War Pony: Song of A Snowbird

Chapters

A Dark Night of Shadows
Without A Song
When Blood Runs Cold
The Mercy In Death
Burn It All Down

A Dark Night of Shadows

There was young mare named Lunar Stargaze, although most ponies just called her Luna. She had a dark blue coat and gorgeous crystal eyes. She lived in a small Earth Pony village between a mountain valley; one of the few areas connecting Great Bridleton and Germaney, the lands of Earth Ponies and Unicorns respectfully. Although, while her life was lived around Earth Ponies, and she herself was raised as an Earth Pony, her recent encounter with a Unicorn princess’s daughter had brought to light just how different the horn atop her forehead made her from her friends and family.

And she hated it.

It was ironic that while her despise for who she is engulfed her ever since the incident, it was the horn, the fact she had it and knew how to use it... It was the truth she was a Unicorn that anypony in the village, including herself, hadn't yet starved to death. Her magic warded off the cold from their farm that kept every single pony here alive, her being a unicorn was her most valuable asset.

And she fucking HATED it.

It ate at her for days after that sun-damned Unicorn came in here and threatened to kill her friend, told her she was better than all of the others, told her not to waste her gift... Gravel tells her not to worry about it, he tells her that she isn't a real Unicorn... But she is, she knows all of the truth now, there is no hiding it from her anymore.

Luna, despite her spiral into a depression, the likes of which she's never had, continued to work on the farm. She refused to let her family starve, even if it meant using her curse to do so.

Over the days, as she thought through everything that Unicorn had said, her mind found itself settling on the warning they gave to her. “Once the Unicorn Royal Guard realise I am missing, they will look for me. And if they find this town, then you'll have to make a decision like this again... except that time, it'll be to die an Earth Pony, or live a Unicorn...” It rattled around in the echo-chamber of her skull, always coming back to it at the end of every thought.

She pushed against it, she refused to do either, and continued to refuse it until she could no more.

And it was soon, once the days began seeming normal again was when the prophecy came to fruition.

Luna was trotting out of her home, meeting with Gravel in the street, preparing herself for another day of work on the field. They trotted up to the canvas of wheat that splashed along the ruins of Blossom Orchards, not speaking with one another, not even looking into each others’ eyes. Maybe because it was a bit too painful to talk, but maybe the solemn silence was saying more than they could with words.

Luna walked right into the tall wheat very humbly, leaving Gravel to watch as she went to cast her spell.

Over the next few minutes Luna projected her magic, although it was enough to clear the snow that topped the heads of wheat and push away the clouds above, it lacked the energy that she usually put into it.

Luna soon emerged back out.

“You know, things will get better.” Gravel shared a faint smile with her.

“Yeah... I know.” She replied, tired.

“Go get some sleep, I'll be over in a few hours.” He lifted up her chin gently, getting a reluctant smile as her eyes met his.

“See you.” She went to trot away, but after a few steps something came cascading from the town. It was a scream of agony.

Luna's head popped up, a strike of fear hit her as she turned to look at Gravel, who was equally shocked. He threw his farm tools to the dirt and began galloping off toward the town. Commanding to Luna as he went off, “Stay here! I'll be back!”

For a moment, she did just that. Stunned as she watched the elderly stallion gallop at his maximum potential, speeding into town and quickly being overshadowed by its structures.

Once he was gone, she shook her head, trying to regain her senses as he heard the screams continue and in fact multiply in voices.

She couldn't just sit here, she had to help. Luna galloped into Gravel’s hoofsteps, finding herself at the town's only street.

Luna ran over the soggy snow splashed dirt, trying to find wherever Gravel had gone, and wherever the scream was coming from. Before she could pinpoint the building, her search was quickly ended as a screaming elderly mare came tumbling out of the bakery a few homes away. The mare was looking back into the bakery in distress, trying to crawl away in the only feeble way she could.

Luna instantly tried to get within range to help her out of whatever unseen danger there was, being stopped by her own shock once she finally got into view of the doorway, stood frozen like a deer caught cornered by a predator.

Luna understood why the mare was screaming.

A trotting black storm, something that resembled demons that Luna had been told legends of, floated toward the aged mare. It had vague equine shape, obscured by the deep dark fog that brewed around it, the only light coming from the creature being occasional blue crackling thunder sparking around it and its menacing, sinister eyes that were sharper than a knife, which they used to bring the fear of death down upon the old pony. It brought down a leg onto her as it easily caught up, its aura being sucked back into itself to form a more definite shape as it summoned a long ornate dagger from its own anatomy, dangling it above the mare, pressing down her chest into the snow, causing her to squeal as her breath was forcibly removed from her body.

Then the blade dropped with incredible speed, faster than a lighting strike as it pierced right through the center of the poor mare’s throat, a geyser of blood gushing in all directions which sent Luna stumbling away in a daze as her mind began to pound against the walls of her skull and her vision blurred around the edges.

The apparition then seemed to let loose its form, returning to a shifty black gas before it dashed so quickly at Luna it seemed to almost teleport as its dagger found itself resting against Luna's skin.

Luna shut her eyes, the blade felt like it was tipped with ice and the creature itself had a very chilling breeze radiating from it, which she felt lean in close to her, its breath freezing up her cheek.

The creature began to speak, which sounded like a dark whisper echoing around in her head, rattling against her mind with each syllable.

“Where... Is... The... White... Unic-”

And then it stopped, more abruptly than Luna could have ever expected it to stop. She felt the throbbing pain in her head ease, she felt her legs regain their strength, and most importantly she felt the blade vanish from her neck.

Luna, even though she was still shaking and terrified, lifted up an eyelid, seeing the creature step back, as if it was conveying shock.

Then a new voice came from the creature, completely and utterly different from the demonically amplified one it had just used. Now it spoke with a very feminine and gentle tone, although it was especially apologetic. “Oh the heavens, I am so sorry!” The smoke and crystal blue thunder was then sucked back into its own body once more, but this time completely as it revealed a pony.

A dark navy Unicorn mare wearing a very tightly fit set of black armour that seemed to be the source of the illusory fog, its eyes no longer a solid glowing blue, instead a regular looking set of green-tinted pony eyes with an extreme sorrow expressed through them. “I didn't see you were a Unicorn!”

It was speaking to Luna, which Luna herself just realised, still stuck quivering in terror after the scene she had just experienced.

The previously demonic pony continued in her attempts to ease Luna's fear. “Everything is fine, miss, I am very sorry you had to see that, I didn't expect to see a Unicorn here, but look...” The now friendly Unicorn murderer stepped towards Luna and placed a hoof onto her shoulder, causing Luna to jump a little before letting it rest there, her faint breathing as quick as her current heartbeat.

The Unicorn looked over her shoulder back into the town, then returning to Luna's attentive and very scared eyes. “The others will have to do on their own, but I have to get you some place safe for moment, do you understand?”

Luna failed to even think of a response.

“Oh bloody tartarus...” The Unicorn backed off from Luna, levitating her helmet off of her head, revealing a quite luxurious emerald green mane. The Unicorn then sighed, looking around the town before settling her eyes on the furthest building she could see, which happened to be the farm house Luna had been calling home recently.

“I'll make sure you are safe, don't worry.” The Unicorn then forcibly wrapped her leg around Luna's neck. “Shut your eyes.”

Luna still gazed at her wide-eyed, causing the Unicorn to get her other front leg and place it length-ways against her eyes to block them from seeing anything.

Then Luna experienced a strange tingling sensation as a magical discharge rang in her ears, the Unicorn letting down her grasp on Luna, allowing her eyes to see once more she noticed she had been teleported all the way to the farm house.

The Unicorn tried to regain Luna's attention with a soft shake, more gentle than Luna would have ever thought this horrid creature could have been after the display she had witnessed.

“I'm going to clear the inside, then I will come back for you, ok? Do you understand, darling? Please shake your head.”

Luna must have responded subconsciously as her head glided up and down by an inch or so without her realising.

“Just don't draw any attention.” The Unicorn finished, refitting her helmet against her cranium.

All of her skin, armour and any other surface making up her body all of a sudden was bleached black and began floating off in particles of dust, like her flesh was sand being picked up by a harsh wind. Now in her shadowy form she floated down and seeped through the doorway's cracks, entering Luna's home.

Then things became silent. Luna had been gifted some time where she wasn't being constantly bombarded by a flood of trauma, confusion and nausea.

She recollected herself, looking to the door the Unicorn had disappeared through. Her breath began growing regulated, she knew what she had to do, or else she will be stolen away by this Unicorn and her town decimated.

Her attention was quickly dragged back towards the town as another scream rang through the morning air, who knew how many of these Unicorn monsters there were...

The door creaked open behind Luna, “It's clear, come inside, quickly.” The Unicorn asked of Luna, who hesitantly followed her order, the Unicorn stepping to the side to let Luna through.

“What's your name?” The Unicorn asked, swiftly slamming the door shut.

“Luna...” She whispered softly, clearly distracted by her surroundings, she was searching for something.

“Okay, Luna, my name is Eli, I know you're probably a bit shaken, but can you explain what you are doing this far into Earth Pony territory?” Eli paced after Luna, seeing she was greatly occupied by something.

Eli trotted in front of Luna and waved a hoof, trying to catch her attention. Luna's eyes leisurely landed on the Unicorn, and surprisingly her horn began to glow.

“Miss? Did you hear me?” Eli persisted, growing in bewilderment as she witnessed Luna strain her muscles in casting some spell. “Luna, what are you doing? What are you doing with your magic?” She asked, troubled by Luna's strange actions and odd circumstances.

Luna at this point had her eyes completely shut, absorbed in aiming her magic, hearing the gentle fizz come ever closer to them from the kitchen. Although for some reason she began to cry and shiver, feeling a great hardship in doing whatever it was.

The other Unicorn began to shake Luna's shoulder, watching her face closely as it suddenly scrunched up tightly, as if Luna had just thrusted something. “Miss? Miss, what are you gh... Ghhl...”

Luna opened her soggy eyes, the Unicorn directly in front of her had stopped speaking, instead making a muffled gurgle as blood filled her muzzle and it began dribbling to the floor along with the rest of her body as she collapsed to one knee, Luna's kitchen knife obtrusively sticking out from the back of the Unicorn's neck.

Luna couldn't stand just watching this pony suffer, she wanted it to be over, so Luna then levitated up Eli's still bloody dagger from the sheath on her flank. Luna looked down deeply into her eyes as she bled out on the floor and slammed the blade deep into the helpless Unicorn's cheek, killing her with startling efficiency.

A few moments past where Luna just stood there, covered in the Unicorn's blood, jaw wide open and shaking uncontrollably.

She couldn't rationalize what she had just done, even though it seemed so clear just a few seconds ago. Did she just kill a pony? Sure, it was a Unicorn and a murderer who likely deserved it, but isn't that what Luna herself just became by doing this?

Luna snapped herself out of it, she had no time for this, she had to go and help her family.

She turned heel and bolted to the door, kicking it open.

“Oh no...” She stopped, looking at the town ahead of her as several more Unicorns concealed in their shadowy facades roamed the streets, dragging ponies out of their homes and killing them in the muck and snow. If that wasn't enough, a storm was beginning to brew, one so strong she wouldn't be able to step out of her house without being blown over, all of their crops would die for sure.

