He held up a small white bundle of cloth, an emblem as he had called it, towards the gate the led to the inner section of the Cathedral Ward. Whether through magic or another mechanism the gate responded, a solitary click sounding before the gate slowly opened, screeching on its hinges all the way. He then stowed the emblem away, leading his company towards the Grand Cathedral.

Celestia made sure to take in her surroundings, it being as awe inspiring as it was had made her unwilling to tear her eyes away from it all. Before her the largest plaza she'd yet seen stretched wide, clearing the urban development of Yharnam like a bald patch of woodland that had recently been logged. Buildings cramped themselves along the edges, but within the plaza itself stood only one massive monument and an array of tombs arranged concentrically around it.

Then, on the far side of the plaza and up a rather copious amount of stairs rose the Grand Cathedral, a majestic and imposing figure that dominated the skyline of the Cathedral Ward. The Research Hall sat at its head, its massive clock watching over the whole of Yharnam. In front of it and to its side sat the platforms and terraces of the Upper Cathedral Ward, carefully tucked away from sight.

"It's a lot more intimidating down here than it was from the Upper Ward," Celestia said to herself. Neither being as close up as she was at the start of the night, nor as far away as half-way through the city had lent her much of an idea of scale, but now?

Now she felt like an ant.

"It's designed that way," Eustace said, looking up towards the building as well. "Pretty sure, at least. Why should the ponies who run the show be intimidated by themselves, right?"

They continued through the plaza, passing by two monstrouscreatures of colossal size that bore, quite disturbingly, quite a few pony-like features. What they were, Celestia didn't ask. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, and she wasn't sure how she'd react if she got a bad answer, either. Regardless, the giants slept and they passed through the plaza unhindered.

On the other side of the plaza rose another gate, much like the last. This one, however, was operated by a Doctor, and not by an automated mechanism. Eustace displayed the emblem to the Doctor through the gate, and only then did the silent being open their way.

A grand set of stairs led upwards, passing underneath the great overhang that held the Clocktower. All along these stairs stood Doctors, each as silent and unmoving as the last, and each staring out over the plaza and Yharnam beyond. Many leaned on canes, doubling their height, while some leaned on scythes and others held lanterns that glowed a pale blue. Some had heavy metal tubes strapped to their forelegs, but the very last two they saw on the stairs had none of these. Instead, they leaned on, for lack of better words, solid logs painted red. They stood on either side of the stairs just before the entrance to the Grand Cathedral: a gigantic set of brass doors.

Oddly, these two did not watch away from the doors like the rest of their brethren, but towards it. They did not move an inch as they leaned against their wooden poles, completely still, yet absolutely awake. Eustace passed them, giving only the briefest of curious glances before he pushed one half of the Grand Cathedral's main doors open. He walked in, followed slowly by both Twilight and Celestia.

Immediately upon entering, Celestia was struck with unease. Great statues of many-limbed creatures lined the wide staircase that led to the Cathedral's nave, each with a many-holed, almond shaped head and carrying a long pointed spear. They may have only been statues, but they struck an unnatural air of caution into Celestia. The stairs were stained with long-dried smatterings of blood, and the voice of the Vicar echoed down from up above.

Celestia wasn't naive. Something in the voice of the mare also set her alarm bells off. Despite its seeming utter placidity, a certain edge existed underneath the smooth recitations of the Vicar, an edge that sounded out of place. Still, she followed Eustace as he ascended the staircase and said nothing. The Vicar was the single most powerful individual in Yharnam at the moment, and it wouldn't do to be overheard warning Eustace about something that may or may not matter, especially if that warning could offend...

Finally, the three reached the end of the stairs, and the Cathedral itself was as gorgeous on the inside as it was intimidating from outside. Great silken drapes hung from the ceiling, gently blowing in an unfelt breeze, tall windows of stained glass cast their subdued colors upon the stone floor, and towering statues depicting the same scenes from the Upper Cathedral Ward imposed from alcoves and pillars.

Then there was the Vicar, a singular voice in amidst all of it. A small, almost frail looking individual, hunched over in front of the altar that dominated the dias at the head of the Cathedral. Whether she noticed their entry, she lent no clues, and her recitations remained in the same tone as before.

