd make ya."

Rarity trembled in a moment of fear. She had no idea what Seabreeze would offer her, but all the same she felt terrified at the prospect of wanting something from the fae. When he turned to face her, however, she braced up her courage and looked directly into his eyes.

"Brave. Savvy. Glorious." Taking the time to get the enunciation as correct as he could, Seabreeze could see that Rarity could be both the hardest and easiest to persuade. "T' power already flow' through ya heart'n'spirit. An' beautifu' as ya are, t' magic woul' make ya more so. I can't do more'n enhance t' ideals ya already 'ave."

"It won't change me?" Rarity blinked at the "offer," and wasn't quite sure how to take the compliments—apart from gracefully. "If you excuse me for saying so, I assume it will change me."

Seabreeze nodded, his eyes tracing over Rarity's form, admiring the beauty of every line. "Of course it will." He turned, leaving the mare to ponder her choice, and once more faced Twilight.

"Hey!" Stewing on her thoughts, Applejack glared at Seabreeze. "Tell me then, what'd you do to me?" It was a challenge. Applejack wanted to see what he would try to tempt her with.

"Ya'd be a witch. Plain'n simple." Waiting up until the moment Applejack was about to open her mouth and complain, Seabreeze continued. "Ya already have affinity wit' t' plants. This'd make that a whole lot more."

"What do you mean?" Narrowing her eyes, Applejack tucked her ears back a little. She had the look of a pony in battle, and it was true enough.

"Talk t' ya brother." Seabreeze yawned and walked directly for Princess Celestia. "All o' ya, make up ya minds and be here tomorrow." With his eyes locked on Celestia's own, he held the alicorn in his gaze as he neared. "Ya free, but can Ah rest a while?"

"For a price." Princess Celestia wanted to let the tiny creature bridle her more than anything, but she knew her duty to Equestria, and allowing him to rest on her was worth something, or he wouldn't appreciate it as much. "That you make a fair deal with these ponies."

"Fer one night o' rest?" Despite his indignant tone, Seabreeze couldn't help but smile. "Ah was wrong. Ya t' witch 'ere." Without another word he buzzed his wings and floated up, landing behind Celestia's head and settling into her mane.

The six friends stared at each other around the table. Though Applejack was still angry, she could see enough logic in talking to her brother before completely dismissing Seabreeze's words. "Ah'm goin' home. Ah got a brother who is goin' to be explainin' a whole lot."

Twilight watched her friend leave, and let out a breath. "I am not quite sure how this works, but technically I have already paid the price. You just need to decide if you can…" She looked at Rainbow Dash. "… deal with the changes."

"Hey, I'm not saying it wasn't odd to get used to." Flicking out a large wing, Rainbow Dash flashed her irrepressible grin. "But he does want what we want, kinda. To be safe. You didn't see what those timber wolves were going to do. His magic is slow—it took forever for his sleep spell to stop one of the wolves. If he is the source of…" Rainbow just pointed at Twilight and Celestia. "… then somepony needs to protect him."

"We all protect him. Equestria protects him." Princess Celestia could feel the tiny weight hidden in her mane. Just knowing she had gotten a concession from him for this had her smiling. "It is by no coincidence that they are so close to Canterlot."

"I'm still going to totally be helping when you guys need it, but there is a lot more I can do for Equestria than just push clouds around." Yawning, Rainbow Dash looked around at her friends. "But right now there is a pony I need to help more than you guys." Getting up, she spread her wings and launched herself towards the castle doors.

"Applejack." Twilight grinned. "That really is our Rainbow Dash."


Author's Note

Support me on Patreon or fuel my writing on Ko-Fi!

Join me on Discord. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Airy Words
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Mary Rowland
Nils
Sirion123
Tanis

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Airy Words
Cross Lament
Vutava