Luna shut the door to stop the blizzard from shooting inside. Shehad to rethink her plan. She couldn't fight them, definitely not that many, and she couldn't stay here, for in a few moments they would surely search her home as well, and then she would be killed.

She had no choice, she couldn't help. She had to... Hide. Hide and wait for everything to die down and just hope there are survivors.

Not a second went by before panic ensued in her, she pulled towards her the closest cloak and parka she could and started fitting herself into them. She levitated over her pouch of belongings and the one photo she still had of her deceased mother which she prominently displayed in the living room, she couldn't part with it, no matter how small the chance of it being destroyed if she left it here. Finally, with a slight hesitation, she yanked the black-glazed dagger from inside the Unicorn's skull; she had to defend herself after all. Just in case she had to she thought, just in case.

She then bolted out of the back door of the farmhouse into the raging blizzard, at least it provided cover as she made a break for the mountains, knowing of a cave where the townspeople tried growing crops when the war first started, she would never be found in there.

She had no knowledge of whether or not any of her friends and family were still alive or not, but she knew she couldn't focus on that, instead she had to focus on the one thing that mattered now.

Making sure she would not die that day.

Without A Song

“Hmm... Hmmm hhm hmmm....” A feminine voice softly hummed a soft tune, her vocals were padded by the wooden walls of the humbly sized room.

Silk felt a tender cloth blanket comfort his shoulders, back and belly. For him it was hard to breathe, any air he took scraped down against his bare lips and down to his shriveled lungs. He was left without pints of his blood, his wounds sizzling and scratching against anything pressing against them.

But he was surely alive, and regaining a subtle amount of consciousness. “Wh... Wh... Where... Am... I....” The crackling of an open flame and cushioned resting place presented a large contrast to the barren snow he last remembered before blacking out.

The girlish voice stopped her humming to address his inquiry. “Good morning, mister sleepyhead. You're in a safe place now.”

“W-Who... Are... Y-You..?” Silk tried, but was still too weak to lift his eyelids.

“I'm a friend, I brought you all the way here from out of the snow... You were in really poor shape when I first found you.” Silk heard a small tingling sparkle noise and felt his blanket be straightened for him.

“W-What's your... N-Name..? A-Are you... A... P-Pegasus..?” Silk spoke with an ounce of worry.

“No, mister, I'm... Well... What I am is complicated, but I'm most definitely not a pegasus... My name is Lunar Stargaze. What about you?”

Silk panicked upon hearing she wasn't of his kind, but his body ached harshly when he attempted to escape. He took a breath and knew he was just going to accept this for now. “I'm... Argh... I'm Silk... Just Silk. W-What do you want... From me..?”

She softly pressed him down into the blankets and wrapped him up again. “I want you to stay still, your bones are still setting, they could snap again if you put too much pressure on them.”

Her genuine concern confused Silk immensely. “W-Why... Why are you helping me..?”

“Because you needed help, silly.” She stood up to stoke a nearby dying flame, ensuring its continued warmth for the moment.

“B-But... I'm a pegasus... Y-You aren't... ” He argued, though her rebuttal was swift and firm.

“And?” Stargaze looked to him in utter impatience.

“And... I...” He sighed, his lungs burning a little. “I... Don't know anymore...” Lunar may have not seen it, but a faint ghost of a blush appeared across Silk's cheeks as he uttered, “T-Thank you... F-For saving me... I... I guess...” His Pegasian pride rung high.

“You're welcome!” Lunar smiled and giggled for the first time in a while, “I'm so glad you've said that, some ponies I've helped never stop trying to kill me. I'd hug you if... Well... You know, silly.” She giggled once more, this time a bit more to herself.

“R-Right... I-It's just... I used to think the Pegasi race were my family... The military... B-But... I was betrayed...” His eyes relaxed and a tear rung out from each, fogging his already unfocused vision as he came to an epiphany. “They... P-Pegasi are just as bad as everyone else... All the training... T-The loyalty... It... All meant nothing... A pony from my own race... Tried to kill me...”

Lunar put a soft hoof of comfort onto Silk's shoulder, “I understand more than you know, friend.”

Silk twitched, but after a second he pushed away his instinctual fears and relaxed back down, a hoof from a new friend being far more than welcome at this point in his life. “T-Thanks... L-Lunar...” He shut his eyes, body tired from healing. “I-I think I'm gonna sleep now... I'm... Tired...”

“Go ahead... I'll hopefully have dinner done for when you wake up.” Lunar stood up from his side and let him drift away into his dreams.

“What's on your mind, Silk?” Madame Stargaze poured the wounded pegasus a bowl of hot, yet dully flavoured and coloured soup into his cruddy bowl.

Silk let out a disenchanted sigh, “I... I dunno...”

“You can be confident in anything you tell me, Silk, take your time.” Her eyes took a dart up into his and warmed him more than any fire.

“I... I just don't understand it... Why... Why are you so kind..? I... Really don't deserve it...” His head fell, his eyes staring into the deep void lost pride left him with.

“Haven't I already answered that?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I know that... Y-You helped me because I needed it... B-But I don't deserve it... I'm...” He let out a disjointed sigh. “I'm worthless...”

“You are worth more than you can ever imagine, everypony in the world is.” Lunar dropped her bowl and leaned over to hug him. “That's what my mama always told me.”

Silk tensed at her approach, but his nerves settled as her hug tightened around him. “Y-Your mother was a... Kind pony.” He turned a subtle comforted smile away from her.

“She was... Kindest pony in all of Great Bridleton.” Lunar leaned away from him to let him eat. “Please do not worry about deserving my help, I didn't do this wanting to be paid back.”

“T-Thanks... I'm sorry, I just... I guess I'm a little confused about everything... I don't even know what I want to do with myself anymore...” Silk looked up to the cracks in the tent where the night sky should have been.

“I understand how you feel... I used to work on a farm... Once I lost that, I didn't know what to do for a long while...” At this she fell back against a saddlebag of her things, an ornate dagger, blacker than the darkest obsidian, caught her eye. Lunar lifted it up with her soft magic. “I even thought about... Well... You know...” Her head made a slight tilt downward.

“B-But..?”

She smiled. “But I didn't. And I also didn't have to use this thing on anypony else... Luckily.”

“W-Well... I'm glad you're okay...” Silk finished his bowl of mushy food stuffs.

“You will be too, soon enough.” Lunar perked her eyes up. “How about we talk about something else? Take your mind off the matter?”

“Eh... S-Sure... I suppose...”

“What do you want to do after the war is over?”

Silk froze. Every muscle in his body tensing up upon hearing the question, his hopeful memories returning to him. “W-Well... I... I... Well... Sorta... I have a plan...”

“You have a plan? Tell me about it, I would love to hear it.” Her warm voice strung the words together eagerly.

“N-No... I... Well, I had a plan... I... I don't think I'll exactly be able to do it... It was more... Wishful thinking, in hindsight.” He swallowed.

“Wishful thinking is the seed to all the best fruits, tell me about it. Pretty please.” She fluttered her eyelashes.

“F-Fine...” Silk took a long deep breath. “I had this plan... I wanted to build this city in the clouds, it was going to be the perfect place... Every pegasus that lived there would be happy, healthy, never worry about a thing... It'd be a city of freedom, friendship and adventure... It'll... Uh, it'd be absolutely perfect...” He exhaled that same breath. “S-Shame I'll never live to see it.”

“It sounds beautiful.” Lunar stated, encapsulated with the vision in his eyes.

“T-Thanks... If onl-”

“What would you call it?” She interjected.

“S-Sorry?” Silk was thrown off guard.

“Its name, you must have thought of a name.”

Silk couldn't repress the smile nor the tear this memory brought. “C... Cloudsdale... I wanted... W-Want, I want to call it Cloudsdale.”

“Wow, that'd be an amazing name.” Lunar laughed a little.

“Y-Yeah... I... I like it a lot.” He laughed with her, finally enjoying himself again.

“So?” Lunar broke the silence before returning to her own bowl.

“S-So, what?”

“So, are you going to tell me more now?”

Silk chuckled, “R-Right... Well, I want there to be these giant rivers of rainbow...”

When he woke up today Silk felt safe. Knowing that the unicorn Lunar was there in the tent with him, an idea he previously dreaded, soothed him more than anything else. Though the fire, tent and warm blanket most definitely helped as well.

“Mnn... Morning... Lunar.” He rose up and yawned, stretching his healing hooves out, the pain having eased since the night before, and the previous days he'd spent in this tent with his new friend.

His new friend who hadn't responded yet.

Silk's eyes were rubbed and opened to search around the tiny cube he'd been calling home, Lunar not being in her bed or anywhere in sight. “L-Lunar..?!”

“I'm out here, silly!” Her giddy voice came through the tent's opening as she slid her head in through the floppy door. “How are your legs?”

“Oh! Thank the sun... T-They're all right, much better than yes-”

“Come on out here then! You'll want to see this!” Her magic lifted each corner of the tent's exit, giving Silk a clear tunnel out.

“Okay! One moment!” He pressed his weight against a flat hoof, feeling his bones not giving in he stood all the way up, wincing a little as his bandages burned against his scars, but he managed to walk on out of the tent all by himself. “W-Woah.”

His eyes widened and Silk's hooves wandered over the clear brown dirt mush under him. A small circle which extended just a few meters around the tent was clear of any and all snow, ice, and even darkness as the clouds above them held a small gap directly above their heads. The only such opening for as far as an eye can see in every direction.

“I noticed it stopped snowing on us... B-But today the snow had melted away! It's amazing!”

“I... I've never seen anything like it... H-How did this happen?!” Silk began laughing with his friend, stomping his hooves in mud for the very first time in his life.

“Hehe! I don't know! But I do know we should probably move quickly.” Lunar let out a satisfied sigh as her magic began packing bags inside the tent. “As awesome as this is, we do not have time to play in the mud. Any pegasi that fly this way will totally spot us, so we need to split. You think you can walk a bit? We don't have to go too far.”

“Y-Yeah, I can walk. No worries, I could always just fly if...” He attempted to stretch his wing muscles, finding them unresponsive. His eyes wandered down to his wing stubs. After a moment and a sigh he spoke up again. “I can walk.”

“That's good, I'll get the tent.” Lunar encompassed the tent in her spell and pulled it up from the ground muck, each corner one after another. She also retrieved her bags and the makeshift fireplace from inside the leather-hide tent.

After a minute of packing, Lunar helped Silk get his cloak on just before she got on her own, along with all her bags on her back. Her back now humped several large bags, nothing a farmer girl like her wasn't used to though.

“Y-You okay carrying all that?” Silk inquired as his legs softly trembled at just the sight of such heavy lifting.

“Yup! Now let's get goin'!” She stepped out into the puffing snow piles, her hoof crunching down all the way into the snow.

“Right, sorry... Just a unicorn stereotype I guess.” He followed after her, his hooves shuddering at the touch of snow.

“What stereotype?”

“That unicorns are like, physically weak.” He gulped, walking with her up the unbroken snow, leaving behind two parallel rows of hoofsteps.

“Ha! Really? Not me, I've never lost a hoof wrestle. Not once. And I grew up around farmers!”