Celestia noticed another anomaly as Eustace led them through the nave: their hoofsteps were silenced. Whether by magic or some other trickery Celestia couldn't tell, but that fact alone made the Vicar's voice all the more powerful.

"Probably intentional," she thought.

Eustace stopped moving suddenly and said nothing, but motioned for both alicorns to sit beside him. He then watched the Vicar.

She did not cease in her recitations. "... But beware the frailty of ponies. Their wills are weak, minds young. The foul beasts will dangle nectar and lure the meek into the depths." She stopped for a single second, saying nothing but taking a solitary sniff.

In an instant her voice broke and strained, the very act of speaking seeming to cause the Vicar pain, as her body shook before the altar.
"Remain wary of the frailty of..."

Eustace was about to move forward to help her before, for the second time in as many hours, Celestia witnessed a beast birth, only this time it was no simple hunter. Before her the Vicar seemed to explode outward as all three of them recoiled. The Vicar followed the same mutation patterns as Gascoigne did, developing limbs and bone structures before their eyes, but also growing many times her original size in a short period of time. She shrieked and wailed all the while, writhing in pain even in her beastial form as the changes occurred.

The sound was horrific, and everywhere.

Eustace shoved them back behind him, and gestured towards the entry. "Get out while you can, I'll keep her busy for a bit," he said, face exceptionally calm if grim.

Celestia didn't lie to herself. She took one good look at the Vicar's new set of teeth and increasingly massive stature and had every instinct in her go off at once, telling her to take his offer and put as much distance as she could between herself and the beast. She didn't, though. She looked to her side, where Twilight stood slackjawed looking at the Cleric Beast, and made a decision. As a Princess it was her duty to protect her ponies, and while Eustace might not be one of her ponies from her time, he was still a pony, and what kind of Princess would she be to leave him to certain death?

Besides, she was a Princess. She'd fought soul-eating demi-gods and won, what was one magic proof life support system for a set of teeth compared to that?

The Vicar screeched as its transformation ended. Claws the length of a pony protruded from the same odd claw-like hands Gascoigne had developed, and teeth fitted a jaw easily large enough to swallow Celestia whole, all on a body the size of a building. The Beast righted itself, and turned around, sniffing them out. its right claw clutched something to its chest.

"Too late," Celestia said. "Looks like we're in this together, hunter." She lifted the Kirkhammer from her back as he lifted his Holy Blade, both coming up with the same plan. "Twilight, run, would you?" Celestia said, before shoving the smaller alicorn with her magic towards the exit.

Perhaps more out of fear than anything Twilight bolted, her hoofsteps silenced by the odd floor. At that moment the beast lunged, thankfully not for Twilight, but for where Eustace and herself were. Each dodged deftly to the side, Celestia doing her best to copy his movements from earlier.

The beast however did not swipe, but smashed the floor with its hands where they had been, leaving behind a crater as it whirled around to follow Celestia, who promptly used telekinesis to hammer the Kirkhammer into the beast's face.

Her hit connected, slamming the beast in an uppercut on the chin. The beast however seemed to barely register the hit, stunning for only a moment before regaining its trajectory and moving after Celestia steadily. It moved forward on two legs, supplemented occasionally by its left foreclaw while it clutched its right claw to its chest. It batted and blocked the Kirkhammer away from itself with its left claw, whenever it heard the weapon approaching and the claw wasn't otherwise occupied.

Celestia kept backing up, just out of the beasts reach as she threw the Kirkhammer from range with everything she had. Within a few dozen seconds, though, the beast had pressed her against the altar and dias with nowhere left to run. It snarled, and for an instant seemed to grin, before lunging forward with wide mouth and grasping claw.

Celestia cast the quickest teleport spell she knew, sending her behind the beast as it flew forward to where she had been just an instant earlier. She retreated as it stood, empty handed and empty mouthed. its screech of frustration was nearly deafening.

"Well done," Eustace said as he realized she'd teleported next to him, "keep going like that and soon I'll have an opening to do some real damage." With that he bolted away from her, letting the beast fixate on Celestia again.

Celestia's ears drooped. "Jee, thanks," she said, before quickly dodging again as it lunged with far more vigor than before. Maybe she'd pissed it off?

She dodged again as another powerful swing came her way, but only narrowly escaped the follow up fisted slam and swipe. It kept at her, unwilling to give her any room to breathe.

Likewise, Celestia was unwilling to give it a single hair off her mane. She ducked, dodged and weaved her way around its unceasing volleys of teeth, claw and fist, which came far too close far too often for her own liking. She might have been unwilling to give it a single hair, but that didn't mean it couldn't take far more than that in an instant if she got sloppy. Not that she was planning on getting sloppy, the Vicar was keeping her on her toes already as it was.

As she remained evasive, she snuck in hits with the Kirkhammer wherever she could which, she could tell, was pissing it off more and more, and maybe disorienting it a bit too. Small rivulets of blood flowed from the beasts nostrils and between its teeth, painting an ugly picture of what its face must look like under its fur. Regardless, the longer she dragged this out, the more erratic the beast behaved. Celestia soon wasn't just dodging, but practicallyleapingaway from the beasts attacks as they grew in intensity and desperation, showing no signs of slowing down. She couldn't keep this up forever, she was already starting to feel the exercise, but somehow she thought the beast just might.

Something had to give.

An idea formed in her mind to bait and expose it for Eustace, letting him deal a crippling blow and trust him to keep its focus enough to let her get out alive. She didn't like that idea, not one bit, but the alternative was to wait for a perfect opening on time she might not have.

"Better to do the dangerous-" she dodged another swipe "-things when you're mostly fresh," she thought, rationalizing the incredibly dangerous and probably stupid thing she was just about to do.

She didn't have many options to execute her plan, though. The beast was huge, and a single screw up would mean death. She'd need the perfect opening...

Before she even really understood what it was she was going to do, she saw her chance. She'd just narrowly avoided another lunge from the beast, and the area behind her was entirely open. The Vicar had neither tensed to lunge a second time, nor had it left its left foreclaw unoccupied. It had given up immediate pursuit of Celestia, instead aiming to start a fresh assault.

A, perhaps fatal, mistake.

Celestia darted forward as gracefully as she could, swinging the Kirkhammer with her magic down on the beasts exposed hand. She didn't watch the hammer, instead focusing on the cursed thing's jaw. As the hammer crunched into the bony hand, Celestia saw the half-scream-half-bite coming her way and dashed to the side, getting as close as she could while the beast was prone. She got so close, she was practically immersed in its white, stringy fur, and all around her was this pungent smell she could only describe as rancid meat. It couldn't bite her, nor could it reach her unless it dropped whatever it was holding.

Hopefully Eustace had picked up on her diversion, and any second now...

An eternity seemed to pass in a mere second to Celestia. Had this been stupid? Was she about to die? Her, a near immortal being to some mangy dog?

Then she felt it. The beast shuddered deep, a rolling wave of thunderous rage and screaming as it writhed and scrambled to get away from something. With no other choice, Celestia got out of the Vicar's proximity as it started to flail and screech, cratering much of the stone floor near it with fists and elbows and knees. Away on the far side of the Cathedral Celestia spotted Eustace stalking the beast like a predator observing injured prey, his blade a suspect crimson.

He neither said anything nor did he close in again while the beast less calmed and more controlled its fury, snarling and whipping around as it looked for something to lash out at. Immediately, it spotted Celestia again, and started to move towards her.

It didn't make a single step.

its leg buckled underneath the beast and hung limply, Eustace having delivered an almighty cleave to its knee, severing much of the important parts for the limb's function. The Vicar fell forward, left forearm stretched out after Celestia. It wailed and cried out, and Celestia could practically feel the rage pouring out of the creature. It stopped and got to its knees, almost in a praying position.

Eustace had already made his way over next to her. "Nice trick, could've gotten you killed."

Celestia nodded. "Something had to give," she said, giving him a solid look.

He nodded looking back at her for a moment. "Yeah, that's how it tends to be, I suppose. Still, for a fi-"

They both saw it at the same time. A soft golden light enveloped the Vicar as it held what was now obviously a golden pendant aloft, its long chain dangling from between its intertwined hands. Celestia's eyes widened in horror. She recognized that magic, she'd used that magic thousands of times to fix bones and knit flesh –

"Healing magic," she whispered, barely audible over Eustace's tense "shit!" as he flew forward like a bolt of lightning, readying his blade for a major attack.