“Haha, I understand. Sorry that I doubted you, no doubt you're stronger than myself.” Silk chuckled.

“Yup! Couldn't agree more, Mister Silk. Now let's hurry on up before we get bombed, hehe.”

They trotted together, leaving their trail as they wandered in no particular direction, talking about their lives as they have done for the past couple days. They told each other more about their lives every time they talked, opening up to one another.

It wasn't long in their walk before they talked to each other about the time Lunar met Aurora and how her life was turned on its head, and the events that lead up to Silk being betrayed by Midnight and left for dead.

They felt lucky to have not been spotted in their journey. While being so far into earth pony territory improved their chances when it came to being caught by flying enemies, earth pony squads roamed the land often, so Lunar's attention never faltered from the horizon circling around her.

A near hour's walk later the pair had found a new campground, they set up their tent under the trees of a decrepit, long dead forest.

Once they were completely set up again, Lunar began cooking the breakfast they had so far skipped this morning. “Hey, Silk?”

“Yeah?” Silk slumped down into his bedding.

“I was wondering, where did you plan on building your city?” Lunar began setting sparks inside the tiny fireplace.

“Um... Somewhere far away from any pony country... Why?”

“Oh, well I've been wandering aimlessly for quite some time... A few months maybe, I thought perhaps I could come with you. Finally have a goal set for myself.”

Silk thought about it, leading to a calming smile. “Yeah, sure... I don't know what we'd do once we got there, but leaving this war-zone would be pretty nice...”

“I'm glad you think so too. Did you ever have any place you thought about going specifically?” Lunar took out some of her precious rations to begin food preparation.

“Yeah I do, north. All the way north, past the Zebras, the whole of Moonstone... To whatever lies beyond.” The hope in his voice had noticeably returned.

“That sounds good... Though it also sounds like a dreadfully long hike, hehe.”

“Yeah... And doing that distance without wings is going to hurt no doubt, but I want to at least try.” He smiled again.

“That's the spirit!” She giggled, “Now how about we finally eat?”

“Of course, I would love that.” He replied.

They had their breakfast and then began creating their journey's plan, they took out Lunar's map and worked out the general area which they were in. Then they selected several landmarks on the way north that they could follow to ensure they would be going in the correct direction.

Once their full journey was laid out ahead of them they took another rest for the rest of the night, getting their energy up for when they would begin their long trot tomorrow.

The night was calm and warm.

The next morning couldn't have come fast enough, Silk was already stretching out his legs and eating breakfast with Lunar before the sun had fully popped out of the horizon. By the time it had, their bags were packed and wrapped up around Lunar's waist and shoulders.

“Are you ready, Silk?” She smiled over to him.

“Y-Yeah... I think I am.”

“Great! I'm a little excited... I've never been on a proper adventure like this.” She turned with her compass, spinning in place and looking outward down the frosty hall of trees.

“I guess if you don't count my journey out here... T-This is my first as well.”

“And hopefully not the last!” She stepped forward, then looked back to him.

“Y-Yeah. I'm coming.” Silk walked up to her, his hooves having recovered a majority of their strength. “Walking is burning less and less... Heh.”

“Glad to hear that! You'll soon be as strong as a real earth pony!”

Silk raised his eyebrow, his instinct messed with him, making him feel like that wasn't a compliment. “T-Thanks..? I suppose.”

“Hehe, you're most welcome!”

They got all the way out of the forest, breaching the treeline and casting out into the hills. The sun must have been smiling upon them that day, for not a drop of an incident intruded into their walk. No pegasus, earth pony or unicorn came across them over the whole day.

A dozen hours with a hoofful of breaks scattered in between for meals and to help ease Silk's leg pain when it became too intense.

They had outdone themselves on progress and found a small abandoned cottage, split in half by a bomb, for their troubles. They camped there for the night.

“So what would you do, if you saw her again?” Silk massaged his straining thighs.

“You mean the unicorn?” Lunar looked up to the cloudy sky out from the cracks of the cottage roof, only being able to wish that the stars were visible.

“Yeah, you haven't told me her name yet.” He confirmed.

“I ain't told you her name..? Uh... Maybe I just didn't wanna remember it again. It's Aurora, and I'm not sure what I'd do. I haven't thought about that yet...” She looked down to the bedding that she sat on, “I doubt I'd do much, don't even really wanna see her face, let alone talk to her. I don't think I would kill her for revenge or nothing, I wouldn't have the heart really.”

“I see that, you’re kind of a softie, no offense. I can't picture you using that dagger you have... How'd you get that thing anyways?” Silk looked over to her bag where the weapon sat ready if needed.

“I... Actually... Um... I killed a pony for it... I... I don't think I ever wanna do that again.”

Silk's eyes jumped up a little, “Woah.”

Lunar diverted her eyes along with the subject. “Y-Yeah... What about you? If you met that Midnight guy. What would you do?”

“Oh... Well... I don't know if I'd try kill him, I'd definitely be tempted... But have you ever heard the Pegasian saying, wing for a wing?” He flapped his stumps.

“Can't say I have, but I think I get the idea.”

“Yeah, I'm a firm believer in that saying now. More than I ever was before this.” Silk took a long breath and gathered his thoughts. “What did you say that unicorn's name was?”

“Aurora. Why you ask?” Her eyebrow peeked.

“Aurora Sunshine, by any chance?”

Concern hopped to the tip of her voice, “Y-Yes, how'd ya guess?”

“Aurora Sunshine is a royal if my memory serves me right, the daughter of Princess Platinum. She's second most important unicorn to be currently alive.” Silk spoke with hints of disbelief.

“P-Princess... Who..?” Lunar found to be the more curious matter.

“You really did grow up on an earth pony farm didn't you? Princess Platinum is the supreme ruler of the unicorns... Did you not know that?”

“I think I heard it before... Not sure if Aurora said that or somepony else, but yeah it sure rings a bell.”

Silk shook his head and chuckled, “Well, that's not the point, the point is that the pony that hurt you was a big deal... I wonder what she was doing...”

Lunar paused and scraped through her memory, finding it uncomfortably easy to remember that day she met Aurora. “I think she said something about a pony she wanted to marry, she was going to meet him somewhere... I think.”

“Funny... Midnight said the same thing... He was going to see his 'princess' and marry her...” Silk made the connection, but he didn't suggest the unicorn and pegasus were each other's lovers to Lunar, it just sounded a bit too ridiculous and he didn't want to seem dumb.

“You don't think they are going to marry each other do you?” Lunar said casually.

“I, uh, um, I... Well, that's unlikely... To say the least... They're different species... Which don't...” He looked up at Lunar and watched as she magically lifted up her blanket to wrap around her legs, his eyes landed on her horn. “Mix... A-And they’re both royals so... They could have easily been introduced before the war...”

“So you think they're lovers too?” Lunar asked as she snuggled up.

“Y-Yeah... They must be...” Silk's jaw had fallen.

“Hehe, that's quite the coincidence.” She yawned, “If you don't mind, I'm gonna sleep now. Nighty night.”

He blinked, “R-Right, goodnight.”

Silk thought about that for a long time that night.

The next day came like any other, and with a very light ration for breakfast the two went back on their journey. Snow covered plains and mountain sides were traversed over hours, two hoofsteps at a time. The weather may have been as cold as always, but it didn't bother the two of them as much as it did before, friendship seemed to warm more than just their hearts.

After a short inclined hike up a large hill, the pair saw another landmark. It was a large Earth Pony mining town, the map called it 'Silver Hen'. Of course they made no attempt at getting anywhere near the town, and could see from their distant vantage point that they were very much not welcome. Each machine gun trench a big fat sign to keep out.

“Awesome! I'll mark it off.” Lunar took out their map and drew two opposing lines through the town.

“Where's next?” Silk asked while inspecting the turrets closely, his pegasus eyes allowed him to nearly beat binoculars if he focused himself.

“Ah... Another town, it's real close by... It's called... Blackwall... Oh! That's one I've heard about before, Gravel once ordered a few books from there for our town, I think they make paper and stuff there.”

“Hmm, interesting. Let's rest for a few and then get going again.” Silk trotted to and sat against a dead tree.

“You sure you don't want a long rest? We've been walking pretty relentlessly for more than a day now.”

“And somehow I feel better now than I ever did before... Heh, we'll take a short rest. Unless you need longer.” Silk smiled up to her.

“Short rest is fine with me.” She sat down along the side of the tree for a few dozen minutes with her companion, and they were already gone and on their hooves before the hour passed.

They knew getting to Blackwall wouldn't happen today as it was already the evening and with all the snow it would be at least a day’s walk, but they were content with simply making mostly there. While traveling down the hills they noticed a set of tracks; hoofprints with a long line on either side made by wheels. It was heading from Silver Hen directly to Blackwall. The two proposed it was left behind by a merchant or supplier of some kind.

Once they got close enough though, they decided to keep far away from the tracks in case they ran into somepony, no matter how useful of a time saver it would be to know what is probably the best path, the risk was too great.

After only a few minutes of trotting their blessings of uneventfulness had finally ran out.

The horizon screamed with pain, somepony cried out in absolute distress, begging for mercy from someone or something.

“What in the sun's holy blaze is that?” Silk's head leapt up from his shoulders.

“I-I dunno! Quickly we need to help them!” Lunar began sprinting, kicking up snow as she pushed forward.

“Lunar! Slow down!” Silk jumped up, and then immediately fell back down, his wing nubs helpless in aiding him to catch up to Lunar. “Arghh! Fuck!” He shook the snow off his face and went up on his four legs and ran after, having lost a dozen meters of space to her.

“Come on, Silk! We need to help!” Lunar ran and ran, the hill slowly falling behind her hooves until the pained pony was in her view. She fell back and hugged a tree, crawling down into the snow to conceal herself as much as possible as she stared wide eyed at the shadowy monsters standing over and interrogating a pony who begged for their life.

“PLEASE, I HAVEN'T SEEN ANYPONY, DON'T HURT ME!” The tortured pony screamed as Silk caught up and was pulled down behind the frozen wooden trunk with Lunar.

“W-What's going on?” He asked the unicorn in hushed tones to not have a chance at drawing attention.

“I know those things...” Lunar looked up at the cart that was shattered and thrown over in the snow. “And they have the pony that was leaving the trail...”

“T-Those are the shadow things you talked about..?” Silk concentrated, seeing the several blasted shadows crashing together like clouds in a thunderstorm, deadly magic pulsing from them like a black hole.

It was only a second later that the pony was stabbed and killed by an identical blade to the one Lunar held at her side.

“W-We should go before we get spotted, the weather is picking up and I don't want to be stuck here between them and a bliz-” Before Silk could finish, a voice, even more distant than the recently slaughtered pony, rang through the air. A voice Silk knew all too well, and a name Lunar dreaded to hear again.

“AURORA!” Midnight Eclipse yelled out from another hilltop, both Silk and Lunar's eyes jumped and locked onto the three small dots in the distance, one Midnight, the other Aurora, and the third a mystery to them.

“N-No way...”

“It can't be...”

The weather continued to build up rapidly. It felt like mere seconds since it was clear day, and now winds blasted against their sides and faces, making it harder and harder to see.