In hindsight, Celestia would realize that she really should have stopped him. The beast saw Eustace coming, but he didn't notice. Just as fast as he'd rushed forward he was sent flying off to the side, slamming into the Cathedral's wall with a sickly crunch. The beast had backhanded him, and Celestia could see from where she was that he wasn't in good shape. His sword had nearly been split in two, bent and broken, and Eustace himself had a large gash from his shoulder to his haunch from where the back of one of its claws had missed the sword and found him instead.

She didn't have time to tend to him, as the beast instantly zeroed in on his body. It snarled mightily, and went to lunge for him.

Or, it would have, had Celestia not sent a full tilt Kirkhammer into its face. The force from her throw, combined with its relative inertia and lack of positional strength led the impact of the Kirkhammer to completely bull the beast over, sending it wildly off course despite the staggering size difference between the weapon and the beast.

It tumbled a few times before coming to a rest against the same wall as Eustace, dazed for a moment. Celestia recalled the Kirkhammer to her side, then sent the Kirkhammer back at its head, and then again, and again, and again. The beast got more agitated each time she hit it, but that's precisely what she wanted. She did not want it focusing on Eustace, no, she wanted it focused on her.

Eventually it finally managed to bat away the Kirkhammer, but it did not lunge. Instead it sat on its haunches and stared at Celestia, its now revealed eyes a disturbing mass of black and white, spread in nonsensical ways across the cornea. Those eyes might not have been able to see much, but they looked straight at her, and Celestia could feel the hunger and hatred of the beast boring through her, through those eyes, a thousand times what she'd ever felt before.

Then it wrapped its great claws around itself, and shredded its own flesh. Blood poured from its self-inflicted wounds, covering its hands and fur and spattering on the floor. Whatever it had cut within itself, it was evidently fairly major.

Celestia braced herself for some sort of attack, but instead felt a powerful wave of nausea come over her, not wholly unlike the nausea that one felt when powerful dark magic was at work. She nearly heaved under its influence, but she kept her composure enough to see something that horrified her even more than healing magic.

In the space of a few mere seconds the pools of blood that had formed began to crawl up the beasts legs, as what blood was on its fur and hands receded to its skin. The blood formed thick, pulsing veins that grew into a network that fed from each wound down the beasts arms and ending at each claw.

Then it lunged at her.

In haste Celestia threw up a powerful magical barrier and threw herself out of the beasts trajectory, but even that wasn't enough. She felt a sharp pain as not the beasts claw, but its blood cut into her flesh, slicing her barrier apart as well. She stumbled as the pain momentarily distracted her from landing from her jump, only in time to dodge another swipe from the beast and another blade of blood that extended from its claw.

"Blood Magic," she thought miserably, landing from her dodge with another new wound.

In a hurry she tried to recall everything she knew about Blood Magic, but nearly nothing came to mind. Indeed, the dark art was entirely extinct, and had been even before she was born. All that remained of its legacy were stories and myths of terrifying power and extreme cruelty, all at the cost of one's soul or sanity.

She dodged again, and again she received another lash from the beast, even through her barrier. Three new cuts now oozed blood, and soon it'd be many more, unless she did something, and fast.

She didn't get much of a chance to do anything, though. The beast dogged her every move, always ready to cut her off, or try and trap her. It was a game of cat and mouse, and shewas the mouse. Every dodge left another slash on her, and every second meant she lost a little more blood. She soon had somewhere over a dozen sizable slashes, and they were only getting more and more numerous. Eventually, she'd start to lose concentration. Then, she'd slip up and get caught. Then she'd die.

Celestia pushed herself to look for openings, starting to get desperate, but try as she might both the relentlessness of the beast and the range of its attacks left her completely out of options. If she tried to run, it'd likely catch her. If she tried to get to Eustace and teleport, the range of its attacks would likely end her attempt before she managed to teleport away. If she tried to get close, it'd just have an easier time slicing her up, Blood Magic or not.

That left her with either a suicide plan, or a battle of attrition in which she hoped she could stay lucid longer than it could swing.

Either way, she realized halfway through slipping and falling that she probably should've kept a closer eye on where she put her hooves.

+#+#+

Twilight paced.

She stopped, looked up at the giant brass doors, and tried to muster up the courage to go back in. It didn't come.

Truth told, she was terrified. When she'd ran, she hadn't even thought twice about staying. Seeing Gascoigne transform had been terrible and disgusting in and of itself, but the Vicar? That had been downright mind-numbingly horrific, and her numb mind had kicked into instinct mode.

She sighed, giving the two Church Doctors that watched the door a death glare, and of course neither of them acknowledged her. She'd tried to convince them, somehow, to go and help her Princess and Eustace, but no matter what she did, and she'd made a long list of the things she'd tried, nothing worked. They continued to stand and stare, utterly vacant and utterly infuriating.

So she went back to pacing, and trying to figure something out to help, preferably from somewhere she wouldn't get eaten alive, or get in the way. Seeing as how the beast was gigantic, fast and probably veryangry made her doubt very much that her rifle would be enough to do any good, let alone any real damage.

She had her magic, and that was it. Only problem was that, you guessed it, beasts are nearly immune to magic!

Twilight groaned and stomped, tired of going around in mental circles. No matter what she did, though, the only strength she seemed to have was magic. Every avenue of thought eventually led her back here, to the reminder that she was really, reallygood at magic, and that magic also just so happened to be really, really useless against the giant, hungry murder machine.

She almost started pacing again, but instead she just whacked her head against the brass door a few times. "Come on Twilight, think! Something you can do that won't get you eaten, you can do it," she said, half grinding her words and half pleading with herself.

She could try throwing something at it, but no, unless it was something really big or really sharp it probably wouldn't do anything. She could… maybe, bring the roof down on it?

"Wow, Twilight, good one. Get yourself and everypony else killed in one spectacular display of idiocy," she said, deadpanning herself. She took her head and rested it against the door, rubbing her head wearily. "One good idea, Twilight, they're counting on you!"

She didn't get a chance at another idea.

A wave of nausea passed over her, strong and visceral. She nearly heaved but something in her registered, recognized the sensation she was feeling.

"Oh, oh no," she said, eyes very wide. The last time she'd felt anything like that nausea was when she'd faced down King Sombra, tormentor and evil immortal overlord of the Crystal Empire. Whether she wanted them or not, the memories of that fight came back in full force. She closed her eyes, and forced herself to think about this logically. What were the chances he was here? Basically zero. Okay, so what were the chances that somepony else was using dark magic? Zer– wait, no, this is Yharnam, number one hellhole circa pre-Discord. Make that a ten percent chance, conservative guess.

And what were the chances it was something different? Maybe not an evil immortal being, maybe something less evil? No, probably something equally evil as Sombra, had to be for nausea that powerful. Probably something gross, unnatural, beastly. Maybe discorda–

Twilight stopped thinking, repeating one thought in her mind, over and over, with each repetition sounding worse and yet more plausible than the repetition before.

"Beastly. Unnatural, beastly. Beastly. Beastly."

"Oh no," she said, and without a second thought she darted into the brass doors, hesitating once at the sight of the huge spikes held by the weird mushroom-head spider creatures before bolting up the stairs anyways, spurred on by an unholy screech from the Vicar. At the top she stopped, and pressed herself against the stairs as much as she could to stay out of sight. It couldn't be, could it?

Then, she saw exactly what she didn't want to see: the Vicar lunging after the Princess, with massive blades of red – liquid? – flying from each claw tip as it made swings at her. While Princess Celestia was using barriers, they weren't blocking everything. Red slashes arced across Celestia's back and side, and while the snow-white alicorn was certainly a veteran, even Twilight knew that her Princess could only take so much.

Indeed, between the slowly increasing red-over-white and the grimace on the Princess's face, "too much" could be any minute now. She had to do something, and fast. She looked around herself, but nothing presented easily. Stairs, walls, curtains? Maybe she could strangle the thing?

Then Twilight's worst nightmare came true: the Princess slipped.

Maybe she'd gotten sloppy, or maybe the cuts on her were deeper than they looked, but the Princess had dashed right into one of the many patches of wet blood that had been created by the beast on Cathedral's polished floor. In an instant she was on her side, trying to scramble to her hooves while her horn glowed, a barrier appearing around herself. For a brief moment the beast seemed to stop to gloat.