“I... I'm going to kill that bastard... I'm going to catch up and stab him through the sun-damned throat!” Silk kicked and thrashed at the snow, blinded by more than the storm.

“S-Silk keep your voice down, come here, the weather is getting too bad... W-We have to just hunker down until this storm blows over, come here!” The sound of the blizzard's wind began overwhelming all other noises.

Silk took a breath, his rage was unsated, but he was a trained soldier, he knew how to control himself. “Grr... Y-You're right... Fine...” He curled up into a hug with her as she pulled out their tent and magically wrapped herself and Silk in it, then piled snow on top to conceal them from the Shadow Service.

“N-Now what?” Silk whispered, their cocoon blotting out a decent portion of the rushing sounds of wind.

“Now we wait, and pray that those shadow unicorns do not find us.”

Silk took a sigh. “Okay... Ugh... I'm really fucking cold now.” He shivered out.

“Me too, Silk. At least I have you to keep me warm.”

“Yeah... And I have you to keep me safe… I might not have gotten control of myself just now if it wasn’t for you... Thank you.”

Lunar smiled best she could as her jaw shook. “It's my pleasure.”

Silk smiled too.

When Blood Runs Cold

“The blizzard... It wiped their tracks clean... AGH!” Silk kicked at the snow, his face strained and hurting, his blistering red cheeks were tipped with an icy wetness. “I'm not going to let that bastard get away so easily.” He huffed under his breath, past a shivering set of teeth.

“Silk, this isn't you.” The undaunted navy blue unicorn stood at his side, her hoof wrapping itself around his back, the cold bearing down between the cracks of affection. “Please, let's just keep going... Forget about all of this.”

“Lunar.” His eyes caught her's by surprise, they were soft and filled with ruthlessness. “Thank you, really. I appreciate that you just want to help me, but I cannot let this chance slip through my feathers. I'm going to find Midnight and I'm going to... I have to...” His throat burned, but he just swallowed. “I have to get my revenge, Lunar... He betrayed me, and I wouldn't be able to call myself a pegasus if I didn't protect my honour, and he defiled everything our race stands for... Sorry, it's a pegasus thing... You wouldn't get it.”

“Maybe I wouldn't...” Her breath shivered out in a sigh. “And I don't know if this is an Earth Pony thing... But thinking about this practically... It's impossible. We've already lost track of him and the snow's covered any tracks he left. It's been hours, we might never be able to catch up to him again. We have to let go.”

“F-Fuck...” His head fell against hers as it sought for warmth, “You're right... I'm just... Agh... G-Guess the sky isn't the only thing clouded right now... I'm sorry...” He straightened his shoulders and took a deep chilling breath, “Mmf... But... If we do. If we do see him...” He looked deep into her. “I'm going to do what I have to... And we won't have any arguments about it... Okay?”

“Fine... That's a deal. But we're not looking for him... Ya?” She managed to lift her freezing hoof up enough to ruffle his hair.

“Ya.” He chuckled, “I think the weather's clearing up too... That's good at least.”

Lunar gave him a soft squeeze around the shoulders, “Yup... We should find some shelter and warm ourselves up... Then get to walking to Cloudsdale, right?”

“Yeah... Yeah... Let's go...” His feathers scrambled around his bag to yank out a crumpled up map which he swiftly unfolded to reveal dozens of scribbly markings. “R-Right...” While he looked over the last town they had just been to his feathers pulled out a flimsy compass.

“You know w-where we are?” She huddled over and lit her horn to improve Silk's visibility on the map.

“We should be... Somewhere here off the road... If we keep going north west we should find a forest that we can shelter in.” He packed away the map.

“Lead the way.”

It was a few weeks of eventless travel, avoiding confrontation and intermediate bouts of starvation. Silk's rage quelled through the days and nights as Midnight slipped more and more from his thoughts, beginning to focus on the future and on Lunar, keeping her and himself fed quickly returned to being his primary goal.

What little they managed to steal from earth pony villages on their travels kept them afloat, though the stress of being caught each time was building up with each desperate attempt. But whether they wanted to or not, today they had to try again.

The Pegasus and Unicorn sat side by side against a dead tree that dripped chunks of icy white fluff, both of their faces weary, blistering red and completely sleepless.

“So... How hungry are you?” Silk's head fell against the tree bark.

Lunar solemnly nodded.

“Who should go then…? I ca-”

“You did it last time.” Lunar stood up, lumbering her weight up and holding it with a hoof against the tree. “It's my turn.”

“Lunar... I can go again. I don't mind...” His bloodshot eyes gazed up to her, his hoof tugged at his furred coat, closing it to his chest.

“N-No... It's fine. I'll do it. Wait here.” A magic wrapped itself up around her hood and thick woolen hat, covering up her horn as she stepped on through the snow.

“Good luck...” Silk was left to watch her hoofprints in the snow, Lunar taking a valiant march towards the town. She kept her head low but her eyes peeled, trotting for a few dozen minutes before she was close enough to touch the outermost building of the town.

She pressed up against the logged wall of the short wooden cabin, pressing her ear against the barrier. She couldn't hear anything inside, and she hadn't spotted any guard stations on this side of town on her way in, so it seemed she was in the clear. “Okay... Just this house... Y-You can do it, Lunar...”

With her back up against the wall, she gingerly crunched through the snow to arrive at the front corner of the humble home, her head peeking out the side to a dead street, not a pony in sight, the entire road covered in masses and piles of snow.

Her head kept scanning the area as she trotted around the front and reached the door, looking through the window on the way confirming her assumption that the home was empty. She bit her tongue as she thought about the possibility of the house being abandoned and empty, though her hoof did not hesitate to press on the door handle.

It creaked open to a soulless room.

Lunar took a step inside, giving the door a soft kick shut once she found herself encompassed by walls. It was dark, only a few streaks of sunlight managed to slip through the snow-sheeted glass windows and land inside, showing Lunar the table with knocked over chairs, a small serving of two plates holding a slice of bread each coated in stale jam. “Oh, great golly...”

Dropping all active subtlety, Lunar bolted over and shoved the slice into her mouth, it was cold, lacking in flavour, and the best thing she'd eaten in months. Immediately followed by the second serving she couldn't help but gobble up herself. “M-mmn... Momma... Just like our jam was...” She wiped the tears wetting around her eyes and took a sigh, her head darting around for signs of further sustenance, she still needed something for Silk.

Searching through the houses' cabinets and drawers lead Lunar to uncover a bounty of old bread reserves, hay and preserved fruits, more than she's eaten all month. The first pieces she stuffed into her bags without a second of doubt, though once she found more and more, she paused, her heart pulling at her sleeve as the hunger churned in her thoughts.

“Argh... Just... E-Enough to survive...” She shut the cabinet and with a quick glance through the window, she left the house and shut the door, the beating in her chest causing her to sweat as she returned to the snowy road. She expected the pressure of fleeing from a theft to tail her as she rushed back the way she came, though she felt herself run from nothing but the silence that seemed to live in the town.

Lunar couldn't help but stop.

She turned around, her eyes turning from one corner of the horizon to the other.

Empty.

Before she could contemplate why the village with food-filled homes was so hollow, she tripped on her next step, tumbling into the snow.

She quickly lifted herself right back up, shaking the snow right off of her face, fixing up her hood as it folded back. “Ahh...” Her hooves were atop some large baggy bump in the road, it felt soft and almost squishy, so it wasn't any normal rock. Her eyebrows crossed as she pressed down with her legs, the rough sensations of shifting mass impeding itself against Lunar's wool-wrapped hoof leading her to begin digging at the snow, thrashing her way through the mound until a soaked through coat showed itself to her.

“N-N-No...” The jacket was ragged and bloody, but it wrapped a fresh body inside. Lunar's hooves began shaking more deeply than any cold could make them, both legs dredging through more and more of the snow, pulling out more visuals of the corpse beneath her. She discovered young ice-sheeted wounds, strained muscles blistering and a partly detached head, face stilly gasping for air from a snow-filled mouth.

Once she saw that, Lunar turned away, back towards the town, taking a few steps as she began dry-heaving, her stomach refusing to give up the food it just took in moments ago, her heart churning and eyes filling up with tears.

The horror in the pony’s face, the uncovered scent of rotten blood... It brought back the memories.

Once the pain resided, her head pulled up to gaze upon the mounds of snow slipping away from her vision as they fell down the horizon. The mounds... The piles of snow scattered through the streets in an uneven spiral.

“LUNAR!” Silk came barreling down the hill, kicking his way through the snow, “Are you all right? What's going on?”

She didn't respond, she couldn't, she didn't know how.

Having not spotted an Earth Pony yet, Silk fearlessly galloped right up to her, “L-Lunar, what's going on? Are you oka-aahh! Shit!” Silk pulled himself back before he could trample over the exposed corpse stuck beneath the snow. “W-Why is there a body Lunar…?” He trotted around the body and up to the stunned Unicorn, seeing her empty stare outward onto the streets of snow piles. “A-Are those…?”

“Bodies...” The world shattered in the icy breath escaping her lips.

“B-But the buildings... They're all intact. If Pegasi or Unicorns, everything would be torn to the ground and pillaged... That can't be possible.” Silk steadily wandered forward towards the next visible lump of snow.

The sharp fizz of Lunar's horn grabbed at the snow he trotted to, yanking and pulling until the long-dead hoof of a pony was pulled out in front of him, while Lunar just hung her head. “It was... It was those Unicorns...”

“By the sun...” Silk gulped as the body unearthed itself, hearing Lunar's crunching hoofsteps come up behind him.

“This... This is what they did to my town... M-My... F... Fa... A-ah...” Her breath quickened to the point of hyper-ventilation, devolving into pure sobbing.

“Lunar...” Silk fell into her and held her ever so closely, the stumps of his wings reflexively trying to hug her. “Let's get out of here... You don't need to see any more of this.”

She shook her head. “F-F... Food...”

“Food..”

She nodded, her hoof waving at the homes lining up behind Silk's back.

“R-Right... I suppose... We shouldn't let any rot... Come on, I'll help you walk, Lunar.” He pulled her legs around his shoulders and led her down the road, stepping far away from the bumps as he quickly scanned the buildings. “L-Look, there's an inn. It should have the most food, if there's any left here.” He motioned to a large and wide wooden construct with smashed in windows and a half-opened door stuck in place from the snow that built up against it.

Lunar just held her head low and let herself be brought to the doorway.

“One moment...” Silk let go of her to bash the door in with his shoulder, finding that some roadblock lay on the other side. Though even then it only took a few good bashes to knock whatever it was away and allow the door to swing open. “O-Oh fuck...” He looked down and saw another dead pony with their neck gorged open. “L-Lunar don't look, it-” He turned his head to see Lunar staring down at the pony with a deep, resonating hatred. “Lunar”

“It's one of them...” She slipped in by Silk, standing over the dead body. It was wearing dark-plated armour and had a horn poking out from its ruined helmet.

“O-One of them.. Oh... Shit. Is this one of those assassins?” Silk shut the door behind them good, shielding them from the icy breeze.

Lunar nodded, her magic activating and pulling the obsidian dagger out from her bags. She floated it down to the assassin's throat that had been cut wide open, running the tip across the open and frozen wound.

“L-Lunar? What are you doing?” He took a step in.

She plunged the knife into its neck, right where the wound already set. The dagger slotted into the pony like a puzzle piece in a jigsaw, “And they were killed with this type of dagger...” She yanked it out again, causing the gash to be opened up further. “Good. Whoever did this put up a good fight...”

“Yeah, they sure did.” Silk's eyes were then guided over by Lunar's floating dagger as it pointed to the other corner of the tavern, another dead assassin laying against the floor. “Woah...”

“Yup...” She sheathed her weapon and took a sigh, wiping away tears once more. “Mind if I... Lie down for a bit…?”

“Please.” Silk helped push her along, bringing her down the nearest hall to find an open room with a waiting empty bed. “Go rest, I'll pack our bags with any supplies I can find. Okay”

A faint smile appeared on her muzzle, “Okay... Thank you, Silk.” She gulped, turned to look him in the eye and hugged him close. “I love you...”

Silk's shoulders locked up for a moment when he heard her, but they gradually fell back down to relax in her friendly embrace. “I love you too... Go rest now.”

She nodded and threw her bags down, too exhausted for words now, she slumped into the room and collapsed into the thick cloth sheets of the bed, going out cold in mere moments.

Silk watched her for just a few more seconds, listening to her breathing soft for a while. He wished so many good things for her, she deserves to be happy, he thought before he picked up her bags and shut the door for her.

The sun was falling.

It'd been hours of Silk going through and picking food out from the homes surrounding them, by the end of it he had every bag and pocket filled with the most amount of the least perishable of foods he could find. Grain, jams, rations and hard vegetables leaked from every flap in his and Lunar's bags. As well as finding a few useful survival tools, including a lighter, pocket watch and a Earth Pony pistol with a few dozen bullets for it.

With those bags he came gracefully into the room Lunar was asleep in, setting them down for her at her bedside before sitting at the room's single-seating table. He hoisted his bag up onto the table's surface and slumped down against it, getting some shut eye himself.

Shortly after her waking up, Lunar nudged the Pegasus awake, “Hey... We should get going before the sun goes down.”

He groaned, clenching his eyes and rubbing off the sleepiness. “Yeah, we should.” He yawned and stretched out his legs and stumps of wings.

“T-Thanks for gathering all this food... It looks like it should last us till Moonstone.” She tried to smile.

“Yeah, we're really lucky... Unlike these ponies were.”

They held a second of silence together.

Lunar cleared his throat, “Why... Do you think they did this? The assassins.”

“O-Oh... They are looking for something probably... I dunno...” She sniffled.

Silk quickly slid up to wrap his hooves around her, “I'm sorry, you don't need to think about them, let's just go.”

She nodded in response, and within the next hour they were packed and out of the town.

Not a single word was spoken as they trotted past corpse after corpse hidden beneath the blankets of snow.

That evening was a little easier than usual, they hadn't worried about where their next meal would come from since they left the massacred town. With potential months still ahead in their journey though, the constant lethargy was still getting to them over time, though the larger portions did help ease that pain.

But that quiet night in a far off frozen over forest where they were camping, Silk awoke with the moon still at the top of the sky in sweats, panting as his spine shot up. “AH! Shit... Ahh... Just a bad dream... Just a bad dream, Silk...” He turned to look down at Lunar sleeping right next to him, feeling her warm hooves wrapped around his legs within their small, camouflaged tent.

It was strange for him to feel so hot and cold at the same time, but sweating forehead demanded, beated for a cool off after his nightmares.

He undid Lunar's grip on him and snuck out of the tent just to catch a quick breath and wipe himself clean, the freezing night hitting his face with a blissful cool. “Ahh.” His eyes were softly closed as he wiped away at his face, drying it from his sweat.

Then he opened them up fully, taking the sight of a motionless night in, the pitch-black slate of clouds blotting out nearly every strand of moonlight, the little bits that managed to slip on by illuminated the landscape like an organic polka-dot pattern of light.

Silk thought back to his childhood summers. He did miss that intense sun beating down on his wings as he first learned to fly with Mercy... She was so far away now, and the world, so much colder.

Just before he planned to get back inside and finish his night's rest to the best of his ability, something caught the Pegasi's eye. It was more than a mile off, where large mountains triumphed over the flats and valleys. It wasn't much, but his keen vision focused in on a flickering orange glow coming from the side of the cliff-face.

“A, campfire.” His interest was sparked and soon burning.

He went back into the tent just to grab another cloak which he wrapped around his already fluffed up body, covering most of his face too, leaving only the tip of his nose and a sliver of his eyes exposed to the elements as he zipped the tent shut and went to trot.

It was only about a mile off, and dredging through that distance in snow took less than an hour, but each step closer focused his vision further, giving him a clearer picture.

From the way the shadows appeared, there only seemed to be a single pony there, and scanning the sides of the mountain gave no clue how an Earth Pony would scale such a height as the fire stood within an alcove atop a cliff edge. Wait... If an Earth Pony couldn't get up there...

A winged creature would have no problem getting up that high, especially since it hasn't been snowing recently, so nothing would weigh them down either. Why would a Pegasus want to camp in a mountain though? If they have wings, wouldn't they just fly into the clouds and camp there?

Before much more would cross Silk's mind, the pony from atop the cliff emerged from the alcove and stood off the edge of the cliff, the foot of his hooves pressing half over the edge, their fur was dark and backlit by the campfire, and it seemed like the pony was sobbing. He was sobbing. Drying his eyes with his dark feathered wings.

“Midnight...” He grit his teeth and huffed.

Silk didn't know why he was here, why he was alone now, or why he was crying, but Silk didn't care either. What he did care about was the fact that Midnight seemed to be... On the edge. And his heavy breathing and tears along with him continuously pushing himself closer to falling made it seem like he was going to jump.

“Do it... Do it, you bastard... Let me watch as you put an end to your own miserable life...” He spat out under his breath, a ferocity Silk had never known about was overflowing within him. He kept his eyes fixated on Midnight as he dangled on that edge.

Something snapped in Midnight's mind though, a sudden dart away from the cliff and a loud eruption of swearing only muffled by the large distance between them faded as he escaped back into his camp.

Silk wished he could just fly up there and plunge a knife into his heart.

But he couldn't. All he could do is dwell... Dwell, or prepare a real attack.

Silk began sprinting back through the snow.

“S-Silk... What are you doing...?” Lunar awoke, rubbing her eyes in a daze, incredibly unsettled to find Silk so wide awake, scribbling on a map while cross-referencing his compass. \

“I found him, Lunar. He was in that cliff. I saw him fly east just a while ago when the sun came up.” He didn't spare her the glance.

Her heart sunk, “You did...?”

He nodded and stood up. “Yes, and I've been looking at this map... And if my memory serves me right there is a Pegasian encampment in the clouds only a dozen miles away, I'm going to go there and tell them where he went. Surely they'd be looking for Commander Hurricane's traitor son.”

“And what then? Then can we keep going to Moonstone...?” Lunar's voice wavered, and she hid her stirring face by starting to pack up her sleeping bag and started to get dressed.

“After I get to kill that stallion... I'll try catch up to you, but for a few days you'll have to walk alone... I'm sorry, but I have to do this.” Silk joined her in packing and soon they trotted out the tent to gather that up too.

Lunar took the tent folding as time to gather her thoughts, “I know this is really important to you... I just hope you don't get hurt. Can you promise me that? That you won't get hurt?”

It took a few moments, but Silk had to shake his head. “I'm sorry, Lunar. This... This is dangerous, and I'm not going to make a promise I can't keep.” As Lunar's head slumped, Silk stepped up to hold her close. “And in case I do not come back, just keep going, Lunar, you have so much more to live for than me. Thank you, seriously, thank you for everything you have done for me. You have saved my life and showed me such compassion, the kind I've never known... I love you for that, and I know you will do that to so many more ponies. I'll try catch up to you, but this could be my last chance to retake my honour. And if I have to die for that, I will. Any Pegasus would. But you aren't a Pegasus, you don't have to die for me... After all, you're an Earth pony, right?”

Silk pulled back and looked her in the eyes as they burned up with tears with a passionate smile, “So, don't wait up for me, Okay? I'll find you if I can.”

Lunar nodded, choking up and holding back her tears.

“Thank you... Goodbye, Lunar. I'll be heading west to that base, you keep going north. Be safe.”

“Goodbye, Silk... I love you as well, be safe too... Please.”

He smiled, a tear freezing down the side of his cheek.

“I'll try.”

The Mercy In Death

“MERCY, GO!” A young, tan-coated Pegasus pleaded with his life long best friend, a small snowcrow he named Mercy and knew her ever since he was a colt. The Pegasus went by the name of Silk, he was a Pegassian soldier in the army, although his recent desertion had led him here, to be betrayed by an old idol of his, to have his right wing cut through, bone and all. Now, he struggled to stand, trapped in a room with a vicious manticore that played with its prey. His only hope was that his friend not die with him.

He left the hole open for his friend, who shook her head.

“THIS IS NOT AN ARGUMENT MERCY, YOU'RE GOING!” He forcefully grabbed her, kissing her on the forehead before throwing her through the tiny exit. Mercy looked back through the hole at Silk, who had his crying eye pressed against it.

“I love you,” he said, before feeling a paw grasp around his tail, yanking it back enough to feel like the skin was ripped off of his flank as he was thrown backwards into the room with a shattering sound of wood and bone as he collapsed into a wooden cupboard and the skeleton previously there as he broke its frail bones with his own.

The lumbering beast strolled back to its now immobilised snack, done playing around now. It readied its stinger high above his head, the poison dropping off maliciously.

Silk's weary head swerved up to see the beast, which intended to be his death, tower above him, leaving him lost in a dark shadow as the beast shielded Silk's sight of the sunset.

Silk rustled in his encasement of wooden spears cutting into his back, refusing to die without putting up a fight. That would be a great dishonour to a Pegasus, especially a soldier like him. And now that he has lost everything else, his identity was the only thing he could call his own anymore.

The beast climbed over the table in the center of the room, slamming down onto its colossal paws, a shudder hit Silk as the mountain rumbled from the monster's sheer weight.

Silk pushed, feeling himself partly free himself from the carnage that covered him. A crumble of dust fell onto Silk's muzzle as the ceiling was gifted a thin crack of hope into its stone face.

The beast went to swing down its stinger at its helpless prey, the prey that denied its death with all of its will.

As the bony, jagged, poison soaked spear came at him, Silk still, in what seemed like his last moments, pushed. And what seemed like a miracle, he managed to fall forward, leaving the stinger crashing into the wall behind him, sending another large lightning bolt of cracks up the wall and into the ceiling, causing the beast to pause as its stinger stuck into the stone.

Silk continued to push, crawling away with whatever body parts he still claimed control over. The beast roared at him, being enraged by his continued struggle, yanking its stinger back towards itself with a fearless strength.

Although its mistake soon became apparent to the deadly creature as the crack gave way to a chunk of stone collapsing forward out of the wall.

The manticore stopped the stone slab from slamming onto itself with a strong and fast placement of its right paw, then it had to use its left for another falling piece as the first paw only made things worse. Then it pressed up the entire side of its foreleg against the wall, watching as the cracks rose and grew in number, the ceiling about to collapse above it.