That was all Twilight needed. She knew if nothing happened, then both the Princess and Eustace would be dead, and she'd probably be next. Her mind flashed back to just a minute or so earlier, and one idea stood out to her.

"Really heavy or really sharp."

She looked up.

Without a second's hesitation and more adrenaline than she'd had since Sombra, she shot the second most powerful cutting spell she knew straight at the statue's spear, shearing it off from the rest of the statue. Using telekinesis she lifted the great stone spear like a toy, preventing it from shattering on the floor.
She quickly rotated it to point at the beast, of which was tensing to lunge for the kill on her friend and Princess.

She flung her makeshift weapon forward with such force that, despite its inordinate size and weight, it crossed the majority of the Cathedral's length in a mere second, probably breaking a few records along the way.

Twilight didn't give a damn about any records though, and in fact, she almost thought she missed the Vicar until it blinked, and tried to howl. Only a wet gurgle sounded before it started grasping at the sizable hole the spear had left behind, falling over on its side, gurgling and writhing. Its Blood Magic failed as its focus faded into frenzy, and soon all that remained of the once horrible creature was a stilling corpse surrounded by a sea of blood.

Twilight blinked once and took off towards the Princess, not even a single thought spared for how much magic she just used.

+#+#+

Celestia watched as, almost in slow motion, the beast prepared to lunge.

Blood pounded in her ears, drowning out everything else.

It sharpened its claws against the stone, a quick swipe.

Her heart beat spiked.

It tensed.

Her vision tunneled.

The beast... paused?

Celestia took her chance and got up with more fear than she'd had in ages, backing up faster than she'd ever backed up before. She barely even registered when the beast's neck burst into a torrent of red, her mind overloaded with images of impending death in the form of vicious claws and teeth.

But she did notice when it keeled over, and finally stilled.

She stopped, having pressed herself up against the wall, and simply collapsed there. She could feel the gashes on her body bleeding, but she didn't care. She needed a second. A very long second.

She breathed in deeply, then out. In, and out. In, and out. She immersed herself in this calming ritual, completely oblivious to Twilight's approach, or her magic repairing some of the damage she'd taken.

She thought of many things, like trees, flowers, and ponies she'd known. She might've been nearly two-and-a-half thousand years old, but she wasn't ready to join them. Images flashed through her head of the Vicar, of the dead throughout the city. How many of them hadn't been ready, either, like her?

Something shuddered inside her. Grief? Sympathy? Anger? Maybe all three, but she came out of her meditation with tears in her eyes all the same. She did not cry, but she did let them fall.

"Princess, are you alright?" said a voice, very familiar, and very welcome.

"Yes, I am fine," Celestia replied, conjuring up a smile for her faithful, and heroic, student. "Eustace is injured, he needs help more than I do."

Twilight nodded, but her gaze lingered on Celestia longer than usual before she went to Eustace. She couldn't remember if Twilight had ever seen her cry before, but she didn't think she had. Though, Twilight had also never seen her almost die.

She supposed tonight was a night for many horrible things.

She sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes. She couldn't help the dead now, but that shuddering inside didn't go away. She looked at the beast, a sudden vehement desire to stomp on its head nearly overcoming her. It's kind had killed hundreds, likely thousands of innocent ponies, her ponies. Good ponies who'd probably never hurt anything other than a plant.

She felt a snarl building up on her face. She looked away.

She got up, the slashes mostly healed now. Twilight might not have been a certified medic, but damn was she good at fixing wounds. Idly she used the same magic to heal them the rest of the way as she slowly walked back to Eustace, the shuddering remaining all the way.

"Did you see her?" Eustace said as she approached, a grin on his face. "Did you see what she did?"

Twilight groaned, but continued working on his wound like she had for Celestia. "It was nothing, really! Just a little cutting spell, some telekinesis and good aim, that's all."

Eustace snorted, coughing a little when he disturbed his gash, which was quite a bit deeper than any of Celestia's cuts. "Like hell, Twilight. Here, lemme tell her," he said, turning his head to look at Celestia excitedly. "So, anyways. Here I am, sitting back and trying to be inconspicuous, right? I'm watching you dance with that thing, and it isn't looking pretty. It's cut itself wide open, using blood as a damn weapon and fighting smart. I'm pretty sure we're both finished.