Silk paid no mind, his thoughts only trained onto his own survival, ever so gently crawling forward, splinters hanging out of his back and other pony's bones caught in his path and dragged along.

The manticore realized its predicament, dropping its pressure against the wall in favour of running. Though as it bolted away, it was slowed down by the piles of destroyed furniture that blocked its way out, the wall falling onto its back with a prominent crackle of its spine as a slab of rock broke against it. Although, using its mighty paws it lifted itself up along with the stone, nearly sliding out before a few chunks from the ceiling began falling as well, smashing into its neck and skull in a stunning blow.

It had stopped moving.

Silk, desperately tried to grind his way against the floor to make his escape, but he found himself dealing with the same problem as the monster as a flurry of massive stones came down around him. With luck, no stone crushed him to death instantly, instead several landing around him and breaking a few of the bones in his hind legs, along with one landing directly onto the wing he was helplessly attempting to crawl to freedom with.

After a few deafeningly loud moments of stone cascading against itself, the mountain settled once more. Silk opening his tired eyes once more to see the door, with only the tiny hole he had made for his friend to escape through providing sunshine.

Gazing to his side, the monstrous beast was stuck just like him, noticeably still alive as air still rushed in and out of its lips. It was only knocked unconscious, for now.

Silk tried to push once more, feeling his legs scrape against both the floor and the stone trapping them. He could get them out, but it wouldn't be pretty. The more impassable obstacle seemed to be his only remaining wing completely flat out, pressed against the floor by an unliftable boulder.

He pushed and pushed, loosening only his back legs, using the blood now pouring from them as lubricant to aid him, his wing not giving the same way.

The stones around him suddenly rustled and he turned to the source of the movement to see the beast gradually begin awakening. He was running out of time, he had no choice.

He grabbed one of the loose, snapped bones in between his teeth and he felt the dust enter his throat making him want to gag.

Then, bracing himself beforehoof, he swung at the root of his left wing.

The bone cut into it, blood gushing out and getting spread over his face and he cried out in pain, although it wasn't enough. He swung again, feeling it go deeper, and even deeper the third time. He then pushed once more, feeling his wing grow loose, not from beneath the stone, but the muscles from his torso.

Using his adrenaline, his determination and possibly most important, his rage, he pushed, and pushed.

Before he knew it, he felt the tendons separate as his own flesh came loose and his other wing left behind as he crawled out from beneath the stones.

Over the course of what felt like years for him, he got to the door out of the room, slamming his hoof against it, and again, and again. Refusing death, continuing to push.

The weak, damaged and rotted wood began to give way, a small splintery hole being formed at the point of impact.

He heard a growl behind him, and the shifting of stones as the monster struggled behind him... Although the beast clearly was not able to dig its way out.

The entire bottom section of the door broke open into a hole just large enough for Silk to pass through, doing it with great haste... And once he had pushed through, wood cut into his underbelly as he came through the door and he landed in the blanket of snow awaiting his worn, bleeding body and he felt the sun shine onto his gutted skin, he came to know one thing.

He would not die that day.

Burn It All Down

Silk raised the pistol to the sky.

The bullet rang through the air, aimed at the great nothing of the sky, the wave sent through his body substituted his heartbeat for that split second. He steadied his breath and let his head drop, slotting the pistol held within his lips under his jacket.

He hoisted up a makeshift flag with his sleeping bag tied up to the top of a large branch. Luckily it was green, the international colour of peace and surrender, which would help in his message.

Left, left, right, right, and again and again. He swung in pattern just like he was taught in his training, the Pegasian flag-notation for 'stranded' or 'SOS'.

“Come on you bastards... For once in your lives... Notice me...” His furrowed brow and strong, unwavered strength held for the time being. Left, left, right, right. Again. Over and over. The thumping of the wind and crinkling of the flimsy plastic bag padded out his groans as he kept the barrage going.

He went on, his hooves ached to the point of nearly tearing off of his body, until he was finally spotted.

A scout team of two Pegasi came flying down from the clouds in a sudden pincer, one landing with a slam into the snow right in Silks face, holding up a large blade at their side with a wing, the second crunching down into the snow pillow behind him, just as armed.

Silk dropped the pole and lowered his head in respect with a salute using his leg. “MY NAME IS SILK, DISHONOURED PRIVATE FROM THE PEGASIAN ARMY. I AM A PEGASUS BUT MY WINGS HAVE BEEN CUT OFF BY THE TRAITOR MIDNIGHT ECLIPSE AND I DO KNOW WHERE HE IS!” He said without missing a. Single. Beat.

The century taking his front dropped their blade by an inch, mimicking their mouth as it gaped slightly ajar. “Silk? The Silk that ran away with the Commander's traitor son?” A toned mare's voice from the yellow-furred century, “And your wings were cut off?”

“Ma'am, yes ma'am!” His back shot up straight, still saluting, eyes dead straight and unwavering. “My wings were cut by the joints! I still have visible stubs to prove it, ma'am!” When he wasn't speaking his mouth was shut tight.

“Silver, check for wing stubs please.” The mare observed as her scout partner pushed Silk's coat up from his flanks and slipped a wing inside, the century doing it beginning to nod. “He isn't lying about the stubs at least.” The grey-coated stallion grumbled.

Her eyes softened and her stern frown dropped in pity, “Poor wingless bastard...” She mourned on Silk's behalf for a moment, ending it with a shake of her head. “Right, well... You are claiming to be the Silk that defected along with Midnight and Storm Count, and you know where he is?” Her blade was put to slumber in its sheath.

“That is exactly what I'm saying, ma'am! I am willing to give his position in exchange for a pardon for my treason against Pegasia, as well as the right to have my honour-bound revenge and end Midnight's life for what he has done to me!” Once again, not skipping a breath.

“All right, all right, calm down. We're just scouts, we'll have to ask Dawn Blade, he's our lieutenant, you bargain with him, not me.” She then opened a leg for him to fit under. "Now grab hold, we're bringing you up." The other century was immediately ready on Silk's other side to grab him too. All scouts were well trained in flying with a carry, each Pegasus on either side would use only one wing to fly while connected up like this, requiring perfect synchronist flapping between the two partners to lift off the ground and avoid falling into a tailspin.

Silk nodded strongly. “Yes, ma'am! Thank you...” His voice shriveled out an icy puff and his legs slipped around each of the Pegasi's shoulders, only an oomph later and he was in the sky.

His hooves clenched around the two soldiers' necks, heart pounding out of his chest. He felt that breeze again, the weightlessness, for the one last time in his life, Silk flew again.

It was a slow lift up, taking several minutes of unrelenting effort from the scouts' parts, but the clouds drew ever closer and the hellish snowscape further. They burst through the sky and set down hooves-first on the endless white expanse sitting under the bluest sky known to all creatures to ever live, a beating, warm, homely sun sending down light with richness made to bathe in.

“Nff...” He sniffed and wiped at the tears in his eyes.

“Phew... Agh... Ahhh...” The two soldiers dropped to their knees to recover from their endured maneuver. “What are you sniffing at, runaway? Heh..?” The stallion huffed out.

Silk took a few more glances up at the ocean of blue in the sky before he turned to him, “Nothing, sir... It's just been a few months... Since I've seen the sky.” His tension melted away in each muscle, physical and mental. “I forgot how beautiful it was.” He gaped back at the sight.

“Right, well, you take the sights in as we trot, come on, get your ass up.” The mare tugged at Silk's leg and got him to stumble up to a stand, “There you go.”

“Y-Yes, of course...” Silk took a full turn around and visually combed through the horizon, “The base is far then I assume.”

“Three miles that way, so get moving.” The stallion started the march at the front while the mare soldier kept a keen eye on Silk, nudging him to walk forward. “Ahead of me, Pegasus or not you're still a prisoner until pardoned.”

“R-Right, I understand. Of course, ma'am...” Silk took his spot trotting between his two armed escorts, “Thank you for helping me...”

“Oh...” The mare sighed dismissively, cutting her own sentence short. She thought for a short bit and resumed with a changed, more grateful tone. “You are welcome, I can't imagine what it must be like to lose your wings. I'm very sorry for you, Silk, even if you are a traitor. I hope you get your honourable due.”

“Thank you, ma'am. That means a lot to me.” Silk replied in solace and pushed on.

The camp soon came into view, it was a scatter of three respectably large buildings along with dozens of supply tents centralised around a single gigantic steel beam creating the hull of a Thunder Cannon, a small storage directly beside it to hold shells that the machine would launch down to devastating effect at the ground-dwelling Unicorns and Earth Ponies. One of the main three buildings, and the largest one at that, was the barracks, situated directly by the slightly smaller steel-walled armoury.

Though Silk was marched to none of those, rather he was brought to a single-roomed construct with a lieutenant's engraving on the door. “You'll be speaking with Lieutenant Dawn Blade, he decides what happens, got it?”

Silk nodded, giving the que for the century to bash on the Lieutenant's door. “Lieutenant! We have captured a prisoner and have important news!”

A gruff, worked through voice came in from behind the doorway, “Come in!”

The escorting century twisted and pressed the door handle forward, with the door creaking open Silk stepped in.

Without a hesitation Dawn Blade stood up, abruptly knocking his chair backward, leaning in with crossing eyebrows as he scanned over the de-winged stallion. He first grit his teeth, a grizzled huff leaving his throat. His wing jolted up as to brandish a weapon with reflexive speed, though it eased before he could unsheathe his sword. “My, oh my...” His sharp teeth fell into a devilish smirk, “You are that traitor that went off with the Commander's son, ain't ya? Well colour me interested...” His hind end soothed back into the soft fabric of his seat. “What brings you to my office? And without a pair of wings no less...”

Silk took a few breaths to ease his stress, stepping forward reluctantly. “I... I come with the whereabouts of Midnight Eclipse... He is the one that cut off my wings, and in exchange for telling you where he went I would ask for a pardon for my treason, as well as the chance to retake my honour by being the one to end Midnight's life for what he did to me.”

His shoulders skipped and a hearty chuckle came from the Lieutenant. “My goodness, kick me into a tailspin if that isn't the boldest thing anypony has ever said to me in my own office.” The jerking and stretching of fabric accompanied him pulling himself out of his seat, letting him trot around to stand face to face with Silk. “Now if you're telling the truth about knowing the whereabouts of the most wanted pony in the pegasian empire, I can get you whatever under the sun's glorious gaze you want, son, so let's make it a deal, information for honour.” The lieutenant summoned a smile and reached up to shake with his wing.

Silk shivered in relief, “Yes, sir... Thank you.” his wing stump trying to lead feathers that weren't there to shake. He bit his lip and mumbled an expletive, bringing his hoof up instead. The lieutenant chuckled again and wrapped his feathers around Silk's leg.

“It's a deal then. Now, quickly, this information so my ponies can form a search party... We don't wanna miss our chance now do we?” The lieutenant snugly held onto Silks hoof until he acted.

“O-Oh! Yes, of course, sir, here.” Silk pulled his leg away and threw his saddlebag down over his shoulder to the floor, biting it open and pulling his map out. He put it down on the desk and showed the Lieutenant his markings, “This is where he went only a few hours ago, and it's not that far off from here, so he should be somewhere around this way... Your ponies will be able to pick up his trail I assume.”