"Well, you slip, and I think 'this is it', but guess what? Right before it's got a chance to jump you, Twilight here hurls a giant goddamn spear at our friend over there, ripping out every artery in its damn neck!" He finished his story with a laugh, a clap, and another cough.

Celestia was taken aback, but she quickly realized just who Eustace was talking about. "Really?" she said simply, looking at Twilight questioningly.

Eustace laughed again at Twilight's visible blush. "Don't believe me? Look at the damn altar!"

So she did, and what she saw was quite impressive. A giant stone spear, taken from one of the statues at the stairway, was embedded into a metal statue of a headless mare pouring a pitcher that dominated the center of the altar. She was no amateur. She knew just what kind of force it would take to send something that large that deep into metal, clean through the neck of a beast…

"Wow," was all she could manage for a few moments.

"Yeah, right?" He said, nodding. "That's all I could say, too." He paused for a moment to appreciate Twilight's addition to the altar, before turning back to Celestia. "You did well too, Celestia," he said, giving the older alicorn a grin, "even if you're just as stubborn as Eileen."

"Hey," she said, leveling him with as playful a look she could while as tired and drained as she felt, "it was that stubbornness that kept you from being beast food."

Eustace chuckled. "It almost made you beast food too, though, didn't it?"

"There, that's as good as I can get him without some rest or better equipment, or both." Twilight interjected and stood up wearily, her movements slightly sluggish. Her handwork was, of course, exemplary, but not as complete as her work on Celestia had been.

"Oh, don't worry about me. A bit of good old Yharnam blood and a night of rest and I'll be back to normal, I'm sure. Can't say the same about the old sword, though…" he said, looking mournfully at the bent and cracked form of his former weapon. "Old girl went out saving my hindquarters, as good an end as any other, I suppose," he said, shooing Twilight away from him as he tried to stand.

He didn't make it far up. He stood shakily for a moment before his hind legs let out from under him, a bit of blood oozing from the now not-so-nasty gash that cut through his leathers and flesh. "Gah! Damn," he growled as Twilight and Celestia both helped him up.

Celestia knew a crippled pony when she saw one, but she'd afford him the dignity of at least admitting it himself. "Can you walk?"

"I…" he said, trying once again to stand on his own and, once again, nearly collapsing. "No, no I don't think so. Something's broken, I think," he said with a sigh. "Help me up?"

Celestia used her magic to lift him up and settled him on her back, which was now largely clear of injuries, thanks to both alicorn's magic. Without the sword on him, he was considerably lighter than before and she could bear both his weight and the Kirkhammer's.

"Not the most dignified," Eustace mumbled grumpily, "but thanks, I guess."

Twilight came up next to them both. "I guess the Upper Cathedral Ward's a bust, huh?"

He nodded. "Without a Vicar to give the word, I doubt the Upper Ward will be open until Lady Astral opens it herself." He said, sighing.

Twilight nodded, looking at them both sheepishly. "I shouldn't have mentioned asking for permission," she said, head lowered.

Eustace chuckled. "And then what would we have done? You did good, Twilight, it's just a shame and a bad coincidence that a good solution to a big problem wound up an even bigger mess. Was nice that we got to kill big game, though," he added, eyes half lidded.

"Yeah, I guess," she said, not looking much happier. "Where do we go now, then?"

Eustace didn't even hesitate. "Oedon Chapel. The incense in that place will keep beasts away for the next century, at least. We'll be plenty safe in there until the morning." He said, yawning. "Gods, speaking of which, I'm beat."

"You can sleep while you ride, if you want," Celestia offered.

Eustace shrugged. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. We'll see."

With little else to discuss and even less to do now in the Cathedral, Celestia took one final look at the form of the former Vicar and turned to leave.

Author's Note

So, 6k words anyone? Enjoy.

As always criticism is welcome. I only proof-read this chapter twice, so if you notice any grammatical or spelling mistakes send me a PM and they'll be fixed.

As a side note, the nave is the long, bottom part of the cross in the typical Christian cross-shaped church floorplan, just in case no one else wanted to look it up.