“Of course they can, son. Thank you so much for your help, you will be considerably awarded.” Dawn Blade glided his feathers over and scooped the map up, trotting over to the two soldiers on standby at the doorway, pressing the map down into their wings. “Get as many pegasi on this as you can, NOW. This is top priority, I want Midnight, and I want him TONIGHT. Understood?” He snarled at them.

“SIR, YES, SIR!” They both replied and saluted, dashing out through the door as quickly as they could.

“Good... I sure hope you're right about this, son, it'll be quite the shame if I had to lock you up for treason.” The lieutenant's stern set of bladed eyes shot a glance at Silk, who shivered in response. “Ahh, I'm sure everything will be fine, right? I don't know about you but I'm an optimist when it comes to things like this.” He laughed once more, going back to sit at his desk.

“I-I, uh... Well, I know what I told you is true, sir, so I think you will find him too...” Silk's head turned side to side, awkwardly searching for a place to be.

“Glad to hear it, and you're dismissed. You can go sit outside, just don't interfere with my ponies.” His voice was as dismissive as his command.

“Yes, sir... Thank you, sir.” Silk gulped and quickly retreated out of that room, back into the harsh cold air on the cloud tops where he took a few dozen steps out before collapsing backwards onto his ass. “Damn...” He sighed to himself, his breath steadying along with his legs, the fear lifting off of him.

Silk's head tilted up to see over fifty pegasi being gathered and formed into teams with tight speed and unwavering obedience, it struck a somewhat nostalgic vein. He could remember being shouted at just like that, being forced to do marches, flight patterns, being drilled and trained... It seemed like such a distant memory for it being less than a year away, but now it was all he could think about, having nothing but time as he waited for Midnight's capture.

The morning sun had yet to settle when the messengers came back chanting, a group of four pegasi flying as fast as they could yelling, 'they found him.' Over and over.

Silk was sitting under a pillar holding up the barracks when he heard them approaching from the horizon. He immediately bolted upward and sprinted to catch a better sightline.

No doubt about it, two of the three search teams were flying carefully in formation about the clouds, carrying a subdued passenger in ropes hanging under them.

One of the messengers reached Lieutenant Dawn Blade's door and knocked it in, “We have him, sir! We captured Midnight!” The young recruit had a wonder-like disbelief in his voice.

The door came flying open, “My goodness, are you screwing with me... We actually found Midnight Eclipse?” Dawn Blade seemed amazed himself, causing Silk to question how much the Lieutenant actually believed Silk.

“Yes, sir, they're bringing him in right now, and Theta squad is still out there watching this cave Midnight was looking over, we think there's somepony else in there, though Midnight said that it's a manticore in there so they're waiting on your order.” The century stood to the side respectfully.

The lieutenant shielded his eyes from the sun, “No shit... Commander Hurricane is going to give me the medal of honour for this.” A deep grin appeared on the stallion's lips.

Silk turned back and forth between watching the lieutenant and Midnight in the distance, his hooves gingerly working their way towards Dawn. “I... I can't believe it... I'm actually going to get my revenge.” Silk stammered out as he approached.

Dawn Blade stepped over and wrapped a wing over Silk's shoulder, “Oh yes, son... You, oh... You are going to be a hero, you don't know just how badly Commander Hurricane wants to see her little Midnight once more. Heh...”

“Y-Yeah... I'll be able to live a normal life again, once I retake my honour... When do you think I can do it?” Silk turned to the pony holding him almost affectionately.

Dawn Blade turned and met his gaze, “Do what now, son?” He asked with real ignorance and lack of any sincerity.

Silk's eyes dimmed, “R-Retake my honour, sir... Killing Midnight for him betraying me, and cutting my wing off.”

“Oh! Right...” The lieutenant took a sharp breath, “Yeah, that can't exactly happen, my apologies.”

Silk's head jumped back, “W-What?! But we had a deal.”

“Doesn't really matter what our deal was son, it was all verbal so it's your word against mine.” He chuckled at his own abuse of power, “And just for your consideration, I agreed to that thinking this wasn't actually going to pull through... So, sorry, but I can't let you kill Midnight, Hurricane wants him.”

Silk shoved the ponies wing off and stepped backwards, “We had a deal! You promised! Where is your honour?!” He growled like a loose and bloodthirsty canine.

Dawn Blade took a deep sigh, “Son...” He shook his head, “Honour doesn't mean shit anymore.” He lifted up his eyes to look through Silk, “We fight to survive, we fight to destroy those fucking ants in the dirt that steal our food... We don't fight for honour anymore, so give up, kid.”

Silk lifted his hoof up, his mouth gaping open but no words were formed. His leg eventually fell from the gentle tugs of gravity, his eyes flickering and watering.

“Exactly. Now go get some sleep, you there, bring him to the barracks, consider Silk's treason forgiven.” The lieutenant motioned the messenger over, who saluted and made a flying hop to Silk’s side, swiftly guiding the speechless, wingless Pegasus away. “Now... Midnight, me and you have a date with some shears.” Dawn laughed to himself and left in the direction of the approaching imprisoned Midnight.

Silk was led away, shock carved into his eyes, lips and cheeks. Mumbles beginning to form from scattered thoughts. “Honourless... Honourless bastards... All of them... Every single one...” The messenger Pegasus gulped at the sight, trying to ignore it and steer Silk to a temporary bed as soon as possible.

He was sat down on the bottom bunk of a set of beds, and left alone immediately after. He was lost in thought and trapped in a whirlwind of emotion, staring down at his hooves as they shook with rage. “Honourless...”

In the next hour the lieutenant caught up with his search teams, and got to mock Midnight a little before going to see about the 'manticore' he was apparently tracking.

The Lieutenant and his centuries found Hopeful Twist and a pregnant Aurora Sunshine in that cave, and soon they had all three prisoners locked in their hyper-reinforced 'Unicorn-proof' cells inside the clouds.

Midnight's wings were cut off that night and arrangements were made to transport him to the capital where he would be publicly thrown off of the clouds and fall to his death and Commander Hurricane would get to watch the deed be done. Aurora and Hopeful were to remain imprisoned until Hurricane's advisors would be informed and decide their ultimate fates.

Silk was kept in the barracks and unaware of the events, breaking out between bouts of tears and resentful thrashings against the bed sheets. He didn't sleep a wink that night.

Before the sun had risen, Silk snuck out of the barracks, talking a destination-less stroll on the cloud tops. He found himself staring up and down each building, imagining burning each of them down.

This continued until his eyes swirled back onto the Thunder Cannon near the center of the base.

He used to clean cannons like that... Cannons that probably ended thousands of Earth Pony and Unicorn lives.

It was dangerous work though, he was always warned of how easily a shell can be triggered to go off with just a spark, which is why they wore anti-static wing and hoof gloves when cleaning or operating one.

Something pulled his hooves forward.

He peaked around and into the storage room, the sun still yet to come up meant it was completely unguarded at the moment... Silk found nothing but over a dozen shells carefully stored in individual crates filled with dampening cloths. He walked right in, nopony there to stop him from unsealing one of the armaments.

With the conveniently placed crowbar sitting by the side of the door he made quick work of a wooden lid, Silk pushed it off and peaked inside. If it wasn't for his impeccable pegasian vision it would be too dark for him to see anything, but he was a pegasus, and his eyes saw the clear, sleek round hump of raw steel-trapped death.

He placed his hoof on it gently, giving it a press, his heart skipping a beat as he felt the weighty metal head press against its bracing fabrics.

Silk's head fell, his chin fell into the furry scruff of his coat, the Earth Pony pistol pressed up against his side from under the coat.

He leaned up and pressed his muzzle under his collar and pulled the gun out by his teeth, carefully placing it in his hoof, eye darting between the firearm and the explosive shells. “I c-can... I can die... With my honour... I can still... I can still do it...” He huffed and placed the barrel down against the container, holding it in both forehooves as he sat back. The gun had a direct shot to the shell, if he pressed the trigger he would kill everyone on this base.

Including dozens of honourless soldiers.

Including that bastard lieutenant that lied to him.

Including Midnight.

He gulped, his hooves shaking, the gun rattling. “I... I have to... I have to retake my honour...”

Silk's hoof pressed against the trigger, he accepted his fate, he took a light smile as he felt his revenge take hold, his honour returned, his...

Before the trigger could go any further, a ruckus from outside took his attention and his hoof off of the pistol. Apparently the morning rituals had just begun, though today had a clear priority as Silk popped over to stare out the doorway, seeing ten or so soldiers, including Lieutenant Dawn Blade, were all gathering at the in-cloud cell block entrance.

They must be bringing Midnight out... Ran through Silks mind, and the hope of getting to look the pony in the eyes as he killed him brought a little more ambition into his thoughts. Just one look, and then everypony dies... He assured himself.

He watched on, and no doubt, after a few minutes of them returning out from the cells, a wingless, gagged and helpless Midnight Eclipse was dragged on out. He was sobbing with passion, his struggles making a problem for even the four separate centuries holding him down.

“Yes... Now you die, you bastard.” He mumbled to himself, shutting the doorway and trotting back over to re-equip the pistol in his settled hooves, Silk pulled up the weapon and took a breath, fully prepared now.

“I'M NOT LETTING YOU TAKE HER!”

It was Midnight's voice, yelling at the top of his lungs from the outside, and getting... Closer.

Suddenly a mass hysteria of voices and screams came closer and closer as well, until the door exploded open.

With a deathly crash through the unlocked doorway, a dark-furred stallion fell into the room.

Silk took his eyes off of his pistol and leaned them up, “M... Midnight?!” He found Midnight Eclipse laying there, pulling himself back onto his own hooves. He had bitten through his gag and with every ounce of strength in his soul, he had ruptured out of the Pegasi's grips and fallen underneath Silk.

“STOP YOU PIECE OF SHIT! Get! G... S-Silk.” The lieutenant's voice came into view with the rest of his body, laying witness to Silk holding a firearm into a Lightning shell container.

“Silk..? What...” Midnight gazed upwards as he finally stood, meeting eye-to-eye with Silk.

He went wide-eyed and screamed out, “S-Stop!!! EVERYPONY STOP! O-Or, OR I'LL KILL US ALL!!!” He announced to the now formed crowd around Midnight, every Pegasus in turn realising the situation they found themselves in, suddenly re-capturing Midnight slipped their minds as all attention was focused and amplified onto Silk alone. “N-Nopony move an inch! Or I blow this whole fucking cloud off the map! You hear me?!”

Dawn lifted his wing and let it fan up and down, “It's okay there, son... Just stay calm, let's not do anything rash now all right? Ho-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Silk jutted the pistol down to press against the shell's hull. “ONE MORE WORD AND I PULL THE TRIGGER, GOT IT?!”

The lieutenant opened his maw, something of the passion in Silk's eyes keeping him speechless as he answered with a nod.

Midnight was the only one there with his eyes off of Silk's weapon and on Silk himself, he even sighed in relief. “Silk... I'm so fucking happy you're alive... I am so sorry for what I did, you have to believe me.” Midnight's face rain dripping with new tears.

Silk's jaw dropped, “M-midnight... I... I came here to kill you. You're happy to see me?”

“Yeah... And I know. After what I did to you... I understand, I would have done the exact same.” Midnight fucking smiled.

“MIDNIGHT, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?! He still wants to kill you! He's going to kill all of us!” Dawn broke his silence to interject.

“Yeah! And?!” Midnight turned around and yelled back before Silk could speak up to defend himself, “So what? I'm a dead pony anyways, and I'd rather die repaying the debt I owe him, than whatever fucked up idea Commander Hurricane has for my execution.” He stared down the Lieutenant dauntlessly.

“I-I... Y-You...” Dawn was left in stutters.

While on the other end of the room, Silk's own tears now falling after Midnight's display. “I...” His smile complimented a relieved breath. “I knew you had honour.”

Dawn shook his head, he knew he couldn't let Midnight get under his skin right now, he turned his attention to where it counted. “S-Silk! Please! I'll let you kill Midnight, son, I'll let you retake your honour, you don't have to kill all of these innocent ponies here... Okay?”

Silk turned and his face twisted into disgust, “No.”

“N-No? Silk, please be reasonable...”

“NO! I said no, lieutenant, you're already a proven liar after all... NOT A STEP!” He threatened with another jut of the pistol against the shell casing as he heard the crowd rustle out of place, causing another intense stillness, “You've shown me you have no fucking honour, Midnight has more honour than any single other pony here, and he betrayed his country and me. That's how low you all are...”

“P-Please, I have a husband, a-and a daughter!”-“Yeah! Please, just let us go!”-“We didn't do anything against you! Please we all have families!”

“SHUT UP!” He screamed out, silencing the crowd of deathly afraid Pegasi once more. “Families..? You all have families huh? I don't. I never fucking did, did any of you know that? I was an orphan since I was a foal... I don't even know what my parents looked like...” Silk's entire face now soaked with tears, little droplets of water streaking down his chin and dripping onto the bomb under him. “But then I thought I found a family... I thought the army was my family... I thought at the very least I could trust my fellow Pegasi in arms, but that was proven wrong wasn't it?”

He wiped away at his eyes for one moment, taking another chilling breath, “And I'm no angel either... I betrayed my country too, by running away with Midnight... And to think, none of this would have happened if I just did what I was told... I'm so fucking dumb...”

Midnight nodded along, “It was my fault too, Silk. Nopony is perfect... We all make our mistakes, what matters is how we repent and atone for what mistakes we do make.”

“Yeah...” He sniffled, “Yeah, you're right, heh... Shame it's too late for me to atone for my mistakes now...” Silk let out a mix of a pathetic laugh and remorseful cry.

Midnight took a step forward, “No, Silk... It's not too late. Down in the prison cells there are two ponies, their names are Aurora Sunshine and Hopeful Twist, they are the love of my life and my best friend. They got into this mess because of me, and now you have the chance to save them.”

Silk looked deeply up to him, “What? H-How?”

“By doing this... I came here to try and set off those shells,” Midnight waves hid hoof to the stacked crates behind Silk, “Those cells are incredibly thick, I'd know, I oversaw their design...” He then turned his head to look at the newly helpless Lieutenant, “They were advertised as 'strong enough to withstand a lightning shell', weren't they Lieutenant?”

Dawn growled, “Midnight, you piece of fu-”

“Silence.” Silk tapped the gun barrel on the Lightning shell, getting what he asked for, he returned to Midnight with a big smile. “So, you're saying if I do this, I'm saving their lives?”

Midnight nodded. “You die with honour... And your debts paid... And so do I.” He said with a grin.

“Thank you...” Silk choked on his words and wiped away another wave of tears, “Thank you so much, Midnight...” Silk looked up and saw one Pegasus dash away in the distance, only the ones stuck directly in the doorway stood perfectly frozen in fear of him. He could see that they were about to crack, it was now or never. “Hey, Midnight... You know that song, the drinking one we used to sing sometimes when we traveled together?”

“U-uh... Which one, Silk?”

“T-The... The one about, about the centuries that fought one thousand fights, you know?”

“Oh! Yeah... I remember, why do you ask now..?” Midnight's eyes crossed with reluctant curiosity.

“The last verse... How did it go, you remember? It was something like... We are Pegasi... Do or die... Something...”

He took a pause to think and remember the exact words, “I think it went something like... For we are the Pegasi, our bond is one that could never sever, whether we live or we die, we'll do it together...” Midnight softly sung aloud.

“Exactly.”

Lunar awoke to a quaking, deafening blast. Her head popped out of the tent and she looked up into the sky.

It was burning.

Judging by the ashes and hole left behind, it must have been at least a mile wide explosion in the clouds, a size she could only awe at. The realisations flooding in soon after.

“Silk...” Lunar tenderly called out her friends' finally honoured name.

It'd been nearly a month now since Lunar spoke with Silk for the last time. Things have been getting calmer with every step Lunar took, the days filling with more silence the further north she got. She even began finding a few fiery roses scattered around in the snow-piles, apparently they grew from the tears of Zebra mares that wept over their dying children when the Zebras were forced to migrate after being kicked out of their land by ponies. Once one would get far enough north they'd find these flowers trailing down long-forgotten paths through valleys and over hills leading to Moonstone.

Nothing stood out to Lunar today, so far at least. She walked like she had been doing every other day, walking alone with nothing but her own thoughts as company, just like it used to be.

But then her ears were met with a pleasant surprise. Suddenly she heard a sound so delightful it caught her off guard, something she hadn't heard for years now.

Bird chirping. Loud, clear, eager bird chirps.

Her head perked up and whisked around, searching for the source of the sound, her eyes struggling to adjust to the wispy white cloud blanket in the sky.

The sound started distant and approached rapidly, until she finally saw the shadow of a bird circling above her head, hearing its lovely song raise in a hopeful shift of pitch.

Lunar raised her leg up to match the horizon, standing stalk still, mouth stuck open, sparkle in her eyes.

The bird immediately took Lunar's invitation, swooping down and landing on the side of her leg, avoiding digging its claws through the fabric on Lunar's jacket. It was a pitch white-feathered crow, its coat rough and lacking sheen, beady black eyes staring up at Lunar, wings and tail an unmaintained mess, bones showing under a thin layer of starved flesh.

“Hey there... Are you okay? Here, take some.” Lunar's horn lit up and a small bundle of crumbs levitated over under the bird's beak.

By the sight of the animal, she expected to see it gobble up the offering as quickly as possible, but instead the little bird took a step back in shock, turning away from the frozen bread crumbs to catch Lunar in eye contact. It then leaned its head down against Lunar's leg and rubbed it's side with her beak, running it up and down gently.

Her shoulders dropped an inch, the spectacle in her face melting down into humbled gratitude, “N-No it's okay, you're very welcome... Just eat, please.” The bird nodded. She nodded and pulled herself up to peck at the crumbs and swallow each one down. “What are you doing so far up? Are you looking for somepony..?” Lunar whispered while letting the bird eat.

She nodded again, hopping up her leg a little further to stand face-to-face.

“Really? Oh... Well, do you know which way they went?”

She pointed her beak across, aiming in the direction Lunar was already walking.

“They went north? I'm going north too... I can try to help you find them if you'd like, and I could give you more crumbs... You seem awfully hungry.”

Her little bird head perked up high and she let out a happy whistle and chirp, skipping further up the mare's leg and landing on her shoulder, snuggling up beside her hood.

Lunar smiled wide, “I'll take that as a yes.” She dropped her leg again and turned back to face north, trotting along once more, both her and Mercy feeling just a little less alone. “I really hope we find this pony you're looking for... Maybe they are going north to escape the war like me, if so there's quite a good chance. Do you have a name by the way? My name's Lunar, I was raised in an Earth Pony village and...”

The sun shined brightly through a cloudless sky, bright yellow streaks of sunlight bouncing off of the luscious, vibrantly green grass. The full and lively trees blowing gently in the cool wind that saved them from the heat, birds chirping in every direction on this perfect morning.

“Hello there!” The voice of a cloaked pony waved over to a fearfully uncertain group of roughed up Pegasi emerging from the treeline that surrounded the borders of Moonstone. “Welcome to Equestria!” The hooded figure called out to them and giggled as a chaser to their greeting.

“E-Equestria? So, it's real? We actually made it?” A leader made themselves known from the group, stepping forward out of them.

“Yes, it's very real, and I imagine you are all refugees?”

“Yeah... Yeah we are, uh... A-Are you a Pegasus?” The leader asked through a stutter and followed the question with biting their lip.

“No, actually.” A soft magical aura appeared around the mysterious pony's hood, pulling it back and revealing themselves with their shining blue horn atop their forehead. “I'm an Earth Pony.” Lunar said with a big smile.

All the Pegasi stepped back and whispered between themselves, the leader left stranded in front of Lunar in a panic, “U-uh, a-and, and you aren't going to hurt us?”

“Of course not!” She stepped in and wrapped her forelegs around the pony, hugging and squeezing the stranger tight. “Everything will be okay... We're all the same in Equestria. Unicorn, Earth Pony, Pegasus... It doesn't matter anymore.”

The leader stiffened up and bit their tongue, their breaths gingerly easing over time as they began to embrace the hug. “R-really..?”

“Really.” She stepped back, her horn glowing once more to pull out food and water from her saddlebags and floating them over to the Pegasi. The charity being taken eagerly as they all began pulling from the supplies and filling their empty stomachs. “Good, you all need to get your energy back, I'll be leading you to a place you can live.”

“A-A place? What place?” The leader asked in between stuffing their maw with a fresh bread loaf.

“A city, a wonderful city in the clouds. It was started by my good friend, his name was Silk... Though he sadly isn't with us anymore, so I'm in charge at the moment.” She chuckled and wiped away a tear, then she took a sniff and looked the Pegasus in the eye once more. “It's called Cloudsdale, you'll love it there, trust me.”

The leader, now with a thawed and open heart, smiled back. “Thank you so much... I... I'm so... It's...” They began crying, their voice breaking and cracking at every word as the weight of all the pain, suffering and memory of friends that they watched die came crashing back down onto them, their journey finally over.

“It's okay...” Lunar embraced them in her legs again, letting them gather themselves back together against Lunar's chest and shoulders. “I know. Trust me... I know...”

Their face churned and shuddered, tears pouring and muzzle sniffling. And Lunar just held them and waited patiently until the Pegasus found their words again. “I-It's just... B-Been so hard... I never thought we'd actually m- A-Actually make it...” They pulled away and faced their loved ones, “Guys, w-we're gonna follow this lovely pony... They're going to help us, they have a city we can live in...” The Pegasus turned back to Lunar, leaving the others free to be overcome by the feelings of rush, excitement and intense relief the news brung. “Thank you so, so much...”

Lunar smiled delightfully and led the group forward, trotting further into Equestria's youthful borders side-by-side. “You are more than welcome, all of you.” She assured me.

“T-Thanks...” The Pegasus chuckled in their emotional flurry, “How... How did you even find us out here? Was it m-magic, or...”

“That there's simple really!” Lunar giggled and whistled up into the sky, leading to Mercy to swoop down and land on her shoulder with a happy chirp. “Mercy here spotted you lot, hehe.”

“Oh... Thank you then, M-Mercy.” They nodded and grinned at the beautiful and healthy snowbird.

Mercy chirped back in song.